FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON ALUMNI AND FRIENDS SPRING 2020

Earth’s Bright Future Despite bleak environmental news, the UW’s Nelson Institute finds reasons to hope. Page 22

Vision In an emotional night for Badger men’s basket- ball, 13-year-old Jerell Moore took the court as an honorary sixth man before the team’s home opener at the Kohl Center. Jerell is the son of Assistant Coach Howard Moore ’95, who was severely injured in a May 2019 car crash that took the lives of his wife and daughter. The Badgers won the No- vember 8 game against Eastern Illinois, and Jerell — who survived the crash himself — enjoyed a poignant moment amid his family’s painful year. Photo by Darren Lee On Wisconsin 3 you. Come home again to Wisconsin, it’s more

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MOVED TO:

MOVED BA CK TO WISCONSIN:

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See more of Matt’s story at InWisconsin.com/Matt

4 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Contents Volume 121, Number 1

Joan Cusack ’84 digs Christopher Lloyd in Addams Family Values. See page 30. TCD/PROD.DB/ALAMY DEPARTMENTS

2 Vision 7 Communications 9 First Person

OnCampus

11 News 13 Bygone WAVES 14 Calculation Sustainable UW 17 Conversation #TwerkWith- Lizzo 18 Exhibition Science to Street Art 20 Contender K’Andre Miller

OnAlumni

52 News 53 Tradition Campus Tours 54 Class Notes FEATURES

61 Diversions DAVID STLUKA 62 Honor Roll Arthur Hasler 22 Hope’s Eternal Spring 63 Conversation Veronica As Earth Day hits its 50th birthday, environmental news Rueckert seems worse than ever. Where do the faculty of the UW’s 66 Destinati on The UW Maker- Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies find reason for space hope? By John Allen 30 Hair-Raising Performances UW alumni have starred in classic movies and collected Academy Awards. Here are their greatest roles. By Dean Robbins

The professor 36 Six Lessons from the Rose Bowl who twerked It turns out that being a Badger is about much more than a with Lizzo. football game. By Preston Schmitt ’14 See page 17. 42 A New Era for Children’s Books A hot NHL prospect. The UW Cooperative Children’s Book Center pushes the See page 20. publishing industry to feature more diverse books and authors. By Preston Schmitt ’14 Cover JEFF MILLER Illustration by 48 In a Garden Far, Far Away N. B. Rinehart; UW researchers are at the forefront of developing a new photos by Bryce agriculture for long-term space travel. By Eric Hamilton Richter

On Wisconsin 5 KNOW ANY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS? SummerTELL THEM ABOUT

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Students from other colleges are welcome at Summer Term! Learn how to apply and transfer credits back to a home institution.

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6 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020

19313-1/20 Communications BRYCERICHTER (2)

Unforgettable André that the call was an emergency. Thank you for the article by We were allowed to listen in Jenny Price about André De briefly, and when a caller would Shields [“A Star Was Born,” start bragging about how he Winter 2019 On Wisconsin]. It had fooled the stupid operator, really brought back memories, as he would find himself suddenly I attended De Shields’s unforget- disconnected. table performance as Martha in Henry J.C. Schwartz ’61, BUT WAIT, THERE’S Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, MD’65 held in a large apartment over Fredericksburg, Virginia MORE! a movie theater in Madison. Ms. We know you like to hold a mag- Price is correct that the perfor- Dow Protest Prequel azine in your hands. That’s why mance began in the middle of the “The Travel Detective” [Winter you’re reading On Wisconsin right night and ended at dawn. I think 2019] about Peter Greenberg was now. We like print, too, but we’re the audience at first wondered nicely written. [Many people just as fond of the magazine’s why a black man was playing Eliz- don’t realize that] the first Dow online version. The web allows us abeth Taylor’s role, but he was so protest was in 1966, before Mr. to enrich our stories with videos clearly good at it that, after a bit, Greenberg arrived. Innocent stu- and additional photos — for we just began to get into the play. dents were victimized and lumped example, emotional images for The attendees were as exhausted in with a then-small group of as the actors by the end. anti-war protesters. I was in an “Six Lessons from the Rose Bowl” I also saw the not very “nude” accounting class on the second (page 36) and rare film clips for Peter Pan show at Memorial floor of the Commerce Building “Hair-Raising Performances” Union, which got national atten- when we were forcibly removed (page 30). See these and others tion when it was covered in Time by police with plexiglass shields at onwisconsin.uwalumni.com, magazine. The nudity was well on their helmets, herded down- where there’s more of us to love. camouflaged with colored light- stairs to the exit, and gassed. I ing, and the scene was tasteful witnessed police swinging clubs and appropriate in the context randomly at students. The actions of the play. I must admit that of the police on that day were a I remember these cultural events catalyst that mobilized [the anti- more than most of the classes war movement]. I took at the UW. Ron Sager ’70 Gary Saretzky ’68, MA’69 Milwaukee Lawrenceville, New Jersey Thanks from What Is Your Down Under Emergency? I received my Winter 2019 On THE WORLD IS Bygone [“Landlines,” Winter Wisconsin last week. As always, 2019] showed several ladies at it is a wonderful read and a WATCHING work at the university switch- high-quality magazine, which Lisa Kamal ’19, the student board in the 1930s. In the late I feel proud to display on the speaker at winter commence- 1950s the switchboard had coffee table in my office.On ment, has gone viral. Videos of women operators during the day, Wisconsin is informative and her inspiring speech have re- but the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift was engaging and brings back a bit ceived millions of views on social manned by a single male student. of nostalgia and longing for the media, making her a hero not I was an operator for a semester University of Wisconsin. Thank only on campus, but also in her or so. I think the pay was six dol- you for continuing to send the home country of Malaysia. Kamal lars a shift, or 75 cents an hour. magazine all the way to my home opened the speech by singing We occasionally had students in Sydney, Australia. You make a few lines from the Broadway call in after the 11 p.m. curfew, this Badger feel connected. musical Hamilton, which she said attempting to call friends in the Stephen Mally ’86 helped her cope during tough dorms. Usually, the call ended Glebe, New South Wales, times. That caught the attention when we politely told the caller Australia that calls were not permitted of Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel after 11. Occasionally, a more Editor’s Note: Our thoughts go Miranda, who tweeted his high brazen student, often a male out to all of the alumni and friends hopes for Kamal’s future: “Mira, trying to talk to his sweetheart in who have been affected by the dev- Lisa, no me preocupo por ella … a women’s dorm, would declare astating fires in Australia. (thank YOU)”

On Wisconsin 7 LOCATED IN THE HEART OF MADISON Right Where You Want to be

Celebrating 20 years of providing AWARD-WINNING LODGING, MEETING and EVENT PLANNING

CONTACT US TODAY! 601 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53715 (608) 441-7117 • (877) 77-FLUNO/35866 fluno.com Follow us: 8 On Wisconsin *Subject to restrictions. Please call for moreSPRING information. 2020 First Person UW ARCHIVES

Spring 2020

COEDITORS Niki Denison, Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) Dean Robbins, University Communications PUBLISHER Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association 1848 University Avenue Madison, WI 53726-4090 608-263-4545 Email: [email protected] Web: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER John Allen, WFAA WRITER Preston Schmitt ’14, University Marketing CLASS NOTES/DIVERSIONS EDITOR Stephanie Awe ’15, WFAA UW–Madison’s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Envi- Gaylord Nelson ART DIRECTOR ronmental Studies is one of the most well-known (right) cele- Nancy Rinehart, University Marketing legacies of Nelson LLB’42, the former Wisconsin gov- brates Earth Day in 1988 with a DESIGNERS ernor and senator. But it’s not the most well-known tour of Wiscon- Christine Knorr ’97 and Danielle Lawry, legacy. That would be Earth Day, the environmental University Marketing sin’s Schmeeckle teach-in that Nelson sponsored beginning in 1970. Reserve in Ste- PRODUCTION EDITOR Fifty years ago this April 22, some 20 million Amer- vens Point. Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, University Marketing icans, including students at more than 2,000 colleges PHOTOGRAPHERS and universities and thousands more primary and secondary schools, Jeff Miller and Bryce Richter, University took part in a national conversation about conservation and the envi- Communications ronment. (Because it was a teach-in, those students didn’t get a day off DESIGN, LAYOUT, AND PRODUCTION from school. If they had, the Earth might be more popular today. Well Kent Hamele ’78, Kate Price ’09: University Marketing; Nicole Heiman, Chelsea — hindsight.) Schlecht ’13, Erin Sprague ’94: WFAA Nelson left the Senate in 1981, and his record showed how important he felt conservation is. He authored the Wilderness Act, the National EDITORIAL INTERNS Allison Garfield x’20 and Megan Provost x’20 Trails System Act, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the National Environmental Education Act, and he worked to ban the use ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Madison Magazine: 608-270-3600 of DDT (drawing in part on the research of fellow Badger Joseph Hickey MS’43, who connected the pesticide to declining bird populations). He ADDRESS CHANGES AND DEATH NOTICES argued that environmental health and economic health go hand in hand. 888-947-2586 “The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, Email: [email protected] lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats, and biodiversity,” Nelson Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is wrote. “That’s the whole economy.​” supported by financial gifts from alumni Five decades later, Earth Day continues to garner attention every and friends. To make a gift to UW–Madison, year. On the parts of Earth that are inside Wisconsin, we try to remem- please visit supportuw.org. ber Nelson’s connection with the holiday and his importance to envi- The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) is open to all alumni, students, and friends of the ronmental studies. That’s one of the reasons we decided to run this university. WFAA encourages diversity, inclusivity, and issue’s cover story. While environmental science seems to grow more participation by all of these groups in its activities and important than ever, the UW continues to produce the people who does not discriminate on any basis. further our understanding of the planet we live on. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this magazine. Please read it first. JOHN ALLEN

On Wisconsin 9 WHEN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND CIVIL SERVICE WORK TOGETHER, WE ARE BOUNDLESS.

WISC.EDU | #ONWISCONSIN 10 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 OnCampusNews from UW–Madison

SAFETY GOES Lessons of the Past UNDERCOVER Public History Project seeks the truth. Imagine attending a Badger foot- ball game or commencement and JEFF MILLER enjoying airport-level security — but without the need for long lines; pat-downs; and removing shoes, belts, and jackets. UW– Madison is among several sites in the nation that are beta-testing a new technology that provides noninvasive weapons screening. The UW Police Department has partnered with a company called Liberty Defense to test the HEXWAVE technology at Butcher’s goal selected events this spring. The is to give voice tool uses low-power, 3D radar to those who experienced, imaging and artificial intelli- challenged, and gence to detect weapons and As a public historian, Kacie Lucchini Butcher believes history is overcame preju- other threats. It can be installed not just in the past. It weaves through everything we do every day. dice on campus. unobtrusively in existing struc- Her professional work, which focuses on helping marginalized com- tures or behind signs so that munities tell their stories, has brought her to UW–Madison. Butcher fans are not aware that it’s was hired in August as director of the new Public History Project. searching for concealed hand- The multiyear project grew out of a 2018 campus study group that guns, knives, suicide vests, or looked into the history of two UW–Madison student organizations in the assault rifles as they walk by. early 1920s that bore the name of the Ku Klux Klan. The study group Police can monitor HEXWAVE’s concluded that the history the UW needed to confront was not the aber- findings via computers set up rant work of a few individuals but a pervasive campus culture of racism at venue command centers and and religious bigotry that went largely unchallenged at the time. take appropriate action when a “The study group’s findings pointed to a need to build a more inclu- threat is perceived. sive university community through an honest reckoning with our past,” “We hope this will be a great says Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who commissioned the Public His- tool for us to use in our already tory Project. well-equipped toolbox when it The project seeks to give voice to those who experienced, chal- comes to event security,” says lenged, and overcame prejudice on campus. The effort is expected to Kristen Roman ’88, the universi- culminate with a museum-quality exhibit in fall 2021, accompanied by ty’s chief of police. digital materials accessible to everyone.

Butcher, who grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, earned a bachelor’s NIKI DENISON LIBERTY DEFENSE degree in art history at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. In her studies and later as a museum intern, she noticed that museums often struggle to tell stories that accurately reflect diverse populations and viewpoints. The issue motivated her to return to college, and in May 2019, she earned a master’s degree in heritage studies and public his- tory from the University of Minnesota. At UW–Madison, she has begun the research phase for the Public History Project, assisted by student workers. “The stories we are uncovering will push us as a campus community to question not only our past, but our present,” Butcher says. “Yet, at the end of the day, this is our story. Knowing our past is the first step to learning from it.” DOUG ERICKSON

On Wisconsin 11 OnCampus Riding the Quantum Wave YUUJI/ISTOCK

PAY TO PLAY Forget March Madness selections — the biggest debate in college athletics is player compensation. The NCAA indicated in late October its intention to allow student-athletes at UW–Madison and other member schools to profit from their names, images, and likenesses. Potential revenue streams could include endorsement deals, jersey and autograph sales, and video-game royalties, though it’s not clear yet what types of sponsorships will be permitted. The NCAA expects to adopt changes to its rules by January 2021. The move is a reversal from the NCAA’s past position, which argued that financial compensation beyond scholarships would compromise amateur status and influence The computers that we know — and mostly love — do what they do so the recruiting process. The policy change well because they predictably perform their duties at lightning speed. follows increasing pressure from state and But in many arenas of research and technology, classical computers will federal lawmakers. In September, Cali- not be able to crack the next-level enigmas researchers are confronting fornia governor Gavin Newsom signed a in chemistry, artificial intelligence, medicine, and other fields. “Fair Pay to Play” bill that, starting in 2023, To answer those questions, physicists and computer scientists are will allow student-athletes in the state to developing a class of computers that exploit the mysteries of quantum earn money from endorsement deals and mechanics, a theory that traffics in probabilities rather than certainties. protect them from any repercussions from If they live up to the hype, quantum computers will be able to harness the their schools. State legislators in Wiscon- strange behaviors that occur at the smallest scale of the universe to solve sin have considered introducing a similar in minutes problems that would take a classical computer decades, says bipartisan bill. Shimon Kolkowitz, a UW–Madison assistant professor of physics. UW athletics director Barry Alvarez Through its Wisconsin Quantum Institute, the university has been initially expressed concern with Califor- exploring the field for almost two decades. This past fall, the campus nia’s law. Following the NCAA’s decision, debuted a master’s program in quantum computing. however, UW Athletics issued the fol- The one-year master’s program offers students expertise in the grow- lowing statement: “Wisconsin supports ing field at a time when the market for scientists competent in quantum the efforts of the NCAA and the [Big computing is extremely tight. The New York Times and Wired both Ten] Conference to enhance support of reported in 2019 on the difficulty quantum computing firms are having student-athletes that is tethered to edu- finding qualified prospects. cation. We look forward to working with The UW master’s program is the first of its kind in the nation and [them] as appropriate rules for the use of only the second in the world, says its director, Robert Joynt. “We name, image, and likeness are developed.” decided to put this together when it became clear that there was going to The actions reflect a big shift in public be a lot of interest from the commercial sector in quantum computing,” opinion on player compensation. In 2013, he says. “There’s a huge ramp-up in activity at places like Google, Intel, 71 percent of Americans believed that pro- Microsoft, and Northrop Grumman. No one else had anything like this, viding scholarships was sufficient com- so it was a natural thing to do, and the master’s program seemed like pensation for college athletes, according the best option, as students can spend a year here, get a good education to the Seton Hall Sports Poll. Last year, in quantum computing, and be very marketable.” only 32 percent of respondents opposed The 30-credit degree program capitalizes on the UW’s deep foun- further compensation for use of name, dation of fundamental research. “We are truly lucky to have quantum likeness, or image. computing experts in three different subareas of quantum computing,” PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 says Sridhara Dasu, professor and chairperson of the Department of Physics. “Given our expertise, we thought we had a unique ability to train students in a professional-level master’s program.” CHRIS QUIRK

12 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Bygone WAVES UW ARCHIVES S05453

When wartime struck the on campus on Friday, Oct. 9, Ranks of WAVES ertheless, the WAVES classes United States, it wasn’t just the 1942, under the command of Lt. march at Camp were kept separate from those men of the military and Rosie (jg) Elinor Rich. Randall Stadium of male sailors, though the cur- the Riveters getting in on the Civilian students living at during a football riculum was the same. action. Chadbourne and Barnard Halls game. At the UW, The UW’s first class of WAVES trained Legislation in the early 20th were moved to private, off-cam- to earn the rating WAVES recruits graduated on century prohibited women from pus housing in order to accom- of “radioman,” January 27, 1943, in a cere- serving in the Navy or Naval modate the 480 recruits, but for which they mony that featured more than Reserve. However, in 1941, they joined them at the following matched the skill 100 honor grads. Later that year, as the reality of World War II Saturday’s football game, where set if not the female Marines arrived, as did encroached on the United States, the WAVES cheered on the likes gender. members of the Coast Guard’s a shortage of manpower led the of Badger football legends Elroy SPARS (an acronym taken from Navy to revisit the employment “Crazylegs” Hirsch x’45 and the Coast Guard motto in Latin of women in its ranks. Pat Harder x’44 (who later and English: Semper Paratus, The creation of Women also left the UW to join the war Always Ready). Accepted for Volunteer Emer- effort with the U.S. Marines in By the war’s end in 1945 gency Service (WAVES) mobi- 1943). — 75 years ago this summer — lized some much-needed (wo) Later that month, Memorial 100,000 women had served as manpower for the naval war Union’s Great Hall was over- WAVES. All were discharged effort. run by Marshall Field’s employ- in the following months, but After boot camp on the East ees tasked with outfitting the the WAVES were not about to Coast, recruits arrived at college WAVES in the uniforms that recede with the tide of war. With campuses across the country for earned them the nickname the signing of the 1948 Women’s specialized training programs, “bluejackets.” (The uniform Armed Services Integration Act, and WAVES seeking careers as operation worked so smoothly women were permitted to enlist radio operators set their sights that it claimed it could outfit 58 not only in the Naval Reserves, on the University of Wisconsin WAVES in only an hour and a but in the Navy itself. and its Radio School for Enlisted half.) Wisconsin WAVES, over and Women. The UW has been coeduca- out. The first WAVES descended tional since the 1860s, but nev- MEGAN PROVOST X’20

On Wisconsin 13 Calculation Sustainable UW GRAPHIC BY DANIELLE LAWRY

Green Score A recent survey counts up all the In October, UW–Madison received the results of its first broad-based sus- ways the UW is sustainable — tainability assessment, and the results and all the ways it can improve. were not too shabby. The university took a silver rating for its efforts to create an environmentally sustainable Water campus community. Conducted by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the 79 93% assessment looked at a wide variety of academic of students use elements, from educational programs Waste departments offer car-alternatives to to community outreach to construction sustainability- get to and move to composting to energy use. UW–Mad- related courses around campus ison received 102.88 out of a possible 209 points. The university performed better in Transportation some areas than in others. The dark 19% blocks show how many points were reduction in available in each category, and the light energy use per green sections show how many of those Purchasing square foot of points the UW earned. In Innovation oor space and in Exemplary Practice, UW–Madi-

Research son earned all available points, though Grounds the maximum number was only six. Out of 40 possible points in Curricu- lum, the UW received 18.94. Food and Dining JOHN ALLEN

Public Engagement Well Being and Work

Curriculum Energy I 450 I Investment and Finance tons of organic waste diverted from land lls to an anaerobic digester, J Buildings producing energy J Diversity and Affordability Campus Engagement instead of trash

K Air and Climate Innovation K Coordination and Planning

Exemplary Practice

L L ACADEMICS ENGAGEMENT OPERATIONS PLANNING AND INNOVATION AND ADMINISTRATION LEADERSHIP

M M

14 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 OnCampus BRYCE RICHTER

We Are UW Last September, the student Homecoming Committee released a video that failed to represent the diversity of UW–Madison. The committee had invited students of color to participate in the taping but didn’t include them in the final product, stirring anger on campus and regret from those in charge. “We apologize that the video produced by the commit- tee gave only a partial representation of the UW–Madison student body,” says Sarah Schutt, executive director of the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA), which sponsors the Homecoming Committee. “WAA is deeply committed to diver- sity and inclusion and will listen to our student, alumni, and campus partners on ways to move forward.” In response to the Homecoming video, a new group called the Student Inclusion Coalition partnered with university ALMOST PERFECT administration on a video about students of color and their The UW volleyball team nearly pulled off a champi- struggles on campus. Called “We Are UW,” the video played onship run in December, cruising through the NCAA at halftime during the Badger football game on October 12 tournament before falling to Stanford in the finals. and affirmed that “we learn lessons best when we learn them Led by All-Americans Molly Haggerty x’21, Sydney together.” Hilley x’21, and Dana Rettke x’21, the squad won the WAA has committed to changes that would make student Big Ten Conference title and the number-four seed Homecoming a more inclusive event. The plan includes better in the national tournament. The Badgers then raced training and oversight, as well as measures to diversify stu- through the regional rounds of competition without dent organizations. The Student Inclusion Coalition offered losing a set before knocking off top-seeded Baylor its own ideas for a more inclusive campus, working with Vice in the final four. (Above,Tiffany Clark x’20 digs the Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor and Deputy Vice ball during an early-round match against Illinois Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion Patrick Sims. State.) But the Stanford Cardinal — winners of three “We stand with our students of color and hear their voices national titles in the last four years — were once with a clear commitment to action,” said a joint statement again the bane of the Badgers. Stanford had ended from UW–Madison and WAA, “not only about the video, but the UW’s season in 2016 and 2017, and in 2019, they their broader experiences of exclusion on campus.” knocked the Badgers off in the title match. DEAN ROBBINS JOHN ALLEN

news feed

Veteran UW administrator UW undergrads are completing The search is on to replace Aaron Bird Bear MS’10 has their degrees in record time. The Ray Cross, who’s stepping assumed the newly created average for 2018–19 bachelor’s down after six years as UW position of tribal relations degree recipients was 3.96 System president. Tony Evers director. He’ll work to foster calendar years, the first time the ’73, MS’76, PhD’86, Wiscon- strong ties between UW– number has dropped below four. sin’s governor and a former Madison and the 12 First “This is excellent news for Wis- member of the UW Board of Nations of Wisconsin, empha- consin families concerned about Regents, praises Cross as “a sizing “respect, revitalization, the cost of higher education,” fierce advocate for kids and

BRYCE RICHTER; JEFF MILLER JEFF RICHTER; BRYCE and reconciliation.” says Chancellor Rebecca Blank. the pursuit of knowledge.”

On Wisconsin 15 OnCampus BRYCE RICHTER

848new UW–Madison in-state undergraduates (one in five) are receiving free tuition this year through Bucky’s Tui- tion Promise — up from 796 students last year. The ini- tiative guarantees four years of tuition and segregated fees to freshmen from Wis- consin whose families have an adjusted gross income of $58,000 or less. Wiscon- sin-resident transfer students who meet the same income criteria receive two years of Robot at Your Service tuition and segregated fees. Food delivery at UW–Madison just got a lot more adorable. University NIKI DENISON Housing Dining and Culinary Services has deputized a fleet of 30 cute

JEFF MILLER robots to deliver food orders throughout campus. Giving R2-D2 a run for his money, the squat, white vehicles roll along sidewalks on six wheels, with an orange flag announcing their presence to bemused passersby. The UW has contracted with Starship Technologies to become the largest U.S. college campus to offer “autonomous delivery.” Students, faculty, and staff can use an app to place orders from campus dining halls and unlock the food-storage chamber when the trusty robot arrives. The contraptions are electrically powered, using artificial intelli- gence and sensors to cross streets and avoid obstacles. And happily, there’s no need to worry about these robots running amok. A team of humans can monitor the fleet and take control before the machines get too autonomous for their own good. DEAN ROBBINS news feed

A UW study suggests that exer- UW students had the sec- How good is UW cross coun- cise can slow the development ond-highest voter turnout try star Alicia Monson x’20? of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. among Big Ten Conference For the second year in a row, Ozioma Okonkwo, an assistant peers for the 2018 election Monson was named both Big professor at the School of Med- midterms. A report found that Ten Conference Cross Coun- icine and Public Health, and his turnout increased to 52.9 per- try Athlete of the Year and colleagues found that aerobic fit- cent from 35.6 percent in 2014, NCAA Great Lakes Regional TOM LYNN ness increases blood flow to parts thanks partly to the university’s Women’s Athlete of the Year, of the brain that help improve an efforts to encourage voting. leading the women’s team to individual’s cognitive function. November, here we come. a top-10 national ranking.

16 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Conversation #TwerkWithLizzo

While many people hope to meet Demonstrating How did you get into included it in classes, in terms their favorite pop stars, few have “pleasure activ- researching disability, race, of body positivity and resisting the chance. And even fewer get ism,” Professor and gender in contemporary body shaming. I realized that Sami Schalk to twerk with them. went viral after culture? the relationships between my Sami Schalk is the excep- twerking with My sophomore year of college I identities and Lizzo’s — as well tion. An associate professor in pop superstar took a course called Women and as the fact that we both like to the UW Department of Gender Lizzo in a silver Disability. I was a newly out, twerk — were a chance to get her and Women’s Studies, Schalk cape. black, queer woman and thought attention. I made a shiny cape for focuses on the intersection of dis- I knew everything about oppres- the concert and a video of myself ability studies and black feminist sion. Then I got in this class, dancing in it, and it got viewed theory. She’s interested in how and it blew my mind. I real- over 40,000 times before the identities can influence the way ized that if I was going to keep concert. we move through the world — asking white folks and men and and that led her to the superstar straight folks to be allies to me How was twerking with her? rapper and singer Lizzo. In Octo- and understand their privilege, It was surreal. Lizzo said, ber, the two shared a moment. I needed to do that work myself. “There’s someone here, I can’t Before Lizzo’s tour stop I started taking as many classes remember their name, but they in Madison, Schalk posted a as I could on disability studies want to twerk with me.” I was video of herself on Twitter in a and fell in love with the field. in the second row, so I just silver cape, announcing that she screamed that it was me, and wanted to #TwerkWithLizzo. What prompted your #Twerk- it happened very quickly. I put The campaign caught Lizzo’s WithLizzo campaign? on the cape and went onstage attention, and at the concert I identify with Lizzo a lot as in front of 2,500 people. I could she called Schalk onstage. They another fat black woman. barely hear because it was so danced. And then, Schalk I love her music and loud. And then we danced. After- went viral. The video has the message of ward, it was almost impossible more than 120,000 views her music. I’ve to leave the concert because so on Twitter. Now, she’s many people were stopping me. incorporating the It just blew up. experience into her work as an exam- What’s been the response? ple of “pleasure People were excited for me, but activism.” others body-shamed me because I was dancing and having fun. I believe we all have the right to be full and complicated people. Pleasure and joy are often denied to marginalized people. We spend so much time trying to end oppres- sion and violence that we deny ourselves access to the things that make life worth living. Claiming that publicly is really important in this con- temporary moment.

Interview by Allison Garfield x’20 Photo by Jeff Miller

On Wisconsin 17 Exhibition Science to Street Art BRYCERICHTER (3)

There’s an unusual new attraction in the UW Discov- Diversity of mell, for example, dreamed up Diversity of Scien- ery Building: a mural that takes a street-art approach Scientists (top) tists with Laura Knoll, a UW professor of medical to scientific subjects. Diversity of Scientists has a suggests a microbiology and immunology, and Dave Lovelace spray-paint immediacy, incorporating drips, hand- common thread PhD’12, a research scientist for the UW Geology prints, and graffiti lettering. Los Angeles artist among far-flung Museum. Other teams brainstormed visual concepts thinkers. The big Melanie Stimmell depicts scientists across a range data/precision based on astrophysics, big data/precision medicine, of eras and cultures, from ninth-century Persian medicine mural molecular structure, and the periodic table. Locations astronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (bottom, two for the murals include the exteriors of a Madison gro- to 19th-century Native American doctor Susan La details) is paint- cery store and shopping center — places where young Flesche Picotte. The composition is cluttered yet ed on the exterior folks might run across them in their everyday lives. coherent, suggesting a common thread among these of a Madison “Repeated exposure to the art creates an oppor- far-flung thinkers. Each used science to make the grocery store to tunity for learning,” says Contreras, who plans to world a better place. inspire an inter- place several murals a year in Madison and other Diversity of Scientists is part of an ambitious est in science locations around Wisconsin and the world. “They’ll among passersby. project called Science to Street Art, developed by see DNA strands in the big data/precision medicine the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID). Street mural, for example, then go to their high school biol- artists worked with UW researchers on five murals ogy class and think, ‘Oh, I’ve experienced these con- to inspire an interest in science, particularly among cepts before. It’s right out there in my community.’ ” residents of underserved Madison neighborhoods. Science to Street Art offers a learning experience “Art’s power to connect people is an untapped for the UW researchers, too. They have a chance to resource for science,” says project director Ginger communicate with a different audience and to col- Ann Contreras ’12. “Science to Street Art is a way laborate with a different set of campus colleagues. to engage people across cultures, including those with “For the scientists, it creates new ways of think- traditionally less access to science education.” ing about their research,” says Contreras, “along To launch the initiative, Contreras formed five with new camaraderie.” teams combining street artists and scientists. Stim- DEAN ROBBINS

18 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 OnCampus

The “Smart Toilet” Knows All Wearable, smart technol- SPENCER WALTS ogies are transforming the ability to monitor and improve health, but a decid- edly low-tech instrument — the humble toilet — may have the potential to out- perform them all. That’s the conclusion of a team of metabolism scien- tists at UW–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research that is working to put urine’s tremendous “The average Wisconsin range of metabolic health student now graduates information to work for per- sonalized medicine. in less than four years. … Urine contains a virtual Modern Badgers, I hate liquid history of an indi- vidual’s nutritional habits, to say this, but you are exercise, medication use, doing it entirely wrong. sleep patterns, and other lifestyle choices. It also con- What is the hurry? I say: tains metabolic links to more than 600 human conditions, including major stay in Madison as long killers like cancer, diabetes, and kidney disease. A pilot study suggested that frequent monitoring and testing of urine sam- as possible. Have you ples can provide useful real-time information about an individual’s health. So been in the real world? the team is now working on technology to make the collection process simple, accurate, and affordable: in other words, a “smart toilet.” Have you seen what it’s The toilet will incorporate a portable mass spectrometer to recognize like out there? Have you individual users. The researchers plan to install it in their building — the Biotechnology Center — and incorporate a user group of a dozen or more watched screaming luna- subjects. tics on cable news? Life Urine tests could show how an individual metabolizes certain types of prescription drugs in ways that are healthy or dangerous. They would also does not get any better indicate whether people are taking medications properly. The smart toilet could be a major step for population health, according to than this. It gets warmer, Joshua Coon, a UW professor of chemistry and biomolecular chemistry. yes. But it does not get “If you had tens of thousands of users and you could correlate that data with health and lifestyle, you could then start to have real diagnostic capabilities,” any better.” Coon says, adding that it might provide early warning of viral or bacterial — Jason Gay ’92, sports columnist for outbreaks. the Wall Street Journal, speaking at the BRIAN MATTMILLER ’86 December 2019 commencement

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Would you believe there’s a This fall, the UW will begin Jonathan Taylor x’21 decided video game that’s good for renovating Camp Randall to forgo his senior season middle-school brains? The Stadium’s south end zone to with the Badger football UW Center for Healthy Minds add premium seating, premium team and enter the NFL draft. helped develop Tenacity, in concessions, and other ameni- Taylor won two Doak Walker which players use a touch ties. “We are continually trying Awards as the nation’s top screen to count their breaths to provide our fans a first-class tailback and ranks second in a particular sequence. A experience when they come in rushing yards in Big Ten study shows that the game to our events,” says Athletics Conference history. Well, it

MARIANNE SPOON; JEFF MILLER JEFF SPOON; MARIANNE improves a child’s attention. Director Barry Alvarez. was fun while it lasted.

On Wisconsin 19 Contender K’Andre Miller

Hockey is not for the weak-spir- Miller isn’t sure ited, and Badgers star defense- how long he’ll play man and top NHL prospect college hockey, but he’s already K’Andre Miller x’22 has made a had an outsized habit of proving his mettle. impact on the UW As the smooth-skating program. Miller glides to the puck during a practice drill in October, he’s struck in the neck by a team- mate’s stick. The hit leaves the 6'5" sophomore slumping and noticeably aching — but still skating. No one consoles him when he heads to the bench for a line change, save for an assis- tant coach who encouragingly taps him on the kneepads with a stick. Minutes later, still winc- ing, he reenters the fray and swiftly bulldozes the offending teammate. No one flinches at the act, and the feud is over, because this is how hockey works — even among friends. “I’m fine,” Miller says non- chalantly after practice. It’s just another day at the rink. Many players say it, but Miller means it: hockey is his life. He started skating when he was two years old as his uncle taught him the sport. What does he want to do after his hockey career? “Hockey,” Miller responds without hesitation. Why did he pick communication arts as his major? “Easy credits, I guess,” he says with a laugh and his wide smile. That smile came in handy in his younger years, when he briefly modeled for Target ads and appeared in a me, and I got here through all and speed mirror his own. In Honda commercial with former of her dedication and pursuit.” 2013, Jones became the first NHL star Mike Richter x’88. One sign of his mother’s com- African American player to be a The New York Rangers mitment: working overtime to top-five draft pick. The league traded up to the 22nd pick in replace broken hockey sticks. has long lacked diversity, with the 2018 draft to select Miller, Among Amy Sokoloski’s some 30 active players of color whom they now consider a other sacrifices was allowing spread across the 31 teams. top-three prospect in the her son to leave home at age “I don’t really see it like organization. The team has 16 to play for the USA Hockey that,” Miller, who is also African been content to let him develop National Team Development American, says of the sport’s in Madison, where head coach Program in Plymouth, Michigan, lack of representation. “I’m Tony Granato ’17 and defensive where he quickly impressed different than a lot of these guru Mark Osiecki ’94 have both the Badgers and the Rang- guys, but they see me, and I see earned a reputation for cul- ers with his elite combination of myself, as just another hockey tivating professional talent. size and speed. player.” Osiecki has coached more than Although he’s a defense- Despite speculation that a dozen future NHL defense- man, Miller likes to think of Miller would turn pro after men, and Miller will soon join himself as a “fourth forward” his freshman campaign, he the pro ranks of Badger legends — a chase-down defender returned to Madison for a like Chris Chelios x’83, Ryan with a knack for the opportune second season. “I want to win Suter x’04, and Ryan McDonagh offensive attack. Last season, a national championship,” he x’11. (An ESPN article in Octo- the left-handed shooter led the says. He’s not certain how long ber referred to UW–Madison as Badgers with 22 points (five he’ll play college hockey, but “Defenseman U.”) goals and 17 assists) before he his head coach believes he’s “The coaching staff here suffered a season-ending knee already had an outsized impact you won’t find anywhere else,” injury with 11 games remain- on the program. Miller says, noting that it’s the ing. He earned the team’s Mark “The skill part — the size, top reason he chose to attend Johnson Rookie of the Year the mobility — you can see,” the UW over other colleges. award and a spot on the Big Ten Granato told media last season. The Minnesota native, an All-Freshman Team. “What you don’t see as a fan only child of a devoted single “You see a little bit of flair is the work ethic, the compet- mother, takes none of his suc- in my game, where I wish I was itiveness, and the kid himself, cess for granted. When asked still playing forward some- and why he is so special. … As a to describe his upbringing, his times,” Miller says, laughing. coach, when you recruit, you’re long pause — for a poised per- His versatility stems from play- looking for character to go son scarcely at a loss for words ing the forward position until along with the skill, and when — says it all. his second year of high school. you find one of those guys, you “Tough,” he says after col- One of the NHL players get real excited. Well, he’s lived lecting his thoughts. “Not the Miller models his game after up to it.” most fortunate. But my mom is Seth Jones of the Columbus PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 did everything she could do for Blue Jackets, whose stature PHOTO BY BRYCE RICHTER Hope’s Eternal Spring It’s been 50 years since the first Earth Day, but everything we read says things are getting worse. So why is the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies so upbeat?

BY JOHN ALLEN I have a theory: people tend to have a tepid response to environmen- talism because articles about the environment are, almost invariably, gloomy. Every day, we read that the climate is warming, the seas are rising, Australia is burning, pollution is spreading and increasingly toxic. According to a study published in Science in October, North America has lost three billion birds — about 29 percent of the avian population — in the last 50 years. What am I supposed to do with that knowledge? And yet Paul Robbins ’89 insists, “Our story is about hope.” Robbins is dean of the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and he argues that negativity is the antithesis of environ- mental studies, at least at UW–Madison. The Nelson Institute turns 50 this year. It was born, somewhat coincidentally, in 1970, the same year that its eponym, then-Senator Gaylord Nelson LLB’42, saw his proposal for an environmental holi- day — Earth Day — come to fruition. It was an inspirational moment for environmentalism. “I’m sort of a product of Earth Day,” says Jean Bahr, a recently retired professor of geoscience who worked in the Nelson Institute. “That was a seminal event in my life, because it inspired me to first help start a recycling center in my hometown and then to go to college with the idea of studying some sort of environmental science.” But the ensuing decades have shown how complicated environ- mental science can be. “I think when we started out with the first Earth Day, the focus was really on visible pollution, air quality, con- taminated water,” Bahr says. “I don’t think we recognized the scope of climate change.” The Nelson Institute is an oddity on a college campus. Almost all of its faculty are cross-listed in other departments; it offers undergradu- ate degrees, but only as the second half of a double-major. Its founding director, Reid Bryson, is remembered today partly for his view on climate change: the world, he believed, was cooling. Yet the Nelson Institute is also remarkable for its insistence on positivity, even though things so often look so bad. I talked to six current and former members of Nelson’s faculty to find out where their hope lives. “There have been a lot of tragic and awful things that have hap- pened in the 50 years since the first Earth Day,” says Robbins, “but there’s been a lot of problem-solving, too. We want to be about prob- lem-solving. We want our students not to be depressed. We want them to be hopeful.”

22 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Hope’s Eternal Spring FOLIAGE PHOTO BY BRYCE RICHTER COURTESY OF THE NELSON INSTITUTE

Arthur Sacks (left) earned his PhD studying poetry. From its early days, the institute has been interdisciplinary.

ARTHUR SACKS: Education Sacks, because of academic friction. “Reid was basi- One Angry Dude cally kicked out of geography,” he says. In 1962, Bryson established the Center for Climatic Research, having determined that climate Bryson, the founder of what would become the change put human society at risk. The change that Nelson Institute, was not always an easy person to Bryson thought was coming was a global cooling — get along with. he believed that human activity was driving so much “Reid was one of those brilliant scholars who dust and aerosolized matter into the atmosphere that thought he knew as much about your field — if not more it would reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the — than you did, even though it wasn’t his field,” says earth. Accumulated data did not support this predic- Arthur Sacks MA’68, PhD’75, “and he let you know it tion, but Bryson remained doubtful. He was skeptical all the time, which some people found irritating.” that carbon dioxide had much impact on the global And Sacks considered Bryson his mentor. climate or that there was a political means of slowing But if Bryson was irritating, he also made spec- the use of fossil fuels. tacular contributions. During the Second World War, Still, in the 1960s, he decided that the university he had helped to document the jet stream, and he was needed a department to study the environment. one of the few meteorologists to correctly predict the “The institute’s genius was to realize that [science path of Typhoon Cobra in December 1944. (His fore- disciplines] are interconnected instead of breaking casts were ignored, however, and the U.S. Third Fleet them up,” says Sacks. “That’s critical to advance our sailed into the typhoon, leading to ascending trage- understanding of how the planet works. The goal was dies: three ships sank, many more were damaged, to look at how human and environmental systems hundreds of sailors drowned, and Herman Wouk was work together, interacting positively and negatively, inspired to write The Caine Mutiny.) and how society could improve and help the environ- Bryson joined the UW faculty in 1948 and helped ment rather than simply destroy it by digging holes to found the meteorology department — in part, says and pumping oil.”

On Wisconsin 23 At its outset in 1970, the institute worked to “Fifty years ago, this institute was, like, one draw from a variety of disciplines. By 1976, its staff angry dude. That’s what it was,” says Robbins, that included Sacks, who had received his graduate angry dude’s successor. “I mean, he did great stuff. degrees in English studying obscure Jazz Age poet Never talk Reid down. But it was just one guy. Now Maxwell Bodenheim. When Bryson retired in 1985, it’s different.” Sacks became the institute’s next director. That growth in recognition is part of what gives Sacks and other UW environmental studies fac- Sacks hope — not just that the institute is seen as ulty frequently advised governments on policy — not more important, but that environmental studies in only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but general are a concern across all levels of education. also organizations in the Soviet Union, Indonesia, “What encourages me now is a resurgence of India, China, Chile, and other countries. awareness among even young people about the “Through my own academic international envi- importance of this, not only for themselves but for ronmental education work,” Sacks says, “as well as the the future,” Sacks says. “The thing that gives me institute’s very significant research, education, and hope is the fact that environmental education at K–12 Monica White outreach efforts, the institute became known globally levels, at undergraduate levels, at graduate levels, hopes to see the concept of the as a leader in the environmental education arena.” has … created a new generation of people who see environment Leveraging that interdisciplinary outlook, the the value and the importance and critical nature of broaden beyond institute has grown from geography’s stepchild into the study of the environment.” nature. “The an entity with its own standing. In 2002, it was named environment,” for Gaylord Nelson, whom Sacks had long admired she says, is and supported; in 2019, the Nelson Institute’s top “ubiquitous, in MONICA WHITE: Gardens position received a title change from director to dean, the sense that it’s The Environment Is Everywhere everything that signaling that it was approaching equal status to the we do.” UW’s 11 constituent schools and colleges. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Nelson had BRYCE RICHTER an expansive view of what environmental studies should study. More than parks and bears and owls and whales and mountains and restored prairies, the environment is everywhere and everything. Factories and pollution are environmental issues, but so are golf courses and homes and playgrounds. “The economy,” he argued, “is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.” According to Robbins, this ethos runs through- out the Nelson Institute today. “We define the envi- ronment as anywhere that people live, work, and play,” he says. And that means that environmental advocates have a bit of a problem. “Right now, the constituency for ‘the environment’ is way too narrow,” he says. “It comes from a wilderness tradition that is heavily white, older, middle class. If we don’t fix that, all of the other problems are not going to get fixed.” The trouble with environmental arguments as often presented is that they come across as a luxury — preserving vacationlands for the affluent. Monica White knows that this is a mistake. Ignoring the con- cerns of the poor is a blind spot for environmental- ists, and it’s potentially deadly for the poor. White is an associate professor of commu- nity and environmental sociology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, with half her appoint- ment in the Nelson Institute. She has an office in Ag Hall, as well as one in Science Hall. “The most interesting conversation I have with folks is helping them understand that being out in the environment doesn’t mean getting in your car and driving somewhere,” she says. “The environment is outside your door wherever you live, and it’s more

24 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 DREW BIRD

encompassing than hiking trails and mountains. It’s is a fallacy to say that the Amazon is the patrimony Jean Bahr came also the built environment.” of humanity,” he said in a speech last year, meaning to environmental White’s journey to environmental studies began that the region belongs to Brazilians to exploit as science early in in her native Detroit, where people turned to the land they see fit; the rest of humanity may go climb a tree, life. As a teen, on the first Earth to counteract an urban desert. “Everybody in my if they can find one. And yet while the burning will Day in 1970, she family grew food,” she says. “My dad grew food. My aid farmers, it will damage the lives of the Amazon’s started a recy- grandmother was in a wheelchair, and she grew food indigenous peoples. Preservation aids some commu- cling center in indoors before it was popular.” nities and restricts others; exploitation benefits some her hometown in White’s interest is in environmental justice, a communities to the detriment of others. California. concept that leaps across a variety of traditional When it comes to hope, White looks not at the academic disciplines: sociology, political science, large scale but at the small: garden plots. When geography, economics, horticulture, and more. people dig in their own soil and grow their own food, “When we think broadly about the environment, they engage with the environment and find ways to the environment offers us resources,” White says. be healthy. “There are some of us who use more resources than “I am encouraged by children in gardens in places others and benefit from those resources, while the that were previously overrun by tall grass,” she says. outcome or the residuals impact those communities “I am encouraged by seeing people reconnect with the that don’t have access. And so an environmental- agricultural environment, using the environment as a justice framework recognizes that some receive place and space to learn new strategies for resilience, more benefit and others more detriment.” resistance, and community health and wellness.” White’s focus is small-scale: looking in particu- lar at food justice and how poorer communities can overcome being deprived of access to wholesome, JEAN BAHR: Earth’s Resilience healthful sustenance. But on a large scale, environ- All Wet mental justice lies at the heart of many global con- flicts. Why is so much rain forest burning in Brazil? Because its president, Jair Bolsonaro, hopes to spark The Nelson Institute began its life in 1970, as the rapid economic growth and believes that first-world then-Nelson-less Institute for Environmental environmentalists are holding his country back. “It Studies. But the UW’s interest in studying the

On Wisconsin 25 environment goes back much further, and in fact government agencies and at nonprofit groups such as there are elements of the Nelson Institute that are the River Alliance and Sierra Club. Bahr says that older than the parent organization. One of these is WRM’s program requires students to participate in Water Resources Management (WRM), a master of “the workshop,” in which the entire class agrees to science program that began in 1965 out of discus- tackle a real-world problem, find a solution, and then sions between political scientist Henry Hart MA’47, implement it. PhD’50 and civil engineering professor Arno Lenz Students “often complain about the workshop ’28, MS’30, PhD’40. Like all of the UW’s environ- while it’s going on. It’s hard to work with other mental studies efforts, it’s cross-disciplinary, recog- people, and it’s hard to learn a common language nizing that addressing real-world problems involves of different disciplines and things,” says Bahr. “But drawing on expertise in a wide variety of fields. then the alumni always say, ‘Oh, that was the best Holly Gibbs sees Bahr, who led WRM from 1995 to 1999, is a geol- training that I could have gotten for what I’m doing environmental ogist. Her office is in Weeks Hall. “There’s always for the rest of my life.’ Most water problems are protection as a been a strong connection between this department things that involve the social dimensions and human growing concern for businesses. and Water Resources Management,” she says. “A large dimensions.” “The people that number of the master’s students I supervised in hydro- Bahr herself works to incorporate real-world reach out to me to geology did double degrees with Water Resources solutions into her own life: hers was the first home in talk about science Management. It was a perfect combination of research Madison to add grid-connected solar panels, meaning are increasingly thesis plus the interdisciplinary practicum.” that she not only generates her own electricity, but banks wanting Both in her role with WRM and after, Bahr was also sells excess to Madison Gas and Electric. And in to know how to protect their an advocate for one of the Nelson Institute’s chief her academic work, she serves on the federal Nuclear shareholders,” goals: preparing grads to work outside of academia. Waste Technical Review Board, helping the nation she says. WRM alumni go on to careers in state and federal try to work out how to manage spent nuclear fuel. And energy use is, to Bahr, one of the world’s BRYCE RICHTER great environmental concerns. “It’s the people who use the energy who are causing climate change and putting pressure on all of our natural resources,” she says. “That affects ecosystems and biodiversity. I can get really pessimistic.” But her study of geology gives her hope. “Our planet is actually quite resilient,” she says. “And geology gives me an appreciation of the longevity of our planet and the evolution of our planet over time. Our species may not survive, but the planet will.”

HOLLY GIBBS: Investment Banks SAGE Advice

“Wait, can I change my answer?” says Holly Gibbs PhD’08, a professor of geography at the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE). “Go back. Students. I should have said our students give me hope. Or maybe the children?” But my no-backsies policy is strict. Besides, other faculty talk about children and students. I’m intrigued by what she says about economics. It’s raining outside Gibbs’s office in the UW’s Enzyme Research Institute, and in Brazil the rain- forests are burning, but her mood is light. “It’s tricky talking about hope,” she says, but things are not quite as bad as they look. Gibbs is not at the Enzyme Research Institute because she studies enzymes. Her lab is there because the building has space for her and for SAGE. Though the Nelson Institute’s official home is in Science Hall, that ancient building has only so much space, and

26 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 BRYCE RICHTER

it has to share with the Department of Geography that if trespassers come on their land and try to stop A historian of and the State Cartographer’s Office and the Robinson deforestation, they may shoot them without reper- science, Gregg Map Library. So SAGE holes up nearly a mile away on cussion, making research dangerous. Mitman wrote his the southwest side of campus, in a building it shares “It’s so unsafe now that it’s even difficult for us to first book,Reel Nature, about the with the Research Animal Resources Center and, of feel comfortable hiring a local Brazilian to go out and history of Amer- course, the Institute for Enzyme Research. lead field research,” she says. “We’ve put that part of ican wildlife SAGE was founded in 2002 by Jonathan Foley our work on hold under this new political context.” films. He helped ’90, PhD’93 with the purpose of looking at the inter- But at the same time, the situation offers a ray of to found the connections between resources, technology, public hope: “Investment bankers,” says Gibbs. “Investment Nelson Institute’s policy, health, security, and the environment. “Jon bankers give me hope.” Center for Cul- ture, History, and was part of another research group that was focused This is, she admits, a simplification. But she Environment. on the nitty-gritty of atmospheric science, but he believes that, increasingly, the global financial sector is wanted to do the interdisciplinary work that would seeing the risks of environmental damage and climate change the world,” Gibbs says. “In SAGE, one of the change. And where money flows, change happens. things that brings us together is trying to conduct “By working with so many different compa- what I would call science that matters.” nies,” she says, “from the retailers to the commod- Gibbs has been busy in recent years. Her par- ity buyers to the investment banks, you start to feel ticular area of research includes land use in the this sense that, well, there’s enough good people, Brazilian Amazon. there’s enough concerned citizens, that by bringing “We’ve been targeting these corporate prom- us together, we could start to solve huge problems.” ises, where companies have made public promises and sometimes legal contracts to stop buying from farmers that have cleared forest,” she says. “They’re GREGG MITMAN: People trying to have deforestation-free supply chains, and Beyond the Land Ethic we’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand what is happening on the ground.” And what’s happening on the ground is not Land, says Gregg Mitman MA’84, PhD’88, is a entirely good. Brazil’s president Bolsonaro has hot topic. not only allowed but encouraged deforestation. “As much as climate is an issue, a major envi- According to Gibbs, he has even told agriculturalists ronmental issue,” he says, “land is a huge issue,

On Wisconsin 27 and we’re seeing questions around land — who has Institute. It was folded into Nelson in 2003, though access to it and who owns it — asked in a way that it’s “now pretty much defunct,” Mitman notes. “But is quite different from an earlier land ethic, which when I travel, people know the Land Tenure Center. became such a touchstone for Wisconsin.” A lot of the people that were working as consultants The land ethic was a concept put forward by Aldo on land reform in Liberia had some connection to the Leopold, the UW professor and author whose philos- Land Tenure Center at Wisconsin.” ophy dominated 20th-century conservation move- For Mitman, hope flows from those same people ments. Robbins considers Leopold, John Muir x1863, — people like Urey, who refuse to give in to despair. and Nelson to be the “holy trinity” of Wisconsin “[Urey’s] village was taken over by rebels when environmental thought. he was a young boy,” Mitman says. “He first learned Leopold wrote that the land ethic “enlarges to read and write at the age of 14. But he found his Paul Robbins the boundaries of the community to include soils, way to the Nelson Institute and got his PhD. He’s now notes that none waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the helping to build a school and sustainable agriculture of his “holy trinity” land. … [It] changes the role of Homo sapiens from to support that school. That kind of resilience of the of UW environ- conqueror of the land-community to plain member human spirit gives me a lot of hope.” mental thinkers and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fel- “is actually a low-members, and also respect for the community Nelson grad.” They include John Muir as such.” PAUL ROBBINS: Ingenuity (classical course), Mitman, whose field is history of science, led the The Modernist Aldo Leopold Nelson Institute as interim director for four years (forestry), and leading up to Robbins’s arrival. His office is in the Gaylord Nelson Medical Sciences Center. He sees environmental Environmental studies are global: they look at (law). studies growing beyond the land ethic to consider not sea levels, planetwide temperatures, atmospheric just how the human species is part of the land com- gasses, continental bird populations, and so on. But munity, but how land has been shaped by histories they are also local. Among the Nelson programs that of racism and violence that have led to inequitable Robbins is most proud of is the Wisconsin Initiative environmental burdens. on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI), even though it “If you look at the places that will be most was developed before his arrival in 2012. affected [by climate change] — say, Africa,” he says, “It comes from an encounter with a state legis-

“it’s a continent that has contributed the least in CO2 lator who said, ‘Okay, I believe you, climate change emissions. There’s a real inequity there in terms of is real. Why does my constituency care? Why do the burdens that people will bear, in relationship to I care? The people who vote for me, why do they their involvement in producing the problem.” care?’ That was a good question,” Robbins says. For instance, Mitman worked with Emmanuel “That’s a good Wisconsin Idea question.” Urey MS’13, PhD’18 to produce a documentary and WICCI launched in 2007 in a partnership website called The Land beneath Our Feet about his- between the Nelson Institute and Wisconsin’s tory, memory, and rights in Liberia. The film played Department of Natural Resources, and it consid- a part in the passage of Liberia’s Land Rights Act in ers the ways in which climate change will affect 2018, which recognizes indigenous people’s custom- the state: agriculture, fisheries, forests, health, and ary rights. more. It looks at not just how the climate is chang- In Liberia, multinational corporations control ing, but how that change will affect local commu- between a quarter and half of all public land and use nities and what those communities can do about it. it for plantations to produce raw materials such as Climate is the top concern for Robbins, as it palm oil. People are displaced in the process, losing was for every Nelson faculty member I spoke with. access to land that may have been held in common “Catastrophic climate change and the collapse of for generations. global biodiversity: that’s the story,” Robbins says. “Liberia is very much an agricultural nation,” says “There’s no going back is what we say around here. Mitman. “Many people live by subsistence agriculture I mean, minimally, you’re talking about a degree and have a west-African understanding of land, where and a half. That’s a fundamentally altered planet.” it belongs to a community, which is custodian of the But doom is not inevitable. We may not go back, land. Private property, individual ownership of land, but we might adapt. WICCI has an adaptation is an alien concept that runs counter to customary working group to help develop strategies so that rights. These [corporate] concessions really deprive Wisconsin can prepare for a warmer world. people of their livelihood by taking away access to “I don’t think [restoration] is a good word. I land that was once held in common.” think we should be calling it ecological design,” says The film project, Mitman says, flows from the Robbins. “People act on the land or they don’t act on tradition created by the UW’s Land Tenure Center, the land. You either put your hands on it to change it, which began in the College of Agricultural and Life or you put your hands on it to keep it from changing. Sciences in 1962, before the creation of the Nelson Those are your choices. That’s what they are.”

28 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Robbins can put his hands on a piece of environ- overpopulation, but the truth is half the countries mental inspiration anytime he wants. In his Science in the world are shrinking. … If you had told me 40 Hall office sits Nelson’s desk — the one on which he years ago, 30 years ago, that that would happen and worked out proposals for Earth Day. But Robbins it would happen within two generations, I would doesn’t use it as a desk. It sits in a corner far from have said that was a fairly optimistic prediction.” the windows: a museum piece or holy relic. And this is what gives Robbins hope: the Robbins sees the threats that his fellow envi- human ability to adapt and change. Smaller rural ronmental scientists have forecast for the world, populations, for instance, have allowed forests to and he knows that not all of them have come to return in many parts of Latin America and Asia. In pass: humans can, when pressed, make changes Wisconsin, Robbins notes, there is more forested that ameliorate environmental damage. land than at any time in the last century, even after “Systems have thresholds and tipping points,” years of brutal deforestation by European settlers. he says. “And we talk about tipping points as all Technology has made solar energy much cheaper bad, right? So enough biodiversity collapses that today than it was a decade ago. And though the the oceans die, and then we all die. That would be world still burns a lot of natural gas, it’s an improve- bad. But there are tipping points for other systems, ment on coal, which was itself an improvement on too. Urbanization is a classic example.” previous energy sources. “Remember,” he says, “we Paul Robbins A few decades ago, the human population was used to burn whale oil.” describes himself rising so fast that environmentalists feared that So human ingenuity gives Robbins hope. “We as a “recover- resources would be used up, leading to conflict and get better at things all the time,” he says. “My inner ing archaeolo- devastation. But urbanization, coupled with wom- modernist is still alive. There’s still some part of me gist.” He began en’s education, rights, and labor force participation, that clings to modernity, to progress.” learning about • environmental led to a rapid decline in birth rates. politics while on “[Now] half the world is under the replacement John Allen is associate publisher of On Wisconsin magazine. archaeological rate for population,” Robbins says. “We think of He regrets using so much paper to draft this article. digs in India. BRYCE RICHTER

On Wisconsin 29 Joan Cusack is Marilyn Monroe crossed with Cruella de Vil in Addams Family Values.

30 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 ALAMY/A.F. ARCHIVE

Hair-Raising Performances Our critic rates UW movie stars and their greatest roles.

BY DEAN ROBBINS

There are many ways to choose the best American movie performances. If you’re looking at comedi- ans, you might pick Eddie Murphy, Cary Grant, or Katharine Hepburn. If you’re looking at dramatic actors, you might pick Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, or (yes, again) Hepburn. But what about the best UW alumni performances? Looking at movie history from that angle yields an impressive list of films, from the early sound era to the present. UW actors have starred in cinematic classics and collected Academy Awards, although statuettes don’t necessarily indicate their finest work. As we all know, the Oscars can pick the wrong winners or overlook greatness entirely. So what do you say we judge greatness for our- selves? After a monthlong binge on alumni films, I hereby offer my own awards for the best Badger performances of all time, including one that’s only 10 seconds long. FREDRIC MARCH 1920 in A Star Is Born (1937) Fredric March is UW–Madison’s biggest movie star, winning Oscars for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Best Years of Our Lives. He came up empty-handed for A Star Is Born, but his performance as Norman Maine stands the test of time better than his more celebrated roles. It can still make you laugh and cry — not bad for an otherwise dated melodrama. Norman is a matinee idol on the skids. The soul- less Hollywood studio system has turned him into COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN CENTER FOR FILM AND THEATER RESEARCH (3)

Fredric March (with Janet Gaynor) can still make you laugh and cry in A Star Is Born — not bad for an otherwise dated melodrama.

a scotch-guzzling buffoon — though, as March plays hat, he could have been simply ridiculous. But him, an unusually charming one. He gets you root- Raabe lends the character a stately presence as he ing for his relationship with Esther Blodgett (Janet displays the all-important death certificate, mouth- Gaynor), an aspiring actress so angelic that she melts ing a line as famous as any by Humphrey Bogart: his hardened heart. Along with making love, Norman “She’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sin- and Esther make jokes, and surprisingly good ones cere-ly dead!” for a couple careening toward tragedy. March had With that one moment of glory, the game UW the perfect touch for such repartee in the golden age actor secured himself a place in movie history. of screwball comedy. The actor was renowned for his versatility, and AGNES MOOREHEAD he flaunts it inA Star Is Born. Norman is comic, in Citizen Kane (1941) tragic, and everything in between: from cynical to Snow falls outside a modest boarding house. Young vulnerable, bumbling to debonair. When he wades Charles Foster Kane stands by his Rosebud sled, into the Pacific Ocean for the ultimate self-sacrifice, throwing a snowball. The camera pulls back until an you hate to see him go. imposing figure enters the frame: Charles’s mother, Mary (Agnes Moorehead), who tenderly calls to him MEINHARDT RAABE ’37 out the window. in The Wizard of Oz (1939) Moorehead anchors a heartbreaking scene in No one would describe The Wizard of Oz as “a perhaps the greatest movie of all time. Mary has Meinhardt Raabe picture.” But as the coroner of come into money, and she believes that sending Munchkinland, Raabe makes an unforgettable Charles away from home is in his best interest. We impression in just a few seconds on-screen. see from her son’s tears — in a wrenching closeup Raabe’s scene represents a turning point in — that she is mistaken. It’s a wound that will never Dorothy Gale’s Technicolor journey of self-discov- heal, even as Charles grows up to be a renowned ery. Her flying Kansas farmhouse has flattened the newspaper tycoon. Is it any wonder his dying word Wicked Witch of the East, and she’ll earn heroic is “Rosebud”? status if the Munchkins can confirm the villain’s Writer-director-star Orson Welles suffered a death. Did you ever notice that The Wizard of Oz, similar trauma in his own childhood, so you can though illogical in the extreme, is obsessed with bet he thought long and hard about whom to cast standards of proof? Dorothy requires a broom to as the wonderful, terrible mother. In her brief time prove the other witch’s defeat. Her fellow outcasts on-screen, Moorehead conveys Mary’s mixed emo- need trinkets to prove they have brains, heart, and tions with a gulp, a sigh, and an almost imperceptible courage. quiver in her voice. The portrayal is all the more In Munchkinland, proof falls to Raabe’s charac- moving for the actor’s restraint. ter. Fitted out in a pointy beard and purple scrolled Moorehead lived for a time in Wisconsin and

32 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Top: In The Wizard of Oz, Meinhardt Raabe (third from left) makes an unforgettable impression in a mere 10 seconds on-screen. Bottom: Agnes Moorehead anchors a heart- breaking scene in Citizen Kane.

On Wisconsin 33 COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN CENTER FOR FILM AND THEATER RESEARCH (2)

Don Ameche (left, with Joe Mantegna) may not say much in Things Change, but his silence is golden.

loved the UW, donating her papers to the univer- Cassavetes treasured improvisation, and sity. She led people to think she had a UW degree Rowlands (his real-life wife) is nothing if not spon- but actually attended only one session of summer taneous. You never know what her character will school. For the purposes of this article, though, let’s do next. Even in a movie with virtually no plot, she go ahead and call her a Badger. keeps you on the edge of your seat. That allows for a magnificent boast: UW– Madison has a claim on Citizen Kane. DON AMECHE x’31 in Things Change (1988) GENA ROWLANDS x’51 Don Ameche was a glamorous movie star in the in A Woman under the Influence (1974) 1930s and ’40s, followed by a long dry spell. He made We meet Mabel (Gena Rowlands) in motion. a comeback in the ’80s with Cocoon, winning an Preparing for a date with her husband (Peter Falk), Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. But his outstanding she packs off the kids, paces from room to room, late-career achievement came in Things Change, an smokes, sings, whistles, mutters. Director John existential buddy movie by playwright David Mamet Cassavetes’s tracking camera can barely keep up and children’s author Shel Silverstein. Ameche stars with her — until date night falls apart and an omi- as shoeshine man Gino, who reluctantly agrees to nous stillness sets in. take the fall for a gangland murder. Before the trial, In A Woman under the Influence, Mabel veers the mobster (Joe Mantegna) assigned to keep an eye between manic and depressive, struggling to live up on Gino bends the rules by letting him enjoy a last to the conventional roles of wife and mother. The weekend of freedom in Lake Tahoe. Then, as the title movie is a monument of independent cinema, and has it, things change. Rowlands delivers one of the great Oscar-nominated At 80, Ameche retains his dapper mustache and mad acts of the 1970s — right up there with Peter leading-man stature. He gives Gino a regal bearing Finch in Network and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. in spite of his humble station in life. You have no Even Mabel’s loyal spouse is forced to admit, “I don’t trouble believing that this simple laborer could be understand what she’s doing.” mistaken for a Mafia kingpin in Tahoe — a plot point Viewers don’t understand what she’s doing, that might have strained credulity but for Ameche’s either. It’s like trying to make sense of Ophelia’s subtle performance. Act IV raving in Hamlet. Nevertheless, you can’t The actor works his magic with minimal dia- take your eyes off Mabel as she baffles family and logue. As fortune has its way with Gino, he responds neighbors. The intensity in her expression — teeth with little more than a widening of the eyes or a fur- bared, nostrils flaring — speaks volumes about her rowing of the brow. Ameche may not say much in troubled marriage. Things Change, but his silence is golden.

34 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 JOAN CUSACK ’84 in Addams Family Values (1993) Joan Cusack received Oscar nominations for sec- ond-banana parts in Working Girl and In & Out, but her shining moment came in a movie she dominates. Though Addams Family Values is packed with comic scene-stealers (Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Raul Julia as Gomez, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester), Cusack outdoes them all as a gold digger from hell. Imagine Marilyn Monroe from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes crossed with Cruella de Vil. Hired as a nanny, Cusack’s Debbie drops like a (blonde) bombshell into the topsy-turvy Addams household. In this gothic netherworld, inspired by Charles Addams’s New Yorker cartoons, gloomy is good and beautiful is bad. Even among the extrav- Rodney Dangerfield is the one agantly wicked family members, however, Debbie Hollywood actor who plays a Bad- stands out for her perversity. She sets her sights on ger with flair. Uncle Fester, who, while repulsive (“Fester means rot,” he helpfully explains), is also rich. Cusack puts everything she has into the devilish one-liners, play- STARRING AS UW STUDENTS ing against type as Fester’s femme fatale. The best word for her performance might be Several major movies are set at UW–Madison, featuring “dreadful.” In the Addams universe, that’s the high- Hollywood actors as students. How good are they at playing est compliment. the part of Badgers? Not very — with one notable exception. CARRIE COON MFA’06 Elroy Hirsch x’45 Julia Stiles in Gone Girl (2014) in Crazylegs (1953) and Luke Mably Margo (Carrie Coon) and Nick (Ben Affleck) are sar- It might seem unfair to judge in The Prince & Me (2004) castic twins with a taste for board games. Game- Badger football legend Hirsch A sensible UW premed playing of a deadlier sort sets Gone Girl in motion, as an actor, but he had several student (Stiles) falls for her beginning when Nick’s wife (Rosamund Pike) goes Hollywood roles. Crazylegs, roguish lab partner, a Danish missing under mysterious circumstances. his own biopic, even won an prince (Mably) who enrolled This potboiler is a psychological mess. Affleck Academy Award nomination. undercover to meet hot and Pike can’t make sense of their characters’ rela- So I think we can honestly chicks. Good acting might tionship, which wobbles between love and hate to assess his performance as have redeemed this non- satisfy the demands of an improbable cat-and-mouse “Elroy Hirsch,” a halfback sense, but Stiles and Mably story. The one actor who emerges with dignity intact with a unique running style. never seem believably in love. is Coon, who draws on her UW theatrical training While it’s fun to see our UW Forget about passing Organic to create a consistent character. hero playing himself, he has Chemistry — these two can’t Margo is written as a mere contrivance, arriving little in his actor’s toolkit even pass Romantic Comedy on cue to deliver or react to new information. But besides a good-natured grin. 101. Coon brings so much more to the role. In a movie where neither of the main characters warrants our Rodney Dangerfield Rachel Bilson sympathy, she’s the stalwart sister anybody would in Back to School (1986) in The Last Kiss (2006) want during a murder investigation/media circus/ A millionaire (Dangerfield) Older-guy Michael (Zach con game. She takes the character beyond sarcasm to sends his son to Grand Lakes Braff) begins an anguished authentic desperation and despair. Remarkably, she University (a.k.a. UW– love affair with Badger even makes an emotional connection with Affleck Madison, where the movie undergrad Kim (Bilson). — no mean feat given his determination to smirk was filmed), then decides to Kim is less a character than through every plot twist. enroll himself as the world’s a clumsy symbol of youth Coon has distinguished herself on stage and tele- oldest freshman. Dangerfield and freedom, and you can vision while earning relatively small parts in movies. is the one Hollywood actor only groan when she hands Gone Girl suggests that this talented Badger is ready who plays a Badger with flair. Michael a mixtape of “some for her star turn. He puts over the low-comedy really cool Madison bands.” • material with expert timing Bilson may well be the Dean Robbins is an Orson Welles fanatic (as if you couldn’t and probably the funniest uncoolest UW student of tell) and coeditor of On Wisconsin. See go.wisc.edu/sx6vb1 faces ever made on campus. all time. for an update on Fredric March’s campus controversy.

On Wisconsin 35 SIX LESSONS FROM THE ROSE BOWL We went to cover a football game and discovered a community.

BY PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 PHOTOS BY BRYCE RICHTER

36 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 confess: I’m jealous of my college friends California — we didn’t expect to care much who return to Madison with pure feelings about the outcome between the Badgers and the I of nostalgia. Now working as a writer for Oregon Ducks. And we certainly didn’t expect to the UW, I’ve barely left campus since I enrolled be moved to tears by the UW students, alumni, as a student in 2010. and fans we met along the way. Such proximity doesn’t leave much room for But we did, and we were. reflection. The Humanities Building loses its In the final minutes of the game on New sentimental value when you walk by it every day Year’s Day, Bryce and I waited anxiously on the for a decade. When big Badger games double as sidelines for a last-ditch miracle, preparing to work, you’re numbed to the joy of victory and the capture Wisconsin’s first Rose Bowl victory in devastation of defeat. exactly 20 years. That moment never came. But So I confess again: when photographer Bryce when the clock expired, even in the team’s defeat, Richter and I got the assignment of a lifetime — we had never felt prouder to be Badgers. covering the 2020 Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, Here’s why.

On Wisconsin 37 We’re all in this 2 together. At the UW’s pregame tailgate, amid the mosh pit of Badger fans (and brats and beer), Bryce spotted the contrasting colors of Megan Rollo in cardinal red and her wife, Jordan Wilde, in grass green. Despite the Seattle couple’s differing allegiances, they had no real disagreements. They root for both teams outside of the head-to-head matchup. They determined to make the 106th Rose Bowl their first because of its larger meaning. Wisconsin is where they met: Rollo attended UW–La Crosse, Wilde coached women’s basketball at UW–Parkside. As self-described football fanatics, they cared a lot about the game — but even more about their time together. “It’s 70 degrees on New Year’s Day,” Rollo said. “I don’t think losing would affect my experi- ence.” She added, laughing: “If we were playing Ohio State, it would.” For other fans, the pilgrimage to Pasadena was a UW students give back familiar one. Barbara Carrig ’64, MS’87 was a stu- dent when the Badgers made their third Rose Bowl — even on vacation. appearance. She thought better than to hitchhike 1 to California with her friends in 1963, but she’s “We’re going to be rooting for different teams tomor- attended several Rose Bowls since. row, but today we’re going to fight hunger together.” Top left: On Rose I learned that Carrig, like my sister, became a UW dean of students Christina Olstad delivered that Bowl eve, fans speech-language pathologist at a primary school charge to more than 100 volunteers at a Los Angeles from the UW and after earning her UW degree. She recounted the Regional Food Bank warehouse on Rose Bowl eve. the University story of how a former student once approached her Students, staff, and fans representing the UW and of Oregon come at a Rose Bowl tailgate. She remembered that he had the University of Oregon answered the call, lining together to a lateral lisp. He told her, “You changed my life.” package food for up at conveyer belts and packaging enough food for seniors in need. “It’s little things like that,” Carrig said. “I did it 2,240 seniors in need. Their brisk pace nearly broke Bottom: Megan for 31 years. Your sister will be thankful that she did the facility’s record for such a project. Rollo (left) and it, too.” The warehouse was a 30-minute drive from cen- her wife, Jordan tral L.A., so Bryce and I didn’t expect many — if any Wilde, set aside — students to show up and sacrifice a morning of their differences at the UW’s pre- their California vacation. But they proved us wrong. game tailgate. One sleep-deprived yet lively group had just arrived after a 30-hour road trip from Madison. “It’s cool to put sports aside and come together for a common cause,” said Molly Leyden x’23. I unpacked boxes of vegetable soup next to 26-year-old Ingrid Filakousky. The Orange, California, resident had no connection to either university but was inspired to join the effort after learning about it online. She left the food bank a fan of both schools, and we left in awe of our service-minded students and alumni. UW seniors Hannah Walker x’21, Hannah Baker x’20, and Logan Klein x’20 showed that giving back can be a whole lot of fun. “Some Oregon guys on the other end of the factory are dancing with their boxes of spaghetti, and we’re doing a little dance-off with our soup,” Walker said. “We just try to embody the Wisconsin Idea — that you learn through action, not just classes,” Baker added.

38 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 We’re all in this 2 together.

The UW Marching Band is a star 3 attraction. Jennie Johns wasn’t the first person to be starstruck on the streets of L.A. But she might have been the first to seek out selfies with members of a college marching band. A trip to the Rose Bowl was long on the bucket list for her and sister Leigh Price ’81. For them, the band was by far the main attraction. “From the first time I went to a game and saw the band’s Fifth Quarter, I was hooked,” Johns said. “To me, it really embod- ied enthusiasm, youthfulness, love of life, and just camaraderie.” The band’s halftime performance at the Rose Bowl, a melodic tribute to the military branches, stole the show. The crowd went wild when band Top middle: The members formed the shape of a plane and simulated UW Marching the exhaust of afterburners with jet-pack props. Band steals the On the plane to California, I sat next to Bob ’70 show at the Rose Parade. Top and Jeri Rooney, who proudly told me about their right, waving: multigenerational connections to the band. Bob and Leigh Price their children were members, and now their grand- (left) and Jennie son carries on the tradition as a trumpeter. The Johns are couple have attended all seven Rose Bowls since 1994 the band’s to show their support for the band family. number-one fans. At a pre–Rose Bowl event, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen since my undergrad days: Malcolm Robey ’15, who attended three Rose Bowls as a member of the marching band, the final one as its drum major. In college, as a Posse scholar, he helped me understand the challenges of being a student of color on a predominantly white campus, and how finding a community on campus is critical for success. It was clear, as Malcolm danced joyfully with current band members, that he’d found lifelong community.

On Wisconsin 39 UW fans own 4 Pasadena. As the oldest postseason game in college football, the Rose Bowl is called “The Granddaddy of Them All.” But the College Football Playoff system, devel- oped in 2014 to feature the nation’s four best teams, has threatened that status. Semifinal games rotate among six bowls, with the Rose Bowl hosting a championship-level game just once every three years. This was one of the off years. But that did little to discourage tens of thousands of UW fans from descending on Southern California. Since 1994, they’ve earned a reputation for traveling in big num- bers. That was true again — little green could be seen in Wisconsin’s sections, while stripes of red bled through Oregon’s half of the stadium. And from Santa Monica Pier to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we heard reports of Badgers far outnumbering Ducks. “It’s been amazing,” star running back Jonathan Taylor x’21 said after the game. “People ask me about Camp Randall, but it’s just a stadium like any other. It’s the fans that fill the stadium and take time out of their jobs and daily lives … to watch us play a game we love. They made it feel just like Camp Randall today.”

40 On Wisconsin It’s not just about 6 football. Our final lesson was the most important: that a trip to Pasadena transcends football. Fan after fan told us that the Rose Bowl experience isn’t defined by a win or a loss. It’s defined by the people: generations of family, old friends and new, scores of strangers in matching red. “It’s so fun to be with a bunch of people that you’re connected to — that you don’t know, but you know,” said band fan Leigh Price. The aha moment for me arrived in the third quar- ter of the game. During a commercial break, the UW Marching Band broke into the Friends theme song. It was a subtle nod to the song’s prolific writer, Allee Willis ’69. The one-of-a-kind alumna and Hollywood native had died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve at Top: UW fans 72. For band members, it was a personal loss. They prove that being a Badger had just met Willis in September, when she returned is about much to Madison to serve as a guest conductor in Camp more than a Randall Stadium, leading them in the same tune. football game. I’ll be there for you Bottom right: ’Cause you’re there for me too Aron Cruick- There’s a cardinal rule in the press box: don’t shank is a one- man stampede, cheer. So I didn’t, but my eyes did well with tears. returning a kick That small gesture — current students honoring a for a touchdown. former one — confirmed that being a Badger is about much more than a football game. It’s about commu- nity. It’s about what connects us. And it turns out all I had to do to rediscover my Win or lose, the passion as a UW alumnus was to leave town for a game is a thrill. few days. • 5 Preston Schmitt ’14 is a staff writer for On Wisconsin. For ESPN summarized the game as a “frenetic edition more Rose Bowl coverage by him and Bryce Richter, see of this venerated bowl,” and so it was. Five turn- rosebowl.wisc.edu. overs, seven lead changes, and a one-point differ- ential made for a wild ride. And for the Badgers, a crushing result: a 28–27 loss to Oregon, the fourth Rose Bowl defeat by a touchdown or less this decade. But the competitive game provided plenty of moments to cherish. After Oregon sprinted down the field on its first drive, Wisconsin answered with an electrifying kick return for a touchdown. Returner Aron Cruickshank x’22, a one-man stampede, was the Badgers’ surprise standout. His 95-yard dash down the right sideline was the second-longest scor- ing play in Rose Bowl history, and just the third kick return for a touchdown. Wisconsin’s familiar faces, including Taylor and receiver Quintez Cephus x’20, also starred in the back-and-forth affair. But the UW’s four turnovers proved to be too costly. Oregon scored 21 points out of them, including the decisive touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. Badger fans endured a bitter blast of green and yellow confetti as the clock hit zero. But the sights (hello, purple sunset over the mountains) and scores leading up to it? They were all worth the trip.

On Wisconsin 41 BRYCE RICHTER BRYCE

A New Era for Children’s Literature The UW Cooperative Children’s Book Center transforms publishing by championing diversity.

BY PRESTON SCHMITT ’14

Ever since I was born and could see, thinking, ‘Oh, my mom got this because it validates Everywhere I looked, I saw dance. my appearance’ — but I leaned on that book heav- In the clouds as the wind blew them ily for understanding who I was and what I wanted to do,” says Kirkwood Marshall, who is African across the sky, American. In the ripples on a pond, Such is the importance of multicultural children’s Even in the sea of ants marching up and literature. Scholar Rudine Sims Bishop famously down their hills. coined the phrase “mirrors and windows” — mean- ing that a good book can serve as a window to an Dance was all around me. Dance was me. unfamiliar world, a mirror for self-affirmation, or, ideally, both. As a young girl, Melanie Kirkwood Marshall ’15 But for all the potential, mirrors for children of wanted to dance. If Sassy could, why couldn’t she? color have been scarce. Dancing in the Wings was Over and over again, she read that opening pas- one of some 5,000 children’s books published in the sage of Debbie Allen’s children’s book Dancing in U.S. in 2000. Only 147 of them — less than 3 percent the Wings. She pored over Kadir Nelson’s sparkling — featured black characters. Only 151 books com- illustrations of Sassy, a young black girl who, her bined featured Asian, Latino/Latina, or indigenous classmates tease, is too tall to dance. Encouraged by characters. her family, Sassy dances anyway. And after winning Today, more than half of K–12 public school a big audition, she concludes: “Mama was right — students are children of color, yet less than 15 being tall wasn’t so bad after all.” percent of children’s books over the past two Kirkwood Marshall, now a doctoral student of decades have contained multicultural characters or language and literacy education at the University story lines. In 2018, roughly 10 percent of all chil- of Illinois, recently looked through her old copy dren’s books featured black characters, 7 percent fea- of Dancing in the Wings and discovered a note tured Asian characters, 5 percent featured Latino/ from her mother scribbled on the endpapers: Always Latina characters, and 1 percent featured indigenous love yourself. characters. “I didn’t know it at the time — no kid would be These troubling numbers come from the UW

42 On Wisconsin Left to right: Librarians Megan Schlies- man, Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, and Madeline Tyner each evaluates upwards of 1,000 volumes a year.

On Wisconsin 43 Cooperative Children’s Book Center, or CCBC, faculty conducting research on children’s literature. which has become the authoritative source nation- According to Horning, no other children’s book ally for tracking diversity in children’s and young center offers such a range of services — from adult literature. Since 1985, the center’s librarians reviewing books and gathering data to shelving have indexed every new book, providing data for a every publication and traveling the state. In the long-overdue reevaluation of the publishing indus- 1990s, government representatives from Malaysia try and promoting a more accurate reflection of a and Venezuela visited the CCBC to learn how to diverse world. create a state-sponsored center back home. Along the way, their efforts have collided with “It doesn’t seem possible for anyone to replicate century-old barriers in children’s literature. And it,” says Horning, who has been on the staff since although there’s reason for optimism, their work is 1982. “They can replicate a part of it but not all of it. far from over. And that’s probably because when this library was started — in terms of the economy, in terms of part- “I Feel Guilty When I’m Not Reading” nerships — it was exactly the right time.” Despite its name, the Cooperative Children’s Book And it perfectly positioned the CCBC to expose a Center is for adults. serious problem in the world of children’s literature. “We always say, ‘We’re a collection of books for children and teens for adults who work with children The All-White World and teens,” says Kathleen T. Horning ’80, MA’82, Ginny Moore Kruse MA’76 was honored, and then director of the CCBC, which is part of the UW alarmed. School of Education and supported by the Wisconsin In 1985, the American Library Association asked Department of Public Instruction. the longtime director of the Cooperative Children’s The center opened in 1963 with joint funding Book Center to join the national Coretta Scott King from the state and the university — hence coopera- Book Award committee. The annual award rec- tive — as a resource for Wisconsin’s librarians and ognizes outstanding books by black authors and teachers to assess new books and donate their old illustrators. ones. Thanks to major investments in education by The committee didn’t convene for long. There the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, public were only 18 books for consideration — 0.7 percent school libraries suddenly had money and sought of the 2,500 published that year. guidance on how best to spend it. “I was flabbergasted,” says Kruse, who headed The UW campus didn’t have space for an the CCBC from 1976 to 2002. unproven library, so the CCBC opened on the fourth The same year, Horning received a call from a floor of the state capitol building under the massive On Twitter, librarian at a Milwaukee public school looking for dome. It expanded and moved to the new Helen C. discussion of multicultural books. “I looked up ‘blacks, fiction’ in White Hall in 1971, and later to its current home in children’s litera- the Subject Guide to Children’s Books in Print and the Teacher Education Building. ture has become found a really small column of books,” Horning Now with an established reputation, the CCBC contentious, says. “Before it, there were a couple of pages labeled with charges of receives nearly every children’s book from American prejudice and ‘bears, fiction.’ It struck me as quite ironic that there (and some Canadian) publishers — as many as 3,500 countercharges were all these books about bears and so few books per year. Its four librarians — Horning, Megan of censorship. about black people.” Schliesman MA’92, Merri V. Lindgren ’88, MA’89, Horning and Kruse decided to publish the 18-book and Madeline Tyner MA’17 — each read and evaluate statistic in the 1985 Choices and vowed to continue upwards of 1,000 volumes per year. “You do that at tracking diversity among new titles. Their efforts home,” says Schliesman, laughing. “If you didn’t have captured the attention of the children’s book world, a passion for it, you would hate this job. I feel guilty but underrepresented readers had been aware of the when I’m not reading.” problem for decades. The CCBC highlights the best 250 books of the “We weren’t the first people to realize the paucity bunch in its annual publication, Choices, which of books by African American writers and artists,” emphasizes diverse works. Outreach remains central Kruse says. “Black librarians, black teachers, black to its mission, with the librarians frequently trav- literature experts, black families — they had expe- eling the state to speak to teachers and librarians. rienced the lack of books reflecting themselves and The center also provides information to Wisconsin their lives. What made the CCBC stats memorable schools and libraries responding to book challenges was the numbers confirming the experiences.” from community members. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, por- The CCBC’s library contains a current collec- trayals of people of color in children’s books relied tion of all new publications, a permanent collection on racial stereotypes and caricatures, as in Little of recommended books, and a historical collection Black Sambo. “No matter that my mother said that of previously acclaimed works. The vast inventory I was as good as anyone,” children’s author Walter serves as a treasure trove for UW students and Dean Myers wrote in 1986. “She had also told me, in

44 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 LAWRENCE AGYEI

’70s, multicultural literature proliferated, and lit- erary giants of color emerged — Myers, Virginia Hamilton, Sharon Bell Mathis, Mildred D. Taylor, Lucille Clifton. And then, for some four decades, progress halted. An economic downturn in the mid-’70s slashed book budgets for public schools and libraries, and “books by minority authors, bought in addition to usual pur- chases, were the first to go,” USA Today reported in 1989, becoming the first national outlet to cite the CCBC’s data. With publishers increasingly relying on large bookstores for sales, the long-held notion that black books don’t sell became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Systemic barriers and the editorial instincts of overwhelmingly white publishing houses deterred would-be authors of color. According to the CCBC’s data, between 1985 and 2014, children’s books by African American authors or illustrators never surpassed 3.5 percent of annual publications. Books containing African American content never reached 6 percent. Even more sparse were books about Asian Americans, Latinos/Latinas, or indigenous people. Every few years, according to Horning, a new media outlet would pick up the CCBC’s statistics, but the resulting conversation would soon trail off. Then something changed.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks In 2013, 94 of the 3,200 new children’s books received by the CCBC — 2.9 percent — featured black characters. Frustrated by the familiar tale, Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher, also a children’s book author, penned a pair of powerful columns in the New York Times. The younger Myers referred to words and in her obvious pride in my reading, that Doctoral research- “the apartheid of literature — in which characters books were important, and yet it was in books that er Melanie Kirk- of color are limited to the townships of occasional I found … blacks who were lazy, dirty, and above all, wood Marshall historical books that concern themselves with the sees an increase comical.” in books “allow- legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given Between the 1930s and 1950s, several authors of ing black girls an a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curi- color found success writing children’s books, includ- opportunity to osity, imagination, or personal growth.” ing Ann Petry, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, imagine them- Later that year, the announcement of an all- and Yoshiko Uchida. But they were rare and their selves in ways white, all-male panel for a major book festival books exceptions. they wouldn’t sparked outrage on Twitter. The resulting hashtag, have before.” In 1965, the Saturday Review rocked the publish- #WeNeedDiverseBooks, evolved into a nonprofit ing industry with its article “The All-White World of organization that continues to promote diversity in Children’s Books.” Author Nancy Larrick reviewed children’s literature and fund programs for aspiring 5,000 recent books and found that less than 1 per- book creators and publishers of color. cent portrayed contemporary African American life. The numbers are trending up. Between 2014 and A librarian told Larrick: “Publishers have partici- 2018, the CCBC saw books about African Americans pated in a cultural lobotomy,” treating the African and indigenous people roughly double, and books American as “a rootless person.” about Asian Americans and Latinos/Latinas triple. Around the same time, advocates formed The librarians credit scholars and advocates on the Council on Interracial Books for Children to social media who are keeping the conversation going, encourage authors of color to create books and to as well as independent publishers, such as Lee & Low push publishers to accept them. In step with the Books, that are dedicated to diversifying literature. civil rights movement in the late ’60s and early The progress is still relative. While books about

On Wisconsin 45 Latinos/Latinas may have tripled, the CCBC has Center to study the representation of black girlhood found that they still represent only 6.8 percent of in young adult literature. The few books she found all books. In 2017, a character in a picture book were disappointingly homogeneous. But now, as a was four times more likely to be a dinosaur than doctoral researcher, she’s noticing promising trends. an indigenous child, and two times more likely to “Not only are we seeing an increase in realistic be a rabbit than an Asian American child. Only fiction,” she says, “but there’s an uptick in specu- two picture books had a child with a disability as a lative and science fiction stories. They’re allowing primary character. black girls an opportunity to imagine themselves in The CCBC now tracks disability and other forms ways they wouldn’t have before.” of identity like gender and sexual orientation. Later The CCBC librarians note that the #OwnVoices this year, the center plans to launch a public data- social media movement has paved the way for base logging all of the children’s books it receives. such stories. It promotes the importance of “cul- Researchers will be able to easily identify books with tural insiders” portraying their own identities and specific themes or aspects of representation. experiences. The data have found a permanent home on social Proponents of #OwnVoices believe that when media. “We used to see the conversation [on diver- “cultural outsiders” attempt to write about people sity] blow over after a month, but it hasn’t blown from different backgrounds, they’re prone to stum- over this time,” Horning says. “We get two or three ble into problematic representations, ranging from emails and calls a week asking for our stats.” harmful stereotypes to inauthentic narratives. But with social media comes controversy. And And now, social media critics often condemn books on Twitter, discussion of children’s literature has and authors — as renowned as Dr. Seuss and J. K. become contentious, with charges of prejudice and Rowling — for cultural insensitivities. To some, countercharges of censorship. that’s the price of progress. To others, it’s a slide toward censorship. “Toxic Online Culture” The publisher Scholastic famously recalled As a UW senior in 2014, Melanie Kirkwood Marshall the 2016 picture book A Birthday Cake for George camped out in the Cooperative Children’s Book Washington after a social media outcry. Initially

46 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 praised by reviewers for its tale of the president’s CCBC Choices enslaved head chef, the book was denounced for “What I never want to get lost in the dis- glossing over the horrors of slavery. cussion about the quantity is that there Last year, two authors of color pulled their debut are phenomenal multicultural books pub- young adult novels just prior to publication. A Place lished each and every year,” says Megan for Wolves by Kosoko Jackson, a gay black author, Schliesman, a librarian at the Cooperative received online criticism for using the Kosovo Children’s Book Center. Here are the staff’s War as a backdrop for the love story of a non-Mus- five favorite titles of 2019. lim American. The fantasy novel Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao, a Chinese immigrant, angered Frankly in Love, by David Yoon #OwnVoices supporters by allegedly paralleling the (Putnam, age 13 and up) history of African American slavery. High school senior Frank Li hides the fact “It just snowballed into a lot of people who hadn’t that he’s dating a white girl from his conser- read the book [criticizing it],” Zhao told National vative Korean parents. Frank’s first-person Public Radio in November after releasing Blood Heir voice is funny and tender, and this emotion- with revisions. ally charged debut novel offers a nuanced Some see these anti-book campaigns as an examination of race, love, and family. expression of “cancel culture.” Ruth Graham cau- tioned in Slate: “We’ve gotten an increasingly toxic Fry Bread: A Native American Family online culture around [young adult] literature, with Story, by Kevin Noble Maillard, illus- ever more baroque standards for who can write trated by Juana Martinez-Neal (Roaring about whom under what circumstances. From the Brook, ages 3–7) outside, this is starting to look like a conversation Parallel narratives detail the characteris- focused less on literature than obedience.” tics and cultural importance of this staple By contrast, adherents of #WeNeedDiverseBooks of Native American diets. The illustrations claim they’re protecting children from hurtful mate- exude a sense of homey security, showing rial and challenging authors to be more sensitive. the realistic variety in hair, eye, and skin They’re happy to wrest some of the power from a colors of indigenous peoples. publishing industry that’s still 80 percent white and has historically controlled what stories are told. My Papi Has a Motorcycle, by Isabel “Social media is giving a voice to a lot of people who Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Peña never had a platform before,” Horning says. (Kokila, ages 3–6) As Daisy rides with Papi on his motorcycle, Equipped for Tomorrow she describes her neighborhood and city in As the children’s book world grapples with these a delightful, loving ode to present and past, complex discussions, sociological studies affirm the family and community. The mixed-media importance of representation. Research has shown art features a warmly colored palette and that children notice race as early as six months, cartoon-like energy. begin to internalize bias between the ages of two and five, and can become set in their beliefs by age New Kid, written and illustrated by Jerry 12. Craft (HarperCollins, ages 9–13) “If children grow up never seeing, never read- A funny and thought-provoking graphic ing, never hearing the variety of the wide range of novel details Jordan Banks’s seventh-grade voices, they lose so much,” Kruse told the journal experience as one of the few African Language Arts in 1993. “They will not be equipped American kids in an elite suburban school. for today, not to mention tomorrow. The world will This fearless social satire will offer affir- go right past them. They are going to be stunned mation for some readers and revelation for when everyone is not like them.” others. Last year, Kirkwood Marshall became a mother herself. One of the first books she bought her daugh- Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in ter was Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o. It follows a young the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia (Disney black girl’s journey from being insecure about her Hyperion, ages 8–13) skin tone to embracing her unique beauty. While visiting his grandparents in Alabama, “It’s come full circle,” Kirkwood Marshall says. Tristan falls into a parallel universe pop- “I did the same thing [as my mother] — I wrote a ulated by characters from African and note to my daughter in the book. It just says: May African American traditional stories. Also you always love your beautiful brown skin.” • featuring two strong girls, this tale explores how stories have the power to help people Preston Schmitt ’14 is a staff writer for On Wisconsin. connect and survive.

On Wisconsin 47 UW researchers are unlocking the secrets to growing food without gravity — an essential component for long-term space travel.

In the 2015 blockbuster The Martian, Matt Damon’s Nutrition is essential for astronauts, he explains. character, stranded on the red planet, manages to The space environment suppresses appetite, and survive for months by growing potatoes in the preserved food is unpalatable. Appetizing, fresh Martian soil. In his own waste. food may be one way to keep astronauts at a healthy Damon’s character is a botanist, a rare profession weight, and the antioxidants supplied by fresh fruit for Hollywood heroes. But if humanity is to achieve and vegetables might help them combat cancer risks its most ambitious spacefaring goals — planetary spiked by cosmic radiation. And there’s the psycho- bases, even interstellar travel — botanists might just logical component: living plants serve as a reminder see more starring roles, on-screen and off. Because Plants in space of home. plants, it turns out, are key to our ambitions. can produce Yet reaping these benefits requires overcoming Just as they do on Earth, plants in space can pro- oxygen, recycle challenges imposed by taking plants out of the duce oxygen, recycle waste, and serve as food — a waste, and serve gravity in which they’ve evolved. “One way to deal huge boon when extended trips make packing enough as food. with these challenges is to … build an environment sustenance or relying on Earth for breathable air that basically takes the Earth’s environment into impossible. space,” Gilroy says. “The other way is to use our For more than half a century, UW–Madison knowledge of the biology of the plants to engineer researchers have been at the forefront of develop- the plants to deal with the loss of gravity. And as ing a new agriculture for the final frontier. They’ve a biologist, of course, I think that’s the much more answered the earliest questions about how plants elegant way.” fare in space, built the equipment that grew the first For 20 years, Gilroy has worked to understand crop in orbit, and brought us to the precipice of fea- both how plants sense gravity and how they handle sible space farms. Today, they are partnering with the consequences of its absence. Without gravity, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) water can stick to roots, blocking oxygen much like to decipher plants’ genetic responses to weightless- a flooded field would. The stressed plants still grow, ness, hoping to engineer plants that can thrive as but weakly. human spaceflight advances. To understand that stress, and how to overcome “I think people are just totally engaged by the it, Gilroy has launched his mustard plants, known unknown above them,” says Simon Gilroy, a UW as Arabidopsis, to the ISS during four experiments. professor of botany. “We’re just built to explore.” His latest experiment arrived in December 2017. Astronaut Scott Tingle unwrapped 26 petri dishes Veggies in Orbit containing 10 tiny seeds each and installed them With his chest-length gray hair, penchant for into a plant growth chamber named Veggie. The Hawaiian shirts, and British accent, Gilroy is unmis- seeds germinated, and the plants grew for a month. takable. Animated and gleeful, his conversation Midway through the experiment, Tingle took images quickly leaps from the tiny, unassuming mustard under a microscope, capturing where the plants suf- plants that dot his office to the future of space travel fered from low-oxygen stress. The following month, they foretell. Gilroy received the images, along with the frozen

48 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 PHOTOS ISTOCK, ILLUSTRATION N. B. RINEHART

BY ERIC HAMILTON

UW researchers are unlocking the secrets to growing food without gravity — an essential component for long-term space travel. UW ARCHIVES S12584 (LEFT); BRYCE RICHTER

plants. He is now using advanced gene sequencing For more than Zero-Gravity Spuds technology to compare the activity of genes in space- half a century, Bob Morrow PhD’87 is part of the UW’s long tra- grown plants to those grown on Earth. Genetic UW researchers dition of plant spaceflight researchers. He arrived engineering may help him and fellow researchers like Ted Tibbitts on campus as a botany and horticulture graduate (left) and Simon to prepare plants that can cope with the rigors of Gilroy have been student in 1982 and joined the lab of Ted Tibbitts ’50, space travel. at the forefront MS’52, PhD’53, a professor of horticulture research- Patrick Masson, a UW genetics professor, of developing a ing how to use plants for life support and designing launched his own plants — the grass Brachypodium new agriculture controlled growth environments for use on the space — to the ISS in April 2018. Much more closely for the final shuttle. related to major crops like wheat, rice, and corn frontier. While Gilroy focuses on altering the biology of than Gilroy’s Arabidopsis, the grass can give sci- plants to thrive in space, Morrow tackles the engi- entists clues about how the world’s most important neering. “Once we identify a stress that plants face, crops might fare in space. “It’s a very steep learning then we can attack it with hardware systems and curve,” Masson says of his first spacefaring experi- plant protocols,” says Morrow, who is now a prin- ment. “And that’s where being at an institution like cipal scientist at the Madison campus of the Sierra [the UW] is really helpful, because there is that long Nevada Corporation, an aerospace contractor for tradition of people who have experiments in the NASA. He designed the Veggie system that Gilroy space environment.” and Masson used for their experiments.

On Wisconsin 49 In August 2015, Veggie made October 1995. history when U.S. astronauts The results were obvious Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren as soon as the growth cham- and Japanese astronaut Kimiya ber was opened nearly 16 Yui toasted one another with days later: tiny tubers, just Veggie-grown red romaine a couple of centimeters lettuce before delightedly across, had formed on every munching on the leaves. It leaf. Closer inspection was the first time U.S. astro- showed only minor differ- nauts were given the go-ahead ences between the space- to eat space-grown produce. grown potatoes and their (Russian cosmonauts got the earthbound counterparts okay to eat green onions some that served as controls. Those four decades earlier.) spuds were proof that a crop “That’s awesome,” Lindgren could be grown in zero gravity. said at the time — between bites The Astroculture team contin- — offering a thumbs-up to his fellow ues this work today. While Morrow astronauts. began working on Veggie at Sierra “We understand enough now that we need Nevada, postdoctoral researcher Ray Wheeler to start demonstrating large-scale production of food became the lead of advanced life-support systems at crops in the space environment,” says Morrow. He A UW team NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he partners has since worked with a team at Sierra Nevada and developed the with Gilroy and Masson on their experiments. And NASA to develop the Advanced Plant Habitat, the Astroculture Morrow’s fellow graduate student Dan Barta MS’84, successor to Veggie and the space station’s current plant growth PhD’89 now manages life-support research at the system, which and most sophisticated growth chamber. And Sierra proved that Johnson Space Center. Nevada is now developing a much larger system with crops could grow When Tibbitts watched The Martian, he found 80 square feet of growing space named Astro Garden in zero gravity. the potato subplot suspiciously familiar. for an eventual mission to Mars or a permanent lunar “They never gave us any credit!” he says, orbiter. laughing. Veggie and its successors grew out of develop- ments in plant spaceflight hardware that were pio- A New Age of Discovery neered in the Tibbitts lab in the 1980s and 1990s. Tibbitts didn’t originally set out to grow potatoes in Tibbitts was part of a NASA-sponsored interdis- space. He was a lettuce man — on terra firma. ciplinary research center located in the College of “I grew up on a [dairy] farm in Wisconsin,” says Engineering, where he oversaw a team that pain- Tibbitts, now an emeritus professor. “The farm was stakingly developed Astroculture, a compact plant- rented out — I only milked the cows once or twice growth system for use on board the space shuttle. in my life. But I did work around the farm in the “Ted was there at the beginning,” says Gilroy. summertime for money — driving tractors, baling “He’s one of the three or four people that you would hay.” say are the pioneers.” Those experiences helped push the young Over several iterations, the team perfected sys- Tibbitts toward the College of Agriculture when tems for pumping nutrient solutions, providing suf- he arrived on the UW campus in 1946. He earned ficient light, controlling temperature and humidity, his undergraduate degree in agronomy, continuing and managing carbon dioxide and other gases. By on for advanced degrees in horticulture. After a 1995, the researchers were ready to pursue one of stint in the army, he was hired by the university to their top goals — producing a crop in space. research tobacco before being transferred to study “NASA had identified six primary life-support the cause of tipburn, a condition that makes head crops based on their nutrition and ability to be pro- lettuce unmarketable. ductive and that people were familiar with,” says But funding from the lettuce industry was scarce. Morrow. Those six — white and sweet potatoes, It was the Apollo era, and NASA was considering wheat, rice, soybeans, and beans — are still primary growing lettuce on the moon, so Tibbitts turned to candidates for feeding crews today. the space agency in hopes of securing money for his Tibbitts’s team, based in Wisconsin, the nation’s research. While searching for NASA connections, third-highest potato-producing state, chose pota- Tibbitts met Sam Johnson, a space biologist at the toes. On Earth, miniature potatoes can form out of North American Aviation Company, an aerospace the buds of excised leaves in just a few days, so the contractor based in Los Angeles. The two began researchers decided to test if these tiny tubers could planning an experiment to test how zero gravity grow in orbit. The UW team secured five leaves into alters plant growth. Astroculture, and the space shuttle was launched in By 1967, a number of organisms had been sent

50 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 COURTESY OF NASA

on brief spaceflights, primarily to test the effects In 2015, as- plant scientist in the new facility. Working in the of cosmic radiation on life. Few experiments were tronauts Kjell Biotron, he established himself as an expert in the exploring how organisms behave when gravity is Lindgren (left) precise control of plant-growth conditions, vital ripped away. To get at these behavioral changes, and Scott Kelly experience for his space-shuttle work. He was named sampled red Tibbitts and Johnson turned to pepper plants. As romaine lettuce director of the Biotron in 1987 while working on these are compact plants with broad leaves, several from the Veggie Astroculture. could fit into a tight space. The plants’ leaves nor- plant growth That work also helped Tibbitts figure out how mally stretch out perpendicular to gravity, and the chamber on the much space is needed for self-sufficient missions. He team planned to use a camera to track the leaves’ International helped establish for NASA that 20 square meters of position in zero gravity. Space Station. garden space are needed to keep a person alive. “This That September, the UW researchers strapped would provide them all the oxygen they need. It’ll nine Yolo Wonder bell pepper plants into a 957-pound provide all the water they need. And it’ll provide all biological laboratory named Biosatellite II, which of the energy needs, but not a balanced diet.” carried 13 experiments in all. The lab was launched That size is several times larger than even Sierra on a Delta rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida. For Nevada’s ambitious Astro Garden system in devel- 45 hours, the plants orbited Earth. When a tropical opment, but Tibbitts and Gilroy are confident that storm approaching Hawaii threatened the planned in the near future — for space programs, this might recovery, the laboratory was instructed to reenter mean decades — longer-term bases will be estab- Earth’s atmosphere early. An Air Force plane cap- lished, first in geostationary orbit, then on the moon tured the capsule as it parachuted over the Pacific or Mars. In many ways, Gilroy says, despite the enor- Ocean and flew it to Hawaii. mous distance and other challenges, Mars provides There, Tibbitts waited. As with the tiny potatoes an opportunity for the most Earth-like plant-grow- three decades later, the results were obvious as soon ing systems. That’s in large part because Martian as the capsule was opened. The plants’ leaves, out- gardeners could rely on having about one-third of stretched at launch, had drooped during orbit, offer- Earth’s gravity — possibly enough to keep plants ing one of the first insights into how plants respond growing normally. to weightlessness. Gilroy likens space travel today to the age of dis- The same year, the university opened the covery on Earth, with explorers staring at horizons, Biotron, a state-of-the-art, controlled-growth facil- unsure of what lies beyond, but eager to sail forward. ity. Designed to provide climates ranging from below “We’re at the point of people jumping into boats,” zero to 100-plus degrees Fahrenheit, the Biotron he says, “and just going.” • allowed scientists to strip away variability and tinker with different growing conditions. Eric Hamilton is a science writer for University Communi- Tibbitts quickly moved in, becoming the first cations.

On Wisconsin 51 OnAlumniAlumni News at Home and Abroad

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Bud Selig, left, shares a laugh with Chancellor

JEFF MILLER JEFF Rebecca Blank at an event wel- coming him to the UW’s history department.

If you’d like the inside scoop on prominent alumni such as football Congrats, Young Alumni! phenom J. J. Watt x’12 or leading Native American activist Ada The Forward under 40 Award Deer ’57, check out the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Thank You, honors young alumni for their 72 podcast. (Many of the featured Badgers grew up in one of Wisconsin’s contributions to the Wisconsin 72 counties before graduating and going on to change the world.) New Idea. The 2020 honorees are: podcast episodes this spring include interviews with: • Mehrdad Arjmand MS’13, • Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay ’92, whose flair More Podcast PhD’17 and Aaron Olson ’12, for the funny has made him a reader favorite. Gay often wears his Headliners MS’14, PhD’18, founders of Mildred Fish Har- red-and-white colors on his sleeve in columns such as “Yes, to Save NovoMoto nack ’25, MA ’26 the World, Wisconsin Really Needs to Beat Michigan.” During his • Jayeesh Bakshi MS’14, podcast, Gay discusses his most- and least-favorite sports interviews, Warren Knowles director of sales and market- LLB ’33 his unlikely journey from political science major to writing for one ing, Radium Incorporated of the world’s most prestigious newspapers, and the wild world of Gillian Laub ’97 • Erin Banco ’11, journalist, the sports parents behaving badly. Meinhardt Daily Beast • Allan “Bud” Selig ’56, whom you can thank for returning Major Raabe ’37 • Kiana Beaudin ’10, MPA’15, League Baseball to Wisconsin 50 years ago — and for changing the Bill Schultz ’48, executive director of health/ very game itself. Selig, who grew up in Milwaukee, learned about MS’50 medical provider, Ho-Chunk business from his dad, but it was his mom who fostered his love of Randall M. Nation Health Department baseball. Selig bought the Seattle Pilots out of bankruptcy in 1970 and Scoops • Scott Colom JD’09, district renamed the franchise for an old Milwaukee minor league team that Daniel Speckhard attorney, 16th Circuit Court he watched as a child, the Milwaukee Brewers. Later, Selig became the ’80, MA’82, MS’83 of Mississippi commissioner of Major League Baseball and guided the sport through Joseph Sullivan • Kristian Johnsen ’07, labor strife, drug problems, and a business model that was about to ’38, LLB’41 improved avionics intermedi- put baseball as we know it out of business. Tommy Thomp- ate shop section chief, United • Hans Obma ’02, who uses his exceptional ability with lan- son ’63, JD’66 States Air Force guages and accents to play a variety of characters in an acting Greta Van career that has recently taken off. The La Crosse native describes Susteren ’76 his facility with accents as “kind of my superpower.” In 2018, he landed an exciting role, playing a German named Adrian on the hit AMC drama Better Call Saul. Obma has played everything from a The UW Comes to You crooked Hungarian businessman to a Czechoslovakian warlock to It’s springtime, and that means a French war hero. He’s recently finished filming his first role as a it’s time for UW Super Founders’ leading man in an indepedent film. Days and UW Now events. Visit Visit thankyou72.org to listen to more from these alumni and others allwaysforward.org/uwnow to like them. see when events are scheduled in your area. TOD PRITCHARD

52 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Tradition Campus Tours OnAlumni BRYCE RICHTER

How do you sell the spacious UW– Last year, some that “a stroll across the Madison include offering multilingual and Madison campus to a stranger in 46,000 prospec- campus … requires a stout pair virtual-reality options and sharing just 75 minutes? tive students and of shoes and the sort of leg mus- more stories about historically That’s the tall order for the family members cles Wisconsin students soon underrepresented students. university as it receives record went on the UW’s develop.” April, July, and October are official campus numbers of student applications tours, led by Today, the main campus spans the busiest months for tours, and visitors. Last year, some highly trained 936 acres, which puts limits on with as many as 3,000 visitors 46,000 prospective students and undergraduates. what visitors can see and do in just per week. Participants are split family members went on the UW’s over an hour. The 1.5-mile walking into small groups and matched official campus tour. tour circulates through campus with a tour guide. The guides — “The tour is one of the most staples — Memorial Union, the highly trained undergraduates — if not the most — important Terrace, Library Mall — as well — have required talking points parts of the college decision pro- as a residence hall, library, several but are encouraged to improvise cess,” says Nancy Hoffman ’96, classroom buildings, and a histor- and add personal touches. Their MS’03, director of Campus and ical marker that recognizes the challenge? To bring a magical Visitor Relations, which orga- land as the ancestral home of the campus and its robust opportu- nizes the visits in partnership Ho-Chunk people and acknowl- nities to life, even when it’s below with the Office of Admissions and edges their forced removal. freezing. Recruitment. The university’s foundation Tour guide Emily Cerbins Campus tours have likely was built atop Bascom Hill, where x’20 remembers two California existed in some form since the the steep slope offers a beautiful parents who insisted that none beginning of the university, says vantage point but makes travel of their children would want to Greer Davis, associate direc- troublesome. The university attend a university that gets snow tor of communications for the arranges an alternative route to in April. “But by the end of the admissions office. For decades, accommodate visitors with acces- tour,” she says, “their daughter the sprawl of campus has pro- sibility needs. “Our goal is to be told me she had fallen in love with vided a distinct challenge. A tour universally accessible,” Hoffman the campus.” booklet from the 1960s suggested says, adding that other plans PRESTON SCHMITT ’14

On Wisconsin 53 OnAlumni Class Notes

40s–60s cation Organization in October. BOOK NEWS? nation. His retirement cere- Thank you, Eileen Martin- Prevots is a professor emerita See page 61. mony was held at the U.S. Coast son Lavine ’45, for writing to at American University, where Guard Headquarters in August, us! She appeared in the Class she served as director of dance CLASS NOTES when he earned both the Notes section of the Winter for 34 years and chair of the SUBMISSIONS Distinguished Career Service uwalumni.com/ 2019 issue and has clarified that Department of Performing Arts go/alumninotes • Award and the Civilian Service she was not the first woman for three years. Among her Class Notes, Commendation Medal. editor of the Daily Cardinal, as many accomplishments, she Wisconsin Marc Staenberg ’69 we stated. Rather, she was the studied at Juilliard, cofounded Foundation and retired as CEO of the Beverly first woman to complete a full a dance company, and played a Alumni Asso- Hills Bar Association and year as editor of the newspaper. crucial role in creating Ameri- ciation (WFAA), Foundation (BHBA) at the Three women served before her, can University’s Department of 1848 University end of 2019. The Los Angeles but each for only a few months. Performing Arts. Avenue, Madison, resident was appointed CEO WI 53726 She also let us know that she Daniel Freedman MS’62, in 2004 and was named CEO was president of Information PhD’64, a professor emeritus DEATH NOTICES • emeritus upon his retirement. A Services, an editorial company in the Massachusetts Institute NAME, ADDRESS, member of the BHBA since the in Bethesda. of Technology’s Departments of TELEPHONE, AND mid–1980s, Staenberg previ- Bob Espeseth ’52, MS’56 Mathematics and Physics and EMAIL UPDATES ously volunteered as chair of of Savoy, Illinois, has enjoyed a visiting professor at Stan- alumnichanges@ the Entertainment Law Section, volunteering before and after ford University, is a recipient uwalumni.com • a board member, and an officer retirement. He has been recog- of the Special Breakthrough Alumni Changes, — including president. He was nized as volunteer of the year Prize in Fundamental Physics WFAA, 1848 also a private practice enter- University Ave- at the local, state, and national along with colleagues Sergio nue, Madison, WI tainment attorney, an attorney levels — for the Retired Senior Ferrara of CERN and Peter van 53726 • 888-947- adviser in the Department of Volunteer Program, Illinois Nieuwenhuizen of Stony Brook 2586 Defense, and a senior attorney Association of Park Districts, (New York) University. Previous with the U.S. Nuclear Regula- and the National Association recipients of the award include To submit an tory Commission. of County Park and Recreation Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and obituary, please Officials, respectively. the late Stephen Hawking. The see page 60. 70s Hearty congrats to former three developed the theory Following a career in the food “Rosie the Riveter” Ione Shad- of supergravity and share the industry, Laura Schwable duck ’58 of West Des Moines, $3 million prize. Jaffe ’70 of Katonah, New Iowa, who was inducted into Last year, Kurth Krause York, has become the first trea- the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame ’62 of Rancho Mission Viejo, surer on the board of directors in August. According to the California, attended the 50th for Campus Bound Scholars. Its Des Moines Register, she quit anniversary celebration of the mission is to provide a mentor, a her first job when her employer Apollo 11 moon landing. The scholarship, and dorm supplies declined her request for equal event was held at the Space to first-generation college stu- pay, tested steel drums during Center Houston, and NASA dents, and, so far, it has men- World War II, and joined the escorted Krause — who had tored more than 45 scholars. Women’s Army Corps during been in mission control during Arie Galles MFA’71 has the Korean conflict. Under the landing — and his wife, retired as professor emeritus of the GI bill, Shadduck earned a Susan Firle Krause ’62, to painting and drawing at Soka degree in physical education the mission control center at the University of America in Aliso at the UW. She later earned a adjacent Johnson Space Center. Viejo, California. He was also doctorate and led the women’s He will also be publishing a sec- named artist-in-residence at the physical education program at ond edition of his book, My 36 university. Drake University, where she Years in Space: An Astronauti- Robert Josephberg ’72 advocated for the transition cal Engineer’s Journey through has been inducted as an original from six- to five-player girls’ the Triumphs and Tragedies of member of the American Society basketball in Iowa. She went America’s Space Programs. of Retina Specialists’ Retina on to become an attorney and Former U.S. Army officer, Hall of Fame. He is the chief of a founding member of the Iowa U.S. Navy civilian, and U.S. the Retinal Division at New York Women Attorneys Association. Coast Guard civilian Jonathan Medical College — a post he’s Naima Wallenrod Prev- Berkson MS’69, PhD’72 has held for the past 25 years. During ots MS’60 of Washington, DC, retired from his position as the a retinal fellowship at the Baylor was presented with the 2019 Coast Guard’s marine science College of Medicine, Joseph- Lifetime Achievement Award program manager after a nearly berg was mentored by Alice from the National Dance Edu- 50-year career serving the McPherson ’48, MD’51, who is

54 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Recognition Edwin Perry SCOTT SUCHMAN a founder of the UW’s McPherson Eye Research Institute. Kudos, Bonnie Cooper ’73, for earning the 2019 Canadian Dairy Cattle Improvement Industry Distinction Award, presented by Lactanet Can- ada. A resident of North York, Ontario, Canada, she is the 11th recipient of the award and the first woman to be honored. Coo- per served as an editor at the Holstein Journal for more than 45 years — one of only two edi- tors in the magazine’s 81-year history. She was also secretary of the Curtis Clark Achievement Award Committee for 25 years. If you’ve attended a Mil- waukee Brewers game in recent DEFENDING A 9/11 SUSPECT years, you can thank Michael Defense attorney Edwin Perry ’97 understands that most Americans Dillon ’73 for the well-loved don’t sympathize with the five men who are facing trial, and potentially Racing Sausages. A graphic the death penalty, for allegedly plotting the terrorist attacks on Septem- designer, Dillon created the first ber 11, 2001. three costumes based on the “But as Americans, not only should we be concerned about bringing cartoon characters that used to terrorists to justice, we should be concerned about what our govern- appear on the stadium’s jum- ment does in order to effect that justice. We have to decide what botron. In June 1993, he put on kind of republic we want to have,” says Perry, who represents one of his bratwurst costume for the the accused. first time to compete against The trial is scheduled for January 2021. It has been delayed for many the Italian and Polish sausages. reasons: The suspects were held by the U.S. government in detention “They started that sausage race for years before being charged or given attorneys; the Obama adminis- on the jumbotron, and then tration tried to get the case moved from a military court to a standard the cartoon stopped and went civilian court; and, since being arraigned in 2012, the defendants have blank. And the gate swung open been the subject of dozens of complicated pretrial hearings. and the crowd went insane,” Perry worked for 12 years as a federal public defender in Memphis, Dillon told WUWM 89.7, the Tennessee, before being hired in 2015 as one of the civilian attorneys Milwaukee NPR affiliate, in representing Walid bin Attash. Attash is one of the men charged as July of last year. a coconspirator with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of Stuart Brotman MA’75 orchestrating the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, has been serving as a fellow at Washington, and Pennsylvania. the Woodrow Wilson Inter- The five men were captured in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003. According national Center for Scholars to lawyers, they were held incommunicado in CIA prisons and subject to in Washington, DC, during waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and other ill treatment before being the 2019–20 academic year. delivered to the detention center at Cuba’s Naval Station in Guantánamo Based in the center’s Science Bay in 2006. and Technology Innovation The trial will take place in front of a military judge and a jury chosen Program — which states on its from military officers at Guantánamo Bay. website that it aims to under- “If a federal judge determined that the government had tortured the stand “bottom-up, public inno- defendant for about three years and then decided to charge him eventu- vation [and] top-down, policy ally with a crime, I think a federal judge would likely dismiss the charges innovation” — Brotman focuses — or, at a minimum, suppress any statements made by that defendant,” on digital privacy policy issues. says Perry. It still hasn’t been determined how much information gath- Jean Dibble ’79, MFA’88 ered through torture will be allowed at the trial. “But that’s very much has been named professor an open question in military commissions, which makes it a court of emerita upon her retirement dubious constitutional foundation,” he says. from the University of Notre The bottom line is that the trial, in Perry’s view, will not be what most Dame’s Department of Art, Art Americans would expect. History, and Design. She has a TOM KERTSCHER ’84

On Wisconsin 55 Recognition Hannah Berner ’13

TRADING new studio in Colorado, where RACKETS FOR she continues to create art. In September, attorney and

MOE ALYASINI MOE REALITY TV community activist Roy Evans Life in a house full of mil- JD’79 — who has more than 40 lennials in the Hamptons years of civic-minded service might seem like the ulti- and experience — was presented mate challenge on Bravo’s with a 2019 Frank P. Zeidler Pub- Summer House, but cast lic Service Award in the Vel R. member Hannah Ber- Phillips (LLB’51) Ante Chamber ner ’13 came to the role at Milwaukee’s City Hall. In addi- well prepared. A lifelong tion to his law practice, Evans is athlete, four-year veteran chair of the City of Milwaukee of UW–Madison women’s Board of Review and a member tennis, and fiend for the of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s camera — both in front Alternate Dispute Resolutions of and behind it — Berner Board. He has been recognized is all too familiar with by the Milwaukee Community life’s highs and lows, and Journal as one of the top 100 she has made a career of most influential African Ameri- reflecting on them. cans in the city, and the Milwau- After nearly 15 years kee Times has honored him with in tennis, Berner passed its Black Achiever Award. Exer- on the pro tour after college and, like many athletes who choose not to cising his passion for teaching, go pro, she was left with an unfamiliar freedom that had her feeling lost. Evans teaches at and visits local “I just felt very empty after college. I didn’t feel like I had a purpose,” schools to speak about obstacles Berner says. She felt like a failure and wondered if there was more to life he encountered growing up. than tennis. Tim Pagel ’79 of Jupiter, Spoiler: there was. Berner bounced around digital marketing jobs in Florida, is pursuing two of his her hometown of New York City, craving the rush she’d felt on the tennis passions — sports and the arts court. But the jobs didn’t fulfill her need to create. — after retiring from NextEra That’s when her brief undergraduate broadcasting experience with Energy, where he led corporate the UW Athletics Communications Department came into play. It helped executive and sustainability her land a job heading the video production department for the mil- communications. He’s worked lennial media company Betches, where she wrote and produced short in field operations at FITTEAM comedy videos that quickly went viral. This exposure led to a casting on Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, Summer House. where the Houston Astros and “I wanted to go on reality TV not to show off or act like I’m better than the Washington Nationals have anyone else, but rather to show people my vulnerabilities so that other spring training. He also works people can understand, can relate to me, and we can learn from each in security for LiveNation at other,” she says. its Coral Sky Amphitheatre in Berner is also the creator and host of the podcast Berning in Hell, West Palm Beach, is a volun- which she uses as a platform to start conversations about successful teer usher and bartender at people’s fears and failings. The podcast, which she calls her “passion the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, and project,” has allowed her to show that there’s not much difference serves in a leadership role on between those who succeed and those who don’t. the scholarship committee for “Sometimes it’s just how you speak to yourself and how you control the Palm Beach chapter of the your own mind instead of letting it control you,” she says. Wisconsin Alumni Association. Berner adds that being true to herself has been key to a happy life. “Just because you’re really good at something, like tennis or sales, 80s doesn’t mean it’s what makes you happy,” she says. “It was a process of The History of Science Society learning what I really wanted, and then it’s a choice of self-love to then has bestowed its 2019 Joseph act on it.” H. Hazen Prize for excellence MEGAN PROVOST X’20 in education on Michael Osborne MA’81, PhD’87, professor emeritus of history of science at Oregon State Uni- versity. Also receiving recog- nition from the society was

56 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 OnAlumni Class Notes

Michael Robinson MA’96, nal offices, furthering AAAS’s Madison. The couple met while PhD’02, professor of history mission to advance science and attending the UW, married in at the University of Hartford serve society while also sup- 1993, and purchased the com- (Connecticut), who earned the porting evidence-based policy- pany — which started in 1938 — 2019 Watson Davis and Helen making. Coaty was previously from its previous owner in 2003. Miles Davis Prize for best book a political science professor at Today the company ships cheese for a general audience in the Orange Coast College. around the nation. previous three years, The Lost Two doctors with a passion The Wisconsin Agricultural White Tribe. And Megan Raby for homebrewing, a former pro- and Life Sciences Alumni Asso- PhD’13, associate professor at fessional cyclist, and an entre- ciation (WALSAA) presented its the University of Texas–Austin, preneur walk into a bar and start WELCOME, ALL! fourth Daluge Red Jacket Award earned the 2019 Philip J. Pauly a brewery. Okay, that’s not quite The Wisconsin to Marjorie Stieve ’91 in Sep- Prize for the best first book how they started, but Jimmy Alumni Asso- tember, recognizing her support on the history of science in the Gosset ’86, MD’90; Scott ciation (WAA) for the association. Stieve, a for- Americas, American Tropics: Kelley ’90; Nick Reistad ’06; encourages diver- mer WALSAA president, helped sity, inclusivity, The Caribbean Roots of Biodi- and Kevin Brandenberg decided nondiscrimina- establish the association’s versity Science. The UW group they needed to open a brewery tion, and par- Impact Grants for members of received the awards in July after meeting over beer — a red ticipation by all College of Agricultural and Life at the society’s meeting in Imperial India Pale Ale (IIPA) alumni, students, Sciences student organizations Utrecht, Netherlands. that the doctors produced. Since and friends of and is credited with naming After 27 years, Makram the group opened Raised Grain UW–Madison in the very “Red Jacket” award Murad-al-shaikh MS’83 has Brewing Co. four years ago, it its activities. she’s earned. Stieve resides in retired from his position as a has seen significant growth at its Baraboo, Wisconsin, and is a geographic information systems Waukesha, Wisconsin, location, marketing services manager and (GIS) and cartography instructor and has now expanded to the employee owner at Vita Plus. at Esri, an international supplier Madison area. The kicker? Their Geoffrey Bradshaw of GIS software. He continues original red IIPA won the gold MA’94, PhD’97 has been to teach cartographic design medal at the 2016 Great Ameri- named the dean of international courses using GIS software at can Beer Festival. education at Madison College the University of California– (formerly Madison Area Techni- Riverside. “I am eternally cal College). He began his career indebted to the high-caliber “I felt proud that I finally used there in 1997 after earning education that I had under some my disability to potentially his doctoral degree in cultural of the [most] elite cartography anthropology and previously professors in the world at UW– help other young students served as director of the col- Madison,” he writes. with disabilities.” lege’s Center for International Steven Baron ’84 has Ashley McGoey ’18 writing for hearoclub.com in October Education. recently helped launch the Matt Miszewski JD’95 law firm Baron Harris Healey has been appointed the CEO of in Chicago, and its practice 90s AkitaBox, a facility management includes areas such as advertis- In November, Kim Anderson software provider that supplies ing and marketing, media and Sponem ’90, president and services throughout the United the First Amendment, intellec- CEO of Summit Credit Union in States. Before joining AkitaBox, tual property, and e-commerce. Madison, was inducted into the Miszewski worked for Microsoft, For more than 30 years, Baron Credit Union Executives Soci- Salesforce, and the State of Wis- has counseled businesses on ety’s (CUES) 2019 Hall of Fame consin. Most recently, he was the intellectual property matters in honor of her achievements and chief revenue officer for Socrata. and helped resolve disputes. dedication to the credit-union Diana Moran Thun- The American Associa- movement. She was selected by dercloud MS’95, a doctoral tion for the Advancement of the board of directors at CUES, student at Edgewood College Science (AAAS) has awarded which has more than 22,600 in Madison who focuses on Patrick Coaty ’84 with an members and a mission to Native leadership and communi- AAAS Science and Technology develop credit-union leaders. ty-based programs, was selected Policy Fellowship, which placed Wisconsin Cheese Mart own- as the 2019–20 Community him in the U.S. Department of ers Melissa Morkri McNulty Fellow for the college’s Graduate State. He is among nearly 280 ’91 and Kenneth McNulty ’92, Social Innovation and Sustain- scientists and engineers who whose original store is located ability Leadership Program. are spending a year serving in in Milwaukee, have opened a Among her accoplishments, she federal agencies and congressio- second store on State Street in has consulted with faculty and

On Wisconsin 57 OnAlumni Class Notes

staff on Native Indigenous cur- poems have appeared in publica- teaching techniques include riculum and pedagogy for a mas- tions such as Brooklyn Rail and incorporating music and move- ter’s-level program, conducted Boston Review, and she recently ment into reading lessons. research in Chile on Native published the book Versioning Well, this is certainly a love Indigenous rights and migration Sappho Versioning. She was a story unlike any we’ve heard. issues, and was invited to teach Poets House Fellow in 2018 and During a recent visit to campus, a course at UW–La Crosse. earned the 92nd Street Y Rachel husband and wife Chris (Chris- Congratulations to Univer- Wetzsteon Poetry Prize in 2017. tian) ’00 and Eve Sauer ’00 sity of Georgia professor John Celena Roldan ’98, MS’00, LeBarton saw a clump of paper Knox PhD’96, who received CEO of the American Red Cross towels sitting on a window ledge two honors at the 100th annual of Chicago and Northern Illi- on W. Gilman Street. These meeting of the American Mete- nois, has been included on the weren’t just any paper towels. orological Society (AMS) in list of “Most Powerful Latinos Chris had put them there during January. He earned the Edward in Chicago” by Crain’s Chicago his senior year 20 years prior, N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Business. In 2017, she traveled to tossing the soaked wad from his Award, a top teaching award Houston after Hurricane Harvey porch to his neighbor’s (Eve’s) in the country for meteorol- to help undocumented Latinos window in an effort to get her ogy instructors, and he was who avoided shelters and food attention at a time when cell inducted as a fellow of AMS. banks for fear of being arrested phones weren’t yet popular (and Last August, Douglas — an experience that led her to the broken buzzer at her apart- Kratt DVM’98 was named create the Latino Engagement ment forced him to get creative). president-elect by the American Initiative, a national program for It worked; the couple met and Veterinary Medical Association disaster support. Her Red Cross started dating, and today they (AVMA). He is a small-animal region is one of the largest in the are happily married with two practitioner from La Crosse, nation, serving about 9.5 million kids. As for the sturdiness of Wisconsin, where he serves as people each year. those paper towels? We’d really president of the Central Animal Madisonian Ellen Mer- like to know what brand those Hospital. Prior to his election, ten Carlson ’99 was one of were, Mr. LeBarton. he was Wisconsin’s delegate in 13 honorees at the 2019 Gov- Last June, Rajesh Rao ’00, the AVMA House of Delegates ernor’s Service Awards cere- a retinal surgeon and physi- and president of the Wisconsin mony, which celebrates those cian-scientist, was installed Veterinary Medical Association. who help address social needs as the first Leonard G. Miller in Wisconsin. She earned the Professor of Ophthalmology AmeriCorps VISTA Alumni of and Visual Sciences at the “I am eternally indebted to the the Year award for her ongoing University of Michigan. Among high-caliber education that I service. She previously served his accomplishments, Rao has in the Schools of Hope Liter- earned awards and grants from had under some of the [most] acy Project and has worked for Research to Prevent Blindness, elite cartography professors in Middleton Outreach Ministry the E. Matilda Ziegler Founda- — where she is now executive tion, and the Knights Templar the world at UW–Madison.” director — since 2002. Eye Foundation, and he became Makram Murad-al-shaikh MS’83 the youngest member inducted 00s into the Macula Society for Tim Mattke ’98, MAC’99 Patricia Hannon MM’00 is research in retinal, vascular, has been promoted from chief one of five recipients of the 2020 and macular diseases. financial officer to CEO at MGIC Horace Mann Award for Teach- Ahna Skop PhD’00; Olivia Investment Corp., a mortgage ing Excellence and, as a result, is Castellini MA’01, PhD’04; insurer based in Milwaukee. a finalist for the 2020 National Jessica Fagerstrom MS’08, He joined MGIC in 2006 and Education Association (NEA) PhD’17; and Ana Maria Por- previously worked as an audit Member Benefits Award for ras MS’13, PhD’16 are among manager with PwC (formerly Teaching Excellence (for which 125 women named by the Ameri- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP). the winner was announced after can Association for the Advance- Poet Sarah Passino ’98 press time). Hannon is a reading ment of Science and Lyda Hill of Brooklyn, New York, is one specialist at Hohenfels Elemen- Philanthropies as IF/THEN of six recipients of the 2019 tary School in Germany and a Ambassadors. The national Rona Jaffe Foundation Writ- member of the Federal Education initiative aims to further women ers’ Award, which recognizes Association, a state affiliate of in STEM fields by empowering extraordinary women writers NEA and Hannon’s nominator. innovators and highlighting role early in their careers. Passino’s Some of Hannon’s innovative models for middle school girls.

58 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Contribution Scholarship Advocate FRANK WOODBERY Noelle O’Mara ’01 is now the president of the prepared foods segment at Tyson Foods and is based in the company’s Chicago office. She joined Tyson Foods in 2016 as vice president of new business models and was promoted to chief marketing officer in 2019. In her new role, she has oversight of some of Tyson Foods’ manufacturing facilities and manages the com- pany’s $9 billion prepared-food business, which includes brands such as Tyson, Jimmy Dean, and Hillshire Farm. O’Mara previ- ously worked for Kraft Heinz. Lori Leonard ’02 of Reno, Nevada, is a restoration tech- nician at global environmental SUPPORTING STEM STUDIES nonprofit the Nature Conser- The next time you take vacation photos on your phone or store home- vancy and a graduate student in work on a flash drive, you can thankJeff Kessenich ’83. Miami University’s Global Field His name is on 11 patents issued for the memory chips that improve Program. She recently studied storage reliability in smartphones, digital cameras, and other devices. coral reefs, manatees, jaguars, Kessenich used his UW degree in Applied Mathematics, Engineering, and other wildlife while learn- and Physics to pursue a career in the semiconductor industry, eventu- ing methods communities are ally retiring from Micron Technology. using to sustain them in Belize. “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to collaborate on In other conservation news, projects with so many intelligent and incredibly talented individuals,” Riley Hamrick ’16 of Denver, he says. “Often I felt like we were writing a new page in the textbooks a graduate student in Miami every week.” University’s Advanced Inquiry Kessenich is now on a mission to help today’s students launch their Program and an ophthalmic own careers in technology. He has pledged an estate gift of $1 million technician at Children’s Hospi- to need-based scholarships for students in mathematics, computer tal Colorado, studied Borneo’s science, and data science. Thanks to the Patterson Match, a gener- primate denizens, including ous gift from James Patterson and Susan Patterson ’79, MFA’82 that orangutans, last summer. underwrites student support, an endowed scholarship was created in Hamrick developed new ways to Kessenich’s honor. engage communities across the After he retired, the Vancouver, Washington, resident taught briefly globe in primate conservation. at a community college. He came away from the experience struck by J. Griffith Rollefson how hard it was for many students to pay for an education. “If students PhD’09, a professor of music really want to go to college, I don’t want them dissuaded by the fear of at University College Cork, taking on a large amount of student loan debt,” he says. “I feel good National University of Ire- doing something about that.” land, has launched Global Hip Kessenich says he could have directed his gift to a number of univer- Hop Studies, the world’s first sities, “but I have a soft spot for Wisconsin, and I value the education academic journal of interna- I got there.” tional hip-hop music, culture, Kessenich’s desire to give back extends to numerous initiatives in and politics, according to the his local community. He tutors disadvantaged high school students in university. The journal is one of math. A master gardener, he’s a neighborhood tree steward and also a the primary outputs of his five- “stream steward.” Kessenich has received an award for his work in tree year, €2 million EU grant for the planting and natural area restoration, as well as for volunteering at a International Council for Hip cat shelter. Hop Studies: Hip Hop Interpel- When we spoke with Kessenich, he was wearing a UW T-shirt lation project. He also delivered because the hockey team was playing that day. “I’m always supporting a keynote with rapper and my Badgers,” he says. collaborator Juice Aleem at the NIKI DENISON conference where the journal was launched.

On Wisconsin 59 10s The company, which is looking Kemmerer PhDx’21. Sarah Brunnquell David- to expand nationally, aims to On its website, hearing-aid son ’10 is owner of Monona, bridge the digital divide by pro- batteries subscription ser- Wisconsin–based Harmonious viding low-income individuals vice hearOclub published a Union Events, which celebrated and nonprofits with technology, blog post written by Ashley five years in February. She and internet, and digital training. McGoey ’18 of Janesville, her business were honored last It reuses electronics to reduce Wisconsin, who reflected on year with the Wedding of the waste while also promoting dig- her campus experiences with Year award ($50,000–$100,000 ital inclusion and online access. hearing loss and her involve- budget) from the National Pursuing his longtime inter- ment with the McBurney Association for Catering and est in craft breweries, certified Speakers Bureau. The bureau, Events, recognizing the talent cicerone Garth Beyer ’14 of an extension of the UW’s and work that Davidson put into Madison opened the doors to McBurney Disability Resource producing and executing a 2018 Garth’s Brew Bar in December. Center, provided McGoey the wedding in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The craft-beer bar, which is chance to share her story with The wedding was one of seven located on Monroe Street and teachers in the community. category nominees nationwide. mainly focuses on Wisconsin “When I finished speaking,” Last September, JT (John) craft breweries, is meant to she wrote, “I felt proud that I Roach ’10 appeared on — and OBITUARIES “feel like a curated experience finally used my disability to won — the season finale of Brief death for folks,” Beyer told Madison potentially help other young NBC’s Songland. During the notices for Magazine in August. He is also students with disabilities.” episode, he performed a song he Wisconsin Alumni a public relations and social And, she notes, her newfound wrote, “Somebody to Love,” for Association media account executive at confidence encouraged her to (WAA) members OneRepublic, competing against and friends Hiebing. take on new challenges. other songwriters in hopes appear in Badger UW Hospital nurse Brid- A chemistry teacher at that the band would choose Insider, WAA’s get Ravis ’16 incorporates her Ripon (Wisconsin) High School, his song as its next hit. After magazine for its passion for musical theater into Rachel Thorson MS’18 has selecting Roach’s song, the band members. You her work with patients when she been selected by the Knowles performed it at Red Rocks in also may submit feels it may be helpful in their Teacher Initiative as one of its Colorado. “It is a magical song,” full-length obit- care. She recently noticed a 2019 teaching fellows. The five- said Ryan Tedder, OneRepublic’s uaries (with one patient reading a book by Hamil- year fellowship supports promis- lead vocalist, during the episode. photo each) for ton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda ing high school mathematics and online posting at “I know we’re sitting on a hit.” uwalumni.com/ and asked if she could sing for science teachers early in their A Badger pat on the back go/alumninotes. her. She later received a message careers, providing them with goes to Greg (Guoliang) Liu from the patient saying how her access to grants, mentoring, and PhD’11, an assistant professor singing had helped. “Sometimes a nationwide community. in Virginia Tech’s Department I’ll find a patient who loves Former UW–Madison First of Chemistry. Liu earned the musical theater and is really Wave scholar Mackenzie three-year Blackwood Junior excited to hear me sing, and then Berry ’19 is one of six people Faculty Fellowship of Life I’ll sing to them,” she told the nationwide to earn the Marcus Sciences from the Virginia Wisconsin State Journal last L. Urann Fellowship from the Tech board of visitors, and it August. “My only job is to meet Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. will support him in advancing [the patient] in the space they’re Berry, whose work at the UW the life sciences with a comple- in.” examined topics such as health- mentary focus on developing Former UW pole-vaulting care access in Kentucky and business and entrepreneurial star Taylor Amann ’18 com- Muhammad Ali’s influence on opportunities. He previously peted in the national finals of hip-hop, is now at Goldsmiths, received a CAREER Award NBC’s American Ninja Warrior University of London to obtain from the National Science last year. Although she was a master’s degree in race, Foundation, an American eliminated in stage one, this isn’t media, and social justice. She Chemical Society Petroleum expected to be the end of her hopes to pursue “the messy Research Foundation Doctoral journey. “I’m definitely going to work of seeking equity for mar- New Investigator Award, and be back next year,” she told the ginalized groups in humanizing an Air Force Young Investigator Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in and feasible ways,” Berry told Program Award. September. While a student on UW–Madison in July. Charles Pellicane ’12 has campus, she won Team Ninja become the director of opera- Warrior: College Madness along- Class Notes/Diversions editor Stephanie tions at human-I-T, a nonprofit side fellow Badgers Andrew Awe ’15 is seeking bingeworthy TV based in Long Beach, California. Philibeck ’17 and Zachary recommendations.

60 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Diversions

Submit your book news at uwalumni.com/go/bookshelf and visit goodreads.com/wisalumni to find more works by Badger alumni and faculty.

Leonard Marcus Perfect for gardening ’73, MS’74 is the lead season, The New Gar- author of You’re It: Cri- dener’s Handbook by sis, Change, and How to Daryl Beyers ’89 — Lead When It Matters an instructor at the New Most, which reviews York Botanical Garden lessons learned from — supplies an easy-to- leaders in difficult follow, visually instruc- times — from the Bos- tive planting guide. It ton Marathon bomb- describes what goes into ings to Hurricanes thriving gardens and Katrina and Sandy. provides readers with Marcus is codirector everything they need of the National Pre- to know about growing paredness Leadership both food and flowers. Initiative, a program of the Harvard T.H. Children’s book author Chan School of Public and former federal Health and the Harvard Indian law attorney Kennedy School. Traci McClellan- GROWING PAINS; GROWING Sorell JD’01, who FRIENDSHIP The three-part doc- lives in Oklahoma, umentary Chasing helped write Indian No Last year, Elizabeth Ames the Moon, directed by More with the late Char- Staudt ’03 of Cambridge, Oscar- and Emmy- lene Willing McManis. Massachusetts, released nominated filmmaker The middle-grade novel, her debut novel, The Other’s Robert Stone ’80 of inspired by McManis’s Gold. Beginning on a college Rhinebeck, New York, own tribal history, ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ ADRIANNE campus, the book follows captures the race to features 10-year-old the friendship of four the moon and includes Regina Petit of the women — Lainey, Ji Sun, previously unseen foot- Umpqua tribe. Her fam- Alice, and Margaret — as age. The film premiered ily faces conflict when they experience major turn- on PBS last summer the federal government ing points in their lives. — aligning with the enacts a law saying the The friends, who meet moon landing’s 50th tribe no longer exists. during their freshman year at Quincy-Hawthorn anniversary — and is College and quickly become inseparable, soon available for purchase Hello Girls, coauthored face threats to their bond. In her transition from on Amazon Prime. by New York Times best- college to parenthood, each friend makes an awful selling author Brittany mistake. The novel dedicates one part to each Bassist Leon Dorsey Cavallaro MFA’11 blunder — “The Accident,” “The Accusation,” “The MM’83, an associate of Elmhurst, Illinois, Kiss,” and “The Bite” — and confronts how growing professor at the Berklee is a young-adult novel up forces friendships to evolve. College of Music in Bos- reminiscent of Thelma On a list titled “The 28 Best Books of 2019,” Elle ton, has released the and Louise. Two teen- ranked The Other’s Gold as its 11th pick, writing, jazz album MonkTime. age girls, Winona and “The debut novel of the season, The Other’s Gold The album debuts Dor- Lucille, have had enough reads like an origin story for the women of Big Little sey’s DSC Band, which of the controlling people Lies.” The book has also been reviewed by Vogue plays compositions by in their lives — Wino- and Bustle, among others. “This novel will resonate jazz musician Theloni- na’s father and Lucille’s with anyone who guards an inner circle forged in ous Monk. At the UW, mother and brother — dorm rooms and dining halls, but it is also, in the Dorsey studied under and take charge. They end, more than that,” wrote Vogue. And Bustle bass legend Richard plan an escape from called it “an ode to the turmoil and joy of female Davis. The album can Michigan to Chicago, friendship, and the perfect book to read with be downloaded at but can they pull off the your friends.” leonleedorsey.com. daring adventure?

On Wisconsin 61 Honor Roll Arthur Hasler UW ARCHIVES S16374

A pioneer in the study of fresh- Arthur Hasler He was promoted to full pro- Hasler is best known for his water ecology, Arthur Hasler (shown here, fessor of zoology in 1948 and findings on how salmon spawn. PhD’37 carried on the University front, with Robert turned the university into a While hiking near his childhood of Wisconsin traditions of curi- Ragotzkie PhD’53 world-renowned hub for aquatic home in Utah, he was struck by osity and conservation for four on the UW’s me- research. the way familiar smells trigger teorology plane decades, discovering new ways on Lake Mendota) Diverging from the beliefs of memories, and he wondered if to conduct research and pushing changed the way predecessors Birge and Juday, salmon were similarly compelled to protect our natural resources. we study water- Hasler hypothesized freshwater to spawn where they were born A key figure in advancing the ways by getting ecosystems are heavily influ- — a phenomenon known as olfac- study of limnology at the univer- out of the lab and enced by their surroundings, from tory imprinting. His discovery sity, Hasler influenced how we onto the lakes. plants to pollution, known as cul- influenced salmon management study aquatic ecosystems, pollu- tural eutrophication. His studies strategies around the world. tion control, and wildlife manage- informed widespread efforts to In 1958, the National Science ment around the world. curb soil erosion and sewage and Foundation granted Hasler funds Hasler arrived in Madison in fertilizer contamination. to build a working research sta- 1932 to study under Chancey In one famous experiment, tion on Lake Mendota. The Lab- Juday, pioneer of lake science Hasler introduced a better way oratory of Limnology opened in research along with E. A. Birge. to study aquatic ecosystems 1963 and was renamed the Hasler He took a few sabbaticals after by building a barrier between Laboratory of Limnology in 2005. earning his PhD in zoology, serv- Michigan’s Peter and Paul Lakes, After retiring in 1978, Hasler ing as an analyst with the Air creating control and test environ- served as professor emeritus of Force Strategic Bombing Survey ments in which to study aquatic limnology and maintained close in Germany in 1945 and return- life. This method is used today ties to the university until his ing a decade later as a Fulbright to study acid rain, pollution, and death in 2001. Research Scholar. invasion by exotic species. WENDY HATHAWAY ’04

62 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 Conversation Veronica Rueckert

Veronica Rueckert ’96 is public speaking will say, “I speak What advice do you have for helping individuals — especially a lot publicly, and I get great women and for all people women — find power in their feedback when I speak, but I who are looking to use their voices. Rueckert earned her feel lousy afterward.” Typically, authentic voices? degree in vocal performance what that comes down to is they Taking risks is one. If there are and is a former radio-show host are forcing themselves to be a no women’s voices in the room, and a Peabody Award–winning plastic-mask version of them- I’m going to challenge myself producer. Today she utilizes her selves. They think that a public to be the first one to speak. If skills as a public speaker and speaker behaves a certain way, there are women in the room, vocal coach while also integrat- sounds a certain way — and, but they’re not talking, I realize ing them into her work as the by the way, typically that way it right away, and I try to get the UW’s national media relations is a male template that they’re first [comment] in there, because specialist. Her debut book, trying to mimic. So, of course, it I know that women need to see Outspoken: Why Women’s Voices doesn’t feel right. We work on, other women talking. Get Silenced and How to Set “Hey, how would it sound if you Them Free (HarperCollins), was sounded like yourself?” How might your book apply published last year. to all readers? Why is it important for The exercises can benefit What are your main goals women to learn to love and everyone. But not everyone will when coaching clients? use their voices? have exactly the same expe- I really love helping people tap Because we do need everyone’s rience when they bring [these into that full power of their voice. If you just have 50 percent exercises] out into the world. voice, because so many of the of the people in the room making We need to be aware of that and people who come to me don’t the decisions and sharing their be aware of bias and be more feel like their voice expresses ideas, you’re missing out on so accepting of all voices. They’re their full power. I help them get much. We [can] only be stronger not going to sound the same. But to a place where they actually when we’re more diverse. that doesn’t mean that we have feel good about their speaking an excuse not to listen. voice. They feel like themselves, they feel authentic, and they Interview by Stephanie Awe ’15 don’t feel blocked anymore. Photo by Jeff Miller

Could you describe some of the issues that women face with their voices? One really common one is women [in business and aca- demia] who are doing a lot of

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64 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 FORWARD HAS NO FINISH LINE

Since 2015, , ALUMNI AND FRIENDS have answered the call But our campaign for the to help UW–Madison meet the needs and challenges of the future. future of the UW isn’t over. That means more scholarships and fellowships, enhanced educational WE STILL NEED YOU. Now experiences for the modern world, increased faculty retention, and more. is the time to leave your mark.

Become part of the UW’s story today at allwaysforward.org Destination The UW Makerspace JEFFMILLER (4)

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66 On Wisconsin SPRING 2020 First Day First Day First Day of College on The Job of Retirement

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