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Inbox

A Dark Day Redeemed

I enjoyed the Winter 2014 cover of Miami with its lovely photo of the new Student Activities Center—quite a far cry from what existed when I was a student. Much to my pleasure and nostalgic surprise, upon opening the magazine, I also found the letter “‘Playing,’ Another Perspective,” regarding the Band of the Hour’s performance at the football game that was played the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. I was there as a baton twirler with the BOTH. I distinctly remember that game—and the emotion associated with it, whether even to go ahead with it. I knew the letter’s author, Aurelio Azpiazu, B.S.C.E. ’68, who became our drum major several years later, and Pat Ratesic, B.Ed. ’65, a good football player who was on the field that day and wrote the letter “Praise for ‘Playing.’”

Both letters rekindle memories of a terrible time in our country’s history, and a time when we (UM) received a fair amount of criticism for playing the game that weekend. Rather than the outcome of the game, I remember the muffled drums and the tears that flowed during “Hail to the Chief” and “The National Anthem.” Fred McCall, our band director, was deeply moved by the occasion and served as a role model to all of us, typifying grace under pressure when he made the decision to let the band take the field. He instructed the baton twirlers to remain in the stands, as our presence on the field in short costumes would have been deemed disrespectful in those far more conservative times. As I recall, we dressed in civilian clothes to ensure that we didn’t cause criticism for the BOTH or our wonderful director.

Marilu Marshall, B.B.A. ’66, J.D. ’69
New York, New York

Fighting for Sebastian

I read with interest Maya Bell’s article on the new UM license plate (“It’s the U’s Turn,” Spring 2014). I chaired the University of Miami Alumni Association’s License Plate Committee in the late 1980s. While all of the state schools had school license plates, we were the first private school to be given that honor. To do so, we had to gather the signatures of more than 10,000 owners of cars registered in Florida (leased cars did not qualify). To meet this difficult requirement, we set up petition tables at registration and UM home football games (it helped that the ’Canes were one of the best teams in the nation at that time) and sent petitions to alumni all over the state. It took us several months, but with the help of many, including Bunny Anika at the Alumni Office, we collected more than 14,000 signatures!

As for the design, UM’s president at the time, Tad Foote, wanted the U, but the alumni on my committee wanted Sebastian. When I asked President Foote why he disliked the ibis, he said the bandage on his face seemed to promote violence and the smoking pipe promoted smoking. I asked him if Sebastian would be acceptable if we eliminated the bandage and the pipe, and he conceded. The art department made the changes, and the Sebastian license plate was ours! The South Florida Sun-Sentinel published an article about the accomplishment on September 24, 1989.

Twenty-five years after I submitted the first order for the new plate, it still adorns the car I drive today. And while I can understand the desire of some to feature the U, I intend to keep my Sebastian plate for as long as I own a car.

Jared Anton, J.D. ’82
Hollywood, Florida

In with the U

Regarding “It’s the U’s Turn” (Spring 2014), the Watt family celebrated Mother’s Day 2014 in orange, green, and white, since both mothers are UM alumni.

We also celebrated the placement on my vehicle of the new “U” license plate (photo below).

Jim Watt, A.B. ’66
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

In Praise of Whitely

While at UM, I had the extreme good fortune to land a work-study job in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. I held that job for four amazing years. Although it was not an official course and I earned no credits, the lessons I learned from Dr. Patricia Whitely in leadership and management were a master class and have stood me in good stead ever since. I’m so happy our Miami magazine highlighted (“The Life of Whitely,” Spring 2014) what I, and countless others, have known all along: Dr. Whitely rocks! Great article!

Julio J. Torrado, B.S.C. ’03
Key West, Florida

Edifice Complex

Of all the improvements to campus since my wife, Ronnie Wainwright, A.B. ’62, M.A. ’66, and I were there, none seems to affect the entire student body as much as the new Student Center Complex, featured in the Winter 2014 issue (“Grand Opening”). There have been several variations of it since I arrived in 1955, but I assume this one will be around for many more years than the others. I look forward to seeing it in person later this year.

Abbott Wainwright, A.B. ’57,  M.B.A. ’68
Scottsdale, Arizona

A Home away from Home

The post Inbox Summer 2014 appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

From the Editor

A Vicarious Bon Voyage

I decided not to take a summer vacation this year. Maybe I didn’t feel the need after the vicarious thrills of adventure I experienced by editing all the stories in this issue.

After all, without lifting a finger I managed to scale one of the most exciting equatorial terrains in Africa. Without stepping out of my office, I plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on the hunt for mysteries only sharks can reveal. Without breaking a sweat, I embarked on a medical mission with hundreds of students to bring health care to some of the most vulnerable regions of South Florida. And without having to fill out one application or subject myself to a single job interview, I felt butterflies in my stomach as thousands of newly graduated University of Miami students learned where they’d be doing their medical residencies, what company they’d be working for, or what next great journey they’d be embarking on as volunteers, entrepreneurs, or graduate students.

Unlike that slogan for the famous U.S. tourist destination, what happens at the University of Miami most definitely does not stay at the University of Miami. And therein lies the beauty and promise of this place. What occurs here telegraphs far and wide, across continents and from generation to generation. Read on and see for yourself, no passport required, stunning examples of just how much is evolving from the everyday academic pollination taking place at UM.

And, as always, please share news of your own explorations, vicarious or otherwise, so we can mention them in a future issue and here on our refreshed website.

—Robin Shear, editor

The post From the Editor appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

Nate Dappen, Ph.D. ’12, grew up among explorers.

His father was an “adventure doc”—a young physician who signed on as the medic on mountain-climbing expeditions around the world. An uncle was an outdoor journalist who would carry the family along on remote hiking, rafting, and rock-climbing assignments. And Nate Dappen’s mother, according to family lore, is one of the few women to ever canoe the entire Northwest Passage.

So when this University of Miami graduate decided to climb one of the world’s most remote mountain ranges to make a documentary about climate change, he was treading a well-worn family path. His father, in fact, had climbed these same mountains when the family lived in Kenya during Nate’s childhood.

The result of the younger Dappen’s 12-day expedition with filmmaking partner Neil Losin is Snows of the Nile, a 20-minute documentary that details their January 2013 odyssey to bring back a visual record of how global warming is thawing out one of the world’s least understood regions: the glacial Rwenzori mountains of equatorial Africa.

Snows is the work of a start-up filmmaking venture that has so far produced projects for the World Wildlife Fund, the National Science Foundation, and other organizations. “We really wanted to tell a climate change story that hadn’t been told before,” explains Dappen, who arrived in Miami in 2007 to begin a Ph.D. program in evolutionary biology. “We came up with this idea of visiting these tropical glaciers and using the historic photos taken of them a century ago to show the change due to global warming.”

Yes, there are glaciers in Africa. Known as the “Mountains of the Moon” or the “African Alps,” the Rwenzoris sit on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Soaring to more than 16,000 feet at their highest point, the perpetually fog-shrouded mountains comprise a remarkable number of microclimates that extend from pristine rain forests and massive bogs to alpine wetlands, lakes, and streams that form the headwaters of the Nile.

1906 explorers can be seen standing on ice dozens of feet thicker than the ice seen in a 2013 re-creation featuring Losin, right, and two guides. Black and white images ©Fondazione Sella, Italy, courtesy DecaneasArchive.com

“It’s an extremely unknown place,” says Dappen. “As a biologist, being in that place was just incredible, a privilege. If you kill a mosquito that’s biting you there, it’s probably a mosquito that’s never been studied before. It’s one of the only places in the world where black leopards exist. It’s one of the few places in the world that has the one-horned unicorn chameleon and three-horned chameleon.”

Dappen and Losin formed their company, Day’s Edge Productions, after meeting in Costa Rica in 2008 on a graduate biology field course. Both were avid still photographers who quickly realized they shared a passion for filmmaking and storytelling. Though each had planned to pursue traditional academic careers, they were growing increasingly enamored with the idea of using their scientific backgrounds to make documentary films.

“Neither of us had made films before, but a few years after meeting we made our first short science film,” says Losin, who has a Ph.D. in biology from UCLA. “They weren’t good at first. But we’re both very competitive. Any time Nate did something, I wanted to do it better. Any time I did something, he wanted to do it better. And that helped us improve our craft.”

After a number of smaller efforts won awards, the pair began scoring contracts with organizations like the World Wildlife Fund to make films ranging from “trip documentaries to research profiles to hard-core research films,” notes Dappen.

Losin initially had the idea of shooting tropical glaciers to document climate change. Funding proved difficult until he and Dappen submitted their idea for the Rwenzori film to the “Stay Thirsty Grant” contest sponsored by the beer company Dos Equis. Much to their surprise, their project won the inaugural $25,000 Stay Thirsty Grant, presented by “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” the company’s popular pitchman.

From left, disappearing glaciers are part of a bigger story. Dappen and Losin saw how climate change affects the lives and livelihood of the Bakonjo tribe, many of whom serve as expert climbing guides and porters. They pose proudly, far right, to help re-create Sella’s 1906 photograph of their forebears.

In 2013 Dappen and Losin embarked on a tightly scheduled 12-day expedition to the remote African mountain range. It was Greek astronomer and geographer Ptolemy who first wrote about the Rwenzoris, theorizing how their snows were the source of the Nile. It wasn’t until the 19th century, though, that the range was explored. First described by Sir Henry Morton Stanley (of Stanley and Livingstone fame) in 1889, they were later photographed for the first time in 1906, during an expedition led by the Duke of Abruzzi, an Italian prince who was a mountaineer and explorer, and the photographer Vittorio Sella.

That journey, with its detailed logs and stunning photographic archive of the then-massive Rwenzori glaciers, would form the basis of Dappen and Losin’s narrative. The two wanted to retrace the duke’s trek, and photograph the range from the exact perspectives and angles of the glaciers Sella had captured more than a century ago.

Once on site, their strategy proved particularly difficult to enact, but not in the way they expected. After several days, they saw that the perspectives from which Sella had shot no longer existed. The glaciers and snowpack had melted so much in the intervening century that Dappen and Losin were now standing on rock hundreds of feet below where Sella had stood to make his shots and looking at peaks with much smaller snowcaps.

Dappen, left, and Losin continue pushing the limits of scientific exploration while inspiring others to care about our planet.

“It’s unbelievable how much ice has melted off there,” Dappen says. “The places where we were standing would literally have been under hundreds of feet of ice in 1906. Standing 300 or 400 feet lower, you’re just not going to recapture the same perspective ever again.”

Combining scientific context like this with original storytelling is what Dappen and Losin hope will set them apart in this new generation of documentary filmmaking. Like all filmmakers, they are contending with both the promise and demands of working in different platforms: the Web, TV, even interactive apps. Snows of the Nile, called “beautiful yet troubling” by National Geographic, has screened at numerous film festivals and can be seen online at www.snowsofthenile.com.

For Islands of Creation, their latest movie, which was funded by a National Science Foundation grant, Dappen and Losin turned to a familiar subject, J. Albert C. Uy, associate professor of biology in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences. Uy, a speciation expert who holds the Pat and Jeff Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology, looks at how new species emerge in isolated environments like the Solomon Islands. Both men served as postdoctoral researchers in his lab. Uy granted the pair access to film his work because he felt that, as science Ph.D.s, they’d bring understanding and discipline to telling the story of his research.

“From the moment they approached me it was easy to agree because we were on the same page. You knew these were guys who would prioritize the science over the entertainment value,” says Uy. “They know exactly what it is to be a field biologist, so they weren’t going to be a hindrance. I was confident that it would be a positive collaboration.”

For his part, Dappen says one of his main goals is simply to make sure every film is better than the last. “I’m not so naïve that I think you can make a single film about a topic like climate change and change a lot of minds,” Dappen says. “But if you tell a good story, have good visuals, show people something they haven’t seen before, then I think you can start to make a difference.”

The post Rwenzori Rising appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

Click here to watch a shark-tagging trip.

His forehead showing beads of sweat after nearly two hours at sea, Neil Hammerschlag, Ph.D. ’10, reaches over the stern of the 36-foot research vessel Maven to test the tension on the end of the line. He knows almost immediately he’s hooked something big. His crewmates, who have spent the better part of the morning deploying bait traps marked by buoys, edge closer to the ship’s starboard, trying to get a glimpse of whatever has been caught. Everyone aboard knows that the waters surrounding Broad Key are an Atlantis to a medley of marine life, from massive grouper to fearsome-looking barracuda. But it’s the apex predators—sharks who rule the oceanic food chain—the crew is pursuing.

With the Maven’s twin engines cut, Hammerschlag yanks hard on the taut fishing leader, pulling the catch closer to the surface. Then, rising like a levi­athan from the depths, the creature’s blunt nose and vertical stripes break through the waves, leaving no doubt about its identity.

“We got a tiger shark, guys!” shouts Hammerschlag, high-fiving some of his young shipmates.

From Cape Cod to the Caribbean, from the Gulf of Mexico to Southern California, and from the Hawaiian to Solomon islands, tiger sharks inhabit oceans around the world, growing as long as 18 feet and consuming just about anything they want—even automobile license plates, as the 1975 movie Jaws depicted. But there’s still plenty about Galeocerdo cuvier—and many other mighty, yet still largely mysterious, sharks—scientists would like to know, such as how much time they spend in certain waters, their migration routes, their favorite feeding and mating areas, and why some of them dive to such incredible depths.

Researchers restrain a tiger shark before conducting field tests on it.

To find those answers, Hammerschlag, a research assistant professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and his students venture out to sea anywhere from four to six times a month to catch sharks, run them through a battery of quick field tests and—most important—tag them with a tracking device before releasing them back into their marine habitat.

A tube inserted in the shark’s jaws helps it to breathe.

Their expeditions form the foundation of UM’s R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program (RJD), which Hammerschlag helped launch in 2010. During the tagging trip aboard the Maven to Broad Key, a small islet in the Upper Florida Keys, Hammerschlag and his crew catch and tag ten sharks, including the 7-foot-long female tiger shark that put up a fierce fight. UM graduate student Jake Jerome pulls her onto a partially submerged metal platform attached to the Maven’s starboard, then he, Hammerschlag, and another student, Gabi Goodrich, mount the shark’s back. They need to hold it steady for only a short while—long enough to take blood and tissue samples and to attach a tracking device to its dorsal fin. Then, with a push, they send the animal on its way. Hammerschlag dives in next to the shark to monitor its health and make sure it swims off safely.

He’s had many other in-water experiences—including the time 11 years ago when, as a young student on a dive trip, he dove head first into the water to get a better look at a tiger shark and wound up so close to the big fish that it could have taken a bite out of him. Hammerschlag emerged from that encounter unscathed, he recalls, his fascination with sharks heightened a hundred fold.

Today, as director of RJD, he instills his passion for sharks in all of the program’s initiatives, leading shark-tagging trips and collecting data that contribute to shark conservation efforts. The activities are important, for an ecosystem without its apex predator can have a domino effect on other species, allowing some populations to explode, which could then impact yet other species. “Research has begun to show that apex predatory sharks can help maintain healthy marine ecosystems,” Hammerschlag explains.

Yet many shark populations around the world are in decline, with some species endangered and others on the edge of extinction. By some estimates, close to 100 million sharks are killed each year, targeted for their meat, liver oil, and cartilage, but mostly for their fins, which are chopped off and used to make shark fin soup, a delicacy in East Asia.

Those numbers are alarming, especially given that most sharks don’t mature until their teens, reproduce slowly (the spiny dogfish has a gestation period of up to 22 months), and produce only a few offspring.

A satellite tag is attached to a tiger shark’s dorsal fin. The data it transmits could help scientists learn more about Galeocerdo cuvier.

RJD shark-tagging expeditions help produce the hard data policymakers need to protect threatened species of sharks. “It could be something as simple as expanding protected areas,” says Hammerschlag. So getting that data into the hands of legislators becomes vital. He and his team are using two different kinds of tags to gather information: spaghetti tags, which are marked with basic data such as when and where the shark was caught and its size at release, and sophisticated satellite tags—one that transmits information in near-real time and another that archives information, eventually detaching from the shark’s dorsal fin and floating up to the surface to broadcast its stored data. The satellite tags are attached only to hammerhead, tiger, and bull sharks—the apex predators in the study area. Hammerschlag describes the satellite tags as “high-powered laptops” on the backs of sharks, gizmos that can record a shark’s orientation, how fast it swims, the temperature of the water in which it swims, even how deep it dives. Last year, he and his team caught 363 sharks, attaching satellite tags to 38 of them.

Researchers measure and record a shark’s length.

Sometimes the satellite tags stop working, detaching prematurely from a shark’s fin or losing battery power. “If I can get nine months out of them, I’m pretty happy,” Hammerschlag says.

The data have revealed much. He’s discovered that some sharks are spending only a short time in protected waters, venturing far out to sea during most other periods. One tiger shark swam more than 600 miles into the open ocean, surprising even Hammerschlag. “It’s virtually impossible to protect sharks throughout such a massive area,” he says. “But certain critical areas, or hot spots, such as their mating and feeding grounds and migratory routes, can be protected.”

He’s learned that bull sharks and tarpon, a large tropical marine fish, sometimes hunt in the same areas, but tarpon adjust their feeding habits to avoid being eaten by bull sharks. Such data help document the ecosystem importance of bull sharks in the region.

Hammerschlag is also teaming with marine biologist Jerald S. Ault, Ph.D. ’88, a Rosenstiel School professor who is attaching satellite tags to sharks, tuna, tarpon, and billfish in the Gulf of Mexico in hopes that the creatures will send out data that will improve hurricane forecasting. The idea is that because warm water fuels storms, the fish could act as biological sensors for collecting data on water temperatures that might be conducive to hurricanes.

Other studies have used data from Hammerschlag’s shark-tagging work to look at the impact of dive tourism on the large-scale movements of sharks, as well as the survivability rates of different shark species in catch-and-release programs. “We’re learning things that only a short time ago we didn’t have the capability of doing,” says Hammerschlag.

But what happens in the extreme depths of the ocean still remains largely a mystery. One of the tiger sharks Hammerschlag had been monitoring once dove 2,600 feet. “What’s it doing down there?” he wondered. Newer technology, like a camera he’s developing with collaborators and engineers that would be attached to the backs of sharks, could one day provide the answer.

Until that time, Hammerschlag relies on observation and the electronic tracking devices, which yield a wealth of information but at a pretty penny—$2,500 per tag with a half a year of airtime. “I would put a satellite tag on more sharks if I had the money,” says Hammerschlag.

People like Graham Uffelman are offsetting some of those costs, participating in and helping to bankroll shark-tagging expeditions through UM’s Citizen Science initiative. Uffelman and his sons Charlie, 12, and Will, 10, participated in the March shark-tagging expedition to Broad Key. The New York real estate broker paid for the cost of the satellite tag attached to the first tiger shark caught that day. His sons adopted the shark, naming it Charlie Will and tracking its movements via a special website.

Off the coast of South Africa, a great white shark breaches the surface, a common attack strategy for seal hunting. Photos by Neil Hammerschlag. Ph.D. ’10

Studying ‘Jaws’

The captured great white drew quite an audience. One of the onlookers was a 5-year-old boy named Neil Hammerschlag.

As fishermen began cutting open the massive shark on a stretch of beach in Durban, South Africa, the little boy pressed his way through the crowd, watching in amazement at how big the creature’s heart was and at some of the contents pulled from its stomach—including an empty soft drink can.

“Why would a shark eat a Coke can?” the boy wondered.

Today, as a University of Miami scientist who studies predator-prey interactions, Hammerschlag understands a great deal more about sharks, observing, tagging, and lecturing about them almost year-round.

But he still finds time to return to his native South Africa, where his interest in sharks began. There, he studies the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, the aquatic antagonist of the movie Jaws. Among his findings: White sharks have the capacity to learn and, as they get older, become better hunters.

“It’s easy to see white sharks aggregating at a seal colony and hunting seals,” says Hammerschlag. “Seal colonies for white sharks are like McDonald’s for humans. But for white sharks, particularly large ones, scavenging on whales is probably more important to them than we previously understood, and that’s something we strongly suspect based on the social behaviors we observed while they scavenge. We saw a pecking order, a lot of interaction among the sharks, and we suspect it happens more frequently than we documented.”

—Robert C. Jones Jr.

Last year, more than 1,600 people participated in 71 shark-tagging trips with RJD. “As scientists, we don’t want our work to be done in a vacuum,” Hammerschlag says. “We’d like it to have broad impact.” Especially among high school students, who, through a youth outreach program, make up a significant portion of RJD’s shark-tagging participants—more than 1,000 in 2013 alone. “Rather than a 45-minute lecture or textbook, the boat becomes their classroom, and they get to do science out in the field,” says Hammerschlag.

RJD’s shark-tagging initiative grew out of a high school outreach effort he spearheaded as a UM graduate student, exposing youngsters to field research. When Minnesota businesswoman Marian Dunlap heard about his work, she supported the program’s expansion through a donation in honor of her late husband, Richard J. Dunlap, an avid fisherman dedicated to conserving the Florida Keys. Launched in 2010 as a joint initiative of the Rosenstiel School and UM’s Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, the R.J. Dunlap Program advances ocean conservation and scientific literacy via a score of projects and outreach activities.

But only so many people each year can experience one of RJD’s shark-tagging trips. For those who can’t, Hammerschlag has launched a website, rjd.miami.edu/virtual-expeditions, that takes users on a virtual shark-tagging expedition, starting at the boat dock, where equipment is loaded, and going to the high seas, where they see what it’s like to tag a shark.

Hammerschlag’s undergraduate and graduate students are a mainstay on the real-world trips, baiting hooks with barracuda, tuna, and jack; conducting field tests; and, later, doing research of their own. Many of them draw inspiration from Hammerschlag. “You can have a conversation with Neil, and by the time it’s over, you’ll want to be a shark researcher,” says Goodrich, a third-year marine science and biology major from Washington, D.C., who’s been part of Hammerschlag’s shark-tagging team since she was a freshman. She is studying sharks’ remarkable ability to heal quickly, hoping that one day she can duplicate their wound-healing powers in humans.

Marine biology major Samantha Owen, who sports a tattoo of Poseidon’s trident on her right arm, describes sharks as “utterly beautiful, but not a species many people defend.” Movies like Jaws and news stories on people attacked by sharks, she notes, have given the predators a bad reputation. Hammerschlag believes more educational programming, and citizen-supported research trips, can help humans understand the importance of sharks.

Click here to learn more about Hammerschlag’s work and even join his team on a shark research trip.

The post Tagged for Survival appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

On a spring Friday afternoon, third-year student Kevin Fu backs the moving truck into the Miller School of Medicine’s loading dock, and second-year student Allison Silverstein, B.S. ’13, lifts a pair of folding tables inside, setting in motion the carefully choreographed drill she and her team have planned for more than five months.        “Exam tables.” Check. “Gurney.” Check. “Power cords.” Check. “Centrifuges.” Check. “Female and derm lamps.” Check. “Bone density machine.” Check. “Pap smears.” Check. “Venipuncture and glucose.” Check. “Mental health.” Check. “Old charts.” Check. “Blank charts.” Check.        With clipboard and inventory list in hand, Olivia Bosshardt, a second-year student, counts and cross-checks dozens of labeled boxes, bins, and loose items that fellow students wrestle into the back of the rental truck with clockwork efficiency. In less than 20 minutes, the vehicle is loaded, locked, and ready to head to the Belafonte TACOLCY Center in Liberty City, where Silverstein and her team will oversee the ninth and final Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS) health fair of the 2013-14 academic year.

The trip to one of Miami’s most disadvantaged and underserved neighborhoods is a mere three miles away. But as Bosshardt gets behind the wheel and maneuvers the truck past the housing projects, meat markets, pawn shops, and convenience stores that dot the area, she is not only bridging a cultural divide but carrying on the Miller School’s most valued and admired tradition. That tradition began in 1971, when a handful of University of Miami medical students organized a free health fair in the Florida Keys.

Students set up cholesterol and Pap tests

“This is a huge reason why I wanted to go to medical school here,” says Bosshardt, who was in charge of logistics for the Liberty City health fair, but like her fellow DOCS teammates, pitched in with every aspect of its organization. “If you let it, medical school can be a selfish time. You study so hard, you don’t have time for much else. But DOCS gives us a chance to use our time to benefit others, to get real hands-on experience, to get to know real people, learn their stories, understand their walks of life. It reminds us why we went to medical school in the first place.”

Establishing an extracurricular program that would become ingrained in the Miller School’s culture was not on Iris Kiem’s mind 43 years ago, when the late professor of epidemiology invited students, supervised by their medical school professors, to offer basic health screenings at a church on Big Pine Key. A resident of the Keys, Kiem, B.S. ’48, was simply dismayed by the lack of medical care available to many of the area’s low-income residents who had no health insurance.

To this day, the annual Big Pine Key health fair is still flourishing in the same church, still providing one of its original patients, now 92 years old, her annual physical, and scores of others of all ages their only access to preventive medical care and referrals for follow-up services. But over the past four decades and under the guidance of Mark T. O’Connell, the Miller School’s senior associate dean for educational development and DOCS’s longtime faculty leader, that single fair has evolved into one of the largest, most comprehensive, and most admired student-run community health initiatives in the nation—one that is now the subject of a nine-part documentary series introduced by the late poet Maya Angelou, and an annual retreat devoted to helping other medical schools around the United States establish similar programs.

Allison Silverstein greets one of the youngest visitors to the Liberty City fair.

Students, who vie for one of DOCS’s more than 120 leadership positions (53 of which are held by first-years), organize and staff nine annual health fairs in nine diverse communities, including four in the Keys, four in Miami-Dade County, and one in Broward County. Supervised by about 50 medical school faculty and residents from Jackson Memorial Hospital who likewise volunteer their time, these students screen about 2,000 patients annually for South Florida’s most prevalent diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, vision loss, obesity, and depression, as well as breast, cervical, and skin cancers.

DOCS students also operate two free weekly clinics that offer ongoing primary care and subspecialty services, including cardiology, neurology, gynecology, rheumatology, urology, and psychiatry, in two of Greater Miami’s most underserved neighborhoods. Once a year, they recruit patients identified at two health fairs as being at-risk for colon cancer for free flexible sigmoidoscopy screenings provided by a UM gastroenterologist and a Miller School alumnus who also volunteer their time.

More recently, 64 students were trained as certified application counselors to help patients at DOCS fairs and other events navigate the federal marketplace exchange and enroll in one of the new health insurance plans mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

Rimsky Denis, M.B.A. ’13, M.D. ’14, immediate past executive director of DOCS, who attended his first fair while earning his Master of Public Health in 2008, remembers being “blown away” by the scope of services and hands-on opportunities for first-year students. “As an M.P.H. student, I had been to a lot of health fairs, and I thought it’d be the same,” the recent Miller School graduate says. “Maybe there’d be a blood pressure cuff, maybe a quick glucose test, but mainly passing out pamphlets and educating the public. Instead, I saw students who had the capacity to literally save lives with very limited resources. I knew then I wanted to go to the University of Miami for medical school.”

Rimsky Denis, M.B.A. ’13, M.D. ’14, outgoing DOCS executive director, oversees his final fair before graduation.

He would quickly learn what every DOCS executive director before him learned: The DOCS model is not static. It cannot rest on its laurels, or operate in isolation. Team leaders can’t just dust off the exhaustive check lists, spreadsheets, timelines, and briefing reports handed down by their predecessors. They can’t just drop in once a year. They must keep the pulse of the communities they serve. They must figure out how to improve everything they do.

That lesson hit home when Denis was project manager for the 2010 fair in Little Haiti, Miami’s longest-running and most popular DOCS fair, largely because it has been hosted for 20 years at the venerable Center for Haitian Studies, Health & Human Services. That fair, which took place about eight months after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, turned out to be inadequately staffed to address the overwhelming number of patients who turned up in need of mental health and employment services.

To this day, Denis, who was born at Jackson to Haitian-American parents, feels responsible for not anticipating that scenario. “We should have known the community had a particular need, and if we couldn’t provide that service, we should have found a community partner who could,” he says. “We didn’t know because we would show up once a year and then not come back until the next year.”

His solution? As executive director, Denis created advisory boards of key stakeholders in each community DOCS serves to gather and report valuable information on emerging needs.

Had such a board existed when DOCS launched its newest fair in Liberty City six years ago, it may not have had such a bumpy start. Few people returned to the fair its second year because, DOCS executives would learn, the public’s faith in the community host agency had been displaced by mistrust.

But in March 2014, that is not the case. More than 100 Miller School student volunteers—led by project manager Silverstein and supervised by 20 faculty—bring the health fair back to DOCS’s community partner TACOLCY (The Advisory Committee for Liberty City Youth) for the fourth straight year. Two hours before the doors open at 10 a.m., two dozen people are already waiting patiently in the shrinking shade. One woman holds a small child on her lap; another asks in Spanish whether it’s really true she can get a Pap test for free. Nearly 30, she has never undergone the simple swab that, for generations, has caught or prevented cervical cancer in women.

Gabbing like old friends, Yvette Phillips, 53, and Frederica Dawson, 54, who had arrived independently well before the sun came up, are holding down the front of the line. Phillips is making her second visit to the fair, Dawson her first. Neither has health insurance, and both look forward to undergoing a battery of primary health screenings in one fell swoop.

Joe Bennett shows fellow medical student Angelica Melillo the correct way to draw blood from Yvette Phillips, who was the first in line when the Liberty City fair opened.

“I love it. You get more done and it helps them (become good doctors) and it helps me,” says Phillips, a tax specialist who was at the height of tax season. “I took the bus to get here at 6 a.m. My aim is to get in and out quickly and let me enjoy my Saturday.”

That’s Emeka Albert’s aim, too. As one of dozens of students sitting side by side at long tables in the registration area—usually TACOLCY’s multipurpose meeting and classroom area—the first-year M.D./M.P.H. student reviews Phillips’s chart while she inquires about Albert’s future plans. “What’s going to be your field?’’ she asks. “I don’t know yet,” he answers. “I like pediatrics.”

“Good choice,” Phillips says, giving a thumbs up before signing her consent-to-treat form, and getting underway. “You have to have patience.”

Patience comes in handy while maneuvering through the maze of DOCS options. Xeroxed signs in the courtyard between TACOLCY’S buildings, which are adorned with striking murals, point the way to a dozen different screening stations. Eye, glucose, and bone density exams to the left. Vitals, male exams, and venipuncture (blood tests) to the right. Mental health, female exams, and pediatrics up the stairs. Skin exams behind registration. More discreet is the sign for HIV/AIDS testing, but at nearly every station, people stand in line holding their own charts, studying maps to plot their next move.

“It’s beautiful,” says Edreton Flash, 59, a trim man who learned about the fair from a flier posted at the library. “The kids are very energetic, positive, and knowledgeable.”

Other stations provide information on everything from legal issues to heart attack risks in women to signing up for federally mandated health insurance—much to the delight of Barbara Riggins. “Unbelievable,” says the 37-year-old, who leaves the fair with her first insurance policy—for $22 a month—thanks to help from a DOCS application counselor.

“This is awesome,” agrees Horace Roberts, TACOLCY’s interim director, surveying the controlled chaos. “We can provide the space, but someone has to provide the services. I don’t see this happening anywhere else. Maybe a kiosk with a blood pressure machine, but here you got it all.”

DOCS faculty leader Mark T. O’Connell and second-year student Johnathan Kennedy talk to a patient at the check-out station.

As the hours pass, the lines dwindle, and the registration area slowly converts to the check-out area, O’Connell, a professor of medicine and senior advisor to Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, takes a moment to marvel at how far DOCS has come.

“I never dreamed it would be such a huge part of the student experience and informal curriculum,” he says. “Now almost every student who comes to the Miller School participates in at least one DOCS fair, and many of them in dozens before they graduate. It has become an essential part of their training, professional development, and cultural competence. I think it’s what makes Miller School students special. Their community service stamps them for the future.”

O’Connell has left his own indelible mark on the organization. In the years between the first fair on Big Pine Key in 1971 and DOCS’s establishment in 2000, a number of different student groups started their own health fairs and began serving at area clinics. When O’Connell, who joined the Miller School faculty in 1981, was promoted to senior associate dean for medical education in 1999, he urged the various groups to consolidate their budgets, train students for their volunteer duties, and standardize paperwork, patient records, and supplies.

The next year, the various groups united under the DOCS umbrella, enabling the organization to begin standardizing and improving its services. The Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation hastened that process in 2006, making a generous grant that allowed DOCS to link up with more community partners to provide additional needed services.

Now, DOCS is spreading its considerable reach even wider—across the nation and onto the silver screen. In February, for the fourth year in a row, DOCS students invited student leaders from other medical schools to a four-day retreat to learn about their respective community service models. Beginning in Miami, the retreat ended in the Keys, where visitors from 17 universities had the opportunity to work at the Big Pine Key fair, or the two others held simultaneously in Marathon and Key West. Like DOCS itself, the annual DOCS retreat has evolved considerably from its inaugural gathering in 2011. The one constant over the years, says Danielle Neuman, a senior on the retreat’s executive board, is that the visiting students always leave “in shock and awe at all we do.”

Student Carlos Oliu tests Luisa Salazar’s memory at the Jack and Jill Health Fair held in Fort Lauderdale.

Next year, they may be doubly wowed. That’s when DOCSumentary, the nine-part short film series directed by Ali Habashi, M.S.M.E.T. ’98, a faculty member in the School of Communication’s Cinema and Interactive Media Department, and supported by an additional grant from the Wolfson Foundation, is slated for completion. Narrated by O’Connell and designed to educate medical students and other audiences about the cultural influences that affect health, each DOCSumentary episode centers on a single DOCS fair and the prevalent health issues facing the people it serves.

For example, the segment on the Big Pine Key fair zeroes in on skin cancer. It features 92-year-old Gilberte Baldridge, a sun lover who began attending in 1976, and Captain Eddie Webb, a consummate Keys character who claims membership in the Conch Republic. A newcomer to the fair, Webb is grateful to the students who discovered his skin cancer and arranged for its removal.

The episode on the Liberty City fair centers on hypertension, which disproportionately affects African-Americans, often because of a lack of access to healthy foods.

Nearly two and a half hours after registering, Yvette Phillips makes her way to the check-out station, happy to report her blood pressure is just fine. She leaves pleased and grateful, promising to be back next year. Not far behind her is her early-morning mate, Frederica Dawson, who doesn’t have good news. Her blood pressure is alarmingly high. The ophthalmologist who checked her vision could tell as soon as he looked into her eyes.

“He escorted me to the blood pressure station, and waited while they took my pressure again and again,” recalled Dawson, who would leave the fair with a referral for follow-up care after a thorough consultation with a resident. “I was shocked—shocked he would know that by looking in my eyes, and shocked he would show so much concern.”

For more information about DOCS, click here or call 305-243-4898.

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Mixed Media Summer 2014

Miami for Families

Miami-based freelance writer and mother Laura Albritton, M.F.A. ’01, has come out with a new guidebook, Miami for Families: A Vacation Guide for Parents and Kids (University Press of Florida, 2014). Exploring eight neighborhoods from a parent’s perspective, she uncovers fun activities around the county and further south in Key Largo and Key West.

Strength in Numbers

New York City-based Pete McGuinness, B.M. ’86, leader of The Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra, follows up Voice Like a Horn (Summit Records, 2013) with Strength in Numbers (Summit Records, 2014), proving his own strengths as composer, arranger, leader, trombonist, and, on a few of the album’s ten tracks, singer. LondonJazzNews notes, “A truly inspired and brilliant addition to the modern big band sound while incorporating the traditions that built it.”

Hercules

Dwayne Johnson, B.G.S. ’95, says he took on a grueling eight-month regimen to prepare for his title role in this Brett Ratner extravaganza (Paramount Pictures/MGM, 2014). Based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, this movie (also in IMAX 3D) begins after the Greek demigod has completed his legendary 12 labors. He now finds himself wielding his sword to help the King of Thrace and his daughter defeat a warlord.

The Tanning of America

Filmmakers Billy Corben, B.S.C. ’04, and Alfred Spellman, ’98, collaborated with ad exec Steve Stoute on a four-part documentary series for VH1 based on Stoute’s best-selling book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. VH1’s The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip Hop (2014) explores hip-hop culture’s wide-ranging impact during the past 30 years.

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Big Picture A Snapshot of the U today

Endless Shades of Summer

Colorful foliage from more than 500 species of flora keeps the 239-acre Coral Gables campus looking festive and cool despite sizzling temperatures. Framed by this fiery canopy is Ralph Provisero’s “Pietra Veloce,” one of 34 works in the U’s Public Sculpture Program.

Email Big Picture submissions to [email protected] (jpgs must be high-resolution and vertical).

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Ancestor Portrait of Uncle Cheng, 1837 Courtesy Lowe Art Museum

SEPTEMBER

Through October 19 Lowe Art Museum China’s Last Empire: The Art and Culture of the Qing Dynasty

Through April 26, 2015 Lowe Art Museum 
ArtLab @ The Lowe—Conquest and Coexistence: The Cultural Synthesis of Spanish Colonial Art

10 Welcome to the Neighborhood Various locations

20 UM Alumni Association Pregame Celebration and Football Game UM vs. Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska*

24-October 4 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

29 29th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner Waldorf Astoria, New York, New York

30 Impact of U with President Shalala Young Alumni pre-reception and main tour presentation, Atlanta, Georgia

OCTOBER

8 Impact of U with President Shalala Young Alumni pre-reception and main tour presentation, Dallas, Texas

9 Impact of U with President Shalala Young Alumni pre-reception and main tour presentation, Houston, Texas

9-26 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre Peter and the Starcatcher, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida

11 Football University of Cincinnati vs. UM, Miami Gardens, Florida

11-12 Family Weekend

16 Impact of U with President Shalala Young Alumni pre-reception and main tour presentation, Tampa, Florida

24 UM Board of Trustees Meeting

30-November 2 Alumni Weekend and Homecoming

31 Young Alumni Leadership Council Newman Alumni Center

31 Legacy Information Forums Newman Alumni Center

NOVEMBER

1 UM Alumni Association Pregame Celebration and Football Game University of North Carolina vs. UM, Miami Gardens, Florida

*For complete Hurricane sports schedules, visit www.hurricanesports.com
**Events are on the Coral Gables campus unless otherwise noted

More at miami.edu/calendar

Alumni Event Information 305-284-2872 or 1-866-UMALUMS

Sports Tickets 305-284-CANES or 1-800-GO-CANES

www.miami.edu/alumni

The post Datebook Summer 2014 appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

Miami-based glass artist, entrepreneur, and outdoor enthusiast Morgan Blittner, B.L.A. ’01, runs TKS Miami, which teaches kiteboarding and paddleboarding and sells everything related to an active lifestyle among the wind and waves.

Email a high-resolution photo that shows you living your passion to [email protected], subject line: ’Cane in the Act.

The post ’Cane in the Act Summer 2014 appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

Submit class notes to [email protected].

Len Carrier, A.B. ’56, M.A. ’58, self-published Bet on the River, his first novel, in 2013. A former U.S. Air Force officer and retired philosophy professor, he divides his time between North Carolina and Florida when he isn’t traveling to foreign countries with his wife, Claire.

Julian S. Haber, A.B. ’56, M.D. ’61, self-published his seventh book, Lydia and the Postal Inspector, a collection of stories.

Alvin Lloyd Brown, B.B.A. ’57, serves on the board of directors of the Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club of Boca Raton and North Broward County. He is of counsel at Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra.

Stephen LaCheen, J.D. ’57, of Philadelphia, is celebrating his 80th birthday, 57th year in practice as an attorney, and 33rd wedding anniversary. He has five children and three grandchildren. In June he won two U.S. Supreme Court cases and published his 150th short story. He would like to exchange memories with his ’57 mates.

Richard M. “Dick” Lobo, A.B. ’58, an award-winning broadcast executive for more than five decades, retired on November 30, 2013, as director of the International Broadcasting Bureau in Washington, D.C. The Broadcasting Board of Governors praised his leadership and streamlining of the agency. Lobo has returned to his home state of Florida.

Angel Cortina, B.B.A. ’59, retired several years ago from top-level positions at Deloitte & Touche, Centrust Bank, and Lewis B. Freeman and Partners, Inc. He is living in Islamorada, Florida, where he hosts his family and close friends for fishing, snorkeling, and guided tours.

A. Jay Cristol, J.D. ’59, was the 2013 recipient of the Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in the Field of Bankruptcy. He is Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami.

Roy “Gus” Perry, B.M. ’59, retired from Miami Dade College and moved to St. Augustine, Florida.

Fred W. Sass, B.B.A. ’59, lives in a retirement community in Ocala, Florida. He is active in various veterans organizations and adult education classes. For 30 years he was a commercial pilot, air safety investigator, and safety manager with the U.S. government. From 1991 to 2005, he ran an aviation and occupational consulting firm. In 1996 he retired from the U.S. Army Reserves at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Peter Walton Ashton, M.C.L. ’60, has retired after 52 years as a professor of commercial law at the Catholic Pontifical University and the Federal University. The Brazilian Bar Association State of Rio Grande do Sul named him Lawyer Emeritus for 2013, and his graduate students published a book of legal articles honoring his professorship. He still practices law, acting as senior legal counsel of the State Bank of Banrisul. He recalls “with great emotion” his time as a Fulbright law student at the University of Miami.

Louis M. Reidenberg, B.B.A. ’61, received the Pro Bono Emeritus Award for 2014 from the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida.

David P. Burkart, A.B. ’62, a painter, artist, and design consultant, is the owner of Alembic Designs and an advisor for the social media platform VoxSN.

Alan J. Rubinstein, A.B. ’63, president of Rubinstein Holz & King in Fort Myers, Florida, is in Best Lawyers. His firm was recognized in the 2014 U.S. News & World Report in the top tier of the “Best Law Firm—Family Law” category for its metro region.

Harvey A. Wagner, B.B.A. ’63, was appointed to the board of directors of Norcraft Companies, Inc., in Eagan, Minnesota.

Thomas F. Segalla, B.B.A. ’65, a founding partner of the law firm Goldberg Segalla, received the James W. Conway Award from the Defense Association of New York, given annually to an at­tor­ney who significantly furthers and develops the defense bar through strategic and vigorous defense of clients. The Defense Research Institute established the Tom Segalla Chair at its Law Institute and an Excellence in Education Award in his honor.

Judith Diana Winston, A.B. ’65, has self-published her second book, The Keeper of the Diary, a novel of intrigue and romance with spiritual underpinnings. She lives in Santa Monica, California, and would love to hear from former classmates and friends from other years.

Frederick A. Zorovich, B.B.A. ’65, is founder and president of ICS, Inc., a real estate broker, and Warehouse Management Services, Inc., which has properties ranging from Miami-Dade to Martin counties. In July 2013 his companies purchased a 74,000-square-foot warehouse in West Palm Beach for $8 million.

Leeomia W. (Minnis) Kelly, B.M. ’66, is a piano instructor and owner of Kelly’s Music in Hallandale, Florida. She composed “ZETA Lady,” the Southeastern Region Sweetheart Song for Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, which was performed in March 2014 at the Finer Womanhood Luncheon of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, at Florida International University.

Michael B. Greenbaum, B.S. ’67, vice chancellor emeritus and senior advisor to the chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary, was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, by The Jewish Theological Seminary upon his retirement after 40 years of service, 27 of which were as vice chancellor and chief operating officer.

T. Craig Smith, A.B. ’67, of Stuart, Florida, recently self-published a collection of poems, Walking through the Years.

Rafael Consuegra, A.B. ’69, M.A. ’71, exhibited a retrospective of his decades of work as a sculptor in Miami in February 2014.

Donald F. Evans, B.Arch. ’69, principal of the Evans Group in Orlando, Florida, was inducted into the 2013 class of the Best in American Living Hall of Fame by the National Association of Home Builders.

Milford Kuhn, M.M. ’69, is a retired music professor and principal horn emeritus at Morehead State University. He plays French horn with the Tampa Fanfare Band, South Shore Concert Band in Sun City Center, and East Hillsborough Concert Band in Brandon, Florida.

Larry R. Leiby, B.M. ’69, J.D. ’73, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Bar Construction Law Committee in 2009. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Florida International University College of Law and keeps his musical chops honed with various band gigs.

Gary E. Roberts, B.B.A. ’70, M.S. ’79, and Ann Page Roberts, B.B.A. ’84, M.P.A. ’95, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. For the story of how they met, visit StoriesofU.com. Gary recently did consultant research and development in the arena of Unmanned Aerial Systems at Sinclair Community College, in Dayton, Ohio. He is a member of Freemasonry West Carrollton Chapter, Scottish Rite Valley of Dayton (32nd degree), Antioch Shrine, and Jacob Eby Chapter of The Order of Eastern Star. Ann retired from the University of Miami in 2006, after 47 years of service. She has since obtained her private pilot wings and works at Sinclair Community College. She belongs to the Jacob Eby Chapter of The Order of Eastern Star, and the Elissa Guild of Antioch Shrine, Dayton, Ohio.

Martin G. Kreloff, B.F.A. ’72, M.F.A. ’75, reprised his 1976 exhibition, “Miami Says Art,” for Art Basel Miami Beach in 2012 and 2013.

Patrick J. Walsh, B.S. ’75, University of Miami professor emeritus and current University of Ottawa biology professor, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013. He is also serving as president of the Canadian Society of Zoologists.

Robert Lee, M.D. ’78, retired from full-time work and recently returned to Nepal for his fifth year of spending a month providing volunteer health care there.

Maria Lorts Sachs, J.D. ’78, was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2010. She has served since 2010 in the Florida Senate. Her district ranges from Broward County to Palm Beach County.

Jose Rodriguez, B.S. ’79, managing physician at Texas Gastroenterology Institute, is chair of Valley Medical Products in Ponte Vedra, Florida, as well as the CEO and board chair at Patriot Fluid Solutions, which services the oil and gas industry.

Ted R. Wozniak, B.B.A. ’79, was elected treasurer of the American Translators Association. He is a freelance German-to-English financial translator and president of Payment Practices, Inc. He lives in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

George A. Corey, M.D. ’80, is executive director of University Health Services at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Daniel C. Adams, M.M. ’81, a music professor at Texas Southern University, presented a paper titled “Sardanes: The Catalan National Dance as the Thematic Basis of Alberto Ginastera’s Glosses Sobre Temes de Pau Casals Opus 48, Movement Three” at the College Music Society International Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Frederic J. Guerrier, M.D. ’81, received the Bud Pryor Outstanding Preceptor Award in June 2013 from Bayfront Medical Center for “dedication, teaching expertise, and outstanding contribution to the Bayfront Medical Center Family Medicine Residency.”

Mary Beth (Winstead) Patterson, B.S.N. ’81, a nurse at Stony Brook University Medical Center, was named 2012 Nurse of the Year by the Stony Brook Heart Institute Cardiac Catheterization Holding Area. In 2013 she took part in a medical mission trip to Ghana.

Fred Seidler, B.S.Ed. ’81, has transitioned from the special events industry to acting. He has had roles on television in Mysteries at the Museum, Deadly Sins, Deadly Devotion, and My Dirty Little Secret.

Tere Blanca, B.B.A. ’82, M.B.A. ’83, founder, president, and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real
Estate, chairs the board of directors for City Year Miami and is on BankUnited’s board of directors. In 2013 she was named among Real Estate Forum’s “Women of Influence: Legends” and Commercial Property Executive’s “Top 25 Women in Real Estate.”

Victoria L. Platzer, J.D. ’82, a retired Eleventh Judicial Circuit judge, is a partner with Sanchez-Medina, Gonzalez, Quesada, Lage, Crespo, Gomez, Machado & Preira in the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Group.

David Ake, B.M. ’83, jazz pianist, is chair of the music department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His CD Bridges (Posi-Tone Records, 2013), with Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, Scott Colley, Peter Epstein, and Mark Ferber, earned four and a half stars from DownBeat and was named to multiple Best of 2013 lists.

Jeanne A. Becker, M.B.A. ’85, merged her firm, Becker Public Relations, with Wragg & Casas, where she is now senior vice president.

Scott Beasley, B.B.A. ’87, is co-founder and executive director of the CPA firm Disabled Accountants International, which aims to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Aishah Abdul Aziz, B.B.A. ’88, was promoted to retirement plan services support specialist at Dubuque Bank & Trust.

Terri K. Echarte, M.B.A. ’88, was hired as senior vice president, private banker, and commercial real estate lender in the Coral Gables headquarters office for Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust.

Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr., B.B.A. ’88, a South Florida Legal Guide 2014 Top Lawyer, was named chair of the HistoryMiami 11th Judicial District Historical Society. His recent elections include: the Orange Bowl Committee Board as a new Active Member for 2013-14; the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Seat 1; and the Fair Districts Now Board of Directors.

Chris DeRosa, B.M. ’90, performed in the Renee Ruth video for his upcoming single “Midnight” and was invited by D.I.A. Management to drum and music direct for H.R., the front man of Bad Brains and the Dubb Agents. He celebrated the birth of daughter Haven FangXiao in 2013.

Charlie Dennard, B.M. ’93, is musical director for Cirque du Soleil’s touring production of Totem.

Armando E. Hernandez-Rey, A.B. ’93, a board-certified infertility specialist and robotic surgeon in Miami, opened Conceptions Florida: Center for Fertility & Genetics in June 2013.

Kirk Wagar, J.D. ’93, was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore on September 4, 2013.

Brian H. Bieber, J.D. ’94, formally a principal of Hirschhorn & Bieber, P.A., has joined GrayRobinson, P.A. as shareholder. He is on the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Robert E. Brown III, A.B. ’94, is associate principal for academic affairs at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois.

Jessica Damián, A.B. ’96, Ph.D. ’07, associate professor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College and assistant director of the college’s Center for Teaching Excellence, was a Chawton House Library Visiting Fellow last summer in partnership with the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Her research included women’s travel writing in the 19th century.

Jason A. Leshowitz, B.M. ’96, is the new district supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts for the Clifton Public School District in New Jersey.

Victoria Méndez, A.B. ’96, is the city attorney for the City of Miami.

Penelope B. Perez-Kelly, B.B.A. ’96, of counsel with McClane Partners law firm in Orlando, Florida, was named to the board of directors for United Arts of Central Florida. She received the Orange County Bar Association’s Lawrence G. Matthews Jr. Young Lawyer Professionalism Award in 2011.

Jeffrey M. Reid, M.B.A. ’96, is vice president of operations for Southern Specialties, a produce company based in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Christina (Fox) Feldmeier, M.S.P.T. ’97, and husband Eric Feldmeier welcomed their first child, Gavin Fox Feldmeier, on December 5, 2012.

Joseph D. Ward, M.B.A, ’97, is president and chief operating officer of the publicly traded company Hot Mama’s Foods, Inc., one of the largest U.S. producers of hummus and salsa.

Scott Bernstein, B.B.A. ’99, and Tracy Pottker-Fishel, B.F.A. ’98, welcomed their first child, Parker Bryce Bernstein, on May 14, 2013. They live in Miami, Florida.

Jason T. Hanselman, J.D. ’00, has been appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to the state’s Unarmed Combat Commission, which regulates professional boxing and mixed martial arts events in the state.

Joel N. Burstein Jr., B.B.A. ’01, Noel F. Johnson, J.D. ’04, Brandon A. D. Okpalobi, B.B.A. ’05, Adrian K. Felix, J.D. ’06, and Leigh-Ann Buchanan, J.D. ’09, appeared in the “2013 Legacy Magazine 40 Under 40 Black Leaders of Today and Tomorrow” issue.

Ana del Cerro-Fals, B.B.A. ’01, M.S.Tx. ’02, was promoted to director of the Tax and Accounting Department of Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLC, based in the accounting firm’s Miami office.

Charles J. Monterio Jr., B.S.C.E. ’01, B.S.A.E. ’01, an associate in Dickstein Shapiro’s Intellectual Property Practice, was named to the 2013 Lawyers of Color Hot List, a group of 100 minority attorneys under 40 from the Mid-Atlantic region who are excelling in the legal profession.

Erin C. Moyer-Carballea, B.S.C. ’01, and Manuel Carballea, B.S.C.P.E. ’99, M.S. ’01, were married on June 29, 2013, at the Sonoma Golf Club in California. They live in Miami and recently welcomed their first baby.

Kerry-Ann Rin, B.B.A. ’02, M.P.R.A. ’07, is a certified public accountant at Yip Associates in Coral Gables, managing cases involving financial fraud, economic damages, and bankruptcy.

Alberto Sardiñas, M.B.A. ’02, self-published a motivational book, The Power of Your Story: 40 Short and Real-Life Stories Filled with Lessons (2012). He is a syndicated Spanish radio host of the show Intimo, contributor to morning TV’s Despierta America, and motivational speaker.

Joshua A. Boxer, J.D. ’03, has joined the Miami office of Broad and Cassel as senior counsel.

Lauren M. Gryniewski, B.S.C. ’03, is co-owner, with husband Joel Gryniewski, of the Minneapolis-based greeting card company Old Tom Foolery.

Gina (Schild) Guilford, M.F.A. ’03, had a story, “Getting to Know Jennifer,” published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Food and Love (2011). She reviews restaurants at Examiner.com and writes/edits The Pulse newsletter for Floridean Healthcare.

James Jones, B.B.A. ’03, formerly of the Miami Heat, was named to the 2014 class of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. The two-time NBA champion and three-point specialist recently signed a one-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Jason Muslin, B.F.A. ’03, created the Fanmento! smartphone application, which allows users to add licensed university-themed logos to their photos.

Antonio Simon Jr., A.B. ’03, published the e-book The Gullwing Odyssey, set in a 16th-century fantasy world.

Daniel E. Vielleville, J.D. ’03, a partner in the Miami office of Assouline & Berlowe, P.A., was named founding president of the newly formed Venezuelan American National Bar Association.

Martha Ayerdis, M.B.A. ’04, is director of human resources at Italian Fashion Import USA and Piccadilly Shoes of Florida.

Trenton R. Hubbard, B.S. ’06, is a pediatric/trauma resident at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois.

Deepa Patel, B.S.C. ’06, was named to the board of directors for Circle of Health International, a nonprofit working on maternal and infant care in areas of crisis and disaster. Based in Iraq, she works for Action Against Hunger. She also founded a line of Indian-inspired artisan cocktails.

Kira Wisniewski, B.S.C. ’06, is the founder of 826DC, the Washington, D.C.-based chapter of a national nonprofit that supports students in developing writing skills.

Jeffrey Baldwin, A.B. ’07, is an associate attorney in the Queens office of Finkelstein & Partners. He is also a U.S. Army veteran and a New York Knicks fan.

Ines Garcia, M.B.A. ’07, is sales manager of the Weston Town Center office in Weston, Florida, for EWM Realty International.

Chelle L. Gentemann, Ph.D. ’07, senior principal scientist at Remote Sensing Systems, received the American Geophysical Union’s 2013 Falkenberg Award, which is given to a scientist under age 45 who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities, and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information.

Shannon McGinn, J.D. ’07, began long distance running after being diagnosed with cancer following her second year of law school. She is now both a breast cancer survivor and certified running coach. Her Woodbridge, New Jersey-based company, Creating Momentum, also provides art therapy services.

Benom Plumb, M.M. ’07, is an assistant professor, clinical track, in the Music and Entertainment Industry Studies department at the University of Colorado, Denver. He is also an advisor and consultant for Bluewater Music in Nashville, among others.

Ashley Stolba, B.B.A. ’07, joined the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) as a staff attorney in 2012 and was promoted to MAR associate counsel in 2013.

Jordan S. Redavid, A.B. ’08, M.S.Ed. ’09, J.D. ’13, created the free application Jury Selection to help trial attorneys streamline their jury selection process. He recently joined the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office as an assistant public defender.

Alumine Bellone, B.S.C. ’09, was promoted to director of insurance services and risk mitigation at Correct Care Solutions in Nashville, Tennessee.

Blair Brettschneider, B.S.C. ’09, received the Chicago Foundation for Women Impact Award and was chosen as a 2013 CNN Hero for her work as founder and executive director of GirlForward, a mentoring program for young refugees.

Matthew L. Friedmann, B.B.A. ’09, Kristopher A. Kimball, B.B.A. ’09, and Jason A. Spiegel, B.B.A. ’09, launched BeeFree Media, a mobile marketing company, in 2012. Their fleet of electric vehicles provides free transportation in the Miami and Miami Beach area while spreading their clients’ branding messages.

Yamina Alvarez, D.N.P. ’10, received the Florida Nursing Association South Region 2012 Nurse Educator Award and the Joan K. Stout R.N. Endowed Teaching Chair in Nursing at Miami Dade College.

Vania D. Osterland, B.S.Ed. ’10, and Ryan E. Udelson, B.B.A. ’07, were married July 27, 2013, at the Fresh Meadow Country Club in Long Island, New York. The bride’s parents are Michele Maslon Osterland, A.B. ’77, and David I. Osterland, B.B.A. ’75, who say the wedding reception included an orange-and-green, split-U-shaped ice sculpture.

Laura Vallverdu, A.B. ’10, M.S.Ed. ’12, a four-year letter winner under head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews and graduate assistant coach, was hired as the Hurricanes assistant women’s tennis coach in 2013.

Marie O. Etienne, D.N.P. ’11, was named Haitian Woman of the Year by the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate. She was appointed to the National Nursing Committee of the American Red Cross and received the Florida Nursing Association’s South Region 2012 Advanced Practice Nursing Award.

Matthew Janes, B.B.A. ’12, is an accountant in IBM’s North America Software Group.

Constance B. H. Miller, D.N.P. ’12, received the Community Engagement Educator Award from the Florida Campus Compact in 2010 and the Florida Nursing Association’s South Region Community Action Award in 2012.

Laura R. Sutnick, M.A. ’12, and Patrick Walsh, B.Arch. ’07, both DJs, launched Klangbox.FM, an online radio station focused on Miami talent. Sutnick was named Miami’s best DJ by the Miami New Times in 2012.

Daniela Delgado, B.S. ’13, received the Marcus L. Urann Fellowship for $15,000 from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She is continuing her studies at Harvard Medical School.

Jimena Guijarro, B.S.C. ’13, is a gallery assistant director at Guijarro de Pablo in Miami and Mexico City.

Michael J. Lazzara, B.S. ’13, and Stephen J. Schellbach, B.B.A. ’13, were finalists in the 2013 UM Business Plan Competition for Überfoods, their business model for creating automated gardening systems using aquaculture.

Julio C. Sevilla, Ph.D. ’13, graduated from The PhD Project, a program to create a more diverse corporate America, and was hired by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business as an assistant professor of marketing.

In Memoriam*

Democratic POWER Founder

Shirley Merlin West, B.Ed. ’64, M.Ed. ’66, was born in Miami in 1929 and remained devoted to her native community her entire life. She contributed to its civic well-being as a member of the Dade Community Relations Board, chairing its education committee. She served as president of the University of Miami Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1990-91. Her support extended to many other areas at UM, such as the School of Education and Human Development, Athletics, the Miller School of Medicine, and the President’s Initiatives fund. She was a leader for Alumni Weekend Reunion and member of the UM Women’s Guild. As a student, she was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Kappa Alpha honor societies. Later on she was tapped into UM’s Iron Arrow Honor Society. Merlin West had a Doctor of Education degree and served as a regional administrator for special needs children in the public school system. She grew active in political work, as well, forming the women’s group Democratic POWER. She died on April 11, 2014 at the age of 84.

Longtime Librarian and Merrick Widow

Born in Michigan, Mildred Merrick, A.B. ’57, came to Miami with her first husband, English professor Carl Selle. At the University of Miami, she studied geography and was hired as a librarian in 1959. After Selle’s death in 1967, she married art professor Richard L. Merrick, the youngest brother of George Merrick, who founded the city of Coral Gables and helped establish UM in the 1920s. Mildred Merrick helped the University to acquire some of its most important early collections and, in 1962, open the Otto G. Richter Library, historian Arva Moore Parks, M.A. ’71, told The Miami Herald. From 1976 until her retirement in 1991, Merrick was the Richter Library’s head reference librarian. Her death on February 24 at age 92 marked the end of the original Merrick family’s South Florida presence. “She was an amazing woman,” Parks said of her friend, with whom she collaborated on a newly completed biography of George Merrick. Donations may be made in her memory to the Merrick Collection in the University of Miami Libraries Special Collections or the University of Miami Archives.

We diligently research each name in the “In Memoriam” section. If you spot an error, please notify us at [email protected] so we can correct our records.

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Citizen ’Cane

The Artful Dealer, from Reebok to Renoir

Photo by Jenny Abreu

For his business savvy in the worlds of sporting goods and modern art, Manhattan gallerist Herbert A. Rosenfeld, B.Ed. ’62, was selected to give this year’s Distinguished Alumni Lecture at the Newman Alumni Center.

Rosenfeld shared his history of growing up in New York, the grandchild of mattress makers and builders. At City College of New York, his father and uncle played basketball under the legendary Nat Holman, he said. The players would often slam into the brick wall that was right behind the gym’s basket, so Holman asked the Rosenfeld brothers to make a thin padding for the wall. That was in 1919.

The protective canvas they developed, explained Rosenfeld, led to the creation of the gym mat and other gymnastic equipment. Rosenfeld began his career in 1963 at his family’s business, which made all sorts of padded merchandise, from football dummies to balance beams. By 1979, Rosenfeld, just 38, was the president and chief operating officer of the publicly traded giant MacGregor Sporting Goods Inc., which he helped acquire, along with its noted Champion, Riddell, and Reebok brands. In his 24 years with the companies, sales rose from $18 million to $900 million, he said.

In 1987 Rosenfeld left MacGregor for his next chapter. Since 1988 he has worked with his wife of 49 years at her eponymous business, the Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side. To go from helmets and gloves to Chagalls and Warhols, he immersed himself in museums and galleries and learned the art of the deal. “In a lot of instances I’m not selling a product,” he said. “I’m selling faith. I’m also selling an opportunity for somebody to buy and acquire a legacy.”

That legacy includes masters, such as Renoir, Picasso, and Lichtenstein, whose art has gone up exponentially in value. A Picasso that sold for $25,000 in 1950, for example, could command $135 million today, said Rosenfeld, who shares his expertise on the asset classification of art as a lecturer in the economics department at Harvard. He’s still involved with athletics, too—as a coordinator with Harvard’s Ivy League Championship-winning basketball coach Tommy Amaker.

Another legacy Rosenfeld values long-term is his relationship with the U. “This University prepared me for leadership,” he said. “I am proud to say I was a graduate of this school.”

Click here to watch Rosenfeld’s lecture.

—Robin Shear

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Citizen ’Cane

Stirring War Memories, 70 Years Later

Photo by Andrew Innerarity

There was little they could do. Cut off from the rest of the 106th Infantry Division during the early days of the Battle of the Bulge, Private First Class Jack Diamond, ’48, and the other American soldiers in his regiment would soon be surrounded by German forces, leaving them to face the grim reality of becoming prisoners of war.

With time running out, the 19-year-old remembered what his commanding officer told him and the other Jewish soldiers shortly before they went into battle—that if they were ever captured by Germans, they should discard their dog tags, which were etched with an “H” for Hebrew.

Allied forces were well aware of the atrocities occurring in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Diamond’s superior officer was simply trying to protect the Jewish soldiers he commanded.

But Diamond disobeyed. “I refused to destroy mine. I was an American fighting for my country. They would have to take me the way I was,” says Diamond, now 89.

“They didn’t feed us often, and the food we got was next to nothing,” he recalls of the POW camp near Poland. “All I could think about was how in the hell was I going to get any food.”

It was a harsh winter, and Diamond, who was captured without any shoes on his feet, suffered frostbite in the toes of his right foot. To this day, he says, he has no feeling in part of that foot.

Back in Miami Beach, Diamond’s mother received two telegrams: first, that her son was missing in action; later, that he was a prisoner of war.

Roughly six months after Diamond’s 1944 capture, Russian troops liberated the camp. He returned to Florida to complete his service. He attended the University of Miami on the G.I. Bill before running The Little Club, one of his family’s two Miami Beach nightclubs. He says it was among the Beach’s first to invite African-American musicians to perform.

Diamond says he’ll always be proud of his service to his country, but wishes the veterans of today’s Iraq and Afghanistan wars would get their due. “They deserve it,” he says. He was interviewed at UM on June 26, 2014, by StoryCorps for its Military Voices Initiative. Patricia Sowers, M.A. ’98, of Warmamas, a group of mothers of soldiers, helped secure and schedule the on-site interviews, which will be archived at the Library of Congress.

—Robert C. Jones Jr.

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Citizen ’Cane

Helping Students Overcome Language Barriers

The daughter of a Saudi Arabian diplomat, Taghreed Al-Saraj, B.F.A. ’99, M.S.Ed. ’01, has lived in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Now at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is the school’s first Saudi female postdoctoral research fellow, Al-Saraj specializes in foreign language anxiety—the fear many experience when learning a new tongue.

Al-Saraj, who is fluent in English and Arabic, became fascinated with the phenomenon after returning to Saudi Arabia to teach university students in intensive English courses. Many students there enroll in “English medium universities”—popular institutions where all the coursework is in English. But Al-Saraj noticed her smartest pupils were often paralyzed by trying to learn or speak English.

“It shouldn’t be that way, feeling such fear when you’re trying something new and fun like learning a new language,” she says. “What I’ve found from my research is that the teacher is the main source of the anxiety. So we have to train the teachers, work with them in developing new teaching styles.”

That involves different approaches to having students speak in front of the classroom or in engaging the teacher directly. To put her theories to the test, Al-Saraj is learning Turkish while taking detailed notes about her own emotional state.
Al-Saraj grew up in Washington, D.C., but also lived in France as a teen and attended high school in Saudi Arabia. She enrolled at the University of Miami as a newlywed, joining her husband, Fouad A. Kaaki, M.S.M.E. ’00.

The diplomat’s daughter has since become quite the ambassador for the University. Al-Saraj serves as a director on the UM Alumni Association Board of Directors and is now leading the charge to gather alumni in Saudi Arabia. She also has two brothers-in-law who are ’Canes, and her twin sons, Kenan and Rayan, were recently accepted to the U as freshmen.

“To this day I give lectures around the U.S., as well as internationally, and every university I go to I’m always comparing it to UM,” says Al-Saraj. “I’m the person I am today because of that UM education. The classes that I took, the freedoms to explore that I had, and the professors were all fantastic.”

Her only regret from her time in Miami? She never learned Spanish. “I could have been fluent!” she chuckles.

—Tim Collie

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More than 10,000 donors come through for Newman Alumni Loyalty Challenge

Medical officer Albert Fernandez-Milo, A.B. ’84, was inspired by the Newman Challenge.

Albert Fernandez-Milo, A.B. ’84, is making a difference for his country, his community, and his alma mater. A psychiatrist who works with veterans, he joined the Navy Reserve as a medical officer after 9/11 and serves around the world. “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of these things if I hadn’t gone to UM,” he says. So when he heard about the Newman Alumni Loyalty Challenge, he decided to contribute to the General Scholarship Fund.

Because of Fernandez-Milo and more than 10,000 other alumni like him, grateful UM students will benefit.

Initiated by Robert Newman, Hon. ’08, and Judi Prokop Newman, B.B.A. ’63, the Newman Alumni Loyalty Challenge aimed to inspire other ’Canes to follow a long-standing tradition of sustained philanthropic support. The Newmans pledged $500,000 toward merit-based scholarships if 10,700 alumni donors renewed their gifts during the 2014 fiscal year.

Gifts of any amount, made anywhere within the University, counted toward the overall goal. Across all demographics, the alumni community rose to the occasion, securing the Newmans’ matching funds. The Loyalty Society expanded its reach by more than 1,500 alumni. Young Alumni had 1,270 renewed donors in the 2014 fiscal year and attained a record renewal rate of 58 percent, up from 45 percent in 2013. Philadelphia alumni garnered top honors, with an overwhelming 71 percent of fiscal year 2013 donors renewing their gifts in 2014.

Judi Prokop Newman knows how impactful a scholarship gift can be. It helped her complete her degree, and she has shown her gratitude by giving back ever since. “If I can provide at least one student with the same life-changing experience that I had,” she says, “I will have accomplished my goal.”

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Industry professionals judge ’Canes Film Showcase

A scene from “Romana,” one of the student films selected to screen in L.A.

Sterling Davis Photo

“The thrill of a lifetime”—that’s how Noah DeBonis described seeing his short film, Posthumous, screened at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood, California, at the 9th Annual ’Canes Film Showcase.

DeBonis and 15 other School of Communication students showed their films, toured studios, and took a master class with industry professionals during the three-day trip to Los Angeles in May. More than 500 attendees registered for the event, which is hosted by the school and the UM Alumni Association. Judging the films were Juan Carlos Coto, B.S.C. ’88 (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series); UM parent John Hegeman, of Worldwide Marketing & Acquisitions, QED International; actor, director, writer John Herzfeld, ’69; Anne Parducci, B.B.A. ’82, of Lionsgate; Matthew Stein, B.S.C. ’99, of MES Productions; executive producer Barry Waldman, A.B. ’85; and Douglas Weiser, A.B. ’78, J.D. ’82, of Cloud 9 Film Partners.

Students visited television sets, with director Michael Robin, A.B. ’85, and co-producer Paul Orehovec, B.S.C. ’02, and Avatar producer Jon Landau led a tour of James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.

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Executives from Nebraska to Miami share valuable resources and expertise

From left, Hilarie Bass, J.D. ’81, Doyle Beneby, M.B.A. ’97, Alfred Bunge, M.B.A. ’97, Stuart Miller, J.D. ’82, Pete Piechoski, B.B.A. ’76, and Al Vara, B.S.E.E. ’79, M.S.E.E. ’85, lead the way.

Several alumni are taking leading roles on the University of Miami’s governing agency, the Board of Trustees.

Stuart A. Miller, J.D. ’82, a dedicated member of the UM Board of Trustees since 2002, was named board chair at the board’s May 16 meeting. Miller, who was vice chair of the UM board from 2012-14, is the chief executive officer and a director of Lennar Corporation, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders. He also chairs the Miller School of Medicine’s Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami.

Also at that meeting, Michael J. “Pete” Piechoski, B.B.A. ’76, and Doyle N. Beneby, M.B.A. ’97, were elected alumni trustees. Piechoski serves as senior vice president and CFO of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. in Omaha, Nebraska. Beneby is the president and CEO of City Public Service of San Antonio, Texas, the nation’s largest municipally owned energy utility.

Elected as vice chairs for the board were Richard D. Fain, chair and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., and Hilarie Bass, J.D. ’81. A graduate of the UM School of Law, Bass is the Miami-based co-president of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig. She has served as a UM trustee since 2003 and recently made a $1 million commitment to the law school. In her honor, the school’s “bricks” study area was renamed “The Bass Bricks.” She is also on the law school’s visiting committee, co-chair of its Momentum2 Campaign Committee, and M2 campaign chair for the School of Education and Human Development.

Representing the UM Citizens Board on the board of trustees are Al Vara, B.S.E.E. ’79, M.S.E.E. ’85, and Alfred Bunge, M.B.A. ’97, the Citizens Board’s immediate past and current presidents, respectively. Senior Amy Halpern was named the board’s student trustee. For the full story, with bios, click here.

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International outreach draws UM’s global community closer

Sergio Gonzalez and Donna Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, get behind Provost Thomas LeBlanc, seated right, as he signs an agreement at Beijing’s Henan University.

With the University of Miami’s global population and reputation on the rise, the UM Alumni Association is keeping pace through its award-winning Impact of U and Accelerating Ambition tours. UM President Donna E. Shalala and Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc have traveled across four continents to engage alumni leaders and forge new academic partnerships.

Shalala’s itinerary has ranged from Los Angeles to London and Boston to Bogotá for the 21-city Impact of U initiative, which earned a national Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

In London, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai, LeBlanc, UM’s chief academic officer, discussed Accelerating Ambition, the University of Miami’s Plan for the Future. While in Beijing, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an exchange and collaboration program with Henan University.

Taghreed Al-Saraj, B.F.A. ’99, M.S.Ed. ’01, far left, hosts a gathering of ’Canes in Saudi Arabia.

Accelerating Ambition continues in November in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, and in April 2015 in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. “Our tour is reflective of the diversity of our institution,” said Arbide. “We have 119 countries represented on campus and alumni living in 154 countries.”

In Panama, Ramón, M.B.A. ’90, and Ana Maria Maduro host an alumni event, with special guest Dean Eugene Anderson, left, who invites several alumni at the event to join School of Business Administration advisory boards.

As President Shalala has told Impact of U audiences: “Our alumni are making a difference around the world. The University of Miami network is growing and maturing.”

To get involved wherever you live, email the Office of Alumni Relations at [email protected].

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Outside the Lines

U-Doodle’s Jared Krim on creative crowdsourcing

    Illustration by Kevin Corrales, B.F.A. ’05

“We bring people together to collaborate and create something,” says Krim, co-chair of the popular student organization. “We promote freedom of expression and create a vibrant community.”

U-Doodle takes a traditionally solo art form, one usually relegated to the margins of spiral-bound notebooks and soggy napkins, and draws it out into a very public sphere.

Whether the medium is chalk on sidewalks or spray paint on large blank sheets of paper, U-Doodle events offer students a colorful stress reliever, not to mention a low-pressure icebreaker. After all, when it comes to doodling, there’s no right or wrong way to do it and no need to seek approval for the work.

“We say, ‘Whatever you want to draw, go for it!’” explains Krim.

U-Doodle was launched three years ago by Marc Fruitema, B.A.M.A. ’13, at the time a marine science student, and Jordan Magid, A.B. ’12, then an English major. One afternoon Magid noticed Fruitema doodling. Soon the friends began adding on to each other’s spontaneous drawings in a sort of free-form, visual conversation. The activity led to an epiphany: Why not open the conversation to their campus community as a way of connecting people from all backgrounds?

U-Doodle was a hit from the start. One of its first activities was an anonymous exchange that invited students to deposit their scribbles into “Doodle Boxes” around campus. “An active community grew around it,” Magid says. “Within the next few months our ‘Doodle Box’ evolved into a public space to create beautiful art without limitations, and build meaningful relationships across social barriers in a non-threatening way.”

Fruitema and Magid have since established U-Doodle as a nonprofit and are bringing its experiential activities into public schools and other places where they feel creativity and collaboration are most needed. Two more universities now have U-Doodle chapters, and at UM, Krim, a future accountant, serves as a Campus Doodle Ambassador for the recently formed nonprofit.

The events organized on campus by Krim and U-Doodle’s 25 members—like a year-end blowout combining group painting on a six-foot-tall canvas with improv, music, and other creative arts—welcome all students, artistically inclined or not. “Everything we have done is very cool and very unique,” Krim says. “It is equal parts art and community.”

—Dina Weinstein

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