Magazine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Fall 2018 Vol. 20
Peaceaftercometh war Helping traumatized veterans, with assistance from Shakespeare
Magazine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Fall 2018, Vol. 20
PANTHER & PROUD A letter from Chancellor Mark Mone
Chancellor: Mark A. Mone Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Communications: Tom Luljak (’95) Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations: Patricia Borger Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations: Adrienne Bass Director of Media Services: Michelle Johnson Editor/Publications Manager: Howie Magner Copy Editor: John Schumacher Senior Art Director/Creative Lead: Shelly Rosenquist Designers: Kelly Grulkowski, Kendell Hafner (‘14), Hannah Jablonski (‘06), Lesley Kelling and Allie Kilmer Photography: Pete Amland, Troye Fox and Elora Hennessey (‘17) UWM Alumni is published for alumni and friends of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Send correspondence and address changes to: UWM Alumni Association P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413 Phone: 414-229-4290 Email: alumni@uwm.edu ISSN: 1550-9583 Not printed at taxpayer expense
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CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE When the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hosted the June UW Board of Regents meeting on campus, as it does every year, I had the pleasure of introducing the remarkable people behind the Feast of Crispian. This amazing program helps military veterans deal with trauma they’ve experienced by acting out Shakespearian plays. The actors demonstrated how the guided process worked, and we were all in awe of the power of the performance. Afterward, the veterans shared deeply personal and poignant stories, and explained how the program had a profoundly positive effect on their lives. Some in the audience wiped away tears. Feast of Crispian was co-founded by Bill Watson and Jim Tasse, who teach in UWM’s theater department, and Nancy Smith-Watson, an actress and somatic therapist. You can learn more about this work that’s impacting Milwaukee-area veterans, as well as garnering national attention, in our cover story on Page 27. Throughout this latest edition of UWM Alumni magazine, you’ll see stories that illustrate how UWM is a community-engaged institution with a global reach. It’s an ethos that’s ingrained in our faculty and staff, students and alumni. One of our proud alums, Keith Posley, was recently named interim superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools (Alum Snapshots, Page 8). Another, Kristian Vaughn, took the extraordinary step of donating a portion of his liver to a young girl he’d never met (The Gift of Life, Page 36). Research has taken UWM faculty members to South America (An Immigrant’s Journey, Page 34) and even farther to Antarctica (To the End of the Earth, Page 24). Progress continues on UWM’s infrastructure, too. We’ve added two campuses to the UWM family – UWM at Waukesha and UWM at Washington County. Our baseball team will play its 2019 season in a new stadium, and also in 2019, work will be completed on the new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center building. All of these things are possible because of the investment that our alumni and friends have made in UWM. We are in the middle of the largest comprehensive campaign in UWM history, and on the following pages, you’ll read about the important difference this support makes. I encourage you to learn more and join our efforts by going to uwm.edu/thisiswhy.
Best regards, Mark A. Mone
Watch our videos: youtube.com/uwmnews Check out our photos: instagram.com/uwmilwaukee
Chancellor
On the cover
Jim Tasse (center), a senior lecturer in UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, is pictured with military veterans and actors Carissa DiPietro (left) and Charlie Walton.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURES
UWM SPORTS
20 A diamond that shines
24 TO THE END OF THE EARTH Hunting Antarctic fossils to learn what the past means for the future 27 PEACE COMETH AFTER WAR Feast of Crispian helps traumatized veterans, with assistance from Shakespeare 31 REVOLUTIONARY CONNECTIONS The Connected Systems Institute lays the groundwork for manufacturing innovation
32 WITNESS TO HISTORY Drawing on his 40-plus years at UWM, former Chancellor John Schroeder chronicles the institution’s journey in a new book
21 The next step 22 Come home in November 23 Buckets and brogues EVENTS, AWARDS AND CLASS NOTES 38 Panther Prowl 39 Chancellor’s tour 39 Alumni Association Board of Directors 40 Awards Evening 2018 41 Master Chats 41 Focus on the Future
34 AN IMMIGRANT’S JOURNEY Once a refugee, Chia Youyee Vang now explores the Hmong diaspora
42 Class Notes
36 THE GIFT OF LIFE How a young UWM alum and the little girl he’d never met became forever linked
49 And the rest is history
L AST WORDS
ALUM SNAPSHOTS 5 Nadella praised for Microsoft leadership 6 Old sailor, new direction 6 Making a wise investment
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7 Nelson staying ahead of the weather 8 UWM prepared Posley for top MPS post UWM RESEARCH 9 Lakefront view 10 Texting supports college students 10 Energy help from giant kelp 11 Talking – and listening – to kids about race
12 Perched on an aquaculture breakthrough
UWM NEWS
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13 Mathis bequest revitalizes art gallery 14 UWM adds Waukesha and Washington County campuses 14 UWM Partners for Health offers new solutions 14 Zilber School creates first undergrad degree 15 Mainstage Theatre ready for its close-up 16 UWM’s story soars at airport 16 UWM teams up with Foxconn on internship program 16 Data Science Institute supports education and faculty research 17 Lubar Entrepreneurship Center rises up 17 Shelf evaluation
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THEY DID. These three College of Nursing deans have put their hearts, souls and careers into shaping UWM’s nursing program. They want their impact to continue – that’s why they have included UWM in their wills. This year, they expanded that impact by challenging others to do the same. The results? Seventeen people followed their lead to leave a legacy at their beloved UWM. The deans’ challenge inspired more than $1 million in gifts to UWM. To read more about this story, visit uwm.edu/theydid.
WILL YOU?
Pictured left to right SALLY LUNDEEN Dean Emerita
NORMA LANG Dean Emerita
KIM LITWACK Dean
STAY UP TO DATE ON WHAT’S HAPPENING AT UWM AND RECEIVE INFORMATION ABOUT EVENTS IN YOUR AREA. With ever-rising postal costs, it is particularly important for the Alumni Association to have your email address. Many event invitations and updates are only sent by email.
UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION TODAY: Visit alumni.uwm.edu/updateinfo or return the enclosed postcard 4
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ALUM SNAPSHOTS Catch up with your former classmates
NADELLA PRAISED FOR MICROSOFT LEADERSHIP Microsoft CEO and UWM alumnus Satya Nadella recently earned high praise from two of the most influential magazines in the United States. The accolades came soon after the 2017 release of his book “Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone.” In April, Nadella was named to the 2018 Time 100 List. Produced by the editors at Time magazine, it recognizes 100 people from the previous year who influenced world change, regardless of the nature of that change. In addition, in January, Forbes tech columnist Bob Evans named Nadella CEO of the Year among cloud computing companies like Amazon, IBM and other heavy hitters. Nadella has come a long way since arriving at UWM in 1988. In “Hit Refresh,” he recalls life as a 21-year-old embarking on a computer science master’s degree in the College of Engineering & Applied Science. “It was beautiful, and my life in the United States was just beginning,” writes Nadella, who was raised in Hyderabad, India. He completed his UWM degree in 1990. For the Time 100 list, Nadella’s entry was penned by Walter Isaacson, a former Time managing editor who has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. Isaacson credited Nadella’s principles for restoring Microsoft’s “spirit of innovation,” including his dedication to product reliability. Since Microsoft named Nadella CEO in 2014, Isaacson noted, the company’s market value had increased 130 percent. Evans, who dubs his regular analysis of tech companies “The Cloud Wars,” also cited Nadella for Microsoft’s “near-miracle reversal” of fortunes in less than four years. Nadella had been with Microsoft for 21 years when he became the company’s CEO. “I am a learner,” he said in an interview at the time. “I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things … you stop doing great and useful things. Our industry does not respect tradition – it only respects innovation.” In “Hit Refresh,” Nadella explains what drives him. “My personal philosophy and my passion, developed over time and through exposure to many different experiences, is to connect new ideas with a growing sense of empathy for other people,” he writes. “Ideas excite me. Empathy grounds and centers me.” – Laura L. Otto
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MAKING A WISE INVESTMENT
OLD SAILOR, NEW DIRECTION Every UWM graduate has a story. Gonzalo Couto-Lain’s just has a few more chapters than most. When he earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering in May 2018, he was 59 years old. Prior to graduation, he’d spent some 30 years as a shipbuilder and commercial fisherman. As the native of Uruguay reached his 50s, he’d come to a fork in the road. One path led to his eventual retirement, the other toward a new career. He chose to enroll at UWM to pursue the latter option. “If you start a career at 60, you have 15, 20 years left,” he says. “That’s not bad.” He’d enjoyed his previous work, but the physical demands were taking a toll on his body. Commercial fishing is consistently ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Engineering was a natural choice for his new direction. “I’ve always worked with machinery and boat building. I figured I could use my previous experience and add to it,” Couto-Lain says. He plans to eventually earn his master’s degree in engineering at UWM and work as a marine accident investigator. It’s all the fun of the water, he says, without all of the danger. Couto-Lain credits urban universities in general with an ability to reach older students and offer them second careers. He picked UWM because his wife, alumna Susan Lauersdorf, had such high praise for it. At UWM, he researched battery prototypes, working alongside renewable energy expert Deyang Qu, the Johnson Controls endowed chair in energy storage research. “The UWM faculty is so proud to serve nontraditional students like Gonzo,” Qu says. “Gonzo reminds us all that we’re never too old to learn. He saw a second chance and realized he could get there with more education.” – Carolyn Bucior
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Eight years ago, Magdalena Rocha Ocampo was a freshman accounting major in UWM’s Lubar School of Business, juggling school and a string of part-time jobs, and sometimes struggling with grades. Four years ago, she graduated with a degree in finance and investment management, and started on the path toward a career in New York City. Today, this daughter of immigrants is helping UWM students follow in her footsteps by funding a scholarship. The foundation for everything, Rocha Ocampo says, is her parents’ influence and support. “My parents moved us here from Mexico when I was 12 so we could get an education,” says Rocha Ocampo, who dramatically improved her grades after settling into finance, her second major at UWM. “It was my job as a daughter to do well.” Her father, Leopoldo Rocha Hernandez, remained in Tampico, Mexico, to run a health care supply business. Mother Veronica Ocampo de Rocha lived with Magdalena and her younger brother in Milwaukee, where she still works as a bilingual educator and is completing a doctorate in STEM education from UWM. “We are workaholics,” Leopoldo says of his family. “We love what we do.” Rocha Ocampo wants to share that legacy with dedicated UWM finance students through a scholarship established in her name. “I knew that signing a check wouldn’t be enough for me,” Rocha Ocampo says. “I wanted to make a contribution that would be personal and life-changing.” Recalling her own experiences, she created the scholarship with no minimum GPA requirement. Applicants must state their interest in investment management and also submit an essay describing how the scholarship will help them realize career goals. Alumni pride and philanthropy keep her rooted to Milwaukee, but Rocha Ocampo now considers herself a New Yorker. In 2015, she joined a small investment team at Cornerstone Macro, a respected investment research firm in New York City, and she stayed in the city after a career shift to corporate planning at Ross Stores. When the Lubar School’s finance investment program makes its annual networking trip to New York, Rocha Ocampo remains on call during the visit and even after the students have returned to Milwaukee. “I was raised to feel strongly about education,” Rocha Ocampo says. “It feels really good to give back, and doing it under my own name is very meaningful.” – Angela McManaman
Catch up with your former classmates
NELSON STAYING AHEAD OF THE WEATHER Chris Nelson remembers how the sky above his mobile home in Denmark, Wisconsin – a small town just southeast of Green Bay – turned ominously dark on July 5, 1994. A thunderstorm had just passed when Nelson, not quite a fifthgrader, saw the funnel-shaped cloud form about a mile away in Cooperstown. But he wasn’t scared or worried when the tornado appeared. Instead, he was enthralled by the chance to witness the force of nature in person. “I was the kind of kid who enjoyed the Weather Channel more than cartoons,” says Nelson, a 2013 UWM graduate. “I read the TV weather crawl before I even entered grade school and was always taking pictures of clouds, hail and rain with my disposable camera.” So it’s no surprise that today, Nelson is the morning meteorologist for Milwaukee’s CBS 58 TV station. Moreover, he regularly shares his weather wisdom, especially about tornadoes, with children at elementary schools in the Milwaukee area. Nelson – along with CBS 58’s chief meteorologist, Drew Burgoyne – spent the 2017-18 school year delivering “Tornado Ready” presentations to more than 40 schoolwide assemblies. They use video of severe weather, along with
other techniques, to help deliver important safety information. In one demonstration, wearing white coats and safety goggles, they pour hot water on liquid nitrogen, creating a tornado-like steam cloud and producing childish screams of delight. Between the assemblies, Nelson’s 70 classroom visits and the CBS 58 Weather Days events with the Milwaukee Brewers, an estimated 20,000 kids have been reached. Nelson began turning his childhood fascination with weather into a career when he transferred to UWM prior to his sophomore year. There, he found a mentor in Paul Roebber, distinguished professor of mathematical science and founder of renowned forecasting service Innovative Weather. Roebber encouraged Nelson to intern with WTMJ 4 TV’s chief meteorologist (and local broadcast legend) John Malan. He did so for two years, then landed meteorology jobs in Las Vegas and Wausau. In 2017, CBS 58 came calling, and he happily returned to Milwaukee to continue his dream job. Today, he’s energized not only by the school visits, but also the wide range of weather he deals with in Milwaukee, thanks its four distinct seasons and the influence of Lake Michigan. “If you ever want a challenge for weather,” Nelson says, “come to Milwaukee.” – Silke Schmidt
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UWM PREPARED POSLEY FOR TOP MPS POST In late May of 2018, UWM alum Keith Posley became the interim superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, the new leader of 160 schools that serve about 77,000 students. But were it not for a chance meeting at a Sizzler restaurant in 1990, his path in life might have taken quite a different route. Posley was a recent graduate from Tougaloo College near Jackson, Mississippi, and it was his first night in Milwaukee. He’d traveled to the city because MPS was recruiting him, and he’d stopped for a bite to eat. That’s when he happened to meet James Henry, then the principal at Benjamin Franklin School. “He was out celebrating his 25th anniversary, and we started talking,” Posley recalls. Apparently, the young grad made quite the impression, because by the next morning, Posley was the newest physical education teacher at Benjamin Franklin.
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Henry became Posley’s mentor and encouraged him to pursue an advanced degree. “He told me,” Posley remembers, “‘I’ve seen you work with young people, and I think there are some things at this organization that you can do. And you need to be prepared.’” Posley followed the advice, enrolled at UWM, and earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction in 1994. “I was able to really get a true understanding of what curriculum is, how to deliver effective instruction, plus all of the terminology and research that goes with it,” Posley says. “It was just wonderful. The master’s in curriculum and instruction was the best thing I could’ve ever done to prepare myself for this work.” He’s steadily climbed through the MPS administrative ranks. In 2002, when Posley was principal at Clarke Street Elementary, President George W. Bush named him one of the nation’s eight exemplary principals. Prior to his appointment as interim superintendent, Posley was chief school administration officer for MPS. Still, Posley says he’ll always be a teacher at heart, and the passion for education that Henry spotted so many years ago is just as strong today. He’s excited for the future of Milwaukee’s students and is always seeking ways to better serve them. That includes MPS’ commitment to M3 (pronounced M-cubed), the partnership between MPS, UWM and Milwaukee Area Technical College, the city’s three largest public education institutions. The goal of M3: working collaboratively to ensure students have the necessary resources to advance to college and into the workforce. “When we work together and support one another, we can have a positive impact on the lives of our young people, which positively impacts the city,” Posley says. “It’s going to take all of us working together to make sure our young people receive everything they need to be successful.” – Pamela Seiler
UWM RESEARCH A celebration of our innovation
LAKEFRONT VIEW This buoy, bobbing off the shore of Milwaukee’s Bradford Beach, is one of two that spent the summer of 2018 monitoring Lake Michigan’s shores. They were built by UWM researchers as part of a project with the Milwaukee Health Department to improve monitoring for illness-causing bacteria. Todd Miller, an associate professor in the Zilber School of Public Health, and Matthew Smith, an assistant professor in the School of Freshwater Sciences, led UWM’s buoy crew. Their goal: Gather minute-by-minute information about conditions around Bradford and South Shore beaches and transmit it to an online database. The first such buoys hit the water in 2016. They allow the health department to immediately detect the presence of
harmful microbes and, if necessary, quickly close beaches to protect the public. Miller says many ever-changing variables affect the potential for harmful bacteria to appear in coastal waters, including algae, sunlight, wind and turbidity. Researchers plan to use the collected data to identify conditions that are likely to produce high levels of bacteria, which would further accelerate the health department’s response time. Miller and Smith also deployed a buoy off Bay Beach in Green Bay in 2018. That one collected data on conditions leading to the release of a naturally occurring toxin from blue-green algae concentrations.
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TEXTING SUPPORTS COLLEGE STUDENTS The secret to helping your children cope with the pressures of college – without crippling their growth and development – could be tucked in your pocket. Research by Erin Ruppel, UWM associate professor of communication, suggests that simply exchanging text messages with your children can provide support during their early college days. Such support is more important than ever. According to the American College Health Association, nearly 40 percent of college students surveyed in spring 2017 reported feeling so depressed that they found it difficult to function at least once during the previous year. “A lot of students have trouble transitioning to college, and rates of mental health problems are increasing,” Ruppel says. “We thought parent-child relationships might be important in this transition, so we looked at how students might turn to their
ENERGY HELP FROM GIANT KELP It’s the fastest-growing organism on earth, and it could allow bioenergy to claim a bigger piece of the green energy portfolio in the United States. Giant kelp has a lot going for it as an energy source, says Filipe Alberto, a UWM associate professor of biological sciences. Among the biggest benefits: The seaweed can be cultivated in the oceans, so it won’t compete with food crops for land and water. That’s what Alberto is attempting with his research partners. “The idea of the program is to actually develop offshore sea-farming,” he says. Strategies are needed to make giant kelp crops sustainable. Alberto is developing a kind of “seed stock” for breeding kelp with the genetic traits that are best-suited for mass production, and it will be tested in waters off the California coast. “The populations that we’re going to focus on in Southern California are actually the richest in terms of genetic diversity in the world,” Alberto says. He aims to create genetic lines that are cost-effective and robust – even when they are grown in imperfect environments. With $2.8 million in funding from the Department of Energy, Alberto is conducting the work in partnership with the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Southern California. – Laura L. Otto
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parents for support.” Ruppel and Tricia Burke of Texas State University examined the communication habits and social competence of 155 first-semester college freshmen. They tracked students’ self-reported stress and loneliness, as well as the number of phone calls or text messages between Ruppel students and their parents. They discovered that students who felt a lot of stress one day tended to exchange a flurry of text messages with their parents the next day. Then, the day after that, students’ stress levels fell. “More stress leads to more texting,” Ruppel says, “but more texting leads to less stress.” The finding was especially true for students who struggle
A celebration of our innovation
with face-to-face communication, as well as making and maintaining friendships. So texting may be a particularly effective way to support more vulnerable college students. “People with low social competence tend to be the ones who struggle more in the transition to college,” Ruppel says. She notes that previous research shows they are more susceptible to loneliness, depression and stress. Ruppel’s research didn’t dig into the specific content of text messages between students and parents, but the researchers did learn something surprising. “Most of the time,” Ruppel says, “students didn’t talk to their parents about what was bothering them.” Yet they felt better anyway. Additional research is necessary, Ruppel says, to examine the content and frequency of text messaging between parents and college students over time. “Popular opinion says that technology is bad for relationships,” Ruppel says. “I’m trying to figure out when it helps, why and for whom.” – Jennifer Fink
TALKING – AND LISTENING – TO KIDS ABOUT RACE At a moment when race and racism are prominent in the national conversation, Erin Winkler listens to people often unheard. She researches the formation of racial beliefs, particularly in young children. “We don’t listen to children enough,” says Winkler, an associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies. “And adults haven’t done a great job in fixing this problem.” Kids as young as 2 1/2 years old reason people’s behaviors based on skin color. Winkler says they can answer questions such as, “What patterns do they see? Is this place safe But ignoring such for brown people or for questions or using colorblind white people?” language denies children’s Winkler was part of a natural awareness of skin team at the Smithsonian color differences and their Institution that taught observations of who seems schoolteachers how to to belong where. “We’re more have productive conversations comfortable talking about culture about race in the classroom. She Winkler than race, so that gets expressed in says adults often deny children’s multiculturalism, like International Day,” emerging insights and questions about Winkler says. “But that brings kids to the racial differences by avoiding discussions conclusion that we’re all the same. So, of race altogether.
if they see inequities, they reason those must be deserved.” When she interviewed mothers and children in Detroit, exploring how African-American children begin to understand race, they provided valuable information about the family’s role. But they also led her to a new observation: Place itself creates racial identity. Now she’s planning a project in New York City, working with AfricanAmerican and Latino children and youth experiencing homelessness or other forms of marginalization. They’ll use digital cameras to “take photo journeys of their neighborhoods.” Winkler will conduct group and one-on-one interviews about which photos they find most evocative. She wants to know, “Does it seem like the space belongs to anyone in particular? Who belongs? Who’s excluded? Does it feel safe or unsafe? Does the picture tell anything about themselves? And does any of that relate to race?” Winkler hopes her research will help the next generation find ways to make every place welcoming to people of all races. – Jennifer Morales UWM ALUMNI
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A celebration of our innovation
UWM RESEARCH
PERCHED ON AN AQUACULTURE BREAKTHROUGH In a laboratory tank, 8,000 larval fish circle in schools, 18 days old and barely larger than an exclamation point. In another tank, a few thousand fish of the same species, yellow perch, are all grown up, trademark vertical stripes lining their 2-pound bodies. “You hook one of these guys, and you’re taking pictures,” says
Osvaldo Jhonatan Sepulveda Villet, an assistant professor in UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Sepulveda Villet’s research focuses on shepherding yellow perch into adulthood and restoring the beleaguered species through aquaculture. His work could have a dramatic commercial impact. The United States imports more than 90 percent of its seafood, resulting in a trade deficit of $14 billion in 2016. In the late 1980s, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources surveys in Lake Michigan netted 1,000 perch a night. Now, due to the spread of invasive species, the same surveys yield about 40 a year. But decades of research at UWM, pioneered by Fred Binkowski and now overseen by Sepulveda Villet, has shown great promise for aquaculture prospects.
Up to 40 percent of the yellow perch grown there survive from hatch to market, double the rate of currently operating fish farms. Sepulveda Villet says a 50 percent yield is within reach. “You’re making it cheaper to produce the fish,” he says. Sepulveda Villet and colleagues implement a multipronged approach involving diet and environment to ensure that more perch grown in tanks survive. The first 30 days are make-or-break. Young fish must eat within 24 hours of hatching. The researchers have found that brine shrimp larvae, combined with tight controls on light and temperature, works best. They’ve also found success through certain types of selective breeding – encouraging mating of the fastest and biggest females. By the fourth generation, Sepulveda Villet says, the time to market size shrinks to eight months, down from two years in the wild. – Dan Simmons
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Noteworthy nuggets from the UWM community
MATHIS BEQUEST REVITALIZES ART GALLERY A multimillion-dollar bequest from Emile H. Mathis has transformed the gallery that houses the UWM Art Collection. Thanks to the donation, the rechristened Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery in Mitchell Hall expanded to 2,400 square feet, with the renovations completed in late 2017. UWM’s collection also gained hundreds of new and diverse pieces, everything from Rembrandt etchings to century-old African art. “Prior to Mathis’ donation in 2012, we had about 5,000 art objects,” says Leigh Mahlik, associate academic curator of UWM’s Art Collection and the Mathis Gallery. “His donation of two collections, including about 1,500 works on paper and 700 African art objects, has greatly expanded our collection.” Mathis was born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1946 and spent most of his adult life in Racine. He started the Mathis Fine Art Gallery in 1972 and gained a reputation as an art historian, art collector, dealer, curator, community activist and philanthropist. He died in 2012. “Emile Mathis was passionate about sharing art with the
community, and his generous gift to UWM will allow us to do that long into the future,” says Pat Borger, vice chancellor for development and alumni relations. “We are so grateful for this gift that has enriched our university. The Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery is a living tribute to a very generous man.” Mathis’ generosity also provides more opportunities for teaching and research. The gallery often features exhibits curated by art history graduate students. “It’s wonderful to see the excitement fellow educators bring to using the collection with their students to enrich the conversation,” Mahlik says. In addition, Mathis established the Emile H. Mathis Endowed Fund to support the collection’s prints in perpetuity. Keeping the gallery free and open to the public requires support from a generous art community. “We are very happy to receive donations of all sizes,” Mahlik says. “Anyone can become a member of Friends of Art History or adopt a piece of art to be preserved or conserved.” – JoAnn Petaschnick
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UWM NEWS
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UWM PARTNERS FOR HEALTH OFFERS NEW SOLUTIONS
UWM ADDS WAUKESHA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY CAMPUSES UWM gained two new campuses over the summer when the Higher Learning Commission approved a plan to restructure the University of Wisconsin’s two-year colleges. The former UW-Waukesha is now UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha, and the former UW-Washington County, based in West Bend, is now UW-Milwaukee at Washington County. There are no changes in tuition or course schedules this school year at the campuses, which serve freshman and sophomore students. UWM is exploring opportunities to enhance student experiences in the coming years. “We will continue to provide access to high-quality academic programs,” UWM Chancellor Mark Mone says, “while also delivering a seamless transfer to a four-year degree, offering more academic and career options to students, and addressing local needs and strengthening partnerships in our region and Wisconsin.” The campuses are administered under UWM’s newly created College of General Studies. Stephen Schmid, formerly campus administrator at UW-Waukesha and associate dean for academic affairs, is serving as its interim dean. The Waukesha campus serves nearly 1,500 students, while the Washington County campus serves about 650.
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students to work The new UWM PARTNERSfor in teams after Partners for Health B. HEALTH graduation.” initiative provides By doing an unparalleled PARTNERSfor interdisciplinary multidisciplinary HEALTH research on complex platform for solving health issues, health challenges. It PARTNERSfor HEALTH UWM Partners for Health combines UWM’s resources enhances the impact of the at the College of Health largest colleges of health Sciences, the College of sciences and nursing in Nursing and the Zilber School Wisconsin, and the state’s of Public Health, which serve first and only nationally more than 4,000 students accredited school of public across 27 degree programs. health. This comprehensive “Health promotion and approach covers prevention, care does not occur in silos,” intervention and rehabilitation, says Kim Litwack, College of offering new solutions to Nursing dean. “Practitioners, improve health outcomes for researchers and community people and communities. advocates work together in In addition, new certificate the care of patients, families programs and facilities are and communities. Through expected to attract more UWM Partners for Health, students to health fields. we are better preparing our
ZILBER SCHOOL CREATES FIRST UNDERGRAD DEGREE The Zilber School of Public Health has created a new Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree. The program has started admitting students, and classes begin in the Spring 2019 semester. Projections expect more than 200 students to enroll in the program’s first five years. It’s the first undergraduate degree offered by the Zilber School, Wisconsin’s only certified school of public health. The Council on Education for Public Health certified the school in 2017, making it one of only
61 dedicated schools of public health in the nation. “Expanding public health courses, research opportunities and internship connections to more students will allow the Zilber School to be even more effective in pursuing our mission of advancing population health, health equity and social and environmental justice,” says Ron Perez, interim dean of the Zilber School.
Noteworthy nuggets from the UWM community
MAINSTAGE THEATRE READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP The plot revolved around nostalgia and new technology when the Peck School of the Arts Mainstage Theatre reopened in March, 11 months after an accidental fire tore through its scene shop. Although the fire caused no injuries, smoke and water damage destroyed the seating, stage area and costume shop. UWM, its alumni and the broader arts community rallied to support recovery efforts. The rebuild was extensive, but in many cases, it led to the venue’s first tech and equipment upgrades since its 1968 debut. New ceilings and decor have improved the acoustics. Energy-efficient lighting and reinforced riggings keep the space well lit. A state-of-the-art, computercontrolled cutting machine enables more sophisticated set design and construction. A portable sound booth at the back of the
house offers superior in-house live mixing for audio-intensive productions. Exposed catwalks allow audiences and educators to observe stagecraft students at work. Despite the renovations, the theater maintains its long-standing character and feel. “The challenge,” says Peck facilities manager Randy Trumbull-Holper, “was always to put this space back together in a way that respects the history but gives something new for the future. I think we accomplished that.” Insurance covered most of the $6 million restoration, but Peck administrators dipped into the school’s budget to rebuild the booth and create flexible seating spaces for people using wheelchairs and other adaptive equipment. Further investments: larger and more modern seating, as well as handrails along the staircases and other
adaptations that move the building closer to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Audiences can experience everything firsthand at a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Nov. 14-18. The grand reopening production coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Mainstage Theatre and will serve as something of a reunion for many theater alumni. Students and established pros will collaborate on the production, directed by Michael Cotey, a 2008 graduate. His recent credits include “The Comedy of Errors” at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and “Deathtrap” at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Mark Corkins – a 1987 graduate and a veteran of Wisconsin’s theater scene – will play Prospero. For more information, visit uwm.edu/arts/events. – Angela McManaman
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UWM NEWS
UWM TEAMS UP WITH FOXCONN ON INTERNSHIP PROGRAM Five UWM engineering students will go to Taiwan in February to study and work as part of a new co-op program with Foxconn Technology Group. The program is a three-way partnership between UWM, Foxconn and Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan. UWM students will take classes in culture and language at Chung Yuan Christian University and also begin research projects there. They’ll continue those projects while working at a Foxconn facility in Taiwan through the following June. The internship will introduce the students to liquid crystal display fabrication technology and processes, the type of work to be done at Foxconn’s new Wisconsin facility, which will be the first of its kind outside of Asia. The co-op program builds on a studyabroad program that has sent more than 30 UWM engineering students to Chung Yuan Christian University since 2009. “The biggest benefit was learning about and collaborating with students from other cultures,” says UWM computer engineering student Joshua Sharkey, who participated in the program in 2017.
Foxconn executives Winnie Tu (center left) and Nelson Liu (center right) sign an agreement on an international co-op program for UWM students. Looking on are Brett Peters (left), dean of UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, and Johannes Britz, UWM provost.
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UWM’S STORY SOARS AT AIRPORT UWM’s story is front and center for about 7 million travelers who pass through Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport every year. Signage, photos and other imagery throughout the airport showcase the crucial role UWM plays in the community. The larger-than-life displays feature UWM’s world-class faculty, diverse students and successful alumni.
They celebrate UWM’s groundbreaking research, career development and community engagement. “It’s a way to build pride in both our students and our alumni,” says Tom Luljak, vice chancellor for University Relations & Communications, “as well as to educate travelers, who may be unfamiliar with UWM, about our story.”
DATA SCIENCE INSTITUTE SUPPORTS EDUCATION AND FACULTY RESEARCH UWM has joined forces with Northwestern Mutual and Marquette University to create the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. Over the next five years, Northwestern Mutual and its foundation will contribute $15 million, which will support an endowed professorship at each university, research projects, a new data science faculty, the development of expanded curriculum, K-12 STEM learning opportunities and precollege programming. Northwestern Mutual also will provide space in a new downtown innovation lab, slated to
open in fall 2018. UWM and Marquette each will invest more than $12 million in data science education and research by existing faculty. The first classes will launch in the 2019-20 academic year. Data science has become essential for companies seeking a competitive advantage. Data scientists use advanced statistical methods, algorithms and machine learning to sift through large data sets, allowing them to make better decisions, solve problems, develop strategies and create new products.
LUBAR ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER RISES UP Day by day and wall by wall, the future home of the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center is taking shape on UWM’s main campus at the corner of Kenwood Boulevard and Maryland Avenue. The 24,000-square-foot building, which will also house the new UWM Welcome Center, is scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. Construction started in earnest in February, when crews dug into frozen ground just south of the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex. By early summer, the outer walls were rising,
and the interior structure soon followed. As the 2018 UWM Alumni magazine went to print in late summer, workers were enclosing the framework. You can follow a live video feed of the progress at uwm.edu/lubar-entrepreneurship-center/construction. The new facility will house a variety of programs to support entrepreneurship. It was made possible by a lead gift of $10 million from Marianne and Sheldon Lubar. Other major donors include Jerry Jendusa, Mary and Ted Kellner through their Kelben Foundation, and Avi Shaked and his wife, Babs Waldman.
SHELF EVALUATION When updating your reading list, consider these titles by UWM faculty and alumni. WIFE, INC.: THE BUSINESS OF MARRIAGE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Suzanne Leonard UWM alumna Suzanne Leonard guides readers through the stages of the “wife cycle,” exploring how marriage has changed for contemporary women. She contends that being a wife is now a business that takes more than a vow to maintain.
PARIS BY THE BOOK Liam Callanan The third novel from Callanan, a UWM associate professor of English, follows the story of Leah, whose husband disappears without a trace from their Milwaukee home. In the subsequent search for him, she and her daughters discover an unexpected new home and career in a Parisian bookstore.
MEMORY, RECONCILIATION, AND REUNIONS IN SOUTH KOREA Nan Kim In 2000, two 100member delegations traveled between North and South Korea for reunions of families long divided. Kim, a UWM associate professor of history, explores how memories of unresolved war trauma figure into peace efforts.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CLASSIC ROCK David Luhrssen with Michael Larson UWM alumnus David Luhrssen argues that rock music set the stage for the cultural changes of the 1960s. His encyclopedia tracks the development of rock from 1965 to 1975 and the careers of artists around the world who continue to influence younger generations of musicians.
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HE DID. Greg Uhen lives and breathes architecture. As an alumnus of UWM and CEO of a firm that has shaped the Milwaukee skyline for more than a century, his ties to our city and our university run deep. He relies on UWM to provide talent to build his various offices, creating respected designs throughout the United States. Greg sees his gift as an investment in the place he calls home. Greg included the School of Architecture & Urban Planning in his estate plans. To read more about this story, visit uwm.edu/theydid.
WILL YOU?
GREG UHEN (’81 BS Architecture & Urban Planning)
UWM SPORTS United we roar
A DIAMOND THAT SHINES Baseball team’s brand-new stadium expected to open in spring 2019 By Anthony Mandella Bulldozers and dump trucks remake a 25-acre landscape in Franklin, Wisconsin, overwhelming the ears of anyone nearby. But come spring 2019, a new soundtrack will be heard: pings of metal bats, pops of leather gloves and cheers of happy fans inside a new stadium for UWM baseball. “Our student athletes are going to get, and they deserve, a first-class facility,” says Scott Doffek, UWM’s head baseball coach. It will feature 4,000 seats, a top-of-the-line sound system, luxury boxes and an all-synthetic turf field. Moreover, it will boost recruiting, alumni excitement and community engagement while shining a brighter spotlight on the state’s only NCAA Division I baseball program. UWM will share the yet-to-be-named stadium with an independent minor league team, which will play in the American Association of Professional Baseball. The stadium is part of Ballpark Commons, a multifaceted development that includes dining, retail and apartments, a project led by ROC Ventures and its CEO, Mike Zimmerman. The new home represents the next chapter in UWM’s legacy of success. In the past two decades, the Panthers have won three Horizon League regularseason championships and four league tournament titles. During that same stretch, 24 UWM players were selected in the Major League Baseball draft – most recently
pitcher Austin Schulfer in 2018. But Henry Aaron Field, UWM’s home since 1994, has seen far better days, beset by recurring graffiti, poor field conditions and inadequate facilities. Discussions about finding a new ballpark to replace the field 4 miles northwest of campus began nearly a decade ago, but concrete conversations gained steam in 2013. “We reviewed a lot of options, some from before my arrival,” says Amanda Braun, UWM’s athletics director. “But the main goal was to find something that coach Doffek was comfortable with and something that would help the team moving forward.” The new stadium site is about 17 miles southwest of UWM’s main campus, but Franklin and neighboring Oak Creek boast some of the highest levels of baseball engagement in the state, and many UWM alumni call the area home, too. UWM has a five-year lease agreement with ROC Ventures. The partnership included $200,000 from Zimmerman and ROC Ventures for renovations of Henry Aaron Field, which will serve as a Panthers practice field. “This has added excitement for the players, the program and the fans, too,” Doffek says. “My goal when I started was, of course, to win games, but also to make the program better than when I found it. With this facility, the program can grow and take a step toward something special.”
Future Home of Milwaukee Panthers
BASEBALL
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THE NEXT STEP Women’s soccer team has a simple goal By Gene Armas
Onwuemeka
Troy Fabiano is a self-described soccer junkie. The UWM women’s soccer coach is always looking for ways to help his program, whether surveying a youth game from the sideline or watching a World Cup match on TV. Maybe he’ll spot a recreation league forward who’d be a future fit with his team. Maybe that Major League Soccer set play he saw sparks an idea for his own Panthers. “It’s funny,” Fabiano says. “It’s always easier to coach somebody else’s team.” He’s still doing a pretty good job with the Panthers. UWM enters Fabiano’s fourth season as a Horizon League powerhouse, winners of three straight regular-season titles. The Panthers finished the 2017 season with a record of 16-0-4, making them the first team in Horizon League history to go unbeaten and the year’s lone undefeated NCAA Division I club. Buoyed by a stalwart defense, UWM set a Horizon League record with 14 shutouts. But the Panthers fell one victory shy of making the NCAA Tournament. IUPUI advanced from the league title game on penalty kicks, a result that NCAA record-keepers don’t consider a loss. “Let’s be blunt – the ending wasn’t what we planned or hoped for,” Fabiano says. “But you look back at going through the entire season and what they were able to accomplish, and just the ride.” Nine seniors graduated from that squad, and UWM features 14 new players in 2018. But plenty of talent is back, including two AllHorizon League players: defender Kelli Swenson, the league’s reigning defensive player of the year, and forward Lourdes Onwuemeka. UWM also returns three of its top five scorers from 2017 – Onwuemeka, forward Mackenzie Schill and midfielder McKaela Schmelzer. They lead a team that approached the new season with UWM’s typical high hopes and an extra dose of motivation, as well as Fabiano’s steady and encouraging presence. “The expectations he holds us to,” Schmelzer says, “it keeps us on our toes and makes us want to get better.” That approach isn’t limited to soccer. Fabiano believes that players should strike the right balance between academics, athletics and just “being a college kid.” “One of the things I tell my players before each practice is just come out and compete,” he says. “Just keep things simple.” And for the 2018 season, the overall goal is also simple: Take another step forward. “We’ve gotten to the conference tournament finals, semifinals,” Fabiano says. “We have to win that big game.”
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UWM SPORTS
COME HOME IN NOVEMBER For the first time in school history, UWM’s Homecoming arrives with a serving of hoops. The annual celebration has been pushed back a month in 2018, running from Nov. 5-10, and it will conclude with UWM’s men’s basketball team playing a Saturday game against North Dakota at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. “We’re excited to do something around our basketball program,” says Amanda Braun, UWM’s athletics director. “We’re hoping it becomes a tradition, where we can bring back alums and engage them around that sport and other things on campus.” Homecoming festivities also will include a Panther Bash tailgate party before the Nov. 10 basketball game and the athletics department’s Nov. 9 induction of new members into its Hall of Fame. For details on these events and others as they are scheduled, visit uwm.edu/homecoming. The shift toward basketball marks another step in the evolution of UWM’s Homecoming. In the 1960s and 1970s, UWM football was the focal point of the celebration. But the
dissolution of the football team, which played its final down in 1974, contributed to Homecoming’s fade from campus. Decades later, in 2015, the university revived Homecoming, holding it in October to coincide with events such as Family Weekend and the Panther Prowl 5K Run/Walk. Within the past year, the athletics department assumed responsibility for organizing Homecoming. Braun says the department had a series of conversations with stakeholders across campus and researched how other universities without a football program approach things. Showcasing the basketball team was the popular choice. Another benefit: how the change fits the overall fall schedule before attention turns to Thanksgiving break and final exams. Having Homecoming in November allows it to follow Family Weekend and the Panther Prowl in October, as well as back-to-school activities early in September. “It gives our students something fun and festive to do while creating some school spirit every month,” Braun says.
For up-to-date details, go to uwm.edu/homecoming.
2018-19 MILWAUKEE BASKETBALL MEN’S BASKETBALL
UWM alumni have access to discounted season tickets for the 2018-19 men’s basketball season. For prices starting at only $140, alums can get a great seat in the Alumni Section for every home game at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Season tickets for women’s basketball are available starting at $25 for UWM alumni. In addition, Family Packs are available for the season for only $99.
@MKEPANTHERS
/MKEPANTHERS
MKEPANTHERS
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, LOG ON TO MKEPANTHERS.COM OR CALL 414-229-5886.
BUCKETS AND BROGUES Men’s basketball team playing in Northern Ireland tournament By Dan Simmons Coach Pat Baldwin will lead his UWM men’s basketball team on a road trip like no other, jumping the pond for a tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The winner gets a crystal jug made by local hands, and players will perform in front of fans who are just getting used to NCAA basketball and eager to see more. UWM is one of eight teams in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 2018 Belfast Classic, which is in its second year. The event runs from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, with games played at the SSE Arena Belfast. Baldwin immediately liked the idea when it was presented by Amanda Braun, UWM’s athletics director. His wife has Irish heritage, and he played in Europe during college summers and as a pro. He knows the benefits that await his young team, and not just from playing the games. “It’s a great opportunity for us to really get to know each other in a different environment, away from campus and away from the States,” Baldwin says. “There’s the potential for great friendships and camaraderie born out of a trip like this.” Baldwin stresses that his student-athletes deserve world-class experiences. Belfast, the capital of Northern
Ireland, is known for its proximity to a beautiful coastline and rolling fields of green. Once a war zone during the Troubles, it’s redefined itself as a go-to tourist destination, and Panthers players will enjoy a week of cultural immersion and competition. They’ll also meet kids from throughout the region to talk hoops, goals and life. The tournament lineup includes UWM’s first-round opponent, the University at Buffalo, which upset fourth-seeded Arizona by 21 points in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Other teams include Albany, Dartmouth, Marist, Long Island, San Francisco and Stephen F. Austin State. Travel packages for Panthers fans will feature guided tours of Belfast and Dublin, capital city of the Republic of Ireland to the south. Destinations include the Guinness brewery, the Titanic museum (the ill-fated ship was built in Belfast), a sixth-century monastery and Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that features natural stone columns rising from the sea. Visit mkepanthers.com for more info. “Outside of taking in some tremendous games on the court,” Braun says, “we invite our fans to join the team and discover Ireland with us.” UWM ALUMNI
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TO THE END OF THE
EARTH
HUNTING ANTARCTIC FOSSILS TO LEARN WHAT THE PAST MEANS FOR THE FUTURE By Laura L. Otto
Antarctica is a punishing place to conduct field research, with summertime Fahrenheit temperatures that are almost always subfreezing and often subzero, as well as storms that can blow winds of 60 knots for days at a time. “It’s a raw and challenging place to be as a human being,” UWM paleo-ecologist Erik Gulbranson says. Yet researchers keep making the arduous journey there, Gulbranson included. The assistant professor of geosciences is lured by the promise of fossils found nowhere else on the planet. They hold secrets to what the Earth was like before mammals existed, and that distant past may give glimpses into the Earth’s future. Today, Gulbranson can study these rare fossils in the climate-controlled comfort of his Lapham Hall lab. Until recently, they spent millions of years in a rocky and icy
wasteland, just waiting to be finally found. Physically scouring this inhospitable landscape is the only way to obtain the fossils Gulbranson wants. They are from a specific time period – more than 250 million years ago, the end of the Permian Period in the geologic record. Ancient Antarctica was part of a huge land mass at that time, and it included present-day South America, Africa, India, Australia and the Arabian Peninsula. This supercontinent, called Gondwana, once held plenty of forests. The region was morphing from “icehouse” conditions at around 300 million years ago to “greenhouse” conditions 50 million years later. Warm and humid air caused glaciers to retreat. The forests appeared with the warming, and with them came some extremely hardy plants, such as types of ginkgos, seed ferns
GEOLOGIC HISTORY Era
Period (No. of millions of years ago)
CENOZOIC
Quaternary (1.8 mya-present) Tertiary (65-1.8 mya) Cretaceous (146-65 mya)
MESOZOIC
Jurassic (200-146 mya) Triassic (251-200 mya) Permian (299-251 mya) Carboniferous (359-299 mya)
PALEOZOIC
Devonian (416-359 mya) Silurian (444-416 mya) Ordovician (488-444 mya) Cambrian (542-488 mya)
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Extinction of the dinosaurs
PRECAMBRIAN (4570-542 mya)
Great Dying
and a tree called Glossopteris with tongue-shaped leaves. Then, just as the greening of the continent was taking off, the polar forests died, along with 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial life. It was history’s biggest mass extinction. Scientists believe a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, possibly spewed from volcanic activity, caused this Great Dying as the Permian Period turned into the Triassic. Today, Gulbranson and other scientists want to learn how plants responded to high carbon dioxide levels just before and during the Great Dying. The information could hold insights into modern climate change. “The Earth is in a climate change scenario now,” Gulbranson says, “but what we don’t know is where it’s going to go. Having a fossil record of the extinction interval is our only understanding of how life on the planet goes through such an event.” So Gulbranson went on a fossil-finding mission during the 2017-18 Antarctic summer, which lasts from November through January. The National Science Foundation funded the polar expedition, allowing several scientists to work on different projects. Among them were some longtime veterans of Antarctic research, including John Isbell, UWM distinguished professor of geosciences, while noted paleobotanist Edith Taylor of the University of Kansas would lead the study of
whatever fossils were brought back to civilization. Scientists traveled to McMurdo Station, a U.S. research center that’s nearly 2,400 miles south of Christchurch, New Zealand. They targeted two areas further south of McMurdo, shuttling between sites via helicopters and ski-equipped airplanes, and sleeping in tents. Because of the rigors of Antarctica, a trained mountain guide accompanies researchers, and they must know basic survival skills. Each person copes with the environmental challenges in different ways. Gulbranson finds a nylon tent to be surprisingly comfortable – so long as it’s yellow. He says the light color lets in the right amount of sunlight, enabling a mini-greenhouse effect and raising the internal temperature to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The biggest challenge, Gulbranson says, is being away from family. The only connection to home is by satellite phone, and calls are often dropped because of the mountainous terrain. But this journey was worth it. Members of the research expedition located the remnants of five polar forests. Fossils were collected and shipped back to the United States. Back in their labs, scientists could begin examining the evidence. They hope the fossils tell them how those plants adapted and survived. “What we’re able to see in these fossil ecosystems,” Gulbranson says, “is something we’ve never seen before in Antarctica.” Continued on Page 26
Photo courtesy of John Isbell
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Scientists have known that Antarctica once had forests since the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott noticed the remains of fossil wood during his expedition of 1910-12. But very few humans have explored land that held those polar forest fossils. One is Jim Collinson, an emeritus professor at Ohio State University. In the 1970s, he discovered such an area on Antarctica’s Shackleton Glacier. Many of the fossils Gulbranson collected on his trip came from this region at a rocky expanse called Collinson Ridge. When Edith Taylor began traveling to Antarctica more than 30 years ago in search of Permian and Triassic fossils, she explored sites no paleobotanist had ever been to. Today, she’s not even close to running out of spots to look. “Even within a defined area, like the area around the Shackleton Glacier,” Taylor says, “it’s hard to imagine how big the place is and how little it’s been explored.” Taylor and her University of Kansas lab were the first to study fossils that Collinson had gathered from the ridge that would bear his name. She knew it was a rich pocket containing much more, which is why it was chosen for exploration during the 2017-18 field season. If they could find more fossils of plant life during the extinction event, it would widen their window into a very different world. Fifty million years before the time frame Gulbranson studies, Gondwana was mostly covered in ice, like Antarctica is today, and the supercontinent was just beginning to warm. Changes in plants and soil tell an essential part of this environmental transition story. The fossils Gulbranson and his colleagues are analyzing paint a portrait of an ancient forest comprised of different types of trees,
rather than a single kind, each with specific functions and an incredible range. “They must have been capable of thriving in a variety of environments,” Gulbranson says. “It’s extremely rare, even for plants today, for a group to appear across nearly an entire hemisphere of the globe.” If any plant groups could have survived the Great Dying, Gulbranson believes it would have been the plants these fossils have immortalized. And he wants to discover their coping strategies. Then as now, plants in polar regions survived months of total darkness in winter and perpetual daylight during the summer. Modern plants conserve water by making food during the day and resting at night. They also make the transition from summer activity to winter dormancy over the course of months. By examining trunk rings, Gulbranson learned the fossilized trees made the same transition over the course of only two weeks. “There isn’t anything like that today,” he says. “These trees could turn their growing cycles on and off like a light switch.” Scientists will continue studying the fossils to see how they fit into the geological puzzle. Meanwhile, Gulbranson is continuing field research in the Andes mountains of northwestern Argentina, which was part of Gondwana in the late Permian. And he is looking for an opportunity to join another Antarctic field trip, which would be his sixth. “Most of Antarctica has never seen a human footprint,” he says. “So we have the chance to make brand-new discoveries every time we go there.”
“Most of Antarctica has never seen a human footprint,” he says. “So we have the chance to make brand-new discoveries every time we go there.”
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Photo courtesy of Danny Uhlmann
Feast of Crispian co-founders (from left) Nancy Smith-Watson, Jim Tasse and Bill Watson
Peaceaftercometh war By Tony Rehagen
Feast of Crispian helps traumatized veterans, with assistance from William Shakespeare UWM ALUMNI
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Charlie Walton
has been searching for the words since the moment he touched down in Vietnam as an 18-year-old Marine. After a trans-Pacific flight filled with gung-ho songs from boot camp, a Viet Cong sniper welcomed Walton and his fellow recruits by picking off a lieutenant as he deplaned. On his first patrol, Walton was attacked by a North Walton Vietnamese soldier brandishing a knife. Walton froze and couldn’t pull his rifle’s trigger. His squad opened fire, and the assailant fell at Walton’s feet. Later, a friend stepped on a land mine. Legless and begging for help, he bled to death in Walton’s arms. Walton didn’t speak of such things, and so much more, for decades. How could he? When he came home, no one wanted to hear about it. He lost touch with his brothers in arms. He lived alone with the nightmares and guilt. He turned to drugs. He went through six wives and countless jobs. Then, about 15 years ago, a friend urged him to seek help at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs hospital in Milwaukee. Walton screamed, vented, pleaded and cried to therapists and social workers, and it released much of the pressure. But he still couldn’t open up to the world. He couldn’t find the words. That’s when a VA social worker directed him to a new program with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee roots. There, veterans had found a way to express themselves through the words of someone else: William Shakespeare. It was called the Feast of Crispian, after the famous call to arms in Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” The idea was to turn veterans into thespians, allowing them to make the Bard’s dramatic dialogue their own. “It helps me express myself,” Walton says. “I was brutal to people, the things I could do and say. The Feast teaches me to transform that energy. It teaches how to be angry and sin not.” Feast of Crispian is the brainchild of three people: Bill Watson, a UWM associate professor of theater; his actress/somatic therapist wife, Nancy Smith-Watson; and Jim Tasse, a UWM theater senior lecturer and military veteran. UWM educates more military veterans than any other four-year college in Wisconsin, and the trio was looking for a way to combine their skills to help people.
They’d seen how Shakespeare had been used in Massachusetts prisons to help inmates and focus wayward juvenile offenders. Why couldn’t the same method help men and women suffering from posttraumatic stress, which so plagues veterans that every day, on average, 22 of them commit suicide? “As an actor,” Tasse says, “when doing Shakespeare, you’re tapping into an energy. We’re taking that energy and tapping into a veteran’s story, and allowing it to be released.” In some instances, the results have been nothing short of life-saving. “I never thought I would live to see my 40th birthday,” says Carissa DiPietro, an Army veteran who was raped by a noncommissioned officer. “I always thought I would have committed suicide by then. But thanks to Feast of Crispian, I’m now 41, and I have my whole DiPietro life ahead of me.” Feast of Crispian’s work isn’t meant to replace other forms of therapy, but for many veterans, it has served as a valuable supplement. “Conventional therapy, where you go directly into the traumatic memories, wasn’t working,” Bill Watson says. “It just retraumatizes them. So how can you access it obliquely? Your target as an actor is to try to get in touch with an emotion that is supposed to have happened. To buy into it enough that you tap into your own grief. We’re working on getting emotionally connected for real into something that is imaginary.” In 2013, the Crispian co-founders put their theory into practice. They partnered with the Zablocki VA to hold weekend workshops at the hospital. They chose scenes centered on direct interpersonal conflict, usually between two or three actors, from plays that dealt with war, like “Henry V,” “Julius Caesar” and “Othello.” The workshops attracted a dozen or so ex-service people of every age, from Vietnam vets to combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five years later, the method remains the same. Vets gather and sit in a circle. On Friday, roles are assigned, with Saturday reserved for rehearsals. They play out scenes in the middle of the circle, the
“ They were heard. They
were seen. And they were validated that it was OK to expose all that.”
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UWM theater student and Navy veteran Ronnie Graham (front right) found solace in Feast of Crispian in the wake of his wife’s death.
professional actors hovering over their shoulders like guardian angels, whispering lines into their ears. The vets are then free to focus their emotions and soak in the experience without the burden of memorization. When a line isn’t said quite right, Tasse, Watson or Smith-Watson will coax a different delivery through a simple remark: “He just called you a liar. How does that make you feel?” The line is spoken again, and the scene continues seamlessly. Then, on Sunday evening, the groups perform for the public. “You take your own skin off and put someone else’s on,” says Ronnie Graham, a UWM theater student who served in the Navy and now helps run the group as a liaison. Working with Feast of Crispian has helped him through his own difficulties with substance abuse brought on by his wife’s death from leukemia. “You can say things and do things, whatever you want, and it’s therapeutic. Then you can come back and be yourself without hurting someone. I hurt a lot of people trying to search for something to hold onto to make me happy.” The interplay also allows the actors to connect with
Photo: © Sara Stathas. 2017
the kindred damaged spirit behind the mask. DiPietro says she feels more comfortable when acting with this crew of like-minded vets than she has anywhere in a long time. “In this group was the first time I told anyone that I had been raped, other than the military police. Before I even told my husband,” she says. “When you’re on that stage, all you have is each other.” Shakespeare, Graham notes, is ideally suited for this sort of exercise. “It’s amazing that things he wrote about 400 years ago are still relevant today,” he says. “The language is so beautiful.” He believes its rhythm, in the Bard’s iambic pentameter, is therapeutic by itself. That belies some memories of Shakespeare held by those who dreaded third-period English. But Watson says the biggest barrier is not the heady material; it’s the fear of performing in front of others. “That’s one of the things that drives this, though,” Watson says. “We’re putting them through this stress on purpose.” Occasionally, the pressure gets a little too real. In a production of “Othello,” one vet-turned-actor was supposed to break up a knife fight between characters.
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Crispian veterans see that they’re not alone in their thoughts and that soldiers have shared their burden for hundreds of years.
The experience awakened a dark memory from Operation Desert Storm, and a real scuffle might have broken out were it not for the intervention of his surrounding friends. “It sometimes triggers their PTSD,” Watson says. “But it’s in a safe circumstance.” The practice builds confidence. And, Watson adds, onstage stress is met with positive feedback in the form of audience applause: “They were heard. They were seen. And they were validated that it was OK to expose all that.” Feast of Crispian has spurred interest from other schools and veterans’ organizations nationwide. A demonstration was staged at a reception during the UW Board of Regents meeting hosted by UWM in summer 2018. The audience’s emotional response was palpable, and in the following days, the program’s leadership received inquiries from colleagues in the UW System who wanted to learn more. But perhaps the best gauge of Feast of Crispian’s success is the individual growth of its participants. After three years in Crispian, DiPietro now helps facilitate an annual women’s-only weekend for veterans and the wives of Crispian vets so that they can share the experience. “I’ve seen it change marriages,” she says. “I now have a relationship with my husband and my children. And I’m starting to like myself.”
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“You see how it eases their transition,” Graham says. “They see that they’re not alone in this world. It’s not just me who has these messed-up thoughts. People have for hundreds of years.” Charlie Walton has found a kindred soul in Brutus, the antagonist from Shakespeare’s historical drama “Julius Caesar.” Walton is not an assassin; nor is he a traitorous friend. But in Act IV, Brutus and co-conspirator Cassius, now both soldiers, are in the former’s tent before a battle that was sparked by their regicide. The men, facing the deadly consequences of their actions, turn on one another and on themselves. Brutus accuses Cassius of having accepted bribes to kill Caesar, and he tries rationalizing what he’d done for honorable, patriotic reasons. “Remember March, the ides of March remember,” Brutus says. “Did not great Julius bleed for justice’s sake? What villain touch’d his body, that did stab, and not for justice?” When Walton first stood in the middle of the room, performing this scene with a 300-pound biker playing Cassius, he was not thinking about the fight for Rome. He was revisiting his own war. As he repeated these lines, Walton unloaded a burden he’d silently carried for 50 years. “I faced him and he faced me,” Walton says. “It was awesome.”
Photo: © Sara Stathas. 2017
Connections REVOLUTIONARY
EDUCATION
BUSINESS
DEVICE SOFTWARE
DATA ANALYTICS
ENGINEERING
THE CONNECTED SYSTEMS INSTITUTE LAYS THE GROUNDWORK FOR MANUFACTURING INNOVATION By Laura L. Otto
The next industrial revolution could be coming into focus. It’s fueled by the sheer volume of data streaming on the industrial internet of things – abbreviated IIoT – which involves machines exchanging information in real time with people as well as other machines. Most companies already use data analytics to improve some functions, but how can they link all data streams to optimize their entire global enterprise? To help industries find solutions, UWM has launched the first statewide Connected Systems Institute. It brings together scholars and businesspeople to test concepts, train employees and share cutting-edge ideas. “If you were able to organize all the
data streams in the IIoT,” says Adel Nasiri, interim executive director of the Connected Systems Institute, “it would reveal patterns that point to strategies for increasing efficiency, productivity and safety.” The institute is a multidisciplinary collaboration involving the College of Engineering & Applied Science, the Lubar School of Business and the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center at UWM, as well as Microsoft Corp., Rockwell Automation, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and other industry leaders. UWM is uniquely positioned to lead the effort. Its faculty are experts in IIoT-related disciplines. It also has strong corporate ties and is in a key industrial and manufacturing hub.
The idea for the institute evolved from conversations between UWM and two partners: Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation, a major employer of UWM graduates, and Microsoft, whose CEO, Satya Nadella, is a UWM alumnus. “The internet of things is fast becoming a key strategy for companies of all sizes, yet there still exists a gap in cloud skills and training to develop connected solutions,” says Sam George, director of Azure IoT at Microsoft. “The Connected Systems Institute helps bridge that gap by combining advanced research with training for the next wave of innovation with IoT.” The institute’s core facility will open on campus in spring 2019 in the east wing of UWM’s Golda Meir Library. Long-term plans call for four off-campus test beds where industry partners can experiment and students can get hands-on learning. “This is going to be a world-class center in terms of scale,” says Tom O’Reilly, Rockwell’s vice president of global business development. “It’s great that we’re together in the Milwaukee area. And there is a buzz here, making it a great base to build off of.” Beginning in the Fall 2019 semester, students can pursue a joint master’s degree in engineering and business that focuses on connected systems. The institute’s plans also call for certificate programs and ongoing professional development.
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WITNESS TO HISTORY DRAWING ON HIS 40-PLUS YEARS AT UWM, FORMER CHANCELLOR JOHN SCHROEDER CHRONICLES THE INSTITUTION’S JOURNEY IN A NEW BOOK By David Lewellen
J
ohn Schroeder is the ideal person to tell the rich and diverse story of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to being a professional historian and a UWM faculty member for more than 40 years, he served as chancellor from 1990 to 1998. So in 2012, university officials approached him about writing an updated history of the institution. The result is a new book, due out in fall and titled
Schroeder
“University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The First Sixty Years, 1956-2016.” Over his career, Schroeder has written seven books, mostly about 19th-century naval history. This one, which will be available in the Panther Shop at the UWM Student Union, is different, and close to his heart. “I wanted to write a coffee-table book,” he says frankly. “People can thumb through it and read the captions, but I wanted a solid narrative text.” The last in-depth book on UWM’s history was published in 1992, “The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: A Historical Profile, 1885-1992.” The original idea was for Schroeder to build on the previous work with a sequel, but the past 20 years didn’t seem like ample material for a book, and he couldn’t settle on a clear theme. Then, in 2016, the prestigious Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education recognized UWM for “highest research activity.” This Research 1 status – R1 for short – put UWM in the same category as the nation’s most
View of Mitchell Hall from Downer Avenue, 1958.
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renowned research institutions, such as Stanford, MIT and UW-Madison. “It was a real achievement for us,” Schroeder says, “and it dawned on me, here’s your book. Now we had a narrative arc.” So Schroeder set out to write a modern history of UWM, from its official debut as the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 1956 to that milestone achievement in 2016. “From Year 1 to R1,” Schroeder says. He chronicles the vision for an urban university and a major research center in Milwaukee – including the opposition to that vision. In the book, which includes nearly 200 photos, he describes some of the many challenges UWM has faced and overcome: from the initial fear other state schools had about competition from UWM to struggles over funding and programs. But with the resources available, “we did a pretty good job,” Schroeder says. “As Dr. Schroeder points out,” UWM Chancellor Mark Mone writes in the book’s foreword, “there have been considerable challenges along UW-Milwaukee’s path to becoming an R1 university. Yet, rising to those challenges with steady leadership and foresight, UWM has prevailed, again and again meeting the needs of Wisconsin.” Among UWM’s chancellors, Schroeder’s departure from the post was unusual: He returned to the classroom and the library. He’d already served longer than the median time for a university
UWM sports teams originally were known as the Cardinals, as depicted in this mascot drawing from around 1960.
The UWM Post picked this Panther as the winning design in its 1965 mascot contest.
At left, the 1992 groundbreaking ceremony for the Business Administration Building, with VIPs wearing hard hats. At right, UWM students move between classes on the grounds just outside of Pearse Hall.
leader, and the minuses of the job were beginning to outweigh the pluses. Also, he remembered the advice he got from Frank Zeidler, the former Milwaukee mayor who stepped down after three terms: “Don’t stay around too long.” Having followed that advice, Schroeder says the happiest time of his career came between 1998, when he left the chancellor’s office, and 2012, when he retired from the faculty. In writing the book, Schroeder relied on the university’s archives and on his own memory, which covers about three-fourths of the school’s history. He arrived as a history instructor in 1970, when UWM was still in its adolescence, a fact that he’s grown to appreciate with time. If he’d spent his career at an older, more established school, Schroeder says, “I would not have seen the development and growth and change in the institution. And to be a part of that, it’s neat. I spent my entire career at UWM, and I’m very proud of that.”
The modern-day look of Pounce, the UWM Panthers mascot.
Construction of Lapham Hall, 1960.
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MINNESOTA, USA WISCONSIN, USA
FRENCH GUIANA Chia Vang, far left
An Immigrant’s
ARGENTINA
JOURNEY By Jennifer Morales
Once a refugee, Chia Youyee Vang now explores the Hmong diaspora She was 9, new to the United States, its culture and the English language, and new to such simple things as school. It was 1980, and Chia Youyee Vang was a Hmong refugee from Laos. Her family had been displaced for months, the result of an attack on their village during the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Neither her village nor her refugee camp provided a formal education. Now, in her new hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, she had classmates. “All the refugee kids were piled up in these classrooms for English as a second language,” Vang recalls. “Even though we were 9 years old, we were still learning our ABCs.” Today, she’s a long way from ABCs. A UWM professor of history, Vang is one of the world’s leading experts on Hmong refugees. She’s also one of the first people of Hmong descent to become a full professor at a major research university, a position earned in 2017 for her groundbreaking efforts documenting the Hmong diaspora. Vang focuses on how refugee populations adjust to their
new communities and what affects those adjustments. “I’ve always been really concerned with people being displaced,” Vang says. “I think about not only what has happened to Hmong people – being forced from our homes and what’s happened to us over 40 years – but also the millions of other powerless people around the world.” In addition to being deeply personal work, her research informs policymakers facing new refugee crises, such as those in Yemen and Myanmar, and offers lessons in how to better preserve refugees’ cultural and family connections. It’s an academic journey that began in earnest at St. Paul’s Johnson High School. Vang was one of some 170,000 Hmong displaced to the Western Hemisphere in the post-Vietnam War era. About 145,000 came to the U.S. Others landed in France, Canada, Argentina and French Guiana in South America. As a teenager, Vang became an officer in the Hmong student club at Johnson High School. Newly confident in her
When I learned how to speak, I spoke.
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language and leadership skills, she was an advocate for fellow Hmong students, LAOS especially the newcomers. “When I learned how to speak,” she says, “I spoke.” Vang was a multisport athlete and played in the band. When she was a senior in 1990, Hmong students organized to win a homecoming court spot, and Vang was elected lady-inwaiting. When the queen was dethroned for disciplinary reasons, Vang assumed the role. “The next year, I got to go back to crown the new king and queen,” she says. “That’s my American story.” Some 40 members of her extended family traveled from California for a celebration when she earned her doctorate in American studies from the University of Minnesota. “I’ve been able to do well because it isn’t just for me,” she says. “They get to claim it, too.” Vang joined UWM’s history faculty in 2006 and established a certificate program in Hmong diaspora studies in 2009. Her current research focuses on Hmong refugee experiences in South America, seeking “lessons on different ways that people manage to survive and rebuild their lives.” “We know what has happened to our community in the U.S., but very little about those around the rest of the world,” she says. Vang brings UWM students on her research trips. Through extensive interviews, they’ve explored the experiences of Hmong refugee communities in French Guiana and Argentina, discovering a divergence in former refugees’ ability to build community and develop a sense of belonging. The findings suggest that resettling people in larger groups and providing support for family connections, cultural preservation and economic stability could improve their long-term well-being. In French Guiana, French missionaries led the resettlement of
1,000 Hmong refugees from 1977 to 1979. “They had to cut down the jungle – just like in Laos – and build their own homes,” Vang says. Locals resisted having the refugees there. “There were protests in the streets.” But because they are French citizens, the Hmong Guianans thrived. Hmong farmers dominate the fresh produce market – a privileged position facilitated by the French government. This relative prosperity has raised educational ambitions for the younger generations. By contrast, the Hmong population that settled in Argentina in the late 1970s was much smaller, only 21 families, and new arrivals were not relocated as a community. Instead, individual families were dispersed to farms to work as laborers with no way to communicate. Over the years, families found each other, and some congregated in Rio Negro, a province in the country’s southern region of Patagonia. Others moved on to the U.S., French Guiana or Germany. Today, only about 100 Hmong people remain in Argentina. They are scattered across the country, living mostly as farmers on rented land or laborers in construction or other menial work. The economic success of their Guianan counterparts has eluded them. But there are other strands of their legacy. At an academic conference, Vang met a descendant of the Hmong Argentine community – an undergraduate studying education. The two struck up a conversation. On Vang’s next trip to South America, she had a new interpreter and research assistant.
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How a young UWM alum and the little girl he’d never met became forever linked By Kathy Quirk
UWM alum Kristian Vaughn with Zanyah, the young girl who received a portion of his liver.
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On the eve of the first surgery of his life, 27-year-old Kristian Vaughn was neither nervous nor apprehensive, just determined. Doctors at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin were about to remove 30 percent of his liver, and Vaughn was walking through hospital corridors to meet the reason why. His path led to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, where 4-year-old Zanyah waited, the picture of excitement. Unlike Vaughn, she didn’t quite grasp the enormity of the situation. She was just glad to finally meet the man who’d give her a chance to not be so sick all the time. “She ran over and hugged him,” says Zanyah’s mother, Yvonne Huggins. “They just clicked immediately. From that day until now, they have just had a really special bond. He is a very, very sweet person.” The journey to that first meeting in December 2017, as well as the friendship that followed, is complex. Vaughn, a UWM alum and current doctoral student in the School of Architecture & Urban Planning, initially explored becoming a liver donor to help another child. The liver is one of the few bodily organs that can regenerate itself, so you can donate part of yours to someone in need, provided you’re a medical match. “The son of our family friend was critically ill and in acute liver failure,” Vaughn says. “He’s 3 years old, and he’s this beautiful little boy. I thought, ‘I’m healthy, I’m able, and my test results were a strong match.’ I just felt I should do it.” Before Vaughn could move further in the process, however, the little boy received a transplant from someone else. That’s when Vaughn made an uncommon decision. Knowing how promising his test results were, he still elected to go on the donor list. The overwhelming majority of living donors know the people who will receive their transplant. But several factors – including blood work, fitness and how his liver was positioned in his abdominal cavity – meant Vaughn could be an ideal donor for another child. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Vaughn, Zanyah had suffered through recurring illnesses since age 2. At Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, she was eventually diagnosed with a rare condition involving the flow of bile. As Zanyah’s health deteriorated with fevers, vomiting, weakness, pancreatitis and jaundice, she was placed on a transplant list in July 2017. Mother Yvonne was resigned to a long, and perhaps hopeless, wait. “We got put on the list,” she says, “and all of a sudden, there Kristian was.” Joyous as it was, the call about a possible donor for Zanyah came during a sad and difficult time for Huggins.
Photo above courtesy of Kristian Vaughn
She was still grieving the death of another daughter, an infant who died 11 days after birth. But Huggins quickly agreed to move forward with Zanyah’s transplant. “I had already lost one child,” she says. “Whatever I could do to help Zanyah, to save Zanyah, was what I wanted to do.” Vaughn and Zanyah were officially matched, and the transplant surgery was scheduled. As the day approached, Huggins explained the process to her daughter in terms Zanyah could understand. “I told her it was like a car that isn’t working,” Huggins says. “Sometimes, you have to take a part out and replace it with a new part.” On Dec. 11, 2017 – two weeks before Christmas – Zanyah, Huggins and Vaughn had that first face-to-face meeting. “It was one of the best days of our lives,” Huggins recalls. “I said, ‘Zanyah, this is where your new liver is going to come from. Kristian is going to give you part of his liver.’ I was holding back tears, but Zanyah was really excited.” The next day, surgeons removed a portion of Vaughn’s liver during a 10-hour procedure at Froedtert. The tissue traveled through a tunnel to Children’s Hospital, where it was transplanted into Zanyah. “The transplant team and the people in ICU were amazing,” Huggins says. Seven months later, in summer 2018, 5-year-old Zanyah was still recuperating, with a few “bumps in the road” that Huggins says are expected in the first year after transplant surgery. Because Zanyah’s immune system remained suppressed, she still hadn’t been back to school since the surgery. But in July, the family was able to visit Disney World through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Vaughn, meanwhile, is back at his job as a land use and economic development specialist at GRAEF, and he continues his doctoral studies at UWM. He says the surgery just meant “pushing the pause button” on his life for a few months of recuperation while his liver began regenerating, a small price to pay to help Zanyah. “She was being treated for a medical condition that affected her quality of life,” Vaughn says. “She had regular hospitalizations and wasn’t able to run around or go to preschool or kindergarten or do things other children her age could do. I just wanted to ensure that her life would be successful, and she’d have the same opportunities as other children. That was important to me.” Today, their connection endures. Vaughn and his family remain friends with Zanyah and her family. “I told Kristian that he was the person that saved Zanyah’s life,” Huggins says. “I wanted her to know him. During her entire journey, it’s only right that Kristian is a part of things.”
Zanyah, after the transplant, and her mom, Yvonne, on a summer day at a Milwaukee park.
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A Family Affair The annual Panther Prowl has something for everyone. Fido included. Now in its 14th year, the annual Panther Prowl 5K Run/Walk takes place on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. Sponsored by the UWM Alumni Association, this family- and canine-friendly event includes a Kids’ & Toddlers’ Dash, Canine Costume Contest, Most Spirited Stroller Award and more. All proceeds benefit UWM student scholarships, and past Prowls have raised more than $320,000. Learn more at uwm.edu/pantherprowl.
CHANCELLOR MONE TO VISIT ALUMNI In the coming months, Chancellor Mark Mone will be traveling to meet alumni in cities across the nation. This will be an opportunity spend time with the chancellor and find out what’s happening at UWM, including the great progress being made on our universitywide fundraising effort – Made in Milwaukee, Shaping the World: The Campaign for UWM. You’ll also get a chance to connect with other alumni in your area. Want to be invited? Make sure we have your email address! Update your contact info at alumni.uwm.edu/updateinfo. Visit uwm.edu/alumni/events for more information. September 2018 – Washington, D.C. October 2018 – New York, NY January 2019 – Denver, CO February 2019 – Naples, FL
March 2019 – Phoenix, AZ April 2019 – Seattle, WA June 2019 – San Francisco, CA
UWM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Since its founding in 1965, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Alumni Association Board of Trustees has provided strategic insight and professional expertise to assist with alumni outreach. The UWM Alumni Association is pleased to welcome the board’s three newest members. Domonique Ford ’99 Senior Manager - Financial Services, Direct Supply
Elizabeth (Beth) Heller ’05 Senior Director of Education and Strategic Planning, Urban Ecology Center
Chris Nelson ’13 Morning Meteorologist WDJT CBS 58
They join the existing members, listed below, who serve as ambassadors to more than 185,000 alumni worldwide. Scott Conger ’91 – President Portfolio Manager, PJS Investment Management
Wendy Heintz-Joehnk ’83 Vice President - Strategy and Development, Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc.
Carlton Reeves ’13 Forward Deployment Solutions Leader, C3 IoT
Michelle Putz ’96, ’04 – Vice President Chief Operating Officer, Ovation Communities
Meg Jansky ’85 Vice President - Field Integration, Northwestern Mutual
Founder and President, Reeves Technologies LLC
Stelios Fakiroglou ’80 – Secretary Commercial Architectural Consultant, Weather-Tek Windows & Doors
Katie Klein-Murphy ’01 Digital Marketing Manager, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Brentell Handley ’92 – Treasurer Vice President - Business Banking, BMO Harris Bank
Mike Kuharske ’04 President, Gravity Marketing
David Misky ’92 – Immediate Past President Assistant Executive Director, Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee Todd Brennan ’14 Watershed Project Manager, Alliance for the Great Lakes Nicole Dermer ’07 Attorney, Office of General Counsel, Ascension Wisconsin
Chris Larson ’07 State Senator, Wisconsin’s 7th Senate District Tomas Lipinski ’81, ’90 – Ad Hoc Member (Ex-Officio) Dean and Professor, UWM School of Information Studies
Lori Rosenthal ’92 Vice President and Milwaukee Facilities Group Leader - GRAEF Frank Schneiger ’64 Founder and Owner, Frank Schneiger & Associates Ryan Schultz ’99 President, HSI Properties LLC Clarice Yenor ’73 Retired Manager of Policy and Performance, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Alberto Maldonado ’96, ’10 Interim Director, UWM Roberto Hernández Center
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CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE & ACHIEVEMENT
EVENING 2018 CELEBRATE WITH THE 2018 HONOREES AT 6 P.M. ON FRIDAY, OCT. 12, AT THE PFISTER HOTEL IN MILWAUKEE.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
GRADUATE OF THE LAST DECADE (GRADUATE)
Paul Hemmer, BS Biological Sciences ’85 Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair, Educational Programs, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Department of Medicine
Daniel Burkholder, MFA Dance ’11, MFA Performing Arts ’11 Assistant Professor, Department of Dance, UWM Peck School of the Arts
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD
Eva Marie Lewis King, MS Biomedical Sciences ’15 DNA Laboratory Supervisor, Milwaukee Crime Laboratory
David Misky, BS Biological Sciences ’92 Assistant Executive Director - Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee
Natalie Harlan, MHRLR Human Resources and Labor Relations ’08 Director, Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families
Angela Meyers, BA Sociology ’02, MLIS Library and Information Science ’08 Coordinator of Youth and Inclusive Services, Bridges Library System
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
Srikanth Pilla, PhD Mechanical Engineering ’09 Founding Director, Clemson Composites Center & Dean's Faculty Fellow, Automotive Engineering at Clemson University
Eugene Guszkowski, BS Architecture ’71, MArch Architecture ’73 Senior Principal / Design, AG Architecture
Nirmal Raja, MA Art ’10, MFA Art ’12 Award-winning Interdisciplinary Artist
Lei Schlitz, MS Mechanical Engineering ’93, PhD Mechanical Engineering ’98 Executive Vice President, Food Equipment Segment, Illinois Tool Works
Nicholas Robinson, BS Architectural Studies ’10, MArch Architecture ’12 Co-founder & Principal, DREAM Builders LLC
HONORARY ALUMNI AWARD
Mark Speltz, MA History ’09 Vice President & Senior Historian, Wells Fargo Wealth Management and Abbot Downing
K. Vairavan Professor Emeritus, UWM College of Engineering and Applied Science
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS Jennifer Lehrke, BS Architectural Studies ’97, MArch Architecture ’99 President, Principal Architect & Historic Preservation Consultant, Legacy Architecture, Inc. Harris Turer, BBA Marketing ’88 Owner & CEO, Milwaukee Admirals
PANTHER PRIDE VOLUNTEER AWARD Meg Jansky, BBA Management Information Systems ’85 Vice President - Field Integration, Northwestern Mutual
CORPORATE PARTNER AWARD Baird
GRADUATE OF THE LAST DECADE (UNDERGRADUATE) Brent Aussprung, BSE Mechanical Engineering ’14 Patent Agent, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP Jacarrie Carr, BS Community Education ’15 Founder, Jacarrie's Kicks for Kids Nathaniel Deans, Jr., BS Education & English ’11 English Teacher, Riverside University High School Lauren Decker, BFA Music ’12 Ensemble Member, Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago Brian Firkus, BFA Music ’12, BFA Inter-Arts ’12 American Drag Queen, Stage Persona Trixie Mattel Eric Miller (Posthumous), BA Mass Communication - Journalism ’06 Award-winning Journalist Julia Robson, BS Biological Sciences ’12, BS Conservation Science ’12 Conservation Biologist, Waukesha County Parks & Land Use Ed Sturkey, BBA Marketing ’07, BBA Finance ‘07 Portfolio Management Operations Supervisor-Vice President, Baird Equity Asset Management
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE (AND WHY IT STILL MATTERS!) Michael Zimmer, UWM Associate Professor, School of Information Studies & Director, Center for Information Policy Research
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018 DENUCLEARIZATION OF NORTH KOREA Uk Heo, UWM Distinguished Professor, Department of Political Science FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2018 RE-BIRTH, THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON TURNAROUND STORY Tim Hoelter, Retired Harley Senior Executive, Keynote Speaker & President, Board of Harbor Commissioners of the City of Milwaukee
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 PHENOLOGY IN A CHANGING CLIMATE Mark Schwartz, UWM Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Geography
The Master Chats series features UWM alumni and faculty speaking on a variety of engaging topics. It’s sponsored by the UWM Alumni Association Emeritus Board, the Presidents’ Circle and UWM Libraries. Events take place in the Golda Meir Library fourth-floor conference center and are free and open to the public.
LEARN MORE OR RESERVE YOUR SPOT AT ALUMNI.UWM.EDU/MASTERCHATS
FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019 THE MILWAUKEE INSTITUTE FOR DRUG DISCOVERY AND THE PROCESS OF NEW DRUG RESEARCH Douglas Stafford, Director, Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019 WOMEN'S UNDERREPRESENTATION IN ELECTED OFFICE IN THE U.S. Kathleen Dolan, UWM Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science
THE SPRING BREAK STUDENT LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
FOCUS on the FUTURE
Twenty-three UWM undergraduate and graduate students took part in the inaugural Focus on the Future: The Spring Break Student Leadership Program, presented by the UWM Alumni Association. Over three days in March 2018, students engaged with executives and alumni at the offices of some of Milwaukee’s most dynamic workplaces, including Northwestern Mutual, Direct Supply, The Water Council/Global Water Center, Milwaukee Art Museum, UWM’s Innovation Campus and the School of Freshwater Sciences. They also attended a special Milwaukee City Hall meeting with Mayor Tom Barrett.
For information on the 2019 program or to get your company involved, please call Adrienne Bass at 414-229-6410.
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1960s & 1970s
direct service, research and professional training programs to improve the quality of life for older Americans.
the Village of Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. For the past 33 years, he’s created artistic wrought-iron from his shop in central Wisconsin. Martin Sell, AIA, NCARB
Barbara Braden (’69 BS Social Work) enjoyed a spectacular trip traveling extensively around Alaska, including via train. She says the best part was enjoying beautiful views from the dining car while being an arm’s length from the mountains. Jack Porter (’67 BA
Sociology) was reappointed as a research associate to the Davis Center for Russian and
1980s A passionate adoption advocate, Deb Holtorf (’81 BA Anthropology) received a 2017 Angels in Adoption award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Since 2001, she has led efforts for the national Gift of Adoption Fund and its Wisconsin chapter to provide financial assistance to complete domestic and international adoptions.
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Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, where he will study the life of Golda Meir. Irene Frye (’75 BS Social Work, ’78 MSW Social Work) is now president of The Retirement Research Foundation. Devoted exclusively to aging, the foundation annually awards more than $6 million in grants to support organizations that conduct advocacy,
Dr. Mary Gavinski (’80 BS Biological Sciences) received a BizTimes Health Care Heroes award for executive leadership. She currently serves as chief medical officer with Community Care Inc. in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and was instrumental in developing the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly in Milwaukee. David Herro, (’85 MA
Economics) was the keynote speaker at the 10th annual SecureFutures Investment
Nominated by President Donald Trump, Luis Arreaga (’75 BBA Marketing, ’76 MS Management, ’81 PhD Economics) was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, his birth country, by the U.S. Senate. Previously, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Iceland from 2010 to 2013 and also held State Department posts in Canada, Panama and Spain.
(’76 BS Architecture, ’78 MArch Architecture), was recently named chairman of the board of Ambanc Financial Services Inc. and of the American National Bank of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
Standing 18 feet tall, the sculpture “Windward” by Boleslaw (William) Kochanowski (’75 BA International Studies), was installed and dedicated in
Paul F. Trebian (’86 BS Architecture, ’88 MArch Architecture) is president of the College of Menominee Nation. It has campuses in Keshena and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Thomas Greenwald (’87
Conference in Milwaukee. He is partner, deputy chair, portfolio manager and chief investment officer of international equity at Harris Associates and was named Morningstar’s 2016 International Stock Fund Manager of the Year in the U.S.
BBA Finance), a family law attorney and senior partner with GoransonBain, has been named Lawyer of the Year in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America. It recognizes the attorney with highest overall peer feedback for a specific practice area and geographic region.
1980s (continued) As director of the Social Services and Community Action Agency in Tehama County, California, Amanda Heerman Sharp (’89 BA Mass Comm-Journalism) oversees a budget of $40 million and more than 200 staff. The agency received a California State Association of Counties Challenge Award for the innovative Welfare-to-Work program that she designed.
Marc S. Rodriguez (’93 BA History) was recently promoted to professor at Portland State University. Rodriguez is a faculty member in the university’s history department, as well as the editor of the Pacific Historical Review.
Music History) recently completed an international tour, performing at some of the world’s finest chapels and cathedrals from San Francisco to London. She also teaches piano, organ and composition, and gives free monthly recitals in Milwaukee, where she currently resides.
faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine as an assistant professor for students in the clinician administrator path. He also serves as chief medical officer of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division.
1990s Through his company, The Publishing World, Bryan Tomasovich (’91 BA English, ’99 PhD English-Creative Writing) recently released two memoirs. They are Michael McCormack’s “Born Fanatic: My Life in the Grip of the NFL” and Stephen J. O’Connor’s “A Time for Purpose: A Survivor’s Path to Trial, Truth & Justice.” Tomasovich’s goal is to help professionals in a range of fields write and publish their books.
Renowned organist Karen Beaumont (’87 BFA
Heather Holland (’98 MHRLR
Married alumni Frank Olson (’95 BA French) and Brenda W. Quinn (’95 BA Mass Comm-Print Journalism, ’99 MA Mass Comm) let their UWM pride shine through in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Frank visited Italy as a UWM student more than 30 years ago, and the couple returned to the country in October 2017. Dr. John Schneider (’95 BS Biological Sciences) has been appointed to the full-time
Human Resources and Labor Relations), founder of Holland Energy Consulting, recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of her boutique business and human resources consulting firm located in Houston. Diversity MBA Magazine recognized Heather as a Top 100 Executive Leader.
Award-winning architect Aimee Eckmann (’99 MArch Architecture) was named a prestigious Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She is a principal and the pre-K-12 practice leader in Perkins+Will’s Chicago office, where she helps sustain the office’s legacy of inclusive and creative facilities for education by changing how teachers teach and students learn. Kimberley Motley (’99 BS Criminal Justice, ’03 MS Criminal Justice) was featured on the July 2018 cover of Wisconsin Lawyer magazine. The accompanying story explored her work as the only American litigating cases in the courts of Afghanistan.
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2000s Gary Adashek (’00 BBA Accounting) received a prestigious Oracle ACE Award, given to those who are active and significant contributors within their technological community. There are fewer than 700 ACE award winners worldwide. Rose (VandenHeuvel) Van Himbergen (’02 BFA Music
Performance) was named Working Mother of the Year by Working Mother magazine for her efforts leading the Parents Interactive Network. It’s a Kimberly-Clark employee resource group that assists parents and guardians in balancing work-home life, enhancing their careers and adding value to the business.
Bianca Lynne Spriggs’
Natalie Mamerow (’09 BBA
(’05 MA English) new book, “Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets,” was published by the University Press of Kentucky. She is the recipient of a Kentucky Arts Council 2013 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in poetry as well as a recipient of multiple artist enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Business Administration, ’09 BBA Marketing) married her longtime partner, Akshai Datta, in a multiday Hindu wedding celebration. The newlyweds honeymooned in Thailand and Cambodia.
Keri Duce (’07 MS Educational
Policies & Community Studies) was recently elected to the Board of Education for the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, school district. She will serve a three-year term and is on the Communications and Finance committees. Makiia Lucier (’07 MLIS
Library & Information Science) recently published her second young adult novel, “Isle of
Blood and Stone.” Her debut novel, “A Death-Struck Year,” was a finalist for Germany’s top children’s literature prize, the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, and Japan’s Sakura Medal. It was also named an ABC Best Books for Young Readers selection by the American Booksellers Association.
SHARE YOUR STORIES! We love bragging about you.
Won an award? Started a business? Had an adventure? Welcomed a baby? We’d like to hear about it. The easiest way to send us a class note is through our online portal at uwm.edu/class-notes. You also can email them to alumni@uwm.edu or write to: UWM Alumni Association, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Please provide your full name (including maiden name, if applicable), address, year(s) of graduation, degree(s) and major(s). Photos are welcomed!
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2010s Nick Grahl, P.E., (’13 BSE Mechanical Engineering) joined Performa as a structural engineer. He carries a license in professional engineering and recently sat for his structural engineering license.
Jason (’10 BBA Finance) and Katie Baldauf Eggert
Colleen Cullen (’14 BA Political Science, ’14 BA Sociology) recently graduated from Georgetown Law as a Public Interest Law Scholar. She is a Pro Bono Project Honoree and the recipient of the Greenfield Trial Practice Award and Foltz Award for Extraordinary Dedication.
(’11 BBA Marketing, ’11 BBA Human Resources Management) celebrated the birth of their daughter, Emma, in 2017. Rahim Keval (’12 BBA
Michelle Spinney (’13
Finance) was promoted to assistant vice president of business banking with Partnership Bank, where he began working in high school. In his spare time, Keval is a member of the Milwaukee Curling Club and the treasurerelect for the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts.
MLIS Library & Information Science) was promoted from systems specialist and network cataloger to member services manager for the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing Library Network. The CLAMS Library Network is a nonprofit, cooperative association of 35 libraries with 38 locations in Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Annette Pirrung (’15 BA Mass Comm-Journalism) recently joined Bottom Line Marketing and Public Relations as a public relations assistant. Before joining Bottom Line, she worked in the UWM Chemistry & Biochemistry Department as the undergraduate coordinator.
Lisa Bosman (’14 PhD
Industrial Engineering) recently published “Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Engineers.” The book helps advance entrepreneurship education for engineering students and provides tools and strategies that allow educators to teach the entrepreneurial mindset.
Stay up to date with the Alumni Association: uwm.edu/alumni UWM ALUMNI
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THEY DID. AJ and Kevin Kleinosowski are planners. Ever since they graduated from UWM, they’ve maintained a list of life goals. Making an estate gift to UWM has always been on that list. Once a scholarship recipient, AJ now designs electronics for airplanes at Boeing, and Kevin designs software. They call Seattle home, and they are committed to helping UWM students make their own plans for the future. AJ and Kevin included UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science and Honors College in their wills. To learn more, visit uwm.edu/theydid.
WILL YOU?
Photo by John Vicory
KEVIN KLEINOSOWSKI (’97 BS Computer Science)
AJ KLEINOSOWSKI (’99 BS Computer Science)
THEY DID. More than 19,500 alumni and friends have given to Student Success, Research Excellence and Community Engagement programs at UWM.
WILL YOU? We need you to join us. uwm.edu/theydid
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LAST WORDS
And the rest is history By Kathy Quirk
John Gurda has written 22 books about Milwaukee institutions, neighborhoods and history, including “The Making of Milwaukee,” which became an Emmy Awardwinning PBS series. His latest book, “Milwaukee: A City Built on Water,” was published in June. He earned his master’s degree in cultural geography from UWM in 1978 and an honorary doctorate in 1995. Among his many projects: giving countless lectures, providing historical perspective on Wisconsin neighborhoods and towns for “Around the Corner with John McGivern,” and writing a local history column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But here, he took some time to discuss his own history.
How did you get started writing about Milwaukee’s history? Forty-five years ago, I was working at Journey House, a south-side youth center, and was asked to write a pamphlet for potential funders. It was completely unpremeditated. All of a sudden, I was doing historical research about a neighborhood where my family on my dad’s side had arrived back in the 1880s. I began to realize that the neighborhood’s story and my story were intertwined. After leaving Journey House, I’d write things largely for free, and then they’d get published, and I got other freelance assignments. One thing led to another. I always say my autobiography should be titled “45 Years of 1099s.”
Why did you come to UWM? I soon realized I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was the obvious choice both in terms of affordability and the range of programs. I just had an excellent experience and came out of the geography program with a lot more respect for evidence and with more tools for doing research.
How did you decide to write the “The Making of Milwaukee? From other writing assignments, I had all this knowledge about insurance companies and churches and neighborhoods and corporations and industry, so I had this fairly interesting range of pieces of the puzzle. I felt both a desire and a responsibility to take these pieces and make
the puzzle whole. When I got into it, I found I had barely scratched the surface. It’s a little like having babies – you wouldn’t do it if you knew how much was involved, how much work, hardship and pain you’d be feeling.
What have you been working on recently? “Milwaukee: A City Built on Water.” That took an unusual route to publication. It began as a talk and PowerPoint presentation, then got turned into a onehour documentary, and then the Wisconsin Historical Society Press asked me to turn it into a book. Usually, the print is first, and then you go to the movie, so this is backwards. I’m also updating “The Making of Milwaukee.”
Why do your Milwaukee history books continue to find an audience? Milwaukee has always been a town that’s had an intense interest in its own history and remembers its many ethnic neighborhoods. It’s a city where roots are important.
Why is history so fascinating to you and to your readers? If you have any interest in who you are and what the world around you is about, there is absolutely no substitute for history. You’ve got to have that sense of the past if you want to have any sense of the present or, for that matter, the future.
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Milwaukee, WI Permit No. 864
Alumni Association and Foundation P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413
2018 S AT UR DAY,
O CTO BER
Join us for this family- & canine-friendly 5K run and walk! All proceeds support UWM student scholarships. For race details, registration information and sponsorship opportunities, visit uwm.edu/pantherprowl.
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