Mason Spirit Fall 2016

MASON SPIRIT FA L L 2016

A M AG A Z I N E F O R T H E G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y CO M M U N I T Y

FOCUSING on Girls and

STEM A N E W C HAP T E R FO R FE N W I C K

â–

W H Y S O M AN Y YO U N G WO M E N O P T O U T O F S T E M

Welcoming the Class of 2020

Above Here they come—the Class of 2020.This fall Mason welcomed its largest incoming class in university history, with 3,222 first-time freshmen and 2,859 transfer students. First-time freshmen hail from 23 countries, 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The number of students in the Honors College has grown to 421 this year, also a record for Mason, and an increase from 365 students last year. Photos by Evan Cantwell and Ron Aira On the Cover One of the happy campers on campus this summer for the Mason-led FOCUS Camp for middle-school girls. See story on page 22.

Photo by Evan Cantwell

G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y: A G R E AT U N I V E R S I T Y O F A N E W A N D N E C E S S A R Y K I N D MORE ON THE WEB When you see this graphic, follow it to the magazine’s website for more: spirit.gmu.edu.

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Dusting Off the Library Fenwick Library’s renovation is one for the books. With the opening of a 157,000-square-foot addition, Mason’s first library has a new look, a greater purpose, and an extraordinary following.

STEM into Focus 22 Bringing No two days at the FOCUS—Females of Color and those Underrepresented in STEM—Camp are alike, but all are filled with stimulating activities that offer plenty of hands-on learning to middle school girls.

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D E PA R T M E N T S 2 3 4 8 13 30 36 38 39 4 0

FIRST WORDS FR O M O U R R E A D E R S A D VA N C I N G M A S O N @MASON M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N INQUIRING MINDS S H E L F L I FE A LU M N I I N P R I N T PAT R I O T P R O F I L E CL ASS NOTES

Sugar and Spice and Everything but STEM College of Science Dean Peggy Agouris believes she knows why so many young women opt out of STEM—and what Mason can do to reverse it.

Senator Colgan, meet Senator Colgan. There’s a new statue on the SciTech campus. During installation, Chuck Colgan comes face-to-face with himself.

MASON SPIRIT

F E AT U R E S

42 From the Alumni Association President

A L U M N I

PROFILES

40 Sasha Hollinger, BFA Dance ’09 45 Tom Bagamane, MBA ’95 46 Ashley Stroupe, MS Electrical Engineering ’98

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 1

FIRST WORDS

FRONT AND CENTER

MASON SPIRIT A MAGAZINE FOR THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

B

eing at George Mason University during a presidential campaign means having a front-row seat at the most fascinating and consequential political event in the world.

Soon after I arrived at Mason in 2012, I had the honor to welcome both nominees, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, to Mason—Obama not once, but twice. I was thrilled that our students, faculty, and staff had the opportunity to experience the American democratic process up close and personally.

Four years later, our university is even more prominent in the presidential campaign. During the primaries, we hosted a number of candidates from both parties, including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and John Kasich. One candidate, Lincoln Chafee, announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination on our Arlington Campus.

First Lady Michelle Obama visited in September to campaign for Clinton.

As Virginia senator and now vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine told me when he introduced Clinton to the Mason community in February, the path to the White House inevitably runs through Virginia because Virginia is a key battleground state.

But it is not only Virginia that has become more relevant in national politics. George Mason University has, too. Mason has grown into an academic powerhouse in government and public policy and an influential platform for the exchange of ideas and perspectives at the local, national, and international levels.

Our faculty are often called to offer expert testimony in Congress or join high-level boards and task forces. Professor Joshua Wright returned to Mason last year after a two-year stint on the Federal Trade Commission. Robinson Professor Laurie Robinson was tapped by President Obama to co-chair his Task Force on 21st-Century Policing. Professor Peter Mandaville is helping the U.S. Department of State devise diplomatic strategies for dealing with ISIS. Professor Andrew Light advised the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning on the critical climate-change negotiations in Paris last year.

Several faculty members are working on various aspects of the presidential transition process to ensure a smooth changeover from one administration to the next. Others have a regular presence in the media to help the general public make sense of the electoral process. Former elected officials and agency heads regularly lecture at Mason, including former NSA and CIA director General Michael Hayden, and our rector, Tom Davis, who served in Congress for 14 years.

Two years ago we restructured various academic units to create one of the largest schools of public policy and government in the country. Earlier this year we renamed it the Schar School of Policy and Government after we received a transformational gift from business leader, philanthropist, and longtime university supporter Dwight C. Schar. Mr. Schar’s gift will enhance the school’s programs and attract additional national and international attention (see page 15).

Mason’s location just outside our nation’s capital helps us leverage and amplify the university’s multidisciplinary expertise in security, environmental studies, public health, economics, law, and many other fields.

Our Mason community not only has a front row seat to democracy, but our students, faculty, and alumni help determine the course for our country, and for nations around the world. Ángel Cabrera President

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spirit.gmu.edu MANAG ING EDITOR Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95 A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R S Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93 Rob Riordan C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R Sarah Metcalf Seeberg ART DIRECTOR Elliott de Luca, BA ’04 SE N I O R CO PY WR ITE R Margaret Mandell A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R Melanie Balog E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T Arthur Wesley I L L U S T R AT I O N Marcia Staimer CO NTR IBUTO R S Peggy Agouris Claudia Borke Damian Cristodero M. Leigh Harrison Nicole Hitpas Brittney Irish Buzz McClain, BA ’77 Michele McDonald Anne Reynolds Jamie Rogers Preston Williams P H O T O G R A P H Y A N D M U LT I M E D I A Evan Cantwell, MA ’10, Senior University Photographer Ron Aira, University Photographer Melissa Cannarozzi, Image Collections Manager PRODUC TION MANAG ER Patrick Fisher EDITORIAL BOARD Renell M. Wynn Vice President for Communications and Marketing Janet E. Bingham Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations Christine Clark-Talley Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Mason Spirit is published quarterly by the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations and the Office of Communications and Marketing. Please log in at alumni.gmu.edu to update your records or email spirit@gmu.edu. For the latest news about George Mason University, check out www.gmu.edu. George Mason University is an equal opportunity employer that encourages diversity.

FROM OUR READERS

MYTH BUSTED

➤ SEEN ON THE WEB

➤My ➤ compliments on Robert Matz’s “5 Myths about the Liberal Arts,” published in your Summer 2016 edition. I am grateful to have attended an undergraduate college that proudly touted their well-rounded and extensive general education requirements.

My perspectives and ideals were forever changed and enhanced by the many wonderful liberal arts courses that I took. I remember an instance where an undergraduate engineering student was complaining about his general education courses being a waste of time. He received a quick and succinct response from one of the physics professors who overheard his comments. I quote: “An education is not an education if you know only what is taught in your major. In fact, the general education courses you take may well be the most valuable part of your education!”

Lastly, it was good to be reminded that math and the sciences are liberal arts subjects!

Anne Crowell, MS Applied and Engineering Physics ‘14

New on spirit.gmu.edu In this online issue, • Hear from Olympian David Verburg, Health, Fitness, and Recreation Resources ’13, about his experiences in Rio. • Mason alumna Katherine Craddock, BA History ’00, was awarded a $50,000 prize for her screenplay about Harriet Tubman, and she is attracting the attention of companies offering her the chance to make it a major Hollywood production.

• Alumni were a big hit at this year’s Fall for the Book.

And don’t forget to • Follow us on Twitter @MasonSpirit for alumni news, events, and more.

• Become a fan of the Mason Spirit on Facebook for links to photos, videos, and stories at www.facebook.com/MasonSpirit.

• Check our website for a behind-the-scenes look at the Spirit, more alumni profiles, and breaking news at spirit.gmu.edu.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Letters to the editor are welcomed.

Send correspondence to Colleen Kearney Rich, Managing Editor, Mason Spirit, 4400 University Drive, MS 2F7, Fairfax, Virginia 22030.

Or send an email to spirit@gmu.edu.

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A DVA N C I N G MA S O N

An Upstart That Stands Apart In many ways, George Mason University stands apart.

Unlike some of our fellow institutions, we’ve never rested on centuries of tradition; instead, we’ve always had a bit of the feisty upstart about us. We like to show the world what can be accomplished in the here and now. It’s a quality that was evident even in the first generation of Mason students, and it has since become part of our DNA. Mason not only stands apart, it stands tall. As one of just 115 universities that have earned the top-tier research designation from the influential Carnegie classification, we’re now recognized among the best universities—private or public—in the country.

A Mason degree is seen by employers and peers as more valuable than ever. We’ve earned our place at the table, thanks to accomplishments by graduates from every decade.

To keep that place, we need to continue improving the Mason experience for future alumni: our students. If you have not seen the Fairfax Campus in a while, you’d be amazed by the changes. No longer a quiet commuter college, Mason now throbs with energy.

More than 6,000 students live on campus. They enjoy beautiful new classroom buildings and a vibrant social life. Students are happy here. In our graduating senior surveys, 90 percent report satisfaction with their Mason experience. And more than threequarters report a “sense of belonging” to Mason. That figure has nearly doubled in the past two decades.

We want our current alumni to be just as satisfied, using their input—your input—to improve each aspect of the alumni experience. Our redesigned website (alumni.gmu. edu), for example, offers new ways you can engage with your school and your peers, and better career and professional resources. We hope that you come back to visit, but we are also bringing Mason to you through more events near where alumni live and work.

Engaged students become engaged alumni. When you’re ready, of course, we also hope you’ll support Mason as an engaged donor and friend. No matter what aspect of Mason you choose to support, your gifts help improve academic quality, financial aid, and a robust college experience for today’s generation of students. That is a great investment in their future as well as in the value of your own Mason degree.

Each George Mason graduate is part of the foundation of what Mason has become.

You have good reason to be proud of what you helped build; Mason has arrived. I invite you to join the celebration—and help others who will follow in your footsteps.

Janet E. Bingham, PhD Vice President, Advancement and Alumni Relations President, George Mason University Foundation

Business Alumni Make Big Impact Over the past few years, several Mason business alumni have made major financial contributions to business school initiatives.

THE TRAILBLAZER Patty Roberts, BS Business Administration ’77, spent 35 years as a senior executive under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella. To honor the professor who helped launch her career, Roberts initiated the Robert D. Johnston Endowed Professorship with a $500,000 donation—the largest contribution ever received by the School of Business at the time.

THE ENTREPRENEUR Stevie Awards founder Michael Gallagher, MBA ’94, discovered Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship didn’t lack for ideas and projects—it lacked the time to run and grow its existing initiatives.

Gallagher pledged $195,000 for the center to hire a program manager to help run its programs.

THE PATRIOT Government contracting executive Sumeet Shrivastava, EMBA ’94, is the business school alumni chapter president. He annually sponsors the Business Celebration, and sits on the advisory boards for the school’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Mason GovCon Initiative.

Mason’s role in his career success inspired Shrivastava to donate $100,000 to help establish a GovCon center.

THE EXECUTIVE Dale “Dusty” Wince, EMBA ’12, (right) took the lessons learned at Mason to continue to grow his already-thriving cybersecurity startup into a multimillion-dollar company.

Since graduating, he’s joined the Dean’s Advisory Council, sold his company, and contributed $500,000 to help establish a Center for Government Contracting. Wince has also generously shared his time and expertise serving on the GovCon advisory board.

—Nicole Hitpas

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A DVA N C I N G MA S O N

THE BUSINESS

of Government

The $500 billion government contracting market is one of the primary employers and economic drivers in the Washington, D.C., region. Not surprisingly, the GovCon space is filled with Mason alumni.

One such business alumnus, Dale “Dusty” Wince, EMBA ’12, transformed a small cybersecurity startup into a multimillion-dollar business. He is now helping the School of Business transform its distinctive competency in the business of government and government contracting into programs that benefit Mason students as well as the GovCon community. Wince’s extensive experience and generous $500,000 gift will aid the School of Business in establishing a Center for Government Contracting that will offer academic programs, workshops, research, and other services.

“Over the past 30 years, I have benefitted personally and professionally from both the Mason School of Business and the GovCon industry,” says Wince. “Amazingly, the stars aligned affording me this opportunity to make a positive impact at Mason.”

Wince’s gift to accelerate the establishment of the GovCon Center of Excellence is the “latest chapter in his long history of support,” notes Dean Sarah E. Nutter. “We hope it can be the start of a very exciting new chapter at the School of Business.”

Learn more about the Mason GovCon Initiative at govcon.gmu.edu.

DUSTY WINCE: Changing lives by giving to Mason Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 5

DANCING

IN THE

STREETS Mason's proximity to the nation's capital,

Washington, D.C., means our students are close to an amazing variety of internships, great job opportunities after graduating, and all the fun and excitement a major metropolitan city can offer in between.

DANCE MAJOR DAVID A. KURLAND PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

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Michelle Pepino takes a break from laying tracks at Mason's student recording studio.

Laying Down Tracks

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n a recording studio on the main floor of the Music/Theater Building last spring, students from the student recording company Mason Noise wrapped up production of a fulllength studio album and began mastering the tracks.

Mason Noise had full run of the studio, complete with mixing board and sound booth, to record and produce the album The Uglies by English major Michelle Pepino, who records under the name The Gem Fragments.

Each semester Mason Noise selects a student music artist and then records, mixes, engineers, produces, and distributes a fulllength album. Pepino was chosen from about 10 applicants who submitted cover letters and demo recordings to a student executive board, says music major Thomas Routon, co-founder and president of Mason Noise.

About 30 Mason students are involved with the project. The recording company, made up mostly of music technology majors, is arranged into teams. Some work as producers— scheduling recording sessions, working with talent, and guiding the creative process behind the project. Others work as sound engineers— mixing songs and recording tracks.

Pepino wrote all the songs for the album over the span of about five years. Turning her work over to the Mason Noise crew was a big step for her because she really doesn’t share much of her inner thoughts with others, Pepino says.

“Each song is about fear, love, and uncertainty,” she says. “They are about people who have struggled in their own lives.”

As a new artist, Pepino says she didn’t find the album-making process stressful, but it was

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more work than she thought it would be. She plays acoustic guitar, but her album features background instrumentation from a string quartet, guitarists, a drummer, and a pianist who volunteered to work on the project.

It was nice to see students come into the recording studio and use the skills they’ve learned in their music technology classes to work on the projects, says music professor Jesse Guessford, director of Mason’s music technology program.

The first album produced by Mason Noise was the debut self-titled album Marijke for indie pop singer and Mason music major Marijke Boers. That album is available for free on CDBaby.com.

—Jamie Rogers

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Turns Out, Crime Does Pay

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nch by inch, students carefully make their way around a grid placed on a muddy forensic excavation and research site on the Fairfax Campus. Their assignment: to unearth evidence in a staged outdoor crime scene.

It’s the stuff of hit TV drama series. But for these students, the day’s rain-soaked efforts deliver far more than drama. They deliver real-life forensic science training, critical to qualifying for a career that already is waiting for them.

Demand for forensic scientists is skyrocketing, as is the interest in high-quality forensic science training. The College of Science has responded. Begun as a graduate certificate program in 2009, the Forensic Science Program added a master’s degree in 2010 and a bachelor’s degree in 2011.

And more growth is in sight. The entire program is on the brink of major initiatives that will distinguish it from other forensic science programs in the United States.

When retired FBI criminal profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole came on board as director in spring 2015, one of her early priorities was to survey the ideas and expertise of her faculty.

Together, they developed creative new ventures for the program.

The new concentration in Forensic/Biometric Identity Analysis is a

perfect example. Starting this fall, it is the only concentration of its kind in the nation and one of four concentrations that master’s candidates can choose for their degree program.

Also underway is a partnership with the Northern Laboratory of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science facility in Prince William County, where actual crime scene evidence is submitted for analysis.

Beginning this fall, College of Science students will take lecture courses at the facility and use its DNA and controlled substance laboratories for training purposes.

In both current and upcoming training opportunities, every aspect of education in the Forensic Science Program is relentlessly realistic.

Hands-on labs are integrated with lectures. Guest speakers open students’ eyes to less well-known careers in the field. Chemists, DNA analysts, and crime scene investigators interact as a team.

“I can’t underscore enough how our training sets us apart,” says O’Toole, who was one of the most senior FBI profilers in the elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, the inspiration for the TV show Criminal Minds.

“When our students come here, they don’t just read a book or two about forensic science. They get their hands dirty. They work with real equipment. It’s this kind of hands-on experience that makes a difference when you apply for a job.”

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Using hip-hop to

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PHOTO BY RON AIRA

ip-hop DJs, emcees, beatmakers, and dancers from around the world descended on a hotel conference room in Washington, D.C., this spring to learn how to turn their high-energy musical art into tools for empowerment, entrepreneurship, and conflict resolution.

The program is called Next Level, which teaches “hip-hop diplomacy” and is sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of North Carolina’s music department. Program organizers called on George Mason University professor Arthur Romano for the second year to conduct the workshop of participants from danger-laden conflict zones in Uganda, El Salvador, Tanzania, Thailand, and Honduras.

The idea, Romano said, is to build on their creativity and leadership to change attitudes at home and amplify the voices of young people. They were selected because of their leadership skills and their desire to make a change.

“The richness of the discussion was amazing,” says Romano, who has been teaching about peace- and social justice-related themes with artists and musicians for some 20 years.

“Everyone had experienced different forms of violence, but they shared a creative language and connection through hip-hop.”

During their session, the artists were challenged to employ critical thinking about theories of conflict, inequality, and conflict resolution as well as “how power functions, and how to shift those dynamics,” says Romano.

Among other themes, the musicians discussed ways of challenging youth stereotypes as they experience them in their own countries.

The participants are now on missions throughout the world to serve as artists-educators to conduct hip-hop academies.

“They were brilliant,” says Romano. “It was an honor to work with them.”

—Buzz McClain, BA ’77

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resolve

global conflict

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The Best Seat in the House

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here was a moment as Tim Groseclose watched the Mason’s men’s basketball team face Northern Iowa when he believed he was about to cost the Patriots a point.

Standing from his seat at the end of the bench near the baseline to get a better look past also-standing 6-foot-7 forward Michael Rudy, the economics professor encroached several inches onto the EagleBank Arena court.

“It occurred to me this might be a technical foul, so I immediately backed up,” Groseclose recalls. “I thought, ‘Oh, man, that would really be bad if I got a technical.’ ” Especially after coach Dave Paulsen gave Groseclose some pretty specific instructions as part of his Sideline Coaching Program. “I tell them,” Paulsen says, with a laugh, “their job during a game is the same as a corpse at an Irish wake—dress well and remain quiet.”

The Sideline Coaching Program allows one Mason faculty or staff member per game to get an insider’s view by attending team meetings, practices, and meals, having access to opponent scouting reports and being in the locker room before games and at halftime.

The topper, though, is being on the bench. “One of the top-20 “What fan could resist this experiences in my lifetime,” Groseclose says. opportunity?” asks Mason Paulsen brought the program from Bucknell, his previous psychology professor Lou coaching stop. The idea, he says, is to “bridge any perceived divide Buffardi who sat in with the between the athletic and academic world” by helping faculty and team for the game against staff “gain a better appreciation for how hard the players work and George Washington. A appreciate that what we’re doing isn’t academic but unequivocally Mason basketball uber fan educational in terms of discipline, structure and focus, and attention who has been attending to detail.” games since they were held More than 80 people responded when the program was announced in the PE Building, he says at Mason, but because the team plays just 15 home games, an open this was the first time he practice was held for those who signed up and a lottery filled the wore a suit to a game. coveted slots.

For participants, the trick is to observe but not intrude. That’s easy when watching practice or a meeting.

“But when it’s game time,” Groseclose says, “and we’re about to come out of the tunnel, you see the cheerleaders in front and the players and coaches, it’s kind of like a dream and I’m part of them.”

“You certainly get caught up in the emotions,” says Frank Strike, director of facilities management who watched the game against Wagner. “You find yourself much more engaged than if you’re in the stands [when you’re] giving high-fives to the players.”

—Damian Cristodero

MASON B Y

18 193

THE NUMBERS

Number of students participating in the spring 2016 stream cleanup on April 16. The event was held in conjunction with the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup and other Earth Day events.

Pounds of trash collected, including 105.8 pounds of recyclables and 87.2 pounds of nonrecyclables.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARCIA STAIMER

56 1,206

Number of staff members participating in this spring’s Campus Cleanup.

Pounds of trash and recyclables collected during Campus Cleanup.

“I know it’s usually a stretch to say ‘I had fun picking up trash,’ but it was a beautiful day and working together we did a good thing for the university and the planet.”

— Tom Calhoun, Vice President, Facilities

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From Fake Scandals, Real Media Savvy

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t’s a politician’s election-year nightmare: Your opponent’s media team discovers that years ago you were driving while impaired and ran over your neighbor’s cat. Worse, you used your political connections to avoid a sobriety test and got off.

“We had to go with that,” says senior Drew Henderson, who helped develop a decidedly negative campaign video using the damaging information.

Fortunately for the candidate, the feline felony was fake. The minute-long piece was part of a political media simulation for Professor Jeremy Mayer’s GOV 412 Politics and Mass Media course. Randomly assigned teams each created three videos—positive, comparative, and of course negative—for imaginary Congressional candidates running for office in Northern Virginia districts.

The candidates were real people (but not real politicians) who agreed to have their character assassinated, as well as built up by their own media operatives. All the scandals—and there were 30 to choose from—were fictitious.

The students, many of them government majors, plunged into researching the myriad minutiae that is local politics as well as learning how to shoot and edit video, a first for many of them.

“At first we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew,” says Henderson, a senior government and international politics major.

“What I like about the course is it reshuffles the established hierarchy among the students,” says Mayer, who first started teaching a version of the course in 1999 at Kalamazoo College. He has since adapted it for undergraduates at Mason.

“Students get excited [about the class] because the rules have changed. They’re being graded on creativity, not writing papers and taking exams.

This is a way of thinking about politics that speaks to them.”

Equipment and advice from Mason’s Student Technology Assistance and Research (STAR) Lab and a class-long clinic by Mason Film and Video Studies alumnus Nathan McFarland helped, says senior Re’Necia Coda, who enjoyed the multidisciplinary aspects of the course.

“The class was new and innovative,” Coda says. “You had to learn about the incumbent, the district, and what issues resonate.”

Insights from the class changed how junior Katie Garay looks at real campaign ads.

“I’m aware now how they’re intended to affect me,” she says.

“I’m definitely more analytical.”

—Buzz McClain, BA ’77

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M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N

Kara Oakleaf

PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

Job: Manager, Fall for the Book Festival

For book lovers, it seems like a dream job, and Kara Oakleaf, MFA Creative Writing ’10, has it.

Oakleaf runs Mason’s Fall for the Book Festival, a staple on campus for the past 18 years. An adjunct English professor, Oakleaf has handled the event since 2010, and is in charge of contacting authors and figuring out where and how to fit them into the jam-packed program. She also maintains finances, writes grant proposals, and secures funding to keep the festival going. This year’s festival took place September 25-30.

BIGGEST CHANGES: Fall for the Book has taken on more book- and reading-related projects, as well as outreach initiatives, Oakleaf says.

“We have a Writers in the Schools program now, where Mason graduate students in writing go into public schools to teach classes. We also have our student- and alumni-run presses, Gazing Grain and Stillhouse. And we work with the English Department on the New Leaves Conference for writers, which happens every spring. Last year, we began partnering with Orientation for Mason Reads, a shared reading initiative for incoming freshmen.”

HEAVY HITTERS: A turning point for the festival, Oakleaf says, was Stephen King’s appearance in 2011. “That raised the level of awareness quite a lot. Also Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie. Alice Walker was huge.

Lauren Groff was this year. It changes things up when we get one of the bigger authors to come. But we also love highlighting local writers who are right in our backyard.”

MOST REQUESTED AUTHOR: J. K. Rowling. “We’ve talked with her agent a couple of times. It’s not happening.”

PLOT TWISTS: During the event, Oakleaf says she troubleshoots “any little things that come up. An author shows up at the wrong place, their flight’s late, we have to send someone to the airport, a tent rental company takes down the wrong tent. We had to call the police once when an individual was warning attendees of the coming apocalypse. We had sprinklers go off that got readers and the crowd wet. And for one event in the Concert Hall lobby, we thought we had about 100 students coming. Then a high school teacher walked in with 400 students. We just spread them out on the floor and along the walls.”

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93

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Just One of the Guys at Redskins Camp PHOTO BY GARRETT CAMPBELL

W

hat surprised Abigail Solis most about her internship as an athletic trainer with the NFL’s Washington Redskins was how the players seemed so down to earth.

On the practice fields during spring mini camp, players asked Solis where they should vacation and what she thinks about singer Taylor Swift.

“It’s different from seeing them on TV,” Solis says. “They’re normal people.”

Solis, a senior athletic training major, is believed to be the Redskins’ first female athletic training academic intern and will work home games in the pre- and regular seasons.

Not a bad way to finish her final semester before graduating in December.

It’s also “a huge step for the profession,” says Professor Amanda Caswell, coordinator of the Athletic Training Education Program in the School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism.

“It’s an opportunity to place a student who is going to pave the way for future female athletic training students.”

“The opportunities I’ve had here are a lot different than they would have been somewhere else,” says Solis of George Mason.

“Other schools, I’ve heard, do all their clinicals within that facility.”

Solis, on the other hand, is in her sixth internship, including three at area high schools. With the Redskins, she’s done a little bit of everything, says Doug Quon, the team’s assistant athletic trainer and Solis’ supervisor.

Solis helped set up the treatment room, stretched players before and after practice and did pre-practice taping. She also did the grunt work, stocking and organizing supplies and carting around the practice fields the 10-gallon water containers that kept players hydrated.

If Solis gains her athletic training certifica-

D I D YO U K N O W… We are celebrating 50 years of Mason Basketball. Mason’s first men’s basketball team was called the Marauders and used the W. T. Woodson High School gym as its home court. Their first game was a 71-68 win against Bethesda Naval Hospital on December 6, 1966.

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tion in October, she can be even more involved in treating injuries.

For now, though, after enduring jokes from co-workers about getting her own bathroom, and players good-naturedly wondering if she could handle the heavy water containers, Solis, in a sense, is one of the guys.

“She’s done a great job,” Quon says. “She’s maintained a professional image and demeanor and gained the trust of the players.”

—Damian Cristodero

The Schar School of Policy and Government Aims for Global Recognition Leadership in public service.

It’s what George Mason University delivers for our region. It is also what Dwight C. Schar has become increasingly well known for. This May the businessman and philanthropist pledged $10 million to Mason’s public policy school, now known as the Schar School of Policy and Government in his honor.

This extraordinary gift represents a new high point in Schar’s 30-year history of commitment and service to Mason, for which he received the George Mason Medal in 2003. The founder of homebuilding giant NVR Inc., Schar and his wife, Martha, also recently made a multimillion-dollar commitment to fight cancer, helping establish the Inova Dwight and Martha Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax County.

The latest gift will enable the Schar School, an anchor of Mason’s Arlington Campus, to strengthen its programs, attract the best faculty and students, and better serve the region that is the nation’s hub for policy and government. “Something very exciting is happening here,” says Schar. “I look forward to watching the school grow and thrive.”

“This extraordinary investment will spur the next evolutionary step for our school,” says Dean Mark J. Rozell. “We are thrilled to have Dwight Schar’s support as we strive to take Mason to new levels of recognition on the global stage.”

Learn more at fasterfarther.gmu.edu.

library DUSTING OFF THE

Forget out-of-date hardcovers, uncomfortable wood chairs, and a strict no-talking policy.

This is the new Fenwick Library.

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Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 17

B Y CO L L E E N K E A R N E Y R I C H , M FA ’ 95

W

ith all the information we could possibly want just a click away on our devices, do we still need physical libraries?

George Mason University Librarian John Zenelis would suggest you ask the more than two million visitors to the George Mason University Libraries last year.

Mason libraries have never been busier, and if you haven’t visited Fenwick Library lately, you might not recognize it. This spring the 51-year-old library had a bit of work done. Now, with the opening of a 157,000-square-foot addition, Fenwick Library has a new look, a greater purpose, and an extraordinary following. In fact, people have started calling it the “new” Fenwick.

On the night before start of spring 2016 exams, there were 478 students in the Fenwick Library near closing time. This is part of the reason the new addition to Fenwick has a 24-hour lobby with its own Argo Tea Cafe.

“The students and faculty have really taken to the space,” says librarian Jason Byrd, head of University Libraries’ Information Services. “We have been impressed with the number of students who just want to be in the space and the number of faculty members who want to hold events here.”

Shepley Bulfinch, the architects behind the design of the new Fenwick Library, have used bright colors, flexible seating, and lots of natural light to create an inviting space for students to study and work collaboratively. And the administrators love showing off the space as much as students enjoy using it.

“The new Fenwick Library opens during a truly transformational era for academic research libraries,” says Zenelis. “Now more than ever, libraries are essential in building academic community and in advancing the stature of universities such as ours.”

Although the space has been in the works for five years, if you ask Zenelis how long it took to get the addition built he will tell you, with a chuckle, 17 years. That’s roughly the time the man who is also dean of libraries has worked at Mason.

U P D AT I N G T H E S C A L I A L AW L I B R A R Y

W

hen the $1.5 million renovation of the law library at the

library space to be more inclusive, open, and allow for greater learn-

Antonin Scalia Law School opens in 2017, students and

ing engagement.”

professors will find fewer books and better technology.

In addition to improvements in the library, the remodeling includes

“We’ll be reducing the number of bound books that are also available

transforming part of the current library into a de facto welcome cen-

in digital format,” says David Rehr, senior associate dean and a pro-

ter. Admissions, Career Services, and Alumni Relations will be moved

fessor at the law school. “But we’ll be beefing up the wireless system

into new glass-walled offices across from a new information desk.

to [make it] as state-of-the-art as possible.”

Visitors will also find more group study and seating areas, and seminar and conference rooms for larger gatherings.

“The modern law student needs more space for interaction and collaborative work,” says Rehr. “We are committed to adjusting our 18 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

“The improvements will make it easier for potential law students to experience the benefits of coming to Antonin Scalia Law School,” says Rehr.

—Buzz McClain, BA ’77

The two-story Main Reading Room also converts into a meeting space with teleconference capabilities. It is already one of the most popular places on campus.

PHOTO BY ©ANTON GRASSL/ESTO, SHEPLEY BULFINCH.

Since he joined the university in 1998, he has always been focused on the future and how the libraries would keep pace with the university’s mission. He orchestrated the President’s Library Task Force in 2004-05 that resulted in Mason’s commitment to develop and sustain a research-level library, and he led a library facilities feasibility study for all of Mason’s campuses, conducted by Shepley Bulfinch, in 2007.

Shepley Bulfinch is known for its library designs. They designed Virginia Commonwealth University’s recent library renovation and have created libraries for Princeton, Duke, and Notre Dame.

The new addition is brimming with technology (and places to charge your devices or check out a laptop if you need one). The flexible “smart” seminar spaces are in demand for classes, and there is a laboratory classroom, run with assistance from Information Technology Services and the Center for Teaching Excellence, where faculty can test drive technologies before the university decides to purchase them.

appointment with a subject librarian for assistance with a specific topic.

Fenwick Library’s new Information Desk provides a single point of contact for library users. “The Information Desk combines the functions of circulation and research services in a single location,” says Byrd. “We are creating a model that efficiently connects our patrons with the resources and services they need to be successful with their research.”

Surprisingly, students still prefer face-to-face interactions.

During the 2015-16 academic year, 4,257 virtual conversations took place with librarians. During that same time, 15,000 inquiries were made in person at Fenwick alone.

Most Mason undergraduates are digital natives, which means they have never known a time without computers and the internet. Although Byrd is not a digital native (he remembers using a card catalog in elementary school), he specializes in this kind of library user.

D I D YO U K N O W…

Savais-tu…

University Libraries has added Rosetta Stone to its long list of online resources. Thirty languages are available for free to Mason students, faculty, and staff. Parlez-vous français?

Even while users are in Fenwick, information and assis- “Digital natives have always been inundated with informatance are only a few clicks away. Students can get help from tion. There has never been a time that they couldn’t find a librarian virtually using a chat mechanism on the website. out something they wanted to know,” Byrd says. “So the They can also go to the Information Desk, or schedule an challenge [for these users] is how to sift through the ‘noise’ Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 19

and find the good stuff. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with our instruction.”

Instruction in the research and scholarship process is a big part of what the University Libraries do. During the last two academic years, the University Libraries held more than 2,100 courserelated instructional sessions and other workshops, reaching nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Many are focused on bringing freshmen up to speed on conducting research and creating scholarly work at the university level. In addition, Scholarly Productions at the Research Commons (SP@RC) is a new service opening within Fenwick this fall where students can get help designing their research posters, receive tutoring from the university’s Writing Center on writing papers, and develop presentation skills.

“

Fenwick is one of Mason’s most treasured spaces.

A rare building that nearly everyone on campus visits, regardless of what we study or when we attend. Its value goes beyond the information and resources contained within these walls and

”

shelves. Fenwick connects generations— a link to our past, and a bridge to our future.

—President Ángel Cabrera at the March grand opening

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And there is more to come. If you miss “old” Fenwick, it is just a few steps away on all five levels of the addition, where it is still rocking that 1970s vibe with its exposed brick and dark natural wood. The second floor of the library towers is also undergoing a transformation of its own. It is the soon-to-be home to a digital scholarship center this fall. The center provides high-end technology, sophisticated tools, and support for students and faculty to engage in multidisciplinary projects using original source material, big data, multimedia, interactivity, and data visualization to create new knowledge, integrate it into teaching and learning, and disseminate it through a variety of scholarly communications and publication modes.

Zenelis believes this new center will bring the Mason libraries to the forefront of academic research libraries nationally. “As I look around this new facility, I see a collaborative learning environment that offers great opportunities for innovative programming and one that can support contemporary scholarship and research—not only to meet the needs of today’s Mason students and faculty, but also tomorrow’s,” says Zenelis.

“We do have regulars. We see many students coming in to look around,” says Byrd. “I think this [new space] enhances the library’s role as the research heart of the university.”

Zenelis says that the new Fenwick Library has been designed to be student-centered and is certainly proving to be studentfriendly. “It’s not at all surprising that the building is full at all times—day, night, and weekends.”

Clockwise: Jason Byrd at the information desk, the laptop dispenser, and the flexible study area on the second floor. PHOTOS BY RON AIRA AND ©ANTON GRASSL/ESTO, SHEPLEY BULFINCH

N OTA B E N E Made possible by state funding, the new Fenwick Library was designed by Boston architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch and built by Whiting-Turner to LEED silver standards. The facility has greatly expanded services, learning spaces, and digital technology and resources for the Mason community, including: • An integrated, full-service information and assistance desk • A café and 24/7 study area

• A laptop dispenser where users can check out computers for use within the library

• Express check-out stations where students can scan their own items

• A state-of the-art Special Collections Research Center

• Compact shelving, which allows for increased capacity for books and

• Presentation practice rooms equipped with technology

print materials • 30 new group study rooms equipped with white boards and monitors • A graduate student zone with assigned/lockable research carrels • MediaScape collaboration study rooms, which can allow up to four students to share their screen simultaneously

• A beautiful Main Reading Room with seating for 75 • A Research Commons featuring programming and support for individual and collaborative projects • Two exhibition/gallery areas • Several meeting rooms and staff lounges

• A number of seminar rooms and three technology-rich instructional rooms Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 21

STEM

INTO FOCUS

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PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

BRINGING

The not-so-lazy days of summer—A camp where girls participate in activities that revolve around STEM and leadership building.

B Y C AT H Y C R U I S E , M FA ’ 93

Danielle Blunt Craddock

WHITE. AFFLUENT. MALE.

T

oo often, these words are synonymous with success, even while they exclude millions of the brightest minds, especially within the technology industry. George Mason University is working to change that, one summer at a time, through week-long camps that expose underrepresented and at-risk girls to STEM fields.

Mason’s FOCUS Camp, or Females of Color and those Underrepresented in STEM, gives young women of color access to hands-on presentations and demonstrations centered on science, technology, engineering, and math.

Designed for rising 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, FOCUS is sponsored by the College of Science’s STEM Accelerator Program in collaboration with Girls Inspired and Ready to Lead Inc. (GIRL).

Sessions cover topics such as biology, engineering, chemistry, geology, cybersecurity, design and innovation, forensic science, and more. Camp participants are taught to apply critical thinking methods to creative problem-solving activities. And a leadership and entrepreneurship component introduces them to successful women who work for

leading organizations or run their own businesses, such as Patricia Braschayko, senior biostatistician at Battelle Corporation, who presented a session this summer, and meteorologist Veronica Johnson from WJLA, who visited in 2015.

HOW IT BEGAN While in grad school at Mason, Danielle Blunt Craddock, MAIS ’11, saw a growing campus with new buildings, technology, and programs dedicated to student success, one of which was the STEM Accelerator Program. Craddock, who had already founded GIRL, a nonprofit for empowering teen girls, was approached by Mason math professor Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, a STEM Accelerator faculty member, about partnering with GIRL. When Craddock told him she’d like to host a summer camp for girls to

Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Kelly Knight Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 23

prepare them for future success, the two teamed up with biology professor Claudette Davis and forensic science professor Kelly Knight, and launched the first camp in 2014.

MEET THE HAPPY CAMPERS—AND COUNSELORS

N

o two days at the FOCUS Camp are alike, but all are filled with lively, stimulating activities that offer plenty of hands-on learning. Monday’s emphasis is science, Tuesday technology, Wednesday engineering, and

Thursday math. Activities range from maneuvering a robotic arm and creating PlayDoh electron conductors, to designing computer games. Campers attend a final workshop on Friday, give poster presentations, and take part in an awards ceremony.

For Nia Lowery, 14, this second year at camp offered up different activities and more opportunities to make connections. “There are more people this year, which is a good thing,” she says. “You get to make new friends who like the same things as you. The first year I liked it so much, I wanted to come back.” For Lowery, who wants to be a biomedical engineer, the hands-on demonstrations set camp apart from school.

“In school it’s more like you’re listening and learning,” she says. “But here you’re actually learning while doing it.”

Taylor Hutson was also back for a second year. The 12-year-old says her favorite parts were learning about forensic science and engineering. “The first year I didn’t want to come here—my mom made me,” she admits. “But I really liked it and wanted to come back. You get to do a lot of different things instead of one specific thing. And you get to explore.”

First-time camper Maizah Johnson wants to be a fashion designer. She says the technology she’s learning will familiarize her with machinery, while the math will be useful in sewing and design. “We can do a lot of different things here, and we learn so many new things,” she says. “My favorite part is engineering, like robotics.”

Lauren Dent, 12, liked her first year of camp so much she brought a friend along this time. Dent, who wants to be a nurse, says her favorite activities involved forensic science. “I like crime scenes and trying to figure out what has happened,” she says. “Not that you see the perfect answer, but that you get to guess the best you can and try your hardest.”

College of Science students serve as counselors for the camp, and senior Naomi Coles was back this summer for her second year. Coles is majoring in biology and minoring in nutrition, on track to medical school. She’s amazed at how the camp has grown in such a short time. “The activities I’m doing now and the information is more in-depth and more interactive than before,” she says. “I feel the camp is just going to continue to grow in this way and be more of an inspiration for the girls. All of them want to be here, and that’s always an awesome thing.”

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93 24 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

“With his expertise in math education and work in preparing the next generation for STEM careers,” Craddock says, “he helped the four of us design a week-long program where the girls would have fun but develop critical skills needed to succeed in a 21st-century career.”

The camp served 18 girls that first year. Help from outside donors like the Business Women’s Giving Circle of the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia increased enrollment to more than 75 in 2015, and this year the camp reached its goal of 100 participants. Registration fees cover some costs, and funding received from primary sponsors—this year’s was Battelle—supports scholarships and expenses like food and supplies. VABio also donated $1,000 this year toward student scholarships.

“Without our sponsors, this camp would not be possible,” says Knight. “Additionally, STEM Accelerator funds from other outreach activities held during the year are used when necessary.”

WHO’S INVOLVED Knight has taken the lead on organizing FOCUS, and the Mason Accelerator Program and GIRL run the camp together during the week. Camp counselors are all College of Science undergraduate students, and session speakers and presenters are made up mostly of Mason faculty.

Knight says professors are eager to be involved, as they understand the challenges facing female STEM students, often because they once faced their own.

“My parents would take me to STEM activities as a child,” says Knight. “I was usually one of the only females of color.

Had it not been for my parents and teachers encouraging me, I may have run away from STEM because I was ‘different.’”

Davis says she would have benefited from a FOCUS-type camp or afterschool program. “It would have taken the fear and uncertainties out of what to expect as an undergraduate and graduate student in STEM,” she says. “Many of our

camp participants do not have the opportunity to partici- “Engaging the students in real-world problems and using pate in STEM activities throughout the school year. The concepts from STEM topics the girls have learned in interactive nature of FOCUS lets them see STEM can be school made the learning much more meaningful and fun and engaging.” powerful,” Seshaiyer says. He shared his enthusiasm for the camp when he served as a keynote speaker for a conference WHO’S TAKING NOTICE in Prague, Czech Republic, this past spring.

The FOCUS Camp received the 2016 Programs that Work “The audience was really thrilled,” he says, “and wanted me Award from the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalito help start something similar there.” tion, which honors programs providing evidence of a positive impact on student learning from across the common- Moms and dads praise it as well. Craddock, who says the wealth in both rural and urban areas. highlight of this year’s camp was seeing many girls come

Below, campers in the robotics module created a mechanized arm that could raise and lower, twist and turn, and actually snatch objects from their hands.

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 25

“

My parents would take me to STEM

back for a second and even third time, says, “One parent told me her daughter didn’t know what she wanted to do before she came to the camp two years ago, but after each year of attending, she has found a career she desires to pursue.”

activities as a child. I was usually one of the only females of color. Had it not been for my parents and teachers encouraging me, I may have run away

”

from STEM because I was ‘different.’

—Kelly Knight

WHERE IT’S HEADING While scholarships are available to families who can’t afford the $200 camp fee, Davis believes the camp should one day be free for all. Knight says she hopes to extend it to two weeks, and to possibly make it residential. She’d also like to add camps for elementary and high school girls, and to someday include boys.

For now, though, the FOCUS Camp continues to bring together young girls, female counselors, and nearly all-female presenters.

“For a young girl, that can be a powerful experience,” Knight says. “It is especially empowering on the last day of camp when students gather for their final presentations and you see a room full of young girls discussing complex STEM topics with such excitement. It is really amazing to see.”

At left, participants in the transportation module of Mason’s FOCUS Camp were asked to determine how a car accident occurred by noting such things as the automobile’s placement and surroundings, and the length of tire tracks.

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For more information, or if you would like to support the FOCUS Camp and opportunities to promote STEM education to underrepresented and at-risk youth, contact Kelly Knight at kknight6@gmu. edu, or visit fasterfarther.gmu.edu.

Sugar and Spice and Everything but STEM College of Science Dean Peggy Agouris was encouraged to explore all academic subjects, including STEM, from an early age, and she wants the same for others.

BY PEGGY AGOURIS

I

grew up in an environment where

Stereotypes play a role too, and unfortunately society doesn’t help.

failure was not an option.

Scientists are, more often than not, viewed as nerds. You see it every day,

Education was extremely important

even on television. Think of the Big Bang Theory, for instance—a funny

to my family, so going to college

show, but one in which all scientists are nerds and the good-looking

was the natural thing to do. Fortunately,

people are not scientists. It has become hard for impressionable adoles-

I was a multidimensional student,

cents (especially girls), already struggling to define their personality and

doing equally well in all subjects. My

overcome age-related (and media-amplified) insecurities about their

goal was to be as good as I could be in

appearance, to identify with this stereotypical depiction of scientists

every-thing at school, since a better

in popular culture. Nobody wants to be the socially awkward person

grade meant a better chance at a better

in the corner. I know I don’t, and I’ve been a scientist for most of my life.

school. That brought with it a wide spectrum of options for me.

So there is a combination of factors to work on, like creating and promoting the right role models, supporting STEM learning in K-12

Initially, I wanted to be a lawyer, like

with persistence and enthusiasm, and creating an environment where

many in my family, as I enjoyed public

everyone can thrive regardless of gender or race.

speaking and debating. I also thought about being a writer or an architect. I finally decided to go into engineering, one of the most competitive options, because it combined several of the scientific subjects I liked and offered a wide array of applications.

In my native Greece, it wasn’t unusual for a girl to go into science or engineering. It was mainly an issue of whether you could get there academically or not. As a result, there were—and still are—a lot of women in these fields, not only as students but as faculty and academic leaders.

Since I’ve worked in three different countries on two continents, I have seen noticeable differences in how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are populated in terms of gender.

The College of Science is doing very well with the balance between men and women in our student body. In fact, we are doing much better than other colleges of similar orientation, composition, and size, with 56 percent of our students being female. We are also one of very few STEMoriented colleges worldwide led by a woman. But we need to do more.

We started the FOCUS Camp—Females of Color and those Underrepresented in STEM—because we want to do everything we can to keep young people from opting out of STEM fields. We want to help them keep their studies and career options wide open.

Most important, we want to expose them to the wonderful world of scientific discovery—to demystify STEM fields and unfold their beauty. We

In the United States, we lose a lot of girls from STEM fields during high

want to highlight the connection between the problems we solve in our

school or earlier. Why? For starters, we make it too easy to quit. Undeni-

labs and the problems people face every day. We want to bring in groups

ably, STEM subjects contain challenging concepts, but so do non-STEM

of students who don’t traditionally get exposure in those areas.

fields, like English. I should know—I’m not a native speaker. Non-STEM fields can be difficult, but we are willing to make more effort for them because we consider those subjects critical to develop the knowledge we are expected to have. On the contrary, we have made it acceptable (particularly for girls)—as a culture—to give up on STEM subjects because they are viewed as “hard.” The result is that some of our best people lose the option to pursue a career in STEM because we let them quit early in their education.

Increasing participation in STEM fields is critical to our success as a society and cannot happen without the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups. Mason and the College of Science are fully committed to supporting this goal.

Peggy Agouris is the dean of Mason’s College of Science. She received her Dipl. Eng. from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and her MS and PhD from Ohio State University. Prior to joining George Mason University in 2007, she worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the University of Maine.

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 27

FLOTUS IN THE HOUSE On September 16, First Lady Michele Obama visited the Fairfax Campus and approximately 2,100 students and community members packed the Johnson Center to listen to her. Mason students frequently have access to events where the thought leaders and influencers of the day appear. Some past campus visitors have included Emmy Award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin, Academy Award-nominated film producer Christine Vachon, NBA legend Kareem AbdulJabbar, and Outlander author Diana Gabaldon.

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

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Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 29

INQUIRING MINDS

After the Fall: Hospitalization Risks in Care Facilities Examined Prior research has shown a relationship between falls, hospitalizations, and depression among older adults residing in nursing homes, but few studies have explored these relationships among younger and older adults in residential care facilities.

Now a study by Gilbert Gimm and Panagiota Kitsantas, both of Mason’s Department of Health Administration and Policy, examines falls, dementia, and other chronic conditions as risk factors for younger and older Americans in these facilities.

The goal of the research is to decrease residents’ risk of accidents and enhance their quality of life.

The authors used a 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities, administered by the National Center for Health Statistics, to examine risk factors for 7,895 residents in assisted living and other residential care facilities. They found that 24 percent of residents had undergone a hospital stay in the past year. Residents with falls were more than

twice as likely to have a hospitalization in every age group. For younger residents, depression was a key risk factor, while older residents with dementia had a lower risk of hospitalization. And residents who had three or more functional limitations in their daily activities were also more likely to have a hospital stay.

“These results suggest that specific risk factors can be used to identify assisted living residents who are at high risk of hospitalization,” Gimm says. “Prevention efforts, such as physical safety enhancements to reduce falls and increased monitoring of younger residents with depression or dementia, can help to improve residents’ quality of life and reduce the risk of hospitalization.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Aging and Human Development.

—Brittany Irish

For Teens, Less Sleep Equals More Depression

W

hile the National Institutes of Health recommends teenagers get around nine hours of sleep a night, a study by a Mason researcher found they are actually getting far less, and the effects can be deadly.

Psychology professor Adam Winsler, along with his students, worked with collaborators from Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School to gather data from the Fairfax County Youth Survey. This assessment, given to all Fairfax County, Virginia, students in grades 8, 10, and 12, examines behaviors, experiences, and other factors impacting children’s health and well-being. Of the ethnically diverse sample of 27,939 middle- and high-school students, only 3 percent reported getting the recommended number hours of sleep each weekday night, and 20 percent got five or less.

On average, respondents got only six-and-a-half hours of sleep a night.

Winsler determined that the consequences of skipping sleep can be dire. Accounting for variables such as family composition and income, gender, and ethnic and community-level differences, he calculated that each hour of sleep lost was associated with a 38-percent increase in feelings of sadness and hopelessness among teens, a 23-percent increase in substance abuse, a 42-percent increase in suicidal thoughts, and a 58-percent increase in actual suicide attempts.

Winsler’s research shows that even one hour more of sleep each night can bring about noticeable changes in depression outcomes. His findings were published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93

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RESEARCH

Forecasting Public’s View on Climate Change Meteorologists could be key players in helping the public understand climate change, according to a new study conducted by Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication.

By surveying 4,092 members of the American Meteorological Society, Mason researchers found the vast majority of the nation’s meteorologists now believe human-caused climate change is a reality, possibly marking a turning point for how the rest of the public will view climate change in the future.

Nearly all of the meteorologists surveyed (96 percent) think climate change is happening. Only 1 percent said they think it is not happening, and 3 percent said they don’t know.

The center’s director, University Professor Edward Maibach, reports that, while only five years ago even many meteorologists had their doubts, today one in five has modified his or her opinion about climate change.

“Public understanding of climate change has increased only modestly over the past five years,” he says. “I suspect the larger increase in understanding among meteorologists over the past five years is likely to be what economists call ‘a leading indicator.’ If that proves to be true, we can expect further increases in public understanding over the next few years.”

—Michele McDonald

Mapping Early Elections Researchers at Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media are mapping early American elections as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-funded project that began in May. They’re seeking answers to many of the questions asked about elections in colonial times that are still being asked today, says Mason history professor Lincoln Mullen.

D I D YO U K N O W…

“People are very concerned about how many people voted and who they were,” he says. “Voter turnout is one of the obvious connections between colonial America and today.”

But due to a gap in election information from 1787 to 1826, it hasn’t been an easy answer. For decades, a private citizen, Phil Lampi, collected the election data, which was digitized last year.

Mason researchers are creating data-rich interactive maps that will show local, state, and national elections.

“It will make this data more usable for students, journalists, and political junkies,” says University Professor Rosemarie Zagarri, who has written extensively about early American history.

—Michele McDonald

Perthera Inc., a McLean-based cancer research company co-founded at George Mason University by researcher Emanuel “Chip” Petricoin, has received $8.7 million in financing from the private equity firm Pilot Growth Equity. This support will help connect more patients with groundbreaking personalized cancer treatments.

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 31

INQUIRING MINDS

“Despair and Helplessness” (right) and “Struggle and Hope” (below) are sculptures by Zhenis Moldabaev at the Alzhir Museum in Kazakhstan, where Steven Barnes is conducting his research.

Book Explores Imprisoned Wives of the Gulag

M

ason history professor Steven Barnes, a specialist in research centering on the former Soviet Union, has received funding to revisit a dark time in Soviet history. Barnes has received a 2016-17 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work on his new book, Gulag Wives: Women, Family, and Survival in Stalin’s Terror.

The Gulag camps, which operated from the 1930s to the 1950s in the Soviet Union, served as both a penal system and a tool for political repression. Millions of people were relocated to these labor camps for being “enemies of the state,” and during the “Great Terror” from 1937-38, around 800,000 of them were executed. Family members of these prisoners, many of them wives, were also arrested and detained for years.

The book examines a particular camp known as Alzhir, and uses research from former top-secret Soviet archives—along with unpublished letters, memoirs, and interviews of former prisoners—to tell not only the story of these women’s brutal experiences, but to also touch on ways in which the former Soviet Union faces and represents its own past. Barnes plans to finish the book by the end of this year.

—Anne Reynolds

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RESEARCH

An Eye toward Better Surgeries

T

o better understand how the eye moves and to assist in treating people with a common ocular disorder, a Mason researcher has designed a 3-D biomechanical eye model that can realistically mimic eye movement.

Qi Wei, an assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Bioengineering, is focused on using data-driven biomechanical modeling and simulation to help treat strabismus, a condition in which the eyes do not properly align with each other. Found in 4 percent of newborns, strabismus is commonly treated surgically, but this method often results in imperfect outcomes.

Wei believes her first-of-its-kind model will be the key to understanding eye movement and assisting in strabismus diagnosis and treatment.

Wei has been working with Mason bioengineering professor Siddhartha Sikdar on an ultrasound-based system to measure extraocular muscle mechanics. For this, she synchronizes an eye tracker with an ultrasound machine to measure both slow and quick eye movements.

Then, using data from subjects with strabismus, Wei develops patientspecific eye models that simulate diseased eye movement.

The ultimate goal is to provide a realistic and interactive biomechanical software that offers medical image-driven, patient-specific model-

ing and simulation. Using her 3-D model, Wei intends to develop a mechanism to pinpoint to the eye muscles, which an ophthalmologist can use as a reference to plan a precise surgical procedure.

—Claudia Borke

Clinical Trials for Very Rare Diseases Clinical trials explore whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe and effective for humans and may show which medical approaches work best for certain illnesses or groups of people. Statistical studies play an important part in clinical trials by allowing researchers to form reasonable and accurate inferences from collected information and make sound decisions in the presence of uncertainty.

“Some diseases are so rare there is no cure,” says Mason University Professor William Rosenberger. “The statistical methodology for a disease with as few as 50 cases in the world is much different from that of a

more prevalent disease.”

Rosenberger, who is also the Department of Statistics chair, received a Fulbright grant to travel to Aachen, Germany, to pursue his research on randomization. While there, he collaborated with researchers at the RWTH Aachen University Medical Center on a $3.42 million grant from the European Union on methodology for clinical trials of rare diseases.

Despite such small numbers, Rosenberger believes there are compelling reasons to study these diseases. “About 6,000 to 8,000 rare diseases affect 30 million people in the European Union, and about 50

percent of these people are children,” he says.

Because many of the diseases are life-threatening and alternative therapies may not exist, there may be ethical imperatives to maximize the number of patients receiving experimental therapies.

Faculty and doctoral students from Aachen also visited Mason to continue the research with Rosenberger. “The ongoing collaboration should lead to developments that could have a major impact on the public health in both the U.S. and Europe,” Rosenberger says.

“

Some diseases are so rare there is no cure. The statistical methodology for a disease with as few as 50 cases in the world is much different from that of a more prevalent disease.

—William Rosenberger

”

—Martha Bushong

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 33

INTO

the Woods

Incoming freshman have an opportunity to attend a different kind of orientation by participating in Project Peak. The new Patriots hit the woods for five days of rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, and sleeping under the stars —making lifelong friends and connections.

PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

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Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 35

SHELF LIFE

Recently published works by Mason faculty

Lawless: The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule of Law David Bernstein, professor of law Lawless (Encounter Books, November 2015) provides a scholarly account of how the Obama administration has undermined the Constitution and the rule of law. The book documents how Obama has presided over one constitutional debacle after another— Obamacare; unauthorized wars in the Middle East; attempts to strip property owners, college students, religious groups, and conservative political activists of their rights; and more.

Bernstein warns that, as America swings into election season, it will have to grapple with finding a president who can repair this president’s lawless legacy.

Debating Modern Revolution: The Evolution of Revolutionary Ideas Jack R. Censer, professor emeritus of history From the American and French revolutionaries who upset a monarchical order that had dominated for over a millennium up to the Arab Spring, revolution has become a means to create nations, change social orders, and throw out colonial occupiers, and has been labelled as both conservative and reactionary. This introduction to the topic (Bloomsbury Academic, February 2016) charts the development of these competing ideas and definitions, offering a new approach to the topic of revolution for all students of world history.

Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror Michael V. Hayden, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government “Play to the edge” was Hayden’s guiding principle when he ran the National Security Agency, and it remained so when he headed up the Central Intelligence Agency. For 10 years, he was a participant in some of the most telling events in the annals of American national security.

This book (Penguin Press, February 2016) is an insider’s look told from the perspective of the people who faced awesome responsibilities head on.

Securing Sex: Morality and Repression in the Making of Cold War Brazil Benjamin Cowan, assistant professor, history and art history In Securing Sex (University of North Carolina Press, March 2016), Cowan draws

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on archival records to show that conservatives were firmly situated in a transnational network of rightwing cultural activists who joined the constituency supporting Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. There, they operationalized a moral panic that conflated communist subversion with manifestations of modernity, coalescing around the crucial nodes of gender and sexuality.

The Life Cycles of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency: 1970 - 2035 James K. Conant, professor, and Peter J. Balint, assistant professor, Schar School of Policy and Government In this book (Oxford University Press, March 2016), Conant and Balint examine what happened to the Council on Environmental Quality and EPA between 1970 and 2010 by using changes in leadership and

budgetary resources as key indicators of the agencies’ vitality and capacity for implementing pollution control laws. They also examine correlations between the agencies’ fortunes and various social, political, and economic variables.

Peace Jobs: A Student’s Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace David J. Smith, adjunct professor for conflict analysis and resolution Designed for students interested in exploring career options to promote peacebuilding and the resolution of conflict, Peace Jobs (Information Age Publishing, March 2016) features 30 stories from young professionals, most recent college graduates, who are working in the field. They provide readers with insights and strategies for advancing their peacebuilding careers.

Studying How Whales Swapped Feet for Fins

Practical Approaches to Peacebuilding: Putting Theory to Work Pamina Firchow, assistant professor, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and Harry Anastasiou (eds.)

What is sustainable peacebuilding? And what is the relationship between empirical realities and theoretical approaches to the subject? The authors of Practical Approaches to Peacebuilding (Lynne Rienner Publishers, March 2016) present a series of case studies from around the world to explore how various peacebuilding theories engage and interact with lived experiences, and also to elaborate useful new theoretical perspectives.

The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America F. H. Buckley, law professor The Way Back (Encounter Books, April 2016) explains the revolution in American politics, where political in-

surgents have challenged the complacent establishment of both parties, and shows how we can restore the promise of economic mobility and equality by pursuing socialist ends through capitalist means.

Merchants in the City of Art: Work, Identity, and Change in a Florentine Neighborhood Anne Schiller, professor of anthropology This ethnography (University of Toronto Press, April 2016), written and designed with students in mind, uses the experiences and perspectives of a set of long-time market vendors in San Lorenzo, a neighborhood in the historic center of Florence, Italy, to explore how cultural identities are formed in periods of profound economic and social change. The book is based on anthropological field research Schiller conducted in Italy between 2005 and 2015.

Mark D. Uhen, assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, has long been fascinated with cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) and how they’ve evolved throughout history. While it’s common scientific knowledge these creatures evolved from terrestrial mammals, it was recently discovered that whales evolved from artiodactyls—the “even-toed ungulates” like cows and hippos. Uhen’s new book, Cetacean Paleobiology (Wiley-Blackwell, June 2016), written with Felix G. Marx and Olivier Lambert, summarizes this new awareness.

Why has it taken so long to figure this out?

New discoveries were made in the 1990s through to today in Indo-Pakistan and in Egypt, North America, and Peru. These fleshed out the story of how whales transitioned from being fully terrestrial to being semiaquatic and then fully aquatic.

People used to think whales had this slow trickle of evolution and then, boom, there were all these different kinds of whales. But really early on they were diversified. Of course, the story gets more details every day with more fossils being found.

Do modern techniques of DNA collection or new technological scans help?

DNA can only be preserved for hundreds of thousands of years, so it can only help us understand the interrelatedness of modern things. If you sample only that, you miss all the diversity that’s in there. Early on there was a huge disagreement about the time of the origin of whales and what they’re related to because the fossils seemed to be suggesting something different from what the DNA was saying. But with more fossil discoveries, it made more sense. Today we have 3-D printers to replicate fossil structures. Recently, we wanted to examine the theory that bigger brain size relative to body size makes you smarter, so we took fossil whale skulls and put them in a CT scanner at the Smithsonian. We found that when whales learned to echolocate, their brain size went up dramatically. It went up again at the origin of the dolphin family. Those guys are highly social, so it’s guessed they needed more processing power for those relationships. Everything we did in that study we could have done without CT scanning, but it made it much faster and easier. And scanning the objects and putting them on the web makes it much easier to share fossil data.

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on a database to include every fossil on the planet. It’s called the Paleobiology Database, and I’m part of a team that has been working on it for 15 years.

The idea is to get every researcher to put their fossils in. It’s completely accessible to researchers and the public. We don’t have a plan yet to get all the data in there, but we’re building the platform to do it.

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 37

ALUMNI IN PRINT Recently published works by Mason alumni

Kingdom of Beautiful Words

Who’d You Vote for, Er . . . Against?

Kimberly Hamilton O’Toole, BA Sociology ’92, MA Sociology ’94 America Star Books, May 2015 This children’s picture book tells the story of a royal family experiencing the anguish of a young son who does not speak, and the effects this has on his parents and the citizens of the Kingdom.

O’Toole is a former Mason adjunct and is currently an adjunct sociology professor at Marymount University.

Her first book, Monster Away, was published in 2013.

David S. Holland, BS ’04 Amazon Digital Services Inc., October 2015 In this snarky look at the author’s own voting records from a half-century of presidential elections, Holland explores the idea of negative vs. positive voters, or those who vote against rather than for a political candidate or party. Illustrations by freelance cartoonist Phil McKenney are featured.

Dancer Mark Osmun, BA English ’75 Raven Ideas, September 2015 Accomplished dancer and licensed psychotherapist Valerie Glines is on the verge of a prestigious position with the Mayo Clinic when she breaks her neck in a freak accident. Based on a true story and written with co-author Valerie Carpenter, Dancer traces one woman’s struggle as she undertakes a rocky journey back to her life’s true calling: helping those in need.

America, Democracy & You Ronald Fraser, MPA ’80, PhD Public Policy ’97 Amazon CreateSpace, November 2015 According to Fraser, the idea that U.S. citizens are the ultimate political power in our system of government is a myth, but it’s a myth Americans willingly pretend is true. America, Democracy & You exposes the hidden role of such myths in our democracy and explains how citizens can trade in their mythical popular sovereignty for the real thing—political self-rule.

Fraser worked as a writer in Washington, D.C., for decades, and his work has appeared in dozens of publications, including

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the New York Times and Washington Post.

10 Self Guided Tours Down Under Andrea McCarley, MS Integrative Studies ’92 AGM Enterprises, December 2015 This book is for travelers who do not want to be constrained by a formal tour but still want guidance on where to go and what to see in Australia. These 10 trips are organized into manageable 10- to 14-day itineraries designed to minimize time in transit and maximize time vacationing. Each trip is accompanied by photos, maps, and local recommendations.

McCarley grew up in Brentwood, California. She has travelled the world as a Foreign Service officer and spent 16 years in Australia. She currently resides in Hawaii.

Insurrection: A Teacher Revolution in Defense of Children Keith David Reeves (editor), MEd ’06 Information Age Publishing, December 2015 Insurrection addresses educational philosophy, the system of schools, the social issue of misunder-

standing children, and how current school employees can lend their efforts to the revolution.

Reeves is senior coordinator of instructional technology for Arlington (Virginia) Public Schools.

He has served as an instructional technology resource teacher, and a middle and high school band director.

A Hundred Weddings Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93 Possibilities Publishing, December 2016 Katie Jacobs has dreaded weddings since she was a kid, and was dragged to too many ill-fated ceremonies by her mother, a wedding planner. Now Katie’s off to Florida to help plan her sister’s wedding and to recall the “hundred weddings” they’ve planned in the past. Reliving those memorable— and painful—moments is oddly therapeutic, but it will take more than this to renew her faith in marriage and love.

Cruise lives in Virginia with her family, and works as an editor at Mason. She is co-author of the blog Write Despite with Mason alumna Karen Guzman.

PAT R I O T P R O F I L E

Chris Fernandez MAJOR: Biology

HOMETOWN: Lorton, Virginia

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

F

or Chris Fernandez, receiving the $7,000 Udall Scholarship provides an opportunity, as the rising senior says, “to understand some of the roots of the conservation movement in the United States.” In August, at a four-day conference tied to the scholarship in Tucson, Arizona, 60 scholarship recipients worked with professionals on case studies concerning environmental and Native American issues.

Why the Udall scholarship? Awarded annually to juniors and sophomores committed to matters relating to the environment or Native Americans, the scholarship honors the legacy of the late brothers and politicians, Morris and Stewart Udall. Fernandez identifies with their conservation philosophy. “Just the idea of being super optimistic about what we have accomplished. We have to move forward but it’s important to be pragmatic,” he says.

Hands-on experience: Fernandez, a first-generation college student, has been busy during his time at Mason. A member of the Honors College, he has interned with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and at PHOTO BY RON AIRA

the Long Island (New York) National Wildlife Refuge Complex. As a junior, he studied at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation at Front Royal, Virginia. And his research project analyzed actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in support of endangered and threatened bird populations.

Knowledge sharing: There are moments when Fernandez just has to point out to friends that rare bird in a tree or a flowering plant. “It’s true,” he says, laughing. “Ecologists are geeky in that way. We’re known for ruining that silent moment.”

Looking ahead: Fernandez plans to pursue a master’s degree. His long-term goal is to promote the idea that conservation and human activity can coexist. “The intersections between science and society,” Fernandez calls it. “What does ecosystem health look like, but what are the impacts to humans? There’s an integral human ecology that’s at play with the natural world, and that’s very beautiful.”

—Damian Cristodero

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.

CLASS NOTES

Mason Alumna Cast in Broadway’s Hamilton

D

ancer and actress Sasha Hollinger, BFA Dance ’09, is playing an important element of history in the Tony and Grammy awardwinning Broadway musical, Hamilton.

“I play the bullet that shot Alexander Hamilton,” says Hollinger. “The moment when I become the bullet is essentially a moment frozen in time. I make my way across the stage very slowly while Hamilton is speaking, basically all of the thoughts going through his head in this last second of his life.”

show. She continued to perform despite the injury and believes that probably worsened it.

“Growing up training as a dancer you have the mindset that if you’re not dying and the limb isn’t falling off, you go dance,” she says. “That was a lesson, too, I needed to listen to my body. That’s actually something I learned at Mason—knowing the difference between something you can and can’t push through.”

As a part of the ensemble she’s also on stage for most of the 46+ songs in the three-hour show, dancing and singing as part of the story.

Having professors who worked in the industry meant she knew what New York was going to be like before moving there right after graduation with a classmate from Mason’s School of Dance.

Being in a production that’s won 11 Tonys and one Grammy means there is pressure to have a seamless transition, says Hollinger, whose first performance was July 11.

Between her parents’ saving for her education and the Friends of Dance scholarship she received, she exited college with no student loan debt, which made surviving in the city easier.

This spring, Hollinger was offered a chance to attend a Hamilton “boot camp”—a nine-day clinic in which dancers are assigned a certain role and learn the musical numbers associated with that role. She was assigned the role of “the bullet,” which helped her land the actual role.

“It was definitely a new [audition] process,” she says. “It wasn’t an open call or an invited call where there would be cuts.”

Hollinger says the opportunity was perfectly timed because she’d just returned to dancing after a year on disability. She’d injured her shoulder at the last rehearsal before the first performance of a touring 40 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

“Some [dancers] just move to New York. I’m happy I listened to my mom and went to school first,” she says.

Performing in Hamilton will continue to open doors for her, Hollinger says.

“If people see Hamilton on your resume, they are going to keep their eye on you.”

—Jamie Rogers

class notes 1970s

W. Scott McGeary, BA Political Science ’77, JD ’82, was recently appointed by the Arlington County Circuit Court of Virginia to serve on the locality’s Electoral Board, which administers the elections process.

1980s

John T. Shafer, BS Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies ’88, was recently elected to the board of the Cape May Raptor Banding Project Inc. He is a park manager in Fairfax County, Virginia, and has been volunteering to run a birds of prey banding station since 2006.

1990s

Catherine Spage, BA Economics ’91, MPA ’95, after more than 20 years

of service with Fairfax County, was appointed director of the Department of Human Resources with the county on May 17. Spage has served the county in many capacities such as planning technician with the Department of Transportation, Department of Management and Budget, and the Department of Public Works and Environmental Sciences.

Andrea McCarley, MS Information Systems ’92, recently published a tour guide of Australia as an eBook. The eBook can be found at 10selfguidedtours.com.

Zainab Salbi, BIS ’96, was named to Fast Company’s Most Creative People list for her new talk show, The Nida’a Show (“The Calling”). The program’s first season was available in 22 countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, reaching four million households. The show

featured Salbi’s interviews with regional tastemakers and international celebrities.

Tim Wyckoff, BS Electrical Engineering ’98, JD ’03, is a partner based in the Washington State office of Kacvinskhy Daisak Bluni PPLC. He practices with the intellectual property group.

Rita Huggins-Halstead, MS Taxation ’98, has been named a franchise specialist by FranNet of Virginia, a firm that specializes in matching entrepreneurs with franchises in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. She focuses on serving clients in Loudoun County and throughout Virginia and D.C. She has more than 24 years of experience in accounting and financial management, including 15 years of public tax and consulting experience.

Joe Little, BA Speech Communication ’98, recently received an Emmy for his reporting at KGTV in San Diego. He also received first place from the National Press Photographer’s Association Best of Photography Solo Videojournalism competition.

2000s

Sean O’Hanlon, JD ’00, is an administrative patent judge with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Chuck Gahun, BA Government and International Politics ’01, MS Technology ’09, joined Siteworx LLC as vice president of experience management. Gahun brings more than 15 years of experience in digital strategy, product development, and program management to the team.

2016-17 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT

Brian Jones, MA International Commerce and Policy ’06 IMMEDIATE PAST-PRESIDENT

Christopher Preston, BS Management ’96 PRESIDENT-ELECT

Jennifer Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94 VICE PRESIDENT—ADVOCACY

Kate McSweeny, JD ’04 TREASURER

Scott Hine, BS Decision Science ’85 SECRETARY

Andy Gibson, BA History ’92 AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

Walter McLeod, MS Chemistry ‘94 Shayan Farazmand, BA Communication ‘04 Ty Carlson, BS Social Work '96 Jeff Fissel, BS Information Technology ’06

(continued next page)

What’s New with You? We are interested in what you’ve been doing since you graduated. Have you moved? Gotten married?

Had a baby? Landed a hot new job? Received an award? Met up with some Mason friends? Submit your class notes to alumni.gmu.edu/whatsnew. In your note, be sure to include your graduation year and degree.

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 41

Our Greater Contribution:

Maximizing Our Potential

PHOTO BY JOHN BOAL

A

lumni are the greatest asset a university holds. It is only with the determination and dedication of our alumni that we can serve our university, sustain long-term value for our degrees, and contribute to the broader community. At the heart of our efforts is a focus on cultivating and sustaining a diverse population that meets the distinctive needs of the communities in which we live, work, and play.

As an Alumni Association, our goals are to maximize our individual and collective potential, reinforce the university’s culture with a focus on diversity, expand professional opportunities, and assist in contributing positively to our greater society. There are a number of ways alumni can seek to make a direct impact: through volunteering, contributing to a scholarship or school, or simply wearing your Green and Gold to let the world know where you went to school.

Staying connected through experiences both on and off campus is a simple but powerful bond, and provides the opportunity to reflect on our time at the university and the growing tradition and community that make us unique. There is no better way to stay connected than actively being a part of our Alumni Association.

I encourage you to connect with each other, give back to the university and current students, and take advantage of the opportunities Mason continues to offer.

With All My Patriot Pride, Brian Jones, MA International Commerce and Policy, ’06 President, George Mason University Alumni Association

Stay in Touch Update your contact information in the alumni directory to stay connected and get the latest news from Mason. Visit alumni.gmu.edu or call 703-993-8696 to learn more.

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Christina Correira, JD ’02, is the chief human resources officer at Bloomberg BNA. Stephen McGinn, BS Decision Science and Management Information Systems ’02, recently joined Tesoro headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, as the performance improvement manager for product logistics. Tesoro is one of the largest independent refiners and marketers of petroleum products in the United States. He also volunteers with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He has teamed up with a James Beard finalist, Chef Steven McHugh of Cured at Pearl, to organize a premier culinary charity event in San Antonio.

Chris Camacho, BS Decision Science and Management of Information Systems ’02, has been appointed chief strategy officer by Flashpoint, the global leader in deepand-dark web data and intelligence. He will ensure all facets of the company, from product to sales to marketing, are aligned with the company’s strategic vision. He brings extensive cybersecurity practitioner experience to this new role. He also served as senior VP of global information security at Bank of America,

where he led the Threat Management Team.

Abdullah Bin Muhammad Ahmed Ashy, BS Finance Management ’02, will be the chair of Ewaan Global Housing Board of Directors effective July 2016. He has held several important roles at the Islamic Institute for Private Sector Development, which is a subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank, Ahly Commercial Bank, Ernst & Young. His nomination comes based on his deep knowledge of investment sectors, Islamic financing, and consulting, as well as his 13 years of experience.

Barry M. Barnard, MPA ’02, was named the new police chief of the Prince William County Police Department. Prior to this new role, he served as the deputy chief of police, and prior to that he served as the assistant chief of police from 2000 to 2009.

Captain John W. Le Favour, U.S. Navy, PhD Public Policy ’03, recently turned over his command of the Naval Hospital Jacksonville to Navy Captain David C. Collins.

Raymond Rahbar, BS Finance ’04, owns an expanding co-working firm, Make Offices. The business grew further (continued on page 42) on June 1, 2016, with

CLASS NOTES

the opening of a new 40,000-square-foot flagship location in Clarendon, Virginia.

Nicholas T. Moraites, JD ’06, LLM Law and Economics ’07, was recently promoted to partner at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC. His focus is on the practice of litigation

with emphasis on insurance coverage matters and employment disputes.

Durell Comedy, BFA Dance ’08, has joined the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Comedy, who worked as an apprentice with the group over the past year, is the third Mason alumnus to join the company.

Nancy Falk, PhD Nursing ’08, has been named a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA).

The GSA is the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging. Falk’s status as a fellow is an acknowledgement of (continued next page)

SAVE THE DATE

February 9–11 Join your fellow alumni and Patriot fans as we celebrate Homecoming 2017 with basketball and pre- and post-game parties. Visit the Alumni Association Homecoming website for all the details.

Kelly Shepherd, BFA Art and Visual Technology ’12, recently returned from a medical mission in the Philippines with Uplift Internationale where he documented surgeries for local children who needed cleft lip or palate repairs. He runs his own photography business, Kelly J. Shepherd Photography, and you can see his work at kjsphoto.smugmug.com. PHOTO BY SHANE BURGESS

SHOW YOUR PATRIOT PRIDE alumni.gmu.edu/homecoming Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 43

CLASS NOTES

outstanding and continuing work in gerontology.

The new fellows will be formally recognized during GSA’s 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting in November in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jenna St. John, MFA Creative Writing ’08, premiered her latest film, Dinner with the Alchemist, at the Dances with Films festival in Los Angeles.

The film, which she also co-wrote, received 15 nominations for Indie Capitol Awards, including a Best Screenplay nomination for St. John.

Celebrated former Mason track star David Verburg, Health, Fitness, and Recreation Resources ’13, realized his dream of becoming an Olympian when the 11-time NCAA All-American headed to the games in Brazil this summer. Verburg took home a gold medal as a part of the men’s 4x400m relay team.

Rachel Beauregard, BA Theater ’09, returned to Mason in October to perform at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. She

and her musical partner Bryan Dawley make up the country music group Native Run.

2010s

Adriana Ospina, MA Art History ’13, received an NEH grant to support an exhibition she is organizing: “Converging Cultures: Asian Diasporas and Latin American and Caribbean Art from 1940 to the Present.” Ospina is the curator of collections at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. Shelley Cathcart, MA History of Decorative Arts ’13, has accepted the position of assistant curator at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts,

ALUM N I CHAP TE R R E PR E S E NTATIV E S BLACK ALUMNI

VOLGENAU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

LATINO

Chantee Christian, BA Communication ’05

Mariana X. Cruz, BS Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ’11

Cristian Pineda, BA Communication ’12

LAMBDA

Tiffany Ha, BS Chemistry ’10, MS ’13

Jugnu Agrawal, MEd Special Education ’07, PhD ’13

Aléjandro Asin, BA ’11 Conor O’Malley, BA History ’12

Anthony DeGregorio, BS Physical Education ’84, MS Physical Education ’89

Gleason Rowe, BA Global Affairs ’11

Ben Owen, JD ’13

Kushboo Bhatia, BA ’16

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Sumeet Shrivastava, MBA ’94

Chloe Kingsley-Burt, BA Communication ’13, BS Marketing ’13

SCHAR SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT AND POLICY

Rachel Bruns, BA Global Affairs ’13

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

Shannon Baccaglini, MM Music ’06, MA Arts Management ’09

ANTONIN SCALIA LAW SCHOOL

Kyle Green, MA International Commerce and Policy ’13 and MPA ’14 44 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

GOLDEN QUILL

where she has served as a curatorial fellow since June 2015. While a student at Mason, Cathcart focused mainly on ceramics, interning at the U.S. Department of States’ Blair House, where she inventoried and researched objects in the ceramics collection.

Jason Cortez, BA Film and Video Studies ’15, has a short film, Brad in Green, which is scheduled to premiere on PBS in July.

The film will be featured as part of the series, Live at 9:30, a modern-day variety show filmed in D.C.’s 9:30 Club. Brad in Green showcases local D.C. jazz musician, Brad Linde, and will air during episode three of the series.

Ahmed Ben Salem, BS Applied Information Technology ’16, recently got a new job working as an internet specialist with the House of Representatives. He also got married last year.

Rachel Romanowski, BS Health Administration ’16, began working at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in the Finance and Administration Department following her recent graduation.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GIVING SPIRIT

CLASS NOTES

HELPING OTHERS IS HIS BUSINESS

O

n a December evening in 1992, Tom Bagamane, MBA ’95, left his office in Washington, D.C., drove past the White House and Treasury Building, and saw groups of homeless people huddled over steam grates outside the federal buildings. The scene would change his life and the lives of thousands.

“I got angry and frustrated,” he says. “Here were these symbols of our great civilization surrounding people we couldn’t help. It broke my heart.”

Foregoing Christmas gifts that year, Bagamane and his sister made up 10 survival bags instead, and took them into the city after midnight. When they found people sleeping on the streets, they covered them with blankets, left provisions at their feet, and disappeared.

“We didn’t want it to be about us,” Bagamane says. “We wanted them to realize the world hadn’t forgotten about them.”

After completing his MBA in 1995, he moved to Los Angeles and was struck by the enormity of homelessness there. He decided to combine his new business skills and his compassion for the homeless to impact his new city by similarly affecting more lives—many more.

Bagamane founded what’s now the largest all-volunteer organization in L.A., and one of the largest in the country.

The Giving Spirit (TGS) has directly served more than 40,000 homeless clients with the help of more than 13,000 volunteers since 1999. Twice a year, volunteers assemble and distribute survival kits filled with life-sustaining essentials—food, hygiene products, clothing, and hydration items—that allow someone to “survive where they stand,” Bagamane says.

Over the last 17 years, he’s also built three successful for-profit consumer products companies. His fourth, Profitable Good Group, works with CEOs to design and execute a shared values strategy that aligns their profit goals with their desire to make a positive impact on their communities.

Bagamane says the skills and knowledge he gained at Mason helped him polish the business sense he already had and taught him priorities and balance, to use an effective working language, play to his strengths—and effect change.

“TGS is about two things: seeking out those that are suffering, and allowing their fellow citizens to step up and be a part of the solution,” Bagamane says. “And it’s about educating our volunteers to make the right choices when extending themselves to our poor—to leave judgment at home and understand people for who they are. I owe it to Mason, which gave me skills and confidence that have translated to success both in the boardroom and in our streets.”

For more information about The Giving Spirit, or to learn how you can help, visit www.thegivingspirit.org.

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93 Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 45

CLASS NOTES

DRIVING ON MARS Volgenau School of Engineering professor Gerald Cook was channel surfing one night when the National Geographic special Five Years on Mars captured his attention. Then he realized he recognized someone: his former graduate student Ashley Stroupe, MS Electrical Engineering ’98, who was featured in the special. We caught up with Stroupe, now a staff engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to ask about her work.

You were the first woman to drive on Mars.

How have things changed, and what would you say to young women who are interested in robotics?

Things have changed. With my current projects, Opportunity and Curiosity, there isn’t a job that isn’t being done by a woman. The teams are about 50 percent female. I think it’s important for women to be in STEM fields. It is even more important for everyone to freely

pursue his or her own dreams. I certainly tell young women not to be discouraged if robotics is what they are passionate about.

Passion is what matters most.

What projects are you working on now at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory?

I still spend one day a week driving the Mars rover, Opportunity. The other four days I am the lead science planner on the newest rover, Curiosity. This job is more of a systems engineering job. I manage the team, set policies. We are putting things in place and doing the modeling that will make the project successful.

What is the best part of your job?

It’s hard to pinpoint one thing. I’m excited to go to work every day. I feel honored to work with so many dedicated, enthusiastic, and capable people. Of course, driving a car on

46 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

another planet and making discoveries is pretty awesome work. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. It seems like a dream.

What was the best part about being a student at Mason?

The support from faculty was really amazing.

My bachelor’s degree was in physics, but I found out I was really interested in robotics.

I had great professors who were willing to take the extra steps, work with me, and help me shift gears.

How did your time at Mason prepare you for the work you are doing now?

I knew the engineering school had a good robotics program. My Mason degree prepared me to continue my education and earn my PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and then land the job with NASA. —Martha Bushong

CLASS NOTES

Obituaries

Joan Papst, BA History ’73, February 20, 2016 Jeanne Andriot, BA Psych ’74, MA Psych ’76, January 17, 2016 David McNeese, BS Biology ’74, March 3, 2016 Norman Nash, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’74, January 28, 2016 Leslie Bruffey, BS Business Administration ’75, March 24, 2016 Sharon Courlas, BS Biology ’75, February 9, 2016 Elizabeth Catron, MA English ’76, January 13, 2016 James Thompson, BIS ’76, February 13, 2016 Patricia Warren, BA Psychology ’76, March 13, 2016 Nancy Croft, BIS ’77, August 25, 2015 Thomas Kenny, BS Business Administration ’77, March 20, 2016 Louis Metcalf, BS Business Administration ’78, March 3, 2016 Susan Manola, MEd Education Administration/Supervision ’79, November 20, 2015 Thomas Petruska, MBA ’79, February 2, 2016 Arthur Hammarstrom III, BSN ’80, MSN ’97, February 29, 2016

Jane Hebb Siragusa, BSN ’80, March 6, 2016 Karen Cunningham, BS Decision Science ’81, March 6, 2016 Steven Hesling, BA Government and Politics ’81, December 24, 2015 Michael Marsh, JD ’81, December 31, 2015 David Burds, MEd Counseling and Development ’82, January 30, 2016 Darel Johnson, MBA ’82, April 4, 2016 Shelia McGough, JD ’82, September 22, 2015 Elizabeth Osborn, BIS ’83, February 27, 2016 Barbara McCann, BSEd Early Education ’84, April 20, 2016 James Brincefield III, BA English ’86, February 20, 2016 Betty Graham, BA English ’86, January 3, 2016 Theresa Johnson, MEd Counseling and Development ’87, March 31, 2016 Mary Newton, BA Anthropology ’88, September 3, 2015 Garson Page-Wood, MPA ’88, August 1, 2015 Ruth Heimburg, MS Conflict Management and Resolution ’91, January 1, 2016 Martha Seavey, MEd Counseling and Development ’91, April 6, 2016

Mary Miraglia, MA History ’92, October 9, 2015 Ben Fritz, MA Music ’92, PhD Education ’99, February 4, 2016 Neil Griffin, BS Biology ’94, March 8, 2016 Kevin Caulfield, BSN ’95, December 28, 2015 Julie Dickson, MEd Special Education ’95, March 31, 2016 Elaine Duffner, MEd Special Education ’97, December 15, 2015 Magdalena Forsyth, BSN ’97, March 24, 2016 Myrna Oliver, BA English ’00, July 13, 2015 Belinda Widmaier, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’02, March 27, 2016 Amy Angelo, MEd Education Leadership ’03, April 2, 2016 Eric Swartz, BA Government and International Politics, ’03, JD ’06, December 25, 2015 Andrew Carruthers, MA Criminology, Law and Society ’14, March 1, 2016 Michael Fijalka, BA History ’14, February 21, 2016 Nicole Long, MBA ’15, April 2, 2016

FAC U LT Y A N D S TA F F John L. Spaldo Jr. passed away on April 9 at age 70. Spaldo began working at George Mason in 1981 and retired as the associate vice president of university operations in 2008. He oversaw parking and transportation, among other auxiliaries, and was responsible for the planning of many buildings and parking decks on campus. Spaldo was the first director of the Johnson Center, and in 2013, served as interim general manager at Mason’s Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center. He attended Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois, majoring in political science, and received his master’s degree in higher education administration from the George Washington University in 1975.

He also served in the U.S. Army in Korea as an intelligence analyst.

He is survived by his wife, Debra, and his daughter, Maren.

Susan Tolchin, who retired from Mason in 2014 after 16 years as a professor of public policy, died May 18 at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 75. In an academic career spanning five decades, she had also been founder and director of the Washington Institute for Women in Politics at Mount Vernon College, and was a professor of public administration at George Washington University. Tolchin was known as a political scientist who frequently collaborated on books with her journalist husband, Martin Tolchin, a veteran Washington correspondent for the New York Times. Their books explored political

patronage, women in politics, and the raging discontent of voters.

Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Karen Tolchin; and a grandson.

Coleman Raphael, dean emeritus of the School of Business, died on April 16 at age 90 after a long illness. Raphael spent much of his career innovating in the aerospace industry. While at Republic Aviation, he managed Project FIRE, which developed the re-entry data needed to design the heat shield on the Apollo spacecraft. He later headed the Space and Electronic Systems Division at Fairchild, then served as CEO of Atlantic Research. He retired in 1986 to become dean at Mason, where he steered the school through its first national accreditation and created the region’s first Executive MBA program. After retiring from Mason, he facilitated an initial meeting for Mason MBA students with Warren Buffett in 2007, and he sat on the Mason Foundation Board of Trustees. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; his children Hollis (David) Weisman and Gordon (Mindy); and grandchildren Andrew (Laura) Weisman, Kara, and Craig.

Fall 2016 M A S O N S P I R I T | 47

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Students from the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment explored the Occoquan Bay Refuge in Occoquan, Virginia, with scientists from Mason’s Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center. Each summer Mason partners with the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo to host 250 high school national youth delegates from all over the country for the summit.

PHOTOS ALEXIS GLENN PHOTOS

BY BY EVAN CANTWELL