Beacons Fall 2022

“ WHAT DESERVES A FUTURE ? WHAT WILL BE IN THE FUTURES THAT WE OURSELVES CREATE?

. . . ENGAGING IN A RUTHLESS CRITICISM OF EVERYTHING EXISTING, WE POSIT OURSELVES AS PRACTITIONERS OF CURIOSITY, AS INVENTORS OF OUR TIMES, AS CATALYSTS OF CHANGE.”

JFK Award for Academic Excellence winner MG XIONG ’22 at UMass Boston’s 54th Commencement ceremony.

For the

Times With a new strategic plan, UMass Boston takes on four defining challenges of our times: health equity, climate resilience, justice, and education.

We’re rolling out a new feature to stay connected with our readers! In each issue of Beacons, we’ll ask you to share your thoughts and experiences on a variety of topics. For this issue, we asked our readers:

What’s the best place to study or hang out on campus?

38%

“The ISC was one of my favorite places! I loved studying there with the gorgeous view of the harbor.”

RESHMEEN CHOWDHURY ’22

“Campus Center for hanging out and studying. Healey Library for quiet studying.”

ALEX LI ’19

DAVID MANNING ’15

For our next issue, send your answers to alumni@umb.edu. Don’t forget to include your full name and class year.

What is the best piece of advice you received in college?

“I studied in the student government space and hung out on the third floor of the Campus Center.”

CAMPUS CENTER

AT FALL CONVOCATION IN SEPTEMBER, we welcomed Beacons back to a rebranded and energized campus for the new academic year. Former White House Climate Adviser and UMass Boston alumna Gina McCarthy ’76 was there. And she had a message for us.

It is time for renewal. And it is time for resilience. If UMass Boston is to be—as our new 10-year strategic plan boldly asserts—a university for the times, we must meet the moment. We must rise to the task of making the world better, through our education, research, and service.

The fall 2022 issue of our beautifully redesigned magazine, Beacons, chronicles some of the ways UMass Boston is already hard at work moving the needle on four challenges of our time.

Tackling health inequity—by diversifying the nursing workforce and creating a pioneering urban public health department to renew our commitment that nobody’s health should be left behind.

Collaborating with municipalities in Boston to document climate inequity—by generating climate risk projections and crafting mitigation strategies to protect vulnerable communities from sea level rise.

Addressing racial inequity—by researching how prejudice and social isolation worsen the health, mental health, and financial hardships of Asian Americans with limited English proficiency.

And shaping a new education for the future paradigm—by partnering with private industry, school districts, and other universities to bolster science education and leadership in K-12 schools.

Indeed, as Gina McCarthy noted at Convocation, “I know so many of you are here because you already have a commitment to a better, more equitable world . . . So now it’s your chance to take hold of these inequities. It’s your chance to take advantage of the education this school has to offer so you can embrace the change that we all want and need to see. This is your time to shine.”

Yes, it is. Going forward, UMass is positioned to build on its distinctive strengths—innovative, student-centered learning; the advancement of knowledge and discovery in service of the public good; and basic and translational research that moves the world forward and is for the times.

I hope you are as inspired as I am by the better future UMass Boston will have a hand in creating.

Sincerely,

BEACONS

Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco Provost Joseph Berger

Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Adam Wise

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Engagement Allison Duffy

Director of Alumni Engagement Steven Whittemore

Communications Specialist Vanessa Chatterley

Art Director Kaajal Asher kaajalasher.com

Copy Editor Sasha Nyary sashanyary.com

Contributors Danielle Bilotta Andrea Kennedy DeWayne Lehman Crystal Valencia G’14 David Walberg

Photos and Illustrations

Allie Crawford ’22 Bob Durling Photography Chris Ferenzi John Gillooly Sarah Hanson Bartosz Kosowski Elizabeth Kramp ’25 Matthew Mikaelian Alex Nabaum Javier Rivas

Beacons magazine celebrates the accomplishments and impact of the UMass Boston community and the lasting connection alumni and friends have with UMass Boston, Boston State College, and our legacy schools.

We welcome your inquiries, ideas, and comments. Please share them with the UMass Boston Alumni Engagement team at 617.287.5330 or alumni@umb.edu.

UMass Boston is positioned to build on its distinctive strengths.

MARCELO SUÁREZ-OROZCO Chancellor

From

The Tea

Five new Fulbrights

Five UMass Boston students and alumni have been selected to receive awards through the Department of State’s prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The highly competitive scholarship opportunity provides funding for American students to conduct research or teach English in more than 140 countries.

Recipients are selected based on academic and professional achievement, plus their records of service and leadership potential in their fields.

“It’s a thrill to see so many wonderfully deserving UMass Boston students and alums win,” said Louise Penner, director of National and International Fellowships. “UMass Boston students make terrific applicants for Fulbright and other major awards. They bring their intelligence and rich life experiences to the application process.”

Social studies teacher MEGAN BRADY G’18 earned her master’s degree in history at UMass Boston. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, Brady hopes to compare the education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina to her own experiences in U.S. public schools.

Fulbright Research Award–winner DEBORAH DAUDA ’23 , a PhD student in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development, will travel to Nigeria in January to assess strategies for bridging the provider gap in mental health services for Nigerian university women who have experienced sexual harassment.

FALIANNE FORGES ’22 , an advocate for linguistic justice who graduated with a double major in English and Africana studies and a minor in race, literature, and ethnicity, will travel to Kenya to train English teachers and provide English instruction for secondary and university students.

Applied linguistics graduate student SONJA HAAKONSEN G’23 embarked in September to teach English for 10 months in Bulgaria, where she hopes to develop further as a teacher.

TRISTAN SUAREZ ’19, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and is pursuing a career in ethnographic research in Northern Asia, will begin teaching English in Mongolia in January.

Beacons pitcher signed to Toronto Blue Jays

Beacons pitcher Alex Amalfi ’23 signed with Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays in July, becoming the third player in UMass Boston baseball history tapped for an MLB contract.

"It was always my dream to play professional baseball and I always just wanted the opportu nity,” said Amalfi, who was an undrafted free agent. “But no, I never honestly thought it would happen. I had confidence in myself the whole time, but when the opportunity came up, it still took me by surprise."

The Ashland native, a red-shirt junior for the Beacons in 2022, was rated as one of New England’s top right-handed hurlers all season. He set new Beacon Athletics records for strikeouts in a game, with 18, and a season, with 101—a total that ranked him 15th in Division III baseball.

"[Alex] has worked his tail off while being a Beacon and really developed into an elite pitcher. . . . The Blue Jays organization is getting a great person, player, and teammate,” said UMass Boston baseball coach Brendan Eygabroat.

Eygabroat also coached Beacons outfielder Jamill Moquete, a 32nd-round draft pick for the Baltimore Orioles in 2014. In 1990, Beacon Steve Coffey was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 20th round.

“

Voting is a priceless right and a solemn duty.”

– UMass President Marty Meehan and the chancellors of each campus, in a joint statement about joining 440 other U.S. colleges and universities in the non-partisan ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

Educating early educators

UMass Boston’s Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation has received $3.8 million in grants from the state to run professional development and training programs for Massachusetts early educators. The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) awarded the institute $2.5 million to manage and enhance the delivery of professional development and training for licensed early educators through EEC’s regional StrongStart Professional Development Centers. The state also awarded the Early Ed Leadership Institute $753,469 to operate the MetroBoston StrongStart Professional Development Center and $600,000 to scale up its Early Education Quality through Instructional Leadership (EQIIL) professional learning model. EQIIL supports early education and care leaders to

use job-embedded professional learning to promote instructional quality and a culture of continuous learning.

“We’re gratified by this endorsement of our work by the state’s Department of Early Education and Care,” said Anne Douglass, founder and executive director of the Early Ed Leadership Institute and a professor of early education at UMass Boston. “When we launched the StrongStart Professional Development Centers in late 2019 in partnership with the state, our goal was to create a system of high quality, asset-based professional learning, leadership coaching, training, and technical assistance services that recognize and celebrate the expertise and the diversity that exists throughout the workforce. We accomplished that and so much more.”21.5%

facility to study molecular interactions, from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

establish a quantum computing R&D lab and quantum workforce training, from the Mass. Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

to create the Project Teachers Learning with Counselors program for master’s degree candidates in special education and school adjustment counseling, from the U.S. Dept. of Education.

to launch a health equity internship program at the Gastón Institute, from the Cummings Foundation.

Professor of Latin American and Iberian Studies Reyes Coll-Tellechea, whom Mayor Michelle Wu named chair of Boston's Human Rights Commission in June.

Chemistry doctoral candidate Genevieve Asselin has received a prestigious research award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research. The award will enable Asselin to pursue part of her graduate thesis research on magnesium

electrolytes at DoE's Advanced Photon Source facility in Lemont, Illinois. Deeper knowledge of magnesium electron transfer could contribute to the development of cheaper, more sustainable batteries than today's lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).

“Our world revolves around the need for energy, but LIBs alone will not be able to meet the long-term demands,” Asselin said. “Magnesium-ion batteries are a realistic and promising replacement.”

Asselin is thrilled that the program has given access to expert scientists and advanced research techniques.

“I’m looking forward to being able to learn from some of the best in battery chemistry,” she said. “I think this research is going to produce very interesting and illuminating results and I can’t wait to see what we find.”

CEHD prof receives early career award

Abiola Farinde-Wu, assistant professor of urban education, leadership and policy studies, has received the American Educational Research Association’s annual Division K Early Career Award for her research on recruiting and retaining Black teachers.

AERA is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning.

“As researchers, we all try to engage in meaningful, impactful, and powerful work for the public good,” she said. “To be recognized by my peers and the academic community for my scholar ship is both humbling and mind-blowing.

I hope that Black and Brown women in academia see my picture and think, ‘If she can do it, so can I.’ ”

PhD student works toward next-gen batteries

“I believe that the highest function of knowledge in academia is service.”

Student Q&A: Navasz Hansotia ’23

From Mumbai to UMB

Q: When you were looking for undergraduate schools, did you know you wanted to come to the United States?

Yes. However, I always thought it would be for law school. About two years into an undergraduate degree in business in Mumbai, I resolved to move and start a new chapter in my life, even if it meant being two years behind the conventional academic track. Fortunately, UMass Boston accepted my credits from my university in India, putting me on track to graduate, and for that I am very grateful.

Q: What made you choose UMass Boston?

Having lived in a large metropolitan area all my life, UMass Boston’s urban campus just a few minutes away from the heart of Boston drew me to it. It is known as one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the United States so the inclusion made me feel seen and heard. UMass Boston offered me generous aid and scholarships to support my pursuit of education, and numerous passionate professors who are experts in the political science and philoso phy/law department.

Q: What was the biggest culture shock for you?

How large a “large soda” is really surprised me! I also never understood why dinner is served at

6 p.m.—I would need at least two meals after that time. The lack of available taxis and price of an Uber is a bit disappointing. In Mumbai, public transport is very acces sible and affordable, and if you do choose to travel via taxi, they are much easier to hail, similar to New York.

Q: What extracurricular experiences have you been a part of while a student?

The PACE (Professional Apprenticeship Career Experience) program has been a great shaping force in my journey. It is a paid on-campus position where students hone skills connected to their career interests and receive amazing hands-on mentorship. I have also been a part of Debate Club, Pre-Law Society, and a team of Beacon Ambassadors. These have all contributed toward my critical thinking skills and collaboration with peers.

Q: How has UMass Boston played a role in where you are today?

It welcomed me and allowed me to make this university my new home. Studying and working at UMass Boston has helped me to develop skills of research and analysis and has given me life-long bonds to cherish. My professors served as pillars of motivation and support, and the courses they taught reaffirmed my passion in the field of law.

Q: What’s one of your favorite memories from your time at UMass Boston?

Admiring the sunlight glimmer over the ocean with my peers between classes was one of my favorite things. It was a perfect break from the chaos. I remember the feeling of my first day of classes, eager to start a new chapter in my life as I wandered through the corridors: very lost but also very excited!

Q: What are your plans for after you graduate?

Go to law school and travel, and explore the city further. Once I receive my J.D, I will practice law here in the United States. Regardless of where my journey takes me, UMass Boston will always be close to my heart. Once a Beacon, always a Beacon!

Navasz Hansotia ’23 is one of the nearly 17,000 students pursuing their academic goals at UMass Boston today. Next month, she’ll join our growing alumni family when she earns her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

Sprinting to gold

With a blistering 12.58-second 100-meter dash this May, freshman sprinter Dorinda Okorji ’25 won Beacons Track & Field’s first Little East Conference gold medal since 2018. The following week, the LEC named Okorji to its 2022 First Team All-Conference and All-Rookie teams, making her the only student-athlete in program history to earn both honors.

Okorji’s success was one element of an exciting spring for Beacon Athletics as a whole. All six spring teams qualified for their conference tournaments, and men’s tennis and lacrosse both brought LEC titles home to UMass Boston.

The Beacons’ accomplishments weren’t just athletic: Sixty-one student-athletes were named to the LEC 2022 Spring All-Academic Team this year. The women’s cross-country squad won the conference’s Team Academic Award for the first time in program history, hoisting a GPA of 3.57, one of the highest in the LEC.

Spotlight on banned books

Honors College Ambassadors Maddie Lessard ’23 and Sami Sanghvi ’23, with support from Associate Dean Megan Rokop, hosted a Banned Book Fair on campus in April to highlight literature excluded from K-12 school libraries across the country.

According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, in 2021 there were 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services, affecting 1,597 books. The ALA noted a focus on demands to remove books that addressed racism and racial justice or those that shared the stories of Black or Indigenous people, or people of color.

“UMass Boston is one of the most diverse universities in the country, and a lot of these books are banned because they touch upon topics that are about diversity,” said Megan Rokop, associate dean of the Honors College.

“We wanted to highlight for our current student population the books that are on racial, gender, and sexual issues. We thought it was really important,” said Lessard.

One of the books on display was written by UMass Boston faculty member Susan Tan. Tan is an award-winning English professor and well-regarded children’s literature writer. Her Cilla Lee-Jenkins series, which features an Asian American protagonist, was banned by a school board in Pennsylvania. After students protested, the ban was overturned.

“The students of the district organized and conducted a breathtaking campaign against the ban. It was such an inspiring and powerful example of young people asserting their right to be heard and taken into account in their own educations. And they won!” said Tan.

A Pennsylvania school board’s ban on Asst. Prof. Susan Tan’s Cilla Lee-Jenkins series was overturned, thanks to student advocacy.

Alumni and Faculty Bookshelf

JEAN RHODES, the Frank L. Boyden Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring, has been named the 2023 winner of the prestigious Eleanor Maccoby Book Award from the American Psychological Association’s Developmental Psychology Division for her new book, Older and Wiser: New Ideas for Youth Mentoring in the 21st Century. The Maccoby Award honors a book in the field of psychology that has had or promises to have a profound effect on developmental psychology, including promoting “high standards for the application of scientific knowledge on human development to public policy issues.”

Older and Wiser draws on more than 30 years of empirical research to survey the state of youth mentoring and concludes that there’s insufficient evidence that even the most well-known mentoring programs are effective. Despite these findings, Rhodes also shows that new, evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people’s lives.

In The Journey to a Dope Life: How Traveling the World Can Teach You How to Live a Dope Life, TALITA

GUERRERO ’15 takes readers on a self-improvement journey as she inspires them to dream big. The book explores how making transforma tional life changes can put readers on the path to living and doing what makes them happy every day.

Adopting the adage of living life like there’s no tomorrow, A Dope Life is described as “the starting place for the new life you’ve been searching for, a journey that can transform your life.”

America Made Me a Black Man is a searing memoir by BOYAH FARAH G’08, an American who survived hardships in his birth country only to experience firsthand the dehumaniza tion of living as a Black person in the U.S. Born in Somalia and raised among nomads, Farah grew up with a code of male bravado that helped him survive deprivation, disease, and civil war. Arriving in America, Boyah found systemic racism, police brutality, and intense prejudice in all areas of life, including the workplace. He learned not only what it means to be an African in America, but what it means to be African American.

In Chasing the American Dream in China: Chinese Americans in the Ancestral Homeland, Assistant Professor of Sociology LESLIE WANG explores the experiences of middle-class children of immigrants who move to their ancestral lands in order to further their careers. Analyzing the motivations and experiences of these individuals deepens our knowledge about transnationalism among the second-generation as they grapple with complex issues of identity and societal belonging in the ethnic homeland. This book demonstrates how these professional migrants maneuver between countries and cultures to further their careers and maximize opportunities in the rapidly changing global economy.

New Leaders on Campus

Bo Fernhall, PhD

DEAN OF THE MANNING COLLEGE OF NURSING AND HEALTH SCIENCES

Most recent role: Dean, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago

Prior institutions: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Syracuse University, George Washington University Medical Center, University of Rhode Island

Alma mater: Arizona State University (PhD), Southern Connecticut State College (MS, BS)

Why UMass Boston?

I was attracted to UMass Boston because of the tremendous opportunity and potential. The vision and mission of the university and the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences aligned perfectly with my own values and vision of what higher education is all about. I look forward to working with our fantastic students and faculty toward creating a more just, healthy, and equitable society.

Karen Ferrer-Muñiz, PhD  VICE CHANCELLOR OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

Most recent role: Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Utica University, New York

Prior institutions: Hudson Valley Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College

Alma mater: SUNY Albany (PhD, MA), Inter-American University of Puerto Rico (BA)

Why UMass Boston?

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve the wonderful students of UMass Boston and be in a city known as a hub for higher education. Throughout my transition here, I have been struck by a deep commitment of the campus to help people transform their lives and by its rich educational quality rooted in diversity. I am a strong believer in a community of care that prepares students to contribute to their communities and workforce. Therefore, I look forward to working with alumni, students, staff, and faculty to advance such work in a way that promotes safety, health, engagement, inclusion, and equity.

Stephanie Walker

DEAN OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Most recent role: Dean of Libraries and Information Resources, University of North Dakota (2015–22)

Prior institutions: City University of New York’s Brooklyn College, Harvard Medical School, Mount Saint Vincent University, University of Toronto

Alma mater: University of Toronto (MSLS), University of Waterloo (MA, BA)

Why UMass Boston?

One huge factor was the student body, as well as the overall UMass Boston community. I love working with this community. I was a firstgeneration student, from an immigrant family twice over, whose first language was not English, and I strongly believe that education is vital, and that a great education should be available and accessible to all. In past jobs, I have put a great deal of emphasis on starting or growing programs around open educational resources and open access to expand the accessibility of education and research; strengthening information literacy programs and outreach; enhancing faculty research support; and on renovating, repurposing, and transforming library spaces to make them much better for students, faculty, and other users. I’ve already found people at UMass Boston (and the greater New England library community) to be extremely interested in and energized by these ideas and initiatives, and I’m hoping to grow them all.

Venky Venkatachalam, PhD

DEAN AND DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR, COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT

Most recent role: Dean, Beacom School of Business, University of South Dakota (2014–22)

Prior institutions: University of New Hampshire

Alma mater: The University of Alabama (PhD), Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (MBA), University of Madras, India (BS)

Why UMass Boston?

Boston has a vibrant ecosystem of innovators, entrepreneurs, and world-class businesses. Being located in Boston as a premier public research university, UMass Boston offers tremendous opportunities to connect our students and faculty, with the businesses to develop and build world-class careers. Our student body is very diverse, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to serve the Boston and Massachusetts economies in providing a healthy pipeline of diverse worldclass workforce. Our faculty are outstanding teachers and engaged in cutting edge impactful research. I am looking forward to distinguishing our College of Management as a globally ranked business school.

For the Times

At the height of the 1960s civil rights movement, UMass Boston was founded to democratize access to higher education. Today we are embarking on a new 10-year strategic plan for the university that enhances and expands our long-held values of academic and research excellence, upward mobility, and social enlightenment and leadership. The plan will enable our students to flourish as engaged citizens, accomplished professionals, civic leaders, and members of the global family working for the common good. As part of our efforts to advance research and scholarship that transforms, we have identified four topic areas of focus: health, climate, justice, and education . How do we know we can make a difference in the key issues of the times? Because—as you’ll see in the following pages—we already are.

High school sweethearts Robert and Donna Manning grew up in Methuen in the late 1970s. Commuting from their hometown to classes at UMass Lowell, they were the first in their families to complete college.

After receiving her nursing degree in 1985, Donna began a career as an oncology nurse at Boston Medical Center, where she was known for her dedication to patients. As Robert rose through the ranks at MFS Investment Management in Boston to become chief executive and chairman of the board, Donna began donating back her salary to support the hospital.

Thirty-five years of nursing at the largest safety-net hospital in New England have given Donna deep insight into the challenges of urban nursing and the imbalanced health outcomes experienced by impoverished patients and patients of color.

“For the majority of my career in Boston, I was struck by the fact that most of the nurses looked like me while most of the patients didn’t,” she said. “I have seen firsthand how diversity in the nursing workforce can improve patient care and address health inequities.”

With Robert, Donna is a philanthropist as well as a nurse. The Mannings have contributed more than $11 million to UMass Lowell and the UMass system, of which Robert is the chairman of the Board of Trustees. So in fall 2021, they decided to tackle the health inequities they saw with a stunning $15 million dollar gift to the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at UMass Boston.

An extraordinary $15 million donation from two UMass alumni will transform UMass Boston’s commitment to fighting inequities in health and health care workers.

The goal: better health care for all.

THE MANNING COLLEGE OF NURSING AND HEALTH SCIENCES

Their gift—the first piece of a historic $50 million donation to the five campuses across the University of Massachusetts system—endows the newly renamed Robert and Donna Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

The gift is “transformational,” said UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, noting that it will serve to “foster a culture of healing and health equity in Boston and beyond. It will enable UMass Boston to take the education of the next generation of nurses nobly serving as caregivers to the next level of excellence and engagement.”

The goal is for Manning College graduates to excel not just in scientific expertise, Suárez-Orozco noted, but also in “the humane heart, the empathy, and cultural awareness that define caregiving in its truest sense.”

A NEW LEADER

“Totally, totally transformational” echoed the college’s new dean, Bo Fernhall, a renowned scholar who studies exercise physiology, especially for people with disabilities. “It’s huge.”

With Greater Boston’s only four-year public programs in nursing and exercise and health sciences, the Manning College’s ultimate purpose must be to improve the health of the community, the city of Boston, and the state, Fernhall said. So the college is focused on “providing access to an excellent education for our talented students, addressing health inequities, and making new discoveries leading to improved health and quality of life.”

“The Mannings’ vision for this gift is to create a more diverse workforce, who are going to take better care of

the patients and provide better care to the community. The gift is there to strengthen our programs so that we can improve our already high-quality programs, graduate more students, and do whatever we can to contribute to exceptionally prepared health professionals entering the workforce.”

Fernhall came to UMass Boston in August after spending 11 years serving as dean for the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. There, under his collaborative and team-oriented approach, the college added five new academic programs, nearly doubled undergraduate enrollment, and increased overall enrollment by 50 percent—all while diversifying the student body in significant ways. As a result of his efforts, the reputation of the College of Applied Health Sciences shot up, with eight academic programs nationally ranked in the top 10—and four of those in the top five.

Now he is eager to see the Manning College make similar advances.

“I want our college to be recognized as the best in New England—and beyond,” Fernhall said. “We want to provide the public health workforce for the City of Boston and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We want to provide more students to enter the workforce in fields that are truly needed—there’s a huge need for all these students once they graduate. We want to increase our research in the health sciences, which is extremely important because it’s going to help people.”

FRESH FOCUS ON URBAN PUBLIC HEALTH

One key step is the creation of a new Department of Urban Public Health at the college. Its goal: to prepare students for jobs in the public health field that are uniquely focused on improving the health of diverse urban

populations. Starting fall 2023, students will be able to declare BA and BS majors in urban public health, focusing on urban populations, the social determinants of health, and health equity challenges across the lifespan.

The new degree programs come just in time: More than two-thirds of the world population is predicted to be living in urban areas by 2050, according to the United Nations. Communicable diseases spread quickly in urban settings, which have greater exposure to pollutants, allergens, and toxicity. Chronic and behavioral health issues are also more prevalent than in less densely populated areas.

“For these reasons, among others, there is a significant burgeoning need for highly skilled diverse professionals and thousands of new job opportunities will emerge in public health and related fields,” said UMass Boston Provost Joseph Berger, calling the

and Robert Manning

forthcoming graduates “the future leaders in the full range of health care agencies and organizations.”

These degrees will prepare students for a wide range of careers: state and local health departments, non-governmental organizations, health care organizations, the private sector, and federal agencies, said Rosanna DeMarco, associate provost at the Manning College.

“The urban public health department will be a leader in educating students to be innovative thinkers, strategizing to find public health solutions to the enduring problems of health inequity in diverse urban populations in our state and beyond,” she said.

REACHING FARTHER TOGETHER

The Mannings’ gift will also allow the college to expand its footprint in the community, Fernhall said. “We want to grow that footprint. We want to be a permanent fixture in our community, to serve the community in meaningful ways.”

His next step, the new dean said, is to work with the donors and the college’s faculty, staff, and students to identify specific goals and develop programming and resources. He’s very inspired. “Our ability to reach our goal is going to be so greatly enhanced because of this gift. It is going to allow us to get there much, much faster, and to be more influential, to have a greater reach.”

“UMass Boston plays a critical role in supporting diversity in Boston,” Donna said. “We look forward to actively working with the college on these important goals.”

As Robert told The Boston Globe, “We don’t want to die with a lot of money in the bank. We want to see the impact on students and faculty while we’re alive.”

"

I HAVE SEEN FIRSTHAND HOW DIVERSITY IN THE WORKFORCE CAN IMPROVE PATIENT CARE AND ADDRESS HEALTH INEQUITIES.”

Donna Manning

Donna

“Climate Change Impacts and Projections for the Greater Boston Area,” provides detailed information on likely changes over this century to temperature, groundwater, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, river and storm water flooding, and storms and precipitation.

The report’s primary conclusion: Reaching net-zero emissions worldwide by 2050 is essential in order

to prevent catastrophic levels of warming and sea-level rise, as well as achieve the best outcomes for the City of Boston and the Greater Boston area.

“We know that the window of time to act on climate change is closing quickly and it is critical to align our policies and programs with the latest science,” said Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu. “The GBRAG report analyzes Boston’s climate risk projections so we

can make the most informed decisions on how to protect our communities.”

The Greater Boston Research Advisory Group undertook the report in response to a 2016 Climate Ready Boston recommendation that called for climate change projections to be updated every five years. Funded by the Barr Foundation and now also including the city and town members of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the group’s charge is to provide the latest information that can be used to inform near-term and long-term strategies to address climate mitigation and resilience. The report does not make policy recommendations or suggest strategies. Each municipality is free to digest the findings and take their own actions specific to their projections.

“We are proud to deliver these

updated projections—a collaborative analysis featuring contributions from some of the leading scientists in the world—and are empowered by the opportunity to continue these critical updates every five years as we near targets and decisions on climate actions become more high stakes,” said School for the Environment Professor Paul Kirshen, a co-lead for the report.

“With this new information, the City of Boston and MAPC cities and towns across Massachusetts are armed with the most up-to-date research representing an analytic backbone for development of climate adaptation and mitigation plans and policies,” said Ellen Douglas, also a professor at the School for the Environment and the other co-author.

Unsurprisingly, the report found that the frequency of extreme weather events is expected to increase. It also shines a light on underreported climate risks such as decreased groundwater recharge, which has far-reaching consequences for infrastructure, agriculture, the availability of drinking water, and more.

One example of the university’s climate resilience focus in action is a 2022 report by the Advisory Group, led by the UMass Boston School for the Environment.

“

IT IS CRITICAL TO ALIGN OUR POLICIES AND PROGRAMS WITH THE LATEST SCIENCE.”

BOSTON MAYOR MICHELLE WU

THE THEFT OF BLACK FARMLAND

Black farmers in the United States were deprived of approximately $326 billion worth of land over the course of the 20th century, a shocking loss that has set Black families back immeasurably, according to a study led by Dania Francis, an assistant economics professor in the College of Liberal Arts. The research appeared in the American Economic Association’s Papers and Proceedings journal and made international news.

In the early 1900s, the amount of farmland owned by Black families was at its peak. About 425,000 Black people owned almost 20 million acres in the Jim Crow South. But by 1997, Black farmer land ownership had plummeted to 4.7 million acres.

To investigate the value of the land lost and how this happened, Francis and her team started with the USDA

Census of Agriculture, using its data to estimate $326-billion-dollar figure by taking nominal land values and compounding them. The estimate is conservative because it doesn’t account for multiplier effects, such as using the land as collateral. Even so, the implications of the loss are devastating.

“Wealth and land is one way in this country that you're able to grow opportunity for your family," Francis told Reuters. “When huge groups of African Americans were denied that opportunity, it speaks to the intergenerational wealth gap that opened up in part due to this type of land loss.”

The Black-white wealth gap is enormous, more than 10 times larger than the income gap between Black and white families. And that number doesn’t account for the lost hopes and dreams, the loss of investment in future generations.

Advancing a just society is a signature focus of UMass Boston research. And as two recent studies show, that work is informing the conversation around equity on a national and local level.

The loss occurred because the USDA itself was—and continues to be—discriminatory against Black farmers, the researchers found. Black farmers were refused loans by USDA agents, who interfered in county elections and restricted the crops Black farmers could grow. On the federal level, USDA policies ensured that money would flow to white landowners and effectively cut out Black ones. The practices have been so egregious that Black farmers refer to

the USDA as “the Last Plantation.”

The enormous loss “destroyed a rural Black middle class that had, by sheer will, emerged in the aftermath of slavery,” the authors wrote in a New Republic article about their findings.

“Since family wealth is iterative— growing slowly at first, adding to itself, and accumulating and expanding over time—this blow to a nascent Black middle class has reverberated down the generations.”

ASIAN AMERICANS HAVE BEEN SLAMMED BY A COMBINATION OF THE PANDEMIC AND RACISM

Asian Americans in the Greater Boston area face racial prejudice, mental health concerns, and economic loss because of the pandemic, says a new report from UMB’s Institute for Asian American Studies.

A sizable proportion of those surveyed who have limited formal education and low household income were hit hard by financial loss and loss of work. Many are worried about paying for food and housing.

Boston-area Asian Americans already faced social isolation because of cultural and linguistic differences, said the report, written by Carolyn Wong, a research associate for the institute, and research assistant Ziting Kuang ’21. This was the first survey to reach out to them using a multilingual questionnaire. Almost 200 people participated.

Nearly half the respondents reported that people acted afraid of them because of their race during the pandemic. More than 25 percent of Vietnamese Americans said they had been threatened or harassed because of their race, and over 40 percent of South Asians reported receiving poorer service.

Already high poverty rates among Asian Americans were made worse during the pandemic. Many Asian American workers faced reduced hours or job loss in the hospitality, retail, and food service industries, and small business owners were hit hard by loss of customers.

The authors called for increased funding for mental health services, expansion of social services for people with limited English proficiency, and research on the effects of anti-Asian racism and ways to help Asian American workers and businesses recover from the pandemic.

So it’s exciting that the Wipro Science Education Fellowship, known as the Wipro SEF, received an additional $4.5 million award this spring.

Wipro SEF is a partnership between UMass Boston, which leads the project, and Mercy College, Stanford University, Montclair State University, and the universi ties of North Texas Dallas, Missouri, and South Florida. Its objective is to foster teacher leadership and science teaching excellence among teachers in partnering school districts from California, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.

This grant extends the Wipro SEF agreement to 2026, for a total of $18 million in external funding over the past decade.

“This is evidence of a successful collaboration between private industry, university and school district partnerships that other companies could emulate,” said Arthur Eisenkraft, Distinguished Professor of Science Education, director of the Center of Science and Math in Context, and leader of the Wipro SEF program. “UMass Boston takes pride in the ways in which it can contribute to improving science education within the Boston area and nationally.”

The Wipro SEF program grew out of the success of the Boston Science Partnership’s Science Education Fellowship, a grant initiative funded by the National Science Foundation from 2009-2012 that was also based at UMass Boston. In 2013, Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company, embarked on a program to improve the quality of K-12 science education by transforming school districts.

Led by UMass Boston, what began at two university sites has expanded to seven, positively impacting 35 school districts across the country, and creating a network of these districts and the universities facilitating the work.

As part of the program, each university creates a critical mass of K-12 teacher leaders in high-need school districts that are fostering transformation. They engage in two years of professional development opportunities that include individual work as well as collaboration with other fellows.

Transforming a school district requires coordinated communication and cooperation among teachers, science coordinators, principals, and central administration. The new funding will enable the partnership to build on the expertise of the universities, school districts, and new and existing fellows. The program will be able to expand to rural districts within the existing states, initiate cross-district efforts, and enhance

Wipro

by

35 school districts across seven states

420 Wipro fellows

840 additional teachers involved in projects initiated by Wipro fellows

250,000+ students development of scientific temper in societies, which is crucial to well-being and progress overall,” says Wipro Limited Chief Sustainability Officer Anurag Behar. “And teachers play the central role in this endeavor.”

evaluation and research.

“The importance of high quality science education is not only for employability of individuals, but for

SEF

the numbers

UMass Boston’s work in education speaks to today’s students, who bring a wide range of experiences, values, and aspirations and will benefit from new educational paradigms, partnerships, and collaborations, and opportunities to develop workforce skills.

Distinguished Professor Arthur Eisenkraft, leader of the Wipro Science Education Fellowship program.

For the last two decades, the majority of the population of Boston has been people of color. Diverse representa tion in civic leadership has increased but it still does not reflect this demographic shift.

That’s why the Civic Action Fellows Program was created—to support the next generation of civic leaders by increasing participation by students of color and other marginalized identities in the Greater Boston area. The student fellows build their civic agency and skills for collective action through bi-weekly workshops with community-engaged leaders and interning with a community-based organization. Each receives a $500 scholarship per semester to support their internship.

“Representation matters if we are to address the long ignored racial inequity and injustice that is present

in civic spaces,” said Rachel Winters, director of student leadership and community engagement. “The pandemics we are facing in the nation and the commonwealth have augmented the need to actively work toward equity and justice, especially for communities who have been marginalized.”

As the only public research institution in the region with a majority of students of color, UMass Boston is uniquely positioned to face these upheavals and contribute to social change. Now in its third year, the Civic Action Fellows Program is led in partnership with the Office of Community Partnerships, Student Multicultural Affairs, and Student Leadership and Community Engagement.

The community partners who have hosted internships reflect the diversity of the fellows and have included the

Hyde Square Task Force, BAGLY Inc., the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, the City of Boston Mayor’s office of Language and Communications Access, and legislators Mayor of Lawrence Dan Rivera, State Representative Jessica Giannino, and Boston City CouncilorAt-Large Julia Mejia.

“This is a time of extraordinary need for change and our partners are asking us to build the next generation of civic leaders of color who will fill the role that one day they will need to pass on,” said Cynthia Orellana, director of the Office of Community Partnerships. “Our students are poised to be the change we wish to see in the world and so we must create opportunities with communities that

build up the resilience and capital of communities.”

The fellows enter the program with diverse academic interests—from political science and criminology to psychology and English—and lived experiences as well as motivations for social change. A theme for all is a commitment to community and social justice.

One student advocated for the return of land back to indigenous communities. Another wanted to be a role model for young Muslim women. A third fellow noted that “the pandemics we are facing today have increased the need to acknowledge social issues and work toward acquiring real justice for marginalized communities.”

The university’s Grand Scholarly Challenges are research focuses, but it's not just faculty who are working toward a healthier, more just, and more sustainable world. Students— like those of the Civic Action Fellows Program—are stepping forward to be the changemakers of today and tomorrow.

BY VANESSA CHATTERLEY

a difference.

The EmVision team poses with Ivanna Solano, founder and executive director of Love Your Magic, and participant Camille TorresVega. From left: Edwin Cabrera, Tariana Little, Torres-Vega, Solano, Jonas Meyer, and Doga Somer.

THE PAIR CO-FOUNDED EMVISION PRODUCTIONS IN 2013,

a Boston-based media boutique that helps visionary organizations convey how they’re changing the world. Recently named one of the largest minority-owned businesses in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal, EmVision touts itself as providing “media with a mission” to organizations locally and nationally.

“To do the work that we do at [EmVision], through video storytelling and profiling people or leaders in the communi ty, you have to have a hunger to know about people and to know what moves them,” said Little. “We operate in all these different communities that influence how we see the world, how we show up, what matters to us.”

Their clients—called “EmVisionaries”—range from grassroots nonprofits and social enterprises to government agencies and global corporations. Together Little and Meyer help companies convey their vision and values through immersive video content. Their portfolio includes organizations like The Boston Foundation, Amplify Latinx,

this vision of wanting to continue to leverage our platform for impact and doing things that matter.”

They ultimately found a home for that vision—one that will support UMass Boston students for years to come.

Earlier this year, the pair committed $25,000 to establish the EmVision Social Impact Scholarship Fund to support students in their capstone year of the Critical Ethnic and Community Studies (CECS) graduate program.

Additionally, scholarship recipients will be presented with mentorship and applied opportunities with EmVision.

Little said that the decision to establish the scholarship came from her own positive experience at UMass Boston.

As a queer, mixed-race woman and a first-generation college graduate from a working-class Dominican-German immigrant family, Little witnessed early on how academic environments can be supportive or exclusionary spaces for students from underserved backgrounds. It wasn’t until she enrolled at UMass Boston that she found a dynamic and diverse community that helped her flourish. During her undergraduate studies and in the CECS program, mentors provided her with opportunities and resources to mobilize her lived experiences as strengths, be it for producing her honors thesis research or a digital story.

Little credits CECS-affiliated faculty Ester R. Shapiro and Shirley S. Tang as influences on her journey and on EmVision’s Social Impact Storytelling framework rooted in person-centered authenticity, assets, and action.

“There was a very clear alignment between our business and what we’re about, and what the [CECS] program is about, and how they support students to be changemakers in the community and in the world,” Little said.

Meyer echoed these sentiments.

“As an immigrant student from Germany, it was UMass Boston peers who shaped my experience on campus and in the community, and gave me a sense of belonging,” he said. “I’m not only giving to the school. I’m foremost giving to its students.”

Using their media platform to “give forward,” the team launched a grant program in 2020 to partner each year pro bono with one to two small, local non-profit organizations led by people of color. This past year, Little and Meyer partnered with Love Your Magic, a grassroots organization committed to the healthy development of Black and Brown girls.

Before celebrating the agency’s 10th anniversary next year, Little and Meyer wanted to expand their company’s impact further. To accomplish this, Little said, the team did some serious reflecting.

“What do we want to do with the success that we’ve had? How do we want to contribute to impact beyond just the organizations that we work with?” she said. “We have

“The significance of this gift underscores the value of the CECS program for those committed to positive social change and service to community,” said CECS director Cedric J. Woods, who also serves as director of the Institute for New England Native American Studies.

“Dr. Little’s and Mr. Meyer’s gift will support ongoing generations of scholars to do so in the places where they are valued and there is a need and desire for truly collaborative research and activism.”

“I would love for students to have an easier time navigating through college. Hopefully with this gift, they have less of a financial burden and can fully focus on making the most of their education and bringing their full selves to the classroom as a community,” Little said. “It’s a transformative way, a lasting way, to make a difference.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation, Boston Impact Initiative, the City of Chelsea, and Hasbro.

Celebrating Alumni Achievement

The inaugural Beacon Awards were bestowed on five outstanding individuals this past June. These awards are given annually to celebrate the successes of our

BOSTON STATE COLLEGE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

Marie Fox ’52 (posthumously)

Marie founded the Boston Teachers College Scholarship Committee and was instrumental in raising money for the BTC Scholarship Fund, which surpassed $1 million last year. A staple at the Boston Teachers College Scholarship Luncheon since its inception, Marie organized the event for over 25 years alongside her classmates. She had a successful and rewarding career as a first grade teacher in Boston and Newton for many years. Sadly, Marie passed away in April at the age of 91, but she will be remembered as a leader in the field of education and a tremendous supporter of UMass Boston.

BOSTON STATE COLLEGE OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD James P. McDonough ’74

Jim retired as president and CEO of Randolph Bancorp Inc. Prior to his time at Randolph Bancorp, Jim served as Chancellor and chief financial officer of the Archdiocese of Boston, where he was nationally recognized for transforming the organization’s finances and creating budget transparency. He serves on several boards throughout Boston and the South Shore.

UMASS BOSTON DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

Allyce Najimy G’88

Allyce serves on the UMass Boston Sport Leadership and Administration Program Advisory Board and is an associate lecturer who teaches the Careers in Sports & Sport Internship class. She has helped secure internships for UMass Boston students with a wide array of sport organizations, including Boston Athletic Association, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Sports Group, New England Patriots, MLS, NESN, and Special Olympics. Since 2007, she has served as the founding executive director and chief executive officer of the Foundation to be Named Later, whose mission is dedicated to improving lives through education, leadership, and the health development of youth and families. Allyce serves on various boards throughout the city and metropolitan Boston and is responsible for raising critical funds for scholarships to ensure that a diverse and inclusive student body gets the opportunity to pursue their talents and achieve their dreams with a career in sports.

Gloria Cater PhD’10

Growing up during a time when there were very few Black nurses, Gloria found herself in a co-op program in nursing after failing to find a physical therapy program that would provide enough scholarship aid. After completing the program, Gloria embarked on a nursing career that would span more than 50 years, working in departments including maternity, pediatrics, and community health. Gloria and her husband worked and lived as house parents in Jamaica Plain in a home for mothers and babies. Gloria served new single parents, teaching them how to care for their infant children and offering support as they transitioned to their new homes. She recruited mentors for mothers, wrote grants to fund specialized programs for new mothers, and served on several committees that promoted diversity and inclusion, having served in a leadership role for the Massachusetts Action Coalition. Over the course of her career, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate, all in nursing.

Amy Cardoso G’17

Described as a “passionate, dedicated, giving, and selfless human," Amy currently serves as an English teacher in the PEAK program at Woburn Memorial High School, where she has spent the last 11 years. During her tenure at Woburn High, she has advised several student clubs and organizations, and serves on various community boards. Amy is a two-time recipient of the Woburn Community Educational Foundation’s Woburn Awesome Teacher Award, and she was the recipient of the 2020 Massachusetts Unsung Heroine Award for the 15th Middlesex District of Massachusetts. Amy speaks three languages and spends her summers as a paralegal for a notable immigration law firm in Boston, where she can express her passion for social justice and immigrant rights.

Do you know an alumnus/a of UMass Boston or its legacy schools who is deserving of a Beacon Award? For more information on each award and to submit a nomination, visit umb.edu/AAA.

UMASS BOSTON OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD

UMASS BOSTON EMERGING LEADER AWARD

exemplary alumni.

Gloria Cater, Alumni Board President Kathleen Carten ’79, Allyce Najimy, Amy Cardoso

sweet success

Within hours of posting a photo of one of her Indian fusion creations to an online foodie group, Meghana Vallurupalli ’17 received dozens of messages and requests from people clamoring for her Indianinspired pastries. Since launching her baking business, Pastries by Pono, nearly a year ago, Vallurupalli has fielded hundreds of orders— and she only has plans to expand.

What made you gravitate toward baking?

Food has always been a really important part of my life, ever since I was a kid. I’m South Indian and cultural foods growing up were a really big part of my childhood. During COVID, I didn’t have any family going back and forth from India to the U.S. anymore. I was craving and missing the sweets they used to bring back from home. I tried to make the traditional sweets myself, which I utterly failed at, but cookies and cakes and cupcakes had been more sort of my thing. I started off with box mixes as a kid and have evolved to doing things from scratch now. And I was like, “It would be really cool if I could replicate the flavors that I would find in a traditional Indian sweet, but it might take your cupcake form.”

What made you decide to turn baking into a business?

I started playing around with flavors really just for me and my friends for parties that I hosted. It was really just an interesting dessert that I’d put on the table when I was at get-togethers.

One time I had made a really interesting cake for a party. It’s called a gulab jamun cake. The American way of describing it is it’s like a deepfried Munchkin that's been soaked in sugar syrup. It's essentially this deep-fried donut heaven of goodness. Everybody just loved it so much. I didn't even have a slice to myself at the end of the party. And someone said, “Wow, I wish you would sell this because I would totally pay money for this.”

I live in Tampa, and there’s a large Indian community, and there’s a hunger for new things. I posted [one of my cakes on social media]. And I was booked solid for a month. Every single weekend, I was receiving 20,

Q30, 40 orders. People could not get enough of it. Eventually I ended up doing baby showers and weddings. It was a little bit out of control! This December will actually make it a year officially that I’ve been selling sweets and taking customer orders.

You earned your bachelor’s degree in management from UMass Boston. Did this play a role when starting and growing Pastries by Pono?

UMass Boston set me up for success from the get-go. My focus during my undergrad was international management. And so a lot of what I focused on through college and after was marketing and digital marketing. Being able to give me access to internships to really figure out where I wanted to grow my career has really helped me. And being in marketing and being able to tap into my creative side is a big part and a big reason as to why I picked up this hobby and why my business is doing so well. I’ve been able to scale it by marketing it very efficiently and creatively.

What Indian flavors do you replicate in your baking?

Traditionally, in Indian sweets, we use a lot of cardamom, rose like rose essence saffron-infused sugar syrups. I add them to a traditional vanilla base. Sometimes a saffron poundcake base. A good example is a rasmalai flavor, which traditionally is a milk sweet. It’s like ricotta cheese soaked in three different types of milk. The way I’ve turned it into a cupcake is that it’s a vanilla cupcake that has a ricotta cheese filling in the middle. The ricotta cheese is infused with heavy whipping cream and cardamom to give you that rasmalai flavor and taste. And I top it off with a really light whipping cream frosting. So

when you bite into it, it tastes like a little bit of everything.

What’s your most popular item?

I would say it’s definitely the gulab jamun cake or cupcakes. People tend to really like them. They fly off the shelves every time.

What’s your specialty?

My specialty is cupcakes. I do a lot of developing different types of flavors, and I have gotten a lot of requests to develop fun flavors. My favorite flavor that I’ve developed is probably the rasmalai cupcake.

Do you have a recipe you're wanting to try?

Currently, I don’t offer anything chocolate on my menu, and there’s been a hunger lately from people who really want chocolate. I’m developing a cupcake that’s called the “hide-and-seek” cupcake. It’s based off of a biscuit cookie that you get back in India.

Can you give us a baking tip?

To keep your cakes really moist even after they’ve come out of the oven, while you’re decorating them, or whatnot the trick is to poke holes in the top of your cake and lightly pour a little bit of plant-based, unflavored, unsweetened milk on top of it. It’ll keep it moist for days.

What are your future plans for your baking business?

I’m actually hoping to launch an e-commerce website by December sort of like a one-year anniversary kickoff of the business. My hope is to be able to take online orders and ship my products. I get a lot of requests from all over the country. They’re becoming really popular. So the hope is to be able to scale it.

Class notes

1950s

Gerald Hurley ’58 was a public school teacher in Massachusetts for four decades. Initially, he taught 5th grade at Wollaston School in Quincy and then worked with 8th graders with learning disabilities at the Marshall Simonds Middle School. A longtime resident of Concord, Mass., Hurley volunteers with the town’s Council on Aging. He also plays in a music group.

1960s

Rev. Louis H.G. Bier G’62 received the God and Service Award after being nominated by the Wollaston Lutheran Church and the Spirit of Adventure Council, BSA. The award is a national recognition given by churches and national youth agencies cooperating with Programs of Religious Activities with Youth. It acknowledges distinguished volunteer service by adults in ministry to young people through service to the church and one or more of the national youth agencies. Bier graduated from the seminary in 1959 and was ordained as a minister in the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church.

1970s

George Botelho ’75 was selected for a 10-month fellowship project by the U.S. Department of State. He will be training teachers and teaching English in Cambodia at Phnom Penh Teacher Education College. Botelho is one of only 200 U.S. citizens selected for the 2022–2023 English Language Fellow Program. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from Boston State College.

Gary Dauer ’71 is celebrating 50 years in social work. He worked as an outreach social worker for Catholic charities in the

70s and spent 27 years with the Department of Mental Health as an inpatient clinical social worker. Dauer retired from the commonwealth in 2010. Since then, he has worked with the Veterans’ Administration housing homeless veterans. He provided clinical supervision to homebased elder services, and currently maintains a private practice specializing in the issues of older adults.

Margaret Fitzpatrick ’73, congregation al leader for the Sisters of Charity in Halifax, Canada, received an honorary degree from the University of Scranton at its undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 21, 2022. A nationally recognized leader in higher education, Sister Fitzpatrick served as president and CEO of St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York, for 25 years before retiring June 2020. During her tenure, she led the way for the college to join the Catholic Climate Covenant, a pledge to educate students, employees, and community members on climate change.

1980s

George Drugas ’82, a banker with 21 years of experience in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, has joined HarborOne Bank as vice president, small business team leader. Drugas comes to HarborOne Bank after serving as vice president and customer credit advocate at Citizens Bank for the past three years. In that capacity, Drugas worked with Rhode Island and Cape Cod market relations managers, previewed credit opportunities, and reviewed loan applications.

Janet Johnson-Smith ’84 published a children’s book entitled Help Wanted, Must Love Books. Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book, Help Wanted follows Shailey as she interviews a series of fairytale characters to read her bedtime stories. Middle-grade author John

son-Smith has published a series of books, including Braver Than Brave and The Last Great Adventure of the PB & J Society.

1990s

Scott Anderson ’94, a longtime partner at Verrill Dana, LLP, was named the firm’s new managing partner. Anderson was a member of the team that worked on Verrill’s five-year strategic plan, which launched in 2020, making him uniquely qualified to oversee the plan’s implemen tation. Over nearly two decades at the firm, Anderson has held a variety of leadership positions, including the firm’s Executive Board and Compensation Committee.

Dianne Kelly ’93, G’11 was named president of Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS). Kelly began her career with Revere Public Schools in 1995 before being elevated to superintendent in 2015, was appointed president of the MASS post in May and officially took over the post during the MASS’s spring conference on Cape Cod. As president of the MASS, Kelly will work with the executive committee of 16 to 18 superintendents from across the state to push education goals and initiatives for the next year.

David Ryan ’91, who earned his bachelor’s degree in English from UMass Boston, won an O. Henry Prize in fiction for his short story “Warp and Weft,” which was published in Issue 56 of Harvard Review. Established in 1919, the O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit.

Lauren Showstead G’98 was appointed assistant principal at Central Middle School of Greenwich Public Schools (GPS). Showstead has been with GPS since 2006, most recently as the interim assistant principal at Glenville School and

a special education teacher at Western Middle School. She held additional positions at GPS, including special education teacher at Parkway, Response to Intervention coach for the District, and the interim assistant principal at Cos Cob. Showstead’s career as an educator began as a teacher in Massachusetts, first at the May Center School for Autism in Braintree, and then followed by positions at the middle school in Weymouth, and William Foster Elementary School in Hingham. She went to Connecticut to work at West Elementary School in New Canaan, and King’s Highway Elementary School in Westport.

2000s

Flossy Calderón ’01 was promoted to director of Head Start and Children’s Services at Action for Boston Community Development. Calderón is also a board member of the Massachusetts Head Start Association and a member of the Head Start Regional Training and Technical Assistance Advisory Committee.

Jondavid “JD” Chesloff G’93, the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, joined small business accelerator Lever Inc.’s board of trustees. Chesloff has worked in and around Beacon Hill for more than 25 years. In the state legislature, he served as the chief of staff to the House Committee on Commerce and Labor and was also the education issues analyst and deputy budget director for the House Committee on Ways and Means. His work at the Roundtable is focused on strengthening the state’s long-term social and economic vitality with the goal of making Massachusetts a highly desirable place to do business in a global economy.

Evan Cline G’01 joined Haverhill Bank as vice president and controller. Cline comes to Haverhill Bank with more than 25 years

David Castagnetti G’89 received the Business-Government Relation Award at the 2022 Bryce Harlow Foundation Annual Awards reception. Castagnetti is co-founder of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, one of the most respected and effective bipartisan government relations firms in Washington, DC. His extensive experience developing long-term strategic communications and advocacy plans and ability to operate in complex environments has made him a trusted counselor to numerous Fortune 100 companies, Silicon Valley titans, technology start-ups, trade associations, and well-known non-profits. Castagnetti has proudly mentored hundreds of young professionals over the course of his career.

of experience in banking and finance, having most recently served as controller at GFA Federal Credit Union in Gardner. He previously held senior finance positions at Milford National Bank & Trust, People’s United Bank, and First Trade Union Bank.

Lisa Coppola ’09, a therapist who works specifically with adopted adults at Boston Post Adoption Resources, authored a 52-week writing journal entitled Voices Unheard: A Reflective Journal for Adult Adoptees. An adult adoptee herself, Coppola’s journal tells some of her own story and explores the impact of loss on an adoptee. The journal offers prompts based on core themes that arise in therapy, space for writing, resources including a glossary and guidelines, and a script to help volunteer moderators run peer groups.

Taunya Jarzyniecki G’02 joined the Reading Police Department as a public safety clinician. Jarzyniecki works with Reading Police and the Reading Coalition for Prevention & Support to provide resources, counseling, and other assistance to those in the community who face mental health and substance misuse issues. Jarzyniecki is an experienced clinical mental health leader with a strong foundation in crisis intervention, mental health treatment, substance misuse support, and care.

Juana Matias ’09, a former state representative and the chief operating officer of Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, is on the move again, this time bound for federal government service. President Joe Biden tapped Matias, who represented Lawrence in the Massachusetts House for the 2017–2018 session, to serve as the New England regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Before being elected to the House, Matias worked as a social worker in

the Merrimack Valley and then sought humanitarian-based immigration relief for unaccompanied children in removal proceedings as a legal advocate in the AmeriCorps program.

2010s

Meghan Callaghan G’12 was named Dean of Teaching and Learning at Berkshire Community College. In this role, she will lead the Division of Teaching and Learning Innovation. Callaghan arrives from Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC), where she worked in several roles over the past 13 years. Her responsi bilities included coordinating the Office of Community Engagement, expanding outcome and assessment work into the co-curricular, serving as BHCC’s Massachusetts Community College Council union president, being a founding member of the Center of Equity and Cultural Wealth and, most recently, serving as the Associate Director of Academic Innovation and Distance Education.

Brian Chavez ’14, has partnered with C3 Industries, a multi-state, vertically integrated cannabis company, on its entry into the Massachusetts retail market. Chavez, who earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from UMass Boston, will serve as CEO of the partnership. As part of the partnership, C3 Industries and Chavez will also be opening locations in Roxbury and Roslindale.

Tracey Colagrossi G’16 completed her two-year term as chairperson of the Executive Committee for the National Council on Aging National Institute of Senior Centers. Colagrossi will serve a term as past chair of the committee, which serves senior center professionals across the nation. She is the senior center manager of Arlington Heights Senior Center in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Whitney Dailey G’11 was appointed executive vice president of purpose at Allison+Partners to help lead the agency’s work with purpose-driven brands across sectors. Previously, Dailey served as senior agency leader and purpose brand strategist at the firm. In her role, Dailey will collaborate with global leaders at Allison+Partners to build breakthrough purpose and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) platforms and related communications programs that drive business results and meet evolving consumer demand and stakeholder expectations.

Paul English ’87, G’89, H’19 sold his latest venture, podcast discovery app Moonbeam, to one of the country’s largest radio station operators, with plans to plow the proceeds into his newly launched startup incubator. The Moonbeam technology, English said, will probably be the centerpiece of Audacy’s podcast tech (though the Moonbeam name will probably go away). To English, the sale of Moonbeam, roughly one year after its launch, marks the sixth such deal that he has completed of a startup that he’s led, or helped lead. He sold Kayak to what was then Priceline.com, in 2013. English helped lead Boston Light, InterMute, and GetHuman. He cofounded Lola.com, a travel-tech company, in 2015 and eventually sold that technology to Capital One last year, before embarking on his venture studio project.

Thomas Golden ’15 was appointed Vice President, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer at Rockland Trust. In his role, Golden is responsible for promoting, developing, implementing, and administering all aspects of the Bank’s CRA program. His work includes serving as Rockland Trust’s principal point of contact for community organizations focused on the promotion of affordable housing, community investment, economic development, and the delivery of banking and financial services.

Kaitlin Gould CER’16, PhD’19 was appointed assistant professor of school psychology at the College of Saint Rose in New York. Gould served in a research role over the past two years, conducting projects focusing on parent and teacher training for behavioral interventions. Her research interests include behavioral intervention, neurodiversity, and intervention acceptability.

Alexa Knight ’17 was accepted into the PhD program at Brown University for fall 2022. She will study molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry. Knight earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UMass Boston.

Melanie Christine Loria ’16 joined McCullough Landscape Architecture as a marketing and business development manager. Loria has several years of marketing experience in the architectural, engineering, and construction industries. Most recently, she led the marketing department for the New School of Architecture & Design as its marketing manager.

Sherry MacKenzie ’13 has been promoted to clinical director at Care Dimensions, the largest hospice and palliative care organization in Massachusetts. MacKenzie began her career at Care Dimensions as an RN case manager and admission liaison nurse before being promoted to clinical manager in 2019. Prior to coming to Care Dimensions, she worked in rehabilitation and long-term care settings as a nurse manager and staff nurse.

Cheryl McInerney ’10 was appointed dean of St. Paul’s School of NursingStaten Island. She brings 30 years of knowledge in health care and education to her role at the school. Prior to joining the school, McInerney served as dean of nursing and health science for Bay State College, where she supported efforts to strengthen and expand academic programs offered to health professions.

She also boasts nearly two decades of frontline nursing experience, having served as a registered nurse and lactation consultant for Cambridge Health Alliance.

Eduardo Moreno Mendez ’18 was appointed chief of staff to Sen. Lydia Edwards. Previously, Mendez served as a legislative aide to Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz. Before starting in Chang-Diaz’ office in 2020, Mendez was a research and policy associate fellow at the Mass. Competitive Partnership and an assistant general manager with the Legendary Restaurant Group. Mendez earned a bachelor’s

degree in international relations and affairs from UMass Boston.

Zaida Vanessa Ismatul Oliva ’14 was appointed executive director of The Chica Project, an organization aimed at empowering young women of color. Founded 10 years ago by Nurys Camargo with an initial cohort of 10 Latinas, the organization has grown to to reach over 3,000 women of color through its program ming. Olivia worked in the non-profit field for 10 years prior to attaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and pursuing work in higher education.

José F. Massó ’08 was appointed to the role of Chief of Human Services by Mayor Michelle Wu. The Chief of Human Services is charged with making Boston a more equitable city by ensuring that city services and opportuni ties for residents are accessible and responsive to the needs of all. Massó will lead the implementation of the mayor’s human services agenda for Boston, overseeing key departments that provide services to city residents, and working in partnership with social service organizations and service providers across the city.

Tyler Papadinis G’12 was named assistant men’s basketball coach at Bowdoin College. A veteran Division III coach, Papadinis was most recently the head coach at Rhodes (Tenn.) College from 2018–2020. Prior to his two years at Rhodes, where he had one All-Southern Athletic Association selection, Papadinis was the associate head coach for MIT. In his three seasons with the Engineers, the program proved to be one of the best in New England, recording 66 wins, two NEWMAC Championships, and two NCAA Tournament trips. Papadinis got his coaching start at UMass Boston from 2008–2015, earning his master’s degree while serving as the assistant coach for five years before being named associate head coach. In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Papadinis also has NBA experience serving as an operations intern for the New York Knicks before accepting the position at UMass Boston.

Chris Pappavaselio ’18 was among 12 law students to have been awarded a Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy Fellowship. Rappaport fellows have the opportunity to explore and expand on their diverse interests in public policy by working with top policymakers throughout the summer. Each fellow also receives extraordinary mentorship from Rappaport Center Advisory Board members, prior Rappaport fellows, and notable practitioners and civic leaders in the public sector. Pappavaselio, a student at Harvard Law School, has maintained his passion for education and responsible governance through writing a civics-themed column for the Concord Monitor and serving as an elected member of his town’s school committee. Pappavaselio plans to impact his community through working in the criminal justice field.

Cara Pekarcik G’11 was among the 2022 class of educators selected for the PBS Digital Innovator All-Star Program. The program honors classroom changemakers who offer fresh ideas and bold approaches to supporting their

students’ growth and learning. Nominated by their local PBS stations, 20 educators were chosen from across the country. Pekarcik was named the 2018 Massachu setts Teacher of the Year. She also served as a PolarTREC educator during a 2016 research trip to Antarctica. Pekarcik served as a GBH/NEPM Educator Ambassador from 2020–2022.

Ryan Sullivan ’16 joined Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) as chief financial officer. For the past 19 years, Sullivan worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in a variety of roles, including planning and opening new buildings, director-level financial management, and most recently as the administrative director for their Center for Genomic Medicine, which requires responsibilities encompassing strategic and financial management, human resources, compliance, safety, facilities, and operational leadership. He is also a certified nurse practitioner and has worked in the LCHC Urgent Care Center since 2017.

2020s

Rachel Holland CER’21 joined the Wood River Health Services (WRHS) team in November 2021 as a new family nurse practitioner. Prior to starting at WRHS, Rachel worked as a registered nurse in long-term and acute care. Her most recent experience in acute care was in both local and distant hospitals as a travel nurse. She received a master’s degree in nursing education from Southern New Hampshire University and went on to obtain a post-master’s certificate as an FNP from UMass Boston.

Shannon Kurzeski CER’17 joined Community Health Programs’ (CHP) Neighborhood Health Center in Pittsfield as a family nurse practitioner. Before joining CHP, Kurzeski owned and operated her own family primary care practice, Complete Care for All, in Ludlow, Mass., for two years. She has also worked in practices in the Springfield area, including Ludlow Pediatrics

Esther Rogers ’12, CER’19, G’20 joined Jane Doe Inc., the Mass. Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence as their first Safe Housing Initiatives (SHI) manager. SHI is a strategic partnership geared to improving longer-term affordable housing access for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault across the commonwealth. Rogers brings over 10 years of extensive experience in housing insecurity and advocacy in the shelter and transitional content as well as advocacy experience with local and state government towards housing justice. In May 2022, she was appointed as a regional commissioner for Bristol County for the Mass. Commission on the Status of Women. Per its enabling legislation, the Bristol Commission on the Status of Women is charged with conducting an ongoing study of matters concerning women and girls within Bristol county and across the commonwealth.

Inc., Caring Health Center, and New England Sports, Orthopedic, Spine, and Rehabilitation.

Maria Vasco ’20 is expanding the reach of her zero-waste store, Uvida. Less than two years after launching her flagship storefront in the North End, Vasco is

opening a second storefront in Brookline. While a student at UMass Boston, Vasco received the inaugural Entrepreneur Scholarship. Her scholarship’s founder, Dan Phillips, the founding director of UMass Boston’s Entrepreneurship Center and an advisor in the Venture Develop ment Center, served as a mentor to Vasco.

Lt. Sara Wulff ’20, who spent the last five years living in Dorchester while attending UMass Boston, is part of a team of Massachusetts National Guard troops assigned to protect U.S. diplomats and other Americans living and working in

Baghdad. She and her fellow soldiers are attached to the National Guard’s 182nd Infantry regiment’s transportation unit, which musters from the Victory Road Armory in Dorchester.

In Memoriam

Since our last issue, it has saddened us to learn of the passing of the following members of the UMass Boston community.

ALUMNI

Pearl U. Allen ’85

Laura R. Andrews ’90

Constance Lee Arena CER ’92

Sandra E. Austin ’79

Chukwu E. Azubuko G’95

The Honorable Myong J. Joun ’94 was named a judicial candidate for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts by President Joe Biden. Joun’s professional experience includes work in civil rights litigation for the law offices of Howard Friedman, and criminal defense and civil rights litigation for his own firm, the Joun Law Office. He has also served in the Massachusetts National Guard and as a member of the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the National Lawyers Guild, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

Albert E. Beaton ’55

Steven Beck G’93

John E. Benham G’60

Marilyn Bolea ’72

Marie T. O’Connell Brady ’52

Agnes Mary Cunnally Brown ’49

Edward J. Burke ’66

Professor Jeanne M. Burke G’94

Kathleen A. Casavant ’98

Paul F. Ciccarelli ’60

Peter S. Cloyes ’69

Robert F. Coen ’95

Sgt. Alan Edwin Coffman ’22

Thomas P. Coleman Jr. ’85

Thomas R. Conroy ’84

Paul B. Cousineau ’92, G’96

Merzia Getzoian Cronin ’74

Stephen D. Crosby ’73

Denise Ryan DeBassio ’67

Donna Holt Derosa ’83

James W. Donnelly ’75

Sean Michael Doyle ’82

James Doyle ’87

Guy R. Elliot Jr. ’69

Sandra M. Evans G’91

Cheryl A. Siegel Fitzpatrick-Hey ’98

Walter H. Flynn Jr. ’65

Stephanie Ann Fobert ’83, CER ’94

Raul Peter Font G’13

Marie A. Fox ’52

Dr. Sophie Freud G’94

Deborah F. Ghanayem ’97

Adele Marie O’Brien Giabbai ’53

Paul F. Gill ’71

Robert C. Gillin ’69

Mark A. Govoni ’76

Ronald D. Graham ’80

Frank A. Greco ’87

Florence Murphy Hallahan ’50, G’71, P’75,’86

Sheila A. Halloran Dailey ’79

Laureen McNulty Harrelson ’69

Janice N. Donnelly Hart ’62

Kerry E. Haughney G’77

Edward R. Herlihy ’80

Kevin C. Hickey

James R. Hill ’88 G’98

Martha J. Aherin Horn ’93, G’97

Randy R. Isaacs ’06

Anne B. Iuliano ’74

Nora Kaulins ’74

Joseph J. Kingston ’93

Gerard R. Lane ’62

Carol A. Mchugh Lane ’61

Marianne Lang ’89

Pamela Robie Lavalley ’69

Mark Levy ’86

Lorraine A. MacFarlane

William P. Magarian ’67

Edmea McCarty ’81

Joyce A. McPhillips ’74

Carmen Pacheco Medeiros ’75

Mary I. Mendenhall ’70

Blanche O. Miller CER ’97, CER ’98 Kathleen M. Mitchell ’68

James I. Mitchell ’70

Patricia A. Geary Moore ’80

Virginia Madden Mullen ’63

Joseph H. Mulligan ’75

Angela M. O’Connor ’92

Arthur J. Ohanley ’00

Barry Podradchik ’63

Eugene V. Povirk G’83

Sherell M. Pringle ’18

Sabine Quitslund ’78

Robert Lawrence Rabin Siegal ’77, H’20

John W. Reifenberg, III ’08

Arlene K. Reinhold G’96

James A. Rennie CER ’93

Zachary Thomas Romania Bill Russell H’02

Josephine Ryner ’74

Steven M. Saxonis ’79

Brian J. Shea G’79

Margaret G. Sheehan ’03

Raymond A. Sheffield ’80

John Shibley ’81

Arlynn B. Gurwitz Siegel ’76

Lani P. Smith ’99

Timothy J. Smith ’09 G’12

Mary M. States ’79

Robert J. Struthers

Rosemarie A. Torlone ’55, G’57

Annette Tovsky ’52

Ellen V. Flannery Trainer ’64

Nancy E. Tyrer ’77, G’97

Ashley R. Udowenko ’16

Julianne Dahill Walsh ’61

Cynthia D. Webster ’73

Freda R. Estner Weiner G’88

Sheila E. Whelton ’61

Joseph Bruce Womack ’83

Barbara A. Zani ’90

FACULTY AND STAFF

Professor Chukwuma Azuonye

Professor Yung-Ping Chen

Professor Joan L. Ecklein

Professor Clara Estow

Professor Glenn Jacobs

Professor Some Nath Mukherjee

Professor Curtis R. Olsen

James M. Wright

Charles Yetman

FRIENDS

Rand V. Araskog

Hajj Asuman Lukwago P’22

Robert Coval

Jean Entine

Frances M. Farrell

Donald E. Froude

Yvette Mystal Gaston P’83

Edward C. Johnson III

Donald Jonas

Stephen J. LaRochelle

Doris Mackler

Clyde Magarelli

Patricia Taylor Malbone P’95

Geraldine F. Martin

Nancy M. McNamara

Pete M. Nicholas

Ivey St. John

Howard Starnbach

Kathleen Nancy Thomas

Jason Toabe

Sidney Topol

Marianne Gontarz York

ALBERT “AL” BEATON JR. ’55

Albert “Al” Beaton Jr. ’55 passed away on March 8, 2022. A graduate of State Teachers College at Boston, Beaton began his illustrious five-decade career as the managing director at Harvard University’s Littauer Statistical Laboratory in 1959 and an IBM Research Fellow. He later earned his master of education degree and EdD from Harvard University. Beaton held several senior research and data analytics positions at the world’s largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. In addition to his full-time career, Beaton taught students as a guest lecturer at various universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Trinity College in Dublin. Beaton was honored with many awards during his career. In 2002, he was awarded the Augustus C. Long Professorship.

AGNES BROWN ’49

Agnes Brown ’49 passed away on March 17, 2022. She was a former elementary school principal who began her teaching career in Boston. Her desire to travel and to learn about other cultures motivated Brown to accept a teaching position with the Department of Defense American School in Fontainebleau, France, where she met and later married her husband, Colonel James J. Brown. Following her retirement, she volunteered at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, working as a docent and later serving on the national board. She was a member of the Clifton Women’s Club, the Country Club View Women’s Club, the George Mason University Symphony, Fairfax County Retired Educators’ Legato School, the Raleigh Tavern Society, and the Smithson Society.

SIDNEY “SID” TOPOL

Sidney “Sid” Topol passed away on March 30, 2022. He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1941 and went on to serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Topol enjoyed professional success as an engineer and manager at Raytheon. He later served as president, CEO, and board chair of Scientific Atlanta, Inc. from 1971 to 1990. Topol leaves behind a legacy as a pioneer, a visionary, and a leader. Additionally, he was named the Distinguished Graduate of the Year by Boston Latin School. Upon retirement, Topol dedicated his time to philanthropy, enabling young leaders to learn about nonviolence as a pathway to peace and goodwill, especially in the Middle East, through the Topol Fellowships. He was also an advocate for the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at UMass Boston, which investigates and addresses some of the most challenging human security concerns worldwide, including in Boston.

SAN FRANCISCO—FEBRUARY

1.) Chancellor Suárez-Orozco and Ann Pagliaro ’69.

2.) The San Francisco—Oakland Bay Bridge provides a backdrop for our Beacons.

BOSTON DAY OF SERVICE—APRIL

3.) A group of alumni participated in the Spring Day of Service in April, cleaning up along the Harborwalk

WASHINGTON DC—MAY

4.) Philip McLaughlin ’17, Maddy LaCure ’20, G’20, Aisha Rahman, and Mohammed Uddin ’19 pose for a photo at our Washington, DC event in May.

5.) College of Liberal Arts Dean Tyson King-Meadows addresses attendees.

SENIOR NIGHT IN BOSTON—MAY

6.) Members of the class of 2022 pose for a picture during Senior Night at Dorchester Brewing Company on May 9.

7.) A group of classmates and friends pose for a photo.

8.) Classmates enjoying the sunset on the rooftop deck as they celebrate Senior Night 2022.

NEW YORK—JUNE

9.) Kevin Rattigan ’98, Tyler Serota ’19, and Anne-Marie McLaughlin ’91, G’94 pose for a photo at the UMass reception in New York City.

BOSTON HARBOR CRUISE—JULY

10.) Staff enjoy an afternoon boat cruise on Boston Harbor, hosted by the Donor Engagement Team this past July.

11.) Jonas Meyer ’14, Tariana Little ’12, G’17, and their guests pose for a photo while cruising Boston Harbor aboard the Columbia Point.

PORTSMOUTH, NH—JULY

12.) Alumni gather for a group photo at the Portsmouth, NH reception in July.

13.) Vanessa Luongo ’17, Chelsea Hanson ’16, and Nicole Reilly ’16.

14.) Linda Lu Burciaga ’79 and Elliott Maraniss ’05.

PORTLAND, ME—AUGUST

15.) Alumni gather for a group photo at our Portland, ME alumni and friends reception in August.

16.) Diana Scannell ’83 and Jillian Felleman ’05 chat about their UMB experience.

RIVAS

18.) Chancellor Suárez-Orozco is joined by members of the UMass Boston Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

19.) Alumni listening to Chancellor Suárez-Orozco deliver remarks.

Young Alumni Council

The Young Alumni Council welcomed four new members, who began their terms on July 1, 2022.

GUIVENS ANDRE ’18, G’20

English | Education College of Liberal Arts College of Education and Human Development Commercial Account Executive, Quickbase, and Founder & CEO, Amie LLC Hyde Park, Mass.

YOLANDA BURRELL ’11

Biology College of Science and Mathematics Administrative Manager of Operations, Codman Square Health Center, and Founder & CEO, InTechligence Inc. Quincy, Mass.

NURCIN CELEBI ’16, G’19

Psychology | Business Administration College of Liberal Arts College of Management Director of People, Appex Medford, Mass.

DIANA TRAN ’21

Management College of Management Associate IT Business Analyst, John Hancock Dorchester, Mass.

The Young Alumni Council adds new members twice a year but accepts membership applications on a rolling basis. If you’re interested in joining the YAC, submit an online application at alumni.umb.edu/YAC or scan the QR code.

CAPE COD—AUGUST

17.) Jim O’Sullivan ’80, Barry Regan ’79, Nancy Cross ’81, Kim Donovan ’82, Hugh Donovan ’86, John Yelmokas ’79, Cathy Regan, Marie O’Sullivan ’80, and Mary Rafferty ’78 pose for a photo at the Cape Cod reception in August.

The University launched a campus-wide writing center!

The UMass Boston Writing Center provides free services for faculty and students to support their academic and professional writing at any stage of the writing process.

We asked Co-Director and Assistant Professor of English Florianne “Bo” Jimenez to share five fast facts about the center:

1Jimenez, along with Co-Director María Carvajal Regidor, spent their first year at UMass Boston getting to know the needs of writers across the institution. Prior to the establishment of the university-wide Writing Center, UMass Boston housed multiple smaller centers that served students.

2The goal of the Writing Center is to create an equitable, socially, racially, and linguistically just culture of writing throughout campus and in the community. Writers at all levels and across all majors can meet with trained writing consultants to receive critiques of their written work. Students are specially trained to offer individual writing consultations, providing feedback on any writing from class essays to cover letters, from theses and dissertations to manuscripts for publication and anything in between. To date, 21 undergraduate and graduate students have undergone the training necessary to become consultants.

3Among the many professional development services they offer faculty, the Writing Center recently launched a weekly writing group for faculty of color. Co-hosted alongside the Office for Faculty Development and the Dean of Faculty, this accountability writing group is meant to provide space and time for faculty of color to work on their writing in community.

4Alumna Patricia Flaherty ’81 is largely to thank for the professional development resources available at the Writing Center today, including a vast library of writing journals and reference guides. She established the Betty and Matt Flaherty Endowment in 2004, which assists various initiatives across campus. Flaherty’s ongoing support has propelled the Writing Center forward from concept to execution, making it a fully staffed resource center with trained writing experts.

5Making an appoint ment is a breeze by visiting umb.edu/ writingcenter. Daytime, nighttime, in-person, and virtual appointments are available.

change a life. Make a gift and

Like many students, I worked multiple jobs while going to school full-time. Receiving scholarship aid was a lifeline, allowing me to focus on my studies and mental health and explore my passions, such as serving as a mentor and engaging with the Filipino Club.

I am forever grateful to the donors who supported and believe in me.”

— SHANARAH BARGAN ’22

University of Massachusetts Boston Office of Alumni Engagement 100 Morrissey Boulevard Boston, MA 02125-3393