UWM ALUMNI A Publication of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Spring 2022, Vol. 24, No. 1
Inside This Issue WILLEM DAFOE RETURNS TO UWM
CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS
NEW COACHING HIRES
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 1
CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE UWM NEWS
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ALUMNI SNAPSHOTS UWM RESEARCH
9 UWM SPORTS 10 ALUMNI INITIATIVES
UWM NEWS
A MESSAGE FROM CHANCELLOR MONE Every commencement ceremony at UWM is a meaningful and special occasion. We gather to celebrate the accomplishments of so many students who take their new UWM degree, combine it with their real-world experiences, and head out to make their own personal impacts on their communities. I’m confident that UWM has never known a commencement ceremony quite like the one we celebrated in May. Not only was our Spring 2022 commencement the first full in-person May ceremonies since the COVID-19 pandemic, but we also had the honor of welcoming Willem Dafoe back to UWM to deliver a commencement address. His experience as a UWM theater student in the early 1970s laid the foundation for what has become an internationally acclaimed acting career. That, in a nutshell, is why UWM exists. We are here to provide the building blocks for lives well lived and work well done, whether it’s on a stage, at a lab, in a classroom or behind a desk. That’s also why it’s so important that we continue our work today with an eye on the future. In this edition of UWM Alumni, you’ll read about the many investments we’re making in our campus and our operations so we can better serve generations to come. We couldn’t do this without your continued support, so I thank you along with our students, faculty and staff for your collective commitment to our mission. Best regards,
Mark A. Mone, PhD Chancellor
The new Chemistry & Biochemistry Building is scheduled to be completed by early 2024.
A NEW AND IMPROVED CAMPUS Visitors to UWM’s main campus will notice several major construction and renovation projects. On East Kenwood Boulevard, a new Chemistry & Biochemistry Building rises in the place of a parking lot and empty field. A few steps to the east, the UWM Student Union is in the midst of a massive face-lift. Updates are also being completed at the Golda Meir Library and at the Sandburg Residence Halls, while at the Klotsche Center, a new basketball practice facility nears completion. Here’s an overview of these vital investments in UWM’s future.
NEW CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY BUILDING UWM, UW System and Milwaukee community leaders celebrated the new building’s groundbreaking on Jan. 26, 2022. The four-story, 163,400-squarefoot Chemistry & Biochemistry Building is located between the Physics Building and the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center & UWM Welcome Center. It will feature modern classrooms for students at all levels and adjoining labs for research and scientific innovation. Collaboration spaces will also connect students, researchers and members of the community.
More than 5,000 students take chemistry classes each year, and the new facility will be completed in late 2023 or early 2024.
UWM STUDENT UNION RENOVATIONS The UWM Student Union welcomes more than 20,000 visitors daily during the academic year. This project will transform the exterior with a new glass entrance canopy and expansive windows on Kenwood Boulevard as well as a new entry off Maryland Avenue. Other updates include new places to eat, socialize and study, while mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems upgrades will improve functionality and comfort. Renovations are scheduled for completion in 2023.
ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN CENTER The OHOW Center will be connected to the Klotsche Center & Pavilion by an elevated bridge and is primarily for UWM’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. Due for a fall 2022 completion, it will feature a full-sized basketball court, a strength and conditioning center, a video room, a sports medicine and treatment center, a studentathlete lounge and the Panther Athletics Hall of History.
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE REALIGNMENT PLANS SET
LANDSCAPE LIBRARIES ARCHIVES RENOVATIONS The archives are moving to a renovated location on the Golda Meir Library’s third floor. Scheduled to wrap up in late 2022, the project includes a gallery space, a welcome area for reference and research consultation, a refreshed reading room, an active learning classroom and updated environmental controls.
SANDBURG RESIDENCE HALLS RENOVATIONS Up to 2,700 students live in Sandburg Halls annually, and renovations are underway in the West tower now that work is finished in the South and North towers. The project includes infrastructure upgrades, ADA accessibility improvements and new finishes and furnishings. The West tower’s bottom two levels will be converted to residence suites, with work slated for completion in 2023. – Kathy Quirk
Above: Renderings of a gathering space, a classroom and a lab in the new Chemistry & Biochemistry Building. Below: A rendering of the refreshed UWM Student Union lobby.
Work to merge eight schools and colleges at UWM into four new colleges is well underway after the UW System Board of Regents approved the broad realignment plan. A team of faculty, staff and administrators created the blueprint, which followed up on the 2030 report recommendations released in March 2021. Although the sweeping report touched on most aspects of campus life, realignment has taken an early priority, as the new colleges are expected to be in place by July 2023. Mergers are not intended to cut staffing. The mergers will, however, reduce administrative layers, produce cost savings and allow for better coordination of student services like advising. Here’s the makeup of the four new colleges. The College of Health Professions and Sciences will focus on health care. It will be comprised of the School of Nursing, the School of Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences and Technology. The latter two schools would be formed out of departments currently in the College of Health Sciences. The Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health will focus on population heath. It will be comprised of the Zilber School of Public Health and a trio of former College of Health Sciences departments or programs: kinesiology, nutrition and health informatics. The College of the Arts and Architecture and will be comprised of the School of Architecture & Urban Planning as well as the Peck School of the Arts. The College of Community Engagement and Professions will be comprised of the School of Education, the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and the School of Information Studies. – Genaro C. Armas
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UWM NEWS ENHANCING A WELCOMING, INCLUSIVE CAMPUS Chia Youyee Vang has spent a lot of time focused on how to create a more welcoming and inclusive environment at UWM. One finding may seem self-evident, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful: Simple gestures of kindness are important. “Be nice to people,” says Vang, UWM’s vice chancellor of diversity, equity and inclusion. “Be kind and supportive and Chia Youyee Vang help people where we can.” A longtime history professor, Vang was appointed vice chancellor in January after a national search. She’d served as interim chief diversity officer since March 2021 following the retirement of Joan Prince. Vang spent much of the Spring 2021 semester leading the creation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Framework document that’s the blueprint for ensuring UWM is a welcoming, diverse and equitable community. Put in place in June 2021, the framework detailed four main goals for UWM. 1) Ensuring all students have equal access to resources and experiences that allow them to succeed. 2) Implementing strategies to recruit, develop, retain and promote employees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. 3) Building an inclusive campus climate and culture. 4) Making sure that UWM contributes constructively to the greater Milwaukee community and beyond. The comprehensive plan involves ongoing discussions and contributions from students, faculty and staff across campus. The framework will be reviewed regularly to make sure it adapts and intertwines into the fabric of campus. Vang has already
started the process of assessing progress almost a year after the document was introduced. The work has resulted in several tangible developments, including the creation of a strategic faculty hiring fund over the next five years. “In order for us to remain a top-tier research university with robust projects that are appealing to students who want to come here, we also need to invest in our faculty,” Vang says. UWM has also implemented “Version 2.0” of a racial justice and equity professional development program for faculty and staff that was first introduced in 2021. “We’re taking incremental steps to set foundations to do greater things,” Vang says, “to change the way we support people from all backgrounds and students from various parts of the state, the country and the world.” And Vang and David Pate, associate professor and chair of the Department of Social Work, co-edited a new book – “Telling Our Stories: A History of Diversity at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, 1956-2022.” The book is authored by numerous faculty and staff, and it’s being published in the summer of 2022. – Genaro C. Armas
UWM NAMED A TOP MILITARY FRIENDLY SCHOOL UWM has a long history of creating a welcoming academic environment for students who are active military personnel or military veterans. Now, UWM has achieved its highest ranking from Military Friendly, which measures an organization’s commitment, effort and success in creating sustainable, meaningful opportunities for the military community. Military Friendly designated UWM as a Top 10 school in the large, public institution category in 2022-23. These schools, according to the criteria, strive toward and succeed in areas that are most important for “helping veterans make the transition from the military to school” and move on to satisfying civilian careers. 3
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UWM is notable for its well-rounded support of current and former military personnel, says Yolanda Medina, director of the UWM Military and Veterans Resource Center (MAVRC). It’s one of about a dozen schools nationwide featuring all five major military-dedicated support programs available to students. Those programs include a military education benefits office, an ROTC program (Army, in UWM’s case) and MAVRC, which is expanding as part of the UWM Student Union renovations. UWM also has a federal Veterans Upward Bound program, which helps qualified veterans get ready for and enroll in college. And UWM is the only Wisconsin university
that hosts Veterans Success on Campus, a federal initiative that helps military and veteran students make a smooth transition to college life. These programs are not new to UWM, but the top-10 ranking was likely helped by a more comprehensive detailing of UWM’s military-dedicated offerings for Military Friendly’s consideration. “By getting this well-rounded picture of what UWM has been doing for years through this coalition,” says Medina, who served in the Marines from 198185, “we have really made a difference in acknowledging what has already been out there.” – Genaro C. Armas
ALUMNI SNAPSHOTS
Dennis Biddle in front of his permanent Yesterday's Negro Leagues exhibit.
KEEPING THE LEGACY FOR THE NEGRO LEAGUES Dennis Biddle can tell stories about Jackie Robinson, Buck O’Neil and other Negro Leagues greats as if they all shared a dugout together. Because even though he never played with them, Biddle was in those Negro Leagues dugouts, and he remembers well long-ago conversations with his own teammates. Biddle is one of the last living alums of the Negro Leagues. He was 17 when he first played for the Chicago American Giants in the Negro American League in 1953, and he played one more season after that. Now 86, Biddle is dedicated to keeping these Negro Leagues stories alive. He heads the Yesterday’s Negro League Baseball Players Foundation, which he established in 1996 with a fellow Negro Leagues alum, the late Sherwood Brewer. “There were 314 living players at that
time, and we had no representation. People didn’t know that,” says Biddle, who graduated from UWM in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in community education. “The words ‘Negro Leagues’ were never copyrighted but were being used all over.” Yesterday’s Negro League isn’t affiliated with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. But the roots of Biddle’s organization stem from a conversation he had with Brewer after a meeting of former Negro Leaguers in 1995 in Kansas City, where the museum is located. “From that day, players decided we would represent ourselves and formed Yesterday’s Negro League,” says Biddle, one of about three dozen surviving Negro Leaguers today. The organization also advocates for the economic interests of former players.
Yesterday’s Negro League has a traveling exhibit that stops at colleges, universities and events across the country. There’s also a permanent exhibit on Mayfair Mall’s second floor in suburban Milwaukee. And the exhibit makes annual visits to American Family Field for every Milwaukee Brewers Negro Leagues Tribute Game, which is scheduled for July 22 in 2022. Biddle authored “Secrets of the Negro Baseball League” and plans to write another book featuring more stories passed down from former teammates. “These were older men who had played in the league for many years,” Biddle says. “They knew the true history somehow would not be told. I never forgot about it. I didn’t understand it at the time, but the stories never left me.” – Genaro C. Armas UWM ALUMNI
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ALUMNI SNAPSHOTS
AN ACTOR’S HOMECOMING Willem Dafoe’s theatrical career began at UWM. He’s been embracing the calling ever since. By John Schumacher
Sitting in his crash pad while attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in a room he’d later vacate because the ceiling crashed down on him during a rainstorm, theater student Willem Dafoe wasn’t dreaming of conquering Hollywood or Broadway, or even of making a life out of acting. He just knew that he liked everything about theater and wanted to do it as long as he could. Yet here he is, almost five decades later, with four Academy Awards nominations and well over 100 movie credits in a breathtaking variety of roles. Not only a stage and film actor, but one so revered that in 2020, The New York Times named him one of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century. He’s also one who retains a remarkable humility that’s grounded in his Midwestern roots. “I went from situation to situation, and after many years of doing it, I have to admit finally I’m an actor,” Dafoe says. “I found making theater stimulating socially at first and later, intellectually – and then later, for lack of better word, spiritually. I felt like this was my calling. My identity as a theater actor started when I was at UWM.” Dafoe returned to where it all started for UWM’s Spring 2022 graduation festivities. On May 22, he accepted an honorary Doctor of Arts degree and gave speeches at the morning and afternoon commencement ceremonies. He was a picture of genuine and modest joy as the hood was placed upon his shoulders and as UWM Chancellor Mark Mone introduced him as Dr. Willem Dafoe. He advised graduates to be at peace with themselves, find what they loved and practice it however they could. He shook hands with and fist-bumped the grads as they walked across the stage. The day before, Dafoe met 600 students at the Helene Zelazo Center for a question and answer session about his life and career. They erupted in applause and cheers when he arrived onstage. Many nodded knowingly when he spoke of sleeping on a couch in the theater lounge – affectionately known as “the fishbowl” – rather than at home. And they soaked up the words and wisdom he shared about the craft of theater. Now 66, Dafoe is still going strong. He appeared in six films released in 2021 – including Academy Awards best picture nominee “Nightmare Alley” and
Willem Dafoe with Chancellor Mark Mone at Saturday's Q&A session and being hooded for his honorary doctorate at Sunday's commencement ceremonies.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” now the sixthhighest grossing film of all time – and has another half-dozen or so on the way. Two of his Oscar nominations came within the last five years – for best actor in “The Florida Project” in 2017 and for best supporting actor in “At Eternity’s Gate” in 2018. He’s come a long way from growing up in small-town Appleton, Wisconsin, where his mother was a nurse, his father a surgeon, and he was the seventh of their eight children. Dafoe began acting in community theater when he was young, even garnering a positive review in The Appleton Post-Crescent at age 13. He kept acting in high school and began learning filmmaking (which led to his leaving high school early). After high school, his friend Jim Gage convinced him to come to Milwaukee and enroll at UWM. Dafoe arrived in January of 1973 and took classes through the fall of 1974. He took as many theater courses as he could and dove into stage productions, including “Phaedra” in Fall 1973 and “A Moon for the Misbegotten” in Spring 1974. He found himself among a diverse array of students and recalls how committed they were to their studies. “The students in the Theatre Department were not just 18- to 22-yearolds with their sights on stardom – there was a wide experience and age range in the student population,” Dafoe says.
Dafoe (right) in "A Moon for the Misbegotten" as a UWM student in 1974. (Photo courtesy of Corliss Phillabaum)
“There were women returning to school after having a family, Vietnam vets returning from service, firstin-the-family-to-go-to-college immigrants – a wide range of personalities and perspectives. This made studies more diverse, and everyone had a different reason for being there.” Dafoe lived the life of a regular college student while at UWM. He hung out at the Tuxedo bar on Downer Avenue and ate at Numero Uno pizza in Shorewood. He saw movies at the Downer Theatre. He worked jobs at a bindery that printed men’s magazines and as a dishwasher at the Oriental Pharmacy diner. He lived in rented rooms and at friends’ apartments, and survived the ceiling collapse. At an apartment on Farwell Avenue, one of his roommates was a 4-foot-long golden tegu lizard named Angela. But the love for theater was constant, and he voraciously consumed it. He loaded up on theater courses, sometimes taking more than the standard 18 credits, and those lessons lasted for a career. “Because so much of the Theatre Department was studio/productionbased classes,” Dafoe says, “it taught me how to collaborate with others and made me realize that each project requires a different approach. There is no bible of craft to stick to. The target is always moving, and you have to adapt to each situation.” By 1974, Dafoe had gotten involved in Theatre X, an experimental
theater company that started at UWM and became independent. He left school, and by 1976, he was ready to move to New York. But his time at UWM was invaluable. “It was an important time,” Dafoe said last year on “Inside the Actors Studio.” “I was young. I wanted to get going. I don’t know, I had ants in my pants.” In New York, Dafoe continued in experimental theater, initially with the Performance Group and then the Wooster Group – where he created and performed in all the group’s works from 1977-2003. In 1980, he snagged his first film role in “Heaven’s Gate.” What followed was an acting career marked by daring choices, fearlessness and great success. But returning to UWM for commencement was as notable for him as it was for the graduates he celebrated at UWM Panther Arena. “I always feel like it’s important to go back and begin all over again,” says Dafoe, who made time among his weekend responsibilities for a mini-reunion with Theatre X colleagues. “Being in contact and dialogue with students and people just beginning their working life is very instructive and inspiring, challenges you and reminds you about where you came from. It also helps you to check in with any level of corruption or complacency that has crept into your work.” And, yes, he’s aware of the irony of being invited to stand upon the graduation dais. “I'm flattered that they think I merit the honor,” Dafoe said prior to the weekend. “And of course it’s sweet, because technically I am a high school and college dropout – so to recognize that I was able to take an alternative road to a life of work and study reflects well on the university’s open-minded thinking.” UWM ALUMNI
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Claudia Orjuela
VIRTUAL CHILDREN’S STORIES IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGES Claudia Orjuela and her Lynden Sculpture Garden colleagues knew the COVID-19 pandemic left children stuck at home and short on ways to engage with the wider world. And they knew it could be particularly hard on children who’ve experienced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers or immigrants. That was the impetus for Home: Multilingual Story Time. Designed for youngsters ages 4-8, it features virtual readings of children’s books in a variety of languages. “The story time is an opportunity to start conversations with children about displacement, adaptation and belonging,” says Orjuela, an art educator at Lynden who earned a UWM master’s degree in art education. “Children were not going to school, and we had families who did not speak English as their first language.” New episodes of Home: Multilingual Story Time go live on the third Wednesday of every month. They’re streamed on Facebook Live and posted on the Home-at-Lynden virtual platform. Stories are read by community members in English and many other languages, and art projects accompany the readings. The recordings are accessible anytime 7
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thereafter, as are any related handouts and guides for teachers, parents and advanced learners. “Children need to be given the opportunity to express themselves through multiple ways, not just verbally,” Orjuela says. Integrating art and literacy is a great way to reach a wide range of learners, she notes, and learners with different abilities and nonEnglish speakers gain access through the visual language of art. Themes often focus on refugees and immigrants and are designed to appeal to the Milwaukee area’s diverse communities. The program has featured books in Arabic, French, Vietnamese and Korean. Other languages include Spanish, Burmese, Dari/Farsi, Pashto, Hmong, Ojibwe, Japanese and Mandarin. Orjuela, who was born in Colombia, coordinates the program with Lynden’s Kim Khaira, a community engagement specialist whose homeland is Malaysia. Community participation has been an important component. Among the many collaborators are the Milwaukee Public Library, the Islamic Resource Center, Hanan Refugee Relief Group, Alliance Française de Milwaukee and the Milwaukee African Women’s Association. – Kathy Quirk
MEMORIES OF MILWAUKEE’S BRONZEVILLE It existed for less than 50 years, but in that time, Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood grew into a place where the city’s Black community survived and thrived during a highly segregated time Sandra E. Jones in history. Memories of a generation of Black Milwaukeeans highlight “Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville,” a new book by Sandra E. Jones, who earned three English degrees at UWM. Jones is also a retired UWM faculty member and remains a lecturer in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. The book includes extensive interviews with eight people whose parents were part of the Great Migration, a time when Black people left the South and moved to northern U.S. cities seeking jobs and relief from Jim Crow culture. “They were all born in Milwaukee between the 1920s and the 1940s and grew up in Bronzeville,” Jones says. “These are the last people who can tell the stories of Bronzeville.” Jones began the book after her neighbor, Bill Nolan, invited her to Friday-evening gatherings at his home, where he and other longtime residents would reminisce. “Their stories were so interesting,” she says. “I just barged my way in there with a tape recorder and started recording.” After 1915, restrictions blocked housing access for Black people everywhere in the city except a very small area known as Bronzeville, which was bounded by North Avenue on the north, State Street on the south, Third Street on the east, and 12th Street on the west. A vibrant economy emerged as Black people launched restaurants, barber shops, dry cleaners, entertainment venues and sports teams. By the 1960s, expansion of the Marquette interchange and construction of Interstate 43 splintered the neighborhood and destroyed many of the businesses. – Laura L. Otto
UWM RESEARCH AN EQUITABLE APPROACH TO JOB ACCESS UWM researchers in the Department of Urban Planning are partners in a regional transportation initiative aimed at filling a longstanding need: helping residents in segregated city neighborhoods reach suburban areas with more jobs. UWM’s Robert Schneider, Lingquian “Ivy” Hu and Yaidi Cancel Martinez helped launch the FlexRide Milwaukee project in February 2022. FlexRide is testing a new way to connect workers from Milwaukee, particularly neighborhoods on the city’s north or northwest sides, to employers in the far western Milwaukee suburbs of Butler and Menomonee Falls. This, in turn, could give those employers a new way to attract and retain workers while fostering long-term job growth within underserved neighborhoods. “FlexRide complements the Milwaukee County Transit System by filling key gaps between existing bus lines and employment centers in Waukesha County,” Schneider says. FlexRide uses a microtransit model to provide service, relying on smaller vehicles and allowing for changes to the route and service schedule to meet riders’ needs. Users are encouraged to use a smartphone app to schedule a ride or find a pickup or dropoff location, though rides can also be scheduled by phone. FlexRide is designed to be accessible to all riders – including
those with disabilities, those without a smartphone and those without a credit or debit card. The pilot project is funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to UWM and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Ivy Hu Commission. UWM’s team helped implement the project and is tracking its progression. There are signs that the initiative is making an impact. As of mid-March, more than half of those who had signed up for the service lived in high poverty situations (less than $1,500 per month in income), and about 80% of riders said they did not have working vehicles. On the employer side, more than 15 companies had signed up. “Like shelter, clean water and healthy food, access to jobs is an essential human right. It’s a prerequisite for social justice and economic development,” Hu says. “We hope that community partners and local leaders will join forces to help sustain this project.” The NSF grant funds FlexRide through October. – Genaro C. Armas
FROM LILY PADS TO A LOVE PAD
Studying the mating behaviors of eastern gray tree frogs is difficult in the wild. But with the help of a homemade frog arena and recorded sounds, UWM researchers can get clear information about which calls female frogs find most attractive. “Female frogs hopping though the arena toward a ‘male hiding in a speaker’ is super cute,” says Gerlinde Höbel, an associate professor of biological sciences. Her students, like Luke Nicol (above), caught frogs at UWM’s Field Station in Saukville, Wisconsin, and used them to run more than 1,000 trials in the lab’s frog arena. The female preferences in males affect sexual selection – and that influences the species’ evolution. – Laura L. Otto
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UWM SPORTS AN ITALIAN SOCCER JOURNEY One of the best women’s soccer players in UWM history continued her career in one of history’s great soccer nations. Elaina LaMacchia signed a professional contract with Pink Bari CF, which spent its most recent season playing in Italy’s second-tier national league. “It’s always been a dream of mine to play in Italy,” says LaMacchia, who holds dual citizenship, thanks to her Italian paternal grandmother. LaMacchia earned that chance by breaking goalkeeping records for UWM, which won 55 of her 67 games. In 2021, she led the nation with her 0.42 goals-against average and finished second in NCAA Division I with her .882 save percentage. In 2019, she set a Horizon League record with a scoreless streak of 1,070 minutes, 12 seconds, the sixth-longest such streak in NCAA history. She holds the No. 2 (2019), 3 (2021) and 4 (2020) spots for goals-against average in UWM’s record books.
LaMacchia’s 2021 season earned firstteam All-League honors and the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award, and she was named a second team All-American by College Soccer News. But her favorite moment that season was a 1-0 win against 14th-ranked Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It marked the second straight season UWM advanced past the tourney’s first round and was UWM’s fourthever victory against a nationally ranked team. It also gave UWM its 19th win of the season, which tied a program record. “No award could compare to the feeling of accomplishing something like that with your teammates,” LaMacchia says. LaMacchia started playing soccer as a youngster following in the footsteps of two of her older sisters. She’s the seventh of eight sisters and received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education. – Kathy Quirk
A MERGING OF SUCCESS STORIES Kevin Boyd joins UWM’s women’s soccer program at a time of transition for both the team and himself. The core of a UWM team that reached four straight NCAA Tournaments has moved on, including former head coach Troy Fabiano, who left for the challenge of coaching Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference. But Boyd arrives at UWM with a long legacy of accomplishment with power conference teams. He’s won more than 200 games and coached in 13 NCAA Tourneys as head coach at Pac 12 schools Arizona State and California-Berkeley. UWM hired Kevin Boyd him from his associate head coach role at Washington State. So why is a West Coast lifer now in Milwaukee? Because pairing a historically successful coach with a historically successful program makes for a pretty strong foundation. “I wanted to go somewhere I could win and recruit players. This is that place,” says Boyd, noting that he was intrigued by exploring soccer horizons beyond the West. “I have heard nothing but good things about Milwaukee.” Now, he gets to experience it for himself. “I am looking forward to getting on Engelmann,” Boyd says. “I want to see what the vibe is like. I want to see what the fan base is like. And hopefully, the local community comes out and supports us as well.” – Howie Magner 9
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Bart Lundy
LUNDY RETURNS TO MILWAUKEE AS HEAD COACH Bart Lundy sees so much promise in UWM’s men’s basketball program that he left behind a lifetime contract opportunity to become Milwaukee’s new head coach. UWM hired Lundy from Division II Queens University in North Carolina, where he’d led the Royals to six straight NCAA Tournaments. Queens had started exploring a move up to Division I and that lifetime coaching contract for Lundy, but the UWM move felt right. “We came on a leap of faith because we think this place can be great,” says Lundy, whose teams posted an .845 winning percentage over the past six seasons. Lundy arrives at UWM as a new basketball practice facility is under construction. He’s no stranger to Milwaukee after working at Marquette under then-head coach Buzz Williams from 2009-12. Lundy also was head coach at High Point from 2003-09 and an assistant at Winthrop and North Texas. At Queens, Lundy says, he “was an integral part of the campus, which is what I would like to be here.” He served on campuswide committees, including those focused on promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as outreach to the city. He’s also looking forward to getting UWM’s program back to its winning ways. “I’ve seen this city, and I’ve seen the excitement when there’s a winner,” Lundy says. “To me, that was the swing vote.” – Genaro C. Armas
ALUMNI INITIATIVES NESBITT NAMED NEW DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI VC UWM has welcomed Joan Nesbitt as its new vice chancellor for development and alumni relations, the role Patricia Borger retired from in January. Nesbitt joined UWM in February 2022 from the Missouri University of Joan Nesbitt Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri, where she was vice chancellor for university advancement. She has more than 30 years of experience in university advancement, the last 15 at the executive level, and has been involved with four successful comprehensive campaigns. “UWM has taken my love affair with higher education to a new level,” says Nesbitt, a fifthgeneration Oklahoman and member of the Cherokee Nation. “Since coming to Milwaukee, I have been mightily impressed by UWM’s faculty and staff, and by the remarkable institution to which my colleagues have devoted their careers. I am excited to get to know our alumni and friends as we work together to solve humanity’s great challenges and propel our students toward success.” As UWM’s chief development officer, Nesbitt reports directly to Chancellor Mark Mone and serves as a member of his executive cabinet. She and her staff of 40 will continue cultivating relationships and generating support for students, faculty and UWM’s top-priority programs and initiatives. “Joan was selected from a strong pool of national candidates,” Mone says. “She has bedrock skills in communication and public relations, and decades of higher education fundraising experience. I have every confidence that her agility and aptitude for relationship building will be an asset to UWM.” During Nesbitt’s 11 years at Missouri S&T, she and her team earned two national fundraising awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). They also aligned campus fundraising initiatives with strategic planning and launched a comprehensive campaign that garnered the largest higher education charitable gift in the state’s history, as well as the fourth-largest ever given to a public university. – Kari Pink
POUNCE STARS IN OWN BOOK Despite being a pretty busy Panther, Pounce somehow still found time to take the starring role in a children’s book commissioned by the UWM Alumni Association. “Hello, Pounce” depicts Pounce’s adventures around campus, including art classes, the Manfred Olson Planetarium and social experiences that highlight life at UWM. Pounce and Chancellor Mark Mone celebrated the literary success by
reading the book in February to kids at the Children’s Learning Center. Donna Pasternak, professor emerita of English education, and Hope Longwell-Grice, senior associate dean in the School of Education, co-authored the book. The UWM Alumni Association asked them to join the project because of their experience in literature and education. The book is available at most major booksellers.
SEE THE IMPACT OF GIFTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS The young UWM alum who created a scholarship honoring her mother. The scholarship that helps UWM artists in residence connect with older adults. You’ll find these uplifting, feel-good stories and more at give.uwm.edu/stories and give.uwm.edu/scholarships. We created these websites to share how people with a variety of backgrounds and interests are making UWM a better, stronger place. The stories and videos there also feature students talking about the impact scholarships have had on their lives.
All materials are categorized by school or college, so no matter your connection to UWM, you’ll easily find what interests you. That includes The Brookby Foundation’s $1 million gift to support a new School of Freshwater Sciences research vessel as well as the College of Engineering & Applied Science alumni who established a memorial fund to support pre-college programs. So the next time you’re surfing the web, take a moment to stop by and reconnect with the crucial role UWM plays in our community. – Kari Pink UWM ALUMNI
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Alumni Association and Foundation P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Milwaukee, WI Permit No. 864
UWM Alumni is published for alumni and friends of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. ISSN: 1550-9583. Not printed at taxpayer expense. Send correspondence and address changes to: UWM Alumni Association, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413. Phone: 4 14-229-4290, email: alumni@uwm.edu.
On behalf of the entire UWM community, thank you to all who supported our second-ever 414 for UWM day of giving! $482,918+
RAISED 166+ AREAS SUPPORTED 1,208+ DONORS It’s never too late to show your support. Make a gift at give.uwm.edu/invest
