Miami Magazine | Fall 2006 by University of Miami

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H I G H -T E C H C A R E A N D

major league research S AV E D T H E S E L I T T L E L E AG U E R S.

utting-edge care helped the Cedeño triplets survive extreme

The Miller School of Medicine is a center of extraordinary healing

prematurity. Today Andres, Alejandro, and Adrian have endless

and discovery. It is the nucleus—and the heart—of one of the nation’s

energy and winning smiles. Every day physicians and scientists at

largest and most vibrant academic medical centers. Our physician-

the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

scientists are renowned for conducting research that contributes to

improve health care for kids. From cancer to kidney failure, HIV to

dramatic advances in medicine. They’re in a unique position because

heart transplants, diabetes to developmen-

they see patients each day and then return to

tal disabilities, their compassion and exper-

their labs to seek answers to some of life’s

tise have changed thousands of children’s

most difficult questions. We’re constantly

lives. No one appreciates it more than par-

thinking ahead—exploring new medical

ents and families whose children have ben-

frontiers, creating new knowledge, and dis-

efited from new treatments and cures.

covering the treatments of tomorrow.

Thinking Ahead. Learn more at www.med.miami.edu. For an appointment, call 305-243-5757 or toll free at 800-432-0191.

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Fall 2006

VOLUME 13 NUMBER 3

For Alumni and Friends of the University of Miami F E AT U R E S

Feature Presentation Acquisition of the Raymond J. Regis Motion Picture Archives is a reel coup for the School of Communication.

Point and Clique Now with 7 million members, Facebook is changing the way college students do their social networking. 24

DEPARTMENTS

Taking It to the Street Miller School of Medicine researchers participate in a CDC study that asks the tough, gritty questions in hopes of understanding the continued spread of HIV.

PostMarks Comments and opinions from alumni and friends.

Going Global Study abroad students describe the experiences that have left them deeply enriched and forever changed.

University Journal Miami PAC’s bottom-line benefit >> Miller School in Boca >> Concierge medicine >> Ben Stein speaks >> New cancer biology Ph.D. >> Taking gender into account >> Estefans support The Miami Project >> Student Activities Center is a go >> The immigration debate >> Summers in Salzburg >> Podcasting is budding >> Welcome William Scott Green

Cover Illustration by Curtis Parker.

Alumni Digest Dany and Dwayne Johnson >> Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis >> Baseball’s No. 1 fan >> A walk on Broadway >> Parents Program >> Away with the ’Canes

Class Notes News and profiles of alumni worldwide.

DateBook Alumni events and activities

Big Picture Join Professor Humberto Martinez at the movies

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P o s t

MARKS

Comments and Opinions from University of Miami Alumni and Friends

Something in Common

hen I read the profile of Alan Bell (“For Alan Bell, Toxins Take a Toll,” spring 2006) in Miami magazine, I immediately yearned to contact him. When a person becomes as ill as Alan and I have, there is little guidance to know how to cut your losses and begin again. I commend Alan for defying his failed health and founding the Environmental Health Foundation while he was ill. I, too, am trying to function while ill. After graduating from the University of Miami in 1983 with a Master of Music in studio writing and production, I became a composer at Maryland Public Television,

and from there I enjoyed many contracts for film composing. In 1990 I was rolling out an internationally distributed CD with Narada Productions called A View from the Bridge. I have composed music for the United States Information Agency and for ten years wrote weekly scores for TV’s America's Most Wanted. All that changed for me starting in the year 2000,

when I bought a house full of mold. Within two years, I lost everything. I reached complete chemical sensitivity in 2002, following a bad flu and after moving into a rental with an HVAC leak, freshly cleaned carpet, porch sealant, and air freshener. With help from the University of Miami, I was able to reach Alan by telephone. We jumped right into conversation, bonded by our association with the University and, unfortunately, by illness. He answered some important questions for me, as I am facing a move to the southwest and am unsure about what to do. I wanted to congratulate you on a terrific Miami magazine and thank you for

connecting me to Alan. The news of chemical sensitivity must be broadcast in every venue. Now it is a return to my own career that motivates me to keep going. Surely, without the University of Miami, I never would have had the success I did. And with all that I lost, no one or no illness can take away what I learned there. Carol Nethen West, M.M. ’83 Via the Internet

AFROTC Class Portrait

onsidering the recent article on the University of Miami’s Air Force ROTC program (“’Cane Cadets,” winter 2006), I wanted to submit photos and information about seven UM gradu-

FROM THE EDITOR

A Smoother Ride

s the owner of a Toyota Solara for six years, my satisfaction with the car has been nothing short of that “Oh What a Feeling” feeling. Sure, she’s picked up some dents and scratches along the way, but the ride has always been good. Recently I decided to spiff her up a bit, adding new spark plugs and belts as well as satellite radio, pin striping, and a palm tree air freshener radiating a sweet coconut scent. Now she drives like a dream. Much like transportation vehicles, communications vehicles need a pit stop in the body shop every few years. In the case of Miami magazine, an award-winning publication among industry peers, there was no need for a complete overhaul, just some fine-tuning. So we streamlined font styles and page layouts for a cleaner, more contemporary look throughout. We added some regularly appearing departments in the

2 Miami magazine Fall 2006

University Journal section to highlight faculty, students, research, and athletic accomplishments plus some of the cool courses that rev up the curriculum. In response to reader feedback, we added an In Memoriam segment to our Class Notes section. While feature stories will continue to highlight the strengths of the institution, we have endeavored to place greater emphasis on stories that are timely, newsworthy, and enlightening in the global context. Like any good auto body shop, we consulted internal and external specialists, including our readers, for more than a year before implementing this editorial and design tune up. As always, Miami magazine remains committed to showcasing the heart and soul of the University of Miami through a rich tapestry of articles that are intellectual, enjoyable, and meaningful in the human context. We hope you enjoy the ride. —Meredith Danton, Editor

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ates who attended the U.S. Air Force’s prestigious Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) this year. ACSC is a rigorous, 11-month program where officers who were selected to command future U.S. Air Force units hone

their leadership skills. The college is located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. We believe this is the first time that so many UM graduates have attended the ACSC together. The names of the seven graduates, left to right, are Michael Dahlstrom, B.S.M.E. ’92, Steven Minkin, B.B.A. ’92, Dennis Tucker, B.S. ’91, Adriane (Wood) Craig, B.S. ’92, Eric Espino, A.B. ’92, Capt. John Greco, III, B.B.A. ’90, and Margaret (Myatt) Jones, B.S.N. ’91. Maj. Eric Espino, A.B. ’92 Via the Internet

Plight for the Night

hat about night school? Rarely, if ever, do I see anything about night school. Night school substantially helped me to

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become a successful member of society. Even today, with Internet education, there’s still a need for places and programs where students can attend lectures. Some people do not want to create a major debt to attend college. These people can maintain a family, work full time, and graduate from programs that offer courses in the evening. I am an individual who has practiced accounting and law, taught at the junior college level, owned businesses, and who will leave this world better than he found it. I went to night school. Samuel S. Forman, B.B.A. ’61, J.D. ’66 North Bay Village, Florida

Editor’s note: Night school does in fact exist at the University of Miami in the form of part-time, flexible programs designed for students who work during the day. The Division of Continuing and International Education, for example, offers credit certificate programs in areas like business, art and art history, human resources, languages, and computer information systems. The division also administers a Bachelor of General Studies degree program and a Master of Arts in International Administration graduate program, both

of which enable students to take classes during the day, evening, or weekend. The School of Business Administration also offers many flexible options.

The University of Miami Magazine

Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing

P. David Johnson Senior Editorial Director

Todd Ellenberg Editor

Meredith Danton

A Blessing in Dysgeusia

would like to thank you for the article about my work and the physiology of taste (“Savory Science,” winter 2006). I also wanted to alert you to one very concrete and positive result from the publication. A patient at the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center who read the article and contacted me had been suffering from severe dysgeusia, which is a deficit in the sense of taste. Since I am not a physician, I could not help him directly, but I put him in contact with a world expert from Yale University, who spoke at length with him about this condition. Stephen Roper Miller School of Medicine Miami, Florida

Letters: We welcome your letters. All letters must be signed (your name will not be printed if you so request in writing) and may be edited for clarity and space. Address letters to: Meredith Danton Miami magazine P.O. Box 248105 Coral Gables, FL 33124 E-mail: mdanton@miami.edu

Art/Design Director

Scott Fricker Graphic Designer

Sau Ping Choi Production Manager

Jill McWilliams Editorial Contributors

Jill Bauer Joan Cochran Robert C. Jones Jr. Christine Kotler, B.S.C. ’91, M.A. ’01 Leonard Nash Blythe Nobleman Jessica Sick, B.S.C. ’00

President

Donna E. Shalala Vice President for University Communications

Jerry Lewis Vice President for University Advancement

Sergio M. Gonzalez Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations

Donna A. Arbide, M.B.A. ’95

Miami magazine is published by the University of Miami Division of University Communications. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Distributed free of charge to alumni and friends of the University. Postmaster and others, please send change of address notification to Miami magazine, Office of Alumni Relations, P.O. Box 248053, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410; telephone 305-284-2872. Contributions of articles, photographs, and artwork are welcome; however, Miami magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited items. The comments and opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Miami or the staff of Miami magazine. Copyright ©2006, University of Miami. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

www.miami.edu/miami-magazine

Fall 2006 Miami magazine 3

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U n i v e r s i t y

JOURNAL

Noteworthy News and Research at the University of Miami

A Cultural Bloom

here’s a new flower blossoming in Miami’s cultural bouquet, and its effect is far-reaching. Just how far? Economics professor Michael Connolly can tell you. He has conducted an economic impact analysis of the Miami Performing Arts Center, the nearly completed home of the Concert Association of Florida, Miami City Ballet, and Florida Grand Opera. It has been 20 years since community leaders first planted the seed for a facility that would centralize

the largest public-private partnership ever undertaken by Miami-Dade County. Executives at the center last year asked the University of Miami to recommend a faculty expert who could quantify the center’s direct and indirect benefits to the city and county in terms of generating employment, real estate development, commerce, and tax revenues. Connolly accepted the task. “I have done a number of other large projects like this, and I think it’s my best effort yet,” says Connolly,

DONNA VICTOR

New arts venue should grow Miami’s bottom line

Professor Michael Connolly assesses the economic impact of the Miami PAC.

Economic impact studies, often required by cities and counties for large-scale development, give these

“I have done a number of other large projects like this, and I think it’s my best effort yet.” Miami’s rapidly growing cultural arts endeavors in a downtown location. Opening this fall, the Miami Performing Arts Center is now

who was a visiting professor at Duke University while on sabbatical from the School of Business Administration last semester.

BUZZ WORDS

“We wanted to expose young scientists here to the leading experts from the U.S., show them there doesn’t have to be such a chasm between basic research and clinical work.” Joseph Rosenblatt, M.D., associate director for clinical and translational

research at the UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Joint American-Israeli Conference on Cancer. –Jerusalem Post

4 Miami magazine Fall 2006

projects a “raison d’être—a reason for being,” Connolly explains. “But in the case of the Performing Arts Center, there’s a lot more it brings to the table than just economic impact. In some sense, it will be the soul of Miami.” Coauthored by Duan Peng, an economics Ph.D. candidate in the UM School of Business Administration, the analysis demonstrates huge benefits to local government, businesses, and residents from the construction

and ongoing operation of the Performing Arts Center. Among the data are an estimated $82 million in income and 636 jobs generated by the center every year. Most of this projected income and employment relates to increases in tourism, but new real estate development and increased property values in the downtown area are other anticipated pearls of the center. Connolly is enthusiastic about the work he has done and the role he plays in community development. “I take great pride in being an academic economist, but I also think we have a duty to get our hands dirty with applied empirical work that helps the University and its partners.”

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Palm Beach Outreach Miller School adds classes and clinics in Boca

“Expanding the capacity of the existing medical schools or starting regional campuses affiliated with existing medical schools is a less expensive way to increase the physician base in the state than building new medical schools,” says Mark O’Connell, M.D., the Miller School’s senior associate dean for medical education. This historic agreement will create a regional academic medical center in Palm Beach County that will expand medical education and add residencies. A new research program and faculty practice will support the teaching efforts. Enrollment is expected to be 64 students per year, and upon graduation the students will receive degrees from the University of Miami.

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

wo years ago the University of Miami forged a partnership with Florida Atlantic University (FAU) to address the growing physician shortage in Florida. The program enables the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine to increase its class size by allowing some students to attend their first two years of medical school on FAU’s Boca Raton campus before joining their classmates in Miami for their final two years. A new agreement between the Miller School, FAU, and Boca Raton Community Hospital expands that two-year initiative to a full four-year track that will allow students to stay on the Boca Raton campus while doing their clinical rotations at Boca Raton Community Hospital.

Former Miller School Dean John G. Clarkson observes (left to right) Gary Strack, Donna E. Shalala, and Frank Brogan—presidents of Boca Raton Community Hospital, the University of Miami, and Florida Atlantic University, respectively—signing an agreement to create a regional academic medical center.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

UM Experts Sought by the NIH

Two University of Miami faculty members have been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve on National Advisory Councils. In these prestigious roles, Nilda P. Peragallo, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Carl Eisdorfer, Ph.D., M.D., Knight Professor and director of the University of Miami Center on Aging, are responsible for providing advice related to their disciplines to the HHS secretary and the director of the National Institutes of Health. Peragallo Peragallo has been appointed to serve on the National Advisory Council to the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a fiveyear term in which she will review and make recommendations on grants for biomedical research and research training activities to improve minority health. Eisdorfer will serve on the National Eisdorfer Advisory Council on Aging through 2009 and will make recommendations on research, training, and other programs related to the aging process and the diseases and special needs of the elderly.

From the Hipp

William Hipp, dean of the Frost School of Music, has announced that he will retire at the close of the 2006-2007 academic year. Having held the position since 1983, he is the longest-serving dean in the Frost School’s 80-year history. His signature accomplishments include: creation of the annual Festival Miami extravaganza; addition of major facilities like the L. Austin Weeks Center for Recording and Performance, the Victor E. Clarke Recital Hall, and the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library and Technology Center; and procurement of the $33 million gift from University trustee Phillip Frost and his wife, Patricia, which named the school in their honor. Hipp plans to take a year on sabbatical after retiring but may return to teach classes at the school.

Fall 2006 Miami magazine 5

KELLY LADUKE

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UniversityJournal

Personal and Preventive Miller School opens first concierge practice

minutes for each patient visit. Kemper is now a Miller School faculty member and head of the concierge practice, which is a partnership between the Miller School and MDVIP, a Boca Ratonbased firm that has helped establish more than 100 concierge practices in 15 states. For an annual fee ranging from $1,500 to $1,800, patients at the new Key Biscayne practice receive preventive services, which include a comprehensive annual physical and all visits throughout the year. They also receive conveniences like same- or

BRUNO BRUDROVIC

s managed care continues to chisel away at the amount of time physicians can give to their patients, interest in an option known as “concierge” or “boutique” medicine is building. The University’s Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine has opened its first practice of this type, which is limited in size to 600 patients. By contrast, the 3,000 patients internist Robert R. Kemper, M.D., Ph.D. ’95, served in his successful Key Biscayne solo practice left him with no more than ten

next-day appointments and a password-protected Web page where they can view their medical records.

Words of Wisdom from a Real Wise Guy

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Known for being “the Clear Eyes guy” and the droning economics teacher from the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Stein also has served as a lawyer, White House speechwriter, columnist for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and author of 17 screenplays and books. But his most important role, he said, was that of a good son to his parents. “I just listened to them, paid attention, and let them know I cared about them.” The U.S. health care and social security dilemmas, the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and potential 2008 presidential candidates were some of the other heady topics that Stein juggled, as well as a student-posed question about the meaning of life. Stein answered, “I wake up each morning, look out the window, stretch, then get down on my knees and thank God that I live in the United States.” PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

hey shot out like cannonballs—clever digs at political figures, religious figures, even Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles—setting off explosive laughter from the audience. It was how actor, writer, economist, and humorist Ben Stein opened his address to students, faculty, and community members at the BankUnited Center in April. Stein, invited by graduating seniors to deliver their Spring Convocation, swiftly turned the discussion to more poignant messages, never quite abandoning his tongue-in-cheek punch. His list of “Rules on How to Ruin Your Life” included pearls like: Don’t learn any useful skills—just spend the Ben Stein day watching reruns of The Simpsons or Family Guy, preferably while getting high; convince yourself you are the center of the universe; never be grateful for anything; and treat the people who are good to you poorly, especially your parents.

“I believe this type of reimbursement, which represents a movement toward payment for continuity of care and prevention rather than for episodic acute care, will prove to benefit the patient and the health care system,” says Laurence Gardner, M.D., executive dean for education and policy and former chairman of the Miller School Department of Medicine. “I am anxious to study the quality of care outcomes in this type of practice and compare them to the traditional model.” Despite the name, Kemper asserts that concierge medicine is not limited by affordability. “Although the fee is not insignificant, at $125 a month people make choices about how they spend their money—whether it’s on cell phones, cable TV, entertainment, or their health,” he says.

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ON COURSE Title: Theatre Arts 300 “Producing” College of Arts and Sciences Semester(s): Fall 2005/Spring 2006

Bench to Bedside Training

sis, and therapeutic intervention. The physician mentor also serves on the student’s Ph.D. committee. In addition, the program has specific logic and scientific reasoning courses that focus on how laboratory observations are translated into clinical applications. “This program gives students a unique perspective that I never had as a Ph.D. student, and it is a great catalyst to stimulate more interactions between our basic science and clinical faculty,” says David Helfman, director of the cancer biology program and a cell biologist. A $1.6 million gift from University trustee David Fuente and his wife, Sheila, supports the cancer biology program, which is one of about 30 such programs nationwide.

DONNA VICTOR

he cure for cancer isn’t going to happen in a vacuum—or, for that matter, in a laboratory devoid of clinical insight. This year the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Miller School of Medicine introduced a new graduate program in cancer biology that’s designed to cultivate scientists whose research is driven by clinical factors. The cornerstone of the Sheila and David Fuente Ph.D. Program in Cancer Biology, which admits its first students in the fall 2006 semester, is two-tier mentoring. Each student has a Ph.D. mentor, in whose laboratory the student will conduct dissertation research, as well as a physician mentor, who will provide students with a clinical perspective on areas related to cancer diagnosis, progno-

Cancer biology graduate program director David Helfman helps Ph.D. students Taylor Schreiber, left, and Ali Saeed understand the importance of clinical insight.

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

Ph.D. students learn the clinical side of cancer

A Hearty Breakfast

roadway producer Barry Brown, whose Tony Award-winning efforts include La Cage Aux Folles and Gypsy (starring Tyne Daly), had never seen the ’80s cult classic The Breakfast Club until his students selected it as the basis for their class project. “When I finally saw it, I was happy with their choice,” says Brown, a Department of Theatre Arts visiting professor. “It’s not just a piece of fluff; it’s actually a movie about something.” The task for this two-semester course was Herculean: conceive, write, compose, build, cast, rehearse, publicize, and perform an original musical. “I was going to teach the nuts and bolts of producing—what happens in my office right up until closing night,” Brown says. “But then I thought, why don’t I just have them do it.” For both Brown and his students, the process was a labor of love. Two students, publicity director Stefany Allongo, B.A.M. ’06, and casting director Rebecca Johnson, B.A.M. ’06, graduated after the first semester but stayed on at the University to see The Breakfast Club Project all the way through. The 18 songs in the musical were written by Michael Dexter B.M. ’06, a senior at the time, whose contagious melodies in songs like “Virgin’s Revolt,” “Lamp Lament,” and “Remember This Day” earned rousing applause from a capacity audience in the Hecht Studio Theatre on opening night. Taking a movie about five kids in detention hall and enriching each character’s depth through song and stage presence was a remarkable opportunity for the students of Theatre Arts 300, one that very few, if any, of their peers nationwide can boast. “I think it is groundbreaking,” Brown says. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 7

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UniversityJournal

Gender’s Role

olumes have been written about Queen Elizabeth I of England, but there’s relatively little about one of the most telling facets of her leadership—her gender identity. “I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king,” she would say. History is replete with leaders who have asserted their masculinity, their femininity, or both for political or social stature. “Look at Margaret Thatcher,” says Richard Godbeer, professor of his-

woven throughout just about every discipline, from history and anthropology to economics and science. It is the mission of the WGS program to ensure that academia doesn’t omit these important human characteristics. The program, which administers an undergraduate major and minor, grew out of the University’s Women’s Studies program, introduced in the 1980s. More than a name change, UM’s program and similar programs nationwide have been broadening over the past decade to encompass

JOHN ZILLIOUX

Program explores an oft-ignored aspect of academia

Richard Godbeer is director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program, which unveils a new, interdisciplinary curriculum this year.

which men and women relate to each other,” explains Godbeer, who has authored books on magic and religion in early New England, the Salem witch trials, and sex in early America. He is in the

“It’s not clear to me how one can teach in any discipline without taking gender into consideration.” tory and director of the recently renamed Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) program in the College of Arts and Sciences. “This was a woman who went to a voice therapist to deepen her voice when she decided to stand for party leader.” Gender and sexuality, it turns out, are intricately

not only female but also male, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender perspectives on myriad academic topics. “Many younger scholars see themselves engaging in gender studies rather than in women’s studies because they’re interested in men as well as in women as gendered beings and the ways in

BUZZ WORDS

“Mothering is a heavy task, and you have to be well to do it.” Eva Ritvo, M.D., associate professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Miller School of Medicine, on a recent study that found when depressed mothers get help, the mental health of their children improves. –WebMD Medical News

8 Miami magazine Fall 2006

process of completing a book about masculinity and platonic male love in colonial America. “One of the fascinating things about this topic is the way in which a society that condemned sodomy exalted and honored love between men. After the American Revolution, there were literally hundreds of pieces in newspapers about how important male love and friendship was to the survival of the new republic,” Godbeer says. This fall the WGS program unveils an updated curriculum, with new core courses such as Queer Stud-

ies; Gender, Sex, and the Law; and Interpreting Bodies. There are many other courses offered throughout the University that are cross-listed with WGS, and Godbeer notes that a growing number of faculty members are working on gender-related topics. “Affiliated faculty for Women’s and Gender Studies should be the entire faculty,” he says. “It’s not clear to me how one can teach in any discipline without taking gender into consideration.” In addition to promoting interdepartmental alliances, the program is reaching out to other institutions. An initial step was the first Graduate Student Conference on Gender and Sexuality this spring, which gave graduate students in various disciplines at UM, Florida International University, and Florida Atlantic University a chance to present their research in seminars attended by their peers.

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Get on Their Feet

GoFigure

A strictly by-the-numbers perspective of UM

Estefan gift aims to help those with paralysis Spots for incoming freshmen each fall semester

“G

et on your feet, stand up and take some action.” Gloria Estefan first sang these lyrics with the Miami Sound Machine in the smash hit, “Get on Your Feet,” in 1989—one year before she broke her back in a tragic tour bus accident. Thankfully Estefan, A.B. ’78, today is not only on her feet, she and husband Emilio are taking action. Longtime supporters of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the Miller School of Medicine, they recently announced a $1 million gift to help fast-track promising research findings into human clinical trials. Their generosity also prompted gifts from three additional Miami Project supporters: $1 million from UM trustee Paul DiMare and wife Swanee, $500,000 from Pennie and Gary Abramson, and $500,000 from Maddy and Jim Berlin.

“Having experienced paralysis firsthand 16 years ago, I feel especially fortunate to have had a positive outcome despite a very negative prognosis,” Estefan said at a press conference announcing the gift. “I vowed that I would do whatever was in my power to assist those already on their way to finding a cure.” In addition to her support through the Gloria Estefan Foundation, the five-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and children’s book author serves on the Board of Directors of The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, the national fundraising arm of The Miami Project. As capital campaign director from 1995 to 2000, Estefan was instrumental in raising $40 million to build the Lois Pope LIFE Center, including a $250,000 personal contribution to jump-start the effort.

>> 2,000

Applications received for fall 2006 freshman admission >> 19,115

Proportion of fall 2006 freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class >> 68 percent

Most unusual UM application essay >> Handwritten on a football

Year UM Athletics began licensing logos and fight song ringtones for cell phones >> 2002

U.S. ringtone sales in 2005 >> $500 million

UM-themed cellular downloads in the first nine months of FY 2005-06 >> 76,252

No. 1 on the June 2006 Billboard Hot Ringtones chart >> Super Mario Brothers Theme by Koji Konds

Total pounds of fitness equipment in the new Medical Wellness Center >> 95,000

Burger King Whopper calories consumed worldwide every 2.7 seconds >> 95,000 ILLUSTRATIONS: JACK HORNADY

Projected annual product usage at the Medical Wellness Center’s Facemaker Spa >> 500 gallons

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

Average annual gasoline consumption per American >> 500 gallons

Miami Project supporters Emilio and Gloria Estefan with Marc Buoniconti, president of The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis.

Sources: Office of Admissions, UM Sports Marketing, BMI, Billboard, Medical Wellness Center (now open), Wikipedia “Whopper,” Burger King Nutrition Facts, U.S. Department of Energy

Fall 2006 Miami magazine 9

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UniversityJournal

Students Have Spoken Vote approves new activities center fee

f all the facilities on a university campus, the student center plays a singular role. It’s the heart of campus life, a venue for activities, and the students’ “living room.” And thanks to a vote on the Coral Gables campus, there will be a new Student Activities Center and a renovation of

will pay an additional $150 fee per semester toward the effort. Up to $40 million of the cost for the center will be generated by this fee, with remaining funding to be secured through the Momentum campaign and other funding sources.

graduate experience,” says Patricia Whitely, vice president for student affairs. “It will bring together undergraduate, graduate,

“This facility will play an important role in allowing our students to become more involved.” the Whitten University Center, built in 1965. In March students approved a referendum to help fund the construction project, and beginning in the fall of 2009, students

“This facility will play an important role in allowing our students to become more involved, to participate fully in campus life and leadership opportunities that will enhance the under-

and law students with faculty, staff, alumni, and guests to create a true sense of campus community.” The new student life complex will be a highly accessible hub of activity.

Undergraduate Excellence Goes Green

ne of the top initiatives in the University’s Momentum fundraising campaign is enhancing the quality of the undergraduate experience, and William Scott Green has been named to lead the effort. As senior vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, a newly created position, Green will oversee development of such academic programs as entrepreneurship, study abroad, professional internships, and partnerships with international institutions. The ultimate goal of the position is to ensure that the undergraduate experience William Scott Green prepares students for careers in a global environment and enables them to learn and work virtually anywhere in the world. “Our focus is sharp and our goals are ambitious,” 10 Miami magazine Fall 2006

says University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala. “William Green is the best person in the country to lead our institutional commitment to create the highest quality of undergraduate programs and services. Everything else we do at the University builds on that core strength.” Green, who holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in religion from Brown University, previously served as dean of the College and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Rochester in New York. In addition to his deanship, he is a professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and a senior fellow in The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies.

New Student Activities Center will house all student organizations under one roof.

Housed under one roof, student organizations of all kinds will be able to share resources, offer joint programs, and benefit from the synergy that comes from close proximity. Among its features: a 10,000-squarefoot Student Organization Suite of offices for student groups, plus conference rooms and workspace; a large multipurpose room adaptable for banquets, lectures, or dance practices; indoor and outdoor dining facilities; a fully equipped media center for WVUM Radio, Ibis yearbook, and The Miami Hurricane; a 400seat auditorium/theatre; an expanded Rathskeller; and computer and production facilities. The new Student Activities Center will be located along Lake Osceola, extending from the Miller Drive campus entrance to the Whitten University Center and its Stanford Drive access.

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PEAK PERFORMANCE

Underdog ’Canes Surprise the College Baseball World

and a starting lineup featuring four freshman starters—proved that it belonged among the nation’s elite. During its road to Omaha, the Hurriith 15 newcomers canes (42-24) accomgracing its roster, the loss plished something no of several starting players other Miami squad from last year’s team, and has ever done— a demanding conference winning its regional schedule, not many coland super regional lege baseball analysts gave series on the road. the Hurricanes much of a “I’m very proud of chance of making it to our team. We fought Omaha, Nebraska, for the all year,” says head 2006 College World Series. coach Jim Morris, Indeed, the Hurricanes who has won two of were considered underUM’s four national dogs since opening the Elite outfielder and hitter Jon Jay. titles. “We have an season unranked. outstanding recruiting class ... and a very But despite their youth and inexperigood nucleus that I think we’ll have a very ence, Miami made it to its 22nd College good club next year.” World Series berth, beating Ole Miss 14-9 Also in ’Canes baseball, freshman secin the Oxford Super Regional on June 12. ond baseman Jemile Weeks recently Though Miami saw its season became the 22nd Hurricane named a end with an 8-1 loss to OreLouisville Slugger Freshman All-American gon State in the College by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. World Series, the squad’s gutsy play throughout a difficult season—a James Is a First-Round schedule that included Mystic Pick eight 2006 NCAA Diviresh out of college, Tamara sion I TourJames, B.L.A. ’06, was snagged by nament the Washington Mystics, the teams only University of Miami player drafted in the first round of the Women’s National Basketball Association. A native of Dania, Florida, James is the all-time leading scorer in UM history—

The WNBA welcomes Tamara James, the all-time leading scorer for UM women’s basketball.

2,406 points, with 520 free throws made. She finished her senior year as the lead scorer in the ACC and was the only player in the conference to score double figures in every game.

Fraser, Bertman Bat 1000

To preserve the history and hallmarks of the game, The College Baseball Foundation has created the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock, Texas. Its inaugural inductees are ten of the game’s most influential coaches and athletes of all time, and two of them are products of

Ron Fraser, left, and Skip Bertman. the University of Miami—Ron Fraser and Skip Bertman. Fraser, UM head coach from 1962 to 1992, was a 26-time coach of the year who led the University to NCAA national titles in 1982 and 1985. He also helped the Hurricanes to an NCAA record 20 consecutive playoff appearances, a streak that is still going at 33. The University retired Fraser’s No. 1 uniform in 1993. Bertman, whose No. 15 Hurricanes uniform is retired, was a catcher from 1958 to 1960 and an assistant coach under Fraser from 1975 to 1983. He went on to become head coach at Louisiana State University, where he is now the athletics director.

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UniversityJournal

This Land Is Our Land Boswell weighs in on the immigration debate

Boswell, named “Ethnic Geographer of the Year” in 2002 by the Association of American Geographers, notes that 1965 and 1986 were two hot points in U.S. immigration history, each following legislative acts that offered amnesty for illegal immigrants or relaxed previous restrictions. In the 1960s, he says, 80 percent of immigrants in the United States came from Europe. Today 50 percent are from Latin America, 30 percent are from Asia, and less than 15 percent are from Europe.

JIM FRAZIER

mmigration reform is a hot topic in Congress these days, with legislation on the table that could overhaul the present system. The implications are huge, since the United States by sheer numbers is home to the lion’s share of the world’s immigrants. Not to mention, there’s a vast rift in public opinion on what to do about the estimated 11 million immigrants who live here illegally. “Most of what’s being debated now is what was debated in this country 100 years ago,” says Thomas Boswell, chairman of the Department of Geography and Regional Studies and a recognized authority on immigration. “Immigration becomes controversial when the numbers suddenly increase, when there’s a noticeable illegal component, and when the places from where immigrants come change radically.”

“Immigration becomes controversial when the numbers suddenly increase, when there’s a noticeable illegal component, and when the places from where immigrants come change radically.” “That concerns some people,” Boswell says about the shift in immigrant origin, “because they wonder if that will fundamentally change the culture of the United States.” Having lived in three of the most ethnically diverse

BUZZ WORDS

“Not only have we failed to reduce drug use, we have filled our jails with prisoners in for drug-related crimes, many of them nonviolent.” Bruce Bagley, professor of international studies, on the U.S. policy of prosecuting drug use, in comparison to Mexico’s proposed drug decriminalization bill. –Christian Science Monitor

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cities in the United States— Los Angeles, New York, and Miami—Boswell is personally familiar with The Immigration Debate in the United States: Good or Bad for America? (also the title of a course he taught this summer for the University’s Bachelor of General Studies program). In class he takes a neutral position, presenting the academic writings and allowing the students to engage in discourse. But if you ask him what he thinks of current immigration policy, he’ll call it an “international disgrace. Different groups of people are treated

differently. It’s prejudicial.” Boswell supports a guest worker program, where people who come here legally have an opportunity to regularize their status and ultimately apply for citizenship over time. He also advocates a “point system,” which would replace the current system’s emphasis on family reunification. In this system, immigrants receive more points for preferred characteristics in categories such as age, education level, and ability to speak English, as well as whether or not they already have family members who live here.

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Singing Praises of Salzburg Frost School program prepares aspiring musicians

very summer since 1920, the birthplace of Mozart welcomes the world’s greatest performers for five weeks of opera, drama, and concerts at the prestigious Salzburg Festival. Every summer since 1986, the Austrian city also welcomes about 50 young musicians from the University of Miami and other schools for a five-week intensive program offered through the Frost School of Music. “European training and experience for a classical singer is fundamental; you can’t have a career without it,” explains Esther Jane Hardenbergh, assistant professor of voice and Salzburg program director at the Frost School. Students live in dorms or with host families, and they receive daily one-on-one training in voice or piano with an impressive corps of faculty from the Frost School and other institutions. The academic host is

Salzburg College, founded in the 1960s by art historian Ina Stegen to give American students the opportunity to study in her native Austria. The program also offers German language instruction and tickets to the Salzburg Festival, where students can hobnob with the iconic musicians who convene and perform there. And this summer—the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth—“Anybody who’s anybody is in Salzburg,” Hardenbergh says. Among annual Salzburg visitors are Frost School Dean William Hipp, Salzburg program cofounder and assistant dean emeritus Josephine Faulmann, and a group of donors who sponsor students. “You need to walk where Mozart walked, see the forest that Schubert wrote about, and listen to the people there because they are different from us,” says Hardenbergh, who participated in a similar program as a student.

FRONTIERS IN RESEARCH

Into the Abyss

At an ocean depth of 2,000 feet, pressures run high—890 pounds per square inch, to be exact. And it’s pitch black. So how can an extensive coral reef system in the Florida Straits between Miami and Bimini thrive? It’s a question researchers Mark Grasmueck, Gregor Eberli, and colleagues at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science are probing since discovering the reefs in December using advanced sonar technology and an unmanned AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle). This spring they teamed up with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution colleagues to explore these areas for the first time in a submersible, aiming to collect samples of organisms, such as sponges and corals, that may produce chemicals with pharmaceutical potential.

Poll Predictions

Political elections make 2006 a dynamic year for Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Nicaragua. To gauge which direction the populace in each country is leaning and release results of preelection voter surveys, the University’s School of Communication is partnering with Zogby International, a worldwide leader in tracking public opinion since 1984. “We view our collaboration with Zogby International on this research as an extension of the important work of our faculty to address the profound role that the Southern Hemisphere will play in the global future,” says School of Communication Dean Sam Grogg.

PlayStation Perks

While playing video games is not an adequate substitute for riding a bike, it’s better than watching television for boys between the ages of 7 and 10, according to a study by Arlette Perry, professor and chair of the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences in the School of Education. Published in the April issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the study examined metabolic and physiological responses such as heart rate, blood pressure, ventilation, oxygen consumption, and energy expenditure, all of which were significantly higher while playing the action game Tekken 3 than when the boys were at rest. Still, nothing beats the cardiovascular benefits of a good oldfashioned game of wiffle ball.

Salzburg, Austria, is the birth place of Mozart and home to a prestigious music festival. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 13

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UniversityJournal

iPod Potential ighty-five percent of college students nationwide can be seen traversing their campuses in a state of robotic serenity—brain linked ear to ear by cables plugged into a vessel the size of a credit card. Soon, these iPod devotees will be able to stroll across campus tuned in not only to music but also to class lectures, language lessons, or other academic programs. This fall the University of Miami will join 100 other U.S. colleges and universities, including Stanford, Duke, and the University of Michigan, as part of Apple’s new program for higher education: iTunes University. iTunes U is a free service

whereby a student can visit an Internet site hosted by Apple and download recorded audio and video (MP3) files onto a page that reflects his or her own course schedule. MP3 files that contain course content, news, or other shows are known as “podcasts.” Students need only subscribe to an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication)—similar to the real-time headlines streaming on news Web sites—and the podcasts for their courses will automatically download to their iPods when they connect them to their computers. Students who don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player can listen

NURI VALLBONA/THE MIAMI HERRALD

iTunes U lets students learn on the go

Podcasting is a budding addition to the University's curriculum.

to or watch podcasts on their computers. The frontrunner in podcasting at the University was the Miller School of Medicine, which began offering videotaped lectures in 2000. Then the school isolated the audio portion so students could “ride the Metrorail

Football legend links teams in autism research

t 17 years old, Michael Marino is handsome, studious, and gifted on the gridiron, just like his father. But when Michael was 2, NFL Hall of Famer and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and his wife, Claire, faced the most formidable opponent of their lives—autism. Michael’s success in overcoming autism is a result of early intervention and comprehensive care. Wanting to give other children a fighting chance against neurodevelopmental disorders, the Marinos in 1992 established the Dan Marino Foundation, which helped create the Miami Children’s Hospital Dan Marino Center in 1998. The foundation recently pledged $1.2 million over three years to develop the Marino Autism Research Institute, a collaboration between the University of

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Miami and Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (UM-NSU CARD) and Vanderbilt University’s TRIAD program of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. The Marino Autism Research Institute brings psychology, neuroscience, medicine, and special education together in cross-site research, clinical, and training activities. “This will ultimately accelerate the rate of discovery of new strategies for treating and preventing this disorder,” says Peter Mundy, professor of psychology and executive director of UM-NSU CARD. UM-NSU CARD is a division of the University of Miami’s Department of Psychology and Nova Southeastern University’s Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

and do other things like walking the dog and exercising at the gym, and all they need is a pair of headphones and their iPod,” says Bill Vilberg, associate director of instructional advancement. Podcast technology has evolved remarkably quickly since it first became available on the Web in September 2004. iTunes Music Store, the world’s largest content download store, now features 20,000 podcasts, 16,000 audiobooks, and 2 million songs. President Donna E. Shalala, who has 500 songs on her iPod, notes that podcasting at the University “will increase dramatically in the next few years.” To integrate it into the curriculum, the Office of Instructional Advancement awarded grants to eight faculty members in various schools and colleges for “Enhanced Learning with Podcasts.” Many projects help students generate their own podcasts.

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

JOHN ZILLIOUX

left to right: Matthew Shpiner, Michelle Pearlman, Danny Carvajal, and Christina Carr

Students Get CERTified to Respond

fter a series of storms wreaked havoc on South Florida last hurricane season, University of Miami junior Danny Carvajal surmised that a team of college students who would aid hurricane victims could be an invaluable resource for the University and community. So Carvajal formed the ’Canes Emergency Response Team (CERT). Composed of more than 30 UM students, the team will perform a number of duties both before and after storms, such as organizing canned food drives for the elderly, staffing the University’s Hurricane Hotline, assisting with food preparation and distribution on campus, and directing traffic snarls caused by inoperative traffic signals. “We’ll also go out into the community and do some proactive, educational outreach to our CollegeTown neighbors,” says Carvajal, a business management/premed major. And, if necessary, CERT could also set up a food distribution site on the Coral Gables campus. The first group of CERT students was assembled early this year. Miami-Dade firefighters and paramedics provided the required

20 hours of extensive classroom and hands-on training, which included a course on disaster preparedness and terrorism awareness, fire suppression and search-and-rescue drills, and a mock disaster incident in which they triaged tornado victims. Keith “Fletch” Fletcher, director of UM’s Butler Volunteer Services Center, and David Shatz, a Miller School of Medicine trauma surgeon who was deployed in New York after September 11 and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, serve as the team’s advisors. Funding for the team comes from the Butler Volunteer Services Center, Business Services, the Division of Student Affairs, and a grant from the Florida Division of Emergency Management. For team president Carvajal, who used to ride along with MiamiDade Fire Rescue paramedics as a high school student in the county’s Explorer program, creating CERT is part of a life spent assisting others. “An active hurricane season is the last thing we want,” Carvajal says “but at least we know we’ll be prepared.”

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FEATURE

PRESENTATION The School of Communication has received a very rare and robust collection of original motion pictures from a film buff who has only one request: show them in the magical way they were meant to be seen. The warmth of your hands pressed against those of your date, the squeak of your shoes peeling off of the sticky floor, the smell of faux-butter popcorn, the power of laughing or crying with a room full of strangers—the magic of motion pictures is as much about the venue as the film itself. These are the reasons why television and movie rentals have not been the death of movie theaters. Still, appreciation for the art of filmmaking seems increasingly lost among present-day audiences. Going to the movies, says film aficionado and archivist Ray Regis, used to be an event, an experience that, before the advent of television, was more like going to see a Broadway musical than merely something to pass time after a meal at T.G.I. Friday’s. By Jessica Sick, B.S.C. ’00 Spring 2006 Miami magazine 17 ■

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ver the past 50 years, Regis has built an impressive film collection, 3,000 original prints of some of history’s most coveted celluloid. Estimated to be worth more than $6 million, the real value in this collection, he says, is for people to see movies the way they “were meant to be seen.” So this summer, several trucks in North Carolina stacked with metal canisters are en route to the University of Miami School of Communication, now the home of the Raymond J. Regis Motion Picture Archives. All of the titles in Regis’s collection are original 35mm and 70mm prints, some of which are the only copies known in existence. Sam L Grogg, dean of the School of Communication, notes that the collection is a coup

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the overture, he says, he’ll play specific music that relates to the picture being shown (he also used to own a radio station, and is bringing nearly 30,000 albums). Film archivist Ray Regis, left, and Dean Sam Grogg hope to generate more “The lights are dim- moviegoing excitement at the Cosford Cinema. ming, the curtain’s became a core component of the curgoing up, and they’re just waiting for riculum. A decade later, after Grogg had that moment when it’s totally dark. left North Carolina for the American Then the image appears on the Film Institute and then accepted the screen,” Regis explains. “It’s exciting position at the University of Miami, the when it’s done properly.” men’s paths crossed again. Regis was Regis’s collection also includes traillooking to move his collection and himers—about 7,000 of them—which he self to a warmer climate. plans on pairing with films from the Regis’s collection includes the classame time period. “After a while,” he sics (Gone with the Wind, Some Like It says, “the students get into it and Hot), the campy (Moon Over Miami, appreciate it.”

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

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“The lights are dimming, the curtain’s going up, and the for that moment when it’s totally dark. It’s exci in terms of attracting future film students and instructing current ones. “What it will say about our motion picture program is that it truly is a serious program,” Grogg says. “Not many universities have collections of original prints. To be able to say, ‘I can see the original movie the way it was meant to be seen,’ that’s a special resource for students. You can’t teach broadcasting without a studio, you can’t teach journalism without an active publication, and you can’t teach movies without actually seeing them.” The collection also will help Grogg and Regis offer members of the UM and Miami community an unparalleled moviegoing experience at the University’s Bill Cosford Cinema. Regis, a former projectionist, stresses that the film itself is only part of the show. Before 18 Miami magazine Fall 2006

Grogg was the founding dean of the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts when he first met Regis. Grogg received a letter from a representative of Regis that read: “I have a client who has a considerable collection of motion pictures and is interested in placing it in a situation where it could be seen and used by students to study the history of motion pictures.” Grogg traveled to Boston to see what this mystery donor had to offer. “We went up to a house out in Framingham, and there were cases and cases of motion pictures everywhere,” Grogg recalls, his eyes widening. “Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Stagecoach, everything was around me.” Grogg and Regis moved the collection to the school, where it grew and

Bladerunner), and the contemporary (Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck), but perhaps the most important collection within his collection is that of the films shot in Technicolor, a color process developed in the 1930s and used through the early 1970s. Three separate strips of negative film raced through the Technicolor camera, each one taking the same image in red, green, and blue. Once

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the negatives were married to a master, an unparalleled color release print could be reproduced. In the mid-1970s, says Grogg, “it was discovered that most every motion picture prior to 1930, about 90 percent, and about 50 percent of every picture prior to 1950 had been lost because they were filmed on what was called nitro-cellulose stock, which is easily destructible.” Technicolor prints, however, will never fade. “I have films from the ’30s and ’40s that are just as vibrant as the day they were made,” Regis says. In the beginning, Regis’s fascination with film was not so much what was on the screen but how it got there. “I’ll tell you a secret that will probably ruin going to the movies for you,” he says from Cosford Cinema’s projection

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room. “Next time you’re at the movies, look in the upper right corner. Every 20 mintues or so you’ll see a dot—that’s to let the projectionist know to switch over to the other projector.” He explains the job of the projectionist, how it used to be an art form but now moviegoers are lucky if the film even fits the screen. “There used to be several moving picture libraries,” Regis recalls, “and for special occasions, like birthdays, parents would rent a movie on film and a 16mm projector, lug it home, get a screen, and show the movie. My parents would rent movies for the weekend, and I would spend the entire weekend with it.” That’s when he got the bug. It was fitting, then, that Regis’s first job was as a projectionist for theaters around town as well as for the archdio-

and they’re just waiting It’s exciting when it’s done properly.”

THE COSFORD GETS A CLOSE-UP With the acquisition of Regis’s collection, the University is completing a $350,000 renovation to the Bill Cosford Cinema to enhance the moviegoing experience and thus draw bigger crowds—the kind of crowds the cinema enjoyed when it first opened in the 1970s. Back then, it was called The Beaumont, and it flourished as one of many single-screen, art house cinemas around Miami. The introduction of the megaplex, however, stole crowds away, but in 1995 The Beaumont underwent a complete renovation and was renamed in honor of the late Miami Herald movie critic and champion of independent film, Bill Cosford. More than a decade later, the Cosford is again ready for its close-up. A new Dolby Digital surround sound system has been installed, and more upgrades are scheduled. Here’s a taste: >> The maroon interior will be changed to orange and green. >> Side curtains will be removed and replaced with special acoustic tile. >> The screen will be enlarged, so films don’t have to be cropped, and pushed further back, so the stage can be used with the curtain closed for director question-and-answer sessions and other events. >> Projectors will be upgraded from 35mm only to both 35mm and 70mm. >> An upscale concession area will create an outside meeting place.

cese of Boston. He would edit the films that were going to be viewed in the church and travel to area convents to teach nuns how to work the projector. “I remember one sister telling me, ‘Oh, this is adorable, it’s just like a sewing machine!’” he says, shaking his head as if the thought were blasphemous. “They would keep them clean, though.” Regis started collecting the films from his various projectionist gigs, and before he knew it, he had filled his parents’ house with them. He will continue to curate the collection at the University of Miami, where he also is teaching a course on film genres in the fall and wants to train interested students in how to project and preserve film. He’d also like to host late-night screenings as study breaks, ongoing screenings and, of course, film festivals. Grogg would like to collaborate with other departments on campus—a screening of The Music Man in conjunction with the musical theatre program’s production of it, for example. Overall, however, perhaps what Grogg and Regis both hope to accomplish most with this collection is simply generate more interest in and more excitement about seeing movies. “There’s a love of motion pictures that I think is in everybody,” Grogg adds. “And the idea of this is to feed it. It’s pretty easy to throw in a DVD on a Friday night, but if you create a place where you know you’re going to get a quality experience, you can build a loyal audience, and after a while we hope the Cosford will become what it was always intended to be—a real cultural treasure for the campus and the whole community.” jessica sick, b.s.c. ’00, is a freelance writer in Miami, Florida. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 19

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POINT +C 20 Miami magazine Fall 2006 ■

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NT + CLIQUE With 7 million members nationwide and more

By Jill Bauer Illustration by Gordon Studer

logging on each day, Facebook is changing the

Helen of Troy–whose face so famously launched a thousand

way college students do

ships–had nothing on today’s college students. With the advent

their social networking.

of the online social network Facebook, students’ countenances are launching thousands, possibly even millions of hits and clicks a day. Sure, a virtual hit isn’t a mythological ship, but as any college student will tell you, a Facebook hit is where it’s at.

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o one knows this better than Megan Shepter, B.S. ’06, who majored in psychology. “I’m addicted to Facebook. I think it’s identical to video games except it’s geared toward women because women are social creatures,” Shepter says, applying some of what she’s learned in psych class. “Women are consistently conscious of what everyone’s up to, and that’s why Facebook is a useful tool. I’m permanently signed on.” “Last year I went to the Bahamas for spring break, and I didn’t know what to do. I kept saying, ‘I need to log onto Facebook,’” confesses Judson Dry, a senior international finance and marketing major who is homecoming chair and treasurer of Interfraternity Council. “I probably check my Facebook page 20 times a day.”

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freshmen and has quickly expanded to include students at more than 2,100 colleges. In the fall of 2005, high schools were invited to join. Facebook now has 7 million members, mostly students, but alumni, faculty, and staff who have an “edu” e-mail address also can join. The site is free to users and financed by advertising. Eric Arneson, UM’s associate director of residence halls, has seen the impact of Facebook’s presence on campus. “I’d guess that four out of five students at the University of Miami are on Facebook. It is their primary mode of communication,” he says. Like all online communities, Facebook serves up its own special menu of quirky offerings. The “wall,” arguably Facebook’s most popular feature, is the place on every member’s site where friends can post comments and have

“Last year Facebook really, really took off,” Dry says. “I’m a peer counselor for the School of Business Administration, and I have a group of eight freshmen whom I help to develop networks and write résumés. I have some students who don’t respond in other ways, like by phone or by e-mail, but they always respond through Facebook. It’s opened up a whole new social communication avenue that wasn’t available before.” While Facebook is an effective communication tool, some administrators and parents are concerned that it can be used as a communication crutch. “People don’t talk anymore,” Arneson says. “We have students who will argue with each other on the computer, and they’re two feet away, right

Facebook is a digital version of those once-indispensable photo guides of incoming college freshmen and has quickly expanded to include students at more than 2,100 colleges. Welcome to Facebook, a distinctively 21st-century technology that has swept through college campuses faster than a DSL connection. Facebook is thematically similar to MySpace.com, one of the top-ten most trafficked spots on the Internet. The biggest difference is that MySpace is open to anyone with an e-mail address, while Facebook requires members to be affiliated with a college or a high school. The brainchild of Harvard sophomore (now dropout) Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is becoming the one thing that students cannot live without. Founded in 2004, Facebook is a digital version of those once-indispensable photo guides of incoming college 22 Miami magazine Fall 2006

virtual conversations. And then there’s the “poke,” sort of like a wink or a wave without saying much more. Facebook members also can check the “pulse” to see what books, movies, and music are topping the charts at their school. They can post pictures of themselves and their friends. And if someone decides to “friend” you, it means they send you a request to be their friend. Once you confirm that this person is indeed your friend, voila! he or she is added to your friend list. Dry, a self-proclaimed “very social guy,” has 660 friends at the University of Miami. There’s even a feature that allows members to create specialized groups of Facebookers who share hobbies and jokes.

next to each other. Our students aren’t nearly as prepared to deal with conflict as they were ten years ago. That’s where our staff come into play and help students to interact face to face. But students love it. And you can’t fight it, so you might as well join them and understand it.” As editor in chief of The Miami Hurricane last year, senior journalism and business major Patricia Mazzei covered and assigned several stories about Facebook. “Facebook does enable students to communicate more, but in some ways it’s worse communication,” Mazzei says. “We have problems with reporters who would rather conduct interviews via e-mail, and that just

JOHN ZILLIOUX

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ingly popular student life component. “Students can use it to post upcoming activities and awards that they’ve won. Recently some students used it to create a group for women interested in learning more about sororities,” he says. It’s also a way for longlost friends to find each other. “I went to high school in Europe, and I’ve been able to find over half of my graduating class. That never would’ve happened if we didn’t have this international networking tool,” Shepter says. Facebook’s main draw, Shepter notes, is that it enables people to interact Facebook devotees Megan Shepter and Jeff Jenkins post photos and with each other without profiles online. inhibitions. “You can poke someone, and it’s a way of saying, ‘Hi, I’m doesn’t work. I do use Facebook as a here.’ But if you walk around campus work tool but mostly for research. I and see someone who’s cute, you can’t think people should be more conreally do that. With Facebook, it’s no cerned about what they put on there.” harm, no foul, and no rejection factor.” Greg Singleton, associate dean of While she is hesitant to date somestudents and director of judicial affairs, one who randomly “poked” her on agrees. “Students need to be aware of Facebook, Shepter does have firsthand the way they depict themselves. I don’t experience with one of Facebook’s log on to Facebook looking for violacommon uses: the online breakup. tions of University policy, but if they “When you log onto Facebook and are brought to our attention, we are decide to end a relationship, it asks obligated to do something about it.” you, ‘Are you sure you want to break Singleton, who has participated up with so-and-so?’ And you say ‘Yes.’ in national academic conferences If your friends click on ‘My Friends,’ it addressing the Facebook phenomenon, will come to their attention immedinotes that the University of Miami’s ately. A lot of times you can see who approach is on par with that of other breaks up that night. It adds a whole institutions. He also reminds students new element to my generation.” that some employers go on Facebook to Jeff Jenkins, Interfraternity Council check out graduating students who president and a senior majoring in have applied for a job. Still, Singleton international finance and religious acknowledges Facebook as an increas-

studies, was initially reluctant to sign on. “I didn’t know how to use it. Of course, eventually I became part of the pop culture.” Jenkins, who logs on every day, says that he would not use it as a dating tool. “In my opinion it doesn’t replace personal interaction.” For him, one of the best features is the ability to “type something like Pink Floyd, my favorite band, into the search box, and it will connect me with everyone on campus who likes Pink Floyd. And then there are the notes. If I miss a class I can click on the class and message a student to ask what I missed,” he says. Many students use Facebook for note sharing. “I went to a wedding and missed two days of class, so I clicked on the person who sits next to me and asked her if she could e-mail me her notes,” Shepter says. “That’d never happen without Facebook.”

t remains to be seen what sort of long-lasting effects Facebook will have on today’s students and tomorrow’s professionals. But all the students included in this story agreed that there is one feature they all love: the birthday alarm. “I always forget my friends’ birthdays, but with Facebook, that’s not even an option. When you first log on it tells you all the birthdays coming up for the next three days,” Dry says. “On my birthday I got almost a hundred messages on my wall.” And who wouldn’t want to get “poked” and messaged by a hundred of their closest friends on their birthday? Who wouldn’t want to have a face that launched a hundred or maybe even a thousand hits? jill bauer is a book author and freelance writer in Miami, Florida. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 23

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Miller School of Medicine researchers are participating in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that asks the tough, gritty questions—about personal drug habits and sexual practices. What they discover may help curb HIV transmission nationwide.

Joan

Cochran

Photos by Richard Patterson

TAKING IT TO THE STREET IT’S LIKE A SCENE FROM MIAMI VICE—midnight on a nondescript street corner, a blustery wind kicking up a cocktail of loose asphalt and trash in the alleyways behind all-night liquor shops and one-hour motels. A large van pulls up and parks, capturing curious glances from the night owls who mingle at the scene. Inside the van are Miller School researchers, on a mission to find out why and how HIV continues to spread. They comb the streets of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, spending hours speaking to people from all walks of life—from affluent professionals to prostitutes and the homeless. By participating in anonymous interviews and sharing intimate information most keep hidden from friends and family, these people are providing the researchers of Project ACXION with valuable answers to why the HIV transmission problem remains unsolved.

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O T

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aunched in 2004, Project ACXION is the Miami-Dade and Broward County arm of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system. The goal of this study, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is to reduce the number of new HIV cases in the United States by looking at behaviors that put different groups of people at high risk for HIV infection. Researchers also are following trends in these behaviors over time and monitoring people’s awareness and use of

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Epidemiology and Public Health in the Miller School of Medicine to collect information about individuals in these areas who are at greatest risk of HIV. The department, particularly through its Drug Abuse and AIDS Research Center, played an early role in recognizing the AIDS threat and developed some of the first AIDS programs in the community. “We’ve been successful in large part,” says Clyde McCoy, epidemiology professor and department chair, “because we have maintained a strong relationship with community organizations.”

“We need to understand what the people who get this disease have in common and how we can reach them.” testing, counseling, and other prevention services. Miami-Dade and Broward Counties are among 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas with a high prevalence of AIDS included in the national study. “We need to understand what the people who get this disease have in common and how we can reach them,” says Marlene LaLota, program administrator in the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS, which is administering the study in Florida and selected the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as its partner in the task. “If we have a group of people who are at risk and providers who aren’t reaching them, we need to know that.” Florida has the nation’s third largest AIDS population—almost 97,000 people—with the greatest concentrations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. ACXION (for Assessing Characteristics of Population X in Ongoing Surveillance) was formed by the Department of 26 Miami magazine Fall 2006

David Forrest, an anthropologist by training, is the director of operations for Project ACXION. He believes that his team has been particularly successful in obtaining honest and thorough information in this study because of the compassion and objectivity with which Project ACXION interviewers approach survey participants. This is also particularly important, he notes, because ACXION provides a rare opportunity to reach individuals who might otherwise not participate in prevention programs. “One of the fantastic things about this is, because we don’t make any assumptions about people and the survey is anonymous, we get fairly open talk about people’s sexual behaviors,” Forrest says. “All our training is geared to being objective and nonjudgmental, from the way we carry ourselves to our facial expressions and tone of voice.” At the end of each survey, people are invited to take an HIV screening test

and, if they agree, receive HIV counseling and a personal risk assessment that goes well beyond that offered in most doctors’ offices or clinics. If a person turns out to be HIV-positive, they’re referred elsewhere for follow-up testing and treatment. Why, more than 20 years after this devastating epidemic was identified, does controlling the spread of HIV remain such a challenge? “I think one of the problems has been that when HIV went from being a fatal disease to a chronic disease in the mid-1990s, it led to some complacency,” says Lisa Metsch, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Miller School of Medicine principal investigator in the study. In the mid-1990s, she explains, physicians began using HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), a combination drug therapy that suppresses the virus’s ability to multiply in the body

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Project ACXION operations director David Forrest, left, records interview data on his handheld computer. Below, Field supervisor Roxanna Bell performs a rapid HIV test.

and slows down the development of AIDS. This made it possible for HIVpositive people to survive for decades. A second issue is the growing awareness of men who are known in the media as being “on the down low,” which Metsch describes as “men who are in heterosexual relationships but who also are carrying on secret lives, having sex with men.” Finally, although the sharing of drug paraphernalia by injection drug users has long been a known risk factor for AIDS, the problem may be worsening with the growing popularity of crystal methamphetamine. This drug suffers the double curse of being highly addictive and ramping up one’s sex drive at a time when people are less apt to practice safe sex. The ACXION survey

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revealed that crystal methamphetamine users were more likely to have in excess of ten sexual partners, to engage in the riskiest types of sexual behavior, and to find sex partners on the Internet. “A lot of prevention strategy focuses on condom use,” Metsch adds, “and it’s pretty challenging to get people hooked on hard-core drugs to use a condom.” Forrest explains that the nationwide study is investigating risk behaviors among three different groups: men who have sex with men, injection drug users, and at-risk heterosexuals. In the first phase, which his team completed in early 2005, trained interviewers spoke with hundreds of men and administered a half- to full-hour anonymous survey exploring everything from sexual identification (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual), to number of sexual partners, to whether the interviewee exchanged sex for money or drugs. Researchers drove the ACXION van—an oversized emergency medical vehicle with three soundproof rooms, a bathroom, and blood collection facilities—to multiple venues where they determined that men who have sex with men congregate. They asked random individuals at these sites to participate in the study. The second phase, completed in early 2006, focused on risk behavior among men and women who use injection drugs. This phase used a respondent-driven sampling technique in which drug users who participated in the study located and recruited other drug users to take the survey for a small fee. The third phase of the study will break new ground by becoming the first national study of HIV risk among heterosexuals. In Florida, 23 percent of men and 89 percent of women with HIV contracted it through heterosex-

ual contact, according to data from 2004. ACXION staff will interview people in neighborhoods with a high incidence of HIV. Once the heterosexual phase of the study is over, Metsch and her colleagues will begin the cycle anew, again interviewing people among the three groups. This will help local and national organizations track trends in risk behavior every three years and determine whether changes in prevention strategies have worked.

lthough the study is still in its early stages, ACXION researchers have reported a number of notable findings. These include the discovery that almost half of the men (46 percent) who tested positive for HIV were unaware of their infection. This is particularly dangerous, Metsch notes, because individuals are most contagious during the early stages of the disease when they may not know they’re infecting others. Metsch and Forrest have presented these findings to numerous federal, state, and local organizations to help them design effective prevention strategies. For people who visit the ACXION van, though, the trusting relationship they develop with the UM interviewers is the key. In many cases, the interviewer is the first person—or the first in many years—with whom they’ve openly discussed their concerns. “The most powerful thing we can do by talking to people during the interview is to cause them to think about their behavior regarding risk for HIV and what they can do about it,” Forrest says. “Some people simply don’t think about the consequences.” joan cochran is a freelance writer in Boca Raton, Florida. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 27

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Foreign currency, new

Illinois native Ben Everard, A.B. ’06, will never forget the

language, different culture,

image of 250,000 protesters lining the streets of Hong Kong

exotic foods—and all

last December, petitioning the Chinese government for

while getting a college education. Study abroad takes commitment, but

democratic elections. Everard at the time was a third-year University of Miami student spending a semester at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “China was an eye-opening experience and one of the most

those who’ve done it

memorable periods of my life,” says Everard, who has since

return deeply enriched

been accepted to law school and is considering a career in

and forever changed.

politics. “In the near future China will be one of our biggest competitors, but it faces a number of political issues that can emerge as problems. My witnessing this dynamic firsthand will continue to benefit me tremendously.” As a Foote Fellow, one of the University’s top student honors, Everard clearly excels in the classroom. But going abroad gave him a rich perspective on culture, politics, people, and protocol outside of the United States.

Going G While student interest in the opportunity is growing at UM and nationwide, some academicians worry that the growth is still too sluggish. The U.S. Senate designated 2006 as the “Year of Study Abroad,” urging academic, business, and government entities to encourage opportunities for international exchange. ultimately, the rewards of study abroad are best appreciated through the eyes of students whose By Blythe Nobleman

28 Miami magazine Fall 2006

lives have been inordinately impacted by the experience.

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GREG SCHNEIDER

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g Global Fall 2006 Miami magazine 29

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hrough exchange agreements that it currently maintains with 75 partner institutions in 33 countries around the world, the University of Miami has sent more than 3,500 students abroad for semester, year, and summer programs in the past 22 years. About 1,000 of those students have been in the past two fiscal years alone. Additional UM students have traveled abroad on their own or through other non-UM programs. Since 1923—when Professor Raymond W. Kirkbride made the highly unconventional move of sending eight of his University of Delaware students to Paris, France—study abroad has become an increasingly essential vehicle for improving foreign relations. Students act as de facto ambassadors,

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demonstrating hands-on diplomacy and building lasting relationships. “Students gain not only a broader perspective about the world but also about their own country,” says Glenda Hayley, director of the Office of International and Exchange Programs (IEEP), which manages study abroad at the University. “We expect them to be good ambassadors for both the University and the United States.” Creating much more globally aware citizens is urgent in this day and age, especially considering the results of the National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Global Literacy Study: 75 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 cannot locate Israel on a map of the Middle East, 65 percent cannot find Great Britain on a world map, and 50 percent cannot

of Miami, notes she is the only one among her friends who has studied abroad. “By studying abroad in my senior year I have put going to medical school on hold for another year. But I am so happy with my choice because I do not know when I will ever have the opportunity to live in a different culture and have the freedom to go to any country in Europe when I desire. It’s an amazing thing to land in a completely different city with just a tour book and a map, knowing that I have three days to see whatever it is I want to see. I have gained a lot of confidence in myself from my independent travel.” Broodie’s observation that American students are curiously absent from the global classroom is backed by the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan Resolution 308, which names 2006 as “Year of Study

“China was an eye-opening experience and one of the most memorable periods of my life.”

JOHN ZILLIOUX

identify New York on a U.S. map. “Through my travels I have met many people in their 20s who have taken time off from school or work to travel, but most of them are not Americans,” says Nisha Broodie, a senior biology major who just returned to the United States from a semester at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “It makes me wonder if many students in our country focus too heavily on accomplishing things quickly and feel like they cannot sacrifice time or money to travel.” Broodie, who aspires to go to medical school after graduating from the University Ben Everard traveled to China as a third-year student.

Abroad.” It cites a 2002 American Council on Education poll in which “79 percent of people in the United States agree that students should have a study abroad experience some time during college, but only 1 percent of students from the United States currently study abroad each year.” “I’m disappointed but not surprised that so few students study abroad,” says Thomas J. LeBlanc, executive vice president and provost of the University of Miami. “The experience takes time and money.” LeBlanc should know. He was a high school junior from a small town in upstate New York when he boarded his first airplane and headed to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on an American Field Service exchange program. Born of French lineage and having studied

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French in high school, LeBlanc had expected to study in France. But the program assigned him to Brazil, where he learned Portuguese, took bus excursions throughout the raw countryside, and formed a connection with his host family that has endured to the present day. One of LeBlanc’s priorities at the University of Miami is to help enhance the undergraduate experience, and for him study abroad is a logical place to start. “Why do we live in such an international community and attract such a diverse population, and yet students go abroad at much lower rates than our peer institutions? It seems to me they should go abroad at a higher rate. Part of the reason is financial, so if we want that to be a critical part of their experience, we need to understand the financial role, and we may need to bring resources to bear.” While all scholarships students receive at the University apply toward tuition during their time abroad, there is a need for more scholarships to offset expenses for living, currency exchange, food, and other costs students might not encounter here in Miami. One donor, Edward Pascoe, provides students who are Miami-Dade County residents with travel stipends that cover the added expenses of studying overseas. Pascoe, who spent a year in Rome while he was a student at Notre Dame University, considers his support as a way to enhance the internationalization of Miami-Dade County. Pascoe is like so many students who go abroad and return from the experience with a new perspective that forever

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SCENES FROM ABROAD: From top, Billy Bludgus, now a volunteer in Tanzania; Stephanie Scotto, working at the Olympics in Torino, Italy; Rita Benitez and friends in Paris; and Ben Everard in Hong Kong.

shapes their personalities and affects their actions. “I came back a changed person,” says Provost LeBlanc. “One of the things it taught me was patience with people who have difficulty communicating in English. Speaking a new language is exhausting, frustrating, and hard work, and our international students and visitors are putting all that effort out. If we put just 5 percent of that effort back in, I think it would make an amazing difference for them.” As frustrating as it can be, immersion in a foreign language is a benefit of study abroad that LeBlanc weighs heavily. “Far too many students study

abroad in England or Australia because they don’t feel comfortable with a foreign language. I’ve got nothing against England or Australia, but the combination of learning a language and culture and food and music and geography—putting all of that together—is an incredible experience.” Stephanie Scotto, a native of Venezuela, loaded her roster with Italian classes before jetting off to L’Aquila, Italy, in the second semester of her sophomore year. After what she calls “the most incredible six months of my life,” she returned to the University of Miami and dove headfirst into Italian culture in the local community. She became a sales coordinator for the Italian Chamber of Commerce and a collaborator of the Italian Consulate in Miami. She then signed up to do her final undergraduate semester in Granada, Spain, where she was hired by HBO as a marketing associate. This led to an “Olympic” opportunity and a taste of what it will be like for her to achieve her goal of living and working in Italy. “I was able to live the first steps of my dream by working as a sector manager with the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics, principally responsible for the Medals Plaza,” Scotto explains. “The minute I stepped onto the plane, I stepped into an actual dream of which I am living every step, every breath, every heartache, every smile, and every mile.” Fall 2006 Miami magazine 31

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his summer Rita Benitez was in Paris, continuing a path of personal introspection that she started during her semester there in the spring of 2005. Having majored in Spanish and French at the University of Miami, she went there to study library and information sciences at Ecole de Bibliothécaires et Documentalistes. “Having the opportunity to live amidst other cultures and different ideologies allowed me to reevaluate the kind of life I want for myself and the kind of opportunities to which I

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would like to be exposed. My stay in Paris consisted of a constant process of exploration and redefinition, and has thus initiated a new period in my life.” Despite ringing endorsements from many study abroad students, the experience is not right for everyone. “I think you really have to want to do it,” LeBlanc says. “My year abroad had some really difficult times, especially in the beginning when I was the only one in a room who didn’t speak Portuguese. Phone calls were expensive, so I didn’t talk to my U.S. family for a year. But I think the barriers are

and in cases like last summer’s bombing in London, the entire IEEP office immediately moves into emergency status, contacting partners overseas to account for all of the students. The office then informs parents of students that their children are safe. Challenges aside, life after going abroad proves markedly changed for many students, and Hayley has the unique ability to observe the beforeand-after effects. She notes that many students begin to receive and seek out opportunities that reflect their global perspective. After studying in Madrid,

“My stay in Paris consisted of a constant process of ex and redefinition, and has thus initiated a new peri

JOHN ZILLIOUX

lower now. With the Internet, you can call home practically for free.” Besides maneuvering amidst language barriers, inconveniences of foreign currencies and exchange rates, and strangeness of new foods, today’s abroad students have the added task of trying to assimilate in a foreign country during a time of fear and uncertainty in our own nation. Living in the post-9/11 era, Americans are hyperconscious of the dangers that lurk in countries that have been targets for terrorism. “Everyone was afraid, but students still went out,” Hayley says of spring 2002, the semester immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “There was a drop, but not a significant drop, and it turned right around.” Hayley explains that the University carefully monitors its abroad students, This summer Rita Benitez returned to Paris, where she spent a semester last year.

Hayley herself was recruited by the CIA for exactly that reason. “The CIA sold me by offering me the ticket to go back overseas,” she recalls. “At that time, they were looking for that profile of a student who had studied abroad.” Hayley, who is fluent in Spanish, served a tour of duty for the CIA in South America (where she also met her future husband). “I imagine that a lot of students will seek out a life pattern that includes an international perspective in their jobs.” Paola Stefan, B.S.C. ’02, who studied in L’Aquila, Italy, and Paris, describes a similar experience. “Now out in ‘the real world,’ my experiences abroad have gotten my résumé to the top of the pile time and time again. Every time I mention my travels and studies abroad, not to mention the languages I learned, employers seem to lean forward toward me and become more attentive. It opened doors for me in broadcast journalism, and now in the field of education it has opened doors for me to teach in a variety of subject

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Architecture professor Luis Trelles captured this photo of students during his Open City Studio program in India last year.

areas with little or no limitations.” Billy Bludgus, B.S. ’05, a teacher and volunteer through Jesuit Volunteers International in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was intrigued by this two-year professional opportunity after spending a semester at the University of Vienna in Strobl, Austria, in 2004. “Studying abroad is hands-on learning in its purest form. Taking what I learned from my time in Austria has helped me make the transition to life here in Tanzania,” says Bludgus, who teaches math, science, and values education in the poor outskirts of the city

cess of exploration new period in my life.” while also learning to speak Swahili and lead community service and retreat programs. His day-to-day hassles include dirt, bugs, electricity blackouts, intense heat, severe drought, monsoons, mudslides, and the need to boil water for drinking, if there’s any water available at all. On one of the rare occasions when electricity is flowing, Bludgus sends out an e-mail recounting a particular memory in Austria that he says encompasses all the lessons he learned there: “I decided to go to Vienna one weekend to meet up with a friend coming from Germany, but I didn’t want to miss classes on Friday, so I took a late train. My friend was not coming in until Saturday, but little did I know, it was impossible to find a hostel bed so late in the night without prior reservations. I headed back to the train station, which is well lit at night and relatively safe, and I met a group of very nice homeless people there. They offered me some of the bakery’s leftover pastries, which I

CLASS TRIPS Last year 280 students participated in the University of Miami’s faculty-led programs in areas like the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. Glenda Hayley, director of International Education and Exchange Programs, touts this summer’s “really big studio design program taking place in Tokyo, and we also have programs going to Italy, Greece, China—virtually all over the globe.” For students who do not want to spend a whole semester or year abroad, faculty-led courses enable them to travel and learn under the direction of a professor during intersession, spring break, and summer break. Many departments and programs at the University offer these courses, including architecture, foreign languages and literatures, communication, and art and art history. “Programs abroad are a long-standing tradition at the School of Architecture,” says Luis Trelles, B.Arch. ’82, now assistant professor in the school. “My brother Jorge (B.Arch. ’82) and I were fortunate enough to have participated in a program led by our current dean, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, when she was a junior faculty member and we were students of hers. Since then, as professors, we have devoted time and effort to these programs because they continue to be a most memorable form of ‘classroom’ environment for students who yearn for a personal engagement with architecture.” Fred Frohock, chair of UM’s Department of Political Science, created and implemented two programs for Syracuse University during his tenure there as a professor of political science. The first is a study abroad academic-year program in Madrid, and the second is a summer program in London. Next summer, Frohock will lead UM’s “Ideals and Realities: Politics, Media, and Economics in Spain.”

gladly accepted. Even though I had money, there was nowhere to buy food and I was hungry. We spent some time sharing food and conversing in German before we called it a night, sharing a couple of shredded blankets. I woke up the next morning, bought them breakfast, and headed on my way to meet my friend. Talk about an education. Talk about humility.” At the end of the e-mail, Bludgus tags this quote from Aristotle: “Edu-

cating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” The quote sums up what most study abroad students believe—that universities provide intellectual and academic development, but the culture and environment abroad provides a lifechanging and timeless education of the heart. blythe nobleman is a freelance writer and an instructor at the University of Miami. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 33

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The Calling ’Canes are working their tails off for the Annual Fund, the University’s nest egg that supports scholarships, academic initiatives, and other pressing needs. Sebastian the Ibis has flown in to help call all alumni to action. Every gift, no matter how small, counts toward the Momentum campaign and helps the University soar.

Post Off ice Box 248002

•

Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410

•

Telephone: 305-284-2872

When the bird ca answer the w lls, ing!

You can also make a donation online at www.miami.edu /makeagift.

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A l u m n i

DIGEST

News and Events of Interest to University of Miami Alumni

Living Large with Dwayne and Dany Gift from UM power couple names alumni center living room

wayne Johnson, A.B. ’95, and Dany Garcia Johnson, B.B.A. ’92, used to spend hours at the edge of Lake Osceola, talking and wondering about what their future would hold. They met here, while Dany was a senior and Dwayne was a freshman on a football scholarship. He would bring her cans of Diet Coke late at night when she was studying, and she would drive him to football practice and pick him up from away games. Together they endured a “rocky” start—poverty, Dwayne’s brief stint in professional football, and his initially tenuous decision to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as a professional wrestler. But Dwayne, a.k.a. “The Rock,” climbed quickly to the peak of the World Wrestling Federation, just as Dany swiftly ascended the corporate ladder at Merrill Lynch. Now the couple announce a $2 million gift to the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center, a generous extension of their commitment to their alma mater. “I enjoy having the opportunity to help shape the future of an entity that

in the past helped shape ours,” says Dany, a University trustee and Alumni Board member. Dany and Dwayne’s gift will name the alumni center living room, which will be the “core of activities, the place where people start and finish their business on campus,” says Donna Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, associate vice president of alumni relations. Dany also loved the idea of sponsoring the living room because it will be a place to showcase the successes of alumni. “I was working in Los Angeles when my wife called me to tell me about the gift, asking if I would like to be known as Dwayne Johnson or Dwayne “The

Dany, Simone, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

smell a host of new films, including Gridiron Gang, based on a true story about a football coach who uses the game to teach discipline at a juvenile prison. Dwayne will

commitment, achieving my goals in a gracious manner, and learning to deal with failure,” Dwayne recalls. Dany, who was on the varsity crew team and

“I enjoy having the opportunity to help shape the future of an entity that in the past helped shape ours.” Rock” Johnson on the plaque after her name,” Dwayne chuckles. Today Dany is the founder of JDM Partners, a Miami-based wealth management firm, and Dwayne has gone from the ring to the big screen, with movie credits like The Scorpion King, The Mummy Returns, and Be Cool. Fans who can “smell what The Rock is cookin’” will

attend a screening of the film sponsored by the UM Alumni Association this fall in Miami. The couple, parents of a 5-year-old named Simone, cite discipline as the source of their good fortune, something they both acquired as student-athletes at the University. “It was here that I learned traits that became part of my ethos—like sacrifice,

worked in the dean’s office at the business school, credits her business school mentors with helping to “shape a young New Jersey girl with big hair into a polished young executive.” The Dany and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Living Room will be a regal space, with 26-foot ceilings, stone floors, comfy furnishings, and a fireplace. Fall 2006 Miami magazine 35

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AlumniDigest

R. Fred Lewis Respects His Roots

rowing up in the coalmining town of Beckley, West Virginia, where he excelled in sports, R. Fred Lewis, J.D. ’72, never dreamed that on June 30, 2006 he would become the 52nd chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. He keeps a jar of coal on his desk to remind him of his roots. “My grandfather and all the uncles were coal miners,” Lewis says, noting that his father, now 96, worked at a “tipple,” an aboveground facility for sorting coal. “I thought I was going to be one of those youngsters from the woods who makes

his college summers working with kids at his hometown YMCA. His performance at FSC earned him an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, which named him one of the nation’s top 15 scholar-athletes. Then he got the itch to try law school. “Back in West Virginia, in the community, folks would say, ‘If you have a problem, go see lawyer so and so. He can help you.’ I thought, ‘Hey, that would be a good thing to try,’ so I gave it an effort,” Lewis recalls. The UM School of Law was where Lewis met his future mentor, the late

appellate lawyer, introduced Lewis to Larry Kuvin, J.D. ’58. Lewis practiced civil trial and appellate law with Kuvin in Miami until he became a justice on the Florida Supreme Court, appointed in 1998 by the late Governor Lawton Chiles. Married since 1969, Lewis and his wife, Judith, have two Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis daughters. Elle, a for“became a lawyer for the right mer Florida USTA tennis reasons.” champion, is a civil engineer A former longtime memin Texas. Their younger ber of the Board of Directors daughter, Lindsay, 21, who of Miami Children’s Hospital, Lewis now volunteers with the Florida Law Related Education Program, which offers teachers and students lives with her parents in Tallahassee, suffers from lactic insight into government institutions and fosters access acidosis, an incurable mitobetween the public and judichondrial syndrome that cial officers. attacks the central nervous As chief justice, Lewis is system and has left her hearing and sight impaired. “She’s committed to ensuring that a gift from God,” Lewis adds, Florida’s court system remain open in the wake of natural noting that doctors did not expect her to survive beyond disasters, pandemics, transportation interruptions, and the age of 6. During his years of private other threats. He also wants Florida’s courts to implement practice, Lewis often voluntechnology “in a good and teered his time and knowlopen way that recognizes and edge counseling families of protects the constitutional other special-needs children. liberties and the privacy of He also provided countless the citizens of Florida,” and hours of pro bono legal he wants to see better court services to cancer patients. access for the elderly and Lewis says these involvements convinced him that he the disabled.

“ I thought I was going to be one of those youngsters from the woods who makes it as a professional baseball player.” it as a professional baseball player,” says Lewis, who played baseball and basketball at Florida Southern College (FSC) in Lakeland, Florida, on a basketball scholarship and who spent

Edward Perse, J.D. ’61. “I started clerking for him, and it’s just one of those wonderful experiences where by happenstance, you meet one of the finest people who ever walked the Earth.” Perse, an

Don’t Forget! Alumni Weekend and Homecoming is just around the corner, featuring the first-ever Alumni Avenue—a giant block party on Stanford Circle with carnival-style tent celebrations for reunion classes and affinity groups. For an updated schedule of events, visit www.miami.edu/ alumniweekend or call 1-866-UMALUMS.

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eeks had gone by since Lois Kerr slept in her own bed. She had been on the road with the Miami Hurricanes baseball team, cheering every crack of the bat as the players rounded the bases at the ACC tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, then at the NCAA regionals in Lincoln, Nebraska, then at the NCAA super regionals in Oxford, Mississippi, and on to the team’s 22nd appearance in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. A Miami native and an honorary UM alumna, Kerr keeps orange and green not

Alumni Fuel the Fire

Kerr’s jovial presence supports the team in many other ways, too. For more than a decade she has volunteered her time in the baseball office, and she donates the proceeds from Hurricanethemed jewelry, pillows, quilts, and handbags Hurricane Baseball’s No.1 fan, Lois Kerr that she makes and sells. Kerr also is one of Darlings-Diamond Studs, an the founders of the Diamond organization of now 150 people that promotes and raises funds for the team. When Kerr was looking for a venue in which to celeFrost School of Music hosted a post-performance question-and-answer session with producer Kenneth brate her 60th birthday last year, she realized there’s no Greenblatt, B.B.A. ’68, casting director David place like home—plate, that Clemmons, B.M. ’88, and star vocalist Lari is. The price of admission to White, B.M. ’88. her bash at the Mark Light “If you put it in terms of Stadium at Alex Rodriguez football, something our UniverPark was a contribution to sity of Miami audience knows the stadium’s renovation well, it was like getting a top fund. She raised $102,000 draft choice in every position,” from guests and added her Greenblatt said of the cast. own matching gift. And Greenblatt’s opinion “I don’t know how many should not be taken lightly. With two business partners and his wife, people came, but I sure wrote a lot of thank you notes!” she Sandra, Greenblatt runs GFour Prorecalls. “As I walked through ductions, a company that began the stands, people were handproducing in 1981 with the Tonying me money and I didn’t Award-winning Nine, The Musical and is presently running Menopause, even know who they were.” Luckily, her guests knew The Musical in 14 cities worldwide. who she is and what she Ring of Fire was a Broadway first for White, a does to support the Miami Grammy-winning country singer with five studio Hurricanes. albums.

only in her blood but also on her sleeve: “It’s not in my wardrobe unless it’s orange, green, grey, black, or white.” Clad 365 days a year in University flair—colors, logos, pins, earrings, beads, and hand-crocheted berets—she is an unmistakable fixture at Alex Rodriguez Park and at college ballparks nationwide. A season ticket holder since 1989, it was on her 25th wedding anniversary in 1994 that she requested a special gift from her late husband, Wilfred “Bill” Kerr, A.B. ’48— his agreement that they would attend all away games.

eing a University of Miami graduate is like being part of a circle of friends, or in this case, a Ring of Fire. The Broadway musical that celebrated the life and music of Johnny Cash also showcased the talents of University alumni. Ring of Fire, which ran this spring at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City, was not an attempt to dramatize Cash’s life—the Oscar-nominated film Walk the Line does a fine job of that. Rather, a cast of six vocalists and eight musicians performed 38 songs that Cash wrote or sang, which collectively portray the journey of a man in search of his own soul. “It’s an almost mythic American tale,” says director/creator Richard Maltby Jr., whose credits also include Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Fosse. Shortly after Ring of Fire made its stage debut, The University of Miami Alumni Association and the

Fall 2006 Miami magazine 37

DONNA VICTOR

Forever a Diamond Darling

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AlumniDigest

hrough volunteerism and philanthropy, many parents of University of Miami students play an active role in the education their children receive. To recognize them as part of the UM family, the University has created the UM Parents Program. All UM parents are in the program, designed to strengthen the University, foster a sense of community among parents, and enhance

to take a leadership role in this effort can become a member of the Parents Council. The council meets formally in Coral Gables twice a year, where members learn about University initiatives and strategize to increase parent participation and support. Council members provide an annual contribution of $1,000 or more, and they share their enthusiasm by asking fellow parents to support the Par-

immediate and pressing needs. These gifts are the lifeblood of the institution, helping to make up the difference between tuition and what it actually costs the University to educate a The UM Parents Program recognizes parents as part of the student. UM family. Serving as ambassadors of the Univerand career opportunities for sity is another way parents students; and answering can help. They can fulfill a questions from new UM number of roles, including parents as part of the Parent ents Fund, which is part of assisting Office of Admisthe student experience. Connection. Parents can the Annual Fund—the sions personnel at college Any parent, grandparent, learn about news, programs, annual effort to cull vital fairs; hosting parent recepguardian, or family member and events of interest to tions; identifying internships them online at of a UM student who wishes resources for the most www.miami.edu, in the Parents Corner column of Come Tail Away the @Miami e-newsletter, or ing supply of ’Cane spirit. To order away game packby e-mailing questions to ailgate parties are not just for home games. If ages (pregame celebration and game tickets), call parents@miami.edu. you’re a serious Hurricanes football fan, you’ll 1-866-UMALUMS. Anne Levy, M.B.A. ’04, travel far and wide to Don’t forget that the director of the UM Parents show your support. But ’Canes also need your help Program, summarizes the you won’t be there alone. for the home field advanprogram’s mission by a The University of tage. The home season quote from Margaret Meade: Miami Alumni Association sizzles this year with an “Never doubt that a small is on the road again this Orange Bowl opener group of thoughtful, comfall with two featured against Florida State on mitted citizens can change pregame celebrations—at September 4 and a sched- the world; indeed, it’s the Louisville, Kentucky, on ule filled with ranked only thing that ever does.” September 14 and College teams and conference If you want to help Park, Maryland, on rivals. Special season enhance your UM student’s November 11. Both weekticket pricing and seating are available for alumni and education, call 1-866ends provide the ultimate away-game experience, for the newest members of the alumni family, our UMALUMS or e-mail serving up great food, a pep rally led by Sebastian alevy@miami.edu. the Ibis and Hurricane cheerleaders, and a never-end- recent grads. For information, call 1-800-GO-CANES.

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

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PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

Parents Are Family Too!

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C l a s s

NOTES 1930s

Elinor Roth Catsman, B.Ed. ’37,

serves on the advisory board of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law. Her husband, David, taught in the law school, her daughter presently teaches there, and her granddaughter is a student at the University in her junior year.

1940s

Geraldine Rasmussen, B.M. ’47, recently presented an oil portrait of University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala and of School of Nursing and Health Studies Dean Nilda Peragallo to the women she painted. Rasmussen also donated an oil painting of the Mostar Bridge to T. Nejat Veziroglu, professor and director of the Clean Energy Research Institute at the UM College of Engineering. Taylor Coombs Larimore, B.B.A. ’49, has coauthored Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, published by Wiley and Sons. The book outlines the investment strategies of John Bogle and his followers.

1950s

Stanley O. Epstein, B.B.A. ’51, is retired from his practice of law in Marina Del Rey, California. He is doing a lot of traveling and learning computer skills from his grandchildren. He visited the University of Miami last year.

1960s

Michael Z. Brenan, B.B.A. ’60, CEO of FGB Advisory in Homestead, Florida, was elected to the National Ethics Bureau.

Paul H. Tocker, B.B.A. ’60, an

attorney in private practice in Schenectady, New York, has received the B’nai B’rith Distinguished Service Award. Emely V. (Garcia) Silver, B.S.N. ’62, M.S.N. ’72, is the executive director of the American Friends of Kenya, Inc., a nonprofit charity registered in Connecticut that provides libraries to schools and communities in Kenya. Every year a 34-member group travels to Kenya to do two weeks of work there. Prior to this role, she held a number of jobs in the nursing profession, including director of the nursing program at Miami-Dade College South Campus and as a flight nurse in the U.S. Air Force. Her late father, Jose G. Garcia, was a professor emeritus at the Miller School of Medicine. She is married to Wayne A. Silver, A.B. ’69, M.Ed. ’72, whose father was Sam Silver, J.D. ’37. Alan Slotkin, A.B. ’65, has accepted the position of lector in English at P.J. Safarik University in Kosice, Slovak Republic. Philip Marraccini, B.B.A. ’69, has written and produced Poor Lenny, an original dramatic comedy about four friends who participate in a men’s bowling league in South Dade, Florida. The production features an all-local cast who performed at the Julius Littman Performing Arts Theatre in North Miami Beach. Marraccini Productions, Inc., is working on a film version. Daniel S. Schwartz, A.B. ’69, J.D. ’72, a partner of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, has been certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a civil mediator. This is important because the state requires that all civil cases be presented for mediation before proceeding to trial. Wilson Elser is a national law firm of more than 850 lawyers, and Schwartz opened the Miami office in 1987.

ALUMNI OF NOTE

It’s Anchors Away for Lawyer Jamie Colby

dmitted to the University of Miami at the age of 14, Jamie Colby, B.B.A. ’80, J.D. ’83, never graduated from high school. “I wasn’t old enough to take the GED,” she says, “but it hasn’t stood in the way.” A former hospital candy striper and Burger King cashier, Colby’s law practice began with a Hollywood entertainment firm that assigned her to The Tonight Show. “He was a genius,” Colby says of the late Johnny Carson, “but he had a very different life off-camera. He was very shy, very kind, and very private. At 22, I worked on his contract renewal with NBC and his divorce. He took me seriously because I cared—and because he recognized I had the academic background for the work I was doing.” A Bar member in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, D.C., Colby became a Fox News Channel correspondent/anchor after Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox News, saw her doing general reporting at CNN in 2003. She had previously reported for CBS. She has covered the 2004 Asian tsunami, the death of Pope John Paul II, the return of soldiers from the war in Iraq, and the 9/11 attacks. That day, Colby was covering the New York City mayoral primaries when she heard that north tower had been hit “by a small plane.” She arrived on the scene and experienced firsthand the magnitude of the day. “I was there for four hours until I could finally find my way out.” Besides her high score of 280 as a member of the UM bowling team, Colby has since earned numerous honors, including the Edward R. Murrow National Award for her coverage of 9/11. She is married to Marc Wallack, chief of surgery at Metropolitan Hospital in New York. Her son, Gregory, is a student at Penn State University. Of all the life-altering moments Colby has experienced as a journalist, she recalls a man she met on the beach in Sri Lanka after the tsunami had struck. Through an interpreter, she asked why he was carrying a child’s shoe in a plastic bag. “He said he knew that his son who had washed away would come back, and he wanted to make sure that he had at least one shoe. It was incredible. You don’t forget those things.” —Leonard Nash

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ClassNotes

1970s

Richard Artman, A.B. ’70, M.Ed.

’72, Ph.D. ’80, was named president of Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. For the past 11 years he served as president of Siena Heights University, a Dominican, Catholic institution located in Adrian, Michigan. Donna J. Gilberti De Siato, B.Ed. ’71, received her doctorate in educational leadership from Syracuse University in 2004 and last year was appointed superintendent of schools for the East SyracuseMinoa School District. Last year she also received the Phi Delta Kappa International Dissertation of the Year and the Philip Martin Educator of Excellence awards. Myles B. Abbott, M.D. ’72, was elected chairman of the California District of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Francisco Angones, A.B. ’72, J.D. ’76, has been named presidentelect of the Florida Bar, ascending to the presidency in June 2007. He practices civil trial, personal injury, commercial torts, and insurance litigation at the Miami firm he cofounded, Angones, McClure & Garcia, P.A. Randy L. Gittess, A.B. ’72, an orthodontist in Winter Springs, Florida, has been certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontists, the highest plateau in education, evaluation, excellence, and ethics in the profession. The American Board of Orthodontists is the only specialty board recognized by the American Association of orthodontists and the American Dental Association. There are roughly 2,000 ABO diplomates in the world. Hal F. Rosenbluth, A.B. ’74, sold his travel company, Rosenbluth International, to American Express in 2003. He is now the cofounder and chairman of the board for Take Care Health Systems, a Pennsylvaniabased firm that provides affordable health care in retail pharmacies

40 Miami magazine Fall 2006

ALUMNI OF NOTE nationwide. Nurse practitioners in Take Care Health Centers offer diagnosis, treatment screenings, and vaccinations for common family illnesses. Joseph Sandor, A.B. ’74, former president and CEO of Creative Procurement Strategies, was appointed the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Practice in Supply Management at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Prior to forming Creative Procurement Strategies, where he advised such clients as Harley Davidson, Rolls-Royce, Whirlpool, HewlettPackard and the U.S. Air Force, Sandor was director of corporate purchasing and logistics at the Sara Lee Corporation. Marian J. Tonjes, Ed.D. ’75, is completing her final year as a trustee of the White Mountain School in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. The fifth edition of her book, Integrated Content Literacy (Kendall-Hunt) was released this year. Raymond Angelo Belliotti, M.A. ’76, Ph.D. ’77, a distinguished teaching professor and philosophy chairperson at SUNY Fredonia, has published The Philosophy of Baseball: How to Play the Game of Life (Edwin Mellen Press, 2006). Janine Plavac, B.S.N. ’76, is codirector of the Institute of Health Professions, a health magnet program at Gainesville High School with about 125 students enrolled. She has three children with her husband, Thomas, M.D. ’81, an interventional cardiologist working in Meridian, Mississippi. Bill Sklar, B.B.A. ’77, J.D. ’80, counsel to the law firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, and his wife, Lori Sklar, M.B.A. ’81, have founded Genetic Information to Stop Breast and Ovarian Cancer. The nonprofit organization, which operates the Web sites www.jacobinternational.org and www.reachglobal.org, aims to educate women on the benefits of genetic testing to stop hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Sklar

It’s a Sporting Life for Pete Garcia

fter a high school football career that lasted “a few hours,” Pedro (Pete) Garcia, B.B.A. ’84, worked full-time for Eastern Airlines while studying business management at the University of Miami. Born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Garcia and his brother, Luciano Garcia, B.S. ’82, grew up avid Hurricane fans. “I always wanted to go into football personnel, and I got a break,” says Garcia, who landed an intern position in 1988 with Tom Heckert Sr., former Miami Dolphins director of pro personnel. “We watched film together and did administrative work. He taught me a lot about talent evaluation.” Garcia became recruiting coordinator at the University in 1990, then served as director of football operations from 1995 to 2000. In 2001 he joined the NFL’s Cleveland Browns as vice president of player personnel and football development. “I thought my wife and daughter were going to have an issue with the cold weather,” he says, “but to be honest, we all liked the snow.” Garcia is now back on home turf, appointed UM’s senior associate athletic director in September 2005. He is campaigning for major renovations to the Orange Bowl and for expansions and renovations to the training facilities and academic support areas. “We owe it to our student-athletes,” he says. “Our athletes don’t fit into our training room.” Besides his administrative and fundraising duties, Garcia consults Athletic Director Paul Dee and Head Football Coach Larry Coker on football matters. “Great football players are gifted athletically, but they’re also smart,” says Garcia. He should know. The dozens of NFL standouts that he helped recruit out of high school include Ray Lewis, Jonathan Vilma, Warren Sapp, Vernon Carey, Joaquin Gonzalez, Jeremy Shockey, Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, and Bubba Franks. “A lot of those guys beat us on Sundays,” Garcia says, recalling his tenure from the Browns. “They’d come over to the sideline after the game, give me a hug, and say, ‘Hey, Pete, it was nothing personal. You’d want us to perform at our best, even if it’s against your team,’ and I would say, ‘You’re darn right.’” —Leonard Nash

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also is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law. Vincent Calamia, M.D. ’78, was appointed chief operating officer for Victory Memorial Hospital, a 400-bed facility in Brooklyn, New York, and has been named CEO, beginning January 2007. He also was named by New York Governor George Pataki to serve on two committees: the State Hospital Review and Planning Council and the Commission on Healthcare Facilities in the Twenty-First Century. Sidney Zonn, J.D. ’78, former managing partner of the employment and labor law firm Littler Mendelson, has been appointed vice president and general counsel of Robert Morris University in western Pennsylvania. He was selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for the past two years and has been listed in America’s Leading

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Business Lawyers for employment and labor law since 2003. Kenneth R. Benoit, M.M. ’79, had two of his compositions performed at the College Music Society Southern Chapter Conference this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The works were “Sonata for Horn” and “Piano and Suite for Marimba.”

1980s

Mauricio De La Guardia, B.B.A.

’80, M.B.A. ’84, is working as a trader for H.D. Vest Financial Services in Irving, Texas. Richard C. Webster, A.B. ’80, has been working in the fine art, antique, and collectibles auction, retail, brokerage, and appraisal business since 1988. After suffering from a rare form of cancer that has required him to have regular surgeries for the past 30 years, he is developing the Fine Gem & Jewelry

Charity Catalogue Auction, an auction that donates the full “hammer price” to a charity of the donor’s choice. The first event is slated for 2007 in the Dallas, Texas area. Oubay Atassi, B.S.Ed. ’81, M.S. ’85, M.B.A. ’91, is regional vice president of sales for iBasis, Inc., a global voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) company. He is responsible for growing the company's trading business in the region of Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. Prior to iBasis he spent ten years at Nortel Networks as vice president and managing director of Pakistan and as vice president of sales, wireless solutions for North Africa and the Middle East. He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic, and English. Fred Seidler, B.S.Ed. ’81, a New York-based marketing, business development, and special events consultant, was nominated for a 2006 Event Solutions Spotlight

award: “Creative Director of the Year.” His work with the New York Metro chapter of the International Special Events Society resulted in record-breaking increase in membership. Alan Karmin, A.B. ’82, has documented his battle against false accusations of domestic abuse in a book, The Measure of a Man. Emily J. Marquez, A.B. ’83, M.A. ’86, is executive director of the Humane Society of Greater Miami. Peter J. Dunne, M.B.A. ’86, is president of Franklin/Trade Graphics, LLC, a Miami-based full-service commercial printer that handles such corporate accounts as Carnival Cruise Lines, Microsoft, Florida Marlins, and Burger King. The company was honored by the South Florida Business Journal as the 2006 Business of the Year in the General Business Services, $10 million to $25 million category. The company also won Business of the Year 2005.

ooking for an elegant furniture item that’s also a

’Caneversation piece? With the new Official

University of Miami Old Havana Rocker by Camilo Furni-

ture, you and your guests can be cradled by comfort while also honoring your University. Hailing from Spain, the Camilo family has been known for fine office furniture for more than three generations. The family’s masterful craftsmanship and legacy of pride in working with wood are evident in the rocker’s design. A brass University seal accentuates the rich, stained mahogany wood that frames an intricately woven cane seat and back. Cost is $750, with all proceeds benefiting the University of Miami Alumni Association. Quantities are limited, so order today by calling the Office of Alumni Relations at 305-284-2872 or 1-866-UMALUMS.

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ClassNotes

Jonathan D. Liebman, M.M. ’86, president/CEO of the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts in Southfield, Michigan, was promoted by the state’s Governor Jennifer Granholm to the Michigan Higher Education Authority. Bethany (Bohall) Prestigiacomo, B.F.A. ’86, is the director of artist residency programs for Davidson College, where she oversees the Royal Shakespeare Company Residency. She telecommutes from San Antonio, Texas, where she lives with her husband, theatre professor Robert Prestigiacomo, and her 4-year-old daughter Sofia. Jacqueline L. Gonzalez, M.S.N. ’87, has received the 2006 Alumnus of Distinction Award from the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies. As senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Miami Children’s Hospital, she oversees the nursing care of thousands of children and families. Under her leadership in 2003, Miami Children’s Hospital received “Magnet” designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, she facilitated an evacuation effort there in partnership with the hospital’s LifeFlight Critical Care Transport Team. Angel L. Rodriguez, B.S. ’87, M.B.A. ’91, M.S. ’91, has been named IT program manager in charge of global windfarm connectivity projects for General Electric’s Wind Energy division. He recently moved to Atlanta, Georgia, with wife Cherie and son Alex. Henry J. Weiss, M.B.A. ’87, M.S.I.E. ’87, was appointed as the country director to the United States Peace Corps Program in Albania. Suzanne C. de Janasz, B.M. ’88, is associate professor of leadership and management at the University of Mary Washington’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She received a Fulbright Scholar Award and will spend five months as a

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lecturer in Poland at Warsaw University’s School of Management during spring 2007. Her work on mentoring and careers, workfamily conflict, and leadership has been published in many journals, and she is coauthor of the text, Interpersonal Skills in Organizations. She and husband Chris have twin 12-year-old children. Larry Shender, B.B.A. ’88, is the national sales manager for U.S. operations for Tremor Network, which provides contextually targeted advertising campaigns. He is responsible for developing sales programs and targeted promotions and managing trade show initiatives. Fred E. Karlinsky, B.S.C. ’89, a shareholder with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., recently moderated a panel discus-

sion in London, England, on the impact of the 2005 hurricanes in the United States and the future for the insurance and reinsurance industry. Sharon McGuire, M.S.N. ’89, had an invited chapter called “Exploring Migration and Health” published in the book A History of Nursing Ideas (Jones and Bartlett 2005). William C. Reinhardt, B.B.A. ’89, M.B.A. ’91, has passed the certification exam for recognition as a senior professional in human resources (SPHR) and is continuing to work as associate director of resource management for Ernst & Young, LLP in the firm’s Tampa, Florida office. Roy Weinfeld, A.B. ’89, J.D. ’95, recently married Ruth do Amaral Marcondes Armando at Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida.

1990s

Rosa Maria Mayorga, A.B. ’90, M.A. ’94, Ph.D. ’03, assistant professor of philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech University, presented her paper, “On a Peircean Approach to Issues of Diversity,” at the Oxford Round Table on Diversity in Society this spring. Mayorga’s academic interests are in the area of metaphysics. Tonya Marie (Swearingen) Smith, A.B. ’90, is a freelance writer and book author living in Topeka, Kansas, with her husband, attorney Scott Smith, and her 9-year-old daughter, Ariel. She also is a political activist for sex offender reform. Cherie Bender, B.F.A. ’92, is an

PRINTING PRESS

Words on Healing Wounds

Satisfy Your Thirst for a Thriller

n Scar Tissue, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, A.B. ’72, M.A. ’73, chronicles, in prose and in verse, how the death of his exiled Cuban father and his own diagnosis from prostate cancer (a disease from which his father also suffered) brought him to a place he had never been and one he had never left. In a fourseason evolution of healing and renewal, Pérez Firmat examines his wounds, both physical and emotional, in two languages and cultures. “In Scar Tissue I try to discuss prostate cancer, a common but unliterary disease, with the same candor and even ardor with which others have written about breast cancer or AIDS,” says Pérez Firmat, the David Feinson Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, memoirist, novelist, and author of many books of literary and cultural criticism.

native of Key West, Florida, Dania Deschamps, A.B. ’76 turns to her roots for the setting of her first novel, Thirst. A chilling thriller about a young attorney appointed by the court to represent a medical student accused of raping a young pregnant woman, the subject matter and the details in Thirst are not for the faint of heart. For every book purchased through her self-owned firm, White Bull Publishing Co., Deschamps donates one dollar to Habitat for Humanity and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. An attorney in Oklahoma, Deschamps traveled the country in the 1980s, appearing before state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to lobby for warning labels on smokeless tobacco.

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ALUMNI OF NOTE illustrator and fine artist. She was awarded third place in the state for Best of Florida Artists in the category of oil painting. Her painting, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, was selected for the cover of the May issue of Horizons magazine, and her painting September 11, 2001 with Healing Flowers was accepted into the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Martine A. Decambre-Alexis, B.S. ’92, studied and worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse for seven years. She recently changed careers and became an orthodontist. She owns her own practice in port St. Lucie, Florida, where she lives with her husband, Hayden Alexis. Karla V. Hernandez, B.S.C. ’93, is associate director of media relations at the University of Miami. In this role she is a primary liaison between faculty and administrators at the University and print, Webbased, and broadcast media. Prior to joining the University in 2002, she was assistant director for government liaison and public relations at the 11th Judicial Circuit. She and husband Michael, B.S.E.E. ’93, have two children, Michael Kristopher, 2, and Madison Katherine, 1. Norma S. Lindsey, J.D. ’93, was appointed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush to the Miami-Dade County Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit. Rafael M. Montes, M.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’03, has been promoted to professor of English at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. His first book, Generational Traumas in Contemporary Cuban-American Literature: Making Places/Haciendo Lugares, is now available from The Edwin Mellen Press. Jack Paris, J.D. ’93, was named trial attorney for the Miami offices of The Cochran Firm, founded by the late Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Paris was formerly partner at Leeds, Colby and Paris, P.A., specializing in plaintiff personal injury and maritime law. Jennie (Klein) Sunshine, B.M. ’93, is a voiceover artist, actress, and singer in the New York area. Some

of her recent projects include: appearing on an episode of Conviction (NBC), and singing with the Spring Sisters, an a cappella trio based in the Hudson Valley area. She resides with her husband, David, in Westchester County, New York. Michael W. Thrailkill, B.Arch. ’93, was promoted last year to associate at Yost Grube Hall Architecture, an architecture, interiors, and planning firm in Portland, Oregon. Since joining the firm in 2001 as a construction administrator, he has taken on a lead role in quality control and research and development. Jonathan Brown, M.S.N. ’94, is a consultant for B.E. Smith, where he advises health care organizations on nursing administration and health care operations. He was appointed to the 2006 Publications Committee of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. He also is on the faculty of the University of Phoenix, teaching nursing and health care administration courses. Stacey Kay, A.B. ’94, a trial attorney for AIG Insurance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will marry Jared Isaacs, B.S.C. ’94, in October. Gregory D. LoGerfo, A.B. ’95, is director of Israel, Palestinian Affairs, and Jordan for the National Security Council at The White House. Melanie Emmons Damian, J.D. ’96, a partner with the firm Damian & Valori LLP, was elected to the 2006 board of directors for the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Miami-Dade. She recently lectured and chaired a program at the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section Spring Meeting. Thomas Carrero Jr., LL.M.O. ’96, got married in 2004 and recently moved with his wife from Philadelphia to North Port, Florida, where he opened up a law firm. William L. Cate, B.Arch. ’96, formerly a construction manager with Hines in Coral Gables, Florida, has opened The Cate Group, an architecture, development, and project management firm in Miami Shores, Florida.

Mazel Tov: Wayne Firestone Leads Hillel

iami native Wayne Firestone, A.B. ’86, began his association with Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life as a student at the University of Miami. “It was a big part of my social life and my extracurricular activities,” he says, noting that he used to attend local and national student conferences, “trying to figure out ways to plug into community networks.” Over the years Firestone has stayed “plugged in” to the national organization, becoming its president this September. Headquartered in Washington, Hillel thrives on 500 campuses worldwide and aims to “enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.” As president, he hopes to raise Hillel’s endowment to $100 million within five years. “People invest in great universities because they understand that the community, and society overall, will benefit from the great innovators, social thinkers, and social servants who will graduate from the universities,” Firestone says. “The next great innovator is somewhere on a college campus now, and that’s where we are, so we see that as a very valuable proposition.” At UM, Firestone studied politics, public affairs, and Judaic studies on a debate scholarship. A WVUM disc jockey, he hosted “The Sunday Morning Simcha,” a mix of music, interviews, and Israel-related news. And WVUM offered him the best simcha (happy occasion)—meeting his wife, Stephanie. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Firestone went on to earn a degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He and Stephanie spent seven years in Israel, where two of his three daughters were born. He served first as an administrator and lecturer at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, then as founder and CEO of Silicon Wadinet, Ltd., and finally as director of the Israel Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League. Now a Maryland resident, Firestone returns to his Miami stomping grounds on October 18 for an event hosted by the UM Hillel and Alumni Association in his honor. —Leonard Nash

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ALUMNI OF NOTE Sascha Frey, B.S. ’96, M.D. ’98, is

a hospitalist with WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina. He and wife Laura, A.B. ’97, welcome their newborn son, Julian Alexander. Jason A. Leshowitz, B.M. ’96, has completed a master's degree in educational leadership at William Paterson University. He also is the proud new father of Ilana Nicole. Matthew Thompson, B.B.A. ’96, is a territory manager for Honeywell in Vero Beach, Florida. He and his wife, Meridith (Bednar) Thompson, B.B.A. ’95, have a twoyear-old son named Gregory. Robert S. Donaldson, J.D. ’97, was named chief executive officer of W.S. Lee & Sons, Inc., a $120 million regional food distribution company based in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Prior to this appointment, he served as deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He also is a parttime crime, law, and justice instructor at Penn State University. Daniel T. Fleischer, B.B.A. ’97, J.D. ’00, M.B.A. ’01, is a probate administrator for Northern Trust Bank for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. He recently passed the Certified Financial Planner exam. He and his wife, Rachel Roth, B.S. ’98, M.S.Ed. ’00, are expecting their second child. Wayne Paugh, M.S. ’97, works with U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Chris Israel, the coordinator for international intellectual property enforcement, in combating IP counterfeiting and piracy across the globe. Alissa Pinck, B.S. ’97, was promoted to vice president of G.S. Schwartz & Co. Inc., a leading independent public relations agency headquartered in New York. She is responsible for account operations as well as acquisition of new business and the management of the agency. Fahad Al Hassawi, M.S.I.E. ’98, was appointed executive vice president of human resources for du, a United Arab Emirates telecommunications and entertainment

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company. Previously he was vice president of human resources for Emirates Airlines. Emilio Tomas Gonzalez, Ph.D. ’98, is the newly appointed director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an undersecretary position within the Department of Homeland Security. Appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Gonzalez leads an organization of more than 15,000 federal and contract employees responsible for the accurate, efficient, and secure processing of immigration benefits. Toni Leo, Ph.D. ’98, has relocated back to Arizona, where she will open her private practice. She plans to open an animal sanctuary that will focus on horses and conduct equine-assisted psychotherapy. Charles A. Volkert III, J.D. ’98, is executive director of Robert Half Legal, which provides project and full-time professionals for law firms and corporate legal departments. He is a noted speaker and author and a member of the Florida Bar and the Dade County Bar Association. Kristyne Kennedy, J.D. ’99, an attorney with Jackson Lewis LLP in the firm’s Orlando, Florida, office, was elected to the Executive Council of the Orange County Bar Association. Alex Merchan, B.B.A. ’99, M.B.A. ’04, has been selected as one of ten Virgin Group employees to participate in a humanitarian trip to South Africa. He also has created Alex 2 Africa, a fundraising effort to support Riders for Health, a group that provides medical personnel with motorcycles so they may reach patients in rural locations. As a regional marketing manager for Virgin Entertainment Group, Merchan oversees various efforts for the Virgin Megastores in five of 11 markets in the United States. Matthew Stein, B.S.C. ’99, is senior vice president for the Weinstein Company. He was the executive in charge of production for the recent film Scary Movie 4.

Giselle Elgarresta Rios Conducts Her Way to Carnegie Hall

“G

rowing up, I was always playing guitar or singing,” says Giselle Elgarresta Rios, B.M. ’88, M.M. ’90, D.M.A. ’95, assistant professor of voice and choral music at Barry University in Miami Shores. Born in Atlanta and raised in South Florida, Rios says, “I’m told that I used to sing myself to sleep when I was a little girl. My grandfather was a big listener of classical music. He had a big record collection of all styles of music.” In February, Rios conducted a 150-voice chorus, including 40 singers from Barry, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, becoming the first Cuban-American woman to conduct in the storied venue. “I was very prepared,” she says of the performance of Argentine composer Ariel Ramirez’s “Misa Criolla,” Mozart’s “Regina Coeli,” and a series of James Joyce poems set to Fred Coulter’s “Chamber Music.” “I was not nervous. I was on task, and I was extremely excited about the music I had chosen. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect performance.” Carnegie Hall is not the first revered performance space to host Rios. In 2004 she conducted at the Notre Dame Cathedral and at Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris. She recalls the Notre Dame performance as “sacred,” adding, “It was very emotional for all of us. They put us on the altar. It was a mystical experience.” Rios introduces her students to all forms of music. “As a conductor, I try to vary the repertoire.” Her many influences include American pianist and composer Ned Rorem, whom Rios studied for her doctoral dissertation; contemporary conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas; and composers such as Brahms, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Puccini. “Each style has something to contribute, and I find the beauty in each one.” Rios has two daughters and a son with her husband, Jose Rios, M.D. ’87, an internist with South Florida Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. “I almost went into accounting,” she says of her brief consideration of a non-musical career. “That would have been the death of my spirit, but I was very good in math!” —Leonard Nash

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Kimberly V. Groome, M.P.A. ’00, has achieved certification from the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association. Jordan M. Lewin, J.D. ’00, and Loretta B. Todzia, J.D. ’01, were married in April at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Coral Gables, Florida. Their ceremony was officiated by friends Helen (Alysandratos) Farber, J.D. ’00, and Daniel Rogers, J.D. ’00. Jordan has his own law practice in Miami, and Loretta is assistant general counsel for Baptist Health South Florida. Joe Montminy, J.D. ’00, and Briana (Lundy) Montminy, J.D. ’02, were married in April of 2005. They live in Birmingham, Alabama, where Joe is an assistant United States attorney and Briana is an associate at Burr Forman LLP. Carol (Winett) Perlman, Ph.D. ’00, and Josh Perlman announce the birth of their son, Jack Lucas. Jay E. Silver, J.D. ’00, has become an associate attorney with the firm Ventantonio and Wildehain in Warren, New Jersey.

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Sarah Locke, B.S.N. ’01, is a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. Sarosh J. Motivala, M.S. ’01, Ph.D. ’01, and his wife, Shireen, were married recently in Los Angeles, California. He is an assistant professor at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, conducting research on sleep, stress, and the immune system. He is a coinvestigator on two NIH-funded grants. Derrick Artis, M.B.A. ’02, director of professional affairs at Vistakon, a division of Johnson and Johnson Vision Care Inc., has been named the Pennsylvania College of Optometry’s Alumnus of the Year. At Johnson and Johnson, he oversees key relationships with eye care professional organizations and lectures to physicians worldwide on contact lens technology and eye care. Artis also owns a patent for invention of a contact lens case that tracks the number of days a disposable lens is worn, and he provides free eye care through Project See. Arielle Chikovsky, A.B. ’02, is one of six winners out of 23,000 entries of the online AE Live Your Life

Contest from American Eagle Outfitters. She will donate the $25,000 prize to Hope for Vision, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting research to end blindness. She recently joined the Florida Bar Association. Elgin Polo, M.B.A. '02, has been promoted to partner in the Coral Gables accounting firm of Berenfeld, Spritzer, Schecter and Sheer. Pennie Barasch Goldman, J.D. ’03, and husband Keith announce the birth of their son, Ilan Leo. Ana G. Cristancho, B.S. ’04, an M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was named a 2006 Gilliam fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Gilliam fellowships are awarded to doctoral students for their academic excellence and scientific potential. While a student at the University of Miami, Cristancho organized the first Coral Gables Relay for Life, which raised $50,000 for the American Cancer Society. Max Lugavere, B.S.C. ’05, and Jason Silva, B.S.C. ’05, are hosts and producers for Current TV, a new independent media company

led by Al Gore and others. They landed their positions after submitting Textures of Selfhood, a film they had produced and starred in during their final semester at the University of Miami. Nick Ronda, B.B.A. ’05, has developed Xentinel Security, a company that specializes in vulnerability security and compliance certifications for e-commerce businesses. The firm awards its clients a Hacker Free Seal, which indicates that their Web site successfully passes daily security tests for all known vulnerabilities. Jan Yoepp, B.S.N. ’05, is pursuing a Master of Science in Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with a specialty in acute care pediatrics. Stephen T. Danyew, B.M. ’06, is one of ten classical composers to receive the 2006 BMI Student Composer Award, which recognizes superior creative talent and provides scholarship grants toward music education. Damian Stanziano, Ph.D. ’06, is an instructor and head of the Department of Physical Sciences and Wellness at Broward Community College.

Make a Note of It—Send Us Your News Enjoy reading about your classmates in Class Notes? Share some news about yourself in a future issue of Miami magazine. Complete this form and return it to: Class Notes Miami magazine University of Miami Post Office Box 248053 Coral Gables, Florida 33124. Or, submit online at www.miamialumni.net or via e-mail: alumni@miami.edu

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In Memoriam

Katherine Younts Torrence, A.B. ’30 Lloyd H. Solie, B.B.A. ’31 Agnes C. Watson, B.Ed. ’36 Julie Davitt Salisbury, A.B. ’37 Charles Staltman, B.M. ’37 Donald S. Molter, J.D. ’38 Mildred H. Mohr, A.B. ’40 Carolyn Ruth Pepper, B.B.A. ’45 Josephine L. Thompson, A.B. ’46 Anthony Carrero, B.B.A. ’48 Irwin Kiman, B.B.A. ’48 Tom J. Maxey, B.B.A. ’48, J.D. ’50 Donald McClelland Jr., J.D. ’48 Sol Alexander Rippa, A.B. ’48 Lloyd G. Bates Jr., J.D. ’49 Albert M. Borkin, J.D. ’49 Sylvan B. Burdick, J.D. ’49 John West Fleming, J.D. ’49 Joseph Paul George, B.S. ’49 David M. Kingsberg, B.B.A. ’49 Patrick B. Williams, B.B.A. ’49 Sam Boyko, B.B.A. ’50 Jack R. Frymier, M.Ed. ’50 Richard A. Kaplan, B.B.A. ’50 Donald J. Rossin, B.S.M.E. ’50 Felicia M. West, M.Ed. ’50 Henry Bernacki, B.B.A. ’51 John Vincent Christie, J.D. ’51 Claude S. Jones, J.D. ’51 Douglas L. Keepings, B.B.A. ’51, M.B.A. ’5 Murray H. Koretzky, B.B.A. ’51 Thomas N. Krukonis, B.B.A. ‘51 Paul V. Peurifoy, M.S. ’51 Rev. Alfred C. Sheley Sr., B.Ed. ’51

Robert Coleman Youmans, J.D. ’51 Kenneth R. Kinard, B.B.A. ’52 John Owen McCabe, B.B.A. ’52 Anne Stackhouse Mead, A.B. ’52 John J. Patrisco, B.S.M.E. ’52 Martin S. Schwartz, J.D. ’52 Paul James Stichler, J.D. ’52 Julian H. Braswell, J.D, ’53 William Edward Moschell, J.D. ’53 Jack R. Rice Jr., J.D. ’53 Norman K. Schwarz, J.D. ’53 Lt. Col. Bruce T. Wright, B.B.A. ’53 Dimitry N. Alexander, A.B. ’54, J.D. ’74 Anthony Joseph Blaty, B.B.A ’54, J.D. ’56 Stanley A. Brandimore, B.B.A. ’54, J.D, ’57 Kathleen Blaylock Brock, B.Ed. ’54 Harvey W. Cogert, A.B. ’54 Hon. Harry J. Farbman, J.D. ’54 D. Clark LaSalle, B.B.A. ’54 John F. Aguire, B.Ed. ’55, M.Ed. ’59 Walter Kissel, B.Ed. ’55, M.Ed. ’58 Barbara Bannen Teel, B.B.A. ’55 Donald C. Welsh, J.D. ’55 Alphonse Bermejo, A.B. ’56 Melvin H. Davidow, B.B.A. ’56 Benjamin H. Ervin, J.D. ’56 Francis P. Ingrassia, A.B. ’56 Daniel Cain O’Brien, B.B.A. ’56 Frederick J. Ward Jr., J.D. ’56 George H. Arit, B.B.A. ’57 Edwin (Ned) P. Drescher, B.B.A. ’57

Flashback on Arnold Newman Arnold Newman, D.F.A. ’81, one of the world’s most admired photographers and a student at the University of Miami from 1936 to 1938, died at the age of 88. He entered the University on scholarship to study painting, but cost eventually impeded his completion, and he turned to a career in photography. After a stint in Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, Newman opened a Miami Beach studio in the 1930s. In 1948 he returned to New York, where his social circles included the likes of Alfred Stieglitz, Beaumont Newhall, and Ansel Adams. He is best known for his approach of “environmental portraiture” and has captured such icons as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Igor Stravinsky, as well as a number of American presidents. 46 Miami magazine Fall 2006

Barbara Folkers Dube, B.Ed. ’57, M.Ed. ’61 Marian Irene Heim, B.S.N. ’57 Hon. Joseph Nesbitt, J.D. ’57 Susan P. Redding, B.B.A. ’57 Frederick A. Rommel, B.S. ’57, P.h.D. ’67 James Michael Sheil, J.D. ’57 Frank K. Collins, B.B.A. ’58 Seamon S. Daub, A.B. ’58 Francean Napoli Meredith, A.B. ’58 Henry J. Prominski, J.D. ’59 Emily Jane Holzer, M.Ed. ’60 Alexander S. Joseph, B.B.A. ’60 Henry Philip Ruffolo, A.B. ’60 Patricia Davis Adelman, A.B. ’61 Hector J. DelMastro, B.B.A. ’61 Evelyn R. Searls, B.Ed. ’61, M.Ed. ’69, Ed.D. ’71 Gilbert H. Berken, B.S. ’62, M.D. ’63 George Ed Schindeler, B.B.A. ’62 Leonard Sussman, J.D. ’62 Roy S. Ratsky, B.B.A. ’63 Philip M. Damashek, B.B.A. ’64 Norman Sokoloff, A.B. ’64 Phyllis Franklin, M.A. ’65, P.H.D. ’69 Margretta F. Rothenberger, B.Ed. ’65 John L. Behler Jr., B.S. ’66 Thomas H. Karins, B.S.M.E. ’66 Carl L. Rickenbaugh, B.B.A. ’66 Concepcion N. Garcia, B.Ed. ’67, M.Ed. ’72, Ph.D. ’91 Edwards Lee Church, A.B. ’68, J.D. ’71 Jim (Yamma Yamma) Fleming, A.B. ’68 Albert Alton Gordon, B.B.A. ’68, J.D. ’69 Brian E. Mattis, J.D. ’68 Kerry David Wilensky, A.B. ’68 Jerry H. Dunmire, B.Ed. ’69 Julian Heath, B.B.A. ’69 Alan Robert Schneider, J.D. ’69 Neal Eli Berson, B.Ed. ’70 Friedrich G. Ludecke, B.S. ’70 Ronald L. Stem, A.B. ’70 Ida Davis Whipple, M.Ed. ’70 Erik Hans Hansen, A.B. ’71 Luis Felipe Henriquez, B.S. ’71 William Paul Hoffman, B.S. ’71, M.S. ’76, Ph.D. ’92 Capt. Norman Leifer, B.Ed. ’71 Mark Steven London, B.B.A. ’71 George Sumner Stingel, B.B.A. ’71

Eva Freeman, A.B. ’72 Daniel Norman Peterson, A.B. ’72 Cathy L. Wood, A.B. ’72 Mary A. Schade, C.N.P. ’73 Jean Carol Seipp, B.S. ’73, M.D. ’78 Cha W. Serio, B.B.A. ’73 Peter F. Tritley, A.B. ’73 Natalie F. Walters, B.S.N. ’73, M.B.A. ’81 Charles Hatsell, Ph.D. M.D. ’74 Marian J. Hughes, M.Ed. ’74 Joseph C. Dare, J.D. ’75 Bruce Alan Wohlleb, B.B.A.’75 A. Gilmore Crumpler Jr., LL.M.E. ’76 Capt. John Lawrence Gerlaugh, B.F.A. ’76 Nissa Libby Dick, Ph.D. ’76 Hon. Henry Leyte-Vidal, A.B. ’77, J.D. ’80 Douglas M. McFaul, A.B. ’77 Richard D. Newman, J.D. ’77 Melvin Lionel Douglas, B.Ed. ’78, M.S.Ed. ’79 Anna P. Deppman, B.S.N. ’79 Jack Edward Orsley, J.D. ’79 Russell C. Martin, A.B. ’81 Arnold Newman, D.F.A. ’81 David C. Albers, B.S.I.E. ’82 Richard E. Bayless, B.B.A. ’83 Robert O. Admire, B.B.A. ’84, J.D. ’87 Joy D. Harrison, M.S. ’84 David Nolan, M.A. ’84 Melvin E. Rahn, M.S. ’84 James O. Kistler, LL.M.T. ’85 Lawrence J. Strauss, J.D. ’87 Michele Elise Block, J.D. ’89 Sallie E. Scudder, A.B. ’89 Steven H. Pawlik, B.B.A. ’93 Charles T. Sheehan, B.S.C. ’93 Tod A. Gassen, M.D. ’95 Elizabeth Ann Degler, B.S. ’96 Guiomar B. Smeets, M.B.A. ’03 Ray I. Berrin Charles B. Hildebrand Mary E. Liebler Charles W. Miller, Alan F. Teplitz George Weissenborn John Calvin Jureit Phyllis Kerstein Nusbaum Mary Frances Williamson Mary M. Vetter Martha Van Brunt Smart *Based on submissions prior to May 2006

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D a t e

Alumni Event Information 1-866-UMALUMS Sports Tickets 305-284-CANES or 1-800-GO-CANES www.miami.edu/alumni

BOOK August 25 UMAA Board Leadership Workshop and Installation, Coral Gables, Florida 26 UMAA Board and Alumni Council Meeting, Coral Gables, Florida September 16 Football and Official UMAA Pregame Party, UM vs. Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 19 21st Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner, Benefiting The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, New York, New York 20 UMAA Featuring the Miller School of Medicine, New York, New York

ALUMNI LEADERSHIP Executive Committee Gregory M. Cesarano, J.D. ’76, President Rudolph Moise, M.B.A. ’94, J.D. ’97, Immediate Past President Jacqueline F. Nespral, A.B. ’89, President-Elect Samuel Ballam, B.B.A. ’72 Vice President Patrick K. Barron, B.B.A. ’75, Vice President William D. Pruitt, B.B.A. ’66, Vice President David L. Wilson, B.B.A. ’82, Vice President Donna A. Arbide, M.B.A.’95, Executive Director

Alumni Trustees Dany Garcia Johnson, B.B.A. ’92 Randall C. Johnson, A.B. ’71 Michael R. Klein, B.B.A. ’63, J.D. ’66

Regional Directors Colin Campbell, M.B.A. ’86 Eric Cheng, B.S.B.E. ’95, M.S.I.E. ’01 Leslie A. Goldsmith, B.S. ’72 Denise F. Grimsley, M.B.A. ’03 Leslie J. Monreal, B.S.C. ’96 Humberto M. Reboredo, B.B.A. ’97 Karl J. Schulze, B.B.A. ’74

Directors Matthew Arpano, M.B.A. ’92 Elizabeth W. Davis, B.S.C. ’91 Wifredo A. Ferrer, A.B. ’87 G. Alex Fraser, B.B.A. ’97

23-November 12 Lowe Art Museum Flowers for the Earth Lord: Guatemalan Textiles 27-28 Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series Featuring Hal Rosenbluth, B.G.S. ’74, Coral Gables, Florida 28 Dedication of the M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies, Coral Gables, Florida 30-November 4, Festival Miami, Frost School of Music, Coral Gables, Florida

October 4-14 Jerry Herman

Ring Theatre The World Goes ’Round 5 Parents Council Meeting, Coral Gables, Florida

6-7 President’s Council Fall Meeting, Coral Gables, Florida 6-8 Family Weekend, Coral Gables, Florida 18 UMAA Recognition Reception Honoring Wayne Firestone, A.B. ’86, President of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, Coral Gables, Florida

November 2 Old Timer’s Reception, Coral Gables Country Club, Coral Gables, Florida 3-5 Alumni Weekend and Homecoming 2006, Featuring reunions on “Alumni Avenue” and the Audrey R. Finkelstein UM Experience, Coral Gables, Florida 4 Football and Official UMAA Homecoming Pregame Party UM vs. Virgina Tech (Homecoming Game) and Lot NE1 (Pregame Party), Orange Bowl

For a complete schedule of Hurricane sports, visit www.hurricanesports.com

Robert L. Hersh, A.B. ’75, M.Ed. ’77 Alina Tejeda Hudak, B.B.A. ’82, M.P.A. ’84 Carlos E. Lowell, B.S.M.E. ’94 Nan A. Markowitz, A.B. ’81 Stanley W. Papuga, B.B.A. ’67 Carmine Parente, B.S. ’86 Suzanne A. Perez, J.D. ’00 Irwin P. Raij, B.B.A ’92 Richard J. Roberts, B.B.A., ’74 Joshua B. Spector, J.D. ’02 Stanley B. Thornton, B.S.I.E. ’81

Detroit Paul Koch, M.D., B.S. ’73 313-274-6579 detroitcanes@yahoo.com Hartford Keri Gilford, A.B. ’93 860-651-8055 kerigilford@hotmail.com Houston Dawn Rodak, B.S.E.D. ’84, M.S.E.D. ’86, 713-425-1703 dawnrodak@letu.edu Las Vegas John Knuth, M.B.A. ’98, M.S. ’02, 702-243-1064 john.e.knuth@us.hsbc.com

Student Representatives

Los Angeles/Southern California

Annette Ponnock Jessica Gentile

Club Leaders and Alumni Contacts Atlanta Daniel P. O’Boyle, B.B.A. ’83 404-873-1188 dan@desertharvest.net Bahamas Wendy Wong, M.B.A. ’96 242-362-4572 wwong@lyfordcay.com Boston Joshua Cohen, A.B. ’96 617-531-9606 joshua_cohen@comcast.net Broward County Brian Moye, B.S. ’81 954-817-4400 sflone@aol.com Chicago/Northern Illinois Jack Weiner, B.B.A. ’72, M.S. ’73 847-446-4408, jackw@theramp.net Dallas/Fort Worth Tanya Green, A.B. ’92, 972-699-8252 catlove@mindspring.com Denver Alan S. Beshany, A.B. ’66 303-989-5901, Alan@Beshany.com

Lee Kaplowitz, A.B. ’69 310-207-8045, lkaplow320@aol.com Louisville Michael Friedman, B.B.A. ’74 502-587-0399 mfriedman@scrapandwaste.com Melbourne, Florida Joseph Jenne, M.S. ’03, 321-752-9061 jjenne@earthlink.net Miami Cie Chapel, B.B.A. ’01 305-284-2343, cie@miami.edu New Jersey Bonnie Solomon, A.B. ’73 Larry Solomon, B.B.A. ’71 732-422-8338, caniac329@aol.com New York Janis Block, B.B.A. ’85 516-349-7389, canes85@optonline.net North Carolina-Charlotte James M. Barnett, B.B.A. ’68, 704-841-7653 jim@jimbarnett.com North Carolina-Greensboro David Noble, J.D. ’01, 336-370-8820 dnoble@triad.rr.com

Raúl Midón performs October 14 as part of Festival Miami. 7-12 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre A Midsummer Night’s Dream 11 Football and Official UMAA Pregame Party, UM vs. Maryland, College Park, Maryland 28-December 3 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre A New Brain

December 14 Fall Commencement, BankUnited Center, Coral Gables, Florida

North Carolina-Raleigh Daniel Smith, B.S. ’00, M.B.A. ’02 919-450-0532 daniel@coralreefproductions.com Orlando Cristina Equi, J.D. ’98 407-843-8880, cequi@grayharris.com Palm Beach Martin Springer, M.B.A. ’74 561-443-0453, marvyone@aol.com Philadelphia Norman I. Segal, B.B.A. ’61, J.D. ’64, 610-645-6358 nsegal@bigfoot.com Phoenix Ben Leis, B.S.C. ’04 480-275-5339, ben.leis@gmail.com Pittsburgh Jamie Jirot, A.B. ’05 305-975-3765 jamie_jirot@hotmail.com Richmond Jan Light, A.B. ’69 804-746-1155 janlight@hotmail.com Rochester Mark Scuderi, M.B.A. ’85 585-261-8881 mscuderi@rochester.rr.com San Diego Thomas G. Bauer, A.B. ’75 619-437-6689, bauertg@yahoo.com San Francisco TBA Sarasota Chris Clayton, B.S.C. ’94 941-586-7997, cclayton12@aol.com Southwest Florida Robert Ramsay, B.B.A. ’94, M.B.A. ’96 239-591-6368, robert.ramsay@53.com Tallahassee Ray Andreu, B.S.M.E. ’75, 850-894-2786 ray_andreu@bkitech.com

Tampa/St. Petersburg Elizabeth Olson, A.B. ’82, 727-772-6557 canes5@tampabay.rr.com Washington, D.C. Racquel Russell, B.S.C. ’00, 202-498-6968 wdc.canes@gmail.com Baghdad/Operation Iraqi Freedom Lewis Byrd, A.B. ’04 sketch_um@hotmail.com and Raymond Lavado, B.B.A. ’92, M.B.A. ’96, rlavado@aol.com Kuwait Reyadh Alrabeah, B.S.I.E. ’87 965-245-3162, ralrabeah@yahoo.com and Nezar Hasawi, B.S.E.E. ’89 965-484-2075 hasawi@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw Alumni records of the University of Miami are kept strictly confidential. Directory information is released only to other members of the alumni community unless an alumnus or alumna has requested complete privacy. On a very limited occasion and only at the approval of the UM Alumni Association Board of Directors, directory information is shared with outside vendors who are in a joint relationship with the University. Should you wish not to release your name to any outside vendor and/or other members of the UM alumni community, please notify the Office of Alumni Relations in writing at P.O. Box 248053, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410.

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B i g

PICTURE

Faculty Shine in a Whole New Light

For Martinez, Film Is All about Sharing

very Friday night at 8 p.m. is show time at Cine Martinez—a master bedroom converted into a theatre at the home of Humberto Martinez, B.S. ’75, M.D. ’80, associate professor and director of undergraduate medical education in radiology at the Miller School of Medicine. The lights are dim, the projector is humming, and the beverages rest on movie poster coasters. UM students, faculty, and other guests are rocking in the plush red chairs, vestiges from the old Riviera Theatre on South Dixie Highway. Friday nights have been this way since Martinez was five years old, when his father first gave him a film projector. “Everything you bought related to technology in Cuba at the time was used equipment from people leaving the country to come to the United States,” Martinez recalls. “Dad got me a new projector every year because once the lamp blew out, there were no replacement bulbs.” Martinez would raise the curtain—his garage door—and invite the neighborhood kids to watch his silent, black-and-white screenings of Betty Boop, Heckle and Jeckle, and Mighty Mouse cartoons. People’s reactions are what Martinez likes best about film, what he calls “a sharing hobby.” It’s also what Martinez likes best about radiology. “That’s what radiologists do—we gather around and talk about film.” For Martinez, who left Cuba at the age of 14, the United States was full of opportunity for his hobby. When Kodak invented the Super 8 camera with sound in 1973, Martinez was the first to own one, which he used to make feature-length home movies, complete with a musical score and bilingual narration. While Martinez seemed destined for a career in Hollywood, he knew that medicine was a better fit. In three decades of marriage to Consuelo, B.B.A. 91, he has spent only three nights apart from her, one of which was his initiation into Iron Arrow. During his undergraduate and medical education, Martinez worked part-time as a projectionist for a company that showed films in Miami Beach hotels. He recalls opening the package for The Jolson Story, describing its beauty like a rare lithograph, but finding it in pieces a few days later. “Film is not a durable medium,” he explains. “I felt like someone had just killed a friend. That’s when I learned to repair and care for film.” Of all the “friends” Martinez has in his collection today—600 16mm films and more than 1,500 DVDs—his favorite is Sleeping Beauty. Originally released in 1959, it was the last animated film that played in Cuba after Fidel Castro banned all things American. “I was madly in love with Princess Aurora, until I met Princess Consuelo.” Recipient of numerous teaching awards, Martinez specializes in thoracic imaging. But if you really want to see what gets his heart racing, join him on Fridays at Cine Martinez. —Meredith Danton

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The Robert and Judi Prokop Newman

ALUMNI CENTER UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

Make a Lasting Impression A

s a student at the University of Miami, you made your mark on the institution’s growth and character. Now you can do it again. Purchasing a stone paver inscribed with your message supports the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center Capital Campaign and creates a visible and enduring link between you and your University. Personalized pavers will be showcased in the forthcoming Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center. They are a great way to celebrate a milestone, such as a birthday or graduation, or to honor a special person like a family member, classmate, or mentor. Reserve your place in history today!

Choose from two sizes: a 4x8-inch paver with three lines of text for a $500 donation, or an 8x8-inch paver with six lines of text for a $1,000 donation. A limited quantity of pavers are available, so call the Alumni Association now at 1-866-UMALUMS or order online at www.miami.edu/alumni.

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What a GR8-PL8! Make the right impression with a UM License Plate featuring Sebastian the Ibis In the sea of standard Florida license plates, yours can be one that turns heads. The UM plate is available at any Florida tag agency for just $25 above the cost of a regular plate. Best of all, the extra $25 funds University of Miami Alumni Scholarships for UM students. The only requirement is that you must be a Florida resident with a vehicle registered in the state. So go ahead and let your tag tell the world you’re a ’Cane. T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I A M I L I C E N S E P L AT E

University of Miami Division of University Communications Post Office Box 248073 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-1210

UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage P A I D Permit No. 930 Richmond, VA