university of denver magazine summer 2012

U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A G A Z I N E

U N I V E R S I T Y O F

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Summer 2012

Adventures Abroad

2 University of Denver Magazine Summer 2012

The University of Denver will

host the first Presidential Debate

of 2012 on Wednesday, Oct. 3,

in Magness Arena.

debate2012.du.edu

PRESIDENTIAL

UNIVERSITY OF

DENVER

H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H

Join the DU community in celebrating this historic event. Make a gift to the DU Debate Fund. Your participation, not the size of your gift, is what matters most.

Donate at debate2012.du.edu/give

Join us as we get the conversation starteD

Donate now

Learn more about the debate at

Be PArT Of DU hisTOry

University of Denver Magazine Update 3

debate2012.du.eduJoin us as we get the conversation starteD

ContentsFeatures

28 A New Adventure Carol Lee Moore enters the world of children’s literature

with Taming the Dragon. By Tamara Chapman

30 Global Perspectives Study-abroad students capture their experiences in photos. By Amber D’Angelo Na

36 The Stories Behind the Scars Sociologists Peter and Patricia Adler take an unprecedented

look at the world of self-injury. By Lisa Marshall

40 Debate Worthy The Sturm College of Law helps Denver high schoolers see

both sides of the story. By Pat Rooney

Departments

4 Editor’s Note

5 Feedback

7 DU Update 8 News Condoleezza Rice visit 14 Arts Lawrence Argent’s big red rabbit 17 History Archivist Steve Fisher 20 Sports Basketball season 23 People Jazz singer Donna Wickham 25 Q&A Penrose Library Dean Nancy Allen 27 Academics Living Learning Communities

45 Alumni Connections

On the cover and this page: A DU contest lets students share theirstudy-abroad photos; read the story on page 30. Cover photo by Erin Greenberg; photo this page by Summer Borowski.

Be PArT Of DU hisTOry


I never studied abroad. As an undergraduate at Colorado State University in the early 1990s, I wasn’t even aware I had the option. It was nothing like DU, where most freshmen arrive on campus with the expectation that they eventually will study abroad through DU’s Cherrington Global Scholars program, which sends students to another country for advanced study at the same price they would pay for a quarter on campus. Looking at the photos that recent study-abroad students took on their travels—some of which are

featured in the “Global Perspectives” feature that begins on page 30—makes me wish I had taken the same opportunity.

In April, I had the chance to interview alumni couple Michael (BSBA ’08) and Amy (BS ’09, MBA ’09) Chamberlain-Torres, who in November took the plunge they’d been talking about for years. They quit their jobs, put all their possessions in storage and set off to travel around the world. They told me they both had grown up dreaming of travel, but that their study-abroad experiences at DU really lit the fire.

“My grandmother was a travel agent, and I remember seeing photographs and trinkets and journals that she had from all her travels when I was growing up, and it always inspired me to go see the world,” Michael said. “Studying abroad in Chile really made me think that it’s doable—that I can go out there and explore and the world’s not going to be a scary place but more of an amazing place.”

As I sit in my office, where I can look out the window and watch Penrose Library’s transformation from ’70s artifact to state-of-the-art Academic Commons, where I can see students whacking tennis balls with golf clubs in what’s become a favorite springtime sport, and where I can sense the growing excitement about the presidential debate the University will host in October, the DU campus itself seems like a pretty amazing place to me. That students get to add an international experience on top of all that is just more evidence that the University of Denver is dedicated to producing graduates who are globally aware and ready to change the world.

You can read my Q&A with Michael and Amy at www.du.edu/chamborres.

Greg Glasgow

Managing Editor

w w w. d u . e d u / m a g a z i n e

Volume 12, Number 4

PublisherKevin A. Carroll

Managing EditorGreg Glasgow

Senior EditorTamara Chapman

Editorial AssistantAmber D’Angelo Na (BA ’06, MPS ’12)

Art DirectorCraig Korn, VeggieGraphics

PhotographerWayne Armstrong

ContributorsJanalee Card Chmel (MLS ’97) • Chuck Corwin •

Justin Edmonds (BSBA ’08) • Jack Etkin • Valerie Finholm • Lisa Marshall • Doug McInnis •

Doug McPherson • Pat Rooney • Skye Savage • Chase Squires (MPS ’10)

Editorial BoardKevin A. Carroll, vice chancellor/chief marketing

officer • Thomas Douglis (BA ’86) • Jeffrey Howard, executive director of alumni

relations • Sarah Satterwhite, senior director of advancement communications •

Amber Scott (MA ’02) • Laura Stevens (BA ’69), director of parent relations

The University of Denver Magazine (USPS 022-177) is published quarterly—fall, winter, spring and summer—by the University of Denver, Division of Marketing and Communications, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. The University of Denver (Colorado Seminary) is an Equal Opportunity Institution. Periodicals postage paid at Denver, CO. Postmaster: Send address changes to University of Denver Magazine, University of Denver, University Advancement, 2190 E. Asbury Ave., Denver, CO 80208-4816.



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Editor’s Note

Jeffr

ey H

aess

ler

Printed on 10% PCW recycled paper

http://www.du.edu/chamborres

FeedbackMaynard makes the coverI just received the spring 2012 issue of DU maga-zine, and there, on the cover, was Maynard Tischler, looking not that much different than he did 41 years ago. When I was a student at DU, I had an art requirement to fulfill for graduation. Remembering having thrown a small pot in a ninth-grade arts and crafts class many years earlier, I thought I should take the class in pottery. Maynard, who was willing to bend many a rule, said it was OK to go right into the wheel class, bypassing hand building with clay. From the moment I sat down at the old Soldner kick wheels in the Army barracks studio, I was hooked— apparently for life, or at least so far.

The article [“Zen and the Teaching of Art”] hit Maynard’s style of teaching, if one wanted to call it that, right on the head. He gave some demonstrations early on and then pretty much left us to our

own fledgling abilities, if they existed at all. He said, “Come see me if you have questions.” Well, I did—a lot of them, for that matter—and one day I said, “Maynard, I want to pick your brain.”

At that point, my questions were refined and his answers to them very forthcoming. While I had many more questions over the years for which I had to approach other people for the answers, both Maynard and I still remember that day when we talked in his office. He was clearly a big influence in the direction of my life.

I have been making my living as a potter full time since leaving Denver in 1973. I’ve been back to see Maynard a number of times over the years and have watched as DU has changed dramatically. It is certainly not the school I attended way back when, but then everything else has changed as well.

University of Denver Magazine Feedback 5

My biggest influences and mentors from my days at DU include my geology professor, Bill Calkin, and, of course, Maynard as well. When I add the DU Alpine Club and my memories of Woodstock West into the mix, my memories and influences are complete. It was a great time in my life, and it started me down the road I have followed ever since.

A song keeps coming into my mind whenever I look at the cover and see Maynard on it: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s “Cover of the Rolling Stone”:

“Wanna see my picture on the coverWanna buy five copies for my motherWanna see my smilin’ faceon the cover of the Rolling Stone”

That’s certainly not Maynard’s style, but hey, Maynard, you made it!!! Great article for a fine man.

Peter Jones (BA ’71)Mountain Street Pottery

Camden, Maine



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Spring 2012

Zen and the Art of Maynard

Royalty identifiedThanks to Jan Eckhardt (BA ’58, MS

’63), Dick Hewitt (BA ’61, MA ’64), Norma Jean Grow (BA ’57), Joan (Palmer) Ragsdale (BSBA ’60) and Steve Meuris (BSBA ’60) for contacting the University of Denver Magazine to identify the alumni who appeared in the photo on page 43 of the spring issue. Based on information on the back of the photograph, we erroneously reported that the photo depicted the May Days royalty crowning. It in fact depicts the 1957 Homecoming royalty-crowning event.

The Homecoming royalty court members depicted in the photo are, from left to right, Homecoming Queen Barbara Jean (Davis) Grimm (BA ’58), Marlys (Nelson) Moodie (BS ’58), Meuris and Ragsdale.


What do you mean, endless?I take exception to the chancellor’s mes-sage [Spring 2012] in part saying “we’ve moved from a seemingly endless string of debates among contenders for the Republican nomination.” Would he have used the same language describing the Democrats four years ago, or has DU gone from a conservative Methodist cam-pus to an ultra-liberal one?

James Ramsey III (BA ’59)Cathedral City, Calif.

What are DU’s priorities?Three cheers for Don Burgess of Fort Worth, Texas. He said in the winter issue [feedback] what needed to be said for a long time. I am afraid that the University of Denver seeks ways to spend money, rather than serve the community. A good example is the hosting of the presidential debate. For a few hours of publicity, DU

must raise $1.65 million. That’s equivalent to about 30 full-ride scholarships.

Which is the University’s priority: a few hours of fame, or helping underprivileged people get a college education? And who had the harebrained idea that Colorado needs another medical school? CU’s med school is not full to capacity, and how much would tuition increase to fund a DU med school? Perhaps our Board of Trustees and administration should serve a term in Congress, where they spend money they think grows on trees.

Peter Homburger (BS ’50, MBA ’56)Wheat Ridge, Colo.

Just say no I was an art student at DU back in the days of Vance Kirkland. Herewith, my sin-cerest compliments to those at DU who are responsible for creating the lawsuit in federal court against Christo’s Over the

River project. I hope the BLM is aware of the ever-increasing resistance to the proj-ect.

Let’s face it! The proposed curtains over the Arkansas River amount to landscape graffiti!

Christo has been undertaking similar projects for the last 50 years, and he is way out of date. The world has drastically changed.

Let’s all say “No!” to Christo.Robert Hench (BFA ’48)

Pueblo, Colo.

Send letters to the editor to: Greg Glasgow, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. Or e-mail [email protected]. Include your full name and mailing address with all submissions. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

Accelerate your dream.

Office of Gift Planning 303.871.2739 or 800.448.3238 E-mail: [email protected]

Cynthia took advantage of DU’s matching gift program and had her bequest provision in her will matched. With her impact doubled, she was able to create two endowed scholarships for music and theatre students. Her scholarships were set up immedi-ately with DU’s matching dollars and her bequest will add to her scholarships later.

“I have the benefit of seeing the impact on my recipients during my lifetime and know that it will continue for generations to come through my estate gift,” says Cynthia.

Here are some creative ways to start your legacy with a DU match:• Make a gift to DU that provides you or a loved one with income for life through a gift annuity or charitable trust• A gift that benefits DU now and allows you to pass more to your heirs later• A simple bequest in your will or living trust• A gift of an unneeded life insurance policy• A gift of real estate or stock

If you’d like to see your generosity continue for generations, we can help you look at the best options for you and your family.

“I wouldn’t have been able to attend DU without financial assistance. Because of this, I wanted to give back to students who are like I was, talented but unable to afford tuition at a top notch university.” –Cynthia Shaw Simonoff, BM ’77, Actress/Pianist

For more about DU’s matching programs go to:

and click on the “Double Your Impact” link.

Why Wait ?

mailto:[email protected]


9 Tuition increase 10 George Casey 13 Albright visit16 Marijuana panel 22 Advice for parents

Bob Mesko, director of development in the Office of University Advancement, was one of 11 dancers chosen to perform with AXIS Dance Company April 28 at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. AXIS has a core group of five dancers—some of whom perform in wheelchairs—and chooses another 10 to 11 dancers from the community for each performance. Mesko, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2009, is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

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Reflecting on memories ranging from her days as a “wayward and lost music

major” at the University of Denver to the dark days after 9/11, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice enthralled a crowd at her alma mater April 2 in conversation with her former employee, Ambassador Christopher Hill.

Rice (BA political science ’74, PhD inter-national studies ’81) is now an author and full-time professor at Stanford University. She returned to DU to teach a class at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and to sit on stage at the Cable Center for a public talk with Hill, who once worked in her State Department and is now dean of the Korbel School.

Although she came to DU to study music, Rice told some 700 students, faculty and staff members and guests that she real-ized early in her academic career that she faced a lifetime of teaching teenagers piano lessons or performing in department stores. Somehow, she said, there had to be more.

She found her purpose during an elec-tive class in international relations. She changed majors and embarked on a career that saw her guide U.S. foreign policy from the optimistic early moments of the George W. Bush presidency to the crushing sadness of the 9/11 terror attacks and the uncertainty that followed.

“Sept. 11 changed everything,” she said. “Every day after, it was, ‘Don’t let it happen again.’ It was like going into a dark room and there were 12 doors, and some-one could jump out of any one.”

Rice discussed the intricate nature of global negotiations and how there’s never a pat answer that can be applied across the board. While the U.S. occupa-tion of Iraq seems to have left that country in a position to move ahead and develop a stable government, the situation in Afghanistan is vastly different, with an impoverished, fractured country that will continue to need help or risk regressing into chaos.

Xxxxxx

TOP NEWS

Condoleezza Rice returns to DU campusBy Chase Squires

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Condoleezza Rice’s visit was part of the campus event series taking place prior to the presidential debate on Oct. 3. Visit debate2012.du.edu for a full lineup.

“Afghanistan is much harder. It was always going to be harder,” she said. “It’s the fifth poorest country in the world. These people have been bequeathed high moun-tains and rocks and dirt.”

Looking forward, Rice said she sees herself now as a professor and author. She said she has no interest in getting into poli-tics or returning to government service.

Rice said she remains engaged and involved. She says she favors immigration reform that attracts the world’s brightest to the U.S. And she believes in education reform that includes work with after-school programs through the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and other organizations. She plays benefit piano concerts for music programs in schools, and she works with corporations crafting policies for expansion abroad.

And above all, she is a teacher.“I love being an academic. I love being

at Stanford. As long as they’ll have me, I’ll be there,” she said. “I love my life.”

Event Series


DU starts debate countdown clock at Presidents Day event

With fanfare from the pep band accompanied by cheerleaders and dancers, University of Denver students, faculty, staff and alumni celebrated Presidents Day Feb. 20 by unveiling the logo for the Oct. 3 presi-dential debate and cranking up the countdown clock.

Chancellor Robert Coombe spoke before a bank of television cameras and a crowd that threatened to overflow Sidelines Pub in the Driscoll Student Center to stress how the coming debate will impact DU.

“This is going to be an enormous event,” Coombe said. “Thousands and thousands will come here to campus, but millions upon millions will be watching.”

Coombe said that the first of the three presidential debates is expected to attract some 200 million television viewers worldwide, many of them in awe of a democratic process that has ensured a smooth, lawful transfer of power for centuries.

For those lucky enough to be on campus for the debate, Coombe said, “it will be the time of a lifetime.”

Political science Professor Peter Hanson, undergraduate student president Sam Gerk and Nick Bowlby, president of the graduate student body, also spoke at the unveiling.

“We’re all very excited for this event,” Gerk said. “For many students on campus, this will be the first time they’ve ever voted in a presidential election. This is a great opportunity for students to be involved in history.”

>>debate2012.du.edu —Chase Squires

Pioneers Top 10

Most in-demand careers

projected to grow through

2020 1 Registered Nurse

2 Software Developer

3 Pharmacist

4 Medical Assistant

5 Database Administrator

6 Web Developer

7 Computer Systems Analyst

8 Physical Therapist

9 Computer Programmer

10 Occupational Therapist

Compiled by Sue Hinkin, executive director of career services at the DU Career Center

Data source: U.S. News & World Report

Board approves 3.5 percent tuition increase for 2012–13The University of Denver Board of Trustees

has approved a tuition increase of 3.5 percent for the 2012–13 academic year.

Effective in the fall term of 2012, tuition for full-time undergraduate students will be $38,232. The mandatory student fee will increase to $351 from $321; the student health fee will increase to $450 from $432; and the technology fee will remain unchanged at $144. Room and board charges for students choosing standard double-occupancy rooms and the premium meal plan will increase by 4.28 percent to $10,583. In sum, the total cost of attendance for undergraduates at the University of Denver will increase by 3.71 percent to $49,760.

For graduate students, effective in the fall term of 2012, tuition will rise to $1,062 per

credit hour. The graduate student fee will remain unchanged for the fourth year in a row at $150 for the academic year, as will the technology fee at $4 per credit hour.

“We recognize that these are extraordinarily challenging times to be attending college,” Provost Gregg Kvistad wrote in a letter sent to graduate and undergraduate students and parents. “They are also challenging times for colleges and univer-sities across the United States, all of which are now—rightly—called upon to demonstrate the value of the educational experiences they offer. We welcome that challenge at the University of Denver, where we have made every effort to control costs while enhancing the learning experi-ence of our students.”

—Media Relations Staff

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Retired general returns to DU to teach Korbel students

Gen. George Casey (MA ’80), former Army chief of staff, taught a two-week course on civil-military relations March 26–April 6 at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

The class, Civil-Military Relations in a Time of War, was announced a week before the start of the spring quarter. The 35 slots filled almost instantly.

It was the first class Casey has ever taught. The idea came from a discus-sion Casey had last year with Korbel Dean Christopher Hill when Casey was on campus to receive the Evans Award.

“I said I was interested in teaching, but I wasn’t necessarily ready to com-mit to a full semester so early in my retirement,” says Casey, who retired in April 2011. “Chris Hill said, ‘Why not a few weeks?’ He strongly suggested I try to teach a class just to see how it feels.”

The course drew on Casey’s experiences as a military leader who must be able to communicate effectively with civilians as well as the government.

“I thought it was something I could bring real perspective to because I’ve been involved with the highest levels of our government,” Casey says. “There’s a lot of experience I can share.”

Jason Thomas, a Korbel graduate student studying international security, said Casey’s perspective and insight attracted many students to take his class.

“It’s nice to get an idea of the personalities of our leaders,” Thomas says. “[Casey] had a lot of power and is a very determined individual, but he’s also very approachable. A lot of people might not expect that.”

—Skye Savage

This story originally appeared in the Clarion on April 17, 2012.

2012 brings positive hiring trends, Career Center changes

With Commencement right around the corner, many soon-to-be graduates may be wondering what the job market has in store for them. According to Sue Hinkin, executive director of the DU Career Center, the market is improving, albeit slowly.

“We’re definitely starting to come back, but it’s probably the slowest comeback since the ’70s,” she says.

Survey data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) confirms the upward trend. According to a NACE report, employers plan to hire 10.2 percent more college graduates from the class of 2012 than they hired from the class of 2011. The same report says employers have an average of 116 job openings, up 10.5 percent over last year.

Despite the positive climb, the job market remains competi-tive, and Hinkin says graduating seniors must be persistent in their job searches.

“Prior to the big economic meltdown, within three to six months most students were working in their field,” Hinkin says. “Now it’s probably taking six to nine months to really get what they’re wanting.”

The DU Career Center has a number of services to help stu-dents and alumni with their search, including:

• a Professional Network of more than 1,200 DU alumni willing to speak to students and alumni about their careers and industries

• a network of more than 650 employer contacts• a job board with more than 500 jobs and internships

available exclusively to DU students • a NACElink Extended Job Search board with more than

6 million job opportunities worldwide• workshops on writing resumes and cover letters• informational seminars and networking events with

employers and alumni• interview preparation assistance• career assessments

Services are free to all DU undergraduate and graduate students and alumni within the first year after graduation. Other alumni receive a 90 percent discount off market rates.

Hinkin was hired in November 2011 as part of a strategic plan to improve the Career Center’s operations. Additional ser-vices will be added within the next year, including job-shadowing opportunities for first- and second-year students; a newsletter with career information for recent graduates; more streamlined job search software; a job database specifically for PhD students; and a scholarship program to allow students to pursue unpaid internships.

For more information or to schedule a career advising appointment, email [email protected], call 303-871-2150 or visit www.du.edu/career.

—Amber D’Angelo Na

Wayne Arm

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From the desk ofCraig Robb, sculpture lab technician for the School of Art and Art History

This terra cotta warrior is Robb’s good luck charm, he says. He always finds a corner or out-of-the-way shelf to hold it during his art exhibits.

These Bunsen burner stands, rescued from Science Hall before it was torn down in 1996, are now the foundation for one of Robb’s sculptures.

Robb keeps this 2001 calendar from the long-gone Red Dragon Chinese Restaurant (located where the Crimson & Gold Tavern now sits) because he likes its Asian artwork. “Eastern philosophy is big in my work and in my life,” he says.

Robb has been a member of Denver’s Pirate Gallery for the past 12 years, and he exhibits there once a year. These are postcard invitations to some of his recent shows. Robb, who has worked at DU for 16 years, uses his workspace as personal studio space on nights and weekends.

Robb built his own pendulum clock after watching a show about them on PBS. “It kind of works,” he says. “Now it’s more decorative.”

Robb likes to hold French sculp-tor Louise Bourgeois, who didn’t receive much recognition until late in life, up to students as an example. “Students want it now,” he says. “[Bourgeois’] mentality is great—you can live a lifetime and still have things to discover.”

Robb wears this helmet when he helps students with their welding projects.


xxx

FOR

OUR

COM

MUN

ITY

Within the Academic Commons at Penrose Library, students and faculty will think bigger and expand their knowledge—in an inviting, academically stimulating, and technology-driven environment designed to meet their study and research needs.

All gifts have an impact! Make your online gift today!

g i v i n g . d u . e d u 8 0 0 . 4 4 8 . 3 2 3 8

our COMMON GOAL

Honor your commitment to this vital initiative. For gifts over $250, DU is offering personalized commemorative book bindings that will be displayed within the renovated Penrose Library.

Your gift will strengthen Penrose Library’s place as the intellectual hub of the DU campus.

The Academic Commons at Penrose Library: A Contemporary Library for a 21st Century University

University College launches Internet marketing programUniversity College, DU’s school of continuing professional stud-

ies, launched a graduate specialty program in new media and Internet

marketing this spring. Students can choose to pursue a master’s

degree or an advanced

graduate certificate in the

specialty.

The program is

intended for profession-

als who already have a

foundational, educational

or professional back-

ground in public relations

and marketing but want

to learn how to integrate cutting-edge new media and Internet mar-

keting technologies and strategies into their existing communication

practice or workplace.

According to a University College infographic about trends in the

new media and Internet marketing industry, jobs in these fields are

growing exponentially, with social media marketing positions up 307

percent since 2009 and

use of email marketing

expected to increase 60

percent in 2012.

The new specialty

program will prepare

graduates with the

knowledge and skills

they need for careers in

social media, email and

mobile marketing, digital media marketing and more.

>>universitycollege.du.edu



DU to host international admissions conferenceThe University of Denver will host the 19th annual Overseas

Association for College Admissions Counseling (OACAC) Summer

Conference July 10–12. More than 700 high school and college admis-

sions counselors from around the world will attend the event, which is

the largest conference ever hosted by the University.

The counselors—many from elite international schools—are

coming to the conference for professional development and network-

ing. While on campus, they also will get a firsthand look at DU—from

its residence halls, where they will be lodged, to classrooms, the Ritchie

Center and food services.

“There is no better way to showcase what we have at DU than to

have these influencers on our campus,” says Marjorie Smith, associate

dean for International Student Admission.

“These high school counselors work with students on their college

choices,” she says. “They influence international students’ choices on

where to apply and eventually where to enroll.”

The conference is held at a different college or university every

year. DU was chosen as the host location for the 2012 conference “on

the basis of the University’s outstanding facilities and in recognition of

DU’s increasingly strong profile on the international stage,” Smith says.

In the past, colleges that have hosted the conference have seen a

40 percent increase in their international applications, she says.

“All students—domestic and international—benefit from inter-

acting with students from other countries,” Smith says. “They benefit

from exposure to differing cultural perspectives and differing expe-

riences. This prepares students for the interconnectedness of our

shrinking world in business, politics and communication.”

—Valerie Finholm

North Korea’s leadership, for all its stubborn self-assuredness, may have made a monumental error, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said April 13 at the University of Denver.

Speaking before a large crowd packed into the Cable Center, Albright said the hermit nation’s defiant April test launch of a long-range missile was meant to solidify the fledgling reign of new leader Kim Jong-un. Instead, the missile failed, and all Korean leaders did was irritate one of their few allies—China—and demonstrate their incompetence, she said.

“I don’t know where this goes from here,” she said, adding that it wouldn’t surprise her if the impoverished country tried to sell some of its missile technology.

Albright grew up on the DU campus, where her father, Josef Korbel, was a professor in international relations and a founder of what is now the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

In a broad-ranging talk with Christopher Hill, dean of the Korbel School and former ambassador to South Korea and Iraq, Albright reflected on her work in many parts of the world. Known largely for her efforts to resolve the conflict in the Balkans, she said the U.S. can’t afford to assume its role there is over. The area still needs diplomatic attention, she said.

She also said she was troubled by the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq. She said she isn’t against the use of military force when war-ranted, and she understood the need to go into Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It is beyond me to understand why we turned to Iraq,” she said.Now, with the Iraq War recently ended and the Afghanistan War going

on a decade, Albright said she feels the country is frustrated and looking to pull back, not just from those engagements but from all involvement in global policy and politics.

“I kind of get the sense that we have had it,” she said. “I am troubled if our

tiredness with Afghanistan and Iraq will make us pull inside, because the world can’t function without us.”

Now a professor at Georgetown University, Albright said she relished her return to DU’s campus.

“I really do feel at home,” she said. “This is where I grew up.”On lighter topics, Albright related how her appearance on the televi-

sion show “Gilmore Girls” led to an invitation to compete on TV’s “Dancing With the Stars” (she declined), and she revealed that her new book will be of particular interest to those involved in the Korbel School. The book, Prague Winter (Harper, 2012), recounts her father’s activities from 1937 to 1948, his work in diplomacy and even the secret police files the government kept on him.

—Chase Squires

Albright talks Korea, Iraq, in DU appearance

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No one has ever accused Lawrence Argent of being a miniaturist.

A renowned sculptor and DU faculty member celebrated for his public art projects, Argent is known nationwide for I See What You Mean, the massive, 40-foot-tall blue bear that peers into the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. In the seven years since it was installed, it has become a tourist attraction and a landmark, as well as a testament to Denver’s appetite for the cre-ative and unconventional.

Argent’s most recent public art installa-tion, Leap, places a fleet-footed red rabbit in the ticketing and baggage-claim areas of the newly remodeled Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport in California. The 10,000-pound, 56-foot-long lagomorph—which appears to have sprung from the outdoors on a mad dash to a giant suitcase bedecked with a swirling vortex—promises to do for Sacramento what the big blue bruin did for Denver.

Argent was given free rein in the $800,000 commission, charged only with creating a signature piece. One of his primary goals, he says, was to conjure something that would capture the wonder and perplexity of the modern journey.

Given the generic personality of most airports and the daze in which most travelers negotiate the check-in kiosks and security lines, Argent also wanted to nudge—if not jolt—the jet-lagged, stress-boggled traveler back to full consciousness. “One is not in a normal state,” Argent says of the airport experience. “I wanted it to diffuse the cacophony of the energy that exists in the airport.”

Leap took three months to install. Made of more than 1,400 aluminum triangles, it is suspended from the terminal’s structural frame by seven cables. The accompanying suitcase, as large as a queen-sized bed, is made of granite. It represents the baggage—metaphorical, checked and carry-on—that we bring with us on every journey.

“Everything in the suitcase,” Argent says, “is a symbol of who we are.”

ARTS

Hare raisingBy Tamara Chapman

Ed A

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aphy


The Newman Center Presents series at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts celebrates the venue’s 10th anniversary with a mix of old and new. The 2012–13 season features a full slate of dance, music and opera.

Newman Center favorite Aspen Santa Fe Ballet performs Sept. 22; other dance performances on the schedule include José Limón Dance on March 21 and Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard’s The Oracle on Feb. 13. The latter piece is set to Stravin-sky’s The Rite of Spring, which will be performed live by the Lamont Symphony Orchestra.

In the season’s most collaborative event, Central City Opera, the Colorado Symphony, Ballet Nouveau Colorado and the Mizel Arts & Culture Center team up to present the Colorado premiere of Der Kaiser von Atlantis on Jan. 16–17. Written by Victor Ullmann and Peter Kien while both were imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, the satiric opera was first performed in 1975, long after the two men died at Auschwitz. For the Colorado premiere, the co-producers have created a new preface that features traditional Eastern European klezmer music and an epilogue showcasing a new dance work.

The season’s musical offerings run the gamut from silly to serious, starting Oct. 6 with the Capitol Steps, the famed political satire group that should bring some levity to campus three days after DU hosts the first presidential debate of the 2012 campaign. Also on the lighter side, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great

Britain (pictured) serves up a mix of classical pieces and pop favor-ites—performed with nothing but ukes and voices—on April 4.

The season also includes the debut of the Colorado Symphony Chamber Orchestra, which will perform three concerts: one featuring all American composers prior to the presidential debate; one featuring masters of the classics in February; and a Baroque spectacular in early June.

For its Christmas concert, the Newman Center has invited male vocal ensemble Cantus—which appeared in the first season of Newman Center Presents—to reprise its All Is Calm concert on Dec. 6. The show is inspired by actual events during World War I, when enemy soldiers sang Christmas carols with one another across no man’s land. The concert is performed in the style of a radio musical drama and is followed by a set of traditional holiday fare.

Also on the Newman Center Presents 2012–13 schedule are Sphinx Virtuosi—a conductorless chamber orchestra made up of alumni of the national Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players—on Oct. 18; French quartet Quatour Ébène on Nov. 10; mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe on Feb. 5; Strings on Fire—featuring Brazilian guitarists Sérgio Assad and Odair Assad, with guitarist Mak Grgi’c and cellist Joshua Roman—on April 25; and New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ staging of The Mikado on May 3–4.

>>www.newmancenterpresents.com

NEWMAN CENTER PRESENTS ANNOUNCES 2012–13 SEASON

SEASON AT A GLANCE

Dan Reid

Sept. 20 ........ Colorado Symphony Chamber OrchestraSept. 22 ........ Aspen Santa Fe BalletOct. 6 ............. The Capitol StepsOct. 18 .......... Sphinx VirtuosiNov. 10 ......... Quatour ÉbèneDec. 6 ............ Cantus: All Is CalmJan. 16–17 .... Der Kaiser von Atlantis Feb. 5 ............. Stephanie Blythe Feb. 20 .......... Colorado Symphony Chamber OrchestraFeb. 13 .......... Meryl Tankard’s The OracleMarch 21 ...... José Limón DanceApril 4 ........... Ukulele Orchestra of Great BritainApril 25 ........ Strings on FireMay 3–4 ........ The MikadoJune 4 ............ Colorado Symphony Chamber Orchestra


Law students win logging case, defeat federal permit

Students at the University of Denver’s Environmental Law Clinic learned

Feb. 9 they had successfully fended off a proposed logging operation that threatened

a national forest and the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

The clinic at the Sturm College of Law filed suit in 2009 against the National

Forest Service, looking to overturn a timber permit for more than 3,400 acres in the

Handkerchief Mesa area of the Rio Grande National Forest. The permit also would

have allowed for the construction of 11 miles of roads in the forest.

The area in question was damaged by logging in past decades and is suffering

from beetle infestation, making recovery from logging more difficult. Students argued

the Forest Service never took these stresses into account before issuing a permit.

Protection is especially important, students argued, because the area feeds the

headwaters of a river that is a major source of drinking water for millions of people

in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas and that provides water for agriculture in the

United States and Mexico.

On Feb. 9, U.S. Judge William Martínez in the U.S. District Court for the District

of Colorado ruled the Forest Service did not meet obligations spelled out in the

National Forest Management Act and that an environmental assessment was inad-

equate. The ruling overturns issued permits for the Handkerchief Mesa near Alamosa

in southwestern Colorado.

Environmental Law Clinic Director Michael Harris says stopping a permitted tim-

ber project in Colorado is extremely rare. The ruling, he says, sends a message to the

Forest Service that its permitting process must take into account changing conditions,

ongoing insect infestations and other ecological conditions.

“The court has told the Forest Service, ‘The game has changed, and you need to

change if you are going to continue to permit these projects,’” Harris says.—Chase Squires

Grass confusion: DU symposium tackles tangled marijuana laws

The level of confusion over marijuana laws in Colorado and the nation is high.

As experts gathered at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law Jan. 27 for an all-day symposium, “Marijuana at the Crossroads,” the assembled attorneys, faculty and law students heard just how difficult it has become to navigate the legal mire surrounding the drug.

Colorado voters legalized medical marijuana by con-stitutional amendment in 2000. The industry exploded in

2008, when the Obama administration indicated that it would not actively pursue medical marijuana providers who were in compliance with state law. A new voter

initiative proposed for the state ballot this year could legalize marijuana and regulate its sale.

Despite Colorado’s voters allowing medi-cal marijuana sales and use, and despite a com-

plex and comprehensive set of state regulations and licensing, former U.S. Attorney Troy Eid reminded

the audience that marijuana is still illegal in the United States, and that anyone involved in its sale or use risks los-ing his or her property and freedom.

“It really is not a good thing for you, as lawyers and law students, to buy into this crap that it is not illegal,” he said. “You need to know better.”

Jill Lamoureux-Leigh (MBA ’99), an entrepreneur who runs three dispensaries licensed in Colorado, said her industry is a tough one. Cities can regulate zoning, the federal government can enforce some laws and not oth-ers, and the state requires huge amounts of data from each employee and investor.

As an added challenge, she said, the threat of federal intervention has kept banks from allowing dispensaries to borrow money or open accounts, meaning that much of the industry faces the prospect of paying cash for every-thing, including taxes that the IRS demands—even if the federal government won’t acknowledge the sale of mari-juana as a legal business.

Sturm College of Law Dean Martin Katz praised the Denver University Law Review and the law school’s Constitutional Rights & Remedies Program for creating the symposium, which included sessions on issues marijuana laws pose for practicing attorneys, how the issue raises constitutional challenges, and the legal ethics of working with clients who sell or use medical marijuana.

“This is exactly the type of thing we like to do at the law school,” Katz said. “Get people together, put our heads together, and discuss and debate the issues of the day.”

—Chase Squires


W hen Steve Fisher was first hired to work at DU—shortly after graduating

from Case Western Reserve University with a dual master’s in history and library science—he knew next to nothing about life in the Mile High City.

“I had never been west of the Mississippi at the time,” Fisher says. “I pic-tured Denver would be people riding horses and walking around with cowboy hats, and I pictured horses tethered up to posts. I was shocked to find when I got here that people dress pretty much the way they do in the Midwest. But that was the stereotype we had.”

After 30 years as DU’s head curator and archivist, Fisher is much better acquainted with Denver—particularly the area around the DU campus, which is the subject of his new book, A Brief History of South Denver and University Park (The History Press, 2012), which traces the area from the 1890s, when DU relocated to south Denver from its original downtown home, to the present day.

“Back at the very beginning, [DU founder] John Evans and the Board of Trustees were looking for a place that was going to be like a utopia,” Fisher says. “They moved out of Denver because Denver was getting run down, and there were broth-els and saloons right next to where the University was.

“They started looking for areas to move to, and they wanted to be away from the city,” he continues. “They were positive that the city would never encroach that far south. Of course it did; it grew, but I think people don’t understand that [University Park] was meant to be this utopian village where life was perfect.”

In the book Fisher also chronicles the development of neighborhood land-marks such as Chamberlin Observatory, Washington Park and Hilltop Stadium, as well as the construction of the Newman Center and the arrival of light rail. In all, the book charts the evolution of a neighborhood

that eventually became known as one of Denver’s best.

“It’s one of the most desirable places to live in the Denver area,” Fisher says. “We have one of the lowest crime rates in the city; we’re halfway between downtown and the Tech Center; and housing prices have main-tained, unlike a lot of other areas.”

For Fisher, the book wasn’t just a schol-arly historical investigation—it also was a way to take a closer look at the part of town he’s called home since 1977.

A year after he was hired, Fisher and his wife, Kate, moved into a house on the corner of Asbury and High streets that was one of several buildings the University was selling. He’s seen changes to the campus

firsthand—including the construction of the Ritchie Center, where Fisher can be found most nights of the school year. He has season tickets to DU hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s soccer and men’s lacrosse.

The Fishers also put both of their chil-dren through DU using the tuition benefit available to employees.

“I was blessed to find my calling and the perfect job at a young age, and to work with a remarkable institution through many highs and lows, ups and downs,” Fisher says. “Over the years I have developed a huge extended family composed of DU faculty, administra-tion, staff, students, alumni and retirees. We all share a love of this crazy and magical place.”

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hiSTORY

Living historyBy Greg Glasgow


Management Professor Gordon Von Stroh dies at 69

Gordon Von Stroh, professor in the Department of Management at the Daniels College of Business, died March 14 of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 69. Von Stroh was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, last summer.

Von Stroh joined the University as a professor of administration in 1967. He also was the longtime leader of DU’s Commencement committee, preparing each year to usher new graduates across the stage and into the DU alumni community. He was director of the MBA-customized program and the master’s of management pro-gram in the Daniels College.

Von Stroh was well known in Colorado for his quarterly apartment vacancy and rent surveys produced for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing.

The reports were used by apartment owners, developers, analysts and news reporters for more than 30 years. In recognition of his outstanding service to the University of Denver, the community and the professorial

profession, Von Stroh received the first Faculty Service Award at DU’s Convocation in October 2009.“We will miss his wit, his wisdom and his great gift of student connection,” Daniels Dean Christine Riordan

said in a statement. “Gordon and his family will continue to be a source of inspiration to our students, faculty, staff, alumni and corporate leaders around the globe.”

In addition to his work on numerous committees across campus, Von Stroh served in leadership positions for Rocky Mountain Communities, the Central City Opera, Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation, Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing, the Denver and Southwest Denver chambers of commerce, the Highlands Ranch Development Revenue Committee and the Highlands Ranch Communication Association Development Review Committee.

He is survived by his wife, Patrice Von Stroh (MA ’91, PhD ’98), and children Christina Von Stroh (BS ’01, MA ’03, MBA ’03), Jonathan Von Stroh (MS ’05, MBA ’05, PhD ’10) and Justin Von Stroh (JD ’08, MS ’09).


Global Game Jam brings artists, programmers to DU

In January, DU’s School of Art and

Art History served as a local site for

Global Game Jam, a 48-hour game-

development event—organized by

the International Game Developers

Association—that attracted more than

10,000 participants at 242 sites around

the world.

This is the third year that DU has

been a host of the event, in which par-

ticipants come together to make video

games by forming teams that include

visual artists, computer programmers,

game designers and sound designers.

“Global Game Jam was a rousing

success,” says Rafael Fajardo, associ-

ate professor of electronic media arts

design and digital media studies. “We

surpassed our capacity of participants

and had to turn people away at the

door. We had 70 registered partici-

pants, and 15 games were created

locally.”

Internationally, Global Game Jam

2012 created 2,212 new video

games.


DU earns top ranking for Peace Corps participation

The University of Denver in 2012 ranked No. 1 among colleges and universities participating in the Peace Corps’ Paul D. Coverdell Fellows graduate school program, with 77 returned Peace Corps volunteers enrolled as graduate students at DU.

The Coverdell Fellows program gives students the opportunity to earn their graduate or doctorate degree at a reduced cost in return for serving 27 months in the Peace Corps.

Through the Coverdell Fellows program, the Peace Corps partners with more than 70 col-leges and universities nationwide, offering financial benefits such as reduced tuition, assistantships and stipends for Peace Corps alumni who put their skills to work serving their local communities while obtaining graduate degrees. At DU, the Coverdell program is partnered with the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

Nearly 4,000 Peace Corps volunteers have completed the Coverdell Fellows program since it started in 1985, according to a press release. About 400 students at DU have completed the Coverdell program since its inception at the University in 2003.

Last year DU ranked No. 2 in the Coverdell Fellows program.—Media Relations Staff


Law school ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s top 100

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law took a big leap in the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings in March, bolstering its place among the nation’s top-tier law schools with five specialty programs selected for special recognition.

The publication’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools” survey, released March 10, ranks the Sturm College of Law at No. 69 in the country, tied with Seton Hall University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Miami, the University of New Mexico, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. DU previously was ranked 77th.

In addition, DU’s trial advocacy program is ranked 11th in the country, while the clinical training program ranks 12th, up five positions from last year and ahead of the University of Michigan and Harvard University. The part-time law degree program is ranked the 13th best in the country (identical to last year), and U.S. News ranks the legal writing program 16th in the country. Sturm’s tax law program is ranked 21st.

“It is a good year for Denver Law,” says Sturm College of Law Dean Martin Katz.

Katz says the rankings reflect an ongoing commit-ment to providing relevant, rigorous programs for law students. The University is seeing the benefit of adding faculty and improving student-faculty ratios. It also is seeing innovative new bar-passage programs pay off with a steady climb in passage rates.

“We are gratified that we have moved up in the U.S. News rankings. This move recognizes the substantive changes we’ve made in the course of implementing our strategic plan, with a focus on pro-ducing graduates who are practice-ready and client-ready,” Katz says. “We are particularly pleased with our assessment scores, as they are notoriously the hardest to move and are a testament to our reputation among our peers both in academia and within the legal profession.”

The Graduate School of Social Work also rose in the U.S. News rankings, moving from 36 to 26 on the list of the nation’s best master of social work programs.

U.S. News & World Report ranks law and other graduate programs, incorporating expert opinion and statistical data collected on more than 1,200 programs.

—Chase Squires

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Cathy GrieveCathy Grieve is a University of

Denver alumna (MA ’75, PhD ’79), parent of three DU graduates, a faculty member and an administra-tor. She has participated on many committees, spearheaded many successful DU-wide endeavors and served in many volunteer capaci-ties. Most people on campus—and even in the broader Denver com-munity—know of her work and passion.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Grieve is this year’s Distin-guished Service to the University Award recipient. The award was presented at the Founders Day celebration in March.

“I’m really humbled by this,” she says. “I will accept it graciously on behalf of everyone who has been part of my life at the University, personally, academically and professionally.”

Grieve spent more than 30 years of her DU career as a faculty member in the School of Communication, where she also administered a robust internship program through which she placed some 75 students a year in positions across the country. Her students interned for media outlets including The New York Times and CNN, in addition to public relations agencies, national and international nonprofits and government agencies.

“As a gifted teacher and adviser, Cathy was a very important mentor to me,” says Margaret Thompson, associate professor in the Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies. “The students also loved her and were constantly flocking to her office.”

In 2005, when Grieve was asked to serve in a different capacity—as director of the Office of Special Community Programs—she went where her university needed her most. Then, in 2010, she was asked to serve as executive director of conferences, events and special programs. She again answered the call.

In this newest capacity, Grieve oversees summer conferencing and internal and external events and is on the steering committee for the upcoming presidential debate.

Thompson says Grieve is very missed in her department. “Among many things, we greatly miss her positive energy and wonderful sense of humor in the halls of our building,” she says. “I have no doubt that the University of Denver is a stronger and higher quality institution as a result of Cathy’s dedication and service.”

Grieve insists that her commitment to DU is simply her way of giving back to a commu-nity that has empowered her to live her “best life.”

“I came to DU to earn a master’s and then a doctorate, and to hone my skills as an educator,” Grieve says. “The University has always been very supportive of me personally, and of my work, and I always felt that I had the opportunity to do it all.

“I always will be very grateful for the opportunities that DU has given to me,” she says.—Janalee Card Chmel

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T here is no reason to play the “What if?” game when looking back on the men’s

basketball season of 2011–12. The University of Denver Pioneers

recorded the most wins in a season in their 89 years of Division I history. DU was electric at home—a trait that is becoming increasingly routine under head coach Joe Scott—and provided one of the program’s all-time highlights with a nationally tele-vised victory against league-leading Middle Tennessee at Magness Arena.

Nevertheless, there were just enough missed opportunities to leave the Pioneers ruminating over what could have been. Three overtime losses and another late one-point heartbreaker on the road left DU with enough blemishes to lose luster in the eyes of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) selection committee.

And, in the end, an otherwise healthy season was nullified by a critical, ill-timed injury during a wide-open Sun Belt Conference tournament. Ultimately, the short-handed Pioneers were eliminated in

SPORTS

Stellar seasonBy Pat Rooney

the semifinals of the team’s final appearance in the Sun Belt tournament.

The disappointing finale to an out-standing season marked the end of the career for one of the program’s all-time greats, Brian Stafford (pictured), and also began the build-up for what should be another season of high expectations as the Pioneers move into the Western Athletic Conference for the 2012–13 campaign.

“It was the best season in school his-tory, and we’ve taken a major step forward,” Scott says. “You have to feel good about that, just like everyone has good reason to be upset how the season ended in disap-pointment.

“The disappointing thing for us is we weren’t at full strength for the Sun Belt tournament. It just goes to show—you can win 22 games, have a good RPI and good wins, and in the end everything is tenuous. I would say we had a great season, but we still weren’t very lucky.”

It was junior Chase Hallam who suf-fered the key injury. Bothered by back

trouble down the stretch, Hallam missed the regular season finale and DU’s victory against South Alabama in the SBC tour-ney. He remained on the sidelines during the Pioneers’ semifinal round loss against Western Kentucky, depriving DU of one of its top all-around performers.

Stafford and sophomore Chris Udofia, the team’s co-leaders in scoring, were among the individual stars for the Pioneers. Amazingly, Stafford not only played in a program-record 124 games, but he started every one of them. He finished his career with 1,586 points, good for fourth all-time on the DU scoring list, and his 264 three-pointers rank him third in school history.

“To not even get an NIT invite, it’s kind of frustrating when you look at some of those missed opportunities,” Stafford says. “At the same time, it was encouraging to see the level of play get so much better. Much higher than when I came in as a freshman. That means a lot to us seniors. We wanted to leave the program in a better place than when we started.”

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PiONEER UPDATESHOCkEy

The Pioneers hockey team reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year after a stirring late-season surge that included three consecutive overtime wins. Three DU players signed with NHL teams—sophomore forward Jason Zucker with the Minnesota Wild, junior center Drew Shore (pictured) with

the Florida Panthers and sophomore forward Beau Bennett with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

SWIMMINGIn the pool, DU’s men’s and women’s swim programs both captured their second consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships. The women’s squad won seven events in the Sun Belt Conference finals, and the men’s team took home a whopping 11 SBC titles, an effort that helped coach Brian Schrader land the SBC Coach of the Year award.

WOMEN’S BASkEtBAllThe women’s basketball team suffered a disappointment similar to the men’s squad, losing to Florida International in the first game of the SBC tournament after a 19-win campaign. After head coach Erik Johnson departed for a new job at Boston College, former Auburn University associate head coach Kerry Cremeans became the team’s new leader in April.

WOMEN’S lACrOSSEThe women’s squad won a record 12 straight games before losing to Stanford at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Women’s Lacrosse Championship in April.

MEN’S lACrOSSEAfter beating Duke April 27 as part of the Whitman’s SamplerMile High Classic at Sports Authority Field, the Pioneersearned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, wherethey lost to Loyola in the quarterfinal round.

WOMEN’S GOlFAfter winning their ninth straight Sun Belt championship in April, the Pioneers were selected to take part in the 2012 NCAA West Regional Championship—their 11th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance—in May.

Junior gymnast is Olympics-bound

Simona Castro had a feeling the call was coming. She just wasn’t sure when. Castro, a junior on the University of Denver gymnastics team, was confident she had turned in a solid performance at the Olympic trials for her home country of Chile. The timing of the call, however, could not have been more perfect.

On Jan. 11, her 23rd birthday, Castro became the second DU gymnast to be named to an Olympic team, following in the footsteps of former Pioneer Jessica Lopez. Lopez was named to the Venezuelan Olympic team in 2008 and, like Castro, will again represent her home country this summer in London.

“It was a little much to take at first,” Castro said of the phone call informing her of the good news. “But when I called my family, that’s kind of when it hit. They were all jumping up and down and were so happy.”

On Jan. 6, the management major competed with the Pioneers in a meet at the University of Georgia, finishing second on the team and third overall in the all-around. Castro promptly boarded a plane for London with DU assistant coach Carl Leland to compete at the 2012 Olympic test event. Castro placed 55th overall in the all-around and figured she had sealed her Olympic invitation, though she had to endure a wrenching wait before it became official.

Castro started her Olympic training with Leland in early May, beginning with strength and conditioning work before advancing to more specific routines.

“Like with Jessica [Lopez], this is a huge honor for our program,” says gymnas-tics coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart. “We wish [Simona] nothing but the best, and we are so proud to have her representing DU gymnastics on the Olympic stage.”

A veteran of the Chilean national team since 2001, Castro placed 53rd at the World Championships in 2005 and won the floor exercise at the 2007 South American Championships. Castro captured first place in the all-around for three consecutive years (2006–08) in the Chilean National Championships.

—Pat Rooney

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As the parents of a student who

transferred to DU in the beginning of her

sophomore year, we know firsthand that the

decision to transfer can be one of the most

heart-wrenching decisions your student will

ever face. Whatever the underlying reason—

not fitting in, changing financial situation,

loneliness, dissatisfaction with the current

school’s options and choices—the process

can undermine a student’s confidence in his

or her decision-making ability. As parents,

we adopted a few simple rules:

1. Avoid the temptation to say “I told

you so.”

2. Ask open-ended questions instead of

making judgments.

3. Let your student make the call.

Thankfully, DU had several policies that

helped smooth out some of the wrinkles

typically associated with a transfer. One

policy that made the process easier was that

DU keeps letters of admission active for a

full year, allowing our daughter to transfer

to DU without having to reapply. DU also

showed flexibility in accepting transfer

credits (including high school AP credits). A

third key enabler was that DU offers transfer

students financial aid. Finally, by including

transfer students in the new-student orien-

tation process, DU helped our daughter form

connections with other transfer students

who could relate to her experience.

If your student is considering a transfer,

I recommend you arm him or her with infor-

mation about these key policies. Hopefully

your experience will be as positive as ours.

Chuck Corwin and his wife, Lisa, live in Lone Tree, Colo. Their daughter Katie is a sophomore studying biology and a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

PARENT TO PARENT

Navigating a transfer decision

DU takes over Highlands Ranch Golf Club

Andy Benson, the head pro at the Highlands Ranch Golf Club since it opened in 1998, has been honing swings as usual this spring, albeit with one subtle change. He has become a full-time employee of the University of Denver, prompting many of his friends to give Benson a good-natured academic dig.

“They will call me up after they’ve heard about our transition and call me ‘Professor,’” Benson says.

DU officially took over operations at the Highlands Ranch Golf Club on Jan. 1. As a result, Benson and the 11 other full-time staff members who became DU employees will have the chance to meet plenty of people from DU, including actual professors.

Special rates are available to DU alumni, faculty, staff and students for daily play and annual memberships at the semiprivate club located at 9000 Creekside Way in Highlands Ranch. Corporate memberships, added since DU became owner of the course, also are available.

“We’re starting to get more people identifying themselves as DU alumni,” says Stu Halsall, assistant vice chancellor for internal operations. “It’s definitely gaining traction, and I think through the summer it will continue to do that.”

Highlands Ranch Golf Club was given to DU last year by the family of the late Ron Moore (BS ’54), who attended DU on a golf scholarship and was a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1986 until his death in 2003. It is now the official home of the Pioneer men’s and women’s golf teams.

About 75 part-time employees have been hired for the summer season, some of them DU students. Highlands Ranch has a full-service restaurant, and an intern program has been established for students in the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management in the Daniels College of Business to work some special events.

—Jack Etkin

DU

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Donna Wickham’s musical career is hitting some high notes. Last fall she

released two CDs in one month, and both are getting rave reviews.

Wickham (BM ’00, MM ’03), a DU alumna who heads up the vocal jazz program at the Lamont School of Music, celebrated the release of a CD by her classical vocal quartet, Firesign, on Oct. 7. She followed that with Myth and Memory, a jazz album fea-turing her own compositions, on Oct. 30.

Denver classical radio station KVOD called the Firesign release one of the best albums of 2011. And Ellen Johnson, a reviewer for Jazz History Online, describes Myth and Memory as “a mystical debut that will take your senses for a spin while tossing your emotions in multiple directions.”

Wickham (pictured at the piano)describes the Firesign CD as a mix of Renaissance and modern styles: “It’s choral, but it’s unusual because it was done by a quartet, with an intimate feel.”

She calls Myth and Memory a “type of fusion between many different musical and literary influences, including jazz, classical and folk. It has some concepts and ideas you don’t usually see in jazz albums.”

She wrote one song set to work by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, whose compositions often testified to the contra-dictions and outrages of life under Soviet premier Josef Stalin.

“Her work gave me a strong response,” Wickham says. “I felt a kind of kinship with her.”

Wickham describes the overarching theme of the CD as complex.

“It’s about the search for beauty and about surviving the ugliness, and that’s beautiful. I think every Russian, and any human who’s lived an interesting life, can identify with that—the simple act of sur-viving is beautiful. There’s a great, beautiful sense of gratitude having survived.”

Despite the praise for her work and the joy Wickham says she gets from making music, she says teaching also is intensely satisfying.

PEOPLE

All that jazzBy Doug McPherson

on the piano bench, I did, and I fell in love with the piano,” she says. “I remember lis-tening to Tchaikovsky, dancing and twirling around the living room.”

Her parents learned she had perfect pitch as a child. “I’d be humming a tune, and I’d go to the piano to accompany myself in the perfect key.”

Wickham shares her Denver home with Gizmo, a little black cat. “She’s head of my record company, Gizmo Records,” the singer says. “She’s part of the empire. If I’m mak-ing music or teaching lessons, she’s on the piano bench and commenting on the activi-ties, meowing and purring. And if we start to make music that’s not good, she leaves the room.”

>>www.donnawickham.com

Wayne Arm

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“Anyone who knows me knows I adore my students—we have a blast together. I’m absolutely nuts about teaching,” says Wickham, who coaches three vocal jazz com-bos and helps with advising for jazz students in addition to teaching private jazz voice lessons. “Even the worst day of teaching is something I still love. I’m continually think-ing how deliriously happy I am when I’m teaching.”

Wickham grew up in Fort Morgan, Colo., and was born into a musical family. Her dad, who attended DU before enlisting in the U.S. Navy with his two brothers to fight in World War II, was a professional musician who formed a dance band in the early 1930s.

“I remember music always being a part of everyday life. As soon as I could crawl up

Watch a video of Donna Wickham performing at du.edu/wickham


Total number of credits taken

5,012

Number of courses offered

173

Number of online courses offered

26

Average number of credits taken per student

8.18

Number of faculty who taught at least one class

117

Number of students

638

DU by the Numbers

Summer quarter

Compiled by Jennifer Karas, associate provost for undergraduate academic programs

Data from summer 2011 term for traditional undergraduate students not including the Women’s College or University College

For summer class information visit du.edu/summer

DU shines in Westword’s Best of Denver

Underscoring the University of Denver’s impact on the Mile High City, Westword’s 2012 Best of

Denver Awards, which were announced in March, boast multiple DU connections.

The award for Best Annual Festival went to the Denver County Fair, co-created by alumna Dana

Cain (BA ’81) (pictured). Mixing traditional fair activities with some modern updates, the Denver County

Fair returns for its second year Aug. 10–12 at the National Western Complex.

Awarding it Best Snapshot of an Art Scene, Westword gave high praise to the Faculty Triennial art

show that ran this spring in the Myhren Gallery on campus and featured the work of faculty members,

adjuncts and other affiliated artists.

In the world of sports, Westword named hockey coach George Gwozdecky Best College

Coach, adding that “although they exited [the 2012 NCAA Tournament] after the first round, DU has

won two national titles with Gwozdecky at the helm, and this year he juggled three capable goalies, each

of whom started at least 10 games.”

Restaurants owned by DU alums also scored big in the Best of Denver: Frank Bonnano (BSBA

’90) nabbed Best Manhattan for the cocktail served at his Larimer Square speakeasy, Green Russell; Best

Hip Noodle Bar for his restaurant Bones; and Best Specialty Pizza for the pies served at Osteria Marco.

Barolo Grill, owned by Blair Taylor (BSBA ’74), got the Best Return to Glory award for a recent

remodel and an updated menu.

The Denver Bicycle Café, co-owned by Jessica Caouette (BSBA ’10), was named Best New

Coffeehouse for its innovative combination of a coffeehouse, a bar and a bike repair shop.

And the Bull & Bush Pub & Brewery, founded in 1971 by Dale Peterson (BSBA ’61) and his twin

brother, Dean, took home two awards: Best New Beer Idea, for its “whole hop infusions”; and Best

Sports Bar for Watching Games.

—Greg Glasgow

Justin Edmonds


T he new Academic Commons at Penrose Library will debut

in early 2013. (Follow construction progress at du.edu/commons). Nancy Allen, dean and director of the library since 1992, looks ahead to the big day.

Q Why is the new library called an academic com-

mons?

A The name was chosen because the building will be home to

an array of high-traffic student- and faculty-support services anchored by the library. These support ser-vices are not only located in the library, but are deeply collabora-tive in meaningful ways. Just two examples: The library’s Research Center and the Writing Program’s Writing Center both help students move through the continuum from inquiry to expression involved in writing one of the more than 6,000 papers produced each year by DU students. And the library works closely with the Office of Teaching and Learning to help faculty provide digital content in their courses in ways that enhance learning.

Q What has you most excited about the new Academic

Commons?

A We simply cannot wait to see how students respond to the building. New library buildings at other institutions

have more than doubled the number of students using the space. We expect increased visits by students coming for help with academic projects, to meet and work with classmates on assignments, to find that perfect quiet location for individual reflection, or to go to an academic event. Everything students and faculty will do in the new building will support learning outcomes.

Q Will lovers of the traditional library—of book stacks and

quiet spaces—feel at home in the new building?

A Absolutely! We will provide two new “deep quiet” study

rooms and more quiet study seats throughout the space. Handcrafted study carrels and sophisticated color palettes will help students find the focus and concentration they need. We will have a large book collection available for browsing—nearly 40,000 linear feet of the most-used books will be housed on the lower level. That’s almost 7.5 miles of books to support browsing, with another 70,000 linear feet of other types of publications, including journals, government documents and archives, available for speedy delivery upon request.

Q in re-envisioning the library, what was the biggest chal-

lenge confronting you and your staff?

A We need to support current scholarly and research practices while building a dynamic and flexible

infrastructure for the future through good technology choices, appropriate furniture and a combination of group and individual study rooms. The contemporary library supports use of both digital and tangible resources, and that balancing of past, present and future is quite a challenge.

Q Many of us are fond of Penrose’s modern furnishings. Will the new building incorporate any of our old

favorites?

A The midcentury modern design will be visible in the new furniture plan, which is based on re-use of over

4,000 furniture and office items. In addition, we plan to purchase and build many new pieces to create a beautiful and comfortable environment.

Q & A

Penrose Dean Nancy Allen on the new Academic CommonsInterview by Tamara Chapman

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ONE TO WATCH

Haley Johnson, public policy and social services

It’s not unusual for stu-dents to take a break from school to try a different path for a while, but leaving to com-pete as an Olympic biathlete might take the cake.

Haley Johnson, 30, a junior public policy and social services major in the Bachelor of Arts Completion Program at University College, has seen and done more in the past 15 years than she imagined she would in her lifetime. It all started in Lake Placid, N.Y., where she grew up alpine rac-ing. She switched to biathlon—a combination of Nordic skiing and marksmanship—at the suggestion of her teacher at the National Sports Academy, a high school for winter athletes.

Johnson attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, but left after two years to compete on the U.S. biathlon team. In 2010, Johnson was one of four female biathletes from the U.S. to compete in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. After finishing the 2011 World Cup in Oslo, Norway, with career-best times that qualified her for the 2011 World Championship team, Johnson suddenly announced her retirement.

“I felt like I had a very successful and fulfilling career: traveling the world, going to the Olympics and being able to pursue my potential,” Johnson says. “But at the same time, I also knew there was more to life than skiing. I just knew that it was time to move on and try something new and return back to the real world.”

In May 2011, Johnson moved to Denver to finish her degree at DU, where her fiancé, David Stuart, is the Nordic head coach.

Johnson also works for the U.S. Paralympic team as a part-time Nordic ski coach and volunteers with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, where she skis with autistic children and special-needs adults.

“It’s a really neat way to rejoin the ski community after finishing my own racing career,” Johnson says. “It was a great breath of fresh air to know that I’d found some channels to be able to give back to a com-munity.”

Although she doesn’t quite know what she wants to do after grad-uation, she’s enjoying the freedom to figure it out.

“I’m more focused on the idea that [my degree] will make me a more informed citizen and a much better person,” Johnson says. “I really appreciate that I have this opportunity to have a transition and take the time to figure out where I want to go without feeling like I’ve missed out.”


Wayne Arm

strong

Psychology professor recognized for work on adolescent relationships

University of Denver psychology Professor Wyndol Furman has won the 2012 John P. Hill Memorial Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence.

The award—given to one person every two years—recognizes research scientists “whose overall program of work has had a significant impact on our understanding of development and behavior during the second decade of the lifespan,” according to the organization’s website.

Furman, who has taught at DU for 35 years, is a John Evans Professor and director of clinical training in the University’s psychology department. The award cites his ongoing research on romantic relationships in adolescence and early adulthood and how these experiences affect subsequent relationships and well-being.

Furman began studying adolescent romantic relationships in the mid-1990s, when there was little research on the subject, he says. He has pub-lished more than 100 articles in scientific journals and books on the topic and has edited a book, The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

—Valerie Finholm

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2012 27

For some DU undergraduates, social jus-tice isn’t just a topic you study: It’s a

way of life.Social Justice is one of

five Living and Learning Communities (LLCs) at DU in which students live on the same residence hall floor, attend classes together in a particular area of interest, and par-ticipate in community service, leadership and personal growth activities throughout their freshman year. Other LLCs include Environmental Sustainability, Wellness, and Creativity and Entrepreneurship.

The Social Justice LLC was started in 2002 for students who want to tackle cultural, political, social and economic injus-tices and who desire to make the world a better place through community engagement.

The 22 Social Justice LLC partici-pants reside in Johnson-McFarlane Hall and take classes including Social Justice and the Arts, Intellectual Foundations of Social Justice, and Stories of Social Justice. In the latter class, students explore how social jus-tice is portrayed through digital media and create their own digital storytelling projects to communicate the lessons they’ve learned.

Unlike typical classes, course content isn’t set in stone; rather Faculty Director John Tiedemann encourages students to take responsibility for their education by deciding which topics they should study and why.

“This is a very miniature version of what social justice work is about—people getting together and figuring out what

ACADEMiCS

Live and learnBy Amber D’Angelo Na

world they want to live in and making that world happen,” he says.

“One of the most important features of the course is that it provides the materi-als for the conversations that take place outside of the course,” Tiedemann contin-ues. “[Students] go back to their dorm hall and they’re still talking about things and working things out together.”

Participating students also take part in activities throughout the year, including dinners, teach-ins and seminars, as well as a team-building fall retreat, excursions to plays and films, and volunteer projects at

Urban Peak and the Denver GrowHaus.“We want them to understand that

as students and scholars, they are par-ticipating in the world, not merely

observing or interpreting it, so they take responsibility for

themselves as people actively involved in the world in

a consequential way,” Tiedemann says.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that there’s support out there,” says student Makayla Cisneros. “Especially when you’re interested in social issues. It can feel like such a lonely battle, but it’s really encouraging to see that there are other

people who are passion-ate about that and it

helps you feel that you’re not alone. I feel like my DU

experience would not be the same without it.”

Social justice students represent a variety of majors and

tend to be more racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse than

the general DU student population, says program coordinator Catherine Orsborn. It doesn’t cost extra to be in an LLC, but there is an essay-based application due the April prior to freshman year.

“We look for students who have differ-ent perspectives,” Orsborn says. “The point is to learn to move forward while working with people who see things differently than you and figuring out how to still be activ-ists, because that’s the reality of working in this world: You’re going to be with people who don’t necessarily have the same out-look and approach. I think no matter what they end up doing, that will really benefit them in the future.”

>>www.du.edu/livinglearning


A New AdventureCarol Lee

Moore enters

the world

of children’s

literature with

Taming the

Dragon.

By Tamara Chapman

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As a youngster born and raised in a town short on cloud-shrouded peaks,

enchanting valleys and dragon lairs, Carol Lee Moore (attd. ’54) discovered the marvels that lay between book covers.

“When you grow up in Grand Island, Neb., there really isn’t much to do in the summer except read,” she explains. And read she did, wending her way through the Dewey Decimal system and embarking on enticing adventures through children’s classics, fan-tasy tales and mysteries.

Today, on the cusp of 80, Moore is still an avid lover of books and stories. She’s also a newly published author, the proud creator of Taming the Dragon (Crown Peak Publishing, 2012), a children’s story with a message for her grandchildren’s generation: No matter what life tosses your way, stay true to yourself.

The tale follows the adventures of 13-year-old Verity, who is transported to the magical kingdom of Terra Cotta via an unfin-ished story and a schoolhouse door. There, she befriends a fledgling knight, thwarts the evil twin of a friendly sorcerer and tames the dragon in question.

The book reflects many of Moore’s pre-occupations—her love of children’s literature, her belief in guiding principles, her affection for the imagination and her love of words.

“I have always loved words,” she says. “I get so many words in my head, and some-times I have to get rid of them, and sometimes I shake my head and all the words fall into a story.”

Her affinity for words shows up in her choice of character names—Sir Sapling, Master Mandrake, King Sagacious. Her rever-ence for them is reflected in adamant refusal to traffic in contractions. Why dilute the impact of two perfectly powerful words—“do” and “not” for example—by inserting a meddling apostrophe?

Moore began writing seriously after the death of her soulmate—husband Ron—in 2003. A former Pioneers golf star, a renowned Colorado businessman and a long-time member of the DU Board of Trustees, Ron Moore (BS ’54) succumbed to cancer not long after the couple moved into a dream house they designed together. Had he lived

just a little longer, the Moores would have celebrated 50 years of marriage.

Heartbroken over the loss of her husband, Moore initially found herself too distracted and distressed to put words on paper. In time, however, she found solace in writing.

“I finally realized,” she recalls, “that instead of just moping around, feeling sorry for myself, I’d better do some-thing.”

That something turned into Training for Widowhood, a compilation of musings and memories that serves as a guide to grief and as a tribute to her husband. “We were partners, two individuals who had blended their separate identities into a greater whole,” Moore writes in the volume. “We were chal-lenged and stimulated by life.”

Once Training for Widowhood was assembled and stitched between covers, Moore continued to pursue the writer’s life, filling her desk drawer with essays, poems and children’s stories. She found that writing offered the same escape that reading did. It also provided a way to share some of her val-ues and some of the things she learned from her husband. Verity, for example, takes a page from Ron Moore’s primer when she learns that she can do anything—scale a peak, leap a chasm, tame a dragon—if only she puts her mind to it.

That message resonated with Sammie Chergo, head coach of the DU women’s golf team. Chergo acquired her copy of Taming the Dragon at a winter book signing held on the DU campus. “The next morning, I got up and read her book, and I was so touched,” Chergo recalls.

The book had barely settled into her consciousness when she decided to share it with the golf team. “Verity is a strong female lead,” she says, noting that young girls sel-dom take center stage in fantasy books. In addition, Verity’s values are worth adopting, especially in the middle of a competitive sea-son with plenty of hurdles.

“It’s our theme for this season. We’re taming other golf teams; we’re taming the tournament,” Chergo says. (The theme

served the team well—in April it claimed its ninth straight Sun Belt Conference crown.)

For Moore, who was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by DU in 2005, writing

the story came easily and naturally. “I had read so many books that my brain was full of a lot of things that I could call on,” she says.

If writing the story was a breeze, pub-lishing it was anything but. After consulting with book designer and editor Ann Ramsey, Moore decided to bypass the publishing houses, if only to avoid the dumbing-down and marketing ploys they might impose.

“One of the first things I figured out was that once I sold it, I would have nothing more to do with it. It would no longer be mine,” she explains. She certainly didn’t want to pick up her labor of love and discover a plague of contractions or prose devoid of multisyllable words.

Nor did she want to encounter illus-trations that didn’t reflect her mind’s eye. To bring her vision to life, she hired Judy Graese, a Denver-based illustrator, dancer and costume designer with several classics-inspired children’s titles to her credit. Graese’s illustrations are scrupulously true to the text: Verity sports a blue pinafore and a long brown braid; the sorcerer/schoolmaster is suitably mysterious; and the depictions of the dragon hint at its inner kitten.

To date, Moore has had mostly favor-able reviews from readers. One suggested that Moore produce a sequel—an idea she’s entertaining. But for now, she’s hoping the book finds a following and inspires kids to confront peaks and chasms with confidence.

Taming the Dragon is available from Crown Peak Publishing, the Bookies, Inklings Bookstore, Happy Canyon Flowers, the Papery, the Gnome’s Nook and the Lark. Moore’s agent, Donna Jackson, expects the book will be available at the Tattered Cover this summer. Moore plans to donate all pro-ceeds to charity.

>>tamingthedragon.net


Global Perspectives

Study-abroad students capture their experiences in photos

By Amber D’Angelo Na (BA ’06, MPS ’12)


From the Great Wall of China to the Eiffel Tower, from elephants in Thailand to sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef, DU students have seen it all. And they’ve captured it all with visual mementos documenting their study-abroad adventures.

Each year since 2003, students returning from studying abroad have submitted their prized photographs for a chance to win a photo contest hosted by the Office of International Education.

The contest gives students an opportunity to share their transformational global experiences with the DU community when they return to campus.

“The Study Abroad Photo Contest is one of the most fun things we get to do during the year,” says Paula Knutson, operations coordinator for the Office of Internationalization. “We see them so much before they go abroad, but when they get back that’s what we see, is their pictures.”

DU ranks third in the nation in the percentage of undergraduate students who study abroad from U.S. higher education institutions, according to the Institute of International Education’s 2011 Open Doors Report. In 2009–10, 824 DU undergraduate students studied abroad, boosting DU’s ranking by one spot over the previous year.

Through the University’s Cherrington Global Scholars program, eligible students can study abroad for the same price they would pay for tuition and fees while on campus. DU also helps students pay for travel-related costs, such as transportation and fees for visa applications and insurance. DU currently offers more than 150 study-abroad programs in 58 countries.

“Deciding to study abroad is the best decision I ever made,” says junior communication studies and French major Merrill Pierce, who studied in Senegal in fall 2011 and who received honorable mentions for two of her travel photos. “The hospitality of the Senegalese people, the vibrancy of the country’s art and music, and the overall richness of the culture deeply impacted how I see our world.”

Left: Senior Victoria Lavington took this photo of fishermen on a pier in Sochi, Russia. Lavington, a double major in French and international studies, studied abroad in St. Petersburg through the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

Above right: Senior international business major Scott Larson finished his study-abroad trip to the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France, by joining some American friends for a trip to Morocco. “We went on a camel ride through some small villages and towns, but we weren’t allowed to photograph in the villages,” Larson says. “This was one of my favorite pictures from the camel ride tour. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.”

Right: Junior Merrill Pierce joined her host family in Senegal for a sabar dance in the village of Mouit. “My host family’s coiffeuse [hairdresser] taught me how to move like a true Senegalese,” says the double major in communication studies and French. “This photograph is the moment my apprehensions about dancing in the Senegalese style evaporated, after the coiffeuse took my hands and pulled me into the circle to dance—complete freedom.”


Above left: Senior international studies major Viki Eagle, who studied at Project Dharamsala in New Delhi, India, took this photo at the parliament building in New Delhi.

Below left: Junior music major Victoria Vanest took this photo of Big Ben and the giant Ferris wheel known as the London Eye during her study-abroad trip to England. “The sun made rare appearances in London,” she says, “and these colorful clouds were a very unusual sight.”

Right: Junior Michelle Woodruff captured this moment in Moscow’s Red Square as the city prepared to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. Woodruff, a double major in Russian and international studies, studied in Moscow through the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

Below: Vanessa Teck, a senior intercultural communications and digital media studies major, took this photo of Da Lat—known as the City of Flowers—during her study-abroad trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.


Facing page, top: Senior international studies major Hoa Quynh Do, who studied abroad in Tokyo, captured these musicians during a trip to the island of Miyajima.

Facing page, bottom: Junior ecology and biodiversity major Rebecca Hollmann helped bridge the language barrier during her trip to Rhotia, Tanzania, where she and a local boy read an English-Swahili translation guide together.

Above left: Junior Jessica Linder and some of the new friends she made while studying art in Italy hopped a train in the wee hours of the morning to visit the quaint seaside town of Viareggio. “The beach was essentially empty when we arrived,” says the biology and psychology double major. “I wanted to capture the colorful yet serene setting my friends and I were getting ready to enjoy.”

Above: International studies master’s student Erin Greenberg took this picture after a wedding procession in South India. “I love the juxtaposition of the large elephant towering over the seemingly tiny man,” she says. Greenberg studied in Dharamsala through DU’s service learning program in December 2011.

Left: During her study-abroad adventure in Africa, junior finance major Ella Kerr discovered that in the floodplain of Botswana’s Okavanga Delta, the easiest way to get around is by “makoro”—a wooden boat steered and propelled by a long pole. “These ‘polers’ know how to navigate their way around the intersecting waterways,” she says, “being sure to avoid hippos and alligators along the way.”

Behindthe

The

ScarsStories

Photo illustration by Wayne Arm

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or 23-year-old Rachel, it all started in high school.

After a painful week in which her group of friends turned against her and began starting rumors about her, the angst-filled teen stayed home from school, retreated to her room, and began to slowly drag the ragged tip of a coat hanger across her tender forearm. The sensation surprised her.

“It felt so much better to sit there and scratch myself than to have my heart broke and crying,” she recalls. “It eased me.”

Rachel’s vivid account of her introduction to self-injury—aka “cutting”—is just one of many brutally honest, illuminating interviews contained in The Tender Cut: Inside the Hidden World of Self-Injury (New York University Press, 2011), by University of Denver sociology Professor Peter Adler and his wife, Patricia Adler, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The culmination of 11 years of research—including 150 in-person interviews and some 40,000 email and chat-room correspondences—the book offers an unflinching, at times extremely hard-to-read glimpse into the little-understood practice of self-injury. Studies show that as many as 4 percent of the overall population and one in five adolescents have hurt themselves intentionally. Of those, 72 percent cut themselves, 35 percent burn themselves, 10 percent pull their own hair, and 8 percent have broken a bone intentionally.

But while prior research has been able to get at the frequency and methods behind the “cutting” craze, no one has been able to answer the nagging question: Why?

“The lay public knows a lot less about this than other issues, like anorexia or drug use, which have become part of the landscape of middle-America adolescent culture,” Peter Adler says. “People think it is just this bizarre behavior, but no one understood the motivation.”

Unlike previous researchers, who looked to psychiatric patients or emergency room populations for answers, the Adlers took a broader approach, reaching out to everyone from middle-aged housewives to straight-A college students to teenage rape survivors. Their goal was to paint a nonjudgmental picture of self-injury through a sociological lens.

They came away with some controversial conclusions: that self-injury is more coping mechanism than harbinger of serious mental illness or suicidal tendencies; that it is more sociological phenomenon than dangerous addiction; that it is far more widespread than previously believed; and that—while the Adlers stop short of condoning or recommending it—it may even, in certain moments, have its benefits.

“The psycho-medical community had largely defined the behavior as something that white, female adolescents with serious psychological disorders like borderline personality disorder do,” says Patricia Adler, noting that not long ago self-injurers were considered suicidal and often were hospitalized. “We challenge that definition profoundly, with the biggest data set of noninstitutionalized people in existence. Many, many people are out there using this as a mechanism for bridging difficult situations and then moving on. It helps them feel better.”

Sociologists Peter and Patricia Adler take an

unprecedented look at the world of self-injury.By Lisa Marshall

theScars

Photo illustration by Wayne Arm

strong


The husband-and-wife research and writing team met in 1969 at Washington University in St. Louis, where they took a criminology class together and instantly “fell in love” with the subject. They soon made a strange request of their professor: Could they write their final exam together? He obliged, and from that point on they wrote as a team.

“Our early professors used to say, ‘You need to establish an independent voice.’ But we stuck to our guns and tried this very dangerous experiment instead, and it has worked out very well for us,” says Peter, seated in his office beneath a bookshelf crammed with some of the roughly 25 books and hundreds of research papers the two have co-authored over the years.

For one book, Dealing (Columbia University Press, 1985), they spent six years immersed in the lives of high-end drug traffickers in California. For another, Peer Power (Rutgers University Press, 1998), they spent eight years exploring bullying, peer pressure and other harsh realities in the worlds of pre-adolescents. Their central research interest always has been deviance in society, and both teach popular courses with the same name.

In the mid-1990s, the couple began to hear about cutting from their students. “At that time, it was a loner, secretive activity. People rarely talked about it,” Peter says.

One day a 16-year-old family friend came to Peter with a dilemma. She wanted to go to Dartmouth, and she had straight As, but she couldn’t pass gym class. As it turned out, she was ashamed to wear shorts because her legs were riddled with self-inflicted scars.

“A light bulb went on,” Peter says. The Adlers had their next research project.

By the time they launched their study, it was 2000, and the Internet was full of chat rooms where self-injurers shared stories not only on how to quit, but, more often, on how and why they cut.

“It was transformed from a loner, deviant activity into a full-fledged subculture, but unlike in other subcultures we had studied, most of these people would never meet face-to-face,” Peter says.

Posters freely discussed the grisly details of what “tools” to use, how deep to go, and where on the body was least likely to scar or be discovered. Some shared their techniques for fending off infection.

“I’d have my Band-Aids and my paper towels and my Neosporin, and I’d put a new blade on my X-Acto knife. It was like preparing for surgery,” explained one subject quoted in The Tender Cut.

The news was filled with stories about celebrity cutters, including singer Marilyn Manson (who reportedly self-injured on stage), British comedian Russell Brand (who allegedly lacerated his

chest and arms with glass), and actors Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, who reportedly had marked pivotal life experiences with the sharp blade of a knife. In a famous BBC television interview, Princess Diana revealed that she, too, self-injured.

“When no one listens to you, or you feel no one is listening to you, all sorts of things start to happen,” Diana said. “You have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help.”

While some celebrity cutters also suffered from serious mental health problems, drug addictions or eating disorders, the Adlers discovered less pathological motivations among many of their subjects.

Mike, a “scruffy-looking college student who always wore a stocking cap,” started cutting at age 14 after a girlfriend broke up with him. “I just need something where I could vent and rage without having any outward signs so that nobody could tell,” he told the Adlers.

Amy, 19, started burning herself with a heated-up screw, largely out of rebellion, at age 14. “I was into the honors classes and I was a goody two-shoes, so I determined to be all-out bad.”

Jane, a high school cheerleader, said she did it for the physical release: “I would have this intense emotion of anxiety and panic and pressure and frustration, and when I did it, it was a release. I was reorganized and I could breathe again.”

Other interviewees said they did it for the physical endorphin rush. (Research has shown that repeated self-injury results in a rush of opiate-like substances in the body, which helps deaden the pain and ignites a high.)

Some who had shut down emotionally due to tragic life events said cutting made them at least “feel something.” For others, self-injury was an act of control at a time of life when they felt they had none.

“Often, they are not going through anything that you and I didn’t go through,” Peter says. “They are just choosing a different method for coping with it.”

Wendy Lader, clinical director of the St. Louis-based self-injury treatment program S.A.F.E. Alternatives, agrees that self-injury affects a far broader demographic than once believed, and that it is in fact a coping mechanism. But she says certain subsets are more prone to start cutting than others.

“It’s often about emotional disregulation,” she says. “Kids who self-injure seem to—for whatever reason—feel things more intensely, and they don’t know how to modulate that intense emotion. These are desperate, unhappy kids.”


She stresses that “there is no safe or healthy amount of self-injury” and fears that characterizing it as faddish, or normalizing it, paints the wrong picture.

“Yes it helps them feel better, just like heroin, but it is not solving the underlying problem,” she says. “And, like with an addiction, they often need more and more for the same effect, so it can get dangerous. If I were the parent of a child who was self-injuring, I would intervene immediately and get help from a therapist.”

Daniel Cress, a professor of sociology at Western State College of Colorado, says he sees the book as neither condoning nor condemning self-injury, but rather offering a much-needed, nonjudgmental perspective.

“It is a courageous book,” Cress says. “Instead of playing it safe, taking the party line and condemning it whole cloth, they have taken something that seems super abnormal and tried to make sense of it. That’s what great sociological research is all about.”

Cress liked the book so much it is now required reading for students in his introduction to sociology class. Some students “completely freaked out” about what they read. Others felt that, at

last, they could understand why some of their friends engaged in self-injury. The students with the strongest reactions to the book were those who came up to Cress after class to confess that they, too, had self-injured. “They loved it,” Cress says. “They felt like, ‘finally, somebody gets it.’”

Peter says he and Patricia have been overwhelmed by the thank-yous they have received from current and former self-injurers.

“These people can offer this up to their loved ones and say, ‘This is me. This is how I feel.’ A lot of them just can’t articulate it themselves.”

Their advice to someone who finds a loved one cutting?“Do not freak out or overreact,” Patricia says. Instead, sit down

and have a talk with him or her about what’s going on in his or her life. Check out some Internet chat rooms to get a better sense of why people do it. And offer the support of a counselor who specializes in self-injury.

Above all, says Peter, “keep in mind that this is just the symptom. This is not the problem. For a long time it has been treated as the problem.”

“Often, they are

not going through

anything that you

and I didn’t go

through. They are

just choosing a

different method for

coping with it.”

— Peter Adler

Wayne Arm

strong



OOutside the Denver Center for International Studies

on a sunny March afternoon, spring is in full bloom.

The surrounding neighborhood basks in the tranquility,

with little more than a few chirping birds disturbing the

peaceful reverie.

Inside the school, however, a fury of focused conflict

and passionate persuasion reigns.

From one end of the cafeteria to the other—and,

later, in classrooms that otherwise would have been

Debate

The Sturm College of Law

helps Denver high schoolers

see both sides of the story.

By Pat RooneyPhotography by Justin Edmonds (BSBA ’08)


silently hibernating on this fine Saturday afternoon—

argumentative rhetoric echoes off every wall.

And in the case of these particular teenage

students, their arguments expand throughout the

universe.

One student seizes control of the podium and

begins to argue that it is in the best interest of

the United States government to funnel as much

money and as many resources as possible into space

exploration. A challenger takes the spotlight to refute

that notion, explaining how such resources could be

better used in other, more productive ventures.

Yet another student notes how the wonders of

the galaxy might eventually unlock the keys to such

mysteries as the cure for cancer, only to have that

viewpoint shot down with the piercing reality that

in this day and age, such frivolous spending is grossly

irresponsible.

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Neither side is ever right. Conversely, neither side is ever wrong. Inside this forum it is the spirit of the debates that serves as the most important aspect of the proceedings.

This is the Denver Urban Debate League.

Formed in 2008 as the local chapter of the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues, the Denver Urban Debate League (DUDL) entered into a formal partnership with the University of Denver Sturm College of Law last year, expanding the reach and capabilities of an organization that brings a competitive, intellectually challenging outlet to Denver Public Schools students who had never previously enjoyed such options.

“You really have an opportunity to get to know students in a different way outside of the classroom setting,” says Jessica Clark, the Denver league’s executive director. “You’re watching them engage in some pretty deep issues. This year, they’re debating whether the United States government should significantly increase space exploration. They really are engaging in ways—and becoming advocates in ways—that they wouldn’t necessarily have in the classroom. We’ve had students in the program who are now juniors at NYU or sophomores at DU who are all excelling, and that is wonderful to see.”

The genesis of the DUDL happened when Roberto Corrada, the Sturm College’s Chair in Modern Learning, attended a seminar where one of the featured speakers was the founder of the Chicago chapter of the Urban Debate League. A former collegiate debater at George Washington University, Corrada immediately envisioned a similar program thriving in Denver, and he set to the task of making that dream a reality.

Two of Corrada’s first phone calls were to Rico Munn and Casie Collignon, both decorated alums of the Sturm College of Law. The trio formed part of the founding board of directors for the DUDL and have remained instrumental in the organization’s rapid growth.

“I talked to Rico and Casie very early on, and we started talking about how to do it and how to set it up,” Corrada says. “But it wasn’t until the National Association of Urban Debate

Leagues decided they wanted to pay attention to new cities that they came out and talked to us. They had a model and we started to set that up.”

Corrada’s experience in debate gives him insight into the myriad benefits a debate league can bestow upon a student. Not only are there the obvious intellectual challenges, but competing in a debate arena often helps hone other academic and social skills.

“Anyone will tell you practicing public speaking only builds confidence, and that translates to a lot of different things,” Corrada says. “But it’s also the inherent confidence that they can learn things that they didn’t take part in before. And they can do it fairly quickly. In a debate round, you have very limited time to understand and grasp and respond to very complex things. And that’s very daunting when you start. But then after you do it a couple times, you realize, ‘I can do this. And so there’s no reason I can’t do this in other aspects of my life.’”

The official partnership between the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues and the Sturm College of Law has paid off for the law school and for participating high school debaters. DU law students often serve as volunteer mentors and debate tournament officials, providing them with practical experience while also fulfilling a portion of their community-

“I traveled around the country... and spent years where I never saw anybody at the debates who looked like me.”

—Rico Munn


service curriculum. The high school students, meanwhile, learn from enthusiastic role models.

The DUDL already has made local headlines—two standout sibling debate students, Teague and Theron Harrison, from Denver’s Manual High School, were featured in a March 2011 cover story in Denver’s alternative weekly newspaper, Westword—and the numbers clearly reveal the ongoing success of the partnership with DU.

During the 2009–10 school year, the DUDL boasted a total of 68 students from seven schools. Those 68 students competed in 926 tournament rounds. One year later, with only one more school in the fold, 137 students participated in a total of 2,301 tournament rounds.

That’s a 101 percent increase in the number of participating students and a whopping 148 percent increase in the number of tournament rounds in which they competed. More important, the graduation rate for DUDL students during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons was a perfect 100 percent. That’s no small feat, considering the overall graduation rate reported by Denver Public Schools for 2010–11 stood at 56.1 percent.

“I was a debater, and the reality for me was that I traveled around the country, both in high school and college, and spent years where I never saw anybody at the debates who looked like me,” says Munn, a Colorado native of African-American descent. “Now I go to these tournaments, and all these kids—it’s a very diverse group. It’s very personally rewarding for me to see that. But also, for these kids, they’re having success in an area where traditionally kids that look like them have not been successful. They get that. They recognize that nobody

would expect them to understand and know how the aerospace industry works, but they can sing it chapter and verse after going through that particular topic for a year. For me, that’s a globally rewarding thing.”

The students routinely echo Munn’s sentiment, and most say they are grateful for the opportunity. The typical DUDL student does not participate in varsity athletics, and debaters generally are extremely bright students who have not discovered their niche in the classroom. Through debate, those students find inspiration, motivation and an outlet for intellects that may otherwise have remained neglected.

“To quote a coach of mine, he said he’d been debating all his life, but he wasn’t on the debate team officially until high school,” says Selene Figueroa, a student with the Martin Luther King debate team. “During my eighth-grade year, my teachers recommended I go watch the state championships, which was the Denver Urban Debate League’s first year. At first I thought, ‘Debate’s nerdy. Whatever.’ But then I listened to it, and it was actually really cool. They were talking about relevant things.

“I come from a theater background, so I love having people listen to me,” she continues. “I’m not the tallest, or usually the best. But in a debate round you have to stand in front of a judge who has to listen to you to make their decision. I love that challenge.”

Those challenges continue to inspire DUDL alums currently working toward their college degrees. DU sophomore Reuben Aguirre, an international studies major who competed in the DUDL at Denver West High School, readily admits that his desire to earn a degree hails largely from his experience in the debate league.


“Up until that time, I hadn’t been a straight-A student at all,” Aguirre says. “It seemed like it was very empowering for the students that participated in it. It seemed like the sort of organization I wanted to be involved with.

“Before that, I wasn’t too concerned about life after high school,” he continues. “I never considered myself a dumb kid, but I never did well in school because nothing held my attention. Debate was a different way of learning. In my two years of debate, I probably learned more than I had in classrooms up to that point.”

The DUDL sponsored six tournaments this year, culminating in a city championship in mid-March that was won individually by Manual’s Harrison siblings and by the Denver Center for International Studies in the team sweepstakes. This year’s topic centered on the following premise: The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.

For those wondering what exactly constitutes the mesosphere, fear not. These teenagers were all over it. Throughout the course of a season, each set of debaters is required to argue both the positive and the negative aspects of a particular viewpoint. While that clearly presents a monumental challenge, becoming an expert on such a topic can be just as challenging to the coaches.

“I’ve learned probably more than the students have,” says Wauneta Vann, the debate coach at Thomas Jefferson High School. “First of all, there are the topics. You have to stay ahead of the game. That first year, [DUDL Executive Director] Jessica Clark … bless her heart, I would call her nonstop. It would be the middle of practice and I would call

her saying, ‘They’re asking me this and I don’t know the answer!’ Then I actually went to a coaches’ camp, and that’s what really made a difference for me. I’m constantly doing research and trying to learn, reading more. These guys pick up on things so fast and before you know it, I’m playing catch-up. I’ve definitely learned a lot.”

Given the rapid success of the DUDL—the league added three schools this season—the organization expects to enjoy further expansion in the near future. It already boasts novice and varsity divisions, and increased numbers in the future could lead to an intermediary junior varsity division as well.

In fall 2011, the National Organization of Urban Debate Leagues issued a directive detailing its intent to triple its membership. Corrada foresees a day in the not-so-distant future when factions of the DUDL will be in middle schools, allowing students to begin debating sooner and, in turn, be far more proficient by the time they are seniors in high school.

“A lot of guys like me, who are former debaters, come and judge,” Corrada said. “We even have a former Federal District Court judge who’s a former debater who comes and judges. If we branch out, if we increase our membership by two- or threefold and go into middle schools, we will have to figure out where we can get folks to judge. But at DU, for example, the law school now allows law students to work with these debate teams and get public service credits. That’s been very helpful. Each year we’ve seen a growth in the number of law students who are helping these kids. Which is great. That’s win-win.”

Win-win. That’s a benefit no debater could ever refute. >>denverdebate.org

Watch a video of Denver Urban Debate League students in action at du.edu/dudl

47 Career fair52 Book bin56 Quotable notes58 Pioneer pics59 Views

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University of Denver Magazine Connections 45

Three recreational swimmers pose for a photograph on the diving board of the DU swimming pool in May 1954. If you can identify these swimmers, or if you have your own recreation photos or memories to share, please send them our way.


1952Jack Gardner (BA ’52) of Shalimar, Fla., is president of Gardner Management Inc. in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Jack previously served on the board of directors of the Retired Military Officers Association in Washington, D.C., and was the Florida state president of that organization. Jack served as a battalion commander during active duty in the Vietnam War, was part of the U.S. Army staff and Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, and was an Army attaché in Brazil during the 1970s.

The classes Edward herrera (BA ’52, MA ’63) of Calgary, Alberta, has worked as a teacher and principal for more than 50 years. He taught in Denver Public Schools from 1952–69 and twice was named outstanding teacher of the year. Edward also was a teacher and principal in Canada from 1969–94, and he earned an outstanding principal award there in 1992. Edward has been a substitute elementary teacher since 1994.

1958William howard (BA ’58, MA ’60) of San Luis Obispo, Calif., is professor emeritus of city and regional planning at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at

California Polytechnic State University. He also is vice president of marketing at Parallel Design Studios and is a consultant to several city governments in California.

1963Leslee (Carlson) Breene (BA ’63) of Englewood, Colo., is an award-winning Western women’s fiction author. She recently released her fourth novel, Starlight Rescue (Treble Heart Books, 2011), about a veterinarian in Wyoming who fights to keep her rescue ranch. The book was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s Published Authors’ Special Interest Chapter Award for single-title romance.

ProfileINNOvAtOr Emmit McHenry

Emmit McHenry (BA ’66) received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Denver as an undergraduate in the 1960s. When he became injured, his grades were good enough that the University then granted him an academic scholarship.

So when McHenry gained success in the “real world,” one of the first things he did was pay the University back for its financial support.

That was just the beginning of McHenry’s long service to his alma mater. For his efforts, McHenry received the Randolph P. McDonough Award for Service to Alumni at the Founders Day ceremony in March.

McHenry studied communications at DU and also at Northwestern University, where he earned a master’s degree and nearly completed a PhD. He left Northwestern to launch the first of many suc-cessful companies in the computer networking and telecommunications industries.

A communications scholar launching technology companies? McHenry says it makes total sense.“At the core of most successful endeavors is successful communications,” he says. But McHenry

also has a knack for seeing what’s coming in the future. His first company, Network Solutions, grew from a modest idea—“building computer networks that support human engagement,” McHenry says—to become the first company to win the right to register Internet domain names.

He and his partners sold that company, and since then, McHenry has started several more suc-cessful technology firms, consulted nonstop for organizations in many industries and many countries, and received recognition from NASA, IBM, AT&T, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps, local, state and federal governments, and nongovernmental organizations in the United States and Africa.

Somehow, he also has found time to give back to his alma mater.McHenry, a former president of the University of Denver Alumni Association, currently serves on

advisory boards for the Divisions of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the engineering and com-puter science departments. He also conducts Ammi Hyde interviews and mentors students whenever he gets the chance.

“The University of Denver has had a significant impact on my life, and it’s simply a matter of giv-ing back to it,” he says. “It was a nurturing place, and I think of it still as a nurturing place. The whole environment—even the air—is different at DU.”

Roy Wood (BA ’61, MA ’62, PhD ’65), a professor in the Department of Communication Studies, met McHenry on the DU campus in the ’60s, and the two have stayed close.

“He’s just an exceptional alumnus, and he’s given a lot to the University,” Wood says. “He’s very accomplished, and he’s very responsive to the University. Emmit is worthy of any prize you could give him.”

— Janalee Card Chmel

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1965John Kirby (BSBA ’65) of Woodland Hills, Calif., owns a dealership, Kirby Auto Group. John also is an avid DU basketball fan and attended the Sun Belt tournament in Hot Springs, Ark., in March 2011.

1966Dennis Powers (JD ’66) of Ashland, Ore., recently added e-book versions of his five nonfiction maritime books and three new fiction titles—The Deadly Seas, A World Within Worlds and The Gold Bugs—to the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks store and other e-reader sites.

1968Stephen Alfers (BA ’68, MA ’73) of High-lands Ranch, Colo., joined Sagebrush Gold Ltd. as executive chairman and chief execu-tive officer in February. Stephen previously was chief of U.S. operations at Franco-Nevada Corp. He has 20 years of experience as a partner in several mining, oil and gas and natural resource development law firms. As a mining law expert, Stephen has advised the United Nations, foreign governments and congressional committees.

1969Bill Overfelt (BSBA ’69, MBA ’74) of Gilbert, Ariz., welcomed his grandson, William Daniel Valentine, on Sept. 16, 2011.

Paul Verciglio (BS ’69) of Toronto received the Pin-nacle Award for Hotelier of the Year 2011 for all of Canada from Kostuch Media Ltd. Paul is the general

manager of the Park Hyatt Toronto and has worked in the hospitality industry for 50 years. He opened the Park Hyatt Toronto in 1999, the Stillwater Spa in 2002 and an off-site kosher catering business in 2011.

Alumni career fairAt a time when unemployment is still a concern for many qualified workers, DU’s Office of

Alumni Relations will co-host the third annual All Colorado Alumni Career Fair from 2–5 p.m. June 12 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center.

The event is exclusively for alumni of DU and 12 other area colleges and universities who have at least a four-year degree and three years of work experience. By banding together, the schools are able to attract greater participation from employers, says Cindy Hyman, DU’s associate director of alumni career programs.

“If we had just done a career fair for DU alumni, we wouldn’t have the same number of potential job seekers or employer participation, but if we band together with all schools, employers are excited about doing it, and it makes it a really good event for everyone,” Hyman says.

Unlike community career fairs geared toward unemployed blue- and white-collar work-ers alike, this fair will host employers who are specifically looking to hire candidates with college degrees and several years of work experience. Employers at this year’s fair include American Family Insurance, Colorado Community Health Network and Republic National Distributing Company.

“We think we get a better category of employers,” Hyman says.In 2010, DU started receiving more phone calls from unemployed alumni seeking career

resources. Alumni Relations realized this was happening at other schools as well, so DU and the University of Colorado joined forces with 12 other schools to start the All Colorado Alumni Career Fair. Last year, the fair attracted 105 employers and 1,200 alumni, including 250 from DU.

“This is a fairly unique event around the country, and I like the idea that we can cooperate with each other,” Hyman says. “We all realize that employers are looking for the best candidate for the job, and we feel our DU alumni are very well-qualified and can compete with any alum in the state or the country.”

The All Colorado Career Fair also will include career-related seminars presented by career consultants, including a pre-fair workshop with tips on how to navigate a career fair.

Some of those tips? Hyman says it’s important to bring plenty of resumés and business cards, to find out which companies will attend, to pinpoint the few you want to talk to and to research those companies in advance.

“This allows you to ask more insightful questions and make a better impression,” she says.The event is free, but registration is recommended and will be open through the morning of

June 12 at www.alumni.du.edu/AlumniCareerFair2012.— Amber D’Angelo Na

Barry Zawacki (MFA ’69) of Mountain Lakes, N.J., is an artist and ceramics teacher at the County College of Morris in Ran-dolph, N.J. A solo exhibition of his pottery, paintings and sculpture was staged at the college’s gallery in January. His exhibition, Spirit of the West, was inspired by the forms, textures, colors and landscapes of Colorado and the Southwest. Barry has completed postgraduate studies in illustration and ceramics.

1971Judith Lauter (MA ’71) of Nacogdoches, Texas, wrote a neuroscience book, How is Your Brain Like a Zebra? (Xlibris Corp., 2008), which discusses the impact of sex hormones on the brain before birth and the

implications for gender behavior, academic skills, athletic skills, personality and the ori-gin of problems such as autism, hyperactivity and chronic pain. Judith is a professor and director of the Human Neuroscience Labo-ratory at Stephen F. Austin State University.

1973Richard Gonzmart (attd. 1971–73) of Tampa, Fla., was recognized with the Citizen of the Year Award by the Tampa Metro Civitan Club at the annual Governor’s Day luncheon Feb. 9. Richard owns Columbia Restaurant—Florida’s oldest eatery—and was recognized for his ongoing generosity and community service.

Terry Toy (PhD ’73) of Bemus Point, N.Y., is retired and serves as a ferryboat captain on Lake Chautauqua.

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1974Kristi (Denton) Cohen (BA ’74) of Mill Valley, Calif., is a film producer. Her most recent film, The River Why, was released on DVD in November 2011. It won several awards and was shown at film festivals nationwide. Kristi’s previous film, Vertical Frontier, was an award-winning documentary, narrated by Tom Brokaw, about the history of climbing in Yosemite.

Ron Stock (JD ’74, LLM ’94) of Monterey, Calif., is the city administrator of Weed, Calif.

1975Janet Davenport (MA ’75) of Omaha, Neb., became director of Keene Memorial Library in Fremont, Neb. She previously managed the Millard Branch Library and served in various roles at the Omaha Public Library.

Terry Meyer (BA ’75) of Providence, R.I., is a master gardener at the University of Rhode Island. She was recognized for her volunteer work teaching gardening inside a maximum-security prison in Cranston, R.I., in the Providence Journal on Oct. 31, 2011.

1976Douglas Mewhinney (JD ’76) of San Andreas, Calif., retired on March 1—his 60th birthday—after 34 years of public service. Douglas was a Calaveras County Superior Court judge for 14 years and previously was district attorney of Calaveras County.

1977Marlowe Embree (BA ’77) of Wasau, Wis., was promoted to associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County. Marlowe conducts research with the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service about the relation-ship between personality diversity and deliberative democracy.

1978Therese Rowley (MBA ’78) of Chicago was featured in the November 2011 issue of Michigan Avenue Magazine for her work as an intuitive consultant. Therese previ-ously taught leadership and transformation at the University of Chicago and

taught organizational development at the Uni-versity of San Francisco. She runs her own consulting business, the Center for Intuition, where she uses her intuition to provide clients with business and personal guidance.

Peter Zwack (BA ’78) of Newport, R.I., is training to become the senior defense attaché for the United States in Moscow beginning in July.

1980Caroline Smith (BA ’80) of Highlands Ranch, Colo., is self-employed as a nutrition and fitness consultant. She is a certified nutritional consultant and a certi-fied natural health practitioner and has a naturopathic doctor degree. Caroline competed in triath-

lons until she was injured in a car accident in 2003, followed by a bicycle accident and a second car accident in 2007. Shortly after recovering from her injuries, Caroline returned to exercise and won her age bracket in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series.

1981Monica Ortale (BA ’81, MA ’82) of Hous-ton is associate director of reference and public services at the Fred Parks Law Library in the South Texas College of Law.

1983Jeff Engelstad (BSBA ’83, MRCM ’92, PhD ’97) of Aurora, Colo., is a clinical professor at DU’s Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management.

1984Leigh hitz (BSBA ’84) of Aurora, Colo., was promoted to chief executive officer at Stout Street Hospitality in Denver. She previously was president of the company and has worked for Stout Street for almost 25 years. Leigh also sits on the executive advisory board for the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management in the Daniels College of Business. In 2008, Leigh and her husband, James, established a scholarship for female students pursuing a hospitality degree at the school. Leigh previously was a finalist for the Denver Business Journal’s Busi-ness Woman of the Year award.


ProfileSCIENtISt Daphne Preuss

Most people think of sorghum, if they think of it at all, as feed for cattle and chickens. Geneticist Daphne Preuss (BS ’85) sees it as feedstock for clean biofuels and as a key ingredient to an alternative energy future.

Though the plant has the genes necessary to give it the energy content of top-grade coal, those genes are turned off. Preuss and her team at Chromatin Inc., the biotech company she cofounded, have figured out how to switch them on. “We’ve got a $6 million U.S. Department of Energy contract to do it,” she says.

“Solving the energy problem will take a lot of different things coming together,” says Preuss, who received the Professional Achievement Award at the Founders Day ceremony in March. While wind and solar power provide some alternative power, they won’t by themselves suffice, she says. “The wind doesn’t blow all the time; the sun doesn’t shine all the time.”

Sorghum is an ideal crop to help fill the gap because it grows well in substandard conditions—marginal land with little rainfall. “It’s hard to get those lands to produce corn,” she says. In addition, sorghum doesn’t emit toxic mercury or other pollutants, as coal does.

Preuss credits much of her success to the University of Denver, which gave her an offer of admission and a scholarship when she had nowhere to turn. She had been a top student at Hinkley High School in Aurora, Colo., but applied to only one school—Yale. “When I got rejected, I had no backup,” she says.

Her mother took her to DU and asked for a meeting with Dwight Smith, then-chairman of the chemistry department. Smith quickly

realized he was looking at talent. “I remember two things about

her very clearly,” says Smith, now a research professor, a professor emeritus of chemistry and a chancellor emeritus. “She was extremely bright, and she was extremely motivated toward a career in science. We love to get students with those characteristics. I thought that there had to be a way to get her in.”

He left the room, telling Preuss, “I’ll be right back.” When he returned, he had both an acceptance and a scholarship. The acceptance was obtained with a call to admission. The scholarship came from a fund established by DU alumna Broda Barnes (BA ’28).

“I knew how much was in the fund,” Smith says. “I found out how much Daphne needed and was able to tip the scale in favor of her enrolling.”

Preuss went on to graduate school at M.I.T. and postdoctoral work at Stanford.

She became a full professor at the University of Chicago in her 30s. She left academia to found Chromatin, which employs more than 100 people and is growing sorghum on some 3 million acres through seed sales and contractual arrangements with farmers. Preuss also holds more than 50 patents.

She looks back to DU as the place that gave her the critical break. “Dwight took the meeting with us, and I will always be grateful,” she says. “He made an exception and helped get me in. Without that, I might not have gone to college.”

>>chromaticinc.com—Doug McInnis

Carol (Bjork) Taylor (MA ’84) of Boulder, Colo., joined the Boulder History Museum as curator of adult programs and research. A librarian and archivist, Carol also has been a Boulder County history columnist for the Daily Camera newspaper since 2008.

1985Gay Carlson (BA ’85, MA ’96) of Centen-nial, Colo., teaches third and fourth grades at DU’s Ricks Center for Gifted Children.

Owen Jones (MBA ’85) of Lakewood, Colo., recently returned from a yearlong work assignment at the South Pole, where he supported scientific research for the National Science Foundation.

Michael Odell (BSAC ’85) of Wayne, Pa., was elected to the board of directors of Mer-itage Homes. He also was appointed to serve on the board’s audit, executive compensation and nominating/governance committees. Michael is president and chief executive officer of Pep Boys and serves on the organi-zation’s board of directors. He previously was executive vice president and general manager of Sears retail and specialty stores.

1986Jennifer Gance (BA ’86) of Thornton, Colo., started a publishing company, Jotter Books Publishing, in fall 2011. She also wrote and published two books: SPARK—Igniting an Interest in Health Care and a children’s book, A Rocky Mountain Tale.

Kimberley Lorden (BSBA ’86, MBA ’89) of Littleton, Colo., in 2010 co-founded the K-8 Ambleside school in Cen-tennial, Colo. Kimberley is director of admissions for the school and serves

on its board of trustees. She lives with her husband, Greg, and four children.

Terrie Martinez (BA ’86) of Denver was appointed to a two-year term on the Hispanic Chamber Education Foundation board of directors in October 2011. Terrie advises programs and acts as an ambassador for the foundation’s mission of promoting educa-tional achievement, economic advancement and leadership development in the Hispanic community. Terrie is a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch and has worked in the finan-cial services industry since 2006.

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In the late 1990s, Erik Myhren (MA ’03) was a television advertising sales representative—a job he found thoroughly dissatisfying.

“One night I drove home crying, wondering what I was doing with my life,” he recalls.

That all changed when Myhren quit his job and was hired by a friend to work at a Denver YMCA summer camp.

“We worked 6 to 6, no breaks, and the kids were always there,” Myhren says. “And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t looking at my watch wondering if the battery had died. The day was gone before I knew it, and I realized, ‘That’s the life I want.’”

Myhren earned a master’s degree in urban education from the University of Denver and has taught at three Denver elementary schools. He has some strong opinions about public education.

“The school environment is an unnatural environment,” he says. “We as adults couldn’t sit and listen to adults babble on for eight hours a day, and we expect kids to do it.”

Myhren also believes that many students need to be motivated to attend school through strong teacher relationships and through exposure to activities that attract their attendance.

“I was never a kid who loved school. I showed up every day so that I could attend art class and be eligible for sports activities,” he says. “In the process, I ended up getting a good education.”

But many kids from underserved communities never receive those extracurricular opportunities. So when Myhren began his teaching career, he also started a girls’ basketball team. Within three years, that had expanded into girls’ and boys’ soccer, T-ball, lacrosse and even outings to theater performances and ski trips.

Much of the funding for these activities came out of Myhren’s own pocket or from donations. Pretty soon he realized there was a big demand for the kind of access he was providing, so he started a nonprofit organization to expand his idea.

Now called “Connect the Kids,” the organization introduces disadvantaged elementary students to a wide variety of enrichment programs in areas ranging from arts and academics to sports and life skills.

For his work on behalf of Denver’s underserved elementary students, Myhren is this year’s recipient of the Founders Day Ammi Hyde Award for Recent Graduate Achievement.

Myhren’s mentor in the Morgridge College of Education, Professor Nick Cutforth, says Myhren “bends the rules, but I think that’s what great teachers do. Great teachers are subversive. They’re challenging the status quo, not for their own ideologies but for the betterment of the kids.”

Myhren simply says, “What I do with the kids makes life worth getting up for every day.”>>connectthekids.org

—Janalee Card Chmel

Richard Stalzer (BSBA ’86) of New York was named president of mobile market-ing and advertising for Motricity. Richard previously was chief operating officer at Education Dynamics. Prior, he held strategic leadership positions at InterActive Corp., Bankrate, Microsoft, E*Trade Financial and Time Warner.

1987Peg Brown (JD ’87) of Denver is deputy com-missioner of consumer affairs for the Colorado Division of Insurance. She also is the first person in the nation to complete all three levels of the

Insurance Regulator Professional Designa-tion Program—a national training program for insurance regulators. Peg’s accomplish-ment was recognized by the National Association of Insurance at the organization’s annual fall meeting in 2011.

Dante James (JD ’87) of Aurora, Colo., was named director of the Portland, Ore., Office of Equity and Human Rights—a newly formed city office designed to tackle inequity. Dante is a former nonprofit director and public defender. He also served with military police in the U.S. Army and was an appointee of former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.

Dennis Neilander (JD ’87) of Minden, Nev., was hired as a consultant for compli-ance and gaming regulatory matters at Multimedia Games Holding Co. He also is chairman of the company’s regulatory compliance committee. Dennis joined the Kaempfer Crowell law firm in 2011. He pre-viously was a member and chairman of the board of directors for the State of Nevada Gaming Control Board. Dennis also served as member and president of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and was named gaming regulator of the year in 2007 by the International Masters of Gaming Law.

Alan Willenbrock (MBA ’87) of Tucson, Ariz., is a portfolio manager, vice president and financial adviser at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Alan recently was named to the firm’s Pacesetters Club,

a global recognition program for financial advisers who demonstrate high professional standards and first-class client service within their first five years. Alan lives with his wife, Peggy Jones.

ProfileCOACH Erik Myhren

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1988Jim Doerner (MA ’88, PhD ’94) of Greeley, Colo., is a professor of geography at the University of Northern Colorado.

1990Mark Goldfogel (BSBA ’90) of Telluride, Colo., co-founded MJ Freeway, a provider of hosted software for the medical marijuana industry. MJ Freeway provides software solu-tions that streamline sales and tax collection, state reporting, diversion control, tracking and best business practices for the medical marijuana industry. Mark also writes a blog about changing state regulations for medical marijuana growers and providers.

1991Tod Fitzke (JD ’91) of Aurora, Colo., has a private law practice in the areas of insurance subrogation, small business representation, landlord/tenant issues, collections, personal injury and estate planning.

Steve Fondario (MSSM ’91) was appointed director of supply chain management at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y. Steve has more than 30 years of experi-ence, including leadership positions at Gen-eral Electric, Apple and Cisco Systems Inc.

1992Christina Dixon (BA ’92, JD ’96) of Denver formed the Dixon Law Firm, which represents insurance companies and their insured in claims including first- and third-party bad faith, breach of contract and employer liability.

George Milburn (MSSM ’92) of Fairfax, Va., retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a colonel after 31 years of service. He now is strategic plans director for Cyber Command in Fort Meade, Md. George lives with Kathy, his wife of 33 years. They have three children who all served in the military.

1993Russell Sinkler (CERT ’93) of Rosemount, Minn., is the quality management director at UCare, an inde-pendent, nonprofit health insurance company. Russell previously was director of client management for

OptumInsight. He has more than 25 years of experience in quality oversight, customer service, process improvement, strategic plan-ning and technology advances. Russell also is an adjunct instructor in the MBA program at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn.

1995Bouker Pool (BA ’95, MS ’03) of New York works for the newly formed USA TODAY Sports Media Group. He previously worked for Competitor Group Inc. in San Diego.

Chris Sutton (PhD ’95) of Macomb, Ill., is a professor in the geography department at Western Illinois University. He co-authored the Student Atlas of World Geography (McGraw-Hill/Dushkin), which is in its seventh edition.

Coming to a city near you!Visit www.alumni.du.edu/DUontheRoad

to view the 2012 schedule and to register for an upcoming DU on the Road.

DU on the Road brings the University of Denver from the foothills of the Rockies to a city near you. Throughout the academic year, complimentary cocktail receptions are held in various cities across the country. These gatherings provide a unique opportunity to speak with University leadership about the latest developments at DU while you

mingle with fellow alumni, parents and friends of the university.

We look forward to connecting with you as we travel to your city!


1996Paul Marr (PhD ’96) of Shippensburg, Pa., is a professor of geography at Shippensburg University.

1997Andrew Wiener (BA ’97) of Greenwich, Conn., welcomed a son, Anderson Robert Wiener, on Sept. 14, 2011.

1998Audrey Goetz (MT ’98) of Independence, Ky., manages the tax department of SS&G Certified Public Accountants and Advisors. She previously was a senior tax manager at J.D. Cloud & Co.

1999Khalid Al-Mahmoud (BA ’99) of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is an award-winning filmmaker. Khalid was one of 10 film per-sonalities named the “most influential in the

Mary (Vensel) White (BA ’95) of Irvine, Calif., recently wrote her first novel, The Qualities of Wood (HarperCollins, 2012). Mary lives with her husband and four children and is writing her next book.

Dalliance: A Novel, by Diana (Miller) Burg (attd. 1963–64, 1967–68)

Dalliance (Syracuse University Press, 2008) is a historical novel about women’s issues during the Civil War, based on the true story of the high-society romance, marriage and divorce of Mary and Isaac Burch in Illinois in the 1860s. Burg researched the novel with the help of her father’s collection of letters, diaries, books and memorabilia from the Civil War era, which is housed as a special collection at Penrose Library. Burg’s father, Victor Miller (LLB ’22), taught at the DU law school from 1926–29. Burg lives with her hus-band, Charles Burg (JD ’68), in Denver, where she practices real estate.

Entrepreneurial Success: The Road to the Top, by Joseph Geiger (BS ’60)

Entrepreneurial Success (The Road to the Top, 2011) features 101 busi-ness principles and insights Geiger learned during his 50 years of experience building 10 companies. The book includes infor-mation about finding business opportunities; crafting a business plan; buying, starting, growing and marketing a business; legal and ethical issues in business; and having an exit strategy. Geiger lives in Richmond, Va., where he teaches entrepreneur-ship and small business management at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. For more information, visit www.theroadtothetop.com.

It Might Turn Out We Are Real, by Susan Scarlata (PhD ’09)

It Might Turn Out We Are Real (Horse Less Press, 2011) is a collection of 65 one-page poems Scarlata wrote as a current take on the ancient Sapphic stanza form of poetry—a “booklong series of con-temporary language frag-menting itself as it goes,” she explains. Scarlata lives in Hong Kong, where she is a liberal arts professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design and execu-tive editor at Lost Roads Publishers. For more information, visit www.susanscarlata.com.

Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success by Rory Vaden (BSBA ’06, MBA ’06)

Vaden, an award-winning trainer, strategist and moti-vational speaker who lives in Nashville, Tenn., devel-oped his “take the stairs” philosophy as a member of the Pioneer Leadership Program at DU. In Take the Stairs—which rose to the No. 1 spot on the USA Today Money bestsellers list and was No. 2 on the New York Times bestsell-ers list in the category of advice, how-to and miscel-laneous—Vaden writes that self-discipline and avoiding the temptation of shortcuts are important to achieving success in this “escalator world.” “What seems like an easier path is really much harder in the end—and, most important, it won’t take you where you want to go,” he writes.

Vintage and Artistic Homes of Boulder by Gayl Gray (MA ’73)

Gray wrote and took photographs for Vintage and Artistic Homes of Boulder (Johnson Books, 2011), a photo book that depicts the interior and exterior architecture and design of 27 homes while recounting the architec-tural history of some of the neighborhoods in Boulder, Colo. Gray is a photographer and a for-mer information specialist and library manager for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She also was a journal-ist for Boulder Women’s Magazine. Gray lives in Boulder with her husband, Richard Rotunno.

Book bin


ProfileMENtOr Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard is a tangible, personal embodiment of the University of Denver’s vision of contributing to the greater good of the community. For her philanthropic endeavors, personal passion and good old-fashioned elbow grease—all aimed at helping needy students reach their greatest potential—Howard received the Community Service Award at the Founders Day ceremony in March.

In 2001, Howard (EMBA ’03) and her husband, Gary, started the Gary and Leslie Howard Family Foundation, which provides scholarships to students who want to study business at the University of Denver or Colorado State University, Gary’s alma mater.

Thus far, the foundation has awarded more than $1 million in scholarships, has seen 50 of its recipients graduate and currently is funding 30 to 35 more students.

The Howards also organize and run the annual Miracles on Ice hockey camp on the DU campus, serving children who live in Denver’s housing projects.

Additionally, Leslie Howard serves on the board of the Bridge Project, which helps children living in Denver public housing achieve their academic potential and graduate from high school. Howard recently provided the organization with an endowment challenge gift.

Running a foundation, serving on boards and managing camps requires a lot of passion and hard work, but Howard says the most rewarding aspect of her altruism is getting to know the students she helps.

Not only does she mentor a young woman through the Bridge Project, but she reaches out to the foundation’s scholarship recipients to find out how they’re doing and what they need to succeed.

“We want to get to know our scholarship recipients,” she says. “We could just give them money, but we want to get involved and help them in other ways.”

Corey Danko (BSBA ’10, IMBA ’10) received $5,000 from the Howards’ foundation five years in a row.

“As I was looking for jobs during my last few months at DU, both Gary and Leslie took the time to meet with me and ask what my career goals and aspirations were,” Danko says. “They both took it upon themselves to introduce me to many of their business colleagues within the Denver community.”

Howard, who also is mom to 9-year-old twin daughters, says, “This has been an incredible experience for Gary and me. Besides creating kids together, we’ve created something together that helps other people. It feels good.”

>>miraclesonicecamps.com —Janalee Card Chmel

Arab film community” by Screen Interna-tional magazine. Khalid is a programmer for the Dubai International Film Festival and directed the short film Sabeel, which won several international awards.

Richard Dodge (PhD ’99) of Douglas, Ariz., works for the U.S. Census. He previously taught a geography course at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Richard is a member of the board of directors of Desert Rose Baha’i Institute and is the originator and coordinator for the institute’s annual Artists and Scholars Symposium. He also conducts research on U.N. Security Council reform.

Rachel Oys (BA ’99, MPP ’00, JD ’05) of Golden, Colo., was appointed assistant manager of Eagle County, Colo., in November 2011. She also is director of health and human services for the county. Prior to joining Eagle County, Rachel led development at LiveWell Colorado and led the healthy living branch of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Tennille Williams (BA ’99, MA ’05) of Phoenix married Troy Blair on Oct. 22, 2011, in Para-dise Valley, Ariz.

2000Josh Ganet (BSBA ’00) and Carli (Dyer) Ganet of Long Beach, Calif., welcomed a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth Ganet, on Dec. 22, 2011.

Dayna Milne (MBA ’00) of Littleton, Colo., was hired as the division vice president of revenue management at Sage Hospitality in Denver. Dayna has more than 20 years of leadership experience. She previously was the corporate director of revenue management for Vail Resorts Hospitality and RockResorts. She also was the Colorado market director of revenue management for Marriott International and the director of sales and marketing for Mexico’s Camino Real Hotels.

Timothy Vowles (PhD ’00) of Thornton, Colo., is a lecturer in the geography program at the University of Northern Colorado.

Wayne Arm

strong


& Tooley, where she focuses on mineral title and business transactions. She also has completed 11 marathons.

Kyle Schlachter (BS ’03) and his wife, Lisa Todd (BA ’02, MA ’05), of Littleton, Colo., welcomed their first child, son Benjamin Elias Schlachter-Todd, on April 25, 2011.

2004

Robert Boardman (MM ’04) of Ann Arbor, Mich., was named semifinalist for the American Prize in Conducting for the world premiere performance of Lembit Beecher’s multimedia oratorio And Then I Remember. In fall 2011, Robert was named music direc-tor and conductor of the Rensselaer Symphony Orchestra in Troy, N.Y., and of the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras. Robert received a DMA in orchestral conducting at the University of Michigan in 2010.

Katrina Marzetta (BA ’04) of Denver wel-comed her daughter, Avalyn Leona Marzetta, on July 21, 2011.

Alex Muleh (MS ’04) of Louisville, Colo., works at the Broomfield office of Environ-mental Systems Research Inc.

Bryan Villano (BSBA ’04) of Deerfield, Ill., married Janna Hoffman on Nov. 6, 2011, in Chicago.

2005Megan Gall (CERT ’05, MS ’07) of Buffalo, N.Y., recently completed her second year in the political science program at the Univer-sity at Buffalo. Her dissertation is about the distribution of crime throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Yaneev Golombek (MS ’05) of Denver is lead geospatial project analyst at Merrick & Co.

Keith hoffman (BFA ’05) of New York received a master’s degree in education from DePaul University and is a graduate student at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He exhibited his artwork at the school’s gal-lery in December 2011.

Katherine O’Connor (MS ’05) of Denver is an analyst for the Office of Economic Development at the city and county of Denver.

Carol Samson (PhD ’05) of Denver was awarded a Wurlitzer Foundation writing fellowship for fall 2011 at the foundation’s residency program in Taos, N.M.

Shawn Smith (MA ’05, PsyD ’06) of Lake-wood, Colo., recently released his second book, The User’s Guide to the Human Mind: Why Our Brains Make Us Unhappy, Anxious, and Neurotic and What We Can Do About It (New Harbinger Publications, 2011).

2006Ethan Grunstein (BSBA ’06) of Venice, Calif., was hired in July 2010 to create the flagship retail location for Currie Technolo-gies in Los Angeles. Currie Technologies is the largest solely electric bicycle company in the U.S. Ethan was drawn to the project because it allowed him to combine his pas-sions for motorcycling and bicycling while creating a fuel-efficient way for people to commute.

Andrea Santoro (MA ’06) of Westford, Mass., is a geographic information system (GIS) specialist in Denver’s Office of Com-munity Development and Planning. She was part of the team that received the Special Achievement in GIS Award at the 2011 ESRI conference in San Diego.

2007Maria Caffrey (MA ’07) of Denver in 2011 received a PhD in geography from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Maria recently returned to Denver to accept a posi-tion at the National Park Service and began teaching meteorology in DU’s geography department this spring.

Matthias Edrich (IMBA ’07, JD ’07) of Denver is a tax attorney at Peck, Shaffer & Williams. He recently was elected secretary of the Colorado chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce. Matthias also is a governor’s appointee to the State of Colorado Private Activity Bond Allocations

2001Brenden McNeil (BS ’01, MS ’02) of Mor-gantown, W.Va., is an assistant professor of geography at West Virginia University.

Keith Ratner (PhD ’01) of Amesbury, Mass., is a professor in the geography department at Salem State University in Salem, Mass. He recently co-submitted a paper on transit-oriented development in Denver for a special issue of the Cities journal. Keith also helped organize a rail transit field trip in Seattle for the Association of American Geographers annual meeting in April 2011.

2002Melanie Dunlap (JD ’02) of Somerville, Tenn., is a partner with the law firm of Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh in Memphis, Tenn.

Angela (Neese) Rath-bun (BSBA ’02) and Scott Rathbun (BSAC ’04, MBA ’04) of Den-ver celebrated the birth of their son, Beckett, on Dec. 31, 2011. Angela is an associate attorney with McGeady Sisneros,

and Scott balances two careers—one as chief analyst at T.A. Myers & Co. forensic accounting firm and the other as a musical theater actor.

Jeremy Rosenthal (JD ’02) of Denver recently was named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” by the National Trial Lawyers Association. As a criminal defense attorney, Jeremy focuses on DUI and medical can-nabis cases. Jeremy is a member of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Better Business Bureau, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, National College of DUI Defense, American Association for Justice and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

2003Chelsey Russell (BSBA ’03, JD ’11) of Denver married her husband, Ben, in September 2008. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter

Hayden Elaine, in July 2011, three days before Chelsey took and passed the Colorado bar exam. In fall 2011, Chelsey started as an associate attorney at Welborn Sullivan Meck


Contact usName (include maiden name)

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Question of the hour: Where was your favorite place to study at DU, and why?

Post your class note online at www.alumni.du.edu, email [email protected] or mail your note to: Class Notes, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816.

Tell us about your

career and personal

accomplishments, awards,

births, life events or

whatever else is keeping

you busy. Do you support

a cause? Do you have

any hobbies? Did you just

return from a vacation? Let

us know! Don’t forget to

send a photo. (Include a

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envelope if you would like

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Committee. He previously worked with the general counsel’s office of BEA Systems in Munich and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in Philadelphia.

Erik Gano (MBA ’07) of Denver became engaged to Lily Paez on Nov. 11, 2011.

Chase iron Eyes (JD ’07) of Bismarck, N.D., has practiced law at his firm, Iron Eyes Law Office, for the past two years. He previously worked for the Standing Rock Sioux nation as a legal specialist. In 2008, Chase helped organize a culture camp at Standing Rock to reconnect youth with their indigenous culture. He also started a website that features original writing, stories and other multimedia. Chase recently completed an Olympic distance triathlon.

Kate (Paparo) King (BA ’07) of Greenwood Village, Colo., started an art therapy business in Denver called Kate King Art Therapy & Psychotherapy. Kate helps teenagers and adults work through difficult emotions, situ-ations and experiences using a combination of art, music, body-centered techniques and verbal counseling.

Shitij Mehta (MS ’07) of Redlands, Calif., is a software developer for the geoprocessing team at ESRI in Redlands.

2008Edward Dawkins (BS ’08) of Waynesboro, Va., was accepted into the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

Nicole (Combs) iacovoni (MSW ’08) of Bloomsburg, Pa., is the founder and chief clinician at Willow Tree Wellness & Counsel-ing. Nicole specializes in adolescent and young adult therapeutic interventions. She also integrates animal-assisted therapy into her practice. Nicole married her husband, Tom, on Aug. 20, 2010, in St. Lucia. The couple welcomed their daughter, Elan Olivia, into their family on Oct. 28, 2011.

Leah Konrady (BA ’08) of Washington, D.C., is director of the Great Lakes Wash-ington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. Leah previously was a legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and served as his point of contact on environ-mental and transportation policy.

Sarah Morley (BA ’08) of Denver is the business communications manager for Louik Holdings. Sarah also volunteers as the vice president of membership for the Tri Delta Alumni Association of Denver. Her com-munity projects include fundraising for the Children’s Tumor Foundation and directing the Cupid’s Undie Run race in its first year of national expansion.

Jake Needell (BSBA ’08) of Denver is the founder and CEO of Louik Holdings and JSN Property Management.

heidi Rolander-Peterson (MA ’08) of Ber-thoud, Colo., is an associate city planner in Denver’s Office of Economic Development.

Kristen (White) Sorensen (BA ’08) of Aurora, Colo., recently joined the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program to run a marathon in Estes Park, Colo., on June 17. Kristen made a commit-ment to raise $5,000 prior to the event to help fund cancer research.


2009Elizabeth Boulos (MS ’09) of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is a marketing specialist for Hannaford Supermarkets, which is owned by Delhaize Group in Brussels, Belgium. Eliza-beth recently was promoted into the Delhaize Group International Program.

Taryn Burnett (MPS ’09) of Houston mar-ried Glenn Burnett on May 28, 2011.

Brad Kopitz (BSBA ’09) of Grosse Pointe, Mich., was named Internet marketing man-ager at Summit Sports Inc. Previously, Brad was a marketing analyst at eBags.com.

Michelle Kwan (BA ’09) of Artesia, Calif., was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame during the national champion-ships Jan. 22–29 in San Jose, Calif. Michelle won 43 championships during her ice-skating career, including eight consecutive U.S. titles, five world crowns, a silver Olympic medal and a bronze Olympic medal.

2010Tilottama Ghosh (PhD ’10) of Tacoma, Wash., was married in December 2010. Wed-ding ceremonies were held in Kolkata, India, and Varanasi, India.

Julie Markham (BSBA ’10, MBA ’10, MS ’10) of Littleton, Colo., was one of 246 people awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for youth at a June 23, 2011, ceremony on Capitol Hill. The award is the highest civil-ian honor awarded by the U.S. Congress to individuals who perform outstanding deeds or services. Julie received the honor for her various services to the international com-munity, including volunteering with Tibetan refugees in India, researching microfinance in Cambodia and Bangladesh, analyzing slum upgrading in Kenya, and comparing real estate development in the Middle East.

Rosalyn Oshmyansky (BA ’10) recently joined ABC News in Washington, D.C., as a broadcast journalist.

Sean Tierney (PhD ’10) of Southlake, Texas, is an assistant professor in the geography department at the University of North Texas.

Ashleigh Wiggins (JD ’10) of Trinidad, Colo., was hired as a temporary part-time deputy district attorney in Huerfano County, Colo., where she will cover traffic and misde-meanor matters.

www.du.edu/magazineJust click the button at

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Want to read the University of Denver Magazine online only?Quotable notes

Thank you to everyone who responded to the winter issue’s question of the hour: What student organiza-tions or activities were you involved with on campus?

“Alpha Gamma Delta.”—Leslee (Carlson) Breene (BA ’63)

Englewood, Colo.

“Delta Delta Delta, Project Albania and Kayak Club.”—Sarah Morley (BA ’08)

Denver

“Dukes Independent Organization and all intramural sports.”

—John Kirby (BSBA ’65)Woodland Hills, Calif.

“I ran cross country while in undergrad, and in law school I was a contributor for the Race to the Bottom Blog.”

—Chelsey Russell (BSBA ’03, JD ’11)Denver

Post your class note online at www.du.edu/alumni, email [email protected] or mail in the form on page 55.


Deaths1920shelen Rouce (attd. ’29), Houston, 8-18-10

1940sBeverly Agnew (BA ’42), Solana Beach, Calif., 10-11-11Frances Melrose (BA ’43), Denver, 11-26-11Ruth Gilbert (BS ’45, MA ’66), Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 11-17-09Virginia Putnam (BFA ’45), Lakewood, Colo., 2-6-12 Jay Groom (BS ’49), Stockton, Calif., 2-9-12Mary Lou (Damascio) Keating (BSBA ’49), Pueblo, Colo., 11-26-11Richard Nelson (BA ’49), Kalispell, Mont., 2-16-12

1950sRichard Gilbert (BS ’51), Centennial, Colo., 4-26-11Dale Leifheit (BSBA ’51), Woodland, Calif., 11-12-11Al Perry (BS ’51), Denver, 2-8-12Don Snapp (BS ’51), Danville, Calif., 11-19-11Richard Washburn (BS ’51), St. Joseph, Mich., 2-11-10Ethel Boettcher (MA ’53), East Grand Forks, Minn., 12-12-11Patricia (Willimont) Walthers (BA ’53), Broomfield, Colo., 2-24-11John Biviano (BA ’54), Toledo, Ohio, 11-17-11Terry Eakin (BA ’54), Mesa, Ariz., 1-9-12Edith Siegrist (MA ’54), Vermillion, S.D., 7-31-11Carlton Jones (MA ’55), Ellabell, Ga., 4-26-11Ronald Pulliam (attd. 1953–55), York, Maine, 12-12-11Margaret Udesen (MA ’56), Talent, Ore., 12-27-11John hoerning (BS ’57), Crystal, Minn., 6-2-09John “Jack” Keables (MA ’57), Denver, 10-5-11John Murray Jr. (BSBA ’57), Indian Head Park, Ill., 1-23-12Gerald Kopel (LLB ’58), Denver, 1-21-12David Yeakley (BFA ’58, MA ’61), Denver, 1-29-12

1960sGeorge higginson (BS ’62), Oakland Park, Fla., 2-7-12ida Fasel (PhD ’63), Denver, 1-13-12Morton herbst (BS ’64), Danbury, Conn., 9-16-10Susan Rosenkoetter (MA ’66), Groton, N.Y., 9-12-10Theodore “Ted” Bauch (MSW ’68), Sturgeon Bay, Wis., 12-11-11Jane Muschamp (BSBA ’68), New Canaan, Conn., 1-7-12

1970sJim Steele (MA ’70), Kingsland, Ga., 11-27-11Virginia “Ginny” Fraser (MA ’71), Highlands Ranch, Colo., 11-18-11Robert Wick (MA ’71), Denver, 1-30-12Cynthia (Johnson) Pelham-Webb (BSBA ’72), Short Hills, N.J., 12-21-11

1980sCharles Kenney (BA ’81), Kenwood, Calif., 12-7-11Barbara (Bumgarner) Villiotti (MA ’85), Bernalillo, N.M., 10-16-11

2000sGregg Stracks (PsyD ’04), Jamaica Plain, Mass., 1-10-12

Faculty & StaffCraig Bach, assistant director of alumni information technology, Denver, 2-24-12Glenn Davis (BS ’38), retired physical plant professional director in the Department of Facilities Management, Aurora, Colo., 12-6-11Roger Salters, associate professor of electrical engineering, Bailey, Colo., 1-13-12Rosemary Schell, retired professor in the School of Librarianship and Information Management, Greenwood Village, Colo., 11-21-11Gordon Von Stroh, professor in the Department of Management at the Daniels College of Business, Denver, 3-14-12Wilma Young, amica universitata, Student Health Services, Arvada, Colo., 11-5-11


Pioneer picsAndy Pratt (BA ’00) of St. Paul,

Minn., took a break from exploring the Great Wall of China to pose for a photo while wearing his DU T-shirt. Pratt and his wife visited Beijing in April 2011 to adopt their second son, Joseph Wu Pratt.

As you pioneer lands far and wide, be sure to pack your DU gear and strike a pose in front of a national monument, the fourth wonder of the world or your home-town hot spot. If we print your submission, you’ll receive some new DU paraphernalia to take along on your travels.

Send your print or high-resolution digi-tal image and a description of the location to: Pioneer Pics, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816, or email [email protected]. Be sure to include your full name, address, degree(s) and year(s) of graduation.

Which alum founded a company that registers internet domain names?

The answer can be found some-where on pages 45–58 of this issue.

Send your answer to [email protected] or University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. We’ll select a winner from the correct entries; the winning entry will win a prize.

Congratulations to Charlie Lieb (MA ’75) for winning the spring issue’s pop quiz.


ViEWS

Looking upPhoto by Wayne Armstrong

Everyone in Denver knows the Ritchie Center’s gold-topped Williams Tower, which is 215 feet tall and visible from more than a mile away. Here’s an inside look at the tower, which was named for Honorary

Life Trustee Carl Williams and which features trompe l’oeil murals by artists Ken Miller and Linda Paulsen.


Inspired by DU’s Chamberlin

Observatory, Denver cartoonist

Kenny Be created this illustration

as part of a series of fictional

Denver Neighborhood Seed Co.

packets he made for the inaugural

Denver County Fair in 2011.

Other neighborhoods featured

in the series include Capitol

Hill, Congress Park and Baker.

Co-created by alumna Dana Cain

(BA ’81), the Denver County

Fair returns Aug. 10–12 at the

National Western Complex. The

event puts a hipster spin on the

traditional county fair, mixing

such staples as animal exhibitions

and pie-baking contests with a

bicycle rodeo and a drag-queen

competition.

>>www.denvercountyfair.org

MiSCELLANEA

’Hood ornament

university of denver magazine summer 2012

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