USC Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2021

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THE INNOVATION ISSUE FROM BIONIC SUITS TO ROBOTS, SEE HOW TROJANS ARE DESIGNING OUR FUTURE.

Some 17 months after pandemic health measures left the University Park Campus quiet and still, enthusiastic crowds returned.

More than 26,000 students and faculty, staff and family members gathered for convocation in August, marking the start of students’ academic journeys.

PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE

scene

EDITOR’S NOTE

The magazine of the

University of Southern California ————————————— E DI TO R-I N- CHI EF

Alicia Di Rado

CRE AT I VE DI RE CTO R

Jane Frey

M ANAGI NG E DI TO R

Elisa Huang

ASSO CI AT E E DI TO R

Eric Lindberg

PRO DUCT I O N M ANAG E R

Mary Modina

I NT E RACT I VE CO NT E NT MANAG E R

K Selnick

STAF F PHOTO GRAP H E R

Gus Ruelas

I NT E RACT I VE M ARKE T I NG MANAG E R

Rod Yabut ————————————— DE SI GN AND PRO DU CT IO N

Pentagram —————————————

Back to School, At Last Students zip along Trousdale on their skateboards, heading for class at Annenberg Hall.

Two juniors sprawl on a lawn with their laptops to work on a marketing project. A young man on Hahn Plaza asks passersby to stop and sign his petition. It’s urgent, he pleads.

The scene plays out every autumn as the university reawakens. But this fall is special. For thousands of students and faculty and staff members, it marks the first time since March 2020 that they’ve walked by the football practice field or stood in line for chai lattes at the Tutor Center. If you’re like me and you feel nostalgic when you hear college students practicing the tuba or arguing about free will, the post-pandemic era is a terrific time to be on campus.

During COVID-19, video conference calls, remote classes and webinars kept our university alive and vibrant. They can’t reproduce the experience of walking into a professor’s lab or touching the creations of design students, though. This is where innovation happens, in the magical moments when a postdoc asks her mentor an off-thewall question or a few professors hatch a plan for a research grant over cups of coffee.

In the pages of this issue, you’ll explore some of the innovative ideas happening across USC. Reinvigorated, we’re coming together to solve problems big and small in ways that only research universities can. I hope these stories make you proud to be part of the Trojan Family.

CO NT RI BUTO RS

Steve Cimino

Margaret Crable Russ Ono Ed Sotelo

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Alicia Di Rado Editor-in-Chief USC Trojan Family Magazine

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Autumn 2021

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE MCQUADE

Big bubbles, books and balmy days greet Trojans coming back to campus.

INSIDE

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Elise Haukenes is among the students using the arts to push for climate action. (More on p. 32.)

Seen and Heard Stories of Trojan life from mail, email, social media and the news.

Five Things You Need to Know It's hard to imagine living without some of these innovations created by alums and researchers.

T R O J A N

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News New student centers encourage cultural connections; Trojan leaders make political history; and students bring native plants to the University Park Campus.

10 Comic Relief

By Elisa Huang A visual storytelling class draws students into new worlds.

14 Robots!

By Eric Lindberg Need a hand? Take a look at some bots that might help you out in the not-too-distant future.

F E AT U R E S

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An Equal Shot

When COVID-19 hit L.A.’s most vulnerable, USC was there. By Gustavo Solis

Body Builders

ROBOT PHOTO BY TERI WEBER; DANCER PHOTO BY YOLANDA MARIE

26 FA M I LY

43 Alumni News

Seven outstanding Trojans earn top honors; an alum turns a struggling dot-com into a success story; and the Trojan Knights celebrate 100 years of service.

64 Back in Time

World War II transformed student life—and USC’s future.

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It’s no fantasy: Researchers are testing an exoskeleton that aims to bring mobility to paralyzed patients. Take a peek at the new bionics revolution. By Sarah Nightingale

Art to Save the Planet

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Students tap into artistic solutions to fight climate change. By Elisa Huang and Gustavo Solis

Compassion by Design

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Technology has been blamed for increasing social divides. Can it bring us back together instead? By Beth Newcomb usc trojan family

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Musings about Trojan life and USC Trojan Family Magazine from mail, email and the online world.

SEEN AND HEARD

THIS CIVILIAN LIFE

Twenty-six students representing seven USC schools received a challenge: split into teams and create a solution to help refugees caught up in the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. A documentary film crew recorded what happened next.

The students took part in “Innovation in Engineering Design for Global Challenges,” a course at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that sends graduate and undergraduate students to areas facing global crises. The teams have only two semesters and $6,000 each to improve sanitation, shelters, electricity, mental health, education, security and access to information.

The documentary Lives Not Grades follows students as they head to a camp in Moria, Greece, where they partner with refugees to create portable showers, insulated jackets, water carriers and more. The film, which premiered on PBS in June, offers a candid look at the innovation process, the importance of learning from failure and the role of technology and education in our changing world.

Watch it online at uscne.ws/LivesNotGrades.

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LIVES NOT GRADES IMAGE BY KIRK DOUPONCE; WAHRENBERG PHOTO COURTESY OF JEWISH INTERACTIVE MUSEUM OF CHILE; GREBENSCHIKOFF PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER GREBENSCHIKOFF; VIDEO CALL IMAGE COURTESY OF USC SHOAH FOUNDATION; UNITED STATES OF AL IMAGE COURTESY OF CBS ©2021 CBS BROADCASTING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Beyond Classrooms

The CBS sitcom United States of Al follows two men adjusting to civilian life in America—one is a Marine combat veteran and the other is an interpreter who served with him in Afghanistan. It’s a show with some Trojan flavor. Among the USC connections: David Goetsch, one of the show’s producers and a USC School of Cinematic Arts adjunct professor; and Chase Millsap MPP ’16, a writer and consultant who served three tours in Iraq. Josh Emerson MSW ’21 also lent his expertise to the show’s writing team, giving insight on the struggles that relocated interpreters face. A U.S. Army veteran, Emerson was a case worker with No One Left Behind, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting interpreters who serve with American soldiers. Though the show is fictional, the creative team hopes to both entertain and raise awareness about veterans and relocated interpreters. Says Millsap: “It’s about creating content that matters for people.”

Friends Forever The last time Anne Marie Wahrenberg (top) and Ilse Grebenschikoff saw each other, the best friends were 8 years old. It was spring 1939 in Berlin; shortly afterward, their families fled Germany, driven out by the escalating violence of the Nazi regime.

Wahrenberg and her parents departed for Chile.

The Grebenschikoffs headed to China. The two girls lost contact until a dedicated archivist at USC Shoah Foundation—The Institute for Visual History reunited them after 80 years.

The archivist, Ita Gordon, made the connection after hearing Wahrenberg mention a long-lost best friend during an online panel.

Inspired, Gordon scoured the foundation’s archives for clues­—and eventually located the once-little girl Wahrenberg had never forgotten. The friends met online, with Grebenschikoff calling from New Jersey and Wahrenberg from Santiago, Chile. It only took minutes for them to hit it off again. “Even after all these years,” Wahrenberg says, “it feels like we never stopped talking.” The heartwarming reunion story was featured in The Washington Post, the Tampa Bay Times, Global News and more.

Autumn 2021

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Creative Masterminds

The next time you go online, you might want to thank some Trojan geniuses. They laid the foundation for modern computing and the digital age.

But why stop there? Here are five things you should know about innovations from USC researchers and alumni that advanced technology, health and more.

CYBER STARTER

In 1972, ISI scientists created an interface for ARPANET, the U.S. Department of Defense’s experimental computer network. ARPANET paved the way for what’s now known as—drumroll, please—the internet.

CANCER CURER

If you or a loved one went through chemotherapy to fight diseases like breast or colon cancer, you’ve probably heard of the drug fluorouracil, or 5-FU. But you might not know that one of its creators was the late Charles Heidelberger, a researcher at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Discovered in 1957, 5-FU is still one of the most commonly used cancer drugs.

BOING BOING

After playing tennis or basketball for a few hours, spare a thought for product developer Michael Bergmann ’83 —especially if you wear Nike shoes. The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences alum was behind XDR, a highly durable rubber compound still used today in footwear with that trademark swoosh.

LET’S TALK

PHOTOS BY ISTOCK

When you chat with the kids over Skype, you’re using VoIP, or voice over internet protocol. VoIP was the brainchild of the late Danny Cohen, longtime researcher at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI).

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BUY, BUY, BUY

Nowadays, you can pay for a novel or contribute to a friend’s Kickstarter with a mouse click, but it wasn’t always so simple. That easy online transfer of money goes back to NetCash and NetCheque, the world’s first secure online payment systems, which were devised by ISI researchers. usc trojan family

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SCR EEN LEGENDS

Celebrate Nine Decades of Cinematic Arts History

As the school hits 90, it’s about much more than movies.

3 min read # Arts, University, Cinematic Arts, USC History

Get USC stories on your phone or laptop.

Sign up at trojanfamily.usc.edu/subscribe for our monthly e-newsletter.

It’s all at trojanfamily.usc.edu

OPEN DOORS

TROJAN

PHOTO BY LYNN PELKEY

Room 100 at the Student Union is home to the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, one of seven new or remodeled spaces for students.

Learn more about these spaces on p. 8.

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Room to Grow

Many USC students have new spots where they can hang out—and find a place to belong—this semester.

CENTER FOR BLACK CULTURAL AND STUDENT AFFAIRS The newly updated space in the Student Union aims to create an Afrocentric, ho-

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listic learning environment that supports academic, personal and social development for all members of the USC community.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND PASIFIKA STUDENT LOUNGE Students who identify as Native American or Pasifika now have their own spot in the Student Union to connect and learn.

ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN STUDENT SERVICES Students from Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi communities seeking mentorship, cross-cultural programs and leadership development can find like-minded Trojans here.

FIRST-GEN + SUCCESS CENTER This expansive space in the Tutor Cam-

pus Center welcomes Trojans who are the first in their family to attend college, as well as transfer students, former foster youth and undocumented students.

MIDDLE EASTERN AND NORTH AFRICAN STUDENT LOUNGE This new culture-affirming space, located in the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, supports and promotes Middle Eastern and North African identities.

LGBTQ+ STUDENT CENTER Students who are interested in LGBTQ+ support, education, advocacy and community building can head to the Student Union to unwind and talk with others in an updated lounge.

ALICIA DI R ADO

Autumn 2021

PHOTO BY LYNN PELKEY

Sometimes you need a place to relax and call your own. That’s part of the thinking behind the remodeled USC cultural centers and new student lounges that opened this fall on the University Park Campus.

In these comfy spaces, Trojans can set up meetings, organize activities or hear a visiting speaker. They might talk with a counselor, take a break to meet friends or relax. Designed to bridge across many identities and cultures, the spaces encourage a sense of belonging and well-being for students, whether they’re LGBTQ+, first generation, Black or Asian American—or their allies.

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Triple Header USC’s three newest deans take on arts, tech and policy.

THE CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVER

Emily Roxworthy has tackled complex issues of diversity and race throughout her career as a performer and higher education leader. When the chance came to take the lead of USC’s drama program, the timing seemed right.

“This opportunity is unparalleled,” she says. “Both the theater and Hollywood are in the midst of a social justice movement, and the USC School of Dramatic Arts is perfectly situated to empower its students through creativity and the performing arts.”

Roxworthy was most recently associate dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California, San Diego, where she also served as vice chair of its Department of Theatre and Dance. She holds a degree in performance studies and English literature from Northwestern University, a master’s in theatre arts from Cornell University and a doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern.

THE DISRUPTOR

Throughout his career, Thanassis Rikakis has sought to break down barriers among academic disciplines. That makes the educator and researcher a great fit as the new dean of the USC Iovine and Young Academy, which aims to spark disruption in the arts and technology and the business of innovation.

“Creating a space for people who learn differently is going to be a major goal for education in the 21st century, whether at the college level or the high school level,” he says. “Those people can be catalysts for how we expand the knowledge vocabulary.”

Prior to USC, Rikakis taught bioengineering and performing arts at Virginia Tech and served as the university’s executive vice president and provost. He is a musician, engineer and artist who was born in Greece, studied in the United Kingdom and earned degrees in music composition at Ithaca College and Columbia University.

THE POLICY EXPERT

To change society on a broad scale, one of the most effective and useful tools is public policy. Dana Goldman knows its power, having helped guide policy discussions on critical issues like Medicare reform, Obamacare and health disparities as director of the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. He’ll continue that work and more as the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Dean’s Chair at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

“For those who want to affect the real world, USC is a hub,” he says. “That’s why our mission is broad: to improve the quality of life of people in communities globally because policy touches all.”

A Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Pharmacy and Economics, Goldman earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University and a doctorate in economics from Stanford University. He began teaching at USC in 2009 after 15 years as an economist and director of health economics, finance and organization with the Rand Corp.

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Bright Start Created after World War II, the prestigious Fulbright program promotes the international exchange of ideas, culture and goodwill through merit-based scholarships. USC has been among the country’s top producers of Fulbright students for nearly a decade, and this year is no exception. Of the program’s 2020-21 recipients, 25 are Trojans—the most students from any California university.

Fulbright students teach, conduct research and lead professional projects in more than 135 countries. From studying fetal cardiology in Poland to offering free English tutoring in Colombia, this year’s Trojans continue a rich legacy of bridging cultural divides.

31%

25 Percentage of USC applicants who received a Fulbright award

NINE How many USC students received a U.S. Fulbright scholarship in 2021

Number of consecutive years USC has ranked as a top producer of U.S. Fulbright students usc trojan family

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Comic Relief A storytelling course gives students a creative outlet to new worlds.

Call their work comics if you must, but for students in Keith Mayerson’s Art 312 course, their final projects are also “tearstained masterpieces” that culminated from a semester spent apart.

Mayerson, chair of painting, drawing and printmaking at the USC Roski School of Art and Design, usually celebrates the end of his course with a mini comics fair where students sell printed copies. So, during the pandemic, making a digital version and having comics available to download or read online made a lot of sense, he says. The result is Indoor Ink, an anthology that showcases the class’s work on the web. From adventures in ancient Rome to robot clashes in the future, students could develop meaningful visual stories in any style or genre they wanted. Go to uscne.ws/IndoorInk to read their stories. ELISA HUANG

“4D” BY ISABELLA MELENDEZ

Inspired in part by the 19th century satirical novel Flatland by Edwin Abbott, the senior art major’s story follows a scientist on the verge of venturing into the fourth dimension. “The comic is an exploration of science, death and connection,” she says. Go to uscne.ws/4D to read the full comic.

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Autumn 2021

trojan news “THE TRAGEDY OF MARKO MAVERICK”

BY KNOX LOPEZ

This comic follows the main character—a guitarist and frontman of a band—in a surreal, spacelike world. The journey captures the joys and struggles of love, mental illness and growing up. “As a queer person, I wanted to make a queer comic and unapologetically throw in LGBT romance arcs,” says Lopez, a senior art major. Read a PDF of the full comic at uscne.ws/Marko.

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A Root Cause USC’s sustainability-minded valedictorian makes it her mission to bring native plants to the University Park Campus.

From sugar bush to lemonade berry, native and drought-tolerant plants are flourishing at USC. In small, verdant pockets throughout the University Park Campus, the landscape is slowly changing from water-craving vegetation to native shrubs, herbs and grasses.

It’s all thanks to a student-led effort helmed by recent USC graduate and valedictorian Tianna Shaw-Wakeman ’20, MS ’20.

The psychology major, who also earned a master’s in social entrepreneurship, sparked the conversation by bringing Facilities Management Services together with a horticulturalist from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to brainstorm native planting opportunities.

“Native gardens give us the whole picture,” she says. “It’s about sustaining life for birds, bees, insects—the food web—and it’s

also about carbon, water and waste energy.

USC has more green space than much of our surrounding community, and we have a responsibility to make sure that every plant we put in the ground has a distinct purpose and serves that community positively.

I think we do that with natives better than anything else.”

The native plant project isn’t the only sustainability initiative Shaw-Wakeman spearheaded at USC. As a first-year student, she joined Environmental Core, a group of like-minded environmental student-activists who advocate for progress on carbon neutrality and other strategies to combat climate change. She organized rallies, including a climate strike in 2019 attended by USC’s newly installed president, Carol L. Folt.

As part of an alliance of sustainability-focused student organizations, she pressed Folt and other university leaders to consider USC’s investments linked to fossil fuels. It led her to help establish DivestSC, a student group that called on the university to shift those investments into clean and renewable energy. The effort paid off when the USC Board of Trustees voted to liquidate its current fossil fuel investments and freeze any new investments.

“I only saw my role—working in sustainability and doing all the different things that I did—as trying to be a vessel for this energy and this vibrancy about how important sustainability is that was already there among the students,” she says.

The native plant project’s test bed near Birnkrant Residential College, featuring hand-picked shrubs like evergreen currant, proved successful. More local greenery thrives in other test zones. Shaw-Wakeman lauds their environmentally friendly nature: They use as little as one-sixth the water as other plants do, and they draw in more insects and other critters.

“My hope is that I come back in five to 10 years and I am embraced by all the natural landscapes Southern California has to offer right here on the USC campus,” she says. “That’s the dream.” RON MACKOVICH AND GR AYSON SCHMIDT

Tianna Shaw-Wakeman makes sustainability her mission.

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Promising Development A new facility could help scientists devise and accelerate treatments for diseases like cancer and arthritis.

Finding a new treatment or cure for a disease can take decades—and a lot of labor.

But a high-tech facility being built at USC promises to streamline that winding road, speeding up the time it takes for a therapeutic approach to become a viable treatment in the marketplace.

Sprawling across more than 3,100 square feet in the basement of the Harlyne J. Norris Research Tower at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Current Good Manufacturing Practice facility, or cGMP, will be home to a team of scientists dedicated to cell therapy research and innovation.

“Cell therapies harness the sophisticated biology of cells, which have evolved over millions of years, to create treatments that can be precisely targeted to specific diseases and tailored to each individual patient,” says Tom Buchanan, professor of medicine and vice dean for research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The collaborative effort brings the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Keck Medicine of USC and USC Norris cancer center together with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) under the umbrella of the USC/CHLA Cell Therapy Program.

“Our vision is to advance cell therapy research at USC and CHLA so they can be leading centers and a hub for this type of

research,” says Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, executive director of the program. The new facility is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

“Having it established here will be a great enabler for all the scientific concepts being developed to really move forward into the clinic and treat hundreds of patients with incurable diseases.”

The federal government created the cGMP designation to regulate the creation of drugs and other treatments, like cell therapies, in a safe and controlled environment.

The USC and CHLA facility will include six “clean rooms”—labs where scientists can

ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID PLUNKERT

Pill Protection A donation establishes a new USC center dedicated to medication safety.

Developments in modern medicine have made it possible for patients with countless diseases to live longer and pain free. But when people take the wrong medication or use the wrong dose, the consequences can be serious.

“Over $528 billion of avoidable spending occurs each year in the U.S. due to harm or inadequate results from medication, accounting for the third-leading cause of death,” says Steven Chen, associate dean for clinical affairs at the USC School of Pharmacy.

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devise and produce clinical-grade medicines and therapeutics while ensuring the highest quality and potency. Their work will involve modifying living cells to treat patients based on their unique condition and needs.

“Cells are taken from the patient, modified in the cGMP facility and returned to the patient,” Buchanan says. “In some cases, they are designed to kill harmful cells—for example, cancer cells. In other cases, they can replace missing cells like cartilage in people with arthritis. It is all done with great precision that only cells can provide. This is truly precision medicine.” LANDON HALL

A $5 million gift to the school from the estate of Susie Titus ’60, a USC alumna who died in 2020, seeks to make drugs safer. Experts at the new USC Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health will collaborate with community pharmacists to ensure patients with chronic or uncontrolled diseases like diabetes and asthma take the right drugs on the right schedule.

Part of the gift will endow the Susie Titus Professorship in Medication Safety, held by a faculty member with expertise in health care data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and medication safety.

Titus came from a long line of pharmacists and was one of seven people in her family to graduate from USC. In 2004, the Titus family endowed the pharmacy department at the USC School of Pharmacy.

GUSTAVO SOLIS

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Robots!

Sometimes you need a helping hand—and it doesn’t have to be a human one.

Robot aides can tackle lots of useful tasks. They can assist a patient recovering from illness.They can help children with autism adjust to social situations, too. Across USC, students and researchers are teaming up to test out these benevolent bots.

“We want these robots to make the person happier, more capable and better able to help themselves,” says Maja Matarić, the Chan Soon-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics at USC. “We also want them to help teachers and therapists, not remove their purpose.”

Here are some of our favorite next-generation helpers, all designed to make our lives safer, easier and more joyful. ERIC LINDBERG

Dynamic droids are ready to assist humans—and they come in some surprising forms.

SOFT SKILLS

For people with anxiety and depression, a cuddly companion can be invaluable— especially when it helps them practice breathing exercises and mindfulness. A robot called Blossom, designed at Cornell University, might soon offer support to USC students.

“We’ll give the robot a bunch of tools to try with the user and see what they like and what works,” Matarić says.

“This could be a really versatile and supportive buddy.”

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CRAWLY CRITTERS

Inspired by starfish and octopi, these flexible robots could one day navigate unusual and inhospitable environments.

Their creators envision sending the droids to inspect structures in space, search disaster sites and monitor hazardous materials.

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QUIET SWIMMERS

When marine biologists study underwater life, their tools can sometimes unintentionally disturb the ocean habitat. So, student engineers devised a camera-equipped robot inspired by a goldfish—for less than $200—to blend in with its scaly brethren.

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GOOD BOY

It can crawl, crouch, climb—and clean. A USC Viterbi team built the doglike LASER-D robot to help with COVID-19 disinfecting, but its inventors imagine it sprucing up shared office spaces, cleaning shopping centers and watering gardens, says Satyandra K. Gupta, Smith International Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

With a special headset, children can see Kuri’s thought bubbles and other augmented reality objects that help them learn through dynamic play. “We can make it look really expressive,” Matarić says. “Mixed reality with robotics is a whole new frontier.”

BOT BUDDY

Matarić’s team has used a cute robot called QT to motivate children with cerebral palsy to exercise their wrists with a thumbs-up, thumbsdown number-guessing game and to encourage people with vision impairment to use a magnifier to read medication instructions or simply enjoy a good book.

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BLOSSOM, QT AND KURI PHOTOS BY TERI WEBER; GOLDFISH PHOTO BY YULIN YU; LASER-D PHOTO BY QUAN NGUYEN

A NEW FRIEND

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USC alumnus Doug Emhoff is the country’s inaugural “second gentleman.”

Growing up, Doug Emhoff JD ’90 hated bullies.

Maybe it was because of something he saw on TV, Emhoff muses, but “I just knew as a 6 or 7 year old, I wanted to be a lawyer.”

He saw it as a way to stand up for others.

After attending the USC Gould School of Law—“the best choice I could have made,” he says—Emhoff went on to a career as a successful entertainment lawyer at high-profile Los Angeles-based firms.

These days he lectures on entertainment law at Georgetown University Law Center, but he has another role that may be more prominent: the first second gentleman in American history.

“I wouldn’t be in this role if we didn’t have our first female vice president,” he says proudly, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he married in 2014.

As second gentleman, Emhoff embraces the opportunity to study issues affecting Americans, and he travels frequently in support of administration policies like the COVID-19 vaccination effort. He sees his place in national politics as an important signal for the future of female leaders: “For me to have this job, and for my wife to be vice president, means we’ve come a long way.” LESLIE RIDGEWAY

Trojans in the House Seven alumnae take their place among a record number of women in Congress.

Seven USC alumnae recently made history: They were among 143 women seated in the 117th Congress, the largest number ever in the U.S. legislature. Here are a few notable facts about these record breakers.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks MS ’80, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former ophthalmologist, was the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. She represents Iowa’s 2nd district, which includes Davenport and Iowa City.

Rep. Young Kim ’94 was the first Korean American woman to represent Southern California in the state assembly. She started her career as a small business owner and financial analyst and represents California’s 39th district, which includes parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux MPA ’98 has been a professor of public policy at Georgia State University since 2003. She worked at Georgia’s Senate Budget and Evaluation Office to help the state balance the budget. She represents Georgia’s 7th district, which includes the northeast section of Atlanta.

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To read more about the second gentleman, go to uscne.ws/DougEmhoff on the web.

Rep. Ashley Hinson ’04, the first woman to represent her district, was a broadcast journalist for more than a decade and won two regional Emmy Awards for her reporting, among other honors. She represents Iowa’s 1st district, which includes Cedar Rapids and Dubuque.

Rep. Nanette Barragán JD ’05 is the vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She represents California’s 44th congressional district, which includes Carson, Compton and San Pedro.

Rep. Michelle Steel MBA ’10 chaired the Orange County Board of Supervisors and served as a county supervisor since 2015. She is a former member of the California State Board of Equalization. She represents California’s 48th district, which includes Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.

Rep. Karen Bass MSW ’15 s erves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and recently chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. She represents California’s 37th congressional district, which includes South Los Angeles, Century City and West Los Angeles. GRAYSON SCHMIDT Autumn 2021

HARRIS AND EMHOFF PHOTO BY ZUMA PRESS, INC./ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

A White House Welcome

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Trusted Leader

Tapping Hidden Potential OIL WELL IMAGE BY GARY KAVANAGH; ERSHAGHI PHOTO BY BRIAN MORRI

Abandoned oil wells could get new life as storage spaces for solar and wind energy.

What happens when oil and gas wells run dry?

Usually nothing good.

It costs anywhere from $70,000 to $500,000 to cap them safely. Costs can soar if engineers need to clean up contaminated soil.

Some owners simply walk away. California alone has 5,540 orphan wells and another 37,000 wells destined for abandonment, which could cost taxpayers millions.

But Iraj Ershaghi, the Omar B. Milligan Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and his team have developed an innovative alternative that could turn idle, hazardous wells into something valuable.

They want to convert these wells into conduits that can carry excess solar and wind-generated power into underground storage.

This could prevent future rolling blackouts in California and enhance the nation’s energy security.

Here’s how it works: Sustainable power created from nearby solar panels and windmills is converted into high-pressure air. The trojanfamily.usc.edu

air is piped down the repurposed well to wet sands 1,000 to 5,000 feet underground. These sands can safely store massive amounts of energy in the form of compressed air until needed. A few repurposed wells could hold the equivalent of several megawatts of energy beneath the surface, while a repurposed oil or gas field could hold thousands of megawatts.

“Compressed air can be released to make electricity using turbines and allow you to send the power to the grid,” Ershaghi says. “So, if you expand this throughout California and other places, you’ll have these massive, massive geological storage sites that could be accessed when you have a blackout.”

Petroleum engineers and geoscientists use similar methods to trap greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide underground. But unlike carbon dioxide, compressed air is harmless, Ershaghi says.

Collaborators include USC Viterbi’s Don Paul, research professor of engineering and William M. Keck Professor of Energy Resources, and Birendra Jha, assistant professor of petroleum engineering.

The researchers are enthusiastic about the potential.

“Utilities, which desperately need massive storage sites to meet deadlines for alternative energy solutions, would also benefit, as would the entire economy,” Ershaghi says. “This is a win-win.” MARC BALLON

Trojan ties run deep for the newest member of the USC Board of Trustees.

Steve Keck ’97, MBA ’05, a double Trojan who earned his degrees from the USC Marshall School of Business, brings business and philanthropic knowledge to the leadership role.

The financial analyst and co-president of the W.M. Keck Foundation can also draw on a long family history with USC: His father, William M. Keck II ’64, MBA ’66, earned degrees from USC Marshall as well and served as a trustee for 32 years. His mother, two brothers and wife are also alumni.

In addition to his work in corporate credit at asset management firm TCW Group, Keck oversees one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the nation. The Keck School of Medicine of USC was named in recognition of the foundation’s generosity and longtime support of the university. Keck says he plans to strengthen USC’s medical enterprise as a trustee.

“In this century, in order for a university to be successful, it needs to have a strong research component, and I think USC is well-positioned,” he says.

“With the partnership of the W.M. Keck Foundation, USC has developed not only a world-class school of medicine but a clinical health system as well.”

GUSTAVO SOLIS

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trojan news

The 6 Degrees of August Wilson and USC

PROFESSOR-PERFORMER

USC hired Michele Shay as a new professor of theatre practice in acting. The veteran actress, director and educator is a leading interpreter of August Wilson’s plays. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway production of Wilson's Seven Guitars.

American playwright August Wilson is having more than a moment. Sixteen years after his death, his stories are more powerful than ever. See how USC connects to the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer—and how some of the people linked to his work are bringing acclaim to the university this fall.

ALICIA DI R ADO

USC IN HISTORY

The Great Debaters tells the story of the underdog 1935 debate team from historically Black Wiley College, which in real life defeated the national champion team from USC.

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Autumn 2021

trojan news August Wilson put USC School of Dramatic Arts musical theater student Nia Sarfo on the national scene. She starred in Netflix ’s Giving Voice, which follows six students who competed in the 2018 National August Wilson Monologue Competition. Many USC alumni have participated in this contest for high school students over the years.

ACTOR AMONG US

Actor Colman Domingo appeared in a 2020 film adaptation of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Domingo joined the USC School of Dramatic Arts faculty this fall.

Stories Untold The USC School of Cinematic Arts aims to diversify voices in Hollywood, games and beyond.

Every year, the prestigious Director’s Guild of America Student Film Awards recognizes outstanding work from young filmmakers.

USC is always well-represented, but this time students outdid themselves: Trojans won gold in six of eight categories showcasing Black, Latino, Asian and female directors.

That was no accident.

Over the last 10 years, the USC School of Cinematic Arts has grown its scholarship funding for students tenfold—reaching more than $4.5 million last year—to increase diversity and establish gender parity in its student body. That investment has largely come from alumni and industry donors who see USC as a pipeline to a field that has been criticized for lacking diversity, says Marcus Anderson, the school’s student services director.

The school developed ways to recruit students from diverse backgrounds that

AWARD WINNER

Producer Todd Black ’82 co-produced the Academy Award-winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom …

THE GREAT DEBATERS

… and so did Denzel Washington, who also directed The Great Debaters in 2007. Another star of The Great Debaters: Forest Whitaker ’82, who was honored by the School of Dramatic Arts this fall at its 75th anniversary event.

are based not only on ethnicity but also on geography and socioeconomic status. Staff approach prospective students to dispel myths about the application process. They also recruit from historically Black colleges. These strategies have enabled the school to increase the number of student from minority communities.

The school’s efforts not only diversify the voices at USC but also build a foundation for the future of film, television, games and animation storytelling.

GU S TAVO SOLIS

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SHAY PHOTO BY WENN RIGHTS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; SARFO AND WILSON PHOTOS COURTESY OF NETFLIX; DOMINGO PHOTO BY ZUMA PRESS, INC./ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; WHITAKER PHOTO BY EVERETT COLLECTION INC./ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; CINEMA STUDENTS PHOTO BY SHEILA SOFIAN

STUDENT VOICE

trojan news

Change of Heart In college, Mark Cunningham studied turbines, engines and propulsion systems to prepare for a career as an aeronautical engineer. Naturally tech-minded, he seemed destined to design complicated aircraft and gizmos.Today, decades later, he devotes his time to fixing a machine that may be unrivaled in its complexity.

Is it the International Space Station?

Or NASA’s Mars rover, perhaps? No, this machine might be even more challenging than spacecraft.

Cunningham repairs the human body.

The Keck Medicine of USC cardiothoracic surgeon treats heart disease and dysfunction with a distinctly innovative spin. As surgical director of Keck Medicine’s heart transplant program, he constantly looks for ways to improve surgery and teach improved procedures to up-and-coming doctors.

But don’t get him wrong: He strives to bring the latest technology into the field for the sake of his patients—not for the novelty of tech.

“All these techniques we develop are so we can treat people sooner,” says Cunningham, associate professor of clinical surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “That way, they don’t have to get to death’s door before we help them.”

People are the reason Cunningham made a shift in his career path many years ago.

As an aspiring pilot, the Connecticut native enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he found a passion for aircraft design.

He even interned at NASA Langley Research Center,where he worked after college with a group that designed rockets and space shuttles. Yet he also was interested in medicine—so much so that he took anatomy and biology classes in his spare time. Eventually, he made the switch

for a simple reason: He liked working with people more than being in a computer lab.

Now he combines both worlds—humanity and technology—to benefit his patients.

It’s a perfect fit. “When you think about it, heart surgery is really technical and detail-oriented,” he says. “It’s basically fluid dynamics, which I had studied in aerospace engineering.”

He embraces modern tools like the da Vinci Surgical System, a robot that assists doctors as they perform delicate operations like heart bypasses. He helped pioneer new procedures that are easier on patients than traditional surgeries, like replacing faulty heart valves with new ones delivered through a narrow

“That way, they don’t have to get to death’s door before we help them.”

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tube threaded through an artery in the leg.

He also works with medical device companies as they design and test their newest tech.

“The latest thing we’re working on are these new mitral valves that you put in through a tiny incision in the chest,” he says enthusiastically. “As the field moves along, we try to push that new technology forward. I really like learning new things.”

Sometimes device companies have prototypes and want his expert opinion. Who better to give feedback on their design than a surgeon-engineer?

“I’ll say, ‘I like this feature, I don’t like that feature, this handle is too small, this is too awkward,’” Cunningham says. “When they finally have the device all tuned up, then they’ll come ask us to find a group of patients to try it out.

“With an engineering degree, I can work with them at a lot of different touch points in the process of bringing a technology along.”

ERIC LINDBERG

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PHOTO BY RICHARD CARRASCO III

An engineer-turned-surgeon heals patients with the latest high-tech tools.

WE TAKE ON THE TOUGHEST CASES and safely provide care that’s right for you Your safety is our top priority. In-person or via telehealth, Keck Medicine of USC offers safe and compassionate health care for you and your family. From routine procedures to the most complex cases, our doctors and health care team deliver the best possible outcomes.

(800) USC-CARE KeckMedicine.org

© 2021 Keck Medicine of USC

AN E Q UA L S H OT

W H E N C O V I D - 1 9 H I T S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A, K E C K M E D I C I N E O F U S C

M O B I L I Z E D T O P R O T E C T T H E H A R D E S T - H I T, H I G H E S T - R I S K C O M M U N I T I E S .

S TO RY BY G U S TAVO S O LI S

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MUR AL ART WORK BY PAUL BOTELLO

Maria Saravia was so terrified of exposing her parents to COVID-19 that she would shower thoroughly after her shift at the hospital before going home. And that was just the beginning of her ritual.

When she arrived, she would enter through the back door, take off her shoes

and head inside. “I’d shower again, put my clothes in a plastic bag, then wash them separately without any clothes from the rest of my family,” Saravia says. “Nobody would talk to me until I was done.”

Saravia, 57, cleaned patients’ rooms for hours on end in the COVID-19 wing at usc trojan family

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Keck Hospital of USC as a member of the facility’s environmental services staff. Seeing so many patients on ventilators scared her at first. So did having to cover herself with protective gear before entering their rooms.

Even when she was vaccinated during the first wave of COVID-19 vaccine clinics for health care workers, she still feared for the health of her elderly parents and other family members in her Boyle Heights community. This working-class, heavily Latino enclave was one of the areas hit hardest by the pandemic.

At the time, vaccine appointments for the public were scarce. But as the pandemic peaked, she got good news: Keck Medicine of USC had prioritized doses for family members of front-line workers who were eligible based on government guidelines.

Saravia quickly signed up her parents.

“For me, it was like a blessing,” she says. “I am a privileged woman because I work here.”

Yet Saravia’s parents received the vaccine precisely because Keck Medicine leaders wanted to overcome privilege. As the USC health system expanded its vaccine outreach during the beginning of the rollout, equity became its guiding principle. Amid high demand for the initial doses, Keck Medicine focused first on vaccinating communities most impacted by the pandemic: those most likely to live with essential workers and those often lacking consistent access to health care.

“I think there’s a moral responsibility,” says Felipe Osorno, executive administrator for continuum of care operations and value improvement. “We’re a huge health care provider, we’re in the middle of Boyle Heights, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, and we looked at the data. We felt it was the right thing to do.”

GIVING A FAIR SHOT

Saravia had reason to fear for her family’s safety. Grandparents, parents and grandchildren all share the same home, raising the risk of spread. She is an essential worker who can’t work remotely. And the family is Latino—a community with a COVID-19 death rate three times higher than nonLatino white and Asian residents in Los Angeles County.

She felt relieved when Keck Medicine included environmental services staff members alongside doctors, nurses and other health workers in its first round of vaccinations in December 2020. Not all hospitals included their custodial and cleaning teams in that initial wave.

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MURALIST PAUL BOTELLO’S IMAGERY AIMS TO INCREASE VACCINATION RATES AMONG LATINOS. IT’S PART OF THE “STAY CONNECTED LOS ANGELES” PUBLIC HEALTH CAMPAIGN SUPPORTED BY USC.

Osorno, though, remembers when vaccination planners prioritized the environmental services staff as they started their rollout. “It was unique among health care systems,” he says.

“Everyone else only included clinicians first.”

To further ensure all health workers had equitable access, Keck Medicine sent out information about the vaccination process in multiple languages. “We also realized that most of our communications had been via email until then,” Osorno says. “So we started to hold in-person meetings. I personally talked with the staff in different shifts and answered their questions.”

When California expanded eligibility to people aged 65 or older, the vaccine quickly became a scarce commodity. Keck Medicine leaders prioritized access for older family members and friends of its health care team, knowing they might not be able to get them otherwise.

Seeing the hospital staff ’s elderly relatives lining up for a shot reminded Osorno of his own family back home in Colombia: “To me, it was like seeing my parents and grandparents getting the vaccine.”

WE’RE STRONGER TOGETHER

As more people became eligible for vaccinations, the health system expanded outreach.

It partnered with nonprofits and government agencies to vaccinate Angelenos. At one point, Keck Medicine ran a free shuttle from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights for people who had no way to get to vaccine appointments.

The USC School of Pharmacy and USC Pharmacies collaborated with county and city officials, local health insurance organizations and churches to set up walk-in and drive-thru clinics throughout Los Angeles. USC also worked with school districts in East Los Angeles to vaccinate teachers. The university launched a vaccination site at Lincoln Park across the street from the USC Health Sciences Campus in Lincoln Heights, another hard-hit community. Keck Medicine offered pickup services for patients who had no access to transportation. Some USC physicians even made house calls to provide vaccines to homebound seniors.

“USC Pharmacies held both indoor events and outdoor events, including drive-thru and walk-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics across Los Angeles, with a focus on underserved communities,” says Michelle Hormozian PharmD ’18, clinical coordinator for USC Medical Plaza

Pharmacy. “We have and will continue to vaccinate all who are clinically eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of factors such as insurance or immigration status.”

The pharmacy school also helped launch the vaccine clinic at Dodger Stadium, one of the largest mass vaccination sites in the country. Volunteers administered 12,000 shots a day there at the peak of the rollout. USC students, faculty and alumni staffed the site from day one.

The impact they made speaks for itself: Of the 1.3 million vaccines that the city of Los Angeles administered by June 1, more than half were delivered at sites and pop-up clinics staffed by Trojans.

Says Richard Dang ’09, PharmD ’13, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy who helped lead the vaccination effort: “We showed that we can accomplish really big tasks when we work together.”

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NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR

To get vaccines to the most vulnerable in Los Angeles, Keck Medicine staff members worked with USC’s community relations team to meet leaders of local churches and community organizations. They built new partnerships with the Ramona Gardens Senior Center, the L.A. County Office of Education and other groups and agencies in East Los Angeles.

About 40 Keck Medicine staff members worked phones, pitched ideas and set up the infrastructure needed to administer the shots.

Employees from information technology, ambulatory operations, nursing, marketing, communication, pharmacy and other groups pitched in, Osorno says.

One anecdote, he says, captures the breadth of USC’s impact. L.A. officials identified 128 ZIP codes that were most trojanfamily.usc.edu

vulnerable during the pandemic based on health and socioeconomic data. Focusing vaccine efforts in these at-risk neighborhoods would be critical. But USC was one step ahead of them: Its health professionals and volunteers already had vaccinated residents from all 128 neighborhoods.

“That was just amazing,” Osorno says.

Now that demand for the COVID19 vaccine is declining, Keck Medicine is applying lessons learned from the pandemic to other areas, including vaccination efforts linked to the upcoming flu season.

Another related focus: ensuring that patients have equitable access to quality medical care.

A newly launched health equity committee will identify gaps in treatment and care at Keck Medicine based on factors like age, language, race, gender and sexual

orientation. “For example, one of the first things we are going to focus on is ensuring that our patients can access care in the language they prefer,” Osorno says.

Making systemwide changes to ensure equity will be an ongoing process across USC, but each member of the team plays a role in bridging those gaps. For Saravia, it’s still about protecting her family and community. She encourages her neighbors in Boyle Heights to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they haven’t already.

“You should vaccinate,” she says. “We have to eradicate this pandemic; we have to protect ourselves. I do it principally out of love for my family and my parents because they are high-risk and I don’t want them to die on my account.

If you have love for yourself, you have love for others.” usc trojan family

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BY SARAH NIGHTINGALE

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BODY BU ILDERS BIONIC EYES, ROBOTIC ARMS AND EVEN EXOSKELETONS ? USC EXPERTS IN NEUROSCIENCE AND ENGINEERING AIM TO TREAT PAR ALYSIS, IMPAIRED VISION AND MORE WITH MIND - CONTROLLED M ACHINES.

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M A K I N G M O VES

IRON MAN is just a fantasy from the universe of superheroes. Or is he?

Injured and in captivity, the fictional billionaire Tony Stark builds a high-tech exoskeleton to survive, escape and help save the world alongside the Avengers. The armored suit gives him superhuman strength, the ability to fly and an array of elaborate weapons. Stark increasingly becomes one with his technology: His brain interacts with the suit, and the suit interacts with his brain.

To Charles Liu, the scenario goes beyond science fiction.

The director of the USC Neurorestoration Center believes it’s fast becoming science reality for people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. A few select volunteers are among the first to test a bionic body suit designed to help them walk again.

Not only would this exoskeleton enable people to move, but the user could also feel each step—a prospect both heady and complicated. Breathing life into the suit involves disciplines from advanced surgery to computational mathematics, says Liu, a professor of clinical neurological surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “You cannot pack more technology into a tighter space. And we’re applying these technologies to the most complex and human part of our body: the brain.”

This tech isn’t about making people better, stronger or faster than ever before: It ’s about helping people get more out of life again. If we could bring the brain and body back in sync, patients might do what so many others take for granted: walk. But the advances in technology go beyond treating paralysis. At USC and across the world, bionic eyes, robotic hands and even memory implants are part of the growing field of restorative health research. Liu’s work gives us a peek into this brave new world.

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The act of drinking water from a cup seems so simple.

Sure, you might do it without much thought. But consider a robotic arm trying to lift a glass to a user’s mouth. It has so many pieces of information to consider. How much force is needed to lift the cup? Is it a delicate wine glass or a heavy mug? Are there any obstacles in the way? How much does the glass need to tilt before spilling?

“Of course, once you initiate the action, lots of things need to be right in order for you to successfully complete it,” Liu says. “For example, if you touch the glass and it happens to be much lighter than you expect, you have to react to that. This requires constant updating of information and constant feedback.”

Humans unknowingly count on electrochemical reactions between interconnected nerve cells (or neurons) in our brain and nervous system to orchestrate our movements. The sheer number of neurons—the human brain features about 100 billion of them—and their complexity make it hard to tease out exactly how individual thoughts and actions result in movements.

Yet that’s a necessary step if patients are to realize the benefits of neurorestorative therapies.

To “decode” the activity taking place in the various regions of our brains, researchers implant electrodes that record the electrical impulses comprising our thoughts. The electrodes then replicate those impulses to allow a person with a prosthetic arm to react, in real time, to the surprises of our reality— like a plastic glass that ’s lighter than expected. This kind of system is called a closed loop because it involves a twoway conversation: brain to arm, arm to brain, and so on.

That’s one system. Now think about the complex calculations needed to make a full bionic suit. The ambitious project tackles one of the most important goals for patients with spinal cord injuries: restoring the ability to walk. With an $8 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Liu hopes to help patients reach that goal, alongside other researchers at USC, Caltech and the University of California, Irvine.

Liu’s team acquires the billions of signals from the brain that tell us how Autumn 2021

TECH

to walk, and UC Irvine researchers translate those signals into commands that control the robotic suit and develop the sophisticated electronic implants. The USC team performs brain surgeries to implant the devices. Caltech scientists then strive to replicate the sensations that are relayed to the brain so users “feel” themselves walking.

Without research volunteers, though, there’s no suit.

Volunteers recr uited through the USC Epilepsy Care Consortium help researchers develop the brain control technology they need. And if the suit comes to fruition, future patients will have people like Cynthia Martinez to thank.

Martinez, who became paralyzed after a spinal cord injury, tests prototypes of the bionic suit. A team of scientists often trails behind the volunteers, wheeling the “command center” for the suit—a collection of computers on a cart. Despite Martinez’s health struggles, the team’s mood remains cheerful. Liu has a photo of him and Martinez laughing together, a moment he remembers well.

He had asked her how she might want to help develop the suit, and she said she wanted to contribute to “‘the fashion part, because these things look so ugly,’” Liu says. “I just threw my head back and laughed, because it never occurred to me.”

It’s only reasonable to forgive Liu for prioritizing function over form. As it is, he earned his medical degree after getting his doctorate in engineering. Bridging those two fields keeps him busy. Combining medicine and technology also shapes the underlying premise of the USC Neurorestoration Center, which he directs with co-director Christianne Heck, a professor of clinical neurology. It aims to use engineering advances lems, from Alzheimer’s disease to epilepsy.

The bionic suit is one of several projects underway at the center. Researchers are helping paralyzed patients regain the

SUPPORT

THIS TECH IS ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE GET MORE OUT OF sense of feeling, hold objects in their hands and even play a game of rock-paper-scissors with a prosthetic arm they control with their thoughts. What’s at the heart of their work?

They refuse to believe that patients with neurological diseases and trauma can never recover. trojanfamily.usc.edu

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

LIFE AGAIN.

When Allen Ginsburg first heard about the Argus II, a bionic implant that helps people with vision impairment see again, the retired ophthalmologist could hardly believe it.

Decades earlier, Ginsburg’s patients who underwent cataract surgery had to stay in bed for weeks, waiting for the incision in their eye to heal. Now people can have the Argus II artificial retina implanted and go home the same day. When Ginsburg and his wife, Charlotte, met with Mark Humayun, one of the inventors of the Argus II and holder of the Cornelius J. Pings Chair in Biomedical Sciences at USC, they came away inspired about the possibilities of bionics, robotics and artificial intelligence.

The Ginsburgs’ newfound passion spawned major gifts to USC, including a donation last year to build a new home for computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The 115,000-square-foot Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Building will house quantum computing facilities, robots and the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society—a leading research center developing AI for social good.

But as excited as the Ginsburgs are about advanced technology and robotics, they want the new building to be grounded in a singular goal: using computing to help humankind.

“Early on, our families have taught us to believe that science and education are crucial in improving the human condition,” Allen Ginsburg says. “We envision students with beautiful minds in this building challenged to make our planet solve the complex circumstances of the future.”

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MIND READERS

Lines are blurring between human and machine. Tiny chips and devices aim to restore the electical impulses that power our arms, legs, hearing, sight and touch.

Their bionics efforts have precedent at USC. Robotics researchers worldwide continue to build on foundational research conducted by Gerald Loeb, professor of biomedical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He developed one of the first sophisticated tactile sensing systems for prosthetic hands.

And only a few years ago, the world hailed the first bionic eye, a groundbreaking retinal prosthesis for people with impaired vision. Called the Argus II, the device was developed by Mark Humayun, University Professor of Ophthalmology, Biomedical Engineering and Integrative Anatomical Sciences, and Gianluca Lazzi, Provost Professor of Ophthalmology and Electrical Engineering. It enables people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa to see shapes, movement and—maybe someday soon—color.

Today, USC Viterbi’s Maryam Shanechi continues in their footsteps.

Shanechi spent her first two years as a doctoral student at MIT applying the principles of electrical engineering and computer science to improve wireless communications. But something nagged at her. How could she use her skills and knowledge to help people more directly?

She found her answer at the intersection of engineering and neuroscience.

“I realized I could decode brain signals instead of wireless signals, which I found fascinating,” says Shanechi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair at USC Viterbi.

Within two years, Shanechi had built her first brain-machine interface, which translated simple thought sequences (up and left, left and down, right and up) into the movements of a cursor on a screen.

She was hooked.

Shanechi now applies an artificial intelligence technique called machine learning to decode neural activity patterns in the brain. Her work explores not only the brain regions and signals responsible for movement and motor function but also those responsible for mental and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Her aim is to use the same electrodes that decode brain activity to deliver tailored and targeted electrical stimulation therapies to

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patients for whom no other treatments work.

“There is evidence that these mental disorders are caused by abnormal brain activity patterns,” she says. “If we can regulate and normalize this activity with a new type of brain-machine interface, does it give us an alternative way to transform treatments for mental disorders? In the case of major depression, current treatments such as medications and psychotherapy don’t work for 20% to 30% of patients, so having an alternative therapy could significantly improve the quality of life for these treatment-resistant patients.”

Shanechi has received major funding support for her work, including a $11.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and $5 million from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. Two other new awards from the National Institutes of Health fund ongoing research. One project focuses on the complex activities linked to motor and mental states in the brain. The second will enable Shanechi’s team and collaborators at the University of California, San Francisco, to develop

THEY REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT PATIENTS WILL NEVER RECOVER. a brain-machine interface that decodes a patient’s depression and mood symptoms and reacts with the appropriate level of stimulation therapy to alleviate distress.

“The brain is one of the most complex systems we can imagine, and we really don’t understand how it represents our emotional and motor states or what goes wrong in brain disorders,” she says. “Decoding brain activity patterns is very challenging, and regulating the abnormal patterns to treat brain disorders adds yet another huge challenge.”

Scientists know the work might seem overwhelming, but tools such as artificial intelligence make the obstacles a little less daunting.

Liu thinks about how far the bionic suit has come in just a few years. “When I look at what things looked like in 2011 and what they look like in 2021, there has been a huge progression in what we know, the information we can collect and the types of tools we have,” he says.

“If the pace bears out, I really believe that these technologies will become part of our lives.” usc trojan family

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STUDENTS TAP THE POWER OF CREATIVITY AND SELF-EXPRESSION TO BUILD A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD.

BY ELISA HUANG AND GUSTAVO SOLIS ILLUSTRATION BY MARY KATE MCDEVITT

When cameron audras ’21 (pictured left) plays the viola, the instrument sings in tribute to our environment. During his senior recital at USC, he played “Sonata for viola and piano: Leaving Earth” by Stuart Greenbaum—a sort of theme song for humanity abandoning the planet.

Playing music with a green sensibility makes sense for Audras. He double majored in viola at the USC Thornton School of Music and environmental studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. But there was a time when his passions for music and sustainability remained distinct, unrelated pursuits.

His view shifted when he learned about Climarte, an alliance of Australian organizations that seek art-based solutions to climate change. “It blew my mind,” he says. “I learned how art makes us feel impact more than data sets from scientists. Nature and art are not separate. They’re one and the same.”

Inspired, Audras launched a performance art series that draws on his artistic and scientific sides to engage others in the climate crisis. And he’s not the only Trojan responding to our world’s

most intractable problems by tapping the power of the arts.

Across the university, USC students are using self-expression and art to raise awareness about social and environmental challenges. They’re collaborating across disciplines and innovating their way to a better world, one community at a time.

Quenton Blache (left) raises climate change awareness through music, while Gwenan Walker uses illustration (right).

DANCE FOR THE PLANET

Audras returned to the U.S. from a study-abroad trip in Australia with a newfound appreciation for how art can share a powerful message.

Then he heard about the USC Arts and Climate Collective.

This new program offers USC students up to $1,000 to support arts and media projects that encourage a more sustainable future.

Boosted by funding, Audras joined up with student cellist and composer Quenton Blache, violinist and dance minor Elise Haukenes, and spoken word artist and communication major Charli Morachnick ’20 to launch The Resilience Project.

Imagine a blend of dance, music, poetry and climate action— it all melds together in nine performance pieces that address a different aspect of the climate crisis.

The first piece, about electricity, features Morachnick’s spoken word poetry accompanied by original music and choreography. “Aside from the performance aspect, we will have an activist perspective, too,” says Audras, who plans an action campaign for people to post climate commitments, pledges and resources. The group also hopes to roll out eight more pieces in the coming months.

As an environmental studies student, Audras knows that systemic change must accompany individual change. But he

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AN OCEAN IN DANGER

Gwenan Walker loves the ocean.

The biology major also fears for its future. In the coming decades, she knows its levels will rise and underwater denizens will have to adapt to warmer, more acidic seas—or face extinction.

To raise awareness about these changes, she’s using her skills and knowledge outside biology. A visual artist, Walker is making an animated film about the oceans with support from the Arts and Climate Collective.

Walker’s film, The Voyager, takes place 100 years in the future and explores the troubling effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. When it’s done, she plans to address melting glaciers, rising sea levels, ocean acidification and shifting flood zones. “I feel like when you’re talking about issues like climate change, art is so important because it makes it accessible,” says the junior, who is completing a minor in animation. trojanfamily.usc.edu

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE

For neighborhoods like Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, local histories are global histories.

That’s why Arabella Delgado and Cassandra Flores-Montaño, doctoral candidates in USC Dornsife ’s Depar tment of American Studies and Ethnicity, decided to focus on the largely immigrant neighborhood to explore the impact of climate change. With a deep history of grassroots environmental activism, Boyle Heights can illuminate a global crisis.

Delgado and Flores-Montaño (pictured left, from top) were inspired by Mothers of East Los Angeles/Madres del Este de Los Ángeles, a women’s organization dedicated to protecting their community from environmental danger. With funding from the Arts and Climate Collective, they launched Environmental (In)Justice and Climate Crisis in Boyle Heights, a research project to blend archival and current perspectives on activism. It will feature work from a young photographer capturing environmental change in her neighborhood.

The photographer’s creative vision will enrich community history and stories, placing historical and contemporary voices in conversation with one another, Delgado and Flores-Montaño say.

The project will be shown at Casa 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights and as an online exhibition through the Boyle Heights Museum in fall 2022.

SEEDS OF CHANGE USC’s Arts in Action program launched in 2018 from the USC Provost’s Arts and Humanities Initiative to support creative work that addresses pressing social issues, including homelessness, sustainability, inequity and arts access. It enables USC artists to collaborate with neighbors across Los Angeles.

The USC Arts and Climate Collective is a new collaboration among Arts in Action, the USC Office of Sustainability and the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab to advance sustainability and climate action through arts and culture.

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AUDRAS PHOTO BY ELISE HAUKENES; BLACHE PHOTO BY ETHAN RAYALA; WALKER PHOTOS COURTESY OF GWENAN WALKER; DELGADO PHOTO COURTESY OF ARABELLA DELGADO; FLORES-MONTAÑO PHOTO COURTESY OF CASSANDRA FLORES-MONTAÑO

believes in the power of community and connection to amplify The Resilience Project’s message. “All it takes is one person to be impacted. You don’t know what can grow from that,” he says.

Watch students’ f irst performance piece at uscne.ws/resilience on the web.

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Autumn 2021

COMPASSION By

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

BY BETH NEWCOMB

has been blamed for increasing social

PA IN T IN G S BY SAL LY DE N G

DIVIDES. Can it bring us back

TOGETHER instead?

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Autumn 2021

Jennifer Flores welcomes visitors into her home—a tent in L.A.’s Echo Park. She points out the makeshift features of her small living space and explains the challenges of daily life with little privacy, no electricity and a constant state of heightened alertness.

She shares the story of her life, her kids, her struggle to find work and more.

The tent is a tight fit for one, yet thousands of visitors from across the world have been inside. They joined her via an immersive 360-degree video. The 3D augmented reality experience uses the social media app Snapchat to place Flores’ tent within the viewer’s own room, complete with narrated annotations of her home.

“You can actually step inside her tent, crouch down and hold presence with her home—the bedroom, the kitchen, her living room—all in that tent,”says Robert Hernandez, professor of professional practice at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “And it just shows you so many details. It’s a new way of storytelling.”

Flores’ tour of her home is a part of Homeless Realities, a project from a course led by Hernandez in which USC students use virtual reality and other emerging tech-

this tech seeks to build empathy. USC students and educators are developing and using technology to tap into different perspectives, challenge assumptions and place us in the shoes of people leading much different lives.

GET IN THE GAME

From the first 8-bit programs on, video game players have found new worlds through their screens. But games and interactive media can also introduce users to worlds unknown to them that are just a few blocks away in real life. Game designers are using their media for more than just an escape—in some cases, games can make players more aware of a reality they’ve never seen.

“If a game developer can immerse the player in a story that makes the player feel like they’re peering into the window of someone else’s life, and that experience is outside of the player’s comfort zone, that’s where the magic happens and the light switches on,” says Jim Huntley, professor in the Interactive Media and Games Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and head of marketing for USC Games. In games and interactive media, players are responsible for the decisions they make throughout the adventure. And if the

“HONESTLY, my goal is to make people cry.” nologies to tell stories that might be otherwise overlooked by traditional journalism.

The class, called “JOVRNALISM,” uses innovative technology to empower people from marginalized communities. Recent projects enabled foster youth and domestic abuse survivors to share their voices.

Hernandez explains that his students talk to people and show them their digital tools.

“The students ask, ‘How might you use this technology to tell your story? What’s the story from your perspective that you would tell the rest of the world?’ We’re not going to decide the story; we’re going to help you develop and produce that story,” he says.

At a time when technology could be blamed for causing division and polarization, trojanfamily.usc.edu

gameplay decision involves a moral dilemma, Huntley says, it can shape how immersive a game feels and how much ownership a player feels toward the experience.

As a student in the USC Games program, Bryant Young ’17, MS ’20 took that lesson to heart. In his game Our America, he recreated a real-world experience using virtual reality: He put players in the role of a Black father driving his son to school. As a police officer pulls the car over, the player must decide how to act. Reaching for the glove compartment or making another move at the wrong time could end in tragedy. Young’s capstone project offers players a small window into the pain and fear that Black people face every day, he says. “Honestly, my goal is to make people cry.”

Young, now co-founder and CEO of Fishean Studios, aims to expand and release Our America, which has received industry acclaim and grant funding from game companies including Oculus and Unity. He wants Our America to be the start of a series of virtual reality experiences that bring stories from marginalized communities to life.

“People will look at anything with a controller and say it’s a game. And they’re like, ‘Oh, you can’t get talking about serious stuff because it’s a game. You can’t be political because it’s a game,’” Young says. “But the thing is, interactive media and VR can make more than just games. They can make experiences, they can make stories, they can have choices that can be impactful.”

Marientina Gotsis, director of the USC Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center and founder of the USC Games for Health Initiative, agrees that designers can offer a message beyond just the fun of gameplay. But the USC School of Cinematic Arts associate professor notes that simply providing an immersive, realistic experience might not be enough to prompt someone to embrace new beliefs and behaviors.

“We have good psychological reasons for not caring too much about other people, and there is a lot of research on this. People can shut down while feeling other people’s pain; they can be traumatized, they can be hardened,” Gotsis says. “VR and interactive media’s capacity to promote empathy in action—or compassion—can be leveraged by good storytelling and modeling how to balance self-care and caring for others.”

Gotsis was able to see this in action as an advisor to USC Games alumna Francesca Palamara MFA ’21, who designed Alma, a game about a day in the life of a Cuban immigrant. The player takes on the role of a mother and nurse in a Florida children’s hospital. She must balance her work, family and personal life while keeping an eye on a limited “compassion meter” throughout the nurse’s busy day. Alma is a simple but powerful game that illustrates the difficult balance that health care workers must strike.

As background research for the game, Palamara interviewed pediatric nurses about their jobs and lives. COVID-19 brought the issue into even sharper focus, she says, adding that nursing programs have shown interest in using Alma as a training tool. usc trojan family

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“Compassion is a limited resource that we all have, regardless of what our job is or what responsibilities we have in our personal or professional life,” she says. “And I think that’s the power of games—being able to create that dialogue, that connection with someone far, far away.”

HUMAN BY DESIGN

Could virtual reality help us understand the struggles of someone we haven’t met yet?

Albert “Skip” Rizzo thinks so. The director of medical virtual reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) uses virtual characters to help health care workers learn to talk with patients. These virtual humans developed at ICT—lifelike 3D avatars that move and speak like real people—can be programmed to act like a patient with a medical condition like post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

In a 2020 study, Rizzo and his colleagues found that patient interaction skills were significantly better in health care workers who trained with virtual patients compared to those who only received traditional lectures and assigned readings. Workers who completed the virtual training were better at “motivational interviewing”—a counseling approach that aims to help patients change their health habits through a collaborative discussion rather than just throwing scientific data at them. Rizzo, a research professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is also investigating the use of virtual humans in other communication skills training. The technology could provide opportunities to practice communicating in stressful situations such as a job interview, as well as helping military veterans face post-traumatic stress disorder and people on the autism spectrum manage social anxiety.

ICT’s advanced technology is also preserving the stories of survivors of traumatic experiences and sharing their accounts with audiences that can learn from them. The Digital Survivor of Sexual Assault project records testimonials in the center’s groundbreaking Light Stage system, a spherical stage mounted with lights and cameras powerful enough to capture every angle of a subject’s face and body. Researchers can create 3D trojanfamily.usc.edu

avatars of the survivor so audiences can hear a story told “firsthand,” ask questions and learn just as they would with an in-person speaker.

This face-to-face way of sharing the stories of those who have survived atrocities can foster understanding and counter hatred that might otherwise lead to violence and genocide, says Kori Street, senior director of programs and operations at USC Shoah Foundation—The Institute for Visual History and Education.The

presentations at historic sites to a web portal tailored for young students. “The thing that we have always done at Shoah Foundation is leverage technology to help us not only capture the survivor stories but to also take those stories where our users—scholars, educators, learners—are,” Street says. Research has shown that sharing genocide survivors’ stories—especially in interactive formats that make them come alive—increases participants’

Students have the responsibility to EMPOWER and bring people TOGETHER rather than divide them. foundation has collected more than 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and genocides around the world to preserve their narratives for future generations.

The foundation worked with ICT to bring these stories to life in engaging and illuminating formats. The resulting Dimensions in Testimony technology allows people to virtually meet witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. Using AI-powered interactive recordings, the audience can hear real-time, conversational answers to their questions from a 3D projection. Street notes that afterward, many participants talk about their experience as if it was a real-life conversation.

“Participants often forget that it’s technology they’re working with, that they’re interacting with a recorded testimony,” she says. “They’re focused on the conversation and their curiosity. … It really is connecting you as a human being to another human being and their experience and history.”

Embracing technology has allowed the institute to bring testimonials to people in many different ways, from augmented reality

engagement in learning, understanding of the historical events and willingness to stand up for people who are different than them.

As a journalism professor specializing in emerging technology, Hernandez understands tech’s power to transform stories. But he points out that while digital tools have huge and exciting implications, they’re just tools in a journalist’s or storyteller’s toolbox.

Amplifying people’s stories is the point.

He predicts that virtual and mixed reality technology will usher in societal shifts on the same scale as the monumental changes that came with the rise of the internet. With cultural impacts ahead, he believes that he and his students have the responsibility to use technology to empower and bring people together rather than divide them.

“What I hope is that we have helped shape the framework around how to use this technology ethically and to serve communities,” Hernandez says. “It could be used for ill, like deepfakes. Or it could be used for really wonderful moments to hold presence with another person.” usc trojan family

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Scholarships change lives.

“This scholarship has allowed me to pursue my passion in primary care with abandon.

I feel confident knowing I can provide for the underserved and uninsured without worrying about medical school debt.”

Lindsay Nagatani-Short Tsutayo Ichioka Memorial Scholarship Keck School of Medicine of USC Class of 2024

Every gift counts. giveto.usc.edu

GO FOR GOLD

FA M I LY

PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN/USC ATHLETICS

Trojan track star Michael Norman ’19 was all smiles on his return from the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism grad brought home gold on Team USA’s 4x400m relay team.

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family news

Alumni Aces

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The university honors outstanding Trojans at the 87th USC Alumni Awards ceremony.

ASA V. CALL ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD The university’s most prestigious alumni award recognizes exceptional commitment to USC. David C. Bohnett ’78 | USC Trustee, Technology Entrepreneur and Philanthropist As chair of the David Bohnett Foundation, the USC trustee and founder of GeoCities.com has advanced positive social change through his longtime support of organizations focused on arts and civic programs in L.A., voting rights, LGBT causes and more. He endowed the David C. Bohnett Residential College at USC Village to bring together students with a passion for social justice and community service.

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

Lunny Ronnie Jung PharmD ’72 and Dianne Kwock PharmD ’74 | Co-founders,

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Patsy Dewey Lunny Ronnie Jung and Dianne Kwock Richard Flores

Fox Drug Store T he husband-and-wife owners of pharmacies in the San Joaquin Valley have provided health services for farmworkers, working-class families and elderly patients for more than 40 years.

Patsy Dewey ’58 | CEO, Dewey Pest Control Under her leadership, her highly rated family business based in Pasadena, California, is an industry forerunner in the use of environmentally friendly methods of pest control.

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

Kathleen Burns Campos ’83 | Former President, Trojan League of Los Angeles For more than 40 years, the longtime volunteer has brought her support and leadership to many university organizations, including the Trojan League of Los Angeles, Town & Gown of USC and

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Rachel Morford Kathleen Burns Campos David Bohnett

the USC Trojan Marching Band Alumni Association.

Richard Flores ’83 | Member, USC Dornsife Board of Councilors A member of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Board of Councilors since 2010, he has also volunteered with the USC Dornsife Gateway Internship Program, the USC Latino Alumni Association and the USC Westside Center for Diabetes.

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

Rachel Morford ’07, MS ’07 | Principal Director, The Aerospace Corp. The engineering leader has made significant contributions to the aerospace industry and national security space programs, including providing technical leadership for the U.S. Air Force and integrating space and ground programs for missile warning systems.

Autumn 2021

PHOTOS BY STEVE COHN

Every year, USC Alumni Awards honorees don black-tie attire and the Trojan Family gathers to toast their exceptional achievements over dinner and drinks. The 2021 gathering, though, had unique flair: Guests, Song Girls and the USC Trojan Marching Band beamed in from locations around the world, and deluxe dinner boxes and Trojan Wine Collection selections arrived via home delivery. Even while far apart, Trojans came together in April for a night filled with friends, family and school spirit as they celebrated seven outstanding alumni.

family news

Up to Speed USC alums put a struggling automotive parts company on the fast track to success. Here’s how.

CarParts.com had only $2 million in cash and $20 million of debt. The company was burning through about a million dollars a month.

Then, in 2019, David Meniane ’04, MBT ’05 stepped in as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, and Lev Peker ’04 took over as CEO. The two USC Leventhal School of Accounting graduates led the company through a remarkable financial, logistical and operational turnaround. They saw record growth and performance during a pandemic.

While doubling revenue, Meniane and Peker took CarParts.com from a $30 million market cap to more than $800 million. Today, the 25-year-old e-commerce site boasts $60 million in cash and has become a leading destination for auto parts online.

talented employees. The company onboarded 800 people in 12 months, including two other Trojans on the executive team. “We hired the best of the best. We brought in experts in data science, inventory, forecasting, warehouse operations, investor relations, corporate finance, marketing— and we give them the resources and the support to execute on the roadmap.”

Meniane, who grew up in France in a family of entrepreneurs and launched his own beverage businesses before joining the automotive industry, said the company mindset is entrepreneurial. “We’re big believers in extreme ownership—you hire a technical expert and they own that piece of the business—and we pay for performance.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF CARPARTS.COM

“It’s really hard to build a multibilliondollar business by cutting costs.”

HOW DID THEY DO IT? “The first thing we did is simplify the strategy so that everyone was aligned around the core vision,” Meniane says from the company’s headquarters in Torrance, California.

That strategy is based on his business philosophy of financial discipline—which is where the accounting degrees and certified public accountant certifications come in handy—along with operational excellence and outstanding customer service.

“Then, we invested in talent, technology, supply chain, marketing and distribution,” he says. “When a company is struggling or in quote-unquote financial distress, there’s a tendency to cut costs. It’s really hard to build a multibillion-dollar business by cutting costs.”

Instead of cutbacks, CarParts.com doubled down on what he calls “the secret sauce”: trojanfamily.usc.edu

CLOSER TO THE CUSTOMER The site’s investments, including three new distribution centers across the country, meant it was in a strong position before the pandemic. “The company was growing at 40% pre-COVID,” Meniane says. “Then COVID accelerated a shift from offline to online, and once customers discovered the convenience and price transparency, there was no going back.”

Meniane doesn’t see interest in online shopping waning even as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Looking down the road, he sees e-commerce sites focusing on improved customer experience with faster delivery, giving brick-and-mortar stores even stiffer competition. With warehouses in Virginia, Nevada, Illinois, Texas, California and soon Florida, he says CarParts.com is setting the pace. “We see business as a contact sport. Over time, we are going to get closer and closer to the customer. There is a possibility that we will eventually be able to get certain parts to certain customers in 60 minutes or less.”

It’s a lofty goal, but when it comes to business plans, Meniane has proved he’s ready to hit the accelerator. JULIE RIGGOTT

USC alumni David Meniane, left, and Lev Peker helped turn CarParts.com into a success story.

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family news

Century of Service A campus cornerstone, the Trojan Knights mark 100 years of dedication to USC tradition and school spirit.

Senior Jack Stolrow, right, serves as president of the Trojan Knights, just like his father, Greg Stolrow, did more than 30 years ago.

Guardians of Tommy Trojan. Keepers of the Victory Bell. Upholders of beloved university traditions. They’re the Trojan Knights, and their brotherhood stretches back to 1921.

Current president Jack Stolrow embodies their century-old tradition. He is carrying on a Knights family legacy—even if he didn’t realize it at first. He wanted to be a Knight after spotting them at a football game as a teen. What he didn’t know back then: His father had led the group when he was a student. “My dad gave me the tie he wore as president,” he says. “I wear it under my Trojan Knights uniform and sweater crest.”

As the group celebrates its centennial,

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Knights are coming together across generations to share stories of unbreakable bonds, school spirit and just plain fun.

THE CARD STUNT: BEN WONG ’73, PHD ’78 Wong enjoyed participating in student government as a high school student in West Covina, California, so the Knights pulled him in when he arrived at USC. Another attraction: “Getting to sit on the 30-yard line during football games.”

Yes, watching football was a big draw, but so were game day antics. As leaders of the student cheer section, the Knights organized card stunts—messages displayed by swaths of stadium attendees holding up colored cards.

During Wong’s senior year, the Trojans faced off against UCLA in a televised matchup for a spot in the Rose Bowl. The final card stunt was planned to happen during a commercial break, so it wouldn’t appear on TV. The Knights got creative with it.

“The university-approved stunts said: ‘Why do people,’ which flipped to ‘Go to UCLA?’ and then to ‘Westwood Sucks Them In,’” he says. During the game, students Autumn 2021

If you’re a USC alum, visit fightonline.usc.edu on the web to update your profile.

A CENTURY OF TRADITIONS: JIM LEWIS ’97 During Rivalry Week, Lewis (pictured above) learned about the Trojan Knights.

The cross section of campus leaders, as well as their sister organization, the USC Helenes, impressed the Torrance, California, native. “I've always loved USC’s traditions and pageantry,” he says, “so I was interested in the lifelong legacy and connection to the university through the Knights.”

During his senior year, the public policy and management major became president and had a personal mission: Bring back card stunts. In fall 1996, he made it happen. He stood on the football field calling stunts beside Ann Bothwell, the wife of the late Lindley Bothwell ’24. Widely credited for starting the tradition of these stunts at football games, Lindley Bothwell was also one of the Knights’ founders. “Ann said, ‘He’s looking at you from heaven and he’s proud,” Lewis says. “Undoubtedly, that was my most magical experience as a Trojan Knight.”

Lewis also learned firsthand about the responsibilities that come with leadership. trojanfamily.usc.edu

The best leaders, he says, step forward to serve first and inspire others by example.

“It also taught me that a leader is ultimately responsible for all the actions of a group,” he says. “I must hold others accountable because I will be held accountable.”

A KNIGHTSGIVING: MADISON AINLEY ’11 A spring admit who had been homeschooled through high school, Ainley initially felt disconnected from USC campus life. During a USC Involvement Fair, the cinema and television production major from Paragould, Arkansas, spied a sword-wielding student and had to investigate. “That’s when I met Benji Silva,” Ainley recalls.

Silva ’09 was president of the Knights, and he filled Ainley in on the group. “There was a fraternal element and a pride of place,” says Ainley, who appreciated the initiation requirements of learning about USC’s history. “The backstories are the lifeblood of

what made the university what it is today.”

Ainley’s favorite moments included going to his first football game in full body paint, carving pumpkins with students at a nearby K-12 magnet school, escorting President Barack Obama during a campus visit and raising funds to restore the Center for International and Public Affairs’ carillon bell, which hadn’t rung in 10 years.

Then there was guarding Tommy Trojan during Conquest. One year, the 24/7 guard duties fell during Thanksgiving. “The Knights and their families threw Knightsgiving dinner in front of Tommy Trojan,” Ainley says. “It reminded me why USC is so special—we’re a Trojan Family, and that bond is eternal, unbreakable and goes generations deep.”

BEKAH WRIGHT

Stay tuned for the Spring 2022 issue, where we ’ll celebrate the 100th anniversary of the USC Helenes.

Trojan Knights Madison Ainley, Jeff Brown and Vineet Prasad flash V’s with the Victory Bell.

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STOLROW PHOTO BY ISABELLE VU; WONG PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN WONG; LEWIS PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM LEWIS; VICTORY BELL PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON AINLEY

split the last message into two parts so the words ‘Them In’ were displayed on their own.

“ABC Sports decided to stay on the stunts,” Wong remembers. “When ‘Westwood Sucks’ popped up, reportedly sports announcer Keith Jackson gasped, ‘Oh my God,’ at which point ABC took it off the air and the TV audience never saw it.”

Wong calls his time with the Knights unforgettable: “I forged friendships that are still going strong 50 years later.”

Celebrate with USC.

Join us for USC Homecoming and Reunion Weekend celebrations on October 29-31.

Recharge your Trojan Spirit at Homecoming with on-campus celebrations and regional activities such as our second annual Fight On! Virtual 5K. Visit alumni.usc.edu for details.

And if you earned your undergraduate degree in 1971, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 or 2011, you’re invited to Reunion Weekend 2021, which will include in-person and virtual fun! That means you’ll be able to join in the festivities no matter where you live. For updates and to register, visit reunions.usc.edu or call (213) 740-2300.

alumni.usc.edu | alumni@usc.edu

@USCAlumni

family class notes 1 9 4 0 s Ruth Lavine ’41 (LAS), LLB ’43 (LAW) celebrated her 100th birthday at a virtual event hosted by USC’s Women’s Law Association, the Jewish Law Students Association and the Development and Alumni Relations Office. The celebration also recognized the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and the 120th anniversary of the USC Gould School of Law. Guest speakers included USC President Carol L. Folt, former U.S. Rep. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke LLB ’56 (LAW); Alyson Parker JD ’09 (LAW), an attorney with the California Department of Justice; and Shannon Raj Singh JD ’11 (LAW), human rights counsel for Twitter.

Eugene L. Scott MS ’49 (ENG) served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946 and returned to USC to earn a master’s degree. He held positions at Gilfillan Bros., Lear Corp., North American Rockwell and Southern California Edison. He now lives in Prescott, Arizona.

CURRIE PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CURRIE FAMILY; GEHRY PHOTO BY LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1 9 5 0 s Frank Gehry ’54 (ARC), Pritzker Prize-winning a rc h i te ct, j o i ne d Milton Curry, dean of the USC School of Architecture, to celebrate USC Alumni Reunion Weekend last October with a virtual conversation about the connection between architecture, culture and community.

Marvin Saltzman MFA ’59 (ART) exhibited Saltzman at 90, a series of abstract paintings at the Mahler Fine Art gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina. He received the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor, in 1998. Now 90 years old, he still paints every day.

Philip Moynihan MS ’66 (ENG) published his third book, Spirit of the Sky Walkers, which describes the adventures of flying.

Jonathan Benumof MD ’67 (MED) and his wife, Sherrie, published a memoir, Letters from the Heart: A Young Army Doctor’s 1969 Vietnam War Experience, about his service as a wartime anesthesiologist that earned him a Bronze Star.

Michael Tilson Thomas ’67, MM ’76 (MUS), celebrated conductor and a Judge Widney Professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium for From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke. He was also nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance category for the San Francisco Symphony’s Copland: Symphony No. 3.

1 9 7 0 s Craig Karpilow MS ’70 (BKT), who spent 10 years as a cruise ship doctor before opening his family medicine and occupational medicine practice, has written 14 mystery novels. His series, Cruise Ship Crime Mysteries, is published under the pen name Paul Davis MD. Tee Guidotti ’71 (LAS) is a fellow in the Society of Risk Analysis, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

Norma Zuckerman ’71 (DRA) earned a master’s degree in theater at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2020. The founder and artistic director of the Jewish Repertory Theatre of Nevada produced, directed and performed The Diary of Anne Frank as part of the theater’s “No Tolerance for Intolerance” program for Clark County School District students.

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Quentin Schaffer ’76 (SCJ) published his first novel, Gods of Sound: The Perilous Path of Cameron Foster.

Dale Gribow ’65 (LAS) was selected as a top lawyer for personal injury and DUI in Palm Springs Life magazine.

Craig Sadur MD ’77 (MED), a volunteer endocrinologist for the Maven Project, received the group’s 2021 Laurie Green, MD Volunteer of

trojanfamily.usc.edu

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Malcolm Currie A USC trustee and engineering physicist, Malcolm Currie had a distinguished career in electronics and weapons research and development.

Best known as the former chairman and CEO of Hughes Aircraft Company, he also served as undersecretary of defense research and engineering in the U.S. Department of Defense. The National Academy of Engineering member was a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He held many patents and published numerous papers on topics from lasers to space propulsion.

As a member of the USC Board of Trustees since 1989 and its chairman from 1995 to 2000, Currie oversaw a period that included a near-doubling of the university’s endowment. In honor of his service to USC, Currie received the university’s highest honor, the Presidential Medallion, in 2001.

In 2008, Currie funded an endowment of the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities. He and his wife, Barbara, gifted USC with a $10 million donation toward the endowment of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the construction of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. In recognition of the couple’s support of biomedical research, a new Health Sciences Campus residence hall that opened in 2016 was named in their honor.

Currie died April 18 at age 94. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; children, Deborah, David and Diana; and two grandchildren.

the Year Award, given to a volunteer who has supported efforts to provide accessible and comprehensive health care for all Americans.

David G. Young III MD ’77 (MED), a specialist in internal medicine and aerospace medicine, retired from the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps as a brigadier general after 32 years. During his service, he commanded two Air Force hospitals and two medical centers and was command surgeon for the Pacific Air Forces and assistant usc trojan family

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family class notes surgeon general for the Medical Corps. He received a Certificate of Commendation from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Richard E. Russell MPA ’78 (SPP) is commissioner for the fire department in Holt, Florida.

James Foley MFA ’79 (SCA) is director and executive producer for Paramount’s limited series Reagan & Gorbachev.

Stanley Lamport ’79 (LAS) was named the 2021 Lawyer of the Year for land use and zoning law in Los Angeles by Best Lawyers.

Mark P. Thompson ’79 (SPP) is executive vice president of Capalino, a New York urban strategy firm, overseeing its lobbying division and assisting in the firm’s expansion to provide businesses and nonprofits with services to recover in post-pandemic New York.

1 9 8 0 s Gloria Burgess PhD ’80 (LAS), MBA ’86 (BUS) gave two TEDx talks in 2020: “A Seat at the Table” and “Legacy: The Current of Life.” She is an executive director and part of the John Maxwell Team, a leadership development group.

Debbi Dachinger ’80 (DRA) hosts the award-winning syndicated podcast Dare to Dream. She has been nominated for two People's Choice Podcast Awards and a Webby Award and is the author of four books. She has received the Broadcasting Industry Lifetime Achievement Award and the Heart and Spirit Award from the Evolutionary Business Council.

Tim Dang ’80 (DRA), a USC lecturer and the arts and culture leader of the L.A. County Economic Resiliency Task Force, is featured in the video game Ghost of Tsushima.

Charles Manger III MD ’80 (MED) founded the Saddleback Eye Center in Laguna Hills, California. In 2007, he established the Charles C. Manger III Endowed Chair in Corneal Laser Surgery at the USC Roski Eye Institute.

Ethan “Rick” Allen MPA ’81, DPA ’84 (SPP) is past president of the Washington State Association of United Way, retired CEO of

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United Way of Pierce County, Washington, and past president of the Washington State Community Action Association. He published a book, Inside Pitch, that chronicles the one-yearand-bankrupt history of the 1969 Seattle Pilots.

David Thompson ’81 (LAS), ’81 MS (ENG) retired from Delta Air Lines after serving 31 years as an Airbus A320 captain.

Fred Ross-Cisneros ’83 (LAS) co-authored the article “Retinal nerve fiber thickness predicts CSF/amyloid/tau before cognitive decline” in the journal PLOS One. Mark R. Henschke PharmD ’83 (PHM) is board certified in both internal medicine and medical management and has a hospital-based practice in York, Maine. He was selected as one of Maine’s leading internists and is included in the 2020 “Top Doctor” list in Castle Connolly’s syndicated publications.

Paul Feig ’84 (SCA) will direct a remake of the BBC TV comedy This Country. The actor, producer and writer previously directed films including Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor and TV shows including The Office, Nurse Jackie and Arrested Development.

Soren Ashmall MA ’85 (SCJ) received his doctorate in technology from Capitol Technology University, where he is an assessment and accreditation director and professor of technology, business and liberal arts.

Chip Jacobs ’85 (LAS/SCJ) wrote The Darkest Glare, a true-crime thriller set in a murderous time in Los Angeles’ history.

David Walsh JD ’85 (LAW) received the Alliance for Housing and Healing’s Vanguard Award, presented to people and organizations that provide extraordinary service to the organization.

Graydon Miller ’86 (LAS) published the book Women with Knives in English and Spanish.

Daniel Rothblatt MSW ’86 (SSW), executive vice president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, received the Shining Star Award from the Associate of Fundraising Professionals Greater Los Angeles Chapter in conjunction with the 35th anniversary of National Philanthropy Day.

Stefan Zweig DDS ’86, GCRT ’92 (DEN) is an associate professor of clinical dentistry at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC and serves as president-elect of the American Association of Endodontists.

Clifford Baughn ’87 (ENG) retired after a 20-year career as the vice president of administration at L-3 Technologies’ electron devices division.

Dave Dollinger MRED ’87 (SPP), who operates Dollinger Properties, a commercial real estate developer based in Redwood City, and Tara Dollinger, who oversees the Tara and Dave Dollinger Foundation, donated $2.4 million to the Immune Behavioral Health Clinic at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford to advance research on a rare, sudden-onset psychiatric disorder.

Barry Hershey MFA ’87 (SCA) released Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops, a series of five short films featuring 12 world-renowned climate scientists.

Eric John Makus MPL ’87 (SPP) was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar. Darin Gray ’88 (LAS/ENG), MAT ’11 (EDU), co-director of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center, received the title of James E. Ballinger Engineer of the Year from the Orange County Engineering Council.

Robert Mordkin ’88 (LAS), MD ’92 is chief medical officer for LetsGetChecked, a company that allows individuals to collect samples at home for lab testing.

Philip A. Iannuzzi Jr. MS ’89 (ENG), a retired Air Force colonel and military pilot, is an aerospace industry leader for The Boeing Co. He earned three master’s degrees during his professional career in the Air Force and serves as an advisor to the Airlift/Tanker Association’s board of directors.

Jeff Miller ’89 (SCJ), PhD ’01 (EDU) is chief learning officer and vice president of organizational effectiveness at Cornerstone OnDemand in Santa Monica, California.

Autumn 2021

A LU M N A

P R O F I L E

I D A

A .

C L A I R

’8 7

A Blueprint for Change

PHOTO COURTESY OF IDA CLAIR

As California state architect, Ida Clair ’87 helps set the standard for building sustainability, accessibility and safety.

Ida Clair ’87 is quick to point out the irony of her job as California state architect: She doesn’t design buildings.

Headquartered in Sacramento, the Division of the State Architect is a regulatory entity that provides design and construction oversight for public schools, community colleges and state-owned essential services buildings. It also develops building safety codes and ensures that designers and builders comply with those rules.

But Clair can still use her creativity and knowledge to make an impact on California.

She’s an expert on accessibility and sustainability, two big priorities for her division.

“I love what I do now. I’m still problem-solving, and that’s what I’ve always enjoyed about being an architect,” says Clair, who earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture from USC. “My process now doesn’t result in the design of a building, but it involves solving project-related issues so that school construction is not delayed and creating regulations that are necessary but do not limit design solutions.”

Before joining the division, Clair spent more than 26 years in private practice. She focused on affordable and sustainable multifamily housing. “I enjoyed the work because there was an equity component,” she says.

“Affordable housing is so desperately needed in California.”

One of her proudest achievements is a housing facility for residents transitioning from homelessness. “It was energy-efficient with a visually appealing aesthetic,” she says, and it received the highest score for sustainability under the Building Green certification program when it was completed.

Clair was appointed the first female state architect by Gov. Gavin Newsom in April after serving as acting state architect since January 2019. She joined the division in 2013, becoming the first technical administrator of the Certified Access Specialist Program, which ensures accessibility standards for buildings.

With offices in Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego, the Division of the State Architect expedites plan reviews for all projects related to pandemic response so that schools can reopen safely. The division prepared guidance for schools and meets with school staff to help them identify and comply with codes when they plan to improve facilities to reduce COVID-19 risk. Schools might want to upgrade ventilation upgrades or set up tents for outdoor instruction, for example.

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“Schools have been scrambling because of the influx of funds, at both the state and the federal level,” Clair says. “So we have been working with the California Department of Education to make sure schools understand what they need to do.”

Meanwhile, the division continues to address requirements under CALGreen (the first state-mandated green building code in the nation, developed in 2010) for schools and community colleges, including the installation of shade trees, carbon monoxide monitors in

classrooms and electric vehicle-charging stations in new parking areas. “Our goal is to get our schools to net zero energy,” Clair says. “We consider what’s good for the environment but also what provides that additional equity to students, especially in underserved communities.”

An advocate for education and outreach— her own children attended public schools— Clair continues that commitment today. “The more you engage students in sustainability issues, the more you create future sustainability champions.” JULIE RIGGOTT

“I'm problemsolving, and that's what I've always enjoyed about being an architect.”

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family class notes 1 9 9 0 s James A. Lord ’90 (ARC) is co-founding partner of Surfacedesign, a San Franciscobased landscape architecture and urban planning firm. He was project lead for an environmentally conscious Auckland International Airport landscape project, which received a 2020 American Architecture Award.

Stefan Chrissanthos MA ’91, PhD ’99 (LAS) published his book The Year of Julius and Caesar: 59 B.C. and the Transformation of the Roman Republic.

Neal Mitsuyoshi ’91 (ENG) is a brigadier general in the U.S. Army, where he serves as the mobilization assistant for the J4 Logistics and Engineering Directorate at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command based at Camp H. M. Smith in Aiea, Hawaii.

University of California, Berkeley.

Greg Garrabrants ’93 (ENG) is the president and CEO of Axos Bank, which is consistently ranked as one of the highest-performing banking institutions in the country.

Dana Gutierrez ’93 (LAS), JD ’97 (LAW) is a superior court judge in Guam, where she serves in family court.

Susan Hess MSW ’93 (SSW) and Patricia Ramirez MSW ’17, DSW ’20 (SSW) were named as founding members of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Crime Victims Advisory Board.

Megan (Kern) Jordan ’92 (SCJ) is head of communications at West Coast University and American Career College.

Ayanna Howard MS ’94, PhD ’99 (ENG) released a book called Sex, Race & Robots: How to Be Human in the Age of AI, which explores racial and gender biases perpetuated by artificial intelligence. She is dean of The Ohio State University College of Engineering and co-founder of Zyrobotics, an award-winning educational technology company.

Russell Klosk ’92 (LAS) is a managing director in Accenture Strategy’s Talent & Organization practice, helping companies design and execute future workforce strategy.

Al Gough MFA ’94 (SCA) and Miles Millar MFA ’94 (SCA) will be head writers and executive producers of the forthcoming live-action TV series The Addams Family.

Marietta Phillips MSW ’92 (SSW) is an embedded clinical social worker in the U.S. Air Force Civilian Service.

Laila Lalami MA ’94, PhD ’97 (LAS) published her first nonfiction book, Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America.

David Ian Salter MFA ’92 (SCA) edited the animated film The Addams Family, which won Best Editing in Animation at the Canadian Cinema Editors Awards. He is editing Under the Boardwalk, a musical animated feature, and was also inducted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Robert Besser MBA ’95 (BUS) leads the newly created Los Angeles office of the California Corporate Banking Group of KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., the corporate and investment banking arm of Cleveland-based KeyCorp.

Stella Hayes ’92 (LAS) released her first book of poetry, One Strange Country.

Satish (Swamy) Ananthaswamy MBA ’93 (BUS) is senior managing director and head of global rates and Asia investments at the University of California’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer. He also teaches an advanced finance elective for MBA students at the Haas School of Business at the

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Lori Cox Han MA ’95, PhD ’97 (LAS) is the inaugural holder of the Doy B. Henley Endowed Chair in American Presidential Studies at Chapman University, where she has been a professor of political science since 2005.

Peter Boyer GRCT ’96 (MUS) was commissioned to compose a piece for the inauguration of

President Joe Biden, “Fanfare for Tomorrow,” which was performed by the U.S. Marine Band in the program preceding the ceremony.

Sande Chen MFA ’96 (SCA), a Grammynominated writer and game designer, won a 2020 Women in Games Global Hall of Fame Award.

Jennifer Esperanza ’96 (LAS) was promoted to full professor of anthropology at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Jason Ginsburg ’96 (DRA) helped launch Discovery+, where he manages Discovery Channel content for the streaming service and the Discovery Go app. His first screenplay made into a film, Age of Stone and Sky: The Sorcerer Beast, was released in April.

Rian Johnson ’96 (SCA) is executive producer for Netflix’s The Three-Body Problem, a science fiction show helmed by the creators of Game of Thrones and adapted from the Hugo Award-winning Chinese novel by Liu Cixin.

Christopher M. Johnston ’96 (BUS), MAcc ’96 (ACC), an audit partner with Ernst & Young LLP based in Orange County, was named sector leader for real estate investment trusts in the Americas.

Fred Mariscal ’96 (SCA) is politics and public affairs officer for the British Consulate General in Los Angeles. He works to maintain the United Kingdom’s reputation as the United States’ partner of choice in business, global security and research collaboration.

Mary Drabnis PhD ’97 (LAS) was appointed chair of the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Patent Cooperation Treaty Issues Committee.

Jenna Knudsen ’97 (ARC), principal at CO Architects, completed Tata Hall at the University of California, San Diego, an energy-efficient modern lab. She is also working on an acute care hospital project in San Marcos, California, and renovation projects across the UCLA campus.

Ernesto Mourelo ’97 (SCJ) was promoted to vice president of digital news at Hearst Television.

Autumn 2021

ALUMNI PROFILE REGINALD ROBERTS JR. JD ’00 AND JUSTIN SANDERS JD ’00

Setting a New Bar

MORTARBOARD PHOTO BY ISTOCK

Two longtime friends pair up to create a scholarship for future lawyers following their dreams at the USC Gould School of Law. Before becoming law partners at Sanders Roberts LLP, longtime friends Justin Sanders JD ’00 and Reginald Roberts Jr. JD ’00 found their profession in different ways.

Roberts, a first-generation college student, discovered he had a natural ease with words, which steered him to law. Sanders’ father was a Yale School of Law graduate and corporate lawyer with deep ties to the civil rights movement.

Both Los Angeles natives, the future partners met as Morehouse College Justin Sanders JD ’00 undergraduates before studying at the (top) and Reginald USC Gould School of Law. Roberts Jr. JD ’00 Today, the USC alumni focus on business litigation, employee litigation and general liability defense, with clients including Ford Motor Co. and Facebook. The firm has grown to 26 lawyers, and in 2016 and 2020, Daily Journal named it among California’s top 20 boutique firms. Despite their success, they haven’t forgotten the journey to get there.

“We had many mentors and men and women we looked up to who bent over backwards to say ‘yes.’ They did a lot for us to help put us in the position that we’re in now,” says Sanders, who was both a Southern California Super Lawyer and USC Black Law Students Association Alumnus of the Year in 2019. “It’s very important to us that we do the same for people that are coming up behind us.”

His law partner agrees. “USC Gould changed my life,” says Roberts, who was named one of the top 40 lawyers under age 40 by the National Bar Association in 2013. “When I’d walk down the hallways, the dean knew my name. It made me feel really invited, like I wasn’t the only person that was invested in my success.

Because of that, we’re still giving back today.”

In addition to being active members of the USC Gould Alumni Association and the school’s Law Leadership Society, they mentor students and teach a pretrial advocacy class.

They also recently endowed the Clarence

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Thompson Memorial Scholarship Fund for students from underrepresented communities.

“If students of color who want to attend USC’s law school are attending other schools instead because money is an obstacle,” Sanders says, “then we are going to help bridge that gap.”

Roberts could only attend a top-tier school like USC because of a scholarship. For Sanders, receiving the Crispus Wright Scholarship was the determining factor in becoming a Trojan.

In selecting the name of their fund, they gave a nod to Clarence Thompson, USC Gould’s first Black alumnus, who graduated in 1900 at age 18.

Today, Blacks represent over 13% of the U.S. population but only 5% of the nation’s lawyers. The partners agree that diversity at law schools is critical. “If you have a society that is governed by rules created by a homogenous segment of that society,” Roberts says, “over time there will be discord.”

Sanders adds: “At USC, I met people that had completely different political, legal and social views, and we became friends— we’re still friends. We sat through lectures from people on the far left, people in the middle and people on the far right. That causes students to challenge, or maybe strengthen, their own views.” JULIE RIGGOTT

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family class notes Eric Freedman PhD ’98 (SCA) published his second book, The Persistence of Code in Game Engine Culture.

Marisa Reichardt MPW ’98 (LAS) published her third novel, A Shot at Normal, about a 16-year-old who fights her parents for the right to be vaccinated.

Jan Aune MHA ’99 (SPP) settled a $1.5 million federal jury case for a client, which ranked in TopVerdict’s Top 50 Labor and Employment Verdicts in California for 2019.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite MA ’99 (LAS) directed Our Friend, a comedy drama starring Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck.

Greg Barnes ’99 (SCJ) is president of global insurance broker Lockton for greater Los Angeles area.

Fernando Garcia ’99 (SCA/SCJ) was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Syreeta Greene ’99 (SPP), MSW ’06 (SSW), EdD ’16 (EDU) is director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the American Film Institute.

2 0 0 0 s Carla Banks-Waddles MFA ’00 (SCA) is founder of Babycakes Productions. She has writing credits on the shows Half & Half, The Soul Man, The Fresh Beat Band and Truth Be Told. She was an executive producer on NBC’s Good Girls and developed a drama pilot called At That Age. She recently signed a deal with Universal Television, the studio behind Good Girls.

Maruth Figueroa ’00 (BUS), EdD ’13 (EDU) was appointed assistant vice chancellor of student retention and success at the University of California, San Diego.

Lindsay Harrison ’00 (LAS) is a fellow at the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Claudia Spinelli MFA ’00 (SCA) is senior vice president of animation development at Nickelodeon, where she will help manage the development of new animated franchise

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content including Star Trek: Prodigy and Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years.

Diana Akiyama PhD ’01 (LAS) was ordained and consecrated as the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon.

Jason Beeber ’01 (DRA) is the co-host of Make That Paper Podcast, a show about the day jobs and side hustles people do to support the pursuit of their artistic careers.

Jennifer Halvas ’01 (LAS) is partner at Cityview, a multifamily investment management and development firm based in L.A. She helps guide strategic decisions that impact the firm and its investors and serves as a key member of the company’s investment committee. Previously, she served as counsel at O’Melveny & Meyers LLP, where she represented clients in real estate, project development and finance transactions.

Nicholas R. Howard ’01 (SCJ) published Mercenary at Midnight: A Collection of Gutsy Verse, which appeared in two poetry categories on the Amazon Best Seller chart.

Michael Kloss MFA ’01 (SCA) published Five Days with the Mouse to Be a Better Event Planner, a study of the design and operations of Disneyland and Walt Disney World and how lessons learned can be used by event planners.

Melissa Siew ’01 (BUS), a specialist in internal medicine, is medical director for The Orchards Health Center in Rancho Mission Viejo, California, where she oversees medical care for the health center’s assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing residents.

Luis Campa ’02 (LAS) is on the board of directors of the USC Latino Alumni Association.

He is also a member of the board of councilors of the USC Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative.

Aram Chaparyan MPA ’02 (SPP) is city manager for Torrance, California.

Gary Lai ’02 (LAS) published an article on the fair trade movement in Le Monde, a leading French publication.

Kristin Snowden ’02 (LAS) published Life Anonymous: 12 Steps to Heal and Transform Your Life.

Maribeth Annaguey JD ’03 (LAW) is partner at Browne George Ross O’Brien Annaguey & Ellis.

Bahram Asiabanpour PhD ’03 (ENG), a professor at Texas State University, was recognized by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers with its 2020 Distinguished Faculty Advisor Award for his efforts on behalf of the organization and its student chapter at the university.

Maria Hall JD ’03 (LAW) received a 2020 National Lawyers Guild Annual Award from the organization’s Los Angeles chapter in recognition of her work on civil rights, environmental justice and pro bono activist legal defense. She also runs the Los Angeles Incubator Consortium, which helps new solo attorneys committed to expanding legal access.

Camille Kraft EdD ’03 (EDU) was named commissioner of the Women’s National Football Conference, an organization that fosters an environment for female athletes to sustain healthy lifestyles through playing, coaching and participating in American football.

John Purcell ME ’03, EdD ’06 (EDU) received the Los Angeles Unified School District 2020 Teacher of the Year Award.

Daniel Guggenheim JD ’04 (LAW) and Erin Natter JD ’06 (LAW) joined the Los Angeles office of law firm Mintz.

Carlos Rafael Rivera MM ’04, DMA ’10 (MUS) spoke with American Songwriter magazine about the challenges of screen scoring the chess matches and dynamic main character for the hit Netflix series The Queen,s Gambit.

Erin Saade ’04 (LAS) is president of AfricAid’s board of directors.

Ashley Alvarado ’05 (LAS), ’05 (SCJ) won the overall excellence award for engaged journalism from the Online News Association.

Autumn 2021

A LU M N U S

P R O F I L E

TAY L O R

D O N S K E R

’ 1 0

Against the Grain An architect-turned-woodworker finds inspiration in the natural world.

“Have you found your own style?”

Taylor Donsker ’10 heard this question a lot while studying at the USC School of Architecture.

He eventually found his answer not in towering skyscrapers but in grains of wood.

As a major, architecture was a perfect fit for Donsker. He loved studying form and structures, and a study-abroad program in Asia opened his eyes to different techniques. “I fell in love with Japan’s traditional architecture and the temples, which were constructed out of wood with handmade joinery,” he says.

But few firms were hiring when Donsker graduated. Spare time led him to explore woodworking and furniture design in his parents’ garage. His passion for hand drawing—a craft he refined in the “Architect’s Sketchbook” course under mentor Miller Fong ’64—played heavily in the process.

“The pen is the most powerful tool you can have when designing or building anything,” Donsker says. “It allows for working through problems or schemes in architecture or furniture designs much more quickly than a computer.”

He eventually landed a job at an architecture firm but after two years became disenchanted by its overseas

PHOTO BY JACK STRUTZ

“In many ways, woodworking is a smallerscale form of architecture.” projects and the heavy use of computers. “I longed for a closer connection to my projects, to see what I was designing transform and be built,” he says. He left and threw himself into woodworking full time, honing skills through books and videos. The switch felt natural. “In many ways, woodworking is a smaller-scale form of architecture,” he says.

In 2012, he debuted his work at an interior design event and landed on a website featuring new designers. Some furniture orders followed, but he still wondered: I have all this cool stuff to share. Why is nobody calling me?

It came down to timing—and expressing himself. “I hadn't developed anything

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new in the world of furniture, and clients were watching and waiting for me to make something unique.”

Over time, he has come to draw inspiration from trees themselves. “Now, I look at the roots of a redwood and see a chaise lounge, the stump of a eucalyptus tree that should be a throne or a decayed walnut tree that needs another material, like bronze or glass, mixed in.”

Taylor Donsker Design makes 10 to 15 largescale works of furniture per year. His international client base is grounded in architects and

interior designers—longtime fans who find his organic designs work well with their projects. Sunset magazine recently lauded him as one of 2020’s emerging designers to watch. On the horizon is a move to Northern California to establish a permanent studio.

Twelve years after graduating from USC, Donsker believes he has finally found his style. “It takes time,” he says. “First, you have to develop a mastery of what you’re pursuing. When you find your true voice— that’s what people have been waiting to hear.” BEKAH WRIGHT

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Tap into the Power of the Trojan Family Alums, sign up for The Trojan Network, USC’s free online professional networking platform, where you can: • Connect with thousands of fellow alumni from a wide range of industries and geographic locations to give or receive valuable career advice.

• Serve as a mentor and advisor to new grads and current students who reach out to you.

• Participate as much or as little as you wish—whether it’s answering one question per month or establishing an ongoing connection with a student or fellow alum.

Sign up today at careers.usc.edu/trojan-network.

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@USCAlumni @USCCareerCenter

family class notes Tracy Fehr JD ’05 (LAW) is partner at Alexander Morrison + Fehr.

Adeeb Khan ’05 (SCJ) was a finalist for Denver’s 9NEWS Leader of the Year.

Lewis Lawyer ’05 (LAS/MUS) published A Grammar of Patwin, the first grammatical description of a Native American language once spoken in hundreds of communities throughout the California region.

Diane Lipovsky ’05 (SCA) co-founded Superbloom, an innovative landscape architecture and planning collaborative in Denver.

Robin Reck ’05 (LAS/SCJ) was promoted to deputy chief of staff at Emerson Collective.

Daniel Seddiqui ’05 (LAS) published his second book, Going the Extra Mile, chronicling his journey across America to learn about communities in crisis.

Sushma Subramanian ’05 (LAS/SCJ) published her first book, How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch.

Jennifer Carter ’06, MArch ’12 (ARC), a specialist in health care architecture, is an associate at CO Architects in Los Angeles.

She helped the firm win awards for CedarsSinai’s Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion Outpatient Surgery.

Jeffrey Kuhns ’06 (LAS), ’07 (BUS) is a member of the Leadership Florida Connect Class 11, an institute for educating, engaging and inspiring the state’s top emerging leaders under age 40.

Joseph J. Machi ’06 (BUS), a graduate of the University of San Diego Law School, was promoted to partner with Duane Morris LLP. Previously, he worked as an auditor for Ernst & Young LLP, where he obtained his CPA license.

Jase Ricci MFA ’06 (SCA) won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program for his work at Disney as head writer and story editor for Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.

Christiane (Chrissy) Roussell Willis trojanfamily.usc.edu

JD ’06 (LAW) is senior vice president of people and organization at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Ambrose Akinmusire MM ’07 (MUS) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category for his release, on the tender spot of every calloused moment, which features 11 original compositions from the trumpeter and composer.

Angela Andrews MPL ’07 (SPP) was elected to the Hayward City Council, becoming the California city’s first female African American councilmember. She was a member of the Hayward Planning Commission and is capital program manager for the West County Wastewater District based in Richmond, California.

Gerald Clayton ’07 (MUS) received two Grammy Award nominations: Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Celia and Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard.

William A. Kessler ’07 (ACC), MBT ’08 (ACC), JD ’11 (LAW) was promoted to counsel at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he is a member of the tax department focusing on transactional tax.

Doriss Panduro ’07 (LAS) is the first Latina elected to the Fairfield City Council, representing the California city’s District 5.

litigation and maritime law.

Lael Rudd MS ’08 (ENG) is a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s tactical technology office, working on advanced autonomy for air and space domains.

Jessica Louie ’09 (LAS), PharmD ’13 (PHM) sent care packages to more than 1,200 pharmacists and other health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic through her organization, Spark Joy in Healthcare. The group fights burnout among health care professionals by encouraging self-care.

Janani Rana JD ’09 (LAW), an attorney at Minyard Morris and co-chair of the USC Gould Alumni Association’s Orange County chapter; Stephen Blaker JD ’11 (LAW), an associate with MSK; and Paige Smith JD ’15 (LAW), an associate with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, were named to the “Ones to Watch” Best Lawyers 2021 list.

Dustin Thorlakson ’09 (ARC) was elected president of FREIHEIT Architecture, a commercial architecture and interior design firm in Seattle, Washington.

2 0 1 0 s Brooke Butler ’10 (DRA), who appeared in the film All Cheerleaders Die, stars in Tidal Wave Entertainment’s horror thriller Lantern’s Lane.

Allison Rawlins ’07 (SCJ) and her company, Land Advisors, were featured on the cover of Orange County Business Journal in September 2020.

Ashley Margo MArch ’10 (ARC) received a 2020 Professional Development Fellowship from the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation for her project, “Los Angeles by Color,” which involves maps that examine L.A.’s urban environment.

Haili Francis ’08 (ART), GCRT ’12 (SPP) published an article in Smithsonian Folklife Magazine, “Lagos, Nigeria: A Creative Force in Art and Fashion,” that details how the arts are thriving in the African nation.

Sharan Sharma ’10 (BUS) made his directorial debut with Netflix’s Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, the story of the first Indian female air force pilot to fly in a combat zone.

Marie Larsen ’08 (LAS) is a partner of the law firm Holland & Knight LLP in New York, where she specializes in commercial

Julie Synyard EdD ’10 (EDU) is superintendent of Martinez Unified School District in Martinez, California. usc trojan family

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family class notes Jame’l Hodges EdD ’11 (EDU) is vice president for student success and engagement at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida.

Meha Agrawal ’12 (BUS/ENG) is CEO and founder of Silk + Sonder, a guided self-care and mental wellness experience for women, and recently closed her $3.6 million seed round led by Redpoint Ventures.

David Mitry Ajalat JD ’12 (LAW) is partner at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he is a member of the corporate department.

Thomas Kotcheff MM ’12, DMA ’19 (MUS) was featured in The New York Times in an article about his newest album, the first commercial recording of Frederic Rzewski’s Songs of Insurrection.

The pianist and composer is a member of the music theory and ear training faculty at the Colburn School and is a founding member of the piano duo HOCKET. Rashi Khanna Wiese MSW ’12 (SSW) hosts Lucky Dog on CBS, focusing on rescuing dogs in shelters. She and her husband own a boarding and training facility and run a nonprofit called WRARE Foundation that advocates for dog adoption and foster care.

Deborah Burke MFA ’13 (SCA) will produce a short musical film, Strange Fruit: The Hip-hopera, based on a movie she wrote while at USC. Rachel Hartz MA ’14 (SCJ) joined Elevate Brands as a marketing director.

Myles Hunter ’14 (BUS) is a co-founder and CEO of TutorMe, an online platform that connects students with tutors in more than 300 subjects, which was acquired by Zovio in 2019.

Kat Meister ’14 (DRA) was an online stage manager for the California Democratic National Committee Fest Kick Off, Election Day and Veterans Day celebrations and has worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

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Sarah Sherman ’14 (SCJ) is communications manager at Snowbird in Utah.

Colin Woodell ’14 (DRA) was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards for his role on HBO’s The Flight Attendant.

Amelia Brookens ’15 (DRA) received the 2019 Madeleine Ginsburg Grant by The Association of Dress Historians for her work at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Library and Archive in London cataloguing the archives of fashion history research by costume designer Jenny Tiramani.

Maritza Moulite MS ’15 (SCJ) published her second book, One of the Good Ones.

Cathy Quach ’15 (SCJ) joined Compass as a marketing advisor for the real estate firm.

Kendall Toole ’15 (SCA), a trainer with the indoor cycling brand Peloton, was profiled on KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. She is now based in New York.

Sharon Bako ’16 (SCJ), the R&B and Afrobeats music lead at Amazon Music, was featured on Billboard magazine’s 2020 R&B/HipHop Power Players list.

Erika Ingram ’16 (LAS), JD ’20 (LAW) and Sophie Sylla JD ’21 (LAW) launched ARTS Justice, a Los Angeles nonprofit that supports Black and Latinx students by distributing free art kits.

Jacquelyn Matter ’16 (SCJ) is senior manager of communications at ChromaDex, a global bioscience company.

Coerte Voorhees MFA ’16 (SCA) is a producer for the film Canyon Del Muerto, a historical drama about America’s first female archaeologist.

Alejandro Alvarez EdD ’17 (EDU) is superintendent of Bassett Unified School District in La Puente, California.

Tony Gao ’17 (BUS) is founder of Easy Transfer, a financial technology and education company that facilitates tuition payments for Chinese students studying abroad, which he launched as an undergraduate.

Jennifer Root EdD ’17 (EDU) was named superintendent of Menifee Union School District in Menifee, California.

Sara Silkin MFA ’17 (SCA) was commissioned by L.A. Contemporary Dance Company to write, choreograph and direct Lost Mind for the company’s virtual winter season. The interpretive dance film tells the story of someone trying to bring a parent in severe mental decline back to health.

James D. Martinez MCG ’18 (SCJ) was sworn in as a trustee for the Fresno County Board of Education in 2020, becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in the Central California county.

Jonathan Messer MS ’18 (ENG), an assistant air operations officer and naval aviator, spent a record 206 days at sea on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D.Eisenhower.

Quarantined offshore during the pandemic, he and the crew performed complex ship repairs until they were able to dock in August.

Jasmine Smith MSW ’16 (SSW) and Deborah Villanueva DSW ’20 (SSW) were named to the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, where they will help promote respect for and equitable representation of diverse individuals, groups and classes.

Elywill Zamora Paja LLM ’18 (LAW), a member of the USC Gould Alumni Association’s Los Angeles Committee, is associate general counsel at Webtoon.

Taylor Villanueva ’16 (SCJ) was recognized in New York Magazine for her podcast, A Few Bad Apples.

Miguel Solis EdD ’18 (EDU) is head of school at Maui Preparatory Academy in Lahaina, Hawaii.

Autumn 2021

To read more Class Notes and submit an update, visit uscne.ws/classnotes on the web. Your news may appear in a future issue.

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Anthony Lazzaro

LAZZARRO PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UINVERSITY ARCHIVES

Anthony Lazzaro ’48 served USC for more than 60 years, including holding leadership positions in high-profile initiatives like its 1961 master plan, the establishment of the Health Sciences Campus and participation in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

As the university’s chief of capital construction, he oversaw the construction of 132 of the more than 200 buildings that stand on USC campuses today.

He transformed the university from a collection of detached buildings on city streets into a cohesive campus connected by parklike walkways and quads.

Lazzaro served as president and vice president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers and as a member of its board of directors. He also was president and vice president of the Western Association of College and University Business Officers and was a member of the Accrediting Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

His commitment and distinguished service were recognized in 1988 when USC Trustee Raymond Watt made a donation to USC to dedicate a plaza near the center of the University Park Campus in his honor. In 2007, he received the Fred B. Olds Award, which is presented to USC alumni for their extraordinary and unparalleled service over many years.

Lazzaro was preceded in death by his wife, Shirley, and is survived by daughter Nancy Lazzaro ’71 and grandsons Derek Lazzaro JD ’09 and Anton Lazzaro.

Diontrey Thompson EdD ’18 (EDU) is head of diversity and inclusion business partners at Genentech in South San Francisco, California.

Irene Apanovitch-Leites DMA ’19 (MUS) and Scott Rieker DMA ’19 (MUS) authored an article in Choral Journal, “COVID and the Choral Educator: Preparedness, Perceptions, Attitudes, and a Way Forward,” which details the impact of the pandemic on choral music educators.

Joseph Cortez EdD ’19 (EDU) leads the International Association of Chiefs of trojanfamily.usc.edu

Police Research Advisory Committee, which provides direction to the association, law enforcement practitioners and researchers, Department of Justice leaders and the entire criminal justice system on law enforcement policy research and evaluation.

2 0 2 0 s

Patrisse Cullors MFA ’19 (ART) was nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize as a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter social justice movement.

Chelsea Burnside ’20 (SCJ) joined Warner Music Group as a content coordinator for IMGN, a social media publishing platform.

Ethan Cvitanić MFA ’19 (SCA) released his first feature film, Hit Record, which he wrote, directed and produced.

Tristan Detwiler ’19 (ART) created his second collection of Stan, his clothing line featuring quilting, which was shown at the American Collections, the rebranded New York Fashion Week. It was also reviewed

by Vogue Runway.

Sara Dillingham MSW ’19 (SSW) ran for state representative in New Hampshire.

Elizabeth Eminhizer EdD ’19 (EDU) is superintendent of Covina-Valley Unified School District in Covina, California.

Jessica Flores MS ’19 (SCJ) joined the San Francisco Chronicle as a general assignment and engagement reporter.

Cheryl Hildreth EdD ’19 (EDU) is superintendent of Washington Unified School District in West Sacramento, California.

Heran Mamo ’19 (SCJ) is a staff writer at Billboard magazine and contributed to the magazine’s 2020 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players print issue.

Oriana Mejia ’19 (LAS/SCJ), MCG ’20 (SCJ) is a marketing account executive at Anika PR. Gideon Wabvuta MFA ’19 (DRA) is the literary manager at Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles.

Joey Messina-Doerning ’19 (MUS) received his first Grammy Award nomination in the Album of the Year category as an engineer on HAIM’s Women in Music Pt. III.

Jane Bulatova ’20 (SCJ) is a public relations manager at Aeros Craft, an aviation manufacturer that designs airships.

Lida Clapp ’20 (LAS/SCJ) is a talent strategy and activations coordinator for music video app Triller.

Emma Dessau ’20 (SCJ) is an associate strategist at West, a strategic brand and marketing studio.

Margaux Gjurasic ’20 (LAS/SCJ), MPD ’21 (SCJ) is program advisor at Community Systems Foundation, a nonprofit that applies information technology to sustainable development.

Tiana Lyew ’20 (SCJ) is a press assistant for the U.S. Senate.

Ernest Owens MCM ’20 (SCJ) is editor-atlarge of Philadelphia Magazine.

Jillian Punwar ’20 (SCJ) is a public relations coordinator for global entertainment company Loki Artist Group.

Jennifer Quezada EdD ’20 (EDU) was elected to the Fontana Unified School District Board of Education in Fontana, California.

Deena Saunders-Green MS ’20 (BUS), a child welfare social worker, is founder and CEO of Green Pines Media, which monetizes art and music for artists aged 16-24 who have been affected by child abuse, neglect and trauma. The company’s first compilation album, Social Innovation, Vol. 1, is available on streaming platforms.

Sabrina Shouneyia MCG ’20 (SCJ) joined Oracle NetSuite as a business development representative.

Avery Yecies ’20 (SCJ) joined W2O Group as an account associate for the health care marketing firm. usc trojan family

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Build Alumni Connections Visit FightOnline.usc.edu today to:

• Reconnect with classmates using our enhanced directory • Register for virtual or in-person alumni events • Personalize your profile and find common ground with fellow Trojans by sharing your student activities and affiliations • Request your lifelong alumni email address • Find alumni who live in your area or share your interests—in one of our FightOnline Communities

It’s easier than ever to make a connection with another member of the Trojan Family—lifelong and worldwide.

alumni.usc.edu | alumni@usc.edu

@USCAlumni

family class notes M A R R I A G E S Mark Carbonella ’07 (ENG) and Emily Belsey Hannah Kim ’09 (LAS) and Mason Scisco Milly Shah ’13 (LAS) and Parin Patel ’13, CRT ’18, MBA ’19 (BUS) Meaghan O’Day DPT ’15 (BPT) and Kevin Brittain DPT ’15 (BPT) Elisabeth M. Davis MAT ’18 (EDU) and Glenn Hakes B I R T H S Greg Wagner ’06 (LAS/SCJ) and Stacy (Zeller) Wagner ’07 (SCJ), a son, Ethan Evan Joseph Robert Souza ’07 (ACC) and Andrea Gustafson Souza, a daughter, Emily Diane.

She is the granddaughter of Anthony Souza ’77 (BUS) and Diana del Rio Souza ’78 (BUS), niece of Matthew Souza ’04 (ACC) and grand-niece of Ana Marie del Rio ’76 (LAS), MPA ’78 (SPP).

Ian Livie PhD ’10 (LAS) and Lana Adlawan, twins, Fiona Jane and Graham David I N

M E M O R I A M

A L U M N I Neil H. McKay Jr. ’42 (ENG) of Oro Valley, Arizona; July 15, 2020, at the age of 99

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HUGHES FAMILY

Marian R. Harvey ’46 (SCJ) of Sherman Oaks, California; Oct. 5, 2020, at the age of 95 Sonia Mastache ’47 (LAS) of Boise, Idaho; Sept. 25, 2020, at the age of 96

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

B. Wayne Hughes B. Wayne Hughes ’57, a USC trustee since 1999 and visionary founder of Public Storage, rose from humble beginnings to create the largest self-storage company in the world.

Hughes graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business and remained a generous supporter of the university for decades. He and his family are the largest benefactors in the history of the university, with most of his gifts arriving quietly and anonymously. A life trustee on the USC Board of Trustees, he also was a member of the USC Scholarship Club.

Born in 1933 during the Great Depression, Hughes moved with his family to California as a child. He delivered papers for the Los Angeles Herald-Express and impressed newspaper leaders so much that they

offered him a scholarship to attend USC. After graduation and a stint in the U.S. Navy, he entered the real estate industry and later came up with the idea to open a storage warehouse with his partner, Kenneth Volk, in 1972. Starting with one small building in El Cajon, California, Public Storage grew to more than 2,500 locations. Hughes served as president, chairman and CEO, stepping down as chairman in 2011 at age 77.

In addition to his involvement in the real estate industry, Hughes was one of the nation's greatest philanthropists. He created and supported the Parker Hughes Cancer Center in Minnesota in memory of his grandson who passed away at age 8 from leukemia.

He also owned numerous award-winning thoroughbred racehorses and opened a thoroughbred breeding farm near Lexington, Kentucky.

Hughes died Aug. 18 at age 87. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughter, Tamara ’83, also a USC trustee; his son, Bradley Wayne Jr. ’84; and four grandchildren, Kylie, Skylar ’18, Grant ’17 and Greer ’20.

Paul Trejo ’47 (LAS) of Newburgh, Indiana; Sept. 15, 2020, at the age of 93

Martin King ’49 (LAS), MS ’61 (EDU) of Thousand Oaks, California; Aug. 15, 2020, at the age of 96

Marv Levin ’48 (BUS), LLB ’51 (LAW); May 30, 2020, at the age of 95

Sidney Sheridan PharmD ’49 (PHM) of Covina, California; Oct. 17, 2020, at the age of 92

George Seeley ’50 (ENG) of Ashland, Massachusetts; Oct. 19, 2020, at the age of 101

Emil Matyas ’48 (LAS) of Arcadia, California; Dec. 17, 2020, at the age of 94

Robert Matheson Jr. ’50 (LAS) of Los Angeles; Aug. 24, 2020, at the age of 96

Katherine J. Fixa ’51 (EDU) of Brea, California; Oct. 3, 2020, at the age of 91

trojanfamily.usc.edu

Carol Schnitger ’50 (EDU) of Garden Grove, California; Aug. 15, 2020, at the age of 93

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family class notes Robert Melbourne ’51 (ENG), PhD ’96 (LAS) of San Luis Rey, California; Dec. 24, 2020, at the age of 91 Charles W. Wong ’51 (ARC) of South Pasadena, California; Dec. 26, 2019, at the age of 90 Jerry Ernst Wulk MA ’51 (DRA), MS ’55 (EDU), PhD ’56 (EDU) of Long Beach, California; Sept. 13, 2020, at the age of 97

Alfred Johnson ’57 (LAS) of Vero Beach, Florida; Dec. 14, 2020, at the age of 86

Harold Budd MA ’66 (MUS) of Pasadena, California; Dec. 8, 2020, at the age of 84

Millie Charles MSW ’58 (SSW) of New Orleans; Nov. 20, 2020, at the age of 97

Arthur Tuverson III ’67 (LAS), JD ’70 (LAW) of Las Vegas, Nevada; Sept. 3, 2020, at the age of 74

Lawrence Warner DDS ’58 (DEN), MLA’82 (LAS) of Sherman Oaks, California; April 23, 2020, at the age of 89

James W. Barton ’52 (PHM) of Bakersfield, California; Dec. 14, 2020, at the age of 90

Fredrick Charles Bergstone ’58 (MUS) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Jan. 14, 2021, at the age of 85

Robert Kolf Jr. ’52, MS ’58 (EDU) of Atascadero, California; Dec. 29, 2020, at the age of 91

Wilbur Chong ’59 (ART) of Mission Viejo, California; Jan. 26, 2021, at the age of 83

Robert Arnold Larsen ’52 (ENG); March 2020

Frank R. Hall ’60 (BUS) of Sierra Madre, California; Dec. 29, 2020, at the age of 84

Mary Cleave ’53 (LAS) of Forsyth, Illinois; Sept. 12, 2020, at the age of 92 Donald Earl Ground ’53 (BUS) of Prescott, Arizona; Sept. 9, 2020, at the age of 89 Hideo Arthur Matsunaga ’53 (ARC) of Los Angeles; Oct. 31, 2020, at the age of 96 Gerald P. Carr ’54 (ENG) of Albany, New York; Aug. 26, 2020, at the age of 88 Patricia Couch ’54 (LAS) of Flippin, Arkansas; Oct. 27, 2020, at the age of 92 Conn Findlay ’54 (ENG) of San Mateo, California; April 8, 2021, at the age of 90

Om Rustgi PhD ’60 (LAS) of Williamsville, New York; April 24, 2019, at the age of 82 Robert L. Edwards Jr. ’61 (BUS) of Encinitas, California; Oct. 23, 2020, at the age of 82 Gerald E. Schumacher PharmD ’61, MS ’64 (PHM) of Wellesley, Massachusetts; Feb. 21, 2021, at the age of 83 Alex Olmedo ’62 (BUS) of Santa Monica, California; Dec. 9, 2020, at the age of 84 Susan Robertson ’62 (LAS) of Los Angeles; Sept. 12, 2020, at the age of 79

Robert Krauch ’54 (SCJ) of Playa del Rey, California; Jan. 24, 2021, at the age of 92

Ronald Keith Otto PharmD ’64 (PHM) of Redondo Beach, California; Feb. 1, 2016, at the age of 84

Arthur Lee Pereira ’54 (ARC) of Los Angeles; May 7, 2019, at the age of 87

Francis E. “Frank” Ashford MS ’65 (ENG); July 21, 2019

Charles H. Griggs ’55 (ARC) of Sarasota, Florida; Oct. 7, 2020, at the age of 94

John Hamilton ’65 (BUS) of Newport Beach, California; August 2020, at the age of 78

Sam Tsagalakis ’55 (EDU) of Pasadena, California; Jan. 2, 2021, at the age of 88

Richard Jacobsen ’65 (LAS) of San Diego, California; Nov. 14, 2020, at the age of 77

Zrelda Sealey ’56 (LAS) of Los Angeles; Dec. 6, 2020, at the age of 98

Irving P. Warsaw ’65 (BUS); Sept. 2, 2020, at the age of 83

Jon Arnett ’57 (BUS) of Lake Oswego, Oregon; Jan. 16, 2021, at the age of 85

John Boorman MS ’66 (GRD), PhD ’68 (LAS) of Washington, DC; Jan. 6, 2021, at the age of 80

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Charles Pomeroy MA ’68, PhD ’71 (LAS) of Stanton, California; Nov. 4, 2020, at the age of 85 David Michael Raschiatore ’69 (LAS), DDS ’73 (DEN) of Aliso Viejo, California; Jan. 13, 2021, at the age of 73 Trudy Rideout MA ’69 (LAS) of Laguna Beach, California; Oct. 6, 2020, at the age of 80 Young Park MS ’70 (ENG); July 3, 2020, at the age of 83 Edwin Todd ’70 (LAS) of Boulder, Colorado; July 6, 2019, at the age of 71 John P. Todd MS ’70 (BUS) of Richmond, Indiana; Dec. 21, 2020, at the age of 79 Stuart Borden ’71 (LAS) of Compton, California; July 5, 2020, at the age of 72 Robert L. Cunningham DDS ’71 (DEN) of Indian Wells, California; Oct. 19, 2020, at the age of 74 Henry Hayden III ’71 (LAS) of Scottsdale, Arizona; Sept. 30, 2020, at the age of 73 Bruce Singer ’71 (LAS) of Palm Desert, California; July 17, 2020, at the age of 72 Manouher Naraghi MS ’72, PhD ’75 (ENG) of Torrance, California; March 7, 2020, at the age of 73 Edward J. Perkins MPA ’72 , PhD ’78 (SPP) served as director general of the U.S. Foreign Service before becoming ambassador to the United Nations in 1992. Perkins is best known for accepting the challenge of urging South Africa’s leaders to peacefully end racial oppression during the 1980s. He Autumn 2021

Trojan Family obituaries appear on the web at news.usc.edu/tributes, where you can also find a link to submit obituaries online.

received numerous honors, including the Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards and the U.S. Department of State’s Distinguished Honor and Superior Honor Awards. He died on Nov. 7, 2020, at the age of 92.

Margaret Poucher Romano MS ’72 (EDU) of Northridge, California; Oct. 8, 2020, at the age of 91 Paul Westphal ’72 (LAS) of Scottsdale, Arizona; Jan. 2, 2021, at the age of 70 Eric Rickard Wahlstrom ’73 (BUS) of San Diego, California; Aug. 26, 2020, at the age of 76 Travis Reneau ’75 (LAS) of San Diego, California; July 1, 2020, at the age of 93 Paul Bass MS ’76 (ENG) of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Dec. 27, 2019, at the age of 79 Tom Nolan ’77 (LAS) of La Verne, California; Dec. 30, 2020 Richard Benesh ’78 (LAS) of Pasadena, California; Nov. 28, 2020, at the age of 64 Nancy Ajemian ’82 (LAS) of Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan; April 7, 2020, at the age of 60 Nicolette Schwartz ’83 (LAS) of Scottsdale, Arizona; Nov. 22, 2020, at the age of 60

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ELI AND EDYTHE BROAD FOUNDATION

Timothy Goldsmith MA ’84, PhD ’88 (LAS) of Memphis, Tennessee; Sept. 28, 2020, at the age of 64 Jason Weinstein ’85 (ENG) of Los Angeles; Dec. 15, 2020, at the age of 57 Joan Jacobson PhD ’89 (EDU) of Austin, Texas; Dec. 29, 2020, at the age of 85 Larry Rosen CRT ’94 (MED) of Los Angeles; Sept. 14, 2020, at the age of 84 Hillary Beth Weitz ’94 (LAS) of Rockville, Maryland; Dec. 27, 2020, at the age of 53 Allison Vana ’97 (LAS/SCJ) of Pasadena, California; Aug. 9, 2020, at the age of 45 trojanfamily.usc.edu

Andrew Walther ’98, MA ’03, PhD ’04 (LAS) of New Haven, Connecticut; Nov. 1, 2020, at the age of 45 Carla J. Thornton MSW ’12, DSW ’18 (SSW) of Moreno Valley, California; Jan. 21, 2021, at the age of 42 Jeremy Dawson ’20 (LAS) of Carlsbad, California; Jan. 16, 2021, at the age of 24 FACULTY AND FRIENDS Ira Kalb of Santa Monica, California; August 2020, at the age of 72 David Lewis of Tampa Bay, Florida; July 14, 2020, at the age of 65 Max Tuerk of Trabuco Canyon, California; June 20, 2020, at the age of 26 Eli Broad Entrepreneur and businessman Eli Broad shaped L os Angeles through his philanthropic efforts in the arts, science and medicine. He and his wife, Edythe, created the Broad Stem Cell Centers at UCLA, the University of California, San Francisco, and USC, laying the groundwork for stem cell research in the state. The continuing investment of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has shaped the world-class regenerative medicine programs distinct to each institution. Broad died on April 30, 2021, at the age of 87, but his legacy continues in the research at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, as well as in his many other lasting contributions to business and cultural arts.

Dennis Ralston of Austin, Texas; Dec. 6, 2020, at the age of 78 Curtis Roseman of Rock Island, Illinois; Dec. 13, 2020, at the age of 79 Lawrence Dorr of Pasadena, California; Dec. 28, 2020, at the age of 79 Katherine Ell; Jan. 29, 2021, at the age of 81.

Laurence H. Kedes; Jan. 6, 2021, at the age of 83 Phoebe S. Liebig; Feb. 24, 2021, at the age of 87 Richard Lindheim of Los Angeles; Jan. 18, 2021, at the age of 81 Tim Tolman of Tuscon, Arizona; June 3, 2021, at the age of 65 Helena Yli-Renko of Los Angeles; April 8, 2021 L E G E N D

ACC USC Leventhal School of Accounting ARC USC School of Architecture ART USC Roski School of Art and Design BPT Division of Biokinesiology and

Physical Therapy USC Marshall School of Business BUS DEN Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

DNC USC Kaufman School of Dance DRA USC School of Dramatic Arts EDU USC Rossier School of Education ENG USC Viterbi School of Engineering GRD USC Graduate School GRN USC Leonard Davis School of ​ Gerontology USC Iovine and Young Academy IYA USC Dornsife College of Letters, LAS Arts and Sciences LAW USC Gould School of Law MED Keck School of Medicine of USC MUS USC Thornton School of Music OST USC Chan Division of Occupational

Science and Occupational Therapy PHM USC School of Pharmacy USC School of Cinematic Arts SCA SCJ USC Annenberg School for

Communication and Journalism SPP USC Price School of Public Policy SSW USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School

of Social Work

Amanda Decker, Matt DeGrushe, Edmundo Diaz, Leticia Lozoya, Kristy Ly, Katie Maloney, Alex Rast, Stacey Wang Rizzo, Nicole Stark, Julie Tilsner and Deann Webb contributed to this section. usc trojan family

63

back in time

Have an idea for a story on USC history?

Email it to magazines@usc.edu.

A Call to Duty On Dec. 8, 1941, USC administrators gathered at Bovard Auditorium to address a campus community still in shock after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Vowing to dedicate resources to the wartime effort and also a program of peace, university leaders braced students for drastic changes. War had come, and it would transform nearly every corner of campus life.

Within eight months, USC student enrollment plummeted 15% and 75 faculty members left to join the war effort. Academic programs seemed to change overnight as language, economics, international relations, occupational therapy, photography and aerospace sciences courses expanded. USC was chosen to open a naval preparatory flight cadet school. The Marine Corps Reserves, the Army’s Specialized Training Unit, the Naval V-12 program and the Naval ROTC soon followed. By 1943, more than 1,400 military students

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were on campus. By 1945, servicemen accounted for more than 75% of the male student body.

Nonmilitary students and faculty members also mobilized to do their part, including researchers who developed new technology to protect pilots at high altitudes. In this picture taken 10 days after Pearl Harbor, students gathered outside Bovard Auditorium to sign up for the Campus Volunteer Defense Service. Within a year, the Student War Board was established to coordinate campuswide activities like blood drives, air raid and fire hazard training, health campaigns, war bond fundraising and morale-boosting events.

The end of World War II brought joyful celebrations across campus—as well as an influx of returning servicemen. As the campus transitioned to peacetime operations, enrollment soared to 24,000 by 1947, ushering in a modern era at the university. ELISA HUANG Autumn 2021

PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

World War II changed the course of the university—and student life.

Among the best hospitals in the nation

Exceptional.

Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital are proud to be among the top hospitals in the country, with 12 specialties ranked in the top 50 in the nation. We are honored to be recognized for our physicians, our staff and our commitment to providing our patients with the best care possible. We are here for you, every day and every year.

That’s the Keck Effect.

(800) USC-CARE • KeckMedicine.org

BEYOND EXCEPTIONAL MEDICINE™

© 2021 Keck Medicine of USC

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

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SOU TH ERN CA LIFORN IA

He listened to my childhood stories and delivered on lifelong dreams.

Tim asked about my little llama keychain

during our very first meeting. I explained how

my lifelong love of llamas began. At the age of 9, I made daily visits to the llamas at our local

petting zoo until it suddenly relocated, leaving a llama-sized hole in my heart. I thought we

were just enjoying idle chit chat to break the ice but about 18 months later, Tim called to

say that he’d done research and found a nearby community that permitted exotic animals.

Long story short, we’re now living my lifelong dream, all because Tim remembered our chat and recognized the value of the little things.

— Judy, Bradbury

CONTACT TIM MCCARTHY | 626.463.2545 | WHITTIERTRUST.COM/USC $10 MILLION MARKETABLE SECURITIES AND/OR LIQUID ASSETS REQUIRED. Investment and Wealth Management Services are provided by Whittier Trust Company and The Whittier Trust Company of Nevada, Inc. (referred to herein individually and collectively as “Whittier Trust”), state-chartered trust companies wholly owned by Whittier Holdings, Inc. (“WHI”), a closely held holding company. This document is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and no investment or financial planning strategy can guarantee profit or protection against losses. All names, characters, and incidents, except for certain incidental references, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.