No Matter the Menu, Dining Halls
Serve an Appetite for Friendship
SPRING 2018
WE ARE WHERE WE EAT
WE ARE WHERE WE EAT
Dining halls have always dished out more than meals. No matter what’s for dinner, our appetite is for friendship.
18
GUESTS OF HONOR
Every day you’ll find a diverse range of speakers on Georgetown’s campuses. Students and alumni alike say it makes Georgetown stand out.
22
STAGING ALL THE WORLD
Behind the scenes, an ambassador and a theater professor wield the power of performance to affect political change in Washington, D.C., and across the globe.
03CAMPUS NEWS
28ALUMNI PROFILES
30ALUMNI NEWS
36A FAREWELL TO SURSUM CORDA
38 TRUE STORIES
42IN MEMORIAM
ON THE COVER: Leo’s, as the Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall is affectionately known, provides dining and social space.
From left: Tré Bohannon (B’20), Mizraim Belman-Guerrero (F’20), Kate Henry (C’20), Brian Davis (B’21), and Alondra Navarro (C’19).
Cover photo: Jeff Elkins
12 24 18
12
SPRING 2018
FROM THE EDITOR
“Where are the trays?”
It seemed a simple question, but the answer was surprising and inspired one of the feature stories in this issue of Georgetown Magazine
I’d taken my first trip in a long time to Leo’s, the nickname everyone uses for Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall, named for the former university president. I expected to pick up a tray, go through the line, and find at least one interesting dish. My back-up plan was the salad bar.
The trays were gone.
Students at Leo’s now carry individual plates: less washing means a smaller environmental impact. It has the side benefit of better portion control and less food waste, which, by the way, Georgetown has composted since 2008.
Tray-less, I ventured into a new dining universe. What I found was an impressive array of choices reflecting many cultural traditions—food that actually looked appetizing. Students were highly engaged with each other at smaller tables designed to promote conversation.
It’s the conversation that counts. All the alumni I interviewed for the feature story, plus many more I quizzed informally, remember the social life. One person I interviewed reminded me that all cultures build community around sharing meals together. It’s certainly true at Georgetown.
Food may have been important at the time—its less-than-desirable quality inspired a protest riot in New South in December 1971—but most of those memories have faded. Alumni do remember caring staff, good music in New South, regular spots to eat, tables cleared for dances and parties. They remember gathering in times of sorrow, such as after the Challenger accident, and in celebration to watch the Hoyas in a Final Four basketball game.
We’ve created a section for you to post your own dining memories on our online site, magazine.georgetown.edu. I hope that you will share your story—whether it’s a favorite on-campus meal, a late night at the Pub, or a trip to a favorite offcampus eating spot. Your classmates and fellow alums will enjoy reading it.
—Jeffrey Donahoe
Office of Advancement
R. Bartley Moore (F’87)
Vice President for Advancement
Amy Levin
Associate Vice President for Communications
Georgetown Magazine Staff
Jeffrey Donahoe, Editor
Kate Colwell, Campus News
Editorial Team: Omar Abubars, Chelsea Buwell, Kate Colwell, Jane Malhorta, Patti North, Sara Piccini, Camille Scarborough
Erin Mary Greene, Executive Creative Director for Communications
Elisa Morsch, Creative Director
Phil Humnicky, University Photographer Design courtesy of Washingtonian Custom Media
Georgetown Magazine
2115 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20007-1253
Email: magazine@georgetown.edu
Address changes:
202-687-1994 or email alumnirecords@georgetown.edu
Spring 2018, Volume 49, Number 2 Georgetown Magazine (ISSN 1074-8784).
Georgetown Magazine is distributed free of charge to more than 185,000 alumni, parents, faculty, and staff. The diverse views in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or official policies of the university.
Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional offices.
Postmaster: Please send changes of address to Alumni Records, Georgetown University, 3300 Whitehaven St. NW, Washington, DC 20007.
Georgetown University provides equal opportunity in employment for all persons and prohibits discrimination and harassment in all aspects of employment because of age, color, disability, family responsibilities, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, matriculation, national origin, personal appearance, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other factor prohibited by law. Additionally, the university will use good-faith efforts to achieve ethnic and gender diversity throughout the workforce. The university emphasizes recruitment of women, minority members, disabled individuals and veterans. Inquiries regarding Georgetown University’s nondiscrimination policy may be addressed to the Director of Affirmative Action Programs, Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action, 37th and O Sts. N.W., Suite M36, Darnall Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, or call 202-687-4798.
©Georgetown University
Women’s Soccer Team Makes History in 25th Year
In the past two years, the women’s soccer team members smashed every goal they set for themselves. For the first time in program history, the team competed at the College Cup—the national semifinal—and won the Big East Championship, which earned them an NCAA automatic bid and their first back-to-back tournament championship, a feat only achieved by four teams in league history. Furthermore, 2017 was the first time they won the regular season and the tournament within the same season. “We talked a lot about last year’s team making their own history, and this year we wanted to do something that was unique to this group,” says four-year team member Taylor Pak (C’18).
Last fall was the first time both the women’s and men’s soccer teams simultaneously made it to the NCAA Tournament. Despite a NCAA Tournament first-round exit to Wake Forest, the women’s team had much to celebrate.
The 2017 season marked the 25th anniversary of the women’s soccer program as a varsity sport at Georgetown. Last September, more than 60 team alumnae—including women who had transitioned the club team to a varsity sport, women from the first Big East tournament team, and women from the College Cup team— returned to give speeches and present awards to current players. They also dedicated the new women’s locker rooms in the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center in honor of longtime supporters Ed (C’66) and Irene Shaw, after whom Shaw Field, home to men’s and women’s soccer, is named.
“This generation of the team has only known the Thompson Center, its beautiful locker room, and beautiful Shaw Field,” says Dave Nolan, head coach for 13 seasons. “It was good to hear from the older players who had to buy their own cleats, or wear men’s oversized, hand-medown uniforms, and had to roll up their shorts five times.”
“Until we met the alumnae, it was hard for me to understand how far this program has come,” Pak says.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 3
Photo: Georgetown Sports Information
Bill Clinton Remembers Georgetown
Twenty-five years after his first presidential election win, former President Bill Clinton (F’68) returned to campus as the centerpiece of “Clinton 25: Georgetown Reflects on the Vision of Bill Clinton,” a three-day symposium in November put on by the McCourt School of Public Policy and its Institute of Politics and Public Service. Clinton’s remarks in a standing-room-only Gaston Hall, though attentive to policy and politics, were rich with Georgetown nostalgia. “I am grateful that 53 years ago I sat in Professor Carroll Quigley’s class and I heard him tell me that I had a personal responsibility to make the future better than the present.”
Clinton shared a story that the editor of his 2004 memoir insisted he cut half of the 50 pages devoted to Georgetown, cautioning that “Nobody will believe you remember all these teachers and what happened in their classes,” Clinton recalls. “But I do. I could fill 500 pages.”
Photo: Rafael Suanes/Georgetown University
Students Build Prototypes and a Community in the Maker Hub
In a back corner on the first floor of Lauinger Library, Georgetown students wearing aprons festooned with badges for skills they have mastered are busy with laser cutters, buzz saws, 3D printers, looms, sewing machines, Raspberry Pi motherboards, and vinyl cutters. This is the Georgetown Maker Hub, a space where Hoyas of all backgrounds have built a community while creating prototypes of their wildest ideas.
“You have all this stuff, but what happens when you bring it all together is more than the sum of its parts,” says Don Undeen, manager of the Maker Hub.
The Hub aims to foster entrepreneurship, social impact, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and curricular innovation. Professors have begun to incorporate Maker Hub staff expertise and resources into their curricula, such as Assistant Professor Evan Barba’s Communication, Culture and Technology course on Interaction Design, in which students build Escape Room puzzles. In spring semester 2018, the Hub debuted a competitive class extension for eight students to incorporate Hub projects into their studies.
Georgetown’s Hub grew out of the Gelardin New Media Center in 2016 when a faculty member donated a 3D printer to the library and students began asking for sewing machines and woodworking tools.
“The library is always evolving and figuring out what the community needs for shared resources, whether that be video cameras or 3D printers or laser cutters,” says Beth Marhanka, head of the center.
Students walk into the space with questions about how to provide low-cost, computer-based education in refugee camps or how to deliver life-saving tools to people in disaster zones, and walk out with scalable solutions that can be rapidly fabricated on site where they are needed.
“We’ve built this Hub one step at a time with no dedicated funding,” says Marhanka. “Student volunteers are the heart of everything we do, but we’re always looking for contributors, whether through donations, time, or skills to share.”
For more information, visit library.georgetown.edu/makerhub.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 5
Photo: Katherine Thomas
Professor Fuses Race, History, and Performance Studies
Five questions with Soyica Colbert (C’01), chair of the Department of Performing Arts, and professor of African American studies, and theater and performance studies.
You are co-teaching a new course with Professor Robert Patterson (C’02) called The Psychic Hold of Slavery. What does it cover?
We’re really trying to think about the national, international, and local contexts—specifically Georgetown’s history—and the ways that slavery still animates our presence. The most pressing and clearly ongoing legacies of slavery are the prison-industrial complex, health disparities, hierarchies that organize our culture, pay gaps, and even the way that we see blackness and value.
What are your thoughts on Colin Kaepernick’s role in social activism for Black people?
It’s useful to think about the legacy of protest in our country. Kaepernick’s role is fascinating because he is posing a challenge to the ways we organize history. Public figures are using their platform and power to criticize exploitation, and, like the women of the #MeToo movement, Kaepernick has created a watershed moment.
How do you feed your creative spirit in your spare time?
I like to watch performances—plays, sporting events, concerts, films—collectively with others. I recently binge-watched
Spike Lee’s revamp of She’s Gotta Have It, which is amazing. Part of the reason I became a professor is because I’m so passionate about thinking with, alongside, and through artists.
Which artistic works resonate with you?
In graduate school, I was inspired by Toni Morrison’s work— not only as a writer, but also in the way that she carved out her space in American culture. I tell my students that James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time is a work they should certainly read before graduating. Because I’m working on a biography around her life and her work, I’d say Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs. For music, I’d say Nina Simone. I’ve been listening to her a lot lately, and she and Hansberry were close friends.
How do you wish to impact students here at Georgetown?
One of the most consistent messages I tell my students is the same thing Toni Morrison told hers: “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else.”
6 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
“I became a professor because I’m so passionate about thinking with, alongside, and through artists.”
Photo: Phil Humnicky
Hilltop a Hotspot for Disease Study
In what areas of the U.S. are parents more reluctant to vaccinate their kids? Do these locations have something in common? Is vaccine hesitancy—the desire to delay or refuse vaccines—eroding population immunity?
Researchers hope to answer these questions in a new $1.77-million NIH-funded big-data study led by Shweta Bansal, an assistant professor of biology at Georgetown. A self-described interdisciplinarian, Bansal combines biology, epidemiology, public health, applied math, and computer science to shed light on disease outbreak patterns across the country.
Bansal and her team study childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough. “Both are preventable through vaccination, and since the introduction of vaccines against both diseases in the mid1900s, they have been on a steady decline and nearly eliminated in the U.S. Why are they now re-emerging?” asks Bansal.
She has a working hypothesis.
“Take measles, for example,” says Bansal. “Our public health system has done such a great job of eliminating it in this country that most people don’t appreciate the cost of not getting vaccinated. We have a generation of parents who don’t know what a case of measles
looks like,” she explains, pulling up a quick online image search for the life-threatening disease. An alarming collection of photos of red polka-dotted children appears. “We’ve forgotten how serious these diseases are, and the costs that they impose on our society.”
Bansal’s team uses aggregate-level public health information from insurance claim records to develop predictive models for vaccination behavior and childhood disease hotspots. Public health officials hope they can use the information to plan for potential outbreaks, and target the areas for vaccination campaigns and education.
So how big is this big data? It encompasses 80 million physician-patient interactions, representing every ZIP code in the country, reported annually from 2012 to 2015.
Since her undergraduate days at Santa Clara University— another Catholic and Jesuit institution—Bansal has appreciated the way Jesuit values encourage scientists to ask theoretical questions that impact broader societal challenges.
“When I came to Georgetown, I felt at home,” Bansal says. “I’m lucky to research and teach science at an institution with a liberal arts focus, and in D.C., where there’s an interface of science and policy.”
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 7
Photo: Phil Humnicky
Georgetown Reaffirms Policies to Support Undocumented Students
On the same morning in September 2017 that the Department of Homeland Security announced it would move to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Georgetown President John J. DeGioia met with undocumented students to reaffirm the university’s commitment to them.
Understanding that undocumented students face unique challenges, Georgetown recently appointed Arelis Palacios as the first associate director for undocumented student services. Palacios facilitates guidance and legal aid for students and serves in an educational and outreach capacity.
“In my one-on-one conversations with these students, I’ve found that they show an extraordinary level of self-awareness and self-determination,” Palacios says. “Many have struggled with complex circumstances and navigated through daily struggles. When they graduate from Georgetown, they are connected, resourced, and ready to affect social change if given the opportunity to establish their livelihoods in this country.”
The university also established a partnership with Catholic Charities’ Immigration Legal Services to provide legal support to undocumented students and with the Office of Federal Relations to advocate for change at the federal level alongside the American Council on Education and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
LUIS GONZALEZ (C’19)
An American studies and government major from Santa Ana, California
When did you first learn of your undocumented status?
I came to the United States when I was 8. I was aware of the differences that separated me from my peers. However I did not fully grasp that one of these differences had to do with citizenship status until I began to seriously consider applying to college. I wanted to enroll in programs that would provide me with financial support, but many of these programs required that I be a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States, so I couldn’t even apply.
What challenges have you faced as an undocumented student?
I have had to overcome many challenges to ensure I am able to break the cycle of poverty for my family. Some of these challenges include learning a different language, navigating an environment where my otherness cannot go unnoticed, asking the tough questions about whether a particular program or resource is open
8 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
to undocumented students, living in a constant state of fear not knowing what federal immigration policy changes (or the lack thereof) will happen, and grappling with my mom’s undocumented status. It can be hard to focus on my studies at Georgetown while having to process and worry about all of these challenges.
How does Georgetown support you?
Georgetown has become increasingly supportive by not only ensuring I have financial and academic support, but also by engaging in immigration policy conversations, particularly pushing for a permanent legislative solution for undocumented students. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize it took several years of advocacy by UndocuHoyas to make the university aware of the challenges we face. We shared our stories through every avenue we could, including meetings with administrators and opinion pieces in university newspapers. After years of advocacy, we can see the tremendous progress Georgetown has made, and in this journey, it has become a leader within higher education in supporting undocumented students.
AGNES LEE (F’17) Analyst, Citibank, Los Angeles
When did you first learn of your undocumented status? When I began to think about applying to college, my mother told me that I would have to apply as an international student because I wasn’t a permanent resident or a citizen. At the time, I didn’t even know what to call this status, as I hadn’t learned about the term “undocumented.” This led to a pretty serious identity crisis. My mom had always taught me to be afraid of police and be quiet and understated when in their presence.
What challenges have you faced as an undocumented student? I never pursued studying abroad, as I felt I couldn’t risk not being allowed back into the country. When it came time to renew my DACA status, I spent most of my days worrying and my nights sleepless, calling my mom every hour to see if any news had come in the mail. When applying for jobs, I found that many required U.S. citizenship or green card status, therefore making me ineligible despite my work authorization. When planning for my future, the uncertain nature of my status forced me to think about what sacrifices I would have to make: How would I fulfill my calling as an immigration lawyer if I were subject to deportation? How would I survive without my mom—my only family and my rock—if she or I were deported?
How did Georgetown support you?
The Georgetown Scholarship Program, the Center for Multicultural Equity & Access, Arelis Palacios, and the Office of the President provided funds to fly home to renew my DACA application as well as contacts for legal services. They also listened to students’ qualms when this country silenced our voices, promised that we would be safe in the face of a DACA discontinuation, championed our success, and fostered a community that respected our privacy and security while encouraging our empowerment and growth. They walked the walk of cura personalis
“These young people belong here. They have earned their places on our campus and they are poised to contribute to the future of our nation.”
—Georgetown President John J. DeGioia in a joint letter to Congress
Senator Richard Durbin (F’66, L’69) co-introduced the Dream Act of 2017, a bipartisan bill that would provide a direct road to U.S. citizenship for people who are either undocumented or have temporarily protected status through DACA or another program. “I am proud of my alma mater for its continued support of undocumented students, Dreamers, and the Dream Act,” Durbin told The Hoya in September 2017. “All I ask is that we keep up the fight, louder and more intense than ever, so that the American people and my colleagues in the House and Senate continue to hear stories of these young people and see how passing the Dream Act would make our country a stronger, smarter, and more prosperous country in the future.”
In September, Durbin invited a group of Georgetown students who are undocumented to Capitol Hill, where they spent about two hours with him over pizza talking about the Dream Act and viewing speeches on the topic from the Senate gallery.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 9
Puerto Rican Hoyas Galvanize Resources in Wake of Disaster
As Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in August 2017, Paola Mendez (C’18), Omar Torres (C’18), and Elena Cespedes (C’18)— all natives of Puerto Rico—stayed glued to their phones, tracking the storm from the Hilltop. By the time Maria had dissipated, more than 65 direct fatalities had been reported, and hundreds of other people were succumbing to the storm’s lasting effects.
Cespedes remembers the devastation she saw when she visited in the aftermath.
“The trees are totally bare. Houses no longer have roofs,” Cespedes says. “When you’re landing in Puerto Rico on an airplane and looking out of the window at the island, all you see is blue tarps. You see the topographical impact that this storm had. You just feel helpless, and you ask yourself ‘Is it our job to rebuild? Is it the government’s responsibility?’”
The devastation motivated Mendez to participate in the Unidos por Puerto Rico initiative, a campaign started by the First Lady of Puerto Rico to provide aid to those affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. In collaboration with other Puerto Rican students on the Hilltop, Mendez fundraised nearly $1,000 in Red Square and created dozens of care packages.
“I really got to connect with other Puerto Rican students on this campus,” Mendez says. “Because not everyone is from the same area, I appreciated hearing their stories and perspectives. I think it brought us together.”
Mendez explains that the greatest challenge to helping Puerto Rico is determining where the highest needs are and ensuring that aid is distributed accordingly.
“It’s really important that aid isn’t stuck on a trailer somewhere that can’t be reached,” Mendez says. “So, we’re partnering with an SFS alumna, Soraya Sesto (F’87), and Elena’s father, the president of the Georgetown Alumni Club of Puerto Rico, to raise money and donated goods to help the elderly living in homes that were struck by the storm.” Mendez and Torres reached out to the Georgetown University Alumni Association and met with President John J. DeGioia and the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) earlier in the fall. Both students are currently developing a long-term aid project to help survivors of the storm, and discussing a plan to organize a humanitarian spring break trip with CSJ in 2019.
Not only has the Puerto Rican student community at Georgetown grown closer since the storm, Torres says that he and others have also discovered just how rich the Puerto Rican diaspora is in the D.C. area. Motivated to continue community-building for Puerto Rican students on campus, Torres says he feels energized about starting the first Puerto Rican Student Association at Georgetown.
“This storm, and even the low levels of support we’ve received since the storm, hasn’t and will not stop us,” Torres says. “That is what I love about Puerto Ricans—they’re still resilient. In the wake of this, I’m even more proud to be Puerto Rican.”
10 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Community Scholars Program Celebrates 50-Year Anniversary
In 1968, Georgetown University recognized that high-achieving students from racially and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds may need different types of support to have a truly equitable educational experience. The resulting manifestation of Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage—the Community Scholars Program—will celebrate its 50-year anniversary this fall.
“The program has really elevated the university as a national elite institution dedicated to community and diversity,” says Charlene Brown-McKenzie (C’95), director for the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access at Georgetown. In 2017, Harvard Magazine wrote that Georgetown “established the playbook” on supporting undergraduates from under-resourced high schools.
“The Community Scholars Program addresses the varying needs of first generation low-income students at the university by helping them establish community and increase their social capital and confidence so they can thrive in a highly competitive, predominantly white, affluent, elite atmosphere,” Brown-McKenzie explains.
Academic Director Elizabeth Velez (G’83) says the program is centered around academics. “It’s a boot camp in college-level writing that allows students to find themselves as writers.”
The Community Scholars experience begins with a fiveweek credit-bearing summer program designed to aid students’ transition into higher education. They attend orientation workshops and begin forming bonds with one another, professors, and administrators who will help support them throughout college with academic advising, mentoring and personal counseling, study groups, workshops, and seminars.
“The Community Scholars Program is the reason why I’m a foreign service officer with the State Department,” says Donna Hernandez (F’13), a member of the Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship Program, which prepares students academically and professionally for careers in the U.S. foreign service. Through the fellowship, Hernandez completed a master’s degree from Yale and subsequently started her career at the State Department.
“No one in my town knew what the State Department was, but my CSP mentors did,” Hernandez says. “They saw enough potential in me to mentor me through the Patrick Healy Fellowship and encouraged me to apply to the Washington Center’s Pickering Fellowship. Community Scholars helped me draft application essays and conduct practice interviews that ultimately landed me in the job I have today.”
For information about 50th anniversary celebrations taking place in 2018, contact Colleen.Roberts@georgetown.edu.
College Establishes Minor in Disability Studies
Growing up with friends and relatives with disabilities, Charlotte Hine (B’19) has always felt personally invested in spreading an understanding of how disability affects so many lives in various ways.
“One in five people in the United States has some kind of disability,” she says. “It crosses social, racial, and economic divisions, and it can impact you at any point in your life.”
Disability studies poses questions ranging from the fundamental (How do we define disability?) to the incredibly specific (What are the ethical concerns surrounding medical intervention to prevent certain disabilities?)
“Disability studies is a truly interdisciplinary field that explores the history, culture, politics, and policy related to this cultural identity,” says Libbie Rifkin, a member of the Department of English and acting director of the minor.
Rifkin says that teaching related to disabilities usually takes place in medical schools. The Georgetown minor will focus
on disability as a “particular lived experience,” Rifkin says, not a problem to be solved.
The College already has an active core faculty on the subject via the Disability Studies Course Cluster. The new minor binds several disciplines together with six course requirements: one introductory class, three disability-focused core courses, and two electives.
Disability studies goes to the heart of the university’s mission, Rifkin says. “Georgetown students graduate uniquely positioned to lead in law, policy, medicine, entrepreneurship, and foreign service. It’s important for these leaders to have a more nuanced and full understanding of disabilities.”
Hine, an Entrepreneurship Fellow in the McDonough School of Business, says “you can look at disability studies from any point of view, and it overlaps with almost anything you can study at Georgetown—business, design, healthcare, humanities, political perspectives,” Hine says. “I really appreciate that dialogue.”
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 11
“Georgetown established the playbook on supporting students from under-resourced high schools.”
—Harvard Magazine
While dining hall menus and food themes can change quickly, the experience still builds friendships and community. “Eating together is universal,” says Adam Ramadan (F’14, G’17), business manager for auxiliary services. “It touches everyone from every corner of campus.” The recently renovated Leo’s offers more food choices with less structured meal times. Kathryn Coughlin (C’18), Brendan Clark (C’20), Alexandria Patti (C’18), and Trixia Apiado (F’18) gather at a “taco truck,” a creative and popular seating option in Leo’s.
12 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Photo: Jeff Elkins
We spend a lot of our lives eating together: lingering over comfort food, chatting over coffee, sharing one more story over dessert. It’s no different on the Hilltop. Eating together is how students make the friends and memories that form the Georgetown experience.
b y J EFFREY DONAHOE
WE ARE
WHERE WE EAT
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 13
Georgetown students have also found food and friends beyond dining halls. Clockwise from top left: Marty’s was a campus institution. First as Marty’s Café in the basement of White-Gravenor, then as Marty’s on the Potomac in New South, it was a popular hangout, especially for nonresident students. Owner Marty Gallagher, a former professional boxer and coach of Georgetown's intercollegiate boxing team, greeted everyone with, “Hey, buddy.” The Pub was housed in Healy basement, then the Leavey Center. Just off campus is The Tombs, a classic college haunt that seems to never change, and that has employed hundreds of Georgetown students as servers. Vital Vittles, part of the studentrun Corp, was once described by a student cashier as “something between Dean and Deluca and the Quick Stop Market in Clerks .”
14 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
How and where Georgetown students eat together continually changes. In the last century alone, the dining experience has evolved from students being served by wait staff under richly decorated columns in Ryan Hall to sliding trays along the rails in the utilitarian Darnall and New South cafeterias to, today, selecting from the most diverse and health-conscious food choices ever at Georgetown in Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall, known to all as Leo’s. From a 19th-century possum entree (yes, really) to pizza, meatloaf to Mediterranean, Salisbury steak to sushi, no matter what’s on the menu, dining halls are still the center of student social life.
New South housed the university’s largest dining hall from its 1959 opening until Leo’s replaced it in 2003. “The food was not great and it wasn’t physically a beautiful space, but the New South dining hall was a really special and central part of my Georgetown experience,” says Melissa Foy (C’03), executive director of the Georgetown Scholarship Program. “It was the great equalizer on a campus where people could live 80 different versions of Georgetown based on their dorm, their major, and the clubs and organizations they joined. And for me, it was the start of building my Georgetown family.”
A GREAT PLACE TO HANG OUT
With the notable exception of the recent “Chicken Finger Thursday” phenomena—a weekly fried chicken dish with a devoted following— Georgetown’s dining hall food seems to have been largely forgettable. Food reviews are mostly of a shrug of the shoulders. A 1991 alumnus interviewed for this story summed up the most frequent comment about Georgetown’s cafeteria food: “Completely unmemorable, but somehow it packed on 15 pounds.”
Fifty years after graduating, Bill Licamele (C’68, M’72), who also trained as a resident and fellow at Georgetown Hospital and is the father of three Hoyas, remembers eating in New South.
He becomes animated when talking about the cafeteria as a campus anchor. “It was very social,” he remembers with a broad smile. “Sometimes you planned to meet friends there, sometimes you just ran into people. It was just a great place hang out with friends.”
“You could spend hours in the dining hall, especially during the day,” says Paul Albergo (C’82), who ate mostly in New South. “You’d have lunch with one group of friends and as you were leaving, someone you knew would come in. You’d grab something more to eat and start socializing all over again.”
“Knowing you have a group to eat with, from your floor or a class, makes the first year easier,” says Erika Cohen-Derr, assistant dean for student engagement.
“I had earlier classes than my roommate and we had different majors, which meant we didn’t see each other during the day,” says Regina TorsneyDurkin (C’73, M’77). “Having dinner together in Darnall was a chance to get to know each other.”
AN APPETITE FOR FRIENDSHIP
Everyone has a dining hall story—and sometimes it’s a life-changing one.
In his first week at Georgetown, Geoff Tracy (C’95) and his roommate were going through the line in New South when he saw “this very pretty woman” five or six people ahead of them. He really wanted to meet her, and with the encouragement of his roommate, Tracy managed to strike up a conversation—a conversation that began a friendship, and turned into a lifetime together.
The object of his attention was Norah O’Donnell (C’95, SCS’03), currently co-host of CBS This Morning. They’ve been together since that freshman year and married for more than 17 years.
It seems only appropriate that food and love would have converged at Georgetown for Tracy, a theology major who made creating dining experiences his life’s work. As a student, he managed Vital Vittles on campus, and later worked at a number of Washington restaurants. Within a few years, he graduated from the famed Culinary Institute of America and now owns three “Chef Geoff’s” restaurants in D.C. and Virginia, and Lia’s in Maryland.
FROM JACKETS AND TIES TO PAJAMAS
With the exception of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Potomac, New South lacked glamour. (Explaining the need for a 1971 remodel, a university administrator compared the cafeteria’s atmosphere to “eating in a barn.”)
Nonetheless, through the 1970s, Georgetown men had to wear the jacket and tie required for classes and chapel services to meals, as well.
Women who attended Georgetown before 1969, when the College became co-educational, were
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 15
housed on the far edge of campus in St. Mary’s and Darnall; Darnall was home to the women’s dining hall. For reasons no one can remember, New South and Darnall had different menus. New South had a salad bar, but Darnall did not. Men were not allowed to eat at Darnall, and New South was off limits to women.
There was not a dress code to eat in Darnall, but “women dressed up more for classes then, wearing sweaters and skirts or pants,” says TorsneyDurkin, who was part of the first influx of women graduating from the College in 1973. “Upperclass women were braver, and sometimes wore jeans.”
Over time, dress codes relaxed, then disappeared. Eventually, students felt comfortable headed to the dining hall wearing pajamas.
MORE CHOICES, LESS STRUCTURE
Until a few years ago, students followed a dining drill that was largely unchanged since the 1960s: they waited in often-long lines to scan their IDs and enter, grabbed a tray, chose from a few entrees in steamer pans, and ate at regimented meal times. It’s drastically different now.
“Today’s students want dining halls to look and feel like retail operations,” says Joelle Wiese, Georgetown’s associate vice president for auxiliary services, which includes 11 food venues on Main Campus . “Students want to get what they want, when they want it,” she says. They also want to take food with them to eat elsewhere. Portability and bolder flavors are high on students’ lists.
“Students are much more food savvy and aware of ingredients now,” Wiese says. “They want healthy choices and a more global menu.”
A year ago, the university renovated Leo’s to better meet today’s demands. Eliminating ID scanning did more than reduce lines—it got rid of a “sense of a barrier and a closed-off space,” says Adam Ramadan (F’14, G’17), business manager for auxiliary services. “Students now can come in to study or meet friends without eating or even being on a meal plan,” he says. “Faculty can bring students for an informal class.”
The new space changed how food is stored and served, allowing chefs to be more creative. Nutritionists can better tailor meals for vegans, students with food allergies, and athletes.
Wiese shows off the open marketplace style of LEO|MKT, the upper floor of Leo’s—a food hall with multiple restaurants, including one that changes concepts each week. Food choices reflect the diverse worlds that Georgetown students come from and will live in. Some of the most
popular items are drunken noodles, crab cakes, pho-beef, lobster rolls, pupusas, and empanadas. Meal plans and an “‘all you can eat” buffet model still exist but they’ve been joined by flexible plans that allow students to chat over a latte or a cappuccino using their meal plan, and also grab nitro cold brew coffee, Einstein Bros. Bagels, or a Hoya Burger from Bulldog Tavern.
‘ONE OF THE FINEST GEORGETOWN TRADITIONS’
Complaining about dining hall food is one thing that seems immune to the passage of time. In 1812, Georgetown founder Archbishop John Carroll himself wrote to President John Grassi urging him to pay strict attention to the students’ diet and warned of the current state of food: “I know it is good in substance, but I fear your cook is deficient.”
Complaints ranged from generic unhappiness to issues as specific as how many glasses of milk could be carried away at one time from the serving line.
In November 1965, William Clinton (F’68), president of East Campus, introduced a resolution to the student council threatening immediate action by the council if university food service policies were not changed. The resolution
16 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
stated: “Despite its oft-declared intentions and statements…Food Service has not consistently sold good food at prices comparable to most of the surrounding business establishments.”
Clinton told The Hoya, “Some students just cannot afford the service the way it is now.” He added: “The students are being done an injustice.”
But one campus dish has developed a cult following: Chicken Finger Thursday, which a recent alumna described as “one of the finest Georgetown traditions.”
It’s just chicken fingers: small, pieces of fresh chicken, breaded, fried until crisp, and served on a bed of French fries, served only on Thursdays. That it became a craze indicates once again the power of food to create community. “It’s like ‘appointment TV,’” says student affairs’ CohenDerr. “Students organize floor mates and groups of friends. Some have standing plans to eat with fellow members of a club or organization.”
It has even inspired a fan T-shirt, which says, “I Love Thursday” on the front and “Chicken Finger Thursday” on the back.
NOURISHING A COMMUNITY
Chicken Finger Thursday is a 21st-century tradition served in a 21st century dining hall: Leo’s. When Leo J. Donovan, S.J., (C’56) retired as president of the university in 2001, the university’s Board of Directors surprised him by naming the new dining hall in the Southwest Quadrangle in his honor. How does O’Donovan feel that the dining hall immediately became known as “Leo’s”?
“The name is certainly an easier length,” he says with a chuckle. “By the time you finished asking, ‘Do you want to get lunch in the Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall?’ it would be time for dinner.”
The flavors of O’Donovan’s own experiences in Ryan Hall were much different than those in the dining hall that bears his name. Like other alumni, he says it wasn’t about the food. “I enjoyed the company of my classmates so much that I didn’t focus on the food,” he says. Except for Sunday steak dinners, with 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. seatings.
“I came for the first seating and stayed for the second,” O’Donovan admits. “I had a voracious appetite. I was so skinny then.”
No matter what changes may come, eating together will continue to play a large role in uniting Georgetown students into a community.
“Sharing a meal is a small sacrament,” reflects O’Donovan. “It is a social combination of necessary nourishment and shared community that is vital to human life.”
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 17
Ryan Hall dining hall operated from 1904 until it was succeeded by New South in 1959. The growth of the university’s student body meant that students in Ryan had to eat in shifts. While college students everywhere have complained about food, Georgetown’s Chicken Finger Thursday is a not-to-be-missed lunch. This page, from left: Alondra Navarro (C’19), Mizraim Belman-Guerrero (F’20), Brian Davis (B’21), and Trixia Apiado (F’18) relax in a space designed to promote conversation.
Share your memories of Georgetown dining at magazine.georgetown.edu.
Photo: Jeff Elkins
THIS PAGE: Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney (F’89, Parent’21) spoke about President Trump’s tax reform plan in October 2017. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a recent guest at the Law Center and in Gaston Hall, where she joined faculty in an April conversation and responded to student questions. As part of Georgetown’s Faith and Culture Lecture Series, award-winning author Chimamandza Ngozi Adichie spoke in Gaston Hall.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Gaston Hall was filled when Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, received an honorary doctor of humane letters in January 2017.
GUESTS OF HONOR
They spoke about contemporary issues affecting faith, literature and culture, technology’s impact on the book, free speech, and advancing roles for women and girls. This past year, in a tradition that dates to the university’s founding, diverse speakers came to Georgetown from across the globe. They spoke in such iconic sites as Gaston Hall and Riggs Library, as well as classrooms across all three campuses. “Speakers have definitely added to my Georgetown experience," says Sayako Quinlan (C’18). “The annual International Conference on Cyber Engagement sparked my interest in technology policy, particularly the field of cybersecurity where I have interned the past two years.”
Quinlan especially notes an event on freedom of speech in the wake of the violence in Charleston, a panel that included a diversity of professional perspective: an ACLU lawyer, a federal judge, a former police chief, and a Black Lives Matter activist. Most lectures end with a Q&A session, in which students enrich their Georgetown experience by speaking directly with invited experts.
She also fondly recalls last years’ Parents Weekend when she and her father, Joseph Quinlan (F’85), attended a panel on the ethics of big data and listened to Chuck Todd, journalist and moderator of Meet the Press. “My father and I would watch the show together when I was in high school,” she says. “It was pretty awesome to be there in real time for us political nerds.”
18 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 19
THIS PAGE: A frequent visitor to Georgetown, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., opened the third year of the Dahlgren Sacred Lecture Series in September 2017. OPPOSITE PAGE: Selected 2017 campus guest include, top row: U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith was part of the Faith and Culture Lecture Series, October. In December, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns participated in a class and screened clips and discussed his most recent series Vietnam in Gaston Hall. Renowned director Martin Scorsese showed his recent film Silence and led a post-screening discussion, April. Middle row: In September, Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution hosted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the topic of free speech on university campuses. Former U.S. Secretary of State and former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke on advancing the rights of women and girls, March. In November, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) was part of panel discussion on racism with Georgetown professor Marcia Chatelain. Bottom row: U.S. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden discussed the current and future state of libraries in Copley Formal Lounge, October. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business in September to discuss his leadership in military and government roles. Activist and actress Jane Fonda joined a panel discussion about the impact of low wages earned by restaurant workers, October.
20 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 21
SPRING 2018 22 GEO RGE TOW N M AGA ZINE S PRI NG 2018
FOUR WALLS
The Lab cohosted a 2017 conference, Beyond the Four Walls, which featured Amarillo, performed by Mexico City’s Teatro Linea de Sombra.
Photo: Sop hie Garcia
How a Theater Program in the School of Foreign Service
Cultural Diplomacy KATE COLWELL Howa TheaterProgram intheSchool ofForeignService
b y VIS IT ma g azine. g eor g etown.edu 23
Performs
PerformsCultural
1 a.m. on a warm summer morning in Segovia, Spain, and Professor Derek Goldman and five students are rehearsing a play under an aqueduct. In a few hours, they will appear before the UNESCO International Theatre Festival and World Congress to perform I Pledge Allegiance, a play they devised about the relationships between nation, home, and citizenship.
Goldman says he will never forget the power of hearing the voices of these primarily firstgeneration college students reverberate off ancient cobblestones.
“They are telling the deepest stories in their lives, of their grandparents’ and parents’ citizenship ceremonies, or traumas they faced when they left their home countries, or the challenges they faced to assimilate in American culture,” Goldman remembers from the July 2017 excursion.
After their performance, the students were invited to perform at the Al-Bugaa International Theater Festival in Sudan in March 2018. These engagements were the culmination of years of work with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University.
CROSSING DISCIPLINES
The co-directors of the Lab—Ambassador and School of Foreign Service Professor Cynthia Schneider, and Goldman, professor of theater and performance studies—first decided in 2011 to collaborate when they noticed that many of their students shared common interests.
The Lab now takes students with interest in cultural diplomacy abroad. In March Goldman and Schneider brought 13 students to Cambodia as guests of Cambodia Living Arts.
The Lab also brings foreign artists to Washington, D.C., to share voices seldom heard in the nation’s capital, and assembles a Think Tank group of thought leaders in both theater and policy fields who support the mission and values of the Lab.
“The idea is to merge the worlds of arts and policy and try to get policymakers in Washington to listen to the artists,” Schneider says. “We believe they have such important stories to tell that are often different from the policy stories that tend to dominate decision making.”
Every 18 months the program inducts 10 international Lab Fellows—artists from Zimbabwe to Cambodia to Colombia—to share cross-cultural ideas that can have positive impacts in the Fellows’ home countries.
The first cohort of Fellows met in August 2017 in Edinburgh for a week-long workshop to discuss how art humanizes or dehumanizes, how societal anger and anxiety influence cultural activity, and how political institutions and economics affect public support for and approval of the arts.
Since then, the Fellows have stayed connected through monthly group Zoom calls with Goldman, Schneider, and the Lab’s managing director, Jojo Ruf (C’08, MBA’19). These artists also make time to speak with Georgetown students who study theater and cultural diplomacy—often hand-in-hand.
24
Photo: Leslie E. Kossoff
ABOVE: More than 200 participants from 25 countries came to Georgetown for Finding Home: Migration, Exile, and Belonging in 2017. Migrar, a site-specific journey conceived by Barcelona street theater experience Kamchàtka, leads conference attendees around the Hilltop.
LEFT: Actors from theater companies in Sweden and South Africa—and Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage—perform scenes from A Raisin in the Sun in Gaston Hall as part of World Theater Day 2017.
HARNESSING THEATER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Think Tank member Ali Mahdi Nouri—whose Al-Bugaa Theatre Group in Khartoum, Sudan, has received international recognition for peacekeeping—is addressing Schneider’s Diplomacy and Culture class. Nouri, dressed in traditional Sudanese robes and headdress, sets up a PowerPoint presentation with an undergraduate SFS student to display photos from his work in Darfur. Then he launches into stories about seeing machine gun-wielding officials put their weapons aside to dance to drums, and former child soldiers open up to make friends through theater and art projects. He recounts the change he saw in traumatized children after two months of teaching painting in camp.
“When they started, they only painted machine guns and airplanes throwing bombs. But after a month of performance and lessons, the finished paintings I am getting from them are flowers,” Nouri tells the students. “I am sure they never saw flowers. But maybe it came to them from the speech of artists or music.”
Another week, Lab Fellow Faisal Abu Alhayjaa, who began acting in The Freedom Theatre in the Jenin Refugee Camp in Palestine, speaks to the same class over Skype from New York—swiftly switching from English to Arabic when his roommate accidentally interrupts the call. His company’s show, The Siege, was branded as terrorist propaganda in London by critics before the show had a single public
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 25
LAB PROJECTS
In 2014, Oscar-nominated actor David Strathairn (above) came to campus for the Lab’s production of My Report to the World: The Story of Jan Karski. Strathairn portrayed Georgetown Professor Jan Karski, Polish World War II hero and Holocaust witness, a role he also performed in Poland, New York, and Washington, D.C. The following year, the Lab commissioned Noura , a Middle Eastern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House by Think Tank member Heather Raffo, which premiered with D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. Currently, Lab playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm is working on The 272 , exploring the legacy of slavery at Georgetown.
26 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
performance. But the show’s artistic depth earned it an invitation to perform at New York University. At Georgetown, students lean over Schneider’s laptop to ask Alhayjaa why, in his experience, theater means more to people living in war zones than donations of food and water.
“We say in Palestine, ‘If you tell a story, you live 100 years,’” he responds. “The people get bored of being victims all the time if they are just given something. They want to create. We held a dance workshop to give people a place for fun and to express themselves. They need to tell who they are through dance, theater, poetry.” He doesn’t discount the importance of keeping people alive, but he distinguishes that from living. “Artwork is more important than food. It’s liberating people; it’s building strength. Theater gives people something to live for.”
Schneider hammers home the lesson for her students. “How can anything be resolved if all people have is clothing and food? That’s not going to solve the conflict. You have to rebuild the human beings.”
GAINING PERSPECTIVES ON OTHER CULTURES
The Lab brings international artists to the United States to expand American awareness of political and social conditions in other countries. This fall, the Lab invited the National Theatre of Ghana to perform Tennessee Williams’ play Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, followed by Q&A panels and workshops with students.
Elizabeth Nalunga (F’19), the Lab’s student management assistant, spent several days with the troupe. On the first day, the actors hurried to see the White House and the Washington Monument before performing downtown. A few days later on campus, Nalunga ran from setting up their stage to eat in Epicurean with the troupe and discuss the power of unity and intercultural partnerships in difficult political environments.
“It’s important to have an ever-evolving understanding of the other,” Nalunga says. “We’re trying to bring different cultures to the stage because we want to be better informed. The Lab is an integral part of understanding how we, as a community, can go about doing this kind of work.”
MAKING THE GLOBAL LOCAL
Goldman describes the Lab as operating in concentric circles: first in Georgetown classrooms, then in the wider D.C. culture, and finally in an international theater community.
“Global is not the opposite of local for us,” Goldman says. “Ripples happen across those circles.”
By prioritizing local stories as a lens for global issues, the Lab stands apart from other theater companies. For example, the Lab brought the National Theatre of Ghana to do a free workshop among the populous West African immigrant community that lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. In another instance, an audience including many natives of Pakistan attended a performance of Amrika Chalo, a satirical Pakistani work co-performed by Georgetown students with Lab artists in residence from Ajoka Theatre in Lahore, Pakistan.
In October 2017, the Lab hosted an event called “Burning to Tell You” at the National Press Club, blocks away from the White House. The event aimed to make large-scale foreign policy debates seem more human to a city of legislators. A panel of artists and journalists who have faced mortal danger for speaking against their governments told personal stories to emphasize the urgency of free expression in contexts of censorship, repression, and violence.
The full house listened attentively to Think Tank member and founding co-artistic director of Belarus Free Theatre Natalia Kaliada—who must rehearse with her theater company over Skype after fleeing her home country to escape government persecution. She warned the audience to defend the U.S. Constitution.
“Exercise your freedom while you have it. Otherwise it will be gone.”
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 27
ABOVE: Playwright and performer Heather Raffo and Madeleine Kelley (C’16), at right, in the Lab workshop performance of Noura in December 2015. Noura received its world premiere at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. this February.
Photo: Jordan Silverman
GLOBALIZATION LEADS REPORTER BACK TO SCHOOL
Scott Tong (C’91) attended Georgetown during a period of intense change in global politics: the Cold War was ending, and borders everywhere were becoming increasingly open. The change was a topic of discussion in all his government classes—and he had the good fortune to be taking a U.S.-Soviet Union relations class at the time with future Secretary of State Professor Madeleine Albright.
“In my adult lifetime, it’s always been about the world shrinking,” Tong says.
Globalization was inevitable—until it wasn’t. The election of Donald Trump, Brexit, and protectionist movements throughout Europe have marked a pendulum swing from globalization and free trade.
Tong, a correspondent for American Public Media’s Marketplace , began reporting an ongoing series last year about the current backlash. What better place for Tong to get up to speed than Georgetown? “I was able to corral a number of great faculty members for interviews,” he says. “I told them I was kind of going back to school. They were very receptive.”
Georgetown faculty told Tong that, in the long view, globalization isn’t inevitable; it might in fact be the exception. The pendulum swing to protectionism? “Historians tell us that, basically, we’ve seen this movie before.”
Tong himself has a globalist worldview, having grown up in both the U.S. and Taiwan. He arrived at Georgetown as a freshman, sight unseen, after having flown from Taiwan—just two suitcases in hand. “I would never let one of my kids do that,” he says with a laugh.
He joined Marketplace full time in 2004, after stints on Capitol Hill and with the PBS NewsHour . Marketplace ’s popular series of programs on business and economics are broadcast on nearly 800 public radio stations nationwide.
Tong opened Marketplace ’s Shanghai bureau in 2006 and lived there for four years with his wife, Cathy Thayer Tong (N’91, G’97), and their children. He now reports from the Washington bureau and lives with his family in nearby Arlington, Virginia.
In December he released his first book, A Village with My Name: A Family History of China’s Opening to the World . “It tells the long story of China though the lives of five generations of my family tree,” Tong says.
“I realized that there was a lot of my own family’s story and history that I wanted to know more about. As my mother would say, it’s one thing to know where you were born, it’s another to know where you’re from.”
28 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Photo: Phil Humnicky
SOCIAL JUSTICE GUIDES HEALTH CARE LEADER
Growing up in the Colonial Projects of Harlem, Dr. Madeline Y. Sutton, M.D., MPH (C’89), learned first-hand that an individual’s environment is an essential element for good health.
“I grew up in what is described as an underserved neighborhood. I didn’t see it that way as I was growing up, but I understand the context as a physician,” she says. “You have to think about an individual’s home, their work—do they have concerns about life priorities other than health, are they in a food desert, do they have sidewalks and streetlights? All of this is intertwined in a person’s health.”
That perspective has defined Sutton’s career, who is both a medical epidemiologist and a board certified obstetrician/ gynecologist. Four and a half days a week, she works at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta as the Team Lead of the Minority HIV/AIDS Research Initiative. She then shifts to individual patient care and teaching, serving on the faculty at the Morehouse School of Medicine. At CDC, she is also a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service.
“At CDC, I do HIV prevention research at the community level,” Sutton says. “There’s an HIV gap for Blacks and Latinos compared with whites, and we’re working to understand and close these gaps.” Her work involves direct community engagement as well as scientific research—she has published more than 70 peer-reviewed
papers, book chapters and a text book. “I love to mentor scientists in their early careers,” she adds. “It’s my pride and joy.”
After receiving her B.S., Sutton returned to New York City, where she earned dual degrees in medicine and public health at Columbia University. “Medical school is patient-focused. Public health is population-based. They absolutely work together,” she says.
Sutton’s public health focus has made her keenly aware of how national health policy can affect individual lives, something she stressed as a speaker at Georgetown’s fall 2017 Black Alumni Summit. “For the patient, health insurance might change, their access might change, or they might be undocumented. It’s hard on them and that affects care.”
For Sutton, Georgetown’s social justice mission is rooted in all that she does—whether delivering a new baby into the world or advocating on behalf of the nation’s most vulnerable populations. And the instant connection she felt on her first visit campus still remains strong. “I resided in Darnall Hall my freshman year at Georgetown, met some amazing fellow students, and 30 years later, they remain lifelong friends with whom I still laugh, debate, cry, and hug.”
“Absolutely Georgetown is still with me. Whenever I walk on campus, it’s like a warm hug.”
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 29
Photo: Phil Humnicky
30 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Dear Fellow Hoyas,
Since its inception in 1881, the Georgetown University Alumni Association has been committed to service: service to alumni, service to alma mater, and service to society. As you may have heard, our fellow Hoya, Bill Reynolds, the Executive Director of the Alumni Association, has decided to step down in June. Bill certainly embodies this ideal of service to others.
Since he graduated from the College in 1979, Bill has served Georgetown in many capacities, from active volunteer to 17 years as Executive Director of the association. He has served on the Board of Directors, Board of Regents, and Board of Governors. Highlights of Bill’s many contributions to the association and the university can be found on page 33 of this magazine.
As a volunteer, and as I conclude my two-year term as president of the association, I express my deep appreciation to Bill for his inspiring dedication to Georgetown and to all those who make up our diverse alumni community.
As we celebrate Bill’s decades of service to Georgetown, we applaud the record growth of traditional events such as Reunion and John Carroll Weekend as well as the expansion of over 100 annual regional events worldwide. New association programs, such as Hoya
Gateway, the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance, and the Women of Georgetown Initiative are inspiring Hoyas—from millennials to Magis—to engage and serve Georgetown and others. Alliances help alumni and alumnae with common interests in a wide array of fields to connect and grow professionally. For more information on alliances, visit the Connections page on the association website, guaa.com.
There are many opportunities to connect with your fellow alumni and the university for personal and professional growth. The Alumni Association is the best way to begin your connection, and I can assure you that you will find it a valuable experience.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 31
Hoya Saxa, Jeff Chapski (B’91) Alumni Association President
“New alumni association programs are inspiring Hoyas—from Millennials to Magis—to engage and serve Georgetown.”
Alumna Rebekkah Brunson Sets WNBA Record
With her team’s victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in October, Minnesota Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson (C’04) made history by becoming the first WNBA player to win five national titles.
Brunson was Georgetown’s first women’s basketball All-American. She holds numerous records, including all of Georgetown’s rebounding records. In her first year on the Hilltop, she won the Big East’s Rookie of the Year award. As a senior, not only did she become the first player in division history to lead the country in scoring and rebounding, she also won the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Brunson is also the only Georgetown women’s basketball player to earn AP All-America honors. When she was drafted to the WNBA in 2004, she became the first Hoya to be selected in the first round and only the second Georgetown player to be drafted by a WNBA team.
A four-time WNBA all-star and the league’s leader in career offensive rebounds, Brunson won her first championship in 2005 with the Sacramento Monarchs just one year after the team drafted her 10th overall out of Georgetown. Off the court, Brunson founded the 32 Foundation, named for her jersey number, which sponsors academic and athletic opportunities for D.C. area youth.
32 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images
Alumni Association Director Stepping Down After Decades of Service
Bill Reynolds (C’79, Parent’10,’13), executive director of the Georgetown University Alumni Association and associate vice president of alumni relations, is stepping down after 17 years of service to Georgetown. An executive search firm began an international search for his replacement in January. Reynolds remains in his role until the fiscal year ends on June 30.
“During Bill’s tenure, the scope, extent, and impact of the university’s and alumni association’s collaboration has grown and expanded monumentally, especially in terms of alumni affairs, programs, relationship-building, and development,” says R. Bartley Moore (F’87), vice president of Georgetown’s Office of Advancement. “There is no way to thank him sufficiently for all he has been part of.”
Reynolds brought to Georgetown extensive marketing and management experience. He spent 17 years at Unilever, including five as a marketing vice president for the Elizabeth Arden and Chesebrough Ponds divisions. He was also vice president of marketing at L’Oreal. He earned his MBA from Cornell University in 1981.
Reynolds’ service to Georgetown long precedes his current role and now spans four decades. He served as president of the alumni association and was a two-time chair of the Annual Fund. He
chaired his fifth reunion and co-chaired his tenth. He also served on the Board of Directors, Board of Regents, and Board of Governors, and was a founding member of the United Kingdom Club. Reynolds, the second-longest-tenured executive director in Georgetown University Alumni Association history and recipient of the prestigious John Carroll Award in 1993, leaves a legacy of accomplishments, including overseeing fundraising and renovation of the Robert and Bernice Wagner Alumni House, growing annual giving participation to historic levels, tripling undergraduate reunion attendance, and accelerating the alumni association as an engine of engagement.
Reynolds’ parents were the first co-chairs of the Parents Annual Fund and his sister Julia has dual degrees (SLL’85, L’89). His wife, Jeanne, graduated from the School of Nursing in 1982 and his two children, Kevin (C’10) and Claire (C’13), are Hoyas, as is his daughter-in-law Chrissy (C’10).
“Georgetown is in Bill’s DNA,” Moore said.
In the coming months, the Georgetown University Alumni Association will be celebrating Reynolds’ commitment and contributions to Georgetown.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 33
From top left: 1979 yearbook, 1993 John Carroll Award; Reynolds with his all-Hoya family: Claire (C’13), Jeanne (N’82), Kevin (C’10), and daughter-in-law Chrissy (C’10), summer 2017; 2005 dedication of Wagner Alumni House.
Creating a Special Connection for Black Alumni
More than 200 Black alumni—including CEOs, entrepreneurs, artists, activists, and elected officials—returned to the Hilltop last October for the second Black Alumni Summit. This biennial gathering, planned by and for undergraduate alumni under the leadership of co-chairs Tammee Thompson (C’91) and Eric Woods (B’91), top left, convened to spur timely and relevant conversations and strengthen connections among Georgetown’s Black alumni.
Some of the most important issues in America today were at the center of the programming: racial justice and politics; health and wellness; philanthropy; and the university’s slavery, memory, and reconciliation work.
George Smith (C’14) attended the first summit in 2015, and when planning began for the second summit, he joined several committees.“It’s gratifying to finally be among a community that can deeply identify with your nuanced identity and, because of this, help you realize your potential,” Smith says.
Current senior Ndeye Ndiaye (C’18) says the summit enriched her with invaluable advice from alumni in the creative media industry and anticipates returning for the 2019 summit as an alumna. “Seeing the path that so many of these successful alumni have taken is inspiring. It just reiterates that my opportunities are limitless.”
34 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Power Lunches Offer Insights
Hoya Gateway Power Lunches, offered as a pilot in January, gave students a chance to learn more about companies and job functions from alumni working in such industries as technology, finance, higher education, and entertainment and media. Thirty-two alumni in 11 cities offered a total of 270 spots for undergraduate and graduate students.
The new program was offered through Hoya Gateway, an online networking platform started in 2013 that helps students pursue their career interests by introducing them to recommended alumni. It is studentfocused, which sets it apart from alumni-to-alumni networking.
“The Power Lunch gave students a chance to come onsite to a company, learn more about an industry, and ‘try it on for size,’” says Emily Holland Hull (SCS’13) who is head of talent development for the digital organization at Capital One bank.
“I thought I didn’t want to go into banking, but I am interested in the digital side, especially the design and technology aspects supporting mobile and online banking,” says Kiera McCrane (B’20). She and 10 other Hoyas visited Capital One in January (photo above).
Hull says that “these are students who are truly determined and focused. They get the importance of forging relationships.”
Reilly Davis (B’11) is chief technology officer at PeopleGrove in San Francisco, which develops online professional networks. PeopleGrove provides the software, analytics, and support that helps Alumni Career Services power this platform.
Davis, who hosted a Power Lunch himself, says that students were looking to learn how industries work. “When I was a student, there weren’t a lot of opportunities like this,” he says. “The student interactions with alumni were mostly about recruiting, not learning what’s out there.”
In Dallas, Indrajt Ponnambalam (B’98), SVP for finance at Match Group—owner of the powerhouse social sites Match.com, Tinder, and Okay Cupid, among others—hosted two graduate students “because I wanted to share my experience,” he says.
“I interview prospective students as a volunteer and I attend my reunion,” he says. “But I don’t have the chance to meet current students. It was nice to feel that I’m still part of Georgetown.”
You can learn more about Hoya Gateway and sign up as a volunteer at hoyagateway.georgetown.edu.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 35
Photos: Phil Humnicky
A Farewell to Sursum Corda: Tutoring Program Reaches Final Chapter
On a warm Thursday evening last spring, at 6:30 p.m. sharp, a group of Georgetown students boarded university vans behind Lauinger Library and made their way across the city. It was their final trip to Sursum Corda, a low-income housing cooperative north of the Capitol Building.
Over a span of 47 years, almost since Sursum Corda opened, at least a thousand Georgetown students took this journey— coming weekly, then twice-weekly, to serve as reading tutors for the community’s young learners. For 27 of those years, the program has been led by English professor John Hirsh.
In the last decade, Sursum Corda’s real estate value has shot up as part of D.C.’s economic and real estate boom. “The neighborhood is changing. Now everyone wants to live here,” said longtime resident Christine Nicholson last summer. A deal to acquire Sursum Corda is under way. Before long, the complex will be torn down and the land redeveloped. At the end of the spring 2017 semester, with residents beginning the process of relocating, Hirsh and the last class of tutors bid farewell to Sursum Corda.
Always There
The tutoring that took place in Sursum Corda’s community center had a profound impact over the years. Tutoring “was a learning experience for the learner and the tutor both,” says Jerome (J.J.) Brown (C’91).
“The program gave the children a lot of stability. It was always there, every week, every year,” says Nicholson, who selected the learners. Each Georgetown student was assigned a learner, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. “There could be 50 or more people in the room,” says Charlie Nester (B’18), who was in the final group of tutors. “It’s not a library. Keeping your learner focused is hard. There’s an art to it.”
In addition to supervising the tutors onsite, Hirsh taught an on-campus class providing students with techniques to improve their learners’ literacy and critical thinking skills. The tutors guiding principles were: don’t prompt too quickly; comprehension, comprehension, comprehension; be the change you want to see (Gandhi).
36 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Illustration: Huang Yu-Ming
Troye Bullock (C’16) remembers his learner William, who was 5 when they started reading together. “When we began, he didn’t really know the alphabet,” Bullock says. By October, William was managing two-letter words. By May, he could read full sentences and a full book.
“That exchange is core and both the learner and the tutor are influenced,” Hirsh says.
‘Lift Up Your Hearts’
Sursum Corda takes its name from the Latin, “Lift up your hearts,” and when it opened in 1968, the hope was that the village-style community would indeed lift the hearts of its residents. The HUD-led development had great support from the city’s Catholic community, including Georgetown. Communities can be complex places, and Sursum Corda is no different. Like much of D.C., Sursum Corda became affected by gangs and drugs, especially in the late 1980s.
A decade later, “Sursum Corda faced some real challenges,” says Jason Crawford (C’05, L’12). In 2004, 14-year-old resident Jahkema Princess Hanson was fatally shot after witnessing a murder there. “It shook the whole city,” Crawford says. The city government considered closing Sursum Corda, but the discussion resulted only in hiring outside security.
But that wasn’t the entire picture. A photo album left behind in the co-op’s community center shows children playing, community celebrations, and beautification projects. Residents called it home, cared for their neighbors, and came together to support their children.
Shiv Newaldass (C’03) grew up in Sursum Corda and is the only person known to have been both a learner and a tutor. “Even with the crime and drug trade, which I was keenly aware of even as a child, there was a sense of community there that came through.”
Newaldass came with his parents to the U.S. from Trinidad when he was 9, and settled in Sursum Corda. He attended the nearby elementary school, which was “totally dysfunctional,” he says. At 10, he became a learner in the Georgetown program.
“For me, the tutoring program was simply amazing and served as a reprieve to a person who had integrated into a new country, new neighborhood, and new culture,” he says.
A decade later as a Georgetown tutor, Newaldass was conflicted about sharing his full story with his fellow tutors. “I tried to hide that fact. I was afraid of being judged,” he says. “My parents were still living there, and I certainly knew a lot of people, so it wasn’t easy. But I think I was able to communicate with the children in a different way.”
Inspiring Experience
In addition to tutoring, the van ride between Georgetown and Sursum Corda also figured prominently in the lives of many students. “Being onsite two times a week, we really got to know the families,” says Maria Sabin Crawford (C’05). “And going back and forth in the van, we got to know each other.”
Jason Crawford had been a tutor as a junior, then stayed involved his senior year, driving the van. “I started sitting in the front seat on the nights that Jason drove,” Maria admits with a smile.
“Technically, our first date was taking our learners together to see a movie,” Jason recalls. The same learners were ring bearers at the Crawfords’ wedding, and more than a decade later, the young men often come to the Crawfords’ home for dinner.
“That Sursum Corda experience is very special for both of us,” Maria says. “It was a challenge intellectually, but also emotionally and spiritually. I have recommended it to every Georgetown student I meet.”
Sursum Corda has made a lasting impression on its participants, all of whom said it changed their view of the world.
Professor John Hirsh’s new book about Sursum Corda, Power and Probity in a D.C. Cooperative: The Life and Death of Sursum Corda (2018), is available at Amazon.com.
Troye Bullock and his classmate Darius Baxter (C’16) were inspired to found GOODPartners, a nonprofit that provides on-the-ground assistance to close gaps between funders and communities in need. Jason Crawford taught and worked in education policy before going to Georgetown Law.
Constant Presence
Alumni from the Sursum Corda tutoring program are unabashed in their respect and affection for John Hirsh. “He’s changed so many lives. The sheer capacity he had to keep the program running,” says Newaldass, who remembers Hirsh helping him fill out his college applications. “No person has so unconditionally loved this community as Professor Hirsh.”
While his 27 years nurturing and leading the Sursum Corda tutoring program have come to an end, Hirsh’s commitment to classroom and community education has not. Last fall, he began a similar tutoring program at Golden Rule Apartments, which is near Sursum Corda. If you need to find him on a Tuesday or Thursday night, look behind Lauinger Library at 6:30 p.m.—sharp—as he takes a new class of students to twice-weekly tutoring sessions.
—Jeffrey Donahoe
Were you a Sursum Corda tutor? Email magazine.georgetown.edu to share your story.
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 37
“In a program like Sursum Corda instruction is mutual as much as it is anything. Individual, certainly, but even then based on exchange.”
—John Hirsh
True Stories
Georgetown is Producing a Booming Crop of Documentary Film Makers
Given Georgetown’s commitment to social justice, it’s no surprise that many alumni—even those who didn’t start out in a media career—have found their way to documentary film making.
Since the early days of cinema, documentaries have been a potent means of raising awareness of social issues. Among the most notable alumni in the field is Regina Kulik Scully (SLL’85), the producer of nearly 100 documentary films and the founder and CEO of Artemis Rising, a philanthropic organization dedicated to developing and promoting transformative media. Scully served
as executive producer of the Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary The Invisible War about the epidemic rapes of women and men in the military, and subsequently established a program to provide trauma treatment to military veterans. Her work clearly demonstrates the power of film to inspire action.
As a sequel to last fall’s “Hoyas in Hollywood” story, Georgetown Magazine profiles four alumni documentarians who, like Scully, are focused on bringing true stories to light—and making a difference in the world.
The Truth Seeker
Lacey Schwartz (C’98) grew up in rural Woodstock, New York, the daughter of white Jewish parents. When she was accepted for admission to Georgetown, however, the university sent her information to the black students association based on the photo she sent in with her application. Once she arrived on the Hilltop, she was embraced by the African-American community.
“For the first time in my in my life, I felt I belonged,” Schwartz said in a recent NPR interview. “And somehow I just knew that Black was who I was.”
It was the beginning of a long, often painful process of overcoming her own and her family’s denial about her identity. In searching for the truth, she also discovered her calling as a film maker—telling her story in the feature documentary Little White Lie.
The film, which premiered in 2014, was broadcast on PBS in 2015 and has since been screened around the country. Using home videos, archival footage, and interviews, Schwartz chronicles her journey to uncover her family’s secret. Schwartz’s mother had never revealed that she had an affair with a family friend, an African-American man who was Schwartz’s biological father. Although the film is intensely personal, Schwartz’s intent for the film was to help others confront their own “little white lies” and become more accepting of themselves. “It’s incredible the impact you can have on people in one or two hours,” Schwartz says. “Film can entertain and engage, but also create change.”
To further the mission of using media as a resource for change, Schwartz founded the media organization Truth Aid with physician Mehret Mandefro in 2008. Along with Little White Lie, Truth Aid also produced the film Difret in collaboration with Angelina Jolie, tackling the difficult subject of child marriage. The film won audience awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals.
Schwartz notes that recent events—such as the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past summer—have brought renewed interest in Little White Lie and the themes it explores. “I had three screenings in November,” she says. “We’re so divided, it’s hard to have a conversation. There’s a moment now to work toward understanding.”
More: @laceyschwartz
38 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
“It’s incredible the impact you can have on people in one or two hours. Film can entertain and engage, but also create change.”
The Story Teller
“With documentaries, there’s no middle ground: they work or they don’t,” says writer-director Joe Piscatella (C’95). “To me, it’s getting people to care. So the audience needs to be able to follow the story like a narrative feature. I think about this as soon as I start a script.”
Piscatella’s most recent documentary, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower , was released for worldwide distribution by Netflix in May 2017 following its premier at Sundance, where it won an Audience Award. It also was nominated for best documentary by the Producers Guild of America.
The film tells the broader story of the 2011 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong by focusing on a single individual— Joshua Wong, then 14, who rallied thousands of his fellow students to skip school and occupy the streets.
“Joshua is a story about a place and a struggle that most people in the Western world were unaware of,” Piscatella says. “I questioned whether the material would connect with people. But this film does have an audience. It’s accessible. Viewers can sympathize and empathize.”
“It’s the same story as with my previous documentary, #chicagoGirl, ” he continues. “Syria, the subject of the film, is just people ‘over there’ to us. You may not be able to get people to care about an issue, but you can get them to care about people through film. It’s storytelling first.”
“With documentaries, there’s no middle ground: they work or they don’t.”
#chicagoGirl, released in 2013, received a Cinema for Peace Award for its focus on the conflict in Syria. It documents how a group of activists, headed by an American teenager in suburban Chicago, used social media to fight the Assad regime and bring worldwide attention to human rights atrocities against the Syrian people. Piscatella notes that changes in film distribution—most notably the widespread availability of digital streaming—have greatly increased viewership and thus the power and reach of documentary film making. “Documentary films are being released on Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. That means that you can sit down and watch from home as you want,” he says. “Now you can have viewers who might not have gone out to see a documentary in a theater.”
Though documentary film was not on Piscatella’s radar when he was an undergraduate, he credits Georgetown with opening his eyes
to a bigger world. “I’m really interested in people willing to pursue justice. That was definitely nurtured at Georgetown,” he says.
“At the end of the day, people do make a difference.”
More: @JoePiscatella
The Activist
In telling stories through film, Oscar-winning documentarian Megan Mylan (F’92) focuses on individuals—making audiences care about issues by caring about the characters in her films.
“My documentaries are intimate and character-driven. I spend most of my time and resources on casting the right people,” she says. “I want my films to wash over you and the people in them
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 39
to embed in your heart and head. My hope is that they spark a sense of our shared humanity and a point of entry to our major social challenges.”
It’s the approach Mylan used in directing Smile Pinki , which won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Short Documentary. The 39-minute film, made in Hindi and Bhojpuri languages, tells the story of Pinki Sonkar, a poor and isolated girl who is ostracized in her Indian village due to her cleft lip. Pinki’s life is transformed when she receives free reparative surgery through the Smile Train program.
Similar to her fellow Hoya documentarians, Mylan did not start out as a film maker. “Documentary film making and journalism weren’t on my radar at Georgetown,” she says. “But Georgetown was fundamental to the work I do now. It sparked in me a desire to engage with the world, and make a positive impact.”
“After SFS, I started working in Brazil in human rights,” Mylan continues. “There I met documentary film makers. I felt I had met my tribe!’ It was such a natural fit—a way to connect with people whose lives were very different from my own and thoughtfully share their stories with others.”
Mylan’s work inspires action as well as thought. Her first film, Lost Boys of Sudan, inspired an extensive campaign that raised millions of dollars for refugee scholarships.
Now the mother of a preschooler, Mylan says that having a family has influenced how she sees the world. Her latest film project looks at the Syria crisis through the lens of parenthood, focusing on families who have escaped the war. As Mylan notes, half of Syria’s population has fled the country since the fighting began.
“Life tests the human spirit,” she adds. “But parents’ determination to protect and provide for their children never ceases.”
More: @MeganMylan
The Veteran
Look up Michael Winship (C’73) on IMDb—the go-to website for information on movies and television—and you’ll find a list of nearly 150 writing and producing credits. In addition to his longtime collaboration with PBS journalist Bill Moyers, Winship has written numerous documentaries for public television, as well as for the Discovery Channel, A&E, National Geographic, Lifetime, and more.
“Documentaries keep your creative energy and mind alive,” he says. “They expose you to great stories—everything from the Oregon Trail to proton decay. It’s incredibly stimulating.”
Winship came to television writing in a roundabout way (including an early stint as an editorial assistant for Georgetown Magazine ). After working on George McGovern’s presidential
40 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
“Georgetown was fundamental to the work I do now. It sparked in me a desire to engage with the world.”
campaign in 1972, Winship graduated and took a public relations job at George Washington University. WETA, D.C.’s public television station, enabling him to meet some of the pioneers of PBS.
He went on to work at WNET in New York, handling public relations for The MacNeil/Lehrer Report , Bill Moyers, and Monty Python, then to writing and producing for a succession of programs, including Bill Moyers’ Journal and Moyers & Company, as well as Nova, Nature, and many documentary series and specials. His work has garnered him an Emmy and four Writers Guild of America (WGA) awards.
Recently wrapping up 10 years as president of the WGA East, Winship has earned the widespread respect of his fellow writers. As Variety reports, Winship’s “breadth of experience has served him well as guild president—that and his ‘abiding love’ of movies and TV.”
Over his long career, Winship has seen dramatic changes in documentary film making, brought about in part by the widespread availability of documentaries online.
“Story-telling has become so much more compelling,” he says. “These days the demand is that you have to grab the attention of the audience almost immediately. There’s only so much attention span out there, so you better have something to say.”
For Winship, the need for documentaries is more important than ever. “You’re helping people to be aware of real issues,” he says. “There are so many good stories remaining to be told.”
More: @MichaelWinship
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 41
“Documentaries keep your creative energy and mind alive. They expose you to great stories.”
IN MEMORIAM
The Georgetown University community joins in remembrance of those alumni who have recently died.
1930s
Henry P. Baby (C’32), 04/12/17
Ross C. Barrett, Jr. (C’32), 04/11/17
John E. McGowan (C’32), 04/10/17
James G. St. Lawrence (C’32), 04/12/17
William P. Cagney, Jr. (C’35), 04/03/17
Joseph R. Saverine (C’35), 04/12/17
Philip J. Monaghan (C’36), 04/10/17
Nathan Zuckerberg (C’36), 04/12/17
Robert A. Heller (F’37), 04/10/17
William T. Rhoades (F’38), 04/14/17
Virginia Dumm (N’39), 04/12/17
Joseph P. Robson (F’39), 04/14/17
1940s
Joan Brown Cheston (N’40), 09/25/17
Anthony P. Ciccone (C’41), 04/07/17
James E. MacDonald (C’41), 01/19/18
Joseph J. McGovern, S.J. (C’41), 04/10/17
Thomas A. O’Connell, Jr. (F’41), 04/10/17
Luigi A. Principato, M.D. (C’42, M’45), 04/11/17
William L. Ellis (F’43), 04/07/17
John H. Greenwald (C’43), 07/28/17
Leslie W. Kernan (C’43), 07/21/17
Robert J. Maturi (F’43), 04/12/17
John L. McCall (F’43), 04/10/17
Raymond E. Schmitt (C’43), 04/13/17
John H. Coughlin, Jr., M.D. (C’44), 01/26/18
Kenneth G. Hale (F’44), 04/10/17
John E. Scola, Sr. (F’44), 04/14/17
Raymond G. Atkin (F’45), 04/03/17
Edmund B. Cowdrey (F’45), 04/07/17
Edmund C. Flynn (F’45), 04/10/17
Joseph E. Risdon (C’45), 04/14/17
Joseph F. Gardocki (C’46, MS’50, PHD’51), 01/23/18
Henry C. Martin (F’46), 04/10/17
Daniel P. Byrnes (F’47, L’50), 04/14/17
John M. Dyer (C’47, L’50), 04/12/17
Ernest A. Fuggian (F’47), 04/10/17
Frank B. Germon, Jr. (F’47), 04/14/17
William B. Hobbs (F’47), 05/10/17
J. Philip Koontz (F’47), 05/19/17
John J. Leibell (C’47), 06/26/17
Irving N. Tranen (C’47, L’49), 09/28/17
Alfred L. Weipert (C’47), 04/14/17
Stanley I. Wolf, M.D. (C’47, M’48), 09/28/17
Gene Cassini (F’48), 04/07/17
Edwin F. Brembs (F’48), 04/07/17
John L. Conway (C’48), 04/07/17
Dudley H. Fay, Jr. (C’48), 04/12/17
Guy L. Haviland, Jr. (N’48), 10/14/17
Robert N. Hay (F’48), 04/13/17
Richard A. Johansen (F’48), 04/11/17
James B. Lockwood, Jr. (C’48, L’51), 05/10/17
Frank A. Lopez (F’48, L’60), 04/14/17
Edward F. Marcinak (F’48), 04/12/17
Patricia C. Malloy (N’48), 10/06/17
Donald L. Miller (C’48), 04/10/17
Frank J. Noonan, M.D. (C’48, M’52), 04/12/17
Paul E. Nelson (F’48), 12/24/17
Philip T. O’Hara (C’48), 01/02/18
Francis W. Tief, USMC. (Ret) (C’48), 08/07/17
Christopher M. Wilson, Ph.D. (C’48, MS’59), 10/06/17
Melville E. Blake, Jr. (F’49), 09/08/17
Richard M. Blassey (F’49, G’53), 04/07/17
Georges R. Edelen (C’49), 08/22/02
Robert Galpeer (C’49), 04/10/17
William E. Hegle (F’49), 04/10/17
Norman A. Helfrich, M.D. (C’49, M’53), 06/26/17
William R. Hoff (F’49, G’53), 04/10/17
John A. McCrane (F’49), 09/27/17
Joseph B. Miller (F’49), 09/28/17
Robert F. Mitchell (C’49), 12/17/17
Ralph A. Peters, Ph.D. (C’49), 04/10/17
William J. Sherry, Jr. (C’49), 08/29/17
June L. Veihmeyer (N’49), 04/12/17
1950s
James B. Albers (C’50), 11/10/17
Edward F. Ausman (C’50), 04/07/17
Robert Norman Bee (F’50, MA’55), 09/27/17
Joseph P. Beierschmitt (F’50), 12/22/17
Paul J. Brown (C’50), 04/14/17
Hobert F. Curran (F’50), 05/04/17
Harold James Datta (F’50), 05/11/17
John M. Dean, Jr. (C’50), 04/07/17
Fiodie P. Favarella (F’50), 04/10/17
Edward R. Finck, Jr. (C’50), 05/12/17
Joseph H. Foley, Jr. (C’50), 09/28/17
David J. Gaffey (C’50), 10/27/17
Charles H. Kelleher (C’50), 04/12/17
Thomas J. Lawler (C’50), 04/13/17
Thomas J. Mullen, Jr. (C’50), 09/28/17
Mandell J. Ourisman (F’50), 07/21/17
Richard C. Pecot (C’50), 04/10/17
Jerome L. Saidman (C’50), 04/12/17
Leonard Sandman (F’50), 04/12/17
John H. Shannon (C’50), 12/27/17
Mildred McGuire Bagnall (F’51), 12/29/17
George S. Banks, Jr. (C’51), 04/07/17
Robert R. Charlton (F’51), 11/01/17
John D. Coughlin (F’51), 04/14/17
Robert G. Culver (F’51), 04/07/17
Paul M. Emmons (C’51), 04/07/17
Ralph L. Emmons, Jr. (C’51, L’57), 05/10/17
Thomas F. Fitzgerald, Jr. (F’51), 04/10/17
Gerald Goldman (F’51), 04/10/17
Paul R. Grabowski (F’51), 04/10/17
Richard William Haesler (F’51), 10/08/17
Donald J. Hallihan (F’51), 04/10/17
Eric E. Hotung (C’51, H’86), 10/03/17
Walid Y. Ibrahim (C’51), 04/10/17
Thomas H. Kanaly (F’51), 05/11/17
Douglas E. MacKinnon (F’51), 04/10/17
Walter E. Margicin (F’51), 04/12/17
Helen C. Mattas (I’51), 04/12/17
John F. McLaughlin (C’51), 08/13/17
David J. Nelligan, M.D. (C’51), 12/21/17
George J. Norris (F’51), 04/12/17
Albert A. Sacchet (F’51), 04/12/17
Thaddeus Sieron (F’51), 05/10/17
Cameron H. Stone (F’51), 04/12/17
Dominic A. Tortorice (C’51), 04/12/17
Bibiane W. Walthew (N’51), 05/09/17
George D. Beauchamp (C’52), 04/07/17
Ralph B. Brown (F’52), 04/07/17
James P. Campbell (F’52), 01/31/18
Eugene R. Celiano (C’52), 12/31/17
Joseph E. De Jacomo (C’52), 04/07/17
J. William De Marinis, M.D. (C’52), 04/07/17
Frank G. Doelger (C’52), 06/09/17
Christiane Donahue (I’52), 10/06/17
James A. Fitzgerald (F’52), 06/22/17
George J. Gillespie III (C’52), 09/28/17
T. C. McArdle (F’52), 06/22/17
Brian George McDade, M.D. (C’52), 05/18/17
John A. Nelson (C’52), 12/31/17
Elaine S. Polen (N’52), 07/07/17
O. Jules Romary (C’52), 08/03/17
Theodore M. Schmidt (C’52), 04/12/17
42 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
Helen Twomey (N’52), 05/11/17
Richard D. Widman, D.D.S. (C’52, D’56), 04/12/17
Charles H. Acocella (C’53), 04/07/17
James S. Alexander, M.D. (C’53, M’57), 06/30/17
Charles J. Bartlett (C’53, L’61), 05/12/17
William H. Beard (C’53, L’55, B’62), 05/11/17
Gloria H. Brady (F’53), 04/03/17
Richard S. Chiarello (C’53), 04/07/17
Ivan A. Cosimi (F’53), 04/07/17
John C. Flanagan, Jr., M.D. (C’53), 06/22/17
Richard S. Henderson (F’53, L’57), 04/13/17
Sidney S. Herman (C’53), 04/10/17
Alexander A. Kiorpes (F’53), 04/11/17
Mary C. McLaughlin (N’53), 05/12/17
Andre L. Nagy (C’53), 06/26/17
Gerard J. Nappy (C’53), 09/28/17
John K. Nickerson (F’53, G’55), 04/10/17
Lawrence M. Pope (F’53), 05/11/17
Thomas E. Ray (F’53), 04/12/17
John R. Rura (F’53), 06/22/17
Henri M. Ryan (F’53, G’54), 10/06/17
Robert E. Schuett (C’53), 05/11/17
John Smith, Jr. (C’53), 04/12/17
John F. Stewart (F’53), 04/12/17
Americo Dos Santos Ventura (F’53), 10/06/17
Carvill F. Worrell (F’53), 05/19/17
Mary Ann Amann (N’54), 05/10/17
Charles J. Avallone, M.D. (C’54, M’58), 07/21/17
Thomas J. Bennett (F’54), 10/11/17
Richard W. Bourbon (C’54), 09/28/17
Frank A. Clair (C’54), 06/24/17
Edmund K. Daley, Jr. (C’54), 10/24/17
Charles J. Higgins (F’54), 11/03/17
Vincent A. Jacobs (F’54), 04/10/17
John M. McCague (C’54), 04/10/17
Robert R. O’Donnell (C’54), 04/12/17
Daniel R. Kane (F’54, L’56, L’64), 04/11/17
Geraldine T. Andreas (N’55), 05/10/17
Jill T. Lawrence (F’55), 04/05/17
Francis J. Major, Jr., M.D. (C’55), 04/11/17
Mary Burns McDonough (N’55), 10/03/17
John W. McOwen (C’55, L’57), 04/05/17
James J. Seabol (C’55), 04/12/17
James T. Vail, Jr., M.D. (C’55, M’59), 06/30/17
John P. Allen, M.D. (C’56), 04/07/17
George Codoley (F’56), 04/14/17
Paul R. Gibson (F’56), 04/05/17
Walter Vance Hall (F’56), 01/06/18
Daniel M. Head (C’56, L’62), 08/18/17
William J. Heffernan (C’56), 10/06/17
Thomas J. Ilaria, D.D.S. (C’56, D’60), 10/16/17
James M. Katsourus (C’56), 05/10/17
John E. Linnan, C.S.V. (C’56), 01/15/18
Charles Emmet Lucey (C’56, L’59), 09/27/17
Alfred B. McGarraghy (F’56), 08/05/17
John N. Moorhouse (F’56), 04/10/17
William G. Morley (C’56), 05/10/17
John J. Nash (C’56), 10/06/17
John R. Papson (F’56), 05/17/17
Leon H. Raesly (C’56), 05/11/17
Robert T. Sasaki (I’56), 04/13/17
Charles J. Slicklen, Jr. (C’56), 06/30/17
Lona Sottile (F’56), 06/05/17
William R. Thomas, Jr. (C’56), 04/14/17
John A. Waak (C’56, MA’63, Ph.D’72), 10/06/17
Marie Louise Fee Young (N’56), 01/23/18
Charles Cubellis (C’57), 05/11/17
Richard C. Du Brul (C’57), 06/22/17
Leo W. Dunn, Jr. (C’57, L’59), 01/03/18
Patrick C. Feany (F’57), 05/11/17
Peter L. Forbes (C’57), 11/17/17
Francis P. Griffith (C’57), 04/10/17
Jared F. Howard (F’57), 09/22/17
Edward M. Kovach (C’57, L’60), 10/03/17
Robert J. Miller (C’57, L’62, L’76), 10/23/17
Paul A. Molony (F’57), 04/13/17
Nelson E. Owen III (C’57), 04/10/17
William L. Sabbag (C’57), 04/12/17
Joseph F. Sheridan (C’57), 11/02/17
Frank Ahmed (F’58), 04/03/17
Ronald G. Borror (F’58), 04/07/17
Edward L. Frampton (C’58), 01/31/18
Anthony I. Giacobbe (C’58, L’61), 04/03/17
Thomas M. Keenan (C’58), 09/28/17
Richard V. Korab (C’58), 05/11/17
Raymond M. Lauerman, Jr. (F’58), 01/12/18
Jay F. MacNulty (C’58), 07/07/17
William M. Miller (F’58), 06/05/17
Terrence W. Rogers (F’58), 04/14/17
John J. Boyle (F’59), 12/10/17
Wade A. Burger (C’59), 05/10/17
David C. Callan (C’59, L’62), 01/03/18
William B. Cappock (C’59), 05/11/17
Eugene P. Cianciulli (C’59), 04/07/17
Henry P. Dougherty (F’59), 04/07/17
William E. Fasceski (I’59), 04/07/17
Edmund E. Fleming (F’59), 10/11/17
William J. Healy (C’59), 05/10/17
Henry J. Hudson, Jr. (F’59), 05/11/17
James A. Moorhouse (F’59), 09/28/17
Edward M. Mosher (F’59), 05/10/17
Paul L. Norton (C’59), 05/10/17
John E. Murphy, Jr. (C’59), 04/10/17
Richard F. Record, Jr. (F’59), 04/07/17
Elliott R. Shapiro (C’59), 05/11/17
Herbert M. Solomon, M.D. (C’59, M’63), 10/06/17
Edward F. Tralka (F’59), 08/31/17
John J. Whelan (C’59), 04/12/17
1960s
William H. Burke (F’60), 04/14/17
Thomas J. Carey (F’60), 05/10/17
Lorenz Iversen (C’60), 05/10/17
John J. Keenan III (C’60), 10/26/17
Donald E. Mowe (F’60), 04/01/15
Robert H. Perlitz, Jr. (F’60), 04/10/17
Richard E. Rael (C’60), 04/10/17
Raymond M. Shourds (F’60), 04/14/17
Jerome M. Sidel (F’60), 05/11/17
Charles W. Swisher (C’60), 05/11/17
David S. Taborn (F’60), 04/12/17
James D. Welch, Jr. (I’60), 10/04/17
George A. Williams, M.D. (C’60, M’64), 04/11/17
Graeme H. Wynne (F’60), 04/12/17
Charles M. Atwell (B’61), 12/16/17
William J. Beane (F’61, MA’79), 12/31/17
Ernest J. Belfi (C’61), 04/07/17
Harvey A. Buffalo, Jr. (C’61), 04/07/17
Roberta Brickley Casko, Ph.D. (N’61), 07/27/17
Charles J. Doyle, M.D. (C’61), 10/19/17
Gloria A. Eckert (I’61), 05/10/17
Carroll F. Ingalls (F’61), 04/10/17
John O. La Gorce II (I’61), 05/11/17
Stephen V. McGrath (C’61), 04/10/17
Katherine I. Neville (F’61), 04/12/17
Earll H. Nikkel (C’61), 09/28/17
John W. O’Connell (C’61), 04/10/17
James R. Sullivan (C’61), 05/10/17
James B. Tunny (F’61), 05/10/17
Leo E. Vincent (B’61), 05/11/17
VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu 43
Rosalind L. Yee (F’61), 10/25/17
Nestora M. Calabia (C’62), 04/07/17
Miles Charest (SLL’62), 04/12/17
Anthony R. Faraldo, M.D., (C’2, M’66) 04/11/17
Frederic W. Good (C’62), 09/28/17
John A. Keats (C’62), 01/10/18
Kenneth C. S. Kim, Jr. (C’62), 05/10/17
Robert Courtney Mangone (C’62), 10/23/17
Peter S. Mendelis, M.D. (C’62, M’66, R’70), 10/03/17
Barry C. Mergardt (C’62), 12/12/16
Francis A. Naughton (B’62), 04/12/17
Frederick E. Popovitch, Jr., Esq. (C’62), 06/22/17
Paul T. Ranni (C’62), 05/11/17
Richard L. Sullivan (C’62), 05/10/17
Edward M. Trietley (F’62), 04/12/17
John A. Trocki, Jr. (F’62), 04/12/17
Joseph B. Walsh, M.D. (C’62, M’66), 09/29/17
Frederick V. Brooks (B’63), 09/15/17
Ferdinand J. Carillo, M.D. (C’63), 04/12/17
Richard C. Chiaro (C’63), 04/07/17
Clement B. Knapp, Jr. (C’63), 09/28/17
Charles M. Lynch III (B’63), 06/24/17
Michael P. Maguire (C’63), 05/11/17
Julius H.U. Anamelechi (I’64), 04/07/17
Donn E. Carr (C’64), 04/07/17
William P. Kells (C’64), 05/11/17
Thomas C. Orr (I’64, MS’73), 06/30/17
Raymond M. Soo (C’64), 09/27/17
William D. Watkins (F’64), 10/17/17
Patricia A. Cockram (I’65), 05/11/17
James J. Doherty (B’65), 06/22/17
Robert R. Hoar (F’65), 05/19/17
Thomas J. Klinedinst, Jr. (C’65), 07/24/17
Peter S. Zavestoski (F’65), 04/12/17
Kevin P. Connell (B’65), 02/19/17
David J. Miller (C’65), 04/10/17
Edmond B. O’Connell (F’65, L’68), 09/15/17
Sharon W. Barnard (I’66), 04/14/17
Luis M. Estefani (B’66), 04/07/17
John C. Swanson (C’66), 06/24/17
William H. Kirby (C’66), 09/28/17
Carol J. Sudol (N’66), 10/27/17
Joon W. Suh (F’66), 11/01/17
Richard M. Aagaard (F’67), 04/03/17
Robert F. Bouchard (F’67), 09/28/17
Patricia Serlin Helsing (I’67), 04/14/17
Robert J. Kantz, II (C’67), 10/25/17
William R. Kreisher (F’67), 05/09/17
Anthony J. McMahon (F’67), 05/10/17
David C. Robertson (F’67), 04/13/17
John F. Ryan (B’67), 07/14/17
Helen A. Stephens (N’67), 05/10/17
Lee Subluskey (C’67), 04/12/17
Frederick A. Vanden Heede (C’67), 10/06/17
David J. Kammer (F’68), 06/29/17
Robert J. Lipari, M.D. (C’68), 05/04/17
Michael P. McShane (B’68), 04/10/17
Albert O. O’Rourke (C’68), 05/11/17
Eugenia Farrell (F’69), 05/11/17
Terence J. Fortune (C’69, L’74), 10/03/17
Richard C. Gaunt (F’69), 09/28/17
Michael Hogye (C’69), 01/10/18
P. John Owen (C’69), 11/04/17
Joseph E. Skaggs III (B’69), 04/12/17
1970s
Cecelia Z. Novak (N’70), 05/11/17
Kathleen Sylvester (F’71), 05/19/17
Scott J. Wolas (F’71), 05/11/17
James Michael Doyle (C’72), 04/07/17
Timothy Robert Graham (F’72), 11/21/17
Francis J. Hanssens, Jr. (F’72), 01/26/18
Brian Edward Kline (F’72), 04/10/17
James Crawford Murray (C’72), 12/14/17
Leonard S. Sawicki (F’72), 01/02/18
Stephen P. Elmendorf (C’73), 04/05/17
Sylvia E. Heldreth (I’73), 04/10/17
Barry Michael Knudsen (F’73), 04/19/17
John F. Piroman (I’73), 04/10/17
James Richard Zikmund (C’73), 04/12/17
Vincent M. Gaughan, Jr. (B’74), 01/11/18
William B. Hurd, Jr. (C’75), 06/23/17
David L. Kosakowski (F’75), 05/11/17
Louis L. Ceruzzi, Jr. (C’76), 09/28/17
Terence P. Chin (F’76), 04/12/17
Stephen P. Connelly (B’76), 09/28/17
William T. Konczynin (C’76), 04/10/17
Elizabeth M. Ryan (C’77), 04/12/17
Jesse J. Smith, Jr. (B’77), 04/14/17
Stephen A. McNabb (C’78), 09/28/17
Edward Kevin Flynn (C’79), 10/16/17
Jeanne M. Mion (N’79), 06/24/17
1980s
Joseph E. Costello (C’80, L’84), 07/12/17
Michael Curtin (B’80), 12/15/17
Neil David Hathaway (C’81), 04/10/17
Ross A. Hugo-Vidal (C’81), 09/28/17
Patricia Kelly (C’81), 04/05/17
Matthew S. St. Jepcevich (F’82), 04/12/17
Charles D. MacLachlan (F’82), 09/28/17
Emily M. McHale (C’82), 04/14/17
Frank D. Polito (C’82, L’85), 01/15/18
Susan C. Garwood (C’83), 12/24/17
Jose J. Areizaga (F’84), 06/29/17
Jorge Humberto Suarez (B’84), 04/12/17
Margaret Mary Howard (N’85), 01/07/18
Eleonora M. Luciano (F’85), 08/31/17
Jon W. Peterson, Jr. (B’85), 05/18/17
Charles P. Rocha (F’85), 01/17/18
Alexandra Oswald (F’86), 10/04/17
John David Dressing (F’87), 12/18/17
Kathryn Rosemary McLaughlin (C’87), 09/28/17
Cynthia K. Cohen (N’88), 04/11/17
Barry K. Hargrove (C’88), 10/06/17
Keith H. Skigen (B’89), 06/22/15
1990s
Stacy R. Hart (C’90), 04/10/17
Erica Lynn Hamilton (C’91), 01/17/18
J.P. Borella (B’93), 11/30/17
Charles Bum Kim (B’95), 04/10/17
Michael Gaetano Ramieri (C’95), 01/24/18
Elizabeth Hood Catelinet (C’96), 09/13/17
Gordon Matthew Walsh (B’96), 10/02/17
Marc D. Martin (N’97), 04/14/17
Amy Widsten Van Buskirk, Ph.D. (F’97), 07/27/17
2000s
Nicholas J. Quinonez (C’03), 10/03/17
Nicholas S. Stroemer (B’03), 04/03/17
Jessica Ruth Caroe (C’06), 05/22/12
Joseph A. Glasse (C’07), 04/10/17
Aaron Wong (F’07), 07/28/17
Anand S. Appulingam (B’08, L’14), 05/18/17
2010s
Reginald P. Wiley, Jr. (C’14), 07/20/17
Leo M. Doran (C’15), 09/21/17
44 GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
GEORGETOWN MAGAZINE 2115 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20007 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID Washington, DC PERMIT NO. 3901