North Texan - UNT Magazine - Fall 2020

A U N I V E R S I T Y off N O R T H T E X A S P U B L I C A T I O N

Vol. V ol. 70, ol 70, No. 70 No 3 Fall No Fall Fa allll 2020 202 020

Justice for All S TAY I N G T H E C O U R S E I N C R E AT I N G C H A N G E TO BUILD A MORE E Q U I TA B L E W O R L D P

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glowing with pride Graduation looked different than in years past, as ceremonies moved online due to COVID-19 concerns.

But on Aug. 21, a familiar warmth emanated from McConnell Tower, gleaming green in honor of the final day of commencement and the spring and summer 2020 graduates whose resilience helped carry them through our current challenges.

— Photography by Ahna Hubnik

contents F E A T U R E S

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Justice For All From marching in protests to crafting legislation, UNT alumni are fighting for social justice, determined to create a more equitable society for everyone regardless of race, gender or sexuality — and that desire for systemic change has only deepened in the wake of George Floyd’s death. “The world has stopped for a lot of people,” says activist Jennifer Rose Miller (’17), “violently crashing down upon them in that 8 minute, 46 second video.”

38 A Leap Forward For the past eight years, TaKiyah Wallace (’02) has shone a spotlight on dancers of color through her photography project Brown Girls Do Ballet — which gave rise to a growing nonprofit of the same name.

D E P A R T M E N T S ON THE COVER Together, we can ensure justice for all.

Illustration by Holly Nelson

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B R I L L I A N T LY G R E E N F R O M O U R P R E S I D E N T P. 4

U P F I R S T P. 9

Resiliency Guides UNT Family in Tackling the Biggest Issues of Our Time

Striving for a Safe Return to Campus / Star Student / Expert Take

D I A LO G U E P. 5

I N N OVAT I O N P. 2 0

Beautiful Bit of News / Good Things / Remembering Our Faculty / Tell Us About

A Blueprint That Bears Fruit / SMART Scholarship / Spotlight

O N L I N E CHECK OUT OUR LATEST VIDEOS OF CAMPUS LIFE

40 2020 Vision As COVID-19 rages on, UNT researchers have focused on finding the best ways to battle the virus, deploying their expertise in areas ranging from linguistics and chemistry to psychology and education.

50 Guiding Voice As a first-generation college student, Bob Garza (’74) beat the odds to become a trailblazer in computer information systems.

Now he’s working to build a support system for Latinx students at UNT.

Our new national ad features the resilience of the UNT community, where education never stopped as we came together to teach, learn and support each other during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Students and parents expressed their excitement about arriving on campus during the four-day Move In event — and UNT President Neal Smatresk was there to welcome them.

Scrappy, who always puts safety first, demonstrates how to stay healthy on campus in a soaring display of social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing — and staying in his nest when he’s not feeling well.

northtexan.unt.edu/online

EAGLES’ NEST M U S E P. 2 4

C O N N E C T I N G W I T H F R I E N D S P. 4 4

R E T R O S P E C T I V E P. 5 4

Music with a Message / Books / Caretaker of Stories / A Voice on Canvas

Capital Gains / Embrace the Journey Learn Your Strengths / Mean Green Pride

Looking Back — and Moving Forward F R I E N D S W E ’ L L M I S S P. 5 6

M E A N G R E E N P. 2 8

Always on the Ball / Academic Wins / Several on Watch Lists / Tennis

G I V I N G I M PAC T P. 5 2

Gift Is More Than a Scholarship

Obituaries P E R S P E C T I V E P. 6 0

Studio Art professor named Texas’ first Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow

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FROM OUR PRESIDENT UNIVERSITY BRAND STRATEGY AND COMMUNICATIONS LEADERSHIP VICE PRESIDENT JIM BERSCHEIDT ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT KELLEY REESE (’95)

THIS WAY FORWARD

Resiliency Guides UNT Family in Tackling the Bigge Issues of Our Time Fall at UNT looks a bit different than in the past, with masks, social distancing, attendance limitations at Apogee Stadium and virtual events to protect the safety of our UNT community during this global pandemic, but we remain focused on our mission of educating and empowering students to thrive in our rapidly changing world. And I’m excited to welcome our record-breaking fall enrollment of more than 40,000 students to engage in a blended class format — 60% of which are online and 40% that have some in-person class component. This will be the most uniquely challenging year in our 130-year history, but I trust in our resilient nature to handle whatever comes our way.

Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are changemakers, accustomed to working hard to make an impact in their communities and our world. As you will read in this issue, many in our UNT family are tackling some of the biggest issues of our time, including social justice, COVID-19 and racial equality. Our “Justice for All” cover story (page 30) highlights alumni who have focused their careers and volunteer work on the rights of marginalized communities. Immigration lawyer John Ting (’06) has spent more than 400 hours providing pro bono legal services, and master’s student Andrea Masambra (’17) credits her classes, internships, campus jobs and leadership positions for helping her succeed as a diversity and inclusion specialist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

UNT’s creative ingenuity extends to our faculty and students’ research. Many of them pivoted their focus this spring to address issues related to the global health crisis. The “2020 Vision” feature (page 40) highlights some of these efforts, such as chemistry professor Andrés Cisneros’ computer simulations meant to identify specific protein inhibitors that could slow or stop the COVID-19 virus either as a vaccine or a therapeutic treatment.

As a university, we are continuing the critical work initiated earlier this year to advance diversity and inclusion on our campus, and to become a caring and compassionate leader in the fight against racism and bias. We are adapting to a new way of living, learning and working together. And our faculty and staff are doing all they can to make sure this is a safe and successful year for our students, alumni and the entire Mean Green family as we continue to move forward together.

UNT proud,

Neal Smatresk President president@unt.edu @UNTPrez

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MAGAZINE STAFF EXECUTIVE EDITOR JULIE ELLIOTT PAYNE (’97) MANAGING EDITOR RANDENA HULSTRAND (’88, ’07 M.J.)

EDITORS ERIN CRISTALES (’11 M.S.) JESSICA DELEÓN JILL KING (’93 M.S., ’00 M.A.) ART DIRECTOR ANGILEE WILKERSON DESIGN EDITOR NOLA KEMP (’92) PHOTO EDITOR GARY PAYNE (’99) PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPRING ATWATER ERICA BLOUNT JAN CLOUNTZ

DESIGNERS CLIFFTON CASTER HOLLY NELSON CIERA SCHIBI PHOTOGRAPHERS MICHAEL CLEMENTS RANJANI GROTH (’16) AHNA HUBNIK (’03) WRITERS AMY BRUNDEEN AMANDA FULLER LEIGH ANNE GULLETT TRISTA MOXLEY KRIS MULLER HEATHER NOEL JIM ROGERS MEREDITH MORIAK WRIGHT (M.S. ’19)

SOCIAL MEDIA EUNICE ARCHILA (’16) MELISA BROWN (’93, ’20 M.S.) MEGAN LAWTON (’20 M.ED.) ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS JACOB KING ERIC VANDERGRIFF STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS BRITTNEY DEAR ALEXIS FLORES SARAH STEVENS

ADVERTISING JACK FRASER (’11) MARYBETH MENZ (’08, ’12 M.A.)

North Texan North Texan magazine (ISSN 0468-6659) is published four times a year (in March, June, September and December) by the University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311070, Denton, Texas 76203-5017, for distribution to alumni and friends of the university. Periodicals postage paid at Denton, Texas, and at additional mailing offices. The diverse views on matters of public interest presented in the North Texan do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the university. Publications staff can be reached at northtexan@unt.edu or 940-565-2108.

Postmaster: Please send requests for changes of address, accompanied if possible by old address labels, to the University of North Texas, University Brand Strategy and Communications, 1155 Union Circle #311070, Denton, Texas 76203-5017.

The UNT System and the University of North Texas are the owners of all of their trademarks, service marks, trade names, slogans, graphic images and photography and they may not be used without permission.

The University of North Texas (UNT) prohibits discrimination and harassment because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law in its application and admission processes; educational programs and activities; employment policies, procedures, and processes; and university facilities. The university takes active measures to prevent such conduct and investigates and takes remedial action when appropriate. Direct questions or concerns to the equal opportunity office, 940-565-2759, or the dean of students, 940-565-2648. TTY access is available at 940-369-8652.

Created by the Division of University Brand Strategy and Communications ©2020 UNT UBSC 9/20 (20-366)

DIALOGUE

Two classes with the reputation of being “booooorrrrrring” were bright spots of the year.

Diane Barentine (’63) Dallas

BEAUTIFUL BIT OF NEWS When the North Texan arrived, I devoured it. With all the sad and bad news around, this issue was a beautiful bit of news. I read every word. It was so positive and uplifting, I needed that when I read it. Thank you so much for making my day.

Pat Cheek (’65) Denton GOOD THINGS ON CAMPUS I always read the North Texan from cover to cover. I can’t compliment your team enough on their skill and passion to capture the amazing stories about students, alumni, faculty and staff. It is amazing the contributions the UNT family is making in the fields of research, community service and academics. So many good things are happening on campus — from the ground-breaking advancements in engineering and physics, to the social work undertaken by PUSH to assist

foster care students, and the advocacy of the “People of St. John’s Team” to preserve a historic neighborhood.

Commendations to Erin Cristales, Jessica DeLeón and Jill King as well as all your other writers and editors for their outstanding work to develop such rich content. Your design and photography team also contribute so much to make your publication world-class.

Greg Yearsley (’78, ’83 M.J.) Garland BRIGHT SPOTS Dr. J.K.G. Silvey wasn’t just a 1930s professor. I had him for Zoology 101 as a freshman in 1960. When I told other students who I’d signed up for, they all said “Oh, no, he’s so hard! ” But he was a great lecturer, and as head of the department, he had his choice of lab assistants, so lab was interesting, too. In the spring I signed up for Botany 101 with Dr. Archibald Roach, also head of the department, also deemed to be hard, also the one with the best lab assistants, and a lecturer who managed to make us laugh often.

SUM TOTAL I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Dr. James W. “Bill” Giese. When I finished my bachelor’s degree in three years in the summer of 1977, my goal was to get an M.B.A. through North Texas with the “extra” year. Dr. Giese went out of his way to procure a UNT teaching fellowship and sponsor a TXCPA scholarship. With these funds, I was able to finish my M.B.A. in the fall of 1978. I will always be grateful for his generosity and encouragement.

A university is a collection of individuals creating a sum total. The UNT total is better for having Dr. Giese be in the collection.

Brian S. Brennan (’77, ’78 M.B.A.) Irving LAB WORK I attended NTSC from 1955 to 1959. I was a chemistry major and lucky to work in Professor Price Truitt’s lab all four years at $200 a month! (What would that be in $$ today? And tuition was $25/semester!!) My task was to clean up glassware used by his grad students in the synthesis of various compounds directed at treating malaria and similar parasite diseases.

It just might be worth investigating Truitt’s work, perhaps some of the earliest research of significance from North Texas, certainly for malaria.

Don Meyer (’59) Trumball, Connecticut

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DIALOGUE

TELL US ABOUT COVID PASTIMES With the COVID pandemic keeping people at home, we asked our readers how they were keeping busy.

What are your favorite Mean Green sports memories?

Each morning at sunrise I take my binoculars and camera (to authenticate rare sightings) for a bird census where the observations are recorded at ebird.com, a program of Cornell University that collects millions of world sightings that are available in several forms for researchers and the public.

Rod Rylander (’61) Belize My husband and I volunteered as Air Operations Branch Directors for the Civil Air Patrol’s response in Texas for COVID-19 test shipping by air. The Civil Air Patrol is the auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

Cynthia (’85 M.L.S.) and Dietrich Whisennand Dallas I make stained glass items usually of my own design. I had a thought during the bluebonnet season many of us missed because we were “staying at home.” I started making stained glass clocks!

Connie Kilday (’94, M.Ed.) Irving

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Shannon Kuempel Kazmierczak Congratulations to all of the graduates!! May the beginning of your futures be bright and open!!

Rex Winn Oh how I would love to re-live those moments back in the early ’60s when I arrived in Denton. Those days remain some of the most rewarding and important of my life. I love North Texas and wish all the best to all of you! @ashley_pickle12 I have come to realize that I have enough free #UNT shirts from @MeanGreenSports that I could probably donate one to every single incoming freshman and STILL have about 47 left over. @kelbyjones5 Extremely blessed to wake up every morning and go to work for my alma mater. Being around the people that poured into my growth as a student is a feeling I can’t describe! UNT is amazing for many reasons, but it is the PEOPLE here that make it so special. @vphill We were trying to show a little #UNT pride last night with the sparklers.

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UNT Division of University Brand Strategy and Communications 1155 Union Circle #311070 Denton, Texas 76203-5017

1. @harleythefrench Mom got accepted to grad school! @reelproductionsdfw @itsjomalone 2. @pretzalstick Golden State* #travel #travelgram #traveldiaries #hiking #sanfrancisco #muirwoods #gmg #unt

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3. @untunion #TBT to the Union in the 1950s! As you can see, even then it wasn’t out of the ordinary for students to gather around the piano for impromptu performances.

We miss hearing students play the piano in our halls and hope that we can hear those incredible talents once again real soon.

4. @hjalmar the viking One of the responsibilities of a good jarl is maintaining order in a crew of warriors ... and there’s no time for flowers when off on a raid ... #vikings #notimeforflowers #raiding #ineedmead #UNT #UntilValahalla

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UNT offers you a Tier One education the way you want. With more opportunities and learning choices — at our flagship campus in Denton, our satellite campus in Frisco and globally online — UNT is the way forward.

APPLY TODAY unt.edu/locations

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New and returning Eagles flocked to campus in late August, ready to tackle an unconventional fall semester with their trademark creativity and tenacity. UNT President Neal Smatresk was there to greet them — and cheer them on — as they continued down the path to achieving their dreams. Watch his Fall 2020 welcome message to the UNT community at northtexan.unt.edu/online.

BRILLIANTLY GREEN

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UP FIRST

health and safety

striving for a safe return to campus Returning to campus was never going to be an easy road. But UNT worked throughout the summer to fine-tune its plans to welcome back students, staff and faculty this fall — and to ensure they had ample resources, whether they were on site or at home.

The university optimized classroom space for subject areas that most benefit from in-person instruction — such as the fine arts and laboratory sciences — while also offering remote options for students. That created a mix of in-person, partially in-person and online/remote course deliveries that offer the quality and rigor expected of UNT. End-of-semester and final exams will be conducted remotely, and students will not be required to return to campus following the Thanksgiving break.

All students, staff and faculty were provided with online COVID-19 Safety Training before returning to campus and have access to tools such as self-monitoring forms and reporting scenarios. A COVID-19 hotline helps the UNT community fully understand symptoms and testing information and/or results.

Many academic services continue to be offered virtually, including Student Financial Services, the Office of the Registrar, Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions, and tutoring and advising offices.

Additionally, UNT President Neal Smatresk advocated for international students as one of the first university presidents to support the amicus brief filed in response to guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security. That guidance required students from foreign countries to take at least one on-campus class in order to be enrolled at any U.S. university. The U.S. government rescinded the recommendation in mid-July.

“Thank you to all of our students, faculty and staff who are supportive of each other,” Smatresk says, “and work toward creating a truly enriching global environment that values collaboration, creativity and innovation.”

Learn more about UNT’s health and safety measures. healthalerts.unt.edu

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Top row, from left: Students collaborate via Zoom. New signage helps students stay informed of social distancing and mask wearing measures. And students adhere to those measures while working together at the University Union.

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I’M MOST EXCITED TO MEET OTHER PEOPLE, GET OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE AND EXPLORE NEW PASSIONS.” — Pierce Dierich, UNT Class of 2024

Bottom row: UNT’s annual Move-In Day was spread out over four days this fall to keep social distancing measures in place, and faculty and staff thanked custodians for all their hard work keeping campus spaces clean during a drive-by parade this summer.

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TRIO’s $2M Grant

new program

striking a chord in music, business UNT’s G. Brint Ryan College of Business and College of Music introduced an M.B.A. in music business this fall. The new offering will instill future music professionals with an interdisciplinary mindset by blending business administration and music entrepreneurship curricula. Students will learn management, marketing, finance, media and other skills needed for direct application to the music industry, and the degree will help them build financially and professionally satisfying careers that positively impact their communities.

The M.B.A. in music business grew out of the College of Music’s existing Music Business and Entrepreneurship program, which Billboard magazine listed among the nation’s Top Music Business Schools for the last four years.

Each year, the program awards $20,000 in cash prizes to budding student entrepreneurs in the UNT Music Entrepreneurship Competition.

“There are very few such degrees offered in American higher education today,” says John Richmond, dean of the College of Music. “This new partnership leverages the strengths and expertise of two distinguished faculties and provides an impressive, interdisciplinary curriculum at a terrific value.”

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UNT’s TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) program, serving first-generation, low-income and students with disabilities with the goal of increasing retention and graduation rates of undergraduate students, was recently funded $2 million for the 2020-25 grant cycle to serve 258 participants.

With the grant, TRIO SSS will provide academic tutoring, guidance in completion of financial aid applications, course registration assistance, financial literacy education and counseling, and assistance in enrollment to graduate and professional school.

“Joining TRIO SSS has really helped me prepare mentally, as well as academically, to be strong and to stay positive with all my goals and to stay on track,” says Addis Gonte, a senior in UNT’s Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program.

TRIO SSS will have to meet grant objectives including 90% of all enrolled participants meeting the performance level required to stay in good academic standing at UNT, and 57% of the new participants served each year graduating within six years.

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I HAVE A SON WHO’S 9, AND I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO SEE HIMSELF AS A HERO.” — Joanna Davis-McElligatt, assistant professor in UNT’s Department of English, in a Denton Record-Chronicle article about the lack of Black action figures. She further discusses diversity in comics in episode 11 of UNT Pod. northtexan.unt.edu/podcasts

Faculty Awards

Mayborn Professor Colle s Creative Wins The UNT Mayborn School of Journalism’s Endowed Chair for Narrative and Visual Storytelling Thorne Anderson recently earned two major honors from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the national accrediting body.

Anderson tied for second place in the Visual Communication Division Creative Research Competition with The Price of Freedom, and won third place with The Caregivers. Both projects were produced for KERA.

Anderson, who joined the UNT faculty in 2009, has worked internationally as a freelance photojournalist for numerous publications including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and holds a national Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in video.

Watch both of Anderson’s award-winning projects. northtexan.unt.edu/anderson-wins

Appointments

New AVP Named Michael Sanders joined UNT as associate vice president for enrollment and university admissions on July 1, serving as a strategic

partner to the university’s administrators in furthering enrollment and recruitment initiatives. Sanders will lead the admissions team in support of enrollment objectives as well as employ strategic tools to improve our recruiting and processing capacities.

With more than 14 years of recruitment and higher education experience, Sanders comes to UNT from Missouri Southern State University where he served as the dean of admissions. He also is the current chair of the recruiting and marketing committee of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Sanders holds a bachelor’s degree in global business management, a Master of Education from Arizona State University, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in higher education leadership from Colorado State University.

IN THE MEDIA MARIELA NUÑEZ-JANES, associate professor of anthropology, shared her expertise on the Supreme Court’s DACA decision with the Dallas Observer, Univision Dallas and Telemundo.

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS spoke with Rachita Sharma, clinical assistant professor in the College of Health and Public Service, for a three-part series about coping with uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MOHAMMED HURAYSI, a graduate student in the Mayborn School of Journalism, was recently interviewed by a TV station in Saudi Arabia about his experience as an international student in the United States.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION associate professor Pankaj Jain was profiled in a New York Times opinion series exploring religion and death. He spoke about how practitioners of Jainism strive to avoid harming even microscopic creatures.

OPERA SINGER and UNT College of Music alumna Latonia Moore was featured in The New York Times article “Black Artists on How to Change Classical Music.”

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UP FIRST

star student

Learn more about UNT’s early college entrance residential program for gifted high school students. tams.unt.edu

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tams senior has an eye for exploration “I feel like people assume that someone who’s into computer science and physics exclusively does things related to computer science and physics.

But I like to do other things, too.”

Naman Mehndiratta is the definition of a science prodigy. The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science senior can rattle off details of research so complex, it almost sounds like he’s speaking another language. He was captain of a TAMS team that placed among the top 23 internationally in this year’s Beamline for Schools competition for its design of a Graphene Schottky Diode Particle Detector. Ultimately, he says, he hopes to attend MIT, Princeton or Stanford and study plasma or high energy physics.

But right now, he just wants to talk about snakes.

“My main hobby is actually field herpetology,” the Katy native says.

“I go out and search for reptiles and amphibians, catch and ID them, and then release them.”

After recently discovering that only six of the 23 snake species in his area are venomous, he began biking around his community in search of trails the nonvenomous variety might call home.

His favorite discovery so far?

“Probably the diamondback watersnake I found a few weeks ago,” says Mehndiratta, pictured above with a broad-banded watersnake. “It took me two weeks of searching at night to find it.”

Of course, patience, focus and enthusiasm are nothing new for Mehndiratta. They’re qualities that

have helped him excel in the rigorous world of TAMS, where he’s embarked on computational physics research under the guidance of Carlos Ordonez, professor in UNT’s Department of Physics. Under Ordonez’s mentorship, Mehndiratta is programming simulations to optimize a potential antihydrogen gravity experiment using Wolfram Mathematica in an attempt to minimize the number of particles required to determine if antimatter is gravitationally attracted or repulsed by other matter.

And just like in his outdoor adventures, he relishes the opportunity to explore.

“In traditional high school courses, you come to class, answer questions that have already been answered, and that’s that,” he says. “But working in a lab is a much more dynamic experience.

I really appreciate having a mentor who is actively helping me understand the research and get better at it.”

And he’s continuing to expand his horizons beyond academics, serving as the co-head of the 2020-21 TAMS Habitat for Humanity Committee.

Throughout last fall and early spring, he volunteered for Habitat and helped build homes for families in Denton.

“Habitat for Humanity is a direct, tangible way to impact a community,” Mehndiratta says. “I can add foundation or do some landscaping and then see the results of those efforts when the house is complete and becomes a home for a family.”

— Erin Cristales

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career achievement

Stamp of Approval

Reigning Forensics Expert

Harrell Gill-King, founding director of UNT’s Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and co-founder of the UNT Center for Human Identification, has received the T. Dale Stewart Award from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences for work that has included responding to the World Trade Center after 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing and many other mass casualty events. Winners of the award, presented for outstanding contributions in the forensic anthropology field, are nominated by their peers and chosen by a committee of former award winners.

Patrick Willey, chair of the committee that chose Gill-King, said letters nominating him were “outstanding,” citing his continuous work with law enforcement since the late 1970s.

Willey also spoke about the unique

capabilities of the Center for Human Identification, Gill-King’s teaching and mentorship for aspiring forensic anthropologists in the College of Science, and his work in mass disasters.

“I don’t have any illusions about being a great forensic anthropologist,” Gill-King says. “If you’re lucky, when you’re young, you have good mentors.

Then suddenly, you wake up in late middle age and you notice that you have a new set of mentors who are maybe half your age. If you’re smart, you’ll listen to what they have to say, because they will keep you in the game. They’ll challenge you.”

— Trista Moxley Listen to Gill-King discuss his career in episode 13 of UNT Pod. northtexan.unt.edu/ podcasts

The USPS on Aug. 21 released a new “Thank You” stamp designed by UNT College of Visual Arts and Design alumna Dana Tanamachi (’07). The stamps, which come in four different colors, feature the words “thank you” in gold lettering that sprouts into floral accents. Tanamachi told the Houston Chronicle she was inspired by classic book covers and bookplates from the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements, as well as by typeface designer Doyald Young and textile artist William Morris, who was known for his florals.

Effecting Change Christine Balarezo (’13 Ph.D.), a political science alum and program associate at Collective Liberty, a national organization working to eradicate human trafficking, was selected as a 2020 American Express NGen Fellow. The program, part of the American Express Leadership Academy, offers opportunities for changemakers age 40 and under to strengthen their leadership capacity, hone their changemaking skills and build connections with some of the social sector’s most influential leaders.

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UP FIRST UNT HAS 89 ACADEMIC PROGRAMS RANKED AMONG THE NATION’S TOP 100, UP FROM 77 LAST YEAR.

Mobile Technology and Literacy Lauren Eutsler, assistant professor in UNT’s College of Education, recently examined instances where pre-K through fifth-grade teachers used mobile technology, like tablets preloaded with apps, to improve students’ literacy achievement. She identified gains in several areas, including increased comprehension for bilingual students who combined reading digital books with apps that provide recording and listening features. The study found strategies for teachers to use that can make the most out of using technology remotely and at home to create student-centered learning.

extracurriculars

ESPORTS CHAMPS

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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UNT’s Hearthstone esports team placed fourth in the final round of the Tespa Hearthstone Collegiate Championship in July.

UNT Hearthstone was one of only eight varsity teams in the country that remained in the competition after beating UCLA 3-2 and Lebanon Valley College 3-2 during the first playoff round July 11-12. UNT, which was the first public university in Texas to launch a collegiate esports program and offer scholarships to its gamers, has four varsity teams — Overwatch, League of Legends, Hearthstone and Rocket League. UNT Overwatch beat Indiana Tech 3-2 but lost to Rowan University 1-3 in a nail-biting match as part of the Tespa Collegiate Overwatch Championship. UNT Overwatch still finished the 2019-20 season as one of the top 32 teams in the U.S. Additionally, UNT’s Rocket League team also finished in the top eight in the nation this season.

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Dina Castro, a professor in UNT’s College of Education, was named to the steering committee leading the Texans Care for Children Early Childhood English Learner Initiative, which helps Texas children from birth to age 8 whose primary language is not English.

Professors from UNT’s Department of History created a public anti-racism syllabus called “Decriminalizing Blackness” in response to the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed. Check it out at history.unt.edu/ department/unt-history-antiracism-syllabus, and listen to UNT history professors discuss civil rights movements in episode 15 of UNT Pod at northtexan.unt.edu/podcasts.

Jessica Schlottman, a UNT biology major who started the campus group Someone Like Me for students struggling with invisible disabilities, has spearheaded safe-distancing activities during COVID to keep members connected and created Mean Green face masks. Connect with the group at facebook.com/groups/someonelikemeunt/.

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q&a

Alum, Org Honors

Turning to Art Amid Turmoil “WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS, I THINK WE FOCUS ON CULTURE DURING TIMES OF PEACE AND AVOID UNDERSTANDING ITS RELATIONSHIPS WITH CONFLICT.” Arts and crafts have seen a surge in popularity this year as the pandemic has forced many to spend more time at home. But that’s not unprecedented, according to art historian Jennifer Way, a professor in UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design. People have used craft as a means for therapy and wellness, cultural heritage and political activism in periods of conflict throughout history.

How do you define craft? How is it different than other art forms?

I define craft by trying to understand how discourses or sets of meanings that are specific to a time, place and social group constitute what counts as its forms and practices. For many Americans, craft is a cultural form that emerged in the U.S. during the 19th century as a hand-based fabrication valued especially for its differences from machine-made goods. Before then, craft comprised the creation, materials, histories and uses of many objects of everyday life.

Are there certain types of crafts that were common in different time periods?

Favored crafts during World War I included basketry, weaving, jewelry and metalsmithing. During World War II, crafts shifted to more natural materials and plastic materials (and their combinations) that facilitated fluid, abstract forms. The embrace of machine technology for precision and replication, and an interest in re-use of materials developed through the end of the 20th century.

Can you talk about your upcoming book, Deploying Craft: Crafting Wellness and Healing in Contexts of War? I am looking at why and how Americans made craft for therapeutic purposes comprising wellness, coping and rehabilitation from trauma and injury in relation to WWI, WWII, the Global War on Terror and COVID-19. I am also interested in the ways that making craft for these purposes related to the art world’s ideas about craft.

Rebekah Manon (’20), pictured, earned the International Association of Emergency Managers Global 2020 Student of the Year Award, and UNT’s International Association of Emergency Managers U.S. Student Chapter was named the IAEM-USA 2020 Student Chapter of the Year. Globally recognized as the premier organization for emergency management, the mission of IAEM is to represent the professionals whose goals are saving lives and protecting property and the environment during emergencies and disasters. UNT’s emergency administration and planning program, established in 1983, was the nation’s first bachelor’s degree program in emergency management.

Magazine Win The 2019 edition of the UNT English Department’s North Texas Review has been awarded the AWP National Program Directors’ Prize for Literary Magazines for its “diverse array of aesthetic material in image, tone and voice.” The editor-in-chief was Kaitlyn Coalson (’20 M.A.) and many current students contributed to the issue. To view recent editions, visit ntreviewonline.com.

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UP FIRST

expert take

A Critical Eye for Info There’s so much information to wade through these days, particularly in the midst of a pandemic and impending elections. There’s no shortage of explorations into these topics in print and digital media — but how can citizens process and analyze information in the best, most non-biased way?

“This is not an easy topic to negotiate,” says Tracy Everbach, a professor in UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism. “I am a media scholar and former journalist, yet I have been fooled by false material. After the 2018 solar eclipse, I saw and ‘liked’ a beautiful online photo that purported to be an image of the eclipse reflected on the ocean during an Oregon sunrise. If I had thought about it before liking it, I would have realized that sunrise in Oregon does not happen over the Pacific Ocean, sunset does. It is a constant process to keep reminding ourselves to always check out the content we consume.”

Here, experts discuss some considerations every consumer of information should keep in mind.

Read more of the experts’ tips for navigating and evaluating information. northtexan.unt.edu/ critical-eye

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HSIA-CHING “CARRIE” CHANG

Associate professor, Department of Information Science

“To discern misinformation and disinformation, we are better off comparing multiple sources of information on a certain topic for verification. Whenever possible, applying critical thinking as conducting scientific research helps clarify the confusion and find out the truth to form an unbiased judgment. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a practical method using parallel thinking to balance our perspectives.”

TRACY EVERBACH

Professor, Mayborn School of Journalism

“How do we discern what is accurate, fair and truthful in a world in which anyone can create any information they want and distribute it online? First, it is important to remember that legitimate news organizations are run by journalists trained to gather and vet information and present it in an ethical way.”

TONY E. CAREY JR.

Associate professor, Department of Political Science

“When motivated to seek out political information, when that information is balanced and with greater exposure to people with different viewpoints, citizens are more likely to adopt policy preferences and vote in ways that are less bound by their party affiliation, ideology and social background.

Our ability to counter our biases depends upon our efforts to consume information and foster relationships with people who hold a variety of perspectives.”

FOSTERING INNOVATION

At UNT, we are committed to innovation and moving forward with breakthrough research. That is why UNT’s Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing (CAAAM) is transforming manufacturing technologies to create market-based and environmentally friendly solutions to make impacts from operating rooms to oil fields.

Thanks to a $10 million award in funding from the Texas Legislature, the center launched in 2019, enabling researchers to use their cutting-edge capabilities to develop a highly skilled workforce of engineers.

In doing so, CAAAM will help build and support next-generation manufacturing prowess to lead U.S. global competitiveness and create the future of manufacturing innovation and success.

Learn more about the center’s exciting new technology at unt.edu/caaam.

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INNOVATION

Above Jojoba, a sustainable plant source of wax esters that is a major ingredient in skin care products and supports moisture retention in human skin, is pictured.

A Blueprint That Bears Fruit Researchers from UNT, China develop the first complete DNA sequence for the jojoba tree genome.

Read more about the researchers’ genome mapping. northtexan.unt.edu/bears-fruit

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UNT researchers, in conjunction with scientists at Huazhong Agricultural University in China, recently developed a complete map for the genome of the jojoba tree. This is the first complete DNA sequence of Simmondsia chinensis, providing a blueprint for this drought-tolerant and wax-bearing desert shrub. “With our map, scientists can find the desired genes in jojoba and express them through other plants,” says Kent Chapman, Regents professor and director of the BioDiscovery Institute at UNT. Jojoba is a sustainable plant source of wax esters and a major ingredient in skin care products that supports moisture retention in human skin. It also can be found in shampoo and soaps, and makes an excellent industrial lubricant due to its stability under high temperatures and pressures.

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BG • INNOVATION

“Consensus is growing among engineers and researchers that self-driving cars aren’t yet perceptive enough to make them safe to drive on public roads. But what if we linked two cars or three or hundreds together?”

— Qing Yang An assistant professor in UNT’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, his research involves using machine-learning programs to sort and transmit processed data to autonomous vehicles.

SAFER WASTE CONTAINMENT

SMART SCHOLARSHIP

Jincheng Du, an internationally recognized researcher on materials for nuclear waste disposal and professor in UNT’s College of Engineering, found that the corrosion of stainless steel containers used to store nuclear waste accelerates the breakdown of the glass or ceramic waste forms they contain, leading to much more rapid deterioration.

This finding means the current models of storage site longevity need to be corrected and further research is needed to understand the effect of material interactions during corrosion of waste packages. These systems that are expected to last for hundreds of thousands of years until radioactivity dies down to a safe level could fail sooner, leading to potential release and contamination.

“This new discovery sheds light on the important aspect of waste form research. We should not only pay attention to the corrosion of individual types of materials but also how their interactions affect each other’s corrosion rate during the nuclear waste form development,” Du says.

Kelly Jacques (’20), pictured, who recently graduated from UNT’s College of Engineering with a B.S. in materials science and engineering, is the 2020 recipient of the U.S. Department of Defense’s SMART (Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation) scholarship. It will cover the cost of tuition, books and living expenses as she pursues her Ph.D. at UNT beginning this fall.

She also will participate in summer internships at DOD facilities across the U.S. and, upon graduation, she will be employed by the DOD. Jacques specializes in the field of tribology, the study of friction.

Throughout her undergraduate career, she conducted research into developing protective coatings that can be incorporated into the internal mechanics of a drone’s fuel injection system to reduce friction in the system, especially when using a lower quality fuel. Through this research, Jacques will make drones more efficient. She wants them to stay in the air longer, go farther and fly faster.

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INNOVATION

spotlight

An Educational Study, Abroad

misty sailors and jim hoffman first traveled to southern africa for literacybased research projects nearly 20 years ago. Back then, Sailors and Hoffman — now professors in UNT’s Department of Teacher Education and Administration — primarily focused on curriculum materials development in South Africa and Malawi, collaborating with teachers to create more than 300 titles of books for children.

So when they embarked on their latest endeavor in Mozambique, it was both familiar and unfamiliar territory. Their current research — part of the BETTER project implemented by CODE (Canada) and Associação Progresso (Mozambique) with funds from the Government of Canada,

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and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Human Development of Mozambique — involves working with the country’s teacher training colleges to develop transformative hybrid spaces that will better prepare future educators to build strong relationships with their students.

The hybridity, the two say, refers to the place between traditional university-based instruction and the practicum experience. In hybrid spaces — also referred to as “mentoring” spaces — future teachers receive the opportunity to engage with students and practice instructional techniques under the close supervision of their university instructors.

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“This hybrid space is the best of both worlds,” says Sailors, who notes she and Hoffman also use hybrid spaces with PALS, a cohort of UNT students who mentor children at Denton ISD’s Ginnings Elementary. “We get to see their beginning understanding, and then we know what we need to talk about in our coursework based on what we see them doing. We capitalize on seeing and watching and being there with them as a way to inform what we do as their instructors.”

Hoffman and Sailors entered into the project with curious minds, as eager to learn as they were to teach.

And in an area as culturally and linguistically rich as Mozambique — where it’s not uncommon for people to speak multiple languages — there were plenty of lessons to bring home.

“The notion of collaboration and connectedness is built into South Africa’s education policy following the cultural practice of ubuntu,” Hoffman says. “Every lesson a teacher

delivers has to include ubuntu as part of the practice. That’s such a mindopening way of thinking about the classroom that’s different from our traditional notions of competition.”

Sailors and Hoffman hope their hybrid spaces project is a step toward opening more minds, and hearts, when it comes to rethinking and reframing the education of teachers. After all, they’ve seen firsthand how bringing kids, future teachers and university instructors together into one space can transform attitudes about education — and students’ potential.

“A lot of times, we encounter the notion of ‘can’t’ — what teachers can’t do and what kids can’t do,” Hoffman says. “Part of the purpose of these hybrid spaces is to turn that around and say, ‘How can we?’ and show people what teachers and children can do.”

— Erin Cristales

See more photos from the Mozambique research project. northtexan.unt.edu/educational-study

BG • INNOVATION

IT’S EASIER TO JUSTIFY THE EXPENSE OF BUILDING A NICE HOSPITAL WITH PRIVATE ROOMS IF YOU CAN SAY TO THE BOARD, ‘THIS ACTUALLY SAVES LIVES.’” — College of Health and Public Service associate professor Liam O’Neill, who co-wrote a study that found patients were dramatically less likely to be infected with hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals with more private patient rooms.

Research Award Win

Te ing for Toxicity

Materials science and engineering alum Arun Devaraj (’11 Ph.D.) received a 2020 Early Career Research Program award from the Department of Energy. The award comes with five years of research support totaling roughly $2.5 million.

At UNT, Devaraj studied experimental and computational material science under the advisement of Raj Banerjee, University Presidential and Regents professor, and Srinivasan Srivilliputhur, associate professor of materials science and engineering.

Now at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Devaraj will use the funds to explore how hydrogen, combined with stress and oxidation, leads to catastrophic failures of high-strength steels widely used in the nuclear and automotive industries.

Chemistry researchers at UNT have developed a test to more easily identify toxic silver ions, which can be harmful to humans and the environment at high concentrations.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well known for their antimicrobial properties and can be found in a number of products such as bedding, toothpaste and toys. But, over time, silver ions can leach from AgNP products into the surrounding environment. The ability to differentiate between the presence of silver nanoparticles and silver ions is important in both determining the toxicity of a substance and also discovering the time it takes silver ions to leach from nanoparticles in various products — knowledge that could have a huge impact on the environment.

Early-Career Fellow Elyse Zavar, assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science, is one of 20 fellows selected as a 2020 Early-Career Research Fellow by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Her research focuses on federally funded land purchased to relocate residents out of high-risk areas like floodplains or hurricane-impacted coastlines, and the challenges and successes of open space land management by local governments.

By the Numbers

$1M That’s how much grant money a UNT research team received from the Department of Defense, under the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, to study how metal alloys function at the atomic level. The team consists of three experts from UNT’s College of Engineering: Principal investigator and associate professor Srinivasan Srivilliputhur and co-PIs Raj Banerjee, a Presidential and Regents professor, and University Distinguished Research Professor Michael Baskes, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Srivilliputhur, Banerjee and Baskes hope to give scientists better insight on how certain metal alloys used by the military and aerospace industries deform under stress. While engineers take stress factors into account when determining the tolerances of a material, their methods of finding the breaking point often take place at the macro level.

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MUSE

Music with a Message Artist and former Mean Green linebacker Tobe Nwigwe has found a unique way to draw audiences.

Tobe Nwigwe knows what he wants to give his listeners: “A keen sense of purpose.” The artist has built a huge following on Instagram through his songs that focus on social justice and the Black experience. Nwigwe, a former Mean Green linebacker who attended UNT from 2003 to 2005, boasts nearly 820,000 followers on the social media platform, has gained attention from Texas Monthly and NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, and appeared on Michelle Obama’s workout playlist. He recently was featured in The New York Times after his songs, “I Need You To” and “Try Jesus,” went viral and made the Billboard charts.

“I think about all the things that I would’ve wanted to know when I was young to give me guidance,” he says.

“Football gave me all the attributes that I use to this day in music — discipline, perseverance, consistency, just the ability to do things that you don’t feel like doing.”

Read more about how Nwigwe’s student-athlete experiences taught him determination — a skill he uses in his music. Also learn about other alumni who’ve made their mark on the hip-hop scene. northtexan.unt.edu/ music-message

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BG • MUSE

I LOVE THE BAND. I LOVE THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE GREAT ROOTS IN DENTON, TEXAS, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD ONE DAY AND PLAY IT WITH THEM.” — Legendary singer Jimmy Buffett on performing “Saltwater Gospel” with the Eli Young Band, which was formed at UNT

Caretaker of Stories

Books

The Only Good Indians

Read how Jones compares writing to breaking horses. northtexan. unt.edu/graham-jones

Monstrous Women in Comics Samantha Langsdale The anthology examines the ways women are made monstrous in popular culture, with Langsdale, a senior lecturer in philosophy and religion, acting as the editor of this collection of intersectional analyses of comics.

Stephen Graham Jones (’96 M.A.) loves freaking out people.

His latest horror novel, The Only Good Indians, has won praise from both The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Jones, who teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has published more than 25 books and 300 short stories.

“I like that the reader can have all their defenses up, can be looking for the zippers on the monster, and then see that zipper, shrug this so-called horror off, and they think they leave this experience unchanged,” he says.

“Until it’s three in the morning, and they have to traverse a long dark hallway, and all the seeds that a story planted in their imagination bloom, offering dark fruit.”

Gentle Black Giants: A History of Negro Leaguers in Japan Bill Staples Jr. (’94), co-author The journalism alum details the history of the Philadelphia Royal Giants and their Trans-Pacific barnstorming tours to Asia during the 1920s and 1930s.

Eclipse of Dreams: The Undocumented-Led Struggle for Freedom Mariela Nuñez-Janes and Fidel Castro Rodriguez (’12), co-editors Nuñez-Janes, associate professor of anthropology, and Rodriguez tell the stories of undocumented activists’ responses after the DREAM Act failed.

Media Arts professor’s works win international awards Melinda Levin (’92 M.A.) knows what makes a good film.

She saw it in the colorful, jubilant street performances from the Cuban arts group Teatro Callejero Medio Ambiental (Street Theatre about the Environment). And she pictured it in Mongolian elder Delgar Mondoon, a high monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. These individuals have committed their lives and livelihood to celebrating culture and the sanctity of the environment.

She turned their stories into the documentaries Cuban Earth and Mongolia: Earth and Spirit. And they earned her and her documentary crew members six international Telly Awards, which has recognized excellence in video and television since 1979.

Cuban Earth was produced by David Taylor, a former UNT English lecturer who is now an assistant professor at Stony Brook University. The film recently won top honors in the Documentary Short category at the national meeting of the University Film and Video Association, the oldest academic film organization in North America. Mongolia: Earth and Spirit was co-produced and directed with Liz Daggett Matar (’08 M.F.A.) and aired on KERA. It also won a Best Documentary Award at the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin.

Levin, who is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Production and Studies program in the Department of Media Arts, says, “Both TECMA and Delgar Mondoon are making selfless efforts for the betterment of our environment, and I’m honored to be a caretaker of their stories through these documentaries.”

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MUSE JERMAINE STEGALL (’03 M.M.) COMPOSED THE MUSIC FOR COMING 2 AMERICA, STARRING EDDIE MURPHY AND ARSENIO HALL, WHICH IS EXPECTED TO BE RELEASED IN DECEMBER.

Living Room Fun The quarantine turned John Wayne Daugherty (’97, ’97 M.S.) and his Lego collection into a video star.

Daugherty, a certified public accountant who lives in The Colony, started building Lego sets about four years ago — eventually building a Disney castle and a recreation of his own version of Disneyland.

Modern Billings Photographer uses interstate for inspiration.

When the pandemic shut down art galleries and venues, Chris Wright Evans (’20 M.F.A.) didn’t have a physical graduate thesis exhibition.

But his work still got to be displayed.

His photography appeared on a billboard this spring as part of Modern Billings, an exhibition sponsored by the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art. Evans’ depiction of the interstate system was part of his project “Cathedrals of our Time” that showed life on the road, from zoned-out drivers to everyday objects. He drove the full length of I-35, from Laredo to Duluth, Minnesota, to create the work.

“Driving all these miles, I realized that I am a bit of an anxious night driver,” he says. “I feel blinded by the glare from oncoming cars and street lights that smear across my windshield. When I made Reflectors, I wanted to emulate the bright glare of a dark stretch of highway.”

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When the coronavirus pandemic gave him some free time at home, he put the entire park in his dining room and posted videos on Facebook and YouTube. His channel JWD Lego Fun caught the attention of Good Morning America, People.com and Kelly Clarkson’s talk show — which gave him $5,000 in new Lego sets.

“Building with Lego is like therapy for me — it’s peaceful, there is a plan, and at the end you feel you have accomplished something when you complete a set,” says Daugherty, who hopes to build his own version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. “When people started to discover my videos and the Lego builds were bringing joy to people, especially right now, that was probably the most amazing and gratifying part of it all.”

BG • MUSE

A Voice on Canvas Alumna combines her love for teaching and learning as an artist.

In 2003, Cecelia Joyce Price (’92 M.Ed., ’17 Ph.D.) saw a painting show on TV and thought she could do that. Now Price has two careers.

A former teacher and principal at Duncanville ISD, she is a professor at Dallas College, El Centro campus. The Cedar Hill resident also runs Whispered Inspirations Art Studio and teaches art at Visual Expressions Creative Arts School and Gallery in Cedar Hill. Her first series of oil and acrylic prints raised money for the first school in Mpeasem Village in Ghana — and that led her to visit the country last year, inspiring a new series of paintings, highlighting her identity as a descendant of slaves and of life in Ghana.

Price didn’t have any training in art when she first began. She taught herself, watching quick videos after work, and later, she took classes at Visual Expressions. She soon wanted to find her own place in art — and developed an interest in the influence of the arts on teaching and learning in schools, homes and communities.

“Today, my creations convey love as people express and receive it (teach and learn it) through families, communities, friendships, schools, faith and many other avenues,” she says. “Knowing that my purpose for painting encompasses my identity as an educator makes knowing what and why I want to paint very natural.”

Forward Thinking

What Class Had the Mo Impact on You? “Several faculty had lasting influence: Michael Collins ‘forced’ me into the epiphany of Baroque dancing, Lenora McCroskey led me to imaginative musical exploration, Deanna Bush was encouraging and intellectually demanding, Thomas Clark was an incredibly patient guide and Kenneth Cuthbert introduced me to the thrill of playing with 65 musicians at once.” — Michael Quantz (’80, ’94 D.M.A.), professor of music at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, who has been called a “pioneer in guitar ensemble curriculum and classroom education” by the National Association for Music Education “In a graduate special topics course with Marian O’Rourke-Kaplan, we focused on sustainability and discussed ways designers could lessen their carbon footprint through the manufacturing process. That class really made me think about how the choices we make as designers affect the environment, which is my primary focus as I grow my apparel brand, Ottomatic Threads.”

— Alisa Otto (’06, ’12 M.F.A.), adjunct instructor in fashion design in the College of Visual Arts and Design “Surely creative writing is among the most intimate classes in the university, and we grew into our unique styles precisely because teachers Bruce Bond, Corey Marks, Barbara Rodman and John Tait responded to us individually. Workshop and theory classes focused on a literature-based study in the creative writing program.

The fine authors that we read set standards and honed our aesthetics in our own writing.” — Susan Maxwell Campbell (’06 M.A.), a poet and leader of the Denton Poets’ Assembly

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MEAN GREEN

Always on the Ball The youngest-ever player in Mean Green women’s soccer history is a star both on the field and in the classroom.

Amélie Faa loves to put things into practice.That’s part of the reason the freshman midfielder on the women’s Mean Green soccer team chose biomedical engineering as her major — it’s an opportunity, she says, to apply knowledge in a hands-on, life-changing way. It’s also how, at 16, the Frisco native has become the youngest-ever player in program history while also juggling a full schedule of Honors courses.

“It’s all about practice and persistence,” Faa says. “In soccer, you have to put the time in whether you’re on or off the field. And in school, you have to put the hours into studying and understanding what you’re learning in the classroom.”

Faa, who began playing soccer when she was just 3 years old, took part in FC Dallas’ U.S. Soccer Development Academy, where she was ranked by TopDrawerSoccer.com as one of the top 11 players of their 2019 playoffs. She also was a starter on the FC Dallas U-16 squad.

And though she received scholarship offers from Southeastern Conference schools, UNT’s soccer program drew her in. Though UNT’s soccer and volleyball seasons have been postponed until spring, Faa is already making her mark on the field — and in the classroom.

“I thought I’d feel a little lost at first,” Faa says. “But I’m really liking this college environment. I feel like this is where I’m meant to be.”

Learn more about the soccer program. meangreensports.com

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BG • MEAN GREEN

Academic Wins for Volleyball The North Texas volleyball team in July earned the United States Marine Corps/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award, which honors volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade point average of at least 3.30 on a 4.0 scale.

North Texas finished the 2019-20 academic year with a 3.70 cumulative GPA and had 10 women reach the President’s List while the remaining four worked their way onto the Dean’s List.

This is the ninth USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award the Mean Green have received in the last 10 seasons. North Texas also was awarded the C-USA Sport Academic Award in July for posting the highest GPA among all C-USA volleyball squads.

Tennis Earns All-Conference For a ninth straight year, the North Texas tennis team earned all-conference honors. Sophomore Maria Ponomareva was named Conference USA Newcomer of the Year and second team all-conference.

Additionally, the Mean Green’s top doubles team of Hala Khaled Badwy and Alexandra Heczey earned second team all-conference recognition.

For the senior Heczey, this was her second straight season earning allconference doubles honors.

By the Numbers

3K That’s the number of seats reserved for students in Apogee Stadium as a way to help combat the spread of COVID-19 while also providing opportunities to enjoy the fall football season. There are roughly 6,000 seats available in the bowl of the stadium, leaving 3,000 for fans after students are accommodated. Season ticketholders had the opportunity to claim those seats as part of a priority points system based on previous ticket purchases and donations.

2020 MEAN GREEN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE OCT. 3 vs. SOUTHERN MISS OCT. 10 vs. CHARLOTTE OCT. 17 at MIDDLE TENNESSEE OCT. 31 at UTEP NOV. 7 vs. LOUISIANA TECH* NOV. 14 at UAB NOV. 21 vs. RICE NOV. 28 at UTSA *Homecoming game

Check for the latest ticket and Return to Play information: meangreensports.com

Several on Watch Li s North Texas senior receiver Jaelon Darden, pictured, was selected to the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award, presented annually to the most outstanding player in college football. He also was selected to the Biletnikoff Award Preseason Watch List, and he was announced as a member of the Reese’s Senior Bowl Top 250 in August. The Reese’s Senior Bowl is described as the nation’s most prestigious college all-star game, serving as the first step of the NFL draft process. Darden, a 2019 first team all-conference selection, led the Mean Green in every major receiving category and was among the nation’s most productive receivers.

Senior defensive lineman Dion Novil was selected to the preseason watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy presented by LendingTree and the Outland Trophy. Novil is coming off the most productive season of his career, which led to all-conference honorable mention honors.

He finished with 61 total tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks at nose tackle in 2019 for the Mean Green.

And redshirt senior receiver and kick returner Deion Hair-Griffin was selected to the preseason watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy. Hair-Griffin is active within the Denton community and plays a major role within North Texas athletics’ SAAC organization (Student Athlete Advisory Committee). He was the national leader in kick return average at 40.8 yards per return in 2019 and earned second team all-conference recognition.

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FO

BY JESSICA DELEÓN

WITH COMPASSIONATE HEARTS AND DEDICATED PURPOSE, UNT ALUMNI ARE FIGHTING AGAINST SOCIAL INEQUITIES TO MAKE THE WORLD A MORE JUST PLACE.

W

hen Jennifer Rose Miller (’17) attended her first rally, only 10 other people showed up.

She was marching for Jordan Edwards, 15, a Black Balch Springs resident who was fatally shot in 2017 by a police officer while the car he was riding in was driving away from a party. She had just given birth to her son Xavier.

“What pushed me to get involved is I am a mother,” Miller says. “When I saw those pictures of Jordan, he was just a kid.

What if something similar happened to my child?”

Passing motorists honked their horns and raised their fists in support of the small crowd. And she made a realization.

“We’re not the only ones,” she says.

“It’s bigger than just me and my son. I want to create a better world and be in a position to be one of the many millions who can spark the change that needs to happen.”

She kept going and hasn’t stopped.

The Mansfield resident and sociology

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OR

Jennifer Rose Miller (’17) leads a march for social justice – one of many marches she’s participated in since 2017.

Andrea Masamba (’17), diversity and inclusion specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, visited Washington, D.C., as part of her Master of Public Administration program.

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graduate has since participated in about 15 marches and helped organize the North Texas Action Committee, which became the Dallas Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. She uses the debate skills she honed throughout her schooling, including on UNT’s debate team, when she speaks in public and for interviews.

Miller is one of many alumni whose backgrounds and personal beliefs have propelled them to fight for the rights of Blacks, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants and other marginalized populations. Their activism took on a greater urgency this year when a video showed a Minneapolis police officer fatally choking George Floyd.

The incident ignited one of the biggest

social justice movements in history, from mass demonstrations around the world to a re-examination of systemic racism in U.S. institutions.

Members of the UNT community have played a role. The university has established programs serving BIPOC throughout its 130 years from its first class, which included Native American students, to its current status as a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution. Alumni continually rise to the occasion to promote acts of activism through their careers and volunteer work, from establishing national organizations to creating online support systems.

And they’ve continued to march — even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

When Miller organized a demonW stration in Dallas after Floyd’s death, strat about 100 people. But she expected e 2,000 arrived.

2,00 ““The world stopped for a lot of people, violently crashing down upon peop them in that 8 minute, 46 second video,” she says. “The march was very vide overwhelming in a good way. It was so over awesome to see so much support.” awes

ENRAGED & EMPOWERED EN At U UNT, racial justice began in its classrooms. The first students to class integrate UNT were members of the integ Muscogee Creek Tribe in 1890. The Mus first Black students were permitted to enroll in the 1950s, and our new HSI enro designation means that 25% of the unidesi versity’s enrollment today is Hispanic. vers After Floyd’s death, UNT held a A Black Lives Matter town hall to address Blac issues of concern to Black students. issue President Neal Smatresk walked with Pres protestors at one of the Black Lives prot Matter marches around downtown Matt Denton.

Den UNT’s faculty members are U researching the history of inequality rese as Brenda Barrio, associate — such s professor of special education, who prof studies how students and teachers are stud affected in the world of disabilities, and affec Marti Jones, assistant professor of psyMar chology, who examines Black women’s chol identity and mental health. And UNT, iden always on the cutting edge of innovaalwa tive research, is working to establish Center for Racial and Ethnic Equity the C Health and Society, a group that in H aims to examine racial inequalities in health care. heal UNT students learn about social U justice through race and gender studjusti — from anthropology to ies classes c journalism — and programs such as journ Alternative Spring Break, which often Alter gives them an opportunity to come give face-to-face with civil rights history face

“I learned that life is bigger than me. It developed my desire for service.”

— Andrea Masamba (’17)

alongside their efforts to serve local communities across the country.

Those programs can expand students’ perspectives. They did for Andrea Masamba (’17) in 2016, when she visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on her spring break. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and hundreds of others walked down that bridge to the state capitol in 1965 to demand fair voting rights.

The police attacked the marchers in an event known as “Bloody Sunday.”

“I felt so small, yet so powerful. I felt like a change-agent. I felt empowered and yet enraged,” she says. “For so long, history — specifically African American history — was intangible to me, but I got to walk that history. I envisioned that reality. It was life-changing. And in turn, it empowered me to view the current racial climate in our country more clearly and advocate for a better future reality.”

Now Masamba helps shape and execute policy as a diversity and inclusion specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. She’s always been a servant leader — drawn by her faith as well as her personal history. Her parents were immigrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and

Belgium who made their way to New York and eventually to Texas.

“I learned that life is bigger than me,” she says. “It developed my desire for service.”

Her education further strengthened her calling to help others. She was able to think about race and its influence on society as a freshman when she took Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies taught by Mariela Nuñez-Janes, associate professor in UNT’s Department of Anthropology.

During that Alternative Service Break of civil rights landmarks in 2016, she also stood on a city fountain in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, that is believed to be a former slave market.

Other activities at UNT — such as an additional trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, to serve a homeless shelter; a study abroad trip on human trafficking in Romania; and LeaderShape and NT40 — also honed her service skills.

After graduating with a strategic communications degree, Masamba performed a year of AmeriCorps service in Boston, which inspired her to pursue a Master of Public Administration degree from UNT, an accomplishment she hopes to finish in 2021.

As part of her studies, she traveled to Washington, D.C., where she attended

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benefits and led diversity training as the organization steadily grew. Its annual Workplace Summit has grown from 200 people in its first year to more than 5,000 participants from around the world.

During these summits, a participant will come up to Berry in the hallway and tell her, “I’ve never been out at work until an Out & Equal summit. My life has definitely changed for the better.”

“The summit is one of my biggest accomplishments,” she says. “It’s life changing for people.”

ONLINE ACTIVIST As founder of the nonprofit organization Out and Equal, Selisse Berry (’79) advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace. congressional hearings and visited the Department of Labor and the Supreme Court.

She also pursued an internship in diversity and inclusion at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Since landing a full-time position there as a diversity and inclusion specialist, Masamba has supported the establishment of six employee resource groups and continually meets the bank’s needs to support its diversity and inclusion strategy.

She also supports the agency’s efforts to create diversity in economics, workplace, leadership, community and its suppliers.

After the coronavirus hit, she coordinated a briefing and discussion for the Diversity and Inclusion Council and Asian employee resource group on the “Anti-Asian bias” after Asian Americans and Asians had to endure racist acts.

“UNT introduced me to a range of people,” she says, “and made me a leader and challenged me to understand the greater depths of my racial identity.”

WORKING FOR EQUALITY For Selisse Berry (’79), a personal setback led to a lifetime of activism. She attended seminary from 1987 to 1991, but couldn’t be ordained because she was gay.

“I found myself initially with just a lot

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of anger and a lot of passion that we should be able to follow our career path regardless of who we love,” Berry says.

This inspired her to found Out & Equal in 1996, which would become the premier organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace, partnering with multinational companies and government organizations. Berry is now retired and serves as a consultant for corporations.

Berry always had social justice in her blood — influenced by her involvement in her church and her father’s profession as a university administrator. Berry, who went by her first name Karen when she was at North Texas, earned a degree in counseling, then taught school and worked as a guidance counselor in Texas and traveled around Europe.

When she couldn’t get ordained, she knew she had to effect change. She would go door to door to companies, asking if they needed guidance to help their LGBTQ+ employees. She frequently received a similar response: “Don’t worry, we don’t have those people here.”

And she responded, “No, you do. You need to have some policies in place for them to feel comfortable coming out.”

As head of Out & Equal, she helped companies implement domestic partner

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Matt Rivas (’17) helps people through the internet, a format he’s comfortable with.

When he came out as a high school student, he made a video on YouTube. He had built an online community composed of a small group of family and friends. Today, it’s where he conducts his activism.

“I want to be that support system for other people,” he says.

For his paid job, he works for NBC Universal, creating digital content across their social media platforms. He also creates graphics and social media posts for Project Contrast, a nonprofit organization that helps LGBTQ+ youth.

“Everyone has their own lane,” he says.

“Mine is working in digital.”

Throughout college, Rivas made and edited YouTube videos featuring comedy sketches. He also worked on North Texas Television, hosting the Late Night Show and producing other shows.

After college, he moved to Los Angeles and worked with Chappy, a dating app for gay men. Rivas also volunteered with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights organization, even conducting red carpet interviews with Elton John and Christina Aguilera.

But it’s the conversations he has with the teenagers — some of whom have been cast out from their homes — that reaffirms his commitment.

“Learning how some of them were kicked out and disowned at such a young and vulnerable age, having to learn how to be an adult at the age of 13, and in the city of Los Angeles, which I always thought to

CREATIVE CHANGEMAKERS Whether through art or legislation, members of the UNT community are using their passion and ingenuity to bring about social justice: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leona Allen (’86) oversees diversity and inclusion initiatives as the new deputy publisher for The Dallas Morning News.

In downtown Fort Worth, artist Letitia Huckaby (’10 M.F.A.) helped paint the mural “End Racism Now” on its streets with her husband, Sedrick Huckaby.

Longtime Denton leader in civil rights Willie Hudspeth (’90, ’93 M.Ed.) called for the removal of the statue of the Confederate soldier at Denton’s downtown square for 20 years. The statue came down this summer.

As COVID led to racist attacks against Asian Americans, New York-based psychiatrist and psychotherapist Teresa Lee (’07 TAMS), helped establish an online support group for Asian American therapists and trainees.

Taylor Lymbery (’04) started a change.org petition that encouraged Mattel to include Black action figures in their Masters of the Universe He-Man toyline.

Senior political science and communications student Yolian Ogbu, former president of UNT’s Student Government Association, was named #ILookLikeAPolitican National Ambassador by Running Start, which trains young women to run for public office.

be a very inclusive and open-minded city,” he says, “it reassured me that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

DRIVEN BY HOPE For John Ting (’06), his life was changed on a volunteer trip in Vietnam. He holds a distinct image of children swarming to him and the other volunteers and “seeing the hope in their eyes that we were there.”

He was there as part of the Southeast Asian Leadership Network to help create curriculum for high school students so they could teach in the city’s orphanages.

It inspired him to become a lawyer.

Ting, a child of immigrants from Taiwan who grew up in Plano, now practices immigration law in Houston.

“I think the hope is what continues to drive me — the hope to get them to the

Matt Rivas (’17) uses the media skills honed from his time at UNT to help LGBTQ+ teenagers with the organization Project Contrast.

UNT multicultural coordinator Enedelia Sauceda (’04) is a psychologist and diversity trainer who serves on the board of PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton. As a mental health advocate, educator and liaison with UNT’s Multicultural Center and Pride Alliance, she works with Latinx and LGBTQ+ students.

Tenor Martin Luther Clark (’15) sang composer Samuel K. Sweet’s (’18, ’20 M.M.) “A Just Soliloquy,” that combined one of Sweet’s poems with Langston Hughes’ “Dream Variations.” The piece, which was performed at a virtual concert presented by current and alumni members of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, “linked Black activism of two eras, both delivered stirringly by Clark,” said The Chicago Tribune.

Several College of Visual Arts and Design alumni — led by Mariah Tyler (’14), Melissa Brito (’15) and Jake Dockins (’20) — organized the North Texas Artist Auction with proceeds benefiting social justice and COVID organizations.

R Read more about these changemakers. northtexan.unt.edu/social-justice n

has been able to draw on his student nt experiences as a member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity y and the Asian Students Associat ion.

“I am grateful for UNT and political tical science courses because it gave me an in-depth perspective spective on history that is not normally shared in mainstream am media,” he says. “I gained leadership experience that iss priceless for operating a business and advising on boards forr the purpose of making a difference.”

The work can get tough, especially ally with immigration rules and policies changing nearly every week. But he remembers he’s there to help people.

“That’s the reason I went to law school,” he says.

The child of immigrants from Taiwan, attorney John Ting (’06) helps empower immigrants to understand their legal rights.

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next page of their life,” he says.

After graduating from UNT with a degree in international studies with a concentration in business, he worked for a logistics company for a few months before he went on that volunteer trip and then earned his Juris Doctor degree at City University of New York School of Law. He moved back to Texas to start his own law firm, representing immigrants seeking a legal pathway to live in America.

Early in Ting’s career, he accepted a pro bono case to represent a domestic abuse survivor who felt stuck in an abusive marriage. Even though there was no police report, with Ting’s representation, she is now a permanent resident and a divorcee after they gathered evidence through extensive investigation and prepared witnesses for the trial in what appeared to be an uphill battle. This year, he faced another challenge. Two teenagers fled their Central American home from danger to eventually meet their relatives in Houston. They were sent to a detention center in Texas, then moved to a social services agency in New York over 1,600 miles from their family. It took six months, but he was able to reunite the family.

As a volunteer for the North Texas Dream Team, Ting also has reviewed DACA applications for those that would otherwise not be able to afford legal services. DACA allowed “dreamers” an opportunity to work legally so students can stay in the U.S. while also paying taxes. He currently serves on the board of Daya, a domestic violence survivor agency in Houston. Because of the recent multitude of police shootings, Ting created a YouTube channel as a platform to interview stakeholders who have been able to contribute positively in the march for social justice. He also shares legal tips on his law firm’s YouTube channel. Over the years, he

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ENSURING THE FUTURE E Aicha Davis (’12 M.Ed.) was thinking ng about the teenagers in her science classes as she toured thee Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History ory and Culture in 2017.

Davis, who then taught physics and d chemistry, knew that the Washington, D.C., museum’s depictions epictions of the Black experience in America could be incorporated orporated in every class.

“There was so much I didn’t even en know,” she says.

That visit propelled Davis, who is studying for her doctorate in educational policy and leadership dership at UNT, to spearhead the passage of the Black studies es curriculum earlier this year as a member of the Texas Statee Board of Education.

With the course, students will learn earn about untold parts of history — such as the Sugar Land nd 95, the group of Black men who built a plantation as part of a convict labor leasing program after slavery was abolished d and were buried on that land. The curriculum goes through ough the education of Blacks, from the Freedmen’s schools ls where children of freed slaves learned to read to Historically orically Black Colleges and Universities, to the schools-to-prison prison pipeline that occurs in the present day.

“It ties in everything,” Davis says. s. “We’ve come so far and we have so far to go.”

Davis’ own education at UNT inspired nspired her to run for the State Board after she learned how state and federal laws affected teachers and students. And d she applied the lessons she learned from a curriculum development elopment course from Colleen Eddy, associate professor off teacher education and administration. Eddy emphasized curriculum should offer rich information, a timeline and community mmunity support. Her dissertation chair, Barbara Pazey, taught aught her the value of so-

HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH Some people fight inequality on the streets. Others gather data. UNT faculty members are conducting research and creating policy initiatives to combat disparities in health care.

More than 30 researchers from a wide range of fields — from anthropology and art history to business and journalism — have established the UNT Center for Racial and Ethnic Equity in Health and Society (CREEHS), initiated by Chandra Carey, department chairwoman and professor of rehabilitation and health services, and Tony Carey, associate professor of political science.

Through federal- and state-funded grants, faculty are researching the educational, economic, environmental and social determinants of health to enhance the quality of life for underserved populations across Texas. UNT will seek additional funding from the Texas Legislature to help support the center that will provide a platform, such as policy reports, in creating legislation.

It couldn’t be timelier. The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color. In the U.S., Blacks have died at 3.7 times the rate of whites. Indigenous people at 3.5 times the rate and Latinos at 2.5 times the rate, according to the APM Research Lab. Other inequalities also exist. Black women are more likely to die while giving birth at three times the rate of white women. Black women also die from breast cancer at a 40% higher rate than white women.

Representing part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the State Board of Education, Aicha Davis (’12 M.Ed.) led the inclusion of Black studies curriculum in the state. cial justice and policy research. And she credits department chair Misty Sailors for emphasizing the value of critical language within the course, such as the use of “enslaved people” rather than “slaves” and “minoritized students” rather than “minorities.” When the board passed the course unanimously, Davis began crying.

Like her fellow alumni, her work to bring social justice could have impact for years to come.

“We want students to look at aspects of their history and past,” Davis says. “We want them to have more information and knowledge. We want them to be advocates. We want them to fight for themselves and for the generations that come after them.”

“CREEHS is committed to seeking solutions to stimulate movement toward health equity,” Chandra Carey says, “We believe UNT is perfectly poised to lead the state in these areas and we earnestly would like to see UNT leverage its unique capacity to help achieve equity in Texas and to be a model for institutions across the nation.”

William Scarborough, assistant professor of sociology, has studied racial inequality in Chicago and how the pandemic has put more pressure on working mothers than fathers. He notes the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have put the issue of health disparities in the spotlight.

“That’s why we, in academia, play such an important role,” he says. “We provide the evidence to help make change.”

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A Leap Forward ALUMNA IS PAVING THE WAY FOR DANCERS OF COLOR IN BALLET THROUGH SCHOLARSHIPS, MENTORSHIP. TEXT BY HEATHER NOEL Before Misty Copeland became American Ballet Theatre’s first African American principal dancer and the face of ballet’s diversity movement, TaKiyah Wallace (’02) focused the spotlight on dancers of color through her camera lens.

Making a difference in the lives of young people has always been a calling for Wallace. For most of her professional career, that has meant applying her UNT bachelor’s degree in psychology and minor in rehabilitation studies in the classroom. What she didn’t count on was how her passion for helping others would bring her into the dance world.

For more than a decade, she has worked as a gifted and talented teacher in Dallas ISD. As the district’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) program coordinator, Wallace launches makerspaces in Dallas schools and designs a curriculum to introduce elementary schoolers to robotics, coding, design thinking and more.

“Getting children to think about who they are designing for when they are making something is amazing,” Wallace says.

“It makes them more considerate as kids and later as adults.”

In 2012, Wallace stumbled upon her own change-making project. While looking for a dance studio around downtown Dallas for her 3-year-old daughter to attend, she made a startling discovery — there weren’t many African American girls at any of the studios.

“My daughter is a Black girl with big, bushy hair. I didn’t see any faces that looked like hers,” Wallace says.

As a new mom wanting to snap quality photos of her daughter, Wallace took a photography class and shortly after started her own photography business. When she learned about the lack of representation in dance, she put her photo skills to work in a project capturing dancers of color ages 7-10 in Dallas, Austin and Houston, to shine a light on them.

“After the first week of taking photos in Dallas, I learned what I didn’t know,” Wallace says, “which was how expensive ballet is to the normal family, how oftentimes girls of color are the only person that looks like them in their ballet class, how tights and shoes are pink because they are supposed to match your lines — but if you’re a brown girl, they do not. There are a lot of body image issues for girls of color in ballet programs and often they quit. At one point, two moms came up to me in tears in Dallas and said, ‘You have to keep doing this.’”

My daughter is a Black girl with big, bushy hair. I didn’t see any faces that looked like hers.

There was no turning back. Leaping eight years, and 13 cities, later, Wallace’s project, Brown Girls Do Ballet, has documented hundreds of dancers and has given rise to a growing nonprofit of the same name that offers scholarships, studio grants, dance-supply donations and mentorship to aid aspiring dancers of color all over the U.S. Her efforts have been noted

by The Huffington Post, the Washington Post and BuzzFeed, and earned international recognition in the HP-supported Girl Rising Creative Challenge. She’s also advocated for a more inclusive environment in ballet with some of the top professional dance companies and dancewear brands.

With conversations of inequity sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, six of the major dancewear makers announced plans for a more inclusive line of pointe shoes, a goal Wallace has long lobbied for through Brown Girls Do Ballet.

“Being able to provide a level of security and comfort for these girls — that’s my high,” Wallace says.

See more of Wallace’s photography. northtexan.unt.edu/ takiyah-wallace LEFT AND TABLE OF CONTENTS: PHOTOS BY TAKIYAH WALLACE ABOVE: PHOTO BY ESTHER HUYNH

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2020 VISION Story by Erin Cristales Photography by Michael Clements and Angilee Wilkerson

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AS COVID-19 DARKENS THE DAWN OF THE NEW DECADE, UNT RESEARCHERS SHIFT FOCUS TO SHINE A LIGHT ON SOLUTIONS

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Shobhana Chelliah, left, and Sara Champlin, above, are collaborating on a project that involves communicating health information to refugees of Myanmar.

ivot.

It might be the most ubiquitous word of 2020, if you don’t count unprecedented.

Businesses, of course, have had to deviate from their pre-defined paths. So have workers. Plans have done an about-face. Schedules have shifted and strained under professional and parental demands.

Cue researchers to the rescue.

Because UNT faculty, too, have pivoted to face the pandemic head on — expanding and enriching their research to confront the most imperative issue of our day.

They’ve embarked on interdisciplinary explorations of COVID’s consequences in realms ranging from psychology to education to communications to chemistry. They’ve collected and scoured data, created supercomputer simulations to improve treatment options, collaborated to craft personal protective equipment — even some that consumers can 3D-print themselves.

You could call their ingenuity, well — unprecedented.

“As academics, our subject matter expertise is our toolkit,” says Sara Champlin, assistant professor of advertising in UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism. “Your work can be made that much stronger and more meaningful by bringing together other people’s expertise and passion for a topic — especially if you’re able to pivot quickly and are excited to learn on the fly.”

Critical Connections Back in March, Champlin was looking for ways to contribute her expertise to the COVID-19 pandemic. At one meeting, there were ideas pitched from biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics — all important subjects, but none that directly applied to her work in the social sciences. And then Shobhana Chelliah, associate dean and professor in UNT’s Department of Linguistics, said the magic word: communication.

“I sent her a message,” says Champlin, whose expertise is in health communications. “And I was like, ‘We don’t know each other, but we have overlapping interests.’”

That led to the two collaborating on a project — along with Kelly Harper Berkson, an assistant professor of linguistics at Indiana University — that aims to discover how to effectively communicate information about COVID-19 to refugees of Myanmar, who are members of the Chin language community. The research team, which recently received a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research grant for the project, is preparing to gather feedback from the minority language community through interviews and narratives, which Chelliah will linguistically analyze. Ultimately, those translations will be given to Champlin’s students, who will create visual materials for Chin speakers.

Collaborations like theirs are common at UNT, where faculty innately understand the benefit of drawing upon multiple perspectives — especially in a situation like a global pandemic. In April, for example, the College of Visual Arts and Design and the College of Engineering paired up to produce transparent face shields in response to an equipment shortage caused by COVID-19.

“We are a Tier One research university,” says Vice President for Research and Innovation Mark McLellan, “because we have the expertise, equipment and capability of tackling world-sized problems.”

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Christopher Long, assistant professor in UNT’s Department of Teacher Education and Administration, is studying students’ attitudes regarding their learning environments before and after COVID-19.

Chelliah couldn’t agree more. For example, she hopes that by learning how to best communicate COVID-19 information to the Chin community, the team will deduce how to better support speakers of any underserved language, particularly when it comes to their health.

“Whether you are applying the scientific methods of documentary linguistics or conducting tests in a lab, science matters,” she says. “You need science to make a significant impact on things like public health.”

A People-First Approach In the months before the pandemic wound its way across the globe and gained a foothold in the U.S., Christopher Long, assistant professor in UNT’s Department of Teacher Education and Administration, and fellow assistant professor Lauren Eutsler were preparing to study virtual reality headsets as part of K-12 science-based learning environments. But when public schools closed their doors following spring break, he was forced to address another question: How could he capture students’ attitudes about learning environments if they were no longer physically in the classroom?

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“Our entire study that we’d spent the year setting up vaporized in front of us,” Long says. “But then it occurred to me that with our undergrads, we could actually look at learning environments before and after students had to start learning from home.”

Long sent surveys to roughly 4,000 undergraduates from his department and the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation, gauging feelings about their learning environments prior to the spring break closure, and after. Of the 230 students who fully participated, many reported that at-home learning left much to be desired — they cited internet issues and feelings of social disconnectedness as primary areas of concern. Those findings, Long says, can likely be extrapolated to K-12 students.

And in discovering students’ misgivings regarding online instruction, educators can look for ways to make the experience better. For example, Long says, a university in Holland employed a Discord server — typically used for video games — to set up virtual lab groups for students to work on projects remotely, improving both collaboration and connectivity.

“Getting it right is going to take a lot of trial and error,” Long says. “The way forward is for teachers to create cooperative learning environments where students are interacting with each other rather than just teacher-student interactions. We have to make sure we’re giving instructors room to try things.”

Then there are faculty like Trent Petrie, a professor in UNT’s Department of Psychology, who is addressing COVID’s effects on the mind from a different perspective.

Prior to the pandemic, his plan was to investigate student-athletes’ experiences following graduation.

“Then, all of a sudden, collegiate sports shut down,” Petrie says. “So we did ‘pivot,’ to use that term, to address the reality of this unique situation for college athletes.”

Petrie began to look at how COVID-19 affects student-athletes’ mental health — everything from body image issues and depression stemming from changes in training to their concerns about returning to in-person practice. That holistic approach is important, Petrie says, because there hasn’t been much nationally based research regarding college athletes’ mental health and well-being beyond some NCAA studies based on single-item questions.

“One of the things that we wanted to do in this study was to use measures that have been linked to actual clinical

diagnosis so we could determine the percentage of athletes who are at risk for more severe psychological distress,” Petrie says. “And so that became our driving force — to collect data on which psychologists who were working with athletes could base their interventions.”

Helping Through the Hard Sciences Interventions have proven equally important in the hard sciences. Researchers’ goals largely center on the physical effects of the virus, from devising how to prevent its spread to investigating the efficacy of potential treatment options.

A team from UNT’s College of Engineering, for example, used 3D-printing technology to manufacture ventilator splitters that will allow doctors to use a single ventilator to treat two patients. Using biocompatible materials that can be sterilized for medical applications, the team printed 20 splitters along with flow limiter inserts that enable medical providers to adjust air flow for each patient.

And a student research team led by Yijie Jiang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, has developed open source codes for a mask and nose plugs that have high virus trapping efficiency and allow for smooth inhalation. The best part? Anyone with a 3D printer at home can make their own.

“Our next phase,” Jiang says, “will include researching efficient ways to sanitize the masks and nose plugs with medical disinfectant as a person breathes.”

That impulse to use research expertise to explore the possibilities of curbing — and potentially treating — COVID-19 is no stranger to Andrés Cisneros, a professor in UNT’s Department of Chemistry whose focuses include theoretical and computational chemistry, biochemistry and inorganic chemistry. For years, he’s performed computational simulations to better understand the structure of DNA polymerase, the enzymes essential for replicating the entire genome of any living organism before cell division. After he read a study in mid-March that discussed the structure of RNA polymerase in SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — the proverbial light bulb switched on.

“We already know how polymerases work for DNA, so for RNA, it’s not going to be much different,” Cisneros says.

“I talked with my team and said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of doing nothing for this particular pandemic.’”

The team already was conducting plenty of potentially life-changing research, including looking at cancer-related mutations on DNA polymerases. But they jumped at the opportunity to examine at the atomic level interactions between inhibitors and RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP) and the main protease (MPro) in SARS-CoV-2. The idea, essentially, is this: If a drug can inhibit these enzymes, the virus could stop replicating in cells and would no longer be able to spread in the body.

Cisneros and his team applied for a grant from the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, and just three days later, were awarded 500,000 hours of supercomputer time at national labs and $250,000 in credit to run simulations on Microsoft’s Azure. So far, Cisneros says, the results have been “very interesting.” Right off the bat, they were able to deem two of the six inhibitors under review as ineffective and have developed a model for the RNA polymerase.

Still, much like the various vaccines that are currently being tested, Cisneros knows it’s a numbers game — granting institutions are providing scientists with access to as many resources as possible to see who comes up with the best ideas. That urgency makes it essential to change course when necessary.

“As a researcher, it’s fundamental to know how to expand your research program,” he says. “You have to analyze your results and let them guide you in which way to go next.”

Andrés Cisneros, a professor in UNT’s Department of Chemistry, in 2016.

He and his team are performing computer simulations to investigate inhibitor mechanisms that could aid in the treatment of COVID-19.

3D print the face mask and nose plugs created by Jiang’s team. northtexan.unt.edu/2020-vision

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EN

The UNT CoLab, located at 207 N. Elm St. in Denton, will serve as a learning lab for College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism students and offer programming such as lectures, chef demonstrations, and art exhibits and installations featuring the work of students and other creatives — including UNT alumni. Read more about the innovative space at northtexan.unt.edu/unt-colab.

E AG L ES ’ N E S T

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EN • CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

CLASS NOTES keep up with the latest developments in the UNT family and tell your peers what you’ve been up to since leaving the ne . Send your news to the North Texan (see conta information on page 7).

1968 RANDY J. ‘R.J.’ PAYNE,

1976 DOUGLAS WALTER,

Spokane, Washington, retired after 47 years of federal government service.

He first served as an administrative judge and then as a regional director/ chief administrative judge for many years with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board in Chicago and then Atlanta. The last 25 years of government service was spent as a U.S. Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings Operations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Spokane, Washington.

He received his law degree from the University of Houston in 1971.

Boulder, Colorado, wrote No Left Hand Behind! (VapMedia), an instruction manual for developing the left hand at the marimba. His article on innovative techniques “Introducing the Walter Grip” was published by the Percussive Arts Society in February. He directs the percussion and jazz vibes programs in the College of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder. He retired from touring with the Westminster Brass and the Colorado Ballet. In 2018, he earned a bachelor’s degree in French literature and western civilization from the University of Colorado.

1974 STEPHEN J. TOWN (’77

1980 LARRY LANDIS, Corvallis,

M.M.), Maryville, Missouri, has published his second scholarly volume, The Choral-Orchestral Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams: Autographs, Context, Discourse (Lexington Books). His first volume, An Imperishable Heritage: British Choral Music from Parry to Dyson (Ashgate), was published in 2012. Both are based on archival research conducted at the British Library, Cambridge University and Oxford University. A Visiting Research Fellowship recipient of Clare Hall in Cambridge in 2014, Town was awarded a life membership there. He is a professor of music at Northwest Missouri State University, where he joined the faculty in 1986.

Oregon, retired as director of the Special Collections and Archives Research Center at Oregon State University. He held the position since 1991, and also served as assistant university archivist and university archivist. He is the author of A School for the People: A Photographic History of Oregon State University (Oregon State University Press). Prior to coming to OSU, he worked for nearly seven years as the photographs archivist for what is now the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. While at UNT, he was a member of the NT Marching Band and Phi Alpha Theta.

CAPITAL GAINS Back in the late 2000s, Christina Finch (’10 M.S.) took a job in CNN’s souvenir shop. The Atlanta native had recently graduated with a bachelor’s in communication from the University of West Georgia, and like many young degree holders, found herself in search of a true calling. She never expected the calling to find her, but that’s exactly what it did, strolling into the store one day in the unassuming form of a CNN librarian.

Finch was intrigued.

“She let me shadow her, and I liked what they were doing in terms of research,” Finch says.

Finch went on to earn her master’s from UNT’s College of Information, with a specialization in digital content management. Now, she’s a senior congressional research librarian at the Library of Congress.

“You definitely have to have a lot of different skill sets when it comes to research and negotiating timelines,” Finch says.

Read Finch’s full story. northtexan.unt.edu/capital-gains

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CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

alumni profile

embrace the journey

as a fashion design undergrad at UNT, Marina Girgis (’18) was known for her versatility. Her senior colle ion centered around change and adaptability — the unisex line featured 3D-printed buckles that adju ed to allow the garments to conform to any size and shape.

“You might be noticing a trend,” she laughs.

The New York City-based Girgis loves to chat about her penchant for change — from clothing to careers to countrysides — a characteristic that formed when she and her family moved from Egypt to Kuwait and then back again while she was growing up. In Kuwait, she attended a British school, and then enrolled in the American University in Cairo upon her return to Egypt.

“You know, I never felt like I was just Egyptian,” says Girgis, who in her early 20s moved

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with her family to Texas during the Egyptian Revolution. “I was absorbing all of these other cultures around me, and I think that really shaped who I am now.”

And who is she exactly? A consummate traveler, for one. Following her graduation from UNT, Girgis bought a one-way ticket to Central America and spent three months trekking through its breathtaking vistas. Before that trip, she solo backpacked through Asia, then later through South America.

Girgis also is an Instagram influencer, makeup artist, content creator, self-described warrior in the face of adversity, dreamer, artist. And with the launch of her website Livin’ Vivaciously, she’s added brand strategist to the list.

The site, which has become her full-time focus during the pandemic, is a platform for women of color to learn about making money on social media through branding and design strategy. Girgis also offers tips for women who wish to travel solo.

“Vivacious is a word that is typically used to describe women who are full of life, and I love that,” Girgis says. “The site is all about living with fearlessness and intention and joy, so much so that it becomes contagious.”

That spirit is evident in Girgis’ own Instagram account, which led businesses to reach out to her to pitch products. She teaches her clients how to better build their own brands on social media, advising them to tap into their personal stories via one-on-one coaching.

She also creates branding kits and social media templates for women-owned small businesses and is developing a webinar and a retreat for content creators in 2021.

“Our own personal history plays a big role in the message we communicate to people about our brand,” Girgis says. “The site originally started as a travel blog but then I pivoted a bit to become a resource for women who want to work online and monetize their businesses — and who want more freedom.”

— Erin Cristales

EN • CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

1982 RUSTY WILKERSON, Gainesville, owns franchises in Denton and San Antonio for BioSweep Services, which cleans out contaminants and odors. He also is the company’s director of client training and business development. Wilkerson was an insurance adjuster for 20 years.

At UNT, he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi.

1984 CHARLIE C. HAYNES JR., (’85 M.Ed.), Slaton, was elected to the City Commission in his hometown of Slaton. He has worked as a teacher and educational consultant, and he runs a nonprofit organization that serves needy families.

1988 GREG MILLSPAUGH SAX, Waco, was elected to the 2020 Texas Radio Hall of Fame. His career spans four decades, beginning at KNTU in 1986 — where he hosted “Jazz and More” — and then to KEGL in Dallas, KPLX in Dallas, and WACO in Waco.

He also worked as an executive for Atlantic, Virgin RCA, Show Dog and Big Machine record labels.

1993 ESTHER DAVIS, Arlington, earned her designation as an Enrolled Agent from the IRS in April. With her marketing degree, she worked in administration, human resources and logistics at the corporate level, then established Davis Virtual Resources in 2001, where she focuses on small businesses.

1996 KEVIN LONG, Murphy, in 2010 founded Orchard at the Office, a Richardson-based business that delivers fresh produce, healthy snacks, fresh-baked bread, pies and quiche,

and has expanded delivery to homes, apartments and dorms across the Metroplex since the pandemic. His wife, Amy, attended UNT from 1989 to 1990 and their oldest son, Jackson, is a junior psychology major.

1998 JEREMY BRADSTREET (M.M.), Dublin, Ohio, has created a website, Virtual Ensemble Initiative, for free sheet music and performance videos for music educators to give to their students so that they can work on fundamentals at home. Jeremy is band director of Dublin Coffman High School in Dublin, Ohio. He was a finalist for the Recording Academy and Grammy Foundation’s “Music Educator of the Year” Award.

2001

TINA JEZEK, Denton, was named the National Catholic Educational Association 2020 Lead, Learn, Proclaim Award winner. She is an art teacher at Immaculate Conception Catholic School. In 2010, she was hired and serves as a one-act play director, special projects director and the overseer of the school’s gardening programs. The school’s garden was a finalist for the national Innovations in Catholic Education Award from Today’s Catholic Teacher.

2001

JAMIE WILSON, (’03 M.S., ’11 Ph.D.), Denton, superintendent of Denton ISD since 2012, was named the Region 11 Superintendent of the Year for 2020 — which honors outstanding Texas administrators for their achievements in public school administration — by the Texas Association of School Administrators.

In 2015, the University Council for Educational Administration gave him the 2015 Excellence in Educational

LIFELONG LOVE OF THERAPY Laura Roberts (’94 Ph.D.) grew up reading books that belonged to her mother, a marriage and family therapist, and fell in love with psychology.

She decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps, ultimately becoming a psychologist specializing in eating disorders.

“Being a psychologist is a perfect fit for my personality, and I like the idea of giving back,” says Roberts, who owns a private practice in Dallas.

Roberts, who received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from UNT, worked closely with Bert Hayslip, Regents Professor of psychology, who was her dissertation advisor.

“UNT prepared me to be a scientist-practitioner. I use the science of psychology and treatment approaches to provide evidence-based therapy,” Roberts says. “These science-based aspects of training have helped me become a better practitioner.”

Read Roberts’ full story. northtexan.unt.edu/lifelong-love

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CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

Leadership Award. He began his 28year career as a teacher and coach and worked his way up to science department chair, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent for secondary academic programs before becoming superintendent.

alumni profile

learn your strengths FOR LYDIA EVANS (’07, ’15 M.S.), HELPING UNT’S NEURODIVERGENT STUDENTS navigate life during and after college is like closing a loop in her own journey.

“Thinking back to when I returned to campus as a student after being sick, all I wanted to do — even in the infancy of understanding my disability — was live an ordinary life,” Evans says. “If I can give that to somebody else, or even be a small piece of that journey for them, that is awesome.”

As program coordinator for UNT ENGAGE, Evans helps neurodivergent students — those with conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia — develop the skills they need to succeed in college and turn their degrees into careers. In addition to fulfilling her lifelong passion for human rights, the position also allows her to share lessons from her own journey of self-advocacy, which began when she lost both legs to bacterial meningitis during her sophomore year at UNT. “I was really stubborn,” she says. “I didn’t have anybody to teach me about disability and my rights and how to speak up. I had to stumble through a lot of that myself.”

Although Evans didn’t have a roadmap for recovery, she did have people who guided and supported her along the way. One was her prosthetist assistant at the hospital, an amputee as well. She was living proof that the ordinary life Evans had always wanted was still within reach.

“She had a wedding ring on. She was talking to me about her own journey and she said, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll be up and walking again. I carried two babies, and I walked them out of the delivery room.’ I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. She’s beautiful, she’s employed — and a wife and a mom. It can be done.’”

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2005 ANDREW LANG (’08 M.A.),

Evans often discloses her own journey to students to show them that they don’t have to lower their expectations.

“I don’t have autism, but I want to show my students who do that they can pursue their dreams,” she says. “Much of their life has been focused on what they can’t do. My goal is to give them an opportunity to learn their strengths, to see that they can determine what their life will look like.”

Although less than a year old, UNT ENGAGE is already gaining support from all over campus.

It’s an incredible feeling for Evans, who worked for years in transition services for the State of Texas and Lake Worth ISD after completing her master’s in rehabilitation counseling at UNT. “In school districts, you’re often the lone voice championing the importance of transition services for students with disabilities,” she says. “It can be daunting. With ENGAGE, we’re already taking it so much further than we’d hoped.”

Evans is inspired by UNT’s commitment to being a change-leader in the inclusion and support of neurodivergent students.

“We are the first university in the metroplex to have this kind of programming,” she says.

“I’m proud to represent UNT when I go out to transition fairs, talking to parents about all the things we’re doing here and knowing that we’re just getting started.”

— Amanda Fuller

Starkville, Mississippi, wrote the book, A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era, which examines how the intellectual, political and social ramifications of the war affected America’s standing in the world and its own citizens. The book will be published in January. Lang is associate professor of history at Mississippi State University.

2006

BRITNEY E. HARRISON, Dallas, was elected president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association.

Britney also serves on the advisory committee of the new Permanency Court in Dallas and volunteers with Promise House in Dallas. An associate with GoransonBain Ausley, a family law firm, she specializes in custody cases, complex property issues and divorces involving same-sex couples.

2009 JEFF BRASHER, Corinth, won the People’s Choice Award in Moose Roofing’s jingle competition.

Jeff has entered more than 25 jingle contests, including the Folger’s jingle contest in 2017 (taking fourth place out of 800 entries) — and winning such items as a one-year supply of Johnsonville brats, a trip to Nashville to meet country singer Chris Young and other merchandise. He studied marketing at UNT and works for Cinemark Headquarters.

EN • CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

Mean Green Pride 3

2

1

1 COMPUTER ENGINEERING

5

She is principal of Huffines Middle School in Lewisville and the mother of Teresa Rupard (’17) and Gabrielle Rupard (’18) and is married to Alan Rupard (’00).

grads Madhuri Ponnam (’16) and Ramachandra Bommineni (’16) met in class, so it was appropriate they shot their engagement photos on campus.

They got married in March in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The campus “is the place where our journey started and where we have a lot of beautiful memories,” Ponnam says. “UNT always holds a special place in our heart.”

3 LEE HUGHES (’87, ’94 M.S., ’98

2

4 HARRISON CRAIN (’12) built

ESTELLA RUPARD (’99) showed off her Mean Green pride while on vacation in Okaloosa Island, Florida, in June.

4

Ph.D.), associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, bleeds so green that even his face mask and game room can’t escape it.

mom is Suzy Crain (’83, ’87 M.S.) and his sister is Meredith Crain (’16). He is married to Sadee Morgan Crain (’12).

5

MICHELLE BRADLEY (’08, ’12 M.Ed.) started watercolor painting “as my ‘try something new’ quarantine hobby” and paid tribute to the Hurley Administration Building.

this wooden flag with the help and guidance of his father, Shelby. His

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Read a Q&A to learn more about Garza’s life and career and watch a video. northtexan.unt.edu/bob-garza

GUIDING VOICE BUSINESS ALUMNUS BOB GARZA (’74) PAYS HIS EXPERIENCE FORWARD BY SHAPING A SUPPORT PROGRAM TO HELP LATINX STUDENTS THRIVE ON CAMPUS. TEXT BY HEATHER NOEL

ROBERTO ‘BOB’ GARZA (’74) NEVER DREAMED OF GOING TO COLLEGE AS A KID. Frankly, he knew his family could not afford it.

Many of his family members did not finish high school, so college was a long shot, and working for a major corporation didn’t seem possible, either.

Despite those odds, Garza did earn his high school diploma. Shortly after, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. He hoped his four years of service to his country would help him land more promising career options. When he returned to civilian life, Garza began taking computer programming classes at a technical school in Corpus Christi.

“Out of 22 students, I was the only one who graduated,” Garza says. “My instructor said, ‘You really have a good aptitude for logic and programming. But, you need to go get a degree.’”

That motivation led Garza to UNT, where he enrolled in the university’s budding business computer information systems program, which at the time was under the business administration department in what is now the G. Brint Ryan College of Business.

Eventually, he transitioned into full-time work at UNT’s data center, which gave him hands-on experience programming an IBM 360-50, the same IBM system he would later be charged with running at Southwestern Bell, the precursor to AT&T. “I often tell folks when we’re talking about my career that UNT was a lifesaver. It allowed me the opportunity to work and go to school at the same time and prepared me to go into work at a major corporation,” says Garza, who worked at AT&T for 36 years before retiring as the company’s governmental relations director in external affairs in 2011.

Garza’s life after AT&T hasn’t slowed down much.

He has remained deeply involved in the community.

Just a month after his retirement, he was elected to the Carrollton City Council and served nearly six years before moving back to Denton in 2017.

Garza and his wife, Emily, who was a staff member in the physics department in the ’70s, are members of the UNT Alumni Association and avid

supporters of the G. Brint Ryan College of Business and UNT Athletics. Last fall, Garza was honored with the UNT Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alumni Service Award for his exceptional volunteer service to UNT and the community.

“Now retired, I have gotten involved at UNT and volunteered my services because I want to show my gratitude and appreciation for what UNT has done for me,” Garza says.

Oftentimes we lose a lot of these udents because of unexpe ed circum ances.

We want to help mitigate those ob acles that could prevent them from enrolling or aying at UNT. As a newly designated Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution, UNT is now eligible to receive additional federal funds to support and expand programs for Hispanic students. Garza is taking an active role in helping the university to better recruit, retain and build leadership among UNT’s Hispanic student population. He is partnering with the UNT administration and the Multicultural Center on a new initiative that will build a support system for low-income Latinx students, especially those who are first-generation college students like Garza.

“Oftentimes we lose a lot of these students because of unexpected circumstances,” Garza says. “We want to help mitigate those obstacles that could prevent them from enrolling or staying at UNT.” Plans are still in the works, but Garza is seeking Latinx alumni who can serve as mentors to students and hopes to eventually engage alumni in all major cities to help in recruiting. An advisory council made up of representatives from divisions across the university also has been formed.

“We want to make students feel like it’s the university that will welcome them,” Garza says, “and make them feel like they belong.”

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GIVING IMPACT

SETTING STUDENTS UP FOR SUCCESS When Ivy Knight sat down at last fall’s UNT Alumni Scholarship Recipient Dinner, she wasn’t expecting an alumnus to teach her how to set up a LinkedIn profile — but that’s just the sort of thing that happens when you are part of the UNT Alumni Scholarship Program.

The program’s primary purpose is to award scholarship money to deserving students, but the people behind it also are on a mission to provide additional resources that help students develop valuable skills.

“We’re working hard to grow this program and are not satisfied with traditional, transactional scholarships,” says Emily Klement (’92, ’94 M.Ed., ’12 Ed.D.), immediate past chair of the UNT Alumni Association Board of Directors.

“We want to make our recipients feel like they have won the jackpot as we set them up for success.”

The youngest of five children, Knight is grateful to the donors who helped make her UNT education — something this daughter of alumna Barbara Cowart Knight (’84) started dreaming about in middle school — a possibility. Beyond that, she appreciates the program’s emphasis on guiding recipients through the college experience.

“I’ve been given so many chances to grow and learn,” Knight says. “And now I have a whole network of UNT alumni who are willing to mentor me and will be eager to help me find career opportunities once I graduate.”

Recipients of the program’s eight — soon to be 11 — scholarships attend networking events and make connections with alumni who share their interests. And as long as students remain eligible, they can continue receiving the scholarship year after year until they graduate.

Recipients discovering the importance of philanthropy is a nice bonus.

“We want our scholarship students to understand that there’s a lot more to giving than just dollars,” says David Wolf (’04 Ph.D.), vice president for University Advancement.

“And we hope donors see that, in this program, a little goes a long way in helping our students find lifelong success.”

Grassroots Giving The Collin County Alumni Chapter has taken that concept to heart. Two years ago, the group set a goal to fund an

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endowed scholarship through the UNT Alumni Association Scholarship Program — $20 at a time.

The Collin County 200 campaign, spearheaded by chapter president Dave Gorman (’93), aims to have 1% of the 20,000 UNT alumni living in Collin County commit to giving $20 per month to grow the endowment over time. Just two years into the campaign, the chapter has already raised enough money to award its first scholarship and is actively fundraising for the future.

The initiative is a perfect fit for the business-centric alumni chapter, but it’s not all about math for Gorman. It’s not even all about scholarship money.

“It may be easier to go out and get a few big checks and then your fundraising is done,” Gorman says. “But then you miss a lot of opportunities to make connections. One of our goals is to bring alumni back to the scene who may not have stayed involved. That’s how we grow and improve.”

Paying It Forward Sharon McGowan (’85) can relate.

The alumna has always been grateful for her time at UNT, but admits that she used to avoid telephone calls from 940 area codes — just in case someone from the university was asking for donations.

Now part of the team providing the inaugural funding for the new Dallas County Alumni Association Chapter Endowed Scholarship, McGowan sees things differently.

“I hope young alumni won’t be like I was. Great things are happening every day at UNT, and we should be part of that continued success,” McGowan says. “I give partially because of the past — what the university has done for me and helped me become. But I primarily give for the future.”

These days, McGowan aims to help students in her county by eliminating some of the expenses that might impede access to a great education.

“I believe that every person, regardless of their ethnic, cultural or social background, should have the chance to be their best self,” she says.

Leaving a Legacy It’s a sentiment shared by many, including Angela Jones (’91), vice president of UNT’s Black Alumni Network and a mentor to a number of student leaders at UNT. “I think about all of the people whose shoulders we stood on to get where we are today, and know that we need to do the same thing for the generation coming up,” Jones says.

EN • GIVING IMPACT

“I think about all of the people whose shoulders we ood on to get where we are today, and know that we need to do the same thing for the generation coming up.”

The new Black Alumni Network (BAN) Endowed Scholarship is a way to do just that.

A believer in the power of collaboration, Jones pulled together a small committee and worked with former BAN president Casey Thomas (’94) and current president Gilbert Gerst (’85) to create the endowment through the UNT Alumni Association Scholarship Program.

“I know that if we all come together and use the power of the alumni who’ve been here, we will do some great things and make some really significant strides for our students and the university,” Jones says.

A Bright Future The UNT Alumni Association Scholarship Program is steadily expanding thanks to endowments from chapters, individuals and partners like Jostens — a company that has worked with UNT for more than 40 years to engage students in campus traditions, encourage alumni engagement and support the educational journey of the Jostens scholarship recipients.

As the scholarship program continues to grow, donors will be able to choose more targeted areas to support,

— Angela Jones (’91), vice president of UNT’s Black Alumni Network

connect with recipients and see firsthand the difference they’re making.

“Receiving this scholarship has given me a deeper sense of pride and belonging at UNT, because I see how much former students have been impacted by the school — how much they love it and how they’re still involved,” scholarship recipient Knight says. “It makes me feel like I’m a part of something bigger.”

— Amanda Yanowski From left UNT students Brendon Baskeyfield, Carol Ventura, Chloe Hewitt, Ivy Knight, Christabella Escandon and Samsudeen Iyamah at last fall’s UNT Alumni Scholarship Recipient Dinner.

An investment in UNT students is an investment in the future of the UNT Alumni Association. Visit untalumni.com/scholarships to give today.

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RETROSPECTIVE

looking back — and moving forward

thirteen decades ago, on sept. 16, 1890, joshua c. chilton established the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute in a little prairie town known as Denton. The school’s opening was modest — 70 students attended classes in a rented space above a hardware store nestled among other small businesses on the downtown Square. “It will be our aim,” Chilton said at the time, “to become leaders in the education of the young men and women of Texas, fitting them to creditably fill the most important positions in business and professional circles.”

So that’s where we started. But where are we now — and where are we headed?

For UNT, “130” isn’t a number — it’s a legacy. From those humble beginnings, we’ve expanded in both size and reputation, with our forward-looking approach to academics and innovation gaining us recognition at the state, national and global levels.

Learn more about UNT’s history at traditions.unt.edu, and listen to episode 14 of UNT Pod that looks at the most unusual items in UNT’s Special Collections at northtexan.unt.edu/ podcasts.

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GROWTH IN ENROLLMENT AND OPPORTUNITY That dedication to innovation has only grown more crucial as the university community has ballooned over the years from 70 to more than 40,000 students who hail from 141 countries. Nearly 70 years after UNT enrolled its first African American students, the university continues to meet the criteria of being designated a Minority-Serving Institution, and this year, UNT was designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

On June 2, 1919, UNT conferred its first four-year bachelor’s degrees to five graduates. This year, more than 10,000 students earned their degrees — going on to become part of UNT’s current network of 448,000 alumni — and just as in 1919, many students found themselves concluding their college careers in the midst of a pandemic.

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EN • RETROSPECTIVE

DEGREES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE Though it started as a teacher’s college, UNT began to establish its reputation in other areas as early as the 1920s, when the beloved ’Fessor Floyd Graham presented the first Saturday Night Stage Shows, a tradition that continued into the 1960s and helped spread the fame of the university’s music program.

By 1935, the first graduate work was offered in the sciences, education, economics and liberal arts, and the first doctoral degree was awarded in 1953 to Harold Hitt, who earned a Doctor of Education in administrative leadership.

Now, UNT is a leader in 230 degree programs— with 89 ranked among the nation’s top 100 — and offers classes on its Denton and Frisco campuses, as well as online.

Additionally, the university has partnered with top local companies — including the Dallas Cowboys, Toyota and others — to provide students with hands-on experiences in their desired fields.

REAL-WORLD RESEARCH The first funded faculty research began in 1935 with the work of J.K.G. Silvey, who researched the microorganisms responsible for changes in the taste and odor of city water supplies. In the years since, UNT’s commitment to interdisciplinary research endeavors has led to its status as a Tier One research university, making it one of only 131 universities to earn that elite designation. Last year, the Texas Legislature awarded UNT’s Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing $10 million.

WHAT’S AHEAD? The university has doubled down on its continued commitment to the expansion of opportunities in such realms as academics, research, athletics and social engagement, which includes advancing diversity and inclusion on campus. To accomplish all of that means we have to do what we’ve always done — and heed the words uttered by Chilton 130 years ago.

“Let’s be extraordinary,” UNT President Neal Smatresk says, “in rising together to help our students thrive.”

Far left Graduates line up on campus in the 1920s.

Top left Students pictured in a chemistry class in 1900.

Top right In 1956, UNT began integrating campus at the undergraduate level, including athletics programs.

Bottom right Classes began Sept. 16, 1890, with about 70 students over a hardware store on the Denton town square (the building is pictured in the 1930s).

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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

unt alumni, faculty, staff and students are the university’s greate legacy. When members of the Eagle family pass, they are remembered and their spirit lives on. Send information about deaths to the North Texan (see conta information on page 7).

1940s INEZ N. BURKHOLDER (’41), Dallas.

She taught English at Paradise and Rockwall schools and then worked as a bookkeeper at Teledyne/Geotech in Garland until her retirement in 1979.

She went on to earn her master’s degree in liberal arts from Southern Methodist University. She volunteered for Literacy Volunteers of America and the Dallas Arboretum. She was 99 years old. She is survived by her son, B. Vaughn Burkholder (’69, ’72 M.A., ’94 M.S.).

CHRIS XEROS (’49, ’53), Dallas.

He attended the Juilliard School of Music to study violin, then served in the United States Army during the Korean War. After his service, he attended and graduated from UNT, then taught music in Dallas ISD for 36 years. Chris founded the Richardson Symphony Orchestra in 1961 and was its conductor until 1992. He served as director of the Allen Philharmonic, which he helped establish, for nine years. He was a member of the Kendall Society and established the Chris Xeros Scholarship and The Chris Xeros Music Support Endowment Fund.

1950s VIRGINIA WEST (’52), Vienna, West Virginia. A home economics major, she was a full-time mother, cook and seamstress. She and her husband, Norman West (’53), established the Virginia H. West and Norman E. West

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Chemistry Scholarship at UNT in 2013.

They were members of the Chilton Society.

FLOYD PATRICK KELLEY (’53), Spring.

He attended North Texas on a full basketball scholarship, becoming a three-year All-Conference player for UNT and inducted as a member of the UNT Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. He also was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity and met his wife, Mary Beth Long (’53), whom he married in 1953, at North Texas.

Upon graduating, Patrick served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a 1st lieutenant platoon leader for two years, then returned home to work in insurance for 32 years. After retirement, he became a licensed minister for 21 years.

CHARLES MASON GREWELL (’57), Odessa. He served in the U.S. Army Infantry Division for two years and the Texas National Guard for six years.

While at UNT, he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and also met his wife, the late Helen DeWitt (’58). Charlie and Helen began their own real estate company, Grewell Real Estate in Odessa, and Charlie kept his broker’s license until the day he died.

JAMES ‘PETE’ KING (’58), Dallas. He graduated from Irving High School as valedictorian, then played basketball on a scholarship for North Texas, where he got to play against future NBA legend Oscar Robertson. In 1962, he graduated with a D.D.S. degree from Baylor College of Dentistry. Pete then joined

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the U.S. Army and retired in 1964 with the rank of captain. He started a practice in dentistry in Irving and became a member of the American Dental Association, the Rotary Club of Irving and his church.

1960s EMMETT REESE BAKER (’61, ’63 M.Ed.), Denton. He had a 35-year career in Ponder ISD, going from teacher to superintendent before becoming an adjunct professor at UNT in 1996.

He recruited and trained teachers for I-Teach Texas. As a basketball player at North Texas, his favorite memory was playing against future NBA legend Oscar Robertson.

SAM GODFREY (’61), San Antonio. At North Texas, he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. As a junior, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Berlin Crisis — and sat beside Elvis Presley while they got their hair cut. After he returned to college and graduated, he taught at Hillcrest High School in Dallas. He earned his master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, then became the first director of community affairs for the Texas Tourist Development Agency. In the 1970s, Sam founded Chaparral Travel in San Antonio, an airport limousine service, and he was co-owner of the San Antonio Spurs.

He also was director of operations and finance for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.

CHARLES MITCHELL SR. (’61), Denton.

He was a member of the UNT System Board of Regents and a founding member

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of the Diamond Eagles Society and the President’s Council, often supporting UNT Athletics and the Alumni Association. He was an orthopedic surgery specialist who taught at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and served on its admission committee. He earned his degrees from Howard University College of Medicine and the UT Southwestern Medical Center.

BARBARA ANN MATHIS TARBUTTON (’61, ’90 Ph.D.), Brookhaven, Mississippi. She taught voice at high schools, colleges and universities in Texas, Alaska, Florida and Mississippi, then for 22 years at Lamar University in Beaumont before she retired. She spoke at many colleges in the U.S. and Europe about vocal cord pathology, a subject in which she was considered an expert. The soprano sang The StarSpangled Banner for President Lyndon B. Johnson and performed in renowned places such as Carnegie Hall and The Vienna Opera House.

BILL WISENER (’66), Dallas. He ran Bill’s Record Shop for five decades.

The store first began as a few booths in a flea market in the 1970s, then eventually became a full-fledged shop at several locations in Dallas through the years. At one time, thousands of vinyl records and music paraphernalia covered an 8,000-square-foot space and attracted such customers as Ben Harper and Radiohead.

JOHN D. MARTIN (’67 Ed.D.), Clarksville, Tennessee. He taught psychology at Austin Peay State University for more than 30 years, as well as served as a marriage and family therapist. The week before his death, his book, Streams of Tears — The Heartache of Divorce, was published. He also held degrees from Tennessee Temple Bible College, Tennessee Temple University and Baylor University. Survivors include his daughter, Melanie A. Martin (’82).

1970s

DENIS MILLER (’75 Ph.D.), Fort Pierce, Florida. He had a distinguished career as a senior research chemist for Phillips Petroleum Co., Exxon Corp., Baseline Resolution and Avon Corp., among others. He studied under James Marshall.

He enjoyed sailing, windsurfing and geology.

2010s LYLE MAYS, Los Angeles. As a student in the 1970s, he composed and arranged the music for the One O’Clock Lab Band’s album Lab ’75, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He was nominated for 23 Grammys over his career — winning 11 as a member of the Pat Metheny Group, known for its jazz fusion music, and receiving a nomination for his first solo album.

Besides releasing five solo albums, he co-composed the music for the movie The Falcon and the Snowman. He also performed with Joni Mitchell and the group Earth, Wind & Fire. In 2009, he returned to UNT to give a master class and perform in concert as part of the Glenn E. Gomez International Artists Endowment for Jazz Studies. A native of Wisconsin, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame.

FRANCES LOUISE WILLIAMS MARTIN (’71), Anson. She was a registered medical technologist for 37 years, conducting tests and seminars all over the world. She met her husband, Tom Martin (’62), in summer school at North Texas. After briefly dropping out, she returned to school — commuting by bus from Dallas to Denton. The couple, who were married for 56 years, ran a farm and ranch after they both retired.

NATHAN BEATY, San Antonio. A lifelong musician, he was enrolled in UNT’s doctoral music program, studying under John Scott. He not only played the clarinet, but he made customized clarinet mouthpieces. He received his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University and his master’s degree from McGill University.

JORDAN T. JOHNSON, Arlington.

He was a senior media arts major in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

JACK SCHERER, Denton. He was a doctoral student in chemistry in the College of Science, where he also worked as a teaching assistant and a tutor in the Chemistry Resource Center. He received his bachelor’s degree from La Roche University. He enjoyed sports, being outdoors and spending time with his family.

HENRY SETTON, Denton. He was a violin performance major in the College of Music. He previously attended the University of Kansas. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, he played the violin since the age of 10 after seeing himself play the instrument in a dream. He was studying with Julia Bushkova.

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University Community MILES ANDERSON (’49, ’50 M.S.), 93, of Denton, Professor Emeritus of physics who worked at UNT for four decades and served as vice president for academic affairs in the 1970s, died March 16 in Denton. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and helped with the top-secret project called RADAR. He earned two degrees from UNT, then earned his doctorate from Stanford University before returning to Denton. He worked at UNT starting in 1954 and retired in 1992.

An avid musician, he taught musical acoustics in addition to other physics courses. He and his wife, Harlene (’48), were lifetime members of the UNT Alumni Association.

MARILYN BRUSILOW, 94, of Dallas, a longtime supporter of UNT, died March 13. She was a member of the President’s Council alongside her husband, the late Anshel Brusilow, a former orchestral professor and conductor.

MARC CUTRIGHT, 67, Professor Emeritus of education who worked at UNT from 2007 to 2017 and served as director of the Higher Education Development Initiative, died May 28 in Kampala, Uganda. His academic studies focused on the advancement of higher education in east Africa.

Marc earned a bachelor’s degree from Lindenwood College, a master’s from North Georgia College and State University, and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee. He was also a Fulbright scholar to Canada and Uganda. He was one of UNT’s first faculty members to live in a residence hall as part of the faculty-in-residence program.

VIRGINIA DICK (’57, ’64 M.A.), 83, of Bridgeport, an adjunct professor of

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hospitality management from 2000 to 2007, died Feb. 23 in Denton. She received her doctorate in home economics from Oklahoma State University, then taught at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Texas Woman’s University and UNT. She was a published author of educational materials and a consultant to nursing homes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

CHARLES ‘CHARLEY’ FAIRALL, 79, who served as a media technical manager for UNT in the early 2000s, died May 16 in Corinth. He served in the Marine Corps for 20 years, attaining the rank of master sergeant, then earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and worked at Texas Instruments and Nortel.

JIMMY GALES, 79, who led North Texas basketball to its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1987-88 while he was the head coach of the basketball team, died June 3. During his tenure as head coach from 1986 to 1993, he led the team to two Southland Conference regular-season championships. He began working at North Texas in 1975 as an assistant coach, and he worked at North Texas for a total of 15 years. He earned a master’s degree in public school administration and worked as an assistant principal in Dallas ISD after his years of coaching.

He was a UNT Athletics Hall of Fame 2009 inductee.

JACK R. HAYNES (’57, ’58 M.A.), 87, of Denton, Professor Emeritus of psychology who worked at UNT from 1963 to 2001, died Feb. 2. In 1995, he was part of the committee that founded The Merl Bonney Endowed Fund in Psychology. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, and earned his degrees from Texas Christian University. Survivors include his daughter, Kyla Welch (’90).

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RITA HUBER, 84, of Denton, who served as a secretary in the biochemistry program at UNT for more than 20 years, died Feb. 5 in Denton. She raised her four children while her husband, Charles “Chuck” Huber, was deployed in the U.S. Air Force, then they moved to Denton in 1976 to begin new careers.

BETTIE ANN HUGGINS (’49), 92, of Denton, who worked at UNT Libraries for 40 years, died March 19 in Lewisville. After graduation, she worked as a multi-school librarian for Lamar County schools from 1949 to 1957, then worked at UNT Libraries until her retirement in 1988.

RAY W. JOHNSON II, 90, of Denton, who oversaw the counseling psychology program when it was accredited in 1978, died Jan. 8 in Denton. He worked at North Texas from 1965 to 1999. He received his bachelor’s degree from Central Missouri State College, and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Missouri. Memorials may be made to the Ray W. Johnson Counseling Psychology Scholarship Fund.

EDITH LINDLEY (’42), 98, of Denton, who taught home economics at North Texas for more than 30 years, died Jan. 25. After graduation, she taught home economics at Hobbs and Sanger ISDs. In 1949, she began teaching at North Texas and returned in 1963 after a stint working at Texas A&M University.

She retired in 1982. She climbed the Great Wall of China at 85. She and her widow friends never missed a UNT football or basketball game.

WILLIAM MORRIS JR., 90, Professor Emeritus of business administration who served as an accounting professor at UNT for 30 years, died May 24 in Denton. He worked at UNT from

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1971 to 2001 and was a longtime donor to the Department of Accounting. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Hardin Simmons University, served in the U.S. Army for two years and then earned his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bill worked in Dallas for 10 years as a public accountant, then earned his doctorate at Michigan State University before working at UNT. BETHA ‘BETH’ LEE MILLER NANCE, 81, former assistant director of housing, died May 19 in Corinth. After leaving UNT after 30 years of service, she worked as an independent insurance broker until she retired at 78.

Survivors include her son Roy Nance, associate director of UNT’s Printing and Distribution Solutions.

chemistry degree from the University of Alabama and her Ph.D. in analytic chemistry from the University of Louisville. Before moving to Denton with her husband, Robert Pirtle, she worked in New York after having received a National Institutes of Health Fellowship from Brookhaven National Laboratories. At UNT, Irma and Robert operated a “Ma and Pa” research lab for 32 years, received many research grants, published scientific articles and presented at conferences. They also donated to UNT Libraries.

MOLLY PITCHER, Denton. She was an administrative assistant in the College of Science since 2012. In her free time, she was an artist, and received an honorable mention for her drawing in the On My Own Time exhibit.

CAPT. DAVID OWEN, 40, of Krum, who had worked for the UNT Police Department since 2005, died Feb. 11. He supervised Field Services and previously worked as a criminal investigator and patrol officer. He was a certified Texas Commission on Law Enforcement master peace officer and police instructor. He served on UNT’s Student Support Task Force, and earned a Police Commendation and Excellence in Public Service award.

Before he came to UNT, he worked for the Titus County Sheriff’s Office as a patrol deputy. He received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science from Midwestern State University and a graduate certificate in criminal justice education from the University of Virginia.

ROBERT ‘BOB’ REED, 88, of Crestview, Florida, who developed and directed the first undergraduate resident emergency administration program in the country while at UNT, died April 23. He worked at UNT’s Emergency Administration and Planning Institute from 1986 to 1996.

Before teaching at UNT, he was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force for 30 years, with more than 4,500 flying hours and 100 combat missions flying over North Vietnam in 1966. He was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and others. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Butler University and his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Kay, also gave donations to UNT through the years.

BLAKE PIERSON, 28, of Newark, a senior skilled crafts technician at UNT since 2017, died March 31 in Justin. In his free time, he enjoyed off-roading in his Jeep, fishing and spending time with his family.

BOB WADE, 76, of Austin, a former art professor known for his elaborate and large sculptures, died Dec. 24 in Austin. He worked at North Texas in the 1970s, but his work became so popular that he was able to work on his art full time. Nicknamed “DaddyO,” he specialized in making some of the world’s biggest objects, such as 40-feet tall cowboy boots at the North Star Mall in San Antonio and a 70-foot

IRMA PIRTLE, 78, who was a research assistant professor for the biology department at UNT, died May 3 in Huntsville, Alabama. She received her

saxophone at the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art in Houston. He also was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 1969 and 1973. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his master’s at the University of California at Berkeley.

HOYT FLOYD WATSON, 91, a Professor Emeritus of education who served at UNT for 28 years, died June 24 in Denton. He received his bachelor’s degree from Henderson State University, his master’s from the University of Texas at Austin and his doctorate from Florida State University. Hoyt served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War as a sergeant first class. He taught at UNT from 1970 to 1998 and worked as a consultant with the Office of Field Services until retiring in 2012. He and his wife, Beverly, were members of the President’s Council for their donations to UNT Athletics and other gifts. The Dr. Hoyt F. Watson Scholarship was set up in his name. Survivors include his daughter Margo (’84, ’88 M.Ed.), who worked in the registrar’s office.

JAMES WOOD, 82, of Decatur, died April 22 in Denton. He was a member of the President’s Council and donated generously to UNT. He served in the military after high school, and then a friend convinced him to get into the car business. He and his wife, Shirley Wood, owned several car dealerships throughout North Texas.

MEMORIALS Send memorials to honor UNT alumni and friends, made payable to the UNT Foundation, to University of North Texas, Division of University Advancement, 1155 Union Circle #311250, Denton, Texas 76203-5017.

Indicate on your check the fund or area you wish to support. Or make secure gifts online at one.unt.edu/ giving. For more information, email giving@unt.edu or call 940-565-2900.

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PERSPECTIVE

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liss lafleur, an assistant professor of studio art in UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design, has been selected as a 2020-2021 Citizen Artist Fellow by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — the first-ever Citizen Artist Fellow from Texas. Her immersive installation, “Don’t Worry Baby” (seen below), uses a looping serenade of the 1964 pop song by a figure projected on synthetic fringe to look at the relationship between technology, language and identity. View more of her cutting-edge work at her website, lisslafleur.com.

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Our fans #UNiTe across North Texas and beyond to support and cheer on their favorite teams, whether we’re winning a championship or we’re set back by COVID-19.

Their devotion and support is why the Mean Green Nation will continue to rise to new heights, no matter what.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, schedules and scores at MEANGREENSPORTS.COM

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