MAGAZINE UCONNSUMMER 2021 finally! They commenced. The classes of 2020 and 2021 gathered at The Rent and made UConn history.

In This Issue:

FEEDING THE WORLD TURNING YOUR BECOMING THE FIRST AND WINNING THE CHILDHOOD OBSESSION BLACK AMERICAN TO CLIMB NOBEL PEACE PRIZE INTO A HIT PODCAST THE SEVEN SUMMITS

SUMMER 2021 SNAP!

Husky Home Base

The new Husky Athletic Village and Rizza Performance Center includes from right: Elliot Ballpark, home of UConn baseball; Joseph J. Morrone Stadium, home of UConn soccer and lacrosse; Burrill Family Field, home of UConn softball; and shared practice fields. All were in good use this spring, along with indoor facilities, as pandemic rescheduling meant that all 18 UConn sports were actively practicing at the same time.

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 CONTENTS | SUMMER 2021 SUMMER 2021 | CONTENTS

UConn Magazine FROM THE EDITOR VOL. 22 NO. 2

UConn Magazine is produced three times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall) by University Communications, University of Connecticut.

Editor Lisa Stiepock Art Director Christa Yung Photographer Peter Morenus Class Notes Grace Merritt Copy Editors Gregory Lauzon, Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu

Designers Yesenia Carrero, Christa Yung UConn Magazine’s art director Christa Yung with her Kirsten doll, circa 2000 (left), and writer Julie Bartucca with her Samantha doll, circa 2021. University Communications 16 20 24 30 Vice President for Communications Tysen Kendig Acting Vice President for ALL DOLLED UP Communications Michael Kirk The pictures above are testament to the truth behind the answer art director Associate Vice President for Creative Christa Yung gave me when I asked her why she was so excited to work with Strategy & Brand Management writer, colleague, and friend Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), ’19 MBA on the FEATURES SECTIONS Patricia Fazio ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA American Girls podcast story that begins on page 26. “I know she has a deep nostalgic connection to American Girl dolls like I do — and Julie and I are simi- Correction In the Spring 2021 issue we lar in that we’re not embarrassed of our dorky pasts and our continued interest stated that Miguel Cardona ’01 MA, ’04 in history. To me, American Girl dolls FINALLY! 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP was the first have always been about the historical 16 1 UConn alum to hold a Cabinet-level They had waited long enough. UConn’s backstory, not just the doll.” UCONN NOW position in the White House. He is the classes of 2020 and 2021 gathered in person Yung particularly loved her Kirsten UConn’s fire chief on first Secretary of Education, but the at The Rent for five days in May to celebrate doll for the Western frontier backstory what he’s reading; and second Cabinet member. endings and beginnings — together. that played out in corresponding Kirsten UConn Health’s EMS books about American pioneer life. director on what he’s Email: [email protected]. Bartucca remembers reading about the 20 UPHILL BATTLES writing; buzz on “Paige Letters to the editor: women’s suffrage movement in books Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could Buckets;” a student [email protected] Address changes: UConn Foundation about Samantha, the early 1900’s–era not have envisioned himself as an engineer, fighting for Native Records Department, Unit 3206, doll she recalls getting for Christmas re-creating the Hartford landscape. And American rights; a 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269 at age 8 or 9. “Reading these books, he certainly could not have seen himself as popular DNA class; an playing with the dolls, looking at the the first Black American to climb the Seven alum who’s perfecting the catalog time after time and circling what Summits. By Jackie Fitzpatrick Hennessey ’83 Moscow Mule; and more. (CLAS) Cover Sean Flynn, manipulated for fit I hoped to get, finding patterns for doll clothes that my Grammie could make Snap! Peter Morenus for me, and consuming the other tangential American Girl stuff was a big part Table of Contents Peter Morenus (2); of my childhood,” says Bartucca. As it turns out, her aunt Patrice (McCarthy) OUR AMERICAN GIRLS Courtesy of American Girls podcast; 24 36 Attolino ’87 (SFS) had saved Samantha from tag sale oblivion, knowing her What do you do with a history doctorate and WFP Media; Aliza Eliazarov ’95 (CAHNR) UCONN NATION niece might want to pass the doll on to the next generation. And none too soon. a pop culture obsession? If you’re these two From the Editor Courtesy of Christa The alum who’s the As we went to press, Bartucca was due to give birth to her first child in a matter alums, you create a hit podcast centered on Yung and Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), longtime girlfriend of ’19 MBA of weeks. And just weeks before press time, Yung’s first child, Eugene Oliver ’90s nostalgia. By Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, The Grouch on “Sesame The University of Connecticut complies with all applicable federal (above), came into the world, helped along by two graduates of the UConn CLAS), ’19 MBA and state laws regarding non-discrimination, equal opportunity and Street;” an alum whose affirmative action and does not discriminate on the basis of race, School of Nursing. color, national origin, disability, sex, age or other legally protected photos adorn new characteristics in all programs and activities and supports all state Find a tribute to more of our nursing alums on page 40, and please don’t miss FARMS = FOOD = LIFE and federal laws that promote equal opportunity and prohibit dis- 30 postage stamps; and so crimination, including the provision of reasonable accommodations the story Bartucca penned about the American Girl zeitgeist — it’s a great read for persons with disabilities. To request an accommodation or for When alum Steven Were Omamo sees someone many nurses to thank questions related to the University’s non-discrimination policies, please contact: Title IX Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity; whether you lived the trend like she did or never heard of the dolls before today. planting, he sees hope. The Nobel Peace Prize and admire. Plus Class 241 Glenbrook Rd., Unit 4175; Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486- 2943; [email protected] (non-discrimination policies); ADA Case Committee seems to agree. By Kevin Markey Manager, Department of Human Resources; 9 Walters Ave., Unit Notes, Tom’s Trivia, and 5075; Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-3034; [email protected] much more. (accommodation requests).

2 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 3 UCONN NOW

LETTERS ON CAMPUS We want to hear from you — good, bad, just not ugly. Please share thoughts, insights, discrepan- cies, recollections, and how’s your Tom’s Trivia win-loss percentage coming? Post to our website UCONN HEALTH CEO SELECTED AS at magazine.uconn.edu, email me at [email protected], or send by regular mail to UConn Magazine Letters, 34 N. Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT 06268-3144. UNIVERSITY’S INTERIM PRESIDENT Here’s a letter sampling, edited for fit, from our last issue. Find more at magazine.uconn.edu. as a state,” Agwunobi says. “UConn also of course plays a vital role in fueling Connecticut’s economy Dee Rowe the game of basketball. His primary ➼ What a joy to read this narrative of and its workforce. And we know we are ➼ Thank you for your effort to keep objective in life was reaching out to Professor Marilyn (Waniek) Nelson. I not just graduating workers; we are UConn in contact with all alumni. This help people. He leaves behind that was just a bright-eyed kid when I en- graduating citizens, leaders, think- issue was particularly important to wonderful legacy. Rich Begen ’73 rolled in her class. I still have my jour- ers, and innovators of the future for me. Coming from Meriden, the article (CLAS), Boston, Massachusetts, via our nal and Marilyn’s critiques of some of Connecticut and beyond. Given these on Miguel Cardona was special. Even website my poems. When I wrote about a Nos- high stakes, all of us who are fortunate more important was the recognition tradamus quatrain that year, foretell- enough to be here are driven — and I you gave to my friend Dee Rowe. Do Good, Feel Good ing the “King of Terror,” she wrote an certainly am driven — to do all we can Ronald J. Meoni ’55 (BUS), Warwick, ➼ I always enjoy reading the UConn imaginary note to me from the future, to ensure the continued success of this Rhode Island, via e-mail Magazine. I must say I was really placed in New York City, saying how institution as we carry out its mission disappointed in the last edition. I am wonderful it is that we’re all still here. in Storrs, in Farmington, and on each of our regional campuses and beyond,” ➼ I second your motion noting Dee amazed that you did not include a rep- How wonderful indeed. Peace. he says. Rowe as one of the “Good People” at resentative from the nursing profes- Chester Dalzell ’83 (CLAS), New York, UConn. My dad was also a friend of sion in this “Do Good” edition. Nurses New York, via our website Dr. Andy Dee, and he was a key reason I am a have been heroes in this pandemic; ac- In his time as CEO of UConn Health, proud UConn graduate. colades have been offered throughout ➼ Richie Mutts is inspirational; he Agwunobi, colloquially known to many Greg Bartels ’82 (BUS), Tewksbury, the country for front line health care opens up his heart to let others dive in. as “Dr. Andy,” grew clinical revenue New Jersey, via e-mail workers, especially nurses. I’ve been We need more people like him. an average of 10 percent per year; led leading a hospice team through this Suzie Arildsen, via our website a comprehensive turnaround that ➼ I met Coach Rowe in the spring of pandemic; it’s been the most challeng- improved operational and financial ing year of my long professional career. ➼ 1969; I was part of his first recruiting I’m even cute in cartoon form. performance by tens of millions of class. He was a good and decent man Maureen Groden ’90 MS, Southampton, Jonathan the Husky, Storrs, Connecti- dollars; and oversaw $800 million who loved his family, his players, and Massachusetts, via e-mail cut, via Instagram in construction. He also oversaw the successful implementation of the $100 million Electronic Medical Record

Paul Horton Paul installation; partnered with deans in SOCIAL MEDIA hiring more than 60 new faculty per year for the past three years; and led Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, UConn Health’s ahead. He also pledged that other crit- the “One UConn” strategy at UConn CEO and a highly respected leader with ical missions under way at UConn will Health, centralizing shared functions strong medical, academic, and business continue unabated, such as creating across campuses. credentials, has been selected to serve a new long-term academic strategic “Anyone who has worked with him as UConn’s interim president after plan, growing research and innovation, or watched him guide that institution President Thomas Katsouleas an- expanding student access to mental forward, particularly through the last nounced he would step down on July 1. health care, affordability, and many 15 months of Covid, has seen a master A pediatrician by training who also others. class in leadership,” says chairman of holds an MBA, Agwunobi will be the “Having been here in Connecticut the UConn Board of Trustees, Daniel first physician and the first person of at UConn Health for several years, I Toscano. “He is bold when boldness is color to lead the University. know how much UConn means to the needed, cautious when caution is the After his appointment was an- people of this state and our faculty, wisest choice, and methodical in all nounced on May 19, Agwunobi said staff, students, and alumni everywhere. things.” that UConn’s most critical near-term For many, I know UConn is more than The University plans to undertake a   If you missed the announcement last Congrats to @uconntfxc @bigeast Honoring #UConn21 @UConn priority is successfully reopening at just an educational institution or an search for President Katsouleas’ per- Men’s Champions and Women’s Runner HorsebarnHill week our building has reopened!! nearly full capacity this fall, and that employer, but an important part of manent replacement, but does not plan Up! #BleedBlue Thursday through Sunday 11am-7pm - while much has been accomplished to their lives and their personal histories. to start that process in the near term. welcome back Dairy Bar fans!! achieve that goal, much more work is It is fundamentally part of our identity —STEPHANIE REITZ  shoutout to @fuelinghuskies

4 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 5 UCONN NOW

CHECKING IN WITH DOUBLE JEOPARDY

UConn Health EMS coordinator Peter Canning brings a unique perspective to opioids to survive. In time it is rewired. emergency care. When not overseeing pre-hospital services for the expansive You can take somebody who’s severely system, he serves as a paramedic himself with 25 years of experience in Hartford. addicted and do a brain scan, and you “Sometimes I’ll read a report and wonder why a paramedic did something a certain can see the damage. That’s why people way. And then I’ll be out there the next week and it’s like, ‘Okay, now I know.’ It’s a shoot up in front of their kids. That’s different level of understanding.” One other hat he wears is author. A graduate of why they steal in front of a policeman. the prestigious University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a former speechwriter To expect somebody whose brain is for U.S. Senator and Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker, Canning is the author damaged in this way to act rationally is of five books, most recently “Killing Season” from Johns Hopkins University Press. akin to expecting someone with a bro- Named an Amazon Editors’ Pick for nonfiction, it takes readers on a ride-along ken leg to run a hundred-yard dash. We through the street-level devastation of America’s opioid epidemic. need to have compassion and under- stand that this is a health problem not a How has the Covid pandemic affected me oxycodone; skateboard injury; fell criminal problem. your work? I didn’t realize how off a ladder. Just over and over. stressed I had been until I got vaccinat- You make it clear that you believe ed. One hard part in the beginning was One of the stories you tell involves a the criminal problem lies elsewhere. that we didn’t have very many masks. high school cheerleader. I got called If Purdue Pharma hadn’t pushed the We went out on calls and asked patients one day to a motor vehicle accident drugs, which they knew were addictive three questions: Do you have a fever? and found a car up against a pole. A and lied about, this army of people we Do you have a cough? Have you recent- young woman was slumped over the have living in tents and under bridges ly visited China? And if they said no, we steering column, but you could see that wouldn’t be there. There was always didn’t use a mask. Then we’d arrive in it hadn’t been a high-speed collision. heroin out there, but it was not like the ER and everybody’s in space suits. Then I spotted heroin paraphernalia this. It came into the mainstream when in the front seat. I was able to reverse pharmaceutical companies started Many people barely left home for the overdose with naloxone [Narcan], pushing oxycodone. groceries. But EMS had to be out in the and she came around. I asked her how streets in constant close contact with she started using. She said, “I broke my What can be done? The biggest thing is patients. It got a lot better once we had back cheerleading.” And I remembered just to get rid of the stigma around ad- more equipment. But I’m 6'8" and put- being there. I had taken the emergency diction. It does so much damage. When ting on the full body suits was like the call the day her squad dropped her. She I worked for Lowell Weicker, he always Incredible Hulk. One arm would rip off, ended up on heavy-duty opioids. After said that the mark of a great society is the other would tear away. But the PPE a while, her doctor cut her off, and she not how it treats its richest members, works. It has protected us. And being started buying prescription pills from but how it treats its most vulnerable. vaccinated is even better. a classmate. Then the same guy offered to sell her heroin, which is basically Masks and vaccines are making Meanwhile, a second epidemic con- the same thing only much cheaper. “I progress against Covid. What tools tinues to rage. In “Killing Season” you used to be a normal girl,” she told me. are being brought to bear against the write about how your view of opioid It wakes you up. I started learning as opioid crisis? Here at UConn Health users has shifted over your time on much as I could. I learned about how we’ve developed a great program the job. When I started as a paramedic drug companies marketed this stuff. I with the Connecticut Poison Control in 1995, we would see a certain number learned about the science of addiction, Center, where EMS now reports every of heroin overdoses. I couldn’t under- how some people are more susceptible overdose. We describe what happened stand how somebody could put into than others. at the scene, the drugs involved, where their body something that could kill the patient went. This has provided a them. Then the number of overdoses Susceptible in what way? If you love wealth of knowledge, and it wouldn’t began to visibly increase, and I started pizza and you eat a nice slice, it’s like have happened without UConn Health asking people what was going on. Why a firework of pleasure goes off in your understanding that the opioid epidem- are you doing this? The stories they told brain. What happens for some people ic is a major public health crisis that me were extremely similar: I was in- when they take opioids, rather than needs to be addressed. I’m very grateful jured in a car accident; I tore my shoul- one firework it’s the Fourth of July. The to the University of Connecticut. —KEVIN MARKEY UConn Health EMS coordinator Peter Canning’s latest book is der playing football and the doctor gave brain is hijacked into thinking you need an Amazon Editors’ Pick in the Best Nonfiction category. Peter Morenus Peter 6 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 7 UCONN NOW

3 BOOKS

TRUTH, FANTASY, AND GETTING IN THE ZONE

UConn’s fire chief, William Perez, likes his books on hard copy and audio. If he’s really enjoying a book, he will buy both versions. That way, the Puerto Rico native who grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, can listen while driving and turn pages while sitting on the porch. And, he says, the more senses you use to take in information, the longer and better you retain that information. That’s an expert opinion. A U.S. Navy veteran and 30-year firefighter and paramedic, Perez is also a professor — at Capital Community College in Hartford and the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. And the first-generation college student now has four degrees, includ- ing doctor of education. His taste in reading material is as varied as his vocations.

Just Finished: Reading Now: On Deck: “Proof of Heaven: “Flow-Based “The Bone Labyrinth,” A Neurosurgeon’s Leadership: What a Sigma Force novel Journey into the the Best Firefight- by James Rollins Afterlife” by Eben ers Can Teach You Alexander, MD about Leadership This one’s going to and Making Hard be great — fun and What a powerful Decisions” by relaxing. The author, book! A top neu- Judith L. Glick- James Rollins, is like rosurgeon with no Smith, Ph.D. Dan Brown. real belief in God contracts a rare form I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s books. of bacterial meningitis. He ends up in I met the author at a conference. She I like how Brown takes real history, a coma, with no brain activity. studied firefighters in the flow. Have real science, and then puts fantasy and When they’re ready to take him you ever been doing something — could science fiction into it. There’s lots of off the support systems, his little kid be making cupcakes or writing a book — research; he does his homework. This is talking to him, and he wakes up, when you just hit a rhythm, time stands guy Rollins does the same. sits up. He says he’s been dreaming still, what they call being in the zone or “The Bone Labyrinth” also gets of God, of angels, but the doctors say the flow? As a chief working a fire you pretty complicated. Just on the there’s no possibility he could have know that if you choose the wrong tac- first few pages you’ve got mountain had dreams. The explanations are very tic, path, you can kill your own people, climbing, Croatian folklore, geology, thorough, very scientific. let alone the people we’re there to save. meteorology, evolutionary anthropol- I don’t want to give everything away, The author talks about how to con- ogy, and historical tales of horror. but I’ve read hundreds of books, and trol that flow to make good decisions, I’m really looking forward to this this one really impacted me. then how to trigger it, and the last point one! I haven’t gotten to yet is leadership. Peter Morenus Peter ON CAMPUS JOB ENVY CANNED MULE THE COLLEGE TOUR: UCONN ’Merican Mule, based in South Norwalk, made its beverage debut with its reinvention of the popular Moscow Mule Recent graduate Cydney-Alexis DeLaRosa ’21 (ENG) shoots their own. “One thing you will find about UConn,” she says, cocktail. Because it requires only a few ingredients — including a scene for “The College Tour” in the Learning Community “is that there are opportunities for everyone here no matter vodka, ginger beer, and lime juice — people mistakenly believe Innovation Zone at Peter J. Werth Residence Tower, known your major. I am a biomedical engineering student, yet I was it is simple to create, says company co-founder Dean Mahoney to students as a “makerspace.” DeLaRosa is one of 10 students selected to work in civil engineering and materials science ’09 (BUS). “It’s an easy drink to make, but a hard drink to make who talked with host Alex Boylan for the UConn episode of engineering labs after speaking with my professors.” as well,’’ he says. It’s in the nuances. Mahoney and his partners this popular series from the producers of “Survivor.” It will DeLaRosa tells prospective students about extracurricu- made, and tasted, more than 70 versions of the mule before begin streaming on Amazon Prime and Roku this summer. lars, too — about being on the board for SUBOG and UConn’s developing their final recipe. In her segment “Real-World Research,” the Albany, New chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, working They’ve since added Mexican, tropical, and southern ver- York, native speaks about attending a Research I institution as a teaching assistant and a campus tour guide, even singing sions, as well as an array of seasonal varieties. —CLAIRE HALL like UConn, where nearly every professor is doing research of the national anthem at basketball and volleyball games.

8 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Nathan Oldham; Illustration by Kyle Hilton SUMMER 2021 9 UCONN NOW

Brown’s parents were quite surprised but people of certain backgrounds are At a recent class, a question posed to when she decided to go for an under- predisposed to certain conditions — guest speaker Mallory Perry, an acute graduate degree in science — they were why?” she asks. Genetics counselors pediatric nurse practitioner at the Chil- under the impression she was going to need to understand the nuances around dren’s Hospital of Philadelphia, quickly be a novelist. But somehow the science perceived race, risk, and predispo- pivoted to mainstream media’s recent bug bit. After trying out veterinary sition. And if genetics counselors all move toward capitalizing “Black” when work (allergies nixed that), dentistry come from the same background, referring to people’s ethnicity. Perry (she fainted at the first sight of blood), being taught by and with people who explained she prefers “Black” to “Afri- pharmacy (counting and sales contra- are the same as themselves, they can can American” because she has no idea indicated with her interests), she finally lack necessary perspective. They can where her lineage actually comes from; Brown’s classes are open to all. Attend- got a job in a cytology lab and found she also turn off clients who might benefit what matters is how she is perceived. ees change on any given day, but often was into it. Lab maintenance and the from testing but need a counselor who How we — and others — perceive our- include doctors, nurses, and program glass shards that stuck into her fingers shares their background in order to feel selves, and what our genetic variants directors from UConn Health and the did not deter her. comfortable. suggest about our background and our Jackson Laboratory, as well as professors Shortly after college, Brown scored a “We need not necessarily implement a health, can be very divergent things. and students from across the University. job in the cytogenetics lab at the SUNY new policy or a new political view, but we Genetics counselors need to navigate Upstate Medical Center (now Univer- need to address diversity,” Brown says. this with tact. of inclusion. One way any student or sity), and she found she had a thing for Another class activity involves professor can do that is to work on chromosomes. She accepted a teaching Brown’s Teaching Style: research questions designed to lead the their own institutions. So this year position in the Diagnostic Genetic Brown says she hasn’t “taught” a students on hunts to navigate genetic Brown’s students are interviewing peo- Sciences (DGS) program in UConn’s class in 20 years. She prefers to assign databases relevant to specific groups ple on campus, as well as members of School of Allied Health while pursuing readings and research to be done before of people. And this year in particular, UConn’s Institute for Systems Genom- her Ph.D., and ended up becoming the the class so the students can discuss it Brown is leading writing exercises to ics, in order to make a formal proposal program director. She has created two during class time. help the students develop their own for diversity and inclusion policies for graduate degrees at UConn (Health “Class is so much about in-person diversity statements. the Institute itself. Care Genetics and the Genetic and Ge- interactions, discussions, and ‘Judge “A Native American student, Yellow nomic Counseling Professional Science Judy’ debates,” Brown says. All of that Why We Want to Take It Ourselves: Bird Woman, made me more aware Masters), co-founded the UConn Chro- has been harder this year using the The word “diversity” is being thrown of the lack of diversity in genomics mosome Core, and most recently joined remote pandemic learning model, but around a lot these days. In Brown’s professionals,” Brown says. And she the School of Nursing in fall 2020. she’s adapted. The diversity topic de- class, students take a deep dive into decided to do something about it. When “The School of Nursing has an manded that she schedule guest speak- what diversity really means. And they you want to learn something, it’s always innovative, quick response to education ers, and she’s turned to her colleagues delve into how every one of us, no best to learn from someone who prac- — it’s been a delight,” Brown says. in nursing and genomics. matter our race, can further the cause tices what they preach. —KIM KRIEGER In response to the current social climate, Brown, a faculty member of COVETED CLASS the Institute for System Genomics, decided to offer a special-topics class OFF CAMPUS this year — ISG 5095: Diversity and Inclusion in Genetics. VAX ON WHEELS ISG 5095: DIVERSITY AND Class Description: UConn Health made it easier for INCLUSION IN GENETICS Genetics — especially our own, and the Connecticut residents to get vaccinated secrets we can learn with it about our this spring by partnering with FEMA The Instructor: Brown the project director. But there’s ancestors’ past and our medical future (the Federal Emergency Management Opera divas have nothing on Judy another side of Brown, too. Her exper- — have captivated the nation since Agency) to get mobile vaccine units into Brown ’98 MS, ’07 Ph.D. When she tise and passion come with a self-effac- 23andMe became the first company to nine communities identified as most in stands to talk, all eyes are upon her. ing humility and quiet thoughtfulness offer popular DNA testing for ancestry need of such services. She speaks with such passion for her that make her all the more effective as purposes in 2007. The availability of UConn medicine, dental medicine, subject and empathy for her listener, an instructor. medical genetic testing has also surged. pharmacy, nursing, and public health and so compellingly does she make her “I don’t think of myself as a teacher, But neither the people who donate the sciences students, as well as medical and points, that anyone who hears her may rather as a learner alongside others, genetic material most of our clinicians dental residents and physicians, volun- suddenly find themselves fascinated a facilitator of showing others how to rely on, nor the genetic counselors teered to staff the clinics. Here, fourth by the ethical implications of an extra learn and where to find information,” themselves, are very diverse. That lack year postgrad Angad Deengares and chromosome or variant gene. Brown says. “I dislike the term ‘lecture’ of diversity limits the usefulness of the professor and primary care physician That’s Judy Brown the instructor, as it reminds me of being a child and information, Brown says. Steven Angus help vaccinate residents Judy Brown the panel guest, Judy being reprimanded by a parent.” “If there’s no such thing as race, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

10 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Peter Morenus (2) SUMMER 2021 11 UCONN NOW

KUDOS BUECKERS BUZZ

Husky phenom Paige Bueckers, aka Paige Buckets, seemed to win every award out there this year, including AP Player of the Year —­ a first for a freshman in women’s college basketball history. UConn Nation took note. UConn Water Pollution Control Facility, Storrs “She’s the best player in basketball THIS JUST IN already for the simple fact that she can pass. She makes really hard pass- GOT MICROPLASTICS? MOLLUSKS TO THE RESCUE! es look really easy and she makes On a hot summer day in Connecticut, it’s common to go to a beachside restaurant, really easy passes look easy. That eat some fresh oysters and mussels, and enjoy the crashing of the waves against the alone sets her apart from every other sand. But for one group of UConn faculty, the plan is to skip the beach and the hors player in college.” Diana Taurasi ’05 d’oeuvres and use those seafarers for another purpose — filtering the harmful micro- (CLAS), WNBA Phoenix Mercury plastics that end up back in our environment. It turns out that suspension-feeding bivalves, such as oysters, clams, and zebra “Some of her passes, it’s less about the actual pass and more about the mussels, are remarkably efficient at filtering water, capturing on their gills particles fact that she saw it in the moment. as small as four micrometers in size — that’s less than 1,000th of an inch. “They are That speaks to instinct.” Sue Bird ’02 nature’s perfect filtering ‘machine,’” says marine sciences professor J. Evan Ward. (CLAS), WNBA Seattle Storm Over the next four years, the group — including associate dean Leslie Shor, chem- ical and biomolecular engineering professor Kelly Burke, molecular and cell biology “She has what it takes to be one of the professor Daniel Gage, civil and environmental engineering professor Baikun Li, great players at UConn, to be one of and Ward — will use a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s the great players in women’s college Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program to study the use of mus- basketball . . . The beauty with Paige sels, combined with microplastic-degrading bacteria, to filter microplastics from the is, there’s nothing she has to change discharge that flows back into our surface water from wastewater treatment plants. about who she is. She’s built for this. Microplastics are commonly found in the environment through the shedding of She’s built for the spotlight. Her game synthetic fibers that wash off clothes in the laundry and tiny plastic fragments that is, her personality is. She’s built to be end up throughout the environment in a number of ways. The concern is that they a future star in the WNBA.” Rebecca could cause harm to animals, plant life, and eventually humans. Lobo ’95 (CLAS), ESPN analyst Most of our wastewater treatment plants are more than 50 years old, and they rely on technology, like sand filtration, that’s ancient, explains Li. “When these facilities “What she’s done this year, in such a were designed and built, plastics simply did not exist in the variety or quantity that year of unknown, is actually ridicu- they do today.” lous. She doesn’t look like a fresh- Tracy Mincer, a biology professor from Florida Atlantic University who is working man, that’s for sure.” Breanna Stewart, with the UConn group, says that plastic particles less than 150 micrometers have ’16 (CLAS), WNBA Seattle Storm been shown to make their way into our lymphatic systems, causing systemic expo- sure and, perhaps, affecting human health. “Microplastics can also act as sponges, “You can see how smart a player she gathering up other harmful things in the environment. Many studies have shown is. She puts herself in position to be that concentrations of other common contaminants such as harmful chemicals, better, but she also puts her team- pathogenic bacteria, and even viruses can be much higher in microplastics than mates in position to be their best they are in the surrounding water. Consuming microplastics is therefore a way to be selves. Players that can make other exposed to other harmful contaminants,” says Mincer. players around them better, those The group hopes learning from nature and working with stakeholders on the are the ones that become great.” barriers to adopting new technology will lead to a sustainable way to better treat Katie Lou Samuelson ’19 (CLAS), wastewater. — ELI FREUND ’14 (CLAS) WNBA Seattle Storm

12 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Baikun Li Ben Solomon SUMMER 2021 13 UCONN NOW

OUR STUDENTS lands UConn occupies.” UCONN TALKS Phillips has also joined a coalition seeking a state ban on American Indi- an sports mascots. “I’ve lived the neg- On how noisy periodic cicadas’ mating songs can be: THIS LAND ative repercussions that racist mascot Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS) is imagery can have on Native youth,” “Like a singles bar gone horribly, horribly wrong.” she says. Because mascots have dark unearthing more of UConn’s skin and hair, according to her “the John Cooley, entomology professor, AP, May 5, 2021 origin story dominant society” uses them against Native Americans who have lighter A “sage” is a mature person who is skin, saying in effect, “You don’t look On uninhabitable land at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan: wise through reflection and experi- like an Indian. So you’re not one, and ence. It also happens to be the name of we won’t allow you to be one.” the founding president of NAISA, the “That’s why Native youth lose con- “The money spent on the Olympics could Native American and Indigenous Stu- fidence. At your core you know who dents Association, and newly named you are — you know you are Penobscot easily have helped these families rebuild lives Truman Scholar and Udall Scholar — — but when people constantly look at Sage Phillips. you on a surface level, it builds up over elsewhere.” Rising senior Phillips hails from Old time and has such a negative effect,” Town, Maine, and is a member of the says Phillips, who plans to attend law Penobscot Nation. She almost didn’t school and work on a joint degree in Alexis Dudden, history professor, NPR, March 25, 2021 come to UConn. The political science American Indian studies. and human rights major wanted to She says she learned her leadership immerse herself in a robust Native skills from her father and grandfather. On solar geoengineering — cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight away American college community. Unsure Both men helped lead a decade-long from the Earth and back out to space: if UConn’s offerings would be enough effort by the Penobscot River Resto- for her, she told her parents she want- ration Trust that removed two dams ed to go elsewhere. “Why don’t you and bypassed a third to open nearly “The problem is the extent to which researchers are take this as an opportunity to build a 1,000 miles of river and streams to really helpless in deciding how research is used in program?” her father suggested. salmon for the first time in nearly “It’s not going to be easy,” Phillips 200 years. Their effort involved the the political system.” recalls thinking. “But if I can find state of Maine, the federal govern- a few other people, I think we can ment, power companies, conservation Prakash Kashwan, political science professor, Scientific American, March 26, 2021 build something pretty special.” That groups, and the Penobscot Nation. is what she did. Her freshman year “The river was the Penobscot’s high- Phillips in her regalia she joined UConn’s Native American way,” says Phillips. To commemorate in the UConn Forest Cultural Programs (NACP) and got a its reopening she and her father took On the unexpected ways we were educated On the rate at which job in the Office for Diversity, Equity, part in a 15.5-mile race in a 12-person during the pandemic: butterflies are and Inclusion, where she helped plan says Phillips, who also mentors local strength that she has, the fortitude,” war canoe. Her grandfather gave her a disappearing across Indigenous Peoples Week and Native Native youth, represents the NACP says Ouimette, who hired her to be his medicine pouch so she could bring her wildlands: American Month. on the President’s Council on Race teaching assistant for that class the ancestors down the river with her, and “There is no such thing That wasn’t enough. “We were and Diversity, sits on Student Affairs’ next semester. during the ceremony he led before the “Calamitous.” struggling with student involvement. I Student Leadership Council, and has A current priority for Phillips, event, an eagle soared overhead. “It as learning loss.” thought there must be more Indige- an ex officio seat in the USG Senate. thanks to a grant she secured with the was such a powerful moment,” she says. David Wagner, ecology nous-identifying students, so I cre- She stood out from her peers the help of Kiara Ruesta of the Office of She credits both men for raising her and evolutionary biology ated NAISA,” she says. A place where moment she stepped on campus, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and to cherish her heritage. “You are here Rachael Gabriel, literacy education professor, professor, Smithsonian, members can reclaim their cultural according to David T. Ouimette, human rights and education profes- because of your ancestors. It’s your The Washington Post, March 10, 2021 March 9, 2021 identities, NAISA also aims to educate the executive director of First Year sor Glenn Mitoma, is gathering data duty to use the opportunities they the broader UConn community on Programs. Every term he leads a class about how UConn obtained its land gave you and take them to their fullest from seven local tribes. “The goal is to native history, cultural diversity, and highlighted by a 48-hour marathon extent,” says Phillips. “That’s what On Connecticut’s offshore wind projects: current events. “It’s going to show “hackathon” in which students seek get UConn talking about this expro- my grandfather taught me time and prospective students that when they innovative solutions to challenges. priation and to seek free tuition for time again, and that’s what I center my “Things are going to start happening fast.” get here, there’ll be a place they can “Most new students get intimidat- Native students,” she says. “I’m really work on. My ancestors did it for me, call home. This is the community I so ed, but not Sage. She didn’t worry interested in looking at how we can and I have to do the same for future Sylvain De Guise, pathobiology professor and Connecticut Sea Grant director, desperately sought to welcome me,” about other people judging her. The provide reparations for those whose generations.” —GEORGE SPENCER The New London Day, April 29, 2021

14 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Peter Morenus SUMMER 2021 15 FINALLY! days They had waited long enough. UConn’s classes 5 of 2020 and 2021 gathered in person at The ceremonies Rent for five days in May to celebrate endings 10 and beginnings — together. 2 classes of Huskies By Lisa Stiepock Photography by Peter Morenus and Sean Flynn 8,100+ degrees awarded

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 t was coming home,” U.S. Secretary of 1. A purposeful 2020 grad 2. CLAS on the jumbotron “Embrace your uniqueness and use it to find “ Education Miguel Cardona ’01 MA, 3. Anjana Mishra (BUS) holds a photo of her father who your purpose. When you find your purpose, ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP said I died of Covid 4. CLAS grads get ready to take the stage make the pursuit of your purpose greater than of heading to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at 5. CLAS grads head down the bleachers 6. School of the pursuit of your position,” Secretary Cardona Rentschler Field to give this year’s com- Medicine students had a rainy day 7. The Schools of mencement address. Students could not Business, Education, and Social Work gathered Tuesday told graduates. have agreed more. At a string of outdoor 8. An engineering grad at Saturday’s 2020 ceremony ceremonies May 8–12, students and fami- 9. Cheering CLASers 10. Speaker Fizza Alam ’21 (CLAS) lies gathered together for the first time in 11. 2020 grads with Jonathan XIV 12. The 2020 ceremony many long pandemic months. Saturday’s celebration brought 2020 grads, whose ceremony last year was en- tirely virtual, home to UConn from across the country. “We have seen over this past year that love knows no distance. Wheth- er six feet apart, or a Zoom call away, we Huskies are always there for each other: today, tomorrow, and every day after that,” said Tanya Miller ’20 (CLAS). The mood at The Rent every one of those days was often euphoric, the tab- leau rife with fist pumps, hugs, and kisses. But there was a palpable sense of shared purpose, too — to remember this time, who we lost, and what we lost — and to carry it all forward. Cardona, whose speech played on the 1 2 3 4 jumbotron at each of the 10 ceremonies and whose godson, Hector Cardona III, graduated in the Neag School of Educa- tion, said he could feel that heightened sense of commitment in the graduates. “I know they’re graduating with a passion to serve that’s been strengthened by the challenging year we’ve had,” he said later that week. “It’s powerful. It’s like we’ve all suffered together and now, how privileged are we that we get to be in a position of service when our country needs us most?” Said Katherine Merrick ’20 MD, “Most of us graduating today are millen- nials — a generation searching for drive, 5 6 7 8 passion, and meaning in our professional lives . . . Our class has intimate knowl- edge of the interrelated mental health, substance use, suicide, and gun violence crises in our country. For us, these areas will never be purely academic.” When all was said and done, though, as Shaharia Ferdus ’21 (CAHNR, CLAS) put it, “No matter how they play out, every single one of our stories will have one thing in common: that we all made it thanks to UConn. Long after the credits have rolled and the pages have turned on our UConn story, we remain Huskies, and we’ll stay Huskies forever!” 9 10 11 12

18 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 19 By Jackie Fitzpatrick Hennessey ’83 (CLAS) Uphill

Peter Morenus Peter Battles Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could not have envisioned himself as an engineer, re-creating the Hartford landscape. And he certainly could not have seen himself as the first Black American to climb the Seven Summits.

ohan Freeman doesn’t use opportunities that I have now,” says every day, studying. Whoever wanted to the word trailblazer to define Freeman ’95 (ENG). “I wanted to have find me could go there.” R himself, though the paths he’s a good education, and doing my re- Though he was majoring in mechan- blazed have been quite extraordinary. search, UConn was at the top of my list ical engineering, Freeman couldn’t Growing up poor in Jamaica, there because of its engineering program.” quite envision his future until after were times, he says, when he couldn’t From the start he liked how welcom- freshman year when he got a summer see what life might hold for him. ing the School of Engineering was and internship with Oswald Blint, Hart- In high school, he moved with his how rigorous. “I made lifelong friends ford’s city surveyor. “The first time he mother to the North End of Hartford at UConn, and they still say they could sent me out to work on a survey site, I and found himself having to navigate a find me in one of three places: in class, knew I’d been doing the wrong thing all very different world. But the people in at the field house after class training for along,” Freeman says. Everything about that community made him feel like part track [he ran the 400 meters and for civil engineering fit. “I understand it of the place. “Coming from Jamaica some time held UConn’s indoor record intuitively,” he explains. “This is what Left: Freeman in his Hartford office with and not knowing anything about this in that event], and in the library — I was born for.” His first day back to the Park and Main country, this was my door to having the Three South — same table, same chair campus that fall he changed his major development under construction behind him. This page: On the way to the summit of Mount Everest at 28,500 feet. 20 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 15 “I hope I can influence kids who were in my position ... let them see what’s possible.”

to civil engineering, and in his first class space on Albany Avenue and Woodland he met professor Roger Ferguson who, Street in Hartford, an area where Free- like Blint, became a mentor. man says there hasn’t been significant Both imbued in Freeman a sense development with private funds in of land first, encouraging him to look more than 50 years. closely at and listen to the land. To this “I always have an eye for how I can day, his approach centers on “working help the city move forward,” he says. with the land instead of forcing the “That’s the reason I put my business land to be something it’s not meant to here in Hartford. I feel like I’m part be, working to maximize the use and of the fabric of the city and want to be get the most return, but preserving the part of the solution to turning Hartford integrity of the land.” around. Though I lived in the North He also knew, as the only Black End for a short time, Hartford was very student in his civil engineering classes, influential in shaping my life. I want to that one day when he had the chance to contribute to community development, find ways to help make the field more to create jobs, housing, and opportuni- representative, he would. ties for residents there.” On the summit of the famed Eiger in Today, he is president of Freeman Switzerland (top) and Mount Everest Companies LLC, an award-winning, Another Mountain — on that climb Freeman raised funds multidisciplinary site development, Growing up in Jamaica, Freeman loved for the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford. engineering design, and construction to run, and he played cricket and soccer Right: In the board room with repre- services enterprise, one of the few with his friends. They often talked sentations of Dunkin’ Donuts Park and

South Hartford Conveyance Tunnel. Morenus Peter minority-owned engineering firms in about Mt. Kilimanjaro but not about the region. Based in Hartford, Freeman climbing it. “I grew up hearing about Companies provided building and con- Kilimanjaro, and my friends and I joked struction survey and layout services to that we’d banish people we didn’t like tually become one of the few people to down at this teeny tiny light way in the see so much of the world, its cities, and them see what’s possible.” Dimeo Construction Company for the to Kilimanjaro, this mythical, fictional reach the Seven Summits, the tallest distance. I was so distracted by it, the many obscure, beautiful, tucked away He speaks often to school groups and $120 million Edward P. Evans Hall at place,” he says. peak on each continent. light; I was taking one foot forward, places. “A lot of these places are sur- serves on many boards, including those Yale University and redesigned Weaver Just a couple of decades later, that He took mountaineering courses, then I’d look at the light. I realized it rounded by World Heritage sites, which for Connecticut Business & Industry High School in Hartford. It also is mythical place would become very real honed his skills, and spent nearly every was the sun coming up over the horizon you’d never see unless you are doing Association and Outward Bound. In working with the Metropolitan District to him. Though he’d “never heard of winter weekend training in the White except it was below me. It was the most these really remote trips,” he says. 2015, he was inducted into the UConn Commission, handling the geotechnical mountaineering as a kid,” Freeman met Mountains. He had tried Everest once spectacular light show I’d ever seen.” Another benefit has been raising School of Engineering’s Academy of engineering and land surveying for a a group of friends after college who, before and didn’t reach the top. By then, The second moment happened when money during each climb for causes Distinguished Engineers and Hall of major component of the $280 million like him, loved being active and being Freeman was a principal at an engineer- he reached Everest’s summit and saw he cares deeply about, including the Fame. “It meant the world to me,” Free- South Hartford Conveyance and Stor- outside. They decided they would try ing firm, and when he asked for time off the curvature of the Earth. “I was blown Boys and Girls Club of Hartford and man says. “I have my medallion and my age Tunnel, a four-mile-long tunnel to climb the highest point in Africa, to tackle Everest again, he was told no. away when I looked out and I could ac- the BRIDGE Endowed Engineering program booklet to show my daughter that will protect Connecticut water- — Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. When he He decided two things right then — he’d tually see it with my own eyes,” he says. Scholarship, which he established as something for her to aspire to.” ways during major storms. reached the summit, Freeman says he start his own engineering firm and he’d “It was amazing.” through the UConn Foundation to sup- His climbs behind him, Freeman His firm has worked on large-scale, was absolutely hooked on climbing. make that climb. After climbing Vinson Massif in Ant- port students with an interest in civil plans to run a marathon on each of the transformative public projects across He set his sights next on Denali in On May 19, 2009, Freeman became arctica in 2011 and Oceania’s Carstenz engineering, especially those who have seven continents and the North and the state and is part of a development Alaska, climbing North America’s tallest the first Black American and first Pyramid in Indonesia in 2012, he be- overcome socioeconomic or education- South Poles — once the pandemic has team with Spinnaker Real Estate peak. He then climbed Mt. Elbrus in Jamaican-born person to reach Ever- came the first Black American to reach al disadvantages. ended and people are traveling again. Partners LLC in Norwalk, creating a Russia, the tallest peak in Europe, and est’s summit. “Two things are indelibly each of the Seven Summits. “That’s very important to me,” he And he’ll continue to seek out projects mixed-use project at the corner of Park Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, the imprinted on my brain that I’ll never, says. “I hope I can influence kids who in the profession he says has given him and Main Streets in Hartford. It’s also highest summit in South America. He never forget,” he says. “I was climbing Next Gen were in my position, who are kind of so much. “I do think I have a lot more at work on a $21 million development started to wonder if he could reach the up to the summit before 4 a.m., and Beyond the achievement itself, Free- feeling hopeless, not seeing a path to accomplish, a much longer way to project featuring apartments and retail top of Mt. Everest and if he could even- I looked to my right and was looking man says, the climbs enabled him to forward. I want to inspire them and let walk.”

22 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 23 OUR AMER ICAN GIRLS

MEET MEET ALLISON M A RY What do you do with a history doctorate If you’re these two alums, you create a hit and a pop culture obsession? podcast centering on ’90s nostalgia.

~ By Julie (Stagis) Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), ’19 MBA ~ ~ Illustrations by Brian Lutz and Christa Yung ~ 19 44 20 21

24 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 25 f you’re surprised to learn that Collapse and Revival of American bespectacled World War II–era girl responds to a plot development in one I thought it was unfair that nobody a podcast about the American Community” sporting brown braids. Molly book with a quote attributed to ever wrote to her, and she probably I Girl children’s series of historical • Garth Brooks: “The Road I’m On” Early in their friendship, they Wynonna Judd that she saw on a Star- did a lot of work,” Mahoney says. “At the bottom, I wrote ‘P.O.W.: Power of fiction books, best known for documentary series discovered they also shared a passion bucks cup: “You can either be right or for taking pop culture more seriously be loved.” Women.’ My teacher sent the letter its accompanying dolls, has amassed • American figure skater Kristi than most, perhaps best evidenced by “Stop! No!” Horrocks protests. home and I thought I was in trouble, 30,000 downloads a month from lis- Yamaguchi teners all over the world and spawned an argument over who was at fault in “That’s, like, neoliberal nonsense. but I think she was trying to say, ‘We’ve • Dante a book deal, you’re not alone. actress Reese Witherspoon’s divorce, No!” got a live one here.’ • Freddie Mercury “I thought the group of friends I which spurred Mahoney to create a It may not be for everyone — among “That’s what I was like at 9. I haven’t • The Beatles watch ‘The Bachelor’ with would listen Google doc for the women to lay out hundreds of glowing five-star reviews gotten much taller, and my viewpoints to this show, and my wife, and that • Gwyneth Paltrow, Goop, and Blythe their cases titled “The People vs. Ryan on Apple Podcasts are a handful that haven’t changed much.” would be it,” says Mary Mahoney ’18 Danner Phillippe.” complain about the non–American Growing up in Wethersfield, one of Ph.D., a historian who created and • Depression-era photojournalist Mahoney trained as a DJ at the Girl aspects of the show and even the the oldest towns in Connecticut, with a hosts the “American Girls” podcast Dorothea Lange UConn radio station WHUS. Creating critical eye the hosts take toward the librarian mom and a history-buff dad, with her friend and fellow UConn his- • the “Eloise” books a podcast in which the two friends books’ characters — but for Horrocks Mahoney explored history and femi- tory grad Allison Horrocks ’16 Ph.D. • Pride Month revisited the books of their youth as and Mahoney, the “secret sauce” lies nism largely through the writings of “I wanted a reason to hang out with my • “The Help,” and its problematic learned historians became a shared in their authenticity. other girls, and was drawn to American friend every other week. I had abso- Netflix popularity during last sum- goal, a reward for completing their “I think part of what pulls people in Girl books “because they centered the lutely no idea we would have the kind mer’s racial justice protests doctorates. is we’re not fake. There’s a sincerity stories of young girls like me.” Eighty miles east, Horrocks was of listenership we have.” • George Edwin Taylor — the first “We had a friend who told us, ‘I we bring to it,” says Horrocks. “We would pay to hear you two go through record, conservatively, four hours of coming of age in Rhode Island, an avid The show’s blend of astute historical Black man to run for president, the an US Weekly,’” says Mahoney, who is tape together a month. You can’t fake reader who also loved the American analysis, warm banter between close NAACP, and Ida B. Wells friends, and copious pop culture refer- by day the digital scholarship coordi- that.” Girl books. She was into science, • novelist V.C. Andrews ences has earned it a global community nator at Trinity College in Hartford. When people in podcasting talk competing in school science fairs and • “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the movie) of fans. In one 71-minute episode, the “What you hear on the show, that’s about what works, “a lot of it is that initially pursuing a pre-med path “What you hear • Alice James (Henry’s sister) hosts discuss the American Girl book how we talk to each other. We take you have a chemistry that people want before realizing she was simply too “Meet Samantha,” about an orphan • “The Barefoot Contessa” Ina Gar- things seriously that are not, but we to listen to — or you don’t,” she says. squeamish and didn’t find the course- on the show, living with her wealthy grandmother ten and her husband, Jeffrey also take history seriously. We just And to be sure, trying to be anything work interesting. in 1904 New York. During that epi- • Prince Edward wanted to do something that was but themselves would not fit Hor- Though both graduated from Trinity sode, the following such pop culture • Kelly Clarkson and her divorce meaningful to us without apology.” rocks’ or Mahoney’s style. College in 2009 with degrees in history that's how we artifacts, along with a few straight up So while they bring decades of and American studies (Horrocks) and literary and historical references, are Seriously Silly schooling to their reflections on the Coming of Age history and English (Mahoney), the talk to each other. mined at various depths: As doctoral students in Storrs, Hor- books’ historical contexts and the In elementary school, Mary Mahoney two barely crossed paths before com- rocks and Mahoney bonded over the way they are portrayed, they are just transferred from public school to ing to UConn. We take things • American figure skater Nancy way they both identified strongly with as comfortable going deep on the Catholic school. One of her first assign- The two women, both public histo- Kerrigan Molly McIntire, one of three original perfection of “Grease 2.” Or dissolving ments was to write a letter to Santa. rians passionate about making history • the 2000 book “Bowling Alone: The American Girl characters, a spunky, into fits of laughter after Mahoney “I wrote mine to Mrs. Claus because accessible to the masses, pull podcast seriously that are not, but we also take history seriously.”

“I knew the podcast would provide me hours of delights ... I did not, however, expect it to recontextualize the abundant doll joys of BFFs — Horrocks (left) was my youth — but it’s done that too,” wrote the one friend Mahoney invit- . . . and over 10,000 A fan crafted Mary and Allison as Margaret Lyons in this New York Times article ed to her pandemic wedding The podcast has more than 30,000 downloads followers on Instagram American Girl dolls per episode . . .

26 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 27 inspiration and knowledge from their Wrestling with Privilege would salivate over the catalogs or who to read Molly with any kind of neu- worse. We had an episode we were experiences teaching as graduate Centering a show around a brand like would buy the dolls secondhand and trality when we have QAnon and we proud of, but we didn’t speak to what assistants and creating an exhibit for American Girl means the hosts have make clothes. It’s important to us to have fascism on the rise and we have was going on,” Horrocks says. the Dodd Center while they were at to work to dissect representation and make explicit the class issues inherent people with Nazi memorabilia and “We’re historians — we understand UConn. inclusion. The nature of American Girl in this brand,” she says. “The privilege with Auschwitz sweatshirts storming when it’s time to take up space and Mahoney recalls using current top- inherently means that the audience of their life allows them to be blind to it the Capitol,” Horrocks says during one when it’s not. While you’re living ics to pull uninterested students into will be overwhelmingly female, over- if they want to be. A lot of our listeners, of the Molly episodes. through a civil rights movement, it’s important subjects, for example, and whelmingly middle class, and over- to their credit, don’t want to be like “It is very difficult to see this sort not that what we were doing was silly Horrocks says learning to explain their whelmingly white. that.” of uncomplicated embrace of patrio- or unimportant, but there were other WWI exhibit to “a group of women in American Girl began in 1986 as a So in diving into the stories they tism that’s now being taught to these things to talk about.” a rec center who just had dinner and a catalog-only operation selling a num- loved as children, the hosts bring a new 9-year-olds [reading the Molly books] While they are aware that listeners two hour meeting” gave her the tools ber of dolls that represented fictional lens that allows them to challenge the that does not speak at all about the look to the show for a light escape from to break history down in a way that characters, each from a specific histor- beloved stories and their shortcom- true origins or driving factors of this reality, they were intentional in shift- appeals to everyone. ical period and background, along with ings, to examine how they might have war,” she says. ing the balance as 2020 unfolded. “We want someone who could accessories and a series of books about been a product of the times during “We can’t help but note that we are “It is a time capsule. We don’t want be curious about history, but feels each character. which they were written, and to reflect in book five, and there’s still no men- people to look back and say, ‘Were they like, ‘I didn’t go to college for that. It Purchased by Mattel in 1998, Amer- on how the same issues persist today. tion of the Holocaust. It’s so irrespon- really talking about $30 accessories might not be for me,’ to get over that ican Girl has since grown to include sible to me that it’s not in these books, the weekend people were being beaten imposter syndrome. We’re talking to different lines such as “Girl of the Keeping it Real and it’s harder and harder to ignore.” while marching for their lives?’” says you and we want you to talk back to us Year” dolls, hawked not only online Before giving too much credit to the “Some listeners didn’t love hearing Horrocks. “If you’re creating some- and be part of the conversation,” says and in catalogs but at giant retail stores company for introducing Addy, the that their favorite book has done some- thing and putting it out in the world Mahoney. in more than a dozen North American first Black American Girl, in 1993, the thing wrong,” Mahoney says. and you didn’t think about it differ- One of Horrocks’ favorite parts of cities that also feature doll hair salons hosts point out the complexities of “We’re saying why is this, what are ently between last February and this her day job — as a park ranger at Low- and restaurants for doll-and-girl tea Black girls being happy to have a doll these books inviting us to think about February, you’re probably not saying ell National Historical Park in Lowell, parties. that looks like them, but conflicted the 1990s, 1980s, and today? This anything.” Massachusetts — is “making history That the whole thing reeks of privi- about the character being born into erasure matters, and noting it matters But like the girls in the American real for people.” She brings that same lege — the items have always been pric- slavery and then self-liberated with because it’s still happening now. You Girl stories, these two women are energy to the show. ey; today, a “Historical Character” doll her mother. Despite their decades-long can bring that self-awareness to your complex. They’re expert historians, “They're expert “We definitely see what we’re doing and book set will set you back $110 — is love for Molly, the hosts weren’t life.” they’re best friends, and they also have as being historians and being academ- not lost on Horrocks and Mahoney. shy about questioning the practical The pandemic and racial unrest important things to say about Justin historians, they're ic. But to us, it’s having a wider view Though the focus of their historical absence of the Holocaust from her that heightened over the past year Timberlake. of who that’s for,” Mahoney says. “It interrogation is on the stories, “we stories, which take place during World added further dimension to the show. And that’s what makes “American best friends, and should not be something that’s just for talk a lot about the super middle class War II. While wrapping up production on a Girls” the podcast work. a handful of people who have the same marker of privilege it is to have any of “The stakes have always been some- long-planned episode dissecting old “We had people tweet at us in the credentials that you do. It should be this stuff,” Mahoney says. what high when you’re writing a book American Girl catalogs last summer, beginning saying, ‘I was going to do they also have welcoming and inclusive and rep- “We have listeners who couldn’t about what it means to be a person of Black Lives Matter protests hit a boil- a podcast about American Girl,’” resentative of how you imagine the have an American Girl doll as children a country or what it means to be an ing point. Horrocks says. “And I’m like, ‘But you something public to be.” and bought it as adults, people who American girl. But I think it’s so hard “Our timing could not have been didn’t. We did.’” important to say about Justin Addy and her mother are based Timberlake.” on real self-freed enslaved people

Horrocks and Mahoney question the blind patriotism portrayed in Molly’s Mahoney with the first book cov- Recording live at the American Girl store in New ered on the podcast York City World War II stories Horrocks and Mahoney keep boxes of fan art, like this embroidery

28 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Photo (left) Helder Mira, courtesy Trinity College Office of Communications SUMMER 2021 29 Written by Kevin Markey | Photos from WFP Media

Farms = Food = Life

When alum Steven Were Omamo sees someone planting, he sees hope. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee seems to agree.

“Surprised, thrilled, humbled. All of those things,” says Steven Were Omamo ’88 MS of his reaction when the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last fall. An agricultural economist with a master’s degree from the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, Omamo is WFP’s Country Director in Ethiopia. He leads a team of 850 relief and development workers, spread across 15 offices, who help feed some 8 million people a year. “We’re a big organization, but not as well-known as some,” he says of the WFP, which is the food assistance branch of the U.N. “In many countries where we work, there are political sensitivities. We don’t want to create hurdles for our delivery of food, so we tend to speak qui- etly. For the organization to be recognized was extraordi- nary.” If other agencies have higher profiles, few can match WFP’s impact. It is the world’s largest humanitarian orga- nization, annually delivering some 3 million tons of food and over $2 billion worth of cash to well over 100 million people in 90 countries. Every day it sends thousands of trucks, ships, and planes into some of the most challeng- ing places on Earth, many of them devastated by conflicts whose combatants use hunger as a weapon. In bestowing the Peace Prize, the Nobel committee drew explicit attention to the link between war and hunger, highlighting how one contributes to the other in a vicious cycle: strife disrupts food security, while scarcity can trigger conflict that flares into violence.

30 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 31 “We will never achieve the goal of zero hunger unless He ended up at UConn in part because of a chance we also put an end to war,” the Norwegian committee meeting in Kenya between his father and a visiting Amer- noted in its prize announcement. “The World Food Pro- ican political scientist, Fred Burke. A consultant to the gramme has taken the lead in combining humanitarian United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Burke work with peace efforts through pioneering projects in also happened to be vice president for graduate education South America, Africa, and Asia.” and research at UConn. Always on the lookout for tal- Armed conflict is just one of several overlapping crises ented students to bring to Storrs, he immediately put the Omamo contends with in Ethiopia, where WFP partners press on Omamo. “He was a very kind person, very gener- with the government and other actors to keep millions of ous. We became quite good friends,” Omamo remembers. people from starvation. Recently one of his supply convoys “He owned an island with some friends in upstate New disappeared while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid York, and he took me there once. It was just fantastic.” in the Tigray region, a mountainous area in the north of the country where the federal army and its allies have been Connecticut battling rebel forces since November. The United Nations Arriving in Connecticut in August, Omamo remembers estimates the conflict has displaced more than a million being alarmed by the density of the foliage. “The trees people. seemed so close as we drove from the airport to Storrs. I “There were three trucks,” Omamo says. “They sent an was used to being able to see long distances. Where am I, I SOS signal and for two hours, we couldn’t contact them. wondered? What have I gotten myself into? It turned out Finally, we managed to raise them. They had been caught to be the start of a very rich, very special time in my life.” in a battle. They were not targets, but everything was un- He moved into a graduate dorm (with a welcome view folding in front of them.” The relief workers escaped, and of an open field), joined the rugby club team as a player- the mission would proceed another day. But the underly- coach, and formed many lasting friendships. “It was a very ing conditions that drive hunger in many parts of Ethiopia close community,” he says. “Just a really great time.” — and around the globe — remain in place. In addition to “It’s easy to become Decades later, he easily recalls professors who in- war, Omamo says, these include climate shocks, gender fluenced his career, including Boris Bravo-Ureta and inequity, chronic poverty, lack of local control of natural dejected. But the Ron Cotterill from the Department of Agricultural and resources such as water, and now, economic deterioration Resource Economics. “That agricultural development is a due to the pandemic. “I really believe that Ethiopia is at quantitative study, I think Dr. Bravo-Ureta really put that the center of the world,” he says, “in the sense that every transformation is idea in my mind,” Omamo says. “Then Ron Cotterill was issue you find around the world — both positive and less very much a principled antitrust guy. He was a believer in than positive — is expressed here at scale.” happening.” markets, but he also understood that they don’t work well

Kenya A native of Kenya, Omamo grew up in the capital, Nairobi, spending school holidays on a farm his parents acquired when he was young. “The countryside has always been part of my world,” he says. “Even today, my home in Kenya is in CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: a rural area, and that is a comfort to me.” Akon Garang, 27, wash- teams conduct surveil- On the farm his family grew sugarcane and maize and es vegetables from her lance and control. raised cattle and other livestock. From an early age, he garden in South Sudan recognized farming to be a source of both income and where WFP programs A WFP truck carries food involve the community assistance through Libya deep emotional satisfaction. “I remember driving up to in planning and creating and the Sahara Desert the farmhouse, usually arriving late at night from the city, crop farms, vegetable to Sudanese refugees in and feeling my parents’ pride in the place. It was fantastic. gardens, and access roads. Chad. They were very devoted to the farm, very hard working. The desert locust is con- A new hub inside Addis They ran it as a serious business enterprise, and it funded sidered the most Ababa’s Bole International everything the family was trying to do, including university dangerous migratory Airport is transporting for the children.” pest in the world. A recent Covid-19 supplies, equip- For Omamo college meant California State University invasion in East Africa ment, and humanitarian came after years of con- workers across Ethiopia at Fresno, which his father recommended for its strong flict and 2019 drought and Africa. “Thanks to the agriculture program, followed by UConn, then Stanford, and floods. government of Ethiopia, where he earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics. WFP worked with airport While at Fresno, Omamo says, he ventured off and tried WFP staffer Taban Michael and customs authorities inspects some of the to establish this air hub in many different things. Then one day he got a message from desert locusts in South days,” said Omamo at the his mother: “Okay, now is the time to get serious. Back to Sudan. WFP provided launch of the Humanitari- agriculture.” He went on to major in agribusiness. vehicles to help response an Air Hub.

32 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 33 for everyone. These ideas ended up being quite important he helped create and launch the Purchase for Progress to me going forward.” initiative, a program that leveraged the enormous buying One other idea that stayed with him — the importance “Plant power of the WFP to support economic resilience in rural of layering to survive a New England winter. “Somebody communities. told me, if you do it right, you’ll feel warmer than you did something “The idea was that since we buy so much food around in the summer,” Omamo recalls. the world, we could target smallholder farmers with our In 2014 Omamo returned to Storrs to deliver the purchases and so create sustainable markets for their commencement address to the School of Agriculture, to harvest produce,” explains Omamo. Implemented in 2008, the Health and Natural Resources. Bravo-Ureta was on hand program has become an operational model for WFP. It to watch his former student congratulate graduates for now is embedded in three dozen countries, connecting choosing what he called one of the world’s truly global every year.” more than a million smallholders to valuable markets. professions. “And so anywhere you go,” he told the class, Wherever his work has brought him, Omamo has con- “you will find people with a great deal in common with tinued to feel the strong pull of Africa. “I really do relate you, even if their lives look nothing like yours. And so as to issues facing Africa and Africans,” he says. “I’ve always you build your careers in agriculture, as you address the been drawn back for that reason.” many local and global phenomena that are rooted in or In Ethiopia those issues include recurrent drought, expressed through agriculture, I hope you find opportu- chronic undernutrition, limited access to health services nities to embrace the huge diversity of people in our field, and education, as well as the armed conflict emphasized I hope you share your dreams with them, and let them by the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Additionally, the enrich your lives and expand your horizons with theirs.” country shelters one of the largest refugee populations on the continent — some 750,000 men, women, and children Ethiopia displaced by political and climate shocks in neighboring Omamo’s own career has taken him all over the world. Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Together the He has served as director of global engagement and crises threaten to upend a two-decade period of steady research with the United Nations International Fund for economic development that began after the end of the Agricultural Development, senior research fellow and Ethiopian-Eritrean War in 2000. coordinator of the Eastern Africa Food Policy Network To meet the challenges, Omamo directs a two-pronged with the International Food Policy Research Institute, response the WFP calls “saving lives and changing lives.” and director of policy and advocacy with the Alliance for The first part is crisis mediation, the work of distributing a Green Revolution in Africa. From 2006 to 2012, he was food to communities pushed to the brink of starvation by deputy director of policy, planning, and strategy at the natural and manmade disasters. This involves everything World Food Programme’s headquarters in Rome. There from running school feeding operations to providing logistical support for Ethiopian government relief efforts to building humanitarian cargo hubs and even Covid field hospitals. The second pillar, the transformational part, addresses the root causes of hunger by supporting eco- nomic development, farming, and sustainable growth. “What we try to do is give vulnerable communities CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: opportunities to enter into the transformation,” Omamo During his 2014 com- One-year-old Bishara is a says. “Helping them manage natural resources, giving mencement address at Somalian refugee suffer- them access to markets, giving them new platforms, shar- ing from malnutrition. the College of Agriculture, ing new information or new financial instruments.” Health and Natural Re- Her mother is feeding sources, Omamo shared her PlumpySup, a high Despite the many complex issues, Omamo believes three hopes with, and nutrient peanut paste there is cause for optimism. He describes meeting an old made three asks of, the from WFP. man while in Kenya a number of years ago and asking graduates, including that him about his life. The man marveled at how easy in his they plant something to WFP transporters distrib- harvest every year. Doing ute sorghum to refugees lifetime it had become to move around. When he was so, he said, “connects in Um Rakuba camp in young, he told Omamo, he couldn’t go anywhere because you to the world in a way eastern Sudan. his village was always fighting the village next door. that is truly unique and “It’s easy to become dejected,” Omamo says. “But the soul-enriching.” Last October WFP ready- to-eat rations were dis- transformation is happening. Opportunities are always After women in horti- tributed to 1,500 families coming, in agriculture, in technology, in the penetration cultural production affected and displaced by of markets. It’s profound. Even in the most devastated hundreds of fires in the requested support, the community, you go there and you find people who are WFP and Gambia Red small villages surrounding Cross started a seed Mashta El Helou town in planting. They’re looking ahead, trying to start again. distribution program. Latakia governorate, Syria. It is humbling.”

34 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 35 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

CLASS NOTES court appeals (1997–2001). ➼ Congratulations to John C. Severino ’59 (CLAS) and Sally Ann Ingalls Severino ’59 (CLAS), who 1950s met on a blind date at UConn and just celebrated 60 years of marriage! John, who was ➼ Dominic D’Amato a football student-athlete, ’52 (ENG), of Cheshire, retired in 2001 as president Connecticut, writes to say of CBS Television Stations. that he is still consulting and Sally Ann taught high school recently published a new in Newton, Massachusetts, book, “Trisecting Angles and and, more recently, was a Other Solutions.” volunteer caregiver at UCLA ➼ Stoddard B. Williams Children’s Hospital. They ’57 (CLAS), who served in live in Encino, California. the Air Force and then as a ➼ Nancy Mattoon Kline ➼ pastor in his community, has ’59 (CLAS), ’61 (NEAG) Laura Bocon ’10 (CLAS) shared this photo of her grand- written a firsthand account ’61 MS, ’94 Ph.D. just father, James Barlow, who graduated from UConn in the late of how times have changed published her first book of 1940s, in the marching band with Jonathan II. Her maternal in his memoir, “Showers of poetry, “On the Edge.” She grandparents met at UConn. Sparks: Memories of Encoun- and her husband, James Trail ters with Love of God.” ’54 (BUS), live at the Seabury Retirement Community in the pen name Gary Braver, a career of practicing law Bloomfield, Connecticut. teamed up with internation- together and live in Stamford, ally bestselling author Tess Connecticut. ➼ Congrats Gerritsen to write the murder to Arnold Nieminen ’69 mystery “Choose Me,” about (CAHNR), of Lebanon, Con- 1960s a police detective determined necticut. The UConn 4-H vol- to find out what happened unteer for 50 years has been in a reckless affair between a nominated to the National ➼ Rhoda Kriesel ’61 MA popular college professor and 4-H Hall of Fame. Only 12 writes in with an update. She his student. ➼ Mike Pierson outstanding 4-H volunteers says she was lucky enough to ’66 (CLAS), a retired Coast from across the country are ➼ Paul J. Magnarella’s book, have dual roles as a mom to Guard captain, reports that selected each year to compete “Black Panther in Exile: The two great girls and a market- he and his wife, Elaine, for national honors. Pete O’Neal Story,” won the ing and international sales recently moved to Virginia silver medal in the 2020 manager for instrumentation Beach to be closer to their Florida Book Awards Gen- in chemical and semiconduc- daughter and grandkids. 70s eral Nonfiction category and tor manufacturing facilities ➼ After graduating from 19 therefore will be put on per- for Zellweger Environmental UConn, Carol Milardo Flo- manent public display in the Division, now Honeywell. riani ’68 (NURS) earned Florida Governor’s Mansion She is retired in West Orange, her MSN from Loma Linda ➼ Roland Vinyard ’71 Library and in Florida State New Jersey. ➼ Congrats to University in California and MA published “The Ballad University’s Strozier Library. Francis “Frank” Dillon taught nursing for 20 years. of Pete Hauer (It Was Caves Magnarella ’59 (BUS) got ’62 (BUS), who published She went on to manage home That Pete Loved Best).” Writ- his Ph.D. at Harvard and is his third novel, “Hidden health and hospice agencies ten entirely from primary an emeritus professor at the Innocence: Human Traf- until she retired at age 71. She sources, the book deals with University of Florida. The ficking,” about the scourge credits her UConn education, the mystery surrounding A new pane of USPS stamps book tells the story of O’Neal, of smuggling young people particularly dean Carolyn Hauer, who had been a friend features photos of pre-industrial who founded the Kansas City into the country, plying them Widmer and professor Jo of Vinyard’s. A pacifist and farm breeds by Aliza Eliazarov. branch of the Black Panther with drugs, and forcing them Dolan, with preparing her to expert in saltpeter studies, Party. After Illinois Black into prostitution. ➼ Leigh expand and succeed in her Hauer killed someone he Forever Stamps of Forgotten Breeds Panther Party chairman Fred Montville ’65 (CLAS), varied career. She lives in barely knew in 1975 and then Hampton was killed by the longtime Sports Illustrated Easley, South Carolina, with hung himself in remorse. Aliza Eliazarov ’95 (CAHNR) goes to great lengths to capture her stunning portraits of farm animals, even if it means lying FBI and Chicago police in writer and Boston Globe her husband of 48 years. ➼ Gerard J. Monaghan in a chicken coop or waiting hours to capture a donkey’s soulful look. That’s just part of the job when you’re asked to create 1969, O’Neal and his wife fled columnist, releases his latest ➼ After first meeting at ’72 MA spent part of last portraits for a U.S. Postal Service stamp series on heritage breeds. The author of “On the Farm: Heritage & Heralded Animal the U.S. in 1970 in fear for book with Doubleday in July: UConn when he was a junior year working for the U.S. Breeds in Portraits & Stories” built a reputation shooting for many national magazines, including Modern Farmer. She visited his life. He has since been in “Tall Men, Short Shorts: and she was a freshman, Alan Census Bureau in Connecti- small farms across the country and set up temporary studios in barns. She’d hang backdrops, set up lights, then wait quietly exile in Algeria and Tanza- The 1969 NBA Finals: Wilt, H. Jaffe ’68 (BUS), ’73 JD cut, Louisiana, and Georgia. nia. A veteran of the United Russ, Lakers, Celtics, and a and Sari Blonder Jaffe ’70 The co-founder and former for her models to strike a pose. The stamp panel, released in May, features 10 farm animals, including the American Cream Nations criminal tribunals, Very Young Sports Report- (CLAS) just celebrated their president of the Association draft horse and the Wyandotte chicken. “It’s a great honor and privilege to be asked to make U.S. postal stamps,” she says. “It’s Magnarella was O’Neal’s er.” ➼ Gary Goshgarian 50th wedding anniversary. of Bridal Consultants, retired my nerdiest dream come true.” —GRACE MERRITT attorney during his federal ’66 MA, who writes under They are both retired from Army Reserve lieutenant

36 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Aliza Eliazarov ’95 (CAHNR) SUMMER 2021 37 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

colonel, and self-described Association, a chapter of the the pandemic, coming to the published “The FBI Way: sit with ourselves. Gender identity is a “recovering journalist” serves International Water Environ- hospital every day to lead his Inside the Bureau’s Code of really interesting concept that I — de- on the New Milford Planning ment Federation. Lloyd is a therapy team, and was an in- Excellence” with Harper- spite having done so many things with Commission. He and his wife, senior vice president at Fuss tegral part of the Covid crisis Collins-Custom House in Eileen, have four grown chil- & O’Neill. management and recovery at January. ➼ Allen R. Jones, LGBTQ+ students and having taught dren and nine grandchildren. the hospital, writes Sembler. Jr. ’87 (CAHNR), who women’s, gender, and sexuality studies ➼ John Long ’73 (CLAS) Cota, faithful UConn sup- owns six outpatient physical for several years — had never actively wrote “Learning Experience” porter and extreme patient therapy practices in Virginia, and personally reflected upon. 1980s for an online production at care advocate, just retired is now chair of the Virginia the Phoenix Stage Company after a storied career in PT. Board of Physical Therapy CS: I’m smiling ear to ear listening to in Watertown, Connecticut. ➼ Laurie P. Havanec ’82 and chairman of the state’s you talk about it. Is there a new project ➼ The play, directed by Drew Beth (Turcy) Kilmarx (BUS), ’94 JD was named Board of Health Profes- within the community or the college ➼ Scott ’72 (SFA), ’77 MFA, ’80 (CLAS) was named executive vice president and sions. Scott F. Nolan that you plan to start this year? is a series of monologues fea- associate dean/director of chief people officer by CVS ’87 (ED) was honored by TB: I am definitely interested in grow- turing people talking about Cushing Memorial Library Health. She previously served Bristol Community College their experiences coping with and Archives, University in that role at Otis Worldwide in Fall River, Massachusetts, ing my new organization, the Ace and the pandemic. Scott teaches Libraries at Texas A&M. Co. ➼ Madelaine Podur- with the 2020 Dale P. Parnell Aro Alliance of Central Ohio, which drama at UConn Hartford, Kilmarx is an associate giel Lawrence ’83 Ph.D., Distinguished Faculty Award. is the state of Ohio’s first community while Long taught drama professor and former cura- a registered nurse, writes in ➼ After decades of working MAKING GOOD organization that explicitly and specif- at UConn Torrington and tor of rare books. ➼ Bob about the impact that her at public relations agencies, ically works to support the asexual and Waterbury. ➼ Major kudos Sembler ’80 (CAHNR) advisor, Arthur Roberts, and including her own, Kyle aromantic community. to Lynne Maquat ’74 wrote to recognize the day- a UConn writing course had (MacDonald) Potvin ’87 PROFESSOR’S PRIDE I’d also like to transition my disserta- (CLAS), who won the 2021 to-day workers like his fellow on building her confidence as (CLAS) published her first tion into a book project. And of course, Wolf Prize in Medicine, an physical therapists and all the a writer. She has written sev- poetry collection, “Loosen.” Timothy Bussey ’14 MA, ’18 Ph.D. Sylvester advised Bussey on their dis- there will be some expansions with the international award given nurses who have tirelessly led eral articles and five books, Potvin, who was diagnosed grew up in a military family near the sertation, “Lavender Security Threats: changes that we’ve seen from both the to outstanding scientists for us through and are leading most recently “A Pocketful with breast cancer in her ear- achievements that benefit us out of the pandemic — all of $20s,” about a nursing ly 40s, says she found reading Fort Benning Army base in Georgia. Understanding the Histories of end of the Trump administration and mankind. Maquat, the found- the front-line health workers, education director who hands and writing poetry cathartic After very briefly considering enrolling Discrimination Against LGBT Persons the start of the Biden administration. ing director of the Center for graduates young and old out $20 bills to five people at while undergoing surgery, in a military college, they attended a in the American Military and Intelli- RNA Biology at the Universi- from UConn, who haven’t Christmastime. “I am proud chemo, and radiation. She smaller state university in their home- gence Community.” The two caught up CS: I always thought that your disserta- ty of Rochester, was selected had a moment off during this to be a graduate of the School co-founded The Prickly Pear town and then spent time abroad at the recently over Zoom. tion should come out as a book. Do you for “fundamental discoveries past year. One such brave of Education at the Universi- Poetry Project, holding work- University of Oxford. have anything else that you would like in RNA biology that have the individual, he notes, is Chuck ty of Connecticut,” she says. shops to help those impacted Their undergraduate advisor was an CS: You have achieved a great deal in to share? ➼ potential to better human Cota ’80 (CAHNR), who Frank Figliuzzi ’87 JD, by cancer. She says she met alum of UConn and shared informa- the three years since completing your TB: When I think about the fact that ➼ lives.” Congratulations has worked at St. Raphael’s former assistant director of her husband, Glen Potvin tion about the Rainbow Center. Bussey doctorate. Could you talk about a top- the dissertation is done and all of these to Michael Sills ’74 MS, (now part of Yale New Haven counterintelligence at the ’87 (PHAR), at UConn, but was impressed by the support provided five achievements during that time? things are happening, it does sort of ’82 Ph.D., of Bedford, Hospital) for 47 years. Cota FBI and current MSNBC they didn’t start dating until TB: New Hampshire, who has been a true hero during national security analyst, a decade later. ➼ Karen to the LGBTQ+ community in Storrs First, I’m very proud of “Free- leave me bewildered. When something published a family history and thought UConn was the perfect fit dom to Serve: The Definitive Guide like the request from the Biden transi- in the form of a cookbook, for postgrad studies. to LGBTQ Military Service.” Second, tion team happens, I’m just always kind “A Lithuanian Cookbook They quickly became involved at the I would highlight that when I joined of amazed and surprised. for My Irish Wife.” The Rainbow Center, including facilitating Kenyon College, they had a 3.5 out of But I always end up in a place where MAKING GOOD work centers around the the graduate and postdoctoral fellow 5 ranking on the Campus Pride Index, I’m thankful for the people that have Lithuanian community H20 group and running the Out to Lunch which is the go-to inclusivity index for supported me. That certainly includes in Hartford, Connecticut. lecture series. That work proved to LGBTQ+ support services at colleges you, Sherry Zane with UConn Wom- ➼ Charles Bernhardt When it comes to water, the number of gallons used per capita per day in Bussey that they wanted to pursue a and universities across the country. en’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and ’75 (CLAS) retired after Israel is 106. In France it’s 297. But in the USA — how about 873? Our neigh- career in student services rather than After my first year, that increased to a so many other people. 37 years as cantor at Oseh Shalom synagogue in Laurel, bors in Canada are also all wet with 639. So says Mary Ann Dickinson ’87 (BGS), president go the tenure-track route. 4.5 out of 5. Halfway through my sec- Honestly, I’ve had so many people Maryland, and was named and CEO of the nonprofit Alliance for Water Efficiency. Today Bussey is associate director ond year, that increased to a 5 out of 5. that have been supportive to me in so cantor emeritus. ➼ Nancy “Some of these countries with less water usage are making a huge difference in conserving of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and I’m also definitely proud of the queer many ways, both professionally and Rudner ’76 (CLAS) writes water,” says Dickinson. “In Israel, for example, they use water recycling, where used water Inclusion at Kenyon College in Ohio, and transgender studies conference personally, and I’m just thankful for to tell us she’s an associate goes into a purple pipe so it’s not used for drinking but can be used in other ways, such as where they have racked up an impres- that I developed during my first year at those people in my life. I really appre- professor at the University flushing toilets and watering. We’re literally watering our lawns with drinking water in the sive array of DEI accomplishments, Kenyon, which has now grown into the ciate everything that they’ve done for of Alabama at Birmingham U.S. This is a major part of the changes that need to be considered for the future of water in particularly in the LGBTQ+ inclusion largest LGBTQ+ student conference in me, and I think that’s the big takeaway School of Nursing and lives North America.” space. They were asked by the Mod- the state of Ohio. here. in the Orlando, Florida, area. Dickinson served for nearly two decades in the Connecticut Department of Energy and ern Military Association of America And in terms of the fourth and CS: Well, you’re certainly a credit to ➼ Virgil Lloyd ’79 (ENG), Environmental Protection. Later she took the helm as executive director at the California to write the newest edition of “Free- fifth things, I was really proud to UConn, to Kenyon, and to your larger who has spent more than four decades improving waste- Urban Water Conservation Council. dom to Serve: The Definitive Guide have planned the Newark Ohio Pride community. —JULIE (STAGIS) BARTUCCA water systems throughout “Water is becoming more expensive, and I think if we can point out potential savings, that to LGBTQ Military Service,” which Festival, and I’m very proud to have ’10 (BUS, CLAS), ’19 MBA will help in conservation also,” she says. “You think you’re saving money by holding on to the Biden transition team formally come out as transgender and non-bi- New England, was named the To listen to this interview as part of the 2021 president of the New that old washer, but what is it costing you — some parts of the country have a water bill that’s requested ahead of the inauguration. nary during the pandemic. For a lot of Brave Space series on the UConn 360 pod- England Water Environment more expensive than their energy bill.” —ERIC BUTTERMAN Political science professor Christine people, the pandemic really made us cast, visit magazine.uconn.edu.

38 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Kendra Bryant SUMMER 2021 39 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

Ali ’88 (CLAS), a former ger March” was released by ness development for First MAKING GOOD pared. It’s a very rewarding experience hours with each other at UConn and to provide comfort to patients and now sometimes we even get to see each newspaper reporter turned C.L. Barnhouse Company in American’s national commer- advice columnist and dating the fall. ➼ Paul Valenti ’90 cial services division. ➼ The their families as we face and tackle other at work! Despite the hardships coach, teaches ways to save (CLAS) was recently ap- National Association of Social the unknown. It’s shown me I want to THANK YOU of this past year, being able to become time in the dating trenches pointed director of the Miami Workers presented Rita become a nurse. I really admire the nurses together has been amazing, and in her new book, “A Woman’s district office of the U.S. Equal Abdallah ’94 MSW with In early 2019, the World Health Orga- work that the nurses do, honestly. I it’s all thanks to UConn! Guide to Understanding Men: Employment Opportunity the NASW Ohio Statewide nization designated 2020 as the Year of admire the doctors and the PCAs too, Dating Secrets Most Women Commission (EEOC). The 2020 Outstanding Service the Nurse and Midwife in honor of the of course. It’s all about teamwork. But Maureen Groden ’90 MS Don’t Know.” Ali, who writes Miami district’s geographi- Award for her support and 200th anniversary of Florence Night- it just made me appreciate the work of This past year has been under the pen name Karen- cal jurisdiction includes all service to the chapter. Her 25- ingale’s birth. nurses more, seeing it firsthand. the most difficult of my na Alexander, is a media of Florida but the western year social work career has ➼ The public health agency had no idea career. In March 2020, we strategist at the Trumbull, panhandle, Puerto Rico, and spanned nonprofit leadership, Denise Quinn ’96 how prescient their designation would Samantha Marquardt ’19 faced the challenging task Connecticut, communica- the U.S. Virgin Islands. The academia, and healthcare, (CLAS) wrote to tell us her tions firm Michael J. London EEOC’s mission is to prevent primarily in oncology. She is husband Erik Dobratz ’95 be. Over the past year and a half, nurses (NUR) of finding enough personal protective & Associates. ➼ Lynn Katz and remedy unlawful em- a wellness coach and founder (CLAS), a sportscaster for I have been an operating have responded to the call of duty to equipment for our staff and the sudden ’88 JD, tells us she began ployment discrimination and of Turning Point Wellness WTNH Channel 8 in New help fight the Covid-19 pandemic. They room nurse at Yale New departure of several psychosocial-spir- writing fiction after retiring advance equal opportunity & Yoga in Westlake, Ohio. ➼ Haven, Connecticut, who have sacrificed their personal safety, Haven Hospital since itual staff members. As director of Hos- as a school principal in Farm- for all in the workplace. Laura (Schieffer) Buonai- has covered professional and overcome enormous demands at the August 2019 and currently am a part of pice and Palliative Care at the Holyoke ington, Connecticut. Her ➼ Gwenn Gerken Noel uto ’94 MBA and Matt local sports for the past 20 bedside, and even returned to the field the transplant team handling kidney Visiting Nurse Association, I had to debut novel, “The Surrogate,” ’92 (CLAS) joined High Buonaiuto ’90 (CLAS) are years, was named Connecti- after retiring. A few of UConn’s finest and liver transplants. I also circu- guide, support, and educate staff who is being published by Black Point University in North celebrating their 15th wed- cut Sportscaster of the Year. shared experiences from the past year. late (and sometimes scrub into) all were worried about patients, families, Rose Writing on May 6. The Carolina as assistant vice ding anniversary. They met in Congratulations! ➼ Robert —MIKALA KANE different types of surgeries, including and their own health. Everything was story explores the psycho- president for family services. Storrs in 1988, parted ways, Irwin ’95 (CLAS) just robotics, vascular, general/trauma, changing and uncertain. We have sur- logical profile of a troubled She has worked in various then found each other again released his second album, teenager obsessed with guns communications, marketing, in 2005 and married a year “Chasing the Tone,” which cranio-maxillofacial, plastics, and vived surges, staff illnesses, and patient and the teacher who tries to and guest relations roles later. They say they are “liv- features fellow Huskies Suj Sophia Sopczneski ’10 thoracic. I have been able to get hands- deaths. Nurses have been remarkable help him. in health care and enter- ing the dream” on the coast of Patel ’20 (CLAS) on bass (NUR) on experience with Level I traumas, in their courage and dedication to tainment for more than 25 Maine with their daughters, and vocals by Irwin’s wife, The past year has defi- as well as be a preceptor to newer OR people who are ill and dying. years. ➼ Keith Berger ’93 Zoey and Megan. ➼ Con- Shelby Irwin ’95 (CLAS), nitely been the most nurses. From April to June 2020, I was (ENG), ’98 MS recently gratulations to Jennifer and his mother, Barbara challenging of my nursing sent to the intensive care units to be a Raymond Blair ’20 1990s founded and is CEO of a new Aldworth ’95 (CLAS), who Claire ’86 (CLAS), ’89 JD. career. Treating Covid patients was member of the prone team. We would (NUR) company, Oodles Energy, was named a 2020 Massachu- ➼ Christopher Logan ’95 unlike anything I had experienced, due flip Covid-19 patients onto their stom- After graduating, I Inc. His investor partners setts Latinx Trailblazer by MBA was named president ➼ to their level of acuity, the constantly achs to improve their oxygen levels. I became one of the first Anthony Susi ’90 MM, are senior Wall Street and the Massachusetts Black and and CEO of Bank of New evolving treatment plans, and the saw the sickest of the sick during my new grad nurses to ever a composer and former band European finance and hedge Latino Legislative Caucus. Hampshire. Logan joined director at Coventry High fund leaders interested in the Aldworth is the first woman Bank of New Hampshire’s ex- complexity of the illness. I am proud nine weeks on the prone team. be hired to the STAR Team at Hartford School, recently published transition to electric vehicles and the first person of color ecutive management team in to say my colleagues in the intensive Hospital. Being a full-time float nurse two adaptable arrangements and the need for increased to serve as executive director 2017. ➼ Jamelle R. Elliott Haley Meier ’15 (NUR) care unit at The Hospital of Central has given me a chance to learn how to of standard band repertoire charging infrastructure. ➼ at the Massachusetts Alliance ’96 (BUS), ’98 MA, an Connecticut quickly adapted to the I stepped into the charge function effectively on multiple differ- to meet the needs of direc- Jill (Chmieleski) Sharif of Boys & Girls Clubs. She assistant coach for the UConn challenges of each new day, and we are nurse role for the day ent units, including Covid-19 units. tors dealing with restrictive ’93 (CLAS) was named one worked with Boys & Girls Women’s Basketball team, a much stronger team now for all that shift just before the rehearsal requirements due of the 10 Outstanding Women Clubs across Massachusetts received the Distinguished we experienced together. Jessica (Cav- pandemic hit and also Kristen Biatowas ’17 to the pandemic. “Russian of 2021 in Commercial Real as they pivoted during the Alumna award from the alieri) Varrone ’10 (NUR) from my found out I was pregnant with my first (NUR) Sailors Dance” was released Estate by the Boston Real pandemic to provide child- UConn Neag School of Edu- ➼ class coincidentally joined our team child. My unit became the dedicated It will be two years in by C-Alan Publications in Estate Times. Sharif is vice care, distribute meals, and cation in March. Rowena in New Britain at the beginning of the non-Covid unit, and all pregnant/ July that I have been in February, and “The Messen- president of national busi- open remote learning sites. Ortiz-Walters ’96 (CLAS), pandemic. We’re proud to be Huskies! immune-compromised staff were sent my position as a moth- to work there. It was a major learn- er- baby nurse at Yale New Haven Anika Bennett ’19 ing curve. I spent my maternity leave Hospital. At first, it was recommended (CAHNR) trying to get ahead in graduate school, that Covid-19-positive mothers be sep- KUDOS I am a patient care so now I’m even closer to getting my arated from their newborns at birth, Sports Illustrated’s 2020 Sportsperson of the Year went to five activist athletes, including the assistant at Connecticut doctorate in psychiatric nursing. though that has since changed. I took Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart ’16 (CLAS). USA soccer star Megan Rapinoe, last year’s Children’s in Hartford, care of one new mother who wore a Sportsperson of the Year, wrote: “What struck me watching Breanna Stewart take the micro- and initially, when I was told I would be Mallory and Samantha mask and gloves when holding her new helping Covid patients, I was nervous Edrich ’20 (NUR) baby, which was difficult to see. I also phone before the first game of the WNBA season was her willingness to step up in that moment because, at the time, there was just so My triplet sister and I cared for a Covid-19-positive mother . . . She was coming into the season off a torn Achilles tendon, an injury you don’t know how little known about the virus compared became nurses together of twins whose husband could not be you’ll recover from. But she chose to take on more responsibility. Watching Stewie stand in to what we know now. But I just feel and are lucky enough to at the bedside because he also had the front of everyone before that first game and ask for 26 seconds of silence to remember Breon- confident in the hospital’s guidelines both work at UConn Health! I work on virus. She was a new mother, and not na Taylor, the Black woman who was that age when she was killed by police in her Louisville and procedures. They give us step-by- UT 3, and Samantha works in the emer- having her husband there was tough. apartment, was powerful . . . Then she went on the court and . . . won her second championship step directions for what we need to do, gency department. We loved being and [League MVP]. I don’t know if you can fully appreciate how difficult it is to accomplish so I never go in there feeling unpre- able to study and experience clinical Find more at magazine.uconn.edu. what she did this season. And she did it in classic, effortless Stewie fashion.”

40 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Provided by subjects SUMMER 2021 41 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

➼ MAKING GOOD When the pandemic first started last spring, Michael “without sugar-coating.” She interned Baczewski ’12 (CLAS), ’20 MPA suddenly found himself at News 12 in Norwalk, Connecti- working as many as 12 to 16 hours a day trying to track down cut, where she took every shift they millions of pieces of PPE for first responders in Connecticut. As AFFORDABLE a contract specialist for the state, he had to find, vet, and procure offered her, driving 90 minutes from critical supplies, from N95 masks and face shields to mortuary Storrs, working eight hours writing MS DRUGS bags. “We were essentially the air traffic control for the majority and editing scripts for other people to of the supply coming into Connecticut,” he says. “Succeeding read, then driving 90 minutes back for As president and CEO of the National was non-negotiable, saving lives was non-negotiable, working classes. She worked Christmas break, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Cynthia around the clock was non-negotiable.” Luckily, he had just finished UConn’s Master of summers, and weekends. Zagieboylo ’86 MA spends a lot of Public Affairs program, which, he says, prepared him to lead and think outside the box “I worked my butt off because it time working to keep down the price of during those early days when PPE was a scarce commodity that every state was hunting. meant that they knew that I was seri- prescription drugs. She made headlines “The skills we learned, what we analyzed, what we debated in class, it really prepared us ous,” she says. as public servants for what we were about to face,” he says. “The MPA program gave me in 2016 as a changemaker featured in In 2012, she was hired at WWLP 22 the ability to manage risk, analyze very complex problems, make decisions, and employ a New York Times article titled “Furor dynamic thinking to get the job done. in Springfield, Massachusetts, where, Over Drug Prices Puts Patient Advo- after three months, a departure left an cacy Groups in Bind.” The cost of MS opening at the anchor desk. meds had risen almost 400 percent in “I came in at 3:30 in the afternoon the previous four years, and Zagieboylo for the nightside shift, and my boss was working hard to turn that around. said, ‘You want to anchor? Why don’t She says the Society’s effect on prices you take a stab at it?’ Ninety minutes since then has been positive, but has later, I was sitting at the desk.” much further to go. She stayed there. She was 22 years “You need to have the right people in old and “greener than green,” the the room to make progress, so we work youngest anchor in the station’s to maintain relationships with every history. She was mentored by veter- company working on MS therapies,” an anchor Barry Krieger, whom she Zagieboylo says. “Our goal is to under- describes as a “giant bucket of knowl- stand what therapies are coming out edge.” She went from Springfield to a and influence pricing coming out.” TRAJECTORY job in New Orleans for two years, and The Society wants and needs the from there to Boston, a top-10 market, pharmaceutical companies to succeed. and closer to home. At 29, her star “They’ve invested millions of dollars LIVE FROM BOSTON continues to ascend, and while she is to bring things to market,” she says. Being a TV news reporter is hard. It’s father. He lost his two-year-old, his happy where she is, both anchoring and Haddad & Partners reporting outside the studio, no one “If they lost interest 30 years ago, we ALL STAR not just the insane hours, rising at 2 fiancée, and their unborn child. would have zero therapies for people a.m. to work the morning shift, or miss- “I called him in the hospital, and he would be surprised to see her rise to with multiple sclerosis.” Say it With a T-shirt ing important weddings and birthdays, wanted to talk about how incredible his the national level. It’s still her humani- The fight takes place on Capitol Hill, or never having the same days off as fiancée was, how beautiful their child ty that makes her stand out. too. “We have 30,000 volunteers who Chris Smith ’92 (BUS), Husky men’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer (left), your partner, or being told by hurtful was. I think he found it helpful, being In New Orleans she reported on communicate with congresspeople and gathered current and former basketball players to help Jason Jakubowski ’99 trolls on social media that you need to able to make sure that people knew she 17-year-old Sam Butler, who was shot over 300 district activist leaders.” (CLAS), ’01 MPA, president and CEO of Connecticut Food Bank/Foodshare, hand lose weight or change your hairstyle was perfect. I don’t know if I’ve ever in the head during Mardi Gras. She Zagieboylo credits UConn with out groceries at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field. — right after you just got back from cried so much — that was the hardest checked in on him over the years and honing her skills to analyze data and Smith and Jakubowski were sporting Smith’s latest business venture: Wear Ya covering a blizzard where you were day I’ve ever had. My boss called me did updates. “The New Orleans Saints recognize the big picture. “Today, we’re Mask! tees. The idea came to him last March, says Smith, while standing in line at a pelted in the face by snowflakes the and asked me if I was okay, because in saw my story and learned Sam played assessing our programmatic work, im- neighborhood shop in Shelton, Connecticut, and watching two guys in front of him size of chicken pot pies. But the most my live shot from the crash, I looked football,” she says. “I connected with plementing the MS Society’s strategic get into a heated debate over the merits of mask wearing. Smith says that growing difficult part, saysJuliana Mazza ’13 devastated. Because I was. A big part Demario Davis, a linebacker for the plan, and measuring the impact we up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he saw too many arguments turn ugly and danger- (CLAS), reporter and morning anchor of being on TV is being genuine. I’m Saints, who went to visit Sam in the have on people’s lives, and I learned a ous, so he quickly paid for his items and left. at WHDH 7 in Boston, is being human. an emotional person. I’m not gonna hospital. The team ended up getting terrific amount in all of those areas.” But later that night as he went to sleep, he kept thinking about what he could “It’s really hard, meeting people at try to come out and be crazy tough. It him a handicapped-accessible van as a Surprisingly, researchers still don’t have done to intervene or to encourage the guy who was not wearing a mask to put the lowest moment in their life, where took me a while to realize that it’s okay Christmas surprise.” Mazza stayed on know exactly what causes MS. But one on for the consideration of everybody in the store. He realized that if he’d been they’re facing unspeakable tragedy, for me to be who I am, and it’s okay for the story and covered Sam’s first steps in her 30-year tenure at the Society, wearing a shirt with a slogan like “Wear Ya Mask!” he could have said something somebody who is on their knees in people to see that.” post-accident — collecting his high Zagieboylo says she has seen a vital without having to actually say anything. tears, and it’s your job to talk to them.” Growing up in Milford, Connecti- school diploma. growth rate of knowledge about the The next morning he contacted a T-shirt supplier, created a simple design on his Sometimes you hold the mike, and cut, Mazza idolized a local anchor “It’s my job, as an individual and as a disease. For example, diagnoses come computer, and sold some tees to friends and family. A couple weeks later he posted sometimes you hold the person. named Sonia Baghdady. So she wrote journalist, to find stories that matter,” much quicker — what used to take pics of them on social media, which got the attention of Cindy Carrasquilla ’94 “I did a story on Christmas Day,” says for the school paper and did morning she says. “If I find a story and I feel like 15 years now often takes around two (CLAS), his former basketball team manager and now director of public relations Mazza. “I was working in New Orle- P.A. announcements. At UConn, she there’s something I can do, on a human years, so people can get the help they at Haddad & Partners, a Fairfield, Connecticut, advertising agency. Designers there ans, and I got sent to cover an awful credits journalism professor Steven level, to try and help, then I will.” need far sooner. —ERIC BUTTERMAN helped Smith create the version of the shirt now being sold at wearyamask13.com. car crash.” The sole survivor was the Kalb, whose guidance, she says, arrived —PETER NELSON

42 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 43 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

REMEMBRANCE ’05 Ph.D. has been named ’99 MSW reports that he entities, strengthens health milly ’04 (CLAS) sent in dean of St. Mary’s University has published his first book. technology, and builds collab- an update. After graduating Greehey School of Business, “Peace by the Sea: Inspiring orations. He also was recently from UConn, she went on becoming the first Latina Images and Quotes to Light appointed to the Howard to Columbia University and SHE FOUGHT to lead the business school. Your Way” features 111 of his County Local Behavioral became a licensed clinical so- Ortiz-Walters was previously seaside photographs paired Health Advisory Board in cial worker. She has a private FOR WHAT IS the dean and professor of with inspiring quotes that Maryland. ➼ Tamika practice in Wilton, Connecti- management in the School of illustrate his 12 principles of Williams-Jeter ’02 cut, where she specializes in Business and Economics at “living your best life.” (CLAS), former Husky trauma therapy and EMDR RIGHT AND SUNY Plattsburgh. ➼ Adam and WNBA forward, is the (eye movement desensitiza- Bowles ’97 (CLAS) is the new head coach at Division tion and reprocessing). founding and lead pastor of III Wittenberg University ➼ Connecticut’s Associa- WHAT IS FAIR 2000s Castle Church in Norwich, in Springfield, Ohio. Wil- tion of Schools selected Joy liams-Jeter, who won three Wright ’04 6th Year, Gifted mind, steadfast advocate, Connecticut. After a 15-year newspaper career, Bowles national championships at principal of King Philip caring friend. These words offer a opened the church in 2019, ➼ Connecticut’s Education UConn, had spent the last two Middle School in West glimpse into the effervescence and converting the first floor of a Commissioner Miguel seasons as an assistant coach Hartford, as 2020 Middle assiduousness of Rose Wong’s spirit. former bank into a sanctuary Cardona ’01 MA, ’04 6th at Ohio State. School Principal of the Year. Some may recognize her name — at and gathering area. He led an Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP ➼ Matthew Necci ’03 ➼ Robinson+Cole, a Hartford the time she went by Calliope Wong outreach to El Paso, Texas, was sworn in March 2 as U.S. (CLAS) published his law firm, hired Samuel C. ‘16 (CLAS) — from the 2013 media after the mass shooting there Secretary of Education, the first novel, “The Road Will Maduabueke ’05 (BUS), frenzy that surrounded her unread and launched ministries to first UConn graduate in histo- Someday Bend.” The book is a ’10 MS, ’17 MBA, ’20 JD as applications to Smith College, both promote racial justice and ry to hold this position in the 1940s-era coming-of-age tale a law clerk. ➼ Ira Steinberg denied review solely on the basis of compassion toward immi- White House Cabinet and the about an immigrant’s journey ’05 (CLAS) was promot- from Italy to the United her transgender identity. Undeterred grants. He lives with his wife, second UConn alum to hold a ed to partner at Greenberg Luisa, in Lisbon, Connecticut. Cabinet-level position. States as his family tries to Glusker LLP, a Los Angeles from the pursuit of her education, They have two daughters in ➼ Craig A. Cooke ’01 escape the looming war in Eu- law firm, where he prac- Rose matriculated to UConn as a college, Victoria and Veron- 6th Year, ’07 Ph.D. was rope. ➼ Jack Sheedy ’03 tices complex commercial proud Husky and later graduated ica. ➼ Greg Brick ’97 MS appointed superintendent (BGS) published a collection and business litigation in early, with honors, and a near per- has published seven books of schools in Madison, of essays, “Magical Acts in the technology, real estate, fect GPA. She was featured in Time about caves since graduating Connecticut. ➼ Orlando Two Suitcases,” including entertainment, and media magazine, the New York Times, the from UConn, including his Wright ’01 (CLAS), ’03 one titled “Redemption by fields. Outside of the office, Out 100, and was awarded a Point While at UConn, Wong won a 2014 IDEA grant to record an album of improvisational latest, “Caves and Karst of the MA became director of Shakespeare,” in which he he holds a pilot’s license for Foundation Scholarship to Stanford piano music. She released “Hyaline Songs” in 2015. Upper Midwest, USA.” His partnerships and innovation describes returning to college single-engine aircraft and University School of Medicine to day job is mapping thousands for the American Society for and finishing his under- gliders with a certification for graduate degree at age 57 at aerobatics and has com- pursue her dream of becoming an en- her from doing the hard work of herself would never enjoy. of springs for the Minnesota Addiction Medicine, where Department of Natural Re- he oversees partnerships UConn’s Torrington campus. pleted multiple marathons. docrinologist. Her goal was to serve being “first.” For her, life’s journey was always sources. ➼ Harry Thomas with states and other public ➼ Bonnie (Curran) Ru- ➼ Michelle (Kersten) and heal others, and she never once The news of Rose’s passing by about something much bigger than complained about the hard work she suicide early this year gave me more college, bigger than being trans, put in to become not only a compe- than pause — it brought me to a halt. bigger than herself. For Rose, life’s tent, but an excellent, provider. I would never have imagined I would journey was about an unwavering I will quote Rose herself when I say be asked to write a eulogy for someone commitment to what is right and LIFE LESSONS she was “many other things besides who breathed such life and joy into fair, often at the expense of what is trans.” Indeed, those who had the this world. Rose has yet to be hon- comfortable. Rose’s brilliant mind Sticking with It privilege of being her friend knew ored or recognized by Smith College, and endless curiosity live on in every Rose to be so, so much more — a tal- despite the New York Times editorial trans child who pursues an educa- Keith Worts ’88 MA knows how to stick with it. The “it” being exercise. Worts is president of ented artist and musician, a humble board calling for the school to grant tion. Her love for humanity lives on Crunch Signature — you know Crunch Fitness, the “no judgments” folks. whiz behind a computer, a passion- her an honorary degree in 2017. While in the trans people who dream to one “People need to start off at a comfortable pace,” says Worts. “That probably means starting ate sci-fi enthusiast, and above all a exploring some of Rose’s digital day take an oath to heal others. We off with cardiovascular exercise like walking. Begin with 20 minutes a day to gently ease genuine, fiercely loyal friend. Rose footprints, I found a contribution she honor Rose’s memory and all trans yourself into it. And that is exercise. Just as importantly, pick a time of day that will allow sacrificed her own life’s peace and made on a Smith College Q&A thread, lives when we listen to and learn from you to fall into a routine. For many people, that’s early morning. I think as the day continues, the responsibilities increase and privacy to create change for all of which announced that the class of one another. So today, in Rose’s hon- the likelihood of you not feeling there’s time can grow. But remember, you don’t have to start with so much. With small improve- the trans folks who would follow her. 2020 would be the first to have out or, pull the trans people in your life ments, you have small wins. Keeping it positive helps keep it going.” Because of Rose’s persistence, over 15 trans women in its ranks. Her com- close, tell them they are loved as their And he knows how tough it can be. With more than 350 locations and 3,000-plus employees to look after, it can be hard for American colleges and universities ment in response to this change sim- most authentic selves, and remind even Worts to find time for the gym. But when he struggles, he reminds himself that this is a part of his life, not something to do instituted explicitly trans-inclusive ply read: “Good.” Reading that, I knew them that this world would not be when he’s not living his life. admissions policies following her Rose was satisfied with how things the same without them in it. There is “Even as we’re talking,” he says, “I just got through with a run. And it makes me feel better. It’s easy to forget the positives of rejection, including Smith College. played out at Smith, though she didn’t more of their story yet to be told, and exercise when you’re staring it down and you could be doing something else on your long list. But you have to remember all the Rose was brave enough to forge a get her degree there. I know Rose was we all want them here to help write good it does for you. If you fall off for weeks, remind yourself of how exercise made you feel good.” path for others that she herself would satisfied knowing other trans people it. We love you, Rose; Trans Huskies To those who have never exercised much, Worts reminds that you don’t have to wait for a New Year’s resolution, a new month, never walk, a fact that never deterred would be granted an opportunity she Forever. —MATT G. BRUSH ’17 (CLAS) even a new day. “Any time is a great time to start. And it can start with a walk.” —ERIC BUTTERMAN

44 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Peter Morenus SUMMER 2021 45 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI As a first-generation college student, an African American, the son of an MAKING GOOD immigrant, and a product of the foster care system, I am no stranger to adversity. UNDERACHIEVER NO MORE Facing those challenges motivated me to Jim LaFlamme just made a multi- million-dollar bequest to the UConn reach for my dreams, and it was through School of Pharmacy, a gift that anyone who knew him back in the ’70s would scholarship support that I was able to never have predicted. make my college dream a reality. This is, after all, the same Jim La- Flamme ’79 (PHAR) who had a reputa- tion as a bit of a troublemaker with lit- Xavier S. Cole ’20 (BUS) tle regard for classroom learning back then. “I mean, I took full advantage of the 18-year-old drinking age when I was at UConn,” LaFlamme says. “I didn’t take anything seriously because I had a photographic memory. For the first two years, I didn’t go to class at all. I took the tests, and that was it.” A life-changing LaFlamme readily admits that without the counsel of the dean at the time, Karl Nieforth, he wouldn’t have education graduated.“He told me, ‘You may not LaFlamme at his BioPharma Global office (right) and with his wife, entrepreneur Carolyn see it yourself, but you’re destined Thompson, at a Stanley Cup playoff game — the two are longtime Washington Capitals fans. for something great. You don’t have starts with you. confidence in yourself, but I have con- to find a treatment for his own inflam- “I took full advantage of the educa- fidence in you.’ I said to myself, ‘Shoot, matory condition, which has yet to be tion they gave me,” he says. “When I now I owe this guy something, and I named. finally graduated, I felt like if I wasn’t When you support can’t let him down.’” successful, I would be letting down Something Greater a lot of people. So, every time a door scholarships at UConn, you Something Great LaFlamme’s multimillion dollar be- opened where I could move up, I took The dean was right. LaFlamme earned quest is the largest gift in the history of advantage of it. I had to be successful.” help undergraduate, graduate, a master’s degree in management the School of Pharmacy. This is not LaFlamme’s first gift. and professional students from Indiana Wesleyan University and “I realized there was an opportunity The longtime donor has mentored went on to a distinguished and diverse here for me to do something really spe- many pharmacy students. Last fall, he obtain the life-transformative health care career. He served as exec- cial, really spectacular, and help the pledged $25,000 to fund programming utive vice president with Coté Orphan, School move forward,” he says. for the School’s diversity committee, education UConn is known responsible for all global operations The funds will endow a deanship, composed of students, faculty, and for — regardless of their within both the regulatory affairs and enabling the School to conduct more staff, and challenged pharmacy alumni business development divisions and research, purchase lab and clean-room to match his commitment. The fund financial means. was a director with Pricewaterhouse technology, recruit a more diverse pays for activities that foster and en- Coopers, advising healthcare clients faculty, and send a more diverse stu- hance diversity, equity, and inclusion in both the public and commercial dent body into pharmacy practice — a for pharmacy students. Donate to the General sectors. Early in his career, LaFlamme priority of LaFlamme’s. He also serves on the School of held director of pharmacy, adminis- LaFlamme, who lives in Fairfax Sta- Pharmacy’s advisory board and pro- Scholarships Fund now and trative, and executive positions with tion, Virginia, with his wife, Carolyn vides internships for students at his medical centers in Maine, Indiana, Thompson, an entrepreneur, grew up company, even going so far as working your gift, of any amount, Connecticut, and Colorado. in South Windham, Connecticut, the with his wife to review their résumés will help change a life. Four years ago, he started his own oldest of six children. His mother was and run the students through practice company, BioPharma Global in Vien- a nurse and his father held down three interviews before they leave. na, Virginia, which shepherds phar- jobs to make ends meet. As a kid, he “I was not focused when I was in maceuticals used to treat rare “orphan would help his father at the concession school, so my goal is to help give them Give today at s.uconn.edu/transformative diseases” through the FDA’s regulatory stand for UConn football and basket- a little dose of reality. So there is a lit- process. An orphan disease affects ball games. He attributes his dynamic tle tough love involved, but there’s also fewer than 200,000 people. LaFlamme career success to the dean and others the soft side of things,” he says. was inspired in part because he hopes at UConn who encouraged him. —GRACE MERRITT

46 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

KEEP THAT director of the Student in the Graduate School of Extinction) program. And last Counseling Center at Rhodes Education’s school psychol- but not least, he’s co-founder NEWS COMING! College in Memphis, Tennes- ogy program. ➼ Alex Maki of UpWell Coffee in Nor- WE WANT TO see, where she coordinates ’10 (BUS) was named vice walk, which raises funds for HEAR FROM YOU. wellness initiatives and out- president of Financial Plan- conservation and research of reach to students and faculty ning & Analysis and Investor ecosystems related to oceans, ➼ To submit a and provides mental health Relations for CIRCOR Inter- lakes, and rivers, one cup at a Class Note, email: treatment and development national. He joined CIRCOR time.” ➼ Ariel Borgendale alumni-news@ and training to a multi-disci- after more than 10 years ’12 (CLAS) graduated from plinary intern staff. She also with General Electric and is uconnalumni.com Boston College Law School in was appointed as adjunct part of the UConn School of May 2020 and is an attorney professor at the University Business’s Mentor Program. with Skaddan Arps Slate, ➼ Or write to: of Memphis School of Social ➼ Kudos to Tsa Shelton ’10 Meagher & Flom LLP in Bos- Alumni News & Notes Work and has a small private (CAHNR), ’15 MPH, who ton. She is married to fellow UConn Foundation practice in Memphis and Cal- graduated from The Ohio Husky Dylan Landfear ’12 2384 Alumni Drive ifornia. ➼ Congratulations to State University College of (CLAS), and they live in Unit 3053 Amanda (Molden) Wells Veterinary Medicine and is South Boston. Storrs, CT 06269 ’07 (CLAS), who was named a public health veterinarian ➼ Justis Lopez ’14 (ED), Delaware School Psychologist for the USDA Food Safety ’15 MA and his colleague, Submissions may be of the Year for 2020–21. Inspection Service. ➼ Dave Ryan Parker, have launched edited for clarity or length. ➼ Katie (Kopcha) Clay- Hudson ’11 Ph.D. studies Project Happyvism to en- well ’08 (SFA) recently invasive crustaceans, which courage educators and young published a children’s book, can wreak havoc on an people to practice self-love “The Birdy Got My Chips,” ecosystem. He and his team and keep joy as the center- which was inspired by her were the first to report the piece of their lives. ➼ Jack 3-year-old daughter. presence of Chinese mitten Zaino ’15 (SFA), ’16 (ED), TOM’S TRIVIA ANSWERS ➼ Paul Freeman ’09 crab and Dungeness crabs ’17 MA, a teacher at Swift

Ed.D., superintendent of off the shores of Connecticut Middle School in Oakville,

1. A, 2.C, 3. B, 4. D; 1990 D; 4. B, 3. 2.C, A, 1. schools in Guilford, Connecti- and Massachusetts recent- Connecticut, was named cut, was named Connecticut’s ly. Hudson was a student 2020 Young Choral Director 2020–21 Superintendent of Fulbright Fellow to Colom- of the Year by the Connecti- the Year by the Connecticut bia after graduation and cut chapter of the American Association of Public School returned to Connecticut four Choral Directors Association. Wojtyniak ’05 (ED), ’06 Superintendents. ➼ Car- years ago to begin building a ➼ Gabriel Bachinelo ’16 MA earned her administra- oline Oks ’09 (CLAS) Research and Conservation (BUS) was promoted to MFA ’78 Termine Richard tion degree from McDaniel was promoted to director at Department at The Mari- manager, corporate reporting College in Maryland. She is a Gibbons P.C., a business and time Aquarium at Norwalk. and analysis, at The Nielsen special education instruction- commercial law firm. She Last year he was admitted ➼ Company. Sushruta JOB ENVY al consultant for elemen- handles complex business to the prestigious Explorers Kunnenkeri ’18 MA started tary education for Carroll and commercial litigation Club, a group committed to a new job as a science teacher County Public Schools in in state and federal courts the advancement of science at Lexington High School in The Grouch’s Girlfriend Westminster, Maryland. throughout New Jersey and and exploration. Among the Massachusetts. ➼ Fenton River Veterinary New York. other projects Hudson’s been When Pam Arciero ’82 MFA went to try out to be a puppeteer on “Sesame Street,” she found it wouldn’t be a one-day audition; Hospital in Stafford Springs, managing lately are horse- it would involve weekly workshops over four months. Three hundred people were part of that first workshop to fill the role of Connecticut, owned and shoe crab stress research Grundgetta, Oscar the Grouch’s significant other, and each week, fewer and fewer people were asked back. On the last day it was operated by Scott Morey (find a deeper dive on that 2020s down to Arciero and one other person. She walked into the room and there were Jim Henson and many of the key people who ’06 (CAHNR) and Heidi 2010s in “The Fortunate Ones?” in created “Sesame Street.” Morey ’05 (CAHNR), was UConn Magazine, Summer “It was the most intimidating room — they were the nicest people — but knowing who they were, and being a young person named Veterinary Hospital of 2019), water quality in Long ➼ Collin Molano ’20 auditioning, it was pretty scary,” she says. That was 38 years ago. Today Arciero is still Grundgetta. She’s also played “cats and the Year in hospital design in ➼ Congratulations to Island Sound, shark acous- (CLAS) started working in bats, goats and birds, and any kind of animal or monster you can imagine. That variety is part of the joy of the job,” she says. the category of under 8,000 Assistant Professor Austin tic tracking, and invasions January in customer relation- Arciero says she loves so many things about “Sesame Street,” the diversity of its puppets and human characters, the way it square feet by dmv360, a na- H. Johnson ’10 MA, ’13 research. He’s the vice-chair ship management at Fidelity addresses big topics. The show recently did an outreach video on homelessness and food insecurity that emphasized that home tional veterinary publication. 6th Year, ’14 Ph.D., who of the Association of Zoos Investments in Jacksonville, is where your family is; home is where you love. “That was very moving,” she says. Another favorite part of her work is the won- ➼ Grace Duarte de Baker was awarded tenure at the and Aquariums Sea Turtle Florida, where he entered the ’07 MSW is the assistant University of California SAFE (Saving Animals From training program. der that happens when children interact with “Sesame Street” characters live. “They never see us; they just see the puppet,” she says. “They don’t even realize we’re talking. That’s the magic. It’s just the character they see.” That magic was part of a tour she did with “Sesame Street,” talking with children after Hurricane Katrina. “I think all of us are here on the planet to make things a little better for each other, and that kind of work, it’s the best,” she says. —JACKIE FITZPATRICK HENNESSEY ’83 (CLAS)

IN MEMORIAM Find more about Grundgetta and Grouch, including why they never married, and hear about Arciero’s time at the UConn Please visit foundation.uconn.edu/obituaries to find obituaries for alumni and faculty. And please share news of alumni puppetry program at magazine.uconn.edu. deaths and obituaries with UConn Magazine by sending an email to [email protected] or writing to Alumni News & Notes, UConn Foundation, 2384 Alumni Drive Unit 3053, Storrs, CT 06269.

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CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO TOM'S TRIVIA! Go to p. 48 or magazine.uconn.edu to see if you know as 1. What was the first year UConn much as King of UConn Trivia Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS). freshmen had to have a high school diploma in order to enroll? TOM'S A: 1914 B: 1891 C: 1919 D: 1893 TRIVIA 2. Prior to becoming one of the seven founding schools in the Big East in 1979, UConn had been a regional basketball power, winning 18 cham- pionships in which conference? A: The New England Conference B: The Eastern College Athletic Conference C: The Yankee Conference D: The Athletic League of New En- gland State Colleges

3. James “Angie” Verinis ’41 was co-pilot of the famous Memphis Belle flying fortress during World War II. What did he name the bomber he piloted later in the war? A: The Hellfire Husky B: The Connecticut Yankee C: The Lady of Mirror Lake D: The Spirit of ’81

4. Frances Osborne Kellogg dropped out of high school and never attended class at UConn, yet her legacy has become one of the most prominent aspects of the Universi- ty. What did she contribute? A: She donated the basketballs and uniforms for the first women’s team B: She applied the first coat of gold paint to the cupola atop Wilbur Cross C: She gave the school the Husky puppy chosen as Jonathan I D: She left a bequest that enables the production of Dairy Bar ice cream Bonus: 2021 is not the first year UConn has held stadium graduations. For a few years in the early sixties during the Homer Babbidge administration, commencement was held in Memorial Stadium in Storrs. What was the final year UConn graduation was held at Memorial Stadium?