SPRING 2012 UMass Lowell MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS UMass Lowell State of Mind Billy Joel Takes the Stage at Durgin Hall

Page 22

Page 20 . The Company We Keep

Page 31 Designing Woman: Taniya Nayak ’97

Page 34 The Dreammaker

Page 38 Face of Philanthrophy Spring 2012

The UMass Lowell Alumni Magazine is published by: A Message From Office of Public Affairs University of Massachusetts Lowell Chancellor Martin T. Meehan ’78 One University Avenue Lowell, MA 01854 978-934-3223 This edition of the UMass Lowell Magazine for Alumni and Friends could [email protected] easily be called “The Music Issue.” Chancellor Martin T. Meehan In the following pages, you’ll meet many people who have brought music Vice Chancellor of to campus and the world at large. People like Billy Joel, who chose to visit University Relations UMass Lowell over hundreds of other colleges clamoring for him. Or alum - Patti McCafferty nus Greg Maloney ’05, who helps create the scores for major projects like the Vice Chancellor for “Men in Black” films and Cirque du Soleil productions. Or Symphonic Band Camp founder University Advancement Mary Jo Leahy ’37, a great friend to the University, who passed away in November. Edward Chiu

Director of Publications Right here on campus, meanwhile, the century-old Department of Music (the first public and Publisher school of music education in the country) is preparing our students to win Grammy Awards, Mary Lou Hubbell perform on Broadway and work with artists like The Rolling Stones. Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of Advancement But this issue also celebrates some lesser-known stars outside of the music industry— Diane Earl students, alumni, corporate partners and faculty members who have been instrumental in helping the University continue its unprecedented trajectory of growth in all areas. Director of Alumni Relations Heather Makrez ’06, ’08 The generosity and hard work of these people are resulting in everything from millions of Communications Manager dollars in research grants, to new buildings on campus, to scholarships and top-tier jobs Nichole Carter for hundreds of our students. I couldn’t be more grateful and proud to be part of this truly Editor special community. Sarah McAdams

Staff Writers Read about all of our exciting developments in these pages, Edwin Aguirre and learn even more at www.uml.edu. Karen Angelo Geoffrey Douglas Sheila Eppolito Jill Gambon Julia K. Gavin Christine Gillette Martin T. Meehan ’78 Elizabeth James Chancellor Jack McDonough Dave Perry Sandra Seitz

Please send address changes to: University of Massachusetts Lowell Office of University Advancement Southwick 250, One University Ave., Lowell, MA 01854-2882 CALENDAR OF EVENTS [email protected] June 28 Cross Country and Track & Field Sunset Social @ Bellegarde Boathouse 978-934-2223 Aug. 3-4 Alumni Musical Theater Production @ Durgin Concert Hall, South Campus

UMass Lowell is an Equal Aug. 13 Sig-O Annual Golf Tournament @ Merrimack Valley Golf Club in Methuen Opportunity/ Affirmative Action, Sept. 21 Plastics Engineering Golf Tournament @ Connecticut National Golf Club Title IX, H/V, ADA 1990 Employer. in Putnam, Conn. Oct. 11-14 Fall Festival 2012: Including Homecoming, Celebration of Philanthropy, Family Day, Jennifer’s 5K Run in Lowell Oct. 12 Hockey Opening Night: River Hawks vs. University of Vermont Catamounts, Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell

Learning with Purpose SPRING 2012 UMass Lo we ll MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS VOLUME 15 NUMBER 1

CAMPUS LIFE ALUMNI LIFE

3 OUR WORLD 44 EVENTS

FEATURES

10 LAB NOTES Honored in Stone 8 48 CLASS NOTES 13 STUDENT SCENE Engineering Building renamed for benefactor Barry Perry ’68. The Company We Keep 20 UMass Lowell and Nypro: partners from the same mold. UMass Lowell State of Mind 22 Billy Joel takes the stage at Durgin Hall. From Sunflowers to Swanky 31 HGTV host Taniya Nayak ’97 got her start in Fox Hall. 61 IN MEMORIAM

16 SPORTS UPDATE The Dreammaker 34 Patricia Foley Karl ’64, ’95 is changing thousands of lives with her Lawrence charter school. Face of Philanthropy 38 The generosity of John Pulichino ’67 and Joy Tong will result in $4 million in student scholarships.

Editor’s Note Corrections and Clarifications Please send comments to The person responsible for nurturing women’s sports in the 1970s at the University, along with Denise Legault, was Editor Sarah McAdams at Claire Chamberlain. We regret that we incorrectly identified her in our “Soaring With Pride” story in the [email protected]. Winter 2011-2012 issue. In that same issue, the In Memoriam listings included Robert Moran ’71, leading Submit class notes to: Class to confusion among readers such as the very much alive-and-well Robert Moran ’71. There were two Mr. Robert Morans in the class of 1971. Robert Paul Moran, an engineering graduate and a retired Navy Notes Editor, Southwick 250, commander of Moorpark, Calif., was the one who died in September 2011. The other Robert Moran 1 University Ave., Lowell, MA received a degree in plastics engineering and currently lives in Hampstead, N.H. 01854 or www.uml.edu/ad - Robert Moran: still with us vancement/classnotes.

LOWELL TEXTILE SCHOOL • MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL • STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE AT LOWELL • LOWELL TEXTILE INSTITUTE LOWELL TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE • MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE AT LOWELL • LOWELL STATE COLLEGE • UNIVERSITY OF LOWELL

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 1 Inside...

3 OUR WORLD 10 LAB NOTES Ca mpus Li fe 13 STUDENT SCENE 16 SPORTS UPDATE

Grammy-nominee J. Cole played to a packed house on campus March 30.

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The Return of Dickens In 1842, Charles and Catherine Dickens sailed to North America for a five-month visit, landing first in Boston, where Charles was greeted like a Victorian-era rock star. Feted at fancy dress balls and formal dinners, Dickens also made a point of touring American prisons, hos - pitals, mental institutions and orphan - ages—and the model textile mills that had recently opened in Lowell. Dickens later called his day in Lowell "the most Students Get Advice, Lunch—and a pleasant I spent in the country." To mark the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth and to Cadillac Ride —From Warren Buffett commemorate his trip to Lowell, UMass Lowell and its partners are throwing a Visiting the “Oracle of Omaha” was Angela Buffett even gave Kohr a ride to the restaurant, party—a seven-month slate of perform - Pasquarello’s most memorable college experience Piccolo Pete’s, where the group had lunch. Buffett, ances, speakers, family programs and a to date, says the senior accounting major. who drives himself everywhere, offered to chauffeur landmark exhibition exploring Dickens’ four students in his Cadillac and Kohr was chosen Pasquarello, along with 19 of her Manning life, work and travels in America. School of Business classmates, was invited by as one. “It was like talking to someone’s grandfa - billionaire investor Warren Buffett to fly to ther,” Kohr says. “He’s so down-to-earth. He Omaha, Neb., to meet with him. made it about us. He asked us what we are doing now and where we see ourselves in 10 years.” Each year, Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hath - away, invites select groups of students from across After lunch at the downtown Omaha restaurant, the country, most of them MBA candidates, to Buffett posed for pictures and chatted with the meet for a question-and-answer session and then students. lunch. Management Prof. Ravi Jain had written “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says to Buffett twice, asking that his finance students Jain. “Buffett is a pure financial genius. He has a be included. This year, the invitation came. different way of looking at finance, a common “I couldn’t imagine having a better experience sense approach.” through school,” says Pasquerello, who is enrolled Jain’s students are well-acquainted with in Jain’s Portfolio and Security Analysis class. “I Buffett’s approach to investing. They oversee the learned so much and made so many friends. It University’s Student Managed Fund, one of four was a great group.” investment funds set up by the UMass Foundation The students from UMass Lowell and seven on the Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell other universities met with Buffett at the Field campuses. The UMass Lowell fund has won the Club, the oldest country club west of the Mississippi intercampus competition three out of four years River. At Jain’s urging, the group arrived at the using Buffett’s value investing philosophy. auditorium an hour early and got front-row seats. Manning School alumni supported the trip, Jain’s students prepared several questions in donating about $7,000 to help pay the travel advance and three of them were chosen to pose costs.— JG theirs to Buffett. Pasquerello asked him how he maintains a positive outlook. His response surprised her: His optimism is unyielding. Buffett told the students that their best investment is in themselves and said the best way to prepare for the business world is The Charles Dickens exhibit includes a section on to sharpen their written and oral communi - the author’s interest in phrenology, the study of the cation skills. emotions in relation to the skull. “He’s as sharp as a tack. He told stories that students could understand,” says Kevin Kohr, a senior finance major who helped plan the trip.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 3 Ourwo rld

A Lot to Love A group of residents, students and alumni from the Community Social Psychology Program make a colorful declaration of love to the city of Lowell.

BIKES, CARPOOLS partment of Transportation AND SHUTTLES, and MassCommute, a non- OH MY! profit association of trans - UMass Lowell’s efforts to portation-management increase bike-sharing, ex - agencies. In December, the pand shuttle bus service and University released its first- broaden carpooling options ever transportation plan, for students and employees outlining recommendations have earned it an Excellence to improve mobility and in Commuter Options award promote long-term from the Massachusetts De - sustainability on campus.

Uncommon Learning A brand new O’Leary Library opened in February, featuring modern décor, plenty of areas for collaboration and easy access to Venti Americano. The newly named O’Leary Learning Commons offers a new reference and research center with an open computer lab with more than 75 workstations. There are new tutoring and advising rooms, and a new writing center. The fourth floor features more than 100 seats for quiet study and room for the University’s reference and fine-arts book collections and circulation desk. A Starbucks café makes its home on the first floor and there’s wireless Internet access throughout the building. New lighting, ceilings, carpeting and furnishings create a welcoming and comfortable place to learn.

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PROFESSOR NAMED multiple job offers during up getting so many career How UMass Lowell STATE DEPARTMENT their laboratory internships. offers that you have to turn FELLOW Before Aaron Stella gradu - some of them down.” Is Helping U.S. Kids Nuclear engineering Prof. ated, he was offered posi - The 2010 national Gilbert Brown was recently tions at Lahey Clinic, accreditation report and Get Better at Math appointed a William C. Harvard Vanguard Medical site visit from the National Foster Fellow by the U.S. Associates, Anna Jaques Accrediting Agency for and Science Department of State. Hospital and Cambridge Clinical Laboratory Hospital. He ultimately Brown will be involved Sciences resulted in the accepted a position at with the Office of Nuclear Medical Laboratory Science Mayo Medical Laboratories Energy, Safety and Security program’s fourth straight New England in Andover. in the State Department’s perfect accreditation scores International Security and “The internship is like with the site visitor team Nonproliferation Bureau. like a ‘try-out’ for a sports leader stating “the UMass team,” said Stella, who re - Lowell’s program is one “I look forward to work - ceived a bachelor’s degree of the very best in the ing with the State Depart - in 2008 and a master’s de - country.” This is supported ment, helping the agency gree in 2010 and is current - by the program's 100 implement and support the ly enrolled in the Universi - percent employment for diplomatic efforts of the ty’s biomedical engineering graduates and the 95 United States toward and biotechnology Ph.D. percent pass rate on the peaceful nuclear coopera - program. “Each student has national board certification tion throughout the world, Sophomore Laura Laranjo’s long-term goal is to become five weeks to demonstrate exams, compared to lower particularly in the areas a physician, but she thinks a career as a high school their skills in front of po - national averages in the of nuclear education and science teacher may be a good backup plan. tential employers. You end high 70s to low 80s. —KA When the opportunity to pursue teacher certification training,” he says. “I also while continuing her pre-med studies came up, she aim to gain real-world, decided to give it a try. Training to be a teacher while international experience to earning a biology degree offers an alternative career bring back to UMass Lowell path in a field she is passionate about. “It opens up an and my students.” opportunity to still do something that I like,” she says. ALL MED LAB Laranjo is among the first group of UMass Lowell GRADS GET JOBS students enrolled in the UTeach program, an initiative One hundred percent of to prepare a new generation of science, technology, graduates from both Med - engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers. In ical Laboratory Science and December, the state awarded the University a $1.6 Clinical Sciences programs million grant to fund the program, part of a nationwide have been successfully em - effort to improve STEM teacher training. ployed after graduation, in In recent years, concern has been mounting about spite of the economy, with the quality of STEM education in the U.S. and students’ many receiving multiple preparedness to compete in a technology-driven global job offers. economy. For instance, in its most recent Global Com - The reason? It is an es - JOHN DUFFY: LEAVING OUR VILLAGE petitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum ranked sential medical profession. the quality of math and science education in the United The Lowell campus won’t be the same without “Seventy percent of a States 51st out of 142 countries. mechanical engineering Prof. John Duffy—and nei - physician’s decisions about ther will Peru. The longtime director of the Center The UTeach program is designed to change that. patient diagnosis, prognosis for Sustainable Energy, who retired in January, has Founded at the University of Texas Austin 15 years and treatment are based on made 28 two-week trips to Peru as part of the ago, UTeach aims to attract a wide range of STEM accurate and precise med - Village Empowerment Project. While there, he majors to teaching careers. Central to the program are ical laboratory tests,” says helped design and install more than 100 systems in intensive classroom experience and extensive feedback Prof. Kay Doyle, director 60 villages—addressing basic needs like medical and support from faculty. The program has been introduced of the medical laboratory care, water supply and purification, food produc - at 29 colleges across the country, with UMass Lowell science program in the tion, communication, housing, heating and trans - the only university in New England to offer it. Clinical Laboratory and portation. “Every time we go, we come back with “With the shortage of science and math teachers, Nutritional Sciences more requests," says Duffy, who’s taken more than STEM teaching provides a stable career path,” says Department. “This critical 165 students and volunteers to the Andes over Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Education function will continue to the past 15 years. “There’s no end to the need. It's Anita Greenwood, who is a co-principal investigator grow as the baby boomer impressive to see that the students can make such for the UTeach grant. “It gives our students another generation retires.” a difference.“ string in their bow.” — JG The demand is so great that students are receiving

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 5 Ourwo rld Pettibon’s Art: Kerouac Play to WHAT PUNK LOOKED LIKE, 1978-86 Premiere in Lowell

For just under a month, was found in a warehouse in 2005. punk ruled at the Univer - sity Gallery in McGauvran “At midcentury, Jack Kerouac and his fellow Hall. The work of Beat writers posed a series Raymond Pettibon was of pertinent questions affixed to the gallery’s regarding the assumptions walls, from flyers to of the Cold War, the album covers, some attractions of suburban 200 pieces in all. family life, the costs of Pettibon’s early work, so fastened as a visual conspicuous consumption representation to the blunt burst of the West and what they saw as Coast’s hardcore punk movement, had always American spiritual deprivation,” says Todd been stapled and taped to telephone poles, Tietchen, a UMass Lowell bulletin boards and club walls. And here it UMass Lowell and Merri - English professor and ex - was, in a gallery. mack Repertory Theater pert on Beat Generation According to Bill Kaizen, Pettibon’s work has will stage the world pre - writers. “Those questions been embraced by the “taste-making class” miere of Jack Kerouac’s take center stage in ‘Beat only full-length play in who will now pay hundreds of thousands for Generation,’ as the princi - October. an original, later-day Pettibon work. Kaizen, pal figures of this impor - “Beat Generation” will a former UMass Lowell professor now with tant literary movement be the centerpiece of the the art history department at Northeastern reaffirm their friendship 2012 Jack Kerouac Literary in a search for alternative University, booked the show. Festival, which will be held approaches to life.” The exhibit was designed to “appeal to Oct. 10 through Oct. 14. The play’s premiere— both music and art majors as well as anyone The theme of this year’s a staged reading for eight who knows the bands,”said Michele Gagnon, festival—held every two performances only—is gallery coordinator. years by the University and being presented with the community partners—will Pettibon, whose posters, flyers and adver - support of Kerouac Literary be “writing and music.” tising for punk bands and their shows were Estate representative Kerouac wrote the drawn from his homemade comic books and spread through his brother’s John Sampas. play—which tells a story of record label (SST) and band (Black Flag) are rooted in Los Angeles. His work Auditions for “Beat friendship and karma that Generation” will take touted records and performances by such bans as Circle Jerks, Minutemen, draws from lives of Beat Dead Kennedys and a slew of others best known for an in-your-face, body- place this summer; infor - writers like Neal Cassady mation will be released slamming style that placed them far outside the bounds of the and Allen Ginsberg—in on www.merrimackrep.org, worlds of pop charts and arena-rock. —DP 1957, the same year his once dates have been iconic “On the Road” was selected. released. The manuscript

The Next Big Thing Needs You

As Steve Jobs said, “To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years requires a lot of discipline.” It also requires a lot of money. A group of UMass alumni—including John F. Kennedy ’70—understands that. And to give the best chances to the most innovative ideas from the across the system, they’re hoping to raise $6 million to create a University of Massachusetts Seed Fund. The fund will provide approximately $250,000 to $500,000 to each early stage venture, in exchange for an equity position. Want to help make it happen? Contact Bill Rosenberg, executive director of University of Massachusetts Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property, at [email protected] or 617-287-4088.

6 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 CAMPUS NEWS

‘Suite-est’ Dorm in Decades The University broke ground in April on the $54 million University Suites, the first residence hall to be built on campus in more than two decades. The 148,000- square-foot hall will provide 472 students with amenities unheard of a generation ago: larger rooms, suite-style apartments, quiet study rooms, cafés and more inspired architecture and landscaping. Slated to open in 2013, the brick facility will be built around a courtyard that faces the Campus Recreation Center.

The EEAS Department ates on their weather teams. Students Report on Weather has proven to be a great They include Danielle Niles springboard for launching ’06 at New England Cable From Boston Marathon Route the careers of researchers News (NECN), Sarah and TV weather forecasters. Wroblewski ’05 at Fox 25 Everyone was talking about Frank Colby of the Environ - The team gathered Many of the big-city TV News Boston, Barry Burbank the weather at the 116th mental, Earth and Atmos - real-time data—tempera - stations across the country ’72 at WBZ-TV and Shiri Boston Marathon on April pheric Sciences Department ture, relative humidity, wind have UMass Lowell gradu - Spear ’07 at NBC 6 Miami. 16—but a group of meteor - (EEAS), who headed the speed and direction as well ology students and faculty team. as local sky and road condi - from UMass Lowell were “Our students were posi - tions—and relayed it to ALUMNI STAR IN NEW TV AD the experts, providing live the event media center at tioned at five locations The spectacular successes of UMass Lowell alumni— weather reports along the Boston’s Fairmont Copley along the route—at the who’ve invented AstroTurf, run Fortune 500 com - route of the 26.2-mile race. Plaza Hotel. In previous starting line in Hopkinton, panies, produced Broadway plays and served as years, the BAA received “This is the first time the the 10K mark in Framing - ambassadors to other countries—are front and cen - weather reports from a vehi - Boston Athletic Association ham, the halfway mark in ter in a 30-second TV spot now airing on major cle that preceded the race has asked an outside group Wellesley, the 30K mark regional networks. The ad, first in a series of leaders and also utilized data to do weather monitoring as near ‘Heartbreak Hill’ in alumni-based spots, features Rich Miner (Android from Logan Airport and far as we know, so we’re Newton and the finish line co-founder and Google Ventures partner), Lynne Hanscom Field. pretty excited,” says Prof. in Boston,” says Colby. Samuelson (chief scientist ofU.S. Army Natick Sol - Temperatures that day dier Research) and Adam Ayan (Grammy-winning rose to 89 degrees, forcing a sound mastering engineer). View the spot at number of participants— www.uml.edu/about/TV-spot-Alumni.aspx. including 2011 champion Geoffrey Mutai—to drop out. It was one of the top-10 hottest days in the history of the Boston Marathon. Some areas were hotter than others. “It was really interesting to see the weath - er’s variability throughout the race course,” says gradu - ate student Chris Hoyt. Prof. Frank Colby conducts a dry run with his students.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 7 Ourwo rld

‘An Unwavering Commitment’ —Honored in Stone By Geoffrey Douglas

Barry Perry’68, joined by his When last we visited with Barry Perry ’68, two years ago His latest contributions are his largest to date. In wife, Janice, daughter Kimberly in the pages of this magazine, he was setting off on a October, he pledged $1.25 million to the University for Perry, granddaughters Alix fishing trip to Belize with his about-to-be 40-year-old renovations to the Engineering Building, support for the Perry Madden and Chase middle daughter. This time when we called, it was his new Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center and Madden Perry and son-in-law youngest daughter’s turn to hit 40, and the trip—her funding to double the size of his endowed scholarship Brian Madden, celebrates the choice—would be down the Colorado River on a raft. fund. In appreciation of this latest gift, on April 19 the re-dedication of the UMass “It’s a tradition,“ he explains. “All three of my girls, University renamed the engineering building Perry Hall Lowell Engineering Building on their 40th, I try to do something really special.” in his honor. with plastics engineering Doing special things for people—daughters, companies, “Since 1952, this building has been at the forefront of students, faculty and staff. UMass Lowell students—has become, for Perry, a tradition innovation and industry in Lowell, first as a laboratory in itself. The son of a prison guard father and a textile and classroom space for students in the paper and leather worker mother, Perry says his Lowell Tech education was engineering fields, and later, in chemical engineering possible only through scholarship aid. He is now six years and biomanufacturing,” said Chancellor Marty Meehan retired from his job as CEO of a $5 billion chemical firm. at the event. “Today, we celebrate a new beginning. Under the Perry Hall name, the building will be a catalyst It’s a very active retirement. In addition to the fishing for student achievement in engineering and fields we and rafting with his daughters—and the quail hunting can only imagine.” and target shooting he finds time to do for himself—he travels the country as director on four corporate boards, Achievement is something Perry knows about. After spends at least as much time on the phone on those com - growing up in Dartmouth, Mass. (he now lives in Newtown, panies’ behalf (“it’s the best way I know to keep your Penn.,), he earned his bachelor’s degree in plastics engi - head in the game”), and—increasingly, as time goes by— neering at what was then Lowell Technological Institute. contributes an ever-larger portion of his wealth to assuring He began his career at General Electric and retired in that young, qualified engineering students aren’t denied 2006 as the chairman and CEO of New Jersey-based access to a UMass Lowell education. Engelhard Corp., a chemical and metals company.

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“If I can give some deserving kids, who might not otherwise have the resources, the opportunity to pursue engineering careers—well then, that’s what I’ll try and do.” —Barry Perry ’68 These days, he’s focused on helping younger gener - ations find such success. “Having my name on the building is very nice,” says Perry—who concedes that it was his wife, Janice, who “really put me over the top” in deciding to make the recent gift. “And maybe one day, my grandkids will see it and think good things of me. But that’s not what’s important. “What matters to me is what’s always mattered—to encourage our young students, as much as possible, to pursue their careers in engineering, as opposed to, say, the service industries. Because it’s a value-added field— it’s where real wealth is created. And if I can give some deserving kids, who might not otherwise have the re - sources, the opportunity to pursue that—well then, that’s what I’ll try and do.” All this is in addition to his past support of the Plastics Engineering Department, the College of Engi - neering’s Dean’s Discretionary Fund, and the UMass Lowell Fund—as well as the time he gave, for seven years, as advisory board member to the College, and his role several years ago as a member of Plastic Engi - neering’s $11 million capital fund drive. “Barry Perry has demonstrated an unwavering com - mitment, over many years, to the Engineering program at UMass Lowell,” says Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Edward Chiu. “It is more than fitting that we recognize his generosity through the naming of Perry Hall.” The Perry Endowment Fund, valued last November at nearly $192,000, was enough this year to fund $1,600 scholarship awards to four UMass Lowell engineering students. “With this recent donation, Barry Perry will help support the upgrading of student and faculty space in the College of Engineering, and provide aid for student scholarships,” says Engineering Dean John Ting. “Do - nations such as this are vitally needed at a time when our students are shouldering an increasingly large fraction of their tuition costs. “The generosity of alumni like Mr. Perry helps us provide our students with the highest-quality education. On behalf of all our faculty, staff and especially our stu - dents, we couldn’t be more grateful.” Ⅲ

Engineering students, top right, watch as the newly named engineering building is unveiled. Posing under the new Perry Hall sign are, in back row, from left, Plastics Engineering Department Chair Robert Malloy, Brian Madden, Barry Perry ’68 and Janice Perry. In the front row are, from left, Francis College of Engineering Dean John Ting, Executive Vice Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney, Chase Madden Perry, Alix Perry Madden, Kimberly Perry and Chancellor Marty Meehan.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 9 Lab notes Researchers Find Solving the Mystery of the Early Indicator for Alzheimer’s Disease Superhot UMass Lowell researchers—along with collaborators at Boston University, MassBay Community College Sun and Veterans Administration Medical Center—have The sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, discovered an early indicator for Alzheimer’s disease. is easily seen with the naked eye during a total Assoc. Prof. Garth Hall of UMass Lowell’s Biological eclipse. This view of the corona’s delicate Sciences Department and his former Ph.D. students structure was photographed by our staff writer Sudan Saman and WonHee Kim helped find that Edwin L. Aguirre during the July 11, 2010 high levels of a biomarker for the tau protein in total solar eclipse, which he observed from the exosomes can indicate early stages of Alzheimer’s South Pacific, on Tatakoto Atoll in French disease. Exosomes are tiny bubble-like membranous Polynesia’s Tuamotu Archipelago. structures released from cells that can be found in the cerebral spinal columns of patients. “The idea is that tau secretion probably occurs The Sun, whose light and higher-temperature regions of the charged particles and before the neurons, or brain cells, die in Alzheimer’s heat have made life possible to lower ones, and not vice the Sun’s magnetic field. patients, and, if so, the levels of secreted tau in the here on Earth, has been versa.” Song and Vasyliunas cerebral spinal fluid—and possibly blood—might be studied in great detail since Song, who directs found that the waves’ pertur - able to predict whether a person would get Alzheimer’s the invention of the tele - UMass Lowell’s Center bations are heavily damped, before he or she actually starts to show symptoms,” ex - scope in the 17th century. for Atmospheric Research, and that the motional ener - plains Hall. But fundamental questions recently helped propose a gy of the perturbation can be He believes this will assist in diagnosing people remain about the nature new theory that might converted to heat in regions early enough so that existing medicines can help them. of this star nearest to our help explain this apparent where the magnetic field is home planet. anomaly and lead to the weaker. The damping and “Most importantly, it would permit the identification One of them is the puzzle final resolution of the heating is much less in re - of Alzheimer’s patients while they are cognitively in - of the heating of the Sun’s coronal heating problem. gions of stronger magnetic tact—that is, before they lose a lot of neurons—so they can be enrolled in clinical trials for drugs that tenuous outer atmosphere, “Many people realize the field, they say. might cure Alzheimer’s disease,” he says. “This has known as the corona, which Sun is very turbulent and “Conventional wisdom been one of the biggest obstacles to finding a cure for is composed of charged parti - the energy associated with has been to focus on regions AD; our study marks a big step forward in removing cles and extends millions that turbulence—similar to of stronger magnetic field that obstacle.” of miles into interplanetary many atomic bombs going because these are where space. In the late 1930s and off everywhere on the Sun— stronger perturbations are Garth and his team have filed a patent application early '40s, scientists discov - can provide the required observed,” explains Song. on the secreted tau biomarker and are looking ered that the corona is heat energy,” notes Song. “Now everything becomes to partner with a large biopharmaceutical firm to extremely hot—about “However, the question is clear: stronger perturbations develop a commercial diagnostic for AD based on 2 million degrees. And yet how motional energy can be are observed in stronger field their research. —EA the Sun’s visible surface, converted to thermal energy. regions because they are not called the photosphere, is Previous theories are able to damped, and vice versa. Our a “mere” 6,000 degrees. come up with only a small theory is thus able to convert For years, scientists have percentage of the required the observed level of turbu - debated: how can the photo - thermal energy based on the lence energy to the required sphere heat the surrounding observed turbulence energy.” thermal energy.” corona to such incredibly Song and co-author Why are these findings high temperatures? Vytenis Vasyliunas, distin - important? Since coronal “This has been a long - guished research professor at heating is essential to under - standing problem in solar the Center, analyzed the per - standing the formation of physics and astrophysics,” turbation (disturbance) of the corona and solar winds, says Prof. Paul Song of the Alfvén waves as they propa - which are the cause of all Physics and Applied Physics gate from the solar surface space-weather phenomena, Department. “If the photos - to the corona through the the new theory will substan - phere is indeed responsible chromosphere, a rather tially improve our current for heating the corona, then difficult and complex knowledge about solar it contradicts the second law mathematical-physical task. storms and space weather. of thermodynamics, which Alfvén waves are low-fre - — EA states that heat flows from quency traveling oscillation

10 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 CAMPUS NEWS

Center for Advanced Mate - “It is very empowering rials, the group has devel - and refreshing working with oped a novel method of representatives from differ - examining cancer cells in ent countries,” says Geiser. the laboratory that could “The work that we began someday help in the early here at Lowell with the detection and diagnosis of Toxics Use Reduction Act the disease. 20 years ago will now have “Our technique provides international presence. We believe that the same Spiders have undergone a unique way for non-inva - Ken Geiser strategies of finding safer 400 million years of sive, high-contrast imaging alternatives and reducing evolutionary history to of cancer cells,” he says. tute (TURI) and Prof. Ken toxics at the source rather perfect the biochemistry “This process can potential - Geiser of the Work Environ - than dealing with clean-up of their silk, which is ly be extended as a tool to ment Department and co-di - and health effects can be an incredibly strong replace conventional en - rector of the Lowell Center applied worldwide to foster and versatile biomateri - doscopy and colonoscopy for Sustainable Production, economic growth while al. Here a spider spins procedures.” played leading roles in the international process that protecting health and its silk to wrap its prey. Satapathi, a native of led to this report. well-being.” Kolkata, India, presented the team’s findings in February, during the SPIDER SILK: silks, Velcro-like silks, silks American Physical Society 70 Million of Us STRONGER just for egg cases, et cetera,” meeting in Boston. THAN STEEL says Garb, who has pub - lished her findings in many Can’t Sleep You know that elaborate professional journals. “Also, HEADS OF STATE As many as 70 million Americans suffer from sleep spider web decorating the spiders always rely on silk TO LEARN FROM deprivation—which does a lot more than just make upper corner of your front throughout their lives, and RESEARCHERS’ people groggy. It increases the risk of obesity, cardio - porch? It’s made of nature’s silk has played a key role in REPORT ON TOXICS vascular diseases, inflammatory diseases, mood disor - wonder fiber—it’s tougher spider evolution.” The production and use of ders and cancer, says Prof. Geoffry Phillips McEnany than steel or Kevlar, but chemicals in developing of the Nursing Department. weighs much less and can be countries is skyrocketing, stretched up to three times Phillips McEnany is co-author of a new book resulting in significant harm its length without breaking. “Sleep Disorders and Sleep Promotion in Nursing to human health, especially Practice” that was recently recognized as a Book of “Spider silk is important for children living in pover - the Year by the American Journal of Nursing. for many reasons,” explains ty, says a new report written His No. 1 piece of advice? Biology Asst. Prof. Jessica by staff and faculty of the Garb, who is studying the University’s Toxics Use “Raise the issue of sleep with your primary care genetics behind spider silks Reduction Institute and the provider, whether that person is a nurse practitioner and venoms. Lowell Center for Sustain - or a physician,” he says. “If a sleep medication is of - fered for a sleep complaint, then ask for a broader Because spider silk has able Production. sleep assessment. The important question is ‘What’s extreme toughness, high The Global Chemicals the cause of my sleep problem?’ If obesity is a clinical tensile strength and elastici - Ph.D. candidate Soumitra Outlook report, commis - issue, then discuss snoring and daytime sleepiness, ty, is lightweight and Satapathi sioned by the United which is the best indicator of poor or inadequate biodegradable, scientists are Nations Environment sleep. Bring sleep into the light of day in any clinical interested in understanding NEW METHOD Programme, will be a major visit.” its composition and produc - IMPROVES CANCER source of reference at an To help clinicians better diagnose and treat sleep tion. It can potentially be SCREENING international meeting, the problems, Phillips McEnany established an online used in diverse applications If we want to increase can - RIO +20 U.N. Conference graduate certificate program in Sleep and Sleep requiring high-performance cer patients’ survival rates, on Sustainable Develop - Disorders. Offered through materials, including body we need to improve early ment. The June conference UMass Lowell’s Division of armors, bandages, surgical screening techniques. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Online and Continuing sutures, artificial tendons will attract more than 200 A team of UMass Lowell Education, it is one of or ligaments, ropes, fish nets, heads of state and govern - researchers is doing just that. the first programs of its seat belts, airbags and para - ment officials who will set Led by Soumitra Satapathi, kind in the United States. chutes. goals for worldwide sustain - a Ph.D. candidate in the —KA “Spiders have evolved Department of Physics and able development. many specific uses of silk: Applied Physics and a re - Rachel Massey of the different web types, adhesive searcher at UMass Lowell’s Toxics Use Reduction Insti -

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 11 Lab notes

COMING SOON: Teen Sexting: ‘Not Going Away’ IMPROVED PRIVACY Sexting has been the cause of some high-profile scandals, inspiring a flurry of new FOR YOUR MEDICAL laws and prosecutions and raising the anxiety of parents across the country. RECORDS Federal laws regulating But what exactly is it? health care records aim to “The teens who we interviewed were unclear as to what sexting means and protect patients’ privacy and whether their own activities constitute sexting,” says Andrew Harris, assistant keep personal information professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology. “Was it safe sex as opposed to real secure. But those restrictions sex, just a normal part of a romantic relationship or a coercive move? As investigators, can limit the utility of the we need to ask, what is old behavior—just part of teen relationships—and what is data for research purposes. new with the new technology?” Two Manning School of The study Harris is leading, Teens, Sex and Technology, focuses on how teens Business professors are work - themselves perceive sexting. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency ing to develop cutting-edge New data-masking technology will Prevention in the U.S. Department of Justice, the study involves researchers in technology that improves provide health care researchers three states (Massachusetts, Ohio and South Carolina) and from several disciplines patient confidentiality with the best data possible. (including clinical psychology), nine school protection while making systems and more than 120 teens who were high-quality data available ble,” says UMass Lowell’s Li. interviewed in focus groups based on age to health care researchers. “By developing a data-mask - and gender. Focus groups of parents and edu - Professor Xiaobai Li is ing system, we can better cators were conducted. leading a team that received protect privacy and at the “The old behavior includes the typically a $700,000 grant from the same time we can make poor judgment capacity of the teenage brain, National Institutes of Health the data more useful.” heightened sexuality and desire for inti - to develop data-masking The availability of quali - macy,” says Harris. “The new behavior technology. Also involved ty information contained in is that teens have spent their lives as in the three-year project are medical records has broad digital natives. They are living, learning Manning School Prof. Luvai implications for policy, and relating with new media.” Motiwalla as well as Prof. treatments and health In a digital environment, private Patricia Franklin and Assoc. care finance, says Motiwalla. and public spheres have changed Prof. Wenjun Li, both of The data can be used by dramatically. UMass Medical School. physicians who are searching “Social media enable teen relationships “It is difficult to strike a for new treatments as well as to be insulated from parents and other balance between privacy health care economists who adults,” says Harris. “They have extraordi - protections and providing are seeking to control the nary autonomy and independence. the best data quality possi - cost of care. At the same time, their peer relationships are played out in a public domain, putting them in a minefield of potentially real BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS ON THE FAST problems.” TRACK TO COMMERCIALIZATION Younger teens are experimenting with technology Every year, there’s an unspoken competition and with relationships, researchers found, and might between researchers at the five UMass campus- send explicit images just because they can. Older teens es—all of whom are hoping to win one of a small perceive a continuum that ranges from intimate and caring number of grants given by the UMass President’s communications to peer pressure and de - Office to professors with the best chances of liberate cruelty. turning their technologies into commercial success. As to gender, boys are perceived as at - This year, UMass Lowell professors snagged a third tempting to compete and show off, while of those grants. Keep an eye out for cool new girls are said to be seeking attention. inventions (involving a blood poisoning sensor, “The personal and social consequences are biodegradable surfactants found in household quite different,” says Assoc. Prof. Judith Davidson of cleaning agents, and a living-cell-based biosensor) the Graduate School of Education, who is analyzing the coming down the pipeline. Three teams—led teen narratives and supervising a team of UMass Lowell by Assoc. Prof. Sanjeev Manohar of Chemical student researchers. “For boys, status is enhanced by sexting. Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Joel Therrien of For girls, status is diminished and they are subjected to name-calling and insults.” Electrical and Computer Engineering and Asst. Prof. Ramaswamy Nagarajan of Plastics Engineer- The bottom line, says Harris, is that “sexting is not going away. We need to teach ing—will receive a total of $75,000. teens how to navigate in a responsible way.” — SS

12 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Studen tscene CAMPUS NEWS

STUDENTS ‘CAN’T GET ENOUGH’ OF J. COLE Students packed the house at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell to hear Grammy-nominated rapper J. Cole perform hits like ”Can’t Get Enough” on March 30. UMass Lowell is becoming a top venue in the region for rap and hip-hop acts. Since the arena was acquired by the University in 2009, Drake, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa have all performed at the site, which was named one of the top 20 in the world by Venues Today magazine.

A Life-changing Spring Break Some students spent spring Lowell Immersion project, to let residents know about group that provides nutri - he said. “The sense of break working on their mar - a group of five UMass home energy assessments tious meals to people coping camaraderie and self- garita-lifting muscles. Others Lowell students spent the that could help improve the with serious illnesses. development that you can learned how to paint a room, week helping out local non- energy efficiency of their The students camped out attain through volunteering where to get the best deal profits, meeting community homes and save money. for the week at the historic is invaluable.” on fried chicken near leaders and learning about The result? They signed up Pawtucket Congregational Also participating this year campus—and how to make the city. 38 homeowners. Church, sharing meals and were sophomores Eamon a difference. Throughout the week, They also made phone planning their activities to - Lightning and Deborah As part of the Alterna - the students knocked on calls to Lowell Transitional gether. To thank the church, Paul and juniors Savannah tive Spring Break Club’s doors in city neighborhoods Living Center donors to which also hosted the Low - Marshall and Becca Walsh. thank them for their support ell Immersion group last UMass Lowell students and they helped the Lowell spring, the students did some are devoting more time to Food Security Coalition painting inside the building. community service than with its community needs Alternative Spring Break ever, with the number of assessment, visiting neigh - Club President Kevin Cop - hours recorded doubling borhood bodegas and mar - son, a senior criminal justice over the past year from kets to gather information major, said volunteering 50,000 to 100,000. The from storeowners (and taste with other students creates a University was recently their chicken). shared sense of purpose that named to the 2012 Presi - They met with neighbor - is sometimes missing from dent’s Higher Education hood leaders to learn about the daily routine. Last year, Community Service Honor their work in the community he traveled with other Roll with Distinction, a and painted rooms at the club members to Mississippi prestigious recognition for United Teen Equality Cen - to help with hurricane colleges and universities ter in downtown Lowell. clean-up. committed to volunteering, They traveled to Boston to “So many people get into service-learning and com - help out at Community the rut of eat, sleep, work,” munity engagement. — JG Student volunteers spent part of spring break painting inside the Servings, a not-for-profit Pawtucket Congregational Church.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 13 Studen tscene

The Off-Broadway Players recently performed “columbinus,” a play based on the 1999 school shooting tragedy in Colorado. ‘columbinus’ Calls for Culpability and Change While the members of put on a meaningful and “This play challenges the student theater group emotional play,” says us to really think about Off-Broadway Players were Kate Munoz, vice presi - the ways in which our not yet in high school dur - dent of the Off-Broadway actions affect others and ing the 1999 Columbine, Players and an actor in reminds us that in many Colo., shootings, they’ve the play. “Production was ways, we are more alike lived with its aftermath. emotionally taxing for cast than different,” says Rua, Emergency drills, anti- members because of the artistic director at the bullying programs and the characters we had to em - Arlington Children’s faces of the victims have body and the content we Theatre. “This applies to been part of their school used. But we helped one all of us, not just students. experiences. And high another get through and These concepts seem so school remains a difficult Colleen Rua, our director, simple, so basic, yet we The student club ordeal for many. created a safe environ - continue to see tragedies Steppin’ in Unity ment. Even when we like the recent shootings As they took the stage enthralled a crowd were rehearsing the most in Ohio and Florida. to present “columbinus,” a in Durgin Hall uncomfortable scenes, it Theater like ‘columbinus’ play based on the tragedy, with rousing dance was never unbearable.” asks us to consider our the students’ own experi - performances on own culpability as a ences and feelings about The actors expressed March 31. hope that encouraging society, but also offers us the horrifying event shone hope for change.” — JKG through. students to talk and em - pathize with one another “We chose to do this more could decrease play because we wanted to violence in schools.

14 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 CAMPUS NEWS

INTRODUCING MR. UML (YES, THAT’S HER) When she heard about fun thing to add to my the Mr. UML contest hap - involvement here.” She pening on campus a few was surprised as anyone months ago, sophomore when she won. fine arts major Trudy “I think I won because Ulmstead decided she was I was trying to convey the best man for the job. an important message … “They didn’t specify that if you want some - that you have to be male thing, go for it. Take a and I met the other crite - chance,” she says. “I fully ria,” says Ulmstead, who expected to not be taken is a resident advisor, ori - seriously or not allowed entation leader and Off to compete because of my Broadway Players officer. gender. But I was allowed, “I'm a prominent student and clearly got the sup - leader on campus, so I port of the UMass Lowell Carolina Barreto pauses during thought it would be a community.” the installation of solar panels in a Peruvian village.

Student Wins ‘German Oscar’ Angelina Jolie and UMass Lowell student “In the film, I’m shown training Daniel Carolina Barreto have something important and other Malians how to assemble and in common. They both won Cinema for install solar panels,” Barreto says. “Daniel Peace awards at the Berlin International didn’t have any background in solar energy, Film Festival in February. but he wanted to find a way to help his Barreto, a native of Nicaragua and a countrymen. This solar energy training doctoral student in the University’s solar provided him with the skills, job and busi - energy engineering program, played a key ness opportunity to do it.” role in the documentary “Burning in the Barreto was also interviewed on-camera Trudy Ulmstead Sun”—one of five films that won what is and gave her views about rural electrification often called the “German Oscar.” in developing countries. “They recognize filmmakers who are You can view a 22- involved in making a difference in the minute clip of the docu - world. We won the Cinema for Peace In - mentary, which had its ternational Green Film Award sponsored national broadcast pre - by the German automaker Opel,” she says. mier on PBS on Jan. 29, The critically acclaimed “Burning in on YouTube.— EA the Sun” tells the story of Daniel Dembélé, a 26-year-old bartender in Ams - terdam who decides to return to his homeland in Mali, an impoverished, landlocked country in Western Africa, and start a local business building solar panels—the first of its kind in the sun-drenched nation. Dembélé’s goal is to electrify the households of rural com - Good Will Growing munities, 99 percent of which About a dozen students are building a greenhouse and community garden on live without power. His first campus this spring, in part thanks to a grant from the Deshpande Foundation. customers are the residents of the The group hopes to donate vegetables and flowers to local organizations. tiny village of Banko.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 15 Sportsupdate

‘A Wonderful Player, a Wonderful Person’— River Hawks Forward Beats the Odds By Geoffrey Douglas

He was 18 years old, a standout forward for his Junior and without it—which I can’t say for every player. He’s League team in Ontario, just days away from the start one of the true leaders on the team.” of his first year playing Division I college hockey at For Ferreira, it has been an extraordinary five years. UMass Lowell. He was out to breakfast with his family With the tumor removed and three metal plates in his and some friends—they’d thrown him a party the night head, he returned for a year (2007-08) to play for his before to celebrate and say goodbye—when he began junior team in Ontario, struggling mightily at first before to feel, he remembers, “really weird.” he found his stride—all the while getting visits from his He went home and went to bed. When he awoke, the UMass Lowell coaches and emails from River Hawks room was full of paramedics. Then he was in an ambulance, players he didn’t know if he would ever meet. then a hospital bed. The doctors told him he had a “I have nothing but praise for the staff and the team tumor on his brain. There would be no Lowell, no for seeing him through that ordeal,” says Bazin, who was Division I hockey. His odds of even surviving, they said, not at UMass Lowell at the time. “That made all the dif - were roughly two to one. “I felt,” he would tell a reporter ference, I think.” two years later, “like someone just came and took me By the fall of 2008—a year later than originally away.” planned—he was on the ice in Lowell. A fourth-line Matt Ferreira That was nearly five years ago. Today, Matt Ferreira is player at first, he saw limited minutes, though that began the third-leading scorer on the River Hawks team, with changing within weeks. “He’s a Lowell player—he’s tena - 14 goals and 18 assists this season. He appeared last year cious, he’s thorough,” then-coach Blaise MacDonald in 33 games, ranked third on the team in scoring. Over would say of him before his freshman season was done. the past three-and-a-half years, he has played in 122 “He’s [already] played to our expectations. I know, games, with 29 goals and 30 assists. He will graduate over his career, he’s going to amplify those.” this spring. And so he has—off the rink as well as on. “He’s a “It’s been an unbelievable story,” says River Hawks wonderful player,” Bazin says of Matt Ferreira today. “But coach Norm Bazin. “He plays well both with the puck an even better person. I’m proud to be his coach.” Ⅲ

16 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 CAMPUS NEWS

GORIVERHAWKS.COM GETS NEW LOOK The Department of Athletics debuted a new website, www.goriverhawks.com, in March. A cutting-edge design and flash headers are featured, along with an enhanced version of live stats, better integration of Facebook and Twitter, and larger windows for viewing video highlights. The site was created in conjunction with Sidearm Sports, replacing CBS Inter - active, which served as the University’s athletics website provider since 2009. “We place great value on the importance of first impressions and are excited to partner with Sidearm Sports to create a more dynamic, user-friendly website,” says Director of Athletics Dana Skinner. “Our new site will also drive more rev - enue by providing new content for corporate sponsors.”

Hockey Team Lands JUST THE TICKET First NCAA Tournament Mike O’Connor ’87, a sales executive at Dassault Systemes, has saved every Bid Since 1996 ticket from every sporting event UMass Lowell hockey earned a first-year head coach, earn - he’s attended—including all of these its first NCAA Tournament ing Bazin a nod as finalist for from River Hawk hockey games. bid since 1996, winning the Spencer Penrose Award, The excitement over the current against Miami (Ohio) in the given by the American team, he says, reminds him of “the opening round on March 23, Hockey Coaches Association days at the Tully Forum back in the before falling just a game in memory of the Colorado short of the Frozen Four after Springs benefactor who ’80s, when games were always very losing to Union College. built the Broadmoor Hotel crowded and high spirited.” Led by the 2012 Hockey Complex, site of the first 10 East Coach of the Year, Norm NCAA championship hockey Bazin, the team finished its tournaments. season with a 24-13-1 record, Sophomore Doug Carr a tie for second-place in also snagged kudos, being Hockey East. It was the sec - named one of two Division I ond largest turnaround in All-Star goalies and the Paul NCAA Division history with Hines Most Improved Player 19 more wins than last year. It Award winner. was the largest turnaround by

SNOW DAY! Hockey players Malcolm Lyles, William Eiserman, Stephen Buco and Tim Corcoran spent time on their off-day on March 1 shoveling local driveways and inviting fans to that weekend’s home game against Providence College. (They won 4 to 2!)

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 17 Sportsupdate Ru n, Hawks, Run!

Junior Evan White, left, receives the baton from senior Jeff Wundt, leading the 4x400 team to second place. n e g g E

e v a D

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o t o h P

UMass Lowell’s Junior Evan the University’s most decorat - having two national runner-up White and seniors Angus Mac - ed athlete: He earned All- finishes. And Angus earning Donald and Jeff Wundt earned America honors for the eighth his eighth and ninth All- All-America honors in two and ninth times in his career, America awards made it a events at the NCAA Division and still has one more outdoor very special weekend.” II Indoor Track & Field Cham - season of eligibility. White captured All-Ameri - pionship at Minnesota State- “We obviously achieved ca honors in both the 200 Mankato’s Myers Fieldhouse. most of our goals for the week - meters and 4X400 meter relay UMass Lowell scored 23 end by placing ninth as a team while MacDonald earned points to place a best-ever and coming back with 10 All- All-America in the distance ninth in the 40-team field. Americans,” says head coach medley relay and the open MacDonald added to the mile - Gary Gardner. “That this was mile. Wundt was a part of stone weekend by becoming the team’s best finish ever, both relay teams.

Senior Angus MacDonald, center, received a 2012 NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sports Excellence Award.

RUNNER SNAGS SCHOLAR AWARD Senior Angus MacDonald received the 2012 Northeast-10 Conference Scholar-Athlete Sports Excellence Award for indoor track and field, making him one of seven winter season stu - dent-athletes conference-wide to receive the distinction. To be eligible, student-athletes must have completed two consecutive years of full- time enrollment and athletic eligibility while Send Her In maintaining a 3.30 cumulative grade point average. This is the second time MacDonald Senior pitcher and designated hitter Elyssa Boris, number 14, became UMass Lowell’s received the honor. He was also the men’s cross- career RBI leader as the River Hawks defeated Saint Michael’s College in a Northeast- country recipient for the 2009 season. 10 Conference softball doubleheader at Doc Jacobs Field on April 3.

18 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Inside...

20 THE COMPANY WE KEEP 22 COVER STORY Featu res 31 DESIGNING WOMAN 34 THE DREAMMAKER 38 FACE OF PHILANTHROPHY

Just a few weeks after testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the atrocities he witnessed in South Sudan while on a mission there with actor George Clooney, John Prendergast spoke to students on campus about why he is “wildly optimistic” about Africa’s future. The human rights activist, who co-founded the advo - cacy group Enough Project, is UMass Lowell’s 2012 Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies. Prendergast said he came to UMass Lowell because the University’s commitment to service is a natural fit for what he does. “All the students, or many of them, are trying to do something in the world or in the backyard or in the local community,” he said.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 19 Featur estory By David Perry THE COMPANY WE KEE P.

20 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 FEATURE STORY UMass Lowell Plastics and Nypro: Partners From the Same Mold

mployers dream of college graduates trained workforce from UMass Lowell. And it’s who are trained well enough to plunge not just plastics engineering, though we’ve cer - right in to work. For educators, in - tainly supplied the largest numbers to them. ternships offer a bond with industry, They are hiring mechanical and chemical a practicum of sorts. And for students, engineers from UMass Lowell, too.” a seamless transition from classroom The programs grew up together. UMass Low - to work clothes is a particularly good ell’s plastics engineering program dates back to Edeal, especially in a tough economy. 1954, when the school was known as Lowell Since 1955, UMass Lowell’s Plastics Engi - Technological Institute. Nypro was born the Alumni, from left, Alan Maranian ’79, Chuck Henry neering Department and Clinton-based plastics following year. ’86 and Tina Downey ’92 chat at Nypro headquarters. manufacturer Nypro have been fused at the “There are only so many ways a university hip. The University has produced so many and a company can interact, and I’d say we’ve “I started here cleaning molds for three months,” interns and full-time employees for Nypro that engaged in just about every one of them with says Bussiere, in his office overlooking Nypro’s some UMass Lowell alumni working there say Nypro,” says Malloy. vast tool shop. “And I’ve been designing molds there’s an unspoken bond between them. for the past seven, eight years. I found out they But the relationship between the University “It’s pretty well-known that a just hired my college roommate.” and the plastics company is perhaps best per - lot of UMass Lowell plastics alumni Nypro maintains a presence on UMass Low - sonified in Amber Zapatka, a 23-year-old Lowell ell’s North Campus. native. A full-time Nypro employee since July go to Nypro to work, whether it’s a The plastics engineering department’s advisory 1, the 2011 graduate is working toward her starting point or a final destination.” board includes a Nypro representative, “whose master’s degree in plastics engineering. She first input helps us keep abreast of what is going on joined Nypro as a scholar-intern following her — Amber Zapatka ’11 in the larger plastics world and how we should freshman year and never left. She is training to In a rambling former carpet mill refurbished approach it,” says Malloy. “We don’t necessarily become a quality engineer. as its Clinton headquarters in 1971, Nypro is change our program for everything they say, “It’s pretty well-known that a lot of UMass one of the 10 largest employee-owned companies, but when they say something, we do listen.” Lowell plastics engineering alumni go to Nypro anticipating sales of $1.2 billion this year. The Nypro also provides scholarship support. to work,” says Amber, “whether it’s a starting company has 17,000 employees, at 41 sites in Malloy says the Nypro scholarship began in point or a final destination.” 14 countries, according to Nypro spokesman 1979 and in 2005, “turned into an endowed “There’s a very rich and deep history between Al Cotton. scholarship.” us,” says Louise Griffin, director of corporate In various parts of the building, you’ll find “UMass Lowell prepared me in all sorts of and foundation relations for the Office of those who bleed River Hawk blue. Alan Maran - ways for the real world,” says Amber Zapatka. University Advancement. “The histories of the ian ’79, is a business development manager at “There was such a broad range of things we University’s Plastics Engineering Department Nypro, and recalls taking classes here with learned. You really end up with an in-depth and Nypro parallel one another and are very Malloy. After school, he worked for Xerox and knowledge, one that gives you a really good important to us. They’ve been generous, got to know Nypro as a supplier. base to stand on. as well.” “I started dealing with Nypro in 1983, and “There were times in class where I was the One of the most visible examples is in Ball I’ve been here for 10 years,” says Maranian, 54. most knowledgeable because of what I was Hall, on North Campus. That’s where, in 2003, “So many UMass Lowell graduates work here. doing at work. I would have that practical Nypro and its Chairman of the Board Gordon There’s a strong association between the two knowledge and be able to use it in class. The Lankton funded the renovation of a laboratory places.” He has a senior from the University’s two complement one another so well.” Ⅲ to create the Nypro Precision Injection Molding plastics department working for him as Laboratory. The lab houses $500,000 worth of an intern, and plans to hire him after he gradu - equipment, including an injection-molding ma - ates. Editor’s note: As some smart person once pointed chine from Nypro. “I remember hearing the name Nypro when out, no one can whistle a symphony. It takes an UMass Lowell Plastics Engineering Depart - I was there,” says Tina Downey ’92, a Nypro entire orchestra to get it right. In our new section ment head Robert Malloy says it’s not much of project manager who has been with the company The Company We Keep, we’ll profile some of our a stretch to say one might not exist as it does for 13 years. “Now I hear UMass Lowell a lot own first-chair players—the partners who are without the other. here.” helping to make this time of unprecedented growth “It’s pretty close to the truth,” says Malloy. Sometimes, a rich program can bring in at UMass Lowell possible. “managers there will tell you a lot of their folks from other majors, too, such as Chris success is due to their people, and they get a Bussiere ’92, a mechanical engineering graduate.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 21 Cover story UMass Lowell State of Mind By David Perry BILLY JOEL TAKES THE STAGE AT DURGIN HALL

s a drummer, Savannah Marshall’s tastes run toward force-of-nature heavy metal, or .the rumbling thunder of jazz and big band. Yet there she was, backstage at Durgin Hall, about to shake hands with rock star Billy Joel. Marshall was one of three UMass Lowell music majors joining Chancellor Marty AMeehan and a handful of others in greeting Joel before his Dec. 14 appearance at the South Campus performance center.

Continued

22 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 COVER STORY

Billy Joel, playing a section of “Piano Man” on campus in December, joked, “This is a hit record? It’s a drag. The lyrics are all limericks. And there’s 30 minutes of them.”

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 23 Cover story

“THIS IS THE KIND OF THING THAT’S FASCINATING. IT’S A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. STUDENTS CAN ASK, ‘HEY, WHAT’S IT LIKE?’”

—John Shirley, chair of the Department of Music

Joel emerged to shake hands world. Sometimes, he played a verse or two. Sometimes, and exchange pleasantries with he performed an entire song. a short line of fans. He smiled The crowd met the songwriter, the businessman, the and chatted briefly with each reluctant celebrity, the modest, self-deprecating “rock person, posing for a few photos. star.” He seemed at odds with pretense, and completely at He’s 62 and bald. Marshall, a home fielding questions that ran from the technical to UMass Lowell junior from requests for personal mementoes. Methuen, is 20, with hair the He was also happy to share inside stories. color of pink bubblegum. She was accepted at Boston’s Berklee He theorized on Keith Richards’ longevity (when the College of Music, but financial bomb drops, “it will be just cockroaches and Keith concerns helped her opt for Richards left,” he joked) and revealed that “And So It UMass Lowell, a choice she Goes” was written for supermodel Elle MacPherson during Billy Joel shakes hands “couldn’t be happier” to have made. Joel, meanwhile, their “doomed relationship”: with junior Savannah had flown in by helicopter, a black-bladed chariot that “She was 19, I was 30, she’s 6’2” and I’m 5’7,” he said. Marshall. awaited him near the softball field. “I saw a picture of us walking on the beach and I looked Though he has continued to perform, notably in a like Bubbles the Chimp.” much-acclaimed tour with Elton John and as the last Launching into one tale with “Bono’s gonna kill me concert at Shea Stadium, the Piano Man released his last for this...” Joel recalled attending a U2 show in New York pop album, River of Dreams, in 1993. and wondering how just four guys were making all of that Savannah Marshall was 2. sound. He said he discovered a secret backing band of musicians bolstering the sound from beneath the stage. What might these two have in common? What could she learn from him? Although Joel served up plenty of laughs, he also shared life lessons he’s learned, As it turns out, plenty. some of them hard-won. Stardom, he told students, A MASTER CLASS ON BEING A ROCK STAR does not come overnight. Joel strolled onto the Durgin Hall stage, following the He played around on the leanest of introductions. The crowd of 1,000, mostly stu - piano before he was tall dents, roared. enough to reach the keys, For more than two hours, he enchanted, educated and then took lessons at 6. entertained the long sold-out audience. By third grade, he was The evening was a master class in the art of being earning weak-kneed Billy Joel, leavened with humor and spiced with music to flesh out the artist seen on stages and screens all over the

24 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 COVER STORY

HE TOLD THE CROWD AT screams from fourth-grade girls, crooning “Hound Dog” It had already been a pretty good week for the Piano UMASS LOWELL in the cafeteria. Man. Two days earlier, at the Steinway Hall of Fame in THAT HE HAD New York, the piano maker had unveiled Joel’s portrait. But before he saw any real success, Joel said he worked PROMISED on the side making ink for typewriter ribbons, as an oys - Captured on canvas wearing a leather jacket, he became terman, a freelance writer and landscaper. He forged a the lone non-classical performer to be inducted. HIMSELF WHILE career beginning in the garages of Long Island’s seminal Joel’s legend had just been handsomely boxed, too, in A STRUGGLING suburban tracts, pumped on rock power trios, then scaled the form of Legacy Recordings’ 14-disc “Billy Joel–The back to piano bars before finding his voice as a Complete Albums Collection.” Remastered and re- MUSICIAN THAT keyboardist/troubadour and, eventually, an arena draw. imagined as a hefty brick of all things Billy, it is a career IF GOOD FOR - captured. He told the crowd at UMass Lowell that he had TUNE EVER promised himself while a struggling musician that if good But his proudest achievement, he said, is his daughter, fortune ever smiled upon him, he would try to help Alexa Ray. His career highlight? Playing the Soviet SMILED UPON others. “I wanted to be able to help people do this job,” Union in 1987 and feeling his personal vision of the HIM, HE WOULD he said, to wade through the often “treacherous” and Cold War melt. “larcenous” waters of the music business. The morning of his trip to Lowell, the University’s TRY TO HELP Those audience members with their hearts set on the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to award Joel an OTHERS. same business appreciated his insights. honorary doctorate of human letters. “You know, this is really cool for me,” said Marshall. Landing Joel was a high-water moment in the cultural “I mean, how often do you get a chance to see such an life of UMass Lowell, one that Chancellor Meehan accomplished musician, right on your own campus, in a hopes draws due attention to the University’s music pro - place this small?” gram, which has all too quietly produced a steady stream of sound professionals, nestled into jobs as teachers, mu - sicians and recording engineers in everything from sports JOEL PICKS UMASS LOWELL FROM HUNDREDS to film to pop music. More recently, Sound Recording Joel was the latest in a series of award-winning artists to Technology (SRT) grads have been bringing visit the campus. The six-time Grammy winner, record home Grammy Awards. sales titan and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member joined a growing list of folks celebrated and accomplished “It’s important, as a university that prides for their work, and willing to share tips and experiences itself on offering real-life educational experience, with UMass Lowell audiences. (See sidebar.) that we bring to our students people who Continued

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 25 Cover story

have been recognized for their hard work and innovation,” Swanson is the front-of-house engineer for The Bad says Meehan. “And we want to offer students a glimpse Plus, an acclaimed, jazz-rooted trio with major label behind the curtain. Billy Joel, thanks to his high recordings under its belt. He also worked as a session standing in his profession, is perhaps the best-known of player and teacher in a private school in Virginia before our visitors, but by no means does he stand alone in ac - deciding to earn his master’s degree at UMass Lowell. complishing great things. Of course, just about everyone “I dug Billy Joel more than I expected,” he said later. can sing along to his songs.” “And I expected to like it. The guy was so honest and The University’s bid for Joel was crafted in the earnest about things. He handled the lightest questions summer, but it took months for him and his team to better than I could ever imagine. It’s funny, but the wade through hundreds of proposals and notify three night before I was watching him on this Rock and Roll winners. (Joel also visited UConn and Cornell in the Hall of Fame anniversary concert film and it was cool weeks before he came to Lowell.) enough. But I much preferred what he did here.”

‘BETTER THAN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL A STUDENT BECOMES THE STAR OF FAME CONCERT’ Joel doesn’t need to do this, nor did he need to select Though he hasn’t recorded a new pop record in nearly UMass Lowell from the hundreds of schools that applied two decades—his latest is a 2001 classical recording— to host him. UMass Lowell’s rich musical history may Joel maintains enough pop music cache to easily sell have held sway. The University is home to the nation’s out the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. But this first public music education school and over the years evening was about connecting with a college crowd. has produced more music teachers in Massachusetts The agreement between Joel’s camp and the University than any other institution. called for dedicating 85 percent of Durgin’s 1,000 seats “Obviously, we love having Billy Joel at UMass “IT’S AN to students, the rest to faculty and staff. Lowell,” said Meehan after chatting with the star back - OPPORTUNITY Volunteers moved through the audience with hand- stage. “It’s a tribute to the world-class music department FOR THE held microphones, and Joel playfully picked his questioners we have and an opportunity for the students to learn by marking them with the beam from a green laser pen. from a master. But I hope this puts the music department STUDENTS TO Two pianos, a gong and a stool graced the stage. The on the map, too. They’re deserving of it.” LEARN FROM stool was never used. Indeed, the UMass Lowell Sound Recording Tech - nology program has produced Grammy winners, infused A MASTER. “This is the kind of thing that’s fascinating,” says John Shirley, chair of the UMass Lowell Department of the radio, TV and film worlds with talent, and has BUT I HOPE Music. “It’s a great opportunity. Students can ask, ‘Hey, hosted international recording summits, including one what’s it like?’” in 2008, where the keynote speaker was Phil Ramone, THIS PUTS one of Joel’s producers. Just weeks earlier, Frank Filipetti, While answering audience questions, Joel continued the producer, engineer and sonic pioneer whose credits THE MUSIC to share stories of his personal and professional highs include work with Joel and Ramone, had visited SRT DEPARTMENT and lows. Looking back has its joys, he said, but Joel classes. (See sidebar.) ON THE MAP, also winces at the past. He completed but scrapped the publication of his autobiography, “The Book of Joel,” The evening crystallized near the end, when Joel TOO. THEY’RE when he learned it would be marketed as a tell-all. headed to the piano to render “Leningrad” after discussing his Soviet tour. He searched for the key. DESERVING “I’m not a kiss-and-tell kind of guy,” he told the “I know it! It’s in D!” OF IT.” crowd. He returned the publisher’s $3 million advance. If there is one rear view mirror he enjoys, it is It was a voice from the floor seats. Joel peered into usually attached to a motorcycle. He recently opened the crowd. —Chancellor his own motorcycle shop, 20th Century Cycles, in “You know it?” Marty Meehan Long Island’s Oyster Bay. The young man said he did. Joel waved him toward Joel illustrated his points with snippets of songs, the stage. even allowing two students to accompany him. His Like a sort of dueling Ferrante and Teicher, Joel and voice warmed as the evening went on, to where he was the kid saddled up on the benches of the two pianos, singing such younger-man’s songs as “Innocent Man” facing one another. It could have been a rough ride had to perfection. the kid been bluffing. He was not. Joel’s sound is infused with Fats Domino, the Gersh - Joel and David Schockett, 22, glided through what wins, The Beatles and Tin Pan Alley. He is a master of sounded like a flawless version of “Leningrad,” a Joel melody. He told the UMass Lowell crowd he writes song that celebrates human similarities hidden by fear. music before lyrics “99 percent of the time ... I’m a music guy.” His still writes, but only music. No words. And the star became a teacher and accompanist. The kid became a star for a moment, realizing a Bradford Swanson, a 32-year-old graduate student musician’s dream. And the 40 years between the two in the University’s Sound Recording Technology program, musicians melted away. knows a pro when he sees one. Ⅲ

26 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 COVER STORY SIDEBAR

SOME OF WORLD’S GREAT VOICES GRACE STAGES AT UMASS LOWELL

illy Joel was a huge catch, Tabitha, have generously donated has cast a bright light on Prender - Poet Kay Ryan , the nation’s no doubt. But the Univer - the honorarium as the seed money gast as well. He pops up near the 16th poet laureate (2008-2010), sity has been landing some for a Stephen and Tabitha King 14-minute and 24-minute marks. visited the University on April 26, formidable names over the Scholarship at UMass Lowell, Other guest speakers to take 2011, during National Poetry past couple of years, cut - which will benefit deserving stu - the microphone at University Month. It was also just a week Bting a wide swath across popular dents who need financial support. after she was named 2011 Pulitzer events over the past few years: culture and academics. The future Professor Andre Dubus III will Prize winner in poetry. In Septem - Laymah Gbowee shared holds one of the literary world’s facilitate the onstage conversation ber, Ryan was named one of the the 2011 Nobel Prize with Yemeni biggest rock stars, Stephen King . with King. year’s MacArthur Foundation activist Tawakkul Karman and The latest visiting scholar, John “genius grant” recipients. Students will be admitted free, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Prendergast , has been making Other writers: Dennis Lehane , while staff, faculty and the public Sirleaf. Gbowee, the Liberian the rounds with George Clooney sportswriter Jackie MacMullan will be able to buy tickets. (Details peace activist known to many as in the name of justice. and Russell Banks . to come.) the centerpiece of the documen - The University landed an im - At one point, author and tary “Pray The Devil Back to Hell,” Since the University formally pressive member of the Obama activist John Prendergast , UMass was a 2011 Greeley Scholar at took ownership of the Tsongas Cabinet for commencement this Lowell’s 2012 Greeley Scholar for UMass Lowell. She told students Center in February 2010, the arena year in Ken Salazar , secretary of Peace, was less visible. His human here of the need for conflict has played host to pop music lumi - the U.S. Department of the Inte - rights work, including toiling for resolution in April. In December, naries from Bob Dylan to Drake , rior. With Lowell’s status as an peace in Africa for more than a she was in Oslo, to receive the from the Dropkick Murphys to urban National Park, Salazar would quarter-century, has largely been Nobel Prize. Chicago and Selena Gomez . seem an especially fitting choice. done out of the spotlight. Not that Doris Kearns Goodwin and And Phil Ramone , familiar Before accepting his current post it didn’t earn some recognition her husband, Richard Goodwin, to Billy Joel (it was Ramone who at the dawn of 2009, Salazar along the way (“60 Minutes” and held court in a Q&A session, on produced Joel’s smash album, served as Colorado’s 35th U.S. The New York Times are among the eve of 2010 Commencement. “The Stranger” as one of pop Senator and was known for his the media outlets that have fea - And there was a big score the next music’s premier producers, was part in bipartisan efforts. Long ac - tured Prendergast). A veteran of day, with Roger Goodell , National the keynote speaker when the tive in conservation efforts on the the Clinton White House, among Football League commissioner, University hosted the International state level, Salazar is an important other posts, Prendergast co- serving as 2010 Commencement Art of Record Production confer - voice in the balance of land use founded the Enough Project, speaker. Other recent Commence - ence in November 2008. Ramone and energy needs. which aims to halt genocide and ment speakers included Sen. John has been nominated for 33 The campus is buzzing about human rights violations. And then, Kerry in 2009, Rep. Harold Ford Grammy Awards, and taken home the upcoming Dec. 7 appearance in early March, he became public, in 2008 and Rep. John Lewis 14. Last fall, the Joel-Ramone by King , who’ll open the 2012-13 thanks to his role in the very viral in 2007. relationship came full circle, when Chancellor’s Speaker’s Series with Kony 2012 video. The half-hour Frank Filipetti , the producer, Lynda Barry , the cartoonist “A Conversation and a Reading” production by human rights group engineer and sonic pioneer whose and author whose weekly Ernie at the Tsongas Center at UMass Invisible Children Inc., calls for the credits include work with Joel and Pook’s Comeek strip drew a legion Lowell. The evening event with the capture and trial of warlord Joseph Ramone, visited SRT classes. Ⅲ of devout followers, was the Fall writing icon will take place in a Kony, who turns girls into sex 2011 Artist in Residence for the more intimate setting than is usual slaves and boys into child soldiers. Center for the Arts & Ideas. in the Tsongas. King and his wife, The unprecedented viral success

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 27 COVER STORY SIDEBAR

By David Perry The Music Depa rtment ’s New Composition: Te achers , Gamers and G ramm y-winners

n its infancy a century ago, UMass Lowell’s music In those days, after their studies were complete, music program produced a long line of music professionals graduates fanned out across the region to add a taste of of the day. They were prim and proper, trained to the arts to the days of elementary school students. They teach the basics of a music education to elementary were, in their time, world-ready. And they were a part of school children. the nation’s first public music education school. UMass If the direction of music education was different Lowell has produced more music teachers in Massachusetts “THEY’RE Ithan it is now, then so was the tempo of campus than any other institution. READY WHEN life. “We were primarily a teacher-preparation program,” When Norma Lajoie arrived from Gardner to major in says Smith, who arrived at Lowell State in the spring of THEY LEAVE music in 1965, she lived in Allen House, then a dormitory. 1967, a degree in music theory and composition from HERE.” About 30 women lived there, and no males were allowed Brandeis still warm in his hand. “We were not too far re - above the first floor. A housemother oversaw the residents, moved from Lowell Normal School, or at least that mind - set.” —Music Prof. a cook prepared meals and students cleared the table and washed dishes. In your room at 9 p.m., lights out at 11. But eventually the landscape changed, transformed by William Moylan “And don’t get caught roaming around with curlers in forces far beyond the diatonic scale. The University was your hair!” Lajoie remembers. ready with an intensive program designed to attract and mold music professionals of a decidedly different stripe. At that time, Durgin Hall—now home to the Depart - ment of Music—didn’t even exist. “Where we’re sitting right now?” says music Prof. SRT: ‘A SONIC HAIL MARY PASS’ Emeritus Stuart Smith, during an interview in his office The Sound Recording Technology (SRT) program began in Durgin. “This wasn’t even here when I got here in as a sonic Hail Mary pass, an attempt to resuscitate 1967. There were rows of cottages built for World War II a music program that seemed doomed by fiscal belt- vets. This building was a big field. There was still a barn tightening. standing on it.” In 1980, amid a sweeping national anti-tax movement, Massachusetts voters passed the Proposition 2 ½ ballot

28 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 COVER STORY SIDEBAR

A BRIDGE BETWEEN ARTS AND SCIENCES The SRT proposal became a reality but Smith credits Moylan, who arrived in the fall of 1983, with “making it what it became.” Moylan put flesh on the bones of the Sound Recording Technology program. “He deserves the credit,” insists Smith. “The idea was to create a program that would bring together the rich heritage of music, and meld it with the heritage of engineering on our campus,” Moylan says. It was a bridge across the Merrimack, from North to South campus, spanning arts and sciences. And if it would become a way of making the studio an instrument itself, SRT also had to feature an ensemble of players. “It needed to take a broad view of things,” says Moylan, a soft-spoken man whose passions include the music of “IT WAS A Grammy-winner Adam Ayan ’97 has been the mastering engineer The Beatles. “It was a program to appeal to young folks for such clients as the Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, the Rolling Stones and create a program to educate people and further the NO-BRAINER. and Keith Urban. recording industry. And my vision of the recording EVERYBODY industry was not solely the recording studio. I was also measure, which limits rises in local property taxes, the talking about TV, radio, film. I insisted there be two WANTED TO BE major source of funding for local school districts. The other faculty members. I did not want us to produce IN THE RECORD measure went into effect in 1982. clones of me and my approach.” INDUSTRY. “With 2 ½, suddenly parents were thinking, ‘are there But he did want students to have proper production going to be music education jobs out there?’ ” says Lajoie, facilities. The equipment went from, he says, “boxes in a BUT IT WAS SO who became the music department’s secretary and stayed closet when I got here, to state-of-the-art” rooms and COMPETITIVE.” for 41 years, until she retired in June 2010. “And they production and mixing facilities that have since been wanted their kids to be able to work after graduating, featured in national publications. —Prof. Stuart Smith, knowing there was a profession there.” It was a rigorous major, designed to bring in students on the creation of the Enrollment in the Department of Music took an almost but also not to short-change them. Sound Recording immediate hit. “The first enrollment group had seven students, and Technology program “After the passage of Proposition 2 ½, the enrollment two actually stuck with it,” says Moylan. “I think it scared at the college of music just plummeted, from 500 to some of them once I started teaching and they figured almost nothing,” says music Prof. William Moylan. out it was not going to be sex, drugs and rock and roll. In Meanwhile, engineering was ruling the academic roost fact, only rock and roll got into the studio. It’s very inten - at UMass Lowell. With the high-tech boom spreading sive.” across the area, and companies such as Wang establishing Over time, it has become the Department of Music’s roots locally, enrollment in engineering programs doubled most popular of four concentrations (the others are music during the decade beginning in 1975. business, music studies and performance). Today, the pro - Prof. Stuart Smith saw the writing on the wall, and— gram has 140 students, an enrollment that had stayed as chair of the college curriculum committee—joined “remarkably steady” over the past two decades, says with Dean of the College of Music Dr. Tom Elliot to Moylan. “We graduate between 20 and 30 a year.” put together a proposed curriculum that melded They include multi-Grammy-winners like Adam Ayan music and engineering in hopes of saving the de - ’97, one of the mostly highly regarded mastering engineers partment. They designed and gained approval in the business. They include several who work in the for both the SRT and Music Business programs. gaming industry, putting the sound to the action. And Both were among the first in the nation of they include sound engineers who work in mobile their kind. SRT is the first to offer a master units making sure TV viewers hear the sporting of music degree in the field. nation’s biggest events. “It was a no-brainer,” says Smith, who “They’re ready when they leave here,” retired in 2002, but still teaches a pair of says Moylan. Ⅲ classes. “Everybody wanted to be in the record industry. But it was so competitive.”

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Mary Jo Leahe y(191 6-20 11): She Lived for the Music f the thousands of benefactors who Leahey: singer, teacher, mentor, visionary, philanthro - By Geoffrey Douglas have contributed over the years to pist—and member of the Lowell State Teachers College the life of this University, there are class of 1937, from which she earned her bachelor’s degree probably none whose generosity has in music—died in late November at her home in Florida. touched more lives, as personally She was 95. or directly, as Mary Jo Leahey ’37. The Band Camp, which began with 53 students in It may have been the memory 1997 and is now enrolling 130, is not the only legacy of O of the opportunity she once passed Leahey’s generosity. Other beneficiaries over the years in - up herself, decades ago, as a stu - clude the University’s Center for the Arts, the UMass dent—a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox—to Lowell String Project and the Chancellor’s Educational return to Lowell and marry her sweetheart. Or it may Excellence Fund for Student Scholarships. Not long before have just been her love of music. Whatever the reason, her death last year, she was honored, as one of just 11 much of her life and wealth would be benefactors, as a member of the University’s newly formed dedicated to a single cause: the right of Circle of Distinction. every boy and girl who loves music as “Mary Jo was a very special, really beautiful person,” she had, and was willing to work for it, says Chancellor Marty Meehan. “Her generosity continues to have the means to the same opportu - to provide for the educational experience of young people nity. from diverse backgrounds. It’s a wonderful legacy.” “She wasn’t just a benefactor, one of But the Band Camp was her trademark. And her those who just gives and walks away,” passion. Ever since her student days in the 1930s, and the says Debra-Nicole Huber ’89, who, for war-time years that followed when she sang and danced the past 17 years, has served as executive for the wounded troops, and the years later, on Martha’s director of the Mary Jo Leahey Symphonic Vineyard, as music supervisor of the island’s public schools— Band Camp, an annual, residential, week- it was always the music that drove her. long summer instructional camp for high-school music Mary Jo Leahey ’37 “It was her inspiration,” says Huber. “Her passion for it students, based on the UMass Lowell campus—which, helped 2,000 students was contagious. At the same time, though, she never lost over the years, has afforded nearly 2,000 of them the pursue their musical her dignity. Or her capacity to love, to reach out. She was chance to pursue their musical dreams. dreams. a remarkable lady. A true role model. I will miss her very “She talked with the students,” Huber says. “She would much.” want to know, from me, how things were going, where the A memorial is planned: on July 21, in the finale concert students were coming from, if we were getting them the on the final day of this year’s Band Camp, the orchestra highest-possible level of instruction we could, all those will feature a world premiere of “Sounds of Courage” by sorts of things. She cared, she really, really cared. She Robert W. Smith, a composition based on the life of loved music, and she loved teaching—and that’s something Amelia Earhart. It will be dedicated to the memory of we had in common. It was a beautiful partnership.” Mary Jo Leahey, the camp’s visionary founder. Ⅲ

30 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Featur estory

rom Sunflowers to FSwanky: Alum ’s Designs Caught on Camera

By Sheila Eppolito

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 31 Featur estory

aybe it didn’t start with the sun - flowers, but they were certainly a clue. On freshman move-in day, as hundreds of other eager students loaded up parents and siblings with microwaves, beanbag chairs and cases of Ramen noodles to populate their new homes in Fox Hall, Taniya Nayak ’97 had a different array of must-have items. “I brought a table I had painted with sunflowers, and a “I HAD NO matching window valance I’d sewn,” she says. IDEA WHAT I Asked if the curtain was of the oft-derided “balloon” M Taniya Nayak, center, unloads her U-Haul on move-in day in 1993. style, she’s horrified. WAS DOING. “Never!” Her Fox Hall room was the site of her first interior design effort. I HAD NEVER In fact, Nayak’s good taste is becoming legendary in After graduation, she attended the Boston Architectural BEEN ON home and commercial design circles. Center, intending to follow in her dad’s career footsteps. Instead, she pursued design, earning top honors in the In - TELEVISION, Born in Nagpur, India, Nayak moved to Weymouth with her family as an infant. Nayak says she was always ternational Interior Design Associations’ Student Sketch AND HADN’T considered the “creative” child, although she is quick to Problem Competition. BEEN INVOLVED point out that her scientist-turned-marketing executive “One day, an instructor told us that ABC Family was sister Yoshika demonstrates some “serious creativity” in holding auditions for hosts of a design program called IN SUCH LARGE- the way she interacts with her children. ‘Knock First,’ a show targeting hip, ambitions teens,” she SCALE DESIGN “Every Valentine’s Day creation, every school project says. “I had no idea what I was doing. I had never been on television, and hadn’t been involved in such large-scale DECISIONS, she works on with her kids is fabulous,” says Nayak. “She thinks of things I never would have come up with.” design decisions, let alone on camera!” LET ALONE “My father is an architect—he’s had his own business She nailed the audition, and was hired. ON CAMERA!” for years,” she says. “He’s amazing—I still call him all the “Being on television is a sort of happy accident,” she time for advice.” says. A marketing major, Taniya lived in Fox Hall on the The happy accident went viral. 7th floor. She fondly recalls watching “Friends” with After “Knock First” came an opportunity on HGTV’s friends, dancing on the dance team and celebrating her “FreeStyle” which ferrets out items already in people’s 21st birthday in Lowell. homes and repurposes them for a fresh look. Then came

32 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 FEATURE STORY

Petit Robert Central in Boston’s Downtown Crossing features interior design by Taniya Nayak ’97.

an offer from “Designed to After consulting on restaurants owned Sell,” a show that helps people by O’Donnell, Nayak has become the go- get their homes sold with $2,000 to designer for hot eateries. As design ex - of improvements and a lot of pert on Food Network’s “Restaurant Im - sweat equity. Unlike other home possible,” Nayak works with colleague improvement shows, “Designed to Robert Irvine, host and chef, to develop Sell” puts everyone to work, even a plan to save foundering eateries with lovely designers. Nayak gets right $10,000 and two days’ work. The team in the thick of it—from design to has spiffed up a variety of venues TANIYA ON THE AIR demo—with a nearly constant smile across the country, including the • Oprah on her face. Meglios in St. Louis, Coffee’s Boilin’ Pot • Knock First Bolstered by her success, Nayak in Madisonville, LA., and dozens of others in between. created her own design firm, Taniya In each case, it’s Nayak’s job to create a theme, plans • FreeStyle Nayak Design LLC , to create “affordable and inspirational” for seating, tables, lighting, flooring—basically everything • House Hunters spaces. Her client list includes everyone from regular Joes “front of house.” And if saving a business in just two days on Vacation to A-list customers like Jesse Metcalfe of “Chase” and weren’t enough, her pressure-cooker job is all caught on • Restaurant “Dallas,” Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Tyler Christopher camera. Impossible of “General Hospital.” One look at her, though, and it’s clear the camera is Yet no matter how big the job or famous the client, this woman’s friend. • Destination Design Nayak is unflappable. In addition to a keen eye—courtesy of genetics or • Designed to Sell “I was walking with my design assistant today and we good fortune—her success may be tied to her authenticity. were going over the laundry list of business items, and as Whether she’s on television or on the telephone, she is the list got longer, she got kind of wired,” says Nayak. “I herself. Interactions with crew members on any of her realized that I wasn’t anxious—I probably should be, I’m shows reveal a cast of friends, with nary a prima donna in just not!” sight. During a phone interview for this story, Nayak is Her good karma may be related in part to her recent approachable and warm, even offering up free suggestions marriage to Brian O’Donnell, head of a successful Boston for a writer’s tired, brass wall sconces. (“Paint them a restaurant group, which boasts such Boston hotspots as nice matte nickel, and put some simple Edison bulbs in. Petit Robert Central, Julep, McGreevey’s and a new, as Don’t use little shades—they’re just dust collectors.”) yet unnamed, spot next to the W Hotel in the Theater She has recently developed her own lighting line for District, all of which feature Nayak’s design imprimatur. wayfair.com, and expects to add more product lines soon. “I was a bartender for 13 years, so I have a soft spot for Before signing off to board a plane for her latest design restaurants,” she says. The soft spot—and the restaurateur consultation, she asked if there are any other design husband—opened up another creative door for her. dilemmas she can help with. Fame, it seems, has not gone to her head. Ⅲ

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 33 Feature story

Patricia Foley Karl ’64, ’95 helped found the Lawrence Family Development Charter School, where 100 percent of students learn to read by first grade.

34 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 FEATURE STORY

By Sheila Eppolito Dr eamThmake er SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE RETIRED. RELAXING. RIGHT.

atricia Foley Karl ’64, ’95 is a force to be reckoned with. Entering the Lawrence Family Development Charter School (LFDCS) with Karl is like walking with a celebrity. Every student, teacher, aide, receptionist and custodian lights up upon seeing her, and she responds in kind, “Instead of knowing every person’s name. viewing the high Karl—who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Graduate School of Education—founded the charter Latino population sPchool in 1995 in Lawrence, her hometown. An educator as a ‘problem,’ her entire adult life, Karl taught for five years in Andover, we embrace followed by 13 in Lawrence. She and husband Russell (longtime University professor of Legal Studies) raised the cultural three children, all of whom have had roles in education. differences.” After the Massachusetts Education Reform Act passed, creating fertile ground for the formation of charter —Patricia Foley Karl schools, Karl was tapped to write a plan for a one in Lawrence. After talking to scores of parents in the community, The Lawrence Family Development Charter School houses 640 Karl discovered one important thing, she says: Despite students in pre-k through eighth grade. having a reputation for refusing to get involved in their children’s educations, plenty of Lawrence parents simply Weaker souls would have walked (or run!) away want their children to be given a chance at the American from the proposition of attempting to create an excellent Dream. school against such a daunting backdrop. That’s no easy task, given the hard realities of the Karl is no shrinking violet. economic situation. Nearly a third of residents are low “We determined that our charter school would be income and 74 percent are Hispanic, and for many different. Instead of viewing the high Latino population English is their second language. According to the U.S. as a ‘problem’, we embrace the cultural differences. Census Bureau, Lawrence has poverty rates twice the Instead of seeing our students as poor, we view them as national average, and the unemployment rate of 17 gifts with overwhelming promise. Instead of viewing percent is three times the state average. The high school parent involvement in education as a distraction, our dropout rate exceeds 40 percent, and several high- view is that embracing and supporting parents—respecting profile misdeeds by City administrators have hurt their culture and their part in their child’s future—is a Lawrence Schools when they can least afford it. much more effective outlook,” she says. Continued

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 35 Feature story

Months of meetings, research and writing exceeds supply in this special place: there are THE PROOF IS IN THE EYES later, the plan was written by Karl, and submitted. currently more than 1,200 students on a waiting The statistics, facilities and strategies are im - It worked. And Lawrence Family Develop - list. pressive. But in this place, the kids are the true ment Charter School was born. The lucky ones admitted benefit from LFDCS’ stars. Almost. four-pronged approach. “Just look in their eyes!” she says. “You don’t There was the problem of finding a facility. 1. Parents are important, too. The school see poverty here. You don’t see failure. You see And hiring teachers. And getting books. And offers ESL, citizenship and computer classes to possibility.” recruiting students. And all the rest of it. interested parents, and their involvement in As kindergarten students file by in their their children’s education is encouraged, not comfortable navy blue uniforms—the parents’ dismissed. IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME request—they dutifuly hold “one hand on lips, 2. Excellent teaching is a must. Class sizes and one hand on hip,” per the instruction of a Karl dove right in, meeting every challenge are limited to 20. Teachers pursue professional smiling teacher. with determination, seemingly superhuman en - development through graduate courses and ergy and the support of the organization’s board They move, a happy line of beautiful children, workshops. Every single student is monitored getting closer to their best selves. of directors. First, the facility. for performance in key areas—teachers collab - “R. Kingman and Dean Webster—former orate to ensure no student fails. A HISTORY OF BUILDING owners of the Blue Seal Feed Co.—helped con - 3. Culture is respected. Dual-language profi - COMMUNITY nect us to the new owners, who donated the ciency for students is a must. building and land to us, which was the foundation This wasn’t the first time Karl made an enormous of everything thing you see today,” she says. 4. Partnerships open doors. Science and difference in the community. technology-related partnerships with colleges The vacant factory was transformed. Dona - and Universities, including UMass Lowell’s Me - She was previously executive director of tions supported the changes—garage bays were chanical Engineering Department, present rich both the Lawrence Youth Commission and the turned into classrooms; today, a gazebo sits atop opportunities. Lawrence Family Development and Education the site of a former grain silo. “We received the property in June, and opened in September—it was a whirlwind, and LFDCS Success by the Numbers we nearly didn’t make it,” Karl admits. On opening day, Sept. 6, 1995, 180 students 100%: graduates accepted to one or more admission-based schools waited anxiously in the yard outside their new 60%: graduates received scholarship and financial aid totaling more than $700,000 school. And Karl—waiting for the Certificate of Occupancy from the City—greeted each 3: LFDCS buildings—the former St. Anne’s School, the former Blue Seal Feed Co. child enthusiastically, a curriculum back-up and the Maria Del Pilar Quintana Family Center plan at the ready in the event they couldn’t use 640: students enrolled at LFDCS the building. 10: number of grades—pre-k through grade 8 Miraculously, at 8:15 a.m., the certificate came, and the doors were opened. 100%: students reading before first grade 2: languages (English and Spanish) are spoken by all students LOTTERY OF A LIFETIME 20: the largest class size; many number just 15 Students at the charter school are admitted $10 million: estimated worth of LFDCS properties through a lottery, held annually in the school’s gym. On lottery night, Karl says, students and $0: debt owed by LFDCS their extended families gather, and celebration $1,000,000: the goal of the Patricia Foley Karl Scholarship Fund to support abounds when names are called. But demand continued academic success of LFCDS graduates

36 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 FEATURE STORY

Fund, a group formed in 1992 to support programs in youth education and career The Power of Family direction, empowerment of urban parents It’s clear that respect for family and leadership development. and culture are deeply ingrained Thanks to the group’s efforts, YouthBuild in Patricia Foley Karl—she chalks Lawrence was born, one of the first five it all up to her own upbringing. AmeriCorps programs in Massachusetts. “As a senior in high school, my Under YouthBuild, up to 25 participants dad had the opportunity to attend work toward GEDs while learning job to MIT, and had a sponsor who was readiness through instruction in construc - going to cover the costs,” she says. tion and management skills. The program But his own father’s illness made has graduated more than 140 young people MIT impossible, so he decided to and helped more than 90 earn their GED. educate himself. The program is housed in the historic Or - ange Wheeler House—a donation from “Every Saturday morning, my dad the family’s estate. would spend hours at the Lawrence Public Library—he started with the YouthBuild has worked with the Greater A encyclopedia, and read his way Lawrence Habitat for Humanity to construct through the alphabet, says Karl.” 18 units of housing and has owned and “He was the most knowledgeable developed eight units of housing constructed man I knew.” by the program’s students. And if he held himself to a high “YouthBuild helps participants rebuild educational standard, he and his wife, neighborhoods as they rebuild their own Genevieve, were also committed to futures,” says Karl. the best for their eight children. Not But they don’t do it alone. When it easy on a policeman’s salary—he later comes to rebuilding futures, people like became head of Lawrence Public Patricia Foley Karl are the construction Safety— but not impossible. managers. Ⅲ The Vincent and Genevieve Foley Library in the school’s family center honors the value of books. “We were “There is no education like tremendously blessed,” says Karl. “Our adversity; it is the best teacher parents were enthusiastic believers in us, and believers in education.” for willing pupils.” All eight Foley children graduated — Maria Encarnacion, LFDCS Class of 2011 from college.

The GSE: Breeding Ground for School Leaders Educating teachers like Patricia Foley Karl (see accompanying story) is an art that runs deep at UMass Lowell. When Lowell Normal School was founded in 1894, the school of education was at its core. Finding a product of the program isn’t much of a challenge. The Graduate School of Education (GSE) began producing those with master’s and doctoral degrees in 1987 and 25 years later, the results are overseeing districts and classrooms across the region. Here’s a look at some of the GSE products:

SUPERINTENDENTS: PRINCIPALS: Curtis Bates, Boxborough Donna Georges, Amesbury Academy Charter Public School Margaret McDevitt, Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School Pauline Cormier, Peter Fitzpatrick Early Childhood (Pepperell) Lisa Dana, Danvers Stephen Murray, Andover West Middle School Marianne Bond, Joseph McAvinnue Elementary (Lowell) Cindy Evans, Rumney Marsh Academy (Revere) Haverhill James Scully, Ryan Plosker, Executive Director of New England Academy (Beverly) Anthony Volpe, Curtis-Tufts High School (Medford) Renata McFarland-Bateman, Bentley School (Salem) Kevin Lyons, Hudson William Downing, Thomas Ditson Elementary (Billerica) Joan McQuade, North Andover Middle School Sharon Bird, Central Elementary (Stoneham) Judith Scannell, Methuen Eileen Roake, Eugene C. Vining Elementary (Billerica) Mary Lou McCarthy, Franklin Elementary (North Andover) Angela Kimble, North Street Elementary (Tewksbury) Marc Kerble, Newburyport Marshall Middle School (Billerica) Christine Balzotti, Frederick J. Dutile Elementary (North Billerica) Denise Arvidson, Col. John Robinson (Westford) John Doherty, Reading Roland Boucher, Deborah Koniowka, Joseph A. Campbell Elementary (Billerica) Anne O’Bryant, Chelmsford High School Kevin Regan, Norman E. Day Elementary School (Westford) James Scully, Greenleaf Elementary (Haverhill) Joseph Dillon, Lunenberg High School Frank Ferriero, North Immediate Elementary (Wilmington) Mary McCarthy, C.R. Hubert Elementary School (Hudson) Richard Cowdell, Thurgood Marshall Middle School (Lynn) Eileen Mills, Daniel P. Hurld Elementary (Woburn) Ellen Baranowski, Frost Middle School (Lawrence) Dorothy Flaherty, Masconomet Regional High School Ernest Wells, Linscott-Rumford Elementary (Woburn) Michael Fiato, Humanities & Leadership Development High School (Lawrence) Brandi Kwong, Comprehensive Grammar School (Methuen) Christina DiBenedetto, High School Learning Center (Lawrence) Richard Beshara, Marsh Grammar School (Methuen) Ada Ramos, John Breen School (Lawrence) Michelle Zottoli, Wyman Elementary (Woburn) Thomas Cornacchio, West Memorial Elementary (Peabody)

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 37 Face of Philanthropy

A ‘Late Bloomer’ Hits His Stride — and Remembers Where it Started

By Geoffrey Douglas

The generosity of John Pulichino ’67 and his wife, Joy Tong, will result in a $4 million scholarship fund to benefit the Manning School of Business, whose main building will be named in their honor.

38 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 FEATURE STORY

e was from northern New Jersey, bags for hand-held video devices. It was quite a The couple recently sold a majority share of the middle child of Italy-born par - challenge.” Group III to a Florida-based private equity ents. A mediocre student in high In 1993, American Tourister was sold to firm, though the company remains intact— school, he says, “I was just trying Samsonite, and a year later Pulichino moved with Pulichino still in the CEO’s seat and his to figure out what I could be good on. This time the company would be his own: wife still the creative director. In the meantime, at.” His father guessed that he Innovation Luggage, a New Jersey specialty he says, the two of them have widened their might make a decent engineer— luggage chain with 60 retail stores. The company scope to support other causes. Ranking high “because I was better at math than prospered, and expanded west, adding 40 more among these has been his alma mater and its English.” So, without any better stores in seven years. students. ideas, he applied, as a senior, to Lowell Tech. Then 9/11 happened. “For the longest time, years and years after I HThat was nearly 50 years ago. His path since left, I never paid much attention,” he says. “In four days, revenue dropped in half and then has not featured many stops related to en - stayed there,” he says. “We lost our store in the He has come to see things differently— gineering. Nor has there been anything mediocre World Trade Center. There was a ripple effect partly through recent visits to the campus and about it. across the whole economy. People just stopped partly, he says, as a result of his lifelong friendship “I was a late bloomer,” says John Pulichino traveling.” with fellow alumnus, Phi Gamma Psi fraternity ’67 “But if you believe in yourself and set at - The company went into Chapter 11, down - brother and one-time Polaroid colleague Charlie tainable goals, it’s amazing how it’ll all come sized, rebounded, then was sold in two parts. Hoff, a long-time major donor to the University, together for you.” Pulichino, who had been living in New York whom he credits as “probably the number-one He enrolled at Lowell Tech in the fall of City, moved to Florida. And life took on a inspiration” behind his choice to become active 1963, an outsider in important ways: “I was whole new direction. as a donor. one of the few who lived in a dorm, who didn’t “Joy and I started out small, but we always go home on weekends; and my black shirts and “THE STUDENTS I TALK knew that when the time was right we would slacks—the North Jersey look—were kind of a make a more significant commitment,” he says. clash with the white shirts and loafers I saw all TO TODAY, THEY’RE ALL When we made the decision to sell the company, around. I was a little different, I guess.” STRAPPED—20, 30, 40, 50 we knew that time had come.” But he adjusted—pledged a fraternity, built THOUSAND DOLLARS IN He had realized in the meantime, he says, a social life, formed friendships that would that things aren’t as they used to be: “The state endure to graduation and a few that would last LOANS, THAT’S A HUGE isn’t paying what it once did. The students I a lifetime. “There was a sense of community BURDEN TO TAKE ON talk to today, they’re all strapped—20, 30, 40, there. I came to see it as home,” he says. BEFORE YOU EVEN SEE 50 thousand dollars in loans, that’s a huge In the course of all this, he says, “I began to burden to take on before you even see your understand that engineering wasn’t for me. It YOUR FIRST PAYCHECK.” first paycheck. We just felt we needed to do was a process of discovery, of just better under - His wife, Joy Tong, an industrial designer something to help these kids get through school.” standing myself.” He graduated in the spring of whom he’d married 12 years before, had founded, They have indeed done something. The ’67 with a degree in industrial management. in 1984, Group III International Ltd., a small Pulichino/Tong Family Foundation Scholarship The 70s found him at Polaroid, where he boutique wholesale company that marketed Fund, established this January, will dedicate would spend 11 years—first in industrial engi - fashion travel bags. It was a nice, successful $4 million to supporting students of UMass neering, later in planning and finally in mar - niche business, he says, but with limited growth Lowell’s Robert J. Manning School of Business. keting. potential. The fund will be open to non-residents and “It was a wonderful experience and provided “I thought I had retired—until one day she residents alike, freshmen as well as upperclass - me with a strong managerial foundation for said to me, ‘Come help me with my business.’ men—a nod, says its alumnus donor, to “that what was to come,” Pulichino says. “But it was So I said, ‘Okay, fine, I can do that’,” he says. New Jersey kid, all those years ago, who had to also the time when digital imagery was entering The result was a partnership that merged pack his bags to come to school.” the market, ultimately replacing Polaroid’s film Tong’s design skills with her husband’s business The University, in turn, has agreed to name chemistry format. That, among other things, experience and the retail contacts he had de - the new building for the Manning School in would prove to be the company’s demise.” veloped over the years. It didn’t take long to honor of the couple: the Pulichino/Tong Business In the early 80s, a recruiter came calling. bear fruit: a 2003 licensing agreement between Building. The company was American Tourister, among Group III and Wenger, maker of the 100-year- Having his and his wife’s names on the the country’s best-known manufacturers of old Genuine Swiss Army Knife brand, has gen - building will be “an honor, a very nice hon - durable, mid-priced luggage. Pulichino, though erated a company that, since 2003, has done or—it’s hard not to appreciate something like still a young man, brought a broad background more than $400 million in sales. With offices that,” Pulichino says. “But the real point, the to the table; in less than three years, he was in Florida, Taiwan and mainland China, Group biggest reward, will be to see a number of de - president and CEO. III now distributes more than 60 products serving students graduate from the business “Here I was, still in my 30s, running a $100 through Target Stores alone. school with the assistance of our scholarship million business, involved with distribution, “We started out as a small entrepreneur fund.” Ⅲ sales, planning and marketing—a lot of the business,” says Pulichino, “that’s now grown to areas I’d been active in at Polaroid,” he says. the point where we’re approaching $100 million “We opened over 150 retail outlets and created a year in sales. And the great part is, I get to a Special Products Division to market accessory work side-by-side with my wife.” SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 39 Building a New Future.

How You Can Help The Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC)—slated to open in the fall—will keep UMass Lowell at the forefront of discovery and innovation. The state-of-the-art facility will be a hub of manufacturing technologies: preparing students for emerging job sectors, fostering industry partnerships and offering cutting-edge research in nanomedicine, plastics, clean room technologies and more. Located on the corner of University Avenue and the VFW Highway, the ETIC will be a gateway to North Campus. It will bring together world-renowned research leaders to develop solutions to complex scientific challenges.

Help support the intersection of ingenuity and industry.

Go to www.uml.edu/givenow and designate a gift to the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center Building Fund.

For information about room and laboratory naming opportunities, recognition packages and leadership gifts, please contact John Davis, assistant vice chancellor for principal gifts: 978-934-2223 or [email protected].

40 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Inside...

42 FEATURE 44 ALUMNI EVENTS Alumni Life 48 CLASS NOTES 61 IN MEMORIAM

He’s Got the Beat Drum studio owner Zach Field ’01 says he learned to be a well-rounded percussionist— and a grown-up—at UMass Lowell. Read the full story on Page 55.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 41 Featur estory

By Geoffrey Douglas

father’s office after school—“sharpening pencils, Anstiss & Co.: A Fathe r, a Son doing my homework, just to be near my dad.” But it wasn’t handed to him, he says. “My and a 5 0 -Year Connection dad, he didn’t even offer me a job when I got out of school. He made me earn my wings ifty years ago, the University gave and she went to bat for me more than once. somewhere else”—four years at Peat Marwick Raymond Anstiss a job as an adjunct And Bernie Shapiro [retired in1996 after more in Boston as a member of the audit staff, professor of accounting. Today, the than 40 years]—a great math teacher, he got followed by an MBA at Notre Dame, where he company he went on to found—re - to be a friend. He’s a client of ours today. I’ve finished with highest honors. “And even then, cently ranked by the Boston Business stayed in touch with them both.” when he did bring me onboard [in 1993], he Journal among the largest accounting At least some of the credit for the UMass only gave me one client. Because that’s what firms in the state—hires new UMass Lowell-Anstiss connection, says Ray Anstiss, he believed—that the idea is to hold on to Lowell graduates every spring. belongs to a single man: Prof. Stephen Collins, what you have, take care of what you have, F“We owe so much to our ties with UMass chair of the Accounting Department and a and grow from there. That was a core belief Lowell,” says Anstiss’ son, Ray Jr., who is one member of the faculty since 1986, who, prior with him. It’s how he grew the company. It’s of the partners running the Lowell-based Anstiss to his time at UMass Lowell, was an auditor how we’ve grown ever since.” & Co. today. “As far back as I can remember, himself, with two different Boston firms, as He thinks often, he says, especially since we’ve hired at least one graduate every year. well as an assistant professor of accounting at his father’s passing, of the half-century of ties It’s just such a strong [accounting] program Boston College. Every year, Anstiss says, Prof. between his firm and the University that once they have there—because of it, we can compete Collins compiles a book of his graduating employed its founder and now helps feed its on an equal footing with the firms in Boston. growth: That just wouldn’t be possible otherwise.” “To have world-class educated “My dad was such a proud member of the Of the firm’s 38 employees, nearly a quarter students right in our backyard— faculty there all those years ago—and now to are alumni. Two are directors—Jayne Andrews see some of his old students as business leaders ’90, director of the company’s not-for-profit it’s been a very big in the region [among them Enterprise Bank service group, and Jason Khalil ’99, director of reason for our growth.” President Richard Main ’69 and Community audit and technology-based businesses. There Teamwork CFO William Reis ’66], and all are also four CPAs, two tax seniors, and Alyssa —Raymond Anstiss these new UMass Lowell graduates adding so Maloney, the intern who answers the phones. much to our staff. seniors and sends it around to all the accounting One of the nine is Mark Gearin ’96, a CPA firms in the region. “It’s been a wonderful relationship, I think, and manager with the firm—“I’m a generalist,” for us both.” Ⅲ he says, with a background in audits, tax work, “It’s been an amazing asset for us,” says corporate planning and more—who’s been Anstiss. “This year alone, we interviewed five there since 2005. His recollections of his UMass graduates from that book, and hired one of The UMass Lowell Crew at Anstiss, pictured Lowell years are a strong endorsement of his them. To have world-class educated students above, from left, are: Jason Khalil CPA, director; boss’s sentiments, from the alumni side of the right in our backyard—it’s been a very big Kim Leczynski, tax senior; Liz Paquin, audit staff; fence: reason for our growth. It’s like they say: you’re Ray Anstiss, Jr. CPA, partner; Matt Kalil, CPA, only as good as your people, and we’ve had the manager; Mark Gearin CPA, manager; Richard “It’s a really, really excellent program, with advantage of drawing from the best.” quality professors, tough but almost always fair. Dionne CPA, partner; Tiffany Jack, audit senior; What I especially remember, though, is how The man responsible for the original con - Alyssa Maloney, intern and Jayne Andrews CPA, approachable they were. Prof. Carter [Kathryn nection to the University—the senior Ray—is director. (All but Anstiss and Dionne are alumni. Carter, now dean of the College of Manage - gone now. He died two years ago, though his Not shown: Bill Dion, tax senior.) ment]—we got to know each other pretty well, presence at the firm continues to be felt. Ray Jr. still remembers, as a boy, arriving at his

42 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Fall Fe s t i va l 2012 Homecoming | Family Day | Reunions Save the Date! Oct. 11-14, 2012

Don’t miss this fun-filled weekend for alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends and family. Fall Festival is an event-packed weekend to remember. Enjoy campus events during the scenic fall season and see the major changes happening on campus! Activities will include a Celebration of Philanthropy, reunions, live entertainment, the Hockey East home opener: River Hawks vs. University of Vermont Catamounts, other athletic events, Jennifer’s 5K Run and tours of new buildings.

More details to come. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.uml.edu/fallfestival.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 43 Alumni events

1 2 3

1 Alumni and friends enjoy the 10th anniversary Wine & Dine Epicurean Extravaganza, at Ricardo’s Caf é Trattoria, arranged with the help of Garrett Thurston ’90, ’95. 2 Attendees young and old watched the UMass Lowell River Hawks take on the Boston University Terriers during the annual Alumni Appreciation Night and hockey game in November. 3 Alumni at the Cross Country and Track & Field Reunion Reception and hockey game. Back row, from left: Michael Hurton ’80 and Jim Murray ’85. Front row, from left: David Quintal ’85, Leslie Whiting-Poitras ’82 and Dave Dunham ’87.

4 5

4 UMass Lowell alumni and officials assembled at the PlastIndia Conference in New Delhi, India, where a signing and reception for a new Plastics International University took place in February. 5 UMass Lowell alumni employees of EMC Corporation gather during an alumni reception and reconnection event in November. From left: Anas Hussin ’05, Retired Professor Giampiero Pecelli, June Odongo ’05 and Randy D’Souza ’06.

6 7 6 Alumni and friends at the Delta Kappa Phi reunion. 7 In January, UMass Lowell Alumni Relations and Athletics welcomed more than 200 alumni, season ticket holders and supporters to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to skate at Fenway Park. 8 Jeff and Anne Jackson ’11 at the Fenway Park skating event.

8 9

9 Independent University Alumni Association at Lowell members and friends gather at a hockey game in February. From left: Chet Szablak, Bernie Shapiro ’56, Executive Vice Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney ’75, ’92, Walter Dawson ’59, Chancellor Martin T. Meehan ’78, Drucilla Fitzgerald ’92, Richard Donaldson ’67, Director of Alumni Relations Heather Makrez ’06,’08 and Thomas Vaughn ’77.

44 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI EVENTS

1 2

1 Alumni and friends of the men’s basketball team gather for a reunion and memorial for B.J. Romanoski. Back row from the left: Zechariah Zegarowksi ’99, John Cavalieri ’83, Chris Cavalieri, Brent Oakleaf ’96, Mike Gore ’08, Todd Boyle ’94, Jim Borodawka ’97 and Malik Curry ’00. Second row from left: Peter Monfort ’08, Rob Breckenridge ’08, Jamael Lynch,Terrel Randle and Head Coach Greg Herenda. Front row from left: Joseph, Jill, Kelly and Megan Romanoski; Ken Jankowski and Director of Athletics Dana Skinner. 2 & 4 February’s third annual Student Leader Reunion Reception. From left (in photo 2): Doug Seed ’04, James Gleason ’03, Rowdy the River Hawk, Kristen Gleason ’04 and Kristin Higgins Seed ’05. From left (in photo 4): Alicia Leonard, Alex Amado and Liron Asher ’09.

3 4

3 Alumni and friends of the women’s basketball team join for a reunion in January. Back row, from left: Head Coach Sarah Behn, Dominique Pagan, Brianna Wilson, Marsha Blalock ’99, Emily Kordas ’07, Bridgette Hooker ’09, Revital Quintana ’09, Tamaria Menefee, Demetria Bell, Shaina Berry ’09, Megan Berry ’11, Briana Szidat, Nyachuol Biliew, Danielle DePierro and Gia O’Connor. From left, front row: Brianna Calver, Bianca Simmons, Krissy Little, Sha’Nay Bushner, Jen Valenti, Liron Asher ’09, Whitney Wilson, Lauren Fiola and AJ Guidi.

5 6

5 The Stanley Cup visited the Tsongas Center in December. Kevin Kotyluk ’02, center, former River Hawks hockey player, with his wife and child; and Marc Salsman, former River Hawks player, and his child. 6 Former hockey coach Billy Riley with his grandchildren (from left): Kyle and Drew Bouley and Brook and Riley Moulton with the Stanley Cup.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 45 Alumni events

1 2

1 Rowing alumni and students enjoy an alumni appreciation night and hockey game in February. From left: Irene Cassidy ’12, Rachel Paquette ’15, Melinda Neale ’13, Megan McLaughlin ’14, Jenna Bueno ’15, Brittany Smith ’15 and Meredith Swan ’15. 2 Sigma Phi Omicon reunion.

3 4

3 University Independent Alumni Association Scholarship Banquet in January. From left: Arthur Miller ’51, Richard Donaldson ’67, Walter Dawson ’59, Kevin Shanahan ’70, Drucilla Fitzgeald ’92, Dr. James Swartz ’64, Executive Vice Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney ’75, ’92, Mary Ann Kitrosser ’87 and Thomas Vaughn ’77. 4 Attendees of a UMass Lowell Alumni Reunion in Taipei, Taiwan, in November with visiting professors and staff: Asst. Prof. TzuYang Yu, Dean of Engineering John Ting, Prof. Francis Lai, Executive Director of Major Gifts Mark Reimer and Prof. Edward Chen.

5 6

5 Executive Vice Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney ’75, ’92, far left, and Executive Director of Major Gifts and Gift Planning Mark Reimer, far right, visit with Anne Shih and Chialoo Louis Shih ’72 of Hong Kong. 6 UMass Lowell alumni and friends take part in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Naples, Fla. From left: Vice Chancellor of University Advancement Edward Chiu, Stuart Pearce ’64, Dick Dauksys ’62, Carol Dauksys, Janet Netishen ’59, Tom McAvinew ’63, Karen McAvinew, Chris Hoeske, Jerry Lydon ’66, Lorraine Lydon and Mary Cimini.

46 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI EVENTS

1 2 3

1 Enjoying a sunset champagne reception at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., are, from left: Justine Quimby ’69, Edwin Quimby and Ann Marie Clark ’74. 2 & 3 Mary Jo ’66 and Frank Spinola ’66 (photo 2) and Chancellor Marty Meehan and Maureen and Arnold Lerner (photo 3) visit at a reception for alumni and friends hosted by the Lerners in Naples, Fa.

4 5

4 Plastics industry professionals and UMass Lowell alumni, faculty and staff enjoy the UMass Lowell Plastics Alumni Dinner in Orlando, Fla., during NPE2012: William Carteaux, president, Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI); Gail Bristol and James Griffing of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE); UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan ’78; Robert Malloy ’79, plastics engineering professor and department chair and Willem DeVos, chief executive, SPE. 5 SPI 2012 Hall of Fame inductees gather with plastics industry professionals during NPE2012. From left: Timothy Womer, Hall of Fame inductee; Jim Buonomo, chief financial officer, NYPRO; Robert Malloy ’79, UMass Lowell plastics engineering professor, department chair and Hall of Fame inductee; William Carteaux, SPI president and Jay Gardiner, Hall of Fame inductee.

6 7 8

6 Charlie Hoff ’66, Dick Denning ’66, Rick Hoeske ’66 and Frank Spinola ’66 at a reception in Naples, Fla. 7 Assistant Vice Chancellor of Advancement John Davis, right, presents a gift to Eamonn Hobbs ’80, keynote speaker at the annual Plastics Engineering Alumni & Friends Dinner during NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla. 8 Plastics Engineering Professor and Department Chair Robert Malloy ’79 presents the Russell W. Ehlers Award to John E. Quinn ’69 for his lifetime of service in plastics engineering at the annual Plastics Engineering Alumni & Friends Dinner during NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 47 Class notes

1967 1970 1974 James Healy sat on the boards George Anastos has been Peter Barrett , a partner at The Music Man of three joint ventures compa - named international sector Atlas Venture in Weston, has nies in Japan, Korea and director of op - been elected to the board of Germany and has been hon - eration/project directors of PerkinElmer Inc., ored in Asia for his work in delivery for the which produces analytical executing joint ventures while Environmental instruments, at Engelhard (later acquired Service Busi - genetic testing by BASF). He has had more ness Group of and diagnostic than 10 years of executive ex - CH2M HILL. tools in the perience in Asia. He retired as fields of health president of Grace China, a and the envi - subsidiary of W.R. Grace & John Kennedy was one of ronment. Co., in 2008. During his four- nine members of the consult - year stint as president, he ing committee involved in hiring the new head football worked with Chinese compa - 1975 1976 nies to expand distribution. coach at UMass Amherst, an Susan Crocker Houde , Earlier in his career, he formed important decision as the uni - associate dean of the School Leon Grande ’76, ’89 spent decades inspiring countless a joint venture between En - versity makes the transition of Health and teenagers to make music. Now, the retired supervisor gelhard and Kallie Chemie, from the Football Champi - Environment of fine and performing arts at Dracut High School is directing global business oper - onship Subdivision level to at UMass turning his touch to professionals. Leon, along with ations with manufacturing the Mid-American Confer - Lowell, is writer Jack Neary ’73 and choreographer Phyllis facilities in the United States ence of the Football Bowl co-editor George, have formed the Greater Lowell Music and European Union. James Subdivision. The university of the 2011 Theatre. Their first production, a concert version of selected Charley Molnar, who has lived and worked AJN Book Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” (which will was offensive coordinator at in five different countries in of the Year feature nationally acclaimed performers), is slated Notre Dame the last two sea - North America, Europe and Award “Geropyschiatry and for Aug. 3 and 4 at Durgin Hall on UMass Lowell's Asia. He is a proven entrepre - sons. Kennedy is an alumnus Mental Health Nursing.” of both UMass Lowell and South Campus. It will be a sweet return for Leon, neur, having founded a who received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees company and a consulting the UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Management. in music education here. “The University provided business at different points me with a solid background in both music and in his career. teaching,” he says. “It also gave me a tremendous network of professionals who continue to be my ROBERT GREENE ’68 challenged President Barack colleagues and friends.” Obama in the recent New Hampshire primary, focusing his campaign on raising awareness and encouraging discus - 1976 and supported many charita - ble causes, including the Ki - James Evans is now facilities sion of energy policy. Bob, wanis Club of Greater Lowell, engineer at UMass Amherst, for more than 50 years. In a physicist, had a long and working on a variety of 2009, Paul was named co- campus engineering issues. distinguished career with firms director of the UMass Lowell While now an employee of Center for Arts & Ideas. He such as Compugraphic, Hewlett the Minutemen, he is still a and his wife, Rosemary Noon, River Hawk at heart. Packard and Gerber Scientific. and son, Joseph, live in an 1860’s mill agent’s house in His campaign, called “Project Paul Marion ’76, ’05, execu - Lowell. He is the author of tive director of Community Thor,” was based on his belief several collections of poetry. and Cultural He founded Loom Press in that thorium, a molten salt, Affairs for 1978 to publish books about UMass Low - presents a solution to the country’s energy problems. his region by writers from ell, has been the area. According to Bob, Thorium is more abundant—and safer named winner —than uranium. “The country continues to thrash around of the 2012 1978 Thomas G. Stanford Who’s Who, an for a comprehensive energy plan,” he says. “Thorium is the Kelakos Kiwa - elite organization of selected nis Community Spirit Award greenest, cheapest and perhaps most abundant option.” executives, professionals and for his many years of work “to entrepreneurs from around While Bob received only 213 votes, his energy platform help make Lowell a special the world, has recognized place.” The late Thomas Ke - was publicized in several media outlets. A Lowell native, Alan P. Hicks for his work lakos, admired for his compas - and achievements in the field he and his wife, Martha, live in Mountain View, Calif. sion and wisdom, owned a of software engineering. In successful medical supply firm Continued on Page 50

48 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1982

Shawn Lang: AIDs Activist Found Calling in Lowell By David Perry

In 1983, Shawn Lang placed a phone “Then my mom told me I was call to her mother. At the time, the going to need to get a job with 1982 University of Lowell social insurance,” she says. “So there I was, sciences graduate was working deep four years after high school, taking in the dark and heartbroken side of the SATs. That was no picnic.” Lowell, at the battered women’s State schools fit her budget, and shelter Alternative House. a university with strong programs in Lang, now 56 and director of the women’s sports fit her interest. The Hartford-based Public Policy for the University of Lowell it was. Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition She didn’t waste time impacting (CARC), had just visited her first campus life. Early in her freshman national conference on violence year, Lang co-founded G.O.A.L.S., against women. She had a revelation, a campus-wide association of gay and and shared it with her mom. lesbian students. She also played field “I know that all my life you’ve told hockey, landing a partial scholarship me I can’t change the world,” she after her freshman season. said. “But I can, and I am.” After graduating in 1982, she took Lang has been changing the world a job at Alternative House, but after with CARC for nearly 21 years, coordi - she began dating a woman in Con - nating Connecticut’s public policy and necticut, the pull became too much. advocacy activities. She also co-chairs “Commuting between Lowell and the AIDS LIFE (Legislative Initiative Hartford got old fast,” she says, and Funding Effort) campaign, the laughing. So she moved to Connecti - state’s AIDS policy group, and sits on cut. The relationship didn’t last, but several boards, including the national helping others did. AIDS Housing Coalition. Lang worked in daycare before Her work bridges the worlds finding work as director of a battered of those affected by HIV/AIDS and women’s shelter in Middletown, those impacted by violence against Conn. Eventually, she noticed more women. She is also a single mom and more people in Middletown to Corbett Eamonn Lang, 14. living with HIV or AIDS—“yet there The road to the job she loves were no HIV services there,” she says. began here. “They had to travel to Hartford or New Haven to even find a support “It really was the perfect place for group.” me,” says Lang. “One of the things I loved about Lowell is that in taking After helping establish a full- women’s studies, there was the service AIDS service organization home of labor history right there. in the town, Lang was offered the It was like living in the laboratory, role of interim executive director of particularly learning about the the Hartford-based AIDS Resource history of women and labor.” Coalition, “and I’ve become the thing that never leaves.” She arrived in Lowell on her own time. A 1974 graduate of King Philip Though Lang loves her job— Regional High School in Wrentham, “I get to do what I want to do for Lang was the oldest of five children. the people I want to do it for”—she She didn’t plan on attending college, still feels strong ties to Massachusetts. so after graduation, she worked in And though she shares custody of son a warehouse in Walpole. She later Corbett with a former partner, Lang became a nurse’s aide. makes certain he is raised “right.” “I have raised him as a complete Boston sports fan,” she laughs.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 49 Class notes

announcing this honor, the 1981 organization said Alan “has CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1982 Stephen McWhirter was u earned his place among the awarded a U.S. patent that most excellent professional protects confidential data figures as a result of his on any technology system. impressive achievements Stephen’s risk protection pro - throughout the 35 years of grams are designed to protect his experience, as well as data across large-scale global On Broadway through his position as wealth management networks. principal software engineer Growing up on Cape Cod, Deane Prouty dreamed of one day making his living as a with GSI Group Inc.” 1983 drummer. Earlier this year, the College of Mary Ann McCann , orches - Karen Devereaux Melillo , Music grad was appointed percussion de - tra director of Wellesley professor and chair of the partment coordinator at The Juilliard School Middle School and Wellesley Department of Nursing at in New York City. He's also the percussionist High School, UMass Lowell Lowell, was for the Broadway show “Peter and the Star - has been co-editor of catcher,” which opened in April at the Brooks named Or - the 2011 AJN Atkinson Theater in New York and quickly chestra Direc - Book of the snagged more Tony nominations than any tor of the Year Year Award other play this year. UMass Lowell, he says, by the Massa - “Geropyschia - laid the foundation for all of this. “It’s not chusetts try and just about being an artist, it’s a business and chapter of the Mental Health I learned that a long time ago from [UMass American String Teachers Nursing.” Lowell Music Prof.] Dick Coff,” he says. “I Association. Mary Ann began make a career as a performer and I’ve been 1980 her musical studies as a child, able to pay my bills for the last 40 years.” singing with the New England Kerri Howell has been elect - Children’s Choir. Later, she ed mayor of Folsom, Calif., by became interested in the cello. her fellow city council mem - 1984 recently at Iron Mountain, global management consulting She majored in performance an information services firm specializing in business bers. Kerri has Carole A. Dwyer has been at UMass Lowell and then management company. process improvement and been on the appointed interim administra - earned a master’s degree in change management. John has council since tor of the Rhode Island Divi - music education from Boston David Squibb has been named more than 25 years of experi - 1998 and sion of Motor Vehicles. Carole University. She has performed chief sales officer at Valen ence in business development, served as vice most recently was warden of with the Florida West Coast Technologies. Responsible for client relations, operations mayor in 2002 the Rhode Island Department Symphony, the Portland managing all sales activities, and regulatory functions. and 2006. A of Corrections’ Anthony P. (Maine) Symphony and the he has more than 28 years of Folsom resi - Travisono Intake Service New England String Ensem - experience in the insurance 1987 dent for 26 years, she also Center and, before that, was ble. Mary Ann developed a industry working for both Mark Bedrosian has been ap - served on the planning com - warden of the department’s strong school orchestra pro - insurance carriers and insur - pointed principal of Galvin mission for four years. A civil Minimum Security and gram in the Winchester Public ance technology providers. Middle School in Wakefield. engineer, she is president of Women’s Divisions. She Schools system and then He had been serving as dean Atlantic Consultants Inc., a earned her undergraduate taught at Phillips Exeter 1986 of academics at Gloucester firm specializing in civil and degree in administration of Academy. Later, she was Mark Hatch , who has more High School since 2010. corrosion engineering. criminal justice and, later, director of strings in the West than 20 years of technology Prior to this role, Mark was at Anna Maria College, a Hartford, Conn. schools. She development and start-up an assistant principal at both David Rardin , who worked master’s in criminal justice. was also the first conductor management experience, has Gloucester High School and his way up from associate to of the Lowell Philharmonic. full membership, now has his 1985 been named chief executive the Ralph B. O’Maley Middle officer of mBLAST Inc., a School.He holds administra - name on the door of a patent Scott Caswell has been Bob Mountain has been media monitoring and analyt - tive licensure from Northeast - law firm in Nashua, N.H. named vice president of fi - named senior vice president of ics services company. Before ern University, a master’s of Once known as Vern Maine nance for Westborough-based business development for joining mBLAST two years education in professional stud - & Associates, the firm is now Courion Corp., a company NameMedia in Waltham. The ago, Mark led software teams ies from Salem State College Maine, Cernota & Rardin. that offers identity and access company is a leader in the ac - at Carbonite and Intronis. and a bachelor of science de - Dave, a graduate of Franklin management solutions that quisition, development and gree in public administration Pierce Law, joined the firm focus on access risk manage - trading of digital real estate John Spead has been named in the field of criminal justice in 2006 as a patent agent. ment. In this newly created through a targeted website CEO and man - from the University of Lowell. Before launching his legal position, Scott is responsible network and domain name aging partner career, he served in the Air for financial and operational marketplace. Prior to Name - at GreenSpeed Kanai Shah has been promot - Force and, for more than 20 areas, such as accounting, Media, Bob was co-founder & Associates ed to president of Radiation years, was in the science and financial planning, analysis and chief operating officer of in Norcross, Monitoring Devices, Inc. technology field. and treasury. He has more Quantia Communications. Ga. Green - (RMD), a wholly owned sub - than 25 years of finance and He has a degree in economics Speed is a sidiary of Dynasil Corporation from UMass Lowell. operations experience, most Continued on Page 52

50 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1990’ s By David Perry Angela Sawyer’s Learning Lab: Where ‘Weirdo’ is a Compliment

Angela Sawyer arrived on campus Settling into dorm life as a in 1989, nearly 2,000 miles from freshman, she learned that a guy home, “raw and untested.” on whom she had developed a She was naive, filled with crush was going to a meeting of wanderlust, and greater Boston the student-run radio station, was far enough from her home WJUL-FM. So she went, too. in Denver. “There were, like, 100 people She enrolled at the University there,” she says. “They explained of Lowell as a philosophy major. what it was about. It was an eye- “I can’t even begin to say how opener. An island of misfit toys much I learned about getting I never imagined, a place I had things done, about which rules just stumbled upon. And I was to pay attention to and becoming psyched! I didn’t know anything someone in this world,” says about music beyond what I heard Sawyer, now 41. on the radio, but I thought, ‘Oh, What she became is one of my gosh, a place for me !’” the region’s most iconoclastic She volunteered to help. The record store owners, a proprietor next day, she vacuumed the stu - of niche sounds on a “dead” for - dio, wandering into the last room mat in a business where many to ask if she could enter. more shops were closing than “Sure, c’mon in!” chirped the opening. man in the studio. “I didn’t know Sawyer’s Cambridge-based it,” she says, “but he was on the store, Weirdo Records (844 Mas - air.” sachusetts Ave.), is one of the Nor did she know it was Ron region’s most acclaimed record Lessard, owner of the record store stores, a tiny, loaded-to-the-gills RRRecords in Lowell, noise artist space that is more curated than and a regular on WJUL’s air - simply stocked with music. The waves. inventory reflects her own tastes They remain friends and audio and curiosities, which swim out - kindred spirits. Recently, Lessard side the mainstream: avant-garde, issued an audio-verite vinyl LP free jazz, foreign language, exotica, comprised of banter that happens spoken word, outsider music. in record stores. A photograph “I actually had hours at home of Weirdo’s storefront graces the beginning in 2006, where people cover. would come shop for records [at Her time at the University my house],” says the Somerville was pivotal, she says. resident. “But eventually, it all “ULowell didn’t have a huge got too big for the space. So I philosophy department back moved it to a storefront. Mind then, but it was really good, and you, it’s still very tiny. I firmly it was small enough so you really believe it’s the smallest record got to know your professors,” says store on the face of the earth. Angela Sawyer takes a break Sawyer, who eventually trans - When there are five people in in her iconic Cambridge store, ferred to Boston College, where here, it is so packed you can’t Weirdo Records. she earned a degree in philosophy. move.” “But the station? The lessons I She got her management abil - got in being in charge of people ity, as well as her musical taste, and making decisions were huge.” right here on campus, says Sawyer.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 51 Class notes

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1994 Rob Millard-Mendez: Playing With Art Rob Millard-Mendez says growing up in Lowell “fostered in me a fascination with late-19th century mechanical technology. From an early age, I was enthralled with mechanics and motion.” He melded that fascination with a bachelor of fine arts degree from UMass Lowell (and later a master of fine arts degree from UMass Dartmouth)—eventually turning into an award- winning sculptor and art professor. “I am a first generation college student,” says Millard- Mendez, who now lives in Indiana. “I am eternally grateful for the generosity of Dr. An Wang, the founder of Wang Laboratories, who funded a number of full academic scholarships to UMass Lowell, one of which I received. In my career as a college art professor I have tried Rob Millard-Mendez sculptures from to honor Dr. Wang's commitment to education by top: “Tends to lash out,” “Unfertility undertaking many art related community outreach projects mask” and detail of “Phaeton Mask.” that involve under-served populations.”

of America. Kanai, who matching the longest postsea - transportation services 1991 Residence Life, Off-Campus earned a master’s degree in son run during Parent's company. Bill has 29 years of Housing, Judicial Affairs, Judith Dickerman-Nelson , chemical engineering at the tenure. Leo was a two-time emergency medical service Safety and Security, Student the former longtime education University of Lowell, joined All-American basketball experience at the clinical, Health, Personal Counseling, director at the Cambodian RMD in 1985 as a staff scien - player at the University of strategic and operational Career Services, Club Sports Mutual Assistance Associa - tist and has served most Lowell, being named most levels, having begun his career and Student Activities. tion, released a memoir called recently as vice president outstanding player on the as an EMT in 1983. He has Kristine will also serve as an “Believe in Me: A Teen of research and leader of the University’s 1987-1988 been a licensed paramedic ex-officio member of the Stu - Mom's Story.” The book was Material Science Group. NCAA Division 2 national since 1988. dent Affairs Committee of the published by Jefferson Park champion team. Board of Trustees. Previously, Press under editor and pub - 1988 Scott Pizzo she served as associate dean lisher Hilary Holladay, former James Barry has been named 1991 has been ap - of students/student life at the director of the Kerouac Cen - an independent director on Sheryl Caterino-Klosowski pointed North College of the Holy Cross in ter for American Studies at the board of InspireMD Inc., a is controller/treasurer for American sales Worcester. Before that, she UMass Lowell. Judith’s next medical device company based KLT Industries, Inc., in Ayer. manager, east - served for eight years in sever - book, a poetry collection in Tel Aviv. Jim has more than Sheryl, who joined KLT last ern region, al administrative positions called “Spirits Dancing into 20 years of experience in the fall, brought to the new post for EAW of relating to student life at Light,” will be translated into medical device industry and is more than 19 years of experi - Whitinsville, a Connecticut College, rising Khmer. She expects it to be currently executive vice presi - ence in the energy services worldwide designer and manu - from director of residential published by Loom Press dent and chief operating offi - industry – including compa - facturer of professional loud - life and housing to associate this summer. cer of Arsenal Medical Inc. nies such as National Grid speaker systems. Scott first dean of student life. Kristine Prior to joining Arsenal, he and Alliant Energy. joined EAW in 2003 but left 1993 received a bachelor’s degree was a senior vice president in 2008 to become eastern in political science from Kristine Cyr Goodwin has with Boston Scientific. Jim Bill Kinch has been named U.S. regional sales manager Westfield State College been named vice president for earned a doctorate in bio - director of operations at for Renkus-Heinz. Now, he and a master’s degree in student affairs at Providence chemistry at UMass Lowell. PrideSTAR EMS, a Lowell- says, “It’s good to be home.” educational administration College. She will oversee based emergency medical from UMass Lowell. Leo Parent retired after 17 seasons as the head basketball BILL LOVELY ’92 , received a bachelor’s degree in industrial management in coach at Pentucket High School. He will continue to 1992 and is now pursuing a master’s degree in work environment. He has spent teach at Pentucket Middle the past 13 years working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) School. Leo’s teams qualified for the state tournament each in the Boston office, overseeing the cleanup of hazardous waste sites in the of the last three years. Last federal Superfund program. Prior to this, Bill was an environmental project year's team advanced to the Eastern Mass. Division 3 manager at Gulf Oil, overseeing the underground storage tank program in four North semifinal round, northeastern states.

52 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

Steve Lane , who played both MATTHEW AZEVEDO ’99 has been appointed a consultant in architectural baseball and basketball for the River Hawks, is the new head acoustics and mechanical systems in the Cambridge office of Acentech Inc., coach of boys’ basketball at a multi-disciplinary acoustical consulting firm. Matt brings to the job an Nashua North High School. Steve is a big proponent of extensive range of teaching and recording talents, plus experience as an audio full-court pressure defense engineer, mastering engineer and musician. He also has taught acoustics, audio and says his emphasis on the “D” probably came from his production and circuit design at Boston University, UMass Lowell and the UMass Lowell coach, Stan Harvard Extension School. Van Gundy, now the coach of the Orlando Magic. bilitation for the MWRA. He technology practice at 1998 swimmer for Team OncoMed, will serve as a project manager Celerant Consulting. which helps raise money for Carlos Roldan , who earned a for water and wastewater proj - cancer research, prevention master’s degree in radiological ects and services for public- Jason Cormier , who played and treatment through organi - physics and a doctorate in sector utility clients in the varsity hockey for the River zations such as Swim Across physics from UMass Lowell, is New England region. Michael Hawks, has been inducted America. Over the years, teaching physics at Richmond received his bachelor’s degree into the Waltham High Jason has competed in multi - Community College in Ham - in civil engineering from Athletic Hall of Fame. He ple triathlons and was a track- let, N.C. Earlier in his career, UMass Lowell. He is a regis - earned his bachelor’s degree and-field state finalist in both Carlos taught for several years tered professional engineer in chemical engineering and the 100- and 200-meter dash. at the Machias campus of the and is chair of the member - now works at Millipore. He received a bachelor of University of Maine and was ship committee for the New science degree in exercise an adjunct instructor at two England Water Works Associ - 1997 physiology. He lives in community colleges in Massa - ation, a section of the Ameri - James Borodawka is vice pres - Andover with his wife. chusetts for nearly 15 years. Kevin Murphy has been can Water Works Association. ident at Paradigm Partners, a named vice president of prod - He was recently selected as a national tax consulting firm 1999 Worcester Polytechnic uct management at Certeon, 2012 Rising Star in Civil En - that specializes in federal Institute men’s basketball Adam Candela and Amy an application performance gineering by CE News. government niche tax credit coach Chris Bartley won Stucchi have announced their company in Burlington. Prior programs designed to offer his 200th game this year. engagement and plan to be to joining Certeon, Kevin was 1995 economic assistance to married in May. Both Adam responsible for solutions man - Alyssa Wise Taylor is the - companies. Aliya Cox is the new head and Amy work at Staples agement at VCE, a company owner of the Blue Hoot Soap Paradigm was coach of the girls’ varsity Corporate Headquarters in that accelerates the adoption Company of Duxbury. Alyssa recently select - basketball team at Choate Framingham. Amy is a gradu - of converged infrastructure says she named the company ed as one of Rosemary Hall School in ate of UMass Dartmouth. and cloud-based computing after her late grandmother the top 500 Wallingford, Conn. She models. He earned his who loved owls. “I make fan - fastest-growing played basketball during her UMass Lowell degree in tastic cold process soap and United States four years at UMass Lowell— electrical engineering. I don’t cut corners with my companies by which she recently called ingredients,” she says. Alyssa INC. Magazine. James’ daugh - “the best basketball team I Michael Pelletier has been graduated with a degree in ter, Lindsey, a sophomore at have ever played on.” After named an associate in the marketing. UMass Lowell, is working graduating, Aliya began her Boston office of Dewberry, a toward a nursing degree coaching career as an assistant privately held professional while participating on the coach at UMass Lowell, going services firm. He has extensive cheerleading team. on to coach at the University knowledge of Boston and the of Maine and Fairfield Univer - surrounding areas’ water and Alan Taupier , a Marblehead 2000 sity before arriving at Choate. wastewater sys - resident, joined the Hamilton- Bryan Shanley , executive tems, having Wenham Regional School vice president of PrideSTAR 2001 worked on District as director of informa - EMS, a Lowell-based emer - Conor O’Keefe and Megan projects for the tion technology. Alan had gency medical transportation Hayes ’03, ’04 , were married Massachusetts worked as IT director for the services company, has been last September at St. John the Water 1996 Minuteman Vocational appointed to the board of di - Evangelist Church in North Resources School District in Lexington rectors of the Young Profes - Chelmsford. Conor, with a Steve Anthony ’96, ’03 , Authority since 2006 and was previously sionals of Greater Lowell. degree in criminal justice and who most recently was chief (MWRA) for many years. He a network manager for Lowell psychology, operates Conor information officer at Charles received the 2009 Engineering Public Schools. He holds a Jason Barbieri is regional di - O’Keefe Master Electrician, River Associates, has joined Excellence Gold Award by bachelor of science degree in rector of sales at OncoMed, an Inc. in Tyngsboro. Megan, AlixPartners LLP, a global ACEC Massachusetts for the information technology. oncology pharmacy. He works who earned a bachelor’s business-advisory firm, as a engineering design and con - closely with many of the degree in biotechnology, director. Earlier in his career, struction administration of an oncology offices in the New and a master’s in biology in Steve was vice president and innovative water main reha - England area. He is also a 2004, is a research scientist at head of the business Continued on Page 55

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 53 Class notes

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1996

By Sheila Eppolito Al Fletcher and the Little Mountain That Could

Good things really do come in small packages. the University’s ski team as a junior and senior, Consider Nashoba Valley Ski Area. Nestled where he earned two individual and two team in the Merrimack Valley, hours from the mega Thompson Divisional titles. resorts of New Hampshire and Vermont, Nashoba “I made great friends at UMass Lowell, in - long ago overcame any Napoleon Complex it cluding lots of ski team members,” says Fletcher. may have had. While the business skills may have been “What we lack for in size, we more than learned mostly in Lowell, Fletcher’s ski abili - make up for in quality and variety,” says President ties—and those of his family members, most no - Al Fletcher ’96. He’s not talking trash. tably his sister—may be in the DNA. Pam On a late, snowless January day when bigger Al Fletcher and his parents celebrate his ULowell Fletcher, a 1988 Olympian and nine-year U.S. areas struggled to open even half of their trails, graduation in 1996. Ski Team veteran, captured six U.S. national titles and a gold medal at the 1986 World Cup. Nashoba was running at 100 percent, thanks to hunted rabbits took a life-changing turn when Brother Paul grew up in the business, and is a significant snowmaking and ski lift investments. he bought it, determined to create a ski area. solid skier, but makes his living at a cable and For Fletcher, covering the mountain with Configured with a single rope tow on opening wire company. Mom, Nancy, was always on hand snow, and moving as many people to the top in day, the staff packed snow on the four slopes in the early years, skiing and working side-by- the shortest amount of time are top priorities: manually, with shovels. The lodge was a tent side with her family. Today, at 76, she still skis good conditions guarantee customer loyalty. with a gravel floor and a pot-bellied stove. The every day. “We are a volume operation,” he says, citing first season was a dismal 14 days long. The senior Two years ago, Al Junior bought out the rest not only the sheer number of skiers and boarders Fletcher confides that for the first 15 years of of his family members, becoming president. efficiently whisked up the mountain—11,600 operation, he was dancing with bankruptcy. per hour—but a wide array of programs and at - “I bobbed and weaved around it,” he says. “I couldn’t have just taken over—it was im - portant to me that I earned my position, that it tractions designed to keep the place humming The Fletcher family has earned bragging rights was a clean business deal. I couldn’t have simply all year long. for what they’ve made from a seemingly impossible had it given to me,” he says over coffee one An early adopter to the snowboarding market, business model. While Nashoba has only 230 winter morning, the view from the Outlook Nashoba jumped on snow tubing quickly, too, feet of vertical drop (compared, say, to Killington, Restaurant something from a postcard. creating New England’s largest tubing park. With with 3,050), they’ve taken chances and stepped more than 300 instructors, it is host to thousands outside the traditional ski resort business model Pam continues as a consultant and Fletcher of area ski club members. There is something for in a way that many have since copied. reports that Dad still comes by to “sit down, put his feet up, and bark a little before flying out the all ages and levels—from the 3-year-olds on the It’s clear that the younger Fletcher has gotten door.” bunny slope, to the active 55+ program to the his money’s worth from his business degree, using 70+ masters racing team. his skills to build the mountain’s trajectory to a Creative business practices and exceptional Nashoba also boasts The Outlook Restaurant, bustling four-season, vacation-around-the corner. DNA are not all that make for Nashoba’s success. a retail store and a wildly successful Halloween- Today, the lone tow rope has morphed to 10 Fletcher is quick to tout the role of his 40 full- themed attraction called Witches Woods. In the lifts. And the mountain’s annual revenues exceed time and 800 seasonal employees. summer, they offer a children's day camp, an $10 million. “Our staff is made up of passionate, competent adult volleyball league and an outdoor waterfront While he may be years away from his days as professionals,” he says. “Many have been here Tiki bar. a carefree undergrad scouring North Campus for for decades. I think they stay for the environ - Founded in 1964 by his father, Al Fletcher anything resembling a parking space to maneuver ment.” Sr., Nashoba Valley was modest in the beginning. his junk-box car into, he remembers the time One look out the window, and it’s easy to Fletcher’s passion for the hill on which he once well. At the top of his list? His participation on see why. Ⅲ

54 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

Lantheus Medical Imaging, Shaelagh Florence , a Inc., in North Billerica. marketing manager at u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2001 Comcast, is engaged to Eric Olson and Heather marry Jeffrey Thurston ’02 , Schwartz were married a year a director at CareLine by ago this past December at Genesis HealthCare. Indian Pond Country Club A November wedding in Kingston and now live in is planned. Braintree. Eric is a senior staff scientist at AECOM and Megan Hayes and Conor Heather is a program manager O’Keefe ’01 were married at the Schwartz Center for last September at St. John the Compassionate Healthcare Evangelist Church in North at Massachusetts General Chelmsford. Megan, who Hospital. earned a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and a master’s 2002 in biology in 2004, is a re - Jeffrey Thurston , a director search scientist at Lantheus at CareLine by Genesis Medical Imaging Inc., in HealthCare, is engaged to North Billerica. Conor, with a marry Shaelagh Florence ’03 , degree in criminal justice and a marketing manager at psychology, operates Conor Students at Zach Field Drum Studios Comcast. A November O’Keefe Master Electrician Zach Field: Drummer Boy wedding is planned. Inc. in Tyngsboro. Zach Field, who majored in musical But he learned about more than performance, says he’s “honored music at UMass Lowell, he says: and proud to say I am a UMass Lowell “I felt important there, I was not alumnus.” just another student passing through. “I cannot believe how much I learned My teachers not only taught me about from UMass Lowell,” says the owner of music, but they taught me about life, Zach Field Drum Studios in Newbury - responsibility and, most of all, how to port. “I know for a fact that I would not be professional. I will never forget the have been able to get the same education time I went to a lesson unprepared with at any other school.” Prof. Jeff Fisher. Jeff was not mad at UMass Lowell, he says, taught him me, he was disappointed in me. He 2003 2004 how to be a well-rounded percussionist. didn’t have to say much, it was the Keri Caffrey-Zwinggi ’03, Joshua Deveau and Kristen “Most schools will make you choose look on his face. I left that lesson that ’05 is in her sixth year of Graham have announced their to either be in the jazz department or day feeling terrible! That was the last teaching English at North engagement and are planning classical department,” says Field, who time I ever went to a lesson, class or re - Andover High School after a September wedding. Joshua was percussion director for the hearsal unprepared.” having taught for two years at is a systems administrator Pentucket Regional School District for These days, Field often hires UMass St. Michael School, also in with Care.com and Kristen 12 years. “There is no such thing at Lowell graduates to work with and for North Andover. Keri graduat - is a mobile graphic designer him. ed with a double major in with Vlingo. UMass Lowell. English and psychology, and “I was able learn Bach Sonatas on “I choose to hire UMass Lowell stu - later earned a master’s degree Fidelity Bank has named Marimba, Charlie Parker saxophone dents and alumni because I know they in secondary education. She’s Meghan Liddy senior vice solos on drumset, orchestral pieces for come from an outstanding program and now enrolled in a Certificate president and business bank - timpani and learned the art of jazz vi - a student cannot successfully make it of Advanced Graduate Study ing relationship manager for braphone. On the weekends, I was per - through the program without years of in Educational Leadership the Worcester area. Meghan, forming all over New England on wash - extremely hard work,” he says. “I would program at Salem State who previously worked at board with the bluegrass band, The Mill not be where I am today if I went to University. Middlesex Savings Bank in City Ramblers, as well as performing any other school.” Westborough, earned her with area orchestras, singer songwriters, Mark Concannon , who M.B.A. at UMass Lowell. jazz ensembles and rock groups.” played four seasons of hockey She lives in Holden. for the River Hawks and spent a brief period of time “GO RIVER HAWKS! Most of my Midwest friends are like, ‘You went to in the minor leagues, has been named head coach of school where ?’ or ‘UMass what ?’ But let me tell you, they know who we are varsity ice hockey at Hull now!” — Scott Mulcahy ’06 , commenting on Facebook in reaction to the High School. hockey team’s stellar season

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 55 Class notes

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2005

Rebecca with her father, Dean of Enrollment Tom Taylor, at her wedding in Sierra Leone last November.

Rebecca Taylor: Caring for the World’s Forgotten

Two years ago, Rebecca Taylor ’05 was in medical staff of more than 400 from nearly end of last year. “It was a privilege to spend her fourth year as a pediatric nurse at Mass 40 nations, the ship anchors off the coasts most of 12 days on the ship and get a glimpse General in Boston. It was a dream job, with of West African nations Togo, Senegal and of all they do.” a good salary—everything a nursing grad Sierra Leone. The occasion for the trip was Rebecca’s could hope for. But she was after more than Its mission? To bring care, hope and com - wedding—to another volunteer shipmate, that. fort to some of the poorest, most forgotten Liberian Gregory Kulah—which took place And so, in her time off she went to New people on earth. (Consider: Mass General in November in Sierra Leone. Kulah, like Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, then Hospital, where Rebecca Taylor last worked, Rebecca, has been working on the Africa to Rwanda and then to Haiti after the earth - has 10 CT scanners, which detect everything Mercy a little more than two years. quake there. And even that somehow didn’t from bone fractures to tumors to strokes. And, as Tom Taylor would soon discover, seem enough. The nation of Sierra Leone, with 6 million his daughter wasn’t the only UMass Lowell In the end, she traded Boston for another people, has only one—aboard the Africa alum aboard the ship. Ray Szarek ’81, a world. Today, and for most of the past two Mercy.) Over the course of each 10-month former Air Force weather technician and years, she has been living aboard a 500-foot, tour, the ship’s staff will perform up to 14,000 the father of two adopted Liberian daughters, 16,000-ton hospital ship off the coast of surgeries—6,000 of them major operations— had been onboard since July 2010. West Africa, volunteering her services as a as well thousands more dental and eye-care procedures. Not long after Tom left the ship to return nurse. Called the Africa Mercy, it’s the home, Szarek and Rebecca joined in a photo largest such ship in the world. With six “Mercy Ships is an amazing organization,” with a UMass T-shirt he had left behind— state-of-the-art operating rooms, a fully says Rebecca’s father and UMass Lowell proving, Tom says, that “we have life-ready, equipped intensive-care unit, bed space for Dean of Enrollment, Tom Taylor, who visited work-ready and world-ready graduates at up to 78 patients and a volunteer crew and his daughter aboard the Africa Mercy at the points throughout the globe.” Ⅲ —GD

56 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2005 The Score: Men in Black 3 Greg Maloney, technical music su - pervisor for famed film composer Danny Elfman, has been spending most of his time lately working on Men in Black 3. “Technology has is an engineer with Robert dramatically changed since the first Bosch LLC and Lauren is a two movies were written, and physical therapist at New we‘re not using the same samplers England Rehabilitation and audio gear we were back Hospital. Dana has a master’s then,” he says. “So there was a lot degree in mechanical engi - of detective work involved. Un - neering and Lauren has a doctorate in physical therapy. earthing old scores, finding old demos—‘what's making that 16th Shiri Spear is the morning note, ticky sound?’—and using our meteorologist on South Flori - current setup to come up with a da’s NBC affiliate WTVJ, new sound, but one that is true to where she’s been since Sep - the original.“ The results will be in theaters at the end of May.

Beth Neary , who received a Heather Makrez , UMass Victoria Denoon was awarded political science degree here, Lowell’s new director of the Irish Top 40 Under went on to receive her mas - Alumni Relations, has also 40 2012 Award by The Irish ter’s degree from George been appointed to the board Echo at a ceremony at The tember 2010. Spear, who Mason University with a of directors of the Young Pro - Manhattan Club at Rosie received her master’s degree concentration in conflict fessionals of Greater Lowell. O’Grady’s in New York City in atmospheric and environ - analysis resolution. She now on Feb. 23. mental sciences here, previ - works in Washington, D.C., David Slipp , who is the new ously worked at NBC affiliate for the United States Global music teacher at the McAvin - Todd Fletcher , a feisty WWLP-22 News in western her new capacity, Sarah con - Leadership Coalition. As part nue School in Lowell, is forward for the River Hawks Massachusetts. tributes to Fox 25 news at 10 of her job, she interacts with currently mentoring several during his four undergraduate p.m. on Saturdays and at 10 those in the high-level politi - UMass Lowell Music Educa - years, is now coach of the Janet Welby, who was a mu - and 11 p.m. on Sundays. Most cal scene in Washington. tion seniors as part of their girls’ ice hockey squad at sic education master’s student recently, she had been a fill-in school-based fieldwork for the Westford Academy. at UMass Lowell and wrote meteorologist and environ - 2005 music methods class. He was her thesis on multicultural mental reporter for Fox and, Michael Ehrhardt , head of previously a String Project Kyle Heagney , a third- approaches to teaching music, before that, was a media sales school at the Marshall School, teaching assistant. He was generation police officer, has is now an adjunct here teach - engineer at Weather Services a college preparatory school a dual performance/music become the police chief of ing a course called Global International in Andover. in Duluth, Minn., has been education major. Attleboro. Kyle had joined Music for the Classroom. Janet also wrote a chapter for elected a member of the 2006 the department in 1999 and Virtual High School Global 2007 worked his way through the a new textbook for middle- Audrey Bertalovitz is en - Consortium board of direc - Danielle Bergeron is chief ranks, serving most recently school music teachers. gaged to David Roodhuyzen, tors. The non-profit consor - executive officer of the as acting chief. He holds a a physician assistant in the tium is a pioneer of K-12 Greater Lowell Chamber master’s degree in criminology 2008 Emergency Department at online learning and course of Commerce. from UMass Lowell. His fa - Tyler Piebes has joined Baylor University Medical design for teachers. Mike ther had been a captain on Champ Homes and The Center in Garland, Texas. earned a master’s degree in Kelly Anne Cote married the Attleboro force and his Housing For All Corp. as Audrey, who earned her bach - educational administration Christopher Alick Yellick in great uncle was a sergeant. its development director. elor’s degree in nursing, is from UMass Lowell. November. She is employed Kyle and his wife, Paula, and Tyler previously was program completing a master’s degree at the Center for Asthma, their son live in Norton. associate for the Arts Founda - in advanced practice nursing Sarah Wroblewski has been Allergy and Respiratory tion of Cape Cod and most at the University of Texas. named weekend meteorologist Disease in North Hampton, Dana Nicgorski and Lauren recently worked with Wild She is a registered nurse at for WFXT, the Fox 25 televi - N.H. The couple live in Mistretta ’09, who were mar - Care of Eastham. Medical City Hospital in sion channel in Boston. In Rochester, N.H. ried last summer in Holyoke, Dallas. A May wedding is now live in Stoneham. Dana planned.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 57 Class notes

u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2006 A Stretch With the Lakers When Tim DiFrancesco ’06 got the call that the Los Angeles Lakers wanted him to be their new head strength and condi - tioning coach, “it was absolutely surreal,” says the Vermont native, who earned his doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree at UMass Lowell. “Getting a chance to work in the NBA at all is a huge honor but the Lakers are different. When you are expected to be competing and winning a title every year, it is a really fun environment to be in.” What does he think set him apart? His degree. “Getting my DPT was not easy but it was the best thing I ever did. It has opened more doors in my career than I could have ever imagined. If I had not ob - tained my DPT at a school like UMass Lowell with the high level professors and expectations there, I would have regretted it for my entire career. I would not be where I am now!” —KA s o t o h P

A B N

58 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 ALUMNI LIFE

North Reading Police Detec - tate at TD Bank in Worcester. tive Thomas Encarnacao Brandon, who has 10 years u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2009 ’01,’08 was named Officer of experience in banking and the Year for 2011. Thomas - lending, joined TD Bank in grew up in North Reading 2010 as a credit analyst. Ashley Dias: Taking Life One Breath, and first became an officer in and One ‘Bump,’ at a Time town in 1999. He was origi - Lauren Mistretta and Dana nally hired as a reserve officer, Nicgorski ’07 , who were mar - She has been through and then as a full-time police ried last summer in Holyoke, studies and, in 2011, a master more in her 26 years than officer soon after attending a now live in Stoneham. Lauren of music in music education most people you know six-month police academy in is a physical therapist at degree. Erin is a senior, will face in a lifetime. Reading. He received both New England Rehabilitation majoring in music studies. And her battle is not over bachelor's and master’s de - Hospital and Dana is an 2010 yet. It may never, really, grees in criminal justice at engineer with Robert Bosch be over. And yet each UMass Lowell. LLC. Lauren has a doctorate Christopher Collette, upon graduating in December 2010, new challenge, for Ashley in physical therapy and Dias, is met the same 2009 Dana has a master’s degree was promoted to Pre-College New England way—as just another Kristen Graham and Joshua in mechanical engineering. “bump in the road.” Deveau have announced their Faculty engagement and are planning Scott Morrill and Erin Manager for Born with cystic fibrosis, she has never known a September wedding. Kristen Schartner have announced Kaplan Test life without doctors and drugs. At 14, she ran out is a mobile graphic designer their engagement and are Prep and of luck for the first time, when the doctors told her with Vlingo. Joshua is a sys - planning a June wedding at Admission. she’d need two new lungs to go on living. She got tems administrator with the College of the Holy Cross He started them—from an aunt in Andover, where she lives, Care.com. in Worcester. Scott, a music teaching SAT and another aunt in Georgia. (Her parents had teacher at the Raynham prep courses already donated lungs, five years before, to her Brandon J. McCabe has been Middle School, earned his for Kaplan while still a stu - older sister Lindsey, who also has the disease.) promoted to portfolio loan bachelor’s degree in music dent and had great success in Several years later her kidneys began failing; another the classroom. Once graduat - officer in commercial real es - aunt donated a kidney. Continued on Page 60 And through it all, life went on. In grade school, before her lungs failed, she went to school, played u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2009 soccer, did gymnastics; in 2009, as a liberal arts major with a focus on legal studies, she graduated from UMass Lowell—all because, she says, “My parents would never allow us not to do something because of [the disease]. We just grew up with that attitude.” She is 26 today, and it is happening again. Her lungs are failing; she needs an oxygen machine to help her breathe. She will need two new, transplanted lungs to survive. This time, the doctors have said, they will have to come from a cadaver. In January, she spent two weeks at the Cleveland Clinic, a national leader in lung transplants, where she was evaluated for her level of need. While there are others, with greater need, in line ahead of her (“It all depends on how sick you are,” she ex - plains), they’ve told her that, if all goes as hoped, she should have her new lungs in four months to a The Surefire Thing year. Years ago, on campus for orientation, Jared Hancock hopped on the wrong Meanwhile, there is the matter or money. The tour bus. “I went to the wrong location, but ended up starting a conversation cost for the double-transplant is $650,000—plus with another guy on that bus who was, much like me, looking to pursue a travel and hospital care. Insurance may cover a career in music.” Today, that guy, Brendan Brady, has been his business fraction, she says, but the bulk will fall on the partner for a decade. The pair started Surefire Music Group, which has family. provided production and engineering services for the likes of Under Armour, You get the feeling, talking to Ashley, that what - Reebok, MTV, Bad Boy Records, Def Jam Records, Neyo, Missy Elliot and Rick ever is needed will get done. “I’m definitely opti - Ross. “We've been all over the world, reached Billboard charts multiple times mistic,” she says. “Definitely. I’ve been over a lot of per year have been nominated for Soultrain and Grammy awards together,” bumps already. This is just another one. I’ll get Hanckock says. “And it all started on a wrong tour bus at UMass Lowell.” over this one too, for sure.” —GD

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 59 ClInamses mnotesori am

WAYNE EDWARDS , former longtime athletic director at u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 20 11 UMass Lowell, retired from his job as Shenandoah Univer - sity’s director of athletics, effective this June. Wayne had Mohamed Omar: Found the come out of early retirement to lead the Shenandoah Uni - American Dream in Lowell versity Department of Athletics beginning in January 2010. In 2000, Mohamed Omar During Wayne’s tenure, the baseball, softball, women’s cross “chased the American country and women’s soccer teams all won conference titles. dream” all the way from his native Somalia to Portland, For softball and women’s soccer, those programs advanced Maine. to the NCAA playoffs for the first time in school history. For the engineer from So - He says he plans to return to work as a consultant on a malia, that initially meant volunteering at Maine waste- part-time basis, conducting athletics program reviews for water treatment plants for universities. “One of the reasons I decided to retire now several months, putting his is I have two sons who are full-grown and live on the degrees in civil and environmental engineering to good use. He got his big break when he was offered West Coast,” he told a reporter recently. “I’ve seen my an entry-level position as an environmental engineer 5-year-old granddaughter twice in her life. I thought if with the Massachusetts Department of Environ - mental Protection in 2001. something were to happen, this would not be good.” A few years later, Omar took a job as an envi - ronmental management engineer at Harvard Uni - ed, he was given responsibility Carter Hutton , an American the service, he went to versity; while there, he enrolled in UMass Lowell’s for managing all classroom Hockey League goalie who evening school and received environmental risk assessment certificate program instructors in Massachusetts, played his college hockey for his associate’s degree in 1976. in the Department of Work Environment. That New Hampshire and Rhode the River Hawks, was named He then went back to school went so well, he decided to pursue his doctorate Island. a Reebok/AHL Player of the and received his BLA in 2011 degree in cleaner production and pollution pre - Week in January. Carter, who alongside his grandson-in-law, vention from UMass Lowell while working full plays for the Rockford Ice Eric Smith. time and raising a young family. Hogs, won the recognition for allowing only five goals 2012 “Mohamed had to do his doctoral work at in four starts (4-0-0) during Michael Kempesty has nights and on weekends for years,” says Prof. Mar - which he stopped 121 of been appointed chief execu - garet Quinn. “He was a pleasure to work with, 126 shots, giving Rockland tive officer of the American always hard working, focused, with a positive ap - its longest win streak of Red Cross Blood Services proach to his work and his life. He overcame enor - the season. Northern New England mous language and cultural differences.” Region. Mike, who has 10 Despite such challenges, Omar dove right into 2011 years of experience with Red life in the City of Lowell, where he lived with his Barry Goers , defenseman for Edward Flaherty recently be - Cross Blood Services in the family. He was appointed commissioner of the the Las Vegas Wranglers came a great grandfather. He Massachusetts region, will be City of Lowell Green Building Commission, and hockey team, is continuing went into the Air Force after based in Manchester, N.H. volunteered with a number of local charities, his quest to collect gently graduating from high school including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts used cell phones to turn into in 1965. After getting out of and City of Lowell Hunger and Homeless Com - calling cards for troops sta - mission. tioned overseas. This year, Barry and the Wranglers All those experiences made it hard to leave teamed up with Cell Phones Lowell, he says, but a new job as the manager of for Soldiers. Barry’s brother is SEND US A NOTE environmental protection at King Abdullah Uni - a Navy electrician who has We want to hear from you! versity of Science and Technology (KAUST) in served one tour overseas and New job? Saudi Arabia was too good to pass up. is currently stationed on the “KAUST has a beautiful campus on the Red USS Abraham Lincoln. His Promotion? brother prompted Barry to Married? Sea and one of the largest certified green/LEED start collecting donated cell Recent travel? platinum projects in the world,” Omar says, adding phones in his senior year at Submit a class note and include a photo to share that he’ll never forget his time in Lowell. UMass Lowell. In 2010-11, with your fellow alumni around the world. “My education at UMass Lowell was an amazing more than 600 phones were www.uml.edu/updateyourinfo experience,” he says. “I consider Prof. Quinn, who collected at Wranglers games. was my adviser, a great friend and supporter.” —KA

60 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Inmemori am ALUMNI LIFE

escape through the damaged seals, creating a potentially dan - gerous situation. Boisjoly was so concerned that, six months before the Challenger launch, he sent a memo to the company’s vice president of engineering to ensure that management was “fully aware of the seriousness of the current O-ring erosion problem,” the result of which “would be a catastrophe of the highest or - der—the loss of human life.” On the day before the scheduled launch, NASA officials and Morton Thiokol management discussed the O-ring matter and, again, Boisjoly registered his serious concerns. Regardless, the decision was made to proceed. At 11:38 the next morning, the Challenger spacecraft roared clear of launch pad 39B. In slightly more than 52 seconds, a “well defined intense plume” of exhaust was seen e g

a on the side of one of the booster rockets. Twenty-one seconds m i later, pilot Michael Smith said, “Uh oh”—the last recorded A

S words from the crew. The O-rings had failed. Structural break- A N up of the craft had begun. The crew cabin crashed into the ocean two minutes and 45 seconds later. There were no survivors. President Ronald Reagan appointed a commission to review the disaster. Boisjoly and a colleague appeared before that body and testified regarding their opposition to the launch and management’s decision to override their recommendation. Roger Boisjoly ’60, Who Tried to Avert the Challenger The commission subsequently placed the blame for the faulty O-rings on Morton Thiokol. Company CEO Charles Locke Disaster, Dies at Age 73 later said the matter should have been referred to headquarters It was cold at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the and that “we’d never have given clearance” for the launch. By Jack McDonough morning of Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986. Unusually cold. Boisjoly’s honesty and courage came at a price. During the night, the temperature had dropped to as low After testifying before the commission, he was shunned by as 8 degrees Fahrenheit. By late morning it was only in the company colleagues and managers and removed from space 30s. And this posed a problem. project assignments. He suffered from depression and took NASA was eager to launch the space shuttle Challenger, medical leave for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Boisjoly warned an event much publicized ahead of time, especially because The sole gesture of support came from Sally Ride, the first one of the seven crew members would be a civilian, Christa woman in space. She gave him a hug after he testified. “She Morton Thiokol McAuliffe, a high school teacher from Concord, N.H. was the only one,” he later said. “The only one.” of a problem The launch originally had been scheduled for Jan. 22 but Boisjoly resigned from Morton Thiokol soon afterward, that would result was postponed that day and each of the following five days be - started his own business in forensic engineering and delivered cause of weather and other problems. With the launch window a series of more than 300 lectures about organizational behavior, in “a catastrophe closing and the press complaining about postponements, ethics and professionalism to corporate, professional and of the highest NASA wanted to avoid further delay. academic audiences. order— the loss Still, it was cold. Too cold, in the opinion of Roger Boisjoly. Hailed as a “whistle blower” for his efforts to avert the Challenger tragedy, he received a host of accolades, including of human life.” Dangerously cold. Boisjoly, who earned a mechanical engi - a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Lowell neering degree at Lowell Tech in 1960, in 1987; a Presidential Award from the National Space Society was a staff engineer for Morton Thiokol, for Professional Integrity and Personal Courage; and, ironically, the aerospace company that produced the a certificate of appreciation from NASA for his support in the solid booster rockets that would hurl Chal - Challenger disaster investigation. lenger into space. Roger Boisjoly, born in Lowell on April 25, 1938, died In the months leading up to Jan. 28, January 6 in Nephi, Utah, at the age of 73. He is survived by Boisjoly had determined that extreme cold his wife, Roberta, two daughters, and brothers Ronald, Russell would adversely affect the rubber O-rings ’72 and Richard ’73. that formed a seal between two sections of the solid booster Russell Boisjoly, in a eulogy for his brother, said, “Roger rockets. Low temperatures would harden the rubber, he said, was a close friend, a confidant, and an advisor, and he has making it less flexible. This condition could allow hot gases to become an icon of what it truly means to be an engineer.” Ⅲ

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 61 Inmemori am ALUMNI LIFE

In Retrospect In September, the University Gallery at UMass Lowell hosted “Myths and Mysteries of the Heart, Brenda Atwood Pinardi: A Retrospective," a memorial exhibition honoring the life and career of Professor Emeritus Brenda Atwood Pinardi (1941-2010). All sale proceeds of Pinardi's work from the exhibit were donated by her husband, Enrico Pinardi, to the newly established Brenda Atwood Pinardi Scholarship. As a companion exhibition, the Art Department hosted a tribute show in the Dugan Gallery, “In Remembrance: A Tribute to Brenda Atwood Pinardi," which included donated artworks from alumni, faculty and friends. Between the two events, more than $27,000 was raised for the scholarship.

Deceased YEAR* NAME YEAR* NAME YEAR* NAME YEAR* NAME

1927 Josephine Dimauro Delva 1953 William Hewson Jr. 1966 Roger McLeod 1979 Daniel Koch 1928 Ruth Walker Frank 1953 Robert Mulcahy 1967 Louise Cedergren Seaborne 1980 George Burnham Jr 1935 Roberta Small Lang 1953 Karl Woodman 1968 Margaret Cotter Ochs 1980 Barry Keating 1937 Mary Josephine O'Donnell Leahey 1954 Norma McCabe Macomber 1969 Diane Notini Loughran 1982 Cynthia Leavy-Feth 1939 Evelyna Anderson Davis 1955 Frances Ryan Fahy 1970 Elizabeth Dufresne 1982 Paula Legg 1939 James Patsourakos 1956 Gerald Richard 1970 Edwin Tree 1986 Ping Ku 1941 Frances Fitzgerald McGuane 1957 Edward Novick 1973 John Morley 1990 Robert Ruel 1944 Helen Garrity 1959 Paul Carroll 1973 Deborah Viens 1994 Bruce Aberle 1945 Charlotte Cronin Quinn 1960 Roger Boisjoly 1975 Gerald McElroy 1994 John Hill 1948 Peter McKone Jr 1960 Robert Surette 1975 Roger Paquette 1996 Monica Schneider Allen 1948 Kathleen Geary Morris 1961 Peter Gabriel 1977 Michael Ness 2002 Brett Romanoski 1949 Manuel Affler 1961 Kenneth Joncas 1977 Richard Proulx 2010 Charles Saulters 1950 Walter Flister 1962 Alan Kaplan 1977 Gary Rust Faculty Daniel Neylon 1951 William Menzies Jr. 1962 John McDavitt Jr. 1977 Anthony Silva 1952 John Cronin 1964 Joan-Ellen Simeone Takesian 1978 Arthur Nolan Jr. *Year of graduation

62 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Then... UMass Lowell’s earliest predecessor, the Lowell Normal School, was housed entirely in Coburn Hall, shown here in 1897.

SPRING 2012 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZIN E 63 64 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Now... Today, the campus spans 150 acres along the Merrimack River in three campus clusters featuring *: • 4 brand new multimillion-dollar facilities • The Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell • The UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center • Total renovations to the libraries, Bellegarde Boathouse, University Crossing (the former St. Joseph’s Hospital) and Fox Hall

*Includes completed, underway and soon-to-be-launched projects. NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 69 Learning with Purpose LOWELL, MA 01854

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Make a gift to UMass Lowell before June 30, 2012 and be Those giving gifts of $25 or more before June 30, 2012 will receive included in the 2011-2012 donor gift report, featured in the a gift of thanks from the University. next UMass Lowell Magazine for Alumni and Friends. Want your gift to go twice as far? It can be doubled, or even You gift supports The Power of One—the Annual Campaign tripled, if your (or your spouse’s) employer offers a matching program. for UMass Lowell. Visit www.matchinggifts.com/uml to find out if your employer participates. Every donation, no matter the size, makes it all possible. • Funds scholarships for deserving students Make your annual gift today! • Supports critical research www.uml.edu/poweronline • Provides resources for student success