Trojan Family Magazine Summer 2012

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uscTrojan Summer 2012

F A M I L Y

First Lady of Troy Niki C. Nikias makes USC a home away from home for the Trojan Family.

We create

opportunities

for families

to succeed.

Be part of their success.

Contribute to the legacy.

Your participation transforms a student’s tomorrow.

USC Latino Alumni Association Get involved. Call us at (213) 740-4735.

Photo: Pamela J. Johnson/USC Dornsife

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inside [ FEATURES ]

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First Lady of Troy

Appetite for the Arts

The Village at USC

Fluent in Innovation

By Cristy Lytal

By Diane Krieger

By Susan L. Wampler

By Adam Smith

Niki C. Nikias makes USC a home away from home for the entire Trojan Family.

Arts and humanities have moved from the periphery to center stage of Trojan life, thanks to USC’s Visions & Voices.

USC launches the largest economic development project in South Los Angeles history.

Medical students speak a dialect; engineers do, too.

HTE@USC’s first students may be the new bilingual leaders in health care.

26 Campus Catalysts Professor Lee Epstein is among a cadre of transformative USC faculty making lasting marks through teaching and discoveries.

02 Editor’s Note

09 Support Report

USC is recruiting and retaining superstar faculty who creatively cross disciplines.

Contributions to social science, dentistry, student veterans and polymaths

03 President’s Page

32 Keck Medical Center of USC

The Village at USC is a huge step toward the goal of becoming a fully residential university.

Mechanical devices are helping patients with heart failure live longer, active lives.

04 Mailbag

37 Family Ties

06 Trojan Beat A delegation to Israel, two USC professors knighted

by France and more

News from the USC Alumni Association

42 Class Notes

On the cover: USC first lady Niki C. Nikias at home Photo by Mark Berndt U S C T R O JA N FA M I LY M AG A Z I N E

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editor's note

The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California

High-Performance Professors EDITOR

Lauren Clark SENIOR EDITOR

Diane Krieger MANAGING EDITOR

Mary Modina

ART DIRECTOR

Sheharazad P. Fleming DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

Russell Ono Dongyi Wu Stacey Torii

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

WHAT MAKES A GREAT UNIVERSITY? Start with extraordinary faculty.

USC is on a mission to recruit and retain innovative thinkers who reach across disciplines, igniting intellectual activity throughout the university and making a mark on the world.

Take, for example, professor Lee Epstein, the constitutional law scholar profiled on page 26. She blends expertise on the Supreme Court, a grasp of politics and a knack for statistics to crack the code on a subject with enormous consequences for society: how judges in the nation’s high courts make their decisions.

Biologist Andrew McMahon, who will be profiled in an upcoming issue, is another transformative scholar. In July, he leaves Harvard University to head USC’s Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and, at the same time, to establish a new academic department devoted to those disciplines. USC will become a powerhouse in a field that has profound implications for health care and biological discovery.

Professors like Epstein and McMahon are campus catalysts, sparking a chain reaction that can boost the quality of their students, their departments and, ultimately, their university.

There are many such talents at USC, but look for their ranks to grow, and for their continued presence in these pages.

LAUREN CLARK D I R E C T O R O F P U B L I C AT I O N S U S C C O M M U N I C AT I O N S

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P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F U S C U N I V E R S I T Y A R C H I V E S

A class in Stauffer Hall, late 1960s

Aimee Bennett, Nick Divito Amy E. Hamaker Timothy O. Knight Ross M. Levine, Cristy Lytal Annette Moore Christina Schweighofer Shirley S. Shin Adam Smith, Amanda Tran Susan L. Wampler

president's page

BY C. L. MAX NIKIAS

In this issue, you will learn about the university’s grand vision for its physical growth in the coming decades, including our specific plan to develop the area currently occupied by the University Village. This venture – the Village at USC – will be the largest economic development project in South Los Angeles history and will nearly double university-owned student housing, while bringing essential new services to our entire community.

Just as important, it will profoundly enrich our University Park campus. Our students will enjoy an even more vibrant residential experience during their time at USC, and our visitors will discover a dynamic cluster of retail and other services.

For all of us, day-to-day life will be easier as our campus’ amenities significantly increase.

In particular, student housing will get a tremendous boost. This project alone will bring 3,000 additional beds to our University Park campus, 70 percent of which will be slated for graduate students. This will allow students to live close to their classes, eliminating commutes while facilitating opportunities for students to interact with each other. They’ll be more likely to gather for a study group, share a meal after class, or attend a Visions & Voices event in the evening.

The Village at USC, meanwhile, also will include a number of excellent facilities that will certainly enhance our students’ quality of life.

Students will have a new health club for working out, as well as a café in which to meet and study.

They’ll have pleasant outdoor areas, filled with green spaces and water fountains. And, of course, ample parking will accompany the entire project.

P H OTO B Y S T E V E C O H N

THIS PROJECT REPRESENTS A HUGE step toward USC’s goal of becoming a fully residential university. Our University Park campus has long been an oasis of green in the middle of Los Angeles, a center for creativity and scholarship, but the Village at USC will complete the picture with a

number of highly practical resources: shopping, dining and housing.

But I want to also add that this ambitious project will transcend the useful and the pragmatic.

To be sure, it’s not just about building structures, pouring cement and laying bricks. It’s not just about building hardscape and laying landscape.

It’s about building communities. It’s about creating jobs for the neighborhood, housing for graduate students and much-needed businesses for the university’s surrounding neighborhoods. It’s about strengthening our bonds with each other as well as with those who live around us.

USC has always taken particular pride in its distinction as the largest private employer in the city of Los Angeles, and this project will create an additional 12,000 jobs for our community – 8,000 of which will be permanent! The Village at USC’s construction-related economic impact will total $1.1 billion, bringing a considerable lift to our community’s finances as well.

This growth benefits everyone. This boon doesn’t only touch our students, faculty, staff and guests. It touches every person who lives and works near our University Park campus, with its financial ripple resonating throughout our city.

It nourishes our already close relationships with our neighbors, as it welcomes even more individuals into the university’s embrace.

After all, while we are a world-class university, we have always treasured our ties with our local community. We all benefit from the exchange of ideas, the pooling of creativity and the intermeshing of experiences. The Village at USC will bolster these relationships, while building an even more dynamic base for the Trojan Family.

We look forward to next year’s groundbreaking! ●

U S C T R O JA N FA M I LY M AG A Z I N E

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mailbag Rocket Science

Literary Enthusiasts Abound

The article on the “Rocketeers of Troy” (Spring 2012, p. 24) made me wish I was still at USC! I used to make two-stage rockets when I was in boarding school in France around 1969 using fertilizer as fuel (to the dismay of school management). They reached 300-400 feet and had parachute recovery. Would the students have a website showing their launches live with GPS data in the telemetry?

Philip de Louraille ’82, MS ’84 L O S G AT O S, C A

USC senior Bill Murray from the Rocket Lab replies: We continually update our website, uscrpl.com, with the latest flight data, but transmitting this data live to the Internet from the remote desert where we launch our rockets is a bit of a financial and technical hurdle. We are trying to perfect our ability to transmit live data from the vehicle to a laptop on the ground. Once we become proficient in doing this, it would be a simple step to move this data to our website.

FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, USC HOSTED THE LARGEST public literary festival in America on April 21-22. The 17th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books attracted a record-breaking 151,000 book lovers of all stripes to the University Park campus, an 8 percent increase over 2011’s attendance. More than 400 authors – including many Trojans – gave readings, appeared on panels and signed their books. Highlights also included the unveiling of a new U.S. postage stamp honoring major 20th-century American poets, the USC Health Pavilion with demonstrations and health screenings, and the collection of 8,000 books for USC Civic Engagement’s annual book drive – more than double last year’s donations.

During WWII, I was in the Navy V-12 program at the USC College of Engineering [now USC Viterbi School of Engineering]. At my first engineering job at North American Aviation’s Aerophysics Laboratory in 1946, I evaluated the German V-2 liquid rocket engine. I went on to supervise the preliminary design of the largest liquid rocket engine ever built: Rocketdyne’s F-1, which launched each of the Apollo program’s Saturn V rockets to the moon. Later I worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on [NASA’s Mars exploration missions] Mariner, Viking and Voyager. Nothing in the USC curricula in my day suggested I would be prepared for such a career, yet the engineering basics I learned helped me make important contributions to rocket and space achievements. How fortunate these new rocketeers are to be able to build upon those and many other remarkable feats.

Robert P. Thompson ’45

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WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK. SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR AT tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

I applaud all the young men and women who have achieved so much already. I only wish this laboratory had existed when I was in school. I know their success will continue and make us all proud to be Trojans!

Alan E. Zoller ’87 D AY T O N , O H

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PHOTO BY DIETMAR QUISTORF

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA

Facing Addiction The best news about being an addict is the amount of psychological and behavioral research I have done into the nature of this beast. That is why the article (“We Are Addicts,” Winter 2011, p. 20) attracted me.

From an early age, I have been unable to control myself in the following areas: computers, sex, drugs, alcohol, chocolate and gambling.

I am now 60 and still somewhat engaged in potentially self-destructive behavior. I live responsibly, am married and own a successful business, but the inability to make the correct choice remains a frustrating mystery to me.

Dan Aflin ’79 SAN JOSE, CA

Notice Board For a book on a series of paintings known as American Champions, I am seeking information about the following USC athletes from the early 1930s: Randall Bryden, Ken

Carpenter, James Cassin, Philip Cope, Frank Doeg, Alfred Fitch, Joe Gonzales, Lee Guttero, Lemuel “Bud” Houser, Jack Hupp, Estel Johnson, Johnny Kaye, Frank Kurtz, Edward Levin, John McCarthy, Earle Meadows, Al Olson, Charlie Parsons, Norman Paul, Mickey Riley, Russ Saunders, Amby Schindler, Bill Sefton and Frank Wykoff. Contact benemann@law.berkeley. edu or (510) 642-8722.

William Benemann BERKELEY, CA

The USC University Archives needs your assistance in preserving the heritage of our university. We collect, preserve and share records having permanent value in documenting the university’s history. Books, manuscripts, USC periodicals and newspapers, posters, photographs, recordings and other archival items are available for research under supervised conditions. Gifts are greatly

appreciated and carefully preserved. Contact czachary@usc.edu or visit us at usc.edu/arc/ libraries/uscarchives Claude Zachary USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST CAMPUS

For the Record The feature “Pioneering the New Chinese Cinema” (Spring 2012, p. 18), erroneously identified Zachary Franklin ’07 as a publicity specialist. Franklin is a market strategy manager at YOU On Demand, which provides Hollywood movie content. The feature also misidentified David U. Lee ’97, MBA ’04 as the executive producer of The Spy Next Door; he is the distributor. And it incorrectly stated that an adaptation of the Wachowski brothers’ film Bound by Simon Weining Sun MFA ’02 takes place in 600 A.D. It is set in 1914.

For a corrected version of the article, go to tfm.usc.edu/spring-2012/chinese-cinema

‘‘We choose Belmont Village.”

“Dad is getting older now and needs a little help with things like meals and daily living activities. Belmont Village is the perfect choice. He has his own apartment in a beautiful community. He has friends, activities to keep him busy, a driver to take him places, even chefs to cook his meals. Plus, he receives hands-on assistance from Belmont’s trained staff whenever he needs it. He’s happy! That makes us happy, too.”

“We Choose Belmont Village.”

Chef-prepared, restaurant-style dining Free scheduled transportation daily Fitness and social activities Licensed nurse on-site Medication management Housekeeping and laundry Assistance with daily living Award-winning Circle of Friends®

Burbank (818) 972-2405

Rancho Palos Verdes (310) 377-9977

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Thousand Oaks (805) 496-9301

memory program

Short-term stays available Specialized Alzheimer’s care RCFE Lic 197603515, 197603848, 197605090, 198204246, 197607761, 306003668 © 2012 Belmont Villlage, L.P.

The Community Built for Life ® www.belmontvillage.com

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trojan beat

8000

books donated to K-12 students in USC’s neighborhood in conjunction with the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Delegation to Israel Earlier this year, a delegation comprising USC trustees, deans, faculty members and senior administrators, with USC president C. L. Max Nikias, Niki C. Nikias and provost and senior vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett, traveled to Israel to strengthen ties with the research and teaching community.

They met with leaders and scholars from four prominent academic institutions: TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The delegation also explored the relationship between government priorities, private industry and research during meetings with a diverse leadership group that included Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, and Joseph “Yossi” Vardi, chairman of International Technologies Ventures and one of Israel’s high-tech veterans.

PRIZED PROFESSORS USC University Professor Manuel Castells, holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society, received Norway’s 2012 Holberg International Memorial Prize for his achievements as “the leading sociologist of the city and new information and media technologies.” Jae Jung, holder of the Fletcher Jones Foundation Chair and Hastings Foundation Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, received South Korea’s 2012 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, the Korean equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Jung was recognized as a leading authority in molecular biology whose discoveries have laid the groundwork for eventual cures for virus-induced cancers.

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THE TROJAN GAMES Every four years, several dozen Trojan athletes compete in the summer Olympic Games. Look out for these contenders representing many nations when the 2012 Games take place in London July 27 to August 12. USC leads all American universities in the number of athletes who have participated during the 116-year history of the modern Olympics.

million birds killed yearly by collisions with communication towers, according to a study in PLoS ONE by USC Dornsife’s Travis Longcore

COMMENCEMENT 2012 At USC’s 129th Commencement on May 11, acclaimed journalist Christiane Amanpour addressed close to 44,000 members of the Trojan Family at Alumni Park.

USC president C. L. Max Nikias was the first to officially congratulate the nearly 14,000 Trojan alums. Along with Amanpour, Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Dana Dornsife, USC trustee David Dornsife ’65, Victoria Hale, Armas C. “Mike” Markkula ’64, MS ’66, Julie Mork and USC trustee John Mork ’70 received honorary degrees. To view Commencement highlights, visit bit.ly/uscc-2012

LAYERS OF L.A. The USC School of Architecture launched a publication series that explores the multilayered landscape of Los Angeles. The inaugural issue, Grand Illusion: A Story of Ambition, and Its Limits, on L.A.’s Bunker Hill, examines decades of built, and unbuilt, visions for a downtown street. Called CEZI – a Chinese term for small printed matter – the pamphlet series reflects the architectural studio tradition in which small, fragmented ideas are accumulated into a powerful collective.

Daniel M. Tsai, chairman of Fubon Financial, Taiwan’s second-largest financial services group, was elected to the USC Board of Trustees.

Knightly Trojans REFLUX RELIEF Sufferers of acute heartburn, rejoice. The Keck Medical Center of USC is one of only three centers in California authorized to use a novel FDA-approved device to treat severe acid reflux. The LINX Reflux Management System, whose implantation is potentially a 15-minute outpatient procedure, was tested in clinical trials at the Keck Medical Center.

13.3 million dollars anonymously donated to the USC Institute of Urology to fund a Urology Robotics Center of Excellence

PERCEIVING FACES It goes against common wisdom, but a team of researchers that includes USC scientist Bosco Tjan demonstrated that a face’s features or constituents – more than the face per se – are the key to recognizing a person. The study, which appeared in Psychological Science, opposes the notion that brains process faces “holistically.” In addition to illuminating how the brain functions, these results may help scientists understand facial recognition disorders.

On May 9, two USC professors were named knights of the National Order of Merit of France, among the highest civilian decorations awarded in that country. Kelvin J. A. Davies, James E. Birren Professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and professor of molecular and computational biology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Enrique Cadenas, Charles Krown/Alumni Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the USC School of Pharmacy and professor of biochemistry at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, were decorated at the Résidence de France in Beverly Hills. The National Order of Merit recognizes both French nationals and citizens of other countries. Davies and Cadenas were recognized for their services to France and to science.

Stephen B. Gruber, holder of the H. Leslie Hoffman and Elaine S. Hoffman Chair in Cancer Research, was named director of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Genes and circadian rhythms expert Steve A. Kay becomes dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences this fall.

Gerontology expert Pinchas Cohen leads the USC Davis School of Gerontology on Aug. 1 as holder of the William and Sylvia Kugel Dean’s Chair in Gerontology.

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Join Trojans from across Europe and the U.S. for an exclusive USC weekend in London.

SKIP THE

POND OCTOBER 8-9, 2012

LEADING USC AND UK EXPERTS WILL SPEAK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

MARRIOTT HOTEL GROSVENOR SQUARE FEATURING: MANUEL CASTELLS, USC • LORD JOHN EATWELL, PRESIDENT OF QUEENS’ COLLEGE SIR DAVID KING, OXFORD UNIVERSITY • PIP MCCROSTIE, ERNST & YOUNG • HASHEM PESARAN, USC

Keynote address by the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP, Former UK Foreign and Home Secretary All speakers are subject to change without notice..

To register and learn about sponsorship opportunities visit USCinLondon.usc.edu

[ SUPPORT REPORT ]

Verna B. Dauterive

A New Hub for the Social Sciences

R E N D E R I N G B Y H K S A R C H I T E C T S ; P H OTO B Y A M Y O P O K A

USC HAS A REMARKABLE history of transformative research and teaching in the social sciences. From Emory Bogardus, who in 1925 introduced his pioneering “social distance scale,” which is still used to analyze attitudes toward different ethnic and social groups, to Laurence Peter, whose 1969 book The Peter Principle proposed the droll but compelling notion that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence,” USC’s social scientists have helped shape the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, government and economics.

Now, thanks to a $30 million gift from Verna B. Dauterive MEd ’49, EdD ’66, the social sciences at USC will reach new levels of distinction. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall – USC’s first interdisciplinary social sciences building, pictured above – will be a place where faculty and students from across the university come together to tackle the most pressing social problems affecting our region and our global community.

President C. L. Max Nikias says, “This structure will forever stand in testament to Verna’s visionary philanthropy as well as her longstanding dedication, along with that of her late husband, to the university and its mission to educate the leaders of the future and produce scholarly work that will change the world.”

Located on Childs Way near the main University Park campus entrance – in the space previously occupied by the University Club – the six-level, 110,000-squarefoot Dauterive Hall will feature an Italian

Romanesque exterior with graceful arches and Gothic flourishes to complement the campus’ most historic buildings. Groundbreaking is scheduled for fall 2012.

Far more than just a magnificent edifice, Dauterive Hall will function as a catalyst for creativity and a gateway to discovery.

Bringing together researchers from many disciplines in a shared environment, the new building will be a resource for the entire campus, uniting the wide-ranging social science research and teaching taking place within the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and also fostering connections among scholars in the traditional social science disciplines with colleagues in business, law, public policy and other professional programs university-wide.

The facility’s centerpiece will be a fivestory atrium providing a central location for informal gatherings and collaboration among faculty, students and staff. The ground floor will house undergraduate and graduate social science classrooms, together with conference areas and a café. Cuttingedge research and computing laboratories will be located in the lower level, alongside interview and survey rooms configured to accommodate modern data-collection techniques. Faculty offices and interdisciplinary institutes will fill out the upper floors.

Dauterive’s gift – a pledge announced in 2008 to honor her late husband, Peter W. Dauterive ’49, founding president and CEO of Founders Savings and Loan Association, as well as the university – was groundbreaking not only for its extraordinary generosity, but also for being the largest ever made by an African American to a U.S. institution of higher education. The Dauterives, who met in Doheny Memorial Library while both were students, maintained strong, lifelong ties to their alma mater, providing previous support to the USC Marshall School of Business, USC Libraries, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USC Price School of Public Policy, USC Rossier School of Education and USC School of Dramatic Arts.

“I am humbled and very excited about the building,” Dauterive says, “but I am more excited about what will happen inside: gifted bright stars working together to change the world in wonderful ways that will create brighter futures for all societies.” ●

A petite, elegantly dressed woman whose soft-spoken manner belies her unstinting philanthropy, Verna Dauterive MEd ’49, EdD ’66 is one of USC’s biggest boosters.

Dauterive, a Louisiana native, moved to California after graduating from Texas’ Wiley College in 1943 and quickly landed a job with the Los Angeles Unified School District – becoming its youngest teacher and one of only four blacks. While working full time, she earned two graduate degrees from USC. She spent 62 years with the district, becoming a major player on Los Angeles’ educational stage as a principal and a pioneering administrator overseeing integration, teacher selection and university relations. On appointment by two governors, she chaired the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Commission on the Status of Women.

At the USC Rossier School of Education, Dauterive spearheaded modern development strategies as a founding member of its original support group, EduCare, as well as its board of councilors. As an adjunct professor, she also advanced its international outreach. She and her husband endowed USC’s first scholarship for minority doctoral students in education in 1985.

Advancing the broader university, Dauterive was one of a small group of alumni who in 1975 formed the nucleus of what is now USC’s Black Alumni Association. She was a charter member of both the Presidential and Chairman Associates, has served on the boards of the USC Associates and the USC Alumni Association, and joined the USC Board of Trustees in 2008. ●

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Honoring Our Vets TRUSTEE WILLIAM J. SCHOEN ’60, MBA ’63 and his wife, Sharon, have expanded the Schoen Family Scholarship Program for Veterans with a new $10 million gift.

always inspire the USC community,” says USC president C. L. Max Nikias, noting the impact of the Schoens’ gift at a time when veterans are returning home in growing numbers. “The Schoens understand that these brave service members have contributed so much to our country’s collective security and deserve a world-class education – one that matches their world-class courage.”

The gift was announced March 27 at USC’s Veterans Appreciation Dinner, an annual event honoring veteran and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) students. At the gala, Nikias and USC Board William J. Schoen, left, dons a personof Trustees chairman Edward alized USC bomber jacket presented P. Roski Jr. ’62 presented the

by USC Naval ROTC commanding Schoens with a formal resoluofficer Col. Alvah E. Ingersoll III. tion of commendation. Nikias also recounted USC’s long traThe Schoens established the program in dition of welcoming veterans and military 1986 to provide financial support for veterstudents, from enrolling thousands of GIs ans attending the USC Marshall School of after World War II to maintaining a relaBusiness. They augmented the endowment tionship with the ROTC during the 1970s, with an additional $1 million in 2005. This when most other universities did not. USC’s latest gift increases the family’s total contristudent body currently includes 500 student butions to the fund to $16 million, and now veterans, 370 of whom receive some form of provides scholarships for veterans studying financial aid. at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering as Schoen – who served with the U.S. well as at USC Marshall.

Marine Corps in Korea from 1953 to 1956 “The Schoens’ longstanding dedica– is chairman of the board of Health Mantion to our nation’s military veterans will agement Associates, which owns and oper-

$115 Million

115 years Ostrow School Launches Key Initiative THE OSTROW SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY of USC has marked its entry into the Campaign for the University of Southern California with a historic initiative aimed at raising $115 million. The announcement comes as the school commemorates its 115th anniversary.

“Since its founding in 1897, the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC has produced the majority of dental professionals in Southern California,

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ates hospitals primarily in the southeastern and southwestern United States. He credits his boot-camp experience with giving him the incentive to continue his education after completing military service. Now he wants to make sure that new generations of veterans can study at USC. “I believe our veterans deserve an excellent education at an outstanding university,” he says. “Our support for veterans goes back to when I went to USC. The reason that I was able to go to USC was that I applied for a scholastic scholarship and was awarded one.”

Among those who have benefited from the Schoens’ philanthropy is Karla Leyva, a senior at the USC Leventhal School of Accounting who served two tours with the U.S. Army in Iraq. “This scholarship allowed me to attend USC and to graduate without loans,” she says. “I’m so grateful to the Schoen family.”

Aren Nazarians MBA ’10, another scholarship recipient, says: “My education at USC would not have been possible without the generosity of my benefactor, William Schoen. The unique thing about a scholarship is the personal connection between the donor and the recipient. As students, we know that a scholarship is not a handout, and we owe it to our donors to make that investment count.”

To date, the Schoen Family Scholarship Program for Veterans has awarded $1.2 million to 173 students. With their new gift, the Schoens create an even greater legacy for student veterans at USC. ●

contributing greatly to the health and well-being of people throughout this region,” says USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “The school’s new fundraising initiative seeks to raise $1 million for each year of its impressive history, and will play a vital role in the success of the overall Campaign for USC.” The $115 million goal is the largest on record for any U.S. dental institution, with funds directed primarily to endowed scholarships, faculty recruitment and retention, and facilities improvements.

The school kicked off the drive on March 23 with a convocation in Norris Cinema Theatre, where alumni, students, faculty and staff gathered to hear Dean Avishai Sadan talk about the significance of the initiative.

Associate professor Richard Kahn DDS ’64 and second-year DDS student Vanessa Leewing described what the school has meant for their professional lives, and USC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett addressed the importance of the dental school to

P H OTO B Y S T E V E C O H N

Schoens give $10 million to provide scholarships for student veterans at USC.

The Vision of a Polymath

P H OTO B Y Z I VA S A N TO P/ S T E V E C O H N P H OTO G R A P H Y

Harman Family Foundation donates $10 million to endow academy for polymathic study.

THE HARMAN FAMILY Foundation has made a gift of $10 million to help fulfill the extraordinary vision of entrepreneur and philanthropist Sidney Harman talks to Sidney Harman by endowing the students at the academy’s center that he founded and that now inaugural event in February 2011. will bear his name. A unit of the USC Libraries, the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study brings stu- fessor of Business, a university-wide position dents and faculty together to explore the inte- enabling him to lecture at many schools. He grated, interdisciplinary nature of knowledge. took a second university-wide appointment The gift endows the academy’s operations and in February 2010, as inaugural holder of the Isaias W. Hellman Chair of Polymathy. academic programming in perpetuity.

“At the heart of USC’s academic mission Shortly before his death in April 2011, he is our commitment to promote not only the founded what is now his namesake academy.

At its opening event, the academy welstudy of multiple disciplines, but also to integrate many branches of learning in an effort comed New York Times columnist David to expand knowledge and foster new discov- Brooks and neuroscientist and USC Unieries,” says USC president C. L. Max Nikias. versity Professor Antonio Damasio for a “Sidney Harman was a gifted polymath in discussion of the science of being human. his own right and, through this inspiring Since then, the academy has hosted dozens gift from USC trustee Jane Harman and the of programs exploring topics ranging from Harman Family Foundation, this remark- the connection between commerce and art able academy is a testament to his hope that to the relationship among space, time and students employing a polymathic approach feminism. Featured guests have included to education will also derive greater personal poet, former National Endowment for the Arts chair and USC professor Dana Gioia; wisdom and sound judgment.”

For years a popular guest speaker at cofounder of the Institute for Figuring and USC’s satellite commencement ceremonies the USC Libraries’ 2011–2012 Discovery and other special occasions, Sidney Harman Fellow Margaret Wertheim; and USC Uniofficially joined the university in 2008, when versity Professors Warren Bennis, Geoffrey he was named the first Judge Widney Pro- Cowan and Kevin Starr. Starr serves as the

USC’s reputation overall.

“More than a century of distinction in the field of dentistry has brought widespread respect and acclaim to the members of our Ostrow School’s academic and practicing communities, and this success is reflected on the entire University of Southern California,” Garrett said. “Remember, however, that these last 115 years will be just a fragment on the timeline of the Ostrow School’s history; there is more to achieve, and you are positioned to take bold steps moving forward.”

Also on hand were Ralph Allman ’57, DDS ’62, MS ’66 – chairman of the Ostrow School of Dentistry Board of Councilors – and his fellow board members. The group announced its collective commitment to contribute $10 million to support the initiative.

Immediately following the convocation, the Trojan Marching Band led the way to an all-school picnic in Founders Park.

academy’s director.

“Sidney saw in our libraries the vital center of polymathic inquiry for the entire campus,” says Catherine Quinlan, dean of the USC Libraries. “Through the academy, more than 500 students have discovered polymathic perspectives on their intellectual aspirations.

With this generous support from the Harman Family Foundation, we will proudly continue this work that is so unique to USC and that Sidney viewed as so essential to the future of academic inquiry.”

“Our family lived with a father and husband who inhaled life – and wanted his tombstone, if any, to say ‘still curious,’ ” says Harman’s wife, Jane Harman, a nine-term U.S. congresswoman and current director, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “This academy, which he imagined and founded, will instill curiosity across the many disciplines at USC, and just might revolutionize the way students learn. What a wonderful way to honor and remember Sidney.” ●

The celebration continued at the annual Friends of Dentistry dinner, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on March 24. There, Vivian Chui ’82, DDS ’86, chair of the Friends of Dentistry, presented the support group’s inaugural Excellence in Education Award to Sakae Keith Tanaka, associate professor emeritus, to recognize his more than four decades of service as an exemplary mentor.

Dean Sadan also outlined his vision for the school: “For some, [the Ostrow School] is the place where you met and surpassed academic challenges while summoning strength and confidence you never knew you had. For others, it is where you learned just how rewarding it feels to ease the pain of someone in need. It is our business and passion to make sure that the [school] continues to be the place where current and future students become the world’s best dental professionals and have life-altering experiences.” ●

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first lady of

TROY MEET NIKI C. NIKIAS, THE USC PRESIDENT’S STEADFAST PARTNER, WHO MAKES A TOP RESEARCH UNIVERSITY FEEL LIKE A HOME AWAY FROM HOME FOR THE ENTIRE

TROJAN FAMILY.

By Cristy Lytal | Photos by Mark Berndt

TALK ABOUT AN EARLY HOUSEWARMING.

The day after moving into the USC president’s home in San Marino, first lady Niki C. Nikias opened its doors to more than 250 students for Thanksgiving dinner.

“It’s in the Greek culture,” says Niki, in a lilting Greek accent like that of her husband, C. L. Max Nikias. “You open up your house to a lot of people.”

The elegant, understated home exudes warmth, comfort and fun. You can see it in the occasional pop of paisley wallpaper,

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cardinal-and-gold throw pillows or arrangement of homegrown roses. Dusty, the Nikiases’ 13-year-old tortoiseshell cat, purrs on the sofa next to the first lady.

As Niki recalls her and Max’s Thanksgiving party – now an annual event – her blue eyes sparkle and her smile grows wider.

“Max and I, being parents, feel like all these kids are our kids,” she says. “It was beautiful to see the students filling their plates and coming up to us and saying, ‘Oh, thank you. It was so great, so delicious.’ ”

The couple began the Trojan Thanksgiving tradition so that students too far from home to travel could enjoy the holiday.

Tiffany Chen, a senior architecture major from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., who attended the party, says that she usually doesn’t travel home for the holiday, as it is so close to winter break. “Being able to have a homeaway-from-home Thanksgiving dinner truly captured the essence of the Trojan Family,” she says. “The entire evening was filled with a welcoming atmosphere.”

Niki personally understands the value of such hospitality. “Max and I came to the United States as students,” she explains.

“And we always noticed that, on Thanksgiving, everything was closed, and people would be spending time with their families.

So it felt kind of lonely.”

It’s been a long time since the Nikiases had nowhere to go on Thanksgiving – or on any other night, for that matter. During the first year of Max’s presidency, the first lady opened their home to more than 3,000 guests, hosted or attended 254 events, and spent 63 days traveling to destinations including India, China, Hong Kong and Israel to extend the university’s global reach.

“To me, my role as a first lady is very simple: supporting my husband and promoting USC through all its constituents and all the organized events,” she says. “There’s so much to be accomplished, and this $6 billion fundraising campaign that Max has announced is the key to how we want to bring USC to the next level. So we are really focused on that, and it takes a lot of our time.”

University Professor Kevin Starr points to some less tangible aspects of the role. “First ladies project the values of the university, and Niki is projecting something of USC’s upscale dimension – in the sense of an ambition to do things better, to make the world a better place,” he says. “She exudes empathy, optimism and panache.”

The Nikiases first met as teenagers, before either of them was allowed to date. After graduating from the same gymnasium – the European equivalent of a college-preparatory U.S. high school – in their hometown of Famagusta, both went to Athens to pursue undergraduate studies. There, they began dating and soon were engaged.

“Since we liked each other so much, we had to let our parents know that we were serious about it,” she says, laughing. “We’ve been together for a very long time. It’s very unusual, I think, to be able to go through all these changes and experiences. People change, but we have that bond, so we keep helping each other to move forward. It’s been teamwork all these years.”

While her husband was studying electrical and mechanical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Niki was getting her bachelor’s degree from the Athens University of Economics and Business. Afterward, she worked as an accountant in Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States. Meanwhile, the future president of USC, after studying for a brief time in the U.K., earned a scholarship to attend graduate school at the State

University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYBuffalo) in 1979.

Niki quickly embraced life in the United States, earning her master’s degree in business administration with a specialization in finance from SUNY-Buffalo. By poetic coincidence, both her and Max’s diplomas were signed by then-SUNY-Buffalo president Steven Sample, who became president of USC in 1991. That’s the same year the Nikiases joined the Trojan Family, with Max beginning his successful USC career as a professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering.

“It’s only here in America where you come and you work hard and you succeed to achieve your goals,” says Niki. “I mean, who would have dreamed that Max would be a president? It’s been a great journey.”

The Nikiases have two daughters, Georgiana and Maria. Until they finished high school, Niki made motherhood her top priority, even if it meant that she couldn’t attend every single university event. The family lived on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, 30 miles from the university. Still, both girls ended up studying at USC. Georgiana earned a bachelor’s in English and archaeology in 2007 and a J.D. from the USC Gould School of

“It’s been teamwork all these years.”

”

As a young girl in Cyprus, Niki Djionis began developing the tireless work ethic that eventually would serve her well as the first lady of one of the world’s most dynamic, global universities.

“Both Max and I were very fortunate,” she says. “Our parents started from having nothing, and they built their own small businesses. Max’s father was a carpenter, and he opened up his own workshop. My father was a clearing agent for importing goods in Cyprus. So we come from families who were very loving and very business-successful.”

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NIKI C. NIKIAS in the library of the USC president’s home, where she hosted 130 events during her first two years as first lady

Law in 2011. She also received a master’s in world archaeology from Oxford University in 2008. Maria finished her bachelor’s in broadcast journalism, with a minor in entrepreneurship, in 2011. Niki’s deep devotion to her daughters impressed trustee, alumnus and donor Verna B. Dauterive from the moment of their introduction.

“I first met Niki in Hawaii in 2005, shortly after Max became our new provost,” says Dauterive, whom the first lady considers a role model and mentor. “We were in the same hotel for the football game. She put one arm around me and one arm around her younger daughter, who was in high school then. And Niki’s warm smile, and just the way she introduced her daughter to me, really made a profound statement about her as a mother, a wife and a lady of grace.”

Once the children were enrolled at USC, Niki poured all of her energy and focus into the larger Trojan Family.

“I don’t think I realized what the Trojan Family means until I started spending more time at USC and getting involved with the different aspects of the university,” she says.

“Then I realized that it’s like my own family,

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except that it’s bigger.”

As first lady, she has entertained everyone from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to former USC first lady Lucy Hubbard Haugh.

The two first ladies had a few private lunches in the president’s home. “I told Niki I thought she ought to keep a diary,” Hubbard Haugh recalls. That’s the only advice I gave her.”

Why a diary? “Because you can’t remember all these good things that happen when you’re first lady. Things come along so rapidly that you have no time to anticipate, no time to savor and no time to reflect. It is just one wonderful experience after another,” Hubbard Haugh explains.

Of course, many experiences have left such an impression that Niki doesn’t need a diary to remember them. Like March 1, when she took the stage at Bovard Auditorium to deliver an inspirational speech to more than 900 Trojan alumnae, friends and family at the largest Women’s Conference in the university’s history.

She played a quieter but equally pivotal role at a dinner for faculty and staff who had contributed at least 1 percent of their salaries to the USC Good Neighbors Cam-

THE FIRST LADY AT WORK FOR THE TROJAN FAMILY: Top, at home in San Marino; above, addressing the largest Women’s Conference in USC history.

“Niki is projecting something of USC’s upscale dimension – in the sense of an ambition to do things better, to make the world a better place.”

”

paign (GNC), which supports programs that strengthen the local community.

“Niki was very involved in planning the dinner, and it was really an amazing event,” says top GNC donor John Wolcott, senior computer consultant in the USC Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. “One of the main attractions at the dinner, besides the food, was Greek dancing. The neat thing about Max and Niki is that they’re really fun people. They’re open to new ideas and running with a good one and seeing where it goes.”

Of the roughly 130 events the Nikiases have hosted during their first two years at the president’s home, highlights have included holiday parties for faculty, staff, student leaders, donors and the USC football team.

The couple increased the number of these gatherings from six to nine during their first year and to 11 during their second year.

One holiday guest, USC star quarterback Matt Barkley, says, “I sat next to [Niki] at the banquet, and we pretty much talked the whole night about traveling, Europe, and academics and other things.” He adds, “It’s always fun to talk to her, because of the way she conducts herself – very gracious, very

welcoming and warm.” At Niki’s insistence, Barkley and his teammates were served by waiters instead of dining buffet-style.

The first lady may not know the difference between a nose tackle and a punter, but it’s clear, says athletic director Pat Haden, that “she really appreciates what the football game means to the Trojan Family.” He adds: “She’s embraced that. She comes to all the games, home and away.”

Luckily, Niki is a hardy traveler. Trustee, alumnus and donor John Mork, who recently walked through the old city of Jerusalem with her during an official university visit to Israel, described her as “a toughie.”

“I’ve been on arduous, long things with her – travel and miserable 14-hour days,” he says. “She can hang in there with you. There’s this warmth and calmness about her. When the whole world is spinning, she’s there going, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We’ve got this.’ ” Gayle Roski, alumna and namesake of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, likes the way the Nikiases energize each other. Traveling with a 2011 university delegation to India, Roski recalls feeling exhausted. “And I saw Max and Niki going 24 hours a day, together, hand in hand,” she says. “I love that

about them. I’m always seeing Max pick up her hand, and I see how much she means to his life.”

At home, Niki also enjoys entertaining on a smaller scale. She has invited USC trustees to stay overnight in the guest suite. Among the first of these visitors were Dana and David Dornsife, who donated $200 million to the university in 2011.

“Niki is one of my favorite people,” says David Dornsife. “We enjoy talking to the Nikiases, so a lot of times we’ll arrive early to an event. That gives us a little bit of a chance to talk to her before the guests come in.”

Through her warmth and dedication, Niki makes a large, world-class research university feel like a home away from home for the entire Trojan Family.

Friends wonder how the first lady copes with having so little time alone with her husband anymore. Niki just laughs. “Max loves what he’s doing, and I love seeing him being happy. So that’s how we feel. We don’t see it as a job. With USC, it’s a commitment. It’s like your family.” ● If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

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Members of We Are Heroes, who won season four of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, performing at Spark! last fall

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[ VISIONS & VOICES ]

HEN ANTHONY SPARKS was a USC theatre major back in the early 1990s, immersing oneself in the arts wasn’t easy.

Sure, Los Angeles was then – as it is today – the entertainment capital of the world, smack in the middle of the greatest multicultural melting pot in human history. And sure, USC had then – as it does today – five world-class arts schools, a novelty among elite research universities.

Still, for the art-seeking Trojan, the obstacles were daunting. Though only a short Dash ride away, downtown’s cultural attractions were then, and remain now, largely out of reach financially. And though scores of concert halls, independent theatres, art movie houses, museums and galleries, nightclubs, and amphitheaters dot the urban landscape from Pasadena to Long Beach, for someone without a car, these venues might just as well be on the moon.

“I’m from the South Side of Chicago, and I had no money, no family here,” says Sparks, who earned his BFA in theatre in 1994. “All I had was a $500 credit card for emergencies. I remember being so frustrated because I couldn’t take advantage of these things unless I was buddies with someone who was also interested. It shouldn’t be that hard to participate in arts and humanities events.”

Fast forward 20 years, and the situation has utterly changed. Today Trojans with an appetite for the arts can choose from more than a hundred intriguing cultural events a year – all free, most of them delivered to their doorstep. (That’s on top of the usual fare presented by USC’s first-rate music, fine arts, cinema, dramatic arts and architecture schools.) Those keen to experience the greater Los Angeles arts scene also can take advantage of free tickets and coach transportation to handpicked happenings around town. They’ll even get box suppers en route and a conversation with the performers after the show – all compliments of USC’s Visions & Voices, the campus culture-transforming program that began in 2006.

The centerpiece of then-USC provost C. L. Max Nikias’ arts and humanities initiative, Visions & Voices aims to make the arts a central part of every USC student’s experience – no matter what his or her major. “This

is for the physicist as well as the philosopher, for the mathematician as well as the musician, for the pharmacist as well as the journalist .…

It will enrich their lives,” Nikias said when he first announced the initiative.

Six years on, the transformation is striking.

“It’s hard to imagine Visions & Voices not existing; it has become so much a part of the culture now,” says Madeline Puzo, dean of the School of Dramatic Arts and an early architect of the program.

“The students have been there for the events, are enthusiastic about them, and are clearly ready for them,” adds cinematic arts professor Tara McPherson, another founding Visions & Voices leader. “We should have seen it, in hindsight, because the caliber of the students is so high now. It’s not surprising that they were ready for real engagement outside the classroom with cultural and intellectual issues.”

VISIONS & VOICES IS NO TRADITIONAL artspresenting operation. Like USC itself, the program is fluid and rewards an entrepreneurial spirit. Some events come from original faculty proposals. Others are crafted by a 10member arts and humanities deans’ council.

So-called “signature” and “Experience L.A.” events come out of the provost’s office, conceived by Visions & Voices managing director Daria Yudacufski and her crack team of event producers. Though most events are scheduled many months ahead, it’s not unusual for a lastminute addition to pop up on the Visions & Voices calendar. Or for the president himself or the provost to design their own events. Last November, when Nikias heard that filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar was going to be in town, he persuaded the Spanish director to appear at a Visions & Voices signature event. The whole thing materialized in a couple of weeks, according to Robin Romans, the associate provost charged with overseeing the program.

“And it didn’t take long for Bovard to be filled four times over,” he adds.

What all Visions & Voices events have in common are free admission, a student-centered focus and some kind of “reflective component,” be it an audience talkback, artist reception or panel discussion. This assures that students are never mere spectators, but rather active participants in the arts.

When Nikias first announced the initiative, many members of the university community

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– Anthony Sparks

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P R E V I O U S A N D T H I S PA G E : P H OTO S B Y S T E V E C O H N

“USC occupies a unique place in a unique city in the world. The university rightfully concluded that it needed to be an arts leader.”

scratched their heads. An engineer – an expert in digital signal processing – advocating for the arts? Strange.

But in hindsight, it was a no-brainer. “It’s Los Angeles, for God’s sake!” says Sparks, who now serves as a graduate-student representative on the 17-member Visions & Voices faculty committee that reviews faculty proposals for events. “USC occupies a unique place in a unique city in the world. The university rightfully concluded that it needed to be an arts leader.”

Sparks has thought deeply about these issues. After finishing his BFA in 1994, he moved to New York and landed a leading role in the hit Broadway musical Stomp, staying with the show for the next 10 years. On the side, he began playwriting. That eventually led to a job as a television writer, which brought him back to Los Angeles in 2003. His most recent writing and producing credits were on executive producer J. J. Abrams’ NBC action series Undercovers. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Sparks also returned to USC as a doctoral student in American studies and ethnicity. This spring he completed his dissertation on the role of everyday Hollywood cultural production in the formation of social and racial attitudes.

As someone who was at USC 20 years ago, Sparks is in a good position to compare the arts culture at USC then and now. In his junior year, he produced and starred in a USC production of Dutchman, the 1964 Obie-winning drama by Amiri Baraka, whom Sparks describes as “a major, major figure in African-American poetry and dramatic literature.” The incendiary play deals with a predatory white woman’s vicious pursuit of a young black man on a New York subway.

“Though it was well attended, very few people knew what to make of it,” Sparks recalls. “The play always ended in this odd silence, and then people would just get up and leave.” That was the year after the 1992 riots, so arguably there was plenty to talk about.

“But there was no official outlet at USC at the time to contextualize the play, its history or why I wanted to perform it,” he explains.

“That wouldn’t happen now, in large part due to Visions & Voices and the climate it has fostered.”

Indeed, Baraka himself came to campus last November for a Visions & Voices-sponsored event. Equal parts avant-garde poetry reading and angry political harangue, the evening ended with Baraka taking pointed questions

Y U D A C U F S K I A N D S PA R K S P H OTO B Y D I E T M A R Q U I S TO R F ; L E E P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F V I S I O N S & V O I C E S ; A L M O D Ó VA R A N D H O L Z E R P H OTO S B Y S T E V E C O H N

from critics and admirers alike. There were no awkward silences.

FROM THE BEGINNING, Visions & Voices was an unqualified success. The very first event, like many that would follow, was standingroom only. In its first year, more than 21,000 people crossed the turnstiles. This past year, Yudacufski tallied about 30,000 guests.

Attendance over the life of the initiative now stands at around 164,000.

In all, Visions & Voices has sponsored 600 events since its inception. Some months it feels like a major arts festival is in progress: Last September saw 24 Visions & Voices events.

Yudacufski’s office markets them aggressively to students. In the fall, a vibrant brochure previews the coming year’s attractions. A fact-filled website (usc.edu/visionsandvoices), getting 5,000 to 10,000 hits a month, keeps the information fresh and accurate. Weekly email blasts go out to a list of 20,500 enthusiasts, and posters also help build campus buzz.

According to Yudacufski, students make up the bulk of the audience – between 70 and 80 percent, on average. Many of them are non-arts majors. Visions & Voices surveys, which are distributed at every program and also sent via email to students on an event’s RSVP list, come back with nearly 80 percent of respondents rating programming excellent, and another 10 percent rating it good.

From the earliest days, a group of die-hard fans started haunting every event, pleading for some informal role in the initiative. Three years ago Yudacufski created a student-volunteer program that’s now 50 members strong.

These unpaid advocates work the tables at each venue, answering questions, taking down email addresses, handing out postcards for coming attractions and collecting evaluations.

In many cases, the most passionate volunteers end up serving as one of two undergraduate representatives on the Visions & Voices faculty committee.

Steven Almazan had that honor this past year. A junior double-majoring in communication and psychology, he got involved as a Visions & Voices volunteer in his freshman year. He calls the initiative “a breath of fresh air. It’s something I’ve never seen at any other campus.”

SIX YEARS ON, the enthusiasm of nowpresident Nikias for Visions & Voices has not waned. “Visions & Voices is very near and dear to our hearts,” he said last fall, in a

heartfelt introduction to a signature event he himself had designed – an evening of poetry and music with poet Dana Gioia. “The success of Visions & Voices has surpassed all of our expectations,” he said. “I’m especially proud of tonight’s program. Only at USC can you attend a show like this one, which combines the talents of a truly amazing group of artists, scholars and musicians.”

The Gioia event was, by any objective standard, extraordinary. It started with a lively dialogue between Gioia and celebrated California historian Kevin Starr, a University Professor, who retraced the poet’s experiences as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Next, Gioia – a visiting professor at USC – gave a mesmerizing recitation of his verses. To close out the program, faculty vocal artist Rod Gilfry performed the world premiere of a song version of Gioia’s 1991 poem “Prayer” by star faculty composer Morten Lauridsen. The 2007 National Medal of Arts winner, whom The Wall Street Journal recently called “the best composer you’ve never heard of,” played the piano accompaniment.

A week earlier, provost and vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett had introduced a signature program of her own.

“This is one event that I am particularly excited about – one I suggested in the hopes that we could entice Jenny Holzer back to our campus,” the provost said. With wry humor, the worldfamous conceptual artist – whose 1999 garden installation, Blacklist, Garrett called “a USC treasure” – narrated a slide show retracing some 40 years of her creative output. This was followed by a faculty panel discussion and audience questions. The program was held under a tent in front of the USC Fisher Museum of Art, mere steps from Blacklist itself.

IT WAS NOT A FOREGONE CONCLUSION that Visions & Voices would be a smashing success.

Yudacufski remembers booking Bovard Auditorium that first year for a multimedia spectacular called “Spark!” A kindly facilities manager had warned her not to be too disappointed if only a couple hundred people showed up. Bovard seats 1,250.

“We filled it in our very first event,” she recalls. “It was amazing to see the student reaction.” Spark! has since turned into the official Visions & Voices annual kickoff program. “Now we turn away a thousand people each time,” Yudacufski says. A seasoned event producer with prior experience at UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Los Angeles, she

Visions & Voices leaders Daria Yudacufski and Anthony Sparks; filmmaker Spike Lee at a signature event; filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar with President C. L. Max Nikias and cinematic arts dean Elizabeth M. Daley; conceptual artist Jenny Holzer

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“We wanted the non-arts majors to appreciate that art-making is not so much above the neck.”

doesn’t often get sentimental about her work.

But Spark! is special. “It’s such a dynamic event. And I’m proud of it.”

Custom made for freshmen, Spark! happens during Welcome Week, when the newcomers are just getting their bearings. The show brings together many genres – spoken word, street dance, performance art and music. Last fall’s lineup featured the all-female dance crew We Are Heroes; two-time HBO Def Poet Joe Hernandez-Kolski; singer-songwriter Kenton Chen of the a capella group the Backbeats; and live music mixes with composer Brian King and percussionist M. B. Gordy, accompanied by stunning visuals designed by VJ Scott Pagano. The program also featured National Poetry Slam champion Javon Johnson.

Johnson has been the Spark! main attraction since that first installment. A few years ago, the Chicago-based artist began flying in every other week for solo performances during freshman orientation sessions. Now he’s in residence, as the first Visions & Voices Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow, producing his own USC cultural programming – such as the provocative Amiri Baraka conversation – and teaching courses in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity.

VISIONS & VOICES LEADERS CONTINUE looking for ways to make the program more meaningful. “We’ve proven that we can have really broad exposure to the arts for students,” says Dean Puzo. “Now the question is, can we deepen it for some?”

The Get Your Hands Dirty festival is a good example. Offered each semester, it provides a day’s worth of hands-on beginner workshops in drumming, pottery, clowning, video editing,

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salsa dancing and so on. “We wanted the non-arts majors to appreciate that art-making is not so much above the neck,” Puzo says. “It’s something that’s in the body – the brain and body working together.”

Another way to deepen the experience, Puzo believes, would be through longer artist residencies. Lately, she has been batting around ideas with Romans, the associate provost, to have Visions & Voices share the costs of interdisciplinary artists working with multiple schools and academic departments.

UNIQUE AS IT SEEMS, Visions & Voices is not the only university-wide arts initiative out there. In particular, two peer schools have been experimenting on a grand scale.

Columbia University took the approach of appointing a celebrity arts czar to run its arts initiative. Tony Award-winning theatre director Gregory Mosher led the project for five years, but resigned in 2010. The program focused on bringing big-name artists to campus for extended residencies, and there was a push to provide Columbia students with free or heavily subsidized tickets to New York cultural events and to arrange unlimited entry to the city’s major cultural institutions. But the recession has brought austerity. According to a July 2011 article in the Columbia Daily Spectator, the program’s budget was cut by 40 percent in the last two years.

Stanford’s arts initiative, launched in 2006, grew out of a capital campaign. While campus programming is part of the picture, the focus has been on providing grants to arts faculty, fellows and students, as well as on brick-andmortar projects such as a new concert hall and an arts faculty building. Critics say the

SEE RELATED CONTENT AT tfm.usc.edu/summer-2012/visions-voices

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initiative has lost steam since the campaign ended in 2011.

With all due respect to her colleagues at these and other schools, Yudacufski says, Visions & Voices is in a class by itself. She points to unparalleled levels of support from top administration, passionate faculty and dean participation, campus-wide commitment and booming student attendance.

As with most things, money talks. And nowhere else do you see the same financial commitment to an arts initiative as that of USC. While Romans declined to put a dollar figure on the Visions & Voices program, he says, “The budget is not being cut one bit.” During the present hard times, all the managers in the provost’s office were told not to ask for an increase. Romans asked anyway, and he got it.

One thing that will never change, come what may, is the price tag for students. “We are not going to be charging students – ever,” says Romans.

Then, too, an ethos of frugality pervades the program. “We are very careful with expenses,” Romans says. “Every dollar supports events that benefit students. That’s a big difference between us and, say, UCLA Live. Everything is free to students, and students come first.”

But the most important sign of all that this program is here to stay is the attitude of the top university brass.

“I’ve not seen one wavering step on the part of the provost or the president, who just keeps adding more events,” Romans says with a grin. ● If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

P H OTO B Y S T E V E C O H N

– Dean Madeline Puzo

IF F ALL ALL L GOES GOE OES ES AS A PLANNED, PLANN LA ANN NE ED D, 2013 will

IT TAKE TAKES ES A V VILLAGE ILLAGE

2012 20 12

DESC DE

maark a milestone mark millestone n for USC S – the year it begins shedding the llast astt vestiges of its fo as fformer r er identity rm identtit ity ass a commuter scho school. h ol. The university is laun launchu ching the largest economic econom omic dev development velop pme m nt project in South hL Los os Ang Angeles ngel eles e h history isto t ry – the Villa Village age g at USC – a $1.1 $1.1 billion dynamic d nami dy m c mixed-use retail and n h housing ousingg center designed to meet e both student and and community demand demand. d. Bu Built uilt entirely o univers on university-owned sity-owned property prroperty ty using only private funding, fund nding, g the the project pro r je j ctt iss expected expe pected ed too create crea cr e te 12,000 new w jo jobs bs – 88,000 ,0000 of them th hem permanent. permanent nt.

“Noo othe “N other h r pr proj project oject of thiss size or scale is happening peni pe ning n anywhere any nywh where in Los Los Angeles Anggeless without some form fo rm of of public publ b ic subsidy,” subsidy dy,”” notes notes es Kristina Kristina Raspe, USC’s’s vi USC’ vice ice presi president side dent ffor o rea or real e l estate development and d asse asset s t ma mana management. n gement n.

The Vill Village lage at USC C is a major part of the th he new mast master s err plan fo for or th the he University Park Park campus, begun begu g n in 2006 200 0066 and approved ap ppr proved by the Board of Trustees Trus Tr uste tees e in in 2009.

2009 20 0 .

The bu Th bulk of th tthee proj project’s o ect’ t s 3.16 milli million l on square feet fe et will wil i l be b devoted dev e ot oted to to student stud den nt dwellings. d el dw e lings. But a key key element is the addition n of up p to 350,0 350,000 , 00 square squa sq uare feet off much-needed mucchh needed community-serving com mmu m nity-serving resources, reso sour u cees, including incluudi dingg sit-down sit i -dow wn restaurants, a food court, cour u t, a full-service full-seerv rvic icee grocery gr store, and and numerous numerous service serv vic icee pr prov providers, ovid ider ers, s, such suc u h as a dry cleaner, hair salon and an d sh shoe oe rrepair e aiir shop. ep s op. Some of these services sh already alre al read adyy exist, exis ex ist, t and nd many man ny cu ccurrent rrent providers will be given giv iven en the the h opportunity opporrtunity to lease leas a e within the new ne w complex. comp mple lex. x “Our ggoal “O oall is oa i tto o in include nclude all of the sshops hops and services serv se rvicces aany ny oother ther th er small cit city i y or resid residential dential area would w wo uld ul d ne need need,” ed,” Raspe Ras aspe p aadds. dds. Retailers the university vers r ity hopes hope ho pess to attract att ttract include include Trader Joe’s, an Apple Appl Ap ple st store, tor o e, a b bookstore ookstore oo re and popular clothing chains. ch hai ainss.

“The V Village illa il lage g att USC USC will wi make the th he univerunivversity si ty an outstanding outs t taand ndin ingg living livi li v ng n environment env n iron o ment for our students t and nd the he most mos ostt inviting in nviting place place c possible forr faculty, fa y, staff sta taff ff and and our our neighbors,” , says USC president pres esiden e t C. CL L.. Max Ni Niki Nikias. ias a . “I ““Itt alsoo will enhance the university’s th univ un iversity’s longstanding longssta t nd nding commitment and importance importan nce to the region, as USC remains the largest privat te em employ o er in the city of Loss private employer Angeles, Ange An geles,, w with ith an eeconomic c no co n mic im impact mpactt of $5 billion annually.” annu nually.””

While Whil Wh ilee it iss the th he largest larg rges est single construction project proj o ec e t in the he w works orks or k at th the he un uuniversity, iversity, the Village at USC C is justt one compone component n nt of an n overarching in ng pl p plan an that encompasses bo bboth th h tthe h Universit he University iy Park Pa r and and n Health Hea e lth h Sciences Scie i nces campuses. campu p ses. Some

USC US C LAUNCHES LAU UNCHE ES THE T E LARGEST TH LA ARG RGEST T ECONOMIC ECON NOM MIC

B BY

DEVELOPMENT DEVE DE VELO LOPM MENT PROJECT PROJ OJEC CT IN SOUTH SOU UTH LOS ANGELES ANG GEL LES HISTORY, HIST HI STO ORY, NEARLY NEARLY Y DOUBLING UNIVERSITY-OWNED UNI N VERS SIT TY-OW O NE ED STUDENT ST TUDEN NT HOUSING HOUS SING AND BRINGING ESSENTIAL ESSEN E TIAL NEW NEW E SERVICES SERV VICES TO THE TH HE ENTIRE E TIRE COMMUNITY. EN

SUSAN S SU USA SAN SA N L L.. W WAMPLER AMPL AM PL L ER E

and Hoover Street to the east.

“The Village was on the decline before the university bought it,” says Jackie DupontWalker, president of Ward Economic Development Corp. and chair of the USC Master Plan Advisory Committee. “Because of the amount and scale of economic resources involved in the Village redevelopment project, it is a major driver for revitalizing the area. And it is the university’s interest to have not only a beautiful campus but also a beautiful community.”

USC has actively engaged its neighbors in discussions about the project’s plans, DupontWalker adds. Her goal as chair of the advisory group is to help ensure a “win-win situation for everyone involved.”

at James A. Foshay Learning Center and is a scholar in USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative. Garrido is looking forward to more options for dining, shopping and entertainment in her immediate neighborhood. “It will be nice to have a family restaurant instead of fast food all the time. And the project will create jobs in our community – during construction and also with long-term new businesses.”

Juany Alfonso Molina – who has lived in the neighborhood for 43 years since moving to Los Angeles from her native Guatemala – calls the new project a blessing. “People who don’t have jobs or have to work far away may be able to find work closer to home,” says Molina, who does not own a car and relies on family members

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15 other major new capital projects – from academic and support facilities to research and clinical buildings – are in various stages of planning or development, including an additional 2 million square feet at University Park and nearly 4 million square feet at the Health Sciences campus.

“Across both campuses, major landscape and hardscape beautification programs continue, adding to the signature park-like USC setting,” Nikias adds. “Our goal is to make both campuses oases of green and beauty. On the University Park campus alone, we will plant 1,400 trees in the next few years.”

Plans also call for removing the parking lanes and reducing the size of Jefferson Boulevard

between the campus and the Village to create a more pedestrian-oriented environment, with widened sidewalks, trees, benches, street lighting and designated bike lanes.

Parking will be situated at the perimeters of the Village, allowing the creation, within the complex itself, of a wide, pedestrian-only avenue nearly as long as Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif. Shops and restaurants will be located on the ground level, with five floors of student housing above the retail spaces.

A high priority is to offer a broad range of dining options. “The neighborhood is grossly underserved by quality food options, especially family sit-down restaurants,” Raspe says. The development also will have plentiful open spaces for farmers markets, concerts and other outdoor activities.

TOWN AND GOWN

USC purchased the existing University Village Shopping Center in 1999. The 14.6-acre site, which first opened in 1976, is bounded by Jefferson Boulevard to the south, McClintock Avenue to the west, 30th Street to the north

The university has held more than 300 meetings for neighbors, community partners, local stakeholders and elected officials. More than 600 people turned out for a gathering at the Galen Center last October, with 500 of them signing up as project supporters. More town hall events will happen throughout the upcoming entitlement process – obtaining the required governmental permits, such as zoning approvals, to develop a property for a particular use – which is expected to begin in late summer or early fall. USC hopes to break ground on the project between May 2013 and January 2014, with construction to be completed in two to four years.

“The university is working hard to make sure we understand the project plans,” says area resident Maria Guadalupe Garrido. “They have translators at the town hall meetings to help those who struggle with English. And USC is open to hearing what we want to see included in the project.”

Garrido’s son, Daniel, is a junior at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, and her 16-yearold daughter, Milly, is entering her senior year

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for transportation.

“The university really values community input,” says Thomas S. Sayles, senior vice president for USC University Relations. “We have heard: ‘We want better places to shop. We want better places to dine right here in our own community. But what is most important, we want jobs.’ This project offers 12,000 jobs, and will improve the quality of life for the entire community.”

As project specialist at the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative, which serves more than 1,000 community members, Brenda Farfan has discussed the Village at USC project with many area residents. “The feedback we have received has been very positive,” she says.

“Our community members will finally have a beautiful, safe place where they can spend weekends with their families and have access to the resources they need, without having to go a long distance.”

Los Angeles Fire Department Station No. 15 – located on Jefferson Boulevard between Hoover and McClintock within the planned Village construction zone – will move to a new,

RENDERINGS BY ELKUS MANFREDI ARCHITECTS

A view of the proposed Village at USC from Hoover Street facing west

TRANSFORMING HSC

A view of the town square inside the proposed Village at USC

more convenient location within the neighborhood, Raspe says. The station currently is housed in a small historic building that requires firefighters to back in their trucks from a busy divided road. Once vacated, the building will likely be transformed into a casual sit-down restaurant within the new complex.

A RESIDENTIAL CAMPUS

While the new retail and food-service options are eagerly anticipated, and another 500,000 square feet in academic space will be incorporated into the new complex, the main thrust of the project is additional housing for both undergraduate and graduate students. The Village at USC will include 2 million square feet of new housing, creating 5,200 student beds. It will be built in the University Park campus’ signature style – Italian Romanesque.

“As the university has risen in rankings to the status of an elite university, students have come to expect a 24/7 campus experience,” Raspe says. “Students want affordable, high-quality, adjacent housing. More than 90 percent of undergraduates want to live within a one-mile radius of campus.”

In the university’s recent history, housing projects have been developer-driven, such as University Gateway on the northwest corner of Figueroa Street and Jefferson Boulevard, and Tuscany apartments and Icon Plaza, both near the intersection of Figueroa and Exposition Boulevard. “The price point is high,” Raspe says, and many students who wish to be housed near campus cannot be accommodated. Some of the other area housing is not appropriate for students, she adds, such as some single-family homes that have been illegally converted into

››

apartments.

Investors bought many neighborhood homes with the intention of renting to students, Dupont-Walker notes. “This has caused major tension in the neighborhood as it displaced community families with a student population.”

On the other hand, Jim Robinson of Robinson Residences – which houses some 50 USC students a year in six local historic homes – believes that reputable homeowners renting to students have benefited the community. During his 22 years in the neighborhood, he has seen numerous boarded-up houses transformed into restored gems that make the area more beautiful as well as safer. “What stabilizes neighborhoods is having owners living there,” adds Robinson, a past president of the West Adams Heritage Association.

“I suspect that some people think only greedy speculators rent to students,” he says.

“But almost everyone in this neighborhood rents space to students.” Many of the large Victorian homes in the area are simply too large and expensive for a single family to rent or own, he explains. Renting in neighborhood homes offers students more privacy and a lower cost, he adds.

“We enjoy renting to students and saving historic buildings at the same time,” he says. “I don’t want to see the neighborhood deteriorate.

It is so pleasant to live here now.”

Despite his concerns, Robinson says he supports the Village at USC project and believes the new amenities will be good for the neighborhood and the additional housing options good for students. “The university’s founders used USC as a draw to the neighborhood, and [this new project] can do the same.” O

USC’s master plan also has big things in store for the Health Sciences campus – adding some 4 million square feet of academic, research, clinical and support space, creating a more beautiful and unified atmosphere, and dramatically increasing the amenities available for students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

“What we have planned for the Health Sciences campus will be absolutely transformative,” says Kristina Raspe, USC’s vice president for real estate development and asset management. “It will truly change the built environment to better reflect the high quality of the research, clinical care and teaching that is occurring within the facilities on campus.”

Utility lines will be moved underground starting this summer, and brick pavers and additional signage will be added to reinforce the USC brand and feel. Additional green space and improvements to access, circulation and parking are being planned to create a more park-like, welcoming, readily navigable and pedestrian-friendly environment. A new fitness center and café in the 2001 Soto St. building opened in fall 2011.

Other proposed facilities and improvements include: • A new, inter-professional educational facility (up to 250,000 square feet) • 1 million square feet of new clinical space, including at least 300,000 additional square feet for outpatient services • Development of a research park at the north end of campus to promote university start-ups and technology transfer • 1.1 million square feet of new basic, applied and clinical research space • 447 new student beds (the campus currently has 96) • An auditorium with a capacity of 500 or more (the largest current such space, Meyer Auditorium, seats 261) • Additional retail space serving both campus and community • A conference center and hotel serving families of hospitalized patients, students’ families, conference attendees and other campus visitors. – SLW

SEE RELATED CONTENT AT tfm.usc.edu/summer-2012/village

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1932 The grand Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, built in 1931-32 at the depth of the Great Depression, is dedicated.

1946

1880 When USC opens its doors, it consists of a single building, today's Widney Alumni House, on a 7 1/2 -acre parcel of land.

1920s After World War I, USC experiences a building boom. Nine new buildings are completed by the end of the first decade of the tenure of USC president Rufus B. von KleinSmid, including Mudd Hall of Philosophy (1929).

A new USC master plan proposes a campus bounded by Vermont Avenue to the west, Jefferson Boulevard to the north, Figueroa Street to the east and Exposition Boulevard to the south. This plan is the first to propose a self-contained campus rather than one intersected by city streets.

1885 With Two residences, one for men and one for women, constructed.

Within five years of the university's founding, there is sufficient housing for all students.

1919 Prominent Los Angeles architect John Parkinson creates the university's first master plan for development, which envisions a campus connected with Exposition Park via a series of buildings along University Avenue. A total of 21 buildings are proposed.

1952 USC's Health Sciences campus opens.

1905

1887 The Old College building is dedicated on the site of the present Mark Taper Hall of Humanities.

The idea of moving USC is proposed and continues to be debated until 1917, when USC president George F. Bovard declares that the university is committed to solving the problems of Los Angeles and that it will remain "a city institution."

1953 University Avenue (today's Trousdale Parkway) is closed to vehicular traffic. A series of land acquisitions enables the University Park campus to expand north of 34th Street, providing a site for a new building for the dental school.

USC CAMPUS TIMELINE

Illustrations by Dongyi Wu

2013 1976 The campus planning committee authorizes a comprehensive master landscape plan for the University Park campus.

The Village at USC breaks ground according to the university's new master plan. The 3-million-squarefoot retail and housing center is South Los Angeles' largest-ever economic development project.

1974 Dedeaux Field opens its gates, and USC's baseball team wins its fifth straight NCAA title - still an unmatched record.

1970s As The building boom of the 1960s continues, the campus nearly doubles in size. Substantial new land is acquired for academic, athletic and residential expansion.

2010 1983 McDonald's Olympic Swim Stadium opens.

The Cinematics Arts Complex, comprising seven main buildings and totaling 200,000 square feet, opens and the Ronald Tutor Campus Center is dedicated.

1963 The Blanche and Frank R. Seaver Student Residence is completed on the Health Sciences Campus.

1987 With the opening of a Carl's Jr. restaurant on campus, USC becomes the first U.S. institution of higher education to own and operate a fast-food franchise.

2006 The Galen Center, including a 255,000-square-foot arena with 10,258 seats, is unveiled to support USC basketball and volleyball programs as well as cultural events.

1994

1961 USC president Norman H. Topping announces a master plan by architects William L. Pereira and Associates. Its goals range from fostering links with the surrounding community to creating a pedestrian campus organized around a series of academic quads.

The new Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library is hailed as the model for the 21st-century library, open 24/7 with an unprecedented technology-based design.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

2001 USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts opens as the country's first and only fully digital filmmaking training facility.

It is located along the Figueroa Corridor just north of the University Park campus.

By Christina Schweighofer

JUDICIAL INQUIRY

Professor Lee Epstein studies the science of judging.

P H OTO S B Y R O G E R S N I D E R

[ CAMPUS CATALYSTS ]

LEE EPSTEIN feels comfortable in the classroom. Clad in her signature black-and-gray wardrobe, she fills much of the space around her with big gestures, long strides and a resonant voice posing questions that are so clear-cut, they engage students from the first to the last row. She has a gift for making the complex sound simple. To witness the constitutional law scholar unravel the confusing mess of Bush v. Gore or hear her talk about the distribution of power in Washington is to wonder why one ever thought of such topics as dry and boring.

A leading expert on the U.S. Supreme Court, Epstein joined USC’s faculty last year as the Provost Professor of Law and Political Science and holder of the Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law, with appointments at the USC Gould School of Law and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She teaches law and political science, and her research focuses on the intersection of the two. She asks questions like: Why do judges decide the way they do? What are the politics of judicial appointments? When and why do female judges vote differently from their male counterparts?

“Judges play a central role in the American legal system,” Epstein says, “but their behavior as decision makers is not well understood, even among themselves.” Her latest book addresses that conundrum. In The Behavior of Federal Judges, to be published by Harvard University Press in December, Epstein and her coauthors – federal judge Richard A. Posner and University of Chicago economist William M. Landes – analyze a wide range of factors affecting federal judges’ decisions, including familiar factors such as ideology and also less-studied ones such as workloads and conflicts with colleagues.

Epstein has authored or coauthored more than 100 articles and essays, as well as 14 books. “I like to write. I need to write,” she says, sitting in her USC Gould office with a view of downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains. For all her productivity, she insists that leaving a legacy is not as

“Dinner at my house was discussing the front page of The New York Times.”

Passionate about politics and adept in statistics: Supreme Court scholar Lee Epstein unravels the mystery of how judges decide.

important to her as enjoying what she does.

She says she just wants to “have a nice day.”

INTENDED OR NOT, the legacy is there. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Epstein has shown in her work that judging doesn’t occur in a vacuum.

Supreme Court and appeals justices take external factors into account when they vote. Their colleagues’ views, those of Congress, the president, the public – they matter. This may seem self-evident, but Epstein has the data to back up her assertion. She has taken a hard, statistical look at judges’ papers, memos and drafts of opinion, and has crunched the numbers.

“We take that text and we quantify it so we can look at general patterns,” explains Epstein, who pioneered and is renowned for this approach to law research.

Her inquiries can confirm intuitions but also debunk myths. Take the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., which is widely seen as protective of the First Amendment because it overturned free speech restrictions in three high-profile cases concerning animal cruelty, funeral picketers and political financing by corporations.

Epstein acknowledges that she, too, had “kind of bought into the idea” that the Roberts court is big on free speech – only to discover that the data didn’t match the branding. The court has ruled for the free speech claim in just over a third of cases, whereas the three preceding courts ruled that way in well over half. The finding surprised Epstein. “This is a job of wonderment,” she says.

“I am constantly amazed.”

She credits her family with inspiring her passion for politics. Growing up on Long Island, N.Y., Epstein says, “Dinner at my house was discussing the front page of The New York Times.” She insists she was “never much of a New Yorker,” though, having studied at Emory University in Atlanta and taught for years in the Midwest, at Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University in Chicago. Nonetheless, elements of her origins have stayed with her: a slight New York accent, the always-stylish clothing and a love of the ocean.

“I grew up on the beach,” Epstein says.

It is hardly a surprise, then, that she and her partner of 11 years, USC Gould professor Nancy Staudt, set up house in Santa Monica last year. In their free time, Epstein and Staudt – who holds the Edward G. Lewis Chair in Law and Public Policy – take long walks on the waterfront with their Welsh terrier, Bryn. A photograph in Epstein’s office shows Bryn six feet in the air, running – no, flying – across an empty stretch of sand. The shadow in the image belongs to Epstein as she gets the shot. She is having a nice day. ● If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

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[ ENGINEERING + MEDICINE ]

FLUENT IN INNOVATION

BY ADAM SMITH

MEDICAL STUDENTS SPEAK A DIALECT; ENGINEERS SPEAK ONE, TOO. HTE@USC’S FIRST STUDENTS MAY BE THE NEW BILINGUAL LEADERS IN HEALTH CARE. “SO MR. CASSIDY, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE IN QUITE A BIT OF PAIN.” Twenty-six-year-old Jared Goodner meets his patient’s glare. Hit by a drunk driver two years ago, Mr. Cassidy has spent every day since with a pain so intense it’s like “a hole being drilled” straight through his back.

“It’s not fair I have to go through this,” Mr. Cassidy says. “I want my old life back.”

“I can’t imagine how that must be for you,” Goodner offers.

“I had a job, I had a wife – all that is gone!” Mr. Cassidy shouts. “I was the one being responsible. I wore a seatbelt, like I’m told. The other driver walks away with barely scratches.”

“Tell me more about your daily routine,” Goodner says, trying to redirect the conversation. “Are you working these days?”

“Am I working?” Mr. Cassidy echoes, stupefied. “Would you be able to work if you were in my … it’s impossible!”

“Time out.”

“Mr. Cassidy” freezes. Today’s simulation lab is “The Angry Patient,” during which a rather convincing actor is giving Goodner and his classmates in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine program a preview of the difficult patients they may one day face.

Goodner is not a medical student. He’s a biomedical engineering student in the inaugural class of Health, Technology and Engineering at USC (HTE@USC) – a collaborative program launched in late 2011 by the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Two years ago, Goodner was chief technology officer of GiveChange, a start-up company specializing in fundraising solutions for nonprofits. Today, he’s immersed in patent law, anatomy lessons and asking patients – both real and thespian – incredibly personal questions about pain and sex and dying.

As the nation’s 76 million baby boomers begin to retire, our health care system faces a demand the likes of which it has never known. Millions of new patients, many with multiple age-related chronic conditions, represent unsustainably soaring costs that

demand entirely new ways of delivering care.

Stepping up to that challenge is HTE@ USC. The program trains student engineers to think like doctors and medical students to think like engineers. In their own ways, both groups are fluent in different dialects of innovation. The promise of HTE@USC is not just new medical devices or improved processes – it’s a whole new generation of bilingual health-technology leaders.

For Terry Sanger, HTE@USC’s academic director, “the whole program is about innovations that have impact. And to have impact, you have to understand the environment you’re innovating into.” It’s an environment where the data are not absolute, where you have to rely more on medical interviews than lab tests to learn the truth about a patient’s condition. That messiness – the shared experience of watching angry, confused or heartbroken patients – is what ultimately will produce a lexicon of new ideas.

Other programs, such as Stanford’s BioDesign, provide opportunities for advanced students to focus on the commercialization of medical devices. But none offers a fouryear, immersive collaboration of the kind USC has established. The dozen students accepted into HTE@USC – half enrolled in the Keck School, half enrolled in USC Viterbi – have the talent and drive to participate in the program on top of their engineering Ph.D. or medical-school tracks.

“We give them enough time to move through all the stages – from bedside empathy to filing a patent or initiating a preliminary clinical trial by the time they’re done,” says HTE@USC administrative director George Tolomiczenko.

VICTORIA SCALA, AN M.D. CANDIDATE at the Keck School, is on an interdisciplinary team with Goodner and two other HTE@ USC students. Before landing at USC, she worked at Bosch Software Innovations and the German appliance maker Miele, investigating methods to verify the cleanliness of reprocessed medical devices.

Scala’s fascination with medical technol-

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Victoria Scala, a medical student, and Jared Goodner, a biomedical engineering student, are designing a new medical device and getting it market-ready.

“The whole program is about innovations that have impact. And to have impact, you have to understand the environment you’re innovating into.”

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ogy began when she was six years old. One day, her brother Mickey invited her to watch Cinderella.

He popped in the videotape. But rather than a fairy godmother singing “BibbidiBobbidi-Boo,” Scala saw cartilage. Lots of exposed, white cartilage.

A future minor-league baseball player with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mickey thought it would be hilarious to show his kid sister the video from his full camera-scope knee surgery.

Scala was mesmerized. How had they gotten a camera in his knee? Did it hurt?

All her siblings were athletes. Mickey had the Mantle swing. Her brother Bobby played Division III football and hockey.

Sister Christina played NCAA tournament tennis. Victoria herself would later break the Glenbrook South High School triple-jump record in track and field.

But it all came with a cost. All the Scala kids battled knee or shoulder injuries, sometimes both. Victoria developed knee tendinitis – no human can jump 34 feet in three massive bursts without some violence on the joints. She still wears a patellar tendon knee band to relieve the pain.

It’s hardly surprising, given these experiences, that Scala plans to become an orthopedic surgeon using new technologies to repair the human musculoskeletal system.

In fact, she doesn’t just want to use medical technologies, she wants to help develop them.

That’s why she’s working with Goodner and her other HTE@USC teammates to explore the landscape of health care problems, understand the patent process, and try to build effective and affordable medical devices.

HTE@USC requires students to veer nimbly between disciplines, so it helps that Scala has had practice. As an undergraduate

GOODNER IS A NATURAL INVENTOR. As a kid, he built remote-controlled cars with gas-powered engines. His closet is full of old model planes and other skeletons of the tinkerer’s trade. By his own admission, he has a tendency to take on a lot of projects.

For example, he’s the USC student ambassador to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, finding other student inventors and helping them get funding for their prototypes. Building on his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Washington University, Goodner’s Ph.D. work is concerned with motor control facilitated by the spinal cord. He hopes that his computer models will one day make it possible for paraplegics to walk.

Goodner also is the only HTE@USC student with a child, born the same month as the program itself. Tolomiczenko jokes that he’ll be “measuring the developmental progress of HTE@USC alongside [that of ] Jared’s young son.”

When Goodner’s Ph.D. adviser, Gerald Loeb – a biomedical engineering professor whose work in cochlear implants and neurostimulators initially attracted Goodner to USC Viterbi – urged him to consider HTE@USC last summer, the new father was initially wary of the time demands. He had just completed the first year of a fiveyear Ph.D. program and was being asked to consider extra classes on topics such as neurology and cerebral disorders, plus a longterm project designing a new medical device and getting it market-ready. (Engineering students begin the program in their second year, while medical students hit the ground running in their first year.)

But Goodner likes to quote Mario Andretti: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” He decided to go a bit faster.

Goodner and Scala’s team has been talk-

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y G AV I N P OT E N Z A ; P H OTO S B Y R O G E R S N I D E R

at Duke University, she minored in chemistry while double-majoring in French and German. This is one reason why she caught the attention of Tolomiczenko, who recruited her to HTE@USC shortly after she enrolled in the Keck School.

“I grew up in a house where my mother spoke Greek and my father spoke Russian,” Tolomiczenko says. “Neither was particularly good at English. I’ve always been very natural at bridging cultural differences.” He believes that when people like Scala reach across these sorts of divides, good ideas proliferate.

ing about building a new home health device – maybe something non-invasive that wirelessly signals trends in your blood pressure throughout the day. Or a device to aid emergency medical workers in the dangerous work of assisting avalanche victims. In fact, the possibilities might be too numerous, as the team has already identified some 200 problems in health care. By summer’s end, they must choose just one and produce a menu of possible solutions.

Goodner, Scala and their teammates will be expected to turn one of those solutions into a potentially marketable device, and to file a preliminary patent at the end of their four years. Fortunately, the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, which nurtures USC-based start-ups, offers lectures on how to file patents.

But first, according to Terry Sanger, the engineers must learn to use a stethoscope.

“Now why would they need that?” Sanger asks rhetorically. “They’re never going to be really good at it. They’re never going to use it in their future life. So why?”

He answers his own question: “They need to learn to use the stethoscope to understand why it has 100 percent market penetration – why this nearly 200-year-old device has never been supplanted. Until they understand that, they can’t possibly design devices that have meaning in the clinic.”

Fast-forward a decade. Maybe the device Goodner and Scala invented has been licensed and has found distribution. Or perhaps they developed the affordable sensing instrument, which is now synonymous with personalized care. According to Sanger, the real, qualitative impact of the health care innovations coming out of HTE@USC today will only be known in the future. “It will be looking back 10 years and saying, ‘Hey, these guys invented that thing that we all carry around with us now.’ ” He points to a more subtle but equally potent outcome of the program. As a practicing physician, Scala will never again look at a medical device without wondering, “How could this work better?” And, as a biomedical engineer, Goodner will never again look at a technology without asking what medical problem it could potentially help alleviate.

HTE@USC graduates will go out into the world pondering such questions. And, with their fluency in the languages of both medicine and engineering, they’re bound to come up with answers. ● If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

First, the engineers must learn to use a stethoscope.

[ KECK MEDICAL CENTER OF USC ]

A MEASURABLE DIFFERENCE Fritz Strobel’s heart function was so bad he couldn’t walk to the mailbox without pausing for breath. Receiving a device from USC’s Mechanical Circulatory Support program gave him much of his energy back.

USC cardiovascular surgeons are using mechanical devices to make a real difference for patients with heart failure – whether they’re waiting for a transplant or not.

Heart of aTrojan by amy e. hamaker

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

“Your husband’s heart is functioning at less than 10 percent, and he probably has, at most, about two weeks.”

That was the news Fritz Strobel’s wife, Karin, received in late May 2011. Strobel, an 80-year-old resident of Glendora, Calif., had battled heart problems for more than 20 years, undergoing bypass surgery and having a stent and a defibrillator implanted. Thanks to these procedures, life had been good and he was otherwise healthy.

Near the end of 2010, however, Strobel became pale and lost his energy, unable to walk more than 10 steps at a time. “I couldn’t even pick up my mail,” he recalls.

“I had to leave a chair between the mailbox and the front door to rest. I really thought it was the end.”

Around the same time, Tammy Lumpkins, 46, from Modesto, Calif., was looking forward to the college graduation of her son, Eddie, in December 2011. Lumpkins, who has had heart disease for nearly half her life, had been living comfortably on medication and a pacemaker while awaiting a transplant.

But in mid-2011, Lumpkins began to drastically retain fluids and became heavily fatigued as her heart failed unexpectedly. She landed in Keck Hospital of USC. Seeing her son’s graduation seemed unlikely, as her heart wasn’t expected to last that long.

The outlook for Strobel and Lumpkins was dire. But it improved for both thanks to life-saving mechanical devices they received at the Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) program, part of the Center for Advanced Heart Failure at the USC Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute. Keck Medical Center of USC cardiothoracic surgeons are working as part of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary team to make a difference for patients with both short- and long-term heart failure.

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Heart breaks According to the National Center for Health Statistics, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

The heart has right and left sides, each with an upper (atrium) and lower (ventricle) chamber. These four chambers work together to circulate blood throughout the body – the right side receives oxygen-depleted blood and sends it to the lungs, while the left side receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and distributes it to the body. When this system is interrupted due to narrowing of the arteries, heart attacks, or viruses and infections, it can lead to congestive heart failure.

Patients suffering from advanced congestive heart failure often cannot be helped by medication and usually are hospitalized multiple times. Common symptoms include overall heavy fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling of the legs, ankles and feet, and, in some cases, an inability to function. Implantable medical devices can help these failing hearts keep pumping.

USC bases its MCS program on new technology that meets individual patient needs. “We have a highly experienced team and a contemporary approach to mechanical circulatory support – we’re a cutting-edge program involved in state-of-the-art research trials,” says Michael Bowdish, director of the

MCS program and assistant professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “We use the best technology available for each clinical scenario.”

A little help All mechanical assist devices are essentially pumps that help the natural heart circulate oxygenated blood throughout the body. The difference is in the degree that they take over the heart’s work.

Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are small pumps implanted inside the chest, on or next to the heart’s left ventricle. An attached tube routes blood to the aorta, the body’s main artery. A driveline cable extends from the pump out through the skin, connecting the pump to a controller and batteries that are worn on the outside of the body.

As VAD patients’ systems receive more oxygenated blood, they quickly show improvement. “Their skin goes from pale to flushed within a day or so of the operation,” Bowdish says. “When we see them in the office a month after they go home, they’re walking on their own and are already experiencing a vastly improved quality of life. Having a VAD helps their kidneys and liver heal, helps them to think more clearly and makes them more comfortable overall.”

Due to his age, Strobel wasn’t a candidate

MECHANICAL MIRACLE Total artificial hearts replace both ventricles of the natural heart.

for a heart transplant but, at the strong urging of his family and cardiologist, had a VAD implanted on June 7, 2011, to improve his length and quality of life – treatment termed “destination therapy.”

“Now, I’m very independent; the only thing my wife does for me is change the dressing where the cable is located,” Strobel says. “I can do what I want: not heavy work, but I drive my car, run my errands, do a little bit of gardening. Our neighbors have a one-acre lot and I walk their dog around the inside of that property three times every morning, and it doesn’t wear me out.”

Although many heart failure patients don’t require more than a VAD, some patients need extra help. Lumpkins’ acute heart failure, relatively young age and severe biventricular failure made her a good candidate for a total artificial heart.

Rather than sitting next to the heart, a total artificial heart replaces both natural ventricles, which are removed. Most total artificial hearts mimic the heart’s natural rhythm, drawing and pumping blood in pulses. The devices are incredibly complex, as they must coordinate both the inflow and outflow of blood through the heart.

In the past, patients with total artificial hearts had to remain in the hospital as they waited for a donor heart to become available – the large air compressor required to keep the pumps working weighed more than 400 pounds. However, thanks to the MCS proGOING HOME Thanks to a portable compressor, Michael Bowdish was able to send Tammy Lumpkins home to await a transplant.

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P H OTO S B Y S A R A R E E V E

A step further

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT Controls for Strobel’s device fit around his waist, allowing him to take long walks with Rocky.

gram’s emphasis on emerging technology, Bowdish saw a possibility for Lumpkins to try a newly available portable compressor.

Weighing only 13.5 pounds, a portable compressor can easily be carried in a backpack, allowing patients to leave the hospital while waiting for a donor heart. Bowdish enrolled Lumpkins in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial to evaluate the compressor’s safety and use.

Lumpkins received her total artificial heart at Keck Hospital in September 2011, and on Nov. 9, 2011, she became the first person on the West Coast to go home with a total artificial heart on the new compressor.

“I was getting pretty depressed that my heart wasn’t going to get fixed,” Lumpkins remarked. “Afterward, I could actually look forward to Christmas.”

Treatment options Bowdish’s goal for USC’s MCS program is to raise awareness that mechanical treatment options exist for patients with advanced heart failure, both young and old, regardless of whether a patient is a candidate for a transplant.

“Five years ago, we didn’t have these smaller, reliable pumps, and getting the message out to patients and cardiologists continues to be a challenge,” Bowdish explains. “We’d like to identify people who might need a pump before their systems start to fail. We have a very aggressive program, but the best outcomes are obtained

before patients are near death. I’m happy to bring in patients from any area of the country and coordinate with other physicians for evaluation.

“If you have heart failure with a heart function that is less than 25 percent, your kidneys have started to fail or you’ve been admitted to the hospital twice in the last six months for heart failure exacerbations, I’d like to see you,”

he continues. “I think we can improve your quality and quantity of life.” ● For more information, or to make an appointment with physicians at USC’s Mechanical Circulatory Support program, call (323) 442-6077. To learn more about this technology, visit www.cts.usc.edu/ lvadprogram.html

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

Living History Ventricular assist devices (VADs) – miniature pumps that help the heart pump blood – may seem like 21st-century technology, but they’ve actually been around for more than 50 years.

The first fabricated VAD was implanted in a patient in 1963, although the patient didn’t survive. First-generation VADs were air-driven pulsate pumps, meaning they mimicked the pulsing of the human heartbeat. “The blood entered the pump, filling a bladder, and then air would push the bladder to pump the blood out,” explains Keck Medical Center of USC’s Michael Bowdish, who specializes in cardiac mechanical assist devices.

The VADs used today are continuous-flow pumps that move blood nonstop through the body. Continuous-flow pumps have

several advantages, including fewer moving parts (vastly improving durability); a smaller driveline cable (narrower than the diameter of a pencil today); and reduced size (making them appropriate for patients with smaller bodies). Most important, these new devices offer few complications, better survival rates and improved quality of life compared to previous technology.

The upcoming generation of VADs uses a magnetic pump that’s even smaller, fitting in the palm of the hand. “Instead of having a rotor, the pump uses a magnetically levitated system,” Bowdish says. “A magnetic field is created by the spinning of shielded magnets inside the device, providing the flow.”

FDA approval is still in the works, but,

according to Bowdish, a recent trial showed a 90 percent chance of a six-month survival rate, with infection and complication rates comparable to previous-generation VADs. USC is currently involved in a trial comparing continuousflow and magnetically levitated pumps.

A continuous power source is essential for VAD patients, and device manufacturers have been experimenting with transcutaneous power. “The current driveline cord carries a possibility of infections and breakage, so researchers are developing internal batteries that can be charged externally through the unbroken skin,” Bowdish explains. “However, we’re at least five to 10 years away from any sort of long-term solution.”

AMY E. HAMAKER

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The USC Alumni Association proudly congratulates the recipients of the 2012 USC Alumni Awards Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement Award D A N BA N E ’ 6 9

Alumni Merit Awards SEN ATO R D EA N HELLER ’ 8 5 THELMA MELÉNDEZ DE SANTA ANA PhD ’95 W I LLI A M WA N G ’ 8 6

Young Alumni Merit Award BRA N D O N BECK ’ 0 4

PRESENTED BY Classical KUSC Greenberg, Whitcombe, Takeuchi, LLP Trader Joe’s Wells Fargo

Alumni Service Awards RI CHA RD A . D EBEI KES JR . ’ 7 8 KELLY G . PUR VI S ’ 8 2 JEFFREY H. SMULYAN ’69, JD ’72

THE USC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

2012

PRESENTS

Reunion Weekend

Class of 1962 th

50 Reunion

Class of 1972 th

40 Reunion

Class of 1982 th

30 Reunion

Class of 1987 th

25 Reunion

Class of 2002 10th Reunion

Reconnect, Rediscover, Reunite NOVEMBER 9-10 ...together with Homecoming

http://alumni.usc.edu/reunion

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family ties Inspired, Empowered and Moving Forward

P H OTO S B Y S T E P H E N B L A H A A N D R I C H S C H M I T T

Featured speakers included, from left, reporter Subha Ravindhran ’01; motivational speaker Kristina Ripatti-Pearce; fashion author Christine Schwab; Olympic medalist and basketball coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke; Port of Los Angeles executive director Geraldine Knatz MS ’77, PhD ’79; and airline captain Melissa Ward ’86.

ON MARCH 1, NEARLY a thousand USC alumnae and friends attended the 2012 USC Women’s Conference, themed “Inspired and Empowered: Moving Forward.” An impressive lineup of distinguished speakers from the worlds of health, journalism, fashion and sports shared information and strategies at the daylong forum, which also featured welcoming remarks from USC first lady Niki C. Nikias, as well as the conference keynote address from USC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett.

The speakers included former USC women’s basketball greats Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and Rev. Paula McGee ’84, and ABC7 Eyewitness News reporter Subha Ravindhran ’01. Although from different backgrounds and professions, all the alumnae speakers praised USC for providing them with a nurturing and empowering environment in which to excel.

According to Bank of America executive Fung Der ’78, MBA ’79, an immigrant who grew up in Los Angeles’ inner city: “USC was a whole new world for me. There were the obvious academic opportunities, but it was engaging with students from across the

USC first lady Niki C. Nikias, center, with conference co-chairs Amy Ross PhD ’86, left, and Paula Ciaramitaro ’85

country and overseas that strengthened my interpersonal skills.”

The first woman executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, Geraldine Knatz MS ’77, PhD ’79, put it this way: “I got my first job at the Port of Los Angeles because I scored the highest on the civil service exam – a score I attribute to what I learned in my environmental engineering courses at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Having advanced degrees from USC gave me credibility with environmental regulatory agencies and environmental groups. I became known as a problem solver, which helped me advance.”

Another trailblazer, United Airlines cap-

tain Melissa Ward ’86, made history as the first African-American woman to serve as a U.S. Air Force flight instructor and as a commercial airline captain. She credits “every facet of my USC experience for preparing me for my career, the challenges I faced and the success I’ve achieved.” She added: “I learned how to be a team player, how important it was to learn, and how the Trojan Family is not just a name but a community filled with generous and successful people. I learned about pride from USC.” Paula Ciaramitaro ’85 and Amy Ross PhD ’86 co-chaired the conference host committee, made up of alumni leaders and volunteers, university senior administrators and USC Alumni Association staff. This year’s conference set a new attendance record and was notable for the number of returning attendees, some of whom have come to every conference since its launch in 2009.

When asked what inspires her to keep coming back every year, Town and Gown president-elect Carol Mollett put it simply, “You leave wanting more, spend hours reflecting on the day and mark your calendars for next year’s conference.” ● TIMOTHY O. KNIGHT

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Alumni SCene

Springtime Celebrations 2

1

4

1. SCupper with a Smile In February, 650 students attended the USC Alumni Association’s (USCAA) fourth annual Trojan SCuppers, informal gatherings organized by Society 53, USCAA’s student outreach program. Shown here is the SCupper held at the home of former USCAA Board of Governors president L’Cena Rice ’53, MS ’59 (third row, second from right), who co-hosted with USCAA Board of Governors member Christine Ofiesh ’82 (second row, left), USC Alumnae Coordinating Council member Mary Richardson ’62 (back row, center) and Trojan Club of San Pedro-Peninsula president Chris Fox (back row, second from right).

2. An Evening of Art and Legacy At the USC Black Alumni Association’s (BAA) 34th annual Scholarship Benefit on March 22, featured guests Bernard and Shirley Kinsey presented their extensive collection of African-American art

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and historical artifacts. Pictured, from left, are L.A. County supervisor Mark RidleyThomas PhD ’89; BAA executive director Michèle Turner ’81; BAA Advisory Council chair Bill Holland ’72, MPA ’74, MS ’82; BAA Outstanding Scholar Cleary Clark; the Kinseys; USCAA Board of Governors BAA representative Stephanie Farmer MHA ’95; BAA Outstanding Scholar Gina Jaqua; BAA Scholarship Committee chair Donna Gholar; and BAA Advisory Council member Lloyd McKinney ’80.

3. Honoring the Past At its 38th annual scholarship dinner on March 2, the USC Latino Alumni Association (LAA) honored one of its founding members, Richard Zapanta ’53, MD ’73, with the LAA Legacy Award.

Zapanta praised then-USC president John R. Hubbard, who created a program providing tuition assistance to Latino students in 1973.

Zapanta is flanked by LAA executive direc-

tor Domenika Lynch ’98 and Frank Cruz ’66, MS ’69, a USC trustee and member of LAA’s Corporate Advisory Council.

4. Here’s to Success To commemorate 30 years of service, the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association (APAA) on March 2 held its 2012 Scholarship Awards Gala, themed “Celebrating Success … Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”

APAA presented its 2011–12 scholars and honored four outstanding alumni. Pictured, from left, are gala co-chair Janice Tanaka ’77; USCAA Board of Governors president-elect Mitchell Lew ’83, MD ’87; USCAA Board of Governors member Melody Nishida ’78; Anh Do ’89; APAA president Rod Nakamoto ’83, MBA ’94; honorees Andy Lee ’93, Ysa Lee PharmD ’94, Fung Der ’78, MBA ’79 and Jon M. Chu ’03; gala co-chair Curtis Jung ’83; William Wang ’86; APAA senior director Grace Shiba; and presenter Rob Carlson of William Morris Endeavor. ●

P H OTO S B Y S T E P H E N B L A H A ; L E R OY H A M I LTO N ; D O N N A B A K E R ; C H U C K E S P I N O Z A

3

Alumni Give the University Some

P H OTO B Y A M Y O P O K A

Positive ‘Attitude’ EVERY TWO YEARS SINCE 2007, the USC alumni community has been asked to complete the Alumni Attitude Survey, an online questionnaire gauging their perception of USC and their USC experience. In the past decade, more than 400,000 alumni from 160 universities across the country have completed the survey, which covers five key areas: demographics, the college experience (overall, as students, as alumni) and loyalty.

More than 10,000 USC alumni responded to the 2011 survey, reflecting a cross-section of Trojans from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, age groups, school affiliations, degree levels and geographic locations. Given the number of responses, the USC Alumni Association (USCAA) is confident that the survey results are highly accurate.

In order to capture how alumni perceive their overall USC experience, questions covered what mattered most to them as students, how well they believe their degrees prepared them for all aspects of the future and the types of organizations they participated in during their college years. To assess their experience as alumni, the survey addressed the factors they considered most influential in determining their opinion of the university, the predominant way in which they keep in touch with USC (top responses being email, USC Trojan Family Magazine and the university website) and where their loyalty to USC lies. In terms of the latter, the vast majority of alumni reported a higher sense of loyalty to the university as a whole rather than to a specific school.

Trojans were also asked what is most important to them vis-à-vis alumni activities (with the leading choices being career services, networking with fellow Trojans, mentoring students and serving in leadership roles) and what services provided to them as alums most resonate with what

they need (scoring highest were email forwarding, regional events and the online alumni directory).

Never Too Old to Learn Something New THE GENERATION GAP narrowed for a few hours on the University Park campus Feb. 16, when the USC Alumni Association hosted the fourth annual Half Century Trojans Going Back to College Day. More than 150 members of the university’s senior alumni community relived their college experience at this half-day program of seminars featuring USC senior administrators, faculty and student leaders.

ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY results reveals a great deal about the Trojan Family, which can be summarized in four principal areas: • Value of and respect for their degrees.

As USC’s status as an elite research university continues to rise, so does the value of a USC degree. This is a message to which the Trojan Family is always receptive, and one that strengthens alumni ties to USC. • Career, career, career. The more alumni believe that USC has prepared them for their professional lives, the more loyal they are to the university. Younger alumni still getting their working lives off the ground say the more USC offers them in career services support, the more engaged they’re likely to be.

• Communications and services. Even if a Trojan never comes to a university or USCAA event, he or she can still feel part of the Trojan Family if communications are personal and effective and services relevant.

• Getting involved. For alumni involved with USC, interactions include, but are not limited to: joining an alumni club, keeping informed about USC, attending an alumni event, making an annual gift, volunteering in support of a USC program and serving as a USC ambassador. All these and more can turn any proud Trojan into a fully committed USC advocate and supporter.

The university and USCAA would like to thank the members of the Trojan Family who participated in the 2011 Alumni Attitude Survey. As in past years, the survey findings will prove critically important to the enhancement and development of USC’s alumni programs and services.

Like many of her fellow Half Century Trojans, Candy Duncan ’52 has attended every Going Back to College Day since its launch in 2009. For Duncan, learning is a lifelong experience: “My husband, Alan, and I go to different sessions and have fun discussing what we learned on the way home.”

One of this year’s highlights was “A Conversation with Current Student Leaders” (pictured above), moderated by Denzil Suite, associate senior vice president for student affairs.

“The enthusiasm of those speakers was contagious and reminded me how proud I am of my alma mater,” said first-time attendee Bobbie Albanese ’61.

Half Century Trojans president Terry Pearson ’53, who hosted the program luncheon, said: “I am always impressed by the spirit and enthusiasm that I observe in students interacting with one another. The future is assured because of the impressive scholarship, talent and caliber of our present-day USC students.”

ROSS M. LEVINE

TIMOTHY O. KNIGHT

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Fighting On for Those in Need Trojans worldwide put in a day of community ‘SCervice.’

The USC Alumni Club of West Los Angeles and friends partnered with Heal the Bay to help clean up Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

“The USC Alumni Day of SCervice reminds us of our alumni’s long and distinguished history of giving back ….”

MARCH 24 MARKED the launch of the USC Alumni Association’s (USCAA) first USC Alumni Day of SCervice, where Trojans from Boise, Idaho, to Cape Town, South Africa, rolled up their sleeves to volunteer for local community service projects. Held in conjunction with USC Friends and Neighbors Day and sponsored by the Science Channel, the USC Alumni Day of SCervice was the inspiration of 2011–12 USCAA Board of Governors president Lisa Barkett ’81, who wanted to create an opportunity for alumni to give back to their local communities.

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Nearly 60 alumni organizations participated in the program, which engaged more than 1,500 alumni and friends in 54 community service projects across 18 states and nine nations. Projects included sorting and packaging food at food banks in California, Illinois and Missouri; serving the homeless at a soup kitchen in Pittsburgh; cleaning up at a school in Seattle and a park in Houston; and enlivening residents of a retirement home in Shanghai. Participants were encouraged to share their SCervice stories at alumni.usc. edu/scervice, a website the USCAA created

specifically for the event.

“An integral part of our mission is building a culture of philanthropy among the Trojan Family,” says USCAA CEO Scott M. Mory. “The USC Alumni Day of SCervice reminds us of our alumni’s long and distinguished history of giving back, both to USC and their local communities and neighborhoods.”

Plans are already under way for next year’s USC Alumni Day of SCervice on March 23, 2013.

ROSS M. LEVINE

P H OTO B Y A R M A N D O B R O W N

– S C O T T M . M O R Y , USC Alumni Association CEO

“The Trojan Spirit was alive in Paris at the EPALS homeless shelter ….

Our presence and fellowship brought joy to these less fortunate Parisians.”

– L E S L I E N E L S O N C R E S S Y ’ 8 2 , USC Alumni Club of Paris president

The USC Alumni Club of Shanghai and friends helped brighten the day for residents of FaHua Elderly Center in Changning District.

P H OTO S B Y S T E P H E N B L A H A A N D J I M M Y C H A N G

Members of the USC Alumni Club of the San Gabriel Valley with Lisa Barkett ’81 (third from left) helped Habitat for Humanity build homes for low-income families in Glendale, Calif.

The USC Latino Alumni Association (LAA) and the Helping Young People Excel program brought underprivileged kids to the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. In attendance were USCAA CEO Scott M. Mory (last row, far right); USCAA Board of Governors president Lisa Barkett ’81 (center in red) and husband, Bill (second row, second from left); USCAA Board of Governors member Art M. Gastelum MPA ’81 (back row, second from left); and LAA assistant director Dolores Sotelo (left of Mory).

The USC Alumni Club of Downtown Los Angeles pitched in at Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

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class notes Topping, the Master Planner

1950s

Jack Pinsky MS ’52, MD ’57 of Orange, Calif., published his first novel, Pain Money, about a group of men who become entangled in a criminal conspiracy as they work to create a new model for chronic pain treatment.

Michael Halperin ’55 of Sherman Oaks, Calif., had a performance reading for his one-act comedies Freud at Sinai and Poor Timing at the Odyssey Stage Theatre in Durham, N.C.

1960s

Richard Levine ’62 of Chicago wrote Awakening Waves, a true account of his sailing adventures around the world. He is a retired real estate and trial lawyer and now a full-time sculptor and painter.

Adrian Ruiz ’62, MM ’64 of Lancaster, Calif., is a concert pianist who released two new recordings for Genesis Records Inc. Paul V. Bostwick ’63 and his wife, Carol,

›› 42

were honored as Citizens of the Year for the city of Anaheim, Calif., by the Cypress College Foundation.

Paul Cummins MS ’63, PhD ’67 of Santa Monica, Calif., published a collection of poems titled Under Cover.

Dale Gribow ’65 of Palm Desert, Calif., received a “Superb Rated Attorney” plaque from the Avvo legal rating service. He recently passed the gavel as president of the Trojan Club of the Desert.

Paul Morantz ’68, JD ’71 of Pacific Palisades, Calif., released Escape: My Lifelong War Against Cults, which chronicles his 30-year career as a lawyer who has specialized in cult and brainwashing cases.

Christine A. Shoemaker MS ’69, PhD

CLASS NOTES ALSO APPEARS ONLINE. READ NEWS ABOUT EACH GRADUATE AT tfm.usc.edu/classnotes SEND US YOUR NEWS AT classnotes@usc.edu

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’71 was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. She is the Joseph P. Ripley Professor of Engineering at Cornell University in New York.

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F U S C U N I V E R S I T Y A R C H I V E S

“THE FATHER OF THE MODERN USC” – that’s how Steven B. Sample, the university’s 10th president, characterized his predecessor Norman H. Topping in the latter’s 1997 obituary in the Los Angeles Times. USC’s seventh president recognized as early as 1958 that the university must transform itself into a research powerhouse. Topping’s strategy? Launch an outrageously ambitious fundraising initiative: the 1961 Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education. The campaign brought in more than $106 million, half of which was designated for new facilities. So extraordinary was this effort that it attracted the attention of the president of the United States. On May 16, 1961, John F. Kennedy sent a telegram to Topping: “You are to be congratulated for having so intensively planned your future and for undertaking this important venture,” Kennedy wrote. Topping enlisted visionary architect William L. Pereira, who taught at the USC School of Architecture, to reconfigure the University Park campus. The plan called for replacing the existing 78 acres, which was crisscrossed by city streets, with an expanded 138-acre pedestrian campus. Academic recognition swiftly followed. In 1969, USC was elected to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Topping’s ambitious course continues to this day under President C. L. Max Nikias, whose $6 billion Campaign for the University of Southern California aims to make USC the preeminent research university of the 21st century. ●

alumni profile ’96

1970s

At Home With His Music

Sadrollah Alborzi ’70 was selected as a member of the review board of the International Journal of Management. He worked in the oil and petrochemical industries of Iran for more than three decades.

Douglas Shinsato ’70, MBA ’72 of Kamuela, Hawaii, translated and published the autobiography For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, about the Japanese leader who turned to peace in the second half of his life.

Joseph Aguerrebere ’72, MS ’75, EdD ’86 of Falls Church, Va., was awarded a distinguished service award by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

He currently serves as president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

John F. Shirey MPA ’73 was appointed city manager of the city of Sacramento. Previously, he served as executive director of the California Redevelopment Association.

Linda Bannister MS ’76, PhD ’82 co-wrote Turpentine Jake, a full-length play about life in Florida’s Turpentine camps in the 1930s.

She is an English professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Heidrun Mumper-Drumm ’77, MS ’78 of Pasadena, Calif., received the Great Teacher Award for 2011 from Art Center College of Design, where she serves as a professor of design and director of sustainability initiatives.

P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y O F PA N I C S T U D I O, L . A .

Francesca Ruiz de Luzuriaga MBA ’78 of Rancho Mirage, Calif., was elected to the board of directors for SCAN Health Plan.

She works as a business development consultant assisting organizations with multiple aspects of business startups and product innovation.

Debbie Chinn ’79 was appointed executive director of the Carmel Bach Festival, an annual music festival held in Carmel, Calif.

Previously, she served as a management consultant with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Film composer, jazz pianist and recording artist Greg Reitan ’96 makes his living doing what he loves – writing and performing music. But Reitan is also an architecture buff, and he gets to live in his dream house – the prototype Concept 2 modular home designed in 1968 by California modernist architect J. Lamont Langworthy.

Remarkably, Reitan has found a way to blend his two passions, turning the historic prefab into an acoustically sublime recording studio where his jazz trio has produced three successful albums for Sunnyside Records.

It began serendipitously, 13 years ago.

“My wife and I were looking for a house,” says Reitan, who is married to urban planning graduate Meredith Drake MPL ’04, PhD ’10, USC’s assistant dean of graduate fellowships.

“This had been listed as an artist’s retreat in Pasadena. So we just decided to go take a look.

And we fell in love.”

It wasn’t until Reitan moved his piano into the living room that the house’s recording potential became evident. The rough-sawn redwood interior reverberates minimally, providing an acoustic warmth perfect for performing intimate live jazz.

Last year, Reitan’s trio – made up of Reitan and fellow USC Thornton School of Music graduates Jack Daro MM ’99 (bass) and Dean Koba MM ’93 (drums) – recorded their third album, Daybreak, in the house. A mix of new music by Reitan and reinterpreted standards, the album is winning critical praise. The trio’s previous two albums, Antibes (2010) and Some Other Time (2009), also were recorded in Reitan’s home, as will be their next project, for release later this year.

The one-bedroom house consists of two 12- by 40-foot prefabricated modules, joined down the middle by a wooden truss. “When we’re recording, it’s a fairly simple setup,” Reitan says.

“We use the natural acoustics of the house. We don’t multitrack. There’s no mixing stage involved. The performance we record is it. It’s very real.”

A Seattle native, Reitan came to USC in 1991 as a jazz-performance major. He later switched to composition, studying with Stephen Hartke, Frank Ticheli and Erica Muhl. In his senior year, he completed a graduate certificate in film scoring under the tutelage of Elmer Bernstein and David Raksin.

When not recording or touring with his trio, Reitan is a successful film composer whose credits include Bark! (2002), which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and Dumbarton Bridge (1999), winner of the grand prize for best score at the Rhode Island Film Festival. He also owns a music production company, writing cues for news and sports programs on MSNBC and CNN. Incidentally, Langworthy is still designing homes; his firm is based in northern California. In 2006, a retrospective of his work was featured at the Laguna Art Museum, where Reitan met and struck up a friendship with the architect. Turns out they have a lot in common. “He’s a really big jazz fan,” Reitan says. “When he lived in Laguna in the early ’60s, Lamont was very heavily tied into the art and music scene.”

DIANE KRIEGER

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JOIN THE USC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION as we kick off our

2012

FOOTBALL

WEEKENDERS IN NEW YORK!

USC TROJANS VS. THE SYRACUSE ORANGE GREAT WEEK END FOUR ER USC vs. Syracuse

S !

Saturday, September 8

Saturday, September 8

USC vs. Stanford Saturday, September 15

For complete information on all our Weekender events, please visit our website or call (213) 740-2300.

http://alumni.usc.edu/football

USC vs. Washington Saturday, October 13

USC vs. Arizona Saturday, October 27

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Fight On!

alumni profile ’66

1980s

Don Burdge ’80 of Los Angeles received the Ben Franklin Executive of the Year Award from the Printing Industries Association Inc. of Southern California. He is president of BurdgeCooper, an engraving and small-format commercial printing company.

Kimberly Kistler Davidson ’80 merged her law and mediation practice into Brandmeyer Gilligan Dockstader & Davidson LLP, a family law firm based in Long Beach and Manhattan Beach, Calif. She is a partner who oversees the mediation and collaborative law department.

Joyce Carter ’82 is chief financial officer of Grinbath LLC, a technology startup that builds affordable research and assistive solutions, such as the EyeGuide Eye Tracker and Assist. She also serves as director of graduate studies for the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University.

James T. Blomo ’84 was appointed superior court judge for Maricopa County by Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. Previously, he served as a superior court commissioner on the criminal court bench for eight years.

Carl F. Olsen EdD ’84, superintendent of the Fruitvale School District in Bakersfield, Calif., for the past 25 years, has announced his retirement after nearly four decades in the field of education. He has served on the Dean’s Superintendent Advisory Group at the USC Rossier School of Education and has been an adjunct professor at USC, Point Loma Nazarene University and California State University, Bakersfield.

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F H E L E N E W I N E R

Adam Scaffer ’84, MA ’86 of Sherman Oaks, Calif., was appointed publisher of Via Satellite and SatelliteTODAY.com at Access Intelligence LLC, a global information and marketing company. Previously, he served as president of Media Revenue Partners, a media sales and consulting firm.

Kenneth R. Brown Jr. ’86 of Granite Bay, Calif., was recognized for 20 years of service with MillerCoors, formerly Miller Brewing

Curating Controversy As the young director of Pomona College’s Museum of Art in the early 1970s, Helene Winer ’66 made tongues wag with her avant-garde curating. Work she introduced ranged from William Leavitt’s seminal installation California Patio – a replica of a mid-century patio complete with a sliding-glass door – to the performance art of Chris Burden, who launched bundles of lit matches at a nude woman across the gallery.

Controversial? Sure. But for Winer that wasn’t the point. “I was just looking for the best artists I could find. I may have caused a little trouble, but I don’t think I was ever challenging the establishment. It was just art, speaking its mind.”

Winer has spent the subsequent decades shaping contemporary art in Los Angeles and New York. The institution where she established her reputation recognized her in its recent exhibition, It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973. The show was part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, a multi-institution collaboration depicting Southern California’s emergence as a major force in the art world.

A native Angeleno, Winer began her trailblazing career by studying art history at USC in the early 1960s. “The thing to do at the time for a young woman was to teach art in high school, but I didn’t want to do that,” Winer recalls.

After graduation, she headed to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which had opened its doors on Wilshire Boulevard the previous year. “I said I would do anything, work for free,” she says. Her enthusiasm proved persuasive, and she was hired as a curatorial assistant.

After two years at LACMA, Winer decided to bum around Europe. She ended up landing a job as assistant director of the renowned Whitechapel Gallery in London, where she immersed herself in contemporary European art.

In 1970, she returned to Southern California and landed her career-making position at Pomona. Even though she had built a solid résumé by then, Winer says of being hired, “It was pretty astonishing, especially since they had zero women on the full-time faculty at that time.”

Besides working with Burden and Leavitt while at Pomona, Winer cultivated the careers of John Baldessari, who pioneered conceptual art and recently had a major retrospective at LACMA, and William Wegman, the photographer well known for his works with Weimaraner dogs.

After leaving Pomona, Winer decamped for New York City, where she became a leading figure in the downtown art scene that bred the work of up-and-coming – and often controversial – artists. She directed one of the movement’s leading galleries, Artists Space, before teaming with fellow curator Janelle Reiring in 1980 to start a new gallery, Metro Pictures, in SoHo. At that time, there were few places where talented but relatively unknown artists could show their work. That quickly changed thanks to curators like Winer, who propelled the careers of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo and Troy Brauntuch, all of whom were featured prominently in a 2009 exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art called The Pictures Generation.

Still co-owner of Metro Pictures, Winer admits that since her days at Pomona she has evolved from being viewed as a rabble-rousing outsider to the ultimate insider. But those labels don’t concern her. Her focus today remains as clear as when she was making waves in the early 1970s: “I’m just looking for the very best artists I can find.”

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Co., and Coors Brewing Co. He also won the Sales Enabler Award at the national meeting for MillerCoors in Las Vegas.

dedicated to helping single-parent families in financial need. He lives in Hidden Hills, Calif.

story of a freed slave who returns to Virginia at the onset of the Civil War to spy on the Confederates. She lives in Portland, Ore.

Brenda (Flores) Felling ’86 was one of

Julia M. Siebel MA ’94, PhD ’99 was

three teachers honored as Anaheim City (Calif.) School District’s Teacher of the Year and will participate in the Orange County Teacher of the Year selection this fall. She has been a teacher for 25 years.

appointed executive director of National Charity League Inc., a mother-daughter membership organization. Previously, she served as vice president for volunteer development and regional mission delivery with the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles.

Tyson Beem ’97 was named a partner at Gelfand, Rennert and Feldman LLP, a Los Angeles-based accounting firm specializing in business and personal financial management and tax preparation for entertainers, executives and select high net worth individuals.

James M. Tucker MS ’86 retired as dean of Keith Calmes DMA ’95 collaborated with Dutch composer Chiel Meijering on Asbury Lanes, an album featuring his electric guitar along with Meijering’s original compositions and sequences.

Calmes teaches guitar at Wall High School in New Jersey.

Paul Chabot MPA ’99 of Rancho

Mark Carmer ’92 founded Extended

Lois Leveen MA ’95 released her first novel,

Family, a nonprofit charitable organization

The Secrets of Mary Bowser, which tells the

Ryan Hollis ’99, senior vice president at Quiksilver Inc. of Huntington Beach, Calif.

library and student-learning support services from Fresno City College in December. He lives in Hanford, Calif.

1990s

October 18 – 20, 2012 The Laguna Resort & Spa Nusa Dua-Bali www.marshallpacrimforum.com Join 250 alumni and friends from 15 Pacific Rim economies in Bali, Indonesia for the inaugural Marshall Pacific Rim Business Forum. This two-day networking event will connect and engage international alumni, faculty and friends of the USC Marshall School of Business. The Forum will feature panel discussions with 50 key business leaders sharing their Pacific Rim corporate experiences, networking opportunities and cultural activities.

C O N TAC T:

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ciber@usc.edu or (213) 740 7130

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summer 2012

Cucamonga, Calif., wrote Eternal Battle Against Evil: A Comprehensive Strategy to Fight Terrorists, Drug Cartels, Pirates, Gangs & Organized Crime. He is an Iraq War veteran and serves as a military intelligence officer.

Strength to move forward.

Move beyond breast cancer and get on with the things you love.

The USC team of breast cancer experts offers a variety of diagnosis and treatment options.

Call (323) 865-3452 today.

KeckMedicalCenterofUSC.org/breastcancer 1500 San Pablo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033

Fight On.

In two days, put a start to the end of back pain.

Chronic back pain isn’t something you have to live with.

The Back and Spine Center at the Keck Medical Center of USC can provide you with personalized treatment for a long-term solution to your neck or back pain. Within 48 hours, you can have an appointment with one of our nationally known specialists. You’ll have access to an entire team of experts: experienced doctors, pain management specialists, and therapists—all in one, convenient location—all dedicated to fixing your bad back. Call today for an appointment in 48 hours.

Fight On.

KeckMedicalCenterofUSC.org

1-800-USC-CARE

1500 San Pablo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033 48

U S C T R O JA N FA M I LY M AG A Z I N E

summer 2012

and general manager of Mervin Manufacturing in Seattle, accepted the Brand of the Year award at the Agenda Trade Show in Southern California.

Mark Sundeen MPW ’99 is the author of The Man Who Quit Money, a true story about Daniel Suelo who has lived for more than a decade without money, credit, barter or government hand-outs in a quest to fulfill his vision of the good life. Sundeen splits his time between Missoula, Mont., and Moab, Utah.

2000s

Jared Yeager ’02 of Culver City, Calif., joined mobile game publisher Beeline Interactive Inc., as director of product development. Previously, he served as lead producer for Social Gaming Network.

Shefali Rajamannar MA ’03, PhD ’09 wrote Reading the Animal in the Literature of the British Raj, which explores representations of animals during British rule in India.

She is a lecturer at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Tupelo Hassman ’04 of Oakland, Calif., published her first novel, GirlChild, about Rory Dawn Hendrix, a sassy young girl growing up in the Calle, a cluster of mobile homes on a plot of dust outside Reno, Nev.

Louis R. Reyes ’02 is a communication officer at the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office. Previously, he served as a consultant with Sen. Ron Calderon.

Brett Marz ’04 of Los Angeles is a partner at Bamko, a brand-building marketing firm, manufacturing network and distribution

system with offices in India, China, Brazil and throughout the United States. He and his partner started the company when they were freshmen at USC.

Joseph Rivera EdD ’04 of Pico Rivera, Calif., was named school board president of the El Rancho Unified School District.

Erin M. Jacobson ’05 published her second article titled “360 Deals and the Talent Agencies Act: Are Record Labels Procuring Employment?” in the law review Entertainment and Sports Lawyer. She is a music and entertainment attorney in Los Angeles.

Jerry Gargus EdD ’06, principal of Schmitt Elementary School in Westminster, Calif., was named the 2012 Administrator of the Year by the Westminster Educational Leadership Association and Westminster School District.

the campaign for the University of Southern California FA S R E G N A T R O J A E

Please call or make a gift online:

Give today.

It doesn’t matter what year you were born or what year you graduated from USC. We all share a love for cardinal and gold. Participate today.

That’s how families thrive!

USC Office of Annual Giving (213) 740-7500 Toll Free: 877 GIVE USC https://giveto.usc.edu

https://giveto.usc.edu

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Tom Prieto MBT ’07 wrote an article titled “Tax-Advantaged Dividends,” his third one for the monthly journal Practical Tax Strategies. He lives in Valencia, Calif.

Gina Gribow ’08, president of Law Students for Reproductive Justice at University of California, Hastings College of Law, presented the play The Vagina Monologues.

She is in her second year at Hastings and will work for Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP this summer.

Laura (Giles) Rath ’00, MS ’02 and

BIRTHS

Steve Rath, a daughter, Audrey Eva

Christine (Kralovansky) Wahl-Dukes ’91 and Rick Dukes, a son, Saxon Christopher.

He joins brothers Austin, Tristan, Eli and Cooper, and sisters Madison and Georgia

Tamara (Stoffels) Fleishman ’01 and Matthew Fleishman ’01, a son, Samuel.

He is the nephew of Sara (Fleishman) Nelson ’02

Douglas Rothschild ’92 and Kim Levy

Christopher Cagle ’02 and Jill Cagle, a son,

MPA ’95, a daughter, Talia Violeta Elisheva.

She joins brother, Levi Zachary

Carson William. He is the great-grandson of George Brokaw MS ’58 and grandson of William Workman MPA ’78

Tameron Hulbert Ricker ’94 and Todd Ricker ’94, a son, Gadsden Todd. He joins sisters Reagan and Quincy

MARRIAGES

Ilysha Adelstein Buss ’96 and Eric Buss, Tracy Wallace ’84 and William Gifford Jr.

a son, Demetri Edison

Albert Y. Wong ’86 and Bukong Dasai

Christopher P. Van Slyke MBA ’98 and Klair Van Slyke ’05, a daughter,

Karl Schulz ’99 and Jane Rosenberg.

Katherine Klair

Cindy (Lamb) Kalionzes ’04 and Alex Kalionzes, a daughter, Amelia Shelbun Cheng MS ’05 and Alina Bedrossian MS ’06, a son, Maarten Bedrossian

Nathan Vooys MBA ’08, a son, Henry Robertson. He joins brother, Lucas.

Trojans 𰁱 Scholars 𰁱 Alumni Connect with Your Trojan Heritage The USC Black Alumni Association brings together Trojans from across generations of graduating classes to support students, provide networking and leadership opportunities, and celebrate our proud history.

Learn more online at usc.edu/baa.

Black Alumni Association A division of USC Student Affairs

Pictured, bottom right: Rev. Dr. Thomas Kilgore, Jr., founder, USC Black Alumni Association

NETWORKING

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MENTORING

U S C T R O JA N FA M I LY M AG A Z I N E

summer 2012

SCHOLARSHIP DONORS

LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS

ROLE MODELS

in memoriam

ALUMNI

Gary L. Ray

Anca Monalisa Gheorghe

DDS ’58, La Mesa, Calif.; July 17, at the age of 76

MM ’96, Yucaipa, Calif.; Nov. 27, at the age of 55

Sara “Sally” Baggott Severy ’42, Nashville, Tenn.; Feb. 25, at the age of 92

Murray Rose ’62, Sydney; April 15, at the age of 73

FA C U LT Y, S TA F F & F R I E N D S

Patricia May Cleland Conn ’48, Sandy Springs, Ga.; Jan. 8, at the age of 85

Dorothy Veronica Fischer

Albert Brecht Los Angeles; March 26, at the age of 65

Patricia Alexandra Webb Grigsby

MS ’63, ME ’64, Newport Beach, Calif.; Feb. 10, at the age of 92

’48, Sun City West, Ariz.; March 5, at the age of 88

Jeanne Moore

John Bussio ’49, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.; Jan. 24, at the age of 90

Richard Carl Gripp MA ’49, PhD ’54, La Mesa, Calif.; Oct. 6, at the age of 88

Gordon C. Green MA ’50, PhD ’59, San Antonio; Nov. 3, at the age of 89

Carl Quimby Christol MM ’65, DMA ’70, Charleston, W.Va.; Jan. 11, at the age of 79

Hiroyoshi Shimono MS ’65, DDS ’59, Long Beach, Calif.; July 29, at the age of 75

Santa Barbara, Calif.; Feb. 22, at the age of 98

Bill Correy MD ’59, Arcadia, Calif.; Feb. 18, at the age of 81

Thomas C. Cox Pasadena, Calif.; Dec. 9, at the age of 72

Herold A. Sherman DBA ’66, Haleiwa, Hawaii; Jan. 28, at the age of 84

Charles “Chuck” O’Regan Palos Verdes, Calif.; March 9, at the age of 62

Sumio Matsuda PhD ’67, Los Angeles; July 27, at the age of 82

Stuart Parsons

Kenneth Martin Price ’57, Arroyo Hondo, N.M.; Feb. 24, at the age of 77

MA ’50, PhD ’58, Saratoga, Calif.; Dec. 22, at the age of 85

Janet Lincoln Carrington Bale

Stewart H. W. “Tike” Tinsman

Chester Wade Kaufman

’50, MS ’54, Bethesda, Md.; Feb. 6, at the age of 85

DDS ’68, Long Beach, Calif.; Nov. 30, at the age of 67

Mitzi Tsujimoto

Jay Martin Sedlik

Nancy E. Wood

PhD ’69, Encino, Calif.; Dec. 10, at the age of 73

Camarillo, Calif.; Nov. 22, at the age of 89. ●

ME ’68, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Sept. 12, at the age of 74

Junior Seau Oceanside, Calif.; May 2, at the age of 43 Pasadena, Calif.; Jan. 23, at the age of 84

Jack Lionel Warner ’52, Sea Ranch, Calif.; Jan. 17, at the age of 84

Kenneth R. Brown ’53, Los Angeles; Jan. 6, at the age of 81

Pamela Towery ’76, La Cañada, Calif.; Jan. 21, at the age of 57

Darrach G. “Rick” Taylor ’55, Huntington Beach, Calif; Feb. 8, at the age of 77

Rita R. Teves MS ’78, PhD ’84, Los Angeles; Dec. 25, at the age of 79

››

READ THE OBITUARIES OF THESE MEMBERS OF THE TROJAN FAMILY AT

tfm.usc.edu/memoriam

Frank Christian “Chris” Hansen ’58, Point Loma, Calif.; Dec. 16, 2010, at the age of 74

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trojan tribute In Memory of Ying Wu and Ming Qu The entire Trojan Family mourns the loss of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, electrical-engineering graduate students from China whose lives were tragically cut short on April 11. Trojans worldwide join these students’ families and friends in honoring their memories. Their dreams will live on at USC through the Ming Qu and Ying Wu Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Ying Wu, a 23-year-old native of China’s Hunan province, was known for her optimism, kindness and love of learning. At a USC memorial service on April 18, Wu’s friend Jing Ye said in a eulogy: “I don’t dare to believe that this has actually happened. You are such a wonderful girl – how dare fate take you? When we saw each other’s dedication in studying, we would cheer each other up, and we would get through it together. You once said that sunshine would vaporize all worries. You would not give up or complain when facing challenges. You held the greatest hope for the future. I believe that you have turned into the sunshine you once loved, delivering light from the sky to us.”

Ming Qu, 23, came from Jilin province and was known as a dedicated student and a devoted son to his parents, who, together with Wu’s parents, attended the memorial service. Qu’s friend Biao Yang recounted their time as undergraduates in Beijing, dreaming of studying in the United States. When they became graduate students at USC, they shared a small room because, Yang said, Qu insisted they “save money earned by our parents’ hard work.” In his eulogy, Yang addressed his friend: “You chatted with your mother every two days, talking to her about those little things in life. I could feel your deep love for your parents. Do not worry. We will take care of your parents. We will complete your goals that you were not able to realize.”

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The race isn’t over until there’s a cure.

Last year, 28,000 men died from prostate cancer and more than 241,700 new cases were diagnosed.

Today, 2.5 million live with the disease.

Your contribution supports our race toward a cure for prostate cancer.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

USC UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS Register to run in the LA Prostate Cancer 5K at USC.edu /esvp (code : L APC5K) Like

Get updates on the run by liking the LA Prostate Cancer 5K on Facebook.

For more information visit USCUrology.com or call (323) 865-3700. To make a donation, text “USC” to 37284.

Fight On.

USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790

non-profit organization u.s. postage paid university of southern california

Change Service Requested

The new name in world-class medicine.

The University of Southern California’s (USC) renowned doctors and nationally ranked hospitals have a new name: Keck Medical Center of USC. Our new name is a symbol of USC’s commitment to change lives through the spark of scientific discovery and the healing power of compassion. This innovative team includes the newly renamed Keck Hospital of USC (formerly USC University Hospital), USC Norris Cancer Hospital, and 500 faculty physicians of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The Keck Medical Center of USC brings hope back to health care, connecting patients with some of the brightest medical minds in the country.

KeckMedicalCenterofUSC.org | 1-800-USC-CARE 1500 San Pablo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033

Fight On.