On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Communications

FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON ALUMNI AND FRIENDS WINTER 2020

Poetry for a Crisis Married writers Cherene Sherrard and Amaud Jamaul Johnson explore the realities of Black lives. Page 22

Photos from a Turbulent Year Page 28 Vision “Till the cows come home” now has a date: September 1. That’s when the UW’s dairy herd returned to campus from its COVID-19-induced exile. After students were sent home in March, the cows spent five months at the Arlington Research Station. Photo by Bryce Richter On Wisconsin 3

Contents Volume 121, Number 4

Mary Murphy Edwards lives and breathes martial arts. See page 38. ANDY MANIS DEPARTMENTS

2 Vision 7 Communications 9 First Person

OnCampus

11 News 13 Byg one Bascom Hall Theater 17 Conversati on Andrea Dutton 18 Exhibiti on JKX Comics 20 C ontender Cassidy Scheer

OnAlumni FEATURES 54 News 22 Poetry of the Moment 56 Traditi on Lady Liberty on With powerful new books, husband-and-wife professors

Lake Mendota Amaud Jamaul Johnson and Cherene Sherrard show how it NICOLE SCHMIEDL, THE NORTH FACE 57 Class Notes feels to be Black in America. By Preston Schmitt ’14 64 Diversions 66 Destinati on Frank Lloyd 28 Topsy-Turvy 2020 Wright Homes Photographers Jeff Miller and Bryce Richter document the UW’s tumultuous year. 38 It’s Fight Night! Mary Murphy Edwards ’82 is a rare woman in charge of boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts bouts. By Jenny Price ’96 UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES/MICHAEL KIENITZ

40 The Quest for a Kinder Cure Out There Ad- Oncologist Paul Sondel ’71, PhD’75 leads a “Dream Team” of ventures helps researchers, whose dream is to eliminate childhood cancer. LGBTQ+ youth By Chris Malina find themselves. See page 48. A statue’s long, 44 With New Eyes strange trip. John Szarkowski ’48 was an influential photographer and See page 56. curator who helped elevate photography to a fine art. Cover By Louisa Kamps Poets Cherene Sherrard and Amaud Jamaul 48 Coming Out in the Out of Doors Johnson on East With her unique expedition company, Elyse Rylander ’12 has Campus Mall. created a means for LGBTQ+ youth to find acceptance and Photo by Jeff confidence in the natural world.By Megan Provost ’20 Miller.

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6 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Communications

Picture Perfect? I was living on West Dayton (the WISCONSIN Let me compliment the brilliant house was in a spot which has decision to create and publish been turned into the parking lot MEDICINE illustrated profiles in this issue for the DoubleTree hotel) when Can’t get enough medical [“Heroes of the Pandemic,” Fall the bomb woke me up. A friend news? Then UW Health and 2020 On Wisconsin]. This was living on our back porch for the University of Wiscon- the perfect way to break up the the summer came in my room sin School of Medicine and copy in a pleasing way. The illus- and said something like, “What Public Health are here to help. trations were top-notch (and the the f**k was that?” We pulled In the fall, they presented a profiles were, too, by the way). on jeans and ran past the Nitty biweekly livestream called George Hesselberg ’73 Gritty, down Johnson and then Wisconsin Medicine, in which Fitchburg, Wisconsin University toward all the sirens. experts talk about how the It’s about a mile. By the time we two organizations have I’ve been reading the alumni mag- got there, maybe 15 minutes after azine for 70 years, and the Fall the blast, cops were everywhere. partnered to solve critical 2020 issue gets the gold medal. Still, we could get in that little health challenges. Episodes Ken Becker park between Lathrop Hall and include discussions of cancer, Chamberlin Hall for a look at the women’s health, Alzheimer’s, Sterling Hall Memories bombed side of Sterling Hall, but and the future of medicine. On Wisconsin received a number cops eventually pushed every- Recordings can be found at of Facebook responses to “The body out. It was chaos. wiscmedicine.org. The events Blast That Changed Everything” Ken Merrill will return in January. [Summer 2020]. Below are some reactions to our collected history I graduated from pharmacy “We want to take the discovery of the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing, school that summer. My hus- enterprise at the UW, which which was conceived as a protest band had a research lab facing is world class, and MacGyver against the Vietnam War. Sterling. It was blown to pieces. that into first-in-human Scary time for us with National clinical trials.” Poignant accounts of what actu- Guard on corners with bayonets ally happened in the day. Surreal, drawn. The pharmacy school Jacques Galipeau, oncology and so meaningful. Grateful was tear-gassed for no reason. for all who chose to give their I worked at the Rennebohm “Precision therapy allows us personal accounts of this terribly drugstore on State and Lake. We to better predict a particu- traumatic event. had our windows trashed and had lar therapy’s effectiveness Robin J. Poedel Simon to duck under counters to avoid through understanding of glass. The class of 2020 and class individual tumor mutation.” Woke me up — all the way across of 1970 both have had events Howard Bailey, director of the Lake Mendota — horrible! making graduations difficult. UW Carbone Cancer Center Ann Danner Dwyer Andrea Harkins “The world of human health is We were just down the street on We lived outside Verona at the filled with conditions that are University Avenue. I had several time and were awakened by the invisible to the human eye.” sailing friends who were grad stu- sound. Lee Gravatt Wilke, director of dents in the physics department. Kris Buchanan Stichman Their research experiments were the UW Health Breast Center destroyed in the blast. So uni- I was a student at this time. I versity and physics department used to key punch cards for grad “My dream is to never tell officials had to decide what to do students in the physics building. anyone’s mother, daughter, or about their grad-student status. So much research lost. It was sister that she has cancer.” Lots of lives were disrupted and scary times. Lisa Barroilhet MS’19, medicine one life was lost. Does violent Terry Leibfried and gynecologic oncology protest serve any purpose? Jim Negro Very sad day ... I lived in “Jingles “The only way we can win Tower” on the lake and felt it. I Alzheimer’s is through I remember seeing it on the news; was at work, serving breakfast at cutting-edge research.” I was seven. I told my dad I would the Madison Inn, when I found Sanjay Asthana, founding direc- never go to that school. [But] I’m out that my friend was the one tor of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s a proud 1985 UW graduate! who lost his life. Disease Research Center Kathryn Kuhn Dirkse Jorja Boiley

On Wisconsin 7 OUR UW

WE WANT OUR LEGACY TO REFLECT WHAT WE CARE ABOUT MOST.

The Global Health Institute responds to conditions we’ve seen in our travels. The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection reflects Sandy’s lifelong interests. The Foundation helped us focus our legacy on the things that match our interests.

Jack Winder ’62, MBA’69 Sandy Winder ’61

supportuw.org/giftplanning

LEARN HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN UW LEGACY Jennifer McFarland | 608-308-5311 | [email protected] First Person JEFF MILLER

Winter 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 It’s been an extraordinary year, with so many fast- Bella Rosenberg Preston Schmitt ’14, University Marketing paced events that, as a quarterly magazine, we’ve x’24 and father CLASS NOTES/DIVERSIONS EDITOR struggled to keep up. Beyond the swift pace, the Todd Rosenberg Stephanie Haws ’15, WFAA human toll has also been disorienting and challeng- ’90 moved her possessions into ART DIRECTOR ing. That’s why we’ve turned to a year-in-review Elizabeth Waters Danielle Lawry, University Marketing photo feature to capture the subtleties and impact res hall early DESIGNERS of current events more completely than words alone. — one of many Christine Knorr ’97 and Danielle Lamberson The year began, of course, with a Rose Bowl — safety protocols. Philipp, University Marketing remember when we thought losing the big game was a tragedy? Then PRODUCTION EDITOR came the pandemic, which sent the majority of students home at spring Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, University Marketing break to finish the semester remotely, and which left faculty and staff PHOTOGRAPHERS scrambling to put their courses online virtually overnight. However, Jeff Miller and Bryce Richter, University that paled in comparison to fear for the health of loved ones, the mount- Communications ing death toll, a feeling of isolation, and the economic suffering as the DESIGN, LAYOUT, AND PRODUCTION extended shutdown began to cause job losses and hardship on a scale Kent Hamele ’78, Kate Price ’09: University Marketing; Nicole Heiman, Megan Provost unseen since the Great Depression. ’20, Chelsea Rademacher ’13, Erin Sprague The Memorial Day police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis set ’94: WFAA off a series of Black Lives Matter demonstrations that continue to this ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES day. As some of the protests grew violent, we saw boarded-up store- Madison Magazine: 608-270-3600 fronts on State Street. Then, as businesses began to reopen, the police ADDRESS CHANGES AND shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha set off another round of demonstra- DEATH NOTICES tions that resulted in businesses replacing the plywood just as students 888-947-2586 were returning to campus in late August. Email: [email protected] This fall’s students face a college experience unlike any of those who Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is came before them. In mid-August, the Big Ten made a historic decision supported by financial gifts from alumni to cancel the fall football season out of concern for the health of play- and friends. To make a gift to UW–Madison, please visit supportuw.org. ers and staff, and the following month, it announced that a shortened season would begin in October. Students are undergoing regular testing The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) is open to all alumni, students, and friends of the for COVID-19, wearing masks, and observing social distancing. Large university. WFAA encourages diversity, inclusivity, and parties are verboten, and classes are a mix of online and in-person. participation by all of these groups in its activities and does not discriminate on any basis. But, despite the many challenges, there are signs of hope. This issue includes news of how UW researchers continue to help find solutions Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this magazine. Please read it first. to the pandemic and how campus is coping. It also includes thoughtful comments from two Black UW faculty poets whose work can help us begin to process the racial strife that has typified this year. In a time of uncertainty, we’re sure of one thing — even a pandemic, accompanied by social unrest, is not enough to quench that legendary Badger spirit. NIKI DENISON

On Wisconsin 9 WHEN DOCTORS

NEED

FACE

SHIELDS,

BADGERS

ENGINEER A DESIGN?

PUBLISH IT ONLINE? DELIVER.

PARTNER WITH FORD?

AND JOHN DEERE?

MILLIONS AND COUNTING.

YOU’RE ON, WISCONSIN.

wisc.edu OnCampusNews from UW–Madison Campus Responds to COVID-19 UW–Madison leaders adapted to keep students, employees, and the community safe during the fall semester. COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY SCIFI LAB Although UW–Madison leaders employed a plan to offer both remote IT’S ALL IN THE WRIST and safe, in-person learning experiences during the fall semester, it Researchers from UW–Mad- wasn’t without challenges. Within the first several days of the academic ison and Cornell University year, campus saw a rapid increase in positive COVID-19 test results have created a wristband with among students — for which, UW officials note, there was no evidence a science-fiction superpower: linking transmission to in-person instruction. Leaders were quick to take continuously tracking the entire action and communicate updates to campus and the surrounding area. human hand in 3-D. This break- When the semester began on September 2, the UW had already % through in wearable sensing launched a public, online dashboard that published students’ and The4.6 seven-day technology has potential appli- employees’ COVID-19 test results — both on and off campus — on a average of cations for virtual reality and daily basis. Positive cases at the time were relatively low, but as the week infections among human–robot interaction. progressed, the number of positive test results rose among students. students on Sep- Dubbed FingerTrak, the wrist- tember 23, down On September 7, Chancellor called on undergrad- band senses the many positions Rebecca Blank from 8.4 percent uates to severely restrict their in-person interactions and movements to on September 9. of the human hand with thermal only those that were essential. The UW also worked with Public Health The average con- cameras, each about the size of Madison and Dane County to order a number of fraternity and sorority tinued to decline, a pea. It’s the first device that houses to quarantine. However, after two days passed with a positive and by October 1, can accurately reconstruct a full test rate of at least 20 percent, Blank announced on September 9 that, it had dropped to hand posture in three dimen- for two weeks, the university would switch to all-online instruction, 1.2 percent. sions based on the contours of quarantine Sellery and Witte residence halls, and adjust some campus the wrist. The lightweight design operations — such as closing all in-person study spaces. The UW then allows for free movement — a monitored case numbers and evaluated whether to reopen campus. major advance on previous wrist- On September 23, at the conclusion of the two-week period, campus mounted cameras that were too saw lowered case numbers as well as a reduced rate of infections. Blank bulky for everyday use. lifted the quarantine on Sellery and Witte and announced that campus FingerTrak could revolution- would begin to resume some in-person activity starting September 26, ize sign-language translation, as while continuing to track infections. well as monitoring disorders that In consultation with public-health experts and shared governance, affect fine motor skills. Blank noted campus would expand testing capacity and lessen turn- “How we move our hands around time, as well as reduce the concentration of students in residence and fingers often tells about halls by encouraging voluntary departures and allowing more students our health condition,” says Yin to move into single rooms. Li, an assistant professor at University staff and the UW–Madison Police Department would also the UW School of Medicine and continue to monitor off-campus activity and impose consequences — Public Health who contributed including removal from the university — for students violating county to FingerTrak’s software. “A orders or the UW’s standards. At press time, Blank had also stated her device like this might be used hope for Dane County officials to assist in off-campus efforts. to better understand how the “If we see another uptick in positive cases, I will not hesitate to elderly use their hands in daily take additional actions to limit the spread of the virus,” Blank wrote life, helping to detect early in her announcement. For more updates on the fall semester since On signs of diseases like Parkin- Wisconsin was printed, visit news.wisc.edu/covid-19-campus-response. son’s and Alzheimer’s.” STEPHANIE HAWS ’15 DEAN ROBBINS

On Wisconsin 11 OnCampus BRYCE RICHTER DANIELLE LAMBERSON PHILIPP

THE POST-COVID WORKPLACE Due to the pandemic, many companies have been forced to transition their employees to working remotely. And some workplaces have already made the decision to continue doing so even after the pandemic is over, according to Jirs Meuris, a professor in UW–Madison’s Department of Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business. “Probably for certain jobs it works Student Teaching in a Pandemic well, but for others, that is not neces- In today’s increasingly digital world — accelerated by a Kuhrasch (stand- sarily the case,” he says. pandemic — it may be tempting to question the necessity of ing at left) goes A main advantage to remote work- in-person college coursework. But not if you’re in training to above and being for companies is the cost savings, become a physical-education teacher. yond to provide students with a because employers don’t need to rent A semester of student teaching is the final piece of course- workplace-expe- or purchase as much office space work for physical-education majors at UW–Madison and a rience course. or pay for utilities and other building state requirement for licensure. “It’s the time when they find maintenance costs. Meuris adds that out, ‘Wow, I can really do this,’ ” says Cindy Kuhrasch, coordinator for the the ability to work remotely can also UW’s physical-education program. be seen as a benefit for staff who With all Dane County public schools beginning the year online, Kuhrasch desire to work from home. turned to St. James Catholic School just south of campus, whose younger stu- A downside for employees, dents were returning to the physical classroom. The school then turned to her. Its though, is that “it’s much harder to physical-education teacher took a leave of absence because of family concerns, set boundaries with your work and so Kuhrasch filled the position herself and became the cooperating teacher for home life.” There is the temptation her UW students. to answer work emails or complete Her willingness to go above and beyond to provide a comparable experience other tasks during evenings or week- for her students in a time of pandemic is shared by many instructors across ends, he says, and this can lead to campus. When the UW reopened this fall with 8,000 undergraduate course burnout or work–family conflicts. A sections, roughly two-thirds of them had fully transitioned to an online format, second drawback, he adds, is that a a quarter remained face-to-face, and a tenth took a hybrid approach. lot of innovation and problem-solving Kuhrasch’s workplace-experience course is a hybrid of sorts, as the student “happens through small conversa- teachers are tasked with developing virtual lesson plans via Google Classroom tions that people have” when they for the older students and for younger students opting to learn from home. One run into each other throughout the of the first assignments? Going for a walk and showing neighbors that they care course of the day, “so you have a lot by wearing a mask and keeping a safe distance. less of that.” This year, the UW students may be gaining more experience as they learn Whether businesses end up to assess physical, social, and cognitive development in person and from afar. bringing their employees back to The unusual circumstance has also created a unique bonding experience for the the office or not, Meuris says, it’s student teachers, who are typically spread out at schools around the county. going to take a while for things to feel “Because they’re all here, the conversations they’re having are so rich,” normal and for organizations to recu- Kuhrasch says. “I walk in and it sounds like a teachers’ think tank. They’re just perate from the disruption caused by bouncing ideas off one another, like, ‘Maybe this will be too hard for this class, the pandemic. or we should think about this kid’s needs.’ It’s really incredible.” NIKI DENISON PRESTON SCHMITT ’14

12 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 OnCampus Bygone Bascom Hall Theater DANIEL EINSTEIN

When people count up the losses In spring 2020, in 1929 and graffiti from student attributed to the COVID-19 pan- the UW renovated actors, including two who would demic, Madison’s drama scene Bascom Hall’s gain national fame: Oscar winner won’t be listed as the most tragic. room 272, which Don Ameche x’31 and radio star But it suffered a loss nonetheless. was once the Bernardine Flynn ’29. university's the- University Theatre shut down in ater. Nosy work- Bascom 272 was actually the March and put its 2020–21 season ers discovered second Bascom Hall Theater on hiatus during this period of artifacts from the — the first was located outside physical distancing; the Wisconsin 1920s, including the building, on the western slope Union Theater shut down in March this poster for a of Bascom Hill. In the 1910s and and planned limited-capacity 1929 production 1920s, students performed on an in-person events for the fall. This of Cyrano de outdoor stage in front of benches year, the show must go off, but we Bergerac. on the hillside. In the mid-1920s, at On Wisconsin wish to keep the the university decided to build a memory of live drama alive with liberal arts addition onto Bascom a look back on a nearly forgotten Hall, and during construction, that venue: Bascom Hall Theater. morphed into a theater. The the- Don’t worry if you don’t ater opened May 13, 1927, with a remember the Bascom Hall The- Today it goes by the rather prosaic production of Outward Bound. ater. Its life was fairly short. name Bascom 272, and it’s a lecture With the Union’s stage and Opened in 1927, it was largely hall. During renovations in 2020, others opening on campus, the uni- abandoned by the thespian com- workers uncovered some of that versity lowered the curtain on Bas- munity when Memorial Union’s stage history. They found a poster com’s history as a theater venue. theater wing opened in the 1930s. for Cyrano de Bergerac produced JOHN ALLEN

On Wisconsin 13 OnCampus JEFF MILLER

SO LONG, SAT'S For the next two fall enrollment cycles, undergraduate applicants to UW–Madison will not be required to submit ACT or SAT scores. The shift in admissions policy reflects both an immediate response to disruptions caused by COVID-19 and a broader desire to study how such a policy might alter the composition of incoming classes. The test-optional approach, an extension of an earlier move to accommodate fall 2020 applicants who had limited access to the tests last spring, was approved by the Board of Regents and will affect first-year applicants for spring 2021 through summer 2023. Data gathered and analyzed by university researchers will help determine whether UW–Madison returns to a standardized test requirement. All in for Diversity Under the revised approach, UW–Madison is working to meet its public mission by cre- Gittens is help- freshman applicants will not be ating a diverse and inclusive community. It’s made progress ing the univer- penalized for their inability to submit with successful programs like Diversity Forum and the Faculty sity explore test scores. In the upcoming enroll- Diversity Initiative. transformative change. ment cycles, applicants who’ve But after the recent Black Lives Matter protests and other taken the ACT or SAT will have the calls to action, UW leaders saw an opportunity to redouble their commitment option to self-report their scores if to a welcoming campus environment. they believe it adds to the totality of “We believe diversity is a source of strength, offering opportunities for inno- their academic record. vation, scholarship, and community-building,” says Cheryl Gittens, the UW’s “While test scores have been interim deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion. “Diversity strengthens a requirement for an admissions our learning enterprise as a whole.” decision, they have always been A new Office of Inclusion Education, housed within Student Affairs, will only a portion of the holistic review develop programming that addresses identity and community. It grew out of we give each and every applicant to conversations with the Student Inclusion Coalition, the Wisconsin Black Student UW–Madison,” says André Phillips, Union, and other groups representing students who are Black, Indigenous, and director for admissions and recruit- people of color. ment. “Our team is trained to review To equip students with the skills for creating an inclusive community, the Our every aspect of a student’s applica- Wisconsin training program is now mandatory for incoming undergraduates. tion — including the context of their “It’s a good strategy to think about this curriculum in the same way we con- school and their individual story — sider other educational programs, like AlcoholEdu or preventing sexual harass- to find students who are best able to ment and sexual violence,” Gittens says. succeed at our university and who A new Exceptional Service Support Award will acknowledge faculty who will exemplify the Wisconsin Idea.” play a critical role in supporting institutional inclusion efforts. Recipients will DOUG ERICKSON gain release time from teaching to allow a focus on service.

DANIELLE LAMBERSON PHILIPP “Their work as mentors and collaborators is critical to what we’re trying to do to create an inclusive campus environment,” Gittens says. The university is partnering with the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association on a $10 million fundraising initiative to recruit and retain a more diverse group of students, faculty, and staff. It’s also investing $1 million in research that sheds light on race in America. “This is what I appreciate about UW–Madison,” Gittens says. “There’s a commitment to strategies we can adopt to better understand who we are and where we need to direct our energy toward transformative change.” DEAN ROBBINS

14 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Delay of Games JEFF MILLER

IT ALL ADDS UP A pandemic isn’t merely a health problem — it’s also a data problem. To keep an illness like COVID-19 from spreading throughout a community, officials need to know how many When the clock hit zero at the end of a disappointing Rose Bowl on Jan- people have been infected, where they are, uary 1, 2020, Badger fans thought they knew when the team would begin and where they aren’t. its 12-game road to redemption: September 5 against Indiana, with visits Before restarting in-person instruction from Southern Illinois and Appalachian State in the following weeks. in September, UW–Madison decided that COVID-19 upended all that. In March, all sports schedules were put it would make its data public and showed on hold. The 2020 season remained in limbo until August 5, when the students, faculty, staff, and community Big Ten announced that the Badger football season would kick off on members exactly how campus was doing September 4, now with only 10 games. in its effort to monitor the virus. The online On August 11, the Big Ten reversed itself: the entire fall slate of sports coronavirus dashboard tracks how many would be postponed indefinitely. On September 16, the Big Ten re-re- tests the UW has administered to students versed itself and announced that, due to advances in COVID-19 testing, and employees, shows how many are nega- a nine-game football season would begin October 24, a mere 49 days tive and positive, and indicates when those after fans had initially expected (but after On Wisconsin’s press time). results apply to people on and off campus. The stadium would be nearly empty, as the UW isn’t selling tickets and The dashboard was a key tool in illus- is working with Madison and Dane County to discourage tailgating. trating why the UW made the decision to The new schedule could still be disrupted. A 5 percent rate of positive go virtual just a week after classes began: COVID-19 tests among team members, or a 7.5 percent positive rate infections were on the rise, and the positivity among players, coaches, and support staff, would force a halt to prac- rate climbed above 10 percent in the first tice and competition. In the week when the Big Ten announced the new half of September. season, the Badgers were on a self-imposed shutdown of team activities. “The more that we can test our commu- To tide fans over, the athletic department and the Big Ten Network nity,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank wrote at the aired a four-week “Dream Season” of classic (i.e., rerun) football games. launch of the dashboard, “the better control The UW entries featured Badger radio announcers Mike Lucas and Matt we have over infections.” Lepay calling the action and ran from September 19 to October 10. The dashboard earned a B+ grade from Though football had a restart, most fall sports remained on hold, Yale University researchers, and it continues as of press time. “Plans are being discussed at the conference level,” to give a picture of how the UW’s testing says Brian Lucas, director of football brand management for the UW regimen is doing. Find it at smartrestart. athletics department. wisc.edu/dashboard. JOHN ALLEN JOHN ALLEN

news feed

Kamala Harris, the The School of Education has When it’s time to replace Democratic vice-presi- launched the Teacher Pledge part of a blood vessel, a new dential candidate, is no to address Wisconsin’s teacher 3-D–printed artificial version stranger to UW–Mad- shortage. It will pay the equivalent created by UW scientists ison. Both her parents of in-state tuition and fees, plus would allow doctors to keep taught on campus testing and licensing costs, for all tabs on it remotely. It’s made when she was pre- teacher-education students. In of a flexible composite and is school age. “Wisconsin return, students pledge to work at a capable of real-time moni- is part of my story,” Wisconsin school for at least three toring. So long, CT scans and

GAGE SKIDMORE; JUN LI JUN SKIDMORE; GAGE Harris says. years after graduation. ultrasounds.

On Wisconsin 15 OnCampus BRYCE RICHTER

PANDEMIC CHALLENGES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

UW–Madison has seen a decrease in international student enrollment, with 5,231 starting this fall semester compared to 6,200 last fall. Katie Dunagan, the university’s assistant director of international admissions and recruitment, says that “wasn’t a surprise, given all of the restrictions and challenges that these students were facing.” Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some were unable to travel to the United States because of limited flights and increased prices, and others couldn’t get visas when Can You Dig It? most embassies abroad closed. While some opted to Believe it or not, Bascom Hill is under construction. It seems take online courses, others were not able to do so and that nothing — not pandemics, protests, or on-again-off- decided to defer enrollment until spring semester. again in-person classes — can stop people from digging “There is a lot of political rhetoric out there that up central campus. Since 2019, crews have been working to sort of coincided with this wave of the pandemic,” excavate a utility tunnel under Bascom. Much of the piping Dunagan says, “and those two things together created there is more than 50 years old, and the water lines have had something definitely unprecedented in the field of their problems, failing six times in the last decade. The new international education.” tunnel (which replaces an older, smaller one) is 640 feet long UW–Madison’s Office of International Student and nearly 10 feet in diameter. But no, students will not be Services is responding with a variety of supportive allowed to walk through it to avoid climbing the hill. That’s measures, including virtual events and activities, what the Number 80 bus is for. advising appointments, informational town halls, newsletters, web updates, virtual orientation, and social media outreach. That’s where UW–Madison Lora Klenke ’94, managing director for interna- landed in U.S. News & World tional alumni relations for the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, says it’s key for the university Report’s ranking of U.S. to remind international students that they are valued. colleges and universities, up “International students increase the social and cul- from 46th last year. The UW tural diversity of our campus,” she says. “They enrich 42also42 rated highly in the Academic Ranking of World the research and learning environment and help U.S. students develop relevant skills in how to work and Universities, standing at 32nd internationally. We’re communicate in a global workforce.” coming for you next year, University of Tokyo. NIKI DENISON news feed

Go Big Read unites the campus Before the fall semester, UW Veteran higher-ed admin- community through a shared experts in textiles, filtration, and istrator Claudia Guzmán reading experience, generating infectious disease raced the clock has been named the conversations in courses and to create a special face covering new assistant dean and at special events. This year’s to help students and staff comply director of the UW’s Mul- selection is Parkland: Birth of a with the campus mask requirement. ticultural Student Center. BRYCE RICHTER Movement, Dave Cullen’s hopeful The team worked around worldwide “I want the center to be a look at the student activism that fabric shortages to mass-produce a space where students of followed the 2018 mass shooting durable and easy-to-wear mask that color can feel completely at a Parkland, Florida, high school. was available when classes started. comfortable,” she says.

16 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Conversation Andrea Dutton

World-renowned geochemist Formerly at the now. Why is it that today’s iment before. Maybe we didn’t and UW–Madison professor University of sea levels don’t seem to be in warm it up as quickly, but we Andrea Dutton studies past Florida, Dutton sync with past trends? have been at these tempera- joined the UW’s behaviors of sea levels and Department of What has happened today is tures before.” We can use that polar ice sheets to predict Geoscience last we have warmed up the earth knowledge. their fate. The 2019 MacAr- year. She was so quickly that the earth thur “Genius” Fellow and 2020 hired through systems are still adjusting to In a TEDx Talk, you men- Fulbright Scholar collects the Target of that change. They’re playing tioned that sea-level rise and examines fossil coral Opportunity catch-up to this rapid warming is more of a social problem Program, an reefs from coasts around the initiative that that we’ve just forced upon than a scientific one. Could globe, focusing mainly on time aims to enhance the ice sheets. What that tells you elaborate on that? periods with a similar average the quality and us is that our ice sheets are We have enough scientific global temperature to the one diversity of the out of equilibrium with the knowledge that we understand seen today. She sheds light on UW’s academic present climate. And that’s that sea level is going to contin- rising sea levels so we can pre- departments. why it begs this question of, ue to rise even with the amount pare for what’s to come. “Okay, if we’re headed toward of warming that has already something like 20 to 30 feet of happened. Any additional How would you describe sea-level rise, how quickly is warming now will make that your work? that going to happen?” even worse. The problem now I often liken my work to a is fundamentally getting people detective’s, because I’m looking What is one of the biggest to accept that sea-level rise will for pieces of the puzzle. When uncertainties in projecting be part of our future. I’m out in the field 24/7, my the future of sea-level rise? whole mind is immersed in the We don’t fully understand the What can people do to start mystery that we are trying to physics of that rapid, dynam- a conversation around solve, and I’m constantly asking ic retreat of ice in the polar what’s happening and myself questions like, “What regions, especially for the prepare for the future? else can I look for? What are Antarctic ice sheet. We’re now That’s the biggest challenge: get- the missing pieces of the puz- watching that in real time, ting people to talk about climate zle? Is there a different way to [monitoring] the ice sheet, and change. So, I encourage every- interpret what we see here? trying to learn on the fly about one to talk about it. The silence How can we answer this while how this process works. that is often wrapped around we’re here?” But that’s where I this issue really prevents us come in as a geolo- from making progress. Your findings show that, gist, because I can about 125,000 years ago, look at the past and Interview by Stephanie Haws ’15 when Earth last saw the say, “All right, to Photo by Bryce Richter temperatures we’re seeing some extent today, sea level was about we’ve done 20 to 30 feet higher than it is this exper- Exhibition JKX Comics JKX COMICS

what are we C’mon, supposed to do? let’s go.

to promote scientific literacy, refining their concept I will literally die without food! in weekly sessions at the Library Cafe & Bar near campus. As scientists — not artists or writers — they had a lot to learn. “Growing up, we all loved the Sunday comics,” Tran says. “But storytelling was new to us, so it took a yearWe’re goingof trial in and error to create our first project.” Are you searchThe of trio food. got a break by winning the UW’s Arts done? Business Competition, which rewards innovative ideas from arts entrepreneurs. They used the funding Why is a blood cell studying in a library? Why are Panels from JKX to collaborate with UW scientists and other artists on Comics (clock- microbes ordering food in a restaurant? Why Where?!is a There isn’t a set ofSo outsideseven of comics, showcasing the finished prod- ribosome getting psychoanalyzed on a therapist’sany food in allwise of Lumen! from top ucts Lumen,in a public obviously. event at the Wisconsin Institutes for couch? left): You Are Discovery. Kids had a chance to meet the researchers These are images from JKX Comics, illustrating What You Eat; featured in the comics and dream about their own Lena and the scientific concepts for nonscientists. In 15 comics, Hunt for Toms; A careers in science. Jaye Gardiner PhD’17, Kelly Montgomery Microbial World; The JKX founders are now scattered across the MS’16, and Khoa Tran PhD’18 use storytelling and Longitudinal country, Montgomery as a PhD student and Gardiner skills to explain UW–Madison research on cancer, Effects of Psy- and Tran as postdoctoral fellows. But they continue HIV, and the big bang, among other topics. The whole chotherapy with to work on new comics, as well as an anthology of collection is available for free at jkxcomics.com, to Transgender Cli- their UW projects. They plan to donate copies of the the delight of parents, middle school teachers, and ents. (TNG stands anthology to underserved children in the Madison science fans everywhere. for transgender, area through the Madison Reading Project. nonbinary, and Gardiner, Montgomery, and Tran met in Science gender noncon- “It will help them learn about the important and Medicine Graduate Research Scholars, a UW forming.) research happening at the university right down the fellowship program for underrepresented grad stu- street,” Tran says. dents. In 2015, they hatched the idea of using comics DEAN ROBBINS

18 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 OnCampus

The Virus Fighters COVID-19 testing might be coming to a sewer near you. Testing wastewater for the virus behind COVID-19 could provide early detec- tion of new outbreaks, giving LENNON RODGERS LENNON health care workers critical time to respond. UW–Madison researchers are partnering with cities around the state to test 60 percent of Wisconsin’s wastewater. They’re also studying wastewater from campus buildings, including residence halls, to detect new infections early. While researchers doing this work are safe from the virus, they do face hazards of a sort on the job. “Samples on campus can be from within minutes of production, so they are a bit messier,” says Martin Shafer PhD’88, a senior “In these scientist at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. Yet, he adds, “we do it for the good of science and public health.” This innovative testing is just one of the ways the UW has mar- unprecedented shaled its resources and ingenuity to address the pandemic. Engineers have tackled the virus as well. Lennon Rodgers and Karl Williamson of the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation times, we Laboratory designed the Badger Seal, a DIY flexible frame to better fit disposable or cloth masks against the face. The seal can make must serve as these cheap masks much more effective at filtering out particles. UW researchers have also been genomic sleuths. Thomas Friedrich ’97, PhD’03 and David O’Connor, who have stud- a beacon of ied COVID-19 for months, partnered with Nasia Safdar MS’02, PhD’09 at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) to track down a health care worker’s COVID-19 infection. Genetic hope and pride sequencing revealed that the worker harbored a virus strain iden- tical to their family member’s virus and distinct from the virus of that lifts the patients they had cared for. The results should offer reassurance to frontline workers: their protective equipment really can keep them safe from infection. spirits of the In late August, UW Health and SMPH were selected as one of the first sites in the country for a late-stage clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine. William Hartman, an assistant professor of anesthesiol- community.” ogy who has directed clinical trials of antibody-based medicines and convalescent plasma treatments, is leading the UW trial. It aims to — Corey Pompey, associate director of recruit 30,000 participants nationwide. bands, on his desire to perform with the UW ERIC HAMILTON Marching Band as soon as it’s safe

news feed

Tony Granato ’17 is headed Hello, good-bye: The Nicholas University of Wis- for the U.S. Hockey Hall Recreation Center, the sleek consin Hospitals of Fame. Granato is the new building on W. Dayton are ranked first in third-highest goal scorer Street, is ready for athletes U.S. News & World in the history of the Badger and fitness buffs. Meanwhile, Report’s “Best Hos- men’s program, as well as the good ol’ Natatorium pitals” survey of the its current coach. He joins is slated for demolition in state. Not to brag — sister Cammi Granato, the late fall, to be replaced by a much — but it’s our first woman inducted into second state-of-the-art rec- ninth consecutive

UW ATHLETICS; BRYCE RICHTER BRYCE ATHLETICS; UW the hall in 2008. reational facility in 2023. first-place ranking.

On Wisconsin 19 Contender Cassidy Scheer If a tree falls in the woods and Scheer is slated “I was mostly known as “It’s finding that ideal no one is around to hear it, it to represent a log-roller and tree-climber combination of athleticism, may not make a sound, but for the U.S. in a throughout my lumberjack technique, and mental focus,” Cassidy Scheer ’04, it makes closed-studio sports career,” he says. “I had he says. “I’m always trying to excellent practice timber. Stihl Timber- learned how to chop and saw address my biggest deficiency sports World Scheer is one of the nation’s working in the lumberjack in those three categories.” Championship leading lumberjack athletes, in Munich, exhibitions but had never really As a decorated veteran of with titles in events from Germany — that taken those two disciplines very both exhibition and competi- log-rolling and tree-climbing is, if pandem- seriously.” tive lumberjack stages, Scheer to chopping and sawing. After ic-related travel Upon recognizing his knack continues to keep audiences putting himself through col- restrictions don’t for recreational chopping and entertained through skill and lege by managing his family’s turn him away at sawing, Scheer committed to showmanship. lumberjack exhibitions in his the gate. a specialized training regimen “If somebody watches the hometown of Hayward, Wiscon- and began attending competi- 2017 through 2019 Stihl Tim- sin, Scheer brings his own skills tions in preparation for a shot bersports U.S. Championships, to the professional stage and at the Stihl Timbersports U.S. they’ll see that I’m clearly the continues the family tradition Championship. person who’s having the most of racking up titles from the But it wasn’t enough to fun out there. I’m the person Lumberjack World Champion- qualify this Northwoods-bred [interacting the most] with the ship and Stihl Timbersports — lumberjack prodigy for Stihl’s crowd. And when I have fun and the world’s premier competitive competitive stage. I’m fired up like that, I tend to lumberjacking organization. “The first year [2016] that compete my best.” Scheer’s winning record I applied to the Stihl Timber- Scheer is also helping to should come as no surprise: he sports series in the U.S., I was train the next generation of hails from a long line of lum- actually denied,” Scheer says. lumberjacks, starting with his berjacks. Various relatives, Stihl fills 40 spots each year, four-year-old daughter. including his father, Fred, took and Scheer ranked 45th. “I’m actually planning to get logrolling lessons at the world But in 2017, he entered the her her first ax pretty soon,” championship competition site competition ranked 24th and he says. “It’ll be a tiny ax that’s in their youth. Fred went on to finished eighth overall. In 2018, not very sharp, but I’ll set up win four world championships in he rose to a sixth-place finish the chopping apparatuses for log-rolling, which count among on his way to a national-cham- her and start teaching her the the nearly 30 individual titles pion title in 2019. mechanics of a good swing.” the Scheers hold in log-rolling “I worked really hard,” he For Scheer, the allure of and tree-climbing. says. “I was always addressing timbersports for athletes and “I take pride in being part of my greatest limiting factor [and audiences alike has always the first family of log-rolling and working on] all the events that I been clear. “Lumberjack sports tree-climbing,” says Scheer. needed to do better at to actu- [are] something that most peo- “We’re a very competitive ally win that competition.” ple can identify with because family. We’re always trying to After securing his U.S. title, most people have climbed a one-up each other, but it has a Scheer headed to Prague, Czech tree or split firewood,” he says. healthy dynamic to it.” Republic, in November 2019 to “It’s like rodeo in the sense that Fred and his siblings also compete against the champions it’s derived from actual worka- founded the family’s lumberjack from Australia, Canada, New day skills.” exhibition shows. What started Zealand, and Europe in the Stihl Between fitness equipment in 1979 with some lawn chairs Timbersports Lumberjack World that mimics chopping work and a $3 admission fee has Championship, where he placed and ax-throwing bars cropping since grown into a business that a close second. up across the country, Scheer draws state and national fans. “I’m unique in that I’ve com- can’t help but chuckle at the bit Scheer stepped right into peted at the highest level in all of lumberjack in all of us. the family business. He spent lumberjack sports disciplines. “There will always be an his youth honing his skills and There are only two or three of appeal to playing with sharp managing lumberjack shows. us who have ever done that,” objects and doing things that Despite the UW’s lack of an Scheer says. are somewhat dangerous,” he official timbersports organiza- His secret to athletic excel- says. tion, Scheer stayed in practice lence: as with log-rolling and MEGAN PROVOST ’20 by logrolling just off the shores wood-chopping, it comes down PHOTO COURTESY OF STIHL of Lake Mendota. to balance. TIMBERSPORTS POETRY OF THE MOMENT In timely new collections, married UW professors Cherene Sherrard and Amaud Jamaul Johnson explore Black identity and struggle.

BY PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER

22 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 On Wisconsin 23 … I’m ashamed after September 11. Poets deal in uncertainty — or of how much compassion I’ve shown our what John Keats called negative capability. A poet declared exists in a space where the answers aren’t readily enemies, which is what I was given, always available, where you linger in a silence and speak unzipping into it.” my jacket, attempting to speak before spoken to, being pleasant, thinking everyone is watching. I packed the dishes in saddlebags between And what they are waiting for is whatever I’ve copies of The North Star, placed what issues we had not passed clandestinely in my hand, which rarely feels like grace. on to other subscribers. All items in the pastry shop were sold or — “How often I’ve turned to Latasha Harlins, returned to lenders, save who would have been 43 this July,” Imperial these blue-and-white cups and saucers in Liquor which I served custard or tea. … Their mismatched sturdiness lent an elegance, ven before the police brutality and Black a charm that led ladies Lives Matter protests earlier this year, to linger over their little cakes. When we Latasha Harlins was never far from Amaud unpack in Michigan, all the cups JamaulE Johnson’s mind. have chipped, all the saucers have fissures, but In 1991, Harlins walked into a Los Angeles con- I use them anyway. venience store and was shot in the back of the head A reminder of what cannot be broken. by the store’s owner, who accused her of trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. She was Black. She was — “Chaney,” Grimoire 15. She died with money in hand. Johnson, a nationally renowned poet and English “Dreaming Historically” professor at UW–Madison, dedicated a poem to Sherrard was a year into her PhD program in Harlins in Imperial Liquor, his new collection on African American literature at Cornell University race and fatherhood. A Compton, California, native, when Johnson arrived to pursue a professional mas- he left for college as his city burned following the ter’s in African American studies. They met at an acquittal of police officers who had beaten Rodney orientation event. King around the time of Harlins’s death. At the time, they didn’t know poetry was in their “One of the great anxieties I have is that it seems future. But their academic training and dedication like these riots mark generational shifts,” Johnson to African American history have led to a distinc- says. “When my father was a teenager, he experi- tive body of work that gives new voice to historical enced the Watts riots in ’65. When I was a teenager figures. in Los Angeles, there was a riot. And now my sons Johnson calls this process “dreaming histor- have rioting and protest that’s part of their adoles- ically” — immersing oneself in a moment of time cent experience. It feels like we’re caught in a dan- and suspending knowledge of what comes next. gerous loop.” Textbooks lay out the facts of history; their poetry Such brutal realities of being Black in America — transports you to the scene. Imagining history from slavery to today — underpin much of Johnson’s through sight and sound, by touch and taste, allows award-winning writings, as well as his wife’s. for deeper truths to emerge. Cherene Sherrard, a fellow distinguished poet and Johnson released Red Summer, his 2006 debut professor in the Department of English, also released collection, after completing the prestigious Wallace a collection this year. In Grimoire, she writes of the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. The title, turbulences of Black motherhood that echo across referring to the 1919 race riots and lynchings that generations. erupted across the country, feels as urgent today as In the couple’s poetry, the elegance of each line at the time of publication. With lyricism inspired by guides you deeper into a haunting scene. You ago- Colleagues in the the blues, the collection explores the nature and per- nize over pain and loss, violence and survival. You Department of manence of violence. In “Chicago Citizen Testifies explore the transience of home, identity, and memory. English, Johnson in His Defense,” Johnson writes of the murder of And you start to understand why — as the country is the Halls IV Eugene Williams, a Black teenager who drowned confronts racial strife and a devastating pandemic Classical/Mod- during the Red Summer when his raft floated toward with precious little empathy — a poet’s touch is ern Literature a segregated section of beach and a white man pelted essential. Studies Bascom him with rocks: “The fate of the rock, like that of the Professor and “During a time like this, when people feel like Sherrard is the boy, / falls somewhere between gravity and god.” they don’t quite understand where things are going, Sally Mead In 2013, Johnson released Darktown Follies, where there’s a confusion or hopelessness, there’s a Hands Bascom shifting from tragic violence to tragic humor. The great call for poetry,” Johnson says. “We saw this Professor. collection reopens the curtains to vaudeville and

24 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 minstrel shows, in which blackface became a staple. As with all of his writing, the historical bleeds into the contemporary. In the book’s first poems, he por- trays Black performers who negotiated degrading acts to secure a place on stage; later, he touches on appropriation, stereotype, and performance in our lives today. The uncomfortable humor is only fitting for the historical subject. “There’s something about doing historical work, when you’re trying to humanize people in the past Johnson: “A to understand both their strengths and weaknesses, poet exists in a that hopefully allows us to be kinder to each other,” space where the Johnson says. answers aren’t At times, the process of dreaming historically readily available, where you involves a physical element. For Grimoire — mean- linger in a ing a book of magic spells — Sherrard drew inspi- silence and ration from the smells and tastes of her kitchen. To speak into it.” better understand Malinda Russell, the first African American to publish a cookbook, Sherrard re-created you’re always weighing that against the fact that her 19th-century recipes as authentically as possible. they don’t have as much room to make mistakes as Little is known about Russell, a free Black woman other children.” and single mother from Tennessee who moved to Over the summer, as protests over police vio- Michigan and published A Domestic Cook Book in lence consumed the country, Sherrard and Johnson 1866. But Sherrard brilliantly folds her recipes into weighed how to discuss the cultural moment with the first part of the collection. In “Marble Cake,” she their sons, fearing how much they’ve already inter- writes: “My son, ½ cup white flour, ¼ cup brown nalized the tragedies of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, sugar / has trouble with fractions. When pregnant / and others. The family took a trip to State Street I did not follow instructions, beat the yolks and sugar in downtown Madison, where local artists had / together until very light … Mixed children usually / transformed broken windows into vibrant plywood come out beautifully. The doctor is unsure about mine. murals honoring victims of police violence and con- / Paper and butter the pan, first a layer of the white, / veying hopeful messages of unity and change. then of the dark, alternately finishing with the white.” “We wanted them to see images of affirmation — That poem’s narrator is a contemporary Black celebrating Black life — so that it’s not one long doom mother and amateur cook whom Sherrard created scroll of Black death,” Sherrard says. “Seeing those to interact with Russell across time. The enduring images was a really good example of how art can hardships of Black motherhood tie Grimoire together, bring an awareness and understanding of the strug- with later sections exploring grim disparities in gles people are having.” childbearing and childrearing. The book notes that Black infants are twice as likely to die as white the most dangerous men infants, an inequity more severe today than at the in my neighborhood time of Russell’s cooking. only listened to love songs In “Outcome,” such statistical prophecy dooms all Black mothers: “Her serve is 125 miles an hour to reach those notes / but she cannot outrun this. / She has won, has a musicologist told me published, / but she cannot outwrite this. / She has a man essentially cuts starred, has danced, / but she cannot out-twirl this.” While reading Russell’s cookbook, Sherrard was his own throat. some nights drawn to the use of “receipt,” an archaic form of even now, i’ll hear a falsetto “recipe.” The word’s versatility — used for spells, and think i should run food, and medicine, or, more imaginatively, to refer to the steps of successful parenting — allowed for a — “Smokey,” Imperial Liquor potent mix of themes. Rereading her collection now, she’s finding the Tragedy Baked In poems “eerily prescient” as she raises two teenage For all its historical references, Imperial Liquor is sons during a time of racial strife and pandemic. perhaps Johnson’s most personal and vulnerable “On one hand, you want to protect a space for work, part ode to the Compton of his youth and part joy, for well-being, for growth, for experience, for nod to the anguishing parent everywhere. It con- the kind of trial and error that’s really necessary tains his signatures: stunning lyricism and evocative to develop independence,” Sherrard says. “And yet, imagery.

On Wisconsin 25 In Sherrard’s writings, amid deep explorations of race and gender, her personality shines through with unexpected moments of levity. Sharp satire and pop-culture references permeate her work. In Grimoire, “ginger” is as likely to refer to the cooking ingredient as it is the Gilligan’s Island character. “In my episode,” Sherrard writes, “Ginger marries the Professor / after pushing that insipid Mary Ann / out to sea on a bamboo raft.” Sherrard arrived on the poetry scene in 2010 with Mistress, Reclining, a chapbook that won the In Grimoire, New Women’s Voices Prize in Poetry. She earned Sherrard writes praise for crafting an intricate persona for Jeanne of the turbu- Duval, the multiracial mistress of 19th-century poet lences of Black motherhood Charles Baudelaire. In 2017, she published Vixen, a that echo across dramatic collection filled with explorations of iden- generations. tity and a historical narrative on slavery with avatar Annabelle X. Released in February, the collection became reve- Sherrard credits her ability to develop fictional latory just a few months later with the police killing and historical personas to her upbringing as an of George Floyd. Johnson captures the urgency of only child. “I grew up with my own imagination the Black Lives Matter movement, with one reader and books as companions,” she says. “That sense of posting on Goodreads: “If there is a book for this transforming into another person was very appeal- moment, this is it.” ing to me.” In the poem dedicated to Harlins, Johnson writes: Raised in Los Angeles, she was initially drawn “My sons / were gone too long. They are developing to film and became active in theater. “At some point,” this habit / of walking their allowance down to our she told Water-Stone Review last year, “I started corner store. / One of the many ways I’ve failed them, writing my own characters instead of pretending to we haven’t / had that talk about their bodies, about be someone else’s.” Her bold approach has earned her the alarming rate / of illiteracy surrounding their an admiring label from the Washington Independent bodies.” Review of Books: “a writer who doesn’t subordinate And in “Don’t Forget You(r) Lunch,” the narrator herself to make a poem.” addresses his son directly. No matter how friendly, honest, successful, or polite he grows up to be, it may A flood, like Noah’s flood, never be enough: “the first time a police officer / put like after Katrina, like the a gun to my head, the night / was as still and musty Mississippi’s goddamn muddy and oily / as your body is now.” Blues, like Sylvia on death, Johnson reads everything aloud as he writes. or Toni on slavery, like swag “The music has to be right,” he says. He believes surfing over the breakwater, poetry has both a sound system and an image system, the levees levitating, and rather than rhyme words, he might correlate water seeping up through strong images, like fire and blood. As a child, he cracked foundations, like molasses, first fell in love with language because of hip-hop drowning cows in a pasture and R&B. of sweet. This placental blood “Tough guys in my neighborhood didn’t neces- is an abrupt surprise. sarily listen to gangster rap. They listened to love songs,” he says. “So there’s this relationship I have — “Dixie Moonlight,” Grimoire to sound, that a really beautiful thing often has this tragedy baked into it — like, what does it mean to Living with a Poet be afraid of a lullaby?” For Johnson and Sherrard, poetry is often super- Johnson is soft-spoken, in contrast to the fierce, seded by the demands of parenthood and professor- baleful language of his poetry. Even in casual conver- Johnson and ship. Writing time feels like stolen time. sation, he speaks in a series of ellipses and questions, Sherrard will dis- “A lot of the work is just trying to block out one thought inevitably interrupted by a deeper one. cuss their poetry other responsibilities to get the writing done, and Such deliberation and doubt serve a poet well. in a virtual event I’m always surprised that it happens,” Johnson says. on December 17 “Poetry isn’t about answering questions, neces- at noon (CST). “I think, ‘Where did that poem come from? How is sarily,” Johnson told Boxcar Poetry Review. “But Learn more at that possible?’ It feels like a gift when a poem really maybe, after several poems, we’ll begin to ask better uwalumni.com/ comes together.” questions, or get somewhere closer to the truth.” go/poetry. Sherrard is a fellow at the UW–Madison Institute

26 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 for Research in the Humanities and teaches 19th- and 20th-century literature courses, including one this spring on novelist Toni Morrison. Johnson is the director of the MFA program in creative writing and leads poetry seminars. Time is so precious that they rarely discuss or share their poetry while it’s in progress, afraid to burden the other. “We used to do more of that,” Sherrard says. “Now it’s more like, ‘I wrote this poem, look!’ And he says, ‘Good for you!’ … As important as poetry is, it’s also the debris of the lived experience. It’s the thing that we’re constantly shedding so we can kind of move on to something else.” And as they grapple with their own work, they’re Darktown Follies training the next generation of great writers and Amaud Jamaul Johnson thinkers. Tupelo Press Before her fellowship, Sherrard was the director of graduate studies for the English department, where she oversaw the Bridge Program that allows Red Summer students who finish their master’s degree in Afro- Amaud Jamaul Johnson American studies to transfer to the English program Tupelo Press and earn an accelerated doctorate. She notes that the program has increased the number of Black students earning PhDs from the UW. Johnson has seen his creative writing students go on to make major literary contributions. Most nota- ble is Danez Smith ’12, a queer Black poet whose collection Don’t Call Us Dead was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award. “As a teacher, it’s a real honor to see what’s possible in a poem,” Johnson says. “I don’t care how rough a draft is — I always think there’s something there.” Mistress, Reclining Even as self-proclaimed homebodies, Johnson Cherene Sherrard and Sherrard have found releasing poetry collec- Finishing Line Press tions during a pandemic to feel particularly isolat- ing. Johnson was set to embark on his book tour the same week the country shut down in March. Beyond Imperial Liquor the impact on publicity and sales, sharing the work Amaud Jamaul Johnson through virtual readings doesn’t allow for the usual University of Pittsburgh hallway chats with readers or dinner with contem- Press poraries. “I remember a colleague saying, ‘A poet really touches every book that they sell.’ There’s kind of an intimacy to it in terms of that exchange,” Johnson says. “I’ve had to adjust my expectations around what I would be doing to shepherd this new book into the world,” Sherrard adds, noting that the altered process has involved “a little bit of mourning.” Fortunately, these poets know how to support each other. Vixen “Living with a poet makes this work feel really Cherene Sherrard normal,” Johnson says. “We both respect the energy Autumn House Press and effort that go into creating art. I imagine some people may think, ‘Oh, it seems so interesting or “SMOKEY” AND “HOW OFTEN I’VE unusual to write poetry.’ But poetry is kind of a TURNED TO LATASHA HARLINS, family business. It’s just who we are.” WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN 43 THIS • JULY” FROM IMPERIAL LIQUOR BY Grimoire AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON, © 2020. Cherene Sherrard Preston Schmitt ’14 is a staff writer for On Wisconsin. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS. Autumn House Press TOPSY-TURVY Images from an extraordinary 2020 year on campus

f we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, we would never have believed it. UW– Madison’s year included a move to all Ionline classes in the spring, a truncated football season in the fall, and other coronavirus-related disruptions. Add in a Rose Bowl game that now seems like ancient history, and you could safely call 2020 “extraordinary.” Maybe even “phantasmagorical.” Did it really happen? The photos on the next few pages prove that the UW’s pandemic year wasn’t just a hallucination.

See onwisconsin.uwalumni.com for more images of the university’s tumultuous year.

PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER AND BRYCE RICHTER New Year’s Fizzle Remember when losing a Rose Bowl game seemed like a tragedy? The Badgers began the year in Pasadena, even though they were runners-up for the Big Ten title. With 7:51 left in the game, the UW was leading by six points and had the ball. But Danny Davis III fumbled, and one play later, Oregon scored a touch- down. Wisconsin ended up losing 28–27. Who’s a Good Boy? The 2020 Super Bowl featured a surprising link to UW–Madi- son: not on the field but during TV commercials. WeatherTech, a company that makes car and pet accessories, created a Super Bowl ad called “Lucky Dog,” fea- turing Scout, a golden retriever who was the organization’s unofficial mascot. Scout had developed a tumor on his heart, and he was treated by the UW School of Veterinary Medicine. In gratitude, WeatherTech used its airtime to promote giving to the veterinary school. Scout passed away in March.

On Wisconsin 29 BRIAN HUYNH

All Online On March 23, the university shift- ed to alternate delivery of classes. Brian Huynh x’22 moved back home to finish his sophomore year from his parents’ basement, documenting his suddenly online semester in a series of photos for University Communications.

Bye for Now Due to growing concerns about the coronavirus, the university encouraged as many students as possible to move off campus at the start of spring break. A mes- sage board in Dejope Residence Hall communicated the urgent information. Most important: don’t forget to drop off your key. Situation Room In response to the coronavirus, UW–Madison sprang into action through the Emergency Oper- ations Center. Representatives from across campus began to monitor risks, responding as necessary to protect students, faculty, and staff. DAVID STLUKA

Victory Is Sweet Men’s basketball star Micah Potter ’20, MSx’22 celebrates the team’s Big Ten title — a stunning turnaround after a difficult start. But the season ended abruptly when the Big Ten and NCAA canceled their tournaments. Problem-Solvers The printing center at the UW’s Division of Information Technol- ogy transitioned to producing 1,000 medical face shields a day for University Hospital.

On Wisconsin 31 Mask and Gown UW–Madison postponed its in-person commencement ceremonies for spring 2020, but graduates like Yingzi Zhang ’19 (left) and Qiuhong Li ’20 still dressed up for photos. So Close, So Far In normal times, the university provides a ladder to boost up graduates for a memorable selfie with Honest Abe. But in the time of pandemic, it had to put up a fence. “Please come see me when it’s safe for selfies,” a socially distant Abe wrote on a nearby sign. March for Justice On June 7, hundreds of dem- onstrators gathered near the Humanities Building for a Black Lives Matter Solidarity March to “stand up and speak out against racism.” Window Wonders When protests left broken windows on State Street, artists helped transform plywood coverings into vibrant murals with hopeful calls for justice and change. UW–Madison students (left to right) Courtney Gorum x’23, Molly Pistono x’22, and Dan- iel Ledin x’22 painted a tribute to victims of racial injustice.

On Wisconsin 33 Tip-Top Terrace A sanitized table is ready for visitors: Over the summer, the Terrace reopened — with safety precautions in place — after closing in spring. With physically distanced seating, patrons could enjoy the sun-soaked campus spot thanks to online reser- vations. Food and drink were available, and masks and face coverings were required upon entry, while receiving service, and while exiting. Everywhere a Sign Campus gained a plethora of new signage, including at the Health Sciences Learning Center, where university staff prepared for fall semester with reminders about campus health and safety measures. Absentee Voting The U.S. presidential election was one of many events affected by the pandemic. Campus found avenues to offer safe absentee voting in July for the August 11 primary. No Lines for the Bathrooms In May, Camp Randall Stadi- um sat empty in the midst of a closed campus. Normally at that time of year, the football field would have been covered as stadium crews prepared the facility to host spring commencement. Instead, the in-person graduation event was canceled. This fall’s football season will also take place without fans.

On Wisconsin 35 A Masked Move-in Wearing face masks and keeping a safe distance from others, undergraduates moved into Ogg Hall at the end of August. The Nose Test In early August, staff from Uni- versity Health Services instructed university community members on how to self-administer a nasal swab at a COVID-19 testing tent on Henry Mall. The location was the first of three free testing sites available to students, faculty, and staff as campus prepared to reopen for fall semester.

Personal Space Students wore face masks and sat at least six feet apart for a lecture by law professor Kath- ryn Hendley on the first day of classes. Campus reopened on September 2 with these and other Smart Restart safety protocols in place. Send Help A week into fall semester, more than 2,200 students in Sellery and Witte Halls were quaran- tined for 14 days following an outbreak of COVID-19 in the residences. Students in Sell- ery wasted no time in playfully showing their feelings with signs reading “SOS,” “Send Help,” and “Free Us.” Vegging Out F. H. King: Students for Sustain- able Agriculture (named after a legendary professor) is an idealistic UW collective that runs a two-acre organic farm in Eagle Heights. In the fall, the students gave out their produce for free at “Harvest Handouts” programs on East Campus Mall. •

On Wisconsin 37 ANDY MANIS ANDY

It’s Fight Night! Mary Edwards ’82 can throw a punch but found her calling ringside.

BY JENNY PRICE ’96

38 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 WO HOURS before the bell TWENTY-FOUR HOURS before the bell rings for rings for the first mixed mar- the first round, two dozen fighters gather in a ban- tial arts fight on the night’s quet room above a Madison bar to register and weigh card, Mary Murphy Edwards in. The fighters take turns stripping down to their ’82 is cageside, dressed in black underwear to step on the scale. Edwards sits at an with a small roller bag. Her L-shaped table with the event’s promoter. A pile of clothing choice is practical: it $20 bills and license applications for fighters and the hides any blood splatters that people who will be in their corners rises next to her could come her way sitting that laptop. One fighter grumbles about having to “drop close to the action. $120 just to fight.” Edwards notes later, “If you want As the deputy commissioner of unarmed combat a posse, you have to pay for it.” sports for the Wisconsin Department of Safety and On the January 25 fight night, inspectors on her TProfessional Services, Edwards is one of a handful team expel people from the locker room if they aren’t of women nationally in charge of every step of the licensed. The atmosphere creeps toward chaotic as process involved in boxing, kickboxing, and mixed fans crowd into a large ballroom inside the Monona martial arts bouts. She approves or rejects matchups Terrace convention center. The bar opens and the that promoters propose, hires officials, and oversees noise builds with an assist from a DJ playlist that fighter weigh-ins. Edwards is also a seventh-degree includes “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate, which means at top volume. The vibe belies the calm precision and there’s no place else she’d rather be on a Saturday discipline Edwards and her team employ to enforce night in downtown Madison. the rules from start to finish. She doesn’t flinch when the sweat and spit “I love the fighters,” she says. “I’d do anything to start flying. help keep them safe.” “Do you have to go to the fights?” some of her But Edwards has suspended fighters for bad more squeamish officemates have asked as she pre- behavior or unsportsmanlike conduct. “Don’t pares to travel most weekends to events around come to my state and disrespect my ring,” she says the state. Her response is unequivocal: “That’s the of one who flipped the bird behind her back after best part.” she warned him. “I won’t approve him for fights Edwards began to “live and breathe” martial going forward.” arts not long after graduating from UW–Madison Before the fights begin, Edwards and her team with degrees in French and international relations, inspect the cage and go through an evacuation plan. including a year abroad in France with plans for a She also enlists the only woman inspector present career in law or business. She married young and to administer required pregnancy tests for fighters moved to Vermont, where she began studying at in the sole female bout on the card. Villari’s Martial Arts Center, taking three classes a At intermission, she goes back to the locker room day to earn her black belt in three years. to check on a fighter getting stitches from the ring- The deputy The daughter of a high school wrestling and side doctor and another with a swollen hand. commissioner of football coach in a small southwest Wisconsin Later in the night, she checks on other fighters unarmed combat town faced pushback from her family. Her father as they exit the medical area. “How do you keep the sports oversees a didn’t think much of martial arts at the time. Her face so pretty?” she asks a female fighter, who points bout at Monona Terrace. “I love mother was horrified. “I was literally told, ‘Don’t do out her nose is crooked from a previous injury and the fighters,” these things. It’s not ladylike,’ ” she says. Within a gives Edwards a hug goodbye. Edwards says. few years, Edwards and her husband relocated to Edwards will enter the results and stats from “I’d do anything Montreal to open a new location for the Villari’s mar- tonight’s fights into a national database when she to help keep tial arts franchise. returns to the office on Monday, a day she is sup- them safe.” “They were so shocked to see a woman. I was posed to take off but won’t. “Their record is every- asked many times if I was a model or an actress thing,” she says. just wearing a belt,” she says. “And I was running She leaves the locker room, roller bag in hand. the school.” “Most nights you think, ‘I get paid for going to a After six years, Edwards returned to Madison good fight.’ ”• to open another location for the martial arts school on State Street, where she still serves as its high- Jenny Price ’96 is a former coeditor of On Wisconsin. She est-ranking instructor. Her children called her can now cross sitting cageside at a mixed martial arts fight “Master Murphy” when they were growing up. off her bucket list.

On Wisconsin 39 40 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 DANIELLE LAMBERSON PHILIPP

The Quest for a Kinder Cure Paul Sondel ’71, PhD’75 searches for the most effective, least disruptive way to end childhood cancers.

BY CHRIS MALINA

Paul Sondel ’71, PhD’75 knows his work involves a balance of means and ends. A pediatric oncologist, he helped drive medical advancements that now cure 80 percent of children with cancer. That’s good. But the balance: the treatments children go through come at a cost that’s more than financial. Due to the cancer and the intensity of the treatments, many patients face “toxicities during treatment, as well as lifelong medical issues, not only because of the cancer but because of what it took to treat the cancer,” he says. Former pediatric cancer patients have to deal with potential late effects of their treatments. Some experience organ failure in their 20s and 30s; some face the emergence of secondary cancers. Sondel’s goal is to help international efforts to suc- cessfully cure all forms of childhood cancer and to do it in a way that gives children the best chance of living a long and healthy life. “You can’t have quality of life without life,” he says, “but we need to be concerned about quality of life and, from the very beginning, be picking those treatments that are not only curative but also cause the fewest problems downstream.” Over the past decade, Sondel and a UW Carbone Cancer Center team have focused on delivering treatments while minimizing the cost to young patients. Not bad for a guy whose first job on campus was washing test tubes.

On Wisconsin 41 JOHN MANIACI

Paul Sondel (center) discuss- es research with Dream Team members Alexander Rakhmilevich and Jacquelyn Hank.

DISHWASHER the disease in humans. “It was one of the first things Sondel, a physician-scientist, has been a promi- that was [proving] to be successful for those many nent part of the pediatric cancer program at the patients with leukemia who weren’t being cured with University of Wisconsin for decades. Among other chemotherapy at the time,” Sondel says. leadership positions, he was the head of the pediatric With that experience, Sondel went to medical hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplant school at Harvard. But his classes in tumor and trans- program for 26 years. He’s also lent his expertise to plant immunology hadn’t caught up to the research numerous national cancer organizations, and he is he participated in back in Wisconsin. So he took a an internationally recognized expert in the field of leave of absence from Harvard and came back to UW– cancer immunotherapy. Madison to pursue a PhD with Fritz Bach. As an undergraduate, Sondel knew he wanted Although he did eventually go on to finish med- to become a physician, but he also had a desire to ical school at Harvard, he returned to the UW and understand what was going on behind the scenes at joined the faculty in 1980. “I wanted to be involved in the clinic. “I wanted to understand what research the care of children with cancer,” he says. “I wanted was like and how you use research to make medical to do research that could potentially impact children decisions,” he says. and adults, and I wanted that research to be in the Seeking lab experience, he started knocking on realm of how we might use the immune system to doors around campus, hoping he might be able to have an effect against the tumor.” land a job. Fortunately for Sondel, one of the doors At the time, much of cancer immunology revolved he knocked on belonged to Fritz Bach, the pioneering around how to improve bone marrow transplants. researcher and physician whose bone marrow trans- With an allogenic transplant — that is, from one plant work would pave the way for modern immu- human to another — cells are harvested from a notherapy. He offered Sondel a job in his lab, a move matching donor and given to a recipient. While this that would set Sondel on his professional course. procedure can be lifesaving, it comes with risk, In addition to washing the glassware, Sondel was including rejection by the recipient’s immune system able to get involved with the lab’s research, which and graft-versus-host disease, in which the donor’s was turning its attention to leukemia. Early studies immune cells attack the recipient’s healthy cells. in mice had shown that different cancers had spe- While many researchers sought ways to make cific tumor antigens — molecules that the immune the graft work better, Sondel turned to a separate system could recognize — and so a mouse could be strategy: might there be some way to use patients’ immunized against leukemia. That research led the own immune cells to attack their cancer? In 1990, team to start doing bone marrow transplants to treat he began to build research around this concept.

42 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 DREAM TEAM DANIELLE LAMBERSON PHILIPP In 1998, Sondel recruited Ken DeSantes to lead the UW’s pediatric oncology bone marrow transplant program. DeSantes brought experience with a method of radiation delivery using a substance called metaiodobenzylguanidine, or MIBG, that the team is now combining with immunotherapy. “I came with a strong clinical interest,” DeSantes says. “I wasn’t in the laboratory, but I was very interested in clinical immunotherapy. So having Paul in the lab and me very interested in clinical research, a higher likelihood of killing the cancer cells, as well it was a nice starting point.” as leaving the healthy cells unharmed. DeSantes and Sondel built a translational While more than 100 pediatric centers competed research operation, recruiting physicians and sci- for the grant, UW–Madison and six collaborating entists. They moved into the American Family institutions were selected, and the Dream Team was Children’s Hospital, which enabled the team to add born. In its first six years, it has treated more than other pediatric physician-scientists: Mario Otto 930 patients in 34 clinical trials, it helped get the and Inga Hofmann from Germany and Christian first gene therapies approved by the FDA, and it has Capitini, who had held a fellowship at the National discovered new immunotherapy targets. Cancer Institute. The team also includes lab scien- “We’re now finishing the seventh year of our tists — Jacquelyn Hank ’74, MS’76, PhD’78, Amy eight-year grant,” Sondel says. Erbe-Gurel, and Alexander Rakhmilevich — who The Dream Team designation has reaped other trained in Madison, Montana, and Moscow. benefits. When the National Cancer Institute The UW’s childhood cancer team has a strong announced a competition to create a network for record with clinical trials, and they are often asked clinical immunotherapy trials, the team’s member to participate in national and international studies as institutions were able to show that they already a partner institution. had the infrastruc- In 2012, Sondel ture in place to make and Capitini were at it happen. They won a conference when that competition, too. they heard that St. “The two grants Baldrick’s, a lead- Immunogenomics complement each ing childhood cancer is the parallel study of the genetic other,” Sondel says, foundation, was and they add to sup- teaming with Stand structure of tumors and immune port from several Up to Cancer to fund other grants and a “Pediatric Cancer cells, with the goal of making cancer foundations, includ- Dream Team.” The treatments more targeted and less ing decades of help mandate: revolution- from Wisconsin’s ize pediatric cancer harmful to patients. Midwest Athletes research. Against Childhood Sondel and Capitini Cancer Fund. “They discussed the idea of are enabling the UW a collaboration with to make independent immunotherapy colleagues at other institutions. progress and to work with this Dream Team,” Sondel They also talked with colleagues who were study- says. “This includes discovery research and its ing the genetics of childhood cancer. Collectively translation into early clinical trials, which we hope they decided to “take these two fields that are really will become treatments that provide more cures and cutting-edge in pediatric cancer research and see allow us to cut back on chemotherapy.” if we can use genetics to inform what we’re doing Sondel knows that the immunotherapy research in immunotherapy, utilizing a new approach, called being done here is solid. “We have substantial immunogenomics,” Sondel says. momentum and scientific depth here at the UW,” he Genomics — the study of a person’s entire says. “What’s next is testing new ways to improve genetic makeup — and immunotherapy match well. immunotherapy by incorporating contributions from Researchers can use genomics to analyze the compo- additional scientific fields.”• sition of tumor cells and match this with the molec- ular and cellular functions of the immune system. Chris Malina is a communications specialist for the UW’s The goal is to allow immunogenomics to help deter- Carbone Cancer Center. A longer version of this article mine the best targets for immunotherapy, meaning appeared on the medical website Doximity.

On Wisconsin 43 UW ARCHIVES S06908

Szarkowski believed that “the world itself is an artist of incomparable inventiveness.”

“Last week I finally got home … where I could think about the future and look at Lake Superior at the same time. No matter how hard I looked, the lake gave no indication of concern at the possibility of my departing from its shores, and finally I decided that if it can get along without me, I can get along without it.”

44 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 WITH NEW EYES As a curator and practitioner, John Szarkowski ’48 helped shape our view of photography — and the world.

BY LOUISA KAMPS

The quote on the facing page is from a once put it, “almost single-handedly elevated pho- letter John Szarkowski ’48 wrote in 1961 to Edward tography’s status … to that of a fine art.” He helped Steichen, accepting an invitation to lead the Museum people look at photography, and the world, with new of Modern Art’s department of photography. At the eyes. time, Szarkowski was already an accomplished With an artist’s natural curiosity, Szarkowski photographer himself. He had shown his work in championed dozens of innovative young photog- well-reviewed exhibitions and finished two books raphers, including Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, of his photography. He was beginning a new proj- Garry Winogrand, and William Eggleston. Drawing ect, funded with a grant from the Guggenheim on his own decades-long study, he also wrote about Foundation, to photograph the Quetico Superior wil- the work of 19th- and 20th-century photographers derness area along the Minnesota–Canada border. in clear, evocative prose that doubled the pleasure of The Ashland, Wisconsin, native was living in a looking at pictures. With Szarkowski as your learned house overlooking Lake Superior in Bayfield County. and witty guide, you feel as if you have entered into It is understandable that he would need a moment the spellbinding scenes that great photographers to gaze at the water and gather his thoughts before catch with their cameras. committing to move to New York City. But even if For his first major exhibition at the museum, he felt divided — and a little miffed that his beloved The Photographer and the American Landscape in lake did not rise up to protest the prospect of his 1963, Szarkowski selected sweeping, voluptuous leaving its shores — he went on to a 29-year tenure portraits of the American West and Midwest. Some at the Museum of Modern Art, becoming a singularly were by Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and other influential curator who, as a New York Times critic well-known 20th-century artists, but others were

On Wisconsin 45 taken by relatively unknown photographers who of Modern Art. And in his first job after graduation, set out to document the Great Plains and Rockies in working in Minneapolis as the staff photographer at the decades after the Civil War. “This work was the the Walker Art Center, he was profoundly affected beginning of a continuing, inventive, indigenous tra- by seeing the radical new work of abstract expres- dition, a tradition motivated by the desire to explore sionists, such as Karl Knaths and Barnett Newman, and understand the natural site,” Szarkowski wrote arriving from New York galleries. in the introduction to the exhibition’s catalog. In the same essay, he described Henry H. Szarkowski’s earliest photos, including Bennett’s photos of Victorian men and women canoe- Music Hall, Madison (1943–44), taken on a melan- ing in the Wisconsin Dells in the 1880s. He called choly, misty night while he was in college, have unde- the subjects “neatly dressed, poised, superior to the niable poetry. Yet as he matured, his photographs site, but with friendly feelings toward it” — people became more close-cropped and crisply articulated. discovering their own “identity with the wild world.” With Screen Door, Hudson, Wisconsin (1950) and His smooth, nuanced prose gives readers the sense Young Pine in Aspen (1955), he gave familiar north- that they are themselves gliding with excitement ern Wisconsin scenes their own expressionist and wonder through the magical hushed Dells, long charge. In Old Stock Exchange, Traders (1954) and before motorboats ever buzzed those waterways. Owatonna Bank, Banking Room (1954–55), two photographs of ornately decorated buildings designed by Szarkowski acquired his first camera Szarkowski Louis Sullivan that went into his first book,The Idea at age 11, and photography became one of his chief almost single- of Louis Sullivan (1956), the contrast between the hobbies alongside playing the clarinet and trout fish- handedly elevat- buildings’ sharp architectural details and the soft, ing. On the same day he arrived at the University of ed photography’s rounded people inhabiting the scenes is tender and Wisconsin in 1943, he visited a local portrait photog- status to that of a thought-provoking. rapher named Frederica Cutcheon, whose work he fine art. Years of writing and thinking about photography had admired in the window of her downtown studio led Szarkowski to compare it to the act of pointing: on an earlier high school trip to Madison. He intro- “It must be true that some of us point to more inter- duced himself as a photographer looking for work, and esting facts, events, circumstances, and configura- Cutcheon hired him on the spot for 75 cents an hour. tions than others,” he wrote in the introduction to It was a handsome wage for a student in those The Work of Atget, published in conjunction with days, helping Szarkowski pay for his lunch at a series of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Rennebohm Drug Store, where he hung out with Art from 1981 to 1985. “The talented practitioner … buddies from the Pro Arte Quartet. Most important, would perform with a special grace, sense of timing, working as Cutcheon’s assistant (with open access narrative sweep, and wit, thus endowing the act not to her darkroom) gave him the chance to watch an merely with intelligence, but with that quality of accomplished commercial photographer who under- formal rigor that identifies a work of art.” stood lighting and composition and, he said, “knew Szarkowski, a married father of two, retired something about how a picture was put together.” from the museum in 1991. By then, he was ready to Szarkowski majored in art history because he return to living closer to the land. He spent time at thought looking at other people’s well-made photo- the farm he owned in upstate New York, where the graphs would be a good way to learn about making weathered barns and gentle hills could easily stand his own. But then, he said, he got “interested in not in for Wisconsin. He tended his antique apple trees only the fact that they were well made, but that they lovingly, and when he returned to UW–Madison in were about interesting ideas, and that they were part 2000 to teach a course on the history of photogra- of interesting traditions.” phy, he spent spare time helping his friend and fellow John Fabian Kienitz ’32, MS’33, PhD’38, one photographer Greg Conniff graft new branches onto of Szarkowski’s art history professors, gave him a an apple tree in Conniff’s backyard. He died in 2007. particularly important piece of instruction: go to the The tonally soft and spare photographs Union and buy a copy of Walker Evans’s American Szarkowski took in his later years — including a Photographs. The book mystified him at first, with series of graceful desert landscapes and portraits its unsentimental images of everyday America of his apple trees in all kinds of weather — project during the Great Depression. But as Szarkowski kept an air of calm confidence. They also encapsulate a looking at it in his boarding-house bedroom, “it kept truth that most skillful photographers, he said, learn getting better,” raising new questions and prospects eventually: “the world itself is an artist of incompa- for photography that he was eager to consider. rable inventiveness, and that to recognize its best As a student in Madison, Szarkowski also became works and moments, to anticipate them, to clarify enthralled with contemporary art. He helped orga- them and make them permanent requires intelli- nize gallery shows at the Union, including small trav- gence both acute and supple.” • eling exhibitions of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee that came to campus from the Museum Louisa Kamps is a freelance writer based in Madison.

46 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 John Szarkowski Screen Door, Hudson, Wisconsin, 1950

John Szarkowski Owatonna Bank, Banking Room, 1954–55

Garry Winogrand Diane Arbus, Love-In, Central Park, New York City, 1969

Henry Hamilton Bennett Canoeists in a Boat Cave, Wisconsin Dells, ca. 1890–95

On Wisconsin 47 Coming Out

in the Out of Doors BY MEGAN PROVOST ’20 PHOTOS BY NICOLE SCHMIEDL, THE NORTH FACE 48 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 WITH A UNIQUE ADVENTURE PROGRAM, ELYSE RYLANDER ’12 HELPS QUEER KIDS FIND A SAFE HAVEN IN NATURE.

When Elyse Rylander ’12 was a kid, being more out of doors than in ever since. “out” meant sunbaked skin, scratched Growing up on her parents’ 12 acres near Poynette, Wisconsin, Rylander spent her childhood knees, and wide-open waters. Today, that bound only by how far her family’s adventures and word means so much more. her own wanderings could take her. “There’s nothing straight about nature,” Rylander “We were definitely those kids that go outside says. Trees are crooked and gnarled. Rivers mean- after breakfast and don’t come home until dinner,” der. Hills rise and valleys fall. Nature embraces the she says. irregular, the uneven. Summers off with her mom, a teacher at the It makes a home, Rylander argues, for things that local high school, meant camping up north near her are queer — and people who are, too. grandparents in Mercer, while snowy white winters “Oftentimes it’s physically impossible to even sent her down the ski slopes of Cascade Mountain in walk in a straight line because you’re always having Portage. to maneuver around something,” Rylander says. “I “We’re very much of modest means,” Rylander think for a group of people that is culturally told, either says. “We were not a family that took vacations to implicitly or explicitly, that they’re not natural, to be Florida or Disneyland or anything, but we spent just able to go out into the natural world and see queerness a ton of time outside in more of a local sense. I joke all around you is probably one of the most empowering that I’ve been to every boat landing north of Wausau, experiences, especially for a young person.” because we would just go frog around for weeks on Out There Ad- Rylander has made a career and a life in nature. end in the summertime.” ventures seeks to What started as a space for childhood adventure and When she wasn’t blissfully lost in the wilder- empower partic- freedom to roam became a safe haven to explore and ness or out on open waters, Rylander’s childhood ipants and offer embody her queer identity. Now, Rylander offers this was set against the backdrop of down-home, every- them the feeling of resilience that experience to her “kiddos” — LGBTQ+ young people body-knows-everybody Wisconsin in which some- Rylander (above) searching for themselves through her organization, one’s mom was on every street corner, and Friday found at the UW. Out There Adventures. Rylander is out, and is help- night football was a town affair. It could be cozy, and ing give others that freedom, too, in a space where it could be intimidating. being out is the most natural thing in the world. This social setting grew more constricting as she came to terms with her own identity. From a young WILD CHILD age, she recognized that she was queer. “[As a kid] I remember having a really fat crush Rylander was born to be wild — literally. She was on Kimberly, the pink Power Ranger, and it mani- only four weeks old when she took her first canoe- fested for my parents as that I wanted to be [her]. ing trip down the Wisconsin River (in a homemade, I was like, no.” cedar-strip canoe, no less), and she has been living Her mother, Robyn, hasn’t forgotten.

On Wisconsin 49 “She had this weird obsession with the pink Power Ranger,” she says. “The white Power Ranger was a boy, and his name when he wasn’t a Power Ranger was Tommy; she went through a stage where we could only call her Tommy. We couldn’t call her Elyse.” However, a lack of conversation surrounding the topic of being queer kept Rylander in the closet throughout her years at Poynette High School. “It was just such a non-conversation that I didn’t even really think that [coming out] was an option,” she says. Not wanting to rock the canoe, Rylander adhered to the image of other teenagers in her school: she wore Abercrombie & Fitch; she shopped at Hollister; she maintained an image that was palatable to her small community. “I mean, forget being gay,” she says. “There was one out girl that I went to high school with, and it seemed to be absolutely terrible for her. It felt like it would have been social suicide to come out.” Still, Rylander says that both her family life and her time spent in nature were spaces of support and freedom of expression. “You’re on vacation and you’re in the middle of the woods. Nobody cares how you’re presenting yourself.” Activities like kayaking, camping, and foraging offered Elyse and her sister, Eliza, a sense of accom- plishment and an opportunity for confidence-building that, paired with her parents’ unwavering support, she considered unique. “It just felt really cool to be a young girl doing those things,” Rylander says. “There was more of a sense of confidence-building around our gender identity, [but] that was never explicitly articulated. That was just an ethos that my parents were able to live out.” RYLANDERS BLEED RED

Camping and canoeing aren’t the only traits that run in Rylander’s family: they hail from a long line of Badgers. Thanks to Poynette’s proximity to Madison, Rylander spent the early part of her life attending Badger basketball and football games with her dad, biking Picnic Point, and eating Babcock ice cream on sunny Terrace days. Attending the university was a natural next step for her after high school. However, when it came time to apply, she was terrified. “I got an early acceptance from [the University of] Minnesota, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a Golden Gopher! Please don’t make me go!’ ” she says. Her nerves didn’t settle until, finally, mail came from Madison. “I remember getting the big envelope that had the ‘yes’ on the back,” she says, “and I was like, ‘WAAAA!’ I was so ready to leave Poynette and to be [in Madison].” It wasn’t just long-held family tradition that drew

50 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Rylander (far Rylander to Madison. The city offered a refreshing left) and her anonymity. wife, Emily (far “Being able to kind of start over and reinvent right), lead an myself was something that I absolutely wanted and Out There Ad- ventures cohort needed, so it was not at all overwhelming to be one on a backpack- of 40,000,” she says. ing trip in the Despite relocating to the city, Rylander didn’t North Cascades stray from nature for long. She took a job as a kayak- in Washington ing instructor at Rutabaga Paddlesports in Monona, State. where she met Mo Kappes, an instructor and openly gay woman. Kappes would later join the UW campus as the director of Adventure Learning Programs, which Rylander was involved with as a student. “She was so calm and cool and just felt so self- assured. I was like, ‘This is what I want to be,’ ” Rylander says. “I had never really had much interaction as a burgeoning adult with queer folks that were like, ‘Yeah, it’s totally fine. Jump in, the water’s great.’ ” Although the UW offered a queer community, Rylander says she was never interested in spaces like the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center or groups like Gay-Straight Alliance. “I think my initial coming out was very much an assimilationist sort of view. I just wanted to fit in,” she says. “I remember walking around campus with Mo one time and having a conversation of, ‘I don’t know why all these queer folks have to be so fight the power and intense with it. Just chill out. Try to blend in.’ ” With Kappes’s guidance and her own growth, Rylander quickly shed this mind-set. “I look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that,’ ” Rylander says. “But I had so much internalized homophobia, and I was so afraid of being chastised or physically harmed.” Kappes also recalls Rylander feeling “not queer enough” for the UW gay community. “There’s no one way to be gay,” she says, “and you can’t be gay enough or not gay enough. You are who you are. … If [others] feel like you have to be a certain way to be gay enough, then that’s on them.” In the small and supportive environment of a first-year interest group, a freshman-only course titled The Psychology of South Park, Rylander openly identified for the first time as a queer woman. “I think there was definitely a part of me that was wanting to feel adventurous or take that sort of leap in that way,” she says. “But more so, I think it was … sort of a litmus test of how this [was] going to go.” After coming out to close friends throughout the school year, she decided it was time to tell her parents when she went home for the summer. In a conversation in the kitchen with her mom, she hinted that her “friend” from school was actually her girlfriend. “My mom had this tray of muffins, and she dropped one hip and she went, ‘Oh, honey, you really think we didn’t already know?’ And then just put the

On Wisconsin 51 52 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 muffins in the oven and proceeded with her day.” in a world that is truly inclusive,” she says. “That Robyn remembers the moment just as clearly as idea of resilience is really key in helping them to she does the fear she felt for her daughter’s safety. understand that having an underrepresented or a “[I was] so scared that she wouldn’t be able to be marginalized identity can be your key to success and who she is and live in her own skin because some- can be your power — your superpower.” body might harm her,” Robyn says. “I still worry Outside of adventure-oriented activities, OTA about it.” enacts what Rylander calls a queericulum, a model When Rylander told her father what apparently that “permeates every aspect of a course that keeps was not news to anyone in the family, his response queerness at the center.” Elements include chang- was a question: “Why did we spend all that money ing the gendered pronouns and names in stories told on prom dresses?” about natural processes in order to make these nar- “Lesbians can go to prom, too, Dad,” Eliza ratives more culturally relevant to LGBTQ+ folks, quipped. creating spaces to try out new names and pronouns, Rylander was now out: out of the closet, out of and allowing time to navigate male–female binary Poynette, and as often as possible, out in nature. bathrooms, which are not always welcoming to other gender identities. THIS ONE’S FOR THE KIDDOS “What Elyse offers is this academic or philosoph- ical knowledge base about queer theory [beyond] just Rylander graduated with a degree in communication [her] lived experience,” Kappes says. “That’s why I arts and gender and women’s studies and a certifi- think OTA is unique.” cate in LGBTQ+ studies. While friends and family According to Kappes, Rylander is a model for fos- alike were skeptical of the value of a women’s studies tering empathetic and inclusive spaces. “That takes degree, Rylander has found it to be essential to her intentionality and understanding and knowledge,” professional goals. Kappes says. “She can bring that.” “I can’t talk enough about how much my time at For Rylander, that process starts with the same Madison created so many different opportunities and self-reflection she practices with her kiddos. “You opened doors and thoughts,” she says. have to unpack your own stuff as it relates to every- It was in a capstone course for her LGBTQ+ stud- thing and [get] a good handle on who you are and ies certificate that Rylander began to formulate her your blind spots and your biases, because we all current endeavor: Out There Adventures (OTA). have them,” she says. “If you come to the table with “A lot of folks were self-selecting out of tradi- a better sense of self and truly wanting to be an tional outdoor-ed programs for fear of being ostra- accomplice in the work, then when you do make a cized,” she says. “Knowing what a profound impact mistake, as we all will, people are far more inclined that time outside had for me, especially when I was to support you through that process.” coming to terms with my queer identity, [I wanted] Despite the rich experience that Rylander has to be able to help other kiddos have that access as cultivated for OTA participants, she says her own well.” fear of coming out would have prevented her from Rylander moved to Seattle to tap into the out- taking part in such a program had it existed during door community of the Pacific Northwest. She her own formative years. launched her nonprofit in 2014, with a mission to “I think knowing that the opportunity existed create a space in which LGBTQ+ youth can explore probably would have been a benefit. But I don’t think and inhabit their own identities. OTA’s first cohort I would have been able to experience the benefits of of two “kiddos” and two instructors set out in June actually participating,” she says. “She’s maybe the 2015 for paddling in the San Juan Islands. That’s why Rylander presents nature as a space most fun person “I worry sometimes people may feel it’s infan- in which nothing is straight, and in which queerness that I’ve ever tilizing,” Rylander says of her term for the young flourishes organically — as it does in the kiddos for co-instructed with,” Ryland- people she works with, “but for me it’s a term of whom she offers a way “out.” er says of wife endearment. … Kiddos does imply an age difference, And it doesn’t hurt that nature — with all its Emily (far left). but one that comes with the responsibility of wanting twists, trials, and triumphs — brings out strength. “She’s the person to care for them as I would my own.” “There is something that is so profoundly empow- you want to have According to Rylander, the emotional and com- ering,” Rylander says, “when you can go, yeah, I’ve when group munity-building aspects that render OTA unique dealt with some stuff, and I have always come out morale is low because she can among outdoor-adventure organizations grow on the other side. So perhaps I feel as though I won’t turn it around organically from the youth who take part in its make it up this next thousand-foot gain, but I’ve done real quick.” programming. other really difficult things, so why can’t I be suc- “Really, it’s about helping them to foster a sense cessful in this moment?” • of resiliency and self-confidence to advocate for themselves out there. That’s what everyone with a Megan Provost, a former On Wisconsin intern, is now marginal identity has to do, because we don’t yet live happy to be contributing as a staff member.

On Wisconsin 53 OnAlumniAlumni News at Home and Abroad

2020 Distinguished For more than eight decades, the Wisconsin Alumni Association has singled out some of the UW’s most accomplished graduates ALUMNI AWARDS for recognition. This year’s group of honorees have bettered the Three to accept top honors world in the areas of human rights, military service, and business. BRYCE RICHTER that human beings only find in times of impending destruction. Against all odds, we invented a new policy — restoration.” Deer returned to UW–Madison in 1977 as a lecturer in the American Indian Studies Program and the School of Social Work, and in 1992, she became the first American Indian woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin. The following year, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first woman to serve as Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. One of her most important works in this role was applying her powers to federally recognize Ada Deer greeted 226 Native villages in Alaska, as well as helping to set students at a Native November policy for more than 550 federally recognized tribes. celebration at the From 2000 to 2007, Deer directed UW–Madison’s UW’s Multicultur- American Indian Studies Program. In 2010, she was al Student Center recognized by the National Association of Social in 2018. Workers as a Social Work Pioneer for her work as an advocate and organizer on behalf of American Ada Deer ’57 Indians. Deer credits her mother, also a fierce advo- Ada Deer grew up on Wisconsin’s Menominee cate for American Indians, for her confidence and Indian Reservation in a log cabin with no running dedication to social justice for all people. “I speak up. water or electricity. She attended UW–Madison on a I speak out,” she says. “I want to do, and I want to be, tribal scholarship, becoming the first member of the and I want to help. And I’ve been able to do it.” Menominee tribe to earn a UW–Madison degree. It was the first of many firsts. Next up: she became the Gary Ebben ’82 first American Indian to earn a master’s degree from Gary Ebben was inspired to go into military aviation Columbia University’s School of Social Work. by his older brother, Dale Ebben ’64, who was an Air Deer worked relentlessly on behalf of the Menom- Force fighter pilot. inee in their struggle to restore their land and sover- Gary retired in 2019 as an assistant adjutant eignty. In the 1950s, the federal government initiated general for air of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. a national termination policy that Deer describes as After earning his UW bachelor’s degree in electrical a “cultural, legal, and economic disaster” for affected and computer engineering, Ebben pursued Air Force tribes. pilot training. As a command pilot, he has logged The Menominee tribe was the first to resist the more than 3,000 flying hours, including 64 combat policy and worked to achieve a historic reversal missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. that set a legal precedent, which was later used by Ebben enlisted in the Wisconsin Air National other tribes. The work of their grassroots organiza- Guard in 1981 while attending UW–Madison. He tion, DRUMS (Determination of Rights and Unity of rose through the ranks to become vice commander Menominee Shareholders), resulted in the passage of the 115th Fighter Wing, a unit based in Madison of the Menominee Restoration Act in 1973. Deer that serves in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 9/11, Ebben was then elected as the first woman to chair the oversaw the unit’s rapid conversion to readiness for tribe in Wisconsin. She said later, “At Menominee, active-duty service. He then became commander of we collectively discovered the kind of determination Wisconsin’s Volk Field Combat Readiness Training

54 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AFFAIRS COURTESY OF KIMBERLY-CLARK

Center near Camp Douglas. At the time of his retire- Gary Ebben (left) ter’s degree in management, and he steadily worked ment, Ebben’s role entailed leading nearly 10,000 and Tom Falk are his way up the ladder, serving as chair of the board and airmen and soldiers, as well as the entire Wisconsin among this year’s CEO for 16 years before retiring at the end of 2019. Department of Military Affairs, which also includes Distinguished During Falk’s 36-year career, Kimberly-Clark’s Wisconsin Emergency Management. Alumni Award total shareholder return outperformed the S&P 500, Reflecting on his career, Ebben has been struck honorees. Due to and he was instrumental in transforming the com- the pandemic, all by the fact that “we have so many tremendous young three nominees pany into a global leader in consumer products. Over men and women in this country — extraordinary will accept their the years, Falk has garnered numerous accolades for individuals who are willing to serve their country and awards sometime his business acumen. Forbes magazine has described commit to a purpose bigger than themselves. I have in 2021. him as an “operations wiz,” and Barron’s said he was been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity “a master of efficiency” who ended each day with an to wear the uniform and serve alongside them.” empty in-box. Ebben has received 21 awards for his service, Falk was a key player in the company’s acquisi- including the military’s Distinguished Service Medal, tion of Scott Paper, and also in the turnaround of the National Guard Association Distinguished Service European operations, achieving major efficiencies. Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service He was the chief architect of Kimberly-Clark’s global Medal, the Air Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal. organizational structure and Go to Market initiatives, He has been involved with the UW’s ROTC pro- which saved more than $200 million in two years by gram, providing shadowing and mentoring oppor- reducing costs in the supply chain. Falk also led sus- tunities. He is active with the Wisconsin National tainability initiatives and increased gender diversity Guard Challenge Academy for high school at-risk during his time at Kimberly-Clark. An avid reader, he youth, and he helped create the Wisconsin Guard’s made a habit of preparing an annual booklist so that STARBASE program for fifth-grade science, technol- his team could get to know him better. ogy, engineering, and math. Ebben is also an active Falk has served on the board of visitors for the supporter of the Badger Honor Flight, a program that UW’s business school and has chaired the board gives veterans the opportunity to see memorials that for the UW Foundation. Falk and his wife, Karen have been erected in their honor. Falk ’80, have been generous with UW–Madison, One of his former supervisors, the late Major supporting endowed faculty chairs and scholarships General Al Wilkening, said that Ebben’s strengths in both the Wisconsin School of Business and the combine an engineering mind with exceptional School of Education, from which Karen graduated. human-relations skills. “I’ve supervised hundreds Falk serves on the boards of Lockheed Martin and of officers in my 40-year career,” he said, “and I’d the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as a national put Gary in the top 1 percent.” governor of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He chaired the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’s Thomas J. Falk ’80 2013–14 fundraising campaign, and he and Karen Tom Falk grew up in the Milwaukee area as the chaired the 2019–20 campaign. They also made a gen- oldest of nine children. After earning his UW erous gift to the organization’s Coronavirus Response accounting degree, he began his career with what is and Recovery Fund. now Grant Thornton, and in 1983, he joined Kimber- Falk says that the motto he has lived by is “Never ly-Clark, known for brands such as Kleenex, Huggies, stop learning. Never stop being curious about the Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, and Depend. world around us and the people who live in it. They The company sent him to Stanford to earn a mas- will teach you something new every day.”

On Wisconsin 55 Tradition Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota BRIAN HUYNH

Once upon a time, the Lady of the Now inflatable, erance,” her tombstone declared. dalized beyond repair the follow- Lake wasn’t universally beloved. the statue has Mallon prophesied that Lady ing year during assembly. In February 1979, legendary overcome acts Liberty, like the mythical phoe- Forty years after her first pranksters Leon Varjian x’83 of both man and nix, would rise from the ashes. appearance on Lake Mendota, the and James Mallon ’79 and the nature to become And so she has, overcoming acts Statue of Liberty rose yet again — a uniquely Pail & Shovel Party made good UW–Madison of both man and nature to become this time in inflatable form. On on a campaign promise: bringing tradition. a uniquely UW–Madison tradition. February 1, 2019, thousands of the Statue of Liberty to Madison. In 1980, the Pail & Shovel spectators flocked to the lakefront Built to look semi-submerged, Party re-created the statue with to take pictures of Lady Liberty Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota fiberglass-coated Styrofoam. The 3.0. The Wisconsin Union worked was a replica, with papier-mâché, statue was moved to storage at in secret for months to pull off the chicken wire, and plywood substi- a professor’s barn in Barneveld, stunt, collaborating with Land- tuted for shiny copper. Wisconsin, where the pieces mark Creations in Minneapolis. While the prank delighted remained for years and fell into “What started as a prank back supporters of student govern- disrepair, expedited by a 1984 in the ’70s [is now] an excellent ment’s parody party, the frivo- tornado. Desperate to pay off example of what the Wisconsin lous cost of construction — some their debts, Varjian and Mallon Union and Hoofers are all about, $4,000 — offended others. sold the statue to a local attorney which is finding outlets for stu- Among them was a Milwaukee for $3,200. dents to do really extraordinary state senator who introduced Rising restoration costs fore- things, particularly for their legislation to curb student expen- stalled several attempts to liberate fellow students,” says Mills ditures. (It failed.) A political sci- the statue over the next decade. Botham ’19, who helped to bring ence class demanded a refund for The Wisconsin Hoofers finally Lady Liberty back to life as a stu- their share of the cost. “Varjian revived it for the 1996 Winter dent and is now head of instruc- dutifully wrote out sixty ten-cent Carnival, after which Dane County tion for the Hoofer Sailing Club. checks,” the UW’s alumni maga- acquired it for display at local The new Lady of the Lake is zine reported. events. cost-effective, weather-resistant, Ten days later, vandals torched Hoofers reacquired the statue and quick to assemble, and the the statue. Varjian and Mallon from the county for just $1 and Winter Carnival plans to display held a funeral service on the ice, restored it for the 2009 Winter it for years to come. At long last, complete with “Taps” and a 21-gun Carnival. It was the Styrofoam the tradition is here to stay. salute. “She Died for Lack of Tol- version’s last stand, as it was van- PRESTON SCHMITT ’14

56 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 OnAlumni Class Notes

40s–60s nication as an academic field, BOOK NEWS? Gardens, and he has authored Keith Brown ’46 graduated is the Elizabeth Ware Packard See page 64. Rose Growing Simplified and from the UW with a degree in Professor of Communication at coauthored Rose Gardening. mechanical engineering after the University of Pennsylvania, CLASS NOTES In June, John Knoebel completing the U.S. Navy’s the Walter and Leonore Annen- SUBMISSIONS ’69, a pioneer member of the uwalumni.com/ supplementary program to berg Director of the Annenberg go/alumninotes • New York Gay Liberation Front, Annapolis. Born in Chicago Public Policy Center, and the Class Notes, was a presenter of LGBTQ+ and raised in Wheaton, Illinois, program director of the Annen- Wisconsin Alumni history in this year’s 24-hour Brown married the late Jean berg Retreat at Sunnylands. Association, worldwide Global Pride webcast Van Ouwerkerk Brown ’47 The Kelben Foundation, 1848 University — a 50th anniversary cele- shortly after finishing school. established by Mary Tucker Avenue, Madison, bration of the first Gay Pride He worked for Shell Oil and Kellner ’68 and Ted Kellner WI 53726 March, in which he partici- Kohler Company before spend- ’69, contributed to the initial pated. Last year, Knoebel was ing 20 years with Exxon- $500,000 for the grant program named a grand marshal of the Mobil in its commercial sales Rebuild and Revitalize. The NYC Pride March on the 50th department. He was eventually program was launched by the anniversary of the Stonewall promoted to sales at its head- Metropolitan Milwaukee Asso- riots. Also an author, Knoebel quarters prior to his retirement ciation of Commerce (MMAC), had a 33-year career as a vice at age 59. He and Jean moved to and its funds were vetted and president of marketing and as Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, distributed by the MMAC’s president at the Advocate and where they became actively Community Support Foundation Out magazines. More recently, involved in the community, in tandem with Milwaukee’s Knoebel cofounded the web- including Keith’s term as the Department of City Develop- site OUTspoken-LGBTQ.org, president of the property own- ment. The grant aimed to help capturing the oral histories of ers’ association. small and local businesses pioneers from the early years of A Bucky pat on the back recover in a time of pandemic LGBTQ+ activism in the U.S. goes to each of the following and protests. “We need to get Badger graduates who were those businesses back on their 70s inducted into the UW Athletic feet and those employees back Ernst Berndt MS’71, Hall of Fame this year: the late to work for those businesses,” PhD’72, the emeritus Louis Richard Bartman x’57 of Ted told the Milwaukee Journal E. Seley Professor in Applied boxing; Jeffrey Braun ’79 Sentinel in June. Economics at the Massachu- of men’s track and field;Tom setts Institute of Technology, Burke x’98 of football; John “My commitment to the arts and has been selected for the 2020 Byce ’90, MBA’01 of base- Julius Shiskin Memorial Award ball; Aaron Gibson x’99 of to supporting the work of artists for Economic Statistics. It hon- football; philanthropist Ted was cultivated under the excel- ors his leadership as well as his Kellner ’69; Carla MacLeod economic research on the mea- ’06 of women’s hockey; Jessie lent mentorship of a few key peo- surement of multifactor pro- Stomski Seim ’02 of women’s ple at the UW. I am so grateful!” ductivity and quality-adjusted basketball; price change. Berndt is the 48th Mike Wilkinson Sharon Maidenberg ’99 ’04 of men’s basketball; and recipient of the award, which Jackie Zoch Major ’76 of is sponsored by the Business women’s rowing. The induction Rose breeder William and Statistics Section of the recognizes their exemplary ath- Radler ’68 of Greenfield, American Statistical Associa- letic achievements and contri- Wisconsin, has earned the 2020 tion, the National Association butions to the university. Award of Excellence from the for Business Economics, and the Earlier this year, Kath- National Garden Clubs, a vol- Washington Statistical Society. leen Hall Jamieson MA’68, unteer gardening organization. After 16 years, Michael PhD’72 received the National Radler, who was nominated May ’75, JD’79 has retired Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) by the Wisconsin Garden Club from his position as attorney Public Welfare Medal and was Federation, is the creator of the for the City of Madison. First elected to the academy. The Knock Out® Family of Roses appointed by Mayor Dave medal is NAS’s most presti- that sell throughout the nation, Cieslewicz in 2004, May also gious award, with past recip- as well as in Canada, Europe, served under mayors Paul ients including Neil deGrasse Australia, and Japan. He previ- Soglin and Satya Rhodes- Tyson and Bill and Melinda ously worked with Milwaukee Conway. His tenure makes him Gates. Jamieson, a leader in the County Parks and served as the second-longest-serving city development of science commu- director of Boerner Botanical attorney in Madison’s history.

On Wisconsin 57 Recognition Blake Sorensen COURTESY OF BLAKE SORENSEN He continues to be a member of the board of visitors for UW Law School and a member of the board of directors for the Senior Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Through the Valhalla Charitable Foundation, H. Signe Ostby ’75, MBA’77 and her husband, Scott Cook, of Woodside, California, donated $500,000 to support the state’s remote-learning efforts and help bridge the digital divide. The donation was in response to a call to action from Gover- REVOLUTIONIZING THE SNACK BAR nor Gavin Newsom for com- Before he was a star athlete, Blake Sorensen ’11 was the “allergy kid.” munity leaders, businesses, When he was growing up, his nut allergy meant that his mom had to and government to help ensure prepare special lunches for him and his siblings. In college, it meant all students in California have that the UW football team’s chef had to modify the usual offerings for access to tools needed for dis- him and his 120 teammates. tance learning. “It’s just the little things,” Sorensen says. “Anytime you go out to eat, Rod Bertolet PhD’77 has or order a pizza, or you’re on a plane and someone’s eating nuts around retired as professor emeri- you, you always have to be conscious.” tus from Purdue University’s The nut allergy also kept him from eating snack and energy bars, Department of Philosophy, which typically contain allergens. So, while pursuing his MBA at Indiana where he started after earning University, he tackled the problem on his own. his UW degree. In addition After months of trial and error with a food processor, Sorensen to his teaching and published developed a nut-free, seed-packed recipe and raised $20,000 in one works in philosophy of lan- day on the Kickstarter website. In 2018, he officially launched Blake’s guage, philosophy of mind, Seed Based snack-bar company. Four flavors of bars are now available metaphysics, and epistemology, in more than 1,000 retail stores, including Walmart and Woodman’s, and Bertolet served as department are purchased in bulk by several college and professional football teams head from 1992 to 2008. (including the UW). A Badger high-five goes to “I always have a box around the house — the problem is that every- Khershed Cooper MS’77, one keeps eating them!” reads one Amazon review. “Those who buy PhD’82, who was one of seven special food for allergies understand how rare it is for a friend/family members of SME — a nonprofit member to want to eat your special snacks.” association of professionals, Eleven percent of adults and 8 percent of children have food aller- educators, and students who gies, according to the Food Allergy Research and Education organi- support the manufacturing zation, and the condition can be deadly. When he was three years old, industry — selected to its 2020 Sorensen’s throat swelled shut after a meal, prompting an emergency College of Fellows. The rec- room visit. ognition is attained only after Knowing the stakes, Sorensen partnered with one of the only achieving more than 20 years of facilities in the country that could guarantee no trace of the eight most significant career contributions common food allergens. “They actually pat you down for nuts when you in manufacturing. Cooper is a go in,” he says. program director for advanced Sorensen’s work ethic and goal-oriented mind-set on the football manufacturing in the Civil, field have translated to the business suite. A versatile linebacker and Mechanical, and Manufactur- consumer affairs major, Sorensen led the Badgers in tackles his senior ing Innovation Division of the season and earned Academic All–Big Ten honors three times. Even Engineering Directorate at the as the pandemic threatens the company’s expansion to new stores, National Science Foundation. Sorensen believes its mission will soon make it competition for snack- bar giants. 80s “We’re solving a real need,” Sorensen says. “A lot of times we hear Duke University professor from parents or kids, but we just got an email from a 22-year-old who’d James Dobbins III MS’83, never had a snack bar. And now he can.” PhD’85 is the president-elect PRESTON SCHMITT ’14 of the American Association

58 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 OnAlumni Class Notes of Physicists in Medicine and experience to his new position. partnerships at Old Dominion will serve as president in 2021. He also serves on the boards of University in Norfolk, Virginia, He was the founding director directors at Hexcel and FARO. has received nearly $1 million of Duke University’s medical Joe Weiland ’86 is the to lead a three-year effort to physics graduate program and managing partner of Arlington accelerate a project for the recently completed a five-year Financial Advisers in Santa Bar- Commonwealth of Virginia. The term as associate vice provost bara, California. He embarked project, which includes building of the university, during which on his financial-adviser career an offshore wind farm, aims to he oversaw the academic and 30 years ago, and he has spent help the region find solutions to programmatic factors of its that time advising both individ- some of its climate challenges. joint-venture university in uals and businesses. In addition Kunshan, China. to balancing his client responsi- 90s The Sewing Machine bilities, Weiland develops best Liz Kramer Lefkofsky ’91 Project, founded by Margaret practices for managing the firm’s and her husband, Eric Lefkof- Jankowski ’83 and based client relationships. An avid sky (cofounder of Groupon), in Monona, Wisconsin, cele- surfer and hiker, he is past pres- together founded VING Project, brated its 15th anniversary in ident and a current member of a national movement to inspire 2020. In that time, the project the board of the Santa Barbara COVID-19 the next generation of givers. has delivered more than 3,000 Club, is on the board of trust- Due to cir- For the sixth consecutive year, sewing machines to people in ees of the Land Trust for Santa cumstances it gave hundreds of teenagers need across the globe. It also Barbara County, and is an active surrounding the $1,000 each to pass along to a offers free mending and classes member and past president of COVID-19 pan- coworker, friend, or any kind demic, we recog- to local groups. the Sunrise Rotary Club. nize that some person in need outside of their The archivist of the United Stacy Swadish Kosmatka of this alumni families. It required recipients States has honored Steven ’87 is the executive director of news may have to submit a video, nominating Ourada ’83, MA’86, MA’88 Historic Milwaukee, Inc., which changed since it someone 18 or older who was for his 25 years of service she has headed since 2013. The was submitted to in need of financial assistance. and leadership at the Federal nonprofit, which promotes the us. We apologize “Amidst the COVID-19 pan- Records Centers Program and city’s history and architecture, if we have not demic, we realized how this the National Archives and earned its fourth consecutive been able to program had the potential to Records Administration. He grant from the National Endow- capture the most help people now more than recent events. currently serves as the division ment for the Arts to help fund ever,” Liz told CNN in June. director of the Federal Records the 10th annual Doors Open, a In May, Adam Ganser ’93 Centers’ operations in the east- citywide exploration of build- became the executive direc- ern half of the U.S. ings, sites, and neighborhoods. tor for New Yorkers for Parks Congratulations, Anne Sav- Kosmatka has been in the non- (NY4P), a nonprofit advocate for age ’83, PhD’90, who earned profit industry for 25 years and, parks and open space in the city. the 2019 Conservationist of the prior to that, worked for news- He previously served as the vice Year Award, one of the John papers in Iowa and Wisconsin. president of planning and design Muir Conservation Awards She served as the Daily Cardi- for the High Line public park, given by the John Muir Asso- nal’s editor-in-chief in 1985. which was built over a historic ciation. It recognized Savage’s Since publishing her 2017 elevated rail line in Manhattan. work creating programs that New York Times bestseller, “There has never been a more combine conservation and edu- Democracy in Chains: The Deep critical time for parks and open cation to protect the cotton-top History of the Radical Right’s spaces in New York City and tamarin. Savage is the former Stealth Plan for America, beyond,” Ganser said. “Cur- conservation director for Walt Nancy MacLean PhD’89 has rent circumstances magnify Disney Parks and Resorts. given more than 170 keynotes our need to push and think Jeffrey Graves MS’85, or talks on the book. The creatively to care for existing PhD’87 has taken the reins work has earned three awards parks, and to develop more open as president and CEO of 3D and much acclaim, including spaces for all New Yorkers.” Systems in Rock Hill, South positive reviews from the Oscar Suarez MS’93, Carolina. The additive-man- Atlantic, the New York Times PhD’00, a professor at the ufacturing company creates Book Review, and Publishers University of Puerto Rico– solutions for the aerospace, Weekly. MacLean is a professor Mayagüez, earned the Minerals, automotive, medical, and dental of history at Duke University in Metals, and Materials Society’s industries. Graves, previously Durham, North Carolina. 2020 Ellen Swallow Richards CEO at MTS Systems for eight Paul Olsen ’89, the execu- Diversity Award. The accolade, years, brings 17 years of CEO tive director for programs and which was presented during

On Wisconsin 59 OnAlumni Class Notes the society’s annual meeting in rary Austin art museum. She access in Arizona. February, recognized Suarez’s previously lived in California UW civil engineering gradu- work in engaging Hispanic stu- for 20 years and spent 13 of ate Anthony Heddlesten ’07 dents in materials science and them working at and leading has been named chief of the civil engineering. the Headlands Center for the and environmental engineering Brenda Velasco Mizenko Arts. She has been involved in section of the U.S. Army Corps ’96 has been selected for the the nonprofit arts sector since of Engineers in Rock Island, 2020–21 South Dakota Math graduating from the UW. “My Illinois. He’ll serve as techni- and Science Leadership Cohort, commitment to the arts and to cal manager of levee rehabil- sponsored by the South Dakota supporting the work of artists itation for a five-state region. Department of Education. Miz- was cultivated under the excel- Heddlesten is also on the city enko — who has a background in lent mentorship of a few key council in Riverdale, Iowa. elementary science and cur- people at the UW,” she writes. Contemporary circus artist rently teaches fourth grade in “I am so grateful!” Sarah Muehlbauer ’08 of Rapid City, South Dakota — will Madison was one of five global collaborate with fellow teach- 00s recipients of a COVID-19 Micro- ers across the state to establish DEATH NOTICES • Dwayne Maddox MBA’03 grant for Early Career Circus more STEM opportunities, NAME, ADDRESS, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, has Artists, for which she created examine different research- TELEPHONE, AND taken the helm as marketing an original performance that based practices, and explore EMAIL UPDATES director at National Guardian honored Mental Health Aware- opportunities in K–12 STEM alumnichanges@ Life Insurance Company. He ness Month in May. The grant uwalumni.com • education. Alumni Changes, joins the company with nearly was created by Lynsey Wyatt, Anand Kamannavar WFAA, 1848 15 years of insurance experi- owner of Cirqulation Aerial Arts MS’98 of Santa Clara, Cali- University Avenue, ence, 11 of them as the advertis- & Acrobatics in Virginia, and fornia, has been appointed the Madison, WI ing director at American Family Muehlbauer’s performance was global head of Applied Ventures, 53726 • 888-947- Insurance and three years at shared as part of a compilation where he oversees its global 2586 Allstate. Maddox is a member film. Muehlbauer has worked venture investment portfolio of of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane as an aerialist, choreographer, more than 80 companies across OBITUARIES County’s board of directors and and collaborative producer since 15 countries. Applied Ventures Brief death notic- is the development chair for the 2012, and her latest collabo- es for Wisconsin collaborates with and invests in Alumni Associa- Sun Prairie Boys & Girls Club. ration was funded by a grant startups to help make their ideas tion (WAA) mem- He also serves as a member of from the Leeway Foundation in a reality. Kamannavar has more bers and friends the Community Development Philadelphia. In 2008, she was than 20 years of experience appear in Badger Authority for Sun Prairie. the winner of the VSA national in new business development, Insider, WAA’s Interactive e-commerce emerging young artist award for technology, and venture capi- magazine for its company Pinduoduo, Inc., based artists with disabilities. tal. He also serves as a board members. You in Shanghai, has named Lei Fellow Badgers Caryn member or observer for Exo also may submit Chen MS’04, PhD’07 its CEO, Murphy PhD’08 and Randall full-length obit- Imaging, Ultivue, Solid Energy, uaries (with one replacing former CEO Colin Davidson ’81, MBA’89 are and Ontera. photo each) for (Zheng) Huang MS’04, who members of the radio, televi- Professor and interim dean online posting at will remain as the company’s sion, and film department at of Georgia State University’s uwalumni.com/ chair of the board. Chen is one UW–Oshkosh, and they were (GSU) Byrdine F. Lewis College go/alumninotes. of the company’s founding mem- also both recently honored of Nursing and Health Profes- bers and was previously its chief with the UW System Board of sions Huanbiao Mo PhD’98 technology officer. Regents’ Teaching Excellence has been appointed as the col- Melanie Holub Isaacs ’04 Award. Murphy is a professor of lege’s permanent dean. During of Phoenix got the idea to create film and television history and his time in the interim role, Mo nonprofit Pal Experiences when criticism, and she also serves as formed a partnerships commit- she was working as a marine interim director of the uni- tee and created a research coun- biologist at Shedd Aquarium versity’s women’s and gender cil. He has a joint appointment in Chicago and saw a young studies program. Davidson, a as professor in GSU’s Depart- guest with autism struggling to senior lecturer, specializes in ment of Chemistry, and he pre- enjoy the museum. Today, Pal broadcasting and journalism, viously chaired the university’s Experiences promotes access to and he advises the campus’s Department of Nutrition. public venues for those affected award-winning radio station. Sharon Maidenberg ’99 by disabilities. Issacs’s work has “Much like the inspira- has relocated to Austin, Texas, received recognition from the tion behind Ted Time Co., life to serve as executive director mayor’s office and has become doesn’t always go according to and CEO of the Contempo- a pertinent part of disability plan,” Mike (Michelangelo)

60 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Recognition Lisa Skriloff COURTESY OF LISA SKRILOFF Giancarlo ’09 and Lee Maier MULTICULTURAL ’11 write about the recent MAVERICK launch of their Chicago-based No one could ever fashion-accessory company. accuse Lisa Skriloff ’77 Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, of being timid. In May the Badgers — who met while 1994, she walked away attending the UW — decided to from a coveted position raise money for masks for health as director of marketing care workers in Chicago and Mil- at the New York Times waukee. One of the hospitals to — and instantly took a receive masks, Children’s Wis- $100,000 drop in salary consin in Milwaukee, is where — to launch her business, Maier’s late brother, Aaron, had Multicultural Marketing been treated for cancer. Aaron Resources, Inc. (MMR). passed away at the age of 28 Over the past 26 after a second battle with cancer. years, Skriloff has built “Our brand is inspired by my MMR into an authoritative brother’s approach to life,” Maier source of multicultural writes. Ted Time Co.’s name and diversity experts for refers to the teddy bear Aaron marketers, agencies, had been given during his first journalists, research fight with cancer. firms, and brands. Through publications like 10s her flagship newsletter, Yale University’s Department Multicultural Marketing of Psychology has bestowed its News, and her online 2020 Jane Olejarczyk Award on Source Book of Multicultural Experts, Skriloff has made it easier for Lucylle (Alexandra) Hansen firms to reach African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ Armentano ’12. The accolade consumers. MMR also maintains a directory of speakers from different recognizes a psychology gradu- backgrounds and an online career center with job postings that can be ate student who has contributed accessed for free. most significantly to the quality Skriloff’s interest in different cultures and her embrace of new of student life within the depart- experiences started at an early age. As the daughter of an engineer and ment. Armentano served as purchasing director who was regularly transferred around the world, chair of Yale’s Graduate Student Skriloff lived in New York, California, England, and Germany. When she Assembly, which represents received an invitation to apply to UW–Madison, her first thought was, “I more than 2,500 students. never lived in the Midwest. This could be interesting.” Toward the end of her tenure, Away from her family, Skriloff felt free and comfortable in Madison she led its COVID-19 response to explore and become more self-reliant. When her wanderlust kicked in and helped secure a one-year after graduation, she landed in Madrid, Spain. For two years, she taught funding extension for current English, wrote for an English-language magazine for expats, and trav- graduate students affected by eled extensively. “I did really like working for myself,” Skriloff says. the pandemic, among other Even after she returned to the United States and worked at the accomplishments. Times, she thought like an entrepreneur, proposing new multicultural STAT, a Boston-based media sections, before leaving to found MMR. company focused on telling Skriloff’s clients are fiercely loyal. “Her efforts greatly contributed stories about health, medicine, to our brand becoming the first, top-of-mind agency for any client or and scientific discovery, named organization looking for information about or services within the Asian Ryan Denu ’12, PhD’18, American market,” says Saul Gitlin, a former executive at Kang & Lee MD’20 as one of its 2019 STAT Advertising. Wunderkinds. The honor seeks Skriloff’s education degree helped her grow her business when she out science and medicine’s saw the need for teaching marketers about the benefits of reaching out “unheralded heroes” who are to underserved communities, but learning was a two-way street. When about to launch their careers. prospective clients asked about a service or product she did not yet Denu, who has studied how have, she learned to come up with it quickly — a skill and attitude this a specific gene mutation can world traveler understands. interfere with development and “I’ve always been a little too optimistic, but it’s worked out well also predispose people to cancer, because I see things as: this will be good; this will be fun,” she says. is now an internal medicine res- ROBERT LEROSE

On Wisconsin 61 Contribution Leading by Example FOCAL FLAME PHOTOGRAPHY ident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Bryce Hensley ’13, an attorney for Romanucci & Blan- din, was named to the Crain’s Chicago Business “20 in Their 20s” list. Hensley represents victims of toxic exposures, civil-rights violations, sexual harassment, injuries from vap- ing, wrongful death, and more. He worked on last year’s Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia. Romanucci & Blandin was cofounded by Antonio Roma- nucci ’82. Although Isaac Scott ’14, who studies ceramics at Temple TIMELY BOOST FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS University, never considered Since former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl ’56 made a $10 million gift to the himself a photographer, his pho- La Follette School of Public Affairs in 2019 for the Kohl Initiative, the tos were featured in the June 22, school has undergone the largest expansion in its 37-year history. 2020, issue of the New Yorker. Kohl is perhaps best known for his $25 million lead gift to fund the Kohl The images captured early Center, as well as his support for education throughout Wisconsin. But his days of protests in Philadelphia latest gift is particularly timely. “Senator Kohl’s generous and inspirational following the death of George gift could not have come at a better time,” said La Follette School director Floyd. In a June interview with Susan Webb Yackee. “Thoughtful and evidence-based policy-making is Madison Magazine, Scott — more important than ever in Wisconsin and across the country.” who was raised in Madison To meet students’ burgeoning interest in public policy, the school — said, “I decided it was such a has added 11 faculty members, nearly doubling its roster. They will historic moment I should go to expand opportunities for students and the broader community to learn as many protests as I could and about timely issues such as health policy, as well as the benefits of document them.” racial diversity for social relations and civic participation. Other areas of Ice-cream lovers will be envi- expertise among the new faculty include climate policy, state and local ous of Maya Warren PhD’15’s finance, international trade, water policy, child health policy, and public position as senior director for management. international research and devel- The Kohl Initiative also provides wide-ranging resources for the school’s opment for Cold Stone Cream- new undergraduate certificate in public policy program, which has tripled ery. Among her duties, the food from an initial cohort of 50 students to more than 150 for fall 2020. scientist creates new ice-cream Kohl-funded research at the school has focused on topics such flavors for Cold Stone locations as out-of-pocket health care costs, minimum wages and immigrants’ around the world. “I look at a health, social genomics, state agency leadership and policy-making, local ingredient and say, ‘I see and the impact of financial aid on post-education economic outcomes. people in this country eating a In addition, the Kohl Initiative allowed the school to convene nearly lot of blank. Why don’t we turn 350 policymakers, practitioners, community leaders, and researchers that into ice cream? How would for its inaugural La Follette Forum in early 2020. The forum focused on people feel about that?’ ” she told critical health policy topics and innovative solutions for improving the Mental Floss during National health of Wisconsin residents. Ice Cream Month in July. She Kohl, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks who represented Wis- credited UW food-engineering consin in the Senate for 24 years, has long demonstrated a deep com- professor Richard Hartel for mitment to public service and an ethos of civility in public debate and taking her under his wing while policy-making. A founding member of the La Follette School’s board of she was earning her doctorate. visitors, he believes the school is critically important for solving many of Warren also won the Amazing the country’s most difficult issues. When the gift was announced, Kohl Race in 2014 and hosts “Ice said, “Our democracy is being threatened by bitter partisanship, and the Cream Sundays with Dr. Maya” La Follette School is poised to lead by example — fostering cooperation, on Instagram. respectful discourse, and service to others. The school’s commitment to be a convener of thoughtful debate and evidence-based research Class Notes/Diversions editor Stephanie provides a critical path for moving our country forward.” Haws ’15 was here.

62 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 A WISCONSIN EXPERIENCE

ALL ITS OWN

APPAREL | ACCESSORIES | GIFTS | GEAR

UWALUMNISTORE.COM Diversions

Following his first where to live and how volume on early gay aging affects both inti- history in Wisconsin, mate and familial rela- R. Richard Wagner tionships — through MA’67, PhD’71 of primary research with Madison has released more than 200 individ- Coming Out, Mov- uals over the age of 65. ing Forward: Wis- consin’s Recent Gay Turtle Boy, a debut History, which details middle-grade novel by challenges faced by M. Evan Wolken- LGBTQ+ Wisconsin- stein ’97 of Novato, ites in the post-Stone- California, explores wall period from 1969 friendship, self-im- to 2000. The book also age, and grief, while features forewords by also emphasizing two of the first openly the importance of gay U.S. legislators, taking chances. A STORY OF SERVICE both from Wisconsin: Seventh-grader Will JONATHAN GLANCY In his new book, Once a U.S. Representative Levine, who is bul- Warrior: How One Veteran Steve Gunderson lied at school, learns Found a New Mission Closer to ’73 and U.S. Senator through his bar Home, former marine sniper Tammy Baldwin mitzvah community- Jake Wood ’05 of Redondo JD’89. service project that life Beach, California, revisits is “too short to live in a his return from Iraq and In Wisconsin Changed shell.” Wolkenstein is Afghanistan in 2009 and the My Life!, Oscar Her- a high school teacher subsequent creation of Team rera MS’81, the first and writer whose work Rubicon, a nonprofit that deploys military veterans Hispanic cabinet mem- has appeared in Tablet to respond to disaster areas around the world (see ber in the state, out- magazine and the “A New Mission,” Fall 2015 issue of On Wisconsin). lines his journey from Washington Post. In addition to helping communities affected by childhood and early catastrophe — sending out veterans who use their adulthood in Mexico In Iphigenia Murphy, military training to solve problems quickly and City to his career in author Sara Hosey calmly — Team Rubicon offers veterans a renewed Wisconsin politics MA’98, PhD’07 of sense of purpose. As cofounder and CEO of Team and government. This Sea Cliff, New York, Rubicon, Wood gives readers a look into the roots memoir shares the illustrates the jour- of the organization, which now — 10 years since its Madison resident’s ney of Iffy (Iphigenia) beginning — has more than 100,000 volunteers. triumphs and setbacks, Murphy, who runs “It’s part memoir in that it’s the story of the last providing motivation away from home and 15 years of my life, but it’s really intended to be to readers looking to strives to find her bigger than that. It’s a story about service,” Wood live with passion and long-lost mother. Set said in an interview with NationSwell in April. ambition. in Queens in 1992, Wood, who was an offensive lineman for Badger the young-adult novel football during his time on campus, earned the Ellyn Lem ’86, an follows Murphy as she 2018 Pat Tillman Award for Service, which he English professor meets friends who, like received during the ESPYs (Excellence in Sports at the University of her, seek a place where Performance Yearly Award) that year. Tillman, a for- Wisconsin–Milwau- they feel at home. As mer NFL player who enlisted in the army after 9/11 kee at Waukesha, has she carries out the and died in Afghanistan, has been an inspiration to authored Gray Mat- remarkable journey Wood. In his acceptance speech for the 2018 award, ters: Finding Meaning to find her mother, Wood said, “Know your neighbor, love your neighbor, in the Stories of Later Murphy must also con- help your neighbor. Doing that is the best tribute Life. The book exam- front problems that — that we can pay to the memory of Pat Tillman, and ines issues relevant despite running away it’s the best thing for our country right now.” to seniors — such as — she can’t escape.

64 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Submit your book news at uwalumni.com/go/bookshelf and visit goodreads.com/wisalumni to find more works by Badger alumni and faculty.

How to Walk on Water the natural world and and Other Stories is from science as he cap- Rachel Swearingen tures the complexities ’02’s debut collection. of the digital realm. Released in October, The collection was it won a New Ameri- selected for the 2019 can Fiction Prize and Ballard Spahr Prize was recently named a for Poetry. “must-read title” by the Chicago Tribune. The Steven Wright Chicago-based author MFA’14, a clinical takes readers from the associate professor Windy City to Seat- at UW Law School, tle and Venice with a has released his debut multitude of charac- novel, The Coyotes of ters — an investment Carthage. The political banker, an au pair, and thriller follows Dre a down-on-his-luck son Ross as he is sent to — who willingly open South Carolina with INTO ADULTHOOD their doors to trouble. dark money to lead MELANIE DUNEA In May, Emma Straub MFA’08 “This crafty collection a ballot initiative on — New York Times bestselling is worth a look,” Pub- behalf of a mining com- author of Modern Lovers and lishers Weekly wrote. pany. “The plot of this The Vacationers — released novel about politics is All Adults Here: A Novel, also At the age of 27, Sara the lives we’re living a New York Times bestseller. Anderson ’04 of now,” said a Washing- The book opens with a pivotal Westby, Wisconsin, ton Post book review in moment for the protagonist, nearly lost her life to April. Wright, a former Astrid Strick, as she wit- a stroke. In Stroke: trial attorney in the nesses a school-bus accident that kills a longtime Overcoming My Worst U.S. Department of acquaintance. Strick, a 68-year-old widow and Nightmare, Anderson Justice, is the codirec- mother, is left feeling shaken, and the incident sur- recounts the day she tor of the Wisconsin faces a repressed memory from her early parenting came home from the Innocence Project. days that causes her to confront her mistakes. gym and ended up The novel was Jenna Bush Hager’s May pick going to the hospital, Trans rights activist for her Read with Jenna book club on the Today and she shares the Alina Boyden MA’15, Show. “[The book is] bright and colorful, and you journey to recovery PhDx’21 of Madison can escape into it,” she said during the broadcast, that has followed. has authored her first “but it still — even though it’s witty and funny — it Wanting urgently to novel, Stealing Thun- still explores really great themes, like family and raise awareness of der. Although the identity and forgiveness.” strokes among young fantasy’s protagonist, The New York Times echoed that sentiment people, Anderson Razia Khan, was raised in May, saying, “ ‘Literary sunshine’ is a good way typed her 244-page to be the Crown Prince to think of Straub’s work. Her writing and tone book with her one of Nizam, she was are consistently bright and straightforward; her working hand rather born with the soul of a approach to character is warm and generous. … All than waiting until typ- woman. Under a new Adults Here touches on fraught topics like coming ing became easier. name, Khan runs away out, gender identity, marital infidelity, abortion, to escape her father’s and predatory behavior, all while maintaining a Gatekeeper, a debut hatred, and she finds feel-good mood that suggests most things will poetry collection by a sisterhood and a life work out in the end.” Patrick Johnson ’12, purpose — one that Straub also owns Books Are Magic, an indepen- MPASx’21, takes a eventually brings her dent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, with her hus- close look at the web. face-to-face with her band, Michael Fusco-Straub (see “A Store Grows in Johnson, of Madison, father and a chance to Brooklyn,” Spring 2018 issue of On Wisconsin). She pulls inspiration from reclaim what she’s lost. studied creative writing while at the UW.

On Wisconsin 65 Destination Frank Lloyd Wright Homes MARK HERTZBERG JAMES STEAKLEY / CC BY-SA COREY COYLE / CC ALI EMINOV / CC

Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House Wisconsin’s most Eugene A. Gilmore House 441 Toepfer Street (top photo) famed architect, 120 Ely Place (center) This 1936 building is Wright’s answer to a challenge Frank Lloyd Wright created this home, dubbed “the Airplane from Herbert Jacobs to design a “decent” home for Wright x1890, House” due to its winged structure, in 1908 for a $5,000. At just $500 over budget, the result was the never finished UW law professor. From atop a hill in University his UW degree first of Wright’s “Usonian” structures: affordable and — but he had Heights, it overlooks Madison and Lake Mendota. quintessentially American homes that would later a long history inspire ranch-style houses. with Madison. Walter and Mary Ellen Rudin House He designed a 110 Marinette Trail (above) Robert M. Lamp House number of homes An outlier in Wright’s body of work, this 1959 22 N. Butler Street (above) in the city. creation for UW mathematicians Walter and Mary Built in 1904 for Madison city treasurer and Wright’s Ellen Rudin features a basement and sits unhar- childhood friend “Robie” Lamp, this early example moniously with its natural environment — a taboo of Wright’s work once boasted stellar views of both in Wrightian architecture — rendering it more Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. difficult to warm in the Wisconsin winters.

66 On Wisconsin WINTER 2020 Don’t Just Go Long. Go Further.

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