The University of New Orleans Magazine, Spring 2015

A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI, STUDENTS AND FRIENDS OF UNO

VOLUME 39 ISSUE 1

STATE OF THE ART

UNO Alumnus Fernando Rivera is “Back Where He Belongs” as CEO of the New VA Medical Center

the n on eve l a il tiv on es epti ng Ta F c i sic Re m ma Mu ame eco d Hu F d m n d n F f a ll of - Ho on a l Gra dy f o - Ha ion ati Fal tu k Dear UNO Alumni and Friends, o nt ept duc nd g S Co As the 10-year anniversary of o: pme Rec of E ng a visin b d m ri lo ni e Hurricane Katrina draws closer, Ma Deve lum olleg - Sp ear A h s A fis an rts - C hip st Y there is certain to be a great deal of raw Hum - A ame lars g Fir C n l o contemplation about what the New n ua nd cheo all G Sch Spri b o39 nn on aVOLUME r •d NUMBER 1 t n Orleans area and its people have A e u f ati i L ask tes ll an ird endured during the past decade.

Th Educ umn g B EXECUTIVE EDITOR uo - Fa sto l n ou i of ff A omi ual Q ireePatricia Murret There will undoubtedly be sadness H a - mn St mec Mut d So ps and nostalgia about what was lost ho ll Alu e L EDITOR s Ho erty g an in rk Fa or never the same, as well as pride Adam Norris Lib etin Wo nd m - D Co t e i a a a ol M and hope given the many milestones u L ring rogr cho rle DESIGN AND LAYOUT a p O S P S fé reached and surpassed.

Emily Frock Ca nt - ition High New nche & ve gn , E ay gs Lau es o PHOTOGRAPHY um ition Rec -In D etin au We are engaged in the same kind of introspection here at the s e re ReFrank es ve gn Aymami ak Mo rd M s Bu University of New Orleans. As was the case before Katrina, the co eEdwards all eBlake s F a , R m UF Bo ker d a bA University remains an essential part of the fabric of the city and an ader i NEmily a Frock d an i Spe e n UC ee Lott L Amanda m S the region. Our campus sustained tens of millions of dollars’ u e, tt mn Al Tracie mi luSchaefer us Morris worth of damage. Like so many in the region, our students, Ho Com ed A a faculty and staff were displaced across the country, some never 50 unch h Mn a s L fi Send Correspondence to: to return. And yet the University was a beacon of optimism and a aw m Cr Hu n stability. UNO was the only university in New Orleans to reopen l o UNO Magazine Editor d a nu an he during the fall semester of 2005. Through sacrifice, dedication University of New OrleansAn tion Lunc ketb d ir uca ni Bas t Administration Building and sheer will, the leadership and employees of this institution Th103 uo Ed lum ng 2000 Lakeshore Drive of ff A omi ual Q ire did what no one else could. a St mec Mut d So New Orleans, LA 70148 o y n H phone: (504) 280-6832 ibert ng a We are unquestionably changed from the experience. Our i L t e email: unomagazine@uno.edu e enrollment is not what it once was, and we have fewer programs, M

faculty and staff. And yet, we are resolute in our mission.

We still deliver a first-class education at an affordable price without saddling our graduates with burdensome debt. We still conduct groundbreaking research. We are a university with an international imprint. In the decade since Katrina, the University of New Orleans has educated students from all 50 states and 132 countries. That is influence of a truly global scale.

I hope that, as you read this issue of the UNO Magazine, it will be clear that our founding values of academic excellence and accessibility are uncompromised. Our students are diverse, talented, driven and endlessly curious about the passions that they pursue. We have phenomenal faculty members whose dedication to our students and passion for their work are unsurpassed. We continue to positively impact our community through educational, cultural and intellectual activities on and off campus that enrich and enlighten. We produce outstanding graduates who excel in their fields and make a difference in the lives of others. In spite of the upheaval of the last 10 years, the core attributes of the institution have persisted.

The University of New Orleans was a leader in the months and years following Katrina’s devastation. The significance of its role still resonates today. The University has overcome great obstacles throughout its history. With the support of our alumni and friends, that indomitable spirit will continue.

With Warmest Regards, Peter J. Fos, President

s me su nit e ll R og Fa Rec es d an ader i Nam b Le mn SUC e u Al use, mitt o om A H The UNO Magazine is published by the University 0 C hed c 5 n of New Orleans. Articles represent the opinions of au L

the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone but the authors. Letters to the editor are welcome and should be submitted via email or typewritten and signed. Letters must include the writer’s name and telephone number for verification.

All letters are subject to editing for brevity.

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To inquire about alumni events or to join the UNO a ird Th Educ International Alumni Association, contact: f A Office of Alumni Affairs, University of New Orleans, o aff New Orleans, LA 70148 St m phone: (504) 280-2586 • fax: (504) 280-1080 Ho e email: alumni@uno.edu Lib © 2015 The University of New Orleans

This public document was published at a total cost of $22,225. 35,000 copies of this public document were published in this first printing at a cost of $22,225. The total cost of all printings of this document, including reprints is $22,225. This document was published by the University of New Orleans, 2000 Lakeshore Dr., New Orleans, LA 70148, to promote the purpose of the University under authority of 17:3351(A)(12). This material was printed in accordance with the standards for printing by state agencies established pursuant to R.S. 43:31. Printing of this material was purchased in accordance with the provisions of Title 43 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes.

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DEPARTMENTS CAMPUS SCENE

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Headlines & Happenings

James Carville at Commencement.

NEWS & EVENTS

STATE OF THE ART UNO Alumnus Fernando Rivera is “Back Where He Belongs” as CEO of the New VA Medical Center

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Theatre UNO Triumphs

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In Memoriam: Michael Mizell-Nelson

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Connecting NOMA’s “Kongo Across the Waters” to New Orleans

New Faces

Meet the new dean of the College of Engineering: Emir José Macari.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

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FEATURES

30 Fighting Spirit

Recent graduates want to turn advocacy into careers.

32 International Treasure

Professor Niyi Osundare is a beloved literary figure and passionate teacher.

36 Gateway to the World

New International Center is campus hub for international activities.

STEM Research UNO Music FACULTY FOCUS

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On the Move ATHLETICS

42

Aiming High

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Face Time

38 Students Learn Space Age Technology

Homecoming

New Orleans Track and Field finds hope in former Olympian.

Actor Wendell Pierce talks to the Privateers about making Selma.

ALUMNI

Engineering students get advanced manufacturing training at Michoud.

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Old Ties, New Friends

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Alum Spotlights

First-ever Alumni Week creates a new fall tradition.

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C AM P U S S C E NE Political commentator and Louisiana native James Carville delivers a comical and timely commencement speech to UNO’s graduating class of fall 2014.

Want to learn more? Visit our university newsfeed on www.uno.edu.

Students enjoy the new coffee shop located in the Earl K. Long Library, across from the Privateer Enrollment Center. The popular stop is designed to resemble a New Orleans café.

A student gains a new perspective studying on the Lakefront campus.

UNO alumnus Larry Stokes (at left), seen here with Dean Darrell P. Kruger and Assistant Dean Martha Blanchard, is inducted into the UNO College of Education and Human Development’s newly established “Hall of Fame.” The event recognized four COEHD graduates for outstanding work in their fields.

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Theatre UNO performs Melancholy Play: A Contemporary Farce by Sarah Ruhl at the Robert E. Nims Theatre.

The Quink Vocal Ensemble, a Dutch a cappella group, performed as part of the University of New Orleans’ 2015 Musical Excursions series. The University’s award-winning concert series has presented first-class classical and world music since 1993.

Stanford biophysicist Michael Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, delivers a lecture at UNO on the birth and future of multiscale modeling of macromolecules. Mapping the precise structures of biological molecules is a necessary first step in understanding how they work and in designing drugs to alter their function.

Jade Hewitt (at right), who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in film production at UNO, wins the Jeri Nims Graduate Thesis Scholarship, an annual award that brings a $10,000 scholarship to help pay for film production and entrance to competitions and film festivals. She joins Jeri Nims and film and theatre department chair David Hoover on a star-studded personal tour of the UNO Nims Center Studios, and sees filming of NCIS: New Orleans.

Several hundred students gather at the University of New Orleans amphitheater to celebrate Holi, a Hindu celebration of spring. The colorful event, hosted for the fifth consecutive year by the UNO Student Activities Council and the University’s Chakra Indian Student Association, brings “messy, unadulterated fun.” Students count down from 10 — then throw colored powder into the air, dancing and shouting to celebrate the arrival of the season.

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CA M P U S S C E N E

Parisa Tabriz, Google’s self-appointed “Security Princess,” delivers a Google Tech Talk on hackers to an overflow audience of UNO students in April.

The Service Coalition at UNO spends time with the Boys and Girls Club of New Orleans, making a difference in the community during “alternative spring break.”

The UNO Jazz All-Stars help celebrate the 83rd birthday of Harold Battiste, an early jazz studies faculty member.

Leading cinematographer Michael Goi speaks to University of New Orleans film students about the making of American Horror Story.

The Presidential Scholars reception, held in April, welcomed 120 top incoming freshmen to campus.

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Real estate executive and philanthropist Robert “Bob” Merrick received an honorary doctorate at fall commencement.

Students present their work at InnovateUNO, the University’s annual undergraduate research competition.

UNO’s Model United Nations team captures an award for the fifth straight year.

Greeks! Students brave the weather to enjoy Panhellenic fun organized by Greek Life.

Randi Brown is voted the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, becoming the first women’s basketball player in Privateer history to earn the honor.

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NEWS & EVENTS

Theatre UNO, the University’s award-winning theatre program, brings home a Director’s Choice Award and five Distinguished Awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional competition. Its performance of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, written by Rajiv Joseph, wins “Best University Production” at the Big Easy Awards, and UNO graduate student John Neisler is among 16 finalists nationwide for the Kennedy Center’s Irene Ryan Acting Award.

THEATRE UNO CONTINUES TO TRIUMPH The University of New Orleans’ awardwinning theatre program, Theatre UNO, continues to bring home prizes. Theatre UNO recently performed Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at the Kennedy Center American College Festivals’ Region Six Festival in San Angelo, Texas — earning a Director’s Choice Award and five Distinguished Awards. The University production also won a Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best University Theatre Production.

“We are so proud of the students and faculty who helped to create this awardwinning production and we are so grateful to our sponsors,” said David W. Hoover, chair of the UNO Film and Theatre Department.

“Our students had a profound experience — they performed as professionals, among professionals, in a nationally acclaimed theatre festival series.

The KCACTF only selects the best and our cast and crew made the University of New Orleans proud.”

The New Orleans Theatre Association and The Azby Fund, a philanthropic trust, 6

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helped to fund Theatre UNO’s trip to perform at the festival, Hoover said. In December, NOTA also provided a grant to the theatre program that allowed students to perform Bengal Tiger at the Rivertown Theatre, a professional theater in Kenner.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is a year-long competition of university productions from all over the U.S., Hoover said. Region Six is comprised of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

In December, cast and crew received high honors for their performance of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated and Tony Award-winning play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, written by Rajiv Joseph.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival invited seven shows from the six-state region to perform in the Region Six Festival, held in February.

Theatre UNO was the only theater program from Louisiana selected to compete. At that time, UNO graduate students and Bengal Tiger cast members Sam Malone, John Neisler and Kyle Woods were nominated for Irene Ryan Acting Awards. Hoover received a Merito-

rious Achievement Award for directing and faculty member Kevin Griffith received a Meritorious Achievement Award for Scenic Design.

In February, Theatre UNO’s performance of Bengal Tiger was selected as “Directors’ Choice,” a juried award voted on by directors at the Region Six Festival.

John Neisler, who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree, was selected as an Irene Ryan Acting Award finalist, placing him in the top 16 of 180 nominees. The award, which brings scholarships to outstanding actors, honor the late Irene Ryan who portrayed the lovable and feisty “Granny Clampett” in The Beverly Hillbillies.

“We also recently received extra recognition from the Kennedy Center itself,” Hoover said. “A panel of KCACTF judges travels to all eight regional festivals and selects work that stands out among competitors from across the country. These ‘Distinguished Awards’ are national honors.”

Theatre UNO’s performance of Bengal Tiger received five Distinguished Awards: Best Contemporary Play; Scenic Design; Lighting Design; Direction and Lead Actor, an award that was given to John Neisler.

About 40 alumni, students, faculty and staff were nominated for Big Easy Awards in more than 20 categories dramas, comedies and musicals. Often they were nominated in several categories or competed against one another within the same category, a true testament to the success of the UNO theatre program and its actors, Hoover said.

In March, Theatre UNO’s Bengal Tiger took home a Big Easy Award for Best University Theatre Production and saw UNO alumni and students win Big Easy Awards in four other categories: UNO College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumnus Gary Rucker directed Shrek and Young Frankenstein at Rivertown Theatre for the Performing Arts, which took home a Big Easy Award for Best Musical.

NOLA Project’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which took home a Big Easy Award for Best Drama, boasted a cast filled with UNO alumni and current students.

Rivertown Theatre’s production of One Man also included a cast filled with UNO alumni. The production took home a Big Easy Award for Best Comedy.

UNO alumna Tracey Collins won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance in Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts’ Young Frankenstein, directed

by UNO Distinguished Alumnus Gary Rucker.

THREE COEHD ALUMNAE NAMED “PRINCIPAL OF THE YEAR” BY JEFFERSON PARISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS Jefferson Parish Public Schools System named three women “Principal of the Year” — and all three honorees are alumnae of the University of New Orleans College of Education and Human Development.

Faith Joseph, Jaime Zapico and Suzanne Bordlee went on to participate in a statewide competition sponsored annually by the Louisiana Department of Education.

Another proud UNO alumna, Denise Rehm, who received her master’s degree in educational administration from UNO, previously was named Louisiana “Principal of the Year” in 2014. Rehm, who is principal of Joshua Butler Elementary in Westwego, was nominated for the honor by Jefferson Parish Public Schools and selected from among 15 finalists.

Joseph, who received a master’s in education from UNO, has for the last eight years led Henry Ford Middle School in

Avondale, where she has also served as teacher, dean of students and assistant principal, according to The TimesPicayune. Her leadership and adherence to tougher accountability standards helped the school, which received a C state letter grade in the past two testing years, to gain three points in its performance score in 2013-14.

Zapico, a two-time alumna who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNO, has led Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy in Avondale for six years and was named Jefferson’s middle school principal of the year in 2013. According to The Times-Picayune, Taylor Academy, a middle school and high school, has attained national recognition. The school, which has strict admissions standards, in 2013-2014 achieved an A state letter grade.

Bordlee, who has served as principal of Leo J. Kerner Elementary School in Jean Lafitte for the last four years, also has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNO. Kerner Elementary, which has open admission requirements, received an A state letter grade in 2013-2014.

The three nominees — Joseph, Zapico, and Bordlee — will go on to compete against other principals from school systems around the state —and each other — in the Louisiana Principal of the Year competition. The Louisiana Department of Education will announce the winner in mid-July.

In other good news: UNO alumni Sandra McCullough and Gerard Nugent this spring were named St. Charles Parish Teachers of the Year.

UNO SURVEY: 81 PERCENT OF KATRINA-DAMAGED HOMES HAVE STARTED OR COMPLETED REBUILDING A curbside survey conducted by the University of New Orleans’ Department of Geography found that 81 percent of damaged homes within the Hurricane Katrina flood zone of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes have begun or completed rebuilding or renovating.

The survey was conducted between October 2014 and February 2015. This is the seventh iteration of the survey, which tracks the progress of more than 2,000 Katrina-flooded single and double family residences in a set of 39 U.S.

According to a new study conducted by the UNO Department of Geography, 81 percent of damaged homes within the Hurricane Katrina flood zone of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes have begun or completed rebuilding or renovating.

Census block groups, selected randomly to provide a representative overview of the flood zone.

Residences were classified as either new/finished renovation, in process of renovation, gutted/derelict, or empty lots from which the house has been removed.

Here is the breakdown of the survey: •

• •

81 percent of homes have begun or completed rebuilding or renovating (79 percent appeared complete, two percent in process). This number is up slightly from the 79 percent reported by the April 2013 survey.

15 percent are demolished (now empty lots).

Four percent are gutted or derelict.

The two percent rise in the number of properties that are new, had finished renovation, or are in the process of rebuilding is similar to the two percent increase from 2010 to 2013, which had slowed from a six percent increase from 2009 to 2010 and the nine percent rise from 2008 to 2009. Gutted and/or derelict homes continue to decline in abundance, dropping to four percent from eight percent in 2013, 11 percent in 2010 and 17 percent in 2009.

The proportion of empty lots (with houses removed) increased slightly to 15 percent from 14 percent in 2013.

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NEWS & EVENTS

George A. Kadair III, Laurie A. Kadair, UNO Vice President for Student Affairs Brett Kemker, UNO President Peter J. Fos and Sharon Hickey Kadair celebrate the renaming of the Senator Ted Hickey Ballroom in the University Center.

HONORING SENATOR TED HICKEY, HISTORY MAKER

LSU Board of Supervisors in 1974, was a milestone in UNO’s history.

The University of New Orleans has renamed the University Center’s grand ballroom after the late State Sen. Theodore “Ted” Hickey. UNO President Peter J. Fos and Vice President for Student Affairs Brett Kemker shared their gratitude for Sen. Hickey’s loyalty to UNO in March at a special dedication attended by Sharon Hickey Kadair, Sen. Hickey’s daughter; Laurie A. Kadair, Sen. Hickey’s granddaughter; and George A. Kadair III, Sen. Hickey’s grandson.

Throughout his political career, Hickey was an ardent supporter of projects that encouraged UNO’s growth, notably the construction of the earliest permanent buildings on campus. Homer Hitt, the founding chancellor of UNO, called Hickey “a tried and proven friend of UNO for many, many years.”

lishing UNO as well as changing its name.

Hickey (1910-1993) served as a state legislator for nearly 30 years and represented the district in which UNO is located. In the 1950s, Hickey fought to create a public university in what was then the largest metropolitan area in the United States without one. He helped draft Act 60 of the 1956 Louisiana Legislature, which officially established the new institution.

University of New Orleans professor Golden Richard received a $105,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency to expand his intensive cybersecurity training course for high school teachers. The funding will allow Richard to train 20 teacher participants, five more than in the program’s first year.

UNO PROFESSOR GETS FEDERAL GRANT TO Hickey was a champion of the institution EXPAND CYBERSECURITY TRAINING PROGRAM and played an instrumental role in estab-

In 1958, UNO opened as Louisiana State University in New Orleans. In recognition of the University’s need to grow and control its own destiny, Hickey co-authored the 1973 senate resolution in support of changing the University’s name to the University of New Orleans.

The change, which was approved by the 8

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The 2015 program, which will be held July 20-31 at UNO, is free of charge to invited participants, and includes lodging, travel and meals.

The goals of the program are to increase cybersecurity awareness and expertise among high school teachers, to help integrate cybersecurity topics into high school coursework, to increase

cybersecurity awareness among students, and to boost enrollment in cybersecurity programs at the college level.

“Teachers who attend can expect to significantly deepen their knowledge of cybersecurity and to transition what they learn into their own classrooms,” says Richard, a professor of computer science and director of the Greater New Orleans Center for Information Assurance at UNO. “There is a clear need for increasing the number of high school students interested in cybersecurity in order to meet huge demands for welltrained professionals in both the public and private sectors.”

UNO is the only university in Louisiana that is designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations by the National Security Agency.

THE UNO PRESS RELEASES “SKETCHBOOK” OF FOLK ARTIST CLEMENTINE HUNTER On the morning of August 28, 2005, folk art collector Richard Gasperi faced evacuation from New Orleans — and the prospect of choosing what to save from among 500 important works he had acquired during his lifetime. He chose Clementine Hunter’s 1945 sketchbook, a deeply personal, thoughtful depiction of

in literature ranging from Anaïs Nin to Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Engle and Ralph Ellison. Early recognition in Pushcart Prize anthologies helped to launch careers for the likes of Raymond Carver, Junot Diaz, Andre Dubus, Joyce Carol Oates and Ana Menéndez.

era. Though the farmhand sold her first paintings for 25 cents, by the end of her life, Hunter’s work sold for thousands of dollars. Today, her work is shown in museums and collections around the world, including NOMA. The self-taught artist received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986.

Twenty-six previously unreleased works appear in Clementine Hunter: A Sketchbook, released this spring by the UNO Press. Clementine Hunter’s 1945 sketchbook reveals a deeply personal, thoughtful depiction of Creole life in the Cane River area of rural Louisiana.

New Orleans folk art collector Richard Gasperi made its printing possible and collaborated with the University of New Orleans’ Ogden Museum of Southern Art to showcase the original sketchbook and works by other “icons of self-taught art,” such as David Butler, Howard Finster, Charles Hutson, Sister Gertrude Morgan and Jimmy Lee Sudduth.

Creole life in the Cane River area of rural Louisiana. This spring, with Gasperi’s help, the University of New Orleans Press released previously unpublished works by one of the South’s most important artists.

“The 26 previously unreleased paintings collected in Clementine Hunter: A Sketchbook are easily among her most compelling work — showcasing private moments of tenderness, anxiety, and human connection not often depicted in her more commercial paintings,” says Abram Himelstein, director of the UNO Press.

Clementine Hunter, who was born in 1886 and lived to be more than 100, was a self-taught African-American folk artist who lived and worked on Melrose Plantation in the Cane River region. She is the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art; the exhibit remains on display today.

Hunter, a Louisiana Creole, worked as a farm laborer and never learned to read or write, according to history books. She began painting in her 50s, after a visiting artist left behind brushes and paints at Melrose Plantation, where she lived and worked all her life.

Hunter’s artwork portrays plantation life in the early 20th century and provides a unique viewpoint of this

The prize aims to honor the best “stories, poetry and literary whatnot” published by small presses in the previous year, according to the organization’s website.

Winners receive the honor, as well as publication in The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, an annual collection that includes the year’s best literary writing by small presses, as well as an index of past selections and lists of outstanding presses and their contact information.

Her sketchbook is now available to the public through the UNO Press. Curator Bradley Sumrall of the University of New Orleans’ Ogden Museum of Southern Art is a partner in the book’s creation.

“Hunter has been an important artist to the Museum’s mission from the earliest moments of our founding collection and vision,” Sumrall said upon the book’s release.

The original sketchbook appeared this spring at the Ogden Museum as part of a temporary exhibition “The Gasperi Collection: Self-taught, Outsider and Visionary Art.” The exhibit, meant to “showcase the depth and breadth” of the gallery owner’s impressive folk art collection, also featured work by other “icons of self-taught art” such as David Butler, Howard Finster, Charles Hutson, Sister Gertrude Morgan and Jimmy Lee Sudduth.

The CWW students and alumni who were nominated for Pushcarts in 2014 are: Heather Fowler, Caroline Goetze, Clare Harmon, Soleil Ho, Eric Hollerbach, Kailyn McCord, Colleen Muir, Matt Peters, Maurice Ruffin, Summer Wood and Che Yeun.

ELEVEN UNO STUDENTS AND ALUMNI NOMINATED FOR PUSHCART PRIZES Eleven students and recent alumni of the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop are now vying for the Pushcart Prize, an elite honor that recognizes the best stories, poetry and literary writing published in literary magazines each year.

“This year, the UNO Creative Writing Workshop had an astounding number of students and recent alums nominated for Pushcart Prizes, meaning that not only are our students publishing at a high rate, but they are publishing what editors consider to be some of the strongest pieces in their magazines,” says M.O. Walsh, director.

The Pushcart Prizes are widely considered the most prestigious prizes awarded to fiction, poetry and nonfiction pieces published in literary journals across the U.S. Nominees are selected by the editors of the literary journals.

The Pushcart Prize was established in 1976 by a group of leading writers and founding editors that include big names

“The CWW attributes this success to our incredibly talented students and the total investment of our faculty in their writing careers,” Walsh says. “As a program, we encourage our students to submit their work and try to publish their best stuff. It’s an often grueling process, filled with lots of rejection, but this enormous achievement by our students shows us that it’s paying off. Fingers crossed that some of these students win these awards for which they have been so deservingly nominated.”

Walsh, whose debut novel My Sunshine Away hit bookshelves in February and is expected to be one of the best books of 2015, says of these students that he is “honored to be among them.”

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new faces Emir José Macari

enrollment, its R&D portfolio and its partnerships with industry.”

Dean of the College of Engineering

Macari previously served as the dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento and the dean of the College of Science and Technology at the University of Texas at Brownsville. He was the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental engineering at LSU from 1999-2001. In 2004, he was honored by a joint session of the Louisiana State Legislature for “Outstanding Accomplishments and Contributions to Louisiana State University.”

Emir José Macari joined the University of New Orleans this spring as the new dean of the College of Engineering. Macari comes to UNO as a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the director of the California Smart Grid Center at California State University, Sacramento.

Macari succeeds Norm Whitley, who has served as interim dean of the UNO College of Engineering since June 2012.

“Dr. Macari has a unique combination of skills and experience that led the search committee to recommend him for the position,” says Kenneth Sewell, vice president for research and economic development, and chair of the search committee. “First and foremost, he has experience as an engineering dean at other universities. But beyond his proven abilities as a dean, he has extensive skills and infectious enthusiasm for helping the college to simultaneously grow its 10

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He has held previous academic positions at Georgia Tech and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. He also spent two years as a program director at the National Science Foundation.

“I am happy to be here at the University of New Orleans,” Macari says. “I have always loved New Orleans; it is the city where my mother grew up and my parents met. I look forward to accomplishing great things in the College of Engineering while working closely with the faculty, students, alumni, administration and the broader

New Orleans community.”

Macari is a geotechnical engineer who researches disaster mitigation. He received the 2014 Jaime Oaxaca Award, given annually by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers to recognize “selfless and outstanding contributions to the fields of engineering and science to the Hispanic community over an extended period of time.” Macari, a native of Mexico, was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering of Mexico in 2004 and the Mexican Academy of Science in 2006.

Macari holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech and a master’s and doctoral degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

UNO’s College of Engineering offers the only mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and civil and environmental engineering degree programs in metropolitan New Orleans. Its School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering is the only one in the region and one of only several in the nation. The college grants bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

NEWS & EVENTS

IN MEMORIAM: HISTORY PROFESSOR MICHAEL MIZELL-NELSON histories. His work in urban, labor and food history went hand-in-hand with his pioneering efforts in public and digital history, as well as service learning.”

The University of New Orleans community mourns the loss of history professor Michael Mizell-Nelson, who died of cancer Dec. 1 at the age of 49. Mizell-Nelson, a UNO faculty member since 2004, was a lifelong New Orleanian and a foremost authority on two quintessential New Orleans topics: the po-boy and the streetcar. He served as the public history coordinator for the UNO history department.

“As a scholar of New Orleans, Michael was unique not only in the depth and breadth of his knowledge, but also in his approach to the city’s history,” says Mary Niall Mitchell, associate professor of history. “He broke away from the familiar stories about New Orleans and found new ones, particularly regarding the city’s relationship to food and New Orleans’ strong working class history. It isn’t overstating it to say that we’ve just lost one of the most important historians to ever study New Orleans, and a scholar who still had so much to do.”

Mizell-Nelson, an associate professor of history, co-produced “Streetcar Stories,” a one-hour documentary that aired on PBS affiliates around the country and was screened at the American Film Institute Festival and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He also devoted years to researching the name and origin of po-boys. In collaboration with Tulane University, Mizell-Nelson helped create New Orleans Historical, a Web and mobile platform that features stories and scholarship about New Orleans.

Mizell-Nelson was a driving force behind the creation of the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank. Launched in 2005, in partnership with George Mason University, the memory bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The website includes firsthand accounts, on-scene images, blog postings and podcasts. It is the largest free public archive of Katrina and Rita material, with more than 25,000 items in the collection.

UNO anthropologist David Beriss speaks at a University of New Orleans summit centered around the significant changes the New Orleans region has experienced in the decade since Hurricane Katrina. “A Safe and Just Region? Assessing New Orleans 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina” was held in the Sen. Ted Hickey Ballroom in the University Center, and drew a diverse audience of students, academics, journalists and local residents.

“Michael Mizell-Nelson was a prolific historian of his beloved city and an incredible teacher and mentor to me and so many of his students and colleagues,” says UNO alumna Polly Rolman-Smith, special projects coordinator of the exhibits department at the Louisiana State Museum. “Many of his contributions to the field were groundbreaking and helped to inspire many to research those underrepresented by recorded history. He will be greatly missed by his community.”

KATRINA@10 SUMMIT EXAMINES DECADE OF CHANGE Nearly 200 people attended a University of New Orleans summit that analyzed the significant changes the New Orleans region has experienced in the decade since Hurricane Katrina.

“A Safe and Just Region? Assessing New Orleans 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina” was held in late March in the Sen. Ted Hickey Ballroom in the University Center, and drew a diverse audience of students, academics, journalists and local residents.

Mizell-Nelson helped organize historical panel discussions at the annual Oak Street Po-Boy Festival and even his imprint on social media conveyed his devotion to his city and its cultural traditions; his Twitter handle was @poorboyologist.

“He was the best of colleagues – and we can learn from his example: his unfailing good humor, his clear vision of the future of his discipline, his belief that the student comes first,” says Connie Atkinson, associate professor of history and the director of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies. “He believed everyday life was worth serious study, and his legacy lives in the young men and women he inspired.”

“Michael personified the University’s urban mission,” says James Mokhiber, associate professor of history. “He was deeply committed to both exploring the He is survived by his wife, Cathe; his history of the city and empowering others son, Arlo; and his daughter, Keely.

— on and off campus — to tell their own

The daylong symposium was divided into four separate panel discussions that featured faculty members from UNO and other Louisiana universities, as well as professionals from nonprofits, government and private industry. The topics of the panels were: the coast, disaster preparedness and resilience 10 years later; continuity and change in food, music and everyday life; historic preservation and tangible cultural resources in an uncertain environment; and a decade of urban change in housing, transportation and economic development.

A common theme that emerged from many of the panel discussions was the concept of a recovery that is both exemplary and uneven.

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NEWS & EVENTS (Katrina, continued) “I would say we are doing well, but not good enough,” said Renia Ehrenfeucht, an associate professor of planning and urban studies and one of the event’s organizers. “Certainly our coastal areas are still vulnerable. In the city, some areas are doing great and coming back better than ever and then others are not doing so well. Some people have plenty of opportunities while some people do not.”

Both affordable housing and the availability of jobs that pay a living wage continue to be a challenge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, according to Marla Nelson, associate professor of planning and urban studies.

Nelson’s research has noted many New Orleans residents are willing to travel outside of their own parish for employment that some might assume would available closer to home.

“What really struck us too was how far some people were commuting for this low-wage work — into St. Charles Parish, into Plaquemines Parish as well,” Nelson said.

Individual panelists delivered brief presentations on a chosen topic and then fielded questions from audience members.

The subjects ran the gamut—from the plight of people living outside the levees and how to build community resilience to the Latin American influence in postKatrina New Orleans food and the renewal of City Park.

The event was organized by the UNO Department of Planning and Urban Studies in collaboration with the departments of Anthropology and Sociology, the Master of Public Administration program, the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology (UNO-CHART) and the Merritt C. Becker UNO Transportation Institute.

To watch the Katrina@10 Summit, visit

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Out of this world! At the inaugural University of New Orleans Space Day 2014, the Boeing Company unveiled a model of the Space Launch System, which is currently being built at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and is on track for the mission to Mars.

“It was a nice day,” said Travis Mumphrey, 14, of Rummel. “We did a lot of activities. The space launch was one of my favorites.”

UNO welcomed approximately 150 students from area schools to campus in November to participate in Space Day 2014. The event was designed to introduce youngsters to the joys and challenges — and especially the importance of — science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), said Karen Thomas, associate dean of STEM outreach, recruitment, and

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Students from five area schools participate in three activities as part of Space Day 2014. They split up into teams named after NASA solar system missions and built stomp rockets, created planetary structures and simulated docking a space station.

retention in the College of Sciences.

Seventh and 8th graders from St. Augustine, Archbishop Rummel, Edward Hynes, Holy Cross, and Ursuline, came to UNO to enjoy hands-on activities based on a theme of another dimension: space.

For months, UNO students, faculty and staff met weekly with representatives from the Boeing Company, NASA, Jacobs Technology and the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM) to design the day focused on raising interest in STEM studies, Thomas said.

The colleges of Sciences and Engineering and the University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs coordinated the University’s responsibilities.

They created a logo and designed hands-on space-themed activities, College of Engineering Assistant Dean Kim Jovanovich said. They even put together special T-Shirts and swag bags emblazoned UNO. Inside the bright blue and white bags were handouts from NASA and Boeing with information about the space center, hands-on experimental activities, and water bottles bearing the University’s name and logo.

“It was a really great collaboration, internally across campus and also with our external partners,” Thomas said, adding that more than 30 UNO students, faculty and staff participated in the banner day.

how they could produce light, using the warmth of their hand. His presentation was “all about materials science,” Thomas said. “It was great.”

Student teams from each school took new names — Apollo, Curiosity, Explorer, Pioneer, and Voyager — and in a fun-filled day, students rotated through three activities: stomp rockets, the NASA planetary structure challenge and the space station docking simulator.

Stomp Rockets “We had to build a rocket with our team and see whose could go the farthest,” Mumphrey said.

NASA’s new Space Launch System, which is currently being built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, is on track for the mission to Mars. To demonstrate some of the concepts involved, students were given everyday materials, including recycled cardboard paper towel rolls, empty 2-liter plastic soda bottles and PVC pipe, as well as instructions and asked to build and launch a NASA subscale test rocket, Thomas said.

STEM teams recorded and analyzed data during the rocket test flight. At the end of Space Day, students determined the best rocket design from each school for a final test flight. They stomped on their self-created structures and measured the distance of their flight.

“They were going up into the balcony.

They were going all over the place,” Thomas said. “The kids really had a good time.”

Rummel took home the trophy in the stomp rockets competition, with a collective distance travelled of 389 inches.

A Warm Welcome

NASA Challenge – Planetary Structure

President Peter J. Fos welcomed the middle schoolers — potential future University students — with a heartening talk about their value to the community.

Jovanovich followed up with an introduction to STEM. He used the analogy of a tree — with science, technology, engineering and mathematics depicted as the roots of the tree and the space launcher system as the tree’s blooming foliage.

NASA future space missions beyond low earth orbit require stronger and lighter materials to enable transport and assembly of structures in space, Thomas said. Students received everyday materials — Scotch tape, marshmallows and dry spaghetti — and a challenge to design and build a free standing planetary structural tower built to maximum height.

At a Look-and-Learn exhibit in the University Center, Boeing displayed a 1/50th scale model of its Space Launch System (SLS) now in development, Thomas said.

To demonstrate thermal electric generation, physics professor Kevin Stokes used a $20 LED device to show students

station without blowing it up.”

The docking operation at the International Space Station allows for crew rotation and for the restocking of critical supplies and scientific experiments.

Students received more everyday materials — a balloon, string, and tape, and instructions to design and build a propulsion system that travels the correct distance and speed for executing the required docking sequence.

Jorge Ledo, director of the National Center of Advanced Manufacturing at the LSU College of Engineering, headed up the experiment. It was thrilling, he said, “just to see the kids use their thought processes and improving with each try at docking their launch vehicle.”

The experiment demanded blowing up a balloon and then blowing through a straw to send it down the string. The team to arrive closest to the docking station won.

Ursuline got a perfect score.

Poster Competition Each participating school was invited to design a 20-inch-by-30-inch one-sided poster symbolizing Louisiana’s contribution to the NASA space program.

Participating schools brought completed posters to Space Day to be judged by a panel including NASA program directors, Boeing Company executives and deans at the University of New Orleans, Thomas said.

Hynes and Holy Cross students won the poster contest, Thomas said. They took home trophies and received professionally printed and framed posters to display in school corridors. Copies now hang at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility and at the University of New Orleans campus.

“My favorite part of the day was when the kids were getting the awards,” Thomas said. “There was a lot of cheering going on.

They were just so excited to win.”

Ledo launched three entry-level model rockets in the field next to the Newman Center to cap off the fun and close out the day.

Ursuline won with a towering height of 26 inches.

Space Station Docking Simulator “My favorite part was the dock where we blew up balloons,” said Will Spears, 14, an 8th grader at St. Augustine. “If you touched it too close, you could blow up the space station. We had to get an inch to the space UNO MAGAZINE

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NEWS & EVENTS

UNO ST. CLAUDE GALLERY SHINES IN PROSPECT.3 Reviewers raved about an exhibition on display at the University of New Orleans St. Claude Gallery last fall as part of Prospect.3: Notes for Now, an international contemporary art biennial. “Shrine,” a collaborative project that included a film created by Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City-based artists The Propeller Group and sculptures by artist Christopher Myers, received excellent reviews by word-of-mouth and in print.

“It’s wonderful that the artists got this exposure and that critics in New York and New Orleans are discussing them and our space,” says Kathy Rodriguez, gallery director. “I hope that we can get more talk — especially locally — generated about our gallery, and its importance in the community, through the exposure we received this fall … and future shows.”

The UNO St. Claude Gallery, located in the avant-garde St. Claude arts district, is an

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The UNO St. Claude Gallery shines with “Shrine,” a collaboration of The Propeller Group and artist Christopher Myers, in Prospect.3: Notes for Now

off-campus fine arts gallery that houses many student, faculty and alumni exhibitions. Gifted to the University in 2012 by Metairie resident and UNO Foundation board member Dr. Alvin Merlin, the UNO St. Claude Gallery allows a permanent exhibition site for the UNO community to show its work and provides the greater New Orleans community with a venue to exhibit high quality art from exciting artists.

The gallery opened six years ago in time for a faculty show in Prospect.1, the first citywide art biennial, and this fall participated in Prospect.3: Notes for Now. Known as P.3, the event featured the work of 58 artists selected by artistic director Franklin Sirmans in 18 venues located throughout New Orleans.

“Shrine,” produced by The Propeller Group and Christopher Myers, was a study of the “elusive butterfly effect — the theory of ‘nonlocality,’ whereby two distinct phenomena affect one another across a vast

expanse of space and time,” the artists said.

“They explore the celebratory and unique funeral ceremonies of Saigon and New Orleans: two cities, two cultures, mirroring each other from worlds apart.”

In P.3, The Propeller Group introduced a film, called “The Living Need Light, and The Dead Need Music.” The film, which took its title from a Vietnamese proverb, focused on the ceremony of the funeral wake in Vietnam, where spiritual mediums, professional criers and musicians lead these multiple day mourning ceremonies into euphoric public events. Myers, an artist and writer based in Brooklyn, accompanied this work with a sculptural installation of garments, instruments and photographs.

The effect created one of the “Top Five Moments” of the biennial, according to a review in The New Orleans Advocate.

CONNECTING “KONGO ACROSS THE WATERS” TO NEW ORLEANS

NEWS & EVENTS

University of New Orleans scholars and graduate students joined with local colleagues this spring to discuss new approaches to the long history of connections between New Orleans and Central Africa at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

The groundbreaking “Kongo Across the Waters” exhibition ran for three months at NOMA and has toured the world. The exhibition was organized by the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren, Belgium and the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, and features 160 rarely-seen objects from the RMCA collection.

In March, UNO researchers co-hosted “Connecting ‘Kongo Across the Waters’ to New Orleans: A Symposium” at NOMA. The symposium explored connections between the art and culture of the Kongo peoples of western Central Africa and African American art and culture in the United States. Selected speakers for the two-panel symposium included UNO Assistant Anthropology Professor Ryan Gray, UNO Associate History Professor James Mokhiber, UNO Assistant Professor of History Andrea Mosterman, and a panel of UNO graduate students: Jason Bordelon, Natalie Ducote, Kevin McQueeney, Emily Nuttli, Camille Perkins, Judy Pinter, Brett Spencer, Ted Tindell and Travis Waguespack.

Loyola University History Professor Nikki Eggers, independent scholar Luther Gray, and independent scholar Freddi Evans also spoke on the public panel.

The exhibition explores connections between the art and culture of the Kongo people of Western Central Africa, and African-American art and culture in the U.S.

In May, the UNO Department of History helped to wrap up the renowned exhibit co-hosting two talks exploring the history and politics behind the creation of African art collections and museums. The event, part of the “Friday Nights at NOMA” series, was funded through the Carl Muckley bequest and included music by the acclaimed Mardi Gras Indian funk band Cha Wa.

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NEWS & EVENTS LIVING HISTORY: UNO STUDENTS HELP CELEBRATE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS BICENTENNIAL Graduate students in the University of New Orleans public history program helped the National Park Service in January to tell the story of the Battle of New Orleans in celebration of the battle’s bicentennial.

“Previously, most battle history focused on the American frontiersmen — volunteers as depicted in the 1957 song ‘The Battle of New Orleans’ by Johnny Horton,” says Charles Chamberlain, who helps to lead the University’s public history program. “And that’s why I would argue that these exhibits are important — because it exposes the general public to these lesser-known, but important, stories about the battle.”

The epic siege that marked the final major battles of the War of 1812 took place over 17 days in the winter months entering 1815. Jan. 8, 2015 marked the 200-year anniversary of the war’s ultimate conclusion at Chalmette Battlefield.

Weekend visitors celebrating the bicentennial were invited to “walk in the footsteps of the troops of 1815” at the battlefield and cemetery at Jean Lafitte Historical Park and Preserve, just beyond New Orleans city limits. The celebration featured speakers, musicians and living history exhibits, including reenactments of a war camp. National law prevents military re-enactments on the battlefield, which has a cemetery and is considered “sacred ground.”

Ten UNO graduate students in public history displayed interpretive exhibits they developed themselves in a highprofile, highly trafficked area between the park’s Obelisk monument and Visitors’ Center.

“They served as historical interpreters, almost like docents in museums,” Chamberlain says. “They presented mostly interactive exhibits.”

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NEWS & EVENTS Hands-On Experience Public history is “history that is designed for the general public” and “is really oriented toward everybody as opposed to more academic history, which is more oriented toward professional historians and academics,” Chamberlain explains.

Alumni of the UNO public history program often go on to work in museums, historical parks and the tourism industry.

“Public history basically uses interpretive techniques that are oriented toward all age groups and an international audience,” he says.

“And the idea is that you want to have people come away with basic information about an historical topic or events that normally they would not have access to.”

UNO graduate students in public history develop skills in research methodology, oral history methodology, archival studies and public history methodology, which help students learn to create exhibits, including online exhibits, through software and digital media, Chamberlain says. The students who participated in the events at Chalmette Battlefield are recent veterans of his class entitled Introduction to Public History.

“I would describe it as basically a hands-on class where they learn professional development skills,” the professor says. “And so, this exhibit in partnership with the National Park Service has given them hands-on experience on how to curate a museum exhibit.”

Time Well Spent Last September, the National Park Service invited Chamberlain’s class to interpret the history of the Battle

University of New Orleans graduate students in public history this winter used interpretive exhibits they created themselves to help the National Park Service tell the story of the Battle of New Orleans for the 200th anniversary of the epic conclusion of the War of 1812.

of New Orleans for the upcoming Bicentennial Celebration.

The UNO students, who are all working toward master’s degrees in public history, spent the fall semester developing five interactive exhibits spotlighting unique aspects of the Battle of New Orleans, the grand finale to the series of engagements that pitted Major General Andrew Jackson’s U.S. troops against an invasion by English forces aiming to seize New Orleans and end the War of 1812.

“They had to go into archives and museums and find documents and images and call professional historians who specialize in these fields.

At the same time, they had to do two presentations in class. National Park Service rangers would attend and critique,” Chamberlain says. “It takes a lot of time.”

The Louisiana State Museum, the New Orleans Historical Collection, the National Park Service and other venues with locally based historical archives helped students in their search for meaningful facts and stories. The UNO political science department helped enormously too, producing 42-inch-by-32-inch exhibit panels in-house on a professional printing machine.

Zeroing In The goal of the project was “to gather information and interpret it in a way that would be digestible to the general public,” Chamberlain says. Rather than focus on U.S. soldiers, some UNO students chose to spotlight combatants who supported U.S. troops but fell outside the mainstream culture of the time.

through Barataria Bay, a passage that connects the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Pirates traveled through bayous using pirogues and barges.

Once vanquished by General Andrew Jackson, the Baratarians made a surprising contribution to the American victory at Chalmette Battlefield.

“They were outlaws until the battle,” Chamberlain says. “And then, once they fought, they were essential to the victory based on their artillery skills.”

An exhibit focused on contributions of free persons of color who fought in the Battle of New Orleans tells the story of Jordan Noble, a 13-year-old drummer who then became an esteemed local AfricanAmerican war veteran until he died in the 1880s. Noble subsequently fought in the Seminole Wars, the Mexican War and on both sides in the Civil War, Chamberlain says.

“He has a long history.”

The Choctaw Nation also fought in support of the U.S. in the dramatic conclusion of the War of 1812.

“General Andrew Jackson recruited them to fight and they were basically fighting guerrillastyle,” Chamberlain says, adding that just as the exhibit on Jordan Noble included a soldier’s drum, the interactive exhibit included Native American music of the Choctaw people.

“For someone who is more visual and tactile in terms of learning information, I think it’s a good way to learn.”

One “really interesting” exhibit depicts contributions of “the Baratarians,” who military historians say aided the historical figure Jean Lafitte and his band of pirates, also known as privateers.

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This year the Student Activities Council (SAC) proudly presented homecoming week. New and old Privateers from all organizations, teams, and colleges came together and showed their UNO pride for all to see. In recognition of the Class of 1990s 25-year reunion, this year’s homecoming week was 90s themed: “UNO is ALL THAT!” The weeklong celebration of Privateer pride began with a homecoming kick off in the quad where students showed their school spirit by cheering on the UNO basketball team and meeting the UNO homecoming court candidates. The fun continued with a raucous pep rally in the University Center. The UNO cheerleaders, dance team, and basketball team brought the hype for game day while UNO students, faculty and staff gathered around to enjoy some creative performances.

At the 90s Throwback Carnival held in the UC atrium, students enjoyed novelties, food, and fun activities to remember the good ol’ days of Nickelodeon, scrunchies and slinkies. Then on game day, SAC and the UNO International Alumni Association hosted a pregame tailgate at the Lakefront Arena. Students, alumni and friends celebrated Privateer pride!

Both the men and women’s basketball teams went head-tohead against Texas A&M Corpus Christi at a Privateer basketball doubleheader. That night, students dressed in their best attire to celebrate UNO and the end of the homecoming week. All watched the crowned court dance their first song as UNO’s 2015 homecoming king and homecoming queen.

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student spotlight

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student spotlight

From left: Electrical engineering students Brandon Allen, Michael Flot Jr., Daniel Braun and Roger Calix show off elements of their senior design project.

STEM RESEARCH: LAYING ROOTS University of New Orleans electrical engineering student Michael Flot Jr. took second place in a national science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competition. Flot delivered an oral presentation about an automated growing system for plants that does not require soil and uses dramatically less water than normal farming methods. It is the focus of a senior design project for Flot and four classmates.

Flot, a New Orleans native, presented the team’s senior design project at the 2015 Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM held in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19-21. The conference is hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation. His conference participation was funded 20

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by the Louis Stokes Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-LAMP).

Other electrical engineering students involved in the project were Daniel Braun, Roger Calix, Brandon Allen and Ozgur Aydogan.

Given the high cost associated with traditional farming practices, there is a need for a more cost-effective and efficient method of agriculture, according to Flot. Aeroponics is the practice of growing plants without using soil; instead the method uses mist to provide nutrients and requires up to 98 percent less water than normal farming practices. Aeroponics is one way to reduce the stress that agriculture causes to the environment.

The goal of the project is to design an automated aeroponic growing

system that will use sensors to simulate the ideal growth conditions for a particular plant, Flot says. It will do that by accessing information on a variety of plants from a database.

The device will include a touchscreen and proprietary software to make aeroponics a more user-friendly experience. Flot and his team have developed a prototype of the device.

The Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM is aimed at college and university undergraduate and graduate students who participate in programs funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Human Resource Development, including underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities.

UNO MUSIC STUDENT

By Patricia M. Murret

BUYS ONE-WAY TICKET TO SUCCESS when the orchestra came up short, they hired Rodgers for two concerts that were part of the orchestra’s “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” series.

“It meant a lot to me that he thought I could do it,” Rodgers says. “I trusted him and it was fine. Once the lights came on, I got a little nervous, but then I got over it because of my training. That’s one of the things that they teach you (in the UNO Department of Music), is how to cope with the pressure.”

Little did she know when she got off that bus in New Orleans six years ago, that she would fulfill so many dreams, Rodgers says.

Six years ago, Catherine “Catie” Rodgers left her home in Manitou Springs, Colo., and boarded a Greyhound bus headed to New Orleans. Thirty hours later, she arrived with nothing to her name but two backpacks and a trumpet. With no concrete plans, she was seeking a high note.

“I’m just going, I’m going,” she decided — and bought a one-way ticket.

Rodgers, 31, graduated in December from the University of New Orleans with a bachelor’s degree in music performance, just two weeks following her first professional orchestral performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

The LPO is the longest-standing musiciangoverned and operated orchestra in the United States and the only full-time professional orchestra in the Gulf South.

In early December, Rodgers performed twice with the LPO, standing in as third trumpet for LPO Yuletide Concerts in Kenner and Slidell. She is the first UNO undergraduate student to perform with the elite orchestra, says Charles Taylor, chair of the UNO Music Department.

“Something I am sharing with my peers is that if you treat every UNO rehearsal like it’s a professional gig, you get professional experience, and sometimes people notice and give you an opportunity — and when they do, either you will be prepared or you will not,” Rodgers says. “The way to be prepared is to treat each rehearsal like it’s your job. That way you’re not going from zero to 60 when you perform with the LPO. It’s just a little bump up.”

Rodgers performed with the LPO on the recommendation of Doug Reneau, associate principal trumpet of the LPO and adjunct professor of trumpet at UNO. Reneau had taught Rodgers and seen her perform, and

A self-described “band nerd,” Rodgers was a First Chair All-State trumpeter at Woodland Park High School. After graduation, she headed to community college and was later accepted to four-year universities in Colorado, but did not have the funds to attend, even with scholarships, and her parents did not want to take out hefty loans.

“It was really disappointing. I had done everything I was supposed to do,” Rodgers recalls. “It just wasn’t happening at that time.”

She floated through various jobs before finding a position she loved — working in an instrument repair shop, she says. From there, she began teaching private trumpet lessons and eventually she was hired to teach trumpet to band sectionals at her middle school.

job — requires a lot more (skill),” Rodgers says. “And so my teachers kind of spelled it out for me what I was going to have to do to get there. The teachers helped me really get an understanding of what was expected of a professional musician.”

Rodgers says she needed to achieve consistency, musical maturity and the ability to “get it right, like right away,” as well as “... a depth to your artistry and being informed in the way that you sound.”

In December, she had only one rehearsal with the LPO before her first performance.

Being a team player, knowing how to follow directions and to “catch on quick,” while being a nice person are essential characteristics for success, says Rodgers, who noted that the LPO musicians were “all funny” and brought a level to levity to their work.

“And I could see how it needs that ... I imagine that they are all mentally tough people,” she says, remarking on the LPO schedule.

Following her two LPO performances, Rodgers plunged straight into final exams, a senior recital and two large ensemble performances for UNO. She headed into the week armed with lessons about the mental endurance required of professional musicians.

“I got a little taste of it and hopefully in grad school I’ll be able to strengthen,” Rodgers says. “It is reaffirming that things can happen, because you know, life can be tough, so you have to be happy for when things go right.

You have to not only be thankful for them, but look at them and say ... not just ‘where did it go wrong’, but ‘where did it go right.’”

“New Orleans just seemed like exactly the right place for me, with lots of people to learn from, so I just went,” Rodgers says.

“And here we are. It was kind of a leap of faith and it could have turned out all sorts of ways, but I just kind of attribute (my success) Rodgers, who now performs in a group to good luck, good people and hard work.” called The Elysian Fields Brass Quintet, is While waitressing in a French Quarter auditioning for graduate schools in music. jazz club, she noticed the younger At graduation she received the College of musicians were UNO students.

Liberal Arts’ Overture to the Cultural Season Award. This spring, she studied with LPO “And I became interested. After a year, I second trumpeter Steve Orejudos and joined had gained my residency and I had noticed that (UNO’s tuition) was low cost,” she says. LPO musicians in performing with the New Orleans Civic Symphony.

She applied, got in and enrolled in 2009 as “Graduating is kind of bittersweet because a music education major, with plans to get that’s my community,” she says. “(UNO) is a teaching certificate in music. In 2011, her in a city with a thriving musical culture, so I academic program was eliminated. had a lot of opportunities in the city and that “The whole trajectory changed and I worked hand-in-hand. I think I developed started realizing that I didn’t have a Plan B. as a professional while still being a student I wouldn’t be graduating with a teaching — and the good thing about that was that I certificate that would guarantee me started being a student professionally.” employment, so I had to become 100 percent “I know in my heart that I’m doing exactly dead serious about my playing,” says Rodgers, what I want to do — and that’s the greatest who by then had been performing regularly gift that anyone can be given,” Rodgers says. at weddings and local events in the French “That’s the kind of attitude I’ve got to take Quarter and on Frenchmen Street. to the next step. It goes back to mental, “A performance job that could provide spiritual strength because you have to know: me a steady income — such as an orchestral This is all for the chips.”

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faculty focus

University of New Orleans education professor Alonzo Flowers has been named a senior research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness.

ON THE MO VE ADVANCING DIVERSITY: STEM University of New Orleans education professor Alonzo Flowers has been named a senior research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness. Flowers will work with a diverse set of scholars to bring research and policy together for the benefit of students. “The aim of my participation in the fellowship is to work with other scholars on the important national issue of education support, while also improving my training in research methods,� says Flowers, an assistant professor of educational leadership, 22 22 UU N N OO M M AA GG AA ZZ II N N EE SFPARLILN 2G0 12 30 1 5

counseling and foundations.

As part of his three-year commitment, Flowers will be matched to a high-need community in Massachusetts and will work directly with local education leaders on the design, implementation and evaluation of programs that support college and career readiness.

Flowers specializes in academic development of African-American males, STEM education, diversity and college student transition. His research focuses on the academic experiences of academically gifted African-American and Latino students in the STEM disciplines,

particularly engineering, mathematics and science.

The University of New Orleans College of Education and Human Development, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, has produced more educational personnel in metropolitan New Orleans than any other institution of higher learning.

STORYTELLING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE University of New Orleans computer science professor Stephen Ware has been awarded a two-year $138,000 grant by the National Science

won the Research Excellence Prize; Malay Ghose Hajra, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, won the Early Career Research Prize; and Martin O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, won the Competitive Funding Prize.

University of New Orleans computer science professor Stephen Ware received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study artificial intelligence systems that interact more realistically with people.

Foundation to develop artificial intelligence systems that interact more naturally with people.

Ware, an assistant professor of computer science, does research on computational models of narrative, meaning he studies how insights about human storytelling and story understanding can be better integrated into artificial intelligence systems. This grant will enable researchers in Ware’s Narrative Intelligence Lab to study how people reason hypothetically when reading and writing stories.

“Imagine a video game that tells a story, or an intelligent tutoring system that adapts to the individual needs of the student, or a military training simulation that responds to the choices of the trainee,” Ware says. “All of these systems need to change the narrative as they are used, and to make those changes they need some way to reason about narrative.”

Ware teaches classes on artificial intelligence and game development.

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE This winter, the University of New Orleans bestowed the 2014 UNO Research Recognition Prizes upon three faculty members.

John Wiley, professor of chemistry,

Wiley, a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry since 1993, has published 116 peer reviewed journal articles. He has also been an active and important member of UNO’s Advanced Materials Research Institute. He has secured numerous grants through the Louisiana Board of Regents and the National Science Foundation.

The Research Excellence Prize is given to faculty members who have achieved the rank of associate professor or professor and who have an outstanding and sustained record of creative and scholarly activities.

Wiley received a $10,000 grant for winning the prize.

Ghose Hajra joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an assistant professor in 2011. Since then, he has been actively involved in research activities in the areas of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering.

Ghose Hajra has secured numerous grants from local and regional agencies.

Ghose Hajra acts as a faculty advisor to the UNO chapters of the American Concrete Institute and Engineers Without Borders.

The Early Career Research Prize is awarded to faculty members who hold the rank of assistant professor and who have distinguished themselves in their creative and scholarly activities. Ghose Hajra received a $7,500 grant.

O’Connell joined the UNO faculty in 2006 as an assistant professor. He is now chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

O’Connell is a prolific researcher who had more than $700,000 in additional

funding added to his portfolio of existing grants during the past year.

O’Connell, who oversees the Nekton Research Laboratory, an active laboratory within the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences, earned grants from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, among others.

The Competitive Funding Prize recognizes the UNO researcher who has achieved the highest amount of competitive external funding awards in the past fiscal year. O’Connell received a $10,000 grant.

University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop Director M.O. Walsh, an assistant professor of English, penned My Sunshine Away, which made The New York Times bestseller list and is slated as one of the best books of 2015.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The University of New Orleans celebrates the successful launch of My Sunshine Away, a debut novel by the director of the University’s Creative Writing Workshop that is expected to be one of the best books of 2015.

Already the book has made The New York Times list of bestsellers.

“The entire Department of English is extremely proud of Neal’s achievement, the publication of a breakthrough novel,” says Peter Schock, English department chair.

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faculty focus My Sunshine Away, by M.O. Walsh, is a literary novel set in Baton Rouge and told from the point of view of a 30-something man looking back at his youth. Amid detailed descriptions of suburban childhood and lush Louisiana landscape, the narrator recalls the summer of 1989, when a 15-year-old girl who lived across the street from him was raped. He was 14 years old and madly in love with her. No one was ever arrested and the narrator, he confesses, was one of the suspects.

This spring, My Sunshine Away appeared as a featured debut and “Top 10 Coming of Age Books” on Amazon.com and among “favorite fiction” in US Weekly and People magazines, while making news around the U.S. My Sunshine Away was an Indie Next Pick and an Ingram Premier Pick and received starred reviews in publishers’ reviews in Kirkus Reviews, Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

In December, Entertainment Weekly named My Sunshine Away one of “20 books to read in 2015,” alongside books by authors ranging from Willie Nelson to Toni Morrison.

signings throughout the Deep South. In January, The Times-Picayune named him one of “15 New Orleans Entertainers to Watch.” Entertainment Weekly named one of “25 Stars on the Rise in 2015.”

My Sunshine Away was snapped up for publication in July 2013 by renowned publisher Amy Einhorn, who is the editor of bestsellers like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. Einhorn, who oversees her own imprint at Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, bought world rights as soon as she read the book, ensuring that the book never went to auction. The book, which hit local bookshelves in February, will soon appear in Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese and French translations.

Publishers from around the country selected My Sunshine Away as one of only seven titles in the adult literature category presented last summer as a “Buzz Book” for 2015 Book Expo America, the largest and most prestigious booksellers’ event in North America.

Walsh, who goes by Neal on campus, enjoyed a whirlwind 10-day book tour with stops in Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Pasadena, Memphis and Jackson and held book

Since then, the book has garnered terrific early excitement, generating compliments from top authors Kathryn Stockett, Hannah Pittard, Matthew Thomas, Tom Franklin and Anne Rice.

Even Oprah Winfrey has sung the book’s praises. Her website, Oprah.com, listed My Sunshine Away among “Top 10 Books to Read When Your Brain Is Fried.”

University of New Orleans psychologist Paul Frick has won a lifetime achievement award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy.

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We have GREAT NEWS! The UNO Alumni Association has partnered with The Princeton Review to bring world class test preparation to all of its active members for 10% off!

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT University of New Orleans psychologist Paul Frick has won a lifetime achievement award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy. Frick, a professor and chair of psychology, is the 2015 recipient of the Robert D. Hare Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the organization.

The award, which is reserved for the most eminent scholars in the field of psychopathy, will be presented to Frick in June at the 2015 biennial Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy conference in Chicago, Ill. In the award committee’s recommendation, Frick was praised for “his pioneering contributions to scientific understanding of psychopathy and antisocial behavior in youth.” He was also recognized for his efforts to develop and validate innovative methods for assessing psychopathic tendencies in youth, as well as his effectiveness as a research mentor and catalyst for investigative work on psychopathy worldwide.

Frick’s research focuses on understanding the different pathways through which youth develop severe antisocial behavior and aggression, and the implications of this research for assessment and treatment.

His work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation. He is a previous recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s Champion for Change in Juvenile Justice Award for the state of Louisiana.

The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy is a nonprofit professional organization aimed at promoting the conduct and communication of scientific research in the field of psychopathic personality. It also encourages education and training in those fields of science that contribute to research in psychopathy.

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STATE of THE ART

UNO Alumnus Fernando Rivera Is “Back Where He Belongs” as CEO of the New VA Medical Center

By Ozzie Garza and Patricia Murret

It’s been an incredible and unpredictable journey for Fernando Oscar Rivera, 54, the new director and chief executive officer of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.

Now that journey has brought the University of New Orleans alumnus back to his adopted hometown of New Orleans, where he oversees the new $1 billion VA medical center currently under construction on Canal Street.

“It’s been 10 years since we’ve had our own VA hospital here and we’re now looking at the building going up at the ground level and it’s beautiful,” says Rivera, his voice full of quiet passion. “For me it’s almost surreal.”

Rivera’s life journey began in 1960, in Havana, Cuba, where he was born. The son of a Cuban military officer and a government public relations professional, Rivera vividly recalls early childhood days that included long walks along the Malecon in Old Havana with his grandfather, Domingo Bello, 26

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a captain in the Cuban Navy, and visiting with family members in the countryside.

His childhood days, however, were scarred. The communist regime assassinated his father and namesake, Fernando Rivera Sr., when Fernando Jr. was 1 year old. The young boy’s mother, Ester, was imprisoned during the communist revolution.

When he was 8 years old, the young Fernando and his mother were able to leave Cuba to come to the United States to seek better lives. The choice required leaving family and friends behind, adjusting to a new country and culture and learning a new language.

To make the transition easier, Fernando’s mother decided to move to the Crescent City because of similarities she saw between Havana and New Orleans. Both are port cities that share a rich Spanish history. Both cities are part of the cultural system that exists on the edges of the Gulf of Mexico and the

Caribbean. In addition, New Orleans offered her son the warm climate he was used to, as well as waterfronts where he could once again take long walks. Young Fernando also found the French Quarter similar to Old Havana.

With the help of family, friends and the Catholic Church, he quickly adjusted to his new environment. He not only learned a new language, but also learned how to meet challenges head on and to never give up. The lessons of perseverance and hard work came from his mother, who worked three jobs to ensure her son got a college education and the best opportunity to achieve “The American Dream.”

Rivera enrolled at the University of New Orleans, where he earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. Upon graduation, he knew he wanted to remain in the Crescent City, he says. He was fortunate to find opportunity.

In 1984, Rivera began his Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) career as a project engineer at the VA Medical Center in New Orleans. He hit the ground running. Ten years later, he was named VA Engineer of the Year and for the next two years he was named VA’s Communicator of the Year. During his 20 years at the New Orleans facility, Rivera held numerous leadership positions — each with increasing responsibilities — and ultimately became the facility’s associate director and chief operating officer.

Then, while sitting at his desk one fall morning in 2004, Rivera quietly reflected on his past and pondered his future. After three years as the medical center’s associate director, he now eyed the possibility of becoming a medical center director in the vast VA health care system. He

certainly felt qualified, having graduated from the Health Care Leadership Institute and served as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

feature

There was something else he needed to consider. To become a medical center director, he would most certainly have to leave his beloved New Orleans, the city where he had grown up, where he had met his wife, Stacie Pierce—a fellow New Orleans VA Medical Center employee—and where his three children Fernando III, 15, Mateo, 13, and Dulce, 12, were born.

He knew he would have a difficult decision to make should that opportunity come. That opportunity came sooner than he expected.

In December 2004, Rivera received a call from VA headquarters informing him that he had been selected as the director of the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, W.V., and to report there in January 2005.

For Rivera, his professional plans were coming to fruition. He was finally becoming a medical center director. For his wife and children, the change brought a new adventure, a new place, but demanded that they leave family and friends and co-workers behind.

For the entire family, the move also brought significant change. They moved from a major metropolitan area to a rural area with a population of less than 20,000. Rivera went from overseeing a 275-bed urban hospital to a 312-bed rural hospital. But with the encouragement and guidance of the New Orleans VAMC, Rivera prepared for his next VA assignment, an assignment that would take him outside his comfort zone.

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remained hopeful that he would one day return to the place where his VA career began. He never envisioned that in eight months that facility would be destroyed in the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The thought of the damage that Hurricane Katrina did to the New Orleans area and the VA medical center — a regional hub forced to shutter completely following the disaster — still tugs at Rivera’s heartstrings. He kept close watch from afar on all that was happening to his adopted hometown and his fellow VA employees in the region, he says. He thought about them, prayed for them and applauded them for their heroic effort in putting the patients first and ensuring that no lives be lost or left behind.

“It was devastating to me what happened with Hurricane Katrina and that veterans would not have their own hospital,” Rivera says. “And I watched it, always knowing that I would be back and helping to rebuild it in some way.”

Then came “Project Legacy.” To replace the VA Medical Center lost to Hurricane Katrina, the Southeast Louisiana Veteran Healthcare System (SLVHCS) is currently building a replacement hospital that sets new standards for VA’s patient-centered care in a facility that honors veterans’ service and reflects the culture of New Orleans. In January, Rivera took the helm of the $1 billion project, which aims to see its first patient at the end of 2016.

As chief executive officer of Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, Rivera oversees an organization that has an operating budget of nearly $350 million and 1,300 employees, as well as plans to bring an additional 1,200 new jobs to the Crescent City. He is drawing on all the skills he learned as an engineering and MBA student at UNO — and a distinguished career that includes high-level administrative work in Washington, D.C. — to create a stateof-the-art facility expected to serve as a model for health care of the future.

The $1 billion replacement VA medical center in New Orleans will set the standards for patient-centered care, flexibility and sustainability, Rivera says.

“One aspect of that is making sure that it’s built properly,” says Rivera, who says the new VA medical center in New Orleans will be built to reflect New Orleans culture, with an open layout and inner courtyards, and will exceed standards set by the private sector. The 1.7 millionsquare-foot complex will be Silver LEED-certified. The 30-acre facility will also be hurricane-ready, built above flood plain levels and ready to supply five days of emergency power, Rivera says. The resilient facility will be able to remain fully operational without outside support during a disaster, with enough provisions and accommodations for up to 1,000 staff and patients.

“A lot of work has gone into the design,” Rivera says, “so that we can

deliver patient care in the safest and most effective way possible.”

Veteran healthcare often differs from that of the wider population: for instance, physical wounds may be linked to psychological trauma, requiring that physicians treat both conditions simultaneously, SLVHCS administrators say. Furthermore, southeast Louisiana lags U.S. averages in life expectancy, education and income, posing additional challenges to care. SLVHCS intervenes at the nexus of these unique populations.

The sleek new complex, a joint venture of Studio NOVA: NBBJ, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Rozas Ward Architects, will have inpatient, procedural, emergency department, imaging, outpatient, ambulatory, transitional living and mental health components, and an energy plant, as well as ample space for research and administrative offices. A physical rehabilitation space will include a pool and gymnasium.

Rivera likens the building of the medical center to the construction of a house, in which the least-used areas — the walls, the roof, the attic — are built first and the rest of the design and details come later. Building the massive facility requires that sound structure and technology are carefully designed and installed in a certain sequence in order to deliver care most effectively.

When Rivera visited the New Orleans VA administrative offices before starting his new job in December, he was pleasantly surprised

to find a custom-framed quilt in the lobby area. The quilt was a gift from Rivera and his staff at the Martinsburg VA facility, who in 2005 sold cloth squares to raise funds to support VA employees displaced as a result of Katrina — then had the quilt made and sent to New Orleans as a sign of their continued love and support.

During his 10-year hiatus from New Orleans, Rivera quickly established himself as an effective and efficient leader. He guided the Martinsburg facility to attain exceptional safety, quality of care and patient satisfaction scores.

Rivera also helped to open the VA outpatient clinic in Frederick, Md. His leadership abilities were noticed by superiors in Washington, D.C. In 2007, then-VA Secretary R. James Nicholson appointed Rivera director of the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center, one of the most visible VA hospitals in the country.

Under Rivera’s leadership at the Washington VA Medical Center, the facility underwent a cultural transformation to performance excellence and a broad range of physical plant improvements. The facility was also recognized with numerous quality service awards.

Rivera’s leadership skills and work ethic also paid off in 2010 as he was appointed director of the VA’s Capital Healthcare Veterans Integrated Service Network. There he oversaw the operations of four VA medical centers and 18 community-based outpatient clinics in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. He also briefly served in VA Central Office as acting Deputy Under Secretary for Health & Operations Management and greatly values the experience he gained while in that role.

One of Rivera’s favorite Bible verses states that “…all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose…” Things have certainly worked together for good for him

as he has now been called to return to the “the place where I belong,” says Rivera, whose new appointment began exactly 10 years after the day he left New Orleans.

system provides primary and mental health care at all sites and specialty care at selected sites, including outpatient clinics in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Slidell, Hammond, Bogalusa, Franklin, Houma and St. John Parish. Altogether, the healthcare

“Working in the national capital region has provided me first-hand knowledge of operations at the local hospital, regional and national level,” Rivera says. “These experiences will serve to address the unique responsibilities in starting up a new facility and improving services to veterans in Southern Louisiana.”

One of his biggest challenges will be recruiting and retaining a health care workforce to open the new facility and Rivera is now partnering with local colleges, universities and other organizations, including his beloved UNO, to develop a workforce pipeline.

Rivera with First Lady Michelle Obama.

“Hospitals are a lot like little towns,” says Rivera, citing a workforce that will include plumbers, lawyers and accountants working alongside doctors and healthcare professionals. “Like any small town, it never closes. In that sense, it’s almost like a small community.”

On any given day, Rivera says, more than 5,000 people will travel in and out of the new and future facility on Canal Street and all of them will be doing one thing: taking care of veterans.

SLVHCS serves nearly 66,500 enrolled veterans across 23 parishes of Southeast Louisiana. The health care

system supports nearly 500,000 outpatient visits.

And Rivera, who keeps a UNO bumper sticker on his car, says he would never be where he is today without his UNO education.

“Between Birmingham and Houston, we’re it,” says the engineer and businessman trained to analyze and solve problems. “We’re the teaching hospital for the future of healthcare in this entire region.”

And, says the first-generation American who has devoted his career to public service, he is doing what he loves to do: serving America’s heroes. d

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Fighting Spirit Husband and Wife Graduates Want to Turn Advocacy into Careers

By Adam Norris

Melissa and Larry Mayeaux enrolled at the University of New Orleans in 2010 with a plan to bring about changes in their lives. This spring, they graduated with more than 900 fellow classmates.

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The news came 14 years ago, but there’s no chance Melissa and Larry Mayeaux don’t remember everything about it. Their daughter, Lauran, was born without any skeletal muscle below her neck. Doctors said it was the most severe case that they could find anywhere in the United States.

“We were told from day one that she wouldn’t make it out of the hospital and that she probably wouldn’t make it six days,” Larry Mayeaux says. That prediction was wrong, as were the many subsequent ones that claimed Lauran’s days were numbered. It wasn’t that the bad news stopped coming, it was that the Mayeauxs stopped believing it.

“We were trying to listen to the professionals who know what they’re doing, and we are sitting here for the first couple of years preparing for our daughter to die,” Melissa Mayeaux says. “And at some point, we looked at each other and said ‘She’s not dying. She’s not going anywhere.’”

That realization was an epiphany for the parents who decided that they would assume a more proactive role in her life.

Lauran had a lot of obstacles that stood in her way but the Mayeauxs would fight to help her clear them. They engaged in protracted battles with Medicare so that it would cover Lauran’s new wheelchairs.

And they led the charge to have Lauran’s school install an elevator.

In 2010, Melissa and Larry agreed that they wanted to bring about some changes in their own lives. They would enroll at the University of New Orleans together.

“It wasn’t easy to make the decision to come back to school with three children and an already-established family,” Melissa says. “It got to the point where we realized that in order to provide in the way that we really want to for our children, that we needed to do something and we both decided to come back to school.”

Melissa majored in English with a concentration in journalism and a psychology minor. She interned at a local television station and is planning a career in broadcast journalism. Larry, who works full-time as an electrician, studied political science with an eye on attending law school.

“We both have a feeling for advocacy,” Larry says. “We have a disabled daughter and we’ve had to fight for different things for her, for her schooling and for Medicare.

And it’s been a big effort. I think Melissa has a talent for making her case in the public and I have a talent for finding the

legal answers, going the bureaucratic route.

I’m good at that.”

Their advocacy has been rewarded by a caring community. In December, the Mayeauxs’ handicapped-accessible van broke down. In order to raise the $50,000 needed for a new one, Melissa started a GoFundMe account, which allows members of the public to make online donations to a specific cause.

The family held benefits and spread the word on social media. Fox 8 News did a feature story on Lauran, which sparked an outpouring of support. Within days of the story, the Mayeauxs raised an additional $6,000 for their new van. Fox 8 News reporter Nicondra Norwood subsequently contacted Melissa to inform her that the New Orleans Saints wanted to donate a signed football to the family and feature Melissa in a Mother’s Day commercial.

for nontraditional students. The support that I’ve gotten from the teachers and faculty has been fantastic. I like the attention that I’m given as a nontraditional student.”

In addition to Lauran, the Mayeauxs have a 17-year-old daughter, Mia, and an 8-year-old son, Antonio. The family has a history of overcoming challenges.

The levee failures after Hurricane Katrina wiped out their Lakeview home and everything they owned. But these significant experiences have left them with deeply held beliefs about their priorities. Larry would like to become a lawyer so that he can work for a nonprofit such as Families Helping Families, a resource center for disabled individuals and their families.

It was all part of a well-orchestrated ruse to get the Mayeauxs to visit the Saints’ Metairie headquarters. After Melissa was interviewed, the Mayeauxs started to leave the facility when they were greeted by team owners Tom and Gayle Benson.

“We’ve worked with lawyers who helped us in ways that really influenced my life and I’d like to give back to an organization like that,” Larry says. “I’m not interested in making a whole lot of money but I sure would like to make a difference.”

“We thought they were going to be the ones to present us with a signed football, which they did,” Larry says. “And then Gayle pulls out a key to a brand new van and I was floored. It was phenomenal.”

The kindness hasn’t stopped there.

Strangers have continued to send cards and contribute money to the family’s GoFundMe site. Now that they have a new van, they hope to use the donations to install a handicapped-accessible bathroom in their house.

The Mayeauxs say they have learned from their daughter’s own example. “A lot of people expect us to be wallowing in our pity because we have this daughter with this rare disease,” Melissa says. “I think a lot of people are surprised to see that we are not that way. We’re absolutely the opposite of that way. And we’re always encouraging Lauran to do everything she wants to do.”

In May, Melissa and Larry Mayeaux were joined by more than 900 classmates in the UNO graduating class of 2015. Larry says he feels accomplished.

“I think that coming to UNO is one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made in my life, other than getting married to Melissa,” he says. “I think it’s a fabulous institution. I think that more than just the city would be missing out if something happens to this school. There is no other option, especially

Gayle and Tom Benson present the Mayeaux family with a signed football and the keys to a new van.

To learn more about the Mayeaux family, visit

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International Treasure English professor Niyi Osundare is a literary star with a dazzling desire to teach

By Adam Norris

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As an internationally renowned poet, writer and thinker, Niyi Osundare is a man with a lot of admirable attributes. Chief among them may be his humility, which is why it was so difficult for him to share his greatest professional accomplishment with his own students at the University of New Orleans. Osundare, a distinguished professor of English, had just learned last fall that he would be receiving the 2014 Nigerian National Order of Merit Award, his native country’s most prestigious prize in science, medicine, engineering and the humanities. As he tried to inform without bragging, his curious audience became impatient.

“I’ll never forget how my students in my Reading Poetry class reacted when I told them in November about the award,” he says with a broad smile. “I had to tell them that I was going to miss one class and what we had to do about the final exam. I was awkward in explaining it. They kept saying ‘But why?’ One said, ‘You are talking apologetically about it. This is good.’ And they started applauding.”

That was just the beginning. In December, an investiture ceremony was held in Osundare’s honor in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where he was congratulated by all of the previous winners of the award.

Established in 1979, the Nigerian National Order of Merit is conferred upon Nigerians with outstanding accomplishments and contributions to national development. Former recipients include Chinua Achebe, the late author of the celebrated novel Things Fall Apart, and Wole Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In fact, according to Peter Schock, chair of UNO’s English department, that’s the next major award in Osundare’s future.

“Niyi Osundare’s distinctive achievements in creative writing and scholarship on African literature have made him a towering figure in African letters,” Schock says. “We regard this great honor from the Nigerian National Order of Merit as a large step toward Dr. Osundare’s

eventual reception of the Nobel Prize in Literature.”

Osundare’s native land treated him like a national hero. Three different Nigerian newspapers used their editorial pages to lionize him.

He was deluged by phone calls, text messages and so many emails that he was still sifting through them months after he received the award.

The media coverage was unrelenting.

Observers said that Osundare was celebrated in a way that had never happened before.

“I felt overwhelmed,” Osundare says. “People took out full pages, expensive things, in Nigerian newspapers to congratulate me.”

Osundare was the honored guest at a different dinner nearly every night. But he couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep. He lost weight. He was dumbfounded by the avalanche of appreciation.

In mid-January, Osundare dismounted the figurative pedestal that he occupied during his trip to Nigeria and came back to New Orleans for the start of the spring semester.

“I was tired when I returned, but whenever I enter the classroom, I get energized,” he says.

It’s that stimulation that has kept him so enthusiastically engaged with UNO students for two decades. He first came to the University as an associate professor of English in 1991-92 and returned to UNO from Nigeria’s University of Ibadan as a full professor in 1997. He has published 18 books of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays and numerous articles on literature, language, culture and society. During that time, he has won nearly every major African prize for poetry and literature, but he says teaching will always be a central part of his identity.

“My students rejuvenate me,” Osundare says. “They save me from myself. They prevent me from taking myself too seriously. When you write so many books and so many poems, there is a tendency to think ‘Yes, I

know it all.’”

Osundare was born and raised in a rural region of Nigeria. His family received the newspaper four days after they were printed. His home had no electricity or plumbing until he was in high school. In 1969, he enrolled in the University of Ibadan.

He quickly realized that his own secondary school education was not on par with some of his classmates who grew up in urban areas.

“My rural background taught me never to take anything for granted and how to discover things for yourself,” Osundare says. “There were two of us. I said ‘Fine, there is the library; it’s full of books.

There’s the bookstore; it’s full of books. If reading is what gets you knowledge, we will level up.’

Within three months, we had leveled up. By the end of course, we were on top of the class.”

This experience as a disadvantaged college student who managed to excel academically informs his own teaching philosophy. It’s not uncommon for Osundare to encounter college students who received a substandard high school education or who are struggling with English as a second language. His guiding principle: don’t give up on them.

“We come to success through different routes,” he says. “Some have that silver spoon in their mouths, some have golden spoons, some have wooden spoons and some have nothing at all.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Ibadan, Osundare went on to earn a master’s from the University of Leeds in England and a doctorate from York University in Toronto, Canada. He says his long academic journey made him appreciate how the best teachers inspire a sense of discovery.

“I remember all the teachers that taught me from 1953 in grammar school until 1979 when I obtained my Ph.D. in Toronto, Canada,” Osundare says. “They shaped my life.

I remember the names of all of them.

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And I remember all that I have gained from them, including my teaching style and my mannerisms. So this is one of the reasons I said, ‘Yes, I am going to be a teacher.’”

Osundare teaches courses in poetry, prose fiction, African and Caribbean literature, literature of the African diaspora, and poetry theory.

He revels in the great diversity of the students at UNO, and says that the vast array of cultures and personal experiences represented within the

UNO professor Niyi Osundare receives congratulations on his National Order of Merit award from Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in an investiture ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria. The chairman of the award’s board of governors said,” Prof. Niyi Osundare, who through outstanding scholarship, research and service to humanity in the field of humanities, has successfully carved his name in gold in the hearts of people of this nation and many nations of the world.”

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classroom further enrich discussions.

These interactions reinforce Osundare’s philosophy of education as a process of continuous exchange.

and looked up the word. Two days later, the professor announced to the entire class that the student had been correct.

As an example, he excitedly recounts a story from the late1990s in which a student corrected his pronunciation of the word “insatiable.” The other 27 students were mortified that a student would dare make such a bold pronouncement. After class, Osundare sought out a dictionary

“Arrogance gets in the way,” Osundare says. “I never met a genuinely intelligent person that is arrogant at the same time. Because there is so much to know. And I have found that the more you tell students that you want to learn from them, the more challenged they get.” d

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UNO and a host of visiting dignitaries celebrate the grand opening of the International Center, a campus hub for the University’s international programs and services. (From left: UNO Student Government President David Teagle; The Honorable Grégor Trumel, consul general of France in New Orleans; Anton Fink, vice president of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation in Vienna; His Excellency Hans Peter Manz, ambassador of Austria to the United States; Alea Morelock Cot, UNO assistant vice president for international education; UNO President Peter J. Fos and Steve Striffler, Doris Zemurray Stone Chair in Latin American Studies, professor of anthropology at UNO.

Gateway to New center serves as home away from home for international students

The University of New Orleans celebrates the grand opening of its new International Center, which will serve as a campus hub for the University’s international programs and services.

“For decades, the University of New Orleans has been a leader in internationally focused higher learning,” President Peter J. Fos says.

“UNO has a rich history of both enrolling students from foreign countries, as well as sending our students on one of our many study abroad programs to enrich their lives 36

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and expand their world view. The International Center reaffirms our commitment to educating globally aware citizens.”

International students represent more than 90 countries and over the last several years have accounted for six to eight percent of the student body at UNO. And through a number of international partnerships the University has sent thousands of students abroad. Indeed, the term “global engagement” is a new mantra on campus, as the University expands international recruiting and online

learning programs designed to engage students from around the world.

“Our international students, faculty and researchers bring new ideas, new ways of thinking and cultural elements to classrooms and campus life,” Fos says. “My goal is to help the University of New Orleans become a truly international institution that attracts the very best students and researchers from around the world.”

The new International Center at UNO is now the hub for international activity at the University. There, students can find international student and scholar services, the Intensive English Language Program, international admissions and recruitment, and study abroad and exchange programs

that span the globe. An academic wing houses international programs and visiting scholars.

In addition, the center includes a beautiful student lounge for students to gather, do homework, hold events and get access to news from around the world via satellite television that broadcasts programming in 15 different languages.

“These students are our future.

They inspire us daily,” Fos says.

“And this is where we will leave a global imprint on future generations of students.”

of more than 10,000 students, faculty and staff. The program has spawned thousands of long-lasting friendships, and more than a few marriages, she says. Many families have sent several children — or even several generations — to Innsbruck through the summer program.

Tied into a spring celebration was the 20-year anniversary of the sister agreement between the cities of Innsbruck and New Orleans, a longterm partnership and local legacy that grew out of the international education efforts at UNO.

December’s grand opening ceremony was attended by UNO faculty, staff and students, as well as several Louisiana-based consuls. Among those who offered remarks were: Fos; His Excellency Hans Peter Manz, ambassador of

Innsbruck city council members, representatives of the University of Innsbruck, as well as tourism and city representatives flew to New Orleans for five days of festivities that included a visit to New Orleans City Council chambers and private time with Mayor Mitch Landrieu. For

Austria to the United States; The Honorable Grégor Trumel, consul general of France in New Orleans; Anton Fink, vice president of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation in Vienna; David Teagle, UNO Student Government president; Alea Morelock Cot, UNO assistant vice president for international education; and Steve Striffler, Doris Zemurray Stone Chair in Latin American Studies and professor of anthropology at UNO.

fun, the group also attended a New Orleans Pelicans game.

the World The most enduring example of UNO’s commitment to international education is the UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, says Alea Cot. The flagship study abroad program has touched the lives

The University’s intensive English language program, founded in 1985, also celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. And international activity at UNO is growing.

“Through this new International Center, we are helping all of our students to be ambassadors of our respective cultures. We are bringing the world to UNO and bringing UNO to the world,” Fos says. “As I like to say: Where else can a student from Algiers, La., live and study alongside a student from Algiers, Africa?”

From top: A visiting Austrian delegation meets with Mayor Mitch Landrieu while here to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School and the 20th anniversary of a sister city agreement between New Orleans and Innsbruck forged by UNO. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan visits the University of New Orleans.

University of New Orleans students have participated in the flagship UNOInnsbruck International Summer School since 1975.

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University of New Orleans engineering students are receiving hands-on experience with friction-stir welding at the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM), located at the Michoud Assembly Facility. At NCAM, engineering students learn to use leading industrial technologies and the same equipment and processes used in the NASA space program. The frictionstir welding course (EN 4096/5096) is the result of a partnership between NASA, NCAM, and the University of New Orleans and is open to students at several universities in the region.

Students Learn Space Age Technology “What’s unique about this course is that students really get to have their hands on the equipment and they really get to learn about friction-stir welding, first in the classroom and then next going out on the floor and using the equipment,” says Michael Eller, class instructor.

“Overall, it’s a really great enhancement to their education at the undergraduate level. It’s something that usually students — engineers — don’t get to until they’re at a graduate or doctoralcandidate level.”

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In this course, we’re researching lithium aluminum alloy plates that would be similar to the alloys on the Orion capsule,” says mechanical engineering student Matthew Mellerine.

“And we’re studying the weld-ability, tentile strengths and mechanics of the material.

“It is quite one thing to learn from books. It is quite another to learn from doing,” says former interim Dean of Engineering Norm Whitley, of students who pursue the friction-stir welding course at NCAM. “The role of engineering colleges across the country has begun to shift to show that the role of doing really is important in turning out graduates that are valuable to the industry that we serve.”

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“I would normally think of welding as a dirty, dangerous, kind of haphazard way of joining materials, whereas this friction-stir welding proves very clean and elegant and just very interesting,” says Eli Everhard, mechanical engineering student. “I would absolutely recommend this friction-stir welding course to other students, specifically mechanical engineering students, because of all the mechanical engineering aspects that it touches on — from metallurgy to structures of materials, and properties of materials, to then manufacturing and other design considerations. It’s a great course.”

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“If we can have a student coming in that has significant experience, knows how to friction-stir weld — and knows what it does, what it means — obviously they hit the ground running, versus someone else whom we would have to train,” says Mark McCloskey, senior production engineer for Orion, Lockheed Martin.

“The coolest thing about this class, to me, is using the two friction-stir welding machines. They’re actually the same machines that the engineers at Michoud are using,” says Kailee Adams, mechanical engineering student. “And it’s really cool that, for our final project, we actually get to friction-stir weld these aluminum alloy panels — and see the data and do everything that engineers would be doing.”

“People are our most important asset,” says Cynthia Spraul, Michoud integration lead, NASA. “And this course puts the technology directly into the hands of future engineers, researchers and scientists, which will greatly benefit NASA programs and our nation’s manufacturing industry.”

To learn more about the UNO-NCAM program, visit

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ATHLETICS

AIMINGHIGH New Orleans Track and Field Finds Hope in Former Olympian

By Brandon Scardigli

Amin Nikfar competes for Iran at the London Olympic Games.

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When New Orleans Head Track and Field Coach Benjamin Dalton took his post just before the 2014-15 season, he was left with a stable of top sprinters, distance runners and jumpers, the bread and butter of the Privateer program.

But what was missing was one key element of the team: throwers.

That opportunity came in 2003, just prior to Nikfar’s graduation from Cal with a bachelor’s degree in American studies, when a chance to compete for the Iranian national team came to the forefront. At the Asian Championships in Manila, Philippines, he placed 10th with a put of 17.37 meters.

When the roster rolled over to the new year, Dalton was left with one thrower, a sophomore with little experience at the collegiate level.

Nikfar remained on the West Coast after his throwing career ended, spending four seasons coaching at Northern Arizona University, where he helped lead the squad to Big Sky Conference Championship titles all four years and earned a master’s degree in educational leadership.

The two-time Olympian still holds the Iranian record in the shot put.

Something had to change if the Privateers wanted to succeed in their new home, the competitive Southland Conference.

So when the opportunity came for Dalton to hire an assistant, throwing was first and foremost on the new head coach’s radar. That’s when the resume of Amin Nikfar came across his desk.

“Amin has competed at the highest level, as part of two World Championships and two Olympic Games, and he has coached at Northern Arizona and UC Berkeley,” Dalton said. “Outside of these accolades, I am excited that Amin’s passion and goals align so well with my own here at the University of New Orleans. This gives me the utmost confidence in and respect for his ability in terms of building the Privateer program here at our university.”

It didn’t take much convincing to make Nikfar the newest member of the New Orleans athletics family, and in December 2014, the highly-touted assistant made his way to the Crescent City.

“The opportunity to help build a championship track and field program at UNO made my decision to come to the Lakefront a no-brainer,” Nikfar said. “In Division I athletics, it is very rare to have an opportunity to build an entire track and field program from scratch, especially with the type of support we have from campus and the athletic department.

Additionally, moving to a worldrenowned destination like New Orleans was not a hard sell.”

Nikfar’s story started in San Jose, Calif., where the 6-foot, 6-inch, 290pound athlete first picked up the art of the shot put. The son of Iranian immigrants managed to swing a scholarship to nearby UC Berkeley, where he enjoyed a stand-out career, throwing for the Bears.

It was at Cal that Nikfar began to amass accomplishments, including a top-five alltime throw at the university with a toss of 18.62 meters in 2004.

Nikfar twice competed at the NCAA National Championships, but the top thrower for Cal had his sights set on a bigger stage.

Nikfar struck gold in his very next meet, placing first at the Asian Indoor Championships with his throw of 18.33.

That performance was followed up with a second-place finish in 2005 at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

After one more crack at the Asian Championships, Nikfar saw his childhood dream come true in the summer of 2008, when he was selected to compete at his first Olympic Games held in Beijing.

While he did not reach the finals, Nikfar did not let the experience deter him.

“Becoming a world class athlete and two-time Olympian takes a certain amount of risk, most notably, the risk of failing to achieve your goals,” Nikfar added. “Along my journey, I have had plenty of opportunities to be conservative and not risk failing, but I didn’t take a single one of them. That is not to say that I was successful 100 percent of the time.

It was actually quite the opposite. My journey as an athlete was full of failures but determination to achieve my goals kept me persistent.”

That persistence showed itself in his very next outing, as Nikfar took first once again at the Asian Indoor Games, earning a then personal-best throw of 19.66 meters.

After finishing 23rd and 16th at the World and World Indoor Championships, respectively, Nikfar got the nod to compete in his second Olympic Games in 2012.

The Cal alum then returned to where it all started, coaching the Bears’ field athletes for one season before making his way to the University of New Orleans.

“Representing Iran at the Olympic Games was an incredible experience,” Nikfar said. “The opportunity to be able to share experiences with the other athletes, make lifetime friends and make my family proud was unreal. Now I am excited to bring those experiences to New Orleans and help grow something special. Fostering athletes’ determination, specifically, fostering the courage it takes to put themselves on the line and risk failure to achieve their goals is an important thing for me to be able to impart to student-athletes at UNO.” Nikfar has settled in nicely during the first few months in his new role, recruiting athletes to New Orleans through his connections around the globe.

“In terms of what I want to accomplish with UNO Track and Field, being consistent with the overall team goal of building a championship program is the focus for the throws program,” Nikfar added. “We are currently recruiting several athletes to build the throws program around. From there, the goal is to move onward and upward.”

In London, Nikfar placed 32nd with a distance of 18.62.

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Head Basketball Coach Mark Slessinger talks strategy with the New Orleans Privateers men’s basketball team.

ATHLETICS

FACETIME

By Brandon Scardigli

Actor Wendell Pierce Talks to the New Orleans Privateers About Making Selma The New Orleans Privateers men’s basketball team received a special treat over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, when actor Wendell Pierce took time out of his Sunday morning to speak to players and coaches about the filming of the movie Selma.

“He was very adamant that it was a movie about what had happened in the past — but that there was so much relevancy to today and struggles that were going on,” University of New Orleans Men’s Basketball Coach Mark Slessinger said. “And he talked about our guys being active and taking advantage of their opportunities— educationally and socially — while here at UNO.” Pierce, a New Orleans native, has appeared in dozens of stage productions, nearly 50 television shows and more than 30 films, from 44 UNO MAGAZINE

The Money Pit and Casualties of War to Waiting to Exhale and Ray. He has gained particular notice for his work in HBO dramas, including The Wire and Treme. This year, he expanded his repertoire with a key role in Selma. The historical drama, directed by Ava DuVernay, is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. Since its November debut at the American Film Institute Festival, the motion picture has gained international critical acclaim, garnered four Golden Globe Award nominations and a coveted Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Pierce, who now lives in Los Angeles, stars in the film as civil rights leader Hosea Williams, a minister and trusted member of Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle.

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His character, who later became a businessman and philanthropist, helped King to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that helped to galvanize and direct thousands of supporters in nonviolent protests against racial, political, economic and social injustice.

Over the holiday weekend, Pierce spoke to the New Orleans Privateers about his experiences making the film.

“The guys really enjoyed it and got a lot from it,” Slessinger said. “It was very powerful for them.”

Pierce grew up in New Orleans’ Pontchartrain Park neighborhood, not far from the UNO campus, where Pierce’s father worked for more than 30 years. Slessinger has gotten to know both men over the last two years through revitalization work

with the Pontchartrain Park Neighborhood Association.

Pierce is an alumnus of the New Orleans Contemporary Center for the Arts (NOCCA) and Benjamin Franklin High School, now located on the UNO campus. In recent years, he has been spotted attending summertime UNO baseball games and, like his father, is an all-around fan of the New Orleans Privateers.

“He’s supporting us and is a part of what we’re doing,” said Slessinger, referring to the UNO athletic department’s mission of developing student-athletes as leaders on the fields, on the courts, in the classroom and in the community. Pierce keeps in touch with the UNO community in various ways, including sharing athletic victories and news on social media.

On Sundays, when his team travels, players and staff often join Slessinger

Left: Actor Wendell Pierce plays the Rev. Hosea Williams in the 2015 film Selma.

Below: Over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the New Orleans Privateers men’s basketball team enjoyed a video call with actor Wendell Pierce, who discussed the significance of the holiday, his experiences growing up in New Orleans’ Pontchartrain Park neighborhood and making the movie Selma.

To learn more about Privateers athletics programs, visit

unoprivateers.com in an optional “Sunday morning devotional” and chat session, the coach said.

“We usually meet Sunday morning for a life lesson or life skills,” Slessinger said, describing the get-togethers as focused personal oneon-one and team time in which student-athletes get to know themselves and one another better.

“This (particular) Sunday, it was the significance of the movie and Martin Luther King Day approaching and how it affects us today,” the coach said. “And how some of these same battles and struggles are still being played out, just under a different context in today’s society.”

The UNO men’s basketball team spent the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in a Houston hotel, preparing for tough games against Sam Houston State and Stephen F.

Austin. Pierce used FaceTime, a video chat application created by Apple, to connect with the Privateers.

Slessinger had prepared “a little documentary on the Selma movie,” for his team.

Pierce dialed in and spoke for approximately 20 minutes.

That night, Slessinger took his team to see the movie.

“It was a pretty great opportunity to get such insight before seeing such a powerful picture,” Slessinger said, who said that Pierce addressed “the significance of it, what the guys were going to experience with the movie, what he felt when he was making the movie.”

A key focus was “how fortunate all of us are with the freedoms that we have,” said Slessinger. “He and I both pointed out that this was something that happened 50 years ago. This was not something that

happened 200 years ago.”

The poignant and dramatic film depicts the nonviolent Selma protesters being scorned — and violently and brutally beaten, sometimes killed — for their beliefs and actions in pursuit of equal rights and justice.

“It’s amazing what people went through and (Pierce) made a really incredible point to the guys … that the marchers knew when they did this, there wasn’t just the chance that somebody might die, they knew that probably somebody would die,” Slessinger said.

“There was a very great chance and that was something that the actors … that weighed heavily on their minds.”

Pierce is a contender for an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actor.

experiences about making the film Selma, Pierce connected with the Privateers about his childhood in the Gentilly neighborhood where the University of New Orleans is located.

He also spoke to studentathletes about Martin Luther King’s message, taking advantage of opportunities and considering how they “carry themselves in the world,” Slessinger said, adding that Pierce helped student-athletes recognize that they represent not just themselves and the university, but the city.

“He talks a lot about campus, going to UNO and the things that are important,” Slessinger said. “They were really excited and kind of blown away that they got to spend time with him and then after seeing him in the movie, they were even more amazed.”

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Alumni

Old Ties

New Friends

First-Ever Alumni Week Creates New Fall Tradition

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The University of New Orleans International Alumni Association successfully launched a new UNO tradition in 2014, bringing alumni and friends together in the fall with a series of fun events collectively called UNO Alumni Week.

Diverse activities ranged from evening cocktail receptions to informal afternoon barbecues, and from art gallery receptions to baseball games, but the highlight of the week was the University of New Orleans Distinguished Alumni Award Reception at New Orleans City Park’s elegant Arbor Room. The event honored the University’s 2014 Homer L. Hitt Distinguished Alumnus Sheriff Newell D. Normand and provided an opportunity for students, faculty, alumni, administrators and friends to celebrate and socialize.

Distinguished Alumnus Sheriff Newell Normand.

Other fun included: a Past President’s Luncheon for past presidents of the alumni association and student government; an alumni hall of fame reception for the College of Education and Human Development; Jazz at the Sandbar with guitarist Peter Bernstein; a luncheon for university faculty and staff; the Privateer Baseball World Series; and “Arts Alumni & Friends” a reception at the UNO St. Claude Gallery connected to Prospect.3: Notes for Now, an international arts exhibition.

“Since the Privateers’ homecoming and alumni tailgate are in the spring during basketball season, the association board wanted to make sure UNO alumni and friends could enjoy — and expect — an annual fall ‘coming home’ experience, too,” says Fred Rodriguez, past alumni association president and a member of the Class of 1972. “Based on the great feedback we got this year, we’ve pledged to grow UNO Alumni Week into a tradition.”

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Alum Spotlights University of New Orleans alumni are pillars in their communities, leaders in industry, arts and culture, philanthropy, research and the sciences, education and more. The achievements of our alumni are our greatest source of pride. We think their stories — YOUR stories — demonstrate the spirit of our university and of New Orleans, the city in which we are so integrated.

Stay tuned at unoalumni.com for updates as we spotlight our fantastic alumni.

Got a suggestion? Let us know at alumni@uno.edu Douglas P. Verret (Ph.D. Physics ‘78)

Since being honored with the Sigma Xi Outstanding Graduate Research award during his college years at UNO, Douglas Verret has continued to distinguish himself professionally as a world-class engineer, researcher and leader.

Over the last four decades, Verret has earned 16 U.S. and five European patents, been named a Texas Instruments Fellow and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellow and earned the IEEE Electron Devices Society’s Distinguished Service Award.

Janet Zadina (Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction ‘03)

A cognitive neuroscientist, Janet Zadina bridges the fields of education and neuroscience in her work as a researcher, teacher, author and international speaker.

Ever committed to keeping educators informed about brain research, the recipient of the 2011 Neuroscience Educator of the Year Award from the Society of Neuroscience is a highly soughtafter speaker who was recently invited to deliver a TED lecture.

N. Ross Hill (M.S. Physics-Applied ‘73)

Ross Hill is one of the leading geophysicists at Chevron Energy Technology Company and, 48 UNO MAGAZINE

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indeed, is a leader in the field worldwide. A recipient of the Virgil Kaufmann Gold Medal, the highest award of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), he has seen a level of success in sub-salt imaging that has made Chevron an international leader in this area and has been a major factor in Chevron’s impressive deepwater Gulf of Mexico discoveries.

Newell D. Normand (B.S. Business Administration ‘88)

Twice elected Jefferson Parish Sheriff with more than 90 percent of the vote, Newell D. Normand continues to give back to his community by also serving on the boards of many organizations such as East Jefferson General Hospital Board of Directors and the Fore!Kids Foundation. Among the many honors he’s received are the 2010 FBI’s Policeman of the Year and 2012 Distinguished Service in Criminal Justice Award from Crimestoppers. The UNO International Alumni Association is proud to honor him as 2014 UNO Homer L. Hitt Distinguished Alumnus.

Blake Bailey (M.A. English ‘98) Literary biographer Blake Bailey often writes

about distinguished American authors. In his most recent book, the critically acclaimed 2014 memoir The Splendid Things We Planned, he chose to probe much closer to home. Yet parallels exist between his family and upbringing and his typical subjects. In this memoir, Bailey addresses issues from the upper-middle class suburban setting, including struggles with drugs and alcohol, depression and conflict.

Joe Russo (M.A. Drama & Communications ‘96)

As an executive producer of original documentaries at the award-winning film production company, Arclight Productions, this native Louisianian has been putting his UNO film degree to good use in “the other LA” for over two decades.

Ann Tuennerman (B.S, Marketing ‘86)

As founder of the worldrenowned Tales of the Cocktail festival held annually in New Orleans, Ann Tuennerman has well-earned the moniker “Mrs. Cocktail.” The event, which takes place in July in New Orleans, began in 2002 and has since become the world’s premier cocktail festival. The acclaimed event targets the hospitality industry with educational events and seminars but is open to one and all.

Leon A. Cannizzaro Jr. (B.A. Political Science ‘75)

Leon A. Cannizzaro Jr. has served the citizens of New Orleans and their criminal justice system for his entire career. Since being elected district attorney of Orleans Parish in November 2008, he has worked aggressively to reform New Orleans’ criminal justice system.

Cirecie West-Olantunji (M.Ed., Ph.D. Counselor Education ‘94, ‘97) The term “multitasker” doesn’t do justice when describing Dr. West-Olantunji’s professional or service career. West-Olantunji, who serves as associate professor and academic program director of the counseling program and director of the Center for Traumatic Stress Research at the University of Cincinnati, was the 2013-2014 President of the American Counseling Association, a 55,000-member organization.

Tymeka “Tai” Lawrence (M.S. Engineering ‘05)

Tymeka “Tai” Lawrence worked as an electrical engineer until 2006, when she and her husband founded Brock Beauty Inc. and launched their initial product, Hairfinity, a vitamin supplement that promotes hair growth.

Edmond Russo, Jr. (M.S. Civil Engineering ‘97)

As the new Galveston District deputy district engineer for programs and project management of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dr. Edmond Russo Jr. has attained the highest civilian position in the district.

James Westfall (M.M. ‘10)

Vibraphonist James Westfall and his band, the Wee Trio, released their fourth album, The Wee Trio Live at the Bistro, in 2013. Westfall is also a co-leader of the electro-pop band Bionica, which releases its second album in early 2014.

U.S. Navy Commander Eric Washington (MBA ‘03)

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Eric Washington has become the first African-American to attain the rank of captain in the Navy’s Reserve Full Time Support (FTS) Aerospace Maintenance Duty Officer (AMDO) community. Reserve AMDOs serve as experts in Navy Reserve personnel management systems and aircraft systems acquisition

and sustainment. This unique blend of skills brings an added strategic depth to naval aviation engineering, acquisition, logistics and maintenance at an affordable cost.

Kenna Wood (B.S. Biological Sciences ‘04)

Kenna Wood has been named chief medical resident of the Samaritan Health Services internal medicine residency program, a three-year program preparing physicians for a career caring for adult patients in the hospital, clinic and other medical settings.

Marc Becnel (B.S. Physics ‘10)

Marc Becnel is already putting to work the master’s degree he earned in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama at Huntsville in December 2013.

Henderson Lewis Jr.

(M.Ed. ‘99) Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent In a January 2015 unanimous vote, the Orleans Parish School Board chose a superintendent — Henderson Lewis Jr. — out of a pool of 92 candidates. In March, he began his tenure.

A 1999 graduate of the University of New Orleans, Lewis received his Master of Education degree, concentrating in Education Leadership and Administration and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Mississippi State University.

Lewis spent nearly 10 years as an instructor in St. Bernard Public Schools before making the transition to assistant principal and principal positions in the Algiers Charter Schools Association. Among other notable positions, Lewis was the founding principal of the Algiers Technology Academy.

In 2012, Lewis became superintendent of the East Felciana School Board, where he served for more than two years.

For the last eight years, Lewis has also served on the school board for St. Bernard Parish, where he grew up.

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Alum Spotlights Miranda Restovic

(MPA ‘13) President & Executive Director, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Miranda Restovic, the president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, was named the 2015 University of New Orleans College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumna. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of New Orleans with a master’s degree in public administration.

Prior to her role as president and executive director of the LEH, Restovic served as the deputy director of the LEH for three years and the director of PRIME TIME Family Reading Time, an interactive storytelling and group discussion program of the LEH for five and a half years.

During her tenure with PRIME TIME, Restovic provided direction for strategic and extensive program expansion, resulting in the publication of the first longitudinal study linking PRIME TIME to student academic achievement. She also helped establish new programs in early childhood education and teacher professional development, as well as a comprehensive program model for schools and districts.

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ mission is to provide all Louisianans with access to and an appreciation of their own rich, shared and diverse historical, literary and cultural heritage through grant-supported outreach programs and initiatives.

He and his brothers Eric and Daniel (B.A. History ‘03), recently founded RadioBros, a picosatellite services firm that creates miniature satellites and supports the aerospace industry.

Dan Tague (B.A. Studio Art ‘97, M.F.A. Fine Arts ‘00)

Multimedia artist and activist Dan Tague recently added another achievement to an already impressive list of successes. Art Comes Alive (ACA), a national fine arts competition and exhibition, named Tague its 2014 Best Emerging Artist of the Year.

Tague explores the role of money in society through his art, which incorporates folded American dollars, printmaking and photography to create thoughtprovoking messages. In 2013, the artist enjoyed commercial success with a New York Times commission, a BBC interview and a solo show.

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Kentrell Martin (B.S. Management ‘04)

Around the UNO campus, Kentrell Martin is remembered as a lockdown defender for head coach Monte Towe on the Privateer basketball team during a tenure that lasted from 2001 through 2004. Martin is now on the offensive, as an award-winning author who has published two books – Shelly’s Outdoor Adventure and Shelly Goes to the Zoo.

Blaine Prestenbach (B.S. Business Administration ‘08)

Valentine’s Day 2013 marked the long-awaited opening of Charcoal’s Gourmet Burger Bar, the upscale build-your-ownburger restaurant occupying sleek new construction at the uptown corner of Magazine and Jackson. Though other restaurateurs have since followed suit with eateries centered around gourmet burgers, Charcoal’s was conceived as a business plan

more than half a decade ago when Blaine Prestenbach was still a student at UNO.

Robert “Bobby” Savoie (Ph. D. Engineering and Applied Sciences ‘09)

Robert A. “Bobby” Savoie serves as chief executive officer of Geocent L.L.C, one of the largest information technology and engineering services companies headquartered in New Orleans.

The 2012 Governor’s Technology Awards honored Geocent as “Growth Company/Organization of the Year” for its demonstration of a “significant rate of growth ... in revenue, products and services sold, and/or number of employees.” Geocent was formed in 2008 to acquire and integrate several related firms in the fields

of information technology, engineering services, and defense and aerospace manufacturing support. Since then, the company has grown more than 300 percent and added more than 200 IT and engineering professionals.

Jay C. Zainey (B.S. Accounting ‘73)

United States District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey, honored as the 2012 UNO Homer L. Hitt Distinguished Alumnus, first distinguished himself at UNO when he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in accounting in 1973. The Metairie native did not stop there. His prestigious career led to his appointment to the federal bench for the U.S. District Court in 2002, a position he still holds.

Gary Rucker (B.A. ‘96, M.F.A. Acting ‘00)

Gary Rucker’s list of stage credits as an actor, director and producer — as well as his many

awards — runs a full seven pages. The list of achievements includes Big Easy, Storer Boone and Marquee awards and director’s nominations garnered nearly every year for the last 12 years. Rounding out the list is one of the highest honors at the University of New Orleans, which named Rucker the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumnus for 2012.

Melissa Weber (B.A. Drama & Communications ‘00)

New Orleans is the kind of city where Melissa Weber and her alter-ego, DJ Soul Sister, can exist in harmony. Even before graduating from UNO with a degree in drama and communications (and a minor in English), Weber was on her way to establishing herself as both a communications

professional and a renowned DJ-Artist. “Soul Sister life began for me at WWOZ,” she explains.

“I’ve done my Soul Power radio show for close to 20 years, more than anything else.” Weber had intentions of helping out at a college radio station, willing to “lick envelopes and stuff” just to be near the music — and ended up with her own show.

Kevin Wagner (B.S. Civil Engineering ‘90)

Every UNO graduate leaves some indelible mark on New Orleans, but few have done so much to support the city — literally — as Kevin Wagner.

An employee of the Protection Restoration Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), he was honored twice at the 2011 USACE Summer Leaders Conference Awards Dinner as part of “Team New Orleans,” and lauded for outstanding achievement in professional excellence and

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Alum Spotlights efforts to reduce risk for the people of the Greater New Orleans area.

Karen Mincey (B.S. Electrical Engineering ‘82) VP & CIO, TECO Energy Karen Mincey was the only African-American graduate and one of only two female graduates of her 1982 electrical engineering class at UNO. Today, she is vice president and chief information officer for Tampa-based TECO Energy. She was recently named one of the 75 most powerful women in business by Black Enterprise magazine, a list that also included Oprah Winfrey and executives from FedEx and Burger King. Mincey was also chosen by the UNOIAA to help recruit engineering students, and now each accepted engineering student receives a letter from Mincey encouraging him or her to choose UNO. The UNO community was proud that she enthusiastically accepted the University’s invitation to speak at fall 2011 commencement.

Jan Ramsey (B.S. Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Administration ‘80)

Jan Ramsey has, for the last 23 years, elevated the national perception of New Orleans music as the founder, publisher and editorin-chief of OffBeat magazine.

When Ramsey pressed the first edition of OffBeat in 1988, the industry’s impact as a whole was unacknowledged for its economic significance. Through her efforts, the influence of the music industry on the New Orleans economy has gained recognition and attention.

Marc Miranne (B.S. Finance ‘83, M.S. Accounting ‘85)

Walking into Marc Miranne’s 52

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office, it’s impossible not to be dazzled by the many awards decorating his walls. Hanging prominently between his CPA certificate and industry awards, his two UNO diplomas are a focal point: the first honors his 1983 finance degree and the second honors his 1985 accounting degree. After years as a CPA, Miranne returned to his background in finance as a financial adviser for the international investment firm Edward Jones. His overall UNO experience holds many fond memories; it is where he met his sweetheart and lifelong friends as a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Miranne calls himself one of UNO’s biggest fans and owns both a silver and a blue car to prove it.

Don Landry (B.S. Management ‘70)

UNO, frequently recognized for its hotel, restaurant and tourism administration program, has produced many successful graduates, and Don Landry truly exemplifies the accomplishments possible with a UNO degree.

Now owner of his own firm, he is sought after as an expert by major hospitality industry clients. His résumé includes posts as president of a 4,000-property, international hotel corporation and as CEO of a hotel real estate and management company with hotels in 25 states.

But at UNO, Landry was just like so many other students: juggling school and work. Landry credits his experience working in his chosen field of study as a major advantage that gave him the jumpstart on his successful career.

Miki Pfeffer

(M.A. ‘06, Ph.D. ‘11) Author and Women’s Historian

Miki Pfeffer, a 2011 University of New Orleans Ph.D. recipient, is the author of Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women’s Rights at the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair, a non-fiction book on the 1884 Woman’s Department at the Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.

While working toward her master’s degree in English at UNO, — which she received in 2006 — Pfeffer began her research for a history seminar entitled “Gender and New Orleans.”

She followed up with a thesis entitled “Exhibiting Women: Sectional Confrontation and Reconciliation in the Woman’s Department at the World’s Exposition, New Orleans, 1884-85.”

Pfeffer’s doctoral work focused on investigating the Deep South World’s Fair, documenting the conflicts and resolutions women faced in the industrial era of post-bellum New Orleans. Pfeffer focuses on the microclimate of the World’s Fair as a window into the larger issues of the day — how women interacted, looked, sounded and what values were important to them.

Southern Ladies and Suffragists is available from the University Press of Mississippi.

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