UIC Magazine Spring 2022

Spring 2022

Connecting Alumni and Friends to the University of Illinois Chicago

In It for the Long Haul

UIC scientists are part of an ambitious national effort to understand and cure long COVID-19.

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ILLUSTRATION: ETHAN G. BROWN

IN THIS ISSUE 12

In It for the Long Haul

UIC scientists are part of an ambitious national effort to understand and cure long COVID.

BY CINDY KUZMA

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PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

JEDI and Bridge Builder: Meet the Provost

For Javier Reyes, JEDI means bringing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion to his new leadership role at UIC.

BY STEVE HENDERSHOT

COURTESY: AMERICAN FRAMING

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Spectacularly Ordinary

UIC presents its contribution to the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.

BY ANA SEKLER MA ’08

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Exemplary Alumni

3 FROM THE CHANCELLOR

4 UIC TODAY Major gifts, accolades and breakthroughs.

@UICAlumni @UIC_Alumni @UICAlumni go.uic.edu/linkedin go.uic.edu/connected advance.uic.edu

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

40 10 UNIQUELY UIC IGNITE A selection of A memorial bequest in honor notable alumni of Professor Grace achievements.

Holt elevates Black Studies.

43 LETTER TO ALUMNI Honoring achievements and celebrating transitions.

44 CLOSING NOTE UIC student Kathryn Howard studies the critical challenges of our time.

CONTENTS

Meet this year's UICAA award winners.

BY JOE ENGLEMAN

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CONNECTING ALUMNI AND FRIENDS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO EDITORIAL BOARD Sherri McGinnis González Caryn Schultz Korman Jessica Olive Tom Wamsley MANAGING EDITOR: Bridget Esangga SENIOR ART DIRECTOR AND DESIGNER: Ethan G. Brown COVER PHOTO: Joshua Clark BFA ’08 ADVANCE.UIC.EDU CONTACT INFORMATION: UIC MAGAZINE: uicmag@uic.edu UIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: (312) 413-8272, uicalumni@uic.edu OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR ADVANCEMENT: (312) 413-8272, advance@uic.edu ADDRESS CHANGES: (312) 413-8272, uicmag@uic.edu

Gratitude.

Along with so many purpose-driven faculty, staff and students, we have accomplished just that over our last seven years together, navigating crises from budgetary issues to the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging stronger every time. I knew of the word grit before I arrived at UIC, but this community has taught me—consistently and emphatically—what Chicago-style grit truly means, and I consider that an especially precious gift.

Since 2015, our enrollment has surged from 28,000 to 34,000 while we also created Chicago’s first public law school. Students view UIC as a dynamic place to learn and a catapult to reaching their professional and personal ambitions. We remain one of the nation’s most diverse universities and a compelling value in an era of escalating costs in higher education.

We continue impacting lives through visionary research and have cemented UIC’s status as the nation’s model urban research university. Research funding, which has grown from $350 million to approximately $450 million over the last four years, has sparked transformative innovations and new knowledge in the health sciences, STEM fields, social sciences and humanities. We are collectively changing the way people live, work and play for the better.

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In October 2017, we launched IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC, the most ambitious fundraising effort in our university’s history.

Months ahead of schedule, we surpassed our $750 million goal, and we continue to receive support from donors who believe in UIC’s mission and our ability to uplift lives. IGNITE resources are funding student scholarships, novel teaching and research technologies, endowed faculty positions and key infrastructure projects.

And this winter we joined the Missouri Valley Conference, fulfilling the decadeslong aspirations of our student-athletes and loyal fans. By doing so, we are making a statement about our ambitions and our desire to improve and compete at a national level in intercollegiate athletics.

As I embark upon my next professional adventure as president of the University of South Carolina this summer, please know how grateful and humbled Ero and I are for the experience to lead our university, one that is, and always will be, the University FOR Chicago. Through our collective action and resilient spirit, UIC is thriving, and we know its best days are yet to come.

—MICHAEL AMIRIDIS CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO

chancellor@uic.edu (312) 413-3350 @uicamiridis chancellor.uic.edu

FROM THE CHANCELLOR

And so, I dug in, committed to elevating the university’s profile and energizing its academic, service and research missions.

Our campus continues evolving as well, providing our community new spaces to live, learn and discover. In recent years, we celebrated the opening of the high-tech Engineering Innovation Building on Taylor Street as well as the 10-story Academic Residential Complex near Harrison and Morgan streets. Additional capital projects are underway, too, including the Outpatient Surgery Center, the Computer Design Research and Learning Center and an expanded Innovation Center.

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

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n my first morning as UIC chancellor in March 2015, I visited the university’s facilities headquarters with pastries in hand. I left holding something else: a golden shovel gifted to me by the dedicated individuals who maintain our campus. I accepted that shovel as a call to action. Chicago, of course, isn’t for the passive. It’s the city of broad shoulders for a reason, and the expectations others had of me were clear: get to work now.

SPRING 2022

UIC TODAY

From January to March 2022, Gallery 400 presented "Crip*", a group exhibition featuring artists who address disability and intersectional thinking. The artists in "Crip*" are attuned to the concepts that exist beyond the reach of simplified identity distinctions or interpretations. For example, Emilie Gossiaux’s work is informed by her hearing loss and vision loss, but what drives her work is a broad interest and deep understanding of communication, interdependence and the connection between sense and memory.

Shannon Finnegan, "Do you want us here or not?," 2018, MDO, paint. Image courtesy of the artist.

COURTESY: ANDY VERNUM PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

$5M for Latino Humanities Initiative

UIC TODAY

UIC has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support Crossing Latinidades: Emerging Scholars and New Comparative Directions.

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This initiative’s multi-institutional model of research and training expands opportunities for a growing population of Latino students. It also supports a national cohort of doctoral students in Latino humanities studies through the creation of an intensive yearly summer institute on Latino studies methodologies and theories and a mentorship program that enhances rising scholars’ comparative research skills, intellectual curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

Crossing Latinidades is the product of a new consortium including 16 Hispanic-Serving Institutions that have the Research 1 designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The group, led by chancellors and presidents of the participating universities, focuses on increasing the number of Latino students pursuing terminal degrees and advancing to academic positions. —Brian Flood

Sugary Beverage Tax Reduces Consumption Two recent studies by UIC researchers found evidence that public policies to reduce consumption of added sugars through taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are effective and sustainable. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest contributor of added sugars in American diets.

The studies analyzed data from Seattle, where a sugarsweetened beverage tax was implemented in 2018. The Seattle data was compared with data from Portland, Oregon, a city without a sugar-sweetened beverage tax.

An analysis published in the Journal of Public Health Policy showed taxed beverage prices increased by 1.04 cents per ounce, and the volume sold of taxed beverages fell by 22%.

An additional the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open study found that one year and two years after implementation, the tax created a 23% reduction in grams of sugar sold from taxed beverages. And while the analysis showed some offset from substitutions there was a net 19% reduction in grams of sugar sold from taxed beverages at twoyears post-tax.

The research teams are led by Lisa Powell, distinguished professor and director of health policy and administration at the UIC School of Public Health.

—Jacqueline Carey

SPRING 2022

Tackling Mental Health Disparities While teens with disabilities are more likely to experience depression and anxiety than their peers, the state health care programs designed to support their well-being focus on physical care, not mental or behavioral health care.

To address this disparity, UIC researchers from the College of Applied Health Sciences and the College of Medicine have teamed up on a five-year, $7 million research project funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

With the funding, the researchers will work with the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Bureau to test a new program that includes a tailored mental health component among a cohort of about 400 teens.

Principal investigator Benjamin Van Voorhees, professor and head of pediatrics, says the results of the study could lead to systematic changes, “potentially reducing existent barriers to access to behavioral health care that disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority youth with disabilities.”

COURTESY: UIC

Co-principal investigator Kristin Berg, associate professor of disability and human development, says easier access to mental health care through existing programs for teens with disabilities could “improve health and vocational trajectories across the life span for this historically underserved population.”

—Jacqueline Carey

With awards totaling $446M, UIC sets a record for annual research funding for the second consecutive year.

UIC Welcomes Evans Scholars UIC welcomed its inaugural class of Evans Scholars through a partnership with the Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholars Foundation.

COURTESY: CHARLES CHERNEY

The foundation provides full tuition and housing scholarships to high-achieving caddies with limited financial means. UIC’s inaugural class consists of eight students with a range of majors from business to science and engineering.

“I am excited to have the Evans Foundation select UIC to expand their scholarship program. In many ways, the Evans Foundation’s commitment to providing scholarships to golf caddies from underrepresented populations matches our own commitment to ensure that students from all walks of life have an opportunity to pursue their educational goals,” says J. Rex Tolliver, vice chancellor for student affairs at UIC. —Carlos Sadovi

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

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NSF Funds UIC STEM The National Science Foundation gave UIC two awards totaling $4.8 million to enhance STEM-related education for undergraduate students.

A five-year, $2.9 million grant led by the Learning Sciences Research Institute supports an investigation of barriers to student success in science, technology, engineering and math degree programs and develops new curriculum and teaching innovations that promote student engagement and retention.

The project, which is funded via an NSF program that enhances undergraduate STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, features a cross-departmental faculty collaboration based in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Engineering.

COURTESY: UIC

A five-year, $1.9 million grant to the chemistry department backs a program for the “modern chemistry student.” It incorporates research and current events to better prepare students to apply their knowledge to contemporary issues. This work will be supported by professional development offered jointly by UIC’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence and the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity. —Brian Flood

UIC is among the 50 best public universities.

—U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2022

Lifetime Achievement Award Luis Alberto Urrea received a Fuller Award from the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement.

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He is a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his nonfiction work “The Devil’s Highway.” Some of his other critically acclaimed and best-selling books include “The House of Broken Angels,” “The Hummingbird’s Daughter,” “Into the Beautiful North” and “Queen of America,” as well as the story collection “The Water Museum,” a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist.

Urrea, a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, is the recipient of numerous awards for his poetry, nonfiction, fiction and essays, such as a Lannan Literary Award, an Edgar Award, and a 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

COURTESY: UIC

UIC TODAY

Urrea, professor of English and distinguished professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC, is the 11th Chicago author to receive the prestigious honor.

Born in Tijuana, Mexico, to a Mexican father and American mother, he is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”

—Christy Levy SPRING 2022

Jeremiah Paprocki reached the hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, at lightning speed. While earning his degree in communications at UIC, the 22-year-old Chicagoan became the youngest and first Black public address announcer for his beloved Chicago Cubs after taking a gamble and sending in an audition tape he made during UIC’s spring break.

Since 2016 Paprocki has honed his craft at Flames’ home games in Granderson Stadium when he called his first UIC baseball game while still in high school. After enrolling in 2017, he became a fixture in the UIC athletic department and called every sport offered. He began calling games at Wrigley Field before graduating in the spring of 2021.

While he hasn’t been enshrined just yet, the microphone he’s been using will be on display along with other artifacts from the 2021 season.

COURTESY: JEREMIAH PAPROCKI

“It’s unreal, that’s for sure. How many people get to say they have something of theirs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame?” Paprocki says.

—Carlos Sadovi

Commemorating a Pioneer A memorial bequest in honor of Professor Grace Holt elevates Black Studies.

I IGNITE

n her 22 years as a UIC professor, Grace Holt pioneered the view of Black English as a dialect of standard English. She organized UIC’s first Black History Month activities, founded the Black History Month Planning Committee and chaired it for many years. In 1971, she was appointed to establish the Black Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and in 1974 was appointed its first director.

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Today, select Black Studies students are supported by the Grace Holt Memorial Endowment, which was established after Holt’s death in 1991 by her daughter, Colette Holt, to honor her legacy. Colette Holt, principal at Colette Holt & Associates, contributes to the fund regularly, encourages her loved ones to do the same

and is providing a gift to the endowment in her will. The fund supports students enrolled in the Black Studies department who demonstrate a commitment to racial justice.

“My mother was the first Black woman to earn tenure at UIC,” says Holt. “In 1991 when we set up the fund, there was a constant need to explain why African American studies was important, and I wanted to elevate its stature, gravitas and structure within the university.

Today it’s established as a discipline, and I’m proud to support its students.”

SPRING 2022

Professor Grace Holt. Image courtesy of UIC Black Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC

GOAL:

We need to support Black scholars today as much as we did in 1970.

$750M

103% PROGRESS:

$772.7M

PROGRESS AS OF 3/28/22

Holt reflects that her mother was a force of nature who loved teaching and her students, many of whom attended her funeral to describe how influential she was. Grace Holt saw potential in people when others didn’t and spent her time in academia fighting the myth that poor Black children can’t learn.

“Establishing a bequest in her honor allowed me to make a significant contribution, worthy of my mom, when I was young and broke and just starting my law practice,” says Holt. “We need to support Black scholars today as much as we did in 1970. Gifts like mine can create systematic, generational change we may not live to see, just like the fruits of the work my mother did 50 years ago.” —Jessica Olive

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

This memorial endowment is part of IGNITE, a $750 million campaign to support student success, empower faculty, drive discoveries and connect UIC to communities as we forge the future of urban public education. Learn more at ignite.uic.edu.

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ILLUSTRATION: ETHAN G. BROWN

In It for the Long Haul As many as half of COVID-19 patients have lingering, disabling symptoms. UIC scientists are now part of an ambitious national effort to figure out why—and how to help.

By Cindy Kuzma

W

hen Blair Rohrbach tested positive for COVID-19 in September 2020, she worried. She has a long history of illness, and in 2019, received a liver transplant. Now, she takes medication to suppress her body’s natural defenses. “I thought, ‘I’m immunocompromised,’” she says. “I was nervous I was going to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to breathe.”

Fortunately, that never happened. Rohrbach wasn’t hospitalized for COVID-19; her 99-degree fever lasted only a day, and her blood oxygen level, tested at home regularly, stayed safely above 95%. The tickle in her throat and mild cough quickly faded.

Other problems remained. She slept nine to 10 hours a night, but her exhaustion lingered; her focus scattered.

The migraines she’d had as a teen returned and lasted days. They came with auras—streaks across her vision, as if she stared at the sun too long—making it difficult to see or drive. Her anxiety and depression, which she’d been managing, flared.

“Two weeks went by, and I was still feeling crummy. I thought ‘this might last for a while,’” she says. “Then it never went away.” More than a year later, she’s still coping with her symptoms.

Rohrbach, 38, is one of the estimated 10% to 50% of people who have long-term complications with COVID-19. Medical experts aren’t sure why some, including those who weren’t severely ill to begin with, develop what’s often called long COVID-19.

They’re searching for answers and treatments. Right now, Rohrbach is in both physical therapy and psychotherapy and takes antidepressants and antianxiety medications. Still, she struggles. “There are points where I’ve felt totally hopeless, like, ‘when am I going to feel better?’” she says.

Much about the disease remains mysterious. Now, in partnership with patients like Rohrbach and leaders in hard-hit communities, UIC scientists aim to decode long COVID-19’s secrets and determine the best ways to support those affected by it, especially in vulnerable communities.

Beginning this year, UIC researchers in Chicago and Peoria are embarking on a four-year, $22-million project called ILLInet RECOVER, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health as part of the national Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery initiative.

ILLUSTRATION: ETHAN G. BROWN

The study will track people with long COVID-19—or, as researchers refer to it, post-acute sequelae of SARSCoV-2 infection (PASC)—over time, at UI Health in Chicago and OSF St. Francis Medical Center in central Illinois. OSF St. Francis Medical Center is an affiliate of the College of Medicine Peoria that provides clinical training to medical students, residents and fellows.

The results will illuminate this new disease and may shed light on other poorly understood chronic conditions, especially those that occur after viral illnesses, says Dr. Jerry Krishnan, UIC associate vice chancellor for population health sciences, professor of medicine and public health, and ILLInet RECOVER’s contact principal investigator. What’s more, thanks to UIC’s pioneering approach of community engagement, the project will continue shifting the way medical research is conducted—and utilized. “This isn’t going to be science designed in a meeting room,” Krishnan says.

“This is science in partnership with people, churches, organizations and small businesses in the communities where we live.”

A Wide-Ranging, Puzzling Illness In August 2021, UIC launched a Post-COVID Clinic bringing together experts in lung, kidney and immune system health, among other specialties. Some long COVID-19 patients have residual coughs, trouble breathing or even require oxygen, says Krishnan, a pulmonologist. Fatigue and cognitive issues like Rohrbach’s are common. Other common symptoms include sleep disorders, gastrointestinal symptoms, fast or pounding heartbeat, muscle or joint pain and dizziness when standing. Mood disorders like anxiety and depression can develop or worsen.

Early in the pandemic, UIC physician-scientists realized COVID-19 disproportionately affected certain people, including communities of color. That’s largely due to social determinants of health—aspects of people’s environments influencing their well-being, says Dr. Heather Prendergast, associate dean of clinical affairs and professor of emergency medicine at UIC and an ILLInet RECOVER co-principal investigator.

Rural communities are also vulnerable to acute and long COVID-19, for reasons both similar and different, says UIC’s Dr. Sarah Stewart de Ramirez, associate professor of emergency medicine and director of equity innovation medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, medical director of population health at OSF HealthCare and co-principal investigator on the trial. Population density isn’t an issue, but poverty and limited access to health care and social services are exacerbated by physical distance.

In any setting, stress and a lack of support that allows people to rest and recover could contribute to ongoing symptoms. Other potential risk factors for long COVID-19 are more biological, Krishnan says. The strain of virus—the original SARS-CoV2 or a variant like Delta or Omicron—might affect your chances of developing long-term complications. Some people’s immune systems also seem predisposed to overreact, turning on the host instead of simply vanquishing the virus.

For instance, limited access to fresh food in some neighborhoods leads to hypertension and other comorbidities; essential workers who couldn’t stay home during the pandemic were more frequently exposed to the virus; and multigenerational households risked spreading the virus to the oldest and most vulnerable.

ILLUSTRATION: ETHAN G. BROWN

Similar factors may influence risk of long COVID-19, but because some infected people never interacted with the medical system, it’s hard to draw conclusions. “For every person who came to the hospital, there were probably several others who waited out their symptoms at home,” Prendergast says. Perhaps they didn’t have a trusted doctor, or couldn’t get time off work. Or, when they noticed vague symptoms like fatigue and brain fog months later, they might not connect them to the prior illness.

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

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ILLUSTRATION: ETHAN G. BROWN

Partnerships for Progress Truly understanding how the disease works requires reaching deep into affected communities. That’s where partners like Bright Star Community Outreach, in the city’s south-side Bronzeville neighborhood, come in, says Prendergast, who’s overseeing ILLInet RECOVER’s community engagement efforts.

People of color have legitimate reasons to be skeptical of medicine in general and research in particular, says Pastor Chris Harris of Bright Star Church Chicago, founder and CEO of Bright Star Community Outreach.

Not only is there a history of abusing and neglecting study participants, few projects have dedicated resources to addressing problems revealed in their data. “Historically, researchers have come in and treated Black and brown communities like lab rats,” he says. “They come and get data and then leave, without leaving any dollars to change or move the needle.”

Harris has been working for years to address these issues and earn trust on both sides. He’s built nationally recognized programs addressing the trauma of violence, received federal grants to conduct research and hosts an online show called “Clergy & Clinicians,” where he interviews Black medical professionals about relevant health topics.

COVID-19 hit his community hard. He knows more than 90 people who have died, so he jumped into action. His mission is to educate and protect his congregation by teaching what he calls “the three Vs,” virus, vaccine and variants.

Getting involved in ILLInet RECOVER was an easy choice. “A lot of times people do things to the community, or they think they’re doing things for the

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community, when you’re supposed to do things with the community,” Harris says. “Let the community lead this conversation. And that’s the exact approach they are taking.”

Community partners are integral to every step, Prendergast says: “We want them to have a voice and a seat at the table.” They’ll offer input on study materials, including both recruitment information and survey questions. That way, they can gather information helpful to community leaders too, not just what’s in the federal protocol. Partners will spread the word about the study and the need for participants through their communication channels. UIC will also hire community members to conduct parts of the study. Partners will also have a role in reporting results—including information about risks and potential treatments—back to their communities.

Other partners include Chicago Urban League, Illinois Unidos, Central Illinois Friends, Tri-County Urban League, Friendship House and Peoria City/County Public Health. In Peoria these relationships will help eliminate uniquely rural barriers to participating in the study—for instance, reducing travel time. And, they’ll bring public health and medicine together, paying dividends in this pandemic and the next one.

“You don’t find a lot of large trials pushing forward the biological level of discovering and defining a disease at the same time as trying to understand how we best engage vulnerable communities,” Stewart de Ramirez says. “Those take different sets of skills and different attention to detail. But they’re both essential to the future of scientific research.”

SPRING 2022

A Better Future, Together UIC’s immersion in and care for underserved communities is likely one reason the institution was chosen as the only Illinois site for RECOVER, says Krishnan, who played a key role in securing the grant.

The university’s excellence across fields, from public health to frontline clinicians to behavioral science, also put it a step ahead.

The study began enrolling patients in January.

Participants complete a survey, brief physical exam and have lab tests every three to six months for two years.

Those results will be provided to participants and, with permission, their health care providers. Individuals and clinicians can go to the ILLInet RECOVER website, illinet.org, for more details about participating or referring patients.

Besides Krishnan, Prendergast and de Ramirez, other principal investigators include Dr. Wayne Giles, dean of the UIC School of Public Health; Dr. Bellur Prabhakar, senior associate dean for research and professor of microbiology and immunology at UIC; and Dr. Terry Vanden Hoek, professor and head of emergency medicine at UIC and chief medical officer at UI Health.

Additional co-investigators are Dr. Robin Mermelstein, distinguished professor of psychology, and Dr. Richard Novak, the Harry F. Dowling Professor of Medicine and chief of the division of infectious diseases.

In addition to the brightest scientific minds, a largescale study like this takes precise coordination.

Leading these efforts is study chair Dr. Jonathan Klein, UIC associate vice chancellor for research, Savithri and Samuel Raj Professor and executive vice chair of pediatrics.

The role involves orchestrating complex logistics, including call centers, exam and lab operations and electronic records, and transporting biospecimens like blood samples where they need to be. And, it all must be done quickly, without sacrificing patient care. “The urgency of getting things up and running at all the sites as soon as possible is very much on everybody’s mind, because we really need answers in the pandemic,” Klein says.

A Hub of COVID-19 Discovery Since the pandemic began, UIC has been at the forefront of clinical care and scientific investigation, with researchers bringing in more than $60 million in funding for COVID-19 projects.

One important study combines free testing for vulnerable communities with innovative sequencing to monitor variants. The research is part of a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative called Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations, or RADx-UP. Chicagoans can take nasal swab tests and receive results, along with guidance, education and resources. Meanwhile, researchers de-identify the tests, then perform genomic sequencing to detect new variants and better understand transmission, according to Dr. Nahed Ismail, UIC professor of pathology at the College of Medicine and principal investigator.

Other federally funded UIC projects include:

• A grant from the CDC that allows UIC School

of Public Health to work with communitybased organizations in Black, Latinx and Orthodox Jewish areas of Chicago and a white rural county to assess and improve publichealth outreach efforts.

• Clinical trials for a drug called sarilumab, monoclonal antibody tests, studies on blood clot prevention in COVID-19 patients and trials for both the Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines.

• A $6 million technology and therapeutic

development award from the U.S. Department of Defense to study VT-109, a new drug candidate that may decrease lung damage, among other effects of COVID-19.

• The Chicagoland COVID Collaborative, a

citywide health equity effort with UIC to boost vaccine confidence and access.

RECOVER isn’t a clinical trial designed to test a new treatment or prevention method, but an observational study, aiming to document the way a disease unfolds over time. “Understanding what’s wrong is the first step,” Krishnan says. But of course, the search for knowledge won’t stop there.

Participants will receive treatment from their existing health care providers or be connected to the PostCOVID Clinic or similar resources throughout the state (Peoria, for instance, has a virtual PASC clinic).

Tracking their progress will identify promising therapies for further testing, and lab results revealing the underlying mechanisms of the disease may also inform new treatment approaches. Within the next year, Krishnan expects UIC to launch clinical trials for PASC therapies, for which ILLInet RECOVER participants may also be eligible.

Krishnan hopes the prospect of more information and access to care encourages people to participate.

The trauma suffered during this time is substantial, he knows. But in small ways and large ones, from providing childcare and transportation costs to connecting patients with knowledgeable health care providers, he and his colleagues are aiming to make enrolling in ILLInet RECOVER empowering.

Rohrbach, for one, felt relief from the moment she entered the first Zoom meeting for participants.

Talking with others who had similar symptoms validated her experiences; knowing UIC scientists were pooling resources proved reassuring. Speaking about her participation allows her to spread the crucial message of long COVID-19’s severity. “If somebody doesn’t look sick, it doesn’t mean they aren’t sick,” she says, and hopes family members and health care providers of people with PASC, along with the unvaccinated, hear her.

Indeed, by joining a group of patients 30,000 strong across the country, participants can be a critical part of reducing the impact of long COVID-19—and, changing the way science is done in the future. “We know people are suffering and wondering how they’re going to get better. We also know science can help,” Krishnan says. “We’re going to learn about how to beat this back, together.” ●

MEET THE PROVOST For Javier Reyes, JEDI means bringing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion to his new leadership role at UIC. By Steve Hendershot

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

T

here’s a twist this fall at UIC’s James Stukel Towers (JST): one of the residence hall’s new inhabitants—the guy hanging around the front desk needling the work-study attendant about her chemistry homework—is Javier Reyes, the university’s new provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“I’m a bridge-builder,” says Reyes. “I come with the idea of building a leadership group that will advocate for their own constituencies, but who will make decisions in the best interests of the university.”

As provost, Reyes serves as a mediator and a unifying force between the visions of UIC’s deans and Chancellor Michael Amiridis. Despite being new to the role, he was recently asked to serve as interim chancellor as Amiridis closes his term to assume the presidency at University of South Carolina. Amiridis knows Reyes is well-prepared this short-term challenge, and the longer-term challenges that await him when returning to his seat as provost.

“I was looking for a leader, somebody who can inspire faculty, staff and students, and somebody who can lead change and innovation,” says Amiridis. Reyes “had proven himself—he had the experience, and he also had the passion, and he has demonstrated the ability to build consensus around new ideas and new initiatives.”

Reyes’ journey to UIC includes success in leadership roles at several major research universities, most recently as dean of the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University (WVU). His knack for finding and brokering innovative solutions is a testament to both his creativity and the trust he builds with colleagues. Both traits are evident during Reyes’ JST hangouts, where he connects with students on a level that’s rare for any grownup, let alone a top university official: Reyes is a video game player, a Star Wars fan and has a working philosophy that channels the Disney Imagineers; his home back in West Virginia stocked with two Xboxes and two PlayStations, and his office showcases a variety of Star Wars, Disney, Marvel and other collectibles.

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PHOTO: MIKE FAN

He arrives with a vision to strengthen the connections among the university’s many colleges and academic disciplines, an effort that will require creativity, diplomacy and a knack for building relationships.

His time living in the residence halls, a temporary arrangement while he awaits his family’s arrival from West Virginia, gives him a head start on the relational piece.

The challenges of leading a major urban research university are far greater than any video game. Still, Reyes is confident he will be just as successful in his quest to level-up UIC.

Reyes’ Challenge and Opportunity at UIC UIC’s former provost, Susan Poser, left to become president of Hofstra University in December 2020, in the midst of an unprecedented school year marked by remote learning and social protest.

“Those were big, defining moments for UIC, and I think those are the things that we need to look to going forward,” says Karen Colley, dean of the Graduate College at UIC and acting provost during the period between Poser’s departure and Reyes’ arrival. That means the challenges now facing Reyes are to determine how best to incorporate online learning tools and techniques into the university’s postpandemic plans, as well as better recruiting and serving underrepresented students and faculty, and engaging with the surrounding community.

She believes Reyes is on course to do just that. During his first semester on campus, Colley says he has shown a willingness to listen, an affinity for cross-disciplinary collaboration and an ability to empathize with faculty concerns.

In other words, he’s approachable. That makes sense for a guy with an array of Disney and Star Wars memorabilia behind his desk, and who insists that what he has brought to Chicago so far is just a sampling of “a big collection” that remains in West Virginia, where Reyes’ family remains so that his son can finish high school and play his last year of basketball as the team’s starting point guard.

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Left: Provost Reyes gives a speech at his welcome reception on September 14, 2021.

PHOTO: MIKE FAN

Right: (from left) UIC Provost Javier Reyes, Dr. Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis and Maritza Reyes attend a welcome reception for the provost on September 14, 2021.

“This university has invested in multicultural centers and student success centers, so we have this constellation of assets that not many universities have—but they’re not connected, and they’re not acting as a team yet,” Reyes says, adding that UIC’s challenges in attracting Black students and maintaining success in recruiting “I am patient, but I work on timelines. We start initiatives, Latinx students hinges on improvements in those areas. we set projects forward, and I say, ‘Okay, when will we “We're hitting a wall, but it’s an obstacle that we can have this done?’ And I check. And if you accepted the definitely overcome if we work as a team, following the challenge, yet you’re not getting it done—well, why JEDI way,” says Reyes. not? I’m very patient, and I’m not a person who likes pointing fingers. We’re all coming to the same table, One aspect of UIC that’s new for Reyes is its setting and we leave our egos at the door and work as a team,” in Chicago. Texas A&M, Arkansas and West Virginia Reyes says. are all southern institutions that dominate the college towns where they reside. UIC is different, and those And he does have big plans for online learning, even differences have Reyes excited. if the first step is to investigate, to listen and to build consensus.

“College towns have a higher hurdle to jump when it comes to internships, impacting the region or “We have to start looking at learning technologies to exposing students to the application of their learning bolster not only online education but also to support because they don’t have enough opportunities,” he our faculty to be creative in their classrooms and in says. “In Chicago, how many companies, nonprofits and their research,” Reyes says. government agencies do we have around us? There’s an infinite supply of opportunities to engage, so I want Similarly, he sees an opportunity when it comes to learn how to do that.” to recruiting and supporting students from underrepresented populations. He makes reference to Another prominent element in Reyes’ plans is to the JEDI way, which people may connect to Star Wars, continue to grow the research infrastructure of the but in this case, he uses the term to bring attention university and align it with important initiatives like the to his commitment to justice, equity, diversity and Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), a tech development Inclusion.

But there’s another way of looking at the same backdrop: this is a man with a scale model of the Death Star looming just over his shoulder. And there are times when Reyes knows the job of provost calls for sterner stuff.

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“The clusters where DPI wants to focus are also where [UIC] wants to focus—workforce development, education, health, innovation, entrepreneurship infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, transformative infrastructures, sustainability and inclusive communities,” Reyes says.

“

A Reluctant Path to Administrative Stardom Reyes is an economist by training and says the credit for his path to university administration belongs mostly to colleagues.

For example, the Mexico City native nearly eschewed academia altogether, in favor of a career in investment banking after graduating from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. But his supervisor at the investment firm where he interned told him to go to graduate school instead, so he moved to the United States to study at Texas A&M. He earned his doctoral degree there before accepting a faculty position at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, where a colleague inadvertently nudged him toward administration. That senior faculty member scolded him for spending too much time with undergraduate students, warning that it was an unwise move for someone with an eye on a career as a researcher. Reyes found that prospect unappealing.

"Students are where I draw my energy,” he says.

He remained ambivalent about a career in administration, but new promotions and opportunities kept coming his way, and Reyes excelled every time. Soon, he was a bona fide star within Arkansas’ administration, even if he remained unsure about his trajectory. When another offer rolled in—again unsolicited, this time to become vice provost for distance education—Reyes negotiated to ensure that if

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hub led by the University of Illinois System that shares some similarities with a business-development entity Reyes helped to create while at West Virginia. The DPI will be located just a mile from UIC’s campus, and Reyes believes its mission dovetails nicely with many of UIC’s other priorities. Because of that, he says hiring proposals will be evaluated in part based on whether they align with research and impactful initiatives like the DPI’s mission, alongside other factors, such as whether the new hires advance diversity and support areas that will drive or respond to enrollment growth.

he accepted the role, he also would remain on-track to becoming a full professor.

He got his wish, and eventually his tenured faculty position as well. But soon, even his colleagues in the business school had seen enough to bless his transition into administrative work.

“The dean told me, ‘You need to do this because it’s the right move. We’ve all seen in you some things that you don’t yet believe about yourself,’” Reyes recalls.

Indeed, Reyes’ success in building out Arkansas’ Global Campus online offerings is one of his most impressive feats yet, as he stewarded projects such as the creation of the Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design, which partners with faculty across a multitude of disciplines and engages students across the humanities and sciences—including theater, history, music, visual arts and computer engineering—to create digital learning assets for classical studies programs and is also connected to the Crystal Bridges Museum.

In 2016, after 13 years at Arkansas, Reyes left to become the dean of the business school at West Virginia, finally and fully embracing the notion of a career in academic administration.

That shift occurred just in time for a unique apprenticeship under a veteran university leader—West Virginia President Gordon Gee, who took Reyes under his wing to such an extent that Reyes described Gee as a grandparent to his two sons. Gee added Reyes to his cabinet, which “was like doing a postdoc in higher administration,” Reyes says.

Under Gee’s tutelage, Reyes flashed serious skills as a fundraiser, building a relationship with former Cisco CEO John Chambers and Putnam Investments CEO Bob Reynolds that resulted in the renaming of West Virginia’s business school in honor of John Chambers, and the launching of a campaign to build a new

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UIC Provost Javier Reyes with a sample of his Star Wars collection at his office in University Hall.

signature building at WVU for the Chambers College.

Reynolds Hall will be completed in April of 2022 and will be fully operational as the 2022–23 academic year gets underway in August of 2022.

The renaming of the college and the revitalization of WVU as a business and economic development engine for all West Virginia also spurred the creation of a business and economic development group called StartUp West Virginia, where Reyes held a vice president title and worked with politicians, government officials and corporate leaders. His signature win on that front came in late 2020, when West Virginia beat several other bidders to become the site of the Virgin Hyperloop Certification Center and later added emerging AI leading startup Data Robot to the ranks of companies partnering and working with WVU. Before long, Reyes emerged as a top candidate for provost-level roles at universities across the country.

He was happy at West Virginia, but found the UIC post enticing. He loved the profile of UIC, a highly rated, tier1 research institution with a commitment to diversity and standing as a Hispanic-Serving Institution—a designation given by the U.S. Department of Education to universities where Hispanic students account for at least a quarter of full-time students. A cadre of other Hispanic academicians encouraged him to pursue the job, and soon Reyes and his wife Maritza joined Chancellor Amiridis at a steakhouse overlooking the Chicago River.

Reyes felt like a long shot, but Amiridis quickly realized his search was over.

“Until then, everything had been done on Zoom, and I wanted to sit down with somebody across the table and get a gut feeling,” says Amiridis. The provost “is a person who works very closely with the chancellor, and who has to fit the culture and the principles of the university. And once we sat down, that was the moment I knew—‘This is for real. This is the person.’”

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

Now Reyes is on UIC’s campus, staying in the residence halls and relishing this first opportunity to immerse himself in the campus experience while he awaits his family’s arrival in Chicago. He exudes enthusiasm and potential—not unlike a talented freshman settling into the residence halls for the first time. The next years for him will be full of learning, exploration, growth and discovery, and in that way he has plenty in common with his undergraduate friends at the JST front desk. ●

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COURTESY: AMERICAN FRAMING

UIC presents its contribution to the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale

By Ana Sekler MA ’08

Spectacularly Ordinary

UBIQUITY

Wood-framed construction, found in more than 90% of new homes in America, was the subject of UIC’s commissionership of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. This uniquely American method of building, and perhaps also one of the country’s most overlooked contributions to architecture, was brought to the fore by exhibition co-curators and faculty members at UIC’s School of Architecture, Professor Paul Preissner and Clinical Associate Professor Paul Andersen.

American Framing presented the ubiquitous construction method through a varied collection of works including: a four-story installation designed by Preissner and Andersen, which formed a new façade for the historic pavilion. By presenting the public with something so common that it goes unnoticed, the exhibit aimed to show how the ordinary can also be consequential.

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COURTESY: AMERICAN FRAMING

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COLLECTIVITY

COURTESY: AMERICAN FRAMING

Wood framing has no single origin; instead, it was developed collectively across the United States. In much the same way, UIC students collaborated to research and develop digital models of wood-frame structures, which ranged from Sears catalog and mobile homes to farmhouses and refugee cottages. Then, they built the digital models into scale models. The student models and the photography by alumnus Daniel Shea MFA ’13 work to consider the history and potential of wood framing as a creative force. But where the students’ scale models focus on presenting a timeline with concrete visual depictions of wood framing in America, Shea’s photographs provide an abstract view, creating a poetic space for reflection.

COURTESY: AMERICAN FRAMING

INNOVATION

Wood-frame construction experiments, improvises and remains accessible and egalitarian, and in this way, American. From the set of furniture designed by UIC Clinical Assistant Professor Ania Jaworska and one designed by UIC Assistant Professor Thomas Kelley and Carrie Norman to the four-story façade, the exhibit also experiments with the usual form of architectural exhibitions, which present mainly drawings and models of buildings. Uniquely American, and in many ways also uniquely UIC, American Framing proposed a deep look at the overlooked. The 17th edition of the Biennale took place from May 22–November 21, 2021. ●

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By Joe Engleman MUPP ’21 Photos by Joshua Clark BFA ’08

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ach year, the UIC Alumni Association honors alumni who demonstrate the highest level of professional and humanitarian achievement and dedication to the university. The impact of this year’s honorees can be seen and felt in the Chicago area, across the country and around the world. This year’s honorees include Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun BA ’69; former Botswana health minister and international HIV/AIDS activist Dr. Sheila Dinotshe Tlou PhD ’90; health equity expert Dr. David A. Ansell MPH ’91; architect John Ochoa BArch ’78; Department of Health and Human Services staffer Captain Todd Stankewicz MPH and MBA ’01; Women in White Coats cofounder Dr. Archana Reddy Shresthra BA ’98, MD ’04; and maxillofacial surgeon and international medical volunteer Dr. Melissa Sioux Amundson BS ’05, DDS ’07.

What these honorees have in common is a UIC education that laid the foundations for careers, public service and volunteer work that has changed the world for the better. The UIC community could not be prouder of their accomplishments so far and the many more to come.

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN Alumni Achievement Award

Amid the tumultuous backdrop of summers in the 1960s Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun BA ’69 wondered if college was for her. “UIC saved me,” she recalls. “I had been ready to drop out of college. The fact that UIC embraced me made it possible for me to get a college education.” Her time at UIC was “the beginning of everything,” she says. “UIC opened a lot of doors for me.” Circle Campus was where she held her first elected office after running for and winning a student government seat on fellow alumnus Tony Podesta’s BA ’67 Action Party slate.

After graduating, Braun attained a law degree from the University of Chicago and joined the U.S. Attorney’s office. Eventually she was drafted to run for Illinois House of Representatives, and went on to serve in Springfield for a decade. She was the first woman and person of color to be named assistant minority leader and earned the title, “the conscience of the house.”

After being elected and serving as Cook County Recorder of Deeds in 1988, she set her sights on breaking a glass ceiling at the federal level. Amid the righteous outrage over the treatment of Anita Hill by the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee and the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, Braun ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. She defeated incumbent senator Al “The Pal” Dixon, and then went on to win the general election.

Braun became the first Black woman ever elected to the Senate and only the fourth Black person elected to the Senate since the end of Reconstruction. After a term in the U.S. Senate, President Bill Clinton appointed Braun to the position of U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in 1999.

Reflecting on her own experience, and surely echoing the sentiments of many alumni, the ambassador says, “UIC — it’s the opportunity school.”

SHEILA

DINOTSHE

TLOU Alumni Achievement Award

Professor Sheila Dinotshe Tlou PhD ’90, RN, FAAN has worked at the forefront of public health and the HIV/ AIDS crisis in Botswana, across the continent of Africa and around the world for decades. Professor Tlou’s tenure in public service and activism has given her a new power. “As I’ve gotten older, I have gotten to be able to say exactly what I want,” Tlou says. “I’m known now as ‘the lady who tells it the way it is.’” One of the biggest challenges has been “working with political leaders who are not attuned to the needs of their people.” What she wants people to understand is that "health is a political choice.”

So how exactly do you get to be the lady who tells it the way it is? Drive, determination and a PhD in nursing from UIC, that Tlou says is “the foundation for everything I was able to do with my career.” During Tlou’s time at UIC, she had the opportunity to work with Beverly McElmurry, EdD, RN, FAAN and Professor Emerita Kathleen Norr and came to appreciate the culture of connectedness and collaboration which would define her domestic and international work on HIV/AIDS and public health. As a symbol of that connectedness within the UIC community, the Nursing faculty and staff arranged to have Professor Tlou walk at May graduation before she completed her dissertation—an honor she remains grateful for.

Tlou’s accomplishments include serving as a member of Botswana’s Parliament and Botswana’s Minister of Health—the first nurse to do so. During her tenure, she oversaw the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child decrease from 30% to 8% and the AIDS maternal mortality rate decrease from 38% to 9%. Currently, Tlou co-chairs the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, serves as a Special Ambassador for the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and works as chancellor of Botswana Open University. The key to her successes has been a focus on enlisting civil society in the fight for public health. “You can’t do anything without civil society. I tell [leaders] ‘involve communities.’” Health is made in the community,” she says, “hospitals are for repairs.”

DAVID A. ANSELL Alumni Achievement Award

At a young age, Dr. David A. Ansell MPH ’91 knew he wanted to tackle “these great gaps in our society in who gets what and why.” He decided to become a doctor. “I knew something was seriously wrong with our health care system. I knew that health insurance was unfair, I knew there was racism and other forms of social oppression that were causing poor health, but I didn’t know what to do. I went to Cook County Hospital to train, and that was where I learned not only how to be a good doctor, but about social medicine itself.”

Ansell spent 17 years at County. During that time, he launched a breast cancer program to address the gaps in treatment options on the West Side and enrolled in UIC’s master’s program in public health, part-time, to develop the skillset he needed to “evaluate whether the program was having an impact.” After graduating from UIC, he spent a decade at Mount Sinai, launching the Sinai Urban Health Center. He became the first chief medical officer at Rush University, and now he works as the senior vice president for community health equity in addition to seeing patients.

In 2017, Ansell published “The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills,” which sought to raise public consciousness about “these large neighborhood, often race-based, life expectancy gaps that are inherently unjust and driven by social and structural conditions,” he says. “Not your typical biological determinants of health—not genes, not genetics, not beliefs or behaviors.” Ansell says the coronavirus pandemic and George Floyd’s murder have made many more people aware of these systemic disparities. “I’m not sure we’re going to get to the deeply meaningful solutions, at least in the short term,” he says, but the resilience, organizing and envisioning work done by community organizations on the West Side gives him hope for the long term.

JOHN OCHOA Humanitarian Award

Like many college graduates, John Ochoa BArch ’78 admits that he fell out of touch with his alma mater.

The late nights in the Art and Architecture Building, where he was exposed to “Architecture with a capital A” and studied with professors including Félix Candela, best known for his curvy concrete structures, gave way to days and evenings at the architecture firm FGM Architects (FGMA), working on buildings that help anchor communities, such as Unity Junior High School in Cicero, Illinois, a project recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Institute of Architects.

When Susan Nealey BArch ’85, a UIC graduate and young architect at FGMA, passed away in 1999, Ochoa, then the CEO of FGMA, and the staff decided to endow an annual architecture scholarship in Nealey’s memory.

Establishing the FGMA/Susan Nealey scholarship at UIC put Ochoa back in touch with classmate Mark Dewalt BArch ’77, who was an alumni volunteer. Ochoa went on to serve in alumni leadership positions at UIC and the University of Illinois System for many years, not to mention an array of committees whose focuses range from awards to operations.

Now Ochoa, originally from Chicago’s Southwest side, has 20 years of alumni service to his credit. While being a Flame is a family affair (two siblings, two brothersin-law and his son are all alumni), it’s the faculty, staff, alumni and students that make his volunteer work worthwhile. “It’s humbling to see the work being done at UIC,” Ochoa says. “There are so many smart people.

The alumni and university have so many incredible accomplishments.”

TODD

STANKEWICZ Distinguished Service Award

Todd Stankewicz MPH and MBA ’01 is a pharmacist by training, a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and a regional emergency coordinator with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office (DHHS) of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

A UIC classmate introduced Stankewicz to a fellow pharmacist and Commissioned Corps member, giving him a public service trajectory to emulate. After graduation, he worked as an investigator for the Food and Drug Administration and later as a policy expert on the rollout of Medicare Part D. Since 2015, Stankewicz has been the DHHS liaison to the state health and federal entities that deploy to disasters and emergencies such as Hurricanes Harvey and Maria and the Flint lead water crisis. Typically, he works in an operations center near the frontlines to help ensure clear communication among the responding agencies and cut across the bureaucratic fault lines that can arise.

“In the past, our organization was used to responding to relatively short-term and finite events, primarily natural disasters or national security events,” Stankewicz says.

The coronavirus changed all of that. “We had never been challenged with an ongoing public health event of this magnitude,” he continues.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stankewicz coordinated efforts to evacuate Americans from Wuhan, China, and passengers on the Grand Princess cruise ship; assisted states in securing personal protective equipment and ventilators; and worked on the distribution and rollout of vaccines and vaccination sites. Amid the variant waves, that work included working with state health agencies to deploy federal emergency response teams to support hospitals in cities and states facing major infection and hospitalization surges.

ARCHANA

REDDY

SHRESTHA Rising Star Award

“I didn’t start medical school thinking I would be an emergency physician,” Dr. Archana Reddy Shrestha BA ’98, MD ’04 says, recalling her first steps into the emergency room at UIC on a pediatrics rotation.

“But after being there, I knew it was the only thing I wanted to do.” As Shrestha became both a parent and full-time attending physician in an emergency room, she struggled with “double burnout.” She knew she needed to make a change. Rather than trying to be a “superwoman,” she realized she needed to be “the CEO of my life.” Shrestha recognized that she wasn’t alone and needed “a team to help” her achieve a more holistic balance between work and home life.

Now she sees it as her mission to help women doctors “step into their power again and feel in control of their lives.” She does this through her work as assistant professor of clinical sciences for Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School, the founder of Mighty Mom, MD, and the co-founder and Chief Wellness Officer of Women in White Coats.

Women in White Coats, as it exists today, emerged from a 2018 book, “The Chronicle of Women in White Coats,” which Shrestha contributed to, and compiled the stories of 20 women doctors, covering everything from inequitable pay to #MeToo in medicine. It’s grown into a continuing medical education, coaching and support organization. “Coaching women doctors gives me tremendous satisfaction,” Shrestha says. “I know all the different challenges they face because I've been there. Truly, my mission is to uplift and empower them through the ups and downs of career and life.”

MELISSA

SIOUX

AMUNDSON Rising Star Award

In 2020, as COVID-19 pushed university classes and meetings to Zoom, Dr. Melissa Sioux Amundson BS ’05, DDS ’07 found a novel use for the software— supervising surgery at Noma Children’s Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria. As the first and only American oral maxillofacial surgeon working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders in English).

Amundson’s deployments with MSF began in fall 2016 with month-long trips to Sokoto. Noma is a virulent, bacterial infection of the gums, which preys on malnourished children. The World Health Organization estimates that the disease has a 90% fatality rate, and the 10% who survive often cannot open their mouths or chew. Although the pandemic put her first international intervention on hold, she planned to join an MSF team heading to Sokoto earlier this year.

Amundson’s service-oriented dentistry grew in part from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant that gave UIC dentistry students the opportunity to do volunteer work in underserved communities. While completing her residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital at University of Miami, a colleague approached her about doing medical work in Honduras. Soon she began traveling to the main teaching and public hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, hiring the staff, and even purchasing some of the hardware and equipment.

When not doing volunteer work, Amundson practices at nonprofit Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Trauma Clinic, which serves Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

The most rewarding part of her work is training surgeons and seeing the changes that the maxillofacial surgeries she performs can bring. “I get pictures on WhatsApp from patients who one, two and three years later can open their mouths with full function. It completely changes their lives,” she says. “To be able to give that back to them, to help people in that regard really is what keeps me going back.” ●

Urban Planner Paulina Martínez MUPP ’16 helps improve communities with intentional economic development.

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UNIQUELY UIC

She connects with the communities and the cannabis industry to attract and retain businesses in neighborhoods hungry for their services and investment. When she first arrived at the organization, Martínez says she “learned that the South and West Sides of Chicago have more purchasing power than I imagined. These communities are good partners, and they’re open for business.” Her goal is to help harness the economic opportunities offered by the cannabis industry and through entrepreneurship.

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She helps community partners identify small business owners’ needs and connect them to resources. At the same time, her work is informed by the quality of life plans created by the neighborhoods themselves.

This focuses her efforts on retention and attraction strategies that keep small businesses desired by the neighbors in the area, such as grocery stores, retail banking, gyms, coffee shops, sit-down restaurants, laundromats and dry cleaners—anchors that pull in other businesses and well-paid jobs.

Martínez was introduced to World Business Chicago when she began her Master of Urban Policy and Planning program. She obtained an internship there through a partnership with UIC. The internship

COURTESY: PAULINA MARTINEZ

aulina Martínez MUPP ’16 wanted to make a positive difference in communities, but her career in the travel industry didn’t give her the chance.

She was intrigued with the impact policy can have, and she turned to UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs to develop the skills she needed for an urban policy career. Today, she develops small businesses and cannabis at World Business Chicago, where her projects aim to help reverse decades of public and private disinvestment in Chicago’s neighborhoods.

included a scholarship. “I don’t know how I would have paid for graduate school if it weren’t for that,” she says.

Almost everyone she met while interning at World Business Chicago had also graduated from UIC and wanted to share their experiences and advice, including that she should start looking for a full-time job months before graduating. Martínez listened and was hired by the City of Evanston and promoted to assistant to the city manager.

In Evanston, she rewrote grant application guidelines to help more businesses get pandemic relief funds, educated district leaders on the benefits of pursuing special service area status and implemented a language-access program to help limited English proficiency populations access services from the city. About eight months ago, Martínez “came full circle” and returned to World Business Chicago.

“I can’t imagine my life being the way it is without UIC,” says Martínez. “The mission of UIC is something that has made me extremely proud.”—Bridget Esangga

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Hollywood Producer

White House Fellow

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r. Garth Walker MD ‘14 became a White House Fellow in the Office of the Surgeon General after serving at the Illinois Department of Public Health through the early days of the pandemic.

“Being able to show up for the people of Illinois and for our country during this time are two of my biggest achievements,” he says.

Walker arrived at UIC for medical school after he became interested in the economic barriers to receiving good health care during a stint in Washington D.C.’s public schools. He received a Dean’s Merit Scholarship that allowed him to pursue specialties and experiences he might not have otherwise. “The College of Medicine culture emphasizes community service and thinking about health care beyond clinical medicine,” he says. “It was a very formative time.”

He also earned a Master of Public Health from Northwestern University where he serves as an associate professor. He says he hopes to bring lessons from the Surgeon General’s office back home when the fellowship ends. —Bridget Esangga

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athan Ross JD ’98 is an award-winning Hollywood producer who has never lost touch with his Chicago roots or midwestern values. Growing up in Northbrook, Illinois, he knew he wanted to attend law school, but didn’t plan to litigate in the courtroom.

At UIC Law, he learned negotiating and problem solving before moving to Los Angeles to work at a major talent agency representing filmmakers. He climbed the ranks and became a motion picture literary agent before launching a production career by working with the late Jean-Marc Vallée on 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club” and founding Crazyrose Films together. “Dallas Buyer’s Club” was nominated for Best Picture at the 86th Academy Awards, and their subsequent projects received major accolades. Ross’s credits include “Big Little Lies,” which won eight Emmys; Sharp Objects; Wild; and Demolition. His upcoming projects include the the limited series “Lady in the Lake” (Apple), starring Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o; “Players Table” (HBO Max), starring Sydney Sweeney and Halsey; the film John & Yoko (Universal); and Gorilla and the Bird (HBO), among others.

“I knew I wanted to use my skills for movies, music or sports,” Ross says. Whether it is working on “development, production, post-production, marketing, publicity or awards consideration, the acquisition of rights to any form of intellectual property, making deals with talent. Every day is different as a producer.”

—Christopher Beach

READ, WRITE AND SHARE CLASS NOTES ONLINE go.uic.edu/classnotes Tell us about births, weddings, promotions, adventures, transformations and alumni who’ve passed away.

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Inspire Tomorrow’s Students Help us encourage the next generation of students to enroll at UIC. The Alumni Admissions Program is flexible, allowing you to participate as your schedule allows. Learn more about the program and alumni admissions volunteer opportunities in 2022 by visiting the link below.

Visit go.uic.edu/aav.

COURTESY: CARYN SCHULTZ KORMAN

Leaving a Legacy

Both leaders have navigated us through significant change and growth that will power UIC’s trajectory and shape our future for generations to come. We are a better institution because of their service. While we wish Chancellor Amiridis well in his next role and will always welcome him back to campus with open arms, Bill will remain connected. He will be as present at UIC as ever, continuing to support our mission in new roles on an ongoing basis. Bill is, after all, the first men’s basketball scholarship recipient and exemplifies the life-changing impact of a UIC education every day. He dedicates countless hours of his time to UIC and we are beyond grateful for his past contributions and continued commitment, especially to the UIC Alumni Board.

As I reflect on the legacies of both Chancellor Amiridis and Bill Merchantz, I’m reminded and appreciative of the hundreds of alumni volunteers who surrounded both of them in helping to drive UIC’s mission forward each day. Alumni take on shortand long-term commitments of all kinds in the life cycle of UIC. Among a student’s first UIC experiences may be engaging with

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alumni who, through the Alumni Admissions Program, are offering encouragement to choose UIC. Throughout a UIC education students are touched by alumni who mentor, speak in classes, judge research projects and provide internships and jobs.

Even after graduation, alumni connect, network and socialize with one another through programming the UICAA provides.

Last month was National Volunteer Month.

To all our alumni volunteers, we are deeply indebted to you. We know giving your time back to your alma mater isn’t always easy, but we hope it is rewarding. If you haven’t volunteered yet or are considering how you might, I encourage you to visit go.uic.edu/ alumniassociation/get-involved today and review the variety of opportunities available.

Each of you is an integral piece of UIC’s success, and we look forward to the legacy you will create as you carry us forward.

Chancellor Amiridis and Bill Merchantz certainly set stellar examples for us to follow.

— CARYN SCHULTZ KORMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

uicalumni@uic.edu facebook.com/UICAlumni twitter.com/UIC_Alumni @UICAlumni go.uic.edu.linkedin go.uic.edu/alumni go.uic.edu/connected

LETTER TO ALUMNI

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hen change is pending, we reflect on challenges, accomplishments and relationships from the past that will mark a legacy and the foundation for the new era ahead. As we approach the summer, UIC will go through a transition as both Chancellor Michael Amiridis assumes his next position as president of the University of South Carolina and Bill Merchantz BS ’79 concludes his term as UICAA founding alumni board chair.

SPRING 2022

Problem Solver

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PHOTO: ETHAN G. BROWN

athryn Howard, a social psychology doctoral candidate in UIC’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is ready to take on what she sees as the biggest challenges of our time. Her research examines how political stances affect our attitudes toward diversity. Here’s what she has to say about her time at UIC and her future.

CLOSING NOTE

WHY UIC? I wanted the big city experience. UIC faculty and students were welcoming during my first campus visit, and they took us out for the best free food: deep dish pizza.

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WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESS AT UIC? I got a first author publication in a big journal, I have another article going to press and I chaired a symposium. Getting through classes and enjoying them is also a success. I kept my head above water and made wonderful, close friends.

HOW CAN YOUR RESEARCH IMPACT THE WORLD? I hope it can help ease ideological conflict.

To create effective policy and interventions, you have to understand why people behave the way they do. My biggest impact is in understanding the smaller processes, but by publishing work and talking to other scientists, we can build a bigger literature to help impact policy making.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? I would like to become a professor, continue my research, mentor students and create a research lab. I enjoyed being a teaching assistant; it’s an incredible thing to see an undergraduate get excited and hungry for results. The ultimate job of a professor is to teach, and when that works, it’s a good feeling.

WHAT’S YOUR BEST MEMORY ON CAMPUS? Drinking coffee in University Hall watching the people walk by, and the sun setting and feeling happy with my data analysis.

—Bridget Esangga Visit go.uic.edu/alumniexchange to see Howard’s Alumni Exchange presentation How Conservatives and Liberals View Diversity Differently.

SPRING 2022

You Are UIC, Now Get UIC Connected

UIC Connected is a virtual networking platform exclusive to UIC where alumni and students can go to connect and grow.

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Create connections, build networks.

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Mentor students.

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Seek advice or expertise.

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Customize involvement to meet your needs.

Join now at go.uic.edu/connected.

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