winter 09 - ugags magazine

The Univers i ty o f Georgia

SchoolM A G A Z I N E

GraduateWinter2009 Vo l um e 4

Number 1

THE UN IVERS ITY OF GEORG IA GRADUATE SCHOOL NEWS & H IGHL IGHTS

headliners whomade history

alvetta thomas’uga dream p.4

saving preemies!p.14

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Graduate

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature,he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

— John Muir, naturalist and conservationist

Graduate School Magazine W I N T E R 2 0 0 9 1

Front Cover: Doctoral student Carrie Allen is

preserving a distinctive piece of America's gospel

history.

winter

CONTENTS

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news and highl ights

Letter from the Dean

Alvetta Peterman ThomasA college president recalls getting her doctorate andrealizing a UGA dream.

Cover StoryCarrie AllenWTBF-TV’s Parade of Quartets gospel show in Augustais the longest-running gospel program of its kind. Allenmines the riches in the program’s archives.

Scholars for TomorrowArena RichardsonA graduate student and her professor’s researchmay save the lives of at-risk premature infants.

Scholars Worth WatchingJohn PowersA sculptor and educator discusses perception and art.

GenerationsHelene Ungar AdlerAt 81, this alumna recalls graduate school lifepost-World War II.

Where Are They Now?Pamela MeisterA museum executive with a penchant for Georgiared blends theater and history.

Donors List

In BriefGraduate School news and notes

Last WordSky Dawg

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“Compassionate generosity is the foundation of true spiritual life....

Each act of generosity is a recognition of our interdependence.”

—Jack Kornfe ld, author

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Message f rom

Dea n Mau re e n G r a s s o

MAUREEN GRASSO

De a n

In May of this year, the Graduate School sent an annual fundsolicitation to approximately 52,000 graduate alumni—all those for whom wehad valid addresses. This is the first time in our history that we canvassed theentire graduate alumni database, and we were pleased with the results. Ourgraduate fellowship endowment fund received 100 percent of the gifts thatresulted from that solicitation. From the bottom of my heart, I thank those ofyou who responded to our appeal. Many of you were first-time donors, andthat is very important to those of us who are working to increase the level ofsupport for our current students.

Graduate students at the University of Georgia are some of our best students,but they are often the students most in need of financial aid. As graduatestudents, they no longer qualify for the Hope Scholarship. They are beyondthe age when they can expect much in the way of parental support: many aremarried and have young children themselves. Significant debt from theirundergraduate years might accompany them. Or they may be from fromoutside of Georgia and paying the much higher non-resident tuition rates.The unfortunate fact is that less than half of our graduate students receive anytype of financial aid from the university.

If we are to continue attracting top-quality graduate students from around theworld, we must offer competitive financial-aid packages. Won’t you take amoment and tear out the envelope that accompanies this magazine and put itwith your outgoing mail? Your gift can make a difference. The maindistinction between the UGA and its aspirational peer institutions is the levelof support for graduate fellowships. If our beloved school is ever to reach theranks of first-rate public research universities, it must do a better job ofsupporting its graduate students. As the quality of our current graduatestudents improves, your own graduate degree becomes more valuable.

This has been a particularly difficult year because of the slowing economy and resulting state-imposed budget cuts. It is also a time when those affected by the downturn seek to retool andobtain additional education. Like many schools, we’ve had to eliminate programs and servicesthat we consider essential in order to fund graduate assistantships and honor our commitmentsto the number of current graduate students. Won’t you help us?G

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“I would like younger minority UGA alumni to envision themselvesin a picture in which they are presently invisible. I want them to seepossibilities in what is seemingly impossible! UGA is among theshining examples of opportunities that crossed my path.”


By example, Thomas teaches themabout the value of second chances—both extending and accepting them.

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Thomas’ story began in Montgomery,Alabama, a place emblematic of socialinjustice but also of powerful transfor-mation. Characteristically poised andseated in an office suite, flanked by staffmembers, she sips bottled water andtakes a deep breath before beginning theinterview. Her reflection swims beforeher in the polished table top: it reflects awoman of accomplishment who neverallowed herself to stop before herdreams were realized.

Only now, three degrees, twochildren and three grandchildren later,can the woman known to hergrandchildren as “Doctor Nana” exhale.

Thomas’ father was in the AirForce. Her mother taught high schoolEnglish and history. Early on,expectations were high for Thomas andher elder brother. Their great-grandmother earned a teachingcertificate in 1896. “Imagine,” Thomassays without a hint of her Deep Southchildhood, “an African Americanwoman, literate and teaching in the late1800s!”

There’s a special reason forThomas’ modulated voice: In 1970, herfamily moved to Framingham, England.Thomas was in the 7th grade andentered school in Britain. For a childwho had developed an appreciation forhistory from her mother, it was sheermagic.

tudents arrive on her campusfrom many streams of life andshe welcomes them with equal

measures of hopefulness andbemusement. Like Thomas, some arethe children of professionals, stoked withan inner fire to make something ofthemselves. Others are adults seekingsecond chances, or a fresh start in one ofthe 100 programs offered. Nonetheless,these various streams of scholars,dreamers and career hopefuls convergeupon the 48-acre ATC campus offMetropolitan Parkway. It is an urban,technical college, unlike the moretraditional one where Thomas completeda UGA doctorate four years ago.

Thomas hopes she can teach themthe hardest won lessons of all, but knowsthat is not her mandate exclusively.Instead, she talks about keepingcovenants with ourselves, completingunfinished business and finding a placein a picture too often excluding bright,sophisticated minorities.

Dr. Alvetta P. Thomas became

president of Atlanta Technical College

in the spring of 2008. Her drive to make

and meet lofty goals inspires both staff

and students to follow.

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STRONG WOMEN AND STRONG RESOLVE :

College President

Alvetta Peterman Thomas’Inspiring Journey

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS

PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

On March 1, PRESIDENT ALVETTA P. THOMAS (EdD, ’04) assumed oversight of

Atlanta Technical College (ATC) in the southwestern corner of Atlanta. One of 33

technical colleges in Georgia, the school wins accolades for its programs and

innovation and has more than 3,200 students. Thomas sees herself in so many of their

hopeful and expectant faces. AT TIMES, MEMORIES WASH OVER HER,

PARTICULARLY DURING THE JUBILATION AND EUPHORIA OF GRADUATION DAY.

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“We lived in a house built on thecastle moat,” she recalls, “across from atea house, with an Anglican church anda cemetery nearby. I was fascinated bythe graves of the dead and the historythey told.” On the brink of youngadulthood, Thomas glimpsed an entirelylimitless possibility.

“My childhood experiences weavethe cloth of who I am,” Thomas says.“It was an experience that gave me afoundation, that I could go anywhereand fit in. I’m comfortable in almost anysetting. That comfort comes from theexperience I had.”

Returning to the States in 1972,Thomas completed high school andenrolled in Alabama State University, asother women in her family had donebefore her. After graduation from ASU,she was recruited by Atlanta ClarkUniversity where she received aNational Science Foundation award tocomplete her graduate studies.Meanwhile, she decided on criminaljustice and political science as a major.Thomas completed the coursework, butdid not write the dissertation.

In 1981, Thomas went toWashington to work for theCongressional Black Caucus. “I gotthere, and they took almost everything Iknew about political science, balled it up,and threw it out the window,” she sayswryly. “It was not the textbook version ofgovernment.”

Thomas questioned what she wasdoing there as a young, AfricanAmerican on Capitol Hill. Disillusionedby politics and an inability to getanother job in a bad economy, shereturned to Alabama State (ASU) to

accept a part-time teaching position.While looking for a job, she respondedto a call from the ASU placement officeand wound up taking a position with theDepartment of Defense.

Yet as a single mother, she longedto be home with the family. Sheaccepted another position at MaxwellAir Force Base in Montgomery as anarchivist, declassifying military histories.

“I had no mentor,” she explains.“And it was the first time somebody wholooked like me (a minority) was in thatarchival position.” While she soughtand found advancement, she hadtrepidation about remaining in themilitary. She moved into adultvocational education, still discomfited byunfinished business: “It always naggedme that I didn’t complete thedoctorate.”

Next, Thomas developed researchcurricula and systems for technicalcolleges. She had resolved to learn onekey thing: “The pathway to leadership isthrough academic affairs, so thequestion is: what is the pathway to that?”

While attending a President’sCouncil professional meeting in Macon,Georgia in 1994, she observed a white,male-dominated council. “I don’t seemyself in that picture,” she thought,dismayed. “If you don’t see you in thepicture, then you don’t even try it,” sherealized. She grew determined to bringmore diversity to academic administra-tion. Three years later, she accepted asenior role at ATC. Her boss observed,“You’d be a great president.”

Thomas felt empowered. A newprogram, developed for those intechnical and adult education, opened at

UGA, and Thomas was accepted in thefirst group of 25 students.

“I can finish my business,” shethought.

She loved academia as much ashistory. Walking from Broad Street tothe library filled Thomas with visceralpleasure. “I almost felt encased by thescholarly atmosphere. I felt honored andprivileged—a feeling of those who havegone before me.”

UGA faculty mentors such asJuanita Johnson Bailey and Ron Ceverourged her onward; women in her innercircle strengthened her. Thomas was awife, mother, and grandparent when shefinished her doctorate in 2004; hergrandchildren presented her with anotebook with “Doctor Nana” spelled insequins.

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Thomas believes that everyone is owed asecond chance when they stumble enroute to a dream. When she hears amother or grandmother shout with joyon graduation day at Atlanta TechnicalCollege, she feels a wave of euphoria.

“I’m living my dream, though it isnot always easy. I’m determined to dowell for this community, for all thosepeople who blazed the trail before me.”

In return trips to UGA, Thomasobserves students seated on the lawn onOld Campus and walking worn,cobbled pathways, those sights evoke herown meandering journey.

“We’re custodians of our lifeexperiences,” she adds, and pauses, hereyes full. “You have to be very confidentin who you are.”

“I’m living my dream, though it is not always easy. I’mdetermined to do well for this community, for all thosepeople who blazed the trail before me.”

—Alvetta P. Thomas, president, Atlanta Technical College

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“I want more experienced and established career

women to see the importance of mentoring. I had

strong women mentors throughout my academic

and professional endeavors. Overall, the key to my

success is perseverance, strong mentors, good

academic preparation, and confidence. I want

others to have the confidence to ask, ‘How

do I get in the picture?’”

—Alvetta P. Thomas

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS


How Music with Meaning andPurpose Changed Augusta

Since 1955, Parade of Quartets hasbeen a gospel program and a socio-political agent of change for theAugusta, Georgia, region. Today, thetelevision program has a devotedadvocate in doctoral student Carrie Allen.

Allen, a classically trained musicianand ethnomusicologist/musicologist, isengrossed by the analysis, documentation,logging, cataloguing and conservation ofmore than 400 hours of donated footageof the program’s televised black gospelperformances. The collection containsrare footage of appearances by famousreligious and political leaders.

As a student worker in the mediaarchives, Allen helps catalogue thecollection—the most significant of itskind in any library—as it makes its

permanent home at UGA. It’s animmense task that isn’t yet complete. Thework of conserving and organizing thefootage will continue after Allen puts thelast touches on her dissertation.

“The actual cataloguing andpreservation of the donation won’t becomplete until well after I’m gone,” shesays. The work underway has become anartistic obsession for Allen.

It’s a Rainy Night in Georgia…

nd dusk falls over Augusta asthe air turns sodden and sour.Downtown bears the steadyassault of thunder. Rain roils,

and condensation hisses off thesteaming-hot concrete. A few carsrumble down Reynolds Street past thelow-slung WJBF-TV building, repletewith retro yellow signage and a visiblebroadcasting tower.

The famous—including JamesBrown, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke andOtis Redding—sometimes came here,loosened their pipes, and belted outgospel inside WJBF’s modest soundstudio.

Unbeknownst to the musiciansstreaming into the television stationtoday, a force of another kind isgathering nearby. A tornado looms

across the Savannah River, and the air iselectrified with negative ions. Theairways will soon be similarly charged,with a capella sounds, which willsubsequently travel Sunday morningover the airwaves into 14,000households.

Not even the mildewy weatherdiscourages the high-spirited Left FootSpirituals gospel quartet as they enterthe station and stamp their feet dry.Perhaps all those ions electrify them, asthe animated quartet members assemblein the hallway outside the televisionstudio, bearing instruments, amplifiers,and hangers of carefully coordinatedclothing. Once in costume, the groupwill take to the stage and ignite it withverve and their signature spirited, left-foot-leading, foot-stamping delivery.

The singers are jittery with pre-performance nerves. They joust andspar with one another while gatheringthemselves for a televised appearance.They eye each trouser seam to assure itis knife-sharp.

“Your shirt’s crumpled,” onemember accuses, pointing.

“It won’t be,” the singer assures. “Ibrought an iron.” After all, the singersare poised on the brink of what is abreakthrough in their genre: anappearance on the nation’s longest

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WJBF television’s Parade of Quartets is the country’s longest-running

gospel program, melding music with social and political news. UGA

doctoral student Carrie Allen is helping prepare and archive the Augusta,

Georgia, program’s tapes, which were donated in February 2008 to the

UGA library. She’s an ethnomusicologist and musicologist, seeking to

preserve and chronicle this unique musical and historic contribution.

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cover story

CarrieAllen:

headlining gospel history

9Graduate School Magazine W I N T E R 2 0 0 9

The Left Foot Spirituals take the

stage at WJBF-TV.

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cover story


running televised gospel program,Parade of Quartets.

Since April 17, 1955, the WJBFsound stage has resonated weekly withthe sounds of music greats such as nativeAugustan James Brown. Singer PercyGriffin, who strides through the studio’shallway in a sleek business suit, formerlyopened James Brown’s act. UnlikeBrown, Griffin never crossed over fromgospel into rhythm and blues.

“Percy opened for James Brown yetstill works in the funeral home. Gospelmusic could still be a full time viablecareer option….[yet] much moresustainable when there was a hugemainstream market for gospel. But asother African American genres havebecome more popular, it’s more of aniche market,” explains UGA doctoralstudent Carrie Allen (MM ’04, PhD ’09).

More on that later, Allen whispers.She observes the jazzed pre-productionscene with plain pleasure. The hallwayoutside the sound stage fills with groups.Behind the first quartet, The AnointedBrothers, and the New Destiny Ministrysingers queue up. The passage soonoverflows with arriving performers whowill tape performances that evening.Four groups were expected, but theschedule is fluid.

Allen smiles as she glancessearchingly down the increasinglycrowded hallway. She seeks out thefamiliar face of the program’s host andproducer, Rev. Karlton Howard.Howard is the pastor of Noah’s ArkBaptist Church nearby.

Allen works closely with Howard onthe process of collecting donatedprogram tapes. Then, she returns toAthens where the tapes will be archivedby specialists the UGA library. She hasrecovered hundreds of hours of archivalvideo-taped footage of Parade ofQuartets.

Howard appears, beckoning Alleninto the studio as the evening’s programlaunches.

Augusta on-air personality MaryKingcannon records public serviceannouncements as the lights and soundsare checked. A radio broadcastingveteran, Kingcannon says she enjoys theopportunity to dress up and becomevisible. She is carefully dressed and

wears a dramatic hat. She runs flawlesslythrough the PSAs.

The New Destiny Mime Ministrieslip synch and perform before the nextgroup appears.

“Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, andPhil Gramm have all been on this show,”points out Karlton Howard sotto vocce,who inherited the show from his fatheryears earlier. His father, Henry Howard,became the program’s first black host in1980. By 1990, he was elected to theGeorgia House of Representatives. Hecontinued to host the program until2005. It was the elder Howard whoinjected a powerful political aspect intothe show.

“There was a saying about mydad,” Karlton Howard adds. “Thatanybody that wanted a political careerneeded to come through this program.”To this day, the Sunday morningtelevision program is a stirring mix ofspirituality and community action.

The Howards were not affluentpeople, he insists, but the underdogs.“We grew up in a two-bedroom house,and we could see the floor and the skyfrom inside,” he jokes quietly. He wasone of six children. He and his brother,Henry “Wayne” Howard, both

volunteer their time to produce theshow. Wayne Howard, like his father, isnow a Georgia state representative forAugusta district 121. The brothers feelthey must take up the mantle from theirfather, who produced the program untilhis death (in 2005).

The mantle has been borne forboth creative and political reasons. Allenhas documented and published the facts:how in the late 1940s, two white men inAugusta’s radio business first conceivedthe program’s content. It would consistof live performances by local AfricanAmerican gospel quartets, plus black-oriented ads and announcements. Theprogram’s popularity paralleled the riseof African American gospel musicnationwide. Allen wrote a scholarlypaper on the Augusta program'ssignificance during the Jim Crow eraand “the town’s ugly history of racialtension.” Eventually, Henry Howardbecame the program’s first black hostand shifted its focus to include messagesof political and musical resonance.

The brief quiet between sets isbroken as an Epiphone amplifierinterrupts with the irrepressible soundsof gospel music.

The Left Foot Spirituals take their

WHAT’S ETHNOMUSICOLOGY?

Ethnomusicology is a branch of musicology dating to the mid-1950s. It was really launched a few decades

earlier, but coalesced more clearly as a discipline upon the founding of the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Ethnomusicology is defined as the cultural and social analysis of

music in an anthropological or ethnographic sense. “People don’t

know there has been a lot of work in vernacular music; it’s not

completely unheard of—explaining an aspect of cultural

significance,” explains Carrie Allen.

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“Many political leaders have made their way to the stage ofthe Parade of Quartets. The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared liveone Sunday morning before announcing his candidacy forpresident of the United States of America.”

—Carrie Allen, doctoral candidate

places to sing and left feet tap in unison.Suddenly, they are deeply into asyncopated, rhapsodic style of musicso rousing that goose bumps pop up.Then, the roof starts to rise. At least,metaphorically.

Allen grins widely, enjoying herself.She explains that quartet is not a

literal term. “I looked at quartets for themost part, step teams, mimes, etc.Quartets mean the voices are four-part;not necessarily four people.” She alsoexplains the convention and structure ofgospel.

“Repeating the music is called thevamp. He works with that as a religioussort of state, and it’s ecstatic.” Allenexamines what it’s like to have thisexperience in front of the camera.Several hours later, the program is tapedand will be edited to fill the two hours ofits Sunday morning time slot.

Stirring Souls and OpeningDoors…

“The increasing number of high-qualityprofessional, semi-professional andamateur gospel quartets caused thegenre to boom in the early 1940s,” Allenwrote in a recently published academicpaper. “Cities like Chicago, Philadelphiaand Memphis boasted scores of localand visiting gospel quartets whoperformed at churches, schoolauditoriums and gymnasiums, alongwith issuing commercial recordings.Radio stations featured liveperformances of quartets, broadcastfrom the studio, typically includingjingles promoting the group’s sponsors(often flour or baking soda companies).In the late 1930s and early 1940s,quartets like the Soul Stirrers andFamous Blue Jay Singers toured profes-sionally, exciting audiences with theirmatching suits, choreography, andpolished arrangements.”

Allen’s paper investigated theevolution of gospel within the harshcontext of segregated Augusta society.She interviewed locals who played a rolein the program’s early founding. The

original producers are both deceased,though she has interviewed many whoknew them or were related. Sheanalyzed the program’s inception andbelieves the motivating factor fororiginating the program was chieflyprofit.

Nonetheless, she writes about thesocial implications of black musiciansfinding a “voice” for emerging socialchange through a unique musicalexpression. The televised program gavethem an outlet that took them into themainstream and reached white andblack audiences alike.

The phenomenon of black gospelmusic was in part creative genre, but alsoa call to religious transcendence. Ifgospel music was the call, the call washeard and many responded.

A l l en , cur ious abou t thephenomenon, meticulously readnewspaper accounts, interviewedmusicians and producers, and trackedthe show's ascendance as she reviewedhundreds of hours of tapes. It wasobvious that the show helped to changethe social dynamic in Augusta. In anintriguing turn of events, Allen herselfappeared on the Parade of Quartets inthe spring of 2008 to discuss her articleand research.

Despite her scholarship, her hourslogged preserving and restoring theactual tapes, Allen says she still feels likean interloper, even though she has had awarm reception at WBJF-TV and fromthe program’s producers.

“What,” Allen asks aloud, “is atrained classical pianist doing here?”She gestures toward the sound stage andthe happy mêlée of recital andperformance. Then she laughs merrily.She’s here exactly because she hasdiscovered a deepening love of thegospel musical tradition and a passionbordering on reverence for its back story.

Plus, it sounds good. Years ago,Allen’s friend played in a white gospelquartet in Mississippi. “They weresinging Roll Jordan Roll, and anarrangement from another blackquartet. I was mesmerized. Why have Inever heard this?” She invokes theDuke Ellington quote: “If it soundsgood, it is good.”

Allen's own childhood was steeped

in the traditions of religion and music.Allen’s minister father has a doctorate indivinity. The family moved from Floridato Chicago before settling in Starkville,Mississippi. Allen’s librarian mothertaught her piano. The plan, Allen says,was that she would become aprofessional pianist.

It nearly happened. Allen finishedher master’s in music at UGA in 2004,and then realized she didn’t want herfuture to be dependent upon a physicalability

Allen’s major professor, JeanKidula, is a native of Kenya and a well-known ethnomusicologist. Kidula'stutelage influenced Allen, and drovehome the importance of documentingregional musical traditions. Kidula toldAllen about the Parade of Quartets aftercoming across the program in theHargrett Library data base.

“The producers [of Parade ofQuartets] nominated themselves for aPeabody. And they’ve got the footagestored at UGA in the library—they dothis for all Peabody nominations,” Allenexplains. She holds up her palms. “Ididn’t expect it to be as big as this.”

Allen spends hours on the seventhfloor at Hargrett Library. “MargieCompton, a conservationist, does theheavy-duty conservation work ofreviewing and cleaning tapes before theyare documented and catalogued,” saysAllen. Some were damaged by a fire, butmost have been salvaged. With morethan 400 hours of tape to review, theproject was sufficiently big enough toform her dissertation, titled, “Parade ofQuartets: A History of Black GospelMusic on Television in Augusta,Georgia”. Allen hopes the research willeventually become a book.

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Allen says she’s continually surprised bywhat she is discovering. “Especially athow interconnected different parts ofthe gospel community are,” she saysafter another rousing performance ends.The roof ’s rafters settle back into placeas another recording session comes to aclose. “The Parade of Gospel [Quartets]doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There aregospel stations, recording studios,

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churches, Web sites, so that is allinterrelated.”

She has worked to assemble anarrative that explains the whys andhows of the program’s amazing growth.“You can’t tell its story withoutunderstanding how it fits in the infra-structure. I started with a narrow focus,but that’s not the reality—the ‘gospelbiosphere’. I’ve been surprised at thevolume of gospel music happening inAugusta.”

Still, Allen confesses a disappoint-ment with the fact that she personallycannot perform gospel. It’s closelyimprovised, and she is still a classicistalthough she teaches a host of musicgenres. When Allen finishes herdoctorate next year, she hopes tocontinue her work in a faculty position ata university with strong course offeringsin American and African Americanmusic. “I would like to, but those jobsare hard to find,” she says.

“Most Southerners have an evocativeexperience…there’s a white gospelsound as well,” she adds a bit wistfully.Allen expresses a powerful identificationwith the gospel tradition and itsimportance. She also reminisces aboutsinging British and American hymns inher father’s church and how she lovedthose as well.

At her funeral, Allen adds seriously,she wants two of her favorites played:How Firm the Foundation and Alas andDid My Savior Bleed?

Rev. Karlton Howard and his brother,

Georgia State Representative Henry

Howard, oversee the gospel show’s

production. Their father, Henry

Howard, produced and hosted the

show for many years, and the sons

have assumed the mantle.

Pictured at right is Representative

Howard during during a recent

taping.

Right: Mary Kingcannon is a devotee

of gospel and also of the Sunday

morning TV program. Kingcannon

is shown recording public service

announceents at the studio.

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BY CYNTHIA ADAMS


While ARENA N. RICHARDSON labors in a

University of Georgia lab, news reports

surface of contaminated milk formulas

produced in China. The formula is pulled

from market shelves globally as accounts of

thousands of children harmed by the tainted

milk reverberate. Parents worldwide grow

concerned about the reliability and safety of

consumables.

he tainted milk scandal is yetanother grave concern in a yearof headline-making food

contamination reports. Accounts ofsalmonella and E. coli in the food supplyincreasingly appear in news reports inthe United States. Staples—lettuce,tomatoes, beef and milk—and evennon-staples such as jalapeno peppersand candies—are called into question.

The scares evoke a fundamentalworry about infants, for there aremyriad sources and pathways forcontamination of their food. And whenthe worst happens, can we find ways tointercede swiftly to save preemies—themost vulnerable of all?

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Arena N. Richardson (PhD, ’09)considers the red-stained slide of a rod-shaped bacillus named Enterobactersakazakii, or E. sakazakii. For the pastfour years, she has studied the bacteriumunder the oversight of her professor,toxicologist Mary Alice Smith. What thescientists discover may hold critical

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scholars for tomorrow

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How Researchers Smith andRichardson Work to Protect

Premature Infants

MAKING FOOD SAFER FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE CONSUMER—


“Enterobacter sakazakii became a problem when isolatedfrom infant formula specifically designed for prematureinfants—here are infants already very susceptible to infection,and the infant formula was designed for them.”

—Mary Alice Smith, toxicologist

significance for infants in neonatalintensive care (NIC) units.

E. sakazakii is associated withcontaminated powdered infant formulasimplicated in premature infant diseaseand mortality. Powdered formulas, oncecommonly used in NIC units to feedpremature infants, can boost nutrition ata critical time. If the formula iscontaminated, the outcome presents amedical crisis: when E. sakazakii reachesthe brain, it can cause hydrocephaly,meningitis, mental retardation, or death.

It’s rare, and knowledge of thepathogen is so limited that the incidenceof infection is unknown. Infants whoend up infected with E. sakazakii areusually born before 40 weeks ofgestation. However, she mentions thecase of a 35-day-old infant withmeningitis. “It recovered and did notdie, but did have hydrocephaly anddevelopmental delays. The baby wasborn at 40 weeks, not premature, butmost are born before 40 weeks.”

Study of the bacteria is fairly new,says Richardson. “The first two cases ofinfection by E. sakazakii were reportedin an article published in 1961, byauthors Urmenyi and Franklin. Backthen, E. sakazakii was classified asyellow-pigmented E. Cloacae.

In 1980, scientists classified E.sakazakii separately. “It’s still emerging,”reminds Richardson. “It hasn’t beenknown for a long time.”

The first goal of the researchproject was to identify an animal modelthat resembled infection in prematureinfants. “We selected a mouse strain(CD-1) based on Arena’s first researchproject. The [research] project is nowfocused on how E. sakazakii, thepathogen isolated from powdered infantformula, gains access to the brainresulting in illness and, in some cases,death,” explains Smith.

Low birth weight preemies aretypically given supplemented milk. Apowdered infant formula may be safeinitially but becomes infected at a laterpoint. “The formula is mixed with water,usually given to premature babies via afeeding tube,” explains Smith.

“Pasteurization does kill offbacteria like E. sakazakii,” saysRichardson. “But the bacterium is foundin soil, in the human intestine, all overthe place. It’s found in food productionenvironments and factories. E. sakazakii

can survive in those facilities. There’salways the chance of it getting into aproduct and contaminating it.” Thereare numerous ways formula becomescontaminated; no single solution couldprevent it. However, it is commonlybelieved formula becomes contaminatedafter pasteurization.

The research underway by leadprofessor Smith and doctoral candidateRichardson will enable researchers todevelop best methods for treating or

preventing E. sakazakii infection inaffected infants. When neonatal miceare infected with the bacterium, theyhope that what happens mimics humanoutcomes.

“Somehow, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and gets into the brain toinfect it,” Richardson explains. “There isno known mechanism for how thathappens. In mice, we were expectingthat if E. sakazakii gets into the brain, itwould eventually cause death in themice. For those mice that survived, we

were able to culture E. sakazakii out ofthe brain and there was no sign of illnessin those mice. We don’t know why somemice survive the infection and others donot. However, this presents anopportunity for us to look for possiblemechanisms making some infants moresusceptible or others less susceptible toinfection.”

Richardson describes her particularresearch role: “A newborn mouse is notas developed as a newborn human,particularly the brain, so we thought itmight be a good model. We look atdifferent mouse strains to see what strainmight be best; then we can give it E.sakazakii and isolate it from their brainand intestinal tract.” Once their model

16


“I’ve always known I preferred research. It’s my passion.”—Arena N. Richardson


exists, researchers can develop methodsfor treating or preventing E. sakazakiiinfection in premature infants.

Richardson, a Sloan scholar, workswith the animal model under Smith’sauspices. She began graduate studieswith Smith in August 2004, as atoxicology doctoral student in theDepartment of Environmental HealthScience. Smith is a member of theAlfred P. Sloan Foundation facultynetwork.

Last August, the pair attended a

meeting of the International Associationfor Food Protection in Ohio. Richardsonwon an award as a Developing Scientistfor her research on E. sakazakii. “Over100 people entered the competition,”says Smith. “It was quite a nice thing towin third place.”

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Richardson grew up in Orangeburg,South Carolina, where scientists werenot commonplace. She was surroundedby dream-nurturers. Her mother is aneducator; her father is a social workerand a pastor. By the time she was insecond grade, she knew she would be ascientist. “Yes, and many of my

elementary school teachers knew. Iwould tell them science was my favoritesubject,” she says as she works. She istypically in the lab six hours daily inaddition to studying for courses andwriting research manuscripts.

She earned a bachelor’s degree inbiology and then shifted to toxicology.She interviewed with Smith, andentered an interdisciplinary graduateprogram. “It’s really practical. Humanhealth is really important, andtoxicology will always be useful, as there

are so many chemicals and biologicalagents being used. My being interestedin the food safety aspect came about ingrad school.” Richardson also prefersresearch over teaching.

“There are educators on both sidesof my family—plenty of teachers,counselors, professors. I’ve alwaysknown I preferred research. It’s mypassion.” She anticipates completing herdoctoral work in 2009. Then,Richardson says she will either begin apost-doctoral fellowship or a career intoxicology. “I think I would prefer towork for a federal agency, like the FDAor USDA.”

At the Ohio conference, a man toldRichardson about his grandchild

developing an unidentified infection in aneonatal intensive care unit. “Thedoctors assumed it was E. sakazakii,”Richardson says.

This was Richardson’s firstopportunity to speak firsthand withsomeone who had direct and personalexperience with the pathogen she’s spentyears observing. “The chances ofinfection are increased when there is acontaminated powdered infant formulathat has been reconstituted and it is leftsitting at room temperature for severalhours—allowing bacteria to grow tohigh concentrations and making it easierto infect an infant. Special care shouldbe considered when preparing theseformulas.”

Richardson believes the work shedoes will have future significance.“Hopefully my work with E. sakazakiiand its effects on mice will lead to amodel. In understanding how it goesabout causing infection in humaninfants, maybe better treatments can bedeveloped to reduce the likelihood ofmorbidity and mortality.”

In her research with mice there aresometimes no observable signs ofinfection, even though they’re infectedwith E. sakazakii. By a post-mortemsectioning of the brain, liver, andintestines, she identifies the infection andhow it has spread. “In the beginning, Ididn’t know what was going to happen.I didn’t know if I could recover thebacterium from those tissues.”

In other research with two differentage groups of mice, Richardson hasdiscovered another outcome. “We didbegin a study on the susceptibility ofmice of different ages to E. sakazakii.By looking at the data I have, it looks likethe younger mice are much moresusceptible than the older mice. Thatseems to mimic what we see in thereports on infection in human infants.Younger, less developed infants have ahigher level of infection than older ones.Those who are immuncompromised areusually the ones to be infected.”

Smith observes that “infants of fulltermbirthmight not have this problem.”

chart showing the structure andreporting relationships of the ILSIentities is available on their Web site.

The ILSI Research Foundationreceives the majority of its supportthrough government funding and itsown endowment, (which is composedof the Center for Health Promotion, theHuman Nutrition Institute, and theRisk Science Institute), as well asthrough contributions from charitablefoundations.

Smith, though a faculty member inenvironmental health science, is also amember of the interdisciplinaryprogram in toxicology. As a toxicologistshe has investigated pathogens andchemicals that affect pregnancy. She hasalso worked with another pathogenfound in food that causes stillbirth.

A colleague inCanada is also workingwith E. sakazakii using a different animalmodel—gerbils. LikeSmithandRichardson,the Canadian discovered that theinfection rate is higher than themortality rate. Finding the way to blocktransmission to the brain is the desired“end-point,” Smith says.

She praises her protégé Richardson.“I want to stress the importance ofArena to the success of this project,” shesays. “I am very excited about thepotential she has. She’ll be good atwhatever she does, whether it’sbecoming an academician or workingin industry.”

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Funding for Smith and Richardson’sresearch comes directly from theInternational Life Sciences Institute,which independently supports researchof industry and government interest.The project receives a small amount ofmoney from the Center for Food Safety,a non-profit public interest andenvironmental group.

According to their Web site, theInternational Life Sciences Institute(ILSI) is a nonprofit, worldwide

18

foundation that seeks to improve thewell-being of the general public throughthe advancement of science. It wasfounded in 1978. Its goal is to furtherthe understanding of scientific issuesrelating to nutrition, food safety,toxicology, risk assessment, and theenvironment by bringing togetherscientists from academia, government,and industry. ILSI's work is guided by itsCode of Ethics and OrganizationalStandards of Conduct. An organization


“One of the things we don’t know about is how the GI tractin premature infants is different from full term infants. Weknow that they cannot absorb nutrients very well, and maynot be able to fight off E. sakazakii infection.”

—Mary Alice Smith, toxicologist and lead professor investigating E. sakazakii

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Vital Research Supported by ILSI

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS

ohn Douglas Powers joined thefaculty at the University ofAlabama at Birmingham as an

assistant professor of sculpture in the fallof 2008. Earlier that year, Powers (MFA’08) was among 15 artists selected toreceive a prestigious MFA grant fromthe Joan Mitchell Foundation in NewYork.

The grants are given in recognitionof artistic talent to artists chosen from abody of candidates put forth bynominators from the academic artcommunity across the United States.Last April, Powers’ images and those offellow nominees were viewed for grantconsideration through an anonymousprocess by a jury panel at the New YorkFoundation for the Arts.

The Annual MFA Grant Programwas created in 1997 to help MFApainters and sculptors in furthering theirartistic careers, and to aid in thetransition from academic to professionalstudio work upon graduation, accordingto press reports.

Powers discusses his work and hisartistic manifesto with the GraduateSchool Magazine.

Q: Artists often discuss the evolution of theirwork in terms of the personal and theparticular. How the artist moves betweenthose poles, from the particular to thepersonal, informs their work in sometimesvery obvious or subtle ways. How can theviewer grasp this? Is there a personal—orimpersonal — message that is intended inyour large-scale works; and if that is thecase, how should be viewer approach yourwork to“see”properly?

A: I think that as an artist, one has toaccept the fact that once the work isplaced in public view, there is noassurance what people will or won’tgrasp. The question of personal andparticular is a good one and is dealt withvery differently from artist to artist, but Ithink varies from viewer to viewer just asmuch.

My work grows directly from mypersonal experiences and interests. But itis another matter entirely to discuss whata work is “about.” Snowflakes (andraindrops) start with a kernel—a speckof dust or some other bit of matter thatwater condenses around. What thesnowflake looks like may or may nothave a relationship to what the speck ofdust looks like. I can tell you what thekernel is for my work, and I can tell youmy opinion of what the work is “about,”but whether my opinion is more validthan yours or anyone else’s becomes itsown conversation. And that is the valueof it all.

Q. But as art lovers, we can miss theintention – that’s a very deep fear for non-artists who enjoy art. How can we ever knowif we’ve understood the subtext of meaning?

A: You mentioned a concern aboutpossibly missing a deeper intention withartwork on occasion. This recalls for memy first experience with the work ofMatthew Barney. While living inNashville, I went to the BelcourtTheater to see Cremaster 3. I bought myticket and took my seat, still not reallyknowing what to expect. The experienceproved to be thoroughly exhausting andborderline torturous at moments. Lessthan half the audience returned to theirseats after the intermission. After nearlythree hours of watching the bizarrecharacters and repetitive, esotericsymbolism, I left the theater and walkedhome thinking I had just wasted mymoney. But over the next few weeks, thevisual echoes of the film dominated mythoughts. The imagery was so powerful,so evocative that I couldn’t not thinkabout it.

I like to think that there are layers ofmeaning with the work. Layers ofexperience. Field of Reeds may appearsimply as a landscape to some viewers.For others it may evoke thoughts ofElysian Fields or a similar mythology. Itmay prove a portal for self-reflection. Itmay challenge with an unrequited desireto enter the space it displaces. It maycreate a desire to enter a virtual space italludes to. It is beautiful for some andominous for others. The value of eachway of seeing varies from viewer toviewer. And for some it will hold nointerest at all.

20

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scholars worth watching

John Powers: Visual Echoes INVOKE His Art

For further information visit

www.art.uga.edu/sculpt or

www.john-powers.com

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“I like to think that there are layers of meaning with the work. Layers of experience. Field of Reeds

may appear simply as a landscape to some viewers.” —John Powers


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sBY CYNTHIA ADAMS


The following is condensed from theforthcoming Graduate School centennialcommemorative book:

rominent upon Helene Adler’scoffee table is Tom Brokaw’s TheGreatest Generation. It is the

story of Adler’s generation. She sits in aVictorian rosewood and mahoganychair reviewing a 1949 Pandora, theUniversity of Georgia yearbook. Shethumps a finger at a tiny picture of thegirl named Helene Ungar.

Adler (BA ’49; MA ’50) still looksunsentimentally forward like the vibrantUGA coed she once was. Now 81, she isa thoroughly modern woman whobecame that way by pushing theenvelope—determined to wear pants,enjoy a cocktail and smoke if she liked.She is still all that, and more—the kindof woman that conjures up the wordfeisty.

a Depression-era baby borninto adversity

She was an only child, born HeleneUngar on March 6, 1927, in Paterson,New Jersey. Her father, Leonard Ungar,was born in Savannah. Her mother,Lillian Kahn Ungar, was born in NewYork. The Great Depression loomed, adark cloud that engulfed the nation.

In 1930 the family returned toSavannah. They moved into a housefacing tree-lined Oglethorpe Street—thehouse where Adler lives today.

She sits in a patch of slantingsunlight that enters through open

French doors. This is her grandmother’sliving room, she explains, gesturing. “Itwas closed off until company came. Thisis called the parlor and the parlor floor.The ground floor is called the gardenfloor.” Adler’s voice is old Savannah: itcurls like cigarette smoke around well-articulated phrases. Though she mayseem a traditionalist, she always had aclear sense of self. “Someone asked whoI was before I was married, and I said,‘What do you mean, who was I?!’”

the class of 1945 andreturning GIs

“When I graduated from high school in1945 there were 100 girls and 20 boys.And in 1946 there were 50 boys…theykept coming back with a vengeance.”She says, remembering G.I’s floodingschools under the G.I. Bill.

Adler attended Armstrong JuniorCollege, now Armstrong AtlanticUniversity in Savannah, and studiedhistory. She graduated in 1947 with anassociate’s degree, continuing to UGAfor her bachelor’s degree.

“I’d come home and talk to myfriends and they would talk aboutdiapers and babies and I would think‘Oooh.’ Women today have amazingopportunities; and I know some do take

advantage of it. The thought of gettingmarried was not foremost in my mind.”

Adler researched schools withstrong history programs. Choosinggraduate education broke with the statusquo for young Savannah women.“When I walked in a room, somestopped talking,” Adler says, shrugging.She returned to UGA and enteredgraduate studies. “When I got up toGeorgia, Dr. Coulter was the [history]person then. I took Tudor, Stuart,French history, general courses, andconcentrated on the South at that time.”

Adler lived in Mary Lyndon Hallon the UGA campus. “Thehousemother liked me; she gave me aroom with a bathtub; it was a uniquething to have a bathtub. I wasn’t verypopular but my bathtub was extremelypopular! Everyone would come to myroom and say, ‘Can I take a bath?’ I’dsay, ‘Sure!”

Athens post-war…bathtubsbut no gin

Athens in the late ‘40s was a bustlinglittle town, says Adler. But it was notemancipated concerning women.Women were not allowed in the populareatery called The Varsity she says– it wasfor men only. “If I wanted a hot dog, a

22

P

Helene Ungar Adler:

Past and Future Still Perfect

“Someone asked who I was before I was married, and Isaid, ‘What do you mean, who was I?!’”

generat ions

guy had to go in and get it for me.” Hereyes widen. She remembers thesestrictures because big-town Savannahwas a freer society.

Women were required to sign intotheir dorms at 11:00 p.m. They had torequest written permission to leavecampus and go home. They were notallowed to eat off-campus, only in thecampus dining rooms. When this rulewas lifted, Adler recalls whooping withjoy.

All students were forbidden to drinkon campus. So, the students becameinventive, Adler recalls. “Friends said,‘let’s take a cab to the liquor store in thenext county;’ so we went there andbought a couple of bottles of wine, andthe cab waited.”

The forbidden was irresistible.Adler’s pulse hummed with nervoustension on the return to Athens withcontraband wine carefully concealed.

“I put the wine on the floor andcovered it with a coat. When we gotback to town, the cab was flagged downby Dean Tate, and he got in the frontseat! They had just had some pantyraids, and my dear friend (in the cab

with her) had been on a ladder grabbingpanties, and the dean had just pulledhim off the ladder. Dean Tate turnedback (he got in the front seat) and said tomy friend, ‘You look awfully familiar.’My friend said, ‘I have a familiar-lookingface.’ Oh, we were afraid he would seethe wine in the floor! Dean Tate got outof the cab and we were so relieved!”

Adler loved the school, but not therestrictions. “Girls were tightly held. Iwas not 18! I was 20! I was used toNYC and Savannah!”

On December 27, 1952, she andBernard Adler married. For yearsafterward, she taught history part-time.

Adler steps out onto the balconybehind her house that overlooks ashaded garden . She d i s t inc t l yremember s when women weresubservient to men. Adler recalls a timewhen society didn’t acknowledge hereducational ambitions. Recently, Adlerburned her original college IDs alongwith other personal effects, explainingshe would prefer they not wind up in ayard sale one day. Longing for thedoctorate she never obtained possiblyfueled that fire as well.

24

generat ions

Despite women having gained

admittance to graduate studies at

UGA in 1911, their collegiate life

was restrictive decades later, Adler

says. Strict dress codes and social

morés were enforced. “When I

went to UGA, boys could do

anything they wanted,” Adler

emphas i zes . “There was no

Women’s Movement in my day.”

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ADLER’S THOUGHTS

ON UGA

One of Helene Ungar Adler’sroommates went on to become UGA’sfirst female veterinarian. Adler’s formerroommate, Lois Eugenia Hinson,graduated with a DVM in 1950 at theage of 24. Hinson roomed with Adlerduring 1948-49 in Mary Lyndon Hall.Adler recalled their dormitory asrelatively new at the time. (The hall wasbuilt in 1936.)

“I moved in with two females,”recalls Adler. “I remembered her [LoisEugenia Hinson] for the fact that shewas the girl in the vet school. She[Hinson] said, ‘I’m the only one they letin.’ She was short and husky, andspunky! She’d come out of the women’sMarine Corps.” Adler recalled thatHinson was sent out into the fields to

inoculate cattle. “I don’t think I ever sawher, except when she came in with thesebig boots on, and with this large bag (shecarried). I was in one direction, and shewas in another.”

According to UGA records, LoisEugenia Hinson was born February 1,1926 and was a member of the class of1950. She was an active volunteer and amember of professional veterinarysocieties. Hinson died in 1992 inNobleton, Florida.

Veterinary masters’ and doctorateprograms are part of the GraduateSchool.

women making history...

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Helene Ungar Adler with a stack of Pandora annuals, observes her young self

looking brightly into her future. Although she didn’t attend any of her own graduation

ceremonies, framed UGA degrees are in the hallway of her Savannah townhouse. “I use stuff like

that to cover the cracks in the wall,” Adler jokes. She proudly returned to Athens when her son,

Brian Adler, received his master’s degree in 1984.

didn’t have a football team. I had notgotten to do college football. Iremember the first home game day, andI walked out of my apartment in Athenswhere Earth Fare is today. There used tobe a different grocery store there, andeverybody was going by to pick uptailgating things. And there arepolicemen directing the crowds and I’mthinking, ‘My God, it’s Mardi Gras, onlyin different colors! I know how to dothis! Minus the floats and the throws, itreminded me of home.”

And just like that, Meister becameUGA super-booster and dawg supreme.

She attended UGA during theHershel Walker days. She viewed

PAM MEISTER erupts in peals of laughter, slips on a red leather UGA jacket and

cowboy boots and sashays across her executive office. Even her dark hair has red

highlights. She pirouettes as arriving museum volunteers grin at her antics. An

assortment of Georgia memorabilia is spread across a conference table. Meister

says the boots, “BOUGHT SPECIAL BEFORE A BALLGAME,” are just a few of her favorite

Georgia collectibles. As a museum person, she cannot help herself. She does what

museum executives do—she saves things, prescient about what will be valued later.

For a few moments, Meister cannotresist the chance to play. She giggleshelplessly at her collectibles (including aUGA charm bracelet and 45 r.p.m.records) before stumbling into theconcrete bulldog lawn ornament with apainful “oomph.” She quickly recovers.It isn’t that Meister doesn’t take hercareer seriously. Meister (MFA ’80) holdsthe first graduate degree awarded intheater management. She has a resuméthat allows her to walk off with any jobshe likes. Prior to the UpcountryMuseum, she headed Charlotte’sprestigious Museum of History. BeforeMeister became a museum executivewho blends theater with history, she wasin love with performing arts and onceheaded dance and theater companies.

Meister, a New Orleans native withjoie de vivre, paints her life in fun-loving,colorful strokes. For instance, sheconnects a love of Georgia football withboth New Orleans and theater.

“The University of New Orleans

26

P A M M E I S T E R , M U S E U M E X E C U T I V E :

These Boots WereMade for Walking a

Talking Dawg…

where are they now?

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS


eister has two salient passions:museums and Georgia.

The artistically conceivedGreenville, South Carolina, UpcountryHistory Museum is this director’sresponsibility. Steady streams of visitorsenter the new interactive museum, setwithin a quad of public buildings,including a new library and theater. Allare part of the urban rejuvenation ofGreenville, fueled by philanthropy andmoney from corporate giants includingBMW, Michelin and even world-classcycling.

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football and physical athleticism throughthe lens of theater. “Herschel took upwith a dance company. He hadphenomenal control over his body.”Before Meister found herself in thestadium cheering for Georgia, shestudied costume design at the Universityof New Orleans. There Meister met twopeople key to her career and life. Onewas named August W. Staub, a theaterdirector, producer and historian.

Staub, a native New Orleanian, wasthe chair of the UNO department ofDrama and Communication from 1964to 1976. He later headed UGA’sdepartment of drama and theater from1976-96, becoming a professor emeritus.

At UNO, Meister also met lifelongfriend Sylvia Hillyard née Pannell, whowas recruited to UGA by Staub in 1977.

After undergraduate school,Meister created store displays for theNavy Exchange and worked as awardrobe assistant in professional dinnertheater. In 1977, she moved toHollywood. She taught at Long BeachCity College while working for theMegaw Theatre and the Opera Studio.In 1978, Meister had two career-changing insights.

“A: I realized I was not a WestCoast girl, and B: my essential bossinesssurfaced. I kept thinking, I bet I could dothat better. I wondered, who could teach

university, gave me private instruction infund-raising and grant-writing.” Herthesis grew into a management analysisof the Alliance Theater.

It was intense on all fronts. “Mytime at Georgia was very compact. Itwas exactly two years, but total, totalimmersion. Mind expanding. I loved mytime at Georgia. I was overwhelmedwith the feeling that I was in the rightplace at the right time.” Meister finishedher graduate degree abroad.

“The ar t depar tment wasexpanding their summer program inCortona [Italy] to include theater, andthey were interested in getting enoughdrama students to enroll to produce aplay. So they told me if I recruitedenough students, I could take myassistantship to Cortona. I don’t thinkanybody has beaten my recruiting yet,because I was so motivated.”

Burke helped Meister construct agrant application to the NationalEndowment of the Arts. Returning fromCortona to Henrietta Apartments inAthens, Meister learned she had wonthe grant. Leaving Washington after herfellowship, Meister joined Atlanta’s CarlRatcliff Dance Theater as generalmanager. She signed contracts, cut dealsand toured with the company in a van.“It was definitely a burn out kind of

job,” she says.Opportunities kept unfolding but

kept Meister on constant move.“From 1977 to 1980, we’re talking

New Orleans, to LA, to Athens, toAtlanta, to Cortona, back to Athensbriefly, then Washington, D.C. I sloweddown a bit after that, although from1980 until now I’ve lived in Atlanta(twice), Jekyll Island and Waycross,Georgia, Baton Rouge, Charlotte andnow Greenville, South Carolina!”Meister continued the nomadicmomentum.

Soon Meister’s UGA friends Stauband Hillyard stepped back into thepicture. Staub and Hillyard wererunning an outdoor summer theater onJekyll Island. Meister was hired tomanage the Jekyll Island MusicalComedy Festival the summer of 1985.Her landlord was Thom Rhodes, wholater became her boss on Jekyll Island.She also met Bill Martin, a museumdirector at the Okefenokee HeritageCenter in Waycross, Georgia.

“He was one of the theater’s mostenthusiastic patrons, and over the courseof the summer we became friends,” shesays. Martin hired Meister over herprotests. “I said, ‘Bill, I’m not a museumperson.’ I’ve enjoyed going to them allmy life. But he wanted my business skills.

me to run theater?”Meister explored theater

management at UCLA. “They said,‘you have a perfectly good career, whydo you want to worry your pretty littlehead? Why do you want to worry aboutbusiness?’” Yet she knew she neededbusiness grounding in order to run atheater group, her newest plan.

Meister, the Creative Nomad

She crossed the country interviewingcolleges. En route home to BatonRouge, she had a car crash, andreconnected with her old friend Hillyardwhile pondering her next move.Meanwhile, Meister’s old mentor, Staub,was recruited to UGA to begin a theatermanagement program.

Meister called Hillyard, whomStaub hired to run the costumedepartment. Both Hillyard and Staubencouraged Meister to come to UGA assummer staff, and enter graduate schoolthat fall in a new arts managementprogram.

“I was a guinea pig. I’m an MFA inarts management. I was the first,” shereca l l s . Me i s t e r took bus ine s s ,journalism, public administration,accounting and drama courses. “JackBurke, who was a vice president of the

28

where are they now?

Loyal to-the-bone Dog... Pam Meister counts among her

massive memorabilia collection: red and black: cowboy

boots, a leather UGA jacket, two vinyl 45 records ("The

Irish Went Down...Bite") by Clisby Clarke, circa 1980.

And a UGA charm bracelet!

“My entire career is a tribute to serendipity.”—Pam Meister, executive director of

The Upcountry Museum, Greenville, SC


He said, ‘I can teach you.’ He convincedme to come to work for him starting inthe fall of 1985. After a very happy firstyear there, Bill got a new job with amuseum in Jacksonville, Florida, and Iwas appointed interim director of theHeritage Center, with only one year ofmuseum experience under my belt!Talk about a trial by fire!”

Yet Meister met the challenge. Shewas offered a position back at JekyllIsland Museum by Rhodes, her formerlandlord. For three years she workedwith a team developing a restorationplan for the island’s historic district.Rhodes was also president of theSoutheastern Museum Conference, a12-state membership association formuseum professionals. Encouraged todevelop professionally, Meister did, andsoon ascended to the directorship of themuseum association. “See what I meanabout serendipity?” she asks.

Meister adds, “Bill did indeed teachme about museums. It was a totallydifferent environment. I totally lovemuseums—my family was museum-going.”

Ultimately, she was lured toGreenville’s brand-new UpcountryMuseum. It was much closer to Athens,she points out smiling. “I knew it wouldbe the ultimate challenge. The vision isso bold here—the idea is that history isbest told through stories. It is as simpleand as complicated as that…that’s howwe know our h i s to r i e s , th roughindividual encounters.”

Upcountry is bold, like Meister.“They applied whiz-bang technology…to make a museum that tells the historyof this region in as compelling a way aspossible.”

Meister’s a whiz-bang kind ofwoman. She eases the red boots off andgives them an affectionate pat. “Myentire career is a tribute to serendipity.”

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W. Thomas Wilfong

John Joseph Wolosewick

*deceased

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Graduate School DonorsThe Graduate School gratefully acknowledges all who

have made a financial commitment to graduate education at the University of Georgia –

from alumni to corporate sponsors to faculty and friends. By supporting graduate

students, you are enabling research and creative works that affect so many facets of our

lives. You are investing in our future and our childrens‘ future, as well as our nation’s

economy and security. You are also contributing to undergraduate education, enhancing

our workforce and advancing discoveries that benefit us all.

Dean’s List of Donors to the Graduate SchoolJuly 1, 2006-June 30, 2008

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MARY ERLANGER got her undergraduate degree in journalism from Kansas

State University (in her home state), but became a "double dawg" with an MEd

'82 and PhD '87 at UGA. She now serves as a member of the Graduate

Education Advancement Board. She is also grandmother of recent graduate

and Foundation Fellow Katherine Folkman (AB '08). Erlanger began her

working life as a young reporter, and became a WAVE officer at age 21 at the

height of World War II. After the war, she pursued a writing career in New York

City, married a New Yorker and moved to Connecticut to raise her family and

begin a new career pathway in volunteerism and social advocacy. She came

to UGA for Graduate School in 1980 at the suggestion of her childhood friend

Virginia Trotter, then the vice president for Academic Affairs at UGA. When she

completed her graduate studies, she and her husband Michael Erlanger had

made a new life in Athens. Upon completing her doctorate in 1987, she and a

colleague founded Athens Associates for Counseling and Psychotherapy

where she has maintained an active practice, specializing in work with older

adults and families.

Phi lanthropy at Work

on Givingand Gaining

"Graduate school opened up a wonderful new world for me and I am eternally grateful. It not only expanded

my knowledge, but also was highly energizing, leading to a totally new late-life career. I chose the

Graduate School for a gift that would help make this kind of life-changing experience possible for others."

—Mary Erlanger

Whether you helped create a named fel lowship, contributed to an existingaward, or included the Graduate School in your will, your gift is significant to enhancingall aspects of graduate education, from the quality of faculty to the scholarship ofstudents. We appreciate your help in building a foundation of educational excellence andhope you will encourage others to participate in this worthwhile endeavor.

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Barton A. Myers, a doctoral candidate and temporary instructor in thedepartment of history, received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundationthis past summer. He was notified of the award in July 2008.

“I received a phone call from New York to notify me that my dissertationproject was selected for a Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship,” says Myers.

Myers was among ten fellows chosen from an international field of scholarsworking in social and natural sciences. The Guggenheim Foundation fundsresearch on problems of violence, aggression, and dominance.

For more information see: www.hfg.org.

This past July, the National ScienceFoundation awarded a substantial grantto Jody Clay-Warner, associate professorand director of graduate studies in thedepartment of sociology, and doctoralstudent Jennifer McMahon (co-principalinvestigator) for their work titled,"Doctoral Dissertation Research:Diffusion and the Law FormationProcess - A Comprehensive Analysis ofthe Spread of Rape Law Reform in theUnited States." The NSF grant awardextends from July 15, 2008, through July15, 2009.

The grant was obtained through

32

J ENN I F ER MCMAHON ,Ve r i z o n / H o p e l i n e F e l l o w

AWARDED NSF GRANT

GUGGENHE IM FE L LOWSH I PAwa r d e d t oH I S T O R Y D O C T O R A L S T U D E N T

Jody Clay-Warner, who is the majorprofessor, but it is based on McMahon’sresearch in domestic violence.

McMahon (MA ’05; PhD ’09) wasone of the first two Verizon/Hopelinefellows chosen last year. JenniferMcMahon and Jenna McCauley (BS’03, PhD ’08) were the first two graduatestudents to receive fellowships. Fundedby Verizon Wireless, the Verizon/Hopeline program supports domesticviolence research, education andprevention. McMahon’s work alsoconcerns the training of other scholarsand clinicians.

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Letha Mosley, who was profiled in the fall 2005 issue of theGraduate School Magazine, is now a tenured assistantprofessor in the department of occupational therapy at theUniversity of Central Arkansas. Last April she was made afellow of the American Occupational Therapy Associationfor “excellence in education and addressing healthdisparities.”

Mosley was elected chair-elect of the AccreditationCouncil for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE),the governing body for accreditation of occupationaltherapy and educational programs, in August 2008. Shewill assume chairmanship of ACOTE in August of 2009.

In addition to Hopeline, VerizonWireless offers the consumer service#HOPE, which can be accessed acrossVerizon Wireless’ nationwide network.By dialing #4673, callers are connectedto the National Domestic ViolenceHotline. The toll and airtime-free hotlineoffers confidential help, crisis intervention,information and resources.

L E THA MOSLEYBECOMES

FE L LOWa n d A s s u m e s

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his year the Graduate SchoolMagazine received top honorsfrom three separate awardcompetitions. The publication

was recognized in two nationalcompetitions for excellence in overalldesign, content and photography. Itreceived first place for printing andimaging from a competition based inGeorgia.

The summer 2007 issue of theGraduate School Magazine won a 2008APEX Award for Publication Excellencein June 2008. The 20th annual awardprogram recognizes publications workby professional communicators in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Themagazine is produced by CynthiaAdams, editor and writer; NancyEvelyn, photo editor; and Julie Sanders,graphic designer. Annie Ferguson andMaura Barber are the magazine’s copyeditors.

In announc ing the winner s ,Communication Concepts publisherJohn De Lellis said, “With close to 4,500entries, competition was exceptionallyintense.” De Lellis added the awardswere based upon “excellence in graphicdesign, editorial content and the successof the entry—in the opinion of thejudges—in achieving overall communi-cations effectiveness and excellence.”APEX judges included professionalwriters and editors. Others recognizedin the magazines and journal categorywith UGA’s Graduate School Magazineincluded Loyola University, theUniversity of Washington, SouthernIllinois University School of Medicine,University of Michigan and theUniversity of Tennessee.

Also in June, the Graduate SchoolMagazine was recognized by theUniversity Photographers’ Associationof America (UPAA), an internationalorganization of college and university

photographers. The magazine’s winter2007 issue received a first place awardfor Evelyn’s cover photo of graduatestudent Elizabeth Rahn. The magazinealso received a second-place award forEvelyn’s photography throughout thepublication.

In July, the magazine also won the2008 Print Excellence Award from thePrinting and Imaging Association ofGeorgia. Standard Press of Atlanta,Georgia, entered the magazine in thecompetition. Ben Wynnett, a salesexecutive with Standard Press, presentedthe award to Maureen Grasso, the deanof the Graduate School. More than 85entries from 50 of Georgia’s top printersvied for the honor, according toWynnett. The Graduate SchoolMagazine won a best-of category forfour-color magazines.

The magazine staff won previoushonors for creative work in educational

communications and publishing. Adamshas been recognized by the NC PressAssociation and the Council forAdvancement and Support ofEducation (CASE). Evelyn has receivedprevious photography awards fromCASE as well as UPAA.

Sanders, of Julie Sanders GraphicDesign, produces award-winningpublications for clients such as theUniversity of Alabama, AlbuquerqueAcademy and the Georgia Museum ofArt. This year, Sanders won a gold AddyAward from the American AdvertisingFederation for her design of the FloridaComprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)Explorer annual report.

We WON!t h e Gra d u a t e S c h o o l Ma g a z i n eTA K E S H O M E T H E G O L D

T

Summer2007 Vo l u m e 3

Number 1

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F G E O R G I A G R A D U AT E S C H O O L N E W S & H I G H L I G H T S

How a Blimp Found Fame 4

When Justice Hangs on a Droplet of Blood 9

On Northern Exposures 13

Significant Trees 16

From Courtroom to Classroom 22



GraduateWinter2007 Vo l u m e 3

Number 2

SchoolWhy this student’s in stitches 8

Shadowing Nobel Laureates 16

Life above theclouds 24

From MilledgeCircle to thetoast of Paris 28


M A G A Z I N E

Graduate

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an a group of UGA studentsand their professor help yieldup long-sunken secrets from the

watery grave of the USSWater Witch inGeorgia’s Vernon River? Using digitizedanimation skills they’ve honed on priortelevised projects, they may help expandupon and better dramatize the true storyof a long-lost Civil War-era ship.

Mike Hussey, associate professor ofdrama and theatre, and his graduatestudents have promised a short four-minute animated documentary for thePort Columbus Museum. The shortpiece will be designed for exhibit andtourist information. It will lead tosomething larger, Hussey explains.

“The National Civil War NavalMuseum is trying to bring southernmaritime history to this Georgiamuseum,” says Hussey.

Earlier this year, the Department ofTransportation produced an 18-minuteproduction titled Water Witch:Traversing the Seas of History. The firstdocumentary effort, directed, writtenand photographed by historian ChadCarlson, and edited by ObinwaSummors, did not include actualwreckage or an animated recreation ofthe vessel itself. After the fact, Husseyand his students offered animationsupport to help better depict the story ofthe historic vessel and raise funds for amuseum.

Hussey and his students arebecoming known for their exactingdigital reconstructions of otherhistorically significant ships. Their workhas been used in previous televiseddocumentaries, including Boneyard andThe Russian Navy.

The UGA professor and studentswere contacted once the documentary’s

producers learned of Hussey’s in-houseresearch work for a Water Witchfundraiser on behalf of Georgia’s PortColumbus Museum. “Chad contactedus after he had done that documentaryabout partnering with him to combineour efforts,” says Hussey. “He heardabout our work doing a digital recon-struction of a ship in conjunction withBruce Smith, the executive director ofthe Port Columbus Museum,” explainsHussey.

Hussey and his graduate studentshave partnered on prior animationprojects that have aired on theprestigious History Channel. Theirpainstaking work in digital recreationwork was the subject of a cover story inthe fall, 2006 issue of the GraduateSchool Magazine.

According to historic documents,the USS Water Witch was believed to liesomewhere within the possible path of aproposed Vernon River bridge project.Given federal mandates, a historicsearch-and-survey project halted thebridge’s construction until experts coulddetermine the ruin’s whereabouts.

The federal ship was known to havebeen sunk in December of 1864 afterfirst being burned by Confederatesoldiers. The soldiers sank the shipfearing that the Water Witch would bereclaimed and confiscated by advancingnorthern forces. The location of its ruinsremained a long-term mystery prior tothe Georg ia Depar tment o fTransportation’s survey efforts.

Hussey’s department was contactedafter a short documentary concerningthe search to locate the vessel alreadyexisted.

“Bruce Smith is building a full-scaleworking replica of the ship for the

34

Columbus exhibit. We didn't work onthat one. [But] I was contacted by theGeorgia DOT historian who did it,because he wanted to work with us toexpand the documentary withanimation that we're doing for an in-house piece. That piece will help thePort Columbus Museum raise fundingto finish rebuilding a full scale replica oftheWater Witch.”

Hussey was made aware of theship’s ruins two years ago. “We wereasked to give a talk about the HistoryChannel projects to the Franklin Collegeboard of advisors a couple of years ago.After the talk, one of the membersapproached us and suggested we dosome work digitally reconstructing theship they'd discovered in the VernonRiver (which turned out to be theWaterWitch.) At the time we were so busy, wetold him that we'd get to it as soon as wewere done with the other televisedprojects,” says Hussey.

“The story of this ship turned outto be an exciting adventure that tookplace in our state. Plus, we've done a lotof ships over the years and this was anice logical extension of what we'rebecoming known for. Once we foundout that Bruce was the expert on theWater Witch, we contacted him aboutpartnering on this research effort to tellthis as an animated story; and we'd passthe results on to Port Columbus to helpthem finish raising the funds for thedevelopment of the Water Witchexhibit. We believe it will bring a lot oftourists to the state.”

The project will also testmethodologies that Hussey is using for aseparate, larger research project nextsemester.

“We're learning a lot and puttingthe graduate lab through its paces.” Forfurther information on the PortColumbus re-creation of the vessel, see:www.portcolumbus.org

W AT E R W I T C H Y i e l d s U pBew i t c h i n g I n s i g h t s w i t h t h e

h e l p o f UGA DRAMA PROFESSORa n d S TUDENTS

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Titan II missile launch simulation as agraduate student, “is now a professionalanimator and a technical director atScanline,” says Hussey. Kat Elliott, aformer graduate student, was featuredwith Hussey on the inaugural magazinecover. She researched and created adigital ship model of US AFS GeneralHayt S. Vanderberg, a ship destined fora strategically planned sinking.

“Kat Elliott is now assistantproducer for the Siggraph Animation

Festival.” Yet another of Hussey’sformer graduate students, MarcusErbar, is technical director/animator atHydraulX.

Many of these students were citedin the fall 2005 issue of the GraduateSchool Magazine. “All three of ouranimators are doing well in the world,”he adds. “The companies andorganizations they joined after receivingtheir graduate degrees are all highlyrespected and top-tier.”

A B r i e f Upd a t e

Animation Postscript: Mike Husseyand his animation students are rich inimagination, yet nearly always lean onfunds. Animation, artificial intelligenceand special effects, Hussey’s specialties,often require the fusion of art andscience in recreating virtual worlds, hesays. The necessary software, storagecapacity and computing power toproduce their signature creativevirtualities are enormously expensive.

The UGA animators-in-trainingand their professor frequently combthrough campus surplus computerequipment. Storage capacities arerapidly chewed up by animationprojects, Hussey explains. Strainedcomputing systems frequently crashmid-project. Archaic software adds yetanother staggering amount of work timeas students design three-dimensionalmodels, such as a NASA silo, a doomedbattleship, or a Titan MII missile. Yetthe plucky and talented animators neverlower their standards or ambitions.

“We sure are making do with whatwe can get our hands on or cobbletogether,” says Hussey. “We do that a lot.But we’ve always worked hard to savetaxpayer dollars; that’s for sure.”

Three years ago, Dean Grassoapproved an Opportunity Fund Grantto help the resourceful professor afforddesperately needed software at a criticaltime. The funds enabled his students tocomplete work that wound up beingtelevised nationally on the HistoryChannel. The necessary software theproject required helped shave significanthours off their deadline.

The student’s reputation for high-quality work is attracting industryattention.

“You might be interested in what'shappened to the other grad studentswho worked on the projects that theGraduate School supported and who'vegone into the world,” associate professorHussey adds.

Lena Giseke, who worked on the

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TheWater Witch was burned by Confederate soldiers while docked in Georgia's Vernon River

circa December 1864. The exact whereabouts of its wreckage eluded historians until recently.

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Graduate SchoolAdministration

Maureen Grasso

Dean

David Knauft

Associate Dean

Michael Johnson

Assistant Dean

Judy Milton

Assistant Dean

Tonia Gantt

Business

Krista Haynes

Admissions

Enrolled Student Services

Lollie Hoots

Communications

Tom Wilfong

Development

The Graduate School at theUniversity of Georgia hasbeen enhancing learningenvironments and inspiringscholarly endeavors since itsformal establishment in 1910.Through our professionaldevelopment programs andfunding opportunities, wepromote excellence ingraduate education in alldisciplines.

ALUMNUS N a m e d t oJOHNS HOPK INS

So c i e t y o f S c h o l a r s

Sangram Sisodia, who received his PhDin biochemistry from the University ofGeorgia in 1985, has been named to theSociety of Scholars at Johns HopkinsUniversity. Sisodia is the ThomasReynolds Sr. Family Professor ofNeurosciences and the director of theCenter for Molecular Neurobiology atthe University of Chicago. He wasamong “15 other esteemed scientistsand clinicians honored during thesociety's 38th induction ceremony” lastyear, according to a press release fromJohns Hopkins. Approximately 500scholars have been elected to the society.

“Dr. Sisodia has spent much of hiscareer trying to untangle the knottybiology of familial Alzheimer’s disease,”the release stated. “A molecular biologistby training, Dr. Sisodia, with his team,has used a combination of genetic,molecular, cellular and neurobiologicalapproaches to clarify the biology ofproteins critically implicated in thisdevastating disease that affects sevenpercent of people over the age of 65and 40 percent of those ages 80 andolder.”

In addition, the release praised

Also making animation news is an online dramatic media thesis project. The project,Guernica, is a three-dimensional exploration of the artist Picasso’s work.

“Guernica has had 35,000 hits by now and is featured on numerous blogs aroundthe Web,” according to Hussey.

“Furthermore, it was part of the animation festival of the Ars Electronica in Linz,Austria in September 2008, and was screened during the Independent Movie Festivalin Osnabrück, Germany, in October 2008.” Former UGA graduate student LenaGiseke attended the German film festival, and gave a presentation about thestudent project.

T h e s i s P r o j e c tGUERN ICA

Re c e i v e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l A c c l a im

Sisodia’s contribution to thedevelopment of transgenic mice thatexhibit features of the human diseaseand his training of a new cohort ofoutstanding young scientists in this field.Prior to joining the University ofChicago, Sisodia was a professor ofpathology and neuroscience at the JohnsHopkins University School ofMedicine.

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Sisodia, above at left, is being

honored by fellow scholars. His research

integrates genetic, molecular, cellular

and neurobiological approaches to

Alzheimer's disease.

You’re powered bya great team: Verizon Wireless and the University of Georgia.

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NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDATHENS, GA.PERMIT NO. 165

www.grad.uga.edu

Working out of a Washington Street bicycle shop inAthens, Ben Epps completed his first airplane in 1907.By 1912, he had mastered aircraft building and flight,despite several crashes and impressive failures. BenEpps personified the value of high-flying dreams andsmall things writ large in an Athens sky.

Editor/Writer

Cynthia Adams

Design

Julie Sanders

Photo Editor

Nancy Evelyn

Copy Editors

Annie Ferguson

Maura Barber

© 2009 by the University of Georgia.

No part of this publication may be

reproduced in any way without the

written permission of the editor.

This publication was printed by generous gifts from Verizon

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The University of Georgia Graduate School320 East Clayton Street, Suite 400Athens, Georgia 30602-4401706-425-3111, FAX 706-425-3096

Sky Dawg, Athens Ben Epps Airport, Kathy Whitehead, artist

ANDREW ROSEN“Great things are not done by impulse, but bya series of small things brought together.”

—Vincent van Gogh

the last word

see page 33 FOR NEWS ABOUT THEGraduate School Magazine Awards!

FIND OUT ABOUT ways to giveON page 31

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