Campus and research Students dive in for a THESE ALUMNI AREN’T news, faculty and alumni semester at the coast JUST TREADING WATER interviews and more FALLSUM EASTTHE ECU MAGAZINE 20202019 WE TALK WITH ALUMNI AND SCIENTISTS ABOUT EARTH’S ESSENTIAL LIQUID Ensign Mason Cobb ’17, a graduate of the College of Nursing, served aboard the USNS Comfort in New York City in support of the coronavirus pandemic. CONTENTS He’s stationed at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia. During April, the ship treated non-COVID-19 patients in order to assist the New York hospital system. On the cover: Life needs water — for nourishment, for health, for fun. This issue of East features alumni and faculty members who work with water every day. EAST IN EVERY ISSUE View from Spilman ............4 ECU Report ..................6 Discovery ...................16 Faculty Focus ................18 Pirate Nation ............... 40 Students Kaleigh Bell, left, and Lauren Wright collect data along the beach to the waterline to produce a Pirate Spirit ................. 42 2-D beach profile at Nags Head. Read more beginning on page 32. Horizons ................... 44 More coverage including links to videos and more photos is at east.ecu.edu 24 Making Waves From recreation to regulation, read what these alumni are doing with water. on the cover 20 Seeking clean water 38 Student snapshot 40 Labor to love ECU’s Jamie DeWitt is a The ECU Bass Fishing Club Two ECU nursing graduates national leader in PFAS is angling to put the Pirates are giving a natural alternative research. on top in fishing. to a hospital delivery room. East Carolina University is a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina. It is a public doctoral/research-intensive university offering baccalaureate, master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees in the liberal arts, sciences and professional fields, including medicine. Dedicated to the achievement of excellence, responsible stewardship of the public trust and academic freedom, ECU values the contributions of a diverse community, supports shared governance and guarantees equality of opportunity. ©2020 by East Carolina University 2 East magazine summer 2020 ecu.edu/east East magazine 3 Classes might have been moved online, but that didn’t stop senior Haley Creef from coming back to campus Pirate Strong in March to pose in her cap and gown with a few landmarks. And even though it was virtual, ECU still held What a year it’s been for our university. its annual spring commencement May 8. The university conferred approximately 3,860 undergraduate and You already know I derive a great deal of Pirate pride from the 1,200 graduate and doctoral degrees for the class of success of our students and the work we do in our region. And 2020. Included in those numbers were 72 medical while I may be outcome-oriented, today my latest source of pride graduates of the Brody School of Medicine and 52 graduates of the School of Dental Medicine. is the level of effort I see this institution making under the most trying of circumstances — fighting the spread of the coronavirus. Our faculty and staff are teaching and working online. Our alumni have modified their businesses to produce protective gear. Our health care professionals are caring for the sick. And our scientists are answering the questions that could lead to a treatment and vaccine. History will look back with astonishment at what we have done over the past weeks and will do in the months ahead. And I’m sure we’ll learn new ways to work, learn and serve that will pay long-term dividends. We are undeterred in our drive to succeed in academics, research and service. Campus is quiet, but don’t let that fool you. ECU is working as hard as any university in the country to get through this pandemic. We Pirates are a gritty bunch that just won’t quit. Best wishes View from for your health and safety, keep in touch, and keep wearing your purple with pride! “Look, I know there is no substitute for a commencement Ron Mitchelson, Ph.D. Spilman celebration in person on our beautiful campus,” Interim Chancellor Interim Chancellor Ron Mitchelson said in a video message recorded in Wright Auditorium. “We recognize this ceremony is just another example of how COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect our lives. Despite these unusual and challenging times, this is still one of the most important moments in your lives, it is still an important moment in the life of this university, and it is still a great day to be a Pirate!” 4 East magazine summer 2020 ecu.edu/east East magazine 5 In This Issue ECU Report Students undertake wastewater capstone project Students give back during alternative spring break ‘Mini brains’ and autism research Gusty winds blew across the “Usually by the end, they say, ‘I’ve enjoyed Making Pitt Fit Community Garden being outside,’” she said. “It’s therapeutic because off County Home Road south we spend so much time staring at screens.” of Greenville in March as ECU Students also worked with children at the ECU hosts students Tasha Spencer and Garrett Boys and Girls Club and Police Athletic League. Hope prepped planting beds for This is Spencer’s first time participating in first ‘HurriCon’ growing season. alternative spring break. “Since it’s my senior Spencer and Hope were among year, I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to help the community,” she said. From sea level rise to shoreline impacts to more than 75 ECU students who In addition to the Greenville staycation, community resilience and more, researchers signed up for alternative spring students worked in Atlantic Beach with and presenters from across the country break experiences to make the N.C. Coastal Federation; Asheville – as well as Puerto Rico – descended a difference at home and in and Atlanta with the LGBTQ community; on Greenville in February for ECU’s first communities across three states. Kindergartners from nearby Columbia, South Carolina, with youth in the “HurriCon.” Tasha Spencer works at the Making Pitt Fit Community Garden. Wintergreen Elementary School juvenile justice system; Raleigh, to explore The research conference, “2020 HurriCon: then planted sugar snap peas and citizenship; Washington with women leading Science at the Intersection of Hurricanes and transplanted strawberries, kale, collards and kohlrabi in the raised beds as change; Washington, D.C., to address youth the Populated Coast,” was Feb. 27-28 at the part of the county’s children’s gardening program, and coordinator Joni empowerment and urban development; and Main Campus Student Center. Torres appreciated the helping hands. Wilmington, on homelessness and hunger. “Hurricanes are an important aspect of life ECU students contribute 200-300 volunteer hours each year in Honors College students went to Asheville to in eastern North Carolina,” said Jamie Kruse, Approximately 25 conference attendees took a bus trip the garden. “In terms of physical labor, they are young, strong and participate in cleanups and maintenance with director of the Center for Natural Hazards Research at Feb. 28 to Windsor and Princeville, two towns that have energetic,” said Torres, who leads the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service RiverLink, a nonprofit environmental group. ECU. And not just eastern North Carolina, she noted. sustained significant flood damage due to hurricanes. community garden program in Pitt County. – Crystal Baity Presenters talked about the impacts and recovery efforts of hurricanes Harvey and Maria, which struck Houston “Category 1 (hurricanes are) what North and Puerto Rico, respectively, in addition to North Carolinians are experiencing, but there’s Carolina’s most recent storms, Florence and Matthew. a disconnect to what they think they are Students developing app for better health literacy The researchers and presenters came from multiple vulnerable to,” Gittman said. She surmised Taking prescription medicine is not always language. It then identifies disciplines, including biology, geography, geology, people accept repairing damage and worry easy. It can be especially troublesome for those the drug and gathers engineering, medicine, humanities and more. more about their homes being destroyed. who don’t speak English. information from the Approximately 200 people attended the conference, “People are OK with spending a fair Maria Alexandra Ortiz, a junior software web about specific drug according to organizers. The National Science amount of cash to create their armored engineering student at ECU, has seen it with interactions or substances Foundation supported the event with $100,000 through shoreline. It could mean experiencing her Spanish-speaking parents. that can be harmful if taken a competitive process, Kruse added. damage does not mean that person feels “My father was taking a prescription that with that prescription. Some attendees also took a bus trip to Princeville and vulnerable.” interfered with his blood pressure,” Ortiz said. Nguyen and Ortiz Windsor to see firsthand what hurricanes and related Reide Corbett, dean and professor “My mom didn’t know and my father didn’t competed against 96 other flooding have done to rural communities. of Integrated Coastal Programs and know until I came and checked, and it was projects from students Maria Alexandra Ortiz and Tiffany Nguyen Among the presenters from ECU was Rachel Gittman, the Department of Coastal Studies and actually the prescription that was raising his throughout the country at an assistant professor of biology who specializes in executive director of the Coastal Studies blood pressure with his other medication.” the event. restoration ecology, marine community ecology, Institute in Wanchese, discussed the Her solution is RxTranslate, a mobile “We weren’t expecting anything out of it,” Ortiz coastal management and policy, and conservation potential impacts of sea level rise on North application Ortiz and ECU senior computer said.