Mason Spirit Fall 2017

MASON SPIRIT FA L L 2017

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

Hitting All the Right

Notes

Real-world challenges inspire Mason Engineering students to take their capstone projects to the next level.

BU I LD I N G A B E T T E R E N G I N E E R

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TAC K LI N G V I R G I N IA’S O PI O I D C R I S I S

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T H I S I S O N LY A S I M U L AT I O N

ROOM OF

(Caffeine) R E Q U I R E M E N T

This summer Cosmopolitan magazine named the Johnson Center Starbucks to its list of 50 Most Beautiful Starbucks Around the World, complimenting us on our “Harry Potter vibe.” Our fabulous flying books sculpture placed at #31 on a list that included coffee shops in China, Switzerland, and Morocco.

Photos by Craig Bisacre, BA ’15

About the Cover Fifth-grader Isabella Nicola plays the violin using the hot pink prosthesis created for her by a senior design team of Mason bioengineering majors. See story on page 16.

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

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MASON SPIRIT

F E AT U R E S

Building a Better Engineer The senior capstone project for engineers lasts the entire senior year—30 weeks. From the sound-wave fire extinguisher that made it onto the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, to the prosthetic arm for a young violinist, to a test for tuberculosis, Mason Engineering students are taking on big projects and succeeding with them.

Addiction, One Question at a Time 24 Fighting Across the nation, drug and alcohol abuse are claiming far too many lives, and deaths from opioids in Virginia have never been higher.

Mason has partnered with the commonwealth to initiate and oversee a screening, intervention, and treatment program for those who need it most. It all starts with asking a few basic questions.

Simulated Disaster, Real Understanding 28 From In March, while many college students were enjoying Florida beaches, graduate students from Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution were dining on rice and beans, sleeping on the concrete floor of an airplane hangar, and learning what it’s like to be peace practitioners in an active conflict zone.

Follow us on Twitter @MasonSpirit for alumni news, events, and more. ecome a fan of the Mason Spirit on B Facebook for links to photos, videos, and stories at www.facebook.com/ MasonSpirit.

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

D E PA R T M E N T S 2 3 4 6 15 32 36 38

FIRST WORDS FROM OUR RE ADERS 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 SHELF LIFE A LU M N I I N P R I N T

39 PAT R I O T P R O F I L E 4 0 C L A S S N O T E S 42 From the Alumni Association President

A L U M N I P R O F I L E S 40 Rion Amilcar Scott, MFA Creative

Writing ’08 43 Sharon M. Deane, MA History ’10 45 Tracy Russillo, BS Law Enforcement ’88

MORE ON THE WEB When you see this graphic, follow it to the magazine’s website for more: spirit.gmu.edu.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 1

FIRST WORDS

MASON SPIRIT A MAGAZINE FOR THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

THERE IS NO BETTER TEACHER THAN REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE

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e aspire for all Mason graduates to be engaged citizens and well-rounded scholars who are prepared to make a positive and meaningful contribution to society. One of the most effective tools we use to achieve that goal is to require students to identify real-world problems and apply the knowledge they are acquiring to solve them.

These academic experiences not only look good on graduate school applications and resumes. They help students reach a deeper understanding of their discipline and develop a stronger sense of confidence in their ability to have a positive impact on those around them. They also illustrate the impact that Mason has on students, and the impact that our graduates have on the world.

In the cover story of this issue of Spirit, you’ll read about five bioengineering majors whose senior capstone project required them to activate their education and ingenuity. They created a prosthetic prototype to enable a 10-year-old girl with one hand to fulfill her dream of learning to play the violin. You might have read about them in the Washington Post or seen the story featured on a local TV news station.

I don’t know who wore the wider smile—Isabella Nicola, when she used her hot pink prosthetic to pull her bow across the strings for the first time, the Mason students who designed and 3-D printed the 12-ounce acrylonitrile butadiene styrene device, or the engineering and music faculty members who supervised their work. The fifth-grader’s first selection using the prosthetic—Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”—summed up the achievement quite nicely. That’s not all. The Fairfax County elementary school music teacher who contacted the Volgenau School of Engineering about helping Isabella is Mason alumnus Matthew Baldwin, BM ’06.

That’s multidisciplinary collaboration, community service, and alumni engagement at its very best.

The students completed a project that served the community, while the project provided them with a transformative learning experience that cemented their commitment to making a positive difference and put them in an even better position to land attractive jobs after graduation.

That’s Mason impacting students, and students impacting our community.

I’d bet if you asked these students 20 years from now to name their most powerful academic experience at the university and the foundation for their future success, they would point to this capstone project. Indeed, learning happens best in action and context, when students can synthesize and apply knowledge in a situation that holds special meaning for them. That experience can take many forms. It could entail research, an entrepreneurial or creative pursuit, a service learning opportunity, or studying abroad.

Our goal is to challenge every student, in every discipline, with a transformational learning experience.

We know that our positive impact on students is greatest when it translates into greater impact on 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 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 Lindsay Bernhards I L L U S T R AT I O N Marcia Staimer CO NTR IBUTO R S Martha Bushong Damian Cristodero Katherine Johnson Tara Laskowski, MFA ’05 Saige MacLeod Mary Beth Marklein Buzz McClain, BA ’77 Michele McDonald Anne Reynolds Alexa Rogers, BA ’17 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 Bethany Camp, Student Photographer Melissa Cannarozzi, Image Collections Manager PRODUC TION MANAG ER Brian Edlinski EDITORIAL BOARD Janet E. Bingham Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations Frank Neville Vice President for Communications and Marketing Christine Clark-Talley Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Mason Spirit is published three times a year 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

BEAUTIFUL VIEWS ➤I➤ enjoyed your recent issue, especially the feature titled “Down by the Bay.” It’s exciting to have Mason in the neighborhood! Unless there’s is an angle I can’t see, the photo shown of the Potomac Science Center is not the building I see from my apartment window. I live down the block at Harbor View condos and have witnessed construction since groundbreaking. Why not use a true picture? Whoever works there will be treated to some spectacular sunrises.

Carolyn Kazemi, BS ‘91, MEd ‘92, MEd ‘05

EDITOR’S NOTE: Isn’t it beautiful? (see above) We used the rendering, but would have loved to photograph the building for the issue. Unfortunately there was still construction equipment around at press time.

A TEACHABLE MOMENT ➤You ➤ did a great job on the Planet Rx issue of Spirit this summer. It will help me teach science communication this fall.

Katherine E. Rowan, BA English ’75 Professor, Department of Communication Director, Graduate Certificate in Science Communication

KUDOS ➤As ➤ a George Mason supporter and recipient of the magazine (likely as a result of being a Patriot Club mem­ ber), I would like to give “kudos” to Ms. Luckenbaugh and Ms. Rich for their recent article “Stepping into the Past.”

While the article itself was very interesting and presented something tangible about our local history that many have driven by repeatedly over the years with

no knowledge of its existence, it was also gratifying to see that Mason itself had the courage to publish such an article.

This in itself is commendable as the publication occurred during a time when it is fashionable to condemn, throughout the country and especially here in Virginia, anything relating to the Confederacy. Both good and bad resulted from that war, but it happened and is a part of America’s history. It is also refreshing to see that Professor [Christopher] Hamner appears to be making an effort within the academic environment to not allow history to be ignored or rewritten.

I always find something of interest in each edition of the Mason Spirit, so keep up the good work.

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.

Alan Shriver

WE ARE

Golden

IN 1968, GEORGE MASON COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF VIRGINIA awarded baccalaureate degrees to 52 students. That group of freshly minted Mason alumni created its own Alumni Association in the same year.

In 2018, we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of both the Alumni Association and the Class of 1968, culminating in a special Golden Anniversary Celebration on May 12, 2018.

We are collecting alumni stories in order to create an historic narrative of the first 50 years of alumni at Mason, and we invite you to share your story. We want to hear from alumni from every discipline and spanning all decades.

The more voices we capture, the better we will represent the story of how Mason has evolved from its first class of 52 students to an enrollment today of more than 36,000 and an alumni community of more than 186,000 worldwide.

Please share your Mason story at alumni.gmu.edu/yourstory.

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Honoring Mason’s Trailblazers

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t some point in our lives, each of us has been profoundly influenced by a teacher—someone who has inspired us with his or her knowledge, passion for learning, or concern for students. Perhaps you recall one from your time at Mason. Part of what makes Mason special is that each new generation of students here encounters professors of that quality.

Gifts Help Basketball Teams Jump to the Next Level Mason’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are prac­ ticing and training this season in their own new “home for hoops,” thanks to a leadership gift of $275,000 from Mason supporter Kathy McKay (below) and her family.

Construction began June 1 on a dedicated practice facil­ity for the teams at the Recreation and Athletic Complex (RAC). The McKay gift, along with commitments from other loyal Patriot donors, enables a $1 million renova­ tion of the Cage Gym in the RAC that includes installing new, top-quality hardwood courts, new lighting, six basket­ball goals, and video capabilities—all with bold Patriots branding.

This year, Mason for the first time honored outstand­ ing faculty with medals that recognize their achieve­ ments in this regard. Each medal is named for a Mason supporter whose generosity has endowed these annual awards, which include a cash prize to support faculty teaching and research. The awards are the John Toups Medal for Excellence in Teaching, the Karen and Hector Alcalde Medal for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, the Earle C. Williams Medal for Excellence in Social Impact, and the Beck Family Medal for Excellence in Research and Scholarship. Presented each May at Commencement, the medals will help to showcase the Mason spirit at its best.

The improvements kick off phase I of Mason’s Basketball Excellence Plan, which also includes a complete overhaul of the team locker rooms at EagleBank Arena.

In gratitude, the basketball practice court as well as a locker at EagleBank will be named for the McKay family.

We are fortunate that so many Mason professors, in addition to each year’s medalists, create a legacy through the passions and careers of the students they teach. It’s an influence, after all, that can extend for decades. In 2018, when our university community marks the 50th anniversary of its Alumni Association, we will salute not only these faculty members, but the many outstanding graduates they have nurtured. Through daily interactions, instruction in the classroom, and mentoring outside it, Mason professors have fostered an exemplary alumni body that will soon number 180,000 strong.

When 2018 draws to a close—along with the Faster Farther campaign—we will cap a year of celebration for half a century of trailblazers: former students who have become loyal alumni, powered by a Mason education, changing our region and the world.

The coming year also will give Mason alumni a chance to reflect on and express gratitude for those faculty members who shaped them, and for those who continue to light the way for successive generations of Mason students. A full 50 years since our very first, 52-person graduating class, Virginia’s largest public research university remains both a bold upstart and a trailblazer, a place for great teaching and meaningful learning. That is no accident. After all, our professors are trailblazers, too.

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

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Phase II of the Basketball Excellence Plan will consist of designing and building an addition to the practice facility, to include locker rooms, training and sports-medicine performance areas, and offices for the coaching staffs.

The $15 million plan is part of a strategic vision for Mason Athletics that aims to make Mason an attractive destina­ tion for top recruits by strengthening financial resources, improving facilities, and fostering student-athlete success.

“In the basketball-driven Atlantic 10 Conference, it is impera­tive that our teams have a dedicated space to develop and compete,” says Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics Brad Edwards. “Thanks to the McKay family and other proud Patriots, that’s becoming a reality.” .

To contribute or learn more, contact Jennifer Montgomery, director —Rob Riordan of development for intercollegiate athletics, at 703-9933217 or jmontgo2@ gmu.edu.

A DVA N C I N G MA S O N

Big

DREAMING

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he life of Long Nguyen is a monument to the idea of the American dream. Born in Vietnam during World War II, in a time and place of conflict, Nguyen came to the United States in the early 1960s for his education. An exemplary student, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics. When his visa expired, Nguyen had to return to Vietnam, where he was drafted into the army.

After the war, Nguyen was able to immigrate permanently to the United States. He received a PhD in computer science from Iowa State and became a university professor. In 1985 he founded Pragmatics Inc., based in Reston, Virginia, which provides information technology solutions to federal agencies. Nguyen and his wife, Kimmy Duong, had two sons, Ben and Kim, both graduates of Langley High School and Harvard University. Pragmatics continues to thrive, marked by a strong ethic of corporate responsibility and community service.

As ardent believers in the value of education, supporting George Mason University was a natural way for Nguyen and Duong to express their commitment to the region where they raised a family and where most of their employees live.

Nguyen served on the Board of Visitors beginning in 2002; in 2009 the couple committed $5 million to the Volgenau School of Engineering. The engineering building, the largest on Mason’s Fairfax Campus, was named in their honor.

“We believe very strongly in education and chose to bestow this gift upon George Mason University because of our commitment to its future,” Nguyen said at the time the building was dedicated.

For all of their impact at Mason, the couple’s philanthropy extends far beyond. They give generously to higher education and to aid wounded veterans. Through Pragmatics, Nguyen has established relief funds for victims of natural disasters such as the Nepal earthquake, the Louisiana floods, Hurricane Sandy, and the Philippines typhoon. Nguyen personally matches his employees’ donations, dollar for dollar.

For these immigrants who dreamed big, giving itself is a patriotic act. “My family and I are extremely grateful for the opportunities and freedom we’ve been afforded since immigrating to the United States,” Nguyen says. “Where we are today—what we have achieved so far—is thanks to the American people.”

LONG NGUYEN: Changing lives by giving to Mason Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 5

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IN JUNE, MASON DEDICATED a library to University Professor and famed conservation biologist Tom Lovejoy. Located at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation in Front Royal, Virginia, the library contains his books and papers about his extensive research and experience in the field. In 1965, while a student at Yale, Lovejoy was invited to study birds in the Amazon. His trip influenced him to establish a conservation program at the World Wildlife Fund-U.S., which he led from 1973 to 1987. He has served on science and environmental councils under three presidents and is a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation. He is credited with coining the phrase “biological diversity.”

POINT OF PRIDE President Ángel Cabrera was named to the Carnegie Corporation’s 2017 “Great Immigrants” list. The 2017 class includes Americans from 30 countries, including Zainab Salbi, BIS ’96, a former Mason Alumna of the Year and founder of Women for Women International.

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D I D YO U K N O W…

37% of incoming

freshmen

are first-generation college students

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Political Polls George Mason University has entered into a partnership with the Washington Post to conduct political polls in Virginia.

The Schar School-Washington Post poll combines the bipartisan political expertise of Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government with the Post’s formidable reach.

The polls will focus on elections, views of political leaders, and policies important to the citizens of Virginia. For example, the debut poll provided data on the latest attitudes on the presidential election and how presidential voting impacts congressional races in the commonwealth.

“Through a series of polls, the Schar School and the Post will contribute to public understanding of policy issues and elections in the commonwealth,” says Dean Mark J. Rozell of the Schar School.

“Faculty members will have access to data collected by the polls, enabling them and their students to explore in-depth public opinion trends among different groups.”

Mason’s staff of nationally recognized political scientists will provide insight and analysis of the data.

Students will have the opportunity in the classroom to study the data for their own research.

—Buzz McClain, BA ’77

POINT OF PRIDE CLASS SNAPSHOT: Fall 2017 saw

D I D YO U K N O W…

3,497 new freshmen; 2,862 transfer students, and a total of

6,243 undergraduate and graduate students living in residence halls. The average freshman 2017 SAT combined score is up 40 points over 2016.

75 >>

is the number of international sport groups that have visited Mason since 2011 as part of the Sport Diplomacy initiative run out of the university’s Center for Sport Management. The program is funded through the U.S. Department of State and brings athletes, coaches, and sports administrators from around the world to Mason for workshops and discussions about leadership, training, nutrition, team-building, injury prevention, Title IX, and inclusive sports. Groups have included Israeli basketball coaches, snowboarders from Kyrgyzstan, and players from the first female club basketball team in Saudi Arabia.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 7

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Bringing Business to Life: Leaders in the Classroom

E meet the

NEW DEAN Maury Peiperl took over

as dean of the School of Business in August. He came to Mason from Cranfield University in England, where he served as director of the school of management and provice chancellor. An expert on global leadership and

ach year, more than 60 Mason alumni take part in the School of Business Leaders in the Class­ room series. Organized by the school’s advance­ ment and alumni relations team, the series puts alumni in the classroom as guest speakers on industry-related topics. In the 2016-17 academic year, the series coordi­ nated 80 classroom visits.

When Mason management professor Cindy Parker reached out to Amber Myers, BS Marketing ’15, to visit her class, Myers jumped at the opportunity because of the impact guest speakers had on her education.

“I remember being so encouraged by the guest speakers that dedicated their time to speak with us,” says Myers, who is an HR business partner at CGI Federal. “I knew that I wanted to give someone that same encouragement one day and that is what has inspired me to continue coming back.”

In addition to adding a “real-world element to the learning experience,” guest speaking allows alumni like Trevor Montano, BS Accounting ’00, to stay connected to Mason.

“I thoroughly enjoy giving back and sharing career development and other advice,” says Montano, who serves as the chief investment officer at the U.S.

change, his research interests include top management learning, executive careers, and change management.

Peiperl earned his BSE in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton, and his MBA and AM in psychology, as well as his PhD in organizational behavior, at Harvard.

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Department of the Treasury and on the Mason Foun­ da­tion's Board of Trustees. “Getting good grades is important, but managing the approach to your first job and subsequent career management is equally as important.”

Graduate-level students who are already working professionals also learn skills to advance their careers.

John Hillen, professor of practice and executive in resi­ dence, teaches MBA courses in which the majority of students are between the ages of 26 and 35.

Guest speakers are among the most popular “course material” for Hillen’s students, and he invites CEOs, business owners, and other leaders to talk on topics like leadership development, leading in a crisis, and more. He’s even received notes from former students who talk about how the speakers have influenced them in their careers.

“They can read all the things about leadership, but being able to ask questions and interact with someone leading a big enterprise is an extra kind of experiential learning for them,” Hillen says. “Having a real leader or strategist really gives them an idea of what [theory] looks like in action.”

—Katherine Johnson

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meet the

PHOTO COURTESY OF REBECCA FOX

NEW DEAN

More Than 7,230 Miles Apart, Mason and Pakistani Professors Come Together

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ason education professor Rebecca Fox, MA ’93, PhD ’99, has for the past two years been living in two time zones. By day, she jug­gles the myriad demands on faculty; at night or early morning, usually on Skype, she is talking with colleagues in Lahore, Pakistan, nine hours ahead.

Fox’s project, the Collaboration for Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Research, is funded by the U.S.Pakistan University Partnerships Program of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy Islamabad.

The partnership, which empha­ sizes the role of the social sciences and humanities in sustainable democracies, reflects how important higher education has become in diplomatic relations between the two countries. Mason is now working to establish a Memorandum of Understanding to participate in the U.S.-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor, a bilateral initiative through which 10,000

Pakistani scholars will have the opportunity to pursue doctorates at U.S. universities.

Through Fox’s grant, 39 Uni­ver­ sity of Management and Tech­nol­ ogy (UMT) faculty visited Mason in 2016 for two weeks of professional development, during which they visited classrooms, met with Mason researchers, and participated in workshops and seminars. During that time, participants developed action plans for both research and teaching.

This summer’s conference, Innovation and Internationalization in Pakistani Higher Education, marked the culmination of this partnership. Though State Department advisories cautioned against travel to Pakistan—just weeks before the conference, a terrorist bombing in Lahore left 13 people dead—Fox and her team did not want to cancel. Mason’s international health and safety program officer required Fox and

her team to stay in regular contact with Mason while abroad.

“We understood the full context of where we were going, but we knew we would be well-cared for” by both UMT and Mason, Fox says.

“I really feel we can be ambassadors for the goodness in the world.”

“I am truly amazed at the ongoing ripple effect of this exercise,” says UMT’s former rector Sohaib Murad Hasan, who worked closely with Fox on the project. “I could not foresee how far and deep it would be.”

As the formal project winds down, Fox believes the work is just beginning.

The grant will continue to fund travel for UMT professors who present at U.S. conferences. Two hope to return to Mason as visiting scholars. A 2018 conference is in the planning stages.

Germaine Louis became dean of the College of Health and Human Services in October. She came to Mason from the National Institutes of Health’s Division of Intramural Population Health Research, where she served as director and senior investigator for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

An expert on epidemiology with a background in medical sociology and nursing, her research focuses on environ­ mental influences on human reproduction and develop­ ment, and she is the author or co-author of more than 200 refereed manuscripts.

She earned her BA in medical sociology and her MS and PhD in epidemiology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

—Mary Beth Marklein

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PHOTOS BY EVAN CANTWELL

Where the Wild Things Grow On the south side of the Fairfax Campus, between the Art and Design and Nguyen Engineering Buildings, there is a space where wild things grow. This outdoor classroom/learning lab is called the Green Studio, and George Mason University just might be the only university with such a space.

Home to edible plants, medicinal herbs, and vegetation attractive to bees and butterflies, the studio was started in 2010 when the Art and Design Building was completed.

“The building was new so there wasn’t much yet in terms of landscaping,” says art professor Mark Cooley (right), director of the Green Studio. Some School of Art students were interested in growing things and started planting sunflowers in containers.

Soon the studio was started on a piece of land next to the building that is difficult to mow, almost like a hillside, beside a flight of stairs.

Cooley regularly uses the space to teach a class called AVT 385 EcoArt, a university synthesis course that combines arts, sciences, progressive agriculture, and folk traditions. Students who sign up for the class are often looking for a break from what they are majoring in and care about the environment and sustainability.

“When I take students out there for the first time, I sometimes have a hard time getting them off the sidewalk,” he says. “I have to coax them to go into the space. It is gratifying that by the end of the semester they feel comfortable out there.”

Cooley believes the students’ discomfort emphasizes the need for such a class and such a space. “It shows that there is a disconnect. Many students feel very deeply about ‘the environ­ ment,’ but they have very little direct experience with the environment around them.”

During a recent class period, several students worked in the studio with visiting ecoartist Robert Kupczak. Others built objects such as birdhouses in the classroom or using tools in the Sculpture Studio.

Marketing major Juan Diego Bautista was working on his aquaponic plant aquarium design. He says he took the class because he wanted to learn more about sustainability for his future career. “All business corporations are expected to be responsible now and include sustainability in their practices.”

“EcoArt is by nature interdisciplinary,” says Cooley. “For a lot of the projects, they need to get educated in the science they are working with and work with [Mason] scientists.”

He also notes that there is a therapeutic aspect to working in the studio. “Being involved with living things is rewarding because you feel like you are being constructive.”

—Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95 10 | 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

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“The most exciting and maybe the most depressing thing I’ve discovered is that my students learn better when I don’t lecture.”

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

­­—Kinga Dobolyi

Flipping the CompSci Classroom

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S 112 Introduction to Computer Science is the engineering equivalent of freshman composition. At Mason’s Volgenau School of Engineering, almost all engineering students, regardless of their majors, must pass this course. It’s a challeng­ ing one, especially if it is their first encounter with writing code.

To address the divergent learning styles of college freshmen and meet the growing need for computer science instructors, Mason faculty members have used a $900,000 grant from tech giant Google to develop an innovative method of self-paced learning and guided instruction.

The Self-Paced Learning Increases Retention and Capacity (SPARC) method allows students to collaborate on practice assignments and, when they’re ready, present themselves for individual assessments. Advanced and fastlearning students may speed through the

courses, while others can proceed at a slower pace.

“Our concept goes beyond increasing capa­ city and includes increasing retention and enrollment by women and underrepresented groups,” says Professor Jeff Offutt, the grant’s principal investigator.

SPARC uses a flipped classroom, which replaces traditional lectures with guided practice. Computer science professor Kinga Dobolyi says she loves teaching, not lecturing, so the flipped classroom is a perfect fit for her.

“The most exciting and maybe the most depressing thing I’ve discovered is that my students learn better when I don’t lecture,” says Dobolyi. “If I had a big ego, I might be offended.”

Dobolyi spends classroom time helping students work through specific challenges.

“I enjoy discovering where they are stuck and helping them get unstuck,” she says. “I

think the best way to learn to write code is to actually write code.”

A key ingredient to the success of SPARC is its use of undergraduate teaching assistants, like bioengineering major Zach Baker, who also completed CS 112.

“I love being able to teach topics in simple ways,” says Baker. “It’s encouraging to see students discover new concepts when I explain them. It reinforces my own understanding, making me a better teacher. I also appreciate that my public speaking has improved dramatically.”

As the grant finishes its second year, the team is beginning to see results. In the next year, it plans to extend SPARC into five sections and use more teaching assistants.

Two of these sections will be for CS 211, another basic computer science course with high enrollments.

—Martha Bushong Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 11

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Rice, Beans, and a Serving of Reality

B

Barb Gomperts

arbara Gomperts, MA English ’08, wondered how she was going to make one can of beans last three days.

She had $4.18 to spend on food each day for the next three days—a total of $12.54.

For Gomperts, a nutrition major, this was a project for the NUTR 626 Food Systems class, offered at Mason this summer. But for others, it’s a way of life.

Students in the class are required to take the SNAP Challenge—named after the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.

Participants in the challenge try eating healthily on the amount of money SNAP benefits provide. In this case it was the national average of $4.18 per day for a single person, says course instructor Kerri LaCharite, a professor in Mason’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies.

The challenge has been around for years, with celeb­ rities often participating for a week or more. LaCharite says she assigns the challenge each semester she teaches the course; it’s a requirement unless a student has a medical or other valid reason for not participating.

“Even with just three days, it’s usually an emotional and impactful experience for students,” LaCharite says. “They gain some personal insight of the stress of shopping to avoid going over and facing the embarrassment of asking the clerk to take off an item.”

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When the budget is tight, shoppers have to head to the grocery store with a plan. Gomperts chose brown rice, frozen berries, cheddar cheese, whole-fat Greek yogurt, and a can of beans to sustain her for three days. She didn’t have enough money to buy meat for protein, so the beans were key.

Even so, “I miscalculated,” says Gomperts, who is the office manager in Mason’s Department of English. “I had one can of beans divided by three instead of six.”

So instead of having a lunch and a dinner of rice, beans, and cheese each day, she had just rice for dinner.

The challenge is meant for students to answer one key question: Can you eat healthy on food assistance?

“My answer is no, you can’t—at least not a single person on an average of $125 a month,” Gomperts says.

The challenge left her short on 19 nutrients and 300 to 400 calories below what she needed to maintain her body weight, Gomperts wrote in her positional essay for the class.

Overall, the assignment teaches students an important lesson about food, says LaCharite. “They understand cravings at a deeper level. Many students find that they are constantly thinking about food, their next meal, and the stress of rationing.”

—Jamie Rogers

Save the Date

2018 HOMECOMING

Saturday, February 10 GEORGE

VS

GEORGE

@

MASON

Multidisciplinary Research Leads to Multimillion-dollar DHS Grant

G

eorge Mason University has been selected by the Department of Homeland Security to lead its Center of Excellence for Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis.

The 10-year, multimillion-dollar grant is among the largest research awards the uni­ versity has received, with $3.85 million committed for its first year of operation. Under the grant, Mason will lead a consortium of universities and law enforcement agencies to investigate patterns of criminal activities and forensics, and develop strategies to predict and disrupt transnational crime.

“We are honored by the confidence shown in our university and our extraordinary faculty by the Department of Homeland Security,” says President Ángel Cabrera. “This award high­lights our commitment to multidis­ci­pli­ nary collaboration in areas of great societal con­sequence and our emergence as a top-tier research university.”

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established Centers of Excellence as a

university-based system that works with operational agencies to solve complex and difficult problems.

The center builds on a foundation of multi­ disciplinary research already underway at Mason and in Mason’s partner institutions.

Faculty in the College of Science, Volgenau School of Engineering, Schar School of Policy and Government, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Business, and Antonin Scalia Law School were all involved in developing the proposal.

“Mason is committed to elevating multi­ disciplinary research of significant societal impact,” says Provost S. David Wu. “This project highlights our institutional commit­ ment and our strengths in multifaceted security research. The Center of Excellence will bring together some of our best minds in the social and natural sciences, policy and engineering.”

The leadership team will consist of professor Anthony Stefanidis, who serves as director of the new Center of Excellence; University

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Professor Louise Shelley, director of Mason’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center; Paulo Costa, MS ’99, PhD ’05, associate professor of systems engineering and opera­ tions research; Professor David Weisburd, executive director of Mason’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy; Allison Redlich, professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society; Jim Jones, associate pro­ fessor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Mary Ellen O’Toole, director of Mason’s Forensic Science Program.

“This award is a true reflection of the Mason community’s commitment to advancing research of consequence and is made possible by the multidisciplinary strengths that we and our trusted partners bring to the center,” says Deborah Crawford, Mason’s vice president of research. “We look forward to working with our academic partners in the homeland security enterprise on this important topic for years to come.”

@

MASON

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

Dan Walsch

Job: Dean of External Relations and Chief of Staff, George Mason University Korea

You might recognize Dan Walsch, PhD Communication ’11. For nearly 20 years, he served as Mason’s director of media relations and spokes­ person and could be seen on the local news from time to time. He also taught public relations classes in the Communication Department for most of his 28-year career at Mason. In fact, teaching is what led him to his current position.

KOREA BOUND: In spring 2015, Walsch was retired and teaching in the Communication Department part time when he was approached by the department chair about the possibility of teaching for a semes­ ter at Mason Korea. “I thought it would be a great opportunity for any faculty member on a number of levels: teaching abroad, living in another part of the world, and helping promote our university.”

STEPPING UP: In addition to teaching communication, Walsch also taught some business courses while in Korea. Soon it was time to step back into an administrative role. He now serves as the international campus’s dean of external relations and chief of staff. “To say the least, my days are very busy. Fortunately, the staff here is wonderful and very supportive. In my view, we also have a very solid administrative team that works well together.

HOW’S HIS KOREAN?: “I wish I could impress any and all by launch­ ing into a monologue totally in Korean, but the truth is, I can’t. I have

picked up several phrases that I do use a great deal—”thank you” and “I’m sorry” are two. Fortunately, many of the Koreans with whom I interact are very patient and supportive.”

BEST PART OF THE JOB: “I have been part of the Mason ‘family’ since 1989. I love our university. The best part of the job is in a small way being able to continue to promote and support its brand and vision. On a personal level, working and living here have given my wife and I great opportunities to experience parts of the world we otherwise would never have had a chance to see. It has been great fun.”

BEST MASON MEMORY: “So much has happened at Mason since I first arrived in Fairfax. Because of my role, I have had a front-row seat to it all—the university’s unprecedented growth, the Final Four adventure, Vernon Smith’s Nobel Prize, amazing research efforts on the part of our faculty—to name a very few. But in terms of my own favorite Mason memories, I must say they revolve around the people themselves. Over the years, I have worked with and gotten to know folks at all levels of the university. George Mason has been and continues to be totally blessed with an array of amazing men and women, not just those in leadership positions, but folks who have worked behind the scenes.

I call them everyday miracle workers. My best memories are dominated by having been able to watch so many dedicated professionals work their magic.”

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 15

Mechanical engineering major Naomi Folta was a part of the Vehicle Lean Recovery System team that designed a device to help novice riders regain control of their motorcycle during a turn.

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Building a better engineer From the sound-wave fire extinguisher that made it onto The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to a prosthetic arm built especially for a young violinist, Mason Engineering students are taking on big projects for their senior capstones and PHOTO BY RON AIRA

succeeding with them.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 17

what is

A CAPSTONE? A capstone is a synthesis course designed to help students bring all their college learning and experience together to perform or create some larger, more impressive work. Capstone projects help students demonstrate what they know and what they can do. Projects can be added to resumes and can help when applying to graduate school.

More than 90 percent of undergraduate degree programs have some kind of capstone or synthesis course, says Bethany Usher, Mason’s associate provost for undergraduate education.

Capstones look different in each of the schools and colleges. At the School of Business, the capstone involves a case study, which is a business problem that students are expected to analyze as a team and offer creative solutions.

For the School of Art’s Senior Art and Design Show, graduating students fill the halls and studios of the Art and Design Building with their paintings, drawings, installations, prints, and other projects. Across Mason, capstone projects might be a film, recital, research project, or off-campus practicum.

“In capstones, students are identifying and solving problems,” says Usher. “Students are applying what they have learned, and are demonstrating how they can have an impact on the world.”

F

ifth-grader Isabella Nicola tentatively pulled the bow across the strings of her violin, and applause filled the room at Mason’s Long and Kimmy Nguyen Engineering Building.

It was the first time the girl, born without a left hand and with only partial bone from her left elbow to her wrist, played using the hot pink prosthesis created for her by a senior design team of five Mason bioengineering majors.

It took Nicola a few tries to get the hang of placing the bow on the strings, but once comfortable, she played simple scales, then wowed her audience with a version of Bee­ thoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

In the audience that day were Nicola’s mother, her music teacher, the design team—and the media. In the days following the impromptu concert on the Fairfax Campus, Nicola and her pink prosthetic arm were featured in the Washington Post and on WUSA 9, BBC, and a host of other media outlets.

DOING BIG THINGS This isn’t the first time Mason Engineering students were propelled into the limelight by their creations. In 2015, electrical engineering majors Seth Robertson, BS ’15, and Viet Tran, BS ’15, took the media by storm with their sound-wave fire extinguisher, which successfully suppressed flames using low-frequency sound waves.

After their story and video went viral, The Tonight Show came calling with host Jimmy Fallon himself demonstrating their prototype on national television. For months, admin­istrators in the Volgenau School of Engineering fielded inquiries from around the world for the two as they worked to complete their Mason coursework and graduate. The university also helped the duo acquire a provisional patent for their invention.

While the glory of a successful project is sweet, it is also hard won. All design teams struggle. That’s a part of the process. For many students, this is their first time actually building a prototype. Even the VioArm: A Customized Prosthetic Arm team’s first proto­ type failed. It crumbled after coming out of the 3-D printer because of a miscalculation with the plastic’s thickness.

SETTING THE BAR HIGH ENOUGH The senior capstone project for Mason Engineering majors lasts 30 weeks—the entire senior year. Ambitious projects are good, but the goal is for the students to be challenged and succeed. This is where faculty mentors come in.

“We are sensitive to the issue of failure because we challenge students to approach difficult projects,” says Mason Engineering professor Peter Pachowicz. Do students fail? “Very rarely, but it happens.”

Pachowicz has been teaching the capstone courses in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2002. The department has always had a capstone—it is

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snapshot Bioengineering VIOARM: A CUSTOMIZED PROSTHETIC ARM

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

TEAM: Ella Novoselsky, Racha Salha, Abdelrahman Gouda, Mona Elkholy, and Yasser Alhindi ADVISORS: Wilsaan Joiner and Vasiliki Ikonomidou, Department of Bioengineering PARTNER: Elizabeth Adams, Mason School of Music WEBSITE: vioarm.onmason.com

required for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Pachowicz emphasizes that the process is student-centric.

Technology Inc.—but Pachowicz says it was originally just “There is no spoon feeding. We are just advisors.” another project tacked on top of the other coursework.

As the teams move through the academic year, Pachowicz Over time, it grew significantly. wears many different hats—teacher, advisor, coach. There As Pachowicz comes from a systems engineering back­ground are a lot of factors to juggle. He says two of the biggest and had worked with Small Business Innovation Research challenges for students are working in teams and finding (SBIR) startups, he introduced a business perspective and enough space. teaches the course with a top-down design approach. In “We have to be sure everyone contributes,” he says. With the recent years, some of the Volgenau departments have added pressure of other classes and competing responsibilities, industry sponsors and advisors. scheduling can become a problem.

This fall Pachowicz has 65 students in his ECE 492 Senior The department has also allocated workspaces in the Engi­ Advanced Design Project I. During this semester, the neering Building for the teams so they have a place to gather students are expected to organize into teams, find a faculty and work near where they take classes. Teams also have access mentor, and work their way through the series of design to a dedicated fabrication lab where more complicated milestones starting with an RFP (request for proposal), electronic work can be done. which spells out what they plan to do, through proposal writing and a proposal defense to a detailed design docu­ Evaluating the scope of the project is another place where ment with schematics. During the next semester in ECE faculty input is invaluable. Advising is easy when a project 493, they focus on implementation of their design. is too simple. “I am just the person to complicate it,” says Pachowicz with laugh.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 19

snapshot Systems Engineering and Operations Research ROBOTIC ASSISTANT FOR MOBILITY-IMPAIRED PATIENTS (RAMP) TEAM: Pwint Htwe, Alex Wong, Hanan Al Jarash, and Karar Majeed ADVISOR: Lance Sherry SPONSOR: Integrity Applications Inc. WEBSITE: catsr.vse.gmu.edu/SYST490/495_2017_ RAMP/495_2017_FinalReport_RAMP.pdf

I

t is the other end of the spectrum where Pachowicz is careful to guide students. Some factors that could keep a project from getting a green light include the expense of the needed technology, if it is prohibited in some way, or if there are safety issues.

For projects that are too advanced or too complicated, Pachowicz and faculty mentors will encourage the team to backtrack, define the core of the project, and focus on that.

If they can complete the core in the allotted time, they are welcome to pursue their other ideas. Pachowicz calls these “options.”

ADD SPONSORS AND STIR In May 2017 Mason graduated its first class of mechanical engineers. For their capstone pro­jects, student teams worked with sponsors and technical advisors from industry, the military, and higher education. The projects focused on renewable energy, corrosion detection, vehicle safety, and helmet design.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight tasked one mechanical engineering team with designing an unmanned system capable of maneuvering into hard-to-reach spaces and reporting on corrosion found in there. Mechanical engi­ neering majors Sonoell Clark, Daniel Howe, Andrew Schneider, and Pisal Yim, and biology major Jeha Park built a tracked vehicle with an articulating arm.

Designing the vehicle presented challenges in the areas of stability, maneuverability, sensing, and data transmission. Because the vehicle needed to move independently through confined metal structures, similar to what would be found aboard ships and storage tanks, and then communicate its findings to an operator some distance away, the students incorporated sensors, a computer, and a camera system into the design.

“This was about designing a mechanical system to a customer’s set of requirements,” says Mason professor of practice Robert Gallo. “We wanted them to get their hands dirty. We wanted them to physically design, build, test, break, and report on a meaningful project.”

By all reports, the Department of Defense was impressed with the team’s accomplishments, and the team finished third at the University Student Design and Applied Solutions Competition in Houston, Texas, organized by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers.

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PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 21

snapshot Mechanical Engineering CORROSION DETECTION VEHICLE DESIGN

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

TEAM: Sonoell Clark, Daniel Howe, Jeha Park, Andrew Schneider, and Pisal Yim ADVISORS: Patrick Moran, U.S. Naval Academy; Erik Knudsen, Volgenau School of Engineering; and Richard Hays, Department of Defense SPONSOR: Richard Hays, Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office of the Secretary of Defense

“We wanted them to get their hands dirty. We wanted them to physically design, build, test, break, and report on a meaningful project.”

­­—Robert Gallo

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Pachowicz says he is continually surprised by the ideas coming from students each year.

Ideas for many of the top capstone projects, such as the sound-wave fire extinguisher, have come from the students. These projects and their creators have done well at national and regional competitions, which enhances Mason's reputation.

TB Assured, a portable, noninvasive, inexpensive tuberculosis test, was the brainchild of bioengineering major Marissa Howard. Earlier this year Howard took first place for her oral presentation on the project at the National Science Foundation-sponsored Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

The team, which includes Sameen Yusuf, Rohit Madhu, and Sara Sharif, also took third place at the Rice 360° 2017 Global Health Technologies Design Competition and captured the $15,000 DEBUT Venture Prize at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and VentureWell’s Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge.

As its reputation grows, so does the school. This year, Volgenau’s nearly 7,500 students account for roughly one-fifth of Mason’s entire student enrollment. Mechanical engineering, Volgenau’s newest undergraduate degree program, already enrolls 350 students and has embarked on a special dual admissions program with Northern Virginia Community College. Best yet, 90 percent of Mason Engineering undergraduates find careers in their chosen fields, and 10 percent go to graduate school.

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“Engineers don’t just design bridges anymore. …

The old boundaries between Dean Kenneth Ball believes the school draws its strength from Mason’s multidisciplinary approach to education and research. Not only does Volgenau offer degrees in traditional fields such as civil engineering, but it has embraced emerging degrees such as cybersecurity engineering.

“Engineers don’t just design bridges anymore,” says Ball. “They are building exoskeletons for people with spinal cord injuries and developing secure systems to protect critical infra­ structure from hacking. The old boundaries between disciplines are starting to become irrelevant.”

disciplines are starting to become irrelevant.”

­­—Ken Ball, dean

Martha Bushong, Damian Cristodero, John Hollis, Buzz McClain, BA ’77, and Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA’ 95, contributed to this story.

snapshot Electrical and Computer Engineering

PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL

ACTIVE SHOOTER TACTICAL RESPONSE ASSISTANT (ASTRA) TEAM: Ben McCall, Aryan Toughiry, Puja Patel, Joel Williams, and Rohini Shah ADVISORS: Kenneth Hintz and Kathleen Wage WEBSITE: ece.gmu.edu/~ppach/ECE_Awards/ Posters/S-17.pdf Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 23

FIGHTING ADDIC TION

One Question at a Time

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How a health practitioner asks about a patient’s habits may be one of the first steps to tackling Virginia’s opioid epidemic.

B Y C AT H Y C R U I S E , M FA ’ 93

M

ore than gun-related incidents, more than car accidents, deaths from drug overdoses in Virginia are at an all-time high—a staggering 1,420 of them last year alone. Synthetic opioid, heroin, and prescription fentanyl overdoses increased 38 percent in the state between 2015 and 2016, and alcohol abuse is even more prevalent, with more than 6 percent of Virginians needing, but not receiving, treatment for it.

In 2016, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared the opioid addiction crisis a public health emergency in Virginia.

A BETTER Q & A SBIRT is a three-pronged public health approach to man­ aging risky and problematic sub­stance use. The screening portion involves a questioning process, which brings sub­ stance abuse issues to the forefront during routine or emer­ gency appointments, where health care staff or providers The Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treat­ment ask patients specific lifestyle questions. The brief interven­ (SBIRT) program has been implemented in 29 states, and tion part of the initiative uses a counseling model called more than two million patients have been screened to date. “motivational interviewing.”

Mason and Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) are using a federal grant Mellie Randall, director of Substance Use Disorder Policy from the Sub­ stance Abuse and Mental Health Ser­­ vices for DBHDS, which served as the applicant for the Virginia Administration (SAMHSA) to inte­grate the pro­gram into grant, explains that the earliest work using motivational the clinical practice and elec­tronic health records of at least interviewing was done with smoking. “Routinely when you 11 large com­mu­nity health care prac­tice sites in Virginia see a doctor, they ask about your smoking behavior,” she over five years. says. “That’s where this whole model was developed, and it was very successful.”

Now, through an ambitious partnership with the common­ wealth, Mason is working to reduce these numbers with an evidence-based practice that identifies and assists patients with substance use disorders, and those at risk of develop­ ing them.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 25

But to conduct interviews correctly, staff must be properly trained—to ask the right questions, and ask them in the correct way.

“If a doctor says, ‘You don’t drink more than four drinks at a time, do you?’ you’re going to get one answer, versus asking, ‘If you drink, how many do you have at one time?’” says Randall.

If answers to these questions during a routine appoint­­ment uncover a serious substance-abuse prob­ lem, a patient will be referred to a specialty clinic— the “referral to treatment” part of the program. But if a problem seems to just be starting, the provider will do a more thorough assessment, then a brief— around 15 minutes—intervention, and schedule the patient for roughly six counseling sessions, if needed.

The point of SBIRT, says Randall, is “to have that person think in a more deliberate way about how they’re using alcohol, marijuana, or a pain medica­ tion, and if they’re starting to misuse it. To catch the situation before it gets too severe.”

It also serves as a learning tool for health care providers.

“The big payoff is that staff behaviors start to change,” Randall says. “They start to under­stand that sub­stanceabuse disorders are an illness just like any other illness.”

TRAINING HEALTH PRACTITIONERS The Virginia SBIRT project (VA-SBIRT) is being led by Lora Peppard, PhD Nursing ’17, an associ­ ate professor in Mason’s College of Health and Human Services. In 2015, Peppard’s team received a $920,000 grant from SAMHSA to train students, faculty, and community partners in SBIRT. These individuals then carry that skill set into practice, assessing patients for substance abuse, stratifying their risks, and offering the most appro­ priate treatment based on their risk level.

In 2016, Mason built on that established training expertise and partnered with the commonwealth to execute an $8.3 million implementation grant in the Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley regions.

This grant, also provided by SAMHSA but funneled through the state of Virginia, will be used to “work with community health care organiza­tions to deter­ mine where screening will occur and which roles will administer the screening, offer the brief inter­ ventions, and all of the micro and macro details of integrating SBIRT into the existing clinical work­ flow of these sites,” says Peppard.

Over the last year, the Mason team has worked with seven sites in the Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley regions—one emergency department, two federally qualified health centers, two free clinics, one health department, and one student health center— and assigned each a training coordinator, practice coordinator, and data specialist.

“Our team works intimately with an organization’s leadership, clinical administrators, frontline staff, and health providers to support comprehensive SBIRT integration, and we also offer funding to assist them in hiring the right providers to support this effort in their organization,” says Peppard. “We help them think through, from a systems perspective, how they can integrate the various steps of the SBIRT process— who will serve each function, how data will be collected, what training may be required, and how this service fits into their larger community health picture.”

Since VA-SBIRT is one of the key response strategies in Virginia to address the rise of substance use, leader­ ship and health care providers at these sites have readily welcomed Mason’s help in implementing it.

“Many executive directors jumped on the opportunity when Mason offered to assist them in executing this project,” Peppard says. “They see it as extremely valu­ able and impor­tant to the care they are offering.”

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“

Substance abuse

is hurting families across the nation,

and Virginia is not immune to this national crisis. This collaborative approach is an important part of our work to bring positive change to the lives of the many Virginians who are

”

struggling with the pain of addiction.

—Governor Terry McAuliffe

Mason is also developing a central data depository so health care professionals can analyze trends and improve strategies for addressing substance abuse, and this reposi­tory has an opportunity to grow as the SBIRT process is disseminated in other practice sites and regions of the state.

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH Peppard, who has worked as a psychiatric nurse practitioner for 14 years and has a doctor of nursing practice degree from Columbia University, leads a university-wide team com­­prising experts from Mason’s School of Nursing and the Departments of Social Work, Psychology, Health Administration and Policy, Communication, and Global and Community Health. The VA-SBIRT program provides experiential learning, practice, and research opportunities for Mason doctoral students, giving them a chance to see the value of their efforts firsthand. Several doctoral projects have resulted from student participation in the grant.

“It affects the workflow, how patients move through the clinic, timing of appointments, and documentation,” she says. “Stu­ dents and providers need regular training. Buy-in from all levels of staff is incredibly important.”

Mason graduate student Sarah Alsgaard, DNP ’17, became involved with VA-SBIRT as part of her doctoral project.

She believes the work has expanded her knowledge and interest in substance use and screening, and taught her just how critical early intervention is. Being part of a training methodologies team not only allowed her to present her findings at a national conference, it “increased my confi­ dence to collaborate with others in the future,” she says. “This project has provided me with hands-on experience and growth through navigating research challenges and solving problems.”

Lora Peppard

With a goal of universally screening a minimum of 100,000 patients over the next five years, these nurses have plenty of work ahead of them.

Elizabeth Idris, who is completing her final year of Mason’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program, has been But, as Idris puts it, that work couldn’t be more worthwhile. involved in many elements of VA-SBIRT, from developing “This is a major issue of our time,” she says, “and I’m proud training materials to assisting in coaching sessions for to be a part of it.” providers. She’s found that, while SBIRT’s method of pro­ moting interaction with patients seems simple, in reality it’s anything but.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 27

from

Above, in the fictional country of Atlantica, Anna Laura Grant (left) and another student portraying nongovernmental organization personnel had to negotiate with military leaders to operate in the country.

Right, “emergencies” complicated the scenario during the simulation.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FORAGE CENTER

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simulated disaster,

real understanding Florida field exercise helps conflict students learn firsthand how to deal with a crisis.

B Y B UZ Z M CC L A I N , B A ’ 77

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 29

“[The exercise] was one of the most transformational experiences of grad school, as it tested my limits, gave me confidence in my abilities as a practi­tioner, and Graduate student Christina Sumner (right) was one of nine Mason students to participate in a field exercise that simulated the challenges humanitarian workers might face in an active conflict zone.

inspired me to continue work

”

in the peacebuilding field.

—Thomas Stukes, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution’16

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FORAGE CENTER

I

n March, while many college students were enjoying Florida beaches, George Mason

University graduate student Anna Laura Grant, also in Florida, was dining on rice and beans, and sleeping—when she could—on the concrete floor of an airplane hangar.

Spring break from hell? Not exactly. For four days, Grant and other graduate students from Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution took part in a mentally and physically challenging field exercise designed to show them what it was like to be peace practitioners in an active conflict zone.

“You keep reminding yourself it’s only a simulation, but it wasn’t always easy,” says Grant, who is working on her master’s degree in conflict analysis and resolution. “I would tell myself, ‘We just got yelled at by the director of the humanitarian project, but it’s OK.’ ” The simulation took place at a compound in the city of Fells­ mere on the east coast of Florida. Some 70 participants, includ­ ing Mason students, local residents, and members of the U.S. Army’s 436th Civil Affairs Battalion, role-played officials, 30 | 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

soldiers, and residents of “Atlantica,” a fictitious coun­try mired in a civil war. As tensions between the indus­trial north and the rural south turned violent, the population reeled from the imagined devastation of a Category 4 hurri­cane.

Nine Mason students and about 20 students from other uni­ versities—Tulane, Kennesaw State, Wayne State, and Nova Southeastern—were plunged into this volatile mix, taking on roles of humanitarian aid workers from a nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Students alternated roles so they could learn how to set up an IDP (internally displaced person) camp, negotiate with impos­ ing authorities, and, in general, help reduce the conflicts inherent in a fast-changing crisis.

In one exercise, an aid worker was taken hostage at a road stop. Then there was a cholera outbreak at the camp.

In Atlantica, Grant negotiated terms with military leaders to gain per­ mission for her NGO to operate in their country, a task that in real life can be fraught with danger. In the end, they signed the documents.

“They really tried to replicate the real-life scenarios that people might experience in the field,” says Grant.

“You’re trying to be compassionate and get your job done and not get caught up too much in failures, because basically everything is designed for you to The field exercise is a program of the Forage Center for Peacebuilding and fail,” says Grant. “You experience the real challenges of being in the field.”

Humanitarian Education, whose president, David J. Smith, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’09, is a Mason adjunct professor. Forage conducts Grant gained insight into her leadership skills and crisis response skills, and these exercises twice a year, and Mason students have participated since discovered strengths she didn’t know she had.

2013.

“They told us not to make any major life decisions during the exercise and “The skills acquired during the experience are valuable to a range of conflict- I’ve kind of followed that, but it has directly impacted me,” she says. “It was sensitive jobs, not only overseas but in the U.S.,” says Smith, who has one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had at Mason.” worked in the peacebuilding field for more than 30 years. “The aptitudes Program “alumni” share Grant’s impressions. developed—teamwork, assessment, engaging effectively with groups in crisis, staying on task, and managing stress—can be applied in many occupations.” “Overall, the most challenging part of the exercise is always the constant layer of tension between group members, external actors, and the situations The program was developed in response to a 2010 report by the U.S. you face,” says Thomas Stukes, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’16.

Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., which Smith co-wrote.

Stukes also found negotiations one of the most challenging tasks. “The “The report noted that employers were looking for applicants that had field most memorable role I played was negotiating a truce between our NGO experience and could manage projects and execute initiatives, often under and the ‘rebel group,’ which was a really stressful experience because they trying conditions,” says Smith. “The exercise was developed to respond to had confronted us with weapons.” that need by employers.”

After completing the exercise and graduating from Mason, Stukes began A nd the exercise is trying. The students work under stress with little rest, working for the Forage Center, where among his many duties he manages without cell phones or showers, sleeping in sleeping bags in an airplane the operations during the exercise. hangar ventilated by noisy fans. “[The exercise] was one of the most transformational experiences of grad The experience is a game-changer for students, and Smith says it is designed school, as it tested my limits, gave me confidence in my abilities as a practi­ to be. tioner, and inspired me to continue work in the peacebuilding field,” Stukes says. “It also taught me how extensive peacebuilding is—it runs through “We try to give the texture of what it is like to be deployed overseas,” he says. almost every field you can think of. If there is conflict somewhere, there is “Some realize this kind of work is not for them. For most it solidifies their a need for someone there to resolve it.” commitment and they are ready to take their careers to the next level.”

Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95, contributed to this story.

IN THE FIELD William Johnson, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’16, was already working as a program officer for a Washington, D.C., NGO when he took part in the Forage exercise in 2016, and he says the experience helped him hone his career trajectory.

“This program helped me decide that I’d like to start gradually transitioning to the humanitarian and emergency response side of foreign assistance programming,” he says.

Johnson currently supports a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project in Afghanistan aimed at building the capacity of the country’s Ministry of Higher Education. He recently served as a consultant to a humanitarian organization based in Erbil, Iraq.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 31

INQUIRING MINDS

Three Radicalizing Factors Linked to Terrorism

C

Claudio Cioffi-Revilla

laudio Cioffi-Revilla, a University Professor and director of Mason’s Center for Social Complexity, is testing a theory about com­mon characteristics among radicalized terrorists. His goal is to help manage and mitigate the possibility of terrorist violence.

Cioffi-Revilla, in collaboration with scholars at the University of Maryland; the University of Michigan; the University of Warsaw, Poland; and the University of Oxford, is using a $54,456 grant from the Minerva Project of the Office of Naval Research to develop his theory—that individuals who become radicalized have in common three changes in their lives: 1) a traumatic grievance, 2) the acquisition of an extremist ideology, and 3) the loss of inhibition to kill people.

Other factors, such as poverty, ignorance, socio­ economic status, or education, are seen as spurious or insignificant.

Now the team is using computer simulations, based on real-world data, to test its ideas with agent-based models. The researchers are reasonably confident the simulations will validate their theory, based on results thus far.

The project has led to two doctoral dissertations and a number of scholarly articles in peer-reviewed publica­ tions. Cioffi-Revilla is also contemplating writing a book summarizing the project.

—Michele McDonald

New Technology Prevents Airline Accidents

T

he Center for Air Transportation Systems Research in the Volgenau School of Engineering is using two grants from NASA to study modern airline accidents and prevention strategies. The grants have led to the research and creation of a technology that would advise pilots of potential accident situations.

Leading the project is center director Lance Sherry, along with systems engineering professor John Shortle. Collaborators from the University of Oregon and University of Iowa are also assisting.

According to Sherry, accidents from “controlled flight” into terrain or into a stall are not actually caused by a part malfunction or pilot error, but from an interaction among the components of flight automation that is indiscernible by the pilot.

A typical airliner has more than 100 sensors that send data to approximately 36 computers on the aircraft. Those computers communicate with each other to decide how the plane should respond.

However, in rare circumstances, small differences between sensor data can be misinterpreted. An error like this could force the automation to make a decision about which sensor is correct, and

could lead the aircraft to take an inappropriate action.

Sherry and his team set out to prevent these types of accidents by studying pilot behavior in flight. After noticing how senior captains provide experience-based advice to first officers when passing off the controls, they started to wonder if technology could provide the same type of guidance in potential accident scenarios.

Now coined the “Paranoid Associate,” the technology uses machine-learning algorithms to process massive amounts of flight and weather data collected by Sherry and his team about anomalies that occur during flights across the country. These data are then used to create advisories for pilots to prevent them from encountering potential accident scenarios.

The technology is still in its developing stages.

The project is expected to last three years, and Sherry is optimistic about the benefits it can potentially have on all automated vehicles, like ships and cars.

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—Alexa Rogers, BA ’17

Lance Sherry

RESEARCH

Komodo Dragon Blood Helps Wounds Heal Faster

I

nspired by the Komodo dragon blood’s germ-fighting abilities, Mason researchers have created a new way to kill antibioticresistant bacteria while spurring the body’s cells to heal cuts faster.

Published in the Nature partner journal NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes, the work is the result of a $7.57 million contract from the federal government’s Defense Threat Reduc­ tion Agency (DTRA) to discover new bacterial infection-defeating compounds in the blood of Komodo dragons and the crocodilian family of reptiles, which includes American alligators.

These reptiles eat carrion and live in bacteria-

rich environments but rarely fall ill, suggesting they have strong innate immunity.

Microbiologist Monique van Hoek says synthetic germ-fighter peptides are a new approach to potentially defeat bacteria that have grown resistant to conventional antibiotics. Van Hoek worked with Mason chemistry professor Barney Bishop on the project.

Under the DTRA grant, the Mason team’s research is initially designed to help soldiers heal faster and protect them from bacterial bioweapons. It could eventually also be used to fashion bandages sold at corner drug stores to help heal more mundane cuts and scrapes.

The inspiration for Mason’s synthetic germfighter called “DRGN-1” came from a peptide first found in a Komodo dragon at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida. The peptide was chosen for its promising combination of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties, and the modified, synthetic version of it is able to attack the sticky biofilm that protects the bacteria and helps them grow in wounds.

Along with the American alligator and Komodo, the Mason team has looked at other reptiles including gharials, salt-water crocodiles, Chinese alligators, and Siamese crocodiles.

—Michele McDonald

Hacking the Hackers

S

ushil Jajodia, director of Mason’s Center for Secure Information Systems (CSIS), and his team continue to find new ways to con­ found computer network attackers. The Office of Naval Research awarded Jajodia a $1.24 million, three-year grant to create believable fake documents to fool hackers into wasting their time.

It’s all part of Jajodia’s overall approach to make hackers pay. After all, building a good defense to withstand multiple fronts of attack means investing a hefty amount in resources. Meanwhile, hackers only need to find one entry point to steal valuable information. It’s simply not fair they should have it so easy. Jajodia and his team attach mathe­ matical equations to specific phrases in a document. He looks at what the significant concept is in the text, along with the relationship to, and flow of, ideas. An algorithm then alters phrases in the document just enough so they look believable, but yield false information.

To test their approach, Jajodia’s team manipulated the text of some online articles, then had students read and be tested on the contents.

The text passed muster with students taking the test until they had to transfer what they learned from the “fake” text and answer the test questions; then they failed.

And that’s what Jajodia hopes attackers will experience when they break into networks to steal information—a lot of time spent for worthless information.

This joint project includes engineering professors Rajesh Ganesan, from Mason’s Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department, and Hemant Purohit, from the Information Sciences and Technology Department. Graduate student Prakruthi Karuna, an IT major, also is working on the project.

—Michele McDonald Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 33

INQUIRING MINDS

D I D YO U K N O W… Located in what was the original Fenwick Library, the new Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) will encourage student

OINT P OF PRIDE

innovation and experimentation on a daily basis with ample space for co-working with more than 90 tabletop

Mason has been selected

surfaces and a bevy of different workstations, including

by the Department of

3-D printers, vinyl-cutting machines, and heat presses.

Homeland Security to lead its Center of Excellence in Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis. The 10-year, multimillion-dollar grant is among the largest research awards the university has received, with $3.85

million

committed for its first year of operation. (See story on page 14.)

Examining Recruitment, Retention of Black Math Teachers

M

Toya Frank

ason education professor Toya Frank has a one-year, $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the historical and sociocultural influences that hinder recruitment and retention of a diverse teach­ing force. In this case, she is focusing on black math teachers, but the concept can be applied to other areas.

Frank and her team will study pre- and post-school segregation, examine the experiences of current black secon­dary math teachers, and use the information gathered to inform recruitment and retention efforts in attracting and retaining these teachers. The researchers will also use the study to build theoreti­cal knowledge of the interplay of the cultural, social, affective, and content-related resources black math teachers bring to their practice.

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Other Mason researchers—Diana D’Amico, Robert J. Pawlewicz, Penelope M. Earley, and Adam P. McGeehan— examined the rates at which African American and Caucasian candidates applied for teaching positions, and compared them to the rates at which they were hired and the school demographics in which they were placed.

Through a logistic regression analysis, the authors pre­ sented evidence of dis­crimi­nation in teacher hiring. They also found evidence that African American teachers are more often placed in schools with large populations of students of color.

The team will create an online digital archive and web­ site to inform and educate K-12 and higher educa­tion teachers, educational historians, and the general public.

—Michele McDonald

RESEARCH

Helping People “Hear the Americas”

P

lacing 20th-century popular music in a context that makes it more accessible and understandable is the goal of a new National Endowment for the Humanitiesfunded project at Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.

The project is led by Sheila Brennan of the center, and by Mason history and art history professors Matthew Karush and Michael O’Malley.

Karush and O’Malley will work primarily with two digitized collections of 20th-century music through the Library of Congress’ National Jukebox and the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Cylinder Audio Archive.

While this music is now digitally available for interested listeners, Karush says there is not enough information to properly guide users’ listening experience, especially if they are unfamiliar with early 20thcentury sounds.

Their goal is to help listeners better “hear” music from that time and understand its transnational roots. They plan to create a website that would provide both musical and historical contexts for these collections, making available a range of relevant primary sources and offering explanations on topics from “What is the blues?” to “What are the origins of the banjo?”

Karush hopes once the website is up and running, listeners will contribute their own research to help grow the information provided. The team is currently working on its overall goals and objectives for the project and hopes to begin work on the website in the coming year. ­—Alexa Rogers, BA ’17

D I D YO U K N O W…

#3

Mason is ranked for best part-time MBA program.

The Game’s Not Over for This PhD Student and His Research

D

avid Hughes, PhD Data Analytics ’17, believes that one day the NCAA will approve heart rate monitors to be worn by players during actual competition. When this happens, Hughes thinks that basketball coaches will have access to live heart rate (HR) data, which will help them decide which players need to be subbed out.

“Even though the NCAA has not approved HR moni­ tors for wear during games, the monitors can be used during practice,” says Hughes. “Using HR data from practice, my research seeks to determine the rates at which players fatigue and how quickly they recover when on the bench. This research will bridge the gap between current, sub-optimal substitution strategies and the optimal substitution strategy of the future. ”What makes Hughes’s research unique is the math behind it “Using approximate dynamic programming, I’m able to determine the best action to take from any possible state,” says Hughes of his dissertation research. “It is important to note that this ADP approach considers all possible future actions and states to produce a global optimum. That simply means that the decision recommendations from my model will be optimal over the course of the entire game.”

Hughes thinks sequential decision-making problems such as this have parallels in many other fields. As a former U.S. Army Chinook helicopter pilot, he thinks this same methodology could be applied to develop a policy that recommends the optimal substitution strategy for when to swap a fatigued crewmember or pilot.

This fall, Hughes continues his academic and military career as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

—Martha Bushong

by U.S. News & World Report for 2018 Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 35

SHELF LIFE

Recently published works by Mason faculty

Rousseau’s Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy: A New Introduction Nelson Lund, University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School This book (Palgrave Macmillan, September 2016) examines JeanJacques Rousseau with a view toward deepening our understanding of many political issues today. Lund demonstrates that the implications Rousseau drew from his reflections about the nature of the human soul and the rela­ tionship between our animal origins and the achievements of civiliza­ tion continue to deserve serious attention.

From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, poli­ tical groups seem united by one thing: outrage over a system of power and influence they feel has stolen their livelihoods and liberties. This book (Pegasus Books, Septem­ ber 2016) reveals the patterns and practices of a new and more sophis­ ticated style of corruption that has infiltrated every level of society.

In Trump Effect (Routledge, October 2016) Korostelina explains how the support for Trump

presents Lemkin’s child­ hood experience of antiJewish violence in imperial Russia up to his forays in the 1950s into a socialscientific and historical study of genocide, which he left unfinished.

Governing Under Stress: The Implementation of Obama’s Economic Stimulus Program

Biometrics in Support of Military Operations: Lessons from the Battlefield

Raphaël Lemkin and the Concept of Genocide

Unaccountable: How Trump Effect the Establishment Corrupted Our Finances, Karina V. Korostelina, professor, School for Freedom and Politics Conflict Analysis and and Created an Resolution Outsider Class Janine R. Wedel, University Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government

among the American gen­ eral public is based on three complementary pillars: 1) Trump champions a specific conception of American national identity that empowers his sup­ porters, 2) Trump’s leader­ ship has, to an extent, been crafted from his ability to recognize where and with whom he can get the most return on his investment, and 3) Trump challenges the existing political balance of power within the United States and globally.

Douglas Irvin-Erickson, director, Genocide Prevention Program This biography (Penn Press, November 2016) of influential theorist and human rights figure Raphaël Lemkin sheds new light on the origins of the concept and word “genocide.” The book

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William C. Buhrow, adjunct professor, Forensic Science Program Biometrics in Support of Military Operations (CRC Press, November 2016) examines and evaluates recent U.S. military experi­ ences in Iraq and Afghani­ stan in the context of the use of biometrics and related technologies. The book takes a comprehen­ sive look at how biometrics has been used to support various military operations and suggests ways that its uses can be further developed.

Timothy J. Conlan, Priscilla M. Regan, and Paul L. Posner, Schar School of Policy and Government This book (Georgetown University Press, January 2017) presents perspec­ tives on the implementa­ tion of the American Recovery and Reinvest­ ment Act, its management within all levels of govern­ ment, and its portrayals in the media and public perception. Contributors draw upon more than 200 interviews and nationwide field research to present insights into the challenges facing public policy and management.

Much More to the Story

M

Resolving Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed Richard E. Rubenstein, University Professor, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution Resolving Structural Conflicts (Routledge, Jan­ uary 2017) analyzes how certain types of social systems generate violent conflict and discusses how these systems can be trans­ formed to create the con­ ditions for positive peace.

The book addresses a key issue in the field of conflict studies: what to do about violent conflicts that are not the results of mis­ understanding, prejudice, or malice, but the pro­ducts of a social system that generates violent conflict as part of its normal operations.

The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream Tyler Cowen, BS Economics ’83, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics and General Director of the Mercatus Center Americans’ restlessness and willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change has produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation.

But, according to Cowen, Americans today have broken from this tradition— we’re working harder than ever to avoid change. The Complacent Class (St. Martin’s Press, February 2017) argues this cannot go on forever.

ason communications officer John Hollis is a history buff, seasoned journalist, and author whose second book was published in October from Hugo House Publishers. The Making of a Hero: The Life and Death of Sgt. Rodney M. Davis, tells the story of Hollis’s wife’s uncle, an African Ameri­can who was presented a posthumous Medal of Honor for saving the lives of five fel­low Marines in one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. Although Hollis knew Davis’s narrative would make a great book, it wasn’t until he began researching the events that unfolded that day in 1967 that he found the story was even more riveting than he’d imagined.

What was the essential revelation you uncovered?

I found out all five men Sergeant Davis saved were white. At that time, the country was about to split at the seams over the issue of black and white, but Davis and his fellow Marines of all colors were brothers in every sense despite being stuck 10,000 miles from home and in the closest thing there was to hell on earth.

What happened that day?

Davis was among a company of 200 Marines who inadvertently walked into a trap set by 2,500 North Vietnamese soldiers. It was chaos, shooting from every direction.

Davis was in a trench with five other Marines when an enemy grenade landed at their feet. The others didn’t see or hear it, but Davis saw it, jumped on it, and used both hands to pull it underneath his body and absorb the blast. He was killed right away. All five of the others survived.

What doors has this book opened for you?

In 1987, the U.S. Navy commissioned a guided missile frigate in Davis’s honor. The USS Rodney M. Davis was the first Navy warship named after an African American Medal of Honor recipient. My wife’s family and I were all invited onboard. About four years ago, I was invited to the Pentagon after they got wind of the book. And three years ago, I was invited to the White House when President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to a group of men whose valor had been previously downplayed because of their race or ethnicity. I’ve covered the Olympics, a Super Bowl, and five college basketball Final Fours. But sitting in the East Room hearing Obama speak and watching him present the awards to those guys was the most amazing thing I’ve done in my life.

—Cathy Cruise, MFA ’93 Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 37

ALUMNI IN PRINT Recently published works by Mason alumni

Forging the Star: The Official Modern History of the United States Marshals Service David Turk, MA History ’97 University of North Texas Press, July 2016 The U.S. Marshals Service has adapted and overcome a mountain of barriers since its founding as the oldest federal law enforce­ ment organization. Turk lifts the fog around the agency’s complex modern period, allowing a look within the storied organi­ zation drawn from fresh primary source material with interviews.

Turk is the official his­ torian of the U.S. Marshals Service. He serves on the U.S. Marshals Museum Board and maintains responsibility for the agency’s historical pro­ grams. He lives in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial Rabia Chaudry, JD ’00 St. Martin’s Press, August 2016 In 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Mary­ land. His case was pre­ sented in Serial, a Peabody

Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.

Chaudry, a friend of the Syed family, presents new key evidence in this New York Times bestselling book that she maintains dismantles the state’s case.

Chaudry is a wife, mother, attorney, and public advo­ cate of Syed. She is also a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Son of Jamaica: Maxwell Meets the Maxwells George Kingsley Hewan Jr., MEd Special Education ’08, MEd Education Leadership ’15 Mascot Books, August 2016 Son of Jamaica focuses on a family’s journey to North America and its return to Jamaica each summer to visit relatives. This narra­ tive represents family heri­ tage, identity, and love, encouraging us to share stories with the next gen­ eration of children, and remind them that there’s another place called home.

Hewan is an educator with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.

Wait For Me, Boys!

Wait For Me! Growing up on the Clinch River

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and the Years Beyond: An Autobiographical Sketch Craig M. Ashbrook, DIPL Community College Edu­ cation ’96, DA Community College Education ’02 Little Creek Books, September 2016 How could a small child’s pleading to his friends, “Wait for me, boys!” become one of the most important requests of a lifetime? How could a promise to a parent become a life-shaping focal point, which seemed to be an unachievable ambition? Wait For Me, Boys! settles these and many other uncertainties, while revealing a notice­able connection of life’s events and purpose.

Ashbrook is a retired hydro-geologist and profes­ sor from the Virginia Com­ munity College System.

Screening the System: Exposing Security Clearance Dangers Martha Louise Deutscher, PhD Cultural Studies ’14 Potomac Books, February 2017 Deutscher’s timely exami­ nation of the U.S. screen­ ing system shows how security clearance practice shape and transform those indi­viduals who are sub­ ject to them. Deutscher looks at the efficacy of

various practices while extracting revealing cultural insights into the way we think about privacy, national security, patriotism, and the state.

Now retired, Deutscher spent 23 years in federal service at the U.S. Depart­ ment of Defense. In her work with the U.S. Infor­ma­ tion Agency, she produced live broadcasts with Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Kofi Annan, and other international policy experts.

The Political Economy of Special Economic Zones: Concentrating Economic Development Lotta Moberg, PhD Economics ’15 Routledge, March 2017 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) form designated areas where governments offer busi­nesses lower taxes, tariffs, and often lighter regulat­ions. This book examines SEZs from a political economy per­ spective to dissect the incentives of governments, zone devel­opers, and exporters, and to uncover both the hidden costs and untapped potential of zone policies.

Moberg is a macro­eco­ nomic analyst at William Blair & Co LLC. She earned her BA in economics from Lund University in Sweden.

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

Katie Lai YEAR: Senior

MAJOR: Communication

PHOTO BY RON AIRA

HOMETOWN: Pleasanton, California

W

hen communication major Katie Lai enrolled in a speech class at Las Positas College, she had no idea the course would completely change her trajectory. She found she was good at public speaking and was soon competing on the college’s forensics team.

Why Mason? After earning her associate of arts degree in speech (she was class valedictorian), she started looking for a four-year university to continue her studies. She researched ones with the best forensics teams and discovered Mason. This year she placed in the quarterfinals nationally in informative speaking, communication analysis, and after-dinner speaking.

Leading by Example: While at Mason, she worked with high school students at the George Mason Institute of Forensics, which is held in Fairfax each summer. This past summer she travelled to Mason Korea with Forensics Team director Peter Pober and other coaches to help with the 2017 International English Speech Competition.

Who’s Your Doctor? Lai is a huge fan of BBC television series Dr. Who and actor David Tennant, who is best known for playing the Tenth Doctor. She says one of the perks of being on the East Coast was the ability to head up to New York City and catch Tennant on Broadway when he appeared as Richard II. She waited outside the stage door and was able to get a photo with him.

Future Goals: Lai minored in business because she wanted to keep her options open and is thinking about an MBA. She would like to start her own business—maybe a bakery or nonprofit. “I think I would like to be an entrepreneur— and I’ve been baking since I was 3.”

—Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 39

PHOTO COURTESY OF REBECCA ARANDA PHOTOGRAPHY

CLASS NOTES

Good Hearts Bad Choices: TA L E S FR O M C R O SS R I V E R

T

he night of the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Gala, I was obsessively refreshing my Twitter feed. Rion Amilcar Scott, MFA Creative Writing ’08, my friend and fellow MFA grad, was up for the Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction for his story collection Insurrections, and I couldn’t wait to find out if he won.

When he did win, it was certainly a thrill, but not a surprise. At once funny, poignant, and heartbreaking, the stories in Insurrections (Uni­ versity Press of Kentucky, 2016) offer a shining example of why short story collections need to exist in this world. These 13 tales, all set in the fictional town of Cross River, Maryland, follow people who are doing their best and often failing in those attempts, people with good hearts who make bad choices.

Raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, Scott won both the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and a Completion Fellowship during his time at Mason.

His stories have been published in the Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, and PANK, and one of his essays was listed as a notable in Best American Essays 2015. Presently, he teaches English at Bowie State University.

I was lucky to catch up with him and ask a few questions about his writing.

WHERE DO YOU FIND TIME AND INSPIRATION TO WRITE? Inspiration is not a problem. Ideas are always flying about. I write about a town of my own invention so it’s not hard to imagine it in motion even when I’m not observing it. My big inspiration is to eventually tell the complete story of Cross River. Time, time is the

problem. I don’t have a perfect solution to that. Between my family and my job, it’s often a matter of staying up very late.

WHY A FICTIONAL TOWN? WHERE DID THAT IDEA FIRST COME FROM? I thought I would write about Washington, D.C., but that just didn’t feel right. I wanted to have something that would center my stories and that would evolve over time. The evolution of Cross River has come to be my favorite thing about writing. I did draw a ridiculous looking map once.

I’m glad I don’t know where it is. The shape of the town doesn’t matter to me. The geography is always going to serve the needs of the particular story I’m writing.

HOW DID IT FEEL TO WIN THE PRIZE? Honestly, the night of the award ceremony was one of the most special nights in my life so far. Of course, one doesn’t write for that sort of recognition, but for it to happen goes so beautifully against expectations. I imagined I’d write a book that everyone but a few would ignore. It’s nice to be wrong about that.

HOW DID MASON’S MFA PROGRAM HELP YOU MOST IN YOUR WRITING AND CAREER? The MFA program was the most important thing I did for my writing. It gave me a dose of confidence that I was sorely lacking, and it connected me with people who I am still in awe of. I discovered a lot of tools to keep the momentum up. No matter what, the story has to get done.

WHO WERE YOU MOST EXCITED TO TELL ABOUT YOUR WIN? I was happy to tell my son about it. He’s six. He didn’t care.

—Tara Laskowski, MFA ’05

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class notes 1980s

George Mason faculty member.

Barbara O’Brien, BSN ’83, retired in 2015 after work­ ing as a District Nurse Leader in Massachusetts.

Michael Tims, BA English ’83, has published a new book of poetry, The Acoustic Properties of Ancient People (Finishing Line Press). Tims, who received a PhD from the University of Maryland studying medicinal plants, currently is academic director for herbal programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health.

Steve Gladis, MA English ’84, PhD Education ’95, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce for service to the Northern Virginia business commu­ nity. He is the president and CEO of Steve Gladis Leadership Partners. Gladis is a leadership coach and a

Bryan Bean, LTC U.S. Army (retired), BA English ’85, recently became co-owner and operator of Kinnitty Castle in County Offaly, Ireland. Originally built in 1209, the castle is operated as a destination wedding and conference venue. The historic castle was the home of the O’Carrolls, whose descendants include Maryland’s Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The owners also use the castle in fundraising projects for U.S. and Irish charities.

Maria Elizabeth (Maza) Stewart, MA Economics ’86, was appointed chief operating officer of CFP Board in January 2017.

Stewart is responsible for growing awareness of CFP® certification while ensuring that the certification pro­ gram remains highly

respected, relevant, and responsive to the public’s needs for competent and ethical financial planning.

Lovey Hammel, BS Mar­ keting ’88, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Com­ merce for service to the Northern Virginia business community. She is the president and co-founder of Employment Enter­prises Inc., of Manassas, Virginia.

1990s

Ruth Boggs, BA English ’91, MA Professional Writ­ ing and Editing ’94, has been elected administra­ tor for the German Language Division of the American Translators Association. After more than 20 years with the German government, she left the German Embassy

in Washington, D.C., in 1995 to become a full-time freelance language pro­ fessional. She is also a contract translator and interpreter for the U.S. Department of State.

Horace Blackman, BA American Studies and English ’93, was appointed to the George Mason Uni­ versity Board of Visitors.

Blackman, who received an MBA in management from the University of Virginia, is senior vice president of the Veterans Health Organization within Leidos’ Health Group, and leads a team of 2,600 employees in delivering mission-critical services to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Federal Computer Week magazine named him a Federal 100 Award winner in 2014 in recogni­ tion of his leadership in information technology for the federal government. (continued next page)

2017-18 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Brian Jones, MA International Commerce and Policy ’06 PRESIDENT-ELECT Jennifer Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94 VICE PRESIDENT—ADVOCACY Sumeet Shrivastata, MBA ’94 VICE PRESIDENT— INVOLVEMENT Jeff Fissel, BS Information Technology ’06 TREASURER Scott Hine, BS Decision Science ’85 SECRETARY Andy Gibson, BA History ’92 Technology ’06 AT-LARGE DIRECTORS Tyree Carlson, BS Social Work ’96 Kevin Christopher, MBA ’96 Mariana Cruz, BS Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ’11 Shayan Farazmand, BA Communication ’04 Walter McLeod, MS Chemistry ’94 Patrick Rooney, BA Communication ’12

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 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 41

W H AT I T M E A N S

To Be a Mason Alumnus

A

PHOTO BY JOHN BOAL

s we look forward to celebrating 50 years of George Mason University alumni in 2018, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a Mason alumnus.

Sharing an alma mater gives you the opportunity to connect with others through areas of mutual importance.

Just as we each have our own college experience, we also have our own definition of an alumnus/a. As a Mason alumnus, I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of your definitions, but friend, mentor, and family have been the most important to me. As you think about what it means to you, know that you are always welcome to engage in the ongoing value of what your alma mater offers.

As we enter our 50th year as an alumni association, we are looking to define what a George Mason alumnus is through the unique stories of alumni. We will be reaching out through various channels in the coming months to learn more about your experience and discover what we have in common as graduates of Mason. The culmination of our Golden Anniversary will be a special celebration in May 2018.

We look forward to seeing many of you throughout this milestone year.

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

Theresa Early, MA Psy­ chology ’93, was named the 2017 National VFW Elementary Teacher of the Year for teaching history and civics. She is a fourthgrade special education teacher at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia.

Deborah L. Parker, MAIS ’93, received her master of divinity degree from the School of Theology at Virginia Union University in May 2017.

Kate Goggin, BIS ’95, is a communications specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis­ tration’s Office of Response and Restoration. Kate joined the office in Jan­uary 2016 after completing several public affairs assign­ ments at the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Mary Ann (Morley) Henker, BS Management ’96, is president of The Henker Group LLC, which was recently named the winner of two Bronze Stevie awards for its mar­ keting and communica­tions work in the 14th annual American Business Awards.

Kristopher Kovacs, BS Administration of Justice ’97, has been named CEO of Constellation Digital Partners LLC. He previously served as SVP/CIO of Coastal Credit Union.

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Rebecca Kronthal, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’97, was named the 2017 Elementary School Teacher of the Year and overall Teacher of the Year for Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia.

Kronthal was also a finalist for the 2017 Washington Post Teacher of the Year.

She teaches second grade at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in Wood­ bridge, Virginia.

Joe Little, BA Speech Communication ’98, was awarded three Emmys by the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in June, including one for his reporting at KGTV-10News in San Diego.

Maj. Gerald (Jerry) Mazur, BS Administration of Justice ’98, MS Telecom­ munications ’07, is a cyber operations planner with the U.S. Army. He recently took command of the 123rd Cyber Protection Battalion of the Virginia Army National Guard.

Mazur’s colleague LTC Dan Snowdall, MA History ’11, commands the 124th Cyber Protection Battalion.

2000s

Kenneth Alford, PhD Computer Science ’00, a retired U.S. Army colonel,

CLASS NOTES

is currently a professor of church history at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Alford recently pub­ lished the edited volume Utah and the American Civil War: The Written Record with the Arthur H. Clark Company, an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press.

Edward P. Stringham, MA Economics ’00, PhD Economics ’02, has been named president of the American Institute for Economic Research, an 84-year-old research and education organization headquartered in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Stringham, who is the K. W. Davis Professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation at Trinity College in Connecticut, is also the editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise and a frequent contributor to both academic journals and the popular media.

Jennifer Furlong, BA Communication ’01, MA Communication ’05, recent­ly published MiniHandbook for Jackasses: Communication & Rela­ tionships, the first book in a self-help series. It is now available on Amazon.

J. Lee Hill Jr., BA Inte­gra­ tive Studies ’01, recently earned a doctor of ministry degree from the Candler School of Theology at

A DAUGHTER’S TRIBUTE

O

n January 8, 1973, Lt. Col. William L. Deane of the U.S. Army was declared missing in action in Vietnam. His daughter, Sharon M. Deane, MA History ’10, was 8 at the time. For 27 years, the Deane family waited and hoped for answers. In April 2000, his remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery in a special ceremony recognizing his ultimate sacrifice.

Deane is part of a team that is racing against time to make sure that the United States honors and personally thanks as many as possible of the nearly nine million Americans who served as part of the nation’s effort during the Vietnam War. Deane works in the history and legacy branch of the Vietnam War Commemoration, an organization created to implement then-President Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential proclamation announcing the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Deane sees her work as a way to honor her father as well as his comrades.

“It’s a privilege and an honor,” she says. “We’re just trying to reach Vietnam veterans and their families and say thank you on behalf of a grateful nation for your service and sacrifice.”

Deane serves in a dual role as exhibit project manager and education specialist. She also oversaw the development and installation of a permanent exhibit at the Pentagon that displays a timeline of the war, a full-scale diorama with two Huey helicopter cabins, touch screen interactives, historical video footage, and more than 300 Vietnamera artifacts.

In April 2017, the project received the John Wesley Powell Prize for outstanding exhibit from the Society for History in the Federal Government. Deane herself was recently recognized by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences with a distinguished alumni award.

Although the nation’s tribute may be belated, Deane is pleased that the exhibit she helped to create is permanent. “[It is] staying there as long as the Pentagon is there, in perpetuity,” she says. “How many opportunities do you have like that? You know, once in a lifetime.”

—Anne Reynolds

U.S. Army Capt. William L. Deane, 33, at his desk at the USARV Data Service Center, 12th Data Processing Unit in Long Bing, Vietnam, 1967.

Fall Fall 2017 2017 M MA A SS O ON N SS P P II R R II TT | 43 | 43

CLASS NOTES

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVES BLACK ALUMNI Chantée Christian, BA Communication ’05 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Anthony DeGregorio, BS Physical Education ’84, MS Physical Education ’89 COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Shannon Baccaglini, MM Music ’06, MA Arts Management ’09 COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Betty Ann Duffy, MSN Nursing Administration ’08 VOLGENAU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Mariana X. Cruz, BS Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ’11 LAMBDA ALUMNI Aléjandro Asin, BA Sociology ’11 John Havmann, BA Geography ’09 ANTONIN SCALIA LAW SCHOOL Jesse Binnall, BA Communication ’01, JD ’09 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Jason Howell, BS Accounting ’97 SCHAR SCHOOL OF POLICY AND GOVERNMENT Kyle Green, MA International Commerce and Policy ’13, MPA ’14 LATINO ALUMNI Adriana Bonilla, BA Government and Politics ’11 COLLEGE OF SCIENCE Tiffany Ha, BS Chemistry ’10, MS ’13 COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Gleason Rowe, BA Global Affairs ’11 GOLDEN QUILL Kushboo Bhatia, BA Government and International Politics ’16

Emory University. His doctoral thesis/project was titled “A Narrative Black Pulpit: The Narrative Lectionary as Tool for Christian Transformation.”

Hill has been admitted as a fellow in the College of Pastoral Leaders at the Martin Luther King Jr. Inter­ national Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College.

Catherine Bohn, MS Geographic and Carto­ graphic Sciences ’02, has been promoted to associate vice president at Dewberry in Fairfax, Virginia. Bohn leads a team of geospatial analysts who provide geographic information systems support to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state governments, and localities to respond to natural disasters.

James “Hal” Nesbitt, BS Marketing ’03, was recently promoted to vice presi­dent of information technology at the American Society of Nephrology, where he will lead the society’s technol­ ogy and innovation initia­ tives, as well as oversee the integrated marketing communications program.

Colin Bill, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’04, launched the design and clothing company Hero Heads, which features hand-drawn designs

depicting inspirational figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Frida Kahlo, and Abraham Lincoln.

Offering t-shirts, prints, postcards, tote bags, and more, Hero Heads contrib­ utes 10 percent of profits to a charity related to the hero’s cause.

Niyati Dhokai, BA Music ’04, was recently hired as the program manager/ consultant for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative at the Hylton Performing Arts Center.

Ari Firoozabadi, BS Mar­ keting ’04, was named to the Washington Business Journal’s annual “40 Under 40” list. In 2012 Firoozabadi founded Greysteel Co., a commercial real estate firm that now has 65 em­ployees in nine branches across the country. He is also on the boards of the National Multifamily Housing Council and the Northern Virginia Apart­ ment Association.

Osita Chidoka, MA Transportation Policy, Operations, and Logistics ’05, was honored with the Distinguished Fellow Award by the Professional Excellence Foundation of Nigeria. Chidoka served as the minister of aviation in the last regime in Nigeria and was also the corps marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, where

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

he transformed the agency into an award-winning organization.

Frances J. Metcalf, BIS ’05, was ordained to the dia­ conate of the Anglican Church of North America’s Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh on June 10, 2017. She taught English to prospective seminarians at an Anglican training center in southwestern Ethiopia in July 2017 and provided clergy support in her home parish, Christ Church in New Brighton, Pennsylvania.

Cliff Hyra, JD ’07, is the Libertarian Party’s candi­ date for governor of Virginia in the November 2017 election. He is a partner with Symbus Law Group in Reston, Virginia.

Brian Christopher Jones, MA Justice, Law, and Crime Policy ’07, has been appointed as a lecturer in law (assistant professor) at the University of Dundee in Scotland.

Caroline O’Reilly, BA English ’07, celebrated the arrival of a new dog, Gizmo.

Gizmo enjoys long walks in the neighborhood, chasing squirrels, and cuddling.

Rose Previte, MPP ’07, will host Check, Please!, the new WETA-produced local tele­ vision series showcasing the diner’s perspective on the Greater Washington

food scene. Previte is the owner of Compass Rose, named to every Washing­ ton, D.C., best restaurant list upon its opening in 2014.

Christine Russe, MSN Nursing Administration ’07, was inducted as a fellow in the Academy of Emergency Nurses. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Emer­ gency Nurses Association Nursing Education Award and was named a Dallas/ Fort Worth Great 100 Nurse. Russe currently resides north of Dallas, Texas, with her husband of 34 years. She is blessed with two adult children, their spouses, and two adorable grandchildren.

Matthew Fernandes, BA Government and Inter­ national Politics ’08, is the new director of develop­ ment for the United Way of Essex and West Hudson, based in Newark, New Jersey.

Kerry (McNabb) Reed, MA English ’08, has released her debut novel, a YA fantasy called Dream­ scape. She currently resides outside Philadelphia with her husband and three sons. She can be reached at www.kerry-reed.com or www.facebook.com/ kerryreedwrites.

Claire (Forman) Olson, BA Global Affairs ’09, MPA ’14,

CLASS NOTES

and Tyler Olson, BS Accounting ’13, were wed on June 3, 2017, at Dell­ wood Plantation in Chesterfield, Virginia.

2010s

Amanda (Rowley) Paone, MA History ’10, and Thomas Paone, MA History ’10, announced the birth of

their son, Henry Jacob Paone, born in December 2016 in Arlington, Virginia.

Grace Langham, MEd Early Childhood Education ’11, was named to the Washington Business Jour­ nal’s annual “40 Under 40” list. Langham is the CEO of the boutique property management firm Nest DC, with 24 staffers and $3

million in annual revenue.

She also serves on the board of For the Love of Children. After graduating from Mason, Langham taught first- and secondgrade mathematics at a nonprofit charter school in Washington, D.C. Darren Minier, MAIS ’12, has been promoted to

D I D YO U K N O W… Mason alumnus Brandon Showell, BA English and Music ’14, is a contestant on season 13 of NBC’s The Voice. The Arlington, Virginia, schoolteacher is on Team Adam Levine.

(continued next page)

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING

L

t. Col. Tracy Russillo got her first taste of a career in law enforcement during a law cadet program at the age of 16.

“From the first time I sat in a police car, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” Russillo says.

Russillo, BS Law Enforcement ’88, a 28-year veteran of the Virginia State Police, is the first woman to be appointed deputy superintendent of the department. Prior to this position, she was also the first female to receive major and lieutenant colonel status.

Appointed in August 2016, she oversees three bureaus within the department, including the Bureau of Administrative and Support Services (BASS), Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and Bureau of Field Operations. Russillo served in all three of these bureaus throughout her career with the state police, which she says has helped her better understand the needs of each one.

Russillo joined the state police in May 1989. She began as a trooper in Spotsylvania and worked her way up as she moved around the state, from academy sergeant to field lieutenant.

She achieved the rank of captain in 2008 and served as the Fairfax division commander before becoming the deputy director of BASS, later serving as its director.

Almost 28 years later, Russillo says she never imagined being in this position and feels honored and privileged to be deputy superintendent.

For current students and recent graduates hoping to enter law enforcement, Russillo advises embracing the evolving challenges that the career has to offer.

Though her parents hoped that going to college would set her on a different career path, Russillo chose George Mason for “Once you walk out the door with your diploma, your learning its law enforcement program. She says she enjoyed learning is literally just starting,” Russillo says. “Although you learn a from professors who were also law enforcement practitioners ton on the job, you need to continue your formal education because they brought practical knowledge from their careers too because there’s so much to be gained that you can bring to the classroom. back to the real world.”

“It was that practical side that you got to hear about. It wasn’t —Alexa Rogers, BA ’17 all theory,” Russillo says. “It was truly from experience.”

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 45

CLASS NOTES

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.

assistant director of animal care, conservation, and research at the Oakland Zoo in Oakland, California.

In this position, he oversees the construction of the 53-acre California Trail expansion, set to open in 2018.

by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American His­ tory, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to K-12 American history education. Smith is a history teacher at Scecina Memor­ial High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Andrew Smith, MA His­ tory ’12, has been named the 2017 Indiana History Teacher of the Year, an award presented annually

Triana Rish, BA Art History ’14, is engaged to Andrew Griffith, BFA Game Design ’14, MS Management ’15.

They are looking forward to their wedding in Novem­ber

at the Winery at Bull Run. BreAnna Strevig, MSW ’15, works as a family ser­ vice counselor at Kids First of Florida Inc. She provides resources to parents whose children have been removed from their home and helps them gain the skills needed for reunifi­cation with their children.

Melissa Corpancho, BA Psychology ’17, is starting

graduate school at Mason this fall. She was recently interviewed on national TV for Good Morning Ameri­ca’s class of 2017 show.

Alexis Jenkins, BA English ’17, left for Japan at the end of July to participate in the JET Program as an assistant language teacher.

She will be teaching English at two elementary schools and a junior high school in Nagano.

Obituaries

ALUMNI AND STUDENTS Carole L. Haynes, BS Business Administration ’70, d. June 22, 2017

John Aguero, BA Govern­ ment and Politics ’78, d. July 7, 2017

Judith W. Azaria, MEd Elementary Education ’72, d. April 11, 2017

Margaret T. Moss, BS Social Work ’78, d. April 1, 2017

Michael H. Eerier, BS Business Administration ’74, d. May 25, 2017 Van E. Rouse IV, BA History ’74, d. May 20, 2016 Virginia S. Lutz, MEd Ele­ mentary Education ’76, d.

March 13, 2017

EDITOR’S NOTE: Class Notes are submitted by alumni and are not verified by the editors. While we welcome alumni news, Mason Spirit is not responsible for information contained in Class Notes.

Mark R. Anderson, BS Business Administration ’79, d. April 5, 2017 Michael K. Zook, BA Economics ’79, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’92, d. May 1, 2017 David W. Jones, BIS ’80, d.

April 4, 2017

Bruce S. Brown, BS Biology ’77, d. April 24, 2017

Marguerite H. Mooney, MA History ’80, d. May 3, 2017

Anita L. Cohen, MEd Elementary Education ’77, d.

May 1, 2017

Margaret I. Zander, BIS ’80, d. April 24, 2017

William D. Grover, MA History ’77, d. May 23, 2016 Forrest C. Meeks, MBA ’77, d. April 14, 2017 Stanley J. Sobkowicz, JD ’77, d. June 3, 2017

Mary Read Cooper, BA American Studies ’81, d.

April 26, 2016 Stephen F. Rowe, BS Busi­ ness Administration ’81, d.

March 4, 2017

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

Thomas J. Sibert, JD ’81, d.

April 27, 2016

Thomas P. Blevins, BA History ’85, d. May 29, 2017

Patricia A. Stowell, BS Finance ’81, d. June 24, 2017

Alan J. Jeffries, BS Biology ’85, d. May 12, 2017

Lisa M. Eppard, BA Account­ ing ’82, d. May 27, 2016

Miriam L. Kinner, JD ’85, d.

February 21, 2017

Berton V. Kramer, JD ’82, d.

May 1, 2016

Ann M. Richardson, BS Early Education ’85, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’93, d. May 19, 2016

Henry Palczewski, MBA ’82, d. May 18, 2017 Wilma Wolicki, BA English ’82, d. May 16, 2017 Valerie H. Downs, BA English ’83, d. April 30, 2017 Curtis W. Wunderly, MPA ’83, d. May 6, 2017

John F. X. Ryan, BS Account­ ing ’85, d. June 27, 2017 Veronica J. McCrohan, MBA ’86, d. May 2, 2016 Gregory S. Coffey, BS Decision Science ’87, d.

March 17, 2017

Nanette C. Altheide, BSEd Early Education ’84, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’90, d. April 1, 2017

Timothy A. Mensch, BS Marketing ’87, d. May 23, 2017

Victor H. Kryston, MA English ’84, d. May 13, 2016

Martha B. Moo, JD ’87, d.

July 9, 2017

John C. Lemen, MBA ’84, d.

July 22, 2017

John R. Davis, BS Manage­ ment ’89, d. June 14, 2017

CLASS NOTES

Patricia L. Wahlman, MSN ’89, d. May 24, 2016 Noreen K. Clough, MS Biology ’90, d. January 16, 2015 Leslie J. Kastens, BSN ’90, d. March 6, 2017 Diane K. Wade, BS Market­ ing ’90, d. July 23, 2017 Sarah J. Berninghausen, BS Social Work ’91, d. May 9, 2017 Kimberly A. King, BS Decision Science ’91, d. May 13, 2017

Seroun M. Wang, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’94, d. June 30, 2017

Frances S. Armstrong, MA New Professional Studies ’98, d. July 24, 2017

Lee R. Briggs, BA Govern­ ment and Politics ’95, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’99, d. March 19, 2017

Jennifer E. Gladieux, JD ’98, d. January 22, 2017

Daniel A. Hammerman, BA History ’96, d. April 21, 2016

Melissa L. Ritenour, BS Management ’02, CERB Leadership Studies ’02, MPA ’04, d. April 13, 2017

Johannes M. Botes, PhD Conflict Analysis and Resolu­ tion ’97, d. January 22, 2017 Mildred Hill, MA Psychol­ ogy ’97, d. July 17, 2017

Michael J. McFadden, BS Electrical Engineering ’00, d.

May 19, 2016

Taylor O. Smithberger, BS Health, Fitness, and Recrea­ tional Resources ’02, d. July 25, 2017

Susan Spicer, BS Finance ’02, d. April 2, 2017 Laura M. Roberts, BS Psy­ chology ’05, d. April 30, 2016 Talitha A. Lee, BA Commu­ni­ cation ’08, d. March 21, 2017 Michael J. Ricks, MS Bio­ defense ’08, d. May 2, 2017 Andrew E. Baer, BA Govern­ ment and International Politics ’10, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’14, d. March 17, 2015 John Brewster, BA Eco­ nomics ’12, d. July 21, 2017

Bryan L. Eastes, BS Psy­chol­ ogy ’12, MS Educational Psy­ chology ’16, d. April 18, 2017 Gary G. Roberson, MS Computational Science ’13, PhD Computational Sciences and Informatics ’16, d. June 8, 2017 Ahmed S. Dakrory, MS Conflict Analysis and Reso­ lution ’14, d. October 2016 Bernard McGrath, MPA ’14, d. May 8, 2016 Ahmad N. Qureshi, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution student, d.

January 10, 2017

F A C U LT Y, S TA F F, A N D F R I E N D S Hugh Heclo, Robinson Professor Emeritus of International Studies, died on August 6 at the age of 74. He came to Mason in 1987 and remained at the university until his retirement in 2014. Before coming to Mason, he was a professor of government at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. An elected mem­ber of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration, he was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellow­ ship in 1985-86. As a Ronald Reagan Scholar, he wrote many articles on the Reagan presidency and wrote or co-wrote several books, including On Thinking Institutionally and Christianity and American Democracy. When not in the classroom, Heclo could often be found at his Christmas tree farm in Clarke County, Virginia. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Beverley Carole Heclo, their daughter, Ashley Rebecca Heclo, son-in-law Marcus Berggren, and brother-in-law Archer Dowdy and his family.

Paul Posner, 70, professor and director of the Master of Public Adminis­ tration Program at Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government, passed away on July 5. Posner joined the Mason faculty in 2005. Before that, he was managing director for strategic issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office, where he worked for more than 30 years. He was responsible for work on the federal budget and intergovernmental fiscal policy and management. From 2010-11, Posner was president of the American Society for Public Administration, and served as chair of the board of the National Academy of Public Administration. His recent book, Governing Under Stress (January 2017), provides the first definitive examination of the Obama Administration’s economic stimulus program.

He is survived by his wife, Arlene; daughter, Jenny; and two grandsons.

The school has established a scholarship fund in Posner’s name that will be awarded to qualified MPA students.

Eugenie “Jean” V. Mielczarek, Professor Emeritus of Physics, died on June 26 at age 86. Mielczarek started Mason’s Physics and Astronomy Department and taught for 35 years before retiring in 1999. Renowned for her work in biological physics, her later research was in solid-state, low-temperature physics, semiconductors, and Fermi surfaces of metals.

Mielczarek was honored by the Washington Academy of Science in 2009 when she received the Scientific Work of Merit award. She co-wrote Iron, Nature’s Universal Element: Why People Need Iron and Animals Make Magnets and co-edited Biological Physics. Mielczarek received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Queens College in New York and a doctor of physics degree from Catholic University in 1963. She is survived by two brothers, John and Theodore Vorburger, and two children, Mary and John Mielczarek.

The department plans to start a fellowship fund in her name.

Whitney Shiner, a longtime faculty member of the Department of Religious Studies, died on June 3 at age 67. Shiner was a scholar of the Gospels and the early Christian context in which they came to be written, performed, and canonized. He designed and taught the popular Spiritu­­ality and Healing in World Religions course at Mason, and also developed a new course on African religions—a topic he deeply cared about, and which he incorporated into all of his introductory world religions courses. He published two books on the subject, Follow Me! Disciples in Markan Rhetoric, and Proclaiming the Gospel: First Century Performance of Mark. Shiner also engaged in dramatic, oral perfor­mances of the Gospels, and was part of the Network of Biblical Storytellers.

Fall 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 47

4400 University Drive, MS 3B3 Fairfax, VA 22030

JUST HANGING AROUND—Hammocks are the thing on college campuses right now, and Mason students are using the mature trees around Robinson Hall and the Quad to hang out, study, or just nap between classes. The Office of Housing and Residence Life recently hosted a Hammock Fest on the Fairfax Campus.

PHOTOS BY EVAN CANTWELL