F OR
A LU M N I
A N D
F R I E N D S
OF
T H E
U N I V ER SI T Y
OF
S OU T H ER N
CA L I F OR N I A
AUT UM N 2 0 1 6
$ 4. 9 5
F A M I L Y
GUARDIANS OF SIGHT USC Roski Eye Institute researchers are determined to protect our precious eyesight.
USC_TFM_Cover_Au16.indd 1
8/27/16 1:14 AM
USC_TFM_Cover_Au16.indd 2
8/27/16 1:16 AM
scene
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
You might not recognize them yet, but just give them time. These actors are the latest in a line of notable alumni from USC School of Dramatic Arts’ highly selective undergraduate acting program. Students from the Class of 2016 capped off their senior year with acting showcases for New York and Los Angeles industry insiders. With performance skills ranging from singing and dancing to accents and improv, these young thespians are poised to take to the stage and screen.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 1
usc trojan family
1
8/27/16 6:31 PM
, Ah, tranquility. Relaxed, refined accommodations at Oahu’s legendary secluded beach resort located just minutes from Waikiki and Honolulu.
Time is precious. Spend it graciously.
1 . 800. 3 67. 2525
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 2
|
www.KahalaResort.com
8/27/16 6:36 PM
inside
4
Editor’s Note Sopranos and saxophonists get their start in our halls and hallways.
5
President’s Page Larry Ellison’s landmark gift to USC brings cancer discoveries in sight.
6
Seen and Heard Your take on USC stories from our magazine and the social web.
9
News Recreating ancient spaces through sound, a duo of new deans and the science behind dinosaur movie myths.
15
Coming of Age By Diane Krieger A life-changing friendship showed a gerontologist why senior independence is worth fighting for.
What will it take for politicians to focus on solutions instead of partisanship?
20 Challenging Identities By Rachel Ng A professor and Pulitzer Prizewinning writer explains how refugees shape the U.S. and ourselves.
24 For the Record Revisit the sounds of USC through music albums.
26 Who Are You? By Koren Wetmore As we move toward personalized medicine, your health depends on more than your DNA.
30
USC Roski Eye Institute research will change how doctors see the future of vision care. By Katharine Gammon
36
ILLUSTRATION BY THE HEADS OF STATE
55
Beyond Plain Sight Their Place to Play See how USC Thornton students make the most of L.A.’s master musicians and one-of-a-kind performance spaces. By Diane Krieger
Alumni News A new alumni leader takes the helm, Half-Century Trojans fight on after 100 years, and gearing up for Trojan Family Weekend.
44
The High Ground Is civil discourse gone for good in American politics? USC researchers look at how we got here and what lies ahead. By Robert Bradford
63 Class Notes Who’s doing what and where?
72
Now and Again USC’s partnership with U.S. armed forces is part of a decades-long legacy.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 3
50
Leading Man Meet Lynn Swann: USC’s athletic director and charismatic, multi-talented, postmodern Renaissance man. By Diane Krieger usc trojan family
3
9/6/16 9:38 PM
e d i t o r’ s n o t e
The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California E DI TO R-I N- CHI EF
Alicia Di Rado M ANAGI NG E DI TOR
The Music Makers They come to Los Angeles from around the world, lured by the chance to play the violin, sing an aria or write the next blockbuster pop ballad. Wander through the USC Thornton School of Music and you’ll hear them: students practicing a piano concerto or working out an original composition. Deep in a USC residence hall, a young artist is probably voicing parts from an opera right now. Walk onto the University Park Campus and listen to the music. In this issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine we’ll inspire you through the spirit of USC students who are chasing their musical dreams. For the gifted young men and women at USC Thornton, Los Angeles offers opportunities found in few other places. They study under greats such as violinist Midori Goto, benefit from lauded composers on the faculty like Morten Lauridsen ’66, MA ’68, DMA ’74 and get advice from guest speakers like Lindsey Buckingham and David Foster. They perform in legendary places from the Troubadour to Disney Concert Hall. The L.A. metro area has the second-highest number of employed musical artists in the nation—just behind New York-New Jersey, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And USC is nestled in the heart of it. So take a look at the students’ experiences on our pages, and see if they inspire you to pick up that guitar again. If you’re reminded of your own musical start at USC, or if your children are benefiting from the USC music scene, share your thoughts with us at magazines@usc.edu. Alicia Di Rado Editor-In-Chief, USC Trojan Family Magazine
Elisa Huang SE NI O R E DI TO R
Diane Krieger PRO DUCT I O N M ANAG ER
Mary Modina I NT E RACT I VE CO NT E NT MANAG ER
Patricia Lapadula
ART DI RE CTO R
Sheharazad P. Fleming DE SI GN AND PRO DUCTION
Pentagram Design, Austin
CO NT RI BUTO RS
Daniel Anderson Laurie Bellman Evan Calbi James Feigert Andrew Good
Judith Lipsett Brett Padelford Susanica Tam Russ Ono Claude Zachary
PUBLI SHE R
Minne Ho M ARKE T I NG M ANAG ER
Rod Yabut ADVE RT I SI NG I NQ UIRIES
Kristy Day | kday@lamag.com
USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu | (213) 740-2684 USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March, June, October and December by USC University Communications. PHOTO BY NOÉ MONTES
MOVING? Submit your updated mailing address at tfm.usc.edu/subscribe
4
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 4
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:37 PM
p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e
A New Beginning b y c. l. m a x n i k i a s In a thoughtful speech to our students, the technology entrepreneur and renowned humanitarian Larry Ellison offered a message filled with optimism and purpose. “Each of you has a chance to discover who you are—rather than who you should be,” he said. “A chance to live your dreams—not the dreams of others.” Elaborating, he reflected on his professional journey, and spoke of the importance of discovery, of fearlessly venturing in fresh directions. “Every day I learned something new and interesting—something I did not know the day before,” he said, recalling his early 20s. “I liked that.” Placed in a larger context, Mr. Ellison’s words carried broader meaning: The evening before, at a special fundraising gala, he announced his $200 million gift to USC, a gift that would allow the university to disrupt traditional approaches in the fight against cancer. This gift launches the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC, and will create interdisciplinary laboratories in west Los Angeles that are wholly dedicated to scientific discovery and innovation. And so Mr. Ellison’s hopeful speech carried double significance: As our students stand at the threshold of their professional lives, we—as a Trojan Family and, indeed, as a society—stand at the threshold of a dramatically new approach to cancer research. This new approach will draw on the expertise of physicists, biologists, mathematicians and engineers, inspiring exceptionally diverse collaborations. It is an approach that can only be pursued at a dynamic research university, and one that is most effectively pursued at USC. Much of Mr. Ellison’s advice to our students matches the vision behind his gift. He told them never to be afraid to experiment and to try many different things—and never be discouraged from taking on the status quo. It is this same pioneering spirit that will drive the Ellison Institute’s work. Professor David Agus, who has joint appointments in medicine and engineering, will lead the new center, and said its researchers will move away from the conventional approach of categorizing cancers by body part. tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 5
Its clinicians will draw on state-of-the-art technology and work in a uniquely interactive setting. The institute will include a think tank, education and outreach initiatives, as well as a wellness program. Its community spaces will encourage a healthy lifestyle, and will feature a library and gardens. It is only fitting that USC will partner with Mr. Ellison to advance such groundbreaking work. He has never shied away from grand challenges, and consistently casts old problems in a new light. Four decades ago, he founded Oracle Corporation as an ingenious database and launched it with three staff members. Today it employs more than 135,000 people, with revenue exceeding $38 billion. Oracle grew steadily under Mr. Ellison’s leadership, and it now serves customers in 145 countries. But perhaps most notably, Mr. Ellison now stands among the world’s most visionary and generous benefactors. And it is his innovative thinking and tremendous generosity that will help us realize enduring successes in our collective fight against cancer.
C. L. Max Nikias and Niki C. Nikias with Larry Ellison and Nikita Kahn
usc trojan family
5
9/6/16 9:39 PM
Musings about Trojan life and USC Trojan Family Magazine from mail, email and the online world.
seen and heard
Trojans in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame Charles Paddock ’23
Frank Wykoff ’33
Parry O’Brien ’54 Janet Evans ’95
John Naber ’77
#USC2Rio
If You Dream It…
When it comes to the Olympic Games, the Trojan Family is more like a Trojan Nation: If USC were a country, it would rank 13th worldwide in gold medals since the Olympics began. This summer, Trojans could be spotted all over Rio, from Allyson Felix ’08 and Andre De Grasse on the track, to Murphy Troy ’11 and April Ross ’05 in volleyball. With the Rio Games now closed, USC still holds onto an impressive winning streak: A Trojan has won a medal at every Summer Olympics since 1904. In all, Trojans took home nine gold, five silver and seven bronze medals this year, bringing USC’s total medal count from all Summer Olympics to 309. Read more about USC’s Olympic legacy at bit.ly/TrojanOlympics.
In a recent issue we showed the USC name and shield being placed atop a landmark building in downtown Los Angeles. For one Trojan, it was déjà vu when he saw a picture of the distinctive tower, which over the years had been known as the Occidental Center and the AT&T Center. He sent in his own vintage photos.
STAY
IN
TOUCH
Like Us: Us University of Southern California Tweet Us: @TrojanFamilyMag Follow Us Us: @uscedu Email Us: magazines@usc.edu Write Us: 3434 S. Grand Ave. CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818
6
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 6
When I saw the photo in USC Trojan Family Magazine’s Summer 2016 issue [“Trojans and the City,” p. 60], I was shocked, to put it mildly. It shows the USC logo on the Occidental Center building. …[These] altered photos appeared in the 1966 El Molaro (the yearbook for the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC). They were placed there as a joke, but it appears that yesterday’s fiction from exactly 50 years ago has become today’s reality! — richard shaw dds ’68 Little did the yearbook editors know that their doctored photos—too ambitiously grand to be taken seriously—would prove prescient 50 years later.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Sammy Lee MD ’47
autumn 2016
9/6/16 8:59 PM
©2016 Porsche Cars North America, Inc. Porsche recommends seat belt usage and observance of traffic laws at all times.
Porsche recommends
and
socal.porschedealer.com
We believe every car should be a sports car. It’s more than a new car. It’s a belief system. A turbo engine. Standard PDK double-clutch transmission. Active all-wheel drive with Porsche Traction Management for maximum grip in varying conditions. The Porsche Macan is built around our defining belief that every drive should be an unforgettable thrill. Porsche. There is no substitute.
Visit your Southern California Porsche dealer today.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 7
8/27/16 6:38 PM
ALWAYS SERENE, NEVER TAME.
Slow down, breathe deeply DQG ƓQG SHDFH DV \RX VRDN LQ WKH EHDXW\ RI .DXQDŌRD %D\ 2U YHQWXUH IRUWK WR FRQQHFW ZLWK WKH XQWDPHG VSLULW RI +DZDLLōV ODUJHVW LVODQG
0DNH \RXU 0DXQD .HD HVFDSH now at OnlyMaunaKea.com RU E\ FDOOLQJ 866.977.4589.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 8
8/27/16 6:38 PM
TROJAN
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
AN AGE-OLD DIFFERENCE Fruit flies may not live long, but they can tell us a lot about aging. By studying these flies, USC Dornsife biologist John Tower is discovering how factors like diet and reproduction can help one sex live longer but appear to shorten lifespan in the other. It seems there’s no one-size-fits-all model for longevity.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 9
usc trojan family
9
8/27/16 6:38 PM
trojan news
USC VIterbi’s Chris Kyriakakis (middle) and an international team of researchers studied Greek religious spaces, including the Rotunda of Galerius (top) and Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior (bottom).
Surround Sound Chris Kyriakakis grew up captivated by the sound of places from the distant past. In the centuries-old churches in his hometown of Thessaloniki, Greece, the first thing that hits you is the silence, Kyriakakis says. “When a sound finally drops, it completely envelops you.” Today Kyriakakis heads up USC’s Immersive Audio Lab, and though his career took him far from the city of his birth, his work recently drew him back to capture the sounds that have been part of Thessaloniki life for centuries. The acoustics expert lives and breathes sound. Last summer, the USC Viterbi electrical engineering professor traveled to Thessaloniki with an international team including Byzantine historians, musicologists and archaeologists to study and record sacred music in 14th-century churches. Kyriakakis captured chants that revealed the acoustic sophistication of the architects and designers who created the spaces. Among the team’s discoveries: Strategically placed clay vessels in the churches could absorb sound, and they were tuned to specific frequencies to make sound reverberate in certain ways. The researchers also found frescoes that served as more than mere decoration. Sharon Gerstel, Kyriakakis’ co-principal investigator on the team, believes that the paintings instructed chanters where to stand, projecting sound out of portals, especially when certain parts of the liturgy needed to be emphasized. “It’s interesting to see how cognitive processes work, how vision and hearing work in tandem to create a transformation within the building,” says Gerstel, a professor of Byzantine art history and archaeology at UCLA. The team concluded that churches were augmented spatially to enhance the sound of chants. “Everything was done to heighten the experience of the faithful,” Kyriakakis says. “In a way you can say these builders were the earliest creators of virtual reality.” For Kyriakakis, the experience was the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream to re-create spaces that no longer exist, using the power of sound. The recordings from Thessaloniki put Kyriakakis well on his way to engineering the first “acoustic museum”—an immersive experience that transports listeners across time. “Positional sound is what makes virtual reality experiences so convincing,” Kyriakakis says. “You’ll always feel the VR goggles on your eyes, but with sound we can truly suspend your disbelief. You’ll have to duck your head from the sounds coming at you.” DANIEL DRUHORA
10
ROTUNDA PHOTO BY AIVITA LEJNIECE/DREAMSTIME.COM; KYRIAKAKIS PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS KYRIAKAKIS; CHURCH PHOTO BY SHARON GERSTEL
It’s an acoustic journey for the ages.
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 10
9/6/16 9:00 PM
Your Life Has Been Extraordinary. Why Settle for Ordinary?
You’ve always been driven to excel — to do your best and expect the best in return. We understand. We’re Forest Lawn. We have the same drive, to strive for perfection and exceed expectations. That’s why our custom, premier level service is a cut above anything you’ll find anywhere else. And our distinguished cemetery property is the most prized in all of Southern California. Call today for a private consultation. We’ll help you choose a special place that your family will be proud of for generations to come. Here, where exceptional is no exception, at Forest Lawn.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 11
855-884-1212 FORESTLAWN.COM FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL-PARKS & MORTUARIES HOLLYWOOD HILLS FD 904
8/27/16 6:38 PM
trojan news
New Duo of Deans It’s a new day for academia at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Meet the deans who are now at the helm of each.
usc dornsife amber miller “The liquid inside a thermometer is magnesium.”
Visual Cues “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see,” the old adage says. Researchers at the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center might say that those words don’t go far enough. Psychologist and postdoctoral scholar Eryn Newman, a research associate at the Mind and Society Center, studies why we often act on gut feelings—even when they’re wrong. It seems that people are more likely to believe a claim when it feels familiar, what comedian Stephen Colbert referred to as “truthiness.” USC media relations specialist Emily Gersema talked with Newman about the power of truthiness, and when it can go awry. What makes something believable? Over several studies, we find that people are more inclined to believe something is true when you give them a photo with a claim—even when that photo tells them nothing about whether the claim is true. (Such as the inaccurate thermometer claim above). When we make judgments about information we encounter, we are not always drawing on facts or recalling details from memory. More often, we are turning to how information feels to help us make a decision. We think photos make claims feel more familiar, like something we have seen
12
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 12
before, something we can trust. And what’s surprising is that the photos really tell people nothing. If they would examine the photos, then they would notice that there is nothing in them that should help them determine the truth of the claim. Still, these photos have an influence. How does truthiness affect events like political elections or court cases? In an election context, repetition and truthiness is a big deal. It’s very powerful. And even when people initially reject something as false, its “truth” can grow over time if the claim is repeated enough. We also know from the eyewitness literature that people can be swayed into thinking they saw things they did not, just with a simple suggestion from an investigator or another eyewitness. And newspaper reports, with photos, can further contribute to mistakes in memory and belief. But there are certain ways we can protect eyewitness memory if we treat it like other kinds of forensic evidence and collect it with care. This can be done by taking steps such as reducing the chances of suggestion, preventing co-witness discussion and collecting the information immediately rather than after a delay. Such careful effort can increase accuracy.
It’s a sort of homecoming for Amber Miller, the new dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She grew up in Malibu and attended Santa Monica High School, so she knows the Los Angeles landscape. But her expertise is, quite literally, the universe. Most recently dean of science for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, Miller is a physicist who has published extensively on early universe cosmology. She was appointed to head USC Dornsife—academic home to a third of USC’s undergraduates—in August. Her interests include intersections between science and policy. “It’s an incredible time for Dornsife to continue to build, expand and grow intellectually,” says Miller, who had been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2002. Miller is a fellow of the American Physical Society. Other honors include a National Science Foundation Career Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and a Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award.
usc school of dramatic arts david bridel Director. Performer. Writer. Choreographer. Teacher. David Bridel now adds dean of the USC School of Dramatic Arts to his far-ranging list of career achievements. Named dean in April, Bridel is already pushing the depth and versatility of what young actors can do—including green-screen acting and virtual reality performance—while they’re educated in classic technique. The associate professor of theater practice in voice and movement previously served as director of the Master of Fine Arts in acting program, among other roles. Bridel has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Award, an Anna Sosenko Musical Theater Award and a Zumberge Award from USC. Among other honors, he also has received an Artists’ Resource for Completion grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation in Los Angeles. He is also the founding and artistic director of The Clown School in Los Angeles, the only studio in the city devoted to the study and practice of clowning.
autumn spring 2016 2015
9/6/16 9:00 PM
FIGHT ON To Your Seaside Second Home )HDWXULQJ EUHDWKWDNLQJ FRDVWDO FOL V D VHFOXGHG VDQG EHDFK DQG FRYH IRXU SRROV VHYHQ UHVWDXUDQWV ZRUOG FODVV VSD RZQHUV FRQFLHUJH JROI ZKDOH ZDWFKLQJ VHD ND\DNLQJ PLOHV RI KLNLQJ WUDLOV ȃ and only 35 minutes from USC.
DQG EHGURRP 2FHDQ *ROI 9LOODV
Pricing from $1,500,000 - $3,000,000 2QO\ 5HPDLQLQJ $VN DERXW H[FKDQJHV
310-265-2888 100 Terranea way, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 BRE LICENSE #1774333
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 13
T ERRANEA R EAL E STATE.COM
8/27/16 6:39 PM
Investment Management & Consulting Trust Services Family Office Philanthropy Real Estate & Energy
So, what’s in it for me? When was the last time your current firm called you with an idea or even a question? Now imagine an advisor who gets to really know you. One who suggests services to make your life simpler everyday and infinitely more secure tomorrow. At Whittier, it’s why our clients start feeling results even before they see them. THE SERVICES YOU NEED AT A LEVEL OF SERVICE YOU NEVER THOUGHT EXISTED.
There is a tangible difference that the oldest and largest multi-family office headquartered in the West can mean to your legacy. Experience it. Talk to Tim McCarthy at 800.971.3660.
Another Perspective. View Whittier Trust from our clients’ point of view by visiting WhittierTrust.com/clientperspective
$10 million marketable securities and/or liquid assets required.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 14
8/27/16 6:39 PM
ILLUSTRATION BY LAURINDO FELICIANO
FA C U LT Y
P R O F I L E
Coming of Age A decades-long friendship taught a gerontologist that independence and dignity are worth fighting for. It began in 1966 with a tap on Jon Pynoos’ door. Dorothy Benton, a spry 73-year-old neighbor dressed in silk brocade, asked Pynoos, then a Harvard grad student studying urban planning, to join her for tea. Pretty soon, they were close friends. Connecting with “Mrs. B.”— as Pynoos fondly calls her— created an unlikely intergenerational bond. It also diverted Pynoos’ career path. Today, he is the UPS Foundation Professor in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He has written six books and hundreds of articles on housing and the elderly, and advocates for “aging in place,” or seniors living independently as long as possible. “Were it not for Mrs. B., I probably wouldn’t have been in the field of aging,” says Pynoos, who joined USC’s faculty in 1979. “I wouldn’t have met my wife, and I wouldn’t have ended up at USC.”
J O N
P Y N O O S
It was Mrs. B. who encouraged Pynoos to apply for a job running a Boston-area homecare agency tasked with keeping seniors out of institutions. That led to his meeting fellow gerontologist Elyse Salend. Mrs. B. attended their wedding. The couple’s daughters Jessica Pynoos MSW ’09, MSG ’09 and Rebecca Pynoos MSW ’10 also work in the field of aging; son Josh Pynoos MPP ’14 focuses on criminal justice. The stately brick apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been home to Mrs. B. for more than 30 years when Pynoos moved in. She
was unlike anyone he’d ever met: a refined, articulate, intensely independent woman; a divorcée who’d raised a daughter alone; a retired teacher who checked in on elderly shut-ins for the Red Cross. Above all, she was a social butterfly. Her afternoon teas brought together an eclectic cross-section of Boston society, young and old. As their friendship deepened, Pynoos saw their apartment building through her eyes: how three flights of stairs took their toll; how removal of the dumbwaiter made grocery shopping harder. At age 94, Mrs. B. fell in her apartment. She waited
14 hours for help to arrive, her telephone inches out of reach. Deemed too frail to return there, she was consigned to a nursing home. “Hard as it is to believe, I am no longer mistress of all that I survey,” she wrote Pynoos from the facility. When Pynoos visited, he didn’t like what he saw. He intensified his advocacy for “universal design,” a movement to create environments accessible to everyone, including the elderly and people with disabilities. Today, he directs the USC Davis-based National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification, and he co-directs the USC-affiliated Fall Prevention Center of Excellence. An online executive certificate program he co-founded in 2004 has trained more than 1,000 building contractors, social workers, occupational therapists and other professionals to create safe living environments for seniors. Jon Pynoos is now the same age Mrs. B. was when they first met. Over their decades-long friendship, he recorded 40 hours of interviews with her, planning to publish them as an oral history. That project is finally coming into focus. Old friends don’t forget. DIANE KRIEGER
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 15
15
9/6/16 9:01 PM
PHOTO BY MICHAEL OWEN BAKER
trojan news
To read more about the science behind big-screen dinosaurs, go to bit.ly/DinosaurMovieMyths.
Dinosaur Movie Myths Accurate or not, the fantastical portrayals of dinosaurs in movies shape our perception of prehistory’s most popular creatures. Think of the bellowing brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park, or King Kong’s pterosaur flying off with a heroine in its talons. Michael Habib, assistant professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and research associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute, explains the science behind our Mesozoic misconceptions.
Paving the Way About one in every six USC students—some 3,000 in all—are in the first generation of their family to attend college. It can be tough to adjust to campus life when you’re the academic pioneer in the family, so USC offers resources to help. Here are just a few: First-Generation College Student Mentor Program This USC Career Center program pairs students with alumni who were also first-generation students to share career advice. First-Generation College Student Parent Program During Welcome Week, parents of first-generation students learn about what’s ahead for their undergraduate. First-Generation College Student Task Force USC faculty and staff, including academic advisors and professors, advocate and educate the USC community on first-generation college student issues. Sophomore Seminar “Pathways to Career Success for First-Generation College Students,” a 2-unit seminar, connects academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences with potential careers. Enrolled students are eligible for summer internship funding. Fisher Fellows Program Financial support granted freshman year helps first-generation USC Dornsife students take research trips with faculty, prepare for graduate school admissions tests and study abroad. Norman Topping Student Aid Fund This supplemental scholarship for entering freshmen, transfer and graduate students gives special consideration to first-generation students and those from USC’s surrounding neighborhoods. First-Generation SCholarships Scholarships provide support to first-generation students working on summer internships that deliver valuable career experience but are unpaid.
16
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 16
No. 1 Dinosaurs looked scaly, like reptiles. FICTION
“In most film franchises, especially Jurassic Park, they continue to make all dinosaurs scaly. The velociraptor may have been scaly on its feet, but so are birds, and if you were to point out a bird to someone, you wouldn’t describe it as a scaly creature. People think the more reptilian look is what people want to see. ...We know they probably had bristles, feathers, colors and patterns.”
No. 2 Because of their size, dinosaurs were incredibly loud. FICTION
“Real animals in the world don’t walk around with their mouths open that often, especially when stalking prey. Dinosaurs like brachiosaurs with long necks are shown trumpeting like elephants. …But actually, with the anatomy of a neck that long, the nerves would make it almost impossible to make those kinds of sounds. These 40-ton animals probably hissed when they wanted to communicate.”
No. 3 When they came across prey, carnivorous dinosaurs were relentless hunters. FICTION
“You’ll probably never convince people that a T-Rex walks by a potential meal and doesn’t eat it because it’s full. That happens all the time in the Serengeti—lions walk by their prey because they don’t need to eat. … The biggest myth is that dinosaurs were monsters as opposed to animals.”
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:39 PM
PHOTO BY SUSANA CAPRA FOR MILLENNIAL MAGAZINE
HE ALTH FI LES Could humans have built-in sunscreen? USC researchers identified a gene that can help stave off skin cancer by suppressing tumors. People with low levels or mutations of the UV-resistant gene may have more risk for skin cancer. Genes have a role in how happy we feel. By analyzing the genomes of nearly 300,000 people, an international group of investigators including a USC research economist linked three genes to depression and neuroticism. Scientists caution that both environment and genetics are important to feeling content. We might be closer to a cure for chronic hepatitis B. A USCled study found that certain immune cells that are supposed to fight the disease actually suppress the immune response. The scientists are already testing a drug that might free cells to fight the virus.
26
percent less risk
No matter what flavor your coffee, it may lower your risk of colorectal cancer. USC researchers linked consumption of one to two cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee daily to a 26 percent drop in risk.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 17
Champion for Change USC Trustee David C. Bohnett ’78 has made his life’s work a quest to connect people and build stronger communities, using his business and computer engineering skills to empower his philanthropy. He hopes to inspire the next generation to make the world a better place through social justice, entrepreneurship and public policy. The David C. Bohnett Residential College, a home base for students interested in community service and advocacy, will be one of eight residential colleges in USC Village—USC’s massive residential-retail complex scheduled to open in 2017. Besides supporting the residential college, a $15 million naming gift from Bohnett sets up a leadership fund at the USC Price School of Public Policy to support a fellowship in public policy with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. It also endows a faculty chair in social entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business. “By empowering society through the next generation of leaders, and enriching civic spirit through understanding, Mr. Bohnett is a true champion of social justice,” USC President C. L. Max Nikias says.
Bohnett, a resident of New York and Los Angeles, is a philanthropist, arts patron and technology entrepreneur. In 1994, he founded the media and e-commerce company GeoCities.com, which paved the way for the rise of social networks. In 1998, Yahoo! Inc. acquired the company and he established the David Bohnett Foundation and Baroda Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups. “I can trace back so many of my personal and professional accomplishments to my four years as an undergraduate at USC, where I learned how to excel academically and how to give back through service to others,” Bohnett says. The David Bohnett Foundation offers grants that fund technology and technical support, and contributes to hundreds of nonprofits in arts, education, civic programs, LGBT-related causes and graduate school leadership programs; voting rights and registration initiatives; research and public policy initiatives to reduce the toll of firearm violence; and animal welfare and rights programs. LYNN LIPINSKI
usc trojan family
17
9/6/16 9:01 PM
trojan news
“Adversity shouldn’t stop you. It’s just something you’ve got to work through.” Sophomore Jake Olson’s words to his football teammates last fall carried special weight: The Trojan long snapper knows a lot about adversity. Born with a rare cancer of the retina, Olson lost his left eye at 10 months old. At age 12, he learned surgery was required to remove his right eye. Undeterred by his blindness, he became a long snapper for his high school varsity football team. After arriving at USC, the self-professed “ultimate Trojan fan” not only earned a spot on the football team, but also received a Swim With Mike scholarship. In 2015, Olson donned Trojan jersey No. 61 for his first official game. “Putting it on was an honor,” he says. For his strength in adversity, Olson won the Rare Diseases Champion award from the nonprofit organization Uplifting Athletes in February. Next up? More studying, more training and, no doubt, more inspiration. BEKAH WRIGHT
Welcome to the Board The USC Board of Trustees’ newest members have backgrounds that range from entrepreneurship to civic leadership. Meet the newest dedicated members of USC’s governing board. BY LYNN LIPINSKI CHARLES CALE Attorney Charles Cale LLM ’66, the managing member of the investment firm Griffin Opportunities LLC, served as group vice president of sports for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. He also held positions as the assistant chef de mission of the U.S. Olympic team at the 1988 Seoul Games, director of the delegation for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1992 Barcelona Games, co-chairman and chief executive officer of World Cup USA 1994, and special assistant and board member for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Cale attended Stanford School of Law and USC Gould School of Law and worked at Los Angeles firms Adams, Duque and Hazeltine; and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. He also served as a member of the board of directors of Nike and Century 21 Realty of Canada, and was a founding board member of the Women of Troy.
18
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 18
WENXUE WANG Wenxue Wang is the founder and chairman of China Fortune Land Development (CFLD), an investor in and operator of industrial zones in China. Since Wang founded CFLD in 1998, the firm has created and managed 45 new industrial cities and 120 city-scale industrial parks in China. As a civic leader in China, Wang has consulted for the National People’s Congress of China—the legislative body of the central Chinese government —as a member of its Business Group of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He has also served as a representative to the 11th and 12th People’s Congresses for Hebei Province, China. Wang owns the professional soccer team Hebei China Fortune FC, a member of the Chinese Super League. He holds an EMBA from Tsinghua University and has taken advanced management courses at Peking University.
MICHAEL E. ADLER A steadfast supporter of USC, Michael E. Adler ’86, MBA ’92 is an attorney and entrepreneur who has volunteered extensively as a leader within the USC Alumni Association, USC Marshall School of Business and USC Athletics. While a freshman at USC, Adler co-founded Meyer Interest Rate Survey, a financial market research firm, from his dorm room. His friends and classmates helped him collect data from banks about the products and services the banks offered. The company flourished and was sold twice, once to BISYS Group and later to Informa PLC. Adler left the company in 2015 to focus on helping others with their legal and business needs by combining his law degree with his 33 years of business acumen. Adler is currently of counsel to the boutique law firm of Greenberg Whitcombe Takeuchi Gibson Grayver LLC. He recently completed service as 2015-16 president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors.
OLSON PHOTO BY PATRICK GEE; ADLER PHOTO BY STEVE COHN; CALE PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLES CALE; WANG PHOTO COURTESY OF WENXUE WANG
In the Zone
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:02 PM
PHASE TWO NOW RELEASED DTL A
LUXU
RY
ROM NG F I L L SE
s 0 0 0 , $600 GIN S BE E-IN V 6 O M 201 L AT E
ELEVATED FINISHES
OPEN KITCHENS
EXPANSIVE WINDOWS
TEN50 NOW SELLING ONE BEDROOMS FROM THE $600k’s, TWO BEDROOMS FROM THE $800k’s. VISIT THE SALES GALLERY TODAY. 1057 SOUTH OLIVE STREET, DTLA
Location is everything. Located in the heart of South Park, and only ten minutes from USC, TEN50 is DTLA’s newest living destination.
SALES GALLERY: OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK M-F 11AM-7PM, S-S 11AM-6PM
Amenities to suit your lifestyle. A resort-style pool, fitness studio, yoga deck, and screening room means you can play where you live.
Call 213-861-1050 to learn more or visit TEN50DWNTWN.COM
1 0 5 0 S. G R A N D AVE N U E, LO S AN G E LES, CA 9 0015
I N FO@TE N50. LA
T E N50DWNT WN. C O M
TrumarkUrban.com Trumark Urban and TEN50 reserve the right to make modifications in plans, exterior designs, prices, materials, specifications, finishes, and standard features at any time without notice. Photographs, renderings, and landscaping are illustrative and conceptual. Real estate consulting, sales and marketing by Polaris Pacific—a licensed California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington Broker—CA BRE #01499250. ©2016 TEN50. Brokers must accompany their client(s) and register them on their first appointment in order to be eligible for a broker commission.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 19
8/28/16 9:07 AM
trojan news
Challenging Identities A Pulitzer-winning author reflects on misconceptions about refugees—40 years after he arrived in America as one himself.
Do you identify more as American or Vietnamese? I just wrote an essay for Time magazine, and the opening lines of that essay are “I am an immigrant. I am also a human being, an American, a Vietnamese, an Asian and a refugee.” I’m all those things at once. I think that’s absolutely a crucial decision for me because we live in a society where people are pressured to choose their identities. Especially for Asian-Americans, we’ve grown up in a society that often makes us decide whether we’re all American or whether
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 20
we’re Asian. That’s a false choice, so we have to rebel and proclaim that we can be many things at the same time. Why are Americans often suspicious of refugees? Refugees bring with them these histories that make potential host countries uncomfortable. ... The reason they became refugees is what we ourselves
might have had a hand in. Refugees are a living reminder that the things we take for granted—the safety of our homes, the safety of our country—are fragile. We see other countries being afflicted by war or natural disaster from a distance, and we assume that can’t happen to us, but if those refugees start coming to our shores, then they become these living reminders. What is the biggest misconception about war refugees? Perhaps the biggest misconception is that refugees are only victims. People see these horrible images: The Syrian boy face down on the beach in Turkey has now become iconic. That image made me physically ill in a way I have not felt in a long time. It reminded me of the fact that the Vietnamese were portrayed in the same way. It led to the perception that poor Vietnamese people are victims. Of course, they were. The Syrian people, including that boy, are victims. But that doesn’t define them. The idea that refugees are victims simply becomes a way of not sympathizing with them. We continue to treat them as less than humans. If you see people only as victims and therefore as less than human, they’re still not the same as you are.
PHOTO COURTESY OF VIET THANH NGUYEN
U S C ’s Vi e t Th a n h N g u y e n writes about identity, politics, social justice and Asian-American culture, but it’s not just a scholarly passion—it’s personal. Nguyen and his family were among the millions of boat people who fled Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War in the mid-1970s. After a stint in a Pennsylvania refugee camp, they started new lives in San Jose, California. Nguyen’s experiences inspired his nonfiction book Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and his novel The Sympathizer, which earned the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in April. An associate professor of English and American studies and ethnicity at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Nguyen recently talked with writer Rachel Ng about how our perception of refugees shapes our world and ourselves.
9/6/16 9:03 PM
Where car time is quality time. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CLASSICAL 91.5 FM
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 21
8/27/16 6:40 PM
trojan news
LOTS OF LEGROOM • A 15,455-square-foot studio converts from a rehearsal room to a performance theater. • Four classrooms seat up to 190 students. CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION • Floating floors in practice rooms isolate sound and vibrations in each room. • There are no right angles in the building, and ground-floor hallways mimic the shape of a leg.
DANCER IN THE DETAILS USC’s first new school in 40 years opened its doors to an incoming class of freshmen—and a reimagined future for dance education. The recently opened Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center is USC’s centerpiece for the USC Kaufman School of
Dance, which admitted its first class in 2015. Designers meticulously laid out and equipped the 54,000-square-foot structure with the latest electronics, sound isolation and finishes—all to support the students’ creative efforts. Here are some of its special touches; see more online at kaufman.usc.edu.
HIGH-TECH • Advanced stereo sound systems are dotted throughout the building. • Planners picked training equipment specific to dancers’ needs for fitness, flexibility and strength.
Help for Hidden Wounds Peace after war can be elusive for combat veterans who fight painful memories long after they’ve left the battlefield. Of the more than 2.6 million men and women who have served in the U.S. military since 9/11, about 20 percent experience some form of post-traumatic stress or brain injury—but nearly half forego treatment, according to the Cohen Veterans Network. The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at USC, made possible by a $15.7 million gift from Steven Cohen and the Cohen Veterans Network, offers veterans and their family members free outpatient mental health services and case management. Recently opened in downtown Los Angeles, the Cohen Military Family Clinic at USC is part of a national network of clinics serving veterans and is a collaboration between the USC School of Social Work
22
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 22
and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Providers will also be stationed at locations throughout the county in areas that otherwise lack these types of services. The clinic will also serve veterans who are ineligible for Veterans’ Admnistration benefits, such as those who served in the National Guard or the Reserves. “The wounds of war are serious. It is not easy to serve your country in combat overseas and then come back into society seamlessly, especially if you are suffering,” says Cohen, chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management. “Veterans have paid an incredible price. It’s important that this country pays back that debt.” The Cohen Veterans Network plans to create a system of about two dozen centers across the country by 2020 as part of a $275 million initiative to improve access
to behavioral health care for recent veterans. Cohen’s support of services for veterans began in part because of a personal connection: His son, Robert, deployed to Afghanistan with the Marines and is currently in the Reserves. USC’s strong programs for veterans made it a natural fit to host the clinic. The USC School of Social Work is home to the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families, where researchers conducted the first comprehensive study of veterans in L.A. County. Their findings are already helping to create effective services for veterans. The school has also earned national recognition for its pioneering master’s degree in military social work—the only program of its kind offered by a civilian research university. LY N N L I P I N S K I
RENDERING BY PFEIFFER PARTNERS ARCHITECTS
Steven A. Cohen joins with USC to serve veterans and their family members.
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:40 PM
INTRODUCING
USC TOWER AT S O U T H PA R K C E N T E R S U I T E S AVA I L A B L E F O R L E A S E R A N G I N G F R O M 2 , 0 0 0 S F T O F U L L F LO O R S AMENITIES: Panoramic Views of Downtown / Collaboration Lounge Featuring an iPad bar, Wi-Fi and Flat Screen TVs / Dramatic Skyline Views from the 30th Floor City View Penthouse and New SKYdeck / 500-Seat Theater / Lobby Level Retail Includes Starbucks, Trimana, FedEx Office, Subway, Cilantro, Chase Bank ATM and Market Café by Patina / LEED Platinum
R. Todd Doney Lic. 00852254 213.593.1360 todd.doney@cbre.com
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 23
John Zanetos Lic. 01346686 213.613.3704 john.zanetos@cbre.com
Christopher M. Penrose, Jr. Lic. 01840456 213.613.3108 chris.penrose@cbre.com
8/27/16 6:40 PM
trojan news
For the Record Long bombs to the end zone. Epic Rose Bowl wins. For as long as USC has fielded a football team, fans have loved reliving the team’s great moments. And Tom Kelly, the “voice of USC sports,” laid the soundtrack for USC football prominence for more than four decades. Today, play calls from the legendary broadcaster, who died in June, remain memorialized on vinyl records like this one (above) from 1964. But USC’s recorded football nostalgia spans more than just touchdowns and interceptions. It seeps through decades of sound from the Trojan Marching Band. Throughout the group’s history, the Spirit of Troy has released 15 of its own albums— many featuring its football fanfares and game-day cheers—and collaborated with some well-known musical acts on several pop recordings. Those trumpets and drums should get you in a game-day mood.
24
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 24
TUSK Band: Fleetwood Mac Year: 1979 Fun Fact: The Trojan Marching Band’s Tusk collaboration with Fleetwood Mac earned the group a place in pop history as the first collegiate marching band to receive a platinum album.
THE DANCE Band: Fleetwood Mac Year: 1997 Fun Fact: Invited to perform at Fleetwood Mac’s reunion concerts, the band was recorded live onstage playing Tusk and Don’t Stop. The record went on to sell more than 5 million copies, giving the marching band its second platinum album.
HIT THAT Band: The Offspring Year: 2003 Fun Fact: The Offspring—which includes singer-guitarist Dexter Holland ’88, MS ’90, who is working toward a doctorate in molecular biology— released the CD single Hit That in Australia with a bonus version featuring the Spirit of Troy.
AT THE TOP Band: The Trojan Marching Band Year: 2015 Fun Fact: The latest album is the band’s 15th record released since 1970. It includes fan-favorite cheers live from the Coliseum and pop hits from Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, Taylor Swift and more—all with the band’s signature spin.
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:03 PM
THE KECK EFFECT: MORE RECOGNIZED EXPERTS
We congratulate our 2016 Top Doctors recipients for their continued excellence in providing exceptional, personalized care across 39 specialties. Our physicians are developing breakthrough treatments and therapies every day. That’s The Keck Effect — more experts to help you get back to doing what you love.
For a list of our “Top Doctors”, visit KeckMedicine.org/top-doctors
Get expert health tips
Text KECK to 313131
To make an appointment, call (800) USC-CARE.
tfm.usc.edu
usc trojan family
25
© 2016 Keck Medicine of USC
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 25
8/27/16 6:40 PM
26 26
usc usc trojan trojan family family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 26
spring 2016
8/27/16 6:41 PM
trojan health
Who Are You? Nature and nurture both matter in the move to personalized medicine. by koren wetmore il lust rat ions by c hr is gash
In some not-too-distant future, your health risks and medical problems may be investigated and pieced together like crime scenes. Your health care provider will collect key evidence: urine, blood and DNA samples. You’ll be questioned about where you live, work and travel, and what you eat, drink and do. Your relatives, too, will be investigated—not personally, of course, but their medical histories and genetic data will be scoured for additional clues. The information will be given to the detectives in this future scenario: software programs equipped with smart algorithms. What will it mean for you? Read on.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 27
usc trojan family
27
8/27/16 6:41 PM
trojan health
A shift to this kind of data-driven, individualized health care is a lofty aim. It promises a more complete picture of what promotes health versus disease in any given person. USC researchers are moving closer to that. Through studies that compare health outcomes across ethnicities and races and between genders, they’re piecing together the factors that raise or lower disease risk. Their findings will help future clinicians interpret each patient’s information to practice truly “personalized” medicine. Some patients are already seeing the benefits today. GETTING PERSONAL When you look at their DNA, any two random people will appear more than 99 percent identical. But they can differ at about 3 million positions along the DNA sequence. Understanding these differences and how they interact with factors such as diet, environment and behavior is what will make medicine personal.
5LVNV WKDW 'LǑHU Physicians already can offer some tips to people from ethnic groups that are vulnerable to certain diseases. Here are a few. P R O S TAT E C A N C E R African-American men run double the risk of dying from prostate cancer compared with non-Latino white men. They also tend to experience a more aggressive form of the disease. Prevention: Begin PSA screenings earlier (at age 40 instead of 50). DIABETES Native Hawaiians have a 22 percent higher death rate from diabetes compared with the entire U.S. population. More than half of men and 42 percent of women ages 25-64 in American Samoa have Type 2 diabetes. Prevention: Exercise, maintain a healthy body weight, eat a balanced diet and get annual screenings. STOMACH CANCER Korean men are five times more likely to develop stomach cancer than non-Latino white men, and Korean women are also at high risk. Prevention: Quit smoking, avoid salted meats and foods that are smoked and pickled. Get screened for H. pylori infection. HEART DISEASE Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, regardless of race or ethnicity. Prevention: Eat a healthy diet, exercise, quit smoking and get screened for risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes. BREAST CANCER Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women of all racial and ethnic groups. Prevention: Exercise, eat a healthful diet, avoid alcohol, limit exposure to radiation and talk to your doctor about risks from hormone replacement therapy and whether you should be screened for genetic risk factors such as BRCA1 and BRCA2.
28
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 28
“A disease may not be caused by a single gene mutation, but rather by a combination of genetics, behavior, socioeconomic situation, and other underlying issues we’re just beginning to understand,” says USC Roski Eye Institute Director Rohit Varma, who studies how eye disease affects different ethnic and racial groups. In a recent study, Varma’s team found that Latinos with significant Native American roots who have Type 2 diabetes face an 87 percent higher risk of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy than the general population. He suspects that their Native American ancestry represents a genetic variant that, combined with lifestyle factors, raises the risk. Consider the Pima Indians, who have high rates of diabetes. In contemporary life, many in this community of former hunters and explorers have become more sedentary and eat a diet full of fast food. These lifestyle changes have contributed to diabetes risk with all of its complications, Varma says. Another study led by Varma’s team showed that AfricanAmericans have more than double the risk for diabetic macular edema, which can lead to blindness. With such a high risk, it’s vital to detect macular edema early in this population to successfully treat it, Varma says, but disparities in African-Americans’ access to medical care often keep patients from getting the necessary vision screenings and preventive treatment. “We have good drugs to treat this, so if someone comes in and gets regular eye care, that person should not lose their vision,” he says. “But even though many people have insurance, they are unable to see a physician because they can’t afford their copayments.” BATTLES OF THE SEXES Men and women also can have different risks of disease tied to factors like diet and behavior, as well as their own genes and anatomy. Recent USC research points out that learning more about the interplay between gender, ethnicity and diet may help doctors find more effective disease screening, prevention and treatment for patients. In a study of nearly 7,500 adult women, USC researchers noted links between breast cancer, race and ethnicity, and diet. They found that Latinas who ate 20 grams of processed meat per day (equal to a strip of bacon) had a 42 percent higher risk of breast cancer than Latinas who ate little to no processed meat. In contrast, for Caucasian women in the study, eating tuna posed more of a breast cancer risk. In fact, a thimble-sized serving of tuna per day was enough to raise their breast cancer risk by 25 percent. No one is sure yet why. Hormones, too, can affect health risks differently between men and women. While many people know that estrogen exposure over a lifetime can increase a woman’s breast cancer risk, fewer probably know that the same hormone reduces kidney cancer risk. (Yes, men have estrogen too—just at lower levels than women do.) Urologist Inderbir Gill, chair and professor in the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, explains that estrogen levels drop in women as they age, but estrogen levels rise in men as they get older. And that rise in estrogen seems to impact senior men when it comes to kidney cancer. “If a younger woman has a kidney tumor, it is likely benign, whereas in younger men, it likely is cancer. As [men] grow older, we see the opposite,” says Gill, executive director of the USC autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:41 PM
DEAPEN PHOTO BY ERIC BRONSON, MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Institute of Urology. “It has to do with the influence of the hormones progesterone and estrogen, which seem to inhibit the growth of this cancer.” Heart disease offers insight into gender’s effects, too. Differences in anatomy and behavior affect outcomes for men and women with cardiovascular issues. “Women have smaller coronary arteries than men, and tend to have more extensive coronary artery disease, which makes treatment more complicated,” says Vivian Mo, director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Center of USC. And unlike men who arrive at the local hospital with classic chest pain when they’re having a heart attack, women often ignore their symptoms, which can be as vague as throat tightness and nausea. “By the time they reach the ER, they may have already sustained a fair amount of heart muscle damage, which can lead to future episodes of congestive heart failure,” Mo says. Although early diagnosis and screening for risk factors such as diabetes and high blood pressure could help, women tend to delay their care and put others’ needs first. After a recent screening event at the Women’s Cardiovascular Center, only 10 percent of women exhibiting key risk factors for heart disease followed up with a physician for preventive care. “Even though heart disease claims more lives than the top five cancers combined, women are more aware of breast cancer and will seek out screening and treatment for that,” Mo says. TAILORING TREATMENT Researchers believe that collecting information from vast numbers of patients will turn up important clues to how cancer starts and how it can better be treated. Patients at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center already benefit from data collection focusing on cancer risk factors and incidence across ethnicities and genders. Doctors can apply findings both to cancer treatment and genetic screening for cancer risk. “We develop customized treatments for each patient that reflect the full complexity of who they are—not just ancestry or gender, but also their medical history, social situation and risk factors, as well as the best evidence from our clinical trials research,” says Stephen Gruber, director of the USC Norris cancer center. “We can integrate all of those things into computer models that calculate the risks and benefits of specific diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. We also can tailor our prevention strategies by understanding a patient’s cancer risk and what interventions we can use to modify those risks.” In some ways, the cancer center was built on this idea. Gruber credits the center’s position as a leader in understanding disparities and treatment options to two pioneering Keck School of Medicine of USC initiatives: the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program founded in 1972 and the Multiethnic Cohort study founded in 1993. The Cancer Surveillance Program records data on every cancer case reported in Los Angeles County, which boasts an ethnically diverse population of about 10 million people. The Multiethnic Cohort study is a long-term, population-based study of more than 215,000 people of African-American, Japanese, Latino, Native Hawaiian and Caucasian origin that examines the relationships between cancer and factors such as genetics, diet and nutrition. tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 29
Researchers nationwide use data from both programs to analyze incidence patterns and potential causes of cancer. “If you want to understand the pattern of cancer in all of us, we are the sole source,” says Cancer Surveillance Program Director Dennis Deapen. “The Los Angeles area’s diverse population enables us to produce ethnicity data that you won’t find in most of the country.” Drawing on more than 1.3 million cancer cases, the program also helps point out therapies that are more effective for specific kinds of patients over the years. “Patients and physicians have to make decisions at a given point in time and go with it,” Deapen says. “We’re the people who can look at the data 10 years later and say, ‘For this kind of cancer patient, this treatment worked a whole lot better than that one.’”
FROM TOP: Inderbir Gill, Stephen Gruber, Dennis Deapen, Vivian Mo and Chris Haiman
DECODING DISEASE Sometimes researchers start with genes and then study how they interact with other factors to get a clearer picture of individual health risks and preventive measures. Keck School of Medicine genetic epidemiologist Chris Haiman co-leads a study to look for gene variations that might explain the uneven risks for conditions such as heart disease and cancer among different groups. Through the study of some 50,000 DNA samples from people of African, Latino and Asian ancestries, the scientists are investigating everything from waistto-hip measurements (body shape) to the effects of inflammation—and then linking these factors to variations in genes. “Our hope and expectation is to identify all of the genetic variants involved in disease,” Haiman says. If Haiman and his colleagues are successful, you might someday take a genetic test that screens for all known diseases rather than just answer questions about family history to determine your risks. Those results will then be considered alongside information about your diet, where you live and work, and even how much exercise and sleep you get. This combined picture will empower you and your doctor to discuss the lifestyle changes and treatment options to keep you healthy. “Are we there yet? No, we’re not,” Haiman says. “But that’s the goal.” usc trojan family
29
8/27/16 6:41 PM
BEYOND
PLAIN SIGHT BY K AT H A R I N E G A M M O N
USC Roski Eye Institute research will change how we see the world—and the ways we can live better in it.
30
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 30
spring 2016
8/27/16 6:41 PM
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 31
usc trojan family
31
8/27/16 6:41 PM
Vivian Hoorn was scared. She knew that something wasn’t right with her vision. Grey polka dots kept dancing across the pages of her favorite books as she tried to read them. In the back of her mind was one thought: her father. She had watched as he slowly went blind just as he was retiring, and he wasn’t able to enjoy his leisure years. So Hoorn turned to Keck Medicine of USC professor and ophthalmologist Rohit Varma. Hoorn, who is now 69 and a retired elementary school principal, still remembers hearing his startling diagnosis: She had lost half her vision to glaucoma. But Varma also promised to take care of her. Today, 14 years after that first appointment, Hoorn’s sight remains steady, thanks to prescription eye drops and specialized follow-up testing twice a year. “It’s not an easy thing, living with fear every day of your life,” Hoorn says. “Now, that fear is removed.” Besides using her medication, Hoorn also takes part in a USC study to track the prevalence and development of glaucoma in Latinos, which gives her access to the best technology available to track visual deterioration. For physicians and researchers at the USC Roski Eye Institute, understanding who is at greatest risk for vision problems is just as important as why and how these problems develop. The institute, which Varma leads, studies blindness and eye problems across our nation’s population, in addition to developing technology and expertise to treat patients. That’s especially important because in the coming decades, the number of Americans with eye disease and impairment issues like age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts will dramatically increase. By 2050, 16.4 million Americans older than 40 will have impaired vision—more than double the number today, according to a study by Varma and other USC Roski Eye Institute researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA) Ophthalmology. In addition, more than 2 million people over age 40 will be blind. USC Roski Eye Institute doctors see a chance to make a dent in those numbers and help the people they represent.
32
usc trojan family
PREDICTING THE BURDEN Vision loss affects people and societies in ways far beyond just visual perception. People with impaired vision can suffer both physical and mental health decline, including an increased risk for chronic health conditions, explains Varma, holder of the Grace and Emery Beardsley Chair in Ophthalmology. “Many people become depressed and unstable, and those are all aspects we want to understand so we can treat the person as a whole and not just the eye,” he says. “Whatever we do in the way of treatment, we want to see positive improvement in the life of a person, in addition to improvement in vision.” The aging of baby boomers is expected to bring a wave of agerelated eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye and age-related macular degeneration—a deterioration of the retina that’s the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. With more people living with diabetes, as well, more will have eye-related complications from the disease.
By 2050, 16.4 million Americans over age 40 will have impaired vision—more than double the number today. More than 2 million people over age 40 will be blind.
FROM TOP: Shinwu Jeong and Sarah Hamm-Alvarez
The results of the JAMA study showed that vision loss will hit some of us disproportionately hard. The largest group of people expected to have impaired vision is non-Latina white women older than 60. That’s partly because women live longer than men, so they’ll lead the way through sheer numbers. But various ethnic groups, from people of Chinese descent to African-Americans, will face their own health challenges. TREATMENTS ON THE HORIZON USC Roski Eye Institute researchers look to treat some of the most prevalent—and tricky—eye problems. Take dry eye, for one. It affects 25 million to 30 million people in the U.S. alone. Whether it’s itching, pain, burning, blurred vision or light sensitivity, dry eye’s symptoms can hurt quality of life, says Shinwu Jeong, assistant professor of research ophthalmology at USC Roski Eye Institute. Post-menopausal women are especially prone to it. Jeong’s research shows promise, though. He and fellow researchers found that a natural protein in tears, called clusterin, might be used to treat dry eye syndrome. In the lab, they found that clusterin seals and protect the eye by binding to its surface. They are now investigating using clusterin as a biotherapeutic for dry eye and also plan to expand its applicability to treat other indications like wound healing, Jeong says. His fellow USC Roski Eye Institute researcher Sarah Hamm-Alvarez works on dry eye in a particular type of patient: people with Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affects about 4 million Americans. The syndrome attacks glands that produce tears and saliva, compromising a person’s quality of vision. Hamm-Alvarez explores the molecular process involved in disease
autumn 2016
cover
PHOTO BY ZÉ CARLOS BARRETTA
development and uses nanotechnology to efficiently target treatment sites inside the eye. She also develops new tests to rapidly diagnose patients based on changes in their tear composition so they can get targeted treatment faster. Her research also looks at new ways of delivering drugs, including formulations that make drugs stay on the eye’s surface more readily and drugs that are released over time from contact lenses or injections. Getting drugs to the right part of the eye is a part of her research as well, since the gland that produces tears isn’t in the front of the eye. These pre-clinical studies are still in early phases, but Hamm-Alvarez hopes the treatments will reach patients in the next few years.
NEWER TREATMENTS FOR OLDER EYES Patients who have macular degeneration have few treatment options today, but stem cells might become one. Age-related macular degeneration, also known as AMD, is a progressive disease that affects part of the retina, called the macula, which enables people to read, see faces and drive. More than 2 million people in the United States suffer from AMD. It’s not only common, but it’s also extremely frustrating: The vision loss associated with AMD is in the central part of a person’s field of vision. The disease comes in two forms: wet and dry. Patients with the dry type have no treatments available—yet. An early-stage $19 million USC-based clinical study, currently recruiting patients, will use embryonic stem cells to produce retina tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 33
A Welcome Sight Mark Humayun has changed how we see the future—literally. The USC University Professor (above) has earned worldwide acclaim for developing Argus II, the first retinal implant approved by the FDA to restore a semblance of vision to people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa. In recognition, the White House recently named him a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The award recognizes groundbreaking ideas that have the power to “raise America’s competitiveness and quality of life.” Humayun has done so through an achievement once thought impossible: helping the blind see again. The Argus II system he helped develop uses an eyeglassmounted camera to send signals to tiny electrodes implanted in the patient’s eye. The signals travel through the optic nerve to the brain, where they can be interpreted as a picture. Surgeons have implanted the device in dozens of patients blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, restoring some of their ability to see. One day, Humayun hopes the device can be developed for macular degeneration, a similar and far more common age-related eye disease. Humayun was named “Innovator of the Year” in 2005 by R&D Magazine and holds more than 100 patents and patent applications, as well as membership in the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering. “These sorts of things can only be accomplished if others join in and help you, and I’ve been very fortunate to have strong collaborators,” says Humayun, who holds joint appointments at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. ROBERT PERKINS
usc trojan family
33
9/6/16 9:04 PM
cover pigment epithelium cells, which would replace macula cells lost in AMD. These cells are located in a thin sheet at the back of the eye, so researchers have learned how to grow them as a thin layer of single cells, just the way they are found in the human body. Surgeons will implant a 3-by-6-millimeter sheet of stem cells into the eye, replacing diseased cells and restoring light-sensitive photoreceptors in the retina. The stem cell work is based on groundbreaking research by two Keck Medicine of USC faculty, Mark Humayun, University Professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, and David Hinton, professor of pathology, neurological surgery and ophthalmology. USC Roski Eye Institute ophthalmologist Amir H. Kashani leads another clinical trial assessing stem cells implanted to treat severe vision loss in patients with advanced dry-type AMD. “The hope is that patients’ immune systems don’t attack the implant and that the cells can integrate into the retina,” Kashani says. “It’s a transplant, even though it’s a very small transplant of 100,000 cells.” The clinical trial relies on collaboration from a diverse group of USC researchers, Kashani adds, including engineers who designed the ultra-thin piece of plastic on which to grow cells, biologists who can grow the particular cell type and surgeons who use pioneering techniques to implant the cells.
ROADMAPS FOR LIVING WITH BLINDNESS For people who are already blind, there is also new help for improving quality of life. James Weiland, USC professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, has been hard at work on wearable visual aids for people with vision loss. The aids work like a GPS navigation system, directing users to veer left or right to move where they want to go. To make it all work, Weiland and his team had to develop cameras and software that could distill key information from live images to help patients take the safest path. His latest tests among blind users are promising. It turns out that it doesn’t take much training to interpret and follow commands, and vibrations work just as well as words to help people navigate their world. Often the vibrations are even more effective
34
usc trojan family
than words, Weiland says, like when traffic noise drowns out the system’s spoken commands. Then there’s the issue of how vision works in the brain. USC Roski Eye Institute researchers are bringing scans of peoples’ retinas together with their MRI brain scans. They hope to uncover how the brain changes in response to eye disease, which is a novel concept, according to Weiland. “The conventional thinking was that the brain is pretty much set as it is,” he says. “But more recent work suggests that the brain is ‘plastic’ into adulthood.” Because of this plasticity, Weiland says, “there is some training that can be done to the brain.” For example, the group has found that in someone who is blind, the visual part of brain can change so that it starts to respond to feeling or hearing instead of seeing. “Even at the fundamental levels of brain, we see that the brain performs pattern
“Whatever we do in the way of treatment, we want to see positive improvement in the life of a person, in addition to improvement in vision.” r oh i t var ma
FROM TOP: Amir Kashani and James Weiland
recognition from both vision and sense of touch,” Weiland says. For people who lack sight, the brain is able to switch over to processing a different kind of input. And when people who have lost sight are able to regain it, what does the brain do? The researchers are now scanning the brains of blind patients who have the Argus II implant, a retinal prosthesis developed by USC Roski Eye Institute researchers that allows them to see shapes and shadows through a camera embedded in the cornea. Preliminary results show that the patients’ brains are converting back to a sighted way of working, and over time their brains will likely look like those of people with normal vision. The brain scans are also important to help basic understanding of visual systems, because a huge part of the brain is devoted to processing vision. Researchers’ work also has implications for therapy. “What we learn from the brains of Argus II patients can benefit other vision restoration approaches, such as stem cells or gene therapy,” Weiland says. “How people learn to see again will be universal information.” As director of the USC Roski Eye Institute, Rohit Varma envisions a large part of the institute’s work to be about treating people, both now and in the future. Overcoming barriers to care is a top priority, since his research has shown that undetected eye disease is widespread throughout Los Angeles, and also likely elsewhere. “We’re trying to get the public health message out there,” Varma says. “Just like an annual physical exam, you need to get an eye exam every other year, and then [starting] in your 60s, get one every year.” For Vivian Hoorn, the dedication from physicians like Varma at the institute has made all the difference to see clearly and live a full life. “At USC, you’re not just a glaucoma patient in room seven, you’re an individual,” she says. “Dr. Varma has allowed me to have the gift of sight in my life.”
autumn 2016
Learn more about USC Roski Eye Institute at eye.keckmedicine.org.
Committed to Caring USC Roski Eye Institute treats a wide array of problems and offers unique treatments. These are just a few:
VARMA PHOTO BY JOEL LIPTON
Helping Children See the Future Back when his son was in elementary school, Rohit Varma was asked to meet with the boy’s teacher. The teacher had a concern: Varma’s son was often distracted and had to be moved to the front of the class. It turns out that he couldn’t see the board clearly. Even as an ophthalmologist, Varma hadn’t appreciated the enormous need for childhood eye exams. “Suddenly I wondered how people not related to an ophthalmologist would get the care they needed,” says Varma, director of the USC Roski Eye Institute and chair of ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. After some research, he found that there was little information available on pediatric eye disease, so he set out to start the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study. The 2003–2011 study focused on eye health in thousands of Los Angeles children from 6 months to 6 years of age. It turned up some troubling findings: For one, nearly 90 percent of kids who needed eye care had never been examined by an eye doctor. “Whether they needed eyeglasses or surgery, they hadn’t been seen and treated,” Varma says. The study also found that a large proportion of kids, especially AfricanAmerican and Asian-American children, are nearsighted. Globally, the incidence of nearsightedness has skyrocketed over the past generation. Kids need outdoor activities to keep young eyes healthy, he says. “Studies have shown that close-up indoor activities, especially with smartphones and tablets, make it more likely that they will get progressively more nearsighted.” The study, which generated more than 20 published research papers, found that mothers’ cigarette smoking during pregnancy gives rise to greater eye problems among children as well. It also found that Latino children are much more likely to have astigmatism—problems with how the eye focuses light— than other ethnic groups. Varma says that the USC Roski Eye Institute will continue helping underserved groups gain access to eye care: “We are always looking to continue our work in vulnerable communities.” K AT H A R I N E G A M M O N
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 35
Cataracts Glaucoma Corneal and retinal diseases Ocular oncology Reconstructive surgery Childhood eye diseases Laser vision correction
Over age 60? Get a dilated eye exam at least yearly to catch disease early.
On the Horizon The number of people with the most common eye diseases will double between 2010 and 2050. Among the 80 million people age 65 or older in 2050:
A Vision to Help Others As a watercolor artist, Gayle Garner Roski ’62 depends on her eyesight to pursue her life’s passion. But when her vision began to suffer, so did her painting. She sought help from Keck Medicine of USC ophthalmologists for her cataracts. Her successful treatment brought true color back into her work and light into her life. That’s one reason that she and her husband, real estate developer and USC Trustee Ed Roski ’62, made a landmark $25 million gift last spring to endow and name the USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute. The Roskis’ gift will support USC’s initiatives to preserve, restore and improve the sight of patients in Southern California and worldwide. “Gayle and Ed Roski’s gift is an incredible vote of confidence in the work we do at the USC Roski Eye Institute,” says Rohit Varma, director of the institute. “This gift will enable us to advance eye research in fields such as ocular imaging, drug delivery, dry eye, stem cell therapies and public health and policy.” The Roskis’ roots at USC run deep. They met during her first year on campus—he was a junior and she a freshman. And as longtime benefactors, they’ve supported USC’s fine arts school, students and programs. Ten years ago, the USC Roski School of Art and Design was named in recognition of a generous gift that expanded the school’s programs in fine arts, new media and digital arts, as well as providing for a graduate student art gallery. With their latest gift, they hope to help others suffering from vision loss or impairment, inspired in part by Gayle Roski’s own restored eyesight after her cataract procedure. “Imagine having a yellow lens due to cataracts over your eyes all the time, and then having it removed. The improvement was amazing, and our hope is that this gift helps other people improve their vision,” Gayle Roski says. Ed Roski is president and chairman of the board of Majestic Realty Co., and co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Lakers. Gayle Roski’s paintings have been exhibited extensively in museums and galleries from Southern California to Scotland. LY N N L I P I N S K I
5.4 million will have age-related macular degeneration. 50 million will have cataracts. 14.6 million will have diabetic retinopathy. 6.3 million will have glaucoma.
usc trojan family
35
9/7/16 8:30 AM
TUNED TO THE CITY Scholarship Woodwind Quintet members (from left) Anna Lenhart, Sergio Coelho GCRT ’16, Stephanie Bell MM ’16, Sarah Minneman MM ’15 and Emily Schoendorf MM ’15 at Walt Disney Concert Hall Photo by Noé Montes
36
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 36
9/6/16 9:23 PM
Their Place to Play Located in one of the music capitals of the world, USC Thornton gives musicians opportunities that are as precious as their dreams. BY DIANE KRIEGER Al Schmitt has mixed and produced albums for artists from Madonna and Michael Jackson to Paul McCartney and Elvis Presley. But in Capitol Records’ Studio A in Hollywood, music stars of the future hold the recording engineer’s attention. Nearly two dozen USC Thornton School of Music students record jazz cues under Schmitt’s watchful eye. Budding film composers take turns conducting the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra, while students from the school’s music tech program assist Schmitt at the mixing board. It’s not every day that college music students get to learn from a Grammy winner (in his case, a winner 23 times over). But at USC Thornton, it’s expected. Thanks in part to its home in Los Angeles, USC Thornton provides its nearly 1,000 students with access to A-list artists and venues no other music school delivers. In the coming months, students in the USC Thornton Symphony will perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall under principal conductor Carl St.Clair with USC Thornton faculty pianists Bernadene Blaha and Kevin Fitz-Gerald. Pop music-minded students will grab mics and take the stage at the Troubadour. Industry heavy hitters will come see them on campus, too. A weekly pop music forum has brought in artists like Elton John, Smokey Robinson and Randy Newman to share insights from their legendary careers. When the Beach Boys’ Mike Love and Bruce Johnston participated in a forum, USC Thornton students opened at their concert that same night. “We are not only located in Los Angeles. We also are part of Los Angeles,” says USC Thornton Dean Robert Cutietta. “We utilize all the resources of this great metropolis, actively trying to blur the lines between campus and city.” L.A. opens up opportunities to perform in hole-in-the-wall clubs and rooftop scenes. It offers hope to youthful impresarios who want to bring chamber music to the masses. And it brings budding artists together with music veterans who can kick-start careers. “No other music program comes close,” says Daniel Carlin, chair of the screen scoring program. “That’s the advantage of being in Los Angeles.”
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 37
9/6/16 9:23 PM
LOS ANGELES AS A MUSICAL MUSE (Clockwise from top left) Students in the Classical Performance & Composition Division like Peter Myers MM ’10, GCRT ’13 join together to form chamber ensembles and commission and perform new works. Alex Hahn MM ’16 and Jon Hatamiya MM ’16 played regularly throughout Los Angeles before accepting prestigious fellowships at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Popular Music Program singer-songwriter Madison Douglas takes advantage of a thriving downtown L.A. arts scene to let her creative juices flow. Acclaimed bassist Alphonso Johnson is one of the many industry veterans who teach at USC Thornton. Students can hone their craft with established groups such as the USC Thornton Wind Ensemble, led by music director H. Robert Reynolds. (Opposite page) Classical violinist Chelsea Sharpe is pursuing her master’s degree under USC Thornton’s Glenn Dicterow, former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. (Angel wings mural by Colette Miller)
38
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 38
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:43 PM
PHOTOS BY NOÉ MONTES
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 39
usc trojan family
39
9/6/16 9:24 PM
40
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 40
spring 2016
9/6/16 9:24 PM
Students often form bands or get together for impromptu practices (rooftop locales are desirable, but not mandatory). Photo by NoĂŠ Montes
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 41
usc trojan family
41
9/6/16 9:25 PM
PHOTO BY NOÉ MONTES
42
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 42
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:25 PM
TROUBADOUR PHOTOS BY DAVID SPRAGUE; SYMPHONY PHOTO BY IAN EVANSTAR
PLACE INSPIRES PERFORMANCE (Opposite page) Venezuela-born percussionist Aaron Serfaty, a lecturer in jazz studies who has performed with artists across the world, personifies the international flavor of Los Angeles. (Clockwise from top left) Seniors in the Popular Music Program perform each spring at the Troubadour, a legendary L.A. spot named one of the best rock clubs by Rolling Stone. The USC Thornton Symphony plays at Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the most sophisticated musical performance spaces in the world. Artists like Max Quilici ’16, pictured right, and Skyler Garn ’16 and Katie Stump ’16 get a glimpse of their future at the Troubadour and other venues across Southern California. Besides singing at iconic L.A. nightclubs, USC Thornton students have spun tracks at electronic dance music venues and even performed in a mobile opera that spanned sites including Chinatown, Boyle Heights and the Los Angeles River.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 43
usc trojan family
43
8/27/16 6:48 PM
by robert bradford illustrations by the heads of state
The High Ground American politics has never seemed more divisive and contentious—or has it? USC researchers look at how we got here and chart the road to more civil discourse.
I
n 1800, Thomas Jefferson found himself in the political race of his life. Jefferson was running for president of the young republic and needed an edge in the election against John Adams, his friend turned philosophical and political foe. Jefferson called on a journalist and pamphleteer named James Callender. He secretly funded Callender’s attacks on Adams, who was soon denounced as a hypocrite and warmonger. Adams, Callender declared, “behaved neither like a man nor like a woman but instead possessed a hideous hermaphroditical character.” Adams and his supporters retaliated. They called Jefferson an atheist and seized on racist attitudes, dubbing him the “son of a half-breed Indian squaw.” When the name-calling ended and operatives finally put down their quills, Jefferson won the election. Fast forward 216 years, and the mudslinging tone of the presidential race sounds surprisingly familiar. During every presidential election cycle, pundits seem to utter the same declaration: “This could be the nastiest, bloodiest race we’ve seen in years.” Sometimes they’re right. Over the last two decades, fundamental changes in the political landscape, global economy and technology have changed the tenor of politics. The pamphlets and journals of Jefferson’s day have given way to seemingly endless news and opinion outlets, from magazines and websites to social media, television programs, radio shows and podcasts with political viewpoints. Discourse often descends into the rude and crude. Republican presidential candidates talk about the size of one’s hands—and its physical implications, nudge nudge—during a national debate. Supporters of a Democratic presidential candidate throw chairs and issue death threats over delegate counts in Nevada. A woman running for the Texas education board alleges that President Barack Obama was a gay prostitute in his 20s and used the proceeds to pay for drugs. “Today anybody can say anything and everyone has a channel. Senator Pat Moynihan once said, ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.’ Now everybody has their own facts,” says Robert Shrum, veteran political consultant and professor of politics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “You can go to the website you want, to the TV channel you want, and get the facts you want.” Shrum has witnessed many of the highs and lows of campaign rhetoric during dozens of election cycles in American politics. He has steered campaigns for U.S. Democratic presidential
44
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 44
candidates, congressional representatives, governors and mayors for the last 40 years. He worked with Ted Kennedy in the 1980s when there were clearly strong philosophical and political differences between Republicans and Democrats. But he points out that there was a different tone then. “Amid their differences, President [Ronald] Reagan and Kennedy worked together on immigration reform. Reagan and [Democratic house speaker] Tip O’Neill compromised on Social Security. Reagan would go out and have a drink with Tip O’Neill, and he could raise funds for the Kennedy Library,” Shrum says. “Today, a lot of the pragmatism that I have seen in my political career has been driven out of the system. What I see politicians focusing on is not a series of programs and policies, but more on alienation and anger.” Data from the Pew Research Center seem to confirm a growing divide in politics: Democrats and Republicans have moved farther apart. According to Pew, more than nine of 10 Republicans today skew more conservative than the typical Democrat. Compare that to the 1990s, when that was true for more than six out of every 10 Republicans. Similar shifts happened among Democrats: Today more than nine out of every 10 of them are more liberal than the average Republican, up from seven out of every 10 in the 1990s. Jack Knott, dean and the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair and Professor of the USC Price School of Public Policy, links the rising incivility and polarization of American politics to three key changes in governance: the gerrymandering of congressional and state assembly districts to create more “safe” constituencies for each party; the primary voting system that bases candidate selection on the participation of the most extreme partisans; and the McCain/Feingold campaign finance law that had the unintended consequence of redirecting large campaign funds to extreme political interest groups. These three issues are particularly important given the unevenness in the distribution of income in the U.S., he adds. “We are in the midst of the greatest economic inequality in America since the late 19th century, and the bulk of the middle class is slowly shrinking away. We are seeing growing disaffected groups of workers who have not seen their paychecks increase over decades,” Knott says. autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:26 PM
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 45
usc trojan family
45
8/27/16 6:48 PM
Budding engineers like Ruyan Chen ’16, left, benefit from the support of engineering professors like Maja Matarić, center, and Leana Golubchik.
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 46
8/27/16 10:42 PM
“There is also the fear of terrorism and the changing demographics of the country. We are becoming an increasingly multicultural society, and many people feel unsettled by this.” At the same time, Americans’ trust in government has plunged to new lows, according to national surveys. During such uncertain times, people have a tendency to return to survival and coping instincts, says Jesse Graham, an associate professor of psychology at USC Dornsife whose research focuses on how ideology and morality interact to influence human thought and behavior. “We are tribal by nature, and it’s very easy to turn that tribal switch on,” Graham says. “I think politics becomes a trigger for tribalism.” Graham points to a famous study by the social psychologist Muzafer Sherif in the 1950s. Sherif divided up a group of 11- to 12-year-old boys in an isolated, mountainous setting and gave the groups names: the Eagles and the Rattlers. The groups lived near each other, and each group was allowed to bond and form allegiances without contact with the other group. Then the experiment team introduced competition between the Eagles and the Rattlers. Baseball games quickly devolved into name-calling, the tribes vandalized each other’s camps, and soon they were ready to fight with rocks and sticks before the researchers stopped the violence. Graham believes that the dynamics and dysfunction of the Eagles and Rattlers experiment can be seen in myriad tribes today—liberals versus conservatives, vaccination supporters versus anti-vaxxers or the National Rifle Association versus the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, for example. And the goals of the tribes center too much on attacking the credibility and character of the opposing tribe, he notes, rather than on getting along. “If your goal is just obstruction and to stop the other side, that doesn’t lend itself to civility,” Graham says.
They Said What? The vicious name-calling of the American political landscape today might seem like it has reached a new extreme. But lobbing insults is nothing new. America has a long tradition of vitriol in politics. Here are a few moments in our history of incivility:
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 47
How to Bring Civility Back Seek Perspective “At the end of the semester, I give my students one final assignment. I ask every conservative to watch Rachel Maddow once a week. And I ask every progressive to read George Will or David Brooks once a week. I hope that they will understand the importance of listening to smart, reasonable people with whom they can disagree.” DAN SCHNUR, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC
Be Positive “We have to go back to Jefferson’s notion. The best answer to bad speech is good speech.” ROBERT SHRUM, Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Discuss Reasonably “What we try to do at the USC Price School of Public Policy is find a balanced dialogue based on the evidence and sound analysis. We’re a neutral place for public dialogue and discussion. We’re trying to be a voice of reason.” JACK KNOTT, dean, C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair and professor in the USC Price School of Public Policy
So that raises the most important question during these contentious times: Do people from all of these tribes—Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, biomedical researchers, environmentalists, climate scientists and climate change skeptics, just to name a few—have any chance to get along in the 21st century? Bonnie Reiss, who is the global director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, believes that different political tribes can work together by making changes to the political system, and she has a body of experience to prove it. Reiss, a lifelong Democrat who clerked for Sen. Ted Kennedy and worked with President Bill Clinton on the 52nd Presidential Inauguration, spent five years as a senior advisor to California’s Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2003 to 2007. “Arnold wanted to surround himself with people from different backgrounds and find common ground,” Reiss says. “And that is the mission of the institute—to solve problems without regard to politics or ideology.” The USC Schwarzenegger Institute has done research on how two California reform measures reduced partisanship in the state. In 2008, California voters approved the creation of an independent panel to draw district lines. The goal was to end political gerrymandering, a practice that allowed elected officials to draw their own political district lines and ensure that districts would consistently be Republican or Democratic. California voters approved a second significant reform in 2010 by ending the closed primary system—where only partisan voters could participate in primary elections—and replacing it with a top-two primary system. The top-two system allows all voters to participate in one primary, and the two candidates receiving the most votes, regardless of party, face each other in the general election. Reiss and her colleague Christian Grose,
1800
1828
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson Jefferson’s attack team called Adams a “repulsive pedant” with a “hideous hermaphroditical character.” A leaflet from Adams’ supporters countered that Jefferson was a “Godless atheist.” They capitalized on racist attitudes, as well, calling Jefferson “the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.”
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION John Quincy Adams versus Andrew Jackson According to a 2016 Wall Street Journal story, “Jacksonian newspapers called [Adams] ‘The Pimp,’ procuring young girls for Czar Alexander I when he was minister to Russia. Adams’ stewards contended that Jackson’s mother was ‘a common prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldiers.’”
usc trojan family
47
9/6/16 9:26 PM
a USC Schwarzenegger Institute faculty fellow, summarized the results of their research on these two reforms in a 2016 op-ed in the Sacramento Bee: “The research shows a significant reduction in legislator ideological extremity, with a 34 percent reduction in the Assembly, and a 31 percent reduction in the Senate. This has led observers who once considered California ‘ungovernable’ to look at it as an example of what is possible when partisan polarization is reduced. “We also conducted research outside of California that compared the outreach and messaging of candidates in states with closed primaries to those with open primaries and top-two primary systems. Here, too, the findings were significant. Candidates were more responsive to independent voters in both open and top-two primaries, and candidate messages to voters of the other party were more bipartisan in open primary states and even more so in top-two primary states.” Like Reiss, Dan Schnur still sees the possibility for civil discussion and positive political change during these complicated times—especially starting with young people. Schnur directs USC Dornsife’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, where he helps students from across the political spectrum engage in government and public service, and teaches popular classes in politics, communications and leadership. Schnur has decades of experience as a political reformer and a leading political strategist and communicator. He has worked on issues ranging from redistricting to rebuilding the political center. “At the Unruh Institute, we host 20 to 25 events a year that are designed to include a range of viewpoints and ideologies so our students understand different political perspectives,” Schnur says. “We ask people to explain what they believe without demonizing others. We want our students to understand
how to bring civility back continued
Work Together “When the Republicans took over the House in 1995, Newt Gingrich made a variety of changes, including encouraging new members not to move to Washington and changing the calendar so most of the work got done during the week and representatives would go home on the weekends. This changed the culture in Washington when members and their families would not live together and get to know each other. Congress members should live in Washington. It will encourage more interaction and connections and lead to a more civil environment and more compromise.” JESSE GRAHAM, associate professor of psychology at USC
Focus on Solutions “We need to welcome young leaders into the party and invite them to participate in a robust debate. Republicans love the free market, so it should seem like a no-brainer that the more views we have at the table, the better our final product will be. To succeed, Republicans need to embrace true Reaganism, and that means embracing the true Reagan, a brave and independent leader who believed in solutions and compromise.” ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, former Governor of California, Governor Downey Professor of State and Global Policy at USC and chairman of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy
that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil—they just happen to have come to different conclusions and deserve respect.” For Schnur’s colleague Shrum, this approach of teaching measured discourse, well-articulated arguments and agreeing to disagree is perhaps the only way forward. Shrum doesn’t see any neat, simple solutions to the current problems of political discourse. He doesn’t believe that civility can be legislated, and he knows there’s no way to control the accuracy of information as it filters through the internet, social media and the 24-hour news cycle. For Shrum, it all comes back to the idea that individuals are capable of elevating the way they interact with others and taking responsibility for how they express their arguments. “I think we have to come back to Jefferson’s notion. The best answer to bad speech is good speech,” Shrum says. Maybe focusing on common problems, rather than fixating on personalities and winning at all costs, is the most promising approach. The Founding Fathers did that. A decade after Jefferson and Adams battled bitterly for the presidency, they became friends and regular correspondents, returning to the intellectual high ground that represented the best of their political careers. On Jan. 21, 1812, Jefferson wrote words to Adams that perhaps could inspire today’s politicos to opt for civil compromise: “A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port.”
1858
1912
1992
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Abraham Lincoln versus Stephen Douglas Douglas supporters called Lincoln a “horrid-looking wretch” who was “sooty and scoundrelly in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horseswapper, and the nightman.” During one debate, Lincoln compared Douglas to an “obstinate animal.”
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION Teddy Roosevelt versus William Howard Taft Teddy Roosevelt, wearing a sombrero and smoking a cigar, cheerfully referred to William Howard Taft, the sitting president and Roosevelt’s former vice president, as “a rat in a corner.”
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Jerry Brown versus Bill Clinton Brown and Clinton battled all the way to the Democratic convention and Brown never endorsed Clinton. During one debate, Brown said Clinton had a “big electability problem” and attacked Clinton for “funneling money into his wife’s law firm.” Clinton shot back: “You’re not worth being on the same platform as my wife.”
48
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 48
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:27 PM
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 49
usc trojan family
49
8/27/16 6:49 PM
by di a n e k r i eg er
Leading Man
It isn’t easy being an athletic director in today’s hyper-connected world where fans, bloggers and 24/7 sports media scrutinize every move of a college athletic program. In this high-pressure scene, achieving expectations of both academic and athletic excellence while complying with ever-increasing NCAA and Title IX rules across nearly two dozen sports means constant vigilance. But Lynn Swann ’74 isn’t interested in what’s easy. USC’s incoming AD loves nothing more than a challenge. “Yes, things have changed,” says the former Trojan wide receiver, whose halcyon college football days predate the NFL Combine and ESPN, let alone Twitter and the Pac-12 Networks. “Our society changes, technology changes, the way we communicate changes. But the one thing that doesn’t change is maturity. How do we help young people grow and mature to be able to handle this responsibility? “I’ve always told my own kids that responsibility is freedom, and freedom is responsibility. You want more freedom, then you better show me that you can be responsible for that freedom. These are the value lessons we have to teach to Trojan athletes. I think I have an opportunity to be able to lead a program to make sure the kids who come here get the best out of themselves in a competitive program—that they have a great college experience, win championships and leave with their degree.”
50
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 50
PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN
Lynn Swann ’74, the former football player, broadcaster, dancer, civic leader and businessman, is poised for a breakout role: USC athletic director.
summer 2016
9/6/16 9:27 PM
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 51
9/6/16 9:27 PM
In the search for an athletic director, USC President C. L. Max Nikias had said he was looking for “someone who is a leader, not a manager. Someone who can position Trojan athletics in the national scene to play a leadership role in the student-athlete reform movement.” Swann has a strong platform for tackling national conversations about college sports: USC’s leadership in the Pac-12, NCAA, College Football Playoff organization and Olympic Games. At the April 16 press conference announcing Swann’s installation, Nikias described the incoming athletic director as a man of “integrity, exemplary character: a champion.” But there’s much more to him. Charismatic, multi-faceted, a postmodern Renaissance man, Swann is not your typical athletic director.
heat of high-profile government service. Having chaired the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 2002 to 2005, he threw himself into a hard-fought race to try to become the first AfricanAmerican governor in Pennsylvania history. Organizing that 2006 bid, Swann says, taught him important lessons about the right way to build a team of advisors—knowledge he’ll deploy in his new role at USC. Swann also knows the world of business, having served on several Fortune 500 corporate boards, founded his own marketing and consulting firm, launched an Arena Football League team in Pittsburgh, earned licenses as a financial securities agent, and established himself as a successful motivational speaker. He’s no stranger to the nonprofit world, as well, through his 30 years’ involvement with Big Brothers
ON HIS TIME AT USC AN UNCONVENTIONAL PATH These days, it’s hard to say what a typical athletic director looks like. Across the NCAA Division I landscape, the job increasingly attracts people from surprising backgrounds. Look at Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick Jr., who came out of 28 years’ worth of practice as a private sports attorney and team negotiator. Or Vanderbilt’s David Williams, a school-teacher-turned-law professor who previously had been that university’s general counsel and helmed student affairs. Swann’s own background defies labels. After 30 years working for ABC Sports, he’s thoroughly versed in the world of broadcasting. He built on his public relations degree at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, making his living from 1976 to 2006 as host, analyst and sideline reporter for seemingly every sporting event under the sun—including the Olympics, horse racing’s Triple Crown contests, bowling tournaments, international diving and, of course, football. He weathered the frigid extremes of Alaska’s 1,000-mile Iditarod trail. He basked on fairways covering the sport that he now ranks among his three life passions: golf. (The other two, he says, are competition and family.) Then there’s Swann the politician, who has marched the campaign trail and felt the
52
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 52
“USC opened doors for me. I learned about myself, and my education created a pathway to go forward. I was always looking toward that career beyond football.”
ON GRADUATING “You go to practice to get better at your sport. You go to school to get better in a chosen career. I want our student-athletes to develop a skill set beyond playing a sport. Things that will last a lifetime. Things that are transferable. “Playing a sport at the professional level—no matter how much money you get paid, no matter what sport it is—is not a lifetime career. If you get 10 years as a pro at any sport, you’ve done well.”
ON WINNING “You don’t get the best out of yourself if you’re not trying to win. Achieving your best requires time and effort. I don’t care what it is: academically, athletically, socially. “I believe playing sports trains you better for life. Most adults are working as hard as athletes do in college. If you don’t think you compete for any and every job out there, you’re mistaken. Everybody competes. How many resumés get submitted for the best jobs? You’re competing with all those other people.”
ON HIS RETURN “This new role as AD fits with my life focus of leadership, mentoring young people, helping others, and giving them the tools they need to grow and achieve.”
and Big Sisters of America, including two years as the charity’s national president. At the press conference announcing his athletic director appointment, Swann spoke of his willingness to take calculated risks, citing a gutsy decision in 1994 to put the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization’s sterling reputation to the test by commissioning the first-ever impact study measuring its effect on the 250,000 children it serves. The study’s findings came back strongly positive, though Swann couldn’t have known that going in. Accountability comes first, Swann explained, “when you’re asking people for money.” He brings that philosophy to Heritage Hall, too. Perhaps most surprising is that Swann, well-known in the Trojan Family for his football prowess, also brings to USC a background steeped in arts and culture, both as a trained dancer and high-profile fundraiser for the Pittsburgh Ballet. “I am recommending that he be appointed as a professor at the USC Kaufman School of Dance,” Nikias joked at the press conference. There’s something poetic in the fact that the football Hall of Famer famously nicknamed “Baryshnikov in Cleats” is returning to his alma mater just as the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center opens its doors. The decision to become USC’s next athletic director was not one that Swann made easily. He had turned down two other AD job offers at NCAA Division I schools in recent years. When USC recruiter Nick Brill came calling, Swann and his wife, Charena, a clinical psychologist with a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, discussed it for hours. Though he hadn’t sought it out, he realized, “it’s a job I feel like I’ve prepared for my entire career.” The timing was good for a life change: Their younger son, Braxton, was a senior in high school. Still, Swann backpedaled during the early search process, waiting until Braxton, whose top college choice was USC, had heard back from the university’s admissions office. “It was important to me that he understood he was getting in on his own merit,” autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:28 PM
Swann says. His other son, Shafer, is a cadet at West Point, but both boys had spent summers at USC football camps and experienced the Trojan Family at away games against Notre Dame, Syracuse and Illinois. Happily, Braxton got the fat envelope from USC. He started freshman year in August as a business major. “And now I’m going to college with him,” adds the proud Trojan parent, with a chuckle. TROJAN TIES Though Swann had put down deep roots in Pittsburgh, he has stayed connected with the Trojan Family. Asked who he’s still tight with after 45 years, he says, “half of my football team at USC. I could go on and on. All of them have stayed important in my life.” The Trojan whom Swann has perhaps stayed closest to, however, was a swimmer: his freshman roommate and high school buddy Tom McBreen ’74, MD ’79. McBreen has keen insight into how Swann’s past shaped him and made him a strong fit for leadership at USC. The two met the summer before eighth grade, introduced by McBreen’s older brother—Swann’s middle-school history teacher and basketball coach. The boys became best friends at Junipero Serra High in San Mateo, California, an all-boys Catholic prep school that Swann attended on academic scholarship. Both boys were star athletes, though they never played on the same team. An elite swimmer, McBreen made the U.S. national team as a high school senior and set a world record in the 800-meter freestyle relay in 1970. As for Swann, he excelled at many sports, earning national honors in basketball, track and football. McBreen was among the very few in their tight-knit Bay Area town who knew that Swann was also a dancer, training in jazz, tap, modern dance and ballet. “Lynn kept it a secret,” he recalls. “Now we talk about football players doing yoga and dance. But in those days, it was verboten to talk about it.” Swann’s parents, Mildred and Willie, tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 53
had settled in San Mateo in 1954, leaving their hometown of Alcoa, Tennessee, to seek a better life for their three young boys. Willie Swann became the school custodian at Meadow Heights Elementary, and his wife ran a dentist’s office for 17 years before becoming an administrator with the San Mateo School District. Education was important to the Swanns, and all three of their sons went on to college and professional achievements. As seniors, McBreen and Swann were aggressively recruited by top schools and under intense pressure from family and friends. Both moms were pulling for Stanford. The boys made a pact to tell each other first. When decision day came,
ON EXPERIENCE “College should be about personal growth and development. It’s about meeting people from all over the world. We have an international campus. You can be in a different country just by walking 30 yards. “When I retired after nine years with the Steelers, I didn’t retire because I couldn’t play football anymore or because I didn’t want to play football. I retired because I was prepared for an opportunity that was presented to me by ABC to take a career in broadcasting. I spent 30 years in broadcasting as a result. This is what I want for the kids at USC. I want them to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to them in their life.”
AN IMPRESSIVE RESUME Lynn Swann has built quite a career in and out of football. Here are a few highlights. USC Degree Bachelor of Arts in public relations, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Rose Bowls Two National Championships One Team Honors Was USC team captain, Most Valuable Player and an All-American NFL Played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, won four Super Bowls and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Leadership President of national board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; has served on boards of directors for a variety of international companies Media Commentator Has been an ABC host, reporter and analyst for sporting events from the 1984 Summer Olympics to the Kentucky Derby
they retreated to the walk-in freezer of their high school cafeteria, where they worked as servers. They scribbled in silence on two slips of paper and solemnly exchanged notes. “We thought we’d gotten our own note back,” says McBreen, laughing at the memory. Both had written down “USC.” “Right at that moment, we decided we’re going to live together.” LIFE AT USC The arrangement raised teammates’ eyebrows when they first arrived on campus in 1970. “We were a black athlete and a white athlete living together. That was unusual. And we were also a football player and swimmer living together. People couldn’t understand it,” McBreen says. The level of athletic excellence at USC was daunting. At nights, they lay awake sharing their insecurities. Who are those guys? became their inside joke—a reference to the relentless posse pursuing the hero-outlaws of the 1969 blockbuster film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Both young men went on to glory. McBreen was a silver medalist in the 1971 Pan American Games, won Olympic gold and bronze at the 1972 Munich games, and captained the Trojan swim team that took the 1974 NCAA championship. Swann played on two Rose Bowl teams and a national championship team in 1972. He was team captain, most valuable player and an All-American in 1973. And as an NFL pro, he would take home championship rings from four Super Bowls over his nine years with the Steelers, as well as the MVP title from Super Bowl X. And Swann still remains a loyal friend. “To me, he’s always been the same Lynn. He didn’t get a big head,” McBreen says. “I think it comes from his upbringing. His parents are just really good people— salt of the earth.” Those values—along with a lifetime of leadership experience on the field, in the boardroom, in front of the cameras—places Swann in good stead as he takes the helm at Heritage Hall. usc trojan family
53
9/6/16 9:28 PM
Reunion Weekend... One Great Moment after Another! If you earned an undergraduate degree in 1966, 1976, 1986, 1991, 1996 or 2006, it’s your year to come back to campus on November 4-5 to see old friends, experience exciting changes on campus and relive your USC memories!
Register Today! Visit reunions.usc.edu or call (213) 740-2300 to register and get information about reunion class giving.
ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 54
8/27/16 6:50 PM
FA M I LY
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
TO THE POINT You might know USC for its Olympic legacy in sports like swimming, but Helene Mayer ’33 put fencing on USC’s Olympic map. She won a gold medal in foil for her native Germany in 1928, and stayed in Los Angeles after finishing fifth at the 1932 Olympic Games. She capped off her Olympic career with a silver at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 55
usc trojan family
55
8/27/16 6:50 PM
family news
Countdown to Success The new president of USC Alumni Association’s governing board encourages alumni to rediscover the university.
Rod Nakamoto ’83, MBA ’94 has two countdown clocks on his smartphone. One counts down the days to his planned hike of the 211-mile John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The second one calculates the time left in his one-year term as president of the USC Alumni Association (USCAA) Board of Governors. A financial advisor and former accountant, Nakamoto likes looking at life by the numbers. But the countdown clocks
56
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 56
also serve as an important reminder of how fast time flies. May 25, 2017—the end of Nakamoto’s presidential term—is on the horizon. He learned how quickly time goes by when he was president of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association from 2011 to 2013. In his remaining months at the helm of the USCAA Board of Governors, “we’re going to double our efforts to provide services and engagement opportunities that speak to all alumni, from recent grads to Half Century Trojans, and everyone in between,” says Nakamoto, of Cypress, California. Expect an expansion of USCAA’s popular industry and affinity groups, which offer networking and volunteer opportunities for Trojans who work in fields like real estate and entertainment. He plans to grow these affinity groups by recruiting and developing alumni leaders in cities including New York, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Reaching alumni—particularly those under 35—will be key to growing and strengthening USCAA. Nakamoto likes to connect with as many as he can at USC events with his wife, Elsie Nakamoto ’82, at his side. They can relate to the young alums on a personal level: Their oldest daughter, Brynn ’12, graduated from USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and their youngest, Emily, is a senior in neuroscience at the USC Dornsife
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Their son, Scott, earned his degree in human biology from Pitzer College. Rod Nakamoto learned the value of networking as an undergrad at the USC Marshall School of Business after transferring from the University of California, Davis. He pledged the co-ed business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, and it was at an AKPsi pledge event in the breezeway between Bridge and Hoffman halls where Nakamoto met his future wife. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. After starting his career as an accountant and controller for two fast-growing companies in software and health care services, he switched to financial planning in 1994. Today, he manages his own practice with his long-term business partner and team at J.P. Morgan. In his free time, the former Eagle Scout volunteers for the Boy Scouts through his son’s troop, which earned him Scoutmaster of the Year for the district in 2010. A dedicated hiker, Nakamoto enjoys day trips when he’s not on 200-mile treks. “You can repeat the same hike again and again, and still see something new each time,” he says of Southern California’s trails. It’s that same sense of rediscovery that keeps him involved at his alma mater. Just as nature is constantly reinventing itself, so is USC. “USC is on an unparalleled trajectory as an elite research university,” he says. “I hope to encourage alumni to rediscover and engage with the university. I think they’ll be surprised at how much it has transformed.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
by lynn lipinski
autumn 2016
9/7/16 6:44 AM
To learn more about Trojan Family Weekend Oct. 6-9, go to tfw.usc.edu.
All in the Family
PHOTOS BY SARAH M. GOLONKA
A revamped Trojan Family Weekend gives parents an inside look at USC like they’ve never had before. Most USC parents don’t spend nearly as much time on campus as their children do, but during the upcoming Trojan Family Weekend, they can dive into nearly every aspect of university life. “We look at Trojan Family Weekend as a great opportunity to bring parents into the fold, show them why they should feel proud of their son’s or daughter’s institution, and how they can be more involved,” says Adam Rosen, who heads up USC’s office of cultural relations and university events. This year, students’ family members who travel to the Oct. 6-9 event at the University Park Campus will find more relevant programs than ever. Parents of freshmen and sophomores will learn about subjects like campus involvement, switching majors and finding summer internships. Parents of juniors and seniors can learn about commencement, graduate school and networking, among other topics. They’ll all find TED-style talks delivered by top faculty members, as well as signature opening and closing events each day. Thursday and Friday will offer dozens of panel discussions and presentations, open houses at every school, hundreds of open-classroom visits, a range of guided tours (including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Doheny Library), campus building walk-throughs (including newly completed Fertitta Hall and Kaufman International Dance Center), and an exclusive hard-hat tour of USC Village, set to open in fall 2017. Saturday is all about football, including the popular Trojan Family Weekend tailgate party in Alumni Park. On Sunday, USC religious organizations and Greek life will welcome families. Between activities, families can head for the open-air parents lounge, grab free refreshments in the welcome tent, make FAMILY MEMBERS memories in photo booths, or hit the ATTENDING Lyon Center for an invigorating cardio or 2,398 yoga class. For entertainment, there are open STATES REPRESENTED rehearsals, stage performances, exhib47 its and screenings put on by USC’s arts schools. Parents can check out USC’s ViTOP STATES sions and Voices program, which hosts California an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks on Thurs983 day. Friday night comes alive with the Texas new Trojan Family Weekend concert in 173 McCarthy Quad. New York The goal is for families to experience 130 what it means to be part of a bigger USC Trojan Family. Says Rosen: “We have to Illinois not only tell parents how important to us 119 they are, but show them, too—by creating Washington valuable, meaningful activities that they 104 can be part of.” FIGURES ARE FROM 2015
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 57
Trojan Family Weekend (Oct. 6–9) gives parents and siblings a taste of campus life through panel discussions, open houses, classroom visits and guided tours at schools throughout USC. Families can get into the school spirit with face painting, photo booths and a pregame tailgate party.
DIANE KRIEGER
usc trojan family
57
9/6/16 9:30 PM
family news
100 Years and Still Fighting On For three Half Century Trojans, dedication to their alma mater runs deep. If there’s one thing Juanita Mills Feeder ’32 has learned over her 106 years, it’s getting creative when someone tells her “no.” Take her college days, for example. As an Alpha Gamma Delta pledge at USC, Feeder was required to spend Monday nights at the sorority house. That’s when shenanigans tended to happen. “We had a system in place,” Feeder remembers. “One of the sorority sisters would sleep with a string tied around her toe. Those of us who snuck out would tug on it to be let back in without waking up our housemother.” Feeder is one of three Half Century Trojans—alumni who graduated 50 or more years ago—who recently spoke with USC Trojan Family Magazine about college life. Beyond being steadfast Trojan football fans, the trio all are more than 100 years old. So what was campus like back in the day? They’ve all got stories. JUANITA MILLS FEEDER ’32 The Mills family—including eight children—moved from Michigan to California in 1918. “The roads were paved in the cities,” Feeder says, “but there was nothing but dirt in between.” When it came time for college, Feeder’s brothers had already determined that she’d join them at USC. The daughter of a suffragette, Feeder didn’t shy away from studying journalism, though few women enrolled at the time. “The professors didn’t want to teach us because they thought we’d just get married and have babies after graduation,” she re-
58
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 58
calls. Feeder went on to become a staffer for The Daily Trojan, and after graduation, she dove into the world of media, where she met and married fellow journalist Bill Feeder. As for those professors who believed she’d forfeit her career after becoming a mother, Feeder proved them wrong: She wrote until she was 98. FRED V. KEENAN ’37 From the moment he stepped on campus, Keenan was a die-hard Trojans fan. The son of Irish immigrants, Keenan was the first member of the family to attend college, and the first of three generations to attend USC. The Los Angeles native took to college life right away. “I was a big shot,” he teases. Keenan pledged Sigma Chi and met his future wife, Blythe Rae Hawley, at a Greek party. After graduation, the business major joined the family’s industrial supply company and, years later, established Keenan Investment Company. Keenan has never forgotten his time at USC and enjoyed every minute. He stayed active in groups like the USC Alumni Association, Cardinal and Gold, Skull and Dagger and the Half Century Trojans. Among his many gifts to the university, he established an endowment for a USC Marshall School of Business chair of business and economics and a career center for MBA students. In 2002, Keenan
was recognized for his volunteer efforts at the university, receiving the USC Alumni Service Award. One aspect of Trojan life he remains devoted to is football. A longtime season ticket holder, the 102-year-old attended both home and away games until he was 95. Sharing Keenan’s Trojan love is daughter Susan Keenan Nyby ’64 and granddaughters Noelle Nyby Giuliano ’90 and Molly Nyby Sackett ’93. HARRY K. WOLF EdD ’53 Wolf was no stranger to university life when he enrolled at USC in 1952. The Paso Robles, California, native was 43 and had earned his undergraduate degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a master’s in math from Northern Arizona University in 1933. He was teaching in Cal Poly SLO’s electrical engineering department when he decided to take a yearlong sabbatical to earn a doctorate at the USC Rossier School of Education. He wasn’t the only Wolf at USC at the time: The eldest of his three children, Gerald, was a sophomore. The father-son pair enjoyed going to Trojan football games together. “Whenev-
KEENAN AND FEEDER PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES; WOLF PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WOLF FAMILY
by bekah wright
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:50 PM
The Century-old Tradition
er USC plays Arizona, Dad says he wins no matter what since he has a degree from both,” says Wolf ’s daughter Vicki Abrisz Ryal. The 107-year-old Wolf wrote his autobiography, The Oak Tree, in 2009, chronicling his nine trips around the world with his wife, raising three children, teaching for 31 years and enjoying hobbies like ham radio (he’s now the oldest operator in the United States, says Ryal). These days, he eats modestly—though he enjoys two glasses of wine a day with chocolate chip cookies—and can be found giving his daughters a run for their money at gin rummy. tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 59
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
(Opposite page) Juanita Mills Feeder poses for a yearbook photo. (Above) Harry Wolf earned his doctorate in 1953. (Below) Fred Keenan is the first of three generations of Trojans in his family.
When Ruth Launer ’16 decided to buy a wool graduation gown instead of renting it for her USC graduation, she could never have guessed the gown would go on to grace the commencement stage 45 times over the next 100 years. The 1916 graduate, a botany major, had married that March, and by the time she was walking across the stage to pick up her diploma, she was two months pregnant. “I’m pretty sure she was already thinking about the baby, my mother Eunice, wearing the same gown in the future,” says Launer’s granddaughter, Kathy Harris Tuynman Windsor ’66 (above). Thus began a tradition. When it was time for Ruth Launer’s daughter, Eunice Launer Harris ’39, to don the gown, she embroidered her name on a scrap of fabric sewn inside it. The names of 45 more family members, all meticulously hand stitched, have since followed. Each name accompanies a graduation year and alma mater (most attended USC, but other schools include University of California, San Diego and University of Oregon). “The family always talked about USC and the Trojans,” recalls Windsor’s older sister Janet Harris Tonkovich ’64. “When my
eighth-grade teacher asked the class to write about our futures, my essay said I’d be attending USC, majoring in physical education with a specialization in dance. That’s exactly what I did.” As for Windsor, “The minute I was born, my grandmother had already figured out my graduation would be 50 years after hers,” she says. But by her 1966 commencement, the wool gown was showing some wear. “Mother wrote the gown’s manufacturer—E.R. Moore, which still provides USC’s gowns today,” Eunice Harris says. “They put in a new braid.” The refurbishment has served the gown well. Last May, Windsor wore it once again to proudly march in USC’s 133rd commencement, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her graduation. As she marched with the other Half Century Trojans, her mind was on Ruth Launer, the woman who started a cherished family tradition a century ago. Lately, the sisters have discussed the gown’s future. Can it withstand another 50 years? One hundred? “We’re limiting it to our grandchildren,” Windsor says. Time will tell. Either way, the gown may be making its way to Alumni Memorial Park for years to come.
usc trojan family
59
9/6/16 9:30 PM
family news WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SURVEY? Nearly 7,200 USC alumni took part.
Alumni Attitudes A survey looks at how Trojans view their university experiences—and how they might forge future ones. by elisa huang Want to know how well USC prepares its students for their academic and career goals? Ask a Trojan. Over the past decade, the USC Alumni Association (USCAA) has polled alumni every other year to assess their opinions about their experiences as students and graduates. The verdict from the 2015 survey: USC alumni are proud of USC and they’re ready to take on the world. After graduation, Trojans overwhelmingly felt prepared to tackle their career and academic goals (see bottom chart). Attending USC was an “excellent” or “good” decision for 95 percent of respondents. More than 90 percent of respondents also noted that the value of and respect for their degree was the most significant factor in their opinion about USC. A high number of Trojan veterans—almost 1,000—participated in the survey, and the USCAA hopes to continue strengthening ties through the popular Alumni Veterans Network. The survey also provides a look into the activities alumni participated in when they were students. Results show that alumni had been active in groups on campus—nearly half of respondents were in a professional or career-related organization as students. Slightly more than 30 percent took part in community service and more than a quarter played recreational sports. “This gives insight into what might engage and interest them as alumni,” says Patrick Auerbach EdD ’08, associate senior vice president for alumni relations. “For example, if we’re seeing that as students, they’re involved in professional organizations, we want to find ways they can do that after graduation.” The USCAA has found success with industry networks that
60
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 60
link alumni through their shared experiences, such as the Trojan Entertainment Network group. The organization hopes to add more networking opportunities with other groups, including younger alumni and alumni located in cities like Washington, D.C. and New York. Alumni are open and eager for more networking, career and mentoring opportunities, according to the survey. Earlier this year, USCAA redesigned its website and unveiled a new FightOn! app to make it easier for alumni to connect with each other. “We’re also looking into more virtual and digital options to overcome time and geographic barriers for Trojans who can’t make it to campus or to after-work events,” Auerbach says. “We want to stay ahead of the curve.” Another way USCAA plans to stay one step ahead will be through the residential college experience. USC Village opens in 2017 and Auerbach has already anticipated the “transformational experience of student living” in the 15-acre residentialretail complex. For a new generation of Trojans, USC Village will be where lifelong friendships, memories and the “Fight On!” spirit will be forged—all key engagement points for future alumni. Thinking of new ways to connect will be important as well, as results also showed that USC alumni stay in touch with their alma mater through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn more often than alumni from other schools. “Alumni want to engage and explore on their own schedule,” Auerbach says. “So digital and on-demand platforms are a great opportunity for us to stay relevant and accessible to the Trojan Family.”
Which student activities did you participate in? 60%
Residence halls Intramural, club or recreational activity Community service Career-related organization
How well did your school prepare you for success? POOR
FAIR
GOOD
EXCELLENT
Further graduate education
Current work status
Commitment to personal development
Responding to new career opportunities
Contributing to my community
Others
USC
*Reflects responses from comparable schools such as UCLA, New York University and Cornell University
9/6/16 9:30 PM
A Planned Gift That Made Sense
When Frances Peskoff ’64 and her husband, Arthur, created the Frances and Arthur Peskoff & Trudy Berwin Scholarship at USC, it made sense emotionally and financially. After all, Frances had only been able to attend USC because she had received a scholarship. And Frances and Arthur were able to pay lasting tribute to Frances’ late sister Trudy Berwin JD ’80 by including her in their scholarship’s name.
They were able to create the scholarship by establishing a Charitable Remainder Unitrust, which perfectly suited the couple’s financial situation, too—since it provided them with an immediate income-tax charitable deduction and a lifetime income.
To make a planned gift that makes sense for you, call the USC Office of Gift Planning at (213) 740-2682 or visit usc.edu/giftplanning.
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 61
8/27/16 6:51 PM
IN THE
MIX EXPERIENCE
P R O M OT I O N S E V E N TS O P P O RT U N I T I E S
Terranea: L.A.’s Oceanfront Resort Terranea is Los Angeles’ premier oceanfront resort. This hidden gem offers an experience for all—whether it’s a relaxing weekend getaway or an extended stay. Featuring luxury accommodations ranging from guestrooms and suites to villas and bungalows. Enjoy award-winning golf, spa and dining, as well as outdoor adventures. terranea.com
CELEBRATE
Game Changer Wins L.A. Woman People’s Choice Award An acclaimed experimental game designer, USC School of Cinematic Arts Professor Tracy Fullerton has long been a trailblazer in the world of video game design. Fullerton, chair of USC’s Interactive Media & Games Division, has also helped lead the charge for more diversity in a traditionally male-dominated industry. She recently earned honors as Los Angeles magazine’s 2016 People’s Choice selection in the publication’s annual L.A. Woman “power issue.” Under her leadership, women now outnumber men for the first time in the game design program at USC, the No. 1 ranked program in the country. Game design is a $13-billion-dollar industry, and heavily concentrated in L.A. “If you have a more diverse team and you have a respectful process that listens to all those voices, then you’re going to reflect a more diverse viewpoint and your media is going to be attractive to a larger, wider public,” Fullerton says. “To me, that’s part of the core of our entire program. If we can make that change, then that can go out into our industry.”
62 62
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 62
autumn 2016
9/7/16 6:31 AM
Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.
family class notes
1 9 5 0 s
1 9 8 0 s
Neil Ash JD ’50 (LAW) was profiled in the San Diego Union-Tribune for his career in the military, tenacity in the face of personal loss and commitment to service.
Richard C. John ’80 (BUS) was the 2015 top salesman at DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services. It was the 14th time he has received this honor.
1 9 6 0 s
Joseph Rumolo ’81 (ENG) is a transition manager at Atos, a digital services company based in France.
Karin Friedrich Donaldson ’62 (LAS) was feted as a “Women of Dedication” honoree by the San Diego Salvation Army in April. Harold Faber ’66 (ENG), a 52-year resident of Fullerton, California, worked for the city’s water district for over a decade, and the Irvine Ranch Water District for nearly two decades, before retiring in 2001. He is an active engineer with fellow status in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
1 9 7 0 s
Denny Freidenrich ’70 (EDU) is a contributor to the political newspaper The Hill. His more than 1,000 letters to the editor and commentaries have been published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and more. David Kuroda MSW ’72 (SSW) received the South Bay Bar Association’s William E. MacFaden Award, honoring distinguished contributions to the legal community. He has a counseling practice in Torrance, California, and spent 18 years with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Diane Brooks Dixon ’73 (LAS) was elected mayor of Newport Beach, California. Two years ago, she was elected councilmember for District 1, and served as mayor pro tem. Iris E. Harvey ’73, MBA ’74 (BUS) was elected to serve as the next president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. She is a Fulbright scholar and Ford Foundation scholar. tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 63
Lisa Yee ’81 (LAS) is writing original stories for the DC Super Hero Girls novel series, featuring Wonder Woman, Super Girl and other iconic female superheroes. Jeff Kaufman ’82 (SCJ/LAS) produced and anchored “Hi-Definition News,” which was awarded the 2015 Golden Mike for Best Newscast. Jackie Lacey JD ’82 (LAW), Los Angeles district attorney, was named Prosecutor of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section at its Criminal Justice Awards Dinner in May. Mark Henschke PharmD ’83 (PHM) is a 2015 Vitals Patients’ Choice Award winner for the sixth time. The award recognizes top-performing doctors based on reviews and ratings. Mary Stark ’85 (ENG) is chief business officer of Cold Spring School District in Santa Barbara, California. She is also the district’s K-12 financial consultant. George J. Chambers ’86 (ENG) published his fourth history book, World War II as Seen Through the Eyes of United States Navy Cruisers. Daniel Dodgen ’86 (LAS) spoke at the White House during an event celebrating the release of the United States Global Climate Research Program report The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Gregg McVicar MCG ’86 (SCJ) hosts and produces the daily public radio music program “UnderCurrents,” now celebrating its 10th year on the air.
David Wang ’87, MS ’90 (ENG) became a partner in Mayer Brown LLP’s intellectual property practice in Palo Alto, California, where he will focus on patent litigation involving electrical engineering and high technology for U.S. and Asian companies. Russell Cummings PhD ’88 (ENG) was elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the world’s largest aerospace professional society.
1 9 9 0 s
W. Kent Hedges ’91 (ENG) is a regional project manager for UHS Inc., America’s largest private behavioral health provider. Danny Strong ’96 (DRA) is director of Rebel in the Rye, a script he adapted based on the Kenneth Slawenski biography JD Salinger: A Life. Matthew J. Cordner ’97 (ENG) is a senior FX artist at Blizzard Entertainment. In 2013, he and two colleagues received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for developing pose space deformation, a foundational technique for computergenerated characters. Jacob Ullman ’97 (SCJ) was named senior vice president of production and talent development at FOX Sports in January. He joined FOX Sports when he was still a student at USC. Sheila Recio JD ’98 (LAW), deputy general counsel with the Superior Court of California in Orange County, was selected by Orange County judges as one of the court’s two new commissioners. Sean Atkins ’99 (BUS), a veteran digital media executive, is president of MTV. He oversees all creative and business operations for MTV and sister networks MTV2 and mtvU.
usc trojan family
63
9/6/16 9:31 PM
Scholarships change lives. Every gift counts. giveto.usc.edu “ I hope to be a physician, and I see the role fundamentally as one of community service—not only offering patients the most up-to-date diagnostic skills and treatments, but also offering them comfort.” Kaushik Parvathaneni USC Mork Family Scholar Human biology major, with a double-minor in healthcare studies and cinema for the healthcare profession, Class of 2018
64
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 64
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:51 PM
A LU M N I
P R O F I L E
C H A S E
M I L L S A P
M P P
’1 6
See the documentary about Chase Millsap and The Captain at bit.ly/NatGeoMillsap.
The Promise
PHOTO OF CHASE MILLSAP AND THE CAPTAIN BY SPENCER MILLSAP
A veteran takes on a new mission: Bring wartime allies to safety.
“Your word is the most important thing you have.” That’s what his grandfather, a World War II combat veteran, told Chase Millsap MPP ’16 before he left for the Naval Academy in 2001. After 15 years and three deployments to Iraq, honoring his word has never seemed more urgent to the former Marine infantry officer and Green Beret. Millsap was beginning his master’s program at the USC Price School of Public Policy in 2014 when his brother-in-arms, an allied Iraqi Security Forces officer, called him in desperation. ISIS had ordered the man to leave Iraq, threatening to kill his wife and two children if he didn’t go. As his friend spoke in rapid Arabic, Millsap could hear the gunfire in the background. Millsap promised he’d try to help “The Captain” find safety. (He calls him that to protect his identity.) It was the least he could do. In 2006, The Captain saved
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 65
Millsap’s life, pushing him to the ground and running straight into sniper fire at their dusty checkpoint in Al Anbar province. The two worked together again in 2007, training 700 Iraqi soldiers near the Syrian border. “That’s where we became more than friends,” Millsap says. “We were brothers. This is a man I trusted every single day when the world seemed to be crashing around us. It was a dangerous time to be in Iraq and I know The Captain helped keep many Americans safe, not just me.” When Millsap left Iraq after his third and final deployment, it seemed peace was returning to the streets. “I left with my head held high. I thought we as Americans had done our job and given Iraq a chance for a bright future.” By 2014, ISIS turned peace to war and The Captain’s life was in grave danger. A few phone calls should rescue him, Millsap thought.
Instead, he found a maze of deadends cemented in policy. Allied military fighting alongside American troops don’t qualify for asylum because, unlike civilian contractors, they are paid through their own government—even though the U.S. finances those security forces. “It didn’t make sense to me that we would abandon our most trusted allies,” Millsap says. He set out to raise awareness and reverse policy on America’s wartime allies. In late May, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak on a congressional panel. He hopes to return for a full congressional hearing next year. He also founded the Ronin Refugee Project, a nonprofit that champions wartime allies seeking refugee status and resettlement in the United States. Ronin is an ancient Japanese term for a masterless warrior. The group recently merged with No One Left Behind and aims to present a comprehensive policy on wartime allies to the
Department of Defense. National Geographic recently told The Captain’s story. In a 24-minute documentary, Millsap, now 33, traveled to Turkey to reconnect with his old friend. Injured by a roadside bomb, his shortterm memory gone, his right arm useless, the battered Iraqi officer had spent his life savings to reach southern Turkey, where his family, along with his widowed sister and her three children, now live in limbo. The Captain may be considered for resettlement by next year but meanwhile his family members wait their turn with millions of others fleeing ISIS. Millsap believes there are thousands of other Ronin out there. He’s determined to help as many as he can through awareness and policy change. DIANE KRIEGER
usc trojan family
65
9/6/16 9:32 PM
family class notes
2 0 0 0 s
Meghan Corea ’06 (DRA) is assistant costume designer for Netflix’s Daredevil.
from Delta Dental of California’s F. Gene Dixon Student Leadership Awards.
Cheryl Marshall EdD ’01 (EDU) was appointed chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District.
Jaime L. Lee ’06, JD ’09 (LAW), chief executive officer of Jamison Realty Inc., serves on the board of administration of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System at the appointment of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. She was named president-elect of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, and will serve in 2017–18.
Margaret Ivey ’11 (DRA) played Ann in the People’s Light production of All My Sons and returned this spring as Lady Anne in Richard III. She is also a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association.
Raul Ramirez ’01 (LAS), EdD ’14 (EDU) is assistant superintendent of elementary education services in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Lael A. B. Awong ’02 (BUS), JD ’06 (LAW) is a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon and is a member of the firm’s pharmaceutical and medical device litigation group. Isaiah Leslie ’02 (LAS) is chairman of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. Shannon Lucio ’02 (DRA) played Patricia Lea in the remake of the miniseries Roots. Julie Boardman ’04 (MUS) produced Forest Whitaker’s Broadway debut in Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie. Panagiotis Galiotos MS ’04 (ENG) is a program leader at Athens Metropolitan College in Greece. Angela Meade MM ’04 (MUS) performed the title role in Bellini’s Norma with the LA Opera. Steve Olmos EdD ’04 (EDU) is chief schools officer in the Santa Clara County Office of Education in California. Geoffrey Ross MPL ’04 (SPP) is assistant director for development and federal programs at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Katrina Coulourides ’05 (DRA) is a designer at Thinkwell Group. Chetan Goyal MS ’05 (ENG) moved to India to start an early childhood education center. He plans to change it to a K-12 as he continues to grow the school.
66
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 66
Sarah Schuessler ’07 (DRA) was the costumer for Love the Coopers and key costumer for Mighty Med. Jennifer L. Smith ’07 (LAS), a public health nurse, was named Outstanding Nurse of the Year for 2015 by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Kathryn Poppen ’08 (DRA) was an assistant costume designer at The Pasadena Playhouse for the world premiere of the musical Break Through. Benjamin Zatlin ’09 (BUS) graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and joined Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations practice in San Francisco.
2 0 1 0 s
Esther Lim MSW ’10 (SSW) is deputy director of advocacy for the ACLU of Southern California. She will continue her work as jails project director. Laura Peralta MPA ’10 (SPP) joined Citibank as the company’s new vice president of community development. Cuauhtémoc Avila EdD ’11 (EDU) serves as superintendent of the Rialto Unified School District in Rialto, California. Alexandra Chamberlain ’11, DDS ’16 (DEN) was one of six California graduating dental students who received a $20,000 grant
Callie Schweitzer ’11 (SCJ) is editorial director of Time Inc.’s newest website, Motto. Karan Soni ’11 (DRA) played Martin in Blunt Talk, starring Patrick Stewart. He also played Dopinder in the film Deadpool. Julia Adolphe MM ’12 (MUS) wrote a viola concerto for the principal violist of the New York Philharmonic. She was also one of 12 artists chosen by the orchestra to receive the 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. Taylor Maun ’12 (BUS) is an associate in the Phoenix office of the national law firm Polsinelli. Andrew McEachin EdD ’12 (EDU) is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Pete Ploszek MFA ’12 (DRA) is the voice of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and performed as Zeb in The Wedding Party. Jasmyn Jones Richardson JD ’13 (LAW) is a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division, Voting Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. Michelle Matter MA ’14 (GRN) is public affairs manager for Serving Seniors, a nonprofit organization in San Diego helping seniors in poverty live healthy and fulfilling lives. Todd Nguyen PPD ’14 (SPP) serves as Transportation Résumé Book chair on the Women’s Transportation Seminar board, where he facilitates student recruitment. Madigan Stehly ’14 (DRA) is a lighting designer at Full Flood Inc. His recent projects include Grease: Live, the 67th Emmy Awards and the 57th Grammy Awards.
PHOTO BY STEPHEN BLAHA
Jeremy Pivnick ’01 (DRA) was lighting designer for the production of Colony Collapse at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:33 PM
Obituaries of members of the Trojan Family appear online at tfm.usc.edu/tributes.
Jason Jackson Wallace MS ’14 (ENG) joined Phase Four, a Los Angeles-based space technology start-up, as its head of business operations. Nils de Mol van Otterloo MSW ’15 (SSW) was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and will travel to India to explore the efficacy of musical reminiscence therapy in dementia care. The first USC School of Social Work alumnus to receive this accolade, he is a musician who overcame his own traumatic brain injury to study social work and neurology in health care. Mohamed Mustafa Khimani MS ’15 (ENG) is a software development engineer at Amazon.com.
I N
M E M O R I A M
A L U M N I Joe Medicine Crow MA ’39 (LAS) of Lodge Grass, Montana; April 3, at the age of 102. Melville Hebbard MacArthur DDS ’40 (DEN) of Riverside, California; April 4, at the age of 101. Richard L. Kasper MD ’48 (MED) of Newport Beach, California; March 29, at the age of 96. Cort J. Rogers ’48 (BUS) of Milltown, Indiana; March 17, at the age of 95.
THE TROJAN STORY IS YOUR STORY. ONLY AT TFM.USC.EDU
Georgia P. Rogers ’48 (ENG) of Milltown, Indiana; Dec. 6, 2015, at the age of 90.
Andres Cantero JD ’16 (LAW), Jenecia Martinez ’10, JD ’16 (LAW) and Thai Viet Phan JD ’16 (LAW) were profiled on ABC News about first-generation graduates from the USC Gould School of Law.
M A R R I A G E S
Ryan Woods ’11 (SCA) and Samantha Perez ’12 (DRA).
OTTERLOO PHOTO BY CARLOS DUARTE; DAUTERIVE PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
Justine Safar MAT ’15 (EDU) and Kyle Leach, son of Stacie Hayase Leach, PharmD ’80 (PHM) and Gary Leach ’75, PharmD ’80 (PHM).
Verna Dauterive, 93
Coral Schneider Eby ’08 (LAS) and Christopher Eby, a son, William James.
USC Trustee Verna Dauterive MEd ’49, EdD ’66 (EDU) died June 1 in Los Angeles. She was 93. The longtime educator was the namesake of Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, the first interdisciplinary social sciences building at USC. Along with her late husband, Peter W. Dauterive ’49 (BUS), the inspirational and influential educator shared a lifelong devotion to USC and the Los Angeles community. The couple had met while studying in the basement stacks of Doheny Memorial Library in 1943 and remained supporters of the university throughout their lives. Her six-decade career with the Los Angeles Unified School District began in 1943, when she was hired as its youngest teacher. She was one of only four AfricanAmericans employed to teach in the district
tfm.usc.edu
(Continued on page 70)
B I R T H S
Jeannette Garcia ’01 (LAS), EdD ’12 (EDU) and Eric Martinez, a son, Eli Wyatt. Christopher Cagle ’02 (SPP) and Jill Cagle, a son, Collin Christopher. He joins brother Carson William, 4, and sister Keira Nicole, 2. He is the grandson of William Workman MPA ’78 (SPP) and great-grandson of George Brokaw MS ’58 (EDU).
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 67
9/6/16 9:33 PM
Travel is More Fun in a Group Explore the world with the Trojan Family. Visit TrojanTravel.usc.edu to book your own adventure.
ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300
68
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 68
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:52 PM
A LU M N I
P R O F I L E
S A R A H
W H I TC O M B
Globe-Trotting Trojan An adventurous USC Annenberg alumna travels the world filming video clues for Jeopardy! Ever catapult off the deck of a Navy aircraft carrier? How about kayak in Antarctica or swim with sharks? Sarah Whitcomb Foss ’98 has done all that and more. “Parasail, hot air balloon, helicopter—you name it, I’ve probably done it,” says the thrill-seeking USC alumna. Foss is an original member of the Jeopardy! Clue Crew, a team of roving correspondents who, since their 2001 debut, have added an element of adventure to the classic quiz show now in its 33rd season. Foss, an avid snowboarder and scuba diver, has traveled to “the ends of the earth” filming Jeopardy! video clues. Cultural treasures like Petra, Machu Picchu, Jerusalem’s Old City and
tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 69
the pyramids of Giza served as her backdrops. Stamps in her passport span all seven continents and 40 countries. Hitting the road one or two weeks a month hasn’t been easy with a 3-year-old daughter, but husband Chris Foss ’05, an investment banker, does double parenting duty while Foss traverses the globe. Both Trojans, the couple met six years ago while training for a triathlon. Foss checks in with her family electronically. “I was on a ship in the middle of the South Pacific, en route to Easter Island, and I could FaceTime with my daughter,” Foss says. She sees herself as living proof for Taylor that “as a woman and a young girl, she can do anything,
F O S S
’9 8
be anything.” (Taylor is already a seasoned traveler in her own right: She’s logged 80 flights.) Raised in Mesa, Arizona, Foss studied broadcast journalism at USC with the aim of becoming the next Barbara Walters. While a co-anchor in Traverse City, Michigan, Foss saw an ad seeking traveling correspondents for Jeopardy! The producers were looking for fans of the show, not actors or models. Thanks to her access to a television production studio, Foss’ demo reel stood out among the 5,000 other candidates. The one-year position has morphed into 15 years and counting, and Foss has no plans to budge. The two other Clue Crew team members are also long-timers. “We really are like a family here. People don’t leave,” she says. On the road, the Clue Crew travels light—ideally incognito—and tries to leave no footprint. “We don’t want
to draw attention to the game material,” Foss explains. It typically takes six months for a clue to go from concept to airplay, though some clues have waited several years in the can. For all her amazing experiences, there’s one thrill Foss especially cherishes: watching a Trojan win the show’s college championship. When senior Sam Deutsch clinched the title last February, Foss rushed on stage to do a post-victory interview. “I was really proud that Sam was able to pull it off,” Foss says. “It was a great moment. We took a Fight On! picture at the podium for all eternity.” DIANE KRIEGER
Sarah Whitcomb Foss treks to historic sites such as Al Khazneh in the ancient city of Petra, all in the name of Jeopardy!
usc trojan family
69
9/6/16 9:34 PM
family class notes
at the time. She moved from teaching into administrative positions and ultimately was appointed principal of Franklin Avenue Elementary School in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, a job she held for 23 years. Among her administrative roles were positions as superintendent’s coordinator of integration programs and administrator of university relations. While teaching, she took night and weekend classes at the USC Rossier School of Education to earn her master’s and doctoral degrees. In a Los Angeles Sentinel interview in 2012, she credited USC with giving her a superior education and life-changing experience that guided her and her husband throughout their lives together. They were married for 53 years before her husband passed away in 2002. In 2008, she was named an honorary trustee of USC and committed $30 million to the university in memory of her husband, who was the founding president and chief executive officer of Founders Savings & Loan Association.
Barbara Fletcher Stewart ’49 (LAS) of Worcester, Massachusetts; Sept. 19, 2015, at the age of 88. Richard Linn Major ’50 (ENG) of Pasadena, California; Nov. 15, 2015, at the age of 90. Robert N. De Rienzo ’55 (BUS) of Fountain Valley, California; Jan. 8, at the age of 84. Lillian Worthing Wyshak JD ’56 (LAW) of Beverly Hills, California; at the age of 87.
Ernie Hix, 80 Known as “The Father of USC Men’s Volleyball,” Ernie Hix ’58 (ENG) of Alta Loma, California, died June 4 at age 80. Hix built USC’s men’s volleyball program in its early years as head coach and guided the Trojans to their first two NCAA championships. As a student, Hix played on the 1955 Trojan freshman basketball team and on the varsity team in 1956. He is survived by his wife, Sharon,
son Jeff, stepdaughter DeAnne Corcoran (Robert), stepson Michael Smith, daughterin-law Susan Smith, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Howard Quilling ’58, MM ’70 (MUS) of Bakersfield, California; Feb. 26, at the age of 80. Donald R. Perry LLB ’60 (LAW) of Anaheim, California; Feb. 19, at the age of 84. George Truett Hollis MA ’61, PhD ’73 (MUS) of Union, South Carolina; Jan. 28, at the age of 89. James Hedrick Harmon ’62 (LAS) of El Centro, California; Dec. 2, 2015, at the age of 74. John Charles Maize MBA ’62 (BUS) of Weaverville, North Carolina; Feb. 8, at the age of 85. Melvin Richard Meyers ’65 (ARC) of Los Angeles; Nov. 19, 2015 at the age of 85. Ronald S. Hay ’69 (LAS) of Saratoga, California; Dec. 6, 2015, at the age of 68. Leo Weisbender EdD ’69 (EDU) of Los Angeles; May 23 at the age of 82. Margarita McCoy MPL ’70 (SPP) of La Habra Heights, California; March 31, at the age of 92. Elizabeth Ann Lukas MA ’72 (SCJ) of Palos Verdes Estates, California; March 25, at the age of 91.
William Kopeny JD ’74 (LAW) of Irvine, California; June 7, at the age of 65. Shahen Voskanian MS ’82 (ENG) of Glendale, California; Jan. 20. Daniel DelBianco ’15 (LAS) of Falls Church, Virginia; April 5, at the age of 23.
70
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 70
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Marva Smith Battle-Bey MPA ’74, MPL ’75 (SPP) of Los Angeles; April 6, at the age of 64.
autumn 2016
9/6/16 9:34 PM
Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.
FA C U LT Y, S TA F F A N D F R I E N D S
in adolescent health at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to professor of pediatrics and medicine. He is survived by his wife Debbie Barak Neinstein, daughter Yael Afriat MBA ’05 (BUS), sons Aaron Neinstein MD ’07 (MED) and David Neinstein JD ’09 (LAW), five grandchildren and brother Jack Neinstein.
named USC’s medical school in 1999. He was preceded in death by his wife Virginia Ramo ’37 (EDU), who served on the USC Board of Trustees from 1971 until she passed away in 2009. In recognition of their decades of support, the Ramos were honored with USC’s highest award, the Presidential Medallion, in 2002.
John K. Niparko, 61
GOLOMB PHOTO BY WILL TAYLOR; NEINSTEIN PHOTO BY NATHAN CARTER; NIPARKO PHOTO BY DON MILICI; RAMO PHOTO COURTESY OF FIGUEROA PRESS
Solomon Golomb, 83 An electrical engineering professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Solomon Golomb was a pioneer in communications technology who helped spark the digital communications revolution. He died May 1 at age 83. Golomb began his career at the USC Viterbi School in 1963 and was one of the “Magnificent Seven”—the communications group that founded the USC Communications Sciences Institute in 1982. The first holder of the Viterbi Chair in Communications in 1999, he was known for his singular ability to apply advanced mathematics to problems in digital communications. Golomb received many awards over his career, including the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2013.
Lawrence Neinstein, 66 Lawrence S. Neinstein, former executive director of the USC Engemann Student Health Center, died April 27 at age 66. When Neinstein first arrived at USC, relatively few students depended on the university for their health care. That changed dramatically during the past two decades. Under Neinstein’s watch, USC’s student health services and facilities flourished and are now held up as a national model. He was widely regarded as an expert in the health of teenagers and young adults. Neinstein spent his entire professional career at USC, rising from a fellow tfm.usc.edu
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16_R1.indd 71
Tiber Alpert Professor and chair of the USC Rick and Tina Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Keck School of Medicine of USC, John K. Niparko died April 25 at age 61. An internationally renowned otoneurologic surgeon and researcher, he joined USC in 2013. An expert on hearing technologies, he built USC’s otolaryngology group into one of the nation’s finest, recruiting outstanding researchers from around the
country and spearheading a long-running national clinical trial of treatments for children with hearing loss. He is survived by his wife, Angela, sons Kevin and Nathan, sister Nancy and brother Steve.
Simon Ramo, 103 Simon Ramo was a USC professor and former chief scientist and technical director of the United States’ intercontinental ballistic missile program. The Santa Monica, California, resident died June 27 at age 103. Ramo joined the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2008 as the Presidential Chair and professor of electrical engineering. As a director of the W. M. Keck Foundation, he played a leading role in securing the $110 million gift that
L E G E N D
LAS ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences USC Leventhal School of Accounting USC School of Architecture USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Cinematic Arts USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
DNC DEN DRA EDU ENG ART GRN LAW MED MUS OST
USC Kaufman School of Dance Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC USC School of Dramatic Arts USC Rossier School of Education USC Viterbi School of Engineering USC Roski School of Art and Design USC Davis School of Gerontology USC Gould School of Law Keck School of Medicine of USC USC Thornton School of Music USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
PHM BPT
USC School of Pharmacy Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy
SPP SSW
USC Price School of Public Policy USC School of Social Work
Carrie Banasky, Matt DeGrushe, James Feigert, Harmony Frederick, Wendy Gragg, Katherine Griffiths, Deanne Grimes, Elizabeth Hedrick, Leticia Lozoya, Maya Meinert, Mike McNulty, James Morse, Jane Ong, Kristi Patton and Stacey Wang Rizzo contributed to this section.
usc trojan family
71
9/6/16 9:35 PM
Have a photo to share? Send it to 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2818 or magazines@usc.edu.
now and again
On the March
72
usc trojan family
USC_TFM_Interior_Au16.indd 72
tinues its decades-long relationship with Reserve Officers Training Corps programs for young men and women who aim to enter the officer ranks in the Navy, Air Force and Army. More than 4,300 officers have been commissioned at USC since the programs began. Visit USC Cromwell Field, Katherine B. Loker Stadium or the walkways around the Physical Education Building in the early morning and you’re likely to see cadets engaged in drills and fitness exercises. They may not be dressed like their Marine Corps counterparts from seven decades ago, but today’s officers in training remain a part of the military tradition that endures at USC.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Ever wonder what it takes to get just the right shot for the “Now and Again” column in USC Trojan Family Magazine? Watch an exclusive video at bit.ly/TFMNowAndAgain and follow our team as they contrast the present-day Bovard Administration Building with its 1920s version through photography for the Summer 2016 issue.
ALICIA DI RADO
PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES
USC’s links to the U.S. armed forces stretch at least as far back as World War I, when the university served as a training school for U.S. Army officers from 1914 to 1919. But it was during the World War II era that the relationship blossomed. USC served as a naval preparatory flight cadet school and hosted Army, Marine Corps and Navy training programs from 1939 to 1945. In this archival inset photo, thought to be from 1944, USC students enlisted in the Marine Corps march past the Student Union building. The Student Union housed a canteen for Trojan service members in its basement during the later war years, according to Claude Zachary, USC university archivist. The U.S. Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program at USC started in 1940. Today, USC con-
autumn 2016
8/27/16 6:53 PM
THE KECK EFFECT: MORE EXPERTISE TO KEEP YOU AT YOUR BEST
Keck Medical Center of USC recognized as a top 10 California hospital — once again
KeckMedicine.org
(800) USC-CARE © 2016 Keck Medicine of USC
USC_TFM_Cover_Au16.indd 3
8/27/16 3:06 PM
USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 Change Service Requested
N ON -PROFIT ORGAN IZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID UN IVERSIT Y OF SOUTHERN CALIFORN IA
USC_TFM_Cover_Au16.indd 4
8/27/16 3:07 PM