Georgetown Magazine Spring 2020

FACT FINDER

Megan Twohey (C’98)

Broke the Harvey Weinstein Story and Helped Reignite

#MeToo

14 CITY AS CLASSROOM

Generations of Hoyas have come to Georgetown to be in Washington, D.C. A new one-semester program, the CALL, makes the city the classroom.

20

UNCOVERING THE WEINSTEIN STORY

With her reporting partner Jodi Kantor, New York Times investigative reporter Megan Twohey (C’98) broke the Harvey Weinstein story in 2017, reigniting a global movement.

26 ON VIEW

The Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery dedicates its content to teaching and issues important to Georgetown while contributing to visual arts culture in Washington.

03 CAMPUS NEWS

12 CELEBRATION OF THE CENTURY

32 50 YEARS OF WOMEN IN THE COLLEGE

34 ALUMNI NEWS AND PROFILES

46 LIVES WELL LIVED

COVID-19 AND GEORGETOWN

Georgetown Magazine is sharing key information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on campus and on the alumni community, current as of mid-April.

• How Georgetown University is Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic, page 3

• COVID-19 Alumni Resources and Updates, page 48

Updated information is available at georgetown.edu/coronavirus

Cover photo: Jake Chessum

FROM THE EDITOR

It is the first week of April, and I am teleworking from my home office—formerly known as the dining table—putting the final touches on this spring issue of Georgetown Magazine. Like everything we are all experiencing, this last-minute review is done through the lens that we are living through unprecedented events. We made some changes to the magazine to provide an overview of how Georgetown is responding and being proactive during this COVID-19 crisis (see pages 3 and 48). I hope that you will take some time to read it. We share it in the spirit that the magazine needs to be relevant to you and with an understanding that how the university reacts and plans will change, often quickly. The overview has a short list of ways to stay informed and connected, key among them the university’s COVID-19 Resource web page, georgetown.edu/coronavirus, which has up-to-date information.

Whether or not I plan it, the theme of the editor’s letter always ends up being how amazed and inspired I am by the Georgetown University community. Today there are faculty members influencing the national conversation about the crisis, and students and alumni working on the front lines of health care delivery, public safety, and public service. As always, faculty members generously share their expertise. The university’s spiritual leadership continues to serve, if virtually, offering the community a dimension not found at most universities. The university’s deep care for students can be found in efforts ranging from offering health and well-being assistance virtually to remaining a home for a small number of students with a compelling need to stay on campus rather than returning to their permanent home addresses. The university is committed to assisting students who need various kinds of help. To learn more about the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund for Students, go to giving.georgetown.edu/covid_19-student-support.

The magazine staff is collecting and researching stories about Georgetown’s response to the virus as it continues to unfold, both on campus and in the lives of our alumni community, to use in the fall issue. We want to hear from you. How has the pandemic affected you? How have you responded in ways large and small? Are you serving on the front lines of health care delivery? Sewing masks or delivering food to shut-ins? Balancing telework and teaching your children? We want your stories and story ideas. Please send us an email at magazine@georgetown.edu. We’ll use as many story ideas as we can.

Georgetown is a strong and caring community. Please take good care of yourselves and others.

—Jeffrey Donahoe

Office of Advancement

R. Bartley Moore (SFS’87)

Vice President for Advancement

Amy Levin

Associate Vice President for Communications

Georgetown Magazine Staff

Jeffrey Donahoe, Editor

Kate Colwell, Campus News Editor

Chelsea Burwell (G’16), Alumni News Editor

Editorial Team: Gueinah Blaise (C’20), Kaela Jackson (C’18), Brittany Matter, Richie Mullaney (C’18), Camille Scarborough

Erin Mary Greene, Executive Creative Director for Communications

Elisa Morsch, Creative Director

Phil Humnicky, University Photographer

Paul Jones, University Photographer

Design courtesy of Washingtonian Custom Media

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Email: magazine@georgetown.edu

Address changes: 202-687-1994 or email alumnirecords@georgetown.edu

Spring 2020, Volume 51, 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.

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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 goodfaith 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

How Georgetown University is Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Fellow Hoyas,

As we live through events that few of us would have imagined possible even a month ago, I wanted to share with you how Georgetown is faring in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

Our community is at its strongest when we care for ourselves and one another. Our commitment to the welfare of the members of our Georgetown family has been the driving focus of our crisis response.

Caring for our students, staff, and faculty

Our most significant move was to transition to a virtual learning environment for our students and remote work for our faculty and staff. But because our priority has been ensuring that members of our community are supported throughout this disruption, campus has remained open, and critical services—food, campus police and emergency, student health and mental health services—have been available to those who need them.

Students who could not feasibly return home have been allowed to stay on campus, and the University has been working to assist and support every student who requires help during this time of transition and uncertainty, including meeting the unexpected costs of returning home, accessing distance learning, and replacing lost income.

To support our staff and faculty during this crisis, the University has temporarily expanded GUCares—an emergency fund to assist employees who are experiencing financial hardship—to include all staff, AAPs, faculty, and temporary employees, regardless of their roles or time with the University.

Transitioning to virtual learning

While distance-learning cannot substitute in full for the in-person experience, the University’s 20-plus-year investment in technology-enhanced and technology-aided teaching and learning has been an extraordinary resource for us. Our students have been able to finish their semester’s work, our seniors and

graduate students in their final years will be able to graduate on time, and life maintains some semblance of normalcy.

Providing a source of strength and connection

Although all university-sponsored in-person events and gatherings for this academic year have been postponed, Georgetown has redoubled its efforts on the virtual front. I encourage you to explore the wealth of events and information available online at alumni.georgetown.edu/virtual-resources

At a time of uncertainty and physical separation, I take great solace in the strength of this community. As we navigate the coming weeks and months, please know that you—that we— are not alone. Georgetown, and the people of Georgetown, are here for us. Although we can’t be together physically, our institutional, individual, and collective commitment to the Jesuit ethos that calls us to be people for others serves us well now, and we carry on confident that we can endure what lies ahead if we support each other unreservedly.

I wish you all the best at this challenging time and encourage you to reach out, to me and to one another.

R. Bartley Moore (SFS’87) Vice President, Advancement Georgetown University

Our community is at its strongest when we care for ourselves and one another.

Rhodes Scholarship Winner Promotes Disability Inclusion

The next time you step onto a train or use a public restroom, consider what such a small act might be like for someone with mobility impairment. Senior global health major Sara Rotenberg (NHS’20) is a champion for disability inclusion and equity in international development projects. She earned a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford University for her work to influence policy and her innovative design ideas related to assistive technologies for persons with disabilities.

The prestigious scholarship builds on Rotenberg’s two projects last summer in India. The first examined the inaccessibility of transit systems and the second involved developing a transportable, collapsible stool for people with disabilities and mobility challenges.

Her research in India focuses on the Mumbai Metro—a transit system under construction that will alleviate congestion issues in the railway network. Rotenberg says that the stations’ stairs and large gaps between the platforms and the trains pose severe accessibility barriers to passengers with disabilities. “The Mumbai Metro is one of the largest development infrastructure projects in the world, and it has the potential to be transformative in this area,” Rotenberg says.

To be more inclusive of people with disabilities, she recommends implementing accessible features during construction

that would add only 1 percent to the cost. “Building a ramp alleviates congestion and contributes to the goal of universal access. It also reduces costs compared to renovating a station later on,” she says.

Rotenberg aims to make sure all development projects consider the intersections of the target population’s identities. She says that overall, international development is becoming more inclusive but has room to grow. For example, the United Nations observes World Toilet Day to improve sanitation awareness through global development but focuses on the basic human rights of women when there is an opportunity to also consider how universal design principles would simultaneously improve the rights of people with disabilities.

Rotenberg’s research is made possible by The Georgetown India Initiative, the Georgetown Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, and the Office of the Provost. She says these previous experiences helped her get to Oxford, where the full funding of the Rhodes will help her continue to make a difference. “My goal is to contribute a body of evidence that says we should be thinking about including disability challenges in our development policy around the world.”

Sara Rotenberg (NHS’20) rides the Western Railway, which services commuters in Mumbai, India. These trains do not have doors, to allow quick boarding, but the gaps between platform and train pose accessibility barriers that Rotenberg studies. | Photo: Ainsley Trahan (F’19)

Classroom Robots Assist Remote Learners

Students Andrew Zubiri and Aaron Joya are huddled around a table in the Car Barn working on a group project with their classmate Anne Jillian Dumanat. Dumanat swivels her head to hear her teammate tell a joke. She laughs—all the way from Doha, Qatar. Georgetown’s Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) graduate program is piloting telepresence robots to bring distance learners and classroom-based learners face-to-face. In fall 2019 , the program tested Kubi robots, whose name means “neck” in Japanese. These tabletop devices have two toothbrush-like prongs that hold a tablet computer in place over a base, allowing a user to swivel their video screen with a range of motion similar to that of a head on a neck. The robot can operate from anywhere in the world, is simple to use, and is relatively inexpensive.

LDT focuses on identifying problems or needs for students and educators and looking for tools and strategies to meet those needs,” says Instructional Designer Randal Ellsworth. In a class comprising distance and in-person learners, LDT faculty identified a problem: The only way to include remote learners was to set up a video conference with stationary screens mounted on flat walls. Although the technology was functional, it did not fit the way humans socially interact.

“We do a lot of small-group activities that require engagement among students who are at a distance with those in the physical classroom,” says Professor Yianna Vovides, director of research and learning design. “We discovered that students at a distance didn’t feel as included in the activities.”

Changing the physical infrastructure of the classroom to be more inclusive of distance learners can be expensive, so the

program identified the Kubi robots to integrate with their existing stock of iPads.

“Kubis allow distance students to have more control over what’s happening in the physical space,” says Vovides. “They are able to move the Kubi up, down, left, and right to see what’s happening. They can zoom in or out.” Additionally, the lightweight Kubi can be picked up from any table and moved to another surface when classes split into groups.

Eddie Maloney, executive director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and founding director of LDT, says that adapting to the needs of future learners is a priority for Georgetown. “The university is looking at classrooms of the future, trying to understand that a one-size classroom does not fit all,” says Maloney. The future of higher ed is not going to all be residential or online institutions—teaching will more and more be a hybrid between the two.

As college student populations increasingly shift away from full-time, traditional-age learners, Maloney says, forwardthinking colleges are building in flexibility for both intentional and unintentional remote learning needs. Equity and inclusion, he says, requires designing learning opportunities for students who have children at home, who must care for a parent, who travel for work, who communicate better through writing than in-person discussion, who have a disability, or who get sick partway through a semester.

“Life changes unexpectedly,” says Maloney. “As a Jesuit institution, we want to meet students where they are and reach as many students as possible.”

L-R: Prof. Yianna Vovides and students Andrew Zubiri, Aaron Joya, and Anne Jillian Dumanat (on screen from Doha, Qatar) discuss how people learn with technology during their fall 2019 Methods of Learning and Design course. | Photo: Moruomi Li

The Benefits and Barriers of Genetic Testing

How accurately can we identify risks for cancer, and who has access to affordable services? These are questions that Beth N. Peshkin, M.S., LCGC, one of the nation’s few genetic counseling experts to become a full professor, asks at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Peshkin, professor of oncology and director of cancer genetic counseling at Georgetown Lombardi, leads a team of counselors who perform risk assessments, provide information about genetic testing options, and determine patients’ goals and preferences with regard to their health and that of their families. A twoand-a-half-decade veteran in the field, Peshkin embraces the humbling experience of counseling across generations within a family. She describes how one woman’s test results, alerting her to an inherited risk for breast and ovarian cancer, prompted her to not only be screened for breast cancer but also to start a larger dialogue about genetic testing among her loved ones.

“It’s a reminder to me, when I think about her and her family, about the impact of what we do,” Peshkin shares, explaining that while the woman was diagnosed with very early-stage breast cancer, she is now in remission. “I still smile when she tells me she can remember some of the exact words that I used when we had our counseling session. That’s how powerful these moments are.”

Yet barriers exist to genetic assessments. Many physicians are under-informed about the potential benefits of genetic testing

and miss opportunities to refer high-risk patients. Concerns about genetic discrimination, such as the prospect of losing health insurance or employment, costs for testing, and strict insurance criteria, have also been potential barriers for individuals. Peshkin says that education and advocacy can help surmount challenges, but only if people have access to affordable counseling.

“We know that non-white populations, particularly Latinx and African-American populations, are less likely to obtain genetic counseling,” says Peshkin. “Particularly for people who don’t have insurance, it’s a fair question for them to ask, ‘If you tell me I’m at an increased risk but I can’t access care and screenings, what good is this for me?’ So the whole system needs to come together to be more beneficial for people.”

Peshkin is hopeful that genetic consultations will become more commonplace for patients as consumer-directed testing—in which a physician orders a test, then a lab offers results and counseling—increases in popularity. The rising use of artificially intelligent chatbots to deliver information is also morphing traditional models, but not replacing the need for human contact. As Peshkin puts it, “There’s still an important role for the human touch that we provide before and after testing to help patients realize the benefits of this information for themselves and their family.”

Beth Peshkin, left, professor of oncology and director of genetic counseling at Georgetown Lombardi, works with patients, many of whom have family histories of cancer.

Simplifying a Civic Duty

When Andrew Straky (C’20) first registered to vote in his home state of Michigan, he learned that there was a law requiring that state citizens vote in person at least once before they can vote absentee. Straky had already turned 18 and had voted in person before he left for college, “but some of my peers faced an unnecessary barrier,” he recalls.

The Michigan law has since been overturned, but for Straky the experience left an impression. Now he’s a senior government major working for voting rights as the leader of a nonpartisan student group called GU Votes, housed within the Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

“Students should be focusing on whom to vote for, not how to do it,” says Straky, who joined GU Votes shortly after arriving on the Hilltop.

Prior to the 2016 presidential election, the group wanted to get 1 , 000 students registered; they exceeded that goal by more than 600 . By the 2018 midterms, 84 8 percent of eligible Georgetown students were registered to vote thanks to GU Votes initiatives like “Storm the Dorms.”

The next step was to institutionalize voter-registration efforts, but helping students from 50 states with 50 different voter-registration processes proved complex. The student leaders of GU Votes turned to a national nonprofit, The Andrew Goodman Foundation. The foundation, also nonpartisan, worked with GU

Votes to customize its student portal called My.VoteEverywhere and provided key funding and advis ing.

“Some of the most innovative and expansive student-voting programming in the country is being created and executed by GU Votes,” says Taryn Dwyer of The Andrew Goodman Foundation. “Georgetown is the first partner in the Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere network to utilize our My.VoteEverywhere portal and customize it to meet the exact needs of their students. This, in addition to their face-to-face outreach, is one of the most wellrounded student-voting initiatives in our program.”

GU Votes eventually persuaded Georgetown to incorporate their digital voter-registration portal into the course registration site used by students. “The university’s response was overwhelmingly positive,” says Straky. “We got it set up in eight weeks, including testing. Our goal now is 100 percent voter registration, aided by the voter portal’s new availability not just for current students on Main Campus and studying abroad but for graduate students and recent alumni as well.”

“Of all the initiatives we’ve launched through the Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School, GU Votes is one my favorites,” says Mo Elleithee (F’94), founding executive director of the institute. “The best part is it was conceived and run by students who wanted to make it easier for their peers on campus to vote. They’ve hustled and organized to drastically increase youth voter participation—and including voter registration with class registration has the potential to be game-changing.”

Students table for National Voter Registration Day in September 2019. |

Photo: Katie Corey

SFS-Qatar Student Mitigates Tribal Conflicts in Somaliland

What are the key contributors to tribal conflict? A lack of water and grazing land contribute to clashes for pastoralist communities like the one in which Mustafe Axmed (F’21) grew up. But more than anything, nepotism in politics drives discord, says this student of international economics at the School of Foreign Service-Qatar. “The government doesn’t provide the social services that people need.”

As the debut first-year student to receive a $ 10 , 000 Projects for Peace award from Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ), Axmed sought to improve his community in the Republic of Somaliland. In summer 2019 , he created a storytelling project with three local colleagues to reach young people most vulnerable to tribal conflict and connect them through social media.

“Fifty percent of the population is younger than 25 , and most of them are unemployed, so engaging with destructive action is tempting for them,” says Axmed. “We wanted to connect and inspire them to do simple things that will take them out of that mindset.”

Axmed traveled to the site of a recent tribal conflict to give local youth the chance to tell their stories. There, a young man recounted how his school principal discriminated against his tribe and deterred him from attending school, which made him want to run away from home. Using Facebook, Axmed and his team shared these stories with 30 , 000 people. Moving forward, they will work with the Somalia Diaspora Forum.

Axmed’s goals to support civil society exemplify the mission of CSJ’s Projects for Peace. While CSJ supports social justice initiatives led by students that prioritize local community engagement, their award program asks undergraduates to design grassroots summer projects that creatively repair human conflicts and build sustainable peace. “There’s a focus on doing work in your community versus parachuting into other areas to make a change,” says Amanda Munroe (G’12), associate director for mission curricular integration at CSJ. “The most compelling projects are from students who are already involved in their communities.”

Past projects, which are all supported by the Davis United World College Scholars Program, have spanned the globe, and award recipients have gone on to launch social impact organizations based on their projects. One award recipient, Haroon Yasin (F’15 ), was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for his work in Pakistan educating refugee children and co-founding the educational organization Orenda with Ahwaz Akhtar (F’16 , G’19).

Axmed says the award project inspired him to continue researching conflicts and dedicate himself to social work. “No matter where I go, there’s always this negative image of our country and people, and I want to contribute to erasing that image,” says Axmed. “I don’t want my children to experience it as they grow up.”

Religious scholar Sh. Faysal Ali Faarax, professor Ali Mahdi, poet Axmed Cabdi Xirsi, mediator Xariir Iimaan, and Kaltuun Maxamed speak at a panel organized by Mustafe Axmed (F’21) and held in Burco, in the Republic of Somaliland, in August 2019. The panel was targeted at young people interested in learning and talking about the reasons for tribal conflict and how to address it. | Photo: Mukhtaar Xareed for Hir Media.

Meet Georgetown’s First Chaplain for Athletics

Tony Mazurkiewicz has more than two decades of ministerial and leadership positions in education and social services. He previously served as director of the John Main Center for Meditation and Inter-Religious Dialogue before debuting the athletics chaplaincy in fall 2019

You were captain of the varsity football team as an undergraduate at Yale. What was your faith experience there, and how are you drawing on it now?

Every Sunday during the season, I’d be in the back of the church with a few other players, icing my knees after the previous day’s game. More seriously, I would attend church with several athletes from other teams. Yale doesn’t have a 450 -year-old Jesuit mission like Georgetown, so we had to find each other and rely on one another for spiritual support. At Georgetown, I’m really grateful to be a voice inviting students across our 29 teams to come together and share their spiritual questions and experiences.

What unique challenges face student-athletes, and how can Campus Ministry be of help?

Given their demanding academic, training, and athletic schedules, it’s hard for student-athletes to participate in Campus Ministry’s plethora of retreats, prayer groups, and weekly chaplain teas. First and foremost, I hope to build a stronger bridge between Campus Ministry and athletics. We are trying to help our student-athletes tap into these programs and determine what programming we might need to create. I spent the fall in

discernment mode listening to students, coaches, and staff on how to grow what’s already alive and well in athletics.

In January, you held your first student-athlete retreat with the women’s lacrosse team. How did it go?

Great! In addition to me, the retreat team was Erica Foce, Ph.D., CMPC, head of athletics counseling services, and Maya Ozery, Ph.D. director of the Cooper Athletics Leadership Program. We spent 24 hours at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center. The goal was for teammates to connect. We worked on a mission statement for the team, engaged in a discernment process, discussed our values, meditated, and shared stories. The team had stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery on the way to the retreat, and it was great to unpack that experience. They were a wonderful example of cura personalis —the Jesuit value of care for the person—as embodied as a team.

At its core, what does your job entail?

I think my role is to accompany student-athletes, coaches, and staff in support of their ongoing spiritual growth and formation. That means meeting our student-athletes, coaches, and staff where they are. I celebrate the joys they’re experiencing in their particular sports and in their lives. I walk with them, particularly as a listener when they experience challenges. I hold the space for the Divine, for Mystery, for God, however people come into that conversation with me.

Some of the work of Tony Mazurkiewicz, chaplain to athletics, fits into the tight schedules of student-athletes such as men’s cross country/ track team members Maazin Ahmed and Joshua Bell.

Students Sweeten Business Opportunities Through UHustle

It’s study week, and students prepping for fall 2019 finals are draped over the comfortable furniture in the Healey Family Student Center. Down a hallway, students take a break to dart into a room and stand in line. It’s not a speaker that’s drawing them, not a study group—it’s the unmistakable smell of cotton candy.

Ed Shen (B’23) spins three colors made-to-order, smiling broadly while handing out free cones of sugar clouds. He is helping promote UHustle, an online marketplace developed by Christy Felix (B’21) to connect Georgetown students running side businesses with potential customers, especially other students. Shen and his cotton candy business, Sugared, are joined by a DJ, a videographer, and a photographer promoting their businesses. Felix works the room, scoping out entrepreneurs-in-the-making.

More than 20 self-named “hustlers,” or vendors, leverage the UHustle web-based virtual marketplace connecting student vendors and customers. Hustlers pay a small monthly fee to use the platform, which streamlines everything from marketing to collecting payments, all in one place.

“At the beginning, some people were doubtful that studentto-student purchasing would work,” Felix says. “But college students want to help other college students.”

Felix hopes to expand the UHustle model to other universities, but for now she’s focused on Georgetown. She uses what she calls “organic marketing”—social media and word of mouth, plus good old-fashioned flyers—to increase exposure for students with side businesses. In the last eight weeks of the fall semester, hustlers had collectively made $ 600 through the UHustle platform.

Six hundred dollars in earnings can mean a lot for a college student, especially those receiving financial aid. Felix actively looks to recruit students of color.

“College is expensive for everyone, but even more so for people of color,” she says. “Many of them are putting themselves through Georgetown. They are balancing college costs and classes. It’s a struggle.” Introducing UHustle to students of color has been the fastest way to recruit, she says.

Felix depended on her side hustle to pay for college, so it was important to her to find new customers to pay her bills. In her first year, she struggled to gain exposure for her hair-braiding business. She knew students needed her services but they didn’t know how to find her. That’s when she thought of UHustle—a place where students like her “can gain traction and expand their side hustles,” she says.

Christy Felix (B’21) hosts campus events to meet potential student entrepreneurs. | Photo: Lisa Helfert

UHustle won a significant investment when Felix earned $ 30 , 000 for placing first in the 2019 Bark Tank entrepreneurial pitch competition. Bark Tank empowers aspiring student entrepreneurs to develop businesses with the potential for wide-ranging impact. Bark Tank is supported by Ted Leonsis (C’77), founder and CEO of the Washington-based production company Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Competitors vied for a total of $ 100 , 000 in Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prizes. Felix is using the prize money to improve the website’s user experience by making the back end easier for vendors to manage their businesses. She’s also adding a search engine to find students not only at Georgetown but also at nearby colleges.

Hustler Natalia Suska (B’22) describes herself as a quantitative person and is a Georgetown McDonough student, but she’s running a photography business through UHustle. She has taken portraits of many fellow students and was the first hustler to land a customer outside of the Georgetown community, but she didn’t know how to start selling before UHustle. “With UHustle, I finally have a platform and website, and Christy has so many promotional events,” she says.

Georgetown friends told DJ Khendrick Beausoleil (C’20) that he was good enough to charge, and after DJing at a UHustle

event he received requests for many more Georgetown gigs, for which he was able to receive payment through the website.

“It’s been crazy,” he says. “UHustle gave me a more business-like platform. Before, my work was all word-of-mouth.”

Sports videographer, writer, and photographer for The Georgetown Voice, Daelyn Waters (C’23), is new to UHustle and appreciates the high level of support that Felix gave her right from the beginning. “She hosts events that help introduce us to potential customers,” Waters says. “Her genuine efforts to promote others not only furthers our individual business aspirations but enhances the level of community within the UHustle family.”

Cotton candy king Ed Shen missed the treats he made at home, so he invested in a new machine and decided to start making cotton candy on campus. He says that UHustle helps build his visibility, helping him get business from Georgetown students and clubs alike. “I never thought about making it a business—it was a friend who suggested that I start charging and another who told me about UHustle.”

“I didn’t get into this to make a ton of money—I just love cotton candy,” he says. “But thanks to UHustle and the visibility and credibility it gave me, I was able to make my interest in cotton candy profitable.”

Clockwise from top left: Cotton candy entrepreneur Ed Shen (B’23) provides his favorite tasty treat to campus club events. | Photographer Natalia Suska (B’22) was the first UHustle member to have an off-campus customer. | DJ Khendrick Beausoleil (C’20) says that UHustle is moving his word-of-mouth marketing to a more business-like platform. | Christy Felix (B’21), founder of UHustle, took home first prize and $30,000 at the November 2019 Bark Tank competition, which financially supports business ventures created by Georgetown entrepreneurs. Felix is flanked by Jeff Reid, founding director, Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Ted Leonsis (C’77), founder and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Bark Tank supporter. | Photos: Lisa Helfert and Phil Humnicky

This page: More than 1,000 alumni and friends attended the celebration gala. Below: The weekend included lively discussion and engagement across a diverse range of attendees. | SFS Dean Joel Hellman welcomed guests to the gala, held at the National Building Museum. Facing page: Day one of the celebration concluded with a closing plenary moderated by SFS Dean Joel Hellman, far left. Panelists were: General George Casey Jr. (F’70), 36th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army; former U.S. Secretary of State and SFS professor Madeleine Albright; and former CIA director George Tenet (F’76). They discussed the tools and strategies available to diplomats in the 21st century and how the responsibilities will evolve in the future.

| President Bill Clinton (F’68) talks with His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain (MSFS’95). |

Photos: Leslie Kossoff

THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE TURNS 100

Founded in 1919 to prepare the nation for new global leadership in the devastating wake of World War I, the School of Foreign Service has a legacy of educating professional diplomats, public servants, business leaders, and even presidents around the world. The SFS Centennial, a yearlong celebration of the school’s mission, reflects on and honors that legacy while looking to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead—as well as what skills future SFS graduates will need to carry that legacy into its second century.

To celebrate this historic milestone, this past November the SFS Centennial Gala Weekend brought more than 1,600 SFS alumni, parents, and friends back to campus and Washington, D.C., for 17 panels discussing critical current challenges, such as Russian influence around the world, climate change, forced migration, and the impact of innovative science and new technologies on our increasingly digital world. The weekend’s activities—complemented by the experiences of legislators, former White House staff members, diplomats, and faith leaders—reflected on the past and contemplated what’s in store for the 21st century.

To conclude the celebration, guests gathered in the National Building Museum for the SFS Centennial Gala, which featured music and reflections by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, remarks by former President Bill Clinton (F’68), and the presentation of Centennial Honors to Judith Sherman (F’82), Chad Griffin (F’97), and Austin Tice (F’02, L’13), three outstanding members of the SFS community whose accomplishments have exemplified Georgetown’s Jesuit values.

Some of the goals of the Centennial are to make ambitious investments in the faculty and curriculum, add new learning experiences, expand the global reach of programming, and create a state-of-the art physical space to prepare graduates for the challenges they will face in service of our global community.

AS CLASSROOM

BY JEFFREY DONAHOE

Uwe Brandes gathers the nine Georgetown undergraduates taking his walking tour of Capitol Hill’s historic Eastern Market neighborhood around him on a chilly January morning. Before they take off on foot, Brandes, who is director of the urban and regional planning program at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies, reminds the students that they won’t be seeing any traditional historic sites and asks them to think about the smaller scale of the streets and houses in the neighborhood as compared to Washington’s iconic federal buildings and monuments.

Students in the spring 2020 CALL program tour the Eastern Market neighborhood as part of the semester-long City Seminar. | Photos: Lisa Helfert and Phil Humnicky

An early tour stop is Eastern Market itself, the vision for which was part of the original 1790s plan for the city. It is one of the oldest continually operating markets in the United States. The students check out the brick building’s vaulted ceilings and the dozens of market stalls bursting with fresh meats, colorful fruits and vegetables, and tempting baked goods.

As they leave the market building, Brandes gives the students their first mandatory assignment: Come back to the market on a Saturday, when even more vendors’ stalls will fill the space, both inside and outside the building, and customers will shop cheekto-cheek at this popular cornerstone of the neighborhood— coming not just for groceries but to be part of what Brandes calls “a mecca for community.”

Attending a market might be an unusual Georgetown class assignment, but not for these students, who are participating in the new Georgetown CALL program, a one-semester immersion into Washington as a city—not the federal city, but the city that’s home to more than 700,000 Washingtonians.

Downtown immersion

The CALL—short for Capital Applied Learning Labs—launched in the fall 2019 semester. The program gets students off the Hilltop for a semester to immerse themselves in Washington by working, taking classes, and living downtown. Any undergraduate can apply, with enrolled students moving from Main Campus to a downtown residence hall, taking Georgetown courses, and working in credit-bearing internships for 15 to 20 hours a week, all while staying on track for graduation. This academic year, classes have been held at the School of Continuing Studies’ downtown building. In fall 2020, the CALL will move to a more permanent home in a newly purchased building at 500 First Street, N.W. Six students (four seniors, one junior, and one sophomore) participated in the

first semester of the CALL, and they proudly consider themselves pioneers. Nine students (two seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, and one first-year) are in CALL in the spring 2020 seminar.

Ask the students from both semesters to explain the CALL, and they describe it as a “study-abroad experience in D.C.,” referring to its immersive nature. Living off campus and largely curtailing their visits to and participation in activities on the Hilltop, students focus on getting to know the city as residents. They shop for groceries, explore the city on foot and by Metro. For some students, taking public transportation is a new experience.

The students also say that in addition to the D.C. immersion, the combination of classes and required internships gives them a foot in both the academic and professional worlds.

It’s an experience Georgetown hopes to expand to an increasing number of students.

To do so, the university has acquired the First Street property to help expand Georgetown’s Capitol Hill presence, bring new opportunities for students, faculty, and staff from across its campuses, and complete an entire city block of university properties. The property builds on the existing footprint of Georgetown University Law Center and is located less than a mile from the downtown campus used by the School of Continuing Studies. In addition to CALL, many of the centers and institutes at the Law Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy will relocate, creating new opportunities for collaboration across fields including health, climate, technology, education, and human rights. The 130,000-square-foot building will provide classroom, office, and meeting space.

“This is an exceptional chance to deepen ties to the communities we serve, to create opportunities for undergraduates, graduate researchers, and faculty and staff alike. We can do our best and most important work at the heart of the nation’s capital, and as a major convening point for world policy,” says Provost Robert Groves.

Experiential learning

What makes the CALL appealing? Georgetown students consistently say they wanted to come to the university because it’s in the nation’s capital—indeed, a global capital. But really getting to know the city isn’t easy. As alumni will attest, the Georgetown neighborhood’s location and limited public-transportation options make it a challenge to get to other parts of the city. Then there’s the “Georgetown bubble”—the geographic location of campus and the astonishing amount of valuable and diverse activities available on campus, which can be a disincentive to leave the Hilltop.

Left: Several CALL students say that taking D.C. public transportation on a daily basis is a new routine. Right: Billy Torgerson (C’22) had his CALL internship in the archives at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

So, students who apply to Georgetown want to go to school in D.C., but then get here and often don’t leave the neighborhood. Four years later, the city that attracted students can be a stranger.

“I hadn’t spent a lot of time in the city before I started the CALL,” says Alexa Eason (C’20). “In only these three months, I have seen more of the city than I have in the first three years I have been at Georgetown.”

“Georgetown students are only nominally involved with one of the greatest cities,” says Renny Simone (F’21), who participated in CALL in its first semester. “They don’t engage with it. They don’t feel like they are temporary residents here.”

English department professor Matthew Pavesich worked with Vice Provost for Education Randy Bass to design CALL over the past two years and has taught in the program both semesters. “We are trying to solve two problems,” he says. “The fact that the university doesn’t help students to break ‘the bubble’ as much as we could and that internships, when students are able to get them, are really distinct from their academic experience.”

While CALL takes students away from daily life on the Hilltop for a semester and creates some psychological distance, Pavesich

notes that every class at the CALL is a Georgetown class taught by a Georgetown faculty member, and the students take the classes only with other Georgetown students, “so students still make those important, formative bonds with each other and with their professors.”

“It still feels like Georgetown, but completely different,” says Billy Torgerson (C’22), who participated in the initial fall 2019 semester. In addition to the unique D.C. focus, Torgerson liked taking a break from living on campus, which in his experience “has a busyness and stress level that you can’t escape,” he says. “It can be a healthier experience downtown.”

For example, Torgerson walks everywhere or takes the Metro. And he and his roommate, Renny Simone, better control their eating habits by grocery shopping downtown and cooking in their residence-hall apartment. (“Renny cooks, I microwave,” he admits.)

Georgetown helps subsidize students’ housing (at a residence hall for a New York University semester-in-Washington program), public transportation, food costs, and other expenses.

Going big

Under the leadership of Vice Provost Bass, CALL was developed over two years at The Red House, home of the Designing the Future(s) of the University initiative, which serves as a research and development engine and incubator for new ways for Georgetown to teach and students to learn.

Bass and the Red House staff are trying to create an overall education experience that’s responsive to our era. “The world

has changed faster than universities,” Bass says. “We need to provide students an education that is maximally responsive to the complexities of our times.”

Academic institutions have more diverse student bodies today, and Georgetown is no exception. Students can longer be expected to adapt to the traditional structure of the university. “We have to reimagine the university to adapt to a new population, which includes students from under-resourced backgrounds and students with different learning styles and expectations,” Bass says. Finally, education must be responsive, equitable, innovative, and financially sustainable—all of which drive programs like the CALL.

Bass and Pavesich spent months meeting with department chairs, directors for undergraduate studies, and faculty, as well as holding focus groups with students. “We knew we wanted to create an applied-learning immersion for students, but that meant working against the grain of campus culture in some ways,” Pavesich says.

Student feedback from focus groups was interesting, he adds. Students said, “‘I can’t take classes that don’t help me progress to my degree.’ ‘I’m not sure about taking a full semester off the Hilltop, especially if I’m going to study abroad as well.’ ‘It might be difficult to separate from campus culture.’”

Overcoming internship challenges

The CALL requires each student to have an internship, an innovation in keeping with the program’s experiential learning model that also aligns with Georgetown’s commitment to access and affordability.

Often students at Georgetown and other universities are able to take internships because they have a family connection helping them find one, or because they don’t need a paying job. Many internships are unpaid, and additional challenges

include Georgetown’s location, few public transportation options, and demanding class schedules. An internship can mean taking an Uber or other ride-share to go across the city during rush hour. Even grabbing a sandwich downtown for lunch has a financial impact, says fall 2019 semester CALL participant Kitra Katz (C’20). “These may sound like small things, but they add up, and lots of students are juggling money here.

“Taking an internship can start to feel more like a privilege than a reasonable expectation,” she adds. She is grateful that CALL organizes the class schedule around the internship.

“The CALL is an opportunity for Georgetown students who are driven to do an internship but don’t necessarily have the resources to intern for free,” says Cory Young, a Georgetown history doctoral student who taught Slavery and the American North in CALL’s fall 2019 semester, a class that meets the university’s core-curriculum requirements.

With credit-bearing internships, CALL students continue to make progress toward graduation requirements. And the CALL semester costs the same as a Hilltop semester, with no interruption to financial-aid arrangements.

“It’s a good example of Georgetown offering sincere support to students of all economic backgrounds,” Young adds.

The CALL model also ensures that students don’t have to choose between an internship and coursework, according to Jessica Richards (C’20). “An internship is hard because being a student is a full-time job,” she says. “The CALL’s for-credit internship means I don’t have to take away from my academics to invest in the D.C. community.”

Similarly, Andrew Abad (C’20) notes, “I joined the CALL because I wanted to interweave professional development and networking with my academic studies. Specifically, that the internship was part of my academic schedule, not an add-on.”

“I wanted to practice being an adult,” he adds, referring to a greater responsibility to get himself around the city and managing his time more independently.

Based on their interests, CALL students are assigned to an advisor from Main Campus’ Cawley Career Education Center for one-on-one career and internship exploration. “The idea is for them to really talk about what they are interested in and then get personalized attention,” says Abigail Lewis, CALL director.

Lewis team-teaches a weekly internship seminar with Amanda Friday, a career counselor at the Cawley Career Education Center. The seminar is an added layer to the required internship, allowing students to reflect on and share the experiences they are having in their internships. “This kind of intentional and shared reflection doesn’t often happen when students find an internship for themselves,” Friday says.

“It was nice to be able to come back and debrief and discuss what we were all experiencing at work,” says Abad.

Friday notes that all Georgetown undergraduates have meaningful interaction with career education staff, but “the structure of the class along with the rich discussions students have through their internships lead to deep conversations.”

“Part of my role is to help students really understand and create meaning around their work experiences,” says Friday.

City as text

Staff from the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, & Service (CSJ) helped moderate the internship seminar last fall; this semester they are extending their expertise to the community-engagement segments of CALL’s required City Seminar, which studies the life of Washington often unexplored by the average Georgetown student (or for that matter, many District residents). Last fall, Brandes took the class to meet community advocates and grassroots organizers who are working on social

issues affecting their neighborhoods, such as voting access and jobs training.

“I help them explore what civic leadership is today,” Brandes says. “These students will be thrust into civic leadership roles, so it’s important to build reflective dialogue skills.”

Back on January’s tour of historic Eastern Market, Brandes encourages students to read the city as a text. Junior Ivan Jimenez notes the proportion of chain stores versus small local stores.

“There is more to being in D.C. than the federal side. When we think of Washington, we think of the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court,” he says. “Even when I applied to CALL, that’s what I thought about.”

“But it’s where 700,000 people live, people whose backgrounds and motivations are diverse. In CALL we are learning to navigate beyond the touristy areas.”

Senior Kitra Katz, part of the first CALL semester, thinks back to the downtown dorm where she and the rest of the Georgetown students lived with New York University students taking a semester-in-Washington program. “They were seeing D.C. for the first time.” But she adds that, even though she’d been in Washington for three years, “in some ways, so was I.”

From left: Georgetown career counselor Amanda Friday, here with Arthur Rodriguez (F’20), uses many tools to help students explore their career interests and values. Professor Matthew Pavesich, lower left, leads a public humanities class at the School of Continuing Studies downtown location. CALL students have weekly discussions about their internships.

THE ALUMNA WHO UNCOVERED THE HARVEY WEINSTEIN STORY AND HELPED REIGNITE #METOO

BY RICHARD L. HARRIS

When Megan Twohey (C’98) was a kid, she was intrigued with the idea of becoming an archaeologist. But instead of excavating artifacts, she has spent much of the past 20 years digging up information—especially the kind that companies, governments, and universities would rather keep hidden. In fact, Twohey’s trail of investigative reporting has made her something of a rock star in the world of high-impact journalism.

New York Times investigative reporter Megan Twohey (C’98) and her reporting partner, Jodi Kantor, recount the backstory of how they broke the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse story in She Said. The book tour kicked off in Washington, D.C., in October 2019. She Said has been put in the same company as All the President’s Men. |

Photo: Ari Strauss

At The Chicago Tribune, Twohey discovered that rape kits had not been submitted for testing by suburban police departments. At Reuters, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for exposing an underground market where parents gave away adopted children they no longer wanted to strangers met on the internet. And most recently, at The New York Times, Twohey and her investigative reporting partner Jodi Kantor won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (with Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker) for their explosive exposé of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

After months and months of painstaking legwork, confidential interviews with actresses and employees, and uncovering documents, Twohey and Kantor revealed that Weinstein had engaged in decades of alleged sexual harassment and abuse and used his power and money to cover it up. Using the megaphone of The Times, their story, published October 5, 2017, injected a shot of adrenaline into the decade-old #MeToo movement.

More than two years later, Twohey and Kantor were still doing in-depth reporting for The Times as Weinstein’s criminal trial began in Manhattan in early January of this year. In March, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his convictions of third-degree rape and forcible sexual assault of two women, following a landmark trial.

IN THE BEST OF COMPANY

Pulling the curtain back on one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Twohey and Kantor reveal the inside story behind their investigation in their New York Times bestseller book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement , published last September. It details how Weinstein and his team tried to stop The Times from reporting on him, and how Twohey and Kantor broke the dam wall that for years had successfully silenced the women Weinstein had allegedly abused and exposed the toxic environment he created. The LA Times puts She Said in the company of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All The President’s Men

Appropriately, Woodward interviewed Twohey and Kantor at a public forum in Washington, D.C., that launched their crosscountry book tour last October. Twohey recounted to Woodward that when she returned to The Times from maternity leave in 2017, she had a choice: resume covering President Trump, who in a phone interview a month before the 2016 election had called her “a disgusting human being” for reporting on allegations of sexual misconduct against him—a quote that Twohey put in her next story—or join Kantor, who had begun investigating Harvey Weinstein. Several of her colleagues advised her to stay on the Trump beat, saying it was the story.

“I had to take a day to think about it. For four months I had watched hard-hitting investigative work on Trump land with a thud,” Twohey said. So she opted for the Weinstein investigation, explaining that “as an investigative reporter, you’re not just out to write interesting stories, but stories that have an impact.”

‘WILL ANYONE READ THIS STORY?’

During Twohey’s maternity leave, the reporting partnership with Kantor took root. Kantor first called her for advice on how to approach women who had been sexually assaulted. Given Twohey’s experience interviewing rape victims in Chicago, among other stories, she suggested an approach that had resonated with the women she had approached: “I can’t change what happened to you in the past,” Twohey would say, “but together we may be able to use your experience to help protect other people.”

AT GEORGETOWN, MEGAN WAS SO PASSIONATE ABOUT SOCIAL JUSTICE. WHEN SHE DID HER NIGHTLINE INTERNSHIP, MEGAN STARTED SAYING, ‘THIS IS HOW I CAN BRING IMPORTANT STORIES TO LIGHT.’

Looking back, perhaps the first clue where Twohey’s career was headed was at Georgetown.

It was fall 1995, and a “Take Back the Night” rally against sexual and domestic violence would soon be underway on the Georgetown campus, the first in a decade. And in that day’s edition of The Hoya , Twohey, then a sophomore and a member of the Women’s Empowerment League, wrote a column under the headline “Assaults Against Women Must End.” Using government rape statistics, Twohey argued that women “should not have to be afraid to walk across the [Georgetown] campus at night when we leave the library,” and that “the reality of our country’s attitude toward sexual assault is embarrassing.”

More than two decades later, Twohey must have been wondering how much the country’s attitude toward sexual assault had changed. With Kantor and their editors beside her in The New York Times headquarters, Twohey took a last look at the computer screen as the final keystroke sent their 3,300word article, “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades,” into the world. Amazingly, just days before publication, Twohey and Kantor had asked each other, “Will anyone read this story?”

It would be the tenth-most-read New York Times story in 2017. Three days after it ran, Harvey Weinstein was fired from the company he founded. More broadly, the story sent shockwaves through workplaces, encouraged 80 other women to come forward with allegations against Weinstein, and touched off a global conversation about sexual harassment and assault.

CATCHING THE REPORTING BUG

Twohey grew up in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, and the discussion around the Twohey dinner table often revolved around current events and news coverage—not surprising when your parents are journalists. Her mother, Mary Jane, was a TV news producer and writer, and her father, John, spent much of his career as an editor and executive at The Chicago Tribune.

Twohey was drawn to Georgetown due to her interest in social justice. “I was an idealist who was concerned about poverty and inequality,” she said. “I thought maybe I’d go into social work, be a teacher, or go into government in Washington, D.C.”

“News was in my genes but not in my plans until I started to get the bug during a summer internship following my sophomore year at Georgetown,” she adds. “Working for Nightline at that time in a low-level job was really inspiring.”

The summer of 1996 was especially newsy—the explosion of TWA Flight 800, the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing in

WRITERS AND EDITORS ON MEGAN TWOHEY

Megan Twohey’s editors in Milwaukee and Chicago and her New York Times reporting partner, Jodi Kantor, have a remarkable consistency in how they describe Twohey’s natural ability to take on powerful institutions and people.

MARTY KAISER , managing director, Capital News Service at the University of Maryland

“To me the best reporters are the most curious, and Megan always wanted to know more. Her ability to connect with people is really outstanding. And that’s what makes a great reporter.”

TOM KOETTING , deputy managing editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“From day one, Megan instinctively knew how to how to go after a lead story and have full impact.”

PHIL JURIK , metro editor, Chicago Tribune

“Megan was driven and smart and relentless, a pleasure to deal with but all business in the newsroom. Even back then there was a fierce sense of social justice, an unofficial beat she built for herself—injustices against women. So it’s interesting to see where her career has gone. She was fearless and nobody could intimidate her, whether or not they threatened legal action. Folks here still remember listening to her on the phone. Lord help the government flack who tried to stonewall or play dumb or keep public information from her—she would chew them up.”

REBECCA

“Megan is a classic investigative reporter, someone who has had tons of experience digging for documents and homing in on wrongdoing. She has this ability to laser-focus on what she thinks the areas are to concentrate on to break open the story. She can be intense, but unlike other reporters who may come across hot, Megan comes across with a very cool demeanor, very composed and calm. I’ve seen her grill people in interviews. Like all good reporters, she understands if people are going to talk, it must align in some way with their self-interest.”

JODI KANTOR , Twohey’s investigative-reporting partner on the Weinstein story, The New York Times

“Megan has an incredible talent for finding the strongest threads in a complex story even when she didn’t even admit a really confusing situation. She has this instinct for getting to the bottom of things that is almost intuitive. It’s like an inner navigation that’s guiding her deeper into the story. For two years I’ve been so blown away on almost a daily basis by Megan’s compassion, determination, and her ability to problem-solve. And her understanding of the psychology of reporting is pretty much the best I’ve seen in 20 years of journalism.”

CORBETT, investigations editor, The New York Times

Pulitzer Prize-winner Megan Twohey (C’98) joins other Georgetown alumni who have been honored with the award.

John Bersia (G’79) for editorial writing, 2000

Tom Burton (C’65, L’68) for explanatory reporting, 2004

Margaret Edson (G’92) for drama, 1999

Mary Jordan (C’83) for international reporting, 2003

Katie Kingsbury (F’01) for editorial writing, 2015

Walter Pincus (L’01) for national reporting, 2002

Tod Robberson (G’89) for editorial writing, 2010

Atlanta, and the Republican and Democratic national conventions that nominated Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. Twohey had a front-row seat as part of the Nightline team that shaped a breaking-news story into a half-hour broadcast, sometimes with just a few hours’ lead time.

“This was my first journalism internship, and Tom Bettag (then Nightline executive producer, who now teaches journalism at the University of Maryland) told me if I wasn’t a little scared of my job every day, it was time to get a new job. And that really resonated and stuck with me,” Twohey recalls.

“There was an intensity about her, a focus and a caring about what she did,” Bettag recalls, that made Twohey a standout among interns. “I’m not at all surprised she’s become the star investigative reporter.”

“When we were at Georgetown, Megan was so passionate about social justice,” says Tara Murphy Huston (C’98), who became friends with Twohey during their first year in New South. She remembers Twohey leaving campus to tutor and mentor juvenile offenders. “When she did her Nightline internship, Megan started saying, ‘I want to do this. This is how I can bring important stories to light.’ “

As a Jesuit university, Georgetown “is known for really welcoming all kinds of questions, academic and ethical,” Huston says, “and teaching people how to think through them.”

GETTING AT THE TRUTH

After graduation, Twohey’s first job in journalism was covering welfare reform at a Washington magazine. She remembers that she “was curious about the wider world and wanted to have an adventure,” so she applied to be a reporter for the Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper. Twohey didn’t speak a word of Russian but was hired anyway. “It was a pretty crazy idea,” Twohey concedes. “There were no translators on staff. Come the first winter, working with one hand tied behind my back, it was more of a challenge than I anticipated.”

But it was just the kind of challenge that impressed Marty Kaiser, then editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . “Anyone willing to do that is going to be a bulldog as a reporter.” When Twohey returned to the United States, Kaiser told his colleagues to find room for her. And they did, first sending her to cover a rural area. (She once wrote about a horse dying at a county fair.) Eventually, Twohey started to hone her investigative skills, digging into the secrets of the Wisconsin university system.

“I CAN’T CHANGE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU IN THE PAST, BUT TOGETHER WE MAY BE ABLE TO USE YOUR EXPERIENCE TO HELP PROTECT OTHER PEOPLE.”

LASER-SHARP FOCUS

While Twohey and Kantor were joined at the hip throughout the Weinstein investigation, the third leg of the three-legged stool was Times investigations editor Rebecca Corbett, whom Twohey describes as a “titan of journalism.” Corbett, in turn, gives Twohey the best compliment any investigative reporter can receive from an editor: “Megan is a ferocious reporter, and I mean ferocious in the most admiring way. Laser-sharp focus. She wants to get at the truth and is incredibly skilled and tenacious in the way she goes about that.”

In an age when truth is under siege and “fake news” is the reflexive phrase from anyone who doesn’t like a story about them, bulletproof investigative journalism is in even greater demand. Twohey is thrilled to be part of it. “When the truth seems to be fractured, to show that facts matter and can bring about social change has been a total honor,” she says.

Most journalists hope their stories will make a difference. Some stories actually change lives. But with a precious few, they will change the culture.

Corbett has no doubt the Weinstein story has “helped foster change and changed a culture. When women started speaking out, suddenly men were shocked to discover that women they

knew in their own lives—their daughters, their sisters, their friends at work—had had experiences like that. It was unusual for many men to realize that it was common because most women didn’t speak about it. And so I think it was all of those forces coming together that gave [the story] such an impact.”

When Twohey and Kantor were working 15-hour days to report the Weinstein story, their daughters were too young to understand what was driving their mothers to be away from them for far longer than their mothers wanted.

“Our daughters were both an inspiration and an occasional impediment,” Twohey acknowledges. So when The Times newsroom celebrated their Pulitzer Prize in 2018, Twohey spoke directly to their children as she told those assembled in the newsroom, “Jodi and I are journalists, not activists. But the two of us, and all of the other reporters around the country who worked on these kind of stories, did so with the hope that girls your age will know nothing but dignity and decency in the workplace and beyond.”

Richard L. Harris has been a Washington journalist for more than 40 years, including as senior producer of ABC’s Nightline with Ted Koppel and as the producer of NPR’s All Things Considered. He worked with Megan Twohey when she was a Nightline intern and remembers her as “someone quietly driven to excel.”

Twohey wrote for The Hoya, and says that she really caught the reporting bug while a summer intern at Nightline, following her sophomore year.

The Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery, on the first floor of the Walsh Building, brings new exhibitions to campus every semester. | Photos: Leslie Kossoff, Lisa Helfert, and Phil Humnicky

Last December, Hyperallergic, one of the most influential magazines covering art and museums, ranked an exhibition at Georgetown’s Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery in its “Best of 2019: Our Top 20 United States Art Shows.”

BY JEFFREY DONAHOE

he list included such renowned museums and galleries as Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (better known as Mass MOCA), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Art Institute of Chicago, university galleries at Northwestern and the University of Chicago, and even the Smithsonian. Not bad for a gallery that had been open for only a year.

‘Part of a larger conversation’

The exhibition that won a spot on the Top 20 list featured works by internationally acclaimed artist Glenn Ligon. To be a Negro in this country is really never to be looked at was a mini-survey of the artist’s work from the 1990s to today. It included five neverbefore-seen paintings by Ligon depicting the 1995 Million Man March on the National Mall, which were hung on top of Andy Warhol’s rarely seen Washington Monument wallpaper. The artist personally wrote the accompanying labels.

Curated by GU Art Galleries’ founding director/chief curator Al Miner, the exhibition was another expression of Georgetown’s commitment to social justice and connecting with Washington. Miner says that, unlike galleries at other universities that often function as separate entities, the Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery “was conceived to be integrated into the learning and community experiences of our students above everything else.”

Given the gallery’s focus on students, it is fortuitously located at the street level of the Walsh Building, on the corner of 36th and Prospect—directly across from the Tombs and Wisey’s, two cornerstones of the Georgetown student experience.

Because the gallery focuses on exhibiting art—rather than collecting art—it can be more timely and relevant and increase its impact with shows that respond to the community’s needs and to the state of the world at any given moment.

“It’s really about tying content to teaching and to issues that are important to the Georgetown community,” Miner says.

As he plans the calendar, Miner searches out faculty who might be interested in an upcoming exhibition’s theme as it relates to their course content. Glenn Ligon, whose work won high praise on the Hyperallergic best-of list, is an African American artist whose work is frequently inspired by writers, so the English and African American Studies departments’ faculty brought classes to see the exhibition. A diverse range of departments across campus worked with gallery staff to present public programs, such as lectures and films.

This page: (Top) Students take in the beauty and functionality of innovative wearable art made from recycled material. The coat in the exhibition is made from Pinatex, which is non-edible pineapple waste. (Bottom) A stool constructed from human hair bound with Lucite drew viewers to explore its sculpture-like qualities. Facing page: (Left) Objects in the fall 2019 exhibition included jewelry, ceramics, housewares, and fashion. (Right) Several of the 30 artists and designers from 11 countries whose works were in Design Transfigured/Waste Reimagined talked about their works with students, alumni, and other visitors.

“The gallery isn’t siloed in the art department—it’s part of a larger conversation among departments,” says Jennifer Wright (C’96), founding chair of the galleries’ Director’s Council and an early advocate for creating the de la Cruz gallery. “It’s vital for a Georgetown education.”

Finding continuity

The fall 2019 exhibition, Design Transfigured/Waste Reimagined, made a direct connection with student and faculty interest in climate change, sustainability, and the environment. The works were by 30 artists and designers, from 11 countries, who reclaim and transform waste—end-of-use textiles and plastic, human hair, unused agricultural plant material, even highly cleaned, used toilet paper—to create functional and decorative furniture and other home products, art objects, jewelry, and clothing.

The exhibition related to courses beyond the obvious Art and Museum Studies majors, and beyond the sciences, policy, and ethics. English department professor Nathan Hensley brought undergraduate and graduate classes in 19th-century British literature for a seminar within the Design Transfigured/Waste Reimagined exhibition space to frame a discussion about how Victorian writers and readers were thinking about nature and society. The class focused on Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders , which draws themes from the natural world.

There’s continuity between the novel, published 130 years ago, and the exhibition, Hensley says.

Nineteenth-century England was home to the first wide-scale use of fossil fuels and extraction economies. “Those technologies have their impact on today’s climate breakdown,” he says. “The novel and the exhibition ask questions about the disposability of both humans and nature. Today’s castaway culture, along with many of the tools we might use to fight against it, were really invented in the 19th century.”

“Questions like ‘How do we connect human disposability with actual people?’ arise when spaces like this gallery exist,” he adds.

A canvas for art and artists

Georgetown’s gallery culture emerged relatively recently. The Lucille M. & Richard F.X. Spagnuolo Art Gallery—also located in the Walsh building—opened in 2003. It was renovated and upgraded in tandem with the construction of the Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery, which opened in 2018. Today it hosts a vibrant series of exhibitions by established professional artists.

The drive to create a new gallery was spearheaded by the College Board of Advisors in the 2010s under the leadership of thendean Chester Gillis. “A gallery was a need—in the curriculum and in the community,” says Jennifer Wright, who also is a College Board of Advisors member. “It’s a resource for the larger

The

SPACE IS A CANVAS FOR THE ART, FOR THE ARTISTS.”

Georgetown and D.C. community as a whole, and that’s critical for its success and longevity,” she adds.

The gallery was made possible by alumni and parent donors, with the lead gift coming from Maria (C’87) and Alberto (B’89) de la Cruz.

Alberto de la Cruz says that he and Maria heartily support the gallery’s not being a permanent collection but dedicated to exhibitions.

“The space is basically a canvas for the art, for the artists,” he says. De la Cruz says that the quality of the exhibitions has been very high. “Each show brings something different to the space.” He notes that the exhibitions, citing the Glenn Ligon and the recent Design Transfigured/Waste Reimagined installation, are valuable teaching tools. It’s not just a space for art but also for learning.”

Behind the scenes

The Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery plays a fundamental role in the graduate museum studies program in which Al Miner is associate professor of the practice, teaching curatorial studies. Before Georgetown, Miner had a 15-year museum background, including the Hirshhorn Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian, and a seven-year stint as Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. At Georgetown, he’s teaching students best practices to set them up for museum careers.

Inji Kim, who will earn her master’s degree from the museum studies program in August 2020, was an intern for the galleries in fall 2019. She is now in an M.A. program in contemporary Asian art at the Sotheby’s Institute in London.

“The gallery has been fascinating. It puts the classroom work into perspective,” she says, noting that what’s taught in class is not always what happens in practice. She’s learning the reality of limited resources and time.

Her internship gave Kim practical experience in almost all of the professional aspects of mounting an exhibition: executing loan

(Top) English professor Nathan Hensley brought a seminar in 19th century literature to the gallery to make a direct connection to the exhibition’s themes of waste and disposability to how those new technologies developed in the Victorian era have an impact today.

(Bottom) Exhibitions attract Georgetown students, faculty, staff, and art enthusiasts throughout Washington.

“THE

agreements, making condition reports of objects upon arrival, managing social-media promotion, and giving tours.

Her favorite part is working with classes and watching the art provide different ways for students to see classroom content. “That’s what a college gallery can do.”

As it moves into its second full year, the gallery is working with neighborhood associations to expand awareness and with Holy Trinity School down the street for tours and programming.

The gallery also surveyed Georgetown students last fall about what they’d like to see. The number-one theme students responded to involved global and political issues. “Beauty” was the second-most popular potential exhibition theme selected by students. “I think that tells us how all students can find a kind of solace in this space,” Miner says.

National research shows that younger generations are not looking to walk into an art space, sit on a bench, and look at things. They’re looking for memorable and interactive experiences. Maybe what draws them in the door is something that feels like a change of pace, or a change in landscape around them, but as Miner points out, “an exhibition still has to challenge them intellectually in a way that Georgetown students constantly crave.”

Art at your doorstep

When the gallery opened two years ago, a lot of students didn’t know what the long-empty space in Walsh was; they were too busy rushing to class or the dorm behind Walsh or cutting through the building to pick up a coffee and bagel.

Now students are getting drawn into the space.

“Having art on campus, walking distance to your dorm or where you get your lunch every day, makes art part of your life,” Miner says. “You don’t have travel to the Mall; it’s right at your doorstep.”

The spring show, which opened in January, features works by American artist Chemi Rosado-Seijo, who lives in his native Puerto Rico; he was on site to give opening tours of his work, which includes sculpture, video, and paintings. The works in the exhibition, drawn from his 20-year career, were inspired by the physical and social landscape in and around San Juan.

An avid skateboarder, Rosado-Seijo connects with skating communities around the world, including Washington, D.C. The exhibition included a video of the city’s skateboard enthusiasts. The works on view were created in Washington, including some on the Georgetown campus.

As the staff looks forward, they want the gallery to not just be a place that students visit and faculty use in their teaching, but also part of the culture of Georgetown, part of the Georgetown experience.

“We might not be able to compete with Wisey’s or The Tombs for being part of what alumni talk about when they remember their time here,” Miner says with a nod to the student landmarks across the street. “But we want this gallery to be something that’s a unique part of the campus experience for lots of different types of students, and that they remember it fondly.”

(Left) Maria (C’87) and Alberto (B’89) de la Cruz dedicated the gallery in 2018. (Above) The spring 2020 exhibition featured multimedia art by Puerto Rican native Rosado-Seijo, who presented some of his best-known pieces as well as new works created in Washington, including at Georgetown.

50 Years of Women at Georgetown College

BY ADRIANNA SMITH (C’ 15 )

Almost by accident I discovered that this academic year was the 50th anniversary of women enrolling in the College. “Really?” I keep hearing from friends when I tell them. “It’s only been 50 years?” I was researching

the growing gender gap in college graduation rates—nationally, about two women graduate from a college or university for every man—and immediately wanted to learn more about my alma mater’s progenitors.

As a Georgetown student, I saw women thriving all around me—from class participation to leadership positions, volunteer efforts, and academic awards. Of course, there are still glass ceilings to break. The first all-female ticket won the GUSA student election only when I was a sophomore, and women are still outnumbered in math and science (though ahead in biology). At the faculty level, male tenured professors still outnumbered their female counterparts. But the numbers are clear: Georgetown’s undergraduate campus is 56 percent female and 44 percent male. In the last 10 years, 60 percent of the College’s valedictorians have been female (three named Jennifer). It’s important to commemorate 50 years of women’s accomplishments in context. The first female students at Georgetown were two women who, for reasons now lost to the fog of history, managed to enter the medical school in 1880 but never graduated. In 1903, under the direction of the Sisters of Saint Francis, the nursing school opened to educate women for work as nurses alongside the allmale medical staff. (In a flipped win for gender inclusivity, this is also the 50th anniversary of the university removing its ban on male nursing applicants.) Most of these early nursing students were local Sisters of the Visitation, whose school shares a property line with the university. The women were conferred diplomas, not full degrees.

At the beginning of World War II, facing a potential loss in tuition revenue as men were drafted, Georgetown began admitting women to its Graduate School and School of Foreign Service, from which later emerged the School of Business Administration (now Georgetown McDonough) and the School of Language and Linguistics (now absorbed into the College). Shortly after the war, the medical and dental schools began enrolling women, and in 1951 Georgetown Law admitted its first female students.

Women in the nursing school did take some classes with men at the College; in the 1940s, the five-year bachelor’s program in nursing began with two years of College classes, and these nursing students are listed as graduates of the College.

By the early 1950s, every Georgetown school was open to women except for the College.

Tradition played a role in both the holdout and the ultimate decision to adapt to coeducation. As incoming President Robert J. Henle, S.J., noted in the summer of 1969, the Society of Jesus had historically aimed to teach and prepare society’s future leaders, and as women were taking on new roles, he argued, there was a moral obligation to educate them as well. Dean of Admissions

Charlie Deacon credits the school’s decision to fully go co-ed primarily to the waves of change happening in the country. In the late 1960s, more and more universities (read: rivals for male appli-

cants) announced their coeducation. In August 1968 the College announced that it would accept 50 women into the following year’s freshman class and received 10 times as many applications as there were spaces available. When Georgetown College announced its decision to admit women, the number of male applicants increased as well. For more on the history of university coeducation nationally, Keep the Damned Women Out by Nancy Weiss Malkiel is a must-read.

By the mid-1970s, fewer than 10 years after they were even allowed to enroll as students in the College, women outnumbered men, both in the College and on the undergraduate campus overall. The female-to-male student ratio hovered close to 50:50 through 1990, when the admissions office stopped reporting gender in its annual student-profile report. Today, at Georgetown and universities around the country, women outnumber men.

The 1969–1970 academic year changed the face of Georgetown because for the first time women were truly part of daily campus life. Slowly, women in the College were allowed to participate in co-curricular activities. Some aspects of student life were slow to adapt and accommodate them, from the intangible, like a sense of belonging, to the practical, like dress codes. It is said that, for the first couple of years, women weren’t permitted to wear pants or sit on the front lawn.

“Women’s dominance on college campuses is possibly the strangest and most profound change of the century,” writes author Hanna Rosin. I’m inclined to agree. Women helped change Georgetown significantly, and for the better. Yet when the first female students talk about what drew them to Georgetown, the answers seem familiar: the university’s academic reputation, its location in the nation’s capital, including proximity to political and cultural events, and its Jesuit identity.

These pioneering women have exceptional stories to tell. They witnessed and contributed to the transformation that remade the university into an elite, nationally recognized institution. But changes in the demographics of Georgetown’s student body are unfinished. In addition to enriching Georgetown’s archives, women’s testimonies can help the university learn how to ensure that all students feel included and thrive. As minorities become the new majority at schools across the country, it may be useful to look at parallel transitions to understand how to best serve today’s marginalized student populations.

Adrianna Smith (C’15) is a Washington writer. Her website is www.makar-studio.com.

Were you one of Georgetown’s early female students? Share your story at magazine.georgetown.edu.

Dear Alumni:

It has been an honor and privilege to serve as president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association. As I approach the end of my term, I would like to reflect upon our activities over the past two years.

We began by hiring the first woman to serve as executive director of the association, Julia Farr (C’88). A longtime volunteer and former president of the association, she hit the ground running and has done a tremendous job, assisted by her talented staff, of advancing our mission to generate goodwill and support for the university and to foster a lifelong connection among alumni, our alma mater, and the global Georgetown community.

A primary focus of the association has been diversity and inclusion. In an effort to include and be respectful of all segments of our alumni community in our programming, board membership, and awards, the association established a permanent Diversity and Inclusion Committee within our Board of Governors. We also sponsored the highly successful Black Alumni Summit and the Women’s Forum to better engage and recognize these thriving alumni communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused us to cancel April’s John Carroll Weekend and postpone Reunion Weekend, but these signature events, along with Homecoming, continue to grow and break attendance records every year. They showcase the best Georgetown has to offer in terms of programs, panel discussions, and social events, while providing the opportunity to recognize the achievements of our most dedicated and committed alumni.

The foundation of our alumni network has traditionally been our regional programs, which deliver all things Georgetown to alumni where they live. Our club network has never been stronger: We now boast more than 70 clubs around the globe, and new clubs are chartered every year.

They provide a wide range of programs and activities, including community service projects, which engage and connect Hoyas to one another.

Our career-services programs continue to provide the opportunity for students and alumni with common interests to connect, engage, and grow in their professions and reap the benefits of our Hoya alumni network. The award-winning Hoya Gateway platform, which connects those starting their careers with seasoned professionals, was expanded to include Law Center students and alumni. We also engage alumni by vocation through professional alliances. We now have alliances connecting professionals in the fields of entrepreneurship, tech, entertainment and media, and finance.

We also continue to harness the power of social media to communicate the news about the association and its activities. In addition to active Facebook and Instagram accounts, the Georgetown alumni group on LinkedIn now numbers more than 31,000.

In fall 2019, we celebrated the centennial of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service with a wide range of events at home and abroad, featuring such luminaries as President Bill Clinton (F’68), former U.S. Secretary of State and SFS faculty member Madeleine Albright, and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. As a proud SFS alumnus myself, I was honored to represent the association at these Centennial celebrations.

In sum, the Georgetown University Alumni Association is stronger than ever and engages more alumni than ever before. For me, serving as president has been a labor of love.

Hoya Saxa!

Richard M. Hluchan (F’71) President, Georgetown University Alumni Association

The alumni association is stronger than ever and engages more alumni than ever before.

Lauinger Library Turns 50

On April 6 , 1970 , Lauinger Library opened its doors for the first time. As Georgetown’s first standalone library building, it marked the most significant expansion of collections since the opening of Riggs Library in 1891 . A proposal for the new library stated that it should be “much more than a warehouse for books.” Half a century later, “Lau” has become a quintessential part of the Georgetown student experience.

Constructed during the height of the Vietnam War, the building was dedicated as a memorial to Georgetown graduates who have died in all wars. Joseph Mark Lauinger (C’67), whom the building honors, was killed in Vietnam just three years after graduating. At the library’s opening, Rev. Robert Henle, S.J., remarked that “the name should provide the entire Georgetown community—students, faculty, Jesuits, alumni, and friends—with an enduring impetus and a perpetual reminder of devoted service and supreme sacrifice.”

The iconic architecture of Lauinger Library also captures the unique historical moment in which it was built. The building was designed by famed architect John Carl Warnecke. A 1965 memo describing the proposed design reveals Warnecke’s vision for the new library as a contemporary complement to Healy Hall that would encapsulate the time period’s spirit of reinvention. The Brutalist building’s exposed concrete was meant to convey a sense of authenticity. With its towers juxtaposed against Healy’s spires, Lauinger was designed to signal Georgetown’s focus on the future.

As early as 1964 , Rev. James Horigan, S.J., director of libraries, predicted that “the automatic process of information retrieval” could transform the function of libraries. Throughout the last five decades, Lauinger has evolved by adapting to new ways of sharing knowledge. In 1995 , curiosity about the internet dominated conversation at Lauinger’s 25th anniversary celebration.

While the Latin words over the doorway, which translate to “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” never change, life in Lauinger evolves. Today, DigitalGeorgetown houses well over 100 electronic collections and the Gelardin New Media Center offers students access to innovative technology. “No food or drink in the library” ceased when The Corp’s coffee shop, “Midnight Mug,” opened in the early 2000 s. The Booth Family Center for Special Collections, which opened on the 5th floor in 2015 , is a state-of-the-art home for the rare books, manuscripts, archives, and art collections.

As Lauinger marks its 50th anniversary, Harriette Hemmasi, dean of the library, says, “We anticipate the need for a revitalized, more user-centered physical space in Lau that will enable and promote the experimentation, production, processing, and dissemination of new knowledge through the use of innovative tools and methodologies,” she says. She notes that, while Lauinger continues to evolve as a hub for intellectual inquiry, its core mission of facilitating knowledge creation at Georgetown remains constant.

Lauinger Library, show in mid-construction, opened in 1970, and was the university’s first standalone library building, succeeding Riggs Library in Healy Hall. |

Photo: Georgetown University Archives

Alumni Are Still Hitting the Books—This Time Virtually

The Alumni Association has launched two virtual book clubs: one specifically for alumnae, and another for all alumni focused on their professional development. These clubs offer alumni a flexible and low-commitment way to engage with Georgetown and fellow graduates while expanding their networks and fostering career advancement.

Convening online every two months, both book groups allow participants to fully immerse in each selection at their own pace. There is no fee to join the clubs; the only cost is purchasing a copy of the featured book, which generally costs about $ 25 . Some of the selected works are written by members of the Georgetown community, giving alumni a unique opportunity to support the university’s writers and researchers.

The latest selections for the book clubs were written by Georgetown Law Center alumnae: Purposeful Hustle: Direct Your Life’s Work Towards Making a Positive Impact , by Deanna Singh (L’04), and a historical novel by Min Jin Lee (L’93 ) called Pachinko. The inaugural book selections last November were Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World , by Cal Newport, professor of computer science, and, for the alumnae book club, Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve

Power and Purpose , by Ambassador Melanne Verveer (SLL’66 , G’69), executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

The book clubs are already a success: Within a few months of the launch last fall, more than 3 ,500 alumni had taken part.

“I’ve not been in a book club in about 15 years,” Anne Marie Murphy (L’98) says. “I’m thrilled that these new Georgetown clubs have been organized.”

The clubs’ online discussion forums are private and moderated, allowing participants to engage by posing questions, sharing relevant articles, and facilitating meaningful conversation related to the books. To encourage ongoing dialogue, book club members can also post and share content in the forums and participate on any days or times that are convenient to their schedules.

“I am looking forward to expanding my repertoire while connecting with fellow alumni from Georgetown,” says Kristen Cooper (C’06), who adds that she is an avid reader.

To learn about these book clubs and how to participate, visit pbc.guru/georgetown.

Three Hoyas Walk Into A Delicatessen

Since becoming the Executive Director of the Georgetown University Alumni Association a year-and-a-half ago, Julia Farr (C’ 88) has made it her mission to discover and showcase alumni stories in a way that is personal, creative, and bespoke. With 185 , 000 alumni across the globe, the stories are literally endless, but she is determined to shine a light on as many as possible.

Intrigued by the growing and extensive number of Hoyas in the world of food and beverage—from the young founders of an amazingly successful fast casual brand to a Michelin star chef to an ice cream innovator, and beyond—Farr’s journey took her to New York City to break bread (and a pastrami sandwich) with two Hoyas who are foodies and tastemakers.

Call it “Three Hoyas Walk Into a Delicatessen.”

Farr’s guests were Mary Giuliani (C’97), caterer, TV food show featured guest, and author of Tiny Hot Dogs , and Adam Platt (F’ 81), longtime restaurant critic for New York magazine and recent author of The Book of Eating. Where did they meet for lunch? Katz’s—New York City’s most iconic delicatessen, of course. The menu? Deli classics like hot dogs, chicken noodle soup, chocolate egg creams, and skyscraper-high pastrami sandwiches. The booth was set for a delicious conversation about how food brings people together and the importance of storytelling.

(Top) Katz’s Delicatessen and its 1940s neon signage is a Lower East Side institution. (Bottom) Executive Director of the Alumni Association Julia Farr (C’88), center, greets Mary Giuliani (C’97) and Adam Platt (F’81) for a lunchtime conversation at this iconic New York City delicatessen.

Julia Farr : So I’d love to know how you two met, and how did you realize you’re both Hoyas?

Mary Giuliani: I was hosting Eating Stories, a live storytelling event about food, friends, and family. I asked Adam to come on, and I was blown away when he said yes. When I learned that he graduated from SFS, I was so excited that we had Georgetown in common. I wrote back, “Thank you for saying yes, from a Hoya to a Hoya.”

Adam Platt: And I wrote back, “I think I’m the only food critic to graduate from the School of Foreign Service.” Funny enough, it turns out I’m not the only one—Tom Sietsema, the Washington Post food critic, is a 1983 SFS grad.

JF : It’s incredible to me how many Hoyas we’re discovering in all parts of the food world. How did you get started?

MG: My family is Italian, so we cooked all day Saturday. My grandparents lived with us. My grandfather would throw me in the car and we’d drive to the butcher shop, the fishmonger; we’d get vegetables, we’d stuff the mushrooms and the artichokes. So food was in my blood, but I never thought I’d do anything

with it. A few years after I graduated from Georgetown, I was working at this little catering company in the East Village. This was pre-celebrity chef, pre-Food Network. I realized that catering combined all the things that I loved.

AP: My father’s family took great enjoyment in food as a bonding experience. My father was an ambassador and believed in food and dining as a way to connect with people and a place. And that’s how my brothers and I connected as kids in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, or D.C. When I became a journalist and columnist, editors would notice that stories about food appeared more and more in my work. When New York magazine’s longtime restaurant critic retired, they offered me the job. I didn’t think they would have me for long.

JF: Can I ask whether you cook at home?

AP: I can only reliably cook a few dishes. Breakfast, a Sunday roasted chicken, cold-weather stews.

MG: I do cook. But I cook basic, simple. I’m not fancy in anything I eat. I have the palate of a 12-year-old.

A DOCTOR RACES TO CURE HIS DEADLY DISEASE

In July 2010, David Fajgenbaum (NHS’07), then a 25-yearold, third-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, noticed that he was really tired. Other symptoms rapidly appeared over the next few days. His liver, kidneys, and bone marrow were inexplicably shutting down. He spent weeks in the ICU without a diagnosis. Doctors told his family that he was unlikely to survive.

In a nick of time, he was diagnosed with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, which sits at the intersection of lymphoma and autoimmune diseases. With chemotherapy, his body fought its way back to health. But it was only the first of five life-threatening medical blows over three years and just one chapter in the remarkable journey that is Fajgenbaum’s fight not just to survive but also to understand and defeat Castleman disease—a disease so rare he had to become his own research subject.

Based on his research with his own blood samples, Fajgenbaum tried an existing FDA-approved immunosuppressant used with kidney transplant patients. He started taking it in early 2014 and has been relapse-free since. He shared his journey in a 2019 autobiography, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action.

Fajgenbaum finished medical school with a mission to identify treatments and cures for the disease and founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network. He also earned an MBA, realizing that some of the biggest barriers to finding cures are not related to the science or medicine. “It wasn’t just about knowing how to pipette and do experi-

ments in the lab; it was about mobilizing communities and making use of limited resources,” he says.

Fajgenbaum was no stranger to cancer. His mother, Anne Marie, died of brain cancer during his sophomore year at Georgetown. After his mother was diagnosed, Fajgenbaum says, he knew he wanted to become a doctor.

While still an undergraduate, Fajgenbaum created a national support network for grieving college students called AMF in his mother’s memory. “Georgetown prepared me academically for medical school and graduate school, but it also taught me the power of support and how important it is to be there for one another.”

Castleman disease is one of an estimated 7,000 rare diseases that affect about 30 million Americans, and 95 percent of the diseases do not have an FDA-approved therapy. “There’s a major unmet need in the rare-disease space,” says Fajgenbaum, now associate director of the Penn Orphan Disease Center, a professor of medicine, and a full-time Castleman researcher. “It’s been awesome to see other patients who are benefiting from our work,” he says.

He also advocates not only developing new drugs but also studying already approved drugs that may be treatments or cures for other diseases.

Why does he have such a sense of purpose? “I’ve considered myself in overtime ever since the first time I had last rites read to me in 2010,” says the former Georgetown quarterback. “In overtime, every second counts.”

Photo: Courtesy of David Fajgenbaum

JUSTICE FOR GIRLS, NON-BINARY YOUTH OF COLOR

Only two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Tanisha Douglas (F’07) began her first year at Georgetown with one pressing question: How do we find peace? For Douglas, international policy and diplomacy was the answer.

Douglas, who now uses the Pan-African spiritual name “Wakumi,” says her time as a member of Black Movements Dance Theatre ultimately molded her Hilltop journey.

“I don’t think I would have survived being here without the sisterhood I gained in Black Movements Dance Theatre,” she admits with emotion, citing the difficulties of navigating and finding community at Georgetown as a young Black woman.

“We formed a tight-knit bond of women. It was more than dancing. It was a special, deeply cultural experience.”

Douglas also dove into social-impact work through the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, where she was a mentor in the After School Kids (ASK) Program, which supports D.C. teens making positive change in their communities. For her, it was about helping youth find their voice and space in less-inclusive arenas— even if it meant giving them the reins.

“I wanted to pilot an effort where the young people in ASK directed their own learning,” she says, recalling when students in the program planned a go-go concert on the Hilltop. “It was about placing a value on what these kids held close to them. And so, the seeds of what I do now really started at Georgetown.”

Those seeds have blossomed into her role as an advocate, social worker, and the co-founder of S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, which operates in New York and in Douglas’s home city of Miami. The collective promotes and normalizes restorative-justice practices—such as mediation, peacemaking dialogues, and community service—for young Black and brown girls and transgender and nonbinary youth, particularly those impacted by state violence and mass incarceration, an issue that is personal for Douglas.

“At Georgetown, I didn’t share that I have an incarcerated parent because of the shame and stigma around it,” she says. “But now in my work, I’m confronted with it every day.”

Black women and girls are the country’s fastest-growing population of incarcerated people. In addition to offering alternative conflict resolution and processes with government agencies to prevent recidivism, S.O.U.L. Sisters supports girls and nonbinary youth of color encountering the justice and legal system, through leadership-development initiatives, healing opportunities, social-justice programming, and arts-based projects.

S.O.U.L. Sisters is now in its sixth year. Douglas says, “Our work is growing. We’re glad to hear from agencies about enacting less punitive, more healing practices, but this is a critical moment. People must start to acknowledge the school-to-prison pipeline crisis facing Black, brown, and indigenous girls.”

Photo: Camila Camaleon

Hit the Road Jack Greets Oklahoma, Texas Hoyas

The popular “Hit the Road Jack” made a swing through Oklahoma and Texas last fall following the Georgetown men’s basketball team during the Big 12 crossover series.

As soon as Ross Williamson (G’14) showed his children the promotional videos on the Instagram feed of Georgetown mascot Jack the Bulldog, they were hooked. His 3-year-old son opted to stay home, but Williamson and his 4-year-old daughter made the 90-minute drive from their home in Oklahoma City to the game in Stillwater. “It was a ‘Daddy-Daughter Date’ thing. We made it a special connection time,” he says. Plus he got to watch the Hoyas take on Oklahoma State.

That’s the kind of enthusiasm that the Hit the Road Jack tour inspires, especially among alumni who can’t often come back to campus.

As soon as the decorated Hit the Road Jack car shows up, people know something fun is in store. On their journey from stop one in Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Austin to Dallas, Jack

and crew took selfies at landmarks—“Hello, Georgetown, Texas!”—and visited several alumni-owned businesses along the route.

An Austin event featured Jody Arlington (C’93), who leads SXSW (South by Southwest) Film Press and Publicity, including running communication for the SXSW Film Conference and Festival. Arlington shared how the recent growth and popularity of SXSW is having an impact on Austin. The Georgetown Media and Entertainment Alliance (GEMA) was an Austin event partner.

Nearly 100 alumni and family members in Dallas, the final stop on the tour, turned out for a pre-game party.

Patrick Ewing Jr. (C’08), men’s basketball alumni coordinator, spoke at two pre-game events.

Follow all Jack’s adventures on Instagram @HitTheRoadJack _GU.

Hit the Road Jack made a swing through Oklahoma and Texas during the Georgetown men’s basketball team’s Big 12 crossover series. Mascot Jack visited the famous Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the Texas Statehouse in Austin, and brought out nearly 100 Hoyas and family members for the Dallas game. | Photos: Evan Luecke and Jessica Tanca

Two Alumni Recognized for Public, Professional Contributions

LEFT: During last November’s SFS Centennial Celebration (see pages 12 – 13 for more), Ambassador Melanne Verveer (SLL’66 , G’69) became only the sixth recipient of the Alumni Association’s Timothy S. Healy, S.J., Award, given in Gaston Hall. Verveer serves as the executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and also is the Special Representative on Gender Issues for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairmanship. Verveer was the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues during the Obama Administration. She was a voice for women in foreign policy as a leader in the creation of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

RIGHT: Joseph Pierce (B’91) received the Samuel A. Halsey Jr. Award at January’s annual Patrick Healy Dinner. The award honors Samuel A. Halsey (F’53), an Air Force veteran and the first African American to attend Georgetown as an undergraduate. Pierce was recognized for his career accomplishments and his contributions to the community. He is the chief legal officer for the Charlotte Hornets and has been on the legal teams at Bank of America, Comcast Sports Group, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. As a Georgetown student, he was a track-and-field captain and multi-event pentathlon athlete. Also receiving recognition at the Patrick Healy Dinner was Angelyn Mitchell, who was given the Distinguished Leader Award for her work as the founding director of African American Studies at Georgetown and an associate professor in the departments of English and African American Studies.

Photos: (left) Leslie Kossoff; (right) Rafael Suanes

LESSONS FROM THE SEA

Thanks to the wisdom of her ocean-lifeguard father, Emi Koch (C’12) learned early about honoring and protecting the world around her. The vast waters of the Pacific Ocean soon became the San Diego native’s haven as she became an avid surfer, competing as an adolescent.

Today Koch is channeling her skills as a surfer, storyteller, and social-ecological advocate for a new adventure as a 2019 – 2020 Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow.

The highly competitive fellowship fosters storytelling as a way to advance globally relevant issues. Koch is looking at the intertwined and destabilizing issues of climate change, the decline of fisheries, and rapid economic structural change. Since October, she has resided in the small fishing village of Mui Né in Southeast Vietnam, where she’s researching the impact of fish scarcity on social and environmental well-being, including gender roles, in this fish-dependent community.

A typical day for Koch begins early, as she heads out to the market with women vendors or paddles out to boats and fish farms with fishermen, who also earn income as water-sports instructors and contribute to community-based participatory research. A good day might include some surfing.

Koch and National Geographic are giving cameras to local stakeholders to tell their own stories from a firstperson perspective.

“I’m always moved in seeing what they’re experiencing,” Koch says. “People who are typically seen as exotic

secondary characters are now the storytellers. My role as a researcher is to be more of a facilitator and supply people with the means to get their stories and their voices out.”

In high school, Koch was set on a professional surfing career, not college. But after an inspiring service project in Mexico, Koch decided to look more seriously at college. A quick Google search for “diplomacy school and international service” put Georgetown on her radar, but she didn’t apply because she doubted she would be accepted.

Instead, Koch began at George Washington University, but left after her freshman year to travel abroad, where she was inspired to start a nonprofit, Beyond the Surface International, which uses surfing as a catalyst for change and empowerment.

“When I left GWU and halted my surfing career, I felt like I had failed,” Koch admits. Nevertheless, after a year, she applied to Georgetown and was accepted.

“I was just so shocked that the university took a chance on me because I wasn’t the typical student,” she says. “I had major imposter syndrome, and I just kept thinking, ‘All of these other students are so smart. Am I really here?’ ”

“The Georgetown community has shown up for me in major ways,” she says.

From surfing to social justice to sustainability issues, Koch is living out the lessons learned from her lifeguard father: “The ocean is a really sacred place for me.”

Photo: Nicolás Landa Tami

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE, CREATING CHANCES

As a 12-year-old in Simsbury, Connecticut, Jason White (B’99) was already clear about what he wanted to do professionally: make ads for Nike, which had recently launched its now-iconic “Just Do It” slogan. White has been able to realize his vision, and Georgetown was part of that success. And it all began with his father’s decision to make a detour.

White had been recruited to play lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania and was days away from signing. On a trip to see his brother at the University of Virginia, White remembers his dad saying, “Let’s go check out Georgetown.”

At first, Georgetown wasn’t a top contender, but White couldn’t deny his love for the Hilltop from the second he arrived. Conflicted about which school to attend, his father posed a question: “He said, ‘You’re only one injury away from being a student. Where do you want to be a student?’” White recalls. The answer was simple: Georgetown.

White started in the College, then switched to the business school. “[It] is where I found the real-life application of my passion,” he shares, while crediting other parts of his curricular experience outside of MSB, including an “incredibly rigorous” modern art course.

White has led marketing efforts for such major brands as Nike, Beats by Dre, Apple, Proctor & Gamble, and Disney. The work was exciting but he felt tugged to pursue a more Georgetown approach.

“I wanted to get closer to social responsibility,” White says.

Now chief ma rketing officer of Cura Cannabis Solutions, he leads a growing movement to shift the narrative around cannabis.

“Fourteen months ago, cannabis was just ‘weed’ for a lot of people, including myself,” White says, also noting the damaging effects of cannabis criminalization on Black and brown people. “When approached for this role, the company said they will give me the support and a platform to change that story and do it the right way.”

Through “The Possible Plan,” White and several other industry leaders are working to empower people formerly incarcerated for cannabis-prohibition offenses by offering programs like expungement and, eventually, grant writing. Their hope is to integrate former incarcerated individuals into the booming cannabis industry.

“There is a fission between Black and brown people and the corporate world,” he says. “I think it’s important for marginalized people of color to understand that big cannabis is not a bad thing.”

Reflecting on his 20-year career and his vision to assist marginalized people, White says his father’s impact on his life fuels his work.

“For young Black men, oftentimes they don’t get that rock, that anchor. He said, ‘Go where you want to be a student,’ and that changed my life.”

Photo: Courtesy Jason White

Lives Well Lived honors a few alumni who have recently passed away with short obituaries. We share with you these portraits of alumni beyond the headlines who have made an indelible impact living day to day.

You can find an In Memoriam list at alumni.georgetown.edu/in-memoriam

Maya Robinson (C’19) and Mark Keffer (C’19)

Anyone who knew Maya Robinson and Mark Keffer, both 2019 graduates of the College, will tell you that they were two peas in a pod. From serenading crowds side-by-side in The Capitol G’s a capella group to serving as rowing teammates, Robinson and Keffer shared many memorable moments together at Georgetown.

The two met during their freshman year. Born in Houston but raised in London, Keffer was an extremely talented painter who graduated with a degree in psychology and art. His art history professor Elizabeth Prelinger says that his works “spoke for themselves as objects of beauty, fascination, and imagination.” Keffer also was a member of the on-campus peer-to-peer support group Project Lighthouse. After graduation, he worked as an analyst at Ion Group in New York City.

Robinson, a native of Concord, Massachusetts, was described by her professors as “smart,” “friendly,” and “full of tenacity.” A mathematics and computer science major, she was a member of the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union. The couple was celebrating their anniversary in Puerto Rico when they were caught in a flash flood and tragically drowned on October 11, 2019, in the Espiritu Santo River at El Yunque National Rainforest.

Michelle Xue (B’19)

Michelle Xue had an anything-is-possible attitude but was particularly known for her love of climbing. Admired for her fearlessness and infectious good spirit, the San Ramon, California, native inspired many of her colleagues in and outside of the classroom. Xue graduated with a major in operations information management and a minor in economics from the business school. She also was president of Georgetown’s Buddhist Meditation Sangha, co-president of the university’s Buddhist Student Association, and a board member of the Georgetown University Public Real Estate Fund. Xue was also a former university chapter chair of the D.C. section of the American Alpine Club. After graduating from Georgetown and receiving job offers to enter the world of finance in New York City, Xue decided to return to California to be an acquisitions analyst for RealTerm.

Brahmachari Sharan, director of Dharmic Life at Georgetown, shared that Xue fully “invested her thought and time” into her passions, and her legacy as an inspiration to peers on their spiritual journeys will be honored and remembered.

During the weekend of October 29, 2019, Xue, along with her climbing partner, Jennifer Shedden, died from injuries sustained while climbing the alps of Red Slate Mountain in Mono County, California.

She is survived by her parents, Anna and Tony Xue, and her brother, Stephen Xue.

Dr. Joseph A. Riggs (C’55, M’59, Parent)

Dr. Joseph Riggs’s 70-year relationship with Georgetown began because a nun advised his mother that a Jesuit education was best. His legacy as “Joe Georgetown” lasted until his death on November 7, 2019, at age 85, as explained during the eulogy given by his son, Dr. John Riggs (C’81, M’85).

Riggs was an active volunteer and one of the founders of the Alumni Admissions Program. He was a reunion class ambassador, Medical Alumni Board Chairman, and a five-decade member of the Alumni Association Board of Governors—including a term as president. He received the John Carroll Award in 1981 and the Founders Award in 2007.

These volunteer roles required frequent trips from his home in New Jersey to Washington, D.C. “We always had to come down the GW Parkway so dad could see Georgetown appear above the river,” says his daughter Lori Riggs-Kadar (NHS’88, MBA’91). “He’d get excited as soon as he saw the Healy building.”

“My father was forever indebted to Georgetown for his education and felt an obligation to give back,” says Riggs-Kadar, an active Hoya volunteer herself.

Riggs is survived by his wife, Lola, their seven children, 24 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. Collectively, the family has 16 Georgetown alumni holding 22 undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Penelope Alatis (G’69, Parent)

Penelope “Penny” Alatis had a passion for teaching that matched that of her late husband, James E. Alatis, former dean of Georgetown’s School of Languages and Linguistics. A devoted educator in the Alexandria City (Virginia) Public School system for 30 years, Alatis was a cherished English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at F.C. Hammond High School.

Alatis was a globetrotter with her husband and served as an officer of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She was a member of Alexandria Hospital’s Board of Lady Members and the Philoptochos of St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church. She was also a dedicated bowler.

“Penny and Jim Alatis’s devotion to each other and to their children was always an inspiration to me,” University Professor of Linguistics Deborah Tannen remembers. “Jim had a special phone line in his office exclusively for Penny. If it rang when I was in his office, no matter if he was in the middle of a sentence, he’d say, ‘That’s Penny. I have to answer.’ And I could tell how happy he was to hear from her, no matter when it was.”

Alatis died peacefully in her Alexandria home on August 15, 2019. She is survived by her sons, Anthony J. Alatis (I’84) and William J. Alatis (I’74, G’77), his wife, Olya, and three grandchildren.

COVID-19 ALUMNI RESOURCES AND UPDATES

as of April 21

A number of resources are available that can help the Georgetown alumni community stay up to date and in touch during this global pandemic.

• Keep current on the latest information about university activities, decisions, and resources on the university’s COVID-19 Resource web page, georgetown.edu/coronavirus

• View daily “Georgetown Now” updates from President DeGioia at facebook.com/georgetownuniv.

• View COVID-19-related videos and articles featuring Georgetown students, faculty, and alumni at georgetown. edu/coronavirus-content.

• Check out virtual resources for alumni—including career webinars, virtual book clubs and gatherings, and streamed religious services—at alumni.georgetown.edu/virtual-resources

• Hoya Gateway provides professional networking opportunities with fellow Hoyas at hoyagateway. georgetown.edu.

We also share the following updates on events and gatherings: Commencement: After careful consideration, Georgetown decided to postpone Commencement activities to a time when we can safely convene as a community.

Reunion 2020: Recognizing the ongoing nature of the coronavirus threat and the likelihood of continued restrictions on travel and gatherings, Reunion Weekend 2020 is postponed until further notice. Celebrating lifelong connections to the university is a cherished tradition at Georgetown, and this decision was made with deep regret. Updated information about reunion can be found at reunion. georgetown.edu

Summer 2020 on-campus events and programming: In April, the university announced that all in-person summer programs scheduled to be held on the Main Campus, the School of Continuing Studies campus, and the Law Center campus through August 9 will need to be shifted to an online-only format or otherwise be canceled. No in-person housing, event, or athletic space will be provided for summer programming, including camps and conferences.

Off-campus alumni events: In accordance with public health warnings against gatherings, as well as the university’s suspension of travel for staff, Georgetown will not host or sponsor in-person alumni gatherings until further notice.

SUPPORTING STUDENTS FACING UNANTICIPATED EXPENSES

On March 11, President John J. DeGioia announced Georgetown’s transition to a virtual learning environment as part of the effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. In the weeks since that announcement, the Georgetown community’s strength of spirit has been evident in many ways—particularly in the outpouring of interest we’ve received from alumni and friends in supporting students who require assistance at this challenging time.

Student needs are many and varied, ranging from travel expenses to groceries to WiFi access to storage for personal belongings. Your gift to the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund for Students will support the university’s commitment to providing assistance to any student who requires it. We invite you to learn more at giving.georgetown.edu/what-to-support/covid_19student-support

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of concern for our students from the larger Georgetown community and the desire to help, even as you contend in your own lives with the challenges of the COVID-19 public-health crisis. Thank you now and always for being Hoyas for others.

Information about how Georgetown is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is available inside. Please see: • How Georgetown is Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic, page 3

• COVID-19 Alumni Resources and Updates, page 48