North Texan - UNT Magazine - Spring 2022

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

Vol. 73, No. 1 Spring 2022

We Haven’t Been Normal in Years 34 P

SNOWBALL EFFECT A cold blast in early February of snow and ice covered much of North Texas, leading to two days of canceled classes — and a whole lot of fun for those brave enough to venture out. A few students even took to the white-cloaked courtyard in front of Matthews Hall for an impromptu snowball fight.

— Photography by Ahna Hubnik

contents F E A T U R E S

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We Haven’t Been Normal in Years From local festivals to innovative businesses to arts and entertainment, Denton — named one of the nation’s best college towns — has long been awash in quirky charm, thanks in large part to UNT alumni who have been quick to put down roots. “If you’re doing something off the beaten path, we will accept you,” says Joey Liechty, a UNT alum who this year hosted Dentonpalooza, a love letter to the city’s wild and wacky sightings.

28 Miles to Go Texan of the Year and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Opal Lee (’63 M.Ed.) is the embodiment of tenacity, a woman whose tireless activism led to Juneteenth being designated a federal holiday.

D E P A R T M E N T S ON THE COVER Photo collage by Ciera Schibi

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

Historic Strength in Arts and Humanities Shapes Denton Culture

U P F I R S T P . 9

A Taste of UNT / Star Student Expert Take / Dogs of UNT I N N OVAT I O N P. 1 6

D I A LO G U E P. 5

Shining Stars / The Inn Crowd / Campus Memories / Tell Us About

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Tier One Once Again / Research Leader Innovative Space Funded / Spotlight

O N L I N E A STRONG BOND

30 Protecting the Environment In their commitment to ensuring a healthy, sustainable future for everyone, UNT researchers are creating solutions to combat climate change, biodiversity concerns and air pollution.

46 Delight The Texas Fashion Collection’s newest exhibition on display in UNT’s CVAD Gallery invites visitors to relish exquisite details that turn seemingly traditional pieces into breathtaking works of wearable art.

As UNT doctoral students, Xiaohu Xia (’03 Ph.D.) and Zhiling Zhang (’05 Ph.D.) unlocked the secret to success in science — and romance.

A MASHUP OF GOODNESS

Local business owner provides plantbased, dairy-free and gluten-free foods — many made by UNT alums — for the UNT community.

RESHAPING THE FUTURE

Robyn Brown (’05) has been named a 2021 Women Who STEAM Honoree by the Dallas chapter of The Links, a STEAM academy for young girls of color, for her work in mentoring young coders.

northtexan.unt.edu/online

EAGLES’ NEST M U S E P. 2 2

Labor of Care / Books / Living Life Off-Script / Big Dreams M E A N G R E E N P. 2 6

Hoop, There It Is / Alum’s Olympic Debut / 2022 Mean Green Football Schedule

C O N N E C T I N G W I T H F R I E N D S P. 4 8

Dream Blooms / Legacy Family Soup’s On / Mean Green Pride R E T R O S P E C T I V E P. 5 3

Movie shoot is a ‘necessary’ remembrance for UNT alumni

G I V I N G I M PAC T P. 5 4

$5 million gift will create new career center F R I E N D S W E ’ L L M I S S P. 5 6

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

Metalsmith uses functional objects to connect audiences to artwork

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FROM OUR PRESIDENT UNIVERSITY BRAND STRATEGY AND COMMUNICATIONS LEADERSHIP VICE PRESIDENT JIM BERSCHEIDT

UNIQUELY UN T

Historic Strength in Arts and Humanities Shapes Denton Culture, Tier One Prominence Spring has been busy with enrollment up 6% thanks to how we’ve enhanced scholarship opportunities and a 39% increase in master’s students choosing to study at UNT. We continue to rise as a public research university recently earning reaffirmation as a Tier One Research University in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education™ 2021 report. As one of only 141 universities nationwide classified as “Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity,” we’re among the most elite, top-tier institutions in the nation — something of which we are tremendously proud.

UNT’s long-held strengths in the arts and humanities were pivotal in helping us earn Tier One status in 2015, and in shaping the broader Denton community. As this issue’s cover story “We Haven’t Been Normal in Years” (page 34) chronicles, Denton is an extraordinary place many alumni don’t want to leave after earning their degrees. Our talented and caring Mean Green community makes significant contributions to the city’s cultural, technological, environmental and economic vibrancy.

This issue also highlights the innovative ways many alumni are achieving success in careers with their liberal arts and social sciences degrees (page 42), and how students, faculty and staff are working to combat the effects of climate change in areas such as water conservation, wildlife conservation and renewable energy engineering (page 30).

With continued progress on our new UNT at Frisco location (page 9) and growing partnerships in Collin County, UNT continues to cement its role as the University of North Texas.

UNT proud,

Neal Smatresk President president@unt.edu @UNTPrez

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT KELLEY REESE (’95) 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 ERICA BLOUNT JAN CLOUNTZ

DESIGNERS CLIFFTON CASTER CIERA SCHIBI PHOTOGRAPHERS MICHAEL CLEMENTS AHNA HUBNIK (’03) VIDEOGRAPHER CARLOS MARQUEZ WRITERS AMY BRUNDEEN AMANDA FULLER LEIGH ANNE GULLETT KAYLA LINDBERG (’11) TRISTA MOXLEY HEATHER NOEL MEREDITH MORIAK WRIGHT (’19 M.S.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MELISA BROWN (’93, ’20 M.S.) ROBYNE HENRY (’21) ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS JACOB KING ERIC VANDERGRIFF STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS SKY ALLEN JARED ATKINS BRITTNEY DEAR MAECI RAY CRISTINA SANDOVAL SARAH STEVENS DANIELLE ZACHARIAH

North Texan

North Texan magazine (ISSN 0468-6659) is published two times a year 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.

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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 ©2022 UNT UBSC 4/22 (22-228)

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DIALOGUE

Left Tami (’79, ’81 M.S.) and Chuck McIntire in a duplex they rented for $60 on Neff Street. It only had one air conditioning window unit, and Tami remembers keeping the windows open a lot, she loved hearing the jazz musician next door practicing his saxophone.

CAMPUS MEMORIES I enjoy reading the North Texan magazine as a former graduate. I am a middle school STEM teacher in Georgia and love to see the exciting innovation that UNT is leading for STEM. In my career, I’ve been on a weightless flight, worked with the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, and I am a NASA/SETI Airborne Astronomy Ambassador for Cycle 9.

My husband, Chuck, who attended NTSU’s graduate program for botany/ plant biology from 1976 to 1978, has worked as director of regional and national operations with various professional lawn care corporations and media distribution services, and also was part owner of a local lawn care company for six years.

I also enjoy reading about the stories from former graduates and alums. My husband and I met at then-NTSU in 1976. We have been married since 1979. We met when he was a biology graduate student TA — I had been assigned to his botany lab as a freshman, but we actually started

dating later when we were both in an outdoors adventure club.

However, the story he loves to tell is why there were so many girls in my lab class that he taught. It turns out he and his buddy found out what sections they were going to teach. Back in those days, we had to register for classes in person. So, when he and his buddy manned the tables, they assigned all the girls to the sections they knew that they were going to teach.

Four kids later, with four grandchildren and one on the way this month, NTSU was instrumental in where we are today with both our education and our personal lives. Of our four grown children, three are teachers, and one also married a teacher.

We don’t have the opportunity to go back to the campus, so I really appreciate hearing all that is happening there in your magazine.

Thanks!

SHINING STARS Beautiful feature on the North Stars of UNT and those they impacted. Superb examples of how much UNT cares and matters to so many.

Denny Engels UNT Regents Professor Emeritus of Education Lake Kiowa, Texas THE INN CROWD I lived at the College Inn for two years (1966 and 1967), while attending NTSU. What great times and memories!

In 1966, I lived in the back section of the building on the third floor overlooking the parking lot. I was a resident assistant in 1967 and lived in the front of the building facing the pool. The photo could have been taken from near my old room! Thanks for the memories.

Mike Kennedy (’70) New Bern, North Carolina

Tami McIntire (’79, ’81 M.S.) Marietta, Georgia

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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DIALOGUE

TELL US ABOUT LITERAL LIFESAVERS After reading about organ donation in the last issue, it reminded me of my journey. It was in an anatomy and physiology lab course at UNT when my desire to become a living organ donor was initially spawned. Every time I studied our cadaver organs, I couldn’t quit thinking about how they could have saved so many lives. One late night while studying in the lab, I told my lab partner I wanted to be a living organ donor one day. He was quite dismayed at my comment.

Years later, I shared my desire with my mother and she too had a similar but much more vocal reaction of opposition. I knew it had to wait with my aging parents. They had both passed by June 2019.

The greatest experience of my life, kidney donation to a stranger, occurred Nov. 14, 2019, at University Hospital – University Health in San Antonio. The goal could not have come to fruition without the endearing support of two angels who served as my greatest supporters in attaining this long-term mission.

Louisa Gonzales, R.N., and surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Thomas thoroughly reviewed every detail of the process, which gave me extraordinary confidence and assurance that my goal was easily attainable. They are the most beautiful souls for whom I will forever hold a special place in my heart.

I thank the University of North Texas for providing a magnificent experience in an A&P lab back in the ’80s that would eventually change my life forever.

@ slimjadlee Getting accepted to UNT is such a big accomplishment I don’t think y’all understand the half of it. I completely lost myself after my mama died and now I’m graduating with my associates and going for my bachelors! I did it mama! @edubeautiful I can’t believe my 16yo daughter will be graduating next year! We visited #UNTPreview at Denton and learned so much about this beautiful, diverse learning community. @tx_tsb Halftime at the SUPER PIT and #MeanGreen clinging to a 26-24 lead. #GMG We asked our UNT community “What was your favorite Mean Green reunion?” Here’s what some said.

Becky Gustamante (’82) Montgomery

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@ dentonitis Basically any time I hang out with my daughter. @ olson_vickilynn Oak Street Girls!

STAY IN TOUCH! LIKE US on FB @northtexas

TWEET US @northtexan

FOLLOW US on INSTA @unt

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FIND US on LINKEDIN FIND US ON TIKTOK @untsocial

EMAIL US

northtexan@unt.edu

WRITE US

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

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1. @ruff.life.with. rufus It was family weekend at #UNT so me and Lala went to see Mommy.

Saw LOTS of people, rolled around in the grass, and I even snuck in Mommy’s dorm.

4.

2. @goodman at the game North Texas Mean Green guard Bryce Zephir cuts down the net after his team clinches the regular season Conference USA title.

3. @untunion Wow, the union looks a little different... can’t quite say how though... #10yearchallenge

4. @patriciaej_ Through my journey I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be resilient. I’ve discovered so much about who I am and what I love.

Life isn’t a race and it’s important to remember that it doesn’t matter how long it takes, what matters is you get it done.

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With a record 42,372 students flocking to UNT last fall, UNT is stronger than ever.

We offer 244 degree options, 88 academic programs ranked in the nation’s top 100, Tier One research opportunities, championship athletics, and a nationally recognized focus on campus diversity located in the best college town in Texas.

4th largest university in Texas with access to career readiness, internships and jobs in DFW, home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation More than 80 online program options 1,700 distinguished faculty include scholars, researchers and artists who are widely known as experts in their fields 42% of undergrads are first-generation students Ranked 23rd in the nation as a Best Hispanic-Serving Institution by Niche.com Named an America’s Best Value College by Forbes Ranked 2nd in the nation as a college with the best food by Delish.com

BG

A new tower is one of many exciting developments in the partnership between UNT and the city of Frisco to create a new UNT at Frisco location, which is set to open in Spring 2023 with 27 undergraduate and master’s-level programs. The site sits on 100 acres of green space, can accommodate up to 25,000 students, and boasts creative, collaborative classrooms and wellness features such as a nature pavilion.

BRILLIANTLY GREEN

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UP FIRST

A Taste of UNT

the dish on dining

Notable Noms

Ice Cream Forget the grocery store freezer.

Made in-house from all-natural ingredients and preservative free, Scrappy’s Ice Cream can be found in the Union and Clark Bakery at Eagle Landing.

Here’s the skinny: Not only is UNT home to the nation’s first vegan dining hall, Mean Greens Café, and one of the few allergen-free dining halls in the country, Kitchen West, but its mouth-watering meals also earned it the No. 2 spot on Delish.com’s list of colleges with the best food. This year, Mean Greens celebrated its 10th anniversary, and the hydroponic garden Mean Green Acres — which grows fresh vegetables for use in dining halls — earned funding from the Diamond Eagles to expand its space. That means even more tasty meals like the award-winning Tomato Mushroom Curry, which won Best Vegan Recipe in the National Association of College & University Food Services Nutrition Awards Contest. Find the recipe at northtexan.unt.edu/taste-UNT.

A Tradition of Tasty: Mean Greens By the Numbers

150

Number of different recipes served at Mean Greens over a

three-week cycle

750 1,000

Heads of lettuce produced weekly in Mean Green Acres to serve at Mean Greens and other UNT dining halls — all on about

one gallon of water per day

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Approximate number of guests served at Mean Greens each day

Coffee Cake This UNT food favorite has quite the history, making its decadent debut on campus in the mid-20th century.

You can buy miniature loaves at the Corner Store or order via catering.

Croissants Try a Clark Bakery croissant, one of 500 baked goods produced on campus, and an essential part of UNT’s many mouth-watering sandwiches. Check out a video of how they’re made at northtexan.unt.edu/taste-UNT.

BG • UP FIRST

“WE ARE DEDICATED TO SERVING A DIVERSE STUDENT POPULATION FROM TEXAS AND ACROSS THE GLOBE AS THEY START THEIR HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNEY, CONTINUE THEIR STUDIES OR ADVANCE IN THEIR PROFESSIONS.” — UNT President Neal Smatresk on the university’s Spring 2022 enrollment, which saw 39% more new graduate students and 62% more new first-time-in-college students as compared to Spring 2021.

Q&A

A Newsworthy Career Neil Foote, principal lecturer in UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism, is a consummate journalist — in addition to making a name for himself in academia, he’s worked in news outlets including The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News, and for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (now known as the Newsroom Leaders Association). His dedication to diversifying newsrooms and the public relations industry recently earned him induction into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

Q: How does it feel to be an NABJ Hall of Famer?

A: I am humbled to be recognized amongst so many greats. Ever since I started

in the journalism business in 1981, I’ve been involved in NABJ. The organization has always been a part of my life.

Q: What inspired you to pursue a journalism career?

A: As a kid, I wrote for my high school newspaper. When I was looking at schools that had strong liberal arts programs, I opted to go to Wesleyan University. By the time I left Wesleyan, I had been co-editor of the campus newspaper and got to teach journalism to new staff writers for the paper.

Q: What is the importance of journalism?

A: Journalism is at the forefront of how we get and trust information, and how we make decisions about our daily lives. Even though the credibility of media has been under attack in recent years, the best journalists in the world are doing the job of helping inform people about what’s really going on.

IN THE MEDIA ADAM FEIN AND RUTHANNE “RUDI” THOMPSON, who serve as vice president and associate vice president of UNT’s Division of Digital Strategy and Innovation, were featured in The Wall Street Journal for helping the Dallas Cowboys thrive in virtual meetings.

TEXAS MONTHLY told the tale of alumna Dee Brock (’50, ’56 M.A., ’85 Ph.D.), one of “The Women Who Created the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.”

FOOD SERVICE EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES highlighted the unique dining experience offered

by Eagle Landing.

SENIOR FRANKY DELGADO — whose fitness advice has made him TikTok famous — discussed his wellness journey with Spectrum News.

HISTORY PROFESSOR TODD MOYE spoke with Texas Standard about Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas, a book he co-authored. It’s based on the Civil Rights in Black and Brown project, a collaboration among several universities in Texas, in which historians travel the state collecting oral histories of the Civil Rights era from both African American and Mexican-American activists.

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UP FIRST

EVENTS JUNE

APRIL

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UNT’s inaugural Art Mart, set from 1 to 7 p.m. in the Library Mall, will feature dozens of local makers showcasing their art, crafts, prints and more, as well as special performances and interactive workshops throughout the day. Admission is free and open to the public. Learn more at studentaffairs. unt.edu/events/unt-art-mart.

M AY

13-15

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An eat-and-ask for the show Parallax 2022 will take place at the UNT Union Art Gallery from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Featured artists include Jessica Brown, Mianiche Calhoun, Alexandra DeLeon, Ivy Owens, Leian Shaer, Lezli McDaniel, Megan Murillo, Jose Narvaez, Amy Nava Ruiz, Litzy Rea Valdez, Shannon Gaudard and Ryan Smith.

J U LY

Celebrate UNT’s newest graduates during commencement, which will take place at the UNT Coliseum and Murchison Performing Arts Center. To view the full schedule, visit commencement.unt.edu/schedule.

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A Carter BloodCare drive is set from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Willis Library, Room 250H. The UNT community, as well as the general public, are invited to donate.

AUGUST

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The fall semester begins. To learn more about events leading up to the beginning of classes — such as First Flight Week, UNT’s official welcome week program — visit studentaffairs.unt.edu/orientationand-transition-programs.

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STAR STUDENT

Tenacity in Tough Times Tiblets Abreha was only 11 when she left her home in Eritrea, a country in East Africa, in hopes of a better life in nearby Ethiopia.

She didn’t tell her parents, who lived in a small, impoverished village where watering crops meant not having enough drinking water to survive.

“There is no water on hand,” Abreha says, “so we have to travel like an hour to get some. You have to carry any back, or, if you have a donkey, you’re lucky. ... Life there was very tough.

Women don’t have the same rights that men do. They don’t go to school.”

The morning she left, she put on her school backpack and headed for the Ethiopian border, knowing that once she crossed, she wouldn’t be able to go back. After Abreha spent three years in an Ethiopian refugee camp, her caseworker told her that she would be able to go to the United States. In Dallas, new experiences awaited. She didn’t speak any English, and her foster family and new classmates in the DFW area didn’t speak her language.

“I began my new life with people I had never seen — different languages and different cultures,” Abreha says.

Eventually, she was placed with a foster family in Grapevine, where she found a home and the help she needed.

Since choosing to attend UNT, where she is considering a career in kinesiology, she’s joined UNT’s PUSH program for foster care alumni and was elected vice president of the PUSH student organization. She also earned a spot on the UNT cross country team.

News Roundup Want to know more about what makes UNT such a great place to live and learn? Check out the popular Amazon series The College Tour, which features an episode about Mean Green greatness. admissions.unt.edu/the-college-tour

“She is a leader, a kind-hearted soul and, because of her incredible resiliency, a role model for other students who have experienced hard times,” says Brenda Sweeten, PUSH program advisor and UNT foster care liaison officer.

Yes, Abreha says, it’s been a challenge to move from place to place, make friends, and get used to a new family and school.

“But I am a survivor,” she says.

“I want to travel. I want to see my family. I want to go back home. I also want to travel to refugee camps, to see the kids and help them if I can. That’s my first goal.”

— Trista Moxley

UNT welcomed Brooke Moore as assistant vice president for its new integrated student financial support center, and UNT alum and former employee Kevin Fralicks (’87) was named the new associate vice president for alumni relations and advancement communication.

UNT is the first university in the U.S. to offer a fully online Bachelor of Science in General Business degree on the Coursera platform. The university also announced a partnership with Google to help students and working adults learn job-ready skills for tech careers.

Online master’s degree programs in the College of Education have once again been named some of the best in the nation, according to new rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

Find the full stories at northtexan.unt.edu/ newsroundup.

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UP FIRST

Expert Take

CYNTHIA CHANDLER

Animal Magnetism While dogs may be man’s best friend, they often have a much bigger role to play than that of furry acquaintance.

For example, right here at UNT, you can see canine companions in a variety of roles (for more proof, see story at right). They’re service animals, therapy dogs, police partners and more — each with their own unique tasks and abilities.

In her role as director of the Consortium for Animal Assisted Therapy, College of Education professor Cynthia Chandler has seen how crucial therapy dogs can be in establishing trust between therapists and their patients.

“Nurturing touch and play between a client and a therapy animal can enhance therapeutic atmosphere, lower anxiety in a client, and help create a trusting bond between a client and the animal’s handler, who is the psychotherapist,” she says.

“Furthermore, the animal’s keen senses, especially the profound sense of smell, enable the animal to detect and respond to emotional states of a client.”

Here, UNT staff and faculty experts weigh in on the many benefits of animal-human relationships.

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Professor in UNT’s College of Education and director of the Consortium for Animal Assisted Therapy

“A therapy animal’s primary roles for participation in a psychotherapy session are that of nurturer and emotional distress detector. Interpretation of animal behavior responses can greatly aid a therapist’s understanding of a client, making it possible to better facilitate a client’s emotional growth and healing.”

MICHAEL WISE

Associate professor and director of graduate studies in UNT’s Department of History

“Our interactions with animals urge us to reflect on our own animality, an experience that often involves unconscious historical narrations oriented toward explaining the differences between us and them. ... When we interact with animals, we put our own bodies back into the production of scholarly knowledge, reconsidering supposed gaps between human and nonhuman experience in ways that produce patience, empathy and new opportunities for joy.”

CORP. NICHOLAS BRAUCHLE

UNT police officer and handler of Keegan, the UNT Police Department’s K-9

“Law enforcement K-9s, such as Keegan, help with the safety and security of campus and also play a crucial role in community relations. They can help connect the police department with members of their community and be a positive experience for everyone.

For example, when I take Keegan for walks around the campus, I routinely chat with students about non-law enforcement topics.

People are more likely to approach me when I’m walking with Keegan than by myself.”

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The D gs of UNT CALL IT ‘PUPPY LOVE.’ MEET THE FURRY FRIENDS WHO KEEP OUR STUDENTS SAFE AND HAPPY ...

TEXT BY JESSICA DELEÓN PHOTO BY AHNA HUBNIK Jane Zink and Buddy, her Golden Labrador, always draw attention when they walk around campus.

“How often do you see a dog in boots?” Zink says.

The students are eager to touch him. She’ll tell them that he’s working — and they understand.

Buddy is a service animal who helps Zink, a biology and chemistry junior with Type 1 diabetes, when he senses her blood sugar is low.

He’s just one of the dogs who belong on the UNT campus.

Like Buddy, there are the service animals who help students with disabilities. More than two dozen dogs live in campus housing, including emotional support animals for students and companions to housing directors. Keegan is a member of the UNT Police Department and sniffs out potential explosives. And Buddy the Therapy Poodle in Counseling and Testing Services allows students time to heal from the stresses of life.

These dogs lend a lifeline to students for their physical and mental health. Zink, who wants to go to medical school and pursue a career in pathology, says Buddy keeps her safe and able to go places as she’ll be alerted to any incidents of hypoglycemia.

“He means independence, safety and security,” she says.

“He’s my best friend, a fuzzy best friend.”

Meanwhile, Keegan — the K-9 yellow Labrador who has been on campus since 2018 with his partner, Corp. Nicholas Brauchle — means business.

“He is a great dog,” Brauchle says. “He is strong-willed, and he has a high work drive.”

Keegan keeps the campus safe by detecting explosives.

Even though students are eager to touch him when they patrol the campus, Keegan is focused on his job.

“We do a lot of community relations, and he lets it happen.

But most of the time, he’s like, ‘Let’s get this done with so I can get back to work,’” Brauchle says.

The students at Rawlins Hall get excited when they see Minnie, a long-haired Chihuahua mix, with the hall’s community director, Elizabeth Webb (’15).

“She loves the residents. They love her,” Webb says. “I joke, ‘I’m here too. You can say hi to me.’”

Minnie belongs to Webb, who oversees day-to-day operations and supervises the staff. She lives in an apartment in the

“He means independence, safety and security. He’s my best friend, a fuzzy best friend.”

hall, and community directors are allowed to bring their dog to live with them.

While Webb was hesitant at first to bring her, Minnie has adjusted well. She gets stopped a lot during walks, especially by students who say they miss the dogs they left behind. And she keeps Webb balanced.

“We see students at their best and at their worst,” Webb says. “She helps me feel grounded.”

For the residents of Joe Greene Hall, their dog is Ellie, 7, believed to be a terrier mix, who was rescued

by Julie Townley in South Carolina and has traveled with her to her position as community director.

Ellie mostly stays at Townley’s apartment, but will take walks throughout the day on campus, with her favorites being Clark Park and the walkway between Crumley Hall and the Business Leadership Building.

She’ll often pick up half-eaten ice cream cones and other leftovers from Eagle Landing.

“She loves chasing squirrels on campus,” Townley says. “She loves being here. It’s been a good thing.”

Watch a video about Buddy and the other dogs of UNT. northtexan. unt.edu/dogs-unt.

Above Buddy keeps watch in his designated space as Jane Zink takes part in her laboratory.

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INNOVATION

Tier One Once Again For the third time, UNT is ranked among elite doctoral universities in the Carnegie Classification.

See a video chronicling UNT’s journey to Tier One status. northtexan.unt.edu/tier-one

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The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education™ — a highly regarded framework for measuring universities’ research activity and graduate programs — reaffirmed UNT’s standing as a Tier One Research University in its 2021 report, released Feb. 2. Only 141 universities nationwide are classified as “Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity,” which places UNT among the nation’s most elite, top-tier research institutions. In 2020, UNT was named one of only 18 Tier One research universities designated as a Hispanic-Serving and Minority-Serving Institution.

Participating in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Aspire: National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty, UNT has been committed to developing faculty recruitment, hiring and retention practices specifically for underrepresented populations in STEM. “UNT’s continued inclusion in Carnegie’s ‘very high research activity’ classification is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff as we’ve strengthened our research enterprise across the board the last several years,” says UNT President Neal Smatresk, noting that UNT was first included in the Carnegie rankings in 2015.

BG • INNOVATION

“The more pollinators we have, the better our food plants grow. It’s not just environmental.

It’s also practical.”

— Eden Henson The UNT counseling graduate student proposed an idea for a We Mean Green Fund project that would create a designated area for plants that are native to the region and known to attract pollinators. UNT’s We Mean Green Fund works to benefit the community through conservation, sustainability and education.

NEW RESEARCH INNOVATIVE LEADER NAMED SPACE FUNDED Pamela Padilla (pictured), dean of the College of Science, has been appointed vice president of research and innovation. She will succeed Mark McLellan upon his retirement June 5.

A professor of biological sciences, Padilla joined UNT in 2002. She previously worked as associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Science and was permanently appointed UNT’s associate vice president for research and innovation in October 2019, after serving one year as interim. In 2010, she earned the UNT Early Career Award for Research and Creativity, and she was a Faculty Leadership Fellow from 2015 to 2016.

“I am honored to continue working with UNT’s innovative faculty, staff and students as we advance our mission to support and facilitate and empower impactful research,” Padilla says. “This is an exciting time at UNT as we continue our rise as a national research university.”

UNT has been given the green light to use tuition revenue bonds to build a 167,700-square-foot research facility to provide an additional state-ofthe-art space for faculty and student researchers to carry out solutionsbased research.

The construction project is possible thanks to Texas’ 87th Legislature, which authorized UNT for $113.4 million in tuition revenue bonds. With legislative approval, universities are allowed to sell tuition revenue bonds to fund construction of needed future facilities.

“For our university to continue its incredible momentum, we must provide a more modern space to accommodate the cutting-edge research taking place at UNT,” President Neal Smatresk says.

“Adding this new facility will ensure we are able to meet our growing demands so our faculty can continue their research collaborations to help move society forward.”

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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INNOVATION

spotlight

Simulated Classroom, Real Learning

BEFORE RHONDA CHRISTENSEN ENTERED THE CLASSROOM as a first-year teacher, she thought she was well-prepared for the rigors of the role. As an education major, she had taken all the required courses and completed her pre-service hours, assisting seasoned instructors with curriculum and classroom management.

But once captain of her own classroom ship, Christensen realized there were challenges she had never been forced to confront: students with Individualized Education Programs and 504 plans. Language and learning barriers. A mix of socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds that required a deft

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— and equitable — approach to instruction and interaction.

“I know how hard it is to get support when you’re a classroom teacher,” says Christensen, now a research professor of learning technologies and director of UNT’s Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning.

Inspired by those early experiences, Christensen and Gerald Knezek, Regents Professor of learning technologies (pictured), recently applied for and received an $840,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to use artificial intelligence to increase teacher efficacy and equity and diversity in K-12 classrooms.

In the project, Christensen

north Texan | northtexan.unt.edu | Spring 2022

and Knezek will use simSchool — a simulation program focused on enhancing K-12 professional development classroom experiences — to analyze teachers’ interactions with students.

The simSchool modules are designed to help teachers become more effective instructors by preparing them for challenges inherent in the classroom environment as well as identify implicit biases they may have.

The project will roll out over the next three years with teachers in California-based Aspire Public School.

Teachers will engage with each module a minimum of five times, with the modules providing an equity index that illuminates any implicit biases or areas for growth.

Once participants complete the modules, Christensen and Knezek will analyze trends within the data.

“The more practice you can have with kids who you may not interact with in real-life teacher preparation programs, the better,” Christensen says. “Kids are very different, and you need different strategies for different kids.”

— Erin Cristales

Research Roundup Productive Year: UNT saw record growth productivity last year, with the total number of research proposals rising 17% from $213 million in fiscal year 2020 to $251.4 million in fiscal year 2021. The university secured its highest-ever level of external funding, with a 25% increase from $39.9 million to $50.0 million in sponsored awards.

Blood-clotting Breakthrough: Department of Biological Sciences professor Pudur Jagadeeswaran believes he has identified a way to manipulate a protein called TFPI with a drug currently being used in cancer treatments to treat clotting disorders more efficiently with few side effects.

TAMS is Tops: Three students at UNT’s Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science took first place in the Amazon Web Services DeepRacer Student League Competition, the world’s first autonomous car racing league.

Reprogramming Cells: Clement Chan, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and member of UNT’s BioDiscovery Institute, and Faruck Morcos, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and member of UTD’s Center for Systems Biology, have created a coevolutionary modeling approach that engineers mutations in combined proteins to ensure their compatibility and eliminate costly, time-consuming trial and error.

Find the full stories at northtexan.unt.edu/researchroundup.

Eleven speakers spread their ideas and inspired the audience to make a difference in the world at the TEDxUNT: Create the Change event held in October. From encouraging us to support youth in foster care and the juvenile justice system, to advocating for people who’ve experienced domestic violence and those with mental illness, the UNT students, faculty, staff and alumni encouraged us to be more curious, to look at old things in new ways, and to follow our own call to adventure.

Rudy Reynoso

Cassini Nazir

Melanie Ward

Melanie Ecker

Daniel Murphy

Reagan Kremer

Diana Cervantes

Genesis McGrue-Johnson

Andrea Sasha Ortiz

Dellandra Adams

Corinne French

Ione Hunt von Herbing

Read more about the emcee and speakers and watch videos at TEDxUNT.org.

Q + A

MICHAEL R. WILLIAMS THE UNT SYSTEM’S NEW CHANCELLOR BRINGS AN INNOVATIVE, ENTREPRENEURIAL VISION FOR THE FUTURE. TEXT BY ERIN CRISTALES

MICHAEL R. WILLIAMS, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNT HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER, took the reins as the UNT System’s fourth chancellor early this year. In his tenure as president, as well as a member of the UNT System Board of Regents, Williams has played a key role in UNT’s explosive growth and the incredible successes of the larger system. Here, he outlines his vision for the UNT System’s future, and how it can draw upon its values-based culture, leading-edge research and student-focused approach to further bolster its local, national and global prominence.

What are some of your greatest accomplishments as president of UNTHSC and as a member of the UNT System Board of Regents, and how will those inform your role as chancellor? I am proud of many accomplishments at HSC — including several financial achievements, such as not increasing tuition since 2013, doubling our total assets and tripling HSC’s overall net position. The one accomplishment I will always go back to is the people-first, values-based culture we created, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit we instilled in our university. We can similarly focus on culture, innovation and entrepreneurism at UNT System and transform higher education as we know it today.

What are some of your initial priorities as you begin your tenure as UNT System chancellor? I’m looking forward to the opportunity to build a culture that empowers our greatest resource — our people — and creating an environment that fosters innovation and transforms higher education to better meet the needs of our customers and current market. To me, it is all about our people, our students and their families. We need to develop our value proposition as a system in order to maximize our potential and impact.

I plan to continue to meet with faculty, staff, alumni and students to listen to their ideas and their thoughts.

Read more of the Q&A. northtexan.unt.edu/ michael-williams.

How do you see your background in medicine and business translating to your leadership of the UNT System? I have always been someone who asks why and capitalizes on

opportunities to innovate. Throughout my career as an anesthesiologist, CEO and entrepreneur, I have always maintained that the way things are done now doesn’t mean they have to be done that way forever. That mindset led me to several entrepreneurial opportunities. Higher education is ripe for positive change and, frankly, the industry’s value proposition is at risk of becoming obsolete. Today, we are seeing large industries building their own training programs for that reason. But the UNT System can address that by thinking like a business with innovative ideas, concepts and approaches.

Follow your dreams. Commit yourself. You’re going to need some help, but you have to put yourself in a position to receive the help and take advantage of the help.

How will you help the UNT System continue to elevate its standing among research universities? UNT continues to establish itself as a rising Carnegie Tier One research institution. Our flagship has spent the last several years strengthening its research enterprise — from bolstering equipment and spaces to helping faculty researchers be more competitive in the grant process. We will continue to invest in research at UNT and across our system. We also will continue to think outside the box. I’ve talked about being entrepreneurial, and that mindset certainly applies to our ability to grow research. How can we be disruptive in our efforts to become a catalyst for positive change? What problems can we solve that others are not? Just because research has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean there’s not a better approach. We will not leave any stone unturned as we work to maximize our impact on North Texas and beyond as a leader in growing research.

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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MUSE

Labor of Care Art alumna’s portraits of Black women, including a new work at the Dallas Museum of Art, are drawing acclaim.

Ari Brielle (’16) captures women in all facets of life. It could be a simple portrait of a woman cradling a baby fresh from a bath. Or it could be an installation about Marsha Jackson, depicting her environmental activism. Brielle’s artwork has been featured in the 2021 Texas Biennial and the Dallas Museum of Art. “I’m excited to see what that artistic journey looks like,” she says. “I want to grow deeper in my practice and continue to make work that feels successful.”

Now Brielle is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Arlington and is considering teaching. Even though she’s been successful in making art her career, she says it doesn’t entirely feel like work.

“It’s both therapeutic and a release — cathartic, and there’s a lot of problem-solving during painting and thinking. What is this work about?” she says. “I don’t look at work as a bad thing. I think we need work. People need something to put their energy toward. It’s like a labor of care.”

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Read more about how Brielle’s time at UNT transformed her art. northtexan.unt.edu/ari-brielle

BG • MUSE

... PLAYING OUR FIGHT SONG IN IRELAND MAY NOT SOLVE PROBLEMS THAT WE’RE WITNESSING IN THE NEWS, BUT IF WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO BRING JOY TO SOMEBODY’S LIFE, IT’S A RESPONSIBILITY, WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO FULFILL.” —U NT Director of Athletic Bands Daniel Cook on the Green Brigade Marching Band’s performance in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade as cited on NBC 5.

Read more about Hankins’ job at the Smithsonian. northtexan.unt. edu/michael-hankins

Wild Kingdom Jehanne Dubrow The English professor takes on academia with poems about national and university politics. Dubrow, who has written 11 books, draws from 14 years of teaching, including six at UNT.

Books

Living Life Off-Script

Flying Camelot

Vocal performance alumna finds her way as a Hollywood actress.

In Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16 and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia, Michael W. Hankins (’07, ’13 M.S.) explores the culture behind fighter pilots from the 1970s and 1980s and how they inspired the design of the F-15 and F-16 airplanes.

“Thinking about history helps us understand each other better, understand our world better and make the world better as we move forward,” says Hankins, who is curator for U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps post-World War II Aviation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Aviation stories show us all of that, as humans learned to literally lift themselves up into the skies.”

Dallas-based Giovannie Cruz (’09) recently served in supporting roles in back-to-back Warner Bros releases The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence, where she acted in a scene face-to-face with Hugh Jackman. She also has acted in Queen Sugar, Queen of the South and more.

But her life wasn’t originally planned out this way.

Since she was a child, Cruz dreamed of becoming a Broadway star. However, while a student in UNT’s vocal performance program focusing on opera, Cruz thought to herself, “Yeah, I’m going to go become an actor.”

She began auditioning for various acting roles during the day and taught voice lessons at night. Then, while a reader for Queen of the South during the show’s Dallas filming, she nailed an acting role.

Cruz already has landed some big roles in films that will be released in the next few years.

“I may not be a household name, I may not have made it yet, but that little girl who dreamed of being in movies would be really proud of where I am now,” shares Cruz.

The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands Patrick Strickland (’10) Residents of communities on the U.S.Mexican border fight against anti-immigrant forces in this book by the Dallas-based journalist and general studies alum.

From Servant to Savant: Musical Privilege, Property and the French Revolution Rebecca Dowd Geoffroy-Schwinden The associate professor of music history explores how 18th-century Parisian musicians negotiated the era’s new laws and constituted modern professional musicianship.

Read more about Cruz’s career. northtexan.unt.edu/giovannie-cruz

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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MUSE NORAH JONES, MAREN MORRIS AND THE LATE LYLE MAYS EARNED NOMINATIONS FOR THE 64TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS, WHICH AIRED APRIL 3. MORE THAN A DOZEN OTHER ALUMNI AND FACULTY COLLABORATED ON PROJECTS THAT RECEIVED NODS. NORTHTEXAN.UNT.EDU/ONLINE

A Historic Note

Big Dreams

Alumna has gone from doodling to illustrating books.

In high school, Kristen Barnhart Peers (’18) was an avid doodler, drawing on the back of tests. “I always had a creative spark, always making things,” she says.

Now she’s reached one her biggest goals — illustrating a children’s book. Peers illustrated the Little People Big Dreams book about Iris Apfel, the 100-year-old flamboyant fashionista. She credits her professors in UNT’s communication design program, who each had their own way of pushing and helping her. In her senior year, the portfolio class required her to create her own campaign for a company, inspiring her to open an online shop with T-shirts and art prints.

The store and book complement Peers’ work, as does her popular Instagram account that features quirky, colorful artwork with positive messages. “I think my Instagram is my back-of-my-test-sheet doodling now,” she says. “It’s a place you can upload anything really. It’s a safe place for my doodles. I enjoy when people can laugh or relate to my drawings because we’re all weird humans, and we can all relate to the weird things we do in life.”

Read more about Peers’ rising career. northtexan.unt.edu/big-dreams

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Natalie Manning (’16) has been named the first female Vicar Choral in Wells Cathedral Choir’s more than 1,100-year history. The choir — at the Anglican cathedral in Somerset, England — is considered one of Europe’s most prestigious cathedral choirs. She’ll move from Cambridge, where she finished a master’s degree and stayed on as choir administrator for The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge.

Manning found her love for early music at UNT. “You could choose to study something so specific from a certain century, a certain part of the world, a certain style and technique,” she says, “and UNT would be able to provide you with the highest level of teaching for that specific thing.”

Joining the choir at Wells means Manning can serve as a role model for young girl choristers.

“For years, when they looked behind them, all they saw were men,” Manning says. “Now, these girls can realize that there is a place for them to continue a career singing in the cathedral because this woman standing behind them is doing it.”

Designing a Career

Through her fashion and lifestyle brand, LLULO, Michelle Olomojobi (’11) wanted to make the shape of Africa wearable for people and celebrate her Nigerian culture.

“I want Africa to be seen for its beauty. Africa in itself is enough,” she says of her product designs.

The seeds of LLULO, which sells clothing, accessories and home decor online, took root at UNT while Olomojobi was pursuing her bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising.

Through her classes, and the support of former College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism professor Jessica Strubel, Olomojobi gained assurance to let herself dream and let her Nigerian heritage shine through her work.

LLULO recently received a $25,000 NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant. Daymond John, celebrity entrepreneur and investor on Shark Tank, surprised her with news of the grant on Black Entrepreneurs Day. The NAACP grant will help her scale up production by working with a local manufacturer and possibly hiring more to assist with other parts of the business.

Learn more. northtexan.unt.edu/ designing-career

BG • MUSE

Behind the Camera

Cinematographer has a vision for some of TV’s most cutting-edge shows.

Abe Martinez’s (’96) camera has been his passport. It has taken the media arts alum to 50 countries. He’s covered the Olympics, NBA Championships and even photographed President Bill Clinton while he was in the White House. He has worked on movies such as Ali and Spider-Man 3.

Martinez (pictured, below right) went from rental house worker to film loader to camera assistant to camera operator. Now he’s fulfilling his biggest dreams as a cinematographer, where his work can be seen on TV programs like Queen of the South, The Chi and 61st Street, as well as the upcoming Disney+ series National Treasure.

As cinematographer, he is responsible for all the photography of the show, working with the director to translate the script for its theme, style and all things technical.

“You’re responsible for the camera, and the camera is the character,” he says.

With so many streaming platforms, he says Hollywood is just craving to tell more stories.

“It’s been 20 years in the process, and I feel like I’m living in the moment — the golden age of storytelling,” he says. “I worked hard to get here. It’s exciting to see what’s ahead.”

Learn how Martinez’s classes at UNT paved the way to his career. northtexan.unt.edu/behind-camera

Bloom and Create

Alumni spearhead organization to make opera accessible.

Agostina Migoni (’15 M.M.) and Bethany Mamola (’19 D.M.A.) were auditioning in Berlin when they began talking about how burned out they felt from the travels and struggles of classical musicians.

They wanted an organization that broke down barriers — such as underrepresentation and foreign languages — and worked in intimate settings and collaborated with a range of artists. So they created the Das Blümelein Project. “Das blümelein” means “flower bud” in German.

The project has presented nine productions over the last three years, including A Lily Among Thorns at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Winspear Opera House in Dallas last year. In the Texas Project, a string quartet and a trio of dancers performed in front of the works of textile and visual artists as Migoni and Mamola sang. For the Marfa Project, they rolled a piano into the only theater in town, and then the piano traveled to a table filled with a chef’s dinner of foraged ingredients.

And they’ve achieved this while fundraising in a competitive field and handling restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That is the beauty of the project — to see all of these artists step up and create and put themselves all into the project. We get to watch them bloom and create,” Mamola says.

Read more about the project. northtexan.unt.edu/bloom-create Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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MEAN GREEN

Hoop, There It Is Mean Green men’s and women’s basketball teams net spectacular seasons with record-setting wins and conference bids — and making UNT history for both reaching postseason play in the same year.

The North Texas men’s basketball team is once again the Conference USA West Division champion and played in the National Invitation Tournament for the first time in the program’s history.

With two games still remaining in the regular season, the Mean Green defeated Louisiana Tech to clinch the division title in front of a home crowd of 8,522, the fourth-largest in Super Pit history. In early March, the team won a program-record 15th straight game with a victory over UTSA in San Antonio.

The men made it to the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament and then, as a No. 2 seed, to the NIT. At the Super Pit, they defeated Texas State University in the first round of the NIT before losing a heartbreaker in overtime to Virginia, 71-69, in the second round. The team finished with 25 wins, a single season program record, and had the nation’s best scoring defense.

Meanwhile, the women’s team clinched a No. 2 seed in the C-USA tournament, making it to the semifinals, and played in the opening round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, losing to Tulsa at the Super Pit. This season is the first time the women’s basketball program has won back-to-back double-digit conference games in consecutive seasons since 2000-01 and 2001-02.

They set a program record for most consecutive C-USA victories with six.

And they finished the season with 17 wins overall (conference and nonconference), the fifth-most in program history.

“Great way to send our seniors out with a win,” says head coach Jalie Mitchell.

Check out more sports news. meangreensports.com

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Right Sophomore forward Abou Ousmane

C-USA Pitcher of the Week Junior Ashley Peters was named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week in late February. She earned the honor for the first time in her career after pitching in all four games in the Tracy Beard College Classic and recording a 3-0 record and one save.

Through four games in Melissa, Peters finished with 15.0 innings pitched, 2 runs allowed, 1 earned run allowed, 13 strikeouts, no walks and a 0.60 earned run average. In the last game of the classic, she pitched a complete game against Abilene Christian, did not allow an earned run and set a new single-game career high of seven strikeouts.

Tennis Racks Up Wins The 2022 season is head coach Sujay Lama’s 16th as the leader of the Mean Green tennis program, which has won three conference championships and made three NCAA Tournaments.

This season’s team welcomed back five returners from last year including three all-conference honorees ­— Lucie Devier, Maria Ponomareva and Saki Oyama — along with three talented and experienced newcomers who make UNT one of the deepest teams in Conference USA as they are in pursuit of another league title.

So far this season, the team has won matches against universities including ACU, Arkansas State, NMSU, MTSU, USF and Marshall.

By the Numbers

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That’s how many feet North Texas track and field athlete Chris Samaniego, a senior from Monahans, surpassed in the weight throw to take down the previous two records he already had set this season. His first recordbreaking throw took place at the J.D. Martin Invitational in Norman, where he recorded a mark of 61-00.25 (18.60m) to take down the school record set

by John Garrish in 2013.

2022 MEAN GREEN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE SEPT. 3 vs. SMU SEPT. 10 vs. TEXAS SOUTHERN SEPT. 17 at UNLV SEPT. 24 at MEMPHIS OCT. 1 vs. RICE OCT. 15 at MARSHALL OCT. 22 vs. SOUTHERN MISS OCT. 29 at UAB NOV. 5 vs. FIU NOV. 12 at UTSA NOV. 19 vs. LA Tech NOV. 26 at UTEP Schedule is subject to change.

Check meangreensports.com for the most up-to-date information.

Alum’s Olympic Debut Sliding headfirst on an ice track at speeds up to 90 mph with only a small sled to carry her is Kellie Delka’s (’11) idea of pure joy.

For more than a decade, she’s been traveling across the world to compete in the sliding sport of skeleton. Most recently, the UNT alumna’s global success earned her the title of Olympian, a distinction she’s dreamed of since childhood.

“It still doesn’t feel real to me,” says Delka, who represented Puerto Rico as its sole competitor in women’s skeleton for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

While at UNT, Delka was a pole vaulter and part of the North Texas Cheerleaders. At that point, she had never heard of skeleton, and might not have even entered the sport if it weren’t for fellow UNT alum and Olympic bobsledder Johnny Quinn (’06).

As she was finishing up her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, Delka came across a social media post from Quinn about a combine in McKinney hosted by the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. She showed up to give it a try and was catapulted toward a path in skeleton.

The sport can be mentally and physically taxing, but lots of fun, Delka says.

“I’m an adrenaline junkie and a fighter,” Delka says. “I’m the crazy one who will take tons of runs in one day.”

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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MILES TO GO OPAL LEE (’63 M.ED.) LED THE SUCCESSFUL CHARGE TO MAKE JUNETEENTH A NATIONAL HOLIDAY, EARNING ADMIRATION AND ACCOLADES ALONG THE WAY. BUT HER JOURNEY, SHE SAYS, IS FAR FROM OVER. TEXT BY ERIN CRISTALES IT’S BEEN A BANNER FEW MONTHS FOR OPAL LEE (’63 M.Ed.). In December, the 95-year-old civil rights icon was named The Dallas Morning News’ Texan of the Year, followed by a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in February. Ask her about these extraordinary designations, and the longtime Fort Worth resident shrugs them off. For Lee, there’s no such thing as a capstone accomplishment.

“I feel like a lady who’s got a whole lot left to do,” says Lee, a retired educator who is widely known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth. “I’m not gonna rest on my laurels.”

It makes sense for a woman who has been a lifelong adversary of can’t. As a guidance and elementary education major at UNT, she jumped in her car — “so old I had to stick a hairpin in to keep it going”— and headed off to Denton with her four kids in tow (three attended North Texas with her, while her youngest was enrolled in the Laboratory School). As a burgeoning civil rights advocate and co-founder of the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society, she watched as Fort Worth officials unplugged Sycamore Park’s lights at 10 p.m. to send Juneteenth celebrators home — until she jumped on a flatbed truck and plugged the lights back in. “We had fun until dawn,” she says.

And in 2016, as the reigning voice in the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, the then 89-year-old Lee embarked from Fort Worth and walked 2.5 miles each day in cities across the U.S. before reaching Washington, D.C. — a distance steeped in symbolism as Juneteenth marks the date that slaves in Texas learned of their freedom a full 2.5 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lee’s nearly four-month — and 1,400mile — expedition (which started in September 2016 and concluded in January 2017) led to 1.6 million signatures on a petition for Congress to formally recognize the global importance of the day.

Four years later, in spring 2021, the White House called. President Biden planned to designate Juneteenth the 11th federal holiday. Could she be there for the signing?

“We got there the next day,” says Lee, who credits the late Rev. Ronald Myers — with whom she served

as a board member of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation — for impressing upon her Juneteenth’s rightful place among national holidays.

“During the signing, I thought, ‘How wonderful that the whole world can celebrate Juneteenth. That finally people can see it was freedom for everybody — not just for the enslaved or for Black people or for Texans. For everybody.’ And then I thought, ‘We should celebrate from June 19 to July 4.’ Now that would be a celebration.”

I hope that people will realize that by working together against the disparities we have now, we can get so much done — and so much sooner.

After nine decades devoted to advocacy and the greater good, most people would consider their to-do list complete. But most people aren’t Opal Lee. There are still so many issues to address, she says. Like education (“We can’t let people remove books from schools that tell our real history”); equity (“We’ve got to tackle joblessness and homelessness and health care that some people can get, and others can’t”); and climate change (“I contend that if we don’t get busy cleaning up our Earth, we’re all going to Hell in a handbasket”).

But from years of experience, she can tell you the good news is this: We can do it — together.

“Most of us all want the same things: a decent place to live, a job that pays enough for us to have food and a car and a house of our own, to be able to send our children to college. Everybody wants this way of life,” she says. “I hope that people will realize that by working together against the disparities we have now, we can get so much done — and so much sooner.”

Watch President Biden pay tribute to Opal Lee before signing the Juneteenth bill, and learn about Opal’s Farm, dedicated to tackling Tarrant County food deserts. northtexan.unt.edu/opal-lee Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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With an eye toward ensuring the world’s natural resources are sustained for the future, UNT researchers are creating solutions to combat climate change, biodiversity concerns and air pollution.

Protecting the Environment TEXT BY TRISTA MOXLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY AHNA HUBNIK & MICHAEL CLEMENTS

When environmental anthropologist Courtney Cecale moved to Dallas in August 2020 from the Peruvian Andes where she had been studying glaciers and climate change, she experienced her first triple-digit summer in North Texas. She couldn’t stop thinking about how heat might influence people’s everyday lives.

“I saw on the dash on my car that it was 116 with the heat index, and I didn’t know how people lived here,” she says.

With a long history of studying human-environment relationships, Cecale, who joined UNT in 2020 as an assistant professor, turned her curiosity into the North Texas Heat Research Project. The study looks at how extreme temperatures affect the social aspects of our lives, including living, working and playing. After gathering experiences from North Texans through surveys and interviews, she and her team will recruit residents to serve as citizen scientists to measure temperature data in their neighborhoods — data she hopes can be used to inform policy and decisions made by local governments to better the lives of residents.

Since modern recordkeeping began in 1880, the earth’s average surface temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, with 2016 and

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It is important to study climate change because the effects are not located in an imaginary future. They are already here. — Courtney Cecale, assistant professor of anthropology

2020 tying for the warmest years on record, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The heat has increased the average temperature of the ocean, as well as melting billions of tons of ice from glaciers.

While steps can be taken to help reduce or reverse the damage, they will be expensive and difficult. Suggestions like restoring natural spaces, utilizing clean energy and finding sustainable production methods for food and other products face a multitude of obstacles. But like Cecale, UNT researchers across disciplines are tackling these challenges head on to find cheaper, more sustainable and effective solutions to protect our environment.

“It is important to study climate change because the effects are not located in an imaginary future. They are already here. They will continue to worsen, and more people will die if we do not strategize our efforts wisely,” she says. “I genuinely believe that we are imaginative, clever and creative enough to solve problems like climate change.”

Climate Change

Shengqian Ma, chemistry professor, is collaborating with Northern Illinois University and the U.S. Department

of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory on a prototype low-cost system for capturing carbon dioxide waste from manufacturing emissions and cleanly converting it into ethanol.

The prototype will intercept carbon dioxide before it’s emitted into the atmosphere and convert it back to fuel. Ma says it’s possible they might even be able to capture more carbon dioxide from the environment than has been emitted through manufacturing processes. Ideally, they would use renewable solar and wind energy to then convert carbon dioxide into ethanol.

“Our long-term vision is for a cleaner and sustainable planet,” Ma says.

Calvin Henard, an assistant professor of biological sciences and a researcher at UNT’s BioDiscovery Institute, is working to use microbiology to convert methane to bioplastics, biofuels and other valuable products normally derived from petroleum.

“Methanotrophic bacteria are the only organisms that are able to use atmospheric methane. They eat about 10% to 15% of methane in the atmosphere,” Henard says.

Through this research, Henard learned that some methanotrophs consume carbon dioxide in addition to methane, and he speculates that

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Left Elinor Lichtenberg studying insect pollinator communities at a ranch in Wise County owned and operated by the Dixon Water Foundation.

Right UNT biology students study water distribution at the ranch.

Bottom Lichenberg studies what other flower visitors bees use as sources of social information.

“

Our long-term vision is for a cleaner and sustainable planet.

— Shengqian Ma, chemistry professor these bacteria are consuming methane and carbon dioxide in the soil.

“Our goal is to simultaneously utilize and mitigate greenhouse gases in a single, sustainable process,” he says.

“It’s a dual route to help the planet and achieve a sustainable bioeconomy.”

Biodiversity

Heat from climate change also can affect the diversity of plants, animals and insects, as well as how different species interact with humans.

According to Conservation International, bee territories for bumblebee migrations have shrunk by about 200 miles in North America and Europe over the past 110 years due to climate change.

“Without these pollinators, it would be a much different world,” says Elinor Lichtenberg, assistant professor of ecology. “There would be a lot fewer flowers, and our fruits, vegetables and nuts are heavily dependent on insect pollination.”

In her lab, as part of UNT’s Advanced Environmental Research Institute, Lichtenberg studies the behavior of pollinators, primarily wild bees. In addition to studying how grazing practices impact pollinators, she’s researching what other flower visitors bees use as sources of social information.

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Andrew Gregory, assistant professor of biological sciences, is examining a possible malaria outbreak in birds in Chile, which could lead to a better understanding of the effects of global warming on disease transmission. As climate change moves colder temperatures higher in the Chilean mountainside, bird populations are being affected with more contact with mosquitoes. This not only offers opportunities to see how wildlife disease can restructure with climate change, but also how it affects other populations, including humans, who interact with birds.

Gregory traveled to Chile in January as part of the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation program with a group of students who are chosen from universities across the country to study the impacts of malaria and climate change on biodiversity.

“We have a unique opportunity to study a novel landscape where birds are being exposed to a new threat brought about by climate change,” Gregory says.

Air Quality

Lu Liang, assistant professor of geography and the environment, is using citizen scientists to help test whether there is a correlation between heat and air pollution. Through her proj-

ect, she’s deploying a low-cost sensor network throughout Denton County to obtain granular measurements of heat and air pollution, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less — tiny particles of pollution that are detrimental to human health when inhaled. The data will then be available to researchers and citizens through an online open access map that shows air quality changes wherever the sensors are installed. Temperature information will be gained through other sources.

“We are trying to understand exactly what’s happening in our city and how to better, more accurately measure exposure to heat and pollution,” Liang says.

Additionally, Alexandra PonetteGonzález, associate professor of geography and the environment, is studying the particles in the air that are transported from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth in precipitation. Every time it rains, millions of tiny particles hitchhike on the falling water droplets.

This water contains a large and diverse community of organisms such as bacteria, fungi and even tardigrades along with non-living particles like dust, soot, microplastics and radioactive material. What’s in our rainwater can have major implications for how ecosystems work, from economic impacts on agricultural crop yields to environmental effects of pollutants.

“We’re improving our understanding of how changes in air quality due to urban pollution, increasing wildfires and dust storms affect the ecosystems we depend on for clean air, water and well-being,” PonetteGonzález says. “We’re also interested in the ways and contexts in which vegetation can mitigate urban environmental problems, including air pollution and climate warming.”

Sustainable Ranch Practices A collaboration between UNT researchers and the Dixon Water Foundation is helping to create sustainable ranch practices and further basic science about biodiversity. The foundation owns and operates several working cattle ranches, including two outside of Decatur, which seek to demonstrate environmentally and economically sound ways to manage rangeland.

The ranches use a method called multi-paddock grazing where cattle are moved around very frequently so they don’t overgraze any particular area.

They partner with local researchers to monitor how the environment responds to their stewardship and to fund grants, including one that is supporting David Hoeinghaus’ studies on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of the ranches’ aquatic habitats.

Because aquatic habitats can change drastically from season to season and year to year, Hoeinghaus, biological sciences associate professor, and his team are working to identify the distribution of water on the ranch in terms of time and space.

Additionally, Elinor Lichtenberg, assistant professor of biological sciences, is looking at insect pollinator communities on the ranches quantifying food and shelter resources. Both researchers are comparing the biodiversity across different variations of grazing practices, such as the amount of time cattle spend in a particular area, beginning with a baseline inventory of aquatic species and insect species. Their data will help assess how this alternate grazing management practice compares with traditional grazing management practices in terms of aquatic ecosystem condition and functioning. They hope to improve best management practices for long-term sustainability of rangelands.

“Understanding how these factors drive changes in the pollinator communities is really important if we want to develop data-driven land management practices,” Lichtenberg says.

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WE HAVEN’T BEEN NORMAL IN YEARS TEXT BY JESSICA DELEÓN PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL CLEMENTS

A caring city that embraces and celebrates its eclectic, cultural identity and history, Denton is anything but ordinary. The best college town is a distinctive destination that’s flourishing due to UNT’s creative alumni and community.

David J. Anzaldúa Pierce (’97), creator of the Day of the Dead Festival.

henever Joey Liechty roamed around Denton, he couldn’t help but notice a young man playing the keyboard on the city’s street corners — while wearing a fake tiger head.

The youth, named Joshua, had become a fixture on Denton’s downtown square and other spots around town. And Liechty decided Joshua, also known as Tiger Head Keyboard Dude, needed to be on stage.

But not just Joshua. Liechty wanted to spotlight the wacky but beloved sights and characters of Denton — from the old Howdy Doody sign and Lucky the albino squirrel to a video appearance by Robocop star Peter Weller (’70) and performances by Eric Michener’s (’07) band Fishboy and Paul Slavens, host of the Paul Slavens Show on KXT 91.7, to name a few.

Liechty, a computer programmer and DJ who attended UNT from 2003 to 2010, called the event, which took place this past December, Dentonpalooza.

“If you’re doing something off the beaten path, we will accept you,” Liechty says. “And not only will we accept you, we will celebrate you and champion you in ways that you may have not anticipated.”

The event was very Denton. It not only showed off the city’s quirky characters, but it also displayed its unique ability to come together and support the community. Through ticket, poster and T-shirt sales, the event raised $16,000 for the Denton Musicians and Artists Collaborative (DMAC) and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. It also raised $500 for Joshua through enamel pin sales bearing his likeness.

“Dentonpalooza showed us the best parts of the city altogether and all at once. Generosity, talent, craziness, history, friendship. It was overwhelming in the best way,” Liechty says.

In fact, lots of people want to be part of Denton’s energetic community. Dentonpalooza is one of many examples of how the city has especially thrived over the past few decades thanks to UNT alumni, like Liechty, who are staying and creating events, businesses and nonprofits that have turned “Little D” into a big destination and bolstered its reputation as one of the nation’s best college towns.

The university has always helped to fuel Denton’s unique and culturally rich essence. And being near Dallas-Fort Worth, one of the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas, means easy access to even more opportunities in addition to Denton’s local businesses, bustling festivals and caring community in which members are always willing to help out. That’s all while UNT’s excellence in the arts, nationally recognized

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research programs and athletic events attract students, researchers and visitors from far and wide.

“UNT brings people to Denton who might not have stopped,” says Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth (’20), an applied arts and sciences alumnus. “Beyond that, there’s the expertise of the university community who set down roots. This creative and forward-thinking attitude has helped put Denton on the map and made it a destination city.”

Oh No You Denton Denton, of course, always has been distinctive. It boasts iconic landmarks, such as the Denton County Courthouse and the downtown square, filled with restaurants and stores.

The town is painted in bold, vivid colors thanks to the many murals splashed across the city’s buildings.

The soundtrack is provided by buskers on the square and blasted from bars and clubs, giving Denton an edge and unmistakable sense of place.

The city’s many quirks include the purple door on the square that is a popular background for Instagram pictures; the lilac building that houses Recycled Books, with its huge inventory of literature and music; and the Chairy Orchard, a small patch of land in the residential neighborhood known as Idiot’s Hill, in which chairs are used to decorate a “chairy-go-round” and other whimsical amusements.

Denton speaks its own language — with phrases like “#dentoning,” “Only in Denton” and “Oh No You Denton,” coined by former art professor Jude Landry for a T-shirt — for all those Denton-esque moments that you can’t experience anywhere else.

Others have taken notice. In 2012, Mother Earth magazine declared Denton one of “8 Great Places You’ve (Maybe) Never Heard Of.” USA Today ranked it among the Top 25 fastest-growing cities in the country, with the population increasing 63% from 2000 to 2018.

Actor Jason Lee — friends with the members of the UNT-educated band Midlake — even lived in Denton for a few years.

As UNT has grown, so has the city. The university is experiencing record enrollment and recently reaffirmed its Tier One research status, ensuring the campus and the city continue to flourish together. A McKinsey Global Institute study shows college towns are expected to experience an 11% jump in employment growth in the next decade, thanks to their strong worker pools in creative, STEM and health care fields.

Realtor Darien Orr (’86), who studied art, is active in numerous community organizations and eager to talk about the city and its offerings with prospective residents.

“We’re not just getting bigger geographically,” Orr says. “We’re becoming culturally richer and deeper. There’s more variety.

Denton also is very welcoming.”

A Magnetic Force When Mike Cochran (’79) came to Denton in 1968 from Dallas, he thought it was a podunk town.

“Like many folks, I came to school with no intention of sticking around,” he says. “But I found it a pleasant place to live and raise a family.”

Cochran, a history major, ended up not only settling in Denton, but he became active in civic affairs as a former city councilmember and served as chair of Denton’s Historic Landmark Commission and president of the Historical Society of Denton County. He has published a catalog of the works of architect O’Neil Ford, a UNT alum, and recently published a biography of John B. Denton with UNT Press.

UNT was founded in 1890 as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute in a rented space above a hardware store downtown just 33 years after Denton was founded, giving the city character that others lacked.

“It added a certain level of culture to the community,” Cochran says. “We had an

Above Harry (’79 M.B.A.) and Linda (’72, ’82 M.B.A.) Eaddy, founders of the Denton Black Film Festival, have lived in Denton since they graduated from UNT.

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Above Kiara Hunter’s (’21) Denton volunteering steered her to the nonprofit sector. She’s pictured at Armadillo Ale Works, which was founded by Bobby Mullins (’07) and Yianni Arestis (’08, ’11 M.B.A.)

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influx of educated individuals who came into our town. The university has been a shot of intellectual energy and artistic vigor.”

Cochran says UNT is an “attractive magnetic force” for the community, introducing professors and alumni who have served on the Denton City Council and other commissions influencing local policy.

“It’s hard to even imagine what Denton would be like without the university,” he says. “What a dull place it would be.”

The relationship between town and gown continues. Hudspeth and UNT President Neal Smatresk meet quarterly to talk about upcoming issues, such as preparing for winter storms, and Hudspeth often represents the city at campus events.

He also works to help graduates stay in Denton by bringing in more business.

“The city’s role is to work with UNT so that graduates can land corporate jobs and have a great livelihood here,” he says. “I can say to prospective companies, ‘Here’s the talent. These people will hit the ground running and are ready to go.’”

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Drawing Talent Denton also has been a place with an exceptionally creative pool of students.

In 1946, UNT created the first jazz studies program in the country, building to a nationally renowned College of Music. Future superstars like Roy Orbison, Don Henley and Norah Jones enrolled at UNT. Programs in the College of Visual Arts and Design helped nationally known artists like the late Jesús Moroles (’78) and Dana Tanamachi (’07) along their path. And writers like Larry McMurtry (’58) and Anne Rice got their start in the English program.

“Denton draws people from all over the world,” says Sharon Barnhill (’77), a small business owner who is active in Theatre Denton and other organizations. “We are a very diverse place. Because we have a big arts and music school, we draw people who are talented.”

For many decades, the music scene brought in visitors to Fry Street, the area north of campus that boasted clubs like Rick’s Place and funky eateries like Jim’s Diner and the Flying Tomato.

Left Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth (’20), in the City Council chambers, was born and raised in Denton.

Bottom Darien Orr (’86) stayed in Denton after college when she married Bill Orr (’63), a third-generation Dentonite.

Music alum David J. Anzaldúa Pierce (’97), a freelance composer and founder of Denton’s Day of the Dead Festival, remembers salsa nights at Bagheri’s.

“People would just come out and dance in the streets,” he says. “It would be OK and would just happen. Those are big ‘Only in Denton’ moments.”

From 1979 to 2007, Fry Street Fair featured a wide variety of bands. Music fans also flocked to Rubber Gloves, now owned

by Rob Houdek (’78), near the railroad tracks. Groups like Brave Combo, formed by UNT alumni, grabbed national attention.

“My experience as an artist and musician in Denton was seeing some incredibly eclectic bands making great music,” Pierce says. “They were uniquely Denton bands.”

New Ideas One of those uniquely Denton bands, Midlake, has gone from playing in the Music Practice North Building on UNT’s campus to the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

The group not only has created great music, but also has helped the downtown square and music scene thrive.

Formed in the late 1990s by students in the College of Music, the band never left its roots in Denton. In fact, its members established Paschall Bar, helped found the restaurants Barley and Board and 940’s Kitchen & Cocktails, and run Redwood Studio — homebase for their production company, Redwood Music — and Denton Music Workshop, a music studio offering lessons, recording and audio production and rehearsal space for the community.

The band’s drummer, McKenzie Smith, is a former One O’Clock Lab Band member who attended UNT from 1997 to 2000.

“It’s really exciting to come up with ideas and be a part of something,” he says.

The musicians are not the only alums who are creating Denton’s cultural and economic boom.

Others have launched unique businesses, such as Oak Street Drafthouse and Armadillo Ale Works, which create their

own craft beer and host community events; the DIME Store, in which makers sell their crafts; and Mashup Market, a small shop that sells vegan food products. UNT’s College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism sells alumni and student artwork and other goods at the UNT CoLab, off the square.

Often, these businesses began with a simple idea and owners who persevered.

Pan Ector Industries started in a garage at a house on the corner of Panhandle and Ector streets. Nick Webber (’10) and Michael Little (’09), graduates of the College of Visual Arts and Design, stored their printmaking equipment in the house they rented there.

They first got a request for a run of tote bags. Soon, some local bands wanted T-shirts and merchandise to sell at their own shows, and Webber and Little often brought their equipment to Rubber Gloves.

Now you can’t go to an event in Denton without seeing the Pan Ector crew spinning their machine to make T-shirts.

When the business started in 2009, Denton was much quieter during the summer when the students left, but it began to change.

“It was something you could feel slowly happening,” Webber says. “More and more people began sticking around.”

Artists Beth Klein (’87) and Roxane Clark (’95), business and education alums who opened Sleeping Lizzards gift store in 1992, have seen that change too. Their original clients were mostly mothers and older generations. But the advent of TikTok has brought in college students who want to buy crystals and other hot items trending on social media.

Klein, a jewelry designer and silversmith, and Clark, who makes handcrafted soaps, have not only helped the Denton economy by employing various people in their eclectic shop and selling their wares in many of the local festivals — they’ve also promoted the work of other Denton artisans and other independently owned Denton businesses.

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Above From left, Beth Klein (’87) and Roxane Clark (’95) opened Sleeping Lizzards gift shop, a unique shopping experience in Denton, in 1992.

And Dentonites have helped them too.

When their store flooded 14 years ago, local businesses sent clean-up crews and food.

During the two-month lockdown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, customers bought gift certificates — some as much as $500 — and purchased items online.

“Denton has a deep-rooted core of people who value individuality, arts, creativity and local business,” Klein says. “Denton is growing so fast, you would think that this ideal might disappear, but that has not been the case.”

Building Community In 2009, Orr, the realtor and UNT art alum, eyed a newspaper ad for a new community market. She signed up for a $10 booth to sell her notecards featuring photos of her vintage Barbie and Ken dolls frolicking around Denton sites. She joined about 10 other people that first day.

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“Denton people really want to support local makers and artists,” she says. “It was a perfect combination of the two things.”

The Denton Community Market has grown, now attracting 500 to 1,000 visitors and 50 to 70 vendors, who sell everything from soap to food each week. People gather to listen to local musicians and munch from food trucks’ offerings.

And Dentonites love a festival. There are more than a dozen such events each year, including the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival and the Denton Holiday Lighting Festival, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Many are organized by alumni.

The Day of the Dead Festival began in 2011 when Pierce wanted to produce a Halloween cabaret musical for families called Cirque du Horror and pitched the idea to Dan Mojica, who owns Dan’s Silverleaf. Pierce envisioned a Shakespeare in the Park-type layout around Industrial and Hickory Streets with a minifestival built around it. The event would be set

in the fall to celebrate harvest, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, a holiday Pierce grew up celebrating that reflects his Hispanic heritage.

The festival was packed with people that first day, and it continues to attract hundreds each year with its arts and food booths, children’s area and coffin races. A huge Denton Day of the Dead Festival mural now takes up a wall on Hickory Street.

“I didn’t have any idea how grand it was going to look,” Pierce says of the mural.

“Every time I go by there, it’s hard not to think of coffin races and that time of the year.

I have to pinch myself sometimes.”

And there’s the Denton Black Film Festival, which takes place in the first months of the year and was originally started to raise scholarship money. Its first screening in 2015 brought in 800 people to see 13 films. Now the festival attracts about 9,000 filmgoers and has added art, music, dance, spoken word and a tech expo.

Although the festival has temporarily pivoted to an online format due to COVID-19, it takes over downtown in its in-person format, booking up venues for screenings and workshops. When it began, then-Mayor Chris Watts (’83, ’92 M.Ed.) told the event’s co-founder, Harry Eaddy (’79 M.B.A.), that he was struck by the tremendous amount of diversity, not only in terms of race but age.

“He thought that we did a lot to bring people together and, during the festival, Denton became a very diverse community downtown,” says Eaddy, who founded the event with his wife, Linda (’72, ’82 M.B.A.). “It reinforced what we believe is our mission: to share culture and build community.”

Making an Impact That sense of community is a big reason why people love Denton and are so willing to give back to it.

“We’re still a small enough city in which people can make an impact,” Hudspeth says.

Josh Berthume (’05 ’10 M.A.), a political science major, noticed Denton had a gap in its business community. After graduating and settling in Denton with his wife, Diana Foner (’07), he often drove to Dallas for freelance creative advertising work and wondered why no one had set up such a business in Denton.

“My wife said, ‘You could be that person,’” he says, and in 2011, he founded Swash Labs.

The business creates ads and social media campaigns for its clients, including Dentonbased Little Guys Movers, co-owned by alum Marcus Watson.

“Denton is a community that is interested in your ideas,” Berthume says. “There’s a real community spirit around new ideas that I’ve found very welcoming. With as much as Denton has grown, it’s maintained that scrappy entrepreneurial spirit.”

Kiara Hunter (’21) feels the same way. She and her husband, Charlie (’21), who were both applied arts and sciences majors, volunteered with 35 Denton, the music festival that took place off and on from 2009 to 2016.

“We loved celebrating Denton’s diverse musical culture and sharing it with the community,” she says.

When 35 Denton folded, the Hunters became involved with the Denton Music and Arts Collaborative, an organization that supports creatives by subsidizing insurance for health care, with an annual fundraiser, Summer Hangout, and other events.

And, in 2013, they co-founded Friends with Benefits along with Mindy Arendt.

The nonprofit organization has raised over $140,000 for 33 nonprofit organizations, including Denton Friends of the Family, as well as annual winter-wear clothing drives for Our Daily Bread. The organization attracts a youthful crowd with its fun, low-cost events, such as We Denton Drag It and She-Rock.

Hunter says all of the experience she’s gained from volunteering helped steer her life in a different direction, prompting her to finish her degree and work in the nonprofit sector. Alongside her volunteer work, she is proud to serve Denton as the executive director for Denton Animal Support Foundation, a local nonprofit that supports the City of Denton Animal Shelter.

She has seen firsthand how the whole town pulls together with sincerity.

“Denton is an amazing, authentic community,” she says. “People feel that energy when they’re walking around downtown. We’re doing what we can to support one another, and I think that attracts and keeps people.”

Read more about alumni who are the creative forces behind the band Midlake and innovative businesses such as Armadillo Ale Works, which cohosts “UNT on Tap,” a researcher speaker series from UNT’s Division of Research and Innovation. Also read amusing “Only in Denton” anecdotes from locals.

Listen to UNT Pod, Episode 32: Dentonpalooza Celebrates the City’s Oddball Charm.

Watch the video Denton – Where Creativity, Caring and Culture Thrive.

northtexan.unt.edu/online

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HEAD OF THE CLASS Text by Erin Cristales, Brittney Dear and Danielle Zachariah Photography by Ahna Hubnik

ALUMNI FROM UNT’S COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES USE THEIR DEGREES TO RISE TO THE TOP OF THEIR FIELDS — AND CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER.

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Brenda Barajas-Koch (’10, ’20 M.A.) Spanish, women’s and gender studies Job title: Prevention education specialist for Latinx populations with the Violence Prevention and Education team under the Rape Crisis and Victim Services Department at The Women’s Center of Tarrant County; previously worked as a Spanish teacher and as a liaison between UNT’s Outreach office and the Consulate General of Mexico in Dallas to create educational opportunities for Mexican nationals Major requirements/skills of current job: We talk about such personal issues that you have to learn how to navigate different audiences and to talk about these issues in a sensitive and culturally competent way. We’re trying to prevent violent crime and sexual violence before it ever occurs. We’re talking to people about healthy relationships, online safety, consent, the dynamics of sexual assault, and how to better serve different groups of survivors in a culturally resonant or culturally competent way, whether that be working with LGBTQ+ survivors, non-English speaking survivors, or immigrant and refugee populations.

Career highlight(s): When I was a liaison for UNT and the Mexican Consulate, so many families and students saw themselves in me because I was a firstgeneration student. It was really cool to be able to let them know about my journey and help them realize that this university is for them — higher education is for them. With my current role, I’m so fortunate to do something that I am passionate about and that is very personal to me. It’s an immense responsibility to carry, but it’s also just such a privilege.

How your degrees helped you get to where you are today: The soft skills you learn — empathy, communication — are applicable in so many different jobs and just help you be a better person.

They’ve helped me to really connect and build relationships in every role that I’ve had.

Best advice you ever received: Earning a degree requires you to devote so much time and energy and money — do something that you’re passionate about instead of just doing something that you’re “supposed” to do.

Carl Whitaker (’15 M.A.) Geography Job title: Director of research and analysis at RealPage; previously served as RealPage’s manager of market analytics and market analyst Major requirements/skills of current job: My team in particular works more on the market research and the investment side of the equation. A perfect example of this is, this morning, I had someone call me and say they were looking at buying an apartment property in Savannah, Georgia. We forecast for the next five years what the expected occupancy is going to be, what the expected rent would be and how a local economy is going to drive apartment demand. A lot of my current job ties back to geography because it’s understanding what it is about this place that makes it different. Like, what makes Denton different than Austin, and vice versa? These are differences our team helps explain.

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Stacy Rhone (’88) Economics; also earned M.S. in civil engineering from UT Austin in 1993 Job title: CEO of BiGAUSTIN (focused on business investment growth to empower underserved Texans to excel and prosper through education, counseling and capital)

Photo courtesy of Stacy Rhone

Career highlight(s): When I was hired as a program specialist at TxDOT in 1989, I was the first African American female in highway design construction. They told me, “It’s great to hire you because we’re killing two birds with one stone.” However, by the time I left there, the highlight for me was that they understood that it wasn’t about hiring someone because they were Black or because they were female. They knew that I was totally capable of doing my job.

And then today, having been one of the only Black female developers in Austin to come in and purchase and develop 38 acres of land when everybody said, “You’re not going to be able to get that done at a nonprofit organization.” Well, we got it done, and we’re building one of the most fabulous resource centers that will perhaps ever impact Central Texas. The project is going to impact so many lives by creating small businesses, jobs and affordable housing.

How your degree helped you get to where you are today: My thesis advisor, Dr. Murray Rice, had a background in academia, which is very applied. The geography analysis used was less theoretical and more about how to use it in a business setting, especially through an analytics framework. Working with him was very beneficial in helping me figure out applied perspectives, which is sometimes a little tougher to explain, but I thought he did a great job with that.

Best advice you ever received: The advice that I would give to anybody is always seek balance. I think balance is the most important thing in life, whether it’s a work-life balance or school-social balance. Be prudent with money but don’t be so prudent that you don’t enjoy yourself.

There’s always that sweet spot.

What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I really like music — all kinds of music from all kinds of genres, and I love finding new music. In my office, there are like 20 albums behind me, and each album is from a part of my past that really resonates with me. Like, I can point back to one and be like, “Oh yeah, that’s when I was doing this.” I also love going to music festivals; before COVID, I had been to Bonnaroo five years in a row, and I attended Burning Man this year. I think that surprises people.

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How your degree helped you get to where you are today: As an African American, understanding the importance of building generational wealth, understanding the market and investing — that deep understanding of how the economy works has played into everything that I’ve ever done.

My economics degree has been extremely important in helping me to establish a baseline for every step I’ve taken in my career.

Advice for students majoring in economics: Be very serious about your studies. Economics is not the type of degree where you get any playtime. Every course is a challenge, and you have to be very focused.

Best advice you ever received: Stay agile. Stay encouraged.

Keep working hard, applying for jobs and reaching out to alumni. Life is all about the opportunities, and there are a lot of opportunities to be found with UNT alumni. There are many alums I have created great partnerships with.

What people would be most surprised to learn about you: Community service is more important to me than money. Most people think that when you’re in economics, your focus is money. But community service is at the heart of what I do and that is why I stay at the company I’m at. I focus on community service and public service more than anything because I believe the financial part of it will come to you over time.

Courtney Brazile (’05, ’09 M.A.) Communication studies Job title: Professor of communication studies, Dallas College; part-time house manager at Dallas Summer Musicals Organizations: Being involved at UNT helped shape where I am today. I previously participated in the Performance Interest Group; I also led as president my junior year.

Serving as a student leader afforded an opportunity to meet other students with a passion for performance and communication. I was able to hone my leadership skills in a student-centered atmosphere while making authentic interpersonal connections.

Career highlight(s): One of the highlights of my career involves producing a documentary titled Director Your Future — a short film about the obstacles and stereotypes facing minority males. The documentary was created as a promotional video for the Men’s Empowerment Coalition, a retention program for male students of color at Eastfield College. The film features the powerful stories of three students who share their successes and challenges through their college journey. What started off as a two-minute promo video turned into a 26-minute documentary, and the premise is for young people to realize they’re in the director’s chair to write their script. The project was challenging; however, it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Another highlight was serving as the commencement speaker at my institution after being chosen by my peers as the 2018 Excellence in Teaching Award recipient at Eastfield College.

How your degree helped you get to where you are today: Courses such as interpersonal communication develop important skills for building and maintaining sustainable relationships. Public speaking is instrumental in my faculty role and when I present locally or at national conferences.

Intercultural communication has been an integral component for delivering my own TEDx talk on diversity.

Moreover, I want to empower my students to address the stereotypes and biases they experience to become change agents in their communities.

Advice for students majoring in communication studies: It’s OK to shift gears. For instance, I started college with a desire to teach high school, and now I’m employed at the collegiate level. Assess your strengths and your talents. Be present and learn from all life’s experiences. Be mindful and approach your courses with fresh curiosity. Get to know your instructors and get involved because extracurricular activities, internships and networking provide the path to where you ultimately want to be in your career.

“

ASSESS YOUR STRENGTHS AND YOUR TALENTS. BE PRESENT AND LEARN FROM ALL LIFE’S EXPERIENCES. BE MINDFUL AND APPROACH YOUR COURSES WITH FRESH CURIOSITY. — Courtney Brazile

Learn about more CLASS alums who are making their mark. northtexan.unt.edu/head-of-class

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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INSPIRED DELIGHT Text by Jessica DeLeón

The Texas Fashion Collection’s new exhibition features artifacts that make viewers look for the details.

From left Two wedding dresses boast unique features. Victor Costa’s white dress includes a skirt formed of a lattice of satin cording, while Vera Wang’s dress was originally white and dyed black. Designer Ashish Gupta, working under the ASHISH brand, created this hand-crocheted outfit inspired by his grandmother’s quilt. Cristóbal Balenciaga’s pink evening gown stands next to a black-and-white printed silk faille dress with a dalmatian print against a white background, designed by Hubert de Givenchy, who studied under Balenciaga. A dress by Michael Faircloth (’83) is highlighted by a gold silk fabric and an embroidered bodice.

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In the Details The dress looks like a quilt many people could find draped across their grandmother’s sofa. Until you look a little closer.

“That piece is nothing but sequins,” says Annette Becker (’15 M.A.), director of UNT’s Texas Fashion Collection.

The gown, created by Indian-born, London-based designer Ashish Gupta, working under the brand ASHISH, is composed of a lightweight, almost sheer, black fabric.

And it’s one of more than 35 garments and accessories on display at the exhibition, Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection, running through May 21 in the College of Visual Arts and Design Gallery in the UNT Art Building.

As the title suggests, the clothes are designed to evoke pleasure in viewers when they see them first hand.

“You can’t understand the depth of that beauty and craftsmanship unless you’re in person,” says Becker, who curated the show.

All of the items were drawn from the nearly 20,000piece permanent collection to reflect its history.

“We wanted to make sure fashion’s past is in conversation in the present,” Becker says.

Pieces include a black Vera Wang dress that originally was white when it went down the runway but later translated to black to be more wearable for formal events. A gold dress with intricate embroidery on the bodice by Michael Faircloth (’83) shows the Texas designer’s caliber of haute couture. Cristóbal Balenciaga’s confection of a dress features a voluminous skirt — made with real hoops — and an exuberant pink color.

Becker says the fashion artifacts often feature unexpected details that turn unassuming pieces into works of art.

One Patrick Kelly outfit inspired the whole exhibition. At first glance, it looks like a typical skirt suit. But as visitors look closer, they’ll see the buttons are made of dice and the pockets seem randomly placed, including in the back of the suit — perhaps a reference to luck, as this collection was inspired in part by Las Vegas.

The exhibition’s title was inspired by The New York Times best-selling collection of essays The Book of Delights

by Ross Gay, and is meant to encourage visitors to think more about each artifact and celebrate the distinctive story it holds.

“Clothes exist in our everyday lives,” Becker says. “But if we train ourselves to see delight in the details around us, it opens us to see the world in new and exciting ways.”

The free exhibition is open through May 21, with gallery hours from noon to 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday. Explore the Texas Fashion Collection’s digital archives at digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/TXFC Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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EN

They painted their faces green. They created noise. They got wild. The Mean Green Maniacs — an enthusiastic group of students who shared their UNT pride in ultimate fashion this winter for the men’s and women’s basketball teams — took charge in the Super Pit, boasting their own section and hosting tailgates before the games with contagious energy that even grabbed attention on national television.

E AG L ES ’ N E S T

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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 nest. Send your news to the North Texan (see contact information on page 7 ).

1966 FERNANDO PIÑÓN (’71

M.A.), Laredo, wrote a new book during COVID-19 quarantine called A Man Named Fernando, a memoir about his life. Fernando taught at San Antonio College and the University of Texas at San Antonio. He edited the Laredo Morning Times from 1970 to 1974, making him the first Mexican-American to edit a Texas daily newspaper. He also wrote for the San Antonio Express-News and owned and published El Visitante Dominical, a national Catholic newspaper. While at UNT, he was editor of The Campus Chat newspaper and a member of Sigma Delta Chi.

1967

JOEL DUSKIN (M.M.), Bedford, is enjoying retirement after teaching for 32 years at various schools in Arkansas, as well as Temple, HurstEuless-Bedford and Dallas ISDs. His first job was as junior high school band director in Hot Springs, Ark., where one of his saxophone students was future U.S. President Bill Clinton. He later taught at schools in DeQueen, Ark., and Texarkana, Texas, before working as assistant professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. He also studied for his Ph.D. and taught part time at North Texas.

1973 DAVID W. WALLACE

(M.A., ’77 Ph.D.), Macon, Ga., wrote his first novel, Paradis Rue, which

follows a young woman who models for French Impressionist painters in Paris in the late 1800s. He is a licensed psychologist in Texas who has also served as dean of students at the University of Houston, dean of college affairs at Samuel Merritt University and adjunct professor of psychology at Brandman University. He also owns a media consulting business. He was elected an “Outstanding Alumni” at UNT in 1995.

1982

LIBBY DANIELS, Red Oak, was named chief of communications for Dallas ISD, where she has worked since 2008 in positions that include acting chief and deputy chief of communications, executive director in charge of media relations, digital media, marketing, Dallas Schools Television, special events and customer service.

1985

MARK ZESKE (M.A.), Irving, was elected to the Irving City Council. He is an English teacher in Irving ISD and previously worked as a sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News. He also served on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the Irving Public Library Board and the City of Irving Cable Board.

2000

JOHN POCH (Ph.D.), Lubbock, has published the book, Gracious: Poems of the 21st Century South, in which he selected poetry

DREAM BLOOMS Lauren McMinn Clarke (’00) had no doubt about where she wanted to attend school. Going Mean Green was a family tradition. She even knew that she wanted to study in UNT’s College of Music and made many fond memories during her four years of college.

Clarke graduated with her bachelor’s in violin performance and a minor in music theory. But after graduation, she decided to take another direction in her professional career so she could make a difference in the world. She’s launched Turn, a DFW-based composting business that she hopes will help the environment. Turn is a subscription service that collects organic waste from customers and sends it to local farmers to use for planting and growing produce.

“We are passionate about education and encouraging people to compost at home,” Clarke says. “We also help people understand how to grow their own food and compost their household organic waste.”

— Danielle Zachariah Read the full story. northtexan. unt.edu/concerto-compost

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

legacy family

Birds of a feather

From left, top: Susan Nurre, Sara Nurre Tarvin, Whitney Spivey Tarvin, Becky Nurre, Kate Tarvin Winsor

Family time is paramount for the Nurres.

Kate Tarvin Winsor (’06) can remember precious Sundays around the dinner table at her grandparents, Jerre (’98) and Ted Nurre’s, house after church. And every Memorial Day, the whole clan would gather to celebrate the anniversary of her grandparents, who married right before Ted shipped out for service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. The Nurres have another longstanding family tradition that spans four generations, but this one wasn’t made with intention.

Dating back to the early 1900s, eight female members of the Nurre family, along with extended family, have attended UNT.

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Jerre’s aunt Lucile Umphress attended the university when it was known as North Texas State Normal College. A 1923 Yucca yearbook lists her as a member of both the Cottage Cousins and Scribes clubs. Later, Jerre, her daughters — Sara, Susan and Becky — and granddaughter Kate all enrolled at the university.

There was never any pressure to become an Eagle, Kate says. One by one though, they found their calling at UNT. Kate’s mom Sara (’79, ’83 M.Ed.) and aunt Susan (’81) enrolled at North Texas State University in the fall of 1977 as accounting majors.

Sara, the oldest of her family, later switched to education in preparation for teaching in the K-12 classroom.

Their little sister, Becky (’84, ’86 M.S.) would make the trek to Denton from the family home in Sherman on the weekends to visit her sisters for sporting events, dinners at Texas Pickup Café and other fun outings. When it came time for Becky to make her own decision on where to go to college, UNT seemed a logical choice. She was interested in helping people with disabilities, which eventually led her to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech pathology and audiology followed by a career in speech pathology working with Denton ISD, Denton State School and University of Texas at Dallas, among other places.

“UNT gave me a foundational base to a bunch of different beginnings of knowledge in my field,” Becky says.

As much as the Nurre sisters were proud of their own degrees, they were even more elated when their mom, Jerre, decided to attend UNT. After watching her daughters excel in college, Jerre felt the pull to finally get her own degree in English in 1998. Since her husband, Ted, would drive her to campus, he signed up to audit classes on WWII history. Having served in that war himself, Ted offered unique, primary source perspective for his classmates.

“My mom always instilled in us that education was important,” Becky says. “It wasn’t if you are going to college, but when. So for her to be able to receive a degree herself was significant.”

— Heather Noel Read more about the Nurre family. northtexan.unt.edu/birds-feather

EN • CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

from Southern writers in the last three decades. A professor in Texas Tech University’s creative writing program, he has written five books of poetry.

2003

MELANIE GIBSON (M.S.), Fort Worth, wrote Kicking and Screaming: A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts about how she overcame her struggles with mental illness through practicing taekwondo.

She has worked in the health care industry since 2004, with roles as a hospital librarian, corporate trainer and learning designer.

2005

KARA SCHECTMAN, Dallas, joined the Benchmark Income Group as its marketing director. She was elected to the board of directors for the Dallas chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and recently was awarded the Pegasus Pro of the Year and named to the 40 under 40 list.

2007

SHON JOSEPH (M.Ed.), DeSoto, principal of DeSoto High School, has been named Outstanding Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals and will vie for the national title that will be announced in July 2022. Shon earned his master’s in educational leadership and administration from UNT through a Southwest Securities Communities Foundation of Texas Superintendent Certification Scholarship.

2013

SEAN MURPHY (M.M. ’19 D.M.A.), Cleveland, Ohio, is the owner of Murphy Music Press, which has published saxophone and wind ensemble compositions since 2012.

“The President’s Own” United States

Marine Band performed the premiere of one of its publications, Fanfare Politeia by Kimberly K. Archer, during the 2021 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony. Sean is an assistant professor of arts management and entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University.

2014

ARIA BELL, Dallas, is a public relations consultant for AT&T. She also is project manager for ColorComm, an organization for women of color to congregate and network.

2015

KELLY CHERMACK, Frisco, passed the Texas State Bar in May 2020 and accepted a position at Fears Nachawati Law Firm. During law school at Texas Tech, Kelly was director of negotiations for the Board of Barristers and competed in various advocacy competitions. During her final year in law school, Kelly received the American Bankruptcy Institute Medal of Excellence.

2016

LYANNE ALVARADO, St. Louis, joined the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the administrative department as part of its Voices Fund. She previously served as an assistant choir director for Vivian Field Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.

2019

GERSOM ADU, Dallas, is founder and CEO of the newly formed company Vien Health, which bills itself as the first comprehensive virtual care solution connecting health organizations, doctors and patients across the continent of Africa with an end-to-end electronic health record (EHR) system. While at UNT, Gersom was a Terry Scholar and a computer

SOUP’S ON! Following her retirement, Lori McLain (’82) decided to take a chance and enter a recipe contest.

She wasn’t a chef by trade — McLain earned a bachelor’s in journalism with a concentration in advertising from UNT, where she was involved in the advertising club and student advertising competitions. After graduation, she spent her career in the advertising industry.

Still, McLain managed to win that recipe contest, and the free trip that came with it. Since then, she’s been on a competitive — and rather tasty — culinary journey that has taken her to the World Food Championships, the biggest competition in food sport. This year, she won.

“I am a foodie and love to try new fun food while traveling and at festivals,” McLain says. “It’s fun to develop recipes using bits and pieces of great foodie experiences.”

— Danielle Zachariah Read more about McLain, and check out her Mean Green chili recipe. northtexan.unt.edu/soups

Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

Mean Green Pride

engineering major. He then went on to work with companies such as Microsoft, CDW, NTT Data and Huntsman.

2

LINDSAY POPE (D.M.A.), Williams­ burg, Mass., won the Julius Herford Dissertation Prize for outstanding doctoral terminal research project in choral music — making her the first UNT student to win the prestigious honor. Her dissertation, “Beyond the Binary: The Intersection of Gender and Cross-Cultural Identity in Reena Esmail’s Life and Choral Works,” also was recognized with the 2019 Toulouse Dissertation Award in the Fine Arts field by UNT’s Toulouse Graduate School. She is visiting director of choral activities at Williams College.

2020

1

1

QUINN TYLER LILLEY IS ALREADY showing off her Mean Green style.

Quinn, pictured at three months, was born May 2021 to Marcy Bishop-Lilley (’16 M.F.A.), who is a career development specialist supporting the College of Visual Arts and Design and the College of Music.

2 JACOB FLORES (’14) PROPOSED

to Andrea Plum (’16, ’21 M.Ed.) on the downtown square before attending the Homecoming football game last year. They met on Bumble, but Andrea said it was pictures of him traveling to UNT games that caught her eye. “Our

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3 first conversation on Bumble involved discussing the football team in great length,” she says. “The first text he ever sent me was ‘North,’ to which I smiled and responded ‘Texas.’”

3

MORGAN MCTYRE, 5 — CLASS of 2038 — participated in a clinic with the North Texas Dancers and performed the routine at a men’s basketball game in February. Her mother is Sophilia McTyre (’09), assistant director for the TRIO Talent Search.

CINTIA ORTIZ, Washington, D.C., is an Environmental Justice Fellow with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), where she assists with the management of LULAC’s environmental justice portfolio. While at UNT, she was active in Future Without Poverty, the We Mean Green Fund Committee, the Geography Student Association and Phi Sigma Pi Honor fraternity.

CLARISSA REDWINE, New York City, has produced a podcast about the first tech union in U.S. history, Kickstarter United. The project was part of her fellowship at the New York University School of Law.

RETROSPECTIVE

movie shoot is a ‘necessary’ remembrance for UNT alumni

Photos from Rick McKinney (‘90) show props and moments from the set.

WITH JUST SECONDS LEFT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER, the crowd starts chanting “block that kick” while the underdogs strategize their next move. “There’s an open man in the end zone,” the announcer yells over the stadium sound system. “It’s Charlie Banks!” And it’s good!

The Fighting Armadillos defeat the Texas Colts 22-21 in a nail-biter of a game in Fouts Field.

Sound familiar? North Texas fans have probably watched this movie at least once, and those of a certain age may have even been in the stands for the filming. Necessary Roughness hit theaters 30 years ago last fall and still has an impact on the Mean Green Family.

The football comedy features several key locations — Paul and Manu’s dorm room in Kerr Hall, Suzanne Carter’s office in the old Biology Building, a hospital room that features a great view of the Hurley Administration Building, and all of the game day action at Fouts Field. In April 1991, Paramount Pictures began production at UNT, making this football movie magic happen — with actors Scott Bakula, Sinbad, Jason Bateman, Rob Schneider and Kathy Ireland, to name a few, as well as famous athletes for cameo roles.

Not only did they bring a great cast and crew to Denton, but they also gave students a chance to work as assistants and interns and, along with faculty and staff, as extras. There was an even larger role

waiting for one new graduate. Rick McKinney (’90) was looking for a job when he was approached by Jim Hobdy (’69), then UNT’s assistant athletic director of marketing, about a request from Paramount to be in the film as the team mascot.

“I got a call from the assistant head costumer, Barry Kellogg,” says McKinney, a former member of Talons who served as the Eagle mascot Eppy (later renamed Scrappy) during UNT basketball games, and also served as the equipment liaison between the film crew and the athletic department. “And later that month, I met head costumer Dan Moore, who took me to Dallas to get costume fit for the Armadillo mascot suit.”

The UNT connections don’t stop there. Most of the fill-in football players were UNT students. And several alumni kickstarted their careers with their experience on the set, including Micheline Mundo (’91), who worked as an extras casting coordinator; Michael “Jocco” Phillips (’92), who was a production assistant; and Bone Hampton (’93), a football extra who got encouragement from Sinbad to pursue his career as a stand-up comic. So while they’ve paved “paradise” (or at least Fouts Field) and put up a parking lot, the memories of the Fightin’ Armadillos live on.

— Kayla Lindberg Learn more about alumni’s memories from the set. northtexan.unt.edu/necessary-roughness-turns-30 Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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GIVING IMPACT

CREATING NEW CAREER CENTER Wilson Jones (’85) and his wife, Jane, donate $5M to the G. Brint Ryan College of Business, the second-largest gift in the college’s history, to create The Wilson Jones Career Center.

Wilson Jones (’85) might have grown up with North Texas State University in his backyard, but the Denton native says the school opened his eyes to see a world full of opportunity. Now he’s helping the next generation of students learn to do the same and leaving a legacy at his alma mater.

Jones says his college experience was challenging. He struggled through school, working two and three jobs at a time to get by.

“I remember working late one night at a tire store and showing up late to my night class, dirty and stinky,” Jones says.

“I felt terrible walking into that room, so I sat in the back.”

When the professor, Chuck Bimmerle, asked Jones to stay after class, he thought it was to be admonished. But the professor knew Jones was working hard outside of the classroom.

Bimmerle told Jones he had a seat up front — and that he was needed there. Even with the encouragement, Jones felt he did not have the energy to study like he needed and considered dropping out. The idea was to build up some money, then return to school and focus on his education instead of his jobs.

The night he planned to tell Bimmerle he was withdrawing, the professor said something that changed the course of Jones’ life: He had struggled to get through college, too, and Jones needed to persevere — he had a bright future ahead.

“At that point, how could I tell him I was quitting? I went home that night, looked in the mirror and said, ‘OK, you can do this. Someone believes in you,’” Jones says. “So, I hung in there and realized if you go that extra mile and put in the effort, even though it’s painful at times, it will pay off in the long run.”

He found his way, and the recently retired CEO of Oshkosh Corporation and his wife, Jane — who also worked her way through college — are helping current UNT students do the same. The couple recently gave the second-largest gift in the history of the G. Brint Ryan College of Business: $5 million to create The Wilson Jones Career Center.

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This space in the Business Leadership Building, with construction expected to begin this summer, will provide more adequate and accessible support for career readiness at one of the largest business schools in the nation. Its focus will be on internship opportunities, something Jones was passionate about in his time at Oshkosh, where he made it a point to meet all 300 of his interns each summer.

“Jane and I were both first-generation college students and realize the importance of being prepared to start the career journey,” he says. “We’re proud to support a robust career center and know it will make a difference for UNT students.”

This isn’t the Jones’ first time giving back to support student success at UNT. They have already created the Wilson and Jane Jones Endowment Scholarship, which is merit-based, and the Wilson and Jane Jones Extra Mile Scholarship, given to students who are working at least part time to support their education expenses.

Through the new career center, Jones hopes to help students find what they’re passionate about, have some fun and achieve their goals. He is grateful for the foundation the university built for his life. And he has a message for his fellow UNT alumni.

“Be proud of the school you went to. Look where you are.

Look what it’s done for you,” he says. “It charges me up to say I went to the University of North Texas.”

— Amanda Yanowski

EN • GIVING IMPACT

“UNT really places your foot in the ground and gives you a very solid foundation for your education experiences. The opportunity to go to school and actually work really gave me the feeling that I could accomplish more.”

— LaTonya Smith (’12) B.S. in computer engineering; Find Your Flight Path participant

FIND YOUR FLIGHT PATH We’re proud to showcase some of our outstanding alumni as part of the Find Your Flight Path initiative, produced in partnership with UNT Advising Services to help current students understand career pathways after graduation. Watch the video series at vpaa.unt.edu/aservices/exploring-majors to hear some of the unique ways our alumni use their majors.

Have a story to share? Email alumni@unt.edu.

Help Students Soar as a Mean Green Mentor “I joined the mentorship program due to my passion for networking with students and sharing my tips to prepare for post-grad life. Being a 2018 graduate, I feel I can provide relatable insight on how I started and found success in my career.”

– Liz Miralrio (’18), Mean Green Mentor Do you have college and career advice to share? Give back as a Mean Green Mentor — a program from the UNT Alumni Association and the UNT Career Center. Our mentors use their unique skillsets to help students move through college, build professional networks and prepare for successful futures. And don’t worry about overcommitting — mentors are able to control the type and frequency of connections. Mentoring can range anywhere from a brief 30-minute conversation to developing a longer three- to six-month mentoring relationship.

And these connections already have positively affected students both in their mindsets and career paths.

“I look at all these really successful people, and as a student, it’s really intimidating to just message somebody,” says Kory Punch, a senior biological sciences major. “So I would encourage every student who’s at UNT to use this goldmine of an application to seek out more experience.

You can’t go wrong with getting advice from people who’ve already been where you are.”

Learn how to become a Mean Green Mentor. meangreenmentors.unt.edu Spring 2022 | northtexan.unt.edu | north Texan

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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

unt alumni, faculty, staff and students are the university’s greatest 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 contact information on page 7).

1940s HOMER B. JOHNSON (’49), Garland.

He attended North Texas on a football scholarship and was a member of the Geezles. At age 20, he was assistant football coach for Garland ISD, then served in the Korean War before returning for a 68-year career in Garland ISD as head football coach and athletic director. In 1985, Garland ISD renamed its stadium after him.

1950s JAMES CURL (’51), Galveston. He served in the U.S. Navy, then studied business at North Texas, where he met his wife Elaine (’50) in the library. He kept a garden behind a white picket fence in the front of his home and walked his dog every day.

JOHN WRIGHT JR. (’51), Dallas. He was a member of the Chilton Society and established the John and Topsy Wright Regents Graduate Scholarship with his wife, the late Topsy Roberson (’50), whom he met at North Texas. A practicing lawyer for 60 years, he was a three-term member of the Texas House of Representatives.

ALTON H. PETTIT JR. (’53), Racine, Wisconsin. A World War II veteran, Alton served in the Army Air Forces.

He worked for a variety of national and international firms. Survivors include his wife, Sophie Pettit (’53, ’54 M.S.), and son Alex (’14 Ph.D.).

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QUINCY ARMSTRONG (’54), Grandview. He played center position and linebacker from 1949 to 1951. In 1993, he was inducted into the North Texas Athletics Hall of Fame. Quincy played pro football in Canada, then played for the New York Giants and the Cleveland Browns. He later worked as a coach and administrator. While at UNT, he was a member of the Geezles.

H.B. COX (’56), Houston. He was president of his junior and senior classes. He was a charter member of the Sigma Nu Zeta Omicron chapter.

After graduation, he served in the U.S. Air Force. He had a 35-year career with Shell Oil Co, living in Brazil, Syria and other spots around the world.

CHARLES E. COLE (’57), Santa Fe, New Mexico. After graduating from North Texas, he received his divinity degree from Yale and served as a pastor before spending his career as a writer and editor. He spent his life advocating for civil rights.

LINDA YOUNG FARRINGTON (’57), Dallas, was a member of the President’s Council along with her husband, Jerry Farrington (’55), for their donations to UNT. They were married 63 years.

Linda was a first-grade teacher in Midland.

JAMES HAMPTON (’57), Trophy Club.

He was an actor best known for his roles in F Troop, The Longest Yard, Teen Wolf and Sling Blade. He also had numerous TV show directing credits.

At North Texas, he appeared in several

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plays and was a member of Kappa Alpha.

He and his wife, Mary Deese-Hampton, co-wrote his memoir, What? And Give Up Show Business?

CHARLIE JOE COLE JR. (’58), Denton.

He played on the North Texas football team that brought racial integration to Texas football and was a member of the Geezles. He then served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent for Pilot Point, Forestburg and Lake Dallas ISDs. Charlie established Adult Probation Services in Denton and Cooke counties.

BILL DENSMORE (’58, ’69 M.S.), Dallas.

He taught history, as well as photography and student leadership, in Dallas ISD for 37 years. His love for history extended to the Munger Place neighborhood in East Dallas where he grew up, and he wrote two books about it. During the Korean War, he was a U.S. Marines drill instructor.

GASTON LEA WALKER (’58 M.Ed., ’73 Ed.D.), Hurst. He taught in Plano ISD, served as a teacher and principal in Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, and was a professor of sociology and psychology at Tarrant County Junior College until his retirement in 1994.

DAVID H. WATKINS (’58), Terre Haute, Indiana. He attended North Texas be­ tween a two-year stint in the U.S. Army.

Following graduation, he played with the Dallas Symphony for five years. After earning master’s and doctoral degrees in music at Indiana University, he taught at Indiana State University until 1997.

EN • FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

1960s

CURTIS HENRY FUNK (’67 M.M.Ed.), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

After receiving his doctorate from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, he taught music at Fresno Pacific College in Fresno, California, from 1968 to 1984 and at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, from 1984 to 2008.

2010s GIOVANNIE PANTOJA (’18), Odessa.

He worked as a producer for CBS 7 News in Odessa. His news station described Gio, who had fought cancer since he was a child, as a “force of nature.”

2020s ANNE RICE, Rancho Mirage, Califor­ nia. She attended North Texas in the early 1960s before becoming a bestselling novelist known internationally for her Gothic vampire stories. Her most famous book, Interview with the Vampire, was made into a 1994 movie and inspired a Broadway musical, Lestat. Her more than 30 books have sold 150 million copies. She said she enjoyed college life in Denton so much she featured the town in The Witching Hour.

WALLACE ‘WAYNE’ HOPKINS (’64, ’68 M.Ed.), Dallas. While at North Texas, he was a basketball player and a member of the Geezles fraternity. He worked on his family’s farm and later ran a company that constructed billboards all around the United States, including the first triple billboard sign at Texas Stadium.

JERRY WHITT (’64), Memphis, Tennes­ see. He taught at Middle Tennessee State University and was the first dean of the School of Management at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.

After retiring, he spent 22 years as a watercolor artist.

DARLENE BONNER (’65), Jacksboro.

For 37 years, she served as a high school English and French teacher and counselor, and after retiring, she was an educational counselor at Bridgeport and Jacks­boro state correctional facilities. She was a UNT Alumni Association member with Mean Green football season tickets.

BRIAN DALE BALCH, Aledo. He was a graduate student in the College of Health and Public Service. He was described as a kindhearted individual who loved children, cooking and fishing.

MEAT LOAF, Brentwood, Tennessee.

He was a Dallas native who went from being a student at North Texas in 1966 to a Grammy Award-winning musician known for some of the biggest rock hits of all time, including “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “I Will Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),” which won the 1994 Grammy for Best Rock Performance. Bat Out of Hell, released in 1977, was one of the best-selling albums of all time. He also appeared in more than 65 movies, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fight Club and Wayne’s World.

1970s MARVIN EDWIN ‘ED’ THORNTON (’77), Aubrey. He was an emergency room doctor who frequently volunteered to aid in humanitarian relief — leading him to appear on the cover of the spring 2014 issue of the North Texan. He earned his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the UNT Health Science Center and was a leader of the American Board of Physician Specialists and the Texas Disaster Medical Assistance Team for Region 4. He and his wife, Jana, were members of the President’s Council for their generosity to UNT. Donations may be made to The Dr. Ed Thornton Memorial Scholarship.

ANUSH BEERAM, Plano. He was a Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science student and the president of the TAMS Medical Society with dreams of becoming a surgeon. He also was an undergraduate researcher in a plant biology lab. The Anush Reddy Beeram Memorial Scholarship Endowment has been set up in his name.

HELEN O. ETUK, Dallas. She was a senior in the College of Education and Honors College pursuing a degree in kinesiology. She had plans to be a pediatrician. She loved reading, asking her mother for books instead of dolls as child.

SHAWN LAWRENCE, Azle. He was a senior studying mechanical engineering technology in the College of Engineering. He also was an active member of Pi Kappa Alpha.

SUSHMA PANGULUR, Irving. She was a graduate student and teaching assistant in computer science and engineering. She previously worked as a senior software engineer at GlobalEdge and a project engineer at Wipro Limited, both in her native India.

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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

University Community BUD BUSCHARDT, 79, of Dallas, who served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Media Arts for 46 years, died March 15, 2021. His long career as an on-air personality and producer began on Nov. 22, 1963, when he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for WFAA. He hosted radio shows for WFAA and KVIL and, from 1989 to 2007, he worked for ABC Radio Networks, serving as program director of the Stardust (later Timeless) format.

In 2010, he was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

BERNARD ‘BARNEY’ A. CODA, 90, Professor Emeritus of accounting who worked at UNT from 1965 until 1996, died Feb. 23, 2021, in Sanger. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 to 1955 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Olivet College and a master’s and doctorate in accounting from the University of Illinois. He was a C.P.A. and textbook author who served on the faculty at Oklahoma State University and was a faculty resident at Arthur Andersen before joining UNT. The Bernard “Barney” A. Coda Endowed Chair in Accounting in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business was named in his honor, created from a bequest of one of his former students.

ROBERT McREYNOLDS GOLLADAY II (’66), 77, of Murphy, who served as an assistant professor of business computer information systems for 38 years, died in Richardson on April 18, 2021. He received his master’s degree in computer science from Texas A&M University.

NELSON HAGGERTY, 47, the director of basketball strategy and operations who helped steer the Mean Green men’s basketball team to two Conference USA championships and its first

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victory in the NCAA Tournament, died April 16, 2021. Nelson joined the Mean Green in 2019 after serving as head coach for Midwestern State for eight seasons. He previously served as associate head coach at MSU and coached at colleges in Kansas and Missouri.

ELINOR HUGHES, 88, of Denton, who was the director of the mini-course program and the Center for Continuing Education and Conference Management in her 21 years at UNT, died Dec. 16, 2020. She also served as the coordinator for UNT’s Education Opportunity Center, manager of the Inmate Rehabilitation Program and coordinator of the Elderhostel Program. She was elected to serve as Denton’s first woman mayor in 1976 and 1977. Survivors include her sons Robert (’84 M.S.) and David (’89).

Her husband, the late Bob Hughes, was a faculty member in UNT’s English department.

ROXANA BEJARANO HUGHES (’97 M.S.), 57, an instructional lab supervisor in UNT’s biology department, died April 25, 2021, in Denton. She earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil and trained as a medical microbiologist in Argentina. She was certified as a medical laboratory scientist in microbiology at Tarleton State University. She also worked for the Centers for Disease Control. She co-wrote the book Microorganisms: A Laboratory Manual with her husband, Lee Hughes (’87, ’93 M.S., ’98 Ph.D.), associate professor of biological sciences.

WILLIAM ‘BILL’ KAMMAN, 90, Professor Emeritus of history and former associate and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, died Jan. 14, 2021. He worked at UNT from 1962 to 2009, serving in the dean’s office for nine years. He also served as chair of the history department from 1977 to

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1989 and again before his retirement.

He served in the U.S. Army during and after the Korean War and earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Indiana University in Bloomington and another master’s at Yale. He and his wife, Nancy, helped with the development of the Emeritus College, which became the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He was a member of UNT’s Chilton Society for his gifts spanning 35 years.

LAWRENCE KELLY, 88, retired professor of history who taught for more than 30 years, died Feb. 1, 2021, in Denton.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in American history, from Marquette University, then served as a junior officer in the U.S. Navy for three years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico and began teaching at UNT in 1968.

ANDREW ‘STEVE’ KESTER, 88, Professor Emeritus of microbiology who worked at UNT from 1967 to 1994, died Jan. 9, 2021, in Denton. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and went on to serve in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. After his service, Steve received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin before working at Miles Laboratories in Indiana. He donated generously to UNT’s Department of Chemistry and KNTU. MAYDELL LILLIARD, 76, of Denton, who worked in UNT’s financial aid department, died Dec. 11, 2020, in Aubrey. She was a homemaker who took night classes to pursue a career. She worked as a medical secretary for the Denton State School before working at UNT from the 1990s until 2009.

LILLIAN LINEBARGER (’57), 84, of Denton, who worked at UNT from 1972 to 2000, died Feb. 21, 2021. She had served on the occupational and

EN • FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

vocational education faculty and as a program administrator and project director for grant writing. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Texas Woman’s University. She taught in Georgia, Fort Worth and other Texas cities. Survivors include her husband, Professor Emeritus of English James Linebarger.

MARYCARL MACKEY, 90, of Denton, who served in the UNT Student Health and Wellness Center from 1964 to 1995, died Dec. 29, 2020. She is survived by her husband, Jim Mackey, Professor Emeritus of physics. They moved to Denton in 1964, when Jim joined the faculty and Marycarl began work as a lab technician for Robert Croissant and the health center.

JOHN F. MILLER III, 82, who served at UNT as a philosophy professor for 20 years, died in January 2021 in Tampa, Florida. John earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Gettysburg College, his master’s degree at the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. from New York University. After teaching at several universities, he worked at UNT for 20 years before moving to Florida to teach until his retirement last summer.

LT. COL. GUS MYERS, 83, who was the director of risk management services from the 1980s to 2005, died Jan. 25, 2021, in Denton. He served in the U.S. Navy, graduated with his bachelor’s degree in physics from Eastern Illinois University and then served in the Vietnam War as a pilot of the U.S. Air Force.

In 1966, Gus attended the University of Arizona for his master’s in nuclear engineering and then taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

ROY ‘MARTIN’ RICHARDS, 73, of Denton, a business computer information systems professor from 1982 to 2000, died Feb. 13, 2021. He earned a

bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in systems analysis and design at Georgia State University, and a doctorate in business from the University of Georgia. He was on the faculty at the University of Montana and served as an insurance risk management consultant before coming to UNT. He trained with the police academy at UNT before moving to Tennessee, and he worked in law enforcement after retiring from teaching in 2003.

CHARLES ROUH, 74, of Grapevine, a member of the Chilton Society, died Aug. 10, 2020. He and his wife, Peggy Rouh (’95 M.S., ’01 Ph.D.), an adjunct professor in the College of Information, established The Drs. Jerry and Michelle Wircenski Scholarship in the College of Information in honor of the impact the professors had on Peggy’s life.

DOROTHY DEANE SILLS (’45), 95, who worked in the UNT libraries from the 1970s to 2003, died Feb. 5, 2021, in Denton. As a UNT undergraduate, she earned her degree in home economics and taught high school in Hearne before returning to Denton. She also earned a master’s degree from Texas Woman’s University.

GLEN L. TAYLOR, (’50, ’53 M.B.A.), 91, of Denton, Professor Emeritus of business and former associate vice president of academic affairs, died Jan. 19, 2021, in Denton. He earned his doctorate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania before working at North Texas from 1953 to 1998. He also was instrumental in the planning for the Business Administration Building (now Sage Hall). The Glen L. Taylor Professorship/Chair in Insurance was established and named in his honor.

CONSTANCE ‘CONNIE’ WILLIAMS, 57, accounting specialist in the financial aid department, died Jan. 21, 2021, in Denton. She had worked at UNT since 2005. After raising her three children, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Texas Woman’s University in 2003.

EUGENE ‘GENE’ PATRICK WRIGHT (’60, ’61 M.A.), 85, Professor Emeritus of English, died April 30, 2021, in Frisco.

He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He earned his doctorate in English Renaissance literature from the University of Texas and taught at Lamar University and UT before working at North Texas from 1966 to 2006. He was appointed the first faculty ombudsman in 2005 and received the Mortar Board Senior Honor society’s “Top Prof” award. He published scholarly books as well as a series of novels.

DONALD L. YATES, 69, who was assistant professor in the Institute of Criminal Justice at UNT from 1989 to 1993, died Feb. 14, 2021, in Roanoke, Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Bishop College, a master’s degree in sociology from Indiana University, a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Texas at Tyler and his doctorate in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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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“As a metalsmith, I use functional objects as a way of connecting my audience with the concepts of my artworks. For example, this teapot, titled “Wrath of Poseidon,” serves as an embodiment of the ocean’s anger with humanity’s centuries of abuse. This piece is part of a recent series of artworks where I have been incorporating meticulously hand-painted miniatures with my metalwork to help tell the story of the piece. — James Thurman, associate professor and coordinator of studio art: metalsmithing and jewelry program in UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design

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UNT Athletics proudly joins the NCAA in celebrating five decades of the landmark Title IX law — and the student-athletes and coaches who helped Mean Green women’s athletics make its mark.

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