UNC Asheville Magazine

UNC asheville Volume 4, No. 1 路 Fall/Winter 2011

MAGAZINE

Inside: Saving the Little Brown Bat Putting the U-N-C in Asheville Tornadoes in the Mountains

page 12 | The Sound of Science: Students Plug Into Music Technology

BENJAMIN PORTER

UNC asheville

ponderings

MAGAZINE

University of North Carolina at Asheville One University Heights Asheville, North Carolina 28804 www.unca.edu

UNC ASHEVILLE MAGAZINE STAFF Managing Editors Eric Seeger, Debbie Griffith Designers Nanette Johnson, Mary Ann Lawrence Contributing Writers Susan Andrew, Graham Averill, Paul Clark, Mike Gore, Debbie Griffith, Rita Larkin, Merianne Miller, Steve Plever, Devin Walsh ’07 Contributing Photographers Patrick Cavan Brown, Emily Chaplin, Debbie Griffith, Perry Hebard, Doug Kaspustin, Blake Madden, Will Owens, Matt Rose, Eric Seeger UNC ASHEVILLE ALUMNI OFFICE Alumni Director Kevan Frazier ’92 UNC Asheville Magazine is published twice a year to give alumni and friends an accurate, lively view of the university—its people, programs and initiatives.

Contact us at magazine@unca.edu.

Address Changes: UNC Asheville Office of Development Owen Hall, CPO #1800 One University Heights Asheville, NC 28804-8507 email hgarr@unca.edu 828.250.2303 UNC Asheville enrolls more than 3,700 full- and part-time students in more than 30 programs leading to the bachelor’s degree as well as the Master of Liberal Arts.

The university is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students or employees on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disabling condition or sexual orientation. © UNC Asheville/Office of Communication and Marketing, November 2011 unca.edu/magazine

“It is at these times that I am reminded of how fortunate I am to know these students, because one day soon, they will graduate from UNC Asheville and change the world.”

—CHANCELLOR ANNE PONDER

Having returned to my hometown of Asheville just over six years ago, I’ve been able to marvel, first-hand, at the power of the liberal arts, as I Chancellor Ponder signs an agreement with Mission Health System see it come to life through the CEO Ronald Paulus that will create more research and learning work of our many graduates who’ve helped shape Greater opportunities for students.

Asheville, Buncombe County and much of Western North System signed a new affiliaCarolina. They are our business that they—with faculty and staff—have created on campus. tion agreement today, creating leaders, shop owners, artists, the opportunity for expanded And recently, our Key Center green-energy experts, climate collaborations in education, for Community Citizenship specialists, elected officials, healthy living initiatives and inventors, nonprofit directors, and Service Learning began community outreach. the Community Engaged and socially responsible memScholar program to recognize bers of the community.

These are only some of our students who’ve chosen to many undertakings that Of course, many UNC make giving back part of their will deepen our students’ Asheville students make their education. intellectual growth while mark even before graduabroadening UNC Asheville’s This semester also marks tion. In this issue, you’ll see contribution to the vibrant the beginning of some key articles about undergraduate community that we share with partnerships in the field of researchers racing to save Greater Asheville. medicine for the university.

North American bat populations from possible extinction, UNC Chapel Hill’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy now —CHANCELLOR ANNE PONDER and testing rooftop runoff to offers its doctoral Pharmacy ensure that the water we use program on our campus. The for our gardens is safe. Other students are learning the value project aims to address the shortage of pharmacists in of sustainable agriculture and sharing it with the community Western North Carolina. UNC Asheville and Mission Health through the ROOTS garden

PERRY HEBARD

UNC ASHEVILLE SENIOR STAFF Chancellor Anne Ponder Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Jane Fernandes Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs William K. Haggard Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations John Pierce Senior Administrator for University Enterprises and Director of Athletics Janet Cone Chief of Staff Christine Riley University General Counsel Lucien “Skip” Capone III

A

s I write this letter, autumn is in full swing here in Asheville. The maples on The Quad have just started showing their brilliant shades of red and orange, while students study, relax and play frisbee all across the Quad—making the most of these very memorable days.

It is at these times that I am reminded of how fortunate I am to know these students, because one day soon, they will graduate from UNC Asheville and change the world.

UNC asheville Volume 4, No. 1 · Fall/Winter 2011

20

MAGAZINE

on the cover 12

THE SOUND OF SCIENCE

For some Music majors, their specialty instrument is the recording studio itself. The Music Technology program is creating virtuosos who are plugging into the future of their art form.

16

12

Senior Music student Eric Merchant looks over an arrangement before rehearsal with the University Jazz Band. On the cover: Music Technology senior Keith Fletcher at the studio console recording a fellow student. Photos by Patrick Cavan Brown.

features 16

RESEARCHING A MYSTERIOUS MALADY

A professor and student race to understand White Nose Syndrome, a fungus that’s killing North American bats.

20

COLLEGE + TOWN

UNC Asheville has become a partner in the region’s growth, counting successes one student, alum, and outreach program at a time.

departments 2 Around the Quad 8 Primary Sources 9 Extra Credit 10 Lending a Hand 11 Faculty Footnotes

24 25 2 6 32

Honor Society Go, Bulldogs!

Class Notes In Retrospect

on the back: Turning of the Maples

the around Q UA D National Human Rights Scholarship Award Political Science professor is recognized for almost three decades’ dedication to research

PERRY HEBARD

individuals who have worked in the field of human rights and made an exceptional contribution through research, teaching and mentorship.

Gibney teaches courses in constitutional law, human rights and international politics, immigration and refugee law and policy, and individual rights and civil liberties.

When Gibney joined Purdue University in the 1980s, one of his colleagues had started tracking the use of terror by governments to intimidate their citizens. “I took over the list, and I expanded it from 59 countries to where it is now, which is 187 countries,” THIS SEPTEMBER, Mark Gibney, says Gibney. “The earliest use a UNC Asheville political of the Political Terror Scale science professor, author, was to see where U.S. foreign and creator of the website aid was going. There was a politicalterrorscale.org, was law that said U.S. assistance named the 2011 Distinguished cannot go to countries where Scholar of Human Rights by there is gross and systematic the American Political Science human rights violations.” While Association (APSA)—one of reports of such abuses have the leading organizations been common in the news, of political scientists in the Gibney found that assigning a world. The award recognizes rating to each country had an

immediate, quantifiable impact for scholars and policy makers.

Gibney had a key role in three important books on human rights published last year.

He was author of “Global Refugee Crisis,” co-author of “The Politics of Human Rights: The Quest for Dignity,” and co-editor of “Universal Human Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations.”

In all his decades of researching this topic across the globe, Gibney admits that there hasn’t been much worldwide improvement in the state of human rights and political terror; some areas have improved while others have declined.

Hence the need for continued monitoring—to show the world how things are going wrong and help us recognize where things went right.

The Numbers Don’t Lie People have been taking notice of UNC Asheville this year. Here’s the rundown:

1

UNC Asheville is the only North Carolina institution listed among National Liberal Arts Colleges whose students graduate with the least amount of debt.

—The Princeton Review's “The Best 376 Colleges—2012”

—U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Colleges”

8 2

20

Asheville ranked among the Top 20 "Great College Towns" in the nation

10

UNC Asheville is one of America's “10 Best Colleges for the Money.”

—Bankrate.com

Eighth in the nation among Public Liberal Arts Colleges —U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Colleges”

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

100

UNC Asheville is one of the nation's 100 best values in public colleges.

—Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

Room to Grow A campus urban garden becomes a tool for teaching sustainability “We believe that the Asheville ROOTS project can become a hub for the Asheville community by teaching sustainable agricultural practices and providing residents with an avenue for increasing access to healthy, local food,” said Amy The project, known as Asheville ROOTS Lanou, a nutrition expert and (Real Organic Opportunities for Teaching “I love getting my hands dirty,” says Larkin UNC Asheville Health and Wellness Sustainability), began last year when Dodgen of Charlotte. “I’ve never done professor, who is one of the project students and faculty started testing soil, anything this labor-intensive, and I am organizers. The hope is that this garden removing invasive species and improving really enjoying it. I am really interested will also help UNC Asheville deepen its drainage on a quarter-acre site behind in sustainable lifestyles and thought roots with the community.

UNC Asheville’s Rhoades property. Work, this would be a good way to get a led by Jordan Ellis from the Student foundation.”

Environmental Center, continued into the summer, and the first student-run garden on the property yielded enough corn, tomatoes, squash and lettuce to create some great home-cooked meals.

UNC ASHEVILLE STUDENTS and faculty are

turning the soil on garden property near campus with the expectation that a new, sustainable urban garden will flourish and grow into a community resource.

and farmers’ markets, and journal– keeping on how to maintain a garden.

One of their first tasks on a hot, sunny September day was to install fencing to deter rabbits and a large number of seriously motivated groundhogs.

I am really interested in sustainable lifestyles and thought this would be a good way to get a foundation.”

Efforts are expanding this fall as students in Environmental Studies Professor Kevin Moorhead’s freshman honors class, Agriculture and the Environment, establish and care for two new garden beds. The course, which explores farming practices and their environmental impact, includes field trips to local farms, tailgate

—Larkin Dodgen

UNC Asheville plans to join forces with Bountiful Cities, an urban agriculture and food security nonprofit organization in Asheville, to expand the garden into a pilot urban agriculture training center that can help increase community capacity for food security.

Sharing the Bounty Some of the community organizations that are participating in the garden: • UNC Asheville and Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit organization that specializes in creating beautiful gardens on urban community spaces, used food grown at ROOTS to host a canning seminar in the Sherrill Center’s educational kitchen.

PERRY HEBARD

• The Student Environmental Center and Cooper Riis, which is a healing farm community, are collaborating on a beekeeping project at the garden to educate visitors on the importance of bees.

3

the around Q UA D PERRY HEBARD

Two New Beginnings Call it serendipity or just smart scheduling, but the Class of 2015’s convocation served as the first large event hosted at the new Sherrill Center’s Kimmel Arena.

The facility can seat up to 3,800 students. About 550 seats were needed for this year’s incoming freshman class.

We stopped by the the Quad one October afternoon and asked students what part of their UNC Asheville experience surprised them the most.

GINE GARRETT ’15 Undeclared Roxboro “I’m from a really small town in the middle of nowhere, and I was preparing myself for city life. Then I discovered the Botans (Botanical Gardens). It’s such a beautiful place where I can go and study, relax, and feel like I’m in the country again.”

4

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

KEEGAN HOOPER ’14 Psychology/Religious Studies Southern Pines “I was surprised by how the university didn’t seem as small as I expected it to be. I didn’t think that I would be as social as I am.”

DANIEL HABIB ’13 Music Technology Kernersville

TYLER FISHER ’15 Psychology Greensboro

“It was my understanding “The teachers are very hands-on, but I didn’t of the liberal arts education. I had a general expect them to be as hands-on as they are. knowledge of what it was before coming to campus, They’re really responsive to student needs and but I never got to fully as far as grading goes, experience classes like humanities until I actually they’re very fair.” got here and got to delve into what a liberal arts education is.”

Re-igniting the Fire The Art Department teams up with local artisans to bring blacksmithing back to campus

PATRICK CAVAN BROWN

THE ART DEPARTMENT’S

do a weeklong residency as part of the “Meet the Maker” series.

outdoor work area “My goal is to have artists working here who do at UNC Asheville traditional and [contemporary] work, so that is a cacophony of my students can see that what people do with equipment noise, a forge can be brought into the current,” says where grinders Mark Koven, assistant professor of Art. The screech, welders residency’s goal is to give students a diverse crackle an electric skill portfolio. buzz, and there’s “The best extension of the ‘Meet the never any shortMaker’ series is to have the artists age of hand tools stay longer and share more of their banging away at craft,” said Brent Skidmore, assistant promaterials. But fessor of Art and director of Craft Studies. for years, one He collaborated with Jamye Cooper, from piece of equipthe university’s Development office, and ment remained BRNHA to develop the residency. oddly silent—a brick forge that was built for blacksmithing.

The residency is sponsored by BRNHA, which is a nonprofit organization whose It was set up almost a decade ago by a visiting mission is to interpret, promote, and preserve group from the Artist Blacksmith Association of Western North Carolina’s cultural roots.

North America that constructed it as a demonstration in blacksmithing. But it had rarely been “Blacksmithing is an ancient craft, but it has a long legacy here in the N.C. Mountains,” says used since then. That was until October, when Rob Bell, the organization’s program manthe Art Department and Blue Ridge National ager. “And we’re thrilled to see UNC Asheville Heritage Area (BRNHA) invited two regional focusing on blacksmithing with its craft artists.” blacksmiths, Zack Noble and Andrew Hayes, to

My goal is to have artists working here who do traditional and [contemporary] work, so that my students can see that what people do with a forge can be brought into the current.”

—Mark Koven PATRICK CAVAN BROWN

Meet the (other) Makers The blacksmithing series are free and open to the public. If you missed the demonstration in October, check the Meet the Maker web page (art.unca.edu/meet-maker-series) for another blacksmithing residency that will take place in March 2012.

5

the around Q UA D Prescription for Success UNC’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy begins classes at UNC Asheville PATRICIA MASHBURN’S Pharmacy classroom

in Karpen Hall is not like most on the UNC Asheville campus. She and 16 other students sit at a U-shaped table, but their professor is actually hundreds of miles away in Chapel Hill, speaking to a room full of students there as well. All are connected by a live video link. If a student in Asheville has a question, he or she pushes a button on a microphone that’s built into the table, and their image gets beamed straight to the teacher and other virtual classmates as far as Elizabeth City State University.

The high-tech setup doesn’t phase Mashburn in the least. “I haven’t had too much difficulty with it,” she said. “My generation is used to this technology. I Skype my family all the time.”

Mashburn is part of the first Asheville-based class of UNC Chapel Hill’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

When they’re not in a virtual lecture class, the students work with two on-site professors in their lab located in Zeis Hall. Their lab work gets shipped to Chapel Hill for analysis.

According to Dr. Greene Shepherd, one of the satellite program’s hands-on professors, some of the program’s future goals involve working with UNC Asheville’s Chemistry department to handle these lab analyses, and he eventually hopes to beam classes from Asheville, too.

“In Western North Carolina, when you get outside of Asheville, there’s a real shortage of pharmacists,” said Shepherd, “and a couple of counties are underserved.” The idea is that hosting the program at the UNC Asheville campus will entice local students to pursue this degree, and they will be more likely to stay within the region once they graduate. Shepherd, who worked in a similar remote program hosted by University of Georgia before joining UNC, notes that all but a couple of his students are from the western side of the state.

WILL OWENS / UNC ESHELMAN SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

In fact, Mashburn comes from Franklin in Macon County, and she was looking all over the country for a pharmacy school when this program was announced. “It was very convenient,” she said. She’s moving to Asheville to be closer to school, but she hopes to return to Franklin after graduation to work in a hospital setting.

For her, four years might seem like a long time, but for the UNC system, growing the first generation of locally taught pharmacists is happening right now.

The first class of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at Asheville comprises 17 students working toward their PharmD diplomas—a four-year degree.

6

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

Telling Our Story A new way of seeing the benef its of the UNC Asheville experience MANY OF THE BEST jobs of tomorrow don’t exist today. That’s why the most successful colleges are those that educate students to be creative, imaginative thinkers who can adapt their skills to a changing world.

A new promotional campaign for the university launching this year will showcase UNC Asheville as just this kind of university—a place that encourages students to think and create and explore new ideas, encouraged by professors who help each student make intellectual connections between varied subjects.

Organized around the catch phrase “Seriously Creative” the goal is to tell the UNC Asheville story by revealing the people who live that story—our students, our professors, our alumni, who are thoughtful and intellectual, yet friendly, upbeat and engaged.

A print and TV ad campaign will be accompanied by other promotional activities, websites, social media tactics and direct mail pieces that will help us continue to enroll the best and brightest new students and show the citizens of our state the value of a UNC Asheville education.

This word cloud shows the results of a survey given to students, alumni and stakeholders who were asked for their opinions of the university.

Frequently used words are represented in larger type.

Watch for more ways that we’ll be showing how UNC Asheville is “Seriously Creative.”

C U LT U R A L E V E N T S Nov 15 Frank Warren PostSecret Hear a talk given by a man who has been called the most trusted stranger in America. Every month, more than 7 million people visit his website, postsecret.com, which features artfully and anonymously made postcards that contain people’s darkest—and lightest— secrets. His work has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the National Suicide Hotline.

specialacademicprograms

Jan 19 damali ayo Spoken word in observance of MLK week Change starts with people, relationships and courage. Join our campus community and become empowered as damali ayo—activist, speaker and artist—uses her humorous stories and award-winning art to provide practical tools for building better communities. Her work makes conversations about racial justice more accessible.

Feb 15 Project Trio Classical music with a twist The Brooklyn-based chamber music ensemble is a classically trained and educated trio who perform genre-bending pieces that redefine the chamber style. Blending rock, classical, jazz and more, PROJECT Trio not only entertains their audience, but inspires them to look beyond the confines of traditional classical music. Greg Pattillo’s “beatbox flute” is not to be missed.

click it: For times and ticket prices visit cesap.unca.edu 7

inside UNC asheville

Backyard Science Student and teacher research the purity of rooftop runoff

By Eric Seeger He found that research using common U.S. roofing materials was almost nonexistent. So Wilcox challenged his students to develop methods to test the interaction of shingles and water in the lab. They tested new and old shingles made of different materials to find out whether age, wear and acid rain played a role in leaching chemicals.

EMILY CHAPLIN

Next, Wilcox wanted to conduct real-world tests, taking samples from residential gutters.

That’s when Putra volunteered to tackle this project for his undergraduate research work.

“It got me thinking, because it reminded me of my home in Borneo, Indonesia,” says Putra.

“People collect water from their rooftops [for drinking].”

To test leaching effects in the lab, Wilcox and Putra employed repeatable tests using samples of common roofing materials.

THE PHRASE “rise to the challenge” gets thrown

around a lot in academia, but Gulfani Putra ’13, a Chemistry major from Indonesia, has taken it literally—up a 12-foot ladder in backyards across Asheville. For his undergraduate research project, Putra has been studying the chemicals that leach from roof shingles into rainwater runoff.

It reminded me of my home in Borneo, Indonesia. People collect water from their rooftops [for drinking].”

—Gulfani Putra ’13

Putra started by writing a grant request—which was approved—to fund this study. Then, he approached homeowners near campus and in East Asheville to get permission to install a cup in their gutters that would collect rain as it left the roof, collecting samples from more than 20 houses around town.

Back in the lab, Putra studied the water’s turbidity, pH levels, and he performed chemical analyses. He found traces of copper in the water that came from roughly half the roofs with manufactured shingles. The highest levels they found were above EPA tolerances for surface water but within allowable levels for drinking water. Older roofs tended to leach more than new ones, and lab tests simulating acid rain showed increased levels of copper and titanium.

The project started when Putra’s professor, Jeff Wilcox, wanted to add a rain barrel to his house. “I started wondering ‘Should I be water- “He’s collected a lot of data,” Wilcox said, “and we’re going through it now to confirm our ing my vegetable garden with the water from my roof?’” says Wilcox. He called the local N.C. quality control.” For the next step, Wilcox would like to see Putra’s work prepared and Cooperative Extension office and asked if they submitted for publication in a scientific journal, had any data showing whether harmful matewhich would be a huge accomplishment for an rial could enter the rooftop runoff. They didn’t undergraduate student. have much information.

8

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

extrA+

CREDIT

Hungry for Experience Film students get their big break working behind the scenes on “The Hunger Games”

By Rita Larkin WHILE MOST FOLKS in Asheville were hoping for a celebrity sighting of Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci or Lenny Kravitz as the actors were in the area filming “The Hunger Games,” a group of Mass Communication majors were staying mum about secret shooting locales and getting their big break behind the cameras.

In May, lecturer Anne Slatton, also head of the 48 Hour Film Project team, was contacted by a UNC Asheville alum and told filming was to start soon and interns were needed. Based on the eponymous book by Suzanne Collins, which is set in post-apocalyptic country of Panem, the film made use of the lush, isolated forests of Western North Carolina.

Slatton quickly organized a summer course that would allow the students to receive class credit while gaining the experience of being on a multimilliondollar production. Eight students, including seniors and recent alumni, signed up and worked with camera

crews, the props and art departments, makeup, and editorial team.

Their responsibilities involved everything from lighting flaming arrows and constructing fake boulders to running monitor cables for directors.

Intern Miriam Allison, who graduated in May 2011, prepared slates, packed equipment carts with lenses, film stock, batteries, and other equipment, then pushed or backpacked the heavy loads out into the wooded locales as far as she could. The days were long— sometimes 15 hours—but the experience was worth it.

“Once you proved you weren’t there to look at celebrities, they trusted you,” she says.

“They welcomed questions and taught us specifics. I love those guys.”

As the intern coordinator, Slatton checked on the students during the filming and watched them become

comfortable in their roles.

When they started, “they felt prepared though a little terrified. They quickly found out how to do their jobs.”

The gig went so well for many that they stayed on as paid employees after the semester, and were offered help in finding jobs if they moved to Los Angeles. Slatton was a little worried a few students would head west before completing their degrees, but they were all back in class this fall.

As for Allison, she’s moved on to a part-time position making “The Healer,” which is being filmed in Hendersonville.

Top: Student Anna Brown ’12 and Miriam Alison ’11, seen right, on set with other members of “The Hunger Games” camera crew.

Student Film Wins Award UNC Asheville’s team, which featured some of Slatton’s students and alumni, recently won Best Film at Asheville’s 48 Hour Film Project. At 7 p.m. Friday, a mandatory prop, character, and line of dialog was announced, and each team had just 48 hours to incorporate them into a finished seven-minute film.

click it: unca.edu/features/48-hours

9

[ lending ]

inside UNC asheville

aHAND

Learning Through Helping A new academic honor will recognize achievements in service learning

By Steve Plever FOR MANY YEARS, UNC Asheville students who surpassed their

typical course requirements have been honored at graduation with designations like University Scholar, University Research Scholar and the Latin honors. Now the university is adding a new academic designation—one that recognizes students who made their mark by serving the community.

Students will be able to earn the title Community Engaged Scholar by successfully completing service learning-designated courses and a public service project. This new honor will appear in the commencement program and transcripts.

Service learning opportunities have long existed at UNC Asheville, with the university’s Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service Learning as the hub connecting students and faculty with community partners. But these service learning-designated courses are new and call for enhanced connections between service and academic work. The courses have students working at places in Asheville like Head Start educational centers, Claxton Elementary School and the Burton Street community.

While the Community Engaged Scholar honor provides a worthy reward, and community service work helps build a résumé, Berryhill, as a psychologist, feels that altruistic motivation is the strongest. He believes students usually choose service learning because of a true desire to serve the community, not a desire for recognition.

For Berryhill, the benefit is real-world experience. “I think if service learning is successful,” he said, “students come to realize limitations—how deeply entrenched many of our problems are and how much change is required and how long it can take.

They also see how much courage and stamina people in situations like poverty have to have in dealing with prejudice and disenfranchisement. And I hope students see that they can make a lifetime of civically-engaged work.”

WHAT IS TAKES TO BECOME A COMMUNIT Y ENGAGED SCHOLAR

To receive this honor, students must complete six academic credit hours in designated courses, earning minimum grades of B-, and successfully complete a Key Center workshop on best practices in service learning.

Then students must design and successfully complete a public service project, which should have a sustainable impact and must be developed in collaboration with a community partner. Students also must reflect on their experiences, write formal reports on their projects and make public presentations.

click it: keycenter.unca.edu 10

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

CREATIVE CLEANUP: Mary Beale ’12 and other Arts & Community Development students

collaborated with the local Green Opportunities Training Team to clear trash from a river and turn the found objects into art.

CORRENE ANDERSON

Creating this new honor holds the promise of further enhancing and expanding service learning, “a win-win situation” for students and the

community, according to Joseph Berryhill, director of the Key Center and associate professor of Psychology. “Many students who come here really want to be in Asheville, and service learning gets them involved off-campus, responding to what the community wants and needs,” said Berryhill.

[ faculty ] FOOTNOTES

Blowing in the Wind Professor searches for answers where tornadoes touched down in the mountains PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER GODFREY

By Graham Averill STANDING ON THE LOOKOUT ROCK

Observation Tower near the western edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you can still see the tornado’s path—a long line of downed trees tossed over like Pick Up Sticks. The winds that accompanied the tornado that swept through on April 27, 2011, are thought to have reached up to 170 mph—that’s an EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita rating scale—and left a flat spot a quarter-mile wide and 13 miles long. It’s the first tornado known to have hit the park, challenging the longstanding notion that tornadoes don’t occur in the mountains.

“That’s a commonly held myth, but tornadoes absolutely do happen in the mountains,” says Christopher Godfrey, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at UNC Asheville. “Tornadoes may occur less frequently in the mountains than in other parts of the state, but they still pose a very real threat.”

Godfrey and Chris Peterson, a forest ecologist from University of Georgia, received a National Science Foundation grant to study the Smokies tornado and senior, is entering data into GIS software another that hit Georgia’s Chattahoochee that flags the direction of trees that fell in National Forest, both of which were part sample areas. of a rash of hundreds of tornadoes that The goal is to learn how mountainous formed in the Southeast on the same terrain affects the wind field of tornadoes day. With his research project, titled and understand more about near-surface “Reconstruction of Near-Surface Tornado conditions, particularly wind speed, durWind Fields from Forest Damage Patterns ing a storm. in Complex Terrain,” Godfrey is studying the fall pattern of trees downed in “Both of these tornadoes went up and the tornado through aerial photos and down mountains. They went over lakes, ground surveys. Back on campus, Michael across rivers. They did all of the things Goldsbury, an Atmospheric Sciences people assume tornadoes can’t do.

Tornadoes may occur less frequently in the mountains than in other parts of the state, but they still pose a very real threat.” —Christopher Godfrey, professor of Atmospheric Sciences

IN THE STORM’S WAKE: Above, Godfrey

stands on a hillside that used to be a lush forest before the EF3 tornado passed over.

Left, GIS map of the damaged area with downed trees marked in red.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about tornadoes,” Godfrey says.

Godfrey hopes the tree damage data will give the National Weather Service a better understanding of how tornadoes behave in mountainous terrain by determining what wind speeds affect which tree species.

“Since we don’t know how these violent winds impact different tree species, the weather service uses indicators at nearby developed locations to rate these remote storms,” Godfrey says. “The tornado in the Smokies earned an EF4 because it destroyed a single electrical tower in a lake near the park, but it could have been a much stronger storm where it hit in the mountains.”

11

cover story

Students explore the digital side of music production

ITTING BEFORE A RECORDING CONSOLE

While many college music departments still focus on nearly as long as he is lanky, Daniel Wedge was training students in the performing and recording arts, mixing tracks of a recording of the Brian Felix for nearly three decades UNC Asheville also has taught Trio’s recent performance at Lipinsky Auditorium. students how to use the tools they need to compete in a Leaning over the soundboard’s sea of knobs and digital marketplace. levers, working at a large video Music graduates can no longer screen that displayed the tracks rely only on their chops and musias pastel bands of color, Wedge cal ability to help them find work peered through the dim light of the when they leave school, accordUNC Asheville Music Department ing to Wayne Kirby, hired in 1983 recording studio. The buzz sawto set up the department’s music shaped sound waves were visual technology and business program. depictions of the trio’s keyboard, They also need to be well-versed bass and drums. in all aspects of music produc“Too much crowd noise,” Wedge tion, from creation to recording said, while moving a set of levers. to marketing and distribution.

Pulling the sound of the two audiThe university’s interdisciplinary ence mics onto their own tracks, he shortened the approach—helping students synthesize and integrate length of each wave, condensing the applause by half. ideas from a variety of academic perspectives—gives A smile broke over his face. music majors like Wedge a broad base of intelligence and “I love this,” the senior Music Technology major from experience from which to find solutions.

Westford, Mass., said of his project. His work later “My dad was into ham radio, so I’ve always been would be posted on Moodle, UNC Asheville’s online intrigued by electronics and music,” Wedge said. learning tool, for other students to study and enjoy.

“The classes I’m taking are a combination of those.”

WRIT TEN BY PAUL CLARK | PHOTOGRAPHS BY PATRICK CAVAN BROWN

12

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

The bachelor of science degree in Music Technology that Wedge is working toward is one of three undergraduate degrees that the Music Department offers (the other two are bachelor of arts degrees in Music and in Jazz Studies). Students enter any of the three programs only after passing a musical audition. All study piano and undertake ear training, music composition and music theory. As part of the interdisciplinary approach, Music Technology students also take classes in physics, mathematics and computer science.

“Today’s industry is rooted in technology,” Kirby said. “Even if you’re a singer-songwriter, you need to know enough about technology that you can get yourself up on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube— those are the places where people market themselves to a large extent.”

When Kirby was hired in 1983, this music department was one of the few in the country to have a digital recording studio, which—this being the early 1980s—consisted of a single, two-track digital recorder. MIDI and sampling technology soon revolutionized the recording industry, and UNC Asheville’s department kept abreast through new equipment and know-how.

With the guidance of Jude Weinberg, lecturer in music, students now work on a wide array of analog and digital recording equipment, including two Pro Tools HD recording systems with 96 I/O interfaces; 15 Pro Tools LE systems with Digi003, 002, and M-Box interfaces; and 16- and 24-track 1-inch multitrack

LEARNING ON DIFFERENT LEVELS: While Assistant Professor William Bares directs a rehearsal of the University Jazz Band in Lipinsky Auditorium (above and opposite page), a practicum class teaches students to master a console in the school’s downstairs studio (below).

analog tape machines. In the department’s main studio control room, Wedge mixed sound on the newly developed SSL AWS 900+ recording and mixing console.

The department also has an electronic music lab fully outfitted with gear invented and built by the late electronic music pioneer Bob Moog, an Asheville resident whom Kirby recruited to teach at UNC Asheville in 1989.

“So we’ve seen it become state-of-the-art, not only just in equipment but also in the context of our curriculum,” Kirby said. “Students learn not only the ‘button-pushing’ but also the theoretical aspects of it, putting all the electronics, mathematics, physics, computer science and music together.”

13

PLUGGED IN: Left, Professor Wayne Kirby, chair of the Music Department, started the Music Technology program in 1983.

Below, students in the digital keyboard lab.

“The competition is a little more keen than it used to be,” Kirby said. “And the income stream has changed, so you have to be more versatile now. I am, on a regular basis, talking about the notion that you have a choice when you come to school and receive this kind of music training. You can do this as a hobby and enrich your life, or you can treat it as a business.

“In order to do that, you have to understand something about marketing and accounting. So I encourage students They also learn the legal side. Brian Felix, the keyboard to at least take marketing and accounting, if not a full-blown player that Wedge recorded, is an assistant professor of Music business minor, just so they get a feeling that there is a way to who conducts the department’s music business and industry turn all this knowledge and skill into multiple income streams. classes. He teaches students aspects of the business that include If they do, they can do something that they love for the rest of performance contracts, event promotion, product licensing, their lives.” intellectual property rights, copyright law and the ins and outs Graduates of UNC Asheville’s music programs have landed of digital marketing and distribution. Felix gained his knowljobs in the Asheville area with Moog Music Inc., manufacturers edge by touring internationally as instrumentalist, songwriter, of the Moog synthesizers; Echo Mountain Recording Studio in

Students learn not only the ‘button-pushing’ but also the theoretical aspects of it, putting all the electronics, mathematics, physics, computer science and music together.

”

—WAYNE KIRBY, PROFESSOR AND MUSIC DEPT. CHAIR

road manager and general manager with Om Trio, an electric jazz ensemble that released five albums.

“The more you know, the better you’ll be. The better equipped you are, the better chance you have to make a living at this,” Felix said. “Even if our graduates are not going to be artists trying to sign with a major label, they may be working with an artist that is, or they may be working for a publishing company or an Internet startup.”

14

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

downtown Asheville; Arvato Digital Services, a media replicator just north of town; and popular Asheville live music venues such as the Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club.

Others, like Gregory M. Rippin ’00, have taken their skills around the world. Rippin is a staff audio engineer at CBS and lives in New York City, where his clients have included television networks, advertising agencies, film composers and independent film directors. After working in studios

OPPOSITE PHOTO COURTESY OF MOOG MUSIC INC.

“

PERRY HEBARD

cover story FOLLOWING HER VISION The university recently honored Joyce Dorr for her contributions as a founding member of the Music Department. She came to Asheville in 1978 and developed the university’s first courses in applied music and performance. Under her leadership as chair, the Music Department became a vibrant part of UNC Asheville and was distinctive for such characteristics as its emphasis on electronic music.

in the 1990s, Jamie Candiloro ’95 went on to work with R.E.M., Courtney Love, The Eagles, Willie Nelson and Ryan Adams. And since graduating in 2005, Justin Baumann has toured North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia in multiple behind-the-scenes roles with the band State Radio and other international concert tours.

“A lot of students learn how to push buttons (on music consoles) in other schools’ programs,” Kirby said, “but they don’t really understand what is going on. So they can’t learn on their own when they leave school. But in our program, they have enough math, physics and electronic information that they can keep learning.

“From the engineering, to the music production, to the creation of intellectual property—whether it’s a song, a jingle or a film score—students here come away with a lot of skills.”

PLAYING FOR MOOG NOW: Some Moog Music Inc. employees who graduated from UNC Asheville’s Music Technology degree program include Nick Prather ’10, Eric Church ’06, Rosser Douglas ’09, Ryan Cox ’06, Perry Willig ’08, Steve Dunnington ’93, David Barrett ’09 and Jim DeBardi ’11.

ess than two miles separate UNC Asheville’s Music Department and Moog Music’s building, but the road is even shorter for many Music Technology students.

Nearly a dozen graduates and current students work there, applying knowledge and skills they picked up in school. In fact, almost a quarter of the company’s employees are UNC Asheville graduates.

Eric Church ’06 is one of those people. An intern at Moog Music while still a student at UNC Asheville, he was hired soon after graduation. Now, as a production engineer, he designs the electronics inside the synthesizers, utilizing the knowledge he mainly acquired in his physics of electronics and physics of sound and music classes.

A guitarist whose interests include jazz, rock and classical, Church took his enthusiasm for the coursework into his personal life, experimenting with music and recording software and hardware that he discovered at UNC Asheville. Now he may know as much as the instructors who taught him.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said of his job at Moog. “I’m working in an area that I studied, and I get to work on instruments that I desire to play.”

And Moog Music is full of the university’s graduates.

“We have a lot of interesting personalities here,” he said. “Everyone adds something to the experience.”

Rosser Douglas ’09 can name nearly a dozen UNC Asheville Music Technology graduates and interns at Moog, a long list he attributes to their training and to the long association that Wayne Kirby, chair of the Music Department, had with the late Bob Moog, who developed the world’s first analog synthesizers.

“Here, we’re putting the electronics we learned in physics and audio engineering into practice,” said Douglas, who started at Moog as an intern in 2008. “Basically, this is a laboratory for the electronics classes we took.”

Alumni have helped other Music Technology grads get jobs at Moog, creating a pipeline as short as the distance between the Music Department and the Moog building. “There’s such a healthy relationship between UNC Asheville and here,” Douglas said. “It’s definitely learning every day.”

15

WRIT TEN BY SUSAN ANDREW PHOTOGRAPHS BY PERRY HEBARD

C

Researching a

Mysterious

A professor and student race to understand the deadly WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME that is killing bats

hris Nicolay was a kid who liked to play with dinosaurs. He developed a keen interest in what makes living things work and how various creatures solve the basic problems of existence— morphological wonders like wings, working muscle groups, and how our ancestors came to produce speech.

It’s little surprise that Nicolay makes his living investigating some of those basic problems. As an associate professor in UNC Asheville’s Department of Biology, specializing in functional morphology, he and his undergraduate students may help solve a major threat facing one of the least visible—but still very important—creatures in Western North Carolina’s ecosystem.

16

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

Imagine yourself a small mammal that’s totally dependent on the power of flight to find food in midair. You also must depend on your capacity to reduce your body temperature during hibernation—your wintertime adaptation to the cold and the lack of your insect prey. You’re a bat, of course, but now, along with ordinary challenges like finding food on the wing in the dark, there’s a new problem: Geomyces destructans.

That’s the alarming name of a recently-described fungus associated with a mysterious disease in bats called White Nose Syndrome. The disease produces fuzzy white patches on the faces and wings of affected animals during their winter slumber.

TEAM EFFORT: Chris Nicolay and undergraduate research assistant Rebecca Hoffman examine a specimen of a little brown bat.

They use a purple stain to highlight the distribution of nerves throughout bats’ wings, making it easier to for the researchers to spot damage caused by White Nose Syndrome.

The fungus thrives in the cool, damp conditions of the caves where the animals hibernate. When a bat’s body temperature drops to its minimum, and its metabolism has slowed to a crawl, the fungus gets its chance, blooming with the characteristic white growths that damage the bat’s tissues.

Eventually the animal stirs, perhaps with the urge to scratch at the fungus.

But when the bat awakens enough to do so, it’s returned to a more active metabolic state, and herein lies its downfall.

Burning energy drives the need to eat, but in winter, there are no insects to catch. A few attempts to forage, and the animal depletes its fat reserves and starves to death.

Millions of bats have succumbed to the syndrome since it first appeared in a single cave in New York in 2006.

Mortality rates exceeding 90 percent have been reported in some caves, and the disease is spreading fast. Last spring, wildlife

biologists in Western North Carolina impacts on ecosystems from increased confirmed the appearance of the disease use of pesticides can be substantial, they in at least four counties, with Buncombe point out.

County the latest suspected case.

Extinction is a real possibility, accordResearchers including Nicolay and his ing to evidence presented at a recent undergraduate student assistant Rebecca UNC Asheville forum on the syndrome.

Hoffman are racing to gain a basic under- One forecast assumed a continuing standing of the disease and the fungus 45-percent mortality per year—the averassociated with it, to provide a remedy age death rate observed for White Nose before species go extinct, with irreversSyndrome so far. If that trend continues ible costs to the environment and our unabated, the little brown bat, a comeconomy. Bats are invaluable to humans mon species in Western North Carolina, because they consume vast quantities of would be extinct in just 16 years. insect pests, and they play a valuable role “Current studies implicate damage by as pollinators for food crops and other the fungus to the bats’ wings as a primary plants we use. Scientists estimate that cause of mortality,” Nicolay points out. with the loss of one million bats, between The fungus causes lesions on the fragile 660 and 1,320 metric tons of insects are wing membranes, eventually puncturing no longer being consumed in affected them, interfering with flight. Severely regions, exposing plants and crops affected wing membranes adhere to each to widespread damage. The negative other, tear easily and lose tone and

Imagine yourself a small mammal...You’re a bat, of course, but now, along with ordinary challenges like finding food on the wing in the dark, there’s a new problem: GEOMYCES DESTRUCTANS. 17

BatFacts Little Brown Bat, Myotis lucifugus:

•• •• ••

Is widespread and common throughout North America Can eat up to 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in an hour Is not blind, but has average eyesight Has an average body length of 3½ inches; wingspan, 8–10 inches wide Has an average lifespan of 7–10 years Hibernates in caves during the winter, which makes it susceptible to White Nose Syndrome

elasticity. Bats disabled in this way may starve to death even when food is available.

Nicolay’s research seeks to assess the damage to the nerves in the wings of affected bats. He hopes to discover the degree of infection required to produce destruction of nerve tissue, and to determine if nerves regrow in damaged areas of wings that have shown healing.

“We are mapping the normal distribution of nerves in the wings”—something Nicolay says has never been done systematically—“and looking at how the nerves are damaged in White-Nose Syndrome, and how they heal.”

To do this, Nicolay and Hoffman have refined a staining technique to reveal the nerves. With this staining process, the wings become translucent and the nerves

are left visible like a network of tiny high- natural disaster we’ve documented,” ways. “You can see where the nerves are Nicolay says. “This is such an urgent case, running in relation to infection,” he says, you feel called to engage.” “and determine whether the nerves are There may be a ray of hope, however, surviving, or if they are attacked quickly.” in that European bats aren’t affected, The preliminary step is getting the nerves even though G. destructans is present of healthy bats documented, he says, thus there. “This suggests that European setting the standard for comparison with bats have developed an immunity to the affected animals. disease syndrome,” Nicolay says. Perhaps Nicolay says his research is aligned North American bats can do the same. “If with national scientific goals, established bats with white-nose live through winter, by the Fish and Wildlife Service, for some healing can occur. It’s a question of assessing the origins and epidemiology how well can they heal.” of the syndrome, especially regarding Whatever happens with the disease in the interactions between the pathogen the near term, Nicolay says studying the and its host—an area of scant scientific disease has had benefits for his students. understanding at present. But in many He says that meaningful undergraduways it feels like a race against time. ate research projects such as the bat “In mammals, this looks like the worst research are a tremendous opportunity for students and faculty alike, with tangible benefits for his teaching and for the career aspirations of his students.

“Personally, research helps me stay excited about the field. I have learned a great deal about histology and sensory physiology through this project, which I will bring into my anatomy and physiology classes.” And when the student research collaboration works, he says, “we are able to increase our professional output while producing students who leave UNC Asheville with an exceptional background and useful set of skills.”

AUTHORITY ON THE SUBJECT: Over the span of his research career, Nicolay has been involved with numerous studies and presentations relating to a variety of bats. He has conducted research in North America, Europe, Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea.

18

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

A VENUE FOR INQUIRY

W

One non-traditional student’s story

hile most students charge straight through their bachelor’s degree, some find themselves taking a more circuitous route—detoured by circumstance, but guided by their passions. Chris Nicolay’s undergraduate research assistant, Rebecca Hoffman, began college as a premedical student directly after high school, but due to circumstances in her final year, she couldn’t afford to complete the program.

“I threw myself into the job I was working,” she says, “and built a successful career in international business.”

Meanwhile, Hoffman maintained a strong interest in animals and the natural sciences. She sought volunteer opportunities at animal shelters in several communities and found encouragement to return to school through a mentor relationship with a Chicago veterinarian.

“I was offered the opportunity to shadow and assist in his hospital, and for two years I spent my days off at that hospital.

There was nowhere else I would rather be,” she says of that experience. Then in August of 2010, she left her 14-year business career and moved to Asheville to return to college and prepare for veterinary school.

Her current collaboration with Nicolay “stemmed from an interest in anatomy, a shared love of bats, and curiosity about this neural staining technique.” Funded by a university research grant, she spent the spring semester

adapting the tissue staining technique for use on bat wings. With that success, she and Nicolay agreed to redirect their research focus, and apply the technique to advance the understanding of White Nose Syndrome.

Hoffman believes the opportunity to conduct research as a student is invaluable, allowing deeper inquiry than is possible in any class. “As much as college is a place to get an education in something preselected, it is also a place to learn about paths never before considered. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.” Research experience also helps a student stand out from the field of applicants to postgraduate and professional programs, Nicolay points out.

A strong program of undergraduate research benefits universities, Hoffman notes, when it comes to attracting motivated students who enjoy high rates of placement into master’s and doctoral programs. And there’s value to the professors in having the opportunity to expand the depth or breadth of their research, while sharing their passions with students eager to learn beyond their classrooms.

Nicolay agrees, adding that Hoffman’s history as a nontraditional student reveals her commitment and makes her a choice colleague. “I often try to match research projects with the goals and talents of my research students. Rebecca is an example of that; she not only possesses the scientific interests (bats, anatomy,

and veterinary medicine), but she also has a blend of patience, energy and focus required to make the project successful.”

“In my opinion, it’s a pretty courageous story,” he says of his assistant. “This project would not have been possible without the efforts of a dedicated research collaborator: Rebecca.”

“

As much as college is a place to get an

education in something pre-selected, it is also

a place to learn about paths never before considered. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.

”

—REBECCA HOFFMAN ’13

19

a simple equation:

college

+town

How are exceptional college towns made? That question arose when Asheville was recently named in Princeton Review's list of 20 Greatest College Towns. In the city's case, the answer is somewhat circular. It’s a place that has everything students could want in terms of culture, great outdoors, and town life— so much, in fact, that a high percentage of them choose to stay or return after graduation. In doing so, they become engaged members of the community, influencing everything that makes the area so dynamic in the first place. Here are a few examples of how alumni, the university and students keep that cycle turning in Asheville and the surrounding area.

When UNC Asheville first opened as Buncombe County Junior College more than 80 years ago, handfuls of local students seeking a college education went on to invest what they learned into their new careers throughout the region. Thus were planted the seeds of intellectual and economic expansion that has helped our wider community grow and prosper for decades.

Today, that same process occurs on a much larger scale, drawing students from all across the state. Through their scholarship, their research, their community involvement, their internships and their post-graduation successes, UNC Asheville students bring energy, innovation, commitment and expertise to the region they have come to call home.

“Every student who graduates from UNC Asheville is already an asset to our community,” said Chancellor Anne Ponder, an Asheville native whose parents trace their WNC roots back to the 1700s.

“Every student enriched by their liberal arts experience is already adept at 20

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

BY ERIC SEEGER

sophisticated, real-world problem-solving, developing new ideas, and committing themselves to both lead and serve the community around them. The greater Asheville region is a thriving and vibrant community that eagerly welcomes our students and graduates and all they have to offer. Few campuses can boast this extraordinary advantage.”

UNC Asheville has graduated some of the region’s most successful leaders in business, politics, philanthropy and community service. Whether you want to pass information along to your U.S. senator, enroll in a literacy program, or find backing for that big entrepreneurial business idea, you’ll probably go through a UNC Asheville grad to do it. And if you’re volunteering for a great local cause, chances are you’ll be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with either a grad or a current student.

According to Kevan Frazier, the university’s director of Alumni Relations, the university has about 17,000 graduates. Approximately 11,000 live in North Carolina,

and of those, 5,500 live in the metro Asheville region. Fourteen percent of people in the Asheville area who hold degrees are UNC Asheville graduates.

Starting more than 20 years ago, the university began attracting higher numbers of students from across the state.

“So what we’re seeing is not just locals staying local,” says Frazier. “It’s people who came to Asheville for school—and they are staying in Asheville and have worked to be active members of the community.”

One such example of a graduate helping to shape the area’s livelihood is Steve Green, a political science major who graduated in 2001. After receiving his diploma, he pursued his master’s

degree at Georgetown, and now he lives in Asheville, where he works as the economic development liaison for Sen. Richard Burr. From his office inside the Federal Building on Patton Ave., Green has his finger on the pulse of the state’s business community.

“Right now, I’m hearing more than ever that employers are looking for liberal arts graduates,” says Green. “Small businesses have to be able to adapt in order to succeed. It only makes sense then that these businesses would want their employees to have the tools to do the same. In my opinion, that is an important part of what the liberal arts and UNC Asheville help bring to the business table and one of the reasons

Right now, I’m hearing more than ever that employers are looking for liberal arts students.”

PORTRAITS BY MATT ROSE

—Steve Green, Economic Development Liaison for Senator Burr why UNC Asheville is such a vital part to the UNC system and our state as a whole.”

On one of his recent visits to an in-state defense industry convention, Green was pleased to hear his alma mater being commended. “I heard people mention UNC Asheville six separate times by name during that convention,” he says. “That was during lectures and between people having discussions at the trade booths.”

While businesses across the state are realizing the value of a liberal arts education, it’s something that local companies have been tapping into for years.

Matt Raker graduated from UNC Asheville in 2004 with a double major in economics and environmental studies, and now serves as the vice president of entrepreneurship

Steve Green

People Power!

From small business owners to CEOs to community leaders, the university’s alums have helped shape the greater Asheville area.

Here is just a small sampling of the graduates who empower and enrich our community Jim Stickney IV, Class of 1978 President, Insurance Service of Asheville, Inc. Jim Daniels, Class of 1960 Chairman and CEO, Daniels Business Services, Inc. Nathan Ramsey, Class of 1989 Attorney and former chairman, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Hon. Athena Brooks, Class of 1988 Chief Judge, Henderson County District Court Allison Jordan, Class of 1997 Executive Director, Children First/ Communities in Schools of Buncombe County Pam Allen, Class of 1997 Physician, Blue Ridge Bone and Joint Ellen Rickman, Class of 1986 Director of Museum and Guest Services, Biltmore Estate Dennis Clark, Class of 1985 Plant Manager, Wilsonart James Carter, Class of 2000 Development Officer, Park Ridge Health Foundation Carol King, Class of 1989 President/Owner, Carol L. King & Associates, P.A. 21

PORTRAITS BY MATT ROSE

Amanda Edwards

The university—with its curriculum that emphasizes thinking outside the box— produces some very high-quality tutors.”

—Amanda Edwards for Advantage West Economic Development Group. Advantage West’s primary focus is marketing the North Carolina mountains to corporations seeking to relocate or open a new facility, or expand an existing business within our region.

This puts Raker at the center of most new business developments in a 23-county area, of which Asheville is the center.

Raker is also the director of the organization’s Advantage Green program. He recently secured state Energy Office funding for an internship program that’s geared toward placing students and recent graduates into local businesses that are involved with clean energy and energy efficiency.

“The state realized its colleges 22

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

and universities were educating the first generation of employees for these types of technology jobs, but they were leaving the state when it came time to enter the workforce because there was a gap in the number of positions available.”

The internship program, which started this year, was designed to put students in touch with the companies that need them in order to spur growth in that sector.

Using that state funding, Raker created nine local full-time internships with companies across the region and three paid fellowships.

Many of the internships were filled by students and graduates from UNC Asheville. Sean Gallagher ’10, spent his internship working at SolTherm, an Ashevillebased solar heating company, whose chief strategy officer is Scott Clark, who is also a UNC Asheville alum.

Gallagher has since been offered a job at SolTherm.

Another local alternative energy company with strong UNC Asheville ties is Blue Ridge BioFuels. One of its co-founders is Brian Winslett, class of 2003. The company collects used cooking oil from roughly 300 area restaurants, processes it into biodiesel, and then resells it at eight gas stations, plus fleet sales.

Blue Ridge BioFuels is located in the basement of the Phil Mechanic Studios, a former industrial warehouse that evolved into a cornerstone of the River Arts District during the past decade. Jolene Mechanic, UNC Asheville class of 2010,

a partner in Blue Ridge Biofuels and owner of the building, recalls Winslett’s critical role in finding a home for the grassroots diesel business. He became well-versed in fire codes and regulations, and he found a way to open Blue Ridge BioFuels in a manner that was safe and accommodating to everyone involved.

Today, the building also houses 17 art studios, a full library, two nonprofit art galleries, and it serves as a community center. Mechanic sees a steady rotation of UNC Asheville student interns who’ve helped run the galleries, develop the library, and work with the biodiesel company. And two of the board members for the art galleries are her former teachers at UNC Asheville.

For many students, working at the Phil Mechanic Studios is their first internship and exposure to community service. “They come here with a sense of creativity and passion,” says Mechanic, “and there’s so much diversity in this building that they can find exactly what they want to do—and they respond so enthusiastically to it. It’s just amazing.”

For Amanda Edwards, the rewards of community service were lessons she learned at UNC Asheville through her activities outside the classroom. The Class of 1999 Mass Communication grad was a sorority member and served in student government, where she sometimes coordinated with nonprofit organizations for student-based philanthropic events. During her junior and senior years, she helped organize blood drives and volunteered with Big Broth-

ers/Big Sisters. “I know this sounds idealistic, but I saw this as a way of using my knowledge and education to make my community a better place,” said Edwards.

In 2004, after earning their master’s degrees, she and her husband Derek Edwards ’99 moved back to Asheville, where she is the executive director of the Literacy Council of Buncombe County and he teaches at the William Randolph School in Montford. The literacy council organizes highly trained volunteers to teach basic reading and writing skills to adults in group and one-on-one settings.

Edwards has seen many UNC Asheville students commit to the ninemonth volunteer training and tutoring

program. “It’s a pretty big commitment for a college student,” she admits. “But students are drawn to the English as a Second Language program, and the university—with its liberal arts curriculum, which emphasizes thinking outside the box—produces some very high-quality tutors.” The level of community interest exhibited by students is no surprise to Edwards.

“Providing our region with superbly qualified graduates with diverse interests and skills is a responsibility which we take seriously and which we execute with pride,” said Chancellor Ponder.

“Watching our region grow and thrive as a result of their energy, talent and commitment is an added benefit that each of gets to enjoy, every day.”

Matt Raker

On the Forefront Some of the centers and programs that make UNC Asheville a leader National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) NEMAC promotes UNC Asheville’s mission by developing collaborations among the university, its students and faculty, and the community. The center translates complex data that is generated by student and faculty researchers as well as outside institutions into engaging visual representations of issues like flood control, climate change and civil planning.

NEMAC has collaborated with organizations that include the National Climatic Data Center, U.S. Forest Service, Asheville City Council’s Flood Damage Reduction Task Force, and Land-of-Sky Regional Council.

Eshelman School of Pharmacy

N.C. Center for Health & Wellness (NCCH&W)

In order to address a shortage of pharmacists in the Western North Carolina region, UNC Asheville partnered with UNC Chapel Hill, Mission Health System, the City of Asheville,

NCCHW connects health and wellness providers, develops This organization was formed tools for assessing and verifying by a group of civic-minded program outcomes, and fosters leaders to leverage the Asheville opportunities for applied area’s many sports venues and research collaborations among outdoor recreation spots to university faculty and student attract more sporting events researchers and communityto the area—while promoting based organizations. Current ones that already exist. The goals focus on the promotion organization, whose board of of childhood healthy weight, directors is chaired by UNC the facilitation of healthy aging, Asheville’s Athletic Director and enhancement of worksite Janet Cone, recently announced wellness. the Asheville Collegiate Basketball Invitational, which will take place this December at Kimmel Arena on the UNC Asheville campus.

Buncombe County, and the Greater Asheville Chamber of Commerce to create a branch of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy on our campus.

2011–12 marks the first year of entering doctoral students on the UNC Asheville campus.

Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission

23

[honor ]

inside UNC asheville

SOCIE T Y

UNC Asheville was awarded two large grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for summer institutes, thanks to Brian Butler, associate professor and chair of the Philosophy Department, Dan Pierce, professor and chair of the History Department, and Erica Locklear, assistant professor of Literature.

Rebecca Reeve, the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness’s director of research programs, was recently named to the board of trustees for the Society for Public Health Education. The organization promotes healthy behaviors, healthy communities and healthy environments through its membership network of local chapters and its numerous partnerships with other organizations.

Virginia Derryberry, professor and chair of the Art Department, was one of 100 artists nationwide to be invited to take part in the Penland School “Instructors’ Retreat” week in September. Participants created new works in various studios, began collaborations with other artists and discussed the future of national arts education.

University lecturers Holly Iglesias and Tommy Hays are leading classes at the 2011 fall conference for N.C. Writers’ Network this November. Iglesias is teaching “Prose Poetry, Point of View and Personal Archives,” which focuses on developing poetry on a single subject from multiple perspectives. Hays is teaching a master class in fiction that is aimed at helping students write about personal subjects that make them uncomfortable.

Randy Booker, professor of Physics, was named one of the top 10 chapter advisers in the nation in 2010–11 for his work with the university’s local chapter of the American Institute of Physics’s Society of Physics Students.

Professor of History Bill Spellman, director of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, is now the author of 11 books. His newest, “A Short History of Western Political Thought,” provides a brief and accessible overview of key ideas that have shaped two millennia of Western political thought. He also was recently contracted by Oxford University Press for a two-volume textbook to be titled “A New History of the British Isles: Four Nations and an Empire,” to be published in 2014.

Leisa Rundquist, assistant professor of Art, gave the Fall 2011 McLeod and Mildred Riggins Lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her presentation, “Being Perpetual: Intersexuality and Performances of Martyrdom in the Realms of the Unreal” traces visual and textual relationships between Henry Darger’s imaginary “Vivian Girl” and “virile” female saints of Catholic lore.

Ceramicist and UNC Asheville graduate Will Dickert ’09 is exhibiting his work at the Pump Gallery inside the Phil Mechanic Studios, located in the River Arts District. The show, which takes place in November, features functional and sculptural wood-fired stoneware and porcelain.

click it:

philmechanicstudios. com/will_dickert.html

24

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

[

go,

]

bulldogs!

BLAKE MADDEN

Return Engagement Former assistant coach comes back to lead the volleyball program

By Mike Gore SORRY, THOMAS WOLFE, but you really can go home again. Frederico Santos started in June as the head coach for the women’s volleyball team; however, this is not his first time with the Bulldog athletic program.

HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE:

Santos coaches the women’s volleyball team to victory.

from Brazil originally, I tried to recruit players from there during my time at UNC Asheville,” said Santos. “And most of the time we would lose those players to Barry, which has a strong international program.

“Being the head coach at Barry is a challengSantos’ first job in college sports came in ing job,” he added. “They have won three the summer of 2000 when he was hired at national championships in Division II and you UNC Asheville as Julie Torbett’s assistant are expected to challenge for national titles coach. He stayed for eight seasons and helped each year.” He quickly got the program moving lead the Bulldog volleyball program to great heights. There were three trips to the Big South forward and had it ranked nationally in 2009 and making the NCAA Tournament in 2010.

Conference championship game, six winning Though Santos enjoyed Barry and Miami, he seasons and a 2002 regular-season title. hoped to move closer to Asheville.

His first tenure in Asheville brought successes “We always wanted to come back to Asheville,” off the floor as well. He met and married foradmitted Santos. When Torbett resigned in mer Bulldog volleyball player Nathalie Steffen February, he and his family didn’t have to think ’97 in 2001. They now have two children. long about applying.

And he earned his history degree from UNC Asheville in 2007.

“I am so proud to serve my university,” he By 2008, it was time for Santos to run his own added. “My family is so happy to be here again,” Santos said. “We’re home.” program. He was interested in NCAA Division II school Barry University in Miami. “Being

Men’s Basketball: The upcoming season at a glance

click it:

For the latest news, rosters and schedules for all UNC Asheville Division I teams, visit uncabulldogs.com.

DOUG KASPUSTIN

The UNC Asheville men’s basketball team is the preseason pick to win the 2011–12 Big South Conference championship. The defending Big South Conference champions have four starters returning for the coming season.

✮

RETURNING PLAYERS: Matt Dickey was a first team All-Conference performer last season and was MVP of last year’s Big South Tournament. Joining Dickey and J.P. Primm are senior forwards Chris Stephenson and Quinard Jackson. Jaron Lane, a talented sixth-man from last year should be in the starting lineup this year.

✮

RECORD IN THE MAKING: J.P. Primm was Asheville’s second leading scorer last year. He was a member of the Big South All-Tournament team and made the league’s All-Conference second team. Primm should become the school’s all-time leader in assists midway through the year.

25

CLASS notes in Sept. 2010 after 21 years of service. He is a full-time associate professor of Educational Leadership at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

1976 Joan Elliott lives in Brownsville, Texas, and is director of Research and Development at Starfall Education. She is married to fellow UNC Asheville alum Tad Elliot ’97.

1978

Drop us a line!

We love to hear from alumni—and so do your classmates! So be sure to send us your accomplishments, career moves, family news, fascinations and celebrations. Either log on to alumni.unca.edu or send an e-mail to alumni@unca.edu.

1955 Riley Carroll taught for the North Carolina school system for 27 years and is now teaching flying in Georgetown, S.C.

1968 John Moore has published “Chemistry for Dummies” (2nd edition), “Biochemistry for Dummies” and “Organic II for Dummies.”

1971 Donald James was hired as Sudler & Hennessey’s senior editor.

1974 Gene Hines has retired from Legal Aid of N.C. and is living in Jonesborough, Tenn., and is now working on short stories and a novel.

1975 Zollie Stevenson Jr. retired as director of Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs at the U.S. Department of Education 26

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

Susan Monroe has been working with Children’s Developmental Services Agency in Morganton, N.C., since 2004.

1980 Karen-Eve Bayne Pfotzer has been appointed director of Gifts Ministry and Do Tell Storyfest.

1983 Joan Stewart Inman has assumed the role of director of human resources at SouthData, Inc., in Mount Airy, N.C., where she has worked for 10 years.

1986 Meg Johnson Dietrich recently joined Merck Sharp and Dohme Pharmaceuticals as a learning & performance coordinator at the company’s Durham manufacturing site. She and fellow alum Ulrich Dietrich live in Cary, N.C.

1987 Tawana Rickman Weicker is Teacher of the Year in Polk County this year. She teaches at Polk County High School and also has a thriving biofuels operation on the side.

1988 Beverly Rudolph is principal of Grey Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill, N.C.

1989 Jeanie Setser-Morgan was promoted to district director with USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Aug. 2010.

1991 Joseph Pearson is the executive director of the South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health.

John Howard Smith is an associate professor of history at Texas A&M and was recently awarded the university’s Paul W. Barrus Distinguished Faculty Award for teaching this year.

1992 Jeffery Epley is married with five children.

Tanya Patrice Johnson married Pastor Larry B. Brown and resides and works in Greensboro, N.C., as a veterans rating specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Rosy McGillan is senior vice president for Health and Social Marketing Practice of Poter Novelli Public Relations, Washington, D.C. Michelle Molina Taylor was recently married to Ken Taylor and is now working at the Porter County Public Library in Valparaiso, Ind.

1993 Susan Allman works as the director of Distance Education at UNC Asheville.

Crystal Dunham works as community relations specialist for Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, N.C. Larry Paul currently lives in Mexico City where he teaches English as a second language and English literature and composition.

1994 Timothy Roscoe Ammons plans to complete Naturopathic Medical School in 2013 after his residency.

Ruth Van Sickle and her husband, Bendik Clark ’93, had their first child in February.

1995 Angela Bynum is a graduate student at UNC Charlotte, completing her teaching certifications.

Scott Lawrimore and wife Tammy have welcomed the birth of their child.

1996 Chris Hajek served four years with the U.S. Air Force Space Command as a data analyst and is now living in Wilmington, N.C., where he and his brother export classic American cars and have an Internet retail company for skating and surfing goods.

Benjamin Leonard and Tracy Toussaint were married in June in Atlanta, Ga. Benjamin is a partner at Bois, Kyle & Burch LLC law firm in Atlanta.

Anthony Oakes works as a first grade teacher at Fairview Elementary.

1997 Deborah S. Hart married Frank B. Serafini in July 2010. She is currently acting as the public affairs officer for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait.

Douglas Palmer received tenure and promotion to associate professor of History at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. In addition, he was promoted to the position of executive director of Global Learning.

1998 Becky Ezell and her husband, Steve Durling, welcomed the

birth of Layne Thomas Durling in November 2010. Becky works as a learning designer at Paychex, Inc. in Rochester N.Y. Gregory Scott King-Owen graduated from Ohio State University in 2011 with a Ph.D. in early American history. He wrote his dissertation on legal change, popular sovereignty, and legislative petitioning in North Carolina from 1776 to 1805.

Johnny Robinson is married and teaches fifth grade at Bald Creek Elementary.

1999 Vanessa Harper is an account executive with Brunet-Garcia Advertising in Florida.

Michele Leah Davis Kirkum had a daughter, Michaela Christine Kirkum, in February.

Jennifer Wisdo and Jeremy Wisdo ’01 have welcomed the birth of a baby boy into their lives.

@

2000

Jasminn Bradford recently had a baby.

James Carter is working at Park Ridge Health Foundation as a development officer.

Peter Christensen and Melissa Christensen recently welcomed the birth of their son.

Royce Holden welcomed the birth of his daughter in May. Eric Samuel Jackson and Michelle Lunsford Jackson welcomed the birth of their child, Ansley Cora Jackson, in June.

Cindy Upright is working as a probation officer and living in Statesville, N.C.

2001 Michael Armstrong was named principal of Charles R. Bugg Magnet Elementary school in Wake County, where he had his first teaching position after graduation.

homecoming Mark your calendar: February 23–25, 2012

Rebecca Barraclough Howell and husband Mark have welcomed Lillie Katherine into the world in June.

Sarah Dodson-Knight is married with two children and living in Lafayette, Colo., where Sarah works as the Reading Buddies coordinator at Lafayette Public Library.

Susan Allison Landers has recently had a baby.

unca.edu/homecoming 27

CLASS notes T R A C Y V. W I L S O N : T E A C H I N G U S H O W S T U F F W O R K S PHOTO COURTESY OF TRACY WILSON

By Devin Walsh ’07

What do massage therapy, Discovery Channel, and the history of swear words have in common?

The answer to that puzzler is, of course, Tracy V. Wilson. “In hindsight, it all feels like a long and extremely fortunate chain of serendipitous events,” says Wilson, a 1997 graduate of UNC Asheville who is the site director of HowStuffWorks. com. The website is devoted to creating in-depth explanations to questions that range from “How a Supernova Works” to “10 Cool Engineering Tricks the Romans Taught Us.” Having applied to three universities in Western North Carolina, Wilson needed only one visit to UNC Asheville to make her choice. The school’s liberal arts curriculum won her over to such an extent that she later became an Ambassador of the school while simultaneously participating in the Honors Program, the undergraduate research program and pursuing a Literature and Language major. The Germanton native also completed thesis projects in literature and creative writing.

Tracy remembers penning a “when I grow-up essay” as a child that declared her interest in becoming an author. She could not have imagined that she would find herself managing a staff of more than 20 writers and editors, all working to populate Discovery’s HowStuffWorks site with an encyclopedic array of useful articles—which is precisely what she does now.

After graduation, Tracy worked on several writing jobs, but they did not offer the kind of stimulating work she wanted from her career. “My first jobs were in business-to-business communication. I always hoped I would find a position that was more creatively fulfilling.” She decided to move back to Asheville and

28

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

“In hindsight, it all feels like a long and extremely fortunate chain of serendipitous events.” take up massage therapy, meanwhile Now, as the site director, she sets the keeping her belletristic nose to the grind- editorial calendar and helps guide the stone in her off hours. direction and style of HowStuffWorks’s content. “Being able to move into a As a licensed massage therapist, Wilson leadership role within the company has found her way to Atlanta, where she given me a chance to work with some was recruited as a staff writer for exceptional people while still contributHowStuffWorks in 2005. “I was in a ing to the site’s content and direction in perpetual state of delight any time I a creative way.” had to write about insects or arachnids, but I also really loved writing about the And she hasn’t given up on those childmore offbeat, quirky side of humanity,” hood dreams of being an author; she’s a category that included an in-depth about to embark on the second revision examination of the history of swearing. of her first novel.

Matthew Gamble is married with two children, received his Ed.S. in Educational Leadership from UNC Greensboro and is now an assistant principal in Durham, N.C.

2002 Laura Adams has moved back to Asheville and works as an assistant professor at Mars Hill College.

Jeremy Manning is working as a sales specialist with Toshiba Business Solutions and a collegiate umpire in the SAC conference.

He is married with two children.

2003 Judson Gregory Ballard and his wife welcomed the birth of their son, Cole Gregory, in March. Judson was also recently promoted to state and local tax manager for a public accounting firm in Columbus, Ohio.

Lauren Hunter is working as a staffing specialist with TriStarr Staffing in Lancaster, Pa. Maegan Kathleen Spencer is working as a design engineer in clinical trials for a new medical device.

Laura Rieder and husband James welcomed the birth of baby Alex in October 2010.

2005 Jonathon Czarny is living and working in West Asheville as a freelance videographer, photographer and editor.

Andrew Fansler completed the MFA program at the University of Chicago and is currently teaching 3D design at WinstonSalem State University and is showing his work in exhibitions around the state and country.

Sarah Vance Goodman lives and works in Dallas, Texas, as a chaplain.

Tiffany Hedgpeth and Nathan Hedgpeth welcomed twin boys, John Daniel and Matthew Owen, into their family in July.

Amanda West received a fellowship at Colorado State University to fund her Ph.D. in Ecology.

Jessica Stearns Kitsos was married in Nov. 2009 and recently gave birth to her first child, Cooper Hannon Kitsos.

Amanda Lusky received an M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Kentucky.

Emily Kathleen Pomeranz is working for the Democratic National Committee.

Rachel Marsom-Richmond graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Georgia College & State University.

Bethany Dombroski Rudisill and Tim Rudisill were united in marriage in April.

Clayton H. Baker is studying film editing at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Seth Layton Bowman is a licensed attorney at law in Little Rock, Ark. He founded the Bowman Law Firm.

Joy Burke and her husband, William Burke, welcomed the birth of their son, William Fisher Burke in May.

2004

Derrona Cromer is working with ACN, Inc. as an independent business owner.

Lauren Deal is teaching English and creative writing at Lake Norman High School in Mooresville, N.C., and received her National Board Certification in 2010.

Charles Davis enlisted in the Air Force in Jan. 2008 and is currently serving at Osan Air Base in the Republic of Korea. He has been promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-5).

Hedid Charpentier Edwards and John Edwards ’05 celebrated the birth of their first child, John Noble Edwards III, in February.

Ashley Lutterloh is college access coordinator for The University of North Carolina General Administration.

Leah Bolen Schuurman and Mark Peter Schuurman ’02 have welcomed the birth of their child.

Krista Dourte was promoted to manager of web services at Q2ebanking, a technology company based in Austin, Texas.

2008

Kenneth Saunders III is rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Towson, Md.

Nate Juraschek resides in Kansas City and works as a senior project manager for RealNetworks.

University, and she works as internship coordinator/career counselor at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.

2006

Sarah Broughton is currently enrolled in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling M.S. program at Western Carolina University and working as a GA in Special Education.

Tarah Hall is working as a Child, Youth and Family Services volunteer with the Peace Corps in Costa Rica with her husband, Chris Hall.

@

Rachel Wright serves as executive editor of the nonprofit news website DailySource.

Porscha Yount is a full-time sociology instructor at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville.

2007 Megan Roberston Corkery married Paul Corkery in June 2010. Megan graduated with a master’s in College Student Development from Appalachian State

Kelly Autumn Carroll currently works for the Historic Districts Council of New York City and is halfway through her M.S. in Historic Preservation at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Isabel Carson will be attending the Charlotte School of Law. Lisa V. Gillespie is working as an associate editor for the “Employee Benefit News” in Washington, D.C. Amanda LeighAnn Goodman graduated from UNC Greensboro with a master’s in Library and Information Studies in May. She has been hired as a User Experience librarian at the Darien Library in Connecticut.

Megan Graham received her master’s in Public Administration and will be working for the state of Florida Department of Emergency Management.

Lee Ann Griffin has moved to Albemarle, N.C., to teach eighth grade language arts at West Middle in Mount Gilead, N.C. Carrie Jordan is working in the Military Justice Division of the United States Air Force JAG Corps.

29

CLASS notes Sandy LaCorte received her master’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has accepted a meteorologist internship at the National Weather Service, Weather Forecast Office in Wilmington, N.C. Kathryn Causey Miller was married in 2008 and had her first daughter, Isa Violet, in the fall of 2010. She is now working at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.

UNC Asheville left a lasting impression on Barbara Baker ’71, and now she’s giving back.

“

I believe that UNC Asheville made a big difference for me. It allowed me to see my place in the world, and to see how I could make the world better,” she says. “That’s what I would like—for others to experience this.”

That’s why, along with being an active Alumni member, Barbara has also made multiple donations and named the university in her will.

“The state of North Carolina has invested well in our education system over the years, but the amount of money that was available just isn’t there right now,” she says. “If we want to have that little something extra in our higher education institutions, we have to look to the donors for help.”

A deferred gift to the UNC Asheville Foundation is an easy way to make a meaningful gift that does not affect your current lifestyle or your family’s financial security. For information, contact Development Director Julie Heinitsh at 828.232.2430 or jheinits@unca.edu.

30

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

Kelly McIntyre is the program coordinator with Western Carolina University’s MBA program.

Meghann Noel Rice welcomed the birth of baby boy Brooks.

Mary Beth Solle has recently welcomed the birth of her child.

2009 Kimberly Beaver married her high school sweetheart, James Foster, in July and celebrated their daughter Adalyn’s first birthday in June.

Neal Beckett and Courtney Metz Beckett were married in May. Maggie Harvin teaches third grade at Estes Elementary School in Asheville.

Jessica Hoover and Kyle Hoover recently returned from Liberia.

Jessica served as a Maternal and Child Health advisor with EQUIP Liberia in rebuilding basic health services. Kyle is a hydro-geologist, managing water points and repairing and digging new wells across Northern Liberia.

Cherie Lynn Miller and husband Josh Miller ’10 reside in Gyeongju, South Korea, where they both teach English to children between ages 5 and 12.

Mariya Sergeyvna Potapova welcomed the birth of a baby.

Shanna Rae Russell recently welcomed a baby into her life.

Halley Thompson is a seventh grade English and language arts teacher at the SEED School of Maryland.

Gao Lee Xiong is CAC coordinator/forensic interviewer at Lincoln County Coalition Against Child Abuse and Child Advocacy Center.

2010 Kasey Baker recently graduated from Western Carolina University’s Master of Public Affairs program in Environmental Policy.

Jessie Marie Luney and Greg Boyle were married in October 2010. Jessie is working as a financial advisor with Edward Jones and is moving back to Asheville to run her own Edward Jones office.

Anna Grace Deierlein is working as an advocate/educator at The Healing Place in Hendersonville, which provides resources for victims of sexual assault and child abuse.

Monica Dyck is currently enrolled in Western Carolina’s Master of Science program for Clinical Mental Health Counseling and working for Rinehart Racing.

Michael Hicks moved to Concord, N.C., and is working with Dr. Richard Lemley at Eyecare Optics in Charlotte.

Samantha Little is marketing assistant for Biltmore Farms.

Joshua Rosenberg teaches biology at Shelby High School in Cleveland County and is assistant coach for the men’s and women’s soccer teams.

@ J A C K W A L S H : D O C U M E N T I N G T H E S O U L O F A T L A N TA

By Devin Walsh ’07

“We knew there was more of a story than ‘nerds in costumes.’”

This is how UNC Asheville alum Jack Walsh describes the intuition that compelled him to produce “Four Days at Dragon*Con,” a one-hour documentary about the annual convention for people who love science fiction, fantasy, robotics and other self-described nerdy subjects. His documentary recently won an Emmy and has been picked up by more than 80 PBS affiliates from coast to coast and by PBS’s nationwide WORLD channel.

“On the surface,” he explains, “Dragon*Con is a bunch of people coming together to do geeky things. But [the documentary] is as much about the ‘coming together’ part as it is about the geekery…People may not get the costuming, or the robots or the fake combat with rubber swords, but I think everybody gets the celebration of a similar interest.”

Next up for Walsh is another edition of “Get Delicious!,” an award-winning food show he produces with Gordon Ray. Walsh is leaning toward calling the latest one “Get Deliciouser!”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK WALSH

Walsh graduated from UNC Asheville in 1998 with a degree in Mass Communication. He credits university faculty Phyllis Lang and Don Diefenbach with steering him toward production and editing. After marrying his college sweetheart, Michele Sussman ’98, they moved to Atlanta, where she began a job with the Centers for Disease Control.

Soon, Walsh landed a job with Public Broadcasting Atlanta, making mini-documentaries about arts groups and interesting goings-on throughout the city. “After much twisting of my boss’s arm,” he says, “I got permission to start compiling our segments into an arts, culture and community interest magazine show called ‘This is Atlanta.’” Since then, Walsh’s program has garnered 12 Telly awards and received seven Southeast Regional Emmy nominations. He won one of those Emmys for the Dragon*Con documentary.

Atlanta’s Dragon*Con is a convention that more than 45,000 people attend annually to, as Walsh explains, “revel in their shared love of science-fiction, comics, fantasy, horror, astronomy, robotics, alternate history, and, frankly, anything you could possibly be a nerd about.” Walsh was frustrated by the local television news coverage of the event, which barely looked past the elaborate homemade costumes.

Renee Marie Royal accepted a position at the University of Maryland’s Bioengineering Ph.D. program for Fall of 2011.

Rick Wynne was promoted to review appraiser for NCDOT in the Asheville office.

2011 Katherine E. Bunting has started a position as credit/SOS coordinator at Lowe’s Home Improvement. She is also a graduate research assistant for the Department of Housing at UNC Greensboro, while seeking an M.S. in Kinesiology.

Behind the camera, Jack Walsh films an interview with an attendee at Dragon*Con, a convention for sci-fi, comic and fantasy enthusiasts.

click it:

To see Walsh’s doumentary, “Four Days at Dragon*Con,” visit video.pba.org.

Kaci Campbell moved to Windsor, Colo., and is working as a dental assistant.

Laura Ketchuck is teaching language arts full-time at Clyde A. Erwin Middle School.

Robert Willis and Melia Hamby Willis were married in June 2011.

ALUMNI DEATHS Margaret Rabon Eskridge ’66, August 2011 Georgia E. Murray ’69, August 2011 Matthew H. Stokes ’98, August 2011 Lauren Kesgen Guidry ’01, July 2011 31

in retrospect Their Own Words Bulldogs of years past recalled campus life in the Alumni Association’s “Fond Memories” Facebook competition. Here are a few of the hilarious and heartwarming excerpts:

George Hudson ’85

Jason McGill ’04

“Steely Dan and Grateful Dead records jamming “My fondest memories: Watching movies on the out loud in dorm…. Over to the Brass Tap to catch Quad—that night was ‘Space Balls’ followed by Warren Haynes, after which on to the Parkway and ‘American Psycho.’ Oh, and hot chocolate and watched the meteor showers…. Kerouac while laypopcorn!” ing around eating Egg McMuffins.”

Laura Norrell ’03 “One year, the weather report predicted a huge snowstorm. The university cancelled all classes before the storm was expected to hit. But the weather report was wrong. It hit 70 degrees in the afternoon. There were more people playing Frisbee or laying out on the Quad than most lovely days.”

Charlotte Claypoole ’05

“One of my fondest memories took place during the construction of the new Highsmith Student Union. I had put up a big streamer Star of David in my Mills Hall dorm room window to celebrate Hanukkah with my roommate, Nicole Foster. The next day, I looked out the window and directly across from us one of the construction workers had drawn a Star of David on one of the steel beams! I think it’s still there inside Highsmith to this day.”

Greg Thuotte ’08 “I’d definitely say it was when we had a 40-50 person capture the flag game, which encompassed the entire grounds inside of Campus Drive. It was loads of fun, we got sweaty, dirty, fortunately no one got hurt. It helped that my team won, of course, but it was awesome.”

click it: Stay in touch with your fellow classmates (and maybe share a few stories of your own) at facebook.com/uncaalumni

32

UNC asheville M A G A Z I N E

“A university like UNC Asheville teaches you how to deal with the ambiguity of multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines. That’s a skill any software maker or entrepreneur needs.”

Sean McDonald ’04 Software designer

This is today’s liberal arts.

Sean McDonald graduated from UNC Asheville with a degree in Ethics and Social Institutions. Today, he's a multimedia artist and musician, who also happens to be a social networking entrepreneur.

With a fellow alum, he founded a software company that helps professionals visualize their own personal social networks—making their face-to-face business interactions more effective. Today, his client list includes prominent Fortune 500 companies.

That’s the power of the Liberal Arts education at UNC Asheville... preparing students for a 21st-century workplace where innovation, discovery, and unconventional thinking are hallmarks of the most successful companies and organizations.

UNC Asheville. SERIOUSLY CREATIVE.

UNC asheville

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

MAGAZINE

PAID

University of North Carolina at Asheville One University Heights Asheville, North Carolina 28804

Burlington, VT Permit No. 19

the turning of OC TOBER 13, 2011

the maples

• When the time comes for the leaves to turn their colors, there’s no place

on campus quite like the Quad. Nearly two dozen maple trees along the sidewalks put on a dazzling display of red and orange as the air becomes crisp and cool, signaling a new season. PHOTO BY PERRY HEBARD