FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ALUMNI AND FRIENDS FALL 2015

Deployment 2.0 When disasters hit, Team Rubicon responds. Page 22 Vision At a tiny building in Wisconsin’s Chequamegon- Nicolet National Forest, scientist Claire Phillips studies carbon in soil samples. The UW has been conducting research at the site for a decade, exploring how forests change over time, under the direction of Ankur Desai, an associate professor in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Photo by Bryce Richter. On Wisconsin 3 ENHANCED BY A LIFELONG PROFESSIONAL C O M M U N I T Y. INSPIRED BY WORLD- RENOWNED RESEARCH.

RECRUITED BY MORE THAN 500 TOP COMPANIES.

Our globally recognized faculty and forward-thinking curriculum provide a phenomenal business education and distinct hiring advantage—at exceptional value. The sure path for advancing your career starts here. Let’s begin. go.wisc.edu/UWAlumni

4 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 © 2015 University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Business Contents Fall 2015 Volume 116, Number 3

Jake Wood ’05, co-founder of OnWisconsin Team Rubicon DEPARTMENTS

2 Vision 7 Communications 9 Observation

OnCampus

11 News 13 Bygone The Red Gym’s Pool 14 Calculation Campus Visitors 17 Conversation Kathy Cramer 18 Exhibition Cool Science Images 20 Contender Alyssa Daniels 21 Sports

FEATURES

22 A New Mission OnAlumni A decorated Marine veteran, Jake Wood ’05 has mobilized thousands of volunteers to bring help 48 News and hope following disasters around the world. 49 Exhibition By Jenny Price ’96 Homecoming Buttons 50 Tradition Dane County Farmers’ Market 30 Collegiate Recovery 101 51 Class Notes Pursuing sobriety can be especially difficult on 58 Diversions college campuses. UW-Madison is helping with 66 Destination Lincoln Statue substance-free housing and other support. By Maggie Ginsberg ’97

34 Very Superstitious From baking brownies to donning lucky cleats, Badger student-athletes take comfort in their pregame rituals. By Dennis Chaptman ’80

38 Long May They Run Since leaving campus, the Emperors of Wyoming Cover have seldom been in the same state, but technology Kate Oliver, a for- mer Army combat allows them to keep recording music together. medic, and fellow By Joshua M. Miller volunteers arrive in the Philippines For more vintage following Ty- Homecoming phoon Haiyan in buttons like the 42 Walk-Ons: Despite the Odds 2013. Photo cour- one above, see These football players came to the UW without tesy Kirk Jackson,

BUTTON PHOTO BY ANDY MANIS; JAKE WOOD PHOTO BY ALBERTO VASARI ALBERTO BY PHOTO WOOD JAKE MANIS; ANDY BY PHOTO BUTTON page 49. scholarships, but left as stars. By Tom Kertscher ’84 Team Rubicon.

On Wisconsin 5 WWW.WISC.EDU

FALL 2015 6 On Wisconsin THIS MESSAGE FURNISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON

14310-UW-Print_8.375x10.875.indd 1 9/30/14 12:57 PM Communications RYAN’S RETIREMENT Badger men’s basketball coach Readers Praise, so modest and unassuming. I Bo Ryan announced this sum- Shred Summer Issue remember helping him put to- mer that he will retire after one Every state legislator should gether some shelves, and in that more season. News traveled fast get a copy of the Summer 2015 famous basement, he drilled a with help from @UWMadison, issue. What a great reminder hole in a bottle so I could build recently ranked by Engagement of the importance of our a lamp to take to college. Labs as the top Twitter account great university. Thomas Heberlein ’69, in higher education. Robert Goldberger ’53, MA’69, PhD’71 MD’56 Madison Mequon, Wisconsin I, too, was gifted by the gen- The Summer 2015 issue is full erosity and friendship of Ron of enthusiastic and uplifting Daggett. For several years, I articles. “Counting the Ways” lived with a wonderful man dis- provides a powerful snapshot abled by cerebral palsy, Randall 811people have favorited this photo, of the ways Madison influences Bartels, who passed away last which @UWMadison posted the day the quality of life in Wisconsin year. Randy harbored a dream of that Ryan revealed his plans. and beyond. These are perilous marketing a briefcase that would times [for the university bud- attach to the front of a wheel- get], and your efforts to produce chair, but couldn’t find anyone such a fine argument for more to help him with the design, until funding, not less, are manifest someone suggested Ron Daggett. in this issue! Ron invited us to his home. Jeff James ’64 In his basement, over the course Palmyra, Virginia of several visits, he produced a prototype of the briefcase Randy My wife, Rhoda Grahmann envisioned. Although Randy’s Culin ’87, really enjoys On business never materialized, Wisconsin and reads it cover he used the briefcase for many to cover. The Summer 2015 years. Ron was a man with a issue arrived yesterday and was beautiful mind and heart. promptly seized by our choco- Eric Plaut ’87 late lab puppy and destroyed. Clinton, Iowa 38,242 people liked the tribute to Ryan that I mean shredded — itty, bitty former Badger and NBA draft pick Frank pieces shredded. Anyhow, Muskies for the Kaminsky ’15 posted on Facebook. Loki is sincerely sorry (think Wisconsin Idea droopy, pouty Labrador face) for In regard to “The Wisconsin “He took an 18-year-old destroying the magazine. Is it Idea Is Having a Moment,” kid and helped him be- possible to send her a new copy? [Summer 2015 Association come a man both on and Ted Culin News]: When I was a student, Portland, Oregon Professor Robert Gard es- off the court. No words tablished the Wisconsin Idea can accurately describe Editor’s Note: We are always happy Theatre to promote the Idea, what Coach Ryan has to replace mangled issues, whether and I stage-managed several puppy perpetrated or otherwise. performances. meant to me and how he I remember little about the has changed my life.” Modest, content except for one character, Unassuming Hero Marbert the Mad Muskellunge. Frank Kaminsky I was thrilled to come across Marbert, impersonated by fellow June 29 at 6:40pm your great article on Professor student Ed Morgan ’50, sang a Ronald Daggett ’38, MS’39 comic song about himself and [“Plastics Pioneers,” Summer his place in Wisconsin lore. Ed 2015]. I became best friends graciously suffered the indig- with his son Lorin. I spent a lot nity of wearing a full-sized fish of time at the Daggett home, costume, and he later went on 357–125 and Mr. Daggett was the first to a career in Hollywood, acting, professor I ever met. I never directing, and producing. Ryan’s record as head coach at the UW, including the team’s second straight trip dreamed that I’d grow up to David W. Weiss ’50, MA’51 to the Final Four and making the NCAA

PHOTO COURTESY UW ATHLETICS UW COURTESY PHOTO be a professor myself. He was Charlottesville, Virginia Championship game last season. WWW.WISC.EDU

THIS MESSAGE FURNISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON On Wisconsin 7

14310-UW-Print_8.375x10.875.indd 1 9/30/14 12:57 PM 8 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Observation

Fall 2015

PUBLISHER Wisconsin Alumni Association 650 North Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706 Voice: 608-262-2551 Toll free: 888-WIS-ALUM Fax: 608-265-8771 Email: [email protected] Web: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com

CO-EDITORS Niki Denison, Wisconsin Alumni Association Cindy Foss, University Communications

SENIOR EDITOR John Allen, Wisconsin Alumni Association

SENIOR WRITER Jenny Price ’96, University Communications

ART DIRECTOR Julie Savasky, Pentagram Design

PRODUCTION EDITOR Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, University Marketing

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER “There are places I remember all my life, though Made you look! Jeff Miller, University Communications some have changed ...,” the Beatles once sang. We’ve redesigned For most of us, those unforgettable places include On Wisconsin, CLASS NOTES/DIVERSIONS EDITOR updating its Paula Apfelbach ’83, Wisconsin Alumni the college campuses where we spent cherished pages and upping Association years learning new things and beginning to evolve ways to nudge into fully formed human beings. your memories. EDITORIAL INTERN At On Wisconsin, we understand that UW- You just might Daniel McKay x’16 remember these Madison evokes memories of the highest order. colorful chairs. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES We know that you are very likely to put the brakes Madison Magazine: 608-270-3600 on your busy lives and take a moment to reflect whenever we show you a photograph of campus or write about a tradition that you first ALUMNI ADDRESS CHANGES DEATH NOTICES experienced as a Badger. Madison area: 608-262-9648 When we decided to redesign your alumni magazine — we all Toll-free: 888-947-2586 need a facelift of a sort now and then, right? — we knew that we Email: [email protected] needed to give you more of those moments. Over the years, as we’ve conducted readership surveys and asked about your favorite topics, Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is supported by financial gifts from alumni campus history and traditions have steadily topped the list. and friends. To make a gift to UW-Madison, So as you spend time with this issue, admiring our new cover please visit supportuw.org. design and marveling over our font choices, you’ll also find Bygone and Destination — pages that share history about the university you Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle this magazine. love or bring into focus what may be a bit fuzzy in your memories. If you pause for a bit and think, “Oh, I remember that! I always loved that,” then we’ve done our job.

Cindy Foss and Niki Denison

PHOTO BY JEFF MILLER JEFF BY PHOTO Co-Editors

On Wisconsin 9 Jeff Miller/University of Wisconsin–Madison

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10 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 601 University Ave. Madison, WI 53715 facebook.com/flunocenter OnCampusNews from UW-Madison

UW RESEARCH GETS CORNY “Who Gets Kissed?” isn’t just Budget Fallout a popular game played at corn-husking bees of old. The bottom line signifies a $59 million It’s also the cheeky name for cut in state funds. the first variety in a series of organic, open-pollinated For UW-Madison, the hits just keep coming. sweet corns being developed The latest is a $250 million cut to the UW System, matching by researchers at UW-Mad- the largest state budget cut in the university’s history and the sixth ison and the Organic Seed major cut in the last seven budget cycles. The result: UW-Madison, Alliance. Sweet-corn breeder the largest UW System campus, is getting $58.9 million less in state Bill Tracy, professor and funding this fiscal year, despite intense lobbying from university chair of agronomy, partnered officials and alumni. State lawmakers also slashed $5 million from with organic farmers in the specific UW programs, such as the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative. seven-year plant-breeding “It is clear that continuing to diminish state support for higher project that led to the cre- education in Wisconsin does nothing but diminish the UW System,” ation of this variety, which Chancellor Rebecca Blank said when the budget numbers became has yellow and white kernels. public this summer. Blank prepared the campus for the cuts before the Wisconsin legislature completed its work on the budget bill in July, announcing that schools and colleges would address a $23 million cut from last Rethinking year by eliminating more than 400 positions, including 70 layoffs. Another $9 million will come from administrative units, the athletic Atticus Finch department will chip in $7 million to help, and the university will Fans of To Kill a Mockingbird — tap its dwindling reserves for another $10 million. and parents of toddlers named UW-Madison will close and merge some programs, decrease Atticus — were crestfallen the number of classes by several hundred, and reduce advising when the book’s sequel depict- services offered during the next two years. There will be fewer ed the virtuous lawyer as an support services — such as information technology — for students, aging racist who has attended faculty, and staff, and the university will spend less to maintain a Ku Klux Klan meeting and buildings and facilities. denounces desegregation. The UW System Board of Regents approved a plan to raise tuition But this more complicated, by $3,000 each of the next two years for nonresident undergrads at perhaps realistic, depiction UW-Madison, which will generate an additional $17 million. Tuition might not be all bad, says will also go up for graduate and professional schools. UW-Madison English Professor The budget bill also removes tenure for professors from state Emily Auerbach, who is teach- statute and puts it under the control of the regents, giving them ing Lee’s Go Set a Watchman more power to lay off faculty and staff. Blank says there won’t be this fall in a Madison Public any changes in the way the university operates. UW campuses have Library discussion group. The broad authority to establish tenure protections, according to UW Chancellor group is also reading To Kill a System officials. At UW-Madison, a new committee is working Rebecca Blank Mockingbird and The Mocking- this fall to establish policies mirroring tenure provisions that were says that all bird Next Door: Life with Harper parts of the previously included in state law. campus will feel Lee, by Marja Mills. “As with any university, our reputation depends on the quality of the pain of state “There’s been an almost our faculty,” Blank says. “Unfortunately, the inclusion of this language budget cuts, and idealized, saintly portrayal of has created negative, often inaccurate, national publicity that will the reductions Atticus that may not have been will likely affect hinder the ability of UW-Madison to attract and retain the best how long it takes accurate for its time. There faculty and staff. We are doing all we can to combat that, and I have students to are very few saints,” Auerbach said unambiguously to the deans that we are prepared to counter complete their says. “To show Atticus as a outside offers and aggressively fight raiding efforts.” degrees. product of his environment Blank is focused on continuing to convey the UW’s value to the and show bias that we haven’t state to prevent another budget cut two years down the road. wanted to talk about can be a

PHOTO BY JEFF MILLER JEFF BY PHOTO catalyst for discussion.” JENNY PRICE ’96

On Wisconsin 11 OnCampus

PATENTLY INFLUENTIAL When Carl Gulbrandsen PhD’78, JD’81 announced his intention to retire in 2016, we at On Wisconsin knew that an epochal moment had come. He has worked for WARF since 1997, and he’s been its managing director since 2000. WARF is the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, UW-Madison’s patenting and licensing organization. When UW researchers invent new technologies, WARF helps acquire patents, sells licenses to companies to manufacture or use them, and then turns royalties from those sales into grants to fund more UW research. Last year’s grant, along with in-kind suport, totaled about $100 million. WARF has Chemic Book also helped turn UW discoveries into more than 200 start-up businesses. When Veronica Berns PhD’14 was nearing the end of her path to Here are some highlights from a doctorate in chemistry, one thing kept bothering her. It wasn’t her Gulbrandsen’s decade and a half at research — five years of work studying crystals and the structure of the helm. solids — or the defense of her dissertation. It was that many of the people closest to her had no idea what she was studying. 1998 Human embryonic stem cells, “My family, my friends — all of the people I knew who didn’t do discovered by Jamie Thomson science for a living — they didn’t really understand what I was doing or why it was cool,” she says. “So I came up with this idea of drawing a 1999 WiCell Research Institute estab- comic book to make the language of chemistry easier to understand.” lished to develop stem cell technology During the last few months at UW-Madison, Berns started noo- dling around with pictures and text for Atomic Size Matters, a simplified 2001 Medical imaging and radiation explanation of her research. She told her adviser, Danny Fredrickson, therapy developed by Rock Mackie, about it, and he encouraged her to include the comic in her dissertation. which helped launch the company She did, much to the pleasure of her review committee. TomoTherapy “People really seemed to like it,” she says. “All of these chemists asked me when they could get a copy and how they could do some- 2002 Influenza vaccine developed by thing similar.” Yoshi Kawaoka After graduation, Berns used Kickstarter to raise money so that she could publish Atomic Size Matters. Online donors contributed 2008 Induced pluripotent stem cells, $14,400, and she took the book through a printing, selling copies discovered by Thomson’s lab through her website, veronicaberns.com. Today, Berns works as a bench chemist for Honeywell, synthe- 2009 Improved computer circuit that sizing new solids in a lab in Illinois. But she still thinks about creating creates parallel and speedier computer another comic. processing, invented by Guri Sohi “I’d like to do something on Nobel Prizes,” she says. “Every year, these great discoveries get awards and coverage in the press, but the 2010 Opening of Discovery Building, media often leave out the good parts. They don’t explain what it is home of the Wisconsin Institute for about science that makes this work so cool.” Discovery and the Morgridge Institute

JOHN ALLEN for Research BERNS VERONICA BY ILLUSTRATION

12 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Bygone The Red Gym’s Pool

No, Badgers: absolutely none of encouraged. That month, how- Don’t look too built in 1961. But those were the dips in the Red Gym’s pool ever, a group of female students closely, gentle both overcrowded, and the Red readers, or may be of the skinny variety. forced their way into the tank — you may get Gym was a sentimental favor- That, at least, has been the naked, of course — in order to an eyeful. This ite. And so they felt the need policy since the late 1970s, and liberate it from gender segrega- photo from the to make a splash, literally and it’s unlikely to change today, as tion. The Daily Cardinal covered 1940s–50s shows figuratively. “the tank” was emptied for good the event (under the headline male students Today the Red Gym has no swimming nude and all in the 1990s. “Blue Water, White Thighs”), (we’re pretty more pool politics, as every You may think the universi- and within a year, the pool was sure) at the whiff of chlorine is gone. The ty began enforcing anti-nudity coed, clothing required. Red Gym. building provides office space for rules due to an excess of frater- Why would feminudists student groups — in particular, nization between masculine and feel the need to free the Red the Multicultural Student Cen- feminine student bodies. Rather Gym’s pool? There were then ter, the LGBT Campus Center, it was the opposite: the sexes two other swimming facilities and International Student Ser- could not share a pool in peace. on campus, one in Lathrop Hall vices — as well as the Morgridge Prior to February 1973, the (formerly women only, but coed Center for Public Service. Red Gym’s pool was for men long before ’73), and another Clothing is still required.

PHOTO COURTESY UW-MADISON ARCHIVES #S15810 ARCHIVES UW-MADISON COURTESY PHOTO only, and nude swimming was (also coed) at the Natatorium, JOHN ALLEN

On Wisconsin 13 Calculation Campus Visitors

L a k e M e n d o t a

28% 31%

E

22%L E

M

E

N

T

A

R Y

campus with the community is a Seeing is Believing top priority, says Helena Man- ning, campus relations manager. Through East Campus Mall to campus provides the chance to From summer camps and alumni Library Mall. Hang a left and experience the campus rather trips, and from tours of muse- climb Bascom Hill to the Lin- than simply see pictures of it ums to the UW Space Place, coln statue. online, Jessica McCarty ’05, Manning says she’s proud that It’s a familiar route for any assistant director of CAVR, the UW has so much to offer. given Badger trudging from one says. For a prospective student, “It’s so much fun to see these 58The number of class to another. But for prospec- imagining what it’s like to be a fourth graders or seniors or tive high school students and part of campus can make the student tour juniors or these alumni groups guides on staff other campus visitors, it’s a path difference. “Oftentimes you’ll at Campus and come to campus and go through that might have a big impact. see students’ eyes light up when Visitor Relations; these venues,” she says. “Eyes Last year alone, 31,676 high they see how big a lecture hall 43 percent are are wide and bright, and we schoolers explored campus is, or the smaller lectures and from Wisconsin. should be so proud that we have along this route, and that’s just the classrooms,” she says. “It’s so many venues to share with a fraction of the 72,010 total a nice way to just get a feel for everyone.” visitors UW-Madison saw in the atmosphere for yourself.” In any weather, on any given 2014, according to Campus and For the more than 40,000 day, it’s likely that some group is Visitor Relations (CAVR). other visitors, coming to campus walking that same, all-too-famil- For those thinking of is a chance to be a part of the iar Badger route.

attending the UW, touring the Wisconsin Idea, and sharing the DANIEL MCKAY X’16 DESIGN PENTAGRAM DELGADO, CARLA BY INFOGRAPHIC

14 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 OnCampus

HAPPY FACE There’s an unexpected advan- tage to living in America’s melt- ing pot: we smile more. A recent study by Paula Niedenthal ’81, a UW professor of psychology, has explored how citizens in dozens of countries describe how they display emotion. Peo- ple who live in countries built LOVE ONLINE on centuries of migration from Becoming “Facebook official” is a milestone in modern romance, but can it also help other countries are more emo- love last? Catalina Toma, a UW assistant professor tionally expressive than those of communication arts (below), is the first in more insular cultures, sug- researcher to examine the link between how couples present themselves on the site and gesting that smiling became a the longevity of their relationships. In a study of heterosexual college-aged couples, necessity when there was a lack Toma asked questions about their relation- ships and how committed they felt to their of shared language and culture. partners, and then followed up six months later. She found that certain Facebook “Otherwise, you wouldn’t know cues were positively linked to relationship what the other person was feel- commitment and increased the likelihood of couples staying together: being listed as ing or thinking or liking or “in a relationship,” posting photos with their partner, and writing on their partner’s wall. disliking,” she says. “And you “The claims people make about themselves in public are likely to be very need to be able to communi- influential in how we think cate those things to facilitate about ourselves,” Toma says. “Now we’re finding that these commerce and government, to self presentations also affect how you feel about a relation- survive and prosper together.” ship partner.”

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device that can emit Campus will have to suffer The new Shelter light as powerfully an autumn without the Union Medicine Program at as an object ten Terrace, as the Memorial the School of Veterinary thousand times its Union heads into the next Medicine works closely size. The advance stage of renovations. Be- with shelters to support drastically surpasses ginning in September, much their work and improve UW engineers, previous technology of the Terrace will be shut the well-being of home- led by assistant and could have huge down so construction can less animals. Millions of professor Zongfu applications for address accessibility issues, animals die in U.S. shel- Yu, have created photography, solar fix cracked pavement, and ters each year, often due a nanoscale power, and more. improve the stage. to lack of information. TOMA PHOTO BY MICHAEL TREVIS; PUPPY PHOTO BY NIK HAWKINS NIK BY PHOTO PUPPY TREVIS; MICHAEL BY PHOTO TOMA OnCampus

GO BIG READ

EQUAL JUSTICE Archbishop Des- mond Tutu calls Bryan Stevenson “America’s Man- dela.” Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Alabama, to represent death- row prisoners and children in adult prisons, and to advocate for sentencing re- form and an end to racial bias in the legal system. His book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Re- demption, is the latest selection i n p r o t e s t o f r o t c In April 1990, students began a nearly weeklong sit-in outside for Go Big Read, UW-Madison’s then-Chancellor Donna Shalala’s office, after she refused to include a disclaimer on school common-reading documents calling attention to the ROTC’s ban on gays and lesbians. Shalala and the board program. Orga- of regents supported ending the ban, but rather than kick ROTC off campus, chose to lobby nizers encouraged Congress to change the policy. Many colleges reinstated ROTC programs after President the campus community to Obama signed legislation that repealed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 2011. suggest titles that fit into a theme of inequal- ity in America. The Hole Story The book tells the There’s a reason why UW-Madison is in story of an inno- the Big Ten: it’s a big university. Its central cent black man campus covers 936 acres and has 388 build- sentenced to ings (since the opening of Signe Skott death for killing a white woman Cooper Hall, home of the School of Nursing, in Monroeville, in 2014). Servicing all of these buildings Alabama, the across all this area isn’t easy. The university hometown of uses 1,107 manholes to maintain twenty-five Harper Lee. 1,107 Stevenson will miles of sanitary sewers, and twenty-five visit campus miles more of storm sewers. That means for a public talk the UW has one manhole for every 238 and a Number of in October. half feet of pipe. manholes on campus news feed

What are the most Women who wore Fitbits logged Cheesemakers Tony and distinctive physical more activity than those who Julie Hook of Mineral Point, characteristics wore a pedometer in a UW study of Wisconsin, donated $40,000 of UW-Madison? postmenopausal women who wore from the sale of their twenty- Badger alumni from one of the devices and had a weekly year cheddar to help reno- around the world goal. Lead author Lisa Cadmus- vate Babcock Hall and build can weigh in on this Bertram, an assistant professor an addition to the Center for question and others of kinesiology, notes Fitbits and Dairy Research. The coveted to help create a new similar devices offer more detailed aged cheddar from Hook’s campus master plan. feedback and encouragement than Cheese Company rang up at Visit www.master a basic step-counting pedometer. $209 a pound. plan.wisc.edu. MILLER JEFF BY PHOTO OPPOSITE JOURNAL; STATE WISCONSIN ARNOLD, AMBER BY PHOTO CHEESE MILLER; JEFF BY PHOTO COVER MANHOLE #S00739; ARCHIVES UW-MADISON COURTESY PHOTO ROTC

16 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Conversation with Kathy Cramer

Kathy Cramer ’94 is the here — that’s not the case at and less trust in government. director of the Morgridge all. One of the great things It’s great that there is such Center for Public Service, about this place is just about a strong volunteering ethic but she could just as easily every entity has some kind of among young people. And go by the title given to the civic-engagement component, yet, for me, especially as a 1,500 students who take and that’s the nature of being political scientist, if it’s a part in one of its largest home to the Wisconsin Idea. turn away from government, programs each year: Badger It’s valued everywhere on I don’t think that’s a good Volunteer. Cramer grew up this campus. thing. I still believe that we in Grafton, Wisconsin, and live in a democracy and that joined the UW faculty after Are you hopeful about a in order for that to be the earning her PhD in political national trend toward case in the future, we’ve got science at the University citizens giving back to their to work through our govern- of Michigan. For fourteen communities? It’s hopeful and ment, and we have to believe years, she’s taught the course worrisome. Especially among in government. Citizenship, Democracy and young people, we see a trend Difference, which this fall is toward more volunteering Do you see yourself as a focusing on racial justice and caretaker of the Wisconsin has students working in city Idea? I do. As a kid who government and after-school grew up here in this state and programs and reflecting on believed in the [concept of how those efforts can make the] Wisconsin Idea from a a difference. very young age, I believe it’s my responsibility, especially Let’s start by going back in now as a faculty member time: what was your first and an administrator. If I’m experience with volunteer- not doing my job in a way ing? With Neil Willenson ’92, that’s consistent with the who started Camp Heartland Wisconsin Idea, then we’re [a summer camp for children kind of in trouble. with HIV/AIDS]. We got to be friends when we were in high Interview conducted, edited, and school. There was this orga- condensed by Jenny Price ’96 nization in Milwaukee called The Gathering, which was a meals program for homeless folks or people in poverty. Neil had volunteered there … and a couple of times I went down with a carload of pals, and we volunteered. It sticks out in my mind because it felt really good to be helping other people do good work.

What is the center’s role? Is it unique among public universities? The Morgridge Center is unique in that it is a home to so many different civic engagement activities, so not just volunteering, but supporting community-based learning courses and commu- nity-based learning research grants for undergraduates. But I don’t want to overstate that all civic engagement activity on campus is housed

On Wisconsin 17 Exhibition Cool Science Images

1 2 3 #1 Trichomes (thyme) by Hilary Bultman, zoology #2 Prince Rupert’s Drops (glass) by Tyler Gordon, art #3 European Bee- wolves by Sabrina Koehler, medical microbiology and immunology #4 MRI (human brain) by Alex Orellana, art, and Brian Allen, 4 5 6 psychology #5 Zebrafish brain by Jessica Plavicki, pharmacy #6 Gallbladder stone by Jorden Manasse, veteri- nary medicine #7 Mouse neurons by Eshwar Udho, Waisman Center #8 Ice crystals by Marisa Otegui, botany #9 Embryonic stem cell by S.C. 7 8 9 Vermilyea, S. Guthrie, T.G. Golos, and M.E. Emborg, medicine #10 Leafcutter ant by Don Parsons, bacteriology #11 Fungi by Caleb Weisnicht, art, and Andrew Klapper, engineering

10 11

Imagery can serve as essential data that help scientists some of them — from the microscopic to the fantastically understand how things work, but science images can also faraway — are reproduced here. Contest judges, who be fascinating and beautiful. Honoring those qualities, the offered expertise both scientific and artistic, made their Why Files has been coordinating an annual Cool Science selections from among 115 submissions from faculty, staff, Image contest for four years. The online publication, created and students, with images representing disciplines from at UW-Madison in 1996 to explain the science behind the art to zoology. headlines, named the latest contest winners this spring, and

18 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 OnCampus

Pulp Fixin’ John Ralph PhD’82 of the UW’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center recently co-authored a paper that will make paper easier to produce. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ralph and several colleagues announced that they had discovered a means for growing softwood trees that produce better pulp. Pulp — the ground-up wood that is the basic material in paper — comes largely from trees. But it can be difficult to produce good pulp, due to the properties of wood. Softwood trees — pines, especially — make good pulp because their wood has long cellulose fibers. But they also produce a lot of lignin, a gluey substance that helps support cell walls but gets in the way of paper production. Much of the expense of paper manufacturing comes from removing lignin. Hardwood trees have lignin, too, but its composition and structure are different, and it’s easier to remove. But hardwood cellulose fibers are much shorter, making for weaker paper. Working with Armin Wagner of New Zealand’s Scion research insti- tute, Ralph and his colleagues found a way to genetically modify softwood pines to produce lignin like hardwood trees. The trees seem to be just as strong as any other pines, but much easier to turn into pulp. “There’s a great deal of interest in this in the industry,” Ralph says. “It will save a lot of energy, which will save a Plucked from Obscurity lot of cost.” In 1864, a Union Army captain from Wisconsin picked a plant growing outside his JOHN ALLEN tent in Georgia and pressed it onto a sheet of paper to send to a scientist friend. “This flower was moistened by the blood of heroes, for Wisconsin men have died where it was plucked,” the soldier wrote in his letter to Increase Lapham, consid- ered the state’s founder of natural history. The specimen, Cassia obtusifolia (“wild sensitive plant”), recently emerged from 1.2 million dried plants in the collection of the Wisconsin State Herbarium during preparations for celebrating a new biography of Lapham. His personal plant collection founded the herbarium more than 160 years ago. “This specimen shows that our collection also has value for understanding history and bridging the sciences with the humanities,” says herbarium director Ken Cameron. “There are treasures in the collection that we don’t know we are sitting on.”

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Mystery solved? After years of research (articles only; not The UW remains one of the planet’s Memorial Union the pictures), alumni believe they’ve solved the question of best educational and research insti- added a little lus- whether Playboy ever ranked the UW as a party school. Leg- 25th tutions, according to the Center for ter in June, when end holds that the magazine ranked party in the world World University Rankings. The organi- the building was schools but left Wisconsin out, “because it zation, which is based in Saudi Arabia, added to the Na- would be unfair to rank professionals with scored more than 2,000 schools, and tional Register of amateurs.” Playboy has long said it published UW-Madison ranked 25th in the world Historic Places. no such thing. But newspaper columnist 18th and 18th in the United States. Doug Moe ’79 may have discovered the in the U.S. source of the reference in a Midwest edition of the September 1968 issue. HERBARIUM PHOTO BY BRYCE RICHTER; PULP PHOTO COURTESY GREAT LAKES BIOENERGY RESEARCH CENTER RESEARCH BIOENERGY LAKES GREAT COURTESY PHOTO PULP RICHTER; BRYCE BY PHOTO HERBARIUM

On Wisconsin 19 Contender Alyssa Daniels

Alyssa Daniels x’17 has Daniels has been part of Alyssa Daniels having such a basis with the been on a horse since she the club since its beginning. started playing sport and being able to help polo in fourth was a first-grader in Balti- Now in her third year on the grade. She helped other people learn.” more. In fourth grade, she team, Daniels is the captain to launch the As she continues to build began polo, and she started and plays the number-two UW’s team in the club, she’s also working playing varsity-level polo in position. Her team won the 2013. toward her degree in animal eighth grade. Yet of all the Women’s Championship sciences and applying to universities she applied to, Tournament in the arena veterinary schools, including only UW-Madison lacked league in Los Angeles last the UW’s. what’s often called the sport fall, and she was an all-star With the Polo Club, school, of kings. selection in both regional vet school aspirations, and Fortunately, polo came tournaments. taking care of her own horse, to her. “My dad went [to the Yet for all her experience Daniels has her hands full. UW], so that’s how I ended up and achievements, she says, “I don’t sleep a lot,” she says. here,” she says. “I obviously “I’m not a follower, but I’m “But it’s just time manage- fell in love [with the campus] not a natural leader. I guess ment. It’s a lot of fun — and … so it worked out perfectly in polo, I’ve been doing it so 4 a.m. nights — but it’s that we started a team.” long, it comes to me easier worth it. I wouldn’t trade it Polo is one of the oldest than other things. It’s nice for anything.” team sports around, with DANIEL MCKAY X’16 players on horseback using mallets to hit a ball into the opposing team’s goal. The field is typically 300 yards by 160 — much larger than a football field — but teams can also play in a smaller arena. The Polo Club at UW-Madison collaborates with the Madison Polo Club and its president, Ruth Dumesic MBA’81. Since 2013, the UW club has used Dumesic’s horses and arena, located in Verona. The club has been successful so far, reaching the regional playoffs of intercollegiate competition in both of its first two years.

20 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 OnCampus Sports

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The UW Athletic Board voted this spring to retain men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves ’78 and women’s basket- ball coach Bobbie Kelsey, but did not extend their contracts, which end in 2019. Athletic director Barry Alvarez is looking for improvement after the men’s hockey team finished with a 4–26–5 record — the worst in program history — and Kelsey’s team finished at 9–20.

Badger volleyball player Lauryn Gillis x’16 made her first appearance with the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team this Inside the NBA Draft summer. The six-foot-one sophomore from New Castle, Indiana, transferred to the UW Sam Dekker’s trip to New York generated much after one season at USC. She ranked third on the team with 2.14 kills per suspense — and a perfect ending. set, recording double-figure kills in five matches.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver keeps among the teams that did not make the UW wrestlers Connor Medbery x’16 walking to the podium at Brooklyn’s Bar- playoffs the previous season. The Thun- and Jesse Thielke x’16 will redshirt the 2015–16 season to prepare for the U.S. clays Center, but he doesn’t call Sam der take one of the other top prospects Olympic Trials in April and the chance Dekker x’16’s name. The star forward invited to the draft. Dreams are being re- to compete at the Summer Games in who helped Wisconsin reach the nation- alized all around Dekker, but he can only Rio de Janeiro. UW coach Barry Davis al title game sits with his family at a table wait. Green Bay Packers quarterback won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. on the arena’s floor, waiting for a team to Aaron Rodgers — whom Dekker first pick him. His agent, seated across from met at an awards banquet in high school Michael Weiss ’13 won him, is not getting definitive information. — texts Dekker, reminding him to smile. three medals at this “This could be us,” he tells Dekker before “Be patient,” he writes. “You’re going to a summer’s Pan American Games in Toronto. The the announcement of six or seven teams’ playoff team.” former Badger swimmer selections, but so far it isn’t. Boston passes on him, as does Mil- took a silver medal in the Dekker had worked out for nine teams waukee, ensuring that the Sheboygan 800-meter freestyle relay and bronze leading up to the NBA draft on June 25, native will have to leave the state to con- medals in the 200-meter freestyle and so when the last of them, Atlanta, passes tinue his basketball career. Throughout 4x100-meter freestyle relay. on him at fifteen, and Boston and Milwau- the night, there was commotion around a Running back Corey Clement x’16 is kee do the same with the next two picks, particular prospect’s table a minute or two among the Badger football standouts he becomes anxious. “Am I going to get before each pick was announced. ESPN’s sportswriters are watching this season. The UW has candidates picked tonight?” he wonders. television cameras would creep closer. for top player at a variety Two hours earlier, the Minnesota Tim- A woman carrying a stack of hats would of positions, including berwolves made Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony hover nearby. That isn’t the case as the Clement (pictured here), Towns the top pick of 2015. There are of- clock ticks down for Houston’s pick. safety Michael Caputo, linebacker Vince ficially five minutes between selections, Sam’s older brother, John, checks Biegel, center but it’s often longer. Draftees and their Twitter and sees a report that Houston Dan Voltz, and families describe the wait as nerve-wrack- is going to select someone else. He puts receiver Alex ing and excruciating. The intensity at his phone down, but it immediately starts Erickson. Dekker’s table picks up when Detroit, a vibrating wildly. He checks again, reads possible destination, goes on the clock at a revised report, and tells his brother, number eight, but the Pistons take a dif- “You’re going to be a Rocket.” There’s not ferent small forward. Dekker is fairly stoic enough time to process the news before as most of the selections are announced, Silver makes it official. “With the eigh- but when the Charlotte Hornets draft fel- teenth pick in the 2015 NBA draft, the low Badger Frank Kaminsky ’15 with the Houston Rockets select Sam Dekker from next pick, he stands to give him a hug. the University of Wisconsin,” he says. Oklahoma City has the fourteenth and The wait is over.

OPPOSITE PHOTO BY BRYCE RICHTER; SAM DEKKER PHOTO BY MARK WESTCOTT/ NBAE/ GETTY IMAGES; TICKER PHOTOS COURTESY UW ATHLETICS UW COURTESY PHOTOS TICKER IMAGES; GETTY NBAE/ WESTCOTT/ MARK BY PHOTO DEKKER SAM RICHTER; BRYCE BY PHOTO OPPOSITE final pick of the “lottery” — the selections ANDREW KAHN 22 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014 A NEW MISSION For veterans who feel adrift upon returning home, Jake Wood has a suggestion: come along with us.

By Jenny Price ’96

On Wisconsin 23 Jake Wood ’05 knew he would become a Marine rine. Once they met, he witnessed firsthand what the week that Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan. His he calls the six-foot-six Wood’s “command pres- decision was final. He discussed it with no one, ence” — the effect of his natural charisma and gift not even his family. for public speaking off the cuff. Tillman was a former NFL player who left pro- “I’ve seen it where people are like, ‘You [want me fessional sports to enlist in the Army after 9/11. to run] off a cliff? Okay, how fast do you want me to Wood was an offensive lineman for the Badgers run?’ ” McNulty says. who found himself filled with guilt for going to Wood and McNulty are the frontmen for Team college and playing football while others were on Rubicon, a sometimes uncomfortable position for the front lines. people so strongly rooted in the concept of team- In the four years following Wood’s graduation, work. As the organization’s profile has grown, the he served tours in Iraq, where his unit did combat two are frequently asked about issues facing men and ran counterinsurgency missions out of Camp and women after they leave the military. It’s not Fallujah, and in Afghanistan, where he deployed a role Wood says he feels qualified to take on as after graduating from sniper school at the top of a “simple Marine sergeant,” but he is willing to his class. He left the Marines as a decorated veter- share his perspective when asked how his group an and returned home to face another big decision: can help veterans make the transition from mili- what’s next? tary service to civilian life. “I was a little apprehensive about taking off the “Some veterans are struggling. Why are they uniform,” Wood says. “It was really that feeling struggling? We believe it’s because they lack pur- that I was going to never do anything again in my “I’m going to pose and community in their life,” Wood says. life that was going to be so purposeful.” Haiti. Who’s in?” “Other people might say it’s because of this chem- former U.S. When a massive earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, Marine Jake ical imbalance … Okay, that might be. You try Wood made his choice: instead of sitting back and Wood (below) giving him a pill; we’re going to try giving him a watching the devastation on television, he would wrote on his Face- mission. At the end of the day, we’ll see which one go there to contribute the skills he learned in the book page follow- works better.” ing the massive military. Instead of going back to school to pursue earthquake there Wood makes it clear that Team Rubicon’s pri- an MBA as he had planned, he would serve. That in 2010. Previous mary mission is providing aid following disasters, moment was the origin of Team Rubicon, an orga- spread: Team but that veterans are its fuel. They come from dif- nization that mobilizes volunteers to help in the Rubicon volun- ferent generations and different wars and from all teers gather after hours, days, and weeks following earthquakes, a tornado hit walks of life. Little outreach is needed: veterans find floods, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. Faulkner County, the organization mostly through word of mouth Wood cofounded the group with William Arkansas, in 2014. and social media. David Dodds joined the team McNulty, a fellow Marine who signed on for the Haiti effort just minutes after Wood wrote a Facebook post looking for vol- unteers. The group has since deployed teams across the United States and around the world — from Burma to Chile to Pakistan. Team Rubicon now has twenty-seven thousand vol- unteers, most of them veterans, who help bring order to chaos following disasters and bridge the gap until conventional aid organizations can respond. But Team Rubicon is also restoring something that veter- ans often lose when they take off their uniforms: it’s giving them a new mission.

McNulty didn’t know Wood when the two connected ahead of their trip to Haiti, but he

knew enough: Wood was a Ma- RUBICON TEAM WILLIAM,MCNULTY, COURTESY PAGE THIS PHOTO RUBICON; TEAM JACKSON, KIRK COURTESY PHOTO SPREAD PREVIOUS

24 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 in 2012 after reading a friend’s social media post. He knows veterans who have struggled with their return to civilian life. “They feel kind of useless,” says Dodds, a defense contractor and Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Wood (left) became friends He volunteered on a number of projects for Team with fellow Rubicon and now serves as the group’s operations Marine Clay Hunt coordinator in Virginia. (right) when the For Dodds, the involvement is personal: one two men served tours in Iraq and of his friends took his own life in summer 2014. Afghanistan. He also knows a veteran who considered suicide, but found a new purpose through Team Rubicon. enough, and hoped to become a doctor. An explo- “Stopping that from happening is huge,” he says. sion during the first Gulf War left her with a brain injury, and her dream disappeared. After multiple surgeries and procedures, she retired from the During its inaugural mission in Haiti, the small Navy. “I felt thrown away by the world,” she wrote team of volunteers sat in a circle and drank Do- in a blog post earlier this year. minican beer after a long day providing medical After spotting an online ad for Team Rubicon, aid at a displaced persons camp. Brother Jim she signed up to deploy following an ice storm in Boynton, a Jesuit schoolteacher working with the Georgia in February 2014, but feared her injuries volunteers, encouraged them to talk about what would ultimately lead to rejection. Then the phone they had seen and done during the hours before. rang. “We would like you to come help us,” a vol- Wood had cleaned dirt, gravel, and pus from an unteer coordinator said. She has since signed on infected wound in the leg of a young boy as he for other team missions, and says that participating screamed in pain. Other team members had per- is like being in the Navy again. formed amputations and one had delivered a baby. “I’m no longer broken,” she wrote. One by one, team members — including Wood Sharing stories is part of the team’s culture. — shared their experiences. “There was this boy Wood urges volunteers to talk to the public and today ...” he began. These kinds of conversations the media about themselves and how they came to take place around a fire or in the church basements be part of the group. “I started as just a pipsqueak or school gymnasiums where volunteers gather freshman at the University of Wisconsin. Some- at the end of each grueling day. Images of dev- how I ended up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Somehow astation can bring back wartime memories, but I ended up in Haiti,” he says. “But that’s the unique the shared physical labor breaks down barriers. story that brought me to Team Rubicon, and every- “They feel comfort and trust for the first time in body else has one of those.” a while,” Wood says. “You’ll see people who will start talking about their experiences either in the military or postmilitary, and they’ll end their story Progress was often elusive on the ground in Iraq with, ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever told anyone and Afghanistan, says McNulty, who worked in out loud.’ ” intelligence. Now as some veterans watch ISIS Civilians are often afraid to ask veterans about and other destabilizing forces surge in those re- their experiences overseas, worried about offending them or bringing up bad memories, even though most veterans look back on their service as a great time in their lives, Wood says. HOW TEAM RUBICON GOT ITS NAME “Somewhere along the line, we lost this com- The organization’s name references the days of Julius munity focus, [this] community-centric approach to veteran reintegration,” he says. “I don’t know Caesar, who famously crossed the Rubicon, a river in why that is.” northeastern Italy, to march on Rome and never looked But victims of natural disasters quickly learn back. In January 2010, Jake Wood and a small group the value of welcoming veterans back into their communities, Wood says. “These homeowners say, of volunteers traversed a river border between the ‘Wow, I’m so impressed, I feel like this is the best Dominican Republic and Haiti to bring aid to thousands America has to offer, and I never would have known it,’ ” he says. of earthquake victims in camps — a journey considered too dangerous by other aid organizations. They decided

Donna Burdett was an EMT and nurse by age sev- that moment was their Rubicon, and they, too, were

COURTESY OF JAKE WOOD JAKE OF COURTESY enteen, joined the Navy as soon as she was old irrevocably committed to their mission.

On Wisconsin 25 gions, they wonder whether the sacrifices were and must undertake a capstone project that im- worth it. “[But] when you’re clearing the mud out proves the organization. The goal is to develop of someone’s basement after a flood just struck, or leaders within the team, as well as help its veteran you’re bandaging someone after they were injured volunteers compete and thrive in the civilian because of the high winds of a typhoon, you can see job market. the fruits of your labor,” he says. Wood says it is an opportunity Hunt would Fewer than thirty-six hours after a 7.8-magni- have liked. tude earthquake hit Nepal in April, killing thousands and leaving survivors in remote villages without aid or medical care, Team Rubicon launched Operation Team Rubicon had already proved its worth to Tenzing. A small reconnaissance team traveled veterans. Now it needed to show the Ameri- to Kathmandu and partnered with a startup U.S. can public what it could do. When Hurricane drone company to obtain aerial images that would Sandy hit the Northeast in fall 2012, the group help assess damage and update maps of the disas- took a chance to solidify its reputation among ter zone. That quick and thorough groundwork disaster-response experts. Money was tight, — core to the experience of veterans — allowed but team leaders made the decision to put “all our Team Rubicon to pinpoint areas with the greatest financial chips on the table,” Wood says. need for help and deploy teams to dispense med- ical aid, food, and water.

In a video taken during that first mission in “Ultimately, the analogy Haiti, Clay Hunt rides through the streets of Port- au-Prince in the back of a beat-up pickup truck, I’ve begun using is that surveying the devastation. “I’m here because I’m needed here,” he says. we see Team Rubicon Hunt and Wood were like brothers after serv- ing together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hunt was over the next five years deeply affected by the loss of Marines in their unit on both deployments, and he struggled with becoming, in essence, a post-traumatic stress disorder. A year after the Haiti mission, Hunt took his own life. He was twenty-eight years old. An estimated twenty-two national volunteer fire veterans do the same thing each day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. department.” A year after Hunt’s suicide, Wood told 60 Minutes that he wonders almost every day why it happened. He sometimes blames himself. Last More than 350 Team Rubicon volunteers from February, Wood stood in the East Room of the across the country descended on New York and White House as President Barack Obama signed New Jersey and led ten-thousand-plus volunteers the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American who helped in every possible way — pumping Veterans Act, intended to reduce military and sand out of homes, clearing dangerous debris, and veteran suicides and improve access to quality patching roofs. mental health care. “It was a make-or-break moment for us,” Wood “Clay has taken on this almost mythical status says. “Everybody in the U.S. — from every news within Team Rubicon,” Wood says during our in- agency to every federal agency — was looking at terview. “When Clay passed, we had three hundred, that fifty-square-mile area. And we had an op- four hundred, maybe five hundred volunteers The faces — and portunity to show these people who hadn’t paid tattoos — of in the organization, and only thirty of them had Team Rubicon attention to us for two and a half years what we ever met Clay. And so now we have twenty-seven volunteers feature were doing and what we were capable of.” thousand members — and still only thirty of them prominently in The gamble paid off. Goldman Sachs donated have ever met Clay. At the end of the day, what’s the organization’s $250,000 to Team Rubicon for Hurricane Sandy social media powerful about Clay is that he was just a guy.” accounts. Wood operations. Other corporate sponsors followed. Hunt’s legacy serves as a reminder that al- is pictured at Wood was approached about writing a book on though disaster relief is Team Rubicon’s business, bottom center leadership. (The result was Take Command: Les- veterans are its passion. In 2014, it launched the in Rockaway sons in Leadership: How to Be a First Responder in Clay Hunt Fellows Program, which provides Peninsula, New Business, published in 2014.) Most important, the York, following leadership training for a small group of veteran Hurricane Sandy effort, dubbed Operation Greased Lightning, so- volunteers. Each fellow receives a $12,000 stipend in 2012. lidified the group’s credibility in disaster response. ANTHONY JACKSON, KIRK ROW) (THIRD JACKSON; KIRK AND DAVIS JONATHEN ROW) (SECOND SNETHEN; BOBBI AND JACKSON KIRK ROW) (TOP COURTESY PHOTOS PAGE OPPOSITE RUBICON TEAM ALL MORE, JEFF AND JACKSON KIRK ROW) (BOTTOM WALKER; JOSH ALLMAN,

26 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 On Wisconsin 27 A wet and wind- swept day in the Philippines ends around a campfire, as Team Rubicon volun- teers who were deployed after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 gather to share stories.

28 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014 “[The Federal Emergency Management Agency] Wood (left) and came out and was blown away by what we were other Team Rubicon members doing in the far Rockaways,” Wood says. brief President Barack Obama This year, McNulty is leading the launch of Team in 2013 on the Rubicon Global, building a presence in Australia, group’s response to Hurricane Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom — all Sandy and efforts key U.S. allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. A five-year to help veterans plan calls for twelve teams around the world, each reintegrate into offering veterans the same opportunity to serve as society. Below, the team helps their American counterparts and the ability to re- Beaver Crossing, spond more quickly to disasters. Nebraska, in 2014 fundraising — and numbers play a far more crit- But the work on the home front is far from after multiple ical role in his life than he could have predicted finished. Team Rubicon is hiring ten regional tornadoes. during his student days. administrators, intending to have staffing at the “People who want to be entrepreneurs ask me state level in ten to fifteen years. “Ultimately, the that question all the time: ‘What’s the most im- analogy I’ve begun using is that we see Team Rubi- portant class?’ ” he says. His response? “Basic con over the next five years becoming, in essence, accounting principles.” a national volunteer fire department,” Wood says. In his book, Wood describes the importance “Obviously we don’t fight fires.” of being surrounded by people who buy into a Wood doesn’t get out into the field as much as shared vision. Team Rubicon wants “people who he did in the early days, but he makes sure to do are fool-ish enough to think they can change the so at least once a year to challenge his assump- world — and smart enough to have a chance,” he tions about how the organization is evolving and says during our interview. “We’ve been saying that to reconnect with its core mission. “At the end of we can build an organization that’ll disrupt the day, I need to go out there and swing a sledge- industries and be around for the next 150 years. We’re not just saying it to hear ourselves say it. hammer and help people as much as anybody else,” Jenny Price is he says. But now, as chief executive officer, he senior writer for We’re saying it because, goddamn, that’s what devotes significant time to giving speeches and On Wisconsin. we’re going to do.” OPPOSITE PAGE PHOTO COURTESY KIRK JACKSON, TEAM RUBICON; THIS PAGE PHOTOS BY PETE SOUZA, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND VANESSA VALENTINE, TEAM RUBICON TEAM VALENTINE, VANESSA AND HOUSE, WHITE THE SOUZA, PETE BY PHOTOS PAGE THIS RUBICON; TEAM JACKSON, KIRK COURTESY PHOTO PAGE OPPOSITE

On Wisconsin 29 30 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014 Collegiate Recovery 101 UW-Madison has resources to help students struggling with substance abuse — but advocates hope to do much more.

By Maggie Ginsberg ’97 Illustration By Chris Gash

By the time incoming freshman Vanessa to 4.3 million in lost tuition each year. dellaBitta ’14 set foot on campus in 2006, “The money we lose is pretty stagger- she was already battling a drug and alco- ing, not only as an institution when stu- hol addiction. What’s worse, the vibrant, dents leave because of addiction, but we scholarly Massachusetts native suffered also lose out on gaining students when in secret, privately juggling the normal we don’t have something here to support growing pains of college with the all-con- them,” says University Housing’s Laura suming effort to get and stay sober. Strimpel, who today serves as co-adviser “I really struggled through my fresh- for a newly registered student organiza- man year, not knowing that there were tion called Live Free — Student Wellness other people like me. I felt very, very and Recovery. Although not limited to alone,” says dellaBitta, who ended up those facing substance-use disorder, Live dropping out at the start of her sophomore Free was founded by dellaBitta, Caroline year so she could address her problem. Miller ’04, and a handful of other students For the next several years, she cycled in long-term recovery who were seeking a in and out of both school and sobriety; safe, supportive environment on campus. for her, the two worlds seemed nearly Since its formation in 2013, Live impossible to reconcile. Free has become part of a larger effort to “Over those five years, I’d take a couple create locally what’s known nationally as classes and was out of school again,” she a collegiate-recovery community, a move- says. “It felt like this wasn’t a problem that ment now pollinating 139 schools across other people had. It did sort of feel like — the country. In such communities, cam- not immoral, but it felt like it centered in puses have designated residence halls, me. Like, I just can’t get myself together, centralized meeting spaces, and paid staff essentially. I just can’t be responsible.” support to model “visible” recovery from Today dellaBitta knows she’s not in- drugs and alcohol. herently broken, and that she’s far from UW-Madison isn’t there yet, but it alone. Almost a quarter of college students could be. nationwide meet the medical criteria for “When we think about the challenges substance abuse or dependence, yet 37 around substance use, we know that to be percent of them fear seeking help because successful in recovery, people need social of social stigma, according to the National support, they need emotional support, and Center on Addiction and Substance they need the ability to flourish vocation- Abuse (CASA). Students like dellaBitta ally and intellectually,” says Sarah Van aren’t the only ones who lose out; the Orman, executive director of University Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Health Services. “University environments says 40 percent of student-attrition cases are very challenging places for people to involve substance abuse, resulting in $1.2 be in recovery without support, and that’s

On Wisconsin 31 really the niche that the collegiate-recovery com- what I need my recovery program to look like.’ ” munity fills.” More than just abstaining from drugs and alcohol, Van Orman has adopted that perspective because Aaron’s House residents developed individualized recovery isn’t the sort of thing where you can take a lifestyle plans incorporating recovery meetings, pill, or a class, or attend a few meetings and you’re work, and education. When the model both proved cured. It requires a complete lifestyle change within successful and seemed to fulfill a niche, three wom- a supportive environment. College is hard enough; en — Live Free cofounder Caroline Miller, Heidi when your peers seem to be partying as hard as Hastings, and Elisabeth Lex JD’11 —created an they’re studying, sobriety can feel lonely at best affiliated women’s version, Connect House Sober and impossible at worst. Although the issue affects Living for Women, which opened in August 2013. students nationwide, UW-Madison’s reputation for Impressed by both efforts, Ginger Morgan, di- binge drinking alone can serve as an insurmountable rector of residential community at Apartments on deterrent for those seeking recovery. But it doesn’t Library Mall, lobbied successfully to create Next have to be that way. Step Recovery apartments, which opened to rent- “Many students who want to come to UW- ers in August 2014. Meanwhile, Meyer had learned Madison, who are in recovery, that’s terrifying about the nationwide collegiate-recovery move- for them,” says Krystle Gutting, assistant director ment and began collaborating with Van Orman and of Connections Counseling, a privately owned others at UW-Madison, along with members of Live certified drug-and-alcohol treatment provider. Free, who are now in the process of trying to raise UW-Madison contracts with the company to funds. In 2014, Live Free secured a $10,000 grant provide its substance-use screening initiatives, from Transforming Youth Recovery, then known as such as BASICS (Brief Alcohol Screening and the Stacie Mathewson Foundation, specifically to Intervention for College Students) and Choices help create a collegiate-recovery community. About Alcohol. “There’s a huge need for it,” says Miller, add- DellaBitta, like most students, was referred to ing that although Live Free currently only has Connections when she initially sought help through about thirty members, Connections Counseling University Health Services, which also provides sees more than three hundred college students a substance-use treatment of its own. “I think hav- year. “And that number is just increasing. I mean, ing a collegiate-recovery presence here is going they’re just seeing an incredible number of stu- to change Madison’s reputation,” Gutting says. “I dents,” she says. As more and more students in think it is absolutely amazing and very exciting.” recovery are attempting to join mainstream col- lege life, it makes sense that UW-Madison should expand its efforts to embrace them. “Here at the university, we’ve been more fo- In many ways, although nobody knew it at the cused on the upstream issue of prevention and time, Madison’s collegiate-recovery movement intervention, and it was brought to our attention began back in 2005. Just a few months before that this is really a big movement all across the dellaBitta arrived on campus, another eighteen- country,” says Amy Margulies, a counselor at Uni- year-old recovering addict, Aaron Meyer, was versity Health Services who was involved with the killed in a car accident. Before his tragic death, Madison recovery movement’s early meetings. Meyer was rebuilding his life. He had completed Today, Margulies serves as Live Free co-adviser treatment, was graduating from Horizon — Dane with Housing’s Strimpel. County’s only recovery high school — and regular- “Students who come back to school with ade- ly attended Connections Counseling. He felt excit- quate support tend to graduate with a higher GPA ed to move out of his parents’ house and in with a and with a sense of stability and clarity that really group of guy friends who were also in recovery, but he never got that chance. After his death, with donations and community support, Aaron’s dad, Tom Meyer, his mom, Cathy, and a volunteer “University environments board opened Aaron’s House on East Gorham in 2007. The idea was to take your average-seeming, are challenging places near-campus house and rent it to college-age men in recovery, four at a time, so they could live like to be in recovery without everybody else. “It’s not about honoring him,” Tom Meyer said at support, and that’s the time. “It’s to take an idea that he had and put it into practice so that other people can live their lives. the niche that collegiate Here, you live with peers who have all sat down in- dividually, looked at themselves, and said, ‘This is recovery fills.”

32 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 is remarkable, and [is] sometimes higher than [that in recovery. So there’s both this student emphasis, of] the average student,” says Margulies. “But if but they’re also connected to the community.” they come back to school without that kind of sup- Historically, says Berquam, students in recov- port, it can be a devastating experience, a lonely ery likely lived at home so they could participate experience, and should not be the kind of reward in recovery programs in their communities. In fact, that we offer to people who we have asked to get that’s why organizers want to create that same their act together.” sense of community on campus — because it’s so The challenge organizers face is that, without critical to successful recovery. a central building or even a consistent meeting “The problem is that not many people are ‘out’ space, many students who need a collegiate-recov- on the UW-Madison campus as being in recovery of21 youth ages% from addiction,” says Strimpel, who also served as ery community probably can’t find it, if they even know about it. While it’s critically important that 18–21 meet the program director of the Sub-Free Community in diagnosis for University Housing for five years. “There are many these efforts are student led, there’s only so much substance-use students can do — particularly students in recovery. disorder. of us, but fear keeps us silent — fear about being “That’s why trying to find a space on campus Source: SAMSHA ostracized from classmates, bullied by colleagues that we can call a home specifically for this group and supervisors, and even losing future oppor- — it’s emblematic of a larger embrace from UW tunities. Live Free is about lifting a cloud of fear, and from the campus community,” says dellaBitta. ignorance, shame, and isolation. This is what we “To have something on campus would make me feel mean by visible sobriety.” like, ‘Hey, I can be a well-rounded student. I can U.S.139 colleges and Strimpel points out that although the Sub-Free have a healthy college experience regardless of this universities have Community is a safe space for students who wish or are creating to abstain from alcohol and drugs for any number other part of me.’ And I think being able to see that collegiate-re- would just be amazing for students like me.” covery programs, of different reasons, collegiate-recovery organizers including UW-La want to build a program above and beyond simple Crosse and Big 10 abstinence. Strimpel says she “absolutely” fields schools such as calls from concerned parents and students about Michigan State It’s not that substance abuse is a new problem and Ohio State. whether they can maintain sobriety while attend- facing UW-Madison administrators, and it’s not ing UW-Madison. like they haven’t answered the call across a wide “I’ve given prospective students tours of the des- variety of avenues. All incoming students are re- ignated substance-free areas, and because we don’t quired to go through AlcoholEdu, which addresses have trained support staff funded and allocated, 90% we don’t have built-in support groups embedded alcohol use, consumption, and impact. Student of alcohol and organizations are not allowed to serve alcohol at other drug-use within that particular community for recovery problems start specifically … they felt like they could get better their events, underage students are not allowed between the ages to have alcohol in residence halls, and there are of 12 and 20. support on other college campuses that already some rooms in residence halls that are completely Source: 2002 National have structured collegiate-recovery communities. Survey on Drug Use I don’t disagree,” she says. Her comments are bol- substance free. The “Sub-Free” Community also and Health holds sober events on campus. stered by a recent survey conducted by the Center Memorial Union and Union South staff are for the Study of Addiction and Recovery that found mandated to recognize and stop serving students that 43 percent of students in recovery said they of legal drinking age when they appear inebriated, % enrolled in their university specifically because it of43 students in had a collegiate-recovery community. and campus police ramp up their visibility the first forty-five days of each semester. recovery said Ultimately, a collegiate-recovery community they enrolled in provides a supportive environment, educational When students do get into trouble with alcohol their university or drugs, they attend Choices, BASICS, or CASICS because it had a opportunities, accountability, and inclusion. It (Cannabis Screening and Brief Intervention for collegiate-recov- normalizes sobriety and serves as a beacon for College Students) — all contracted through Con- ery community. those still struggling, and not simply out of a sense nections. Still, the collegiate-recovery movement of charitable kindness or duty. If nearly a quarter of has gotten the attention of many at UW-Madison, qualified students are unable to meet the potential including Dean of Students Lori Berquam. that got them into a place like UW-Madison in the “I believe this movement is going to get bigger,” first place, Madison’s loss is unquantifiable. says Berquam. “Many campuses are funding houses “These are some of our best students,” says or spaces for the recovery movement to meet and Strimpel. “These students are some of the most to gather in safe space and in dedicated space so mature that I’ve met, because they’ve had to do that they can actually be in community with each their own self-work. A lot of them have more other. Live Free has a very solid, regular meeting Maggie Ginsberg self-knowledge than most of the other students I schedule, and they’ve really worked hard to get ’97 is a Wiscon- know — even some of the students who are sin-based free- about to graduate. And for them it’s about more connected in the Pres House and St. Paul’s and also lance writer. are connected in the community with other adults than just survival — it’s about living fully and contributing.”

On Wisconsin 33 Dennis Chaptman ’80 is a former sportswriter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who also served as news and media relations director Very for UW-Madison. Superstitious These Badgers say that following a ritual can make all the difference on the field, court, or ice.

by dennis chaptman ’80 illustrations by joe mckendry

As sports fans, we’re drawn to games the athletes’ control. You can’t control what partly because of their unpredictability. At your opponent does, you can’t control the kickoff, tipoff, or when the puck drops, there’s weather, and you can’t fully control the way no telling what will happen. Admit it, Badger you slept the night before,” says Reardon, who fans: when Wisconsin played Kentucky in the has treated UW and pro athletes for a variety Final Four, how many of you flat-out knew of psychiatric issues. “But the ritual — that — not just hoped — that the Badgers would you can control.” emerge victorious? That’s why we trekked to Reardon says the overwhelming majority Indianapolis, congregated in bars, paced in our of these superstitions are harmless and even family rooms, and watched on the Internet helpful, but she warns that they have the from all over the globe on that Saturday night potential to evolve into obsessive-compul- last April. sive behaviors. Student-athletes face the same unpredict- “Athletes need to be aware of the trajecto- ability. But many know, from practice and ry of their rituals,” she says. “Do you become preparation, that there’s comfort in repeti- more and more rigid about the rituals? Maybe tion and predictability in routine. Some do it it starts with a ritual before the game, but then through food, others by the way they dress, it takes up a whole day before the game or the the music they listen to, or how they prepare. whole week before.” Ritual and superstition offer a sense of con- While some may find the rituals odd, they trol. And as long as the student-athletes are often say a lot about an athlete’s drive, Reardon winning, those routines are hard to surrender. adds: “The kinds of temperament that make Claudia Reardon ’01, MD’06, a UW assistant it likely that athletes would engage in super- professor of psychiatry, says that ritualized stitious ritual are the kinds of aspects of their superstition is prevalent among athletes for personality that make them successful — being just these reasons. really attentive to detail, perfectionism, and “There is so much in sports that is beyond being wedded to routine.”

34 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 BRITTANY AMMERMAN Back to Basics NIGEL HAYES Brittany Ammerman ’15 has tasted the ed to ditch her routine to shake things power of a gluten-free chocolate brownie. up before a home series against Bemidji Before each weekend series, the for- State University. On Friday night, the Predictably ward on the women’s hockey team would UW lost 2–1 as Ammerman went score- whip up the same dinner — gluten-free less again. Spontaneous pasta with pesto and chicken, topped off Before that Saturday’s game, she re- with a dessert of glu- versed course and fired Some student-athletes ten-free brownies. And up all of her long-held take pains to avoid devel- before every series, she rituals. The brownies oping a routine or slipping would cut a brand new and all the rest were into a reliance on super- hockey stick to the per- back. Call it coincidence stition. Badger basketball fect size. Dressing before or call it karma, but when player Nigel Hayes x’17 a game, Ammerman made she hit the ice, there was discovered that supersti- sure to put on her left a breakthrough. Ammer- tion can become a burden, skate first. man drilled a short shot so he goes out of his way “I like to have a routine,” she says. “It past the Bemidji State goalie forty-six to be unpredictable. “The keeps you focused and I think it does help.” seconds into overtime to win the game. thing with superstitions is, Where’s the proof? Last January, Her jubilant teammates mobbed her on if you miss doing it, you’re the Badgers were mired in a three-game the ice. thinking, ‘Oh, boy, this winless streak, and Ammerman hadn’t “I was like, ‘All right — back to pasta could be a bad day.’ Then it scored in eight games when she decid- and brownies!’ ” she says. can grow into something terrible,” he says. As a wide receiver at Whitmer High School in Toledo, Ohio, Hayes’s superstitious rituals ballooned. Doing warm- up stretches, he would count to ten, but one day he counted to seven by mistake, and then felt like he had to continue ZAK SHOWALTER that practice for the rest of the season. During Change It Up Tuesday’s practice, he had to catch a pass in the corner of the end zone. JACKI GULCZYNSKI Like his teammate Nigel Hayes, On Thursdays, he stayed basketball guard Zak Showalter after practice to run x’17 also pooh-poohs supersti- routes. “You don’t want to Keeping tion. “If I get into a ritual and do that to yourself,” says miss it one time,” he says, Hayes. “Now, I try not Memories Close “I won’t be able to get to get into a rou- it out of my head. I tine. I try to be Women’s basketball player Jacki Gulczynski try to change my as un-routine x’16’s pregame ritual is always tinged with the routine for every as possible.” sadness of a stinging personal loss. game.” “I eat, shower, relax. I like to watch TV and get my mind off of everything,” she says. “Then, I have to perfectly place my wristband on my left wrist. On the inside, I have my brother’s initials written out, because my brother Lenny was killed in Iraq.”

On Wisconsin 35 VINCE BIEGEL DUJE DUKAN Cookie Monster The Road Taken Men’s basketball player Duje Dukan The R&B beats of Alicia Keys and reggae are ’14, x’16 found comfort on his way to often the backdrop for outside linebacker Vince home games. Dukan, who finished out his Badger basketball career in Biegel x’16 as he runs through his game-day 2015, says he made it a point to get preparation. The hard-hitting Biegel avoids the to the Kohl Center two hours before each game to get taped and listen aggressive rhythms that you might expect to be to music. Riding his scooter to the part of his routine. “I’ve got a fiery personality to arena, he never varied his route. “It begin with, and if you pour works, so I do it,” Dukan says. fire on fire, you’ll have a big storm there,” says Biegel, who also brings diet into DREW MEYER the picture, eating pasta with shrimp or chicken the Good Tunes Repetition is reflected in Drew Meyer x’16’s game-day night before a game and playlist. On the bus ride to the stadium, the Badger topping it off with a bed- football punter reads Bible passages while listening to hip-hop. When the team time snack of a cookie and reaches the stadium, he ice cream. switches to country music. In the locker room, Meyer shifts gears again, to classical music. “I just want to calm myself, because what I do is more like what a golfer does. I don’t need to be breathing fire,” Meyer says.

SOJOURN SHELTON

CAYLA McMORRIS AND CHASE DRAKE MICHALA JOHNSON Go with What Eating to Win Plugged In You Know If clothes make the man, then cleats make the These Badger women’s basket- defender, believes Sojourn Shelton x’17, ball teammates build rituals a cornerback on the Badger football team. around food. McMorris x’18 Halfway through the 2014 season, Shelton got a goes for chicken Alfredo before new jolt of confidence from an old pair of shoes. games, a habit that was born at “I was struggling a little early last year,” a restaurant in her hometown of Shelton says. “I had these cleats that I wore in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. And my freshman year, and once I started playing in For Chase Drake ’15, a defenseman Johnson ’14, x’16 stashes food and team captain on the 2014 Bad- those cleats, I was playing — such as ap- ger hockey team, a video game was a lot better. I’m prob- ples, bananas, at the heart of his pregame routine. ably going to have and protein “I would say that I’m pretty super- to stay with bars — under stitious,” Drake says. “I like to eat those cleats.” at Panera [Bread] before the game, her locker then come back to the Kohl Center room chair, so and play eighteen holes of Tiger she can power Woods golf on the Xbox with [my up during teammate] Grant Besse x’17. Then I take an hour-long nap and get up halftime. at the same time. Then I put on my gear from left to right.”

36 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 TAYLOR MOREY That’s a Wrap For UW volleyball player Taylor Morey x’16, injuries are a bugaboo. When peo- ple mention injuries, Morey knocks on wood. During the Badgers’ run in the 2013 NCAA volleyball tournament, which took them to the championship match, Morey scraped her knee early in the tournament and had it wrapped by the team trainer. But even after Morey’s knee healed, she continued having it wrapped throughout the tournament. “I just couldn’t break the juju,” she says.

HALEIGH NELSON Put a Bow On it Haleigh Nelson x’17 shares a ritual with volleyball team- mate Taylor Morey. Without fail, they snap a cell-phone selfie together. Serious faces, funny faces, and goofy cap- tions are all part of the mix. When Nelson had a chance to move her locker, Morey talked her out of it, figuring, why mess with the mojo? Nelson has her own set of pregame rituals. She showers, blow-dries her hair, and has a teammate braid it. Then, she puts a bow in it. “I don’t live and die by superstition, but I would never change my number,” Nelson adds. “It’s the luckiest number, isn’t it?” Nelson, of course, wears number 13.

On Wisconsin 37 The Emperors of Wyoming shown in an image from the inside of their CD cover. Appropriately enough for a band that recorded remotely, the illustration fea- tured individual photos of each of the members that Frank Anderson used to create this composite.

38 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014 Long May They Run Forsaking convention, The Emperors of Wyoming recorded their successful first album via email.

By Joshua M. Miller t started more as a joke among says Pete Anderson. “Someone could come up with four friends. “We should make a re- an idea for the song the next morning.” cord together,” one of the members of “That was what Emperors was all about, was The Emperors of Wyoming suggested seeing if we could do it and how it would work,” offhandedly one day, never imagining Davis says. “We could experiment with sounds and they could become a fully functioning see how it would all come together. ... It gave us band. But it turns out the joke was on them. more opportunity to try things than if we were in I Despite moving to different parts of the coun- the same room together recording. We had no time try, longtime friends Phil Davis ’76, MA’81, Butch constraints, no record-industry people offering Vig ’80, and brothers Pete ’76 and Frank Anderson their advice, and no real budgetary pressure.” hatched an unconventional plan to create music. On the album, the band flexes its country-rock They used more than forty years of friendship — influences, many of which they heard in their including playing in several well-known Madison younger days in Madison. groups during the seventies and eighties — to “I liked the idea of writing songs in an alt-coun- craft a new band and eventually produce an album try vein and bringing the influences that all four of via email. us grew up with, like Johnny Cash and Neil Young This is no amateur endeavor. Vig, who and The Band and Tom Petty,” says Vig. “Americana co-founded Madison’s Smart Studios, is a drum- is the best way to describe those artists.” mer for the band Garbage and produced records The album came out to critical acclaim and was for them, Green Day, Nirvana, Smashing Pump- hailed by David Gerard on examiner.com as one of kins, and many others. He also had his own popu- lar Madison band, Spooner. Davis and the Ander- sons, members of the local group Buzz Gunderson, are also experienced veterans of the Madison mu- “There’s no way we had any sic scene, and Vig and Davis were in Fire Town, which recorded two albums for Atlantic Records idea when we were going in the late ’80s. The four named their band The Emperors of to college that the world Wyoming in homage to the similarly titled Neil Young song, although none of them live in Wyoming. would change so fast that we Davis lives in Madison, Vig and Pete Anderson live in California, and Frank Anderson resides in would be making our records Appleton, Wisconsin. They began work in 2009, first by recording their parts in their own studios, thirty years later on home and then emailing each other the segments and slowly piecing together the songs. After a couple computers.” years of gradually putting together the record and then mixing it at Wonder Wonder Sound studio in Milwaukee, the album came out on European- the ten albums in 2014 that mattered. The band based label Proper Records. In 2014, it was re- received offers to perform on David Letterman leased in the United States by Liaison Music. and to play in Europe, but they didn’t want to rush Davis says that sending audio files via email into it until they felt their live show was ready. was a quicker, more efficient way of recording than They rehearsed in a barn outside Arlington, Wis- mailing tapes back and forth. consin, that overlooks a gigantic cornfield. “You “On tapes, the sound would shift and change, know you’re in Wisconsin when you’re rehearsing but with these digital files, they’re exactly how they in a barn,” Vig says. were when I sent them to Butch or when he sent When they did perform together at Madison’s us rhythm tracks,” says Davis. “And I could send it High Noon Saloon and Appleton’s Mile of Music in Joshua M. Miller out within a half hour so everyone could listen to summer 2014, things quickly fell into place. is a nationally it and react to it.” The group also enjoyed putting “It was easy. It was just like another gig,” says and locally pub- lished freelance songs together at a leisurely pace when they had a Frank Anderson. writer based in

spare moment. “It was like a slow-motion studio,” “The hardest thing is to create that excitement Wisconsin. ANDERSON L. FRANK BY COMPOSITE/DESIGN PHOTO ADAMS; CHRISTIAN JOHN BY PHOTO SPREAD PREVIOUS

40 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Band members when you’re playing by yourself in your own studio, certainly wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t all Frank Ander- so it was a real joy to play with the guys again,” Pete come to the university.” son, Phil Davis, Anderson adds. Pete Anderson, “Playing music was a great way to make mon- and Butch Vig ey back then when you were a student,” says Pete jam during a BORN BADGERS Anderson. “It sure beat a part-time job. It was a lot photo shoot in a Davis and the Andersons first met in the mid-sev- better than minimum wage.” Wisconsin barn enties as undergraduates and soon found common The three friends eventually went on to create decorated to look like a bar. ground playing in bands. (Davis calls Frank Ander- the popular Madison band Buzz Gunderson and son an honorary alum, since he used to sneak into then ended up moving to California. Davis later random classes that interested him. “I think I at- returned to attend graduate school in journalism tended classes more than some students who were at the UW, where he met Vig, who was finishing enrolled,” Anderson says.) his undergraduate degree. They started playing in “There’s something about coming from Wiscon- bands, including Fire Town, went on tour, and got sin and going to school here,” says Davis. “We were airplay on MTV with three music videos. born Badgers and remain Badgers, and when we But for a time, the four members of The Em- got back together, it seemed very natural. And it perors of Wyoming went their separate ways. Vig pursued a career as a producer in Los Angeles. Pete Anderson started working in the wine indus- try in northern California. And Frank Anderson put down roots in Appleton, making films ranging from commercials to animation. Frank Anderson The four never envisioned how technology also created would make it possible for them to once again be this Wild-West- a band. “There’s no way we had any idea when we themed CD cover. were going to college that the world would change The band released two versions of so fast that we would be making our records thirty its recording — years later on home computers,” Davis says. one in England These days the band is working on new material, with ten songs, trying to align schedules to allow for in-person and another in the United States recording sessions, and hoping to play more shows. with three new “What we realized was that we have a really

PHOTO BY JOHN CHRISTIAN ADAMS CHRISTIAN JOHN BY PHOTO songs added. good live band,” Davis says.

On Wisconsin 41 Bradie Ewing AT THE UW 2008–2011

HONORS Played in four bowl games, including a win in 2009 Champs Sports Bowl; team captain, 2011

NFL CAREER Played three seasons; two with the Atlanta Falcons and one with the Jacksonville Jaguars

CURRENTLY Retired from NFL in April 2015

42 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014 Walk-Ons: Despite the Odds It might be because they’ve had to try harder, but Wisconsin’s football walk-ons have gone on to remarkable success — on the gridiron and beyond. By Tom Kertscher ’84

No matter our pursuits in life, we’re all told walk-on — but not necessarily a surprise. at one time or another that we don’t measure up. “The things that got me noticed at Wisconsin That’s what walk-on football players face. Stand- are things that I’ve done my whole life. When they out athletes from childhood through high school, asked you to run past the line, I ran past the line. I these young men are suddenly confronted with studied more than anybody. Everything they asked no longer being good enough to earn a football for, I did,” he says. scholarship to a major school — or perhaps to any “I think some of the [scholarship players] just school at all. drift,” he adds. “Maybe they thought they had made And yet many of them go on to beat the odds it. I guess in my mind, you’ve never made it. There’s after getting an opportunity as a walk-on — a always the next goal.” chance, initially without a scholarship, to play for By the time he was a senior, Ewing knew NFL the Badgers. teams were watching him. Even though he wasn’t “These are the kids, for the most part, they a star player — he started only eleven games in stick with us — they’re here for the right reasons,” four years — he believed he could play at the high- says UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, who est level. made the walk-ons program a key part of his suc- “A lot of walk-ons — just where they came cess as the Badgers’ football coach. “They love from, the people they are, the work ethic, kind of football, they’re loyal to the university, and they that chip on their shoulder — it helps them have Tom Kertscher end up being leaders.” success at the college level, but it helps at the NFL ’84 is a Politi- Here’s a look at five Wisconsin walk-ons who level, too,” he says. “[They have] a lot of those in- Fact Wisconsin reporter at persevered, achieving their goals with the Badgers tangibles that a lot of people have, but some take the Milwaukee and the National Football League — and beyond. for granted.” Journal Sentinel, a freelance sports correspondent for the Associated Bradie Ewing Mark Tauscher Press, and the Bradie Ewing saw playing time during his freshman Mark Tauscher excelled in football in a quintessen- author of two

PHOTO BY DANIEL SHIREY/USA TODAY SHIREY/USA DANIEL BY PHOTO year at the UW, a relatively rare achievement for a tially Wisconsin sort of way: quietly setting goals, sports books.

On Wisconsin 43 Tauscher knew he would need perseverance. “I always tried to look at things as realistically as I could and understanding that, I know that there’s a long road ahead of me here,” he recalls thinking. “But let’s just set some basic goals.” The first was to survive: to hold his own in one- on-one drills, and to try to earn some practice time with the second-stringers. “In the beginning, I was completely intimidated,” Tauscher admits. “You’re going against very good defensive linemen on a daily basis, and you’re trying not to get your butt whipped.” In his second year, Tauscher gradually earned some playing time. But it was still an uphill climb, on a steep grade, playing behind two tackles (Chris McIntosh and Aaron Gibson) who ended up in the NFL. After a year as a redshirt, then three years as a reserve, Tauscher decided that his fourth year would be his final season with the Badgers, even though he still had a year of eligibility remaining. He started considering a transfer. But, while watching the annual spring game, he had an unexpected reaction. “I just went and watched the game — and it made me sick to watch,” he recalls. “I knew that I wanted to be back out there. I had put in a lot of time and effort, and I think that’s where the sick feeling came from. … I just felt like [if I transferred, it] was going to be a missed opportunity for me.” So Tauscher returned for a fifth year. Finally a starter, he helped lead the Badgers to a second mark consecutive Rose Bowl victory. He went on to win tauscher a Super Bowl ring with the Packers following the 2010 season. AT THE UW 1995–1999 steadily making progress — and then seizing a big Being overlooked, or even doubted, can have opportunity. advantages. HONORS “For me, it always just comes down to: believe “I think everybody has different motivations,” Two-time Academic in what you’re doing and try to get an understand- Tauscher says. “And for me, I think it’s always All-Big Ten. Played in three ing of how can you take steps to get where you you’re trying to prove you belong — you always try consecutive bowl want to go. It doesn’t have to be in one bound,” to prove you can do it.” games, including says Tauscher, who was a reserve player for three Rose Bowl victories years for the Badgers before becoming a starter. in 1999 and 2000. “Try to figure out, is this something that you J.J. Watt NFL CAREER really want to do? And if it’s something you really One of J.J. Watt’s summer jobs while at UW-Mad- Green Bay Packers, want to do, are you willing to put in the effort and ison was painting a railing that circles the upper 2000–2010; member the work to do it?” he says. deck of Camp Randall Stadium. It offered moments of the team that won Super Bowl XLV Of the 141 walk-ons who have been letter to daydream about playing on the field. winners at the UW since Alvarez started as head Watt, of course, would become a star defensive CURRENTLY football coach, 16 have played in the NFL. Tauscher lineman for the Badgers. But that came only after Co-owner of a Madi- played there longer than any of them — eleven he had been told he wasn’t big-time college football son-based business that runs Red Card years — all with the Green Bay Packers. His was material — and after giving up a football scholar- Meal Plan and “one of the great football stories and careers of ship after one year at Central Michigan University Isthmus Publishing. anyone to come out of the state of Wisconsin,” the without a guarantee of what might lie ahead. Radio analyst for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said. At Central, playing tight end, Watt caught only Badgers and Green Yet Tauscher was decidedly unheralded when eight passes during his freshman season in 2007. Bay Packers football he arrived at the UW in 1995. After being noticed Deciding that he’d never be a featured player for when his high school basketball team (yes, basket- the Chippewas, he took a risk by giving up the ball) played in the state tournament in Madison, scholarship, transferring to Wisconsin, and trying

he was invited to walk on as an offensive lineman. to make the team as a walk-on. TEXANS HOUSTON COURTESY PHOTO WATT J.J. IMAGES; ROBBINS/GETTY JOE BY PHOTO TAUSCHER MARK

44 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 j.j. watt AT THE UW 2008–2010

HONORS Lott IMPACT Trophy winner, second-team All-American, two-time Academic All-Big Ten

NFL CAREER Houston Texans since 2011

CURRENTLY Defensive end, Houston Texans

On Wisconsin 45 chris maragos

AT THE UW 2007–2009

HONORS Honorable mention All-Big Ten and team captain, 2009. Played in winning game at 2009 Champs Sports Bowl.

NFL CAREER Entered the NFL in 2010

CURRENTLY Safety, Philadelphia Eagles

46 On Wisconsin WINTERFALL 2015 2014 “I was told, ‘You’re not big enough, you’re not fast enough [to play at Wisconsin],’ ” he recalls. “When people who don’t believe in you say you can’t make it, that’s just more motivation.” Watt also was spurred on by having promised his parents he would earn a scholarship at the UW. “At that time, failure was not an option. I was gambling on myself. There was just no option but donnel to make it work,” he says. “There was a belief in thompson myself to start with. And I put in the work. When you put in the work, you start to believe in your- AT THE UW self even more.” 1996–1999 By 2010, his third year as a Badger, Watt was a HONORS second-team All-American and was leaving school Played in four con- a year early. He was the eleventh overall pick in secutive bowl games, the 2011 NFL draft. He has already been named including Rose Bowl victories in 1999 and the league’s most valuable defensive player twice, 2000. Team captain, in 2012 and 2014, and in July, he was named the 1998 and 1999. top player by NFL Network, making him the first defensive player to earn that honor. NFL CAREER Linebacker with Wisconsin walk-ons who succeed use a chip on Pittsburgh Steelers their shoulders to motivate them to greater heights, and Indianapolis Watt says. “You’re happy to be on the team, but you will respect your accomplishments,” he says. Colts, 2000–2003 have to do that much more to earn your place. It “You know that you need to not cut corners in CURRENTLY gives you an edge. You know you have to go above anything you do. You don’t get that many oppor- Vice president of and beyond what the other scholarship players tunities in life. You have to do the things in the national accounts at have to do,” he says. right way, and you have to fight for them,” he adds. Direct Supply, Inc., “When you have to go through difficult times, “When you get pushed, that’s when you really grow.” Milwaukee it makes the victory that much sweeter.” Donnel Thompson Chris Maragos Donnel Thompson preaches the potential of team- After starting eight games as a redshirt freshman ing up unbridled enthusiasm with a solid work ethic. walk-on at Western Michigan University, Chris “I think the one thing we all can control is atti- Maragos believed he had earned a scholarship for tude,” the former Badger linebacker says. “It gives the next season, but it didn’t come through. you a great chance at being successful. And that’s “I was pretty down. I was kind of looking for contagious. When people see that you enjoy things WALK-ONS anything,” he says. “I felt like I was doing all the and that you’re positive, they want to be around you, IN THE NFL Jared Abbrederis right things on the field and off the field to get the they want to involve you in things. And in a lot of Michael Bennett opportunities, and it just wasn’t happening.” cases, your results are going to reflect that attitude.” Erik Bickerstaff Encouraged by his brother Troy, who was then Thompson says the doggedness he developed Chad Cascadden one of the Bucky Badger mascots, Maragos decid- as a walk-on helped him years later, while work- Jason Doering Bradie Ewing ed to walk on at Wisconsin, arriving in 2007. He ing at Direct Supply, Inc. in Milwaukee. He lost his Paul Hubbard made his mark before ever being eligible to play in biggest customer — and feared his boss doubted Matt Katula a game. On the kickoff team during one of his first that he could handle major accounts. Jim Leonhard practices, Maragos sped downfield past his team- “I was so determined to prove him wrong and Chris Maragos Joe Panos mates and tackled the returner inside the ten-yard to prove that customer wrong — the next year, all Mike Schneck line. “I can remember the coaches saying, ‘Who is of my customers were over 20 percent [growth in Mark Tauscher that guy?’ They knew I couldn’t play that year, but I sales]. I had one of the best years in national ac- Donnel Thompson was giving it my all.” counts history,” Thompson recalls. “Because I was Rick Wagner Maragos, who switched from wide receiver to hell-bent on proving them wrong. I understand I J.J. Watt defensive back after coming to Wisconsin, believes probably didn’t do the right thing with this cus- Source: UW Athletic he made team captain because of how he carried tomer. I’m going to learn from that. But I’m going Department himself when he first transferred. “I was listening to find ways to add value to these other seventeen to what [my teammates] had to say, and every day customers and to prove that I am the right fit.” The UW tracks walk- ons only since Barry at practice I was just giving it my all, no matter Thompson is now a vice president at the company. Alvarez took over as what the drill was. Just trying to earn the guys’ re- “Don’t give up. Don’t let people tell you no,” he coach in 1990. spect for who I was as a person. I really believe that says. “You’re going to face challenges; you’re going

CHRIS MARAGOS PHOTO BY ANDY LYONS, GETTY IMAGES; DONNEL THOMPSON PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHREINER/WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL STATE SCHREINER/WISCONSIN CRAIG BY PHOTO THOMPSON DONNEL IMAGES; GETTY LYONS, ANDY BY PHOTO MARAGOS CHRIS people will respect your character more than they to face adversity. That’s all right.”

On Wisconsin 47 OnAlumniAlumni News at Home and Abroad

BONNER HONORED Paula Bonner MS’78, WAA’s president and chief alumni Highest21 number of WAA trips officer, has been named a taken by a single member of the UW Athletic traveler (Jenene Hall of Fame Class of 2015. Brandt Garey ’67). In addition A UW associate athletic to trips to 49 director from 1977 to 1989, domestic and in- she oversaw 11 women’s ternational desti- sports and championed the nations, WAA also rights of female students to took travelers to the Outback Bowl compete in intercollegiate and the Final athletics. She also oversaw Four this year. the transition for women’s sports as they officially Memories of ’65 joined the Big Ten Confer- 123 ence and the NCAA in 1982. Class recalls life on campus Number of stu- dents who have a half century ago. received need- The Class of 1965 will celebrate its fiftieth reunion October 1–4, so based Great People Schol- we asked members to share some memories of their time at the UW. arships through From the civil rights movement to the shooting of JFK, their recol- sales of The Red lections make it evident that they lived through some of the most Shirt™, which has significant historical events of their era. raised $250,000 If you’d like to attend the reunion, see uwalumni.com/events/ to date. reunions for more information. Highlights include a Day of Learn- ing, with sessions such as “How Music Changed through the Sixties,” a tailgate before the Wisconsin versus Iowa football game, campus tours, a class dinner, and more. Number20 of minutes it took [I came from Flor- the Cuban I remember I was a nun when Bucky Badger ida] to finish my Missile Crisis]. Robert Frost I attended [the to walk the 370 master’s degree Robert Riley ’65 walking along the UW], and one feet from the at the UW. In Flor- Lakeshore Path day during class, Below Alumni ida at that time, My wife [Barbara when he was on some guys were Center to the as an African Miller McLennan] campus to give a playing tic-tac- Raining Postcards Terrace for a American, I could and I were stu- lecture. toe on my veil. WAA asked alumni to send Badger Insider not attend the dents, and one Charles Rang Patricia postcards to their legislators cover shoot, predominately day, we got up ’65, MA’65 Langan ’65 given stops for during the state budget white university. and said, “Let’s photos with fans. process, during which the The UW support- get married.” We Freshman year, I I remember See uwalumni. ed me and made walked up to city lived in the brand when [President] UW System faced the larg- com/badger me feel welcome. hall and got mar- new Chadbourne Kennedy was est cut in its history. Some insider for more. Even after I left, ried that day. She Hall. Greyhound shot. The entire 12,000 alumni responded, UW professors baked a choco- tour buses were dorm was sitting and WAA staff and students followed my late cake. We had in front of the in the living progress and a judge and two building for room watching 12,999 hand-delivered the postcards backed me along witnesses, and the March on the one TV for Number of to the capitol this past spring. the way. that was it. We’ve Selma. This has two days. We participants It was just one of the ways Essie Roberts been married taken on greater were all crying. who have earned Grandparents’ that WAA raised awareness Rutledge MA’65 since 1961. meaning as my I remember JFK among alumni about the Kenneth life has moved speaking on the University I remember McLennan on, because I did steps of Bascom “degrees” since impact the cuts would have people on top PhD’65 not know that Hall and telling WAA initiated on faculty retention, national of Bascom Hill much about it at us to change the the program rankings, the educational ex- 15 years ago. chanting “hands the time. world. perience, time to graduation, off of Cuba” in Pamela Peck- Suzanne See uwalumni. late 1963 [during arsky Nonken ’65 Cohan-Lange ’65 com/gpu. and more. CRARY DANA BY PHOTO POSTCARD #S08036; ARCHIVES UW-MADISON COURTESY PHOTO KENNEDY

48 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Exhibition Homecoming Buttons

In 2001, Pete Christianson ’71, OnAlumni JD’77 embarked on a mission to collect all of the UW’s Home- coming buttons since the event began in 1911. His collection was featured on the cover of the Spring 2010 Badger Insider in an article titled “Confessions of a Button Man.” (See uwalumni. com/go/buttons.) Thanks to contributions from friends, garage sales, and eBay, Christianson had buttons from every year except eighteen of them. He’s now closed the gap to just eight, although he’s not positive that buttons were issued during all of those miss- ing years. Want to help him out? He’s missing 1943, 1944, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1996. Christianson’s favorite buttons are the first, 1911, which was the hardest to find and the most expensive on eBay; 1936, a gift from John Weaver, the first president of the UW System, for whom he used to work; 1935, which was the fiftieth anniversa- ry of the marching band; and the 1967 button, which was from his freshman year in college. He is looking forward to attending Homecoming 2015 on October 17 with his entire family, including his three children and their spouses or fiances (all UW alums) and his three grandchildren. If you’d like to return to Madison to collect your own 2015 button, see uwalumni. com/homecoming for more information. Highlights in- clude a pep rally and parade, a BADGER HUDDLE®, and the Wisconsin-Purdue game. On October 15, Virgil Abloh ’03, who is the creative director for rap star Kanye West, will join Gabriel Stulman ’03, a New York City restaurateur, for a RED Talk (modeled after TED Talks). The topic is how to be successful both in and out of school, and alumni are welcome. For game-watch parties, locate your chapter website at

PHOTOS BY ANDY MANIS ANDY BY PHOTOS uwalumni.com/chapters.

On Wisconsin 49 Tradition Dane County Farmers’ Market

It’s difficult to pinpoint the What’s your visitors browse the wide array local, relies on the market’s one thing that makes the Dane favorite UW of local products while admir- produce for some of its events. County Farmers’ Market on the tradition? Tell ing the towering State Capitol. Oona Mackesey-Green ’15, On Wisconsin Capitol Square stand out from at onwisconsin@ “It’s a great background,” who served as the group’s other outdoor farmers’ markets uwalumni.com says Mary Geissbuhler, co-executive director last year, across the country. and we’ll find out co-owner of Brunkow Cheese notes that the market provides It could be the cheese curds if it’s just a fond in Darlington, Wisconsin. Her the chance to connect directly memory or if it’s and the spicy cheese bread that still part of cam- stand, known for its popular with the food’s sources. set it apart. After all, the mar- pus life today. Brun-uusto Baked Cheese, has “One of the reasons that I ket is tucked into the heart of participated in the market for really love Madison [is that] it America’s Dairyland. Or perhaps nearly two decades. “It’s fun has so much going on here, but it’s the fact that — with one hun- to come up here, and you meet you’re so close to agriculture dred and sixty vendors offering people from all over the coun- and to other styles of living,” their goods each week — the try,” she says. the Madison native says. “When market is the nation’s largest Although her stand has you get to talk with the farmers producer-only farmers’ market. remained in the same spot on at somewhere like the Dane Shoppers flood the market the Square for about ten years, County Farmers’ Market, you from opening weekend in the Geissbuhler recalls a time get to really ask them how they spring through its last gasp in when claiming territory was grow their food [and learn] the late fall, savoring the progres- stressful: “Originally, you just traditions behind it.” sion from early blooms and had to drive around. They’d Maggie Yoder ’15, a fre- honey to heirloom tomatoes let you on the Square at 6:30 quent market visitor, appreci- and strawberries to pumpkins [a.m.], and it was first come, ates how the event draws locals and acorn squash. Started in first served.” and visitors alike each week. 1972 by then-Mayor Bill Dyke, Slow Food UW, a student “I like the community feel of it unites Madison’s urban and organization that is a certi- it,” she says. “Having everyone rural cultures. Students, fam- fied nonprofit business and a together — that makes me feel ilies with kids in tow, alumni licensed restaurant that pro- like Madison is alive.”

back for the weekend, and other motes sustainability and eating STEPHANIE AWE ’15 MILLER JEFF BY PHOTO

50 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 OnAlumni Class Notes

1940s–50s University published, in Por- nor’s Award for the Arts for John “JP” Endres ’51, MS’53 tuguese, an honorific book of Lifetime Achievement, be- of Mequon, Wisconsin, writes his research articles on social stowed by the South Carolina proudly that Camp Chippewa — stratification. Arts Commission, has gone to in the Chippewa National Forest It’s probably safe to say that Terry Peterson ’67. A former on Cass Lake near Bemidji, we’ve never written about the counselor to the U.S. secretary Minnesota — is “celebrating demolition industry, but (Nels) of education and a cofounder its eightieth year of wilderness Berger Jostad ’57 has given us of the national Arts Education BOOK NEWS experiences, bringing boys Please complete the chance. He now holds the Partnership, he’s been a strong from the city to the lakes and and submit National Demolition Associ- force for including the arts in forests.” Founded in 1935 by the form at ation’s (NDA) 2015 Lifetime the federal definition of core the late Otto Endres ’23 — a uwalumni.com/ Achievement Award for his subjects. Peterson is currently go/bookshelf. Big Ten and NCAA pole-vault We then post leadership and commitment to a senior fellow at the College of champion who was selected for submissions to a the association, his community, Charleston [South Carolina], the 1920 Olympic team — and Wisconsin-alum- the industry, and his company, chair of the National Afterschool his wife, Helen, it hosts boys ni section of the the Glendale, California–based Alliance, and director of the book website aged seven to seventeen in an Goodreads at Viking Demolition. NDA’s Afterschool and Community environment that’s “removed goodreads.com/ board president calls Jostad “a Learning Network. from the electronic marvels wisalumni. A thought leader in the industry.” Lewis Smith PhD ’67 of of today.” Otto handed the handful of the Boise, Idaho, was an elementary directors’ reins to John and books posted school teacher, principal, Uni- there will also his wife, Cammy, in 1960. appear in each 60s versity of Idaho teacher educa- Michael Endres ’80, ’84 and issue of the print We have a Pioneer of National tor, and now professor emeritus. his wife, Mary Stoll Endres magazine. Reconnaissance in our alumni His “personal life mission,” he ’85, of Maple Grove, Minne- midst: he’s John Stavlo ’64 of says, “is one that involves pro- sota, took them in 2012. John CLASS NOTES Mammoth Lakes, California, posing an approach that yields concludes quite rightly that SUBMISSIONS who designed and implemented a different result than our failed “Camp Chippewa has a defi- classnotes@ a first-of-its-kind precision early-childhood reading edu- nite Badger flavor.” uwalumni.com pointing and tracking control cation” — work to which he’s Richard Boniface ’53 of Class Notes, system that proved to be a dedicated himself through many Cedar, Minnesota, recently Wisconsin Alumni quantum leap in signals intelli- programs designed to produce Association, earned the Wisconsin Sheep 650 North Lake gence collection sensitivity. A lifetime readers. Breeders Cooperative’s Art Pope Street, Madison, plaque honoring Stavlo is now Award — named for the late WI 53706-1476 on display in Pioneer Hall at the UW animal science professor headquarters of the National 70s Art Pope MS’43, PhD’46 — DEATH Reconnaissance Office in Chan- Kudos to four ’70s graduates but it’s far from Boniface’s first NOTICES, tilly, Virginia. who’ve earned academic acco- industry accolade. During his NAME, Former Wisconsin Alum- lades. Jack (John) Dezek ’71 of forty years at North Central ADDRESS, ni Association board chair Hallandale Beach, Florida, now TELEPHONE, Wool Marketing Corporation, he AND EMAIL Elzie Higginbottom ’65 is has emeritus status at Barry originated the grade-and-yield UPDATES new to another board: that of University, retiring in 2014 af- method of marketing wool, and alumnichanges@ After School Matters, a Chi- ter twenty years as an associate he’s a popular wool show judge uwalumni.com cago nonprofit that provides professor of educational lead- and a Minnesota Livestock Hall Alumni Changes, high-schoolers with opportu- ership and associate dean of its of Fame inductee. Boniface says, Wisconsin Alumni nities to explore their talents education school. He’s looking “The friends I gained through Association, while developing critical skills forward to coming back to 650 North Lake my work are among my life’s Street, Madison, for work, college, and beyond. campus after the construction prized possessions.” WI 53706-1476 He founded East Lake Manage- on Library Mall is finished — UW-Madison sociology 608-262-9648 ment and Development Corpo- which may take awhile. Loke professor emeritus Archibald or toll free ration in 1983, and now, as its Kok PhD’71 is a new professor Haller PhD ’54 of Tucson 888-947-2586 president and CEO, oversees one emeritus of entomology at earned an award last year from (WIS-ALUM) of the largest minority-owned Virginia Tech (VT) in Blacks- the Brazilian Association of real estate firms in Illinois. burg, where he’s made signifi- Administration, Economics, “Having grown up in Chicago,” cant contributions to the field and Rural Sociology for his says Higginbottom, “I feel a of biological control since he contributions to that nation’s great sense of responsibility to joined the faculty in 1972. With understanding of its regional support the youth in our city’s VT since 1978, Donald Baird socioeconomic variations. underserved communities.” PhD’74 has earned an interna- This year, Brazilian Federal The 2015 Verner Gover- tional reputation for his work

On Wisconsin 51 OnAlumni Class Notes in polymer rheology, holds the poet laureate. Long part of the Caldwell is Charlotte Borst Society of Plastics Engineers’ state’s rich literary history, MA’80, PhD’89. She took the International Award, and has he’s also earned the North helm of the private, liberal been named the Giacco Profes- Carolina Award for Literature, arts institution in June after sor of Chemical Engineering. the Order of the Long Leaf wrapping up six years as the And, the 2015 Distinguished Pine, and induction into the vice president for academic af- Professor at the University of North Carolina Literary Hall of fairs and dean of the faculty at Southern Indiana in Evansville is Fame. Stephenson, an English Whittier [California] College. Katie Waters ’71, whose posts professor at UNC-Pembroke When Yamaha Corporation as a professor of art and director and editor of Pembroke Maga- of America staff members and of the campus’s McCutchan Art zine until his 2010 retirement, friends ran in and donated to an Center/Pace Galleries are just writes — and has sung with his annual charity race in January, the latest in her thirty-plus years wife on four CDs — in Benson, they completed their seventh of service there. The work North Carolina. year of fundraising to find a Charles Prebish PhD’71 of Frank Gail Owens Baity MA’76 cure for Type 1 diabetes in of State College, Pennsylvania, is new to the board of the Asso- association with Yamaha Cares, is recognized as one of the Lloyd ciation for Talent Development, the philanthropic arm of the world’s foremost scholars of Wright the world’s largest organiza- Buena Park, California–based Buddhist studies. He retired x1890 tion for the industry. She also company. Yamaha’s marketing from a thirty-six-year teaching influenced directs workforce development communications manager, career at Penn State in 2006 and learning for Corning in Dave Jewell ’80, says that this to accept the Charles Redd its original Corning, New York, but her year’s contributions brought Endowed Chair in Religious 1911 design; experience spans multiple their overall donation total Studies at Utah State until his a yearlong industries and human-resourc- to the Children’s Hospital “final retirement” in 2010. Penn renovation es specialties. Baity drove the of Orange County Diabetes State recently honored Prebish development of Corning’s global Center to more than seventy- with a display of his books, and has stayed leadership competencies and seven thousand dollars. he gave an address on campus true to its led the creation of the framework When the UW School of about his groundbreaking Prairie- for its leadership-development Journalism and Mass Com- research in North American style curriculum. munication toasted its own at Buddhism — which, through his The Brevity Award for its annual awards banquet in efforts, has become a recognized origins; submissions to this issue goes April, Stephen Reese MA’80, subdiscipline in Buddhist studies. technology to Madisonian George Brown PhD’82, a professor of jour- Barry Guitar PhD’74, a upgrades MA’78. He’s been executive nalism and associate dean for professor of communication have director of the State Bar of academic affairs at the Univer- sciences and disorders at the Wisconsin since 1999 and is sity of Texas-Austin, earned the University of Vermont (UVM) brought the 2014–15 president of the Nelson Award for his contribu- in Burlington, is among the it into the National Association of Bar tions to education research in globe’s leading researchers present; Executives. the industry; Madisonian Mike and clinicians in the area of and it’s Heidi Radtke Notbohm McCabe ’82, former executive stuttering — and someone who ’79, MS’81 and Tom Notbohm director of the Wisconsin conquered his own stutter. one block ’79 have opened a three-suite Democracy Campaign, took Dozens of admirers wrote in from Camp bed-and-breakfast in Madison: home the Distinguished Service support of his latest award, Randall. the Buckingham Inn on Summit Award; and for achievement the UVM Alumni Association’s What’s not Avenue. The work of Frank within ten years of graduation, 2015 Kidder Outstanding Lloyd Wright x1890 influ- ESPN Magazine senior editor Faculty Award, with his faculty to love? enced its original 1911 design; Cristina Daglas ’06 of West colleagues noting, “Barry does See Heidi a yearlong renovation has Hartford, Connecticut, received not merely teach; he changes Radtke stayed true to its Prairie-style the Nafziger Award. lives and communities.” The Notbohm ’79, origins; technology upgrades Congratulations to four MS’81 and Tom fifth edition of Guitar’s widely Notbohm ’79 have brought it into the present; grads who have been recog- used college textbook, Stutter- and it’s one block from Camp nized in Barron’s 2015 America’s ing: An Integrated Approach to Randall. What’s not to love? Top Advisor Rankings by Its Nature and Treatment, will State: Merrill Lynch private soon be published. wealth advisers John Ver With poems about his rural 80s Bockel ’80 in the Chicago roots at the heart of his oeuvre, The thirteenth president — office;Michael Swenson ’88 in Shelby Stephenson PhD’74 and the first woman president the Wayzata, Minnesota, office; has become North Carolina’s — of the College of Idaho in and Benjamin Klein ’95 in the

52 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Recognition Stacy Igel ’99

Northbrook, Illinois, office; as well as Benjamin Leshem ’86, managing director of investments in the Deerfield, Illinois, branch SMART STARTER of Wells Fargo Advisors. “She started it” is a common After fourteen years with get-out-of-jail-free card for sib- the half-million-member La- lings and playground trouble- borers’ International Union of makers everywhere. But Stacy North America, Richard Greer Igel ’99 would be proud to say ’81 writes that he’s “left his that “she started it” — and not position as strategic communi- just when describing Boy Meets cations director to found Today, Girl (BMG), the clothing line she a Washington, DC– based debuted in 2001. network of creative, media, and The Boy Meets Girl brand communications contacts spe- offers “ath-leisure” designs cializing in good work done fast geared toward young women. for progressive organizations.” Igel describes the BMG girl as Helping Badger State citi- both “downtown” and “uptown,” zens to find the truth in politics “not too classy” but with “a little is the mission of the five-year- class,” and “not too edgy” but old PolitiFact Wisconsin: a with “a little edge.” So, essen- partnership of the Milwaukee tially, anyone. In 2014, Igel be- Journal Sentinel and politifact. gan selling her line exclusively com, a Pulitzer Prize–winning through nordstrom.com, and in website of the Tampa Bay May of 2015, the line moved into Times. Every day, three intrepid select Nordstrom stores. Before PolitiFact Wisconsin reporters that, she started a program in at the Journal Sentinel — Jim which she teaches young fashion students about the industry. Nelson ’81, Dave Umhoefer And before that, Igel was starting off alongside designers such ’83, and Tom Kertscher ’84 as Rebecca Taylor and Stacey Bendet. — research statements made Igel started starting things as a student in UW-Madison’s by elected officials, candidates, School of Human Ecology (SoHE). She majored in retailing with and other public figures to rate concentrations in design and merchandising, and she received a their accuracy on PolitiFact’s certificate in business. In SoHE, Igel worked with the head of the Truth-O-Meter. design department to develop a senior thesis. “I was basically carv- The international financial- ing out my own design program at Wisconsin,” she says. During services firm Baird has installed her senior year, she was asked to speak to her fellow students Terry Maxwell ’82 as its chief about getting internships — she had scored hers with designers financial officer. He was with such as Zandra Rhodes, Donna Karan, and Elsa Klensch. the firm for twenty years, head- During the same year, Igel designed, marketed, and sold her ing investment banking; spent first design, a women’s top similar to what she calls a “hippie several years in academia; then sack dress.” She sewed one hundred of these garments and, like rejoined Baird in 2014 as its traveling salesmen of old, sold them to girls on spring break. director of corporate develop- “That cross-relates to what I had to do when I first started the ment and strategic investment. brand,” Igel says. She recalls driving to storefronts in Los Angeles The company has been on with a roller bag filled with shirts to sell them. Fortune’s list of 100 Best Com- As the marketing landscape changed from samples in suit- panies to Work For for twelve cases to tags on Twitter, Igel adapted. Before Facebook offered consecutive years and attained Pages as a platform for businesses, she used her personal page the number five spot in 2015. as a grassroots effort to market BMG. Now, @BoyMeetsGirlUSA John Stofflet ’83 — a news and @StacyIgel are on all major social platforms. Most recently, anchor and reporter for Madi- she’s been live-streaming her blog, Behind the Seams with Stacy son’s NBC-15 — was one of five Igel, on Periscope. Social media helps Igel get to know her cus- TV journalists nationwide to be tomers, but it also helps customers get to know her brand. She invited to the White House to calls this “humanizing the brand in the social media space.” interview President Obama in Igel has come a long way since her poolside peddling to April — in front of the fireplace spring-breakers. As for where she’s headed next, who knows? where FDR delivered his Fire- She just might start something.

PHOTO BY AMANDA DE CADENET DE AMANDA BY PHOTO side Chats. Obama and Stofflet CHELSEA SCHLECHT ’13

On Wisconsin 53 OnAlumni Class Notes first chatted about the Badgers’ Eastern Affairs. She traveled to days, when red-and-white-clad play in the Final Four, but their Baghdad and Erbil in February baristas serve up red-and-white main topic was middle-class to meet with senior Iraqi gov- waffles with coffee. The shop economics. The journalists also ernmental and religious leaders also “got a nice mention in GQ,” met with economic advisers, to discuss human-rights issues. says Barrett, and it’s been named toured the White House, and Today George Dreckmann a top coffee shop byTravel + met the First Dogs. “I have trav- ’88 is a Madison institution as Leisure and complex.com. eled on assignment to all seven its recycling coordinator — the continents,” says Stofflet, who’s garbage and recycling guru — earned twenty-two Emmys, “but but he began in a temporary 90s adding the White House to that post with the streets department In his TV persona as the Hungry list of interview locations is just while awaiting his chance at Hound, Steve Dolinsky ’90 about every journalist’s dream.” a teaching job. Instead, he eats his way through Chicago Along with a group of X-PLANATION just stayed. During his tenure, as the food reporter for ABC 7 An x preceding leading experts in juvenile- and a degree year Dreckmann has ushered in News and is a food correspondent criminal-justice reform, Alex indicates that the curbside recycling and prepared for The World — a coproduction Busansky ’84 of Berkeley, individual did not for a proposed composting pro- of Public Radio International, California, has founded Impact complete, or has gram. “Climate change to me is the BBC World News Service, not yet complet- Justice, a national, nonprofit ed, that degree at the most pressing issue on the and WGBH Boston. He also innovation and research center UW-Madison. planet,” he says. “Anything that founded the media-training that’s committed to reducing can lighten our carbon footprint business Culinary Communi- the number of people involved The Wisconsin is okay.” He plans to retire in cations and has been a judge Alumni Associ- in the justice system, bettering ation® (WAA) January from his unanticipated on the Food Network’s Iron conditions for those who are encourages but successful career. Chef America. No newcomer to incarcerated, providing mean- diversity, inclu- “I have a fantastic new job,” the Chicago food-meets-media ingful opportunities for success sivity, nondis- writes Glen Cook MS’89, scene, he’s garnered twelve crimination, and upon re-entering society, and participation by PhD’98 with gusto: he’s the James Beard Awards for his improving justice outcomes all alumni, stu- chief scientist at the Corning TV and radio work during the for crime victims. He’d love to dents, and friends Museum of Glass in Corning, past decade. hear from former classmates at of UW-Madison in New York, where he researches In 1982, Tony Hornik-Tran [email protected]. its activities. novel ideas in glass and new (Hung Tien Tran) ’90 left his Molly Roslak Gribb ’85 ways to work with it; serves as native Vietnam in a small boat was excited to return to her a resource to the museum, art, to seek out a better life, landed native Wisconsin this summer scientific, and technical commu- in the Philippines, and eventu- to become the dean of UW-Plat- nities; and acts as the technical ally became part of an adoptive teville’s College of Engineering, adviser to Corning’s new spe- family in Madison. Hornik-Tran’s Mathematics, and Science. cialty-glass artist-in-residence first job was with the Inter- Previously, she served as a civil program. Cook was previously national Catholic Migration and environmental engineering a sixteen-year Corning senior Commission/Joint Voluntary department head and professor research associate, one of its Agency — in the same refugee at the South Dakota School most acclaimed exploratory camp in the Philippines where of Mines and Technology, as a researchers, and its Stookey he had lived. In 2002, he joined professor of civil engineering Award recipient in 2013. He the State Department’s Bureau and director of the Center for adds, “Every day, I am asked a of Diplomatic Security. Most Environmental Sensing at Boise question or engage in a discus- recently assigned to Bratislava, [Idaho] State University, and sion that makes me grateful for Slovakia, as the U.S. Embassy’s as an associate professor at the my UW education … and I speak regional security officer/secu- University of South Carolina. proudly of that connection.” rity attaché, he’s also served The State Bar of Wisconsin Which Madison java shop in New York, Angola, China, has bestowed its Tuchscherer was named in March to TIME Yemen, Namibia, Mongolia, Outstanding Public Interest magazine’s list of the top ten and Vietnam. Law Attorney Award on Lisa coffee shops in the U.S.? It’s Steve Lochowitz ’90 of Clay Foley JD’87, the super- Indie Coffee on Regent Street, Tucson just may have accom- vising attorney at Disability owned for the last decade by plished a first in moviemaking: Rights Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Barrett Kilmer ’89 and his he filmed three flicks Mania— , Susan Notar ’87 of Falls wife, Jennifer Enstrom Kilmer Desolation, and Kill the Produc- Church, Virginia, is the senior ’89. It’s a forum for independent tion Assistant (a documentary Iraq policy lead at the U.S. State music and film and an especially about making the first two) Department’s Bureau of Near happenin’ place on football game — in twenty-one days while

54 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 Recognition Jan Ramer DVM’95

driving from Los Angeles to Alabama and back. Lochowitz served as the aforementioned production assistant and transportation captain on all three, and he even stepped in to play the part of a murder victim when necessity called. Congratulations are in order for another reason, too: he’s just earned his master’s degree in secondary education. Everyone loves a good story, right? Linda Tate PhD’91 cel- ebrates that belief through her new, weekly blog and podcast called StoryWeb: Storytime for Grownups (thestoryweb.com) WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE — tales that are worth putting The sun rises over the nine-thousand-acre expanse. Herds of on your “listening ears.” A former sable antelope, southern white rhinos, and giraffes roam freely. English professor and master Somewhere, a newborn Sichuan takin learns to walk. It’s another storyteller herself, she also beautiful day in … Cumberland, Ohio. heads Tate Communications This is the Wilds, a fourteen-square-mile safari park and in Boulder, Colorado, and is the conservation center smack-dab between Columbus, Ohio, author of the recent Power in the and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It’s home to thirty-one rare and Blood: A Family Narrative (Ohio endangered species. It’s also where Jan Ramer DVM’95, the University Press) and the up- Wilds’ director of conservation medicine, goes to work every day. coming Ferguson Girl: A Memoir “It’s first and foremost a conservation and research center,” of Family, Place, and Race. says Ramer. “It’s also a drive-through safari park. You can go on While serving in West safari drives right through the pastures and have camels, giraffes, Germany in the seventies as a and rhinos come right up to the truck, just like you would in Africa.” Green Beret intelligence officer, And if anyone knows what it’s like to interact with wildlife in Jay (Joseph) Hatheway, Jr. Africa, it’s Ramer. Before joining the Wilds, she regularly made PhD’92 was subjected to abuse, six-hour hikes through rainforests in the Democratic Republic of psychological testing, and a Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda to care for sick and wounded moun- months-long court-martial trial tain gorillas, a subspecies of eastern gorillas. For two two-year that resulted in an “other than periods (broken up briefly by a stateside job at the Indianapolis honorable” discharge for being Zoo), Ramer worked as the regional veterinary manager for Gorilla gay. In 1976, he was the first to Doctors, an international nonprofit dedicated to the conservation make a constitutional challenge of Africa’s critically endangered mountain-gorilla population. to the military’s ban on gay That habituated species is the only great ape population that is soldiers, and in 2011, then– currently increasing — thanks, in part, to Gorilla Doctors. U.S. Representative Tammy “Gorilla Doctors makes a difference and is really contributing Baldwin JD’89 presented to the conservation of eastern gorillas in the wild,” Ramer says. Hatheway with a framed copy “It felt good to be on the cutting edge of conservation in that way, of the act that repealed the with such a wonderful team.” “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But Ramer has always wanted to focus on zoo and wildlife work, the discharge remained — until particularly nondomestic medicine. “The Wisconsin [School of February 2, 2015, when he was Veterinary Medicine] was really great about offering extracur- granted clemency and an honor- ricular opportunities and allowing me to go off campus to seek able discharge dated May 28, experiences in nondomestic species,” she says. 1976. Hatheway is a professor Even though Ramer completed her undergraduate degree and chair of the history depart- at Purdue, she is a Badger at heart. As a child, she went to ment at Madison’s Edgewood summer camps near Eagle River. She and a group of Madison College and the author of The friends reconnect to go camping on Rock Island each year. And Gilded Age Roots of Modern she’s made it back to campus to speak at the veterinary school. American Homophobia and “There’s something about the UW and about Madison that Guilty as Charged: The True makes people want to stay — and stay in touch,” she says.

PHOTO COURTESY © GORILLA DOCTORS/GORILLADOCTORS.ORG GORILLA © COURTESY PHOTO Story of a Gay Beret. CHELSEA SCHLECHT ’13

On Wisconsin 55 OnAlumni Class Notes

When the Ohio University Johnston ’94 says that his days An independent film that he Heritage College of Osteo- in Madtown fueled his success wrote and coproduced, Second pathic Medicine began to create in Hollywood. He started out as Impression, is slated to hit the a Cleveland campus in affiliation a TV news reporter but decided film-festival circuit this year. with the renowned Cleveland to act on a feeling that he’d had The polyphenol biotransfor- Clinic, Isaac Kirstein ’92 was since taking a film class from mation platform and additional tapped as dean. That campus UW professor David Bordwell: research and development opened for classes in July. that writing and directing movies duties at Milwaukee’s Agro Kirstein was previously the vice was his true calling. Johnston BioSciences — a firm that president of medical affairs and left the news business, studied provides microbial products for chief medical officer at Francis- filmmaking, worked on scripts, agricultural and human health can St. James Health in Chicago and got his big break with Cedar needs — are now in the hands Heights, Illinois. Rapids. He then developed the of Doug Willrett EMBA’95. In At the new Lifespan Psycho- animated hit Wreck-It Ralph amassing his three-plus decades therapy in Hartland, Wisconsin, for Walt Disney Studios, which of experience, he’s worked at Chris Olson Drosdick ’93 earned an Oscar nomination DuPont, leading a nutrition and provides art psychotherapy for Best Animated Feature in health global business unit; and services. She’s also an adjunct 2013; and he contributed to the at Danisco as the executive VP professor in the art therapy Oscar-nominated Nebraska. of its Cultures Division. department of Cuyahoga Com- Upcoming projects include the Newly elected to the munity College. spy spoof Grimsby, cowritten board of the National Science Gregory Goar ’93, a UW with Sacha Baron Cohen; and Teachers Association is Eric professor of aerospace studies an adaptation of Confederacy Brunsell ’96, a UW-Oshkosh who also commands the of Dunces. associate professor of curric- campus’s Air Force ROTC David Kaufman ’94 is the ulum and instruction and the (AFROTC), took us back to new VP and director of the COO of the Wisconsin Society 1992, when ROTC was near- Safety and Security Division of of Science Teachers. He also ly removed from campus due “I’m doing CNA Corporation in Arlington, published two books last year, to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” what most Virginia, a not-for-profit re- one of which — Introducing (DADT) policy of that era. political search organization that assists Teachers and Administrators Today, he notes, many early- government leaders in setting to the Next Generation Science nineties AFROTC grads are science policy and managing operations. Standards: A Professional still serving. Among them are majors do Kaufman is returning to CNA Development Facilitator’s Guide Colonel David Banholzer ’91, after they from the Federal Emergency — was among the Best Books of commander of Air Force One graduate: Management Agency, where 2014 as chosen by the American and, says Goar, the “face of he’s been its associate admin- Association for the Advance- the cadets” during the DADT [working] istrator for policy, program ment of Science journal Science discussions; and Colonel Keith in flower analysis, and international Books & Films. Balts ’92, 30th Space Wing exports affairs since 2009. “I’m … doing what most commander at Vandenberg Air in Quito, At the Boston-based Denta- political science majors do after Force Base in California, who’s Quest, the nation’s third-largest they graduate,” quips Daniel responsible for the West Coast Ecuador.” oral health company, Steven Gaus ’96: “[working] in flower space launch facility. Daniel Gaus ’96 Pollock JD’94 has stepped up exports in Quito, Ecuador.” His Jane Barthell ’94 has from his post as chief operating new e-commerce endeavor, joined Minnesota Neonatal officer to become the new pres- Esperanza Flowers, ships fresh Physicians in Minneapolis as ident and CEO. He’s been with blossoms — picked from the a full partner — and it’s been DentaQuest since 1999. side of a volcano in the Andes quite a journey to get there! By day, Hanz Wasserburger — to any U.S. address and She juggled medical school (as ’94 is an assistant attorney donates 10 percent of each sale a Minnesota Golden Gopher), a general in Austin, Texas, whose to the Centro del Muchacho pediatric residency, a neonatal work involves litigation against Trabajador, a foundation that fellowship, and four children pharmaceutical companies in assists the poor in Quito. And with the help of her husband, relation to the Texas Medicaid Gaus is planning ahead: “I will Ned Gustafson ’93. He says program. By night, he’s a have plenty of red roses when that “both parents still enjoy screenwriter and film produc- the Badgers make it to next quick trips to Madison and er. Several of Wasserburger’s year’s Rose Bowl.” visiting with friends from our scripts have aired as features As this year’s Wisconsin undergraduate years.” and TV movies, including the journalist-in-residence at UW- L.A. screenwriter Phil recent comedy A Novel Romance. Madison, Toya Washington

56 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 ’97 has met with faculty, staff, crowdfunding campaign to help intellectual property law in the and students — both to teach launch the product. United States, and a partner at and to learn. She’s an Emmy Durie Tangri in San Francisco. winner and four-time nominee Badger attorneys are ever for breaking news coverage 2000s the movers and shakers, as who joined Milwaukee’s WISN Jack Newman PhD’01 is the their news demonstrates. Husch 12 News in 2002 and coan- chief science officer at Amyris, Blackwell’s Denver office has chors the 5 p.m. newscast. an Emeryville, California–based welcomed senior counsel Julie Washington has also been an renewable fuels and chemicals Sullivan ’02 to its health care, active member of the National company that he cofounded in life sciences, and education Association of Black Journalists 2003. Amyris received a Green industry team. Also in Denver, and serves on the UW School of Chemistry Innovation Award Peter Nagle ’04 and Emma Journalism and Mass Commu- from the U.S. Environmental Lange-Novak ’07, JD’10 are nication’s board of visitors. Protection Agency in October WISCONSIN both new associates at Brown- ALUMNI The Advocates for Human 2014 for developing farnesane, ASSOCIATION stein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Rights, a Minneapolis-based an advanced renewable fuel that’s (WAA) with Nagle practicing in the international nonprofit, has ap- in use by airlines and the navy. MEMBERSHIP intellectual property department pointed (Sorha) Rosalyn Park Matt Binetti ’02, a New If you’re already and Lange-Novak working in the a member of ’98 as director of its Women’s York City story producer, has our merry band, corporate department. A new Human Rights Program. She’s written for HGTV’s House thank you! associate at Brandt Criminal been one of its staff attorneys Hunters International and now If you’re not, Defense in Anoka, Minnesota, is since 2003 and acting direc- writes for the FYI Network’s check out all the Eric Bain ’05, who took a leave nifty reasons to tor since last year, working Tiny House Hunting. But he’s become one at of absence from his JD studies around the world, at the United interested in other writing as uwalumni.com/ at William Mitchell College of Nations, and in Minnesota to re- well: Binetti’s started a not-for- membership/ Law to intern in Tanzania with form laws and systems to more profit, volunteer-supported benefits, and the United Nations International join the WAA effectively respond to abuses publication on medium.com community at Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. of women, including domestic called The Wisconsin (medium. uwalumni.com/ And, Sarah Semrow ’06 and violence and sex trafficking. com/the-wisconsin) and seeks membership. (Tyler) James Junger ’11, Operating a hotel with to expand its writer network JD’14 have joined the Milwaukee fantasy-themed suites probably and content by featuring “writ- office of Hall, Render, Killian, wasn’t the first thing that Marc ten work of integrity” — fiction, Heath & Lyman — the nation’s Strobusch ’98 of Hartland, nonfiction, poetry, you name largest health care–focused Wisconsin, thought would mesh it — with Badger State ties law firm. with his career as a Walgreens through authorship or theme. Karen Heusinger Searles pharmacist, but it does. He and Daniel Black ’02 of Fort ’03 teaches dance at Cedar his wife, Shannon, own the Best Worth, Texas, already had a Ridge High School in Round Western Designer Inn & Suites long list of accolades as a con- Rock, Texas, and is the first ed- in Galena, Illinois — to which ductor and composer, but he’s ucator in her school district to Marc’s father has added custom- been having an exceptional cou- offer a new course in the state designed and hand-crafted ple of years. In 2014, he became called Dance and Media Com- Crystal Cave, Roman Palace, and music director of the Oshkosh munications. She’s also been Heart’s Delight fantasy suites. [Wisconsin] Symphony Orches- chosen to participate in her Do you crave sugar? (Silly tra and assistant conductor school district’s Next Generation question …) Americans con- of the Fort Worth Symphony Digital Classroom pilot initiative, sume great amounts of sugar, Orchestra. This year, he was in which one incubator class- and its wide-ranging, detrimen- appointed director of instru- room at each school will be tal effects on health are well mental music at the Wildwood outfitted as — and help to de- documented. Dustin Strong Academy of Music and the Arts fine — digital classrooms of the ’99, a certified holistic nutri- in Little Rock, Arkansas, and future. Searles is a founder of tionist in Mansfield, Texas, has received a Solti Foundation Texas Future Dance Educators and a cofounder of Strong On U.S. Career Assistance Award and a leader in the Texas Dance Health, offers his solution: he’s to further develop his talent Educators Association. developed Sugar Stopper, an and career. The intersection of fashion all-natural, herbal supplement According to the legal news- and sports is where New Yorker spray made with the gymnema letter Law360, who’s a 2015 Heather Zeller ’05 hangs out sylvestre herb to suppress the Rising Star? It’s Joseph Gratz as the 2009 originator and taste of sugar and reduce crav- ’02, one of nine top attorneys editor-in-chief of the website ings. Strong used an Indiegogo under the age of forty practicing and blog AGlamSlam.com. “To

On Wisconsin 57 Diversions

Hello, book lovers! Check out the new Wisconsin-alumni section of Goodreads at goodreads.com/wisalumni for more news about books by Badger alumni and faculty.

Coauthor Linda Madisonian Angie Perlman Gordon ’69’s Stanton Tyler ’98’s fifth book,How to Con- seventh contem- nect with Your iTeen: porary-romance/ A Parenting Road young-adult novel is Map (McGraw Hill), Under the Spotlight provides skills to help (HarperTeen), set in parents cope with their the UW’s very own kids’ teenhood through Elizabeth Waters resi- “an all-encompassing dence hall. She writes resource.” She’s a as Angie Stanton. psychotherapist in pri- vate practice in Chevy Two years before Wis- TRANSPARENT Chase, Maryland. consin became a state, Following the premiere of its pilot episode at pioneers envisioned an the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Transparent Jeffrey Kurz ’83 institution to preserve became Amazon Prime’s most anticipated teaches at UW-Mil- the area’s already vast show. The comedy-drama features three waukee and operates history. Thus was born adult children responding to their father’s his own production the Wisconsin Histori- revelation that he’s transi- company, Belle City cal Society, which now tioning from male to female. Pictures. Last year, he serves three million Transparent’s creator, writer, and Neil Willenson people each year. John executive producer, and ’92 of Grafton, Wis- Zimm ’03 has chron- director is Jill Soloway ’87 consin, produced the icled its story in The of Los Angeles: a comedian documentary Healing Wisconsin Historical

RETURN TO ZERO PHOTOSHOP FILE BUILT AT TRIM: 27” x 40” DVD TO ONE-SHEET - J756 HALF SIZE @ 300 DPI. SEAN HANISH 01 4/29/14 4160 SANTA MONICA BLVD, LOS ANGELES CA 90029 EPS PLACED @ 200% TEL. 323.664.2570 FAX. 323.664.2058 and feminist who took home BLEED: 27.25” x 40.25” STOCK: None Hearts about Camp Society: Collecting, IMAGES ALTERED: None a Golden Globe in January Hometown Heroes, Preserving, and Shar- for Transparent as the Best a summer camp for ing Stories Since 1846. TV Series/Musical or Comedy. The show also children of fallen mili- He’s an editor at the garnered eleven Emmy nominations in July. tary-service members. Wisconsin Historical In an April New York Times Magazine pro- Society Press in Mad- file, Soloway discussed how the transgender Sean Hanish ’90 of ison, which published community is reacting to the program and Pasadena, California, is the work. how her father shared the same news as her a writer, director, and show’s character. She dedicated her Golden producer in film and Amid national discus- Globe honor in part to her father, whom other media. He and sions about marijuana she called her “trans parent,” saying in her his wife, Kiley, have legalization, Chris Du- acceptance speech, “I just want to thank you created the filmReturn vall PhD’06 has writ- for coming out because in doing so, you made to Zero, starring Minnie ten Cannabis (Reaktion a break for freedom; you told your truth; you Driver, based on their Books): “a world histo- taught me how to tell my truth and make this experiences of the ry of the plant genus, show. And maybe we’re going to be able to stillbirth loss of their [which] began for me teach the world something about authenticity son. Kelly Kahl ’89 when I encountered an and truth and love.” served as the movie’s unexpected reference Soloway’s previous work — especially executive producer. to [it] in my research with HBO’s Six Feet Under (as a writer and The Hanishes have also on the environmental co–executive producer) and the filmAfter - founded the Return history of slavery” in noon Delight (for which she earned a Directing to Zero Center for the UW’s African Stud- Award/U.S. Dramatic at Sundance in 2013 Healing, and Sean has ies Program. Duvall is for her writing and directing) — has also coedited Three Minus an associate professor been notable for exploring gender, especially One: Parents’ Stories of geography at the through complex female characters who are of Love & Loss (She University of New

on personal journeys. Writes Press). Mexico. IMAGES GETTY BOER, DE MAARTEN BY PHOTO SOLOWAY

58 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 OnAlumni Class Notes stand out in the digital world,” on the show. And what’s Alex During March Madness she says, “you need to … find a Trebek really like in person? (remember that?), Buzzfeed’s unique way to talk about some- “He couldn’t have been more deputy social media editor, thing” — and it’s working: she’s gracious,” Jones says. “He’s a New Yorker Bob Marshall been lauded in mainstream very sharp man.” ’09, made us believe — even media, the sports press, and Only twenty-three certified more than we already did — women’s business circles. Zeller physician assistants in Wiscon- with his post, “23 Reasons the is also a marketing specialist sin have earned the specialty Wisconsin Badgers Still Won for the sports clothing and shoe Certificate of Added Qualifica- the NCAA Tournament.” In manufacturer Fila. tions (CAQ) from the National previous positions, he estab- The United States Marine Commission on Certification lished the Late Night with Seth Corps Defense Counsel of the of Physician Assistants — and Myers social media presence as Year Award has gone to Captain Karen Sager ’07 is one of its social media manager, led Thomas Fricton ’06, whose them. She’s using her CAQ in OBITUARIES social-media efforts for other Badger Insider, outstanding trial record of 8-0, hospital medicine as the first the Wisconsin NBC programs, and served as leadership qualities, extra-mile hospitalist physician assistant Alumni Asso- the Onion’s marketing manager. work ethic, and upbeat attitude to join Select Specialty Hospital ciation’s (WAA) have set him apart. He’s currently in Madison. thrice-annual magazine for stationed at Camp Pendleton in More than forty years ago, its members, 2010s Oceanside, California. the Senate Press Secretaries is home to the Former Daily Cardinal campus Eric Jensen ’06 of Min- Association began as a bipar- great majority of editor and journalism/Arabic neapolis has stepped up to tisan forum where all of the obituary listings double major Erin Banco ’11 is of WAA members direct the energy program for U.S. Senate’s press secretaries and friends. now based in New York as an the Izaak Walton League of could mingle and share ideas. International Business Times America, which is dedicated Today it’s the largest Capitol international-affairs writer and to conservation and outdoor Hill professional organization Middle East correspondent, but recreation. With the nonprofit for communicators, and its 2015 she’s also written for the New for the last seven years, he’ll president is none other than York Times, the Atlantic, the continue its work to further Meghan Roh ’08: a four-year New Republic, CNN, and more incorporate renewables and Badger crew member and dep- as a former freelancer living in energy efficiency in Minnesota uty communications director Cairo. Before that? Banco spent and position the program to for Senator Tammy Baldwin fourteen years whirling around advance clean-energy policy JD’89. The group’s presidency the ice as a competitive figure in other states. alternates parties each year. skater. (This makes us wonder Last winter, as Wisconsin Adam Schmidt ’08 and what we’ve been doing with governor Scott Walker moved Maurice Thomas ’08 have our time …) toward a presidential bid, a earned fellowships to continue It’s rare when we can group called Our American their missions of social justice announce that a Badger grad Revival formed to spread his through education. Schmidt, is a princess, but here’s that message nationally before offi- a former managing director announcement: Chelsea cially announcing his candidacy. of development at Teach For Gruenwald ’13 represented Kirsten Kukowski ’06 — press America-Milwaukee, is engag- the National Conference of secretary for the Republican ing in classroom-based and State Societies as Wisconsin’s National Committee since 2011 hands-on learning while building Cherry Blossom Princess at the — was hired to serve as Our innovative, new advocacy cam- 2015 National Cherry Blossom American Revival’s communica- paigns in Wisconsin through Festival, held each spring in tions director. a 50CAN Education Advocacy Washington, DC. The Chippe- In true Jeopardy! style, we Fellowship. Thomas, a former wa Falls resident has worked ask, “Who is Michael Jones executive director of Teach For Now that their extensively with children and ’07?” The correct answer is America-Milwaukee, was one kids — Christo- adolescents who have behavior that he’s the Madison middle- of ten people accepted into the pher ’12, MS’15 and mental-health challenges school behavioral specialist Boston-based Building Excellent and Jennifer and plans to continue her edu- ’15 — have gradu- who competed for a $100,000 Schools Fellowship, through ated, Class Notes/ cation in clinical psychology. grand prize in Jeopardy!’s which fellows visit high-per- Diversions editor 2015 Teachers Tournament, forming urban schools across Paula Wagner which aired in February. He the nation to learn what makes Apfelbach ’83 and wasn’t the top winner — sorry, them effective. Thomas hopes her husband, Eric Apfelbach ’84, are Michael — but he did achieve to launch his own secondary getting the band a longtime dream by appearing school in Milwaukee in fall 2016. back together.

On Wisconsin 59 Where BADGERS Belong

Stay connected, celebrate your UW spirit, and be part of a special Badger community. Join the Wisconsin Alumni Association® today!

uwalumni.com/membership 888-WIS-ALUM (947-2586)

W Where

MADISON’S GAME DAY DESTINATION The Edgewater is Madison’s premiere hotel and game day destination. Whether you visit for the weekend or join us for one of our game day Tailgates, The Edgewater offers the ideal spot to celebrate Badger victories, catch up with old friends, and enjoy the best of what Madison has to offer. Start the day off at our pre-game brunch and Bloody Mary bar. After the game, keep BADGERS the momentum going at our post-game Tailgates featuring live music and specialty food and beverages. Public on-site parking is available. Reserve a spot on our shuttles running to and from Camp Randall before and after games. 800.922.5512 • WWW.THEEDGEWATER.COM Belong 1001 WISCONSIN PLACE • MADISON, WI 53703 • FACEBOOK.COM/EDGEWATERMADISON

Stay connected, celebrate your UW spirit, and be part of a special Badger community. Join the Wisconsin Alumni Association® today! “WAA Travel is one of uwalumni.com/membership the best ways to see the 888-WIS-ALUM (947-2586) world ... while enjoying the connection with fellow alumni!” Doug and Diane Gerner W

Learn about of all our trips and faculty enrichment tours at uwalumni.com/travel.

2016 featured tours: South Africa · Cuba · Galápagos

On Wisconsin 61 Listening and caring. We take the time to know you and your needs.

Our financial consultants can help you explore retirement planning options, including 401(k) rollovers. Schedule an appointment today.

Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Insurance products offered through LPL Financial or its licensed affiliates. UW Credit Union and Investment Services at UW Credit Union are not registered broker/dealers and are not affiliated with LPL Financial.

Not NCUA Insured | No Credit Union Guarantee | May Lose Value

3750 University Avenue | Madison, WI 53705 | 800.533.6773 | 608.232.5000 | uwcu.org/investments

62 On Wisconsin WINTER 2014

OnWisc_8.375x10.875_August.indd 1 7/22/15 1:57 PM Take Advantage of Your University of Wisconsin Buying Power!

Being part of the Wisconsin Alumni Association family has many benefits, one of them being the unique advantage you have when it comes to shopping for insurance: you may get lower rates than those quoted to the general public. Plus, you Insurance Plans Offered to Alumni: can trust that the Wisconsin Alumni Association • Auto/Home • Long-Term Care offers only the best plans for its alumni. • Short-Term Medical • Major Medical • 10-Year Level Term Life In CA d/b/a Mercer Health & Benefits Insurance Services LLC • Disability Income Protection AR Ins. Lic. #10012691 • Pet Insurance (7/15) Copyright 2015 Mercer LLC. CA Ins. Lic. #0G39709 All rights reserved. Call 1-888-560-ALUM (2586) or visit www.alumniplans.com/waa

As a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, you could receive exclusive savings on auto and home insurance from Liberty Mutual.1 Along with valuable savings, you’ll enjoy access to benefits like 24-Hour Claims Assistance.

For a free quote, call 888-323-2844 or visit www.libertymutual.com/waa Client #6802

1 Discounts and savings are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify. Auto coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty County Mutual Insurance Company, 2100 Walnut Hill Lane, Irving, TX. Home coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty Insurance Corporation, 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116. ©2015 Liberty Mutual Insurance

On Wisconsin 63 Yi-Fu is a Vilas professor emeritus at UW-Madison. He did his homework and chose the only continuing care retirement community in downtown Madison. Now he can walk to work, enjoy the vibrancy of city living, and bask in the knowledge that his future is secure.

Want to know more? We thought SMARTEST you’d never ask. MOVE Call 608-283-2046

You + Madison. OFFICIAL PARTNER OF THE WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Capitol Lakes is an Equal Housing Opportunity

64 On Wisconsin FALL 2015 At Oakwood Village University Woods, you’ll find a variety of living options–from studio apartments with kitchenettes to one-and two-bedroom apartment homes with screened porches and balconies with up to two bathrooms and 1,700 square feet. You will also find a choice of financial options including Life Lease and rental programs. But no matter which options you choose, you’ll still enjoy all of the services and amenities Oakwood Village University Woods has to offer. Call today to schedule a personal appointment and learn about all of the choices available to you at Oakwood Village: 608-230-4266. Or visit us online at oakwoodvillage.net. Oakwood Village University Woods 6205 Mineral Point Road Madison, WI 53705

Find us on Life’s explorations Facebook. continued.

On Wisconsin 65 Destination Lincoln Statue

UW-Madison wouldn’t exist without Abraham Lincoln, who in 1862 signed the law that created land-grant universities. Since finding its permanent home in 1919 in front of Bascom Hall, the statue has Abe’s feet are burnished from The bucket list for new UW been our center Many hats have adorned the the countless students and graduates includes climbing of gravity. statue over the years. Students visitors who have rubbed them up for a photo op in Abe’s lap. have topped Abe’s head with a for luck. Could these pennies — Some take the opportunity construction cone, a Santa hat, perhaps left with a passing wish to whisper their hopes and a cheesehead, and even a pair — be the start of a new Badger dreams for the future into the of red earmuffs. During the Mc-

tradition atop Bascom Hill? big guy’s ear. Carthy era, he was painted red. #S03825 ARCHIVES UW-MADISON COURTESY PHOTO HISTORICAL MILLER; JEFF BY PHOTOS

66 On Wisconsin FALL 2015

In a world of punctuation options, the comma stands as the great continuer. The harbinger of amazing things to come. The comma is all about . More than just setting up what follows, the comma is usually a subtle—though, other times not so subtle—reminder of what’s important. The comma keeps you on track, and lets you pause for a moment, as you move forward in pursuit of your goals. At its simplest level, the comma indicates that every bit of information located between here, where the initial comma has been placed, and right there, where the second and third commas have been placed, is crucial, elemental, and entirely required for smooth comprehension of this sentence. But it’s so much bigger than that sentence. Without a doubt, the comma will surely be—and, indeed, has been—followed by another. And, another. And, as the commas roll on, the story builds, and so does the anticipation. The excitement. Because more commas means more content. More . More solutions and more inspiring tales of academic success and international impact. It means more reputation- building, action-inspiring success stories to be told, and read, along the way. And, as the excitement of the comma guides your eyes and hearts along to the next big moment, you hope, you long, for the unexpected. Because the is, no story’s end, no great reveal, has ever been told without being preceded by at least a dozen of the world’s most underappreciated grammatical marks. You never even noticed them, because you were too busy flipping through the pages to find the next one, and the next one, and then finally, the last the one that hides the final revelation, the end of the big mystery. What’s behind the final comma? An even bigger story than this comma can hold. And come you will know exactly where these commas lead.

Update your alumni profile. uwalumni.com/update Be a part of our next big story. UW Foundation Address Correction Department 1848 University Avenue Madison, WI 53726-4090

Change Service Requested

ThankDr. Jim Berbee You and Karen Walsh Your generous gift supporting emergency medicine makes our exceptional care even better, and pushes our emergency education and research to the national forefront.

The Berbee-Walsh $10 million gift affirms the vision of UW School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Hospitals and Clinics to be a global leader in emergency care. If you want to join them in supporting this goal, go to uwhealth.org/emergencymedicine.

It Starts With You ES-42594-15 YOUR GIFT HELPS PATIENTS AND FAMILIES AND SUPPORTS EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

ES-42594_BerbeeWalshAd.indd 1 7/14/15 12:34 PM