LIU Alumni Magazine: Spring 2017

IN THIS ISSUE GLOBAL INSTITUTE AT LIU A memorable visit from Colin Powell is just the beginning

ARTISTS BOOK COLLECTIVE Words come to life in a treasure of LIU's Special Collections

POWER TO INSPIRE

LIU and the Sanford Education Programs are changing the way children learn

FROM THE BATTLESHIP TO THE BLEACHERS Brooklyn alum Arnold Hano '41 looks back at a storied career in journalism

COURT IS IN SESSION Post alum Janet DiFiore '77 on becoming New York's Chief Judge

Your gift goes a long way FUND FOR LIU Support for students. The Fund for LIU supports every aspect of Long Island University, from academic programs to intercollegiate athletics, and from merit and need-based scholarships to our campuses themselves.

Support for LIU. Alumni giving is a critical factor in national rankings, including those published by U.S. News and World Report, but it’s also used by foundations and major donors to evaluate colleges and universities as candidates for major grants. Between rankings that elevate LIU’s national profile and grants that fund powerful programs, every gift to LIU raises the value of an LIU degree.

Support for our communities. Service is one of LIU’s most cherished values, and LIU students performed more than 127,000 hours of community service during the 2015-16 academic year alone through the LIU Cares initiative. From speech and hearing tests for local children, to international pharmacy programs that provide medical care in underdeveloped countries, to income tax preparation for low-income residents of our Brooklyn and Long Island communities, your support empowers LIU students to develop the skills to succeed while making a difference in the world around them.

There’s strength in numbers, and LIU alumni are 200,000 strong.

To support the Fund for LIU, visit LIUalumni.com, call 516-299-2263, or email LIUAlumni@liu.edu.

2

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

In This Issue

Spring 2017

Jim Conenello Chief Communications Officer Danielle Bucci Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications Jon Schneider Director of Public Relations & Media Relations EDITORIAL STAFF: J. Andrew Batcheller Assistant Director of Communications Douglas Bouchelle Graphic Designer Daniela Meola Associate Director, Marketing & Communications Elliot Olshansky Assistant Director of Communications Jennifer Solomon University Communication Strategist ALUMNI RELATIONS: William Martinov Chief of Admissions & Enrollment Strategy Ryan Attard Reilly P’03 University Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Fund Stay connected! Visit LIUalumni.com or email liualumni@liu.edu to share News and Notes or update your alumni profile, address, and/or contact information.

Copyright © 2017 by LIU. All rights reserved.

Features

Student Spotlight

4

Global Institute at LIU

20 Amanda Lewis – LIU Post

6

The 68th Annual George Polk Awards at LIU

21

Jung Kim – LIU Brooklyn

8

Artist Book Collection: On display at Resnick Gallery

22

Amanda Pizzo – LIU Pharmacy

23

Scholarship Spotlight

9

Power To Inspire: LIU teams up with NYC Department of Education

24

LIU Brooklyn Athletics

25 LIU Post Athletics

Alumni Spotlight

News

10

From the Battleship to the Bleachers, and Beyond: Arnold Hano

26 On Campus

12

Court is in Session: Janet DiFiore

28 LIU Bookshelf

27

David Steinberg

Faculty Spotlight

29 Class Notes

15

Faculty Accomplishments

30 Upcoming Alumni Events

16

A Quantum Leap Forward: Physics professors propose new test

17

Leadership in Literature: John Lutz shares his affection for learning

18

Cream of the Crop: Grazia Stagni works to expand access to topicals

Cover photo by Camila Merchan

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT We appreciate how much a degree from LIU means. We owe it to our students and alumni to never be complacent, and to work every day to elevate our University. That is why LIU is undertaking an ambitious strategic plan to be on the forefront of new ideas, research, and innovation.

We remain true to our traditions and core values, but we are pushing ourselves in new ways that challenge our thinking and practices as we move LIU to the top ranks of universities across the nation. And we are seeing results that elevates our brand across the country and around the world: • Recognized by Forbes as a top 10 “Hot Colleges in the Making Under Innovative Management” • Formed a unique partnership with global leaders University of Cambridge in London and Fudan University in Shanghai to offer a new accelerated Global MBA • Nine out of ten LIU graduates are working in their chosen fields or move on to obtain a higher degree within six months of graduation This issue of LIU Magazine shares some stories of the difference that the University is making within the local and global communities. Thanks to the generosity of philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, LIU is a partner in

Sanford Education programs and we have already helped change the lives of more than 140,000 students. Former Congressman Steve Israel left Congress after 16 years to start the Global Institute at LIU, which has brought global leaders like General (Ret.) Colin Powell to our campus to shed critical insights on global events.

With a network of more than 200,000 alumni that include leaders and executives in industries across the globe, LIU is in prime position to move to the forefront of higher education as we continue to achieve our dynamic strategic vision. We are pleased to profile some of our distinguished alumni, including Janet DiFiore ’77, who will describe her journey from LIU Post to Westchester County District Attorney and now New York State’s top judge, and Arnold Hano ’41, whose chance encounter at the LIU Brooklyn student newspaper, Seawanhaka, led to a distinguished career in journalism.

Every action we take is fueled by the pride we have for this institution and our alumni. Your continued support lays the groundwork for all our success and the national and international recognition we are seeing for our efforts.

Dr. Kimberly R. Cline President SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

3

Global Institute at LIU

Former Congressman Steve Israel establishes premier platform for understanding and impacting global policy V.U.C.A. stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity,” a common acronym used by the United States military to describe the current situation around the globe. It is this theme that has inspired Congressman Steve Israel—who recently retired from Congress after serving New York for 16 years—to establish the Global Institute at Long Island University.

“Most of my time in Congress was spent in a post 9-11 environment on national security and foreign policy,” Israel said. “I learned there are no easy answers and that sound-bytes aren't helpful.

I was looking for a University that would enable me to bring national and global leaders to delve into the complexities, and found what I hope will be a home at LIU.” The Global Institute is off to a roaring start. It held its inaugural event in March with General (Ret.) Colin Powell, who served as Secretary of State to President George W. Bush. The Global Institute kickoff at the Tilles Center drew hundreds of students, faculty, and members of the community to the Post Campus. Additional speakers include President Bill Clinton, General (Ret.) David Petraeus, experts from the National Intelligence Council, renowned historian Deborah Lipstadt, and various Ambassadors and foreign leaders.

Powell commended the Global Institute and the impact it will have on LIU.

4

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

"With the launch of this Global Institute, LIU will become a real leader in global affairs,” Powell said. “The Institute will bring world leaders to the region, introduce new brands of strategic thinking and problem solving, and assist decision makers here in New York in deepening their understanding of international relations."

Serving in Congress for 16 years and using the knowledge he gained to create a world-class global affairs institute is the culmination of a lifelong commitment to public service for Israel.

Steve Israel grew up in Levittown, New York and attended MacArthur High School. His father was a salesman and his mother a typist, and they instilled in him a strong set of values and a lifelong determination to fight for the middle class and those struggling to make it. After spending two years at Nassau Community College and working three jobs, Israel used the money he had saved to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C., continuing a lifelong passion for politics and global affairs.

“I knew I wanted to be a Congressman since the 4th grade,” Israel said. “When I had finally graduated high school, my father made a deal with me that if I went to Nassau Community for two years while I worked and saved up money, he would help me pay for George Washington University. Two years later, I was in D.C. pursuing my lifelong dream, working in politics.”

“I was looking for a University that would enable me to bring national and global leaders to delve into the complexities, and found what I hope will be a home at LIU.”

After moving back to Long Island, Israel devoted himself to public service and was soon elected to the Huntington Town Board in 1993. In 2000, Congressman Israel ran for an open Congressional seat and won a contested primary and general election. Entering the House of Representatives in 2001 as a Congressman from New York at a time of peace, the world quickly changed.

“In my first year in Congress we suffered the devastating attacks of 9-11 and our nation was suddenly at war,” Israel said. “We soon commenced military campaigns into Iraq and Afghanistan. I had to master the subject matter quickly."

Congressman Israel quickly found himself as a leading advocate for helping New York rebuild and assisting the families of 9-11 victims as well as first responders. He also established himself as a leading voice on national security and global affairs.

In addition to serving as a member of the House Democratic Leadership, Israel focused on national security and foreign policy as a Member of the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and Subcommittee on State & Foreign Operations.

“I spent my entire career in Congress learning firsthand about the United States' role in the global arena,” Congressman Israel said.

“It’s my passion.”

As he looked to return home after announcing his retirement and seek new opportunities for public service, Congressman Israel looked at Long Island University. The University’s entrepreneurial spirit was one of the main motivations for Israel’s decision to set up shop here.

“When I visited campus, I could feel the innovative culture and got the immediate sense that this was a place where you could foster a real creative dialogue. Institutions need to be nimble and visionary so that they can address the complexities of the world, and I saw that here at LIU,” Congressman Israel said.

The Institute, located in Bush Brown Hall, looks out across the new incubator space that will house new start-ups and growing businesses.

Following off the inaugural event with General Powell, subsequent events have featured Congressman Adam Schiff, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Korean Ambassador Ahn Ho-young.

As Congressman Israel looks forward, he sees an important role for the Global Institute and the need for constructive dialogue.

"America is suffering a fundamental crisis of faith in their institutions, and we saw that play out during the Presidential election. President Trump has certainly added a high degree of uncertainty to the world, so the Global Institute, now more than ever, has a crucial role to play.”

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

5

F rom left: Moderator Charlayne Hunter-Gault of PBS, Alec MacGillis of ProPublica, Marine Walker-Rivera of the International Coalition of Investigative Journalists, and David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post discuss “Covering the Trump Presidency” at the David J. Steinberg Seminar

Polk Winners (from left) A.J. Lagoe and Steve Eckert of KARE-11 in Minneapolis (Television Reporting), David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post (Political Reporting), Rebecca R. Ruiz of the New York Times (Sports Reporting, with Board of Trustees Chairman Eric Krasnoff), and Anand Gopal of the Atlantic (Magazine Reporting)

The 68th Annual George Polk Awards at LIU LIU presented the 68th Annual George Polk Awards in Journalism at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, celebrating the impact of courageous and authentic journalism on our national and global discourse. The Awards focus on the intrepid, bold, and influential work of the reporters themselves, placing a premium on investigative work that is original, resourceful, and thought-provoking.

Once again, LIU was privileged to have Charlayne Hunter-Gault of PBS’ NewsHour on hand to read the award citations at the award ceremony, which was the culmination of three illuminating days of Polk Awards programming in New York City. The celebration began with a screening of the Polk winner for Documentary Filmmaking, Hooligan Sparrow by Nanfu Wang, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ms. Wang traced the arduous efforts of Chinese women’s rights activist Ye Haiyan (aka “Hooligan Sparrow”).

Ms. Hunter-Gault was also the moderator for the David J. Steinberg Seminar of the George Polk Awards, which explored the challenges

6

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

of “Covering the Trump Presidency.” The panel featured Polk winners David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post (a Polk winner for his Political Reporting on the Trump campaign) and Alec MacGillis of ProPublica (the National Reporting winner for his analysis piece, “Revenge of the Forgotten Class”), in addition to Marine WalkerRivera of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (which won the Financial Reporting award for “the Panama Papers”).

The Polk Awards ceremony included the presentation of the George Polk Career Award to Anna Deveare-Smith, celebrating a career that continues to shine light on important social issues like urban conflict, access to education, and economic opportunity through her work as a playwright and actress. Smith conducts voluminous field interviews and researches official documents to create narrative scripts like Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 to explore ethnic conflict and urban riots. She then brings them to life by playing every role in one-woman theatrical productions that have been hailed as a highly original and incisive form of journalism.

Other winners of the 68th Annual George Polk Awards in Journalism included:

Foreign Reporting Nicholas Casey and Meridith Kohut of The New York Times for chronicling Venezuela’s economic collapse in a series of dispatches written by Casey and augmented by Kohut’s photography. They portrayed shocking conditions in hospitals — one was without running water for months and another experienced a power failure that doomed premature infants — and mental institutions without medication that released psychotic patients without treatment.

Local Reporting Darwin BondGraham and Ali Winston of the weekly East Bay Express for exposing a sordid criminal sex scandal within the Oakland police department that led up the ranks and cost three police chiefs their jobs in a single week.

Medical Reporting Lenny Bernstein, Scott Higham, and David Fallis of the Washington Post for tracing lax regulation of the distribution of narcotic painkillers by the Drug Enforcement Administration to pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and allies in Congress and the Justice Department.

State Reporting

Sports Reporting Rebecca R. Ruiz of the New York Times for a breakthrough account of a massive state-run doping program in Russia that had corrupted the results of at least three recent Olympics.

Education Reporting Brian M. Rosenthal of the Houston Chronicle for exposing a longstanding but previously unreported Texas policy setting a quota denying special education services for more than 8.5 percent of students in any of the state’s 1,200 school districts.

Radio Reporting Robert Lewis of WNYC for disclosing questionable outside business interests of New York City police commanders.

Surprised to see that just one of more than a dozen officers publicly named in the city’s most explosive police scandal in two decades had filed a financial disclosure form, Lewis dug deeper and discovered the NYPD has virtually no oversight of its officers’ outside financial interests.

Television Reporting Reporter A. J. Lagoe, producer Steve Eckert, and photojournalist Gary Knox of KARE-11 in Minneapolis for “Invisible Wounds," a series of reports initially disclosing that the Veterans Administration in Minnesota deployed unqualified diagnosticians to examine veterans for traumatic brain injuries in violation of its own standards.

Craig Harris of The Arizona Republic for uncovering the wholesale termination of women, minorities and those over the age of 40 without cause by Arizona state agencies, ostensibly to cut costs but obviously as a way to shed the workforce of female, minority and older employees.

Magazine Reporting

Justice Reporting

Photojournalism

Christie Thompson of The Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro of National Public Radio for bringing to light an oxymoronic abuse of inmates by federal and state prison authorities — double solitary confinement. They found that at least 80 percent of federal inmates held in punitive segregation were housed two to a cell and that the practice was deployed in at least 18 state prison systems.

Anand Gopal for "The Hell After ISIS,” a wrenching 9,000-word account in the May 2016 issue of The Atlantic describing the travails of one Iraqi family caught in the crossfire between Islamic State terrorists and U.S.-backed forces.

Daniel Berehulak of The New York Times for "They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals," a haunting photo essay depicting the wanton carnage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous drug crackdown in the Philippines.

Polk Winners (from left): Nicholas Casey and Meridith Kohut of the New York Times (Foreign Reporting), David Fallis, Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post (Medical Reporting), and Christie Thompson of the Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro of National Public Radio (Justice Reporting).

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

7

Artist Book Collection

Curator Constance Woo previews a special exhibition at LIU Brooklyn Home on the Range, 1995

By Alicia McKim Limited edition 43/50 A series of six panoramas of western ranching scenes, each with a folding exterior frame carrying the text of the song “Home on the Range,” with multiple folding layers of scenery in a carousel book structure using copies of vintage postcards.

Tag, 2005

By Mark Wagner with Kathryn Gritt (photographs), Dylan Graham (lettering), Amy Mees (colophon lettering) Limited edition 1/12 Based on a fictional tale of man who finds a clothing tag attached to the skin at the back of his neck, the book utilizes tags from many types of clothes, as cited in the colophon: “vintage and modern [clothing], under and over wear, dress and casual, expensive and cheap, mixed with those from stuffed toys, furniture, baggage, bedding, and housewares.”

Ode to a Grand Staircase, 2001 Designed and printed

by Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum, with text by Erik Satie Limited edition 75/100 The book is based on the story “The March of the Grand Staircase,” composed by Erik Satie in 1914. Letterpress-printed cut card panels attached to concertinas on both sides creating two spines. Pages are cut in layers to resemble a staircase and open from the center in the fashion of French doors.wood type in multi-color letterpress printing.

8

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Fish Tales, 1993

By Barbara Tetenbaum and Walter Tisdale with binding by Daniel Kelm Limited edition 45/60 A collaboration loosely based on the landlocked salmon using a variety of printing techniques on MacGregor-Vinzani, ‘Wahon’ and handmade papers by B. Tetenbaum.

Silk Pieces, 2000

By Michelle Lizieri and Nancy Bauch Limited edition 1/5 Accordion-fold book of four leaves folded to form pages. The first layer contains the text in black printed on vellum paper; the second layer is made of stitched silk fabric pieces in various colors and print patterns, including some with handwriting; the third layer is a white paper with a cream-colored printed pattern; the fourth layer is dyed paper in hues of blues, gold/yellows, and greens.

Transient Song, 1994

By Amber Gayle and Stacy Wakefield Limited edition of 10 According to the publisher’s website, “Amber Gayle's poem celebrating the nomadic hobo-life is printed on foreign newspapers, like pieces picked up on travels, passing over local news and events in a fast and furious pace getting to the next place.” The book utilizes various wood type in multi-color letterpress printing.

The Artist Book Collection will be on display in LIU Brooklyn's Resnick Gallery May 8-26. For more information, email constance.woo@liu.edu.

The Power to Inspire LIU is transforming the region’s schools with the Sanford Education Programs

As a founding member of the Sanford Education Collaborative, LIU is working with districts across the New York metropolitan area to transform the way over 140,000 children learn in more than 5,500 classrooms across the region.

The Collaborative’s 10 universities work in their regions to advance the Sanford Harmony and Sanford Inspire programs.

These programs – based on the vision of celebrated entrepreneur and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford – aim to develop dynamic teachers who can provide inspiring classroom experiences, while expanding social-emotional learning to foster character development and compassion and decrease bullying.

LIU and the Sanford programs have found big fans in the classroom.

“The Sanford Harmony program provided our young learners with the opportunity to discuss key elements of character education,” said Lynnda Nadien, a Principal in the Uniondale Union Free School District. “We are proud of our accomplishments using this dynamic program, as it certainly provides a modern approach to teaching the pillars of character education.”

LIU welcomed more than 250 New York City educators from 15 school districts this past January for LIU Brooklyn’s fifth Sanford Inspire Professional Development event, presented in partnership with New York City Department of Education Superintendents Michael Prayor and Karen Watts.

“Professional development is critical to improving teaching practices and student outcomes,” said Carmen Fariña, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. “Opportunities like this one provide educators with the resources and training to create vibrant and stimulating classrooms.”

“We are proud of our accomplishments using this dynamic (Harmony) program, as it certainly provides a modern approach to teaching the pillars of character education.”

The event provided attendees with valuable resources to help motivate students. The keynote address was delivered

by Kathleen Cushman, author, researcher and co-founder of “What Kids Can Do,” who presented strategies to engage students based on direct student input.

With Sanford Harmony empowering teachers and administrators to create harmonious classroom environments, and Sanford Inspire helping teachers deliver engaging learning experiences, the impact of LIU’s work with the Sanford Education Collaborative will be felt for decades to come.

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has been an active supporter of LIU’s work with the Sanford Education Programs.

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

9

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Courtesy Arnold Hano

Courtesy Jon Leonoudakis/EvZone Media

From the Battleship to the Bleachers, and Beyond Arnold Hano B’41 authored a legendary career by keeping his eyes and mind open

The rise of social media has made it easy for sportswriters to offer opinions on any range of subjects beyond the games and athletes they cover.

It’s also made it easier for their readers to attempt to muzzle them with calls to “stick to sports.”

Arnold Hano doesn’t own a smartphone, but the story is all too familiar.

“Things haven’t changed,” Hano recalled, “I would write pieces for Sport magazine that treated a ballplayer as a human being, and I would get some ‘pan mail’ [SIC] back saying, ‘Stick to baseball.

What are you trying to do?’ because I’d write about Willie McCovey’s background as a poor boy in Georgia and things like that. I don’t think that’s changed very much.”

To be sure, the 95-year-old Hano knows just how much the world has changed since September 29, 1954, when he bought a $2.20 ticket to Game One of the World Series and compiled the hand written notes that would eventually become A Day in the Bleachers, his best known book. Still, Hano is confident that he’d have found his way in today’s media environment just as he did over a remarkable half-century in journalism and publishing.

“I like to think that I’m a malleable person with an ability to adapt to the circumstance,” Hano said. “Whatever the circumstance would be today, I would probably adapt to it.”

10

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

It was that mindset that led Hano to join the staff of the Seawanhaka as a freshman, despite having never written for publication before.

“One day, I walked past the Seawanhaka office,” Hano recalled, “and I heard people laughing; I didn’t know you were allowed to laugh! I walked in, and I signed myself onto the newspaper as a reporter.

That began my writing career.”

By his junior year, Hano was the paper’s sports editor, and as a senior, he served as co-editor-in-chief.

“I found something with which I was very comfortable and proficient,” Hano said. “What was nice was that they sort of left me alone, let me find myself, and I found that I was good enough to do what I was doing.”

After he graduated, Hano was hired as a copy boy at the New York Daily News. After a little more than a year, Hano joined the Army, and as he sailed from San Francisco to the Aleutian Islands, his observant eyes and entrepreneurial mindset came into play again.

“I said to our captain, ‘I see you have a mimeograph machine here,’ because we were getting flyers just about every day about what was going on,” Hano recalled. “I said, ‘I could put out a publication that would entertain people if you would let me do that.’ He said, ‘Go ahead and do it,’ so I got myself a crew of people and we put out a publication.”

After World War II, Hano continued his career in publishing – first as managing editor at Bantam Books and later as editor-in-chief at Lion Books – before leaving to focus on writing in 1954. It was that year that he wrote “A Day in the Bleachers,” which led to a steady stream of work from publications that included Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and the Saturday Evening Post.

He gained his greatest recognition as a sportswriter, but he was never one to “stick to sports.” The same year he was named Magazine Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, he was also honored with the Hillman Prize in magazine journalism for “The Burned Out Americans,” a story about conditions facing migratory farm workers in California’s Central Valley.

He even made a detour into politics after using his connections to secure a press credential to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles (He was officially representing Pageant magazine, but no stories were expected). With his credential and a bit of initiative, Hano found himself standing in front of John F. Kennedy.

“When Kennedy was nominated,” Hano recalled, “the next morning, I went to his office in the Sports Arena. There was nobody in front – no Secret Service, no family, no fans, no anything. I knocked on the door, and he said, ‘Come in.’ I was wearing my credential, and he said, ‘Ah, the press has arrived,’ and I was the first reporter in America to talk with the [official] nominee.”

“He wanted to know what I thought about Nixon. We chatted for 25 minutes, and then about a week after that conversation, I received a letter inviting me to become a member of Kennedy’s national speechwriting committee.”

The honor was more impressive than it sounded – “really just a line for a résumé,” Hano said – as seasoned political pros like Ted Sorenson and Pierre Salinger wrote most of the speeches, along with Kennedy himself, but “maybe once when I was hearing a speech, I would hear a sentence or a phrase that sounded like mine.”

Nearly 60 years later, Hano can look back on his decorated career and see just how much the world has changed. There would be no impromptu meetings with a presidential candidate today, and the audience for Hano’s account of the World Series opener would likely be much more limited in an era when highlights and analysis are available almost instantly. Still, the wisdom that’s guided Hano through his remarkable career still rings true today.

“My feeling is, take advantage of whatever is available to you and turn it into something that will further your career, and maybe make the world a little better.”

“My feeling is,” Hano said, “take advantage of whatever is available to you and turn it into something that will further your career, and maybe make the world a little better.”

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

11

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Court is in Session

New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore P’77 Gives Back Through Internships

When Janet DiFiore steps into the ornate courtroom of the New York Court of Appeals – where she presides as Chief Judge – she knows just how much the position demands.

“Every day,” DiFiore said, “I’m reminded of the breadth and significance of the responsibility that I have.”

“It relieves kids of that terrible choice that so many kids have to make where they have to choose between a paying job and an internship,” DiFiore said. “I think it’s going to be a wonderful way to introduce these kids to public service work, and for these employers to get a firsthand look at these kids that possibly leads to job opportunities for them.”

It’s not just that DiFiore is in charge of the State Court of Appeals, ruling on cases alongside her six fellow judges. As Chief Judge of New York State, she is effectively CEO of the state’s justice system, with its 15,000 employees, $2.8 billion budget, and 4 million new filings every year.

The Catalyst Program was inspired by DiFiore’s own experience as a District Attorney, where she found that most of her interns came from families of expanded means, where there were ample opportunities to get a résumé in front of someone in a position to help.

As demanding as the job is, though, DiFiore calls it “the professional privilege of a lifetime. I am extremely gratified and honored to be in this position.”

“It dawned on me very early on that I wasn’t seeing the kids who were struggling to pay for law school and college,” DiFiore said, “I made a very deliberate effort to seek those kids out, but I didn’t have any way to help fund those programs. When I left the DA position and had this enormous pot of [campaign] money, I thought that the most beneficial use of that money would be to fund public service internships.”

And, as an appointed judge who will serve on the Court through 2025, the former Westchester County District Attorney is also proud of what she’s done with the campaign funds that she no longer needs.

The Catalyst Public Fellowship Program places students seeking public-interest careers in internships, with the Catalyst Program and the student’s institution combining to provide $5,000 in funding.

12

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Having launched her own career in the law through a series of internships during her undergraduate and law school careers, DiFiore knows just how much an internship can mean.

“My course of study was eye-opening and wonderful.

There was lots of interaction with the professors, which I had not been accustomed to. It was just a wonderful experience, and I was happy to be a part of the University.”

“I have a very strong affinity for helping to place student in internship programs that might either help them advance their personal quest for a specific position or help them understand whether this is an area of law that they want to be involved in,” DiFiore said. “I think that internships help to open up a whole world for kids on so many levels.

“It was the first opportunity for me to be away from my family and to be totally immersed in an educational environment,” DiFiore said.

“My course of study was eye-opening. There was lots of interaction with the professors, which I had not been accustomed to.”

DiFiore’s immersion in her new academic environment was a powerful experience.

“I remember talking to my mom and dad about the ride, “DiFiore said, “and how even when there was traffic, it didn’t matter, because I was constantly thinking about what was going on in the classroom, what my mind was being opened to. It was just a wonderful intellectual experience.”

That experience led to law school, positions in the Westchester DA’s office, county court and supreme court judgeships, and eventually, her election as District Attorney, a role she calls “the most important position in local government” for its importance in building and nurturing strong communities, not only by prosecuting crime, but by helping to prevent it.”

“I thought that that was my last stop, to tell the truth,” DiFiore said.

“I was asked to consider submitting my name for the position of chief judge, and after some careful thought, I decided that that would be an important pursuit.”

And with every passing day, DiFiore learns a little more about just how important it is.

For DiFiore, internships were an important complement to the powerful education she received as sociology major.

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

13

“Success is not about you, it’s about the good you can accomplish.”

—Gary Winnick P’69 “College should prepare you to compare, articulate, compute, and to be a good human being with values.”

—Irene Natividad B’71 “Find something you really love, work hard, and have faith. Whatever you believe in, just know that it’s within you.”

—Mary M. Lai B’42, Treasurer Emerita, LIU

“Education is the lifeblood of humanity.”

—John Kanas S’68 "Whether it’s life science or computer science being knowledgeable and conversant in the language and operation of an industry will go a long way to helping find success after graduation.”

—Eric Krasnoff, Chairman of the Board, LIU “Discover what you like to do and embrace it.”

—Sarabeth Levine P’64

“Business is a team sport.”

—Peter Gibson P’82

At LIU, the mentorship, support, and guidance of our diverse and innovative alumni are invaluable resources in helping the next generation of LIU alumni as they prepare for success after graduation.

We encourage you to share your experience and insight and contribute to the continued legacy of greatness built upon an LIU diploma. Call LIU Alumni Relations to find out how you can become an Alumni Mentor and other ways to give back to LIU students.

Want to mentor? Call us at 516-299-2263 or email us at LIUalumni.com.

14

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

David Newton Awards for Excellence in Teaching Congratulations to our winners

LIU honored the winners of the 2017 David Newton Awards for Excellence in Teaching. These awards have honored Long Island University’s most eminent educators for more than 30 years, and the leadership of these professors empowers LIU students while informing the national academic dialogue.

This year’s winners include: • Dr. Lynn E. Cohen, Special Education & Literacy, LIU Post – Dr. Cohen’s research interests are related to young children’s language development, play, literacy learning and early childhood environments.

• Dr. Azad L. Gucwa, Biomedical Sciences, LIU Post – Professor Gucwa is a certified medical technologist under the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) who has worked as a Microbiologist at Mercy Medical Center and as a Cytogenetic Technologist at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

• Dr. Christy Mulligan, Counseling & School Psychology, LIU Brooklyn – Dr. Mulligan’s research has focused primarily in the area of selective mutism, and she has written and presented on this topic extensively.

• Dr. Patrizia Porrini, Management, LIU Post – Dr. Porrini’s areas of teaching, research and professional consulting focus on mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, negotiation, high-technology organizations and firm performance.

• Dr. Elaine Wong, Pharmacy Practice, LIU Pharmacy – Dr. Wong, a clinical pharmacist at Maimonides Medical Center, is a preceptor for both introductory and advanced pharmacy practice students, and serves as the faculty advisor for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Faculty Accomplishments • Professor of Education at LIU Post, Joseph Piro published a guest column, "Building an innovation culture via the Bologna Process," in University World News.

• Iftikhar Ahmad, Associate Professor of Instruction at LIU Post, had his book, Citizenship Education in the United States: A Historical Perspective, published by Routledge Press

• Leeja Carter, Assistant Professor of Health and Sport Psychology at LIU Brooklyn, was the keynote speaker at the Northeast Atlantic Sport Psychology Conference at Temple University and at the Springfield College Sport Psychology Conference.

• Michael Masaracchio, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy, published an article, “Shoulder Joint and Muscle Characteristics Among Weight-training Participants with and without Impingement Syndrome,” in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, in collaboration with colleagues at Nova Southeastern University, the University of Central Florida, California State University – Dominguez Hills, and Duke University.

• Thomas Fahy, Professor of English and Director of American Studies at LIU Post, published an article, “Disturbing Appetites: Food, Fitness, and 1980s American Culture in Stephen King’s Thinner,” in the Journal of Popular Culture.

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

15

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

A Quantum Leap Forward LIU Brooklyn physics professors propose a new test to understand the universe Michael Kavic is trying to understand the universe a bit better… and he may be succeeding.

A paper by Kavic, LIU colleagues Matt Lippert and John Estes, and Virginia Tech’s John Simonetti was published in March by the world’s leading astrophysics journal and featured in The New Scientist, one of the world’s most popular science magazines.

For Kavic, the scientific community’s excitement comes from the hunger for an experiment to test theories of quantum gravity, considered science’s best hope to unify quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity.

“When you try to merge those two theories,” Kavic said, “or try to make them coexist, you get complete nonsense.”

Testing theories of quantum gravity is “out of reach for groundbased experiments,” Kavic said. The Large Hadron Collider can probe to the scale of 10 -18 meters, but quantum gravity requires a scale of 10 -35 meters.

“Science without both theory and experiment is very lame,” Kavic said. “In this field, we really don’t have any experimental input, and you start asking yourself, ‘How do you make progress?’

The answer may lie in the stars; specifically, a binary system involving a black hole and a pulsar. Because the flashes from a pulsar have timing “on the scale of an atomic clock,” a pulsar has potential applications for testing quantum gravity theories.

“It remains surprising to me that not as much of this work goes on as you might suspect,” Kavic said. “I think a lot of it is sociological.

These are two very different kinds of communities. There isn’t as much interaction as you might think, and a big part of the work that I do is encouraging people to think in this direction.”

16

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

From left: John Estes, Matt Lippert, and Michael Kavic As Kavic and company attract attention from the scientific community’s highest levels, they’re also including scientific newcomers through the Early College Scholars Program. The LIU team’s research goals dovetail with the launch of the Physics department’s “Career Ladders” program, offering physics degrees geared toward specific career paths.

“We’ve initiated a mentored research program for high school students,” Kavic said, “We meet weekly with high school students, and they participate in our research.”

Kavic and his colleagues are looking to the stars and helping students reach for them.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Leadership in Literature LIU Post Professor John Lutz shares his affection for teaching, literature and learning.

In John Lutz’s office, looking out on the picturesque LIU Post campus, hangs an intricate picture composed of the text of the opening chapter of Moby Dick.

“I love it because I can’t sum it up,” the English Department chair said of the Melville masterpiece.

“I like books that I can return to, always finding more in them. My favorite authors are the ones who are capable of putting all of the important questions of the time, political to philosophical, into an easy-to-read plot line.”

It’s those authors whom Lutz delights in introducing to his students, as different literary, political, and philosophical perspectives help them to better examine themselves and their world.

“All knowledge is connected,” Lutz said, “but students don’t come in seeing the connections. That’s our job.”

This coming spring, Lutz will show students the connections between great literature and the leadership skills required to succeed in business, government, and other fields. Lutz’s “Leadership in Literature” course is an exercise in “literature as case studies in leadership,” fulfilling the writing requirement for Dean’s Scholars in the School of Business.

native matriculated as a student. As Lutz wandered Humanities Hall - reading Shakespeare, Faulkner, and yes, Melville - he met his wife. Some 30 years later, his son is a student here, an English major like his father.

The elder Lutz continues to explore new ways to teach literature through the Hutton House lectures, experimenting with new topics and methods in front of an audience pursuing learning for its own sake.

“Most of the folks up there are retired professionals,” Lutz said, “folks who love literature and philosophy.”

He also works with LIU Post’s newest students, leading Post 101 service learning projects. These projects give freshmen hands-on experience organizing blood drives, sustainability projects, and other community-minded initiatives. The program has grown exponentially, from three projects in 2010 to 35 this past fall.

Through these programs, Lutz said, students learn to “treat the campus as the community,” a mission that he takes personally.

After all, for more than 30 years, this community has been his.

“All knowledge is connected, but students don’t come in seeing the connections.

That’s our job.”

Lutz’s passion for the world’s literary treasures has been nurtured on the LIU Post campus since 1985, when the Massapequa Park

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

17

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Cream of the Crop LIU Pharmacy’s Grazia Stagni works to expand access to topical treatments For Grazia Stagni, Professor of Pharmaceutics at LIU Pharmacy, this fall’s “Benchmark of dermis microdialysis to assess bioequivalence of dermatological topical products“ – backed by a six-figure grant from the FDA – is a study more than 20 years in the making.

“I was a research assistant after my Ph.D.,” Stagni said, “and these people were using microdialysis – a very tiny probe inserted under the skin – to study physiological properties in the skin. I saw the opportunity to apply it to the delivery of drugs for the skin when applied topically.”

Now, FDA funding and support from the generic drug industry will allow Stagni to pursue human testing.

“They want to figure out a not-so-expensive way to demonstrate that they produce a quality product that is similar to the one that is commercially available at a lower cost,” Stagni said of the generic manufacturers.

While Stagni’s explores microdialysis, a team in Austria is studying the potential use of microperfusion for evaluation purposes. The simultaneous studies will help determine the best way forward.

Historically, availability of generic options for topical treatments has lagged behind generics for other drugs, due to the lack of costeffective testing methods.

“We’re going to study the same product,” Stagni said, “and then we’re going to try to see when one method is better than the other.”

“The generic company must go through a lot of very costly procedures to get the product approved,” Stagni said. “In the end, it might not be cost effective. The consumer is punished because there are no generics of these topical products, and they cost a lot.”

In the end, Stagni hopes, the result will be more patients treated at a lower cost.

In microdialysis, Stagni saw an opportunity to assess topical treatments without lengthy, expensive clinical trials, enabling generic manufacturers to offer alternatives to consumers more quickly and at lower costs.

“Ideally,” she said, “this grant should end up in a guideline from the FDA that tells the generic industry, ‘If you want to make a generic of this cream, you can try to perform this experiment.’”

For generic manufacturers, and for patients, the results could be just what the doctor ordered.

“Because I’ve always been interested in drug delivery, I saw the opportunity to apply [microdialysis] to the delivery of drugs for the skin when applied topically.”

18

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

ONE

YEAR

NEW YORK

Course Sequence and Format

GLOBAL

MBA

SHANGHAI

LONDON

Program length - 11 Months:

Program Start and End

24 weeks in New York 5 weeks in Shanghai 10 weeks in London

July 1, 2017 - May 2018

Long Island University’s (LIU) one-year accelerated global MBA is a unique program that offers elite students immersive learning experiences at each of three of the world’s business centers: New York, Shanghai, and London.

Contact greg.wagner@liu.edu for more information or to apply.

ACCELERATED

Curriculum 36 credits

LIU Global MBA Advantages • This unique MBA program is taught in three leading global cities. New York, Shanghai, and London are ranked among the top 20 in the world for opportunity and are centers of three of the largest economies in the world: US (#1), China (#2), and UK (#5)* • LIU offers the only MBA collaborative program with world-class Cambridge University and Fudan University *Source: cityam.com SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

19

STUDENT PROFILE

Hope for Warriors Amanda Lewis leads service learning projects

Amanda Lewis, a recent graduate of LIU Post, was honored when she heard that she had received this year's CICU Award for Community Service. Lewis was a rising junior when she decided to take on her service learning project to help Long Island’s veterans.

Lewis and Samantha Sanning, with the help of their peer mentor, Professor Susan Thomas, organized and planned a week long fundraiser dedicated to Hope for Warriors. Hope for Warriors is an organization that commits the highest percentage of money donated to veterans causes.​

“Dive in. Do everything you want to do while you are there. Try everything and find your niche.”

“As a psychology major, I learned a lot about trauma, especially with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,” Lewis said. With the help of Professor Thomas, she and Samantha organized various activities during the LIU common hour, including bake sales, pie in the face, and an information booth to educate students about mental health issues facing veterans across America.

20

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

The Post Foundation Program, led by peer mentors, is the service learning project taken on by all incoming students at Long Island University. It allows students to take on peer and faculty mentors, and start an initiative on campus. It has been a terrifically successful program that has simultaneously helped students get hands-on experience while giving back to the LIU community.

“I learned a lot about planning and organization. Being able to do the project was an amazing experience. It allowed me to command a leadership role on campus,” Amanda commented.

When asked about her decision to attend Long Island University, she said: “It was one of the best options, LIU had such a great psychology program with amazing faculty. There were also so many opportunities to excel at LIU.” Born and raised in Selden, New York, Amanda, she looks fondly back at her time spent at LIU Post. Currently she is in the midst of applying to graduate school. When asked what advice she would give incoming freshmen at Long Island University, she said: “Dive in. Do everything you want to do while you are there.

Try everything and find your niche.”

STUDENT PROFILE

Expanding Global Horizons From Brooklyn to London, Honors College student Jung Kim has broadened his perspective

“Ever since I was in the eighth grade,” Jung Kim said, “I was just fascinated by cells, by how the human body works.”

But as he prepared himself for that career as a biology major at LIU Brooklyn, he realized that he wanted more.

“I felt like my education was too one-dimensional,” Kim said. “I thought that there had to be more to my education than this.”

In the Honors College, he discovered that there was.

Kim found a “second home” in the Honors College lounge – “It's an environment where I get a ton of work done and also the perfect place to have conversations with my friends,” he said – and as he broadened his horizons with Sealy Ann Gilles’s advanced elective on Oscar Wilde, he learned how much more he wanted.

“In addition to being a great academic experience, I learned the importance of fostering new relationships with people who come from all walks of life.”

“We got to study the whole idea of doppelgangers and duality,” Kim said, “and that opened this new door to a creative aspect of me that I never knew existed.”

where he worked directly with the social innovation fund’s Vice President of Programs, Keno Sadler, in building a global community of emerging leaders.

As Kim added an English Literature minor, the door he’d opened in Brooklyn led to the hollowed halls of Oxford. With the help of the Steinberg Scholarship, Kim spent a semester studying English and chemistry at Oxford, advancing his education while gaining a new perspective on his academic pursuits.

“I got a great sense of how important nonprofit social organizations are in helping future leaders grow and expand their organizations,” Kim said.

“In addition to being a great academic experience,” Kim said, “I learned the importance of fostering new relationships with people who come from all walks of life.”

Kim got a hands-on education in fostering new relationships for the betterment of humanity through the prestigious Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship. Kim was able to secure an internship with Echoing Green,

Now, Kim is using his experiences at Oxford and with Echoing Green to help him find his path in life.

“I want to help relieve pain in people,” Kim said, “and I’ve developed this passion to enter the medical field, but I realize there are different paths I can take, and the Watson Fellowship and Study Abroad have taught me not to be afraid of these paths.”

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

21

STUDENT PROFILE

Competitive Compassion LIU Pharmacy Student Amanda Pizzo shines in counseling contest For LIU Pharmacy student Amanda Pizzo, counseling patients is about being a source of knowledge and support.

“I really like the personal interaction,” said Pizzo, who works in an independent pharmacy while studying at LIU. “I like to assist patients and make their lives a little easier. I like making their day a little better.”

Recently, however, the fifthyear Pharm.D. student has mixed her compassionate spirit with a competitive one. Pizzo represented LIU Pharmacy in San Francisco in the patient counseling competition at the American Pharmacists Association National Meeting, competing against students from more than 120 schools across the country.

“You get five minutes,” Pizzo said. “You get a drug, and you get a prescription, and a profile, and you have to look up information about the drugs: interactions with the patient’s profile, proper counseling on the medication, things to look out for. Then, you have five minutes to counsel the mock patient. The judges watch you, and then they send the results.”

It’s an intense competitive experience, but also a constructive one.

“It makes you see what you need to work on,” Pizzo said. “The patient I had in San Francisco wasn’t very friendly, but you’re not always going to get that patient that’s happy to be there. You get patients that just want to take [the prescription] and leave. It’s important to learn how to deal with different personalities. I think that’s one of the things I’ve learned.”

Traveling across the country to compete against fellow students wasn’t something Pizzo could have seen doing when she enrolled at LIU in the fall of 2012, but exploring different aspects of her chosen field has been one of the great benefits of her LIU Pharmacy education.

22

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

“When I got into LIU, I pushed myself to do things that I wouldn’t normally do,” Pizzo said. “That opens you up to a wider range of thinking. I’ve grown in that sense, and become a better person by trying things that I wouldn’t normally do.”

Pizzo has also immersed herself in the culture of LIU Pharmacy, serving as president of the P5 class and secretary of pharmacy leadership society Phi Lambda Sigma. Over her years at LIU, the second-floor pharmacy lounge has become a second home.

“It’s where I’ve made all my friends,” Pizzo said. “We studied in there, hung out in there, talked in there, ate in there…it’s a place with a lot of good memories.”

“When I got into LIU, I pushed myself to do things that I wouldn’t normally do. That opens you up to a wider range of thinking. I’ve grown in that sense, and become a better person by trying things that I wouldn’t normally do.”

And each year, as she volunteers at the hooding ceremony for LIU Pharmacy’s newest graduates, Pizzo gets a glimpse at her own future.

“You get to see all the students that you knew graduate,” Pizzo said.

“Their families are there, and they’re so happy. You can see their achievements, and I like that a lot, because one day, that will be us.”

Scholarship Spotlight Jennifer Hernandez LIU Brooklyn Class of 2019 BS Marketing Brooklyn, New York

“The Gutnick Impact Scholarship granted me the opportunity to remain in school and be able to reach my full potential through my education”

Kames L. Davis LIU Post Class of 2018 BS Business Administration West Columbia, South Carolina

“In addition to hard work and dedication, I am a firm believer that your faith will also take you far in life.

If you believe in yourself and in your future, you will gather the strength and courage to reach your dreams. I have been blessed immensely with amazing opportunities at Long Island University and receiving the Barron Entrepreneurs Award is yet another incredible blessing.”

Claire Michelle Jean

LIU Brooklyn Class of 2019 BS Nursing Valley Stream, New York

“As students, we all have goals that we strive to accomplish and scholarships play a big role in helping us reach those goals. Receiving the Rudin Foundation Nursing Scholarship means a lot to me. It has given me the opportunity to further my education and pursue my career as a nurse, and for that, I'm forever grateful."

Marco Marmo LIU Post Class of 2017 BS Accountancy West Hempstead, New York

“From the first time I visited the Post campus, I knew I found my home for the next four years.

The Manuel H. and Claire Barron Scholarship that I received from LIU not only allowed me to attend college debt-free, it also made me realize how much everyone at Post believes in me.

And that is priceless.”

Tida Darboe

LIU Pharmacy Class of 2021 Pharm.D. Bronx, New York

"The David Newton Scholarship really helped me. I was concerned about how I was going to continue my education but having this scholarship has changed all of that and provided a way for me to go on with my classes. I am very grateful for this gesture of kindness."

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

23

Brooklyn Athletics Restoring a dynasty

The Blackbirds’ NEC tournament win last season was LIU Brooklyn’s 14th softball title in 30 years of conference play, but the first since 2012. With the NEC coaches choosing the Blackbirds as the preseason favorite for the 2017 title, the stage is set for LIU Brooklyn to re-establish itself as the dominant team in the conference under head coach Roy Kortmann, who celebrated his 600th career victory during the 2016 campaign.

As the Blackbirds’ early-season results demonstrated, Kortmann’s charges are a force to be reckoned with outside the conference as well. A win over Brigham Young University – then the No. 23 team in the nation – was an early season highlight, along with victories over Purdue, Providence, George Washington, and Marshall. These wins joined victories from past seasons over major-conference foes like Illinois, St. John’s, UMass, Northwestern, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, and Maryland, sending a message across the country that the Blackbirds are not to be taken lightly.

Men’s Indoor Track and Field Fourth Consecutive NEC Championship

Danielle Jeffries

NEC Champion, 100m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley 24

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Jerome Frink

NEC Player of the Year (Men’s Basketball)

Noemie LaCroix-Moreau NEC Champion, 200m Butterfly

Post Athletics Riding to the top

They’re finishing up their first varsity but don’t The Blackbirds’ NEC tournament winseason, last season wascall LIU them rookies.

Brooklyn’s 14th title in 30 years of conference play, but the first since 2012. With the NEC coaches choosing the Blackbirds In their inaugural season as LIU Post’s 23rd NCAA Division II as the preseason favorite for the 2017 title, the stage is set for team, the women of the Pioneer equestrian team have established LIU Brooklyn to re-establish itself as the dominant team in the themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the region. Under the conference under head coach Roy Kortmann, who celebrated guidance of head coach Brooke Chasin, the Pioneers finished as his 600th career victory during the 2016 campaign. the high-point team in seven of their first nine competitions, with five claiming first place at the Regional Show.

As riders the Blackbirds’ early-season results demonstrated, Kortmann’s charges are a force to be reckoned with outside the conference as LIU Post is now home to one of 22 varsity equestrian programs well. A win over Brigham Young University – then the No. 23 team nationwide. The increase in resources and practice time that in the nation – was an early season highlight, along with victories come with the move has made a difference for the Pioneer over Purdue, Providence, George Washington, and Marshall. These riders in the show ring. wins joined victories from past seasons over major-conference foesmore like Illinois, St. John’s, UMass, Northwestern, “With practices,” team co-captain Alexis RandRutgers, told TheGeorgia Tech, and Maryland, sending a message thedetails country that Pioneer, “Coach [Chasin] can focus on fixingacross the little the add Blackbirds arewe not tobeing be taken lightly. that up when are judged.”

Anthony Sparacio

NCAA Division II All-American

Greg Dotson

All-ECC Second Team

Laura Bendfeldt

Metropolitan Conference Champion, 50-yard Freestyle, 100-yard Freestyle, 100-yard Backstroke

Mikaiya Moore All-ECC Second Team

Caitlin Johnstone

Metropolitan Conference Champion, 100-yard Breaststroke SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

25

On Campus Grant funded by the Jewish Foundation for the education of women The Jewish Foundation for The Education of Women has funded a $900,000 grant that will provide $30,000 in scholarship funding over three years to 30 LIU Brooklyn students, including 15 Pharm.D. majors and 15 Occupational Therapy majors, who are high performing, civic-minded, and meet other criteria.

The Jewish Foundation for Education of Women (JFEW) is a New York City-based, nonsectarian organization helping women with financial need meet their educational and career goals through scholarships and opportunities for professional development. In partnership with schools and nonprofits, JFEW fosters a community of women dedicated to education, professional achievement and who contribute to society.

LIU's prestigious Palmer School awarded $500,000 grant from Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Long Island University’s prestigious Palmer School of Library and Information Science has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to preserve documents that are a vital part of Long Island’s history. The Palmer School is a recognized leader in library science and one of just 62 schools accredited by the American Library Association.

With the Gardiner Foundation’s grant, LIU will digitize and preserve a collection of historical documents currently held by historical societies across Long Island, with a particular emphasis on Suffolk County. LIU will showcase these documents at an annual Gardiner Symposium, while promoting year-round visibility of these historical societies.

The project will be led by Dr. Gregory Hunter, Professor of Library and Information Science who heads the doctoral program at the Palmer School at LIU. “The Palmer School has been educating archivists and supporting the local historical community for three decades,” said Dr. Hunter. “The generous grant from the Gardiner Foundation will help preserve Long Island's history and also ensure that the next generation of archival professionals has the skills to preserve history in the digital age.”

26

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Giving back in Belize Spring break at LIU Brooklyn was an exciting week for our LIU Students. 10 students along with three faculty members participated in their 3rd Annual Service Learning Trip to Belize City, Belize. LIU students and faculty members engaged in Interprofessional Teams providing services to 105 children at the center and through home-visits. Due to the country’s growing concern of poverty, Belize has one Physical Therapist and no Occupational Therapists. The LIU OT & PT students had the opportunity work alongside experienced LIU faculty treating children under their supervision, with a range of diagnoses. The use of Telehealth was also implemented in order to provide the country with a sustainable model of OT services.

Steinberg: A New Chapter Preserving a legacy for the future

Dr. David J. Steinberg served the LIU community for 27 years as president of the University. Beginning in 1985, Steinberg helped grow LIU into one of the largest and most comprehensive private universities in the United States.

His student-centered vision spurred the expansion of the University’s academic footprint on the Web and around the world through LIU Online and LIU Global. His leadership also propelled the launch of programs in emerging fields like forensic science, genetic counseling, mobile GIS, homeland security management, and environmental sustainability.

During his years as president, Steinberg focused on creating new and exciting opportunities to students of all backgrounds.

He continues to harbor an “unapologetic belief in the opportunity to alter lives through education” and thinks back on his years at LIU with an obvious fondness.

However, even during the time he spent moving the University forward, he could not escape a curiosity about its past. As a trained historian, he often came across unanswered questions

about the University’s early years and wondered how the historic Brooklyn campus and sprawling Post estate fit into the greater development of Long Island.

“I spent almost 30 years listening to Mary Lai tell stories,” Dr. Steinberg remarked, “and I always found the history of this University both enchanting and fascinating.”

So where is he now? Four years after his retirement, Dr. David J. Steinberg can still be found in his nearby Glen Cove home researching the institution he led for nearly three decades.

Over the years, Long Island University became more than a home to him; it became a passion.

As he finished his service as University President, Steinberg turned to the LIU archives to begin a legacy project, documenting and preserving the complex history of the University for its network of over 200,000 alumni and future LIU students alike.

The nearly finished 500-page manuscript, entitled Preface to the Future, is expected to be published this spring.

“I spent almost 30 years listening to Mary Lai tell stories.

I always found the history of this University both enchanting and fascinating.”

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

27

LIU Bookshelf

The History of the Hudson River Valley: From Wilderness to the Civil War

By Vernon Benjamin, LIU Post ’74 (MA English Literature) The Hudson River Valley has been a place of contradictions since its first settlement by Europeans. Discovered by an Englishman who claimed it for the Dutch, the region soon became home to the most vibrant trading outpost for the New World colonies―the Island of Manhattan―even as the rest of the valley retained the native beauty that would inspire artists from James Fenimore Cooper to Thomas Cole. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, New York emerged as the capital of a new nation, and wealth from the city flowed north to the burgeoning Valley, leading to a renaissance of culture and commerce that is still evident today.

When Jack Trumps Ace

By Debbie De Louise, LIU Post ’89 Jackie Riordan's in trouble . . . When her jewel-thief father is caught in the middle of a heist, Jackie makes her getaway to his ex-jail pal’s apartment, a man called Ace, who lives in an upscale neighborhood of Chicago. What she doesn't count on is falling in love with him and becoming his partner in crime. She also doesn't expect to compete with Ace’s old flame or deal with his cat Roxie who causes her allergy attacks. All bets are off . . . After Jackie discovers clues left by her father, which lead her to a treasure that Ace may have stolen, she contemplates her next move.

28

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism: Illiberal Intelligentsia and the Future of Egyptian Democracy

By Dalia Fahmy, Assistant Professor of Political Science, LIU Brooklyn (Editor), and Daanish Faruqi (Editor) The liberatory sentiment that stoked the Arab Spring and saw the ousting of long-time Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak seems a distant memory. Democratically elected president Mohammad Morsi lasted only a year before he was forced from power to be replaced by precisely the kind of authoritarianism protestors had been railing against in January 2011. Paradoxically, this turn of events was encouraged by the same liberal activists and intelligentsia who’d pushed for progressive reform under Mubarak. Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism analyzes how such a key contingent of Egyptian liberals came to develop outright illiberal tendencies.

The Scorekeeper: Reflecting on Big Games and Big Stories, Brooklyn Roots and Jewish-American Culture, the Craft of Reporting and the Art of the Spin,

By Edward Hershey, LIU Brooklyn ’65 The Scorekeeper is an irreverent comingof-age tale, a perceptive take on reporting from the stadium to the statehouse, and an unsparing reflection on an era of urban tension and suburban sprawl, anti-war activism and a war on poverty, rampant crime and imperfect justice, political chicanery and prosecutorial abuse.

Unearthing Shakespeare: Embodied Performance and the Globe

By Valerie Clayman Pye, Assistant Professor of Theatre, LIU Post Unearthing Shakespeare is the first book to consider what the Globe, today’s replica of Shakespeare’s theatre, can contribute to a practical understanding of Shakespeare’s plays. Pye reconsiders the material evidence of Early Modern theatre-making, presenting clear, accessible discussions of historical theatre practice; stages and staging; and the relationship between actor and audience. She relays this into a series of training exercises for actors at all levels.

The Rarified Air of the Modern: Airplanes and Technological Modernity in the Anders

By Willie Hiatt, Associate Professor of Latin American History, LIU Post From the moment news reached Peru in 1910 that Jorge Chávez Dartnell, a pilot of Peruvian parentage, had become the first man to fly across the Alps, aviation fired the imagination of the masses in his home country. His and other Peruvian pilots' achievements generated great optimism that this technology could lift Peru out of its self-perceived backwardness and transform it into a modern nation.

Class Notes

We want to hear from you, send us your news and photos!

Submit class notes at liu.edu/alumni/submit to share your latest professional achievements and personal milestones.

1960 • Robert Miller, B’68, has recently come out of retirement to rejoin the federal government, working as Senior Advisor to the Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Mr. Miller had previously worked for four decades in federal human resources roles, including work at the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

1970

• Helaine (Weiss) Witt, B’71, has retired from her job as a New York City elementary school teacher, and now performs as a stand up comic, including performances in comedy clubs and senior community centers.

• Merrill Aronson, B’73, has developed, implemented and monitored quality systems to maintain ISO certification as a Chemical Supervisor at FMC Corporation.

• Gail Bell-Baptiste, B’75, has recently retired as Chair of NYSCAS Education at Touro College. She also spent more than 36 years at the New York City Department of Education, serving as classroom teacher, staff developer, district administrator, assistant principal, and principal of a magnet school for gifted children in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She’s recently moved to central Florida, where she continues to teach online courses at Touro.

1980 • Barbara (Leimgruber) McCausland, P’85, has recently moved to Raleigh, N.C., where she is teaching Blood Banking and Hematology at Wake Technical Community College.

1990

• Gene Page, P’94, is the publicity still photographer for AMC’s hit series, The Walking Dead. When he’s not getting a lens full of gruesome zombies, Gene also shoots underwater on shipwrecks and fresh water Florida springs in the caves near his home in Micanopy, Fla.

2000

• Shahida (Amar) Choudhry, Pharm’00, has opened her own community pharmacy in Tampa, Fla. She calls it “the best professional decision I have ever made,” and thanks LIU Pharmacy “for instilling a great work ethic” in her.

2010 • Maureen Mair, B’13, has joined the newly formed Clerk’s Office in New York City’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, which adjudicates more than 300,000 summonses each year, having merged with the Environmental Control Board, the Health Tribunal, the Taxi and Limousine Tribunal, and the Department of Consumer Affairs Tribunal.

Chasing the Future of Film

In our LIU Alumni digital newsletter in March, we featured Jon Navarro, an MFA student at LIU Brooklyn who was named a finalist in the Vista Project student filmmaker competition. Jon’s film, The Republican, was awarded second prize at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and will screen in selected theaters in the months ahead.

‘The Republican’ features a diverse cast of Asian, Latino, and Black actors, and centers on the plot to assassinate a Latino Republican candidate on election night. Audiences interact with the film via a mobile app, voting on what direction the story takes using their smartphones.

SPRING 2017 | LIU MAGAZINE

29

Upcoming Alumni Events LIU wants to see you!

Catch up with your fellow alumni, celebrate LIU’s proud traditions and forge new professional and social connections in LIU’s network of 200,000 alumni around the world.

Revisit cherished memories and create new ones at LIU Alumni Chapter Events.

For more information on all LIU alumni events, visit LIUAlumni.com

Golden Commencement Dinner/ Reunion Reception Winnick House, LIU Post Brookville, New York May 5, 2017

Golden Commencement/ Reunion Reception

The Plaza Hotel New York, New York June 15, 2017

Pioneer Golf Outing

Center for Entrepreneurship, LIU Brooklyn Brooklyn, New York May 11, 2017

Wind Watch Country Club Hauppauge, New York June 26, 2017

Pharmacy Alumni Reunion

Subway Series

Skyline Cruises Flushing, New York May 21, 2017

Citi Field Queens, New York August 17, 2017

NYC Networking Reception New York Athletic Club New York, New York June 14, 2017

30

LIU Gala

LIU MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

Get Involved LIU is Looking for Class Representatives Help keep your fellow alumni connected, and update us on the life and career milestones you and your classmates have achieved. For more information, contact Ryan Reilly at ryan.reilly@liu.edu.

Coming This Fall

When the last member of the Class of 2017 crosses the stage at Commencement, it will be less than four months until the first member of the Class of 2021 arrives on campus at LIU Post.

• Coming in September: The start of classes on September 6 marks the midpoint of Welcome Week, as the 2017-18 academic year begins!

• October: Come together with your fellow Pioneers for Homecoming festivities the weekend of October 14, as the LIU Post football team looks to take one more step toward repeating as Northeast-10 Conference Champions!

• For more information, visit liu.edu/post.

As the 2016-17 academic year draws to a close, we’re only weeks away from the beginning of another exciting year at LIU Brooklyn.

• Coming in September: Convocation on September 5 and the start of classes on September 6 highlight Welcome Week in Downtown Brooklyn.

• October: Come together with your fellow Blackbirds for Homecoming festivities, and celebrate the start of basketball season at Midnight Madness, as Derek Kellogg takes the LIU Brooklyn men’s basketball team onto the court for the first time!

• For more information, visit liu.edu/brooklyn.

Nonprofit U.S. Postage PAID Long Island University

LIU MAGAZINE 700 NORTHERN BLVD. BROOKVILLE, NY 11548-1327 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Sunday, July 30 | 7 p.m.

The Australian Pink Floyd Show – The Best Side of the Moon 2017

2017 Spring/Summer Season Events Sunday, May 14 | 7 p.m.

Pippin

The national tour of the high-flying, death-defying hit Broadway musical!

Friday, May 19 | 7:30 p.m.

The Godfather in Concert

Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, with music performed live by the Long Island Concert Orchestra while the film is simultaneously shown in HD on the big screen.

The classic Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety as well as some of the most popular songs in the Floyd catalogue.

Sunday, May 14

Pippin

Sunday, August 13 | 7 p.m.

Asian Youth Orchestra

Richard Pontzious, Artistic Director and Conductor Sarah Chang, Violin Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight Sarah Chang has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras, in a career spanning more than two decades.

Thursday, June 1

The Illusionists: Live from Broadway

Sunday, August 13

Asian Youth Orchestra

2016-17 Presenting Season Sponsor

Thursday, June 1 | 7:30 p.m.

The Illusionists: Live from Broadway

This mind-blowing spectacular showcases the jaw-dropping talents of seven of the most incredible Illusionists on earth.

New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Sunday, July 30

The Australian Pink Floyd Show – The best of the Moon 2017