USC Trojan Family Magazine Summer 2019

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The USC School of Cinematic Arts hits 90 at the top of its game.

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scene The end of spring semester brings the culmination of a year of creative exploration for students at the USC School of Architecture.

Whether they’re graduate students or undergrads, they come together to exhibit their projects and celebrate a rite of passage in the journey to becoming an architect.

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PHOTO BY REBECCA ARANDA

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The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California

E DI TO R-I N- CHIEF

Alicia Di Rado

AND GOLD

Elisa Huang PRO DUCT I O N M AN AG ER

Mary Modina

COVER: COPYRIGHT BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (AVATAR); KATHY HUTCHINS (SHONDA RHIMES); WALT DISNEY PICTURES/MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT (IRON MAN); WARNER BROS./MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT (BLACK PANTHER); WALT DISNEY PICTURES/PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS (COCO); JAKOB OWENS/UNSPLASH (CLAPBOARD); SPIELBERG, MILIUS AND LUCAS PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN MILIUS

GO GREEN...

AND CARDINAL

M ANAGI NG E DITOR

I NT E RACT I VE CO NT E NT MANAG ER

Diana Molleda STAF F PHOTO GRA PHER

Gus Ruelas I NT E RACT I VE M ARKE T I N G MANAG ER

Rod Yabut

DE SI GN AND PRO D UCTION

Pentagram

CO NT RI BUTO RS

Ricardo Carrasco III Jane Frey Judith Lipsett Russ Ono Susanica Tam

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USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu | (213) 740-2684 USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March, June, September and December by USC University Communications.

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TROY CAMP PHOTO BY ERIC LINDBERG; BLUE ANGELS PHOTO BY TIMOTHY SCHUMAKER, U.S. NAVY

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President’s Page Interim President Wanda Austin looks back at a time of change and looks ahead with hope.

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News Carol Folt is announced as president-elect; meet USC’s official tree-keeper; take a trip through time to the Age of Aquarius.

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Finding Her Way

By Eric Lindberg With the help of mentors, a first-generation student achieves more than she ever thought possible. Now, she helps others follow in her footsteps.

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Going Gently...

By Benjamin Gleisser Every one of Sunita Puri’s patients has taught the physician something important about a good life—and death.

Troy Camp has touched generations of campers from Los Angeles schools and changed the lives of countless USC students.

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Clear the Air Physicians today say the word “cure” to more lung cancer patients than ever.

By Candace Pearson

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USC salutes seven outstanding alumni; Trojans fly high as Blue Angels; and Corii Berg takes on a new leadership role.

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The Trojan Shrine makes for Instagrammable grad photos. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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The Hurt Blocker The opioid crisis is the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. USC experts explain how we got here—and how to move forward. By Greg Hardesty

Class Notes Who’s doing what and where?

60 Now and Again

Screen Legends Its creative minds are behind some of the biggest movies, games and shows.

Celebrate the savvy and scholarship of the USC School of Cinematic Arts at 90.

By Elisa Huang and Desa Philadelphia

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Into the Woods A beloved Trojan tradition, Troy Camp has introduced generations of Los Angeles children to nature. By Eric Lindberg usc trojan family

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p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e

Fight On!

Wanda Austin and her husband, Wade

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Commencement was pure joy for me.

Standing on stage that morning and seeing the faces of our graduating students and their families was a privilege of a lifetime. I saw optimism and ambition, curiosity and pride. I saw happy tears, warm hugs and touching exchanges. I also saw the next generation: young women and men who are eager to assume their place in the world, and to contribute to their communities in positive ways. A degree from USC lays the foundation for that, and this day celebrated their achievements in the most special way.

This year’s graduating class will always have a special place in my heart. It was truly an honor to lead this great university during its critical period of transition. Our community has faced significant challenges, but we are moving in the right direction.

During my tenure as interim president, one of my primary responsibilities was to help improve our campus culture. I knew change wasn’t going to happen overnight, but I was determined to set the course and leave things better than I found them. Along the way, I have found so much support. I listened carefully to what our university community had to say, and when I asked the tough follow-up question—“Who wants to help?”—I was gratified to see how many individuals eagerly stepped forward.

With this deep well of support, we made great strides. The university established the Office of Professionalism

and Ethics, which serves as a central hub for complaint reporting and allows us to systematically track identified concerns across both campuses. We opened ombuds offices on both campuses, and their staffs began mediating discussions and improving communication.

We also created the President’s Culture Commission. This group takes its responsibility most seriously, and its members have advised me directly on how best to ensure that our core values guide our work, and that our mission remains at the heart of all that we do. This group will continue to work diligently to identify key areas for improvement.

These are meaningful structural changes, but this is an ongoing process and there will be additional challenges along the way. We had a stark reminder earlier this year with the revelations regarding the admissions investigation. This touched a number of peer universities around the nation, but it was particularly disturbing to our community. We have always taken great pride in USC’s admissions outreach, particularly with underrepresented groups, and these cases drew attention away from the wonderful success of the overwhelming majority of our students who earned the right to be a Trojan. We will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigation, and meanwhile have taken important steps to safeguard the integrity

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

by wanda austin

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of our admissions process and to ensure we conduct ourselves in a manner that is consistent with our values. As with other challenges, we must learn quickly from the mistakes and move on with those lessons firmly in mind.

In addition to these very real initiatives, we have a number of new senior leaders, who arrive with fresh energy and a fresh perspective. That begins with our incoming president, Dr. Carol L. Folt, who formally assumes her role on July 1. She is the right person for this job. Having most recently served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she has led a large, complex research institution, but she also draws on her valuable experience as a faculty member, scientist, researcher, former transfer student and mom. She is warm and she listens. She and I have been communicating almost every day, and she has spent time on our campuses, engaging with a broad range of individuals during each visit. I am confident that the transition will be smooth and the university will be in excellent hands with Dr. Folt.

This spring, she and I jointly announced a number of new leaders for the university, including senior vice presidents in three different areas: administration, communications and human resources.

Our search for a new provost is underway, and Dr. Folt hopes to identify a strong slate of candidates by the fall semester. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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“We could not have achieved what we did without your love, kindness and dedication.�

Wanda Austin, pictured with President-elect Carol Folt

I wish to close on a note of personal gratitude. As an alumna of this university, and having served as a trustee for nine years, I was already familiar with the passion and dedication of the Trojan Family. I know that we care for one another and that our alumni are simply the best in the world. That still didn’t prepare me for the tremendous warmth with which you embraced Wade and me. We could not have achieved what we did without your love, kindness and dedication. We will forever have fond memories of this unique chapter in our Trojan experience. It is your commitment to excellence that will take our university to even greater heights, and why I am so confident about the future of the University of Southern California.

To all Trojans, everywhere: Fight On! usc trojan family

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How we invest in today matters tomorrow.

Let our Trojan family be there for yours. Fight on!

Bob Renken Noreen Jenkins Brian Bissell Bucky Burge Mason Carpenter

1998 MBTAX 2005 2013 MBA 2009 2013 MBA

Brian Flynn Ashley Fontanetta Caleb Silsby Pegine Grayson

1971 BS & 1985 MFA 2004 2011 MBA 1987 LAW

David Dahl Riley Mathies Rosa Lee Jim Parks*

1992 MBA 2015 2007 1972 BS & 1975 MBTAX

[Listed from top left - right] *Board Member

The values we hold dear define us — family, integrity, tradition. From our roots as a single family office in 1935, guided by these tenets, Whittier Trust has grown to become the largest multi-family office headquartered on the West coast.

We take pride in our USC Trojan alumni who play an integral role in helping manage the financial lives of individuals, families and leaders whose ingenuity and principles shape our world through positive impact — and wish to extend that legacy and inspiration to future generations. To learn more about our customized Wealth Management and Family Office services, call Tim McCarthy at 626.463.2545 or visit us at WhittierTrust.com.

Your Legacy is Our Business. $10 M I L L I O N M A R K E T A B L E S E C U R I T I E S A N D/ O R L I Q U I D A S S E T S R E Q U I R E D. I nvestment and Wealth Management Services are provided by Whittier Trust Company and The Whittier Trust Company of Nevada, Inc. (referred to herein individually and collectively

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as “WTC”), state-chartered trust companies wholly owned by Whittier Holdings, Inc. (“WHI”), a closely held holding company. This document is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance is summer usc trojan no guarantee of future results and no investment or financialfamily planning strategy can guarantee profit or protection against losses. All names, characters, and incidents, except for certain incidental references, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is2019 entirely coincidental.

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TROJAN

PHOTO BY JENNIFER STEWART

AIMING HIGH USC’s Allisen Corpuz now holds a place in history.

Corpuz was one of three Trojans to qualify for the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur golf tournament in April.

She made the cut and finished 17th. The event marked the first time women have competed in a championship at the site of the famed Masters.

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Seeds of Change USC leaders are dedicating new resources to strengthening the university’s values, emphasizing ethics and boosting student health.

CULTURE CHANGE Students, faculty members and employees are defining and strengthening USC’s underlying values as part of the President’s Culture Commission. Group members will listen to the community, outline a set of shared principles and ensure that those principles inform all the university’s programs and policies.

Where do you find the soul of a university? It’s not in its ivycovered buildings, nor in its awards, honors and prizes. It lies in its students, educators, patients, alumni, staff and community. But USC has faced some recent high-profile challenges that called that focus into question. Issues including allegations about the actions of a student health gynecologist and a national fraud scheme involving college admissions have prompted the university to look for answers.

As USC readies for a new era under President-elect Carol L. Folt, the university already has rolled out a variety of initiatives that center on a singular goal: culture change. Here are some facts and figures about efforts now underway.

3,000+ COMMENTS FROM THE USC COMMUNITY GUIDED THE SEARCH FOR A NEW USC PRESIDENT

EMPHASIZING ETHICS

Ombuds Katherine Greenwood and Thomas Kosakowski

Several new programs encourage ethical decision-making. The Office of the Ombuds is open to anyone at USC worried about ethical issues. Its dispute resolution experts provide free, confidential advice.

At the same time, the Office of Ethics and Compliance aims to grow a culture of values. And the Office of Professionalism and Ethics centralizes investigations and strives to probe complaints swiftly.

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NEW PRIVATE ROOMS WHERE STUDENTS CAN MEET WITH COUNSELORS

NURTURING SUCCESS

SPACE TO GROW

Executive hires and employees up for promotion to leadership positions must pass tough background checks. Personnel files are being centralized. And a new leadership academy will ensure that leaders embody USC’s values. Overseeing these initiatives is the senior vice president of human resources, a newly created position.

Builders are creating a 10,000-square-foot office dedicated to counseling support on the fifth floor of the USC Engemann Student Health Center. To be staffed by six psychologists and 12 therapists, it reflects the growing emphasis on promoting mental health at USC.

50% INCREASE IN USC STUDENT HEALTH THERAPISTS SINCE 2017

PROFESSIONAL CARE FOR STUDENTS In 2017, Keck Medicine of USC assumed responsibility for overseeing health care at the university’s student health centers. Now all doctors in USC Student Health are faculty members who complete a rigorous credentialing process and ongoing peer review to ensure they provide high-quality care.

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LISTENING TO MANY VOICES Students are now members of university-wide councils on topics like well-being. USC leaders have also brought together faculty members, students and others from the community for town hall meetings to share their thoughts on well-being and culture change.

Deirdre Logan MD ’97, MMM ’10 is one of USC Student Health’s newest physicians

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DOCTORS D OCTORS HIRED IN STUDENT HEALTH SINCE 2017

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Branch Manager

HIDDEN BOUNTY

USC has five dozen fruit trees, and many can be found near Parkside International Residential College and behind certain campus kitchens. Students are welcome to take the fruit, and avocados are always the fastest to disappear off the trees, Wallich says.

Thousands of trees shade USC’s campuses. Meet the man who keeps them happy and healthy.

Tall Tales Michael Wallich, USC’s dedicated arborist, starts his daily trek through campus at 5 a.m., keeping an eye out for signs that a tree might be struggling. He looks for compacted soil that can squeeze the life out of roots. Curling leaves could signal water trouble. And he’s always on guard against two pests— tuliptree scale and the polyphagous shot hole borer—that have decimated trees throughout Southern California.

“For a campus as old as it is, we normally would be losing 10, 15 trees a year, but we’re not,” he says. “I’ve been here five years, and we’ve only lost four trees. I’m still not too thrilled about that. I hate to lose any tree.”

To protect his leafy charges, Wallich has been known to chastise truck drivers who cause “inadvertent trimming” of foliage. He generally goes easier on students when they hang hammocks from trees, encouraging them to loop their straps around the main trunk instead of branches.

And although he’s approaching retirement age, Wallich (pictured below) says he has no plans to relinquish his role as the guardian of greenery. “I’m not going anywhere. I love this job.”

ERIC LINDBERG

Some trees come with stories attached.

Green Gains USC reaps many environmental benefits from its trees:

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MILLION GALLONS

Volume of water absorbed into the aquifer during rainstorms that would otherwise run off as wastewater

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MILLION POUNDS Amount of carbon locked in trees, reducing the net release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

300,000 POUNDS

Quantity of fine particles—part of smog— that tree leaves absorb annually from air

394,000

KILOWATT HOURS

Energy saved each year due to trees that shade buildings and reduce the need for air conditioning

Legend has it that USC planted 50 trees in Founders Park— one for each U.S. state. Heavy winds or lightning supposedly took out Arizona’s tree at some point.

Whether the story is true or not, Trojans from the Grand Canyon State can rest easy and know they’re represented arboreally. A section of a petrified tree from Arizona, a gift from the Class of 1887, stands near the southeast corner of Doheny Memorial Library.

Gold medal winners at the 1936 Berlin Olympics received oak seedlings as symbols of the Olympic spirit. Two were planted in Associates Park in recognition of discus thrower Ken Carpenter ’39 and 100-meter relay runners Foy Draper ’36, Ralph Metcalfe MA ’39 and Frank Wykoff ’33.

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A New Era

LACROSSE TEAM PHOTO BY MICHAEL OWEN BAKER

Internationally recognized biologist and academic leader Carol L. Folt will join the Trojan Family as USC’s 12th president.

The Trojan Family welcomed Carol Folt during her visit to USC in March. Her whirlwind tour included meeting the women’s lacrosse team, Keck Medicine of USC physicians, and a variety of other students and members of the faculty and staff.

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Carol L. Folt spoke the words the crowd at Town and Gown wanted to hear.

“Let’s make it right. Let’s make it better.”

To roaring applause, USC leaders introduced Folt—a noted life scientist, teacher and academic leader—as the university’s 12th president at a press conference in March. She takes office July 1.

Formerly chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Folt brings decades of experience. At UNC-Chapel Hill, she was known for advancing student access and affordability and promoting research and academic excellence, as well as steering the campus toward greater accountability. She was the unanimous choice of USC’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee, which was guided by the input of thousands of members of the Trojan Family.

“The opportunities and potential I see ahead for USC are extraordinary,” Folt said in her introductory address. “Of course, I also am aware that our community is deeply troubled by a number of immediate challenges. I assure you that we will meet these challenges together, directly, decisively and with honesty and candor. This is a moment of responsibility and opportunity, and we will seize them both.”

A native of Akron, Ohio, Folt attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, after transferring from community college.

She worked her way through school, earning a bachelor’s in aquatic biology and a master’s in biology before heading to the University of California, Davis, for a doctorate in ecology.

Her academic career began at Dartmouth College, where she was a professor and went on to serve as dean of faculty, provost and interim president.

Folt is married to David Peart, an emeritus professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth. They have two adult children, Noah and Tessa. ALICIA DI RADO usc trojan family

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Learn about more student organizations at usc.campuslabs.com/engage.

You know the Trojan Shrine, but Tommy isn’t the only lionheart depicted on USC’s campuses.

Can you name the spots where these other champions of courage can be found? Answers below.

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Join the Club Do you know any students who want to learn how to do a proper deadlift? How about ones interested in Japanese tea ceremonies, music therapy or environmentally friendly fashion? No matter how quirky their passion, chances are there’s a USC campus club that has them covered. Trojans have more than 1,000 ofcial campus groups for interests that are thrilling, offbeat and everything in between.

Here are just a few: USC Juggling Club At Alumni Park and beyond, Trojans gather to learn to keep lots of balls (and clubs) in the air or just improve their juggling skills.

Chanoyu Tea Club Students can experience the art of making, presenting and drinking tea with this group dedicated to Japanese tea culture.

Remedy Through Music Dedicated to underserved communities in L.A., student musicians and vocalists bring the healing power of music to community centers, hospitals and retirement homes.

Escape SC This club is all about the thrill of the escape room, an adventure game in which players have to solve puzzles to break free from a locked room.

Bloom Boutique For environmentally minded fashionistas, this group promotes both sustainability and style. It arranges pop-up events to accept donations of old clothing and sell “new” secondhand items.

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Trojan Barbell Club Whether they’ve been deadlifting for years or never held a barbell before, students can find coaching, competition and camaraderie in this club for powerlifters.

DANCE PHOTO BY HENDRIK MAKALIWE; PHOTO 1 BY MICHAEL OWEN BAKER; PHOTO 7 BY ALLISON V. SMITH

The Heroes

SC Ballroom and Latin Dance Team Students waltz into the world of social and competitive ballroom dance with lessons from professional teachers.

1. Physical Education Building; 2. Doheny Memorial Library; 3 and 4. Taper Hall; 5. Doheny Memorial Library; 6 and 7. Mudd Hall

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Curious about USC history? Visit the USC Digital Library online at digitallibrary.usc.edu.

A Trojan Trip Back to 1969 USC life has changed in the 50 years since man first walked on the Moon.

It was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

In 1969, unrest hit many university campuses as students protested the Vietnam War. At USC, students organized events and talks on racism and civil rights but steered clear of violence as they awaited the military draft. Here’s a look at the USC of 1969 and 2019 (with a hat tip to the Daily Trojan).

ALICIA DI RADO

HISTORIC STUDENT PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

1969

The groovy music and communalism of love-ins played against a backdrop of worry about the Vietnam War in 1969. Alumni Park hosted its share of bell bottoms and guitars.

SET IN STONE

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

UP AND AWAY

CULTURAL CONTEXT

Students hold a love-in at Alumni Park. As the crowd sings “Let the Sunshine In,” a student climbs onto the statue atop the Youth Triumphant fountain and pronounces, “We are beautiful!”

The university announces a new dormitory for more than 300 male students at 34th and McClintock streets. It would become Fluor Tower, completed in 1971.

USC garners its first Marshall Scholar. The scholarships enable high-achieving U.S. students to attain graduate degrees at prestigious colleges in the United Kingdom.

Echoing moves at colleges nationwide, USC launches its first ethnic studies program.

Students focus on either African American, Mexican American or Asian American studies.

Fluor Tower is open to mostly first-year students regardless of gender. The residence hall, part of West Residential College, also hosts theme floors for Latino students and students focused on black culture.

Twelve USC students now have earned Marshall Scholarships. The most recent, Jamie Kwong ’18, MPD ’18, went to King’s College London to further her studies on nuclear disarmament.

USC Dornsife’s robust Department of American Studies and Ethnicity investigates issues of race, immigration, urban geography, culture, power, gender, sexuality and social justice.

2019 A new statue of a woman reigns tall over USC. Hecuba at USC Village has become a symbol for female Trojans, a meeting spot and the namesake of the Daily Trojan’s “Ask Hecuba” advice column.

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Finding Her Way A first-generation student discovered her calling thanks to caring mentors.

Now she wants to help others follow in her footsteps.

STRONG SUPPORT

For much of Smith’s childhood, she and her family lived a block west of the University Park Campus. In middle school, her English teacher, Joy O’Renick, saw promise in Smith and encouraged her to study subjects like math and literature through the USC Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI).

The rigorous sevenyear program prepares students from the neighborhoods around USC to gain admission to a college or university.

Participants commit to after-school tutoring and Saturday morning classes on the University Park Campus.

That was a tough sell for Smith in the beginning.

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“I’ve sat in this exact same classroom before [in NAI], but now I’m a real Trojan.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that I go to USC.” Saianna Smith

“I didn’t want to go to school on Saturdays,” she says. “I wanted to go to cheerleading and hang out with my friends.”

But her teacher insisted, showing up every weekend to drive her to USC after Smith moved farther from campus.

Smith soon found she enjoyed the academic challenge and could balance her other interests, even becoming captain of the cheerleading squad.

“If I wasn’t involved in a college access program like NAI, I don’t think I’d be where I am today,” Smith says.

By high school, she was helping raise her younger siblings. Smith stuck with the NAI program, though, receiving afterschool counseling and guidance with time management and study skills. Her two brothers and eight sisters became her motivation.

“I felt like I had to set the bar, so even if they don’t go to college, they know that it’s possible,” she says. Even now, photos of her siblings adorn her phone and computer screens. “When times are getting tough, I look to them. I’m doing it for them.”

A HOMECOMING

Smith was accepted to the University of California, Irvine, where she continued to receive supportive services from NAI as she completed her undergraduate degree in education and African American studies. She also found encouragement from Jonli Tunstall, a mentor at her church who runs a college access program at UCLA.

PHOTO BY ERIC LINDBERG

Sometimes a few caring adults can make all the difference to a child’s future. USC student Saianna Smith is living proof.

Smith grew up with 10 brothers and sisters, and education wasn’t a priority in her South Los Angeles home. When a middle school English teacher insisted that she enroll in a USC program that would get her ready for college, she felt like someone believed in her potential. A door opened to another world.

Today, she’s not only thinking about her own future, but also about the future of other young people like her. With her graduate degree in educational counseling from the USC Rossier School of Education, she hopes to work as an academic adviser in urban schools, supporting and encouraging students who grow up in challenging circumstances. After all, she understands their experience firsthand.

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In Good Company

Tunstall helped her through a few rough patches as an undergraduate, then welcomed Smith into her home while Smith worked as a college counselor at a middle school in Inglewood through AmeriCorps. She pressed Smith to look into earning a master’s degree and helped her apply to USC. Smith was wary about taking on student loans, but financial aid from USC Rossier convinced her to enroll.

She also received a $10,000 scholarship from Town & Gown of USC, the university’s oldest women’s organization.

“I’m so thankful for the support,” Smith says. “I’m not taking anything for granted.”

If shepherding startups is an art, then the USC Marshall School of Business has mastered the form. Now working with its 12th cohort, the USC Marshall Greif Incubator—housed at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies—is redefining how to mentor earlystage entrepreneurs.

Its companies have raised tens of millions of dollars on their way to business success. In January, the incubator welcomed its 100th company— an impressive feat considering the incubator accepts only 10% of startups that apply.

A MIX OF STARTUP FOUNDERS

Startup founder and advisor Paul Orlando directs the incubator.

Alumni Students

50%

45%

Faculty and Staff

D I VE R SE While most incubators focus on companies in one industry, the USC Marshall Greif Incubator spans a range of startups in tech, food, apparel, mental wellness and more.

5% BUSINESSES IN MANY INDUSTRIES

Skateboards

Virtual reality headsets

Coffee presses

WIDE AGE RANGE OF APPLICANTS

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N O N PROFIT Created as a service to the USC community, it takes no fees or equity in its companies.

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T ROJANS Startup founders must have one or more members who are USC students, alumni, faculty or staff and demonstrate coachability, commitment and capability.

ORLANDO PHOTO BY CHRIS FLYNN; BOOK FESTIVAL PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE

LOOKING AHEAD

Smith knows the power of academic advising and education. She envisions working in Southern California and potentially pursuing a PhD in urban education in a few years.

She has already proven invaluable to the college access program that helped her succeed, says Lizette Zarate, NAI’s program director. Although Smith was hired to manage NAI’s weekend and summer programs, she’s also helping with event planning, prepping applications for review and checking in with students.

She even assists with Kinder 2 College, USC’s literacy program for local kids that starts in kindergarten.

“We knew she was exceptional, but having her work for us and getting to know her has shown us just how committed she is,” Zarate says.

“When she commits to something, you can count on her being there wholeheartedly. We’re so proud of her.”

ERIC LINDBERG

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IT’S TOTALLY LIT Book lovers and writers (including, from left, The Cloud That Fell From the Sky authors Judy Choi and Phoenix Brown) were among the 150,000 attendees at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April. Now in its ninth year at the University Park Campus, the event is the biggest literary event of its kind in the U.S.

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P R O F I L E

S U N I TA

Going Gently...

A palliative care physician explores the role of medicine in helping us live and die well.

Sometimes you need to take a break from your day and laugh. Sunita Puri knows this firsthand.

There are times when Puri will close the door of her office and listen to comedians like Stephen Colbert or Russell Peters. It re-energizes Puri, the medical director of palliative medicine and supportive care services at Keck Hospital of USC and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

She attends to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients facing serious diseases, so she needs ways to process what she sees.

In part, Puri does that through writing, and her observations have gained her national attention. After being published in The New York Times, The Atlantic and

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P U R I

other media, she put out the book That Good Night, a collection of personal stories about her upbringing and her career in medicine.

“I’ve written stories and essays all my life as a way to make sense of what I was seeing in medicine and in the world at large,” she explains. In her stories, she weaves together memories of her patients, as well as what her mother, a doctor, and her father, an engineer, taught her about the impermanence of life.

She also writes about her decision to work in palliative care, a relatively new subspecialty of medicine that focuses on quality of life for people struggling with illness.

One of the toughest parts of Puri’s job is helping families understand that their loved ones won’t recover from disease or a debilitating accident. And, further, that halting treatment doesn’t mean a hospital is abandoning its patient.

Puri recalls one patient, Alice, a woman in her 30s dying of lymphoma, who taught her about compassion and letting go.

Alice needed a respirator tube to breathe, and could only communicate by writing on a clipboard, Puri remembers.

“I had to help her family understand Alice was dying, even though she was wide awake and communicating with us. Her family was struggling with the idea that she would never

leave the hospital, but Alice understood she was approaching the end of her life. ‘I am ready to fly!’ she wrote, anticipating her death. We helped her parents understand Alice’s situation, and I was really moved by her words, and being part of that experience.”

Puri pauses before she adds, “Every patient I’ve had has taught me something.”

The physician grew interested in palliative care during her second year of residency, when she began questioning why patients with chronic diseases were given treatments that didn’t necessarily ease their suffering.

Was there a way to balance preserving life with accepting that life is finite?

She still has no easy answers, but Puri searches for them with a life-affirming outlook. She hopes her book will help the public and the medical community better understand the value of palliative care and the professionals who work in that field.

“Our occupation has a high rate of burnout and turnover because we have to deal with a general cultural avoidance of death and a medical culture that’s had difficulty accepting what we do. We also encounter a tremendous amount of human suffering,” she says. “Yet there’s beauty in the challenges of our work.” BENJAMIN GLEISSER

ILLUSTRATION BY JASU HU

FA C U LT Y

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HE ALTH FI LES Here’s another reason to eat better: a healthy liver. A diet high in fat and bad cholesterol spurred immune reactions that led to liver scarring in USC researchers’ lab models. Scientists hope their work leads to treatments for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a growing health problem.

Teens who breathe smoggier air tend to eat more trans fats—regardless of income or how close they live to fast-food spots.

USC researchers suspect that oxidative stress and inflammation caused by pollution might affect teens’ food choices.

A hemorrhagic fever spread by the Asian longhorned tick can kill. A vaccine may be on the way, though, now that USC and Korean scientists have figured out how the virus sickens humans. The U.S. has avoided the virus so far, but the tick has invaded nine states.

The longer you think about a problem, the less mental energy you’ll have for the next one. That’s the finding of USC engineering researchers who studied people taking college entrance tests. Their suggestion: Take breaks and tackle easy tasks before hard ones.

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A BRIGHT IDEA

To Your Health

A gift to the USC Schaeffer Center advances its work in transforming health care policy.

Rising health care costs. Chronic disease. Population health. These and other pressing social problems have been the focus of the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics since its founding in 2009.

The center—a partnership between the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC School of Pharmacy—received a $25 million endowment in 2012 from Leonard and Pamela Schaeffer. In the years since, the center’s research has informed the decisions of government and business leaders. It has earned citations in dozens of federal reports and has convened hundreds of events on urgent issues like Medicare drug pricing.

Now, as the center celebrates its 10th year, the Schaeffers have renewed their investment with a $17 million gift.

Specific goals for the new funding include enhancing the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, a collaboration with the Brookings Institution that seeks to infuse the national debate around health care with evidence-based analysis. It will also establish the Elizabeth Garrett Chair in Health Policy, Economics and Law and

Leonard and Pamela Schaeffer

support the Leonard D. Schaeffer Fellows in Government Service program, which introduces undergraduates to government work through internships and professional development.

“I am very proud of the work that the center has done in its first decade and the impact it has had on policy,” says Leonard Schaeffer, a USC trustee and Judge Robert Maclay Widney Chair. “Under the leadership of Dana Goldman, the center is addressing some of our nation’s greatest challenges and identifying solutions based on evidence.” ERIC LINDBERG

Iridium is one of the rarest naturally occurring elements on Earth, and demand for it has never been higher. It helps transmit color and light in the LED screens of devices like smartphones and televisions.

USC chemists may have found an alternative to iridium: copper.

Previous attempts to use the inexpensive, plentiful element failed because its compounds weren’t as durable as iridium.

But a team of USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences researchers found a way to match iridium’s rate of light emission by using a breakthrough copper compound that has a stronger molecular complex.

The compound also efficiently emits the color blue, a color that has long challenged LED makers.

This discovery paves the way for a new generation of devices. USC chemists already applied for a patent on their compound and hope the innovation can lead to more energy-efficient lighting options.

EMILY GERSEMA

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trojan news And the Oscar Goes to...

Q U OT E D

“Knowing that my mom wasn’t allowed to play on those courts in Stellenbosch and that I could come there and not only play those tournaments, but win them, meant so much to me. It was so bittersweet.” ÑTennis player SALMA EWING

BLACK PANTHER

Ludwig Göransson GCRT ’08 won an Oscar for Best Original Music Score for the blockbuster led by writerdirector Ryan Coogler MFA ’11.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

John Ottman ’88 earned the Best Editing Oscar for the biopic about legendary rock band Queen.

FREE SOLO

Evan Hayes ’02 received a Best Documentary Oscar for a profile on the first climber to scale Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes.

The Healing Touch A rubber-like 3D-printed material paves the way for self-repairing shoes and more.

Instead of throwing away your cracked boots or broken toys, why not let them repair themselves?

A new 3D-printed soft material developed at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering could one day make it possible.

The secret to the innovative material lies in photopolymerization, a process that uses light to solidify liquid resin. By adding oxidizers to the equation, researchers were able to give their rubber-like material selfhealing abilities.

In their study, researchers printed objects including a shoe pad, a soft robot

and an electronic sensor and cut them in half. After they were heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours, the objects fused back together and retained their strength and function. If the material could be mass-produced, consumers could one day repair punctures and rips on a variety of everyday items.

The engineers are now working on developing more-rigid materials to create self-repairing objects like vehicle parts, composite materials and even body armor.

ASHLEEN KNUTSEN

PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE.

Director Rayka Zehtabchi ’16 won a Best Documentary Short Oscar for a film about women’s health in an Indian village.

Other Trojans on the project include cinematographer/ editor Sam Davis ’16 and executive producers Helen Yenser MFA ’19 and Douglas Blush ’88, a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

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EWING PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN/USC ATHLETICS; 3D MATERIAL PHOTO BY MATTHEW LIN; OSCARS PHOTOS COURTESY OF © A.M.P.A.S.

As the blockbuster season gets into full swing, chances are that Trojans will appear in the credits of some of the most talked-about movies, from Brad Pitt’s thriller Ad Astra (written and directed by James Gray ’91) to superhero favorite Spider-Man: Far From Home (produced by Kevin Feige ’95). But USC alumni are behind more than summer hits. At the 2019 Academy Awards, they took home an impressive number of Oscars for their work on the industry’s most acclaimed films.

on competing in South Africa, where her mother grew up under racial segregation

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THE KECK EFFECT

Completely committed to beating lung cancer.

With internationally renowned physicians dedicated to lung cancer treatment, the USC Lung Cancer Program works tirelessly to help more patients overcome lung cancer. At our convenient multidisciplinary clinic, we provide specialized treatment based on the latest research, so our patients can combat lung cancer early and effectively.

And our physicians are from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center — which proudly reports the number-one ranked cancer outcomes in the West.

USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center KeckMedicine.org/LCTM | (213) 340-0605

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Š 2019 Keck Medicine of USC

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trojan health

CLEAR THE

A I R THE LA N DS C A P E F O R LU N G CANCER IS CHANGING, AND P H YS I C I A N S USE THE WORD “CU R E ” WITH MORE PAT I E N TS THAN EVER .

By Candace Pearson Illustrations by Curtis Parker

When physician Jorge Nieva first started treating patients diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, he rarely got to know many of them for long. Most died in a year or less.

Much has changed over two decades. Now, Nieva, associate professor of clinical medicine at Keck Medicine of USC, still sees patients he met the first week he joined USC’s faculty as a medical oncologist in 2014.

More patients than ever are beating advanced lung cancer, Nieva says, thanks to improved diagnostics and treatments. Physicians are even using the word “cure” for many patients with stage 4 lung cancer—advanced disease in which tumor cells have spread beyond the lungs. As many as 40% of lung cancer patients have stage 4 disease at the time they’re diagnosed.

For a determined team of lung cancer experts at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, this progress can’t come fast enough.

“Treating this disease isn’t a job—it’s a calling,” says Anthony W. Kim, chief of thoracic surgery at Keck Medicine of USC and an expert in thoracic oncology.

Today, physicians like Kim and Nieva are rewriting the story on hopes for survival.

E A R LY D ET E CT I O N , AT LA S T

Physicians have long needed better tools to fight lung cancer. Despite improvements, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. Every year, more people die of the disease than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.

But medical science offers reasons for optimism, starting with ways to detect the disease. The first-ever screening tool for lung cancer—a low-dose computed tomography, or CT, scan—now enables physicians to find tumors early. That’s an achievement, since symptoms rarely show until the disease has spread and it’s harder to treat.

Experts recommend the screenings for people specifically at high risk for lung cancer: patients ages 55 to 80 with a history of heavy smoking. A national lung screening trial showed that patients screened with CT had a 20% lower risk of dying from lung cancer compared to patients screened using X-rays. Last year, a similar clinical trial in Europe found even higher survival rates.

Yet fewer than 5% of the Americans eligible for the screenings get them. One reason: Many smokers (and sometimes their doctors)

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shy away from the screenings because they perceive a stigma around smoking, says Keck Medicine radiologist Christopher Lee, director of USC’s lung cancer screening program. Lee and colleagues regularly reach out to smokers to come to Keck Medicine’s facility, which was named a Screening Center of Excellence by the Lung Cancer Alliance. Besides smokers screened as part of routine care, Lee has provided free screenings to more than 800 people in underserved Southern California communities with the help of grants.

Lung cancer hits more than smokers, though. Nearly one-fourth of all lung cancer patients in California have never smoked.

Scientists lack evidence that using CT to screen these “never-smokers” is effective.

So, screening tools for the broader population remain a needed but elusive target.

Doctors also have no definitive answer to why never-smokers develop lung cancer, but they know that some factors beyond cigarette smoking can put people at risk.

The second-leading cause is environmental exposure to radon, a colorless, odorless gas present in soil.

N E W D RU G S F O R A N E W E R A

Although lung cancer is typically divided into two broad classifications—non-small cell lung cancer (about 85% of cases) and small cell lung cancer (15%)—it comprises many types of disease. Each person’s lung tumor has its own fingerprint and behavior. As scientists make discoveries about different types of lung cancer, treatment milestones have quickly followed.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved more therapies for lung cancer in the last two-and-a-half years than in the previous decade. The reason is twofold.

Scientists accelerated the development of new drugs, and the FDA okayed the use of those drugs quickly. They moved them ahead as soon as therapies showed they could shrink tumors, for example, instead of requiring proof of long-term survival, as they did in the past.

Many recently approved drugs work against cancers with certain genetic mutations by interfering with mechanisms that cancers use to grow and spread. “Our understanding of the biology of the disease is changing, so how we take care of it is changusc trojan family

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trojan health F UTU R E FORECASTING: KECK MEDICINE LU N G C A N C E R E X P E RTS The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved more therapies for lung cancer in the last two-anda-half years than in the previous decade. Experts anticipate the momentum to continue for the next five years, and they’re optimistic that more innovative lung cancer treatments and better outcomes are on the way.

Keck Medicine of USC radiation oncologist Jason Ye envisions a future with more expansive community-based care, including satellite sites equipped with advanced radiation therapy and other ways to provide personalized treatments.

Scientists will continue to experiment with immunotherapy and conventional therapy combinations, says medical oncologist Jorge Nieva. They’ll also test new therapies to treat frail and elderly patients and find better solutions for medication resistance.

Thoracic surgeon Anthony Kim foresees more incisionless treatment options, such as minimally invasive ablative therapies like radiotherapy and cryotherapy, which destroy cancerous tissue with extreme heat or cold.

He also expects surgeons to increasingly turn to genomic sequencing as a tool to predict how well a patient would respond to therapy, as well as to guide treatment.

Radiologist Christopher Lee predicts that more patients will embrace routine lung cancer screening.

“The result will be more patients being diagnosed at earlier stages,” he says.

Coupled with that, researchers will be zeroing in on screening techniques for people who never smoked, thoracic surgeon Elizabeth David says. “We need to find a screening technique for never-smokers—possibly even a blood test— which will make a huge difference in saving lives.”

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ing as well,” says Elizabeth A. David, Keck Medicine thoracic surgeon and associate professor of clinical surgery in the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Keck Medicine physician-scientists are now analyzing each patient’s lung cancer for any known genetic mutations (and hunting for new ones), all so they can match each patient with the most effective medicine. One of these drug targets is a mutation in a gene that holds the formula for the protein EGFR, or epithelial growth factor receptor. EGFR gene mutations cause the body to produce too much of this protein, which can fuel aggressive cancer.

These mutations frequently are found among people of Asian or Latino descent with lung cancer, who comprise 25% of Keck Medicine’s lung cancer patient population. The FDA has approved five oral drugs for EGFR mutations so far.

For other patients, doctors are finding ways to fire up the immune system to fight lung cancer cells and make them more vulnerable to treatment. A 2018 study found that adding immune-boosting drugs to conventional chemotherapy resulted in longer survival without disease progression for patients with advanced lung cancer.

The caveat: Immunotherapy hasn’t proven effective for many never-smokers with lung cancer. Even among current or former smokers, immunotherapy only works for about 20% of patients, so researchers continue their search for better treatments.

N E W A P P R OAC H E S

One option is adding radiation therapy to the mix. A recent study suggests that adding radiation to chemotherapy and immunotherapy improves the odds of survival for patients with stage 3 lung cancer. The researchers used what’s called stereotactic body radiation therapy, or SBRT, which enables physicians to precisely deliver high doses of radiation and spare healthy tissue.

Keck Medicine physicians are part of a national study using their TrueBeam STx radiosurgery machine to test the strategy’s benefits. They’re also studying whether radiation can help the immune system recognize cancer cells through different research protocols. “We’re excited to explore such promising options for our patients,” says Jason Ye, assistant professor of radiation oncology.

For patients with stage 1 lung cancer, SBRT is also proving to be a viable alternative to surgery. For many patients, the cure rate is the same as with a surgical procedure, so it’s especially promising for those who cannot tolerate surgery. New technology can deliver doses three times faster than previously possible. For some patients with lung cancer, Ye is able to reduce radiation treatment to a single session.

Surgery remains the gold standard of treatment, and it’s often more effective when paired with other therapies.

Sometimes patients go through chemotherapy and radiation to shrink tumors before surgeons operate. Keck Medicine is the largest recruiting center for a major international study exploring whether immunotherapy and chemotherapy before surgery can prolong life for lung cancer patients. And other trials are looking at chemotherapy’s capacity to kill cancer

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cells that remain after surgery.

To devise the best treatment plan, specialists spanning many disciplines meet face to face in twice-weekly sessions to look at all the facts about each patient’s cancer and chart the best possible approach.

Patient Jay Gordonson experienced the advantages of this multidisciplinary powerhouse. “Very professional,” he says.

He should know. Gordonson, 82, joined the staff at LAC+USC Medical Center as a diagnostic radiologist in the late 1960s and is an assistant professor of radiology at the Keck School of Medicine.

In early 2018, Gordonson began experiencing pain in his jaw and his groin. He also felt run down. Physicians diagnosed him with stage 2 lung cancer. He had been exposed to secondhand smoke much of his adult life and smoked cigarettes off and on in his 20s and 30s. But he hadn’t smoked for more than four decades.

After thoracic surgeon Anthony Kim removed a lobe of one of Gordonson’s lungs, his medical team found the cancer was more extensive than expected. Nieva and Ye met with Gordonson to outline their plan for his care after surgery, which involved four cycles of chemotherapy, followed by radiation therapy a month later. “The sessions were streamlined, which made it very easy,” Gordonson says.

His daughter, Krista Gordonson, found the plan comforting. “We knew the steps we’d go through. It made us feel proactive and taken care of at the same time,” she says.

A recent follow-up scan showed no signs of cancer.

As many patients are finding answers to their cancer, big questions remain. What can physicians offer patients whose cancer becomes resistant to targeted medications?

Why are women who quit smoking more likely to develop lung cancer than men who quit? And why are so many women who never smoked developing the disease?

Researchers see potential for discovery in the questions—and for hope. Ten years ago, curing advanced lung cancer seemed like a crazy concept, Nieva says. “It’s no longer an impossible dream. We can cure some. Now let’s cure more.”

To learn more about lung cancer treatment or screening, visit bit.ly/lungcancerUSC or call (800) 872-2273. summer 2019

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S C R E E N L E G E N D S With star alumni and faculty in every part of the industry, the USC School of Cinematic Arts hits 90 at the top of its game.

He was a famed actor who played roguish heroes like Zorro. But on Feb. 6, 1929, Douglas Fairbanks stepped into a role as university lecturer, speaking before a jam-packed audience at Bovard Auditorium. His talk marked the launch of USC’s first-ever course on cinema—a burgeoning industry undergoing a creative revolution. Movie moguls Cecil B. and William C. DeMille were slated to teach part of the course. So was theater owner Sid Grauman.

Their crazy idea was the talk of Hollywood. From the start, Fairbanks, the first president of the newly launched Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, brought industry professionals to USC to teach the art and craft of filmmaking. Ninety years later, partnerships between industry and academia flourish at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, widely considered the world’s top film school.

Students now choose from hundreds of courses taught by more than 400 faculty and adjunct professors comprising award-winning creators and scholars across media arts. As media have evolved over nearly a century, so has the School of Cinematic Arts. When the low-cost Super 8mm camera was introduced in 1965, professors used the accessible camera to jumpstart what insiders call “480.” That’s the famed student movie production course that spawned productions by future industry influencers like George Lucas ’66 and Robert Zemeckis ’73. With the takeoff of television in the 1960s and 1970s, the school developed 35 undergraduate and graduate courses for the popular medium. The 1990s gave rise to the Division of Animation & Digital Arts and the Division of Writing for Screen & Television. And as moving images grew beyond movies and TV, the school embraced video game design with its Interactive Media & Games Division, while the Media Arts + Practice Division opened for students to create and analyze innovative media.

At 90, the School of Cinematic Arts is still exploring, still curious and still growing. Its people create thrilling movie blockbusters and provocative virtual worlds, quirky animated shorts and serious scholarship. Read on for a celebration of the Trojans of “SCA.”

BY ELISA HUANG AND DESA PHILADELPHIA • ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAX-O-MATIC

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O R I G I N

S T O R Y

ML: In terms of content, the industry is just now starting to be diverse. Kids from different ethnicities and cultures haven’t seen what is being portrayed on the screen and on television as replicating what they know.

EDUCATION FOR AN INDUSTRY IN EVOLUTION

Marlene Loadvine and Dean Daley

“Our school has proudly been at the forefront of every movement and innovation in the last nine decades of moving image media.”

ELIZABETH DALEY

She was a producer, not an academic. So when Elizabeth Daley became dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1991, she needed a right-hand man—or woman. In stepped Marlene Loadvine, senior associate dean of external relations. Together they increased the school’s endowment from $6 million to more than $228 million. They also added new divisions: Interactive Media & Games and Media Arts + Practice. And, of course, they oversaw the creation of the state-of-the-art Cinematic Arts Complex.

The duo recently took a look back at a changing industry and their 28 years of partnership.

TIMING THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS IN THE 1990S Marlene Loadvine: Everyone knew that the school had some amazing alumni, but the school itself struggled. Elizabeth came in and saw the potential.

Many people in the industry had never had formal education or weren’t graduates of film school. But there were people like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas who had gone to film school, and now that they had made incredible films, they became household names. So high school kids said, “I want to be a filmmaker, where do I go to do that?”

Elizabeth Daley: The ’60s generation, with Lucas, kind of changed the view of Hollywood about film schools. Then you had the next wave, like Robert Zemeckis—who did the successful Back to the Future series—and they were reaching their peak.

GROWING DIVERSITY IN ACADEMIA AND HOLLYWOOD ED: Coming here, in my first faculty meeting, the only other woman in the room was my assistant. There were a couple of other

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ED: What we train people to do today is the same thing we’ve always done: create compelling experiences. Those can be educational experiences, those can be purely entertainment experiences, they can be interactive experiences. But you’re always focused on creating an experience that people want to participate in. And then we have people in our Division of Cinema & Media Studies who are able to really study and look at the implications of that for our society, as well.

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD ML: I saw, in Elizabeth, immediately that she could articulate the mission of the school, she saw what she wanted to do, had enormous energy, and got it. As far as the fundraising goes, we don’t always agree on things— ED: Thank goodness.

ML: —which is good, and I’m glad she’s a person who wants a lot of opinions and advice. My input means something, and that keeps this exciting.

I think when we both took on these jobs, we said, ‘Well, I’ll do this for two or three years.’

ED: I tell Marlene: if she leaves, I leave.

(Interview edited for length and clarity.)

DALEY AND LOADVINE PHOTO BY CODY PICKENS. PREVIOUS SPREAD: COPYRIGHT BY ABC/PHOTOFEST (GREY’S ANATOMY); METRO-GOLDWYN MAYER (WILLOW); WARNER BROS. PICTURES (CRAZY RICH ASIANS); WALT DISNEY PICTURES/PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS (COCO); WARNER BROS./MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT (BLACK PANTHER); UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (JURASSIC PARK); ED CARREON (USC BUILDING); ALEX HANEY/ UNSPLASH (GAMER); MIKE MEYERS/UNSPLASH (PLAYSTATION); VINCENT DELEGGE/UNSPLASH (CAR MOUNT CAMERA); REALITY ENDS HERE PHOTO COURTESY OF SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS ARCHIVES.

women on the faculty who just didn’t happen to be there, but it was very clear that this needed to change.

We actively recruited women as students, and it was also critical to recruit women faculty. We began to change the faculty by sheer will.

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OFF THE CHARTS

COPYRIGHT BY MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT/WALT DISNEY PICTURES (AVENGERS); WALT DISNEY PICTURES/MANDEVILLE FILMS (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST); TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (STAR WARS); WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES (ROGUE ONE); PARAMOUNT PICTURES/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (TITANIC); TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (AVATAR); LEGENDARY PICTURES/AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT/THE KENNEDY/MARSHALL COMPANY (JURASSIC WORLD)

School of Cinematic Arts alumni have been behind 21 of the 25 top-grossing domestic movies of all time. Here are a few of their box office blockbusters.

THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

FAMILY FAVORITES

AMONG THE STARS

PACKING A PUNCH

Under the eye of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige ’95, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have smashed box-office records, snagging four spots on the all-time blockbuster list (not including Avengers: Endgame, released this year).

The Trojans behind these popular, kid-approved hits have created a new generation of modern-day family classics.

Writer-director George Lucas ’66 first introduced moviegoers to the Star Wars galaxy four decades ago. Trojans have helped land five of the saga’s movies on the list of top-grossing films.

These epic films made movie history.

SHREK 2 (2004) WRITER:

Jon Landau ’83

TOY STORY 3 (2010) DIRECTOR:

Richard A. Harris ’56 SOUND EDITOR:

SOUND EDITOR:

Tom Johnson ’81 Gary Rydstrom ’81

FINDING DORY (2016)

STAR WARS (1977) WRITER/DIRECTOR:

WRITER:

George Lucas ’66

Victoria Strouse ’96

PRODUCER:

SOUND DESIGNER:

Gary Kurtz

PRODUCER:

STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999)

Kevin Feige ’95

WRITER/DIRECTOR:

EDITOR:

George Lucas ’66

Jeffrey Ford ’91 BLACK PANTHER

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

(2018) DIRECTOR:

WRITER:

(2015) PRODUCER:

Ryan Coogler MFA ’11

Stephen Chbosky ’92

Bryan Burk ’91

PRODUCER:

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST (2006) VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR:

John Knoll ’84 SOUND EDITOR:

INCREDIBLES 2 (2018)

EDITOR:

CINEMATOGRAPHER:

SOUND DESIGNER:

Michael Shawver MFA ’12

Mahyar Abousaeedi MFA ’04

Gary Rydstrom ’81

SOUND EDITOR:

Addison Teague MFA ’02

Ben Burtt MA ’75

Accolades One of the professors suggested that they submit the film for an Academy Award. To their surprise, the 20-minute film won in the category then called the Best TwoReel Short Subject. The film’s success led to an educational lecture series on public television featuring notable professors.

PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. (2018) AVATAR (2009) PRODUCER: VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR:

CUTTING-EDGE MOVIE MAKERS

John Knoll ’84

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Production Credits Filmed by School of Cinematic Arts professors including Richard Bare, Wilbur Blume and Ken Miura, the documentary was made as a test to show that faculty could create professional films to bring in modest revenue.

Tim Nielsen MFA ’99

Jon Landau ’83

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Plot Points Your opinion about someone can lead you to act in ways you don’t realize—a concept illustrated in USC art professor Merrell Gage’s 1955 short film. It captured a lecture in which Gage sculpted a bust of Abraham Lincoln while reciting details about the president’s life.

SOUND DESIGNER:

Kevin Feige ’95

They’re edgy and inventive, trailblazing and often profound. Trojan filmmakers have created works that push the limits of the art. Take director-producer James Ivory MA ’57, whose works such as A Room with a View, Howards End and Call Me by Your Name have earned acclaim.

Fellow influential artists include Gregg Araki MFA ’85, known for his dark and subversive stories of queer teenagers, Stephanie Rothman, one of the first women to tackle low-budget exploitation films, and Les Blank, who documented American cultural and musical niches.

THE FACE OF LINCOLN (1955)

EDITOR:

Lee Unkrich ’90

Tim Nielsen MFA ’99

The school’s earliest Academy Awardwinning film and one of its latest have more than just USC creators in common: They won in the Documentary (Short Subject) category. Here’s a look at two acclaimed films that bookend more than 65 years of cinematic arts excellence.

PRODUCER:

David Weiss MFA ’87

Tim Nielsen MFA ’99

THE AVENGERS (2012) AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018)

TITANIC (1997)

TALE OF TWO DOCUMENTARIES

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016)

SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR:

Addison Teague MFA ’02

VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR/WRITER:

John Knoll ’84 STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) WRITER/DIRECTOR:

Rian Johnson ’96 CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steve Yedlin ’96

JURASSIC WORLD (2015)

EDITOR:

Amanda Silver MFA ’89

Bob Ducsay MFA ’86

WRITER:

Plot Points In many places in the world, girls often have to drop out of school when they start menstruating. The film follows the story of a village in northern India where women acquired a machine that allows them to make sanitary pads so they don’t miss class or work during their periods.

Production Credits Los Angeles’ Oakwood School started what they dubbed the Pad Project to raise money to send a pad machine to an Indian village. Film director Rayka Zehtabchi ’16, cinematographer/editor Sam Davis ’16 and executive producers Helen Yenser MFA ’19 and Douglas Blush ’88 came on board to tell the village’s story.

Accolades “I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar,” Zehtabchi said during her acceptance speech. The film not only spotlighted women’s health, but also was picked up by Netflix, helping to spread its message worldwide.

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The USC School of Cinematic Arts has come a long way in nine decades.

1929 The film program launches Feb. 6 with the course “Introduction to Photoplay.” Actor Douglas Fairbanks is its first guest speaker.

1940 The new Department of Cinema moves into “the stables,” buildings that had housed the USC equestrian team’s horses.

1958 The nation’s first doctoral track in film studies launches. The program eventually becomes the Division of Cinema & Media Studies.

1965 The release of the low-cost Super 8mm camera paves the way for the true launch of 480—the school’s famed class for student films.

1978 USC offers 35 undergraduate and graduate courses focused solely on television.

L E T’ S

P L A Y

USC Games—a joint program beween the School of Cinematic Arts and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering—is widely recognized as the nation’s No. 1 game design program. Its students’ electronic game concepts garner awards and industry attention, often before their creators have graduated.

FIVE TRAILBLAZING GAMES FLOW Originally released for free by Jenova Chen MFA ’06, his thesis project was reworked for PlayStation in 2007. The game, which follows an aquatic organism as it swims and evolves in a surreal biosphere, customizes itself to a player’s skill level.

THE MISADVENTURES OF P.B. WINTERBOTTOM Players manipulate time to capture pies in this video game inspired by silent films. The thesis project from Matthew Korba MFA ’08 was released in 2010, earning raves for its clever puzzles and whimsical visuals.

NEVERMIND Developed by Erin Reynolds ’06, MFA ’12, Nevermind uses biofeedback to monitor a player’s stress.

The more anxious the player, the harder the game’s puzzles become, teaching players to be more aware of their internal responses.

OCTOBO This huggable blue octopus plush toy has a slot for a tablet that gives it an eye and a mouth. The thesis concept (now on Kickstarter)

by Yuting Su MFA ’16 combines a stuffed animal with a digital device, putting it into a new category of mixed-media play.

OUTER WILDS A space exploration game created by Alex Beachum MFA ’13 as a thesis project, it hit Xbox One in May. Players unravel a solar system’s mysteries as they try to outrun a supernova during a repeating time loop.

1983 The renamed USC School of Cinema-Television moves to five new buildings funded by George Lucas, Marcia Lucas, Randal Kleiser, David Wolper, Steven Spielberg, Johnny Carson and Jack Nicholson.

GAMES FOR GOOD

1991 Elizabeth Daley begins her tenure as the longest-serving dean at USC.

1994 The Division of Animation & Digital Arts launches, followed by the Division of Writing for Screen & Television (1995) and the Institute for Multimedia Literacy (1998), which teaches students across USC to communicate using cinematic tools.

2006 A gift from George Lucas establishes a state-of-the-art learning complex with filming and editing spaces. The school is renamed the USC School of Cinematic Arts, a nod to movingimage media that has extended beyond film and television.

2014 USC Games is established and quickly is recognized as one of the top game design programs in the country.

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Immersive video games like Fortnite have legions of fans. But some USC School of Cinematic Arts game design alumni now harness games’ eyepopping visuals to do more than entertain.

Interactive Media & Games product Susana Ruiz MFA ’06, PhD ’15 (pictured above) stands

among those using games to promote social good. “There is no reason that [games] can’t encompass big topics,” she said after the 2006 launch of her groundbreaking game Darfur is Dying. She developed the game about the Darfur refugee crisis as a grad student in cooperation with humanitarian aid workers. Players could step (virtually) into life in a Sudanese refugee camp and take real-world actions, such as petitioning Congress, as part of the game. Ruiz went on to found Take Action Games to push the boundaries of game design, activism and social justice.

Another graduate, Nonny de la Peña MCM ’09, PhD ’19, known as the “godmother of VR,” created Gone Gitmo and Project Syria to take viewers into a 3D rendition of news-making places. And game designer Lishan AZ MFA ’17 has created interactive narratives inspired by women of color. Players of The Commute navigate street harassment, and Tracking Ida explores the techniques of Memphis-based journalist Ida B. Wells as she investigated lynchings in the 1890s.

MORE THAN MOVIES

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is the only media school in the world that teaches all major disciplines of film, television and interactive media.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA DIVISION (FLOW); YUTING SU (OCTOBO); ERIN REYNOLDS (NEVERMIND); NETFLIX (PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE.) RUIZ PHOTO BY HUY TRUONG/TAKE ACTION GAMES. OPPOSITE PAGE: COPYRIGHT BY A.M.P.A.S. (DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS); TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (STAR WARS); COLUMBIA PICTURES CORP./PHOTOFEST (BOYZ N THE HOOD); HUGH M. HEFNER MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVE (MERRELL GAGE); MORNINGSIDE PRODUCTIONS (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS); UNITED ARTISTS (CHARLIE CHAPLIN); NBC/PHOTOFEST (JOHNNY CARSON); MILESTONE FILM & VIDEO (MARY PICKFORD); PARAMOUNT PICTURES (TITANIC).

FROM ZERO TO 90

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HEAVY HITTERS

Trojans make deals, make waves and make us laugh (or cry).

THE PRODUCERS

Many of television’s most binge-worthy hits are brought to you by Trojans.

“Starkies” aren’t employees of Iron Man Tony Stark’s tech empire.They’re graduates of the Peter Stark Producing Program, a master’s level boot camp that launches visionary creatives. These are just a few of the Starkies behind dozens of successful Hollywood projects.

Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice Credit these shows to creative mastermind Shonda Rhimes MFA ’94.

The Walking Dead Producer Angela Kang MFA ’09 keeps the audience guessing on who survives the zombie apocalypse.

Atlanta Director Hiro Murai ’06 follows two cousins navigating Atlanta’s rap scene in this comedy-drama.

Chef’s Table, Street Food Producer David Gelb ’06 documents the passion behind food.

Neil Moritz MFA ’85, Producer The Fast and the Furious series, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Green Hornet

Melissa Rosenberg MFA ’90, executive producer and writer Jessica Jones, the Twilight series, Dexter, The O.C. David Kramer MFA ’92, Co-president United Talent Agency Rawson Thurber MFA ’99, director and producer Dodgeball, We’re the Millers, Skyscraper

Stranger Things, Last Man Standing The dark drama and family sitcom are both from producer Shawn Levy MA ’94.

Tracy Oliver MFA ’10, writer Girls Trip, The First Wives Club, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

FUNNY YOU SAY THAT These comedic minds have spawned some of pop culture’s mostquoted catchphrases.

COPYRIGHT BY GAGE SKIDMORE (LEVY AND ROSENBERG). FROM TOP: FAIRBANKS PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY; ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE HUGH M. HEFNER MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVE. OPPOSITE PAGE: COPYRIGHT BY DUSTIN SNIPES (VR GAMER); ABC/PHOTOFEST (VIOLA DAVIS); MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT/WALT DISNEY PICTURES (AVENGERS); WALT DISNEY STUDIOS/PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS (FINDING DORY); UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (BRIDESMAIDS); DREAMWORKS SKG (SHREK); CHRIS MURRAY/UNSPLASH (CAMERAMAN IN RED, LEFT); JAKOB OWENS/UNSPLASH (CAMERAMAN, RIGHT).

MUST-SEE TV

MAKING HISTORY

Judd Apatow This writer and producer’s credits include Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Knocked Up, Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Big Sick.

Paul Feig ’84 The producer, writer and actor is known for his work on The Office, Bridesmaids and the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters.

Nahnatchka Khan ’94 She’s the writer and executive producer behind TV hit Fresh Off the Boat and film Always Be My Maybe.

Kyle Mooney ’07 The Saturday Night Live cast member also appeared on Arrested Development and in Zoolander 2.

USC in 2010 became the first university to train filmmakers in the art of comedy.

Want to learn more?

Visit cinema.usc.edu/ comedy.

WITH HONORS

Distinguished Alumni The Mary Pickford Foundation Alumni Award honors Trojan achievements in the industry.

Honorees include producer Susan Downey ’95, pictured right (Iron Man); director John Singleton ’90 (Boyz n the Hood); producer Stacey Sher MFA ’85 (Pulp Fiction) and producer Brian Grazer ’74 (A Beautiful Mind).

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(FROM TOP): DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS AT THE FIRST FILM CLASS; DEPARTMENT CHAIR BORIS MORKOVIN WITH STUDENTS CIRCA 1937; DEAN ELIZABETH DALEY AND DIRECTOR RON HOWARD; GEORGE LUCAS DURING HIS STUDENT DAYS; DIRECTORS TIM STORY AND JOHN SINGLETON

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REBECCA TROTZKY-SIRR IS FIGHTING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC ONE PATIENT AT A TIME.

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THE

HURT BLOCKER

Nearly 400,000 PEOPLE in America died from opioid overdose from 1999-2017. USC experts aim to stem the tide of the epidemic.

T

BY GREG HARDESTY • PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGG SEGAL

he doors to the emergency room swung open, and in walked Samuel.

Again.

The doctors and nurses in the emergency room at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center knew him too well. They also knew his desperation. He wanted more painkillers.

After a football injury in high school, Samuel had grown addicted to prescription pain pills. By his early 20s, he had moved on to heroin and ended up living on the street. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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On his first few visits to the ER, he was agitated and antsy, and often tried to fight with the staff.

And he asked the same angry question time after time.

“Why aren’t you giving me my pain medicine?”

It’s a story that plays out regularly in doctors’ office and clinics from rural America to big cities. Like ER doctors across the U.S., LAC+USC emergency physician Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr sees patients like Samuel every day—patients hooked on the euphoric, calming qualities of opioid drugs.

“There’s a big, not-surprising overlap between people who are experiencing a trauma or emergency who also are intoxicated or have a problem with substance abuse,” says Trotzky-Sirr, medical director of the LAC+USC Urgent Care Center. “The opioid crisis has made it even more common.”

Hundreds of thousands of people like Samuel live from dose to dose of opioids, whether they’re prescription tablets or injected heroin.

And scores are losing their lives.

Every day, 130 people die from opioid overdoses, according to a 2017 report by the usc trojan family

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history, prompting the federal government to declare it a national emergency.

State and national leaders are scrambling to get a handle on the crisis. USC faculty and health administrators are part of a national mobilization of experts who are tackling the problem on several fronts.

They’re seeking better ways to treat pain and control the administration of opioids, dissecting the science of addiction and searching for less-addictive medicines.

IN 2017, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DECLARED THE WIDESPREAD ABUSE OF OPIOID MEDICATIONS A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY. DECADES IN THE MAKING The crisis blew up in three distinct waves, according to medical experts and sociologists.

The first wave of opioid-related deaths goes back to the 1990s, when medications such as oxycodone were aggressively marketed to physicians with assurances that they posed a low risk of addiction—promises that proved wrong.

A second wave, beginning around 2010, resulted from growing heroin use. People who had become addicted to painkillers turned to heroin because it was cheaper and easier to get than prescription medicine.

The third wave began in 2013, when overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids spiked. These drugs include illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent.

By the time the nation awoke to the burgeoning crisis, a lot of damage had been done.

Now health professionals, researchers and first responders are “just trying to figure out how to get everyone the help they need and stop people from dying,” says pain management expert Melissa Durham, an associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the USC School of Pharmacy.

Sociologist Ricky Bluthenthal says that one of the reasons the opioid crisis exploded is because the painkillers are so readily available.

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“Some illicit drugs are geographically specific, but opioids are almost everywhere, regardless of where you live,” says Bluthenthal, a professor of preventive medicine and drug epidemiologist whose work on the effects of drug injections dates back to the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s. “This national component really distinguishes the opiate crisis from any other drug crisis that has happened.”

Another devastating distinction, Bluthenthal adds, is that addicts are in it for the long haul. Unlike methamphetamine, which addicts typically burn out on after five to six years, opioids often lead to a chronic, decades-long addiction.

PRESCRIBE CAREFULLY Durham established a pharmacist-run pain medication management clinic at the USC Pain Center in 2008, during a time when opioids were widely viewed as a standard option to treat chronic pain. Previously, prescribers mostly restricted these medications to patients with cancer or those recovering from surgery.

Today, the practice of prescribing opioids as the “go-to” therapy for chronic pain is changing in response to the crisis, Durham says.

U.S. prescribers also have clamped down on opioid prescriptions, writing 22 percent fewer in 2017 than in 2013. Anyone who writes an opioid prescription now must check a state tracking database.

At Keck Medicine of USC, health professionals are following new guidelines for prescribing opioids that aim to reduce risk and improve patient care. And for surgical patients, Keck Medicine has introduced initiatives for what’s called enhanced recovery after surgery, or ERAS, to reduce and even avoid opioid use. Led at USC by anesthesiologists Michael Kim and Carol Peden, the ERAS approach has seen promising results: Some surgical groups were able to cut their opioid prescriptions by 75% in only six months. Patients were less likely to have complications after surgery or be readmitted to the hospital, and they were able to go home from the hospital faster.

Being more careful about how and when opioids are prescribed is also a big concern for Lorraine Kelley-Quon, a pediatric surgeon at USC-affiliated Chil-

dren’s Hospital Los Angeles. She operates on young patients ranging from premature babies in emergency surgery to teens involved in car crashes, so she understands that children in pain have unique needs. She is working with the American Pediatric Surgical Association to create guidelines for prescribing opioids for children after surgery.

“If you look at the research literature, you could say that in the past few years, surgeons kind of woke up and said, ‘Hey, we’re giving too many opioids after surgery.

Maybe we can minimize that,’” she explains.

Patients might have certain characteristics that physicians should consider when deciding whether to prescribe them opioids, and for how long, Kelley-Quon says.

She is evaluating how behavioral health conditions, such as anxiety, depression and ADHD, may be tied to patients’ risk of opioid addiction after surgery.

“Doctors could say, ‘I have this kid with anxiety, I need to be very judicious about giving him opioids,’” she explains.

Computer scientist Yan Liu of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is working on stopping opioid addiction before it begins.

It’s a surprising project considering she’s an expert in artificial intelligence.

Applying sophisticated mathematical models to the electronic medical records of 150,000 patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Liu aims to sift through data to identify which patients are more likely to develop an addiction to opioid-based pain medication.

EVERY DAY, MORE THAN 130 AMERICANS DIE FROM OPIOID-RELATED OVERDOSES. The computer program would look for characteristics shared by people who are vulnerable to becoming addicted to opioids, giving doctors an important red flag before opioids are prescribed. And some scientists are developing genetic tests that can predict who’s likely to become addicted. summer 2019

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OPIOIDS ARE NEARLY EVERYWHERE, SAYS RICKY BLUTHENTHAL, AND THAT SETS THIS DRUG EPIDEMIC APART.

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ADAM LEVENTHAL SEES OPIOIDS AS PART OF A BIGGER CRISIS OF ADDICTION IN MODERN SOCIETY.

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One promising strategy to reduce opioid prescriptions focuses on ordinary doctors’ offices, where many of these prescriptions are written for routine pain.

In one study, Jason Doctor, a behavioral economist at the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, and Jonathan Lucas, chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County, found that doctors decreased opioid prescriptions by nearly 10% after being informed that a patient in their care had fatally overdosed. Doctor and Lucas examined a year of opioid-related deaths in San Diego County.

During that time, more than 860 doctors had prescribed opioids to 170 patients who later overdosed. San Diego County’s chief medical examiner subsequently sent a carefully worded letter to each physician that was supportive, not accusatory, in tone. In response, the physicians wrote fewer opioid prescriptions.

“Doctors need to know what’s happened to their patients, and that someone is paying attention, so they can help avoid deaths while they seek to alleviate pain,” Doctor and Lucas wrote in an opinion piece published in USA Today.

2.1 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE HAD AN OPIOID-USE DISORDER. NEED FOR RELIEF “This is the first time we’ve really had a drug-use epidemic that has started through the health care system,” says Bluthenthal, the drug epidemiologist. Concern about opioid addiction has curbed the availability of prescriptions so much that it has spurred a backlash: Some chronic pain patients who legitimately relied on the medicines find it difficult to get them anymore. Health experts acknowledge the difficulty of balancing the risk of addiction with their responsibility to be humane and ease pain.

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the need for USC researchers to develop alternative medications to ease pain—an effort that is part of an international quest to find drugs that work differently.

Last year, scientists from the Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience and colleagues made a major breakthrough toward new, nonaddictive medications. They discovered an opioid-based compound that activates a specific receptor tied to pain relief—but doesn’t activate receptors linked to opioids’ dangerous side effects. Such medicines would go straight to the site of pain, detouring the pleasure reward centers in the brain that spawn euphoria and drive people toward addiction.

“That’s the holy grail: coming up with a new medication that’s going to treat pain without getting people addicted,” says Adam Leventhal, professor of preventive medicine and psychology and director of the USC Health, Emotion & Addiction Lab. Experts know that finding better painkillers won’t fix the problem on its own. They also have to understand more about what causes addiction. That’s why USC has recognized and funded a growing collaboration on addiction science led

by Leventhal. It involves experts across USC, from pharmacy scientists to social workers. They’re starting new research projects and educational initiatives centering on addiction issues, including the opioid epidemic.

Humanity has a long history of addiction, Leventhal says, and society has gotten more sophisticated in getting people hooked on the next big thing.

“Opioids are part of a larger addiction crisis,” he says. “You’ve got new forms of commercialized cannabis, a youth nicotine vaping epidemic and a whole generation addicted to their smartphones.”

Leventhal says the differences in how individual brains are wired can vary drugs’ addictive qualities from person to person.

“For some, opioids can produce pain relief without much euphoria,” he says. “For others, opioids produce powerful euphoria and a sense of calm that can be difficult to cultivate naturally.”

Once addicted, many need medical help to break free.

NEARLY 80% OF HEROIN USERS REPORTED MISUSING PRESCRIPTION OPIOIDS PRIOR TO HEROIN. ROAD TO RECOVERY Health professionals have a variety of medications they can prescribe—in combination with counseling, physical therapy and occupational therapy—to try to wean patients off opioids. Prescribers are turning to low-dose naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist that is used to save people in the throes of an opioid overdose. And emergency medicine doctors like Trotzky-Sirr increasingly use buprenorphine, which reduces withdrawal symptoms when patients stop using opioids.

Treating substance abuse disorders has become a critical part of care at LAC+USC, Trotzky-Sirr says. The concept, still evolving, involves ER doctors seeing substance abuse disorders as diagnosable and treatable diseases. In the past, she says, ER doctors simply would refer patients to their primary care doctors for this type of care. But recent research suggests that patients who start their treatment for opioid abuse in the emergency room have a greater chance of sticking with their treatment.

For patients like Samuel, the former athlete treated by Trotzky-Sirr at LAC+USC, the emergency room became his doorway to sobriety.

His physicians gave him buprenorphine, which eased him off the grinding ups and downs of addiction. Within the first month after quitting heroin, he reconnected with his family.

In the second month, he showed up at an appointment with Trotzky-Sirr wearing a three-piece suit for a job interview scheduled for later that day.

“He was one of the most dapper patients I’ve ever seen,” she recalls.

Today, Samuel has a job, stable housing and a steady girlfriend. Trotzky-Sirr hopes the words he told her will become routinely heard at LAC+USC’s Urgent Care Center and in emergency rooms everywhere: “Thank you so much for saving my life. I feel like my old self.” usc trojan family

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I N TO T H E

G E N E R AT I O N S O F T R OJ A N S H AV E I N T R O D U C E D LO S A N G E L E S C H I L D R E N T O N AT U R E T H R O U G H A USC STUDENT LEGACY: TROY CAMP

BY

E RIC L INDBE RG

Wooden oars dip into chilly blue waters. Children run and shriek, darting around the towering pines of the San Bernardino Mountains. Vivid drawings come to life on sheets of sketching paper under the tips of crayons and markers.

Puffs of dust rise as horses meander along forest paths.

This is Troy Camp.

For 70 years, elementary school students from the neighborhood around USC’s University Park Campus have gone to a weeklong summer camp in the woods through Troy Camp, a program run by USC students. Although it began as a way to take city kids into nature, today participating children also receive mentoring and support from USC counselors and volunteers throughout the year—from elementary school through high school.

It’s a legacy so strong that it binds generations of student counselors who often cite Troy Camp as one of their favorite memories from their time at USC. Part of its enduring success comes from its culture: It grows out of a shared belief in the power of nature to inspire, and the commitment of members of the Trojan Family to encourage and protect the joys of childhood.

NAT U RE IN L . A .’S BACK YA RD Credit for launching Troy Camp rests with Otis Healy ’50, who first proposed taking kids from South Los Angeles to Southern California’s lakes and forests when he was a junior at what’s now known as the USC Marshall School of Business, back in 1948.

Healy returned last year—at age 91—to see the 21st-century version of his program.

“I have to be honest and say I’m very pleasantly surprised to see what it has become,” he says. “It’s evolved so much over time.” trojanfamily.usc.edu

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From top: Children ride horses—often for the first time—at Troy Camp. For many kids, camp is a chance to trade the noise of the city for mountain air and dandelions.

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Funds are raised by students through an annual gala, grant applications to initiatives like USC’s Good Neighbors Campaign and donations during football games—the “Pass the Can” effort known to so many USC fans. Other than a couple of faculty and alumni advisors, the program is still managed by USC students, matching Healy’s original vision.

“We wanted to keep it 100% student run,” he says. “No paid employees of any kind.”

It has stayed true to its roots. Last year, the event’s campsite was within a mile of Jenks Lake, the location of Healy’s original gathering.

When Healy brought the first group of campers—about 60 boys—into the forest a few hours east of Los Angeles, he was joined by seven or eight other counselors.

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A PL ACE TO PL AY Healy and a few other visitors watch as dozens of kids don life vests and clamber into metal canoes on Jenks Lake. Some stare warily over the sides, clutching their paddle to their chest until a camp counselor in the stern persuades them to swipe cautiously at the water. Others show no fear.

Along the shore, other children gather for a hike around the lake. Some splash watercolor paints on bright white paper.

Later, after a special barbecue lunch, the children head into the trees to practice yoga or play soccer. During a quick break in the shade, 9-year-olds Janet Guerra and Leah Popoca talk about their adventures.

“What I like about Troy Camp is how much fun I’m having and how many friends I have made and how we can all get along,” says Janet, a student from Menlo Avenue Elementary School. “My favorite part is arts and crafts, because I get to express myself. I made a dreamcatcher, and I think tomorrow we get to paint our little vases.”

Leah likes taking a dip in the heated pool, a luxury during chilly mornings before the fog burns off.

“Some of the pools up here are cold, but ours at Troy Camp is actually pretty warm,” she says. “And there are lots of toys to play with.”

Today she’s a student at Magnolia Avenue Elementary School, but Leah is already dreaming about coming back to the camp as a counselor one day.

“The counselors here make me feel like I’m at home and that I want to stay here longer,” she says. “I want some of the kids to feel the same way about me in a few years.”

In addition to more than 11,000 students who have gone through Troy Camp, thousands more have benefited from support offered throughout the year in schools around USC. In elementary school, students get help with homework and participate in activities from music to creative writing. By middle school, they’re taking part in community service projects.

Troy Camp volunteers also hold workshops for local high school students on topics like college applications, interviewing and

HISTORIC PHOTOS COURTESY OF TROY CAMP; 2018 PHOTOS BY ERIC LINDBERG

Now more than 80 counselors and volunteers, each of whom is known by a quirky nickname like “FireCat” or “Lunchbox,” lead the festivities. The camp is open to girls and boys, and 200 kids participate each year.

They spend six nights in bunkhouses divided by age and gender. For many of the young campers, it is their first time away from their parents for more than a day or two, and their first time out in nature. They stare up at the night sky full of stars and marvel at the massive evergreens surrounding the campsite.

“It’s so clear that they are so happy to be here, and there are always a few kids who say things that just melt your heart—like ‘I don’t ever want to leave, this is so fun, I just want my home to be Troy Camp,’” says Megan “Narwhal” Linderman ’17, MA ’18, who served as one of the group’s co-executive directors as she was finishing her master’s in occupational therapy. “It’s tiring, it’s demanding, but it is a blast and full of the most genuine joy.”

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public speaking. The programs are open to former campers and provided free of charge to about 700 kids each year.

C OM M U NI T Y C O N N E C T IO N S For Ariana “Custard” Torres, a camp participant who has returned as a counselor, the event represented a lot of firsts: her first horseback ride, her first swim in a lake, even her first snowfall.

“It was snowing in May,” she remembers. “I don’t even know how that was happening.”

Torres remained involved with the program over the years, receiving advice from her mentor during the challenging transition from middle school to high school. She eventually became a junior counselor while in high school, one of 10 former campers selected each year to return as camp volunteers. She has just finished her sophomore year at USC, where she studies anthropology.

“Troy Camp definitely was a turning point in my life, especially in high school,” Torres says. “I never saw myself becoming a USC student before, or even a camp counselor. Now to be that person the kids can look up to, it definitely motivates me to keep coming back.”

Julia “Rocky Road” Silva has a similar story. She first experienced Troy Camp as a fourth grader, then reunited with the organization as a high school sophomore. Thrilled by the increased responsibility and leadership skills she developed as a junior counselor, Silva—now a global health major at USC—returned as a full counselor.

“One of my kids was like, ‘Wow, you are our mom for the week,’” Silva says. “Having them feel like they could trust me like they would trust a family member or a parent, that’s really amazing.”

Because they each have spent nearly a decade involved with Troy Camp, Torres and Silva bring a unique perspective to the students they mentor. Beyond a certain level of familiarity with traditions like camp cheers, they can relate to their campers based on shared experiences.

“The best thing is having that connection with them on a deeper level,” Torres says. “We’re coming from the same community, from the same schools and the same cultural background.”

That gives Healy confidence Troy Camp will thrive well into the future. As he gets older, he’s not sure how much longer he will be up to making the 2½-hour drive into the mountains from his home in Newport Beach. But he can rest assured that his legacy will live on. His children also deeply support the camp.

For now, Healy enjoys his yearly glimpse into the world he helped create. It also gives him a chance to relish the simple joys of camp, such as helping plant a few evergreen saplings.

“I’ve been coming back to visit regularly for the past 10 years or so,” he says. “When you start something, you feel like you are part of it and want to stay a part of it.”

“ TO B E T H AT PERSON T H E K I DS C A N LO O K U P TO, I T D E F I N I T E LY M OT I VAT E S M E TO K E E P CO M I N G B AC K .”

Pictured left: Archery, canoeing and rope-climbing have long been part of the outdoor fun.

Below: Alumnus Otis Healy came up with the idea for Troy Camp more than 70 years ago. Countless kids have benefited.

A B R I G H T FUT U R E Troy Camp is still going strong more than 70 years after its start: It receives hundreds of applications for its 80-odd counselor positions each year and attracts Fulbright scholarship recipients, salutatorians and valedictorians as counselors. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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Hit the Road

with USC. 2019 USC Football Weekenders

Pack your cardinal and gold and join us this fall to cheer the Trojans to victory at BYU, Washington, Notre Dame, Colorado, Arizona State and Cal. Make your Weekender plans today at alumni.usc.edu/weekenders BYU 9.14.19 | Washington 9.28.19 | Notre Dame 10.12.19 Colorado 10.25.19 | Arizona State 11.9.19 | Cal 11.16.19

2019 USC Football Weekenders (Or, technically, cardinal) Join us for all the fun this fall, as we cheer the Trojans to victory at our oďŹƒcial Weekenders at XXX and XXX. Local alumni clubs will be hosting activities at xxx other away games at xxx and xxxx.

Make your Weekender plans today at alumni.usc.edu/weekenders BYU 8.31.19 | Washington 9.28.19 | Notre Dame 110.12.19 | Oregon 11.2.19 | Arizona State 11.9.19 | Cal 11.16.19

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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FA M I LY

PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN/USC ATHLETICS

HOLLYWOOD’S BAND If you assume the Spirit of Troy goes quiet during summer, think again. The Trojan Marching Band is slated to play at the Tchaikovsky Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl (complete with the “1812 Overture” and fireworks) on Aug. 9 and 10. For the latest on the group, visit uscband.usc.edu.

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Alumni Excellence The USC Alumni Association rolls out the red carpet for seven exceptional Trojans.

ASA V. CALL ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD The university’s most prestigious alumni award recognizes exceptional commitment to USC.

Kathleen L. McCarthy ’57 Chairperson, Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation

McCarthy, a USC trustee since 1986, serves as chairperson of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation, one of California’s largest and most influential philanthropic institutions. In honor of her numerous accomplishments, McCarthy Quadrangle on USC’s University Park Campus was dedicated to her in 2001. In 1994, the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library opened as the nation’s first major library designed to accommodate electronic information resources. In 2014, the foundation endowed the Kathleen L. McCarthy Honors College at USC Village. A proud alumna of the USC Rossier School of Education, McCarthy has received honorary degrees from USC, Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University.

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ALUMNI MERIT AWARDS This distinction celebrates accomplishments that reflect the range and quality of a USC education.

Sandra J. Evers-Manly ’81 President, Northrop Grumman Foundation; Vice President of Global Corporate Responsibility, Northrop Grumman

Evers-Manly oversees charitable giving; corporate citizenship; diversity and inclusion; and ethics and business conduct at Northrop Grumman. She helped found and develop the Northrop Grumman Foundation, which provides financial support for education, veterans and disaster relief. A passionate advocate for equal opportunity, the California native is a past president of the Beverly Hills and Hollywood chapter of the NAACP. She has been honored by numerous organizations, including the USC Black Alumni Association, Black AIDS Institute, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Industry Liaison Group and the March of Dimes.

Michael Nyman ’86 Founder and CEO, Acceleration Community of Companies

Nyman leads the Acceleration Community of Companies, a collective of specialized media and marketing agencies and an advisory service. Previously, he

oversaw the merger of Bragman Nyman Cafarelli (BNC) with the renowned entertainment agency PMK in the fall of 2009.

Within five years, PMK*BNC had doubled its revenue and represented nearly 1,000 entertainment and Fortune 500 clients and projects. Nyman has served on numerous boards over the years, including the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Board of Councilors.

YOUNG ALUMNI MERIT AWARD This award honors the achievements of an alumnus or alumna aged 35 or younger.

Kevin Xu ’11 CEO of MEBO International

Xu is head of MEBO International Inc., an intellectual property management company, and also serves as CEO of Skingenix, which develops drugs for organ regeneration. Xu was appointed to the California-China Trade and Investment Advisory Group by former California Gov. Jerry Brown, and is vice director of the Council of China’s Foreign Trade. He is a member of the international council of the Obama Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Forbes Nonprofit Council, the Fortune CEO Initiative and the Young Entrepreneur Council.

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

The Trojan Family gathered at the 86th Annual Alumni Awards gala to celebrate seven notable leaders who exemplify the Trojan spirit at its best. Honored for their noteworthy achievements and outstanding service, this year’s recipients are recognized for bringing distinction to the university.

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ALUMNI SERVICE AWARDS This recognition honors alumni’s volunteering efforts in service to the university.

Lloyd Greif MBA ’79 President and CEO, Greif & Co.; Founder, USC Marshall Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Herb ’58 and Kathy Goodman ’62 Emeritus Members, USC Athletics Board of Counselors

Inaugural members of USC Athletics Board of Counselors, the Goodmans served on the board until becoming emeriti in 2017. They have endowed USC men’s and women’s basketball scholarships and supported every USC Athletics capital project. Herb Goodman served as president of the Trojan Club of the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County for many years; he and Kathy Goodman became the liaisons representing the athletic department to all the Trojan Clubs. They attend every home basketball and volleyball game and have never missed a USC football game. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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An internationally recognized authority in the fields of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, Greif launched Greif & Co., a leading investment bank, in 1992.

USC honored him as Outstanding Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987 and Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998. He endowed the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business in 1997 and is chairman of the Greif Center’s Advisory Council. He is also a member of USC Marshall’s Board of Leaders and a former member of the USC Associates Board of Directors.

Top row, from left: Michael Felix, 201819 president of the USCAA Board of Governors; Sandra Evers-Manly; Kevin Xu; Patrick Auerbach, associate senior vice president for alumni relations. Bottom row, from left: Lloyd Greif; Herb and Kathy Goodman; Wanda Austin, USC interim president; Kathleen McCarthy; Michael Nyman

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family news

Flying High Meet three Trojans who are among the select few to serve with the legendary Blue Angels.

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retired and became president of the USC Naval ROTC (NROTC) Alumni League, he discovered a connection to the iconic group: Three are Trojans.

Ask Cliff Skelton ’78, Amy Tomlinson ’00 and Nate Scott ’07 what they loved most about being a part of the Blue Angels, and it’s not the action-packed maneuvers they mention, but instead, the squadron’s community impact. Each year, the team performs for 11 million spectators and visits thousands of people in schools, hospitals and retirement facilities.

“The Blue Angels provided a platform that allowed us to inspire people to be the best version of themselves,” Tomlinson says.

COMMANDER CLIFF SKELTON ’78

The summer before Skelton’s final year in the USC NROTC, he watched a Blue Angels show in Seattle. Now that would be an interesting job, he thought, as the aviators flew in formation over Lake Washington. Likely will never happen.

Fast-forward to graduation, when Skelton wasn’t accepted into medical school. While contemplating his future, he remembered the Blue Angels air show and decided on flight school. “The thought of that manifesting was just a dream,” he says.

His dream became reality in 1987.

To be eligible for the squadron, aviators must meet certain requirements,

PHOTO BY TIMOTHY SCHUMAKER, U.S. NAVY

The first time that Paul Alwine ’62 saw the Blue Angels in person, he was in awe. It was 1965, and the lieutenant junior grade Navy officer had just returned from Vietnam. As he watched the elite squadron’s daring maneuvers in the skies above Point Mugu, California, he had one thought: “These guys are unreal.”

The Blue Angels, the Navy’s premier flight demonstration squadron, have thrilled millions of spectators like Alwine since 1946. Through air shows and community outreach, the group showcases the pride and excellence of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Alwine became a fan, and when the Navy captain

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including a minimum of 1,250 flight hours. But Skelton emphasizes character as key. “You don’t get picked because you’re the best at what you do; they’ll train you to be the best,” he says. “You’re chosen because you’ll be a good teammate.”

Despite years of aviation experience, Skelton admits that flying with the Blue Angels was not second nature. “I had no idea how to fly upside down at 100 feet or fly 36 inches apart from wingtip to canopy.” At no point, though, do aviators ever get complacent.

“As you start gaining more confidence, altitude minimums are reduced,” Skelton says. In the Sneak Pass maneuver, a jet flies at a nail-biting 50 feet from the ground.

Skelton flew with the Blue Angels for three seasons and retired from the Navy after 21 years of service. Today, he is president of output solutions at Fiserv, a publicly traded financial services technology company.

COMMANDER AMY TOMLINSON ’00

Though the daughter of a Navy fighter pilot, Tomlinson never considered a military career until she attended USC. It was through relationships with fellow Trojans, including those she met at Alpha Delta Pi, that she learned about USC NROTC. “From the day I walked in the door, NROTC leadership was welcoming and encouraging, leading me to believe I could be successful.”

Awarded a three-year scholarship, the public relations major dove into the program. “It indoctrinated me into service, professionalism and a military way of life.”

After graduation, Tomlinson spent two years earning her wings as a naval flight officer. “As a weapons systems officer in fighter aircraft, my specialty was weapons, dropping bombs and shooting missiles, as well as navigation,” she says.

The first time she saw the Blue Angels in action, she felt awestruck and envious.

She immediately set her sights on applying for the team.

In 2009, Tomlinson became the first female aviator to join the Blue Angels trojanfamily.usc.edu

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and wear the signature blue suit. Because no weapons systems are used in air shows, Tomlinson was hired as the events coordinator in plane No. 8. “My public relations degree from USC was critical while serving on this very public team.”

Today, Tomlinson serves in the Navy Reserve and is a city council member in Pacific Grove, California. She’s finishing her MBA at Santa Clara University and is a motivational speaker. On the personal side, “I’m married to a Naval pilot and we’re raising two future Trojans.”

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER NATE SCOTT ’07

“As a kid, I dreamed of flying fighter planes,” Scott says. He was 5 when his father, a Navy Reserve officer, took him to see the Blue Angels perform in San Francisco. “I was mesmerized,” he says.

Afterward, Scott was photographed with pilot John Foley. That picture stayed on Scott’s wall straight through his USC years. “I attribute my life’s passion to that first air show experience and the memories behind that picture,” he says.

The fourth generation of his family to serve as a naval officer, he credits USC’s NROTC unit with helping him mature: “More than preparing me to be a war fighter, NROTC was an education in what it means to uphold the standard expected of all military officers.”

After graduation, Scott spent three years in flight training, eventually flying F/A-18 Hornets on and off aircraft carriers for several years before becoming an instructor pilot. In 2017, he was accepted to the Blue Angels.

“I got to don the famous blue suit and be a force for good, as we like to say,” Scott says proudly. During Scott’s two seasons with the Blue Angels, he had several full-circle moments, including flying over San Francisco for Fleet Week, in the very show he’d grown up watching. Another occurred at an Idaho airshow, where John Foley dropped by to introduce himself. “We actually met 27 years ago,” Scott told him, showing him his phone, where he had a copy of the photo they had taken together.

Currently, Scott is completing his last tour of active duty flying F-5 aggressor aircraft in Key West, Florida. BEKAH WRIGHT

T RU E B LU E The Blue Angels squadron comprises eight pilots who are each assigned to a plane position that has a specific role. The No. 1 plane is flown by the Blue Angels’ commanding officer, who must have 3,000 tactical flight hours. Jet pilots with a minimum of 1,250 tactical flight hours are eligible for planes 2 through 7. While the first six planes perform, the No. 7 pilot provides the narration during flight demonstrations. In position No. 8 is the events coordinator, a naval flight officer or a weapons systems officer who meets the same tactical flight criteria but does not perform in air shows.

Commander Cliff Skelton 1987 – 1989 (3 seasons) PLANE POSITIONS: No. 5 (lead solo) No. 6 (opposing solo) No. 7 (narrator)

Commander Amy Tomlinson 2009 - 2010 (2 seasons) PLANE POSITION: No. 8 (events coordinator)

Lieutenant Commander Nate Scott 2017 - 2018 (2 seasons) PLANE POSITIONS: No. 3 (left wing) No. 4 (slot pilot)

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family news

A Steady Hand USC Alumni Association Board of Governors President Corii Berg sees opportunities for USC to strengthen connections with alumni and build on values.

Getting a big promotion at work is usually cause for celebration. But when Corii Berg ’89 was tapped for his frst important global leadership position a decade ago, the lawyer hesitated.

Worried he didn’t have enough experience in the area, he considered turning down the offer. Then a mentor gave him a piece of advice: You might never know as much as the people working for you, and that’s OK. Those words changed his approach to managing others.

“There is so much talent, intelligence and passion out there,” Berg says. “To me, a big part of leadership is about surrounding yourself with smart, hard-working people, treating them with respect and giving them the space to do their thing.”

That mindset has served him well during his successful career in the entertainment industry, most recently as general counsel of Lionsgate Entertainment. And it’s the same strategy he adopted for his newest leadership role: the 96th president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors.

As the university undergoes transition and growth, he sees opportunities for USC to reflect on its values and strengthen its connections with alumni. And he vows to rely on others for guidance and support.

“I sincerely want everyone around me to be smarter than I am,” he says. “It’s the best way to accomplish great things, and it helps me and others learn. I want people with confdence and know-how who are prepared to tell me where things can improve.”

Berg frst learned team-building skills as editor of his high school newspaper in San Diego. As a USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism alumnus, he recalls late nights at the Daily Trojan and commiserating with fellow broadcast majors about their basement studio.

“It was pretty dark, pretty dank,” he

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says. “But I wouldn’t take any of it back. It was all part of the experience.”

Berg was primed for an investigative reporting career, which he knew could take him anywhere in the country. But then he met the love of his life at USC—his wife, Cari Berg ’89—and she was staying in L.A. Rethinking his options, he switched to law, where he could still fulfll his passion for factfnding and truth-seeking, and graduated cum laude from Loyola Law School.

Drawn to the excitement of Hollywood, he started at Sony Pictures and steadily climbed the industry ranks. As Lionsgate’s most senior legal and business affairs executive, Berg has no typical day: From launching joint ventures to reviewing

flm footage, he stays on top of litigation and all business matters.

Along the way, the Bergs built a loving family: son and USC junior Eben, daughter Elli and son Aric. As he became more settled in his work and family life, Berg began thinking about giving back to his alma mater. What started as philanthropic donations led to leadership roles with USC Annenberg’s alumni advisory board and then the USC Alumni Association.

“It was the right place and right moment for me to become re-engaged and give back to an institution that gave me so much,” he says. “It felt more than right—it felt like something I needed to do, wanted to do and was excited to do.” ERIC LINDBERG summer 2019

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What Will Your Trojan Legacy Be? Educator Nancy Stephenson Guenther MA ’63, PhD ’79 and her late husband, nationally renowned science teacher Alfred Walter Guenther MA ’63, were always fascinated by how the brain works.

To help researchers unravel more of the brain’s mysteries, they made an estate gift to endow an academic chair in molecular neuroscience at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

“Our gift combines three loves— education, neuroscience and USC. We’re honored to support the university’s interdisciplinary education and research efforts.”

Nancy Stephenson Guenther

To create your Trojan legacy, contact the USC Office of Gift Planning at (213) 740-2682 or giftplanning@usc.edu. Please visit us online at www.usc.edu/giftplanning. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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It’s time for your...

If you earned your undergraduate degree in 1969, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004 or 2009, it’s your year to come back to campus for Reunion Weekend 2019 on October 18-19―to see old friends, experience Homecoming, and relive your USC memories.

For details, registration and reunion class giving information, visit reunions.usc.edu or call (213) 740-6262.

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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family class notes 1 9 5 0 s

Bill Owen ’53 (SCJ) published his 11th book, Do You Remember? The Visual History of Early Radio and TV. 1 9 6 0 s

Paul Cummins MS ’63 (GRD), PhD ’67 (LAS) published Voice and Verse: Joys & How-To’s of Teaching, Reading & Writing Poetry.

Marty Piscovich ’65 (BUS) celebrated the 41st anniversary of Yogurt Park. His shop in Berkeley, California, was one of the frst frozen yogurt stores in the United States.

TILSON THOMAS PHOTO BY CHRIS WAHLBERG; KING PHOTO BY AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

Morten Lauridsen ’66, MA ’68, DMA ’74 (MUS), a National Medal of Arts recipient, released Light Eternal: The Choral Music of Morten Lauridsen.

Michael Tilson Thomas ’67, MM ’76 (MUS), a Judge Widney Professor of Music at USC, received a Grammy nomination for Best Orchestral Performance for his work as conductor of the San Francisco Symphony’s album Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1- 4.

1 9 7 0 s

Doug Shinsato ’70 (LAS), MBA ’72 (BUS), CEO of Heyou Media, a digital media company, served on the board of regents of the University of Hawaii. He has published two books: For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, the Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor and 101 Lesser Known Facts About the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

William Cecil ’72 (ARC) retired as the city of Coronado’s capital projects manager.

He was responsible for the design and construction of more than 60 city projects, including the city hall building and the Spreckels Center.

Sheri Swanson JD ’85 (LAW) published Honey, the Dog Who Saved Abe Lincoln.

Christine Klotz ’72, GCRT ’73 (LAS) published All-In Caregiving: A Guide for the Care of Aging Parents, designed for nonprofessional caregivers.

Craig Merrihew ’74 (LAS), DDS ’79 (DEN), a fellow and master with the Academy of General Dentistry, received the group’s Lifelong Learning and Service Recognition Award in 2018.

Michael Lawler ’75 (LAS) was elected president of the Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles. He has visited 120 countries, climbed the Matterhorn, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Nepal’s Kala Patthar, and in 2010 completed a three-year circumnavigation of the globe on his 47-foot sailboat, Traveler.

Marcy Miroff Rothenberg MA ’77 (SCJ), author of Ms. Nice Guy Lost – Here’s How Women Can Win, blogs about politics and women’s issues at DemWrite Press.

Peter Rosen MPA ’78 (SPP), JD ’78 (LAW) joined Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services in Los Angeles as an arbitrator and mediator in a variety of practice areas, including business/commercial, construction, cybersecurity and privacy.

1 9 8 0 s

Samlal Rambissoon MD ’71 (MED) published Diabetes Nutrition and Electronic Medicine.

Dana Deasy ’81 (BUS) was appointed chief information officer for the Department of Defense, where he serves as the primary advisor to the defense secretary for matters relating to information technology and telecommunications. He has more than 35 years of experience leading large-scale IT strategies and projects.

Nader Uskowi ’71 (LAS) published Temperature Rising: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Wars in the Middle East.

Steven Johnston ’82 (LAS), who is the Neal A. Maxwell Presidential Chair in Political Theory, Public Policy, and Public

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Service in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, published his ffth book, Wonder and Cruelty: Ontological War in It’s a Wonderful Life.

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Michelle E. King The first African American woman—and 11th Trojan—to lead the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Michelle E. King EdD ’17 set ambitious goals for the nation’s second-largest school system.

During her brief administration, she raised graduation rates, advanced STEM and bilingual education and oversaw the launch of two all-girls schools, with an emphasis on math and science at one and athletic leadership at the other.

King was a native of Los Angeles who attended LAUSD schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. She graduated from Palisades High School during the years of court-ordered busing to reduce segregation.

After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA and Pepperdine University, respectively, she returned to LAUSD to teach middle school science.

In 1997 she began her ascent through the district’s ranks, serving in roles that included principal and senior deputy superintendent.

After a national search in 2016, she was selected as superintendent, becoming the first LAUSD alumna in a decade to take on the leadership role.

As superintendent, King juggled student life while she earned her doctorate in educational leadership at the USC Rossier School of Education, never missing a day of class.

She had been on the job for only two years when she stepped down to undergo medical treatment. She died on Feb. 2 at age 57, and is survived by three daughters, her parents and her brother.

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family class notes

Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.

Joe Alvare ’87 (BUS) is the claims manager in the USC Office of Risk Management and Insurance.

2 0 0 0 s

Rosa Bravo ’87, MS ’92 (ENG) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Great Minds in STEM at its annual Hispanic Engineers National Achievement Awards conference.

Joel Rane MPW ’89 (LAS) was promoted to campus librarian at West Coast University–Orange County.

1 9 9 0 s

Mark Yablonka MPW ’90 (LAS) published Vietnam Bao Chi: Warriors of Word and Film, a book about combat correspondents who served in uniform during the Vietnam War. Clifford Blakely ’92 (LAS), JD ’95 (LAW) was appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court bench by former California Gov. Jerry Brown. He has served as an Alameda County deputy public defender since 2014.

Lansing McLoskey MM ’92 (MUS), a professor of music composition at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, received the Best Choral Performance Grammy Award for his album Zealot Canticles: An Oratorio for Tolerance.

Keith Outwater ’92 MS (ENG) is an engineering fellow at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona.

Amy Byer Shainman ’92 (LAS) published her memoir, Resurrection Lily, about living with the BRCA gene, which is associated with cancer risk.

Lisa Gilford JD ’93 (LAW) was named to the 2019 Most Influential Minority Attorneys in Los Angeles list in the Los Angeles Business Journal. She is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP and focuses on class action, products liability law and jury trials.

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Kristan Venagas ’94 (LAS), MS ’00, PhD ’04 (EDU) is the LaFetra Endowed Chair for Teaching, Education and Excellence at the University of La Verne’s LaFetra College of Education, where she is a tenured professor and associate dean of faculty.

Derek Hyde ’95 (ENG) brings more than 20 years of experience in IT consulting and software development to his new role as vice president of information technology for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Brooke Procida ’95 (DRA) is the owner of Studio PCI, a production company that creates original works and offers networking events and industry representation opportunities for stage, TV and film. She is currently working on LymeLight Journey, a docu-series about Lyme disease and chronic illness.

Jason Ginsburg ’96 (DRA) published If The Princess Rolls Her Eyes, Your Wish Will Come True, based on his popular Twitter account that satirizes the theme park industry. He co-wrote the fantasyadventure film The Sorcerer Beast, which stars Corey Feldman and is slated for release in 2020. He also is the senior digital producer for the Discovery Channel.

Mary McDonough “Mick” Brady MFA ’96 (SCA) published her first novel, The Darkest Eyes, a science-fiction adventure.

Jennifer Seifert ’97 (DRA) produced three CRxEATIVITY festivals, which combine visual art, films and storytelling at her art studio and courtyard in Altadena, California.

Alisha Seaton ’98 (DRA) appeared in an episode of Criminal Minds and was nominated in the Best Actress category for the Independent Shorts Awards.

Nolberto Delgadillo ’99 (LAS) is chief financial officer for Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma.

Norm E. Oshiro MBA ’99 (BUS) published Individual Performer to Manager.

Erin Hellige George ’00 (BUS) is a partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group.

Reyna Gordon ’01 (MUS), a member of one of the first cohorts of USC Renaissance Scholars in 2001, received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Research Award to fund biomedical research projects studying the ties among musical rhythm skills, health traits and childhood development. She directs the Music Cognition Lab at Vanderbilt University.

Yuri Anderson ’02 (LAS) was elected to the Monterey Peninsula Community College District Governing Board of Trustees. She will represent about 27,000 residents on the five-person board.

Fernando Gaytan JD ’02 (LAW) is deputy director of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, where he provides strategic leadership and management for the organization’s program planning, development, budget and financial oversight.

Jennifer Arthur ’04 (SSW) published Souls by the Sea, a novel about love and homelessness.

Michele K. Brigida ’05 (ARC) is a principal of Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects, a Las Vegas-based architecture and interiors firm for public and private projects in 41 states, including the Zappos headquarters and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.

E. Carlos Dominguez JD ’05 (LAW) received the California Attorney General Award for his contributions to Los Angeles, including providing legal assistance to abuse victims through the Domestic Violence Project.

Melvin L. Felton ’05 (SCJ), recognized by the National Bar Association for legal excellence, joined Sanders Roberts LLP. John Maxwell III ’05 (LAS) is president of Intertel, an international society whose members have received scores in the 99th percentile on standardized IQ exams. summer 2019

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A LU M N U S

P R O F I L E

J E F F

S TO N E

P H A R M D

Prescription for Change

PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

A California state senator draws on his pharmacy background to deliver better health care policy.

Even after 26 years as a politician, Jeff Stone PharmD ’81 considers himself a pharmacist first. The California state senator champions health care issues as one of only five medical professionals—and the only pharmacist—in the legislature.

He grew interested in the business of healing at a young age. When Stone was 5 or 6, he saw a boy about his age with leg braces come into his grandfather’s shoe store. The boy had polio, Stone’s grandfather explained, and would never again walk unaided.

“I asked, ‘Why can’t they just give him a pill and

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make him better?’” Stone remembers. “My grandfather said: ‘Well, they don’t make that pill yet. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity I didn’t have to get an education and one day help discover a cure.’”

Inspired, Stone knew he would go into health care.

Two years after earning his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the USC School of Pharmacy, Stone opened his first small pharmacy in Temecula, California. “I moved here because I wanted to have a Cheers kind of relationship with my customers, where people walked in and you knew their name,” he says, refer-

’8 1

encing the classic television series set in a Boston bar. “I wanted to be part of a community—to be the community pharmacist.”

After attending a city council meeting to urge action against rampant graffiti, Stone decided to run for a seat in 1992. “According to the Gallup poll, pharmacists are the most respected profession out there, year after year,” Stone notes.

He won, and ended up serving 12 years on the city council. Then he was voted to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. “I was the board appointee to the county hospital, which was struggling,” he says, recalling one of his proudest accomplishments.

“I was able to help turn that hospital around into a profitmaking entity that expanded clinical pharmacy programming and saw pharmacists doing rotations with physicians.”

In 2014, he was elected to California’s state senate in newly redrawn District 28, which

includes Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Palm Springs.

The Republican prides himself on being involved in bipartisan efforts to benefit patients.

He teamed with a Democrat, Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, to co-author a drug takeback bill that went into effect in 2016. The legislation allows people to drop off unused pharmaceuticals in specially designed storage containers. He also has co-authored laws that make it tougher for juveniles to buy tobacco products.

“The goal for all of us is to work collaboratively in the best interest of the patient and to deliver better health care,” he says.

As Stone works on legislation promoting health care and other priorities, he remains true to his roots. “I’m a pharmacist first, politician second,” he says. “If I had a choice of being one or the other, I would have stayed a pharmacist.”

SUSAN WAMPLER

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family class notes

Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.

Alison Peck ’05 (SCA) premiered her animated feature flm UglyDolls, which stars Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas and Janelle Monáe.

2 0 1 0 s

Olivia Graf Doyle ’06 (ARC) is design principal of Architecture for Education, an architecture frm responsible for the design of more than 100 schools across the western United States.

Oscar Rene Gutierrez ’06 (LAS/SCJ), a personal injury trial lawyer and president of the Mexican American Bar Association of Los Angeles County, was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Elise Lamm ’06 (SCJ) celebrated the 15th anniversary of the nonproft Yorba Linda Spotlight Theater Company, which she launched during her freshman year at USC. The company has grown from producing one show every summer for youth performers to offering year-round classes, camps and performance opportunities.

Carolyn Woodson JD ’06 (LAW) is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Jones Day. She represents clients in high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts.

Patrick James Cavanaugh ’07, MA ’09 (SCJ) is director of digital engagement at USTelecom–The Broadband Association in Washington, D.C. Rosina Lozano MA ’07, PhD ’11 (LAS) published An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States.

Jonathan Lyons MD ’07 (MED), chief of the Translational Allergic Immunopathology Unit at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was named a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar.

Jonathan Watanabe PharmD ’07 (PHM) is in the inaugural class of the National Academy of Medicine’s Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine program. He authored the report “Making Medicine Affordable: A National Imperative” from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

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Elissa Weinzimmer ’07 (DRA/LAS), founder of Voice Body Connection, launched the new course “Release Your Voice” for performers or professionals who are suffering from muscle tension and vocal fatigue.

Jonah Ansell MFA ’08 (SCA) premiered his animated flm Moose, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kathy Bates, at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Sunita Bali JD ’10 (LAW) is a partner in the San Francisco office of Perkins Coie and represents technology, food and retail clients in consumer class action disputes and other commercial litigation matters.

Ludwig Göransson GCRT ’08 (MUS) won three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, for his collaboration on Childish Gambino’s This Is America. He won the Academy Award for Best Score for Black Panther, becoming the frst artist to win Song of the Year and Best Score for projects in different genres.

Phil Kong ’08 (DRA) was the associate lighting designer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of Cambodian Rock Band and light designer for the Bonnaroo and Outside Lands music festivals. He was also art director for Khalid’s 2018 Teen Choice Awards performance.

John Daversa DMA ’09 (MUS) received three Grammy nominations for the John Daversa Big Band’s album American Dreamers: Voices Of Hope, Music Of Freedom, featuring USC faculty member Paul Young on trombone.

Sallie Kim MS ’09 (PHM) and her husband, Lorenzo Nicastro, launched Healthy Innovative Products, a health and wellness company that introduced its frst skin care product, Lova Naturals Beauty Repair.

Derek Lazzaro JD ’09 (LAW) is chief information officer at Lewis Brisbois. He is currently a planning commissioner for the city of Palos Verdes Estates and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ working group on technology and innovation.

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Yang Ho Cho USC Trustee Yang Ho Cho MBA ’79 helped realize a family dream by completing the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles, deemed the tallest building west of the Mississippi when it was unveiled in 2017. The 73-story building was built on real estate purchased by the Cho family in 1989.

Cho began working at Korean Air in 1974 as a manager in its Americas Regional Headquarters in Los Angeles and gradually rose through the corporate ranks to become president in 1992.

Seven years later, he became the airline’s chairman and CEO. In addition to leading major international transportation companies Korean Air and Hanjin Transportation, Cho oversaw Hanjin Group, a global conglomerate featuring dozens of transportation and logistics companies. He also spearheaded South Korea’s successful bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and reshaped the skyline of Los Angeles with his Wilshire Grand Center redevelopment project.

Cho served for 22 years on the USC Board of Trustees, and his children, two brothers, sister and cousin are all Trojans. The Cho family has given back to USC by endowing scholarships and supporting the creation of the USC Korean Heritage Library. Cho also funded USC education and research initiatives in South Korea and endowed the Choong Hoon Cho Chair in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Cho died April 7. He is survived by his wife, Myung-Hee; son, Walter MBA ’06; and daughters, Heather MBA ’07 and Emily ’07.

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A LU M N A

P R O F I L E

P O C K E T

Venture Forth

ILLUSTRATION BY MERYL ROWIN

As head of a venture capitalist firm, Pocket Sun builds a more diverse, inclusive future, one entrepreneur at a time.

Pocket Sun MS ’15 doesn’t believe in jet lag.

That’s why when she calls from Singapore, where she’s based, she says she feels just fine after a long trip from the U.S. There’s something else the 27-year-old founder of SoGal Ventures questions: the status quo.

That’s one of the reasons Sun has risen as an entrepreneur. She turned what began as a USC student meetup for female entrepreneurs into what’s now a diverse global network and an investment fund. She’s also breaking both sides of the venture capital mold—who gives the money and who gets it.

Sun, who grew up in China, moved to the U.S. to study business administration

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at the College of William and Mary. After a short stint in the corporate marketing world, she began USC’s master’s program in entrepreneurship and innovation in 2014. It was there that she fell in love with entrepreneurship. It was also there—where nearly all of the speakers in her classes were male—that she realized entrepreneurship had a gender parity problem. “I just thought women entrepreneurs were like unicorns. They didn’t exist,” she says.

It spurred her to create SoGal, a USC student group for young women who had big ideas but needed role models. Its events drew crowds. After hearing the stories of so many female entrepreneurs, Sun realized one thing: They all needed money. So she enrolled in a venture capital program at Stanford to learn about investing.

While there, she had another wakeup call. She asked a male speaker why there were so few female entrepreneurs and investors. “The super angel [investor] said, ‘The industry isn’t going to change for your benefit, so if you want something to happen, you better do it yourself.’”

She threw herself into learning the ins and outs of setting up a fund, including the legal, tax and accounting parameters.

Teaming up with Stanford classmate Elizabeth Galbut, who had founded a venture capital fund at Johns Hopkins University, Sun launched SoGal Ventures, which describes itself as the first millennial female-led venture capital firm.

Since January 2017, SoGal Ventures has invested $4 million and currently has a portfolio of 19 diverse, femaleled companies. The percentage of its companies moving on to new funding at higher valuations beats the industry average by more than two times. “This proves that investing in women and diverse founders is very lucrative,” Sun says. The original SoGal network is now SoGal Foundation, a nonprofit arm with more than 100,000 community members and chapters in cities from Tokyo to Berlin.

Sun considers these milestones just the beginning. “We are now galvanizing millennial women to be at the center for entrepreneurship and venture capital. We want them to start companies, we want them to invest in startups and VC funds and live on their own terms,” she says. “Investing in venture capitalism is like building a utopia because you’re investing in the future. And we’re investing in an ideal world for our future daughters.” LISA BUT TERWORTH

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family class notes

Sunny Yang MM ’10, GCRT ’12 (MUS), cellist for the Kronos Quartet, won a Grammy award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance for the string ensemble’s album Landfall.

Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx ’11 (DRA) is director of cultural programming at A Noise Within. He directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at After Hours Theatre Company, receiving nominations for L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation and Stage Raw Theatre awards. He also directed the world premiere of How We’re Different from Animals at the ELAN Ensemble.

Steven Economou MBA ’12 (BUS), JD ’12 (LAW) joined Blank Rome LLP’s Los Angeles ofce in the finance, restructuring and bankruptcy group.

Milana Grozdanich ’12 (LAS) is a brand manager for diabetes marketing at Eli Lilly and Company.

Icela Pelayo PhD ’12 (EDU) is acting deputy secretary for teaching and learning in the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Ryan Shoemaker PhD ’14 (LAS) published his debut short-story collection, Beyond the Lights.

Tara Campbell ’15 (LAS/ SCJ), GRT ’16, MPA ’16 (SPP) was elected mayor of Yorba Linda, California, making her the nation’s youngest-ever female mayor of a city with a population of 30,000 or more.

Tabitha Donohue MSW ’15 (SSW) is a child advocacy specialist at the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs in Olympia, Washington.

Kimberli Flores MFA ’15 (DRA) played Tania Del Valle in Native Gardens at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. She

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had a recurring guest star role on Daredevil and guest starred on Chicago P.D. and Blue Bloods.

Naama Melumad GCRT ’15 (MUS) was nominated for two Hollywood Music in Media Awards in the category of Best Score in an Independent Film for Miss Arizona and Best Score in a Short Film for Passage.

B I R T H S

Jaime Colmenares ’95 (BUS) and Cecily Olson ’99 (SCJ), a son, Alex Nicholas.

Gary Weston Jr. ’99 (LAS) and Katherine Desilets Weston ’99 (LAS), a son, Aaron Patrick.

Robert Knecht Schmidt ’00, MS ’01 (ENG) and Fei Li, a son, Lucas William.

Juan Carlos “JC” Cruz MSW ’16 (SSW) was elected to the California Democratic Party executive board to represent Assembly District 51, which includes east and northeastern Los Angeles.

Abby Hornacek ’16 (SCJ) is a lifestyle, sports and travel host for Fox Nation.

Radha Jhatakia MCG ’16 (SCJ) is managing editor for Brown Girl magazine and program manager of content for Grace Hopper Celebration, the largest conference for women in tech.

Danielle Kisner ’16 (DRA) is a stage technician for Stanford Live, which presents performances at venues including the Frost Amphitheater and Bing Concert Hall.

Brandee Sosa MSW ’18 (SSW) is a social worker at Pacific Clinics’ portals division in Los Angeles.

M A R R I A G E S

Oscar Rene Gutierrez ’06 (LAS/SCJ) and Breanna Carter.

Kamala Kirk ’11 (SCJ) and Eric Schrager.

Gavin Garrison MFA ’12 (SCA) and Ashleigh Allam.

Oscar Macias EdD ’14 (EDU) and Sandra E. King.

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Garry Paskwietz Known as Garry P or GP to those who knew him, Garry Paskwietz was the voice of USC football for many Trojan fans.

Paskwietz began covering USC in 1996 with the Trojan Football Fax. In 1998, he founded WeAreSC.com, pioneering online coverage of USC football and establishing an online community for Trojan fans.

A multiple Emmy winner for his coverage of high school football at Fox Sports West, Paskwietz also guided WeAreSC through affiliations with Scout.com and ESPN.com before embarking on an independent route.

He served as a regular contributor on USC’s popular pregame football radio show and shared his Trojan football expertise with local and national media.

Paskwietz often provided mentoring, internships and work experience for aspiring broadcasters and journalists. He helped launch several careers in sports and served as inspiration for countless others. A popular speaker at USC alumni clubs and other functions, he always found time to talk USC football with anyone who asked, which often included current and former players and coaches, as well as many USC alumni.

Paskwietz died Jan. 20. His legacy at WeAreSC.com will be carried on by his staff, friends and family. He is survived by his mother, Kathy; sister, Kami; brothers, Clark and Ryan; and nieces and nephews.

CAMPBELL PHOTO BY KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTRAR, SCNG

Anne Gillman ’10 (LAS) joined the U.S. Foreign Service as an economic ofcer and serves at the U.S. embassy in The Hague, Netherlands.

Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.

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family class notes Colin McQuay ’09, MBA ’16 (BUS) and Annelise (King) McQuay ’08 (LAS), a son, Maxwell Colin.

Michael Godett ’64 (LAS), JD ’68 (LAW) of Long Beach, California; Sept. 13, 2018, at the age of 77.

Marlene (Ferido) Miguel MSW ’16 (SSW) and Kenneth Miguel, a son, Zachary Miles.

Dennie Van Tassel ’65 (LAS) of Kirkland, Washington; Sept. 8, 2018, at the age of 79.

I N

John Ernest Zazzaro ’65 (EDU) of Coto de Caza, California; Oct. 31, 2018, at the age of 76.

M E M O R I A M

Daniel Kaufmann ’39 (LAS), LLB ’46, LLM ’55 (LAW) of Los Angeles; Nov. 26, 2018, at the age of 100.

Betty Rollo ’42 (BUS) of Fullerton, California; May 2, 2019, at the age of 98.

Nicholas Gyopyos ’48 (BUS) of Whittier, California; Dec. 25, 2018.

Robert Gobrecht ’73, MBA ’75 (BUS) of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Nov. 11, 2018, at the age of 67.

Richard Lee August JD ’74 (LAW) of Malibu, California; Jan. 10, 2019, at the age of 71.

Samuel Lipson LLB ’48 (LAW) of Los Angeles; Jan. 9, 2019, at the age of 100.

Kenneth Dean Holland ’50, LLB ’51 (LAW) of Grapevine, Texas; Sept. 16, 2017, at the age of 91.

Abdulghani Hasan Abdul-Ghani MS ’78 (GRD), PhD ’80 (LAS) of Dallas, Texas; Nov. 30, 2018, at the age of 72.

Art Mazmanian ’51, MS ’70 (EDU) of San Dimas, California; March 22, 2019, at the age of 91.

Stephen Arthur Gothold DMA ’78 (MUS) of Los Angeles; Dec. 5, 2018, at the age of 76.

Virginia Woolley ’53 (BUS) of Boise, Idaho; March 3, 2019, at the age of 87.

Edward J. Huck MS ’81 (ENG) of Torrance, California; Nov. 2, 2018, at the age of 62.

John T. Condon MS ’55 (EDU) of Phoenix, Arizona; April 19, 2017, at the age of 94.

Maria Alexandra Jaque ’81, MM ’83 (MUS) of Hermosa Beach, California; Sept. 12, 2018, at the age of 58.

Keith G. O’Brien ’59, LLB ’62 (LAW) of Oakton, Virginia; Feb. 9, 2019, at the age of 81.

David G. Berg ’60 (BUS) of Long Beach, California; Oct. 8, 2018, at the age of 79.

Joseph R. Henderson ’63 (LAS) of Santa Paula, California; May 16, 2018, at the age of 76.

Mary Van Harn MS ’63 (BPT) of Holland, Michigan; Dec. 14, 2018, at the age of 88.

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FA C U LT Y A N D F R I E N D S

Blase Bonpane of Los Angeles; April 8, 2019, at the age of 89.

Ralph Fertig of Los Angeles; March 28, 2019, at the age of 89.

Michael Keston of Encino, California; Feb. 9, 2019, at the age of 79.

John Petruska of Los Angeles; Feb. 14, 2019, at the age of 86.

L E G E N D

LAS

Richard Vernon Meese ’77 (SCJ) of Long Beach, California; July 21, 2018, at the age of 63.

Barbara Ives ’58 (EDU) of Pasadena, California; Aug. 6, 2018, at the age of 81.

Obituaries of Trojan Family members appear online at news.usc.edu/tributes. Please submit obituaries to classnotes@usc.edu.

David Arellanes ’82 (LAS) of Montrose, California; Aug. 2, 2018, at the age of 59.

Kurt Michael Foley ’84 (SCA) of Warwick, Rhode Island; Oct. 28, 2018, at the age of 57.

Jon Huntley ’90 (BUS), MFA ’97 (SCA) of Burbank, California; Dec. 8, 2018.

Laura Jean Pearson MM ’08 (MUS) of La Habra, California; Oct. 2, 2018, at the age of 34.

ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ DNC DEN DRA EDU ENG ART GRN GRD LAW MED MUS OST

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences USC Leventhal School of Accounting USC School of Architecture USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Cinematic Arts USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism USC Kaufman School of Dance Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC USC School of Dramatic Arts USC Rossier School of Education USC Viterbi School of Engineering USC Roski School of Art and Design USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology USC Graduate School USC Gould School of Law Keck School of Medicine of USC USC Thornton School of Music USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

PHM BPT

USC School of Pharmacy Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy

SPP SSW

USC Price School of Public Policy USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Jill Barone, Matt DeGrushe, Michelle Dumas, Harmony Frederick, Katherine Griffiths, Julie Labich, Leticia Lozoya, Jane Ong, Alex Rast, Stacey Wang Rizzo and Deann Webb contributed to this section.

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YOUSC SC No matter when you graduated.

No matter where in the world you live.

No matter who you are.

YOU make USC.

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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@USCAlumni

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trojan tribute

VICTOR MCELHANEY PHOTO BY SARAH TOUTANT; INSET PHOTOS BY DAVID SPRAGUE

Clockwise from left: Victor McElhaney; his parents, Lynette Gibson McElhaney and Clarence McElhaney, at a celebration of their son’s life; teacher Kathleen Grace performs one of his favorite songs.

Remembering Victor McElhaney The USC community honors the life of the passionate artist and student.

At the USC Thornton School of Music, 21-yearold graduate student Victor McElhaney was a standout percussionist. He also had a passion for making a difference for those around him.

One of his professors, Peter Erskine, remembered when he met McElhaney’s mother, Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, at a luncheon for transfer students in 2017. Erskine had asked what her son wanted to do.

He wants to change the world, she told him.

McElhaney’s life was cut short tragically when he was the victim of a crime off campus on March 10, leaving his family, friends and the USC community in shock over the loss of the promising musician.

“Cursing the darkness has not done my soul much good this week,” Erskine said at McElhaney’s memorial service at USC. “But committing to changing the world as Victor wanted to do might just be the best thing we

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can do to honor him and to honor his family.”

More than 700 people filled a ballroom on USC’s University Park Campus to celebrate McElhaney’s life on March 19. In front of the standing-room-only crowd, dozens shared their memories—from his academic adviser to his friends at the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, his home away from home. It was a testament to McElhaney, who transferred to USC in autumn 2017, and the lives he touched during his time at the university.

Growing up in Oakland, McElhaney loved drumming—so much that he dented his parents’ pots and spoons, remembered his father, Clarence McElhaney. As a boy, he once took his drums to summer camp and kids lined up next to him, hoping he would teach them how to play. As he grew up, African drums became a connection to his roots. The elder McElhaney said his last conversation with his son happened as the young man left a park where he had been

playing. He told his father that he had played “until the ancestors talked to me.”

Victor McElhaney was passionate about the things that mattered to him, including pushing for inclusivity and combating racial injustice, hypermasculinity and homophobia.

He was the co-president of Brothers Breaking BREAD (barriers, regrets, ego, animosity and doubt), which aimed to empower black men to challenge stigmas and stereotypes.

During the memorial, USC Thornton faculty members celebrated his love of music with special performances. His former jazz voice teacher, Kathleen Grace, performed one of his favorite songs, “This is Always” by Betty Carter, with a drummer noticeably absent.

Fellow musicians played an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Never Can Say Goodbye,” which McElhaney had put together the week before he died, with USC Thornton lecturer Aaron Serfaty taking his seat at the drums.

USC Black Alumni Association Executive Director Michele Turner ’81, EdD ’14 also announced a new scholarship to celebrate Victor McElhaney's life in perpetuity. His friends have vowed to keep his memory alive.

“Vic is my student. And I like to say ‘is’ because to say past tense implies that person is truly gone and Vic is not truly gone,” said Viet Bui, McElhaney’s academic adviser at USC Thornton. “I know Vic lives in each one of our hearts and in our souls.”

JOANNA CLAY

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now and again

PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES; INSET PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Have a photo to share? Send it to 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2818 or magazines@usc.edu.

The Graduates On June 19, 1884, USC celebrated its first graduating class of three students. Thousands have since followed in their footsteps through commencement, though the rite of passage has changed over 135 years.

In the ’20s and ’30s, students lined up for their diplomas on the field of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A few decades later, USC held two ceremonies, one at the end of the school year and one between semesters. (In the inset photo from 1980, two grads pose for a snapshot after the mid-year ceremony, which has since been retired.)

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Now held every May in Alumni Park on the University Park Campus, USC's main commencement ceremony celebrates more than 19,000 graduates across its degree programs. An audience of some 60,000 family members and friends join the faculty and staff in cheering them on.

One thing that hasn't changed: taking pictures in front of the Trojan Shrine. But Tommy Trojan isn't the only USC location that's ready for its close-up.

Visit bit.ly/USCGradTraditions for a list of favorite USC photo locales at commencement—or anytime.

ELISA HUANG

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THE KECK EFFECT

Great health is worth celebrating.

How is Keck Medicine of USC different from other health systems? Our performance speaks for itself. We are nationally ranked in nine specialties and our system includes the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center — which is ranked No. 1 in cancer outcomes in California. Our expert care helps more patients live longer, healthier and happier.

KeckMedicine.org/beyond | (800) USC-CARE

Š 2019 Keck Medicine of USC

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USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 Change Service Requested

N ON -PROFIT ORGAN IZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID UN IVERSIT Y OF SOUTHERN CALIFORN IA

Photo: John McDermott

Theatre • Dance • Music Film • Authors and more!

FREE Admission Visit our website for the 2019–2020 season of events!

Black Grace: Modern Dance from New Zealand Monday, November 11, 2019 | Bovard Auditorium

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