Spring 2011 Volume III, Issue 1

BIG TOP

BIG LEAGUESHow Flying High Alumni Have Made

Careers of Running off to the Circus

A NEW GENERATIONOF RESEARCHERS

FEATURE:Women in Media

For Members of The Florida

State University Alumni Association

TARA OGREN (B.A. '08)Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

The Moment

Saturday, April 30, 2011

9:49 a.m.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, congratulates the newest member of the Florida State alumni family following his keynote address at the spring commencement ceremony. Twenty-four hours later, Mullen (inset, standing far left) gathered in the White House Situation Room with President Barack Obama and members of the national security team to monitor the historic mission against Osama bin Laden. Photo by Elliott McCaskill

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

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VIRES is the first torch in the university seal and represents

strength of all kinds: physical, mental and moral.

Spread: The Heritage Tower, or

"The Torch," stands in front of the

University Center, reminding all who

pass of Florida State's rich legacy.

Buried deep within the fountain itself

are materials that document the

history of both FSU and the Florida

State College for Women.

Photo by Paige Southard

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C o n t e n t s

Features

23 Women in Media A Profile of Seven Successful Alumnae

30 Flying Higher FSU Alumni Make Careers of the Circus

47 Building a Legacy of Excellence How One Woman's Gift Has Made a Difference to the College of Medicine

60 Fiction by Julianna Baggott A Glimpse Inside Her Latest Novel

Departments

Catching Up With ... 7

Around Campus 8

Research & Science 14

Association News 38

Ten Questions 44

Class Notes 54

Parting Shot 64

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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITYBOARD OF TRUSTEES

Wm. Andrew Haggard, ChairSusie Busch-Transou, Vice ChairAvi AssidonDerrick BrooksEdward E. BurrJoseph L. CampsEmily Fleming DudaMark HillisJames E. Kinsey, Jr.Leslie Pantin, Jr.Margaret A. “Peggy” RolandoBrent W. SemblerEric C. Walker

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITYALUMNI ASSOCIATIONNATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Executive CommitteeJeffrey L. Hill, ChairScott F. Atwell, Association PresidentLaurel R. Moredock, Chair-ElectAllen D. Durham, Vice ChairGordon J. Sprague, TreasurerMichele M. Adair, SecretaryDonald L. Eddings, Immediate Past Chair

L. Carl AdamsRuth Ruggles AkersCandace Rodatz BarnesDavid BrobstBlythe CarpenterBenjamin CrumpKyle DoneySandra Dunbar Richard EricksonDiane S. ErvinDon GlissonS. Dale GreeneAlanna HolmanThomas V. HynesTom JenningsBetty Lou JoanosJoda LynnSteve OelrichKatie PatronisSteve PattisonTamara PigottMichael J. RaymondJames A. RiscignoSusan SarnaBarry J. ScarrRaymond R. SchroederDelores O. SpearmanCindy Davis SullivanKarema Tyms-Harris

HATS OFF TO

2011

2011 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

SEPTEMBER 3 LOUISIANA-MONROE (Varsity Day)

10 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN (Band/Youth Day)

17 OKLAHOMA

24 at Clemson

OCTOBER 8 at Wake Forest

15 at Duke

22 MARYLAND

29 N.C. STATE

NOVEMBER 3 at Boston College

12 MIAMI

19 VIRGINIA (Homecoming)

26 at Florida

JOIN THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION FOR:

FRIDAY: Parade, Alumni Open House, Pow Wow, Downtown Get DownSATURDAY: Awards Breakfast, President’s Tailgate, Alumni Band Performance

Photo by Ross Obley

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VIRESFOR MEMBERS OF THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

1030 West Tennessee StreetTallahassee, FL 32304850.644.2761 | alumni.fsu.edu

PUBLISHER: Scott Atwell

EDITOR:Lauren Pasqualone

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:Tara Stalnaker

DESIGNER:Jessica Rosenthal

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER:Tony Archer

STAFF CONTRIBUTORS:Browning BrooksJill ElishLibby FairhurstJeffrey SeayBarry RayWendy SmithAndrea Wolf

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION STAFF:OperationsSal Nuzzo, Chief of StaffKathleen Harvey HelmJenn Mauck

Membership & MarketingTara Stalnaker, DirectorTony ArcherValerie ColvinLauren PasqualoneSteve RineJessica Rosenthal

Programs & OutreachMandi Young, Senior DirectorRyanne AviñaTom BlockSue FulfordJoe MahshieWhitney Powers

The Alumni Association would like to extend a special thank you to the FSU Photo Lab, Paige Southard and others for allowing us to use your photographs in the magazine.

© 2011

FROM THE PUBLISHERScott AtwellPresident & CEOFSU Alumni Association

Back in the 1950s the experts were certain the advent of television would be the end of radio. It wasn’t, of course. Likewise, during the thunderous rise of the Internet many were sure the business of print media would die. I can’t speak for newspapers, but recent studies from the magazine industry suggest their readership has actually climbed during the era of Google.

Part of the resurgence can be traced directly to the world of cyberspace. Instead of distancing itself from the proliferation of electronic media, the magazine world has embraced it through multimedia — added content that expands and enhances the limited dimensions of print.

VIRES is no different. Waiting for you at alumni.fsu.edu is an electronic version of this magazine that brings to life the words and images on the printed page through video clips, expanded photo libraries and more. For instance, the cover story on FSU Circus alumni is embellished by a recorded interview with Cirque du Soleil artist Rob Dawson, while the “Women in Media” segment uses media, appropriately, in a sit-down interview with featured alumna and FOX News correspondent Shannon Bream. “Association News” goes viral with video segments from FSU Day at the Capitol and about the new Operation CLUB. The “Around Campus” section is augmented by clips of commencement name-reader Mark Zeigler and a feature on the new Garnet and Gold Scholars.

The majority of these electronic elements are produced by the highly-regarded Florida State University Communications Group under the leadership of Associate Vice President for University Relations Dr. Jeanette DeDiemar. We are thankful for their generous contributions.

In addition to our website, the electronic version of VIRES is available for the Apple iPad through the iTunes App Store. So enjoy this printed issue and then visit online. Thanks to its close cousin, print is alive and well.

In Seminole Spirit,

THANK YOU TO OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS

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Photo by Adam Auel

The simplest way to support scholarships

Request a Florida State University license plate when you register your vehicle and you’ll help sustain the academic goals of deserving students while proudly displaying your pride in your alma mater.

Online, through the mail, or at your Florida tag office – be sure to ask for a Florida State license plate and BRAG WITH THE TAG.

www.fsu.edu/tag

GARRETT JOHNSON (B.S. '05)RHODES SCHOLARBy Scott Atwell

Garrett Johnson’s job as a staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is as tailored to him as his impeccable suits. Johnson’s Rhodes Scholar master’s degree, completed at Oxford University's Exeter College in 2006, was in Migration Studies — loosely explained as the flow of people across transnational and geographical boundaries.

Working with the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Johnson is involved with immigration policy, including refugee resettlement and non-military foreign development assistance. This spring he worked on the introduction of a bill called the StartUp Visa Act, which will allow immigrant entrepreneurs to receive a two-year visa if qualified U.S. investors are willing to invest in the immigrant’s startup venture.

“I would do it for free,” says Johnson, who graduated magna cum laude from FSU in three years. “Especially since Haiti emerged as a priority.”

Since his days as an intern in the office of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Johnson has been interested in how socioeconomic conditions have affected stability and development in Haiti. When a devastating earthquake struck that country in January 2010 (with his grandmother on the ground there as a missionary), Johnson sprang into action in his role as a Foreign Relations Committee staffer.

“I was able to do things that improved lives and made a difference.”

Johnson, who won the 2006 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Shot Put Championship, has long-term political aspirations of his own. Attending law school is also in his plans, but for now he is focused on helping to shape America’s legislative viewpoint on important international challenges.

Photo by Adam Auel

Catching Up With

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NAME CALLINGPopular Professor Recites 5,000 Names Per Commencement By Scott Atwell

Practically speaking, the speech professor was the perfect choice. Who better to call out the names of graduates as they march across stage to receive their diplomas? At least that’s the story Mark Zeigler (M.S. ’89) would like to believe, but he fears the alternative may be closer to the truth.

“It’s a terrible job,” he says in his trademark deadpan humor. “People will say to me, ‘How did they talk you into this? What did you do to deserve it?’”

In Olympic terms, the job is a marathon. FSU graduates nearly 5,000 students per semester, spread out over three ceremonies, and Zeigler must read twelve to fifteen hundred names per clip. On the fly. Without preparation.

“I asked the commencement director if I could get the names in advance, but she said it wouldn’t make any difference,” says Zeigler, who was honored with the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009. “She was right.”

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SOpposite page: Zeigler has

two seconds to take in the

information on name cards,

some of which arrive with

humorous phonetic suggestions.

Left: Burr (B.S. ’79)

Below: Camps (B.S. ’78)

As students reach the podium they hand Zeigler a handwritten card. He has two seconds to analyze the information then pronounce the name, type of degree and associated honors.

“So you’re dealing with 1,200 types of penmanship and phonetic spellings."

While Zeigler feigns discomfort, the work does take a physical toll. But then again, he’s used to going the extra mile, teaching as many as 500 students per semester while directing several honors theses and doctoral dissertations. His "Fundamentals of Speech" course is consistently lauded by students as the favorite class of their college careers.

A member of the Florida State faculty since 1993, Zeigler has worn a number of hats at FSU, including assistant dean for student affairs in the College of Communication and summer director of Florida State’s London program. The commencement gig doesn’t pay a dime, but the 47-year-old professor walks away with something of priceless value.

“It’s kind of cool to teach hundreds of students and then watch them walk by from seat 1A at graduation and see their expressions and just how excited they are.” Well said.

ALUMNI TAPPED AS UNIVERSITY TRUSTEESTwo Florida State University alumni — a real estate developer and a surgeon — are the newest members of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Edward E. Burr (B.S. ’79), president and CEO of GreenPointe Holdings of Jacksonville, Fla., and Dr. Joseph L. Camps, Jr. (B.S. ’78), a physician with the Southeastern Urological Center in Tallahassee, were appointed to five-year terms in January by the Florida Board of Governors.

Burr, who founded GreenPointe Holdings in 2008, is widely considered a visionary leader in the real estate industry for his abilities to analyze real estate potential and lead companies that create communities known for their recreational, residential and commercial value.

Burr served on the FSU CONNECT national capital campaign committee, endowed an athletic scholarship through Seminole Boosters and established an FSU College of Business endowment

fund, which will provide programmatic support for the Center for Real Estate Education and Research.

Camps, who is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, has been practicing medicine in Tallahassee since 1990. He currently serves as the chairman of the board of directors at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. At Capital Regional Medical Center, he has served as chief of staff and the chairman of the Department of Surgery.

As a student at Florida State, Camps was a captain of the football team in 1976 and served as the 1997-1998 chairman of the executive board of Seminole Boosters. He is a current member of the board of directors of Premier Bank of Tallahassee.

Burr and Camps succeed trustees David B. Ford and Manny Garcia. Florida State’s 13-member Board of Trustees consists of six trustees appointed by the Florida governor, five trustees appointed by the Board of Governors, one trustee who is the president of the university’s Faculty Senate and one who is the student body president.

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FSU MOOT COURT TEAM WINS NORTH AMERICAN COMPETITION

Digital Domain Media Group includes the development of a new facility and institute that will result in new educational opportunities, high-tech research programs, high-paying jobs and an economic boost for the state of Florida.

According to John Textor, chairman of the Digital Domain Media Group, the decision to open a studio in Florida was an easy one based on the unmatched quality of film-industry professionals produced by Florida State's College of Motion Picture Arts and the support of the West Palm Beach community.

“Florida State’s film school graduates are excellent storytellers, and story is the key to our business,” said Textor. “Floridians just now seem to be learning what leading filmmakers already know — that the quality of Florida State film school graduates’ creative work is among the very best in the country.”

The Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team won the 2011 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition for the North American region. The competition was held April 16 in Washington, D.C., at Georgetown University Law Center. The team will represent North America in the international competition in Cape Town, South Africa, in October.

FSU defeated Georgetown in the final round of competition, which was judged by Circuit Judge Arthur Gajarsa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; Robert Stephens, chief counsel for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Jay Steptoe, NASA associate general counsel for international law.

The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition is organized annually by the International Institute of Space Law. The competition is based on a hypothetical space law dispute before the International Court of Justice.

In 2010, the Moot Court Team won first place in four national competitions.

BLOCKBUSTER PARTNERSHIP

The company behind the groundbreaking visuals for blockbuster films like Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is teaming up with FSU’s renowned film school to develop a new digital media enterprise to be located in West Palm Beach. The collaboration with

The creation of a jointly operated Digital Domain Institute will provide rare opportunities for undergraduate students enrolled in Florida State’s College of Motion Picture Arts. Students will be able to work side-by-side with top industry professionals and become “Digital Domain Certified” in an area of professional specialization of their choice. The college will establish a new Bachelor of Fine Arts major specifically related to digital media production and a new digital media research center that will focus on industry-sponsored applied research.

“Imagine being a film student and having the opportunity to work on a blockbuster film like Tron: Legacy before graduation alongside top digital artists in the world,” Florida State College of Motion Picture Arts Dean Frank Patterson said. “These are the types of golden opportunities that educators like me absolutely dream about for their students.”

Right: An architect’s rendering of the

Digital Domain Institute.

Above: Winning team members are

(from left) second-year law student

Tanya Cronau, Lynn Guery and third-year

law student Anne Marie Rossi.

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SMeanwhile, a team of new FSU film graduates topped all other film schools in the nation at the 32nd Annual College Television Awards, held recently in Hollywood, Calif., bringing home four trophies, including three first place Student Emmys. The historical drama Underground, a slave story told through song and produced by Fulbright Scholar Allison Leger (M.F.A. ’10), captured the Bricker Humanitarian Award and an Emmy for Best Use of Music. Graduates Jaye Sarah Davidson (M.F.A. ’10) and Stephen Griffin (M.F.A. ’10) won the award for Outstanding Children’s program with the film The Planeteer.

The gala event was black tie with a number of film and television luminaries presenting awards, including actors Terrence Howard, Jane Lynch, Elijah Wood and Geena Davis.

GARNET AND GOLD SCHOLARS

At Florida State, being engaged in various activities outside of the classroom is a pursuit in which a growing number of students choose to invest themselves, and the investment now has a formal designation: the Garnet and Gold Scholars Society. On the evening of April 21, President Eric J. Barron (B.S. '73) lauded the inaugural class of 31 Garnet and Gold Scholars, which recognizes students who participate in three out of five areas of engagement — leadership, internship, service, international experience or research.

“You have been pioneers in undertaking this unique initiative — a distinction that will reflect your talents, your motivation, your achievement and your drive throughout the years after graduation,” Barron said. “You have proven that you are leaders, and we hope generations of Florida State students will follow your lead and become members of the Garnet and Gold Scholars Society.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Mary Coburn(B.A. '74, M.S. '76, Ed.D. '92) praised the students not only for their engagement in the university community but also for their commitment to representing Florida State around the world.

“One of President Barron’s main goals when he became president of Florida State was to make FSU the most student-centered campus in the country, and we are confident that this program will assist us in reaching this aspiration,” Coburn said.

Each student received a Garnet and Gold Scholar Society medal, which was handcrafted by the university’s Master Craftsman Studio.

BUILDING GOOD HEALTH

When Florida State’s current Student Health Center building opened in 1966, the student body numbered just 15,000. Fast forward nearly a half century when enrollment tips the scales at 40,000, and that health center — now named for astronaut and alumnus Dr. Norm Thagard (B.S. ’65, M.S. ’66) — is bursting at the seams. Thagard Student Health Center is home to more than 60,000 medical visits each year and fills as many as 500 prescriptions a day. By contrast, a traditional pharmacy like CVS fills an average of 200 prescriptions each day.

In a takeoff of the 1970s television hit about a bionic man, FSU is rebuilding the concept of student health and making it better … stronger … faster. A new Wellness Center in the heart of campus will combine the traditional services of Thagard with

Above: FSU graduates celebrate

their success at the 32nd Student

Emmys. Left: The inaugural class

of Garnet and Gold Scholars pose

with their host on the steps of the

President’s House.

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other activities relating to health and fitness. The 171,000-square-foot center will include expanded student health areas as well as administrative and clinical support spaces. It will also include room for wellness activities like physical therapy, chiropractic treatment and athletic training. The College of Nursing will have six classrooms and a 267-seat auditorium, and Campus Recreation will enjoy fitness and exercise space to complement the teeming Leach Center, which has up to 6,000 visitors per day.

The $47 million dollar center will be ready for action in August of 2012.

THE JIM MORAN INSTITUTEA Generous Gift Transforms FSU into “The Entrepreneurial University”

Longtime FSU supporters Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation, established by the late automotive industry legend Jim Moran, recently made a $4.25 million joint gift to expand the international reach of The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship based in the College of Business.

Since it was established in 1995, The Jim Moran Institute has provided free services and resources to entrepreneurs and business owners across the state, researched entrepreneurship and provided students from elementary school through the doctoral level with the chance to learn about and experience entrepreneurship.

“When my husband created The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship more than 15 years ago,

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Sit was his vision that its services would extend far beyond the walls of FSU’s campus,” said Jan Moran. “Since then, thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners have been served – all at no charge. The intention of this new gift is to continue supporting The Jim Moran Institute’s reach beyond Tallahassee with programs that will have a defining impact and further enhance and promote its prominence and excellence in the study and support of entrepreneurs.”

The infusion of money — $850,000 a year for five years — will build on The Jim Moran Institute’s mission of cultivating, training and inspiring entrepreneurial leaders. New, more extensive initiatives are planned, including an annual national small business and entrepreneurship conference that will launch in 2012; a prestigious Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers National Conference, to be hosted by The Jim Moran Institute in the near future; and the addition of an associate director of outreach who will support programs that serve minority entrepreneurs and business owners, at no charge, in the South Florida area.

“The new programs will enable us to better help business leaders, entrepreneurs and students achieve their dream of entrepreneurial success,” says Dr. Tim R. Holcomb, executive director of The Jim Moran Institute and the university’s Jim Moran Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship. “This work not only sets the groundwork for us to extend our reach to a more diverse group of entrepreneurial leaders, but also sets Florida State on a course to transform the university culture into one that fosters innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship – an initiative that speaks to the legacy of Jim Moran.”

Below: In a little more than one

year, this construction site in

the hub of campus will be home

to the university’s revolutionary

Wellness Center. Below right: (from left) Caryn Beck-Dudley,

dean of the FSU College of

Business; Melanie Burgess,

executive director of The Jim

Moran Foundation; Jan Moran;

Tom Jennings, vice president

for University Advancement at

Florida State; and FSU President

Eric J. Barron at the April 4 gift

signing agreement at the Jim

Moran Foundation’s headquarters

in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

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Lee Clarke has earned a growing

national reputation as an

authority on what really

happens in the wake of a

natural or man-made catastrophe.

FSU ALUMNUS Photo by Nick Rom

anenko

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When the devastating Japan earthquake exploded onto the world’s front pages on March 11, Lee Clarke (B.S. '79) knew that his telephone would soon be ringing off the hook as reporters from all across the United States sought his opinion on the potential impact of the worst catastrophe to strike Japan since World War II.

During more than 20 years of researching and writing several high-profile books about some of the most horrific disasters in recent memory, the 54-year-old Rutgers University sociology professor, who was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has earned a growing national reputation as an authority on what really happens in the wake of a natural or man-made catastrophe.

Ask nationally renowned sociologist Lee Clarke what it’s like to conduct scientific research at the scene of a major disaster, and he’ll respond by telling you about the three weeks he spent in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Clarke uncovered some surprisingly positive aspects of the tragedy that struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005.

For starters, the veteran disaster specialist found himself listening to numerous stories about a heroic band of ordinary citizens from rural Louisiana who dropped everything they were doing at the time of the hurricane and rushed to help New Orleans citizens escape from the deadly floodwaters.

“They were just regular guys, but most of them happened to own boats of one kind or another, since they lived way back in the bayous,” says Clarke. “Well, what happened was that they self-organized. They got together and worked out a plan ... and then they drove to New Orleans in order to save people. And I found that behavior really interesting, to say the least.”

For Clarke, the daring exploits of the group, which came to be known as the Cajun Flotilla, would provide proof for one of his best-known theories: the idea that most ordinary citizens, far from “panicking” during disasters and then rushing

WHENDISASTERSTRIKES

natural or man-made catastrophe.

By Tom Nugent

Opposite page: Lee Clarke (B.S. ’79)

surveys the havoc wreaked on a New

Orleans neighborhood by Hurricane

Katrina. Photo by Robert Gramling

Photo by Nick Rom

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Clarke is a fierce critic of what he famously describes as the “fantasy planning documents” produced by government officials and executives who don’t really understand how humans actually react in disasters. He has sparked controversy in the past by insisting that to plan effectively for catastrophe, we need to spend lots of time imagining “the very worst things that can happen” instead of trying to hide from them by pretending that they could never take place.

In spite of the controversy that his original thinking often creates, however, most experts in his field readily concede that his scholarship is first-rate and that his influence in the world of disaster studies is growing rapidly.

Inspired By The “Electrifying” Lew Rhodes

Raised in the small, South Florida town of Belle Glade (located at the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee), Lee Clarke was the son of a hard-working hospital administrator and a mother who taught math in the public schools while endlessly singing the praises of “good books and a university education.”

By the time Clarke and his buddy Tim Prescott (B.S. ’79) finished high school and set sail for Tallahassee, they were weary of small town life and “fired up about heading off into the big, grown-up world of a state university.

Prescott, today a successful investment counselor in South Florida, remembers Clarke as “a guy with a great sense of humor, but also very intense. Right from the start, you could see that he was determined to get everything he could out of college. I’m not surprised that he’s gone as far as he has.”

After struggling a bit during his first semester on campus, Clarke wound up taking a sociology course from the legendary Professor Lew Rhodes.

“He was absolutely electrifying,” says the Rutgers luminary today. “Rhodes was so passionate, when he talked about how society worked, that I could hardly believe it. I used to look at him in class and think: ‘I want to be that guy.’ From that point on, I vowed that I was going to become a sociology professor, and that’s what finally happened.”

about in chaotic helplessness, are surprisingly good at organizing themselves and then helping each other to overcome the negative effects of flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural catastrophes.

According to the independent-minded Clarke, in fact, the real danger in a major disaster isn’t that the people involved will panic and behave crazily. It’s that the government officials who are supposed to be helping them will lose their cool and start compounding the catastrophe by trying to implement irrational, unrealistic strategies that can’t possibly work.

Describing how this “Elite Panic” (a term coined by Clarke and his colleague Caron Chess) often takes place in disaster zones, the sociologist noted that when The Cajun Flotilla arrived in the Big Easy to help evacuate the swamped citizenry, local and federal officials at first tried to stop them from carrying out their waterborne rescues.

“That was truly amazing to me,” says the former FSU sociology major. “I mean, think about it: Here you had a bunch of government officials who basically didn’t trust the people they were supposed to be helping. And then, even though their own response to the disaster was notoriously ineffective in many ways – we all remember the early problems with food distribution and the temporary FEMA trailers – they were determined to prevent local citizens from joining the rescue effort!”

Controversial Opinions ... Supported By First-Rate Scholarship

While publishing three highly influential books on how individuals and organizations respond to major disasters (including the widely-praised Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination, University of Chicago Press), Lee Clarke has spent more than two decades trying to understand the social dynamics that determine how people and governments respond to catastrophe. A frequent contributor to publications that range from The Atlantic to The Washington Post and the (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger, Clarke now ranks as one of America’s most authoritative experts on such catastrophic events as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina and last summer’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Acting on the advice of another “inspiring mentor” (Sociology Professor Graham Kinlock, now Emeritus), Clarke headed off to Stony Brook University to work on a Ph.D. By the late 1980s, with his doctorate in hand, he had already signed on as a teacher/researcher at Rutgers, and he’s been there ever since.

These days, the elegantly bearded scholar spends his days working on an endless stream of journal articles and research projects, while also teaching courses and turning out a new book every four or five years. Married to fellow Rutgers sociology professor Pat Roos (an expert on gender and work issues) and the father of a 21-year-old son who’s now studying biology at Dickinson College, Lee Clarke says he’s “having more fun than ever” as an original thinker who loves to come up with gadfly theories that are guaranteed to kick the “conventional wisdom” about disasters right smack in the seat of its pants.

When the telephone rings in the Clarke household in Metuchen, N.J. these days, the caller will often be a national reporter who wants to hear Lee’s “take” on the recent tragedy in Japan. Instead of feeding the journalist a typical “ain’t it awful?” sound bite, however, Clarke will usually start talking about how “nature isn’t entirely to blame for what happened.

“If you look carefully at what really occurred,” he says, “you’ll soon discover that the earthquake caused relatively few deaths. The real tragedy was caused mostly by the tsunami that followed. And when you consider that fact, you start to realize that human decision-making contributed heavily to the catastrophe.

“Those Japanese engineers and business executives chose to put six nuclear reactors at the very edge of the ocean – without ever stopping to imagine that the water might flood over some day, if an earthquake ever occurred. In my view, that was thoughtless pride, and it immensely complicated the disaster that ensued.

“As a sociologist, that’s the kind of insight that endlessly fascinates me, because it suggests that the key to avoiding (or at least minimizing) these kinds of catastrophes is to better understand the social forces at work in them.”

LEE CLARKE’S WORST-CASE SCENARIOS Here’s a quick list of this disaster guru’s top five dangers facing America based on the social havoc that could ensue if these horrific catastrophes ever take place:

1. An asteroid collision: Even a small asteroid could cause catastrophic destruction if it struck a major U.S. city. And a larger space object – like a rock the size of New Jersey – could change our world completely, while triggering planet-wide devastation on a scale never seen by humans before.

2. An influenza pandemic: When the “Spanish flu” epidemic struck in 1918, it killed tens of millions of people worldwide and had an immense impact on the world economy. “There’s no doubt that we’ll get hit again, eventually,” says Dr. Clarke. “It’s only a matter of when.”

3. A major earthquake along the “New Madrid Fault Line”: A major part of the American Midwest sits on a ticking time bomb – a major geological fault line that runs from northern Arkansas deep into Illinois. “Some of our major cities – such as Memphis – are perched on the New Madrid Line,” says the Rutgers sociologist, “and they could get hit very hard in a large-scale earthquake.”

4. The threat to the Marcellus Shale: In recent years, the vulnerable Marcellus Shale (a vast collection of underground aquifers located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York state) has been increasingly threatened by natural gas extraction techniques being used by several energy suppliers, which requires them to inject toxic chemicals deep into the earth. In a worst-case scenario, the aquifers could become tainted with poisons over time resulting in “almost total contamination of New York City’s water supply,”

5. A nightmare at South Beach: It’s only a matter of time, says Professor Clarke, before a monster hurricane strikes one of the most vulnerable population centers in the U.S. – the glittering precincts of Florida’s Miami Beach. Jammed with posh resort hotels and tens of thousands of full-time residents at only four feet above sea level, the region would take a huge hit during a Category 4 or 5 hurricane.

Although Clarke’s worst-case scenarios sound thoroughly chilling, he says he isn’t trying to scare anybody by talking about them. Instead, he hopes to bring the nation’s attention to these dangers so that we can better plan for them. “Being prepared for these kinds of devastating events requires that you think about the unthinkable,” he says. “Only by imagining disaster can we cope with it.”

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Photo by Mark W

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By Elizabeth Bettendorf

THE ABC'S OF R E S E A R C H :A NEW GENERATION OF FSU STUDENTS DISCOVER THE BEAUTY OF DOING RESEARCH – LONG BEFORE GRADUATE SCHOOL.

Two mosquitofish – one mottled black, the other moonlight silver – battle in their tank like a couple of brawling cowboys. If this were a saloon, the feuding fish would have been thrown out long ago. But beneath the fluorescent glare in a small FSU Department of Biological Science laboratory, their aggressive posturing is of profound interest because of the potential research implications.

Dr. P. Bryant Chase, chairman

of the FSU Department of

Biological Science, conducts

a research discussion with

students Emily Williams and

Vincent LaBarbera, both of

whom made contributions to a

paper Chase recently published

in the DNA and Cell Biology.

Photo by Mark W

allheiser

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Florida State graduate student Brittany Kraft, and research assistant Emily Williams, an FSU senior majoring in biology, watch intently as the pair spar in a tight masculine circle, attacking their reflections in a swatch of cardboard mirror taped to the side of the tank. When it’s clear the nastiness isn’t going to stop any time soon, Williams grabs a net and scoops one of the fish into another tank, effectively ending the fight.

“This species is known to be very aggressive. The black mottled males are much more so than the silver. If color pattern is genetically determined, we also might assume aggression is genetically determined,” explains Kraft, who first became passionate about research as a high school student and later as an undergraduate when she learned about research opportunities in the laboratory of Dr. P. Bryant Chase, chairman of the FSU Department of Biological Science.

Chase, along with a cadre of current and former students, has recently published a research paper with surprising new results in the peer-reviewed journal DNA and Cell Biology. Five authors were undergraduates and two were high school students in FSU’s Young Scholars Program when they worked on the research project. (The paper is available online and the print version will be published this fall in an issue that focuses on undergraduate research).

Sharing a byline with the chairman of Florida State’s biology department has proved an auspicious start for these undergraduates who get to see their names splashed in an academic journal – a thrill usually experienced at the graduate level.

Such kudos, however, are not uncommon.

These days, an increasing number of undergraduates in FSU labs are partnering in substantive ways with professors to move important research forward. And Chase wants the world to know that his research – which is “all about trying to understand how the healthy heart works, and changes that occur in heart disease” – was supported for years by enthusiastic undergraduates.

“When you think about undergraduate research – it’s an investment not just in that project, but in the future of science,” Chase explains. “You never know where these students will go and what interesting career paths they will follow.”

Undergraduate research is flourishing not only in FSU’s biology labs but in a myriad disciplines campus wide. The 2011 spring semester marked a milestone for undergraduate research with the inaugural publication of The Owl – Florida State’s first ever journal devoted solely to showcasing an eclectic mix of undergraduate research and creative endeavors, from poetry to religion to science.

In his own department, Chase has documented a spike in undergraduate research in recent years, a finding he’s quantified and written about in a paper he hopes to publish soon.

“There has been an increase ten fold in the last decade,” explains Chase, whose gentle manner and encouraging spirit has inspired many FSU biology majors to pursue their own research.

He attributes this youthful research bubble to burgeoning student interest as well as “the growing realization that there are many opportunities available.” Chase also credits a new generation of research-driven faculty, as well as more federal and state funding for science, engineering and biomedical university research.

The Owl, named for the West Florida Theological Seminary seal employed from 1851 to 1901 (pre-dating both Florida State College for Women and FSU) highlights undergraduate research on such weighty topics as “Applications of Artificial Neural Networks in Mushroom Edibility Classification,” “Religion and Modernity: The Fire-Sermon” and “Yemen: Al-Qaeda’s Next Fortress.”

The magazine, although jaw-dropping in breadth and scope, was churned out on a meager, student-size budget. Its first run of 2,000 issues was produced for $6,500. The idea was to shed light on what the magazine’s founders call a powerful conversation among emerging scholars at the undergraduate level.

“I think education is meant to be interactive, and research gives a student the opportunity to synthesize what they’re learning from their professors,” explains Owl associate editor, William Boyce an earnest and articulate FSU senior and honors student majoring in history, creative writing and religion. “The natural outgrowth of that is to start to engage and begin the process of researching something yourself, though at the undergraduate level, research sometimes seems

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scary, especially to humanities students (who often must initiate original research.)

Kristal Moore Clemons, the associate director of Florida State’s Office of Undergraduate Research, puts the number of FSU undergraduates involved in research at about 3,000 annually, including students who take on an honors in the major thesis, which has long required original student research. Clemons was first charged with bringing the research journal to fruition in 2009, when she was hired at Florida State.

“The Student Council for Undergraduate Research and Creativity and I approached the Student Government Association and said, 'I know we’re the best in ACC athletics, but let’s be the best in ACC academics.'”

She praises The Owl’s “super motivated” team of students who served as advisors and also provided The Owl’s core editorial staff, lending their talents to the design and editing. (In less than two weeks, she says, they learned the ins and outs of everything from publishing software to financial compliance.) One of the founding staff members is undergraduate Vincent LaBarbera, who also made central contributions to the DNA and Cell Biology paper.

Clemons hopes to have an annual call for undergraduate papers and enough motivated students to publish The Owl every spring, whether in print, online or both. If she has anything to do with it, there won’t be a shortage of undergraduate research to highlight.

“Even if a student never has a career in research, doing research as an undergraduate will impress an employer,” she says. “It will show that a student has learned communication, writing and time management skills and that they can stick with a project from start to finish.”

Clemons says her office encourages students in all disciplines – not just the sciences – to be involved in research, and has provided funding for everything from musical compositions to performances to literary endeavors.

“I tell students all the time, 'Do it, do it, do it.' They have to start thinking early in their careers about all the research opportunities available and what will open doors,” she explains. “Even if they don’t get that starring role on Broadway, for example, they might end up writing, directing or studying plays.”

FSU senior Karlanna Lewis, a creative writing and Russian major with honors, has been researching the parallels between dance and literature in the Soviet and Post-Soviet age. Like her fellow undergraduate researchers, she presented her findings at various conferences and at one of two Undergraduate Research Symposiums held yearly by the FSU Office of Undergraduate Research.

Her passion for Russian literature and dance took her on a journey that led her to Moscow State University and to the apartment/museum of famed Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova. Back in Tallahassee, she made good use of FSU’s Strozier Library where she spent days engrossed in research and checked out “bags full of books.”

Lewis calls the resulting 45-page research paper, written for an honors directed independent study course in Russian, “an actively driven” academic piece that led her toward tangible scholarly results.

Above: The institution’s oldest-known

seal, the wise owl from the 1901

yearbook, The Argo. Below: Florida

State senior William Boyce, associate

editor of The Owl.

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For Emily Williams, her desire to understand the aggressive behavior patterns of mosquitofish, was stirred during a casual discussion in her animal behavior class, where Kraft served as graduate teaching assistant. Kraft explained to the class of undergraduate students that her research explored “whether aggression and color pattern could be determined by genes and how it could be used to study a genotype by environment interaction.” Kraft wanted to put these two types of males in different environments to see how aggression – determined by genes – and environment interact to produce an outcome.

“She showed her research work in a discussion one day, and I thought it was really interesting,” remembers Williams, who in addition to assisting with experiments also helps with basic maintenance work like “exchanging water in the fish tanks, cleaning and feeding.”

Kraft, who got her initial inspiration in Chase’s lab as a high school student, did so at the urging of her mother, Brenda Schoffstall, who was an FSU graduate student and involved in research with Chase.

Schoffstall, now a professor at Barry University in Miami Shores, teaches biology, anatomy and physiology and histology, and oversees a small research lab with several undergraduate researchers of her own. She’s essentially passing on the undergraduate torch lit by Chase, her professor and mentor who inspired two generations of FSU women to embrace scientific research.

Best of all, both mother and daughter share co-authorship bylines in Chase’s current paper in DNA and Cell Biology.

The whole experience has left a deep impression on Brittany Kraft.

“It’s my first publication,” she explained one afternoon while heading to check her tanks of mosquitofish with undergraduate researcher Emily Williams, “and I’m very proud of it.”

Graduate student Brittany

Kraft, and her research

assistant, Emily Williams, a

senior majoring in biology,

study the behavior of

mosquitofish in a campus

lab. Williams represents a

new wave of FSU students

pursuing research at the

undergraduate level.

Photo by Mark Wallheiser

“By doing research as an undergraduate, it helps create less of a divide between being in class,” she says, “and being in the real world.”

Getting involved isn’t hard for most FSU undergraduates. From the time freshmen first enter the requisite “Biology 101,” research opportunities are hard to miss because “they’re posted everywhere,” recalls Brittany Kraft, “on fliers and department websites.”

Typically, says Chase, most undergraduates find their research niche their junior year, but some start sooner, depending on the academic skills, research background as well as the motivation they bring with them to FSU.

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Seven different alumnae, seven different cases of meteoric rise

through the media stratosphere. Here’s a look at an impressive

group of women who have turned a Florida State education into

careers in print and broadcast journalism, sports media and film.

Though they have a wide range of interests and talents, they share

one thing in common: They are over the moon for their work.

By Kim MacQueen

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SHANNON BREAM J.D. ’96FOX NEWS CHANNEL

Self-described legal nerd Shannon Bream has a job she loves, and she loves the university that prepared her for it. After earning her Juris Doctorate at Florida State’s College of Law and practicing corporate law in Tampa for several years, she “dipped her toe into the news” and has never looked back. As a reporter for Fox News covering the Supreme Court, Shannon constantly draws on the skills she learned while earning her degree at FSU Law.

“I found that my education at Florida State, getting to dig in and find multiple sides of the story, to find the truth of any conflict, was the perfect setup for becoming a journalist,” she says, adding that the transition from lawyer to journalist was “a natural flow from one to the other.”

“As a college kid, or even in law school, I never thought I’d end up as a full-time journalist. But it is a true passion for me. I couldn’t be more grateful for the way things turned out.”

Bream worked at stations in Tampa, Charlotte and Washington before she started talking to Fox News personality Brit Hume about a job at Fox News Channel. That led to her appointment as Supreme Court reporter in fall 2007. She’s lived in Washington, D.C., for six years now and, though it took some getting used to, she loves its “hustle and bustle.” Now she often logs 12-hour days putting together long-form reports and on-air updates on Court proceedings, enjoying every second of what she does.

“For me to get to go into that room and watch nine of the best legal minds of the country argue out some of the most important cases that will ever impact this nation ... ” she says. “I pinch myself every day. I really do.”

BRITTANY STAHL B.A. ’08CNN HEROES

A broad education in print and broadcast journalism, starting at Florida State and culminating in a graduate degree from NYU, brought Brittany Stahl to New York, the world’s most exciting media city.

Once there, Stahl made her move from graduate student to intern to producer quickly and gracefully, with stints at CNN Money, Rachael Ray and MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Now, as a producer for CNN Heroes, she spends her day getting to know outstanding individuals who’ve made extraordinary contributions to help others.

Above: Bream at her stomping grounds,

the U.S. Supreme Court. Right: Brittany

Stahl (left) with Guadalupe Arizpe De La

Vega, who was honored as a CNN Top Ten

Hero for 2010 for providing health care to

patients in the dangerous city of Juarez,

Mexico, regardless of their ability to pay.

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She credits her rise to doing the best job she could wherever she was, always asking for more opportunities and responsibility. She calls it “a natural progression.”

“Florida State definitely gave me a very good base. I was involved in Seminole Productions, which taught me reporting skills and how to put together a profile package, that kind of thing,” Stahl says. “So going into graduate school and internships, I already had some of that knowledge.”

CNN Heroes collects nominations of people who have made substantial contributions to those less fortunate than themselves. Stahl selects finalists from among the nominations submitted by viewers and produces video segments on each one. The winners are honored at an annual awards event.

The program has allowed Stahl to work with some amazing people. One of her favorite interview subjects is Anuradha Koirala, a top ten Hero of the Year for 2010, who founded the organization Maiti Nepal to rescue victims of sex trafficking along the border between India and Nepal. Stahl produced another video with Mira Sorvino, who travels with the United Nations to advocate on behalf of women who have also been victims.

ALI BELL B.F.A. ’09MONTECITO PICTURE COMPANY

Ali Bell got her bachelor's degree from Florida State’s College of Motion Picture Arts and headed straight to Hollywood. Once there, she worked fast. By 2008, the Hollywood Reporter had named her one of the top film executives under 35.

Bell started out with an internship at Paramount Pictures. From there she moved up the corporate ladder at Nickelodeon. After two years working with David Heyman and Heyday Films on the Harry Potter movies, she ended up with producer Ivan Reitman’s company Montecito Pictures six years ago, where she now runs production and development.

Bell’s stunning ascendance in terms of titles doesn’t seem as important to her as the opportunity to work more closely with writers,

directors and actors to bring their visions to the screen, though. She’s most proud, lately, of her work on the 2011 film No Strings Attached, directed by Reitman and starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

Bell and her colleagues reacted positively to the screenplay by first-time scriptwriter Elizabeth Meriwether. They worked intensely with Meriwether and Portman on the strong female characters in this contemporary version of When Harry Met Sally.

To Bell, the most rewarding part of the job is helping writers and artists take their ideas from inception all the way to getting the movie made and released.

Every time they screened No Strings Attached, Montecito set up a focus group afterwards, and Bell says lots of women in the audience said, “Finally there’s a film with female characters that are like me and not a Hollywood version of me.”

“I think that’s a testament to the work we did with Liz and with Natalie on really trying to come up with an authentic female character.”

Below: Bell on set. She helped

produce the wildly successful No Strings Attached.

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KATHLEEN PARKER B.A. ’73, M.A. '76THE WASHINGTON POSTWRITER'S GROUP

Kathleen Parker will be the first to tell you that she’s had an unorthodox career path. Not many people start out by going for their doctorate only to get “so thoroughly bored” that they end up packing up their belongings, getting in the car and driving north, headed for who knows where.

That’s how Parker describes how she ended up in Charleston, S.C. After earning a pair of FSU degrees (including a master's in Spanish), she went to work for the Buenos Aires Herald, never to return to the ivory tower.

Of her first ever journalism job, Parker declares, “He hired me. The newsroom punished me. I prevailed.”

And from there, she says, “I went all over the place, covering everything from city hall to cops to federal court,” including stints in Jacksonville, to work for The Florida Times-Union and San Jose, to work for the Mercury News. By the time she arrived in California she had a son and became a features writer, since the schedule is a little less back-breaking than daily news. For awhile she was a food writer – the most fun she’s ever had according to her.

But eventually Parker found her way to the Orlando Sentinel, where in 1987 she started a column called “Women.” The paper subsequently hired a man to write a column called “Men.” Eventually management canceled the Men column and asked Kathleen to write “Men and Women.”

“Once it became 'Men and Women,' it became about politics and gender,” she says. “The

lifestyle-ish column that I had been hired to write became more opinion-oriented. And

my column very much mirrored my son’s life. My interests were very much home-focused, and then as he became part of the bigger world, I became part of the bigger world.”

Now Parker is an NYC-dwelling, CNN-appearing, Pulitzer-Prize-winning syndicated

columnist for The Washington Post. Not bad for someone who swears she chose Charleston by driving up I-95 “going eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”

Inset: Parker accepts the 2010 Pulitzer

Prize for Commentary from

Columbia University President

Lee Bollinger.

Photo by Eileen Barroso, Columbia University

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MARION TAORMINA B.S. ’93NBC SPORTS AND OLYMPIC SALES You can tell by talking to Taormina how much she

loves both sports and media and how her position combines her passions.

“When you’re passionate about something, when you love what you do, it doesn’t necessarily feel like a job,” Taormina says, reflecting on being at the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics with clients who were as moved by the spectacle as she was.

“That’s the most exciting part of this. It’s not even so much about selling as it is about making a personal connection – with sharing that important experience.”

AMANDA BROTHERTON B.A. ’03HEARST MAGAZINES

It’s fun to talk with Amanda Brotherton, but you have to catch up with her first. If she’s not working hard to drive up circulation for 17 consumer titles for Hearst Magazines in Manhattan, she might be darting up to Albany to spend time with her husband Scott (M.D. ’06), who is completing a residency in orthopedic surgery at Albany Medical College.

Brotherton found her way into public relations soon after graduation. She now works as a partnership and entertainment promotions manager for the circulation department at Hearst, representing titles like Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and Esquire. Her job is to help deliver new subscribers while holding onto current subscribers.

While in school at Florida State, Marion Taormina reveled in the sports world that is so prevalent on campus. She quickly realized that you don’t need to be an on-air personality to get all the benefits of a fantastic career that blends sports and TV.

“I thought the opportunity was to try to get on camera, but as I learned about the business side of media, it seemed like a better fit for me. There’s only one Katie Couric,” Taormina says.

Today Taormina heads up Sports and Olympic sales and marketing for the NBC Local Media division. She helps brands achieve their marketing objectives through sports activations and media investment in the Olympics, NFL, Super Bowl, NHL, Stanley Cup, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open, the PGA FedExCup and another 20 tournaments throughout the year.

Taormina sells the local commercials for the NBC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Hartford, Miami and San Diego. She also works closely with NBC’s 220 affiliate stations. Before landing in New York at NBC, Taormina worked in radio in Central Florida. But she jumped at the chance to get back into sports media.

Left: Brotherton, inside New York’s

Hearst Tower, helped promote

Cosmopolitan Magazine’s “Kisses for the

Troops” campaign to support American

military serving abroad.

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“I help make sure we stay on those numbers,” Brotherton says. “It’s a matter of looking at each of the individual magazine brands and identifying potential partners that have not only a great reach of their audience or users, but also that it’s the correct brand fit.”

For example, a recent project Brotherton worked on for Seventeen – whose readers tend to grow up and move on to read magazines like Marie Claire – partners the magazine with the online retailer Rent the Runway. The match means young readers can rent designer prom gowns from

the likes of Christian Siriano, Nicole Miller and Catherine Malandrino and pay about 10 percent of what they’d pay retail. The membership-driven Rent the Runway then provides free shipping and dry cleaning. Dress renters also get help with accessories and beauty advice, as well as discounted Seventeen subscription rates.

“There’s a lot of strategy to finding partners that share the greatest affinity with our individual magazine brands,” she says.

TIFFANY SIMONS B.S. ’03SPORTSNET NEW YORK

Tiffany Simons wanted to be a sports reporter in New York City so much that she up and moved there, sleeping on a friend’s couch while temping, selling jewelry at Bloomingdale’s and setting up bagel tables at the Food Network – anything to get closer to her goal.

The move worked out for Simons in spades. This spring, she started a job with the New York Mets as host of Mets Weekly TV on the team-owned network. She encourages those thinking of following in her footsteps to hop to it. “Go for what you want,” she says – advice she learned at Florida State.

“I think that was one thing that all of my professors said. You have to try,” Simons says. “Don’t be afraid of failure; don’t be afraid of hearing no. Just go out there and do it.”

She used to fear being “a woman in a man’s world” as a sports reporter. “But I found that’s not the way to look at it at all.”

“There’s a lot of women who work in sports. If someone who wants to do what I’ve done, go for it. All you need is one person to say yes. So far in my career, I just looked for that one person. You take that and make the most of it and hope that the next person will say, ‘Sure I’ll give you a try, too.’”

Simons fondly looks back to her time as an FSU student, in “an open, welcoming community of people who genuinely loved being there. When you leave college and you’re out in the real world, you search for that again.

“That’s the best thing about a career you love –being in a group of people who adore what they’re doing and feel strongly about doing the best job they possibly can.”

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By Victoria Phillips

A

doorbell

chimes as a spotlight

flickers and swivels to

illuminate a man riding a bicycle

upside down across a vast, black stage.

A bass slowly moans, setting a melancholy mood

amidst fog billowing into the air. A woman, dressed as a

housekeeper in a white shower cap and slippers, cautiously walks to

the middle of the stage with a wide-eyed, disbelieving stare.

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A

doorbell

chimes as a spotlight

flickers and swivels to

illuminate a man riding a bicycle

upside down across a vast, black stage.

A bass slowly moans, setting a melancholy mood

amidst fog billowing into the air. A woman, dressed as a

housekeeper in a white shower cap and slippers, cautiously walks to

the middle of the stage with a wide-eyed, disbelieving stare.

Six FSU alumni work at Cirque du Soleil’s

famed venue in Orlando. Back (left to

right) Carlos Cabana, Mitch Marines,

Rob Dawson and Dave Phillips. Front

(left to right) Chris Cox and Brian Vogel.

Photo by Bill Lax

Nine stories above, while the audience is silent with awe, a team of men dressed in black brings the circus to life in near darkness.

With one hand wound tightly around a rope and the other to his headset, rigger Carlos Cabana (B.S. ’03) looks down to the stage through the metal grates as he awaits further direction.

“Lamp standby,” crackles his headset.

Fellow rigger and Seminole Chris Cox turns to Cabana and commands, “Lamp. Down. Go.”

Together, Cox and Cabana release the large bungee cord and stare at the stage below, making sure they’ve hit their mark.

A large, intricately decorated chandelier cascades from the ceiling and falls within a foot of the maid’s head. She jumps back as the metal and glass masterpiece bounces back upward as if pulled by magic.

“I try to make it look as mechanical as possible,” Cabana says.

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In the late 1950s a circus entrepreneur brought his flying wheel apparatus to Tallahassee and invited the students to use it in their show. Leigh Heisinger (B.S. ’61), a New Jersey native who enrolled at FSU because of the circus, was selected to perform on the “Wheel of Death.” The assignment changed the course of his life.

“I used the wheel in the last show of my senior year during the last performance at Doak Campbell Stadium,” says Heisinger. “The owner wanted to sell it and even had a gig scheduled for South America. I bought it and took my new wife on a 17-week honeymoon through Brazil and Argentina.”

That decision was the beginning of a 40-year career touring the world as a circus performer. Eventually, Heisinger added his wife and daughter to the act.

“It was like having my cake and eating it, too,” says Heisinger, who named his show The Sensational Leighs. “When you’re young you come to crossroads in your life. My mother always thought I’d do it for a couple years and I’d grow up. But the most important thing in life is to do what you enjoy doing, and if you’re good at it and can make a little money at it then you have the best of both worlds.”

Above: La Nouba trapeze artist Rob

Dawson is fitted with a video camera.

Right: Jack Haskin built the Flying High

Circus from the ground up. Opposite page: After 40 years of traveling the

world on his “Wheel of Death,” Leigh

Heisinger is putting his FSU education

degree to work as a middle school

teacher in Tallahassee, Fla.

Cabana and others will continue the show in a frenzied rush, making sure La Nouba, Cirque du Soleil’s Orlando-based extravaganza, goes off without a hitch until the last act graces the stage.

The men in black work together for ten shows each week – and four of them learned the circus life dressed in garnet and gold as student members of The Florida State University’s famed Flying High Circus.

“Circus gets in your blood and stays in your blood,” says Rob Dawson (B.S. ’93), a La Nouba trapeze

artist and second-generation FSU Circus alumnus. “Even if people have left, you

will find that it is still very much a part of their lives.”

Under the FSU Big TopIt wasn’t supposed to be this way. In 1947, FSU was in its first year as a coeducational university. President Doak S. Campbell hired Jack Haskin to create an extracurricular activity that could be enjoyed equally by women students and the

men who were pouring into classrooms after

World War II.

“They were not in the FSU circus to go professional,” says

Jim DeCosmo (B.S. ’49, M.S. ’50), who was part of the first circus at

Florida State and then worked as Haskin’s assistant until 1958. “They were there for the purpose of growing and having fun. Hardly any of ’em had any kind of experience on a performing apparatus. They grew in physique and personality and character in the four years they were in the circus like you wouldn’t believe. The most satisfying thing was watching the kids grow.”

The FSU Circus became a national phenomenon in short order, appearing on network television and even helping the football team fill out its schedule.

“Villanova would not play us in football unless we brought the circus to perform at halftime,” recalls DeCosmo.

Far left: Photo by Laura Murphy for La N

ouba by Cirque du Soleil. B

elow: Photo by FSU

Special Collections and Archives and the D

igital Library Center.

32 Vires

Phot

o by

Mic

hele

Edm

unds

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Heisinger says his act became the most imitated show under the big top, but outside of the three rings even family members did not embrace his success.

“In those days being in the circus was looked down upon,” says Heisinger. “I was on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963, and my mother didn’t even tell any of her friends.”

Today, Heisinger is retired from the circus and using his FSU education degree as a middle school teacher in Tallahassee.

Learning The RopesStaging home shows in front of hundreds of people, teaching a circus school at Callaway Gardens, rigging their own equipment, designing lighting

“Your work is your life and your life is your work when you’re in the circus,” says Cabana. “You don’t go to work and then go home. You

are at work, and you are at home.”

Cabana earned a degree in exercise science, but says he

contributes 100 percent of his current life path

to performing with the FSU Circus. To him, the friends he made during his circus years are more than family.

“It’s more like a tribe,” he says. “You have this community that works together

even though you’re traveling

around to different places.”

Although all of Cabana’s FSU colleagues at La Nouba

came from different eras, the program serves as an eternal bond and conversational cornerstone.

“Everyone who seems to come from FSU are the best actors, performers and stuntmen,” says Cox, who was a member of the Flying High circus in the 1980s. “Our people know you don’t stop pulling until the tent is up.” The Greatest Show on EarthLike Cox, circus alumni throughout the country hold jobs behind the scenes but also in the glare of the spotlight. Tara Ogren (B.A. ’08) is in her third year as a trapeze artist and aerialist for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

and sound, sewing costumes and even assembling the Big Top tent at home and on the road, prepped students for the hard work, discipline and focus it takes to do well in the real world.

Recent graduate Mitch Marines (B.S. ’08), a member of the La Nouba rigging team, says anytime he wasn’t doing schoolwork he would be down at the circus tent practicing or helping out.

“There is always that core group of people that make it their lives,” he says. “They’re out there to work no matter what needs to get done.”During any given show, students gracefully perform some 18 to 22 acts of stamina, strength and willpower. From the well-known flying trapeze to ground acts like hand balancing, a group of about 100 students produces nine shows throughout the spring semester.

“I d o n ’ t h av e

a m o r t g ag e o r a

C a r pay m e n t ,” s ays

r I n g l I n g ' s t a r a o g r e n . “ I

m ay n o t g e t pa I d a s m u C h I

w o u l d w o r k I n g a j o b f o r

m y d e g r e e , b u t I

g o t l u C k y .”

Photo by Tomas M

uscionico. Costum

es by Marie-C

hantale Vaillancourt.

Above: Tara Ogren is barnstorming the

country in Ringling’s train caravan.

Above right: Al Light, serves as head

coach for Cirque du Soleil’s $165 million

production of KA, staged at the MGM

Grand in Las Vegas.

34 Vires

“The FSU Circus helped prepare me for Ringling Bros. by not only teaching me various circus acrobatics but by also giving me experience performing in front of a crowd,” says Ogren, a Colorado native who majored in studio art at FSU. “Through the annual spring shows, as well as the summer program at Callaway Gardens, I was able to fine tune my performance skills along with learning how to handle the nerves that come with being in front of an audience.”

Ogren embodies the true spirit of circus, traveling in a caravan of train wagons from city to city, bringing fantasy and magic along for the ride in nearly 400 shows per year. It’s a completely different kind of lifestyle, but one Ogren embraces with pride.

“I don’t have a mortgage or a car to pay,” she says. “I may not get paid as much I would working a job for my degree, but I got lucky.”

The circus life does not require a suitcase and passport. Al Light, who earned a pair of FSU degrees (B.A. ’98, M.S. ’06), enjoys a normal work life as head coach of the Cirque du Soleil production of KA, staged permanently at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The show costs $165 million to produce and is one of seven Cirque shows along the Vegas strip.

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“It seems really corny when I say this is like a dream job,” says Light, who also serves as head coach of Illinois State’s Gamma Phi Circus. “Cirque is pretty much the top as far as the field goes. If you talked to any aspiring artist at FSU and they really wanted to pursue this as a career, they’re going to say they want to work for Cirque du Soleil one day.”

No matter which path they’ve taken – performer, choreographer, rigger – these FSU circus alumni embody a spirit and passion you won’t be able to find anywhere else.

“Just being on the fly bar – I love that I fly,” says April Brown (B.S. ’09), a touring aerialist with the Flying Pages. “I get cranky when I don’t get to swing. I think we all do a little.”

A second generation FSU Circus performer and human sciences major, Brown made up her mind to follow in her mother’s footsteps when she was just a junior in high school.

“I remember when I had that ‘My mom was in the circus!?’ moment as a girl,” she says.

Fast-forward to her senior year in college, and Brown found it tough to follow a career path that didn’t involve circus.

“Lucky for me, within 18 hours of posting my demo on YouTube, I was contacted by the Pages,” she says. “I was on the road three months later.”

Allison Blei (B.S. ’05) also got her start with the Flying Pages, but not before she spent time testing the waters in a traditional work setting as a financial analyst.

Even when Blei was working a 9-to-5 in Miami Beach, she taught trapeze lessons on the side. Eventually, her love for flying high won out, and she quit the financial field altogether.

Blei solidified her transition into the circus world when she met her husband, Ivan Espana, and joined his acrobatic, touring family in the Espana Family Circus.

Below: April Brown (left) during her days

with the Flying High Circus.

The group of eight tours with their own show for half of the year and spends the other half traveling and working for other circuses.

“You don’t want to leave,” she says. “It’s addicting and such a thrill.”

Recently, Blei and Espana welcomed a new circus performer into the troupe, their son Kiano.

“He’ll be a sixth generation circus performer,” Blei says. “I wouldn’t change it for anything. This is a unique life.” Curtain CallIt’s after the show, and the group of fellow FSU Circus alumni change out of their blacks and head next door for a quick nightcap at Downtown Disney’s House of Blues. They each settle into the metal chairs on the outside patio and turn the conversation to their favorite topic – life on the circus lot at Florida State.

Cox munches on a french fry while he banters with Marines.

Cabana’s eyes light up as a slow smile spreads across his face as he does a silent salute and says, “Let every day be a circus day.”

PHOTOS:

Two page spreadLa Nouba

UNDER THE BIG TENT: Six FSU alumni work at Cirque du Soleil’s famed venue in Orlando. Back (l-r) Carlos Cabana, Mitch Marines, Rob Dawson, Dave Phillips. Front (l-r) Chris Cox and Brian Vogel.

Leigh Heisinger (at desk)

After 40 years of traveling the world on his “Wheel of Death,” Leigh Heisinger works as a middle school teacher in Tallahassee.

Al Light (arms folded, butted up against show picture)

Al Light serves as head coach for Cirque du Soleil’s $165 million production of KA, staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Allison Blei

BIG TOP NEWS

Raising the TentWhen the curtain rises on the 65th Flying High Circus next year, it will gather in the rafters of a $500,000, state-of-the-art tent to be built on the traditional circus lot this summer.

“It’s a combination of the American-styled three ringed tent with elements of the European cupola tent,” says fourth-year Circus Director Chad Mathews (BA ’98, M.S. '03). “For the first time we have been able to design a tent that fits the unique needs of our organization.”

The festive, twin-peaked exterior boasts a sleek inner framework that will feature improved sight lines, safety and maintenance. “The old tent required nearly 60 poles,” says Mathews, “some of which have been around since the 1960s. This new design needs just eight poles and can be raised with electric winches.”

Financed primarily by student fee allocations, the tent comes from an Italian manufacturer regarded as the best in the business. The new stainless steel poles can last indefinitely with proper care, and the new skin has a lifespan of ten years. Mathews is hoping to keep the tent raised for longer periods of time, perhaps an entire semester.

The old tent, and all its history, will go into storage as a back up.

Above: Allison Blei on silks. The new mother

has married into a circus family.

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CIRCLE OF GOLD

The Circle of Gold, the Alumni Association’s signature award, now boasts 193 members after a spring induction ceremony, which was held in Miller Hall prior to the spring football game. The newest members are former FSU Sports Information Director and University Vice President Pat Hogan (B.S. ‘55), nursing professor Sally Karioth (M.S. ’72, Ph.D. ’77), Tallahassee Mayor John Marks (B.S. ’69, J.D. ’72), former Student Government President and Rhodes Scholar Joe O’Shea (B.A. ’08) and retired religion professor and former athletics’ faculty representative Leo Sandon. Jeff Hill (B.S. ’69), chairman of the FSU Alumni Association National Board of Directors, introduced the recipients and then presented each with an engraved medal and lapel pin. The event began with a singing of the "Hymn to the Garnet and Gold," and concluded with a reception in the President’s Box during the spring football game.

1. Singing in Miller Hall. 2. Pat Ramsey (left) shared a laugh with Stella Cottrell (B.A. '71). 3. Jeff Hill (right) presents Leon Sandon with his Circle of Gold medal. 4. Joe O’Shea returned from Oxford, where he would soon defend his Ph.D. dissertation. 5. Jill Chandler (B.S. '09) and her legendary “Mema,” Bridget Chandler (B.A. '48). 6. Related only by their FSU ties are (left to right) Wayne Hogan and father Pat along with husband and wife Pat Hogan and Wayne Hogan (B.A. '69).

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FSU DAY AT THE CAPITOL

With the FSU Fight Song rising to a glorious spring sky, garnet and gold filled the courtyard of the Florida Capitol on April 12 as the university celebrated its annual rite of the legislative session, FSU Day at the Capitol. Gene Deckerhoff, voice of the Seminoles, welcomed FSU President Eric Barron before calling each member of the FSU legislative delegation to the steps of the Historic Capitol.

1. Student athletes and coaches form a formidable line-up in front of the Historic Capitol. 2. Rep. Jimmy Patronis (B.S. ’96), vice chair of the Florida State legislative delegation, with son John Michael.

MEET THE FIRST FAMILY

FSU President Eric Barron and First Lady Molly Barron have hit the trail this spring, meeting alumni on the road and delivering a positive message about the successes of Florida State's students. Stops have included Jacksonville, St. Petersburg, Coral Gables, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, Naples, Atlanta, Raleigh and Tampa with more on the way.

3. A luncheon program at the Biltmore in Coral Gables was preceded by an economic outlook from alumnus and cruise line CEO Tom McAlpin (B.S. '81). 4. At the Coral Gables luncheon, University Trustee Les Pantin (B.S. '70), Alumni Association President Scott Atwell, Miami Seminole Club Vice President Ben Biard (B.S. '00) and President Eric Munoz (B.S. '00). 5. In Ft. Lauderdale, Lenore Hynes and Alumni Board National Director, Capt. Tom Hynes (B.S. '80). 6. In Dallas, alumna Sarona Winfrey (B.S. '82) is flanked by Eric and Molly Barron. 7. The Naples event featured a student send-off. Here, a pair of parents pose with soon-to-be members of the freshman class of 2011.

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BACK TO SCHOOL AT LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

The FSU Alumni Association supports more than 70 Seminole Clubs around the country. Each year leaders from those clubs are invited back to campus for a two-day session of workshops, brainstorming and networking. This year, the opening session featured the unveiling of a new project, dubbed Operation CLUB – a restructuring plan that will eventually remove the burden of raising dues money from local clubs.

1. From left to right: Marilyn and George Sweeney (Panhandle Seminole Club); Gordon and JoAnn LaMaster (Tallahassee Seminole Club); and Elizabeth and Richard Joye (Midlands Seminole Club of Columbia, S.C.). 2. FSU President Eric Barron underscores the importance of the new Operation CLUB project. 3. Max Oligario from the Tampa Bay Seminole Club and Krystle Tambangcura, president of the Southern California Seminole Club. 4. Pinellas Seminole Club leaders Leah and Paul Einboden, Philip Clark and Club President Debbie Turner. 5. Miami Club President Eric Munoz. 6. Two days before the spring game, Bobby Bowden Field provided an elegant backdrop to the start of Leadership Conference. 7. From the Seminole Club of Greater Orlando (left to right) Marian Christ, Bill Kidd, Latarsha Jones, Jay Peeper and Mike Wakefield.

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athletic department presentation that also included tips from the university’s compliance director.

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TAG ‘EM IN TEXAS

Everything’s bigger in Texas …even the license plates. The official announcement and unveiling of an FSU license tag in the state of Texas was made by Seminole Club of North Texas President Marty Hall during a Dallas alumni reception that featured FSU President Eric Barron. Texas and South Carolina will soon join Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina as states with an FSU license plate available for purchase.

SEMINOLE CLUBS IN ACTION

8. The Windy City Seminole Club and Seminole fans celebrated FSU’s basketball success in the first and second round of the NCAA tournament in Chicago. 9. At the Middle Tennessee Seminole Club Oyster Roast in March, a familiar dessert is served. 10. Southernmost Seminoles celebrated a gathering of past presidents of the Key West club, including (left to right) Yvette Talbott, current president Megan Oropeza, Tim Koenig, Kenny Wardlow, Lanny Skelly and Beth Oropeza. 11. The Seminole Club of Volusia and Flagler Counties organized the Putt Putt for Scholarships to send local students to FSU. Judge Robert Rouse and his wife Donna were one of the event sponsors. 12. A Seminole family at the Tampa Tailgate in March at Steinbrenner Field. 13. FSU Baseball Coach Mike Martin and Tom Block at the tailgate event prior to the FSU vs. Florida baseball game, hosted by the Tampa Bay Seminole Club.

Scott Atwell, Dr. Eric Barron and Marty Hall unveil the FSU tag in Texas.

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EMERITUS REUNION WEEKEND

Each spring, a new class of FSU alumni is welcomed into the Emeritus Alumni Society during a weekend reunion featuring campus tours, awards and fellowship. How did they earn this distinction? The spring of 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of their graduation from The Florida State University. Members of the Class of 1961 gathered with fellow emeritus alumni for a weekend of activities that included stops at the FSU Reservation, National High Magnetic

Field Laboratory and Coyle E. Moore Athletic Center. The final stop was a cocktail reception at the President’s House, where the Class of 1961 officially took its place in the society. Class members Kitty Ball (B.S. '61) and Dr. Ray Bellamy (B.A. '61) served as co-chairs of the organizing committee. More than 8,000 FSU alumni are now recognized with emeritus status.

1. The induction took place on the back green of the President’s House. 2. Bill Dalrymple (B.S. ’53, B.M. ’56), Patricia Carmolli (B.S. ’60) and Herb Totz (B.S. ’61). 3. Jane Bowles (B.M. ’54), Jim Glasco and Sara Arnette (B.A. ’58). 4. Lining up for lunch at The Rez. 5. David Lee (B.S. ’58) and Jack McCoy (B.S. ’56, M.S. ’58). 6. Communications Professor Mark Zeigler (M.S. '89) delivered an inspiring campus update. 7. Emeritus alumni enjoying fish and shrimp.

EMERITUS AWARDS

The FSU Alumni Association Grand Ballroom was packed with pride during reunion weekend as five emeritus alumni were honored with the society’s annual awards. Winners of the Commitment to Excellence Award included Sara Connell Arnette (B.S. ’58), Nell Gray Cunningham (B.A. '48) and Betty King Wajdowicz (B.S. ’57). The post-humous Conradi Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Mina Jo Powell (B.S. '50) and June Fouts Strauss ('52).

Class of ’61 members Kitty Ball, John Boesch and Martha Alexander as new emeritus alumni.

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The ceremony also included a passing of the gavel as Dr. Betty Lou Joanos (B.S. '57, Ph.D. '85) succeeded Tommie Waits (B.S. '56) as president of the Emeritus Alumni Society’s Board of Directors. Joanos and Waits are past employees of the FSU Alumni Association, having served as associate director and executive director, respectively. They now give their time as volunteers for this vital and vibrant constituent organization.

The event concluded with a special presentation of the Alumni Association’s Circle of Gold Award, as Jeff Hill welcomed into membership Jane Wooten Meigs (B.A. ’49), Dot Douglas Whittle (B.A. ’53) and Rosa Lee Tomberlin (B.S. ’48).

8. Yvonne Hutto (B.S. ’60), Ray Bellamy and Martha Davis (B.A. '60, M.A. '63). 9. Ethel Boyer, Sandy Boyer (B.S. '48) and Mel Pope (B.S. '47) on the back porch of the President’s House. 10. Passing of the gavel from Tommie Waits to Dr. Betty Lou Joanos. 11. Dr. Barron welcomes guests to the President’s House. 12. Three Emeritus Alumni Society members were welcomed into the Alumni Association’s Circle of Gold. National Board Chair Jeff Hill (far left) and Alumni Association President Scott Atwell (far right) congratulate Dot Whittle, Rosa Lee Tomberlin and Jane Meigs. 13. President Barron presided over the Class of 1961’s induction into the Emeritus Alumni Society. 14. With emeritus medals in place, members from the Class of 1961 pose with their host on the back steps of the President’s House.

Right: Commitment to Excellence Award winners included Sara Connell Arnette, Nell Cunningham and Betty King Wajdowicz. Accepting the Conradi Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of June Strauss were daughters Julie Bettinger and Leslie Redding.

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TEN QUESTIONS w I t h d r . s a l l y k a r I o t h

“Life changing.” “ Modern-day Buddha.” “The whisper in my ear.” Just some of the terms students use to describe Dr. Sally Karioth (M.S. '72, Ph.D. '77), whose classes fill up quicker than a mess hall of hungry soldiers. Since 1970, Karioth has been a professor in The Florida State University College of Nursing, where she teaches one of the university’s most popular courses, called “Death, the Individual and the Family.’’ In April, she was awarded the Alumni Association’s Circle of Gold.

Karioth has been active in trauma work and is called in frequently to speak to tragedy survivors and mental health officials suffering compassion fatigue. In 2001, the U.S. Navy employed her to speak with victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, and in 2005 she was activated to help with Hurricane Katrina survivors.

While her “Death and Dying” class challenges students to consider their own mortality, Karioth’s message is more about living than dying. Her mantra: “Everyday you should have at least one exquisite moment.’’

Initially you fancied a career in theatre. What happened? I didn’t realize talent was a prerequisite. However, I spend every summer teaching at FSU's London Study Centre, and I try to see a show every night or afternoon.

How did you get involved in grief therapy? As a student at the University of Wisconsin, I went to a workshop given by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, the pioneer of grief counseling, and immediately realized that was what I wanted to do. The night before, I had been in the hospital when a 16-year-old boy died, and no one told his parents or him how sick he was. I hated that the family had no time for goodbyes or anticipatory grieving.

Students in “Death and Dying” are required to keep a journal. How have those journals impacted you personally? I read every word they write, and I am always surprised how students do what I ask, which is to be honest and share what hurts them and what helps them. I’m also amazed at the burdens and stories each student brings into every classroom; it is humbling to see them carry on in spite of whatever else is happening in their lives.

How does a counselor handle the cumulative stress of grief ? I have always believed in compassion energy versus compassion fatigue. There is something about helping people deal with their grief, rather than just absorbing it, that keeps you from being overwhelmed. It also reminds you that you are just a spectator who gets to leave while the family has to carry on 24/7.

What do you enjoy most about your role as a faculty member? It’s a cliché, but it’s the students. I love their energy and the way they face something new each day. I also work with wonderful colleagues, and even though I’m a [University of Wisconsin] Badger, there is never a day when I’m not proud to say I teach at Florida State.

Myron Rolle (B.S. '08) appeared in this space last issue. Where does Myron rank in your list of students, and why? I figure every 35,000 students I should have a Rhodes Scholar. He and I had grand fun those two years we worked on the Rhodes. When we were implementing his exercise-and-diet program at the Seminole

reservation at Lake Okeechobee, we kept each other awake on the long drives by singing show tunes.

I think the day we went to Birmingham, Ala. for his successful Rhodes interview

may be one of my three favorite days of teaching – out of the 12,000 days I have taught.

How has your view of grief therapy changed over the years? Actually a lot. Not everyone needs grief therapy. We don’t need to rush in to every

school, organization, etc., that has an event and try to administer

therapy to all. Most people are strong and resilient, and if a person

was healthy before a sad event and has a supportive family and friends, they are usually

OK after an event and don’t need professionals to help them, especially before they have even had a chance to get it settled in their own minds.

What’s the best advice you can give someone who is dealing with grief ? Things do get better. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day, they will find the breeze feels good and the world is brightly colored once again.

How do you balance death, dying and your nursing classes? I have a busy public speaking career, spend every summer teaching in London and have a loving husband, Gerald Ensley, and daughter, Amanda Thompson. Plus, I had a wonderful and perfect childhood and am lucky Mom and Dad are still alive and can still beat me at cards at 91.

Will you ever retire from teaching? They’ll probably have to drag me out feet first – but be assured those feet will have cute shoes on them.

LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL

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TEN QUESTIONS w I t h d r . s a l l y k a r I o t h

I n k a r I o t h ’ s "d e at h

a n d d y I n g " C l a s s

s t u d e n t s a r e r e q u I r e d

t o a r r a n g e t h e

C o m p l e t e d e ta I l s o f

t h e I r o w n f u n e r a l ,

f r o m d r a f t I n g a w I l l

t o w r I t I n g a e u l o gy

a n d s e l e C t I n g m u s I C .

For the late Mina Jo Powell (B.S. ’50, M.S. ’63), what began as an interest in medicine grew into a lifelong passion to improve the lives of others. Her name is known across The Florida State University and the Tallahassee community, and thanks to her generous planned gifts, Powell’s legacy of helping others and giving back lives on.

Powell enrolled at the Florida State College for Women in 1946, and four years later she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the newly renamed Florida State University. She went on to earn her master’s degree in social work from Florida State in 1963. Throughout her life, Powell gave generously of her time, talent and treasure as a supporter of many Florida State academic and athletic programs.

Her dedication to the betterment of the community, especially the rural, elderly and underserved populations, culminated in planned gifts to the College of Medicine, which Powell identified as sharing her mission. Her planned gift establishing the Mina Jo Powell Fund for Excellence in Medical Education provides funds exceeding $3.3 million for the Mina Jo Powell Endowed Chair in Neuromuscular and Neurological Degenerative Diseases, the Mina Jo Powell

Endowed Chair in Medical Education and the Mina Jo Powell Endowed Fund for the Study of Health Issues Associated with Aging.

“As one of our founding donors, Mina Jo Powell set the bar with her generous support of this new community-based medical school and affirmed her trust in our unique mission,” College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty, M.D., said. “Our neuroscience research and geriatrics training

programs, along with our student-focused activities, are secure thanks to her generosity.”

Powell’s dedication and support ensure the College of Medicine will be equipped to study neuromuscular and neurological disorders and aging while providing care to those who cannot afford it. Her gifts allow for innovative research of degenerative diseases at Florida State with the goal of better, healthier lives for all.

“It’s really important to have people like Mina Jo, who saw what her gift could do for a nascent college,”

Fogarty said. “With her gift, which supports a neuroscience chair, a professorship at one of our regional campuses as well as funding for geriatrics research and education, she was leading the way and convincing a lot of people in this community that this really was something that was important to contribute to.”

BUILDING A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE IN MEDICAL EDUCATION By Emily Nix

Left: Mina Jo Powell with Jim Melton,

former president of the Alumni Association,

at the 1990 dedication of the Mina Jo

Powell Alumni Green at Florida State, which

was named in her honor for her consistent

loyalty and generosity to the university.

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From its beginning in 2000, the college’s unique mission and community-based model drew attention.

“From the very beginning we were set apart and focused, and visitors say we are the most mission-focused of any medical school in the country,” Fogarty said. “With the tremendous changes in science over the last 50 years we’ve seen medicine tend to move much more toward disease-focused as opposed to patient-focused. We train exemplary physicians who are focused on their communities – particularly the rural communities, elderly communities and those communities who are underserved.”

And in order to produce the best medical students in the country, you need the best medical professionals to teach and train them. This aspect is a key to one of Powell’s gifts, which established the Mina Jo Powell Chair in Neuromuscular and Neurological Degenerative Diseases.

“The Mina Jo Powell Chair will bring us intellectual power, reputation for FSU, treatments for many people in the state of Florida and economic advantages,” said Dr. Richard Nowakowski, Randolph L. Rill Professor and Chair in the College of Medicine. “We are going to be able to have National Championship scientists who come to us from the best schools,

Above left: John P. Fogarty, M.D., dean

of The Florida State University College

of Medicine Above right: Richard

Nowakowski, Ph.D., Randolph L. Rill

Professor and Chair Right: Dr. Bruce

Robinson, clerkship director for geriatrics

at the Sarasota Regional Campus, with

Class of 2011 member Rafael de la

Puente and patient. Photo by Colin Hackley

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with the best money, resources and minds to tackle problems related to human health. So it’s a win-win situation – all thanks to the generosity of people like Mina Jo Powell.”

Tallahassee Regional Campus Dean Dr. Mel Hartsfield agrees.

“We are proud of our faculty, who are full-time, practicing physicians in the community,” Hartsfield said. “They are part of the reason our students’ outcomes are incredible.”

The outcomes Hartsfield mentions include student placement into the best residency programs in America and into programs where they can fulfill critical needs.

“As we go forward, the big concern in health care is access to care, and if providers will exist, particularly in primary care specialties,” Hartsfield said. “This year, from the Tallahassee campus, of the 15 students, 15 are going in to primary care –something we’re very proud of and something we stress. We can count on these students to help us and our families in our hour of need.”

The Florida State University College of Medicine’s program is unique in its aim to give these future physicians an opportunity to serve and practice in their communities while they earn their medical degrees.

“Our students go to one of six campuses – Tallahassee, Pensacola, Ft. Pierce, Sarasota,

Orlando, Daytona Beach – and become members of the community,” Hartsfield said.

Hartsfield added that unlike many traditional medical school models, Florida State’s medical students have access and experience working in the outpatient arena. A longitudinal class where students follow primary care patients throughout an entire year and a required program in geriatrics in students’ fourth years gives College of Medicine students an edge as they compete for residencies.

And for these students, like fourth-year medical student Ashley Lucke, Florida State’s student-centered approach sets it apart.

Lucke’s journey to medical school began as a young girl. When she was seven years old, Lucke saved her younger brother from drowning in a neighbor’s swimming pool by pulling him out of the water.

“There was an instantaneous shift in my thinking that day,” Lucke said. “I wasn’t even aware of it as a seven-year-old, but from that moment I knew I existed on this earth to be a doctor, and that was the only possible thing I could do.”

Lucke continues, “I think everyone wants to affect change in the world. I went to medical school not just to make a difference, but to be the difference. To me, that means being the person who goes in to the ER to tell the spouse ‘you have an hour to get dinner before your husband will make it up to the floor, so you have time.’ It means going in to a

“ b u t I wa n t e d a

s C h o o l t h at w o u l d

t e aC h m e h o w t o C a r e

f o r p e o p l e a n d h o w

t o b e t h e d I f f e r e n C e .

I f o u n d t h at at fsu.”Left: College of Medicine student Ashley

Lucke announces her good news on

Match Day in March. She matched with

the pediatrics residency program at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical

Center in Dallas. Photo by Bill Lax

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patient’s room to silence an obnoxiously beeping IV pump, even if it’s not my patient, so that he or she doesn’t have to listen to that ring in their ear. It means spending the extra five minutes to print out lab results of a patient I’m about to discharge, so when he or she visits a primary care physician, that doctor will know what happened. It means listening compassionately to the alcoholic patient in the ER with pancreatitis – for the sixth time. To me, being the difference means having empathy, compassion and understanding even when it’s not easy.”

Lucke knew of only one place where she could grow into that type of physician.

“All medical schools can teach their students about medications and diagnostic tools,” Lucke said, “but I wanted a school that would teach me how to care for people and how to be the difference. I found that at FSU.”

Lucke will graduate with an M.D. after her name in May 2011. In her time at The Florida State University College of Medicine, she has served as one of only six students nationwide on the national medical student subcommittee for the American Academy of Pediatrics; served as class president for two years; been an inductee to the Gold Humanism honor society, which honors medical students who show compassion and empathy; been an inductee into Alpha Omega Alpha honor society for medical students and served on several committees university-wide and within the College of Medicine.

She will also graduate with $193,000 in student loans.

“To help defray the costs of medical school I have been the recipient of several scholarships, including the Charlotte Edwards Maguire and Ocie Harris scholarships in medicine,” Lucke said. “The financial generosity of these and other donors through the Foundation and College of Medicine

GO NOLES 

FSU Bookstore & Seminole Sportshop 104 N. Woodward Ave | 850-644-2072

www.fsu.bkstr.com

Shop the latest selection of

Seminole apparel and gifts

Opposite page: 2010 College of

Medicine graduate Dr. Tanya Anim works

with a patient in her family medicine

residency program at Halifax Hospital in

Daytona Beach, Fla. Photo by Colin Hackley

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has helped in so many tangible ways: for repairs when my car died right before my board exam second year; by helping my husband relocate so he could live with me in Tallahassee through medical school; by providing for three month-long rotations at the top children’s hospitals in the country in the past six months and by helping fund my 16-program, three-month interview process.”

Lucke’s dream will quickly become her reality, as she will soon be placed into a residency in pediatrics.

She notes that a physician generally sees 30 patients a day, five days a week, 50 weeks each year. Over a 40-year-career, a physician will have more than 300,000 patient encounters.

t h e y s u r e l y h av e ta u g h t

m e a l e s s o n I n e f f I C I e n C y ,

b e C a u s e t h e y C h a n g e d

t h e l I v e s o f m I l l I o n s o f

p e o p l e I n t h e s e C o n d s I t

t o o k t o w r I t e a C h e C k

a n d s I g n t h e I r n a m e .

“If you multiply that by the 120 people in my class, every year my graduating class will affect millions of lives,” Lucke said. “I think about the extraordinary people who donated money to create mine and other scholarships. They surely have taught me a lesson in efficiency, because they changed the lives of millions of people in the seconds it took to write a check and sign their name. For this I want to say thank you for the lives you’ve changed, and thank you for donating to the College of Medicine.

“When I entered the College of Medicine, I vowed to give back in the only way I knew how – by being the best medical student I could be,” Lucke said. “I think it is a fundamental human need to know our lives were lived with some purpose, and our existences improved the world,” Lucke said. “Through gifts from generous donors like Mina Jo Powell, our purpose is made clearer and more accessible.”

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1. Judy and Mike Pate. 2. Dr. Karen

Laughlin, dean of undergraduate

studies, Bill Brubaker and Miriam

Jones. 3. The fifth annual Westcott

Legacy Society event was held in the

Grand Ballroom of the Alumni Center.

4. Pat Ramsey and Dr. Charlotte

Maguire 5. Director of Planned Giving

Jake Lemon, Associate Director

of Planned Giving Mike Dasher,

Assistant Vice President for Planned

Giving Camille Licklider and Planned

Giving Assistant Marcy Khan. 6. Jo

Ella Harris and former Dean of the

College of Medicine Ocie Harris. 7. College of Medicine Assistant Dean

for Development Wayne Munson and

Mart P. Hill.

3

5

7

4

2

6

1

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PHILANTHROPY

The fifth annual Westcott Legacy Society event was held at the Alumni Center Grand Ballroom and featured a program highlighting the College of Medicine and, specifically, how the late Mina Jo Powell’s planned gifts have positively impacted the college’s students and faculty. Following President Eric Barron’s welcoming remarks, guests enjoyed a Mediterranean-inspired lunch while listening to a repertoire of classical music played by pianist Andrew Focks, a senior in the College of Music.

Dr. John Fogarty, dean of the College of Medicine, provided an update on the College of Medicine and a brief glimpse into the college’s future. Dr. Richard Nowakowski, Randolph L. Rill Professor and Chair, and Dr. Mel Hartsfield, regional campus dean, shared the many ways in which Powell’s gifts have contributed to the success of their students and faculty. Immediately following, Ashley Lucke spoke of her experience as a student in the College

of Medicine and how support from various donors has significantly aided her academic pursuits.

Prior to the luncheon, honorees had the opportunity to tour the President’s House and enjoyed a meet and greet reception in the Alumni Center Courtyard. Following the luncheon, guests were invited to the College of Medicine for a tour of the facilities, including the Clinical Learning Center, Atrium and Dean’s Conference Room.

This year, nearly 100 guests attended, including Westcott honorees, college deans, university administration and Foundation staff.

For more information about the Westcott Legacy Society, please contact the office of Planned Giving, at plannedgiving@foundation.fsu.edu or 850.644.0753.

Photos by Jennifer Little and FSU Photo Lab

Vires 53

Class Notes1940s

Veteran Nell Smith Lutz (B.S. ’43) was honored by the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives during a Women’s History Month program for her service with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, or WAVES, during World War II.

1950s

John R. Blue (B.S. ’58), a retired judge and member of the Carlton Fields law firm, has been honored with the Stetson University College of Law’s 2011 William Reece Smith Jr. Public Service Award. It recognizes Blue’s 40-year career of outstanding service to the legal profession and the community.

Gloria Payne (B.S. ’58) has been inducted into the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame. Payne won four national doubles titles and three Gold Tennis Ball awards with Charlene Grafton. She authored Tennis for Beginning and Intermediate Players and has penned several articles for Tennis World magazine.

1960s

Former Florida Attorney General and Secretary of State Jim Smith (B.S. ’62) was recognized as a Great Floridian by Governor Rick Scott and Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning during the 2011 Florida Heritage Awards Ceremony, honoring Floridians who have made contributions to the state in historic preservation, literature, folk heritage, public service, the arts and entertainment. Smith is a former president of the FSU Alumni Association and past chairman of the FSU Board of Trustees.

Thomas M. Woodruff (B.S. ’65), an attorney with Woodruff Injury Law of St. Petersburg, Fla., won a silver medal in the Nature Valley NASTAR National Championships, a snow-skiing competition that took place in March in Winter Park, Colo. This was Woodruff’s second silver medal in three championships.

Jennifer L. Howse (B.A. ’66, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’73), president of the March of Dimes, has received the Stanley and Mavis Graven Award for Leadership in Enhancing the Physical and Developmental Environments for the High-Risk Infant. The award acknowledges the contribution of an individual who has shown outstanding leadership, innovation and creativity in improving infant health.

Clayton Simmons (B.S. ’66), a retired chief judge of Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit, has joined the Orlando, Fla., office of the Florida-based law firm Bryant Miller Olive. He will work in the firm’s state and local government and litigation practice groups.

Dr. Anne Ervin Rowe (B.A. ’67), dean of the Faculties and Deputy Provost, announced her retirement from The Florida State University following a 39-year career at FSU.

Bruce B. Blackwell (B.A. ’68, J.D. ’74) has been selected to receive The Florida Bar Foundation’s 2011 Medal of Honor Award for a lawyer, the Florida legal profession’s highest award. Blackwell, a partner in the law firm of King, Blackwell, Downs & Zehnder, currently serves as a trustee of The Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust and is president of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society.

Kenneth Kobré (B.A. ’68) has been awarded a U.S. patent for his invention of Professor Kobré’s Lightscoop®, which converts the direct light from a DSLR camera’s pop-up flash into a soft bounce light in order to evenly light all subjects in a scene. Kobré is a professor of photojournalism at San Francisco State University.

1970s

Thomas Drage (B.S. ’70), a former county attorney for Orange County, Fla., has joined the Orlando, Fla., office of the Florida-based law firm Bryant Miller Olive. He will work in the firm’s state and local government and litigation practice groups.

Lonnie N. Groot (B.S. ’73, J.D. ’76), an attorney with the Deltona and Lake Mary, Fla., law firm Stenstrom, McIntosh, Colbert, Whigham & Partlow P.A., served as a judge for the “We the People … The Citizens and the Constitution” Mock Congressional Hearings High School State Finals, which took place at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

Domenick R. Lioce (B.S. ’73, M.A. ’78, J.D. ’79), a certified public accountant and Florida board-certified tax lawyer with the West Palm Beach, Fla., law firm Nason, Yeager, Gerson, White & Lioce, has been named chair-elect of The Florida Bar Tax Section. He will assume the chairmanship on July 1, 2011.

Richard Magill (Ph.D. ’74) has been named the chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University.

Dr. Thomas J. Zaydon Jr. (B.S. ’74) has been elected to the board of directors of the Florida Society of Plastic Surgeons.

J. Robert Jones (B.S. ’75), a partner with Bluff Point Associates of Orlando, Fla., won the Miracle Maker Leadership Award for 2011, given by the Expect Miracles Foundation during its 2011 Expect Miracles Awards presentation in recognition of his long-standing leadership in cancer advocacy. Jones currently serves as the chairman of the FSU Foundation’s Investment Committee.

Carolyn Putney (B.A. ’75) has been named chief curator of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Putney has served the museum in various capacities since 1978, most recently as interim deputy director from 2009 to 2010.

Susan Brown Foster (B.S. ’76) published a new textbook titled Experiential Learning in Sport Management: Internships and Beyond through Fitness Information Technology, one of the two largest publishers of sports management textbooks.

Diahann W. Lassus (B.S. ’76), president and co-founder of Lassus Wherley, has been selected as a 2011 “Five Star Wealth Manager” by New Jersey Monthly magazine. Less than seven percent of wealth managers in New Jersey are named to the list.

Jane Thomas Crawford (B.S. ’77) has been named the director of testing and academic success at St. Johns River State College in Palatka, Fla.

Stephen R. Montague (B.M. ’65, M.M. ’67), a composer, performed live electronics for a concert, “Montague/Mead Piano Plus: Evening Concert,” with pianist Philip Mead, at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, England. The concert explored Montague’s music for piano and live electronics.

Jim Smith

Bruce B. Blackwell

Thomas M. Woodruff

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Daniel M. Ashe (B.S. ’79) was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service at the Department of Interior. His appointment is pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Chief of Police Val Demings (B.S. ’79) announced her retirement after 27 years with the Orlando Police Department. Upon her appointment in Dec. 2007, Demings became the first female to serve as Orlando’s police chief. She is married to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings (B.S. ’80).

Alaine Williams (J.D. ’79), a partner and attorney with the law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson of Philadelphia, has been named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for 2011.

Val Demings

Steve Pattison

CLASS NOTES

ALUMNA HAZEL ALEXANDER REACHES MILESTONE BIRTHDAY

Florida State College for Women alumna Hazel Mary Grace Alexander (B.A. ’31) celebrated her 100th birthday on March 9, 2011. After earning her bachelor’s degree in modern languages, Alexander embarked on a 30-year career teaching Spanish, English and journalism at Lake Wales High School, where she was the first inductee into the Teachers Hall of Fame. She has been a very active member of the community throughout her life — most notably having spearheaded the effort to build the Lake Wales Public Library — and was named Pioneer of the Year by the Historic Lakes Wales Society in 2006. Alexander enjoyed a 58-year marriage to the late Hugh B. Alexander. The couple had two sons, Hugh James (Jim) and John Robert. Alexander continues to reside in Lake Wales, Fla. where she enjoys sewing, reading and writing.

1930 at FSCW

2011

1958

Janine C. Edwards (Ph.D. ’79) has been appointed professor and chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences in the FSU College of Medicine.

Steve Pattison (B.S. ’79) has been appointed to the HAVE IT YOUR WAY® Foundation Board of Directors, which governs the charitable arm of the BURGER KING® system. Pattison, who currently serves on the FSU Alumni Association’s National Board of Directors, was also recently awarded Non-Profit Board Leader of the Year at the BankAtlantic Non-Profit Academy Awards for his work as board chair of Achievement & Rehabilitation Centers (ARC) Broward.

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1980s

Dr. M. Dianne Murphy (Ph.D. ’80), director, Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education at Columbia University, has been named to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee. Ten members, including six Football Bowl Subdivision and four Division I or Football Championship Subdivision representatives, comprise the committee, which is responsible for selecting and seeding the 64-team NCAA Tournament field every year. The appointment begins Sept. 1, 2011 and runs through September 2016.

Michelle Berg (B.S. ’81) has been named the first-ever executive vice president for Team Epic, a lifestyle- and sponsorship-marking company. The company created the position for Berg in recognition of her significant contributions to its growth, success and vitality.

Gregory K. Lawrence (B.S. ’81), a shareholder in the real estate department of the Orlando, Fla., law firm Dean Mead, has been named a BTI Client Service All-Star for 2011 in recognition of his superior client service. Lawrence is the only real estate attorney in Florida to be so named.

Kim Kiel Thompson (B.S. ’81, M.A. ’84), a partner in the Atlanta office of the law firm of Fisher & Phillips LLP, has been named chairwoman of its Global Immigration Practice Group.

Paul Williams (B.S. ’85) has been appointed vice president of promotion and marketing for Skyville Records. Williams will oversee the development and execution of all radio promotions and marketing plans for the company.

Ron Burman (B.S. ’88) of Roadrunner Records has been named the Best A&R Executive of

2011 by the National Association of Record Industry Professionals.

Jeryl Matlock Rubel (Ph.D. ’88), an adjunct professor in educational studies at Kaplan University, is one of three faculty (out of 80) to receive the Dean’s Award “in recognition of outstanding service to the College of Arts and Sciences.”

George G. Rasky (J.D. ’89) and Stacey Bigbie Rasky (B.S. ’93) have launched Tallylife, a website and mobile guide to Tallahassee that features local events, restaurants, news, weather, photos, videos and activities as well as a “College Life” page for students. 1990s

Ryan S. Goldberg (B.S. ’93) has been named president of the Southwest Florida

operation of Regions Bank. Goldberg will be responsible for leading all lines of business and driving continued growth in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties.

Ryals McMullian Jr. (B.S. ’93, M.B.A. ’97, J.D. ’99) has been promoted to vice president and associate general counsel for Flowers Foods’ corporate legal

and shareholder-relations staff. He will continue to focus on mergers and acquisitions, and provide advice on securities law.

Steven M. Zielke (M.M. ’93, Ph.D. ’96), the director of choral studies at Oregon State University, has been named president-elect of the Oregon Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. Zielke will serve as president from 2013 to 2015 and past-president from 2015 to 2017.

Hank Fasthoff (B.S. ’94) has joined the law firm of Adams and Reese as special counsel in the firm’s Houston office. Fasthoff has been ranked for five consecutive years as a Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star in the fields of entertainment law and intellectual property litigation. He is also the publisher of EntertainmentLitigation.com, a blog featuring news and analysis of legal issues in the arts and entertainment industries.ALUMNUS CHRONICLES

FSU ALUMNUS OF THE CENTURY IN NEW BOOK

Two years ago, when the FSU Alumni Association used its Centennial Celebration to create a list of the institution’s “100 Most Distinguished Alumni,” decorated journalist Martin Dyckman (B.A. ’57) made the list alongside one of his heroes, two-term Florida Governor Reubin O’Donavan Askew (B.S. ’51), runaway vote-getter of the blue ribbon selection committee who was proclaimed as FSU’s Alumnus of the 20th Century in 1988.

Dyckman, now retired as associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times, has written a book chronicling the era in which Askew cemented his enviable reputation as a man of uncompromising principle and independence. Published by University of Florida Press and available through Amazon.com, Reubin O’D Askew and the Golden Age of Florida Politics is a fast-paced narrative that reads like a novel and has captured the attention of readers inside and outside of the political process.

“If I were asked to recommend just one book about my state that would remind us all of the power of real policy and real leadership, I would recommend this one,” said David Lawrence, Jr., retired publisher of The Miami Herald. Askew was swept into the governor’s office in 1970 as part of a remarkable wave of progressive politics and legislative reform in Florida. Dyckman goes on to reveal how the return of special interests, the rise of partisan politics, unlimited campaign spending, term limits, gerrymandering and more have eroded the achievements of the Golden Age in subsequent decades.

Toby S. Srebnik (B.S. ’94) has been hired as director of social media for the public relations firm of O’Connell & Goldberg of Hollywood, Fla.

Fátima Pérez Fernández (B.A. ’96) has joined Akerman Senterfitt, a government affairs and public policy practice, as public policy adviser in the firm’s Miami and Tallahassee offices.

William S.S. Pendexter (Ph.D. ’96) has been hired as a senior geologist with Dewberry, a leading architectural, engineering, management and consulting services firm, based in Fairfax, Va. Pendexter is working in the firm’s Parsippany, N.J., office.

Jean Bates (B.S. ’97, M.B.A. ’08), owner of Tallahassee’s Lucy & Leo’s Cupcakery, placed second on Food Network’s nationally televised Cupcake Wars.

John A. Jones (B.S. ’97) was named Nationwide Publishing’s Employee of the Year for 2010. This is the fourth time in 10 years that Jones has received the honor from the Deltona, Fla.-based company.

CLASS NOTES

Hank Fasthoff

56 Vires

Michael P. McNeil (M.S. ’97) has been named director of the Alice! Health Promotion Program at Columbia University in New York City and has been appointed as adjunct instructor in health education at Lehman College, City University of New York and Health Services Administration at the School of Professional Studies, City University of New York. In the recent past he was also named a fellow of the American College Health Association.

Mathew A. Thompson (B.S. ’98) has been named a partner with the law firm of Strasburger & Price LLP, Dallas. His practice focuses on real estate, financial services, corporate and securities law in the firm’s Austin, Texas, office.

Will Guzman (M.S. ’99) earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in history from the University of Texas at El Paso in December 2010. His dissertation was titled “Border Physician: The Life of Lawrence A. Nixon, 1883-1966.” Currently, Guzman is a visiting assistant professor in Florida A&M University’s Department of History and African-American Studies.

2000s

Kevin Storr (M.S. ’00, Ph.D. ’01) has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor of physics at Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas.

Melissa L. Kuipers (B.S. ’02) has joined the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck of Denver as an associate in its Government Relations Group.

Daryl R. Levine (B.A. ’02) has been appointed as special assistant to the mayor of the District of Columbia.

David Murphy (M.S. ’02) has been named principal of Stanley Switlik Elementary School in Marathon, Fla.

Jared Perez (B.A. ’02) has joined the law firm Wiand Guerra King of Tampa, Fla., and will focus his practice on general commercial litigation, particularly in financial services and securities matters.

Jay Szczepanski (M.A. ’03, M.A. ’03), a visiting professor in the Flagler College Department of English, has been appointed director of the Flagler College Learning Resource Center.

Matt Austin (B.S. ’04) has been named morning co-anchor at WKMG in Orlando, Fla. He was most recently a weekday morning anchor and reporter at KOKH Fox25 in Oklahoma City.

Thomas Beraldi (B.A. ’04, B.A. ’04) has been appointed as director of institutional research at Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, N.H.

Stephen Gorham (M.S. ’04) has been promoted to vice president of technology/chief information officer at Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, Fla.

John A. Greer (M.A. ’05) has joined the law firm Bass, Berry & Sims PLC of Nashville, Tenn., as an attorney in its Intellectual Property and Technology Practice.

Lauren Tashman (M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’10) has been designated as a certified consultant by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, the international professional organization of sport and exercise psychology. Tashman is a visiting assistant professor in the sport and exercise psychology master’s program at Barry University, Miami Shores, Fla., and has been a performance consultant since 2005.

Martin Balinsky (Ph.D. ’06) began a new position as assistant professor of earth science and geology at Tallahassee Community College.

Holly Hulen Beville (B.S. ’06, M.B.A. ’09) has joined MultiState Associates Inc. as director of marketing. Beville is responsible for overall marketing strategy and branding at the state and local government relations firm.

Nicole Rogers Farris (M.S./Ed.S. ’07), a licensed clinical professional counselor, opened her private practice, Farris Counseling Services LLC in Maryland.

Joshua C. Freeland (B.A. ’08), a Marine first lieutenant, along with his fellow Marines of the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 stationed out of Marine Air Stations Futenma, Okinawa, Japan, recently attached to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. They are carrying out a scheduled six-month deployment in support of international training with allies and aid in humanitarian relief.

Christian Ponder (B.S. ’08, M.B.A. ’10) was selected 12th overall in the 2011 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings. Ponder is the first Seminole quarterback to ever be drafted in the first round.

CLASS NOTES

Holly Hulen Beville

Christian Ponder

DANCE ALUMNA IS FSU’S TOP PROFESSOR

Florida State University alumna and Artist-in-Residence Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (M.F.A. ’79) ‒ acclaimed choreographer and the founding and artistic director of New York dance company Urban Bush Women ‒ has been named Florida State’s 2011-2012 Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor. It is the highest honor bestowed by the FSU faculty on one of its own.

“She is a national treasure,” said FSU College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance Dean Sally McRorie. “We are very lucky to have this exceptional artist, educator and humanitarian as our colleague, friend, devoted teacher and mentor.”

To be named a Lawton Distinguished Professor is “exhilarating,” said Zollar, a Kansas City native for whom Tallahassee has been home for the past 14 years. “It’s a humbling and deeply moving honor to be so recognized by one’s esteemed peers.”

In its 30-year history at Florida State, the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor award has gone to two dancers, including Zollar; the first was her graduate-school professor and mentor Nancy Smith Fichter, who retired from FSU in 1997. In fact, Zollar has had the distinction of serving as the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor in FSU’s School of Dance since 1996.

The esteem with which colleagues and students regard Zollar has also been reflected in her recognition as a 2009-2010 Guggenheim Fellow.

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FSU MUSIC GRAD WINS BIG AT THE MET

FSU graduate Ryan Speedo Green was selected as one of five winners in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Green and his fellow winners were selected from a pool of more than 1,500 young voices from across the United States who participated in this year’s competition.

Green — who goes by his middle name, Speedo — will receive a cash prize of $15,000, but more importantly, will benefit from the tremendous amount of exposure associated with this high-profile contest.

Designed to discover new talent amongst promising young opera singers, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions have been held annually since 1954. Given the reach of the auditions, the number of applicants and the long tradition associated with them, these auditions are considered the most prestigious in North America for singers seeking an operatic career.

“It is always gratifying when a student shows such growth and development during his or her studies at FSU and then goes on to enter the professional world,” says Douglas Fisher, director of opera activities at The Florida State University. “We are very proud of Speedo and everything that he has accomplished, and we expect even bigger and better things for him in the future.”

College of Music Dean Don Gibson echoes Fisher’s sentiments. “To be chosen as a winner in the National Council Auditions presented annually by the Metropolitan Opera is recognition of the highest order for young artist-vocalists. Ryan Speedo Green’s selection as a 2011 winner in these auditions reflects his extraordinary talent as well as his dedication to his art.”

Myron Rolle (B.S. ’08), along with fellow Rhodes Scholar Garrett Johnson (B.S. ’05), has created the Emerging Scholars Project, designed to empower students with the tools they need to compete for the nation’s most sought-after fellowships and scholarships, like the Rhodes. The project’s first stop is in Gainesville on July 30.

Kelli A. Wisniewski (B.S. ’09), a Navy ensign, has received her commission as a naval officer after completing a 13-week training program at Officer Candidate School at the Officer Training Center, Newport, R.I.

Robert J. Jakubik (B.S. ’10) has been appointed to serve as special assistant to the chief policy adviser of Florida Gov. Rick Scott. In addition, Jakubik has been appointed to serve on the Board of Governors of the University Center Club, Tallahassee.

Daniel J. White (B.S. ’10), a Navy seaman, has completed the eight-week Navy basic training program at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill.

To submit items for publication in this section, email fsualum@alumni.fsu.edu with “Class Notes” in the subject line.

Photographs should be print-quality (at least 300 DPI at 4” x 6”). Please note, submission does not guarantee inclusion due to space limitations.

CLASS NOTES

Ryan Speedo Green (M.M. ’10) performs as Don Basilio in Florida State's 2009 production of

Rossini's Barbiere de Seviglia.

Robert J. Jakubik

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Robert J. Jakubik

Fiction

The Provence

Cure for the

Brokenhearted

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In celebration of The Florida State University’s renowned creative writing program, faculty member Julianna Baggott allows us a glimpse of her latest novel, delivered under the pen name Bridget Asher.

Fiction

Here is one way to say it: Grief is a love story told backwards.

odd angles, a collection of strange details – that there were no screens on the windows, that the small interior doors had persnickety knobs that seemed to latch and unlatch of their own will, that along the garden paths surrounding the house, I thought there were white blooms clustered on the tall weeds, but when I leaned in close, I could see they were tiny snails, their white shells imprinted with delicate swirls.

The house and everything in it seemed virtually timeless, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it was time-full – time layered upon time. I remembered the kitchen which housed the dining room table, long and narrow, surrounded by mismatched chairs – each a survivor from a different era. The small, shallow kitchen sink was made of one solid slab of marble, brown and speckled like an egg. It was original to the house, built in the eighteenth century. In the yard, there was a fountain erected during the nineteen

Or maybe that’s not it at all. Maybe I should be more scientific. Love and the loss of that love exist in equal measure. Hasn’t an equation like this been invented by a romantic physicist somewhere?

Or maybe I should put it this way. Imagine a snow globe. Imagine a tiny snow-struck house inside of it. Imagine there’s a woman inside of that tiny house sitting on the edge of her bed, shaking a snow globe, and within that snow globe, there is a tiny snow-struck house with a woman inside of it, and this one is standing in the kitchen, shaking another snow globe and within that snow globe …

Every good love story has another love hiding within it.

My sister and I went to the house in Provence with my mother when we were children. I remember the house the way children remember things, from

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twenties that fluttered with bright orange, bloated koi and was surrounded by wrought-iron lawn chairs and a small table covered in a white, wind-kicked tablecloth. The house – which was about fifteen minutes from Aix-en-Provence, nestled in the shadow of the long ridged back of Mont Saint Victoire – had belonged to my mother since her parents died, when she was in her mid-twenties.

There, my mother fed us stories about the house itself – love stories mostly, improbable ones that I’d always wanted to believe but was suspicious of even as a child. Elysius was older and so had even less capacity for believing fairy tales than I did, but still my mother provided the love stories and I clung to them. After she told us the stories at night, I would retell them to myself. I whispered them into my cupped hands, feeling the warmth of my breath, as if I could hold the stories there and keep them.

Fiction

I could still picture the three of us in one of the upstairs bedrooms, my mother sitting on the edge of one of our beds or moving to the window, where she leaned out into the cool night. Elysius and I would let our hair, damp from a bath, create the impressions of wet halos on our white pillows.

“In the beginning,” my mother would start because the first story marked the birth of the house itself, as if the family didn’t exist before the house was arranged from stone – and she would tell the story of one of our ancestors, a young man who had asked a woman to marry him. He was in love, and it was a great love. But the woman declined. Her family wouldn’t allow it; they didn’t think he was worthy. So the young man built the house, stone by stone all alone, night and day, sleepless for one year. He was fevered by love. He couldn’t stop. He gave her the house as a gift – and she fell so deeply in love with the house and the man that she disobeyed her family and married him. He was weak and sick from having built the house in such a frenzy of love and so she tended to him for their first newlywed year, bringing him back to life with bowls of pistou and bread and wine. They lived to a hundred. The husband died and the wife, heartbroken, followed within a week.

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Permission for publishing this excerpt is granted by Random House.

Julianna Baggott, critically acclaimed, bestselling author who also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode, has published 17 books, including novels for adults, younger readers and collections of poetry. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Best American Poetry, Best Creative Nonfiction, Real Simple and on NPR.org, as well as read on NPR's Talk of the Nation and Here and Now. Her novels have been book pick selections by People Magazine's summer reading, Washington Post book-of-the-week, a Booksense selection, a Boston Herald Book Club selection and a Kirkus Best Books of the Year list. Her novels have been published in over 50 overseas editions. She's a professor in the Creative Writing Program at The Florida State University and the founder of the nonprofit Kids in Need – Books in Deed. Visit her online at juliannabaggott.com.

FictionA portentous story, no? It was a little weighty for two girls to take to heart. But there were more like it ...

One day during our final trip, the three of us were in one of the upstairs bedrooms, folding and sorting clothes. I don’t know who saw it first, but soon the three of us were collected at the window, watching an outdoor wedding on the mountain. The bride was wearing a long white gown and her veil blew around in the breeze. There was a pair of binoculars for bird-watching. My sister grabbed them off the shelf and we took turns looking at the scene.

Finally, my mother said, “Let’s get a closer look.”

And so the three of us ran down the narrow stone stairs, through the kitchen and out the back of the house. The wedding party was fairly high up the mountain so we walked down rows in the vineyard, passing the binoculars back and forth to get a closer look. I remembered adjusting the binoculars each time to fit my small face, and the view through the smeared lens, blurry, surreal, and beautiful. The bride started crying. She cupped her face in her hands, and when she pulled her hands away, she was laughing.

And suddenly my mother, my sister, and I found ourselves in a swarm of butterflies – bath whites, to be exact, white with black spotted markings on their wings. Elysius looked them up in a book at small bookstore in Aix-en-Provence later during our stay. They fluttered around us madly, like a dizzy cloud of white.

Photo by Laura Ciociola

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WELCOME HOME On Nov. 5, 2009, Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler (B.S. '04) was severely wounded during the mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. A little more than a year after that fateful day, thousands of volunteers lent helping hands to the ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's efforts to build a new house for him and his fiancée, Jessica Hansen. Here, the couple reacts to the news that they have been selected by the show – but that’s not all … Zeigler and Hansen were married a few days after receiving the surprise. Moments after their ceremony, the new husband and wife crossed the threshold of their new home for the first time.

Photo by Sgt. Robert Traxel, 3rd BCT PAO, 1st Cav. Div.

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