ARKANSAS: Fall 2023

ARKANSAS

Fall 2023 For members of the Arkansas Alumni Association Inc. For members of the Arkansas Alumni Association Inc.

Fall 2023 Vol. 73, No. 1

YOUR MEMBERSHIP MATTERS Thanks to the generosity of our members, the Arkansas Alumni Association awards over one million dollars annually through the Alumni Scholarship program. In addition to scholarships, each gift of memberships allows the Arkansas Alumni Association to recognize and award outstanding faculty members at the annual Alumni Awards Celebration. Honorees have achieved considerable success in their fields through faculty research, professional service, or teaching. Membership plays a very important role in uplifting your alma mater by making student scholarships and faculty recognition a priority. Your membership matters. Learn more about these members of the U of A family in this issue.

Megan Nieweg

Arkansas Alumni Endowed Scholar First-Year Student

Dr. Varun Grover

2023 Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award for Research

Ella Rowen

Arkansas Alumni Endowed Scholar First-Year Student

Learn more about the benefits of membership at join.arkansasalumni.org.

arkansas

FALL / Vol. 73, No. 1

For members of the Arkansas Alumni Association Inc.

6 An Extraordinary Team

Constructing a New Home for the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research.

12 Interdisciplinary Programs 16 Kidney Collaboration

2 Chancellor’s Corner 4 Campus 38 Alumni 54 Yesteryear 56 Senior Walk 64 Last Look

Solving Local, Global Problems Through Research.

Arkansas ranks 3rd in the nation in kidney disease deaths, but the U of A is revolutionizing treatment options.

22 The Life of Lewis E. Epley Jr. Leading a life of service and philanthropy.

On the Cover: Senior Walk is framed in the fall colors of the Old Main Arboretum.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 1

Chancellor's Corner

Charles F. Robinson Chancellor Photo by Russell Cothren.

Dear Alumni and Friends, I am very excited about this issue of Arkansas since it covers some of the groundbreaking research happening at the U of A. The educational aspect of our landgrant mission gets more public attention, but we are just as proud of our research, which improves lives, advances fields of knowledge, and bolsters our economy.

Over the past 152 years, University of Arkansas faculty, students, and alumni have made many discoveries that enrich our lives. The list of things our researchers have shaped through scientific inquiry, knowledge creation, and creative work is impressive. It includes but is not limited to: our understanding of the people, world, and universe around us; the food we eat; the clothes we wear; the architecture that shelters us; the art that inspires us; and the supply chains that keep our economy functioning. Our researchers’ work is so ubiquitous that it would be difficult to go a full day without it affecting you in one way or another.

Case in point: the United States Postal Service sorted this magazine using a wide area barcode reader that was developed by our College of Engineering.

2 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

ARKANSAS The U of A’s tradition of uplifting society and solving real-world problems through discovery and innovation has led to us being recognized as one of the nation’s elite research institutions. As we look ahead with our 150 Forward strategic plan, we are committed to achieving even greater research excellence.

We will better align our research enterprise with society’s needs (including research commercialization, workforce training, and other economic and cultural development); boost our faculty recruitment, retention, and success efforts; add support for our graduate students; involve more undergraduates in the research enterprise; and grow and update our research facilities.

You will read about one of those facilities — and the brilliant women driving the project — in this issue. Our Institute of Integrative and Innovative Research Building (or I³R, pronounced “I Cubed R”) will be the ultimate “collaboratory,” facilitating collaboration between the university, private industry, and the public and nonprofit sectors to address real-world challenges. Shortly after I³R opens in fall 2024, our MultiUser Silicone Carbide Semiconductor Research and Fabrication Facility (or MUSiC) will also be completed. There, researchers such as Alan Mantooth + B.S.E.E.’85, M.S.E.E.’86, Fisher Yu, Zhong Chen, Greg Salamo, and Hugh Churchill will work to position Arkansas as a leader in the effort to increase domestic semiconductor chip innovation and production. I³R and MUSiC will boost Arkansas’ economy while fostering discovery that impacts countless lives.

Thank you for your support, which enables us to better fulfill our land-grant mission. Enjoy reading about U of A faculty, students, and alumni who are helping build a brighter future for all.

Sincerely, Charles F. Robinson  Ph.D. Chancellor

Publisher Arkansas Alumni Association Executive Director Brandy Cox Jackson  M.A.’07 Managing Editor Catherine Baltz + B.S.’92, M.Ed.’07 Creative Director D.J. Hurlocker Writers Beth Dedman  B.A.’20 Lisy McKinnon  B.A.’97 Contributors Kayla Crenshaw Gerson Fajardo-Bruhl B.S.Bm.E.’23 Delia Garcia Shelby Gill B.A.’14 Ron Gordon Ph.D.'14 Jennifer Holland M.Ed.’08 Brandy Cox Jackson  M.A.’07 Kelsey Lovewell Lippard  B.A.’11, B.A.’13, J.D.’14 Andra Parrish Liwag Matt McGowan Lori McLemore Michelle Parks B.A.'94 John Post Charles F. Robinson  Kevin Trainor  B.A.'94, M.A.'05 Drew Watzke B.A.’22 Heidi Wells B.A.’88, M.A.’13 Kori Witt Hardin Young M.F.A.’04 Advertising Sales Collin Brunner  B.S.H.E.S.'10 MEMBERSHIP SYMBOLS  Student Member;  Member; + Member, A+;  Life Member; + Life Member, A+ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor are accepted and encouraged. Send letters for publication to Arkansas Magazine, Arkansas Alumni Association, at PO Box 1070, Fayetteville, AR 72702. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and may be edited for length.

Typewritten letters are preferred. Anonymous letters will not be published. Submission does not guarantee publication.

Arkansas, Exclusively for Members of the Arkansas Alumni Association, Inc. (ISSN 10648100) (USPS 009-515) is published quarterly by the Arkansas Alumni Association, Inc. at 491 North Razorback Road, Fayetteville, AR 72701. Annual membership dues are now $55 per household and a portion is allocated for a subscription to Arkansas. Single copies are $6.

Editing and production are provided through the UA Office of University Relations. Direct inquiries and information to P.O. Box 1070, Fayetteville, AR 72702-1070, phone (479) 5752801, fax (479) 575-5177.

Periodical postage paid at Fayetteville, AR, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to P.O. Box 1070, Fayetteville, AR 72702-1070.

ARKANSAS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Mission Statement The Arkansas Alumni Association connects and serves the University of Arkansas Family.

Vision Statement The Arkansas Alumni Association will be nationally recognized as a model alumni relations program.

Value Statement The Arkansas Alumni Association values: • service • excellence • collaboration • relationships • diversity • learning • creativity Arkansas Fall 23-043 Cover photo: Whit Pruitt B.A'16 Please recycle this magazine or share it with a friend.

Planning Your Best Retirement

Apartments

Cottages

Village Homes

Butterfield Trail Village offers more options that come standard, more activities and amenities at your fingertips, and more choices than any other active senior living community in the area – all in a beautifully maintained neighborhood setting.

Planning for a move to the perfect retirement community doesn’t happen overnight, but as a Carriage Club member, you’ll get to enjoy a range of premier amenities – before you move in!

Call to schedule your private consultation and tour today.

CARRIAGE CLUB

1923 E. Joyce Blvd. | Fayetteville, Ark. | 479.695.8011 | butterfieldtrailvillage.org

HELP CREATE A

BRIGHTER

FUTURE Students and faculty at the University of Arkansas are actively working to build a better world. A planned gift is an excellent way to meet your philanthropic, financial and estate planning goals while supporting their innovative pursuits.

To learn more, contact the Office of Planned Giving.

479-575-7271 • legacy@uark.edu FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 3

Campus

Visual Systems of Northwest Arkansas Butterflies Associate Professor Awarded $1.35 Million NSF CAREER Award

BY HARDIN YOUNG M.F.A.’04

The National Science Foundation awarded Erica Westerman, a recently tenured associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Arkansas, with a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award to support her research on the role of genetics and ambient light in shaping the visual sensitivity and behavior of butterflies.

The five-year, $1.35 million award will be used to study the “visual tuning” of butterflies, largely drawn from the Northwest Arkansas region. Visual tuning is a theory supposing that species sharing the same habitat are adapted to be the most sensitive to the color of light present in that specific habitat.

4 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Westerman said she is particularly interested in “how the developmental environment interacts with the genome to shape the adult phenotype that we see. And in this particular instance, we're really interested in how the light environment may shape what butterflies can see and how what they can see influences what they do.”

In her proposal, Westerman noted that "determining the responsiveness of animal visual systems to changes in light environment, at both the seasonal and developmental scale, is particularly important in the context of climate change and human modification of the environment."

Changes in season duration and the number of extreme weather events increase the potential for a mismatch between historically accurate developmental cues and adult environment, potentially causing a decrease in visual tuning for many primarily visual animals, including pollinators like butterflies.”

The proposal goes on to note that this could lead to the modification of adult visual sensitivity and vision-related behaviors, impacting their ability to forage or select mates. This would have serious implications for insect pollinators, many of which have a short generation and are highly visual.

“One of the reasons we're working with this community of butterflies is that they influence the flowers that we have in our prairies,” Westerman explained. “We have very high butterfly diversity here in Northwest Arkansas, so it's a great place to do this research. What the pollinators are able to see and consequently able to pollinate also influences which fruit crops we're going to have because a lot of our fruit crops are heavily dependent upon insect pollinators.”

The project has four overall goals: • Illuminate what role the developmental light environment plays in shaping the visual sensitivity and subsequent nectaring choices of a prominent American butterfly.

• Dissect the effects of specific wavelengths of light on spectral sensitivity and subsequent visual mate choice.

• Determine the prevalence of visual tuning in seasonal species assemblages of butterflies in American prairies.

• Engage students of all ages in research on developmental plasticity and environmental effects to provide a real-world context for the effects of environmental perturbation on animal behavior and ecosystem health.

Of her interest in butterflies, Westerman explained that she’s “really interested in visual communication and how the developmental environment, both the physical and social environment, influences the way we visually communicate and how we respond to visual signals. To study that you have to work with a system that's primarily a visual communicator and none of our model animals — not the mouse, not the fruit fly, not the zebra fish — is a primarily visual signaler.”

“Butterflies use two-thirds of their brain to process visual information,” she continued. “So they are a perfect system to try and understand how the developmental environment influences the ability to do visual communication.”

CAREER awards are the NSF's most prestigious award for early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in their department or organization. The awards are for five years and include teaching and public-outreach components. This award will help lay the foundation of Westerman’s career.

Opposite page, Erica Westerman, associate professor of biological sciences in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, researches the role of genetics and ambient light in shaping the visual sensitivity and behavior of butterflies — particularly those from Northwest Arkansas. She was recently awarded the NSF’s CAREER Award, the organization’s most prestigious award for early career faculty.

Photo by University Relations.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 5

Feature

Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research Construction lunch and groundbreaking event.

Photo by Whit Pruitt.

An Extraordinary Team

Constructing a New Home for the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research

BY DREW WATZKE B.A.’22

Just nine years after graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in mechanical engineering, Jessica Hollinsworth  B.S.B.E.’14 is leading the construction project for one of the most important facilities on the university’s campus — the new home of the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I³R).

Since graduating from the university, Hollinsworth has spent her career working with CDI Contractors where she has served in numerous roles as a project engineer, field engineer, project manager and now project superintendent. She said she knew at a young age that she liked using her creativity to solve problems and wanted to be a hands-on worker.

6 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

“My dad was a carpenter. He made cabinets and stuff growing up,” Hollinsworth said. “I always just watched and got to experience it behind him. I found it fun to be like, ‘This is the tool he needs next.’ And I think that just comes naturally and allows me to watch the building come together and know what needs to come next, too.”

Today, the innate desire to see something come to fruition from just an idea and materials is fuel for Hollinsworth — as well as the engineers and architects on her team — during the process of creating the 144,000-square-foot building for I³R.

She said there is also an element of pride when overseeing construction of a state-of-the-art facility where research that improves lives will happen.

Hollinsworth and her team have real and tangible sources of motivation. The innovative research that I³R is striving to achieve is already making a positive impact — even before the new physical space opens. In May, I³R announced that the first Arkansan — and only the second person in the world — had received a neuro-enabled prosthetic hand system implant. The ground-breaking investigational device invented by I³R engineers restores a meaningful sense of touch and grip force to individuals with upper limb amputations.

Scientific achievements like the neuro-enabled prosthetic hand system illustrate the positive effects that I³R can have in addressing today’s challenges. The institute strives to pioneer solutions to wicked problems through convergence research across academic, industry, government and non-profit sectors to make a positive societal impact by creating and deploying innovations to scale. And Hollinsworth said that important purpose makes it even easier to be motivated and determined to make the I³R building a structure worthy of the research that will go on inside of it.

At the same time, Hollinsworth said she brings a personal lens to every project she manages to deliver the highest quality product she can. And she encourages her team to adopt the same mindset every time they work on a project together.

“I always think, ‘If you were building your mom’s kitchen, how would you build it?’ You might have a little more passion for it because it’s for your mom. If I was building my mom’s kitchen, I would want her to have the best kitchen possible,” Hollinsworth said.

Hollinsworth is part of the 2023 Class of Honorees for the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes intriguing business and political leaders in Arkansas under the age of 40. She previously worked on the Civil Engineering Research and Education Center at the U of A, renovations at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, and even the Walmart AMP. Kristen Knight  B.Arch.’00, U of A associate director of contracted services, said Hollinsworth’s expertise and familiarity with the university — as both an alum and working on other projects on campus — have been an asset to the construction of the I³R facility.

“It is so refreshing to have someone like Jessica at the helm of this process,” Knight said. “She is an exceptional problem-solver and critical-thinker, able to adapt to the variety of obstacles that present themselves. Projects like these need people like Jessica.”

As a problem solver, Hollinsworth said she brings a black-and-white outlook on the challenges that arise while working on projects — which has also helped her remain focused and straightforward when deciding next steps. And that approach has been crucial in a project the size of I³R and will continue to be an asset in the months to come.

Knight represents the U of A’s Department of Facilities Management and its role in building the new I³R facility, alongside James Milner M.S.O.M.’22, construction project specialist. Both Knight and Milner have worked extensively with Hollinsworth since 2021, teaming up with I³R, the university and CDI to ensure the facility is an exceptional finished product.

“Jessica has taken on this massive project and brought a poised and steady demeanor that has allowed everyone involved to feel comfortable and confident to play their part,” Milner said. “It is her leadership, direction and honesty that has kept this project on track and will lead to its successful completion.”

Hollinsworth agreed with Knight that the experience she has gained in the many different roles she has taken on is part of why her coworkers respect her decision making and have confidence in her leadership.

“I’ve found that being myself naturally, the respect from others just came out on its own,” she said. “I’ve found my career has grown by not making myself singled out by being a woman.”

Though she is the first female superintendent in CDI’s history, Hollinsworth said she is not alone in the process.

Several of the engineers and architects on her team are also women, something that was largely uncommon in the past for construction projects. But as more female engineers and architects earn their degrees and enter the workforce, the male-dominated field will most likely see management and design teams looking increasingly like Hollinsworth’s.

“This team, which includes several outstanding women, has taken on the challenges of building this institute with confidence and ambition,” Knight said.

“They have worked together to achieve a design and execution strategy that will result in one of the finest research institutes in the country while refusing to be intimidated by the task and instead embracing the opportunity to create some phenomenal work.”

An advantage that Hollinsworth has found in being superintendent is her ability to encourage and support others on her team. Hollinsworth mentioned her admiration for Razorback softball coach Courtney Deifel and how her leadership style both encourages and pushes her team to perform at its best — a strategy Hollinsworth hopes to deploy with her team.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 7

Feature

“To me, I find it valuable to lift other people up — to have their backs,” she said. “This seat that I’ve grown to be in, I’m able to help remove the culture of women against women and instead work on building each other up.”

When considering the potential shift of seeing more females in the industry she works in, Hollinsworth said she strives to do her part to encourage young women to work in design and construction management. One way she does it is by going to U of A career fairs to introduce the idea of construction work and design to young, female engineering students.

“There is so much opportunity when you’re that age,” Hollinsworth said. And she finds value in showcasing her side of engineering that a lot of students might not be aware of when trying to decide on a career route.

As for her current team working on the I³R building, Hollinsworth said there is great camaraderie among all members of the team. She added that her team has received great support from I³R Executive Director Ranu Jung and the entire I³R team, as well as the university’s Facilities Management department, noting specifically Knight and Milner.

"Jessica and the entire CDI construction team have been outstanding in giving shape to the institute's future physical space," said Jung, who is tasked with bringing the institute's vision to life. "Jessica's leadership has been integral to the project's success to date."

Likewise, U of A Facilities Management is appreciative of Hollinsworth and her dedication to the project, Knight and Milner agree.

“The partnership between U of A Facilities Management, CDI and I³R has been vital to the success of building this structure,” Milner said. “Jessica, in particular, has been a valuable connection during this process, and we are very appreciative of her efforts to make I³R the best it can be.”

I³R recently hosted a topping out ceremony, marking a significant construction milestone achieved through the collaboration between the institute, the university and CDI. The work continues for Hollinsworth, Knight, Milner and hundreds of other workers, eager to see the day their efforts result in a facility where its work will have significant impact in the scientific world. The I³R building is expected to be completed in late 2024.

I3R Construction Timeline The U of A continues to expand upon its widely renowned campus, now with a state-of-the-art research facility. The Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research (I³R), being built on the corner of Duncan Avenue and Dickson Street, will provide the space and technology for some of the most cutting-edge and inventive research at the University of Arkansas.

The multi-year process of realizing the three-story, approximately 144,000-square-foot facility continues to make strides toward completion.

Here’s a look at how I³R got from where it was in 2020 to where it is today.

1. July 2020 Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation announces $194.7 million gift to establish I³R. 2. October 2021 1.

Crews begin to work on the east side of the I³R site to construct a tunnel and conduct early sitework to prepare for excavation.

3. April 2022

2.

8 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

3.

Groundbreaking ceremony.

Breaking ground signifies the official start of construction for the building.

4. June 2022 The excavation process begins to clear the area for the foundation of the building.

4.

5.

5. September 2022 First concrete walls begin to be established.

6. November 2022 Crews pour concrete overnight for I³R’s floor system.

6.

7. November 2022 The tower crane arrives on site.

8. December 2022 The first stage of steel is built on site.

7.

9. April 2023 Workers put finishing touches on the building’s steel skeleton.

8.

10. June 2023 Topping out ceremony, commemorating the final structural beam being raised into place and completing the building’s frame.

9.

10.

11.

U of A Facilities Management, in collaboration with CDI Contractors and I³R staff, continues its hard work to achieve a structure worthy of the valuable research that I³R will shelter in the years to come.

11. Fall 2024 Estimated completion.

Scan QR Code to visit the OxBlue webcam page to view this and many other active and completed campus projects.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 9

Campus

Left to Right, Christopher Schulte and Aaron Turner.

Photos by Novo Studio.

Fostering the Study of Art

The School of Art Adds Two New Research Centers

BY KAYLA CRENSHAW

The School of Art is comprised of faculty artists, designers and scholars at the top of their field fostering the study of the history and meaning of art.

Two research centers established by Christopher Schulte, School of Art endowed associate professor, and Aaron R. Turner, assistant professor of art, explore and study different subject matter, but share common goals of interdisciplinary research, community programs and the U of A becoming a research destination for the arts.

Schulte is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Childhood Art (CSCA). It is an interdisciplinary research, teaching and community engagement center with a deep and intensive commitment to advancing critical and reconceptualized approaches to childhood art and its relationship to historical and contemporary childhoods.

“When I was first hired by the School of Art, in 2019, I drafted a detailed multi-year plan for my scholarly program,” Schulte said. “Undergirding this plan was a single goal — to make the art education program at the University of Arkansas a national and international destination for the study of childhood art. The Center for the Study of Childhood Art is the first of many steps necessary to realizing this goal.”

The center serves as the organizational hub for a range of innovative research, teaching and community programs, including the Childhood Art Speaker Series; The Sketch Pad; Childhood Art: A CSCA Podcast; CSCA Annual Awards Program and the Internship in Childhood Art. 10 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

CSCA will launch two new programs this year including Childhood Art: An International Journal of Research hosted by the University of Arkansas Press and a Childhood Art Archive that includes books, rare manuscripts, study resources, collections of child art, slides and digital images, and print materials.

In fall 2024, following the restoration of the Fine Arts Center, the Center for the Study of Childhood Art will welcome the university community and broader public to its new home within the restored building.

Assistant professor of Art Aaron R. Turner is the creator, director and curator of the Center for Art as Lived Experience (CALE), a multidisciplinary visual arts research center promoting innovative ideas on the integration of the arts in communities and pedagogy by emphasizing the intersections of art and lived experience.

Turner established the center with the mission to promote interdisciplinary approaches to art making, intersecting art and life, and integrating art into communities.

“I've been around academia since 2008 and one thing I've enjoyed the most is being exposed to so many different approaches to research,” Turner said. “I have mainly focused on art, but what I have continued to see is how much art intersects with other disciplines, and how much art is impacted in our individual lived experiences.”

(Continued on page 63.)

Environmental Dynamics Student Earns Prestigious $180,000 Fellowship Spotlight on Harrison Smith B.S.’16

BY JOHN POST

Growing up, Harrison Smith was fascinated by the natural world, a passion that led him to realize the importance of environmental stewardship and sustainability as he got older. That interest led him to the Graduate School and International Education’s Environmental Dynamics doctoral program, where he recently earned a prestigious fellowship to conduct additional research surrounding climate impacts on food crops.

Smith was awarded the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The fellowship, totaling $180,000 for three years, will fund his research project titled “Where Can We Grow? Machine Learning to Predict Climate Impacts on U.S. Corn and Soybean Suitability,” which aims to use machine learning techniques to explore how environmental variation shapes crop suitability and to predict potential impacts of climate change on corn and soybean suitability in the future.

“Using advanced machine learning models, I will also apply this information to understand how climate change will affect crop suitability into the future and predict where we would be able to grow these crops under various climate change scenarios,” he said.

A Fayetteville native, Smith is a Doctoral Academy Fellow in the Environmental Dynamics Program, where he utilizes geospatial tools to analyze the patterns and processes that affect sustainability across landscapes and conducts work that seeks to improve the quality of the natural environment and human wellbeing.

“As a NIFA fellow, I will be able to fully dedicate myself to research and will be focused on a project that directly contributes to agricultural sustainability and climate resilience,” he said. “More broadly, this fellowship represents an incredible foundation from which I can build my career as a researcher in environmental dynamics and sustainability.”

Above, Harrison Smith in the lab.

Left, Harrison Smith is pursuing his doctorate in environmental dynamics.

Photos by Cassandra Thomas.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 11

Feature

Interdisciplinary Programs

Solve Local, Global Problems Through Research

BY JOHN POST

In the mid-1990s, University of Arkansas faculty members from the Departments of Anthropology, Geology and Geography came to Collis Geren  with a problem — and a solution.

The departments wanted to start their own Ph.D. programs, but none had the resources or staffing to support them. Instead, the faculty proposed to start a program that would fuse the disciplines of anthropology, geology and geography into a doctoral program called environmental dynamics, which would study the interactions between humans and the environment.

Geren, who was vice chancellor for research as well as dean of the university’s graduate school — now the Graduate School and International Education — agreed to the proposal and invested resources in the program’s creation, with the first class of the program enrolling in 1998.

While the impetus behind its creation was pragmatic, the program catalyzed a surge of interdisciplinary study on campus. Now, the university has six interdisciplinary programs environmental dynamics, cell and molecular biology, materials science and engineering, public policy, space and planetary sciences, and statistics and analytics housed in the Graduate School and International Education.

12 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

These programs are transforming the university’s research enterprise to solve problems that transcend disciplines — and facilitate innovation in the teaching and learning mission.

“Many of the most important breakthroughs and innovations in science come at the boundaries of traditional disciplines,” said Peter Ungar, Distinguished Professor of anthropology and director of the environmental dynamics program. “When we have an opportunity to interact with people in other disciplines — who don’t think the same way we do, who don’t have the same backgrounds, who are coming at the same question from different perspectives — that’s when innovation occurs. That’s what interdisciplinary is all about: addressing a single question from a variety of perspectives.”

In environmental dynamics, disciplines vary from crop soil science students researching how climate change affects subsistence farming in Africa, to environmental engineers researching methane emissions from rice, to geoscience students studying the environmental impacts of landfills.

“Pretty much any topic that has anything to do with interactions between humans and the environment is within our domain,” Ungar said.

For cell and molecular biology, one focal point within the program is microbial diseases in agricultural systems, which requires expertise in areas including molecular genomics, nutrition, chemical engineering, protein chemistry, and physiology. Adnan Alrubaye M.Ed.’13, Ph.D.’13, now an associate director of the program, earned his doctorate in the program and found the interdisciplinary aspect enhanced his research.

“The program's interdisciplinary nature gave me access to a wide range of molecular biology techniques that I would not have learned had I joined a non-interdisciplinary program,” Alrubaye said. “The CEMB program has faculty in 18 departments and across four colleges.

If a faculty or student needs access to an instrument or a reagent, they can quickly email the program faculty list and receive the help they need. So, the program's interdisciplinary nature made research more innovative and productive.”

Another reason research thrives in interdisciplinary programs is that they let students build a customized degree program based on their passions and interests. Students can choose courses, topics and projects that align with their curiosities and create their own niche or specialization within fields.

It also creates opportunities for students to learn multiple disciplines and how they overlap.

“You can explore the connections and interactions between different STEM disciplines, such as how biotechnology applies engineering principles to biological systems, or how data science uses mathematics and computer science to analyze large and complex datasets,” said Matthew Leftwich B.S.Ch.E.’99, M.S.Ch.E.’01, Ph.D.’10, director of the materials science and engineering program. “This can help you discover new opportunities and challenges for research and development.”

But interdisciplinary research is not confined to STEM fields.

Callie Embry M.A.’19 returned to school for her graduate degree with the goal of getting an education that would help her community of Huntsville, a small town east of Fayetteville. But when she earned her master’s in communications from the U of A, she knew she still wanted to continue her education but was unsure what field to study for a doctorate.

Her research as a master’s student focused on political communication in rural communities, and in a conversation with her advisor, he asked her if she had considered the Public Policy program.

“I said no, I hadn’t. I hadn’t heard of interdisciplinary programs before this,” she said. “But the thought of being able to learn from professors across departments and to have people in my class who had very different backgrounds from me, that was something that sounded interesting and a neat opportunity. The more I talked about (it) to professors in the program, the more I realized that’s where I needed to be.”

Embry enrolled in the program in the community development track, where she is conducting research into the role public libraries play in community development, specifically rural communities.

“We have a lack of rural research,” she said. “It’s a numbers game – you can get more data when there’s more people. So, you have to spend more time getting data, but I think it’s so important from a public policy perspective when rural communities and rural America are playing a leading role in shaping the political landscape.”

Embry has studied a mix of courses from applied social sciences, behavioral sciences, and political science to inform her research. And her research is also enhanced by the diversity of the students in the program.

Callie Embry Photo by Cassandra Thomas.

Adnan Alrubaye Photo by Cassandra Thomas.

Opposite: Katie Welch B.A. '20 in Material Science and Engineering’s Quantum Device Lab. Photos by Cassandra Thomas.

(Continued on page 63.)

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 13

Campus

As an undergraduate, Kilgore had a hands-on introduction to laboratory research thanks to landing a coveted REU at John Hopkins University.

Photo submitted.

Reverse Engineering Leads to Forward Thinking Spotlight on Breanna Kilgore B.S.Bm.E.’23 cum laude

BY SHELBY GILL B.A.'14

Breanna Kilgore grew up watching friends and family travel more than an hour to Louisiana or Little Rock for specialized medicine. In extreme cases, residents had to be flown by helicopter to the UAMS Medical Center or Arkansas Children’s Hospital to be treated.

At first, Kilgore didn’t understand why El Dorado did not have access to certain medicine, so she started reading about healthcare structures, rural medicine and medical inequities. Her path to healthcare was solidified during a scholarship webinar when she heard a presenter say, “Whatever you do in life, make sure you love it. And whatever makes you really angry or really sad, that's what you're passionate about.”

“I get really angry when people don’t have access to doctors, nurses or medical devices because of a price tag or infrastructure,” Kilgore said. “It shouldn’t be a privilege to be healthy. We should work as a community to make sure everyone can be the best they can be.”

14 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Combining her love of technology with her passion for healthcare, Kilgore majored in biomedical engineering with the dream of creating medical devices and being at the forefront of scalable and accessible innovation.

“Engineering gives me the opportunity to be on the technical side, to investigate engineering policy, or even pursue STEM education as a Black woman in engineering,” Kilgore said. “There was only one other Black student in my biomedical engineering class.”

While on campus, Kilgore served as the vice president of the National Society of Black Engineers chapter to encourage new generations of Black students to enter STEM fields.

This fall, Kilgore began an engineering fellowship at Rice University’s RICE360 Institute for Global Health Technologies. She is helping to create medical devices for mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It’s reverse engineering,” Kilgore explained. “Instead of making a big machine for millions of dollars, we are going to downscale and see how we can make technology affordable for communities who may not have running water or access to electricity.”

Kilgore is no stranger to elite research opportunities.

While at the U of A, she participated in the NanoBio Research Experience for Undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University. She spent the summer characterizing the secretion of endothelial-cell-derived extracellular vesicles under different levels of shear stress — an important step in vein regeneration and cancer development. At the end of the summer, she formally presented her research at the Johns Hopkins CARES symposium, an annual research conference designed for all JHU summer interns to present their research to all faculty and staff.

“I was challenged and learned a lot that summer,” Kilgore said. “I often wrote down everything that I learned in a day, so I could review each night. I also asked my mentor tons of questions anytime I was curious or confused by what we were doing. Asking questions is the most important thing you can do in science; it helps you gain a better understanding and could lead to future discoveries. Never be afraid to ask questions.”

She also studied abroad in Switzerland to learn about global health and developmental policy from leaders at the United Nations and World Health Organization.

Towards the end of the program, Kilgore was tasked with writing a research paper on any topic within global health and policy. She landed on investigating how medical technology influenced the development of healthcare systems in low-resource areas. She even had the opportunity to interview professionals who worked in the non-profit and biotechnology fields.

“This opportunity differed greatly from my usual mathematics-based engineering courses, but I was able to apply my problem-solving skills the same,” Kilgore said.

“I enjoyed getting to explore medical issues from a different perspective that often motivate biomedicalengineered technology. Overall, I learned that health intersects in all areas of life, and it affects everyone in the world. Studying abroad gave me a new perspective on life and the people around me — I think I am a better person because of this opportunity.”

Kilgore sees her fellowship at Rice as just the beginning of her career and looks to her experience in the University of Arkansas and the Honors College Path Program as her compass.

The Path Program provides both scholarships and mentorship to students from underrepresented populations.

Established in 2014, the goal of the Path Program is to recruit and mentor talented high school students and help them achieve academic success at the University of Arkansas and join the Honors College.

“Path pushed me out of my comfort zone,” Kilgore said.

“The team encouraged me, built my confidence, and gave me a support network so I could finish my undergrad with honors and succeed after graduation.”

Kilgore views the support at the U of A as an integral bridge to higher education for students from underrepresented communities.

“If people back home had the support system I’ve had, the possibilities would be endless,” Kilgore said. “I’ve worked very hard for these four years. Growing up, I watched a lot of people do jobs they hate. It was work that was grueling and hard for them. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to explore something I love. It’s a great relief to know I’m doing something I’m interested in, and that will have an impact on the world.”

Kilgore graduated cum laude from the University of Arkansas in Spring 2023 with a degree in biomedical engineering.

Photo submitted.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 15

Feature

Kidney Collaboration

Arkansas Ranks 3rd in the Nation in Kidney Disease Deaths, but the U of A is Revolutionizing Treatment Options

BY MATT MCGOWAN AND JENNIFER HOLLAND M.ED.’08

An estimated 37 million people in the United States have some form of chronic kidney disease, and every year 100,000 of them die while undergoing kidney dialysis. It’s a major public health problem that costs the U.S. government billions in Medicare payments, but University of Arkansas researchers Jamie and Christa Hestekin — in conjunction with a kidney doctor in Southern California — are working to revolutionize the treatment options available.

Of the approximately 15% of U.S. adults who will face this diagnosis, about 100,000 people will develop end-stage renal disease. Treatment options for this group — hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplant — have not changed significantly over the past 50 years.

16 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average duration of patient survival on dialysis is approximately seven years, but most patients have to wait 10 years to receive a donated kidney. As a result, many people die waiting for a kidney transplant.

The U.S. government spends more than $100 billion in Medicare payments – almost 10% of Medicare’s annual budget of $1 trillion – to care for patients with kidney disease.

If the Hestekins’ collaboration is successful, their techniques will offer hope for something better than the traditional treatment methods, such as dialysis or transplantation, and greatly improve peoples’ qualities of life.

“We’re trying to improve the lives of patients with end-stage renal disease by giving them more freedom and a better treatment method, so they can live healthier, happier lives,” said Christa Hestekin.

The Power of Electrodeionization Though most people haven’t heard the term “electrodeionization,” it’s a regular part of Jamie Hestekin’s vocabulary and day-to-day work as a chemical engineering professor.

Several years ago, a decade into his career at the U of A, Hestekin received a call from Ira Kurtz, a prominent nephrologist in Southern California. At the time, Hestekin had no way of knowing that Kurtz’s call would change the direction of his work and eventually dominate his research agenda.

Electrodeionization removes or separates ions (electrically charged molecules) from water by applying an electrical charge to a specially designed membrane. This process is primarily used in water treatment.

Before Kurtz’s call, Hestekin had used the technology to remove ions from grape juices, cells from biofuels, and organic acids from fermentations. More recently, he was a research consultant for fracking companies, applying the process to the removal of environmentally hazardous particles from wastewater.

As Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chief of Nephrology at UCLA Health, Kurtz is a leading basic researcher on the structural biology and physiology of the human kidney. He focuses on proteins that transport

various ions in renal and extrarenal tissues. In the kidney, ion transporters play an important role in helping determine the final chemistry of urine.

As Kurtz emphasizes, the human kidney is not a simple filter. It functions like a computer, sensing the chemistry of our blood and keeping it constant, despite all the chemicals that food and beverages introduce into the blood. How the kidney accomplishes this is a major focus of his research.

In addition to studying the ion transport process in the kidney, Kurtz, along with the US Kidney Research Corporation, had been investigating a new, radical idea.

“I’d been thinking about creating an artificial kidney,” he said. “So, I looked around to see what was out there. There were a few efforts, but I could see they weren’t going to work ultimately.”

Kurtz started exploring techniques that could transport critical ions, such as sodium and potassium, without using dialysis. The device he envisioned would be implantable and therefore couldn’t use water, a dialysate or a dialyzer, which are currently used to treat patients. He ultimately landed on electrodeionization as a technology that could potentially work. After looking at several researchers around the country with a background in this process, he called Hestekin.

Above Left, Christa Hestekin and the team’s artificial kidney prototype.

Above Right, Doctoral student Eric Walker assists with research in the Hestekin lab.

Opposing Page, Doctoral student Leticia Santos de Souza conducts research related to the development of an artificial kidney prototype.

Photos submitted.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 17

Feature

Briefcase-Sized Artificial Kidney

Above, The anatomy of a kidney nephron.

A Chemical Computer Kurtz likes to say that the kidney is more complex than a 747. Its microanatomy is particularly intricate, containing roughly a million nephrons, each of which is responsible for filtering and transporting ions and other substances that will end up in the urine. Each nephron contains a filter, called a glomerulus, and a tubular transporting part that is further subdivided anatomically and functionally into about 15 segments that contain different cell types. Kidneys also have nerves, arterial and venous blood vessels, and lymphatics that, along with the nephrons, are configured in a complex three-dimensional structure.

They never stop working. Despite the fact that people typically eat and drink three times a day, a process that can significantly affect the chemistry of blood and cells, the kidneys prevent the blood chemistry from changing by excreting electrolytes, water and organic substances through urine.

Unfortunately, in patients without kidney function, whatever they eat and drink remains in their bodies. In such patients, nephrologists need to control what the kidneys would normally do by artificially removing the necessary amount of water and electrolytes during dialysis treatments.

US Kidney Research Corporation, based in California, supports this research and plans to market the world’s first tabletop artificial kidney, based on a prototype that will ultimately be developed by the Kurtz-Hestekin-Ludlow team.

18 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Creating an artificial device that performs the above functions is an immense and complex task, but the initial call from Kurtz led to a fruitful collaboration.

In addition to Jamie Hestekin and Kurtz, the team also includes Christa Hestekin, professor of chemical engineering and associate dean of the Graduate School and International Education, and US Kidney Research Corporation, whose Founder/CEO is Roland Ludlow.

With $4 million in funding from the company, the research team, including students in the Hestekin laboratory, are building a prototype device that fits on a desktop. It could be used at work or placed on a bedside table and used while a patient sleeps. “A key difference between our artificial kidney and dialysis is that dialysis is a very passive transport method,” said Christa Hestekin. “Our system uses active transport in order to help control levels of the toxins within the body using electrodeionization.”

Left, Jamie Hestekin (second from left) with doctoral students and post-doctoral research fellows who are involved in the project.

Several students who have participated in research in the Hestekin lab have gone on to earn their doctorates or attend medical school.

Photo submitted.

Opposing Below, Doctoral student Juliana Marcal works with a membrane caster, a machine used for making sheet membranes.

Photo submitted.

More recently, a secondary discovery has given the research team further reason to be excited. For a different project, Jamie Hestekin and students were experimenting with various types of membranes to use as friction material for surface engineering. They were having success with a membrane made of cellulose, and one student decided to try it on blood. This experimentation led to encouraging results and might address one of the challenges of using ultrafiltration membranes, which tend to clot. These membranes are currently used for hemodialysis, the primary treatment for people with endstage kidney disease.

“This membrane looks more like nature,” Jamie Hestekin said. “It mimics the glomerulus and the tiny fibers connected to it better than anything out there.”

Working with students on these types of discoveries is a win-win for all parties involved.

“It’s our graduate students, our undergraduate students and our post-docs that are really in the lab doing the work that’s necessary for this, and the company has been very supportive of our students by having them present and talk about what they’re doing for their own professional development,” Christa Hestekin said. “Dr. Kurtz has had regular sessions to teach them about nephrology and how the kidney actually works.”

The researchers have used the cellulose membrane in animal studies, but it has not yet been tested as part of the artificial kidney device. There is potential to integrate it into hemodialysis dialyzers, because its filtering performance is superior to those currently in use. US Kidney Research Corporation has licensed the membrane for this purpose and is exploring potential collaborations.

Making Research Meaningful Developing and marketing an artificial kidney could give patients with kidney disease more options and independence, while potentially reducing Medicare expenditures significantly. Patients using the device would no longer need to visit a dialysis clinic three times a week for treatment. And because their treatment would be done daily at home or in the office, with less stress on the cardiovascular system, there would likely be improvements in both patient quality of life and lifespan.

“The money savings could be tremendous,” Jamie Hestekin said. The environment could also potentially benefit. Billions of gallons of wastewater produced annually by dialysis treatments would no longer enter water treatment facilities, and development of a waterless artificial kidney would significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with using and manufacturing water-purifications systems, dialysate solutions and dialyzers. The advantage of not using water means the system would be optimal in countries where water is scarce. Ultimately, the team would love to scale down components to create a partially or fully implantable device, which would be about the size of two fists.

“We’re really putting something together that’s going to be useful for peoples’ lives,” Christa Hestekin said, and Jamie agrees: “In addition to the great scientific contributions from this, we are really helping to solve a problem.”

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 19

Lauren Willette introduces Chef Nico Albert Williams before a cooking demonstration.

A Smithsonian Summer

BY KELSEY LOVEWELL LIPPARD  B.A.’11, B.A.’13, J.D.’14

This summer, the University Libraries, Honors College and Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences collaborated to co-sponsor the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, held June 29-July 9 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Personnel from the University Libraries’ Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts department were involved with festival planning, preparations and presentations.

“The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is one of our nation’s most prominent festivals dedicated to celebrating the folk and traditional arts,” said Virginia Siegel, coordinator for Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts and state folklorist of Arkansas. “It was an honor to highlight Ozarks culture on the National Mall, particularly the diverse range of traditions rooted here in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Folklore and folklife — those traditions that are rooted and learned and communities — are integral to a person’s sense of identity and belonging.”

Siegel served on the curatorial team for the Ozarks program, was a member of the ‘Craftspeople and Makers’ committee in preparation for the festival, and also presented.

20 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

In her role at the University Libraries, preserving the myriad traditions of Arkansans statewide is at the heart of Siegel’s work.

She does this by documenting, presenting and sustaining the wide array of arts and stories that fall under the category of “folklore.” Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts — a department in the University Libraries Special Collections division — sponsors apprenticeship programs, gives tradition bearers a platform through its webinar series, and offers training sessions in counties throughout Arkansas, showing locals how to document, present, and sustain their stories and traditions, themselves.

“It’s important we honor folklore here in University Libraries, too, because it represents a form of knowledge transmission in communities,” Siegel said. “Folklore is, at its heart, knowledge shared between friends, family, and community.”

Also in attendance was Deena Owens B.A.’18, folk arts assistant for Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts.

Owens is currently working a summer internship at the Library of Congress.

Photo submitted.

Campus

Above, Lauren Willette introduces chef Nico Albert Williams before a cooking demonstration.

Photo submitted.

“Coming to DC on a separate mission as an intern with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, it was exciting to come to a new city and immediately be surrounded by so many faces from the Ozarks,” Owens said. “I was proud to share our culture with my colleagues.”

Lauren Willette, folk arts survey coordinator, was the third and final Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts staff to attend the festival. During her time there, Willette worked with chefs, herbalists, gardeners and artists who shared their unique foodways and cooking traditions. She helped with a hog butchering demonstration put on by personnel from the Eddie Mae Herron Center in Pocahontas. The center had previously hosted the first cohort of the Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts Community Scholars Program.

“Through folklife people are able to better connect with their history, describe who they are and where they come from, and what values they hold dear,” Willette said.

“This exploration of the new and emerging as well as the traditional allows people to form deeper connections with the people and places they encounter in all aspects of life.”

One tradition bearer assisted by Willette was chef Bradley Dry of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is best known for his work on the Hulu TV series Reservation Dogs. Willette helped Dry with food demonstrations. They made kanvchi, a Cherokee dish similar to porridge or oatmeal typically served at large gatherings and weddings; assembled Indian tacos with homemade fry bread; and prepared the pork from the hog butchering demonstration. Willette worked with another chef from Tulsa — Nico Albert Williams — who is the founder and director of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness.

Willette introduced Williams as she demonstrated the process of making hominy while sharing the story of the Corn Maiden. Williams then prepared venison and used the hominy with beans and squash to make Three Sisters Stew.

In addition to assisting with food demonstrations, Willette worked with a group from Santuario Arco Iris, a 500-acre land sanctuary in Boxley Valley. These demonstrations had a spiritual focus. Maria Christina Moroles, a curandera and shaman and the founder of Arco Iris, led the group in performing spiritual baths, bathing one of the crew members while participants watched.

Members of the Arco Iris group prayed over the water, crystals and herbs used in the ceremony.

Willette later moderated a panel discussion between curanderas — healers who use folk remedies — who were at different stages in their journeys. They reflected on the kind of work they do and how the work of a shaman reflects the life cycle of a plant. Carolina Mendoza of Mountain View — a singer and songwriter with the nickname “Voice of the Mountain” — performed during the discussion.

Living history characters were also part of the festival.

Willette introduced Tina Marie Wilcox, whose character Widder Wilcox moved from England to New England to the Arkansas Ozarks in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her story shares details about building a home, clearing a yard, and growing and propagating plants. Tina has served as head gardener for the Ozark Folk Center's Heritage Herb Garden in Mountain View since 1984.

“Experiencing the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a participant allowed me to reconnect with the region I call home in profound ways, and I will always be grateful to have been a part of the group representing Arkansas and the Ozarks at the nation’s capital,” Willette said.

Above, Fayetteville artist Olivia Trimble paints a mural on the side of a truck at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Photo submitted.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 21

Lewis Epley administering oral vaccine.

22 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Photo submitted.

Feature

Service Above Self: The Life of Lewis E. Epley Jr. + B.S.P.A.'61, J.D.'61 March On and Keep Going

BY KORI WITT

Service Above Self. The Rotary Club motto is embodied well in the life of Lewis E. Epley Jr. whose formative experiences as a young man led him to lead a life of service and philanthropy.

Epley was born in Fort Smith and soon after, his family moved to Springdale where his parents worked for the Northwest Arkansas Times. At a young age, Epley would accompany his father, a linotype operator, while he repaired printing machinery for newspaper outlets. His father was one of the best operators in the area and modeled a strong work ethic for his sons.

High school was a pivotal time for Epley; he experienced many defining moments of his life in these years. He enjoyed playing the clarinet and was a member of the Springdale High School Band. One day while playing a set of tennis before his senior year, Epley felt unwell and returned home.

He told his mother that something was wrong and described his symptoms. His mother had recently read an article about the symptoms and onset of polio and became gravely concerned. Much was unknown about the disease during that time, and this heightened her concern.

The family’s physician, Dr. Sisco, visited Epley at home and recommended he undergo a spinal tap examination at Springdale Memorial Hospital. The diagnosis was positive: Epley had contracted polio. He spent the first semester of his senior year in physical therapy at the Arkansas Children’s Convalescent Center in Jacksonville to rehabilitate his left arm and hand which were rendered partially paralyzed. He was the oldest of seventy-five patients recovering from polio at the center. A young boy being treated for polio in the neighboring room was on an iron lung machine, a nowobsolete breathing therapy. Epley could hear the machine breathing for the boy until one night it stopped making sound. The hospital staff rushed down the hallway. Epley later heard a gurney leaving the room. He wondered to himself why God took the young boy yet left him.

Epley was confined to one place far from home with no friends or family nearby. He was unable to attend school or continue playing the clarinet and marching with the band due to polio complications.

Epley struggled to find motivation to engage in rehabilitation efforts that would improve his arm and leg strength and minimize damage caused by the disease. It would take the direct but encouraging words from one determined individual for Epley’s perspective to shift.

Corinne Wulkan Larson was a registered physical therapist at the convalescent center and had been working with Epley through his rehabilitation. Larson noted Epley’s lack of effort during therapy and addressed it with him. She expressed that it was necessary for Epley to complete rehabilitation if he wanted to improve the functioning of his leg, arm and hand.

She told him more plainly that as the oldest patient at the center, he needed to become a leader to the younger patients, set an example, and get with the program. Otherwise, Larson said, he could pack his bags and return home so that someone who was willing to do the work could have his bed. Epley recalled that Larson “proceeded to dress me down like a marine drill sergeant would dress down a recruit.” He slept on her advice and committed to completing therapy.

Epley began to coach and encourage the younger patients and discovered his discipline and strength in the process. As a result, he was able to return home in time for Christmas and the second semester of his senior year. As a condition of his release from the center, Epley and his mother received training from Larson on daily exercises and in-home therapy to continue to improve his condition. Epley still has the paper outlining his treatment regimen to this day.

At school, Epley continued to be involved with the band program under the direction of Harry Hinkley. Hinkley invited him to be the public announcer for a Springdale High School regional marching band contest, and he eagerly accepted. He met E. J. Marty in the press box during the competition. Marty was the director of the Razorback Marching Band at the University of Arkansas and a judge of the contest. After the contest, Epley told Hinkley that he wanted to be in the Razorback Marching Band but did not know how he could with his inability to play the clarinet.

Hinkley called Marty and told him that the young man who announced the contest wanted to be in the Razorback Marching Band. He explained Epley’s polio paralysis.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 23

Feature

Marty told Hinkley to have Epley come to his office when he registered for classes at the U of A. At their meeting, Marty made Epley the Voice of the Razorback Band and the general assistant for whatever Marty needed.

Epley began his undergraduate studies at the U of A in the fall of 1954 and carpooled with other students from Springdale to the Fayetteville campus. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the College of Business, now the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and a law degree from the School of Law in 1961. He spent seven years as the public address announcer for the Razorback Marching Band, first under Marty and then under Richard Worthington. He traveled with the band to Little Rock and away games in Texas and announced the band’s performance during the Gator Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. He made lifelong friends with many band members and directors. The acceptance and treatment Epley received from the band motivated him to help improve the band experience at the U of A when he had the opportunity and means to do so.

In the summertime, Epley worked at his father’s print shop and the local swimming pool. In 1959 and 1960, he spent the summers working as a United States Park Ranger at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. Those summers were the two of his best and most memorable.

During his last year of law school, Epley met Donna Swopes + through his friend and lawyer, Charlie Davis LL.B.’54. Charlie’s wife and Donna worked as registered nurses at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital. Epley and Swopes were both invited to the Davis home for dinner and after a year of dating, were married. Eureka Springs became their home.

Epley received his attorney license from the Supreme Court of Arkansas in 1961 and established a law practice in Eureka Springs. The firm grew to include four lawyers, including his brother, Alan  B.S.B.A.’68, J.D.’74, with whom he practiced for 25 years. Epley was admitted to practice before the Federal District Court and the United States Supreme Court in 1974. He was honored by the Arkansas Bar Association in recognition of his 50 years as a licensed attorney.

Epley became highly involved in the community of Eureka Springs. He was elected city attorney for one term. He served as director and vice chair of the board of directors of CS Bank (formerly Cornerstone Bank and Bank of Eureka Springs), chair of the hospital board, and president of the Rotary Club. He was elected as the delegate for Carroll and Madison Counties to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention.

24 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

A significant highlight of Epley’s legal career was helping create what is now known as the Carroll-Boone Water District that built an intake structure on Beaver Lake and a distribution pipeline, which served Eureka Springs, Berryville, Green Forest, and Harrison. In 2006, the operations building was named the Lewis E. Epley Jr. Operating Center in recognition of his 35 years of service to the district.

He served on the board of directors for the Southwestern Energy Company and was appointed a Special Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.

He was appointed by then Gov. David Pryor  B.A.’57, LL.B.’64 as a founding member of the Arkansas State Building Council. He served five years on the council and was chair for two years. Epley was a founding member of the Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute and served as president in 1989. He was appointed by then Gov. Bill Clinton to a 10-year term (1989-1999) on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees and served as chair from 1997 to 1999. During his tenure on the board, Epley was known to be direct and hands-on at a level that few others could match. After retiring from the board, he was named Trustee Emeritus.

When the U of A joined the Southeastern Conference in 1991, Epley advocated for the expansion and improvement of the Razorback Marching Band and the university’s band building. During football games, he had his fellow trustees count the number of tubas in the bands of other SEC schools; the Razorbacks had 12 while the other bands had 24. The band building was rebuilt and later dedicated in 1997. In recognition of his many years of support, the board of trustees named the new facility the Lewis E. Epley Jr. Band Hall. Epley also served as chair of the Razorback Bands Committee of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century and helped raise capital for the band endowment fund. On three separate occasions, the Razorback Marching Band spelled out Epley’s last name on the football field, including once during the 2014 Hometown Heroes halftime celebration.

This honor has only been afforded to one person in Razorbacks history — Lewis E. Epley Jr. Epley also served as a board member of the University of Arkansas Foundation. He was recognized by the foundation for 25 years of service in 2019. He was a member of the National Development Council and a charter member of the Chancellor’s Society. He served the university as a member of the 2010 Commission, the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee and on the national board of directors for the Arkansas Alumni Association.

During his tenure on the steering committee, Epley and fellow committee member Julian Stewart B.S.C.E.’57 led the drive to raise support for the Old Main Clock Fund at the conclusion of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. The collective efforts and support of committee members, staff, alumni, friends and students resulted in the acquisition of enough resources to fund the south tower clock. This accomplishment and the conclusion of the campaign were commemorated with a special campus and community celebration. During his remarks, Epley stated, “Old Main is now complete. After waiting patiently and serving proudly for 130 years, Old Main finally has her tower clock. And she looks beautiful.”

In 2000, the Walton Family Charitable Foundation established the Lewis E. Epley Jr. Professorship in Economics in the Sam M. Walton College of Business in recognition of his distinguished leadership and service on the U of A Board of Trustees.

For more than 50 years, Epley has supported health care in Northwest Arkansas. He and Donna saw a need to enhance facility offerings and made a lead naming gift to the health center on the U of A Fayetteville campus. In 2012, the university renovated the former Fount Richardson Student Health Center, creating a 45,000-square-foot clinic, classroom, and laboratory space for students majoring in communication disorders and nursing. It houses the Speech and Hearing Clinic and the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. The building was aptly named the Epley Center for Health Professions.

Epley served on the U of A Medical Sciences Foundation Board and was a founding member of the UAMS Northwest Campus Advisory Board. While attending a graduation celebration, he learned from a graduating senior, who was leaving the state for a physical therapy graduate program, that there was not an equivalent program available in Arkansas. Epley thought he should remedy this and researched the need for continued physical therapy education in the state.

His research became the catalyst for the establishment of a new physical therapy department on the UAMS Northwest campus in Fayetteville.

In 2015, during the new department dedication and welcome of the inaugural class of students to the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, Epley was reunited, more than 60 years later with the physical therapist that made such an enormous difference in his own life. A university employee, Dina Wood  B.A.’85, J.D.’88, knew of Epley’s experience with polio rehabilitation and obtained the name of the therapist. She was then able to find the therapist’s address in Florida.

Epley was reunited with Corinne Wulkan Larson at the dedication ceremony where she addressed the incoming students and the audience. Her words to her young patient are now inscribed on a wall of the department:

"What you lost is not important.

What you do with what you have left is important."

Epley remained steadfast in his work to raise awareness and funds for polio treatment and eradication. He participated in Rotary International Polio Immunization Day in 2011, traveling to Chandigarh, India. He was humbled to be one of many Rotarians administering oral drops of the polio vaccine to children. Epley has led polio eradication fundraising initiatives with the Fayetteville Rotary Club and almost every Rotary Club in Northwest Arkansas.

Epley received numerous awards and accolades in recognition of his unwavering dedication and leadership.

He received the Washington Regional Foundation Eagle Award for outstanding healthcare leadership in 1999, the Distinguished Service Award from Arkansas Hospital, the Andrew J. Lucas Alumni Service Award, UAMS Chancellor’s Award, U of A Chancellor’s Medal and honorary degree, Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Leflar School of Law, and the Fred Vorsanger Service Above Self Award from the Fayetteville Rotary Club in 2011, and became a member of the Arkansas Alumni Association’s Golden Tower Society in 2015. In honor of his work with highway improvements in Arkansas, a section of Arkansas State Highway 23 was named the Lewis E. Epley Highway in 2011. The Northwest Arkansas Chapter of Fundraising Professionals presented Epley with the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and the Legacy Award in 2012.

Truly a life of service above self.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 25

Campus

New Center for Black Music Launched Degree in Black Sacred Music Welcomes First Cohort

BY ANDRA LIWAG

Through the generosity of the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the University of Arkansas is now the home of the Arkansas Center for Black Music and the only Master of Music in Black Sacred Music degree in the U.S. Both the center and the new degree are led by Grammy Award-winning educator Jeffrey Allen Murdock, who is the U of A’s director of choral activities, an associate professor of music and conductor of the university’s renowned Inspirational Chorale.

“Black sacred music has influenced the lives of Black Arkansans for centuries,” Murdock said. “But historically, the performance of most music of African origin hasn’t been deemed eligible for quality academic study. I’m thrilled and so appreciative of the Alice L. Walton Foundation for helping us to amplify this, and to celebrate the study of this musical tradition through the new degree and to ensure its future through the activities of the new center.”

The Arkansas Center for Black Music and the M.M. in Black Sacred Music were created with a gift of more than $848,000 from the Alice L. Walton Foundation to provide program start-up costs, including recruiting and retaining top teaching talent and prospective students.

Murdock said the university and foundation chose this particular focus because of the U of A’s location, existing world-class resources in Black sacred music, pledge to belonging, and commitment to leveraging these resources to expand access to the arts, which “is essential to building better futures in society.”

The projects are a collaboration between the Department of Music and the African and African American Studies Program, which are both part of the U of A’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

“This partnership will bring together nationally recognized researchers and practitioners to create a one-of-its-kind hub for the study of a musical tradition that traces its roots back to the merging of American Christianity and the music brought to America by Black Africans of the Diaspora,” said Kathryn Sloan, interim dean of Fulbright College.

26 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Jake Hertzog Ph.D.’21, assistant professor of music, head of the U of A’s jazz program, and associate director of the center, said he looks forward to seeing how the center and the degree “will nurture Arkansas musicians and researchers while attracting incredible talent from around the world.”

“The Arkansas Center for Black Music will tremendously elevate our department’s profile, especially for our jazz program by providing a forum for incredible events, master guest artists, and opportunities for students and faculty to share their artistry and research,” Hertzog said. “We are so thrilled that the University of Arkansas will be a home for the next generation of artists and scholars in Black music in all its forms from jazz to rock to gospel to hip-hop and beyond.”

The new three-year, summer-only Master of Music in Black Sacred Music program, which welcomed its first cohort this summer and is accredited through the National Association of Schools of Music, will build on the center’s focus by delving into the study of Black sacred music, which is a unique and under-served academic and professional field with growing need.

“The M.M. is the first program of its kind in the U.S. and the only one offered at an SEC institution,” Murdock said. “Our program, which also provides scholarship support to select students, offers a pathway toward a wide range of careers in the field of Black sacred music.”

The duo said graduates of the M.M. in Black Sacred Music will be well prepared for roles within the music industry, including but not limited to serving as: church musicians; worship directors; choir directors; gospel music performers, songwriters, and recording artists; producers of gospel and related music like hip-hop, soul and R&B; teachers of Black sacred music in churches, K-12 and higher education; performers, arrangers, and composers of popular and contemporary music; and composers for film, TV, video games, apps and other media.

To learn more about the Arkansas Center for Black Music and the Master of Music in Black Sacred Music, visit music.uark.edu.

Top Left, Members of the inaugural cohort of the Master of Music in Black Sacred Music wrapped up their first summer semester in August. The degree was created in partnership with the new Arkansas Center for Black Music, which were supported by a gift from the Alice L. Walton Foundation.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Murdock.

Below Left, The renowned Inspirational Chorale, led

by Jeff Murdock, director of the Arkansas Center for Black Music, performs at the Historic St. James Missionary Baptist Church near the U of A in Fayetteville.

Murdock is a Grammy Awardwinning educator, director of choral activities and associate professor of music.

Photo submitted.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 27

Photo submitted.

Feature

Reaching Across Realities

How Researchers at the University of Arkansas Are Harnessing the Potential of Virtual Reality (VR) to Solve ‘Wicked’ Problems

BY DELIA GARCIA

A recent stroke survivor stands in her living room in rural Arkansas. Sliding virtual reality goggles down over her eyes after she places wired bracelets on her wrists, she is transported to a virtual rehabilitation clinic, where she begins to practice picking up small objects with her hands, slowly rebuilding muscle strength, control, and mobility.

A combat medic stands inside a large training bay.

Wearing VR goggles, he crouches down. To an external onlooker, it’s not clear what he’s doing. A clear image is painted through the lens of virtual reality, however.

Through his eyes, he is receiving practical training in saving the life of a wounded soldier. He can feel the force of the precision cut he makes with a virtual scalpel amidst computerized explosions and the whizzing of cyber-bullets.

A CEO is seamlessly transported from her office into a virtual conference room. She steps forward, extending her hand to greet a business colleague who lives half a world away.

As they shake hands, separated by miles yet connected through this gesture, she senses the firmness of his grip, a reassuring and friendly squeeze—a customary act of business courtesy.

28 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

While the world of neuro-haptic virtual reality hasn’t reached this level of sophistication, assistant research professor Andres Pena and doctoral fellow Aliyah Shell are actively bringing it to life at the University of Arkansas’ Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research.

“I³R pioneers solutions to wicked problems and brings the future to the now,” said Ranu Jung Ph.D., associate vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas and executive director of I³R. “The research that Andres and Aliyah are doing in neuro-haptic feedback has tremendous potential for development of wearable and implantable devices in the HealthTech sector as well as profound implications for the health and well-being of people in Arkansas and beyond.”

“The whole idea of neuro-haptics came about from our original research regarding connecting advanced prosthetic limbs via an implant to users so they could feel sensations with their prosthetics,” Pena said referring to the ground-breaking innovations pioneered by I³R’s biomedical engineering team.

“We were trying to understand how we could provide significant, intuitive information to users so they could better use their prosthetic limbs. The idea of neuro-haptics as a non-invasive approach came about from the need to provide this type of technology to individuals who cannot or do not qualify for surgery.”

Neuro-haptics in virtual reality (VR) is a leading-edge innovation that allows users to feel touch sensations within a virtual and augmented environment. In traditional VR, users can hear and see stimuli, but the aspect of touch remains unavailable.

ExtendedTouch (xTouch) is a wearable neuro-haptic platform that is designed to enable people to dynamically interact with and feel objects in VR environments. It uses a patented nerve stimulation technique that Pena created for his doctoral studies that may solve this exact issue. The patented technology features combinations of electrodes on the wrist that stimulate the underlying nerves. When these nerve points are stimulated, the sensation of touch can be felt at the fingertips. This form of stimulation is called neuro-haptic feedback.

In their current research, Pena and Shell are pairing this technology with virtual reality and exploring the impact of applying xTouch to physical rehabilitation practices.

The University of Arkansas’ Women’s Giving Circle, which is comprised of alumnae and friends who recognize that women as donors have the capability of making a tremendous impact on the University of Arkansas, its students, faculty and staff, is dedicated to supporting innovative programs and research at the University Arkansas, awarded the research project a $10,000 grant. This funding allowed Pena and Shell to purchase several VR headsets.

“We are so grateful for the generosity of the Women’s Giving Circle,” Shell said. “Their support has been integral to enabling this advanced research.”

The goal of the xTouch project is to allow interaction within a virtual space and apply these interactions in a meaningful way.

“We want to give people an experience of being able to interact with things in an environment without physical restraints or hand restrictors,” Shell said explaining that items like gloves and exoskeletons could be cumbersome and impede mobility.

“Wearable technology like this, that allows the hands to move freely, will make it much easier to interact with objects in the virtual environment,” she added. xTouch works by translating interpretable data from the VR headset to the wrist electrodes. Information from interactions in the virtual environment, such as object size and force applied, is captured and used to generate the corresponding stimulation signals.

“Let’s say you’re grabbing a virtual object,” Shell explained, picking up a water bottle. “Based on characteristics that we give the object in the virtual space, we can determine which parameters to send to the system, so that they could match whatever object you’re experiencing in the virtual space. This water bottle is a large, solid object. I can give it a command that says, 'Once your hand closes a certain amount around the virtual object, you will begin to feel the sensation as if you were touching it.'”

Pena and Shell envision at least two potential high-impact applications for this leading-edge technology. First is a military application with combat medics.

Second is for individuals with conditions or experiences, such as stroke, that lead to neurological deficits. Currently, virtual reality is being used in some physical rehabilitation scenarios, but they lack a critical component.

“One of the things that is missing in existing virtual rehab interventions is touch. With this approach, we would be able to bridge that gap. It doesn’t matter if it’s simpler than actual touch information that you would get within the real world if the tech is intuitive enough to help a patient internalize a task,” Pena said.

Opposite Left, Andres Pena Ph.D. and Aliyah Shell, doctoral fellow, were awarded a $10,000 grant from the University of Arkansas Woman’s Giving Circle to support their ExtendedTouch research project.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 29

With the researchers’ added neuro-haptic technology, Virtual Reality remains a promising avenue for rehabilitation, training and recreation.

Shell drives home the potential impact of the xTouch technology. “During my speech at the Women’s Giving Circle awards banquet, I asked the crowd if they knew someone who had had a stroke. Everyone’s hands went up,” Shell said. “This technology is something that has the potential to directly benefit loved ones.”

The potential impact of this technology for Arkansas is substantial. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, an average of 30 Arkansans are hospitalized each day due to stroke. For residents of rural areas where access to rehabilitation clinics may be limited, the potential impact of the xTouch technology is profound, according to Shell.

“Data shows us that there is an unmet need for rehabilitation services,” Shell said, citing lack of available services in rural communities and lack of access to trained rehabilitation professionals as some of the challenges.

“Forgoing physical rehabilitation can hinder recovery and negatively impact quality of life. Imagine if we could make it possible for elderly and other people living in rural communities to get the benefit of a rehabilitation clinic from the convenience and comfort of their own home.”

While this health sector application shows promise, combat medic training is another important potential application of this technology, according to the researchers.

“Consider the possibilities of using advanced VR technology like xTouch we could simulate an authentic combat experience for the purpose of training military doctors to go out into the field to take care of injuries,” Shell said.

30 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Photo submitted.

Feature

A simulated combat experience in a virtual reality setting would enable doctors to feel the tension and sounds of battle in a safer environment, better preparing them to provide quick and effective medical assistance in live combat situations. Ultimately, the addition of touch and haptic feedback could enhance training, which may save lives.

While the potential applications are broad, the research is in its infancy, according to Pena, as they are trying to better understand the mechanisms behind the technology.

“We’re doing a lot of brain imaging and trying to understand how the brain processes a virtual versus a real experience,” Pena explained.

Shell added, “We're trying to tap into the natural human architecture. We have nerves that are connected to our hands.

We target those nerves that already convey information of touch through non-invasive neurostimulation."

Currently, the wrist electrodes provide only basic haptic information, but Pena believes that so much more is possible. The team is working to improve the stability and specificity of the stimulation so that in addition to creating a sensation of touch, the user can differentiate between quality and texture.

“We’ve published the proof of concept. We are looking to study the effectiveness of these types of interventions and finding out what this technology means in terms of applications. We are also curious about what is happening in someone’s brain who is engaged with neuro-haptics, and how we can leverage all that knowledge to help with future interventions,” Pena said.

While Pena and Shell might have different backgrounds, their motivations for the project are the same: to help those who need it.

“I have always thought about the lack of accessibility for people in more remote areas,” Shell said about her motivation. “My background is engineering, and I have worked at an orthotics and prosthetics clinic. My experience there really drove me to look for some of the discoveries I am searching for now.”

Shell discovered her profound fascination with the human brain after analyzing the cranial scans of several 6–18-month-old babies fitted with orthotic helmets to correct for cranial growth deformities known as brachycephaly and plagiocephaly. This experience allowed her to see for the first time the power we have in influencing brain development and sparked her curiosity in neurorehabilitation and the human brain.

Pena credits his family and his upbringing in Venezuela for his altruistic drive saying his family instilled in him “the importance of learning, growing, and helping others.”

“I grew up in a very low resource environment. We were forced to think outside the box and figure out how to solve day-to-day problems with what we had on hand. We called it ‘MacGyvering’ our way through” Pena said with a chuckle. “In my family, we didn’t drop something because we didn’t know what to do with it. We ‘MacGyvered’ a practical use for it.”

An electrical and biomedical engineer by training, Pena felt he needed something more to achieve the kind of impact he wanted to make on the world.

Photo submitted.

The Virtual Reality simulator that the duo has created to supplement their technology for neuro-haptic sensations.

He drew on his past experience and ‘MacGyvered’ a solution to fill the gap.

“My background in electrical engineering alone was not enough to do what I wanted, so I learned about biomedical engineering and applied this combined knowledge from two very different fields of engineering to try to make people’s lives easier.”

Both Pena and Shell are driven to make a positive impact on the world. Their individual paths led them to I³R, a special place driven by purpose where innovations are pioneered and translated into solutions that change people’s lives.

“I³R is focused on doing the research as well as commercializing it and getting the technology out there to benefit society. The institute lays a great foundation for us to move xTouch into that space,” Shell said.

Pena agreed. “I³R has the same objective we do: translating technology and knowledge for the betterment of humanity. This is the perfect environment for me to translate this knowledge into practical solutions that make a difference,” he said.

In the near term, the researchers plan to engage clinical partners around the Northwest Arkansas region to launch human clinical trials as well as secure funding through philanthropic and other contributions, like that provided by the Women’s Giving Circle, to continue the research. They anticipate final implementation and rollout of the xTouch technology by 2030.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 31

Campus

32 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Wenchao Zhou

Technology Ventures' Inventor Spotlight

BY HARDIN YOUNG M.F.A. '04

“It’s really exciting when you control something and it moves. You get instant feedback when you tell a robot to do something,” explained Wenchao Zhou, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas. “That’s a great feeling.”

Zhou is the director of the Advanced Manufacturing, Modeling and Materials Lab, where his research team is developing next-generation 3D printing technologies and promoting the technology’s potential to create better lives. He believes the future of additive manufacturing, as 3D printing is often called, is personal fabrication — the use of 3D printing in homes and businesses to create custom products on demand. One of the biggest challenges to this is the time it takes for current devices to create products.

Zhou's lab is researching a new additive manufacturing process that could increase the speed of this technology by a factor of 100 or more.

Zhou is also the co-founder of AMBOTS, a local startup company located in the Arkansas Research and Technology Park that is developing “swarm manufacturing technology” that utilizes multiple robots working cooperatively to build complex products. He is the company’s chief technology officer and the primary inventor of AMBOTS’ underlying technology, which was featured on Innovation Nation. AMBOTS has licensed several innovations from Technology Ventures that Zhou developed through his work at the U of A. These inventions provide the foundation on which AMBOTS is building its first commercial product.

As technically impressive as Zhou’s work already is, it’s only scratching the surface of what he sees coming: the dawn of the general-purpose factory. Currently, factories are built for specific purposes, whether that purpose is producing cars or iPhone components.

This can make for long and complicated supply chains that can become over optimized — an earthquake, hurricane or pandemic can disrupt an entire industry if it affects a key offshore factory. “It’s also not favorable to the small guys,” Zhou added, as smaller businesses may not generate enough revenue to justify converting an entire factory to producing a particular component.

“It’s very expensive to build a factory for a specific product,” Zhou explained, “and when a product goes away, like a floppy disk or CD, the factory faces the end of its life. With a general-purpose factory, you can fundamentally decouple the factory life from the product life. You can replace old robots with new robots, you can update the software, but the factory will never disappear.”

If that sounds revolutionary, it’s because it is. What Zhou envisions is nothing less than the elimination of the supply chain, save for basic materials, and the relocalization of factories. He envisions a new paradigm that is more efficient, sustainable, scalable and decentralized. In this scenario, AMBOTS is ultimately not in the business of selling robots or software designs for printing products, but versions of itself: a general-purpose factory that could be locally franchised to produce shoes, furniture or even Jersey barriers.

It’s a bold vision — even utopian — that Zhou believes will happen with or without AMBOTS, though he hopes the company can contribute to it happening.

Still, Zhou is realistic. He knows there is a lot of work to be done in developing a minimum set of robots that can work both autonomously and cooperatively to build increasingly complex things. And that might take more time than he has.

“If I can even see a glimpse of that becoming a reality before I die, that’s okay,” he said. “I will be happy.” He added with a laugh, “I tend to dream more than I can do!”

Opposite Left, Wenchao Zhou at AMBOTS Inc. Photo by Whit Pruitt.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 33

Campus

Left, Alumni Sylvia and Tommy Boyer welcome current, past and future Boyer Fellows to campus to reconnect. From left: Tommy Boyer, Mary Pham, Robert Ivers, Kim Kerrigan, Jesse Wells, Adrienne Baker, Jonathan Benson, Stacia Giese, Chenin Doiron, Brandy Yelton and Sylvia Boyer.

Right, Chancellor Robinson (right) greets the Boyers.

Photo by Grant Schol.

Photo by Grant Schol.

Philanthropy Goes Beyond Academics Sylvia + B.S.E.’63 and Tommy Boyer + B.S.B.A.’64

BY LORI MCLEMORE

Sylvia and Tommy Boyer — names synonymous with U of A basketball, business and philanthropy — established their eponymous Boyer Fellowship, the largest annual fellowship at the University of Arkansas, for honors students at the Sam M. Walton College of Business in 1999.

On Friday, April 28, Walton College welcomed past, current and future recipients at a luncheon on campus, providing the opportunity to reconnect with the couple who sponsored their education and cheered them on throughout their academic journey.

For Jesse Wells, the latest Boyer Fellow, the reunion gave the incoming first-year student a chance to thank the Boyers in person.

“The Boyer Fellowship is not only an amazing opportunity to learn from an incredible businessman and philanthropist, but also a responsibility to uphold and grow the legacy that the Boyers have created,” Wells said.

34 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

“This fellowship will give me the opportunity to pursue an education debt free so that I can increase my knowledge of the world and subsequently add value to a greater number of people through my business.”

Wells, the 16th fellowship recipient, graduated from Paris High School on May 21. He is enrolled at the University of Arkansas pursuing a finance degree at Walton College. He is interested in the real estate industry and established JCW Holdings LLC, a real estate investment company in Paris, as a sophomore in high school.

“I am currently in the process of becoming a licensed real estate agent in order to continue building my expertise in the real estate industry,” Wells said.

After college, he hopes to “grow my business and personal brand to the highest level possible so that I can positively impact the highest number of lives possible.”

While Wells wants to grow the legacy the Boyers have created, he wants to also honor his grandparents who have raised him since birth.

“They have raised me since I was a newborn and sacrificed everything in order to give me the best chance of success,” he said. “I hope to give others the same level of opportunity that they have given to me.”

Philanthropists and Champions The Boyers reconnected with past recipients at a reception at their Fayetteville home on Thursday, April 27, and a luncheon on campus the following day. Former fellowship recipients attended the luncheon to share personal and professional updates with the people who boosted their academic careers and served as mentors to former students.

Throughout the academic year, the Boyers keep in touch with the current fellow and often invite the student to join them at a basketball game. It is at these informal events that the true spirit of the Boyers’ philanthropy comes through. They listen, reassure, encourage and cheer them on. For the Boyers, their support is much more than financial. Since 2000, they’ve kept in touch with all past recipients and are still applauding their successes.

Tommy and Sylvia Boyer are active alumni of the University of Arkansas. Tommy Boyer currently sits on the U of A Board of Trustees, helping to set policy and guide the mission of our state’s universities. He has served on the Dean’s Executive Advisory Board at Walton College and was the co-chair of the Campaign for the TwentyFirst Century capital campaign for the university from 2000-2002. The couple joined forces on the Campaign Steering Committee, where Sylvia served as the vice chair of the college/school/unit and regional subcommittee.

Sylvia Boyer also served on the national board of directors for the Arkansas Alumni Association (1988-1999) and was the chair of the Alumni House Campaign and Renovation Project (1996-1999).

The couple are founding members of the Towers of Old Main giving society for the university. They were named Volunteers of the Year in 1992 by the university and Andrew Lucas Alumni Service Award recipients in 1999 by the Arkansas Alumni Association.

Boyer Fellowship The fellowship is designated for an incoming first-year honors student at Walton College and is renewable for up to three years with an award of $20,500 per year. It may fund tuition, fees, room and board, books, supplies, a personal computer, and travel to educational programs, professional conferences, and study abroad experiences.

For more information about the award, visit the U of A’s Honors College Fellowships page.

There have been 15 Boyer Fellows named since the foundation of the program until the 2023-2024 academic year. They have hailed from Van Buren, West Fork, Hot Springs, Fort Smith, Arkadelphia, Texarkana, Fayetteville, Mount Judea, Forrest City and Conway.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Adrienne Jung B.S.B.A.’04, J.D.’07 Brandice “Brandy” Wells Yelton B.S.B.A.’05 Chenin Vadalma Doiron B.S.B.A.’06 Kimberly Wilkes Kerrigan B.S.B.A.’07 Thomas Vo B.S.B.A.’08 Amanda Wyatt  B.S.B.A.’09, M.Acc.’10 Sarah Wells Hitt B.S.B.A.’10, M.Acc.’11 Robert Ivers B.S.B.A.’11 Joseph Rossetti B.S.’13, B.S.B.A.’13 Brinkley Cook-Campbell  B.S.B.A.’12, J.D.’15 Stacia Baughman Giese B.S.B.A.’14 Jonathan Benson B.S.B.A.’15 Thea Winston B.S.B.A.’18 Matthew Evans B.S.B.A.’19 Mary Pham B.S.B.A.’23

Jesse Wells from Paris, a first-year student at Walton College, is the 16th fellow.

Left, Jesse Wells (center) talks to Tommy Boyer (left) about the future.

Photo by Grant Schol.

Scan QR Code for award information.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 35

Campus

Image by Global Campus.

Photo by Heidi Wells.

Preparing Nurses for Executive Positions

New Dual Degree Adds Focus on Business, Leadership Skills

BY HEIDI WELLS B.A.’88, M.A.’13

A new practice doctorate offered by the University of Arkansas gives nurses the opportunity to gain advanced nursing practice skills with executive leadership competencies.

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing and the Sam M. Walton College of Business joined forces to offer the dual degree primarily online. By earning the Doctor of Nursing Practice-Executive Master of Business Administration, nurses can lead health care organizations, creating an even larger impact on the quality of health care. It gives nurses a “better seat at the table,” said Jessie Casida, the nursing school’s executive director.

“Who among health care professionals has the closest proximity to and most encounters with patients and their families?” asked Casida, who is also a professor in the nursing school. “Nurses. It’s inherent to us to take care of patients, no matter what. That translates well into leadership positions. If you look at the health care system as a whole — and how many moving parts there are within the system that must come together to create efficient, high-quality, cost-effective care — there’s no better position than a nurse to do that.”

36 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Because nurses work within the system every day to execute policies and processes, he said, they are well-positioned to develop innovative health care delivery systems and remove roadblocks or other hindrances that can make care inefficient or fragmented.

“The Doctor of Nursing Practice provides an understanding of policy and health care economics that goes well beyond master’s-level preparation, which helps graduates turn these insights into action,” Casida said.

Adam Stoverink, director of Walton MBA programs, cited a rapidly growing need for health care professionals who also know how to run the business side of their organizations. That’s where the Walton College’s involvement is vital.

“The Walton Executive M.B.A. program prepares our students to lead,” Stoverink said. “We develop executive leaders by offering a broad coverage of the most essential business concepts, building critical skills in leadership, strategy, finance, accounting, data analytics, marketing, supply chain management, economics and global business.”

This holistic understanding of business, combined with the exceptional health care training students receive in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, prepares them to advance their careers in health care administration or consulting or to go on and start their own clinic, Stoverink said.

A nurse executive with the new dual degree will not only be able to articulate the needs of nurses and other health care providers for patient and family care, Casida explained.

That nurse executive will also understand and articulate the business component of the health care delivery system, subjects Stoverink described that nurses don’t learn about in traditional nursing courses, Casida said.

“These leaders need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and in times of uncertainty,” Casida said. “The COVID-19 pandemic showed that, while we may not know in advance the specific effects of a major public health crisis, we need to be prepared to handle whatever comes.”

Nurses who earn the dual degree will in time be exposed to myriad opportunities we don’t know about yet, he said. The combination of health care and business skills is increasingly being recognized as a vital need.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing on this innovative and cuttingedge dual-degree program that offers the best of both worlds (health care and business),” Stoverink said. “Our curriculum opens an unlimited number of doors for our graduates, and it prepares them to sprint through those doors with confidence.”

“With this scholarly work, students can look at both barriers and facilitators of care,” Casida said. “They must be creative in determining innovative or culturally appropriate ways to improve the public’s health literacy.

In the era of the digital world, this might be by using text messages to communicate with patients.”

Spence looked into communication about childhood vaccinations by a local clinic with its patients who speak a language other than English, primarily Spanish and Marshallese.

“Our goal was to increase vaccination rates and we talked about having a drive-through clinic,” she said. “But then we decided on increased communication. Everybody loves to have a text instead of a phone call, and the texts needed to be written in English, Spanish and Marshallese.”

After patients received the appointment prompts and reminders sent by text along with having access to printed information in all three languages, the vaccination rate at the clinic rose from 64.12% to 68%, a significant increase for all three populations, Spence said, although still lower than the state average of about 75%.

DNP projects are designed to be a sustainable intervention for the site to continue without student assistance, said Michele Kilmer, assistant professor of nursing who coordinates DNP projects. Students share their results through oral presentations, publications and other formats.

In addition to the new dual degree, the nursing school offers graduate degrees that include a research component or clinical inquiry, also designed to improve quality of care. Sarah Spence D.N.P.’23 graduated in May with her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She knew the community clinic where she worked could do more to inform parents about vaccinating their children.

Working nurses such as Spence design and carry out projects to benefit their patients as a requirement to earn a D.N.P. or a Master of Science in Nursing. Both degrees are delivered online by the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions to provide the access and flexibility working nurses need to further their education.

The idea is to formulate a question to investigate that is drawn from the hospital, clinic or practice where they work based on an area the medical staff would like to improve care or fill gaps in service.

Photo by Heidi Wells.

Performance Improvement

Above, Jessie Casida, left, executive director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, speaks with students at the Nursing Science Day in April.

Opposing Left, Photo illustration: The new dual degree prepares nurses to lead health care organizations.

Opposing Right, Sarah Spence, a May graduate of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, won the nursing school’s Project of the Year Award for her research on improving vaccination rates at a local clinic lead health care organizations.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 37

Past Presidents of the Arkansas Alumni Association Board of Directors

Alumni

Growth and Pride

University Relations.

President’s Letter

The feeling of fall is in the air. For those alums who do not make it back to campus for Homecoming, I want to give you a flavor of the area. More than sixtythree hundred first-year students came to campus this fall, and the local restaurants are very happy. You can probably imagine that housing of undergraduates continues to be a challenge, and the university has contracted with private apartment complexes to accommodate some of our incoming class.

This fall, 32,140 students wander the halls, sidewalks and dining areas.

Fayetteville and our campus are busy places — construction work continues on several projects around campus, including the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation and the I3R Research building. You can see the progress on these projects on the university's website. I say all this to remind you of the growing campus of this great institution.

Your university is on a growth trajectory while many other institutions are struggling to meet enrollment expectations.

38 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Speaking of construction, our own Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House is also working to improve our appearance and safety. We have renovated the outdoor gathering areas to accommodate you when you are here for meetings and tailgates. I hope you will stop by the alumni house when you are on campus. I think you will be impressed.

I am also so proud of our association for its role in campus growth. Thanks to our members' support, we will contribute over $1,300,000 in scholarships to students this year.

Each year during Homecoming weekend, your association holds our Alumni Awards Celebration to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of some of our U of A family. This year was our 78th celebration, which began with the first Citation of Distinguished Alumni award. I hope you are connected to our Arkansas Alumni website (arkansasalumni.org) so you can see these incredible individuals who take their Razorback pride to an even higher calling in their professions or community service.

If you are able, I hope you will attend this extraordinary event in person in the future.

You will be Razorback proud …

Happy Homecoming and Go Hogs!

Don Walker + B.S.A.’74 President, National Board of Directors Arkansas Alumni Association

1923-24 Joseph Kirby Mahone  B.A.’07 1924-25 Robert Hill Carruth B.A.’11 1925-26 James E. Rutherford  B.A.’22 1926-27 Winston Lee Winters B.S.C.E.’06 1927-28 J.L. Longino B.S.E.E.’03 1928-29 Alfred Boyde Cypert B.A.’12 1929-30 James William Trimble B.A.’17 1930-31 G. DeMatt Henderson B.A.’01, LL.B.’03 1931-32 Dr. Jasper Neighbors M.D.’18 1932-33 Scott D. Hamilton B.A.’24 1933-34 Charles A. Walls B.A.’07 1934-35 Arthur D. Pope B.A.’06 1935-36 John C. Ashley B.A.’11 1936-37 Beloit Taylor B.A.’19 1937-38 John P. Woods  B.A.’09 1938-39 Glen Rose  B.S.E.’28, M.S.’31 1939-40 Claude J. Byrd  B.S.A.’25 1940-41 Charles Frierson Jr. ’29 1941-42 John B. Daniels B.S.A.’33 1942-44 G. DeMatt Henderson B.A.’01, LL.B.’03 1944-45 Dr. M. L. Dalton M.D.’32 1945-46 Jack East  B.S.E.’24 1946-47 Steve Creekmore  B.S.B.A.’11 1947-48 Maupin Cummings  B.A.’32 1948-49 Roy Milum B.A.’04, LL.D.’58 1949-50 Paul Sullins  J.D.’37 1950-51 Francis Cherry LL.B.’38 1951-52 J.C. Gibson B.A.’24, M.S.’38 1952-53 George Makris  B.S.B.A.’37 1953-54 Edward B. Dillon Jr.  LL.B.’50 1954-55 Beloit Taylor B.A.’19 1955-56 Louis L. Ramsay Jr. LL.B’47, LL.D.’88 1956-57 Stanley Wood  B.A.’23 1957-58 A.L. Whitten M.S.’40 1958-59 W.R. “Dub” Harrison B.A’.20 1959-60 E.M. “Mack” Anderson + B.A.’32 1960-61 Warren Wood  LL.B.’32 1961-62 Owen Calhoun Pearce B.S.B.A.’38, LL.B.’41 1962-63 James C. Hale B.A.’33 1963-64 Jack East Jr.  B.S.B.A.’48 1964-65 J. Fred Patton + B.A.’29 M.A.’36 1965-66 P.K. Holmes Jr.  B.A.’37 LL.B.’39 1966-67 William H. Bowen  LL.B.’49 1967-68 Guy H. Lackey + B.S.B.A.’49 1968-69 Robert P. Taylor + B.S.B.A.’47, M.S.48 1969-70 John Ed Chambers B.A.’39, LL.B.’40 1970-71 Chester H. Lauck ’25 1971-72 Nathan Gordon + J.D.’39 1972-73 Charles E. Scharlau + LL.B.’51 1973-74 Carl L. Johnson  B.S.B.A.’47 1974-75 R. Cecil Powers  B.S.B.A.’30 1975-76 J.C. Reeves  ’25 1976-77 Elizabeth (Sissi) Riggs Brandon + B.S.E.’55 1977-78 Roy Murphy + B.S.I.M.’49 1978-79 J. Fred Livingston  B.S.B.A.’55 1979-80 Tracy Scott  B.S.E.’53 1980-81 Edward W. Stevenson + B.S.B.A.’60 1981-82 J. Fred Livingston  B.S.B.A.’55 1982-83 Don Schnipper + B.A.’63, J.D.’64 1983-84 Mary Trimble Maier + B.A.’49 1984-85 Bart Lindsey + B.S.B.A.’67 1985-86 W. Kelvin Wyrick + B.S.E.’59 1986-87 Larry G. Stephens B.S.I.E.’58 1987-88 Rebecca Shreve + B.S.E.’60, M.Ed.’63 1988-89 Robert T. Dawson + B.A.’60, LL.B.’65 1989-90 Gregory B. Graham + B.S.B.A.’70, J.D.’72 1990-91 Blake Schultz + B.A.’51 1991-92 Chuck Dudley + B.S.B.A.’76, M.B.A.’77 1992-93 Harriet Hudson Phillips + B.A.’72 1993-94 Richard Hatfield + B.S.B.A.’65, LL.B.’67 1994-95 Jenny Mitchell Adair + B.A.’62 1995-96 Jack McNulty + B.S.B.A.’67 J.D.’70 1996-97 Sylvia Boyer + B.S.E.’63 1997-98 Morris Fair  B.S.B.A.’56 1998-00 H. Lawson Hembree IV + B.S.A.'82 2000-02 Jeffrey R. Johnson + B.A.’70 2002-04 Edward Bradford + B.S.E.’55, M.Ed.’56 2004-06 Brian M. Rosenthal + B.S.B.A.’84 2006-08 Kenny Gibbs + B.S.B.A.’85 2008-10 Gerald Jordan + B.A.’70 2010-12 Steve Nipper + B.S.B.A.’71, M.B.A.’73 2012-14 John Reap + B.S.B.A.’70 2014-16 Stephanie S. Streett  B.S.’91 2016-18 Don Eldred + B.S.B.A.’81 2018-20 Teena Gayle Gunter  J.D.'92, LL.M.'97 2020-22 Ron Rainey  B.S.A.’91, M.S.’93, Ph.D.’01

UPGRADE to LIFE and Never Pay Dues Again! www.ArkansasAlumni.org/join

THANK YOU New Life Members 

By becoming Life Members, the university’s friends and alumni help form a strong foundation on which to build the future of the Arkansas Alumni Association. We welcome the newest Life Members, listed in order of membership number: 10670 Robert A. Ridley ’85 10671 Celya Ridley 10672 Gary M. Newton ’83 10673 Alanna Newton 10674 Wiwat Leebhaisomboon ’09, ’11 10675 James Edward Jones ’82 10676 Jude Ofosu-Afriyie ’08 10677 Dr. Nanci Wood-Huels ’83, ’88 10678 Stan Huels 10679 Bill D. Lamb ’58 10680 Sean Street ’17, ’18 10681 Erin S. Street ’22 10682 JakeDay ’05 10683 Emily M. Nevala ’11 10684 Reece O. Hodgson 10685 Elizabeth R. Ford 10686 Jan Gates ’81 10687 Virginia Wilson 10688 Jordana Bobbitt 10689 Lisa Dawn Ault ’94 10690 Gary Wayne Ault 10691 Dr. Monica Ree Brown ’87 10692 Nancy L. Wright ’75 10693 Tjuana C. Byrd ‘91 10694 Michael E. Manning 10695 Don M. Smith ‘80 10696 Alcinda Smith ‘81 10697 Scott Varady ‘85 10698 Melissa H. Varady 10699 Gina L. Rinehart ‘82 10700 Robert H. Rinehart 10701 Jodie Murray Burns ‘01 10702 Paul N. Burns ‘95 10703 Katherine E. Babcock ‘16 10704 Link Childers ‘97 10705 Finos B. Johnson ‘81 10706 Stevie Gibbs ‘23 10707 Kristopher Harrison Kashata 10708 Mark A. Holt ‘10 10709 Caroline Holt ‘10 10710 Oliver Lee Sims IV 10711 Heather Marie Kees ‘12 10712 Dr. Aaron L. Strobel ‘08 10713 Amanda K. Strobel 10714 Hal Adams Jr. ‘78, ‘81 10715 Gail A. Adams ‘78 10716 Janie Simms Hipp ‘96 10717 Paula A. Neal ‘78

10718 Tommy Bogun ‘69 10719 Jim Spears ‘73 10720 Dixie Spears 10721 Kevin A. Grover ‘82 10722 Debbie Grover 10723 Heath D. Robinson ‘99 10724 Maggie D. Tirrell ‘16 10725 Kristin Pawlik Holmes ‘96, ‘99 10726 Michael A. Holmes ‘99 10727 Dr. Charles W. Donaldson ‘82 10728 Mable Donaldson 10729 Allison Key Archer ‘95 10730 Brian Archer 10731 Mike Malone 10732 Allyson Malone 10733 Paula J. Glidewell ‘79 10734 John E. Moore ‘83 10735 Dr. Kevin Scott Todd ‘83, ‘84 10736 Sharon Lynn Todd 10737 Emerson L. Mitchell ‘23 10738 Adam Osweiler ‘10, ‘12 10739 Melissa A. Tatman ‘09, ‘12 10740 Muskie Harris ‘78 10741 Jacob S. Potter ‘07, ‘10 10742 Kinley L. Cross ‘08 10743 Andrea R. Simmons ‘05 10744 John D. Brown ‘65 10745 Karen D. Whitehead ‘81 10746 Mark D. Whitehead 10747 Jeffrey Lewis Justiss ‘90 10748 Laura Murphy Justiss ‘92 10749 Kenneth P. Kramer ‘79 10750 Mari Lee Kramer ‘79 10751 Brian D. Harkins 10752 Jack William Robbins III ‘94 10753 Jacob C. Shrum ‘23 10754 Dale Brinker 10755 Monica L. Brinker 10756 Curtis L. Sawyer Jr. ‘79 10757 Jeannine B. Sawyer ‘78 10758 Boyce Johnson ‘82 10759 Leslie Rutledge ‘98 10760 Cassandra Alexis Freeman ‘97 10761 Andrew Stephen Rose ‘00 10762 Stacia Marie Alvarez ‘09 10763 Susannah S. McConnell ‘16 10764 Elynnor Burress ‘19

10765 Mary Maxwell Sheppard ‘21 10766 Margaret L. Sheppard ‘23 10767 Paul C. Berry ‘64 10768 Mary E. Berry ‘62 10769 Dr. Karl D. Schubert ‘75, ‘83 10770 Kathryn A. Schubert 10771 Marylon Merriweather 10772 Robert Leonard Merriweather Jr. ‘01 10773 Stephen D. Daniels ‘96 10774 Paula Rebecca Wetzel ‘04 10775 Joel Wetzel 10776 Chuck Enlow Jr. ‘04 10777 Pat Greenleaf Clayton ‘83 10778 Haley Erin Gaskill ‘23 10779 Julia K. Phillips ‘02, ‘08 10780 Marley T. Phillips 10781 Teresa Irwin Luneau ‘73, ‘77 10782 Mark C. Anderson ‘76 10783 Kristin Anderson 10784 Dr. Terry Swiderski ‘90 10785 Patricia J. Moore ‘58 10786 Kylie Alexis Folkes ‘23 10787 Marvin Love ‘84 10788 Carla Faye Love ‘85 10789 Michael John Walden ‘99 10790 Dwane Swacina ‘81 10791 Kim Swacina 10792 Kevin Shipp ‘03 10793 Hillary E. Shipp ‘02, ‘03 10794 Stephanie Mitchem ‘98 10795 Benjamin Clayton Hulsey ‘14 10796 Emily Hulsey 10797 David Allen Scott ‘15 10798 Tina Scott 10799 Allyson P. Hannon ‘20, ‘22 10800 Luke N. Hannon ‘20 10801 Loyd T. Lavender ‘87 10802 Rob Trigg ‘74 10803 Debbie Snelson ‘74 10804 Ruth Ann Gosnell ‘76 10805 Diane Hartley Semeraro 10806 Michael Semeraro 10807 Doug Weaver ‘79 10808 Carol Carr Weaver ‘82 10809 Telvin M. Griffin ‘12 10810 Mike Toft ‘78 10811 Dr. Sonya Howard ‘83 10812 William Cody Grammer 10813 Amy Grammer

10814 Patricia Daniel Hodges ‘66, ‘89 10815 Robert D. Bendure ‘89, ‘94 10816 Susan Bendure 10817 Ronald Allen Fulmer II ‘04 10818 Joseph William Segers III ‘91 10819 Debbie Segers ‘86, ‘93 10820 Eva Marie Tranum 10821 Michael J. Medlock ‘78, ‘80 10822 Angie Medlock 10823 LeAnn Moore ‘82 10824 Jane Bonady Brackin ‘69 10825 Bryan Brackin ‘70 10826 Keri Moldenhauer Bruce ‘97 10827 Matt Bruce 10828 Michael A. Reynolds ‘85 10829 Jonathan Owen Fischer ‘23 10830 Paul Duane Imel ‘02 10831 Jessica Imel ‘02, ‘03 10832 Christopher Stephen Kolstad ‘10 10833 Dr. Phillip W. Russell ‘81, ‘88 10834 Rachel A. May ‘13 10835 William H. Rountree ‘89, ‘99 10836 Robin L. Glover Rountree 10837 Jaunita Sue Salyars ‘70 10838 Dr. Kevin M. Silver ‘04 10839 Wayne Davis ‘73 10840 Karen Lynn Roberts ‘95 10841 Richie Roberts Jr. ‘95 10842 Whitney M. Davis ‘13 10843 Kent J. Boatright 10844 Jeremi Shane Summerhill ‘02, ‘08 10845 Amber J. Gent ‘15 10846 Stephen R. Gent 10847 Dr. Shuanta Anita Broadway ‘95 10848 Lindsay B. Poole ‘08 10849 Gloria L. Hawkins ‘82 10850 Donald L. Van Meter ‘55 10851 Mary H. Van Meter 10852 Dr. Collis R. Geren 10853 Dr. Lois Geren ‘82 10854 Dr. Ragupathy Kannan ‘94 10855 Porkodi Kannan 10856 Dr. Quanyan Liao ‘04 10857 Yumei Gong

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 39

Alumni

National Alumni Board Class of 2026

BY BRANDY COX JACKSON  M.A.'07

The Arkansas Alumni Association is pleased to introduce the newest members of its National Board of Directors Class of 2026. Each of these new board members began serving a three-year term on July 1.

New Board Members Stacie Fujii + B.A.’98, J.D.’02 graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1998 from Fulbright College and in 2002 with a JD degree from the Law School.

She grew up in Little Rock (graduating from Fair High School). She has had a distinguished career, traveled the world, and is raising a family and caring for her parents, all while keeping the Razorback spirit alive! Fujii owns her own consulting company, collaborating with clients across the globe. Previously, she was vice president of government affairs at Parnassus Global Agency where she used extensive knowledge of the legislative and executive branches and focused on appropriations, coalition building, crisis management and civil liberties. Fujii has broad experience at the federal, state and local levels. Fujii believes in improving others' lives through service. She has traveled the world to serve, professionally and personally, and sought out opportunities for impact. Fujii’s kind demeanor and enthusiasm are contagious, her dedication is unyielding. Fujii stays dedicated to her Razorback Family, serving the Law School on their board and the 20year reunion committee, and many more activities. Fujii equally continues to be engaged with Fulbright College.

She has also served as an ambassador for the U of A in Washington, D.C., and is a Gold Donor to the association’s Cornerstone Fund.

Clayton Hamilton  B.S.B.A.’94 is a 1994 graduate of the University of Arkansas and has been back on campus since 2010 in the role of chief financial officer for the Department of Athletics. Hamilton has spent the last two decades in athletic/finance roles on college campuses, previously at the University of Colorado and Florida State University. Hamilton also serves as an adjunct faculty member of the sports management program in the university’s College of Education and Health Professions.

40 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

In his role as chief financial officer for athletics, Hamilton is instrumental in contract negotiations and selection teams that include campus media rights, licensing, pouring rights, apparel rights, merchandise sales, food service, ticketing, contractors, and architects. He serves on search committees for coaches, athletics staff, university chancellor, and campus administrators. Hamilton is actively involved in his community and is a member of numerous professional organizations.

Janie Hipp  LL.M.’96 is a 1996 graduate with a Master of Laws from the University of Arkansas School of Law. She has had a distinguished career in agriculture, law, and Native American issues that spans over three decades. She has provided leadership that has been recognized at the state, regional and national levels. Hipp recently retired from service as General Counsel for USDA as chief legal advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture. She has served as a fellow of the U of A’s National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information. She is a member of the Law Alumni Society. Her efforts have been recognized with the association’s Citation of Distinguished Alumni Award. Hipp has spent a significant portion of her career working to advance Native American issues and agriculture on Native lands. She founded and launched the nation’s first law school-based Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) focusing on model food and agriculture code development, strategic food and agriculture business analysis and planning, food safety technical assistance, health and nutrition law, and policy analysis. She also led the launch of the Native Youth in Food and Agriculture Summer Leadership Summit, which focused on the development of a professional pipeline of next-generation Native leaders and scientists of food, health and agriculture. As a professional, Hipp has been a partner and collaborator with various Indian Country food and agriculture organizations, including nonprofit and educational institutions, on a wide variety of projects and programs. Her service and leadership have been recognized by the American Agricultural Law Association, Intertribal Agriculture Council, National Center for American Indian Economic Development, and President Barack Obama.

Charles Zimmerman  B.S.C.E.’85 is currently the owner of Global VE, a consulting firm specializing in worldwide capital efficiency and value engineering services. In April of 2017, Zimmerman retired from Walmart as vice president of international design and construction where he had held related positions in both the U.S. and International Divisions since 1996.

He joined Walmart in 1989 as a staff engineer and successfully rose to his position after serving in progressive capacities as vice president of facilities, then vice president of prototype and new format development. Zimmerman led all facility-related aspects of Walmart’s highly publicized global sustainability initiative. From 20052008, he also led the “Sustainable Buildings Network” at Walmart. This network, among other things, was charged with increasing the overall energy efficiency of new and existing buildings in the U.S. by 20%-30%.

Prior to joining Walmart, Zimmerman worked in the consulting industry and as a staff member with the Texas State Department of Highways. He is a member of the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering, Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, and Towers of Old Main.

CALL FOR

NOMINATIONS Do you know outstanding alumni who deserve special recognition for their distinguished achievements or community service?

NOMINATE

Nominate them by Feb. 15, 2024, to be considered for recognition at the fall 2024 Alumni Awards Celebration.

We would like to recognize the following life members who joined us in 2019 but have not yet been published in the magazine.

9254 Cedric E. Williams '93 9255 Brandye R. Williams 9256 Marion Andrew Humphrey Sr. '80 9257 Vernita T. Humphrey '84 9258 Betty Dickey 9259 Paul David Lindsey '95 9260 Marianne Lindsey 9261 Mark Alan Kennedy '17 9262 Dr. Bryan D. Brown '17 9263 Walter Niblock '19 9264 Sarah K. Stokenbury '19 9265 Madison McDonnell '19 9266 Austin L. Jackson '19 9267 Kathleen Ann Lutz '19 9268 Krista Lutz 9269 Kevin A. Thornton '97 9270 Megan R. Thornton 9271 Rilye J. Dillard '19 9272 Nathan G. Woody '19 9273 Thomas Carter III 9274 Angie Carter

9275 Bill Stovall III '72 9276 George Vaught '81 9277 Lauren Vassar '19 9278 Shannon Elizabeth Thomas '19 9279 Kylee Sigmon '19 9280 Will Clark '19 9281 Logan T. Walz '19 9282 Austin Blome '19 9283 LaTonia Clark George '92 9284 Austin Lee Price '19 9285 Phillip E. Bryan '69, '78 9286 Katherine Bryan '78 9287 Xavier Emery 9288 Brooklyn Trammel 9289 Tracie L. Layton '88 9290 Rick Layton 9291 Robert Keith Rogerson '05 9292 Kristen Marie Potts '13 9293 Nikki N. Anderson '19 9294 Gary Anderson 9295 Dr. Steven B. Whitaker '85

9296 Carol Ann Whitaker '84 9297 Dr. Dennis R. Ingram '76, '78 9298 Helen Rebecca Alston '88 9299 Dr. John D. Alston 9300 Jayne Myer Young '75, '77 9301 Thomas C. Young '76 9302 Summer Chase '19 9303 Bruce Lehigh '89 9304 Dr. Patti Wiese Lehigh '88 9305 Scott M. Noblett '04 9306 Dr. Stephen R. Malone '82, '83 9307 Georgann Malone 9308 M. L. Weber '03 9309 John D. Connell '83 9310 Nan Connell 9311 Patricia L. Bell '73, '78, '91 9312 Christopher Robert Bobbitt '08 9313 Amy N. Bobbitt 9314 Justin Kirk Keeter '12 9315 Scott E. Spencer '83 9316 Gale Gazette Spencer '83 9317 Mariruth Brooks Wittkamp '76

9318 Patrick L. Wittkamp '79 9319 J. Lincoln Darrow '94 9320 Kristine Darrow 9321 Phil E. Stevenson '88 9322 Leigh Ann Stevenson '89 9323 Jim Morrison '69, '71 9324 Kay Morrison 9325 Mark S. Morgan '07, '10 9326 Chris Wall '14 9327 J.J. Thornton 9328 Morgan Bennett '06 9329 Jason Jonathan Porter '08 9330 Aimee Porter 9331 Mark S. Whitt '87 9332 Martha Salmon Davis '91 9333 Duane M. Davis '93 9334 Wayne A. Gruber '74 9335 Rita Gruber 9336 Rand D. McFarlin '76 9337 Linda Hall Fordyce '63 9338 Joseph D. Taylor '68 9339 C. Joyce Taylor '87

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 41

Alumni

Reece Hodgson

Photos by Whit Pruitt.

Elizabeth Ford

Senior Honor Citations Class of 2023

BY LISY MCKINNON  B.A.’97

The Arkansas Alumni Association recognized University of Arkansas graduating seniors Elizabeth Ford  B.S.’23 of Little Rock and Reece Hodgson  B.S.B.A.’23 of Leicestershire County, United Kingdom, with the 2023 Senior Honor Citation. The award was announced by Provost Terry Martin during the Cardinal & White Celebration on May 1, 2023.

The citation was established in 1965 by the Arkansas Alumni Association to recognize the top two seniors on campus who exhibit outstanding academic achievement, leadership skills and curricular engagement at the University of Arkansas.

During the Cardinal & White Celebration, the Arkansas Alumni Association recognized the Class of 2023 senior award honorees. Each year, students are invited to apply for the Senior Awards program. To support an inclusive and equitable selection process, the Arkansas Alumni Association carefully evaluates this program each year and endeavors to diversify the pools of both applicants and reviewers.

42 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

The outstanding students selected this year reflect these efforts and we are proud to honor them.

Ford and Hodgson were among the 71 students selected as Seniors of Significance Class of 2023. From this group, 20 Razorback Classic honorees were selected, and the top two students were awarded the Senior Honor Citation.

Each senior awardee was invited to recognize a mentor who influenced them during their time at the University of Arkansas. Mentors attended the Cardinal & White celebration and were recognized alongside each student.

Scan QR Code for a complete list of the 2023 senior award honorees.

As the winners of the Senior Honor Citation, Ford and Hodgson received life membership in the Arkansas Alumni Association and permanent recognition on a plaque at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. They will be invited back to campus to represent their class at events, including speaking at their Senior Walk Dedication.

Elizabeth Ford Elizabeth Ford, a Bodenhamer Fellow from Little Rock, earned a degree in chemistry & biochemistry with a minor in accounting. Her mentor is Stefan Kilyanek, associate professor of inorganic chemistry. As an undergraduate, Ford participated in research assisting Dr. Suresh Thallapuranam in the structural biology and drug discovery lab. She completed her honors thesis based on her investigation titled “Expression, Purification, and Characterization of Fibroblast Growth Factor 19.” Ford’s curricular activities included a two-year term as the communications chair for the Distinguished Lectures committee, three years on the All-University Academic Integrity Board, advisor to the vice president of the Associated Student Government, Honors College Ambassador and selection to the 2022 Homecoming Court.

Ford credits her mentor with helping her hone crucial skills and supporting her educational opportunities.

“Dr. Kilyanek taught my first chemistry class, and he changed my view of and approach to problem-solving.

He challenged me to learn foundational concepts and to recognize patterns, then apply them to novel situations and find solutions. These analytical and critical thinking skills have proven invaluable. Dr. Kilyanek was also very accessible, not only as an instructor by helping me with content comprehension, but also as a mentor by writing letters of recommendation and helping me pursue outside opportunities. I’m very appreciative of his support throughout my college career.”

Of her overall U of A experience, Ford stated, “I experienced tremendous growth during college, and I attribute much of it to the positive influences of the people who surrounded me. I’m excited to stay within this amazing community at the University of Arkansas to pursue my Master of Business Administration.”

In her application for the award, Ford stated, “I am forever indebted to the University of Arkansas and the community who makes it truly exceptional. I have never felt like just a name or a student ID number because the Razorback family acknowledges and celebrates my unique identity. I have become a person of whom I am truly proud, and I am so thankful to this university for everything it has helped me achieve.”

Reece Hodgson Reece Hodgson, an Honors College Fellow from the United Kingdom, majored in accounting, finance and information systems with a minor in data analytics. His mentor is JaLynn Thomas, director of the Integrated Master of Accountancy (IMACC) and Master of Professional Accountancy (MPACC) programs and assistant chair of the accounting department. Hodgson completed accounting and finance internships with Walmart and Phillips 66. He conducted industry analysis and developed forecast models related to digital advertising while at Walmart and completed his honors thesis on “The Influence of Gender on Self-Assessed Intelligence Scores.” Hodgson’s curricular engagement included founding and leading the university’s chapter of Amnesty International, leadership in the Walton College Dean’s Student Collaboration Board, serving as head business tutor at the Student Success Center, and as a peer mentor and ambassador for the Honors College. He has accepted a position at Walmart as a financial analyst following his graduation.

Of his relationship with his mentor, Hodgson noted Thomas’ proactive interest in his professional pursuits.

“As an accounting major, there are so many different paths to pursue and near-infinite companies to recruit with. Professor Thomas always took time out of her day after class to check in with me about recruiting and constantly encouraged me to pursue my dream internship, which ultimately landed me the position after college that I was most hopeful for.”

Thomas, however, wasn’t the only faculty member who Hodgson credits with supporting his success.

“Many of my professors at the University of Arkansas have been similarly supportive, which made me feel confident in balancing extracurriculars while pursuing my career over the last four years. After college, I’ll be working as a financial analyst II in Walmart’s Accounting and Finance Development Program. I’m very excited to stay in Northwest Arkansas, as that has been my goal since I moved here from the UK six years ago.”

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 43

Alumni

Alex Nunn

Carole Shook

Varun Grover

Marcia Imbeau

Photo by Russell A. Cothren.

Photo by Whit Pruitt.

Photo submitted.

Photo submitted.

Celebrating Excellence 2023 Faculty Award Recipients

BY CATHERINE BALTZ + B.S.’92, M.ED.’07

The Arkansas Alumni Association and the University of Arkansas have a long history of recognizing the outstanding faculty dedicated to Arkansas and facilitating the life-changing opportunities that the U of A creates for our students.

On October 20, four faculty members were honored for their exemplary achievements at the 78th Alumni Awards Celebration. The honorees are Varun Grover, Marcia Imbeau, G. Alexander “Alex” Nunn B.S.B.A.’13, and Carole Shook  B.S.B.A.’89, M.B.A.’94, Ed.D.’19. As a part of the award, each faculty honoree received a $5,000 stipend.

Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award The Arkansas Alumni Association has recognized outstanding faculty with Faculty Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards since 1961. Each honoree is chosen based on one of three categories of accomplishment: teaching, research and professional service.

Varun Grover received the award for distinguished achievement in the field of research. Grover joined the information systems faculty in 2017. He has held the George and Boyce Billingsley Endowed Chair since 2021.

He previously held the David D. Glass Endowed Chair.

His research examines how information systems foster value by impacting individuals, transforming processes, and changing competitive dynamics.

44 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Grover follows a behavioral approach in his research.

He utilizes a variety of methodologies in his work, including field surveys, experimental designs, structured interviews, content analysis, secondary data analyses, field experiments, and modeling. Grover has an impressive publication record, with publications in leading scholarly journals. He has had over 30 acceptances in the best journals in the past couple of years and is the secondmost-cited researcher at the University of Arkansas. He has also held major editorial positions in all the top information systems journals, including senior editor for MIS Quarterly and the Journal of AIS. Grover serves as the executive director of the information systems Ph.D. program. He is actively engaged with doctoral students, having chaired 45 Ph.D. dissertations and chaired and participated in several doctoral consortia.

“We are living in exciting times,” Grover said. “Our field deals with digital technology and its implications for business and society. With the explosion of social media, big data, analytics, cloud technologies, mobile technologies, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and recent developments in artificial intelligence, there is an abundance of interesting questions to study. Being curious about important questions and then searching for answers that contribute to knowledge, business, and society is extremely rewarding.”

Carole Shook was honored for distinguished achievement in service. Carole Shook joined the University of Arkansas as a non-tenure track faculty member in 1999. She was an instructor in the Department of Accounting and then for the Department of Supply Chain Management. She joined the Department of Information Systems faculty in 2019 and was promoted to teaching associate professor in 2023.

Shook’s service contributions have had a significant impact at the university and across the state, region and nation.

Her service to the university is wide and varied, including serving as co-director of the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center, a member of the Non-tenure Track Advisory Committee, chair of the Campus Calendar Committee, board member of the Teaching Academy, and a member of the Indigenous Employees Impact Group. She is a faculty advisor to the Chinese Students and Scholars Student Chapter and the Amnesty International Student Chapter.

As a member of the Education Task Force of the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy, she collaborated with representatives of all universities in Arkansas developing new rules for the Arkansas CPA exam.

She founded the Sigma Chi Mu Tau Honor Society and is the SEC Teaching and Learning Center Development Association secretary.

“We are a world-class institution in an area of amazing beauty surrounded by some of the top companies in the world,” Shook said about the university. “Also, we are the home of the one and only Razorback mascot in college sports! Come and be unique with us.”

Alex Nunn is the recipient of the Rising Teaching Award.

G. Alexander "Alex" Nunn is an associate professor of law. He has been a tenure-track faculty member at the U of A School of Law since 2019, after serving in 2018-19 as a visiting assistant professor of law. In that time, Nunn produced six major law review articles published in some of the best law journals in the country, an extraordinary achievement in his short time on faculty when the expectation was one article every two years. In 2023, he achieved tenure and the title of associate professor.

His teaching focuses on evidence law, adjudicatory procedure and federal courts. His teaching approach emphasizes offering deeply substantive courses while creating engaging, fun and authentic classrooms. His methods have resonated with his students and colleagues alike. He has been described as a force in the classroom.

His students describe his passionate teaching style and how interesting he makes classes. His written evaluations by students commonly refer to him as the best professor ever.

Nunn is the four-time Lewis E. Epley Jr. Professor of the Year Award for Excellence.

The one thing his students have taught him is “to be myself in the classroom,” Nunn said. “When one thinks of a law professor, many think of an imposing, intimidating figure. But I think students respond to a more authentic, intentional approach where we all — professor and students — tackle material together collaboratively.”

Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award The University of Arkansas awards the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award. It is designated for a faculty member whose status is Full, University or Distinguished Professor. The 2023 awardee is Marcia Imbeau.

Imbeau is an excellent educator, mentor and researcher. She joined the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in 1991 as an assistant professor. Imbeau earned tenure and the title of associate professor in 1997.

She was promoted to professor in 2013.

She is an internationally acclaimed scholar of curriculum design, differentiated instruction, and gifted education. In addition to serving as the childhood/ elementary education program coordinator, Imbeau directs the gifted and talented program. She is a university liaison in the MAT Childhood Education program: teaching graduate courses, supervising interns, and working with mentor teachers.

Imbeau has three major goals when teaching a class.

“Have a clear purpose tied to specific learning goals regarding what you are teaching and also be aware of how what you are doing today is tied to what you taught in your last class and leads you to what you will do next,” she said. Second is to “be prepared — know your content and challenge yourself to always add new ways of doing things so you feel fresh and not dated.” The third goal she shared is to “worry less about YOU when teaching and focus more on who you are teaching — Are you watching students’ expressions by reading the room to see interest or boredom and doing something about what you see to make the experience better?’’

Visit www.arkansasalumni.org/awardscelebration to learn more about the celebration and each awardee.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 45

Ella Rowen

Megan Nieweg

Learning and Making Connections 2023 First-Year Association Endowed Scholars

BY BETH DEDMAN  B.A.’20

The Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship is a renewable scholarship providing each recipient $6,500 annually. The newest recipients are incoming first-year students whose scholarship applications were reviewed by numerous life members of the association and U of A faculty and staff. The association’s endowed scholars are considered the very best of the best of our scholars and receive the “top” alumni scholarship.

Ella Rowen  of Little Rock and Megan Nieweg  of Bates City, Missouri, are the 2023 first-year recipients of the endowed scholarship.

46 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Ella Rowen intends to major in biology on the premed track. She hopes to excel in this program, develop her laboratory skills, and, eventually, be selected for top research opportunities throughout her education and career. She hopes to focus on studying genetics.

“With this scholarship, I will now be able to use the funds that would have gone towards tuition for possible study abroad opportunities,” Rowen said. “As a doctor, one must serve patients of all cultural backgrounds.

Through a study abroad program, I would gain a deeper appreciation of the cultural differences among all people.”

Photos submitted.

Alumni

Rowen is a passionate learner and a hard worker with experiences in the National Charity League and youth group that helped her learn that she has a heart for serving others. She fell in love with the University of Arkansas campus and all it offers; she is most excited to be a part of the university's R1 research program and its philanthropic Panhellenic organization.

She hopes that during her time at the U of A, she will also be able to further her leadership skills by serving in board positions for her sorority and participating in clubs such as student government, tennis and ballroom dancing.

“Thank you so much to the donors who made the Endowed Scholarship possible. I am honored to have been selected as a recipient. This gift allows me to pursue my dream and passion of becoming a surgeon and giving back to my community one day. I look forward to serving others, forming new relationships, and helping connect alumni, friends, and students to the University of Arkansas.”

Megan Nieweg intends to study international business marketing and is excited to begin networking and establish meaningful connections during her time on campus. Coming from out-of-state, she is unfamiliar with the many of clubs the university offers; however, she is excited to join a sorority and participate in intramural sports. To further her passion for international affairs, Nieweg hopes to take a semester abroad as she has heard wonderful things about the U of A’s study abroad programs and wants to take advantage of the opportunity to travel, one of her great passions.

Nieweg comes from a very small school, with only 31 students in her graduating class, but she has always found ways to meet large amounts of people. Her love of sports and her confidence in taking charge earned her many positions in leadership, helping her develop the time management skills she thinks will be valuable to her during her educational career.

“At the U of A, I am looking forward to learning many new skills that I cannot only use in my future career, but in my life,” Nieweg said. “In addition, I hope to gain many new friendships that will last a lifetime. This scholarship will make a difference in my education by helping me afford to go out of state like I had always dreamed of doing.”

Like so many students who earned their place on Senior Walk, both Rowen and Nieweg fell in love with the campus and its atmosphere when they toured it last fall. They, alongside all the other recipients of Arkansas Alumni Scholarships, have been inducted into the Student Alumni Association, which has been revived this year as a community for Arkansas Alumni Scholars and students seeking networking opportunities.

The Arkansas Alumni Association is proud to have provided students with scholarship assistance for more than thirty years. When the Arkansas Alumni Scholarship Program began, it awarded around $3,700 a year. For the 2023-24 academic year, the program awarded more than $1.3 million through more than eighty scholarship accounts.

All the association’s scholars are selected through a rigorous review process, involving several rounds of reviews over several months. Hundreds of members have volunteered their time and discernment to ensure the merits of the applicants and usher them toward the opportunities the association makes available.

In February, the process will begin again as the association ushers in the Class of 2028’s scholars. All life members and annual members actively involved in their local association chapter are invited, and encouraged to volunteer their talents and time to review scholarship applications. The more volunteers that participate in the review process, the faster these students may receive their awards.

For questions about how you might have a hand in shaping the future of potential scholars like Rowen and Nieweg, reach out to Patti Sanders, associate director of alumni scholarships, at psanders@uark.edu or address your email to alumnisp@uark.edu.

“Thank you so much for awarding me this scholarship,” Nieweg said. “It is an honor to be one of only two recipients out of the incoming freshman class. I greatly appreciate receiving this scholarship.”

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 47

Events

Igniting Your Why

2023 Black Alumni Society Reunion On April 13-16, 2023, the Black Alumni Society (BAS) hosted its 2023 Reunion. It was a fantastic celebration and a time to reconnect, reminisce and network.

Congratulations to our 2023 awardees, the Classes of the 80s on winning the BAS Class Fundraising Challenge, and the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, on winning the Stroll Off at the Homecoming Festival.

Todd Day B.A.'04 Helene Maxine Sutton Cannon Billie Rose Whitfield Jacobs Marjorie Wilkins Williams Gus Farver  B.A.'92 Oliver Sims  B.S.B.A.'85 Lenthon B. Clark (deceased) Lynda Jackson Browne (deceased) Trailblazers Award

2023 Awardees Mitch Ward B.S.B.A.'83 Dr. Margaret Clark and Dr. Gordon Morgan Award

2023 Black Alumni Society Student Awardees

Erica Holliday  B.S.E.'94, M.Ed.'95, Ed.D.'02 Elecia Smith  M.Ed.'00, Ed.D.'14 Macechko Diversity Advocacy Award

Dr. John L Colbert and Dr. Barbara Lofton Leadership Award

Latonya Foster  B.A.'96 Colonel Dennis May + B.S.P.A.'82 Dr. Lonnie R. Williams Lifetime Achievement Award Dr. Yvette Murphy-Erby  Wyatt Weems Memorial Award

Cozetta  B.S.I.E.’83 and Terry Lee  B.A.’80, former president of the Black Students for Democracy, at the Welcome Reception.

48 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Carter Brooks and Haley Tucker

Warrenesha Arnold and Oliver Sims IV Dr. Yvette Murphy-Erby and Dr. Calvin White Award Victor Awopetu and Lashae Hall Parice Bowser and Adrain Smith Service Award Special thanks to our sponsors, see more information at www.arkansasalumni.org/basreunion.

Professor Emeriti, Margaret Clark  M.A.’68, Ed.D.’78 (left) and Gerald Jordan + B.A.’70 (right).

Emanual Banks  B.S.C.E.’87 , (center) is a former board member of both the Arkansas Alumni Association and BAS.

Ritche Manley Bowden  B.S.I.E.’86 (center), BAS former president.

Kevin Mosley FS’81 and Rayfield Walker , members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, celebrating 45 years of membership.

Angela Mosley-Monts  B.A.’80, Ph.D.’22 and Kenny Lattimore, American R&B singer.

Erica Holliday  B.S.E.’94, M.Ed.’95, Ed.D.’02 former BAS board member and reunion registration chair.

Ericka Pulphus Eggleston  B.S.B.A.’93, BAS board member, and James Eggleston .

From L-R, Chasity Farver  M.Acc.'11, Gus Farver  B.A. '82 (BAS board member and 2023 BAS Trailblazer Award Recipient), and Pinkie Farver B.A. '21.

BAS Board Members and Scholars.

From L-R Synetra Hughes, Oliver Sims III  B.S.B.A.’85 (BAS board member and 2023 BAS Trailblazer Award Recipient), and Taylor Gathings (president of the Black Alumni Society Scholars and Black Students Association).

BAS Biennial Golf Tournament hosted by alumni of Iota Tau of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 49

Events

ArtChalk Arkansas

Photos submitted

The Central Arkansas Alumni Chapter hosted the third ArtChalk Arkansas on April 28-29 at War Memorial Stadium. The festivities kicked off Friday night with an opening night Tailgate Reception, and Saturday included live chalk art, sponsor and vendor booths, a local food truck, and live entertainment.

This event helps the alumni chapter to raise funds for scholarships awarded to students attending the University of Arkansas from central Arkansas. Thank you to everyone who attended and supported ArtChalk Arkansas!

Photos submitted.

Alumni Cook Out

OKC PigOut

Razorback fans gathered at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock on April 26 to cheer the Diamond Hogs on to victory against UCA. The Central Arkansas Alumni Chapter hosted 350 alumni and friends at the game.

The Greater Oklahoma City Alumni Chapter hosted its annual PigOut event at Bob Hope Pavilion on June 17.

Alumni and friends in OKC gathered for a fun afternoon of community, calling the Hogs, and scholarship fundraising.

Photos submitted.

Photos submitted.

50 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Spring Ring Ceremony The Official Ring Ceremony was held on Friday, May 5, at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. A Razorback tradition, the ring is a symbol of the accomplishments achieved by University of Arkansas students and emphasizes their common bond and shared experiences.

During this ceremony, recipients receive their rings and are celebrated by alumni, friends and family. The Class Ring Monument has been officially installed at the alumni house. Stop by and take a photo with it!

Photos by: Chieko Hara.

Méritos Latinos On Friday, May 12, the Latino Alumni Society hosted Méritos Latinos at Hilton Garden Inn Fayetteville. This annual event is a celebration of the many accomplishments and achievements of the Latino community at the University of Arkansas. The program included presenting three awards to outstanding faculty and staff at the U of A and recognizing 25 graduating students with stoles.

1.

2.

Photos by: Professor X Photography.

1. Time for a selfie.

2. Xochitl Delgado Solorzano, Outstanding Diversity Engagement U of A Staff Member Award Recipient.

3. Dr. Lia Uribe M.M. '02, Cecilia Grossberger & Angela Mosley-Monts Legacy Award Recipient.

3.

4.

4. Graduating students were honored with stoles.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 51

Events

Sippin' For Scholarships The Northwest Arkansas Alumni Chapter and the Arkansas Alumni Association hosted the inaugural Sippin' for Scholarships event at Sassafras Springs Vineyard and Winery on August 3.

It was a wonderful evening full of great conversations and connections, and attendees braved recordbreaking heat to join us in raising funds for alumni association scholarships.

Photos by Beth Dedman.

Hog Wild Tailgates

Finish the Season Off Strong!

Stop by the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House and enjoy Hog Wild Tailgates for Fayetteville home games.

November 11 Auburn

Tailgates begin two hours before kickoff and conclude 30 minutes prior to kickoff. Confirm game times at arkansasrazorbacks.com.

November 18 Florida International

www.arkansasalumni.org/hogwildtailgates 52 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

November 24 Missouri | Senior Day

Members, alumni, friends and family – anyone can travel with R azorbacks on Tour.

Chilean Wonders

Costa Rica's Natural Heritage

Jan. 15-26, 2024

Jan. 15-25, 2024

Tour Operator: AHI Travel Starting from $5,295/pp

Tour Operator: Odysseys Unlimited $5,181 including air from XNA/LIT

Iceland and the Northern Lights

Discovering Provence with the French Riveria

Feb. 24-Mar. 3, 2024

Apr. 22-May 3, 2024

Tour Operator: Gohagan & Company Starting from $3,595/pp

Tour Operator: Odysseys Unlimited $5,197 including air from XNA/LIT

PRICES AND ITINERARIES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE .

For more inFormation on r azorbacks on tour visit WWW.ARKANSASALUMNI.ORG/TRAVEL FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 53

Yesteryear

Yesteryear Big Red, the dancing Razorback embodied by Gary “Sweet Pea” White debuts at the Arkansas vs. Texas game on October 20, 1973. Big Red celebrated his 50th Birthday during the 2023 University of Arkansas Homecoming.

1974 Razorback

54 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

1873

• Albert W. Bishop, a member of the Board of Trustees and formerly a Union officer during the Civil War, is named the second president of the university.

1893

• The first separate science hall is built southeast of Old Main. It housed chemistry and physics classrooms and laboratories.

1903

• Pennant Day, a tradition in which the senior and junior classes compete to place a pennant higher on Old Main than the other class, becomes a brawl, and administrators begin looking for a new tradition, which eventually led to the creation of Senior Walk in 1905.

1913

• William Edwin Douglass B.S.E.E. 1913, M.S.E.E. 1919, a student, writes the lyrics for the Arkansas “Fight Song,” which is later set to music by professor Henry Tovey.

1943

• Robert A. Leflar is named the second dean of the School of Law.

1953

• A petition is designed by agriculture students to call attention of state legislators to the need for a new animal science building at the university. It is signed by over 1,500 students and reached between 75 and 90 feet in length.

• The U of A changes housing policy to require that freshman men, not including Black students, live in university residence halls or recognized fraternity houses.

1963

• The U of A receives $150,000 grant for an Animal Science Research Building from the National Institute of Health, Education and Welfare.

1973

• John T. Gilmore earns a Ph.D. in engineering, and William Willingham earns a Ph.D. in chemistry, becoming the first two Black students to earn Ph.D.s. Ruth Bradford and Clifton Claye had each earned the Doctor of Education degree in 1958.

1983

• Neil Martin Schmitt B.S.E.E.’63, MS.E.E.’64 became the sixth dean of the College of Engineering.

1993

• The High Density Electronics Center is established. HiDEC includes a class 100 electronic production clean room, one of only two in the nation located on a university campus.

2003

• A team of researchers from the U of A measures water evaporation rates under Mars-like conditions, and their findings favor the presence of surface water on the planet.

• Alumnus and best-selling author E. Lynn Harris B.A.’77 returns to campus to teach two courses in creative writing and literature. He also becomes a mentor to the Razorback spirit squads in his spare time.

2013

• The Walton Family Foundation awards a $2.1 million grant to the U of A to fund several programs within the College Access Initiative and the Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education, with direct benefit for students from Phillips County, Arkansas. At the time, it was the U of A’s largest gift ever committed to diversity programs.

• Elizabeth Adams (Collier) B.A.’14 becomes the first woman to edit the student newspaper, The University Weekly.

1923

• The official seal of the University of Arkansas is designed by Zelma Rothrock B.S.E.’37 and adopted by the Board of Trustees. The state seal had been used previously.

1933

• Students take action against an impending state legislative resolution that would have discharged President John C. Futrall and all instructors or assistants under his direction. The resolution, which was voted down, cited injuries against the university in hiring foreign and northern faculty members. Students held a rally and drafted a resolution endorsing the administration, faculty and its teachings.

On Dec. 16, 2023, the University of Arkansas receives a national award from the Points of Light organization in recognition of work done by the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry.

2014 Arkansas

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 55

Photo by Chieko Hara.

Senior Walk

From Senior Walk Let us know about your milestones and anything else you would like to share with your classmates — births, marriages, new jobs, retirements, moves and more. Please include your degree, class year, and when applicable, your maiden name. To provide the most thorough coverage of alumni news, we publish notes about members and nonmembers of the

Class Notes 1970s

Arkansas Alumni Association and will indicate membership status for reference. You may send us news or simply update your information.

Since the next issues of Arkansas are already in production, it may be a few issues before your item appears.

Submit your news online at www.arkansasalumni.org/classnotes; by mail: From Senior Walk, Arkansas Alumni Association, P.O. Box 1070,

The book covers notable events during his service at the U of A and follows his life from childhood in Fayetteville to his time at Penn State before returning home to Northwest Arkansas.

1980s

Dave Gearhart + JD'78 EDD'89 of Fayetteville released a book Confessions of a Chancellor: The Politics of Higher Education, A Memoir.

56 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Ed Wilson  BSBA'80 of Pacific Palisades, California, is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Walton College.

Fayetteville AR 72702; or by email: news@arkansasalumni.org.

These symbols indicate Alumni Association membership:  Student Member  Member + Member, A+  Life Member + Life Member, A+

Greg Colvin BSBA'86 of Dallas, Texas, is the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award by the Walton College.

Tucker A. Patterson  BS'86 of Sheridan is the director of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research located in Jefferson.

1990s

From L-R is Matt Dempsey, Steve Strasessle and Steve Aday.

Photo courtesy of Ghidotti Communications.

Steven G. Straessle BA'92 is Head of School for Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock. Straessle previously served as the school's principal.

Michelle Parks BA'94 of Prairie Grove won second place in Publication Regularly Edited

by Entrant Magazine/ Magapaper for "Review Magazine Spring/ Summer 2022" at the 2023 National Federation of Press Women Contest.

Marc W. van Iersel PHD'94 of Athens (Hull), Georgia, received the Outstanding Research Career Award posthumously by the American Society of Horticultural Science.

Jacqueline Froelich MA'95 of Fayetteville won first place in Radio and Television from the Arkansas Press Women Communication Contest for her prepared report "Make or Break Year' for Hemp Farming in Arkansas." Her entry was also awarded second place in the National Federation of Press Women competition.

Warwick B. Sabin  BA'98 is the inaugural president and CEO of Deep South Today, the networked hub of nonprofit newsrooms serving the Southern region of the United States. Sabin previously served as chief strategy officer at Interfaith America.

Kristin Higgins MS'99 PHD'05 of Fayetteville is the recipient of the Arkansas Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors Rosenthal Award, given annually to a counselor educator whose contributions to the profession exemplify the highest standards of the discipline.

Eric Thomas Stafne MS'99 PHD'05 of Picayune, Mississippi, received the Outstanding Extension Educator Award from the American Society of Horticulture Science.

2000s Matthew A. Dempsey BSIM'00 JD'08 is principal of Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock. Dempsey previously served as the school's assistant principal.

Stormey Jean Collins  BSBA'02 MBA'10 of Bentonville is the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Walton College.

John William Collins  BSBA'03 of Bentonville is the recipient of the Walton College’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Steve T. Aday BA'06 is assistant principal of Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock. Aday previously served as an English teacher and alumni director for the school.

Mengmeng Gu PHD'06 of Fort Collins, Colorado, is vice president and a board member of the American Society of Horticultural Science.

Robin Yancey Foster BA'07 of Springfield, Missouri, welcomed her second child, Weston Yancey Foster, on Dec. 28, 2022.

school teachers, counselors, principals, ministers, and others.

Morris has been teaching chemistry with Bentonville schools for eight years.

Brian T. Wolf BFA'08 is the art director for The Communications Group (CommGroup), a full-service marketing and public relations firm based in Little Rock.

Wolf previously served as a graphic design specialist in the manufacturing industry.

Derek Wayne Barchenger MS'14 received the Early Career Research Innovation and Creativity Career Award from the American Society of Horticultural Science.

Barchenger is principal investigator of the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Disease Resistant Tomato and Pepper for Taiwan and the Philippines Projecttent work to create an equitable playing field for minorities.

Bret G. Range EDD'09 of Springfield, Missouri, is the new chief human resources officer of the Springfield Public School district.

Martha Alvarado Anderson  MA'18 of Fayetteville was selected by the American Library Association as the 2023 Lois Ann GregoryWood Fellow.

2010s

2020s

Catherine Norman Beasley BA'11 of Fayetteville is the director of Northwest Arkansas Industry and Community Engagement in the Division of Economic Development.

Kyla Morris BS'11 MS'13 of Pea Ridge was named the 2023 Distinguished High School Mentor by the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering.

The honor allows chemical engineering students the opportunity to recognize outstanding high school mentors who consistently motivated them to strive for excellence and higher achievement, including high

Photo submitted.

Stephanie D. Clouston  BA'93 of Dallas is a partner in the Dallas office of Winston & Strawn LLP. Clouston is a highly experienced litigator who focuses her practice on business disputes in the telecommunications, manufacturing, energy and construction industries.

From L-R Simon Goerger, Ed Pohl, Greg Parnell, Eric Specking and Nick Ulmer, MORS Awards chair. Not pictured: Tevari Barker.

Tevari J. Barker BSIE'20 MSIE'22 of Texarkana, Texas, received the Richard H. Barchi prize at the 91st annual Symposium of the Military Operations Research Society for the paper he submitted along with a team, including university faculty members Greg Parnell, Ed Pohl , and Eric Specking B.S.’09, M.S.’13, Ph.D.’20.

Elizabeth Berner BSA'21 of Prairie Grove received the NACTA Graduate Teaching Award at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 57

Senior Walk

In Memoriam 1940s Helen Rhodes McGee BS'42 of Fort Myers, Florida, on March 1.

Theral O. Moore BA'49 MA'51 of Gainesville, Florida, on Jan. 15.

1950s Archie B. Ryan Jr. + FS'56 of Holiday Island on April 29.

Tom E. Taylor BSCE'56 of Dallas, Texas, on May 31.

Janelle Bennett Cawthon MED'59 of Miramar Beach, Florida, on Apr. 1, 2021.

Janis E. Kasparian BSE'59 of Dallas, Texas, on June 20.

1960s Ron Garner  BSE'61 of Bella Vista on June 14.

Sara Miller Richardson BA'61 of Hickory, North Carolina, on June 16.

Robert C. Rogers BSEE'62 MSEE'68 of College Station, Texas, on May 27.

58 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

Laykyn Marie Rainbolt BSA'22 of Fayetteville is the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences coordinator of undergraduate student recruiting.

Richard D. Skinner BSCHE'62 of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on March 30.

Dean L. Berry MS'63 of La Vernia, Texas, on Jan. 17, 2022.

Frederick C. Collins  BSA'63 of Prairie Grove on July 10.

Edward Parham MED'63 of Washington, Missouri, on July 9.

J.E. Sanders, Esquire + BSBA'63 JD'70, a longtime resident of Hot Springs National Park who had recently relocated to The Woodlands, Texas, on March 28.

Mike Deaderick  BA'64 MA'66 of Memphis, Tennessee, on February 3.

David L. Kurtz MBA'65 PHD'69 of Bonita Springs, Florida, on April 6, 2022.

Frank Woolard BSME'65 of Indian Hills, Ohio, on Nov. 20, 2022.

Simon Patrick Tye PHD'23 of Fort Smith received the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Graduate School and International Education. Tye's dissertation, titled "Ecological, Evolutionary, and Temporal Dynamics of Animal of Animal Mortality Events," explores the immediate effects of largescale die-offs within wild animal populations.

Friends Ed Pohl  of Fayetteville is the dean of the Graduate School and International Education.

He recently received the Bernard R. Sarchet Award at the 2023 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. This award is the highest award of the Engineering Management Division of the society and is given to recognize a lifetime of achievement in engineering management education.

Rita Geiger + B.A.'66 May 7, 1944 - July 13, 2023 The Greater Oklahoma City Alumni Chapter and the Arkansas Alumni Association would like to pay a special tribute to Rita Geiger. Rita was a lifelong Razorback and joined the local board for the Greater Oklahoma City Alumni Chapter upon her retirement. She was very active, serving as president and events chair, amongst other positions, through her many years of service.

Geiger loved to review scholarship applications and took pride in helping to select a local student as the recipient of the WadleyCurtis Central Oklahoma

Photo Submitted.

Kristen Layne Figgins PHD'21 earned the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Graduate School and International Education. Figgins' dissertation, "Adapting Animals: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Media," explores the evolution of different literary narratives over time, particularly how individual stories illustrate an evolving understanding of science and nature.

Scholarship so they could attend the University of Arkansas. She came to every local event until her health began to fail, and even then, she made every effort to help with events from afar. She also served on the Arkansas Alumni Association National Board of Directors from 2009 to 2015. Geiger was a willing partner and friend to all who worked with the local chapter and is missed by everyone who encountered her.

Remembering Razorback Legends

BY KEVIN TRAINOR +, B.A.’94, M.A.’05

The Razorback Nation lost two Arkansas football legends this summer with the untimely passings of former quarterback Ryan Mallett B.A.’13 and former running back Alex Collins F.S.’16. Mallett drowned in an accident near Destin, Florida, on June 27, 2023. Collins, 28, was killed in a motorcycle accident on August 13, 2023, in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.

Mallett was big in stature and in personality and was a fan favorite while guiding the Razorbacks from 2009-10.

He literally re-wrote the school record book in leading the Hogs to some of the biggest moments in Razorback history.

He holds the program record for single-season passing yards with 3,869 yards and 32 touchdown passes. During his time at Arkansas, he tallied 62 career touchdowns and 7,493 passing yards. Following his college career, Mallett was drafted by the New England Patriots, and he would go on to play for the Patriots, Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens. He was serving as head coach at White Hall (Arkansas) High School at the time of his passing.

Collins was a proud Razorback and one of the most accomplished running backs in school history.

Clia Doty Goodwin BA'68 MA'72 of Dover, New Hampshire, on Mar. 10.

Dorothea Joan Bartelli BSHE'76 MS'79 PSTH'23 of Rogers on Dec. 11, 2022.

1970s

William K. Cox BSBA'76 of Texarkana, Texas, on June 28.

Danny M. Brambl BSIM'70 of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 28.

Larry D. Shaffer BSBA'70 of Fayetteville on July 17.

Jane Chester Clark BSPH'71 of Little Rock on June 2.

James M. Kelly BSBA'72 of Fort Smith on July 18, 2019.

Joe H. Hodges BARCH'73 of Cammack Village on June 4.

G. Latta Bachelor III BSBA'74 JD'77 of Hot Springs on May 8.

Deborah Lynn VanHook BSE'75 of Bentonville on June 18.

Lynda Jackson Browne MED'76 of Plantation, Florida, on Dec. 21, 2015.

Syble S. Baker  BSE'77 of West Fork on May 23.

Elaine Ashley McCutcheon BSHE'77 of Little Rock on July 17.

Katherine Bryan  MED'78 of Bryant on July 6.

Kevin R. Hennings MBA'79 of Bella Vista on June 23.

Robin F. Wynne JD'79 of Little Rock on June 21.

Left to Right: Alex Collins, August 26, 1994 - August 17, 2023.

Ryan Mallett, June 5, 1988 - June 27, 2023.

Photos courtesy of Razorback Athletics.

His 3,703 career rushing yards from 2013-15 rank second in the UA record books. Collins became only the third player in SEC history to open his career with three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. He finished his Razorback career with a total of 3,703 rushing yards and 36 touchdowns on 271 carries. Following his time at Arkansas, Collins was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2016 and later played for the Baltimore Ravens. He was most recently playing for the USFL’s Memphis Showboats.

Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium was illuminated in Razorback red in memory of Mallett and Collins in the days following their passing. Additionally, both former Razorbacks will be remembered with a tribute during the 2023 football season.

1980s Pat Kelley Magruder Jr. BARCH'81 of West Memphis on Apr. 26.

Louise A. Green Carpenter BA'82 of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Feb. 10, 2018.

Stephen L. Leister BSA'82 of Abbott on June 16.

Leisa Joye Wheeler BSE'82 of Vendor on June 3, 2020.

Ronnie Paul Johnson MED'83 of Beebe on June 28.

Charles F. Wilson Jr. JD'83 of Pikeville, Kentucky, on May 27.

Ronald Glenn Berry  BSBA'85 of Fayetteville on July 4.

Elizabeth Diane Miller BSE'87 of Arroyo Grande, California, on July 3.

Brian L. Smith BA'87 of Van Buren on July 2.

1990s Kenneth Lynn Latham BSME'90 of Pottsville on June 26.

Marc W. van Iersel PHD'94 of Athens (Hull), Georgia, on April 20.

David Warren Whitis FS'99 of Nashville, Tennessee, on June 23.

2000s Deniece M. McNew FS'03 of Bozeman, Montana, in June 2023.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 59

Senior Walk

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION

Neil M. Schmitt  B.S.E.E.’63, M.S.E.E.’64

Photo submitted.

Oct. 25, 1940 - May 29 2023

The College of Engineering lost an influential leader and longtime friend with the passing of Neil M. Schmitt, an electrical engineering alumnus who served as dean of the college from 1983 to 1996 and ushered in an era of heightened focus on research and fundraising.

Schmitt died May 29 at age 82.

He continued to cheer on the college after retirement, and its current leader, Dean Kim Needy, in recent years.

"Throughout his career and into his retirement, Neil never stopped advocating for the College of Engineering nor encouraging its leaders. I will forever be grateful for his support through a kind word or inspirational note," she said.

Schmitt earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at the U of A before completing his doctorate at Southern Methodist University in 1969. After military service, he worked as a systems engineer for IBM, then at Texas Instruments developing military radar systems.

His academic career began in 1970 when he joined the U of A as an assistant professor of electrical engineering.

He spent time doing post-doctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine in 1971 before becoming department head of electrical engineering in 1973. He was named dean of the college in 1983, serving 13 years, and returned as interim dean from 2001 to 2002.

Among his many accomplishments, he oversaw the design and construction of Bell Engineering Center and led the transformation of a factory in south Fayetteville to become the Engineering Research Center. Schmitt also started and supervised the Genesis Technology Center, which was recognized early as the premier technology incubator in the United States.

During Schmitt's tenure, the college broke campus records for fundraising and established a new model for donor relations. He was inducted into the college's Hall of Fame in 2014.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Carolyn Schmitt  B.S.H.E.’64, M.S.’72; daughter Caryn Finney B.S.E.’88, M.Ed.’94; son Robert Schmitt F.S.’99; and seven grandchildren, including Trevor Finney B.S.B.A.’16, Spencer Finney B.S.B.A.’18, and Caleb Finney B.S.B.A.’21.

1. Publication title: Arkansas 3. Filing date: 08/30/2023 5. Issues published annually: 4 7. Office of publication: 8. General business office: 9. Publisher:

2. Publication number: 9515 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly 6. Annual subscription price: $24.00 PO Box 1070, Fayetteville, AR, 72702-1070 Same as 7.

Brandy Cox Jackson, PO Box 1070 Fayetteville, AR 72702-1070 Managing Editor: Catherine Baltz, PO Box 1070 Fayetteville, AR 72702-1070 10. Owner Arkansas Alumni Association, Inc. PO Box 1070, Fayetteville, AR 72702 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, or other security holders holding one per cent or more of total amounts of bonds, mortgages, or other securitites: none.

12. Tax Status: Has not changed during the preceding 12 months.

14. Issue date for circulation data: 06/21/2023 15. Extent and nature of circulation A* B* a. Total number of copies (net press run) b. Paid Circulation (1) Mailed outside county (2) Mailed in-county (3) Paid distribution outside mail (4)Other paid distribution c. Total paid distribution d. Free or nominal distribution (1) Outside county (2) In-county (3) Other classes (4) Outside mail e. Total free or nominal rate distribution f. Total distribution g. Copies not distributed h. Total i. Percent paid

11,476

11,400

10,595 0 0 56 10,651

10,699 0 0 53 10,752

0 0 7 285 292 10,943 533 11,476 97.33%

0 0 6 280 286 11,038 362 11,400 97.41%

*A. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months. *B. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date.

Bank Better.

Member FDIC 60 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

2010s David A. Gibson MSOM'13 of Fayetteville on Feb. 9.

Hannah Marie Eddington BSE'14 of Nashville, Tennessee, on July 5.

Evan Gerard White BSBA'15 of McGregor, Texas, on Oct. 18, 2021.

2020s Hemanta Raj Timsina FS'22 of Fayetteville on May 22.

Felix A. Bryant Sr. PSTH'23 of Mount, North Carolina, on Feb. 18, 2022.

Kristin Korte PSTH'23 of Barling on Apr. 28, 2022.

Nathan Tanner McGehee PSTH'23 of Fayetteville on Aug. 25, 2022.

Hannah MaiHuyen Pham PSTH'23 of Shreveport, Louisiana, on Oct. 26, 2022.

Carter R. Williamson PSTH'23 of Jay, Oklahoma, on Feb. 26.

Hoyt Purvis + Nov. 7, 1939 – May 26, 2023

Hoyt Purvis, a professor emeritus of journalism, political science and international studies who transformed international Photo Submitted. education on the U of A campus, died May 26. He taught for 34 years at the U of A, where he founded the international studies program and created the Fulbright Institute of International Relations.

Purvis was born Nov. 7, 1939, at Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of Hoyt Somervell Purvis and Jane Hughes Purvis.

Purvis distinguished himself as a professor and researcher during his tenure at the U of A. He collaborated on several books on international relations and the media, including Legislating Foreign Policy, with Steven Baker (1984), Interdependence: Old Myths and New Realities in United StatesSoviet Relations, with Donald Kelley (1990), An Introduction to International Relations (1992), Seoul and Washington: New Governments, New Leadership, New Objectives, with Yu-Nam Kim (1993), The Media, Politics, and Government (2000), and Media Issues and Trends: A Mass Communication Reader (2005).

He said the most fun he had writing a book, though, returned him to his roots as a sportswriter. His Voices of the Razorbacks: A History of Arkansas' Iconic Sports Broadcasters, written with Stanley Sharp in 2013, took a fond look back at the people whose live reporting on the radio airwaves kept him and all of Arkansas informed about the Razorbacks' exuberant wins and tragic losses.

Purvis was an avid sports fan, particularly baseball, and hosted a local television program in Fayetteville called Talkin' Baseball. He also appeared regularly on the show Arkansas Week, broadcast by the Arkansas Educational Television Network, and provided political commentary for KNWA. He also wrote an opinion column for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and its predecessors over a 20-year period.

He was honored multiple times at the university for his teaching, including being awarded the Fulbright College Master Teacher Award, the Arkansas Alumni Association Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award for Research and Teaching, the Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award and the Faculty Gold Medal for mentoring.

In 2016, the Graduate School and International Education established the Hoyt Purvis Award for Service in International Education to honor Purvis and his contributions to the field of international education.

Purvis shared more of his adventures during interviews with the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, which can be viewed online.

Hoyt Purvis is survived by his wife, Mary Purvis  B.A.’86, M.A.93, senior director of development for the U of A's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design; daughters Pamela Hatcher B.A.’92 and Camille Purvis Dawson; a sister, Peggy Mullen; and four grandchildren.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 61

Helping Arkansas Alumni Protect Life’s Adventures.

Proud Sponsor of the Arkansas Alumni Association.

Call 1-800-922-1245 today or visit www.TheAIP.com/uark Auto • Home • Life • Health • Dental • Vision • Long-Term Care ID Theft • Student Loan Refi • Pet Insurance • Travel

3P8

62 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

OFFICERS President Don Walker + ’74, Fayetteville President-elect Regina Hopper  81, ’85, Alexandria, VA Treasurer Kristen Collier Wright  ’98, ’01, Forrest City BOARD OF DIRECTORS Class of 2024 Amy May Hopper  ’15, Belton, MO Chris Johnson  ’93, Little Rock Bobby Jones + ’84, Savannah, GA Faheem Khan  ’91, Lewisville, TX Connie Lewis Lensing  ’74, ’77, Nantucket, MA Nathan Looney  ’09, Little Rock Courtney Norton  ’07, Fayetteville Oliver Sims  ’85, Carrollton, TX Kristine Stover + ’81, Tulsa, OK Cedric Williams  ’93, Forrest City Class of 2025 Heba Abdelaal  ’11, Ramstein, Germany Steve Berner + ’69, Oklahoma City, OK Judy Simmons Henry  ’81, ’84, Little Rock Sarah K. Hudson  ’07, ’10, Washington, DC Lauren Love  ’19, Allen, TX Daniel McFarland  ’15, Baltimore, Maryland Bill Stovall + ’72, Charleston, SC Richard Welcher  ’99, ’04, Fayetteville Kristen Collier Wright  ’98, ’01, Forrest City Class of 2026 Stacie Fujii + ’98, ’02, Smyrna, GA Kathleen Gonzalez  ’11, Rogers Clayton Hamilton  ’94, Fayetteville Janie Hipp  ’96, Fayetteville Robert Koenig  ’90, Leawood, KS Wes Shirley  ’99, ’02, Fayetteville Shambrekia Wise  ’08, Dallas, TX Charles Zimmerman  ’85, Springdale

(Interdisciplinary Programs continued from page 13.)

“We have a really diverse population of students, in the most traditional sense,” she said. “But also, our interests are very different. I’m studying with students who are studying policy around agriculture, healthcare and economics, so we all have these different priorities and research interests. That makes for some great conversations when we’re in class because we all come from very different perspectives.”

“This program has to be interdisciplinary because policy is so pervasive and catches every aspect of societal life,” she added.

“Indeed, the problems that many interdisciplinary research solves are not local problems,” Leftwich said. “Rather, they’re global problems that require global perspectives.”

“Many of the challenges and opportunities that we face in the 21st century — such as climate change, global health, cybersecurity, or social justice — require interdisciplinary approaches that draw on multiple sources of knowledge and expertise,” he said.

“Interdisciplinary research can help us understand the causes, consequences, and solutions of these complex problems from different angles and perspectives.”

For this reason, many of the interdisciplinary programs have a high enrollment of international students.

“You can’t solve global problems with just kids from Arkansas,” Ungar said.

“Attracting kids from around the world creates more opportunities for our campus community with kids from Panama, Nepal and Middle East, and Africa. I think that also brings a variety of different perspectives to bear.”

“Problems like climate change aren’t Arkansas problems, they’re not American problems — they’re international global problems, and they’re ones we won’t solve unless we bring these tools to bear across the world,” he added.

For more information on the interdisciplinary programs, visit gsie.uark.edu.

STAFF Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni and Executive Director of the Arkansas Alumni Association Brandy Cox Jackson  M.A.’07 Director of Alumni Programs and Special Events Deb Euculano  Director of Finance Hal Prescott  Director of Strategic Alumni Services Lisy McKinnon  B.A.’97 Becky Afonso , Special Events Coordinator Lisa Ault  B.S.B.A.’94, Associate Director of Business Operations Catherine Baltz + B.S.’92, M.Ed.’07, Associate Director of Collaborative Services Tim Barker , Fiscal Support Analyst Collin Brunner  B.S.H.E.S.’10, Associate Director of Revenue Management Beth Dedman  B.A.’20, Assistant Director of Member Services Callie Free B.S.B.A.’19, M.Ed.’21, Assistant Director of Internal Relations Katie Leonard B.S.B.A.’19, Alumni Scholarship Assistant Shamima Majid , Fiscal Support Analyst Elaine Olson , Administrative Specialist Patti Sanders + B.S.A.’08, Associate Director of Alumni Scholarships Joni Thompson, Administrative Assistant Emma Veidt B.S.B.A.’19, Assistant Director of External Relations

(Fostering the Study of Art continued from page 10.)

“That's what I want to emphasize with the Center for Art as Lived Experience,” he added. “Asking questions like, what are the interesting ways art intersects with our everyday life, how do we engage with art on a daily basis, what are the parameters of art and how can we use art to disseminate information from other disciplines?”

“My hope is that one day the center can operate in a way that is extended to not only all art media areas but also serve all disciplines of research from an art perspective.”

Turner is positioning the center to become a research destination for local, regional, national and international, artists, scholars and researchers with plans for establishing an artist-in-residence

program, supporting research that positively impacts communities.

CALE is currently in the beginning stages of organizing its first publication on the topic of archival photographic research and art. In addition, they will host interdisciplinary artist Shane Darwent as a guest lecturer and visit the studios of School of Art graduate students.

The Center for the Study of Childhood Art and the Center for Art as Lived Experience are bringing new visibility and more access to art research in Arkansas, and hopefully inspiring more to reflect on the power of the arts.

FALL 2023 / ARKANSAS / 63

Image credit: Rendering by Picture Plane.

Last Look

Innovative Design

Construction Underway for Award-Winning Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation is under construction along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the university’s Art and Design District. It will serve as an epicenter for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design’s multiple timber and wood initiatives, a home to its graduate program in timber and wood, and will house its existing designbuild program and an expanded digital fabrication laboratory. Designed by Grafton Architects of Dublin, Ireland, with Fayetteville-based Modus Studio, the four-story, 44,800-square-foot center will include studios, seminar and conference rooms, faculty offices, a small auditorium and a public exhibition space. The project was named the Overall Winner in the AR Future Projects Awards 2023, announced by The Architectural Review, and won the Education category award. It also won the WAFX award in the Building Technology category from the World Architecture Festival 2023 and is one of nine projects shortlisted in the Future Projects: Education category.

64 / ARKANSAS / FALL 2023

$200

cash back bonus offer*

The Arkansas Alumni Association Customized Cash Rewards credit card Maximize your cash back by choosing how you earn rewards Carry the only card that helps support Arkansas Alumni Association

• Get a $200 cash back bonus if you make at least $1,000�in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening* • To change your choice category for future purchases, you must go to Online Banking or use the Mobile Banking app.1 You can change it once each calendar month, or make no change and it stays the same.

• Contactless card – The security of a chip card, with the convenience of a tap To apply for a credit card,

please visit bofa.com/arkansasalumni This offer is unique to this solicitation. Our credit card offers may vary, and this offer may not be available elsewhere. You can take advantage of this offer when you apply now.

Earn 3% and 2% cash back on the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter in the choice category, and at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, then earn unlimited 1% thereafter.

For information about the rates, fees, other costs and benefits associated with the use of this card or to apply, please visit bofa.com/arkansasalumni Residents of the US and its territories only. See full disclosure for details. *Bonus Cash Rewards Offer. You will qualify for $200 bonus cash rewards if you use your new credit card account to make any combination of purchase transactions totaling at least $1,000 (exclusive of any fees, returns and adjustments) that post to your account within 90 days of the account open date. Cash Advances and Balance Transfers are not purchases and do not apply for purposes of this offer. Limit 1 bonus cash rewards offer per new account. This one-time promotion is limited to customers opening a new account in response to this offer and will not apply to requests to convert existing accounts. Your account must be open with active charging privileges in order to receive this offer. Other advertised promotional bonus cash rewards offers can vary from this promotion and may not be substituted. Allow 8–12 weeks from qualifying for the bonus cash rewards to post to your rewards balance. The value of this reward may constitute taxable income to you. You may be issued an Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 (or other appropriate form) that reflects the value of such reward. Please consult your tax advisor, as neither we, nor our affiliates, provide tax advice.

1 Mobile Banking. Mobile Banking requires that you download the Mobile Banking app and is only available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply.

By opening and/or using these products from Bank of America, you’ll be providing valuable financial support to Arkansas Alumni Association.

This credit card program is issued and administered by Bank of America, N.A. Visa and Visa Signature are registered trademarks of Visa International Service Association, and are used by the issuer pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Bank of America and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. The Contactless Symbol and Contactless Indicator are trademarks owned by and used with permission of EMVCo, LLC. ©2023 Bank of America Corporation 4787762 AD-08-22-0135.A

Hogging the Road

Hog Tags help fund scholarships awarded by the Arkansas Alumni Association.

HOGTAGS.COM