BALANCING THE BOOKS /// DOMESTIC EXTREMISM

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE SPRING 2016

In Addition to History Novelist Thomas Mallon imagines what lies between the facts in the lives of presidents and those around them. “Desolate” is the word used by university photographer Logan Werlinger to describe this late-February view of the Jefferson Memorial taken en route to an assignment. As the fog obscured tourists, the memorial took on a mythical, Mount- Olympus-on-the-Tidal-Basin feel.

gw magazine / Spring 2016 GW MAGAZINE SPRING 2016 A MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

CONTENTS

[Features] 30 / In Addition to History Novelist Thomas Mallon imagines what lies between the facts in the lives of presidents and those around them. / By Matthew Stoss/

38 / Balancing the Books Alumna Kyle Zimmer’s nonprofit, First Book, is pooling the buying power of educators and families in need to change the face of—and the access to— children’s publishing. / By Julyssa Lopez/

48 / Tracking Terror in the U.S. A new GW think tank is monitoring the pulse of homegrown terrorism, and it’s finding that recruitment on social media is helping to create an increasingly diverse picture of Islamic-inspired extremism. / By David Frey/

[Departments] On the cover: 3 / Editor’s Note Thomas Mallon—that’s his hand there—inserts himself 4 / Postmarks into an Oval Office diorama handcrafted by John 7 / GW News McGlasson; photographed by William Atkins.

LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN 54 / Alumni News

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Be Informed | Be Connected | Be Notified gwtoday.gwu.edu Two-year-old Blake Augburn holds a book at Smart from the Start, an early-learning center in Southeast D.C. FROM THE EDITOR

Back in 1992, when friends 10,000 times. Standing atop one Kyle Zimmer, JD ’87, Elizabeth another, they would climb to the Cranking Arky, JD ’86, and Peter Gold International Space Station and started the nonprofit First Book, back again 40 times. Or, packed they handed out 12,000 books, and shipped, they would be which is pretty tremendous. That nearly enough to put two books Up the was 24 years ago. As Julyssa into the hands of every person Lopez reports in this issue, First 18 years or younger in the U.S. Book now distributes 15 million The volume is staggering, but Volumes free and low-cost books each so is the implication: The unmet year, a number that over time has need is that deep. And perhaps added up to 140 million books. the most compelling thing First “Millions” has lost a bit of Book does has little to do with grandiosity over time; it’s muddy volume; it has to do with content. turf, being both a somewhat It’s a massive effort that household term and still almost diffuses into many more hundreds unimaginably vast. So let’s of millions of microscopic impacts put this into perspective: One- that could remake the surfaces hundred-and-forty million copies on which a generation will build of The Cat in the Hat laid end to its creativity, its confidence and end lengthwise—the hardback its awareness of self and others. copy in my home, anyway— would span the 2-mile trek Danny Freedman, BA ’01 between the Lincoln Memorial managing Editor @TheGWMagazine LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN and the U.S. Capitol more than

gwmagazine.com / 3 POSTMARKS

electrons harmed in this produc- Enduring Fondness tion. On the other hand, we are rapidly approaching generations that will have little written or pic- Emerita professor torial history, due to everything Honey Nashman, at her home on Lake being saved “in the cloud.” Phones Barcroft in Falls get lost and technology evolves so Church, Va. rapidly. How recently have we seen a 3 ½-inch floppy disk or mis- placed that thumb drive? A hard- copy photograph or negative can be restored and brought back to life by a skilled technician. The craftsmanship of a true photogra- pher is irreplaceable to save those memories. Perhaps your family album will become the hiero- glyphics of our generation thou- sands of years from now. Jon Sandberg, MFS ’81 Olympia, Wash.

The Thing About Incunables As a GW alumnus in American Studies and retired head of rare books and manuscripts at the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary, I very much enjoyed your article (“Legally Bound,” winter 2016) in the latest issue of GW Maga- zine, which I received today. The I just finished reading winter 2016) and that warm smile operating officer” on Page 29. law library certainly has a quite your article on Honey of hers! During her tenure, I hap- To my confusion, there is refer- impressive collection. pened to sit next to her on a long ence on Page 32 to a mysterious I hope you will excuse me for Nashman (“The Sweet airplane flight and found her to Dr. Campbell, “the museum pres- pointing out two small errors. Life,” winter 2016). I be so very outgoing and pleasant. ident and CEO.” Incunables are books printed up had Professor Nash- She introduced herself, smiled An otherwise interesting arti- to and including the year 1500 constantly and never stopped cle; glad to learn the Weiss family [rather than “before 1500,” as man when I attended chatting with me during the still has roots in Pennsylvania. the story states]. Since there was GW and thought she entire flight. I’ve never forgotten Rena B. Burstein, BA ’48 no year zero, the 15th century those hours, nor her great accom- Bryn Mawr, Penn. ran from 1401 through 1500, was amazing. I just plishments as superintendent. not 1400 through 1499. Also, want you to know how And how wonderful to see the Thomas Campbell is the museum’s the Providence Athenaeum is in much I thoroughly warm smile of the next genera- director and CEO. Titles for both Rhode Island. tion on the front cover! men are correct on p. 29, but when John Haskell, MPhil ’72, PhD ’77 enjoyed her story. Thomas J. Moran, MA '05 Dr. Campbell is reintroduced on She has done so many great Arlington, Va. p. 32, his role is misidentified. We Thanks for mentioning these things for the university and has regret the error. —Eds. errors. A hand is planted firmly touched so many people. I feel on our collective forehead for not very proud to have had her as a Editing Artifact A Negative for Photography catching those. One thing we enjoy professor and that I can say I am I found the article about Daniel I read with interest the “Just Pass- about this magazine is getting to a graduate of GWU. Weiss, the Metropolitan Muse- ing Through” article in the winter write for such a widely informed Lisa A. Clark, BA ’86 um’s new president (“You Are 2016 issue with marvelous pho- audience. There’s scarcely an Here,” winter 2016), interesting tography that is becoming a lost article we could ink that doesn’t enough to read it through before art through the dawning of the have an expert among you out Gone but Not Forgotten breakfast this morning. digital image age. So many pic- there somewhere, which makes it What a great picture of Floret- Dr. Weiss is described as “the tures today are taken with the fun and challenging. Thanks for ta McKenzie (“In Memoriam,” Met’s new president and chief mindset of spray and pray, with no reading. —Eds. WILLIAM ATKINS

4 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Managing Editor Danny Freedman, BA ’01 Assistant editor Matthew Stoss Keepsakes What They’re Saying on Twitter Photo editor This photo and letter below William Atkins popped up in our inbox and Stacy Parker LeMelle University photographer it made us wonder: What @StacyLeMelle Logan Werlinger reminders of GW do you This cover feat. @jus242 made keep around? Let us know my weekend. How great is this! Design at [email protected] or on Content & design. GW Marketing & Creative Services Twitter @TheGWMagazine. Bravo @TheGWMagazine Art Directors Dominic N. Abbate, BA ’09, MBA ’15 My daughter made this sign for Bob Poogach John McGlasson, BA ’00, MFA ’03 me, it is in my backyard. I met @Raprasrav Contributors husband-to-be, Gaspar Messina, Hard copy of GW Today: Keith Harriston (senior managing editor), BS ’76 (now deceased), at GW; @TheGWMagazine Rob Stewart (managing editor for multimedia), My mother’s people came from came in the mail Brittney Dunkins, James Irwin, Julyssa Lopez and Munderkingen, Germany (master today. Terrific cover Ruth Steinhardt; GW Impact: Gray Turner, MPS ’11 chimney sweeps); my dad came featuring @jus242 w/ (editor) equally good article from Steamboat Rock, Iowa (Frie- INTERNs inside sian farmer’s son); the Chinese Rebecca Manikkam, GWSB ’17 (editorial) took the mythical Lost Horizon Zach Marin, CCAS ’18 (photography) city name and renamed an ex- Laurie Gibbons isting city; golden dragons from @LaDolceEsq President of the university Pern are fighting females; some of The things you learn Steven Knapp my offspring and the sign-maker when you bring V ice president live in Rhode Island; and I spent @TheGWMagazine for external relations my childhood on the shore of the on the train. Lorraine Voles, BA ’81 Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. @GWtweets pls Vice president for Development Carla Harms Messina, MS ’62 make these into a and alumni relations Bethesda, Md. t-shirt I can buy! Aristide J. Collins Jr.

DanielleCorm- Associate vice president ierSmith for communications Sarah Gegenheimer Baldassaro @daniellecormier Who knew Coach is such a Associate vice president fashionista? <3 the new fight-song for alumni relations themed uniform: http://magazine. Matt Manfra gwu.edu/fashion-forward via Executive director @TheGWMagazine #RaiseHigh for editorial services Rachel Muir

GW Magazine (ISSN 2162-6464) is published quarterly All Write! by GW’s Division of External Relations, Rice Hall 5th floor, Washington, D.C. 20052. Phone: 202-994-5709; We want to hear from you, too. Contact email: [email protected]. us through our website, gwmagazine.com, on Twitter (@TheGWMagazine) or send a Postmaster Please send change-of-address notices to GW Magazine, GW Alumni Records Office, 2033 K St., note to: NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20052. Notices can also GW Magazine be sent via alumni.gwu.edu/update, email to alumrecs@ 2121 Eye Street, NW gwu.edu, or 202-994-3569. Periodicals postage paid at Suite 501 Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Washington, DC 20052 Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect official positions [email protected] of the university. Please include your name, degree/year, © 2016 The George Washington University. The George address and a daytime phone number. Washington University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. Volume 26, Issue 3

gwmagazine.com / 5

“You’re in a place that can help you fulfill your goals, but you have to really want it and go after it. Break the walls down.” MICHAEL JORDAN’S SPORTS AGENT DAVID FALK, JD ’75 (P. 18)

5 questions______19 From the Archives ______20 George Welcomes______22 BookShelves ______24 GW NEWS sports ______26

[teaching] Poetry in Motion

A second-career English teacher helps kids find their voice and confidence in school through “wrestling with words.” Topher Kandik, MEd ’07, works with an Advanced Placement English student at the SEED School of Washington, D.C. // By Ruth Steinhardt LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN

gwmagazine.com / 7 GW NEWS

A student works on a poetry and vocabulary exercise in Topher Kandik’s AP English class.

opher Kandik was working as a high-lev- spending all day talking to rich people?’” Mr. Kandik remembers. “The students were el fundraiser at a prestigious arts orga- Before long, Mr. Kandik was a master’s taken aback. I had done all this planning, and nization when a chance encounter on a student at GW’s Graduate School of Educa- I couldn’t get a word out. Metro train changed his life. tion and Human Development. After gradu- “But then someone cracked a joke and, “This big guy came and stood over me. ating in 2007, he joined the SEED School of in the long term, it was a net positive. After And, you know, when you’re on the Metro Washington, D.C.—a public charter school having that terror on the first day—you can’t and someone approaches you, you get a little for grades 6-12 in the city’s historically be afraid of making a mistake because you’ve nervous,” Mr. Kandik remembers. “Then he underserved Southeast quadrant—and has already done it. The kids will forgive you, and said, ‘Topher?’” remained there ever since as an English lan- you can move on.” Mr. Kandik recognized the man as a guage arts teacher. former “chubby little boy” named Marcus. In December, he was named the 2016 FEBRUARY RAIN drizzled gloomily out- He had mentored Marcus in an after-school District of Columbia Teacher of the Year. The side the windows of a conference room at playwriting program in D.C. award, given by the city’s Office of the Super- SEED. Inside, two rows of teenagers stood “He was saying, ‘I had so much fun doing intendent of Education, marks the distance he facing each other, shifting and giggling. that play. I need to get a copy.’ It was the worst has traveled from his shaky first day leading a “Without conflict, there is no drama. With- play ever—maybe eight lines—but the class high school classroom. out drama, there is no poetry!” Regie Cabico had so much fun. And I thought, ‘Why am I “I was a deer in the headlights,” calls out. “We are triggering some drama!” WERLINGERLOGAN

8 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Mr. Kandik leans forward a little, calmly have been failing up to then do well [at instance, “they’re wrestling with words and narrowing the space between him and his Poetry Out Loud], and then they take that interpretation, and, more importantly, they’re students. “Remember,” he says, “this isn’t a success and build on it. Chris is an example,” becoming more confident and comfortable in shouting match.” Mr. Kandik says. “He was pretty disengaged the classroom.” Mr. Cabico—a D.C. performance artist until Poetry Out Loud, and then, it was like Mr. Kandik had invited to help run a day of it gave him an excuse to throw himself into INVITING OUTSIDERS like Mr. Cabico into classes—backs him up, then readies the stu- something. Once he did that, it became his the classroom has always been part of Mr. Kan- dents again. “On your mark, get set, go!” thing.” dik’s classroom philosophy. In ragged unison, the group on the left says Mr. Kandik says one of his most essential “He never views the classroom as a totally their assigned line: “I can’t do it.” insights as a teacher has been that no student contained space,” says Brian Casemore, an Like an orchestral conductor, wants to fail, but not all have the opportunity associate professor of curriculum and peda- Mr. Cabico raises his arms to cue the second to envision themselves as successful. gogy who worked with Mr. Kandik during and row of students. “Even the most jaded, the most defiant after his time at GSEHD. “Those boundaries “You can do it!” they call back. kid wants to do well on stuff,” he says. “They for him were porous from the beginning.” Their partners gain conviction—but, mind- know they haven’t, and they know it’s been a Mr. Kandik’s previous career in arts fund- ful of their teacher’s directions, not too much chore, so they decide to throw their hands up. raising left him with connections all over the volume. “I can’t do it!” But that doesn’t mean they’re lost. That doesn’t city, and he works extensively with local and “You can do it!” mean they don’t want people, whether it’s their national organizations such as PEN/Faulkner, Mr. Kandik, watching from the side- teachers or peers, to tell them they’ve done a 826DC and the American Film Institute. lines, smiles. Mr. Cabico was directing this good job.” “Part of what makes Topher such a good 11th-grade English class in improvisational That realization is part of the reason teacher is that he has his finger on the pulse of warmups as part of their preparation for the Mr. Kandik tries to bring as many influences the city and its culture,” says Mr. Cabico, who Poetry Out Loud competition. and activities into the classroom as possible. has known Mr. Kandik for almost a decade. When he first brought The day before Mr. Cabico’s the nationwide competition visit, Pushcart Prize-winning to the school several years author Celeste Ng joined ago, Mr. Kandik says, it was his Advanced Placement almost impossible to con- English class as part of a PEN/ vince his self-conscious teen- “IT WAS THE WORST PLAY Faulkner partnership. So did age students to embrace it. EVER—MAYBE EIGHT LINES— about a dozen students from “They would just take a Maret, a private school in zero on the assignment,” he BUT THE CLASS HAD SO Northwest Washington—an says, rather than do some- ongoing arrangement that thing as potentially embar- MUCH FUN. AND I THOUGHT, Mr. Kandik says helps students rassing as reciting poetry in from both schools broaden front of their classmates. ‘WHY AM I SPENDING ALL DAY their horizons. But now, Poetry Out Loud TALKING TO RICH PEOPLE?’” “I think there are artificial is a SEED institution. Every barriers we put up, and one of student chooses a poem from them is the school you go to,” the organization’s database he says. “Why should kids at to memorize and recite, and SEED not interact with kids classes choose one winner to send to a school- “The kid who hasn’t been playing nice from Wilson or Maret or Sidwell Friends?” wide contest in early March. Mr. Kandik says could make a switch and really be into some- Making that connection is part of Mr. students are much more confident about par- thing we’re doing,” he says. “You might not Kandik’s commitment to educational and ticipating and more supportive of their fellow even know it in the moment, but eventually it social justice. He wants his students, almost competitors now that they’ve all had to do it comes out. all of whom are African American and from themselves. “That’s like the Marcus realization,” he low- to middle-income families, to have the Last year’s champion, a boy named Chris says, referring to the former mentee in the same opportunities as their private school with a hesitant smile, was in the classroom. playwriting class who stopped him on the counterparts. He integrates current events His winning selection: Joel Nelson’s 28-line Metro. “When we were actually doing [the like the Black Lives Matter movement into the Equus Caballus. As Mr. Kandik explains that class], it didn’t seem like he cared. It was only curriculum, linking present-day activism with the winner at SEED goes on to regional and, if later that I knew it had mattered to him.” the long history of civil rights struggles. successful there, national competitions, Chris But Mr. Kandik is aware that in an educa- “My AP class reads a lot of slave narratives, gestures toward himself with a thumb. That’s tional environment that is increasingly focused and we notice time and time again that knowl- gonna be me, he mouths jokingly. on quantifiable results, it’s not always easy to edge is dangerous,” Mr. Kandik says. “There Chris, Mr. Kandik says later during an convince school administrators to diversify are all these stereotypes of dangerous black interview, is an example of the effect arts their students’ opportunities. youth, but in a sense that’s what I want my stu- integration can have on students who may not “The sad thing is that [arts integration] dents to be: dangerous, equipped with ideas. excel in traditional academics. actually helps with test results,” he says. When Once you have discipline and context, then you “Every year, one or two students who students compete in Poetry Out Loud, for become a powerful person.”

gwmagazine.com / 9 GW NEWS

[arts] Noteworthy Space GW’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts hosted an evening of classical music in January that featured musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra performing in some of the celebrated spaces of the Corcoran’s historic Flagg Building (including cellist Sophie Shao, at right, in the main atrium). The free event was part of the NSO In Your Neighborhood program that brings world-class music to intimate spaces in D.C. WILLIAM ATKINS

10 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 gwmagazine.com / 11 GW NEWS

[admissions] Applications Rise 28 Percent Applications to become a first-year under- graduate student entering in fall 2016 were 28 percent higher than the previous year, the university announced in February. As of Jan. 15, GW received 25,431 appli- cations from prospective students around the world. By comparison, for fall 2015, the uni- versity received a total of 19,833 applications. Students who chose to apply test-optional accounted for about 20 percent of the appli- cations. Admissions officials said they believe GW’s new test-optional policy was a factor in [scholarships] the rise in applications. Other factors includ- ed targeted outreach to school counselors, a Sakiya Walker, a Duke Ellington more personalized and data-driven approach School of the Arts senior, accepts a to recruitment, and a revamped campus visit full-ride Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarship from GW President experience. Steven Knapp in March, one of 10 The decision to adopt a test-optional awards on a day of surprise visits admissions policy was influenced, in part, to D.C. schools, which Dr. Knapp by a concern that outstanding students who called “my favorite day of the year.” did not earn high scores on the SAT or ACT may have felt discouraged from applying. At the same time, studies have indicated that a sustained commitment to a rigorous course of [philanthropy] though, will continue to operate the Loeb Vis- study and exceptional academic performance itors Center at the Touro Synagogue National in high school are the best indicators of how a Historic Site in Newport, R.I. student will fare in college. $2.5M Donation Before the First Amendment guaran- In the first year since implementing the teed freedom of religion, President George policy, GW has seen an increase in applications Endows Institute Washington was an early advocate for reli- from underrepresented groups, including gious minorities. His 1790 letter to the Touro African-American, Latino and international for Religious Synagogue in Newport, penned after he and students. Applications Freedom at GW then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson from first-genera- visited the city, promised that the nation would tion college students For more on this A new institute focused on religious free- “give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no increased by nearly story, visit dom has been established and endowed at assistance” and defined freedom of belief as the 1,100. go.gwu.edu/ GW through a $2.5 million donation from “inherent natural right” of every American. “We adopted our spring16admissions the John L. Loeb Jr. Foundation and the New The institute will be housed within the test-optional policy York City-based George Washington Insti- Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. to strengthen and tute for Religious Freedom, the university Amb. Loeb, who served as the U.S. ambas- diversify an already announced in January. sador to Denmark from 1981 to 1983 and as a outstanding applicant The Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Insti- delegate to the United Nations, is a business- pool by reaching out to exceptional students tute for Religious Freedom at GW will foster man, philanthropist and art collector. He who have been underrepresented at selective dialogue on religious understanding and the was a partner of the Wall Street investment colleges and universities,” GW President separation of church and state, and will serve banking and brokerage firm Loeb, Rhoades Steven Knapp says. “These initial results sug- as a center for academic collaboration in reli- and Co., from 1957 to 1979. gest that our efforts are on the right track.” gion, peace studies, history, political science “I can’t think of a more appropriate insti- Applications for early decision for fall and other programs for scholars, students, tution to carry on the work of the George 2016 rose by more than 30 percent over 2015, educators and the public. Washington Institute for Religious Freedom to 1,373. GW was slated to accept 841 early Educational programs that had been than this university, named for our first decision applicants for fall 2016 compared to offered through the New York-based insti- president himself,” Amb. Loeb said. “GW’s 780 for the previous class. The students GW tute, also founded by Amb. Loeb, will be new institute will enable the university to tell accepted for early decision have a median and transferred to the university. The George the story of how Washington’s letter helped mean GPA that is slightly higher than the

Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, define this nation.” early decision class the previous year. WILLIAM ATKINS

12 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 [institutes] Carbonell Family Professor in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders—was creat- ed as a gift of Board of Trustees Chair Nelson Inaugural Director Named Carbonell, whose son Dylan was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old. “To see a university that wants to get into for Autism Institute this game and to see that the chair of the Board of Trustees is someone who wants to Yale researcher takes helm of the new endeavor aimed at becoming drive that research is the most wonderful the go-to center for research and services in the D.C. area thing,” Dr. Pelphrey says. “It’s like the entire university is in line with a singular vision.” More than 80 faculty members from the Early in his career, as a researcher at Duke policy and legislative efforts aimed at making Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the University, Kevin Pelphrey was study- accessible and affordable services available School of Law, the Graduate School of Educa- ing the development of the so-called social for adolescents and adults with autism and tion and Human Development, the School of brain, which governs facial recognition, eye neurodevelopmental disabilities. Medicine and Health Sciences and the Milken gaze and other functions related to personal Dr. Pelphrey comes to GW from Yale Uni- Institute School of Public Health currently interaction. versity, where he served as the Harris Profes- work on projects related to autism and neuro- At the time, more than a decade ago, his sor in the Yale Child Study Center, a professor developmental disorders. work only touched on autism spectrum dis- of psychology and the founding director of Looking ahead long term, Dr. Pelphrey says order (ASD), of which deficits in social func- Yale’s Center for Translational Developmental he envisions the creation of a summer course tioning are a hallmark. But his focus changed Neuroscience. He has active research grants for clinicians and families who are planning after his 3-year-old daughter was diagnosed totaling around $20 million, including work for the transition to adulthood for adolescents with autism. as the lead researcher of a network studying with autism; an undergraduate course for “Before, I was intellectually interested the neurogenetics of females with ASD, part students interested in autism research, and, in helping people, but I never imagined that of the National Institutes of Health’s Autism someday, a residential college within the I could see treatments that will benefit my Centers of Excellence Program. university for college-age young adults with child in my lifetime,” Research on the autism. Dr. Pelphrey says. “It social brain and Eventually, he says, “I would like for does give me drive.” improved brain anyone in the D.C. area who Googles ‘autism’ Dr. Pelphrey, imaging have led to see that they have a place to come that has now a leading ASD to a better under- everything they need.” —Brittney Dunkins researcher, brings I would like for standing of autism that passion to GW, in girls, which, until where this winter anyone in the D.C. recently, was more he became the inau- area who Googles difficult to detect, gural director of the ‘autism’ to see Dr. Pelphrey says. university’s Autism “Girls develop and Neurodevelop- that they have a their social brain mental Disorders place to come that earlier, which insu- Institute. has everything lates them,” he says. The institute was “It means they can created in partner- they need. have a genetic risk ship with Children’s without presenting Kevin Pelphrey National Medical symptoms because Center with the aim their brains are of becoming the go-to place for cross-dis- compensating. We study how their brains are ciplinary research on autism, which is esti- compensating and can hopefully apply those mated to affect 1 in 68 children in the United principles to help children and adolescents States. Dr. Pelphrey says much of the insti- with autism cope.” tute’s work will focus on less-studied topics: Dr. Pelphrey “understands the science expanding the body of research on autism in behind the disorder and the importance of girls (the disorder is almost five times more approaching it not just as a diagnosis but common among boys), developing interven- in a more holistic fashion,” says GW’s Vice tions for adolescents and adults with autism, President for Research Leo Chalupa. “I am and helping them transition to adulthood. confident that he will build the institute into The institute, which will be based on the a top-tier resource for individuals with autism Virginia Science and Technology Campus in and their families.”

WILLIAM ATKINS Ashburn, Va., also will seek to inform public Dr. Pelphrey’s position—as the inaugural

gwmagazine.com / 13 GW NEWS COURTESY OF MATTHEW LUTZ AND CHRIS REID

[biology] co-authors— Chris Reid, then a postdoctoral National Academy of Sciences. fellow at the New Jersey Institute of Technolo- The researchers developed mathematical gy, and Matthew Lutz, a PhD student at Princ- models that suggest the ants are constantly Ants That Don’t eton University—carried out experiments managing the costs and benefits of the bridge. with colonies of army ants living on Barro Bridges speed traffic, but tying up ants in Just Build Colorado Island, a Smithsonian research site bridges means risking having inadequate in the Panama Canal. numbers at a battle. Architecture, The first step each day was to hike For the next step, Dr. Powell and Simon They Become It through the forest until they came across a Garnier of the New Jersey Institute of Tech- column of foraging ants. Then Dr. Reid and nology, another author of the paper, hope to A colony of the army ant Eciton hamatum can Mr. Lutz had to coax the ants onto an exper- study more structures—and to collaborate contain hundreds of thousands of ants. Those imental apparatus. Army ants move fast and with a group of researchers who work with a ants spend their days out looking for other ant pack a nasty sting. Poking them with sticks is kind of simple robot that operates in swarms. nests to raid. When they find one, they fight, a bad idea. Instead, the scientists used a trick Some day it might be possible to make robots steal the larvae and carry the tasty spoils they learned from Dr. Powell: spraying water that would assemble themselves into a bridge back to their young. from a plastic bottle to gently encourage the and adjust according to traffic, like the ants But army ants aren’t just raiders. They’re ants toward the ramp. do. also architects, using their own bodies to “Within about 10 or 15 minutes we had the “It’s just a bunch of ants running around in make their trails faster and smoother. As they ants already redirected through our maze the forest,” Dr. Powell says, but it’s also some- run, they cross over leaves, twigs, holes—and and happily foraging, none the wiser that they thing else: “an extreme example of collective the bodies of their sisters. were being experimented on,” Dr. Reid says. problem solving.” —Helen Fields “These self-assembling structures that Once on the apparatus, the ants were sent army ants build are very unique in the ant on a V-shaped detour, a pair of skinny plas- Army ants build a world,” says GW biology professor Scott tic platforms connected by a hinge. In every bridge near the joint Powell. Army ants plug potholes in the forest experiment, the ants started a bridge at the of the research tool. floor and build ladders to help the colony tra- joint between the two platforms—the pointy verse tree trunks. They even build a tempo- inner corner of the V-shape. Gradually, more rary nest, complete with tunnels and rooms, ants would glom onto the outside edge of the that’s reassembled every night by living ants bridge, which then inched away from the who grab onto each other and hold on tight. corner and back toward the line of the main Dr. Powell studied how the ants plug trail. holes as a graduate student. Now he is part The researchers found that the ants didn’t of a team of researchers trying to understand always make the shortest possible route. more about how army ants build one kind of Instead, they adjusted the bridges constantly. structure: bridges. When more ants were running through, the The question, he says, is this: “How do bridge moved farther to make a shorter route; you have these relatively simple, uninformed when traffic let up, the bridge moved back individuals that interact to solve a bigger toward the corner. The research problem?” was published in December For a new study, Dr. Powell’s in the Proceedings of the

14 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 [student Research] A RECORD NUMBER OF ABSTRACTS—for projects ranging from the humanities to biomedical engineering, health sciences and world affairs—were submitted by students and faculty members for the university’s 21st annual Research Days on March 29 and 30. Here’s a quick look at participation by school or other entity and total entries over the past few years.

Research Days Abstracts by School/Institute/Affiliate 2016 Total Children's National Medical Center 2 Columbian College of Arts and Sciences 181 567 Corcoran School of the Arts and Design 5 Total abstracts, 2016 Elliott School of International Affairs 19 2013-2016 Graduate School of Education and Human Development 5 Institute of Biomedical Sciences 21 477 Milken Institute School of Public Health 71 2015 School of Business 3 432 424 School of Media and Public Affairs 4 2013 2014 School of Medicine and Health Sciences 196 School of Engineering and Applied Science 50 School of Nursing 9 Veterans Affairs Medical Center 1

School / Institute / Affiliate

Summer At GW

DID YOU KNOW GW HAS OPTIONS FOR YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY? u Over 650 courses in the arts, business, engineering, history, international relations, law & government, mathematics, and science u GW Pre-College Program: Credit & noncredit summer programs for high school students u International Summer at GW: Summer courses for visiting international students SUMMER.GWU.EDU

gwmagazine.com / 15 GW NEWS IN BRIEF

Childhood obesity expert William Dietz, who joined GW in 2014 as director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness, was installed in March as the inaugural Sumner M. Redstone Chair in a ceremony at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. Dietz previously spent 15 years as the director of the Centers for SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING HALL Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.

MILKEN INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

GW moved up 10 spots to No. 83 in new National Science Foundation rankings of federal research funding CHARLES E. SMITH CENTER expenditures for 2014. In total R&D The amount, approximately, expenditures— raised for athletics during which include the annual Buff & Blue Fund funding from the Challenge. That includes a Elliott School Dean Reuben E. government, the $15,000 bonus from Michelle Brigety II in January joined the university and Rubin, BA ’91, chair of the GW Council on Foreign Relations as an others—GW rose Athletics Advisory Council, adjunct senior fellow for African to No. 92, up from which was divided among the peace and security issues with its No. 98 the previous three teams with the highest Center for Preventive Action. year. Expenditures percentage of alumni donors. are a key measure (Gymnastics was tops, with of research activity. gifts from nearly half its The School of Media alumnae.) In all, more than 600 and Public Affairs athletics alumni participated. celebrates its 25th anniversary this year with a series of events, including a May 6 celebration. For more information, including [I]t was a very dynamic process. He how to register for would read the articles, and he would the celebration, visit smpa.gwu.edu/silver- ELLIOTT SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS debate—quite energetically at times. anniversary. It was a real Socratic exchange, and he took that process very seriously. —John D. Negroponte, speaking to GW Today about delivering the daily intelligence briefing to President George W. Bush, under whom he served as the director of national intelligence. A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, he joins GW as the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of International Affairs. For more on these stories, visit GW Today at gwtoday.gwu.edu

16 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 New ‘Horned’ An artist’s impression of a black hole. Dinosaur Scientists believe black holes are at Identified the center of most massive galaxies, Researchers from GW and China have including our own. described a new species of plant-eating dino- saur that stood on its hind feet and was about the size of a spaniel. Hualianceratops wucai- wanensis lived around 160 million years ago, making it similar in age to the oldest-known member of the “horned dinosaurs,” Yin- long downsi, although both are hornless. The researchers—who included GW biology professors James Clark and Catherine Forster—dis- covered both species in the same fossil beds, which they say suggests that this family of dinosaurs was more diverse than previously thought during the Jurassic Period. The findings were published in December in the journal PLOS ONE.

For more on Dr. Clark, the Ronald Weintraub Professor of Biology, who has discovered nearly 40 species of dinosaurs, visit gwimpact.org/academics/jurassic-clark

Multimillion- Scientists Watch Study Finds Dollar Grants As Black Hole Racial Bias in Boost Workforce Swallows Star Promotion of A team of astrophysicists for the first time NFL Coaches Equity, Drug watched from the beginning as a supermas- sive black hole drew in a star, ripped it apart White NFL position coaches are 114 percent Design Research and ejected an outflow of matter—a cosmic more likely to be promoted to coordinator STOCK.COM/GMUTLU i GW’s Health Workforce Institute announced burp—moving at nearly the speed of light. positions than their minority peers, regard- in March a $5.5 million award from The Their research tracks the star’s destruction less of age, experience or career performance, Atlantic Philanthropies to build programs and the simultaneous eruption of a short, according to a study released in January by that will prepare leaders to reduce health spectacular radio-wave flare. “We have researchers from the GW School of Busi- workforce disparities, and to develop pipe- never seen matter from a star streaming ness and three other institutions. Though not lines for underserved students in the D.C. into a supermassive black hole and the black covered by the NFL’s Rooney Rule—which area who are interested in health care and hole emitting a stream of matter at the same requires teams to interview minority candi- careers in the health sciences. Separate- time,” says Alexander van der Horst, a GW dates for head coaching and senior operations ly, chemistry professor Cynthia Dowd has physics professor who was part of the team. jobs—these promotions can have an effect been awarded a $2.6 million grant from the The observation, he says, will help scientists on the racial makeup of head coaches. Offen- National Institutes of Health to study a prom- understand the formation of these outflows, sive and defensive coordinator positions are ising new pathway to treat malaria and tuber- called jets. Supermassive black holes are directly beneath the head coach. Tracking the culosis. “Drug resistance is so rampant that believed to be at the center of most massive careers of more than 1,200 coaches from 1985 we need to design new ways to treat these dis- galaxies, including our own Milky Way. The to 2012, the researchers found 70 percent of eases,” Dr. Dowd says. findings were published in the journal Science head coach hirings involve a promotion from

DINOSAUR: PORTIA SLOAN ROLLINGS / BLACK HOLE: in November. —Ruth Steinhardt a coordinator position. —James Irwin

gwmagazine.com / 17 GW NEWS

[recognition] A Few Recent Accolades, by the Numbers:

Ranking among The Princeton Review’s best schools for INTERNSHIPS

CONSECUTIVE YEARS in the top spot

Ranking among mid-size colleges and universities producing PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS

Number of years of the in the top past “Unlike most benefactors who put their spot [law] name on the building and walk away, for- tunately or unfortunately I plan to be very Number of ALUMNI involved,” said Mr. Falk, who plans to teach as CURRENTLY Claim to part of the FAME program and will establish SERVING in the an advisory board for it. Peace Corps around Imposing but personable, Mr. Falk shared the world FAME recollections of his storied career, dispensed no-nonsense advice and pushed his audience Number of David Falk, JD ’75—Michael “never to settle for second best.” Colonials in Jordan’s agent—establishes One of his great career successes, he said, the Peace was also his most memorable failure: coming Corps entrepreneurship program at up with the idea of Air Jordans, but—failing SINCE ITS law school to anticipate that the shoes would be as wildly FOUNDING He has represented NBA superstars Juwan successful as they were—negotiating for a in 1961 Howard and Allen Iverson. In the mid- major up-front payment instead of a smaller 1980s, he negotiated for Patrick Ewing the one with larger royalties with every sale. then-highest contract in NBA history. And “Nothing’s foolproof,” he admitted. “If he is the career-long agent to the legend- I could go back, I’d ask for a dollar and 50 ary Michael Jordan—even originating the percent.” idea for the unprecedentedly successful Air Taking questions about his most iconic GW ALUMNI GW FACULTY MEMBERS Jordan sneaker. client, whose charisma has made his person- But for David Falk, failure is perhaps more al brand into one of the most successful in Number important than success. history, Mr. Falk said there would “never be of 2015-16 “When you err—and you’re going to err— another Michael Jordan.” FULBRIGHT you have to learn from it,” Mr. Falk, JD ’75, “Michael wasn’t trying to be the next Dr. J. SCHOLARS told an audience at GW in January. He wasn’t trying to be the next anybody. He’s and students Mr. Falk was here to launch his Falk just himself,” Mr. Falk said. “It’s a once-in-a- produced Academy of Management and Entrepre- lifetime kind of a deal. We all got a little bit neurship, or FAME, a new initiative within lucky.” the law school’s business law program that He advised students in the audience to will emphasize experiential learning, entre- have “high aspirations.” preneurship and innovation for prospective “You’re in a place that can help you fulfill Year that U.S. SEN. J. WILLIAM lawyers. The launch was hosted by the law your goals, but you have to really want it and FULBRIGHT received a Bachelor school’s Center for Law, Economics and go after it,” he said. “Break the walls down.” Sources: The Princeton Review, Peace Corps and The Chronicle of Higher Education of Laws degree from GW Finance. —Ruth Steinhardt WILLIAM ATKINS

18 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 When the State Department wanted to create [5 Questions] a base of college students to help advocate for What kinds of opportunities have come the more than 4.5 million Syrian refugees about as a result of starting the group? displaced by civil war, officials didn’t need Lucas and I always say that since starting this, to look far. A few blocks away, Elliott School ...On we find ourselves in places we didn’t think we students stepped up to launch the first would be in 20 years. The State Department is college branch of an initiative called No Lost right here, and the ability to meet with officers Generation. Junior Matthew Donovan, after work or grab coffee during the day is co-director of the GW group, spoke with GW Advocating really unprecedented. I am one of 10 members Magazine in February about its work, coffee who are also participating in the State Depart- with diplomats and student appetite for change. ment’s Virtual Student Foreign Service—usu- for Syrian ally it’s a remote internship, but we’ve been How did the group come about? able to work with them on a regular basis to No Lost Generation is a coalition of about build our organization and have speakers 20 humanitarian and governmental groups, come to campus. We also had a working meet- including the State Department, that have Refugees ing with Sarah Mendelson, who is one of the come together to provide protection, edu- five ambassadors to the U.S. Mission to the cation and services to Syrian refugees. United Nations. Typically this kind of thing is Last summer, State Department officials a just a photo op, but this was a working meet- approached Edward “Skip” Gnehm, a profes- ing where she offered advice and we discussed sor at the Elliott School and a former ambas- possibilities for joint programming. sador to Kuwait, because they wanted to con- nect with student leaders at GW to further Was there an appetite for this on campus? student engagement with the initiative. After Absolutely. It became clear, very quickly, two meetings with the State Department, my that there are so many students looking for co-director [senior] Lucas Kuo and I ran with an opportunity to get involved in a cause but the idea to create No Lost Generation GWU. have difficulty finding an outlet where they Our first priority was figuring out how to can see change happen. We’ve attracted 65 take the Syrian refugee crisis out of the news students in about three months, and every cycle and put it into action on campus. member completes a minimum of four hours Matthew of service each week, which totals more than What have you been able to do so far? Donovan 3,000 hours since September. Even though This is the largest migration crisis since we started with mostly Elliott School stu- World War II, and No Lost Generation comes dents, our members now include computer from the idea that there will be a genera- engineers and curriculum developers. tion of young people who are expected to return to their country and lead. If they What’s next for the group? don’t have an education, they can’t do that. Right now we want to keep attracting volun- One of the ways we are helping is by part- teers at GW and finding partners. We are nering with an organization called Rumie, also reaching out to local universities and based in Toronto. Rumie loads tablets with those across the country who might be expert-approved educational content that interested in starting a No Lost Genera- can be accessed offline, and it deploys those tion chapter on their campus. The goal is tablets to Syrian refugees around the world. to create a collegiate network where GW is Since we can’t be on the ground, we sup- a hub and to host a conference here. If you’re port Rumie by researching basic arithme- in Iowa or California, the State Department is tic, science and other lessons in Arabic and pretty far away. Since we have so many con- English that then are vetted by their experts nections to federal agencies and organizations and loaded onto tablets. We also co-hosted a with national headquarters in D.C., a confer- fundraiser for the United Nations High Com- ence at GW would give others a more person- missioner for Refugees with the GW Interna- al connection to people leading the response tional Affairs Society, and attended a dinner to the Syrian refugee crisis. We want to get at the Kuwaiti Embassy along with Pres- “OUR FIRST PRIORITY as many people as possible working on this ident [Steven] Knapp, Deputy Secretary WAS FIGURING OUT HOW because there is so much potential and of State Tony Blinken and the president of TO TAKE THE ... CRISIS enthusiasm from everyone we’ve talked to. the Malala Fund, Meighan Stone. When you OUT OF THE NEWS — Brittney Dunkins reach out and say, “We are the first collegiate CYCLE AND PUT IT INTO population looking to help,” it is a huge draw, ACTION ON CAMPUS.” and people see it as an opportunity to expand For more on the student group, visit

WILLIAM ATKINS their cause and their reach. nlgoncampus.wordpress.com

gwmagazine.com / 19 GW NEWS

Norman Rockwell’s Seated Man in Interior, from GW’s permanent collection, was last on view in 1979.

[From the archives] The Rockwell from the Vault

Brady Art Gallery exhibition showcases little- or never-seen art from GW’s permanent collection //By Matthew Stoss

On May 15, 1943, a fire claimed Norman Rockwell’s Arlington, Vt., studio, destroying, among other things, a record of the nascency of his career. Lost, experts think, were unseen works from 1930s, ’20s and earlier, when Mr. Rockwell was still working out the iconic style that distilled Americana and for decades dominated advertising, Boy Scout calendars and Saturday Evening Post covers. “He lost in that fire many, we believe, early paintings,” says Steph- anie Plunkett, the deputy director and chief curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. “An untold number of art- works painted in Rockwell’s early style, as reflected in this piece, were likely lost.” There are surviving examples,

though, and one currently is on WILLIAM ATKINS

20 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 display in the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. suggested that Seated Man in Interior is a study The oil painting titled Seated Man in Inte- for a potential beer advertisement, abandoned INSIDE GW'S rior—a rare unfinished study from the early for unknown reasons. She recently dated the 1930s—came out of storage after 37 years for work to the early or mid-1930s, based on its “The Other 90%: Works from the GW Perma- similarity to another Rockwell work from that ART COLLECTION nent Collection.” period: Tides of Memory (1936). The exhibition opened March 16 and high- Ms. Plunkett says there is no record of The GW Permanent Collection lights pieces from GW’s collection that hav- Seated Man in Interior being tied to a known is as old as the university. en’t been displayed in 20 years or more—or illustration or ad. The work, though, is (Both were founded in 1821.) ever. The show, which closes June 3, takes its unique because of the alla prima-like execu- Since, the collection has name from a museum-industry convention. tion—which contrasts with the photographic swelled to more than 4,000 “When you have a permanent collection, realism of Mr. Rockwell’s later and more dis- pieces, including works by the museum can only show 2 percent to 20 seminated work. percent of the collection at a time,” says Olivia Despite Mr. Rockwell’s great technical artists ranging from Andy Kohler-Maga, the Brady Gallery’s assistant skill, contemporary critics sneered at his Warhol to Ulysses S. Grant. director. “Most of it is in storage. So people art and dismissed him as an illustrator who Check out other highlights usually say it’s about 10 percent on view; 90 wasted his talent on propaganda and decried from the GW Permanent percent is in storage.” his point of view as cloying. Collection below. Ms. Kohler-Maga estimates In the 1990s, though, that about 30 percent of GW’s About 30 critics began to see Mr. permanent collection—which percent Rockwell, who died in Gilbert Stuart started in 1821, the same year the of GW’s 1978 at age 84, as a seri- Monro-Lenox university was founded—is on permanent ous artist—and the mar- Portrait of George view at any time and that about a ketplace did, too. In 2013, Washington quarter of it has never been seen. collection the painting Saving Grace The Rockwell painting is one is on view sold for $46 million at auction, of the highlights of “The Other at any time, surpassing the previous Rockwell 90%” show, which features 44 and about auction record, set in 2006, by pieces and includes drawings by $31 million. Ulysses S. Grant as well as works a quarter of Helping that reevaluation by Margaretta Peale and Thomas it has never was a major touring exhibi- Sully. The last time GW displayed been seen. tion that visited the Corcor- the Rockwell was in 1979 for a an Gallery of Art in 2000. show in the former Dimock Gallery, a space “Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the now used for costume storage in Lisner’s American People” pushed the opinion that basement. Mr. Rockwell deserves a better reputation. Augustus GW acquired the painting in 1965 when “It renewed a lot of interest in Rock- Vincent Tack Time and Frank B. Hand Jr., BA ’36, JD ’38, a frequent- well as an artist, not just as an illustrator,” Timelessness er of Greenwich Village art galleries, donated Ms. Miller says. “Illustration is not the same (Spirit of Creation) the piece at a time when universities were as a painting. I mean, they’re kind of on two keen to start museums. Part of that boom, different planes. Sometimes they don’t mesh. Henry Bacon GW opened its first art gallery in 1966. Art historians might not have been studying The Boston Boys and General Gage “I think the humanities were studied and Rockwell as avidly as another painter of that more important back in that era,” says Lenore same time period.” Miller, director of university art galleries and Ms. Plunkett, a lifelong proponent for chief curator. “Art was booming, you know? It illustration as high art, described Seated Man was becoming even more important. … Also, in Interior as a painterly work, praising its ele- I think you could acquire, relatively inexpen- gant lines and classical undertones. For her, it sively, some important artists at that time.” shows Mr. Rockwell’s “love of paint” and, more The Rockwell painting depicts model than that, it’s a peek inside Mr. Rockwell’s pro- Fred Hildebrandt posed theatrically in cess and a chance to see his range as an artist. a chair and holding a glass, a dog at his “We don’t have many examples of those foot. Mr. Hildebrandt was a close friend of works, and I think it’s probably because they Mr. Rockwell and posed often for the prolific were burned in the fire,” Ms. Plunkett says. Alma Thomas Nature's Red illustrator while they lived among an enclave of “So I think, for that reason, it’s unusual and Impressions artists in bucolic New Rochelle, N.Y., 25 miles wonderful to see—it’s beautiful to see.” from New York City, in the 1920s and ’30s. Linda Szekely Pero, a now-retired Rock- Alice Neel well Museum curator and the author of Amer- For more Brady Gallery news, follow The Family

ART: COURTESTY OF THE BRADY ART GALLERY ican Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, twitter.com/BradyGallery

gwmagazine.com / 21 “The process GEORGE WELCOMES headliners at university events at university headliners GW NEWS at Jack Morton Auditorium. Appointed to office in office to Appointed Auditorium. Morton Jack at of a permanent apermanent of election the oversaw government through a African country, speaking (through a translator) in March March in atranslator) (through speaking country, African an of state of head female third the just and Republic African president. She joked president. and parliament atransitional built Samba-Panza Ms. 2014, still-flaring civil war and and war civil still-flaring to make it happen. it make to awoman took it that Catherine Samba-Panza, Catherine of and peace work that requires work requires that marathon.” pacification is a long breath, like a transitional president of the Central Central the of president transitional Samba-Panza Catherine “In Germany and in Europe, Europe, in and Germany “In speech in March at Jack Morton Morton Jack at March in speech campaigns. It’s the politics of It’s politics the campaigns. and ignore issues outside outside issues ignore and on politicians not to turn inward inward turn to not politicians on something is gaining gaining is something Auditorium in which he called called he which in Auditorium also seeing it here in the United United the it here in seeing also German Foreign Minister Frank- Minister Foreign German momentum in our domestic domestic our in momentum politics—and to be honest, I am Iam honest, be to politics—and their nation’s borders. “The their nation’s “The borders. world you live in is much too too much is in live you world Walter Steinmeier, interconnected,” he said. interconnected,” States during the primary primary the during States fear.” during a during Samuel Alito “Without even thinking, I blurted Iblurted thinking, even “Without seventh time in nine years that a that years nine in time seventh Alito Justice satisfaction.” times several question same out, ‘Well, I’ve answered it to my it my to answered I’ve ‘Well, out, answered the question to my my to question the answered haven’t “You insisted, and anchored the bench at the final. the at bench the anchored as a law student—to amock- student—to alaw as round of GW Law School’s Van Van School’s Law GW of round response—back in his days days his in response—back satisfaction!’ So at least none of least at So satisfaction!’ Court Competition. It was the the was It Competition. Court you did that.” you did trial judge who asked him the the him asked who judge trial U.S. Supreme Court Justice Justice Court Supreme U.S. Vleck Constitutional Law Moot Moot Law Constitutional Vleck final the judge to hand on was in January as he recalled his his recalled he as January in justice from the high court has has court high the from justice Samuel Alito, Steinmeier Frank-Walter getting a laugh alaugh getting

PHOTO OF SAMBA-PANZA: WILLIAM ATKINS / STEINMEIER: LOGAN WERLINGER / ALITO: COURTESY GW LAW SCHOOL “It made me want “The reform movement says “If we do not crack encryption, poverty is an excuse for failure. our citizens who care so much to be around But poverty is also a root cause about freedom and privacy others who were of failure for children growing will say, ‘What have we experiencing loss— up.” done to protect us, because these attacks will continue Investigative journalist Dale and to be places indefinitely.’ Then we will Russakoff, during a Q&A about where the pain I her new book, The Prize: Who’s have other debates, much less was feeling inside in Charge of America’s Schools?, healthy: What is a democracy worth if it’s not protecting us?” was matched by hosted by the Graduate School of Education and Human French Interior Minister the pain outside.” Development. The former Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking CNN host and journalist Washington Post reporter at the Marvin Center in March. Anderson Cooper, at a Lisner spent four years chronicling an He said he supports the Auditorium event in March in effort to transform the flagging Obama administration’s effort which he discussed his career Newark, N.J., public school to persuade Apple to unlock and personal life with School system. The plan was ambitious, the iPhone of one of the San of Media and Public Affairs high profile—including a Bernadino terrorists and said Director Frank Sesno. Early in $100 million donation from the French government is his career, Mr. Cooper said his Facebook founder Mark waging a similar push regarding desire to report from conflict Zuckerberg—and, ultimately, November’s Paris attacks. zones was in part fueled by flawed. grief: the loss of his father

PHOTOS OF COOPER, RUSSAKOF: LOGAN WERLINGER / CAZENEUVE: WILLIAM ATKINS when he was a child and, when he was 21, his older brother’s suicide. The event was part of SMPA’s silver anniversary celebrations and was co-sponsored by the student organization Allied in Pride.

Anderson Cooper Bernard Cazeneuve

Dale Russakoff GW NEWS showcasing new books by gw professors and alumni BOOKSHELVES

he saw his children place their hands on the rocks. “Stories were being imparted by the encounter,” he says. The more he studied both medieval and contemporary texts, the more he realized that stone has worked so Stone: An Ecology of the well for memorials Inhuman (University of not because it’s inani- Minnesota Press, 2015) mate, but because it’s By Jeffrey Jerome Cohen “lively.” “We trust it to endure, to resonate with our history and narratives. Stone writes without words. It transmits. Medieval people knew this well,” he says. “So I delved into the origins of geology in medieval lapidaries as well as the use of gems in medicine and magic. Stone is a powerful, active substance.” Dr. Cohen structured the book around anecdotes, many involving his family, offering a narrative navigation through a scholarly discussion of the topic. “I tried to craft the book so that it would be readable by anyone who is drawn to stone,” he says. One eye-opening realization in Dr. Cohen’s research was the etymology of the word “cal- culus,” which comes from the Latin word for In 2006, while finishing a book about race, small stones used for counting. Across human GW English professor Jeffrey Jerome Cohen history, stone has been mankind’s unwitting Between a noticed how heavily anti-Semitism during sidekick, serving as “windbreaks for fire, medieval times relied upon geological termi- as axes for war or industry, as a substance nology, for example, calling Jews “stone heart- for lasting art,” he writes. In every “rocky Rock and a ed.” That set off his active study of the subject, encounter,” stone though he feels that his new book, Stone: An wasn’t inert but Ecology of the Inhuman, chose him, and that it proved its “abil- Soft Place did so years before he realized its grip. ity to intensify “Maybe the book started earlier when our desires and my parents refused to buy me a Pet Rock, possibilities.” Expressions like “heart of because they told me it wasn’t really alive,” he stone” and “stone cold” suggest says. “I was one of those kids who returned that living, breathing, feeling from every trip to the beach with a pocket full people share little with rocks. of wave-smoothed pebbles.” His scholarship came to focus on the ways Humans are thought the stars, that “time unfolds for humans at a much WERLINGERLOGAN while stones are props—at times swifter tempo than it does for much of our useful, photogenic and often planet.” He wondered whether earlier cul- confounding (e.g., stumbling tures entrusted their monuments to stone blocks). In this book, Jeffrey because they noticed it operated on a slower time. “They knew it would endure,” he says. Jerome Cohen explores how And then Dr. Cohen went on a family “human” stone can be. trip to the neolithic structure in Avebury, /By Menachem Wecker, MA ’09 / in England, not far from Stonehenge, and

24 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 “There is no cause The Quotable Amelia Earhart (University of New Mexico inherent in her Press, 2015) Edited by Michele Wehrwein nature which would Albion, MA ’91 make a woman Two things about Amelia Earhart are widely known: She was the inferior to a man as first woman to fly solo over the an air pilot.” Atlantic, and her plane later vanished over the Pacific in 1937. But she also was a “tireless advocate for women’s rights” and a “wise, well-spoken adventurer,” Ms. Albion writes. And in some of the quotations collected here, Ms. Earhart is both: “There is no cause inherent in her nature which would make a woman Lessons in Censorship: How inferior to a man as an air pilot.” War in the Shallows: U.S. Schools and Courts Subvert Navy Coastal and Riverine Students’ First Amendment Warfare in Vietnam: 1965-1968 Rights (Harvard University (Naval History and Heritage Press, 2015) Command, 2015) Catherine J. Ross, professor John Darrell Sherwood, of law MPhil ’93, PhD ’95 Penned for lay parents and Dr. Sherwood, a Navy historian, constitutional law experts alike, zeroes in on a neglected aspect of this book opens with a high the Vietnam War: Naval “brown school official’s declaration— water” (river) and “green The Last Summer at Chelsea evocative of Dante’s “Abandon water” (coastal) operations, as Beach (Mira Books, 2015) all hope” inscription above hell— opposed to the “blue water” Pam Jenoff, BA ’92 that “You lose all constitutional (oceanic) work more typical of rights once you enter a school the 20th century. At its height, Drawing on her experiences building.” Dr. Ross calls the the Navy’s river and coastal working in Poland for the U.S. official’s position “as clueless A Poverty of Words operations included more than State Department, during which as it was surreal,” but adds that (Prolific Press, 2015) 30,000 sailors and 350 vessels. she aided the preservation of laws governing school speech Frederick Pollack, adjunct “Vietnam was a decidedly Auschwitz and the restitution can confuse even judges. This professor of creative writing low-tech, manpower intensive of Polish Jewish property, Ms. book sets the historical and legal The publisher’s description of operation—an anathema to a Jenoff—a law professor at record straight. the author’s voice—belonging Navy focused on fleet operations Rutgers University—tells in “to neither the navel-gazing and cutting edge technology,” he this novel the story of a young mainstream nor the post- writes. refugee. Adelia Montforte flees structuralist avant-garde”—aptly fascist Italy in 1941 and arrives sets the tone for these 92 poems. in America worried that she is One imagines a future, “politely utterly alone. Even a stray dog annoyed” Buddha; another sniffing at garbage “seemed to

ALL: ZACH MARIN begins, “How often I’ve wanted somehow know where it was to write something/ without going.” Her aunt and uncle symbols and with only the surface, but as one might expect, flimsiest/ metaphors. Then buses, acclimating into this new melting pills, dogs and leaking/ pipelines pot won’t be as easy as it seems. would at last be themselves …”

gwmagazine.com / 25 GW NEWS SPORTS

26 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 GW ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS before becoming the GW Invitational in 2012. 2012. in Invitational GW the becoming before (2011) Cup Challenge Invitational/Potomac GW and (2007-10) Regatta Invitational GW (1990-2006), Classic Crew Invitational GW (1988-89), Classic Crew Invitational Blossom Cherry GW names: five through gone has event the years, 28 its In Invitational. GW the called always wasn’t It DROPPING NAME feet. 107 as deep as get can Potomac The deep. feet 25 about it’s happens, race the Where preferable. is also water Deep canceled. arace get will mph 20-25 over Gusts ideal. is mph 10 Under wind. is so bad, are Waves depth. and Tranquility racing? for good ariver makes what And racing. for good is Potomac the means it because invitational the have to time anice is April SAILING SMOOTHER boats.” these of one by swiped gets that boat paddle up astand- there’s if happen could what scary It’s side. each on extended feet 12 basically are that blades with down barreling mph, 13 to 10 going boats, those in pounds 1,800 probably that’s guys, Mark’s “With says. Carcich collisions. any been haven’t There ayear. once about happens That lanes. race the into blunder sometimes who kayaks rented and paddleboards stand-up on tourists also are There vessels. low-sitting the row to hard it make that wakes are 5mph—there speed—about idle than faster any at race the buzz boats If problems. still are there But it shares. So traffic. much too There’s event. the for Potomac the close can’t invitational The BOATS) OTHER SOMETIMES (AND IT THROUGH RUNS A RIVER rangers. and police NPS as well as patrol marine for pay to need also Organizers Engineers. of Corps Army U.S. the and police D.C. the Service, Park National the Center, Boat Thompson the from permits needs it on, go to invitational the For abide. to bureaucracy is there and Washington, is This times. 56 meters 2,000 boats 200-foot person, nine- of worth teams’ 12 race and Potomac the on out go just You don’t RACE TO US PERMIT too. helps, probably MStreet at aimed loudspeaker a through play-by-play doing guy The curiosity. by drawn passersby odd River.Potomac days of racing on the for two ready waterfront alongcourse the Georgetown three-lane 1.25-mile, the get to ahalf and aday people 75 to 50 of a crew takes screen—it TV a10-by-16-foot of erecting the includes and people 1,000 one.” isn’t “There April. in place takes which event, the of says Davis Mark coach rowing men’s GW there,” people scenery. best the with one the anecdotally, other—and, the is Invitational Clemson Coast—the East the on events rowing college biggest two the of one is Invitational GW The together. how comes is it This Coast. East the on events rowing premier the of one is regatta annual The Guide A The GW Invitational: [rowing] “You’re looking at a 200-foot boat,” GW women’s rowing coach Eric Eric coach rowing women’s GW boat,” a200-foot at looking “You’re the and parents fans, attracting to-do, acertified it’s years, 28 After about draws Invitational—which GW the down take and run To up, set many as has that race collegiate anon-championship of think can’t “You gwmagazine.com / gwmagazine.com 27 GW NEWS

[baseball] the same thing about pitching.” Last season, as a sophomore, Mr. Muhl had a 2.13 ERA, striking out 20 batters and walk- Eddie Muhl’s ing just six in 24 ⅓ innings. He gave up 22 Arms Race hits, just four of which were for extra bases. He didn’t allow a home run. Mr. Muhl relies not only on his deceptive The pitcher is one of arm slot—it hides the ball during his windup, making it harder for batters to see the ball the best closers in early—but also on superlative location and college baseball. lots of natural movement. // By Matthew Stoss No pitch in the junior’s arsenal—change- On his way to being, statistical- up, slider and an 89-mph two-seam fastball— ly, one of the two best closers goes anywhere close to straight, and when he in college baseball last season, first found what would become his arm slot, Eddie Muhl tried just about his pitches moved so much that he had to shift every arm slot available to a where he stood on the mound. pitcher. During a spring intrasquad scrimmage He eventually settled on a three years ago, GW coach Gregg Ritchie, trebuchet-like, three-quartersy BA ’86, suggested that Mr. Muhl throw side- sidearm delivery, and with that, arm. The then-freshman did, and promptly the 6-foot-4, 225-pound GW right- hit three batters. In a row. Mr. Ritchie’s reac- hander tied Radford University’s tion was … unexpected. Ryan Meisinger for the most “He was happy,” Mr. Muhl says with a saves (17) in Division I in 2015. laugh. “I remember this very clearly: He came It’s the result of a six-year out and talked to me and he asked, ‘Do you trek of discovery that tested his know what you’re doing wrong right now?’ patience and the elasticity of his And I said, ‘Of course not. I have no idea what rotator cuff. Mr. Muhl threw I’m doing wrong.’ And he moved me over overhand and submarine and from the right side—the third-base side of the cameoed at every delivery in rubber—to the middle and he said, ‘Just keep between, looking for a release doing what you’re doing.’ And I went back up that he could make his own. there, and, all of a sudden, the ball started to For Mr. Muhl, a contemplative drop right in on the inside corner.” junior from suburban Los Ange- The change has helped Mr. Muhl go from les, the best way to explain how he a high school player whose next-best offer persevered is with an analogy. A was a Division III school to one of the top guitarist—he favors a cherry-red relief pitchers in college baseball. And as Epiphone Dot—he says that his he’s picked up more velocity on his fastball, search for a pitching style is not Mr. Muhl has moved his arm slot incremen- unlike a musician’s search for a tally higher to get to where it is now. sound. Mr. Muhl also experimented with different “If you do every throwing drill releases in high school while playing for the and every exercise and everything powerhouse program at Notre Dame in Sher- perfectly, you might pitch really man Oaks, Calif., of which Florida Marlins well and you might pitch right all-star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is an and you might get people out,” alum. says Mr. Muhl, who digs classic Notre Dame coach Tom Dill says Mr. rock and quotes Jack Kerouac. Muhl, who didn’t pitch until high school, “But I think you have to really could always locate his pitches, regardless of grasp the essence and move how he threw them. forward with that, through your “He always gave you a shot because he own interpretation. And I think pounded the [strike] zone,” says Mr. Dill, in that’s why things like blues and his 25th season coaching the Knights. “As all that are so beautiful, because he got older, he developed more pitches, and you can have Jimi Hendrix and when you talk about arm slot, he could throw Stevie Ray Vaughan, and you can over the top, he could throw three-quarters tell which one’s which. They put and he could throw from the side—and he their mark on it and they kind of could mix that up.”

change it for themselves, and it’s And he still can. He just doesn’t have to. WERLINGERLOGAN

28 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 NEXT Corcoran Thesis Exhibition 2016

Visit NEXT, the annual exhibition showcasing work by the graduating students of the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at the George Washington University. NEXT includes the thesis work of undergraduate and graduate students. Visitors to NEXT are invited CORCORAN THESIS EXHIBITION 2016 to engage with the next generation of storytellers, visionaries, and provocateurs as they deliver thesis presentations and participate in gallery talks.

CATALYSTS. PROVOCATEURS. VISIONARIES. See more of NEXT at Experience a new generation of creativity. next.corcoran.gwu.edu #DiscoverTheNext

APRIL 6, 2016 – MAY 15, 2016

gwmagazine.com / 29 IN ADDITION NOVELIST THOMAS MALLON IMAGINES WHAT LIES BETWEEN THE FACTS IN THE LIVES OF PRESIDENTS AND THOSE AROUND THEM STORY BY MATTHEW STOSS // ILLUSTRATIONS BY MICHAEL HOEWELER TO HISTORY MICHAEL HOEWELERMICHAEL

30 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Charlie’s Angels fandom for a mordant crack about Objectivism. he best part about Thomas Mallon’s 2009 In total, Dr. Mallon persevered through takedown of Ayn Rand—a delicate eviscera- more than 3,500 pages of Ayn Rand and Ayn tion, massaged over 4,226 words in a Novem- Rand scholarship to craft a review-essay on ber edition of The New Yorker and executed two biographies, to establish gravitas and with the precision of a GPS-enabled scalpel— earn these delicious cuts: Ms. Rand’s “intel- is how much he earned it. The dear man for- lectual genre fiction puts her in the crack- feited a summer to endure all 9 billion pages pot pantheon of L. Frank Baum and L. Ron (approximately) of The Fountainhead and Hubbard,” “the novel’s dialogue is never even Atlas Shrugged, and other Randian writings, accidentally plausible” and “the books would as well, in the holy name of preparation. have been no more concise and no less clumsy Dr. Mallon is nothing if not a thorough had she written them in Russian.” man, tidy and prone to cardigans, cleanli- Ariel Gonzalez—an English professor at ness and teal-striped socks. A registered Miami Dade College and NPR host who has (but wholly disenchanted) Republican, the reviewed books for The Washington Post and 64-year-old gets his hair cut for $26 at the The Miami Herald—described Dr. Mallon as Watergate barbershop, because, well, if it’s one of the “best book critics” in the country good enough for Bob Dole, he says, it’s good because, while Dr. Mallon may not celebrate enough for him. It’s also a short walk—he an author’s catalog, he will most certainly might ride his Marin bicycle if it was much read it, even if it’s “so bad,” Dr. Mallon says, it farther—from his sixth-floor Phillips Hall “just makes my head explode.” office in Foggy Bottom, where he’s been an “He writes comprehensive essay-reviews English professor and Rate My Professor dar- on someone,” Mr. Gonzalez says. “That’s ling since 2007. something a lot of critics won’t do. He takes Students vouch, with an average of 4.8 the author seriously. So even if he’s criticizing stars out of 5, for his charm, his wit, his you—even if he’s attacking you—you should helpfulness, his clarity. They testify, as even at least be happy with the fact that he’s paid so Ms. Rand might, if she were still alive, to his much attention to your work.” dedication to knowing as much stuff as pos- That is what he did for 4,226 words on two sible, and then, if there’s time, a little more. Ayn Rand biographies. Now, consider what he An essayist, a critic and a well-lauded novel- might do for his own books. ist, Dr. Mallon—who got his PhD in English and American literature from Harvard University in 1978—researches hard and at THOMAS MALLON PULLED, length, which is how he came to write about from the fluorescent hammerspace of his Ms. Rand, her philosophy of Objectivism and corner office, the first four pages of Landfall, what she watched on TV. his novel about President George W. Bush. Before that New Yorker piece, Dr. Mallon’s 10th novel, it’s scheduled for a Dr. Mallon hadn’t had more than a casual 2018 release and with a chunk of it set during brush with Ayn Rand. He might have been Hurricane Katrina. Landfall is the final book among that group that, as he wrote seven of the “trilogy” he never meant to write, but years ago, made “their first and last trip to Pantheon Books, his publisher since 1997, and Galt’s Gulch … sometime between leaving his agent suggested he postpone a novel cen- Middle-earth and packing for college.” And he tering on Fort Sumter during the Civil War— went back only because The New Yorker paid tentatively titled The Late Unpleasantness— him to write about two Rand biographies: Ayn to first novelize Bush the Younger. Rand and the World She Made, by Anne C. The “trilogy”—Dr. Mallon didn’t name it Heller, and Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand that but he likes to use the term ironically— and the American Right, by Jennifer Burns. covers the major Republican presidents from Dr. Mallon, though, went into the dark the last third of the 20th century and the for- beyond the biographies, also trudging— ward tip of the 21st. The series started with uphill (both ways), barefoot, in the snow— Richard Nixon and the PEN/Faulkner-nomi- through Ms. Rand’s novels, We the Living, nated Watergate in 2012, then Ronald Reagan The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and and the well-received Finale: A Novel of Ms. Rand’s nonfiction, The Romantic Mani- the Reagan Years in 2015, and now, W. and festo: A Philosophy of Literature and The Art Landfall. of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers. “You are the first person to read that, Dr. Mallon whittled from a block of Randi- besides me,” says Dr. Mallon, handing over an ironwood an essay that went deep on her the pages. “It was only written in the last Russian roots and a screenwriting dalliance couple of days.” in Hollywood. Dr. Mallon dug into Ms. Rand’s It’s January and the air is gloomy. The personal life, her political influence and her pages are handwritten front and back in blue cult of votaries. He even mined Ms. Rand’s roller-ball ink, ripped primly from legal pads

gwmagazine.com / 31 he buys in quantity. Dr. Mallon’s as 50 boxes, depending on handwriting is small, more print what’s included and its com- than cursive—but occasionally the pleteness. Material can range two modes do commingle—the let- from manuscripts to corre- ters snuggled. No one would teach spondence to writings from children to write this way. There an author’s youth—their juve- are big spaces between the words nilia. In terms of manuscripts, and he writes on every other line There’s nothing Mr. Geissler says, the collection to leave optimum room for editing, of Dr. Mallon—who got his which is where Dr. Mallon does his spontaneous about undergraduate degree at Brown hardest work. in 1973—is “remarkably com- There’s nothing spontaneous Dr. Mallon’s process, plete,” thanks in part perhaps about Dr. Mallon’s process, no to what Dr. Mallon described as word-magic, no jazz, and if there’s his “archivist’s temperament.” a stream of consciousness, it’s no word-magic, no jazz, He keeps everything. been dammed. He would never Work on Dr. Mallon’s col- self-oblige himself an artist—how and if there’s a stream of lection began in 1991 when gauche—and it’s still modestly he and the library’s former that he marks “writer” on his W-2. consciousness, it’s been director, Sam Streit, started “I said once in an interview, corresponding after Mr. Streit, and I got in trouble for it—it was a heavyweight in the field who’s thrown back in my face by a critic, dammed. He would never responsible for building much later, who didn’t like something I’d of the Brown library’s author written,” Dr. Mallon says, hesitant- self-oblige himself an artist— archives, showed interest in ly. “I once said that I never think the writer from Long Island’s of myself as an artist; I think of how gauche—and it’s still Nassau County. myself as a craftsman.” In Dr. Mallon’s GW office, He thinks for a moment, an modestly that he marks the storage space consists of a Orwellian Barry Goldwater cam- three-drawer filing cabinet and paign poster staring down his a few boxes, none of it overly back from the skinny far wall of his “writer” on his W-2. secure. But the boxes, the cabi- office. net, even the nooks of his desk, “I suppose I am an artist if I’ve are chubby with ephemera. written all these novels and they’ve There are three-ring binders, been taken pretty seriously and manila folders, phonebook-fat so forth,” says Dr. Mallon, whose stacks of paper—the stuff of Dr. mastery of historical fiction has Mallon’s most recent drafts and been compared to that of Gore research. Vidal, with whom Dr. Mallon worked as an writer, even though … I was a working college For one novel, Two Moons, he read a whole editor at GQ in the early 1990s. professor, like I am now. And I thought, ‘I’m year (1877) of a defunct Washington, D.C., Dr. Mallon even modeled Finale on Mr. entitled to that—I’m entitled to that self-de- newspaper, The Washington Evening Star, Vidal’s Lincoln. In both novels, neither scription.’ … I take ‘writer’ as my primary printing relevant bits from microfilm to Reagan nor Lincoln are point-of-view charac- identity, and that I’m willing to claim. Artist annotate and highlight. For Finale, he took a ters. Instead, they’re observed Guildenstern is maybe a bridge too far.” plane to Reykjavik one mid-October, just so and Rosencrantz-style by the people in the There would be more boxes in Dr. Mallon’s he could be there the same time of year that near periphery—William Seward and Nancy office but he’s just moved in from across the Mr. Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev had their Reagan. She, along with Richard Nixon and sixth-floor elevator bank and a lot of his stuff summit on nuclear disarmament in that big Christopher Hitchens (a real-life friend of Dr. hasn’t made the trip. He’s also been shipping white house. Dr. Mallon went to the big white Mallon’s), are the stars of Finale. the accumulated clutter of a book-writing house, too, learning, among other things, that “I think of them as being more like carpen- career that started at age 31 to Brown Uni- Mr. Gorbachev’s security detail passed their try or architecture, actually,” Dr. Mallon says versity, which, since 1991, has been compiling time by watching Tom and Jerry cartoons in of his novels. “Obviously, they’ve got an inven- a Mallon archive that now fills 16 boxes and the basement. tive element to them, so there’s the archi- spans 15 linear feet in the key-swipe-secured Also in those boxes, cabinet drawers and tectural aspect to them, but maybe it’s just back stacks of the John Hay Library. desk nooks are his outlines. Human DNA has because I enjoy it more—the carpentry of Christopher Geissler, the director of the been mapped less precisely. them, the rewriting of them. library and its special collections, says man- Dr. Mallon plans in “micro” and “macro” “I don’t know why, this interviewer— uscripts—for Dr. Mallon’s novels, there can outlines. The micro versions are written this was quite a long time ago—he seemed be as many as five drafts—make up the bulk by hand, chapter by chapter and sentence repelled by the notion that a literary novelist of the archive, starting with Dr. Mallon’s first by sentence, in tiny letters, copied from a wouldn’t think of himself as an artist. Who major book, A Book of One’s Own: People and slaughtered forest’s worth of to-be trashed confers that title on himself? I’m an artist. I Their Diaries, which was published in 1984. pages. This outline is so final that it might can remember the point in my life when, after The library’s back stacks cover eight as well be writ on diamond tablets handed a couple of books, I could actually—when floors, plus an off-campus annex, and the down through sky-fire on Mount Sinai. The people asked me what I did—I’d say I’m a collections of some authors fill as many macro map, which he keeps in his computer,

32 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 is more fluid. That’s where Mr. Hitchens, not careers. She disappeared for a while, she had included in the early Finale plans and whom a lot of personal troubles and then she came Dr. Mallon first met at a GQ party in Washing- back toward the end of her life and she made a ton in the late ’90s, snuck in. Dr. Mallon says whole huge series of albums with the Concord he needed a Greek chorus character, someone Jazz Quartet. They’re fantastic.” like Alice Roosevelt Longworth in Watergate, That’s his Rosie. who could do play-by-play and be funny about “She had such an intelligent delivery of it. lyrics,” says Dr. Mallon, who wanted to do a The micro outline for the Landfall pro- magazine profile on Ms. Clooney, but nothing logue alone is eight double-columned pages ever came of it. She died in 2002 at age 74. and gets as specific as “Bush waves.” From “She never gets in the way of the lyrics. She the micro outline, Dr. Mallon handwrites knows exactly how every word should fall. It’s a first draft—he says the micro outline is so very simple and elegant.” detailed that this part is “almost rewriting”— While elegant, Dr. Mallon’s style isn’t which he then marks over with pencil before succinct. There are clauses and parentheti- typing. Draft 2 is printed and marked in pen. cals, reiterations and reestablishings. It’s all So is Draft 3. Draft 4 is a full-on edit of a fin- well-crafted, but to Dr. Mallon, it’s just not ished manuscript. It’s the same procedure for in Ms. Clooney’s spirit of essential leanness. a novel, for an essay, for a review, for anything Her style, he says, has been elusive, and he writes that isn’t his morning diary entry. it’s when he’s listening to her—say, to the “I still don’t like writing,” Dr. Mallon says. matured concision and clear consonants on There’s always a Starbucks to-go cup on his 1983’s aspirational “My Shining Hour”— desk. There’s one there now. “I find writing that Dr. Mallon considers his limits and that difficult because there’s still, with all that maybe his strength is also his weakness: thor- planning, even with all the outlining, there’s oughness and information. still a certain fear of the blank page—that I’m “I think my writing has too many bells and not gonna be able to come up with that first whistles,” he says. “Too many parentheses, draft. too many flourishes—not so much stylistic “But I love rewriting because once I have flourishes, but there’s too much stuff.” something done, it may not be very good, but The line here is fine. The issue is bal- I can always make it better—I can make it ance and the ability to get out of one’s own measurably better. To me, the real stuff is in way and not muscle up on a strength. the revisions. … If I can balance the self-loath- ing with a bit of self-flattery, I know what I’m doing when it comes to it.”

IDEALLY, THOMAS MALLON says, he would write the way Rosemary Clooney sings—at least he’d write in the style, of his interpretation, of the way Rosemary Clooney sings. To Dr. Mallon, Ms. Clooney is all intellect and vocal tautness, pared lean of aural fat to a mellifluous BMI. To his ear, she sings with a sureness of voice, of delivery, of elocution. She sings ex cathe- dra, and Dr. Mallon wants a drop of that lyri- cal infallibility. “Rosemary Clooney’s Still, being a specific man, Dr. Mallon is probably my absolute specific about the Rosemary Clooney he wants to channel, and, for him, there are two incar- favorite singer...” nations. First, there is the Rosemary Clooney of White Christmas and of her first hit, “Come On-a My House,” a jaunty song with a vaguely wicked feel and words that are both benign Hear a and suggestive at the same time. This is not Thomas Mallon’s “Rosie.” “Rosemary Clooney’s probably my abso- SPOTIFY PLAYLIST lute favorite singer,” Dr. Mallon says. “When made by Thomas Mallon, she was young, she was this very pretty, perky inspired by Rosie. pop singer who sang a lot of these novelty songs, a lot of junk, even. She wanted to be a much more serious singer—a jazz singer go.gwu.edu/MallonPlaylist and a much more complicated practitioner

PHOTO BY HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES of American standards. She really had two

gwmagazine.com / 33 DRAFT 1

Dr. Mallon’s second drafts are the first to be typed. He’s not particular DRAFT 2 about fonts. Here, he used 12-point Cambria. He makes edits with the Mont Blanc. DRAFT 2A

The first draft of anything Thomas Mallon writes is always handwritten. He favors a Mont Blanc pen and blue ink.

A NOVEL PROCESS A DRAFT-BY-DRAFT LOOK AT THOMAS MALLON’S LATEST NOVEL, FINALE: A NOVEL OF THE REAGAN YEARS

34 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 DRAFT 4

Dr. Mallon goes through each draft DRAFT 3 line by line, printing each iteration in full and making changes in a Word document.

This is the last step before the novel’s sent the publisher, although Dr. Mallon’s editor typically gets his first peek at the manuscript when it’s 50 percent done. DRAFTS COURTESY OF THE BROWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

gwmagazine.com / 35 Ms. Clooney’s singing serves, it seems, is, Mr. Gonzalez says, writing excised of her Kennedy Center Honors in 1986 instead as the bumper on Dr. Mallon’s authorial bowl- “pyrotechnics.” of 1987, just so she could play foil to Ronald ing alley, bouncing him back to the arrows “His writing style is extremely refined Reagan, a former actor with whom she when he slips to the gutter. He may not be Ms. but not in an unapproachable way,” starred in Dark Victory in 1939. Clooney’s avatar, but she can at least be his Mr. Gonzalez says. “Anyone can read Tom’s It’s a venial sin—especially compared to compass. prose. … It’s very accessible in the sense that inventing an extramarital affair for Pat Nixon Ariel Gonzalez, the professor and book you can understand it if you want [and] every in Watergate—that still tweaks Dr. Mallon, critic, and Dan Frank, Dr. Mallon’s editor sentence really dazzles because of its crystal- who included Ms. Davis for her political of more than 20 years at Pantheon, agree line nature. By that I mean his writing style affiliation (Democrat) and her entertainment that Dr. Mallon’s novels can sometimes get is almost flawless. If you read his essays, if value. He just asks that people not read his snagged by too much planning, too much you read a page from his novels, you can see novels near the Internet. exposition. Mr. Gonzalez says that Dr. Mal- how meticulously crafted his prose is, and Overwhelmingly, though, Dr. Mallon is lon’s characters can be too meticulous and that also is very refreshing because some- offering what happened in addition to and not jokes about his urge to “mess up their hair.” times there is too much sloppiness going on what happened instead of. He pokes around Yet, the men say, it’s a minor quibble— in today’s fiction. He just doesn’t jump on any in history that’s gone dark or never saw light, every writer must balance their strengths bandwagons. He doesn’t want to follow any and he’s proposing what might have been, (Dr. Mallon often talks about the “tradeoffs” bigger trend. He has a chosen path for himself even though that often means going inside a in writing)—because it’s Dr. Mallon’s atten- and he’s sticking to it.” real person’s mind. That, Dr. Mallon says, is tion to a thickness of “stuff” that cuts his Dr. Mallon, with a laugh, just calls it his the “huge license” he takes. niche in contemporary fiction. “narrow talent.” And while, to him, his writ- “Do I really know that Nancy Reagan and Mr. Gonzalez met Dr. Mallon in 2001 at ing may not be as trim as Rosie’s singing, his Ronald Reagan related to each other in the the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Mid- fat is, at least, essential. way that I have them doing?” he says. “It’s not dlebury, Vt., where he did a workshop with Dr. Mallon that compelled him to read the author’s work. Since, Mr. Gonzalez has inter- viewed him on WLRN-FM, Miami’s NPR MALLON'S NOVELS station, and positively reviewed several of Dr. Mallon’s books for The Miami Herald, most recently Finale, praising Dr. Mallon’s prose and his ability to cull heart from the gray space between history’s facts. 1997 1991 The parts that Dr. Mallon seems to Dewey Defeats see as irreducibly complex in his writing, Aurora 7 Truman Mr. Gonzalez sees as welcome infrastruc- ture, an effort to write good sentences and a dedication to incisive, cinematic scenes. Even 1988 1994 Mr. Frank says that Dr. Mallon is a “clean edit,” capable of great detail and wit. Arts and Henry and Clara Mr. Gonzalez wrote in his review of Sciences Finale, the Reagan-centered book, that Dr. Mallon is “truly incapable of writing a bad sentence” and that one of the novel’s “many joys” is the “beauty and elegance” of the prose, which, in an interview this winter, Mr. Gonzalez described as “classically cool” and “refreshingly old-fashioned.” GORE VIDAL IN 1987 described his- tampering with verifiable facts, like date and “I’d rather have his very well-detailed, tory as the “agreed-upon facts,” and, like Mr. location, but it’s a huge tampering with reality formally structured novels than a lot of the Vidal, Thomas Mallon plays in the fissures because it’s an invention. I don’t really know, rambling first-person monstrosities that we between them, but carefully. Dr. Mallon sidles but it’s plausible.” see today,” Mr. Gonzalez says. a threshold of plausibility, wielding his poetic Plausibility is the keystone of the conceit. Dr. Mallon doesn’t push boundaries license with tweezers, forceps and a large In Landfall, like in Finale, in Watergate, in or press hot buttons. He sticks to linear bottle of iodine. He’s not offering alternate Dewey Defeats Truman, in Henry and Clara— plots while avoiding the first person. It history, although he will commit the occa- all linked in a Mallonverse continuity—the sional fudging. His historical figures will act as it seems to us they primary objective is would, giving Dr. Mallon the cover he needs to entertain and tell to stick in the odd fictional character, like a good story, but he the you’d-never-know-if-you-didn’t-Google Human DNA has been won’t change a major Anders Little in Finale. Thomas Mallon won’t agreed-upon fact, like have George W. Bush slaying vampires. He the winner of an elec- practices fidelity to history and fidelity to the mapped less precisely. tion, to do it. voices of history’s figures. His most egregious A gifted mimic, Dr. Mallon eases conversa- fudging in Finale is tionally in and out of impressions. At a lecture having Bette Davis get in February, Dr. Mallon went from Reagan to

36 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Donald Trump to Nixon to Merv Griffin and Yorker that year, John Updike wrote about his first novel, titledImpeachment . He made it back to Reagan. To do Trump, he blusters hot the novel—which follows the real-life couple through about a hundred pages—his “patient” air and bellows. For his Nixon, he hunches his seated next to Abraham Lincoln on the father was the only other person to read shoulders and summons all the gruff and jowl night of his assassination—and Dr. Mallon’s them—before aborting and making his first he can. His Reagan sounds like James Mason work to that point, calling Dr. Mallon “one go at keeping a diary. He would journal off dazed on nitrous oxide, which makes you of the most interesting American novelists and on until his first year of grad school—an realize that’s actually kind of what Reagan at work,” in the penultimate sentence of an anxious, unhappy, confused and overworked sounded like. He’s still working up his Bernie adoring review. Henry and Clara also helped time in his life—when he took up the habit Sanders. bring Dr. Mallon to Pantheon from Ticknor full time, writing a few hundred words every Before writing dialogue, Dr. Mallon speaks & Fields, uniting Dr. Mallon and Mr. Frank, morning about the day before. it out loud, muttering with what Dan Frank, who met over lunch, or a drink, maybe both— Dr. Mallon says he owes his writing career Dr. Mallon’s longtime editor, calls the author’s Mr. Frank doesn’t remember exactly—in to his diaries, which may or may not end up “ventriloquist gift” and doing voices to him- New York some time in the mid-1990s when in his collection at Brown—“I don’t think I’ve self in a dry run of plausibility. He’s exploring Dr. Mallon was still working as the literary had an interesting enough career for a biogra- what he describes as a “certain conscious editor at GQ. pher ever to be interested in it”—because, he empathy” that’s part of making himself more Dr. Mallon says his interest in historical says, diaries taught him the tightness of nar- completely the person he’s writing. fiction started with an elementary school rative that defines, and occasionally hampers, Dr. Mallon wouldn’t disagree that so reading of Men of Iron by Howard Pyle. his novels. far he’s been most comfortable in Richard He followed that with a novel by Elizabeth Back in his office in January, Dr. Mal- Nixon’s head. He also knows when to inhab- George Speare called Calico Captive, which is lon’s talking about Dawn Powell and the it a historical figure and when to cave to set during the French and Indian War. It’s the danger of “emptying your notebook.” He’s their inscrutability. Ronald Reagan was too first book that made him cry. That was around working on an essay about Ms. Powell, a lit-

2004 2012 Bandbox Watergate

2000 2007 2015 Two Moons Fellow Travelers Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years

opaque, so Dr. Mallon punted, as Mr. Vidal did the fifth grade, a year after he told his class- tle-known American writer whose acclaim on Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mallon, as of Janu- mates from behind a “Vote Nixon” button that came postmortem, for The New York Times ary 2016, says he plans to go inside the head of they had achieved previously unknown levels Book Review. “Emptying your notebook” is W. for Landfall. But if he can’t find Mr. Bush’s of wrong for supporting John F. Kennedy in when a writer uses every bit of research they voice somewhere in the blue ink of his Mont the 1960 presidential election. Dr. Mallon, have in an often vain attempt to show the Blanc pen—a gift from astronaut Scott Car- then 9 years old and parroting his father’s reader just how much stuff they know. This, penter after Dr. Mallon helped him with his unconditional support of Richard Nixon, rea- Dr. Mallon admits, is especially dangerous to memoirs—he can always find someone else’s. soned that Mr. Nixon was the correct choice him. “He does wonders with Nancy Reagan, to succeed President Eisenhower because From there, he segues into how he balanc- so that’s sort of fantastic,” Mr. Frank says. he’d been vice president for eight years and es planning and future inspiration, consulting “He uses her to project an understanding of Mr. Kennedy was just a lowly senator. It was a Powell anthology that seems sturdy enough Reagan, and for him to suggest that, even to an adroit argument, for a 9-year-old. to throw through the glass of a submarine Nancy, Ronald Reagan remained an enigma “It just seemed logical to me,” porthole. He’s looking for a Powell quote to is sort of fabulous. It humanizes Nancy and at Dr. Mallon says. explain all this and can’t find the page. After the same time it gives you an insight into just He can still name the members of Mr. Nix- a few seconds of futile searching, some- how enigmatic Reagan himself was.” on’s cabinet. thing occurs to him and he stops, shifting Henry and Clara came out in 1994. Five years later, at age 14, Dr. Mallon’s to the papers underneath the brick-shaped Mr. Frank considers it the novel that made interest in politics and historical fiction inter- anthology. Dr. Mallon. In a September issue of The New sected for the first time, when he attempted “I bet I can find it on my outline.”

gwmagazine.com / 37 BALANCING THE BOOKS STORY JULYSSA LOPEZ PHOTOS LOGAN WERLINGER Alumna Kyle Zimmer’s nonprofit, First Book, is pooling the buying power of educators and families in need to change the face of— and the access to—children’s publishing.

The two-floor apartment in Woodland is loaded with crates of glossy new chil- dren’s books. Books are a rarity in this Southeast D.C. neighborhood. Woodland is located in one of the city’s poorest and least-developed wards. The neighborhood is small, home to about only 600 people, nearly all African American. Crime and gang vio- lence are frequent here—last summer, police flooded the streets after the commu- nity witnessed three shootings in just 10 days. Cherie Craft is straightening up the piles of hardcovers. She came to Woodland two years ago to open an outpost of Smart from the Start, a community organiza- tion that started in Boston to encourage early learning for children growing up in low-income communities. The kids in Woodland know that they can get free books through her—they constantly poke their heads into the blue mailbox outside to see if she has slipped in any new volumes. Today, she has about 100 copies of Raquel Jaramillo’s award-winning Wonder and Disney’s bubble gum-pink P Is for Princess, among others. The stacks of books could fill a small library. “Look at this,” Ms. Craft says, flipping over a book in her hands and pointing to the $12.99 price on the back. “We would never, ever be able to afford this.” She doesn’t have to—a Washington organization called First Book, co-founded and run by Kyle Zimmer, JD ’87, stocks schools, caregivers and community pro- grams like Ms. Craft’s with free and low-cost books; 140 million of them, actually, and counting. Ms. Craft is particularly excited this afternoon because First Book shipped over Jean Reagan’s How to Surprise a Dad. She says it’s a favorite among the young fathers in Woodland, who come to Smart from the Start for parenting workshops. “First Book knows exactly the kinds of books we like,” she says. “To read a book about a dad playing and doing things with his kids makes a huge difference around here.” As she’s speaking, 2-year-old Blake Augburn bounds into the room with the self-assuredness of a Fortune 100 CEO—like he owns the place. “He does own the place,” Ms. Craft laughs. Blake has been coming to Smart from the Start with his parents since he was At Smart from the Start, in a newborn. Blake’s father, Ed, is one of the young dads Ms. Craft works with, and Southeast D.C.’s Woodland one of the first people she connected with when the center opened. neighborhood, 2-year-old In the corner of the room, a rocking horse waits for Blake to hop on for a ride. Blake Augburn—a fixture at Blake approaches the candy-colored steed, plays equestrian for about 10 seconds the early-learning center— and then abruptly dismounts. He runs to the table where Ms. Craft put down a sits down with a book. copy of How to Surprise a Dad.

gwmagazine.com / 39 “Book!” he shouts. and a few blocks from the White House. The consumer safety advocate Joan Claybrook. He reaches for it and thumbs through 80-person organization rents four floors in a She began to think about how to provide more pages of illustrations by Lee Wildish, which stone building with gilded trimmings. While books and educational resources to the kids tell the story of two African American kids. First Book deals in nonprofit work, the space she saw every week. “Who’s that?” Ms. Craft says, pointing at has the creative, playful nature of a startup. Starting a nonprofit was in the back of her the little boy in the book. The senior vice president of finance sits in a mind early on. She had frequent conversations “Me,” Blake replies. desk he crafted entirely from books. The cus- with her friend Elizabeth Arky, JD ’86. But to “What about that?” she asks, pointing to tomer service team answers calls beneath build the boundless repository that First Book the father in the book. streamers and the glow of Christmas lights. would turn out to be, Ms. Zimmer first would “That’s Daddy,” he says. The room releas- The stairwell linking the floors is covered in need to learn the ins and outs of the publish- es a collective “Aww.” murals. ing industry. The scene is cute. It’s endearing. It would It feels animated and buzzy—not unlike Lesson number one: To a publisher, every make anyone smile. But there’s more behind Ms. Zimmer, 55, the alumna who is First book is a risk. this moment—nearly 25 years and an orga- Book’s president, CEO and co-founder. She is The industry is based on a consignment nization that has been working relentlessly a recognized force in these halls and beyond: model, Ms. Zimmer explains, and publish- to shake things up in the world of children’s In 2014, the National Book Foundation pre- ers have to front the money for all the retail literature. sented her work with its annual Literarian books they produce. Books that collect dust That’s the story of First Book, the non- Award, an honor previously given to Maya on a store shelf become unsold inventory and profit that is working with thousands of orga- Angelou and Terry Gross. they’re shipped back to publishing houses, nizations like Smart from the Start to bring She’s a petite woman, humble about her which absorb the cost. diverse stories to kids like Blake, and, in the own accomplishments but completely enthu- Publishers factor the cost of that returned process, it’s going where no one in the pub- siastic about the goals of First Book. She’s inventory into their prices, which, in part, lishing industry has gone before. upbeat, and she speaks authoritatively and is why you’ll often see hardcover children’s directly, which might come from her years books heaving an $18 retail sticker. If you’re working in corporate law. Her demeanor is one of the estimated 31.4 million U.S. chil- First Book’s offices are tucked between something the publishing industry talks about. dren living in a low-income family, that price a handful of restaurants and stores downtown, “The first thing that struck me about her is a nonstarter. across the street from the National Press Club was that she was a very motivating, energized, Lesson number two: Since publishers need passionate person,” says Susan Katz, who to ensure they sell a certain amount of books, retired last year as president and publisher of they produce titles that appeal to people who “Who’s that?” Ms. Craft HarperCollins Children’s Books. “Kyle was a can buy them. Those people, unsurprisingly, woman on a mission.” are affluent. They are also predominantly says, pointing to the little That mission began more than 25 years Caucasian, and the stories told in the pages of ago when Ms. Zimmer was working as a a picture book often reflect that. boy in the book. lawyer. She spent time then volunteering at “This isn’t about black or white—the Martha’s Table, an organization that serves a dominant color in this conversation is green,” “Me,” Blake replies. large number of D.C. children who are home- Ms. Zimmer says. “I think if you went to a less or underprivileged. publisher and could prove that books about She would sit in a barren room, purple people would sell, publishers would trying to tutor the kids and help climb over each other to produce them. These them with homework. are businesses.” “There would be 50 or 60 kids, It was that kind of acumen that set up First doing everything right. They were Book to be a partner to publishers, not an looking for adult intervention. adversary. They were looking for a safe place,” Ms. Zimmer and Ms. Arky pitched their Ms. Zimmer recalls. idea to friend and fellow lawyer Peter Gold. She remembers thinking, “These The three made plans to talk more about the hours would really be so much more challenges of the publishing industry and come valuable to these kids if we just had up with some solutions over a meal together. books.” A successful dinner might end with a good But Martha’s Table couldn’t conversation and some podcast recommen- afford books. Neither could most of dations. This one ended with an outline for the children’s families. building a social enterprise. Ms. Zimmer grew up in a house- hold that valued social justice and public service. As a lawyer, she had One of the most distinctive qualities represented the interests of the about First Book is its plucky approach to Navajo Nation and worked for an innovation. Its ethos is similar to the “fail organization founded by longtime fast” mentality prevalent in Silicon Valley: If a

Cherie Craft’s Woodland outpost of Smart from the Start receives books from First Book; kids constantly check in to see which books have arrived. First Book President and CEO Kyle Zimmer, JD ’87 (above), co- founded the nonprofit in 1992 with Elizabeth Arky, JD ’86, and had nowhere else to go after school. Peter Gold. Both Ms. Arky and Mr. Gold still serve on its board of “Literally anywhere where kids gathered directors, as they have from the beginning. and where kids were reading—or, in most cases, not reading,” Ms. Zimmer says. strategy doesn’t work, scrap it and learn from available when they need them. The Marketplace evolved. It soon offered it. Then think of something better. So in 2008, the team set up an e-commerce thousands of books (recently, it added snacks, After experimenting with a volunteer-based site, the First Book Marketplace, specifically school supplies and even coats). The mem- distribution model, the First Book team came for those serving children in need. First Book bership roster of schools and programs grew up with the idea of the National Book Bank. arranged to buy large quantities of new titles with it. Between the National Book Bank and Unsold children’s books, cheerful illus- from publishers. By guaranteeing that inven- the Marketplace, the list hit 50,000 members, trations and all, eventually get pulped into a tory would not be returned, First Book could then 100,000. cloudy liquid used for recycled paper. First negotiate lower prices and offer books to And teachers and nonprofit workers didn’t Book’s team realized they could save books educators at 50 percent to 90 percent below just ask for resources and walk away. They from that end by creating an efficient avenue retail. had questions and requests. They had ideas. for publishers to donate excess inventory to From the start, Ms. Zimmer knew this What started as a screening device became North American schools and community pro- would only work if First Book could allay pub- a powerful feedback loop, for the first time grams serving children in need. lishers’ concerns about an alternate market. aggregating a significant number of the The result is the first and only clearing- So the organization set up a screening pro- 1.3 million educators that the organization house for large-scale book donations, which cess: Anyone who wanted books would regis- estimates serve kids in need. launched in 1998. Through the National ter through First Book and submit their bona First Book began to realize its roster was Book Bank alone, First Book now distributes fides. First Book would review every request. more than a list of names: It was market approximately 10 million books each year “They were very market-driven and they muscle and it could be flexed. from 19 warehouses around the country. wanted to know our needs,” Susan Katz from Then a little larva with an appetite came But, Ms. Zimmer says, the Book Bank HarperCollins remembered. “That—and that along. alone wouldn’t close the gap between the they were so dedicated to providing diverse When network members repeatedly com- publishing industry and the base of the eco- books—made them easy to work with.” plained that they would need to buy both an nomic pyramid. The bank opened access to With publishers on board, the Market- English and a Spanish version of Eric Carle’s free books, but not to the ones flying off the place began attracting a staggering range of 1969 classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, shelves at stores. And because the Book Bank people and organizations that worked with to serve the needs of their classrooms, First depended on donations, First Book couldn’t children. Requests came in from teachers Book decided to test its heft. predict what titles would be available at a who were opening their own wallets to fill The organization reached out to Philomel given time. Ms. Zimmer wanted teachers and classroom bookshelves, librarians wanting to Books, a children’s literature imprint of Pen- kids to have a chance to access the industry’s replace tattered paperbacks, even barbershop guin Books USA, with a proposition: If Phi- best, and to know the titles they need will be owners who opened their doors to kids who lomel produced a bilingual edition of the

gwmagazine.com / 41 D.C. schoolkids pose with books they received during a Black History Month celebration hosted by First Book and the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

42 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 “This isn’t about black or white —the dominant color in this conversation

KYLE ZIMMER, PRESIDENT, CEO AND is green.”CO-FOUNDER OF FIRST BOOK

gwmagazine.com / 43 book, First Book would buy 30,000 copies to sell on its Marketplace. With a guarantee that high, Philomel agreed and published the book in May 2011. Ms. Zimmer was floored. “Oh my God,” she thought. “We could do things that have a splash effect in the larger Turning a Page market.” on Diversity? For First Book’s next act, the organization The Cooperative Children’s set out to address the lack of diversity in chil- Book Center at the University dren’s books head-on. of Wisconsin, Madison found Again and again First Book heard that (as of March 4, 2016) that the network wanted books that illustrate the 14.7 percent of the 3,400 experiences of their kids. According to a tally books it received last year of 3,400 kids’ books reviewed last year by the had a prominent character Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the or subject representing University of Wisconsin, Madison, only 7.8 a minority. That may not percent had a significant character or subject sound like much, but it’s representing African Americans, and for up from 9 percent in 2010. Latinos it was just 2.4 percent. Here’s a look at the 2015 This would be trickier than stocking librar- figures and their increase ies and classrooms, or sparking a special run from 2010. of one book. First Book would need to prove it had enough influence and buying power to fund a change. The organization was by now partially self-funded from revenues from the Marketplace, and it had financial support from foundations, corporate partners and AFRICAN/ AFRICAN others. Plus, now it had a network of hundreds AMERICAN of thousands of educators behind it. 265 (70%) In 2013, the organization approached publishers with an offer: First Book would put down $500,000 to buy books from the publishing house that submitted the best selection of existing titles featuring minority voices, characters of color and diverse experi- ences. Publishers responded enthusiastically. ASIAN PACIFIC/ And this time, Ms. Zimmer wasn’t surprised. ASIAN PACIFIC “This is not a group of people who are recal- AMERICAN citrant. Publishers want to make this happen. % 112 (75 ) It wasn’t shaming the publishers—we were saying we have a market, and we can make it so publishers are less nervous about stepping out into uncertain territory,” she says. First Book was so inundated with pro- LATINO posals that it became hard to choose a single % winner. It decided to choose two—Harper- 82 (24 ) Collins and Lee & Low Books—and double its $500,000 commitment. The “big buy,” as First Book calls it, launched the start of its market-driven Stories NATIVE for All Project, made media headlines and AMERICAN/ FIRST NATION brought to the First Book Marketplace more (91%) than 600 existing titles featuring diverse 42 characters and experiences. Its expansion into this new realm only boosted growth: The membership roster now stands at more than 230,000 and the Market- place sells 5 million low-cost books each year, on top of the 10 million that are given away by the Book Bank. And as for that first test of its market muscle? First Book has sold more than 140,000 copies of the bilingual version of The

44 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 A sampling of the books distributed by First Book—including bilingual versions of Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar that the organization helped bring about—which Kyle Zimmer keeps in her office

gwmagazine.com / 45 46 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Very Hungry Caterpillar and inspired Penguin books to the Latino community. First Book The initiative’s executive director, David J. to make the edition available in retail stores. also worked with HarperCollins to release Johns, takes the mic and kicks off the action. an English and Spanish bilingual edition of He’s tall and enthusiastic, comfortable talking Goodnight Moon. to elementary school-aged kids. He’s been a Alison Morris’ office resembles what a More recently, working with Target, Jet- teacher before, and he’s been spearheading library might look like after an earthquake. Blue and KPMG, First Book brought to its educational excellence for African American Every couple of feet a new stack of books Marketplace 60,000 copies of six more books students since former Education Secretary sprouts from the floor. The middle row of a with diverse characters or plots. Two of those Arne Duncan put him in charge of the initia- blond wood shelf has collapsed under the titles are from authors and illustrators new tive in 2013. weight of colorful volumes. to the children’s picture book world: Boats He pulls out a copy of Catherine Stier’s If I And yet, it doesn’t feel chaotic. That might for Papa, Jessixa Bagley’s story about dealing Were the President and begins reading it out be because Ms. Morris herself is neat and with the loss of a parent, and Emmanuel’s loud. The book follows a multicultural cast of organized in her thinking, and has a tidy cata- Dream, Laurie Ann Thompson’s true account kids imagining what it would be like to lead log of children’s books built in her head. She’s of disabled cyclist Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. the country. read almost every text in the room. Four were existing titles made available in “If I were president,” Mr. Johns reads, As the senior director of First Book’s col- exclusive paperback editions, including And “I’d travel in my own limousine or my private lection development and merchandising team, Tango Makes Three about a same-sex family, airplane, Air Force One.” He looks up at the Ms. Morris is the person who scours through and Niño Wrestles the World about a little crowd of students, and they’re hooked. He journals and publisher catalogs. Her goal is to lucha libre fighter. decides to intersperse the story with some expand the Marketplace with materials that In February, the White House, First Book, trivia. speak to the children First Book serves. the New York Public Library, publishers and “Do you guys want to know what the code Questionnaires and surveys of First Book’s other libraries launched an effort to provide name is for the president’s car?” Mr. Johns asks. network have helped paint a picture of those access to $250 million worth of e-books for Heads bob up and down in unison. children. Forty-five percent of respondents free to children from low-income families. “The Beast,” he whispers, letting everyone report that the kids they serve face homeless- And this spring, the Library of Congress in on the secret. Two boys exchange wide- ness. Eighty-three percent say their students recognized First Book with its $150,000 eyed looks and one repeats the name: “The come from single-parent homes. Thirty-two David M. Rubenstein Prize, part of the Beast!” percent say their kids encounter community library’s annual Literacy Awards. When Mr. Johns gets to the last page of the or gang violence. Fifty-four percent report Still, lofty goals remain. Ms. Zimmer says book, he breaks the kids into groups and gives that the kids they serve have incarcerated the market-driven strategies for the Stories them an assignment to come up with a list of parents or siblings. for All Project will continue to evolve, and what they would accomplish as president. Stu- Ms. Morris thinks about these things that First Book is expanding its presence dents gather around large sheets of paper to constantly when she’s introducing new titles in Canada and the United States, aiming to brainstorm ideas that range from “treat every- to the Marketplace. She goes to a bookshelf reach “every educator who needs us and every one equal” to “make college free.” After every outside her office and comes back with a child who needs us.” First Book also has small group presents its platform, First Book’s staff copy of Jacqueline Woodson’s Visiting Day. pilot projects in 19 countries to figure out how begins lining up the kids in front of a massive The picture book follows a young girl excit- it can scale its distribution internationally. table where their free books are waiting. ed about reuniting with her father, who is in One by one, Our White House: Looking prison. The story doesn’t dwell on why he’s In, Looking Out gets placed into every pair of incarcerated. Instead, it focuses on the child’s On a Monday morning in February, lop- small hands. Some of the kids are so little they relationship with her dad and the strength of sided lines of elementary school kids file into have to hug the weighty, 250-page hardcover their bond. the Department of Education’s auditorium. It with both arms. Another one of her favorite new books is isn’t the sterile government building room A few teachers linger in the auditorium, K.A. Holt’s House Arrest. The novel, written you might imagine; the lighting is bright and asking their classes to pose for pictures. in verse, describes a young boy’s year on the carpets are colorful and playful. There’s Clusters of students hold up their White probation after he uses a stolen credit card to music. The floor is decked out with a couple of House books before a constellation of flashing help his family. football-shaped beanbag chairs that the kids iPhone cameras. They grin up into the lenses, “I don’t think books are intended only for race toward excitedly. showing smiles with missing baby teeth. The a certain kind of kid,” she says. “Any kid can Five inner-city D.C. schools have been phones come down, and a couple kids peel read this and it will help them develop empa- invited here for a Black History Month cele- away from the crowd. thy and help them ponder their sense of right bration hosted by First Book and the White One child plops down in the middle of the and wrong.” House Initiative on Educational Excellence floor and lurches the book onto his lap. He But when these books go into the hands of for African Americans. The White House begins thumbing through it slowly, looking kids living these experiences, she says, they initiative has planned a couple of empower- at illustrations of George Washington and become personal. ment activities for the kids, and then First Abraham Lincoln. He lands on a picture of The idea has continued to drive the orga- Book will give every child a hardcover copy of the White House. nization’s Stories for All Project. Last year, the anthology Our White House: Looking In, After a day like today, where he’s spent all the Walt Disney Co. helped First Book distrib- Looking Out. day thinking about what he would do as pres- ute more than 270,000 culturally relevant A room full of kids spanning grades three ident, he might be picturing himself in that through six might sound like a recipe for house. chaos. Yet the students are surprisingly quiet Next to him, a couple of other children David J. Johns (top) reads to a roomful of and attentive. They sit cross-legged watching have also stopped to look inside the book. The kids before asking them to list what they little screens blaring videos of YouTube sensa- room has grown quiet—just a few voices and would accomplish as president (bottom). tion Kid President. the sound of pages turning.

gwmagazine.com / 47 TRACKING TERROR IN THE U.S. By David Frey LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN

48 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 A new think tank finds the “democratization of terrorist recruitment” on social media is helping to create an increasingly diverse picture of Islamic- inspired extremism.

On a Wednesday morning in December, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik put their 6-month-old daughter in the care of Mr. Farook’s mother and left the house for a day that would be burned into the history of terrorism on American soil. Mr. Farook, born in Chicago and raised in southern California, left the two-story townhouse the couple rented in Redlands, Calif., 10 miles out- side San Bernardino, to join coworkers at a holiday potluck. A graduate of California State University, San Bernardino, and brother of a decorated Navy man, Mr. Farook worked as a restaurant inspector for the California Public Health Department. He met Ms. Malik on a Muslim dating site. She was born in Pakistan, raised in Saudi Arabia and studied pharmacology. Her traditional Sunni faith appealed to him. She came to the U.S. on a “fiancée visa,” a K-1. They married and lived a quiet suburban life until Dec. 2. Mr. Farook, 28, excused himself from the work party and returned a short time later with Ms. Malik, 29. Ms. Malik had posted on Facebook her loyalty to the Islamic State, or ISIS. Together, wearing masks and black tactical gear and wielding combat rifles and handguns, they opened fire on the party, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others. The San Bernardino shooting spree was the deadliest act of terror on American soil since 9/11, and while the bloodshed was horrifying,

gwmagazine.com / 49 the circumstances weren’t a complete everything from ISIS sympathizers to white perception and addressing it effectively can surprise to those who had been paying close supremacists, although the program’s staff is involve more cooperation than crackdowns. attention to how violent extremism was composed of Islamic extremism experts. Prior to the San Bernardino shooing, the taking shape in the United States. Director Lorenzo Vidino, 39, has spent number of Americans killed by white suprem- One day before the shooting, The New 15 years studying Islamic extremism in the acists and other anti-government radicals York Times ran this headline: “ISIS Followers West. A native of Milan, he came to the Pro- since 9/11 far outnumbered those killed by in U.S. Are Diverse and Young.” The story gram on Extremism after holding positions Islamic extremists. Now, those numbers are detailed the findings of a report by GW’s Pro- at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for about equal, Mr. Hughes says. gram on Extremism that painted a picture Science and International Affairs at the Ken- Yet compared to Europe, the United of American ISIS followers that this young, nedy School of Government, the U.S. Institute States’ problems with Islamic extremism suburban couple fit into well. of Peace, the Rand Corp. and the Center for seem minor. In July 2015, the Office of the ISIS followers in the U.S. tend to be young, Security Studies in Zurich. Director of National Intelligence estimated mostly male but increasingly female, the Mr. Hughes worked at the National Coun- 250 individuals from the U.S. had traveled or report found. They’re active on social media terterrorism Center, helping to implement attempted to travel to Syria to join the fighting and are spread across the spectrums of race, efforts to counter violent extremism. there. Some 5,000 Europeans are estimated age, class and background. The vast majority From those two, the staff has grown to to have joined the ranks in Syria and Iraq. are U.S citizens or permanent residents. six, including researchers studying emerging Yet the number of ISIS sympathizers in the The report, ISIS in America, made head- extremist groups in Egypt and the Middle U.S. is growing. In May 2015, FBI Director lines across the country and around the East and the radicalization of women; they’ve James Comey said ISIS-related investigations world. In the days after San Bernardino, it also added eight affiliated research fellows were running in every state in the country, as gained even greater attention as the nation and almost a dozen interns. “hundreds, maybe thousands” of ISIS sympa- struggled to understand how a seemingly Since its beginning, the group has drafted thizers emerged. mild-mannered couple, well integrated into a number of papers that shed light on Islamic “You see those documents? Those are American society, could be secretly plan- extremism, right-wing extremism and strat- court documents,” Mr. Hughes says, point- ning a bloody attack. The tiny think tank in egies to prevent radicalized extremists from ing to a bookshelf in his office packed with downtown D.C., in an office building upstairs turning violent. But it was the ISIS in America binders—criminal complaints, indictments, from a fast-casual restaurant, became a go-to report that caught the most attention, in part affidavits and courtroom transcripts from source for understanding domestic terrorism because it challenged so many notions of what the more than 7,000 pages that came out of and how otherwise ordinary people become extremism looked like nationwide. what, by late February, had grown to 84 cases radicalized. The report was based on a six- Their goal has been to inject data into a brought against suspected ISIS supporters month study in which researchers mined debate driven largely by fear and to paint a over the past year. On one of those shelves sits thousands of pages of court documents relat- nuanced picture of a polarizing subject. a photograph of his grandfather, a D.C. police ed to 71 ISIS-related criminal cases, moni- “The issue is there,” Dr. Vidino says. “Let’s officer killed while trying to arrest a robbery tored hundreds of social media accounts and have a reasonable debate about it.” suspect. combed through media reports. The message they present is a complicated “I have an affinity for police officers and “The timing was right for the report to get one. In the paper Countering Violent Extrem- public safety officials who put their lives on a good look,” says Seamus Hughes, 32, deputy ism in America, the program declares that the the line,” he says. director of the Program on Extremism. “No threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism in the On the opposite wall, images of terrorism one else had done this kind of comprehensive U.S. “is relatively low.” But in ISIS in Amer- suspects fill a corkboard, connected by a web look before.” ica, it describes its rise as “unprecedented.” of string like something out of a cop drama. The Program on Extremism began in June Both can be true, but they don’t make for easy “We wanted to look at ISIS recruits in the 2015 under the Office of the Vice President for points in a political debate. United States,” says Mr. Hughes, who was Research’s Center for Cyber and Homeland “It doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker,” drawn to studying terrorism by a curiosity Security. As the center focused more closely Mr. Hughes says, but that approach, “nuance about what attracted people to such radical on cyber security, the Program on Extremism based on data,” is crucial, he says. ideologies. “A lot of people had been talking was created to examine domestic extremism, “If you develop programs out of fear, about it but nobody had taken a comprehen- including terrorists and their allies who have they won’t be successful,” he says. The facts sive look at it.” not engaged in violent acts. That includes of extremism can be very different than the The portraits of those sympathizers defied

Their goal has been to inject data into a debate driven largely by fear and to paint a nuanced picture of a polarizing subject. “The issue is there,” Dr. Vidino says. “Let’s have a reasonable debate about it.” LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN

50 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 the expectations, based on previous genera- tions of Islamist extremists, of middle-aged Muslim men, isolated and adrift in this coun- try, raised on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. They defied just about any expecta- tions at all. June: 3 MEDIA MAGNETS According to the December report and July: 4 subsequent updates, since March 2014: August: 5 October: 18 February: 135 • The average age of people arrested September: 7 for ISIS-related activities was 26. The November: 55 December: 613 January: 53 youngest was a 15-year-old boy.

2015 2016 • Eighty-seven percent were male, but women were playing an increasing role. The number of times the Program on Extremism, its directors or its researchers appeared in news stories by leading national news outlets (wire services, newspapers, television, • The vast majority were citizens, or in a radio and online), as well as top outlets in each state and region, and the top Beltway- few cases, permanent residents. focused news outlets, like Politico.

• Nearly 40 percent were converts to Islam, not people raised in the faith. PROGRAM ON EXTREMISM It’s a mixed group, “defying a cookie-cut- ter profile,” the report says. Some are grown BY THE NUMBERS men who had been tempted by jihad for over a decade. One was the son of a Boston-area cop married to a single mother of two young chil- Number of people dren. The suspects included the 22-year-old on staff when son of an imam about to start graduate school and his 19-year-old bride, a former cheerlead- 2 2 program began Testimonies before er and daughter of a Mississippi police officer, Congress in first studying chemistry in college. Number of people In this diverse crowd, a college-educated seven months San Bernardino food inspector and his new on staff now wife do not stand out. 6 plus “It’s difficult to find one answer as to why people radicalize,” Dr. Vidino says. affiliated His group’s next step is to find what 8 research answers they can. They have embarked on fellows an ambitious project to interview people who have been radicalized and, in some cases, interns arrested for terrorist-related activities. Some 11 have reformed and are looking for redemp- tion. Others remain in the throes of jihadism and are hoping to spread their ideologies. “Most of them are American,” Dr. Vidino says. “They are native speakers. They use slang. They have the same kind of interaction on social media that all American kids have, but they happened to be in this bubble that discusses ISIS.” Around Dr. Vidino’s office are maps of his native Milan, where he watched many of his Muslim neighbors take up arms to join the fight in Bosnia in the 1990s. The imam at the neighborhood mosque was the leader of the foreign fighters in Bosnia, and, as Dr. Vidino watched criminal VIDINO AND HUGHES: WILLIAM ATKINS / ASSEMBLAGE: LOGAN WERLINGER

Program on Extremism Director Lorenzo Vidino (right) Deputy Director Seamus Hughes (left)

gwmagazine.com / 51 DOMESTIC EXTREMISM % 1,360 42 AT A GLANCE 1,007 2012 998 892 The rise in anti-Muslim hate 2015 858 groups since 2014. According 1996 to the SPLC, anti-Muslim Anti-government groups 217 hate groups are a “relatively 457 Hate groups new phenomenon” in the 1999 United States, springing up in the aftermath of 9/11. 45 48 1996 2015 victims of victims of jihadist right-wing Figures, above and below, are from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which attributed a marked rise terrorism extremism in the number of hate groups since 2000 in part to “anger over Latino immigration” and projections showing a shift away from a white majority by around 2040 as well as a bump when President Nationwide from Sept. 12, 2001 Obama took office in 2009. The Ku Klux Klan had 190 groups in 2015, the most of any organization. to August 2015, according to The SPLC counted 276 militias last year among various other groups it considered anti-government. the think tank New America

Most anti-government Most hate groups groups by state, 2015 by state, 2015

52 40 44 34 OH NY

36 IL MI 32 55 CA PA 60 68 MO 40 41 TN 29 NC 41 VA GA 41 54 TX 39 32 84 33 FL 58

52 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 online proclaiming the glory of long-gone caliphates that stretch back to the seventh century and the early days of Islam. The notion of rekindling a bygone era of glorious Islam was appealing, Mr. Awad says. “Really, fundamentally, these people investigations and media reports Ms. Alexander says, and social media has believe they are making a better world,” he target his neighborhood, he became fascinat- allowed young women to “try on a new iden- says. “What protects you from going down ed by the growth of Muslim extremism. tity” as Islamic extremists from the safety of that path is accepting the world as a diverse “If you want to understand why people their computer screens. place. It’s accepting progress.” radicalize, there’s no better way than to get it “With the use of social media, it essentially Much of Mr. Hughes’ experience is in from them,” he says. One commonality among lowers the bar for people to be able to reach or countering violent extremism. It’s a nascent them all, Dr. Vidino says, is the powerful radicalize or recruit online,” Mr. Hughes says. field, but one communities are slowly turning message that jihadi groups provide and the “It’s essentially the democratization of ter- to as they realize it may be more effective to promise they offer to supporters to be part rorist recruitment. If you’re a 20-something stop terrorism before it starts. A few places, of something bigger than themselves. The young woman from Philadelphia, you can like Montgomery County, Md., are creat- individual motivations can range widely, from reach out to a number of people and try to join ing programs among police departments, a thirst for revenge to sympathy for Syrian ISIS in ways you wouldn’t have been able to mosques and Muslim communities to identify refugees, the ISIS report says, but the motiva- before.” people being radicalized and steer them away tion underlying most of them, Dr. Vidino told The Program on Extremism has outlined from extremism. Following the 2013 Boston the Senate Homeland Security committee in a network of social media players. Some Marathan bombing, Boston, Los Angeles January, “is that of living in a perfect Islam- are “nodes,” core content creators who and Minneapolis-St. Paul took part in a ic society under White House pilot the world’s only program to test authentic Islamic “countering violent government,” as It was the ISIS in America report that caught the extremism,” or followers see the most attention, in part because it challenged so many CVE, strategies. ISIS caliphate. Already in practice That allure notions of what extremism looked like nationwide. in several Europe- spreads on social an countries, these media, especially CVE programs are on Twitter, where designed to allow ISIS reaches potential recruits who otherwise swap comedic memes, post news articles family members or community members to would be out of reach, and where would-be and send out official ISIS tweets. Some are alert authorities about young people who are supporters find jihad can be just a keystroke “amplifiers”—either real-life sympathizers radicalizing but haven’t committed a crime. away. That’s one reason ISIS seems to be or automated accounts that retweet and Instead of launching a criminal investigation, reaching younger people who are computer “favorite” ISIS material. Others are “shout- authorities can work with families and reli- savvy, researchers say, and why women find out” accounts that introduce new pro-ISIS gious communities to intervene. These pro- it easier to join the ranks and evade the sep- accounts and announce the accounts of sus- grams have been criticized by some Muslim aration of sexes that kept many women out of pended users who have switched accounts. and civil liberties groups as government past jihadi movements, where leaders didn’t A recent white paper by the Program overreach, but others have embraced them welcome women’s participation. on Extremism found that suspending ISIS as a way to keep young people who may start “You can’t build an Islamic state with accounts succeeded in slashing their fol- putting out questionable tweets or reading just men,” says Audrey Alexander, BA ’14, a lower counts. Yet as Twitter cracks down radical propaganda from turning violent. research fellow at the Program on Extrem- on ISIS accounts, supporters have sought “If you look at the cases,” Hughes says, “a ism, who specializes in studying the radical- other social media platforms, like Telegram, vast majority of them had a bystander effect, ization of women. a highly encrypted messaging platform pop- where family members or loved ones saw While ISIS hasn’t welcomed women on the ular among terrorist groups and dissidents something that was concerning but didn’t front lines, it has encouraged women to take in authoritarian countries, and a platform know how to act on it.” on roles in recruiting, spreading propaganda, increasingly popular in the United States. Too often, Mr. Hughes says, Muslims in marrying jihadists and raising children in the Mr. Hughes pulls out his cellphone and America get the message, whether it’s from group’s ideology. opens the Telegram app, where he finds their imam or from friends at school, that you “The mass media really doesn’t take them an American woman in Syria giving daily can be Muslim, or you can be American, but very seriously,” Ms. Alexander says. “That’s updates about life on the front lines. you can’t be both. a huge problem because it undermines our Research fellow Mokhtar Awad says he “That’s a false choice,” he says. “To the ability to prevent women from joining.” understands the allure. As a Muslim teen extent that you can reinforce that—that you Women seem to join with the same mix of growing up in the United States, he says, he can be Muslim and American—I think that

LOGAN WERLINGERLOGAN political and personal reasons that men join, would find Islamic fundamentalist messages goes a long way.”

gwmagazine.com / 53 Alumni profiles ... class notes ... artists’ quaAlumnirter news

56// 58// 60// 66// Trial Birthday Good ‘It Wasn’t By Fire Bashes Match Pretty’ As students last As George David Haggerty, Alumnus tops year, two alum- rounded 284, BBA ’79, takes race of seven ni won a man alumni cele- the helm of ten- marathons, sev- clemency—for brated in 51 nis’ governing en continents, class credit cities globally authority seven days ALUMNI NEWS

[MEMORABILIA] Card Catalog A niche collection of baseball cards makes it to Cooperstown. //By Matthew Stoss NICHOLAS GINGOLD

54 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Alumni news Alumni news CLASS NOTES

erry Dworkin, BBA ’75, makes a bold In the collection are beer cans, cereal // 60s & EARLIER claim about his collection of 111 Mike boxes, candy bars and, of course, baseball Robine Andrau, BA ’60, published Bowing Piazza baseball cards, which, with the cards, which were never more popular than to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII exception of a select 24 (more on those they were from the mid-1980s to late 1990s— (Apple Rock Publishing, 2015), detailing her family’s experience in prison camps in later), are stored in a secret safe. the boom being the result of an antitrust Indonesia and Japan during World War II. “This is the most unusual collec- lawsuit in 1981 that destroyed Topps’ monop- William A. Gralnick, BA ’65, MA ’68, tion of a hall of famer, or future hall oly and opened the market for half a dozen announced his retirement from a second famer, ever,” Mr. Dworkin says. upstart card companies. career as a manager for the Palm Beach County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office, which, Mr. Dworkin’s collection is built around By the early ’90s, baseball cards were a $1 during his tenure, was commended by the a specific Mike Piazza baseball card: Mike billion-a-year industry, and manufacturers Department of Homeland Security. Piazza as a Florida Marlin. flooded the market with billions of cards. This James Korman, JD ’68, of Bean, Kinney For five games in May 1998, after he got is how a player’s meager five-game stint with & Korman, was honored by the Arlington (Va.) Bar Foundation with the William traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers and one team produces 124 separate cards. L. Winston Award, given annually to before he got traded to the New York Mets, The baseball card industry would implode Northern Virginia community members Mr. Piazza played for the Marlins. The to-be in the late ’90s because of an oversaturated who have distinguished themselves through the promotion of democratic Hall of Fame catcher—he’ll be inducted this market. The 1994 strike and subsequent ste- ideals and advancing the rule of law. summer—went 5-for-19, with a triple and five roid scandal didn’t help, either. The industry Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, BA ’69, RBIs on a team that would lose 108 games. has yet to recover—as of 2008, yearly reve- is publishing five collections of stories, It was an unremarkable stint on a terri- nues were about $200 million—and the odds each titled Curious Encounters of the Human Kind: True Asian Tales of Folly, ble team. And yet, thanks to a historically aren’t good it ever will, making Mr. Dworkin’s Greed, Ambition and Dreams (Explorer’s robust baseball card industry that has since collection, which he loaned to the Hall of Eye Press). They are based on his 45 years of living and traveling in Asia. Each shriveled, 124 different iterations of Florida Fame on a year-to-year basis, that much more collection covers a different part of Asia: Marlins Mike Piazza cards were made. Some unique, that much more niche. Indonesia (September 2015) Myanmar of them were mass-produced. Others were The Philadelphia native says he’s spent (October 2015), Himalaya (December 2015), Borneo (February 2016) and “one-of-ones,” meaning only a single card of a more than $10,000 acquiring his Mike Piazza Southeast Asia (March 2016). particular design was ever printed. Florida Marlins cards and as much as $1,000 Tipped off by the cousin of his then-girl- on a single card. He’s also procured other friend to the cards’ existence and intrigued by Marlins-related memorabilia from Mr. Piaz- // 70s the novelty of a Hall of Fame player making a za’s Miami layover, including the negatives of David Zimmerman, BA ’70, MFA ’76, cameo on a team, Mr. Dworkin—a man who’d unused Topps baseball card photos. exhibited his recent paintings in a solo art show in September 2015 at the Page- never collected anything and was, at best, a Mr. Dworkin, who lives in Irvine, Calif., Walker Arts & History Center in Cary, N.C. casual sports fan—started collecting. also has an autographed copy of Mr. Piazza’s Robert F. Hemphill, MBA ’72, published “Seventeen years ago, I jokingly—some- autobiography, which the former slugger Dust, Tea, Dingoes and Dragons (Strelitzia what—said, ‘One day my collection is going signed during an appearance at a Pasadena, Ventures, Oct. 1, 2014), a series of letters the author sent to his father during a to be exhibited in the Baseball Hall of Fame,’” Calif., bookstore in February 2013. decade traveling the world and building a says the 62-year-old attorney. “It was a total “When I got up there, I said I was the Mar- billion-dollar company. pipe dream. Never did I really think I would lins guy,” Mr. Dworkin says. “He was aware of Linda Rabbitt, MA ’72, chairman, achieve that goal.” me and he was aware of the [New York Times] founder and CEO of Rand Construction Corporation, is one of the 2016 recipients Remember those select 24? article, and I said to him sign the book, ‘Go of the Horatio Alger Award, which is given Ever prescient, Mr. Dworkin was right, not Marlins.’” to individuals who overcame personal only about the enduring novelty of the cards Mr. Piazza did. challenges to achieve success. but also their value. On Nov. 7, 24 of his 111 It’s the only time the two have met, Bruce Merwin, BA ’73, of Thompson & Knight LLP in Houston, was recognized in different Mike Piazza Florida Marlins cards although Mr. Dworkin repeatedly wrote the 2015 edition of Texas Super Lawyers. went on display at the National Baseball Hall to David Letterman, lobbying to be on the This list reflects only the top 5 percent of of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., Late Show with Mr. Piazza. It was part of Mr. Texas lawyers. part of a 300-piece exhibit spread across two Dworkin’s Great Solicitation of 2012, Ellen Zane, BA ’73, vice chair of the when he mailed information pack- Tufts Medical Center board of trustees, big rooms on the second floor. was honored on Sept. 15 with a portrait “When we were looking for something ets to roughly 30 media person- in the medical center’s atrium. The that would be the perfect snapshot of base- alities and outlets—including the portrait is in recognition of her contributions to the center during her ball cards in the 1990s, we contacted Jerry,” Times (which ran a story on him on tenure as its president and CEO from says John Odell, MA ’95, the Hall of Fame’s Jan. 1, 2013) and the Baseball Hall 2004 to 2011. She is the first woman curator of history and research who knew of Fame. and the first non-physician to hold this position since the medical about the Piazza Marlins cards because Mr. Dworkin is still collecting, center’s founding in 1796. Ms. Zane Mr. Dworkin had previously contacted the Hall too. He says he checks the Internet also is a member of GW’s board of of Fame. Mr. Odell had also read about Mr. every day for Piazza Marlins cards— trustees. Dworkin’s collection in The New York Times. he purchased his most recent one in Mark S. Fuller, BA ’74, published Never a Dull Moment: The Life of The permanent exhibit, “A Whole New June—and sometimes, if he finds an John Liggett Meigs (Sunstone Ballgame,” documents baseball from 1970 to eBay vendor selling some unopened Press, August 2015), a biography of the the present, with an emphasis on how fans packs of baseball cards from 1998 … author’s friend, John Liggett Meigs, who, as a child, was kidnapped by his father interact with the game, particularly through “I’m willing to take a shot for a buck or before going on to a career as an artist—

LEAH HAYDOCK PHOTOGRAPHYLEAH HAYDOCK commercial ephemera. two,” Mr. Dworkin says, laughing. he was one of the original designers of

gwmagazine.com / 55 Alumni news

for clemency. Ms. Francik had some experience with prisoners’ rights—and with the tortuous convolutions of the federal court system. “We selected Courtney because she had interned over the summer at the federal public defend- er’s office, so she had some experience in a notoriously complex area of law,” says Ms. Steinberg, the clinic supervisor. Still, Ms. Francik says, she had no real idea what to expect. Applicants for clemency had to meet a number of prerequisites, and, since the federal program was a new one, there were no precedents to study. “I was very excited and very anxious,” she remembers. “There were a number of differ- ent factors that the pardon attorney and the president were interested in in determining Rudolph Norris hugs Janice, a niece to grant clemency. They ranged from pretty who had not seen him since she was 7, formulaic things—the sentencing guidelines after his release from federal prison, in [at the time of conviction] and how they Upper Marlboro, Md., July 28, 2015. operated—to things that had more to do with the individual person, their conduct while incarcerated.” [law] That being so, Ms. Francik and Mr. Sheard wanted to get to know the man for whom they would be advocating. They Class Assignment: exchanged letters and spoke often by phone, and in November 2014 the pair traveled to the Federal Correctional Institution in Free a Man from Prison Morgantown, W.Va., to meet Mr. Norris in person. Ms. Francik was immediately charmed. As law students, Courtney Francik and Bart Sheard petitioned “He’s such a personable guy—very friendly, President Obama to commute a man’s sentence—and he did. loves to talk, open, honest. He’s just fun.” //By Ruth Steinhardt The meeting reinforced the urgency of their mission. “We’d get to clinic really early and just be there all day,” she says. She and Courtney Francik, JD ’15, was a third-year in his late 50s named Rudolph Norris. Mr. Sheard became familiar with the minutia student at GW Law School when she started In 1992, police found 29 grams of crack of Mr. Norris. They pored over records and working to free a man who had been in prison cocaine in Mr. Norris’ car. It was the height transcripts. They spoke to his family, to his almost as long as she had been alive. of the war on drugs, and repeat offenders former lawyers and to prison officials who Seeking practical clinical experi- received mandatory sentences much longer had supervised him. When the semester ence before she began a legal career, than they would have if convicted today. ended, Ms. Francik chose to continue at the Ms. Francik had signed up for the law school’s Mr. Norris was sentenced to 30 years in feder- clinic for the spring 2015 semester in order Neighborhood Law and Policy Clinic. Under al prison—even though, accord- to finish out the case—an unusual the supervision of clinic founder and Associ- ing to an article in The New York commitment, Ms. Steinberg says. ate Professor of Clinical Law Jessica Stein- Times, a presentencing report For more on the Finally, in February, Rudolph berg, the program offers class credit each stated unequivocally that “there work of Gideon’s Norris’ clemency petition was semester to 10 students who represent prison- was no victim in this offense.” Promise, see the complete. It was 182 pages. ers and people whose criminal records make In prison, the Times wrote, summer 2015 GW “The most challenging part it difficult to find jobs or housing. Mr. Norris had committed to Magazine feature, of the whole case was turning When Ms. Francik enrolled in 2014, the a clean record. (Phone calls to “Promise Keeper,” at it over when it was finished— clinic was branching out into a new arena. Mr. Norris seeking comment for magazine.gwu.edu worrying that there was a That April, the Department of Justice had this story were not returned by typo, or we’d made a mistake,” announced a new clemency initiative for press time.) Ms. Francik says. federal prisoners convicted of nonviolent, He took a course as an elec- Then they waited. A month low-level offenses. Ms. Francik and her clinic tronics inspector and, in 22 years of impris- and a half later, on March 31, the clinic partner, Bart Sheard, JD ’15, were assigned onment, had only three minor disciplinary phone rang: It was a White House lawyer. the clinic’s first clemency case: a D.C. native violations. He was an almost ideal candidate Mr. Norris was one of 22 people selected GABRIELLA DEMCZUK/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

56 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Alumni news CLASS NOTES

the hula shirt—and he interacted with, notably, Georgia O’Keefe and Vincent by President Barack Obama to receive organization founded by Jonathan Rapping, Price. He also spent time as a reporter and clemency. JD ’95, that trains public defenders to advo- served in World War II. “Bart and I met in the [clinic] office and cate for marginalized clients despite limited Steven L. Cantor, JD ’75, is a managing partner of Miami-based Cantor & Webb we got to be the ones that called [Mr. Norris] time and resources. P.A., which received the Member to tell him his petition had been granted,” She is constantly in the courtroom, on the Firm of the Year Award during Ms. Francik recalled. “There were definitely front lines of defense for those who, like Mr. a gala event at the 2015 Geneva Group International some tears—happy tears—involved.” Norris, could be disproportionately penalized World Conference in Boston. In late July, Mr. Norris walked out of by the criminal justice system. The work is Leonard Deege, MS ’75, prison to the waiting arms of family. “hectic,” she says, but still she tries to build published Warrior: From Ms. Francik’s absorption in the case, and in-depth relationships with the people she Nazi Occupied Holland to the Jungles of Vietnam, its happy ending, sealed Ms. Francik’s career represents. An Immigrant Story (Outskirts path. Now she works as an attorney in the “I think it’s always a good thing to get to Press, November 2015), a memoir about his childhood in the German-occupied Public Defender’s Office of Shelby County, know a client personally,” she says. “You need Netherlands during World War II and Tenn., and is a fellow of Gideon’s Promise, an to know what’s important to them.” his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam after immigrating to the United States following high school. Howard L. Sollins, BA ’75, of Ober/Kaler, was recognized in the 2016 edition of “We got to be the ones that Maryland Super Lawyers. Howard Williams, LLM ’75, a partner at called [Mr. Norris] to tell him Brooks Pierce, was recognized in the 2015 Super Lawyers Business Edition. his petition had been granted. Arnold Goldberg, EdD ’77, is the executive director of Harbor Child Care There were definitely some in New Hyde Park, N.Y., following a 35- year career in public school education, including 10 years as a superintendent of tears—happy tears—involved.” schools on Long Island, N.Y. Jeffrey Libman, BBA ’77, has been designated as a premier advisor at Wells Courtney Francik, JD ’15 Fargo Advisors for the fifth consecutive year. Mark Dawidziak, BA ’78, a television critic and pop culture reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, was inducted into The Press Club of Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame on Nov. 13. Harry A. Milman, PhD ’78, published A Death at Camp David (Xlibris, November 2015), a novel of political intrigue and murder mystery set against the backdrop of the election of a woman as president of the United States. John Beardsworth, JD ’79, a partner at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Va., started a one-year term as chair-elect of the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law. Next, he will serve a one-year term as chair. STOCK.COM/PIDJOE i Mireya Navarro, BA ’79, published Stepdog (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, April 2015), a humorous memoir about her marriage to a man with a very jealous dog. The book won “Readers’ Prize” in June 2015 from Elle magazine. Ms. Navarro is a reporter for The New York Times. Brian Strand, MD ’79, joined Humana as its regional medical director for the Gulf States region, working in the area of Medicare Advantage. He spent 27 years in practice as a plastic surgeon and wound- care physician. // 80s John Saler, BA ’80, was appointed to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Corporate Council. Ronda Wasserman Fisch, BA ’80, joined FRANCIK: COURTESY COURTNEY FRANCIK / HULA SHIRT:

gwmagazine.com / 57 Alumni news

Sparks fly from a birthday cake at the [celebrations] celebration in Shanghai A Tradition In Just Six Years

There was one “George’s Birthday Bash” in 2010. Now there are 51. In 2010, the San Antonio Alumni Network started celebrating George Washington’s birthday. The next year, 29 networks put on party hats for George. Since its inception six years ago (thanks, San Antonio), George’s Birthday Bash has become a tradition, and this year 51 alumni networks—30 in the United States and 21 abroad—went bashing for George’s 284th birthday, four of which were first-time Bashers.* This year’s celebrations drew some 880 partygoers—about 480 domestic and about 400 international—from Chicago (42) to Dubai (32). The most-attended Bash in the states was New York (62), and tops internationally was Tokyo (35).

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58 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Alumni news CLASS NOTES

the Pittsburgh office of the law firm Jones Day as director of firm library services. *Interested in becoming a basher? If you live in an area that has an active regional alumni Debbie Albert, BA ’83, president of Albert network—more on that at alumni.gwu.edu/community—there may be a George’s Birthday Bash Communications, started “Guess Who’s happening in your city. If you don’t have a nearby network and are interested in starting one, Coming to Shabbas,” a program designed contact the U.S. alumni programming team at [email protected] or the international alumni to engage and retain synagogue members programming team at [email protected]. with home-based Friday-night dinners. The program is used by more than 45 synagogues in North America. Gregg Berman, BA ’84, JD ’87, of Thompson & Knight LLP, was recognized in the 2015 edition of New York Metro Super Lawyers. David Lyle Kaplan, MBA ’84, is completing his second (and final) term as mayor of Des Moines, Wash. Nancy Frankel Pelletier, JD ’84, was recognized for civil litigation in the 2015 edition of Massachusetts Super Lawyers. Ms. Pelletier has been recognized by Super Lawyers for more than 10 consecutive years. Paul Fires, JD ’85, a managing partner at Weber Gallagher, joined the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Luis J. Fujimoto, BS ’85, was confirmed as chairman of the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations for the American Dental Association in Chicago. Barry Spielman, MA ’85, published From Gettysburg to Golan: How two great battles were won—and the lessons they share (Hampress, September 2015). The book is a comparative history of two similar battles: Gettysburg during the American Civil War in 1863 and Golan Heights (a plateau located between Israel and Syria) in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. R.E. Burnett, MA ’86, was named associate dean of academics-faculty at the National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., where he’s also professor of international security affairs. He was the keynote lecturer for the Australian Department of Defense’s conference on emerging disruptive technologies, at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, as well as the plenary speaker at a similar conference at the University of Melbourne. George F. Indest III, LLM ’86, an attorney at The Health Law Firm in Orlando, Fla., top Beijing obtained a decision and recommendation from an administrative law judge for the middle left Astana, dismissal of all charges against a Florida Kazakhstan high school teacher accused of making middle right Honolulu statements to two students that offended bottom Chicago them. The teacher also was charged with

using a minor vulgarity in a text message to a student. Kim Rowland Copperthite, MBA ’87, received the bronze medal award from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Sept. 30 for “superior service and work as a federal employee.” In the past, she’s also been awarded gold and silver medals. Heide Koenitzer Clark, BA ’86, MA ’89, published The Robin Stories (CreateSpace, September 2015), a novel about an emotional young man struggling through For more photos life and family as he attempts to write a visit go.gwu.edu/ great work of literature. georgeturns284 Greg Altieri, BBA ’87, MBA ’90, launched OurLittleHero.net, a website where boys, ages 7 to 12, fill out personal details ALL BIRTHDAY: OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS HAND: ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ URFINGUSS

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[Tennis] time at GW, playing as the No. 1 singles as well as in the top doubles pairing for his final three seasons. The three-time team MVP was inducted into the GW Athletics Hall of Fame The Ball is in his Court in 2008 for his achievements, which included four consecutive all-metro championships. Former GW tennis star David Haggerty recently took the helm of After graduating with a business degree in 1979, Mr. Haggerty competed profession- the sport’s international governing body. // By Gray Turner, MPS ’11 ally in Europe and the U.S. before transi- tioning to the business side of the sport. He The fact that none of the 70 international But the odds against him, staring him in the spent 32 years as a top executive with sports sports governing bodies recognized by the face, could not dampen his enthusiasm at the equipment manufacturers Prince, Dunlop International Olympic Committee were led by potential to further serve the sport he loves. Slazenger and Head USA before retiring in an American was not lost on David Haggerty, “I wanted to continue giving back to 2010 to devote himself to tennis on a volunteer BBA ’79, as he threw his hat in the ring in the sport that has done so much for me,” basis as a member of the U.S. Tennis Asso- the spring of 2015 to become president of the Mr. Haggerty says. “My life has been, and still ciation (USTA) Board of Directors. In total, International Tennis Federation (ITF). Nei- is, fully committed to tennis.” Mr. Haggerty has 16 years of vol- ther was the fact that it had been more than He began playing tennis at unteer experience with the USTA, 40 years since an American had been elected 5 years old. He would develop For more from this becoming president of the USTA to tennis’ top post. into a talented junior player and interview, including and of the U.S. Open in 2013. “At times, there’s an anti-American sen- compete internationally before David Haggerty’s On Sept. 25, he took his com- memories timent among these global organizations, receiving a scholarship to play mitment to tennis to the highest of GW, visit so frankly, being American was a challenge for the Colonials in the late ’70s. level by defying the odds and go.gwu.edu/Haggerty in running,” Mr. Haggerty says. “I thought I He won a combined 184 singles getting elected as president of the would do well, but I didn’t expect to win.” and doubles matches during his ITF, coming from behind after the FEDERATION TENNIS INTERNATIONAL COURTESY

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in a template to create a personalized adventure story in which they’re the first round of voting. national team competitions are played around protagonist. There are six storylines: “A Knight’s Tale,” “Baseball Big Leagues,” “I was behind by 31 votes after the first the world, and that’s a tremendous opportu- “Civil War Hero,” “Fire Captain,” “Undersea round,” he recalls. “When the two European nity to bring professional tennis to areas that Explorer” and “Wild West.” candidates dropped out after that first ballot, might not see it any other way.” Camille W. Hill, JD ’88, of Bond, it left just two of us in the race, and I knew it While tennis is typically an individual Schoeneck & King PLLC, was recognized might be an uphill battle.” sport, Mr. Haggerty says the team aspect that in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. When the second round of ballots was the Davis and Fed cups are built around is Russ Bleemer, JD ’89, was honored counted, Mr. Haggerty had won, 200-192. He appealing to athletes and mirrors the national with the Angelo T. Cometa Award, which will serve a four-year term. pride seen during the Olympics. recognizes individuals or groups in New In his new job, Mr. Haggerty, who previ- “This is an Olympic year, and all the top York that demonstrate a commitment to advancing the goals of the state bar’s ously served on the body’s board of directors, athletes want to be there in Rio competing lawyer referral and information service. helms a federation dedicated to leading and for their countries,” he says. “It’s the same for The award is sponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on growing the sport of tennis. That means work- the Davis and Fed Cup. The top tennis play- Lawyer Referral Service. ing with nations and stakeholders to make ers—whether it’s [Roger] Federer, [Novak] decisions that ensure the future of tennis. Djokovic or the Williams sisters—they all “It’s the responsi- want to play. There’s // 90s bility of the ITF to lead a lot of patriotism Christine Burns Taraska, BA ’90, the sport by adminis- that comes through in launched a boutique accounting firm in “Rivalries are Salem, Mass. She specializes in individual, tering the game and those competitions.” small- to medium-size businesses, with an upholding its values what make sports The national com- emphasis on multistate and international to ensure the integrity petitions also provide taxation. of tennis globally, but the opportunity Sally L. Frodge, MS ’91, is program so entertaining manager for the Alaskan we’re not Big Brother,” for new rivalries to Satellite Telecommunications Mr. Haggerty says. and compelling to emerge, something Infrastructure. “We have an important that has long been the Bret J. Muilenburg, MS ’91, role to play to govern, watch, and we are lifeblood of tennis. became the 44th commander of Naval to lead the sport to do “Rivalries are Facilities Engineering Command and chief of civil engineers. He also was what’s right, but at the very fortunate to what make sports promoted to rear admiral (upper half). same time, we need to so entertaining and Celeste M. Greene, MPA ’94, is program respect the autonomy have had some compelling to watch, director for business and professional of our partners.” and we are very fortu- studies within the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at the University He points to the incredible ones nate to have had some of Virginia. She directs three online sport’s four Grand incredible ones over graduate certificate programs in public over the years.” administration, project management and Slams—the Australian the years,” says Mr. leadership. Ms. Green also teaches public Open, French Open, Haggerty. administration courses in the Public Wimbledon, and U.S. Open—which are all The rivalry between Venus and Serena Administration Certificate Program. different and have their own traditions. The Williams has been a boon for the women’s Kimberly S. Couch, JD ’94, was job, he says, is respecting that uniqueness game for years, and Mr. Haggerty points to recognized in the 2016 edition of Best Lawyers. Ms. Couch is an attorney at while continuing to advance the game. the clash of Chris Evert and Martina Navra- Verrill Dana in Portland, Maine. “Our mission is really to grow, promote tilova as another compelling example. “That Lee D. Hoffman, JD ’94, LLM ’96, and develop tennis around the world,” he says. rivalry was certainly great for tennis,” he says. received the 2015 Attorney of the Year That includes raising and distributing funds He recalls the Björn Borg-John McEnroe award at the Connecticut Law Tribune’s Professional Excellence Awards in to the ITF’s 211 member nations for efforts rivalry as a favorite growing up, and loves Hartford, Conn., in November. Mr. ranging from grass-roots programs that build the recent rivalries among Novak Djokov- Hoffman is the chair of Pullman & Comley LLC’s environmental, energy courts or provide equipment, to grants for top ic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy and telecommunications department junior players to travel internationally to hone Murray at the top of the men’s game. and a member of the firm’s executive their skills and improve their rankings. But as the sport’s top stars age, does tennis committee. It also means getting more people watch- face a future without compelling rivalries? William P. Atkins, LLM ’96, was elected to ing the sport around the world—at home, “I go back to a couple of years ago when the managing board of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he has been online and at live events. everyone was worried that there would be practicing since 1992. While the Grand Slams have attracted no great matchups left when [Pete] Sampras Paul Hartman, MA ’96, is the Bangkok- audiences in the millions over the years, and [Andre] Agassi retired and that we were based chief of party of the U.S. Agency Mr. Haggerty says that elevating the Davis never going to have that era of players again,” for International Development’s Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Cup and Fed Cup—the annual national team Mr. Haggerty says. “Well, Federer and Nadal Change Project, which identifies the competitions for men and women, respective- and then Djokovic emerged, and we’ve had environmental, economic and social effects of climate change in the Lower

STOCKPHOTO.COM/ANDREY PROKHOROV ly—and boosting their audience is an import- some incredible tennis between them. So here i Mekong Basin. ant next step for the sport. we are now with the same conversation being Yahia Lababidi, BA ’96, contributed to “We have 130 nations that compete in the had. Tennis is an ecosystem, and the best Short Flights: Thirty-Two Modern Writers Davis Cup, and a little more than 100 that players always find their way through and will Share Aphorisms of Insight, Inspiration, and Wit (Schaffner Press, November 2015), SATELLITE: © SATELLITE: compete in the Fed Cup,” he says. “These create great rivalries.”

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an anthology that draws together the [history] potic, all-powerful monarch. But there was musings of short-form writing pioneers. another group of Americans who were wor- Jay P. Walters, JD ’96, of GableGotwals in ried about a weak executive that would be Oklahoma City, was named “Lawyer of the The Path to subject to manipulation.” Year” in 2016 by Best Lawyers for his work in litigation mergers and acquisitions, Those fears framed a congressional (and litigation securities and Native American ‘Mr. President’ later public) debate in April and May of 1789 law. He was also recognized in the 2015 over whether to add a regal prologue—“elec- edition of Oklahoma Super Lawyers. An alumna and a professor tive majesty” for example—to the title “presi- Michael Gardner, JD ’97, a partner at Gardner Haas PLLC, was recognized discuss the first battle of a dent of the United States.” The Senate wanted in Texas Super Lawyers and The Best nascent Congress. the title. The House was against it. Washing- Lawyers in America for his work in ton’s own celebrity played a role in shaping commercial litigation. positions. Robert P. Jackson, MA ’97, was sworn George Washington was on his way to New “The enthusiasms toward Washington in as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Ghana on Nov. 30. Previously, Mr. Jackson York in the spring of 1789 to take the oath of were so excessive and king-like,” Dr. Barto- served as the U.S. Department of State’s office as first president of the United States. loni-Tuazon said. “He brought this whiff of principal deputy assistant secretary for African affairs. From 2010 to 2013, he was There was just one problem: Nobody knew monarchy to the presidency just in the way the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of what to call him once he got there. people celebrated him. And that was a prob- Cameroon. “He’s coming, the Senate is convening, and lem for the office.” Margaret Rosenfeld, JD ’97, of Smith people start wondering: What are we going Vice President John Adams, who led the Anderson, was recognized in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for to call him?” Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, pro-title movement, feared the rise of an aris- banking and finance law, corporate law MPhil ’06, PhD ’10, said at an event in Febru- tocracy that would corrupt and diminish the and securities/capital markets law. ary. “Are we just going to call him ‘Mister?’ I presidency, Dr. Brunsman said. He believed Tom Boer, JD ’98, joined Hunton & don’t think so.” the Senate could become such a body if the Williams LLP as a partner in the firm’s This confusion, she said, led to the first executive was too weak. A powerful title with environmental practice in San Francisco. dispute between the Senate and the House royal overtones would strengthen the office. of Representatives, the topic of Dr. Bartolo- The House and its effective leader, James // 00s ni-Tuazon’s 2014 book, For Fear of an Elective Madison—and, to an extent, Washington Christina Firpo, BA ’00, published The King. She explored the topic in discussion himself—were on the other side of the debate. Uprooted: Race, Children, and Imperialism with Associate Professor of History Denver Article II of the Constitution called the office- in French Indochina, 1890-1980 (University of Hawaii Press, January 2016), an Brunsman, part of the university’s month- holder “president.” The House saw no reason in-depth investigation of the colony’s long celebration of Washington’s life. to deviate. child-removal program. Ms. Firpo is an The idea of the presidency was contentious After three weeks, the Senate yielded to associate professor of Southeast Asian history at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. at the time, she said. the House. It was a win for civil discourse— “We had just fought a war against a king, and for the presidency, Dr. Bartoloni-Tuazon Maureen A. O’Brien, JD ’01, a member of Wiley Rein LLP’s franchise practice, was and yet, six years after the end of the war, this said. promoted to of counsel. new Constitution featured a federal, singular, Debate, meanwhile, slowly moved into the Kate McCarthy Zachry, BA ’01, joined central executive with no streets and newspapers of the new country, WGBH in Boston as news director. Ms. term limits and where the public took up the argument that McCarthy Zachry previously worked as an editorial producer for ABC News’ This vaguely defined summer. A majority believed the Senate was Week with George Stephanopoulos. She’s powers,” she right to drop the pro-title fight. Though they also worked as a producer and digital said. “There were debating something that was legislative- producer for Good Morning America. were those ly finished, it was an important moment, Dr. Michael Y. Bennett, BA ’02, published The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre who were Bartoloni-Tuazon said. and Literature of the Absurd (Cambridge worried “The public needed to debate this,” she University Press, 2015), an overview of that the said. “As a result, some public fears—about writers associated with the absurd who revolted against traditional theatre and president their new government, Congress and their literature. He also edited Oscar Wilde’s would turn new president—were resolved. They gained Society Plays (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), a collection of essays that helps into a more trust in the new federal government, readers uncover new ways to explore des- that these new legislators could argue some- Wilde’s serious—but still funny—plays. thing as politically volatile as this and come Mr. Bennett is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin- up with the solution the people agreed with.” Whitewater. —James Irwin Andrew Wiseman, BA ’02, received a Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Agency for International Development for his work mapping crime and violence in Honduras. He joined Apple Inc.’s maps team after seven years with USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives. He also teaches in GW’s Geography Department. Devon Tutak Steven, BA ’03, was named Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, the director of Ready to Learn Community MPhil ’06, PhD ’10 Engagement at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Ms. Steven will oversee WILLIAM ATKINS

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Oh, he wishes he could talk about it. Can you imagine having your book turned into a movie, having Leonardo DiCaprio in it? // TIM PUNKE, the brother of Michael Punke, BA ’86, speaking to The Washington Post in December. Michael is the author of The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, which was made into a film that won three Oscars this year (for best actor, cinematography and directing). But he’s also the deputy U.S. trade representative and the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization and so, the Post reports, is barred by federal rules from promoting the film. “It’s kind of bittersweet,” his wife, Traci, told the paper.

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If you have a retirement plan, it’s easy to help deserving students receive a world-class education in the nation’s capital. You can name the George Washington University as a beneficiary of some or all of the funds that may remain in your IRA, 401(k), or other plan after your lifetime. Just complete a new beneficiary designation form that includes GW and its Tax ID number (53-0196584) and submit it to your plan administrator. “We wanted to make a statement that you can be a public servant and still A few of the benefits: leave a legacy that will have an impact Flexibility to support the GW program of your choice. on students and on the academic fabric No change in lifestyle since your gift comes from leftover funds. of the university.” – Jim and Wendy Core Elimination of income and estate taxes that may be due. Jim Core, ESIA MA ‘96, and Wendy Core, ESIA MA ‘94, have created a bequest We can answer your questions to help make it even easier. intention in their retirement plan to fund Contact us today! the James and Wendy Core Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship will provide need-based support for graduate CALL: 877-498-7590 EMAIL: [email protected] students enrolled full- or part-time at the ONLINE: go.gwu.edu/plannedgiving Elliott School of International Affairs. DAR2590 U.S. MISSION PHOTO BY ERIC BRIDIERS

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the development of local education collaborations—led by local television [From the alumni association] stations—to support early science learning and literacy in low-income communities through digital media and resources. Fellow Colonials, Obele Brown-West, BA ’04, was among PR Week’s Innovation 50, a list that Whether you graduated from GW five years ago or 50, job hunting doesn’t get any easier with recognizes rising stars in tech and digital age. Similarly, finding the right talent for your organization can be daunting without a rich communications in the agency, in-house and social media sectors. Ms. Brown- pipeline of potential recruits steeped in civility, integrity and service. The solution to both West is the vice president of account might be right in front of you in the university’s 275,000 alumni worldwide. management at Piston. I have been able to navigate the roles of job hunter and employer across the past few years Jamie Alfaro, BA ’05, and Won Choi, BS by leaning on the growing career services programming that our university offers to both ’06, welcomed their daughter, Riley Lucia Choi, on Sept. 23. students and alumni. And today, as the GW Alumni Association’s vice president for career ser- Declan Binninger, BA ’05, has become an vices, my goal is to empower you to find these services as useful as I have. associate at Heyl Royster. Mr. Binninger Here are a few tips that might come in handy, whether you’re looking to hire or be hired: specializes in general tort litigation and professional liability defense. To Hire Colonials To Get Hired by a Colonial Joe Callahan, BA ’05, was appointed executive director of The Writer’s Center, an independent literary organization Put Post internships and job openings on Build a strong digital presence, in Bethesda, Md., that cultivates the Yourself GWork (alumni.gwu.edu/career); on including fully populated social creation, publication, presentation and Out There social media, tag job opening posts media profiles with a current dissemination of literary work. (Online) with #hireGW for better visibility headshot; make sure your LinkedIn Holly Gardner, MS ’05, received Florida’s profile matches your résumé and be Young Entrepreneur Award from Gov. Rick Scott. Ms. Gardner and her husband, in the habit of updating both every Chris, are the founders of Safe & Happy six months Family, a line of food, housewares and body-care products for families affected by severe food allergies. Start discussions in the Engage in discussions to stand out Link Up on Sailesh Konda, BS ’05, MD ’09, finished LinkedIn 33,500-member GW Alumni to potential employers; connect with his fellowship at Loma Linda University Association group on LinkedIn to Colonials who can provide insight Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., and discover Colonial thought leaders to support your job hunt; and grow was selected as the co-director of Mohs surgery and cosmetic dermatology at the your network in our virtual speed- University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. networking hours Em Morrison, BA ’05, won top prize for her five-minute comedic story at Story League D.C.’s November show. Ms. Put Participate in the 10 career fairs and Introduce yourself and try your Morrison performed in Story League’s Yourself expos held on campus each year; get elevator pitch at these events; you Winter Championship on Dec. 9. Out There involved with an information session can also meet like-minded alumni Mike Sheehan, BA ’05, and Bianca de (Physically) or as a panelist at an industry- through GW’s alumni industry Mattia, BA ’05, were married Oct. 24 at focused event networks Material Culture in Philadelphia. Erin Baumann, BA ’06, was awarded the Basil Chubb Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis Make the Host one-on-one, employer-in- Take advantage of this dedicated by the Political Studies Association of Most of residence office hours on campus or time with an employer to Ireland for her work “Between Politics and Face Time arrange a site visit at your office for demonstrate your interest in their a Hard Place: Influences, Institutions, and Foreign Policies in Post-Soviet Eastern interested Colonials career path and their organization Europe.” Ms. Baumann is the assistant director of curriculum and pedagogy in The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The best place to find year-round programming is calendar.gwu.edu, utilizing the filter for Shayna Priluck Bergman, BA ’06, and “Career & Professional Development.” I hope to cross paths with you along the way—tweet her husband, Jesse Bergman, BA ’06, your #hireGW success stories to me @dcASHA. welcomed their daughter, Sadie Bella Bergman, on Jan. 31, 2015. Mr. Bergman is a producer on MSNBC’s Hardball and Raise High! Ms. Bergman is a talent business adviser at Deloitte and an adjunct professor of public speaking at GW. Asha Aravindakshan, BBA ’02 Wes Johnson, BS ’06, and Yin Hou, BS Vice President, Career Services ’08, MS ’10, were married on July 4 in GW Alumni Association Salisbury, Mass. The Johnsons reside @dcASHA in McLean, Va., where Yin is a software product manager for ThreatQuotient alumni.gwu.edu/gwaa and Wes is a software engineer for SAP SuccessFactors. Joseph S. Kakesh, JD ’06, a member of Wiley Rein LLP’s Environment and Safety Practice, was promoted to of counsel. Damien Specht, JD ’07, was named one For more on Career Services at GW, visit of “D.C.’s Rising Stars” by the National

GRAIN DIGITAL alumni.gwu.edu/career

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[running] marathoners stepped across the start line in Marrakech, they did so just a few hours after completing the marathon in Madrid. Around the “Running the Moroccan leg on such a quick turnaround meant that I had run two World in Seven full marathons in a 15-hour period and over 100 miles in just a few days,” says Mr. Cartica, Days a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. “When I hit mile 10 of the next leg in Dubai, the fatigue Alumnus wins 2016 World and depleted nutrition started to take their Marathon Challenge while toll, and that’s when the pain started.” As he struggled to keep his pace, his running to honor slain thoughts focused on the reason he was under- servicemen. taking this grueling journey: to honor the The pain first came like the thrust of a knife Navy sailor and four U.S. Marines who were into his right hamstring, again and again, killed in Chattanooga, Tenn., on July 16, 2015. with each stride Dan Cartica, BBA ’10, took. “I knew, without question, that those five It was around mile 10 of his marathon in individuals would not have contemplated Dubai, but in truth, it was closer to mile 141 giving up or throwing in the towel, and that for the former GW cross-country runner. Five was really the mindset I had for the rest of days earlier, Mr. Cartica and 14 other run- that day,” Mr. Cartica says. “So I kept fight- ners began the World Marathon ing and got through those last 16 Challenge, a brutal endurance miles, but it wasn’t pretty.” race through seven marathons on Read more about Less than 24 hours later, he all seven continents in just seven Mr. Cartica’s crossed the final finish line in days. experiences during Sydney as the winner of the 2016 The competitors started the the race at World Marathon Challenge. In go.gwu.edu/cartica endeavor in Union Glacier, Ant- all, Mr. Cartica finished first or arctica, a shining expanse of tied for first in all but two of the snow and glaciers that was -12 race’s seven stages (when he degrees Fahrenheit, despite the 24 hours of placed second), setting a new world record for sunlight, when the race officially got under- the fastest average marathon time for seven way on Jan. 23. After completing their first marathons on seven continents in seven days. 26.2 miles of the week, the runners boarded a Mr. Cartica says he hasn’t thought much Russian cargo jet and took off for their next about the record, but feels that maybe 15 or Dan Cartica marathon location: Punta Arenas, 20 years down the line it’ll be an interest- Chile. ing asterisk next to his name. For now, he’s From there it was on to hoping people will focus less on how he ran Miami; then Madrid; Mar- and more about why. rakech, Morocco; Dubai, “Getting out the message of why I decided United Arab Emirates; and to run this race is the most important thing Sydney, Australia, for a for me,” he says. “The individual, Daniel marathon in each city. Cartica, is just a normal guy who set out on The Moroccan leg of this endeavor to honor five servicemen— the race was one of the they’re the ones we should be honoring.” toughest: When the —Gray Turner, MPS ’11

183.4 24,000+ Miles traveled by foot Calories burned

3:12:46 3:42:02 3:32:25 Fastest time Slowest time Average time Punta Arenas, Chile Dubai, UAE world record ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED

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Law Journal, one of 40 Washington, D.C., lawyers to make the list. Mr. Specht is a [AWARDS] partner at Jenner & Block and serves as co-chairman of the firm’s government contracts corporate transactions practice. Brian Willis, JD ’07, an attorney with Alumni to Be Honored Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP, was a guest speaker at Tampa’s Urban Core Board Member Roundtable on Oct. 7. He also spoke about small-town urbanism at for Service to GW Pecha Kucha Night Tampa Bay. Dan Somma, MS ’08, a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, received the Department of Homeland Security’s Six alumni will receive the Alumni Outstanding Service Award Exceptional Service Gold Medal for his this spring for their volunteer efforts in support of the university. work on the Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction Decommissioning Task Force. The awards, in their 55th year, will be presented at a ceremony on The joint U.S. Army, Navy and Coast Guard campus in April. task force mobilized a ship to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria. The honorees are: Shanyn Ronis, BA ’09, selected from a field of about 30 candidates, received GILBERT CISNEROS, BA ’94, and his the broadcast division for Reuters TV before the Gifted Citizen Award in Puebla, Mexico, for her work in international wife, Jacki, have made significant contribu- moving into communications consulting. He education. The $50,000 award, given tions to improving Hispanic education in the is a member of the National Council for Media by Poder Civico A.C., goes to individuals whose entrepreneurship projects have United States, including the donation of $7 and Public Affairs. the potential to make a social impact. million last summer to create the GW Cisner- Ms. Ronis is the founder and executive os Hispanic Leadership Institute, which pro- JAY KATZEN, BA ’67, MD ’72, a member director of the Education Global Access Program in Fairfax, Va. vides scholarships and a pre-college program. of the GW board of trustees, has built on the Mr. Cisneros is a member of the National philanthropy of his parents, Cyrus and Myrtle Council for Arts and Sciences and the GW Katzen, who made a $10 million gift to GW in // 10s athletics board of advisors. 2008 to fund a range of cancer research ini- Daniel Lehmann, JD ’10, joined Goldstein, tiatives. Dr. Katzen oversees the family foun- Rikon, Rikon & Houghton, P.C., and had his PASCALE DUMIT, BS ’03, MS ’05, served dation, which has contributed to many local article “Tax Certiorari: Recent Appellate Division Split in Interpreting New York as chair of the GW Engineering Alumni Asso- organizations, including the Cheney Car- Real Property Tax Law § 727(1)” published ciation from 2013 to 15, co-chair from 2011 to diovascular Institute and Katzen Cancer in the spring/summer 2015 issue of the New York State Bar Association’s 13 and treasurer from 2005 to 08. She also Research Center. Municipal Lawyer journal. served as a GW Alumni Association board Mariel Marlow, MPH ’10, was selected member from 2011 to 2013. MARK SHENKMAN, MBA ’67, a member by the Centers for Disease Control and of the board of trustees, has supported sev- Prevention as an epidemic intelligence MAXINE FREUND, MA ’73, EDD ’81, eral programs at the School of Business and service officer, also known as a “disease detective.” Ms. Marlow is serving in the will receive the Jane Lingo Alumni Outstand- funded the move and expansion of Veterans Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and ing Service Award—presented to a faculty or Memorial Park to Kogan Plaza. In 2014, he Environmental Diseases in Atlanta. About staff member who is an alumnus and whose and his wife, Rosalind, donated $5 million to 60 EIS officers are picked each year. volunteer efforts consistently advance the support the GW Career Services Enhance- Francis Murray, BA ’10, completed a federal clerkship and is an assistant U.S. mission of the university. Dr. Freund serves ment Initiative and the F. David Fowler attorney in the Middle District of Florida. as associate dean for research and external Career Center. In 2013, he established the Katharine Phlegar, MA ’10, received the relations at the Graduate School of Education Shenkman Seminar Series at the Graduate 2015 Potomac Art Therapy Association and Human Development. School of Political Management. Educator Award for excellence in professional scholarship and community —James Irwin outreach. Ms. Phlegar is an art therapist RICHARD FRISCH, BA ’78, began his at Tracy’s Kids at Children’s National media career at CBS and later helped develop Health System in Washington, D.C. Courtney Waid, MA ’10, contributed to The Strong Gray Line: War-time Reflections from the West Point Class of 2004 (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, October 2015), an anthology of tributes to, and essays about, 2004 U.S. Military Academy graduates who died fighting terrorism. Ms. Waid wrote the chapter, “All the Things I Didn’t Know,” which reflects on the challenges she faced as a deployed soldier from left and as the wife of a deployed soldier. Maxine Paul H. Shakotko, BS ’11, and Madeleine Freund, A. Peckham, BA ’11, were married at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington, Gilbert D.C., on Oct. 3. Mr. Shakotko is a Cisneros document management analyst for the and Mark Child Abuse Central Index International at the U.S. Department of Justice. Mrs. FREUND, CISNEROS: WILLIAM ATKINS / SHENKMAN: JESSICA MCCONNELL BURT Shenkman

gwmagazine.com / 67 Alumni news

68 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Alumni news CLASS NOTES

Shakotko is a program manager and IN MEMORIAM executive assistant at the Order of Malta Federal Association. The couple resides in Silver Spring, Md. [Remembering] Laura Eleanor Holmes, BA ’35 Kathryn Martin, MA ’12, received the Sept. 14, 2015 2015 Potomac Art Therapy Association Rockville, Md. Distinguished Service Award for her commitment to art therapy. At PATA, she Alfred W. Tate, JD ’40 has served as president, president-elect, July 4, 2011 secretary and student representative. Ms. Martin also is a board member. Martha Singleton, AA ’41 Caitlin Pedati, MPH ’12, MD ’12, was July 31, 2013 selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemic Mary Dexter Jones, AA ’42 intelligence service officer—also known as a “disease detective”—for the Nebraska Mary W. Renfro, MA ’42 State Health Department. About 60 EIS Sept. 28, 2015 officers are picked each year. Lebanon, Ill. Alexandra Kassirer, BA ’13, published Elise Whalley, AA ’42 an article in the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel, a May 26, 2015 periodical, in August. She is also an on-air Benno Fritz Nashville, Tenn. terrorism analyst for NBCUniversal. Archibald Lane, AA ’48, BA ’49 Shaun Khalfan, MBA ’13, was selected Benno Fritz, director and founder of the George as the chief systems security officer and Washington University’s band program, died Feb. 4 in Sept. 17, 2015 senior cyber security executive for U.S. Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 54. Dr. Fritz, a trombonist Fort Worth, Texas Customs and Border Protection. who joined GW’s faculty in 1990, was also an associate Joseph B. Taphorn, BS ’49, Dakota Lee Hadley, MS ’14, CERT ’14, and professor of music as well as director of bands. He BL ’50 Tinsley Simonds Iselin were married on April 11, 2015, on the banks of the Ashley conducted the University Symphonic Band, University Sept. 21, 2015 River at Lowndes Grove Plantation in Symphony Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble and the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Charleston, S.C. award-winning Colonial Brass, which plays at basketball Irving Fleishman, BA ’50, BL ’51 Michelle Manikkam, BS ’15, was selected games and university functions. Nov. 6, 2015 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to receive a National Silver Spring, Md. Institutes of Health Intramural Research Training Award Post-baccalaureate James B. George, MA ’50 Traineeship. She will be working at the Aug. 18, 2015 tuberculosis research section in the Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, George S. Jordan, BL ’50 training on the high throughput screening Nov. 12, 2015 team. Walter Kiechel, LLM ’50, Oluwafemi Masha, JD ’15, joined the SJD ’52 Chicago office of the intellectual property law firm Brinks Gilson & Lione as an Aug. 28, 2011 associate. Fort Belvoir, Va. John Pani, JD ’15, joined the Washington, Frederick J. Bellamah, BA ’51, D.C., office of the intellectual property law firm Brinks Gilson & Lione as an associate. BL ’51 Nov. 11, 2015 Jane Woo, MA ’15, received the 2015 Washington, D.C. Potomac Art Therapy Association Nancy Schoebel Scholarship Award for her essay Mustafa Koç Ellen Eagan Earnest, BA ’51 “Life Stage Personal Reflection.” The Mustafa Koç, BBA ’84, chairman of Koç Holding, a group award is given to an art therapy graduate Aug. 24, 2015 student who demonstrates excellence in of companies that account for approximately 5 percent Fredericksburg, Va. writing on the topic of art therapy. of Turkey’s gross domestic product, and an active GW Selwyn C. Jackson, LLM ’51 alumni volunteer leader, died of a heart attack in Istanbul October 1979 on Jan. 21. He was 55. Mr. Koç previously served as president of the GW Alumni Chapter in Turkey and was a Marion G. Lawrence, BS ’51 AND WHAT ABOUT YOU? member of the Rolls Royce International Advisory Board, Sept. 28, 2015 Submit your own class note, the JP Morgan International Council and the Global R.C. “Dick” Donnelly, BL ’52 book or Artists’ Quarter Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dec. 3, 2015 update: Washington, D.C. email [email protected] Adrianna Vorderbruggen Don S. Harmer, BS ’52 Aug. 31, 2015 mail Alumni News Section Air Force Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen, MS ’10, was Atlanta GW Magazine killed Dec. 21 during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan, 2121 Eye Street, NW when a motorcycle exploded near a group of U.S. troops John D. Eaton, JD ’53, MS ’66 Suite 501 Sept. 23, 2015 in Bagram. Maj. Vorderbruggen, 36, and her partner, Washington, DC 20052 Heather Lamb, had been advocates for abolishing the John W. Follin, JD ’53 ban on gays in the military, commonly known as “Don’t Oct. 9, 2015 Ask, Don’t Tell.” It was repealed in 2011. Falls Church, Va. FRITZ: GW DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC / KOÇ: GW OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS

gwmagazine.com / 69 Alumni news

IN MEMORIAM

G. William Hammer, JD ’53 Michael R. Herron, BS ’62 Quentin Earl Wilhelmi, BS ’72 Stephen O. Walrabenstein, Sept. 17, 2015 Aug. 28, 2015 Aug. 18, 2015 CERT ’14 Lexington, Ky. College Station, Texas Cullen, Va. Aug. 23, 2015 Leonard S. Homa, BL ’53 Joe Patton Morgan, MS ’65 Patrick Wolfram Jacobson, Oct. 27, 2015 Sept. 23, 2015 BA ’73, MS ’79, PhD ’87 Former Faculty/Staff Panama City Beach, Fla. July 18, 2015 Herbert L. Kotz, BA ’53, MD ’56 Edward Adelson Alexandria, Va. Nov. 2, 2015 Hugo P. Pomrehn, MS ’65 Clinical Professor of Medicine Potomac, Md. Aug. 18, 2015 Sebastian Vittoria, MS ’73 School of Medicine Monrovia, Calif. Sept. 10, 2015 and Health Sciences Lawrence E. Carr Jr., LLM ’54 Falmouth, Va. Aug. 31, 2015 Nov. 21, 2015 Ronald G. Shaw, MS ’65 Alexandria, Va. Jan. 4, 2014 Elbert Nixon, MA ’75 July 15, 2015 T. Habecker, JD ’55 Robert Bruce Hinds, BA ’66 July 11, 2015 Sept. 14, 2015 Alan B. Pickett, MS ’76 Sept. 23, 2015 Daniel Myshin, JD ’55 John E. Condon, DSc ’67 Columbus, Ga. Nov. 21, 2011 Aug. 25, 2015 Argyle, Wis. George Walter Price, MA ’76, Sarah Louise Boslow, AA ’56 PhD ’79 May 6, 2015 John A. Garstka, MBA ’67 Aug. 15, 2015 Jan. 12, 2014 Paul Jay Flocken, BL ’56 Falls Church, Va. Los Angeles Aug. 16, 2015 Pamela Jane Stolpman, MA ’76 Stanford, Conn. Eric V. Youngquist, JD ’67 Aug. 18, 2015 Aug. 27, 2015 J. Norvill Jones, BA ’56, JD ’60 Carol Bailey Mazur, BA ’77, Sept. 29, 2015 Perry S. Plexico, MS ’68, MA ’92 CERT ’92 H. George Schweitzer, JD ’56 June 15, 2015 Sept. 2, 2015 Sept. 25, 2015 Bon Air, Va./Clarksville, Va. Frederick, Md. Jupiter, Fla. Cynthia Myers Young, MFA ’78 Richard B. Schiff, JD ’69 Albert C. Baker, BA ’57, MS ’65 Aug. 23, 2015 Sept. 18, 2015 Sept. 27, 2015 McLean, Va./La Jolla, Calif. Oakland, Md. Dataw Island, S.C. Nick T. Cave II, JD ’80 Alice Jeung Shih, MA ’69 John O. Diggs, MA ’57, EdD ’66 Sept. 8, 2015 Nov. 29, 2014 Sept. 21, 2015 Overland Park, Kan. Rockville, Md. Philip Anton Singer, RES ’70 Anne-Marie Verstegen, JD ’80 May 5, 2009 Herman Foster, JD ’57 Oct. 8, 2015 Sept. 7, 2015 Charles O. Arnecke, MS ’71 Chevy Chase, Md. Sept. 13, 2015 Richard J. Jamborsky, BA ’58, Brian Anthony Bannon, JD ’81 San Antonio JD ’63 Sept. 22, 2015 Sept. 25, 2015 Robert L. Richardson, JD ’71 Jane S. Hammitt, JD ’81 Sept. 3, 2006 John T. Rogers, JD ’58 Sept. 13, 2015 Aug. 6, 2015 Frank David Titus, BBA ’71, Arlington, Va./Ann Arbor, Mich. MBA ’72 Thomas W. Farquhar, BA ’60, Christa Prinz McClure, LLM ’81 Feb. 2, 2012 MA ’64, BL ’66 Oct. 16, 2015 Aug. 15, 2015 Virginia B. Wright, PhD ’71 Therese J. Cooper, MA ’84, Sept. 21, 2015 Wallace Brooks Jansen, BS ’60 EdD ’91 Aug. 28, 2015 Felix Randolph Aiken, BS ’72 Sept. 14, 2015 St. Michaels, Md. Sept. 3, 2015 Washington, D.C. Germantown, N.Y. Samuel Beckner Stone, JD ’60 Randolph Arthur Smith, JD ’89 Oct. 17, 2015 Joseph Bernard Credle, RES ’72 March 5, 2015 Newport Beach, Calif. Sept. 21, 2015 Katherine Mary Spooner, H. Randall Bixler, JD ’61 Sandra Lewis Seidel, JD ’72 RES ’90, RES ’92 July 24, 2013 2003 Jan. 1, 2001 Jack E. Phillips, JD ’61 Joseph L. Sites, MS ’72 Pamela Y. McFarland, JD ’95 Sept. 23, 2015 Sept. 20, 2015 Jan. 3, 2015 Bartlesville, Okla. Richard Ian Slippen, JD ’72 William J. Bainbridge, JD ’09 March 13, 2013 Oct. 30, 2015 Alexandra, Va. Crofton, Md.

70 / gw magazine / Spring 2016 Alumni news

upcoming shows by gw professors and alumni ARTISTS’ QUARTER

Pattern Recognition It was a simple slip of the tongue: “Google Sheep View.” Amsterdam-based artist Ding Ren, MFA ’09, had sheep on her mind. It was 2015, the Chinese Year of the Sheep, and Ms. Ren had been visiting city farms to see the ungulates, which remind her of “puffy clouds on the ground.” When her husband returned from a train trip and said he’d seen sheep along the tracks, the two used Google Street View to locate the herd, and then others. One malaprop later, their new Tumblr photo project (googlesheepview.com) had a name—and, shortly thereafter, international attention. People began sending in their own finds from Google Maps. The blog, though lighthearted, relates to a broader artistic vision. Born in Wuhan, China, Ms. Ren seeks in her work “cross-cul- tural patterns that are both foreign and famil- iar. ... This can be anything from common, everyday observations, like the way laundry is hung out to dry, to the way curtains are used or not used over windows, to the way certain shapes, colors, shadows or lines are naturally found in the urban landscape,” she says. She aims to capture essences or feelings that otherwise evade capture in words. “I don’t set out specifically looking for anything to photograph, but I let the place and the sit- uation guide me,” she says. That approach, she says, stems from her having been born in China, grown up in the U.S. and living in the Netherlands for the past five years. Ms. Ren’s photographs have appeared this year in an exhibit at South Korea’s Czong Institute for Contemporary Art and last year at the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shen- zhen, China. The latter exhibition, “Double Vision,” featured her among 18 Chinese women artists living and working outside of top Ding Ren’s “White Shirts,” from the China. “I think this is an important segment series Invisibility Cloaks bottom An image of Chinese art that is completely overlooked from the series Lungs. For more on Ms. Ren’s most of the time,” she says. work and upcoming shows, visit dingren.net “Nationality and one’s cultural identity are more nuanced than just what it says on a pass-

COURTESY DING REN port.” —Menachem Wecker, MA ’09

gwmagazine.com / 71 INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE Stalin was not moderate. Period.” not moderate. was Stalin and not extreme was King fact, In Period. left. and right on his extremists by beset moderate a as himself framed Stalin Joseph hand, other the “On of History. Professor Distinguished Washington George of Cincinnati Society the is 1976 and in Yale at PhD University his got who Period,” Dr. says Ribuffo, extremist. Jr. King Luther an Martin called tionists classified. that’s not easily something for term avague is perspective—“extremism” States. United the in “extremism” word of the use on the anote offers 1973, since history professor a GW of U.S. Ribuffo, Leo Professor Leo Ribuffo talks about what we mean. we mean. what about talks Ribuffo Leo Professor Perspective A Historian’s Extremism: [context] 72 Wisdom and ho and Wisdom Extremism is about context. Opinions Opinions context. about is Extremism segrega Southern one hand, the “On historian’s perspective—the From his / gw magazine /Spring 2016 magazine /gw w MODERATE -to s from experts in the g the in experts from - altogether, especially as it relates to the U.S. U.S. the to it relates as especially altogether, word the retire to like actually He’d concept. or aperson to but “extremist” won’t ascribe stupid,” evil, “bad, like categories” moralistic moderate. a be probably he’d Norway, in for everyone!—but antibiotics and college free banks! up the extreme—break be may Sanders Bernie ocratic-socialist movement?” extreme it an you call can “how he says, them. with agreed people most England, New 1600s today, but in extremists as stamped are Puritans The time. over change Dr. Ribuffo says he’s says “openly Dr. OK with Ribuffo Dem self-described States, United the In place. to place from change also Opinions majority,” the represented it “Since w community - “EXTREME” —Matthew Stoss science.”that’s not rocket —Matthew I mean, them. not understand than them understand to it’s enemies, better your even people, you’re if with And deal to going them. understand to trying without people off write you that is danger real “The says. Dr. Ribuffo hard. really that’s something about talk to way easy an been it’s historically, because, says, Dr. Ribuffo overreaction.” an was that say would retrospect in everybody almost or not, system Security Social the like Now, arm.’ you on your whether tattooed number the with camp aconcentration in be you’ll it, know you before wallet, your in carry to today you a number gives ernment gov the “‘If says. Dr.Communism,” Ribuffo or Nazism like is this say to Security Social says. Dr. Ribuffo where—certainly the oldest political tactic tactic political oldest the where—certainly fringes. of the demonization the and day of the position er’s moderate the considered of whatev correctness on the based been has 1930s, the since which, spectrum, political “It’s kind of a conceptual problem,” conceptual a of “It’s kind persists, of extremism language The of for opponents common very was “It move. fringes the is that problem with The “Probably the oldest political tactic any tactic political oldest the “Probably disreputable or most peculiar allies,” allies,” peculiar or most disreputable in the United States—is to associate associate to States—is United the in an opponent with his or her most his with opponent an - - -

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