The Key March 29, 2019 Edition

A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends

March 29, 2019

Bowlers win MEAC crown; qualify for national champion tourney Three days of bowling for a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship came down to three balls in the final frame from a freshman who joined the University of Maryland Eastern Shore team just two months ago. Photo credit: Joey Gardner Trailing rival North Carolina A&T State by 19 pins and heading into the 10th frame of the deciding seventh game, Chloe Skurzynski needed a pair of strikes for the win.

Skurzynski delivered on the first ball and the second, and after a brief explosion of emotion from teammates, finished out the game with seven

pins on the final ball for a 208-200 score, a 4-games-to-3 victory, the MEAC postseason title – and a spot in the 2019 NCAA championship tournament.

“She carried those last two shots,” Hawks coach Kayla Bandy said. “She didn’t just strike. She made two incredible shots as if she has done it a million times.”

Skurzynski’s heroics earned her the 2019 tournament’s Outstanding Performer honors and she joined teammate Brigitte Jacobs on the alltournament team.

MEAC / continued on page 2

UMES’ Yen Dang recognized as one of

Maryland’s Top 100 women

INSIDE

Dr. Yen Dang, an assistant professor in UMES’ School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, was named earlier this month

by Baltimore’s Daily Record to the newspaper’s 2019 listing of Maryland’s Top 100 Women.

Dang, who joined the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s faculty in 2013, teaches pharmacy practice courses in urology, endocrinology, neurology and kidney functions, among others.

She is also known among colleagues and pharmacy students as “the lead organizer for international medical missions” to Haiti and Vietnam.

Page 2

Md. Top 100 Women cont.

MEAC Bowling champs cont.

Page 3

Mother, Athlete, Senior Woman Administrator

Page 4

Bee mites beware!

The Daily Record began Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 1996 to recognize outstanding achievements by women demonstrated through professional accomplishments, community leadership and mentoring.

Nominees completed an application outlining their educational and career history, professional and community involvement, corporate and nonprofit board memberships and mentoring experience. They

Page 5

“Green” at the Masters

DANG / continued on page 2

Page 6

Byrom, Batchelor best of the bunch

Page 7

UMES’ new man in Annapolis

Page 8

Arts & Entertainment Calendar

2

The Key / March 29, 2019

Circling the Oval

DANG / continued from cover

member of the Statewide Advisory Commission “She is community-minded … on a local were encouraged to submit letters of on Immunization. and global scale,” Diriker said. “She is always recommendation from those who are familiar A panel of business professionals and with their accomplishments professionally, in the positive and encouraging towards others, and she previous Maryland’s Top 100 Women honorees exemplifies professionalism.” community and through mentoring. from throughout the state reviewed Dr. Frank Nice, who penned the final applications and selected this a letter in support of Dang and Since 2000, these women with UMES ties year’s honorees. has worked alongside her on have been named to The Daily Record’s “This year’s Maryland’s Top medical missions, describes her as annual list of Maryland’s Top 100 Women 100 Women are leading companies, “independent, assertive, willing to take charting new territory and inspiring risks but not afraid of criticism.”

• Dr. Juliette B. Bell - 2014 the next generation. They are truly “She’s able to convince students • Dr. Cynthia Boyle – 2013 outstanding role models for all of – high quality students – to get • Dr. Veronique Diriker* – 2011, 2013 & 2015 us,” said Suzanne Fischer-Huettner, involved in something that’s not for the • Kimberly C. Dumpson, Esq. – 2017 publisher of The Daily Record. “They faint-of-heart,” Nice said. “She’s a very show compassion and commitment innovative, compassionate and caring • Dr. Thelma B. Thompson – 2004 & 2011 to help others and to shape their person.” (*) – Circle of Excellence member communities. The Daily Record is Dr. Veronique Diriker, a former honored to recognize their many achievements.”

In addition to teaching, Dang has a UMES fund-raiser who participated in overseas The Maryland’s Top 100 Women awards pharmacy practice with Chesapeake Healthcare missions coordinated by Dang, calls her “an celebration will be held April 15 at the Joseph in Princess Anne and Pocomoke City. She is excellent role model for young women in the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. certified as an immunization provider and is a pharmacy field.

MEAC / continued from cover

“Bowling has obviously always been a big part of my life,” Skurzynski said. “But this atmosphere is like no other. You are never going to experience this unless you bowl in college.”

“When I came here,” she said, “I don’t know if I want to say it was helpful that it was the middle of the season, but there was no awkward first encounters and it clicked so well right away.”

The Hawks won UMES’ 10th MEAC bowling title and second in three years.

Two years ago, they defeated the Aggies 4-1 and then fell to them by the same score last season.

“This team has been super close,” Jacobs said. “We were all nervous when we added Chloe because here was another

person and how would she change things?”

“But she just came in and has been great and it has been fun,” Jacobs, a junior, said. “She is a lot of fun and she helps us, but not just with her bowling also because she is just fun to be around and it lightens it up.”

Bandy was named the tournament’s Outstanding Coach.

“I am just really impressed with how the

girls worked together,” Bandy said. “We made a lot of change early in the match, and this entire weekend.

“Our players who are usually really on, weren’t consistently on the whole weekend,” she said, “so I knew I could make a change in the lineup (Sunday) and the girls would be somewhat confident in it because we had made so many changes throughout the weekend.”

Fans can watch the MEAC championship match on ESPNU via rebroadcast on Sunday, March 31 at 9 p.m. EST. The Hawks will compete in the NCAA championship tournament April 11-13 in Cleveland.

Report courtesy of the UMES athletics department.

Photo credit: Joey Gardner

UMES People

The Key / March 29, 2019

3

Transition ahead for UMES’ Senior Woman Athletic Administrator

By Tahja Cropper

A willing servant and hesitant interviewee, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Neema Connor reflects on her nearly two decades at this historically black land-grant institution.

Always one to have an encouraging word and a positive attitude, Connor is known for working behind the scenes without fanfare and her infectious “Hey darling!” greeting that is sure to bring a smile to the face of those with whom she has contact.

Connor joined the UMES staff in 2001 as a Graduate Assistant (academic advising) in the university’s athletics department, and rose through the ranks to where today she is Associate Athletics Director for Compliance/Senior Woman Administrator.

She holds a Master’s in criminology and criminal justice (UMES 2004), a degree she thought at the time would lead to working in the juvenile court system. Instead, the former middle-distance track athlete pivoted to helping the next generation of student-athletes.

Connor, a Guyana native who is now a United States citizen, channeled her goals of helping the youth in filling several roles over her 17 years of service, which included assistant to the athletic director, coordinator of student athlete services and assistant (NCAA) compliance officer.

Neema, who will relocate to San Antonio, TX at the end of the spring 2019 semester, describes this upcoming transition as “overwhelming.”

“I hope those who have had encounters with me will take

Photo credit: Joey Gardner

away a positive attitude, respect for people, and commitment to the process. I’m all in,” Connor said.

The senior woman administrator says her various roles in the athletic department aided her in developing her leadership skills, flexibility, vision and creativity.

With a huge smile, she refers to UMES as “home.” “This is family.

UMES got the best of me,” she said.

Athletics Director Keith Davidson echoes these sentiments noting Connor’s unconditional support, her way of diffusing situations, and ability to speak directly to the point.

“Neema’s impact here is immeasurable. She helped empower me. She has had a major part in every decision made in this department,” Davidson said.

“People tolerate me, but people love Neema,” said Davidson, who admires Connor’s ability to be personable.

Among the memories she’ll take away from her time at UMES is the national success of the women’s bowling team especially the first championship win in 2008 and meeting her husband, Marcellus L. Connor III. Neema and Marcellus, a 2001 UMES alum, married in 2004.

The Connors have two sons, Noah and Marcellus IV.

4

The Key / March 29, 2019

School News

Bee mites beware!

Researchers have your number

mammals,” Escobar said. “It performs multiple functions.”

Now that apiculturists think they’ve honed in on how mites kill bees, they’re trying to find ways to combat the pest. That has energized and challenged Escobar and his colleagues who work in agriculture extension.

The eco-system, Escobar notes, is sensitive to the introduction of new pesticides, so identifying alternative strategies is a priority. One idea under consideration is subjecting clustering bees briefly to extreme cold to kill the mites. Another is use of new kinds of artificial material in the combs.

Escobar wonders if there are natural mite predators that won’t harm honeybees, the only member of its species that produces a surplus amount of honey.

Escobar said he saw a need locally to set up UMES’ bee hives to be part of the network of research into how to “transfer … information along to farmers, to beekeepers in Somerset County ... so they can better treat their colonies.”

Scientists looking for what’s causing the decline of honeybees might have found an answer that has UMES faculty researcher Enrique Nelson Escobar optimistic their discovery can translate into boosting Delmarva farmers’ crop production.

Escobar, an agriculture extension specialist, has a small upstart collection of hives at the university’s research farm on Stewart Neck Road, where he’s seen first-hand evidence that a mite known as the “Varroa destructor” can wipe out bee colonies.

“These are pests for honeybees that have been causing havoc in the United States, and all over the world,” Escobar said.

On an unseasonably warm day in February, Escobar and beekeeper consultant Dean Burroughs of Salisbury pulled combs that resemble a vertical chest-of-drawers from two hives to show a local journalist.

In one, bees appeared to have succumbed to an infestation of the miniscule insect related to spiders and ticks.

“They burrow a hole into the body (of bees),” Escobar said. “The mites are about the size of a head of a pin.”

In the other hive, clustering bees were alive but in sluggish winterseason mode.

“Twenty five years ago you may lose 10 percent of your bees in the winter,” Burroughs said. “Now, it’s easily 50 percent or more.”

A joint study released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research service and the University of Maryland reported they believe mites destroy bee colonies by feasting on the insect’s organs known as “fat bodies.” Scientists previously suspected the mites caused blood disorders in bees.

“The fat body in the bees is similar to the kidneys and liver in

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has named UMES’ Dr. Adel H. Karara to an ad hoc committee conducting a study “to assess the clinical utility of treating patients with compounded ‘bioidentical hormone replacement therapy’ drug products.” Karara, a pharmaceutical science professor in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, will serve until mid-2020 as a volunteer on the panel, which met for the first time earlier this month.

School News

The Key / March 29, 2019

5

Working behind the scenes at The Masters Golf management student lands

Augusta National intern gig When azaleas bloom on the grounds of an old nursery off Washington Road in Augusta, Ga., it must be Masters’ time.

UMES golf management major Lane Dillon will make his first visit in early April to Augusta National, the revered golf club where he secured a 10-day internship at a tournament that can define a professional golfer’s legacy.

Dillon, at least outwardly, says there’s no pressure associated with living up to tournament organizers’ exacting standards of decorum and lofty expectations to stage a flawless event.

“I’m about as cool as they come,” he said confidently. “I’ve been in situations where I’ve been uncomfortable and I just focus on persevering.”

Dillon has been a serious golfer for just three years. In high school, he was a left-hand hitting centerfielder on Stephen Decatur’s baseball team in nearby Berlin, and played one semester of junior college baseball before enrolling at UMES. When he picked up golf clubs, Dillon found he had superior hand-eye coordination right-handed and quickly parlayed that into carding a passing score on a playing-ability test, a prerequisite all students in PGA-accredited programs must meet.

Dillon will be among five college students on a team of roughly 20 interns invited to Augusta National and has been told he’ll be working a program for VIP patrons called the “Master’s Putting Experience.”

He described the assignment as

caddie-instructor-ambassador interacting with corporate executives who get a little-publicized inside-the-ropes experience of putting on a specially built Masters’ green.

Which, Dillon said, is equivalent to rolling a golf ball atop a polished table; the ball travels fast and doesn’t always go where the golfer intended.

He also anticipates playing a support role in staging the national Drive, Chip & Putt championship for youth golfers who earned the right to compete on the Augusta National course before the tournament begins.

Dillon is quick to credit the work by the small faculty, led by his father, to build a credible golf management program as well as students who came before him and have gone on to have success as PGA professionals across the country.

UMES’ golf management students the past two years have embraced a national clothing drive sponsored by the Pros Fore Clothes Foundation that recycles gently used golf attire to help the needy.

One of the foundation’s founders is a former Augusta National club pro and he urged UMES students to pursue the Masters’ week internship opportunity.

“For us to be able to accomplish what we have in just 10 years, I’d like to think this (opportunity) is eye-opening for the rest of the golf industry,” Dillon said.

Dillon said he understands the responsibility that accompanies having a behind-the-scenes role at a Masters’ tournament, one of America’s signature sporting events.

“I’m just down there to work,” he said, adding, “Just being able to be there is an honor.”

The internship, Dillon acknowledged, also has potential to be “the best networking opportunity anyone (the UMES program) has ever had.

I take it very seriously.”

Asked his reaction when he learned in early February he had been picked to work the 2019 Masters’ tournament, a matter-of-fact smile crossed Dillon’s face.

“It’s Augusta National,” he said. “There’s nothing more I can say.”

6

The Key / March 29, 2019

Athletics

Byrom & Batchelor:

Best of the (MEAC) Bunch

Hawk softball shows signs of jelling After 19 games, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore softball team tied its win total of a season ago that took 39 games to attain after splitting a doubleheader with the Howard University this past Sunday.

The Bison won the first game 7-5. The Hawks won game two 7-6.

UMES (4-15) had just finished a seven-game road trip on an up note with a doubleheader win against S.C. State in Orangeburg. ”It was really nice to be home and playing after the long spring break on the road,” first-year head coach Karla Powell said.

The nightcap with Howard began with both teams scoring three runs in the opening inning. Senior Daeshia Jones hit a single and sophomore Stephanie Huff followed with a double that scored Jones. Huff got to third on a wild pitch, senior Kiana Peterson drew a walk and advanced to second on a groundout. Freshman Jordan Kelly then hit a two-RBI single to tie the score at three.

Howard got a solo homer in the third and two runs in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead, which led to the drama in the bottom of the fifth.

Senior Breana Florez led off the inning with a single. She advanced to second on a passed ball and third on a wild pitch. Following a pitching change, junior Kamryn Lanier drew a walk and junior Kendal Turner entered to pinch run. Junior Allison Gingrich hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Florez and move Turner to second base. The score stood at 6-4 after the play.

Freshman Rachel Gingrich hit a bloop single to center field to move runners to second and third after advancing on a throw. A groundout from the Hawks was their second out of the inning.

Huff was the next batter and hit a laser to left center to score Turner and Gingrich and tie the game at six. Peterson then doubled to center field to score Huff, giving the Hawks a 7-6 lead. The game ended at that point due to darkness and gave UMES the win.

Nasya Goodman (photo above) was the winning pitcher.

In the earlier game won by Howard, the Hawk hitting stars were freshman Anissa Derifield, Florez, Jones, Kelly and Huff, who led the team at the plate going 2-4 with an RBI and run scored.

Photo credit: Joey Gardner

Ciani Byrom, a senior point guard on the UMES basketball team, was named First-Team All-MEAC for the first time in her career, while head coach Fred Batchelor earned MEAC Coach of the Year honors.

“It’s a great honor for her,” Batchelor said. “She has had moments of being an all-conference player for four years, so it was nice that she was able to get this recognition in her senior year. I am extremely proud of her. She has been a pleasure to coach and I am going to miss her after this year.”

Byrom is the first Hawk to receive First-Team All-MEAC since Moengaroa Subritzky in 2015-16 and 14th in school history. She last won MEAC honors when named to the All-Rookie Team in 2015-16 before missing parts of the next two seasons due to a knee injury.

“A lot of this has happened since she came back from (that) injury, which happened a long time ago,” Batchelor said. “But overcoming (it) is probably her greatest accomplishment.”

As a senior, Byrom started every game. She led the MEAC in assists per game with 5.2 and assists/turnover ratio with 1.8. She was No. 11 in the conference in free throw percentage, No. 11 in 3-point percentage and No. 6 in scoring with 15.8 points per game.

The Hawks finished the 2018-19 regular season with a 12-4 MEAC record, the best winning percentage (.750) in conference play under Batchelor. It was the most MEAC wins since the 2005-06 season when UMES was 12-6 in conference play.

The Hawks finished this season with a 17-14 record, tying the all-time win mark set in 2007-08 when the team went 17-10 when current assistant coach Casey Morton was a freshman point guard. Willie Simon also had a team go 17-10 as the head coach during the 1991-92 season.

Batchelor — who is in his 15th season at UMES and a 124-121 record in MEAC play — is a first-time winner of MEAC Coach of the Year.

Batchelor is the second coach from the Hawks program to win MEAC coach of the Year. Garmaine McAuley took the honor is 1986-87 after finishing 12-14 overall.

School News

The Key / March 29, 2019

7

Former state Sen. Jim Mathias named UMES’ government relations director The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has named former state lawmaker Jim Mathias its government relations director.

Mathias served 4½ years in Maryland’s House of Delegates – from June 2006 until January 2011 – and the following eight years in the state Senate representing Worcester and Somerset counties and eastern Wicomico County.

He lost a re-election bid in November 2018 to Republican Mary Beth Carozza, who had been representing Worcester County in the state House of Delegates.

The Baltimore native also was mayor of Ocean City from 1996 until mid-2006.

It was that combination of local- and state-level government experience that made Mathias UMES’ top choice when President Heidi M. Anderson decided the university needed a stronger presence in the state capital.

“Clearly, his deep roots in Eastern Shore political circles, particularly in the state legislature as well as Ocean City, made him an ideal candidate,” said David Balcom, UMES’ chief fund-raiser and vice president for institutional

Class of 2018* The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy earlier this month released results of the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination by the class of 2018.

Maryland has three schools that train pharmacists.

Maryland institution

Pass rate

1. University of Maryland Eastern Shore

96.23%

2. University of Maryland at Baltimore

87.05%

3. Notre Dame of Maryland University

87.76%

National average – class of 2018

89.46%

*UMES graduated its first pharmacy class in 2013.

advancement. “He’s well-connected in state government.”

Mathias, 67, will report to Balcom, who is responsible for external relations.

While April 8 is the 2019 Maryland General Assembly’s final day, Mathias already has been reconnecting with lawmakers and state agency heads, getting out the word that moving forward he is UMES’ point person on public policy issues.

Balcom said Mathias has a deep understanding of UMES’ role as a public, historically black university and its unique role as a land-grant institution in the heart of a region heavily reliant on agriculture.

Both of Mathias’ adult children, Balcom noted, are graduates of institutions in the University System of Maryland, of which UMES is a member.

“He is a good fit for this campus,” Balcom said. “Mathias is knowledgeable about the key players in state government and the process of lawmaking.”

UMES has had a state-level government liaison since 2007, according to Andy Clark, USM’s assistant vice chancellor for government relations.

Zoe Johnson, a doctoral candidate in toxicology, was the first-place winner in the Graduate Student Poster Competition at the 15th annual National Science Foundation (Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) research symposium at the University of Maryland.

His presentation was on the “Neuroprotection

by PACAP-38 Against Cytotoxicity of Chlorpyrifos in Human Neuroblastoma Cells.”

Johnson’s research advisers are Dr. Ahmed Elnabawi and Dr. Ali Ishaque.

Dr. Yuanwei Jin, professor and chairman of UMES’ engineering and aviation sciences department, received a “STEM Innovator” award in February at the 33rd annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards / Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics’ Global Competitiveness Conference. Jin holds four U.S. patents in the areas of bio-medical imaging, wireless communications and structural health monitoring, and is focused on “promoting student learning and reducing social inequalities through expanding equality of educational opportunities.”

APRIL

MAY

26 27

Springfest

11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Student Services Center Courtyard UMES Open House and Carnival. Prices for food determined by visiting vendors.

410-651-6411 (Admissions) 410-651-6434 (Carnival)

Community Players of Salisbury*

2 p.m., Ella Fitzgerald Center for Performing Arts The community theater company presents “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” a one-act play of monologues and ensemble pieces about women, clothes and memory covering all the important subjects.

All tickets are $10.

Call 410-546-0099

28

9

Art Exhibit Opening Reception 4-6 p.m., Mosely Gallery “Senior Show” UMES spring graduates in the Department of Fine Arts display their work.

Show on display through May 23.

410-651-7770 or visit www.moselygallery.com

10

UMES Jazz and Pop Concert

Written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron Based on the book by Ilene Beckerman

UMES Concert Choir Performance

4 p.m., Ella Fitzgerald Center for Performing Arts UMES Concert Choir presents “Motown to Madrigals,” a program

spanning the ages with a special tribute to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul.

410-651-6572

7 p.m.

Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts The UMES Jazz and Popular Music Program presents The 2nd Annual Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Celebration, a jazz and pop concert paying tribute to the “First Lady of Song.

410-621-1514

The Key / March 29, 2019

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Inquiries regarding the application of Federal laws and non-discrimination policies to University programs and activities may be referred to the Office of Equity & Compliance/Title IX Coordinator by telephone (410) 651-7848 or e-mail (titleix@umes.edu).

The Key is published by the Office of Public Relations umesnews@umes.edu, 410-651-7580 An archive is available at www.umes.edu/TheKey

Submissions to The KEY are preferred via email. All copy is subject to editing.

The Key is written according to the Associated Press stylebook.

University Relations 30665 Student Services Center Lane Princess Anne, MD 21853 PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID MAIL MOVERS