IC FACULTY REVEAL MISSING DATA, LOST TREASURES, AND GENETIC MYSTERIES CONTENTS
10 ILLUSTRATION BY JON MCCLURE JON MCCLURE BY ILLUSTRATION
48 FEATURES
8 Q&A WITH THE NEW BOT CHAIR Dave Lissy ’87 begins his term at the helm of the IC Board of Trustees. 10 EUREKA! IC faculty make amazing discoveries. 26 FOUR YEARS AT IC See how eight students transformed during their time at the college. PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO
VOLUME 36, NUMBER 3 Copyright 2018 by ICView. All rights reserved. ICView is published three times a year by the Office of College Relations and Communications at Ithaca College at 953 Danby Road, Ithaca, NY 14850-7002.
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DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS Robin Roger [email protected] EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE STRATEGY AND DEVELOPMENT Erin A. Davis DESIGN DIRECTOR Cristina Eagan
PHOTO BY CASCADILLA PHOTOGRAPHY, ANDY GILLIS ANDY PHOTOGRAPHY, CASCADILLA BY PHOTO DESIGNER Melissa Chiotti MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR 26 Adam Baker ASSISTANT EDITOR Patrick Bohn ’05, MS ’07 COPY EDITOR Hope Dodge SENIOR CREATIVE COPYWRITER Nellie Wallace CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Barbara Adams Michael Blanding Patrick Bohn ’05, MS ’07 Eric Butterman Kelli B. Grant ’04 Wendy Hankle PHOTOS BY ADAM BAKER ADAM BY PHOTOS Dave Maley Sherrie Negrea Kerry Regan Stephen Shoemaker CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jacob Beil ’15 DEPARTMENTS Carl Hyerdahl ’16 Noah Levin ’18 2 33 Giovanni Santacroce FROM THE PRESIDENT CONNECTION STUDENT ASSISTANT Alumni news; alumni notes; Jocelyn Hewitt ’20 3 YOUR VIEW profiles; and celebrations, PRINT PRODUCTION SPECIALIST introductions, and farewells Jill Fisher 4 ON SOUTH HILL ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLEGE 46 MIXED MEDIA RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Jennifer Campbell 48 ONLY IN ITHACA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS Bob Wagner ON THE COVERS FRONT: Illustration by Jon McClure (Co-Motion Studio)
MISSION: ICView is the magazine of the Ithaca College community of alumni, parents of current students, employees, retirees, supporters, friends, and neighbors. CONTACT US: [email protected] or 607-274-1813, or visit ithaca.edu/icview. FROM THE PRESIDENT
IN MID-SEPTEMBER, FACULTY AND STAFF GATHERED for the Provost’s Colloquium, an innovative program launched this academic year by provost and senior vice president for academic affairs La Jerne Terry Cornish, in partnership with the Center for Faculty Excellence and its director, Wade Pickren. This colloquium series invites faculty members to present their sabbatical research to the college community. At this year’s opening event, Jennifer Germann, associate professor of art history; Deborah Martin, professor of music; and Peter Melcher, professor of biology; shared their explorations around bias and the erasure of people of color in the world of art, original interpretations and combinations of musical compositions, and competition among species of plants on the beaches of Puerto Rico, respectively. The array of topics demonstrated a wide range of thought and innovation undertaken by three faculty members who skillfully demonstrated their navigation of the space where creativity and curiosity intersect academic rigor and the construction PHOTO BY ADAM BAKER ADAM BY PHOTO of knowledge. In higher education, particularly at student-centered institutions like ours, we often talk about the journeys of transformation that students embark upon during their time on our campus. Here at IC, our faculty and staff take very seriously our collective responsibility to offer and support the moments that make up these journeys for nearly 6,000 students. But we would be missing an important opportunity if we neglected to encourage and celebrate such journeys taken by our faculty and staff. Their transformations, too, are critical to the creation of a robust, inclusive learning community that ultimately influences not only our students’ experiences but also Ithaca College’s visibility and distinction as a leading institution of higher education. An important part of the college’s continuing evolution is to ensure an environment on campus that supports and emboldens every member of our learning community as they thrive, grow, and fully participate in their own unique IC experience. One of the things I love about working in higher education is witnessing the transformations that occur when this type of environment is created and celebrating the intellectual and personal epiphanies that happen when we dare to push boundaries, both within ourselves and within our fields of study or our professions. Research, in particular, represents an area where it is imperative to welcome and honor the work of people who come to their chosen field from a multitude of perspectives—both in their lived experiences and in their academic training. The most powerful research is defined by collaboration, moments of discovery that combine a deep subject-matter expertise with the unique alchemy that can happen when people from different backgrounds have the freedom to create something together. This is why it’s so important that we open ourselves to original thought in the classroom and productively work across difference in our offices, departments, and divisions throughout our campus. Welcoming unfamiliar ways of understanding the world not only leads to better research and allows us to question our assumptions—it enables places like Ithaca College to productively contribute to expressions of different kinds of truth and dialogues about what is valued as knowledge. Approaching our academic enterprise in this way illuminates our deep responsibility to share our knowledge with our community and to model a collaborative approach that underscores the importance of individual and collective intellectual achievement in contributing to the common good. Doing this also means our students can go out into the world after graduation with a firm understanding of the importance of getting diverse voices around the table to ask and answer difficult questions. Series like the Provost’s Colloquium—and many other such opportunities on our campus—provide moments for us to understand our collective impact, the richness of faculty expertise at Ithaca College, and the need for us all to embrace what it means to be a part of a high-performing living and learning community that contributes to the world. And, on a fundamental level, it gives us all a sense of pride in ourselves and in our peers by celebrating our identity as a part of this amazing Ithaca College community.
All my best,
SHIRLEY M. COLLADO President
2 | 2019 • Spring YOUR VIEW
DIGGING INTO HISTORY Downtown was great in the 1963-67 era. We enjoyed both the construction “on the hill” but still had the ambiance and the closeness of downtown. The park was our campus. We sang, practiced lines, played, ate at the Olympia restaurant, had classes upstairs in Williams Hall (some of us lived in Williams Hall!), walked uphill to sororities, participated in the sorority/ fraternity snowball fight each year, and also participated in the “on South Hill campus” events. We were more divided by department than in the ’50s, but some of us managed to 125 YEARS breach the divides. It was four years of discovery, learning, and wonder! Loved it all! I just want to commend you and your publication staff for the excellent offerings you have made to the IC alumni over ELIZABETH WASCAK ’67 the past couple of years. I have shared them with friends as PERRY, NEW YORK examples of the product IC proudly produces. The “125 years” truly shows off the college’s greatest asset: the students—past I would like to have been in that group to talk about IC in and present. I’m one of the “downtowners” who only spent a the early ’50s when there was no campus and the small total semester shuttling to the upper campus. The rest of my educa- enrollment had close friendships that crossed department tion was on the “flat.” Thank you again for your work. lines. Also, I felt we were not only a part of the college but being downtown, we were also a part of the city. I have to LARS ALLANSON ’62 believe that many of those alums are still in touch with each DELMAR, NEW YORK other. I’d love to hear from any of them. Send me an email at [email protected]. I write as a former IC Board of Trustees member, parent of a 2002 graduate, and college donor. Kudos for the ICView JOEL LEVY ’55 125 years spring edition. I felt the stories that were featured ALBANY, NEW YORK celebrated past achievements while capturing the vision IC is positioned to achieve going forward. Thank you for your I graduated in ’76. Tuition was $5,556 a year. We no longer had continued efforts to produce an enlightening publication for to wear the jumpers. Thank God! I loved Ithaca and all that I the benefit of alumni, donors, parents, and friends. learned and the people that I met. I am still in touch with my roommates and friends from IC. SUSAN PERVI, PARENT ’02 SURPRISE, AIRZONA MARIA J. HUTSICK ’76 MEDFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
The mission of ICView is to offer a candid, accurate, thoughtful, and lively view of Ithaca College and its alumni, events, and activities. In that vein, we welcome letters in response to ICView stories. Letters are subject to editing for space, style, clarity, and civility. To submit letters to the editor for the Your View section, email [email protected], or mail a letter to ICView, Ithaca College, 953 Danby Road, Ithaca, NY 14850.
ithaca.edu/icview | 3 ON SOUTH HILL CLASS OF 2018 GRADUATES URGED TO LIVE THEIR VALUES
Members of Ithaca College’s class of 2018 were urged to think about the big-picture outcomes of their actions, live their values, and find ways to help those in need through gestures large and small at Ithaca College’s 123rd Commencement ceremony on May 20. Daniel Weiss, president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, delivered the main address. Weiss told the more than 1,200 graduates that they must think about their own personal commitment.
My advice to you today is that you focus on the small gestures, the habits of living that reflect your values. These add up to define your character and, ultimately, your destiny. —DANIEL WEISS
“Devoting your life to the service of those most in need is one approach, a very laudable one,” said Weiss. “But there are other approaches, too. Gestures large and small matter— indeed, just noticing someone who is suffering or in distress can make a difference. My advice to you today is that you focus on the small gestures, the habits of living that reflect your values. These add up to define your character and, ultimately, your destiny.” Weiss received an honorary degree at the ceremony, as did educator and civil rights advocate Gloria Hobbs and Mara Keisling, founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. PHOTOS BY SHAI EYNAV
HOW MANY WHERE WHAT DID THEY GRADUATED ARE THEY DO WHILE THEY WITH HONORS? FROM? WERE HERE? 100 Summa cum laude 39 States 203 Played a varsity sport (a 3.9 GPA or higher) 27 Foreign countries 320 Studied abroad Magna cum laude 310 3 Federal districts or 109 Were presidents for (a 3.7 GPA or higher) U.S. territories student organizations Cum laude 288 345 Presented at the Whalen (a 3.5 GPA or higher) Academic Symposium
4 | 2019 • Spring ON SOUTH HILL PHOTO SUBMITTED PHOTO AINSWORTH HEATHER BY PHOTO AINSWORTH HEATHER BY PHOTO COLLEGE NAMES NEW PROVOST AND TWO NEW VPS
Three new administrators joined the senior leadership team (SUNY) College at Purchase, where from 1999 to 2013 he this academic year. served as executive director of the Purchase College Associa- On July 1, La Jerne Terry Cornish became IC’s provost and tion, an auxiliary service corporation charged with supporting senior vice president for academic affairs. Cornish came to the academic mission of the university. Guerrero came to IC Ithaca from Goucher College in Baltimore, where she served from Albertus Magnus College. as associate provost for undergraduate studies. While at In September, Guilherme Costa took on the post of vice Goucher, Cornish oversaw all aspects of the undergraduate president and general counsel at Ithaca College. Costa previ- program, including coordinating academic advising and pro- ously served for the past three years as the chief legal officer viding oversight for the Academic Center for Excellence and of the public university system in South Dakota. the Maryland Scholars Program. That same month, William Guerrero joined IC as its vice Photos above (from left to right): La Jerne Terry Cornish, William president for finance and administration. Guerrero spent Guerrero, Guilherme Costa. the majority of his career at the State University of New York
IC EARNS ACCREDITATION ALUMNI AWARDS ACCOLADES On October 6, the college recognized the following alumni with awards during the Ithaca College Alumni Association This summer the Middle States Commission on Higher Edu- recognition dinner. Read more about them in the next issue cation approved Ithaca College’s reaccreditation, confirming it of ICView. through 2026. The college met all seven standards for accredi- tation and was singled out for praise in several areas including Michael J. Serventi ’72 the level of preparation that had taken place at the college to Edgar “Dusty” Bredbenner Jr. ’50 Distinguished Alumni Award ensure that it met the standards. Christopher H. Toone ’13 “The Middle States reaccreditation process was successful Humanitarian Alumni Awardd as a result of the involvement of so many students, staff, and faculty who served on the working groups, provided evidence Stephen C. Brown ’64, MM ’68 for the document repository, edited the draft reports, and met Lifetime Achievement Award with our review team to answer their questions,” said dean of Aaron Tveit ’05 students Bonnie Prunty. “This was truly a campus-wide effort.” Outstanding Young Alumni Award The college has received reaccreditation after every review since joining the commission in 1953. Erin E. Stevens ’00 Professional Achievement Award Steve Gonick ’85 Volunteer Service Award
ithaca.edu/icview | 5 ON SOUTH HILL
ITHACA ATHLETICS REVEALS 2018 HALL OF FAME CLASS MISSED ALUMNI The Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame Committee selected WEEKEND? the 49th hall of fame class this past June. One team and eight individuals were formally inducted on Friday, October 5, in OR WANT Emerson Suites: the 1998 gymnastics team, Steve Barnes ’05 (swimming and diving), Ian Golden ’99 (cross country, track TO RELIVE IT? and field), Kelly Stevison Harding ’07 (gymnastics), Joe Hope ’98 (lacrosse), Erica Cutspec Kurnath ’08 (softball), Mike Murtha ’94 (football), Julie Stone Radnoff ’93 (field hockey, lacrosse), and Chris Rauth ’85 (baseball). Alumnus and ESPN Visit ithaca.edu/alumni to see photos SportsCenter anchor Kevin Connors ’97 returned as the master from this year’s Alumni Weekend. of ceremonies for the fourth straight year. You can read more about the inductees in the next issue Photos will also appear of ICView. in the next issue of ICView. PHOTO PROVIDED PHOTO PROVIDED PHOTO
BOMBERS FINISH 10TH IN CORDANI HAS DIRECTORS’ CUP STANDINGS RECORD-BREAKING RUN
For the second straight year, Ithaca finished 10th in the Taryn Cordani ’18 of the women’s track and field team Learfield Directors’ Cup standings. The ranking is based on a capped off her athletic career by becoming the first student– school’s finish in up to 18 (nine in men’s and nine in wom- athlete in school history to win four national championships. en’s) sports in NCAA postseason competition. Ithaca scored Cordani captured her fourth title when she finished first in 760.5 total points, 44.5 points more than the previous year. IC the 10,000-meter run at the 2017–18 Outdoor Track and Field is just one of six Division III schools to finish within the top Championships with a time of 35:03.20. This was the fifth 30 every year since the Directors’ Cup started in 1995–96. The individual championship won by Bomber student–athletes in other institutions are Amherst, Calvin, Emory, Middlebury, the 2017–18 season, and the 44th in school history. and Williams.
6 | 2019 • Spring ON SOUTH HILL
WHY WE INCLUDE OUR PRONOUNS
You may have noticed that some IC faculty, staff, and students include the pronouns they use in their email signatures (for example she/her/hers). Identifying your gender pronouns in everyday situa- tions, such as in an email signature, demonstrates that you are aware of their importance. Doing so may signal that you are respectful of the pronouns used by others, including indi- viduals who are transgender or nonbinary. It’s also a way for Ithaca College as an institution to further inclusion and honor PHOTO BY MAUREEN KELLY diversity within our campus community. Our very own Luca Maurer, director of LGBTQ education, outreach, and services at IC, was instrumental in establishing the first International Pronouns Day, celebrated on October 17. International Pronouns Day seeks to make asking, sharing, and respecting personal pronouns commonplace.
NEW BOARD OF TRUSTEES FACULTY RETIREMENTS MEMBERS ELECTED The following faculty members retired at the end of the 2017–18 academic year: The Ithaca College Board of Trustees has elected seven new Professor of Music Performance members. In May, Luvelle Brown, who is the superintendent Frank Campos, of the Ithaca City School District, was elected as a term trustee, Kim Dunnick, Professor of Music Performance Ellen Staurowsky, MS ’78, was elected as the alumni trustee, Linda Godfrey, Assistant Professor of Writing and Yetunde Smalls ’21 was elected as student trustee. Addi- tionally, Kristin Muenzen ’00 completed her term as alumni Norman Johnson, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts trustee and was elected as a term trustee. Barbara Ann Johnson-Root, Professor of Speech-Language In August, Orinthia Montague, president of Tompkins Pathology and Audiology Cortland Community College; David Meberg ’85; and Rosanna Aybar, vice president of finance and administration and as- Stephen Lahr ’75, Lecturer of Physical Therapy sistant treasurer of the William T. Grant Foundation, were all Helene Larin, Associate Professor of Health Sciences and elected as term trustees. Human Performance Johnathan Laskowitz, Associate Professor of Sociology For more information on the new trustees, go to ithaca.edu/trustees. Terry Michel, Instructor of Education Matt Mogekwu, Associate Professor of Journalism Kit Muma, Instructor of Biology Tom Nicholson, Associate Professor of Media Arts, Sciences, and Studies John Rosenthal, Professor of Mathematics Jim Swafford, Associate Professor of English Bruce Thompson, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Susan Weisend, Professor of Art
ithaca.edu/icview | 7 Q&A WITH THE NEW IC BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR
BY WENDY HANKLE
THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE A PIVOTAL YEAR School of Business. He has put his degree to good use at Ithaca College. Three new senior leaders began at at Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a leading provider the college this academic year: Provost La Jerne Terry of employer-sponsored dependent care solutions and Cornish; Bill Guerrero, vice president for finance and early education. The company experienced tremendous administration; and Guilherme Costa, vice president, growth under Lissy’s guidance. It now operates in 44 general counsel, and secretary to the board of trustees. states and six countries, employs 33,000 people, and has And, for the first time in six years, there’s new leadership frequently been listed as one of Fortune magazine’s 100 on the board of trustees. Dave Lissy ’87 begins the first best companies to work for in the United States. After 17 of a three-year term as chair, stepping into the role held years as the chief executive officer, Lissy now serves as by Tom Grape ’80. executive chairman. Lissy has volunteered on the board since 2011 and served as vice chair for the past three years. He grad- Lissy shared some of his thoughts about the uated from IC with a bachelor’s in business adminis- future of IC. > tration with a concentration in management from the
20192018 • • Spring Fall
8 | GILLIS ANDY PHOTOGRAPHY, CASCADILLA BY PHOTO What does it mean to you, well and to expand our thinking and fiscal accountability for the college, Q personally, to be chair of the invest in new ideas that will help to and we take very seriously our role board of trustees? ensure financial stability and continu- in making sure the annual operating ous improvement into the future. budget is appropriate and the col- I feel honored and incredibly I know President Collado and the lege has sources of funding it needs A privileged to be the chair of the strategic planning team have strong- to succeed. For us to do our job well, board. It’s something that I never ly emphasized a very real desire for it’s important for us to really have a would’ve envisioned years ago. the members of the college commu- good understanding of what is hap- I’ve had the good fortune of doing nity to feel empowered to participate pening on our campus and how IC things in my life that have put me in in this process, and there’s some fits into the larger higher education a position to contribute meaningfully good thinking out there among the landscape. This isn’t work you can do to the college in this important way. college’s many stakeholders, alumni from afar. You have to be engaged. IC has meant so much to me per- included. It’s important that we listen You have to educate yourself and sonally and professionally. I was the to all ideas and that we ultimately participate in college events—those first in my immediate family to get have an inclusive, thorough process that happen on campus and those a four-year degree, and I benefitted that leads to something really excit- within our neighborhoods, cities, from financial aid and other support ing that we can all get behind. and regions. while I was a student. Ithaca College provided that pathway for me, and I can’t imagine a more significant way During the six years of Tom to give back than to have the honor Q Grape’s leadership, he brought of being chair of the board at a time Ithaca College provided strategic change to the board, when we have a new president and “” focusing on implementing new administrators on our leader- that pathway for me, best practices and improving ship team, and we are embarking engagement, expectations, on a strategic planning process that and I can’t imagine a transparency, and communications. I believe will be truly transformative more significant way to What are your thoughts on for the college. his legacy? give back than to have the honor of being I’d been incredibly privileged to In what ways do you think the A serve as vice chair with Tom and Q strategic planning process can chair of the board. serve on the board with him for sev- be transformative for the college? eral years before that. The college has really been fortunate to have had The strategic planning process What is your overarching vision a chair like Tom. He is a great leader A presents an opportunity for our Q for the board, and how do you and set the board on a positive, community to tackle some of the big see the board’s role within the productive course during his time challenges we face. Ithaca College Ithaca College community? as chair. I look forward to continu- is largely tuition dependent, and our ing along that pathway, particularly endowment is very modest for a col- As I assume the role of chair, my continuing his work in creating a lege of our size. This means that we A overarching vision is to ensure more engaged and invested board must find ways to balance this fiscal that we continue to have an ex- of trustees. I am appreciative of the reality with the need to continue to tremely engaged, diverse, and time I spent working alongside him improve the quality of our education talented group of people on our and appreciative of all the support and student experience. We have a board who have a great deal of he continues to give. great opportunity to make some key passion for IC and who will bring strategic choices that can shape our the benefit of their experience— future. I think there is a lot of poten- whether alumni, parents, or people tial in this planning process for us to in the community with a connection support and grow what is working to the college—to serve the college and support the president and the leadership team to help them reach TO THE LEFT: their full potential. (From left) Dave Lissy ’87, who took The board’s ultimate role is to over as chair of the IC Board of Trustees act as a strategic advisor—not to in the spring, poses with President manage the day-to-day affairs of the Shirley M. Collado and past chair Tom college. Obviously, we have overall Grape ’80.
ithaca.edu/icview | 9 IC FACULTY REVEAL MISSING DATA, LOST TREASURES, AND GENETIC MYSTERIES
EUREKA! IC FACULTY REVEAL MISSING DATA, LOST TREASURES, AND GENETIC MYSTERIES IC FACULTY REVEAL MISSING DATA,
LOST TREASURES, AND GENETIC MYSTERIES ZOTZ EL ARQUEOLÓGICO THE PROYECTO OF COURTESTY PHOTO UNCOVERING THE MYSTERIES OF THE MAYA
BY STEPHEN SHOEMAKER
he steamy jungles of north- forestation uncovered thousands LASER SHOW IN THE JUNGLE ern Guatemala don’t reveal of Maya structures previously T Light detection and ranging—or secrets easily. For centuries, the undetected beneath the smother- LiDAR—is a method of mapping overgrown vegetation has choked ing growth. The large-scale aerial from the sky. An airplane-mounted and concealed the remains of survey, coconducted by archaeol- device sends a constant pulse the Maya who once tamed the ogist Thomas Garrison, assistant of laser light across a swath of landscape. The jungle presents professor of anthropology at Itha- terrain; precise measurements a dense and challenging barrier, ca College, has done more than of how long it takes the emitted slow to yield to generations of reveal millennia-old secrets. beams to bounce off surfaces are adventurers, researchers, and “Frankly, it’s turning our dis- taken and translated into topo- modern scientists seeking to learn cipline on its head,” he said, as graphic data. The laser pierces more about the ancient civilization long-established notions about through the smallest gaps in the known for its sophisticated hiero- the size, density, and history of vegetation to record the lay of the glyphic script, art, architecture, the Central American society land below with remarkable accu- and mathematics. were upended by the data racy: a single pixel of visual data Two years ago, however, tech- almost overnight. is the equivalent of one square nology that allows for digital de- meter on the ground. The result-
ithaca.edu/icview | 11 ing data can be tweaked to filter the time Spaniards reached the out vegetation, thus offering an so-called New World in the 16th unencumbered view of everything century, the society had largely else on the surface. collapsed and regressed into Garrison worked with two small agrarian villages for a variety colleagues from Tulane University of complex reasons. and the Fundación PACUNAM And long before Garrison (Patrimonio Cultural y Natural arrived at Harvard University as Maya), a Guatemalan organization “MY OWN INTERESTS a graduate student in the early dedicated to cultural and natural IN ARCHAEOLOGY 2000s, the once-great society had heritage preservation, to coordi- receded into romantic mystery, a nate a massive LiDAR survey in HAVE ALWAYS BEEN “lost” civilization swallowed by the that country in July 2016. The re- ABOUT BEING AT jungles. His own obsession began sult was the mapping of 10 large THE TIP OF THE several years earlier during a polygonal areas, totaling 2,100 study abroad trip to Mexico’s state square kilometers across seg- SPEAR, BEING THE of Oaxaca as an undergraduate, ments of the Peten forest region FIRST PERSON IN AN when he became enamored with that encompasses several major AREA DOING THAT the Maya writing system. Maya sites, including the largest BASELINE RESEARCH Oaxaca is well outside the area at Tikal, and nearby El Zotz, where once inhabited by the Maya, but Garrison focuses his research. THAT NEEDS TO BE that hardly mattered. Garrison The massive amount of data DONE. I LIKE THE found many “great old Mexican took a long time to process; EXPLORATION AND book shops” full of works about Garrison and others waited until the ancient peoples, and he early 2017 before they could DISCOVERY ASPECT scooped up all he could find—in- start combing through the survey OF IT AS MUCH cluding a tome published in 1915 results. With the jungle digitally AS I ENJOY THE titled An Introduction to the Study stripped away, the findings were of the Maya Hieroglyphs, for which readily apparent: the LiDAR ANTHROPOLOGY AND he paid 150 pesos (about $8). mapping revealed over 60,000 ANSWERING THOSE “Maya writing is oftentimes previously unknown structures, QUESTIONS.“ said to be the most complex writ- including pyramids, palace struc- ing system ever developed be- tures, terraced fields, roadways, —THOMAS GARRISON cause it is an art style, also,” Garri- defensive walls and towers, and son said. “The glyphs themselves houses. Archaeologists realized are works of art, but they don’t immediately that the ancient mean what they look like—they are population centers they spent de- was far more prevalent than previ- reflecting actual language.” cades studying are much bigger ously known. “Don’t get me wrong,” he than they speculated. The implications are profound. added. “I didn’t understand any “Everyone is seeing larger, “It totally changes the way that we of that in this first foray. That’s the denser sites—everyone,” Garrison think about how things are config- end product of all this.” said. “There’s a spectrum to it, ured in that landscape; it changes His first excavation soon after for sure, but that’s a universal: our research questions,” he ex- in Belize is when the archaeolo- everyone has missed a settlement plained. “These places just aren’t gy bug really bit. “That wasn’t an in their [previous] mapping.” what we thought they were.” academic awakening or any- Especially telling to Garrison thing,” Garrison said. “That was are newly revealed agricultural A HISTORY OF EXPLORATION just, ’Wow, this is really, really features that would be necessary The Maya civilization began to fun—being out here, working hard, to support the lowland Maya pop- emerge 3,000 years ago in the getting sweaty, finding cool stuff, ulation during their centuries of areas that now comprise Guate- meeting a bunch of people my civilization—population estimates mala and Belize, as well as part age, [and] everyone’s excited to have now expanded from a few of southeastern Mexico, Hondu- be doing this adventuresome, million to 7–10 million because of ras, and El Salvador. The society weird thing.’” the LiDAR survey—and defensive reached its peak during the Clas- His doctoral work at Harvard structures that suggest warfare sic period about A.D. 250–900. By University led him to Guatemala
12 | 2019 • Spring and ultimately to his current site of El Zotz, for which he became overall director in 2012. The site is in the shadow of a major Maya center of power at Tikal, and one of the biggest questions about El Zotz is the relationship it had with its more powerful neighbor. “The answer seems to be shrewd political alliances that changed through time and making decisions that are best for them,” Garrison explained. “Sometimes it’s better to just submit, and other times it’s time to recognize an opportunity and support someone else,” Garrison said. As for the LiDAR data, it re- vealed fortifications on a scale un- realized from ground-based visual survey, including a large fortress complex to the northwest of El Zotz that no one knew existed. “All the defensive features suggest it wasn’t always a peace- ful thing,” Garrison said of the relationship dynamics between El Zotz and Tikal. “It wasn’t just palace diplomacy.” The newly discovered fort will be a major focus of his work mov- ing forward: in August, Garrison received grants from the National Thomas Garrison (seated) returned to Guatemala last summer to Science Foundation and the Na- investigate the findings. His forthcoming book will explore the tional Endowment for the Human- Kingdom of El Zotz.
ities to excavate the fortress over ZOTZ EL ARQUEOLÓGICO THE PROYECTO OF COURTESTY PHOTO the coming three field seasons. The LiDAR findings did more than inject fresh insight and direction CONFIRMING FINDINGS the documentary, lending com- mentary on the LiDAR mapping into Garrison’s research. They also The LiDAR images themselves are and its results. reinvigorated his curiosity about striking, multihued 3-D renderings Garrison has just completed the site as a whole. made even more evocative when his second field season with the “My own interests in archaeolo- you see the same patch of ground image data, and this past sum- gy have always been about being with the jungle intact contrast- mer’s was marked by a more sys- at the tip of the spear, being the ed with the vegetation digitally tematic survey—or “ground-truth- first person in an area doing that removed. The results were so cap- ing”—of the findings, to confirm baseline research that needs to tivating that National Geographic whether specific features iden- be done. I like the exploration and produced a documentary that tified in the survey were, in fact, discovery aspect of it as much premiered in February titled Lost created by humans. The prior sea- as I enjoy the anthropology and Treasure of the Maya Snake Kings, son, with the data fresh in hand, answering those questions,” he which followed a NatGeo explorer he and his crew went after the said, before he confessed: “I was as he trekked deep in the jungle low-hanging fruit: the larger, more starting to feel that El Zotz was to seek out a pyramid detected in obvious features that immediately getting a little stale.” the survey. Garrison appeared in
ithaca.edu/icview | 13 jumped out of the data. chaeology in graduate school. For a September article co-authored Back in Ithaca, senior Kasey his part, Garrison would like to get by Garrison and published in the Gregory ’19 was contributing more students working with the academic journal Science. to the project in another way: LiDAR findings. He'd also like to “One of the biggest challeng- combing through the LiDAR data work with Ithaca College to bring es of the data is not viewing it as around El Zotz and marking fea- students to Guatemala—if not in a whole, but recognizing it’s these tures she suspected are evidence the jungles for excavation and pulses: One site was big in the of looting, such as haphazard survey work, then to help docu- Preclassic period, but then it goes trenches dug into structures. ment artifacts in the laboratory he down; then a Classic site comes The anthropology major had maintains there. up in a totally different area,” Gar- approached Garrison earlier that The 2016 LiDAR survey is rison noted. The processes that academic year with an offer to already the largest remote-sens- caused those pulses and changes assist in his research. ing endeavor in Mesoamerican in the Maya civilization will come “At first I was really hesitant archaeology. Plans are in the through excavation. to draw them on the data, and works for another survey of even “What LiDAR does is give us then Tom just urged me to put greater size, as well. Meanwhile, the most complete background whatever I thought was one down, the work of confirming survey that we’ve ever had to formulate and he would believe me until findings with what’s actually on new questions. So we don’t have the field season, and they actually the ground will continue for years to spend all our field time trying checked if those areas had looter to come, not just at El Zotz but for to come up with the basic layout trenches or not,” she said. the entire area scanned in 2016 as of what’s going on,” Garrison said. Gregory’s work is the basis for well. The compiled data allows an “That’s there. It just leapfrogs us her senior thesis in the Honors unprecedented glimpse of how in terms of the types of things we Program, which explores how re- the Maya civilization developed can look at.” mote sensing technology such as on a regional scale. The collective, LiDAR can aid archaeologists and encompassing scope of under- protect cultural resources, and she standing that can be unlocked hopes to continue studying ar- from the survey was the focus of PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COURTESY PHOTO OF SCIENCE ADVANCEMENT THE FOR SHUTTERSTOCK BY PHOTO
The laser scans revealed these previously undetected Tikal temples This image shows the Tikal temples in Guatemala. that have already been excavated. PHOTO BY ADAM BAKER ADAM BY PHOTO
TIRELESSLY WORKING ON CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
BY KERRY REGAN
n the early 2000s, seven de- verifying ME/CFS by having the approach’s success spread I cades after chronic fatigue syn- patients complete two consec- quickly among ME/CFS suffer- drome (CFS) was first described, utive standard VO2 max tests, ers. Among them was a friend of those who suffered from the which measure the maximum IC exercise and sport sciences disease still struggled to convince amount of oxygen a person can professor Betsy Keller. Keller and the world that something was use during intense exercise, to her friend had been out of touch physically wrong with them. Then gauge cardiovascular fitness for a while when in 2003 the as now, the disease—known out- and aerobic endurance. Where friend approached Keller about side the United States as myalgic healthy people and those with conducting a VO2 max test. The encephalomyelitis (ME)—had no other illnesses are able to repro- friend believed she had ME/CFS diagnostic test, no biomarker or duce their first-day performance but couldn’t afford—nor physically telltale biological sign that the on day two, those with ME/CFS endure—a trip to California, the sufferer was ill, and no treatment have significant drop-offs. nearest place that offered the test. approved by the Food and For patients, these results can Keller agreed to have her in Drug Administration. provide proof of the illness to for dual sessions on the exercise But in Southern California, medical professionals and the and sport sciences department’s a group called the Workwell insurance companies that over- VO2 max test equipment. “On day Foundation had been successfully see disability policies. Word of one, she tested like a low fitness
ithaca.edu/icview | 15 person who was inactive and not to noise and light, dizziness, sore doing too much,” Keller said. “On throat and flu-like indications, and day two, I looked at the data and sleep that fails to refresh, among immediately checked the equip- others. The patient’s exhaustion ment thinking it was out of calibra- worsens with physical, mental, or tion. The test made no sense. emotional exertion, leading to How could measurements drop post-exertion malaise. So, unlike so precipitously? But in fact, the most other illnesses, tradition- equipment was not out of calibra- “I CALL IT LIVING al graded exercise therapy will tion. What I was seeing was real.” CIRCULARLY VERSUS worsen the symptoms. It affects “That was the beginning,” LINEARLY,“ KELLER patients’ ability to function as they Keller said. Fifteen years later, she had previously—to do simple daily has tested about 150 patients, SAID. “HEALTHY tasks, hold a job, go to school, giving her a depth of experience PEOPLE DO TASKS A, B, and participate in family and so- with the disease that is shared by C, D, AND E, AND THEN cial life. For more than 25 percent, a select few. Now she is among the disease leaves them house- the leaders of a new ME/CFS GO TO BED. [ME/CFS bound or even bedridden for collaborative research center SUFFERERS] DO TASK long periods of time, according to based at Cornell University and A, THEN RECOVER, the CDC. encompassing seven other insti- TASK B, THEN Lack of respect for the disease tutions, including IC, funded with extends to the medical commu- a five-year $9.4 million grant from RECOVER, AND SO ON, nity, where Keller notes that many the National Institutes of Health MAKING SURE THEY medical schools don’t include (NIH). The center at Cornell is one HAVE INTERMITTENT the disease in their curriculum of three that the NIH established and many medical professionals last fall; the other two are based RECOVERIES SO continue to incorrectly diagnose at Columbia University and the THAT THEY DON’T the cause as psychosomatic. Jackson Laboratory for Genomic EXACERBATE THEIR Levels of research funding also Medicine in Farmington, Con- reflect the low regard in which the necticut. A data management and SYMPTOMS.“ disease is held. The NIH is by far coordinating center at Research —BETSY KELLER the largest source of public fund- Triangle Institute in North Carolina ing for medical research in the has also been awarded an NIH United States, and ME/CFS has grant to manage the findings of long been among the major dis- the three centers. of NIH funding is a sign that the eases receiving the least funding. Together the centers are un- disease is finally getting the med- In 2017, ME/CFS was receiving dertaking a multifaceted five-year ical and scientific respect it has funding equivalent to $15 per U.S. study that is arguably the most long deserved. Even the disease’s person. By way of comparison, comprehensive research effort name shows a lack of respect, food allergies research receives to date—some would say the first Keller said. Coined by the Centers $79 per person, multiple sclerosis comprehensive research effort for Disease Control and Preven- gets $111, depression $438, and to date—to find the cause of the tion (CDC) in the 1990s, “It lacks HIV/AIDS $3,000. disease. Keller heads the “clinical heft and has really done consider- Ron Davis, ME/CFS researcher core” of the Cornell center’s initia- able harm in terms of legitimacy and professor of biochemistry and tive, leading a team that will col- of the illness,” Keller said. “The genetics at Stanford University, lect VO2 max test and other data typical response when some- noted in the 2017 documentary at the three sites—including IC—to one says, ’I have chronic fatigue Unrest that, for years, many in the feed three investigations, two at syndrome’ is ’Oh, I get tired, too.’ NIH didn’t believe the disease was Cornell and one at Weill Cornell But fatigue is just one part of the real. “Why would you fund Medicine in New York City. symptom complex.” something that’s not real?“ Signs of the disease can also he asked rhetorically. A MISUNDERSTOOD AND include short-term memory and Keller is among those who DISRESPECTED ILLNESS concentration problems, muscle credit a 2015 Institute of Medicine report for helping to elevate ME/ To many ME/CFS patients and joint pain, immune system CFS’s stature. Commissioned by and advocates, the new round issues, headaches, hypersensitivity
16 | 2019 • Spring six federal organizations, includ- ing the CDC, NIH, and Social Security Administration and counting Keller and Davis among its contributors, the report did three important things: • It documented the disease’s impact, reporting that between 836,000 and 2.5 million people in the United States suffer from ME/CFS at a cost of between $17 billion and $24 billion annu- ally in care and lost income. • It awakened the scientific and medical world to the growing Betsy Keller administers V02 max tests to determine whether patients body of evidence pointing to may have ME/CFS.
biological causes for ME/CFS. BAKER ADAM BY PHOTO • It played a role in boosting NIH research funding, which “I’ve never had a patient say, through the exercise test.“ has tripled since the report ’I can’t come back for day two’ of As for finding the cause, a lot came out. their VO2 max test, even though has been learned about ME/CFS I know they don’t feel very good,“ in recent years. The disease affects CHARACTERISTICS OF ME/CFS Keller said. “I’ve had patients who, the autonomic nervous system— ME/CFS appears to be only when we are done testing them, things such as blood pressure, slightly discriminant regarding its ask me to go out into the waiting gastrointestinal activity, sensory victims. Sufferers come from all room and tell their family the stimuli, and the immune system. regions of the world. Whites are results, so they can see that this is What throws the system off is diagnosed more than other eth- not just all in their head.“ difficult to pinpoint, but evidence nicities, but all are affected. Many Of course, the diagnosis also exists for a number of possible with the disease are undiagnosed, has its downside. While recovery physical contributors. especially among minorities. The has been documented in some Many contract the disease after average onset age is between 40 who contracted the disease in exposure to certain viruses, such and 60, but the disease can affect preadolescence, no evidence as Epstein Barr virus, the cause of people at any age. There is a exists of full recovery by those mononucleosis, or another viral significant population of patients who were afflicted as adults. Some infection. The fact that not every- who became ill as children. More achieve a semblance of recovery, one who has those viruses comes than two-thirds are women, but Keller said, by treating the symp- down with ME/CFS suggests that imbalance could be caused toms—such as improving their that genetics play a role. And by a greater reluctance among sleep and learning to manage the significant immune system men to be tested. And while the their energy in hopes of avoiding response—particularly in the disease was first identified in the post-exertion malaise that disease’s early phases—suggests 1934, historical evidence suggests can put them out of commission that it, too, plays a role. The five- it’s been around much longer for days. year study Keller is involved in will than that. “I call it living circularly versus focus on these and other areas. ME/CFS is generally diag- linearly,“ Keller said. “Healthy peo- nosed by excluding alternative ple do tasks A, B, C, D, and E, and KICKING OFF FIVE YEARS diagnoses, a process that then go to bed. [ME/CFS suffer- OF RESEARCH ers] do task A, then recover, task usually requires a frustratingly In the study, Keller and Geoffrey B, then recover, and so on, making long and time-consuming series E. Moore, an Ithaca physician and sure they have intermittent recov- of referrals and sometimes results adjunct graduate faculty member eries so that they don’t exacerbate in faulty diagnoses. The uncer- in IC’s Department of Exercise their symptoms. Knowing their tainty has contributed to patients and Sport Sciences, are respon- tolerance for exertion is important, being a highly motivated group sible for orchestrating three and that’s part of what we learn on the whole. years of VO2 max testing at three
ithaca.edu/icview | 17 locations. Moore’s role is to lead fessor of molecular biology and RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH the screening of test subjects—10 genetics and principal investi- All three areas are on the cut- each year who meet the study’s gator of the grant—who is also ting edge of ME/CFS research, diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS and the leader of the Cornell-based Keller said. Extracellular vesicles 10 healthy control subjects. Keller ME/CFS collaborative research and metabolomic studies have oversees testing and manage- center—oversees a team that is received very little attention, RNA ment of the test data and sam- investigating the role of extracel- sequencing is an emerging area, ples collected at all three sites: lular vesicles. These structures and the brain imaging study is the an infectious disease clinic in carry proteins, lipids, hormones, most exhaustive to date, partic- greater Los Angeles, Weill Cornell and ribonucleic acids (RNAs) ularly for viewing images before Medicine in New York City, and that can influence cell function. and after exercise. the Robert R. Colbert Sr. Wellness Hanson’s team will examine Keller’s testing began in July Clinic in IC’s Center for Health this content before and after and will last for three years. In Sciences, where she also conducts exercise to determine any role the final two years of the five- the testing. Each year, 20 subjects the vesicles might play in the year study, she’ll be involved in will be tested at each site. disease and also study a vast data management and analysis, For each subject, blood and array of metabolic products. and writing reports and scientific urine samples are taken before • Andrew Grimson, associate articles related to the study. She’s and after each exercise session, professor of molecular biology cautious but optimistic about and vital signs are measured and genetics at Cornell, leads what they’ll find. during the workouts—including a team that will sequence RNA “I don’t expect that cause electrocardiogram, blood pres- white blood cells before and and cure will come out of this, sure, oxygen saturation, and ex- after exercise to gain insights though it would be great if it pired ventilatory gas readings—to into immune system responses did,” Keller said. “We hope it will determine peak oxygen con- related to the disease. lead to a closer understanding sumption. At the New York City of the illness, to making patients’ site, subjects also receive brain • Dikoma Shungu, professor of lives better, so we minimize the scans with magnetic resonance physics in radiology at Weill effects of the illness if not find imaging (MRI) equipment and a Cornell Medicine, leads a team what causes and cures it. Finding positron emission tomography that will study the subjects’ brain a biomarker would be a great (PET) scanner before and after scan images, looking for signs of outcome. When I give talks about each session. neuroinflammation and oxida- this, I say my hope is that I’ll never The team feeds their samples tive stress. Previous studies have have to do an exercise test on a and test results to three project suggested that these have a link patient again.” teams: to ME/CFS symptoms. • Maureen Hanson, Cornell pro-
HAVE YOU BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH Ithaca College [email protected] ME/CFS Study Office CHRONIC FATIGUE 336 Smiddy Hall SYNDROME? Phone: (607) 274-7948 953 Danby Road Fax: (607) 274-7797 If you’re interested in Ithaca, NY 14850 participating in the study, contact the study office:
18 | 2019 • Spring PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO
CHASING THE GHOST OF MELESINA TRENCH
BY KELLI B. GRANT ’04
thaca professor Katharine The Hampshire Record Office documents to peruse. I Kittredge went to England in was near the train station, and “I planned to move on and do 2002 looking for the subject of Kittredge says she felt compelled a sampling of any other women her next research paper. What to stop by after paying homage to from that time period, and I just she found was a gripping tale of Austen. A teenager was hogging got stuck on Melesina,” she says. loss, adventure, and romance—the the only computer, so she hauled “She made me laugh, and she has ghost of a Romantic-era poetess the old paper indexes off a shelf a great turn of phrase.” who still haunts her to this day. and started flipping through. “It’s like time travel. You’re Like many good ghost stories, “There was this name that seeing through her eyes, and this one starts with a grave: Jane came up over and over again: she’s looking at everything—what’s Austen’s, in fact. Melesina Chenevix St. George coming up in the garden, what’s Frustration had driven Trench,” Kittredge says. “It sound- happening in London, and what Kittredge to Austen’s grave in ed like something out of Dickens. the latest gossip is in the local Winchester Cathedral. Three What a name! And there were church.” weeks combing national libraries thousands and thousands of doc- The last document Kittredge and local record offices across uments associated with her.” requested before the Hampshire England and she’d come up dry Kittredge’s curiosity got the Record Office closed for the day on prospects for her project. better of her. She requested a few turned out to be a small,
ithaca.edu/icview | 19 unassuming brown journal. But unable to confirm via records, the words on its opening page that Trench and King George moved her to tears: “Frederick III’s youngest son—Prince Trench expired at a quarter before Adolphus, the Duke of eight o’clock in the evening, June Cambridge—were involved. the seventh, 1806—aged two years “The parts of the travel journal eight months and four days.” that Melesina’s son published in Throughout what Kittredge the 1860s depict them as being came to call the “mourning jour- “THERE WAS THIS casual acquaintances,” she says. nal,” Trench tries to work through “But when war was coming to her grief, capturing details and NAME THAT CAME Germany, Melesina was the per- remembrances of her son and UP OVER AND OVER son that the duke took back reaching for comfort from philos- AGAIN: MELESINA to England. He had a ship waiting ophers and poets. It brought the for him on the coast, and he held experience of motherhood in that CHENEVIX ST GEORGE that ship until she was able to time to life, Kittredge says. TRENCH. IT SOUNDED join him.” “There was no doubt in my LIKE SOMETHING The proof lies in the corre- mind that the journal was unique, OUT OF DICKENS. spondence between the two, and that what it offered—a view which isn’t in the archives or any into the most private thoughts of WHAT A NAME! private collection that Kittredge a woman in the past—made it an AND THERE WERE has found. extraordinary find,” Kittredge later THOUSANDS AND “Just the fact that the letters are wrote of the discovery. missing is suspicious. I mean, who She became determined to THOUSANDS OF destroys royal letters?” she says. bring it, and Trench, into the mod- DOCUMENTS “They have to be somewhere.” ern world. ASSOCIATED ARCHIVAL CHALLENGES WITH HER.“ CHASING MELESINA Tracking Trench has proved to The more Kittredge studied the —KATHARINE be a massive undertaking. She Anglo-Irish poetess, the more KITTREDGE was a prolific writer, and many of fascinated she became. her musings—not just published Trench was known as one of work but also personal letters, the great beauties of her day, and journals, and even poetry scraps her early life revolved around high Moonlanders, to be one of the on the back of laundry lists—have society, she says. After she got earliest examples of modern sci- been preserved. married, she juggled her roles as ence fiction. Mary Shelley is hailed “I can say where Melesina was, a wife and mother with those as a as the founder of that genre, but if not every day, then almost every writer, intellectual, and activist. Trench’s story of a human-like race week of her life from age 29 until “She’s just gone through a real- with purple wings—who are “born” her death,” Kittredge says. “She ly rough labor and she’s confined when dug up out of the ground, wrote that often.” to her room for weeks, but she has beginning life as elderly and then “Think about how often we sit her oldest son there copying out aging backward—predates Fran- down and send an email or post the poems that she’s submitting kenstein by two years. something on Facebook,” she to magazines,” Kittredge says. “It’s And the journal that originally says. “We make ourselves known not enough that she’s overseeing gripped Kittredge, about Melesi- on a daily basis. At that time, the a household. She also wants to na’s lost child? post was being delivered twice a keep moving her writing forward.” “The more I think about it, the day. There was no phone, no tele- “Her parenting book wasn’t more I believe that Frederick, the graph. It was a way of connecting quite a best seller, but it was a baby who died and led to the with other people.” steady seller,” Kittredge says. creation of the mourning journal, Trench’s papers still hold some “They say it’s still in print in may have been an illegitimate mysteries: she often used abbre- India somewhere.” son of the Duke of Cambridge,” viations to refer to people in her Kittredge believes Trench’s Kittredge says. social circles. “It’s really frustrating epic poem, Laura’s Dream; or, The She suspects, but has been because there are times when I
20 | 2019 • Spring have no idea who she’s talking living descendants. lenging the status quo in any way. about,” says Kittredge. “Having her descendants The way we have traditionally Whether it’s been luck—or welcome me with open arms has used texts from the past doesn’t nudges from Trench’s ghost— been really delightful,” Kittredge make a space for somebody Kittredge has continued to un- says. “I was surprised they are as like her. She’s in that hazy space earth new details of her story. aware of her as they are. They’re a between popular reading and Trench was orphaned at the family who prizes their past.” historical artifact.” age of 2 and was raised by her Other gaps, Kittredge expects, Kittredge has made inroads, grandfather, the Bishop of Water- will remain unfilled. Trench wrote publishing more than a half-doz- ford. Following his death when under pen names for some of her en journal articles on aspects of she was 12, she spent most of her later work, and although there are Trench’s life and work. A doc- adolescence in and around Dub- teasing references in letters and umentary, from Qina Liu ’13, lin. She married her first husband notebooks, archives are likely to tracked the project and was itself at 19, and he died two years later, be a dead end on those missing published in an international leaving her with one son. She poems and essays. journal that you can watch on moved to England permanently YouTube: Chasing the Ghost of in 1810. Melesina Trench. At this point her health was Kittredge has transcribed significantly damaged by constant the mourning journal and has late-life child bearing, making drafted a biography that she has travel uncomfortable. Her hus- just started shopping to book band Richard Trench continued agents. And Ithaca College has to spend a considerable amount been supportive throughout, says of time in Ireland overseeing Kittredge, providing her with sum- their properties until and after her mer research grants and financing death. research trips. “She was married to Richard “A lot of times, when you teach when Frederick was born, but cal- as much as we do, it’s impossible culating from the age given in the to keep your research going when mourning journal, she was almost you’re in the middle of meet- two months pregnant at the time ing with students and grading A portrait of Melesina Trench of their marriage,” Kittredge says. papers,” says Kittredge, who has IMAGE SUBMITTED IMAGE “This is what makes me suspicious been teaching at Ithaca since that the child may have been 1990. “Having the summers to ful- the Duke of Cambridge’s. We “She was publishing a lot in Ire- ly devote myself to this has been have no record of their meeting land, and because of the troubles crucial. I’ve been really fortunate in January 1803 (when Frederick there, there are huge gaps in the that there’s been a steady level of would have been conceived), but Irish archives,” Kittredge says. support.” at this time he was still unmarried, “It’s especially difficult because Even as Kittredge works to visiting his sister’s house on the she was publishing in very tiny revive Trench’s name, she is far border between Germany and periodicals.” from forgotten. France, so…” “That’s one of the things After she published an A QUEST UNFINISHED that kept me going on this article about Trench in the Finding a modern audience for project: I felt like I had made a Aphra Behn Society’s online Trench hasn’t been easy. promise to her,” Kittredge says. “At journal, Kittredge received an “There’s been some traction, various times Melesina talks about email from a reader who turned but part of the problem is, Mele- wanting to have some level of im- out to be one of Trench’s great, sina isn’t political,” Kittredge says. mortality, wanting people to know great, great granddaughters. That “She’s more of a domestic writer. of her after she’s gone. I think correspondence evolved into an So she’s of interest if you want to she’d be really pleased to know invitation to browse a forgotten learn about the time period or if people are still talking about her, trunk of Trench’s journals, passed you’re looking for an entertaining and that her journal can still make down through one of Trench’s diary. But she isn’t necessarily a people cry.“ sons, and to speak at an event feminist author; she’s not chal- attended by more than 20 of her
ithaca.edu/icview | 21 PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO
DISCOVERING AN UNTAUGHT HISTORY
BY SHERRIE NEGREA
he summer before Gustavo to do that in high school, and it At MEChA meetings, Licón T Licón entered high school in was all based on this passion I had began teaching students from Inglewood, California, he began a to learn about a history I hadn’t El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexi- quest to learn about a culture his been taught.” co about their culture and histo- teachers had never taught him— Discovering why Latin coun- ry. The experience helped him his own. The son of Mexican im- tries were poor and why Latin choose a career path: “I decided migrants, Licón spent the summer Americans had little political that what I wanted to be was a devouring books on the history power in the United States con- professor of Chicano studies,” he of the Aztecs, the U.S. conquest vinced Licón that he wanted to do says. of Mexico, and the riots against something about it. So he joined After earning his PhD in Chicano youth in Los Angeles in a high school club called MEChA, history at the University of South- the 1940s. which translates into Chicanx ern California, Licón became an In just one week, he read a Student Movement of Aztlán (the assistant professor of Latino/a 750-page textbook on Mexican X denoting gender neutrality), studies at Ithaca College’s Center history that had been assigned to an organization that originated for the Study of Culture, Race, and his brother in a community col- in California in 1969 and then Ethnicity in 2010. He decided to lege course. “I just flew through spread to universities and high focus his research on the Chicano that book,” he says. “I continued schools across the country. movement and specifically the
22 | 2019 • Spring organization he was involved in through graduate school— MEChA—the largest and oldest Chicano student organization in the country. Historians have traditionally argued that the Chicano move- ment, which began in United States in the 1960s, ended two decades later. Using student newspaper accounts, Licón, how- ever, shows that the movement continued beyond the 1980s and Gustavo Licón used student newspapers from the 1960s as that MEChA is still active today on primary documents.
college campuses. SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO “The folks that have focused on the movement and just on the ’60s and ’70s have conceptualized First-Generation Student Organi- the movement as having certain zation, which gave him the newly traits—traits that if we look at a lon- created Licón Award this year for ger period, don’t hold up,” Licón his contributions to the group. says. While some historians have He is also a faculty fellow for the argued that the Chicano move- Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar ment was sexist and homophobic, Program, which offers academical- for example, Licón says that ME- ly talented students from under- ChA had embraced feminist and “I WANT LATINO represented ethnic and racial LGBTQ goals by the 1990s. STUDENTS IN MY backgrounds up to full tuition in In his forthcoming book, CLASSES TO BE aid, special seminars with visiting Fractured Unity: MEChA and EMPOWERED BY scholars, and an opportunity to Ideological Dissent, 1969-1999, pursue social justice research on Licón shows that MEChA broad- KNOWING A BIT trips around the world. ened its scope from addressing ABOUT THEIR OWN Licón enjoys drawing from only Mexican-American issues HISTORY AND TO his own background and expe- to those facing immigrants from riences to teach students about Central American countries. BETTER UNDERSTAND the history and struggles of the MEChA’s wide outlook, its em- HOW THEIR Chicano, Mexican, Indigenous, brace of various geographic, COMMUNITIES ARE and Latin American peoples. “I cultural, and ideological groups, want Latino students in my classes however, made it difficult to BEING IMPACTED to be empowered by knowing a maintain unity. BY IMMIGRATION, bit about their own history and “Despite their ideals about AND WHY LATINO to better understand how their how Mexican Americans and communities are being impacted Latinos in general could form COMMUNITIES ARE IN by immigration, and why Latino a united front based on their THE POSITION THAT communities are in the position cultural similarities, there were too THEY ARE TODAY, that they are today,” he says. “And many differences between them AND I WANT TO I want to encourage them to be to create a perfect unity,” Licón part of the change that we want says. “So despite their best efforts ENCOURAGE THEM to make.” to unite these communities, they TO BE PART OF THE were always leaving somebody CHANGE THAT WE out and marginalizing people.” Beyond his research, Licón has WANT TO MAKE.“ worked with many student clubs at Ithaca College, including the —GUSTAVO LICÓN
ithaca.edu/icview | 23 PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO
UNCOVERING SECRETS ABOUT HUMAN DISEASES
BY STEPHEN SHOEMAKER
e-Wen Lo is searching for pur- that dictate how the cell should ent ligands, in any number T pose—at the cellular level. The develop or operate within an or- of combinations. assistant professor of biology re- ganism. If something goes wrong “You can imagine that matrix of searches how proteins determine with that receptor protein, the cell interactions gets very large,” very specific and well-regulated won’t carry out instructions prop- Lo said. cell functions in organisms. erly. In humans, such faulty cellular She uses a model organ- “The interesting question to function can result in disease, ism approach and focuses her me is: how does one thing get its including certain cancers. research on the version of the specificity for all these different Lo is specifically focused on FGF receptor found in a less processes?” she said. “How does it the fibroblast growth factor, or complicated organism: the tiny know when and where it needs to FGF receptor—which can cause worm Caenorhabditis elegans. be, and what it needs to interact a cell to operate any number of She’s examining how different with to do the things that it needs ways depending on the instruc- structures within the worm’s EGL- to do?” tion-bearing protein, or ligand, it 15 receptor protein influence its Cells receive their commands binds with. In complex organisms cellular mechanisms. EGL-15 has like this: A protein that juts out like humans, there are several one receptor capable of binding from the cell connects to external locations on the FGF protein with only two ligands. proteins coded with instructions that can bind with over 20 differ-
24 | 2019 • Spring “The hope is that by learning more about how this receptor “I think that’s one of the rea- functions in this tiny little worm, sons I wanted this job specifically, we can better understand the role at an undergraduate institution,” of the human version in human she said. “When I think about the diseases,” she said. “It’s a much role that people have played in simpler system, and it’s much my life, the most influential ones more easily manipulatable.” have been the ones early on.” Depending on which of the In 2017, then-junior Dallas two ligands EGL-15 binds with, its “IT’S REALLY COOL Fonseca ’18 received both a Barry cell will either play a role in fluid WHEN PEOPLE ARE Goldwater Scholarship—one of regulation in the worm or a role the most distinguished awards in reproduction. A better under- INTERESTED IN WHAT offered in the sciences—and standing of how the receptor YOU’RE STUDYING. an equally competitive Amgen protein works—what turns it on or BUT I’VE REALIZED Scholars Program scholarship to off, so to speak—could eventually spend the summer working in a help inform better drug treatment OVER TIME— lab at the Massachusetts Institute for human diseases in which the ESPECIALLY BEING of Technology. FGF family of protein receptors HERE—THAT WHAT IS Lo helped Fonseca hone his play a role. applications to those scholarships, In 2017, Lo received a grant REALLY SATISFYING IS and she’s just as committed to from the National Institutes of KNOWING THAT YOU helping her students apply to Health totaling $337,519. The CONTRIBUTED NOT conferences or graduate schools. money funds two projects de- JUST ONE SPECIFIC “Being [a smaller school], every signed to understand how EGL-15 student gets all the attention they turns on and off. In the first, genet- FACT OR PIECE OF would ever want. I think it’s really ic sequences in the EGL-15 strand KNOWLEDGE [TO easy to help them find opportu- that play a role in the cell’s two SCIENCE], BUT nities and then to help them get possible functions are identified those opportunities,” she said. from the two sections known to SOMEONE WHO She also encourages her stu- bind with ligands. Then mutated COULD POTENTIALLY dents to engage with their com- genes are introduced to deter- CHANGE OTHER munities about science in general mine what specific components and to pay forward their own are interacting with EGL-15. PEOPLE’S LIVES positive influences whenever they The project isolates mutated AND SCIENCE.“ can. “We are not going to suck versions of the EGL-15 protein in as human beings” is an unofficial a test tube. Some of those mu- —TE-WEN LO mantra in her lab. tations are confirmed to prohibit “It’s really cool when people the reproductive role of the cell. are interested in what you’re Ground-up worms are added to studying,” she admits. “But I’ve re- the tube to see which proteins in alized over time—especially being the worms interact with the mutat- here—that what is really satisfying ed receptor. is knowing that you contributed not just one specific fact or piece MENTORING STUDENTS of knowledge [to science], but The grant money also funds un- someone who could potentially dergraduate student researchers change other people’s lives in Lo’s lab and allows her students and science. I feel like it’s a bigger to attend conferences to bolster impact in that way.” their academic and professional portfolios. For Lo, the opportu- nities to mentor students are the most rewarding part of Te-Wen Lo works with Dallas her research. Fonseca ’18 in the lab. PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE GIOVANNI BY PHOTO
ithaca.edu/icview | 25 four
YEARS AT IC
In September 2014, we asked eight first-year students from across the college to participate in a photo project. We asked them to bring something meaningful to them to the shoot: a sketchbook, a piece of sporting equipment, an instrument. We kept in touch with them throughout their four years on campus, and in spring 2018, we asked them to return to the studio and talk about how they had changed during that time at IC. Here are their stories.
Visit ithaca.edu/icview to watch video interviews.
WRITING BY CELISA CALACAL '18, NICHOLAS FUSTOR '18, HALLE GEORGE '18, KRISTEN MIRAND '20, TARA STACY '18, AND KELLY TWARDZIAK '18 PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACOB BEIL '15, ADAM BAKER, CARL HYERDAHL ’16, NOAH LEVIN ’18, AND GIOVANNI SANTACROCE
26 | 2019 • Spring CHANEL UNDERWOOD
HOMETOWN: Lusby, Maryland MAJOR: Business Administration with a Concentration in Finance ACTIVITIES: MLK Scholar, President of the National Association of Black Accountants, Project Generations, Whalen Academic Symposium, Sister to Sister, African Latino Society
“I definitely feel more confident when I speak. I know now that hard work pays off, so when I walk into a room, I earned the right to be there. I also feel a lot more grateful. I know I wouldn’t be anywhere without the help of other people, so I’m very humble. I’ve enjoyed my experience, and I’ve learned a lot about the world. It wasn’t just Ithaca or my finance classes; it was a lot bigger than that. I hope one day I can help people from my community, and help make sure they have the opportunity to learn about the world, too. I have a job offer from Ernst & Young, one of the top big four financial firms in the world. But I also took the LSAT, did well, and plan on going to law school in two to three years.”
Underwood started working in the financial services organization advisory department of Ernst & Young in October.
FIRST YEAR FOURTH YEAR
ithaca.edu/icview | 27 TYLER REIGHN
HOMETOWN: Topton, Pennsylvania MAJOR: Film, Photography, and Visual Arts ACTIVITIES: MLK Scholar, Brothers for Brothers, Diversity Peer Educator, Student Leadership Consultants, ICLA
“The POC at IC protests changed my whole perception of college. It reaffirmed for me that there are good people in the world. There are amazing people at this school that will have your back through anything. That year was really difficult for me, and coming through that not just with a new president but leaving a lasting legacy at this college meant so much to me and the other people who put in the time to stand up for something we believed in. That taught me to stand up for my values and that taking action means more than saying a few good words. I’m going to miss the people. The people at Ithaca College are special, and there’s something about this community that just attracts a special kind of person. I truly believe that there are some of the kindest and most genuine people at this school.”
Reighn took a job with Dim Mak records in Los Angeles last summer.
FIRST YEAR FOURTH YEAR
28 | 2019 • Spring AMANDA SCHELL
HOMETOWN: Amesbury, Massachusetts MAJOR: Business Administration with a Concentration in Finance ACTIVITIES: Captain of the Field Hockey Team, Leadership Academy, Study Abroad in Milan, Italy, Student Athletic Advisory Council FOURTH YEAR FIRST YEAR Executive Board
“[Participating] in the Leadership Academy for athletes in itself. Now I feel less dependent on [my parents]. I was super motivational and a good learning experience. studied abroad sophomore year. I didn’t even go with [I learned] leadership skills, qualities, and strategies. I anyone that I knew. I just went, and I did my thing. I was think all of those have helped me develop as a really in a foreign country and very far away from my family and good leader, and will help me in the real world as well. kind of had to fend for myself. Those life skills have made My experiences have shaped me to be more confident me grow.” and more mature. I’m from a really small town in Massachusetts, so coming here was a big deal. I was Schell found work as a strategic alliance dealer payment six hours away from my family, and that was a transition associate at MFS Investment Management in Boston.
MONICA CHEN
HOMETOWN: Carlisle, Massachusetts MAJOR: Writing ACTIVITIES: MLK Scholar, President of IC China Care Club, Asian American Alliance, Studied Abroad in Dublin, Ireland, Writing Center Tutor FOURTH YEAR FIRST YEAR
“I’ve always been the type of person who tries to predict of the most incredible experiences I’ve had throughout everything that was going to happen—so I have a five- college have been the ones that I didn’t think were going year plan. I had that with college: ‘These are the classes to happen.” I’m going to take; this is the major I’m going to have.’ But I enjoyed a lot of classes that I didn’t think I was going to Chen is now working in marketing and communications at take. I met a lot of people I didn’t expect to meet. I did a the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. lot of research that I didn’t think I was going to do. Some
ithaca.edu/icview | 29 MAX DENNING
HOMETOWN: Portland, Oregon MAJOR: Journalism ACTIVITIES: The Ithacan, Park Scholar, Feminists United
FOURTH YEAR FIRST YEAR
“The Ithacan provided me with a lot of my structure. That a time that really taught me: If you want to be a journalist, includes a friend group, a social setting to thrive in, a you need to do it right. You need to work really hard at workplace to do good work in, and an office that allowed it. And I think that semester taught me how to be a better me to get work done and socialize with my peers and journalist and writer and also how to be a better student feel like I was being productive in. It’s also a place that I at Ithaca College.” think I did some of my best work and some of the work that I’m most proud of. During fall 2015 when there were Denning now works as a reporter for The Observer in La protests on campus, I was assistant news editor. That was Grande, Oregon.
SAMANTHA BROWN
HOMETOWN: Camden, New York MAJOR: Athletic Training ACTIVITIES: Figure Skating Club, Ithaca Athletic Training Students’ Association, Honors Residential Learning Community
FOURTH YEAR FIRST YEAR
“My most challenging experience here was in the fall of But I think I’ve just become more resilient in facing my junior year. I was working with the football team as changes that come into my life. I’ve been forced to deal one of their student athletic trainers. It was my first time with some very big changes, and learning how to cope working with a team every day of the week. There were with that has made me a much stronger person overall.” 120 student-athletes, and they all needed something. It was a real struggle. I actually cried a couple times on the Brown is a licensed athletic trainer at the University of field, and I genuinely thought I was going to change my Wisconsin–Eau Claire for women’s basketball, swimming major and not be an athletic trainer because I couldn’t and diving, and outdoor track and field. handle the pressure of doing it every day at that level.
30 | 2019 • Spring MORGAN ATKINS
HOMETOWN: Stillwater, Oklahoma MAJOR: Music in Combination with an Outside Field (Communication Management and Design) ACTIVITIES: Leadership Scholar, Active Minds, Student Leadership Institute, Various Ensembles including the Ithaca College Sinfonietta and Concert Band
“I was much shyer as a freshman. I didn’t have any confidence in my abilities, and I think that’s a little bit different now. If I were to go into a situation where I didn’t know anything, I’d still be comfortable with myself and accept the challenge and tell myself, ‘I can do this.’ I’ve had a lot of support from my professors. Without their support and encouragement, I probably would not be as confident as I am. But also having peer support and a sense of engagement is really encouraging, as well.”
Atkins moved to Brooklyn this fall and has been grateful for the support of her IC friends.
FIRST YEAR FOURTH YEAR
ithaca.edu/icview | 31 MONIKA HUOT
HOMETOWN: Phnom Penh, Cambodia MAJOR: Applied Economics ACTIVITIES: American Marketing Association, International Club of Ithaca College, Student Leadership Institute, IC Progressives, Certified IT Technician
“When I was a freshman, I was always nervous because I didn’t know what I was going to come across, who I was going to meet, or what kind of friends I was going to make. And I feel like now as a senior, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with that, and I think I’m able to express myself a lot more, especially in the classroom. When you’re a new student, it’s hard to speak up. But now I think I’m more vocal, and I think that’s a good change. My advice to first-year students is to always beopen to new opportunities and to meeting new people because you never know who you’re going to meet and what kind of opportunities you will get just from being open.”
Huot is getting a master's degree in economics from the University of Manchester in England.
FIRST YEAR FOURTH YEAR
32 | 2019 • Spring CONNECTIONS
DEAR IC FRIENDS,
Did you know that every person who graduates from IC is auto- matically a member of the Ithaca College Alumni Association? You get access to networks in your community and on campus that help you maintain your IC connections. I hope you’ve tak- en advantage of your membership with events in your area or joined us for Alumni Weekend this fall. Perhaps, like me, you’re an IC “super fan.” As super fans, we’ve dedicated ourselves beyond membership to contributing our time, talent, and treasure to Ithaca College. There are many ways that super fans can get involved. Whether we volunteer for our regional chapter, host admitted students in our homes, PHOTO SUBMITTTED PHOTO become admissions volunteers, or help with advocacy groups on campus, we commit to preserving our strong bond with IC. The Alumni Association Board of Directors is a select cohort of super fans. Board members are alumni who inclusively cultivate lifelong IC connections. The AABD seeks to enrich social and professional relationships among alumni who want to promote creative collaboration and continuous learning. The board supports IC’s mission and continuously builds a culture of participation and philanthropy. The AABD also brings the alumni perspective to the table. For instance, as board members we were among the first IC or- ganizations to focus on minority voices on campus, creating an AABD Diversity and Inclusion Committee to organize thought- ful programs and conversations for the campus community. As with all AABD committees, the Diversity and Inclusion Com- mittee is led by an AABD member—in this case Tanya Hutchins ’89—and it actively engages our diverse IC community. I am immensely proud of the comprehensive way the Diversity and Inclusion Committee brings alumni, students, staff, and faculty of all backgrounds together. To learn more about the Alumni Association Board of Directors, please visit alumni.ithaca.edu. If you’d like to get involved, please email me at [email protected].
I look forward to hearing from you, AMI MAKI ’94 President, Alumni Association Board of Directors
ithaca.edu/icview | 33 ALUMNI NOTES
1963 organization that gives free books the violin soloist in the 2017–18 to needy children. concert season performing Méditation from the opera 1975 Thaïs, and plays with the Con DAVID M. Brio Orchestra. KLEINFELDER retired this year after 42 years in education. He coached boys’ and girls’ soccer and tennis for nearly four decades.
Pictured are Bill Diehl ’63 (center) and David won several state and Jim Wolan ’03 (right) with Jim’s son regional championships at Dreher Kristopher at Take Your Child to Work day High School, in Columbia, South at ABC-TV in April. Bill is a longtime Carolina. In 2016, he was inducted correspondent at ABC while Jim is the air operations manager. to the South Carolina High School Jonathan Towne ’78 and Joan Vartanian Soccer Coaches Association Hall Winters ’81 performed with the Eastern 1966 of Fame. Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. SY BRANDON was named conductor of Arizona’s 1977 1979 Cottonwood Community Band JAMES ESTES MILLER, DPT, was SCOTT FREEMAN was in January 2018. He continues to voted by his fellow board members unanimously elected chief judge of compose and was selected by to serve as president of the Arizona the Second Judicial District Court the national music fraternity Delta State Board of Physical Therapy for by his peers on November 17, Omicron for the 2018 Thor Johnson 2018. This is the eighth year that 2017. Prior to his career as a judge, Memorial Commission. James has served on the board. Scott led a distinguished legal career emphasizing advocacy for 1972 DENISE MORGANTI was inducted individuals accused of crime. into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame. BARRY SMITH was inducted into She was honored for her years of HANS VAN DER MARS was the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of acting, singing, and directing in inducted into the SHAPE (Society Fame. Currently the director of area theatres. She also performed of Health and Physical Educators) player evaluation for the Chicago in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in America Hall of Fame. Hans Blackhawks, he also served as head 2015 and 2017. A former speech serves as program director for coach of the Elmira College men’s pathologist, Denise works for the Arizona State University’s physical ice hockey team. Barry is a member Department of Homeland Security. education teacher education of the Ithaca College Athletic Hall program and its master's in of Fame. 1978 physical education program. 1973 JONATHAN TOWNE is wrapping He has written over 100 up a 30-year career with the U.S. presentations, spoken all over TISH RABE traveled to Hawaii Coast Guard Band by traveling to the world, and authored three to visit the children and parents Russia, England, Japan, and textbooks and many textbook at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor– Taiwan. He has been the band’s chapters. He has served on SHAPE Hickam and gave a free book to drum major for 24 years. Jonathan America’s board of directors; the every child. She travels to schools is a member of the Eastern President’s Council on Fitness, around the world doing author Connecticut Symphony (ECSO) and Sports, and Nutrition science visits and getting students excited Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber board; and an education sector about reading and writing. Her Orchestras, and has been the advisory panel for the National Cat in the Hat book There’s No clarinet instructor at the University Physical Activity Plan Alliance, Place Like Space! was on the Wall of Rhode Island for the past 10 informing and influencing policies Street Journal‘s Best-Selling Books years. Joan Vartanian Winters ’81 promoting healthy physical activity list for three weeks in a row. Her is currently an orchestra director in schools across the country. latest book On the First Day of and string teacher at several public First Grade was just released. She schools in Waterford, Connecticut. also sits on the advisory board of She is the principal second violin Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit with the ECSO and appeared as
34 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI NOTES
1981 Formerly, Amy was Jersey, where he has won three MICHELLE RUBIN retired from the group vice president of state titles. a 30-year career as a home care Macy’s Parade and Entertainment physical therapist at South Nassau Group. Last year, she launched Hospital in North Carolina. Merry Wonderer, a strategic and creative agency geared towards 1982 building immersive activations, marketing, and branded ELLEN NELSON exhibited her entertainment programs. artwork at the Boyer Gallery at the Hill School’s Center for the Arts. 1989 Her installation, titled Phototrophic, TJ GAMBA has been named head is an experience designed for all five of the senses and is a coach of the Cayuga Community College baseball program that Brian Fruscio ‘90 (left) and Joe Mantegna ‘91 celebration of our connection with nature. The main focus of will begin play in 2019. TJ played coached at the Albert Schweitzer Games in Mannheim, Germany. the exhibition will be a 19' x 19' baseball at Ithaca and spent several seasons in the minor leagues labyrinth. Ellen has been teaching 1993 art for more than 30 years and is before becoming a coach. Prior completing her master’s degree in to accepting the position, he JENNIFER RODGERS has been art education. coached the past two seasons for named the artistic director/ a minor-league affiliate of the conductor for the Everett 1986 Miami Marlins. Chorale, a 60-voice chorus in Everett, Washington. Aside from BERNIE STENTO was awarded the conducting, she does research Newell National Athletic Trainer of focused on the musical self-image the Year Award for 2017–18 based of adult amateur singers. Her on his exemplary displays of service article on developing a language and leadership in the local athletic of resonance for adult amateur community. Bernie has been an choirs was published in the April athletic trainer for 28 years and has 2018 issue of the journal Choral. been working at Chesterton High Jennifer has worked as a choral School in Chesterson, Indiana, conductor, voice teacher, and since 2000. performer as well. She is the Pictured above (left to right) is J. Rupert cofounder, along with fellow Thompson ’86, Carl Hansen ’99, and Anthony 1990 alumnus Tim Coles '95, of Plunge! Carbone ’98 at the Meet the Nominees MICHAEL GIANURSIO was named Cabaret, a nonprofit theater for Reality Television Symposium at the 2018 Directors Guild of America Awards executive vice president and chief company that works with social on January 25. Anthony was executive lending officer at Fairport Savings issues through music. producer for the ABC pilot Encore, which was Bank. He has more than 20 years of nominated for the award. Rupert was director experience in commercial credit, 1995 and executive producer for 32 episodes of lending, and deposits. He was also Fear Factor that aired on MTV. Anthony was MICHAEL FAVREAU was selected also an executive producer and showrunner a bank examiner for the Office of to play in the pit orchestra for for Fear Factor. Carl is currently the director of the Comptroller of the Currency the Broadway musical War Paint. long-form production at Fox Sports. in Syracuse. He was also featured (playing oboe, clarinet, English horn, and 1991 1987 tenor saxophone) on the original JOE MANTEGNA was selected as Broadway cast recording. AMY KULE has been selected as head coach of the USA Select the new head of the Rose Parade Basketball Team for the Albert KEITH STERLING Development Office. As the chief Schweitzer Tournament in was named the new creative and development officer, Germany, where under-18 national public information Amy will oversee broadcast teams representing Europe, South manager for the partnerships, parade participants, America, North America, Asia, and City of Beverly and strategic partnerships Africa compete. Brian Fruscio ’90 Hills. As the while advising on the overall served as assistant coach. primary media entertainment and creative Currently, Joe is a coach at Blair spokesperson for the city, elements of the Rose Parade. Academy in Blairstown, New he oversees all communication
ithaca.edu/icview | 35 ALUMNI NOTES
strategy. He joins the city from Anaheim Elementary School District, where he was director NETWORK NIGHTS 2019 of communications and public information. 1996 STEPHANIE MELTZER-PAUL was appointed vice president of digital and loyalty marketing for Dunkin’ Brands, where she will lead the DDPerks rewards program, as well as digital efforts such as Dunkin’ Donuts on-the-go ordering. Previously, Stephanie held positions at BJ’s Wholesale and Starwood Hotels and Resorts in various consumer marketing IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU DO. leadership roles. IT’S ABOUT WHO YOU ARE. 2000 JIM CAVALLINI was named director of performance and sport science for the New York Mets. In Join us this winter at one of our Network Nights. this role, he oversees the processes These events bring together alumni and students to and people that impact player make connections and get to know one another. You performance, working with athletic can give students perspective on life after college and trainers, physical therapists, and strength and conditioning tell them about your successes and struggles . . . coaches to ensure superb player and the insights you’ve gained from both. performance. Previously, he was the program director in the human performance program at U.S. Army JOIN US: Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He New York City has also worked at the University of Monday, January 7, 2019 Virginia as a performance lead for the men’s lacrosse, wrestling, and Boston women’s volleyball teams. Wednesday, January 9, 2019
2002 Washington, D.C. AARON VOGEL will perform on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 the featured stage at the Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis in March. The festival showcases For more information or to register, the top high school concert bands visit ithaca.edu/networknights. in the country. Aaron is the director of bands at Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, Arizona. Everyone is welcome! If you anticipate needing accommodation or 2005 have questions about the physical access provided or the event in NATE VIEBROCK joined general, please contact us at (866) 442-2586 or [email protected] LendingTree as the company’s as far in advance as possible. compliance counsel. In addition, Nate was selected to participate in Hosted by Career Services and the Office of Engagement and Constituent Relations the 2018 Mecklenburg County Bar Leadership Institute, a program
36 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI NOTES designed to identify and develop International Beer Trophy attorneys in Charlotte, North in Germany. Carolina, into leaders in their local community and legal profession. 2009 Prior to joining LendingTree, Nate NICHOLAS KELLY has won six worked as an attorney at Bradley national and international awards Arant Boult Cummings. for choral composition including the Edwin Fissinger Choral 2006 Composition Prize. Several of DOMINICK DIORIO, a conductor his compositions are published and composer, had his work with Pavane Publishing, and Gathering premiered at the Alice he has composed for several Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center of Canada’s top choirs. Nick in New York City. The piece for also teaches private theory and chorus, vocal soloists, and wind composition lessons in Penticton, symphony was commissioned British Columbia, and conducts a Have you ever for the University of Illinois community choir and orchestra. sesquicentennial and was imagined living performed by the University PETER SACHS is a senior in “gorges” of Illinois Wind Symphony and account executive of corporate Chamber Singers. Dominick has partnerships with the New York Ithaca again? been an associate professor of Mets. He has returned to baseball choral conducting at the Indiana after spending five years with Come and work for Syracuse and Holy Cross /Outfront University Jacobs School of Music your alma mater! since 2012. Athletics in corporate partnerships with WME-IMG and Outfront Browse the variety 2007 Media Sports respectively. At Holy of jobs available at CHARLIE STEPHENS is Cross, he became the first general ithaca.edu/jobs. We a global commercial real estate manager in the athletic program’s might have just what advisor at Cushman & Wakefield history and worked to grow the you’re looking for! in Manhattan. He also hosts sponsorship revenue. In addition the Culture Podcast, where he to his work with the Mets, he also interviews entrepreneurs and represents the New York Excelsior founders on how their journey (NYXL) team in the high-tech has inspired, created, and e-sports Overwatch League. taking on this role and performing evolved culture. around the globe, Corey has 2010 become a part of the Pushcart JOE STERNE started his own coffee CHRISTINE OLIVIER assumed Players education program, roasting company, Obvious Coffee, the role of executive director teaching theater part time at the in Twinsburg, Ohio, in 2016 with his of the Garner Arts Center, an John F. Kennedy School in Newark, wife, Julia. They have since opened interdisciplinary nonprofit arts New Jersey, where he works with their first coffee bar in Aurora, organization that produces and middle and high school students Ohio. The company’s products are presents site-specific, immersive with special needs. shipped nationwide. arts experiences. Christine had served as the organization’s 2011 RYAN WIBBY and TED RISK first program director since 2015. Prior CHRISTOPHER BODKIN, opened the doors to Wibby to joining Garner, Christine served cofounder and CEO at Circular Blu Brewing in September 2015 in as the director of programming for and data coordinator at Practice Longmont, Colorado. Since then, the Mercyhurst University Institute Greenhealth, was named one they have received several awards for Arts & Culture. She was also of 2018’s “30 under 30” by the for their craft lagers, including a named one of the “top 40 under 40 GreenBiz Group and the World silver medal for Moondoor Dunkel leaders changing the face of Erie” Business Council for Sustainable at the Great American Beer Festival by the Erie Reader. Development. The elections in Denver, and grand gold and are based on a global search silver medals, respectively, for COREY WHELIHAN was cast in the for emerging leaders across Lightshine Helles and Volksbier Pushcart Players’ production of The sectors who are shaping the next Vienna, both at the Frankfurt Velveteen Rabbit. In addition to generation of sustainable business.
ithaca.edu/icview | 37 ALUMNI NOTES
2012 got her start in politics when has performed in a more recent LUCY GRAM was one of four she began working in Schumer’s musical as Viola in Soul Doctor. winners of the 42nd Humana Westchester regional office as the Festival Emerging Leaders staff assistant/deputy regional 2015 Grant. The Actors Theatre grant director soon after graduating LINDSAY PERRELLI works for celebrates emerging practitioners from Ithaca. Education Inc., a company that fostering and working in theatre. partners with Boston Children’s MEGAN ORT performed in a Lucy is a freelance director of Hospital to ensure children are one-night-only dance narrative in theatre and film in New York City being educated during their stay. Manhattan in a show titled Alexa. who specializes in the development As the first lead teacher at Boston The show narrates a couple’s of new work. In June, she directed Children’s Hospital, she teaches relationship as influenced by an Francis Beaumont and John children of all ages, working with Amazon Alexa. Megan, one of the Fletcher’s The Maid’s Tragedy for their school to ensure that each 10 cast members, collaborated to Pocket Universe at the Access student feels confident about create the show, which sheds light Theatre Gallery in New York City. returning to the classroom, no on not only the comedy within matter the length of their stay. PERRI GROSS was recognized as the device but also the risks it one of New York City’s “comedians holds. Previously, Megan, a New to look out for in 2018” by social York–based performer, made media platform Mogul, as well as her Broadway debut in Cats and being featured in the New Talent Showcase at stand-up comedy venue Carolines. Perri currently works at Midroll, a podcast network that owns Earwolf and Stitcher, helping shows work with sponsors. Formerly, she worked as a digital account manager at ESPN.
CHRISTOPHER LAROSA received the Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Award to compose a new piece for the Indiana University New Music Ensemble. His piece, Nights of 1998, sets Ernest Hilbert’s poem of the same title for baritone singer and sinfonietta. Nights of 1998, RECOGNIZE THE along with another alternately commissioned organ solo, SERVICE, TALENT, received their world premieres in March 2018. Christopher is AND COMMITMENT also an associate instructor and course coordinator at the Indiana OF YOUR FELLOW University Jacobs School of Music, IC ALUMNI where he teaches music theory and musicianship skills. 2013 Submit a nomination for the RACHAEL HARTFORD was named press secretary for U.S. Senator 2019 ALUMNI AWARDS Sherrod Brown in his Washington, ithaca.edu/alumni-nominations D.C., office after nearly five years of working for Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. She previously Deadline for nominations is January 30, 2019. served as Schumer’s deputy national press secretary. Rachael
38 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI NOTES
2016 2018 Celebrations SKYLER BOCCIOLATT works as RACHEL BALZANO is a program THOMAS APPLEGATE ’08 and both the head camera technician specialist in Ithaca College’s School CAROLINE CARTY ’09; July 22, at Cinema Support Los Angeles of Humanities and Sciences. Rachel 2017, in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. and as a director of photography works alongside the dean’s office for music videos and comedy in supporting the Summer Scholars JESSICA GRUNENBERG ’10 and sketches. He and Canon Brownell Program and the Experiential BRIAN MERCER ’10; September 17, ’15 founded RadFox LLC. Their Learning Program and initiatives. 2017, in Aquebogue, New production company focuses on She also supports the Exploratory York. Heather Pusey ’10 was producing music videos, short Program and serves as a liaison a bridesmaid. films, and aerial cinematography, for faculty, staff, students, parents, some of which can be seen in Nick and other constituencies regarding NATHANIEL CRIDER ’12 and Dr. Jonas’ “Find You” music video and program requirements, logistics, Jensen Kober Henry; February 14, acoustic video. and application process 2018, in Newark, New Jersey. and outcomes. ELI GOBRECHT was selected by Introductions the Denver Outlaws in the Major DAKOTA COLLINA joined Ithaca GAIL WEISSINGER HEFFRON ’00, League Lacrosse supplemental College’s Division of College MS ’01, and SEAN HEFFRON ’99: draft, and played with the team Relations and Advancement as Kylynn Rose, December 1, 2017; throughout the season. In addition, a leadership gifts officer. Dakota joins older brothers, Austin and Eli completed his master’s degree graduated with a bachelor Owen. in management at Durham of science in communication University and was hired as the management and design. During JENNIFER DOHERTY ’02 and defensive coordinator for the his senior year, he completed a Tom Schoenberg: Juniper Mason O’Dea High School boys’ lacrosse senior internship within the division Doherty Schoenberg, December team in Seattle, Washington. He is and was heavily involved with the 4, 2017. also a coach and curriculum and planning of the Weekend on South recruiting coordinator at CitySide Hill, which was part of the college’s BRIAN DELANEY ’04 and Stefanie Lax, an organization that offers 125th anniversary celebration. Delaney: Brynn Vera, February 9, camps, clinics, and travel teams in 2018; joins older brother, Eamonn. Washington state. MARIO FONTANA ’04 and 2017 BROOKE ALDRICH ’05: Miles JEANNETTE-MARIE LEWIS won ENTER THE Felix, May 22, 2018; joins older the flute III/piccolo position with DAVID P. ’60 sister, Addison. the Catskill Symphony Orchestra and a substitute position with AND SUSAN W. ANNE WALTERS CUSTER ’05 and ROGER CUSTER ’04: Laura the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. WOHLHUETER In April, she won a flute position Catherine, December 20, 2017; with the U.S. Air Force Academy JAZZ COMPOSITION joins older brother, Peter. Band. In the fall, she played with CONTEST BETH GARDINER LEIBENSPERGER the U.S. Air Force Concert Band, ’05 and ERIC LEIBENSPERGER ’05: Marching Band, and Woodwind Hazel Jane, January 7, 2018. Quintet. Additionally, she spends her summers teaching woodwinds, Vincent Gardner, lead NATE VIEBROCK ’05 and Courtney piano, and voice on Long Island. trombonist with Jazz at Viebrock: Leon Oliver, February 24, Lincoln Center Orchestra, 2018; joins older sister, Jean. JACOB SHIPELY began his will perform the winning postgraduate career performing at composition at a concert CHARLIE STEPHENS ’08 and the Hangar Theatre and the Cider DIANA CARONIA ’08: Charles on May 2, 2019. Mill Playhouse in upstate New Joseph, October 4, 2017. York. From there, Jacob moved to New York City, where he is a main ithaca.edu/jazzcontest LAUREN HUGHES ’09, MS ’11, and character in the touring production James Hughes: Frances Railay, of Amazing Grace, which takes him February 26, 2018. across the country. Deadline is February 1, 2019.
ithaca.edu/icview | 39 ALUMNI NOTES
NATE MARCH ’11 and Rachel Augustine’s Parish in Baldwinsville, March: Hudson Robert, February New York, singing in the choir and 5, 2018. serving in numerous ministries. She is survived by her parents, Richard TO PLACE AN JESSICA WELCH SHEA ‘03 and and Sally; sisters, Cathy Gray ALUMNI NOTE, Matt Shea: Drake James, May 21, and Holly Judd; brother, Robert; Celebration, 2018; joins brother, Davis, and husband, Ross Gallagher; and two Introduction, or sister, Drew. children, Logan and Leora. Farewell, please visit Farewells JOHN RICHARD “JACK” PAVIA ithaca.edu/icview and JR., December 12, 2017; in Ithaca, fill out the online form. JOHN A. CONROY ’77, April 7, New York, at age 85. Jack began 2017, in Grosse Ile, Michigan, at teaching at Ithaca College in 1970, ICView reserves the right to age 61. After graduating from following stints at Adirondack edit for length and clarity. Ithaca, he moved to Detroit for a Community College in Hudson job with General Motors, where Falls, New York, and for the Notes can also he worked for 30 years before University of Maryland while be mailed to retiring. John loved to travel to stationed in Hokkaido, Japan. see his friends and family, and he ICView At Ithaca, he spent 35 years visited Ithaca College frequently. Ithaca College teaching the history of Japan, as He was involved in many volunteer 953 Danby Road well as the broader history of East organizations and sang in his Ithaca, NY 14850-7002 Asia and maritime history. After church choir. John is survived by graduating from Lehigh University PHOTOS his wife, Barbara; two children, Jack and obtaining a master’s degree Photos should be at least and Katy; daughter-in-law, Ginny; from Clark University, Jack began 3.5 inches wide and have granddaughter, Grace; brothers, predoctorate work before joining a resolution of at least Tom, Brian, and Jimmy; and the U.S. Army in 1956. A specialist 300 dpi. If you mail a sister, Ann. in military intelligence, he was glossy print to us, please MICHELLE MILLER MARION ’84, honorably discharged in 1960. Jack make sure to include your February 10, 2018; in Warren, is survived by his wife of 62 years, contact information and Pennsylvania, at age 55. Michelle Ann Bodino Pavia; son, John III; and the names of any people earned her doctorate in physical brother, William. in the photo. therapy from Chatham University KATHLEEN ANN SCHLOUGH, May FAREWELLS in 2007. She was employed as 25, 2018; in Trumansburg, New Farewells honor alumni, a physical therapist at Clinical York, at age 65. A professor of current or retired Therapeutics. She is survived by physical therapy at Ithaca College employees, and students her husband, Cole, their two sons, from the mid ’90s until a few weeks who have passed away. two daughters-in-law, and before her death, Kathy earned an Space limitations may one granddaughter. undergraduate degree from the compel us to include AMY E. HEIM ’03, June 11, 2018; University of Pittsburgh in 1974. only career, military, and in Syracuse, New York, at age 36. She went on to earn a master’s volunteer activities. After graduating from Ithaca with a degree from Long Island University This Alumni Notes section degree in psychology, Amy earned and a doctorate from Rocky includes news that was her master’s degree in social work Mountain University. She spent received by July 15, 2018. from Syracuse University. From many years working for the Special Because of the nature of a 2008 to 2014, Amy served as the Children’s Center (now Racker) in tri-annual publication and quality improvement specialist Ithaca, as well as at Cayuga Medical the volume of notes we for the Onondaga County Head Center. During her time at Ithaca receive, you should expect Start program, run by PEACE Inc., College, she was instrumental in to see your note about six where she helped the program building the college’s doctoral months after you submit deliver services more effectively. physical therapy program. She is your information. She continued her work as an predeceased by her sister, Mary administrative social worker for Elizabeth, and survived by her son, Elmcrest Children’s Center from Colin Hinkley; brothers, James, 2014 to 2018. She was very active Michael, and Chris Byers; sister, in her faith community at St. Suzanne Black; stepdaughter, Suzie Brache; and stepson, Peter.
40 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI PROFILES DISCOVERING A BRIGHTER FUTURE Steven Van Slyke ’78 was inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame
BY KERRY REGAN
Little did Steven Van Slyke ’78 know when he started working at Kodak that his first assignment would become his life’s work.
In the months before Van Slyke arrived at Kodak, a submittedPhoto scientist working there had discovered that applying voltage to an experimental organic solar cell caused it to emit light. While unsure what Kodak could do with summers spent in Ithaca, making good friendships with the discovery, management decided to investigate classmates and professors,” Van Slyke said. “And I got a fantastic chemistry education.” further. That’s why they hired Van Slyke. After graduation, he was a week away from Nearly 40 years later, technology based on that beginning his PhD studies when he decided he’d “had phenomenon is used for the displays of more than half enough of school,” he said. He called Bergmark for of the one billion smartphones manufactured annually. employment recommendations. Kodak topped the list. And organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), as the For his first 15 years at Kodak, Van Slyke explored technology is known, have an even brighter future, the fundamental science of electroluminescence. His promising to enable curved and folding smartphones, joint paper with Tang describing this work, “Organic better-quality television screens than today’s liquid Electroluminescent Diodes,” has more citations than crystal displays (LCDs), more pleasing room lighting, any paper in the field—15,000 as of 2017. and brilliant fashion statements via OLED clothing. In the mid 1990s, Van Slyke’s focus shifted to process engineering, scaling the technology for manufacturing and working with Asian companies interested in commercializing it. In 1996, he facilitated I have great memories of the work and technology licensing to Pioneer for the first commercial the summers spent in Ithaca. OLED application: a monochrome car audio display. And he helped arrange a joint venture with Sanyo to manufacture the world’s first commercial full-color OLED display for the Kodak EasyShare LS633 digital Van Slyke and his former Kodak boss and lab camera in 2003. partner, Ching Wan Tang, made all of this possible with Kodak sold its OLED intellectual property in their invention of the multilayered, thin-film structure 2009, and Van Slyke soon joined Silicon Valley start- that underlies every OLED development to date. For up Kateeva as chief technology officer. Now living in that invention—and a few decades of OLED innovation— Pittsford, New York, with his wife, Sharon, he continues Van Slyke was inducted into the National Inventors Hall to lead Kateeva’s development of next-generation of Fame on May 3. Tang and Van Slyke were inducted manufacturing technology aimed at cost-effective together. production of large-scale panels for next-generation Growing up, Van Slyke didn’t show signs of being a OLED televisions. hall-of-fame inventor, and the “must-have” in his college Reflecting on his career, he said, “I loved the search was a lacrosse team, a sport Van Slyke excelled technology as soon as I started working with it. at in high school. There were always challenges, but we were always Indeed, he was a two-year starter on IC’s lacrosse making advances. And everything we did was new squad before quitting to focus on getting the grades and promising.” he’d need for graduate school. He gravitated to a Indeed, from a faint glimmer of light in the lab, Van chemistry major, in part, because he liked the faculty’s Slyke and his partner developed and shepherded to youthful energy. He subsequently spent two summers market a technology that promises to transform our working with them on solar energy in the lab under culture’s communication devices and indoor lighting William Bergmark. systems. That’s quite a legacy—and the best may be yet “I have great memories of the work and the to come. c
ithaca.edu/icview | 41 ALUMNI PROFILES
WRITING WILD Todd McLeish ’84 braves the wilderness for a good nature story
BY ERIC BUTTERMAN
Todd McLeish ’84 was camping in the Arctic when he woke to the sound of heavy breathing outside his tent. “I wondered if it was a polar bear,” he recalled. “But it was our first narwhal, and it was right off the beach where we were camping. It’s just a spectacular animal that I honestly can’t get enough of.” This life-changing experience came when McLeish was on an expedition for his third book, Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World. The nature writer took a three-week expedition with Canadian biologists and camped on a waterway in the high Arctic. He was assigned to watch the nets for narwhals—which weigh an average of around 3,500 pounds for males, with eight- foot-long tusks. The researchers would capture the narwhals, attach satellite tracking devices to them, and PHOTO SUBMITTED PHOTO release them. They caught six during the three-week research trip. He also observed sea otter autopsies. “[Scientists are] trying to learn about the health of sea otters, but it’s not easy for someone like me to watch [an autopsy],” he said. “I saw one performed in I knew I wasn’t meant to be a scientist. Alaska and another one in California. They found one So how do I become a part of this died from the same thing that gives humans strep throat, and the other was from a gunshot. It’s like natural world for a living? mysteries being solved before your eyes.” A speech communication major at IC, McLeish became interested in wildlife thanks to professor and But they also had to ward off polar bears, to keep bird expert John Confer. McLeish went on to get a the narwhals and researchers safe. Teaming up with a graduate degree in communications studies from head veterinarian from the Calgary Zoo, McLeish said, Emerson College. “For four hours at a time, we would stand with rifles by “I knew I wasn’t meant to be a scientist,” he said. “So our side. When we saw a narwhal get entangled or if we how do I become a part of this natural world for saw a polar bear approaching, we would just yell out to a living?” the rest of the research team to alert them to come help McLeish found his way in by volunteering to help disentangle a narwhal or scare away a polar bear.” biologists with their research and writing about his This story is one of many McLeish has about his experiences. adventures as a natural history writer. His first two books “I’m just your average nature person in many ways, focused on endangered wildlife in New England. His but I understand I have to step out of my comfort fourth and most recent book, Return of the Sea Otter, zone for this,” he said. “You need to accept very cold took him from California to Alaska. conditions, rainy conditions, along with boats that are “I went scuba diving in a kelp forest where [otters] rocking around violently. You need to be ready for live to learn about their habitat. I joined biologists [who anything—and not complain.” were] capturing otters from the coastal environment Even though it practically made his hair stand on and bringing them into an aquarium where health end, that first narwhal sighting will likely always stand studies could be done. [Then the otters would be] out as McLeish’s greatest nature experience. In a implanted with a tracking device to allow them to be stirring land of gorgeous tundra, wildflowers, and giant monitored later,” he said. “I was able to meet native icebergs—some the size of a city block—he is out where Alaskans who are sea otter hunters and learn about that few people will ever go, meeting a creature few will process and the challenges that they face.” ever see. c
42 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI PROFILES
SPREADING THE NEWS Themys Brito ’00 brings 24-hour news coverage to a Spanish-speaking audience
BY KELLI B. GRANT ‘04
In the city that never sleeps, Themys Brito ’00 helps make sure New Yorkers have around-the-clock access to local news. An executive producer at NY1 Noticias—the Spanish- language counterpart to New York City’s 24-hour news channel NY1—Brito oversees the writers, producers, anchors, and reporters behind the morning news. Her work includes a newly launched live newscast in the 7 o’clock hour, as well as designing what her team calls “the wheel,” a news show that re-airs regularly BRETÓN ROSARINA BY PHOTO throughout the day. Working in television has been a lifelong dream talk shows for content, like expletives, that shouldn’t for Brito, who grew up in Santo Domingo, Dominican make it on air. Republic. When she was just nine years old, she “I had to watch talk shows all day,” she says. “It’s participated in a televised trivia show sponsored by a one thing to have them in the background, but to be children’s magazine, pitting her neighborhood kids’ paying attention to every single thing? It’s not what I club against another. wanted to do.” So when Univision Tampa asked Brito to interview for a role as an editor and video journalist, she jumped on it—despite never having been to Florida. “They let me explore in different positions, and I Presenting those kind of stories was very grateful for that,” she says. “I tried so many that really inspire our community is different things that really prepared me for what I’m so important. It’s such a privilege to be doing right now.” Brito even turned her unfamiliarity with Florida into able to find people that can push our an opportunity, pitching a series of travel segments community forward. about where people could take their families to have fun in the Tampa Bay area. She returned to New York in 2005, landing an “When I went to the contest and I saw the station associate producer position at NY1 Noticias just as the and everything that was television, I knew then that was channel was preparing to debut a new politics show, what I wanted,” she recalls. Pura Política: Voces de la Ciudad. She got her chance just a few years later. “I started, really, thinking about staying there for “It just happened to be a coincidence that when my maybe a year,” says Brito. “But the culture was so family moved to Yonkers, the high school that I ended welcoming, and they promoted so much growth that I up going to had a TV station,” says Brito, who created a ended up staying.” Latin music video show. Even as she has taken on larger leadership roles, Alumni from her high school who worked in the field Brito still carves out opportunities to shoot and write pointed her to Ithaca College, a natural fit thanks to its stories she finds meaningful—like an interview with IC’s television production major and hands-on experience president Shirley M. Collado, a fellow Dominicana who through ICTV. grew up in Brooklyn. While at IC, she had a music video show on ICTV and “Presenting those kind of stories that really inspire dabbled in radio at WICB. our community is so important,” she says. “It’s such a Brito’s first job after graduation was at a Manhattan privilege to be able to find people that can push our production house. A key part of the role: monitoring community forward.” c
ithaca.edu/icview | 43 ALUMNI PROFILES
FIGHTING FOR WHAT’S RIGHT As director of litigation for the Transgender Law Center, Lynly Egyes ’03 is on the front lines of change
BY MICHAEL BLANDING
As a lawyer with the Sex Workers Project, Lynly Egyes ’03 helped launch the rapid court response program in Queens, New York, after hearing that law enforcement officers were arresting transgender Latina women on
false prostitution-related charges. Egyes discovered Photo by Francine Daveta that after arrests, the consquences were even greater for undocumented immigrants. Community leaders boy who came to the United States as part of a “trans shared that the best way an attorney could provide caravan,“ a group of gay and transgender immigrants support was to keep people out of jail entirely. If sent seeking asylum. To help him obtain special immigrant to jail and not released on bail, transgender women juvenile status, Egyes successfully argued that he were sent to the male prison at Riker’s Island, where should have access to family court in New York, where they were frequently harassed. And Immigration and he had a person willing to be his legal guardian. Customs Enforcement (ICE) was waiting for them, ready “We were able to get the judge to grant jurisdiction to deport them after they were released from jail. in the case despite our client never having been in New York,“ she says. “This victory is huge because it opens to the door to another form of immigration relief for people outside of New York State.“ Egyes came to Ithaca to study psychology but I have been privileged throughout switched to sociology after taking a course taught my career to work with and learn from by Elaine Leeder. “Her class blew my mind and people fighting for what’s right. allowed me to see the world not just through my own experience but through all of these different lenses,“ she says. When Egyes came out to her parents during college, they barely blinked. “I said, ‘Mom, Dad, I have “People were getting sent to Atlanta, to Texas, something important to tell you: I’m gay.’ And they places where access to attorneys was almost said, ‘Ok, what was that thing you wanted to tell us?’“ nonexistent,“ Egyes says, despite the fact that they Knowing others were not so easily accepted, however, could often obtain a lawful visa as an asylum-seeker or Egyes took an internship at GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & victim of trafficking or sexual assault. Aware of the dire Straight Education Network), and after graduation she circumstances surrounding these arrests, Egyes swung began working there full time, developing a student into action and, with the help of another attorney, leadership program to help create safer schools for began showing up to court hearings to fight for the LGBTQ+ students. She went to the Cardozo School of release of every transgender Latina woman arrested Law before starting her current work. on prostitution charges. Her cases at the Transgender Law Center include Now as litigation director for the Transgender Law immigration, transgender soldiers in the military, and Center, Egyes has continued to expand that program access to health care. A recent case involved a young while taking on high-profile cases to advocate for rights person admitted to a psychiatric hospital. “While he was of transgender and immigrant communities. “Rather there, they misgendered him and used the wrong name than just focusing on a case involving one person, I and treated him badly,“ she says. “A short time after he focus on legislation that will have a large impact for was released, he committed suicide.“ Working with a transgender and gender nonconforming communities law firm and another nongovernmental organization, around the country,“ she says. Egyes is now representing the boy’s mother, trying to Often that means trying novel arguments with force a policy change in that hospital as well as setting judges in order to establish new legal precedent. One a precedent nationally. Egyes says, “It comes down to case she worked on, for example, involved a young simply treating a person with respect.“ c
44 | 2019 • Spring ALUMNI PROFILES
ADAPTING AUSTEN FOR MODERN AUDIENCES Kate Hamill ’05 brings female characters front and center
BY BARBARA ADAMS
In 2017, the Wall Street Journal named Kate Hamill ’05 playwright of the year. One of the top 20 most-produced playwrights of the current season, Hamill has seen her works staged more than 30 times in the past three years, photography Sub/Urban by Photo including at Ithaca College. Her swift success has come for her clever adaptations of literary classics, like Austen’s or ex-girlfriend, either helping the man on his journey Sense and Sensibility and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair—in or being the obstacle to it. If the man didn’t exist, you which she also unforgettably performed. wouldn’t have a journey of your own.“ The daughter of former IC associate provost Paul And this was equally true of classic theatre, which Hamill grew up in a Lansing, New York, farmhouse with Hamill loved. “I didn’t want to burn it all down,“ she five siblings and no TV. But in a family of readers, she says. “I just wanted to create more female-centric work.“ soon acquired a literary passion. In her teens, Hamill She decided to adapt a classic she adored—Sense discovered Jane Austen: “Because she’s female, she gets and Sensibility—for the newly formed Bedlam theatre pigeonholed as a romantic writer, but she’s a genius, a company. In the production, she played the romantic, brilliant social satirist, incredibly witty and funny.“ headstrong Marianne Dashwood. Both the public and critics were delighted, New York Times critic Ben Brantley calling this first work “irresistible theater.“ Reviewers scramble for sufficiently animated adjectives to describe the fast-paced theatrical magic Ithaca College’s theatre arts department of a Hamill production: frolicsome, mischievous, emphasizes the importance of being a farcical, screwball, riotous, rollicking, hysterical, zany, joyous, endlessly inventive, and “smart, witty, kind and respectful artist. thoroughly entertaining.“ Adding song and dance, mixing modern and historical time periods, employing multiracial and cross- Hamill also discovered theatre. Her first role, in fourth gendered casting, Hamill’s compressed, socially satirical grade, was a dream: Cinderella’s wicked stepmother. storytelling both honors the classics and provides a “At 4 feet, I was a very small little girl,“ Hamill says, “but fresh take. In the adaptation (about 60 percent is hers, I got to boss everyone around. That’s when theatre 40 percent the original author’s), she says, “I’m not trying became addictive.“ to recreate the novel. I look on it as a collaboration with In pursuing a BFA in acting, Hamill gained many another writer, who happens to be dead.“ faculty mentors. “Ithaca College’s theatre arts Hamill is currently working on two commissions: In department emphasizes the importance of being a scripting Little Women, she sees Jo as not quite fitting kind and respectful artist,“ she says. “Diva behavior is her given gender role. And of Homer’s challenging discouraged—an exceptionally important lesson.“ She Odyssey, she says, “It’s a prototypically male tale; if I’m also values the diverse techniques learned from the reclaiming the classics for all genders, that’s a great one faculty here: “There’s no one particular dogma, which to tackle.“ Using the Trojan War as archetype, Hamill is helps you become a more flexible actor.“ exploring “how we come back after war, after trauma— Moving to New York City after graduation, Hamill how can we become the person we once were after grew frustrated there were so few good roles for we’ve seen or done terrible things?“ Half-focused on women. “It was demeaning and disheartening,“ she Penelope, the work is often dark—although, Hamill insists, says. “Each time you’d be playing some guy’s girlfriend “there’s always a place for comedy.“ c
ithaca.edu/icview | 45 MIXED MEDIA PHOTOS SUBMITTED PHOTOS FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE Daniel Haack ’10 is bringing reality to fairy tales
BY PATRICK BOHN ’05, MS ’07
THE PICTURE BOOK, Prince & The book is published by little bee friends after graduation. “Isabel is a Knight, by Daniel Haack ’10 starts books, as part of a partnership with talented writer who is bringing a great off in familiar fairy-tale territory: the media monitoring group GLAAD. perspective to the material,” Haack two brave men working together to Haack said that GLAAD has worked for said. “Working with her was such a fun heroically slay a dragon. But what decades for positive representations of experience, and it’s really a testament transforms Haack’s story from cliché LGBTQ characters, but that children’s to the Ithaca College alumni communi- to groundbreaking isn’t where the men media was, in his words, the final fron- ty that we developed this partnership.” start; it’s where they end up—in each tier. “I wanted to show the characters Haack, who is a member of the col- other’s arms. in a way that allowed children to un- lege’s Blue & Gold Society, adds that his Haack decided to combine the derstand, accept, and embrace LGBTQ time at Ithaca helped him immensely tropes of Prince Charming and the relationships,” he said. on his journey to being a barrier- knight in shining armor into a picture And that’s exactly what’s happened: breaking author. book after he surveyed children’s “It’s gotten great reviews and a lot of “The education you get at the literature and noticed that LGBTQ good press, but my favorite thing is Park School is amazing,” he said. “I’ve characters were rarely represented. He seeing all the photos on social media worked with so many people who had knew that research showed how critical of gay dads sharing it with their own communications degrees from other it was for individuals to see their lives kids,” Haack said. schools who didn’t have the hands-on reflected in media and popular culture. Haack hasn’t finished exploring experience or industry knowledge I “My goal was to expand the idea of this world yet. In fact, he’s teamed up got at IC. I’m a huge champion of the what heroes can look like and how they with Isabel Galupo ’14 to write Maiden college. Its LGBTQ reputation was a can act,” he said. “It was important that & Princess, which is due out next year. In big deal to me when I was looking at there was no damsel in distress in this this story, a warrior maiden is invited schools, and I couldn’t be prouder that book. Instead, there are two brave men to a prince's ball, but falls in love with Ithaca has continued its commitment who both have heroic moments, slay a his sister. to inclusivity.” c dragon, and then embrace and kiss on Galupo and Haack were both in IC’s their wedding day.” Park Scholar Program, and they became
46 | 2019 • Spring MIXED MEDIA
RICHARD PUGH ’65 What Is the Answer? Finding Peace and Joy in Your Life (Xulon Press, 2017) This book uses the stories and individ- uals in the Bible as examples to help people find peace and joy in their lives.
VALERIE STAGGS ’89 REBECCA ANGEL ’17 This Side of Heaven: A Memoir What We Had (Total Publishing and Media, 2018) (Timeless Grooves Records, 2018) DEBORAH ELSTER ’70 This memoir follows the lives of Staggs Produced by Grammy-winner Ja- and her seven-year-old son son Miles, Angel’s album is an edgy, Only from Heaven in the year after the death of contemporary update on the deeply (CreateSpace, 2017) Staggs’s husband. exotic vibe of classic artists like Sade Featuring a protagonist who graduat- and Brazilian greats Bebel Gilberto and ed from Ithaca College, Elster’s debut Astrud Gilberto. novel follows a woman who reconnects with family members following the death of her younger sister.
LORI CAVALLARIO ’04 Double Dose of Adorable: It’s a MICHAEL WATSON ’13 Twin Thing Ithaqa (CreateSpace, 2018) In this comic book series set in 1920s Cavallario’s debut book is a children’s Ithaca, a filmmaker’s moving picture story about twins, Winnie and Lillie, TODD MCLEISH ’84 exposes a plot to destroy the space– time continuum. who develop their own identities while Return of the Sea Otter: The exploring some of the challenges that twins face every day. Story of the Animal That Evaded CORNELL WOODSON ’09 Extinction on the Pacific Coast (Sasquatch Books, 2018) Let’s Unpack That! Woodson’s podcast highlights social McLeish’s latest book follows him from issues related to race, class, gender California to Alaska as he scuba dives identity, gender expression, sexual ori- with otters, works with researchers, entation, national origin, ability status, and talks to fishermen. and other identities that affect the lives
of people around the world.
ithaca.edu/icview | 47 ONLY IN ITHACA
ITHACANS POUNCE ON NEW CAFE
The Alley Cat Café, in the heart of downtown Ithaca, is a new An Outstanding establishment where cat lovers can get a furry fix while enjoy- ing vegetarian café options. In addition to offering cat-themed drinks, pastries, and sandwiches, the café features a play area for children. But the pièce de résis- tance is the “cat room” located in the back, where more than half a dozen rescue kittens are avail- able for customers to play with. Many of the kittens are offered for adoption as well.
TO THE RIGHT: Nora Borgos '20 spends a purr-fect afternoon at the cat cafe. PHOTO BY GIOVANNI SANTACROCE
I REMEMBER WHEN… I GOT GREAT ADVICE. As a student, Will Shishmanian ’13 often visited the office of Luca Maurer, director of LGBTQ education, outreach, and services, when he needed to talk about something personal. “After talking for a while, he would write down on the back of his business card something to carry with you to remind you of where you had landed. Getting one
of Luca’s business cards with advice on the back was a SUBMITTED PHOTO little reminder of your journey. One time I was in Luca’s ABOVE: Luca Maurer (left) and Will Shishmanian office, and we were talking about a conflict I was having '13 when Will was still a student. with somebody as I was transitioning, and Luca wrote on the back of the business card, ‘People will act as they have always acted.’ That still helps center me when I’m dealing with people who don’t see things the same way I do.” To hear Will tell his story, visit ithaca.edu/icview.
48 | 2019 • Spring Where does my gift go?
An Outstanding
• An Outstanding Speaker • An Advanced Research Project • Enlightening Fieldwork Abroad Enlightening • AnState-of-the-art Advanced Studios • A National Performance • Upgraded Equipment
A National
t State-of-the-Ar
Upgraded
2018 Tax Deadline
DEC
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