Lakeside Village | Climate Symposium | Leadership UMiami MIAMITHE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI MAGAZINE | SPRING 2020 ON THE FRONT LINES The University responds to the COVID-19 pandemic with swift action to care for patients, advance research, sustain learning, and safeguard the health and well-being of our community and the communities we serve. Volume 26 Number 1 | Spring 2020 Help Our Contents Students Rise Above the COVID-19 has disrupted our lives in unimaginable ways. Many students and their families are now facing new and increased financial hardships at Challenge. a time when our world is in even greater need of the next generation of bold leaders, innovative A gift to scholarships opens doors thinkers, and creative problem-solvers. and changes lives. The University of Miami has made it a top 30 priority to remove financial obstacles to 18 24 Summit admission and thus maximize every student’s An Academic Lakeside Addresses 34 38 A Miller School Student Leaders access to the full range of educational Community Village the Climate Elevates Living Emergency Clinic Helps Explore Nation’s possibilities the University offers. Responds to COVID-19 and Learning A three-day symposium Its Patients Capital merged science, discussion, The Leadership UMiami Faced with the coronavirus Modern and eco-friendly, to THRIVE and inquiry to address program inspires civic- pandemic, University-wide the new student housing The one-stop shop We’re calling on you to open doors to dynamic extreme weather and the minded undergrads to teamwork made changes complex is a place to provides medical care and changing atmosphere . hone critical thinking occur quickly to safeguard call home and deepen psychiatric and behavioral experiences that change lives and, in turn, allow skills and evoke students, faculty, staff, connections to the health services for human positive changes . our graduates to change the world by applying and patients . community . trafficking victims . their education in transformative ways. miami.edu/magazine University Editor DEPARTMENTS MIAMI Carol Reynolds-Srot The University of Miami Magazine on the cover Director of Editorial Services Michael R . Malone Lakeside Village | Climate Symposium | Leadership UMiami University Journal . 2 Consider making a gift to University President Julio Frenk Art Director R+D Update . 9 Senior Vice President for Public Affairs Tina Talavera of Miami scholarships today at MIAMITHE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI MAGAZINE | SPRING 2020 and Communications Assistant Director, Communications Eye on Athletics . 12 and Chief of Staff to the President Angie Villanueva, A .B . ’12, M .B .A . ’18 bit.ly/um-student-relief Rudy Fernandez, M .B .A . ’10 Contributors Faculty Files . 15 Senior Vice President for Sandra Alvarez-Ferrer, B G. .S . ’19 Development and Alumni Relations Maya Bell Student Spotlight . 17 Joshua M . Friedman Nastasia Boulos Financial limitations should not be an obstacle Vice President for Christy Cabrera Chirinos Alumni Digest . 42 University Communications Barbara Gutierrez to a University of Miami education. Jacqueline R . Menendez, A .B . ’83 Katy Hennig Class Notes . 50 Robert C . Jones Jr . Associate Vice President, TJ Lievonen ON THE FRONT LINES In Memoriam . Communications Michael Montero, B G. .S . ’18 53 The University responds to the COVID-19 pandemic with swift action to care for patients, advance research, Matthew McDonald Kelly Montoya, M .A . ’16 sustain learning, and safeguard the health and well-being of our community and the communities we serve. Alumni Leaders . 55 Assistant Vice President, Christine Morris Amanda M . Perez Communications and Public Relations WE HONOR THE DOCTORS, Big Picture . 56 Peter E . Howard Sabrina Pizziol Robin Shear NURSES, RESEARCHERS, AND Executive Director, Communications Janette Neuwahl Tannen LEADERS WHO ARE ON THE Meredith Camel, M .F .A . ’12 Ashley A . Williams FRONT LINES OF THE BATTLE AGAINST COVID-19. Miami is published by the University of Miami Office of University Communications . Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited . Distributed free of charge to alumni and friends of the University . Postmaster and others, please send change of address notification to Miami, Office of Alumni Relations, P O. Box 248053, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-1514; [email protected] 1-866-UMALUMS (862-5867) telephone 305-284-2872 . Contributions of articles, photographs, and artwork are welcome; however, Miami accepts no responsibility for unsolicited items . annualgiving.miami.edu 305-284-9200 The comments and opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Miami or the staff of Miami . Copyright ©2020, University of Miami . An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer . miami.edu/magazine Spring 2020 MIAMI 1 Annual Giving Ad - Miami SPR 2020-v2.indd 1 5/14/20 5:43 PM UniversityJournal News, People, Culture, and Research from Campus and Beyond Students Help Fuel Recovery, Resiliency in the Bahamas University group provides hope and inspiration to struggling business owners in Freeport—and gleans lasting personal insights For Jakisha Blackmon, CHAMP isn’t Isabel Sutnick looks over the a job, it’s a calling. “I love what I destruction at the University of do,” she says. “I connect high-risk Bahamas—North. A year after people with resources right where Hurricane Dorian, piles of they live.” debris remain. Below, Hasan Alzalzalah, left, speaks with Winston Pinnock, owner of JBI, a canned goods importer. “We met with some fantastic owners who did everything they could to prepare and everything they could to mitigate the M.B.A. students Chris Williams, Osaro Qualis, left, and Yash Batti damage, but this really showed me how right, and Philip Winn share ideas inspect damage at their client’s precarious business can be.” —Chris Williams with Alex Thompson, left, at her fisheries warehouse. retail shop in downtown Freeport. In conversations, professional consultants question their cli- Eighteen students—second-year M .B .A .s joined by peers “One thing that we can do to help is to really listen to firm before joining the University as an associate professor, ents to know their “pain points”—a specific problem area that from the School of Law and College of Arts and Sciences— them,” she adds . “They need to feel that they have that teaches the action project class . Over the course of the the customer is experiencing to provide the best assistance . traveled as part of the semester-long action project class support in order to be more resilient for the future ”. weekend, he noted marked changes in the students’ approach For the cohort of University of Miami students who spent offered by the Miami Herbert Business School . They met The collaboration with the University of the Bahamas to the project . a February weekend in Grand Bahama as part of the Bahamas with owners of four businesses representative of the island launched more than a year ago . After Dorian hit, it gained “They went from thinking ‘this is an interesting project’ Consultancy Project, those pain points were visually evident . nation’s principle industries—retail, fisheries, communica- immediacy and shifted to helping local businesses recover to ‘this is something where we can really make a difference Toppled radio towers . Mangled machinery . Tens of thou- tions, and canning—to develop training and reports to foster through student consultancy . Patricia Abril, vice dean of in peoples’ lives and make the Bahamian economy more sands of dollars of merchandise lost . Empty warehouses . resiliency against future disasters . graduate business programs at the Miami Herbert Business resilient,’” Niemeyer notes . Damaged structures . All evidence of the destruction caused School, traveled with the students and outlined how the On the plane ride home, M .B .A . student Natalia Aldana by Hurricane Dorian, which pummeled the islands of Grand “We’re doing something with a project supports the University’s mission . Velásquez reflected on her experience . Bahama and Great Abaco for days last September . “One of the roles of the University of Miami and of our “We’re doing something with a community truly in need,” community truly in need.”—Aldana Velasquez “We met with some fantastic owners who did everything business school is to solve complex problems in society and says Aldana Velasquez . “In class, we don’t get real inter- they could to prepare and everything they could to mitigate “We met with two brilliant women who are really strug- also to be a good citizen, leader, and teacher in the hemi- action like this . Here the problem is unsolved, and you have the damage, but this really showed me how precarious gling to get their retail businesses back up,” says Gaby Gallou, sphere,” she says . “We see this as a project that is stepping to explore to get as much information as you can from the business can be,” says Chris Williams, an M .B .A . student an M .B .A . student . “They’re motivated, working hard, and in the direction of doing that ”. client . That leads to a relationship—and then you have a who made the trip . willing to do whatever they can to get back on their feet ”. Alex Niemeyer, who worked with a global management responsibility to that person ”. —Michael R. Malone 2 MIAMI Spring 2020 miami.edu/magazine miami.edu/magazine Spring 2020 MIAMI 3 UniversityJournal Strengthening Mathematical Bonds The U Shines on Super Sunday New institute will harness knowledge throughout the hemisphere Super Bowl LIV is a win for the University Dedicated to fostering new collabora- mission aligns closely with the tions in mathematics across the Roadmap to Our New Century, the hemisphere, the University of Miami University’s strategic plan for tack- has launched the Institute of the ling world challenges by building new With Miami tapped as host city for Mathematical Sciences of the Americas bridges across geographic, cultural, and Super Bowl LIV, the University opti- (IMSA), with funding from one of the intellectual borders, particularly in the mized the opportunity to showcase the foremost private supporters of math- STEM—science, technology, engineer- talent and expertise of students, faculty ematics and basic sciences .