Trojan Family Magazine Spring 2023

Top of the Crops

USC researchers are using AI to help farmers worldwide save their countries from famine.

scene

USC quarterback Caleb Williams, shown here leaving the Coliseum after a game, won the 2022 Heisman Trophy in December. He is USC’s seventh official Heisman winner, earning college football’s highest individual honor in his first year as a Trojan.

PHOTO BY YANNICK PETERHANS/USC ATHLETICS

The Show Must Grow On

If you’ve ever written anything longer than a tweet, chances are that at some point, some teacher, professor, editor or critic has hit you with this well-worn aphorism: “Show, don’t tell.”

That same directive applies to great research universities such as USC. Yes, the cutting-edge scholarship of the university’s students and faculty — whether artistic, scientific, or technological — is impressive by its sheer quality. But any of these Trojans will tell you that the true measure of their effort’s success is the impact on the real world and on real people. They don’t just tell us the work is excellent by the academic standards of their respective disciplines, they show us the very tangible ways their scholarship is improving people’s lives all over the world.

The Spring 2023 cover story of USC Trojan Family Magazine by Marc Ballon offers just such an example of how the dedication of USC’s scholars is creating positive outcomes for people — in this case, the people of Ethiopia. The story details how Yolanda Gil, a professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, developed an artificial intelligence platform to recommend ways for Ethiopian policymakers

to increase food production and reduce the risk of famine in the country. By marrying a very new technology (AI) with a very old one (agriculture), USC has been able to not only help one nation address its food issues, but also build a model for predicting and mitigating other potential crises.

Real-world impact is also the common thread running the other feature stories in the current issue. From a technique for turning plastic garbage from the ocean into pharmaceuticals, to AI that helps surgeons improve their suturing skills, to software that offers U.S. diplomats quick translations of new stories in multiple languages, to a gender-affirming care program that helps trans people be who they are, Trojans are deploying their unique talents to leave the world better than they found it.

OK, that’s enough telling. Keep turning these pages and let us show you how they’ve done it.

The magazine of the University of Southern California

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ted B. Kissell

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jane Frey

MANAGING EDITOR

Lilledeshan Bose

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Chinyere Amobi

COPY EDITOR

Cord Brooks

VISUALS EDITOR

Damon Casarez

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mary Modina

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Gus Ruelas

INTERACTIVE CONTENT MANAGER

Ed Sotelo

INTERACTIVE MARKETING MANAGER

Anna Clark

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Pentagram

CONTRIBUTORS

Chloe Barker

Nina Damavandi

Greg Hernandez

Laurie McLaughlin

Judith Lipsett

David Medzerian

Grayson Schmidt

USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu

USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March and October by USC University Communications.

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Ted B. Kissell Editor-in-Chief USC Trojan Family Magazine

CLARIFICATION: A scholarship established by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Paramount that was featured in the Winter 2022 issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine is open to any students who are interested in advancing Latinx diversity in newsrooms.

20

USC researchers are turning plastic waste into materials we can use as medicine in the future. (More on page 30.)

Seeds of Change

AI can help farmers use data and models to gain more bountiful harvests in Ethiopia. By Marc Ballon 24

Found in Translation

By reading foreign news sources in English, AI is fostering cross-cultural understanding. By Greg Hardesty

26 Care Without Bias

Keck Medicine of USC created an innovative gender-affirming care program by collaborating with trans communities. By Chinyere Amobi

30 A Cure for Plastic Waste

USC researchers are finding ways to transform plastic waste into pharmaceuticals. By Paul McQuiston

32

The Perfect Stitch

Computer scientists and clinicians are designing AI solutions to improve surgical training. By Caitlin Dawson

Brightening the Neighborhood

A few blocks northeast of the University Park Campus, a 120-year-old house, once boarded up, now shines with freshly painted murals that bring a little vibrancy to Trojans’ commute. The front features a vivid image of multicolored hands releasing a bird into the air, and a simple greeting adorns the mural’s bottom-left corner: “Welcome to the Peace Garden.”

At the back of the house, another full mural of the California landscape stretches down the wall to cover the stairs. Mountains, rolling hills and clear skies sprawl across the back porch with a sprinkling of bears, mountain lions, squirrels and other animals found across the state. The backyard houses several raised garden beds filled with vegetables and native plants.

The mural and garden are part of the University Park Peace Garden Project, launched by the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy this past March to create “a flourishing urban garden in which educational, research and health programming can serve community needs.”

“Coming here is a breath of fresh air,” says muralist Daniella Leon, a junior in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Roski School of Art and Design. “Los Angeles is so crowded and fast-paced that just having a space to ground yourself is really important.”

USC student Daniella Leon works on her mural piece, titled “Unidas.”

MILAGRO DE MARIACHI

When she accepted admittance as a classical guitar major at the USC Thornton School of Music in 2021, Daniela Santiago took residence at El Sol y La Luna, USC’s residential college Latinx special interest floor. It was the ideal place for Santiago and José “Pepe” Romo to form a mariachi ensemble.

The resulting band — Mariachi Los Troyanos de USC — practiced in the Cardinal Gardens parking lot and later at the Latinx Chicanx Center for Advocacy and Student Affairs (La CASA) before moving into rehearsal space at USC Thornton. Momentum picked up last spring when the group took top honors at USC Songfest. Multiple concerts of all sizes came next, then

NIGERIAN CULTURE COMES

TO USC

Members of the African diaspora transformed USC’s Bing Theatre into a showcase of traditional Nigerian music, culture and folklore as they gathered to watch Wedlock of the Gods, directed by Bayo Akinfemi, assistant professor of theater practice.

The October production featured a nearly allBlack cast of students from the USC School of Dramatic Arts, eager to bring to life the work of celebrated playwright Zulu Sofola.

TV appearances. The group was the featured act on NBC’s regional show California Live during Hispanic Heritage Month. Days later, the band was on NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV.

“Mariachi is the most beautiful music in the world, and being in the heart of Los Angeles — such a diverse space, Latino-centered — it’s important to find a way for students to express themselves culturally and creatively,” says Eduardo Cardenas, the group’s president and a mechanical engineering student at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “We bring a lot of fun, a sense of inclusiveness, and we’re all professionals, so we bring great music.”

The play tells the tale of Ogwoma, who defies the law of the land by reconnecting with her true love following the death of the husband she was forced to marry.

Bringing Sofola’s play to the USC stage had special significance for Akinfemi. Sofola, Africa’s first female professor of theater arts and Nigeria’s first female published playwright and dramatist, served as a mentor to Akinfemi, who was part of the last cohort of theater students Sofola taught at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria before her death in 1995.

Says Akinfemi, “My personal connection with this woman makes me really proud and hungry to put her work here in this space for everybody to see.”

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

USC has a long history of supporting and collaborating with the surrounding communities in Los Angeles. From the Good Neighbors Campaign — funded by donations from USC faculty and staff supporting university and community partnerships — to the Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative — a college access and success program operated by USC Educational Partnerships

Trojans have created a visible, positive impact on the neighborhoods near the University Park and Health Sciences campuses. Here are five innovative efforts USC spearheaded in the past year. LILLEDESHAN BOSE

WHERE STUDENTS

The USC Joint Educational Project (JEP) was ceived in 1972 a way for USC students to volunteer in neighboring schools as mentors — and more than 2,000 Trojans participate annually. Last JEP released a series of children’s books on science, technology, neering, arts and math subjects.

HOME CARE

The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology works with the nonprofit Rebuilding Together, providing home repairs to help community members stay in their homes. In 2022, the program worked with partners retailer Lowe’s to prohome improvements for 16 Los families.

PATH TO COLLEGE

Track students of graduate. location

USC to ensure that from three local Dorsey, LA Promise and Crenshaw — tioned to earn a

READING, WRITING, MOTIVATING

After teaching writing classes through the USC Dornsife Prison Education Project, Keziah Poole ’21 started the USC PEP Readers’ Circle in 2022. Volunteer USC faculty members and students assist prisoners in writing projects by typing handwritten work, copyediting or giving feedback on manuscripts.

CARE FOR LUXURY BONES

The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC has provided lo no-cost care to residents California for decades, serving more than 380,000 patients. The USC Mobile Dental Clinic, operated third- and fourth-year dental students under USC faculty supervision, has the largest mobile dental fleet the country apart from the U.S. military.

LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES

No matter what dreams you may have on the horizon, our expert health care team is here to partner with you to realize your potential. That’s what happens when deep expertise combines with truly personalized care. Together we are limitless.

TROJAN

WHERE RHYTHM IS LIFE

Visiting artist Monica Bill Barnes practices with USC Kaufman student dancers for The Running Show, a humorous take on a dancer’ s life as presented through movement, interviews and stories.

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

Here Comes the Sun

USC-LADWP agreement taps into off-site solar power for the university and its neighbors.

USC will obtain 25% of its electricity from solar-generated power and contribute to new solar programs that expand opportunities for disadvantaged communities to access affordable clean energy — all under a new agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

The 20-year agreement approved by the L.A. City Council in September will help USC meet its goals in reducing carbon-based energy consumption. The university also will become the first L.A. institution to contribute to LADWP’s Clean Energy Adder program, which will make renewable energy more accessible and affordable for residents

in multifamily dwellings, including those surrounding USC’s campuses.

The contract provides USC with up to 25 megawatts of electricity on any given day — the equivalent of taking 5,413 gas-fueled cars off the road — from the LADWP Springbok 3 Solar Farm in the Mojave Desert, about 95 miles north of Los Angeles. The solar farm will virtually apply nearly 30% of its energy production to USC — one-quarter of the university’s annual electricity needs.

“USC has set an ambitious goal of going carbon-neutral by 2025, and this agreement between USC and LADWP is an exciting and significant step toward achieving that through increased access to solar energy,” USC President Carol L. Folt says. “This is a meaningful example of how, working together, USC and the city can set the pace and do our part to fight climate change.”

SHIFTING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY

All USC-operated buildings and facilities on the University Park Campus in downtown L.A. and most on the Health Sciences Campus in Boyle Heights will be part of this effort.

“This new agreement marks a major milestone toward reducing our environmental impact and realizing our goal of achieving climate neutrality,” says USC Chief

Sustainability Officer Mick Dalrymple.

“By taking this step, we hope to set an example for other L.A. institutions to seek out aggressive solutions to the climate crisis.”

HELPING LOCALS ACCESS SOLAR POWER

In addition to lowering its carbon footprint, USC will contribute approximately $180,000 per year to LADWP programs that support multifamily residents in and around USC’s campuses.

These funds will also suppor t disadvantaged communities that have historically been challenged by socioeconomic conditions and pollution. This first-ofits-kind arrangement is a bold step in supporting disadvantaged community access to clean energy.

Under the new Clean Energy Adder program, larger institutions like USC may subscribe to two LADWP solar-focused programs. USC is the first organization to financially support the Shared Solar Program, which enables renters in multifamily dwellings to offset a portion of their electricity with solar-generated energy. Furthermore, funding from USC will be set aside from the Virtual Net Energy Metering pilot program that incentivizes solar development at multifamily buildings.

PAUL MCQUISTON

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Springbok 3 Solar Farm in the Mojave Desert will virtually apply nearly 30% of its energy production to USC, resulting in offsetting one-quarter of the university’s annual electricity needs.

Fest of the Best

OK, it’s not an actual music festival — but we can dream with help of a USC Viterbi student’s app!

Ever thought about what your dream music festival would look like?

Anshay Saboo ’24 has, and he turned it into a mobile application that quickly became a sensation.

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering student’s recent app, Instafest, pulls data from users’ Spotify accounts to create a dream lineup that can be shared with friends. The result is a graphic that breaks up users’ most listened-to artists by day, showcased in a poster patterned after a certain Southern California music festival (ahem, Coachella).

Saboo, a computer science major, began working on the app in spring of 2022 when

the music festival season began. that Spotify’s application programming interface — which allows him information like users’ top artists relatively easy to work with.

By November, it was ready just posted on my story, had a bunch friends post it, and the app just like wildfire,” he says. A week gained 16 million users.

“Music has an incredible bring people together,” Saboo just super cool to see everyone ing with the app and each other about music.”

TrojanFest: Inspired by the Instafest app, TFM created a dream Trojan lineup made up of artists who either attended USC or are closely affiliated with the Cardinal and Gold. To find out more about these artists, go to trojanfamily.usc.edu.

Triple A-Plus

USC faculty members honored for scientific excellence.

The council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected USC faculty members Carolyn C. Meltzer, Massoud Pedram, Remo Rohs and Richard M. Watanabe to the rank of AAAS fellow.

The honor is among the most prized in academia and recognizes excellence in research, technology, industry and government, teaching, and communicating and interpreting science to the public. They join more than 40 of their USC peers already inducted into the AAAS.

Carolyn C. Meltzer, dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the May S. and John H. Hooval, M.D., Dean’s Chair in Medicine, is recognized for her work in the field of neuroradiology.

Massoud Pedram, the Charles Lee Powell Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science and professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is recognized for his work in low-power design of VLSI (very large-scale integration) circuits and energy-efficient computing.

Remo Rohs, professor of quantitative and computational biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy and computer science at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is recognized for his work in structural biology and genomics to predict the 3D structure of DNA.

Richard M. Watanabe is a population and public health sciences professor at the Keck School of Medicine and is the associate dean for health and population science programs. He is recognized for his work in genetics, particularly in Type 2 diabetes-related traits.

A Legacy of Innovation

USC receives large naming gifts to honor innovator and physicist Alfred E. Mann.

Last November, a substantial gift from the late innovator and physicist Alfred E. Mann jumpstarted an initiative to reimagine biomedical engineering and pharmaceutical sciences at USC and beyond. To acknowledge these innovative investments — which will fund student scholarships, distinguished faculty hires, new research and more — two USC entities were named: the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, which received $50 million; and the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biolomedical Engineering, which received $35 million.

The namings come after a long and fruitful relationship between the university and Mann, who died in 2016. Mann donated more than $174 million to USC toward addressing health care issues with innovative solutions, including the establishment of the Alfred E. Mann Institute

for Biomedical Engineering in 1998, which has been instrumental in creating groundbreaking medical inventions such as the artificial retina. Mann was also a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and served on the Board of Overseers of Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Centering Sustainability

The USC Sustainability Hub moves into a collaborative space on campus.

Assignment: Earth is about to land in the heart of USC’s University Park Campus.

This spring, the university will open the USC Sustainability Hub — a coworking and collaboration space in the Gwynn Wilson Student Union building where students, researchers and sustainability staff can gather.

“Establishing the new Sustainability Hub at the center of campus means ensuring USC’s Assignment: Earth is at the heart of all we do at USC,” says USC President Carol L. Folt. “This new space will provide a dynamic home for Trojans to come together, share ideas and collaborate on solutions that will have lasting impact on our campuses and this beautiful planet we love.”

CHINYERE AMOBI

Throughout his distinguished career, Mann founded the Alfred E. Mann Foundation and 17 other companies that fueled the creation of products that have revolutionized the health care field, including cochlear implants, mind-controlled prosthetic limbs, rechargeable pacemakers and other inventions meant to improve quality of life for millions. His biopharmaceutical company, MannKind Corporation, develops and sells products such as rapid-acting inhalable insulin for people living with endocrine and orphan lung diseases. Mann’s innovative and humanitarian legacy lives on in the companies he founded, the inventions he’s fueled and in the educational entities that now bear his name.

Given the undeniable impact of climate change — powerful storms, extreme drought, rising sea levels — sustainability is on many people’s minds. A survey conducted earlier this year revealed that nearly half of the university’s students, faculty and staff shared moderate to strong interest in getting involved with university sustainability efforts.

Many significant sustainability initiatives — from eliminating the use of single-use plastic beverage bottles to incorporating sustainability into the business curriculum and decarbonizing the health care industry — are already underway across the university.

“We expect this new location at the heart of campus will provide a platform to create positive change and grow our community of sustainability-conscious students, faculty and staff,” says USC Chief Sustainability Officer Mick Dalrymple. It will also become a workspace for the university’s first group of postdoctoral fellows who will focus on developing solutions to climate-related issues, ranging from the economic impact to the effects on human health.

LEIGH HOPPER

USC President Carol L. Folt (from left), Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos and USC Trustee Chair Suzanne Nora Johnson in front of the renamed building.

Greener Gases

Keck Medicine of USC is curbing the environmental impacts of anesthesia in operating rooms — and saving money.

Keck Medicine of USC is phasing out one of the most commonly used — and environmentally toxic — anesthetics for its surgeries: desflurane.

The discontinuation of desflurane is part of a universitywide effort to re-examine USC’s and Keck Medicine of USC’s impact on climate change and implement healthier, sustainable solutions whenever possible.

The operating room is one of the biggest if not the biggest — waste generators in any hospital, says Arash Motamed, medical director for Keck Main Perioperative Operations and Keck Medicine of USC Sustainability.

“They’re very resistant to degradation; they stay in that environment for many years,” says Motamed, an associate professor

and vice chair of clinical operations for the department of anesthesiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

In 2022, the Association of Anesthetists noted that anesthetics are responsible for 0.1% of the world’s carbon emissions. At the hospital level, inhaled anesthetics make up more than 5% of acute hospital carbon emissions and 50% of perioperative emissions.

ANESTHETICS IN THE ATMOSPHERE

During a surgery with anesthetics, a patient breathes in an anesthetic gas, which circulates through the body and keeps the person unconscious. After the operation, the anesthetics are turned off, the concentration in the body decreases and the patient regains consciousness.

Keck’s operating rooms have three primary anesthetics, Motamed says. Each achieves similar effects but has different drawbacks.

“Desflurane is very quick to come on and very quick to come off — that’s why people love it,” says Aren Nercisian, an anesthesiologist at Keck Medicine of USC. “But it’s expensive and horrible for the environment.”

The California Society of Anesthesiologists noted that desflurane lingers the longest of any anesthetic — 14 years — in the atmosphere’s lowest layer, the troposphere, just above the Earth’s surface. On the other hand, sevoflurane remains in the troposphere for over a year, while isoflurane lingers for 3.2 years.

“The contribution to emissions is huge,” says Howard Hu, holder of the Flora L. Thornton Chair in Preventive Medicine and chair and professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “That insight became a clarion call for us to do something about it.”

HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT, CUTTING COSTS

Global warming potential (GWP) is a way to quantify the amount that an agent contributes to global warming over a period of time. Nercisian, who leads sustainability efforts for the anesthesiology department at Keck Medicine of USC, explains that GWP measures how much energy the emission of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide. The larger the GWP, the more it warms the Earth compared to carbon dioxide. The GWP of carbon dioxide is 1.

Desflurane has the highest global warming potential — 2,540 — compared with sevoflurane, which has a GWP of 130. It also tends to be the most expensive. And so far, no studies have indicated whether there are “better outcomes with sevoflurane vs. desflurane vs. isoflurane,” Nercisian says.

Keck Medicine of USC has not ordered more desflurane in the past year.

“According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the triple aim of a health system should be improving patient experience, improving the health of the population and reducing the cost of health care,” Motamed says. “Howard Hu says that sustainable delivery of care should be the fourth aim. I couldn’t agree more.”

GRAYSON SCHMIDT

50 Years of Title IX

Trojan trailblazers talk about their personal struggles for equality and how Title IX legislation made a difference at USC.

Title IX, the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding, had an immediate impact at USC when it was signed into law in 1972. Trojan trailblazers who’ve helped pave the way for gender equity at USC and beyond — from entertainment to the sciences, athletics and business — reflect on the past five decades of Title IX.

“Title IX really moved the university into the upper echelon of women’s athletics in the country. The school became so respected and renowned in college athletics in a relatively short period of time. USC was not only showcasing stellar men’s programs, it had a whole new successful

woman’s program that it could showcase. It laid the groundwork, and we need to continue to be diligent in our efforts to build on that foundation.”

— BARBARA HALLQUIST DEGROOT ’79, MOST DECORATED ALUMNA OF THE USC WOMEN'S TENNIS PROGRAM AND USC VOLUNTEER ASSISTANT COACH

“[Title IX] legislation was very helpful to me — especially internally with the administration. … We wanted money from the federal government and were going to have to welcome everyone. It was a thrilling victory.”—

—

THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO SERVE AS BOTH A U.S. AIR FORCE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND UNITED AIRLINES PILOT

“What’s been wonderful about [Title IX] is the recognition that it gave to the very fact that discrimination was occurring. ... Fifty years ago, there were a lot of people who felt that discrimination didn’t exist, and if it did, it didn’t matter. It was endorsement at the federal level that indeed something had to be done. … Title IX put women in visible roles you hadn’t seen them in before. … [It] was a cornerstone to begin to fight these other battles. It was a huge, huge building block.” — ELIZABETH M. DALEY, DEAN OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS AND USC’S LONGEST-SERVING DEAN

“I’m so grateful to all the women who really fought for Title IX because my life would have been so different. ... I hope it’s something that we always celebrate because it really did make such a huge difference for the women of my generation.”

M’LIS WARD ’86,

DOROTHY WRIGHT NELSON, USC’S FIRST

FEMALE LAW PROFESSOR AND FORMER

DEAN

OF

THE USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW

“It’s not just about the equal number of teams, women athletes or funding and scholarships. [Title IX] is very importantly about preventing assault and harassment, but it’s really about ensuring equitable access to education. And that, I absolutely celebrate.” — TRACY POON TAMBASCIA, THE FIRST WOMAN OF COLOR TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE USC ACADEMIC

“[Title IX] has really helped people at all levels to see the importance of equal rights — especially in education. … I have been here [at USC] 48 years, and my female students always write to me saying I serve as a role model for them and how much they appreciate me. … Some of their daughters have graduated from college now. I feel good that I have been able to pass along that important, good message.” — JEAN

CHEN SHIH, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AND THE ENDOWED BOYD P. AND ELSIE D. WELIN PROFESSOR OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES CHAIR

MARCHING BAND

“There are data that show girls who play sports tend to be more successful in several other venues and endeavors. They have higher self-esteem, a more positive body image, and they’re less likely to drop out of school than a significant segment of women. ... But the space we are in now (where we are more committed than ever to diversity, equity and inclusion) tells us that just thinking about gender is not enough. Our female athletes are saying, ‘I’m more than just my gender. I’m more than this female body that you see, and I have more to contribute than just the unique female experience. I’m more than just my race and my sexuality.’”—

JULIE ROUSSEAU, USC ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

“As the dean of a school with a 72% female student body, I am grateful not to have to fight for the rights of a majority of my students on a daily basis. I appreciate the [Title IX] enforcement measures that we have in place to make sure we don’t backslide in our progress toward a truly equitable world. That’s no small thing to be able to say that. … We would not have made progress toward equitable outcomes the way we have without Title IX. … We would not have the rich college sports programs for men and women the same way we do today, and we would not have the majority of college graduates be female without Title IX. There are so many outcomes that we are experiencing today that have enriched our society in immeasurable ways.” — WILLOW

USC is hosting Title IX: 50 Years of Progress , a yearlong celebration of Title IX’s impact on campus. To read about more Trojan trailblazers, go to sites.usc.edu/titleix .

BAY, DEAN OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM

“Being drum major made me acknowledge and be proud of being a woman. I always tried to fit into these male-dominated spaces by being as much of a guy as I could, but I realized I don’t have to do that. Having more visibility is really important. Having me in that position shows younger women that it’s not impossible — a woman did this, and she was strong.”

— INDIA ANDERSON ’21, FIRST FEMALE DRUM MAJOR OF THE TROJAN

SENATE

PHOTOS BY CHRIS FLYNN (WRIGHT NELSON); TWO POINT PICTURES (WARD); JOHN MCGILLEN (HALLQUIST DEGROOT); GUS RUELAS (DALEY); COURTESY OF POON TAMBASCIA (SELF); JOHN MCGILLEN (ANDERSON); COURTESY OF ROUSSEAU (SELF); COURTESY OF THE USC ALFRED E. MANN SCHOOL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES (CHEN SHIH); YANNICK PETERHANS (BAY).

Key Change

Renowned music scholar and musician Jason King named dean of the USC Thornton School of Music.

Renowned music scholar and musician Jason King has been named dean of the USC Thornton School of Music, effective July 1.

King currently serves as chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

“Dr. Jason King’s talents — coupled with USC Thornton’s incredible students, faculty and staff — will be a dynamic formula to expand musical education at this exceptional 139-year-old school known for enriching the arts and humanity,” USC President Carol L. Folt says.

Fair AI Speech

New research at USC demonstrates how to train a popular language model to remove homophobic, anti-queer bias.

Modern text prediction isn’t perfect — but it can also be highly biased when predicting results related to marginalized communities.

A team of researchers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Information Sciences Institute and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, led by Katy Felkner, a USC Viterbi PhD student in computer science and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship recipient, has developed a system to quantify and fix anti-queer bias in the artificial intelligence behind text prediction.

The project looks at detecting and reducing anti-queer bias in a large language model, or LLM — the “brain” behind the text prediction. LLM is an artificial intelligence

As a scholar and public intellectual with a doctorate from NYU, King has created multidisciplinary work in the fields of African American and African Diasporic cultural studies; performance studies; globalization and transnationalism studies; media and technology studies; music business, marketing and branding studies; and gender and queer studies.

An inaugural member of the Hip Hop Culture Council at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Black Genius Brain Trust, King serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Popular Music Studies. He brings a long history of publications as a scholar and a journalist, and extensive experience working with internationally known media outlets on series, podcasts and documentaries.

King acknowledges the sense of exuberance and commitment to excellence he felt from USC Thornton faculty, staff and

that “completes” sentences by predicting the most likely string of words that follows a given prompt.

“Most LLMs are trained on huge amounts of data that’s crawled from the internet,” Felkner says. “They’re going to pick up every kind of social bias that you can imagine is out there on the web.”

The project found that a popular LLM called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) showed significant homophobic bias, which can then enforce users’ biases. To tackle this problem, Felkner gave BERT a tuneup by

students. “Some things are very consistent about music transcendent music is still the goal,” he says. “And for any student at USC Thornton who’s focusing on making or researching music, my goal is to help them achieve that artistic and scholarly transcendence.”

TED B. KISSELL

feeding it tweets and news articles containing LGBTQ+ keywords from two separate databases of Felkner’s creation: QueerTwitter and QueerNews.

As the model was exposed to different perspectives and communities, it became more familiar with queer language and issues. After being trained with the new, more inclusive data, the model showed significantly less bias.

Long term, Felkner hopes the project can be used to train other LLMs, help researchers test the fairness of their natural language processing or even uncover completely new biases.

LILLIAN GOODWIN

JASON KING PHOTO BY LAYLAH AMATULLAH BARRAYN; ANTI-QUEER BIAS ILLUSTRATION FROM ISTOCK

New Beginnings

Spring convocation heralds growth and change for the latest crop of Trojans.

On a cold January morning (at least by Southern California standards), USC’s newest students received their official warm welcome into the Trojan Family with encouragement and a reminder to take chances that lead them outside their comfort zone.

USC President Carol L. Folt and other university leaders greeted more than 2,000 incoming undergraduate, graduate and professional students during the spring new student convocation.

“Welcome to L.A.,” Folt said. “You made a great choice.”

Each year, several hundred Trojans start in January. This year, they represent approximately one-fifth of the 2022-2023 first-year class, along with more than 1,200 graduate and professional students. Spring convocation — held for the first time in the Galen Center instead of Bovard Auditorium — officially launched those students on their USC academic journey.

Folt highlighted the incredible diversity of the new Trojans, who include

transfer students, almost 100 veterans and students from 40 countries. “USC is filled with extraordinary people with varied backgrounds and so many different experiences,” she noted. “Hone your skills, try new things and take intellectual challenges. … You’re going to find your own big moment.”

Upon entering the lobby of the Galen Center, students were directed to find an academic black robe in their size to wear during the event. The robes have traditionally been part of the fall convocation but not the spring event — until this year.

For first-year student Riya Duddalwar, a computer science and business administration major, it was an enriching experience.

“The ceremony helped to create this sense of community — especially with all of us wearing the same garments,” she said after the event. “Yesterday, I was feeling a little bit of imposter syndrome, like I maybe don’t fit in here, but I feel more part of the Trojan Family now.” GREG HERNANDEZ

NEW TROJANS BY THE NUMBERS

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

percent started spring 2022-2023

25%

percent are international students

students students

NINETEEN FOURTEEN

Some details about the students who joined USC during the spring semester: first-gen first-gen

GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS

1,264

FIFTY-SIX PERCENT FIFTY-TWO PERCENT

from California from California

percent started spring 2022-2023

34%

percent are international students

TWELVE THIRTY

SOURCE: USC OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

USC Thornton students Vicari Benn, left, and Rachel Barton perform Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” during spring new student convocation.

AI Made This Image

USC’s Center for Generative AI and Society opens amid buzz about AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E.

In March, USC formed the Center for Generative AI and Society to explore the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on culture, education, media and society.

The new $10 million center will seed research, convene experts and expand the university’s national leadership with a special focus on generative AI’s ethical use and innovation.

“USC is uniquely positioned to understand and influence how this emerging technology is changing the ways we live, work and play,” President Carol L. Folt says.

“Our 22 schools are long-standing leaders in fields like the creative arts, media, health, education, engineering and business. Working across disciplines, USC will vigorously explore the intersection of ethics and the use and evolution of generative AI.”

The timing of the center’s opening comes amid the buzz over generative AI technology such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, the former of which launched with the aid of USC alumni.

Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize our work and daily lives. Because AI-based tools are advancing so quickly, USC leaders say they are forming the center at a critical point in the technology’s development.

The center aims to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow by giving them access to the latest AI technology, reinforcing USC’s historical influence on computing and its reputation for nurturing generations of engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists and creative artists.

Already, AI technology is used to augment film editing, screenwriting and cinematography. Many filmmakers use machine learning to create new kinds of computer-generated animation, images and whole story worlds, as James Cameron achieved with Avatar: The Way of Water

“The genie is out of the bottle, and we’re not going back,” says Ishwar K. Puri, senior vice president for research and innovation at USC. “Our students are going to use this technology, and we need to teach them how to use it responsibly. We want to harness the power of AI for the public good.”

This USC image was generated with the DALL-E 2 AI system, which was cocreated by USC alumni. It’s the kind of work that the USC Center for Generative AI and Society seeks to nurture and support.

The center will mobilize the expertise of USC’s schools to explore themes across multiple industry sectors and professions and support further research and the development of educational programs. A core group of leaders and faculty from the following USC schools will spring the university into an immersive exploration of generative AI, its benefits and its challenges: the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Rossier School of Education, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

The center will be co-directed by Holly Willis, a professor and chair of the Media Arts + Practice division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and Bill Swartout, a computer science research professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and chief technology officer for USC Viterbi’s Institute for Creative Technologies.

The center’s realm of influence will span the disciplines of arts, media, education and beyond, with the potential to influence the economy, health care, law, medicine, policy and science.

Puri anticipates that USC researchers involved with the center may also tap AI technologies to solve problems in drug discovery and develop new diagnostic techniques.

“We have a duty to develop solutions that are ethical and that benefit society as a whole,” Puri says, adding, “We’re looking forward to working with our faculty and students to explore the possibilities of generative AI.”

PAUL MCQUISTON

GENERATED BY DAMON CASAREZ WITH DALL-E

Seeds of Change

Artificial Intelligence will integrate and analyze diverse data and models to make farming recommendations for more bountiful harvests in Ethiopia.

BY MARC BALLON ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAYMOND BIESINGER

An Ethiopian farmer plants teff, a grain used in traditional flatbread, as she has done for years. However, a short rainy season wipes out most of her crop, threatening her and other farmers’ livelihoods and food security.

Now, imagine that same farmer discovers beforehand that this season will be particularly dry. She learns how long crops will take to grow given the anticipated weather trends and which ones might thrive in such conditions. Instead of teff, she grows fast-maturing mung beans and has a decent harvest.

Thanks to Yolanda Gil, a USC Viterbi School of Engineering professor and one of the world’s foremost artificial intelligence (AI) experts, such a scenario could one day become a reality.

Three years ago, Gil and her collaborators visited Ethiopia intending to develop an AI platform that could make recommendations to policymakers to increase food production and reduce the likelihood of famine.

“If you have to manage extreme droughts and floods and other climate effects, you might not have a good harvest without good models,” says Gil, director of New Initiatives in AI and Data Science at USC Viterbi and former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Gil knew she was on to something when she met with a high-level official from the Ministry of Water and Energy. He pointed out that the agricultural, water and other reports covering his desk were each narrowly focused. Worse, some of the recommendations contradicted each other. What they needed was an integrated view of the effects of climate on agriculture.

By contrast, Gil is developing a novel system that uses AI to integrate models and provide a comprehensive roadmap for decision-makers to help significantly boost Ethiopia’s agricultural output.

The Model INTegration framework, or MINT, employs AI to integrate heterogeneous models from separate disciplines efficiently and quickly. MINT currently includes climate, hydrology and agriculture models for different areas of Ethiopia to understand how government interventions (such as subsidies) can mitigate the effects of droughts and floods.

“We have become really good at running single models to generate reports with recommendations looking at only a single slice of the problem,” Gil says. “But it’s very challenging to put together comprehensive models across disciplines, across processes. That’s what my AI research is about.”

Feeding Ethiopia

Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. Mixed farming, which includes growing crops and raising livestock, accounts for nearly 40% of the country’s gross domestic product and more than 70% of the workforce, according to the United States Agency for International Development. Teff, wheat, maize, sorghum and barley, among other crops, make up the core of the food economy.

Even in the best of times, feeding the country’s roughly 115 million people can be challenging.

The AI platform could make recommendations to policymakers to increase food production and reduce the likelihood of famine.

Bordering two distinctly different climate regimes — one wet and one dry — Ethiopia and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa experience periods of exceptionally low rainfall, says Lowell Stott, a professor of earth sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

“The eastern part of the Nile Basin is highly vulnerable to droughts,” adds Essam Heggy, a USC Viterbi expert on water evolution in Earth’s arid environments.

Indeed, Ethiopia’s lowland areas are enduring one of the most severe dry periods in 40 years. “The prolonged drought is compromising fragile livelihoods heavily reliant

data and analyzes various possible future scenarios. “With MINT, the AI could do most of the work so that we can come up with answers in a couple of weeks instead of a couple of years,” she says.

Gil says a rudimentary version of MINT could demonstrate how AI integrates models to make more effective recommendations for decision-makers.

With collaborator Belete Berhanu, a hydrologist at Addis Ababa University, Gil co-authored a paper last year that appeared at the First International Workshop on Social Impact of AI for Africa held at the annual AAAI

MINT “ could help in boosting crop production because it provides the right information at the right time.

on livestock and deepening food insecurity and malnutrition,” according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Ethiopia also suffers from occasional flooding that can ruin crops, giving farmers more to worry about.

Still, many believe the country’s farming sector might have a bright future, the challenges notwithstanding.

Ethiopia’s different climate and soil types make it possible to grow diverse crops, says Gebissa Yigezu of Haramaya University in Ethiopia. Additional government incentives, improved infrastructure and increased credit and donations from international organizations might spur higher crop yields and exports, he explains in the academic paper “The Challenges and Prospects of Ethiopian Agriculture.”

MINT’s integrated modeling aims to make those efforts much more effective.

MINT in Action

With a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Gil began working on MINT in 2019. She finished a prototype one year later. Gil says MINT represents an advance in artificial intelligence. “Goal-oriented problem solving is not new in AI. But goal-oriented problem solving where you are integrating models from different scientific disciplines is a completely new approach.”

In creating MINT, which spans AI research in knowledge representation, reasoning and machine learning, Gil first converted diverse data for weather, soil, topography and many others into data that computer modeling could understand and use.

Then she provided the advanced AI system with data and models from different disciplines and goals inspired by questions from scientists such as: What crops would give a higher yield next year? When should the planting of maize start so it can be harvested before flooding starts? Should the government subsidize fertilizers?

After receiving the knowledge from scientists about how their models work, Gil says, MINT aggregates the

conference. Gil’s team has been generating thousands of model runs under different initial conditions to explore different assumptions and scenarios.

When operational, MINT “could help in boosting crop production because it provides the right information at the right time” for different types of farming, says Yihenew Zewdie, an Ethiopia-based expert in food systems and natural resource governance.

Solving Other Intractable Problems

With different data and simulation models, MINT could play an important role in addressing other significant problems ranging from fires to floods and other natural disasters.

The MINT modeling framework is being used in a research project headed by the University of California, San Diego’s San Diego Supercomputer Center to bring the power of AI to help firefighters strategize how best to plan controlled burns and manage unexpected blazes.

Gil also works with the Technical University of Munich to model the impact on streamflow and farming from changes in the timing and size of snowmelt in central Kyrgyzstan.

In a collaboration with the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Gil is working with models of groundwater that help predict water availability in Texas aquifers under different conditions. Gil works with Suzanne Pierce and others in the Texas Disaster Information System (TDIS), which serves as an information clearinghouse to support improved natural disaster planning, response, recovery and mitigation efforts in Texas. Pierce leverages MINT and its AI technology for floods to predict and identify the most at-risk areas.

“MINT is a paradigm-shifting approach that can help you accelerate, improve and expand what you can analyze,” Pierce says. “I think it can make a world of difference across the many wicked problems that society is currently facing.”

—YIHENEW ZEWDIE

Say you’re curious about political unrest in Thailand. A Google search brings up links to thousands of news articles. You begin the time-consuming task of poring over the top stories, tedious screen crawl by screen crawl.

Now imagine your computer could do all that reading for you and provide short summaries of each article in seconds. What’s more, imagine that you also have access to articles written in Thai or other languages, not just English.

Researchers at USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) have been working on two separate artificial intelligence tools that do just that — an effort that not only has big implications for the U.S. intelligence community and journalists, but for anyone who wants to know what’s going on in the world.

“Fundamentally, what our algorithms do is make information from foreign language sources available to Englishspeaking users, without requiring any foreign language expertise or any foreign language examples to teach the systems,” explains Liz Boschee. As director of ISI’s Boston office and a research team leader, she specializes in natural language processing, the field of AI, computer science and linguistics that involves which involves training computers to process and analyze large amounts of natural language data.

Two Government-Funded Projects

Boschee is a key researcher in two AI projects funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, part of the federal government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The first, launched in October 2017 and concluded in September 2021, is MATERIAL, which stands for Machine Translation for English Retrieval of Information in Any Language. It allows a user to search in English for speech and text content in Tagalog, Swahili, Somali, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Pashto, Farsi, Kazakh and Georgian. Relevant results are then summarized for the user in English.

These languages are particularly challenging and are dubbed “lower-resource” because they don’t have large data sets available for building machine translation or language models, unlike “high-resource” languages such as Spanish and French.

introduced to the public. Boschee says both have the potential to provide English-language speakers access to news in languages they don’t know.

Through deep learning, computers can find words in a foreign language that are similar in meaning to their counterparts in English. Think of the word “protests.” By reading millions (or sometimes billions) of words scraped from the web, AI models can learn that “protests” and “demonstrations” are closely related.

By doing the same thing in many languages simultaneously, those models can learn that “protest” and “maandamano” (a Swahili word for “protest”) are also closely

Using AI tools developed at USC, users can search foreign language sources and read them in English. B y Greg Hardesty

Found in

related. USC researchers are taking advantage of these technologies to build models that can learn to identify, for example, protest events in many languages, learning from only English example sentences.

Early User of Voice Recognition Technology

Translation

The second project, which began in October 2019 and concluded in 2022, is BETTER, which stands for Better Extraction from Text Towards Enhanced Retrieval. This tool is designed to cull information about global events and issues such as natural disasters and cross-country migration. BETTER allows someone to understand at a glance, for instance, the details of the COVID-19 pandemic response in another country, even if there is little English-language news coverage of the crisis.

Both MATERIAL and BETTER are now in the active research and development phase and yet to be

Before joining ISI in 2017, Boschee worked for 17 years at what is now Raytheon BBN Technologies, a research and development company in Cambridge, Mass. Boschee, who graduated from Harvard University in 2000 with a degree in computer science, knew nothing about the inner workings, of voice recognition technology when she was hired at BBN, but she was already its customer. In her late teens, she suffered a repetitive stress injury that was exacerbated by underlying structural issues, leaving her unable to type. At the time, she used what was then painfully slow voice recognition technology to turn her words into text.

The condition eased in her mid-20s, but when Boschee had a recent flare-up and returned to programming by voice for a few weeks, she got to experience how far the technology had come.

Now, as a research team leader at ISI, Boschee knows all about how voice recognition and other natural language technology works.

“The world is getting smaller in terms of our ability to learn what is happening around the globe, but there’s still so much information out there that’s hidden behind language barriers,” Boschee says. “We hope that tools like these can lead to better cross-cultural understanding and bring us closer together.”

By listening to and collaborating with trans communities, Keck Medicine of USC is creating the preeminent gender-affirming care program on the West Coast.

By Chinyere Amobi

Illustration by Terri Po

Care Without Bias

During a routine medical appointment in Pasadena, Bridget Graves — a 57-year-old management consultant who identifies as a transgender woman — realized that her physician knew very little about the standard of care for transgender patients. Graves’ after-visit notes confirmed her suspicions. Her physician had included “transgender” under the list of maladies Graves was seen for. Graves immediately called back to request a correction but never received a response.

For many people, this care boils down to hormone therapies and surgical interventions. But Taylor emphasizes that at Keck Medicine, it means individualizing all of a patient’s health needs based on their personal goals. These goals can include hormones to induce different physical characteristics or surgery to change somebody’s chest or genitals, but also routine care such as preventative medicine.

Keck Medicine was already providing gender-affirming care before the program began, but the process was decentralized and patients had to seek out individual specialists, says Felipe Osorno, Keck Medicine chief performance and transformation officer. Through the Gender-Affirming Care Program, Keck Medicine patients can now access a centralized model where providers holistically monitor every aspect of health, including primary care, mental health, endocrinology, gynecology, urology, physical and occupational therapy, voice training and surgery.

Discussions about starting a centralized program began in 2019, brought about by a deeper awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion across the country. Later, the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd spurred the need for action around health equity and inclusion for populations traditionally excluded from the health care system.

A NEW APPROACH

Before Graves became a patient with Keck Medicine, she, like many transgender and nonbinary patients, struggled to find a medical facility where she felt safe and understood.

“Historically, the transgender and nonbinary community have experienced — and still experience — a lot of discriminatory practices in health care, substandard care and so many barriers to health care,” Taylor says. “Unfortunately, these communities often have a harder time getting insurance due to a higher risk of issues with employment and insurance companies that may not cover gender-related services.”

Other barriers to care include transportation, financial constraints, family support and — especially in conservative states — the criminalization of gender-affirming treatments.

Graves explains that these microaggressions — including medical staff who misgender patients and physicians who resist using preferred names on medical records — keep transgender and nonbinary patients from seeking health care.

Today, the mother of five, competitive cyclist and longtime yoga teacher is a patient at Keck Medicine of USC’s innovative Gender-Affirming Care Program, a multidisciplinary undertaking providing comprehensive health care to transgender and nonbinary people while affirming their gender identity.

Graves’ sentiments on her experience before coming to Keck Medicine reflect the struggles of many in the transgender and nonbinary community to find inclusive, continuous health care.

“Gender-affirming care in a medical context means supporting and respecting someone in their gender identity, however they identify in their lifetime,” says Keck Medicine primary care physician Laura Taylor, the program’s medical director.

Finding Keck Medicine of USC after an extended internet search was a breath of fresh air for Graves. “It was like night and day,” she says. “This physician asked all the right questions and was open to keeping the continuity of my medications, my hormones and what had already been working for me.” This led to her eventually working with Taylor, whose trans flag on her ID badge put Graves at immediate ease.

During her initial intake, Graves communicated that there were certain physical exams that typically made her uncomfortable. Taylor offered to personally perform those physical exams, so that Graves wouldn’t have to worry about them in subsequent visits with other providers. Taylor also offered to do more research on an experimental therapy Graves was interested in during an upcoming medical convention for transgender health care.

“The fact that she was already scheduled to go [to a transgender convention] meant a lot to me,” Graves says.

“Having someone willing to help, who knew how to work with me and made me feel comfortable, was amazing.”

— Bridget Graves

“Having someone willing to help, who knew how to work with me and made me feel comfortable, was amazing.”

The program encourages patients to establish a longterm relationship with a primary care physician to foster this kind of continuity of care. The goal is to manage preventative and routine health care alongside gender-specific therapies without patients having to explain themselves repeatedly or see multiple physicians and specialists where the environment may be less supportive.

STARTING DE NOVO

Taylor points out that while other places have historically offered gender-affirming care in Los Angeles — including LQBTQ+-friendly clinics, nonprofits and other academic health systems — a high need remains. “There are not enough doctors and health care providers who are adequately trained to do this care, and it hasn’t been a part of medical education,” Taylor says. “This is particularly harmful to the [transgender and nonbinary] community because often people have to educate their health care team.”

Keck School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery Roberto Travieso, the surgical director for the program, says one of their goals is for transgender or nonbinary patients to receive care that is supportive and respectful of their gender identity — regardless of whether their needs are complex (surgery) or routine (treating high blood pressure).

“Transgender and nonbinary people have the same health care concerns that others have outside of specifically gender-affirming surgeries and therapies,” Travieso says. While the program is adding services that were not available before — such as newly available surgeries and the consolidation of specifically gender-affirming care such as hormone therapy and primary care — Travieso stresses that the program is sparking institutional change: “We’re also making sure that this training and emphasis goes throughout the entire health enterprise to involve every facet of health care available through Keck Medicine.”

To accomplish this, Travieso, Taylor and Osorno — along with Process Architect Lindsey Morrison — regularly brainstorm with a large group of Keck Medicine colleagues. They discuss issues such as the wording on clinical intake forms, the appearance of medical record systems and where to place pronouns on documents so they’re clearly visible.

“Because we’re starting something de novo, we have the potential to avoid mistakes that have been made elsewhere, where patients don’t feel welcome,” Travieso says. Early on, he and the team realized that the key to the program’s success would be including the community during the planning stage.

ALLIED COLLABORATION

In March 2022, Keck Medicine of USC announced a strategic collaboration with The TransLatin@ Coalition — one of the largest trans-led nonprofit organizations in the country that advocates for the medical, social and economic needs of transgender, gender nonconforming and

intersex immigrants. The collaboration underscores the health system’s commitment to working with the transgender and greater LGBTQ+ community with the goal of greater health equity for all.

“We’re very appreciative and grateful for our partnership with Keck Medicine,” says activist Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of The TransLatin@ Coalition. “It’s important to have this type of partnership between large institutions and community-led organizations; our collective work is great. We’re looking forward to ensuring that together, we continue to support and provide optimal health care to the local trans, gender-nonconforming and intersex community of Los Angeles.”

As a gay man who identifies as Latinx, Osorno is proud of Keck Medicine’s approach to the collaboration. “It was very meaningful for USC to both welcome the transgender community into our campus and have a celebration with our CEO and their leadership. The symbolism of that is very important because it’s saying, ‘We see you, we hear you, we’re here with you and we recognize you.’”

Keck Medicine leadership promoted mutual listening within the collaboration by hosting bilingual focus groups at USC facilities and at the coalition’s headquarters in Koreatown to ensure that transgender and nonbinary community members had a say in crystalizing the program’s vision.

Keck Medicine physicians heard heartbreaking stories of constant misgendering and individuals going to dangerous lengths — including self-administering hormones — to access the gender-affirming therapies they needed.

Based on that feedback, Morrison spearheaded the training of thousands of Keck Medicine staff — from nurses to admitting staff to those who interact with patients on the phone — because one negative or harmful interaction could be enough to turn away a patient in need.

The partnership also produced a peer navigation model: hiring a part-time social worker from the trans community to be the point of contact for patients and to help navigate the program.

According to Travieso, the program’s creation pairs well with Keck Medicine’s overall mission of making health care more accessible to everyone. “It’s not just us physicians who are working day to day; it also comes from the top leadership and administration who have expressed significant support for the program and made it one of the core goals of the health care system.”

The program leaders urge people to donate to the continued evolution of the program as the state anticipates an increase in what is being called medical refugees — individuals forced by anti-transgender policies in other states to travel to California to receive the gender-affirming care they deserve.

“Our vision long-term is to provide gender-affirming care to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay,” Osorno says. “With this intentional philosophy, we really hope to become the preeminent gender-affirming care program on the West Coast.”

A Cure for Plastic Waste

At USC, researchers are turning plastic waste into materials we can use as medicine in t he future.

BY PAUL MCQUISTON • ILLUSTRATION BY MATT TWOMBLY

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our lifetime, and it’s growing more severe. Recent discoveries show that microplastics are appearing in human blood, tap water and numerous forms of marine life.

While worldwide plastic production is estimated to reach 1.1 billion tons annually, less than 10% of plastics were recycled globally as of 2015. This has led to the massive growth of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a roughly 600,000-square-mile collection of plastic debris floating in the ocean between Hawaii and California.

In response, USC researchers Clay C.C. Wang and Travis Williams are investigating ways to incentivize plastic collection and tackle the pollution accumulating off the Los Angeles coast.

Pairing their respective skills in natural-product biosynthesis and catalytic chemistry, Wang and Williams are testing methods to take debris ranging from microplastics (less than half a centimeter in diameter) to megaplastics (more than 50 centimeters in diameter) and converting it into valuable byproducts.

THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH CONSISTS OF 1.8 TRILLION PIECES OF PLASTIC AND HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SINCE THE 1970S.

1 2 3

AT CATALINA ISLAND: COLLECTING PLASTIC

Wang and Williams work with USC students and local groups to collect plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that have accumulated in Catalina Harbor. Its unique geography captures debris, including plastic bottles, milk jugs and carryout containers — some more than 50 years old.

AT USC’S UNIVERSITY PARK

CAMPUS: CATALYTIC CONVERSION

The collected plastic is brought to the Travis J. Williams Research Group labs at USC, where Williams’ team uses catalysis to break down the items into intermediate substances, or substrates, that can then be upgraded into valuable products.

AT USC’S HEALTH SCIENCES CAMPUS: FUNGUS CONVERSION

The substrates generated in the catalytic process are then taken to Wang’s lab at the Health Sciences Campus. To convert the plastic substrates, Wang employs specifically engineered strains of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans to create complex molecules that can one day serve as platforms for the synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs.

S T I T C H

Together, computer scientists and clinicians are designing AI solutions to improve surgical training and create better patient outcomes.

BY CAITLIN DAWSON ILLUSTRATION BY CORNELIA LI

When Professor Yan Liu was growing up in Changchun, China, her father wanted her to become a doctor like him. When she chose computer science, “I was a tiny bit disappointed,” Xiwen Liu, a retired anesthesiologist, acknowledges.

But their worlds collided in 2011, when the elder Liu was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was a surprise. At 67, he was relatively young, had a healthy lifestyle and had no symptoms. Like many of the 1.2 million men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, he had surgery to remove tumors in his prostate, but he suffered from incontinence, bleeding and infections for years after the surgery.

Nearly 6,000 miles away, at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Yan Liu felt helpless.

“The complications involved with prostate cancer surgery brought my dad significant personal challenges,” says Liu, a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering and biomedical sciences. “Even with access to the best doctors and hospitals, he experienced pain, slow recovery and long-term side effects.”

Liu resolved to use her skills to help others like her father. Working on research at the intersection of artifi-

THE LEARNING CURVE

Removing the prostate gland through surgery is an option for men whose cancer has not spread. Today, robotically assisted radical prostatectomy constitutes about 85% of the 90,000 such operations performed every year in the United States.

To operate using a robotic system, the surgeon makes tiny incisions and manipulates miniaturized instruments from a nearby console, making detailed work less invasive. As with any surgery, however, risk is involved: The surgeon must avoid damaging adjacent tissues and organs. Despite advances in medical technology, up to 40% of patients experience incontinence after the procedure.

Decades of research suggests that some hospitals and surgeons have significantly better outcomes than others. Indeed, the procedure has a steep learning curve: Studies say surgeons must perform about 100 radical prostatectomies to start reaching optimal outcomes. Yet surgeons often do not get a good sense of how they are performing.

“As surgeons in the operating room, we don’t get much immediate feedback in terms of the things we do,” says Hung, a leader in innovative surgical simulation

THEY ARE WORKING ON DEVELOPING AN FEEDBACK DURING A PROCEDURE AND EVEN

cial intelligence and health care for more than a decade, she teamed up in 2016 with Andrew Hung, a urologist at Keck Medicine of USC, to create AI tools that measure and help improve surgeons’ technical skills during the radical prostatectomy procedure — the removal of the entire prostate gland.

By harnessing deep learning algorithms, their system learns from past movements to identify specific areas where a surgeon can improve during a robotic surgery. Together, Hung and Liu have since published more than 17 peer-reviewed papers in this field and recently received a $3 million award from the National Institutes of Health to advance their research.

They are working on developing an AI-based system to deliver real-time feedback during a procedure and even alert surgeons if they are at risk of erring. Their aim? To shorten the learning curve for surgeons, maximize patient safety and reduce postoperative complications.

“AI comes into play to assess the skill of the surgeon — to see what parts of the operation they are good at and what needs to be improved,” says Liu, director of the USC Melady Lab, which focuses on machine learning with real-world applications. “It also comes into play during the simulation and learning stage for training new surgeons.

“Ultimately, what we want to do is provide real-time assistance to surgeons as they operate,” she says.

technology and the director of the Center for Robotic Simulation and Education at Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Short of a major complication, some of the outcomes after prostate surgery are not apparent until weeks, months or years later.”

While surgical performance assessment is a critical need, it’s not always available, Hung says. “It’s simply not scalable to have a perfect surgeon evaluator look at every surgeon’s operation and give feedback.”

How AI Can Help

During robotic surgery, every snip, clamp and stitch generates massive amounts of video data and kinematic data tracing the surgeon’s movements. AI can analyze this data to give surgeons feedback on instrument moving speed, distances traveled and wrist angulations during the robotic surgery. Using data and expertise from Hung and his group, Liu and her team have developed algorithms that teach the computer to learn as it is fed thousands of these data points.

Liu’s team uses this data to train the classifier to “understand what it sees,” she says. Once training is complete, deep learning models can provide objective evaluations based on learned representations of ideal versus nonideal technical skills. To test the accuracy of the system, the machine’s ratings are compared with the surgeons’ ratings of the same surgeries.

“Based on this, we can predict whether the patient

will have complications after the surgery and the expertise of each participant,” Liu says.

Using the raw data, Liu and her team determined that machine learning algorithms could predict each participant’s level of expertise with 87% accuracy. Eventually, she hopes the system will alert surgeons to potential problems, such as risk of injury to vital organs that could result in long-term complications.

“When we move toward the grand challenge goal of AI-assisted surgery, then we need to look at specific segments of the operation,” Liu says. “Then we can use this information to predict, based on the current stage of the operation, if there will be any risk factors for the next step so we can provide a timely warning.”

A Needle in a Haystack’

The process has allowed the researchers to identify the parts of the operation that seem most closely tied to outcomes. “It’s like a needle in a haystack,” Hung says. “How can you find the one needle that drives the outcomes, and what do you focus on in a procedure that’s between two and four hours long? AI brings objectivity and also scalability.”

“When you’re measuring technical skills and you provide that kind of feedback, it’s actually meaningful to surgeons,” Hung says. “As opposed to telling a surgeon, ‘You’re just not moving your hands fast enough,’ you’re actually telling them, ‘The way you’re holding the needles in this specific suture is incorrect.’”

The research is at the investigational stage, meaning the systems are not yet used in any high-stakes evaluations. But how do surgeons feel about a future of AI-assisted robots in the operating room?

“When I present this idea to my peers, I definitely get folks in both camps: those who embrace the idea and those who feel threatened,” Hung says. “In some cases, surgeons can be resistant to the concept at first. No one really likes being evaluated, least of all by a machine. But once they see the opportunity for evolving their skills and helping their patients, they become curious and open up to the idea.”

Although their exploration in understanding the “perfect stitch” has focused on urology, it could also be applied to other procedures, including hysterectomies and hernia repairs.

“We want to find out how surgeons can evolve more quickly,” says Hung. “[Improving] how we teach and

AI-BA SED SYSTEM TO DELIVER REAL-TIME ALERT SURGEONS IF THEY ARE AT RISK OF ERRING.

In a recent study focused on predicting urinary control outcomes, researchers found that algorithms home in on a critical step in the radical prostatectomy: when the clinician must suture a gap between the bladder and the urethra after the prostate is removed.

Done properly, this step prevents internal leakage of urine during and after the procedure. If it is incorrectly done, the patient can suffer such complications as incontinence and damage to the bladder.

Using AI, researchers found almost all the metrics that predict continence recovery were related to suturing, possibly because, Hung says, “measuring surgeon performance is nicely captured by the suturing task, and it lends itself well to evaluation.”

But while machine learning can help find the needle in the haystack, it doesn’t offer explanations — that’s still in the hands of the human experts.

Robots in the OR

When Hung and Liu started working together, they were looking at metrics that summarized an entire operation. Now they can analyze performance at the level of individual stitches, narrowing the focus to different levels of suturing. This would allow the system to give surgeons specific, actionable feedback. Their recent research results showed a 20% to 30% improvement in assessing surgical skills when using AI-assisted assessment compared with human graders.

train surgeons to do surgery will not cure disease magically, but it can certainly enhance how we anticipate patient outcomes and take better care of our patients.”

The final step is to prove that such feedback can improve outcomes and use it to train new surgeons. “Our goal is to use AI to help surgeons by detecting potential issues and [offering] warnings and possible suggestions in terms of what type of action the surgeon should take,” Liu says.

For Liu, the team’s progress brings hope that they can improve the lives of people like her father and the approximately 644,000 people who undergo some robotic surgery each year in the United States alone.

“In terms of translating AI into practice, I think this project has one of the shortest runways,” Liu says. “A very realistic goal that could happen in the next five to 10 years is this AI-assisted robotic surgery, which could improve post-surgery outcomes and recovery.”

As a patient, father and former clinician, Xiwen Liu welcomes that news.

“On nights when a patient would pass away during a surgery, I felt awful, always asking the what-if questions,” he says. “Improving health delivery means [everything] to patients, but it could even improve doctors’ psychological health, as well.

“Somehow, after all these years, our paths of medicine and computer science have crossed. Maybe [my daughter] found the best way to help people and save lives after all.”

FAMILY

A NEW HOME

Rosalind Wyman ’52 was a driving force behind the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles. In this 1958 photo, she is checking home plate and the general view at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to receive the Dodgers on Opening Day. To read Wyman's obituary, go to page 50.

Field of Dreams

Celebrated athlete Allyson Felix calls USC home. Now, the center of USC Track and Field will bear her name.

When Allyson Felix ’08 was a little girl, she took walks on the USC campus with her grandmother and older brother. She went on to graduate from USC and become one of the world’s most decorated track and field athletes. Now, USC Track and Field will celebrate her by renaming its home field Allyson Felix Field.

“It’s a huge honor to be a part of history on the campus, and it’s such a special

place for me,” the Olympian, entrepreneur and mother says.

The field sits at the heart of Katherine B. Loker Track Stadium, which also serves as a hub for such groups as ROTC, the Trojan Marching Band and other recreational sports.

While Felix accepted the honor with the trademark humility she’s displayed in numerous interviews and speeches, her athletic record speaks for itself.

While at USC, Felix began to compete at the World Championships. She now holds the title of most decorated athlete at the championships with 20 medals, seven from individual events and 13 from team relays. With her 11th medal — gold in a stunning 4x400 meter Olympic win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — Felix broke her tie with Carl Lewis as the most decorated American track and field athlete, with medals earned at five consecutive Olympic Games.

In addition to this success, Felix advocates for women and athletes of color in and outside sports, including speaking out against

maternal mortality and unequal conditions in contract negotiations.

USC President Carol L. Folt spoke of the Olympian’s achievements and character on and off the track. “This distinction will provide our student-athletes with an inspirational and aspirational role model and will send a powerful message in support of women athletes and athletes of color,” Folt says. “Felix stands for the best of what USC alumni can be.”

GROWING UP A TROJAN

Although the Olympian didn’t compete for USC during her years at the university — Felix turned professional after graduating from Los Angeles Baptist High School in 2003 — she says USC has always felt like home.

“We were a USC family growing up; it was always a place I admired,” says Felix, who grew up near the university in the Crenshaw district. Her father attended USC, and Felix grew up going to Trojan games, but it wasn’t

until her older brother attended that Felix decided to follow in their footsteps.

Felix made her first Olympic team her first year at USC — while earning a degree from the USC Rossier School of Education — but she made a home among her fellow USC athletes. “There’s such a heritage at USC of great athletes,” Felix says. “Whether it was football or basketball or soccer, you knew the work ethic, and you knew the quality of athlete that was going to be there.” Felix says being in such an environment and experiencing her first Olympics at a young age lit a fire under her to “step it up a notch.”

MOTHERHOOD’S NEW CHALLENGES AND INSPIRATION

Becoming a mother would be another powerful spark for Felix and the inspiration behind much of her advocacy. When she decided to start a family, she was afraid her

endorsement contracts would be affected by her pregnancy. She spent a year and a half attempting to negotiate a new, equitable contract with Nike.

The birth of her daughter by emergency C-section awakened a sense of urgency to step out of her comfort zone and recognize the power of her voice as a Black woman competing at the top of her field.

The result was an explosive opinion piece in The New York Times in May 2019. Felix revealed her renegotiation hurdles with Nike and advocated for more equitable conditions for female athletes.

“I’m by nature a more reserved, shy person; I don’t usually want to rock the boat,” Felix says. “But it was my brother who said, ‘You can use your voice, even if it shakes,’ and that really resonated with me.”

Last year, Allyson received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from USC and delivered the commencement

speech for the Class of 2022. She echoed her brother’s advice, emphasizing that “there are times when you’ll ask for change, and there are times when you’ll create it.”

BREAKING THE MOLD

Felix left Nike after her op-ed and eventually signed on to become Athleta’s first endorsed athlete. Nike soon expanded its protections for pregnant athletes and working moms after public backlash spurred by Felix’s piece.

Witnessing the scope of her influence and working with the woman-led Athleta convinced Felix to partner with her brother to co-found Saysh, a women’s lifestyle company. “[Saysh] is creating something for the community to see women, and also to have better companies — companies that are Black-owned, that are female-owned,” she says. Felix is already incorporating her advocacy on inequality into Saysh’s policies, including allowing shoe customers who become expectant mothers to contact the company for a free pair of shoes if their shoe size increases during pregnancy.

A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Rebuilt in 2001, the university’s track field was previously named after former USC Track and Field coach Dean Cromwell, head coach of the university track team from 1909 to 1948.

Felix, now retired from competitive sports, believes the reasoning behind this renaming — an honor usually reserved for major donors — makes it even more special. “To have discussions about the renaming [of the track] because of my character and my integrity, and for fighting for women is something that doesn’t happen,” Felix says. “It just really shows what USC values. I feel proud of the things that I’ve stood for, and it makes me proud to be an alumna.”

CHINYERE AMOBI

USC President Carol L. Folt and Allyson Felix stand on the field being renamed to honor the Olympian.

“There are times when you’ll ask for change, and there are times when you’ll create it.”

—ALLYSON FELIX

Mentoring the Next LGBTQ+ Generation

As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, the USC Lambda LGBTQ+ Alumni Association seeks to reach new heights.

More than 30 years ago, Donald Gabard MS ’78, MPA ’88, PhD ’90 was busy working on his third degree from USC when he approached university administrators about establishing an LGBT alumni group. He was met with resistance — but not because anybody thought it was a bad idea.

“They told me, ‘You need to graduate first,’” Gabard remembers, laughing.

So, Gabard finished his dissertation, graduated and went on to formally start the

USC Lambda LGBTQ+ Alumni Association on Nov. 12, 1992 — two decades before gays and lesbians could serve openly in the U.S. military and 23 years before same-sex marriage was declared legal in all 50 U.S. states.

“While the atmosphere in the 1990s was one of tolerance, it wasn’t one of acceptance,” Gabard says. “USC is known for its ability to connect alumni with students for networking and mentoring opportunities. But in our LGBTQ+ community, inclusion

was not a foregone conclusion in that mentoring network.”

During the past three decades, Lambda has worked to change that. The organization has awarded more than $500,000 in scholarships to more than 150 students who, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, demonstrated academic achievement and a strong commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. The recipients have gone on to be executives, doctors, educators, artists and activists.

In April, Gabard and some of the original board members will formally celebrate USC Lambda's 30th anniversary with a gala event.

CONTINUED COMMITMENT TO THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

“We are going to be celebrating our past and looking toward the future,” says USC Lambda Executive Director Brandon Kyle EdD ’19, who started in that position in the summer of 2022. “It will be fantastic,

Don Gabard established The USC Lambda LGBTQ+ Alumni Association to create more inclusive mentorship opportunities in the Trojan community.

especially because we’ve never really had a gala of this magnitude. Lambda has had a few ups and downs over the years. There’s been a lot of transition.”

As part of Lambda’s efforts to rebuild community, the group has turned the scholarship benefit event — formerly held only during milestone anniversaries — into an annual event.

Members want to capitalize on its 30th anniversary to raise both awareness and funds. Lambda currently gives out 11 scholarships annually. “We would love to be able to give out more,” Kyle says. “There’s so much good work that can come out of [this event].”

The group also wants to increase its membership among LGBTQ+ people and the community’s allies. “Networking and mentorship need to begin before students graduate and go out into the world to try and create change,” Kyle says.

LAMBDA’S EARLY DAYS

Even with the university’s blessing, it wasn’t easy to establish a grassroots organization in those early days.

“While we were determined, we were also extremely poor,” Gabard says. “Our first attempt to get people to join this group was to have dinner parties in our homes. We hosted events, and people would bring in trays of homemade food because we couldn’t afford catering. We had tailgates out of the trunks of our cars. But we had such a great time.”

Gabard worked tirelessly with founding board members Richard Eckardt JD ’66; Marney Hull ’78, MPA ’81; Amy Ross PhD ’86; and Lawrence Starr MBA ’61, each of whom had various areas of expertise.

“The friendships forged in that original board have endured because we were focused, worked so closely together and supported each other,” he says.

The fledgling group received careful guidance from three student affairs administrators at that time: James Dennis MS ’77, Cynthia Cherrey and Kristine Dillon. “Young idealists tend to shoot for the sky, sometimes fall short and feel crushed by that,” Gabard says. “They helped us temper that. They were articulate and cheerful, and we worked together hand-in-glove.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Lambda scholarship recipient Urban Seiberg ’23, who uses the pronoun they, has been heavily involved in USC Queer and Ally Student Assembly. They say Lambda works to support queer students in student government: “It felt amazing to have the queer Trojan family show their support for me and the work I’ve done on campus.”

The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences student especially appreciates the LGBTQ+ alums who remain involved.

“Queer students on campus — like myself — don’t have a lot of queer role models that we know personally,” Seiberg says. “When alums are involved, they serve in that role.”

They add, “One day, I hope to give back to whoever the future LGBTQ+ advocates of our campus are.”

GABARD PHOTO BY WILL CHINAG; LAMBDA GROUP PHOTO BY LIGIA CHIN

Lambda’s board members and staffers celebrate at the Lambda LGBTQ+ Holiday Party in 2022.

GREG HERNANDEZ

“Networking and mentorship need to begin before students graduate and go out into the world to try and create change.”

—BRANDON KYLE

SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2023

InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown 900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90017

alumni.usc.edu/awards

2023 USC Alumni Award Honorees

Asa V. Call Achievement Award

Bill Allen ’79

Former USC Trustee

Past President & CEO, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation

Past President, USC Alumni Association

Board of Governors

Alumni Merit Awards

Roger Lynch ’93

CEO, Condé Nast

Ellisen Shelton Turner ’97

Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Young Alumni Merit Award

Kaitlyn Yang ’11

CEO & Visual Effects Supervisor, Alpha Studios

Alumni Service Awards

Donald Dean ’90

USC Alumni Association Board of Governors

USC Black Alumni Association Advisory Council

USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association

Board of Directors

Teena Hostovich ’86

USC Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders

USC Marshall Career Advantage Program Mentor

USC Marshall Risk Management Advisory Council

Amy A. Ross PhD ’86

USC Trustee

Past President, USC Alumni Association

Board of Governors

Founding Member & Past President, USC Lambda LGBTQ+ Alumni Association

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John Globbell ’60 (LAS) wrote Somewhere in The South Pacific published by Severn River Publishing.

Richard Carlson MD ’64 (MED) published Mekong Medicine: A U.S. Doctor’s Year Treating Vietnam’s Forgotten Victims

Carol Kimmel Schary ’64 (EDU) received the Distinguished Service Award for volunteer service to the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry.

William Bronston MD ’65 (MED) published Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America after 50 years of research and writing about Willowbrook State School in New York.

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Mickey Koleszar ’70 (BUS) is a member of the board of trustees of Lockwood Mathews Mansion in Norwalk, Conn.

Marko Perko ’70 (LAS) published his book, Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life.

Michael Nutkiewicz ’71 (LAS), MA ’73 translated and wrote the introduction to A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir of Sorrow by Eli Gumener.

Jacque Sokolov ’75 (LAS), MD ’78 (MED) was named to the 2022 Directorship 100 by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Charles J. Greaves ’78 (LAS) wrote The Chimera Club, published by Tallow Lane Books LLC.

Todd A. DeMitchell EdD ’79 (EDU), John & H. Irene Peters Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of New Hampshire, co-authored his 11th book, R aising a Cautionary Flag: Educational Malpractice and the Professional Teacher

Alexander Koleszar ’79 (LAS) retired as a physician from Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Conn.

TROJAN TRIBUTE

Charles White

College Football Hall of Famer Charles White, USC’s 1979 Heisman Trophy-winning tailback and a member of the Trojans’ 1978 national championship team who then played nine seasons in the NFL, died on Jan. 11 in Newport Beach, Calif., of cancer. He was 64.

White was USC’s third Heisman Trophy winner and still is the school’s career rushing leader (6,245 yards, then the No. 2 mark in NCAA history) while scoring 49 touchdowns. A four-year USC letterman (1976-1979) and two-time unanimous All-American (1978-1979),

James Wetrich ’79 (LAS) wrote Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong, published by Leaders Press.

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Steven Brydon PhD ’80 (LAS) wrote American Propaganda from the SpanishAmerican War to Iraq: War Stories, published by Lexington Books.

Paul Jones ’81 (LAS) MPA ’84 (SPP) was awarded senior attending physician status at University Hospitals in Ravenna, Ohio. He is chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine.

he set 22 NCAA, Pac-10, USC and Rose Bowl records. White captained the 1979 Trojans while leading the nation in rushing. As a senior in 1979, he also won the Walter Camp, Maxwell and Pop Warner Awards.

A first-round pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, White played with the Browns (1980-1984) and Rams (19851988). He led the league in rushing in 1987.

He returned to USC in 1990 as a special assistant to the athletic director. From 1993 to 1997, he was an assistant football coach in charge of the Trojan running backs.

“Charles White was one of the all-time great Trojans,” says USC athletic director Mike Bohn. “He made USC proud donning the Cardinal and Gold.”

Stacy Nathaniel Jackson ’82 (ART) published his first novel, The Ephemera Collector.

Robert Saria ’82 (LAS) is deputy director of the Sacramento County Conflict Criminal Defender’s office.

Fred Ross-Cisneros ’83 (LAS) co-authored “Human RGR Gene and Associated Features of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in Models of Retina-Choriocapillaris Atrophy” in The American Journal of Pathology.

Tracy Wallace ’84 (BUS) launched a podcast, The Only Child Diaries, for anyone who feels like they didn’t get the how-to brochure on life.

What Will Your Trojan Legacy Be?

Woodrow Bailey ’85 (ART) released his first book, Freedom.

Jill Squyres Groubert MA ’85, PhD ’87 (LAS) wrote the 8-Week Couples Therapy Workbook, published by Rockridge Press.

Daniel Kerr ’87, MM ’89, DMA ’03 (MUS) was appointed chair of the Music Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho, where he is a professor of organ and music theory.

Gaston Bernstein MBA ’88 (BUS) is chief product officer at Rescription PBM.

Garth W. Aubert ’89 (LAS) joined the Los Angeles office of MG+M The Law Firm.

1 9 9 0 s

Joyce Dallal MFA ’90 (ART) is a board member of Inglewood Open Studios.

Michael McKenzie MA ’90, PhD ’92 (LAS) wrote A Country Strange and Far: The Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1834-1918 , published by University of Nebraska Press.

Millicent Borges Accardi MPW ’93 (LAS) has a new poetry collection, Quarantine Highway.

Phaedra (Ranges) Robinson ’93 (EDU) has been accepted to Cohort 5 of the Rossier Ed-Tech Accelerator program with her new company, RAI Hawaii, which teaches young children how to code.

Gregory Suess Marshall ’94 (BUS) is a senior adviser to the media and entertainment and the corporate and securities practice groups at Bradley, a national law firm.

Paul McGarry MS ’94 (EDU) is a lecturer at the USC International Academy and continues to work for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Division of Adult and Career Education.

Neil Rotter ’94 (GRN), MSG, MSW ’96 (SSW) is CEO of Libertana, a health care and social service organization providing home health care to some of the most vulnerable patients with long-term nursing needs.

Alberto Escobedo ’98 (BUS) was promoted to senior director of marketing at Apple Inc., where he is responsible for marketing activity in Latin America and Canada.

Rob (Frankel) Nalumaluhia PA ’98 (MED) is a physician associate at Scripps Orthopedics in San Diego County.

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Helen Mosothoane ’00 (LAS), counsel in McGlinchey’s Dallas office, has been named co-chair of the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Claire Mulhearn ’00 (SCJ) was appointed chief communications and public affairs officer for Agilon Health Inc.

Brenna Albert ’01 (LAS/EDU) joined Medline Industries as vice president, global controller.

Domenika Lynch ’97 (SPP), MFT ’15 (EDU), executive director of the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program, was appointed to the Commission on Presidential Scholars by President Joe Biden.

Patricia Beckmann Wells ’97 (SCA), EdD ’13 (EDU) is consulting on the Unreal 5.0 Engine Metahuman project.

Marie Dacumos ’98 (LAS), EdD ’08 (EDU) oversees the School Leadership Academy and Urban Superintendents Academy at the USC Rossier Office for Professional Development Programs.

MohammadReza Navid ’98 (BUS) is senior vice president and chief relationship and business development officer at Delta Dental of California.

Jennifer Pringle-Starr ’98 (LAS), MS ’99 (EDU) is the principal at Saints Felicitas and Perpetua School in San Marino, Calif.

Seth Green ’99 (BUS) was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Senior Foreign Service as senior regional security officer for U.S. Mission South Africa.

David Church ’01 (BUS) joined the board of Central Texas Table of Grace, a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping foster youth.

Reyna Gordon ’01 (MUS) led the first largescale study of how the ability to move in synchrony with the beat of music is coded in human genomes.

Laura Johnson ’01 (LAS), MD ’05 (MED) received the Resident and Associate Society’s Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award.

Gary Lai ’02 (LAS) published Poverty and the Unequal Society in Hong Kong

Bear McCreary ’02 (MUS) composed the score for the Amazon Prime Video series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Fred Anthony Smith ’02 (SCA) was named vice president and head of unscripted development at SMAC Entertainment.

Miriam Ezzani ’03, MS ’05, EdD ’09 (EDU) is an associate professor of educational leadership in the Texas Christian University College of Education.

Jeanette Chien EdD ’04 (EDU) received the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators 2022 Central Office Administrator of the Year award.

PHOTO BY STEVE MARCUS

Stepping Up to the Bench

While a student at USC, Patricia Thompson Lee ’97 worked at the California Science Center across the street from the university. The job turned into a full-time position launching a computer learning center established in the name of civil rights icon Rosa Parks — and Parks was hands-on in its development, which gave Lee the opportunity to speak with the legend herself.

“I told her I was thinking about going to law school,” says Lee, then a dual major in communications at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Parks encouraged her to go. “That was the nudge I needed,” Lee says. “When Rosa Parks says to go to law school, you go to law school!”

Lee says her undergraduate years and involvement in different organizations helped nurture her sense of advocacy and

justice. “USC really gave me a platform and a launching pad to find myself and find my voice,” she says.

She earned her juris doctor at George Washington University in 2002 and went on to establish a fruitful 20-year law career in Nevada.

In November 2022, Lee was appointed as a state supreme court justice by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. She is the first Asian American and African American woman to serve on the state’s highest court.

“It’s not lost on me that this is bigger than me,” says Lee of being a “first,” adding that it’s long past due. “Hopefully, scores of Black and brown people will see themselves reflected in this position and know it’s absolutely possible to attain it.”

Born in South Korea and raised by her single Korean mother in Lompoc, Calif., Lee began navigating the social support systems her family needed to get by as a child.

“My mom had limited English abilities, and I was tasked with handling all the forms to get governmental aid from the time I was 8 years old,” says Lee, whose family, including her brother, Bobby Thompson ’01, experienced challenging times. “I grew up with very little, and at times we were homeless, but there were many organizations and people who helped us along the way.”

That’s when she began to have a sense of government systems — “how the law can either work for you or against you,” she recalls.

Those formative years influenced her professional trajectory. As a partner at the Las Vegas law firm Hutchison & Steffen, Lee worked primarily in complex commercial litigation and headed up the firm’s pro bono work. She became the first attorney in the state honored with the American Bar Association’s prestigious Pro Bono Publico Award in 2013.

“It’s always been a personal mission of mine to serve my community that way,” says Lee, who was on the board of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. “Our pro bono clients are typically people who live below the poverty level and would not otherwise have access to justice.”

She sees the parallels to her younger years and says she is humbled to serve as a state supreme court justice.

“I think a career in law was pretty much my destiny,” she says. “It would be arrogant to get to this place where I can effect change and not do it.”

LAURIE MCLAUGHLIN

Patricia Thompson Lee ’97 is a newly appointed Nevada Supreme Court justice.

family class notes

Ali Din MBA ’04 (BUS) was appointed CEO of Premier BPO, a company that provides contact center and back-office outsourcing services.

George Shaw ’04 (MUS) composed the score for DreamWorks’ animated series Abominable and the Invisible City, the follow-up from the 2019 feature film.

Ryan Keller ’06 (SCJ) was named special education coordinator for the Coronado Unified School District in Coronado, Calif.

William McIntyre EdD ’06 (EDU) was honored with two third-place awards for written and recited poetry in the Royal National Mòd in Scotland in October 2021. The Mòd is a celebration of Scottish Gaelic culture, language and arts.

Ambrose Akinmusire MM ’07 (MUS) received the Jazz Innovator Award at the inaugural Jazz Music Awards in October 2022.

Wendy Birhanzel EdD ’07 (EDU), superintendent of Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs, Colo., was named the 2023 Colorado Superintendent of the Year.

Zachary Franklin ’07 (SCJ) was appointed managing director of the Falkland Islands Development Corporation, where he will be responsible for managing economic development for the entire archipelago.

Holly Painter ’07 (LAS) published her third book of poetry, The Pressure of All That Light.

Roger Rice EdD ’07 (EDU) retired as the superintendent of Ventura Unified School District and now works as a consultant for the Education Support Services Group.

Austin Wintory ’07 (MUS) co-composed the Netflix series Thai Cave Rescue with orchestrator and composer Susie Seiter.

Katrina Chan ’08 (SCJ) started a new position at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., as social secretary to His Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States.

Ludwig Göransson GCRT ’08 (MUS) wrote “Lift Me Up” with artists Tems and Rihanna and the director of Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ryan Coogler. The track is a tribute to the life of actor Chadwick Boseman.

Rose Hajian ’08 (LAS), MAT ’10 (EDU) is the third grade teacher at Pilgrim School in Los Angeles.

Thomas Tan EdD ’08 (EDU) is executive

director of technology services at Huntington Beach City School District in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Diane Shammas PhD ’09 (EDU) received the Alex Odeh Memorial Award by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. She was also recognized with a humanitarian award by the South West Asian North African (SWANA) students associatio n of California State University for her support to push forward the vote of CSUs to approve the inclusion of a SWANA classification for applicants.

TROJAN TRIBUTE

Robert E. Tranquada

Robert E. Tranquada, a longtime member of the USC faculty and dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC from 1986 to 1991, passed away on Dec. 4, 2022, at 92. A diabetes researcher who enjoyed a 40-year career in public health, he was instrumental in increasing access to health care for underserved communities across Los Angeles County.

Early in his long and distinguished career at USC, Tranquada led the creation of the Department of Community Medicine. As associate dean of the Keck School, he was the architect of consolidating

various departments into the L.A. Department of Health Services and played a key role in developing the health administration program at USC. He became dean of USC Medical School in 1986 with a mandate to develop a new private teaching hospital — today’s Keck Hospital of USC.

After stepping down as dean in 1991, he joined the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, serving as chair of USC’s health administration program until his retirement in 1997.

Tranquada advocated for increasing the number of women and people of color in medicine, serving on various boards to effect change. In addition to his career in public health, Tranquada played a leadership role in higher education, philanthropy and other areas.

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

Marching in Style

A Trojan Marching Band alumnus gets his jock jacket — seven decades later.

Don Beckhart ’55 proudly played trombone for four years in the USC Trojan Marching Band. He was among the first to step down the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum peristyle and play “Conquest,” marched in the front row of the Rose Parade and performed at the Rose Bowl game.

He left USC with a degree in zoology and cherished memories of the Spirit of Troy, but without the one thing band members cherish: his letterman jacket, known to band members as the jock jacket.

That’s because Beckhart played from 1951 through 1955, long before jock jackets were an institution and given as recognition for years of dedicated service.

In 2022, almost 70 years after graduation, Beckhart finally received his personalized jock jacket, along with a TMB shirt and cap, through the efforts of his daughter, Debbie Penderghast, and the Trojan Marching Band Alumni Association (TMBAA).

“When I was at USC, these jackets didn’t exist,” Beckhart says. “To get this jacket brings me back to a time in my life that I’ve never forgotten and will always cherish with wonderful memories.”

The effort began when Penderghast contacted TMBAA Board Member Robert Campos after her father had visited the new band pavilion, saw the memorabilia on display and explained how much a jock jacket would mean to him. Touched by Beckhart’s story, Campos worked with fellow board member Betsey Dillon to obtain a custom jacket for him.

“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to make a dream come true and to provide long-overdue recognition for a proud alum,” says Dillon.

Beckhart’s memories of his time at TMB remain vivid, even decades later: “I remember marching in the Rose Parade — 5 and a half miles. Seeing Tommy Walker, the drum major, strut the entire parade.” He also recalls

performing TMB anthem “Conquest” to a packed Coliseum, possibly for the first time.

“I was in the front rank, front row, in front of a packed Coliseum. The people in the Coliseum had never heard ‘Conquest’ before! It was an absolute thrill — and it’s a great trombone number!”

Beckhart’s Trojan spirit never waned — he continued attending TMB performances with his family, working his way to a front-row position as the band played. Penderghast says, “Whenever the TMB was performing, my father was there, dancing and smiling like he was still a member of the band.”

His Trojan ties even led to his grandson Garrett Penderghast’s decision to attend USC. “We watched the band play ‘Tusk’ and ‘Conquest’ during the USC welcome experience,” says Debbie Penderghast. “And Garrett was captivated — I knew he was envisioning his 18-year-old grandfather playing in the trombone section.”

Beckhart attended his grandson’s graduation in 2022, where the trombonist wore his well-earned jock jacket. Debbie Penderghast says, “I understand the joy my father feels in being a marching band alum. The Spirit of Troy is just that magical!”

KATHLEEN BURNS CAMPOS ’83

family class notes

serve as a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Alumni Council.

Dieuwertje “DJ” Kast ’11 (LAS), MAT ’14, EdD ’20 (EDU) created a STEAM career series of books featuring three main characters of color.

Fal Asrani EdD ’10 (EDU) is superintendent of the Marysville Joint Unified School District in Marysville, Calif.

Craig Bartholio EdD ’10 (EDU) is coordinator for special education at Chino Valley Unified School District in Chino, Calif.

Marissa Borjon MA ’10 (SCJ) was promoted to manager, external communications at Toyota North America.

Gus Frias EdD ’10 (EDU) was appointed to

Alex W. Karasik ’10, MCG ’12 (SCJ) is an associate for Duane Morris LLP’s Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration practice group in its Chicago office.

Bonnie Alger MAT ’11 (EDU) conducted the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division Band in the world premiere of a composition by David Froom MA ’78 (MUS) , “Manna” Variations for Wind Ensemble, at a concert in honor of Armed Forces Day in Salado, Texas.

Regina Zurbano EdD ’11 (EDU) is director of secondary curriculum and instruction for the Palmdale School District in Palmdale, Calif.

Michael Chavez Booth MA ’12 (SCJ) and Pilaar Terry ’02 (SCJ) launched POV Agency, a Los Angeles-based, inclusion-driven strategic communications agency.

Careen Ingle ’12 (SCA) produced and directed the movie King Tweety.

Matthew Jellick MAT-TESOL ’12 (EDU) returned to California after working assistant director of the language department at his university in Shenzhen, China. He worked with the U.S. Embassy on teacher development programming and joined the Executive Committee of the USC Alumni Association of South China.

Wenli Jen EdD ’12 (EDU) was named associate editor of CSUGlobal journal in the area of scientific essentials and sustainable environments.

Mythili Menon MA ’12, PhD ’16 (LAS) was awarded a National Science Foundation grant with computer scientist Murtuza Jadliwala to study linguistic models of social engineering attacks on refugee populations.

Nick Mordwinkin PhD ’12 (PHM) is chief business officer at Kezar Life Sciences.

Laura Reardon MAT ’12 (EDU) is completing a master’s degree in independent school leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, while working as an English language arts coordinator and teacher at Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles.

TROJAN TRIBUTE

Rosalind “Roz” Wyman

Rosalind “Roz” Wyman ’52, the youngest person — and second woman — elected to the Los Angeles City Council, died on Oct. 26, 2022, in her Bel-Air home at age 92. The USC alumna majored in public administration at what was then called the USC School of Citizenship and Public Administration and was elected to the L.A. City Council the year after she graduated at only 22 years old.

She served on the City Council for more than a decade, becoming an influential voice in the Democratic Party

and serving as chair and chief executive officer of the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

A big part of Wyman’s legacy includes spearheading the Dodgers’ move to L.A. when few major professional sports teams played on the West Coast.

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi credits Wyman’s leadership for breaking down barriers for women in California politics, and forging new ways to bring people together through politics, the arts and baseball.

Pelosi says, “Her leadership helped draw her beloved Dodgers to Los Angeles — and my Giants to San Francisco — so that California families could experience the thrill of America’s pastime.”

James Winter MAT/EdD ’13 (EDU) teaches at a charter school in Tempe, Ariz.

Alexander Yebri ’13 (LAS), ’17 (LAW) launched Hillcrest Law PC in Los Angeles, which specializes in personal injury, business and real estate law.

Fabián A. Borges PhD ’14 (LAS) published Human Capital vs. Basic Income: Ideology

and Models of Cash Transfer Programs in Latin America.

Thomas Crowther EdD ’14 (EDU) is director of K-12 curriculum, instruction and assessment for one of Los Angeles’ earliest charter organizations, The Accelerated Schools.

Ryan Eisenberg EdD ’14 (EDU) is CEO of the Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto, Calif.

Greg Francois EdD ’14 (EDU) is deputy superintendent of Monrovia Unified School District in Monrovia, Calif.

Kelsey Iino EdD ’14 (EDU) was appointed to the Los Angeles Community College District’s board of trustees. LACCD is the largest community college system in the country.

Arnold Laanui EdD ’14 (EDU) was appointed president of Damien Memorial School in Honolulu, where he is an alumnus. Before returning to Damien, he led a distinguished career with the FBI and the Hawaii Department of Education.

Krysta Levy ’14 (SCJ) received her master of arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Northwestern University and is an associate counselor with the U.S. Navy in San Diego, Calif.

Oscar Macias EdD ’14 (EDU) is director of Equity, Access and Family Engagement for the Glendale Unified School District in Glendale, Calif.

Michelle Matter MA ’14 (GRN), EdD ’18 (EDU) joined the Scan Foundation as senior policy analyst on issues related to aging, family caregiving and long-term care efforts.

Erica Monsegue ME ’14 (EDU) is director of athletic compliance at USC.

Taelor Bakewell ’15 (SCJ) was hired as the VP of influencer marketing at public relations firm Edelman.

Ben Dimapindan EdD ’15 (EDU) was appointed associate dean of communications strategy and digital media at the USC Gould School of Law.

Kristin Marguerite Doidge MA ’15 (SCJ) published her book, Nora Ephron: A Biography.

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family class notes

Landy Eng ’15, MCG ’15 (SCJ) joined Google as global cross-product lead.

Eric Johnson ’15 (ACC) has come back to USC as an assistant tennis coach. A member of two NCAA championship teams as a student (2012 and 2014), Johnson was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team in 2014 after going undefeated in singles play. He joins other USC assistant coaches who were NCAA champs as Trojans: Matt Maier ’20 (men’s water polo), Kelsey McIntosh ’21 (women’s water polo), Seth Etherton (baseball) and Amy Rodriguez (women’s soccer).

Katherine Stopp EdD ’15 (EDU) was named superintendent of the Fountain Valley School District, which serves Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach, Calif. She is the first woman to serve in this role.

Clara A. Finneran EdD ’16 (EDU) is superintendent of Lompoc Unified School District in Santa Barbara County after serving as assistant superintendent of education at Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas, Calif.

Jordyn Holman ’16 (SCJ) joined The New York Times as a business reporter.

Robert Leckington MCG ’16 (SCJ) is appearing in the upcoming film The Forest Hills.

Oscar Lugo MAT ’16 (EDU) was assistant director at Fusion Academy Los Angeles and is the humanities and world languages department head at the school’s Seattle campus.

Joshelyn Martin ME ’16 (EDU) is assistant director of residential life for care and support at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Giovanni Moujaes ’17 (SCJ) joined Inewsource as product manager.

Thomas Gregory Puccia EdD ’17 (EDU) is an assistant superintendent in the Monrovia Unified School District in Monrovia, Calif.

Jaynemarie Angbah EdD ’18 (EDU) is director of Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Change Learning Journey at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies.

Keisha Larry Burns EdD ’18 (EDU) was recognized by the California Association of School Counselors as the 2022 School Counselor of the Year and was a finalist for the 2023 American School Counselor of the Year.

Ed Hasan EdD ’18 (EDU) expanded his dissertation into a book, Embracing Workplace Religious Diversity and Inclusion: Key Challenges and Solutions, which analyzes religious diversity in the workplace in various countries.

Terri Horton EdD ’18 (EDU) was included in Onalytica’s 2022 Who’s Who in Future of Work global report.

Fanisha Muepo EdD ’18 (EDU) is the gifted and talented education coordinator at Harte Prep Middle School in Los Angeles. Her company, Think Big Educational Services, has a podcast that features topics on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, college access and more.

Nicole Whitner EdD ’18 (EDU) is assistant vice president and dean of students at the University of San Diego.

Julie Aguirre-Jacinto EdD ’19 (EDU) is director of elementary education at Morgan Hill Unified School District in Morgan Hill, Calif.

Beatrice Benavides MAT ’19 (EDU) is director of career services at Bank Street College of Education in New York City.

Stephanie Burroughs EdD ’19 (EDU) is assistant superintendent at Foxborough Public Schools in Foxborough, Mass.

Vivian Ekchian EdD ’19 (EDU) was named 2022 Los Angeles County Superintendent of the Year for her work leading the Glendale Unified School District.

Miyu Kataoka MCG ’19 (SCJ) was promoted to manager of Learning & Development Delivery at the Walt Disney Company’s Learning & Talent Solutions Center of Excellence.

Sonia Maxson GCRT ’19 (EDU) is resource specialist at Chámmakilawish Pechanga

School, working with special education Indigenous students on a small Indian reservation in Southern California.

Martha Monahan EdD ’19 (EDU) is director of human resources at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Rina Seo DMA ’19 (MUS) made her Carnegie Hall debut as a composer, conductor and pianist in collaboration with the Elite Chorus in October 2022.

Consuelo Hernandez Williams EdD ’19 (EDU) is associate superintendent for student services at the Ventura County Office of Education.

Kristina Wright EdD ’19 (EDU) is director of learning and design at the Making Waves Foundation in Richmond, Calif. 2 0 2 0 s

Landry Carrera ’20 (SCJ) was promoted to senior account executive at Moxie Communication Group.

Kathleen Ciffone GCRT ’20 (EDU) is a special education teacher at Los Gatos Union School District in Los Gatos, Calif., and was named the district’s 2021-22 Special Education Teacher of the Year.

Waylon Cunningham MS ’20 (SCJ) was selected as the first fellow in the Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism.

Samantha Epp ’20, MM ’22 (MUS) won the principal bassoon position with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra.

Boaz Gerstl ’20, MCG ’20 (SCJ) joined Google as an agency account strategist.

Erik Hollander EdD ’20 (EDU) is associate professor of business at Concordia University Wisconsin and was awarded the 2022 Batterman School of Business

Undergraduate Business Faculty of the Year.

Claudia Montoya-Andrews ME ’20 (EDU) is director of career education at Coastline College in the Coast Community College District in Orange County, Calif.

Enrique Ruacho EdD ’20 (EDU) is chief of staff for Superintendent Lamont Jackson in the San Diego Unified School District.

Colin Taylor ’20 (SCJ) was promoted to multimedia producer at PBS SoCal KCET.

Kaidi “Ruby” Yuan ’20 (SCJ) was hired at the Baltimore Banner as their junior product manager.

Aya Almasi ’21 (SCJ) was promoted to director of communications at RecoverWell.

Ashley Amador ’21(SCJ) was hired as a public relations and communication coordinator at The Brand Agency.

Live on campus and earn college credit this summer! High school students can take a four-week, college-level course taught by USC faculty in a wide range of fields.

Juan Pablo Contreras DMA ’21 (MUS) composed “Lucha Libre!” which had its world premiere with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in December 2022.

Brandon Elliott EdD ’21 (EDU) received the Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal from Chorus America.

Karen Keesing EdD ’21 (EDU) is the Hawaii Library Health Project librarian

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• Experience college life and live on the USC campus.

• Take a course taught by USC faculty and earn college credit.

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Online courses also available year-round

with the State of Hawaii’s Department of Health.

Gary Saunders EdD ’22 (EDU) is the interim executive director for Gorman Learning Charter Network in Redlands, Calif.

M A R R I A G E S

Kyle Conover MBA ’16 (BUS) and Sophia Conover, a daughter, Fig Doheny Weiss-Conover

Joshua Griffith MFA ’16 (SCA) and Jillian Griffith, a daughter, Luisa Mary

Clarysse Blanchard MBA ’19 (BUS) and James Foster MBA ’20 (BUS), a daughter, Olivia

I N M E M O R I A M

A L U M N I

Richard Setlowe ’46 (LAS) of Los Angeles; Aug. 25, 2022, at the age of 89

Frank De Marco Jr. ’48 (LAS) of Los Angeles; April 20, 2022, at the age of 96

Buu Van Nygren EdD ’21 (EDU) became the youngest person elected president of the Navajo Nation.

Tatiana Riat MCG ’21 (SCJ) works as a recruiter for Paraform.

Phil Rosen MS ’21 (SCJ) published Life Between Moments: New York Stories

Arturo Sierra ’21(SCJ) published Fates of the Few, which was a No. 1 new release on Amazon.

Randolph Zuniga MS ’21 (BUS) joined the USC Keck School of Medicine as the associate director of career advising.

Sydney Charles MS ’22 (SCJ) was hired as the breaking news anchor for KXLY ABC 4 in Seattle.

Marianna Cid MAT ’22 (EDU) is a thirdgrade Spanish dual language teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Howard Croom EdD ’22 (EDU) is assoc iate athletic director, chief diversity officer and director of student services and affiliated faculty in the School of Language, Culture and Society at Oregon State University.

Athena Fleming MCM ’22 (SCJ) was crowned Ms. America on Oct. 29, 2022.

David Ho ’70 (ENG) and Patrice Rose Plummer PhD ’04 (EDU)

Elizabeth So ’07 (ENG) and Moses Boone

Alexander Mitich ’09 (SCA) and Nausikaa Davis

Riannon Victoria Trutanich ’12 (SCJ) and Clinton Jake VanSciver ’13 (SCJ)

Russell Handler ’14 (LAS) and Megan Cunningham

Matthew Kucharski ’15 (BUS) and Afra Yaghoubian ’19 (ENG)

B I R T H S

M. Beaumont Shapiro ’05 (LAS) and Ashley L. Shapiro, a daughter, Jacqueline Merris

Melissa Masatani ’07 (LAS) and Jon Christensen, a son, Sosuke Christensen

Joseph Robert Souza ‘07 (ACC) and Andrea Gustafson Souza, a son, James Joseph

Kip Payne ’07 (LAS) and Liz Payne, a daughter, Mary “Polly” McKinnon Payne

Torrey A. Fishman ’09 (LAS) and Amy Melser Fishman, a son, Michael Asher

Nan Hibbard ’48 (LAS) of La Jolla, Calif.; Nov. 19, 2021, at the age of 93

Marilouise Jackson ’48 (NURS) of Oakland, Calif.; April 4, 2020, at the age of 93

George Beronius ’49 (LAS) of Tucson, Ariz.; Sept. 28, 2022, at the age of 94

Barbara Jury, BSN ’50 (SSW) of Los Angeles; Nov. 16, 2021, at the age of 94

Paul H. Kalemkiarian Sr. ’50, MA ’52 (PHM); June 12, 2022, at the age of 93

Robert Latas ’51 (SCJ), MS ’57 (EDU) of L a Jolla, Calif.; Jan. 18, 2022, at the age of 92

George Allen Keeling Jr. ’52 (BUS) of Laguna Woods, Calif.; Dec. 3, 2021, at the age of 94

Thomas Birney ’54 (LAS) of Santa Ana, Calif.; Dec. 2, 2022, at the age of 90

John “Jack” A. Corey ’54 (ARC) of Pasadena, Calif.; Dec. 29, 2021, at the age of 91

Seymour Canter ’55 (BUS) of Los Angeles; Dec. 23, 2022, at the age of 90

Beverly Carl ’55 (LAS) of Green Valley, Ariz.; Jan. 22, 2022, at the age of 89

Arnold James (Jim) Cole ’58 (SCJ) of Lomita, Calif.; Feb. 7, 2022, at the age of 90

Charles R. (Chuck) Adams ’60, MBA ’62 (BUS) of Brea, Calif.; Oct. 25, 2022, at the age of 84

Eli Bizic ’61 (LAS) of McLean, Va.; Sept. 4, 2022, at the age of 83

Ronald Kobayashi ’65 (MED) of La Jolla, Calif.; May 4, 2022, at the age of 82

Sally Brant ’66 (LAS) of Los Angeles; April 23, 2022, at the age of 89

Joseph Yo Jung MLIS ’66 (BUS) of Huntington Beach, Calif.; June 16, 2022, at the age of 84

Richard Fellner ’69 (BUS) of Tucson, Ariz.; Nov. 29, 2022, at the age of 78

Tacey Clausen ’72, MS ’74 (EDU) of Glendale, Calif.; Jan. 20, 2022, at the age of 71

Claudia Ziefle Welch ’78 (ART) of Raleigh, N.C.; Oct. 3, 2021, at the age of 64

Susan Rainey EdD ’83 (EDU) of Riverside, Calif.; Sept. 25, 2022, at the age of 75

Dianne Armstrong ’92 (LAS) of Columbus, Ga.; Nov. 25, 2022, at the age of 87

James Miller MBA ’97 (BUS) of San Tan Valley, Ariz.; June 10, 2022, at the age of 55

Irving Biederman of Marina Del Rey, Calif.; Aug. 17, 2022, at the age of 83

Bryce Nelson of Alhambra, Calif.; Aug. 20, 2022, at the age of 84

L E G E N D

ACC USC Leventhal School of Accounting

ARC USC School of Architecture

ART USC Roski School of Art and Design

BPT Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy

Marshall School of Business

Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

Kaufman School of Dance

School of Dramatic Arts

Rossier School of Education

Viterbi School of Engineering

Graduate School

Leonard Davis School of ontology

Iovine and Young Academy

Dornsife College of Letters, and Sciences

Gould School of Law

School of Medicine of USC

Thornton School of Music

Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

School of Pharmacy

School of Cinematic Arts

Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Price School of Public Policy

SSW USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Charlotte Furth

Charlotte Furth, professor emerita of history at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, died on June 19, 2022, in Los Angeles. She was 88.

Her groundbreaking book, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History 960-1665 (University of California Press, 1999), a history of women’s reproductive medicine in China that took nearly 20 years to complete, was one of the first scholarly works to take gender into consideration in the study of Chinese medicine.

Furth was one of few women in her field for most of her career and often led the way for others to follow. When, in the ’80s, she consulted on a new version of the Cambridge History of China, she was one of only two women scholars invited to contribute. Her work was inspired by frequent travels to China. In 1981, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and was one of the first American academics to return to China after the communist revolution.

Furth was an accomplished teacher, helping to develop the doctoral program in Chinese history at USC and mentoring PhD students. In 2012, she was honored with the Association of Asian Studies Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies.

Julie Tilsner, Crisann Begley-Smith, Landon Hall, Jane Ong, Tatiana Overly, Alex Rast, Justin Wilson, Leticia Lozoya, Katie Maloney, Maeve Harding and Elliott Scher contributed to this section.

TROJAN TRIBUTE

PHOTO BY IRENE FERTIK

Bite On!

A robotic dog is a paws-itively worthy successor to George Tirebiter.

If you were driving down Trousdale Parkway about 75 years ago, there was a good chance you’d encounter a feisty mutt who loved running alongside cars while snapping furiously at their spinning tires. His name was, appropriately enough, George Tirebiter.

Students loved George, who was honored with a parade and crowned as the university’s first official mascot on Oct. 22, 1947. He posed with university presidents and homecoming queens; he chased rival mascots across the gridiron and up goalposts. George eventually retired in 1950 to a country farm, where he spent his days running after tractors, trucks and wheelbarrows.

George was succeeded by an unbroken line of Tirebiters until 1961 when George Tirebiter IV retired and was replaced by Traveler.

Now, thanks to USC Viterbi Professor Quan Nguyen and his students in the USC Dynamic Robotics and Control Laboratory, the Tirebiter legacy lives on — in the form of a 26-pound robotic dog, a presumptive “George Tirebiter V.” George V fights COVID-19 by sanitizing classrooms and, on a hot summer day, can even deliver nearly half its weight in water bottles to thirsty students.

The robotic canine reminds us not only to cherish the past and embrace the present but also to face the challenges ahead bravely.

Indeed, to “Fight On!” DENNIS LEE

PHOTO BY DAMON CASAREZ

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Change Service Requested

Over a glass of wine, timing was everything.

It only took a few minutes into our tasting, until Brian our advisor, noticed the date stamp on the cork and asked if we have really had the vineyard that long. It was true, and it had grown substantially in the 20 years since we started. He followed up that question with an even more important one… Was our estate updated? It wasn’t, meaning if anything were to happen, it would leave our two sons with nothing. And as I was about to go in for emergency surgery the very next week, Brian immediately got on the phone with an attorney local to our area. Within a few days, our entire trust was re-drafted and solidi ed just in time. e surgery went well, but our peace of mind knowing that our boys would be taken care of was everything. Brian understood our story to make that happen. He understood the meaning of the little things.