UWM Alumni 2019 by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Magazine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Fall 2019 Vol. 21

Shining

a light on

The new

Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center

AK : E E R D -B SI I N RD N O IG EC PA R M S Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; CA UW

Magazine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Fall 2019, Vol. 21

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 Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations: Amy Lensing Tate Senior Director of Media Services: Michelle Johnson Editor/Publications Manager: Howie Magner Copy Editor: John Schumacher Art Director: Kelly Grulkowski Designers: 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 Like us: facebook.com/uwmilwaukee

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE Welcome to a special edition of UWM Alumni magazine, one that’s full of good news to share with our friends and alumni. It’s nearly impossible to adequately describe the pride I felt in September when I announced the completion of the most successful university-wide fundraising effort in UWM history. As you’ll learn in the enclosed 24-page Campaign Final Report (Page 29), your unwavering commitment to supporting UWM brought in more than $251 million. I’m so grateful for the generosity and foresight of everyone who contributed, and I hope you’ll take the time to read through the report to learn more about this amazing endeavor. One of the most visible results of that generosity is the newest building on the UWM campus, which houses the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center. You saw a picture of this magnificent facility on the magazine’s cover, and the story on Page 25 explains the important ways it’s benefitting prospective and current students, no matter their academic goals or career aspirations. You’ll also read about some of the outstanding accomplishments of your fellow alumni, including Eric Jergenson (Page 21). He was driven to join the FBI in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and after he did, he helped thwart another massive terrorist attack. We’re grateful to him and the countless UWM alumni who help keep our country and communities safe. There’s plenty more to explore. Our UWM Research section (Page 9) shares some of the latest cutting-edge work of our world-class faculty members. In the UWM Sports section (Page 16), catch up on Homecoming Week plans and learn what’s helped people like NFL player Demetrius Harris and women’s basketball coach Kyle Rechlicz be so successful. Also, check out the Alumni Attitude survey results (Page 2), which will help shape the Alumni Association’s comprehensive strategic plan. It’s truly an exciting time for all of us here at UWM, and I thank you again for being part of our family.

Best regards, Mark A. Mone

Chancellor

ON THE COVER alumni.uwm.edu

Photo illustration of the brand-new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center, which hosted its grand opening celebration in May 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURES

CAMPAIGN FINAL REPORT

21 AGENT FOR GOOD UWM paved Eric Jergenson’s path to the FBI, where he helped thwart a massive terrorist attack

29 MADE IN MILWAUKEE. SHAPING THE WORLD. An overview of the largest and most successful university-wide fundraising effort in UWM history

25 BUILDING FUTURES Inside the new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center, students gain the skills to take flight, no matter the academic field

ALUMNI ATTITUDE SURVEY 2 Survey results ALUM SNAPSHOTS 5 Flying on the wings of music 6 Guarding a Great Lake 6 M3 Early College program’s inspirational leader 7 In service to vets

C A M PA I G N F I N A L R E P O RT

8 Mapping a wild, underwater world UWM RESEARCH 9 Spiders weave a web of memories 10 The impact of fathers on family health 11 A personal search for nonaddictive pain relief 11 Healthier air for kids at day care 12 Making nanotech safer for the environment UWM NEWS 13 Setting the table

14 Alan Kulwicki’s brand-new garage 14 HERA initiative ready for public launch 15 Microsoft makes Connected Systems Institute donation 15 Data Science Institute names Papatla co-director UWM SPORTS 16 Demetrius Harris’ rare road to the NFL 18 Finding the balance: How coach Kyle Rechlicz sets the tone for the women’s basketball team’s success 19 Panthers baseball has a new home 20 Reconnect and roar at Homecoming Week

CLASS NOTES 53 We love to brag about you L AST WORDS 57 Working on Mars

Alumni Attitude SURVEY RESULTS The UWM Alumni Association conducted an in-depth alumni attitude study earlier in 2019, and you’ll find a portion of the results here. Links to the online survey were sent to all UWM alumni with a valid email address. Also, a random sample of 20,000 alumni with no email address on file were invited to participate via direct mail. “Our job is to serve UWM alumni, and to do that, we need to know what’s important

to them,” says Amy Lensing Tate, the association’s interim executive director. “I want to thank everyone for sharing their thoughts with us.” Alumni submitted 2,315 completed surveys, making the results accurate within a range of plusor-minus 2 percent. A summary of results will be shared with alumni via email and at alumni.uwm.edu/survey. Results will help shape the association’s comprehensive strategic plan.

WHO RESPONDED:

59.9% EARNED UNDERGRAD DEGREES

54% LIVE WITHIN 50 MILES OF UWM

24.4% EARNED GRADUATE DEGREES 15.4% EARNED BOTH TYPES OF DEGREES

RATED THEIR UWM STUDENT 91% EXPERIENCE AS GOOD OR GREAT

PASSING IT ON Respondents were asked to rate how important it is for alumni to do the following things, and how well UWM supports alumni in doing them.

CURRENT OPINION 93% OFRATEDUWMTHEIRAS GOOD OR GREAT

SERVING AS AMBASSADORS PROMOTING UWM TO OTHERS MENTORING STUDENTS VOLUNTEERING FOR UWM NETWORKING WITH OTHER ALUMNI ATTENDING UWM ATHLETIC EVENTS

IMPORTANCE PERFORMANCE

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NOT IMPORTANT POOR

SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT FAIR

VERY IMPORTANT GOOD

CRITICALLY IMPORTANT EXCELLENT

WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT

STRONG CONNECTIONS

AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THESE STATEMENTS:

Respondents were asked to rate their loyalty to various aspects of UWM. Here are their top choices.

UWM created or provided an environment that is welcoming to...

...PEOPLE OF ALL GENDERS

MAJOR OR DEGREE PROGRAM WITHIN COLLEGE/SCHOOL

...PEOPLE OF ALL SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS

UWM IN GENERAL

...PEOPLE OF ALL BACKGROUNDS

COLLEGE OR SCHOOL WITHIN UWM

...PEOPLE VOICING IDEAS THAT WERE DIFFERENT THAN THE NORM

FAULTY MEMBER OR INSTRUCTOR

STRONGLY DISAGREE

SOMEWHAT DISAGREE

SOMEWHAT AGREE

STRONGLY AGREE

NOT LOYAL

SOMEWHAT LOYAL

LOYAL

VERY LOYAL

NEVER

TOP INFLUENCERS

BEING AMBASSADORS

Top 5 things impacting overall opinion of UWM:

How often do you promote UWM to others?

ALL THE TIME

9% 15 48

28% REGULARLY OCCASIONALLY

VALUE/RESPECT FOR DEGREE DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OUTREACH TO COMMUNITY

IN A FEW WORDS… Top words describing what’s most important about being an alum:

My Degree

Networking

PRIDE

Connections

Reputation of School UWM ALUMNI

FALL 2019 •

FRIDAY, SEPT. 20, 2019

Einstein’s Prediction Comes True: Measuring Gravity Waves With LIGO Patrick Brady, UWM Professor, Physics

THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 2019

Milwaukee on the National Stage: What the 2020 Democratic National Convention Means to Our City and UWM Location: UWM Student Union Ballroom Panel includes reps from UWM’s Political Science department, the DNC and community leaders; moderated by Tom Luljak, UWM Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Communications

FRIDAY, NOV. 15, 2019

The Last Elephant House Nigel Rothfels, UWM Director of Office of Undergraduate Research and Associate Professor, History; Dick Blau, UWM Professor Emeritus, Film, Video, Animation and New Genres

FRIDAY, FEB. 7, 2020

The Past on Tap: Archaeology, Craft Beer and Science Education The Master Chats series features UWM alumni and faculty speaking on a variety of topics. It’s sponsored by the UW Credit Union, with additional support provided by the UWM Alumni Association and UWM Libraries. Unless otherwise noted, events take place in the Golda Meir Library fourth-floor conference center. They are free and open to the public.

Learn more and reserve your spot at ALUMNI.UWM.EDU/MASTERCHATS. SHOW YOUR

PANTHER PRIDE ALL YEAR LONG

The purchase of officially licensed branded merchandise supports student scholarships. SHOPUWM.COM

Bettina Arnold, UWM Professor, Anthropology

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2020

Why Do Women Leave Engineering? Nadya Fouad, UWM Distinguished Professor, Educational Psychology; Romila Singh, UWM Associate Professor, Organizations and Strategic Management

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

Emerging Contaminants and Freshwater Resources Rebecca Klaper, UWM Professor, Freshwater Sciences

ALUM SNAPSHOTS Catch up with your former classmates

FLYING ON THE WINGS OF MUSIC When Dinorah Márquez wanted to evoke the sounds of a rainforest for the play “On the Wings of a Mariposa,” she returned to her native Mexico. There, she found the pre-Columbian instruments that make the play’s pivotal scene chirp and sway with haunting authenticity. “I was just taken away,” says Alvaro Saar Rios, the UWM associate professor who wrote the play for Milwaukee’s First Stage children’s theater and brought Márquez into the project. “She definitely has the instincts of a composer.” Márquez is new to composing but not to music. She earned a master’s degree in viola performance and string pedagogy from UWM, and she created and directs the Latino Arts Strings Program at Milwaukee’s United Community Center. That award-winning youth group, which once played for former Alvaro Saar Rios President Barack Obama, performed the play’s score. Márquez immigrated to Texas with her family when she was 10 years old, and music became more than a refuge. “Music saved my life,” says Márquez, and she wants it to do the same for others. She proposed a strings program to the UCC after seeing “a bunch of little kids like me, either children of immigrants or immigrant children for whom I knew music could make a huge difference.” Her program celebrates Latino heritage through the study of diverse musical genres, including classical European and Latin American music. Márquez’s teens now play the same rancheras, parrandas and tangos their parents know and love, keeping their culture vibrant. – Silvia Acevedo

Dinorah Márquez

“On the Wings of a Mariposa”runs Oct. 18 through Nov. 10 at First Stage. For more information, visit firststage.org. Rios photo courtesy of Joe Mazza - Brave Lux

UWM ALUMNI

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ALUM SNAPSHOTS

Catch up with your former classmates

GUARDING A GREAT LAKE While earning his doctorate, Maxon Ngochera wanted to research Lake Malawi, part of the African Great Lakes system. Although his home country of Malawi borders the African lake, Ngochera enrolled in graduate school 8,500 miles away. At UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Ngochera compared Great Lakes half a world apart. After his 2018 graduation, he became chief research officer for Malawi’s Department of Fisheries, and he heads the main capture fisheries research station at Monkey Bay, Mangochi. “Managing a freshwater Great Lake, whether it happens to be in Africa or the United States, means protecting the public’s drinking water, food source and ecological cornerstone,” Ngochera says. “In Malawi, fisheries are huge, and I wanted to contribute something.” At UWM, Ngochera found the perfect mentor in Harvey Bootsma. The associate professor is researching the effects of climate change and other stressors on both the U.S. and African Great Lakes systems. Ngochera wanted to know how warmer temperatures and the lake’s deep depth might impact Lake Malawi’s food web. So he borrowed an idea Bootsma has used to gather data on Lake Michigan. He enlisted a ferry that crisscrossed Lake Malawi to collect information on conditions – including air and surface water carbon dioxide levels and temperatures – at regular intervals over a one-year period. From this data, Ngochera discovered that Lake Malawi is a net “carbon sink,” meaning it takes in more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it gives off – and it’s better at doing this than Lake Michigan. This is good news for Lake Malawi’s fisheries. “If the lake is indeed a net sink, there will be more food for fish,” Ngochera says. It also means Lake Malawi’s carbon cycle absorbs a big climate change contributor from the atmosphere. Ngochera’s research only answers one question about Lake Malawi’s future, but it’s helping policymakers decide how to use limited funds to protect one of his country’s most important commodities. – Laura L. Otto

James Sokolowski

Maxon Ngochera on Lake Malawi

M3 EARLY COLLEGE PROGRAM’S INSPIRATIONAL LEADER James Sokolowski works hard to get more students to go to college. It’s a role he embraces more than two decades after he dropped out of high school at age 16. Sokolowski manages the M3 Early College program, which allows Milwaukee Public Schools high school students to earn college credit at

UWM and Milwaukee Area Technical College. M3 (pronounced M-cubed) is a multifaceted collaboration of those three organizations, and among its many goals are boosting student achievement and closing the equity gap in educational attainment. Sokolowski’s story has the power to motivate students. He returned

IN SERVICE TO VETS Victoria Brahm stepped into the middle of a major crisis at the Tomah Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in central Wisconsin. But in the four years since she became leader of the 246-bed hospital and its clinics, she’s improved patient care, restored employee morale and initiated a state-of-theart pain management program. Brahm, who earned her master’s degree from UWM’s College of Nursing, was named a finalist for the 2019 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, which honor federal employees for noteworthy and inspiring accomplishments. Brahm was nominated in the management excellence category. She’s a veteran of 38 years in the VA system, and her father and six brothers were in the military. “Coming from a military family, I always wanted to serve, but I had a daughter and I couldn’t imagine leaving her,” Brahm says. “The VA was a great way to serve veterans and still have a quality of life with my daughter and my family.” When she became Tomah’s acting medical center director in 2015, the facility was in the middle of federal investigations and a media firestorm. A Marine veteran being cared for through the center had died of a toxic drug mixture, and overprescription of opioids had earned the facility the nickname of “Candy Land.” Two senior leaders had been fired, two others had left, and employee turnover was high. Brahm set about bolstering staff training and spirit. She developed a culture of open communication with employees, veterans and the media. Moreover, she partnered with providers to enhance the quality of care for veterans and

to school to get a GED diploma and eventually graduated magna cum laude from UWM in 2007 with bachelor’s degrees in Africology as well as educational policy and community studies. He earned a master’s degree in sociology from UWM two years later. Along the way, he fought to overcome financial hardship and wrestled with personal issues. He’s open about such struggles with his students because so many of them are experiencing similar things. “If I wouldn’t have gone the path that

Victoria Brahm

instituted an improved pain management program, which shed the facility’s infamous Candy Land moniker. Alternative pain, stress and mental health therapies decreased the need for opioids by 67 percent. “Vicki has been the key, turning on the ignition to turn this hospital around,” says Marvin Simcakoski, the father of the Marine who died. Brahm became permanent medical center director in 2017, and Tomah now leads the nation in nine separate quality measures, including a 58 percent improvement in overall quality ranking. “We can’t rest on our laurels,” says Brahm, who credits her UWM experience with helping develop the business and management skills that have served her well at Tomah. “Even if it’s hard some days, we are making a difference here.” – Kathy Quirk

I went,” he says, “I couldn’t connect to students in the way that I do.” Sokolowski benefitted from UWM’s McNair Program, which is designed to increase the number of students from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds in graduate studies. “That program really changed my life,” Sokolowski says. “I was a good student, but that program really put me on a trajectory to be a scholar.” He’s worked at MPS since 2012, with a particular focus on promoting college awareness and readiness, making him

a natural fit for the M3 Early College program. And sometimes, students get a glimpse of the former hip-hop musician’s other talents. At a May 2019 celebration for the program’s inaugural 32 graduates – attended by UWM Chancellor Mark Mone, MPS Superintendent Keith Posley and MATC President Vicki Martin – Sokolowski closed the ceremony by performing a spoken-word piece titled “GED to Graduate Degrees.” Both he and his students earned rousing ovations. – Genaro C. Armas UWM ALUMNI

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Brennan Dow

MAPPING A WILD, UNDERWATER WORLD Dotted with industry, Milwaukee’s concrete shoreline appears more hospitable to commercial vessels, pleasure boats and patio dining than to fish and wildlife. But just below the water’s glassy surface, pockets of habitats teem with aquatic life. “It’s not just urban sheet-pile walls and dredged canals,” says Brennan Dow, the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “There’s a whole world happening next to you that you don’t know about.” While a master’s student at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences, Dow worked with Professor John Janssen on an extensive mapping project to make that underwater world visible. Supported by the Fund for Lake Michigan and the DNR, Dow mapped 42 miles of Milwaukee’s lower estuary, where Lake Michigan meets the city’s waterways. He boated up and down the rivers, canals and lakeshore “like a lawnmower,” and he used sonar to collect information on the waterbed’s depth and composition. This information helped him identify likely locations for fish habitats. He then sought those habitats out, donned diving gear and went underwater for a closer look at what lived beneath. “I found bass, bluegills and other little baby fish,” he says. These biological hotspots were isolated from each other, limiting their viability. Dow created a massive spreadsheet

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cataloging each location with suggestions of how to connect and enhance them. Since wrapping up his research, Dow has been able to put this into practice and scaled it to address the entire Milwaukee area through his role with the DNR. Since starting the job in May 2019, Dow has ferried his list of projects – along with those of other researchers and organizations working on water quality and habitat restoration – through a rigorous vetting process. This final list will be provided to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Milwaukee is never going to be like Door County, with amazing nature and tons of wildlife,” he explains. “Instead, we want to get to a place where we have a successful, sustaining population in an urban setting.” Meanwhile, his technical map is getting a makeover from Kim Beckmann, a Peck School of the Arts associate professor. Beckmann is working with Janssen to translate the data Dow collected into accessible maps and signage for area parks. “Her work will bridge the gap between the science and the public,” Dow says. He looks forward to a time when visitors to the Milwaukee shoreline can see the area as a living, dynamic ecosystem. “It’s important to show people that, even though there is industry and sewage overflow, there is a big push to clean up Milwaukee,” Dow says. “And yes, there really are fish out there.” – Elizabeth Hoover

UWM RESEARCH A celebration of our innovation

SPIDERS WEAVE A WEB OF MEMORIES Arachnophobes might want to skip this story. Because spiders might be more intelligent than you think. To compensate for not seeing very well, spiders usually manage their world by detecting vibrations in their webs. They even strike a specific pose to do it, spreading their two front legs apart and remaining still. But Rafael Rodríguez Sevilla, an associate professor of biological sciences who researches the cognitive abilities of miniature brains, has evidence that black widow spiders make mental maps of their webs. And about 50 percent of the time, they rely on memory before vibrations. “We’re trying to describe components of active consciousness,” he says. “Are they aware of their memories with such a small brain? We think the answer is yes.” In one experiment, Rodríguez Sevilla and his lab members swapped the current webs of hungry spiders with older webs containing no food. Half of the spiders conducted a fruitless

search for up to a full minute when confronted with their new location. So single-minded was their persistence that not even live prey inserted elsewhere on the web distracted them. “They are attending to the mismatch between their environment and their memory,” Rodríguez Sevilla says. “You can see the same behavior in humans. That confusion is a sign of higher intelligence.” The researchers tested for memory of the web’s contents across several spider families. They found that not only did the spiders remember they had caught something, but they also remembered features of the prey and the quantity of it. Memory in tiny creatures was long thought to be a hardwired behavior that didn’t require much mental capacity. “Our results,” Rodríguez Sevilla says, “suggest that the ability to make mental maps is a common feature of animal brains, even relatively small and simple ones.” – Laura L. Otto

UWM ALUMNI

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UWM RESEARCH

A celebration of our innovation

THE IMPACT OF FATHERS ON FAMILY HEALTH African-American babies in Milwaukee are three times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. It’s a fact that’s remained stubbornly resistant to change despite widespread community efforts. Emmanuel Ngui, an associate professor in community and behavioral health promotion, is working to improve those numbers. His research focuses on health inequalities and the role that social determinants of health play in birth outcomes as well as child health and well-being. Much of his work in the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health studies the impact African-American fathers can have on maternal and child health. Jeanette Kowalik, a UWM alum and the health commissioner for the city of Milwaukee, praises Ngui for building a bridge between his university research and community involvement. “Oftentimes, you’ll see someone that is really, really good at community engagement, but they’re not a practitioner or researcher,” Kowalik

says. “To find someone like Dr. Ngui that has both is very rare.” Ngui served as the principal investigator on Milwaukee’s most recent comprehensive Fetal Infant Mortality Review, published in 2017. Collaborating with the Milwaukee Health Department, Ngui looked at the complex factors behind stillbirths and infant deaths, and he also made important recommendations to address the causes. Ngui also spearheaded the “Expecting Mom, Expecting Dads” pilot project, collaborating with the Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph Women’s Outpatient Center and The Parenting Network’s CenteringPregnancy. The goal: Work with African-American couples to enhance the role of fathers during prenatal care and throughout pregnancy while also examining barriers to paternal engagement. Fathers involved in the project attended prenatal classes and doctor appointments with the mothers and received a list of educational resources

on pregnancy. “They welcomed the opportunity to talk with and learn from other fathers,” Ngui says. “They liked being part of the pregnancy and delivery process.” In another recent study, Ngui conducted focus groups with almost 50 African-American fathers and fathers-to-be. Topics included how to improve their pre- and postnatal family engagement as well as the challenges they face in engaging with their children. Factors such as high incarceration rates, for example, can make it hard for fathers to stay in touch with their children. “What struck me a little bit were the fathers who said they’d been incarcerated, and the only thing that kept them going was the picture of their children,” Ngui says. “They perceived that as engagement. “At first, I thought, ‘That’s not really engagement,’ but that constant thinking of children is what fathers do,” Ngui continues. “It’s just a tiny connection, but it’s engagement at a different level.” – Kathy Quirk

Emmanuel Ngui

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A PERSONAL SEARCH FOR NONADDICTIVE PAIN RELIEF Daniel Knutson watched as his wife of nearly 10 years struggled with depression and migraine headaches until, in 2015, an addiction to prescription medications took her life. Knutson had worked for nearly two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, and about the same time as his wife’s death, he was planning to return to school. The confluence of timing gave him a new calling – help develop nonaddictive drugs to alleviate what so troubled his wife. “My graduate work is my passion,” says Knutson, a UWM doctoral candidate in chemistry, “my heartfelt attempt to prevent anyone else from having to bury a loved one.” He’s making significant progress in his work, which is affiliated with UWM’s Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery. In spring 2019, he earned a UWM R1 Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship award, a prestigious honor that fully pays for his final year of doctoral studies. Knutson and his collaborators have discovered a compound with the potential to Daniel Knutson treat pain and mental illness while sidestepping the destructive problems that can occur when using current popular medications. Benzodiazepines are prescribed by doctors to treat anxiety, which is frequently associated with depression. Opioids are prescribed to treat migraine pain. These drugs interact with many receptors in the brain, unlocking potentially harmful side effects. For example, along with pain relief, opioids produce euphoria, opening the door for the misuse that leads to addiction. Knutson is developing a compound that will interact with a site on the specific receptor in the brain – the α6 GABA A receptor – that’s associated with depression, head and neck pain, migraine and schizophrenia. His work proceeds under the guidance of James Cook, a distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry. Knutson synthesized the world’s first and only α6-specific molecule at Cook’s lab. Research has shown encouraging results to treat just the disease, with no side effects. – Genaro C. Armas

HEALTHIER AIR FOR KIDS AT DAY CARE Asthma ranks third among the reasons why children younger than 15 are hospitalized, and it accounts for millions of missed school days every year. Although the disease has no cure, it’s manageable with proper treatment and preventive measures. Those measures include educating caregivers about common airborne triggers for asthma. Anne Dressel, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing, is studying how such efforts can lead to improved air quality at day care centers. The study – a collaboration between the College of Nursing, the nonprofit organization Fight Asthma Milwaukee Allies, and the Medical College of Wisconsin – focuses on Milwaukee-area day care centers used primarily by low-income African-American and Latino families, who bear much of the burden of childhood asthma. Milwaukee County has the state’s highest rate of emergency room visits for pediatric asthma. The researchers want to reduce two groups of airborne allergens that can trigger asthma: residues of aggressive cleaning products and those of insecticides. So nursing students on Dressel’s team help train caregivers in green cleaning practices and pest management approaches that reduce the prevalence of airborne allergens. Using affordable, consumer-grade air quality monitors installed at the day care centers, researchers compare air quality before and after the training. “It’s so important for our students to see that helping people make behavioral changes can have a much bigger impact on a child’s health than treating that child at the clinic,” Dressel says. The pilot study is part of the Westlawn Partnership for a Healthier Environment, which the UWM College of Nursing founded in 2008. The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health via the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin. – Silke Schmidt

UWM ALUMNI

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UWM RESEARCH

A celebration of our innovation

MAKING NANOTECH SAFER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Nanoparticles are unimaginably small – comparable to the width of the Ebola virus. Forget invisible to the naked eye – a nanoparticle is only visible using an electron microscope. But don’t tiny let their size fool you, because nanoparticles are a big deal. When different nanomaterials are added to various products, they can discourage bacterial growth so that socks smell better, improve how batteries store energy and recharge, or even improve cancer treatments. They’re also constantly shed into the environment, including our freshwater systems, just as surely as nanoparticle-enhanced sunscreen eventually washes off a swimmer in Lake Michigan. The problem is, no one’s quite sure what happens when these more-micro-than-microscopic bits of human industry get into living organisms. And that gets at the heart of Rebecca Klaper’s research. “We’re trying to create a technology that is beneficial but environmentally safe at the same time,” says Klaper, a UWM professor in the School of Freshwater Sciences and director of UWM’s Great Lakes Genomics Center. Klaper works with the interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, funded by the National Science Foundation. Among its many endeavors, the research group is identifying nanoparticles that are harmful to health. Part of Klaper's research involves testing exposure with a tiny water flea, called daphnia, as the model. She’s exploring what kinds of changes happen in the daphnia as a result of very low exposure over a long period of time.

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Rebecca Klaper

Often, there are no immediate physiological impacts from nanoparticle exposure, but tiny changes to an animal’s genes can lead to big repercussions over time, says Klaper. For example, some nanoparticles alter daphnia movement and behavior, which, in the wild, would make them more susceptible to predation and reproductive decline. Moreover, different organisms respond in different ways to different nanomaterials, which leaves Klaper’s lab with the job of understanding why. But lots of nanoparticles show little or no toxicity, particularly those derived from naturally occurring materials. As scientists find new and exciting uses for nanoparticles, Klaper and her colleagues partner with them, leveraging their research to ensure the particles are engineered with the environment in mind. Take nanomaterials derived from complex metal oxides like cobalt or manganese, which show promise in making next-generation batteries more efficient. This has positive ramifications for electric cars and renewable energy. Metal oxides are known to be toxic in their larger forms. But Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology researchers found that altering the surface chemistry of some nanoparticles could make them more or less toxic. They already are changing the chemical structure and physical properties of some metal oxide nanoparticles used in batteries. “We want to create materials so that, if they are released, they just don’t have an impact,” Klaper says. “They just sit out there – safe by design.” – Adam Hinterthuer

UWM NEWS Noteworthy nuggets from the UWM community

SETTING THE TABLE This is not a scene from the next science fiction blockbuster. It’s the Virtual Reality Infrastructure Laboratory in the College of Engineering & Applied Science. UWM is the first nonmilitary user of this Euclideon hologram table in the United States. It’s unique in allowing multiple people to simultaneously view 3D digital objects from different perspectives, and do so without bulky VR headgear. It takes group planning, design and research collaborations to a new level. Lab director Jian Zhao, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, says these factors are particularly useful when evaluating structural designs for problems. Beyond design applications, the holotable can be used for

close-up, detailed examinations of existing environments – from buildings to entire cities – that are recorded using laser scanners. In addition to incorporating the hologram table into his research, Zhao is working with engineering students who are already using it in their coursework. Doing so, he says, means they’ll graduate better prepared for the workforce. Plans call for the lab to be available for faculty and students in other areas of study, too. The lab is funded by gifts from the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee Education & Research Foundation, as well as GRAEF and the Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer Foundation. – Laura L. Otto

Jian Zhao (far right) and his Virtual Reality Infrastructure Laboratory’s new hologram table (with an illustrated hologram).

UWM ALUMNI

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Alan Kulwicki

ALAN KULWICKI’S BRAND-NEW GARAGE UWM is crafting a new student “thinker space” to honor the late Alan Kulwicki, whose legacy now includes a place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The new space will replace the Kulwicki Pit Stop, a student workspace on the first floor of the Engineering & Mathematical Sciences building. At the newly christened Kulwicki Garage, scheduled to open in late 2020, students will gain entrance through a garage door, and inside they’ll find tools for collaborative problem-solving, such as massive wall-mounted whiteboards and low-resolution prototyping materials. Kulwicki – a native of Greenfield, Wisconsin, who graduated from UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science in 1977 – was part of the NASCAR hall’s five-member class

of 2019. He was one of the few NASCAR drivers in the 1980s and early ’90s who had a college degree. The education helped him become a pioneer of the now-common practice of leveraging cutting-edge technology to make his car run faster. “Getting the education may have put me behind schedule a few years with my racing career, but it is paying off,” Kulwicki once said of his UWM degree. “It has definitely been essential in the success of operating my own team. It’s an asset that I’m proud of.” Kulwicki, who always ran his own racing team, started his racing career at Wisconsin short tracks before moving to stock car racing. He was NASCAR Rookie of the Year in 1986, and he won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship. Early into the next season, on April 1, 1993, he died in a plane crash.

HERA INITIATIVE READY FOR PUBLIC LAUNCH Meeting the diverse needs of employers in southeastern Wisconsin takes more than one college or university. That’s why UWM became a founding institution in the 18-member Higher Education Regional Alliance, or HERA, which formed in 2018 to address the challenge. HERA counts public and private institutions as well as partner organizations among its membership, and it hosted a public launch event in October 2019.

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HERA's main objective focuses on closing achievement gaps and educating students to become part of an innovative and nimble workforce that meets the demands of the region’s industries. HERA’s more specific goals include increasing college completion rates while aligning and evolving educational programs to meet employers’ rapidly changing needs. The alliance also seeks to connect businesses with talent and promote the value of living and working

in southeastern Wisconsin. Collectively, the two- and four-year colleges and universities collaborating on HERA represent more than 150,000 students across the region. UWM Chancellor Mark Mone chairs the alliance. “We know that education impacts more than individual lives,” Mone says. “It can change the trajectory of our entire region.” For more information about HERA, contact Vicki Turner, HERA’s project manager, at turner@uwm.edu.

MICROSOFT MAKES CONNECTED SYSTEMS INSTITUTE DONATION

DATA SCIENCE INSTITUTE NAMES PAPATLA CO-DIRECTOR

UWM’s Connected Systems Institute develops workforce talent and conducts research that solves real-world problems by leveraging the power of the industrial internet of things. Harnessing this new wave of technology allows the institute to help companies accelerate innovation, meet evolving marketplace demand and drive economic growth. Microsoft Corp. – whose CEO, Satya Nadella, holds a computer science master’s degree from UWM – has boosted this mission with a donation worth more than $1.5 million in cash and technology. “We like to add rocket fuel to rockets that are going places, and this one is,” Microsoft President and Wisconsin native Brad Smith said while announcing the gift on UWM’s campus in June. Microsoft’s donation includes $1.25 million in cash, $250,000 worth of Azure cloud computing credits and $80,000 worth of Surface Hub hardware. It’s the latest investment in the Connected Systems Institute, a multidisciplinary collaboration among academia, industry and government. It has received strong support from partners such as Rockwell Automation Inc., the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., WEC Energy Group, A.O. Smith, ANSYS and Eaton. The industrial internet of things is like a digital nervous system in which sensors and connectivity allow data to be exchanged in real time with both people and machines. This linking of people, technology and information allows companies to quickly optimize everything from manufacturing processes to inventory management to customer service. Membership in the Connected Systems Institute comes with a host of benefits. Companies gain access to regular workshops, webinars, executive education programs and the institute’s networking opportunities. Members participate in the institute’s research and directly benefit from its results. Research is conducted over a range of topics, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Membership benefits also include access to state-of-the-art manufacturing testbeds, which can be used to apply new software and strategies to real-life environments. And members gain access to a broad base of talent, from the hundreds of students involved with the institute to the world-class UWM faculty teaching its classes and conducting its research.

UWM’s Purush Papatla has been named one of two university directors in the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, a collaborative educational and research initiative among Northwestern Mutual and its foundation, UWM and Marquette University. The Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute was Purush Papatla formed to inspire and cultivate passion for data science in the Milwaukee region. Leveraging the strengths of the three institutions, the groundbreaking partnership will contribute $40 million over five years to help advance southeastern Wisconsin as a national hub for technology, research, business and talent development while creating an organic pipeline of local tech talent. The funding will support an endowed professorship at each university, research projects, new data science faculty, development of expanded curriculum, a K-12 STEM program, pre-college programming, and computer hardware and software. Papatla, a professor of marketing in the Lubar School of Business, incorporates a mechanical engineering background and a deep interest in psychology and anthropology into his data science work, using statistical analysis to reveal why and how people engage with visual, audio and textual content, and why they make the choices they do. “Data science at UW-Milwaukee spans a remarkable range of fields like business, cybersecurity, engineering, political science, public health and social welfare,” Papatla says. “I look forward to working through the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute to further expand teaching and research in data science across our entire campus and graduating more and more students skilled in data science. I am also committed to helping the institute and UWM use data science to have a significant positive impact on our community.” Edward Blumenthal of Marquette University is the institute’s other university director.

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UWM SPORTS United we roar

DEMETRIUS HARRIS’ It seemed unlikely that another UWM athlete would play in the National Football League after Houston Oilers all-pro safety Mike Reinfeldt retired from an eight-year career in 1983. Milwaukee, after all, had dropped its varsity football program in 1974. More than three decades later, however, 28-year-old Demetrius Harris embarked on his sixth season as an NFL tight end, and he didn’t play a single down of NCAA football. Harris, in his first year with the Cleveland Browns after spending five with the Kansas City Chiefs, played basketball for two seasons at Milwaukee. A rugged post player and a senior starter in 2012-13, he averaged 5.1 points along with 4.0 rebounds over 51 career games. His athletic career might have ended there, if not for this: He was 6-foot-7, 237 pounds, ran 40 yards in 4.52 seconds and had a vertical jump of 36 1/2 inches. Those numbers get the attention of NFL scouts, no matter if an athlete’s background is in football, basketball or tiddlywinks. Ryan Kessenich, a 2006 UWM graduate and a former Chiefs area scout who’s now with the San Francisco 49ers, worked out Harris in spring 2013 at the Klotsche Center and Engelmann Stadium. Harris’ speed and athleticism were obvious. “From playing defense in basketball, where you’re low, it helped me getting in and out of breaks,” Harris said. “A lot of people say I run my routes like a basketball player. I don’t know what that means. I guess it’s so rare that people on defense rarely see it.” The Chiefs signed him as an undrafted free agent, and he made the team, contributing mainly on special teams. As his blocking and route-running got better, he saw increased playing time on offense as all-pro tight end Travis Kelce’s backup. Despite his blocking-heavy role in K.C., Harris entered the 2019 season with career totals of 57 catches for 605 yards and six touchdowns. The versatile and

Demetrius Harris’ days playing basketball for UWM (left) and his football career with the Kansas City Chiefs inspired his two-sport bobblehead doll.

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RARE ROAD TO THE NFL still-improving athlete became a free agent in 2019, and he signed with the Browns. “It’s a great opportunity this year to help renew the Browns and make it to the playoffs and do good things,” he said of the franchise, which hasn’t won a playoff game since 1994. Football wasn’t completely foreign to Harris, who excelled in the sport in high school. He caught nine TD passes as a senior at Jacksonville (Arkansas) High School and signed to play football at Arkansas State, but he didn’t qualify academically. After two years of playing community college basketball at Mineral Area College in Missouri, he eschewed Arkansas State’s offer to play both sports and accepted a basketball scholarship from UWM. He earned a reputation for his tough on-court presence. Upon joining the Chiefs, Harris set about rediscovering his football form and improved incrementally but steadily. After catching 10 passes for 94 yards and one touchdown in his first two years, he caught 47 for 511 and five TDs in his last three. “Just working on my craft more,” is how Harris explains his progress. “When I first got in the league, I was raw. I was working off my athleticism and not doing the little things. As I grew and got wiser in the league, I noticed what other people do.” Other people noticed him, too, especially the Browns. They signed him to back up starter David Njoku, but Harris thinks he’ll get more playing time than in Kansas City, where Kelce made the Pro Bowl the last four seasons. “I definitely have a better opportunity here, but only time will tell,” Harris says. “I just compete every day and improve and show the coaches I can do whatever they need me to do.” And yes, he still roots for the Panthers basketball program from afar. “I watch the games on ESPN+,” Harris says. “I try to catch all of them. I’m still supporting them.” – Gary D’Amato

The Cleveland Browns signed Harris as a free agent prior to the 2019 season to upgrade their tight end position.

Football photos courtesy of the Cleveland Browns

UWM SPORTS

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FINDING THE BALANCE

How coach Kyle Rechlicz sets the tone for the women’s basketball team’s success The stuffed toy sloth sitting on the file cabinet in Kyle Rechlicz’s office reminds the Milwaukee women’s basketball coach to slow down. It took a lot of hard work over her first seven years on the job to turn the Panthers into consistent Horizon League winners, a rise all the more impressive considering the medical condition that Rechlicz manages off the court. Rechlicz lives with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which affects heart rate, blood pressure and other parts of the autonomic nervous system. She developed the condition after going into labor with her now-14-year-old daughter, but she wasn’t diagnosed until suffering frequent fainting spells at the end of the 2012-13 season, her first as UWM’s head coach. “The first thing my cardiologist said was that you’ve got to eliminate stress,” Rechlicz recalls. “I just looked at him and started laughing and said, ‘Well, I don’t know how to do that.’” Coaching a Division I team is nothing if not demanding. But Rechlicz has learned to manage the condition with medication, exercise, proper nutrition and rest.

Kyle Rechlicz

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“It’s taken years to get to the point where I’m feeling good in games,” she says. And lately, the games have been going rather well. In three of the last four seasons, Rechlicz’s Panthers have won 19 or more games and played postseason basketball. They took a small step back in 2018-19, finishing 15-15 with a relatively inexperienced roster, but six of those losses came by four points or less. Three of that team’s top four scorers return for 2019-20, and the Panthers hope to build on last season’s lessons. “Now we have a lot of players who have been in those close games and know what it feels like,” Rechlicz says. Rechlicz, too, has built upon the lessons learned through dealing with her medical condition. She’s figured out how to balance the demands of building a winning program with needing to be mindful of how it might affect her health. She’s quick to credit her assistant coaches for playing a big role. And when things get a little chaotic, a glimpse at the toy sloth that she calls her spirit animal offers perspective. “It reminds me to slow down and not to rush through life, and just take every moment as it is,” Rechlicz says, “and not take anything for granted.” – Genaro C. Armas

PANTHERS BASEBALL HAS A NEW HOME Coach Scott Doffek and the Milwaukee baseball team can finally step inside their brand-new home. The stadium hosted its first baseball games in the summer of 2019 and will be ready to welcome the Panthers for their 2020 season. UWM had hoped to play part of its 2019 season in the 4,000-seat facility at the Ballpark Commons complex in Franklin, Wisconsin, but construction delays made that impossible. So the ballpark’s other full-time tenant, the Milwaukee Milkmen of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, got the stadium’s first home game.

The Panthers will play their first game at the new facility in late March of 2020. Fans can join them for top-notch concessions, a beer garden, a state-of-the-art sound system and great seats for watching America’s pastime. “We can’t wait to get started,” Doffek says. UWM’s previous home ballpark, Henry Aaron Field, will continue to serve as a practice facility. – Howie Magner

Scott Doffek

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UWM SPORTS

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RECONNECT AND ROAR AT HOMECOMING WEEK The men’s basketball team and the induction of the newest Bud K. Haidet Athletics Hall of Fame members will be in the spotlight for UWM’s Homecoming Week 2019. Scheduled for Nov. 4-9, the family-friendly Homecoming Week offers a chance to reconnect with friends and fellow alumni while cheering on the Panthers. It concludes with coach Pat Baldwin and his men’s basketball team facing Western Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 9, at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The game caps an event-packed day, which includes the Hall of Fame’s afternoon ceremony honoring five new inductees at the Holiday Inn Milwaukee Riverfront. They are Clay Tucker, men’s basketball; Molly Finn, swimming and diving; Tenia Fisher, track and field; Scott Gillitzer, baseball; and athletic administrator John Ochsenwald.

Afterward, you can head to Turner Hall in downtown Milwaukee and get fired up for the evening’s basketball contest at the Panther Bash pregame tailgate party. The Homecoming game is one of several big dates on the Panthers’ schedule. Their season also includes traveling to play in The Islands of the Bahamas Showcase as well as road games against the Kansas Jayhawks and Wisconsin Badgers. Homecoming Week also features a women’s basketball exhibition game against UW-Parkside at the Klotsche Center on Wednesday, Nov. 6, and a women’s volleyball game against Oakland University on Friday, Nov. 8. Other campus events during the weeklong celebration include games and activities for students as well as a Black and Gold Birthday Party on Thursday, Nov. 7. – Genaro C. Armas

For full details on all of the Homecoming Week activities, visit uwm.edu/homecoming.

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UWM paved Eric Jergensonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s path to the FBI, where he helped thwart a massive terrorist attack

By Tony Rehagen

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Eric Jergenson was six years removed from completing his UWM master’s degree in criminal justice. He was in Chicago, an officer with U.S. Pretrial Services and driving to visit criminal defendants throughout the city, when the news broke in over his car radio. Airplanes had been hijacked by terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers. The United States was under attack. Like many Americans caught up in that watershed moment, Jergenson was spurred into action, vowing then and there to get involved and prevent such an attack from happening again. But unlike so many people who shared his aspirations, he’d actually get the chance to make good on his promise.

financial district in early September 2009, purposely tying it to the 9/11 anniversary. Zazi’s confession led to his immediate arrest and that of two co-conspirators, the criminal convictions of all three and the saving of untold American lives. In addition to preventing Zazi’s attack, Jergenson’s days-long interrogation laid the foundation for Zazi to become a government witness and provide information that continues to help thwart future terrorist plots even today. “I was just looking to extract the truth – sometimes that takes awhile to come out,” says Jergenson, who received the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2010. “As he talked about his training to be an al-Qaida operative, I thought to myself, ‘This is why I joined the FBI.’”

“As he talked about his training to be an al-Qaida operative, I thought to myself, ‘This is why I joined the FBI.’” - Eric Jergenson

Eric Jergenson (right) taking al-Qaida operative Najibullah Zazi (center) into custody in September 2009.

Eight years after 9/11, Jergenson was an FBI agent in Denver and sitting across a table from a man named Najibullah Zazi. Jergenson and his colleagues had caught the man assembling the components of a bomb. Through hours of careful interrogation, Jergenson drew from his previous FBI experiences working with associates and resources from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Zazi was from that region, and Jergenson was gradually earning his trust. Zazi eventually confessed that he had been recruited by al-Qaida to build a homemade suicide bomb. He planned to wear and detonate it on the subway beneath New York’s

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Jergenson grew up in the small city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He says he wasn’t a particularly strong student; he preferred to keep his head down, even underwater. He swam for UW-Eau Claire’s NCAA team while earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. He didn’t want to be a cop or parole officer and thought graduate school might help him buy time to think about career options. So when UWM accepted him into the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and offered a graduate assistant position, he was off to Milwaukee. The decision was life-changing, as was meeting professors

Photo by Christopher Schneider

Stan Stojkovic and Rick Lovell. “I could soak up anything they’d be willing to share with me,” Jergenson says. What he absorbed were stories of their time in the field working real-life cases, and their direction to the invaluable student internships facilitated by the school. “Eric was very straightforward, thoughtful and sincere. He wasn’t trying to run a ruse or game on you,” says Stojkovic, now the Bader School’s dean. “I believe that approach has been very successful for him in moving through the ranks of the FBI because people will talk to him. Earning trust is a great skill.” UWM’s faculty members had connections to a lot of law enforcement organizations throughout the country – federal, state and local. Stojkovic urged Jergenson to further hone his skills in an internship, and Jergenson chose to do one with Milwaukee’s U.S. Probation Office, where he worked two full days per week for about a year. Eventually, Jergenson was put in charge of UWM’s criminal justice internship program, which gave him even more exposure and networking opportunities. “It was great for my development,” Jergenson says. “It wasn’t until I got to UWM that I started to see what my future held.” Working and studying in Milwaukee also taught him how to relate to people from different backgrounds. Oshkosh and Eau Claire were smaller, mostly homogenous cities of middle-class whites. Doing field work in the big city, he encountered a wide range of people from different demographics, backgrounds and life experiences. He heard the stories of poor and indigent people caught up in the criminal justice system through conversations with them and their family members. It opened Jergenson’s mind to other perspectives and strengthened the relationship-building skills necessary to help them and see justice done. By the time Jergenson was ready to graduate in 1996, he knew he wanted to continue working in a city and on a federal level. He joined U.S. Pretrial Services in Baltimore from 1996-98, making home visits to federal defendants, supervising them until their trial dates and even making bail recommendations to judges. After two years, he worked the connections made while running UWM’s internship program to get transferred closer to home in Chicago. Then came 9/11. “I started to think about the FBI,” he says. “I envisioned them as the leader in law enforcement throughout the world. They are the top. Maybe it’s the competitive swimmer in me. I’m never going to shoot for No. 2.”

“Eric was very straightforward, thoughtful and sincere. I believe that approach has been very successful for him in moving through the ranks of the FBI because people will talk to him. Earning trust is a great skill.” - Stan Stojkovic, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare dean

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In the wake of 9/11, the FBI was hiring. The

He tried to see things from the point of view of Zazi, who was born in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province but said he was an Afghanistan native on his immigration forms to speed his chances to enter and live in the U.S. The 24-yearold slowly opened up. He shared how he’d emigrated with his family to the Flushing neighborhood in New York City as a teen. How he’d dropped out of high school and ran a coffee vending cart in lower Manhattan’s financial district, until the venture had put him hopelessly in debt. In 2008, he and two high school classmates travelled to Pakistan in hopes of joining the Taliban, but they were recruited by al-Qaida instead. Zazi trained with the terrorist organization and was sent back to the U.S., where he was to die as a martyr. Meanwhile, Jergenson used empathy to gain trust and steer Zazi toward the truth. The FBI agent shared his knowledge of Afghanistan’s history and his previous work with Pakistani and Afghan radicals. “I think Zazi appreciated that I knew what I was talking about and could relate to him,” Jergenson says. “He was sort of a failure. I think he felt that carrying out an attack would have made him a hero in some people’s eyes. Who wouldn’t want to become a hero?” Zazi pleaded guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and to providing material support for a terrorist organization. The conviction of Zazi and his co-conspirators was built on the bedrock of the detailed confession Jergenson extracted. After Zazi began what could’ve been a lifetime prison sentence, the former would-be terrorist began working to redeem himself by cooperating with authorities. He has met with government agents more than 100 times and testified in a number of other criminal trials. According to court A courtroom drawing from the Sept. 24, 2009, federal court hearing in Denver for Najibullah Zazi filings, prosecutors said Zazi has “provided critical (left) and his father, Mohammed Zazi (center). Also pictured are U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig intelligence” about al-Qaida. That assistance was Shaffer and Arthur Folsom, who was Zazi’s defense attorney at the time. extraordinary enough that in May 2019, a federal judge finalized Zazi’s prison sentence at 10 years, paving the homemade explosives. He drove them to New York, where way for his release this year. local authorities pulled him over and searched his vehicle. The intelligence also means that Jergenson’s initial meeting Suspecting that he’d been found out, Zazi turned himself with Zazi a decade ago continues to pay dividends in fighting in. And in Denver, he'd eventually share that table with the terrorism. So does the promise Jergenson made in his car on case’s lead investigator, Jergenson. that September morning in 2001. Once in the room, Jergenson reached back to talking with But he knows his job is not done. “The people I work with clients in Milwaukee, to the advice of his mentors at UWM are committed to preventing acts of terror,” he says. “We’ll do and to his FBI training. Other interrogators might have been that until someone tells us there’s no terrorism threat. Until impatient, perhaps using anger or aggression to extract a then, we’ll continue to march forward.” confession. Jergenson took his time – over 20 hours. bureau’s priorities had shifted from kidnappings and guns to an emphasis on preventing acts of terrorism. Increasing homeland security meant a boost in manpower. Less than a year after the towers fell, Jergenson was working in the FBI’s Denver office. He was eventually assigned to his top choice – counterterrorism. In late summer 2009, Jergenson’s office intercepted an email written by Zazi, who was living in Aurora, Colorado. The message, once decoded, alluded to some sort of attack, and it was clear that Zazi was in a hurry. The FBI began physical surveillance. Zazi purchased beauty supplies and holed up in a Denver-area hotel room, where he cooked them up into

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(AP Photo/Jeff Kandby)

Inside the new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center, students gain the skills to take flight, no matter the academic field While Lindsey Roddy was working as an intensive care nurse at a Milwaukee hospital, she enrolled in UWM’s College of Nursing to work on a doctoral degree. She wasn’t preparing to own a business. In fact, it had never crossed her mind. Then, a conversation with two nursing faculty members who were involved in entrepreneurship steered her toward innovation in the nursing field. They asked whether she had ideas, and it got Roddy’s wheels turning. “In nursing, we’re not taught the skills to commercialize problemsolving ideas,” Roddy says. “But when you think about it, all health care is a business.” Roddy knew that nurses had no easy and reliable tool to manage the mass of cords and lines of tubing that surround a patient’s hospital bed. Lindsey Roddy They are the very lifelines for medications, fluids and organ-monitoring equipment. But if one dislodged unnoticed, it could be deadly. She had her commercial idea. With support from UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center (LEC), she’s launched a startup company. Partnering with her on RoddyMedical are UWM business school alum Katie Richter and Kyle Jansson, director of the Prototyping Center at UWM’s Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa.

By Laura L. Otto

Kyle Jansson, Lindsey Roddy and Katie Richter (left to right) with some of the many prototypes they worked through.

Roddy’s story embodies why Lubar Entrepreneurship Center programming, dedicated to teaching innovative thinking, was created six years ago. Now, such programming has more reach than ever inside UWM’s newest building, the 24,000-square-foot Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center. come from other alumni and donors, including the Kelben Inside the new facility at the corner of Maryland Avenue Foundation, established by Mary and Ted Kellner; Jerry and Kenwood Boulevard, the UWM Welcome Center hosts Jendusa; Avi Shaked and Dr. Babs Waldman; Bud and Sue the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ campus tours Selig; We Energies; and American Family Insurance. and visit programs. Housing this in the same facility as the LEC allows campus visitors to see students and UWM Something for every student entrepreneurship programming in action. The LEC was designed to appeal to students regardless At the LEC, UWM students can work on new enterprises of their academic or career aspirations. It features classroom with faculty members, businesspeople and anyone in the spaces and gathering spots for speakers as well as innovation community. And LEC programs reach far beyond teaching labs, where students can prototype products and software. students how to write a business plan or give an elevator Programs offered include pop-up workshops, mentoring pitch. The concepts taught aren’t limited to business-related and competitions that give students the chance to win seed innovation, but grounded in problem-solving skills and the funding by pitting their ideas or business plans against others. ability to design anything with the user in mind. Coursework can cut across disciplines, such as the “Gizmos “We believe that the skills in entrepreneurship and training and Gadgets” course, which is centered around making in creative and innovative thinking are going to help make assistive devices that fit unmet needs of the disabled. all our students more successful, no Underpinning these programs are two principles. The first matter their career path,” says Brian involves “design thinking,” says Ilya Avdeev, the associate Thompson, the LEC’s director. professor of mechanical engineering who leads program “Existing companies are looking development and partnership cultivation as the LEC’s for these same skills. They’re director of innovation. It’s a kind of critical thinking that looking for employees who improves problem-solving abilities. are innovators.” “Solving problems is comparable to Local philanthropists commercializing a product,” Avdeev says. “The Sheldon and Marianne Lubar design part is really important, because your product’s gave a $10 million lead gift for or solution’s design has to match the needs of the the new building in 2015, and potential users.” the UW System has contributed Taking this approach is beneficial early in the process of $10 million to cover construction Marianne and Sheldon Lubar celebrate the developing an idea, when someone is trying to figure costs. Additional support has opening of the new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and UWM Welcome Center.

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UWM WELCOME CENTER is the new gateway to campus

out how to address an ambiguous problem. “You ask yourself,” Avdeev explains, “‘What does a person with a particular problem want or need – and what features would make it more appealing than what’s currently available?’” The LEC’s second foundational principle is a lean-launch methodology, an approach that leads innovators through a process of idea creation, testing and validation. Lean-launch originated at Stanford University, and Avdeev says it’s an effective way to test a hypothesis. It walks students through crafting a solution or product based on specific information provided by potential customers during interviews. Roddy went through this process, and it gave her the confidence to pursue commercializing the medical tubing organizer. The design-thinking and lean-launch principles provide a framework for developing ideas and finding solutions no matter the academic field, be it engineering, business or even artistic endeavors. Daniel Burkholder, an associate professor of dance in UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, uses the principles when teaching his students. He says it helps them think through the creative parts – such as choreographing performances that have meaning and value. In a business analogy, that’s like the product. But innovative thinking also offers a road map for building a sustainable career in a gig-centered field. By thinking of yourself as the product, too, you can better fit together piecemeal work and market yourself on a larger scale. “We are often called upon to create our own path in terms of a career,” Burkholder says. “So you have to see opportunities, articulate your value to the public and find a way to test consumers’ approval. With the LEC’s design process, you’re able to create something and then take it out into the world with clarity and force.”

The newest building on UWM’s main campus hosts the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ campus tours and visit programs, which provide prospective students and their families an introduction to life as a Panther. Campus tours are led by current UWM students and offer personalized introductions to UWM’s distinct culture. In addition to being one of America’s top research universities, UWM is home to one of the Midwest’s most diverse communities. Tours last about 90 minutes and can focus on particular points of interest, from meetings with faculty members in a specific area of study to seeing recreational facilities, the Honors College or opportunities for undergraduate research. Housing the Welcome Center under the same roof as the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center means that the moment visitors step on campus to learn about UWM, they’re introduced to how entrepreneurship skills can be integrated into any area of study. The LEC’s vibrance also feeds into the Welcome Center’s various visit programs. These cater to a variety of prospective students, whether they’re coming straight from high school, transferring from another college or university, attending UWM as a military veteran or finishing a degree they started years ago. There is a UWM visit experience for everyone. You can get more information at uwm.edu/visit.

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Students work through their ideas with LEC leaders like Ilya Avdeev (left photo, standing center) and Brian Thompson (left photo, front right).

Taking the next steps The design-thinking and lean-launch principles are important parts of a federal program called I-Corps, which is offered in Wisconsin exclusively through the LEC. Backed by the National Science Foundation, I-Corps teaches faculty and graduate students how to convert their research discoveries into products and startups. Open to teams from six area universities, the program sends would-be entrepreneurs on a customer-discovery sojourn to hone an idea before they seek funding or spend money on a prototype. Results from the past three years include 19 local startup companies. One of those is VasoGnosis Inc., a startup that originated while Ali Bakhshinejad was earning his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at UWM. The software for his cloud computing-based venture provides the digital imaging techniques and analysis necessary to better diagnose a brain aneurysms. With this tool, radiologists can detect aneurysms before they Ali Bakhshinejad rupture, an often-fatal development. Bakhshinejad used the information gleaned from his LEC I-Corps experience to modify his product concept. “In I-Corps interviews, you have potential customers tell you what they wish for,” Bakhshinejad says. “We learned that radiologists didn’t want to have to learn new software – they just wanted analyzation results directly.”

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The valuable intelligence also inspired him to add a second product – a simulator for surgeons who will operate on aneurysms. The simulator allows the physicians to determine in advance which surgical approach is best for a patient. Earlier this year, VasoGnosis was one of 50 startups to make the final round of the 2019 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. The contest offers links to a statewide network of community resources, expert advice and exposure that could result in additional sources of capital. Roddy, too, turned up valuable information from her team’s I-Corps interviews. She discovered that safety concerns posed by messy medical tubing were a common worry for nurses, who spent an average of 30 minutes per shift just organizing them. She interviewed more than 100 clinical staff, and 73 percent reported close calls or safety events involving tangled lines, many of which endangered a patient’s life. Jansson, one of the partners in RoddyMedical, has designed multiple prototypes – each a modification informed by feedback from nurses. “Having data makes the difference,” Roddy says. Roddy’s team worked with the UWM Research Foundation on the patent for their device and continues to move forward on commercializing the product. Like VasoGnosis, RoddyMedical was a finalist in the 2019 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. Roddy’s team also earned a $25,000 grant from the Ideadvance Seed Fund that supports the entrepreneurial efforts of UW System faculty, students and alumni at campuses other than UW-Madison. The steady progress reminds Roddy that she made the right decision to persist in the LEC’s training while building her startup. She knows the process isn’t easy, but she believes in the end, it will pay off.

C A M PA I G N F I N A L R E P O RT S E P T E M B E R 12 , 2 019

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“I BELIEVE THERE IS NO MORE IMPORTANT INSTITU WE CONSIDER OUR INVESTMENT IN UWM A

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TION IN MILWAUKEE AND THE STATE THAN UWM. BENEFIT TO EVERY CITIZEN OF WISCONSIN.” — Sheldon B. Lubar ’88 Campaign Co-chair

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Dear Friends, With your tremendous support, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has come to the end of an ambitious undertaking and has made history in the process. Made in Milwaukee, Shaping the World: The Campaign for UWM was the largest university-wide fundraising effort ever attempted at UWM, and we are proud to say it has been a resounding success – thanks to you. Your outstanding generosity has turned hope into reality, ambition into achievement and ideas into innovation. You have enabled us to create new campus spaces and launch programs that will enhance the student experience for years to come. You have given encouragement, opportunity and resources. Together, we raised over a quarter of a billion dollars for our priorities of student success, research excellence and community engagement. More than 21,000 donors gave more than 70,000 gifts, pushing us 25% above our $200 million goal – a remarkable achievement! Very special recognition goes to our wonderful campaign co-chairs. They led by example and gave some of the largest gifts UWM has ever received. Their passion and vision helped to shape this campaign into reality. To them – and to you – we extend our profound gratitude as well as the gratitude of the thousands of students, faculty, staff and community partners whose lives have been bettered by this effort. As you read the stories on the following pages, and whenever you visit our campus or see a commencement photo, please remember not just our words of thanks but also three even more meaningful words: You did this. With our sincere thanks,

Mark A. Mone, PhD Chancellor

Patricia A. Borger, JD Vice Chancellor, Development & Alumni Relations

BY THE NUMBERS

$251,466,444

RAISED

21,236 DONORS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL DOLLARS RAISED

10,340

FIRST-TIME DONORS

ALUMNI CORPORATIONS

INDIVIDUALS

17%

BREAKDOWN OF NUMBER OF GIFTS BY GIFT LEVEL

DONORS GAVE

$1 MILLION

OR MORE

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL RAISED BY GIFT LEVEL

0.1%

$1 million or more

39%

0.2%

$250,000 - $999,999

20%

0.7%

$50,000 - $249,999

17%

$10,000 - $49,999

14%

$1,000 - $9,999

87%

$999 or less

UWM ALUMNI

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70,414 GIFTS 78

â&#x20AC;¢

FOUNDATIONS

OTHER NOT-FOR-PROFITS

$7.5 MILLION GIVEN BY FACULTY AND STAFF

$36,602,286 GIVEN THROUGH ESTATE GIFTS

ADDITIONS TO UWM FOUNDATION ENDOWMENT

$55

MILLION

$24

MILLION

$129

MILLION

IN OUTRIGHT GIFTS & PLEDGES

IN ESTATE GIFT EXPECTANCIES

667 NEW FUNDS CREATED

304 NEW SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS CREATED

CURRENT VALUE OF ENDOWMENT

TOP 10

STATES OF DONORS 1. Wisconsin 2. Illinois 3. California 4. Minnesota 5. Florida 6. Texas 7. Michigan 8. Arizona

73% OF DONORS CAME

FROM WISCONSIN

9. New York 10. Colorado

STUDENT SUCCESS

SCHOLARSHIP LEADS TO SECOND MASTER’S DEGREE “I love numbers and serving people, so I decided to go back for a second master’s degree – this time in accounting with the goal of becoming a CPA,” says Treena Glover, a graduate student in the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business. “The Melkus Scholarship is helping me pursue this goal. I don’t know how I would have been able to afford school and prep for the CPA exam without it.” A serial volunteer with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in mathematics, Treena plans to use this additional degree to help others. “Many people don’t know how to do taxes, they don’t have financial literacy, or they want to start a business, but they don’t understand how to do a balance sheet,” she explains. “I want to educate others.” Treena has experience as an educator at Chicago State University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Richard J. Daley College. While she was working full time and raising her daughter on her own, Treena also served as coach for a math team at her daughter’s school. “Service is a big thing to me,” she adds. Now that she has three grandchildren, Treena wants to set an example for them as well. “I am excited to earn this degree, so I can continue to help others and make my grandchildren proud!” 36

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Without my scholarship, I’m not sure I would even be attending the university due to financial concerns. Now because of this support, I’ve had the chance to learn new track events, like shot put, discus, long jump, pole vault and javelin throwing. – Trevor Coenen, David C. and Erika G. Bogenschild “Green Gulls” Track Scholarship, Milwaukee Athletics

Our students who are military veterans can find it difficult to transition to civilian life. Mrs. Billie Kubly’s generous support of mental health services directed to our military and veteran students is helping to ease that transition. – James “Groovy” Cocroft ’16, Interim Assistant Director of Campus Engagement, UWM Military and Veterans Resource Center

STUDENT SUCCESS

$133

MILLION

RAISED FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

STUDENT SUCCESS IS SCHOLARSHIPS PROGRAM SUPPORT

My scholarship was such a relief for me because it let me take on other responsibilities without having to worry about paying for college. I had time to get my personal training certification, which will help me in becoming a sports physical therapist. – Alejandra Peralta-Werns, Froedtert Minority Scholars Scholarship, College of Health Sciences

NEW & IMPROVED SPACES

$37

MILLION

GIVEN SPECIFICALLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS Thanks to a generous gift, my classmates and I have been able to perform in an exciting new space. We look forward to dancing at the Jan Serr Studio because it’s unlike any other place on campus. – Katelyn Altmann; Dance Scholarship, Ed Burgess Legacy Scholarship and Randy R. Reddemann Emerging Artists Scholarship; Peck School of the Arts

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

RESEARCH CHAIR HELPS KIDS STAY HEALTHY The College of Nursing’s Joint Research Chair in the Nursing of Children broke new ground when it was created through a gift from the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The position enables a faculty member to conduct clinical nursing research and integrate that research into the curriculum at UWM’s College of Nursing and the clinical programs at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Today, Michele Polfuss, holder of the Joint Research Chair since 2017, continues to explore new territory in pediatric nursing. Her research focuses on developing interventions for families and health care providers to help children with special needs make healthy choices, as these children are two to three times more likely to be obese than other kids. Michele is now leading a national research team to investigate methods of accurately measuring the body composition of patients with spina bifida within a clinical setting. “We want to find a feasible method of measuring body fat that can be conducted cost-effectively and accurately in the clinic – and to provide better guidance to the family on nutritional intake recommendations, with the ultimate goal of preventing and treating obesity.”

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RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

My scholarship included a research opportunity to work directly with faculty and graduate students. I’ve explored creative solutions for electronic recyclability using fuzzy logic. – Kathryn Pecha (left), CEAS Dean’s Scholarship, College of Engineering & Applied Science, Honors College

My Robert Wood Johnson Foundation research grant has allowed me to explore the health impacts of economic policies. Specifically, I’m finding out how a person’s health could be affected by their city’s wage laws. – Mustafa Hussein, Assistant Professor, Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health

$89

MILLION

RAISED FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

R1 TOP RESEARCH RANKING TWICE IN A ROW

My professorship kept me at UWM because I could recruit top-tier doctoral students to help with my research projects on how gender and culture affect career decisions. – Nadya Fouad (right), Mary and Ted Kellner Chair in Educational Psychology, School of Education

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS CREATED IN

BUSINESS, DATA SCIENCE, EDUCATION, ENGINEERING, FRESHWATER & NURSING

Support from our donors has allowed us to hire expert faculty, create cutting-edge labs, and attract the best and brightest students. All of this helps us keep the Great Lakes – and the people who rely on them – healthy. – Jeff Houghton ’14, Research Specialist, School of Freshwater Sciences

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

LEGACY GIFT ENRICHES STUDENTS AND PUBLIC Thanks to a legacy gift from the late Emile Mathis, the university now has a prominent space for the UWM Art Collection. Part of the College of Letters & Science, the Emile H. Mathis Gallery is a state-of-the-art 2,400-squarefoot exhibition space located in Mitchell Hall. Here, art history students like Youngchul Shin have the opportunity to research and curate exhibitions, and ultimately share works of art with the public. “I enjoy seeing how artists interpret stories and historical figures in their own stylistic approaches,” Youngchul explains. “When a collection of art is on display, I want viewers to think about how several illustrations might depict a similar subject in various ways. In this space, I can experience the entire curation process – from selecting works to displaying them and seeing how visitors respond to an exhibition.” Emile Mathis was an art connoisseur, collector and gallery owner whose gift to the university included more than 600 pieces of African art and more than 1,700 prints. Mathis, who passed away in 2012, wanted the university to use his prized collection for teaching and display for years to come. In support of this vision, he also established the Emile H. Mathis Endowment Fund to support the UWM Art Collection in perpetuity.

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My endowed professorship drew me to UWM. Now, I’m honored to be doing research with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to gauge how loneliness affects America’s seniors. – Colleen Galambos, Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare (left, shown with Elaine and Martin Schreiber)

Through nonprof-IT, my classmates and I gained practical experience and helped our community by building a brand-new website for the Milwaukee Joint Human Trafficking Task Force. – Andrew Pubanz (center), Project Leader, School of Information Studies (shown with nonprof-IT team members and task force personnel)

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

$29

MILLION

RAISED FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

1 OF 29 RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES RECOGNIZED FOR

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

I’ve been taking Osher classes through the School of Continuing Education since I retired six years ago. My wife and I live on the East Side, so UWM is also an entertainment destination for us. We enjoy taking Osher classes, attending concerts and going to the Manfred Olson Planetarium. – Richard Schreiner ’82, Retired Engineer, Johnson Controls

BY THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION

DESIGNATED AN

“INNOVATION AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY”

UNIVERSITY BY THE ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC & LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITIES

Support for the Urban Design Community Redevelopment Studio provides my students with the tools they need to revitalize Milwaukee’s neighborhoods and strengthen our community. – Carolyn Esswein (right), Professor of Practice, School of Architecture & Urban Planning

MAJOR INITIATIVES

LUBAR ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER In May 2019, UWM celebrated the grand opening of a new building that houses the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center and the UWM Welcome Center. Funded by a $10 million lead gift from Campaign Co-Chairs Sheldon ’88 and Marianne ’13 Lubar, as well as gifts from other visionary supporters, the center uses a multidisciplinary approach that helps students nurture their ideas, build confidence and succeed as entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers.

NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL DATA SCIENCE INSTITUTE In June 2018, Northwestern Mutual, UWM and Marquette University announced a partnership to create the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. Purush Papatla, a professor of marketing in UWM’s Lubar School of Business, was named co-director. Over the next five years, Northwestern Mutual and its foundation will give UWM $6.25 million in support of faculty, research and programming.

MAJOR INITIATIVES (Shown here: Microsoft President Brad Smith, Chancellor Mark Mone and Rockwell Automation CEO Blake Moret)

CONNECTED SYSTEMS INSTITUTE The big data that devices collect and share on the industrial internet of things (IIoT) have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing. To develop models for greater productivity through IIoT technologies, UWM has launched the Connected Systems Institute, a multidisciplinary collaboration among academia, industry and government. The institute is supported by several corporations and organizations, including Rockwell Automation Inc., Microsoft and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN CENTER A major gift from the Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin is helping to build a new annex to the Klotsche Center. The 15,000-square-foot OHOW Center will be located to the east of the Klotsche Center & Pavilion and will house a dedicated basketball practice facility. The new building will alleviate overcrowding of the student recreation space on campus when athletics and campus recreation use coincides.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS

(Above) Former scholarship recipient Avi Shaked ’80 and wife Babs Waldman, MD, meet with some of the hundreds of engineering students they have helped through scholarships. (Left) Researchers in the Leonard E. Parker Center for Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics contributed to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of gravitational waves from colliding black holes. The center was named to recognize a gift from Isabel Bader and the late Alfred Bader in honor of their friend Distinguished Professor Emeritus Leonard Parker.

College of Engineering & Applied Science — A multimillion-dollar gift from Johnson Controls attracted renewable energy expert Deyang Qu to UWM to become the Johnson Controls Endowed Professor in Energy Storage Research. The gift also funded a one-of-a-kind “dry lab” to test-manufacture vehicle batteries.

College of Health Sciences — Support from the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club has helped advance research in UWM’s Human Performance & Sport Physiology Lab. Associate Professor Kyle Ebersole works with professional baseball players and firefighters to improve injury prevention, strength training and physiological performance.

College of Letters & Science — Researchers at the UWM Field Station are receiving support from the James and Dorathea Levenson Endowment for Ecology and Field Biology. Established by James Levenson ’76, the endowment will provide scholarships for graduate students, with a preference for students who are military veterans.

College of Nursing — Campaign Co-Chair Jim Ziemer ’75, ’86, ’08 and his wife, Yvonne, gave $1 million to create the James and Yvonne Ziemer Clinical Simulation Center, which will enable the college to immediately increase student enrollment and address Wisconsin’s growing shortage of nurses.

Helen Bader School of Social Welfare — Launched in 2013 and supported in part by philanthropic gifts, the UWM Center for Aging & Translational Research brings together multiple disciplines, departments and colleges to provide a unified and strategic response to advance aging research, education, training and community engagement.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS

(Left) The Marcus Corporation Foundation supports the Marcus Prize, which brings world-renowned architects to UWM. Here, 2017 prizewinner Jeanne Gang gives feedback to an architecture student. (Above) G. Kevin Spellman, who serves as the David O. Nicholas Director of Investment Management, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the David O. Nicholas Applied Finance Lab with David Nicholas ’87 and students and faculty of the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business.

Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health — The Zilber Family Foundation contributed nearly $3 million during the campaign, all in support of scholarships. An initial gift of $400,000 provided scholarships for more than 75 graduate students, and an additional $2.5 million gift in 2019 will provide scholarships for both graduate and undergraduate students. Milwaukee Athletics — In October 2016, Fred Sitzberger ’78 gave $1 million in support of the Panther Excellence Fund, an unrestricted fund that helps all UWM student-athletes. To recognize this gift, the Klotsche Pavilion atrium has been named the Frederick J. Sitzberger CPA ’78 Atrium. Peck School of the Arts — ArtsECO received more than $1.3 million in grants from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. ArtsECO offers skill-building and portfolio-development programs for high school students, scholarships and internships for art education students, social networking events and in-depth coursework for teachers.

School of Architecture & Urban Planning — David and Julia Uihlein’s support of the Historic Preservation Institute has helped further the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings and environments. Students have been able to take part in scholarly research while using the most up-to-date technical advances in the building industry. School of Continuing Education — The Bernard Osher Foundation gave more than $2 million during the campaign for UWM’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The institute provides older adults in the Milwaukee area with a broad array of short courses, local and global tours, special events and informal interest groups.

(Above) Thanks to generous support from the John M. Kohler Foundation, students in the Masters in Sustainable Peacebuilding program work with International Peace Initiatives in Meru, Kenya, to raise the quality of life of people challenged by HIV/AIDS, violence and poverty. UWM’s Quinn Stout ’17 (on left) walks with Kenyan women to an innovative permaculture food forest, which supports the health and wellbeing of local residents. (Left) Dan Egan, the Brico Fund Senior Water Policy Fellow in Great Lakes Journalism, investigates, writes and disseminates in-depth news stories about the most pressing issues facing the Great Lakes.

School of Education — Campaign Co-Chairs Mary ’78, ’19 and Ted Kellner established a second professorship in the School of Education through a gift from the Kelben Foundation. The Mary and Ted Kellner Chair in Educational Psychology is held by Nadya Fouad, who says the professorship kept her at UWM. School of Freshwater Sciences — The Kikkoman Healthy Water Labs were named in recognition of a $1 million gift from Kikkoman Foods and its dedication to clean water for all. The labs focus on ecosystem dynamics, water technology, and human and ecosystem health.

School of Information Studies — More than 89 percent of the money raised for the School of Information Studies during this campaign supports scholarships. Several donors, including generous alumni, have included significant gifts for the school in their estate plans.

Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business — Laura Peracchio became the first holder of the Judith H. and Gale E. Klappa Endowed Professorship of Marketing, which was created through a gift from the We Energies Foundation and the Wisconsin Public Service Foundation in honor of retired CEO and Campaign Co-Chair Gale Klappa ’72, ’11 and his wife, Judith.

UWM Libraries — UWM Libraries expanded its Special Collections through a gift from Jerome Buff, a collector of rare books and the father of Professor Rachel Buff of UWM’s Department of History. The gift included a vast collection of rare books, first editions, fine-press publications and artists’ books. UWM ALUMNI

FALL 2019 •

Dear Friends of UWM, Thank you for being part of this historic achievement! When we agreed to co-chair this campaign, we made a commitment to work to make UWM a stronger and more vibrant university. Each of us has a different connection to UWM: We are alumni who hold special memories of our years on campus, we lead businesses that rely on UWM for our workforce, and we’ve seen firsthand how important UWM is to the entire state of Wisconsin. We all love UWM and believe in its mission. It’s a place where hardworking students of any age receive an education that will change the trajectory of their lives. UWM serves as a wellspring of innovation, knowledge and culture that enriches our community and the world beyond. We feel privileged to have helped lead the campaign for this great university, and we are thrilled that so many of you contributed to this endeavor. The fact that nearly half of our 21,236 donors gave for the first time shows that our message was heard: UWM is worthy of your support. Thank you for joining us. Together, we have shaped the world. Sincerely, Michael and Sheila Falbo Douglas Hagerman Mary ’78, ’19 and Ted Kellner Gale Klappa ’72, ’11 Marianne ’13 and Sheldon ’88 Lubar Beth ’69 and W. John ’69 Pritchard Lorin Radtke ’90 Jim Ziemer ’75, ’86, ’08

CO-CHAIRS

Michael and Sheila Falbo

Douglas Hagerman

Mary and Ted Kellner

Gale Klappa

Sheldon and Marianne Lubar

John and Beth Pritchard

Lorin Radtke

Yvonne and Jim Ziemer UWM ALUMNI

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THANK

YOU

READ MORE STORIES OF IMPACT AT UWM.EDU/GIVE

CLASS NOTES We love to brag about you

1960 1970 Artist Thomas Nawrocki (’64 BFA, ’66 MA Art, ’67 MFA) created shaped dimensional mixed-media prints that received the Purchase Award at the Mark Arts Abstract National Exhibition in Wichita, Kansas. In addition, Nawrocki’s works won the Intaglio Award at the American Color Print Society Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Warren Gerds (’67 BS Mass Communication-Journalism) recently published his seventh book, the autobiographical “I Fell Out of a Tree in Fresno (and other writing adventures).” When he’s not writing books, Gerds is the critic-at-large for WFRV-TV, the CBS affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Retired Army Col. Tom Evans (’70 BS Clinical Psychology) was recently elected to the post of president of the U.S. Army Ranger Association. Author J.A. Gasperetti (’70 MA Communication) recently released his second novel, “The Seal’s Lair,” published by AuthorHouse. Gasperetti’s book of historical fiction follows an attempt to stop vile individuals from executing a malevolent plan.

Thorne E. Schubert (’71

BFA Art Education) recently received his 45-year pin for service to Mesa Public Schools in Mesa, Arizona, where he works as a professional development specialist. Schubert completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at Arizona State University. Attorney Joel Rosenthal (’72 MA Sociology) has received a 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Law Journal. He was also named a finalist for best criminal defense attorney by the Shepherd Express in Milwaukee. P. Rea Katz (’88 MS Anthropology)

was promoted to associate professor in the Department of Physician Assistant Practice at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science in North Chicago, Illinois. She also serves as the associate vice president of faculty development for the university. Harold (Hal) Mattson

(’77 MBA Management) recently joined the University of Wisconsin-Superior Foundation’s board of directors. He was also selected as one of the school’s 125 outstanding alumni during the university’s 125th anniversary reunion. His 1968 graduation from UW-Superior continued a bit of a family tradition – his grandmother graduated from there in 1898.

Edwin Raymond III (’79 MBA Management) was recently elected vice president of the board of directors for Our Harmony Club. The nonprofit organization provides social day programs for elderly community members who are socially isolated, who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, or who have suffered a stroke.

The Milwaukee Public Museum named Ellen J. Censky (’79 BS Zoology) its president and CEO. She’s the first woman to hold the role since the museum was chartered in 1882. Steven Meyer

(’79 BFA Art) recently released his second solo fingerstyle guitar CD, titled “Steven Meyer Guitar Au Naturel.” He’s performed for UW-Madison’s Global Health Symposium, and he plays in the Sunday Afternoon Live concert series at UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art.

1980 Lorraine M. Dorfman (’83 MS

Clinical Psychology, ’86 PhD Clinical Psychology) recently had two books published: “Five Essentials to Be Your Best You” and “Head vs. Heart: 3 Steps to Your Best Choice.”

UWM ALUMNI

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1980 Patricia Coorough Burke

(’86 MS Geological Sciences) wrote a chapter in a new Geological Society of America publication titled “Museums at the Intersection of Science and Citizen: An Example from a Silurian Reef.” She is a curator of paleontology and the geology collections manager at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Steve Raasch

(’86 BS Architectural Studies) was recently promoted to CEO at Zimmerman Architectural Studios, based in Milwaukee. Raasch had previously served as the firm’s president. Linda Marquardt

(’87 BS Allied Health) recently became a lifetime member of Mensa after qualifying for membership in 2012. She’s a member of UWM’s Athletic Hall of Fame and is married to fellow UWM graduate and Mensan John Nuck (’84 BA English, ’89 MA English-Creative Writing).

Jeffrey Perso (’87

MA Communication) recently published his debut novel, “Water Bodies.” Perso’s new story chronicles the comic, futile and doomed social and political responses to an inexplicable plague of drownings. In addition, Perso’s book simultaneously addresses a tragic ancestral dynamic as well as an oncoming and seemingly inevitable environmental catastrophe. Jeffrey A. Pitman (’87 BS

Criminal Justice) was elected to the Wisconsin chapter of the American Board of Trial Attorneys. He also coauthored an article on nursing home abuse and neglect that appeared in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys journal. Pitman is licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Illinois and Iowa. Jeremy Borouchoff

(’89 BA History) was accepted into the Cantorial Ordination Program at ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. ALEPH’s mission is to fully embrace a contemporary egalitarian Judaism as a profound spiritual practice and social transformer, reaching beyond religious boundaries and institutional structures worldwide.

1990 Attorney

Christopher Krimmer (’93 BA

Political Science) of DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C. and its affiliate DeWitt Mackall Crounse & Moore S.C. was recently named a fellow of the Wisconsin Law Foundation. Eloisa Gómez

(’95 MS Urban Studies) is co-author of the book “Somos Latinas: Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists,” which recently won first place in the social justice category of the 2019 Indie Book Awards. The book explores the lives of 25 older Latina activists who made a difference in their communities and has a foreword written by Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers. Tobias Baer’s (’96 MA Economics) third book was recently published by Apress. The book, “Understand, Manage, and Prevent Algorithmic Bias,” draws on his background in psychology and data science to address management, policy and data science aspects of algorithmic bias.

Stay up to date with the Alumni Association: uwm.edu/alumni

Renee Bojar Stonemark (’98

BBA Finance) is a senior plan analyst in client management services at OneAmerica Retirement Services in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. She’s one of 10 employees who was honored with a 2019 ASPIRE Award, which recognizes outstanding performance by the company’s employees. A total of 217 of OneAmerica’s 2,000-plus associates were nominated for the annual award. Thomas Dockery

(’98 BSE Civil Engineering) recently retired from We Energies after 40 years with the company. He started as a power plant employee and worked his way up to principal engineer in the Power Generation Department. The Milwaukee Bucks selected a work by artist Eric Oates (’98 MA Art History) to showcase in their art collection that’s on display at Fiserv Forum, their home arena. The collection includes 79 original pieces and 43 photographs by 32 artists and 170 students. Twenty-two of the artists have Wisconsin ties, and many live in Milwaukee or the surrounding area.

Global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will recently promoted Aimee Eckmann

(’99 MArch Architecture) to principal in the firm’s PreK-12 Education practice. Eckmann specializes in planning and designing educational facilities. Eckmann’s key projects include working on Jones College Prep high school in Chicago as well as Shanghai American School in China, among others.

2000 Stephen Powers (’00 MA English, ’06

PhD English) recently published his third book of poetry with Salmon Poetry. “All Seats Fifty Cents” is a tribute to nostalgia that projects reverence for Universal Monsters, Battlestar Galactica, the Incredible Hulk, the Golden Girls, Pee-wee Herman and Dolly Parton.

History) was one of four nominees for the 2019 Transatlantic Fan Fund, an annual project that sends prominent science fiction fans to visit fan gatherings across the Atlantic. Although he didn’t win trips to Worldcon in Dublin, Ireland, or EuroCon in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he has attended more than 200 science fiction conventions since 1975. Brooke Martin

(’04 BS Architectural Studies) was named an Emerging Professional of the Year by the American Institute of Architects’ Prairie Illinois chapter. Recipients are selected based on their influence in the industry, their community and the profession. Kari B. Lindsey Gipson (’05 BA Political

Anthony Viola

(’00 BS Architectural Studies) was awarded the national 2018 AIA Young Architects Award. This came after he received the 2017 Dubin Family Young Architect Award from the AIA Chicago Foundation, which recognizes architects between the ages of 25 and 39 in the Chicago area. He’s a senior designer for Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture.

Peter Balistrieri

(’99 BS Architectural Studies, ’04 MArch Architecture) was appointed practice leader at HGA in Milwaukee. He will manage new business opportunities, client relations and team processes for the growing Public and Corporate Group that serves clients in the Great Lakes region.

“Orange” Mike Lowrey (’04 BA

After a 30-year friendship, UWM adjunct instructor Anntoinette Williams (’00

BS Community Education) celebrated one year of marriage to her husband, Wesley, a military veteran with six combat tours. They are advocates for veterans’ families, and their own family includes seven fantastic children.

Science) was promoted to risk management manager for Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission. She previously served as a legislative fiscal analyst for Milwaukee’s Legislative Reference Bureau in the City Clerk’s office and as an investigator for Milwaukee’s City Attorney office. Elizabeth Robbin (’06 MS

Communication Science & Disorders) received the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago’s 31st annual Samuel A. Goldsmith Young Professional Award. The honor recognizes the achievements of early-career professionals whose exemplary performance at a local Jewish agency has benefited the entire Jewish community. The third book authored by Joe Niese (’08 MLIS Library & Information Science), titled “Gus Dorais: Gridiron Innovator, All-American and Hall of Fame Coach,” was recently published by McFarland.

UWM ALUMNI

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2010 Eight years after graduating with a degree in international studies, Natalie Janicki (’10 BA International Studies) was accepted into UWM’s College of Nursing. Janicki says she returns to school and the UWM campus with the goal of “becoming the best globally minded nurse Milwaukee has trained.” Felita Y. Singleton (’10

MS Educational Psychology) has been appointed as associate dean of students for Warner Pacific University in Portland, Oregon. She previously served as the director of student veteran services for Portland State University.

Spike Brewing Founder and President Ben Caya (’12 BSE Mechanical Engineering) conceived his company as a UWM student. The company now has 23 employees and a 22,000-squarefoot facility in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. Spike kettles, fermenters and electric brewing systems are sold and shipped throughout the United States and Canada, and its electric brewing systems are in 20 countries. Erika Pliner (’14

BSE Mechanical Engineering, ’15 MS Industrial Engineering) received the 2019 Young Scientist Pre-doctoral Award from the American Society of Biomechanics. The award recognizes the scientific achievements in her work exploring individual, environmental and biomechanical factors that contribute to ladder fall risk. Pliner’s work has already resulted in ways to reduce injuries from ladder falls.

Classical guitarist Nathan Bredeson

(’16 MM Music Performance: Guitar) was named to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s sixth annual “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” list. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, he established the Ottawa Guitar Trio with former classmates François Lacelle and Alex Bougie. He recently recorded his first album, “Nocturne.” Since joining the Oregon Institute of Technology in 2015, Eklas Hossain (’16 PhD Engineering) has worked to acquire nearly $500,000 in grants for projects that have contributed to student learning in the renewable energy field. Marquisa Wince

(’16 BA Economics & Sociology) was awarded the B.A. Rudolph Scholarship at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Clinton School of Public Service. She earned the scholarship, which is awarded annually, as a result of her passion for justice and advocacy as well as her capacity for learning. Melissa Hillmer

SHARE YOUR STORIES! We love to brag 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!

(’17 BFA Art: Painting & Drawing) is a graduate of UWM’s Peck School of the Arts and Honors College programs. She’s also the proud owner of Otto’s Fine Art Academy, which is a K-12 supplementary education art school. Hillmer purchased Otto’s in Waukesha, Wisconsin, just eight months after graduation and now employs several UWM art and art education students.

LAST WORDS WORKING ON MARS

Darian Dixon takes out-of-this-world pics using NASA’s Curiosity rover By Genaro C. Armas

Darian Dixon takes pictures of Mars for a living, and it’s more than a point-and-click operation. The 2015 UWM graduate is a mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems, a California company that operates some of the cameras for NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. Dixon, who has a bachelor’s degree in geosciences, teams up with colleagues to construct and send the complicated computer commands for taking the photos. Then they must wait a day or two before images are transmitted back to Earth and processed. “It is still the basics of traditional photography,” Dixon says, “just done on another planet in a really remote way.”

What more can you share about being a mission operations specialist? I would say it’s a fancy way to say “space camera operator.” That’s what I like to call it. Essentially, there are two color cameras called the Mastcams, because they’re sitting on top of the mast. And so in my job, I operate those cameras, I ensure the health and safety of those cameras, I help manage the data and help deliver the data that will be taken to the public and to the scientists.

What’s a typical day like? It’s coming in, getting the lay of the land and just diving in with the rest of the team and figuring out what we write in those commands. During that whole process, there’s just a ton of constant checking, constant reading over what we write, constantly making sure our numbers make sense. It’s extremely collaborative, which is welcome.

How did UWM prepare you for your career? The geosciences department was great – awesome faculty. They were really willing to give students opportunities to explore their own interests. I worked with a professor who was also the undergraduate advisor for the department at the time, Lindsay McHenry. She also studies Mars and a lot of environments here on Earth. She studies Mars minerology. I shared my interests with her. She was able to use grant money for me to be on her research team at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California helping

out one of her grad students. That was kind of my first big research project, and that was probably the most influential thing that got me on this path.

What are your best memories at UWM? One is definitely that research trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. That was my first time ever going to a national park. I was also a mentor at the Student Success Center to new students. Outside of academics and science, working there was my favorite experience. We did a lot of events, a lot of stuff with new students in the summer. Twenty to 30 undergrads in a small office getting people excited about school.

What’s the coolest or weirdest image that you’ve taken on Mars? I would say the sand, honestly. The chemistry of the rocks on Mars, it’s what’s called mafic, and mafic rocks are typically more iron- and magnesium-rich rocks. They’re dark in color. Essentially, sand comes from rocks and it’s just broken-down rocks. There are so many times we drive up to or past sand dunes on Mars, and there are just these huge, wide expanses of this sand. It’s completely jet-black sand with a bunch of these really tiny ripples. They almost look like moving waves in water. It’s this beautiful, shimmering dark sand that forms these really cool ripple features – they’re almost hypnotic just looking at it. It’s one of those things that makes you go, “Wow, this is not Earth. This is a completely different place.”

A self-portrait of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover shows the vehicle on Vera Rubin Ridge.

The inlet cover to an instrument suite inside the rover, through which powdered samples of Martian rocks are deposited in order to be analyzed by an array of scientific equipment.

These images show the typical beige color of the Martian landscape (left) and how the terrain was tinted a reddish color three days later after a planetwide dust storm. Images from the Mars Curiosity rover’s Mastcam taken by Dixon.

UWM ALUMNI

FALL 2019 •

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