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VOLUME 17 NUMBER 3
For Alumni and Friends of the University of Miami
Spring 2011
F E AT U R ES
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A New Day for Nursing Nurse leaders weigh in on their profession’s future in light of a new investigation chaired by UM President Donna E. Shalala.
16
Robotic Realms Probing the future, students and researchers work on making machines that can think, play, and learn like we do.
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DEPARTMENTS
Students at the Frost School of Music are infusing an ancient art with a breath of fresh aria.
PostMarks
Can Opera Be Cool?
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Out and Safe at Home University of Miami psychologists study how gay and lesbian youth relate to their parents as a first step toward improving family outcomes.
30
The Golden Rule He revived football at Temple. Now Hurricanes head coach Al Golden says he’s on a mission in Miami. 22
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Comments and opinions from alumni and friends
Family’s woodwork talent graces alumni center >> UM announces new trustees and launches new mobile app >> ’Canes show their pride
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University Journal
Crisis journalism awarded >> Medical matches celebrated >> National races go to alums >> Major gift goes to student center >> White House makes example of The Launch Pad >> Phil Ramone makes music at UM >> Schools name new leaders >> Writers fete mentor >> And more!
Alumni Digest
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Class Notes
News and profiles of alumni worldwide
43
DateBook
Alumni events and activities
44
Big Picture
Cover illustration by Keith Negley/theispot.com
Scientist David Landowne’s hobby is an object lesson in having a ball (or three).
P o s t
MARKS Evolutionary Idea
I
am so glad the University recognizes the importance of Darwin’s islands and is making a contribution there (“From Here to Galapagos,” Fall 2010). I left UM and
Comments and Opinions from University of Miami Alumni and Friends
master for the islands. As the author of the first dive guide to the islands, I saw the need to preserve the islands while promoting sustainable community development. Although I did not have any luck promoting cooperation or any programs between UM and the Darwin Station back then, I am glad others have been able to succeed and hope this program will grow into the future. Geoffrey Lane, B.S. ’83/’09 Tampa, Florida
Start Spreading the News RSMAS in 1984 to become a naturalist guide there and in 1987 became the first American certified as a dive
I
just received the magazine and had to tell you how great I think the article turned out (“Real Estate
Maven Takes Manhattan,” Fall 2010). Can’t wait to show it around! I loved being a part of something as special as this publication. Laurel Rosenbluth, A.B. ’69 New York, New York
Looking Back: The Kennedys
I
saw the letter from Mike Tramontana in the Summer 2010 issue (“Looking Back: Kennedy Visits UM”). I was a junior in 1967 when Teddy Kennedy and Eunice Shriver visited the University. That day I was walking on campus when a friend and I saw a large group gathering near one of the University entrances. We walked over and worked
our way to the front of the crowd. There was a parked limousine. When the back door opened, out stepped Teddy Kennedy. He just stood there, wondering, I presume, where his welcoming committee was. After a couple of minutes like that I’d finally had enough. I walked up, put my hand out, and said, “Welcome to the University of Miami, Senator.” He said, “Thanks,” and shook my hand. Then Eunice Shriver stepped out of the car, and Kennedy said, “This is my sister, Eunice.” I shook her hand, telling her it was a pleasure to meet her and welcoming her to the University. Just then, the official welcoming
FROM THE EDITOR
Keepin’ It Real
D
uring one of my first job interviews almost two decades ago, the prospective employer informed me, “You’ll have to wear a beeper.” The look on my face—horror at the prospect of an electronic intruder—probably lost me the job (well, that or my red, shoulder-padded blazer). How human-machine interactions have changed! These days an IBM supercomputer is puzzling out a neuron-by-neuron simulation of a mammalian brain, and an annual battle (the Turing Test) pits the world’s most advanced artificial-intelligence programs against regular Joes to study whether a computer can act “more human” than a person. Our intimate, intricate dance with technology has accelerated exponentially in all realms. As you leaf through this issue (or view it online, www.miami.edu/miami-magazine), you’ll see the stories tend to be about rapid change, new technology, new paradigms—not only the shifting dynamics between us and machines, but also between nurses and their profession, young people and their parents,
2 Miami magazine Spring 2011
opera and the masses, and even a new coach and his players. The people at the forefront of these transformational relationships share something in common: They are passionate about understanding, optimizing, and defining what the world will look like within the next 20 years. Facing a similar launch into the future are the nearly 3,500 recent graduates of the Class of 2011. Almost 230 of them achieved doctoral degrees, a trend that shows advanced-level inquiry at UM is increasing in number and depth. The fact of five Fulbright grantees this year, another upward trend, gives a glimpse into the serious scholarship UM students are undertaking. And of course, there are perks to being part of such a progressive environment. For example, when my next prospective employer (android or human) asks me to implant a cybernetic chip in my brain to facilitate telepathic conversations, I’ll be ready with my answer. —Robin Shear, Editor
committee arrived at the car, so I stepped back into the crowd. Kennedy was probably wondering, “Who was that guy?” That was the only time I would ever meet any of the Kennedys, and it was a day I will never forget. William Diamond, A.B. ’69 Richmond, Virginia
Ashe’s New Namesake
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thought this might be some interesting news for Miami magazine. My grandfather, Bowman Foster Ashe, the first president of the University of Miami, was affectionately known as “B. F.” Now our family has a new B. F. Blake Foster Dunn, Bowman Foster Ashe’s great-great-grandson, was born April 2010 to my son Todd Edward Dunn (named for my father, Eddie Dunn, A.B. ’40) and his wife, Michelle Markwalter Dunn. Bowman Ashe Dunn, B.B.A. ’73 Marietta, Georgia
Musical Memories II
L
eonHoffman’s letter (“Musical Memories,” Summer 2010) caught my eye because I too played in the UM Symphony under John Bitter between 1953 and 1957. I especially remember Hector Villa Lobos because I played the snare drum in Bolero under his direction. While a senior at UM, I
worked at the Marine Laboratory and helped move it from the old apartment building on North Campus to its present location on Virginia Bo Dunn, B.B.A. ’73, with his son and grandson. Key. I graduated with a B.S. in biology, but Medal, the highest award during my 15 years with Shell given to a sedimentologist. Oil I became a “bootstrap” After a 30-year hiatus, I also geologist and moved seven returned to music and played times, including assignments for ten years with the Tampa in Holland and the Persian Bay Symphony. Gulf. In the Gulf, I ran a I am very proud of my casmall laboratory, conducted reer, all that I learned at UM, geological studies, and had and the lasting friends I still many exciting times diving have at the Rosenstiel School, with pearl divers. where I served as an adjunct In 1974 I established the for 20 years. My life story U.S. Geological Survey is fresh in my mind mainly laboratory on Fisher Island in because I recently completed the old quarantine station that my memoir, Bootstrap Geologist. was then UM property. I was Now all I need is a publisher. next door to the lab of Eugene A. Shinn, B.S. ’57 Rosenstiel School professor St. Petersburg, Florida emeritus Robert Ginsburg, who had hired me into Shell Correction: and converted me into a In “Ties that Bind,” Fall 2010, geologist years earlier. After 15 we failed to note that professor years directing the Fisher of medicine Jamie Barkin, Island station, I moved to the B.B.A. ’65, M.D. ’70, is also a new USGS office in St. faculty member in the Miller Petersburg, where I retired in School of Medicine Division of 2006. I then moved next door Gastroenterology. to the University of South Florida College of Marine Address letters to: Science, where I am a courtesy Robin Shear professor. USF awarded me an Miami magazine honorary Ph.D. in Earth P.O. Box 248105 Science in 1998 and in 2009 I Coral Gables, FL 33124 received the Twenhofel E-mail: rshear@miami.edu
The University of Miami Magazine
Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing
Todd Ellenberg Editor
Robin Shear Art and Design Director
Scott Fricker Graphic Designer
Sau Ping Choi
Production Supervisor
Angie Villanueva Editorial Contributors
Ana Maria Lima Robert S. Benchley Nancy Dahlberg Meredith Danton Donna Gehrke-White Robert C. Jones Jr. Tristram Korten Ivette Yee, B.S.C. ’97, M.A. ’98 President
Donna E. Shalala Vice President for University Communications
Jacqueline R. Menendez, A.B. ’83 Senior Vice President for University Advancement and External Affairs
Sergio M. Gonzalez Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations
Donna A. Arbide, M.B.A. ’95 Miami magazine is published by the University of Miami Division of University Communications. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Distributed free of charge to alumni and friends of the University. Postmaster and others, please send change of address notification to Miami magazine, Office of Alumni Relations, P.O. Box 248053, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410; telephone 305-284-2872. Contributions of articles, photographs, and artwork are welcome; however, Miami magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited items. The comments and opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Miami or the staff of Miami magazine. Copyright ©2011, University of Miami. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
www.miami.edu/miami-magazine
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 3
U n i v e r s i t y
JOURNAL
Noteworthy News and Research at the University of Miami
Global News Networking U.N. cites Knight Center’s crisis coverage
multimedia students with students from seven Knight Center partner schools in Africa and Asia to tell stories that personalize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals: anti-poverty action plans in eight critical areas intended to be realized by 2015. The awardwinning collaboration has drawn international attention. At a G-20 Summit event in South Korea this past November, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a segment of the Knight Center students’ footage, and their reports were linked to the U.N. website’s Millennium Development Goals section. “My Story, My Goal” also won the Online News Association’s 2010 Online
BUZZ WORDS
“ Before I heard the speech I was thinking of being a journalist, a war correspondent as a matter of fact.” UM President Donna E. Shalala on John F. Kennedy’s life-changing inauguration address. —National Public Radio
4 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Paula Echevarria, M.A. ’10, and Nick Maslow, M.A. ’11, film in Kibera, Kenya, for Knight Center’s “My Story, My Goal” project.
Journalism Award in the Online Video Journalism Student Category. Led by Rich Beckman, the school’s Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, and veteran photojournalist Tom Kennedy, a Knight Center Professional-in-Residence during the Spring 2010 semester, the students created a website, http://mdg. glocalstories.org, to share their stories and insights. Ami Vitale, M.S. ’10, a senior producer for the Knight Center, was part of the team that documented maternal health care in Sierra Leone, where in 2009 one in eight women died during pregnancy from a lack of doctors, medicine, and prenatal education. Vitale captured
footage of the stark hospitals where women seek care, interviewed parents who had lost multiple babies during childbirth, and even filmed a grieving father digging a small grave for his child. “It’s very difficult to grasp many of the issues facing us today,” Vitale says, “but through these stories you are witnessing it firsthand, and it gives you a richer, deeper understanding—a connection to the problem through the person who is enduring it.” A new group of graduate students will be in Africa this summer producing three more stories for the project. “Historically, students have led some of the world’s great revolutions,” says Beckman. “Compelling stories shared through social and online media outlets can motivate change, and we can make a difference in the world one story at a time.”
ANNMARIE FURLONG
G
raduate students working with the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami School of Communication are traveling the world—from Hong Kong to Kenya—to make headlines and raise awareness about issues such as crippling poverty, the lack of universal education, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. “We went into places the health department would close down,” says multimedia major Nick Maslow, M.A. ’11, who produced stories about malnutrition in Kenya. “There were parents raising a family of 14 in a shanty made of mud with no place to go to the bathroom. You don’t even [imagine] that when you think about poverty.” Launched last year, “My Story, My Goal” teamed 14
Upward and Onward
FRONTIERS IN RESEARCH
Miller School and graduates get good news
Soda, Salt, and Increased Stroke Risk
S
People who reported drinking
pring was a time of celebration at the Miller School of Medicine, which rose two spots to No. 45 in the 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools. Quality assessment, peer assessment, research activity from the National Institutes of Health, and student selectivity are among eight indicators that have helped the research school climb 11 spots during the past four years. The physical therapy graduate program, which has been in the annual guide’s Top 10 since 1995, ranked No. 7. “It is gratifying to have our efforts recognized in
Joel Salinas lands a neurology residency at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital.
this way,” noted Sherrill H. Hayes, professor and department chair. Match Day, meanwhile, brought news of pairings to top-ranked residency programs—and at least one wedding proposal. As Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt called
forward each member of the Class of 2011 to open the envelope that held their future, nervousness often turned to elation. Eyal Maidan seized the moment to drop to his knee. “I love you,” he told Elizabeth Ko, “and there is no match more important than the match with you.” As he fumbled with the ring, audience members jumped to their feet and applauded wildly. Ko’s answer: “Absolutely, yes.” The couple are headed to Brown University’s Rhode Island Hospital. Other prestigious programs that snapped up Miller School students include Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Duke University Medical Center, University of Chicago Medical Center, and the University of Southern California health system. Nearly 30 percent of the class will remain in Florida, with 17 percent training at Jackson. Senior Samuel Rosenblatt found the moment bittersweet. Though thrilled about matching with Baylor College of Medicine, he said, “It’s been four amazing years with great students, great faculty, and a great institution. It’ll be hard to leave.”
diet soda every day had a 48 percent higher risk of vascular events than those who reported no soda drinking, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2011. “If our results are confirmed with future studies, then it would suggest that diet soda may not be the optimal substitute for sugar-sweetened beverages for protection against vascular outcomes,” said the study’s lead author, Hannah Gardener, a Miller School of Medicine epidemiologist. Gardener and colleagues also found that people who consumed more than 4,000 milligrams of sodium per day had more than double the risk of stroke compared to those consuming fewer than 1,500 mg per day.
Melting Ice
Greenland’s ice is melting so quickly, say scientists from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, that the land underneath is rising at a rate of nearly one inch per year in some coastal areas. The research was cited online in the journal Nature Geoscience. Tim Dixon, the professor of marine geology and geophysics who led the study, explained that “the rise seems to be accelerating, implying melting is accelerating.”
Fertile Females Phone Home?
University of Miami psychologist Debra Lieberman led a study that tracked the cell phone records of college-age women and found that they spoke with their fathers less often during the high-fertility days of their cycles. At high fertility, women were four times as likely to call their mothers as their fathers (a difference that did not exist during the low fertility days). Their study, published in Psychological Science, suggests non-conscious psychological drives (like those observed in females of other species) help women avoid producing less healthy children, which tends to occur when close genetic relatives mate.
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 5
UniversityJournal
Winning in Washington
O
n January 5, Marco Rubio, J.D. ’96, stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and took the oath of office as Florida’s newest Republican senator—UM’s first alumnus and Florida’s second CubanAmerican to reach that post. Across town nine days later, Reince Priebus, J.D. ’98, was voted Republican National Committee Reince Priebus, J.D. ’98 chairman. Rubio was 39, Priebus 38. In the year leading up to last November’s elections, both played crucial roles.
The Tea Party popularity of then-Florida state representative Rubio led the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, Governor Charlie Crist, to run as an independent. Meanwhile, Priebus, elected Wisconsin’s youngest Republican Party chairman in 2007, was tapped as the RNC’s general counsel under thenchairman Michael Steele. John Thornton, associate administrative judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami and adjunct faculty member, taught a Litigation Skills course Rubio took as a second-year law student. “Between his keen intellect and exceptional writing and ora-
COURTESY RUBIO.SENATE.GOV
Law school grads become leaders in national politics
Senator Marco Rubio, J.D. ’96, his wife, Jeanette, and Vice President Joe Biden. At UM, Rubio was a member of the Hispanic Law Student Association and the Litigation Skills Program.
tory skills, you could tell that Marco was going to be a fine lawyer,” recalls Thornton. “I didn’t know at that point that he was interested in politics, but looking back on it now, it doesn’t surprise me.” Joseph DeMaria, another UM Law adjunct faculty
A Boost for Student Building
A
t an April 6 event, UM President Donna E. Shalala announced that a $20 million lead gift from the Fairholme Foundation would help build the new Student Center Complex. Construction at Rathskeller Plaza will commence this June, with a parallel makeover of the four-decade-old Whitten University Center. During construction, the Rat will relocate to the University Center. “It is Fairholme Foundation’s honor to help maintain the fantastic momentum of the University of Miami’s prestigious growth under the leadership of President Shalala,” said UM Parents Council members Tracey and Bruce Berkowitz, whose foundation also has made gifts to Executive Medicine, Athletics, The
6 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Launch Pad, and the Parents Fund. “All of us at Fairholme hope this magnificent Student Center becomes a destination for both new and old ’Canes to interact and help better our world.” Scheduled to open in 2013, the 119,000-square-foot center will include gathering places, programming space, a new student organization suite, and retail outlets. Various student publications and several organizations, such as the Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development and the Department of Student Activities and Student Organizations, will move there. Shalala said the new facility, which students voted to help fund, will “be at the heart of Hurricane life for many years to come.”
member, employed Rubio, then a new graduate, at his firm, Tew Cardenas LLP. “He was a careful lawyer and paid attention to detail,” DeMaria remembers. “At the time he left, he was running for office in West Miami and needed more free time. We were disappointed. He was a good young lawyer.” Priebus’s path into politics was a little easier to predict, says William VanderWyden, the law school’s assistant dean for professional development. “He was very popular among students and by his third year he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.” VanderWyden worked closely with Priebus on issues like on-campus parking and grading policies. Priebus was also a prolific writer for the law school newspaper, he adds. “He seemed to be everywhere at once, and he got things done very quickly,” he recalls. “He was a mover and a shaker.” —Tristram Korten
President Donna E. Shalala kicks off new hospital course.
Launch Pad Goes National
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he University of Miami received a $2 million grant last year from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation to replicate The Launch Pad, a novel entrepreneurship initiative developed at UM, at Wayne State University and Walsh College in Detroit. As part of President Barack Obama’s StartUp America Partnership, the foundation announced in January a commitment to expand the program, known as the Blackstone LaunchPad, to five additional regions in the nation.
A Launch Pad fashion entrepreneurs panel
UM is grateful for this “visionary support for The Launch Pad’s distinctive model of entrepreneurship education,” said William Scott Green, senior vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, who attended January’s Washington, D.C., event. Susan Amat, B.L.A. ’01, M.B.A. ’04, Ph.D. ’08, executive director of The Launch Pad, said, “The expansion will strengthen the ability
to link entrepreneurs to resources and help alumni and students create a developing network that can contribute to entrepreneurial success.” Since opening in 2008, The Launch Pad at Toppel Career Center has helped participants create 45 new businesses and 102 new jobs through its programs and guidance. Its unique experiential approach serves to demystify entrepreneurship and make it accessible to the full range of ’Canes. As a result, more than 1,700 members, primarily undergraduates, have created profiles seeking membership in The Launch Pad community at www.thelaunchpad. org, with 80 percent of those coming from fields outside of business. More than 725 venture forms have been submitted online for assessment assistance, and The Launch Pad’s 60-member volunteer Venture Coaching network has mentored 50 entrepreneurial teams. Winner of the 2010 Award for Innovation Excellence in Student Engagement from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, The Launch Pad has received grant support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Harry and Lynde Bradley Foundation, and the Fairholme Foundation.
JENNY ABREU
Entrepreneurship center to be replicated across U.S.
Hospitals: From the Ground Up
E
veryone turns to hospitals in times of need, but even people who work in and around hospitals see only a sliver of the mammoth industry. Finding a better way to study this growing U.S. juggernaut—where over $700 billion is spent annually—inspired Patrick O. Gudridge to spearhead a new, one-of-a-kind course at the University of Miami. Enlisting expertise from the entire academic community, the vice dean at the School of Law launched The Idea of the Hospital. Held over eight Saturdays, the multidisciplinary graduate-level course was taught by law, medicine, engineering, nursing, architecture, and business administration ON COURSE faculty, as well as faculty from Title: The Idea of the Hospital UM Ethics Programs and the Department: School of Law Department of Epidemiology Semester: Spring 2011 and Public Health. “I want you to think about the power of the institution you’re about to study,” UM President Donna E. Shalala, a political science professor who teaches about the politics and economics of health care, said during the inaugural class lecture. The former U.S. secretary of health and human services, who recently helmed a national commission on the future of nursing, also addressed the changing role of this nation’s more than three million nurses, most of whom work in hospitals. Thirty-six students from various schools and colleges went on to examine related issues such as patient safety, quality of care, legal parameters of the hospital-physician relationship, financing and tax planning, architecture and design, technology advances and implications, the hospitalist movement, community access to health care, the ethics of the digital hospital, electronic records, and more. The final session compared hospitals around the globe and offered a case study of how hospitals handle crises through the lens of the Miller School’s own Haiti earthquake experience. Exploring many facets of one complex phenomenon from multiple perspectives, says Gudridge, provides “an extraordinary opportunity to recognize how many different modes of thinking about the same institution have developed so intensely side by side.” The course will be offered again in Spring 2012. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 7
UniversityJournal
Lanza Lives On UM turns tenor’s tragic tale into a musical extravaganza
T
he 600 guests who packed the Maurice Gusman Concert Hall last November 9 were transported into the life of legendary tenor and Hollywood actor Mario Lanza, whose struggles with alcohol, weight, women, and fame led him to an early death at 38. The idea for the musical Lanza! came from Grammyand Emmy-winning producer and music industry pioneer Phil Ramone. “It’s a good story. It’s a sad story,” he says. “And a lot of great musicals are based on an operatic story.” Ramone’s desire to intertwine the story with original songs gave birth to the Phil Ramone Project at the Frost School of Music in 2010, which enlisted students and faculty University-wide to
write, produce, perform, market, and document the production. “In basically three hours, they gave us the script and said, ‘Go write something,’” recalls Tori Tullier, a senior
Frost School Dean Shelly Berg, Angelo Marchese, B.M. ’96, Phil Ramone, and Robert Davi celebrate the debut concert reading of Lanza! at the Frost School of Music.
media writing and production student who wrote two of the numbers selected. “Almost half of the songs written by students came
out of that first session.” Students in the Frost School’s Master of Arts in Arts Presenting program coordinated other aspects such as box office and marketing; School of Communication students made a documentary of the process; theatre arts
Midwest Yields New Deans
A
distinguished communication faculty member and administrator for nearly 30 years at several major universities has been named the new dean of the University of Miami School of Communication “after an extensive international search,” said Thomas J. LeBlanc, provost and executive vice president. Gregory J. Shepherd, dean of Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication since 2006, will assume his role on July 1, providing new leadership in the school’s 25th year. His Ph.D. in speech communication is from the University of Illinois. Eugene W. “Gene” Anderson will succeed interim dean Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa, A.B. ’77, as dean of the School of Business Administration, effective August 1. The noted marketing specialist is senior 8 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Gregory Shepherd
Gene Anderson
associate dean for academic affairs and D. Maynard Phelps Professor of Business Administration at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he’s been on faculty since 1989. His Ph.D. in business administration is from the University of Chicago.
students from the College of Arts and Sciences auditioned alongside Frost opera students; and Frost School musicians provided live accompaniment. For the concert reading, Angelo Marchese, B.M. ’96, starred as Lanza, graduate student Ferenando Murga played the ghost of Enrico Caruso, and Hollywood actor Robert Davi made a cameo as mobster Lucky Luciano. “There may not be another music school in the country that can pull together a project of this scope,” says Frost School Dean Shelly Berg. “It’s a real pro performance,” adds Ramone, who wants to bring the show to New York City. “The songs were written to advance the story. And the cast performs it to the top of the line.”
PEAK PERFORMANCE
’Canes Court and Spark: Meier Named Coach of the Year and UM record-holder for the most threepoint baskets (second-most in ACC history) is now an All-ACC first-team selection and 2011 NCAA Division I State Farm Coaches’ All-America Team honorable mention. An-
ANDREW SHURTLEFF
women’s basketball season in decades really begins 43 years ago in Wheaton, Illinois. Though head coach Katie Meier never met her biological father—Jerry Meier died in a plane crash before she was born—she did inherit his athletic prowess. At Duke, she chose basketball because her dad had played at DePaul under legendary coach Ray Meyer. Honoring both his legacy and the Blue Devils moniker, she tore up the court: four-year letterwinner, ACC Rookie of the Year, Kodak/WBCA District 2 All-America and All-ACC First Team, and despite a knee injury one season, team MVP. Armed with academic honors and two English degrees from Duke, Meier went pro in Belgium. There she also began coaching a girls’ team. Assistant coach gigs at UNCAsheville and Tulane and a head coach job at UNC-Charlotte followed. She led the 49ers to their first winning season in eight years, an NCAA Tournament, and two WNIT appearances before joining Miami in April 2005. But it took four painful seasons to build the kind of hurricane-force momentum Meier thrives on. In that time she managed to sign two McDonald’s All-American players on vision alone—no small feat when competing against coaches boasting Final Four rings. “You had to find young ladies who wanted to be breakthrough players,” explains Meier, who keeps a photo of her father in his DePaul uniform on her desk. “I recall saying, ‘Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb because that’s where the fruit is and that’s where the reward is—and that’s what Miami’s offering you right now.’” One of those risk-takers was Riquna “Bay Bay” Williams, the youngest of five from Pahokee, Florida, and first of her siblings to go to college. The leading scorer
Top row, Meier, with guard Stephanie Gardner, during the NCAA tournament. Left, Meier hugs forward Sylvia Bullock after a home win against FSU.
in their second game. But with all five starters returning and five new players joining the squad, Meier other was Shenise Johnson, 2011 ACC Player believes her team has the depth to go even of the Year and All-America Team. further next season. “I always tell my playDespite coming in last in the ACC at the ers, ‘You’ve got to open as many doors and end of last year’s regular season, the Hurripush as many envelopes as you can,’” she canes advanced to the WNIT championship says. “Then give yourself the power to make game, achieving the deepest postseason some choices instead of letting life just run in team history. Meier’s contract was happen to you.” extended. ACC and Associated Press Coach of the Then, this season’s magical run carried Year (she shares the latter honor with them from “worst to first” in the ACC. With Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma and Stana 28-5 overall record, they snagged UM’s ford’s Tara VanDerveer), Meier was inducted first regular-season ACC Women’s Basketball into Iron Arrow in March. Even though she’ll title, sharing the championship with Meier’s acknowledge she was “very, very in the alma mater. moment” this season, she insists credit for The climb continued to the NCAA Tour- the turnaround belongs to her team. “There nament, the Hurricanes’ first since 2004. was a real special investment and ownerEntering as the No. 3 seed in the Dayton ship with this group,” she says. “The players Regional of the 64-team field, they beat really bought in and just drove the bus, and Gardner-Webb 80-62 in Virginia, then fell I sat in the second or third row and cheered 88-83 to the No. 6 seed Oklahoma Sooners my guts out for ’em.” JC RIDLEY
The story behind UM’s most thrilling
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 9
The Writing Life Literary events honor longtime professor Lester Goran
T
SAGETTE VAN EMBDEN ’12
he year Lester Goran arrived to teach in UM’s Department of English, the national minimum wage was $1 an hour, the first televised presidential debates were aired, Hawaii by his future friend James A. Michener made the bestseller list, and Goran’s first novel, The
of Arts and Sciences. Asked how many of the 20,000 keep in touch, he deadpans, “All of them.” Not far from true. Several email weekly to give updates and ask for advice. Among them are professors teaching around the U.S. and in Europe, literary-journal editors, and New York Times bestselling authors. “It’s almost like having grandkids,” says Goran, who has seven of his own. “I never dreamed I was going to have so much spontaneous pleasure at their success.” Goran was instrumental in establishing UM’s first undergraduate creative writ-
on translations for a decade. At 83, Goran, a winner of UM’s Excellence in Teaching Award, remains a vital member of a creative writing program Lester Goran, second from left, celebrates 50 years of teaching The Huffington with colleagues and students, past and present. Post recently praised as one of this nation’s and M.A. at the nearby 25 most underrated. University of Pittsburgh, “All of this began because served with the U.S. Army Lester saw to it to bring Corps of Engineers and the creative writing to the UniMilitary Police, and had versity of Miami,” explains three sons with wife Edythe M. Evelina Galang, the McDowell. program’s director. Goran has published ten The Goran Reading novels, a memoir about his Series, launched to celfriendship with Singer, and ebrate that ongoing legacy, three story collections. His
“ I never dreamed I was going to have so much spontaneous pleasure at their success.” Lester Goran
Paratrooper of Mechanic Avenue, hit the streets. Five decades and more than 20,000 students later, Goran has seen his impact travel far beyond the classroom walls of the College
ing curriculum in 1965 and the department’s Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 1991. He attracted luminaries such as Michener, whose endowment helped create the M.F.A. program, and Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, with whom Goran taught and worked
BUZZ WORDS
“It was his birthright to play for the ’Canes.” Tony Chickillo, B.S.Ed. ’85, son of the late Nick, B.Ed. ’54, and Nancy Chickillo, on son Anthony becoming the first-ever third-generation Hurricanes football player during the 2011 National Signing Day. —The Miami Herald
10 Miami magazine Spring 2011
welcomed back some of his most accomplished students, including Michelle Richmond, M.F.A. ’98, Paul Perry, M.F.A. ’97, Chantel Acevedo, M.F.A. ’99, and Terrence Cheng, M.F.A. ’97. Another new series, Write Now, presented a weekend of workshops to raise proceeds for the Lester Goran Scholarship Fund, inaugurated last fall. The son of a tailor, Goran grew up in Pittsburgh’s Oakland housing projects. Early on he discovered a love for fiction and playing hoops. He went on to earn his B.A.
Tales from the Irish Club, about a working-class Pittsburgh neighborhood between World War II and the Vietnam War, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Cheng, now chair of the English department at The City University of New York’s Lehman College, recalls his thesis advisor as “very generous and giving, which balanced out his brutal honesty. He has so much to give. If you don’t have that kind of value to give, you’re not going to be able to last for 50 years.”
COURTESY CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM
UniversityJournal
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
High-Speed Entrepreneurship DONNA VICTOR
E
aton Residential College may look like a typical dormitory from the outside, but inside, the 250-square-foot room Tyler McIntyre shares with his roommate serves as home base for a pair of fast-growing, cutting-edge technology companies that boast clients from Philly to Brazil. The 19-year-old entrepreneurship major founded and runs Lucid Technologies, an application developer for smartphones and websites, and VR Labs, which uses sophisticated voice-recognition technology to offer concierge service by phone. He employs a team of 20 developers in India’s Punjab region. “When I sleep, they work,” he explains of the time difference, but admits he’s often up till 4 a.m. “We work around the clock.” There are other hints that this is not the dwelling of an ordinary sophomore. To the delight of his friends, the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, native programmed colorful lights, his large flat-screen TV, and a personal sound system to respond to voice commands, like “Party lights on” or “Play dance music.” Shortly after McIntyre arrived at UM in 2009, frustration over the fact that his iPhone couldn’t communicate with the Blackberry led him to devise the Lucid Messenger app, a cross-platform messaging system for Blackberry, iPhone, and Android devices. He soon began adding all sorts of other consumer-based applications. He credits The Launch Pad at Toppel, UM’s entrepreneurship career center, with providing the kick-start he needed. Lucid apps have since earned industry accolades and a quarter of a
million loyal users around the world. In March, Inc. magazine profiled McIntyre for “America’s Coolest College Startups” and he won grand prize in UM’s Elevator Pitch Contest for 2010. His newest concept, Concierge, came about when he wondered how cool it would be to have a phone that could answer most any question. Turns out, very cool. “It’s OnStar meets American Express Concierge,” McIntyre explains of his first product under development for VR Labs, which recently received investor funding. Whether it’s movie times in Bangkok, restaurant reservations in Chicago, driving directions to Disney, or simply the height of the Eiffel Tower you seek—all you have to do is ask. “There is nothing like pressing ‘build’ or ‘compile’ and [the program] actually works,” he says. “It gives me the motivation and dedication to stay up every night and wake up every morning to get everything done, as well as study for my exams and finish my schoolwork.” McIntyre shuns caffeine and energy drinks, instead fueling his 18-hour days with natural adrenaline. In addition to attending classes, programming apps, and Skype-ing with his staff, he helps other budding entrepreneurs through The Launch Pad and serves as president of the UM Entrepreneurship Association. Despite weekend road trips to chill out, McIntyre concedes he’s always in go-mode. “I like a challenge,” he says. “Maybe something was mapped into my genetic code that says, ‘Let’s do something big.’” —Nancy Dahlberg Spring 2011 Miami magazine 11
RYAN KOELSCH/U.S. ARMY
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SEEING NURSES UM nurses and health care
By
experts are at the heart of
U.S. Army Major Hope Williamson, D.N.P. ’09, is taking her University of Miami training to the battlefield. Armed with a doctorate in nursing practice, the acute care nurse is helping to save wounded troops in Iraq—and teaching doctors, medics, and other nurses her techniques. She even developed a phone app intended to give emergency personnel the latest medical information while treating casualties in a war zone. “The Army is field testing it now,” says JoAnn Trybulski, associate dean at UM’s School of Nursing and Health Studies. “We are so proud of her.” Last October, a national committee tasked with assessing the future of nursing concluded that the U.S. health care system will require an injection of such highly trained nurses to address rising health care needs and costs. “And, in fact, they can do 70 percent of what primary care physicians can do,” says President Donna E. Shalala, who was selected to chair the 18-member committee of health professionals and policy experts. Williamson’s degree is one of several popular programs the School of Nursing and Health Studies has launched with an eye toward training nurses for an advancing profession and increasingly complex global health issues. In two years, enrollment in the D.N.P. program has more than doubled to 43 students whose advanced training prepares them to create innovation in nursing practice and health care.
a national debate about how to help improve health care in this country.
12 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Do nna
Geh rk e-Wh ite
in a NEW LIGHT Other strategic additions have included the certified nurse anesthesiologist program, nurse practitioner master’s program with an emphasis on acute and adult care, minor in public health, and online and accelerated programs for working nurses and career changers. Last year 95 new students enrolled in the school’s accelerated B.S.N. degree, which enables individuals who hold degrees in disciplines other than nursing to obtain a bachelor’s in nursing in just 12 months. The new U.S. Army Major Hope Williamson, D.N.P. ’09, puts her training to the test in Iraq; nurse practitioner Maria Elena Torres, B.S.N. ’84, M.S.N. ’89, brings affordable care to Miami clinic patients; and Ph.D. candidate Shakira Henderson, B.S. ’03, implements a lactation program in the NICU.
Certificate in Nursing Education program, offered online and at a reduced tuition, aims to infuse hospitals and nursing programs across the U.S. with 100 new nurse educators by 2013. “We have been quite busy,” says Dean Nilda “Nena” Peragallo, whose school ranks 20th in the U.S. and first in Florida for National Institutes of Health funding received. “It’s been exciting.” That excitement and input extended into the national sphere when Shalala and assistant professor of nursing Rosa M. Gonzalez-Guarda, Ph.D. ’08, were both tapped for the Future of Nursing Committee. Their contributions have helped “create a game-changing vision for the future of nursing,” says Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which co-sponsored the
two-year, evidence-based study with the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Facing a grave shortage of providers to treat the additional 32 million insured Americans expected to enter the system under the new federal health care reforms, the committee advises creating a seamless academic pipeline for nurses. It concludes that the profession needs to grow the proportion of nurses with bachelor’s degrees to 80 percent by 2020, with another 10 percent going on to master’s or doctoral programs within five years. It also recommends doubling the number of nurses pursuing doctorates by 2020, offering residency programs, and encouraging more lifelong learning opportunities. In addition, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” states that nurses must become full Spring 2011 Miami magazine 13
RICHARD PATTERSON
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RICHARD PATTERSON
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RYAN KOELSCH/U.S. ARMY
partners in health care with physicians and other health care professionals. “Health care is a team sport,” explains Shalala. Perhaps the most ambitious and debated recommendation of the 562-page report is for a uniform policy that will allow nurse practitioners (nurses with at least a master’s degree) to practice to the full extent of their license—including monitoring, evaluating, and prescribing treatments for patients—in Florida and about 35 other states that restrict the duties they can perform (known as scope of practice). Gonzalez-Guarda, whose interdepartmental Ph.D. combined nursing, epidemiology, and psychology, says the industry needs to take advantage of nurses’ skills and unlock their potential, a point she made on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation last year, noting “overwhelming evidence” for “great outcomes with the type of care that nurse practitioners provide.” In April the Florida Legislature discussed the state’s scope of practice rules, rejecting a bill that could have led to an expansion of the roles of 14 Miami magazine Spring 2011
advanced practice nurses. That decision doesn’t make sense to Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Washington, D.C.-based IOM, who notes that the nation’s 3 million nurses make up the largest group of professional health care providers in the United States. “We need to use them to their fullest capacity,” he says. A December 2010 report by the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Florida TaxWatch notes that BlueCross BlueShield of Florida has projected the state could save up to $6 million annually if nurse practitioners and physician assistants were allowed to practice to the full extent of their license and training without a physician’s supervision as Florida law currently requires. “The savings for private employers and self-paid residents would likely be even greater,” the report states. Vero Beach midwife Angela Love, M.S.N. ’04, agrees. “Any good health care reform should involve nurses and nurse practitioners because we are cost effective,” she says, adding that Florida law currently makes health care more expensive in ways legislators never envisioned.
Future of Nursing Committee recommendations include engaging more nurses as industry leaders prepared to advance health care, removing scope of practice barriers for nurse practitioners, and increasing the number of nurses who proceed along the educational pipeline to earn advanced degrees.
If one of her patients develops kidney stones during pregnancy, for example, Love can’t dispense medication. While state law allows licensed nurse practitioners to treat patients, order diagnostic exams, and prescribe many medicines under the supervision of doctors, it does not allow them to prescribe a controlled substance (a narcotic or other potentially addictive drug). Instead, a doctor has to be called in. “That means the patient has to spend extra money,” Love says. “That is not cost effective. I have been trained to handle it, but I can’t.” Laura Dominguez, B.S.N. ’86, M.B.A. ’89, vice president for business development at Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove, says her work as an intensive care nurse taught her to prioritize and make quick decisions—and
RICHARD PATTERSON
RICHARD PATTERSON
informed her career as a hospital administrator. “Nurses,” she says, “are stars.” As efforts to implement the Future of Nursing Committee’s findings proceed on a local and national level, nurses like Maria Elena Torres, B.S.N. ’84, M.S.N. ’89, continue making a difference on the ground. During a shift at the St. John Bosco Clinic in Miami, the family practitioner prescribes diabetes medicine for 62-year-old Ana Marina Robles. When Torres also gives her a pair of shoes designed for diabetics, courtesy of her podiatrist husband, the Salvadoran immigrant’s face lights up. “They fit!” she exclaims. Torres then shows Robles a food chart. “See my hand?” she asks. “You can eat that much of vegetables.” Meats, however, should be limited to the size of her palm. Torres hopes to help Robles lose weight and control her disease. “I am so proud of her,” she says. “She’s already lost four pounds.” Whether on the battlefield, in the boardroom, or at the research bench, nurses are increasingly on the front lines of improving and expanding access to health care.
“Nurses are still at the bedside,” Williamson explains in an email between shifts at the Combat Support Hospital in Iraq, where she’s a head nurse serving her third tour of duty. “But moreover, they are creating health policy and technology for use at the bedside…and seizing opportunities that were not available to nurses of the past.” Opportunities at the School of Nursing and Health Studies include centers of excellence in health disparities research as well as patient safety and nursing human resource development, plus top-notch research and clinical experiences throughout Miami, Latin America, and the Caribbean. “The school enjoys a wonderful national reputation for programs and does cutting-edge research that involves multicultural perspectives,” says Future of Nursing Committee member Michael Bleich, a dean, professor of nursing, and vice provost at Oregon Health & Science University. “This contribution to the science is recognized nationally.” Award-winning students like Shakira
Henderson, B.S. ’03, reflect the vitality and relevance of the school’s approach. A Ph.D. candidate at UM and a staff nurse at South Miami Hospital, Henderson won the 2010 Leadership Award from the National Association of Neonatal Nurses for developing a lactation program for preemies. In her nominator’s words, she has had an “overwhelming impact on her patients and staff, and on her unit’s reputation.” Thanks to Henderson, nursecounselors in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit help train moms on pumping milk to feed their tiny premature infants who are confined to incubators. “It’s really hard, and it can be scary for the moms,” she says. But the breast milk is crucial. “It’s brain food, especially for preemies.” Henderson, who gave up biochemical research for a career in nursing, says working with patients has transformed her. “I am excited that I became a nurse— there are so many opportunities.”
donna gehrke-white is a reporter and editor in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 15
16 Miami magazine Spring 2011
OF M CHINES AND M N Working to narrow the intelligence gap
between men and machines, researchers
are gaining a new perspective on the species after which they’re modeling their creations.
By
An a
Ma r ia
Lim a
Imagine a robot that can look into a mother’s eyes and learn like an infant. An android with the intellect and agility to compete on a real soccer team. Or an automaton that can navigate the perilous depths of the sea solo. The quest for artificial intelligence has long been a holy grail of science. The desire to create machines that look, think, and act human— even superhuman—has been the driving force behind a vast body of research. At the University of Miami, researchers and students from a wide range of fields are working on robotics
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projects that seek to accomplish these goals and more. And as they work to build better robots, they find they are unraveling the mysteries of human nature itself. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 17
lthough the bond between mother and baby may be pure intuition, understanding that connection in a scientific way is much trickier. For University of Miami researchers, unlocking that mystery is the key to building a baby robot that thinks and moves like a real infant. Aided by $350,000 from a National Science Foundation grant, Daniel Messinger, associate professor of psychology in the UM College of Arts and Sciences, and a team of graduate students are trying to get a good enough understanding of how babies learn intricate social and motor skills to apply them to a robot. Their findings from live interactions between mothers and babies will be used to help a team of computer scientists from the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) program Diego-San, a fourfoot, 66-pound humanoid baby robot that is capable of learning social skills and mimicking human expressions. “Infants do very complicated things,” says Messinger, “like figure out
DONNA VICTOR
Building a Tot Bot
Data captured at the University of Miami from babies like 3-month-old Audrey, wearing a motion capture suit and gazing at her mom, are helping scientists to program a “baby” robot.
could be used to help diagnose children with autism, or to interact with other children or the elderly. The first phase of research, led by Messinger, focused on examining faceto-face interactions between 13 mothers and babies from 1 to 6 months old as they played with each other during five-minute intervals. According to the
their moms.” The researchers are also conducting movement studies. “Solving the question of how the robot moves is akin to solving the question of how babies move,” he says. To better understand infant motor skills, UM graduate assistants Whitney Mattson and Juan Artigas are using a
“ Infants do very complicated things.” who other people are, how to pay attention to them, reach for objects, learn to walk, smile at other people. We have very little idea how we can get a robot to develop those kinds of skills. But infants seem to be able to handle those problems by the time they are a year old, in a very robust manner. So the question is, how are they doing it? And how can we learn about how they’re doing it by designing something that can do something similar?” One day, says Messinger, this baby robot technology they’re developing 18 Miami magazine Spring 2011
study, babies and mothers develop a pattern to their play that becomes more predictable as the babies get older. “One of the things we learned is that there is an increase in smile turntaking as the baby develops,” explains Messinger, who has secondary appointments at the Miller School of Medicine and the College of Engineering. “When baby smiles, mom tends to smile. When mom smiles, baby can either smile or look away, and what they do changes with age. Babies become more predictable in spending less time looking at
custom-made baby motion capture suit to study how human infants interact with their mothers. In a small studio on campus one recent afternoon, Mattson and Artigas gingerly dress 3-month-old Audrey Landoll in a specially designed onesie attached to wires and about 40 small markers that light up. As little Audrey and her mom engage in playful activities, ten motion-capture, infrared cameras track the baby’s every move. Tiny video cameras placed inside her hat and in a headband worn by her mom re-
because that is also a way to move the object.” Ultimately, the data could be used to help mothers better understand their babies. “These studies make real the enormity of what it’s like to become a person,” says Messinger.
Underwater Intelligence robot doesn’t have to be humanoid, but it does have to be able to perform some relatively complex tasks autonomously. One robot being researched by Shahriar Negahdaripour, a professor in the UM College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of its Underwater Vision and Imaging Lab (UVIL), is an electronically powered underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV.
Based on technology developed at UM, it can be programmed to explore, survey, and map an undersea world independent of a human operator. The roughly 100-pound, two-and-a-half-bytwo-foot ROV, explains Negahdaripour, resembles the type of equipment used to document the sunken Titanic in a televised National Geographic expedition. (Much larger and heavier versions help install and repair offshore oil rigs.) The first ROV of Negahdaripour’s group enabled a team of marine biology and geology researchers directed by Pamela Reid, Ph.D. ’85, associate professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, to collect a large volume of reef video without having to employ human divers. Novel computer programs the two groups developed collaboratively were used to create spatially accurate mosaics of the reefs. These computerized mapping and analysis tools, which RICHARD PATTERSON
cord the session from both of their viewpoints. “We’re looking at when the baby gazes at her mom, and we’re looking at how the baby reaches,” explains Artigas as he watches the session from a video screen outside the studio. The studies are critical to scientists at UCSD’s Machine Perception Laboratory who are building the baby robot in conjunction with Kokoro Dreams. Diego-San’s head has 40 “tendons” that make facial expressions, an audio speaker for a mouth, high-definition cameras for eyes, and an accelerometer for ears. It also has 47 joints in the body, and its hands can hold a water bottle. Javier Movellan, the project’s principal investigator at UCSD, says DiegoSan is being designed to recognize facial expressions, as well as to learn to point and reach for objects, smile, and recognize its caregiver. One of the most challenging tasks has been to create a face that’s realistic but not “creepy” to real people, explains Movellan, because robots that look too much like humans can make people feel uncomfortable, he points out. Movellan says Messinger’s studies at UM are helping him program the robot to move and think more like a human baby and “giving us ideas about what our questions should be.” Messinger’s research, notes Movellan, indicates that babies move their entire bodies and smile when they want something their mother is holding and may do so because they are trying to influence the mother to move the object herself. “So instead of programming our robot to reach,” Movellan says, “we are going to program the robot to learn to control the object—and we hope in the presence of human caregivers the robot would smile and coo and move its leg
This ROV, made for engineering professor Shahriar Negahdaripour, is the Ferrari of robots. Its stereovision sonar, echo sounder, and other subsea capabilities allow it to “see” in the dark and capture acoustic imagery of events such as fish spawning. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 19
allowed them to assess damage to a reef community within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary during the 2005 hurricane season, are used to study and monitor the health of a coral community as well as the seasonal and long-term impacts of external factors. “Our team won the 2009 Project of the Year Award from the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, which sponsored the project,” notes Negahdaripour. While traditional ROVs are operated much like remote-control cars, Negahdaripour’s research is aimed at developing fully or highly automated ROVs. His team has already developed a multi-camera technology for the inspection of ship hulls for the U.S. Navy, UVIL’s largest research sponsor. Originally designed to find explosives, the technology also has applications in narcotics detection and regular maintenance of ships, bridges, dams, and offshore structures, thereby keeping 20 Miami magazine Spring 2011
human divers out of potentially hazardous conditions such as highly polluted waters. He is now working on integrating information from optical and sonar imaging systems and other sensory capacities. “You might have good [underwater] visibility here in Florida,” he explains, “but if you go to many other U.S. ports and harbors, you may often have next-to-zero visibility. So we are working at capabilities based on sonar imaging because it has the ability to penetrate turbid and muddy waters.” These novel technologies will be implemented in a newer ROV, a custom-built, electric-powered model from Teledyne Benthos equipped with stereovision with megapixel digital cameras and 2-D and 3-D sonar systems. This ROV could go down to about 500 feet, limited mainly by the length of its umbilical cable, which contains the electrical wires and fiber optics needed for power as well as optical and sonar video trans-
Quick-Thinking Kickers t UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, Ph.D. candidates Andreas Seekircher, Saminda Abeyruwan, and Justin Stoecker, B.S. ’09, are programming virtual robot soccer players to compete with other teams around the world. “You can easily spend eight hours a day on this,” says Seekircher, as he and his fellow grad students sit in front of a flat-screen television one afternoon
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RICHARD PATTERSON
Professor Negahdaripour, left; students Reza Babaee and Murat Aykin, standing; and Darren Moss, of Teledyne Benthos, discuss the ROV’s pool performance in preparation for a breakthrough fish-tracking mission with a team of marine scientists.
missions. Its acoustic positioning system would enable it to be tracked as it conducts tasks ranging from seafloor mapping to underwater pipeline inspection to shallow-water bridge or ship inspection. In his lab, Negahdaripour and his students are developing software to automate data acquisition and online processing. They conduct experiments on the optical and sonar technology in a 6-foot-deep water tank strewn with sand, coral, and other objects intended to mimic the seafloor. Ph.D. candidate Murat Aykin, visiting M.S. candidate Reza Babaee, from the Technical University of Munich, and Gulliver Preparatory School intern Shayanth Sinnarajah help collect and analyze the data recorded by a computer connected to underwater cameras. “We are developing new technologies that have real application for harsh environments where optics have limited use,” Aykin explains. By applying computer vision technologies, adds Negahdaripour, “We are advancing the sonar technology that’s been around for decades, most notably used by the military. No one else in the world is currently doing the research we are doing.”
and watch their computer-generated robots play soccer. As entertaining as the game playing may be, it could one day lead to models for real-life intelligent humanoid robots. The students spend hours developing algorithms in an effort to program the virtual robots to act autonomously. “There are a lot of unsolved problems,” Seekircher admits. “You can’t just look in a book [for answers].”
the college’s Department of Computer Science who competed with teams at RoboCup for nearly a decade before coming to UM from Germany’s Universität Bremen in 2008. He conducts research in artificial intelligence and gaming, particularly complex sports games. Visser insists soccer is an ideal game for developing and testing robots because the rules are clear, and researchers must program the robots, whether
he says, not unlike the resources that have emerged from RoboCup Rescue, a similar competition that has led to the creation of lifesaving rescue robot technology used in real-life disasters. “Soccer is a test bed,” Visser says. “We’re not trying to develop an artificial soccer player. We would like to understand what kind of technologies we need when it comes to real-time, dynamic situations—such as a system in
“ Can a robot have emotions?” The students are part of a team called the UM RoboCanes, one of two American groups that competed in last year’s RoboCup, an international robotics competition that seeks to advance artificial intelligence through soccer competitions featuring both virtual and real robots. The team’s faculty advisor is Ubbo Visser, a research associate professor in
virtual or real, to make quick decisions, communicate with other players, and essentially behave like human beings. Ultimately, Visser hopes to apply his students’ programming systems for the virtual robots to ten real robots they plan to purchase next year, pending funding. The technology used on the robots, in turn, has the potential for many other practical applications,
RoboCanes Andreas Seekircher and Justin Stoecker, B.S. ’09, program virtual soccer bots. “The vision,” says their faculty advisor, Ubbo Visser, “is to beat the human soccer world champion with a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots by the year 2050.”
a car that helps a driver make decisions about whether to change a lane or to hit the brakes.” If the technology works, Visser adds, it could be advanced in other fields such as space exploration. “If you have multiple robots on Mars, what do you do with them?” he asks. “They need to act together and make decisions [like the soccer players]. The problems are similar.” Last year RoboCanes made it to the RoboCup quarterfinals. This April, after the European Championships in Germany, they won the largest event in Asia, the IranOpen. They hope to further their record at the 2011 World Cup in Istanbul (July 5 to 11). One of the lessons the students already have gotten from the experience: People can learn more about themselves from machines. “Can a robot have emotions?” Stoecker says. “This all comes back to how we understand ourselves. Whether you’re a scientist or an art teacher, anyone can appreciate how our creations reflect how we perceive ourselves.”
ana maria lima is a freelance writer based in Miami, Florida. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 21
Opera 2.O By
Ro bin
Sh ear
Photos by Michael Marko
With new technology and new subject matter but all the familiar drama, a 500-year-old art form is making its grand leap into the 21st century.
22 Miami magazine Spring 2011
From Mimi to Madame Butterfly, award-winning soprano Sandra Lopez, B.M. ’96, has died on stage more times than she cares to count. “My brother has this joke. He says, ‘Are you dying again? Oh my gosh, what happens this time? Are you stabbed, shot, what’s going on?’” But his good-natured jab offers a clue into this centuries-old art form’s staying power. “Opera is practically like a soap opera or a movie,” says Lopez, the Frost School of Music’s 2010 Distinguished Alumna. “When people say it’s boring, I say, ‘You go to movies all the time. Opera is the same thing: people and situations and what’s gonna happen—plot-driven stuff.’” Take Texas bombshell Anna Nicole Smith, who married rich, lived hard, then died alone in a casino hotel. Tragic tabloid fodder for sure, but the stuff of opera? Absolutely! Her story debuted to a packed house at The Royal Opera House in London in February. As opera continues to be revived and revised with new subjects, new technology, and a new breed of stars, the University of Miami Frost Opera Theater
program is preparing students to be at the forefront of its future. “New opera is being done all over the world, but it’s really thriving right now in America,” explains Dean Southern, program stage director as well as assistant professor of vocal performance and opera historian. In 2006, the same year Peter Gelb came to the Metropolitan Opera from Sony Classical to bring the Met into the 21st century, Alan O. Johnson, B.M. ’82, arrived from New York City to direct the Frost Opera Theater. Johnson may not have the budget for state-of-the-art stage effects, but he does have the chops to present exciting new operas and renew venerable classics. The assistant professor’s pedigree includes Obie and Jefferson Awards for collaborations with some of this century’s top artists, including Philip Glass, who performed at the Frost School in 2008. “We have an opportunity to make this the epicenter of very, very interesting opera work,” Johnson says, “not only in South Florida but nationally and internationally.”
Last April’s double bill included, from left, Richard Wargo’s Ballymore: Part One, Winners, set in Ireland during the period of sectarian strife known as the Troubles, and Michael Torke and A.R. Gurney’s Strawberry Fields, set in present-day Central Park. Set design by student Joe Sheridan. To learn about Frost Opera Theater’s 2011-12 season, visit www.music.miami.edu/concerts.
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 23
PHOTOS: RICHARD PATTERSON
Benjamin Britten’s comic chamber opera Albert Herring is updated to take place in the 1950s but retains its turn-of-the-century story line about the adventures of a hapless young man in a small town who’s named King of the May. Set design by student Simone Meeks.
24 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Johnson, who launched an avantgarde music festival at UM as a piano major 20 years ago, believes helping Frost students develop a sensibility and temperament for new works gives them “much more of an advantage going out in the world. Preparing work of their own time helps inform how they look at Handel and Mozart, Monteverdi or Puccini.” “I think I’m a better musician because of the contemporary repertory,” agrees soprano Carey Goldenberg, B.M. ’11. Last year she worked directly with contemporary composers such as Libby Larsen, Michael Torke, and Richard Wargo, playing the lead in the latter’s one-act opera based on Lovers by Irish dramatist Brian Friel. Ballymore: Part One, Winners was presented with Torke and writer A.R. Gurney’s Strawberry Fields. Recent seasons have also included adaptations of The Beggar’s Opera, set in London’s 1970s punk scene, and Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus; a full production of Mozart’s challenging Così Fan Tutte; and a tribute to Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, titled Menotti ReMixed. “Alan Johnson’s strength and area of expertise and fabulousness lie in looking towards the new,” notes Esther Jane Hardenbergh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Vocal Performance. “Alan is trying to pick repertoire that speaks to audiences and so far I think he’s doing a great job at it.” Channeling the DIY attitude of the New York City art scene where he built his career, Johnson launched the annual Wall-to-Wall Opera for All Festival on the Coral Gables campus in 2008. From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. it’s nonstop opera: outdoor performances, Arias on the Hour, live readings, video screenings, staged excerpts, and teasers of the coming season.
MICHAEL MARKO
Fleming should know. Her sister is opera megastar Renée Fleming, whom she helped bring to the Frost School last March to conduct a voice master class. In town to perform with the Russian National Orchestra, the Grammy Awardwinning yet downto-earth diva worked with four students before an audience of more than 300 in Gusman Hall. Soprano Anna Hersey spent months preparing for the experience. She performed “No Word from Tom” from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, which Fleming pronounced a perfect aria for her. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing event in the history of our program!” said Hersey, a doctoral candidate now studying in Sweden on a Fulbright grant. “Our [former] students are singing on the great stages, and teaching in some of the best programs in the country,” says Hardenbergh. In addition to Lopez, tenors Javier Abreu, B.A.M. ’99, and Martin Shalita, D.M.A. ’11, baritone Keith Buterbaugh, M.M. ’85, and soprano Elizabeth Caballero, B.M. ’99, are among the ’Canes making headlines out in the opera world. “Each year, we have more than doubled the numbers that audition for the opera program,” notes Hardenbergh. “But we’re committed to a program that affords all of our students, graduate and undergraduate, legitimate performance opportunities. Therefore, we keep the program relatively small.” The CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
“In New York you go and see opera performed in warehouses, on barges, outdoors, in spaces that were never meant for opera,” explains Johnson. “I find that incredibly inspiring.” For Festival Miami 2009 he spearheaded the exuberantly titled Six Operas in Sixty Minutes!!! curating premieres by faculty such as Frost Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater conductor Thomas Sleeper; Raina Murnak, D.M.A. ’06, and New York Times Notable Book author Jane Alison; Robert Gower, D.M.A. ’81; Dennis Kam; and D. Scott Stinson, D.M.A. ’02; as well as alumnus Douglas J. Cuomo, B.M. ’82, a successful television and film score composer. The UM School of Architecture has gotten into the act too. “Opera is sort of the last great collective, collaborative process,” says Professor Jean-François Lejeune. Once an opera critic in his native Belgium, Lejeune teaches a scenic design course in which students devise and execute sets for Frost Opera productions in the 600-seat Gusman Concert Hall. This year’s project was Benjamin Britten’s comic work Albert Herring. “What Professor Johnson brings to the program is incredible,” says Rachelle Fleming, a noted jazz artist studying vocal pedagogy and performance under Hardenbergh. Fleming is glad to see that besides voice training, the curriculum requires acting, character study, movement, dance, and even makeup instruction. “You can’t just get up there and ‘park and bark’ anymore, the way singers used to,” she explains. “I’m watching singers now, and they’re rolling on the floor, they’re lying down in bed, they’re making out. They’re chewin’ up the scenery and projecting these incredible voices with no amplification. It’s the Olympics of singing.”
From top, opera star Renée Fleming coaches doctoral candidate Anna Hersey during a master class to benefit the Frost School; Sandra Lopez as Tosca with Spain’s Opera de Oviedo.
program’s enrollment is up to 55 from 35 students just five years ago. Hardenbergh, who maintains a busy touring schedule herself and runs the department’s summer Salzburg program, says having faculty with active careers such as tenor Tony Boutté, who made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2006, helps show aspiring vocalists the real world of conductors and agents, contracts and constant travel. “Another thing we look for is people who have connections that can be helpful to our students and programs.” Earlier this year Frost Opera students and faculty were invited to perform at the prestigious Center for Contemporary Opera. While in New York City, they took in a private backstage tour and a performance of Don Pasquale at the Met, where Lopez got her start as a Lindemann Young Artist fellow more than a decade ago. Countless ill-fated characters later, she sees nothing moribund about opera. “It’s never old,” Lopez says. “It is always being thought of in a new way. I’m curious to see what the next step is.” Spring 2011 Miami magazine 25
A participant in the University’s Coming Out Project, openly gay University of Miami student Jonathan Frey, center, has the support of his father, Mark; mother, Melanie; and little sister, Alexa. 26 Miami magazine Spring 2011
A landmark NIH study explores how gay teens and their parents navigate the coming out process
Family Outing with the goal of improving,
and in some cases saving, lives.
By
Meredi t h
Da nton
Photos By Donna Victor
When Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped from a bridge to his death, becoming the fifth teen in three weeks last fall to commit suicide following harassment for sexual orientation, the media honed in on gay bullying. One response, the “It Gets Better Project,” showcases hundreds of personal stories of hope and celebrity messages urging gay teens to hang tough. But even before these recent tragedies, a group of University of Miami graduate students and researchers were exploring ways to help strengthen the support lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens find at home. Neena Malik, director of training in the Division of Clinical Psychology in the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics, and Kristin Lindahl, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, are scientists and therapists who specialize in family functioning and child development. They had been publishing studies on marital conflict, domestic violence, and other family stressors when graduate student Brian Willoughby approached them with an idea. New to UM from Concordia University in Montreal, he had researched whether parents of tomboy daughters and effeminate sons support or reject their children. “I then became interested in how parents come to understand their child’s sexual orientation and family acceptance of LGB young people,” says Willoughby, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’08, who now teaches and conducts research in the psychiatry department at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “When I contacted Neena and Kristin during the grad school application process, they showed great enthusiasm for my interest.” Spring 2011 Miami magazine 27
Willoughby soon joined forces with fellow graduate student Nathan Doty, who had been working with Malik on a study of family relationships as a source of resilience for at-risk children, such as those exposed to community violence and trauma. Doty wondered whether families offer resilience for LGB youth, also considered at-risk. The two began writing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application for what would be the Coming Out Project. “Our lab receiving this grant was one of my most rewarding experiences,” says Doty, M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’09, a clinical fellow in Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry. “Not just because it validated the hard
“Our goal,” Lindahl adds, “is to better understand the struggles and strengths so that we can ultimately create a family therapy plan.” Project coordinator Frank Zanca recruited most of the study’s participants—presently 175 parent-child pairs—at meetings for PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), Pridelines Youth Services, and Safe Schools South Florida throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. One would expect LGB teens in these public support groups to be “further along” in their self-acceptance, but Malik notes that many teens in the study still grapple with “internalized homophobia.”
among gay teens]. There’s no way in hell I was going to let any of my kids travel through life without the backbone of the family.” At the time, Jonathan had already confided in his younger sister, Alexa, who advised him not to tell their parents about his sexuality because she feared they might refuse to pay for Jonathan’s college education. “We always tried to be open at the dinner table,” says a teary-eyed Melanie Frey, Jonathan’s mother. “It hurts me to think he couldn’t talk to us, to think he was afraid of what we would do to him.” Jonathan was relieved that his fear of a negative or violent reaction from his parents was unfounded, but many
“ You would not believe how many kids come up to me and say, ‘What your parents are doing is amazing.’ It helps a lot of kids to know that if I have parents like this, maybe theirs will turn around.” —Jonathan Frey work we did together, but because it also meant more opportunities to learn from these incredible, resilient LGB youth who are willing to share their stories with us.” The Coming Out Project is a longitudinal study funded by a four-year, $1.17 million grant from the NIH’s National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. It assesses interactions between lesbian, gay, or bisexual teens and their parents for 18 months through an initial videotaped session and follow-up surveys. “One question we’re asking is how long it takes for parents to come back to feeling like they know their kid again,” Malik says. “For the first time we are getting data into the world based on parents and kids going into the lab together and talking about what coming out was like for them.” 28 Miami magazine Spring 2011
For many parents, the greatest concern is their child’s vulnerability. “They worry about the prejudice they may face and the opportunities they may not have,” Malik says.
Jonathan Frey was out for a driving lesson with his dad, Mark, in the summer before 11th grade when Mark began to ask some probing questions. Mark: “Do you have a girlfriend?” Jonathan (at the wheel): “No.” Mark: “Do you have a boyfriend?” Jonathan: “I’m not gay!” Mark: “You know, if you were gay, we’d be cool with that.” Jonathan (gripping the wheel, crying, and trying not to crash): “Yes, I’m gay!” “I set out that day with a mission,” says Mark. “I know I forced John’s hand, but I had read about depression, drug use, running away [as prevalent
LGB teens are not as lucky. Malik recalls meeting one 17-year-old who never came out to his mother but discovered she knew when she stormed into his room in the middle of the night and began beating him with a lamp. Kicked out of the house by his mother, who also dissuaded all relatives from opening their doors to him, the teen ended up homeless for a few months. Mark Frey, a former U.S. Marine and football coach from rural Pennsylvania, admits he and Melanie have struggled with Jonathan’s disclosure. Everything from “what will the neighbors say?” to “will he get beat up?” ran through their heads. “Then we went to a PFLAG meeting, and that was incredible,” says Mark. “And on Father’s Day I walked with my son in the Pride Parade. That was my coming out, and now you’re
Psychologists Kristin Lindahl and Neena Malik are shedding light on the relationships gay teens have with their parents.
gonna hear me a lot.” It was at that Pride Parade in Wilton Manors, Florida, that the Freys met Zanca and agreed to participate in the Coming Out Project so the hard work they’ve put in to making their family closer can one day benefit others. Going a step further, Mark and Melanie recently launched Proud Parents of Lesbian and Gay Children (PPLGC). The organization, which has more than 100 Facebook fans around the nation, is a discussion forum and information source for parents. “You would not believe how many kids come up to me and say, ‘What your parents are doing is amazing,’” says Jonathan, now a sophomore at the University of Miami. “It helps a lot of kids to know that if I have parents like this, maybe theirs will turn around.”
Malik and Lindahl hope their findings will identify what it takes for parents of LGB teens to “turn around” and develop the kind of supportive relationship the Freys have with their
son. They’ve presented preliminary data at conferences nationwide and have published papers with Doty and Willoughby. In their first stage of analysis, Malik and Lindahl have used a family stress theory scale to link some factors to positive familial responses during the coming out process. These include a family dynamic characterized as “cohesive” and “flexible” rather than “disengaged” or “authoritarian.” They also found that negative reactions from parents decline over time and that parents who are more “out” to others about their child’s sexual orientation may fare better psychologically than those who remain “closeted.” “It was clear from the responses to our proposal that [at the NIH] there is a real respect of diversity and a real recognition of the need to understand how, when diversity is not supported, different can lead to vulnerable,” says Malik. With NIH funding for the Coming Out Project ending in 2012, the researchers plan to apply for a second
grant to help convert their findings into evidence-based interventions that are effective across different ethnic groups. They also want to explore the topic of bullying, including “cyber bullying.” “This research involves an issue that, today more than ever, has so much public policy relevance,” Malik says. “For example, what does it mean for LGB youths to know they can now serve [openly] in the military but at the same time are seeing all these kids killing themselves for being gay? We have a responsibility to do the best science we can to give a voice to families who contribute to the larger context of what these changes mean.” The Freys continue to use their voices to help other families traversing similar emotional territory. As a member of SpectrUM, the on-campus organization that promotes goodwill among students of all sexual orientation and gender identity groups, Jonathan helps create a “safe space” for others who feel the world can be unkind. Jonathan admits he, too, has felt the sting of bigotry, but the love of his parents and friends gives him strength and self-confidence. The Freys have called their son’s coming out “a blessing” because it has made them closer as a family and more open as individuals. They never take for granted that the outcome could have been different. “I once asked John if he had ever though about suicide,” Mark recalls. “He said, ‘The thought was there, but thank God I wasn’t strong enough.’ That shook me the hardest. We have a great family life, so I can’t imagine what it’s like for kids who don’t.”
meredith danton is an editorial director and M.F.A. candidate at the University of Miami. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 29
Golden By
Ro bert
C.
Jo nes
Jr.
Opportunity
30 Miami magazine Spring 2011
return the Hurricanes to glory? According to his confidantes, for Head Coach Al Golden, there’s no other option. on the road by 11 p.m., barreling down Alligator Alley with just Diet Coke to fuel his mission. The reason for his haste? A player named Thomas Finnie. Finnie’s bags were packed for his morning trip to Columbia, South Carolina, where he’d already given his oral commitment and planned to enroll early to get a jump on academics and the playbook. But Miami’s coaching staff knew the three-star cornerback out of Miami’s Central High “was a kid who really wanted into our program and who we couldn’t let get away,” explains UM defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio. So if it meant driving all night to beat Finnie’s departure, Golden would do it. Turns out his sleepless night paid off. By 8 a.m., Finnie had flipped from Gamecock red to Hurricane orange and green. D’Onofrio, who also coached under Golden at Temple University in Philly, wasn’t surprised. “That’s vintage Al, always driven to be the very best,” he says. “He’s a guy who can come up with a plan and execute it.” Temple Turnaround In 2004, Temple University was a football doormat, banished from the Big East Conference for failing to meet minimum
requirements for membership, one of which included fielding a competitive team. In a 100-plus-year history, the Owls had had only two winning seasons. Then, in 2005, Golden took over as head coach. Tom Deahn, director of football operations at UM, recalls his disbelief upon learning that Golden, then University of Virginia’s defensive coordinator, had accepted the Temple job. “You immediately thought either it’s career suicide or it’s going to be the story of the century,” says Deahn, who was Maryland’s director of football operations before joining Golden at Temple. “Fortunately for everybody involved, it ended up being the story of the century. It was phenomenal.” By 2009 Golden had righted the ship in Philadelphia, guiding Temple to a 9-4 season (its first winning campaign in almost two decades), a firstplace tie in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) East Division, and its first bowl appearance in 30 years. Golden was named the 2009 MAC Coach of STEVEN MURPHY
A
Al Golden’s two-hour in-home visit with one of the most coveted high school recruits in the nation went well. Anthony Chickillo, a defensive end out of Tampa Alonso High who had more than 50 scholarship offers, reaffirmed his oral commitment to play for the Miami Hurricanes. For Golden, with barely a month on the job as UM’s head football coach and racing against other coaches (read: Will Muschamp) hot on Chickillo’s trail, the player’s confirmation was a promising first down. Anyone who’s been around college football long enough knows a coaching change can cause a recruit to renege on his verbal commitment. In Chickillo’s case, speculation was running rampant that he’d start looking at other programs in the wake of Randy Shannon’s recent departure from UM. But Golden’s visit to the Chickillo home cemented the star player’s oral agreement. With his signing of a National Letter of Intent on February 2, the 6-foot 3-inch, 226-pound Under Armour All-American guaranteed he’d become a third-generation Miami Hurricane football player. Golden surely deserved a good night’s sleep before the four-hour drive back to Miami. Instead, he was back
Can the man who resuscitated Temple’s football team
the Year. Last season he led the Owls to an 8-4 mark and saw eight of his players named to the All-MAC First Team. “In all honesty, I don’t think anyone really knew what bad shape the Temple program was in [before Golden arrived],” Deahn says. “There’s no better example of staying the course and doing what you believe in than Al at Temple. His mindset, his philosophy, his opinions didn’t change from day one in five years. The biggest difference was the players learned what it took to have a chance to win.” One of Golden’s greatest turnarounds at Temple occurred off the
field. His team put in 1,000 hours of community service in the off-season, coordinated bone marrow donor and food drives, donated their per diem allowances to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and visited children’s hospitals. Their dedication earned them the Philadelphia Sports Congress’s 2009 Robert P. Levy Community Service Award and Temple Athletic Department’s inaugural TEAM (Temple’s Exceptional Acts of Mankind) Award. Golden’s student-athletes excelled in the classroom, too, boosting the
team’s NCAA Academic Progress Rate. Seven were named to the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Football Team in 2006. “One of the most unique things I ever saw was during that first season at Temple,” Deahn recalls. “In August, when every school in the country is working its hardest to prepare for the season and to win every game, we were in the midst of trying to keep 11 guys [academically] eligible. “Instead of having a month of preseason camp and 29 practices, we had one practice a day, every day, or we actually gave guys days off so that they could have study hall,” Deahn continues. “Instead of coaches being in meetings, they were tutoring guys at 8, 9, 10, and 11 o’clock at night. They were proofreading English papers, going through math homework. I remember going over to the dorm at midnight to check on some of the players and seeing coaches helping them do homework. When you’ve been in this business 20 years, to see something like that? It’s an image that’s still burned into my mind.” Learned from the Best From the legendary Joe Paterno to defensive mastermind Al Groh, Golden has coached under some of the best, learning valuable lessons from each. “Paterno taught me how to excel on and off the field,” explains Golden, 42, who not only played tight end for the Penn State coach from 1987 to 1991, two of those years as a starter, but served as
his linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator in 2000. “He was a pioneer in terms of demanding and getting the best from his players both athletically and academically. He showed me that you can teach life skills to your players to build a championship team.” Golden credits former Virginia head coach George Welsh, under whom he served as a graduate assistant from 1994 to 1996, for showing him how to turn around a program. “He gave me the blueprint,” Golden says, referring to Welsh’s efforts in transforming a Cavalier program into a winner. At Boston College from 1997 to 1999, Golden coached linebackers under Tom O’Brien, developing former NFL stars Frank Chamberlin (Tennessee Titans) and Erik Storz (Jacksonville Jaguars). But it was Groh, the former Virginia head coach, who taught Golden the game. Golden served as Groh’s defensive coordinator for three years, turning the Cavaliers into a top 20 unit in total defense. “He taught me the tactical aspects of football,” Golden says. At Miami, Golden faces the task of returning a five-time National Championship program to glory. It will be nowhere near the same trial as resurrecting a languishing program like Temple was when he took over, but challenges remain nonetheless. “We went from zero wins to nine wins at Temple,” Golden says. “Here we want to go from 7 to 14. We don’t shy away from expectations. You know how many places in America where they just want to go to a bowl game or just want to survive? We want to win championships, and that’s awesome.” Hurricanes Football kicks off September 5 in Maryland.
robert c. jones jr. is an editor at the University of Miami. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 31
A l u m n i
DIGEST
News and Events of Interest to University of Miami Alumni
Solid Commitment Old-world artistry brings classic beauty to Newman Alumni Center
C
but by 1962 had their own shop once more. They borrowed $500 from a friend to get the band saws and other equipment they needed to fulfill their first big order: 200 chairs for the Floridita bar. Fifty years later Camilo
GEORGE CONTORAKES
amilo Lopez and his brother first founded their woodworking business in the 1900s in Spain, then started over in Cuba, where they immigrated in 1924. “We were pretty successful,” notes grandson Camilo
Cherry wood column dressings and display cases adorn the entrance. Right, Patricia, M.S.Ed. ’80, Michelle Marie, ’12, and Camilo Lopez III, M.B.A. ’82.
Lopez III, M.B.A. ’82, who began working for the family business as a teen. “We did all types of furniture—residential, commercial, hotels, including the Havana Hilton.” Then Castro came. The family “abandoned the factory and took off to the U.S. without a penny,” he recounts. In Miami, the Lopez craftsmen initially worked for other furniture-makers 32 Miami magazine Spring 2011
just part of our heritage.” They even designed one especially for UM. Proud owners include President Donna E. Shalala, honorary alumna ’02, whose office was also outfitted by Camilo, and the Richter Library’s Goizueta Pavilion. Lopez III says former School of Business Administration dean Paul K. Sugrue, his executive M.B.A. mentor, “helped us tremendously getting our foot in the door at the University.” So overseeing all of the beautiful woodwork and furnishings that went into the Newman Alumni Center last year was an opportunity to unite two enduring legacies. “The University holds a special part
Lopez-Real, B.Arch. ’91, his cousins, are all ’Canes. Also active in the family business is cousin Martha Lopez Kuylenstierna. “We all have an attachment to the University,” Lopez III continues. “And we owe something back.” From the library and conference rooms to the display cases and column dressings, the company’s handiwork is ubiquitous. “Everything was custom built,” Lopez III explains. “We do all the work ourselves—from raw wood to the ultimate product and design.” He says about $250,000 worth of American cherry wood and finishing materials went into the Newman Alumni Center, their largest LEED-certified endeavor to date. The job kept Camilo’s West Miami factory humming for more than six months and used at least a quarter of the company’s 100-member workforce. Still, they kept prices as low as possible, he says, and
“ The University holds a special part of my heart.” Office Furniture is still recognized for its signature quality and custom designs— and award-winning Cuban rocking chairs. “In Cuba, the rocker was a very essential thing,” notes Lopez III, Camilo’s vice president. “It’s
of my heart,” he says. “My wife’s too.” Wife Patricia L. Lopez, M.S.Ed. ’80; daughter Michelle Marie Lopez, in UM’s premed track; and business partners Ana Maria Lopez, B.B.A. ’89, and Cristina
donated all of the conference room furnishings for this labor of love. “We’re very happy with the way it turned out,” says Lopez III. “We’re grateful for the opportunity and proud to help the University.”
LOOKING BACK
Is Your Pride Showing?
P
JENNY ABREU
atrick K. Barron, B.B.A. ’75, UM Alumni Association president for 2009-11, shows his Hurricane pride by being active on the Board of Trustees, speaking to students about his business expertise, attending ’Canes sporting events, and being a loyal annual donor.
Pat Barron, B.B.A. ’75
“Our UM experience was enhanced by alumni support,” says the recently retired Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s first vice president and chief operating officer. “Now it’s our turn to give back to benefit current and future ’Canes.” His sentiments get to the heart of Hurricane Pride, a multiyear effort that was launched last spring to increase annual support and achieve record participation. In FY10, 20,500-plus alumni took part, giving nearly $6 million and showing 17 percent participation.
Gifts of any size count, and the ultimate goal is to have 26,000 annual alumni donors in 2015. Alumni generosity helps attract the best and brightest: Almost two-thirds of last fall’s entering freshmen had graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class, with more than 40 percent in the top 5 percent. As UM continues to become more selective and rise in the academic rankings, so does the value of a UM degree. But with 83 percent of UM students requiring some form of financial aid, the University’s ability to offer scholarships, fellowships, equipment, and other student resources is more vital than ever. To show recognition for alumni donors and stress just how important they are to the next generation of alumni, the Office of Alumni Relations also launched Mind the Gap: Philanthropy Awareness Day on April 4, marking the symbolic point in the semester at which the cost of an undergraduate education is no longer covered by tuition. For more information, visit www.miami.edu/annualfund, or call 305-284-9200.
A Class Act
T
wo months before acute leukemia took her life in December, Audrey R. Finkelstein, A.B. ’38, attended the Newman Alumni Center dedication, her regal crown of silver hair and red lipstick intact. She said the facility would give graduates “a sense of continuity,” something she herself fostered at UM for more than 70 years. As a student, Audrey Rothenberg helped start UM’s first Jewish sorority, cofounded its first women’s honor society, served as editor of The Ibis and news editor of The Miami Hurricane, and was named to UM’s Senior Hall of Fame as well as the national Who’s Who Among Students honors program. The host of a public radio talk show for more than 25 years, she also was a pioneering advocate for social justice who kept her alma mater squarely in sight. In addition to supporting the Frost School of Music, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Lowe Art Museum, Athletics, and the Richter Library, on the 50th anniversary of her graduation, she and husband Charles Finkelstein established an endowment fund that would evolve into the Audrey R. Finkelstein UM Experience—an interactive, educational series for alumni held during every Alumni Weekend since 1996. Each year, more than 200 participants share in the learning of current students by taking mini-courses from UM’s most stimulating faculty and alumni. “People don’t grow old,” Finkelstein once told Miami magazine. “They become old by not growing.” The Audrey R. Finkelstein UM Experience is a permanent testament to that principle—and to its creator, who in her 94 years never grew old. Visit www.miami.edu/alumni/eblasts/audreyguestbook.htm. Spring 2011 Miami magazine 33
AlumniDigest
Noted Entrepreneurs Named Alumni Trustees
P
resident’s Council members Hal F. Rosenbluth, B.G.S. ’74, and William Koenigsberg, B.B.A. ’77, have been named to the University of Miami Board of Trustees. After helping build Rosenbluth International into the world’s second-
largest travel company— worth $350 million when it was sold to American Express in 2003—Rosenbluth became an innovator in the health care sector, cofounding Take Care Health Systems in 2004. Acquired by Walgreens in 2007, its network of 700 convenience clinics and worksite health and wellness centers has served more than 3.5 million patients nationwide. In April, Rosenbluth retired as president of Walgreens Health and Wellness and a corporate vice president. “I’m still on a mission,” he has said. “Until I see health care change, I’m going to keep going.” In 2009 he was elected to the Fellowship of the College
of Physicians of Philadelphia. The author of several books on customer service, Rosenbluth shares a home outside of Philadelphia and a ranch in North Dakota with his wife, Renee, and has four children. Bill Koenigsberg, founder, president and CEO of New York Citybased Horizon Media and Hal Rosenbluth, B.G.S. ’74 cofounder of the global media partnership company—Adweek/Mediaweek/ Columbus Media InternaBrandweek’s 2010 Media tional, has been called Agency of the Year—has one of the most influential been called one of the Bill Koenigsberg, B.B.A. ’77 people in media. His industry’s most innovative. It is also one of the largest and fastest-growing of the UM Goes Mobile independents, with nearly M’s new mobile app, which can be downloaded Wendy Chun, M.B.A. ’96, online communications 600 employees, $2.6 billion for free to any Web-enabled phone, is “pretty director, Office of Alumni Relations. in billings, and blue-chip much the University in your hand,” says multimedia Alumni Relations and University Communications clients such as GEICO, NBC director Christine Casas, A.B. ’01, M.A.L.S. ’06. spearheaded the initiative, with funding from the Universal, A&E Television Phase I of the launch includes Provost’s Office and support from Networks, and Cadbury. interactive GPS-enabled maps; UM Athletics, the Miller School “My goal is to always a full athletic suite; an extensive of Medicine, Student Affairs, and offer a fresh perspective and calendar of events; multimedia Information Technology. figure out new ways to move content; a real-time Hurry ’Cane “The needs of our constituents forward,” Koenigsberg has shuttle tracker; access to University will guide this product’s continusaid. He serves on the board directories, news feeds, and emering growth,” notes Donna A. of 4A’s, the national trade gency information and contacts; Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, associate vice association of the advertisand a module that displays UM president, Alumni Relations. ing agency business; the parking space availability. Developed by Blackboard International Radio and What you won’t find: advertisMobile, whose clients have Television Society Foundaing or any other non-essentials. included Stanford, Duke, and tion; and City Harvest. He “Future upgrades will have tons of other content, Northwestern, the UM mobile app will be available at lives in Manhattan with his such as tours, a student-requested dining hall module iTunes, Android Market, and BlackBerry App World. wife, Jessica, and has three for menus, and a directory of UHealth doctors,” adds Send feedback via the app itself. children. LISA KUEHNLE
U
34 Miami magazine Spring 2011
C l a s s
NOTES 1940s
AARON WARKOV
Sydney Josepher, B.B.A. ’47, a
retired Merrill Lynch executive, serves on boards for the City of Coral Gables and UM Community Relations and is an arbitrator for FINRA. He is also an active supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Miami and many charity golf tournaments. Thomas R. “Tom” Bottomley, A.B. ’49, a retired boating journalist and author of several boating books, including Boatman’s Handbook, has been a volunteer since 1998 and a purser since 2001 on the SS Red Oak Victory, a Richmond-built cargo ship being restored at the Port of Richmond. His hobbies include building scale ship models and painting.
1950s
George Balbi, A.B. ’51, was part of a
volunteer effort at the Community Kitchen and Food Pantry of West Harlem that included Today host Hoda Kotb. Edward Connor, B.B.A. ’55, is retired from the U.S. Air Force and the CIA, and from Corvus Corporation, where he was vice president of marketing. He is currently an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute professor at George Mason University in Virginia. Peter Harvey, A.B. ’55, of New York City, was awarded an artist’s residency in Venice, Italy, from the Emily Harvey Foundation (no relation). He also plans to go to Germany to complete the design for a re-creation of his 1967 décor for Balanchine’s Jewels for the Dresden Semperopera Ballet’s production, which was set to premiere this May. Alan T. Olkes, B.M. ’57, M.M. ’60, is executive vice president of Imagine Schools in Coconut Grove, Florida. Edward Robin, B.S.E.E. ’57, has
ALUMNI OF NOTE
She Runs a Tight Ship formed the Croton Energy Group, a New York-based nonprofit consultancy dedicated to sustainable energy. Anne Marie McCrystal, B.S.N. ’59, and her husband, physician Hugh McCrystal, received the Dan K. Richardson Humanitarian Award in 2010 from the Gifford Youth Activity Center in Vero Beach, Florida. She was the Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice Foundation’s board chair for 19 years.
1960s
George Conger, B.B.A. ’61, M.B.A.
’65, was president of Aims Community College from 1979 to 1998. He authored Convoluted Conclusion: An End to the Saga of Harley H. Hall, about a Naval flight training classmate whose stellar aviation career came to an end over North Vietnam in 1973. Carol Davis Grampa, B.Ed. ’62, owns Grampa’s Bakery and Restaurant in Dania Beach, Florida, with her husband. Their eatery was featured on The Food Network with Guy Fieri. Victor Trivett, M.B.A. ’62, is retired and enjoys his weekly ballroom dancing events in South Miami. Marc J. Yacht, A.B. ’62, a retired health director of the Pasco County Health Department in Florida, has self-published Doc’s Leisure Reader: Commuter Tales and Bedtime Stories and Doc’s Leisure Reader II: More Short Stories, Plays, and Poetry. He credits late UM English professor George K. Smart for his love of writing. Yacht and his wife live in the Tampa Bay area. Alan Jabbour, A.B. ’63, former director of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, and photographer Karen Singer Jabbour, A.B. ’64, coauthored the book Decoration Day in the
A
s Carnival Cruise Lines’ senior vice president for revenue management, Brenda Yester, B.B.A. ’90, is responsible for maximizing profits at a $3 billion company. Yet the South Florida native, who also has a 12-year-old son, still makes time for community involvement. Her main goal when mentoring Carnival employees, University of Miami students, and kids in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program “is to help the mentee make decisions and evaluate choices, realize trial and error is OK, and learn from their decisions—good and bad.” Yester, who came to Carnival by way of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Ryder System, says mentors have proved invaluable to her. A particularly strong influence was Andrea Heuson, a professor in the School of Business Administration’s Finance Department. “I really liked finance as a result of her teaching style,” recalls Yester, a certified public accountant who has her M.B.A. degree. “Everything was very logical. She was approachable. I never felt intimidated.” The two women recently collaborated on an academic project that centered on Carnival data. Yester maintains other UM ties. She serves on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and, coincidentally, reports to a fellow ’Cane: Carnival CEO and president Gerry Cahill, B.B.A. ’73. Besides mentoring, Yester has served on the board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida for several years and in 2009 was named board chair. For Yester, who lost her father to illness just before she graduated from UM, the power of Make-A-Wish is its ability to transport children with lifethreatening medical conditions and their families “away from the awful period of doctors. It’s a memory they can look forward to and they can look back on. The wish is something they can hold on to as a family.” Recounting a story “that absolutely epitomizes the value of what we do,” Yester tells of a man she met at a Make-A-Wish Foundation 5K event who had lost his daughter a few weeks earlier. He had seen her wish to visit Paris fulfilled and wanted to raise funds to fulfill other families’ wishes. “It’s amazing that this man, through his grief, was driven to step up.” —Robin Shear
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 35
ClassNotes
1970s
Bonnie Baskin, B.S. ’70, Ph.D. ’75, is
featured in the book How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America for her entrepreneurial ventures ViroMed Laboratories (sold to Laboratory Corporation of America in 2000) and AppTec Laboratory Services (sold to WuXi PharmaTech in 2008). Larry Zeiger, B.S. ’70, composed music and wrote lyrics for his new album, Meetchu in Machu Picchu–The Music of Larry Zeiger. Joel B. Tabachnik, B.B.A. ’71, was named COO of PetLabsMD.com in Hollywood, Florida. H.T. Smith Jr., J.D. ’73, received the
36 Miami magazine Spring 2011
David W. Dyer Professionalism Award from the Dade County Bar Association in Miami. Jerry M. Markowitz, J.D. ’74, served as president of the University of Miami Law Alumni Association for the fiscal year 2010-11. He previously was the association’s president-elect, vice president of alumni activities, and secretary. Thomas Newcomb Hyde, J.D. ’75, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company’s national director of legal training, received the International Law Office and the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2010 Global Counsel Award for “Best Training Programme.” Edward M. Jankovic, B.B.A. ’75, authored Relationships among Country Risk, Investor Expectations and Financial Variables in Central Europe (Mellen Press). Johanne Riddick, B.S.N. ’75, a nurse practitioner and public health advocate, has run a weeklong retreat for kids of all backgrounds, including those with a history of abuse, neglect, and/or mental health issues, for the past 20 years. Camp Colin, in New Mexico, is named for her son, who died in a car-motorcycle accident at age 19. Roney J. Mateu, B.Arch. ’76, was the American Institute of Architects Miami Chapter Architect of the Year (2010). His firm’s recent projects also won two AIA Design Excellence awards. Darcy La Fountain, B.B.A. ’77, of Boynton Beach, Florida, won the women’s 1,500-meter swim for her age group (55-59) at the U.S. Masters Swimming National LCM (long course meters) Championship in Puerto Rico last summer. Cynthia Cidre, A.B. ’78, wrote the pilot for an updated version of Dallas, a new TV series from Warner Bros. being directed by Michael M. Robin, B.S.C. ’85. Sue M. Cobb, J.D. ’78, became the first woman and only U.S. ambassador to receive the “Order of Jamaica,” the highest award the nation of Jamaica can confer on a non-citizen. The ceremony took
ALUMNI OF NOTE
Between Rock and a Great Place
S
ome executives might moonlight as rockers, but it’s a sure bet none other than Brian J. Buckelew, B.B.A. ’78, of TD Bank, plays drums in a band called the Big Fat Pet Clams From Outer Space. But then nothing about Buckelew is average. He’s also a philanthropist, a movie buff who launched a film festival, an advocate of education who helped rebuild a college in his hometown, and a member of the prestigious Lotos Club, a literary society that counts Mark Twain among its founding members. The first in his family to go to college, Buckelew grew up in Lakewood, New Jersey, a resort town where Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Astors once frolicked. His parents came from humble beginnings, but his father, a beat cop named Joe whom everybody knew, went on to become mayor, police commissioner, insurance magnate, and ultimately local Republican Party head. Elder son Brian had no plans to join the family business. He jammed with Max Weinberg and the late T Lavitz, ’78, hung out at Bob Marley’s house, got a record company job offer—his heart was in music. But at 22, one letter changed all that. And he doesn’t regret it. “I got a beautiful handwritten note from my father, six or seven pages on his philosophy of life,” he recounts. “And towards the end of that letter it stated that he would love me to come to work with him and carry on what he started—and that was the last thing I wanted to do. It’s almost like Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. He’s looking to go travel and do his thing and all of a sudden he just can’t get out for whatever reason. Looking back, you just think, ‘Wow, that was a great thing to be able to spend that kind of time with my father and to build a business, be successful, and have a good life.” That business, an insurance company, was acquired first by Commerce Bank, then TD Bank, for whom Buckelew still works. His family’s ventures also include TV stations and real estate. And Buckelew, a husband and a father of five (daughter Alixandra, B.B.A. ’09, is a ’Cane too), still jams with longtime Springsteen drummer Weinberg and practices daily in his home music studio for gigs with the Pet Clams. “We’re not any good,” he demurs, “but we’re good fun.” —Robin Shear
COURTESY GEORGIAN COURT UNIVERSITY
Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), featuring photos by Singer Jabbour. Bobi Schissell Dimond, B.Ed. ’65, is a photographer in Georgia. She recently joined the Dream Supremes, a “senior” dance squad that cheers on the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream at select home games. Jeffry Fuqua, A.B. ’67, M.S. ’70, Ph.D. ’72, is chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and president of Amick Construction Co., Inc. Fern “Peachy” Kellmeyer, B.Ed. ’67, the first director and employee of the WTA Tour, joins Andre Agassi in the International Tennis Hall of Fame Class of 2011. At UM she was the first woman to compete on a Division 1 men’s squad and went on to become a pioneer for Title IX legislation. Robert Schatzman, B.B.A. ’67, J.D. ’71, of GrayRobinson, was named to the Best Lawyers in America 2011 list and was honored by the Bankruptcy Bar Association for his 40-plus years practicing bankruptcy law. Stephanie Tilson Webb, B.Ed. ’68, M.S.Ed. ’79, was named 2010 Salvation Army Advisory Board Member of the Year for Lee County, Florida.
place on Jamaica National Heroes Day, October 18, 2010. Joseph J. Echevarria Jr., B.B.A. ’78, was promoted from managing partner and COO to CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLP US. He serves on the Orange Bowl Committee and School of Business Administration Board of Overseers. Robert J. Escobio, M.B.A. ’78, an investment banker and Shotokan Karate instructor at the Herbert Wellness Center, earned his fifthdegree black belt in Shotokan from the Japan Karate Association. Chris Crystal, B.B.A. ’79, M.B.A. ’81, became president of the Deering Bay Yacht and Country Club’s board of directors in 2009; Ana Maria Ward, B.B.A. ’81, is vice president and treasurer, and Stephen A. Kandell, B.S. ’67, J.D. ’70, is secretary. Crystal says more than 40 percent of the club’s
400-plus members have some type of UM affiliation. Leslie E. Stern, A.B. ’79, has published the novel Betrayal Beneath the Spanish Moss, a romance about a Mensa member and a struggling drug addict, and Living with a Legend, stories about her stepfather, a noted character designer for Disney and Hanna-Barbera Productions. Gordon W. Taylor, B.B.A. ’79, CFO of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, received the Texas State Agency Business Administrator of the Year award for 2010.
1980s
Richard C. Webster, A.B. ’80,
started a Texas nonprofit corporation called The Free Wind Project
with the goal of bringing various types of renewable, green energy to remote areas. Hilarie Bass, J.D. ’81, a UM Board of Trustees member and vice chair of the School of Law’s visiting committee, is serving a one-year term as chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. Randolph G. Russell, B.M. ’81, a onetime touring musician who went on to launch his own accounting and consulting firm, has authored American History in No Time: A Quick and Easy Read for the Essentials. He lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Fred E. Goldring, J.D. ’82, a founding partner of the entertainment law firm Goldring, Hertz & Lichtenstein, LLP, was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a member on the Presi-
F ri d ay , N o v em ber 4
Newman Alumni Center Tours Audrey R. Finkelstein UM Experience Legacy Information Session Class Reunions: 50th, 40th, 30th, 25th, 10th, 5th, and Zero Year Affinity Reunions and School/College Events Alumni Avenue Homecoming Parade, Boat Burning, Fireworks, and Concert
Sa tu r d a y , No v e mb e r 5
Pregame Celebration Homecoming Game: Duke University vs. University of Miami
dent’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Dawn (McLean) Lloyd, M.S.N. ’83, retired from her job as a women’s health nurse practitioner for Kaiser in Portland, Oregon. Theodore C. Sofia, B.B.A. ’83, is CEO of Vs Studios, a West Palm Beach-based HD video production and hosting company. Previously he was president of TCS Direct, LLC. Joy A. Galliford, B.M. ’84, M.M. ’88, Ph.D. ’03, a lecturer at UM’s Frost School of Music, was named the 2010 Florida College Music Educator of the Year. Michael G. Joseph, B.B.A. ’85, M.B.A. ’87, president of the Hospital Corporation of America, East Florida division, is a member of the School of Business Administration’s Health Sector Management and
For other events happening during Alumni Weekend and Homecoming or for more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 1-866-UMALUMS (862-5867), 305-284-2872, via email at alumniweekend@miami.edu, or visit us online at www.miami.edu/alumniweekend.
Su n d a y , No v e mb e r 6
Golden Ibis Society (Classes of 1926-1960) Celebration Brunch
SAVE THE DATE TO CELEBRATE YOUR PLACE IN HISTORY! Spring 2011 Miami magazine 37
ClassNotes
Policy’s Advisory Board. Donna Ballman, J.D. ’86, won first place in the Florida Writers Association’s 2010 Royal Palm Literary Awards in the Educational/ Information category for her book The Writer’s Guide to the Courtroom: Let’s Quill All the Lawyers (Behler Publications). Robert J. Becerra, B.B.A. ’86, J.D. ’90, and Jennifer Correa, B.B.A. ’06, J.D. ’09, joined the Miami law firm of Mitchell S. Fuerst, J.D. ’78, and Andrew Ittleman, J.D. ’04, as associates. Xavier Cortada, A.B. ’86, J.D. ’92, M.P.A. ’92, created art installations at the North and South Poles to address environmental concerns at every point in between. A solo exhibition depicting his installations, which were sponsored by the National Science Foundation and New York Foundation for the Arts, is on view at the Miami Science Museum through September 1. Jacqueline Torre, B.B.A. ’86, is director of human resources at United HomeCare Services, Inc. in Miami. Gary Levine, B.B.A. ’87, lives in Island Park, New York, and works for ISM, Inc., an international sports marketing and talent agency. Hans Seitz, A.B. ’87, opened Sparky’s Roadside Barbecue in Miami. Michael Irvin, B.B.A. ’88, a sportscaster and an NFL Hall of Famer, appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2009. Lazaro J. Mur, LL.M.T. ’88, joined the law office of Greenspoon Marder as a senior partner focusing on international tax, estate planning and asset protection, as well as sports and entertainment law. He also serves as president of the Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Matthew Pollack, B.Arch. ’88, was promoted to CEO and president of Chisholm Architects, with company founder Robert E. Chisholm, M.S. ’77, serving as chairman of the board. Brett Beveridge, B.B.A. ’89, is founder and CEO of The Retail Outsource, which made Inc. 500’s
38 Miami magazine Spring 2011
annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies in 2010. It reported a three-year sales growth of 1,540 percent (2006-09). Paul Nemerow, A.B. ’89, owns the Golf Ball Recycle company.
1990s
Sherrie A. Madia, M.A. ’90, an
educator with a Ph.D. in mass media and communications, published The Social Media Survival Guide (also available in Spanish) and The Online Job Search Survival Guide.
Debbie Reed Fischer, B.S.C. ’91,
authored the 2008 young adult novels Braless in Wonderland (Dutton) and Swimming with the Sharks (Flux). Swimming won the Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Award for YA fiction and Book of the Year honor in 2010. Fischer lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, with her husband and children. Darin I. Zenov, J.D. ’91, LL.M.T. ’97, a member of the Tax & Individual Planning, Tax & Employee Benefits and Estates & Trusts Practices, was elected to partnership in the Miami
office of Foley & Lardner LLP. Rebecca Hoffman, A.B. ’92, M.S.Ed. ’94, and husband Dan Pikelny welcomed their second child, Benjamin Wolf Pikelny— little brother to Abby—in April 2010. Rebecca also launched Good Egg Concepts, a branding and marketing consulting practice. Ellyn S. Kravitz, LL.M.E. ’92, partner at the law firm of Littman Krooks LLP, was recently accredited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to assist veterans and their spouses with the preparation, presentation, and
PRINTING PRESS
Much Ado about Machismo
T
heories abound about how women develop their self-image in the context of media, but much less has been written on the development of the male self-image. Barna William Donovan, M.A. ’95, a professor of communication at Saint Peter’s College in New Jersey, tackles the topic in his new book, Blood, Guns, and Testosterone: Action Films, Audiences, and a Thirst for Violence (Scarecrow Press, 2010). A lifelong action film fan who’s also written about the Asian influence on the genre, he notes that masculinity has traditionally been studied through a dualistic approach: with men as the powerful “them” and women as the marginalized “us.” Through fan interviews and textual analysis of everything from The A-Team to The Terminator, Donovan explores whether the modern American male truly fits this historic, all-powerful label. And if so,
he asks, “Why are they so drawn to a theater of suffering, disenfranchisement, and angst?”
Poetic Journey with Rhythm and Roots
D
espite its reference to “dub,” a subgenre of reggae music, Dub Wise (Peepal Tree Press, 2010) isn’t entirely a return to roots for Jamaican-born Geoffrey Philp, A.B. ’82, M.A. ’86. Rather, Philp’s latest poetry collection is a journey through heritage, history, and the turbulent vicissitudes of recent times, all grounded in the rhythmic process by which he makes sense of the world. “Paddling through New Orleans, past a shotgun house up to its threshold in brine” after Katrina or wading through slavery, suicide, and 9/11, Philp weaves in and out of complex themes with profound insight and a tender voice. Author of nine fiction and poetry books, Philp returned to the Coral Gables campus 28 years to the day after his last reading at UM to headline the USpeak literary series on September 24, 2010. He teaches English and creative writing at MiamiDade College.
Arizona State University. David R. Friedland, J.D. ’96, was elected president of the Hedge Fund Association Board of Directors. He is president of Magnum U.S. Investments, Inc., a consulting firm. Doyle N. Beneby, M.B.A. ’97, was promoted to president of Exelon Power. He has worked with Exelon since 2003 and in the electric utility industry for 25 years. Suzy Buckley, B.S.C. ’97, M.A. ’00, is editor in chief of Niche Media’s Ocean Drive Magazine. Crissa-Jean Chappell, B.S.C. ’97, M.F.A. ’99, Ph.D. ’03, had her debut novel, Total Constant Order, published by HarperTeen in 2007; it is a Florida Book Award medalist and New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. Her second book, Narc, is due out in 2012 from Flux Books. She teaches creative writing and cinema studies at Miami International University of Art and Design. Jin-Hoon Lee, M.P.A. ’97, was elected as a district mayor in Daegu City, South Korea. Brett Amron, J.D. ’98, was named a “Top Up and Comer” in the 2011 edition of the South Florida Legal Guide. He is a cofounding partner of Miami law firm Bast Amron, which received a “Top Law Firm” designation in the same guide. Peter G. Bielagus, B.S.C. ’99, author of Getting Loaded, published Quick Cash for Teens: Be Your Own Boss and Make Big Bucks (Sterling Publishing Co., 2009).
2000s
Nancy M. Auster, B.S.N. ’00, is
the education manager at Vitas Innovative Hospice Care, where she has worked for 19 years. She lives in Miami Shores with husband Adam and children Andrew and Olivia. Karen (LaFleur) Maerovitz, B.B.A. ’00, launched Crème de la Crème, a marketing and events firm, in 2009. David Alfonso, M.B.A. ’01, is founder and CEO and Robert
ALUMNI OF NOTE
Family Shares Recipe for Happiness
O
ne minute Lanchi “Cathy” Nguyen, A.B. ’89, and her siblings were learning French and being cared for by nannies in Vietnam and Thailand. The next, they were leaving their continent and their father, the Vietnamese attaché to the United States, for an unknown place where they had nothing. After the fall of Vietnam, the Nguyens fled to the United States in 1975. But their father couldn’t leave. Imprisoned in a re-education camp, he wouldn’t see his family again for 17 years. “My mom had to start working when we were very young,” says Cathy, the fourth Nguyen siblings Betty, Dung, and Cathy of six children. So by age 9, Cathy was cooking for her siblings in Miami. “The first thing I ever made was a lasagna,” she recalls. They didn’t complain and she began entering dishes like Vietnamese summer rolls in a local food festival. Cathy was attending the University of Miami along with sister Diemchi “Betty,” A.B. ’91, and brother Dung, A.B. ’87, when their mother decided to open a restaurant in Coral Gables. “I always tell everybody she saw us growing up and thought, ‘What can I do to keep them all together?’” Cathy says. Their mother’s plan—and the venture—worked. In November, Lotus Garden will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Cathy, who majored in psychology, is the owner and cook. “I’m basically cooking all day!” she says. Her specialties include pad thai, volcano shrimp, crispy duck, and chicken panang curry. “I love it. I come up with different ideas. Cooking can be its own art.” Youngest brother Swaddy is the general manager. Betty and Dung, both public school teachers, help whenever they can, as does their mother. And for the five years he was reunited with the family before his death, their father did too. “Daddy wouldn’t mind doing anything,” says Cathy. “He’d go to the market ten times a day and come back happy.” Her two other brothers also frequent Lotus Garden, along with extended family, friends, and UM customers, the latter comprising 30 percent of their business, notes Cathy. “It is the meeting spot,” she explains. “Even the Nguyen grandkids tell their parents, ‘Just bring us to the restaurant.’” —Robin Shear
AUSTEN GREGERSON, ’12
prosecution of their claims for government benefits. Tate Volino, B.B.A. ’92, an avid golfer who lives with his family in Osprey, Florida, self-published a golf-themed novel titled Gold Albatross. Xavi Dalmau, B.B.A. ’93, is president, CEO, and co-founder of BigStar.tv, a Miami-based independent film site. Robert Barboni, B.B.A. ’94, owns Ibis Financial Group (named for the UM bird). His company was named one of Florida’s best places to work in 2010 by Florida Trend, ranking second in the Small Business category. It was also named “Best New Firm for 2009” by its parent company, Securian Financial Group. Kate M. Callahan, B.S.N. ’94, a health care consultant and ethics professor at Barry University, was elected to the Coconut Grove Village Council in 2009. David Cutler, M.B. ’94, a music professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, released a book titled The Savvy Musician: Building a Career, Earning a Living, & Making a Difference (Helius Press, 2010). Shara McCallum, A.B. ’94, director of the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, had her poem “Psalm for Kingston” published in The Southern Review’s summer 2010 edition. Her third poetry collection, This Strange Land, is slated for release in 2011. Benjamin W. Newman, J.D. ’94, joined the law firm of GrayRobinson, P.A. as a shareholder in the Orlando office. William P. Convey, J.D. ’95, joined Jeffrey L. Baxter, J.D. ’94, at Baxter Touby, LLP in Coral Gables as a partner to run the litigation practice. Gerald G. Polesky, M.S. ’95, authored the book Human Capital: The Untapped Treasure (DBM Press, 2009) after 40 years serving with Fortune 500 companies, including General Electric, Honeywell, and IBM. He is a faculty associate in the Operations Management Technology program at
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 39
ClassNotes
Hillegas, B.B.A. ’05, is director of
marketing and strategic planning of the private equity firm Empire Investment Holdings. Monica F. Klein, B.S.C. ’02, J.D. ’05, is an associate member of the Florida business law firm Berger Singerman, on its dispute resolution team in Miami. Georgette (Whylly) Lee, M.S.Ed. ’02, lives in Chicago and works with special-needs children. In 2010 she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her external committee member was UM professor Jeanne Schumm and her advisor was Marie Tejero Hughes, B.S.Ed. ’87, M.S.Ed. ’89, Ph.D. ’95, also a past student of Schumm’s. Heather L. Ries, J.D. ’02, is an associate attorney with Fox Rothschild LLP. Her practice areas include bankruptcy and financial recovery. Vianca Stubbs, M.P.H. ’02, is director of research and innovation at United HomeCare Services, Inc. in Miami. Paul W. Downie, B.S.C. ’03, M.B.A. ’07, is the marketing director for Clickbooth, which provides online media-buying CPA (cost per
action) technology and services. Alexander Conway, B.B.A. ’04, and Turner B. Sparks, B.S.C. ’04, have been featured in The New York Times and International Herald Tribune for launching in China the U.S.-based Mister Softee ice cream truck business Conway’s family founded in 1956. Alan L. Grinberg, B.B.A. ’04, J.D. ’08, and Jane W. Muir, J.D. ’09, opened the law firm Grinberg & Muir, PLLC, in Coral Gables. Alicia Halegua, A.B. ’04, founded New York City-based Metalskin in 2009. Her company sells her designer wrap bracelets around the world. Vanessa Lane, B.S.C. ’04, is head of media relations for Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts. Daniel Silberman, A.B. ’04, created a line of hip-hop-inspired T-shirts called “Once Upon a Time in New York.” Jason N. Abrahams, B.B.A. ’05, of Palatine, Illinois, was hired as marketing director of National Gift Card Corp. He previously was an account executive at KemperLesnik. Krystin M. Bernstein, B.S.C.E. ’05, a project engineer for Miller Legg,
earned her Professional Engineer registration. She works on utility projects in Palm Beach, Florida. Mark R. Dissette, M.B.A. ’05, senior vice president of Holy Cross Hospital, has been elected an active member of the Orange Bowl Committee. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his wife, Bonnie, and their three children. Katerina Duarte, J.D. ’05, launched her own food blog, www.foodadvokat.blogspot.com. Blake M. Hedgecock, LL.M.P. ’05, joined the law firm Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller, LLP in Fort Worth, Texas. Max Lugavere, B.S.C. ’05, and Jason Silva, B.S.C. ’05, are founding hosts and producers for Al Gore’s Emmy-winning Current TV network. Silva is expanding his short film The Immortalists into a feature-length documentary called Turning into Gods. Jesse H. Marks, A.B. ’05, M.S.Ed. ’08, returns to UM as an assistant athletic director for major gifts for UM Athletics. He was previously assistant director of development at Wake Forest University. Catherine M. Cottrell, M.A. ’06,
began working on her Ph.D. in cultural geography at the University of South Carolina in the fall of 2010. Bridget Halanski, B.S.C. ’06, is working as a talent agent at Factor Model Management in Chicago. Amy Starlight Lawrence, B.S.C. ’06, is a journalism program associate at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. She holds an M.S.C. in social policy and development from the London School of Economics. Nicholas John Deysher, M.M. ’07, won the gold medal from the Parents’ Choice Foundation for his children’s album, People, Places and Things. He lives in Coconut Grove. Christopher A. Zavatsky, B.S.C.E./ B.S.A.E. ’07, an engineer at Miller Legg, was named 2010 “Young Engineer of the Year” by the MiamiDade Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Kaleena M. Salgueiro, B.S. ’08, was named career services coordinator at the UM School of Communication Career Connection Office. Emily Cook, B.A.M. ’09, represented Georgia in the 2010 Miss America competition.
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In Memoriam
*
Sandra A. Mesh Betty H. Taylor, A.B. ’36 Audrey R. Finkelstein, A.B. ’38 Myers F. Gribbins, B.S. ’38 William C. Campbell, B.B.A. ’39 Fredric A. Marks, A.B. ’39, M.Ed. ’50 Belle Silver, A.B. ’39 Eugene E. Cohen, B.B.A. ’41, M.B.A. ’51 Margaret T. Witherspoon, A.B. ’42 William M. Diamant, A.B. ’43 James E. Gallagher, B.B.A. ’43 Benjamin Koven, B.B.A. ’43, J.D. ’48 Verna S. Pearson, B.Ed. ’43 Richard G. Taylor, B.S. ’45, J.D. ’49 Victor J. Manos, B.Ed. ’46, M.Ed. ’63 Francis J. Coury, B.S. ’47 Paul S. Furman, A.B. ’47 John F. Zipf, B.B.A. ’47 Alphonso L. Kasulin, B.B.A. ’48 Charlotte M. Kotkin, A.B. ’48 Russell W. Levanway, A.B. ’48 Andrew R. Musante, B.Ed. ’48, M.Ed. ’72 Frank C. Nagy, B.Ed. ’48 Martha E. Bearman, A.B. ’49 Arthur Blasi, B.B.A. ’49 Shirley S. Broen, B.Ed. ’49 Wallace W. Coburn, A.B. ’49 Charles E. Gryder, B.B.A. ’49 Edgar D. Hooper, B.Ed. ’49, M.Ed. ’58 Jay E. Leshaw, A.B. ’49 Fenwick E. Lind, B.B.A. ’49 Frank M. Marks, J.D. ’49 James S. Quinlan, B.B.A. ’49 Irene P. Swartz-Hammond, B.M. ’49 Herbert F. Usher, B.B.A. ’49 Sidney Benjamin, B.B.A. ’50 Gael Blake, B.B.A. ’50
Harold Cohen, B.Ed. ’50 Curtis E. Hagwood, B.B.A. ’50 William C. Jacobs, B.S. ’50 Francis A. Langer, A.B. ’50, M.A. ’53 Emilio J. Lepore, B.Ed. ’50 Matthew J. McCarthy, B.B.A. ’50 William J. Mongoven, J.D. ’50 Rudy Morales, B.Ed. ’50 John E. Orie, A.B. ’50 Charles H. Primm, B.B.A. ’50 Luis G. Rodriguez, B.S.C.E. ’50 Richard Schuehle, B.B.A. ’50 Frances F. Weintraub, A.B. ’50 Faye M. Wilpon, B.Ed. ’50, M.Ed. ’68 Leonard G. Bremier, B.S.M.E. ’51 Sidney L. Burke, B.Ed. ’51 James C. Fawbush, B.B.A. ’51 Anne M. Ferrano, B.Ed. ’51 Ronald Himelfarb, B.B.A. ’51 Luther E. Lynn, B.B.A. ’51 Allen D. Stolar, J.D. ’51 Mary P. Wise, M.A. ’51 Roscius Bal, B.B.A. ’52 George B. Hardie, J.D. ’52 Robert C. Jarvis, A.B. ’52 Caroline C. Krauthoefer, A.B. ’52 Joseph A. Nyiri, B.M. ’52 George B. Pomeroy, J.D. ’52 Thomas Renedo, M.A. ’52 James C. Richards, B.S.E.S. ’52 Richard P. Shiskin, B.S.C.E. ’52 Bonnie J. Stewart, B.S. ’52 Oliver C. Wallace, B.M. ’52, M.Ed. ’53 Dennis I. Carter, B.B.A. ’53, J.D. ’62 Joan Osheroff Harris, B.S. ’53, M.D. ’57 Robert Henin, B.S. ’53 Erwin H. Kump, B.B.A. ’53 Alex Milmine, B.S. ’53 William J. Reed, B.B.A. ’53
Green Thumb and UM Leader Landscape architect Joseph C. Shaw, B.B.A. ’49, founded Shaw Nursery and Landscape in Miami in 1946. Besides numerous professional and civic leadership positions, he served as president of the UM Alumni Association and UM Hall of Fame. He was a member of UM’s Board of Trustees, Iron Arrow Honor Society, Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society, Eaton Foundation, Century Club, and Athletic Policy & Campus Planning Committee, and was a director of the Hurricane Club. A U.S. Marine who served during World War II, he died on February 1 at age 88.
Notable Nixon Impressionist Born David Shapiro in Brooklyn, comic David Frye, A.B. ’56, rose to fame in the 1960s and ’70s for his dead-on impressions of Richard Nixon and other political satire. He found his first large audiences on the UM campus and in Miami clubs. After a stint in the Army, his career took off. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and many other programs, and recorded best-selling comedy albums such as 1971’s Radio Free Nixon. Frye died of cardiopulmonary arrest January 24 in Las Vegas at age 77.
John L. Remsen, J.D. ’53 John E. Cavanaugh, B.B.A. ’54 Ralph C. Corless, J.D. ’54 Margaret P. Descoteaux, M.Ed. ’54 Mary F. DuBose, M.S. ’54 Howard H. Hirschhorn, A.B. ’54 William D. Laing, B.S. ’54 I. Stanley Levine, J.D. ’54 Howard N. Pelzner, J.D. ’54 Donald J. Post, A.B. ’54, J.D. ’59 Eugene M. Short, B.B.A. ’54, J.D. ’59 Leonard Sobel, B.B.A. ’54 Martin Samuels, J.D. ’54 Fred S. Albert, A.B. ’55 Dorris J. Drexel, B.S.N. ’55 Shirley D. Kohler, B.B.A. ’55 Joseph M. McDonough, M.S. ’55 Allen C. Bartlett, B.B.A. ’56 Ferman S. Martin, B.B.A. ’56 Richard A. Martin, B.B.A. ’56 Howard A. McCormick, B.S.M.E. ’56 Harold G. McMullen, B.Ed. ’56, Ed.D. ’70 Robert R. Mills, B.B.A. ’56 Glenn E. Nass, B.B.A. ’56 Nancy J. Budd, A.B. ’57 Luis Castro, B.Ed. ’57 Katharyn A. Crowder, M.M. ’57 Joseph S. Gispert, B.B.A. ’57 David Greenfield, A.B. ’57 Albert W. Hainlin, B.S.E.E. ’57 Robert L. Howser, B.B.A. ’57 John J. Mathews, B.B.A. ’57 George E. Melnick, B.M. ’57 Sidney N. Mordes, A.B. ’57 Alfred D. Pellegrini, B.B.A. ’57 Sidney Platt, A.B. ’57 Alan Simons, B.B.A. ’57 John A. Vento, B.B.A. ’57 Judith Victor, B.Ed. ’57, M.Ed. ’66
Richard G. Abdenour, B.B.A. ’58 Jerome H. Barasch, B.S. ’58 Richard H. Chapman, B.B.A. ’58 Phyllis A. Klomparens, A.B. ’58 W. E. Neill, B.B.A. ’58, J.D. ’61 Thomas E. Snyder, B.B.A. ’58 Kathleen C. Bossong, B.Ed. ’59, M.Ed. ’78 Daniel E. Fix, A.B. ’59 Frances R. Harmon, B.Ed. ’59 Edward R. Harrison, B.B.A. ’59 Lawrence H. Jasper, A.B. ’59 Charles W. Lutz, B.B.A. ’59 Edwin L. Morris, B.S.C.E. ’59 Sidney Syna, J.D. ’59 Frank D. Tratnyek, B.B.A. ’59 Ernest L. Bailey, B.B.A. ’60 Richard W. Baker, B.S.E.E. ’60 Judith Coon, A.B. ’60 Eleanor R. Cristol, B.B.A. ’60 Eugene Garfield, J.D. ’60 Helen P. Le Vous, B.Ed. ’60 Lee R. Mann, B.S.A.E. ’60 Stuart M. Rapee, B.B.A. ’60, J.D. ’63 Frederic K. Remmy, B.Ed. ’60 Donald G. Sandt, B.S. ’60 Raymond J. Sever, M.D. ’60 Arthur L. Shorago, B.B.A. ’60 Cyril M. Shortle, B.B.A. ’60 Gerald B. Streb, B.B.A. ’60 John P. Adams, M.S. ’61, M.D. ’63 Burton S. Alpern, B.B.A. ’61 G. R. Arbisi, M.D. ’61 James F. Grant, A.B. ’61 Ann C. Humphreys, B.B.A. ’61 Stephen A. Longo A.B. ’61, J.D. ’64 David A. Malnick, B.S.M.E. ’61 James F. Shur, M.B.A. ’61 Edward Crump, M.S. ’62 Irving Gordon, A.B. ’62 Harvey F. Miles, B.B.A. ’62
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 41
ClassNotes
Jerald L. Rose, B.B.A. ’62 Linda A. Scheridan, M.A. ’62 Don D. Weiffenbach, M.D. ’62 Martha P. Forman, A.B. ’63 Harriett J. Miller, B.Ed. ’63 Ralph V. Moore, M.Ed. ’63 George O. Potter, B.Ed. ’63 Marta S. Sierra, C.T.P. ’63, M.Ed. ’72 Peter S. Allen, B.B.A. ’64 Ralph P. Bilbao, B.Ed. ’64, M.Ed. ’67 James T. Dawsey, B.S. ’64, M.D. ’68 James F. Haas, B.B.A. ’64 Robert J. Hart, B.B.A. ’64, M.B.A. ’66 Stephen R. Perry, B.S. ’64 Steven Posner, B.B.A. ’64 Delmiro A. Vazquez, B.S. ’64 Lawton M. Bennett, B.B.A. ’65 Thomas V. Campbell, B.S.C.E. ’65 Alfred L. Clifford, B.B.A. ’65 Roberta M. Dates, M.Ed. ’65 Fidela Erro, C.T.P. ’65 Bruce E. Hyman, A.B. ’65 William R. Kelley, B.B.A. ’65 Bernard Lamont, B.Ed. ’65 Joan A. McKenna, B.S.N. ’65 Benjamin D. Meyer, A.B. ’65, M.Ed. ’66 Charles H. Powers, A.B. ’65 David H. Vroon, M.D. ’65 Richard E. Chadwick, B.B.A. ’66 Mario C. Petriccione, B.B.A. ’66 Geoffrey W. Pines, J.D. ’66 William R. Stevenson, A.B. ’66, M.Ed. ’69
James L. Wall, A.B. ’66, J.D. ’73 Perry E. Dunnick, M.D. ’67 Jarry P. Eichrodt, A.B. ’67 Phyllis S. Ferber, A.B. ’67 Nicholas J. Florentine, B.S.M.E. ’67 Maynard A. Gross, J.D. ’67 Bennie Moore, M.Ed. ’67 Albert F. Reicherz, A.B. ’67 Arthur G. Sutherland, A.B. ’67 Colin S. Wakefield, B.S.M.E. ’67 Josephine M. Botek, B.B.A. ’68 George V. Doherty, B.B.A. ’68 Karl S. Franz, B.S. ’68 Salomon M. Lechtman, B.S.I.E. ’68 Michael J. Reilly, B.B.A. ’68 Robert J. Romanello, B.B.A. ’68 Eugene L. Trosch, B.B.A. ’68 William C. Edmunds, A.B. ’69 Jeffrey B. Leigh, B.B.A. ’69 Marguerite P. Lloyd, B.B.A. ’69, M.B.A. ’70 Carol C. MacDonald, B.S.N. ’69 Charles Pasco, B.B.A. ’69, J.D. ’74 Jerald R. Vaughan, B.S.I.E. ’69 Michael C. Axelrod, A.B. ’70 Charles R. Kelly, A.B. ’70 Frank J. Nesseler, M.B.A. ’70 Alen L. Steinberg, A.B. ’70, M.A. ’74 Joel E. Cordsmeyer, B.S.E.E. ’71 Linda A. Emm, B.S.Ed. ’71 Gertrude R. Freeman, A.B. ’71 John Generoso, B.B.A. ’71 Isobel K. Harwell, B.Ed. ’71 Janis M. Hollander, B.Ed. ’71 Dane L. Pawloff, A.B. ’71
Seeing Double Help us make the Orange and Green even “greener” by eliminating duplicate copies of Miami magazine. Simply send an email to alumni@miami.edu with “Seeing Double” in the subject line and include the full name and address of the person in your household to whom Miami magazine should be delivered. You can also submit this information online at www.miami.edu/alumni or by calling 1-866-UMALUMS.
Save some trees—on the double! 42 Miami magazine Spring 2011
Served Under Four Fed Chairmen Laura McHale Homer, J.D. ’68, served the United States Federal Reserve Board for 25 years, retiring in 1996 as the chief of securities regulation. After stints with the Watchmaker’s Union after World War II, the League of Women Voters, and the Catholic Charities, she moved to Miami to support her husband Porter W. Homer’s career as Dade County manager. While raising five children, she entered UM law school in her mid-40s. One of four women in her graduating class, she went on to earn a master’s degree in banking. McHale Homer died on November 13 at age 87 in Virginia.
Dal A. Cottrell, B.S. ’72 Robert F. Urich, J.D. ’72, LL.M. ’74 Andrea G. Werner, B.Ed. ’72 Harold E. Askew, B.B.A. ’73 Lynne C. Dettbarn, A.B. ’73 Philip W. Meech, A.B. ’73 Arthur C. Smith, Ed.D. ’73 David L. Soanes, B.Arch. ’73 Neil A. Shanzer, J.D. ’73 Jeffrey D. Bjorseth, B.S. ’74 Julian F. Eaton, B.B.A. ’74 Robert J. McGinty, A.B. ’74, J.D. ’77 William W. Moffitt, A.B. ’74 Anna M. Nelson, Ed.D. ’74 Roberto M. Pineiro, A.B. ’74 Angela S. Ruiz, C.T.P. ’74 Irene V. Burns-Brown, B.C.S. ’76 Ray E. Church, M.M. ’76 Craig E. Dillon, B.B.A. ’76 Alan I. Meyers, M.Ed. ’76 Donna L. Pfeifer, C.N.P. ’76, Ph.D. ’92 Stephen M. Duncan, B.B.A. ’77, M.B.A. ’78 Carole J. Estes, B.B.A. ’77, M.B.A. ’79 Douglas W. Poulter, LL.M.E. ’77 Gary H. Untracht, J.D. ’77 Alex G. Cachaldora, B.B.A. ’78 Ramon R. Garcia-Lazo, M.Ed. ’78 Glenn V. Sorge, J.D. ’78 Edwin D. Cooper, LL.M.E. ’79 Kenneth E. Greene, B.B.A. ’79 Valerie B. Cain, A.B. ’80, M.A. ’88 Therese M. Carracino, C.N.P. ’80 Michael J. Frank, M.B.A. ’80 Andrew K. Ness, B.Arch. ’80 Donald B. Christy, J.D. ’81 Marsha J. Gorrill, M.D. ’81 Kenneth N. Harris, M.B.A. ’81 Catherine J. Willis, M.D. ’82 Bonnie L. Cooper, J.D. ’84
Sandra D. Haughton, B.B.A. ’84 Jean Pateman, B.S.Ed. ’84 Joseph C. Scheerer, B.B.A. ’84 Susan M. Jacobson, B.S.N. ’85 Larry M. Epstein, B.B.A. ’86 Laura B. Seder, J.D. ’86 James H. Villacorta, J.D. ’88 Curtis C. Cole, B.S.S.A. ’89 Allan M. Greenberg, M.B.A. ’89 Karen T. Parker, B.S.C. ’90 Sean Peart, A.B. ’90 William P. Dammann, M.S. ’92 Paul V. D’Eliseo, M.B.A. ’92 Steven H. Gruber, J.D. ’92 John P. Pries, LL.M.E. ’92 Renee V. Stewart, A.B. ’92 Judith F. Bartle-Licata, A.B. ’93 Barry J. Rodgers, B.S. ’93 Pamela Munger, M.S.N. ’95 Dwayne C. Leonard, B.S.I.E. ’96, M.S./M.S.I.E. ’01, M.S. ’03, Ph.D. ’08 Janet S. Tompkins, M.S.N. ’96 Cathleen Petree, M.F.A. ’98 Carlos G. Graham, M.B.A. ’00 Michelle G. Ferrari-Gegerson, M.D. ’01 Christopher B. O’Farrill, B.M. ’03 Lawrence R. Ress, Ed.S. ’03 Adam T. Hopper, B.L.A. ’04 Lara E. Griffin, M.B.A. ’08 Andrew T. Klausmeyer, B.B.A. ’08 Anders K. Meader, J.D. ’09 Jonathan H. Turner, B.F.A. ’10 Julio Regalado, D.N.P. ’11 *As of February 28, 2011 We diligently research every name in our “In Memoriam” section but errors can occur. Please notify us of errors so we may correct our records.
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“Bima in Underworld” from Sacred Stories, Timeless Tales (Gift of Estelle Shaw) 18-October 23 Lowe Art Museum Sacred Stories, Timeless Tales: Mythic Perspectives in World Art from the Permanent Collection JULY Through 31 UM Wynwood Project Space M.F.A. Show Ashley Ford: (there)(back), Miami, Florida Through August Summer Send-Off Receptions Across the country JUNE Through 30 UM Wynwood Project Space M.F.A. Show Audrey Hynes, Miami, Florida Through April 22, 2012 Lowe Art Museum ArtLab @ The Lowe: Islam at the Crossroads Between East and West
ALUMNI LEADERSHIP Board of Directors Executive Committee
Dany Garcia, B.B.A. ’92, President Patrick Barron, B.B.A. ’75, Immediate Past President Carrie Anderson, A.B. ‘93, Vice President Joris Jabouin, B.B.A. ’90, M.B.A. ’92, Vice President Carlos Lowell, B.S.M.E. ’94, Vice President Karl Schulze, B.B.A. ’74, Vice President Brenda K. Yester, B.B.A. ’90, Vice President Donna A. Arbide, M.B.A.’95, Executive Director
Alumni Trustees William Koenigsberg, B.B.A. ’77 Hal F. Rosenbluth, B.G.S. ’74 Matt Rubel, M.B.A. ’80
Regional Directors Truly Burton, A.B. ’73 Alonzo W. Highsmith, B.B.A. ’87 David Panitch, B.B.A. ’80 Andrew F. Potter, M.B.A. ’04 Glenna Shen, A.B. ’93 Winston Warrior, B.B.A. ’93, M.B.A. ’96
Directors Juan Albelo, B.S.E.E. ’93, M.S.I.E. ’96, M.B.A. ’96 James J. Blosser, B.B.A. ’60, J.D. ’65
12-22 UM Alumni Association Travel Grand Tour of Europe 16 Chicago Classic Dinner With Head Football Coach Al Golden The Metropolitan Club, Chicago, Illinois
James Burt, Sr., ’80 Victoria Corrigan Fine, B.S. ’80, M.B.A. ’81 Devang B. Desai, A.B. ’97, J.D. ’03 Martin J. Ganderson, B.B.A. ’73 Frank R. Jimenez, B.S. ’88 Camilo Lopez III, M.B.A. ’82 Noelia Moreno, B.B.A. ’86, J.D. ’89 John Pittaluga, B.S.M.E. ’83 Oti Roberts, B.B.A. ’03 Alan Serure, B.S. ’75, M.D. ’79
Faculty Representatives Richard L. Williamson, Chair, Faculty Senate
Student Representatives Caroline Craffey Brandon Mitchell
Alumni Council Clubs
Atlanta Terry Olive, M.B.A. ’78, tlolive29@bellsouth.net Austin Mark Gordon, B.B.A. ’81, mgordonmiami@gmail.com Boston Enriques “Rick” Negron, B.S.C. ’02, ricknn@hotmail.com Broward Marcie Voce, A.B. ’98, m.voce@umiami.edu Charlotte Robert Krumbine, B.M. ’82, rkrumbine@charlottecentercity.org Chicago Jose Armario, M.S. ’03, president@chicago-canes.org Cincinnati Lance Barry, M.A. ’01, lancemichaelbarry@yahoo.com Cleveland Diana Le, B.M. ’09, dianele523@gmail.com
AUGUST 4-11 UM Alumni Association Travel Cruising Alaska’s Glacier and the Inside Passage 11 Opening Doors Reception for Women, Minority and Alumni Owned Businesses, Newman Alumni Center, Coral Gables, Florida
Dallas Doris “Janet” Ruiz, A.B. ’95, janet.ruiz@umiami.edu Denver James Hoffman, A.B. ’80, james@greenco.biz Detroit Paul Koch, B.S. ’73, detroitcanes@yahoo.com Houston Christy Marshall, B.S. ’02, clmarsha@bcm.tmc.edu Indianapolis Meena Garg, B.S. ’98, M.P.H. ’99, M.D. ’03, indycanes@ yahoo.com Jacksonville Jose Pena IV, M.B.A. ’09, j.penaiv@umiami.edu Las Vegas John E. Knuth, M.B.A. ’98, M.S.C.I.S. ’02, john.e.knuth@ us.hsbc.com Los Angeles Joseph “Trey” Borzillieri, B.B.A. ’98, treynice@ yahoo.com Louisville Carlos Mendia, B.S.I.E. ’86, M.B.A. ’88, carlos.mendia@ gmail.com Nashville Joyce Friedman, B.F.A. ’79, joyceefriedman@gmail.com New Jersey TBD New York David Goldberg, B.B.A. ’03, davidrgoldberg@gmail.com Orlando Roger Jeffrey, B.S.C.E. ’76, rogerlynnjeffery@aol.com Palm Beach Stefany Allongo, B.A.M. ’06, stefanyallongo@gmail.com Philadelphia Cal Habayeb, B.B.A. ’09, cal.habayeb@gmail.com Phoenix Stephen Good, B.S. ’00, stephen.good@yahoo.com Raleigh Amy Gretenstein, B.S.C. ’06, agretenstein@gmail.com
17 Sixth Annual Legacy Reception Newman Alumni Center, Coral Gables, Florida 18 New Select Parents Reception BankUnited Center, Coral Gables, Florida SEPTEMBER 5 Football UM vs. Maryland, College Park, Maryland* 15 President’s Council Reception Newman Alumni Center, Coral Gables, Florida 16 President’s Council Meeting BankUnited Center, Coral Gables, Florida 17 Football Ohio State vs. UM, Miami Gardens, Florida 23-25 Family Weekend Coral Gables campus, Coral Gables, Florida 27-28 National Tour with Provost LeBlanc New York City, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Richmond Roger Reynolds, B.M. ’91, M.M. ’96, rreynolds@ rompnroll.com San Diego Elena Mulvaney, B.B.A. ’04, elenaquevedo24@yahoo.com San Francisco Melissa Glass, B.S.C. ’09, missglass1821@gmail.com Sarasota Chris Clayton, B.S.C. ’94, cclayton12@aol.com Savannah Joe Romanowski, B.B.A. ’79, joeromanowski@yahoo.com Southwest Florida John Clough, J.D. ’99, j.clough@umiami.edu St. Louis John “Kevin” Horth, B.M. ’74, jkhorth01@yahoo.com Tallahassee Kelly Sciba, B.S.C. ’92, tksciba@msn.com Tampa Larry King, Jr. A.B. ’83, M.B.A. ’93, larrykingjr@tampabay.rr.com Washington, D.C. Michael Waldron, B.S.I.T. ’05, m.waldron@ definitivelogic.com
Affinity Groups Black Alumni Society Phyllis Tyler, B.B.A. ’80, Phyllis.tyler@irs.gov Band of the Hour Randy Cash, B.S. ’81, irnarow@aol.com Hurricane Club Council Larry King, Jr., A.B. ’83, M.B.A. ’93, larrykingjr@ tampabay.rr.com, and Sandy Nusbaum, B.B.A. ’72, sanus@ aol.com UM Sports Hall of Fame Walter “Wally” DiMarko, B.Ed. ’65, M.A. ’70, wdjkapp@aol.com, and K.C. Jones, ’97, jonesest@msn.com
Schools and Colleges College of Engineering Rick De La Guardia, B.S.A.E. ’96, rick.dlge@ bellsouth.net, and Alfonso Dager, B.S.C.P.E. ’07, mralfy@gmail.com School of Law Elizabeth B. Honkonen, J.D. ’98, ebh@kennynachwalter.com, and Devang Desai, A.B. ’97, J.D. ’03, ddesai@gaebemullen.com Miller School of Medicine Steven F. Falcone, B.S. ’83, M.D. ’87, M.B.A. ’04, sfalcone@med.miami.edu, and Jeffrey Block, M.D. ’82, docblock@ bellsouth.net School of Nursing & Health Studies Leila Adderton, A.B. ’79, B.S.N. ’05, leadderton@aol.com, and Joyce G. Rios, B.S.N. ’04, D.N.P. ’10, jrios@ med.miami.edu Alumni records of the University of Miami are kept strictly confidential. Directory information is released only to other members of the alumni community unless an alumnus or alumna has requested complete privacy. On a very limited occasion and only at the approval of the UM Alumni Association Board of Directors, directory information is shared with outside vendors who are in a joint relationship with the University. Should you not wish to release your name to any outside vendor and/or other members of the UM alumni community, please notify the Office of Alumni Relations in writing at P.O. Box 248053, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3410.
Spring 2011 Miami magazine 43
B i g
PICTURE
Faculty Shine in a Whole New Light
Juggling Pact
DONNA VICTOR
I
n the University Center breezeway on the Coral Gables campus, a slim barefoot man, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and sporting an impressive beard, is doing what he’s done almost every Thursday evening for nearly three decades—juggling. The man is David Landowne, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the Miller School of Medicine. The dozen and a half people with him are part of the Coconut Grove Juggling Exchange (its origins date back to 1984 in the Grove’s Peacock Park), more popularly known as the Juggling Club. It’s an eclectic mix of UM, high school, and middle school students, plus a couple of adults from the community, one FIU professor, and Landowne, who’s been at UM since 1972 and whose academic pedigree includes M.I.T., Harvard, and Yale. Most of them practice with balls and “clubs,” which resemble stretched-out bowling pins. Some juggle while moving around and balancing an object on their head. A few are “hooping”—spinning modular hoops that can be joined in segments to create large diameters. One UM student has two hoops going—one around her waist and another on the wrist raised above her head. Someone else is hooping and juggling in unison. Landowne, whose day job includes teaching about cellular function and studying squid axons, claims he can get anyone juggling in ten minutes. “If you can put both hands on your head, you can juggle,” he assures. “If you can play catch, you’re three quarters of the way there.” To demonstrate, he and the FIU professor take three clubs each and play a thrilling version of catch, occasionally adding fancy moves like tossing from beneath their leg. Starting a beginner with one object, Landowne instructs, “Just toss it from one hand to the other, in an arc about the height of the top of your head.” Advancing to two items, he adds, “Toss one, and wait for it to begin coming down.” Of course, the key is bringing your hand back in time to catch the item tossed by the other hand. “It’s not as difficult as it looks,” insists Landowne, who learned to juggle long ago while working in community theater. “No matter how many balls you’re juggling, you only really have one in the air at any one time.” Still, when the novice attempts the three-ball challenge, all three wind up rolling aimlessly on the breezeway floor. Only ten minutes to teach someone? Really? “Well, that’s an average,” Landowne says with a smile. He considers these Thursday nights a “reward.” “I protect and value that time. I also enjoy teaching new jugglers,” he explains. “It’s exciting when they get it. I enjoy being there when they accomplish something—just as I do in the classroom. If you break things down into little steps, they become possible; if you repeat them, they become learned.” —Robert S. Benchley
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University of Miami Division of University Communications Post Office Box 248073 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-1210
UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS 10-220
In the sea of standard Florida license plates, yours can be one that turns heads. The UM plate is available at any Florida tag agency for just $25 above the cost of a regular plate. Best of all, the extra $25 funds University of Miami Alumni Scholarships for UM students. The only requirement is that you must be a Florida resident with a vehicle registered in the state. So go ahead and let your tag tell the world you’re a ’Cane.
What a GR8-PL8! Get the University of Miami License Plate www.miami.edu/alumni
Make the right impression with a UM License Plate featuring Sebastian the Ibis In the sea of standard Florida license plates, yours can be one that turns heads. The UM plate is available at any Florida tag agency for just $25 above the cost of a regular plate. Best of all, the extra $25 funds University of Miami Alumni Scholarships for UM students. The only requirement is that you must be a Florida resident with a vehicle registered in the state. So go ahead and let your tag tell the world you’re a ’Cane.
Get the University of Miami License Plate www.miami.edu/alumni