Vermont Quarterly Fall 2019

Vermont THE UNIVERSITY OF

Q UA RT E R LY

UVM’S 27TH PRESIDENT

Suresh Garimella

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Vermont Quarterly DEPARTMENTS

2 The Green 14 Catamount Sports 16 Faculty Voice 18 On Course 44 Class Notes 64 Extra Credit FEATURES

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A LIFE OF LEARNING

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ORIGIN OF A BIOLOGIST

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Suresh Garimella, UVM’s 27th president, is guided by deep respect for the mission of a land grant university and gratitude for what public education has meant in his own life. | BY THOMAS WEAVER A leading young scientist, focused on the study of sea invertebrates, Melissa Pespeni’s roots and trials of her early years challenge stereotypes of the path to professorship. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

HONEST PURSUITS

As founders and leaders of innovative non-profits seeking solutions to national and global problems, alumni reflect an ethic etched in the university’s DNA. | BY KAITIE CATANIA

36 UVM PEOPLE: Alma Ripps ’88

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Preserving classic American landscapes and historic sites, while balancing the visitor experience of millions, is all in a day’s work as Chief of Policy for the National Park Service. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI

Paddling North America’s great river, student Maya Dizack ’19 tackled an ambitious journey driven by scientific study and environmental advocacy. | PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MCGUIRE ’20 STORY BY THOMAS WEAVER

42 REUNION WEEKEND 2019

Thousands of alumni returned to renew ties with one another, the campus, and beautiful Burlington.

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COVER PHOTO by Andy Duback.

CONTENTS Candlelight induction ceremony for the Class of 2023 on the UVM Green.

Photo by Sally McCay. VIDEO: go.uvm.edu/convoke

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YOU SHOULD KNOW spheres—the avian and the academic—I work with creatures “ Inwhoboth make me laugh, make me cry and inspire me not to give up

75,000 DONORS

$581,000,000

on this troubled world.”

Final tallies for the Move Mountains Campaign in support of the University of Vermont and the UVM Medical Center. Highlights from summer’s Move Mountains VQ: go.uvm.edu/mm

—Trish O’Kane, faculty member in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, had her essay “Of Fledglings and Freshmen” published by The New York Times in September. Read: go.uvm.edu/birds

DEEPGREEN LGBTQ PRIDE A ranking of the most LGBTQ-friendly colleges,

by Campus Pride and BestColleges.com, placed UVM among the top nine schools in the Northeast.

TACKLING RURAL ADDICTION

The Vermont Advanced Computing Core, “DeepGreen” to its friends, received a massive upgrade this summer, thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation. It is now among the one hundred fastest academic supercomputers in the country. Read more: go.uvm.edu/deepgreen

In August, Sen. Patrick Leahy announced that

UVM will be home to one of three new “Rural Centers of Excellence on Substance Use

Disorders” nationwide. Funded by $6.6 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the center builds on innovative opioid addiction treatment approaches developed by faculty in the Larner College of Medicine and the UVM Medical Center. Read more: go.uvm.edu/opioid

PUNCTUAL GRADS UVM earned a spot in the top 6% of public universities for fouryear graduation rate in a Chronicle of Higher Education ranking, a key measure of success of the academic experience. Among UVM’s Class of 2019, 69.5% of the graduates earned their diplomas in four years, twice the national average for public schools.

ORANGE & BLACK

GREEN & GOLD

Yes, indeed, there is a UVM connection to Orange Is the New Black. Read “Honest Pursuits,” page 30 in this issue.

Go Wanda Go Wanda Heading-Grant ’87 G’03, UVM’s vice president for human resources, diversity and multicultural affairs, is among the recipients of the 2019 Women Worth Watching Awards from Profiles in Diversity Journal. Read Seven Days’s cover story on Heading-Grant: go.uvm.edu/wanda

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SALLY MCCAY, LEFT; BRIAN JENKINS, RIGHT

THE GREEN News & Views

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF UVM: Goalie Blanka Skodova leads her teammates onto the Gutterson ice for a game versus St. Lawrence on October 10. See dozens of diverse moments from a single day at the University of Vermont: go.uvm.edu/oct10

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Grazing Among the Grapes FOOD SYSTEMS | The sheep are in the vineyard. While it sounds like a quaint agricultural idiom, maybe signaling Old MacDonald had a problem, it’s actually a well-planned, well-intentioned circumstance at Shelburne Vineyard, seven miles south of Burlington. The five Suffolk sheep grazing contentedly between the rows of grape vines are at the heart of a research project seeking to quantify the benefits of a symbiotic agricultural practice long-used in countries such as New Zealand, where both sheep and vineyards are plentiful.

Standard practice down under, but unconventional in Vermont, and under study thanks to a research collaboration among researchers Meredith Niles and Juan Alvez, Shelburne Vineyard winemaker Ethan Joseph ’07, and Greylaine Farm owner Mike Kirk ’09.

Niles, assistant professor of food systems at UVM, has been investigating the practice in New Zealand, where an estimated 59 percent of vineyards are integrating sheep.

Niles’s research has shown the practice has

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resulted in substantial savings for farmers— reducing or eliminating mowing, pesticide, and feed costs—and identified potential benefits to the soil and ecosystem. Some wineries have also started incorporating the sheep into their branding message, a potential selling point as more consumers seek sustainably-produced wine.

“What we’re doing in Vermont is actually really unique,” say Niles, who is also a fellow of UVM’s Gund Institute for the Environment. “We designed the study to look at the whole system—the health of the grapes, the animals, the forage and soil, as well as the consumer perceptions, or marketability potential. The existing research on this work has largely looked at these different components in pieces, rather than trying to understand all of these interactions together.”

What were once necessary means to meet local food needs and protect farmers against weather variability, integrated crop and livestock systems have decreased over time with the rise of farm machinery,

synthetic fertilizers, and the globalization and specialization of crop and livestock industries. The benefits of integrated crop and livestock systems, in which the outputs of one land use are used as inputs into another, inspired Niles to help co-organize an international group of researchers who are evaluating the reintroduction of these practices in agricultural systems around the world.

“The beauty of this is having the animals to close the cycle. By combining two unconventional enterprises, we are helping to build soil health in the region and providing a model for farmers to succeed,” says Alvez, pasture program technical coordinator with the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture. “We’re excited about this as a possible model in which farmers bring their animals to graze on land they don’t own.” The UVM research team is exploring other types of systems that would be wellsuited for sheep in Vermont, like Christmas tree farms, hops fields, orchards, or even solar panel fields.

JOSHUA BROWN

Microscopic Movies PHYSICS | From house paint to tinted car windows, thin films make up a wide variety of materials found in ordinary life. But thin films are also used to build some of today’s most important technologies, such as computer chips and solar cells. Seeking to improve the performance of these technologies, scientists are studying the mechanisms that drive molecules to uniformly stack together in layers—a process called crystalline thin film growth.

Using an advanced x-ray instrument—part of the National Synchrotron Light Source II at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—a team of researchers from UVM, Boston University, and the Brookhaven lab have demonstrated a new capability for watching thin film growth in real-time.

Led by UVM physicist Randy Headrick, the researchers were able to produce a “movie” of thin film growth that depicts the molecular process more accurately than traditional techniques can. Their research was published in Nature Communications this June.

Thin films grow by stacking in overlapping SALLY MCCAY

layers. “Imagine you have a big bin and you fill it with one layer of marbles,” says Headrick, a professor in the Physics Department.

“The marbles would pack together in a nice hexagonal pattern along the bottom of the bin. Then, when you laid down the next layer of marbles, they would fit into the hollow areas between the marbles in the bottom layer, forming another perfect layer.

We’re studying the mechanism that causes the marbles, or molecules, to find these ordered sites.”

But in real life, thin films don’t stack this evenly. When filling a bin with marbles, for example, you may have three layers of marbles on one side of the bin and only one layer on the other side. Traditionally, this nonuniformity in thin films has been difficult to measure.

The new highly detailed observations from this study, supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Science Foundation, could be used to improve the performance of organic solar cells, among other potential applications.

Improved performance of solar cells is among the potential applications of thin film formation research by Professor Randall Headrick.

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Cynthia Reyew 2019 GEORGE V. KIDDER OUTSTANDING FACULTY AWARD

PROFESSOR CYNTHIA REYES

Maintaining Diverse Voices EDUCATION | Growing up in Chicago, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, Cynthia Reyes remembers telling her parents that she wanted them to speak to her only in English, not their native Tagalog. Years later, deep regret over that choice would shape the academic focus of the UVM College of Education and Social Services professor.

“There wasn’t a push to value their heritage and their culture,” she says. “There’s a sadness about it. I consider it a loss. I really felt that during my graduate school years and when I began taking classes in education and when I began studying in the teacher education program. I just thought more and more about the experiences that students—particularly immigrant students—have when they enter the school and they want to learn how to speak English, but it’s really hard to maintain the language of their parents. There’s a lot that can’t be exchanged through a second language. It’s definitely an asset—it’s a resource—and when you lose it, there’s something really profound about that.”

A UVM faculty member since 2003, Professor Reyes has made language, literacy, and its impact on identity a central focus of her work as a researcher and teacher.

The UVM Alumni Association honors her with the 2019 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, which rec-

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ognizes “excellence in teaching and extraordinary contributions to the enrichment of campus life.”

Across the years, Reyes’s work has directly influenced the lives of students in local school districts with diverse populations of new American students, many of whom have come to the area through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. Partnering with fellow CESS faculty Shana Haines and Barri Tinkler, Reyes has also led the development of an undergraduate minor in education for cultural and linguistic diversity.

“We need to open up conversation in schools so there are no misunderstandings,” Reyes says. “There are so many issues and racial inequities—especially about children and families who speak a language other than English. When the mantra out there is ‘build that wall,’ it’s just so unwelcoming, and it’s really threatening in many ways to families. So, I feel like when I’m speaking up about the work, it’s really the families and children we want to highlight—not as a burden or as deficits, but as assets.”

As Reyes prepares for her Kidder Lecture this fall, she anticipates including a strong plug for building the ranks at the front of classrooms in Vermont and nationwide.

“I’m definitely going to extol the virtues of teaching!” she says. “As a field, it doesn’t receive enough positive recognition, and I want to get into why people should go into teaching—it is a vocation.”

SALLY MCCAY

Cutting College’s Price Tag from Capitol Hill ALUMNI | When Kaitlyn Vitez ’15 packed up her New Jersey apartment two years ago to move to Washington, D.C., she wrapped her fragile kitchenware in loose pages from an expensive textbook. It had been for an economics class she took senior year and, like many textbooks today, was an unbound custom edition for that class and was ineligible for re-sell or buy-back programs at the end of the semester. The book had become worthless to Vitez, an anthropology and global studies graduate—so she utilized it as best she could.

Ironically, on the other end of that move, the job that Vitez had relocated to D.C. for uniquely positioned her to help other graduates and students avoid those same financial frustrations.

As the director of the Make Higher Education Affordable campaign at U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), she raises awareness and support for policies that help bring the cost of education down for students and graduates, who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt.

Since 1970, the consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG has strived to protect Americans from powerful special interests that influence a range of industries. “In my case, for example, we’re talking about big textbook publishers and student loan servicers that rip off students,” Vitez says.

An average day for her might involve lobbying Congress to increase Pell Grant funding, strategizing with other organizations across D.C. and student organizers across the nation

on college affordability initiatives, or meeting with Capitol Hill staffers to gain support on legislation that protects students from predatory loans or exorbitant fees from on-campus banks.

But one of her major priorities for reducing student debt goes back to her expensive packing paper hack. Vitez estimates that textbook prices have risen three times faster than inflation in recent years and cost students roughly $3 billion in financial aid each year. “When you’re registering for classes, you should know how much that class is going to cost,” she says of the sticker shock many students experience only after they’ve enrolled in a class.

She is a fierce proponent of opensource textbooks, which offer students free or low-cost access to quality course materials, and played a crucial role in getting a federal opensource program passed. She even jammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s phoneline with calls from students supporting funding for the program, which was expected to save them up to $50 million on course materials each year. Funding for the program was subsequently renewed in the latest federal budget.

“It goes to show the power of organizing and why it’s important that we’re not just getting people to volunteer in their communities, but getting people invested in changing how higher education works, and making their voices heard on a higher level,” she says. “I’m not just fighting for college to be more affordable; I’m getting students to make that call.”

MEET A CATAMOUNT UVM Interim Provost Patty Prelock is meeting up with students on campus and in the field, wherever their learning takes them, to share a window into the undergraduate academic experience.

Watch the videos: go.uvm.edu/ meetacatamount

UVM

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Access for All Abilities “When you are educated, you are enlightened.

If children go to school, they can fight for their own rights. It’s going to break the barrier.”

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At eight years old, Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie was diagnosed with polio after receiving an expired vaccine. Unable to walk on her own because of the virus, she became part of a community of stigmatized, disabled “others” in her village in Ghana. What’s worse: Komabu-Pomeyie was a girl.

However, her mother—a librarian who believed in the power of education—was determined to overcome the community stigma and immobility that stood in her daughter’s way of attending school. So she carried Komabu-Pomeyie to and from school, every day. “What she went through, it wasn’t easy. I saw it myself. Children like me were not exposed to the community. They were covered up,” Komabu-Pomeyie says. Today, she is working toward a PhD in educational leadership and policy studies at UVM. But when she’s not working on her dissertation, Komabu-Pomeyie is dedicated to Enlightening and Empowering People with Disabilities in Africa (EEDP Africa), a nonprofit organization she founded in 2012 that promotes the welfare and dignity of persons with disabilities. In collaboration with policymakers, other organizations, and persons with and without disabilities, EEDP Africa focuses on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ goal of equality by way of universal designs.

Part of that focus includes building the first accessible and inclusive school in Ghana for students of all abilities.

Plans for the school incorporate universal designs into everything from the building’s layout and finishes to classroom curriculum and teachers. “When you are educated, you are enlightened. If children go to school, they can fight for their own rights. It’s going to break the barrier,” Komabu-Pomeyie says.

Like most of the children she’s building the school for, Komabu-Pomeyie’s experience as a student was plagued with challenges and moments of adversity. While in college, in a building that was inaccessible for her to navigate safely, Komabu-Pomeyie suffered an accident on a staircase that left her bedridden for months. When her school did nothing to assist in her recovery or rectify the accessibility issues, “That was the wakeup call that this is enough,” she says. Komabu-Pomeyie wants to ensure that no child in Ghana experiences that again.

At the conclusion of her doctoral program, she plans to continue EEPD Africa’s work and assist with the school.

She’s not ruling out the possibility of a run at public office either, though she acknowledges it would be no small feat to pull up a seat at the policy table. “I’m very much aware of my status: I’m a person with disabilities and I am a woman—and being a woman alone is so huge. I’m making sure that I don’t leave any loophole behind so that nobody can question what I’m able to do.”

Prescribing Exercise for Mental Health NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES | David Tomasi didn’t reinvent the wheel with his latest research on exercise; in fact, he’s well aware that the core concept has been common knowledge for centuries. “The Romans used to say: ‘Mens sana in corpore sano,’” he recites in Latin, “which means ‘healthy mind, healthy body.’” But what he is proposing is a new application for the tried-and-true wheel.

A lecturer in rehabilitation and movement science, and inpatient psychotherapist at UVM Medical Center, Tomasi notes that the number of psychiatric patients seeking acute, inpatient treatment has steadily increased since the ’90s at the start of the opioid crisis. A majority of the patients he treats at UVMMC are young adults suffering from dual-diagnoses of a mood disorder and addiction, typically to opioids.

“There aren’t enough beds. We have struggles with opioid addiction and suicidality, and it’s a crisis we’ve never seen before on a national level in the United States. Especially in the northeast, especially in New England, but even more so in Vermont. We are really struggling,” he says.

At UVMMC, where Tomasi and his colleagues Sheri Gates and Emily Reyns treat patients suffering from a range of mood and mental health disorders, a new idea surfaced: What if practitioners prescribed patients exercise as part of their treatment?

To explore the potential of this mind-body connection, Tomasi, Gates, and Reyns were awarded an inaugural University of Vermont Medical Center Fund grant that enabled them to build a gym exclusive to patients in UVMMC’s inpatient psychiatry unit. For roughly one hundred patients in the unit, treatment plans included new sixty-minute nutrition education programs and structured exercise classes, all monitored by psychotherapists.

Tomasi and his team anticipated positive results, but what they found surprised even them: a whopping 95 percent of patients reported that their moods improved after doing the structured exercises. Overall, patients reported reduced levels of mood disorder symptoms like anger, anxiety, and depression, and higher levels of self-esteem and improved moods.

In Vermont, Tomasi notes that a balanced and integrated approach to mental health is very much in the DNA of the state and could be just what the doctor ordered. Based on the study’s positive results, Tomasi believes that incorporating American College of Sports Medicine-approved exercises into inpatient treatment would not only improve patients’ symptoms faster than classic pharmacological intervention alone could—thus increasing facilities’ bed and patient turnover rates—but would also offer patients an alternative, holistic, and cost-effective approach to maintaining their mental health after discharge.

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Collection in Search of a Home LIBRARIES | Of all people, Wolfgang Mieder would seem to deserve the peace of mind that comes from hard work and goals accomplished.

Over his nearly half century at UVM, the gregarious German professor has written or edited well over two hundred books and published more than five hundred articles on proverbs, his academic specialty. For decades he’s produced a massive annual of proverb criticism called Proverbium, published at UVM. He’s given more than five hundred talks in two dozen countries on his special topic. And he’s been the subject of six festschriftenn, collections of essays written by scholars commemorating a fellow expert.

But for a good decade, Mieder has been troubled.

The source of his worry? A bulging addition to his home, the largest room in the house, that held—in floor-to-ceiling shelves covering all four walls—the massive array of proverb collections and proverb studies he had accumulated across five decades.

It wasn’t the strain on the domestic infrastructure caused by his habit of adding one hundred new books a year that was making him anxious; it was what would happen to all those volumes in the future. Mieder turned seventy-five this year.

“It was such a unique library, I didn’t want it to be dispersed,” Mieder says. “That was my big worry—seeing the books end up at some book sale selling for a dollar apiece.”

That would be a significant loss, and not just for sentimental

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reasons. In the last few years, hordes of proverb scholars from throughout the world have trooped to Mieder’s home in Williston to access his proverb collections in twenty-plus languages and dip into proverb studies with titles like The Adages of Erasmus and “Right Makes Might”: Proverbs and the American Worldview, Mieder’s latest.

The logical way to preserve such a treasure would be to transfer it to the special collections department of a university. But time and again, at universities abroad and in the United States, including UVM, Mieder heard the same story—his collection was too much of a good thing. No one has the space.

This sad tale took a turn when Tom Sullivan, UVM’s former president, learned about the potentially orphaned collection.

Knowing that UVM Special Collections was puzzling over how best to stock shelves in the recently re-opened Billings Library North Lounge public space, Sullivan sensed a fit. Mieder’s books could be a top-drawer working collection, a scholarly complement to hallowed Billings, but wouldn’t require the same level of security and climate control of volumes in the permanent collection.

Library leadership quickly got behind the idea. Jeff Marshall, director of Special Collections, says the North Lounge space was “a solution looking for a problem,” and one had magically appeared.

The Wolgang Mieder International Proverb Library officially opened in May. BRIAN JENKINS

Ship Shape Melosira Forever Fund boosts lake research UVM FOUNDATION | For years, the field research of scientists in UVM’s Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory has been critical to understanding environmental threats to Lake Champlain—invasive species to agricultural run-off to climate change impacts—and developing approaches to address them. And the most fundamental tool for this work is the fleet of watercraft that pilot them onto the vast lake, the flagship “Melosira” at the fore.

A recent $1 million gift from F. Peter Rose ’54 creates a permanent endowment, the Melosira Forever Fund, that will yield vital annual support for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the Rubenstein Lab’s fleet of watercraft and their instrumentation.

“As a Vermonter and graduate of UVM, I can honestly say that we are blessed to have such a resource as the Rubenstein Ecosystem Lab to initiate and oversee this necessary research,” Peter Rose said when the gift was announced. “The lab and Rubenstein School are at JOSHUA BROWN; INSET, IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST ’09

the cutting edge of ongoing research that is crucial to enabling change. I hope the Melosira Forever Fund will alleviate the stress of funding the ongoing costs of maintaining the Melosira, and will help the Rubenstein Lab extend the knowledge learned in the Lake Champlain Basin to lakes and watersheds around the world.”

Aboard the Melosira, faculty and students use a wide range of tools and methods to collect physical, chemical, and biological data from Lake Champlain that they can take back to shore for analysis. In addition, this floating classroom supports experiential learning for students in multiple disciplines. The Melosira is also a powerful community outreach tool. More than 2,600 elementary, middle, and high school students have participated in nearly 130 trips on the vessel since 2011.

Long committed to environmental issues, Peter Rose has been closely engaged with the work of UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources since the 1990s, when an article about the school in The New York Times inspired him to visit campus and meet with then dean Don DeHayes. His past support has included serving on the Rubenstein School Board of Advisors, funding the purchase of scientific equipment in the waterfront Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, and creating new student scholarships, among other initiatives.

“I am so very grateful for Mr. Rose’s vision and passion to support Lake Champlain research and the Rubenstein School,” said Dean Nancy Mathews. “His generosity will empower the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory to remain at the forefront of freshwater research, one of the most critical needs in understanding the impacts of global change. His gift opens a new opportunity for the lab to excel and to prepare leaders of the future.”

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KING BEE In 1980, fourteen-year-old Jacques Bailly received an impressive trophy for winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In September, approximately thirty-nine years later, the UVM classics professor collected a second trophy in recognition of his service as chief “pronouncer” of the national spelling bee, now televised live each year on ESPN. The Scripps Cup was created

by Rookwood Pottery Company in Cincinnati as the trophy for the winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Rookwood wanted to recognize Bailly’s contributions to the bee and arranged for an additional trophy, just for him. UVM Classics Chair John Franklin presented the trophy as a surprise at the department’s fall picnic in Oakledge Park.

Along with the special cup, Scripps included a citation: “Dr. Bailly is more than the voice of the Bee. He is the face, heart and soul of the Bee. We thank him for his years of dedication to the program and the millions of spellers who are inspired by his voice and his encouragement.”

Read a 2017 VQ story on Bailly and the Bee: go.uvm.edu/bee

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Hillel’s New Home CAMPUS LIFE | With past locations on South Prospect Street or Colchester Avenue, UVM Hillel has long been located on the fringe of campus. Those locations belied the centrality of Hillel to the spiritual, social, and intellectual lives of many Jewish students and the broader campus community, particularly as the organization has grown significantly in recent years.

That all changed in August with Hillel’s move into the Burack Hillel Center, located in renovated space in the Vermont marble and slate building at 439 College Street, originally home to Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Across the street from Waterman, next-door-neighbors with the president’s Englesby House residence, steps from the Green, it’s on one of the most traveled paths between campus and downtown.

Allyson Tazbin ’20, an early childhood education/special education major, is president of UVM Hillel. She notes that expansive space in the new location has already made an impact. Shabbat dinners last year would typically draw approximately fifty students; attendance has more than tripled at every Shabbat this semester. The Challah for Hunger fundraiser often packs

the Hillel kitchen with student bakers on Tuesday evenings.

The three-story building includes event space and offices for Hillel staff on the first floor and additional space for events or services on the top level. The second floor is currently UVM residence hall space; a number of the residents are students active in Hillel.

The center is named for the Burack family, longtime champions of UVM Hillel.

Daniel Burack ’55, Hon ’08, a member of the UVM Foundation’s Leadership Council and chair of the UVM Hillel Board, and his wife, Carole Burack ’08, made a gift of $2.5 million towards the new home for Hillel.

UVM Hillel has received support from numerous alumni and parents, Debbie Koslow Stern ’72 G’75 and Mitchell Stern G’79 among them. Debbie Stern recalls the immediate sense of welcome she received from Hillel as a first-year student and, years later, the organization would also impact the college experience of her son David Moss ’02 G’10. “I am honored to be able to help promote Hillel at UVM to give future generations of students opportunities for growth, validation, community, and a home away from home,” Stern says.

M E D I A

Fighting the Tide Journalists write “the first rough draft of history,” says a well-worn truth. Reporting and rapping out some of those first drafts was the day-to-day for Terrence Petty ’74, as an Associated Press correspondent based in Germany during the dramatic political shifts of the late 1980s. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to democratic revolutions in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Petty says there was a distinct adrenaline rush to covering the breaking news in that time and place.

The duty abroad was the realization of a dream for Petty, whose interest in Germany traces all the way back to a childhood fascination, growing up in Fair Haven, Vermont, with the state’s Revolutionary War history and the German mercenaries who fought in the Lake Champlain region. In college, Germany would be a particular area of focus as a UVM history major.

Petty retired from his journalism career in 2017, having spent the previous eighteen years managing the AP’s news operation in Oregon. Living in Portland with his wife, Christina, and son, Tristan, the seasoned newsman has shifted his focus to diving deep on research and writing history’s later drafts in long form. His recent book, Enemy of the People: The Munich Post and the Journalists Who Opposed Hitler, was published in print by The Associated Press in 2019, and a condensed version is available on Kindle.

The project sprang from Petty’s interest in the years that preceded the Third Reich, the social, economic, and political circumstances of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The Munich Post was a small paper, circulation 15,000, with a decidedly socialist slant. Its editors were fearless in writing investigative pieces that exposed the brutality and corruption of Hitler’s circle and unfettered in pushing the boundaries on journalistic standards with lurid or sensational stories. For readers, knowing the looming horror of Nazi Germany makes Petty’s book all the more compelling, as the Post keeps the presses rolling through threats, physical attacks, JOHANN STROBL

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and multiple libel cases upheld by Nazifriendly judges.

“As a journalist, I was trying to understand how different the news media landscape was in the 1920s and 1930s,” Petty says. “And I wanted to understand how a democracy failed. Why did people not listen to journalists like those at The Munich Post who were warning for about a decade regarding the dangers of this guy Adolf Hitler?”

The phrase “enemy of the people” has a haunting ring, of course, in contemporary America, where President Donald Trump demonizes the media daily. Petty notes that echo inevitably comes up in questions after he gives a reading or talk about his research.

“There are some very chilling parallels,” Petty says. Though he cautions against comparing different political eras and countries, some of the parallels lead him back to one of the fundamental premises of his book—what causes a democracy to fail? “Are there any freedoms that Americans would be willing to give up for whatever they would receive in return?” Petty wonders. “That’s the question that is still hanging in my mind.”

Now at work on a new book about post-war West Germany, Petty says he’s motivated to sit down at his desk early every morning by a fundamental drive for a writer/historian. “There are so many nuances in history, really interesting stories, that may have been lost or never told.

If I find them intriguing, I think other people will as well. I don’t want these things to be forgotten.”

Steven Manchel ’83 has published his first book, informed by thirty years of law practice and fifteen years of teaching a case study at the Harvard Business School. I Hereby Resign: How Individuals Properly Prepare, Resign and Move to the Competition, and How Companies Best Manage That Process is published by New Academia. “Manchel is singularly capable of taking complex legal issues and packaging them in a way that the most inexperienced among us can understand and appreciate,” writes one reviewer.

Professor Wolfgang Mieder’s latest deep dive into history and literature via his expertise in proverbs is ripe for our times. “Right Makes Might”: Proverbs and the American Worldview is published by Indiana University Press.

Building on previous publications and unpublished research, Mieder explores sociopolitical aspects of the American worldview—across the cultural landscape from Abraham Lincoln to Bernie Sanders—as expressed through the use of proverbs in politics, women’s rights, and the civil rights movement.

Alice Outwater ’83 explores critical questions for our nation and the natural world in her new book, Wild at Heart: America’s Turbulent Relationship with Nature, from Exploitation to Redemption, published by St. Martin’s Press.

A dogged researcher and deft writer, Outwater spins this particular angle on the American story from colonialism to westward expansion to industrialism to eco-awareness to the stark challenge of climate change. The author, who studied engineering at UVM and MIT, is a consultant on water quality, in addition to her work as an author.

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

CAN, WILL, MUST Anthony Lamb locked in on final college season

BY | THOMAS WEAVER

PHOTOGRAPH BY | BRIAN JENKINS

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Last summer, Anthony Lamb had a look into future possibili-

ties, working out with several NBA teams to get a sense for whether he was ready for that next big step. The answer: stay in school and continue to hone your game, in particular shooting from the NBA three-line, guarding on the perimeter, ball handling. The latter might be one reason he’s returned to his high school regimen of carrying, or dribbling, a basketball as his constant companion. That six-foot-seven guy walking across the UVM Green after classes, backpack slung over one shoulder and a basketball in his hand? Anthony.

But early in the semester, as Lamb and a group of his teammates prepare for some morning work in Patrick Gym, he says that his future—National Basketball Association, professional ball in

UVMATHLETICS.COM | THE LATEST NEWS

Europe, whatever it might hold—is not the point right now. “All I’m looking at is how can I get this done today. I’ve got, what, thirty-one weeks left of my college life here,” Lamb says. “That’s all that matters.”

Thirty-one weeks, two semesters, one final season to shine at Patrick Gym before Senior Night, March 3, 2020, when his mother, Rachel, will, no doubt, have made another six-hour drive from Rochester, New York, to see her son play.

Anthony Lamb is solidly built and tough, deft-footed and determined, a mix that makes him a force in the paint and has helped enable mid-major Vermont to compete with any high-major program in the country, Kentucky to Purdue to Florida State. Credit for that toughness, to great extent, is due to his mom and his blue-collar hometown. Lamb has the symbol of the city of Rochester and the area code along with the phrase, “I can, I will, I must,” tattooed on his left wrist.

Rachel Lamb was pregnant with Anthony at age sixteen and has worked long hours, juggling responsibilities as a single mom, to provide opportunities for Anthony and his younger brother, Timothy.

“Anthony was a baby and I was a baby, too,” she says. “We grew up together.” After years of eldercare in community nursing homes, she has worked as a roofer for the last three years. (When I reach her on her cell late one afternoon in September, she’s on a rooftop searching for the source of a leak. “Like a needle in a haystack,” she says.)

While Anthony is a force on the court, his mom, in kind, brings it from the stands.

At halftime of UVM’s first-round 2019 NCAA Tournament game versus Florida State, tied 27-27, sports reporter Nicole Auerbach tweeted: “Anthony Lamb’s mom briefly heckled Leonard Hamilton (FSU head coach) as he came off the court. ‘How about No. 3? That’s my baby! Maybe you should cover No. 3!’”

Asked if he’d heard that, Lamb smiles

and laughs, “Probably, that sounds like her.”

Lamb entered UVM in 2016 as a highly promising recruit out of suburban Rochester’s Greece Athena High School, one of four finalists for New York’s Mr. Basketball title. From scoring twenty-three points in his Catamount debut to becoming the first freshman to win America East Tournament Most Outstanding Player, he quickly found his stride during that first season, culminating in a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

(Lamb scored twenty points and collected nine rebounds as #4-seed Purdue knocked the Cats out of the bracket.)

Though he spent a good deal of his sophomore season on the bench with a broken foot, Lamb says it might have been his most important year of development.

“Without that happening, I wouldn’t be who I am today,” he says. As a player, he used his perspective, removed from the heat of competition, to better understand defensive rotations, the coaching staff’s expectations of him, “all of the little things that go into basketball.”

A finance major in the Grossman School of Business, Lamb’s season dealing with injury coincided with an impactful business communications class with Lecturer Paula Cope. “What’s the most important thing to getting your message across? Listening. Listening so you can learn how to best reach somebody in a way that they will hear what you need to communicate,” Lamb says. It’s a lesson that has stuck, helping him grow as a teammate and team leader.

When Rachel Lamb considers how her son’s experience at UVM has squared with her expectations, she says she didn’t expect the help he has received to develop not just as a player, but as an individual. She credits the whole coaching and support staff, but has particular appreciation for assistant coach Hamlet Tibbs. Anthony’s connection with Tibbs from New York AAU leagues was key to his recruitment, and their relationship has grown close, spending hours together talking basketball and life.

JOINING THE HALL The UVM Athletic Hall of Fame welcomed eight new members this fall.

THE 2019 INDUCTEES ARE MATT DUFFY, Baseball MIKE GILLIGAN, former Hockey coach KRISTEN MILLAR EPSTEIN ‘09, Lacrosse DEAN STRONG ‘09, Hockey CONNOR TOBIN ‘09, Soccer JUERGEN UHL ‘09, Skiing BOB WEILER ‘75, Football AND TORREY MITCHELL ‘07, Hockey, had his Hall of Fame induction deferred from 2017 to this year.

“Anthony is a very thoughtful and cerebral person,” Tibbs says. “He spends a lot of time in the community visiting people that are going through hard times, visiting kids at schools and the hospital.

He cares about people’s well-being; he’s a wonderful person.”

Now a senior on a team that is rich on returning talent, bolstered by a number of promising new recruits and transfers, Lamb says the squad came together well during summer workouts, maybe the best he’s seen in his time at UVM. As that potential of summer and fall practices is put to the test this winter, Lamb is set to lead with his voice and by his example— focused on the moment, taking nothing for granted.

VQ FA L L 2 0 1 9 |

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| FA C U LT Y

VOICE

Family Reunion, 1979 In 1979, the year I was eight,

my father’s family reunion was held at a public park in Newport News, Virginia. It was a place of woods and creeks and picnic tables, set against the eastern shore of the southern part of the James River, a few miles before it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. I heard more than one relative that day say they hoped the place wouldn’t get overrun by the locals, meaning the groups of young black males on bikes or on foot from the surrounding poor neighborhoods. They were often there playing basketball on the cracked and faded courts.

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Several of my male cousins and I—four or five white boys—played war in the woods while we waited to be called to the picnic area for lunch, where fifty or so relatives, toddlers to the elderly, would chattily swarm around the splintered tables and pile their flimsy paper plates with fried chicken and salads from KFC and all manner of covered-dish appetizers and desserts—soft-shell crabs, coleslaw, banana pudding, lemon squares. After playing for an hour or so in the woods, one of my older cousins, Kevin, a big fourteen-year-old with a mean, crookedtoothed grin and a mom-inflicted haircut,

BY | GREG BOTTOMS dared me to yell the N-word at the basketball players from behind a thick copse of trees. I was looking out at a full court of ten older black boys and young men, most maybe sixteen to twenty years old, muscles and sweat and back-and-forth joking. One older man— he looked about thirty-five—wore athletic glasses with a band holding them onto his head. I thought he was a teacher, maybe a coach, because everyone listened to him; they waited to see what he would say when there was a foul, a potential foul. He was the center of their disbanding and reforming circles on the court. I stared at the men and boys, especially at the man I thought was a teacher, and then at the metal hoops and LAUREN SIMKIN BERKE

backboards, the falling-down fencing rolled up in places like the edges of once-wet paper.

The rims were netless. The backboards looked indestructible, like big, square storm grates, and I had been told, had heard, many times, that that was because blacks (what a strange descriptor, I thought even then, for people with skin of widely varying shades of brown) would steal anything they could carry, even a heavy backboard. When I was very young, because of things white people (who are actually more pink or tan or beige) said, and because I was a child and when you are a child everything said is the truth, there is no such thing as a word that is not the truth—because why would there be?—I imagined the houses of black people were filled with pointless objects, stolen for the sake of stealing. Almost every word out of every mouth that I understood to be trustworthy made me believe that black people operated like rats, running wild in the secret streets, hoarding the unusable.

I’m not going to do that, I said to Kevin, hiding from the court now in the deepgreen foliage, sweating in the heat, the wet sunshine, sweating from running and climbing the small hills, hills where Revolutionary War soldiers and Confederate and Union soldiers had walked and climbed and run and screamed and fought and killed and died. We were maybe twenty miles from where Dutch traders dragged and slapped the first African slaves onto American soil in 1619. Sometimes I felt the layers of time beneath my feet—or that is how I remember it, or how it feels now, or something. Smell of honeysuckle. Saw of bees. Penny-colored pine needles. Stripe of gold light stenciled onto green grass. Earth smell so strong it must have come from inside my own head.

Virginia. Childhood. I go everywhere in the country, can travel the world, and I sit down to write a sentence and I am still there.

Yeah, you are, said Kevin.

No, I’m not, I said, laughing, trying to make it seem as if the whole thing was ridiculous, would require no more of our attention.

Kevin took out a knife, a little plastic knife from KFC, serrated on one side, translucent and blue tinted, and held it up to my throat as the other cousins stood around

watching, though I don’t actually remember them doing this, just remember that they were there and that is what they would do in a scene and this is a memoir of sorts, like I said, so I’m kind of remembering and imagining the other cousins, four of them, ragged white boys with filthy clothes and knees and faces or whatever. Dirt-creased necks, black-edged fingernails. I could tap into some working-class white people stereotypes, if those images are useful. Maybe I’ll use the phrase “trailer park” as a place holder in this draft.

Do it or I’ll cut your throat, Kevin said.

I thought about it, yelling the word and then running and it would all really just be a game, some fun at the reunion, but I didn’t want to do it because the man, I still believed, was a teacher of some kind, and he was teaching the boys playing and maybe not only basketball but other things, too, because he kept stopping to talk to them and pat them on the back, and they were paying attention and smiling, laughing at what seemed like his jokes.

I felt the cousins holding me and I felt the dull knife edge saw across my neck and I felt—I feel it again now, remembering— that electric sting, the hot blood on my skin, the panicked slap of my hand on the wound.

And later I showed my mom the cut at lunch but didn’t say how it happened and my mom said, What happened, a stick? and I said, Yeah, a stick, and then she put a napkin against my neck. She lifted the napkin and looked every couple of minutes until the bleeding stopped, said, Some stick. Careful.

Then this image: it was hours later and I was standing in the parking lot at dusk and the black man with glasses in a sweatstained gray shirt was laughing with all the other black boys and young men as they loaded their basketballs and bags into a clean, new, white church van that had written on its side the Holy Redeemer something something Church of Christ. I must have been with my mom and dad and brothers but they aren’t in the memory. It’s just me at the end of a hot day with a raw, pink cut on my neck and dirt-stained everything and the sky is gray-blue with a distended pink belly.

I am staring at the man and patting gently at my neck. He shuts the van doors. He

walks toward me and asks if I am okay and I say, Yeah I am except my neck got cut out in the woods, and the man says he likes to use Bactine on his cuts—I remember this very clearly—even though it burns a little at first but the cut goes away faster and that is usually all there is to it. Good as new. You can get it down at the drug store. Give you some, son, if I had it, but we left the aid kit at church.

I look at the man. He is smiling. I want to say that I got my throat cut because I wouldn’t yell a racist insult at him, but I don’t know what racism is and don’t have the language and don’t know how. Talking.

Other people. Me back then. I might as well have been trying to rebuild a car engine or do particle physics.

Before the man gets in the van and drives away, he says, God bless you, son. He says it like it’s nothing, like I just sneezed. Then he pats me gently on the shoulder and looks into me. A second. Two seconds. Brown eyes and blue eyes. Nothing much. Why even remember this?

But in my dad’s ’65 Mustang, on the way home, my mom turns around and says, Why are you crying, what’s wrong, is something wrong? and I say, It’s my neck, my neck hurts, and my mom says, We’ll take care of it honey, we will, just calm down, but it’s not my neck, or the anger and shame and helplessness I feel because of my cruel and stupid cousin Kevin, who could have done anything he wanted to me—beaten me delirious, tied me up, held me to the ground.

I don’t know what it is. Exhaustion, the long day, the plastic picnic knife, my white family, those black boys and men, the squalor of the poor neighborhoods near the park turning slowly and darkly now in the car windows, a hand on my shoulder, a blessing at dusk. The world expands every day.

Words barely touch it. And now my heart has opened like a sieve and I cannot hold back its tiny flood.

VQ Greg Bottoms is a UVM professor of English.

This essay is a chapter in his 2019 book, Lowest White Boy, published by West Virginia University Press.

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| ON COURSE

Policy in Action Helping Vermont consumers, students gain advocacy experience BY | RACHEL LESLIE

Anyone who has made a

trip to Pho Dang Vietnamese Café in Essex Junction might recall the tasty pho noodles, sweet iced coffee, or low-key atmosphere. What they likely won’t think about is whether they paid for their meal with cash or a credit card.

That’s because Pho Dang, like many small businesses around Vermont, has moved away from being a “cash only” operation and invested in a credit card processing terminal, sparing many customers a trip to the ATM. To acquire the necessary terminal, owner Dong Dang entered into a lease agreement in 2017 with a company that distributes the equipment.

Within six weeks of signing the lease,

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he noticed higher than anticipated charges on his bank statement and placed a call to the Vermont Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program, a partnership with UVM. Danielle Shaw, then a graduate student in UVM’s Master of Community Development and Applied Economics program, answered the phone.

“He was going to be paying $6,200 over the course of four years to lease a product he could have bought new for $300-$500 at most,” says Shaw, who served as the Consumer Assistance Program’s graduate assistant at the time.

Housed within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at UVM, the Consumer Assistance Program, commonly

referred to as CAP, helps Vermont consumers resolve conflicts with businesses, protect themselves from fraud, and deal with a host of other consumer protection issues.

Since the early 1980s, CAP has functioned as the primary constituent services arm of the Attorney General’s Office, while also providing a unique learning environment for UVM students. Undergraduate students can earn up to six credits by enrolling in the Consumer Assistance Program practica administered by the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, where they work as advocates on the frontlines of CAP’s consumer hotline. The course is co-taught with help from Attorney General T.J. Donovan himself.

ANDY DUBACK

On any given day, students in the Consumer Assistance Program help Vermonters resolve conflicts with businesses, protect themselves from fraud, and deal with a host of other issues. Kathryn Pfefferle ’18 (standing) supervises students in the practicum. “The power of individuals and the power of voice is something that can never be overlooked,” she says.

“People have a lot more power than they think.”

Kathryn Pfefferle ’18 participated in the CAP program as a public communication major at UVM. After graduating last May, she was hired to stay on as a full-time consumer associate and now supervises students in the practicum.

“The first thing I learned was a lesson in transgenerational communication—how to communicate with Vermonters and communicating what needs to be said in the appropriate way. I had no idea the types of skills that were needed for a phone call,” says Pfefferle, adding that CAP receives many calls from elderly and vulnerable populations in the state.

On any given day, students may receive calls from consumers who are cold because they’ve run out of propane, are afraid because they’ve accidentally given their password to a scammer, or feel they’ve been duped by a company. Last year, CAP handled more than 12,000 constituent contacts and recovered more than $124,000 for Vermont consumers.

But not all the calls CAP receives relate to consumer issues. “We joke that people call us because we answer the phone,” says Charity Clark ’97, chief of staff to the Vermont Attorney General, who oversees the program. “With those non-consumer calls, the core of what we do is help people navigate government. It’s such an important service.”

CAP volunteers get a crash course in conflict resolution, consumer law, and how

government functions by assisting consumers in formalizing their complaints or referring them to other agencies of government as appropriate. At the same time, “they’re learning the ethics of public service,” says Sarah Anders, who replaced Shaw as the CAP graduate assistant last year.

Working with Vermonters around the state gives students direct experience in advocacy and policy work and has influenced the career trajectories for several graduates, like Cameron Randlett ’17, who, after finishing the practicum, stayed on to work at CAP part-time while finishing his degree in political science.

“I learned how to read, write, and think critically from my political science degree, but really practical things—like how to manage an inbox, how to communicate effectively, how to stay on task when a billion different things are going on—I learned from CAP. All of those skills gave me the ability to be successful in my job,” says Randlett, who now works as a paralegal at a San Francisco-based immigration law firm and has his eye on law school.

“I still really like consumer protection law. The CAP program was the first time in my life that I connected with the feeling that I did something that mattered, had a purpose. I think I’d like to do that ultimately in the long-term,” he says.

TAKING ACTION A ninth-generation Vermonter and descendent of Thomas Chittenden, Vermont’s first governor, Charity Clark’s Vermont roots are older than the state itself. After graduating from UVM, she went on to Boston College Law School and spent some time in New York before coming back to work in the service of her home state.

Clark, who splits her time between Montpelier and Burlington, was at UVM the day Danielle Shaw received the call from restaurant owner Dong Dang. By the time she had been briefed by Shaw, she was fuming. Dang was not the first to call the consumer hotline about the credit card terminal issue. The students managing the CAP phone lines had already received a number

of complaints from other small business owners in the state that had fallen victim to similar predatory lease agreements. After hearing Dang’s case—the most egregious yet—Clark knew something had to be done.

“The leases made me so mad. We decided that a legislative solution would be most effective,” she said. She reached out to legislators and worked with the state legislative council on a bill that would require more disclosures about lease terms and a fortyfive-day right of cancellation for credit card terminal leases.

With a magnifying glass in hand, Clark presented the bill to legislators and explained the ways in which the leasing companies were taking advantage of Vermont small business owners, such as including important disclosure language in fine print nearly illegible to the naked eye. Among the bill’s first sponsors was Senator Chris Pearson ’95, who Clark had coincidentally run into in UVM’s Morrill Hall the day she’d learned about Dang’s call. “I was passionately pitching our idea for a bill,” she says.

Clark also compiled a list of consumers who had filed complaints—owners of a yarn shop, car wash, bed and breakfast— all of whom agreed to testify in the House and Senate. “They were so effective,” says Clark. As a result of their testimony, the bill was expanded to address additional issues raised. The bill passed both houses in the Vermont legislature, was signed by the Governor, and Act 4 went into effect July 1, 2018.

For students like Pfefferle, who managed a credit card processing lease complaint from Mountain View Inn—one of the consumers who testified in the case—the experience provided unique exposure to how the legislative process works, a handy lesson for someone aspiring to run for office herself one day.

“The power of individuals and the power of voice is something that can never be overlooked,” she says. “People have a lot more power than they think, especially when it comes to local government. It doesn’t take a superhero.”

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A

LIFE OF

LEARNING G

by thomas weaver

ranted, stating that a university president is pro-edu-

cation might be filed under things we could really just assume. Right? But listen to Suresh Garimella at a public event or talk with him in conversation, and you sense a critical shade of difference—gratitude for education’s impact on his life is core to his character. And commitment to pay that forward, to just as great an extent, has been a driving force in his career, from peer advisor as an undergraduate in India, to a professor of mechanical engineering and academic leader at Purdue University, to his new role, the University of Vermont’s twenty-seventh president.

Last February, meeting the campus community for the first time at a forum in the Davis Center, Garimella spoke to what intrigued him about leading UVM. Among the attractions, coming to the home state of Justin Smith Morrill, the Vermont senator who advocated for the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Acts, a milestone in making higher education more widely accessible across economic class and leveraging the knowledge of universities in support of their communities. “Creating the land grant university system was one of the greatest experiments in higher education,” Garimella said.

President Suresh Garimella walks across campus with Jillian Scannell ’20, Student Government Association president.

Photographs by Andy Duback FA L L 2 0 1 9 |

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In April, during an interview at his office in Purdue University’s Hovde Hall, he reflected, “I was brought up in a publicschool environment. Middle-class family, so public schooling, both in high school and in college, means a lot to me.” Raised in Bhopal, at the geographic heart of India, Garimella’s family later moved to the southeast region of the country. Throughout his childhood, passionate, committed teachers were a formative influence on him, regardless of the subject matter. “I loved them all; they were wonderful. So much so that by the time I graduated from high school I could have imagined pursuing English literature, history, medicine, or engineering.”

Garimella’s father, Sastry, worked as an engineer; his mother, Radha, was at home, with a laser focus on her three children’s educations. Garimella remembers her vigilance over their homework: “Nothing was more important to her than our studies.” Suresh’s brother, Srinivas, is a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech; his sister, Usha, recently retired as a director at SC Johnson. “I don’t think we’d be where we are without that support for our studies,” Garimella says. “What my parents had to bequeath us was education, which they did in spades.”

That ethic passed to the next generation. Suresh and wife Lakshmi Garimella’s home in West Lafayette, Indiana, included a den with a large desk for Suresh and two smaller ones for daughter, Shruthi, and son, Sanjay. While Suresh graded tests or wrote articles, Lakshmi Garimella shares, the kids did their homework, dad at hand to help.

When Garimella graduated from high school, engineering prevailed among his diverse interests, gaining admission to the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, among the most highly competitive universities worldwide. That passion for learning took root. “I enjoyed classes, which was kind of an odd thing,” he says. “It was fashionable to say you didn’t care about class and be all cynical about it. I wasn’t.”

Looking back, Adult Suresh reflects that maybe College Suresh could have allowed himself just a bit more fun, beyond the study breaks he took for tennis or roller-skating. Outside of the classroom, the most lasting impact of Garimella’s college years was found working as an advisor in a peer guidance program. At a university where students faced enormous stress to measure up academically, Garimella embraced the work of helping peers navigate personal and academic issues. Years later, as a faculty member, building those kinds of connections with his students would be fundamental to his teaching approach.

ask a handful of Suresh Garimella’s Purdue University col-

leagues to give you a sense of him, and some consistent themes emerge. Family man, above all. Engaging. Widely read. Lover of the arts. Meticulous. Honest. Bright, but also wise. Sharp-witted.

A mover. “Fasten your seat belt,” says Marietta Harrison, professor of pharmacology and special advisor for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. “Suresh sets a fast timeline and a high bar.”

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Ask Suresh Garimella to give you a sense of himself, and you’ll get reluctance bordering on resistance. Posed with a question about his childhood, he says, “I’m not good at this. So, I will tell you that I don’t talk a lot about myself… ever.”

There is some valuing of his privacy in that, of course. But there is also, one senses, something along the lines of bemusement at the fuss of having a “presidential profile” written, portraits taken. He doesn’t seem much for the trappings of leadership. He says at one point during our interview at Purdue, “I still don’t consider myself an administrator. And I don’t mean that in any other way than that I feel, fundamentally, I am a faculty member.”

Eventually, Garimella concedes and rattles off a few of his avocations. Reading: historical fiction to biography to that ever-growing stack of issues of The Economist. Movies: Dr. Zhivago is his all-time favorite; he’s watched all of Greta Garbo’s films. Gardening: “I’m not a fancy gardener, a master gardener, by any means, but I have some luck with plants.”

But the schedule of a vice president or a president doesn’t allow much time for tomatoes, Garbo, or The Economist, Garimella acknowledges. He will not be rototilling the back lawn of Englesby House anytime soon.

As Garimella rose through the faculty ranks at Purdue, he began to think more broadly about how science could impact policy. A Jefferson Science Fellowship in the U.S. State Department in 2010 presented the opportunity to put that thought into play. As a Jefferson Fellow, Garimella offered his perspective as science advisor on foreign policy issues around world events such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster or rare earth mineral disputes between China and Japan. Under other Obama administration initiatives, Garimella worked to identify opportunities for academic engagement with Muslim-majority countries, build a higher education dialogue with India, and help share clean energy and climate change expertise with Latin American nations. In 2018, Garimella was appointed by President Trump to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and also serves as an independent body of advisors to both the president and Congress.

Similarly, Garimella’s administrative leadership roles at Purdue focused largely upon better connecting the university with the world beyond campus. Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana for eight years prior to becoming Purdue’s president in 2013, gave Garimella wide latitude to develop initiatives. The university forged diverse partnerships—from the auto industry to the government of Colombia—often with the related benefits of enriching the academic experience of students and boosting Indiana’s economy. Putting it simply, Garimella says, “We sought to bring Purdue’s assets to bear on the community. I was a convener.”

His essay titled “Expanding the Global Reach of the Twenty-First Century Research University” in Science & Diplomacy shares Purdue’s work on this front and also offers a look into Garimella’s vision of how that nineteenth-century American land grant ideal might be realized in our twenty-first-century global landscape.

“Yet another driver for our global engagement—indeed an overarching reason for it—is the potential exposure to new problems and new ideas that increase our knowledge, creativity, productivity, and impact. While pure intellectual curiosity often undergirds the desire for global engagement, the recognition of multiple vantage points from which to assess challenges can make us more agile and innovative,” he writes.

among the multiple roles

and titles Garimella has taken on throughout his thirty-year career in academia, there is none he values as deeply as teacher. Mentor to nearly a hundred graduate students across the years, Garimella notes that twenty-seven alumni from his research group are in faculty positions worldwide. “Training students to be faculty members is the most comprehensive training you can give them,” Garimella says, and suggests being part of that chain of knowledge is an academic’s most lasting legacy.

Certain Purdue undergraduate engineering students, those who preferred a seat in the back row and the comfort of relative anonymity, might have squirmed a bit in Professor Suresh Garimella’s classes. He connected names and faces in the first weeks of the semester and pushed students to come in and meet one-on-one during office hours. “I wasn’t doing this to impress; I just care about them,” Garimella says, an echo of his undergrad years as a peer counselor. “I think I’m better at that personal interaction than I am at science.”

Student success, coupled with boosting the research enterprise and reaffirming the land grant mission, is at the top of three refrains emerging in the first months of Garimella’s UVM presidency. As priorities are set and decisions are made, their impact upon providing the best possible education and experience for students will be the primary filter.

Though UVM faces some particular challenges in regard to funding and declining numbers of high school students in the northeast, Garimella notes that many of the issues are the same across American higher education. Take tuition, where Purdue drew a line by not raising the rate across the past seven years. “At some point, what gives?” Garimella says. “You can’t just keep increasing the tuition. We need to research options, think of efficiencies, think of other revenue sources, different ways of doing business.”

As he gets to know the institution he leads and begins to chart that way forward, there are many people to meet.

Students and faculty at events in the Davis Center. Business leaders at luncheons throughout Vermont. Legislators in the marble halls of Montpelier and Washington, D.C. Alumni at gatherings nationwide. Catamount fans in the bleachers of Virtue Field. It’s a part of the process that Garimella especially embraces. Learning, broadening his viewpoint, is essential to who he is. “I could talk to anyone for a long time.

Everyone has interesting perspectives,” he says. “You’re making me talk today. But usually I’m the one asking the questions.”

VQ

SURESH GARIMELLA BIRTHPLACE Nedunuru, India EDUCATION PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1989 Master’s, The Ohio State University, 1986 Bachelor’s, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, 1985 PAST INSTITUTIONS University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1990-1999 Purdue University, 1999-2019 RESEARCH Co-author of more than 525 publications and thirteen patents, Garimella is a mechanical engineer specializing in micro- and nano-scale transport phenomena, thermal management and energy efficiency in electronics systems, and renewable and sustainable energy systems technology and policy.

FAMILY Married since 1993 to Lakshmi Garimella.

Daughter, Shruthi, is a junior at Purdue University; son, Sanjay, entered Purdue this fall.

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HERALDING A NEW ERA With regal marches and a hefty mace, a presidential medallion and the bright silks of regalia, all of the traditions of the academy, Suresh Garimella was formally installed as the twenty-seventh president of the University of Vermont on Thursday, October 3.

UVM faculty, students, and staff; alumni; state and national leaders including Gov. Phil Scott ’80 and Sen. Patrick Leahy; and colleagues, friends, and family of President Garimella filled Ira Allen Chapel. A succession of speakers offered their views on the mission of higher education—particularly what that means for helping meet the challenges that face contemporary Vermont—and also shared perspectives gained from working with Garimella.

After the formal installation—handed the Class of 1927 Memorial Mace by alumni, faculty, staff, student, and board leadership; the President’s Medallion placed around his neck by Board Chair David Daigle ’89, Garimella delivered his presidential address.

Noting that the lectern he stood behind once belonged to the great John Dewey, UVM Class of 1879, Garimella spoke to the university’s place in history as leaders of equality and opportunity in American higher education. He outlined a “threefold mindset” he sees as charting UVM’s way forward. It begins with students. “We all can agree that

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our most solemn responsibility is to the success of our students,” he said, stressing the importance of the highest quality education, mentorship, experiential learning, all critical to preparing for success after graduation. Affordability and accessibility of a UVM education is also central to that success, he added.

Garimella called for enhanced focus on areas where the university traditionally excels, “to double down on strengths UVM is known for and enhance our reputation and renown in these areas and contribute knowledge for the betterment of society and to solve global challenges.”

The third part of the framework is fully embracing and celebrating the land grant mission. “Senator Morrill’s land grant vision speaks to our responsibility to bring the significant assets of our university to bear on our community,” Garimella said. Turning to the dignitaries assembled behind him on the stage, he caught the eye of Phil Scott and added, “Governor Scott, I sincerely believe that the success of our state is inextricably linked with the success of UVM.” SALLY MCCAY, LEFT; ANDY DUBACK, RIGHT (2)

“This wonderful tradition of an installation celebrates a new era. It is not about my being installed as president, but a marking of an important transition, and an expression of our collective will and aspiration to reach even greater heights.”

I N S TA L L AT I O N A D D R E S S

—President Suresh Garimella

OC TOBER 3, 2019

“The University of Vermont once prepared students for the Industrial Revolution, and now it will prepare students for the Artificial Intelligence revolution, the quantum computing revolution, the bio-engineering revolution, and many more groundbreaking opportunities that science, technology, and engineering have made possible. And, lest you think I am talking only about science and engineering, this age also demands a revolution in creativity, in combining scientific and humanistic traditions in new ways to encourage creativity and innovation. It demands the skills of social and behavioral scientists to help ensure an ethical framework for how new technologies are used.”

—National Science Foundation director and past president of

Purdue University France A. Córdova

Video: go.uvm.edu/watchinstall

Text of President Garimella’s speech: go.uvm.edu/sgwords FA L L 2 0 1 9 |

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origin of Most of this planet is covered in salt water.

From the distance of space, it looks like a serene blue skin. Look beneath the surface, and life gets more complicated.

a biologist in her early childhood, biology professor Melissa Pespeni lived on the edge of the sea on the Japanese island of Okinawa. She would walk down to the water with her snorkel, plunge into the waves to catch fish, then take them home to her aquarium.

Other days, Pespeni would climb the three-story sea walls—near the U.S. military base where her Greek-Irish father worked as a musician and carpenter and her Mexican-American mother worked as a cake decorator at the Baskin-Robbins—perch in a groove, and catch geckos.

“It was blissful,” she says. “My father always told me I could do anything I wanted to do.”

Four decades later, she plunges her arm, up to the elbow, into a tank of salt water in the basement of UVM’s Marsh Life Science Building and very gently pulls up two sea urchins. Pespeni is training one of her undergraduate students how to take tissue samples from these spiky purple creatures. Urchins live in kelp forests and the rough-and-tumble intertidal zone. They’re smashed by waves and preyed on by sea otters and lobsters. They are so tough that they can dig holes in rocks. Urchins are survivors, but the rising acidity of the oceans threatens to dissolve their calcareous shells.

Pespeni has become internationally regarded for her studies exploring the mechanisms that allow urchins and other sea invertebrates to survive, and what the brew of new threats—like rising temperatures, microplastics, novel diseases, and toxic algae—might portend for life in the oceans. She wants to know if the huge range of conditions these animals have experienced over millions of years has encoded tricks in their genes, or hidden physiological capacities.

And she wants to project forward, to understand how some animals could be resilient in the onslaught of more chaotic conditions now building up in the warming oceans.

So, seashore-explorer-girl grows into invertebrate-researching professor. Neat and simple as that? Hardly. Melissa Pespeni’s life would take dramatic turns, like the stuff of a novel or screenplay, from those idyllic first years on a small island in the East China Sea.

Story and photographs by joshua

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go to college. She has a keen memory of them rushing her to the post office to drop her application in the mail on deadline.

At the University of California, San Diego, she completed a double major in 2002, receiving a bachelor’s of arts in critical gender studies and a bachelor’s of science in ecology, behavior, and evolution.

In 2010, she received her PhD in biology from Stanford University and joined the UVM faculty in 2014.

on okinawa, eventually, Pespeni’s family moved

uphill, away from the sea, flooded by one-too-many typhoons. Even fiercer family storms were brewing.

Her parents had met as teenage runaways, panhandling on the streets of Santa Barbara—fifteen and seventeen—and her father had, under pressure, joined the Air Force when they discovered they were pregnant.

Her parents hid the fact that he was an “alcoholic and drug addict,” she recalls.

The family returned to California when she was eleven, her father’s heroin use returned, and he was discharged from the Air Force. Pespeni’s parents’ marriage exploded, and the courts granted her father full custody of Pespeni and her younger sister because he had “the so-called stable career,” she says.

For two years, the girls lived, mostly alone, in a one-room shack in Merced with no running water, walking themselves to school. “The door was always open,” she says. When her father would drift through, “and if he had a bit of change, he’d have us buy milk and Oreos, because that was what he considered food,” she says, “the rest of our food was provided by the school, breakfast and lunch.”

Eventually, her mother regained custody of the children and moved them to southern California to join her newly started family. But troubles persisted.

Her step-father, a former drug-acquaintance of their dad, while “mostly kind,” Pespeni says, would suffer extreme periods of pain from an unknown disease.

In response, he grew abusive—hitting Pespeni and her sister, even making them wear bags of cat feces around their necks all day if they forgot to clean the litter box. Both her father and step-father died at early ages of complications related to drug use. “Essentially they were martyrs to their addictions,” Pespeni says.

A saving grace, her mother rented a house in Claremont for the strong schools. There, Pespeni became friends with the daughter of a local United Methodist minister and school administrator. She calls them “my other family.” In a gifted program on Okinawa, mathematically astute in high school, Pespeni’s mind offered a way out of the circumstances she had lived. The Daltons, the family that had befriended her, helped her realize that she could

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^ melissa pespeni

has an impressive CV, with pages of publications and grants received. But she wants to share the complex stories that preceded those achievements, the ones that bend perceptions of the life path of a university professor. “I think for people to know that I’m the first in my family to go to college, that I’m from an extremely low-income background of addicts and abuse is useful,” she says.

The irony is not lost on her that she now echoes her father’s words: “I want students that have my background, or any other background, to know that they can go on to do whatever it is they want to do,” she says. “They can become a professor.” And, despite the trials of her childhood, Pespeni attributes her success to her mother’s deep love. “My dad gave me ambition,” she says, “and my mom gave me compassion.”

Pespeni wants to share her stories—but she wants to dig beneath the labels. “I am a woman of color and Hispanic. Yes, that’s true. But I don’t think I’m perceived as a faculty of color, so I don’t experience the same hardships that others do who are faculty of color,” she says. Still, she has been shaped by experiences that give inner life to those labels: Pespeni’s grandmother was discriminated against for being Mexican and brown-skinned in California and was ashamed of her heritage, so Pespeni and her grandfather would sneak off at family parties to speak Spanish. “She would come and find us and tell us to stop.”

“Universities and funding agencies are often concerned with checking boxes,” Pespeni says. “But where is the box for ‘grew up in a shack?’”

Pespeni hopes for a deeper exploration of diversity. This is one of the reasons that she founded and co-leads the QuEST Program, a new effort at UVM, funded by the National Science Foundation, to prepare PhD students to work on pressing environmental and global health problems.

“We’re training the students to get away from a mentality that pervades in science: that there’s no emotion, there’s no culture, there’s no personal identity behind one’s research,” she says. The students

are recruited from many backgrounds, and the program works to build community among them, with shared courses, meals, and activities. “To increase diversity in science, we have to have community,” Pespeni says. “You can’t have community with people you don’t know or trust.” The program creates space for students to share their histories, “their stories,” Pespeni says. “We’re trying to remind them that you had a path that got you here. You have a motivation.

Explore it. Hang on to it.” For her own scientific career, Pespeni says she was “running to escape. This kept me very motivated for a long time,” she says.

“Going forward, nothing was harder than what I had experienced.”

“We all carry around diversity that is unrecognized on the surface,” she says. Including urchins and sea stars. Pespeni’s research on the devastating wasting disease that is causing sea stars along the Pacific Coast to turn to goo—their legs falling off before they die—strongly suggests that it’s not one culprit killing the animals. Instead, the sea stars’ entire microbiome—the assembly of bacteria and other invisible organisms that live on and in the sea star—appears to be thrown out of whack in ones that get sick, and provides protection to the ones that live. And some purple urchins, Pespeni and her student were surprised to discover, carry rare genetic variants in their DNA that are highly useful for survival in a more acidic sea. These genes can

let the next generation of urchins alter how various proteins function—like the ones they use to make their hard-but-easily-dissolved shells.

As a data-driven scientist who wants to understand the root mechanisms that allow organisms to adapt to a changing world, Pespeni is acutely aware of the risk of false comparisons and category errors—of the risk of mixing up correlation with cause. The kind of mythical origin stories that a certain science journalist finds tempting—she rejects. “Do I study marine organisms because I caught blue damselfish as a child?” she asks. “If I had gone to Berkeley instead of Stanford, I’d have studied lizards and you’d be writing about lizards,” she replies.

“You asked why I care about diversity in higher education and biodiversity,” she says. “They’re both important, but I don’t think there’s a connection.”

But then she pauses. And sits quietly in her office for a long time. It’s silent, but for the burbling of a sea star aquarium just outside the door. “I don’t know,” she says, tears coming to her eyes. “It’s tenuous.”

Then she quietly talks, almost to herself, gingerly putting words to her thoughts. “Maybe there is a core that relates to both. When you have a spectrum— a number of species or types of people—not one of those should determine the fate of all the other ones,” she says, slowly beginning to smile. “Everything benefits when there is not just one kind.” VQ

Mackenzie Kerner ’20 working with Melissa Pespeni in her lab.

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honest pursuits Nonprofit Leaders Fight the Good Fights

The conviction to do good is a hallmark shared by generations of Catamounts—from John Dewey, Class of 1879, and his lasting contributions in education and democracy, to Jody Williams ’72, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, to the myriad alumni whose first stop after graduation is Peace Corps service.

No, it’s not something in the Lake Champlain water or the mountain air. It’s a continuous thread woven into the fabric of UVM’s tapestry. Studiis et Rebus Honestis, in the words of our university seal. For studies and other honest pursuits. In this issue we catch up with a number of alumni who, in their work founding and leading nonprofit organizations, prioritize people and honest pursuits above all else.

By Kaitie Catania Illustration by Ella Whittemore Hill

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DETENTION IS THE NEW PRISON

“The whole immigration detention system is resting on the assumption that if we don’t imprison people for what can be months or years while they await their immigration cases to process through the courts, they will not show up to their court hearing.

And this is a completely false assumption.”

Christina Mansfield ’03 freedomforimmigrants.org

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If you’re a fan of Netflix’s hit show Orange Is the New Black (OITNB), you might be more familiar with Christina Mansfield’s nonprofit than you realize.

That’s because (don’t worry, you won’t find any spoilers here) it makes a brief cameo in the show’s latest and final season. In fact, as co-founder of Freedom for Immigrants, Mansfield ’03 helped OINTB’s creators develop a key plot point and setting of the show’s seventh season.

While revelations about family separations, cages, and human rights violations in immigration detention centers dominate headlines today, Mansfield has been working since 2012 to abolish the detention system, support those currently detained, and illuminate the grim truth about life in these detention centers.

“As much as possible, I try to encourage folks to not look away. Even though it’s sort of a lot to handle, that’s what’s happening in this country right now,” she says.

Detainees can find themselves in these prisons through a number of ways—ICE raids, declaring asylum at a port of entry, and inadequate identification to name a few. Once detained, they are likely to begin a chain of transfers to and from different detention centers around the country while they wait for their immigration case to be decided, all

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without access to a free phone call to alert their families or receive legal counsel.

“The whole immigration detention system is resting on the assumption that if we don’t imprison people for what can be months or years while they await their immigration cases to process through the courts, they will not show up to their court hearing. And this is a completely false assumption,” Mansfield explains.

Until now, immigration detention centers have typically flown under the radar as highly secured, publicly inaccessible facilities. But one of the most successful tactics Freedom for Immigrants has deployed to raise the visibility of the issue is negotiating and organizing tours and visitation access for concerned citizens—and OINTB writers—living near these detention facilities. To date, Freedom for Immigrants has gained the support of nearly 4,500 affiliates across twenty-three states who monitor conditions in the prisons, visit with inmates, and share Freedom for Immigrants’ toll-free hotline number to those in need.

“It’s so important for all of these affiliates to be in communication with each other. If a person you’ve been visiting for months at a particular facility gets transferred across the country—and it always happens without warning—then we can often make sure that person continues to be supported and accompaSERGIO FLORES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

nied by a different Freedom for Immigrants affiliate in another part of the country,” Mansfield says.

Though the detention facility that Mansfield helped OINTB develop is fictious, the circumstances surrounding it are not. To make a real difference and a lasting impact on this front, OINTB established the Poussey Washington Fund (named after a character) that financially supports eight advocacy groups— including Mansfield’s Freedom for Immigrants—in their efforts to tackle challenging social justice issues.

THE DOCTORS ARE IN These days, information and people move faster, farther, and more efficiently around the world than ever before. But what if we could move world-class cancer treatment with the same ease? That’s what Dr. C. Norman Coleman ’66, Hon.’15 and Lawrence Roth ’67 have teamed up to achieve through International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC).

Between the two of them, they have spent years living abroad in isolated and underserved locations.

Coleman—a renowned oncologist and radiologist whose work has taken him throughout the world— and Roth—a successful businessman who volunteered in the Peace Corps and for Catholic Relief Services after graduating from UVM—have seen what cancer looks like for patients in these remote places, where treatment centers are often too far away, nonexistent, or inadequate.

Together, they and their colleagues are building a network of the world’s best healthcare experts and remotely connecting them with doctors and practitioners in underserved regions who need assistance treating their cancer patients. Part mentorship program, part technology and medical innovation, and COURTESY OF ICEC

part professional association, ICEC seeks to spread and sustain cancer expertise around the world through person-to-person mentoring and advanced and affordable treatment equipment.

“There are a number of little groups doing this, but nobody does it anywhere near the order of magnitude that it needs to be done,” Coleman says. Having once attempted to open a cancer center himself in Kathmandu, Nepal, he understands why some NGOled clinics and initiatives fail over time to address health issues in those areas—because more often than not, the aid to those communities either leaves or depletes.

Through ICEC’s structure, “the idea is you have those with resources help those without resources, those with resources combine expertise and work together rather than across purposes, and for those who need resources, you challenge them to become good enough so they can become the expert resource in their region. It’s trying to pull people together with the right intention and doing it with an infrastructure that can actually get the job done,” Coleman explains.

Since its launch in 2014, ICEC has helped doctors abroad and in the United States. ICEC is currently collaborating with doctors and programs in South Dakota to address cancer treatment disparities and provide culturally competent care to Native Americans on reservations.

“We constantly use and talk about Mandela’s quote, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done,’” Roth says. As the less medically inclined of the two— and having sustained a friendship, built on their bond as Alpha Epsilon Pi brothers, and now a professional partnership with Coleman over the decades— Roth jokes that his role at ICEC is to “raise my hand

Friends since their days as Alpha Epsilon Pi brothers, Larry Roth ’67 and Dr. Norman Coleman ’66, Hon.’15 joined forces on building the International Cancer Expert Corps, committed to improving treatment in underserved regions. iceccancer.org

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“They had this real idea that school would change their lives.

They would do anything to get an education, but society was not set up to help poor girls.”

Pauline Dolan ’89 nurturingmindsinafrica.org

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at meetings when I no longer understand what the world-class doctors are talking about.” It’s a balancing act of skillsets that seems to be working for the UVM buddy team. “I get to be around some fairly intense and most amazing people on the planet. As long as they keep telling me where the meetings are, I’ll show up,” Roth says.

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED Pauline Dolan ’89 didn’t sleep a wink the night after she admitted the first cohort of students to her allgirls school in Tanzania, Secondary Education for Girl’s Advancement (SEGA). “I knew I was making a huge commitment to these girls saying that, for the next five years, they could get an education with us,” she says.

Having lived and worked in Tanzania for ten years prior to that sleepless night, Dolan saw how important education is to underprivileged girls there. Most Tanzanian girls from impoverished families drop out once they reach their pre-teen years “because they have no way of being in school; because they don’t have the means; because it’s such a patriarchal society; because there are so many hurdles,” she explains.

Dolan met girls who had exchanged sex for education or for places to sleep and live. She met girls who didn’t know about consent or that “they could even say ‘no’” to the rampant sexual exploitation, assault, and rape they encounter. “They had this real idea that

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school would change their lives. They would do anything to get an education, but society was not set up to help poor girls.”

Though, during those anxious opening days, Dolan actually lacked the funds or resources to keep SEGA open for a full five years, she hoped she could raise the rest of the necessary support to keep it going if only she got started. With no physical campus or schoolhouse, Dolan convinced a primary school to let her borrow a classroom until she could build out a proper campus for SEGA. In the eleven years since Dolan admitted her first cohort, SEGA’s enrollment has grown from thirty students to more than 270, 90 percent of whom receive full scholarships. The school now sits on a beautiful, sprawling campus in Morogoro, Tanzania, and boasts dormitories, solar panels, faculty housing, a poultry farm, water cisterns, and ample classrooms. In addition to educating as many deserving girls as possible, SEGA offers a scholarship program to help students continue their education upon graduation and a robust mentorship program that connects alumnae to at-risk girls in their communities.

“The whole idea of the school was to provide a safe environment; material, counseling, and emotional support; personal development; and all the skills that these girls need to survive out there in the world once they get out of school,” Dolan says. “By the time a girl leaves SEGA, she has a whole host of skills—espeSARAH BONES

cially around entrepreneurship and business development—she knows her place in the world and her rights; she knows about leadership, how to interact with others, all of those kinds of things.”

A NEW RX FOR ADDICTION “I lost my brother to prescription opioid addiction, which later developed into illicit opioid addiction.

That opioid addiction took his life in 2014,” Mara Rhodes ’01 says, matter-of-factly. She knows it’s something people can feel uncomfortable hearing.

Yet, as the founder of the Mark McManus Foundation, named after her brother, it’s something she repeats over and over again.

In the wake of her brother’s tragedy, Rhodes sought solace and understanding through advocacy groups in her Steamboat Springs, Colorado, community—a small, yet active ski town that reminds her of Burlington. What she found instead were scare tactics to “keep kids off drugs” and preconceived notions—her own included—that the only individuals at risk of opioid addiction were uneducated, unmotivated, or from broken homes or low-income families.

“I couldn’t figure out why there was this perception because that wasn’t the way I was raised and that wasn’t the background I came from,” she says.

Rhodes and her brother grew up in Massachusetts; attended private school and college; and were raised KEL ELWOOD

by two college-educated, well-respected parents who took them skiing on the weekends at their family cabin in Vermont.

One of the things she was taken aback by in her search for an advocacy group was the fact that “they weren’t talking to kids about legitimate prescription use,” she says. “We have a very active, sportsoriented community up here, and there are very high levels of opioid prescriptions in places where athletes, or anyone, gets injured.”

Seeing the threat her community faced, Rhodes got to work educating students, doctors, parents, and patients about pain management options and the relationship between addiction and behavioral and mental health disorders. It’s work that meshes naturally with her “day job” as health and wellness director at the Health Partnership Serving Northwest Colorado. “What we found was that people really grabbed on to the message that it doesn’t matter where you came from. It doesn’t matter what your background is or who your parents were. Addiction really doesn’t discriminate,” she says.

For Rhodes, sharing her family’s story is still difficult today, but knowing it may help prevent other sisters from losing their brothers is bittersweet. “It’s a terrible story and it doesn’t end well, but it can happen to anybody. And if you have some of that information, then you can make different decisions for yourself.”

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“What we found was that people really grabbed on to the message that it doesn’t matter where you came from. It doesn’t matter what your background is or who your parents were.

Addiction really doesn’t discriminate.”

Mara Rhodes ’01 yvcf.org/mcmanus

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UVM PEOPLE ALMA RIPPS ’88

by Joshua Brown Photograph by Alex Edelman ’13

NATIONAL TREASURES As Chief of Policy for the National Park Service, Alma Ripps’s work stands at a crossroad where ancient natural features, untrammeled wilderness areas, and hallowed historic grounds meet a rapidly changing American culture. What’s to be done, for instance, about drones buzzing climbers scaling Yosemite’s El Capitan or spooking herds of bighorn sheep at Zion? How about e-bikes? Electric scooters? Where are they an acceptable convenience and where are they a nuisance, potentially harming the ecosystem or visitor experience? Even vaping begs a policy.

The U.S. National Park System includes 419 different sites, more than 84 million acres, hosting approximately 331 million visitors each year. Finding balance among those places and people finds Ripps often weighing multiple perspectives and trying to find the middle way. Considering e-bikes, one of the pieces of policy on her desk at the moment, she says, “In some areas of a park it’s a very appropriate use; but in some it’s not.” Easily said, perhaps, but the road from quandary to research to draft to effective policy is a long one.

FINDING HER PATH Ripps grew up in a New York City family that did a lot of hiking and camping. “I always wanted to be a wildlife biologist,” she recalls. At UVM, she majored in environmental studies/ wildlife biology minor and, away from the books, suited up as the Kitty Catamount mascot. Summer courses in botany and a stint tracking endangered ocelots in south Texas confirmed her love of natural places—and made her rethink her plans to be a field scientist. “You can’t go to UVM and go hiking in the fall and not fall in love with Vermont. I absolutely loved my four years there. But being in Texas, tramping through the thorny brush and heat, and being bitten by everything, well, I realized: this isn’t who I am,” she recalls. “Still, I wanted to protect natural and cultural resources and developing the policies to do that seemed like a better fit for me,” she says.

Ripps has done just that for the federal government since

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1992, starting as a Presidential Management Fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She joined the National Park Service in 2000, working in the Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs. She was appointed deputy chief of staff in 2010, and policy chief in 2013. “I’m on my fifth administration in D.C. and the wonderful thing is that national parks are a nonpartisan resource,” she says. “Some of the biggest park supporters are conservative Republicans, so it doesn’t track to any one political party. People just love our national parks.”

POLITICS AND POTHOLES Of course, politics affects her job. “Every administration will have different priorities; the current one is promoting expanded access and opportunities for outdoor recreation on public lands. They’re very pro-hunting and fishing,” she says. “There are some uses that may be appropriate in wildlife refuges or natural areas, but not in our parks.” And the popularity of national parks with the public hasn’t translated into federal appropriations sufficient to maintain them. “Our roads have huge holes and we have a deferred maintenance backlog of over $11 billion,” Ripps says.

This reality affects the roughly twenty pieces of policy she has in motion at any one time— from seawall construction to protect buildings and historic sites against sea-level rise to new initiatives bringing national park rangers into inner-city schools.

President Theodore Roosevelt called the wonders within America’s national parks “the most glorious heritage a people ever received.” Protecting and extending that heritage for today’s visitors, and the generations to follow, drives Alma Ripps’s commitment to her work. “They’re our parks,” she says. “They belong to all of us.”

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life on the mississippi This summer—from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the northern border of Louisiana—UVM senior Maya Dizack paddled the Mississippi River in a one-woman kayak, a voyage that was equal parts scientific research, environmental advocacy, and daily endurance test.

Photographs by Michael McGuire ’20 Text by Thomas Weaver

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WHEN DID THE JOURNEY BEGIN? Maya Dizack and Michael McGuire take a moment to settle on an answer. Friends since eighth grade in Racine, Wisconsin, and fellow students in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, they teamed up on an ambitious Mississippi River project this summer. While Dizack paddled the river, monitoring water quality along the way, McGuire drove the land route as support and photo/video documentarian.

May 24 or May 25? Well, technically, on the 24th Dizack put her kayak in the narrow stream flowing from Lake Itasca, the mighty Mississippi’s meek origin. But her hull immediately cracked. So, a day and a drive to the boat repair shop in Bemidji later, the paddle south began, officially, on May 25.

This was adventure with a purpose, driven by concern over pervasive microplastics in the environment.

Their trip happened to coincide with publication of a study in Environmental Science and Technology indicating the average person ingests at least 50,000 particles of microplastics a year and inhales a similar quantity.

(CNN estimated that’s equivalent to eating a credit card every week.) Dizack gathered water samples along the length of the river, as both students helped spread awareness via social media and in conversations with the people they met, partnering with the 1 Mississippi river advocacy group.

Field science is seldom simple; but Hurricane Barry and epic flooding added particular challenge. Dizack recalls a day when a super-cell storm churned up fast, black clouds turning purple, lightning bolts. The nearest dry land was the exposed rise of a broken levee; on the other side, miles of submerged cornfield. On that day and others, Dizack found her way to safety thanks to the help of strangers, “river angels” in paddler parlance. Looking back on the trip, she counts those human interactions among her best memories. “Those people are…” Dizack says, and McGuire finishes the sentence, “so kind.”

Though Dizack pulled her boat from the water on July 25 at the point where the Atchafalya River branches from the Mississippi, 150 miles north of New Orleans, this summer project continues. Freezers in the Aiken Center hold many one-liter bottles of Mississippi River water to analyze for microplastics, and McGuire’s laptop holds hours and hours of video to be edited into the story of a summer of work on and for America’s iconic river.

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alumni weekend

REUNIOn 2019HOMECOMING

“Shadows falling ’cross the campus, changing seasons’ wond’rous scene, stir our thoughts of Alma Mater, and her colors Gold and Green.”

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SALLY MCCAY

ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Polly Dolan ’89 William Librera ’68 G’72 Robert Reese ’79 OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD Ariel Wengroff ’11 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Marc Compagnon ’80

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CLASS NOTES Life beyond graduation 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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Frederick Webster writes to say that he’s 98 and still running! He calls to mind his late brother Charles Webster, and friends June Hoffman Dorion ’43, Arnold Becker ’41 MD’43, and Ruth Spiwak Becker ’42. Frederick also points out that Bob Carlson and Merton Pike are, like him, members of the Vermont Agriculture Hall of Fame.

He reports that he lives on the family farm (now owned by his grandson), and that his hobbies are “recording his vicissitudes plus building Concord Stage Coach replicas.” He invites readers to visit his Webster’s Resource for Vermont Rural History in Coventry, Vermont.

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

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June Dorion writes, “It is quite an honor to be remembered by Fred Webster, an outstanding runner and athlete, while I was a student at UVM. My husband, Walter "Red" Dorion, also a runner, had great admiration and respect for the Webster brothers who could be seen doing their laps around campus. They did us proud! I am still alive and well at age 97, and live with my son, Mike, and family in Rutland. As always, I would love to hear news from any of my classmates. How about it?"

Send your news to— June Hoffman Dorion 16 Elmwood Drive, Rutland, VT 05701 junedorion@gmail.com

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

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

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Marilyn Houston would love to know, “who in our class is alive and kicking!”

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

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Nancy Parrow, daughter-in-law of Calvin W. Parrow ’49 G’54, shares that Calvin passed away June 14, 2019. She reports that he was very proud to be a UVM alumnus and had a wonderful and full life, enhanced by his time at the university. Calvin was a technical sergeant in the 8th Infantry Anti-Tank Division during WWII, landing at Utah Beach, Normandy on July 4, 1944, and spending about ten months in combat. After the war, he attended UVM on the G.I. Bill and married Rose F. Parrow.

Calvin often spoke of his time at UVM, and of his hometown of Winooski, with glowing praise and love.

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

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Bob Condon is alive and well, “reasonably hale and hardy,” and living in Bradenton, Florida. Bob and wife Marie Powers Condon ’49 owned and operated the Best Western New Englander Motor Inn in Bennington, Vermont for 18 years. Upon the sale of their Motor Inn, Marie was elected for three terms in the Vermont State House of Representa-

tives and served the last two terms as chair of the Education Committee. Bob now lives in the Westminster Pointe Pleasant retirement community in Bradenton, Florida. He loves to travel, several of his recent trips include Angkor Wat and Easter Island.

He is active with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), concentrating on peace and race relations. Bob is hosting a Great Courses program on Maya to Aztec at Westminster. Robert Perkins is “still doing OK, and looks forward to our 70th next year.”

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

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Mark Bryon celebrated the wedding of his grandson, the 60th birthday of his youngest daughter, and his 90th birthday at his daughter’s home in Bozeman, Montana. Mark’s wife, Bobbie Byron, ’52, and daughter, Nancy Bryon ’82, were present. Richard Fink shares that it has been almost 70 years since three classmates, commissioned from UVM ROTC, were killed in combat in the forgotten war, the Korean War—David Jennings, Jim Porter, and Frank Woodcock. “May we never forget their heroic actions in combat.” Jacqueline Lampert is sorry to share that her husband, Dr. S. Henry Lampert, passed away on March 28, 2019. In 2005 the Lamperts moved to Voorhees, New Jersey, to be closer to their daughter. Jacqueline writes, “If any UVM alumni live in the area, I would love to hear from them.”

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

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Robert Chaffee enjoys his new home at Wake Robin in Shelburne, Vermont, and is pleased to have an apartment across the hall from classmate Bob Woodworth.

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

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The Home Economics Class of 1954, represented by Patricia Mazuzan Diego, Nancy Spaulding Hitchcock, Ruth Pestle, and Carolyn Davis Stone, enjoyed a wonderful gathering in Montpelier—a tradition that dates to 1990. It was a joyous time to reminisce and remember their former teacher, Marion Brown Thorpe ’38, who named them We 5 when she joined them for several years before her passing. Robert Foster is still mildly active with a couple of lingering consultation cases, doing some technical writing, and traveling. He enjoys watching his grandsons make their way in life. Chuck Perkins wrote from Zimbabwe, where he and his wife of 62 years, Jann, were on a river cruise. “We have just spent four days on a safari witnessing all of the big five of the big game animals in South Africa. They are the lion, buffalo, hippopotamus, giraffe, and the elephant. We also saw many more big and exotic animals and birds. If anyone of my classmates has any thoughts of coming to Africa, I would certainly encourage them to do it. It has been a fabulous trip. We are here with our daughter, Peggy Perkins Rieley ’89 G’00, and our two granddaughters who are the perfect ages of 14 and 18 to experience this trip.”

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

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Send your news to— Jane Morrison Battles Apt. 125A, 500 East Lancaster Avenue Wayne, PA 19087 janebattles@yahoo.com Hal Lee Greenfader Apt. 1, 805 South Le Doux Road Los Angeles, CA 90035 halisco@att.net

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Audrey Rubin Stein shares that although her last significant adventure travel was in 2013 to the Kingdom of Mustang in Nepal, she continues to travel to less remote places, take photographs, screen documentary films at UCLA, and lead an active, fulfilling life. See her amazing photos at passionatetraveler.com.

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

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With sadness, the family of Beverly Jones McKinley shares news of her death on July 11, 2019, in Altus, Oklahoma. Triangle Jewish Chorale is celebrating its 25th Anniversary Gayla! Founded by Gayla Schildhaus Halbrecht in Durham, North Carolina, the concert will be November 17th at the Jewish Community Center. June Sherwin and husband Phil celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary on June 10, 2019. Arlington, Vermont is their hometown; they also spend time in Long Boat Key, Florida, during the winter. The couple is active in their church and with community events. They enjoyed a short visit to Burlington with family this summer.

Jessica Terrill is now 85 and lives at the continuing care Life Plan Community. She teaches nurses aides there once a month and is co-chair of their 7,000-book library. Jessica stays in touch with Fran Howes Paris and Jean “Nickie” Davis. She writes, “If you know me, and I should know you, please call at 215-283-7121 or mail me at 1317 Foulkeways, Gwynedd, Pennsylvania 19436.” This last one is a note from the class of 1957. We entered in 1952, and it was a 4 1/2 year program, including every summer except before the last half-year.

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

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On May 4, 2019, Helen Kurk Leddy earned a doctor of education degree from Florida Gulf Coast University, two months short of her 82nd birthday. It is the culmination of an adventure that began in 1972, took a break starting in 1979, and restarted in 2014. She shares, “What a way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of my UVM graduation.” Jean Linderman celebrated her 60th anniversary with husband Dave.

They are blessed with four children, six grandchildren, and good health. After 32 years in Laguna Niguel, California, Cynthia Weitz has moved to Rancho Mission Viejo. She shares, “Still throwing away papers and unpacking boxes. The hardest thing I've ever done.”

Send your news to— Henry Shaw, Jr. 112 Pebble Creek Rd, Columbia, SC 29223 hshaw@sc.rr.com

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Grant Corson is working on his fourth book—an illustrated children's book, Colin and the Mermaid.

Grant and his wife Mutsumi, spent lots of time on their boat, Festivus, this past summer. Richard McLenithan retired as a lawyer but still works as a Channel Partner for USource Energy HQ in Hampton, New Hampshire.

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

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Stephen Birnbaum lives in North Carolina and loves it. His wife finally got him to agree to think about mov-

ing—the winter there was a blizzard every Tuesday. He enjoys his new home in Waxhaw and “hopes this finds all of my classmates in the best of health.” Diane (Danny) Thornton moved to Naples, Florida last year and is loving it. She enjoys sport fishing with her son, golfs as much as she can, and likes having three college-aged grandchildren. Diane spends her northern time with her daughter in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She writes, “Life is good.” Sandy Hutton Bulger enjoys retired life in Bel Air, Maryland. She spends time with her two children, eight grandchildren, three ‘greats,’ and of course, her dogs. Her husband, John Bulger ’60, passed away in February 2018. Fran Grossman shares that “life is good here on the beach in North Carolina.” Fran’s busy with community activities—quilting for LINUS, weekly knitting events in her home, and serving on her Home Owners Association board. Her oldest grandson will be married next year. Fran writes, “If any of you get into this area, let me know. Where has the time gone?” Ruth Clifford Engs has a three-volume reference work that came out this summer aimed at college and public libraries, Health and Medicine through History: From Ancient Practices to 21st Century Innovations. Ruth is the editor and penned one book in volume two concerning health and medicine in the twentieth century and beyond. Writing books keeps her busy. Ruth and Jeff are based in Bloomington, Indiana, but spend four winter months in Pensacola, Florida, and part of the summer in Door County, Wisconsin. Jim Rogers was a marshal at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June. He writes, “It was a great experience and the second time around as I was also a marshal at the 2010 Open.” Jim and his wife, Connie Anderson Rogers ’63, visited “God’s Country” (Vermont) in July.

He shares, “We missed getting together with our classmate Sally Nadon Pedley, who died unexpectedly in March. Sally and her husband, Jay Pedley, were the movers and shakers behind the creation of the new River Park in their hometown of Northfield, Vermont. The park replaces 13 historic homes destroyed by Hurricane Irene in 2011, with a wonderful community asset and flood control.”

Myrl Jaquith reports from the Florida Panhandle that recovery operations continue from Hurricane Michael.“ It’s a slow business, and the reluctance of Congress doesn’t help. Tons of debris has been removed, some remains. Many businesses are open, and some are in makeshift or temporary quarters. The Gulf of Mexico is heating up rapidly, and there might be a price for that. Hope and pray we don’t get another Cat 5 hurricane this year (or ever).” Joe Buley sends a big thank you to the UVM digital technology that allowed he and Geri to watch both granddaughters graduate from UVM, from 3,000 miles away, in real-time. They watched in comfort as both graduations took place, without the hassle of weather, parking, and the impossibility of attending both graduations simultaneously. Olivia Buley ’19 graduated from the Grossman School of Business, and Annik Buley ’19 graduated from the Honors College of Nursing and Health Science, the sixth and seventh UVM graduates from the immediate Buley family. Their FA L L 2 0 1 9 |

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| CLASS NOTES parents own Screaming Ridge Farm in Montpelier, Vermont, an organic farm that supports Joe's Organic Soups. UVM Dining is a major customer.

(Editor’s Note: Praise to Thai Chicken Curry Thursdays at Waterman.) After 50 years, John Simonds returned in August to Lake Caspian in Greensboro, Vermont for a little vacation and some sunfish sailing. John writes, “The idea that I need a vacation is a joke, since I retired in 2008 and never looked back.” John is leading a memoir writing group at his church this fall. He finds a high level of interest among senior citizens to write their memoir, and hopes to facilitate a constructive outlet for this.

John was published in Classic Chicago Magazine in June with a modest offering titled “Sounds of San Miguel.” Jean Cutler Salo Fraser’s husband, Howard “Jack” Fraser ’60, died on April 22nd at the age of 81. She shares, “He fondly remembered his classmates at UVM and his 50th Reunion that we both attended. He met up with some good friends from his fraternity, Phi Delt.” Roger Zimmerman led a hike in Glacier National Park in July, his tenth year guiding. His sled dog Trond is now old, 14.5, and both Trond and Roger retired from skijoring several years ago. Roger plans to lead a backcountry ski trip to Yellowstone in February 2020, his 30th year. Roger and his wife, Lynne, are active with various environmental organizations and other political activities. He sends his best to classmates and UVM. Bob Murphy with his wife, Lynda, met up with his senior-year roommate John Chiu ’60 G’61 MD’64 and wife, Karin, in Manchester for lunch recently. It was the first time in 58 years that Bob and John had met, and the reunion was a happy one. Both look a bit older, but they had no difficulty recognizing each other.

Bob shared, “It was most enjoyable sharing memories of life on South Willard Street so long ago.”

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

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Bill (William) Likosky and Marilyn Likosky ’66 reside in California.

Bill was honored by a lectureship in stroke care at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

Marilyn published a book on the poet Theocritus.

The topic is the commonality of love over time.

Jules Older has created two new mini-movies that may be of interest: “How to Find a Good Man” and “Innsbruck in Winter.” Take a look on YouTube.

Michael A. Cosgrove ’62 G’66 shares that the contacts he made and the education he received at UVM set him up for three careers spanning 45 years without ever having to look for a job. The first 15 years were spent in sonar signal processing until the work became too classified. This segued into seven years designing computer systems and camera interfaces for high precision optical applications. And finally, 23 years designing visible, infrared, and hyperspectral digital cameras for the navy, special-ops, and space applications. He writes, “Jesus Christ changed my life in 1974 and started me on a fourth career studying and teaching the Bible in my local church, which ordained

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me as their teaching pastor six years ago. The best ideas in my technical careers came during a morning shower after praying about my work. And the best successes were the results of thousands of engineers each responsible for a different critical component. My best advice to budding engineers is to learn as much as you can about what you are doing—you never know what you will be asked to do five years from now, and to make your boss look good. Thank you UVM, for the excellent start you provided.”

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

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Send your news to— Toni Citarella Mullins 27 Lighthouse Point Road, Highlands, NJ 07732 tonicmullins@verizon.net

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Ronald Bishop created a new line of jewelry that is like no other. He shares, “when people see it for the first time the comment is wow. Since the jewelry is three dimensional, you have to see it to get the full effect.” Contact Ron if you are interested in partnering with him to market his unique jewelry.

Doug Barrett and Sally had an exciting spring watching their grandson, Drew Simeon ’19, #32 and a captain, play lacrosse at UVM. They traveled to four games and back for Senior Day in April.

Vermont had a great season, with a tough loss to UMBC, 14-13, in the America East Championship game. Doug and Sally were back at UVM to attend Drew’s graduation in May. Drew’s sister, Katie Simeon ’20, is a senior in the School of Nursing.

Doug writes, “Exciting to be back to UVM six times this year...busy life with our eleven grandchildren.

Hope to see you at our 55th Reunion in October.”

Send your news to— Susan Barber 1 Oak Hill Road, P.O. Box 63 Harvard, MA 01451 suebarbersue@gmail.com

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As a celebration of 49 years of living in Israel, Aryeh Ben-Yehudah (Larry Chelder) and wife Sheila went on safari in South Africa and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, their fourth continent in the last three years. They still teach high school and enjoy a new group of students from the states each semester. They are frequently in touch with Marty Wolf and wife Arlene, and Joel Bessoff and wife Marion. Aryeh writes, “Would like to hear from other UVM grads.

Our house is always open.” Albert Pristaw is a retired optometrist, having practiced for 49 years.

He enjoys being in touch with his grandchildren, Charles and Oscar Pristaw of New York City, and Finley and Wheeler Sweatt of Framingham, Massachusetts. Albie regards his years at UVM as the foundation of his family’s quality of life.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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In June 2019, John Beck and wife Sharon Peloquin Beck ’67 traveled from Williamsburg, Virginia, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the National Senior Games. John competed in Pickleball and won award ribbons in the 75-79 age group for fourth place in men’s doubles and seventh place in mixed doubles. While there, they visited their daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren in Los Alamos.

This fall they will spend 33 nights on the Queen Victoria cruising in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Margery Wolff Carty is a “snowbird.”

She spends winters in Boca Raton, Florida, and summers in Pleasantville, New York. Please contact her about any Florida reunions. John Rie was an invited panelist on The Whole Truth, David Eisenhower's show on Public Television. The subject was “Confronting Climate Change; What's Needed, What's Feasible, What's Achievable.” The show should air in early 2020. John has joined an interdisciplinary group of scientists working on climate change, see www.stableclimate.org. After graduating, Max Alin (formerly Warren Sklar) did a three-year tour of duty in the U.S. Army then he attended the University of Washington and earned a degree in drama. For the next ten years, he acted and worked in Seattle’s nascent professional theater scene, most of the time at A Contemporary Theater (ACT) founded by former UVM faculty member Greg Falls. In 1980, he began a 30-year run as an employee of the City of Seattle, retiring as a power marketer. Since then he has been involved with tai chi and occasionally leads classes. Max shares, “It’s been a good life (with the occasional bump), and I look forward to teaching more.” After 49 years practicing optometry, Rob Resnick is almost retired. He and his wife, Iris, live in Chesapeake, Virginia. Tom Donohue and his wife, Adrienne, visited on their way to Florida, and Jeff Hider and his wife, Barb Montgomery Hider ’68, hosted them in Maryland. Rob, Tom, and Jeff are all members of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

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

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Bill (William) Butterfield is part of a small research company called Creative Technology, LLC. He serves as CIO for the product Write Once Read Forever (WORF). His company is under contract with NASA, who flew their Data Preservation device (which NASA renamed Helios) to the International Space Station on May 6, 2019, for testing. The predicted lifetime for the device is more than 2,000 years. Creative Technology made a presentation to the National Archives Conference last May in Lisbon, Portugal.

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

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Curt Tobey joined the board of the Goddard House in Brookline, Massachusetts, the third oldest assisted living facility in the country. He helps with their substantial investments and is learning a tremendous amount about senior medical and aging issues like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Goddard House works closely with the city of Boston to initiate programs in music and the arts for isolated seniors in underserved areas like Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Jack Rosenberg was one of 60 artists selected from 335 entries to the Maryland Federation of Art Spring Member Show at The Circle Gallery in Annapolis. Juror, Megan Rook-Koepsel, is Gallery Director of Julio Fine Arts Gallery at Loyola University. Additionally, Jack’s picture Artichoke 3 received The Celebrity Award for Special Recognition; his photo having received the highest level of appreciation for being unique and creative. Correction from a summer issue note about Herman Hoops: The film The Salad Days: The Illustrious River Career of Herman Hoops was directed

by Cody Perry.

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

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Jeff Hass owns Bridge Lane Wine and Lieb Cellars, a small farm-winery on the North Fork of Long Island.

Wine & Spirits chose Bridge Lane’s North Fork Cab-

ernet Franc Rosé as one of the top ten best-canned wines of the year. Vinepair listed Bridge Lane’s Chardonnay as #2 on the top ten Best Canned Wines for summer. Their Sauvignon Blanc made SevenFiftyDaily’s list of Ten Canned Wines to Stock for Summer 2019. Bridge Lane produces five wines available in four formats—bottled, boxed, kegged and canned. These “craft wines” are unique, high-quality, and made from sustainably farmed grapes. Bridge Lane was mention in a recent New York Times article, “For Connoisseurs and Joe Sixpack, Canned Wines Beckon.” Robert Moeller had “lots of good reasons” to move from Stowe, Vermont, to Conway, New Hampshire.

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

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Bryant Dorsch is busy teaching English and helping his wife, Diana, write a novel. He shares, “Wish I could visit my classmates, but unfortunately, I cannot.” Ray Kirk ’70 G’76 and Peggy Gilbert Kirk ’72 split time between North Carolina (winters) and Vermont (summers). Ray shares, “For me, it’s all about Vermont: fishing, hunting, growing grapes and making wine at our farmstead in South Hero. Winters in North Carolina provide respite from the cold and proximity to children and grandchildren, and of course, golf during the off season.” Ray retired in 2005 from UNC-Chapel Hill after a 30-year

academic career focused on policy and practice research in child protection and child welfare, and spent the next decade consulting on those issues in the United States and abroad. Retirement didn’t take, and in 2015 he worked with colleagues in the US and Australia to create the Beyond the Orphanage Foundation (BTOF). Ray directs the foundation in the US which supports programs in Nepal and Kenya, rescuing and providing in-country care of children abandoned, orphaned by HIV/AIDS and other diseases, or trafficked into child prostitution or slavery. BTOF’s moniker is linked to a philosophy of creating kinship or fictive kin family placements for the children, rather than relying on institutional care. Learn more: beyondtheorphanage.org. Ray writes, “Our life in Vermont is enriched by friendships of many circa 1970 classmates who, like us, failed to leave after graduation. Looking forward to the big reunion!” Liz Murray ’72, Vicki Eaton, Paulette Frisbie ’71 and Kathy Mackey, along with their Delta Psi husbands Jim (James M. Murray), Clark Eaton, Bart Frisbie and Neil Mackey enjoyed each other’s company at Neshobe Golf Course in Brandon, Vermont. Neil shares, “The real fun was reminiscing while sipping a few cocktails at the Mackey’s home on Lake Dunmore.” After 35 years, Ted Riehle still enjoys being a financial advisor and partner at Silverlake Wealth Management. He shares, “My wife, Helen Riehle ’72, does force me to take more vacations.” Bob Filsinger and his wife are in southwest Florida in March every winter. Bob is very active cycling, kayaking,

Active Community

Wake Robin residents are engaged every day, practicing yoga, swimming, and keeping their bodies and minds well nourished. With over 40 resident driven activities, you’re bound to exercise your passions, discover new ones, and make great friends.

We would love to share with you all the exciting changes that are happening here at Wake Robin!

To learn more about our vibrant lifeplan community and its benefits for you and your family, please call to schedule a tour or visit us at wakerobin.com.

802.264.5100 / wakerobin.com

2 0 0 WA K E R O B I N D R I V E , S H E L B U R N E , V E R M O N T

| CLASS NOTES golfing, and beaching there. Tom Macksey retired from his dental practice in Bennington, Vermont, but continues to live in Shaftsbury and spend time in Sanibel Island, Florida, during the winter. Tom is married to Coleen Bushee Macksey ’71. They spend summer weekends on Lake Rescue in Ludlow, Vermont, and tending to their rental properties. Finally, your class secretary Doug heard from his dear friend and former roommate Walt Kelly of Denver, Colorado. Walt, George Kreiner, Jack Semler ’68 and Peter Pitman met at the prestigious Hobey Baker Awards ceremony in May in Minneapolis. There, UVM hockey coach Jim Cross was honored with the Legend of College Hockey award, the highest single honor a college hockey coach can receive. UVM Athletic Director Jeff Schulman ’89 G’03 accepted the award for Coach Cross, who was unable to attend for health reasons. There was a compelling video presentation of Coach Cross’ coaching career, which was both moving and exciting.

Send your news to— Douglas Arnold 11608 Quail Village Way, Naples, FL 34119 darnold@arnold-co.com

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Harvey Bogin is in his 44th year practicing dentistry in Winfield, Illinois. He and his wife, Pamela, celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary in August, and their twin daughters, Sarah and Melissa, are now 27. Melissa is an internal medicine resident physician at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and Sarah is entering her fourth year of dental school at the University of Illinois. After graduation next spring, she plans to practice with her father (so he can retire!). Nancy Powlison lost her husband of 42 years to pancreatic cancer in June.

She’s finding hope, help, and comfort in the village that is her family, her faith community, and “in the Swallowtail butterflies that God regularly sends my way!” Nancy returned to France last summer and visited her pastor from the “lovely little church” she attended in Nice when she studied with the VOSP program in 1969-70. Lon and Janey Williams Sherman married in 1974 and live in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Not ready to retire, Lon works part-time as a cardiologist in Bermuda where “they practice medicine the way we remembered it.” Since leaving audiology years ago, Janey is the backbone of keeping their lives fulfilled. They have two children and “finally” their first grandchild on its way! They spend summers on their sailboat moored in Penobscot Bay, Maine, and winters figuring out ways to escape the cold.

They write, “Our memories of UVM remain special.

We often reflect happily on those we knew during those precious years.”

Send your news to— Sarah Wilbur Sprayregen 145 Cliff Street, Burlington, VT 05401 sarah.sprayregen@uvm.edu

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After 44 years as a consulting mechanical engineer in Burlington, Vermont, Oscar Blatchly enjoys

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retirement and his grandchildren. His career included three years working at UVM after his first retirement in 2013. After 21 years, Arnold Fertig retired from his part-time pulpit in Melrose, Massachusetts in May. The celebration was grand!

Present for the congregational ceremony was congresswoman Katherine Clark (US-MA 5), the state senator, representative, and the mayor. All presented citations of appreciation and the key to the city. More than 60 Temple families created a magnificent Tree of Life mosaic which hangs over the fireplace. Arnold is off for several planned vacations to Hawaii, the Bahamas, and Europe. Philip Lahar spends lots of time in Eastport Annapolis, Maryland with family and highly recommends it to classmates. He writes, “Sailing, boating, fishing, lots of great eating, near the Naval Academy, plus a relaxing atmosphere.” Jeffrey Lewis would like to connect with a dormmate and friend, from Buckham Hall: Robert Nickelsberg. He writes, “Bob, if you get this message, please get in touch.”

Michele Cohen has joined the Board of Trustees of RiverSpring Health, a non-profit healthcare organization that offers managed long-term care, assisted living, rehabilitation, and skilled nursing in Riverdale, New York. Michele writes, “With a global aging population on the rise, RiverSpring Health is the organization to watch as it finds innovative solutions to caring for older adults that embody respect, safety, and imagination. I am excited to be part of this organization at such a consequential time for older adults.”

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

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Allison Milne has owned Mendham Animal Hospital in New Jersey for 23 years and is still in small animal practice after 40 years. Her son, Kristofer Smith, is in his third year at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, where Allison received her degree in 1979. Andrew Miller is a member of the Admissions Committee at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. He enjoys interviewing potential candidates to fill their classes. Ellen Sabo Morris retired from her job in Continuing and Distance Education at UVM. This year she will attend her 50th high school reunion in Connecticut—can it be that long already? Ellen and her husband, Barclay, look forward to celebrating their 40th anniversary in August. Ellen is busy with her “to do” list of projects, and weekend skydiving during the summer. She’s involved with her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, and works with other alums planning an extensive remodel of the house’s kitchen. They hope to have it ready for the sorority’s 100th-year celebration in two years. The fundraising begins soon, and contributions are welcome at any time. Contact Ellen at ellen.morris@ uvm.edu. Nancy Murphy ’74 shares that after a life well-lived, her brother Kenneth M. Murphy passed away on June 29, 2019. Judy Peterson lives in Colchester, Vermont and continues to work as president and COO of the UVM Health Network Home

Health and Hospice. She is happy to have been recently appointed as chair of the OneCare Vermont Population Health Committee. After 20 years of service in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Albert (Bert) Thayer retired at the end of August.

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

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Karlis Daukss is a principal engineer at Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.

After 40 years of service to the Department of Neurology at UNC Chapel Hill as chief of the neuromuscular section, James Howard ’70 MD’74 has transitioned to partial retirement. He will focus his efforts on therapeutic trials and translational research in myasthenia gravis. Frank Luisi feels fortunate to work with the NCAA Eligibility Center and their national program to help bring knowledge and information to coaches, counselors, and administrators. He helps student-athletes participate at Division I and II schools, including UVM's programs.

He sends thanks and gratitude to his former football coach and UVM Athletic Director Rick Farnham ’69, and retired UVM Athletic Director, Denis Lambert ’54, for the mentoring and guidance they provide to him as a UVM student-athlete, a teacher and coach in 1974, and over the years. Adrienne Leinwand Maslin retired in July after a 45-year career in higher education, most recently as the chief student affairs officer at Middlesex Community College in Connecticut. She plans to spend time on writing projects and volunteering at a local animal shelter. Currently, she divides her time between West Hartford, Connecticut, and Martha’s Vineyard. All is well in Bennington, Vermont with Robin Outwater. Married for 38 years, he has two daughters and one granddaughter. Robin retired at age 62 after 27 years in the aviation industry and eight years in the construction business. He keeps in touch with several Delta Psi brothers and would love to hear from others. He’s “proud of the new Alumni House.” Steven Rice started a travel and cruise business as an independent affiliate with Cruise Brothers, Inc. He shares, “I am not ready for the rocking chair; I prefer cruising.” Steve encourages fellow UVMers to drop him a line at swinner123@aol.com to learn more.

He and Anna are enjoying their retirement in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, where they can walk on the beach in less than five minutes. They have five grandchildren, with the youngest, Dylan Rice, born last August to their son and daughter-in-law, Dustin and Jeanine Rice.

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

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After 41 years at the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, New Hampshire, Pamela Bielunis has retired. This summer she will complete visiting all the lower 48 states on a motorcycle trip with her husband of 40

C ATAMOUNT NATION Tim Hayes ’67 NOW: When Tim Hayes climbed on a horse for the first time, at age forty-eight, his life pivoted. The lifelong New Yorker with a long, successful career in TV commercial production was already at a turning point when, on the heels of a divorce, he traveled out west. He saddled up and everything changed.

“Something happened,” Hayes says. “I thought, ‘I want this, I need to have this in my life.’” Today, Hayes is one of the country’s top teachers of natural horsemanship, an advocate of equine therapy, and author of Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal (St. Martin’s Press).

UVM: Hayes studied psychology and played basketball for the Catamounts. He’s grateful (and a little incredulous) that his path has circled back north. He and his wife, Stephanie Lockhart, married a year ago and run The Center for America’s First Horse, a teaching farm Lockhart founded to help preserve Spanish mustangs, in Johnson, Vermont. Hayes has also returned to his alma mater, where he teaches clinics on equine therapy and natural horsemanship in the Department of Animal Sciences.

IN HIS WORDS: “Horses have no ego. I never met a horse who thought, ‘I wonder if I’m a good enough horse.’”

Read more: go.uvm.edu/hayes

JOSHUA BROWN

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| CLASS NOTES years. Their plan is a cruise to Alaska, number 49, next summer. Pamela writes, “We are blessed with three children and two grandchildren. Life is good.”

After three wonderful years in New York City, Debbie Sample Kim is out west again, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory. John Mahoney is trying to figure out retirement—he enjoys reading, writing, and exercise, and has gotten into masters swimming. His wife, Wendy Davis, still works full time in pediatric research and advocacy at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine. Both of their sibling English Setters are certified therapy dogs and make appearances at university events. Winters are dedicated to cheering for the hockey Cats. Gina Rayfield, Kathy Bowers ’75 MD’87, Carol Wolk Herbert, and Birdie (Roberta) Flynn are off to their annual college roommate reunion in October, this time in Saratoga Springs.

Last year they spent a long weekend in Northampton, Massachusetts. They hope to be back in Burlington for their next reunion in 2020. Michael Lamere recently bought a house in Alpine, Wyoming, where he keeps bees and work for Teton County. Michael writes, “All are welcome anytime to visit and go fishing!” Fred Chico Lager retired from the Flynn Center for Performing Arts Board after fifteen years and is now emeritus. He was chair for three years, and co-chaired three capital campaigns with Joan Sylvester. See a photo of the Men of Chikago on their annual trip to New Hampshire in the online Class Notes. They are planning their seventh European trip to Normandy for the fall of 2020, the 45th anniversary of their original post-graduation tour of the continent. Mike Cronin ’74 just pledged, and they gave him a bell. Pauline Liese of Morrisville, Vermont, retired in February after working for the State of Vermont as the sole Lemon Law Administrator for 30 years. She shares, “It was rewarding to neutrally assist hundreds of consumers and manufacturers through the evidentiary requirements to case resolution and resolve many conflicts and challenges from parties.” Pauline is a past two-term President of IALLA, International Association of Lemon Law Administrators, and held a variety of leadership positions with the non-profit organization, see ialla.net. After experiencing an out-of-the-blue double stroke in June 2018, Pauline recovered in New Hampshire, close to family. She hopes to return to Vermont and get back to biking the town’s rail trail with the assistance of Vermont Adaptive. Her email is padele15@gmail.com. She sends her best to all.

Send your news to– Dina Dwyer Child Unit 102, 26261 Devonshire Court Bonita Springs, Fl 34134 dinachild@aol.com

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Andrea Casey lives in Bend, Oregon, and enjoys the Pacific Northwest and all it has to offer. She writes, “The area abounds with outdoor adventures and the scenery is breathtaking.” Her son continues to work in the microbial oceanography field, and her daughter is an event planner in Mammoth Lakes. Andrea is “so excited because she will be getting married next year.” Greetings from Lake Bomoseen! Ken Koenig,

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Karen Laibach Koenig, Kareen Dow Wortman, and Keith Wortman ’77 had a weekend reunion after 43 years. The group had a great time catching up and spending time together. Karen Koenig had another weekend reunion at the lake with Gail Robinson, Beth Calkins Gillooly, and Kim Royar Blodgett. She writes, “It’s always great to reconnect with UVM friends!” Andrea MastrocinqueMartone and a group of UVM female grads and former college roommates gather at Stowe Mountain Lodge each year for a mini-reunion. They share life stories, reminisce about college days, and accept growing old together. They’ve gathered every year since graduating from UVM in 1976. See her photo at go.uvm.edu/alumpics.

The group looks forward to seeing other classmates at the 45th UVM reunion in October 2021.

Donald Nelinson is “beyond thrilled” to report that they have established the Sarah and Brenna Nelinson Defining Excellence Endowment at UVM. The fund provides financial awards to students involved with Student Support Services at the university. Don writes, “These remarkable individuals prove that disability is not a dissuasion to leading in efforts to enhance and strengthen communities.

I urge my classmates to contribute to this fund in any amount. Send to the UVM Foundation for the ‘Defining Excellence Endowment.’ It's tax deductible!” Mark Soufleris celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife, Mary, their three children, and seven grandchildren, in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in July. He writes, “We had an incredible time in the Rockies, and I can’t wait to see all of my crew at our 45th reunion!”

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

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Jay Bigman continues to work as a financial advisor in South Windsor, Connecticut. In his downtime, he enjoys his beach house in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. Jay invites classmates to get in touch and visit when he is in New Hampshire. Wendy Nelson is finally downsizing a bit in business and private life, but is still in the game and doing photography part-time. She also helps with sales, administration, and photography for a local lifestyle publication. Wendy writes, “I’m learning how to live a simpler life, enjoy the little pleasures that come with more free time, and count my blessings!” Rob Waxman retired from the FairfieldSuisun Adult School in June 2016. In January 2017 he started teaching part-time at Regional Education Center (Vallejo Adult School). His daughter is a second-semester junior studying nursing at the University of San Francisco, and his wife is a letter carrier. Rob stopped playing tennis due to a sarcoma in his leg that required surgery and radiation. He plays bass in his Allman Brothers tribute band, Idlewild West, see idlewildwest.band.

He also teaches guitar at two senior centers and plays guitar in a ukulele sing-along group with 30 ukulele players. He recently visited the Kona coast of Hawaii. Rob would love to hear from his

old Buckham buds. You can emil him at rapidfirerob4@gmail.com. Judy and Bob ’76 Wilkenfeld are retired and traveling! They look forward to seeing their granddaughter in Pennsylvania and then traveling to Japan in October. They write, “Please come visit if you are in Northern California.”

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

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Tom Brassard’s Paw Print & Mail was Voted Best Commercial Printer in Vermont Business Magazine’s 2019 Best of Business Awards. Paw Prints takes a community-based approach toward meeting client needs, providing reliable printing and direct mail fulfillment while working closely with clients to build trusting, valued partnerships. Pam Dahlkamp hosted Buckham Hall alumni in Brewster, Massachusetts, in early June. Friends included Marianne Smith, David Parker, Peter Kelley, John Border ’77, Bill Speers, Forrest Sanborn ’77 G’79, Mary Pat Crowley Hank ’77, Bill Rowland ’77, Ellen Koenig ’77, John O’Neil, Gail Pomainville Speers, and Nancy Sackett Ralph ’80. All had a grand time! Geoff M. Greig writes, “It appears that athletes enjoy getting in the Zone more often, and audiences enjoy my speaking appearances designed to engage, educate, and entertain them about all the possibilities of adding more Zone to their lives.” For more information, visit ggzap.com.

Stan Przybylinski had a nice dinner with Chris Angell ’79, his wife, and daughter in Brookline, Massachusetts, last week. William John Spina lives off the grid in the Kingdom. Eric Thum and Doug Merriman completed a successful 470-mile canoe expedition in northern Ontario. They started on the remote upper reaches of the Pipestone River, paddled to Wunnummin Lake, then followed the Winisk River to Hudson Bay. They visited four First Nation villages, only accessible by boat, plane, or winter roads and donated their canoe to a local youth group organized to teach children traditional activities. They saw bald eagles, beavers, otter, terns, caribou, wolverine, and a polar bear along the mudflats of Hudson Bay. Eric continues to volunteer with a local land trust, Bow Open Spaces, and the Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

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

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Dr. Kathy Leonard and her husband, Dr. Robert Leonard, received the University of New England’s Pioneer Award. The Pioneer of Osteopathic Medicine Medal is presented to individuals who boldly pioneer the field of osteopathic medicine and address the needs and concerns of future graduates by taking a leadership role. Robert was honored because he is a champion of osteopathic medicine and a true entrepreneur; supporting medical students at the UNE through a scholarship fund, mentoring

future DO’s, and serving as a longtime trustee of the university. Kathy received the award because of her compassion for helping those in medical need. She has traveled to a rural township in South Africa to examine patients young and old and offer them much-needed medical care, as well as testing patients for HIV, a leading killer of young people in the country. See their photo on go.uvm. edu/alumpics. Peter Dunn’s daughter Elizabeth Dunn ’18 graduated from the Grossman School of Business, spent the summer on Nantucket running a store, and landed on Wall Street as a digital analyst at FUNDERA, a young financial start-up in the small business lending industry. Peter writes, “Watch that Catamount go!” Suzanne Fageol enjoys the summer on her beautiful island in the Pacific Northwest. She prepared an advanced class on trauma training for professionals and teaches online. Suzanne writes, “Enjoying my garden when not prepping classes. All good on the western frontier!” Nancy Knox lives in Burlington and hopes to see classmates at the 40th Reunion, “especially those who haven’t been here in a long time! Cheryl Park even said she’d come, all the way from Hinesburg!” Lori Jean Brandon Rennels “can’t believe that it’s been 40 years since we graduated from UVM!” She works part-time for a chiropractor in Medina, Ohio. Her children are all grownups now and out on their own. Lori shares that she and Kelly are “having fun doing some

traveling.” After almost 30 years of service, Lesley Wassmuth retired from Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Massachusetts. Over 4th of July week, she met up with Molly McRoberts ’80 in New York City, post-Molly’s three-month tour of Europe.

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

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Judy Tomasik Cram lived and worked in Casablanca, Morocco from 2016-2018 where she taught at George Washington Academy, an America school comprised primarily of Moroccans, with a small percentage of expats from various countries including the United States. Judy was a lower school learning resource teacher, special education department chair, and math specialist. She has since retired from teaching and lives in both Greensboro, North Carolina, and Sarasota, Florida. Kristin Foster’s youngest child of three is in UVM’s Class of 2023. Kristin writes, “This means lots of trips to our favorite Queen City and chances to connect with our UVM friends who are lucky to be local like Doug Fletcher ’79, Laurie Caswell Burke ’78, and Holly Fletcher Pasackow ’78, among others!” Robert MacGregor left the United States Forest Service after 15 years to accept a new position as Director of Forest Properties at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York. He writes,

“After working my way across the country with USFS, the last five years spent in Washington state, I’m looking forward to being back on the eastern side of the country.” Kim Watts Nicksa shares that 39 years after graduating from UVM, her dearest friends are still her AXO “seeesters,”—Allison Fraser, Jan Waterman Cohen, Mary Jarrett, Nancy Lee Monroe, Pam Rogal Zlota ’81, Bonnie Caldwell ’81, and Betsy Faunce Andrews ’81.

They all live in New England, and gather numerous times throughout the year to celebrate holidays, birthdays (60th - yikes), and other life events.

Kim writes, “It’s so special to have maintained these cherished friendships! We all love the Green Mountain state and head north often.”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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David Oliver-Smith continues to get together several times a year with UVM friends, Adam Haut, Dan Richman, and Jorma Kaukonen.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Jamie Fagan and his wife, Katie, are now grandparents of a lovely girl who lives in Jackson Hole. They see

The gift of an adventure.

South Africa | New Zealand | Poland | Iceland | Oberammergau | Great Lakes

For more information visit: alumni.uvm.edu/travel FA L L 2 0 1 9 |

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| CLASS NOTES Kat Bliss ’81 and Bill Bliss ’83, as well as John Carter ’81 and Annie Carter ’81. Jamie writes, “We saw the Carters in Tanzania as John was about to get carried up Kilimanjaro with his entourage of Sherpas!” In February 2019, several UVM alums rented a condo at Killington for a weekend skiing reunion of sorts. Martin Glenday, Tim Koehler ’83, Laura Cassidy Koehler ’83, Brian Ward ’80, and Chuck Rothston ’80 all enjoyed the time together despite the below zero outside temperatures. Martin shares, “The cold skiing gave us a greater reason to spend more time together visiting inside.” John Humphrey loves life as a professor of geology at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He recently spent a holiday in Vietnam with daughter Rebeca Humphrey ’17 and son Jack. Rich Lee’s youngest daughter was bat mitzvahed in late 2018. His best friends from UVM attended including David Picher, Bruce Katz ’81, Steve Rudolph ’81, and Bob Starensier ’81. Rich writes, “We have been getting together at least twice a year for the last 37 years.”

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

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Steven Manchel has published his first book. I Hereby Resign: How Individuals Properly Prepare, Resign and Move to the Competition, and How Companies Best Manage That Process (New Academia Publishers) is informed by Steve’s thirty years of law practice and fifteen years of teaching the case study around which the book is written at the Harvard Business School. Elise Brown joined Pavone Marketing Group as senior public relations strategist in its Philadelphia office. In her new position, she supports the CPG portfolio of PMG’s Quench agency, whose accounts include StarKist, SunMaid, Del Monte, Turkey Hill, Herr’s Snack Foods, in addition to clients of PMG’s Pavone agency. Fr. Lance Harlow has been back in Burlington since 2015 as Rector of St. Joseph Cathedral downtown.

In 2017, he won the Charles Albert Dickinson Award from the Kurn Hattin Homes for Children for outstanding contributions to the field of child welfare. He looks forward to hearing from his radiography classmates and other alum who worked at MCHV in the early 80s. Jack Raslowsk is in his 11th year as president of Xavier High School in New York City. He was excited to welcome Mike Lewis ’83 and Arna DiMambro Lewis ’82 to New York in July and hopes they will be in the city for years to come. Scott Silver is developing a 142room boutique hotel in downtown Burlington at 266 College Street, the site of the current YMCA. The hotel is planned to open in 2021 and will feature Burlington’s only rooftop bar and restaurant.

Yves Bradley ’85 was the broker for the transaction. Your class secretary Liza Crozier passed her Pilates Method Alliance exam and is a Certified Pilates Teacher, and a Polestar Pilates Studio Practitioner. She loves teaching Pilates and bringing the mind-body connection to her clients. Her husband, Jim, retired from medical practice after

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CLASS NOTES ONLINE

alumni.uvm.edu/notes

serving our country, and the states of Tennessee and North Carolina for 38 years. “It is nice to have him home, relaxing (well-deserved), and playing golf to his heart’s content!” Their oldest, Caryn Alexis, was engaged to Mitch Greco in December, and they look forward to celebrating their wedding in May 2020. Their youngest, Colleen Nicole, continues to practice at a small animal veterinary practice in an adjacent town. Lisa also shares that Florri Ladov is trying to find Suzy Thamas (Thomas)—“Suzy, I have Florri’s information if you would like to contact me.”

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

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Mary Susan Howlett completed a PhD in nursing with a focus on health policy. Her research looked at the racial and ethnic homogeneity of newly licensed nurses and at the workplace experience of nurses with less than three years since-license, analyzed by race and Hispanic ethnicity. It is with deep sorrow that we report the passing of Mark Spencer Willard, an engineering grad and Alpha Tau Omega brother, last October from cancer. For the past 26 years, Mark had lived in Boulder, Colorado, where he enjoyed hiking and cycling in the mountains. Jean McCutcheon had a fun summertime gathering for a waterfront concert in Burlington with Lori Abatiell Smith ’84, Matt Smith ’84, Dubs (Deborah) Randall Dickey ’84, Rob Dickey ’83, Larry McCutcheon, Leslee MacKenzie ’82, Marty Beede ’82 G’05, and Germana Fabbri ’85.

Send your news to— Abby Goldberg Kelley kelleyabbyvt@gmail.com Shelley Carpenter Spillane scspillane@aol.com

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Nancy Miner hosted Susan Morgenstern in July on a girl's weekend in Aspen, Colorado. The two “Shoebox” roommates had not seen each other in 34 years, but slipped right back into their friendship and had a fantastic weekend catching up and reminiscing. Incredibly, a salesman helping them at a ski shop in Aspen also turned out to be a UVM alum! Rich (Richard) Gold and Maria Gold welcomed their first grandchild, Maya Rosner, happy and healthy, on May 19. The grandparents survived the experience and are loving the total lack of responsibility of grandparenthood.

Craig Mabie and husband Douglas Sutherland moved from Washington state, where they lived for 30-plus years, to New Hampshire. Mitchell Stone was elected president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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

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Paul Apfelbaum and Marianne Apfelbaum ’87 of Event Moguls launched a new festival at Burlington’s Waterfront Park this August called Drink Vermont! It is a celebration of Vermont-made beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, including iced teas, coffees, sodas, juices, shakes, smoothies, Kombucha and, of course, Vermont craft beer, cider, wine, and spirits! More info: DrinkVermont. net. David Aronoff sends greetings from Newton, Massachusetts, where he and Jessica have officially been empty-nesters for a few years. Their daughter Hannah graduated from NYU in 2016 and now lives in Seattle, and their son Jacob is a rising senior studying computer science at Northeastern. In May, David went mountain biking in Guatemala with Adam Joseph, husband of Andrea Cohn Joseph ’88, see photo at go.uvm.edu/alumpics. He also rode his eighth Pan Mass Challenge with several UVMers, including Dave Legg ’85, Ira Hart ’85, Kenny Ballard, and Eric Kent ’87, on team LungStrong. Brad (Bradford) Chervin and Lori Murchison-Chervin are sad to share the news of the death of their oldest child, Jon-Alec, age 25, in November 2018. He died in a swimming accident in Australia. The family founded a 501(c)(3) public charity, the Jon-Alec Fund (jonalecfund.org) to continue his passion for helping others and foster his legacy. The support of the Delta Psi brothers, and Pi Beta Phi sisters will be forever appreciated. Linda Lorrey is working for the United Way of the Greater Seacoast (New Hampshire and Southern Maine) as the leadership giving officer. She shares, “The fulfillment a career switch with a philanthropic focus has given me has been amazing! It’s especially meaningful to help people make a positive impact right in their communities.” Alumni interested in volunteer opportunities, feel free to contact her: LLorrey@supportunitedway.org.

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

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Erica Antonelli’s son is heading to CU Boulder. She’s looking forward to quality time with ’87-era Cats: Dot Colagiovanni, EB, Sue Noonbery Dorsey, and Abby Marinari-Gallagher. After living in Tel Aviv, Israel, for two decades, Beth Weintraub Liberman moved to Vermont with her family in 2016.

She’s thrilled to be in Stowe, where she loves her work as director of family and youth education at the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe (JCOGS).

Beth had the honor of hosting Henny Lewin, her UVM Hebrew professor, to tell her story of survival to more than 750 students. Beth’s husband, Moni, launched Harmoni Hairstyling in Stowe. She shares, “It’s been fun to reconnect with ’87ers Liz Anklow, Linda Zieky Ahern, Dora Sudarsky, Julie Richards, and Stephen Perl ’86.” Beth’s daughter Celia Leberman ’22 is at UVM with a double major in chemistry and anthropology.

Brenda Singal was excited to celebrate the graduation of her son Aneesh Singal ’19 from the University of Vermont this past May. He began study in UVM’s Larner College of Medicine in August.

Brenda shares, “We are very excited! Go Cats Go! Welcome to the UVM Alumni Club, Aneesh.”

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

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Gary Green is CEO of Alliance Baseball LLC and Alliance Building Services. He also serves on the AHRC NYC Foundation Board. The foundation supports programs for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who live in New York City. Alliance Building Services has hired more than 200 individuals with disabilities who AHRC NYC supports. Gary also owns three minor league baseball franchises; the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Virginia), the Montgomery Biscuits (Alabama), and the Omaha Storm Chasers (Nebraska).

John Donohue proudly shares that his daughter Isabella Donohue ’23 is a first-year at UVM. Chris Gaylord shared a photo entitled “Tight UVM Crew.” The snapshot, taken in 1987 includes Jim Raezer, Ed Riley, RB Lockhart, Sean Gallagher, Mike Quartararo, Ian Quarrier, Chris Gaylord, and Nick, (missing from photo Charlie Aysseh ’89). On view: go.uvm.edu/alumpics. Melinda Lawson Masters is certified as a licensed marriage and family therapist with the state of California Board of Behavioral Sciences. She is a behavioral health specialist in the county of Alameda

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Melissa Donovan d'Arabian is excited to announce the arrival of her third book, Tasting Grace: Discovering the Power of Food to Connect us to God, to One Another and to Ourselves, published by Waterbrook (Random House). Her earlier books, Ten Dollar Dinners and Supermarket Healthy, were both cookbooks. Tasting Grace, her first book without recipes, explores the difference between current foodie culture, the original intention of food, and how we might be missing out on the joy and connection that food is intended to bring. Feel free to reach out to Random House Speakers if you want her to speak with your group! She loves seeing old UVM friends! The book is available on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller. Randy Heath lives in Southington, Connecticut, with wife Michelle where they both grew up. He is working at his fifth start-up, Diameter Health, a middleware company in Farmington. Their son Max Heath ’23 graduated valedictorian of Southington High School, and has started at UVM as a data science major in the Honors College. They are thrilled to have an excuse to get back to Burlington more often.

Randy writes, “It’s amazing to see how UVM and the town have changed while retaining its character. And the gorgeous sunsets remain the same!”

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Ed Herdiech played a round of golf to celebrate July 4th with Dwight DeCoster ’90 and Matt Cederholm ’90. He shares, “It was great and to hang out with the families.” Meg McGovern enjoys running into classmates on a normal day of business. She attended a commercial real estate convention in Boston and sat next to Bill Greene, who shared memories from a summer at UVM, living at SAE. He mentioned Mike McInnis, Dean Corkum ’87, and Adam Nagler (of course)! After lunch she bumped into Newt Brainard ’90. Meg writes, “So

fun to see UVM connections carry on. If visiting Burlington, you can find my office above RiRa's on Church Street.”

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

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and looks forward to opening a private practice.

Alma Ripps and Lisa Peskin Sausville are heartbroken to share that Pam Engelson Colwell ’88 passed away peacefully at home on June 26, 2019, surrounded by family and friends after a six-year battle with cancer. She is survived by her beloved husband, Ryan, 13-year old daughter, Katherine, her mother, Irmgard Engelson, and many friends and family members. Pam received her bachelor’s in wildlife biology in 1988, spent time as a zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo, worked with the U.S. Forest Service on a spotted owl project, and most recently, worked as a research compliance monitor at the University of Connecticut. Pam will always be remembered for her love of animals, dancing, and adventure. As she requested, part of her ashes will be scattered in Burlington, Vermont, a place that always has been special to her.

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

30 W. 44th Street, New York, NY 10036

The Penn Club of New York, located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, is an exclusive private club for alumni, students, parents, family members and business associates of the University of Pennsylvania and our select affiliate schools and organizations. The clubhouse offers members a wide range of facilities and services to enhance their visits to New York City. The Penn Club is a true “home away from home” for all of our members.

THE PENN CLUB

YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME IN NEW YORK CITY MEMBERSHIP IS RICH WITH BENEFITS, SOME OF WHICH INCLUDE: • Two complimentary all-you-can-eat and drink parties each year!

• Socialize & network at our monthly programs and events • 39 well-appointed guest rooms at discounted rates for members

“As an alumnus, I think it’s great to have a UVM home in New York City. The Penn Club is centrally located, has a great team working there and lots of good food for you and your guests to enjoy. I highly recommend anyone to join the Penn Club of New York.”

– Giacomo Landi ’93 Member, UVM Alumni Association’s New York Regional Board

• Business Center with complimentary wi-fi • 150+ reciprocal clubs in the United States and around the world

For more information contact the Membership Department at membership@pennclubny.org or 212.403.6627

| CLASS NOTES Maxwell got his name from a previous UVM grad, Max Arbo ’73, who was a dear friend and mentor until his death in 2011. Meg Laferriere Horrocks resides with her family in Vermont and works on events, including the Women’s Alpine World Cup in Killington and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York. She and her oldest daughter recently toured UVM with several friends and their daughters, including Melissa Welch Patterson ’97. They had a fantastic tour guide and thoroughly enjoyed the trip down memory lane!

This past winter, Meg spent time in Utah working on the 2019 FIS World Championships, where she had the pleasure of spending time with Jay Bartlett ’91 and his family. Also quite by surprise, she was able to visit with Elan Chambers Sherman ’91 and fellow UVM friends of Jay and Elan's, which was good fun! She’s had the opportunity to visit with family and fellow alumni: Julie Kaplan Kluge ’91 in DC in the spring for a family event, and with Sue Duke ’94 wherever they land around Vermont! Fortunately her sister Lynn Laferriere Madigan ’93 lives in a neighboring state. They have many outings together with their kids and Meg and Lynn's parents (Mother Liz Laferriere is a past member of UVM School of Nursing faculty). Meg looks forward to a UVM AXO reunion in 2020. Jen Dyment Lang-Ree continues to live in Truckee, California, with her husband.

She celebrated 20 years as a pediatric nurse practitioner. Jen is a member of a local biathlon team and will be competing at the Winter World Masters Games in Innsbruck, January 2020. While it was great living in South Burlington for three years, Elisa Reeves and family moved to central Pennsylvania in 2017. Her twins couldn’t wait to get back to Vermont, and both decided to attend UVM. She couldn’t be more excited and proud.

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

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After a two-year career in the humanitarian aid and development field, Matthew Conway has moved to the private-sector in Ireland, where he settled with his wife and children. Johanna Polsenberg happily moved back to Vermont in 2017 after years in D.C. and Gabon. She has a sheep and hemp farm on 40 acres in the Northeast Kingdom. Johanna spends winter as a ski instructor, spring as a sheep midwife, and summer as a hemp farmer—much of that alongside her sons, ages 12 and 10. Autumn is mostly for mountain biking and drinking local beer. She continues with her parttime career in international ocean conservation, as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Kristen Kohler Burrows, Kelly Clifford Laviolette, Beth Nakamura Eberl, Rachel Fraser Roesler, Kristina Saltzman Hennessey, Andrea Salvage Motawi, Rachel Singer Harvey, Susan Solar Pers, and Jennifer Welser recently spent a weekend together in Park City, Utah, collectively celebrating their 50th birthdays and being grateful for the long-lasting friendships from UVM.

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

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Julie DiMauro provides advice to compliance officers in financial services firms. She wonders if anyone out there is a compliance officer or risk manager, in financial services or other industries. She would like to do some brainstorming and networking.

Julie is in New York City. She hopes everyone is well and wishes she could get up to gorgeous Vermont far more often. Marc Franzosa and his wife, Tara Kelaghan Franzosa ’91, spent a long weekend in Burlington. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a hike up Camel’s Hump, a BrewFest in the blazing heat, and catching up with ATO brothers Doug Dodge, Todd Leach ’93, and Matt Malmgren ’89. While much has changed, Burlington is still their favorite place. John Niles has a family and lives in San Diego. They visit the eastern Sierras for nature. John’s work on climate change and forests takes him to China, Indonesia, and Central Africa. He urges UVMers to come and visit. Jon Wright toured UVM with his daughter. He thinks she was impressed; he was. On the same trip, he reconnected with Deb Dyson Diaz and Kristine Schroeder, both are well in the Boston area. Jon recently skied at Squaw with Sean Wieland and golfed in western Maryland with Jeffrey Nodine. He writes, “A banner year for catching up with the crew!” Jon lives outside Washington, D.C. where he practices patent law at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox. He encourages classmates to look him up if they are in the area.

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

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Sean Balon Sunderland was born and raised in Vermont and has fond memories of his grandmother attending or listening to Catamount hockey and basketball games. His grandmother, Katherine Sunderland Way, was a true Vermonter, who grew up on a family farm, and lived frugally as a depression kid. Her brother, Russell Oscar Sunderland ’38 was a tremendous athlete at UVM. In 1939, he was accidentally shot and killed while hunting. The next year an award in his honor was established. The Russell O. Sunderland Memorial Trophy awards senior male and female studentathletes who demonstrate a high level of athletic achievement and exemplify character, leadership, and persistence in overcoming obstacles. Sean notes that to his family, the award recognizes athletes who show the same qualities of dependability and integrity that Russell exhibited during his college life. Katherine, who died March 2019, lived her life the way Russell did, with strength of character, dependability, and determination. Sean shares, “I wanted to let the UVM community know that this award is not just a trophy, but a symbol of my family’s beliefs and the expectations we put on ourselves. Thanks UVM for continuing Great Uncle Russell’s memory, and in turn celebrating

my grandmother’s memory.” For Michael Borek, 2019 has been a year of big changes; he has a new job as global quality lead for divestitures at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. His three sons graduated from high school, and his son Conor Borek ’23 is following in his footsteps, entering UVM this fall.

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

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Jennifer Brody moved back to Hudson Valley, New York, with her husband, Jason Carter, and 11-yearold daughter, Joslan Carter. She has a new job as director of APA-accredited doctoral internship and supervising psychologist at an agency serving children and families that she trained at nearly twenty years ago. She is pleased with the education she received at UVM, especially concerning psychology. Her husband is also a psychologist, and her daughter is definitely a psychologist-intraining! Diana Nelson is happily juggling life as a full-time mom to Jack, 13, and Rya, 11, and volunteering and working part-time in her local school district. In May 2019, she received an honorary service award for volunteer service from Redondo Beach Unified School District. In 2015, Diana became a Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor. As a CDCI she presents locally and nationally on social and emotional education, “a passion project for sure!”

Send your news to— Cynthia Bohlin Abbott cyndiabbott@hotmail.com

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This August, Bruce Adams switched from a public-sector to a private-sector career. He left his position as deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services to take on a new role as president and CEO of the Credit Union League of Connecticut. Born and raised in Hartland, Vermont, Brian Thomas Foley PhD’95 always wanted to be a wildlife biologist. He studied biology in the late ’70s and early ’80s when DNA sequencing and molecular biology was beginning, and computer science was taking off. He was interested in both, thinking that if we could read the genetic code, we could quickly understand biology. Brian worked at Los Alamos National Lab annotating gene sequences for GenBank from 1984-1987 as an undergraduate student. He then attended UVM for his doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics. He returned to LANL in 1995 and has been there since, working in the HIV Sequences and Immunology Databases. In addition to his weekday job, he is an activist for providing useful information on HIV and AIDS, a ski racing coach, and is involved in the management of the local ski area in Los Alamos.

Erin Fox’s daughter, Dorothy Rose, graduated from the fifth grade and is going to St. Timothy’s Middle School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Erin started a new business located in West Hartford Center. “THE FIX” is a luxurious spa that provides IV vitamin therapy to improve clients’ health and well-being. Their marketing is primarily word-of-mouth and social

media and is working. Everyone is invited to visit them at 1000 Farmington Ave. Marc Lieberman lives in Mill Valley, California, with his wife Jill, two sons Nate (8) and Ryan (6), and black Lab Cooper.

He recently launched a wealth management firm, Shorepine Wealth Management with a specialty in Socially Responsible Investing. Marc would love to hear from classmates, marc@shorepinewealth.com.

Carl Martin thanks all the UVM alumni and future alumni who sponsored him at the CLCSN Walk for Cancer this June in Tamworth, New Hampshire.

Supporters include Carol Martin and Lois Chadbourne ’64, Denise Owens ’87, Melissa Springer ’88, Wayne Chadbourne ’92, Arnie Juanillo ’92, and Mark Furr ’92, Greg Rua ’95 and future alumni Sarah Springer and Ellie Furr ’23.

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

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Joseph Antonioli graduated with an MEd in interdisciplinary studies.

Whitney Champlin Brown married Alexander Joseph Fekete on June 8, 2019, at the beautiful Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts. Whitney’s roommate from UVM’s L&L dorm, Jess Jonas, was in attendance. Whitney and Alex honeymooned in Maui and then caught Phish at Fenway Park. They send best wishes to old L&L and Slade Hall friends. After 20 years, Bizia Greene, her husband Clinton Huling, and their two young children still enjoy Santa Fe. She is an etiquette consultant for corporate business and children. She celebrated her 10th anniversary of writing her column “Etiquette Rules” in the Santa Fe New Mexican this winter.

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

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Frank Macdonald and Susan welcomed Frances Ashmead in March.

Big sister Martha is enjoying her baby sister Frannie. They currently live just south of Boston, in Braintree. All are looking forward to their next trip to the Green Mountain State!

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

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Erin Sparler shares there is a new podcast for artists called The Artist APPEALS which interviews leading industry experts on making a living in the arts using a seven-step system. Bill (William) Windus retired from the US Navy after 21 years of commissioned service as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer.

After countless adventures leading construction and facilities maintenance at Navy and Marine Corps installations all over the world, he is trying to figure out what to do when he grows up. He and his blended family of seven reside in King George, Virginia.

CONTINUING A LEGACY OF SHARING

“UVM felt right from the first day I arrived on campus.

As a student, I enjoyed playing intramural sports, and I spent many hours in Patrick Gym watching the UVM Men’s Basketball games. UVM has always been such a tight-knit community and I still feel that connection to this day. My time at UVM holds great meaning for me.

“I always felt that UVM does things the right way, the importance of which I instill in my children. Winning is great, but only if it is done right. At UVM, we care about winning, but we care more about winning with integrity. That is why I decided to name the UVM Men’s Basketball Excellence Fund as a beneficiary in my will. Leaving a legacy to UVM is super easy, and has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I like knowing I have a plan in place to support something that is important to me.”

—Steve Karp ’92

Including the University of Vermont in your estate plans by naming UVM as a beneficiary of a will, trust, retirement plan, life insurance policy, or life income gift: • Is easy to do • Enables you to make a larger gift than you might expect • May help reduce federal estate and gift taxes for your loved ones • Will impact UVM and its students for generations to come

THE UVM FOUNDATION OFFICE OF GIFT PLANNING Amy Palmer-Ellis, JD Assistant Vice President for Development & Gift Planning Donna Burke Assistant Director of Gift Planning Phone: 802.656.9536 Toll Free: 888.458.8691 giftplanning@uvm.edu go.uvm.edu/bequest

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| CLASS NOTES

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LESLIE HITTMEIER

C ATAMOUNT NATION

Hilary Byrne ’11 NOW: With camera in-hand, Hilary Byrne ’11 bombed down a mountain in Jackson Hole, weaving and trailing close behind the main character of her latest documentary film project. Adrenaline pumping as this sounds, it was nothing compared to the anxiety she felt for her film’s subjects, documented and undocumented Latinx immigrants.

The Quiet Force, a project Byrne partnered on with Sophie Danison, explores the plight of Latinxs living, working, and skiing year-round in Jackson Hole and Mammoth, California, where they comprise around 30 to 40 percent of the populations.

UVM: A good story never gets old, but technology certainly will. Byrne admits that as an eager film student, she was more interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking than she was about the underpinnings and theories of storytelling, which most of her courses focused on. In hindsight, she’s grateful her teachers ingrained in her a timeless skill rather than mastery of temporary technology.

IN HER WORDS:

“They are the silent force that is holding up the service economy in these ski towns. They really put their heads down, work hard, and have kind of gone unnoticed in these communities.”

Read more: go.uvm.edu/byrne

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| CLASS NOTES Send news to— Ben Stockman bestockman@gmail.com

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Tim (Timothy) William Sullivan passed away on May 18 at UCLA Medical Center after a battle with bile duct cancer. Tim was an executive with several companies and developed new shows for unscripted television. He was co-owner of Gang of Wolves, LLC and partnered with Sony Pictures on TV shows. He is survived by his wife, Claire O’Donohoe, and their son, Rory, as well as his parents, a sister, a nephew, a niece, and a host of friends and colleagues.

Send news to— Sarah Pitlak Tiber spitlak@hotmail.com

00

Mark Fontecchio and his husband, Marten Hruska, adopted a beautiful baby boy. Gary was born on May 13, he was 19-inches long and weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz.

Send your news to– UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

01

Meg Little Reilly’s third novel, The Misfortunes of Family, will be published in January 2020. She is also the author of Everything That Follows and We Are Unprepared. Meg is a writer at Bennington College, essayist, public radio commentator, and outdoor enthusiast. Before writing novels, Meg worked in national politics and the Obama White House.

Meg lives in Hinesburg, Vermont, with her husband and their two daughters. Find her at MegLittle Reilly.com. Nathan Rice is an athletic trainer with EmergeOrtho in Durham, North Carolina. He provides medical care to high school student-athletes at two local schools. His wife, Rachel Burdge ’03, is a nurse at UNC Healthcare and recently started graduate school at ECU in the psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program. They live in Durham and enjoy traveling to the mountains for running and cycling. Andre Shoumatoff sends greetings from northern Utah, his home since fall 2001.

Over the past ten years, he has been doing Internet Marketing for small businesses and big pharma.

He started a bicycle shop in Park City five years ago that was acquired by the CEO of USA Cycling, and he now manages the shop for the new owner. He has a wonderful three-year-old daughter and lives in a great 105-year-old bungalow in the Sugarhouse neighborhood of Salt Lake City. Andre writes, “If you are in the area, feel free to look me up.” Andre speaks with Andrew Farrell monthly, and the pair are attending the Telluride Bluegrass Festival to celebrate Andrew’s little brother’s upcoming wedding.

Andrew lives in Yarmouth, Maine, with his wonderful wife, Chloe, and their four-year-old twins. He’s a physician’s assistant and Chloe is a nurse. Andre and Andrew try to ride bikes, usually in Utah, every couple of years. Andre also sees Matt Dias and his wife, Christy Dias, fairly often. Matt is the assistant city manager of Park City, and Christy is a mom to their wonderful boys and manages fundraising activi-

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ties for the Youth Winter Sports Alliance. Andre frequently sees Joanna Kahn ’02 G’04 and her husband, his good friend Max who own a tavern at the ski area and a ski rental shop. They have two wonderful kids. He sees Michael Blazewicz ’99 several times a year and shares that he “has a killer place in Salida, Colorado, with a massive garden.” Michael is an award-winning river planning and restoration consultant throughout Colorado. Andre has been skiing and hanging out with several other alumni mentioned here: Alex Nutt ’02 is finalizing medical school and lives in Bozeman; Andrew Nelson manages a hedge fund in New York; Peter Wright and Steve Martini co-manage one of San Diego’s top commercial real estate brokerages; Steve Kirk is in Boston; Peter Bates lives just off Gramercy Park in New York; Tim Marcus hand-builds Milkman guitar amps in San Francisco and has some of the top musicians in the world using his amps. Andre writes, “The people of UVM are special, keep it up!”

Send your news to— Erin Wilson ewilson41@gmail.com

02

In July, Susan Vaughn Grooters began work as a food safety consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. Dan Nardi joined Carrum Health as their new COO; his focus is helping this San Francisco-based healthcare start-up scale rapidly. Gretchen Nareff earned a PhD in forest resources science with a focus in wildlife ecology and management from West Virginia University in June 2019. Kelly Groll Ullman and her husband, Christopher, welcomed their first child, Emma, in November 2018. Kelly lives with her family in Wilton, Connecticut.

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

03

Diana Carlino-Coffey is an attorney representing healthcare providers in New York and Connecticut. She won a three-week-long jury trial in Hartford Superior Court where her client, an internal medicine physician, was alleged to have failed to diagnose lung cancer, which caused the patient’s death. After almost six years at Pernod Ricard USA, Andrew Coffey joined Freixenet Mionetto USA in White Plains, New York, as the senior finance manager.

Freixenet is the leading sparkling wine company worldwide. Ash Desmond moved from his home state of Vermont to Portland, Oregon, in 2015 for a position at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality working on management of hazardous site cleanups. He met his wife, Christina Ronai, shortly after moving and they married in 2017. They reside in southwest Portland and have two daughters, Willa and Hazel, who just arrived in July! John Hoogenboom recently celebrated ten years as an independent financial advisor with Baystate Financial in Colchester, Vermont. His growing practice provides a full spectrum of advisory services, including retirement planning, estate conservation, and investment strategies. John and his

wife, Lisa, live in the Mad River Valley with their four dogs. John is an avid skier and this spring spent a week heli-skiing in a remote area of British Columbia. Lauren Klonsky ’06 shares that Shaun O’Rourke, director of Stormwater and Resilience for the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, was named to the “2019 Forty under Forty” by the Providence Business News.

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

04

After enjoying nursing since graduation, Herschel Collins retired in 2013. He enjoys friends and family, the outdoors, and traveling. He lives near Sugarloaf Ski Area and works as a volunteer ambassador for a season pass. Give him a call if you need a place to stay in the western mountains. Anna Johnson completed the Boston Marathon in April as a charity runner for the school breakfast program of the New England Dairy Council. Extending her work as an educational consultant, Dr. Brittany Maschal recently launched Strategy Girl, an online community for strategically-minded high school, college, and early career women committed to empowering each other through knowledge-sharing, networking, and mentorship, see strategygirl.nyc. If you are interested in getting involved as a blogger, mentor, volunteer, or know young women who might benefit from future empowerment programming, you can reach her at bmaschal@gmail. com. Rebecca McNeil is happily moving back to southern Rhode Island after thirteen years in Boston. She and her husband look forward to being closer to the beautiful beaches and enjoying more outdoor time with their two-year-old daughter.

Although they'll technically be farther away from Vermont, they hope to take her up to Burlington soon. They now can work from home, which has allowed them to make this move. They plan to enjoy Providence, Boston and, hopefully, Burlington as much as they can. David Montegari relocated with his family from New York City to Roswell, Georgia. Sarah Rose Wilby married Michael James Anderson on August 3, 2019, in Bolton, Connecticut. (Editor’s Note: We deeply regret that a mix-up with names in our alumni database resulted in listing Vera Petrova Dickinson G’04 ’07 in the summer issue’s In Memoriam. Happy to report that Vera is alive and well! ) Send your news to— Kelly Kisiday kelly.kisiday@gmail.com

05

Heather Gaylord shares that Grayson Noble Gaylord was born on January 14, 2019. A circle of UVM friends—Tory Mitchell, Sarah Cooperman Bergman, Liz Schreiber, Christie Smith, and Michelle Waste McLaughlin—reconnected over the summer to explore Colorado with their growing families.

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

06

Jenilee Palasik Freidhof married Michael Freidhof in South Burlington on May 7, 2016. The ceremony included matron of honor Sharon ‘Berard’ Baker ’07. Jenilee and Michael welcomed a baby boy, Chase Michael, on March 6, 2018. Future Catamount! Jenilee is currently a patient service specialist in Family Medicine at the UVM Medical Center.

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

07

Jay Sawczak received the Subcontractors Trade Association’s 2019 Young Professionals Award on April 11 at the 50th Annual Construction Awards Dinner. Helaine Alon lives in Southern Oregon with her husband, Greg, and their six-year-old daughter, Azure. In 2017 they started Flora Sophia Botanicals, a small farm-to-patient CBD oil business. They are happy to share good products with people around the country: florasophiabotanicals.com.

Krista Iannoni Easterly was promoted to associate and senior interior designer at Bergmeyer Associates. Bergmeyer is an architectural and interior design firm located in the Seaport area of Boston. Krista is the lead designer on academic, foodservice, and workplace projects throughout New England. She recently completed a 62,000-squarefoot renovation and an addition to the community center and dining hall at Mount Holyoke College.

Carl Hediger and Michelle Villari Hediger married in Woodstock, Vermont, in May 2013. They had a daughter, Estelle, in October 2017. Michelle is the co-founder of a residential real estate brokerage, SellBoston, and Carl founded Hudson Carpet and Flooring. Both companies are Boston based. They recently started their next venture, HedigerHomes, with the purchase and complete gut renovation of a brownstone in Boston’s South End. Follow their project on Instagram @hedigerhomes. In April of 2017, Ashley Seamans founded a consulting and sales agency called Local Maker based in Boston. It provides services to help creative business owners run successful, more fulfilling businesses. After successfully building her offerings to help makers and brick and mortar retailers with sales, marketing, operations, finance, and planning she is expanding her business and launching Local Maker Studio in a new South Boston location. In May, she also acquired Noted Candles which was a Local Maker brand. Their new space houses both business and will be used to host creative events and skills training workshops. Luella Strattner is spending another year as assistant head of school at Mount Snow Academy, a winter-term ski academy. She also runs an AirBnB (Five Ferns) and generally participates in the “Vermont Hustle.” Side gigs include marketing/social media support for local businesses, farmers market retail support for heritage meats, and professional kid wrangler. Her husband, Keith Nowak ’05, recently became a realtor with Sotheby’s, after a decade as a fine woodworker.

They live in southern Vermont with their four-yearold son, who goes to the historic one-room school-

house in the village.

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

08

Nick Carter was selected for a 201920 Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellowship. He will focus on closing the equity gap in civic technology, and researching voter engagement initiatives to increase turnout, while achieving a more equitable democracy that reflects the realities of the digital age. Nick is currently the managing director of 2020 Vision Ventures, a civic financing effort dedicated to innovative and inclusive voter engagement. Previously, Nick has held roles at VICE Media, Planned Parenthood, and senior positions in presidential, federal, and statewide electoral cam-

paigns including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Nick started his career as an Americorps volunteer at CCTV Center for Media and Democracy in Burlington serving nonprofits and local government in the region. He recently returned from a service trip to Cambodia where he taught English in a Buddhist monastery. Sonah Lee and Andrew Lassiter ’11 are engaged and planning a Vermont wedding for the fall of 2020. They lived temporarily in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup and then moved to New York City. Both obtained master's degrees at Columbia University, graduating from different fields a year apart. Gabriel Millman produced his second majorlabel album, Dogwhistle, with the NYC punk band Show Me The Body. Check them out live in a city near you. In January, Lydia Morin was named executive director of the Congress of Neighboring Communities and tasked with convening the City of Pitts-

360°

See the charm and beauty of the UVM Alumni House first hand.

Take a virtual tour today at uvmalumnihouse.com/virtualtour

| CLASS NOTES burgh with its 40-plus municipal governments that comprise the region’s urban core. She will monitor and implement best practices in cross-boundary policies and address shared challenges through collaborative projects and initiatives. Lisa Goldstein Nosal and Peter Nosal ’10 were married on April 20, 2019, in Providence, Rhode Island. Melanie Lloyd and Katelyn Ellermann were bridesmaids, and Austin Danforth, Patrick Carroll ’09, Calder Quinn’09, Dennis Robillard, and Jonathan Ellermann were also in attendance. The couple resides in Brooklyn, New York. Jessica Portmess and Joe Risi ’09 were married on July 4, 2019, at Lareau Farm Inn in Waitsfield, Vermont. UVM graduates Dzeneta Karabegovic and Hans Broscheit were in the bridal party. Fellow 2008 UVM graduates, and Jess’s Honors College housemates, Bronwyn Stippa (with husband Drew Stock), Anna Taylor, Laura Balzer (with husband Nick Diehl), and Nicole Marx were in attendance. Other Catamounts included Travis Kale and Sean Beauvais ’09. Joe and Jess live in the foothills near Denver, Colorado.

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

09

On May 4th Scott Bailey and Christina Bailey welcomed Jude Thomas Bailey to the world. They share, “A potential future Catamount has arrived!” Susan Cirilli moved her law practice to Painser Litvin LLP, located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Susie’s practice focuses on employment matters involving the ADA, FMLA, and Title VII claims. She litigates cases involving hostile work environments, discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, race, and disability. Trav Fryer is sorry to share that classmate Andrew Modlin passed away in May. Trav grew up with Andrew and has collected memories of teafry.me/andrew. This year Zoe Gandee and her husband welcomed a son, Graham Brady Gandee-Riggs, into the world!

They took him on his first trip to Vermont in February, and share, “He was a huge fan, though he did snooze through much of the campus tour.” Nydia Guity is excited about collaborating with Audra Lowray-Upchurch on the new book #UnchainMeMama—The Forgiveness Factor. In her chapter, “Naturally Ever After—Forgiving Through Healthy Living,” she shares her PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) diagnosis and how not having her cycle monthly like most girls created tension at home. In another chapter, she shares what she needed to unlearn to forgive her mother. Learn more: Nydia.UnchainMeMama.com. Shari Smith begins her second semester as an adjunct professor of sociology at the University of New Haven this fall. She is excited about her work with a Fortune 1000 company and asset management firm in Connecticut, where she works directly with the C-Suite and is heavily involved in transforming and modernizing the organization to meet current market trends. She obtained several degrees after graduating from UVM and has traveled to the Middle East and Eastern Europe to research

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genocides, international law, and global immigration trends. Sam Smalley and Jenna DeLorenzo Smalley ’10 welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Trent Alexander Smalley, on June 10, 2019.

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

10

Kacy Roeder graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver master’s degree program in landscape architecture. She works in Truckee, California, bringing sustainable design to local clients.

Hayley Perelman has lived in Chicago since 2014.

She is working towards her PhD in clinical psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, after receiving her master’s in sports psychology at Boston University. Hayley specializes in eating disorders and body image concerns in the athlete population, particularly collegiate athletes. She recently received an award from the Association of Applied Sports Psychology, recognizing her interdisciplinary work in applied sport psychology and eating disorders. Hayley will graduate in the summer of 2020 and is hoping to accept a post-doctoral fellowship position specializing in eating disorders. Hannah Shihdanian lives in College Station, Texas, but travels back and forth to Massachusetts for professional theater work. This summer she choreographed a production of Mary Poppins in Wellesley. This fall she will appear onstage in 42nd Street with The Umbrella Stage Company.

She is taking advantage of professional opportunities before her kids are old enough to go to school.

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

11

All is going well for Bob Just in California. He proposed to his partner, Alf, while exploring Europe in January. Bob writes, “He said, yes! Phew. We decided to move from Dublin, California, to Concord and purchased our first home together!” Ben Talbot and Cecilia Zhang will marry on October 26, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia where they currently reside. They met in Boston in 2014 when Cecilia was earning her master’s in mental health counseling at Boston University. They moved to Atlanta in 2016. Ben earned his MBA at Emory University in 2018.

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

12

Jireh Billings, Jr. of Woodstock, Vermont, proposed to Micaela Keane of Westchester, New York, on July 13 at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. The couple resides in Rye, New York, but return to Woodstock often to visit with family and friends. Elizabeth Warburton Rochefort married Denis Rochefort on May 4, 2019, in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Much of the master’s in historic preservation Class of 2012 and their partners were there to celebrate, including Kate Ritter (bridesmaid), Danielle Meiners Kauffmann G’11, Tonya

Loveday Merrem ’10 G’11, and Meredith RickerMaus G’11.

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

13

Hannah McQuilkin Eaton married Connor Eaton and completed her master’s in marriage and family therapy. In 2016, Hannah and Connor biked 5,000 miles to settle in their new home in Seattle, where they currently live. Hannah started a business (Sequoia Immersions), where she helps proactive professionals reduce stress, and strengthen their health and relationships through therapy, wilderness retreats, live events, and online programs. Cat Healey is moving to New York City and is looking forward to adventure. She’d like to connect with any old friends in the area! Jason Katz moved back to Philadelphia to get his bachelor’s from Drexel University and is working in psychiatric nursing. Claire Morrissy shares that distinguished alumni of the UVM Mountaineering Club gathered in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for a cheerful weekend reunion this July. Former captains and members Susie Parsons, Maggy Duffy, Claire Morrissy, Lauren Baecher, Maya Perry, Hanna Anderson ’15, and Stephanie Donato ’14 presided. Notable absences included Erica Andrus ’15 and Esther Nemethy ’15. John Moses, a former WRUV DJ, was interviewed by Jeremy Hobson on NPR’s Here and Now yesterday, and gave a shout out to Vermont at the beginning. Check it out: go.uvm.edu/moses. After promoting sustainability at a ski resort in Oregon, Jared Necamp secured a job with a leading U.S. utility-scale solar developer, Cypress Creek Renewables, and moved to Southern California where he works as a project developer. Nicole Ovregaard begins medical school this fall at Oregon Health & Science University. After graduating from UVM in 2013, she worked in an emergency department as a technician. She then moved up to Portland, Oregon to complete her master’s of public health in epidemiology. She is employed at the local health department, working to reduce the burden of sexually transmitted infections in her county. Nicole is excited to continue her journey in medicine and hopes to continue to serve those with the greatest need.

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

14

Holly Greenleaf graduated from UVM’s Plant & Soil Science master's program in ecological landscape design. She started a business with the same focus, Greenleaf Design, LLC. Karley Reising-Guild and Craig Reising-Guild ’13 G’14 are celebrating their second anniversary in November. They met at UVM in 2011 and have been together ever since. They live in the coastal southeastern corner of Connecticut with their cat, Cooper, and their lab/dachshund mix, Leila. Though they still adventure up to the trails and lakes of Vermont, they are also learning the less hilly, but just as beautiful, trails

and beaches of their new corner of New England. Ashley Moore is chief ecosystem officer of Trace, a Burlington-based company. Prior to joining the Trace team, Ashley spent five years working for the Main Street Alliance of Vermont, most recently as its state director working with the small business community to advance state policies that support working Vermonters and foster a thriving small-business economy. Zachary Albert Noel received his PhD in plant pathology and evolutionary ecology, biology, and behavior from Michigan State University in June. He is now a postdoctoral research associate at MSU. Lauren Schlanger sends congrats and a special shout out to Tess Cioffredi on passing her occupational therapy national board exam and landing a stellar job post-graduation! Also to Michele Russell for completing her graduate degree program and buying a home with her family!

Send your news to— Grace Buckles Eaton glbuckles@gmail.com

15

Miles Boucher started a new position in Seattle with Water1st International, supporting international programs that provide clean water access to communities living in extreme poverty around the globe. Shannon Esrich moved to Concord, New Hampshire, to work for The Water Project. She is a writer and editor promoting clean drinking water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. She already misses Vermont but is glad to be surrounded by beautiful lakes and mountains. Sophie Fisher has come out as transgender. She is living her truth and loving her life. She graduated from law school and passed the bar in Washington, D.C., where she is a practicing attorney. Abby Fitzgerald and Ryan Cross ’14 married in Essex, Vermont, on June 29, 2019. Megan Herring graduated from Colorado State University with her master’s in extension Education. She’s the animal lab facility manager at Middlebury College, working to advance research goals with species like rats and mice. She shares, “I have a whole bunch of odd pets—ferrets, gerbils, fish, and a horse—and spend too much of my time drinking Vermont microbrews.” Brit Kelleher is the director of fund development for Sacramento Stand Down Association, an organization that helps homeless and at-risk veterans in need. Learn more: sacramentostanddown.org. Baxter Miatke earned his professional engineering license in environmental engineering and started a new position as a water engineer at Arcadis in Portland, Maine. He also serves as the Engineers Without Borders representative for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

16

Alex Gambero works at UVM Medical Center as a registered respiratory therapist.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

17

Laura Felone relocated to Madison to start her political science PhD at the University of Wisconsin this fall. After two fulfilling years of working at a public policy think tank in New York, Sarang Murthy is excited to be headed back to school for a master’s in economics at the University of Texas, Austin. Sophia White Quinn accepted a position in the Vermont Superior Court, assisting people with vital court processes. Ryan Quinn ’16 continues to work on his doctorate at the Albany School of Pharmacy in Colchester. They had a wonderful time celebrating their first wedding anniversary on June 30, 2019! Samantha Ryea married Alex Duchesneau G’14 on October 12, 2019, in Grand Isle, Vermont. Fellow Catamounts in attendance included their parents, Alan Ryea ’90, Seth Duchesneau ’90 and Kym Mazeine Duchesneau ’87, and Sam’s brother, Christopher Ryea ’20. The couple resides in North Carolina.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

18

Zachary Centerbar and Nicole L. Raub married on May 10, 2019.

Zachary is a mechanical engineer at Hazelett, Inc. in Colchester and Nikki works as a civil engineer at Hoyle, Tanner & Associates in Burlington. Jessica Ciona was accepted into the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at the University College Dublin in Ireland. She writes, “I'm very excited to see what a new country has in store for me for the next four years!” Katarina Fielding started her Doctorate Degree in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland in September 2019. Nadia Hucko and Zach Pilla ’17 were engaged in Versailles, France. Congratulations to both!

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

19

Olivia Curtis is pursuing a master’s of art in communication design in England at the Winchester School of Art. She writes, “Thanks to Steve Kostell and Jane Petrillo for all of your help!” Lindsay Freed is pursuing a master’s in geography at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Carter Rose started a job at Advanced Accelerator Applications, a nuclear medicine company that produces Lutathera, a dotatate based radioactive drug that is used to treat gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. UVM Medical Center is the only approved site in Vermont for Lutathera treatment.

She shares, “It’s cool to know that the Medical Center will use the medicine we make.” Anna Sullivan accepted a full-time job at Payfactors in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

VQ

EDITOR Thomas Weaver ART DIRECTOR Elise Whittemore CLASS NOTES EDITOR Kathy Erickson ’84 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Greg Bottoms, Joshua Brown, Kaitie Catania, Kevin Coburn ’81, Andrea Estey, Doug Gilman, Rachel Leslie, Jennifer Nachbur, Jeffrey Wakefield, Kate Whitney, Benjamin Yousey-Hindes PHOTOGRAPHY Sarah Bones, Joshua Brown, Andy Duback, Alex Edelman ’13, Kel Elwood, Sergio Flores, Leslie Hittmeier, Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09, Brian Jenkins, Sally McCay, Michael McGuire ’20, Gretchen Powers ILLUSTRATION Lauren Simkin Berke, Ella Whittemore Hill ADVERTISING SALES Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-7996, tweaver@uvm.edu CORRESPONDENCE Editor, Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-2005, tweaver@uvm.edu ADDRESS CHANGES UVM Foundation 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-9662, alumni@uvm.edu CLASS NOTES alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes VERMONT QUARTERLY Produced by UVM Creative Communications Services Amanda Waite’02 G’04, Director Publishes March 1, July 1, November 1 PRINTED IN VERMONT Issue No. 85, November 2019 VERMONT QUARTERLY ONLINE uvm.edu/vq instagram.com/universityofvermont twitter.com/uvmvermont facebook.com/universityofvermont youtube.com/universityofvermont

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| IN MEMORIAM 1922 1932 1940 1941

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Leonard J. Thomson Muriel Slayton Nichols Jean Morse Blakemore Nita Thelma Falby Beatrice Shine MacFarland Paul R. Poulin Marion Root Robertson Melvin Albert Hawes Robert W. Earley Mark Linwood McLean Florence Smith White Beatrice Thompson Caldwell Anita Berman Cohen Marie Hammond Giroux Dorothy Arnault Hass H. David Frank Shirley Lampman Heald Katherine Marcott Stannard Elizabeth Dahlgren Stevenson Philip A. Waldman Hilary Shelvin Caplan Stanley Samuel Fieber Alberta Read Reed Elisabeth Naess Risdon Lois Worthley Sherwood Vincent J. Astone Ann Tuttle Geary Jean Clark Weaver Barbara Sayre Durkee Lois Reed Foster Calvin William Parrow Clayton C. Pierce Nancy Tobey Shisler Lois N. Sundeen Hobart W. Cook John R. Eddy John A. Ferwerda Sherman Joseph Gage Marjorie Fullam Haupt Elbert Harris Isham Burton E. Jacobs John Leo Mary Elizabeth McGrath William D. Reid Richard Carlos Walker Pauline Woodward Bradbury Norman A. Fieber Barbara Whitney Hurtgen Charles E. Wiley Jane Hoogstoel Farrar Maryann Crisp Harris Robert Joseph Ratti Erich Gossing Schmitt

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Sallie Thompson Soule Marleen Hanlon Ticcony Raffaele Marcello Terino Joyce McMaWasson Edward Robert Watkins Joanna Deborah Atwood Jack Edward Burke Edmund J. Huott G. Caleb Marsh John E. Myers Elizabeth Just Dacey Lewis Robert Dan Barbara Raab Noble Beverly Lawliss Atwell Neal Edwin Battice Kathleen Curtis DiPietro Patricia Prouty Plumb Shirley Behrens Quinby Victor A. Silberman Frank B. Vener Larry Coletti Charles V. Hicks Beverly J. McKinley Matthew Bergen Carole Story Durham Sherwin L. Iverson Charles C. Reid Margaret McFeeters South Alan Weisel Lorraine Dill Wetzel Karl C. Ashline Howard D. Fraser Paul Henry Jodoin Marilyn Davio Johnson Joseph E. MacLeod Charlotte Muller Plath G. Edgar Shattuck Patricia Little Spardel Robert E. Ashton Gretchen Hebb Bean Raymond L. Bunker Gerald F. Edelstein Robert Turner Mead Roger Barton Pollander Herbert G. Prakelt Harry M. Wilson John Jerome Brink Richard E. Chiott Robert H. Frenier Dean S. Louis Jacqueline M. Pell Jean Howard Raas Keith A. Gould

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Myron L. Jones A. Peter Low David Huntington Nichols Curtis Fletcher Campaigne Howard S. Jacobs Gerald E. Miner Gloria Hakey Montague Howard E. Savage Robert G. Croce Melvyn J. Ravitz Raymond L. Schubnel William Ireland Shea John T. Willse John S. H. Carter Natt Lincoln Divoll Carla Lamberton Hodgdon Melvyn J. Norona Alice W. Rouleau Sandra Snowling Wiggin Russell Charles Gordon Rolf Jesinger James Frank Wolynec Roger O. Campbell John G. Kearton A. Keith Ober Susan Fagan Barry Bernard E. Devarney Raymond Lloyd Dyke Donald P. Prior Jane Cerutti Tait Judith Ann Fiermonte Judith Helen Grodzinsky Thomas M. Sivret John E. Bassett Adrienne Buuck Butler Patricia M. Pierson Susan K. Wisehart Kenneth Michael Murphy Dawn DeVarney Thibault Michael Anthony Wright Rose Marie Carruth Sharon Knights Connally William David Gill Mary Alice Munnett Glendora C. Tessier Stephen Milton Gallas William Thomas Guyette David O. Wade J. William Filling Hon. David Milnes Ainsworth Donald C. Dolliver Carol Alexander Kelton Nancy C. Sheehan

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Peter Bardin Weiler Marilyn Whitcomb Fenno David Michael Joachim Bernard William Kasupski Christina Detenbeck Hamilton Samuel Ivah Magoon Richard W. Jemiola Mark Richard Nyman Walter Barclay Hanson Monica Yuhas Rossi Stratton Cole French Joyce Ann Newton Martha Auble Alderman William G. Earley Gretchen S. Sawicki

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Mark S. Willard Anne B. Adams Kim Marie Patterson Brian William Stowe Laurie Anne LeClair Craig T. Wilberding Pamela Engelson Colwell Stephen John Korbel Carol Ann Richman Jennifer Andrews Demaree Carolyn Anne Fundis Gladys L. Agell Holly Sorenson Buck Donald Benjamin Clark Marc Sadler Tesconi

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1993 1994 1995 1998 1999

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2007 2009 2010 2012 2016

Lori Farwell Lancia Joseph Gerard Sorensen Bruce Arey Richardson Norman Howard Kirsch Kimberly Ann Thabault D. Brookes Cowan Beverly Anne Partington Timothy William Sullivan William Wallace Coventry Nicole Lauren Pelletier Jo Morris Andrew Tyler Modlin Daniel Kent Newhard Thomas Bayer Chauncey Little Brittany Aidan LeBaron-Brien

| UVM COMMUNITY PETER M. BROWN, UVM associate professor of music from 1975 to 1995, passed away on August 15, 2019. During his years at the university, Brown conducted the UVM Orchestra and initiated the Jazz Studies Program. An accomplished cellist, Professor Brown’s many musical pursuits during his years in Vermont included performing with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de l'Isle in Montréal, and the jazz sextet Science Fixion.

KENNETH FISHELL, longtime professor in the College of Education and Social Services and a university administrative leader, passed away on July 18, 2019. In the early 1970s, Fishell left the faculty at Syracuse University to accept a position as professor of education and associate dean of the College of Education and Social Services at UVM. Subsequent roles included serving as senior associate vice president under President Lattie Coor. Professor Fishell mentored dozens of doctoral students, all of whom adored him for his gentle and caring way.

SUSAN BRODY HASAZI, professor in the College of Education and Social Services for thirty-four years before her retirement in 2010, passed away on May 14, 2019. At the time of her retirement she served as the Stafford Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Special Education and director of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, which she developed. Professor Hasazi was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation International Award for her lifelong contributions as a scholar, educator, and policy maker regarding the rights and needs of persons with intellectual and other disabilities. As a mentor to countless students and colleagues who now serve in leadership positions across the state and country, her influence will be felt for generations.

CATHY INGLESE, former Catamount women’s basketball coach, passed away on July 24, 2019, following a traumatic brain injury from a fall. Vermont was Inglese’s first head coaching job, taking the reins in 1986 at age twenty-seven and leading the team to unprecedented heights over the next seven seasons. Under her leadership, the Catamounts won conference championships and ran through a string of fifty-seven consecutive regular season wins over two seasons, 29-0 in 1992 and 28-0 in 1993.

DONALD JOHNSTONE, professor of microbiology across four decades at UVM, passed away on October 27, 2018. Prior to joining UVM, Johnstone was a marine microbiologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where he discovered, and later isolated, the world's second species of microorganism that produces the antibiotic, streptomycin. The discovery earned him international acclaim. In 1948, he was hired as UVM’s first assistant professor of microbiology and would serve on the faculty until his retirement, as professor emeritus, in 1984.

In addition to teaching, research, and mentorship of graduate students, Professor Johnstone’s many contributions to the university included service as dean of the Graduate College.

JOHN NOVOTNY G’92 ’97, senior lecturer of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, passed away in September. An alumnus who earned his master’s and doctorate at UVM, Novotny first worked at UVM as a postdoctoral associate with the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. After serving on the faculty at the University of Delaware, Novotny returned to UVM in 2010 to follow his passion of teaching and advising students in mechanical engineering.

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| EC XL T A RS A S N CR OETD E IST

ART

X

AC TIVISM

Mildred Beltré’s Slogans for the Revolution That Never Was is an ongoing series of text-based draw-

ings and objects that re-word, abstract, and re-contextualize language borrowed from existing and original texts. Beltré is an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History. The piece pictured is currently on loan to the Fleming Museum for RESIST! INSIST! PERSIST!, an exhibition exploring activist art. Conceived and curated by students in a fall 2018 museum studies course taught by Professor Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio, the exhibition includes works by Goya, Hogarth, Picasso, Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon, and the Guerilla Girls, among many others. It is on view through December 13.

MILDRED BELTRÉ, I would not help my keepers, 2016.

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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

WASHINGTON • NEW YORK • BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO • BURLINGTON

HOLIDAY PARTIES 2019

Join us at a gathering near you!

For event details and to register visit

alumni.uvm.edu/holiday

NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID BURLINGTON VT 05401

VERMONT QUARTERLY

PERMIT NO. 143

86 South Williams Street Burlington VT 05401

Vermonter GRETCHEN POWERS ’13 now calls Kodiak, Alaska, home with pup Ella and wife Kaleigh, a 2013 grad who drives a ship for the U.S. Coast Guard. The film and television studies major is an outdoor lifestyle photographer and filmmaker, shooting for outdoor brands and nonprofits in the vast, wildly unpredictable landscape that is Alaska. Follow her @gpowersfilm