Moravian University Magazine spring 2024

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UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

WORKING FOR THE EARTH Cutting greenhouse gases Protecting coastlines Preserving biodiversity

Sarabeth Brockley ’10 Brings Businesses into Carbon Markets SPRING 2024

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VIEW FINDER Photographer Rob Cardillo captures star of Bethlehem blooming on South Campus.

U N I V E R S I T Y M AG A Z I N E

Editor Claire Kowalchik P’22 Art Director Brooke Porcelli Managing Editor Nancy Rutman ’84 Sports Editor Mark J. Fleming Editorial Assistant Allison Ludlow ’24 Archivist Cory W. Dieterly Consulting Editor Diane White Husic Contributing Writers Therese Ciesinski, Jeff Csatari, Carol Olsen Day, Anndee Hochman, Caroline Junker, Meghan Decker Szvetecz ’08 Contributing Photographers Carlo Acerra, Marco Calderon, Rob Cardillo, Nick Chismar, Will Hawkins, John Kish IV, Matthew Lester, Bill Wadman Contributing Illustrators GreatPetsPortraits.etsy.com, James O’Brien, Colleen O’Hara Alumni and Parent Engagement Amanda Werner Maenza ’13, G’17

Executive Director Matt Nesto ’16, G’21, G’22

Associate Director Dylan Star

Assistant Director Kathy Magditch P’13

Administrative Support Assistant Copyright 2024 by Moravian University. Photographs and artwork copyright by their respective creators or by Moravian University.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reused or republished in any form without express written permission.

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FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

M

oravian Greyhound family and friends,

As we begin another vibrant year at Moravian University, I am excited to discuss two major initiatives demonstrating our relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment to holistic student development.

At the forefront of our endeavors is the launch of the School of Professional Studies and Innovation (SPSI). This innovative initiative reflects Moravian University’s enduring legacy of inclusivity and adaptability. By collaborating with leading businesses to craft curricula tailored for working adults, the school bridges the gap between academia and the dynamic requirements of today’s high-tech career landscape. It reaffirms our dedication to accessible and relevant education for all. Our programs in this school are all designed around the needs of working professionals and the application of learning to solve current problems.

Another significant milestone we celebrate is the groundbreaking of the new Haupert Union Building (HUB).

Recognizing the integral role of mental and physical well-being in academic and personal success, the HUB is designed to be a sanctuary that fosters community engagement, collaborative learning, and holistic wellness.

Architecturally conceived as a nucleus for student wellness, this facility addresses the pressing need for soft-space meeting areas for students, faculty, and staff. This initiative is a bold step toward nurturing an environment where every community member can thrive.

Beyond these exciting developments, this issue of the magazine is brimming with inspiring stories of Moravian students and alumni making impactful contributions to environmental sustainability. Notably, alumnus Brian Reckenbeil’s pioneering work in cultivating corals that thrive in warmer oceans offers a beacon of hope in restoring declining coral reefs. In another inspiring endeavor, Natasha Woods, with a significant grant of $503,000, collaborates with students in vital research for preserving barrier islands crucial to our coastlines’ protection. Moreover, Sarabeth Brockley’s consultancy with corporations on carbon capture initiatives showcases our commitment to combating climate change.

Each article in this edition is a piece of the mosaic of our university’s mission—to empower individuals to make meaningful contributions to solving the problems of our world. As you delve into these pages, I invite you to reflect on the legacy of Moravian University and the bright future we are building together.

President Bryon L. Grigsby ’90, P’22, P’26

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PHOTO BY MARCO CALDERON

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER

Features

Photographer Bill Waldman captures Sarabeth Brockley ’10 working at one of her favorite Brooklyn cafés, Daytime.

GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE 24 The Case for Carbon Strategy

Sarabeth Brockley ’10 serves one of the most ambitious and critical goals of our century—achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050— and she’s using financial markets to help get us there.

34 Protectors of the Coast

24

How ecology instructor Natasha Woods’s research on island plants may help our shores weather storms.

42 A Dive into Coral Research

Brian Reckenbeil ’09 is committed to the restoration of Florida’s declining coral reef, a biological masterpiece that supports more than 6,000 marine species, protects the state’s coastline, and underlies important sectors of the economy.

The Hub 4

News & Notes

8

Greyhound Sports

9

Why I Play

Community

34

Brilliance 18 Creators

10 An Alum Reflects

19 Bookshelf

12 Ask an Alum

20 Think Piece

13 Faculty Focus 14 Moravian Moment

Alumni

16 Student Spotlight

50 Lighting the Way 54 Class Notes 62 In Memoriam

DIGITAL ISSUE

64 Hounds of Moravian

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NEWS & NOTES

The Hub President Grigsby introduces the School of Professional Studies and Innovation (SPSI) at the program launch. He points out that by meeting the educational needs of adults today, SPSI aligns with Moravian's values of providing education for all.

Moravian Launches New School

T

oday’s rapidly changing career landscape creates opportunities for advancement and new directions. To meet the needs of adults who wish to remain relevant and competitive in the job market or move into a different profession, Moravian has created the School of Professional Studies and Innovation (SPSI). An event to celebrate the launch of this new school was held on February 1, 2024.

SPSI serves working adults who may or may not have families and who are looking to complete a bachelor’s degree, earn a graduate degree, or obtain a certificate that adds to their professional skills.

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All programs are anchored in professional learning, and current offerings include an MBA with a specialization in digital marketing, a master’s degree in cyber security, degree completion for a bachelor’s in business administration or education, a certificate in supply chain management, and a pre–health professions certificate.

Our programs are shaped by industry: We work with business leaders to design courses that speak to the knowledge and skills employers want. Classes are taught by industry experts that have academic credentials. Additionally, an SPSI education empowers adults to thrive

PHOTOS BY NICK CHISMAR

NEWS & NOTES

“

in an age of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.

Moravian is also excited to partner with Lehigh Valley businesses to create custom programs that meet specific needs and help their employees stay on the cutting edge of the changing work environment.

Our professional corporate education programs are taught by experienced faculty and focus on topics such as leadership and innovation, allowing a company’s employees to learn new skills and earn industry certifications that ultimately will benefit the business.

Understanding that adult students must balance their education with work and family, Moravian offers flexible course schedules in both online and hybrid formats.

“Moravian’s School of Professional Studies and Innovation is designed to be a leader in professional education,” says Deirdre Letson-Christofalo, EdD, associate provost and dean of the school. Letson-Christofalo comes to her position with a certificate in design thinking and innovation from Stanford and more than 18 years as dean of the schools of professional studies at previous institutions.

“The new school will help to ensure that our programs are not only accessible but also relevant and valuable,” says President Bryon L. Grigsby ’90, P’22, P’26, “equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in their careers.”

The new school will help to ensure that our programs are not only accessible but also relevant and valuable, equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in their careers.”

—President Bryon L. Grigsby ’90, P’22, P’26

For more information about SPSI, visit moravian.edu/spsi.

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NEWS & NOTES

Rose Meixell-Neith, one of the few women to work in the Bethlehem Steel Foundry, was interviewed by Lauren Amori ’24 for a podcast.

Proud Awarded $888,044 NSF Grant

Daniel Proud, assistant professor of biological sciences, has been awarded an $888,044 CAREER grant by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology for a five-year project titled “CAREER: Investigating Biogeographic Hypotheses and Drivers of Diversification in Neotropical Harvestmen [daddy longlegs] (Opiliones: Laniatores) Using Ultraconserved Elements.” The aim of the research is to advance understanding of how species diversity has been shaped by evolutionary processes linked to geological and climatic histories.

Proud’s research will advance, globally, our understanding of the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity, but it will also have important impacts here at home.

Undergraduate students will be trained to use powerful bioinformatic tools, cuttingedge molecular methods, and advanced microscopy techniques—skills that they can take with them to graduate school.

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Cheung Selected for Prestigious Program

Kin Cheung, associate professor of East and South Asian religions and chair of the Department of Global Religions and Philosophy, joins a select group of scholars and leaders from top institutions across the United States and China as a fellow in the National Committee on United States–China Relations Public Intellectuals Program (PIP). Launched in 2005, PIP identifies outstanding members of the next generation of American China specialists— in the academic, professional, or policymaking spheres—who have the interest and potential to venture outside of academia or their professions into areas relevant to foreign policy and engage with the public at a national, regional, and local level.

Doctor of Education in Transformational Leadership Launches July 1, 2024​

The 26-month program welcomes pre-K–12 teachers and administrators, higher education professionals, and leaders

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of learning from both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. It blends online and in-person learning experiences to suit students' lifestyles and kicks off each year with a 10-day summer residency on the Moravian campus.

Moravian University and Penn State Abington Partner in New Program

Moravian University and Penn State Abington have created a 4 + 2 pathway program that allows undergraduate students from the Penn State Abington Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation and Human Services (RHS) program and/or the Bachelor of Science in Psychological and Social Sciences (PSS) program to obtain pre-admission to Moravian’s Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling or School Counseling program.

Students Learn about Public History and Gain Podcast Skills

This past semester, students in Richard Anderson’s “Oral History and Podcasting” course partnered with the National Museum of Industrial History at the Steelworkers’

PHOTOS BY JOHN KISH IV (1,3), MATT LESTER (2,4)

NEWS & NOTES

Archives in South Bethlehem to create podcasts based on their interviews with former employees of Bethlehem Steel.

The assignment was an exercise in what’s known as public history, which is history for general, non-academic audiences and practiced by many museum professionals and historic site interpreters, explains Anderson, who is an assistant professor of history and public history at Moravian University.

“What’s exciting about this course is that the students are not simply analyzing primary sources; they are actually creating their own primary sources,” Anderson says. “And they’re doing it knowing that their podcast transcripts will be deposited in an archive where they’ll be available for future researchers.”

More Accolades for Nursing Program

Receiving four out of five stars, Moravian made Money magazine’s list “Best Nursing Master’s Programs for Your Money 2024.”

The editors looked at the following factors: annual costs, average student debt, employment rate, and average early career salaries.

Moravian Takes the Stage at Climate Conference

On December 10, 2023, Diane Husic, Moravian’s dean of scholarship, research, and creative endeavors and director for environmental programs, moderated the panel “Empowering Youth Engagement in Climate Action, Solutions, and Policy Addressing Global Challenges”—a side event at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. FYI, only a very small percentage of proposals for side events are accepted.

Panelists discussed education’s crucial role in shaping future environmental leaders across the globe with sustainability mindsets. The panel included a recent MBA graduate of Monash University in Australia; graduate students from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee State University, and Boston University; and undergraduate students from Colorado College and Monash University. Allison Ludlow ’25 represented Moravian. “Collaborating on a global stage with other young climate leaders and professional educators on the importance of youth climate education was enriching and

empowering,” says Ludlow.“This platform provided an opportunity to share my perspectives on the role of education in preparing the next generation of environmental stewards and leaders, amplifying my voice to a worldwide audience.”

You can view the event recording at mrvn.co/ cop-panel.

Seminaries to Launch Joint Curriculum in Fall 2024

This fall, the Lancaster Theological Seminary and Moravian Theological Seminary will launch a joint curriculum of three new graduate degree programs: a Master of Divinity degree (MDiv), a Master of Ministry degree (MMin), and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies (MATS). The faculty of the two seminaries worked together for two years to create the curricula that refresh and replace existing degree programs. The curriculum will be taught on both Bethlehem and Lancaster campuses and offers students flexible options for enrollment and attendance.

Millennium Fellowship Milestones

In the fall 2023 issue of Moravian University Magazine, we recognized the nine students selected to the Millenium Fellowship Class of 2023. The Millenium Fellowship is a UN-sponsored initiative aimed at advancing undergraduate leadership in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our fellows developed projects around three goals:

Zero hunger. A Strides Against Hunger

5K raised more than $2,000, which bought gift cards for the families of William Penn Elementary School, while an accompanying food drive collected nonperishable snacks for William Penn students.

Quality education. The Millenium Fellows have been working with Broughal Middle School and Moravian Academy on mindfulness strategies that would deepen student engagement in learning. Plans will be completed this semester and implemented in the fall.

Sustainable communities. The third initiative tackles the environmental impact of the demolition of the Haupert Union

Building (HUB). Over the fall semester, students worked to repurpose pieces of the HUB. Habitat for Humanity identified furniture, doors, and wood that they can use, and theater equipment and curtains have been offered to the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts. The pergola in the Pavilion courtyard will be moved outside the Afterwards Café on the ground floor of Reeves Library. Anything not claimed will be posted on the Bethlehem Freecycle website.

What’s New at MU

Moravian has made a few changes and additions to enhance community life on campus:

TAP ID CARDS PROVIDE EASY ACCESS to classrooms, residence halls, the fitness center, the dining hall, and Reeves Library.

BERNIE-WILLIE GETS AIR CONDITIONING—much to the relief of incoming freshmen.

THE HUNGRY HOUND EXPRESS FOOD TRUCK CRUISES CAMPUS, offering a variety of fare from breakfast to late-night snacks depending on the hour.

A YO-KAI EXPRESS NOODLE MACHINE RECENTLY INSTALLED inside the Sally on the way to DeLight’s Café prepares ready-to-eat noodle bowls in 90 seconds.

THE FITNESS CENTER BOOSTS CARDIO OPTIONS with brand-new treadmills, ellipticals, StairMasters, stationary bikes, and Peloton bikes. And a space with platforms for powerlifting has been designated for those who want to practice Olympic-style lifts.

CHARGING STATIONS IN LOT A, next to Benigna Hall, and commuter lot X are ready to replenish EV batteries.

—Allison Ludlow ’24

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GREYHOUND SPORTS

Thanks for Backing the Pack More than 2,030 supporters made gifts totaling $157,908.78 to Moravian University Athletics during the Athletics Giving Challenge in November 2023, surpassing the initial goal of engaging 2,000 givers.

Every sport benefits from this support, which boosts achievement on game day and in the classroom to fuel our Greyhounds for lifelong success.

“Thank you to our alumni, faculty, staff, family, and friends who contributed to make our Athletics Giving Challenge such a huge success,” says Mary Beth Spirk, director of athletics and recreation and head women’s basketball coach.“We are grateful for all your unwavering support to Moravian University Athletics and our student athletes. Every gift is used to enhance the student athletes’ experience.”

Hajel and Smurla Run in NCAA XC Championships

ATHLETICS RECAP On September 16, 2023, Moravian University dedicated the Scot Dapp Football Suite to honor our longtime former football coach.

The men’s cross country team won its third straight and fifth overall Landmark Conference Championship, capturing the 2023 meet hosted by Juniata College on October 27, 2023.

Seven members of the Moravian University men’s and women’s cross country teams garnered 2023 NCAA Division III Metro AllRegion Honors from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Hailey Scaff ’26, a defender on the women’s soccer team, has been named to the 2023 United Soccer Coaches Division III AllRegion V Second Team.

Moravian University junior Nathan Hajel and sophomore Tara Smurla competed in the 2023 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships, hosted by Dickinson College on November 18.

Hajel was one of two Landmark Conference runners at the NCAA Championships. He is the seventh Greyhound male to compete at nationals and the first since Shane Houghton in 2021. Hajel finished 210th of 294 in a time of 26:33.6.

Smurla was one of three Landmark Conference runners, the 32nd Moravian woman and first since Natalie Stabilito in 2021 to compete at the championships. She finished 271st of 292 in a time of 23:56.8.

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Field hockey midfielder Sarah Bietka ’24 has been selected to the 2023 National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division III All-Region V Second Team.

WHY I PLAY

“

It’s you and the basketball and the free range of mind—you don’t really know what the next step is; you’re playing to play.”

—Marquis Ratcliff ’26

Driving to His Goals Why does sophomore Marquis Ratcliff play basketball? Because the work ethic required to be as good as he is on the court extends to his academics.“Playing basketball makes me more organized. It makes me a better person,” he says.

“I have the best of both worlds,” adds the first-gen student.“I get to be a student and play the sport that I love.”

The power forward plays his sport very well.

As a freshman, he earned the Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year Award and a spot on the Landmark Conference Second Team. Over the first 19 games of the 2023– 24 season, he averaged 22 points per game and 9 rebounds; made 55 percent of his field goals and 43 percent of his 3-pointers.

For reference, numbers like this on the professional scene would put a player in line to be named an All-Star.

But it took a strong work ethic to propel Ratcliff to this height (BTW, he’s 6'6").

Growing up in Philadelphia, he would regularly go to the park with his brothers and play pickup games.“I wasn’t very good,” Ratcliff says.“I played in a summer rec league, and I got blocked by a girl.”

Embarrassed? Yes. Deterred? No. Ratcliff has been playing basketball seriously since fifth grade.

In sixth grade, his family moved to Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He made the high school team as a freshman, and in his junior year, Nativity BVM won the state championships.

Work ethic aside, seriously, why does Ratcliff love basketball? “It’s fast-paced. So much is happening at once. It’s you and the basketball and the free range of mind—you don’t really know what the next step is; you’re playing to play.”

PHOTO BY CARLO ACERRA

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AN ALUM REFLECTS

Community A Pivotal Experience For Jessica Buttner ’19, attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference made all the difference.

I

n December 2018, I had the honor

been listed on my résumé. At almost every

and privilege of attending the United

job interview, my experience at COP24 was

Nations Climate Change Conference

among the first topics addressed, and it

[a.k.a. Conference of the Parties or COP24]

helped me obtain my current position.

in Katowice, Poland, for one week alongside Dean Diane Husic. It was one of the most remarkable experiences I had while a student at Moravian, and as I reflect years later, I realize that it provided a monumental shift in my life perspective and an invaluable asset in my career.

As a first-generation college student, I had not dreamed of studying abroad or having such a worldly life-altering, highlevel experience; I felt lucky enough to be pursuing a college education. Moravian changed my life in several ways; however, attending COP24 opened so many doors for

tional corporate law in the corporate capital of America. This is a very difficult job to land. Without having high-level globally recognized experiences on my résumé such as COP24, this law specialty would not have been an option for me.

Although COP is advertised as a sciencebased conference, it offers so much more.

This was the first time in my life that I was in the same room as global leaders and where global change and movements originated. I attended events led by various

me after I graduated.

countries, some of which I had never heard

During my first week of law school at

poverty and lack of resources to combat

Widener University, we had to tell a fun fact

climate change. I observed next-level

about ourselves, so I shared that I attended

technological innovations, and plans that

COP24 the prior winter. The energy in the

countries already implemented to have a

classroom shifted as people stopped what

sustainable impact on the lives of those

they were doing to listen. My experience

living in their communities, and I engaged

at the conference drew the attention of

in discussions regarding what changes

my peers, which helped me get chosen

Moravian had made in Bethlehem to

president of the student government and

impact its students and local community

a voting representative to the American

long-term. I even attended a single-

Bar Association for the Delaware Law

day international legal conference at a

School at Widener.

prestigious European university. Words

I can attest that I likely wouldn’t have been interviewed for certain jobs had COP24 not

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I am a lawyer with a specialty in transac-

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of, and learned about their realities with

cannot describe how impactful that was to a young woman who was the first person in her family to receive a college education.

PHOTO BY NICK CHISMAR

AN ALUM REFLECTS

As a first-generation college student, I had not dreamed of studying abroad or having such a worldly life-altering, high-level experience; I felt lucky enough to be pursuing a college education.

Moravian changed my life in several ways; however, attending COP24 opened so many doors for me after I graduated.

“We Are Moving Too Slow,” organized by Earth Council Flash Mob, reminded COP24 negotiators and leaders that we have to take action now!

Learning continued outside the conference

the remaining belongings and the hair of

firsthand exposure to humanitarian issues

grounds, as well. I had never been to

hundreds of thousands of humans were

such as the Holocaust and climate change

central Europe, and grasping its modern

displayed behind glass, and it came to me

because it brings a variety of perspectives

culture and historical importance was

that the Holocaust occurred within the

to the conversation and helps spark

overwhelming—it changed my perspective

lifetime of my still-living grandfather

innovative ideas.

on the world.

and just 52 years prior to my existence on this planet.

My experiences at COP24 afforded me

was the opportunity to take a day trip

This day changed my life. It changed

I provided insights and made valuable

organized by the conference to Auschwitz-

my understanding of social systems,

contributions. I have advocated for

Birkenau, the largest of the German Nazi

political power, privilege, humanity, hatred,

students of all backgrounds during times of

concentration camps and extermination

and peace. My memories of that day are

struggle and reminded institutions of their

centers in the world. In preparation for this

ingrained in my mind and motivate me to

power to impact lives and our planet in

trip, I told myself,“If you want to represent

be the best attorney I can, especially for

future campaigns.

people one day, you need to confront and

those who are underrepresented, without

understand the evils of history that have

a voice, vulnerable, of low socioeconomic

shaped humanity.” I spent an entire day

status, etc. This would not have happened

immersed in the location where more than

had I not attended COP24.

mission of Moravian University. Attending

As emphasized by my Moravian professors,

a fulfilling career, and transformative

I finally understood how incredibly

leadership in a world of change.

important it is to gather leaders that have

—Jessica Buttner ’19

Perhaps the most impactful experience

1.1 million people lost their lives. I entered a preserved gas chamber and came out alive, unlike hundreds of thousands before me. I walked the halls of buildings where

PHOTO BY UNCLIMATECHANGE

the opportunity to sit at tables where

In reflection on the type of leader I have become, I hope as an alumna I embody the COP24 prepared me for a reflective life,

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ASK AN ALUM

?

What natural setting on or off campus was your favorite outdoor space while you were at Moravian?

NEXT UP How did you spend your summers during your time at Moravian?

Submit your answers at mrvn.co/ask-an-alum or look for this

Star-of-Bethlehem cascades down the slopes of South Campus

question in the next

in the spring. Phenomenal lavender (yes, real name) shoots

alumni bulletin.

forth a bush of purple-flowered spikes and perfumes walkways in summer. The flaming foliage of maples, oaks, and beeches sets the lawns of Comenius and Colonial Halls ablaze. Moravian’s campus offers many outdoor retreats.

Here, alums share memories of their best-loved spaces.

I recall a beautiful open grassy area behind the Hotel B where I’d go for solitude, to read and study. I also recall that when a young girl (now my bride of 35 years) drove up from Philadelphia to take me out of classes and surprise me with a picnic lunch, that’s where we shared it.

—REV. JOHN FAUERBACH ’77

k e e r C y c a c o Mon

My favorite outdoor space during my time at Moravian was the lawn and flowers in front of Comenius Hall. This is the most vibrant part of campus each spring, and it always made me smile knowing we had such a beautiful environment as the face of our university. I would often take the long way to Colonial Hall just to spend some more time near the garden.

—SEAN MCFARLAND ’21

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Southern crabapple I always loved the area between Comenius and the library [the academic quad].

I enjoyed that space between classes as a nice fresh-air break to just wander around, sit and watch what was going on around campus, and/or take in the views—especially in the fall! It was a good way to refresh during the day.

—MORGAN LAPOINTE ’15

Pollinator garden Monocacy Park. The woods and creek were an escape.

—FRED PORTER ’72

PHOTOS BY ROB CARDILLO

FACULTY FOCUS

A Conversation with

Sara McClelland The highlight of my day as a kid was playing outside, climbing trees, and catching any animal I could get my hands on,” says Sara McClelland, assistant professor of biology.

No surprise then that she followed an academic path in biology. She teaches courses on organismal biology (zoology, vertebrate anatomy, animal behavior) and physiology (ecological physiology, conservation physiology), as well as courses that are part of the first-year curriculum.

In addition, she offers a course in Costa Rica as part of Moravian’s Elevate program. Students learn about a different culture and gain experience studying animals in their natural habitats and collecting original data as part of a course-based research experience.

How did you become interested in biology and your particular area of interest and expertise?

I have always loved science and animals. My favorite school field trips were to the science center and to the zoo. Even as a kid, I remember wanting to read all the signs I saw and being fascinated by the lives of animals.

Throughout high school, however, I lost interest in academics. I didn’t even want to go to college, but due to my parents’ insistence, I went.

(As an aside, students find it quite amusing that I didn’t want to go to college, and that has helped me make connections with some of them.) Once in college, I was torn between majoring in biology or physics, but chose biology because I thought a long-term career working with animals would be interesting.

In college, I fell in love with being in the lab. The hands-on nature of lab work fit my learning style, and I would find myself losing track of time when I had to think about how to set up an experiment or draw conclusions from the data that were biologically meaningful.

I also had a great mentor, Dr. Ken Rastall, who saw something in me and gave me the confidence to consider an academic career; he really changed the trajectory of my life.

Throughout college, I remained interested in studying any aspect of animal biology; however, as I learned more about habitat destruction and biodiversity loss, I realized that I wanted to understand how human actions were impacting wildlife. This led me to pursue graduate work and remains the focus of my research.

ILLUSTRATION BY COLLEEN O’HARA

Tell us about your current research.

My main research interest is understanding how human actions impact wildlife. Specifically, I am interested in how anthropogenic (human-caused) changes to the environment affect animal physiology. To study these questions, I mainly look at how frogs respond to different types of water contaminants such as chemical pollutants like pesticides or physical pollutants like plastics.

Frogs are ideal for this work because they have a lot of the same biological processes as humans. Frogs also make great biological indicators because, like a canary in a coal mine, whatever is happening in nature affects them first, and if the problem isn’t addressed, we’re next!

How does your research intersect with your teaching in the classroom and/or student research?

One of the things I love about my job is that I get to teach courses that are highly aligned with my research, enabling me to bring my own research into the classroom. We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction on the planet, with biodiversity loss happening at an unprecedented rate. By bringing my own research into the classroom, including through course-based research experiences, I can demonstrate some specific examples of how changing environments affect animal biology and how conservation efforts can help restore environments and slow, stop, or even reverse population declines.

I also have an active program of mentoring undergraduate research students in my lab, an experience that is becoming more and more important for any field of work within biological science. I work alongside students as they develop a research idea, design and conduct experiments, collect and analyze data, and form conclusions. These students may do a semester-long independent research project, complete an honors project over two semesters, or participate in highly immersive summer research through Moravian’s Student Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program. Moravian’s students are extremely lucky to have so many wonderful programs that support undergraduate research. I have watched multiple students fall in love with research and am always encouraging more students to get involved.

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MORAVIAN MOMENT

Faculty and students pose atop Bauer’s Rock circa 1900. Opposite page: A 1925 Founder’s Day picnic lunch at the rock prepared by faculty members and their families.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF MORAVIAN ARCHIVES, BETHLEHEM

MORAVIAN MOMENT

A High Point

B

efore the merger of the men’s

for Young Ladies and the Bishopthorpe

and women’s colleges, a popular

School for Girls to serenade the students.

tradition of the all-male Moravian

From there, the group would split up

College and Theological Seminary was

and take different routes to the rock,

the annual Founder’s Day outing of the

competing to arrive first. By 11 a.m., all

entire student body and faculty to Bauer’s

were usually present, and freshmen would

Rock in Upper Saucon Township, about 7

be assigned the unenviable task of hauling

miles from campus. At that time, Founder’s

water from a nearby spring uphill to the

Day was celebrated on October 2, the

picnic site, while sophomores and juniors

anniversary of the founding of the Moravian

carried the provisions and gathered wood

Theological Seminary in 1807. The hike to

for the bonfire. The seniors’ task was to

Bauer’s Rock was eagerly anticipated by

make sure there were no slackers. While

students—particularly upper classmen, who

their lunch was being prepared, the

initiated a unique freshman hazing ritual:

students would photograph the scenery

On the eve of the hike, freshmen would be

and pose for pictures. After lunch, they

given large, heavy “Chestnut Clubs”—sticks

would hear faculty speeches on the history

with which they were to knock down ripe

of the college and seminary. They would

chestnuts from trees en route to the rock.

then join in singing songs, ending with the

The freshmen had to carry the clubs through

Alma Mater, and depart for Bethlehem in

town on their shoulders.

late afternoon.

The first Bauer’s Rock outing is said to have

As the student body grew, interest in the

taken place in April 1871 (the annual event would be moved to October two years later).

It was led by three faculty members who traveled by train to Allentown and walked from there to the rock, while the students, carrying their lunches, walked the whole distance from Bethlehem to the rock. In later years, provisions were brought by carriage to the site, where faculty members and their families would prepare and serve

outing waned and the logistics became harder to manage. The event was cancelled in 1929 due to rain; luncheon was served in the refectory instead. Addresses by faculty that year agreed that “the time to relegate [the hike] to the past as an inadequate method of observing Founder’s Day was near.” In 1930, the Allentown Morning Call reported that the tradition of hike had been dispensed with “because of the advancement

the lunch.

in education, and now a competitive class

Student hikers would depart campus before

tradition of almost six decades.

9 a.m., stopping at the Moravian Seminary

—Nancy Rutman ’84

PHOTO COURTESY OF MORAVIAN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

program is the feature.” Thus ended a

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ABOUT BAUER’S ROCK At 1,038 feet above sea level (and 800 feet above Bethlehem), Bauer’s or Bowers Rock—known today as Big Rock—is one of the highest peaks in the Lehigh Valley.

Before the trees grew up to obscure it in the 20th century, the peak offered a 360-degree view, from the Blue Mountain in the north to Limeport and Hellertown in the south. “Rock” is a bit of a misnomer; the formation is actually a 40-foot-tall pile of gigantic blocks of stone. According to Richmond E. Myers (1904–1994), chair of the earth sciences department at Moravian College, who frequently led field trips to Bauer’s Rock, the dark-colored blocks stand out from the surrounding limestone because they are made of gneiss, which is stronger than limestone and better withstands erosion. The rocks in the Bauer’s Rock formation are of Precambrian origin. Precambrian rocks, formed before life existed, are found in only three places in Pennsylvania. One of them is the Durham-Reading Hills, known locally as the Lehigh Mountains. The Bauer’s Rock site, which is accessible from East Rock Road, is now owned by Lehigh County and is part of Big Rock Park.

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

A Curious Mind Though set on her pre-med track, Ayleen Mexquititla ’25 explores every opportunity available to her.

A

yleen Mexquititla ’25, a biology major on the pre-med track, hasn’t ever considered any career path other than becoming a doctor. But that didn’t stop her from seizing every opportunity at Moravian—one internship, research project, and presentation at a time.

“I’ve always thought,‘I want to be pre-med, but I’m not going to say no to any opportunity that falls into my lap,’ ” she says.“I never wanted to close any doors that I wasn’t sure of.”

While Mexquititla can’t pinpoint an exact moment when she knew that she wanted to pursue medicine, she remembers being a curious child, especially when it came to accompanying her grandparents and other family members to their doctors’ appointments.“I always wanted to hear what the doctors were saying; even if it didn’t make sense, I always wanted to know,” she says.

As a first-generation college student, Mexquititla doesn’t come from a family of healthcare professionals, and the charter school she attended in Allentown, Pennsylvania, lacked honors and advanced placement–level science courses. There was a steep learning curve her freshman year at Moravian, she admits.“When I first got into class, everything was basically new information for me.”

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Not that it was obvious to Mexquititla’s professors. To biology professors Natasha Woods and Joshua Lord, Mexquititla stood out as an eager and engaged student who asked insightful questions and learned concepts quickly.“I can honestly say she is one of the most promising undergraduate students that I have encountered in my career,” says Lord.

The summer after Mexquititla’s freshman year, Woods chose her to join her annual research trip to the University of Virginia’s Coastal Research Center. For 10 weeks, Mexquititla conducted research on the plants of Hog Island alongside undergraduate students from nearby universities. Buggy, hot, and humid, the conditions are challenging, Woods admits, but Mexquititla was not afraid to get her hands dirty.“I am always impressed

by Ayleen’s willingness to try new things.”

Subsequently, Mexquititla was awarded funding from Moravian’s Student Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program to present this research at the National Council for Undergraduate Research conferences in Wisconsin and California.

Back home, Mexquititla joined Lord in his lab to conduct research on shrimp. In just a few weeks, he says, Mexquititla familiarized herself with a new animal, research field, and software program before largely working on her own.“It wouldn’t surprise me if she graduates as one of the most accomplished undergraduate researchers in the history of our program,” he says.

Lord notes that Mexquititla went on to present at the Benthic Ecology Meeting, an

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international marine biology conference, in Miami, and even though she has excelled in upper-level ecology classes, he recognizes Mexquititla’s plan is to pursue medicine.

Still, he says,“she would make an exceptional marine biologist!”

Mexquititla prioritizes opportunities to research and present away from home. As a commuter, this gives her a chance to explore places where she could land post-Moravian, she says. With that in mind, Mexquititla turned to the National Science Foundation's list of Research Experiences for Undergraduates to find her internship with the Simons Foundation at New York University Biology Summer Undergraduate Research program last year.

“All of these opportunities that Mexquititla has taken advantage of add to the person that she is,” says Woods.

Last fall, completing the St. Luke’s Premed Observer Program—where she spent 100 hours following residents on their rotations—served as a reminder to Mexquititla of her motivation to become a doctor. As an observer, there wasn’t much she could do, but one small way she could lend a hand was to do her best to serve as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients while they waited for a translator to arrive, she explains.

“There are so many people in this country for whom Spanish is their only language.

They aren’t able to get the proper support, or they’re ashamed or scared to go to the hospital. Part of my driving force to become a doctor is because I want to be able to bridge that gap.” —Meghan Decker Szvetecz ’08

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

“

I’ve always thought, ‘I want to be pre-med, but I’m not going to say no to any opportunity that falls into my lap.’ I never wanted to close any doors that I wasn’t sure of.”

—Ayleen Mexquititla ’25

Ayleen Mexquititla ’25 conducts environmental field research on one of the barrier islands off the coast of Virginia.

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CREATORS

Brilliance Y

ou can call it a “Smokey the Bear Hat.” But the iconic broad-rimmed campaign hat with the “lemon squeezer” profile worn by National Park Service employees is affectionately known to rangers as the “flat hat.”

When Caitlin Campbell ’13 puts on the flat hat to complete her ranger uniform, she sometimes feels the need to pinch herself.

“I’m in a kind of dream job,” she says, something she had vague aspirations for way back in high school.

“The service part of the National Park Service is something I feel really deeply and passionately about when I put on the uniform,” says the 10-year veteran of the federal bureau in the Department of the Interior. “We’re at our best in the National Park Service when we’re truly meeting our dual mission of working for the places we protect and working for the public that we are protecting these places for.”

No Junior Ranger Caitlin Campbell ’13 may serve Junior Rangers as an interpretation engagement coordinator for the National Park Service, but her award-winning work is superior.

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Campbell is an interpretation engagement coordinator for the National Park Service’s Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers directorate. The Moravian University grad is clearly one of the agency’s best and brightest stars, having recently been honored with the Freeman Tildan Individual Award for Excellence in Interpretation.

She earned the accolade for creating the Lewis and Clark Trail Junior Ranger Program, consisting of a 16-page activity journal that she wrote, illustrated, and designed as well as read-along videos, native names audio clips, and a braille trail map.

The program, which took her a year-and-ahalf to complete, is offered at 34 locations in 16 states along the 4,900-mile trail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Pacific Ocean, commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 to 1806.

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“

I met a professor on the trail who told me about the career of interpretation— communicating about science, nature, and history for the public.

That was the spark to come to Moravian and pursue environmental work but from the perspective of communication.”

—Caitlin Campbell ’13

How do you tell the Lewis and Clark story, the subject of hundreds of books, and honor the contributions of African Americans, indigenous people, and women and make it fun for kids all in just 16 pages?

Well, you hire Campbell for the job. See, “Caiti” Campbell was already well versed in the Junior Ranger initiative. She had been an interpreter ranger for more than 10 years, much of that time spent as a field interpreter at visitor centers at national parks around the country.

A field interpreter is someone whose goal is to inform and inspire, creating an emotional connection between the parks, the trails, and natural resources for visitors, especially the young ones.

Campbell has given the official Junior Ranger pledge and badge to thousands of kids over the years. And with publicationdesign skills honed in art classes at Moravian, Campbell had already produced 10 Junior Ranger guidebooks for various other national parks. She was perfect for the monumental task.

PHOTO BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE (NPS)

CREATORS

With so much to cover, Campbell decided to focus on underrepresented topics like the critical importance of tribes to the exhibition’s success and the diversity of the Lewis and Clark team. “I didn’t want kids to bury their face in a history book. I wanted it to be an interactive gateway to connect them to the place they were visiting.”

Campbell self-designed her major at Moravian, focusing on her passions of environmental science and graphic design.

She grew up in Ocean County, New Jersey, and attended a vocational high school, the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science. In the summers, she netted blue claw crabs in Barnegat Bay and volunteered for the Student Conservation Association, which gave her a first taste of park service life.

“I was a kid from New Jersey who had never been in California before, hiking in Redwood National Park among some of the biggest living creatures on planet Earth, the redwoods,” she says. “I met a professor on the trail who told me about the career of interpretation—communicating about science, nature, and history for the public,”

she recalls. “That was the spark to come to Moravian and pursue environmental work but from the perspective of communication.”

She interned at national parks during the summers while at Moravian and was snapped up by the park service following graduation. One of her most memorable posts was a stint at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Southeast Alaska, a park so remote there was not even a dock that could accommodate the cruise ships in Glacier Bay. The rangers had to steer a 30foot pilot boat out to cruise ships and then climb a rope ladder onto the deck to do programming all day.

thousands of people and make a plea for how special this place is and why it needs protecting.”

“That was an absolute profound experience,” Campbell recalls. “You had to learn to take all of the love you have for a place like Glacier Bay and pour your heart out to

Campbell says it was emotionally draining work, but so very rewarding. And it made her even more proud to wear her ranger’s flat hat. —Jeff Csatari

BOOKSHELF

Violence Never Heals: The Lifelong Effects of Intimate Partner Violence for Immigrant Women

The Psychology Major’s Companion: Everything You Need to Know to Get Where You Want to Go, 3rd edition

By Allison Bloom, assistant professor of anthropology

By Dana S. Dunn, professor of psychology, and Jane Halonen

In Violence Never Heals, Allison Bloom presents a life-course perspective on the disabling experience of violence in Latina immigrant communities.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork performed in a Latina program at an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) crisis center, Bloom offers insights into the long-term effects of systemic and gender-based violence, revealing that these experiences become subtly disabling long before old age.

Designed to help both prospective and current psychology majors know what to expect from the undergraduate major, the larger discipline, and the marketplace beyond campus, The Psychology Major’s Companion, 3rd Edition, gives students a map to planning their careers in psychology. The authors include helpful skill-related tips, how to decide on options for course study, and how to apply to graduate school or get a job with an undergraduate degree.

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THINK PIECE

It’s Time to Lead the Charge Higher education can inspire students to take action and address the challenges faced by the world and outlined in the United Nations Sustainabie Development Goals.

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In 2014, I was invited to write a guest editorial in Liberal Education, a magazine of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) about educating students to be “innovative thinkers, advocates, and activists” who “aren’t content with simply finding a job but are still idealistic enough to want to change the world for the better.”

A decade later, my plea for an education system that empowers students to translate their knowledge into action to address 21st-century challenges is still relevant.

Since that editorial was published, we have witnessed an amplification of the destructive impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social injustices. We live in an era in which youth experience eco-anxiety and

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES O'BRIEN

THINK PIECE

climate grief as they are confronted with an overwhelming array of intertwined environmental and social problems.

The study of the psychological and physical health impacts of anxiety related to ecological crises is a growing field of research, and there is emerging evidence of associations between poor air quality and poor mental health. These new categories of psychological stress likely contribute to the widely acknowledged mental health crisis on college campuses. As millennials and members of the younger generations, Z and Alpha, worry about the immense problems that they are inheriting, they are directing anger and frustration toward baby boomers, whom they blame for the current state of the planet.

Perhaps it is time for faculty and administrators to carefully listen to these younger generations to better understand what they want and need. Our youth have passion and the desire to acquire knowledge and skills that they can use to address complex problems in their communities. A report based on a 2023 survey conducted by Ernst and Young and Junior Achievement concluded that “young people…look to their schools to prioritize sustainability education, update curricula often enough to capture current trends, and utilize hands-on learning methods that focus on skills acquisition as much as knowledge acquisition.” According to a Student Voice survey, conducted

by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, 45 percent of high school students considered environmental sustainability in their college enrollment decisions. Eighty-one percent of college students are at least somewhat worried about climate change; thus, an institution’s record on climate action could also be a critical factor in many high schoolers’ final college choices.

So how can we channel the emotions of anxious students toward positive action?

Innovative learning opportunities that

serve local communities are one possibility.

At Moravian, one student worked with the Bethlehem City Council to develop a comprehensive climate action plan that is now being implemented by the mayor (a Moravian alumnus) and his team. Another worked with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission to better understand regional greenhouse gas emissions, a first step in implementing measurable actions to reduce these pollutants that are warming the planet. Moravian has had two cohorts of Millennium Fellows who join other students from around the world in a semester-long leadership development program and create actionable plans to address one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on campus or in their local communities.

Instilling hope in our students by providing experiences in which they are involved in the solutions to daunting challenges is critical. Besides the above examples, Moravian students have conducted research and done internships at a regional EPA Superfund site—the only such highly polluted site in the country that has undergone a remarkable restoration to a wildlife refuge open to the public. Since 2009, delegations of students and faculty have attended the annual conferences of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and interacted with scientists, policymakers, and activists from more than 190 countries—people who believe that the power of collective action can change the world for the better.

Partnerships, be they at the community or global level, are key to achieving a sustainable future.

Institutions should consider incorporating the SDGs and climate change concepts across the curriculum, not just in environmental majors and research. Imagine a general education program that uses the SDGs as a framework, so that students collectively grapple with health, equality,

We live in an era in which youth experience ecoanxiety and climate grief as they are confronted with an overwhelming array of intertwined environmental and social problems. peace, justice, and environmental topics through various disciplinary perspectives.

The 17 SDGs align with all the challenges we face—the social and environmental justice issues that our students are concerned about and eager to address.

I started by mentioning an editorial published by AAC&U, an organization “dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education by promoting equity, innovation, and excellence in liberal education.” As a member institution that has a mission focused on a liberal arts education and preparing individuals for “transformative leadership in a world of change,” don’t we at Moravian owe it to our current and future generations of students to listen to their concerns, provide innovative learning opportunities that lead to action-oriented service and civic engagement, and instill a sense of hope? —Diane White Husic, PhD The author is a professor of biology and director of the environmental studies and sciences program at Moravian. She is also dean of the university’s Center for Scholarship, Research, and Creative Endeavors. This piece was adapted from her article “Reframing Sustainability Initiatives in Higher Education” (Sustainable Earth, February 14, 2024). For a list of sources, go to magazine.moravian.edu.

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Moravian University alumni, faculty, and students focus their work and research on protecting the planet.

GUARDIANS OF

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STUDENTS SPEAK OUT Results from a spring 2023 survey; 291 responses

94%

THE

say spending time in nature helps them deal with stress.

84%

are concerned about the loss of plant and animal species.

88%

are concerned about the impact climate change is having on the planet.

88%

are concerned about how climate change will affect their future.

93%

care about preserving the earth for future generations.

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THE CASE FOR CARBON STRATEGY 24 MORAVIAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

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B Y C L A I R E K O W A LC H I K ’ P 24 A N D C A R O L O LS E N D A Y PHOTOS BY BILL WADMAN

Sarabeth Brockley ’10 serves one of the most ambitious and critical goals of our century—achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050—and she’s using financial markets to help get us there.

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hen Sarabeth Brockley arrived at Moravian as a freshman, her plan was to study art and photography. She had earned prizes for her photographs during her high school years and achieved the top score for Advanced Placement in photography. Then in her sophomore year at Moravian, she pivoted in her academic pursuit. To meet an education requirement, Brockley took an environmental science course taught by Diane Husic, now dean of the Center for Scholarship, Research, and Creative Endeavors; director of the environmental studies and sciences program; and professor of biology. The course set Brockley on a journey to becoming a prominent leader in the fast-growing field of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), an essential piece of the strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and arrest the warming of the planet.

In September 2023, after having served roughly two years at NASDAQ as lead advisor for carbon strategy and ESG (environmental, social, and governance— a measure used to screen fiduciary management and investments based on corporate policies in those areas), Brockley was promoted to head of carbon strategy. Job offers flew in from all over the country, and six months after the promotion, Brockley, who was featured in Rolling Stone’s December 2023 article “How Women Are Leading Climate Change,” accepted a position in Austin, Texas, as senior director of climate services at CarbonBetter, a young energy logistics company that specializes in carbon markets and certified carbon portfolios.

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A Journey of Learning The abrupt academic turn Brockley took at Moravian did not set her on a direct path to where she is today. After graduating with a BS in environmental science, she joined the Peace Corps to work on environmentally focused projects in Peru.

“The Peace Corps opened my eyes to a number of different types of opportunities in international development,” Brockley says. “Your mind runs wild during those two years. On one hand, you kind of have the ‘white savior’ piece smacked out of your head as soon as you go and work anywhere else that’s not the United States but also you’re left figuring out complexities of what diplomacy looks like. Can I be a facilitator of economic development? Am I the one to do that with limited resources, and, if so, what can I do to unlock capital? Ultimately, you find that investing in people and relationships is the most durable currency.”

Careers need relationship currency in times of transition. When Brockley returned to the United States, she served as a fellow on an astronomy/ecology team led by Moravian University’s Adjunct Professor of Astronomy Gary Becker at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah. Concurrently, she was awarded a full presidential fellowship to attend Lehigh University.

Resurfacing her work in climate change, she was invited to travel with the Moravian cohort, led by Husic, attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw in November 2013. The world had changed drastically from when she was an observer with the original Moravian delegation back

“Can I be a facilitator of economic development?

Am I the one to do that with limited resources, and, if so, what can I do to unlock capital?

Ultimately, you find that investing in people and relationships is the most durable currency.”

—Sarabeth Brockley ’10

Sarabeth Brockley ’10, at the café Daytime in Brooklyn, works remotely for Austin-based CarbonBetter.

“I think we’re more dynamic if we put ourselves in positions that make us uncomfortable. Of course, it’s a great way to grow—the looming optic of failure or success— and it’s a key trait of change makers and intrapreneurs.”

—Sarabeth Brockley ’10

start-ups Biome and Sinkco Labs, addressing the myriad issues of climate change.

in 2009. This time she engaged in parts of environmental policy she never considered previously, but she credits her first experience in 2009 as a great influence on her ongoing work in climate and her ability to form meaningful relationships.

Examining what her next steps might be, she consulted with Husic, who encouraged her to pursue studies at Lehigh University, where Brockley earned a master’s degree in climate science and policy. Then it was on to Citizens’ Climate Lobby, where she was the global strategy advisor on carbon pricing and UNFCCC engagement. In 2015, the United Nations Division of Sustainable Development hired her to be its climate and water program officer, and she advanced to director of partnerships development and carbon markets.

Brockley’s career has spanned work with Business for Social Responsibility, the Stockholm International Water Institute, and K2 Integrity. She is a highly sought-after speaker on the global stage at the World Economic Forum and various UNFCCC conferences. She is a strategic advisor to Women and Climate and serves on the boards of the cutting-edge

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“My time at the UN working on the Sustainable Development Goals on a very actionfocused agenda with the secretary general’s team—all of it was so new and wild for me, and growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, I never thought I would have had that opportunity.” But I had powerful people in my life, mentors from my mother to Gary Becker to Diane Husic to Dork Sahagian [professor of earth and environmental science at Lehigh University] always asking, ‘well, why not?’”

Brockley also likely never imagined she’d be hired by NASDAQ in December 2021 as lead advisor in carbon strategy and ESG. “I think we’re more dynamic if we put ourselves in positions that make us uncomfortable,” she says. “Of course, it’s a great way to grow— the looming optic of failure or success— and it’s a key trait of change makers and intrapreneurs.” She adds, laughing: “No one would argue now that one of the most uncomfortable places for a former UN wonk is in the private market working on carbon removal. It’s an exciting place to be.”

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The Carbon Dioxide Removal Space At the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, the leaders of 196 nations and territories signed a binding international treaty on climate change known as the Paris Agreement. The goal of this agreement: to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial (1850–1900) levels. “Bypassing the Paris Agreement goals doesn’t just mean we miss a target,” says Brockley. “It signifies entering a new era of climate extremes, as outlined by the global scientific community. They forecast a world where droughts last longer, hurricanes hit harder, and sea levels rise unabated, threatening the very fabric of societies. This prognosis stems from cutting-edge climate models and analyses. Its real, and that’s hard for financial markets to grapple with.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change, reports that at the current rate of increase, global warming will surpass 1.5°C between 2030

and 2052. According to climate.gov, the period from January through November 2023 was 1.32°C warmer than the pre-industrial average, and January 2024 was the planet’s warmest January on record. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, scientists say, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero (zero emissions in the atmosphere) by 2050.

A reduction in greenhouse gases of that magnitude requires a multifaceted strategy. One mechanism is nature-based avoidance coupled with carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Ecosystems and technologies that remove CO2 from the air already exist. Carbon capture, for example, grabs emissions from industrial sources and stores them securely deep underground. Biochar is a soil amendment used in agriculture and forestry that sequesters carbon in the soil.

Methods have been developed that capture carbon in the ocean, the world’s largest carbon sink and cycler.

“CDR technologies have emerged as a gamechanger, offering a shot at not just halting but potentially reversing some effects of global warming,” says Brockley. Her position aligns with that of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, which says that “Given limited progress on rapidly cutting global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—or mitigation—over the past several decades, CDR is now recognized as a critical component for achieving ambitious climate goals like a net zero GHG economy by 2050.”

“The promise of CDR, however,” adds Brockley, “hinges on massive scale-up and integration with a broader spectrum of sustainability efforts, including renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency, and conservation practices. By innovating and investing in CDR technologies, we can forge a path that not only veers away from climate-related disasters but also moves

toward restoring ecological balance with heavy investment in ecosystem restoration.

We have an opportunity to unlock financial incentives on the buyer and supplier side of carbon removal.”

Investing in CDR A massive scale-up of CDR requires massive investment in the companies that develop CDR technologies and/or implement them. And this is where Brockley puts her knowledge, skills, and experience to work. To simplify her position at NASDAQ and now at CarbonBetter, Brockley’s job is to guide corporations managing energy logistics to invest in carbon strategies, taking them from a position of measuring and simply offsetting their own greenhouse gas emissions to a larger, broader scope of carbon dioxide removal. That pathway runs through carbon markets.

There are two types of carbon markets— compliance and voluntary. A cap-and-trade program, also known as an emissions trading system, is a compliance market in which governments set a limit or cap on emissions and issue allowances, also known as credits, for emissions. One credit is equivalent to one metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions.

If your emissions exceed your credits, you have three options to reduce emissions: Purchase carbon credits from a business that has extra. ● Reduce emissions by, for example, installing solar panels. ● Remove carbon by investing in a project or business that pulls carbon out of the atmosphere. ●

With every year in a cap-and-trade program, emissions can be further limited, which forces a greater demand and therefore higher prices for credits. Increased prices may incentivize a company to invest in reducing its own emissions or in carbon reduction.

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WE’RE REDUCING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT The Department of Facilities Management, Planning & Construction (FMPC) considers energy conservation with all of its work across campus.

Here are some examples: • The Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz Center for Health Sciences is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certified for its positive impact on climate change, human health, water resources, biodiversity, the green economy, and community and natural resources.

• LEED criteria have been implemented in the design of the new HUB. • As systems and equipment come up for replacement, FMPC chooses the most energy-efficient and appropriate option for that building.

• All windows in Comenius Hall have been replaced with operable insulated windows.

• Smart, controllable thermostats have replaced previous units.

• Both 1964 vintage 2,670 BTH oil-fired steam boilers have been replaced with two more efficient 3,000 BTH gas-fired condensing hot water boilers.

• We have a hybrid police car.

• Electric vehicle charging stations have been installed in two of the campus parking lots.

• We are continually evaluating and exploring options to bring solar energy to our campus. This is contingent on changes in technology and economic feasibility.

—Allison Ludlow ’10

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Cap-and-trade programs for carbon exist around the world, though not nationally in the United States. California and Washington in the West and a dozen states in the East have established their own programs.

Voluntary carbon markets, which are the majority in the US, draw players who want to offset their emissions or reduce greenhouse gases in the environment for moral reasons or financial incentives, including those recently encouraged by the US landmark IRA legislation and 45Q tax credits.

Whether a company is regulated into offsetting or reducing greenhouse gases or chooses to do so, Brockley steps in and advises on ESG practices. A company that invests in carbon dioxide removal improves their ESG and their investment quality and gains the goodwill of consumers. Besides, adds Brockley, “No one’s ever not wanted to do socially responsible investing. It’s always been the golden goose in the room.”

Aside from doing good for the environment, social justice, and the welfare of employees, a strong ESG is associated with a higher valuation in the stock market. In the February 1, 2024, Forbes article “Environmental, Social and Governance: What Is ESG Investing?” author E. Napoletano reports that in three of the years from 2019 through 2023, VanguardESG outperformed the S&P500.

And it is not the only company to do so.

To move companies toward CDR through planning around ESG, Brockley not only makes a case for the value of ESG but often must educate companies about CDR and available technologies.

The majority of carbon dioxide removal projects have been purchased by Microsoft—3,198,103 tons to date—which surpasses net zero emissions for the company and now includes removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. “They’ve been leading the charge because they have the moral imperative to do so, and the social, economic,

“These efforts extend beyond mere adaptation to climate change; they represent a fundamental shift toward financing and fostering a sustainable economic future.”

—Sarabeth Brockley ’10

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and political capital.” Other big investors include Airbus, Frontier Buyers, and Amazon (purchases can be viewed at cdr. fyi). Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, has recently committed to achieving net-negative greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through the purchase of carbon removal credits.

“How quickly we can move into largescale carbon dioxide removal sits within the middle market companies—$2 billion to $10 billion,” says Brockley. “Education is a big hurdle—how do we get them more interested in thinking about the difference between pursuing enhanced rock weathering or deep-sea ocean technology in carbon capture?”

Last year, NASDAQ surveyed member companies about investing in CDR and asked what was holding them back from including it in their financial planning for the next few years. Their response was that they didn’t know what it was or how to account for it.

“There are quite a few forms of durable carbon dioxide removal technology,” says Brockley, “but biochar [a soil amendment that sequesters CO2 in the soil] is essentially the only one that corporate officers recognize. That’s a fixable education gap. Groups like Airminers offer boot camps to help train the next round of corporate stewards of carbon markets, and the Carbon Business Council leverages a series of experts to help manage change at carbon curious companies.”

Still, Brockley sees significant movement in the corporate world toward the Paris Agreement’s goals. “These efforts extend beyond mere adaptation to climate change; they represent a fundamental shift toward financing and fostering a sustainable economic future. By prioritizing resilience and innovation, businesses are not only contributing to global climate goals but also tapping into new markets and opportunities, ensuring long-term viability and growth. By marrying profitability with sustainability, we’re

not only securing a better world for future generations but also laying the groundwork for a robust, resilient economy.”

The Move to CarbonBetter Founded over a decade ago, CarbonBetter is a privately held energy logistics firm that consults with companies of all sizes and sectors to help them reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions in line with their financial goals. It’s essentially the work Brockley was doing at NASDAQ, so why move? The shift comes out of the motivation that has driven her career path since her first postgrad experience with the Peace Corps.

“When I think about the places that excite me,” she says, “it’s that I always want to be learning…it’s curiosity, and it’s wanting to develop a web of effective problem solvers— intrapreneurs. It’s systems thinking.

“The piece I was missing at NASDAQ and one of the big reasons I wanted to transition

At COP28, Sarabeth Brockley ’10 was a panelist for “Gender and Climate-Smart Investing: The Key to Advancing Climate Solutions.”

was because I need to learn more about the commodity side of the energy market. Building a science-aligned carbon procurement strategy—that’s the next step to unlock for corporations concerned with credibility claims in the voluntary carbon market,” she explains. “Marrying well-established energy contracts with new initiatives that have emerged to tackle the credibility challenge, that’s an exciting new challenge.” The Science Based Targets initiative, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, and the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets underline the credibility of carbon removal technologies and the businesses that offer them. These organizations bolster assessments that the voluntary trade of carbon credits will boom, with some analysts predicting a market size of $250 billion by 2050.

CarbonBetter has provided renewable energy contracts and power purchase agreements to energy companies for about 10 years. “They have existing relationships with the Shells, the Chevrons—large energy users and hard-to-abate industries [such as petrochemicals, steel, and cement, for which carbon is an important part of their processes] who are starting now to make bigger gains in emissions reductions and purchasing different types of carbon removal,” says Brockley. According to scenario analysis by MSCI Carbon Markets, demand for carbon offsets could increase from 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e)* in 2023 to 1,312 MtCO2e by 2030 and 4,356 MtCO2e by 2050, led by hard-to-abate sectors.

“What I learned at NASDAQ was that this is all a procurement integrity game,” adds Brockley, “and the people who have existing relationships and contracts will be the ones that are trusted in the same way that NASDAQ’s core fabric has the trust of the financial market. You can reasonably assume that if you’re going to buy and sell stock on the exchange, you’re going to get

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WE’RE WORKING THE GREENHOUND FUND

What better way to establish a fund for sustainability projects than with capital that sustains itself?

The Moravian University Greenhound Fund got its start in 2015 with combined contributions from Jon Soden ’91 and his parents along with the college’s budgetary reserves accumulated from a few years of low energy costs. It works like this: Dollars are drawn from the fund to pay for campus projects designed to have a positive impact on the environment as well as the university’s budget, and the savings accumulated over time pay back the money spent. Following are the projects that have been completed to date.

Lampposts • The 100-watt lights in all 210 lampposts on campus were replaced with 30-watt LED lamps.

Annual energy savings: 99,338,400 watts, enough to provide 82,851 average households with electricity annually

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Parking Lot and Monument Lighting • Thirty 400-watt bulbs used to light campus parking lots and monuments were replaced with 28 86-watt and two 101-watt LED bulbs.

Annual energy savings: 41,016,000 watts, enough to provide 34,209 average households with electricity annually Colonial Hall • The lights in the Colonial Hall stairwells were upgraded with motion sensors, which eliminated unnecessary energygobbling continuous lighting.

Annual energy savings: 38,640,000 watts, enough to provide 32,227 average households with electricity annually The HILL • To eliminate continuous lighting and provide more efficient lighting in the stairwells in the HILL, the facilities department replaced 48 fixtures with LEDs equipped with ultrasonic sensors to detect motion

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Annual energy savings: 41,162,000 watts, enough to provide 34,330 average households with electricity annually Breidegam and Johnston Hall • The most recent project approved by the Sustainability Committee and implemented by the facilities department was the most expensive at $48,092 but produces the greatest energy savings. In the Breidegam Fieldhouse and Johnston Hall, 240 367-watt lamps were replaced with 370 75-watt LED lamps.

Annual energy savings: 178,030,000 watts, enough to provide 148,482 average households with electricity annually The economic beauty of the Greenhound Fund, of course, is that once a project is paid for—and all of these will be paid for by the end of the current fiscal year in June—the energy savings and cost savings continue for years.

a certain price based off what is set for that day. Creating something similar for the carbon market space starts with refitting energy contracts to what we know buyers need: liquidity, ease of use, and—above all—integrity.”

To limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2030 and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 requires the removal of gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The progress in scaling up carbon removal has been slow and needs to accelerate rapidly. Brockley is excited to work at a startup that can innovate, build, and move quickly with laser focus. As

companies begin to scale purchase of CDR solutions, they face four key questions: How do we make a credible climate claim?

How do we identify high-quality CDR solutions? ● How do we design a CDR portfolio? ● How do we source CDR solutions? ● ●

“As the senior director of climate services at CarbonBetter, I see our work as a bridge between the scientific imperatives of the Paris Agreement and the practical realities of business operations,” Brockley says.

“But science is as clear now as it was in 2015, in 2009, in 1988, and in 1912: We face

unprecedented global challenges if we fail to meet these targets. But within this challenge lies immense opportunity. Through targeted action, strategic investment in low-carbon technologies, and a commitment to sustainability, businesses can drive positive change. For me, carbon markets will play a crucial role in the transition to a sustainable world, so my question will always be, ‘well, why not now, and how can I help?’” *The unit “CO2e” represents an amount of a greenhouse gas with an atmospheric impact that has been standardized to that of one unit mass of carbon dioxide (CO2) based on the global warming potential of the gas.

“For me, carbon markets will play a crucial role in the transition to a sustainable world, so my question will always be, ‘well, why not now, and how can I help?’”

—Sarabeth Brockley ’10

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PROTECTORS OF THE COAST 34 MORAVIAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

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BY JEFF CSATARI PHOTOS BY WILL HAWKINS

How ecology instructor Natasha Woods’s island plant research may help our shores weather storms.

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T

his is a story about a shrub…and a fungus and a weed.

But it has nothing to do with tangy cocktails, hallucinogenic ’shrooms, or marijuana.

Or Monty Python.

The shrubbery in question is the leafy evergreen Morella cerifera; the “’shroom” is a mycorrhizal fungus; the “weed,” Spartina patens or cordgrass. And the story is about their symbiotic relationship, which may play a role in how devastating tropical storms impact the coastline of the eastern United States in the future.

It’s also a story about Moravian University students who drive to a beach in Virginia in a van packed with snacks, middle school kids who’ve never touched sand before, and an unlikely instructor of ecology who shunned the outdoors as a kid because she wasn’t very good at playing hide-and-go-seek.

Stay tuned.

Research on Hog Island

Native, encroaching shrub Morella cerifera

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Natasha Woods, assistant professor of biology, is very easy to find on the third floor of the Collier Hall of Science. Just look for the large picture of the kingfisher and the shrub M. cerifera above the desk of the bubbly scientist from northeastern Alabama.

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Woods recently earned a three-year, $503,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation that ties together shrub, fungus, and weed. The highly competitive and prestigious grant supports Woods’s project “Diverse Undergraduate Research Students in Ecology.” Her professor-student research is investigating changes in the vegetation on the barrier islands along a 68-mile long-term ecological research site, the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR), on the Atlantic shore of the Delmarva Peninsula.

Specifically, the research is conducted on Hog Island.

Woods and her team of undergrads are digging into a looming problem facing the Eastern Seaboard, a problem that’s likely to get worse in the years to come—violent coastal storms. It’s well known that hurricanes have been increasing in frequency and intensity in the past decades due to global warming.

When fierce storms batter the East Coast, their winds can cause coastal flooding and massive destruction as they did during hurricanes Irene, Sandy, and Matthew. But the coastline has a natural buffer system— barrier islands. Ideally, these islands bear the brunt of the storm surge, sparing the mainland a direct hit. But barrier islands are becoming fragmented. These long, narrow islands are being broken into smaller islands that don’t protect the mainland as well. Barrier island fragmentation is akin to replacing a football team’s 300-pound offensive linemen with scrawny water boys

Natasha Woods discusses shrub encroachment with Tom Burkett and Sophia Hoffman, research specialists in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia.

“It weakens the protection. We think the hurricanes are bad now? If we lose these islands, we are going to be in big trouble.”

—Natasha Woods, assistant professor of biology

“We call them living shorelines because these islands move.

When they erode on the oceanside, and all that sediment moves toward the bayside; we call that ‘transgression toward the mainland.’ ” Helaena Holjes ’24 and Giselle Ponce ’25 starting their field day on Hog Island

—Natasha Woods, assistant professor of biology

and hoping that your quarterback doesn’t get sacked.

The questions Woods and team are hoping to answer: What’s causing island fragmentation and why now? The answer may emerge by studying the shrubbery, the fungi, and the weeds living on those sandy lines of defense.

Islands Are Meant to Move Barrier islands are dynamic systems that constantly form and re-form, which is why they shouldn’t be built upon.

“We call them living shorelines because these islands move,” says Woods.“When they erode on the oceanside, and all that sediment moves toward the bayside; we call that ‘transgression toward the mainland.’ ”

Natasha Woods shows how the percentage of grass coverage is measured.

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This occurs because dune grasses hold sediment loosely, allowing barrier islands to “roll over” through wave action. It’s a natural evolution of the coastline, and it’s a good thing, Woods explains.

Enter the conundrum: the shrub, M. cerifera, a.k.a. the southern wax myrtle. For some reason, the shrub is moving into the dune grass’s neighborhood. Unlike grass, the shrub has a sturdy tangle of roots that hold it firm in the sand, resisting beach erosion.

That may sound like a good thing, but it’s not—not on the ocean-facing dunes, which, you’ll recall, need to move. When the myrtle encroaches into the grassland areas and prevents the natural movement of the sand, the islands can fragment in grassy areas where the sediment is looser.

“The islands literally break apart,” says Woods.

Cobb Island, northeast of Virginia Beach, has fragmented due to shrub encroachment and sea level rise.

“Why should we care?” Woods asks rhetorically.“It weakens the protection. We think the hurricanes are bad now? If we lose these islands, we are going to be in big trouble.”

The Root of the Problem?

M. cerifera is cold-intolerant, so it doesn’t normally hang out among the ocean-facing dune grasses. It typically inhabits the island interior.“Now, with the warmer winter temperatures we’re experiencing, it’s moving into the grasslands,” Woods says.

But while global warming is certainly a factor, there may be other reasons Morella is bent on beachfront living. That’s what Woods and team are investigating with their experiments.

In a “hoophouse” (think greenhouse) located on campus, senior biology major Julia Lapinska is dousing pots containing dune grass and Morella seedlings with salt water to replicate storm surges and test the hypothesis that the tall grasses may protect the salinity-intolerant shrub seedlings from a salty death. In other pots, she buries the grasses and shrubs in sand as they might look after a hurricane.

Senior Helaena Holjes is exploring the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between

mycorrhizal fungi and the roots of dune grass that may be feeding the growth of the Morella shrub in grassland swales behind the dunes. Mycorrhizal fungi enter the roots of plants and help them to better absorb nutrients from the soil. In experiments, Holjes places some shrubs in proximity to fungus-infected grass (the control), and in other areas she cuts off Morella seedlings’ access to the grass’s root fungus by growing them in PVC pipes.

STUDENTS HELP MONITOR RECLAIMED SUPERFUND LAND

Giselle Ponce, a junior neuroscience major, helps with experiments, washing roots for analysis and weighing dried leaves and roots; she’ll take over her colleagues’ work next year. All three students duplicate some of these experiments in one-meter-square plots on Hog Island. The team drives from Bethlehem to Virginia during summer, fall, and winter breaks in a van purchased with grant money. Ponce oversees navigating on the five-hour drive, which due to her questionable GPS skills is nicknamed “Little Ponce’s Big Adventure.”

“The trip is full of fun and laughs and snacks,” says Ponce.“No matter what treat you ask for, Twizzlers to Swedish fish, Helaena has it in her bag.”

The students bunk in quarters at the VCR and ride a boat out to the barrier island.

Graduate students from Virginia Commonwealth University mentor and collaborate with Moravian’s three research students on the island. Woods wanted her students to pay it forward by doing the same for young people from three of Bethlehem’s middle schools. Her proposal for the grant included plans to increase the impact of her research by exposing middle school kids to ecology and research science.

Woods says that’s the age when kids, girls especially, need to be exposed to the wonders of science: “My heart is in showing these kids how much fun ecology can be.”

During Moravian’s summer bridge program, Woods and her students instructed middle schoolers in how to build model sand dunes with grasses from the Virginia islands and

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Visit the 756-acre wildlife refuge at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center (LGNC), and you’d find it hard to believe that 400 of those acres, more than half, once lay barren, earning it the descriptor “moonscape”—the result of more than eight decades of exposure to toxic emissions from a zinc factory. Today it is a grassland rich with hundreds of species of plants and animals.

Since 2007, Moravian students under the guidance of Diane Husic, dean of the Center for Scholarship, Research, and Creative Endeavors, and the late Frank Kuserk, professor of biology, have been analyzing plants for the uptake of toxic metals and monitoring the return of biodiversity. Read the full story at moravian.edu/magazine.

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BEEHIVES ARE AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

try to blow them down using balloon pumps to simulate hurricane winds.

“The experiment showed the kids the impact of climate change on barrier islands, and it was super fun for them,” says Ponce, a native of Bethlehem who had attended Broughal Middle School on the south side of town six years prior.

Planting a Seed for Science The middle school years marked the germination of Woods’s interest in science, and she pursued biology and ecology thanks, she says, to the teachers who encouraged her throughout her education. Growing up low income in Alabama, Woods is a firstgeneration college student who worked her way through school. She attended Jacksonville State University as an undergrad and graduate student and Ohio State University for her doctorate. She was the first African American female to graduate from the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology program at Ohio State.

Dan Proud, assistant professor of biology, manages two beehives on the edge of campus across from the facilities office building. He doesn’t keep them to collect honey or to support the pollination of nearby flowering plants. He uses the beehives to teach students about pollinators and pollinator ecology. “Talking about bees leads to a conversation about pollinators, and not just honey bees,” says Proud. “We should be more concerned about saving native bees.”

North America counts approximately 4,000 native bee species, but for some of those species, extinction looms. Roughly 28 percent of bumble bee species are considered threatened, reports the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Between 20 and 45 percent of native bees gather pollen from only one species of plant, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). If the plant disappears, so does the bee, and if the bee disappears, the plant can’t reproduce.

The honey bee that we all know and love and feel we need to save, Apis mellifera, is a species native to Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, not North America. These bees have a place in large-scale agriculture.

Millions of honey-bee hives are managed and transported all over the United States to pollinate crops. It is estimated that there are more honey bees on the planet now than any time in our history.

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Native bees are superior pollinators to honey bees, and for almost all crops, they are the primary pollinator or a significant contributor to the work of honey bees, says the USGS. To support native bees, grow native plants.

And since most native bees live in the ground, don’t clean up your gardens in the fall, advises Proud, and hold off in the spring to help natives overwinter.

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Woods says more diversity is needed in ecology: “Only one percent of people in the field of ecology identified as Black or African American the year I got my PhD. If you never see somebody who looks like you doing what you’d like to do, maybe you won’t try. My master’s advisor was a Black woman; my PhD advisor was a Black woman.”

Still, it took a leap of faith into a slimy pond to help Woods recognize her calling as an ecology instructor. She was working as a laboratory educator at Spellman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta. She taught ecology labs for the professors, taking pre-med students into the field.

“Up until this point in my life, I had no reason to do anything outdoors,” she said.“I was comfortable inside in my lab coat and gloves.”

Woods shared that even as a kid she avoided the outdoors because her siblings loved playing hide-and-go-seek and she was terrible at hiding, always the first to be found.

PHOTO BY ROB CARDILLO

One day at Spelman, she encouraged her students to hunt for salamanders in a pond, and they balked.“I don’t see any Black people in that water,” one student replied.

So the next semester, Woods made a point of learning about the plants and animals in that pond ecosystem, and she trudged into the bog in her hip waders.

already growing the ranks of young scientists who may follow in her waders. Her three mentees say they never knew research could be so rewarding and fun.

“After that, the students wanted to put on their waders and get into that water to explore, do bird watching, anything. It taught me that there was a huge need for role models in this field.”

“On the island, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows,” says Holjes.“Imagine pulling a 50-pound cart of supplies a quarter mile over sand; you’re sweating, and bugs are biting, but you’re laughing the whole time.

Dr. Woods is a phenomenal human being; she can make you smile even in the most peculiar situations.”

In her fifth year as assistant professor of biology at Moravian, Woods appears to be

Holjes says the experience in Woods’s lab was so inspiring, she hopes to work

as a field ecologist when she graduates.

Woods clearly made an impact on at least one of those summer-program middle schoolers, too. “I really enjoyed the lesson you gave us today,” the youngster wrote in a thank-you card to Woods. “It was really fun, especially since I never played with sand before. I might start looking into ecology from now on.”

That noted warmed Woods’s heart.

“What I tell all my students is let your questions drive you—not your fears, but your questions,” she says.“That’s what got me in this chair, so you can do it, too.”

Cielo Disla ’25 sets up long-term study plots on Hog Island.

“Only one percent of people in the field of ecology identified as Black or African American the year I got my PhD. If you never see somebody who looks like you doing what you’d like to do, maybe you won’t try.”

—Natasha Woods, assistant professor of biology

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A DIVE INTO CORAL RESEARCH 42 MORAVIAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

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BY ANNDEE HOCHMAN P H OTO S B Y T H E F LO R I D A A Q U A R I U M

Brian Reckenbeil ’09 is committed to the restoration of Florida’s declining coral reef, a biological masterpiece that supports more than 6,000 marine species, protects the state’s coastline, and underlies important sectors of the economy.

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Some people look at a coral reef as an appealing place to go diving, fishing, or snorkeling. Or as a large-scale, real-life version of the toy on the floor of their fish tank.

Or perhaps they just see a pretty, colorful, inert rock.

Brian Reckenbeil ’09 sees a fragile, fascinating keystone species at risk.

And his dream job, as coral restoration manager in the Florida Aquarium’s Coral Conservation Program, involves learning as much as he can about how coral reproduces, what endangers it, and how humans can help it thrive.

Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral)

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In Florida, vacation spending helps support a vibrant economy. As does commercial fishing. The Florida spiny lobster, which hides under coral heads, and the stone crab are heavily fished commercially. Each year, more than 60,000 jobs and over $6 billion of the local economy depend on the health of the coral reef in southeast Florida.

The reef’s value, Reckenbeil adds, isn’t only to nourish wildlife like sea sponges, fish, and lobsters—not to mention their higher-onthe-ocean-food-chain relatives like sea turtles, dolphins, and octopuses. Coral ecosystems are a source of important medicines.

Anticancer drugs are derived from certain marine algae; the mucus of cone snails contains a potent painkiller; and researchers are exploring the potential of a deep-sea sponge, which attaches to coral, to yield a treatment for pancreatic cancer. Coral reefs also protect coastlines from storm-tossed seas.

Florida’s Coral Reef, the only coral reef system in the continental United States, sprawls 360 miles south from the St. Lucie inlet past the Keys to Dry Tortugas National Park. The reef is home to 50 different species of hard corals: some humped and ridged like human brains, some branched as the antlers of an elk.

Climate change threatens Florida’s Coral Reef.

“Corals matter because they are one of the most biodiverse marine environments on the planet, supporting 25 percent of marine life,” says Reckenbeil.“They’re like the rainforest of the sea; with no corals, there is no coral reef or home for its thousands of inhabitants.”

Corals are animals, thriving in symbiotic partnership with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae, which give stony corals their vivid colors. Corals gobble the sugars those algae produce through photosynthesis; in turn, the corals’ living tissue gives the algae a safe refuge.

This, in turn, is what makes coral reefs such popular vacation destinations for fishing, diving, or snorkeling.

Rising ocean temperatures throw that balance out of whack, Reckenbeil says. When the water is too warm—higher than the

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“Corals matter because they are one of the most biodiverse marine environments on the planet, supporting 25 percent of marine life. They’re like the rainforest of the sea; with no corals, there is no coral reef or home for its thousands of inhabitants.”

—Brian Reckenbeil ’09

Brian Reckenbeil ’09 (left) chats with colleague Bryan Danson about the 250 grooved brain corals set aside awaiting a coral health inspection and delivery to the University of Miami. Stony corals require a coral health inspection by an approved veterinarian before they are returned to the ocean.

mid-80s—for too long, corals expel the algae from their cells and turn a bleachy white, a process the coral community calls coral bleaching. If corals do not recover zooxanthellae into their tissue within two to three weeks, they eventually die.

At the same time, ferocious hurricanes— themselves fueled by swelling ocean and air temperatures—along with sea-level rise that brings on higher waves and greater water mass can damage or destroy the coral reef.

“I thought, ‘I want people to see this environment in the future.’ It made me want to get into restoration. Living, diving, going to class on the reef: I want to do this for my whole life.”

“Corals build reefs that help reduce waves coming to shore,” Reckenbeil explains.“If storms become more and more frequent, the waves eventually knock corals over, an effect we call reef erosion, or flattening of the reef,” says Reckenbeil.“I’ve seen corals 10 to 12 feet across flipped upside-down like cars under water.” With a flattening reef, stronger waves will eventually inundate south Florida’s coastlines.

Unfortunately, Reckenbeil notes, the “out of sight mindset” is all too common to both tourists and even some long-term locals who do not physically see first-hand how the environment is changing.

In 2014, marine biologists began noting a new threat—stony coral tissue loss disease, which can kill decades-old coral colonies in a matter of months. In 2017, Reckenbeil and his team witnessed some diseaseravaged coral in the middle of the Florida Keys.“Half of the brain corals were completely white—not bleached white but recent-tissue-loss white,” he recalls. He wept into his scuba mask.“Why are some coral colonies not affected by this disease? What natural defense do some colonies have versus others?” are questions that popped into Reckenbeil’s head.

—Brian Reckenbeil ’09

The job of Reckenbeil and his team isn’t to “save” the reef; he eschews that word as grandiose and arrogant. Their role is a combination of fertility specialist and marine biological researcher; they grow baby corals in the lab and learn what helps them survive.

Brian Reckenbeil ’09 records data about observations on several adult elkhorn coral colonies. The LED lights are set on a schedule to mimic sunlight and moonlight conditions seen in Key Largo, Florida.

Corals use these light patterns as signals to know when it is time to spawn.

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“The Florida Aquarium’s Coral Conservation Program is a land-based coral nursery,” he says, one that last spawning season created more than 2 million larvae each of which is genetically distinct. The larvae settle and grow on 1-inch tiles in conditions that mimic what they would experience in the ocean.

It’s tricky work, because coral spawns just once a year, following the lunar cycle. While each species has different patterns, most species release their gametes within an hour or two of sunset and a few days after a full moon. But these trends hold true from year to year, so researchers can estimate which nights spawning will occur for each species. Some corals produce eggs only, others release sperm, and still others produce bundles that include both eggs and sperm.

a blackboard to scribble notes, near the office of then biology professor Diane White Husic.

Researchers dilute the sperm, rinse the eggs, and put them in separate containers; then they fertilize the eggs for maximum genetic diversity—for instance, eggs from colony 1 with sperm from colonies 2, 3, 4, and 5.

“I thought,‘I want people to see this environment in the future.’ It made me want to get into restoration. Living, diving, going to class on the reef: I want to do this for my whole life.”

The fertilized eggs resemble small, tan dots at first; then they develop cilia and begin to move around, hunting for a “reef” to call home. In the lab, that would be the tiles.

The goal is to eventually plant them on the reef—Reckenbeil’s team did so in 2022 and 2023—with the hope that they will not just survive but spawn naturally on their own.

Husic, who taught Reckenbeil in a senior capstone seminar after his return from Bonaire, remembers noting a new passion in his research project on sea grasses and their importance in marine conservation.“What amazed me was the depth of understanding he had and the quality of the presentation he gave. This was top-notch work.”

“The idea,” he says,“is getting corals to a point where they are not going to need our help.”

For Reckenbeil, the pieces of his education and field work were starting to fuse. There was the genetics class—he wasn’t a star student, but he did check diligently on his colony of fruit flies every 8 to 12 hours, after breakfast or before football practice and again before bed—when he realized that science could involve hands-on research and inquiry.

It’s not the work Reckenbeil envisioned as a boy growing up in Branchburg, New Jersey, where the most interesting aquatic animal was a crayfish. He fantasized about being a professional ice hockey player—never mind that his parents didn’t allow him to try the sport. He also loved playing outdoors and binge-watching Animal Planet episodes; he thought he might enjoy marine biology.

At Moravian, while other guys had sports or beer posters on their dormitory walls, Reckenbeil had images of underwater wildlife. He played football and lacrosse, ignoring the latter team’s library study hours and preferring to study with other environmental science students in a sunny lounge with

Husic remembers Reckenbeil as a fun-loving athlete transformed by a semester abroad in Bonaire, an island in the Dutch Caribbean.

Reckenbeil calls it “the best six months of my life.” He lived, worked, and studied in a stunning ecosystem—coral reefs more vibrant and healthier than any he’d seen on family snorkeling trips.

There was his first scuba dive, during a 19-day trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands that was part of a junior-year May term class.

Before that, he’d had two practice scuba dives in a pool. In the chilly waters of the Galapagos,“We woke up super-early. They got us into thick wetsuits and showed us the basics. We saw some big sharks, some rays.

It was spectacular.” Then came the semester in Bonaire.

STUDENTS DIVE INTO JAMAICA’S MARINE ECOLOGY

As part of a spring course on Caribbean coastal ecology, biology professors Joshua Lord and Natasha Woods took 15 students to Jamaica for 10 days over spring break. They stayed at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab and participated in a variety of scientific activities, including learning about local species and their habitats on land and in the sea, mangroves and coral reefs in particular (snorkeling required). “Our goals were to get students out of the classroom and create an immersive experience where they learn about the marine ecology, culture, and history of Jamaica in an authentic way,” says Lord.

Those experiences spurred Reckenbeil toward graduate school—a master’s

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STUDENTS CONDUCT RESEARCH INTO MARINE BIOLOGY tank, we saw the shrimp go up to the fish and poke at them until they retreated.”

Why was this surprising? We place invertebrates low in the animal hierarchy and therefore don’t ascribe to them behaviors absent in higher species, explains Lord.

“You wouldn’t see a squirrel chasing a dog,” he says, “so we didn’t consider that grass shrimp would attack the much larger fish.

Predator harassment has never been seen in marine invertebrates.”

Moravian University might be hours from the ocean, but in professor Joshua Lord’s laboratory on campus, students have the opportunity to examine a variety of questions in marine biology.

Lord’s lab currently focuses on understanding the behavior (predator avoidance, foraging, social hierarchies) of marine invertebrates, the influence the environment has on those behaviors, and how those behaviors affect the coastal ecosystem.

Moravian students have conducted a wide range of projects under SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Research) or for honors or independent studies. Examples include the following: • Shelter competition in grass shrimp • Predator–prey interaction between grass shrimp and fish • Social hierarchies in grass shrimp • Impact of ocean acidification on hermit crab hierarchies and feeding • Color change and camouflage in blue crabs • Impact of acidification on snail predator avoidance Lord shares surprising details about recent research into the behavior of grass shrimp when confronted with a predator. “The assumption was that the shrimp would seek out shelter and hide,” says Lord, “but when we introduced fish predators into the

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What are the broader implications of this research, and why study marine invertebrates at all? There are several reasons, explains Lord. The behavior of grass shrimp likely indicates that the shrimp we enjoy from the appetizer tray display the same behaviors (shrimp are a multimilliondollar industry). Grass shrimp are the main source of food for certain fish and blue crabs. Understanding these invertebrates helps us preserve healthy ecosystems.

“Furthermore, conservation efforts have gone wrong when we make assumptions about the behaviors of animals,” says Lord, who references the “Save the Bay, Eat a Ray” movement that began in 2007 when it was discovered that the population of the cownose ray had exploded in the Chesapeake Bay while the numbers of oysters, clams, and scallops declined.

Researchers assumed that the rays were gobbling up these prized shellfish, so rays showed up in supermarket seafood cases and restaurant menus and were hunted by conservationists. Their population was decimated. Further research found that the rays didn’t even eat shellfish in the Chesapeake and that the ray population spike was an illusion based on migration patterns; the decimated shellfish populations were actually a result of overharvesting and shellfish disease.

In Moravian’s marine biology lab, students will continue to explore animal behavior and make assumptions, then test those theories carefully under Lord’s expert guidance.

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in natural resources at Delaware State University, where he worked on oyster reef restoration—and ultimately to his current position at the Florida Aquarium.

Reckenbeil says his undergraduate years schooled him well for the time-management demands of his work.“As a biology student, I had three-hour labs in addition to classes Monday through Friday and football practice and games.”

Athletics also taught him to thrive in a team setting; a favorite aspect of his current job is to guide others who have less underwater experience.“Teaching them some of the skills I’ve learned in the field over the past eight years and seeing the joy of other staff members have been impactful, especially as they now get to help in a corals graduation ceremony, going from the lab to the reef.”

The impact of his team’s work on the coral reef depends on what you measure. To some, he says, success might mean a high survival rate of the lab-grown coral they outplant, or finding reef sites that experience less coral predation than others do.

And Reckenbeil notes that even the failures are opportunities to learn which genetic or environmental factors make some corals hardier than others. That learning may be key to repopulating a dying reef with corals that have a future.

In June 2023, Reckenbeil and his colleagues outplanted three species of lab-born and -raised boulder coral off the middle Florida Keys. This past summer, Florida experienced its hottest summer on record, with 22 weeks above the bleaching threshold limit.

When Reckenbeil and his team returned to these sites in early December 2023 after this unprecedented marine heat wave, they expected all 700+ newly outplanted colonies to be dead, due to bleaching caused by the extreme heat. To their surprise, while they have not yet processed their photos and data,

they estimate survival to be between 60 and 90 percent at their six outplant locations.

As of December 2023, all colonies were confirmed dead, due to bleaching.”

“I was the first diver off the boat on this trip, and when I saw the corals alive, I turned around and started to dance and cheer underwater.”

What Reckenbeil and his team learned was that even though the best management practices generally suggest not to outplant corals during summer months, that guideline may be dependent on species, site, or temperature.

There was no cheering at the 2019 branching coral outplant site.“In June 2023, we saw dozens of outplanted live healthy colonies that roughly had grown from the size of a pencil to that of a basketball in four years. In July, we filmed with Good Morning America, and 100 percent of those branching corals we had seen just three weeks earlier were bleached, dying, or dead.

“It’s hard to talk about declining coral reefs without getting a little depressed,” Reckenbeil says.“Everyone wants to give a positive message—everything’s going to be okay— but sometimes, in the back of your head, you think, realistically, it’s a very challenging ecosystem to help restore.”

“We’re putting corals out there that are the size of a quarter. They grow so slowly, as it typically takes one to two years for a boulder coral to reach this size. The amount of coral we can grow in one year is a drop in the bucket, a pinprick on the map compared to what we are losing.” He tries to focus not on the corals that succumb—to disease, to warming oceans, to hurricanes—but on the ones that live.

“These other corals are still here,” he’ll think.

“What’s different about these? What can we learn from what is happening around us?”

All work on Florida’s Coral Reef by the Florida Aquarium’s Coral Conservation Program is conducted under permits.

In the Florida Aquarium, Brian Reckenbeil ’09 poses with Acropora cervicornis (branching corals) that were spawned, born, and settled at the aquarium.

“I was the first diver off the boat on this trip, and when I saw the corals alive, I turned around and started to dance and cheer underwater.”

—Brian Reckenbeil ’09

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Alumni A Legacy of Love After the life of Norah Bruther ’20 was tragically cut short, her family established a scholarship that is lighting the way for another student’s future.

W

hen Norah Bruther ’20 first set foot on Moravian University’s campus, she immediately knew it was the school for her. She loved the size of the campus, the central location of the soccer field, and the feeling of community.

“Norah and our family fell in love,” recalls her mother, Piper. Norah enrolled as an accounting major and happily immersed herself in a variety of Moravian experiences.

She joined the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, where she served as risk manager on the sorority’s leadership council and was a Big Sister. She was a member of the Amrhein Investment Club, secretary of the Accounting Club, a member of the Accounting Honor Society, and treasurer of the Operation Smile Club. She also met her boyfriend, Brandon Sisk ’20.

Norah Bruther ’20 in front of Moravian's Colonial Hall during Commencement

“The decision came after thinking about how to continue her legacy of love,” says Piper.“What helped Norah develop into this beautiful, loving young woman, and how can we make sure that legacy of love is never forgotten? When we sat down as a family to discuss this, a scholarship made the most sense to us.”

“There will never be another Norah Bruther, but if we can provide some of the same advantages in the form of a scholarship to someone who may not otherwise have them, we can continue her loving legacy,” Piper says.

The Bruther family approached Moravian to establish the Norah Elizabeth Bruther ’20

Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund

“We heard through Norah’s stories just how much Moravian is a tight-knit community— from the professors and mailroom staff to the cafeteria staff, even President Grigsby is present on campus,” recalls Piper. “And my husband, John, and I watched our young, and sometimes shy and unsure, girl develop into a confident, thoughtful, loving young woman.”

to support an undergraduate student who demonstrates financial need. The fund is part of the Lighting the Way campaign, Moravian’s ambitious effort to raise $75 million for scholarships, meaningful experiences, and leading-edge technology and learning facilities to empower our students to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Norah earned Dean’s List honors and graduated with a position secured at the Big Four accounting firm EY. She was living in Manhattan and had been promoted to assurance senior associate when her life was cut short.

“It is our hope that the scholarship inspires experiences where students step out of their comfort zone, test boundaries, overcome their fear of failure, and learn amazing lessons while having fun,” the Bruther family wrote in establishing the scholarship.

In the spring of 2022, Norah was struck and killed by a drunk driver while vacationing with friends in Arizona. Although her family was devastated, Piper and John, along with

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Norah’s sisters, Grace and Emma, decided to establish a scholarship in Norah’s name.

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“She can continue to have an immense impact on someone’s life just as she always has done for everyone surrounding her,” says Sisk.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PIPER BRUTHER

“

A Welcoming Community

Norah was known for approaching her work and play with equal joy and determination.

She was an accomplished student and tenacious soccer player who loved spending time at the beach and giving her younger sisters fashion advice.

Her enthusiasm first brought her to the attention of Jeff Ykoruk, head coach of Moravian’s women’s soccer team, who recruited her to the university. But Ykoruk remembers Norah even more for her fun and loving personality.“She was always up for a quick conversation about good places to eat and where she wanted to shop,” he says.“Norah greatly impacted our program and will forever be remembered by the coaches and, most certainly, her teammates.”

Megan Chesney ’22 met Norah during her

ends to her ambitious postgraduate goals.

She earned all 150 credits needed for the CPA exam while still at Moravian—something that takes five years for many prospective accountants.

“Norah was one of the hardest-working individuals I have ever met, not only in her classes at Moravian or her job at EY but in every part of her life,” recalls Sisk.“She cared so much for her friends and family.

She would always lend a helping hand in any way possible, from late phone calls to switching plans around, so she could be there for everyone.”

For Piper, that’s one of the most enduring tributes to her daughter.“We are blessed that Norah’s friends continue to keep in touch with us, share memories, and keep her memory alive,” says Piper.

first year playing soccer at Moravian.“She was so funny and made us comfortable right off the bat,” says Chesney. Norah quickly became like a big sister to Chesney and encouraged her to join Sigma Sigma Sigma.“She made you feel included and special. She was a true highlight of Moravian for me.”

As the inaugural recipient of the Norah Elizabeth Bruther ’20 Endowed Memorial Scholarship, Adia Gilham ’26 is doing her best to honor Norah’s legacy.

Friends also remember Norah for creating plans of action for everything from fun week-

“Receiving this scholarship has greatly impacted my confidence and

Shining a Light for Our Students’ Future

It is our hope that the scholarship inspires experiences where students step out of their comfort zone, test boundaries, overcome their fear of failure, and learn amazing lessons while having fun.”

—The Bruther family

inspired me,” says the native of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.“I intend to make the most of my college career and enjoy these years, just like Norah did.”

Gilham is a biology major who aspires to attend veterinary school and eventually own a veterinary clinic.“What I value most about Moravian is the many opportunities they provide to students through internships, experiences, and studying abroad,” she says.

This past semester, she gained career-relevant, hands-on experience through a work-study opportunity in the biology program, caring for cockroaches, walking sticks, and a turtle named Suzy Waffles.“I am learning new things all the time about animals, like what food they can eat and about their habitats,” says Gilham, adding,“Suzy’s behavior can be humorous, and she is quite cute.”

Gilham has also taken advantage of the educational support offered through the Writing Center, peer-assisted study sessions (PASS), and course mentors, which she credits with

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helping smooth her transition to college so she can succeed.

Gilham joined the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, the nation’s oldest and largest honor society. It offers membership to firstyear students who demonstrate academic excellence by obtaining a 3.5 grade point average or being in the top 20 percent of their class. Gilham has enjoyed the society’s social and service events, such as making study bookmarks with encouraging sayings for local high school students.

Norah Bruther ’20 with boyfriend, Brandon Sisk ’20, at Commencement

For these experiences, Gilham wants to thank Norah’s family.“I want to tell them how much I admire their strength—and how much I appreciate the scholarship. They have inspired me to persevere in my college career.”

To learn more about Norah’s scholarship and support her memory, visit norahbrutherscholarship.org.

Finding “A Second Home” in the New HUB The Lighting the Way campaign promises support for current and future students of Moravian University and Theological Seminary in the form of scholarships, meaningful experiences, and leading-edge technology and learning facilities. Scholarships make theological education more affordable for all seminary students, including those of us with families and other full-time jobs and obligations. Support for meaningful experiences ensures opportunities for continual inquiry, reflection, and growth in our faith and understanding. And enhanced technology and facilities guarantee our community has access to classes and each other from any location in the world, key resources to make learning easier, and safe spaces for

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worship. The signature capital project of the campaign is the Haupert Union Building (HUB) Expansion.

Now, as we imagine a new era for the HUB, I am excited to think of the ways the seminary community will be integrated into this space. At Moravian Theological Seminary, we deeply value community, ecumenical and interfaith relationships, and spiritual wellness, and these values will have spaces to flourish in the HUB. With consolidated health and counseling services; spaces dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion; various wellness rooms and a wellness terrace; a multifaith prayer room; expansive student lounges; and healthy dining options, the new HUB will offer a welcoming environment to all Moravian students. Like generations of seminary students who came before us, my peers and I, plus future generations of students, can find a second home on campus for rest, restoration, and growth.

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As a seminary student, I confess that I have not spent much time in the HUB, and I know many other seminary students will say the same. Last semester, I had the opportunity to work as an intern in the Alumni Office on the Lighting the Way campaign. I regularly communicated with university and seminary alumni and heard stories of generations of seminarians who enjoyed studying, eating, and relaxing with friends around campus. The more alumni stories I heard, the more I began to share their appreciation for the deep sense of community that the HUB helped foster. The countdown to these new spaces and experiences is on, and I cannot wait to explore the new HUB and all it will offer the entire campus community and beyond!

—Byrnese Craig S’25 Byrnese Craig is a student trustee at Moravian Theological Seminary and pastor of MorningStar Moravian Church.

TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF PIPER BRUTHER

Get to Know Our Lighting the Way Subcommittee Chairs Mary Kate Turowski Andris, EdD ’96 Chair, Anna Nitschmann Society Subcommittee

Who at Moravian most influenced you and how?

Dennis Glew, professor emeritus of classics and history. He was a welcoming, kind face no matter where and when I saw him on campus—he always greeted me and others with a genuine smile.

What advice would you give to a current student?

Enjoy the moments, even the stressful ones. Cherish the friends you make, and never forget your alma mater.

How do you believe Lighting the Way will help our students, their future, and the next generation?

Within the campaign was the creation of the first women’s scholarship, created by women for women. It will provide opportunities for young women who want to attend Moravian but who may not be able to afford it.

Jeffrey Studds P’17

Co-Chair, Zinzendorf Family Fellows Subcommittee What is your personal motto?

Here is my secret—a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

Share your favorite memory from your student’s time at Moravian.

My son was interested in a semester abroad in China and created a program to make that happen. Not only did he take the requisite courses; he ended up in the pit orchestra at the Beijing Opera. He just auditioned and got in for a production. Why? Moravian had him prepared for every opportunity!

What are you most excited to see Lighting the Way make possible for Moravian?

I’m excited about the new facilities! Keeping things fresh and welcoming is important.

Danielle Grayuski P’17, P’19, P’21

Co-Chair, Zinzendorf Family Fellows Subcommittee What would people be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a cancer survivor of 15 years. I love to decorate and remodel a home. I’ve tiled, laid hardwood floors, and even hung a ceiling fan or two! I enjoy cooking for family and friends.

I got engaged on top of a mountain, got married in front of an amazing waterfall in the Finger Lakes, and witnessed the spectacular northern lights in Iceland.

Share your favorite memory from your students’ time at Moravian.

I’m proud to say there were so many, from the excitement of moving them into their dorm room to watching new friendships

and relationships blossom. One thing was certain: I loved watching Christina and Emily play field hockey for Moravian. Each season brought my daughters tremendous growth and success.

Playing a sport taught them the importance of working together as a team. Whether winning or losing a game, everything you do on the field or in life requires your ability to get along with others.

Why is it important for you to serve/volunteer?

Never pass up an opportunity to give back. Your treasures lie close to your heart. Strive to give back in appreciation of your own success or good fortune. Help others by giving of your time, talent, and treasures; you will be surprised at how good this feels. And never expect anything in return.

To read the full-length versions of these excerpted profiles, visit moravian.edu/lightingtheway/leadership.

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CLASS NOTES

Class Notes The editors of Moravian University Magazine publish all class notes that we receive. We reserve the right to edit for space or style.

Some information may appear only online at moravian.edu/classnotes. If your class year or a named correspondent is not listed either here or online, email your information to alumni@moravian.edu or mail to Class Notes, Alumni Engagement Office, Moravian University, 1200 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 18018.

Deadlines for Submissions

Summer 2024 issue: May 5, 2024 Fall 2024 issue: August 15, 2024

Photo Policy

Please send us your image as a jpg file at 300 dpi or higher. For photos taken with a smartphone, send the largest image file.

We publish one photo per wedding or birth.

We welcome photos of gatherings of alumni.

For More Information

It’s a Small, Small World A music player that fit in your hand, a powerful computer that fit on your desk-

top—in many ways, our world was getting smaller in 1984. Tragedies in Ethiopia and triumphs in Sarajevo and Los Angeles helped bring the world even closer.

Moravian’s Class of 1984 faced tough economic conditions, but they were prepared to make change on that shrinking planet. —Nancy Rutman ’84

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1984

moravian.edu/classnotes

BUSINESS To settle an antitrust lawsuit, AT&T agrees to break up the Bell System, which had held an almost complete monopoly on US telecommunications.

TECHNOLOGY During Super Bowl XVIII, Apple Computers teases its upcoming product launch with a provocative ad that references George Orwell’s 1984.

CLASS NOTES

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1964

Frank J. Kessler Sr., MD, was inducted into the Nazareth Blue Eagle Athletic Hall of Fame on September 23, 2023, in recognition of his 35 years of service to student-athletes in the school district. Kessler is a 1947 Nazareth High School alum. He was previously placed on the Blue Eagle Education Foundation Wall of Fame in 2012 for his service to the school district and the people of Nazareth and its vicinity during his medical career. Retired since 1995, Dr. Kessler resides on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with his wife, Alice.

Arthur Grim retired five years ago as a judge in Berks County, Pennsylvania, as well as chair of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Commission, where he spent a few years consulting nationally and internationally on juvenile justice issues and reform.

Richard Gerber and Thea Smith were married on December 2, 2023, in Hamden, Connecticut.

Upcoming

1971 Eugene Abromitis and his wife moved from Florida to West Virginia in February 2023. They arrived at their new house just in time for a local flood. Since then they have been enjoying the wonderful mountain scenery.

Eugene served in the 25th Infantry during the Vietnam War and is disabled, but he works a couple days a week to help the church pantry.

He loves doing charity work.

Jeffery Baird retired in 2020 after a career as a city planning consultant in California and internationally. He now lives in Italy most of the year and California.

TECHNOLOGY On stage at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh personal computer.

SPORTS At the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean hold their audience spellbound with a program set to Ravel’s Bolero.

Events

Details and registration for any of these events can be found at moravian.edu/alumni/events.

APRIL 19, 2024 Shining Lights This event recognizes and celebrates outstanding students, alumni, and community partners.

MAY 4, 2024 Class of 2024 Commencement MAY 20, 2024 Moravian University Annual Golf Classic

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Thomas Bilheimer sold his large property in the Poconos and moved back to Bethlehem in 2021. He’s retired and volunteers with Meals on Wheels two or

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1970

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Bill Leicht, Don Vogel, Gary Sandercock, and Stan Gilbert, all members of OGO, visited campus with their wives in September 2023 for their 60th class reunion. They shared stories about their lives and families and reminisced about the wonderful experiences at Moravian.

They toured both South Campus and North Campus and were excited to see all the changes, including new buildings. They look forward to their 70th and hope to visit the newly renovated HUB.

Michael Patton is retired and drives a school van primarily for special needs kids, which he finds very rewarding. He and his wife recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and are enjoying their grandkids—Katlin, Derek, Logan, and Marissa—and great-grandkids, Alex and Ayla Marie, born on January 15.

Douglas Sterner has lived near Atlanta since 1987. He enjoyed two careers: first in social work and later as a district manager for VALlC Financial Advisors. Douglas and his wife spend several months each year traveling the country in an Airstream.

They are fortunate to have their two children and three grandchildren living nearby.

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1968

three times a week. In the summer he plays golf twice a week if possible, and during cooler months he pursues his model railroad hobby and photography.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Author Mortimer J. Adler is awarded the first Comenius Medallion for educational achievement, created to honor the 400th birthday of John Amos Comenius.

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MUSIC At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, King of Pop Michael Jackson wins a record-breaking eight awards— including Album of the Year (Thriller) and Record of the Year (“Beat It”).

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CLASS NOTES

1973

1975

1977

Ken VanCor retired in 2012.

In 2013 he took an extensive trip through South America— primarily Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina—to visit friends. His hobby for many years now has been creating original pieces of mosaic and stained glass, which he sells at Christmas bazaars. He also buys and sells antiques at his booth in an antique shop on Cape Cod.

Mark Parseghian retired from Penn State effective December 31, 2023. He keeps busy substitute-teaching one day a week, following his three grandsons’ sports teams, and planning adventures with his wife, Kathy.

They have a 2½-year-old sheepadoodle who hears the word walk and bolts for the door.

Bruce Weaknecht retired in June 2023 after serving 42 years as a Moravian pastor and 20 years at the Egg Harbor City Moravian congregation in New Jersey. He and his wife moved back to Pennsylvania and are enjoying their grandchildren.

Bob Milburn attended the Apprentice School game with his grandson Brandon Guffy ’24. Their classes are 50 years apart and still Moravian strong.

1976 Susie Hyer was featured in “Call of the Wild,” an article by Irene Rawlings in the September/October issue of Mountain Living magazine. A piece about Susie also appeared in Colorado Serenity magazine.

A MAINE LIFE

Disappearances “My first few summers here, bats were everywhere. As I was fishing on the nearby lake at night with ultralight tackle that bat sonar couldn’t detect, they kept flying into my line. When a bat hit my hat, I decided to let them enjoy the night without me. But as of five years ago, no more bats. Where there had been thousands squeaking through the summer nights, no more. A virus virtually decimated the population, and only mosquitos cheered.” —Ron DePaolo ’64

SPORTS The USSR announces that it will not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Thirteen Soviet blok nations join the boycott.

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1981 James Gardner graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. He hosts a history podcast, which you can listen to at mrvn.co/gardnerpodcast or on YouTube.

TECHNOLOGY Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms, is born in White Plains, New York.

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1990 Honnie Spencer, MD, a family physician in Mooresville, North Carolina, has achieved the Degree of Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). She was awarded this degree during a convocation on October 28,

1986 Laura Haffner, vice-chair of the Moravian Leadership Council, was recently

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1984

To read “Disappearances” in full, go to magazine.moravian.edu.

Deb Morrone-Colella, a resident of both Montclair and Surf City, New Jersey, retired as director of donor and public relations after a 35-year career with The Seeing Eye— the world’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to training Seeing Eye dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Joan Dickinson was voted the Pennsylvania Community Banker of the Year for 2023.

The Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers is Pennsylvania’s leading banking trade association, representing banks throughout the commonwealth. Joan is the chief retail officer, executive vice president for Mid Penn Bank. As chief retail officer, she oversees 49 financial centers with 230 Mid Penn Bank associates in 19 counties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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1979

promoted to regional branch network executive at Wells Fargo Greater Pennsylvania, overseeing 108 branches across 17 counties. Laura leads customer and community relationships and drives financial and operational performance in partnership with a team of 10 district managers. Previously she served as bank president to the Central Pennsylvania region.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Moravian’s graduating seniors (including Nancy Rutman, shown here) face a national unemployment rate of 7.2% and mortgage interest rates of more than 13%.

MORAVIAN MOMENT In an ad in the Morning Call, Moravian announces a new interdisciplinary major in information systems, the first of its kind in the Lehigh Valley.

CLASS NOTES

A Shark Tale

Marine biology wasn’t the subject Manz planned to study when she came to Moravian as a freshman. She was leaning towards a major in religion. Once at the university, however, an open and inquisitive mind met a supportive and encouraging faculty. The combination sparked an interest that culminated in her obtaining a bachelor’s degree in environmental science.

Manz is studying how EMFs from the cables influence shark behavior.“Will they be attracted to them?” she asks.“Will they bite the cables, thinking they are prey?

Will these EMFs be too much stimulation for the sharks?” She is one of a team of researchers that travel to wreck sites in a part of the ocean called the Mid-Atlantic Bight, a coastal region stretching from Cape Hatteras to Martha’s Vineyard. The sharks they catch are examined, measured, and implanted with electronic tags to track their movements.“We’re studying the before, during, and after impact of the wind farm,” she says.“It’s a long-term project. We have the ‘before’ studies. Now we’re in the ‘during’ phase.”

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“I was not a science buff in high school,” she says. “As a sophomore, I took environmental science and really liked it. I was encouraged to switch in my junior year by Dr. Frank Kuserk (director of the environmental studies and sciences program). Then I had to catch up with all the classes I needed!” With Kuserk as her mentor, Manz participated in the Student Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program,

Manz received her master’s degree in biological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 2021. Now a doctoral student in Marine Science at Stony Brook University, she studies shark activity as it relates to the soon-to-becompleted South Fork Wind Farm located 35 miles east of Long Island. When the project is finished, cables on the seabed will transmit the energy created by the turbines to land. These cables produce electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Sharks can sense these fields, which they use to find prey—the marine life that sharks consume emits them, too.

MORAVIAN MOMENT The Morning Call reports that Moravian has received a $1 million+ bequest, including the home that would become Alumni House.

After she earns her PhD, Manz hopes to continue what she is doing now: studying the movement ecology of sharks, including how individual species time their migrations, what comprises suitable shark habitat, and how that might change due to global warming.

Manz credits her career to Moravian’s openness to inquiry and a faculty willing to encourage a student who wasn’t an obvious candidate for a scientific track. She expresses gratitude for the “patience and support” of Kuserk, Lord, and Assistant Professor of Biology Daniel Proud.

“It’s the structure of Moravian, being a liberal arts college, that led to finding my passion and my work,” she says.

—Therese Ciesinski

TRANSPORTATION Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic makes its maiden flight, traveling from London to New York.

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That’s because Manz studies sharks— specifically their movement, habitat use, and food chain in relationship to the ecology of their community. Her current project researches how their migration patterns and habitat use are affected by the electromagnetic fields emitted by undersea wind farm cables.“On the East Coast, offshore wind farms are developing rapidly,” she says.“How will they affect the environment?”

studying “Painted Turtle Inter-Pond Movement and Nest Predation in the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.”

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For Maria Manz ’18, every week is Shark Week.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Jim Evanko ’55 (“The Hazleton Express”), All-Star and MVP in his senior year, is inducted into the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Football Hall of Fame.

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MUSIC Prince releases his sixth studio album, Purple Rain. It will sell more than 20 million copies.

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CLASS NOTES

Researching Contaminants in Water When Katie Mayer ’20 sat down on her lunch break in the spring of 2021, she had no idea a research article that popped up in her feed would spark a redirection in her career path, leading her to a PhD program at Virginia Tech.

Mayer, an environmental science major, was about halfway through a two-year stint as an associate scientist at a contract research organization.

At the time, she wasn’t sure how she would return to aquatic biology, a passion she discovered while at Moravian.

hierarchies of juvenile American lobsters, a project she extended into her senior honors thesis.

Upon graduating, Mayer decided she wasn’t ready for graduate school, opting instead to get work experience.

Just as she was contemplating a return to environmental science, a pivotal moment occurred.“I remember sitting at my desk and seeing an article about how antidepressants in water can alter crayfish behavior,” Mayer says.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Lucas E. Mesko ’85, who would have started his senior year at Moravian the following month, dies in a car crash in Lower Saucon Township.

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SPORTS American track-and-field star Carl Lewis wins his fourth Gold Medal at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, tying the record set by fellow American Jesse Owens in 1938.

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Mayer is adamant that her enthusiasm for applying her research and connecting with the scientific community stems from her time at Moravian. “[Moravian] really helped foster my interests and love for thinking about science, but in contexts that are helpful for researching and working out in the field,” she explains.

“The interdisciplinary education that I got at Moravian gave me the confidence to put myself in a challenging position where I can learn about forming those relationships with other scientists, other students, and be able to discuss some of these problems that our world is facing.”

Mayer’s work will doubtless enrich our understanding of how increasing amounts of contaminants in our water systems impact organisms, a crucial component of protecting ecosystems in a changing world. —Caroline Junker

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Mayer is staying true to the roots of her interest in organismal behavior, centering her dissertation on how freshwater bivalves respond to environmental contaminants. She is focused on anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals, including household drugs like ibuprofen and acetaminophen, which commonly enter freshwater systems via wastewater.

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Filled with this new passion, Mayer jumped into undergraduate research, working with Associate Professor of Biology Joshua Lord to explore how environmental parameters impact Asian shore crabs. In Moravian’s summer SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Research) program, Katie investigated how ocean acidification may affect the social

1984

“I was always more of an earth science type gal,” Katie says. But a class in marine ecology ignited her interest in aquatic organisms.“I just remember seeing all the colors and the visuals of these animals under the water—it was a jaw-dropping moment!”

On a whim, she emailed a corresponding author, who connected her with his colleague, Austin Gray, a professor at Virginia Tech. Gray offered to chat with Mayer, and their conversations, along with some support from mentors at Moravian, led to Mayer’s induction into the Gray lab in 2022.

In terms of what path she wants to take with her doctorate, Mayer says she intends to keep her options open.

“I want to be a scientist from here on out,” she shares, continuing that she wants to “apply what I know and be able to research how to support species that are facing consequences of environmental change.”

MORAVIAN MOMENT Singer-songwriter Don McLean takes the stage at the Moravian College Community Arts Pavilion, a.k.a.

Kunstplatz (site of The HILL), on the opening night of Musikfest ’84.

FILM Amadeus, a fictionalized story about Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premieres in Los Angeles.

It will go on to win eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

CLASS NOTES

Doctoral candidate Katie Mayer ’20 collects freshwater bivalves for her research into the effects of contaminants on the organisms’ behavior.

2023, in conjunction with the AAFP’s annual meeting in Chicago. It is an outstanding achievement to have earned this degree. Most doctors don’t qualify. Fellows are seen as experts in their fields, and Spencer, without a doubt, belongs in that class.

Michele Anderson’s retirement lasted for only two months. She ran into Bryon Grigsby at the grocery store, and he told her about a position at Moravian. Now Michele is the disability support coordinator in the Office of Disability Accommodations. In this part-time job, she meets with neurodiverse students to help them achieve success in their classes, and she feels she has a purpose again. It is great to be back on campus, she says, and the food offerings have improved tremendously since she was a student here.

1999 Mark Strohl left his position at B. Braun Medical to take a job as a buyer at Flexicon, where he’s been for a year-and-a-half.

2006

MORAVIAN MOMENT The Morning Call bestows awards for Best Dinner Theater and Best Dinner Theater Show to the Moravian College Summer Theatre and its production of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever.

2010 Kevin Horn has retired from teaching high school language arts after 25 years and is focused on pursuing his passion for photography. During January and February of this year, he was featured in a solo exhibition at M Galleries PNA in Washington, New Jersey.

Kevin is also a street photographer who shoots candids and portraits.

2013

MUSIC At the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards, The Cars win Video of the Year with “You Might Think” and Madonna performs a raunchy version of her hit “Like a Virgin.”

10/2

Carissa Serino’s anthology Shattered: Stories of Lives Broken by Substance Abuse and How We Put the Pieces Back Together is a compilation of personal stories centered on substance abuse

9/21

9/14

9/7

Victoria Alercia and her family sadly said goodbye to

their beloved dog, Skeeter, in June 2022. To continue sharing the love that they had for him, she and her sons, Dan and Mark, created a book to help guide other children and families through the loss of their pets. The boys helped with the illustrations. Skeeter Saves the Day: Holding on to Love While Letting Go of Your Beloved Pet was published in October 2023 and is available at Amazon.com.

MUSIC The compact disc version of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA is, fittingly, the first CD to be manufactured in the USA.

SPRING SPRING 2024 2024

TECHNOLOGY Sony Corporation unveils the D-5, the first portable compact disc player.

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GREYHOUND ALBUM

Owen Hannigan ’22 and Audrey Dunstan ’21 got engaged on November 3, 2023, and are getting married on November 4, 2024, at Catalpa Grove at Lakewood Park in Barnesville, Pennsylvania.

Lauren Greene ’18 and Nathan Arnold ’18 were married on October 27, 2023, at Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

They met at Moravian in fall 2014.

Amanda Werner Maenza ’13, G’17, executive director of alumni and family engagement, and her husband, Chris, welcomed their first daughter, Doreen, in November 2022.

Nicole Merrick ’12 and Tyler Merrick ’14 welcomed their twins, William and Lillian, on August 9, 2023.

WORLD The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that it has chosen to award the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

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MORAVIAN MOMENT Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever to appear on a major-party presidential ticket, speaks to an estimated crowd of 4,000 at Moravian.

SPRING 2024

10/23

Sara Weidner ’18 and Shane Hansen ’18 were married on October 29, 2023.

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10/15

Sarah Rampolla ’17 and Ken Rampolla, of Lost Tavern Brewing, welcomed their third child, Sam, on September 15, 2023.

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1984

Holly Hinkle ’19 and Michael Clarke were married on Saturday, September 9, 2023.

On December 3, 2023, Rick and Sharon Duffy Graham ’90 renewed their wedding vows in Borhek Memorial Chapel.

The ceremony was attended by close family and almost all of the original wedding party.

SPORTS In his NBA debut, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls scores 16 points.

WORLD A news crew from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documents widespread famine in Ethiopia, bringing worldwide attention to the crisis.

CLASS NOTES

Timothy McCabe and Alyssa Giuliana ’20 were married on November 10, 2023, in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

2018 Bryan P. Cleary joined the law firm Goodell, Devries, Leech & Dann.

2019

Playing for Moravian’s women’s basketball team fostered her “focus, discipline, and leadership,” says Weaver, and influenced her career path.“I was always incredibly shy, but on the court, I was confident to be loud. Finding my voice through basketball was a huge turning point for me.”

Adding a television show to her company has Weaver feeling like she is carrying on a dual legacy, honoring both her father and her grandmother.

Weaver was about to step on stage to speak to an audience of financial advisors at a conference in Books, a magazine, social media, a blog, and speak- St. Louis when she learned of her television deal. ing engagements have enabled Weaver and her Excited to share the news, she told her audience all-female team to help women beyond the walls how she was about to follow in the footsteps of her of their Chester, New Jersey, office build wealth. late grandmother, Claire Kleess.

Weaver has now expanded her reach even further, “My grandmother had two television shows in the launching a podcast, Women Behind the Millions, DC area,” she says. First, she hosted a children’s at the start of 2023 and a television series of the educational television show along with her white same name in the fall of 2023 (see e360tv.com). standard poodle called Claire & Co Co in the 1960s.

Weaver interviews female millionaires and experts “It had very high ratings,” Weaver says.“And then in the financial field, often covering the topics she she had a talk show after that, interviewing celebsees among her own clients. The television show rities like Sonny and Cher. After I get off stage airs on Vitality TV, streaming on apps such as this woman comes over to me and she’s crying,” Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV, Android recalls Weaver.“She says,‘All of my siblings and mobile, and IOS, with more to come. Season one cousins would watch your grandmother every finished in early January, and filming for season week. She would always say,“Let’s go go with Co two is already underway.

Co.” ’ ”I’m crying, she’s crying; it was so special.

What are the chances?”

Weaver’s entrepreneurial aspirations began at Moravian.“I remember one business course I took Weaver’s fourth book, Financial Trendsetters, was that asked us to talk about our dream business. I released in February 2024. Weaver says it features said out loud to the class,‘I will own my own finan- “15 incredible innovators in our industry,” and procial firm.’ This seemed crazy to me, as I knew I was ceeds from sales are going to fund a scholarship joining my father’s firm the coming year, yet deep for a young woman who wants to major in finance. down I knew I’d have something of my own.”

—Meghan Decker Szvetecz ’08

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10/27

Christopher Sorich, a graduate student at Florida International University, was invited to conduct field research with Dustin Wolkis, scientific curator of seed conservation at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and botanist Steve Perlman to study how chemical defenses and other traits help Hawaiian lobelioids, a group of flowering plants, adapt to their habitat.

When financial advisor Jessica Foran Weaver ’10 left her father’s firm in 2022 to become founder and CEO of the Women’s Wealth Boutique, she was on a mission to empower women with financial literacy by building a multifaceted, multimedia brand.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Sally Breidegam ’84 cuts the ribbon on the new running track at Steel Field, a gift of the Breidegam family in memory of Sally’s late brother Timothy Breidegam ’78.

NATION US President Ronald Reagan is reelected with 58.8% of the popular vote and 97.6% of the electoral vote, defeating Walter Mondale in 49 out of 50 states.

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2016

Woman Behind the Millions

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and its impact. Several of the writers lost loved ones to addiction; some have dedicated their lives to helping those in need; some have recovered from their addictions; and all of them have witnessed the effects on family and friends.

MORAVIAN MOMENT Political satirist Mark Russell, performing in Johnston Hall, inaugurates the new Cohen Arts and Lectures Series at Moravian.

SPRING SPRING 2024 2024

MUSIC The British supergroup Band Aid releases “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” Within a year, it has raised more than £8 million for Ethiopian famine relief.

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IN MEMORIAM

Avatar of Love

T

hroughout the years, I’ve frequently heard people express their admiration for the Rt. Rev. C. Hopeton Clennon, often noting that encountering him led to an inevitable love for him. Yet, a more precise portrayal of the experience is that when one crossed paths with Hopeton Clennon, an overwhelming sense of being loved by him arose.

The Rt. Rev. C. Hopeton Clennon (March 25, 1960–January 7, 2024), Chaplain of Moravian College and Theological Seminary, 2009–2013

In many religious contexts, bishops typically assume administrative roles. However, within the Moravian Church, bishops are not administrators; they are instead pastors to the pastors themselves. As a bishop, Hopeton always prioritized his role as a pastor—extending his care not only to the pastors but also to the members of his congregation, the residents of Bethlehem, and people across the globe.

The term pastor finds its origin in the Greek word ποιμήν (poimén), meaning “shepherd.”

Hopeton embodied this concept, tirelessly ensuring the well-being of the entire flock, a principle that defined his essence within the Moravian Church and our Moravian University community.

In 2013, when I assumed the role of university chaplain, following in Hopeton’s footsteps, I was forewarned that I had, literally, big shoes to fill. This proved to be true. Beyond Hopeton's height, it was the expansiveness of his love that sometimes seemed larger than life. His unwavering care and support were extended to everyone he met—no stranger ever left his presence without feeling like a friend.

“ The world was a warmer, more joyful, more peaceful place because of the embodiment of love that was as true for him as the very air he breathed.”

—Jennika Borger, chaplain

yet heartfelt text messages that would catch me off guard, catching him trading Pokemon with his colleagues, the light in his eyes every time he saw me—the same light that was experienced by everyone who encountered him. And, lastly, the enduring precedent that he set at the university—that the chaplain is always fashionably late. I, unfortunately, cannot attribute my own lateness to being on “Jamaican time.”

I still cannot imagine a world without the Rt. Rev. C. Hopeton Clennon. The world was a warmer, more joyful, more peaceful place because of the embodiment of love that was as true for him as the very air he breathed.

My experience of Hopeton was unique and special and also shared with countless others because to know Hopeton was always to be loved by him. —Jennika Borger

I’ll forever cherish memories of Hopeton’s infectious laughter, the seemingly random

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SPRING 2024

PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MORAVIAN CHURCH

IN MEMORIAM

1948 LOIS MARGARET WARNER August 9, 2023

1963 RANDOLPH E. WAGNER August 31, 2023

1975 RUSSELL “RUSS” P. KOPY September 25, 2023

1948 ALLEN ALBERT LENIUS ’48, S’51, P’74, GP’03 October 19, 2023

1963 MICHAEL J. KISSEL JR. November 16, 2023

1976 DAVID MORGANTI September 12, 2023

1950 WILLIAM BISHOP RINGER September 11, 2023

1964 WILLIAM B. GROSH, MD September 16, 2023

1988 DAVID “DAVE” JOEL GOMBOTZ August 27, 2023

1951 JANE ANN MISSIMER October 2, 2023

1964 FRANCIS “FRAN AND FRANK” DEMKO November 1, 2023

2001 JEREMY LEFEVER February 11, 2023

1952 DR. ROBERT H. STINE August 18, 2023

1965 JOHN C. DEMUTH ’65 April 9, 2023

2014 ZACHARY RICHARD September 24, 2023

1956 ELEANOR BECK SCHLEICHER October 26, 2023

1966 DOUGLAS L. HACKMAN September 3, 2023

Faculty in Memoriam

1956 JAMES JOHN OVADY November 10, 2023

1966 MARGARET A. BRIDSON November 6, 2023

1957 RONALD L. ZELLER August 25, 2023

1966 JACOB A. PAPAY SR. November 14, 2023

1958 WILLIAM J. STRACCIA August 20, 2023

1966 DOROTHEA G. KLOTZ November 18, 2023

1958 ALFRED F. APPLE September 13, 2023

1967 LAMAR M. STEIGERWALT August 22, 2023

1958 DR. PALMER J. COTTURO December 1, 2023

1967 STEPHEN F. KRALICK JR. June 23, 2023

1959 KENNETH ARLEN BERND December 9, 2023

1967 DARLENE FAYE REFSNIDER BORST November 28, 2023

1961 JAMES J. MCCRUDDEN December 1, 2023

1973 PAULA ANN WILSON September 14, 2023

PHOTO BY ROB CARDILLO

BOB WINDOLPH November 19, 2023 Windolph was an assistant professor of chemistry from 1969 to 1975. His journey at Moravian continued as assistant dean of students, associate dean of students, and finally dean of student life. He received the James J. Heller Award as Administrator of the Year in 2007, and a year later, in July 2008, he retired after having served Moravian for 39 years.

THE RT. REV. C. HOPETON CLENNON January 7, 2024 Chaplain of Moravian College and Theological Seminary, 2009–2013

SPRING 2024

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HOUNDS OF MORAVIAN

Marx Get to know

Marx is a four-year-old white Swiss shepherd who looks very much like Jon Snow’s direwolf, “Ghost,” from Game of Thrones, says his owner, Maggie Riegel ’10. “He came to us in April 2019 at eight weeks old, right around the time of the series finale. We named him after Karl Marx, the founder of communism, as he is all about the equal redistribution of treats for all canine comrades.”

1

What is the funniest thing Marx has ever done? We were stuck in

traffic on the highway, and fire trucks were driving past us to get to an accident up ahead. Marx stuck his head out the window and howled along with the sirens. He often howls like a wolf when sirens go by, and when it happens at his doggy daycare, he gets all the other dogs to howl as well.

What do you think would be your dog’s favorite place on campus? The Doghouse, of course!

In what special way have you pampered Marx? Marx loves

doggy ice cream cups from Ben & Jerry’s!

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Favorite toy, food, or activity?

“Oogie,” a.k.a. his canvas Oogie Boogie toy from The Nightmare Before Christmas. He also loves to play “The Hunt for Red Dot-ober” where he chases the red dot from the laser pointer. He also loves big sticks, jumping really high, and going swimming in the Monocacy Creek.

If Marx had a theme song, what would it be? “Mr. Blue Sky”

by the Electric Light Orchestra

What major would Marx choose as a student at Moravian?

Political science (like his Mom!), as he’s a member of the “Socialist Shepherd Party”

SPRING 2024

SUBMIT YOUR DOG’S BIO Who doesn’t think their dog is the pick of the litter? Tell us about your best friend, send us a pic, and he or she just might be featured on this page. Go to mrvn.co/hounds-mu to fill out a submission form and send us a photo— a clear portrait shot of your dog’s face.

ILLUSTRATION BY GREATPETSPORTRAITS.ETSY.COM

“

As a Moravian art student, I am honored to be given this opportunity to use my passion to contribute to the new society graphics.”

—Faith Morales ’25

A New Look for Our Giving Societies

We are excited to announce our giving societies are getting a new and improved look.

Moravian’s giving societies recognize our most dedicated supporters as partners wholly invested in the success of our students and the Moravian experience. The collective impact of this philanthropic community is extraordinary and allows Moravian to continue our mission to educate our students to discover their brilliance and become transformative leaders.

Studio art major Faith Morales ’25 is using her incredible talent to create graphics for our societies that are intentional, timeless, and uniquely Moravian, representing the historic figures and fixtures for which the societies are named. Stay tuned for the launch of our new graphics in fall 2024, and visit moravian.edu/societies to learn how you can support our students by becoming a society member.

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Associate Professor of Biology Daniel Proud and students examine a frame from one of the Moravian University beehives to check the health of the hive.

PHOTO BY ROB CARDILLO