Miami Magazine | Spring 2007 by University of Miami

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T O DAY ’ S R E S E A RC H I S

taking bold steps T OWA R D A C U R E F O R PA R A LYS I S.

t the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine,

medical centers. Some of the best-known brands in medicine are

the world’s top scientists and clinicians are discovering breakthrough

right here: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Diabetes Research Institute,

treatments for spinal cord injuries. They conduct groundbreaking

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and The Miami Project to

research on techniques to regenerate damaged nerve fibers across

Cure Paralysis—the world’s largest comprehensive spinal cord injury

the area of injury and develop new drugs

research center. In our quest to continue

and protocols to help nerves in the spinal

growing this unparalleled research and clini-

cord survive an injury—innovations to be

cal enterprise, we’re building more facilities

transferred to our patients.

and attracting more top experts. Every day

The Miller School of Medicine is the

we’re thinking ahead—exploring new med-

nucleus—and the heart—of one of the

ical frontiers, creating new knowledge, and

nation’s largest and most vibrant academic

discovering 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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VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2

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

Spring 2007 24

Ready to Serve UM students are striving to heal communities and improve the lives of people around the world.

Sim City Patient simulators that emulate human disease enhance education and make health care safer.

Dare to Green Green U initiatives are curbing carbon emissions while cultivating citizens who are savvy about sustainability.

Media Morph The School of Communication is plugging into the way the world produces, receives, and uses media.

Born and Bred Randy Shannon, new head coach of Hurricanes football, is a strong believer in preparing players for life after sports.

DEPARTMENTS

PostMarks Comments and opinions from alumni and friends.

University Journal Bill Clinton visits UM >> Virginia Tech vigil >> Students play Carnegie Hall >> Famed geneticists arrive >> ACC academics >> Shalala reviews veterans’ care >> Animal rights law >> Digital Libraries >> Hornsby returns >> Engineering for the Americas >> UMOHS expands reach >> Heart Smart >> Cleveland Orchestra visits >> Bascom Palmer in Palm Beach

Alumni Digest Coaching peak performance >> Honor thy mentors >> Virtual connections >> Cereal Bowl not a flaky idea >> Tag, you’re it >> On the horizon >> Gumenick family names Alumni Center lobby

Class Notes News and profiles of alumni worldwide

DateBook Alumni events and activities

Big Picture Zanita Fenton stands for equality and activism. Cover Illustration by Boris Zlotsky.

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P o s t

MARKS

Comments and Opinions from University of Miami Alumni and Friends

Sweet Surprise

magine my surprise when I opened the Winter 2007 edition of Miami magazine and saw my picture as one of the original Sugarcane batgirls (No. 10 in the photo). I was selected as a Sugarcane my freshman year and proudly served on the squad for the next four years, two as the captain. Being a Sugarcane was one of the highlights of my years at the University of Miami. Coach Ron Fraser was the ultimate showman who always looked for ways to bring attention to the

University’s fabulous baseball program. A couple of years ago, my husband and I were vacationing in Miami and decided to attend a Hurricanes baseball game. Even though the stadium had greatly changed and the crowds were much larger, the Sugarcanes were still

there. That night happened to be “Ron Fraser Bobble Head Night.” Coach Fraser was being honored, and I spent some time talking to him. I was able to thank him for the great impact he had on my life by giving me a chance to be part of the UM baseball legacy. As a high school teacher, I frequently wear University of Miami clothing and highly recommend the University of Miami to my students. Thank you for

recognizing the contributions of the Sugarcanes. Diane (Daughetee) Huff, B.Ed. ’72 Marlboro, New Jersey

Fond Memories of the Murfins

was so startled to see the name “Pamela K. Murfin, M.S.Ed. ’86, Ph.D. ’89” in the In Memoriam pages of Miami magazine (Winter 2007). Ross and Pam Murfin were the first masters at the Honors Residential College (now Hecht) in the mid1980s. They were raising two young children at the time. They were wonderful, warm, nurturing people who really helped us during

FROM THE EDITOR

Big, Bold, and Dynamic

hen I was in the fourth grade, my teacher would nudge students out of their shell by attaching the words “big, bold, and dynamic!” to every command. “Prepare your presentations big, bold, and dynamic!” she would say. It’s a catchphrase that still resonates every time I am tempted to settle for the easy way out instead of reaching for maximum impact. Big, bold, and dynamic is modus operandi at the University of Miami. An institution that can pull off back-to-back lectures by Al Gore and Bill Clinton, a successful billion-dollar-plus fundraising campaign, and a U.S. presidential debate is one that dreams without limits. The University has again petitioned the Commission on Presidential Debates to host a debate during the 2008 election year. If it’s selected, you can expect a repeat performance of big, bold, and dynamic guest speakers and special programs leading up to the main event. The “if you can dream it, you can do it” philosophy at the University is not only at the administrative level. Students show us that

2 Miami magazine Spring 2007

four years on campus is plenty of time to implement profound changes in their immediate spheres and beyond. Sometimes their initiatives are symbolic, like when 500 of them gathered hand-inhand, dressed in orange, to “hug” Lake Osceola. They were celebrating President Shalala’s signing of the Talloires Declaration, a ten-point action plan signed by more than 300 academic institutions worldwide for incorporating sustainability in every aspect of operations. The gesture is part of Green U, the University’s grandscale plan to improve its interface with the fragile Earth. In every issue of Miami magazine, you read about people doing cool research in untapped areas and winning awards for innovation and insight. Important, too, are the inconspicuous gestures, like students who volunteer to clean up their communities or to simply spend time with a stranger needing a friend. In both visible and invisible ways, the “wow factor” here is high, and I hope it inspires you to live your life in ways that are big, bold, and dynamic. —Meredith Danton, Editor

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our transition to independence. My friends and I have fond memories of the Murfin family, spending a lot of time in their home. We are sorry for their loss. Angela Burrafato, B.S. ’89, M.D. ’93 Via the Internet

Postcards from Mabibo

ince my arrival here in November 2005, I have missed two UM Homecoming and Alumni Weekends, two Christmases worth of Grandma’s home cooking, and several weddings of close friends and fellow alumni. However, as I reflect back on the past year, it is by no means defined by what was lacking. Rather it was the countless blessings and joys that gave shape to my 2006—a year spent far from the familiarities of our beloved UM campus but among a community of people just as loving, welcoming, and accepting as our UM family. The people of Mabibo, my neighborhood here on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, have indeed taken me in as one of their own. Much to the disappointment of the elders, I have yet to marry

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one of their daughters, but even with this I keep myself open-minded. In exchange for their unending hospitality, I try to offer what humble service I can. I teach full-time at the neighborhood high school and parttime (evenings) at a primary school for local orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children. We are now in the final stages of registering the nonprofit organization I formed with a group of University students and alumni of the

Billy Bludgus calls out to all ’Canes from Tanzania.

high school at which I teach. Our goal with this Tanzanian NGO is to take orphaned and abandoned children from begging on the streets to safe living and learning environments while enrolling them in schools. We currently operate one facility under a two-year lease, and we are raising funds for the construction of a brand-new complex

that we hope will be up and running by the end of this year. Complete information on our work is online at: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze nwrjd/tanzania/index.html. This year is looking very bright from our small corner of the world. Although I rang in the new year in Tanzania, eating Tanzanian foods and dancing Tanzanian dances, part of my heart was watching the calendar change from Coral Gables, under a banyan tree overlooking Lake Osceola, thinking of our great University and the amazing people who share in its tradition. My fellow ’Canes, I wish you nothing but the best this year, and I hope to reunite with you all come 2008! Until then, and always, Go ’Canes! Billy Bludgus, B.S. ’05 Jesuit Volunteers International Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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

The University of Miami Magazine

Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing

P. David Johnson Senior Editorial Director

Todd Ellenberg Editor

Meredith Danton Art/Design Director

Scott Fricker Graphic Designer

Sau Ping Choi Production Manager

Jill McWilliams Editorial Contributors

Jill Bauer Robert C. Jones Jr. Christine Kotler, B.S.C. ’91, M.A. ’01 Barbara Pierce Jessica Sick, B.S.C. ’00 Leslie Sternlieb Blair S. Walker

President

Donna E. Shalala 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 ©2007, University of Miami. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

www.miami.edu/miami-magazine

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U n i v e r s i t y

JOURNAL

Noteworthy News and Research at the University of Miami

More Partners, Fewer Enemies Bill Clinton shares pearls of progress

world?” His answer: “interdependence,” which is similar to globalization. We are connected by “a global awareness of things that would have been unthinkable a generation ago,” he said, pointing to uniting factors like travel, trade, and information technology. He also noted that world hunger and disease, vulnerability to terrorism, climate change, and depletion of natural resources make our interdependent world unequal, unstable, and unsustainable. “You only have to embrace one simple idea: that your differences are interesting and make life

more exciting and aid the search for truth and progress, but your common humanity matters more,” he said. “We must try to have a world with more partners and fewer enemies.” Clinton applied this logic to policies on the Middle East, the importance of volunteerism, global warming, health care, the economy, and other weighty topics. He concluded his visit in a Q&A session with UM President Donna E. Shalala, who he said “served as secretary of the Department of Health

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

ill Clinton loved being president of the United States. “I never would have gotten tired of it,” he told a full house at the BankUnited Center. “I also love my life now. I realized there are things I can do as a citizen that I couldn’t do as president.” Clinton, who served in the White House from 1993 to 2001, addressed members of the UM community on March 1 as the 2007 Spring Convocation speaker. His lecture focused on five questions that “every citizen of every country, starting with America, must be able to ask and answer.” The first was, “What is the fundamental character of the 21st-century

UM President Donna E. Shalala conducts a Q&A with her former boss.

Sharing Their Sorrow undreds of students, faculty, and staff members gathered at the University Center Rock for a candlelight vigil two days after the tragedy at Virginia Tech University. Student Government printed more than 1,000 T-shirts showcasing UM’s solidarity with its fellow ACC school in their time of mourning. “Tonight we are Virginia Tech,” UM President Donna E. Shalala said at the vigil. “We share their grief and their sorrow.”

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and Human Services longer than anyone in history but also better than anyone else who ever had that job.” Shalala read studentsubmitted questions to her former boss, including one on outsourcing. Clinton asserted that we have “ignored our bird’s nest on the ground. A commitment to a clean, efficient energy future would produce millions and millions of jobs that would not easily be outsourced.” Clinton’s emphasis on a sustainable future echoed the riveting lecture at the BankUnited Center a day earlier by his former vice president, Al Gore. Gore delivered An Inconvenient Truth, the multimedia presentation based on his bestselling book and Oscar-winning film of the same name.

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Premiering the Future Wind Ensemble plays funky new piece at Carnegie

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ary Green, professor and director of bands at the Frost School of Music, teases out a few smiles from anxious students in the Frost Wind Ensemble, who are rehearsing for their big debut in Carnegie Hall. “It needs to move kinda funky,” Green quips. “You guys didn’t think I could find a funky tune. You thought I was too old.” The Wind Ensemble belted out the world premiere of that funky tune, Wolf Rounds, in a program titled Performing the Past, Premiering the Future at Carnegie Hall on March 29. It was the first time in the Frost School’s 80-year history that a student ensemble performed at the hallowed venue, and it was the first time Green had conducted there. Written by Grammyand Pulitzer Prize-winning orchestral composer Christopher Rouse, Wolf Rounds is a 17-minute piece that moves in the circular, progressive way in which wolves stalk their prey. It is the seventh new work commissioned through the Abraham Frost Commission Series, an endowment established in 1996 by UM life trustee Phillip Frost in honor of his late father. And

although Rouse composed it specifically for winds, there’s nothing airy about it. “Rouse is a percussionist. He uses a vast amount of instruments, everything from thick pieces of wood to brake drums hit by hammers,” says Catherine Rand, the Frost School’s 2007 Outstanding Graduate Student. She wrote her Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting

FRONTIERS IN RESEARCH

Solving a Tongue Twister

If a doctor asked you to stick out your tongue, and you unfurled a nine-foot-long specimen, you would be proportional to the tube-lipped nectar bat of the Andes. With a tongue that can reach 150 percent of its body length, the Anoura fistulata is a species that was discovered by scientists only about a year ago. After studying three species of nectar bats, Department of Biology Ph.D. student Nathan Muchhala and his research team concluded that A. fistulata is the sole pollinator of a specialized elongated bell flower, C. nigricans. The research team published the results in the journal Nature.

How Healthy are U.S. Hispanics?

The National Institutes of Health selected the University of

thesis on the significance of Wolf Rounds and the process leading up to its world premiere. “Wind band is such a young field. Writing this paper has opened my eyes to getting more composers to write for our genre.” Rouse, who turned down Green’s initial proposal a few years ago, noted that the “magnificent performance” will be one that he’ll long remember. “I was very touched by everyone’s dedication in preparing the work, and the results spoke for themselves,” Rouse says.

Miami as one of four sites to conduct the largest long-term epidemiological study of health and disease in U.S. Hispanic populations. The $61 million Hispanic Community Health Study, which began in September 2006, will follow 16,000 participants over six and a half years who will undergo a series of physical examinations to help identify the prevalence and risk factors for a slew of health conditions. Neil Schneiderman, James L. Knight Professor of Health Psychology and principal investigator, says that the study could help answer many important questions, such as why U.S. Hispanics experience increased rates of obesity and diabetes yet fewer deaths from heart disease than non-Hispanics.

Adding Selenium to the HIV Cocktail

Antiretroviral therapy has extended the lives of patients with HIV, but now Barry Hurwitz and colleagues in the UM Behavioral Medicine Research Center have discovered that supplementing ongoing treatment with high selenium yeast may help to suppress HIV disease progression. A trace mineral, selenium is normally in the daily diet and has immune-enhancing properties. Published in the January 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, the Miami Selenium for Heart and Immune Health Trial studied 262 participants with HIV throughout South Florida from 2001 to 2005 and found that daily selenium supplements suppressed the amount of HIV virus in circulation over nine months.

Spring 2007 Miami magazine 5

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UniversityJournal

Miller School Recruits Genetics Duo

eginning with the recruitment of two of the world’s most acclaimed geneticists, Margaret PericakVance and Jeffery Vance, M.D., the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine is positioning itself to be a worldwide presence in the field of human genomics. Arriving from Duke University in January, the Vances are leading a team of investigators that is part of the new Miami Institute for Human Genomics and a proposed Department of Human Genetics. While at Duke, the Vances and their researchers

at the Center for Human Genetics uncovered critical genetic links to the origins of more than 50 diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, autism, agerelated macular degeneration, and multiple sclerosis. Margaret Pericak-Vance was director of Duke’s Center for Human Genetics, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, and chief of the Section of Medical Genetics at Duke University Medical Center. Jeffery Vance was associate director of the Center for Human Genetics, professor of medicine, and director of the Morris K. Udall

Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence. Twelve additional faculty members from Duke brought their genetic research to the Miller School, joined by more than 20 research personnel. They will collaborate with scientists at The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Center for Medical Genetics. “We’re a very integrated group, we’re multidisciplinary, and we work together on a daily basis,” Jeffery

ACC Schools Team Up in Academics

Ralph Mead, UM assistant professor of marine he University of Miami’s decision to join the and atmospheric chemistry, and Shouraseni Sen Roy, Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004 has proven assistant professor of geography, joined Suman in to be a sound strategic maneuver—for academics as the ACC delegation, which visited universities and much as athletics. Through the ACC’s International Academic Collaborative, faculty and students from all governmental ministries in Vietnam and China to foster collaborations on water resource issues. The dele12 ACC schools have been participating in research gates, whose expertise ranged projects, study abroad, conferfrom law to hydrology, preences, and other experiences sented seminars on their enriched through the virtue of research and met with local teamwork. scientists and water resource “Our diverse group clearly managers to discuss methods elevated our stature among our for maintaining clean water hosts,” says Daniel Suman, prosources. fessor of marine affairs and This summer, UM geograpolicy, who traveled last year Left to right, Daniel Suman, Shouraseni Sen Roy, phy professor Richard Grant with two UM colleagues and and Ralph Mead tour Vietnam and China with will be joining ACC colleagues eight faculty members from faculty from other ACC schools. on a three-week field study other ACC schools to Vietnam in Uganda, Rwanda, and South Africa on the next and Southwest China. “We were able to meet with International Academic Collaborative, Post-Conflict officials who probably would not have noticed our Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Africa. visits had we been mere individuals.” 6 Miami magazine Spring 2007

Vance says. “The University of Miami has two of the best academic leaders in the country: Pascal Goldschmidt and Donna Shalala, and there are some terrific researchers—in diabetes, spinal cord injury, cancer, eye disease, autism, and many other areas—who present real opportunities for collaboration.” Building a premier genomics institute is one of the critical initiatives that Pascal Goldschmidt, M.D., outlined when he became senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Miller School of Medicine. Such an institute, he says, “will create a formidable opportunity to apply the new knowledge brought out by the Human Genome Project and translate that knowledge into findings that will help our patients survive some of the most deadly diseases.”

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The Vances launch the Miami Institute for Human Genomics

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Heal the System Shalala and Dole Are Assessing Military Medical Care

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ON COURSE Title: MSC 120 “Topics in Broadcast Meteorology” Department: Marine and Atmospheric ON COURSE Science, College of Arts and Sciences Title: Law 761Fall “Animal Semester(s): 2006 Law” Academic Area: School of Law Semester: Spring 2007

Learning Law Gets a Little Hairy

hen Marcy LaHart files a case against a puppy mill or helps a client regain custody of a wrongfully seized kitty, her thoughts never stray far from the ten furry, four-legged critters who are part of her own family. LaHart devotes a substantial portion of her practice to animal law, an expertise that grew out of some earlier pro bono work she did for a no-kill shelter. “They started referring cases to me as an ‘animal-friendly lawyer,’ and it sort of snowballed from there.” But for LaHart, who is not shy about sharing pictures of her six dogs and four cats, it’s a labor of love. Last semester LaHart taught second- and third-year law students about the legal conflicts that can arise regarding animals, including pet custody, veterinary malpractice, dog bites, government regulation of animals, cruelty to animals, pets in housing, and pet trusts. “Legal advocates with specific training in those issues are currently rare but very much in demand,” she says. The Animal Law course was added to the School of Law curriculum last semester with support from the Arnold and Barbara Grevior Animal Advocacy Fund, established by a $100,000 gift from alumnus Arnold Grevior, J.D. ’55. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 7

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS RICHARD PATTERSON

ment to other military service or civilian life.” President Shalala is a logical choice for the job. She served as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration for eight years—the longest term in our nation’s history. As the leader of a university that has a world-class medical school and partnerships with the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center, she remains active in the current health care climate. She also teaches U.S. Health Care Crisis: Politics and Policies, an upper-level political science course in the UM College of Arts and Sciences that examines the problems our nation faces in cost and coverage. Walter Reed is one of many military medical facilities to be scrutinized by the nine-member commission, which will consult with foundations, veterFormer U.S. Senator Bob Dole and UM President ans service organizaDonna E. Shalala make an unofficial visit to the tions, faith-based Army Trauma Training Center at UM/Jackson. groups, and other serving our country in some sources to obtain a comprehensive analysis. First and of the most dangerous parts foremost, Shalala says, is of the world,” Shalala says. addressing soldiers’ needs. “They deserve access to “They don’t have time to high-quality health care and other benefits and services as waste while we debate who’s they transition from deploy- responsible here,” she says. ollowing reports that wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center experienced what President George W. Bush described as “bureaucratic delays and living conditions that are less than they deserve,” the commander in chief placed UM President Donna E. Shalala and former U.S. Senator Bob Dole on the case. Appointed in March, the bipartisan duo is leading the newly created President’s Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our fellow Americans who are

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UniversityJournal

A Mouse in the Stacks UM Libraries lures visitors through online offerings

decade ago many people were shrieking at the thought of a mouse—a computer mouse—invading the stacks. But instead of shooing away the Internet, many libraries embraced it. “Librarians were some of the earliest adoptors and promoters of the Internet and e-content,” says William Walker, University librarian. “We cofounded the Coalition for Networked Information in the early 1990s to ensure that libraries were front and center in the digital revolution.” UM Libraries is indeed front and center, allocating much of its own budget and securing outside funding for online projects. More than

$750,000 is earmarked for digital projects this year alone, Walker says. This includes $500,000 toward Imagebase, a digitization of art history and School of Architecture slides to enable Web delivery of the images in the classroom. Imagebase is among many online projects offered by UM Libraries’ Digital Initiatives department. Some are samplings of larger library holdings, designed to whet the user’s appetite for what’s available at the physical library. The UM Legacy project, for example, contains a portion of the Special

Collections’ holdings of University documents from the mid-1920s through 2000. Others, such as the online Caribbean studies journal Anthurium, exist only on the Web. “Digitization is making hidden collections accessible,” says Yolanda Cooper, deputy University librarian and head of Digital Initiatives. “It’s like Google—you do a search and find things

Hornsby Returns to ‘The Old Playground’

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through exposure to “indigenous American music”— potlighted on the Gusman Concert Hall stage before a full house, accompanied by only a grand genres ranging from American folk to hip-hop. Hornsby fondly remembers his days at the Unipiano, Bruce Hornsby, B.M. ’77, is wryly self-deprecating. versity of Miami and is still friendly with many of his “There are a lot more people here than there were at former professors. Yet his path from the Foster Pracmy senior recital,” he deadpans before launching into tice Building to Grammys a dazzling set. and gold records was cirPrior to his performance cuitous. It took him more at Festival Miami 2006, the than seven years to land a three-time Grammy winner recording contract. Then, met with students for a masone day, he gave up trying ter class, one of several made to emulate a guitar-driven possible by the Stamps Family Top 40 sound and returned Charitable Foundation Distinto the keyboard with “The guished Visitor Series. Shortly Bruce Hornsby conducts a master class. Way It Is,” the song that after his visit, Hornsby pledged a $600,000 gift to the Frost School of Music. became his breakthrough hit. “Don’t follow trends—be true to yourself,” The gift will support The Creative American Music Hornsby says. “You need to find your own voice.” Program, an effort to enrich aspiring songwriters 8 Miami magazine Spring 2007

you didn’t know existed.” One of UM Libraries’ first digitization projects was CHC Digital. “We digitized about 14,000 objects, but that was just the tip of the iceberg,” says Maria Estorino, interim head of Special Collections and former project director for CHC Digital. The ability to scan, label, categorize, and post a portion of the massive Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC) came from a 1999 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This year UM Libraries earned a State of Florida grant to digitize manuscripts in that collection. Faculty members like Lillian Manzor and Robin Bachin are creating new online archives with help from the Richter Library’s Digital Media Lab and UM Libraries’ Digital Library Fellowship grants. There are presently a dozen or so projects in Digital Initiatives, with more on the way. Judging from the volume of activity in the Richter Library every day, it’s certain that the mouse has been more friend than foe. To tour the cyber-stacks, visit www.library.miami.edu and click on “All E-Resources.”

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PEAK PERFORMANCE

Sharpening the Competitive Edge

Many of the nation’s most talented young athletes rise through the ranks of competition dreaming about one day becoming a Miami Hurricane. Still, the University’s ability to recruit and retain top student-athletes is ever more challenged. To reinforce its competitive edge, the University has kicked off The Sprint for Hurricane Athletics. This fast-paced campaign seeks to raise more than $70 million over the next three years to create new scholarships, build and renovate key facilities, and expand the endowment and annual giving for the Miami Hurricanes. “Hurricane athletics has been extremely successful for many years,” says Paul Dee, M.Ed. ’73, J.D. ’77, director of athletics. “But to maintain that excellence, we must continue to improve our academic, training, playing, and practice facilities. This can be accomplished only with the help of those who feel passionate about the ’Canes.” The lion’s share of dollars raised will help build and enhance athletic facilities. One urgent priority is construction of an academic center that would house a computer laboratory, private tutoring areas, and offices for the staff members who support the academic interests of more than 300 student-athletes. Other pressing needs include construction of a basketball practice facility and a football equipment facility as well as renovation of the training room and medical facility, Mark Light Field

at Alex Rodriguez Park, the Neil Schiff Tennis Center, and Cobb Stadium. “We carefully and strategically prioritized our needs for the department,” says Sergio M. Gonzalez, vice president for University Advancement. “People have great affinity for athletics, especially a program such as ours. The tough part is articulating that we need pure philanthropic dollars to achieve the goals we outlined. We need lead gifts that are not tied to tickets or other benefits to the donor.” The Sprint for Hurricane Athletics already raised $2 million in the first month of its launch. Gifts received prior to December 2007 also register as part of the University-wide Momentum fundraising campaign.

start with the second-highest rushing yards by a true freshman in UM history—18 times for 148 yards in the September 30 game against previously unbeaten Houston. At the annual Hurricanes football banquet in December, the team named him Offensive Back of the Year. “I have decent speed, but I’m not the fastest,” James admits. “But I have good hands and good instincts. I don’t know where it comes from—God-given, I guess.” In true nature-nurture form, James’s skill is nurtured by a drive to join his cousin in the NFL. “He took the time to show me how the NFL life is. I’ve met some famous people and seen some great things. But if this is what I want, it takes hard work.” For now, James focuses on doing his part to give the Hurricanes a winning season. “When I’m running, I just try to think ‘touchdown’ or ‘big play.’ I run for my cousin and for my coaches in high school. If it’s a critical situation, I just make sure I’m the player to step it up.”

What a Rush

Perhaps true freshman running back Javarris James developed his chiseled, sixfoot, 210-pound frame by hoisting melons onto a truck at an age when other boys were playing with Tonka trucks. He and cousin Edgerrin James, Arizona Cardinals running back and former Hurricanes football star, used to pass the bulky fruits to each other while working for Javarris’s father in Immokalee, Florida. But the younger James, a.k.a. “Baby J,” doesn’t speculate on what has molded him into a record-breaking athlete. Clad in a No. 5 jersey, the same number Edgerrin wore a decade ago, James marked his collegiate

Running back Javarris James is off to a good start.

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UniversityJournal

North Meets South Conference unites future engineers

rom ancient Roman aqueducts to the modernday automobile, feats of engineering have shaped the way we live. But the complexity of life today calls for greater global collaboration. A new annual program helps future engineers broaden their horizons and build important international contacts. Engineering for the Americas, a partnership between the University of Miami and the University of Rochester, brings top engineering students from these institutions together with their counterparts at institutions in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean

for two one-week sessions per year. “I am learning about leadership and how research is done in the United States. It’s not the same as in Argentina,” says Ignacio Rodriguez, a senior-year computer engineering major from Universidad Austral who attended the program’s inaugural session at the University of Miami in January. GPA, student leadership activities, and an essay are the criteria UM used to select its ten participants, explains Abraham Varghese, M.S.I.E. ’95, assistant provost for international affairs. They were among 36 students who

Future engineers from throughout the Americas visit The Biltmore Hotel during a UM-hosted conference.

attended lectures by UM faculty as well as luminaries like Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez; UM life trustee Phillip Frost, M.D.; Paul Horn, senior vice president and director of research for IBM; and Michael Manyak, M.D., vice presi-

Filling Education Gaps with an Online Solution

10 Miami magazine Spring 2007

school districts around the world,” says Howard Liebman, UMOHS chief operating officer and principal. “Many people think of the UMOHS solely as a full-time school and not as a school that can provide individual courses and teachers.” Part-time options, as well as summer school sessions, career and college preparatory programs, and full-time enrollment for student-athletes, entertainers, and others who cannot attend a bricks-and-mortar school, have helped the UMOHS quintuple its growth during its three years in operation. More than 1,000 students are now enrolled in the UMOHS, which was created in 2004 under the University of Miami’s Division of Continuing and International Education. STEVE KROPP

.S. schools will be facing a dearth of nearly 2 million teachers over the next decade, according to the National Education Association. This year the University of Miami Online High School (UMOHS) offered a pointand-click solution. Alison Freeman, a UMOHS physics teacher, filled a vacancy at a Chicago inner-city public high school by meeting her class over the Internet. Every day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., students listened on headsets to her lecture and watched her draw diagrams and work out example problems on the “whiteboard.” When students wanted to interject or ask a question, they clicked the “raise your hand” button and chimed in. “The concept of UMOHS as a solution for teacher shortages is beginning to gain momentum within

dent for medical affairs at Cytogen Corporation. “The program has three distinct goals,” says Thomas J. LeBlanc, UM executive vice president and provost, who oversees the program along with M. Lewis Temares, dean of the College of Engineering. “First, we want our engineering students to have an international experience. Second, we want to expose them to topics outside of the traditional curriculum, such as entrepreneurship and intellectual property management. Third, we want to help create and sustain a professional network across the Americas.” The second Engineering for the Americas session will take place in June at the University of Rochester. In the interim, participants are completing health carerelated engineering projects that encourage them to work “internationally, online, and on a deadline,” Varghese says.

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A Hearty Dose of Info

GoFigure

A strictly by-the-numbers perspective of UM

Exhibit blends education with research

school students. Exhibit visitors will be able to anonymously contribute their data on measurements such as weight, waist size, blood pressure, and health habits. Funded by a $1.3 million Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources, Heart Smart is one of 11 SEPA projects across the country designed to foster health and science literacy and student interest in science careers. Principal investigators are Patrice Saab, UM associate professor of psychology, and Judy Brown, executive director of the museum’s Center for Interactive Learning, a joint venture with the University of Miami. The center will contribute to programming for the new Miami Science Museum to be built in Bicentennial Park.

National ranking of the School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning >> 4

Number of faculty in the Department of Teaching and Learning >> 24

Proportion who had a book publication in 2005 >> 29 percent

What Bart Simpson’s teacher made him write on the chalkboard in Episode 235 >> I will not sell my kidney on eBay

Hurricane football players named to the 37-member ACC Academic Football Team >> 8

Total number of UM student-athletes >> 371

Proportion of student-athletes with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher >> 46 percent

Team with the highest cumulative GPA (3.32) >> Men’s Cross Country

Record amount raised by the UM community for United Way in 2006 >> $1,047,000

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

Funds raised nationally by the United Way to aid victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita >> $78 million

Total funds raised by the United Way in 2005-2006 >> $3.98 billion

NASA budget devoted to space exploration >> $3.98 billion

The Miami Museum of Science’s Judy Brown, left, and the Department of Psychology’s Patrice Saab and Judith McCalla are Heart Smart investigators.

Sources: Academic Analytics 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, Department of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education, Atlantic Coast Conference, University of Miami Athletics, United Way of America, U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy

Spring 2007 Miami magazine 11

ILLUSTRATIONS: JACK HORNADY

eart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. So why aren’t Americans doing all they can to take care of their tickers? Heart Smart, a collaboration between the University of Miami’s Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium’s Center for Interactive Learning, is investigating this question while teaching museum patrons how they can improve their heart health. Debuting at the museum in 2009 with the potential to travel to other venues nationwide, Heart Smart is an interactive exhibit with collateral classroom and Web-based resources, as well as a “Heart Smart decisions game” that researchers will study to determine if it promotes learning and healthy behavior change among high

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UniversityJournal

PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

Taking Notes from the Pros Cleveland Orchestra conducts classes at the Frost School

harp tiptoes into the hall and starts a conversation with a few sultry violins. Horns and percussion tumble in. Complex changes in mood, texture, and tempo tell a dramatic story written by Sofia Kraevska, M.M. ’04, a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition student at the Frost School of Music. Acting out the scene is the 105-piece Cleveland Orchestra, which partnered with the Frost School to present master classes, seminars, and special music performances during its inaugural threeweek residency in Miami. This is the first time Kraevska is hearing “Berestichko” (Symphonic Poem), the piece she com-

posed for a class assignment about a year ago. It took her a month to complete, but the music had inhabited her mind for years, since her visit to an enchanting monastery near her hometown of L’viv, Ukraine, site of a fierce battle in the mid-1600s. “I realized that this music is more vulnerable in life than in my imagination and that fine musicians can carry the composer’s inspiration to new heights,” says Kraevska, who is one of three student composers selected by Frost School faculty to have their works performed.

Above, renowned soprano Measha Brueggergosman critiques student performances. Left, Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor Andrew Grams and student composer Sofia Kraevska give direction to the musicians.

The connection between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Frost School began a few years ago, when the orchestra was in Miami developing its partnership

Eye-Opening Event in Palm Beach

onsistently ranked the No. 1 eye hospital in the country in the “America’s Best Hospitals” annual survey by U.S.News & World Report, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute now offers sight-saving care to an even broader South Florida patient base. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at Palm Beach Gardens—the only academic ophthalmic center serving Palm Beach and Martin Counties—has completed a vast expansion. More than 600 supporters attended the December dedication ceremony, including Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who shared a personal note of gratitude to the institution. “I’m the son of a physician, Dr. Charlie Crist Sr., who suffers from macular degeneration,” Governor 12 Miami magazine Spring 2007

Crist said. “It has almost been a miracle that, under Dr. Puliafito’s care, my father’s eyesight is becoming better than it was before the disease.” According to Bascom Palmer chairman Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., the institution made a $4 million investment in surgical, diagnostic, and patient care equipment at the 7.4-acre Palm Beach Gardens campus. The new $22 million facility features the Maltz Center, a 40,000-squarefoot patient care medical office building with more than 50 examination rooms, and the Frankino Pavilion at the Bascom Palmer Surgery Center, a 10,000square-foot ambulatory surgery center where physicians can perform retina, cataract, glaucoma, ophthalmic plastic, and reconstructive procedures.

with Miami’s Carnival Center for the Performing Arts for a decade-long annual residency. “That’s when we first understood the enormous scope and scale of the music program at the University of Miami,” says Gary Hanson, Cleveland Orchestra executive director. Spending ten days on campus during January, orchestra members presented a session on orchestra management and master classes on myriad instruments, including a vocal class taught by soprano Measha Brueggergosman. But the performance of student works was the “largestscale single event, unique to us and to the Frost School,” Hanson says. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity for young composers, and it helps us learn how to approach and contribute to the development of new music.”

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Rotaract ringleaders, left to right, Samira Sami, Dipesh Patel, and Alexandra De Filippo

Committed to Service Above Self

he first time Samira Sami “made an ask” for philanthropic dollars, she was 17 years old, appearing in front of the Rotary Club of Hialeah-Miami Springs. “Their philosophy is, ‘Invest in the youth and see what they do with it.’ So they gave me a check for $1,000,” she recalls. The club’s donation and steadfast encouragement were the seeds for Project Loja, a program Sami launched with her brother through which volunteers bring toys, medicine, and vitamins to an orphanage in Ecuador. “Rotary International is an organization of business professionals who all come from different backgrounds but have the same philosophy of service above self,” says Sami. So last year Sami called upon junior business major and friend Alexandra De Filippo for support in starting a University of Miamibased Rotaract, the Rotary-sponsored service club for college students and young adults. De Filippo enlisted her friend Dipesh Patel, a senior neuroscience major, and with the help of other friends, the group founded what is now the largest of four Rotaract clubs in the South Florida/Bahamas district and one of 8,000 worldwide. Project Loja is one of many international and local endeavors for The Rotaract Club of UM, which now has 26 active members. Another initiative is the Aka1000 Project, which aims to combat

malnourishment and unemployment in Haiti through Akamil. Part cereal and part beans or rice, Akamil has been manufactured in Portau-Prince for more than a decade but has a short shelf life, is inconvenient to prepare, and lacks essential vitamins and nutrients. The Rotaract Club of UM has partnered with Project Medishare, a charity that works with the Miller School of Medicine to provide health care in Thomonde, Haiti, to raise funds for a plant in Thomonde that would produce an improved kind of Akamil. For about 40 cents, one pound of Aka1000 can feed three meals to a family of three. The club has thus far raised $85,000 toward its $125,000 goal and secured a commitment for a matching gift from an anonymous donor. “I was born in Kenya, and I’ve been exposed to poverty, but after going to Haiti, the dire need for help is indescribable,” says Patel, who traveled there with Sami and representatives from Project Medishare last year. “This is how you help them help themselves.” “This is the first time that Rotaract has taken the lead on a major project,” says Marcy Ullom, associate vice president of continuing and international education and faculty advisor for the club. “It’s exciting for Rotarians to see young people not only understand challenges of the world today but take action to address those challenges.”

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Left to right, Andrew Valdes, Amy Sun, Heidi Masonick, Beni Johweyeh Yunis, Johweyeh Lowenthal, Lowenthal, Beni Yunis,Matt Lisa Maria Lee, and Lisa Matt Rhodes, MariaLee, Rhodes and are Lauren part of theare Carey STRIVE partvolunteer of the STRIVE community.community. volunteer

Ready to Serve By Jill Bauer

Across the country and here at the University of Miami,

Photo by Richard Patterson

record numbers of students are concerned about more than just grades, friends, and fun. They’re concerned about people who are less fortunate, and they’re not shy about striving to take action. 14 Miami magazine Spring 2007

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Charles Dickens wrote long ago that charity begins at home. But by “home,” Dickens wasn’t exactly referring to Building 34 of the Apartment Area at the University of Miami, where the newly formed STRIVE community has given new meaning to both charity and home. STRIVE (Serving Together Reaching Integrity, Values, and Engagement) is the first on-campus housing experience that focuses on leadership and civic engagement. A community of 15 upperclassmen and 16 freshmen who spend at least six hours a week participating in dozens of volunteer activities, STRIVE gives incoming students an opportunity to live with and be mentored by seasoned campus leaders. And

by all accounts, these students have already changed hundreds of lives— including their own. Lisa Maria Rhodes, a junior majoring in psychology and foreign languages, has served as both a mentor in the STRIVE community and as a resident assistant. “We painted a house for a family who lives near our campus,” Rhodes recalls. “There was a lien on their home, which was a house where

several children lived. We were bettering their home so that it would pass inspection. When we finished painting, we sat down for group reflection and listened to each other about what we’d just done and what effects it would have. That’s something that really changed my perspective.” “We’ve all heard about the affordable housing crisis going on all over the country—and in Miami in a large way— Spring 2007 Miami magazine 15

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and it’s important to educate people on this issue,” says Johweyeh Lowenthal, a junior majoring in political science and a STRIVE volunteer who was also part of the painting brigade. STRIVE is a concept developed last year by the Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development. The center, explains director Keith “Fletch” Fletcher, is the office that connects students to the community and the community at large to students. As Fletcher rattles off the numbers, it’s evident that students are exceeding their potential. “We had 98 applicants for 15 spots,” he says, “and when I went back and averaged what students are doing,

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fices to guide victims and the nation through the traumatic event. “I wanted to be involved right away because I was involved in community service in high school,” says freshman Heidi Masonick, a nursing major who was a counselor at the American Cancer Society’s Camp Enchantment and whose mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all conducted charitable activities. “My heart just sees the need, and I feel so much fulfillment in it. It was an important part of the family I was raised in.” And speaking of family, most members of STRIVE share a close, almost familial bond. “We’re all really kind of

Below, UM students in the Alternative Breaks program clean up in Mississippi immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Right above, STRIVE students paint the house of a local family in need. Right below, a UM student joins hands with a guest of Fun Day, a carnival-style event for developmentally disabled citizens.

“My heart just sees the need, and I feel so much fulfillment in it.” it’s amazing. Students are required to do 24 hours a month of direct service, civic engagement, and leadership activities. But they’re averaging almost double that—a total of 47.23 hours per month.” National trends show that students are more willing to roll up their sleeves and pitch in over the last few years, particularly since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the College Students Helping America report released by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, college student volunteering increased 20 percent between 2002 and 2005, more than doubling the growth in the adult volunteering rate. The report, which found that 3.3 million college students volunteered in 2005, also notes that most of the current college student volunteers it tracked were of high school age during the September 11 attacks. They witnessed the heroic response of police officers, firefighters, and other public servants who made tremendous personal sacri16 Miami magazine Spring 2007

quiet and relaxed here. We stop by and say hello to each other and hang out. And we all basically talk about the same thing—community service,” says freshman Lauren Carey, a nursing major who also mentors a 14-year-old for Big Brothers Big Sisters. “We’re such a tight-knit group, and we know about everyone’s home life.” “Just the fact that we can have an intelligent conversation about social issues on a daily basis and discuss how we can improve the world is unbelievable,” says Lowenthal. It’s clear that all residents of Building 34 have fully dedicated themselves to improving the world, whether on the grand scale or just for one person at a time. This year for National Gandhi Day of Service, a campus-wide effort in honor of the legacy of Gandhi, STRIVE members threw a holiday party at a home for the elderly. “We played games and dominoes, and we danced,” Rhodes says. “There was a lady who loved to dance merengue, and

I was dancing with her. She had more energy than me. We learned about a population that’s often marginalized and almost invisible in society.” Like many STRIVE residents, Rhodes is involved in several other campus volunteer organizations, including the University’s Alternative Breaks program. Students, faculty, and staff in this program spend one week during fall and spring vacations living in a community and volunteering at local agencies. UM students have volunteered in areas from Philadelphia to San Francisco on projects addressing issues like homelessness, the environment, and AIDS. Shreya Agrawal, who also served on the National Gandhi Day of Service board, will not soon forget her experiences in the Alternative Breaks program after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Agrawal and a busload of UM students traveled to Mississippi and spent several days clearing muck out of houses, including one of a former city mayor.

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“He had just come back from the hospital and wasn’t in any condition to clean up his house,” Agrawal recalls. “At the end, he took some of the drywall we’d torn down, wrote ‘Hurricane Katrina Relief’ on it, and had all of us sign it.” Agrawal, a junior majoring in biology and international studies, sees things from a slightly different perspective. Born in Delhi, India, she grew up around poverty and hardship. “I know both sides, and that’s why I really want to do some kind of social service when I graduate. I’d like to do something like Doctors Without Borders.” But what about creature comforts, like running water and electricity, that are taken for granted in the United States? To that, Agrawal says, “When we were in Mississippi, we were living in FEMA trailers, completely covered in muck, and it was no big deal. In India people are used to losing electricity. They’ve learned to work around it.”

any UM student volunteers have learned that they don’t have to go as far away as India or Mississippi to witness homelessness and poverty. One of the resounding mes-

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sages from students who’ve participated in various off-campus volunteer projects is that there is work to be done just blocks away from the University. “We made a philosophical decision in the office to focus on South Miami and Coconut Grove,” Fletcher says. “My opinion is that our outreach shouldn’t overlook the impoverished neighborhoods around us.” “When I heard we were going to do community service at graveyards, I was a little shocked,” says Heidi Masonick, describing what she thought was an unusual service project. “Then I realized we were honoring the people who helped us get to where we are. We cleaned the cemetery and scrubbed and painted the stones. It was touching, and it opened my eyes to what happens right outside the University.” Indeed, several of the 41 student clubs and organizations at UM that offer some component of volunteerism focus on activities close to home. The Martin Luther King Day of Service is one such annual event. The theme of this year’s event was “I am the Dream.” UM students spent the day entertaining children at the South Miami Community Center, and the University of Miami’s United Black Students are planning a follow-up event to paint a mural there documenting the past, present, and future of the South Miami community. According to mural chair Barbara Joas, a junior majoring in motion pictures and psychology, Martin Luther King Jr. will be a key figure in the mural because he visited South Miami and the UM campus. “The event promotes nonviolence and what Martin Luther King stood for,” Joas says. “We’re instilling these

values that service to the community is important. I went to high school in Miami, and kids didn’t really feel like they were part of something big. But when they see all their peers painting a huge mural like this, they’ll understand their duty to the community.” Of course, much like other University of Miami student volunteers, Joas has dreams of her own when it comes to continuing her commitment to service. “Eventually I want to start a center for young girls who have been emotionally abused. There are a lot of people who have survived that and a lot of children who, if they don’t receive emotional support, can’t make it on their own.” Fletcher notes that after a big day of service, each student comes back with a very different reaction. “Some are very solemn after realizing how much poverty is so close to the University. Some are charged up,” he says. “A lot of students are in tears when they come back from sites. There’s a tendency by students to dehumanize and think nobody lives in these places, but that changes when you get there and they bring you lemonade in Dixie cups and they’re so appreciative of what you’re doing for them. Students leave with a sense that they made a difference.” The Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development this year has facilitated a minimum of one campus-wide program every weekend since student orientation. And applications for program involvement and executive boards have increased by more than 100 percent. It shows that STRIVE’s motto—“To live, to learn, to lead”—is alive and well on today’s college campuses. j i l l b au e r is a book author and freelance writer in Miami, Florida. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 17

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They have pulses, pressures, and pupils that dilate. They can urinate, cry out, and even give birth. They are not human, but they play a critical role in helping health care students and professionals fine-tune skills, build confidence, and optimize outcomes— all without endangering real patients.

SIM CITY By Barbara Pierce Photos by Richard Patterson

On a bright Florida morning, a pregnant woman is struggling through a difficult labor. Six hours after her contractions began, they weaken and stop. Luckily she’s in a state-of-the-art teaching facility under the care of a skilled nurse midwife and an attentive group of nursing graduate students. After receiving a pitocin drip, she ultimately gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Meanwhile, a middle-aged heart patient in a hospital’s Coronary Care Unit complains of severe shortness of breath. Guided by the attending cardiologist, several medical students palpate his chest and listen through their stethoscopes for abnormal heart and lung sounds. The probable diagnosis, later confirmed by EKG, is acute mitral valve regurgitation from a damaged heart muscle. The students refer him for urgent surgical repair. Not far away, a team of paramedics assists an elderly man who has gone into cardiac arrest. One begins chest compressions as a colleague sets up a defibrillator; a third administers intravenous epinephrine and places a flexible tube down the man’s airway to keep his lungs ventilated. Though the tension is palpable, the team’s activities are smoothly coordinated as the ambulance speeds toward the hospital.

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All of these scenes are drawn directly from modern health care. Yet they’re not strictly real. Rather, they’re simulations—learning experiences that take place on technologically advanced mannequins in convincingly replicated clinical environments. It’s a powerful approach to health care education that has gathered significant momentum in recent years and is now viewed as a lifesaver. The University of Miami is playing a leading role in the worldwide effort to realize the enormous potential of simulation. Three different centers—one on the Coral Gables campus and two at the Miller School of Medicine—are home to simulation facilities that combine state-of-the-art technologies with extraordinary expertise.

oday’s health care environment is an especially challenging place to learn what tomorrow’s caregivers must know. Hospital units hum with high-tech instrumentation. Harried clinicians have more patients to see and less time to teach. Meanwhile, growing data about the prevalence of avoidable medical errors make improving patient safety a top priority. Amid such challenges, computer-controlled simulation enables students and providers to learn, practice, and repeat procedures before performing them on patients. Technically speaking, simulation education doesn’t require a mannequin. Computer-based training sessions are considered micro-simulations; even actors playing ‘standardized patients’ are simulators of a sort. Still, nothing dramatizes the power of the approach like watching a teaching session (known as a scenario) with a high-fidelity patient simulator—a computerized mannequin that can display the symptoms and vital signs of dozens 20 Miami magazine Spring 2007

of conditions, from acute injuries to chronic disease. Today’s high-fidelity simulators can be eerily lifelike. They have heart sounds and pulses everywhere a person does. As they breathe, their chests rise and fall. They can drool, cough, and urinate. They can moan, cry out, and (with the help of microphones operated by hidden faculty members) carry on conversations with their caregivers. Most importantly, they can respond to the right interventions, flatline when serious mistakes are made, then be reincarnated with a few keystrokes to impart a completely different, equally memorable lesson. To heighten the illusion of reality, the mannequins typically are placed in environments that closely mimic real clinical settings, such as intensive care units and operating rooms, right down to the hospital beds, monitors, and IV tubes. “People tend to go into simulations with their guard up,” says David J. Birnbach, M.D., professor of anesthesi-

Forty years ago Michael Gordon, M.D., center, “fathered” Harvey, a cardiopulmonary patient simulator now used around the world.

ology, obstetrics, and gynecology and director of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital Center for Patient Safety. “So we make the situation as realistic as possible to help them suspend disbelief and forget they’re working on a mannequin.” To further intensify the experience and take full advantage of teachable moments, faculty members often change preprogrammed scenarios on the fly. They even throw curve balls now and then: “We sometimes imbed mistakes into advanced simulations to see if students can catch them,” says Jay Ober, director of the International Academy of Clinical Simulation and Research at the School of Nursing and Health Studies. “When you’re doing clinicals, you may see the same thing for several weeks in a row,” says Maria Romano, a

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senior in the nursing school’s B.S.N. program. “But when you go into the simulation lab, you never know what you’ll get—it’s like Forrest Gump and the box of chocolates. You can’t help but learn, even if you’re just watching.”

ichael Gordon, M.D., says he’s no computer whiz—just a man with “an open mind.” That’s putting it mildly. Gordon’s vision and drive are the impetus behind the creation of a bustling, state-of-the-art center devoted entirely to leading-edge med-

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pilots and Disney’s then-new audioanimatronic technology, Gordon began working with a Spanish Harlem-based firm that animated figures for New York City parades to build the first Harvey. Since his 1968 debut at an American Heart Association conference, Harvey— named after Gordon’s Georgetown mentor, W. Proctor Harvey, M.D.—has been regularly updated by a national consortium of respected physicians and educators known as The M.I.A.M.I. (Miami International Alliance for

developed at the Gordon Center over the past quarter-century. “I was raised on Harvey,” says Vivian Obeso, M.D. ’00, assistant professor of clinical medicine and Gordon Center faculty member. “The beauty is that you can use him throughout—from first-year courses to fellowships.” Now nearly 40, Harvey is still in many ways the heart of the Gordon Center’s medical education activities. In fact, one of its most popular courses—an elective taught by Joseph Esterson, M.D., that combines working

“When you take a simulator out of the box, you can’t just drop in a quarter. A simulator is only as good as the person teaching with it.” ical education: the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, which now occupies the first two floors of the new Clinical Research Building. It all began with Harvey, a full-sized cardiopulmonary simulation mannequin that can display blood pressure readings, breathing patterns, pulses, and heart and lung sounds associated with more than 30 cardiovascular conditions. The elder statesman of cardiovascular simulators, Harvey is a bona fide celebrity, known to and used by thousands of medical educators and students around the world. An early champion of the potential of simulation technology to improve medical education, Gordon energetically refuted the prevailing wisdom that students had to practice on real patients. In the 1960s, inspired by the growing use of flight simulators to train

Medical-education Innovation) Group. Lighter and more portable, today’s Harvey features an ever-expanding repertoire of disease states, including stroke. He can be used alone or in conjunction with UMedic, a robust multimedia computer-based curriculum

with the mannequin and learning to read electrocardiograms—is known informally as “Harvey.” “Too many young doctors today rely on expensive tests because they haven’t learned how to perform a good physical exam,” says Esterson, the center’s direc-

Jay Ober, left, director of the nursing school’s International Academy of Clinical Simulation, and Mariano Loo, assistant director, are at the controls of a simulation scenario. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 21

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tor of cardiology training programs. “But it’s a wonderful and valuable thing to be able to make an accurate diagnosis using only your hands and a stethoscope.” “Over just a few weeks, a lot of things really fell into place for me with Harvey,” says Nathan Connell, a fourth-year medical student. “It’s like an immersion course in the language of cardiopulmonary diagnosis.” Since what happens before a patient gets to the hospital can be more important than what happens afterward, the Gordon Center trains more than 15,000 paramedics, EMTs, and ACLS (acute care life support) personnel per year from agencies throughout Florida and several other states in prehospital and emergency health programs. These frontline caregivers must be prepared not only for common emergencies like the cardiac symptoms Harvey presents but also for large-scale crises such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The Gordon Center also trains U.S. Army Forward Surgical Trauma Teams prior to their deployment. And, through a grant from the Department of Defense, the Center for Patient Safety teaches U.S. military physicians, army medics, nurses, and anesthetists how to work more effectively as teams before they’re deployed.

t the nursing school’s International Academy for Clinical Simulation and Research, Harvey is a valued member of a large and varied family of some 16 different patient simulators—nearly every high-fidelity simulator on the market. These “patients” represent a variety of ages and ethnic groups. Located within the new M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies, the 5,500-squarefoot academy is one of the nation’s first 22 Miami magazine Spring 2007

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comprehensive simulation centers “When I became a critical care nurse, I designed for nursing and health science witnessed a culture in which people are education. The facility includes a variafraid to admit mistakes. We must ety of simulation labs and suites that remove that stigma and improve educareplicate both pediatric and adult clinition to minimize those errors. Simulacal settings, as well as computer labs tion is the best way I’ve ever seen to and a high-tech control room. do that.” The academy’s director, Jay Ober, is Helping make patients safer is the also its creator; he joined the faculty goal of the UM/Jackson Center for specifically to build this ambitious proPatient Safety, which provides several gram after years of experience in simulasimulation-based courses in its state-oftion education. Ober has the distinction the-art, 2,200-square-foot simulation of having introduced patient simulation facility. The events typically bring into the United States Air Force physicians, residents, and nurses Reserves, where he served as the director of aircrew training, flight nurse instructor, and assistant chief of staff development. In addition to his post at the University, Ober travels the hemisphere helping other facilities develop simulation education programs. “After all, when you take a simulator out of the box, you can’t just drop in a quarter,” Ober says. “A simulator is only as good as the person teaching with it.” Ober also serves as an international welcoming committee of sorts, hosting Susana Barroso-Suarez of the School of Nursing and Health Studies guides ministers of health and heads students through labor and delivery with a maternity simulator, Noelle. of major medical facilities worldwide who come to the academy together, just as they would be in real seeking insight on this one-of-a-kind life, to improve their ability to work system. “Everybody wants to replicate together effectively. not only the model that we use to teach “Historically, medical students aren’t our students but also the methods we taught how to communicate with other use to run and evaluate the simulation,” members of the health care team,” says Ober says. Birnbach, who has focused on patient With his seemingly inexhaustible safety issues for the past several years. supply of energy and drive, Ober is “So when are they supposed to learn? clearly a man on a mission—one fueled “For example, a physician may call in part by painful personal experience. out orders into thin air during a Code “My mother went into cardiac arrest as Blue without designating who should the result of a medical error,” he says. do them,” Birnbach continues. “Yet

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even the barristas at Starbucks will shout back ‘soy decaf latte’ to make sure they heard your order accurately. We need to build simple yet crucial communication skills that ensure appropriate care actually gets delivered.” While the center is run by the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology, Birnbach says that most of its scenarios don’t have anything to do with anesthesia. More than 1,000 residents come through each year to take required safety courses, working with simulation scenarios that pertain to their area of interest, whether it be pediatrics, surgery, or internal medicine. According to Birnbach, simulations at the center are often based on real medical errors and near misses. “We can re-create actual medical errors and then tape them,” he says. “When students watch these reenactments, they see an error unfolding before their eyes. It’s a very powerful experience.” As the applications for simulation education expand, the technology continues to advance. High-fidelity simulators are constantly being updated with new scenarios and symptoms; for example, visual cues important to clinical diagnosis—such as skin color changes and sweat—are in the works. Despite the fascinations of the technology, however, the dozens of dedicated educators using simulation here at the University never forget its ultimate goal: healthier patients. As nursing dean Nilda P. Peragallo puts it, “With simulation, students get into the habit of practicing in the safest manner possible. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.” b a r b a r a p i e rc e is an editor at the University of Miami.

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Left to right, John and Daphne Eggert with their son Peter.

Born Again, and Again Even among today’s high-fidelity simulators, the laboring mother known to health care educators and students as Noelle represents remarkable sophistication. Her birth experiences can be complicated by conditions ranging from preeclampsia to postpartum hemorrhage. Her newborn son, a marvel of miniaturization known as Newborn Hal, may be born blue or breech; he may need compression, resuscitation, or other Code Team interventions. Together, the two simulators “provide intense perinatal learning experiences,” says Susana Barroso-Suarez, associate director of the International Academy of Clinical Simulation and Research at the School of Nursing and Health Studies. The Noelle Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal System, as she is formally known, is manufactured by Gaumard Scientific. Owned by Daphne Eggert, A.B. ’64, and her husband, John S. Eggert, M.S.M.E. ’68, the firm is one of the leading manufacturers of educational simulators worldwide. Now based in a pair of buildings in southwest Miami-Dade County, Gaumard Scientific was founded by Daphne Eggert’s father, George Blaine, M.D., a British army physician who created the first childbirth simulator in 1949. Nearly 60 years later, Gaumard maintains a powerful sense of corporate purpose and a commitment to constant innovation. According to John Eggert, Newborn Hal and his adult counterpart represent the “tetherless” future of simulation technology: “People don't have tubes or wires sticking out of them, and neither should simulators.” A significant number of Gaumard’s more than 250 proprietary products are focused on OB/GYN education, and the Eggerts are devoted to the cause of improving the care of mothers and newborns worldwide. “Noelle came from the heart,” John Eggert says. “No one told us to make her.” There are seven different models of Noelle in use around the globe—including a hand-cranked version that can be used in rural settings without electric power. “What drives us,” John Eggert adds, “is the desire to make a difference.” And though the couple logs tens of thousands of miles each year meeting with partner organizations and prospective customers around the world, “You don't have to go abroad to get product ideas,” he says. “They’re all around you.”

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It’s not easy being green, but the future of the planet depends on cultivating citizens who are savvy about global warming. Green U initiatives are planting the seeds of sustainability.

Clockwise from left, the Miller School’s Clinical Research Building is Miami’s first “green” high-rise; student groups rally for recycling; UM Police officers cruise the campus on batterypowered Segways.

B y B l a i r S . Wa l k e r

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In February a group of renowned international scientists earnestly concluded that global warming is ‘unequivocal,’ greenhouse gases are the smoking gun, and humankind’s fingerprints are all over it.

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, while

sobering, hardly qualifies as a news flash in the era of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Years before scientists inched deliberately toward what many already viewed as conventional wisdom, a concerned cadre of University of Miami administrators, students, and faculty had connected the dots. And they didn’t like what the dots had revealed. As early as 2005, a “Green U” task force was examining how the University could operate and educate in ways that are kinder and gentler to the Earth. With apologies to Kermit the Frog, those behind the Green U initiative quickly discovered it isn’t easy being green. Undaunted, the Green U adherents continued to proselytize. Their gospel is gaining traction, to the point where the task force has grown from three people to 40, students are pursuing recycling programs, and President Donna E. Shalala proudly touts her ownership of a hybrid SUV. There’s still a ways to go, but having Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, J.D. ’80, single out the new Clinical Research Building at the Miller School of Medicine as the city’s first “green” high-rise is a good start. The University’s impetus for being greener comes from both proactive students, who’d like to have a nice planet to call home, as well as from campus officials who strive to make

the institution a good neighbor locally and globally. In 2005 the University began exploring a partnership with Green Seal, a nonprofit organization that helps institutions become eco-friendly. Vice president for business services Alan Fish, who coined the Green U term, appointed Ken Capezzuto, M.S. ’05, director of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety and the guy who ensures that Green U has a daily pulse. A hazardous materials specialist, Capezzuto had spent more than a decade making sure that xylene, sulfuric acid, and other potent byproducts of University research stayed out of MiamiDade County landfills. So how does one deal with the environmental sustainability of an entity that has more than 10,000 students, fleets of vehicles, five campuses, and hundreds of buildings spread over 500 acres? That’s the question that Green Seal is helping the University answer.

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The University of Miami is the first academic client for Green Seal, which has worked with the World Bank, the Pentagon, and the State of Pennsylvania to ramp up their eco-friendly quotients. After the University signed a $68,000 contract, Green Seal began assessing three of four campuses. The sparsely populated, 136-acre South Campus, located ten miles south of Coral Gables, was left out of the mix. A Green Seal executive summary contained a list of recommendations, ranging from establishing a green pur-

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its own, like a pilot program to run three of the University’s 23 shuttle buses on cleaner-burning biodiesel fuel. If that trial is successful, the entire fleet will be converted to biodiesel, says Sandra Redway, M.A.L.S. ’01, director of business services. Some UM Police Department officers are now cruising the Coral Gables campus on Segways, two-wheel contraptions with police sirens and lights that operate on battery power instead of gasoline. The University also extends a 50 percent discount on parking permits to students, faculty, and staff

eco-friendly practices through recycling programs, research activities, guest speakers, and workshops. “Sustainable U’s basic mission is to raise awareness and really just educate the surrounding community about a lifestyle that sustains, rather than depletes, the environment,” says Josh Braunstein, a senior business major who helped create Sustainable U. The idea grew out of an extra-credit assignment from Pamela Reid, Ph.D. ’85, associate professor of marine geology and geophysics, in a class for non-science majors

“Earth is in an unprecedented crisis, and this is an issue that involves everyone, not just scientists studying the environment.” owning hybrid vehicles powered by a combination of electricity and gasoline. While hybrids as of yet are not abundant in University parking garages, students are driving the green initiative in other ways. In 2005 Student Government passed a resolution endorsing Green U. And last year a new student organization, Sustainable U, was formed to draw attention to PYRAMID PHOTOGRAPHICS

chasing policy to minimizing the amount of time unoccupied buildings keep their thermostats below 80 degrees. The University is pursuing many initiatives as a result of the Green U/Green Seal linkage, such as buying energy-efficient copiers that have recyclable toner cartridges. The 40-member Green U task force has come up with a few innovations of

Student group Earth Alert hosts UM Recycles Day to promote the ten-week RecycleMania competition against 200 other colleges and universities. 26 Miami magazine Spring 2007

called Introduction to Oceanography. “The goals were to investigate what other schools were doing with regard to sustainability and what was being done at UM and to come up with a vision for what the students would like to see done here,” says Reid, who is the faculty advisor for Sustainable U. “Last summer Josh Braunstein wrote to tell me that the class changed his life.” Braunstein, who plans to do volunteer environmental work in Uganda this summer prior to earning a master’s degree in environmental policy and sustainable development, worked with fellow students this year to champion the University’s signing of the Talloires Declaration. This spring President Shalala joined more than 300 university presidents and chancellors worldwide who have signed this ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in their institution’s teaching, research, operations, and outreach. At the prompting of Sustainable U, the University also joined The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

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“The students understand that sustainability is the net sum of the environment plus the economy,” Reid says. “Earth is in an unprecedented crisis, and this is an issue that involves everyone, not just scientists studying the environment.” Another student group, Earth Alert, has helped place more recycling bins around the Coral Gables campus, launched a battery-recycling initiative in the residential colleges, and organized local beach and park cleanups. This semester Earth Alert rallied students for RecycleMania, a ten-week recycling competition against 200 other colleges and universities. “One of the things that we’ve done is institute competitions to really encourage students to participate,” says Earth Alert president Lara Polansky, a senior majoring in biology and environmental science and policy. The powerhouse group Greenpeace also has an active student chapter on campus. “As opposed to Earth Alert, we have a more political agenda,” says Jarret Salm, Greenpeace president and a geography and ecosystem science and policy major. Salm describes a successful campaign his group waged with grass roots partner Forest Ethics against Victoria’s Secret. “They send out over a million catalogs a day, which is enough for every man, woman, and child in America to have one,” Salm says. As a result of the Greenpeace campaign, Victoria’s Secret agreed that the pulp for its catalog paper will not come from endangered forests.

f the 40 members Green U had at the beginning of the spring semester this year, Capezzuto estimates that 70 percent were UM staff and administrators, 20 percent students,

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FRESH FROM THE RED CARPET Three days after winning an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore presented a multimedia version of his documentary and bestselling book of the same name at the BankUnited Center. The former U.S. vice president’s visit, part of the University Lecture Series, offered a profound overview of global warming and projected environmental consequences if current trends continue. Slides of melting glaciers and scientific charts of unprecedented spikes in temperature and carbon dioxide levels prompted gasps from a rapt audience. But Gore—witty, charming, and comfortable in his delivery—assured students, faculty, and other guests that his message is one of hope. He noted that the Chinese word for crisis is represented by two symbols back to back: danger and opportunity. “We have to walk through the danger and face it down in order to seize the opportunity,” he said.

and 10 percent faculty. Associate professor of architecture Denis Hector is a longtime Green U proponent who’s excited about the University’s desire to erect more green buildings. “The building industry as a whole is one of the major consumers of energy as well as a producer of greenhouse gases,” Hector says. “And that’s a challenge for architects and builders to solve in the next ten years.” The School of Architecture is doing its part by cosponsoring a greenbuilding lecture series and symposia in conjunction with the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable building design and construction. Having a long-term approach, Fish says, is important if sustainability is to prevail at the University of Miami. It also doesn’t hurt when people like UM trustee Leonard Abess and his wife, Jayne, endow UM with a $5 million naming gift for the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. The center was

formed in 2002 to educate the next generation of environmental scientists, policy-makers, managers, and planners on bridging the gap between science and policy. In the meantime, the Green U team will keep fighting for sustainability one unglamorous battle at a time, like a recent contract signed with a carpet company whose product is not only greener and totally recyclable but also cheaper. Given that cost will always be an important factor for the Green U champions, cheap is good. But when you’re a college student concerned about the health of your planet, there’s much more at stake than dollar signs. “As Al Gore put it, we are the generation of the future, and these problems are going to be our problems,” Polansky says. “More and more I feel as if college students are behind the green movement. There’s really a shift going on.” b l a i r s . wa l k e r is a novelist and freelance writer in Miami, Florida. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 27

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There’s been a metamorphosis in the way the world produces and uses news, entertainment, and information. The School of Communication is plugging into the progress and potential of new media while ensuring that its students stay ahead of the curve.

By Jessica Sick, B.S.C. ’00 I l lu s t r at i o n b y Jo h n We b e r

It seems like just yesterday that students in the University of Miami School of Communication were editing camera footage on tapes the size of hardcover books and using chemicals in photography lab, not Photoshop. Few professors boasted their own Web pages, let alone podcasts and blogs. Less than a decade later, the School of Communication is a whole different animal. The miles of colored wires, massive plasma screens, and other digital doodads are only part of the picture. A sea change has taken place in the facilities and courses available to students, prompted by a metamorphosis in the way the world produces, receives, and uses media. Time magazine named “You” the 2006 Person of the Year. “It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace,” writes Time story author Lev Grossman. With sites like these, the layperson becomes the know-it-all, posting descriptions, product reviews, political commentary, entertainment, even garage-based science experiments for the world to view on the Web. Wikipedia, for example, lists user-generated encyclopedia entries on just about everything. The danger, of course, is that anyone can alter what is supposed to be trusted, factual information. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 29

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The School of Communication’s new Knight Center for International Media—a $10 million initiative funded primarily by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation—is investigating these “citizen media” Web tools as well as all aspects of contemporary communication and journalism practice. The mission of the center, says Sanjeev Chatterjee, executive director of the center and vice dean of the School of Communication, is to investigate and develop new media models to empower future leaders in the field, particularly across global boundaries. The center will support two new Knight chairs, one focusing on visual journalism and the other on crosscultural communication.

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n award-winning documentary filmmaker, Chatterjee also studies new multimedia platforms that are redefining the field of journalism. He recently discovered Secondlife.com, a virtual world where users create an avatar who can travel, buy property, take a for-credit class at Harvard, attend movie premieres not available in the real world, and do business with other avatars. Reuters even employs full-time journalists to cover news in SecondLife.com. Chatterjee describes the day his avatar went flying with someone whose real-life alter ego is an aerospace engineer. He clicked on an invitation she sent, and the screen teleported him to her island, which was filled with vintage airplanes. “Five years ago I was probably thinking that virtual worlds would be something different from real life,” Chatterjee says. “The convergence of real life with virtual life and the graying of the line in between is very interesting.” One of the greatest promises of Webbased media tools, Chatterjee explains, is 30 Miami magazine Spring 2007

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the opportunity for everyday people to become powerful agents of change. Last semester Chatterjee and assistant professor Kim Grinfeder, A.B. ’94, taught a Digital Activism course in which students started a “wiki” (a user-generated public resource) called Mediaforchange.org, a glossary of people, blogs, Web sites, documentaries, literature, and organizations dedicated to activism. The class is part of the school’s Visual Journalism program. “Mediaforchange, as a resource and mobilizer of social causes, is a great example of the infinite power of specialization, reach, and interactivity the Internet provides,” says Gaby Bruna, a student in the class who is now the homepage administrator for the site. The Internet is a whole new venue for not only writers and activists but photographers as well. “Students still learn how to tell a story through images, but now they have the opportunity to share that story with people around the world,” says Visual Journalism dean Lelen Robert. Robert is working on many online projects involving creative storytelling through photography. One such project is Photo Camp. Funded by National Geographic, Photo Camp

Sanjeev Chatterjee, above, is executive director of the new Knight Center for International Media, which explores media platforms. Right, assistant professor Kim Grinfeder and student Gaby Bruno tweak Mediaforchange.org, a “wiki” site developed in Grinfeder’s Digital Activism course.

gives teenagers in underprivileged communities photography equipment and basic instruction, which they use to create portraits of their own communities. UM faculty members teach workshops and serve as mentors. The students’ pictures are displayed at a local gallery as well as on the Internet. So far Robert has organized Photo Camps in Homestead and Little Haiti. “I think the most important aspect of photography is its ability to cross all borders and nationalities,” she says. Less than a month after its launch, the Knight Center for International Media already demonstrated its commitment to helping photography cross borders. In February it sponsored and hosted the World Press Photo Exhibit for two weeks at the School of Communication and for two weeks at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. Housed in Amsterdam, the exhibit consists of 205 of the best photojournalistic images from around the world that were published in 2006.

“Th gra

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Chatterjee and fellow communication professsor Leonardo Ferreira plan on doing a cross-cultural project for which they’ll travel to Bolivia and perhaps Peru to explore pre-colonial communication among indigenous peoples. “We want to be able to look at global news that doesn’t stay in the headlines—topics of interest like culture, the global environment, and freedom of

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already. “Our job is to teach them how to take what they already know— MySpace, PDAs, cell phones—and harness that knowledge,” says Grinfeder, “and to teach them to think in a different, more effective way, to look at things objectively.” Grinfeder’s class is one of many digital-age additions to the curriculum, supported by the latest ooh-ahh gadgets. Within two new, state-of-the-art facilities—the Frances L. Wolfson Building and adjacent International Building—are digital editing and photography studios, an animation studio, all-digital broadcast cable studios, four computer labs (two Mac, two PC), and a fully equipped sound stage. The recently renovated Bill Cosford Cinema has put the campus moviegoing experience on par with the latest in audio-visual technology. Keeping pace with the changing times ensures that students’ skills won’t be obsolete by the time they graduate. It

Web developers and designers discuss everything from public relations on the Internet to fake blogs. “Many of the local startups attend these meetings looking for people to hire and to learn from each other,” Grinfeder says. “A lot of students also have found internships here.” Many UM students have already begun harnessing what they learn in their classes to get the ball rolling on their careers. Anthony Wojtkowiak, a film student who took the Digital Activism course, plans to post his resume and reel on his personal Web site, www.showufo.com, and he also is working on sites for music lovers and those in the automotive industry. He is intentionally vague to protect his ideas from theft. He notes that more than any other medium, the Internet is controlled by the people who use it. “Broadcasting has the FCC, movies have the MPAA, even comic books had the CCA, but the Internet does not

“The convergence of real life with virtual life and the “The convergence of real life with virtual life and the “The“The convergence of real life with virtual lifeinteresting.” and the convergence of real life with virtual life and the graying of the line in between is very graying of the line in between is very interesting.” graying of the line in between is very interesting.” graying of the line in between is very interesting.” speech and press,” says Chatterjee. As such, the Knight Center for International Media is developing a program that would bring in a well-known photojournalist to help students create a prototype newspaper of the future. Still, before students can create change on a global level, they’ve got to learn the basics. On a Wednesday afternoon, early in the semester, students in Grinfeder’s Web Site Building class are learning the code that allows a site viewer to go back to a previous page. The students seem comfortable with all the backspaces, colons, and commands. After all, most of them have built their own Web pages in one way or another

also earns the School of Communication the honor of hosting many important conferences, including the third annual We Media conference, held in February. “The conference highlighted the need for discussion about the relationship between the established news media industry and people who are commonly branded as ‘citizen journalists,’” Chatterjee says. Grinfeder helps organize local gatherings like BarCamp and Refresh. BarCamp is a national, wiki-style “unconference” in which attendees share information on new Web technologies, and Refresh Miami is a monthly get-together during which

have a body that censors it,” Wojtkowiak says. “The Internet, as it stands, offers the best example we have of a free market economy. Many Web sites don’t even tax goods.” At the same time, Wojtkowiak realizes the reach of the Web is not yet truly worldwide. “The poor in our country don’t have as much access to the Internet as many of us have, and many foreigners have no Internet access at all. As the Internet continues to grow, though, I think we’ll see it continue to change the way we think about the world.” jessica sick, b.s.c. ’00, is a freelance writer in Miami, Florida. Spring 2007 Miami magazine 31

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BO R N AND BRED

Randy Shannon, the University of Miami’s

new head football coach, is a homegrown talent who has proven his aptitude for tackling tough challenges.

By Ro b e rt C . Jo n e s J r.

Randy Shannon’s official bio reads that his coaching career began in 1991, when he was a graduate assistant at the University of Miami under then-coach Dennis Erickson. But talk to any of his former teammates, and they’ll tell you that Shannon was a coaching prodigy before he even reached his teens. Blanton Harris, who played with Shannon on a Scott Lake Optimist youth football squad, recalls Shannon explaining drills to his teammates when he was as young as 12. And Melvin Bratton, B.B.A. ’88, a former UM teammate of Shannon’s, likened him to a “coach on the field” for his uncanny ability to make defensive adjustments on his own. Now Shannon, B.G.S. ’89, has entered the biggest coaching chapter of his young 41 years—head coach of his alma mater, a legendary program that, since 1983, has won more national championships (five), a higher percentage of its games, and produced more first-round NFL draft picks than any other Division I school. “This is my dream job—always has been,” Shannon says. 32 Miami magazine Spring 2007

Indeed, Shannon has been a Miami Hurricane his entire life. He applied himself in the classroom just as diligently as he did on the football field, taking several sociology, behavioral science, and education courses that taught him about the intricacies of the brain and the human learning process—lessons he would sometimes apply during game-day situations. As a player, Shannon was a four-year letterman at linebacker and the starter on the 1987 national championship team. During a nationally televised game in the Orange Bowl against the University of Florida on September 5, 1987, he ran back an interception for a 41-yard touchdown in his team’s 31-4 romp over the Gators. A year later as a senior, he received the Christopher Plumer Award for most inspirational player.

“Once you’re a part of the University of Miami, you’ll always bleed orange and green. You never forget those experiences as a player or coach because they’ll always be a part of your life,” Shannon says. Shannon calls UM the “cradle of coaches,” noting many who learned their craft here—from Ron Meeks, defensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts who was the secondary coach at UM from 1986 to 1987, to Dave Wannstedt, head coach of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers who was defensive coordinator at UM under Jimmy Johnson.

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An 11th-round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, Shannon became the first rookie since 1963 to start at outside linebacker for Dallas. He played for the Cowboys for two seasons before going into coaching. He was a graduate assistant in 1991 when the Hurricanes won their fourth national championship. In 1992 he became a full-time assistant coach, working with the defensive line, and from 1993 to 1997 he coached the team’s linebackers. He was a defensive assistant with the Miami Dol-

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phins in 1998 and 1999 before assuming the role of linebackers coach in 2000. Shannon returned to Miami in 2001 as defensive coordinator, and since then his defenses have been among the highest-rated in the nation. During his tenure as defensive coordinator, the Hurricanes had seven All-America defensive players. Many of the players he recruited and coached at the University of Miami have gone on to star in the NFL, from All-Pro safeties Ed Reed, B.L.A. ’02, and Sean Taylor of the

named to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Football Team, the highest in the conference. Discipline is also a priority for Shannon. During his hiring process, he surprised many by submitting a list of team rules by which his players must abide, in addition to the standard UM student regulations. At his hiring press conference, President Donna E. Shalala called him “tough, disciplined, smart, caring, passionate, enthusiastic, and no-nonsense.”

“UM IS NOT A FOOTBALL FACTORY. We’re an academic institution that does a tremendous job in educating student-athletes and preparing them for life after sports.” Shannon also is not one to back away from a challenge. He saw three siblings lose their battles with cocaine addiction and die from the complications of AIDS. His father was murdered in Miami’s Liberty City when he was 3. When he was named the University’s head football coach in December, he faced two of the biggest challenges of his career: assemble a coaching staff and lure top recruits with less than two months left before National Signing Day. Shannon, a man known for his quiet yet strong demeanor, hired a new staff within weeks and signed a top-20 recruiting class despite the coaching change. Shannon is the first black head football coach in UM history and currently one of only six in NCAA Division I. But he downplays any mention of breaking barriers. “I’m a ball coach. That’s the No. 1 thing.” ro b e rt c . j o n e s j r. is an editor at the University of Miami.

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Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins, respectively, to nose tackle Vince Wilfork of the New England Patriots. But Shannon is most proud of his former players for more than athletics. “I’m excited for them because they’ve earned their college degrees,” Shannon says, noting former players such as Cortez Kennedy, B.L.A. ’06, and Duane Starks, B.L.A. ’05, who have come back to UM to complete their academic studies. “Football is your life when you’re playing, but when it’s over and you sit down and realize that there are no more cheers from the crowds, you realize how special academics really is.” UM, Shannon says, “is not a football factory. We’re an academic institution that does a tremendous job in educating student-athletes and preparing them for life after sports.” Eight members of the 2006 Miami Hurricanes football team, for example, were

SID

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ith impressive SAT scores and a ranking in the top 7 percent of her

high school class, Stephanie Vecino was a stellar college applicant. “I came here because the University offered me the best scholarship and the best financial aid,” says Vecino, recipient of the Henry King Stanford Scholarship, which covered half of her tuition for four years. “It turned out to be the perfect match.” Vecino, a senior microbiology major, always dreamed of a career in medicine. While excelling in her classes, Vecino took advantage of several opportunities here, such as volunteering at the Miami Children’s Hospital and conducting research in the Miller School of Medicine’s trauma division. She is presently applying to medical school, a lifelong dream made possible through the generosity of alumni like you. When you participate in the Annual Fund, you provide support for our extraordinary students, faculty, and programs. Your annual gift continues the tradition of alumni giving and ensures the benefits of a University of Miami education for future generations of students.

Post Off ice Box 248002

•

Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410

•

Telephone: 305-284-2872

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A l u m n i

DIGEST Need a Performance Boost? Career coach is now at your fingertips

laying Division I baseball and braving the ebbs and flows of trading at the Chicago Board of Trade teaches you a few things about strategic risk taking. Doug Hirschhorn coupled those hard-knocks lessons with a Ph.D. in sports psychology to develop his niche as a “peak-performance coach.” Now you can glean advice from him on ways to achieve your own peak performance. Starting this spring, the University of Miami Alumni Association Web site features a monthly column written by Hirschhorn as well as Hirschhorn’s answers to readersupplied questions.

Though he has the same take-charge, tell-it-like-it-is demeanor as Dr. Phil, “Dr. Doug” tailors his conversation to career-oriented topics. “A typical question might be, ‘I have been in a deadend job for five years, and I want to move on, but I’m scared,’” Hirschhorn says. “Fear alone is not the problem. The problem occurs when we don’t take risks because we’re afraid.” Hirschhorn’s columns emphasize taking smart risks as a matter of course on the journey to greatness. After ten years of working with

News and Events of Interest to University of Miami Alumni

plans and goals, and courage in taking necessary risks. “I don’t create talent. I help people realize their own,” Hirschhorn explains. “I’m not just a motivator; I also create structure. The plan has to have stickiness.” Hirschhorn’s columns and Q&A’s are part of a grand UMAA plan to offer motivation, structure, and stick-to-it-iveness to alumni seeking career help. If you sign on to www.miami.edu/ alumni/career, you’ll find a menu of tools and services that can help you jumpstart your job search or take you to the top of your present profession. You can submit your question to Hirschhorn via e-mail at

Club of Miami. His message was so inspirational that we decided to take it to a broader audience through our Web offerings.” Hirschhorn spoke at AlumNites on the topic of “Daring to Be Great.” AlumNites, a UMAAsponsored educational program, offers lifelong learning opportunities to alumni and the community. “Dr. Hirschhorn’s approach and advice was the subject of much discussion following his presentation, and that sort of rigorous discourse indicates that the program resonated with our alums,” says Joshua Spector, J.D. ’02, who attended the seminar. “I found his com-

“Fear alone is not the problem. The problem occurs when we don’t take risks because we’re afraid.” financial institutions, hedge funds, athletes, executives, and “anyone in a field where being the best requires consistently being at the top of your game,” he has identified three core elements of success: confidence in pinpointing what you want to achieve, control over game

alumniweb@miami.edu. “The UM Alumni Association continues to look for benefits and services that are helpful to our alumni, particularly with career advice and networking,” says Donna Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, associate vice president of alumni relations and UMAA executive director. “This idea came about after we featured Dr. Doug at the AlumNites alumni education seminar this March at the Banker’s

ments on working with a tinge of fear about not being at peak performance to be consistent with the attitude of some of the best attorneys I have worked with.” In addition to his new “ask-the-doctor” service for alumni seeking a performance boost, Hirschhorn is a regular columnist for Trader Monthly Magazine. He also is the coauthor of The Trading Athlete: Winning the Mental Game of Online Trading (John Wiley, 2001). Spring 2007 Miami magazine 35

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AlumniDigest

Honor Thy Mentors

arl Cohen, A.B. ’51, was just 16 years old when he enrolled in the University of Miami. “I was a very young boy, with talent but quite unformed,” he recalls. “Donald Sprague helped me to find my voice.” Sprague was coach of the UM Debate Team from 1946 to 1967 and the person

“teacher, guide, and beloved friend.” Cohen credits Sprague with teaching him to “think in an orderly fashion and speak with accuracy and care”—skills that surface when he’s lecturing or having rousing debates about civil rights, affirmative action, or another topic

logic professor. “She took delight in the beauty of a tight, deductive argument, and I came to see why.” Cohen purchased a second paver from the Alumni Association to honor Edith Schipper and her husProfessor Carl Cohen honors his former professors Donald band, Gerrit, Sprague and Edith and Gerrit Schipper with stone pavers du jour. But Sprague isn’t whose contawho set Cohen on a course at the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center. Cohen’s only pivotal influgious love of the to become a prolific educaence from the University great philosophical works tor and author. Cohen, a will line the walkway of a took root in the young professor in the Department of Miami. rear courtyard on the west “Today I am the coauthor Cohen. “Very often when I of Philosophy at the Universide of the alumni center. of the most widely used teach, I think about how sity of Michigan for the It’s a chance for alumni and logic textbook in the world Gerrit and Edith Schipper past 52 years, purchased an friends to add their personal [Introduction to Logic, Prentice taught me. They changed engraved stone paver at the touch to this signature Hall], and in the first chapthe entire course of my life.” building on the Coral Robert and Judi Prokop Customized pavers like Newman Alumni Center to ter I quote Edith Schipper,” Gables campus. There are Cohen says of his former the ones Cohen purchased honor the memory of his two sizes of stone pavers: a 4x8-inch paver with three lines of text and an 8x8-inch A Direct Connection paver with six lines of text. Network, where you can search for long-lost friends “What better way to perike going from dial-up to DSL, you can now and classmates in the online directory, update your manently note my debt to access the alumni online community with personal profile, post and search these people?” says Cohen, greater speed and ease. Instead class notes, access the ’Cane who learned about the paver of having to type www.miamiConnections career networking program in Miami magazine. alumni.net into your Web service for job-related advice “I cannot carry their banner; browser, you can sign on to and information, or peruse elec- I cannot speak of them the community directly at the tronic journals through the often. I can post a letter in UMAA home page library portal. stone, in the very most (www.miami.edu/alumni). This one-stop source is a appropriate place, expressing Click on the “Online” button great tool for maintaining your my great regard for them. in the menu at the top of the UM connection. Don’t forget to Alma mater means soul screen, or simply plug your usertake advantage of these services mother—not a bad appellaname and password into the tion for the University of “Your Online UM Connection” box on the right-hand available to you as a lifelong member of the UM Alumni Association. Miami in my case.” side. You will be whisked away to the UM Alumni

“What better way to permanently note my debt to these people?”

LEO ACADIA

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pening a restaurant that serves primarily cereal may seem like a flaky idea. But Joshua Rader, B.S.C. ’04, his twin brother Kenneth, and childhood friend Michael Glassman had a few Trix up their sleeves to make it work. “Some people ask, ‘Why am I paying $3 for something I can make in my house?’” says Rader, vice president and chief financial officer of The Cereal Bowl. “It’s about the experience and the variety. You can have something different every day.” True, not many people stock 35 different cereals and 40 different toppings in their home. The menu includes hot and cold cereal and toppings like fresh fruit or Rice Krispie treats, as well as coffee, parfaits, smoothies, and a frozen yogurt/cereal treat. In the 1,700-squarefoot café on US 1 across from UM’s Coral Gables campus are plasma TVs,

comfy couches festooned with cereal-themed pillows, and cheery-o employees clad in corporate pajamas, many of whom are UM students. Conceived to be a cool hangout, The Cereal Bowl offers its space to student groups and others for meetings and parties. On most Friday nights there’s a band. “If you’re not 21 yet, there aren’t a lot of places to go and hear live music,” says Rader. It was late 2004 when Rader’s brother pitched him the idea. Rader at the time had just gotten engaged to be married, was working full-time at an accounting firm, and was earning a master’s degree in accounting. Within six months the trio had a business plan, money from family and friends, and a 15-year Small Business Administration loan. The Miami Herald chronicled their progress throughout 2006, and their first year in business earned them cover-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MIAMI HERALD

Alumnus Milks an Idea for What It’s Worth

At the opening of The Cereal Bowl, TV crews interviewed, left to right, Josh Rader, Michael Glassman, and Kenneth Rader.

age in Time and Entrepreneur magazines as well as a spot on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. The flurry of national press has flooded them with franchise requests, which is where they are pouring many of their current resources. Rader, who still works full-time as an accountant, expects the business to complete ten franchise agreements within the next year. They’re not without

Tag, You’re It!

n this case, getting tagged is a good thing. To congratulate you on becoming a new alumnus/a, the University of Miami Alumni Association will upgrade your standard auto tag to a University of Miami License Plate featuring Sebastian the Ibis. This offer is available to graduates of the Class of 2007 only and expires July 1. All you have to do is purchase the UM plate at any Florida tag agency and send us a copy of your new vehicle registration showing the UM plate number, along with your name, e-mail address, ’Cane ID number, date of birth, and mailing address. We’ll then send you $25 for the cost of the specialty plate. For more information, contact Marlen Tejera in the Office of Alumni Relations at 305-284-2872 or mtejera@miami.edu.

competition; Chicago-based Cereality has been branching out, mostly in areas near college campuses. But as Rader notes, “How many ice cream shops are out there, and how many are successful? We feel there is plenty of room for entry into this emerging market.” While profitability of The Cereal Bowl is increasing daily, Rader notes that he and his partners have made some mistakes. They enjoy showing the business ropes to the students who work there, and they marvel at how many institutions are using their shop as an educational model. “We were part of an assignment in the M.B.A. program at UM, and we were a final exam question for a class at Notre Dame,” Rader says. “You don’t realize when you’re a student how cool that is.” Spring 2007 Miami magazine 37

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AlumniDigest

ccording to NASA, a comet visible to the naked eye passes Earth about once every five years. According to the UMAA, once every five years is also the optimal time to launch a new strategic plan, and that stellar moment is now. No telescopes necessary, here’s a glimpse at what’s on the horizon between now and 2011. “For the Your in our Your UM Connection motto to have meaning, we must effectively develop a feeling of ownership in the UM Alumni Association for each of our 143,000 living alumni,” says UMAA president Gregory Cesarano, J.D. ’76. “By focusing on existing traditions and devel-

oping new ones, we can help students build the memories that foster lifelong connections.” Helping all alumni develop a sense of ownership in the UMAA is top priority. Methods for doing so are derived from extensive research. Eight task forces involving 87 volunteers conducted more than 260 study hours to determine what’s important to alumni. Based on a telephone survey and results from a national consortium survey, the researchers found that alumni

TIM GRAJEK

On the Horizon

want their alumni association to provide them with career services, a frequently published magazine and other communication materials, and lifelong learning opportunities. Alumni also look for ways to connect with the University and their affinity groups, and they continue to seek out a place to call home when they visit campus.

Gumenick Family Names Alumni Center Lobby

he Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center is designed to give visitors a warm welcome the moment they set foot into the lobby. With a recent $1 million gift, visitors will be setting foot into The Gumenick Family Lobby, named for a family that has been a part of UM for more than 60 years. Nathan and Sophia Gumenick, residents of Richmond, Virginia, began spending winters in Miami in the 1940s. Nathan Gumenick helped kickstart South Florida development by building the Southgate Towers apartment complex on Miami Beach. Avid philanthropists, the Gumenicks over the years have provided vital support to medical, educational, cultural, and religious institutions in Florida and Virginia. The Gumenicks’ son, Jerome, 38 Miami magazine Spring 2007

B.B.A. ’52, and his two sons, Jeffrey, B.B.A. ’86, and Randolph, have continued the tradition of giving. In addition to their gift to the alumni center, they have supported the Otto G. Richter Library (whose lobby bears the Gumenick name), The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, Athletics, the School of Business Administration, and the Miller School of Medicine. “I am very proud of the University of Miami,” says Jerome Gumenick, who is chairman of the board of Gumenick Properties in Richmond. “My two sons run the show now,” Jerome says, noting that retirement from the family business affords him more time to spend in Miami. “It’s a nice thing to help the University, and I feel tremendously thankful that I can do it.”

Among several strategic plan initiatives are: create an Alumni Career Services office; foster UMAA involvement among recent graduates; highlight traditions and develop new ones; grow national outreach programs; increase Annual Fund participation; and enhance communication vehicles such as Miami magazine, the @Miami newsletter, and the UMAA Web site. The new Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center will provide the desired “place to call home,” and the UMAA is resolved to drive home the message that all alumni are lifelong members—with benefits. Tangible outcomes of the previous strategic plan include campus signage welcoming students and alumni; redesign of the UMAA Web site; a full-time staff Web editor; sales of branded products such as ties and watches; implementation of a third issue of Miami magazine per year; and launch of education programs like Alumni in Residence and National Alumni Lecture Tours. These efforts helped increase the Annual Fund alumni participation rate from 12 percent in FY2001 to 18 percent in FY2006, as well as a rise in U.S.News & World Report rankings from 67th to 54th.

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C l a s s

NOTES 1930s

Alfred George James Wright, A.B.

’37, M.Ed. ’47, served as director of bands and conductor of the symphony band and marching band at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, from 1954 to 1984. He was the founding president of the National Band Association and is presently chairman of the board of the John Philip Sousa Foundation. He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America.

1940s

Joe Shaw, B.B.A. ’49, is still running his business, Shaw Nursery & Landscape Co., Inc. in Miami, Florida. He also is active in fundraising for athletics at UM.

1950s

Harvey L. Cutler, B.B.A. ’51, is

retired. After traveling full-time by RV for eight years, he resides happily in Port St. Lucie, where he plays golf, swims, plays bridge, or takes classes at the Indian River Community College. His son, Steve, graduated from UM, and his granddaughter, Kelly Tighe, is a freshman. Burton Edward Whittaker, B.S. ’51, retired after serving for 28 years as supervisor of a Washington, D.C. crime lab. He is a semi-retired examiner of questioned documents but has two dormant cases coming to trial this year at the age of 85. Benjamin Budowsky, A.B. ’53, B.B.A. ’57, retired after 40 years as a C.P.A. He turned over his Miami practice to his son. Ralph Fistel, B.Ed. ’53, is retired and serving his 50th consecutive year as a member of the board of directors of Temple Samu-El Or Olom, a record for nonprofit or

religious organizations. His wife, Myrna Sadler Fistel, B.Ed. ’55, M.Ed. ’70, is serving a second term as sisterhood president. Beverly Cooper Stapleton, B.B.A. ’54, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who’s Who in the World. Prior to her retirement from Lockheed Martin Corporation, she was contracts manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Program and other major space programs. Her biography also appears in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Finance and Business, and Who’s Who of American Women. James W. Bryner, B.B.A. ’56, has written Baja, the fictional story of two retired American field-grade officers and a retired general-grade officer who are duped into aiding in the overthrow of the Mexican federal government. Baja was published this year by PublishAmerica. Bryner lives with his wife, Berta, on Lake Pomme de Terre in southwestern Missouri. Angel Cortina Jr., B.B.A. ’59, recently retired from his job as a C.P.A. in the Coconut Grove, Florida office of Lewis B. Freeman & Partners, Inc., a forensic accounting consulting firm. He was previously employed as senior executive vice president and CFO of Centrust Bank in Miami and as a principal in the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, Miami. He lives in Islamorada, Florida.

1960s

Mary Anne Levine, B.S.N. ’60, is professor of childbearing health and nursing in the Humboldt State University Department of Nursing. She earned a Ph.D. in midwifery from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand in December 2006. Joseph Askren, A.B. ’62, retired

ALUMNI OF NOTE

Hotdogging It Across America

ave Lakata, B.S.C. ’04, is thankful for the day he saw a flyer posted at the School of Communication asking, “Do You Want to Drive the Wienermobile?” Today, Lakata pilots the 27-foot-long “Big Bun” across the Pacific Northwest. Dominique Franklin, B.M. ’05, gets behind the wheel of “Bologna” every day as she traverses the Southeast. A vocalist who studied music business and entertainment, Franklin turns an appreciative ear to the thousands of fans who regale her with unique renditions of the “Bologna Song” and “Wiener Jingle.” Franklin and Lakata are the first ’Canes to work as Hotdoggers, the ensemble of recent college grads who crisscross the country sharing “miles of smiles” for the packaged meat company Oscar Mayer. “We are the ambassadors of the Wienermobile, but the Wienermobile is the star,” Franklin says. It’s an elite team. Out of some 1,500 applicants, only 12 get the job. They handle their own logistics and manage public relations for every event of their yearlong stint. Franklin’s vivacious manner— she was a member of her high school pep squad in San Antonio, Texas, and the person behind the Sylvester the Cat and Foghorn Leghorn characters at Six Flags Over Texas—encourages the bashful and rambunctious, young and old alike to join in the fun. Two days into the job, Franklin and her driving partner (she and Lakata are not paired) were followed by a teenage boy and girl for nearly five hours from Missouri to Oklahoma. The couple pulled up alongside the Wienermobile and announced, to Franklin’s relief, “We just really want a Wienerwhistle!” She’s since learned to take such long-distance pursuits in stride. Today’s fleet of six fully loaded, GPS-equipped Wienermobiles traces its origin to Carl G. Mayer, Oscar’s nephew, who cooked up the concept in 1936. Hotdoggers don’t hand out free samples, but they welcome people to peer inside the ketchup-and-mustardcolored cabin and receive a souvenir postcard and Wienerwhistle. “One of my favorite things is seeing peoples’ faces when they see the Wienermobile go by,” says Franklin. “This job gives you back your innocence.” —Leslie Sternlieb

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ClassNotes

ALUMNI OF NOTE from Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers in 2003 and from Florida Insurance Services in 2005. He is a volunteer tutor for the Literacy Services of Indian River County in Vero Beach, Florida. H. Edward Dowling Jr., B.B.A. ’66, has started a cabin rental company with his wife, Charleen, in western North Carolina near Asheville. Richard I. Ridenour, A.B. ’67, M.D. ’72, retired last year as president emeritus of Marian College of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His presidency was profiled in James L. Fisher’s book The Entrepreneurial College President (2005). Marjorie D. Abrams, M.Ed. ’68, Ph.D. ’75, was awarded the Bronze Medal for Popular Fiction by the Florida Book Awards for her novel, Murder at Wakulla Springs: A North Florida Mystery. Jaqueline B. Hutcherson, B.S.N. ’69, announced plans to step down from her position as director of the Nurse Midwifery Education Program at East Carolina University School of Nursing.

1970s

Steve Dubbin, A.B. ’72, is a senior psychologist at the North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Gainesville, Florida. Lynn “Phoenix” Marks, B.Ed. ’72, has released a new CD, Messages from God, which blends her spoken narration with classic celestial music from new age composer Gerald Jay Markoe. For 15 years she has worked with Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneurs to help clients reach new levels of success. Jay A. Blumenfeld, A.B. ’73, principal of Jay Blumenfeld & Associates, a life and health insurance sales firm in Parsippany, New Jersey, was named the 2006 Amateur Player of the Year by the New Jersey State Golf Association. Lidia Epelbaum Lechtman, B.S.Ed. ’73, is assistant principal of Natural Bridge Elementary in North Miami, Florida. She was nomi-

40 Miami magazine Spring 2007

nated teacher of the year in 1992 for Scott Lake Elementary and assistant principal of the year in 2006 for the North Miami Schools. Nathaniel A. Trigoboff, B.Ed. ’73, has written a book called A Half Day in Hell, about a group of teachers who feel they all have been assigned to a miserable school as punishment for past sins. It is available from Lulu Press. Joseph Benedict McGoldrick, B.B.A. ’75, was named president of CenterPoint Energy’s natural gas operations. He was formerly division senior vice president of finance and regulatory for the company’s regulated businesses. He is now responsible for operations in six states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. He was a member of the UM Hurricanes baseball team in 1972 and 1973. He and his wife, Judy, have four sons and a granddaughter. Linda Slavin-Laguna, B.Ed. ’75, transitioned from a career in teaching to become the office manager of Joseph Laguna, M.D., P.A., in Clearwater, Florida. Roger Lynn Jeffery, B.S.C.E. ’76, a principal and director of the structural division of Orlando-based TLC Engineering for Architecture, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement in Engineering Award at the 2007 Central Florida Engineers Week Banquet. Berbard V. Kearse, LL.M.E. ’77, was again recognized by Martindale-Hubbell as achieving an AV rating of “excellent” in the areas of legal abilities and ethics. His Atlanta, Georgia-based firm is listed in Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He also was elected to be a fellow of the American Bar Association. Patricia Masters, M.S.N. ’78, returned to Florida after ten years in Virginia, becoming the director of continuing medical education at the UM Miller School of Medicine. Howard Kusnick, LL.M.T. ’79, announces the founding of his full-service sports management

Lord of the Rings Tom Adams

esides the title of a J. R. R. Tolkien novel, The Lord of the Rings is also an apt description for Tom Adams, B.B.A. ’57, whose collection of rings is rich in tales of truth stranger than fiction. His UM class ring, for example, disappeared from the backyard of his Huntington Beach, California home in 1981. Twenty years after Adams left the neighborhood, the owner of the house across the street found the ring in his garden and contacted UM Alumni Relations. “I thought it was fantastic that so many people went out of their way to get it back to me,” Adams says. The ring Adams wears now, however, is the 1999 Hurricanes Baseball championship ring Coach Jim Morris gave him in gratitude for his contributions to the baseball program. The ring is a reminder of the support Adams received while playing centerfield for the team under Coach Eddie Dunn. “He was the reason I graduated,” recalls Adams, to whom Dunn transferred a football scholarship when Adams became unable to afford tuition. “I was the only baseball player to receive a scholarship at the time.” It was also Dunn who encouraged Adams to find his true academic calling and switch his major from liberal arts to marketing. This business training, coupled with a savvy instinct, helped Adams launch and develop his firm, Tiodize, into a specialized manufacturer of more than 100 different products. From coatings and composites used in airplanes to materials used in biomedical implants, Tiodize products prevent friction, wear, and corrosion. “In 1966 I bought a patent for anodized titanium. At the time nobody knew what titanium was,” Adams says. “When I started the company I couldn’t afford an apartment, so I lived in the factory and had one meal a day.” Still considered “a ringer” on the ball field, Adams recently earned a World Series championship ring in the 60-and-over baseball league. He also owns Women’s Major League Softball International; this year he is coordinating a tournament in California pitting national teams from Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Canada, and the United States against one another in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. —Meredith Danton

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firm, Double Diamond Sports Management, specializing in baseball. He works with his son, Joshua Kusnick, representing Major League Baseball clients and up-and-coming amateurs.

1980s

John Benhart Jr., M.A. ’80, is pro-

fessor and department chair of Geography and Regional Planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has authored Appalachian Aspirations (University of TN Press 2007). He and his wife, Jacque, have two children, Carlee, 10, and Jake, 8. Stephen S. Schaefer, B.S. ’80, M.B.A. ’86, of Smith Barney, was among the top 100 financial advisors in the United States, as ranked by R.J. Shook and published last year in Barron’s magazine. As part of this distinction, he attended an

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invitation-only, second-annual “Top Advisors Summit” in New York hosted by Barron’s and R.J. Shook. Jose Ramon Rodriguez II, B.B.A. ’81, was elected to the board of directors of KPMG, LLP. He is presently the audit partner for R. J. Reynolds in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Before joining R. J. Reynolds, he served as audit partner for the University of Miami. Gregory J. Hiczewski, M.B.A. ’82, is a C.P.A. and president and founder of the financial consulting firm Magellan Advisory Services, which recently launched a Web site. Vicky Salmones, B.S.E.E. ’82, is a senior project manager for Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas. Sandra J. Goodman, B.S. ’83, is an orthopedic surgical nurse in Tennessee. She was training for the Country Music Marathon, which had a fundraising dinner where she

met fellow classmate and UM star quarterback Jim Kelly, B.B.A. ’83, and his wife, who were featured speakers at the event. Through the marathon and fundraising activities, Goodman raised $1,850 for Special Kids, a nonprofit Christian facility that provides services for medically fragile children. Jill R. (Estep) Hammond, B.S.Ed. ’83, was recently promoted to the position of assistant superintendent of administrative services for the Ontario-Montclair School District, where she has been employed for 20 years. It is the second largest elementary school district in the state of California. Elsa Pelaez-Lopez, B.B.A. ’83, M.B.A. ’02, was named senior vice president and team leader, commercial lending, for Colonial Bank’s South Florida region. With 22 years of experience, she leads a team of commercial lenders responsible for new business devel-

opment in commercial and industrial lending in Miami-Dade County. She was recognized as Woman Banker of the Year by the Latin Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Brian J. Hutt, M.B.A. ’84, is director of builder solutions for Masco Corporation in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. He helps the operating companies increase revenues and profits by developing option centers for seven of the top-ten housebuilders. Sally A. Still, M.F.A. ’84, is a partner in the law firm of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP, in the Boca Raton office. Her practice is limited to defending employers in cases involving wage and hour claims, discrimination, and other employment law statutes. She is board certified in labor and employment law and is certified by the Supreme Court of Florida as a civil circuit mediator.

or the second year in a row, Alumni Weekend and Homecoming will feature Alumni Avenue, a giant block party on

Stanford Circle with individual tent celebrations. This come-onecome-all platform gives you access to reunions for all graduating classes and affinity groups. Whether they rock-n-rolled or simply strolled, alumni on the Avenue last year called it “the best new addition to Homecoming in ages.” So if you’re a member of the Class of ’78, but you want to party with the recent grads or visit old friends from Band of the Hour or brothers from Sigma Alpha Epsilon, all you have to do is head down to Alumni Avenue! For more information, visit www.miami.edu/alumniweekend.

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ClassNotes

Lee S. Barson, B.B.A. ’85, is director of business development for the ACS/Mellon Health Savings Account and Medicare Medical Savings Account solutions. Wayne J. Schaefer, J.D. ’85, has opened his own law firm in Melville, New York. Donna Marie Ballman, J.D. ’86, was named by Lawdragon as one of the Top 500 Plaintiff’s Attorneys in the United States, the only Florida labor and employment attorney with that honor. Ballman was featured recently on the Forbes Channel’s America’s Most Influential Women program on the topic of severance negotiations and noncompete agreements. Colonel Lettie Bien, J.D. ’86, was honored at the Pentagon for 30 years of service in the U.S. Army Reserves. She received the Legion of Merit Medal and a Certificate of Appreciation signed by President George W. Bush. Her husband, David E. Schmitt, M.D. ’78, received a Certificate of Appreciation for his devoted service as a military spouse. Bien was deployed in 2004 for Operation Iraqi Free-

dom and was the U.S. senior advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals in Baghdad. She also served in Iraq as the military assistant to Ambassador Dick Jones and as a member of the Iraq National Privatization Committee. Glen Chin, B.S.M.E. ’86, a mission manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal for outstanding team leadership of the International Space Station elements. Elizabeth M. Rodriguez, B.S. ’86, J.D. ’89, has joined Ford & Harrison, LLP, a national labor and employment law firm, as a partner in the Miami office. Formerly a shareholder with Kubicki Draper in Miami, she will continue focusing on employment litigation and counseling. Kevin Nord, B.B.A. ’87, is president of Pro Towels Etc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He acquired Professional Towel Mills to become the largest supplier of logoed and decorated towels in the promotional products industry.

Steven T. Robinson, A.B. ’88,

M.A. ’91, is one of the co-hosts of Diaspora Speaks Out, a talk show airing every Saturday on WSRFAM 1580 in North Miami Beach. He also was a member of the same broadcast team when the program aired on WWNN-AM 1470 in Boca Raton, Florida. James A. Ryder Jr., M.B.A. ’88, was promoted to senior procurement specialist in the Office of Procurement at the State of Arizona Department of Economic Security.

1990s

Chris DeRosa, B.M. ’90, performed to a sold-out crowd at RandR for the prestigious CMJ Music Festival, recently held in New York City. He has been busy writing and performing drums for the pop/rock band Airosol and the Latin/rock/reggae group The Deep Down. He also has been recording drum tracks for a new CD from Barbadian reggae/pop band Kite. Manuel Garcia-Linares, B.B.A. ’90, was promoted to managing share-

Photographic Memories In your office, on the mantle, in the game room— no matter where you hang it, a custom-framed picture from Replay Photos will remind you of cherished moments at the University of Miami. Replay Photos partners with major universities throughout the country to offer striking photographs of campus landmarks and action on the playing fields. Select from more than 100 current and classic University of Miami images produced on archivalquality paper. Specify the photo size, mat color, and frame you like best, and the order ships in three business days. Makes a great gift for alumni, students, and fans. Best of all, a portion of the sales support University scholarships and programs. To view the photos and place an order, visit www.umiamiphotos.com.

42 Miami magazine Spring 2007

holder at Richman Greer Weil Brumbaugh Mirabito & Christensen, P.A. law firm in Miami, Florida. Carol Oliver, M.S.N. ’90, helped open a new nurse midwifery group in the Seattle, Washington area. Her daughter, Lily, A.B. ’96, is in the Peace Corps in Mozambique. Philip Josephson, B.B.A. ’91, J.D. ’95, has earned an M.B.A. from Columbia School of Business and has formed The Law Office of Philip Josephson. The firm focuses on business law and corporate transactions, serves as an outsourced general counsel to emerging growth entities, and provides legal counsel to investment groups. John O’Donnell-Rosales, B.G.S. ’92, announces that the third edition of his book, Hispanic Confederates, was republished by Clearfield Publishing Company in Baltimore, Maryland. Manuel Guillermo Picasso, B.B.A. ’92, is marketing manager for Interpaints SAC, a license of the Sherwin Williams Company. He is teaching English at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (ICPNA). Gregory Herman-Giddens, LL.M.E. ’93, was elected to the 2007 North Carolina Legal Elite in Tax and Estate Planning and was selected as a 2007 North Carolina Super Lawyer in Estate Planning and Probate Law. He is the founder of TrustCounsel, P.A. in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Marie G. Korba, A.B. ’94, and Nikolas J. Korba, B.S.C. ’04, announce the birth of their two sons, John in 2004 and Leif in 2006. Nik is doing video production, communications, and pastoring at the Miami Vineyard Community Church. Dan Levine, B.S.C. ’94, M.A. ’00, and Beth Levine, B.B.A. ’95, were married in May 2005. Their daughter, Mia Evelyn, was born in September and is named for her parents’ alma mater. Jeffrey W. Corpening, B.F.A. ’96, is a father of two and the vice pres-

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ALUMNI OF NOTE ident of KidBean.com, an online retail store offering fair-labor, environmentally responsible, and cruelty-free products for children and families. He is writing his second screenplay and serving as media director for a closed-circuit television channel in Coconut Creek, Florida. He resides in Asheville, North Carolina. Chantel Acevedo, A.B. ’97, M.F.A. ’99, who teaches writing and literature at Auburn University, was a visiting writer at Miami Dade College’s Florida Center for the Literary Arts. Her debut novel, Love and Ghost Letters, won the Latino Literacy Now Award and was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award in 2006. Jose Luis Petit, B.S.E.E. ’97, M.S.P.M. ’04, was promoted to business development manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Belzona, Inc. in Miami, Florida. He increased sales achieved in Latin America by 44 percent. Jeff Sandler, B.B.A. ’97, has created www.personal-financemanager.com, a free, anonymous service to help users set up a daily budget and track expenses. He works for the National Football League, managing Enterprise Resource Planning, which encompasses the league’s financial systems under one umbrella. David B. Schwartz, J.D. ’97, is a vice president of business affairs for The Walt Disney Company’s Buena Vista Television division in Los Angeles, California. He also is a comic book writer and screenwriter. His latest project is a comic series called Meltdown, the tragic tale of a crimefighter in Miami, released by Image Comics. Joseph D. Ward, M.B.A. ’97, was promoted to vice president of marketing and customer service and managing director of retail operations for Pine Valley Foods, Inc. The company manufactures perishable food products for the fundraising industry and is expanding into the retail channel. Hilda Beltran, B.B.A. ’98, M.B.A.

’02, recently married Greg Lief and relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. She is working as a new product development manager for Aspect Medical Systems based in Norwood, Massachusetts. Frank Diaz, B.B.A. ’98, is president and chief mortgage officer at Archipelago mortgage, specializing in residential and new construction financing. He is chairman of the Town of Miami Lakes’ Beautification Advisory Committee and serves on the board of trustees for the Miami Lakes Congregational Church. Rafael Urbina, M.B.A. ’98, is chief executive of Batanga, a company that provides Latin music downloads, streaming video, and other entertainment online at www.batanga.com. The Coral Gables-based company has acquired New York’s LatCom Communications, a specialist in Hispanic scholastic marketing, from Davidson Media Group. This broadens Batanga’s offerings to include comedy shows and concerts across college campuses and a host of Web sites aimed at Hispanic students. Michael J. Marrero, B.B.A. ’99, J.D. ’02, is a land use and zoning associate at Bercow and Radell, P.A. in Miami, Florida. His wife, Maria Digiorgio Marrero, J.D. ’02, is general counsel for Northern Capital Insurance in Doral, Florida. The couple announce the birth of their first child, Anthony Michael, in November 2006. David Serrano, B.S. ’99, received a Ph.D. from the University of Florida Department of Entomology. He married Dr. Esther Dunn in January 2006. His daughter, Isabella, is 6 years old.

2000s

Mark R. Arrowsmith, B.B.A. ’00, is director of tennis at Eagle Landing, a 1,320-acre golf course community in northern Clay County in Jacksonville, Florida. He oversees the

Baram Broaches the Cerebral Frontier

f “billions and billions” of celestial bodies seem mindboggling, then consider the human brain—a mere three pounds of matter populated by a trillion cells, among them one hundred billion neurons buzzing with at least a million billion connections. “The brain is our last frontier,” notes Tallie Z. Baram, M.D., Ph.D. ’80. “It drives who we are and what we are.” Baram, a noted brain researcher, is professor of pediatrics, anatomy, neurobiology, and neurology in the University of California–Irvine School of Medicine and scientific director of its Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. Her long-held interest in this multifaceted organ fueled her doctoral work in neuroendocrinology, the science of how the brain influences hormones, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, earning her the school’s John F. Kennedy Prize. The reward: postdoctoral work anywhere in the world. Baram, who grew up near Tel Aviv, chose the University of Miami’s Ph.D.-toM.D. Program, which has since been discontinued. “I came to Miami with suitcases that weighed more than me,” recalls Baram, the youngest in her class and the only non-American. “The University of Miami program was the only place in the world that allowed me to study medicine rapidly, so I could find the really relevant questions in brain research.” Baram is fascinated by the way time and experience influence brain structure and function. “The adult brain is a three-dimensional structure,” she explains, “but the developing brain has four dimensions. Brain functions change constantly.” Early life stress and seizures, in particular, may initiate the reprogramming of gene expression, changes that can trigger a cascade of problems, including cognitive decline and epilepsy. While epilepsy is the most common chronic brain disorder in the young, it is nonetheless “a hidden disease” that is less researched than other disorders. To remedy that, Baram is studying animal models that replicate febrile seizures in infants and children. When she was honored for her work by the American Epilepsy Society in 2005 at its national meeting in Washington, D.C., her usual aplomb gave way to an unexpected surge of feeling: “I was given a huge, heavy plaque,” she recalls. Standing there, its full weight in her grasp, “I felt an infusion of energy,” she says, “to do more.” —Leslie Sternlieb

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ClassNotes

community’s new Athletic and Tennis Center, including staff, operations, and activities. While at the University of Miami, he helped lead the tennis team to three Big East championships. He still holds the best doubles season record. Jose A. Ceide, B.B.A. ’00, and Vanessa Salum, B.B.A. ’01, M.B.A. ’04, were married last year, and their wedding was featured on Planning Weddings, on the Women’s Entertainment network. Patrick F. Del Vecchio, B.S. ’00, earned a Doctor of Optometry degree from Nova Southeastern University and has been made a partner in the optometry practice of Furnari, Lofton and Del Vecchio, with offices in Homestead and Miami, Florida. Henry Thompson, M.A.L.S. ’00, M.P.A. ’03, vice president of corporate affairs for the Economic Opportunity Family Health Center, Inc., in Miami, received the 2006 Jessie Trice Outstanding Leadership Award presented by

the Florida Association of Community Health Centers. He is the 2007 president of the Board of Directors of the South Florida Healthcare Executive Forum, a chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Keith Washo, M.M. ’00, is the product marketing manager of MP3 players for SanDisk, Inc. in California. Kathryn Diana Convers, B.S. ’01, is an intern in the combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program at St. Louis University and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Heather (Miller) Boone, B.B.A. ’02, married Terrell Boone in November 2006. In the same week she received her Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter, which consists of three six-hour exams. Shannan M. Calhoon, M.S.N. ’02, works in a small community OB/GYN practice in northern California. She is associate faculty at the College of the Redwoods,

teaching OB/GYN to LVN nursing students, and she does outreach for Six Rivers Planned Parenthood. She and her husband, Tom, have a 4-year-old daughter. Jim Burt Jr., B.B.A. ’03, married Vanessa Robin Horneff in January in Key Biscayne, Florida. He played professional baseball for three years before retiring to open up Superdome Sports with his father. Superdome Sports is a 79,200-square-foot sports facility located in Waldwick, New Jersey. Jennifer R. Diaz, B.S.C. ’03, is an attorney in the customs and international trade department at Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Kathryn L. Paradise, B.M. ’03, M.M. ’06, just released her debut CD, You Stepped Out of a Dream. She will donate partial proceeds from the sales of this album to The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment. Kelly Albertson, B.S.C. ’05, and Jesse Fishman, B.M. ’03, have got-

ten married and started two companies together. JK OmniWeb, LLC is a Web development company that has worked on sites such as Festival Miami 2006 and ’Cane Records. The other company is eWedPlanner.com, free for couples planning a wedding. Larissa Laso, B.S.N. ’06, works on a cardiac unit in Richmond, Virginia. She is PCCN and ACLS certified, and she plans on attending graduate school. Evan A. McGill, B.B.A. ’06, has been named a pediatric sales specialist for Colorado by Georgiabased Alliant Pharmaceuticals. Kevin H. Sharpley, B.S.C. ’06, has been appointed chairman over community development and outreach for the Miami Film and Entertainment Advisory Board. Diego Ignacio Valera, B.B.A. ’06, has launched Holstein, a new brand of housewares. Holstein products includes cookware, dinnerware cutlery, flatware, glassware, and drinkware.

Say It in Silk Accessorize with UM pride

ashion takes flight with the Limited Edition Silk Ibis Tie and Scarf Collection from the University of Miami Alumni Association.

Choose from two elegant styles—both 100 percent silk—that feature a stylized ibis pattern adapted from the 1951 Ibis yearbook. Scarves

measure a generous 30 by 30 inches. Cost is $50 each, with all proceeds benefiting the University of Miami Alumni Association. Quantities are limited, so order today online at www.miami.edu/alumni or by calling the Office of Alumni Relations at 305-284-2872 or 866-UMALUMS.

44 Miami magazine Spring 2007

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In Memoriam

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Beryl L. Cesarano, A.B. ’33 Edmund John Graczyk, B.S. ’35 Georgia Roth Brenner, A.B. ’37 Helene Couch Snyder, A.B. ’38 Mary Louise Browne, A.B. ’39 Myron Broder, J.D. ’40 Virginia L. Fogle, A.B. ’40 Gilbert B. Newkerk, J.D. ’40 John Louis Noppenberg, A.B. ’40, M.Ed. ’52 Stanley M. Weiss Sr., B.B.A. ’40 Minx M. Auerbach, B.Ed. ’43 Harry Dansky, B.S. ’43 Merle B. Turnage, B.Ed. ’43 Lois Pelgrim Dawson, B.Ed. ’44 Anita M. Rees, B.S. ’46 Albert Schwartz, M.S. ’46 Ronald Alva Cain, B.B.A. ’47 David A. Curtis, B.B.A. ’47 William J. Eisnor Sr., B.B.A. ’47 Bernard C. Fuller, J.D. ’47 John N. Jackson, A.B. ’48 Orvis M. Kemp, B.B.A. ’48 Merrill W. MacDonald, B.Ed. ’48 William P. McWhorter Jr., A.B. ’48, M.S. ’49 Henry G. Edwards Jr., B.S. ’49 Cynthia Joan Bruce, A.B. ’49 Richard E. DeMars, B.B.A. ’49 Donald R. Koren, B.B.A. ’49 Robert G. Shultz, B.B.A. ’49 Peter J. Treleaven, J.D. ’49 Stephen Tresnek, B.M. ’49 H. Carroll Vaughn, B.B.A. ’49

Edward J. Welch, B.S. ’49 Mark Francis Wynn, B.S. ’49, M.S. ’51, M.D. ’59 Arthur L. Arnold, B.S.I.E. ’50 Seymour M. Bagal, J.D. ’50 Hon. Peggy Bernheim, A.B. ’50 Joseph S. Dana, B.S. ’50 May Harnden Edmonds, B.Ed. ’50, M.Ed. ’57 Roland W. Ford, M.B.A. ’50 Phyllis Galician, A.B. ’50 Seymour Gopman, J.D. ’50 Walter Hanford, B.B.A. ’50, J.D. ’57 Paul N. Johnson, A.B. ’50 Constance Leeson, B.Ed. ’50 Theodore R. Moffett Jr., B.S.E.E. ’50 Joseph D. Pikula, B.B.A. ’50 Earl Booth Smith, B.B.A. ’50 Carroll V. Truss, M.S. ’50 Leslie James Vaughn, B.B.A. ’50 Claude C. Ware, B.M. ’50 Roxanne Helmbold Campbell, A.B. ’51 Leon Forman, B.S. ’51, M.D. ’58 Ellis Stuart Rubin, J.D. ’51 Florence V. Shermer, B.S.N. ’51 Paul E. Simard Sr., B.B.A. ’51 Edwin W. Stegman, B.S.M.E. ’51 James K. Strong, B.B.A. ’51 Margaret R. Stuart, B.B.A. ’51 Thomas H. O’Rourke, B.B.A. ’51 Nicholas A. Urbano, B.Ed. ’51 David Benjamin, B.B.A. ’52 Donald L. Burrie, J.D. ’52

Great UM Ambassador Ernesto D’Escoubet II, B.S.E.E. ’65, M.S.E.E. ’70, died on April 2 at the age of 62. With his passing, the University of Miami lost one of its most dedicated ambassadors. D’Escoubet, who was retired from a career in the semiconductor industry, served as a UM trustee, Alumni Board of Directors member, President’s Council member, and College of Engineering mentor, as well as a member of the George E. Merrick Society. For his contributions to the University community, he was named the 2007 Henry King Stanford Alumnus of the Year, bestowed posthumously at the UMAA Alumni Awards Ceremony in May.

Nicholas Kekich, J.D. ’52 Catherine Anne McWhorter, B.Ed. ’52 Bernard B. Weintraub, B.B.A. ’52 Capt. Joseph A. Nigro, B.B.A. ’52 Hon. Thomas G. O’Connell, J.D. ’52 Sy A. Robbins, B.B.A. ’52, J.D. ’56 William H. Schukaraft, B.B.A. ’52 Fred L. Thomas, B.B.A. ’52 Samuel Vardanian, B.B.A. ’52 Jack Newhart Wentz Sr., B.B.A. ’52 Julian H. Braswell, J.D. ’53 John George Fatolitis, M.Ed. ’53 Verne Lee Freeland, J.D. ’53 S. Thomas Hardaway, B.B.A. ’53 Harold B. Heiss, B.S. ’53, M.D. ’57 Donald G. Kuper, B.B.A. ’53 Sydell Bass Kutner, B.Ed. ’53

Dan G. Wheeler Jr., J.D. ’53 Edwin A. Willinger, J.D. ’53 Isabel Marie Chandler, A.B. ’54 Errol S. Cornell, J.D. ’54 Natalie J. Kraft, B.Ed. ’54 Kathryn J. Smith, B.Ed. ’54 Carlie B. Tart, A.B. ’54 Herbert B. Wilensky, J.D. ’54 David G. Cromwell, B.B.A. ’55 Robert William Foreman, B.B.A. ’55 Robert Edward Murphy, A.B. ’55 David B. Alter III, B.B.A. ’56 Leonard Marvin Cherdack, A.B. ’56 Nick Ficarrotta, J.D. ’56 John David Goines, B.B.A. ’56 Sheila A. Taylor, B.Ed. ’56, M.Ed. ’75 Michael Anthony Arcari, B.B.A. ’57, J.D. ’63

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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Miami Matriarch Beryl Cesarano, A.B. ’33, wife of longtime UM trustee and former Board of Trustees chairman Patrick Cesarano, B.B.A. ’35 (deceased), died in November at the age of 93. She and Patrick met and married at UM and raised their four children in Coral Gables. The couple’s son, Gregory Cesarano, J.D. ’76, is president of the Alumni Association and a UM trustee.

Austin O. Bonidy, J.D. ’57 Robert Francis Coyne, A.B. ’57, M.A. ’59 Barnett Frumkin, B.S.I.E. ’57 Ira J. Druckman, J.D. ’57 Leonard Selkowitz, J.D. ’57 Robert C. Baker, B.Ed. ’58, M.Ed. ’62 Gregory Donald Brady, B.B.A. ’58 Michel Carter Huntley, D.L. ’58 Melvyn Kessler, B.B.A. ’58, J.D. ’61 John S. Koziol, B.B.A. ’58 George L. Onett, J.D. ’58 Daniel Martin Rosof, B.B.A. ’58, B.S. ’67 Morris L. Smith, B.B.A. ’58 Richard H. White, M.D. ’58 Robert A. Anderson, B.B.A. ’59 Harriet Walker Caserta, A.B. ’59 Karl Burton Coleman, B.B.A. ’59 Henry D. Gallo, M.D. ’59 Fortune S. Bosco, A.B. ’60, J.D. ’64 Charles S. Condo, B.S. ’60, M.D. ’63 Nancy Krosse Creem, B.B.A. ’60 Bill Hubert Keller, B.S.M.E. ’60 Sanford P. La Hue Sr., B.S.C.E. ’60 Sanford A. Loff, B.B.A. ’60 Peter Nevins, B.B.A. ’60 D. Hershel Paulk, B.B.A. ’60 Virginia H. Ryll, M.Ed. ’60 Hon. George A. Smathers, D.L.W. ’60 Ridgely Parker Brown, B.B.A. ’61 Nancy Papin Hemp, A.B. ’61 Theodore Klein, B.B.A. ’61, J.D. ’64 Dexter A. Magers Jr., M.A. ’61 Leonard E. Masters, M.D. ’61 Elga B. White, M.D. ’61 Stanley Gross, B.S.M.E. ’62 Lester W. Clem, Ph.D. ’63 Jonice B. Shearer, M.Ed. ’63 Theodorick L. Wilkinson, A.B. ’63, J.D. ’66 James J. Ciccone, A.B. ’64

46 Miami magazine Spring 2007

Bertha Claret, B.B.A. ’64 Joann De Falco, B.Ed. ’64 Suzanne Sottile Guanci, B.B.A. ’64 Tom B. Johnson, A.B. ’64 John J. Knapp, M.D. ’64 Betty Rae Tennant, M.Ed. ’65 John D. Buck, Ph.D. ’65 Edward A. Gray, B.B.A. ’65 Jose E. Romano, B.B.A. ’65 Ronald L. Magram, B.B.A. ’66, J.D. ’70 Edelmiro A. Salas, J.D. ’66 Kenard N. Turpin III, B.S.E.E. ’66 Guy John Carretta, M.Ed. ’67 Dolores Jean Chambreau, B.S.N. ’67 Anne Kellermann Daniel, A.B. ’67 Patrick J. Heid, B.B.A. ’67 Norman J. Liehn, B.B.A. ’67 Vernon Paul Zeigler, M.D. ’67 Joseph Gilbert Blauvelt, M.Ed. ’68 Raul D. Carnot, M.A. ’68 Irene W. Cohen, A.B. ’68, D.C.T. ’70, D.A. ’74 Robert H. McManus, J.D. ’68 Robert Allen Skidell, A.B. ’68 Wickie Burton Whalen, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’70 Roy Steven Graham, B.S. ’70 Melvin S. Rosenfeld, B.B.A. ’70 Arlene Stoler Harbach, A.B. ’71 Robert H. Orgaz, B.S.E.E. ’71, B.S. ’84, B.S.E.E. ’84 Myles Jay Tralins, J.D. ’71 Arnold Manuel Velazquez, B.S.E.E. ’71, M.S. ’80, M.S.I.E. ’80 Helen Ann Lombard, B.S.N ’72 Evelyn G. Monahan, B.Ed. ’72 Frederick E. Morris III, B.G.S. ’72 Samuel Markus Stander, B.B.A. ’72 Stephen Lee Dubov, B.M. ’73 James Wesley Hamilton, M.Ed. ’73 Lt. Cmdr. Diane Kimball, B.S.N. ’73 Mario J. Oliva, B.B.A. ’73 Betty L. Semet, B.Ed. ’73, M.Ed. ’77

Elizabeth B. White, A.B. ’73 Jose Alvarez Jr., B.S. ’74, M.D. ’78 Hilda B. Dobrzanski, M.Ed. ’74 John David Sorgi, A.B. ’74, M.Ed. ’76, Ed.S. ’79 George Alan Bode, J.D. ’75 Dean Kent Oddy, B.B.A. ’75, M.A. ’80 James W. Smith Sr., M.B.A. ’75 Virginia Lee Woodburn, A.B. ’75 George J. DeFabio, J.D. ’77 Richard M. Florio, B.S.S.A. ’77 James H. Pitts Jr., M.Ed. ’77 Humberto Risso, Ph.D. ’77 Srul U. Saphire, C.N.P. ’77 Joe L. Favors, A.B. ’78 Verania V. Esquenazi, Ph.D. ’78 Thomas O. Lawless, B.B.A. ’78 Richard B. Messer, B.S.M.E. ’78 Helen Williams Richardson, B.B.A. ’78 Thomas James O’Grady, LL.M.T. ’79, LL.M.O. ’84, LL.M. ’84 Diane M. Glawe, M.S.Ed. ’80 Mike M. Murad, M.B.A. ’80 Alan Pollack, Ph.D. ’80, M.S. ’80, M.D. ’87 Elizabeth A. Rivers, M.S.N. ’80 Raymond Oliver Hall, A.B. ’81 Lori Sklar, M.B.A. ’81 Humberto de la Rua, B.S. ’82 Andres Alberto Bengochea, A.B. ’83, J.D. ’86 Jerome C. Stevenson, M.B.A. ’83 Robert M. Flaa, M.B.A. ’84 Paul Thomas Manoogian, A.B. ’84 Daniel W. McIntyre, LL.M. ’84 M. Athalie Range, D.H.U. ’84

Jeffrey E. Kelsey, M.D. ’88 Debra Bridges Rosenberg, M.B.A. ’88 Vincent A. Simanca, M.S.Ed. ’89 Nader S. Jallad, Ph.D. ’90 Karen K. Lafferty, B.S.C. ’91 Omayra M. Rodriguez, A.B. ’91, M.S.Ed. ’96 Gregory M. Beil, J.D. ’95 Paul A. Lehman, B.S.N. ’95 Scott W. Fancher, J.D. ’96 Brad D. Timpf, B.S. ’96, M.S.Ed. ’97 Stephen V. Ciaglia, J.D. ’97 Jennifer L. Delphus, B.S.N. ’97 Erick E. Youngberg, M.B.A. ’97, M.S. ’97 Alex Elias Sawka, B.B.A. ’03 Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, B.S.C ’05 Marlin A. Barnes Ray I. Berrin Alphonso C. Blades Nick George Broker Elaine Preston Hardaway Clarke A. Lange Stuart Leeds Ellouise K. Parrott Bryan Sidney Pata Stanley C. Shakespeare *As of January 2007

Alive and Well! We diligently research every name in our “In Memoriam” section but errors can occur. The following people are alive and well. Benjamin A. Rosner, B.M. ’02 Eleni A. Monas, A.B. ’89

An Admirable Figure Christine Federighi, 57, a distinguished professor of ceramics at UM for more than 30 years who helped establish a glass-making program here, died in November following a 12-year battle with cancer. Recipient of numerous honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Federighi created sculptures that reflected her vibrant life. “I organize the shapes in a floating composition that wraps each figure form,” Federighi said. “The images might refer to mountain landscapes of the Western United States, where I spend my summers, or the tropical foliage and leaf forms of my Florida residence.” In her memory, the Lowe Art Museum this spring presented Christine Federighi: A Celebration in Clay.

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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 May 24 UMAA and School of Communication Student Film Screening and Reception, Los Angeles, California

July

8 Football and Official UMAA

28-29 Summer Send-Off,

Pregame Party, UM vs. Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 17 22nd Annual Great Sports Legend Dinner, New York, New York

Los Angeles, New York, and Southwest Florida August 4 Summer Send-Off,

June 9-August 26 Lowe Art Museum

Washington, D.C.

Clay and Brush: The Ceramic Art of China from the Permanent Collection 15 9th Annual Chicago Golf Classic, Oak Brook, Illinois

17 Second Annual Alumni Legacy

October

Reception, Coral Gables, Florida 24 UMAA Board and Council Leadership Workshop and UMAA Installation Ceremony, Coral Gables, Florida 25 UMAA Board and Council Joint Meeting, Coral Gables, Florida

10-20 Jerry Herman Ring

September 1 Football Season Kickoff, UM vs. Marshall, Miami, Florida 5-15 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre The Fantasticks

A jar from the Qing Dynasty, circa 1670, part of the Clay and Brush exhibit at the Lowe Art Museum.

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 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

Student Representatives Annette Ponnock Joe Fasullo

Club Leaders and Alumni Contacts Atlanta Joy Rowland, B.S.C. ’91 404-367-6206, joy.rowland@fitzco.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 Bahamas Wendy Wong, M.B.A. ’96 242-362-4572 wwong@lyfordcay.com Boston Kelly Geisinger, A.B. ’01 857-998-1392 kelly_geisinger@yahoo.com Brasilia Luana Matos, A.B. ’00 (55)613244-2322 luanamatos@brasilia.com.br

Chicago/Northern Illinois Stan Papuga, B.B.A. ’67 312-236-6405, spapuga@kropik.net Dallas Lauren Kohn, B.B.A. ’04 972-898-8266 dallascanes@gmail.com Denver Alan S. Beshany, A.B. ’66 303-989-5901 abeshany@comcast.net

Theatre Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 11 President’s Council Reception, Coral Gables, Florida 12 President’s Council Meeting, Coral Gables, Florida 20 Football and Official UMAA Pregame Party, UM vs. Florida State, Tallahassee, Florida November 1 Old Timers Reunion, Coral Gables Country Club, Coral Gables, Florida 1-4 Alumni Weekend and Homecoming 2007, featuring Alumni Avenue, the Audrey R. Finkelstein UM Experience,

Detroit Paul Koch, M.D., B.S. ’73 313-274-6579, detroitcanes@yahoo.com Hartford Keri Gilford, A.B. ’93 860-674-6145 kerigilford@hotmail.com Houston Dawn Rodak, B.S.E.D. ’84 M.S.E.D. ’86, 281-897-8726 dawnrodak@letu.edu Indianapolis Meenakshi Garg, B.S. ’98 M.P.H. ’99, 786-287-2439 indycanes@yahoo.com Jacksonville Matt Leturmey, A.B. ’97 904-296-8537, hermycane@yahoo.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 Las Vegas John Knuth, M.B.A. ’98 M.S. ’02, 702-243-1064 john.e.knuth@us.hsbc.com London, U.K. Christian Hasenoehrl, M.B.A. ’95, M.S. ’95 114(0)207-950-4432 christian_hasenoehrl@gallup.co.uk Los Angeles/Southern California Lee Kaplowitz, A.B. ’69 310-600-8393, 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 Roberto Castro, B.B.A. ’05 786-663-1856, rcastro@carnival.com New Jersey Bonnie Solomon, A.B. ’73 Larry Solomon, B.B.A. ’71 732-422-8338, caniac329@aol.com

Football season kicks off September 1. and the Farewell Brunch, Coral Gables, Florida 3 Football and Official UMAA Homecoming Pregame Party, UM vs. North Carolina State, Miami, Florida 7-17 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre Sunday in the Park with George: In Concert

New York Janis Block, B.B.A. ’85 516-349-7389 canes85@optonline.net North Carolina-Charlotte James M. Barnett, B.B.A. ’68, 704-227-3219 jim@jimbarnett.com North Carolina-Greensboro David Noble, J.D. ’01, 336-370-8820 dnoble1@triad.rr.com North Carolina-Raleigh Daniel Smith, B.S. ’00, M.B.A. ’02 919-450-0532 daniel@coralreefproductions.com Orlando Mark McKay, B.Arch. ’95 407-620-3673, orlandocanes@aol.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. ’04 480-313-3205, phxcanes@gmail.com Pittsburgh Gretchen Dimeling, B.B.A. ’04, 412-657-4271, gdimeling@yahoo.com Portland Courtney Quale, B.S.C. ’05 courtneyquale@gmail.com Richmond Jan Light, A.B. ’69 804-746-1155 janlight@hotmail.com Rhode Island Mike Bernstein, A.B. ’68 tiffi01@aol.com Rochester Mark Scuderi, M.B.A. ’85 mscuderi@rochester.rr.com San Diego Thomas G. Bauer, A.B. ’75 619-437-6689, bauertg@yahoo.com San Francisco Teka Thomas, B.B.A. ’97 415-515-2339 tekathomas@aim.com

Sarasota Chris Clayton, B.S.C. ’94 941-586-7997, cclayton12@aol.com

Savannah Joe Romanowski, B.B.A. ’79 912-232-7979 joe@4collegefunding.com Seattle Chander Chawla, M.B.A. ’99 425-443-6626 chander.chawla@gmail.com Southwest Florida Randolph Cash, B.B.A. ’81, 239-262-8569 irnarow@aol.com Tallahassee Thomas Hall, J.D. ’80 850-894-7069, hall@flcourts.org Tampa/St. Petersburg Elizabeth Olson, A.B. ’82, 727-772-6557 canes5@tampabay.rr.com Washington, D.C. Catherine Mund, B.S.C. ’00, M.S. Ed. ’04 wdc.canes@gmail.com 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.

Spring 2007 Miami magazine 47

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B i g

PICTURE

Faculty Shine in a Whole New Light

Fenton Keeps Her Cool in the Quest for Equality

DONNA VICTOR

anita Fenton, professor of law, will never forget the day a client’s estranged husband smuggled a gun into the courthouse and pointed it directly at her and her client. Fenton at the time was a Harvard Law School student, serving as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse. “He was disarmed pretty quickly, and nobody lost their cool, including myself, which was one of the things I learned,” Fenton says. In her young but prolific career, Fenton has confronted many difficult issues with an insightful tack and a collegial rapport. She has written numerous articles on domestic violence and on the adoption and foster care issues that black children face. While working at a New York City law firm upon graduating from Harvard, she and a colleague implemented a pro bono program there for victims of domestic abuse. “My scholarly interest has always focused on anti-subordination, which in our social context means race, gender, poverty, and sexuality,” Fenton says. Besides the proverbial a-ha moment when students grasp the material she presents, Fenton’s greatest joy in teaching is the ability to encourage activism. While at Wayne State University in Detroit, she organized a demonstration for faculty and students on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court during its ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, a decision that upheld affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan. She is a lifelong champion of diversity in academia, and as the first black female tenured in the law schools of both Wayne State and the University of Miami, she has twice become a symbolic embodiment of her efforts. “Recruitment of the most talented students of color is best when you have faculty of color doing important things that are of interest to those students,” Fenton says. “And unfortunately with the state of society today, when you talk about doing poverty work, you are most often talking about working with women of color. Having a diverse faculty assists in understanding those issues, the rhetoric, and the social status behind all of that.” Fenton has two works in progress, both of which emphasize the fact that actions outside of the courtroom often help shape law. One project, a collaboration with an English professor at Wayne State, focuses on pamphleteering by pro-Communist organizations in the 1940s and 1950s as “at least part of the political impetus behind some of the changes in civil rights law during that era.” Fenton’s other endeavor focuses on the value of speech in the race context, particularly the evolution of defamation law. “We’re at a point where people look at the law and say, ‘You’ve got the 14th Amendment. We took care of that,’ ” Fenton says, noting that achieving true racial equality requires digging deeper to address society’s attitudes and perceptions. “Law is about the messages of equality as much as it is about whether or not I am entitled to sit at the front of the bus.” —Meredith Danton

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Robert and Judi Prokop Newman

ALUMNI CENTER UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

Make a Lasting Impression DONNA VICTOR

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 on the corner of Brescia Avenue and Hurricane Drive. 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/alumnicenter.

back cover

5/1/07

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Page C4

Sebastian takes your trip to new heights

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.

Get the University of Miami License Plate

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