THE MAGAZINE OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2010 | VOL. 14 NO. 1

everywhere!
ASU scientists
empower
mechanical
minions

Students and teachers
get ready for class
Tapping the green
job market
Enter the ASU alumni
writing contest

It’s Football Time!
Time to Vote for the Coach of the Year and
Score Savings on Your Car Insurance.
You could save hundreds of dollars a year on your car and home insurance. Call
1-888-674-5644 for a free no-obligation rate quote, and find out about the special
group discount you could receive just for being an ASU alum.*
While you’re scoring savings, cast your vote for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year.
More than a million college football fans voted for the football coach they thought best
demonstrated responsibility, integrity and excellence, on and off the field.
Be part of this year’s action by visiting coachoftheyear.com/savings.

home insurance program.
*Discounts and credits are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify. CovBerkeley Street, Boston, MA. In Texas, coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty County Mutual Insurance
er reporting agency and/or motor vehicle report on all drivers listed on your policy may be obtained where
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The official publication of Arizona State University
Volume 14, No. 1
PUBLISHER
Christine K. Wilkinson
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Tracy Scott
MANAGING EDITOR
Liz Massey
ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR
Robert Cao-Ba

T H E

M A G A Z I N E

O F

A R I Z O N A

S T A T E

U N I V E R S I T Y

Vol. 14, No. 1, September 2010

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Karen Windsor-Worrel
ADVERTISING SALES,
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS RELATIONS
Rhonda McClintock
(480) 965-5051
WEBMASTER
Benita Iafrat
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Tim Trumble
Tom Story
ASU Magazine is printed on paper that is certified
to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Standards.

HIGHLIGHTS

D E PA R T M E N T S

18 Robots, Robots

2 President’s Letter

Everywhere

Christine Wilkinson discusses top
stories and upcoming Alumni
Asssociation events.

Our society has grown accustomed
to robots in its midst: for decades
now, they have been used to perform
tasks that are difficult or dangerous
for humans to do. However, ASU
researchers are collaborating on
next-generation robots that will
take things a step farther – they will
position robotics as an essential part
of nearly every human endeavor.

24 Ready for Class
Everyone in a community suffers
when students arrive at school
unprepared for class, or when
teachers are not prepared to meet the
demands of the classroom. ASU is a
leader in teacher/student preparedness and is using its resources to
create a college of education for the
21st Century.

34 Fields of Green
ASU MAGAZINE
PO Box 873702
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(480) 965-2586
alumni@asu.edu
ASU Magazine (USPS 024-438; ISSN 1940-2929) is published quarterly by the
Arizona State University Alumni Association, PO Box 873702, Tempe, AZ
85287-3702, (480) 965-2586, FAX (480) 965-0225. Subscriptions are sent to
all ASU alumni. You may become a friend of the Alumni Association regardless
of university affiliation. Annual dues to become an active member or friend are
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with the written permission and proper attribution by contacting the
ASU Magazine editor. ASU Magazine can be accessed online at
alumni.asu.edu/news/asu-magazine

A growing number of Americans —
and ASU alumni — are working in
the so-called “new green economy,”
a fast-growing sector that carries
with it great hope for economic
growth. Find out what employers
and businesses are investing in
the future by hiring in the
sustainability sector.

4 University News
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
focuses education efforts at ASU; 21
Sun Devil students awarded Fulbright
scholarships; professor studies the
computer science gender gap.

14 Sports
A football preview and a recap of
the spring season for baseball, tennis
and women’s golf.

42 Arts & Culture
ASU Magazine announces its firstever alumni writing contest; also,
new books by alumni, staff and
faculty in Shelf Improvement.

46 Alumni News
Alumni Association sizzles through
summer with Send-Offs, young
alumni gatherings and career mixers.

50 Sun Devil Network
Reports from around the
Sun Devil nation.

54

Class Notes

Alumni news, notes and milestones.

64 Sun Devil Snapshot
Our new back page feature
showcases the very first
Homecoming parade.

ASU MAGAZINE
PRESIDENT’S LETTER

2

ASU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD
AND NATIONAL COUNCIL 20010–2011

3

OFFICERS
CHAIR
Chris Spinella ’83 B.S.

President’s Letter
Over the past three months, I’ve been enjoying
some fiction and non-fiction titles that I set aside
to read over the summer. One of the books was
“Game Change” by John Heilemann and Mark
Halperin. This behind-the-scenes look at the 2008
presidential election reminded me of how much
has changed in the way we learn about candidates
at the national level – with the advent of blogs,
social networks, and mobile phone applications –
and how much the election process remains the same.
In a similar vein, the ASU Alumni Association constantly evaluates new
ways to fulfill our core mission to unite and connect Sun Devil alumni. An
example of this is our expanded social media presence on Twitter, LinkedIn
and Facebook. We don’t just use these new channels to deliver news of our
programs and events, membership offers or contests – we build community
and create an ongoing conversation between our staff and ASU alumni who
are connected to us in this way.
In the spirit of keeping alums connected to their alma mater, in this issue
of the magazine we review how ASU employs cutting-edge strategies to
address long-standing issues. One of our features this issue explores the
topic of student and teacher readiness and the impact this has on
educational quality. ASU is a leader in teacher preparation, and we expect
the university’s reputation as a thought leader in this field to continue to
grow. Our two other features take a look at the burgeoning “green job”
sector, and the strides ASU researchers are making in the field of robotics.
No matter how contemporary our tools may become, the association
always will retain its role as tradition-keeper, and this fall is packed with
familiar activities for ASU alumni. We’re hosting football tailgates before
the away games at Wisconsin, Washington, California and USC, and
planning for an all-day Homecoming Block Party on Oct. 30. Mark your
calendar for all these events now so you and your family can bring your
Sun Devil spirit.

Christine K. Wilkinson, ’66, ’76 Ph. D.
President, ASU Alumni Association
Senior Vice President and Secretary of the University

CHAIR-ELECT
George Diaz ’96 B.A., ’99 M.P.A.
TREASURER
Robert Boschee ’83 B.S., ’85 M.B.A.
PAST CHAIR
Bill Kavan ’92 B.A.
PRESIDENT
Christine Wilkinson ’66 B.A.E., ’76 Ph.D.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS*
Barbara Clark ’84 M.Ed.
Andy Hanshaw ’87 B.S.
Barbara Hoffnagle ’83 M.S.E.
Ivan Johnson ’73 B.A., ’86 M.B.A.
Tara McCollum Plese ’78 B.A., ’84 M.P.A.
Dan Mullen ’66 B.S.
Kathleene Paul ’72 B.S.
Martin Quintana ’87 B.S., ’04 M.B.A.
J. Scott Rhodes ’95 J.D.
Todd Siffren ’91 B.S.
Jeff van Rapphorst ’87 B.S., ’97 M.B.A.

NATIONAL ALUMNI COUNCIL*
Steven Balthazor ’91 B.S.E.
Dave Benner ’02 B.S.
Charlie Broucek ’93 B.S.
Dave Covert ’78 B.S.
Eddie DeVall ’93 B.S.
Christine Devine ’87 B.A.
Kathy Duffy Ybarra ’81 B.A.
Mark Duplissis ’92 B.A., ’97 M.Ed., ’06 Ed.D.
Theresa Esparza ’94 M. Tax.
Dick Foreman ’76 B.A., ’79 M.P.A.
Curtis Frasier ’77 B.A.E.
Matt Gervin ’01 B.S.
Bret Giles ’87 B.S.
Marnie Green ’87 B.S., ’91 M.B.A.
Nick Kieffer ’00 B.A.
Jonell Lucca ’95 B.A.
Vada O’Hara Manager ’83 B.S.
Frank McCune ’92 B.A.
Jeff Olen ’97 B.S.
Anne Sawkiw ’99 B.A.
James Shaughnessy ’72 B.A.E.
Darren Skarecky ’94 B.S.
Joseph Udall ’92 J.D.
Julian Wright ’95 B.A.
*Members of the Board of Directors are also
members of the National Alumni Council.

Show your pride.
™

ASU Alumni Association Banking from Bank of America.
Personal checking with exclusive benefits.

A credit card with rewards.

Open a personal checking account from Bank of America today
and display your Sun Devil pride every day with checks and
a debit card that feature the ASU Alumni logo. Best of all, get
automatic savings when you enroll in Keep the Change® —
where each debit card purchase is rounded up to the next
dollar and the difference is transferred from your checking
to your savings account. Plus, Bank of America will match up
to $250 every year.

Show your Sun Devil pride another way. Apply for an ASU
credit card and support the Alumni Association. Earn
points on everyday purchases and redeem for cash, travel,
merchandise, unique adventures and more. Plus, enroll
your ASU credit card in optional overdraft protection and
enjoy added protection for your ASU checking account.
Earn rewards, enjoy special account features and support
your school with every purchase. All with no annual fee.

To open a checking account or to apply for your ASU credit card,
visit your neighborhood Bank of America or bankofamerica.com/ASU

Standard check order fees apply.
Purchases with rewards or ATM cards are not eligible for matching. Upon enrollment, we will round up your MasterCard® or Visa® Debit Card purchases to the nearest
dollar and transfer the difference from your checking account to your Bank of America savings account. We will match your Keep the Change transfers at 100% for
the first three months after you enroll and, for ASU customers, 5% thereafter. The maximum total match is $250 per year. Matching funds are paid annually after the
anniversary of enrollment on accounts that remain open and enrolled. We will only match Keep the Change transfers on up to five checking accounts per depositor
(including joint depositors) or up to five checking accounts per household, whichever is less. Eligible savings accounts include, but are not limited to, Regular Savings
(or Market Rate Savings in WA and ID) that requires a minimum opening balance of $25 ($1 in WA and ID) and pays a variable Annual Percentage Yield (APY) that was
0.10% as of 07/01/2010. Rates may change after the account is opened. Money Market savings accounts are also eligible. We may cancel or modify the Keep the
Change service or any matching promotions at any time without prior notice. The promotional matching funds will be reported to the IRS on form1099. Fees may reduce
earnings. Patent pending.
KTC 4.10
 Your credit card account must have sufficient funds and be in good standing. Fees may apply. For details, please refer to the Credit Card Agreement.
 For information about the rates, fees and other costs and benefits associated with the use of this Rewards card, or to apply, go to the website listed above, visit a
Bank of America banking center or write to P.O. Box 15020, Wilmington, DE 19850. This credit card program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services, N.A.
Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A., Inc. MasterCard is a registered
trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated, and is used by the issuer pursuant to license. Keep the Change, Bank of America and the Bank of America logo
are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation.
By opening and/or using these products from Bank of America, you’ll be providing valuable financial support to the ASU Alumni Association.
Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. ©2010 Bank of America Corporation
AR43W3P5
AD-06-10-0830

4

NEWS
Center of gravity
University news briefs
Talking it out
Learning leader
Power and light
A+ Scholars
Mapping out the future
Advice and consul
Girls got game
Inspirational innovator
Friends for life

Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Center of gravity Advancing into the next frontier in astrophysics and cosmology depends
on scientists’ ability to detect the presence of a particular type of wave
ASU researcher
in space, a primordial gravitational wave. Much like ripples moving
probes the dark side
across a pond, these waves stretch the fabric of space itself as they
of the universe
pass by. If detected, these weak and elusive waves could provide an
unprecedented view of the earliest moments of the universe. During the
past century, astronomy has been revolutionized by the use of new
methods for observing the universe, but the origin of dark energy and
dark matter continues to elude researchers.
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916. Based on his theory
of general relativity, objects cause the space around them to curve. When large masses move
through space, a disturbance is generated in the form of gravitational waves, but because of
the weakness of gravity, astronomical amounts of matter must be moved around to generate
waves on a scale that might actually be detectable.
In an article appearing in the May 21 issue of Science, Arizona State University theoretical
physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and researchers from the University of Chicago
and Fermi National Laboratory explore the most likely detection method of these waves, with
the examination of cosmic microwave radiation (CMB) standing out as the favored method.
“Primordial Gravitational Waves and Cosmology” was authored by Krauss, a professor in
ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the physics department in the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences; Scott Dodelson, Fermi National Laboratory and University of
Chicago; and Stephan Meyer, University of Chicago. The authors posit two major sources of
gravitational waves: inflation occurring immediately after the Big Bang, and possible phase
transitions at early times. Other present-day sources may include colliding black holes or two
huge stars orbiting each other.
Although these space-time ripples are imperceptible to humans, highly sensitive detectors
and experiments such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, located in
Livingston, La., are being designed to look for such waves. Gravitational radiation from the
early universe can be detected indirectly through its effect on the polarization of the CMB
radiation (relic radiation from the Big Bang which permeates all space).
“The greatest sensitivity to a primordial gravitational wave comes from the distinctive
detailed pattern of polarization in the CMB,” Krauss said.“If gravitational waves produced by
either inflation or phase transitions existed when cosmic microwave background radiation
was created, they would be imprinted on the CMB and be detected as polarization.”
As challenging as it is to detect, the technology to build sufficiently sensitive experiments is
in hand – and well worth the effort, according to Krauss.
“As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, we are poised to enter a new realm of
precision cosmology, one that could provide a dramatic new window on the early universe
and the physical processes that governed its origin and evolution,” Krauss said.

UNIVERSITY NEWS BRIEFS

visionary and courageous political and
corporate leadership to move the U.S.
away from carbon-based energy sources
that pollute the air and oceans and
change our climate towards more ‘homegrown renewables,’ such as wind and
solar power.”
Buizer also said that the country
needed to do more with energy-efficiency
initiatives, noting that existing technologies could help the nation be 50 percent
more efficient than it is today.
For copies of the reports, go to
americasclimatechoices.org.
UNIVERSITY EXPANDS ONLINE
PROGRAMS FOR K-12 TEACHERS

James Buizer

CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTS
UNDERSCORE NEED FOR ACTION

As part of its most comprehensive
study of climate change to date, the U.S.
National Research Council (NRC) issued
three reports emphasizing why the
United States should act now to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and develop a
national strategy to adapt to the
inevitable impacts of climate change.
The reports by the NRC, the operating
arm of the National Academy of Sciences
and National Academy of Engineering,
are part of a congressionally requested
suite of five studies known as America’s
Climate Choices.
Two members of the panels that
released the reports were associated with
ASU: James Buizer, science policy adviser
to ASU President Michael Crow, participated on the expert panel that assessed
adaptation to climate change; and Billie
Turner II, professor in the School of
Geographical Sciences and Urban
Planning and a member of the National
Academy of Sciences, was part of the
group who reported on advancing the
science of climate change.
“Climate change will create winners
and losers, and we need policies that
reflect a recognition of both the threats
and opportunities,” Buizer said.“We need

Arizona State University has expanded
its offerings of affordable online degree
and certification programs for pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers.
Beginning this semester, six programs
will be available entirely online to assist
current and aspiring teachers in reaching
new levels of educational excellence.
Arizona preschool and kindergarten
teachers also will have the opportunity to
fulfill their State of Arizona early childhood
education certification requirement online,
in order to meet the Arizona Department
of Education’s July 2012 deadline.
“We have expanded opportunities for
elementary and secondary teachers with
our online programs,” said Mari Koerner,
dean of ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers
College.“Teachers deserve the same
exceptional learning experiences that
they give their students each day. Our
programs make that opportunity realistic
and affordable for teachers, whatever the
time of day or wherever they call home.”
ASU Online graduate program tuition
will be $355 per credit hour, excluding
fees, for both resident and non-resident
students enrolled in entirely online
degree programs.
Offered through ASU’s Mary Lou
Fulton Teachers College, the following
programs will be available fully online
in the fall 2010 semester:
• Master of Education in Early
Childhood Education, with options
for (Arizona Required) Initial Teacher
Certification or Endorsement

• Master of Education in Special
Education Consultation and
Collaboration: Autism Emphasis
• Master of Education in Educational
Administration: Principal, Grades
PreK-12
• Master of Education in Elementary
Education with a track in Gifted
Education
• Master of Education in Secondary
Education with a track in Gifted
Education
• Graduate Certificate: Online Teaching
for Grades K-12
Enrollment applications and additional
details are available at: asuonline.asu.edu.
TEN OUTSTANDING PROFESSORS
RECEIVE 2010 FACULTY
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Ten outstanding ASU faculty members
have been recognized for cutting-edge
research and creative activities, as well
as excellence in classroom performance.
Nominations for the 2010 Faculty
Achievement Awards are made by deans
and reviewed by panels of Regents’ and
President’s Professors.
The awards are for activities that significantly change their professions in
research, creative activities and undergraduate instruction, placing the achievements
among the highest at the university. This is
the fourth year for the annual awards.
The 10 individuals, representing a
wide range of disciplines, were honored
at a reception May 11 in the Carson
Ballroom of Old Main.
Faculty honored at the event included:
• Best Professional Application of
Research: Jay Blanchard, Division
of Educational Leadership
and Innovation
• Defining Edge Research in
Natural Sciences and Math:
Willem Vermaas, School of Life
Sciences; John Kouvetakis,
chemistry and biochemistry;
and Jose Menendez, physics
• Defining Edge Research in Social
Science: Gary Schwartz, School of
Human Evolution and Social Change

ASU MAGAZINE
UNIVERSITY NEWS

6
7

2010 Faculty Achievement awardees: (Individual photos): Jose Menedez (top), John Kouvetakis (bottom). (Group shot, front row, left
to right): Valerie Stout, T.M. McNally and Karen Gerdes. Back row (left to right): Willem Vermaas, Jay Blanchard, Ronald Rutowski,
Gary Schwartz and Gerardo Chowell-Puente.

• Young Investigator: Gerardo ChowellPuente, School of Human Evolution
and Social Change
• Best Performance or Art Work:
T.M. McNally, English
• Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction:
Karen Gerdes, School of Social Work;
and Valerie Stout, School of Life Sciences
• Excellence in Undergraduate Student
Mentoring: Ronald Rutowski, School
of Life Sciences
Vermaas, Kouvetakis, Menendez,
Schwartz, Chowell-Puente, McNally,
Stout and Rutowski work in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Blanchard
is in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers
College, and Gerdes is in the College
of Public Programs.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY FOR
SELF-ORGANIZED SYSTEMS

Research conducted in a computerized
microworld by scientists at Arizona State
University and Indiana University,
including 2009 Nobel laureate Elinor
Ostrom, show how common-pool
resources – such as fisheries, forests,

water systems or even bandwidth – can
be managed effectively by self-organized
user groups under certain conditions.
The findings were published April 30
in the journal Science.
Marco Janssen, social science modeler
at the School of Human Evolution and
Social Change in ASU’s College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences and the study’s
lead author, said the experiments involve
a timed computer game played simultaneously by college students in a lab. The
students sit in individual cubicles and
have their own avatars in the game. They
go about individually “harvesting” a
resource – in this case, colored dots – in
an experimental environment, along with
the other players. If they harvest them
too fast, the resource runs out and the
game ends. If they manage them sustainably, the dots regenerate, allowing them
to harvest more and earn more points.
To do well requires the participants to
monitor their own behavior, but also to
be mindful of what the others are doing,
Janssen said. In some cases, the players
are allowed a brief opportunity to

communicate via chat rooms to strategize
and make decisions regarding where and
when to harvest resources, or collect
tokens. They also determined whether
or not to impose costly fines for overuse
of resources.
Janssen said the experiment’s findings
illustrated that stronger governance of
common-pool resources does not always
result in better harvesting, which runs
contrary to the classic view of options
regarding how to manage common
resources.
When participants make decisions
without communicating, they overharvest, noted co-author Elinor Ostrom,
founding director of ASU’s Center for the
Study of Institutional Diversity and a
professor of political science in Indiana
University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
When given a chance to communicate,
however, participants improve their joint
outcomes greatly – and the effect is
lasting even when communication is no
longer possible, she said, adding that
being able to use costly fines against each
other did not improve harvest output.

Dijiang Huang

NAVY SUPPORTS ASU-BASED
MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS
RESEARCH

Increasing security, reliability and
mobility are the big targets in the realm
of wireless communication technologies.
ASU Assistant Professor Dijiang Huang’s
promising research in computer and
communications networks – specifically
in the emerging area of secure mobile
cloud computing – has earned him a
grant from the Office of Naval Research
(ONR) Young Investigator Program to
help take aim at those goals.
Huang, who teaches in the School of
Computing, Informatics, and Decision
Systems Engineering, a part of Arizona
State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of
Engineering, is one of 17 researchers (out
of an applicant pool of 200) to win a 2010
Young Investigator grant and the only
one to earn funding in the area of secure
networking and communication.
Huang’s expertise extends beyond
communication and computing to areas
of cryptography, attack analysis, privacy
preservation, and attack-resilient
networking protocol design.
The ONR grant will provide up to
$510,000 over three years to support
Huang’s effort to develop a framework
for advanced mobile wireless computing
and communication systems that will
employ cloud-computing techniques.
Cloud computing is Internet-based
computing that works similarly to
a public utility, providing on-demand
information and software services
directly to computers and mobile devices.
Dijiang will develop such a novel
“mobile cloud” framework, called
MobiCloud, tailored to the needs of
mobile defense operations. His goal is to
develop a new mobile service model that

uses mobile devices as cloud-service
nodes with a range of capabilities
comparable to cell phones, globalposition tracking systems, sensing
and networking technologies.
SKYSONG SUMMIT ADVANCES
INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

Attendees of the inaugural SkySong
Education Innovation Summit left a
symbolic apple on the event’s desk, with
rave reviews for its content, quality and
collaborative environment. The summit,
hosted April 20 and 21 at SkySong, the
Arizona State University Innovation
Center, brought together more than
370 education experts, investors and
entrepreneurs for two days of discussion,
networking and company presentations.
“Attending this summit was like
having a front row seat at the ‘education
tomorrow’ show,” said Lisa Graham
Keegan, former Arizona superintendent
of public instruction, who moderated
one panel discussion and participated in
another. “We saw awesome possibility,
and the crowd felt like a perfect blend of
know-how and ‘why-not?’ An event like
this proves that we could be finally
hatching a breakthrough.”
Panel discussions on topics such as
“Control-Alt Delete: What would you do

ASU President Michael Crow

if you could start over?” and “Global
World, Local Education: Why, in a global
marketplace, is education still primarily
local?” spurred spirited exchanges among
panelists. Keynote presenters included
ASU President Michael Crow, Chegg.com
President/CEO and former COO of Yahoo
Daniel Rosensweig, Edison Schools
founder Chris Whittle, and Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings.
Change was a common theme
throughout the event, noted Daniel
Pianko, founder and managing member
of The Noah Fund, an investor in, and
advisor to, several education businesses.
“This summit pulled together some of
the greatest leaders in innovative education solutions to discuss the issues that
matter most – how to help our system of
education adapt to the changing
landscape of technology, political shifts
and the continued economic pressures on
educational institutions,” said Pianko.

ASU MAGAZINE
UNIVERSITY NEWS

8
9

Carla Fisher (left) is researching communication and coping patterns between women with breast cancer and their young adult
daughters with co-investigators Teri Britt Pipe (center) and Katherine Hunt.

TALKING IT OUT
Research focuses on
mother-daughter communication
around breast cancer

The statistics are alarming: Breast
cancer incidence in women in the United
States has increased from 1 in 20 in 1960
to 1 in 8 today. For women in the United
States, breast cancer death rates are
higher than those for any other cancer
besides lung cancer. And a woman’s risk
of breast cancer nearly doubles if she
has a first-degree relative who has been
diagnosed with the disease. According
to breastcancer.org, the numbers are
starting to come down, though only
slightly, as treatments improve and
awareness increases.
Carla L. Fisher, an assistant professor
in the Division of Social and Behavioral
Sciences in Arizona State University’s
New College of Interdisciplinary Arts
and Sciences, is launching a research
project through the ASU-Mayo Clinic
Partnership for Collaborative Research
(also known as PARCORE) designed to
strengthen the communication and
coping patterns of mothers facing breast
cancer and their young-adult daughters.

The research grant is part of a PARCORE
seed grant program to encourage new
research projects between ASU and
Mayo Clinic collaborators.
Fisher will be working in collaboration
with Teri Britt Pipe, director of nursing
research and innovation and an associate
professor of nursing at the Mayo Clinic
College of Medicine in Phoenix, and
Katherine S. Hunt, an assistant professor
in the Division of Hematology/Oncology
at Mayo.
The new study is an extension of
research Fisher conducted while working
on her doctoral dissertation at
Pennsylvania State University.
“The medical community is recognizing more and more that cancer is not
experienced by the patient alone, but
within her family,” said Fisher. “The
whole family is affected ... as such, the
family copes together.”
In her new research, Fisher and her
collaborators will be looking specifically
at young adult daughters and their
diagnosed mothers and examining how
their interaction affects their ability to cope.
She said that family communication
is tied to our own health and well-being

across our lifespan and is just as
important to our survival as physical
or biological processes.
“Our family interactions really
affect how we adjust to challenging
circumstances and can be instrumental
in our ability to emerge resilient,” Fisher
said.“We know that (cancer) patients
who perceive they have good support
interactions within their family network
also have better psychological, social and
physiological well-being in comparison
to those who don’t.”
To better understand how a mother
and her daughter(s) are affected by
breast cancer diagnosis, the research
team would like to talk with diagnosed
mothers and their young adult (age 18-30)
daughters to learn more about how they
managed difficult discussions related to
coping and adjustment, as well as disease
prevention. The team is looking for
women who have been diagnosed
and received treatment within the last
three years who also have young
adult daughters willing to participate.
For more information, e-mail
MothersandDaughters@asu.edu
or call 602-543-6669.

Beatriz Rendón

LEARNING LEADER
Beatriz Rendón named CEO for
University Public Schools Inc.

Beatriz Rendón, an educational
innovator and accomplished school
administrator, has been appointed
associate vice president of educational
outreach and student services at Arizona
State University. She will serve as chief
executive officer of University Public
Schools Inc. (UPSI), taking charge of a
successful program launched under the
leadership of Eugene Garcia.
UPSI schools provide a learning environment in which students are challenged by
high-quality educational content, featuring
a rigorous curriculum, individual learning

POWER AND LIGHT
LightSpeed Solutions aims to
resolve “Achilles’ heel” of green
energy efforts

In America’s efforts to go green, our
Achilles’ heel is transportation – as cars,
trucks and buses represent 29 percent of
U.S. energy use, according to renewable
energy expert Gary Dirks, director of
LightWorks at ASU.
“When we want to move a car, a truck
or an airplane, there's really only one
way to do it – get the stuff out of the
ground,” Dirks said.“Oil remains a
relatively cheap source of energy that is
so convenient, its use overrides its
considerable drawbacks in terms of air
pollution, environmental concerns and
national security.”
Dirks and his colleagues at LightWorks,
a new ASU initiative designed to pull all
light-inspired energy research under one
strategic framework, are competing for

plans, collaborative teaching teams, technologically rich learning environments and
foreign language education. UPSI currently
operates two charter schools: Polytechnic
Elementary School, located near the ASU
Polytechnic campus, which already has
achieved“Excelling School”status in only its
second year of operations; and University
Public School Phoenix, located on Seventh
Street and Fillmore, which opened in
August 2009 and currently serves more
than 650 students in grades K-8.
Rendón worked as the chief business
officer for the Tucson Unified School
District and served in several executive
capacities for the Chicago Board of
Education and the Chicago Public

grant money from the U.S. Department
of Energy to develop an energy
innovation hub at ASU that will foster
the development of clean, renewable
fuel sources for America’s current
transportation fleet – including solar
liquid fuels. The ASU-led team, working
with colleagues at sister institutions such
as the University of Arizona, Princeton
University,Yale University and the Sandia
National Laboratory, is collaborating
under the name LightSpeed Solutions.
The process by which solar liquid
fuels could be developed is similar to
photosynthesis, in which concentrated
solar energy is used in conjunction with
carbon dioxide and water to create
hydrocarbons. In addition to creating
combustible fuels such as methanol and
ethanol, additional processing can yield
more traditional fuels such as gasoline,
diesel and jet fuel.

Schools. In Chicago, she worked with
then-CEO of the Chicago Public School
system, Arne Duncan, who is now the U.S.
Secretary of Education, and was involved
with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s
education reform effort to launch 100
independently operated schools.
ASU President Michael Crow said,
“Rendón possesses an impressive and
extensive combination of education,
experience and creativity that will enrich
and advance the development of ASU’s
University Public Schools initiative.”
Rendón, who holds a law degree from
Loyola University Chicago, a master’s of
public policy degree from the University
of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from
the University of Arizona, said she was
excited about joining the UPSI team.
“I am thrilled to be a part of Arizona
State University’s transformational
University Public Schools initiative. We
have a unique opportunity to make a
tremendous impact on the students and
families in Arizona. I am excited to be
part of that challenge,” Rendón said.
For more information on UPSI, or to
enroll students at the schools, visit
universitypublicschools.asu.edu.

Advantages of developing these fuels
include a dramatic improvement in the
country’s energy security picture and
carbon footprint, without requiring the
extensive retrofitting of vehicles, refineries
or fuel stations.
“The fuels that result from these
processes will look, feel and perform just
like what we pump into our cars today,"
Dirks said. "They will use existing
refineries to prepare fuel blends and
existing gas stations to deliver the fuel
to today’s cars.”
The DOE Hub, along with several
other ambitious initiatives involving both
the near-term and long-term future of
fuels, specifically looks at processes for
making solar liquid fuels and bringing
them to market in a developmentally
rapid, 15-year time span.
For more information on ASU
LightWorks, visit: asulightworks.com.

ASU MAGAZINE
UNIVERSITY NEWS

10
11

A+ SCHOLARS
Record 21 students win Fulbrights
to study, teach abroad

A record 21 ASU students have won
Fulbright awards to study and teach
abroad next year, in 13 different
countries—and new awards keep coming
in. ASU is a leader in student Fulbrights,
coming in second last year only to
the University of Michigan, among
public colleges.
The Fulbright Program is one of
the most prestigious awards programs
worldwide. The awards, funded by
Congress, were founded to increase
mutual understanding between the
United States and other countries.
Fourteen of ASU’s student Fulbright
winners will teach English in foreign
countries, while the others will tackle
sophisticated research projects, ranging
from solar energy to cancer research.
The following students have designed
research projects and have located
faculty or programs abroad to further
their research:
Christina Clancey Rivera, a National
Hispanic Scholar and a May graduate
in electrical engineering, will go to the
University of Alcala in Spain to study
electrical energy generation systems
known as microgrids.
Jeremy Wendte, a former Peace
Corps volunteer and a senior in
electrical engineering, will do a
comprehensive study of solar
electrification in Bangladesh.
David Walsh, a doctoral candidate
in religious studies with an interest in
indigenous people, will go to Canada
to work with the Dene people of the
Northwest Territories.
Eric Anderson, who just graduated
with degrees in biomedical engineering,
medicinal biochemistry and biological
sciences, will go to the Netherlands to
continue the cancer research he began
three years ago at the Translational
Genomics Research Institute.
Allyn Knox, a May graduate in biology
and French, will pursue a master’s in the
rapidly developing discipline of biogeoscience at the Universities of Lausanne
and Neuchatel in Switzerland.
Dusana Schnell-Vivas, a May graduate
in marketing and Spanish, will enter the
Comexus Binational Business Program
in Mexico.

Tim Desch

Joanna Malukiewicz, a doctoral candidate in biology, will go to Brazil to conduct
a genetic study on hybridization between
common and black-tufted marmosets.
Six of the students will teach English
in South Korea:
Jacob Schmidgall, a May graduate in
political science and film and media
production.
Michelle Hernandez, who just received
her master’s in education.
Olenka Lenets, who immigrated from
Ukraine as a child, just received her
master’s in special education.
Justin Barbaro, a May graduate with
a master’s in elementary education.
Jing Song, who graduated a year ago
in Chinese and business.
Than-Lieu Duong, a May graduate in
economics who has been very active in
the Sustainability House at Barrett, chose
Korea partly for its work in sustainability.
These students also will teach English
in other countries:
Jessica Reyes, a May graduate in global
studies, is headed to Spain.
Annie Pennell, who just received her
master’s in elementary education, will
go to Romania.
Samantha Jensen, a May graduate in
English literature and psychology, will
teach in South Africa.
Jeffrey Bergquist, who received a
master’s in secondary education in May,
is going to Indonesia.
Christina Mesiti, a December graduate
in art history and painting, is bound
for Mexico.
Hayfa Aboukier, who earned her
master’s in elementary education in
May, will teach in Turkey.
Olivia Gutierrez, a May graduate in
English and Italian, also will go to Turkey
to teach.
Brittany Collins, a December graduate
in women and gender studies who also
earned a certificate in Arabic, will teach
in Jordan.

IN GOOD COMPANY
Business school offers program
for high school students

Today’s high school students will
become tomorrow’s business leaders.
To prepare for that reality, the W. P. Carey
School of Business at ASU offered the
inaugural edition of its Fleischer
Scholars Program to help educate some
of Arizona’s best and brightest high
school students.
The Fleischer Scholars Program was
developed to engage traditionally
underrepresented and economically
disadvantaged students during the
summer between their junior and
senior years. The program’s initial
four-day event, held July 12-16, prepared
participants to thrive in both business
school and their careers.
Students met with supervising mentors
in Barrett, the Honors College, at ASU’s
Tempe campus, as well as with current
W. P. Carey School of Business students
and faculty members. They learned
about academic and career opportunities
open to business school graduates, and
were shown the steps needed to get
into business school and receive
financial assistance.
Thirty students were chosen for the
first cohort, and according to Tim Desch,
assistant dean for undergraduate
admissions at the W. P. Carey School of
Business, they were kept very busy
during their four days at ASU.
“We wanted to give these students a
lot of valuable, practical knowledge,”
said Desch.“The curriculum included
everything from local business visits to
resume-writing workshops, lessons on
college study skills, employer
presentations, group projects and tips
for the university application process.
We wanted to take them from nervous
and unsure about college to being
knowledgeable, empowered and
motivated.”
The program is being funded
by scholarships donated by local
entrepreneur Morton Fleischer and his
wife Donna, an ASU graduate.

Foundation’s Biocomplexity in the
Environment Program. Similar
experiments spanning different time
periods and different locations are
also planned.
ADVICE AND CONSUL
Professor takes on role
developing Romania-Arizona ties

Map of modeled cumulative hillslope erosion/deposition (HED) for the Wadi Ziqlab
watershed after 200 years. The map shows HED due to human landuse, after
subtracting ‘natural’ surface change from surface change with shifting cultivation
and grazing. (Photo: The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project/ASU/NSF)

MAPPING OUT THE FUTURE
Geographical models bring new
perspective to archaeology

Computational modeling techniques
provide new and vast opportunities to
the field of archaeology. By using these
techniques, archeologists can develop
alternative computerized scenarios
that can be compared with traditional
archaeological records, enhancing
previous findings of how humans and
the environment interact.
An article published in the April 2010
issue of the journal American Antiquity
by researchers from Arizona State
University and North Carolina State
University describes the use of
computational modeling to study
the long-term effects of varying land
use practices by farmers and herders
on landscapes.
“Using computational modeling is a
new approach in the field of archaeology.
Archaeology is known for learning
about the past, but these methods can
help us predict the future,”said Michael
Barton, one of the article’s co-authors
and co-director of ASU’s Center for
Social Dynamics and Complexity.
The study demonstrates how new
modeling techniques are used to simulate
different land use practices such as
intensive farming, shifting cultivation,
also called swidden or slash-and-burn,
and grazing to determine long-term
effects on landscapes. The research

models land use in the Wadi Ziqlab
drainage of northern Jordan, an area
where ancient Neolithic inhabitants
cultivated wheat, barley, lentils and
chickpeas, herded sheep and goats and
raised domestic pigs 8,000 years ago.
“One of the more interesting findings
from our study was that a combination
of shifting cultivation and grazing results
in more erosion run off, but that run off
actually makes the farmland around tiny
hamlets more fertile,”said Barton, who
is also a professor in ASU’s School of
Human Evolution and Social Change in
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Barton added that as communities
grew, they passed a threshold where
farming practices that once increased
yields began to cause soil loss. Faced
with declining productivity, farmers were
forced to make decisions, either to return
to the small hamlets, choose herding
over farming, or invest more labor in
their fields in the form of terraces,
diversion dams or new forms of cropping.
All of these solutions can be found in
the archaeological record of the ancient
Near East.
“The research shows the importance
of threshold effects when people alter
landscapes for agriculture. Land use
practices that are beneficial in one
context can be very harmful in a different
context,”said Barton.
The study was the first of several
funded by the National Science

ASU Professor Ileana Orlich, director
of the Romanian Studies Program in
the School of International Letters and
Cultures, recently was named an
honorary consul general for Romania
in Arizona. In that capacity, Orlich
will represent Romania’s interest in
the economic, academic, cultural and
political arenas in Arizona. She will
help stimulate and develop relationships
and facilitate economic and commercial
contacts between Arizona and
Romania-based companies.
Orlich, a native of Bucharest who
speaks Romanian, English and French,
has built the university’s Romanian
studies program into one of the largest
of its kind in the United States.
“Professor Orlich is a force of nature.
She sets her sights on a goal and does not
swerve until it has been achieved,”says
Deborah Losse, dean of humanities in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Illeana Orlich

ASU MAGAZINE
UNIVERSITY NEWS

12
13

GIRLS GOT GAME
Professor helps close computer
science gender gap

Why do so few women pursue careers
in computer science? In 2007, only 18.6
percent of computer science bachelor’s
degrees went to women, according to
the National Science Foundation. In the
work force, women make up just 26
percent of computer scientists, compared
to 41 percent of life scientists.
Betty Hayes, an English professor in
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
studies the gender gap in science and
technology fields. She believes she knows
one important reason why computer
science is so skewed toward men.
“One of the most common motivating
experiences cited by boys entering
computer science was playing computer
games,” said Hayes.
Hayes has just completed a book
on her research and experiences,
co-written with James Gee, Mary Lou
Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy
Studies in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers
College. The book,“Women and Gaming:
The Sims and 21st Century Learning,”
debuted earlier this year.
The book includes Hayes’ experiences
working with girls, but also features
interviews with adult women – ranging

INSPIRATIONAL INNOVATOR
Montoya appointed executive
dean at College of Technology
and Innovation

Mitzi Montoya, formerly the assistant
dean of research and Zelnak Professor of
Marketing Innovation at North Carolina
State University, recently became
executive dean of the Arizona State
University College of Technology and
Innovation (CTI). She began her work at
the college on July 1.
Montoya will report to Keith
Hjelmstad, university vice president and
dean of CTI. Her responsibilities will
include faculty growth and development
as well as planning and executing
strategic initiatives.
In addition to being an accomplished
administrator, Montoya is a researcher of
note, as well. She has served as the
principal investigator on a $1.4 million
National Science Foundation grant

from their 20s to their 60s – who became
featured content creators.
“Some had no computing background
at all,” Hayes said.“People who would
never take a formal computer science
or graphic design course became fluent
in graphic design through designing
for the Sims.”
She is exploring the relationship
between in-game experiences and
real-world skills. Girls do play computer
games, but they tend to play different
types of games than boys. When Hayes
studied what kinds of games girls played,
she found that most of them chose what
are known as “casual” games, such as
Solitaire, Tetris and Bejeweled.
Unfortunately, casual games lack
a critical capability that may give boys
a leg up – modding. Modding allows
users to modify or create part of the
game. For example, players can create
new maps or scenarios that others
can use. The process of modding
helps gamers develop advanced
computing skills.
Serious gamers and modders also form
communities that provide informal
learning and a peer network. It’s like the
old boys’ network, only the venue is
games rather than golf courses. So Hayes
set out on a quest. She wanted to find

focused on computational collaboration
in crime scene investigation. The project,
IC-CRIME (Interdisciplinary CyberEnabled Crime Reconstruction through
Innovative Methodology and
Engagement) was launched in response
to a scathing report by the National
Academies of Science to enhance the
reliability and validity of forensic science.
Montoya earned a bachelor’s degree in
general engineering and a doctoral
degree in business administration, both
from Michigan State University.
“Mitzi Montoya has a broad
background in management and
engineering that is ideally suited to the
position of executive dean of the College
of Technology and Innovation,”said ASU
President Michael M. Crow.“She is an
able administrator, a strategic thinker and
an innovator. ”
“I like working at the boundaries,”said
Montoya.“I believe we can develop better
solutions to real problems when we work

Betty Hayes

games that girls liked that also had
modding potential, and then form
gaming groups.
“We wanted to make gaming socially
OK, and give girls the peer network boys
have,” she said.
Over the course of Hayes’ research,
games have opened up more to women.
And products such as the Wii are
radically transforming the demographics
of gameplay by bringing gaming to
people who would never have pursued
traditional computer games. Hayes
suspects that the increase in games
on cell phones and PDAs will change
the gaming landscape as well.
One thing is certain: Hayes will have
plenty to study for years to come.

Mitzi Montoya

across boundaries because real
innovation lies at the intersection of
thought worlds.”

i
n
m
u
l
A

Friends for life

ASU MAGAZINE

14

The ASU Alumni Association welcomes the following new life members, who joined between
March 11 and May 31, 2010.
Ayodeji M. Ajayi ‘09 B.S.W.

Lauren A. Dunning ‘09 B.S.

Ivan D. Johnson ‘73 B.A. ‘86 M.B.A.

Heather L. Parker

Stephen M. Allen

Gregory Edling ‘04 B.A.

Pamela P. Jones ‘94 Ph.D.

Dilyana Pavlova ‘09 M.B.A.

Craig G. Alviggi

Kari L. Edling ‘04 B.S.

Sun H. Jones ‘86 B.S., ‘95 B.S.N., ‘01 M.S.

Anton A. Pestka ‘10 B.S.E.

Elizabeth A. Anderson ‘73 B.A.E.

Rachael A. Eidson

◆Lloyd Wamsley Jr. ‘62 B.A.E.

Michael R. Przybyla ‘01 B.S.

Andrew B. Anguis ‘97 B.A.

Mark D. Eklund ‘81 B.S.

Sean M. Kolve ‘09 B.A.

Marcia H. Regan ‘88 M.A., ‘02 Ph.D.

Susan A. Atwater ‘97 M.A.

Norbert J. Konzal ‘49 B.S., ‘51 M.A.E.

Kegan E. Remington ‘09 B.S.

Gina R. Barone

Karla R. Elling ‘65 B.A., ‘68 M.A.,
‘75 Ph.D.

Lindsay S. Kotas ‘03 B.S.

Steven B. Richards ‘84 B.S.

Janet W. Barr ‘85 B.A.E., ‘91 M.Ed.

Roland J. Elling ‘65 B.ARCH

◆Anthony P. LaMorte ‘98 B.S.D.

Cynthia T. Richards ‘85 B.S.

Steven F. Blake ‘98 B.S.

Kate C. Ernzen ‘08 B.S., ‘08 B.S.

Lingjie Li ‘08 B.S.E.

Maria A. Riggio ‘10 B.A.S.

Adam A. Blake ‘10 B.S.

Theresa M. Esparza ‘94 M.TAX.

Stephanie N. Lieb ‘09 B.A.

Peter A. Rios ‘09 B.S.

Tracy L. Blake

Silvia O. Estrella-Tamsen ‘77 B.A., ‘80 J.D.

◆Eric B. Linder ‘98 B.S.E. ‘03 M.B.A.

Andrea R. Robles ‘10 B.S.

Holly A. Bode ‘84 B.S.

Azar Farahmand

Steven M. Lofton ‘69 B.S.

Donna J. Rogers

Nikki M. Bonnet ‘06 B.S.

Meghan M. Feller ‘09 B.S.

Betty F. Lopez-Mori ‘09 B.I.S.

◆Alison L. Rund ‘10 B.A.

Brian J. Bordeaux ‘09 B.S.

Sandra K. Fernandez

Kathryn N. Lyter ‘09 B.S.

Cameron P. Rutherig

Tina M. Bork ‘10 B.L.S.

David A. Fitzgibbons ‘83 B.S.

Matthew A. Maddix ‘10 B.S.E.

Henri M. Sasmor ‘77 B.S.

Becky Breitwieser ‘10 M.Ed.

Stephanie L. Foster ‘09 M.B.A.

Leslie V. Magnusson ‘10 B.S.

Lee A. Scardina ‘10 B.S.

Matthew L. Brinkmoeller ‘10 B.A.,
‘10 B.A.

Jason F. Franklin ‘99 B.S.

David L. Maher ‘90 B.S.

◆Gustavo E. Schneider ‘09 J.D.

Amy L. Friedl ‘09 B.L.S.

Lara E. Maher ‘90 B.S.

Eric S. Smith ‘10 B.S.

Janet M. Brookes ‘07 B.A.

Cheryl L. Furst ‘77 B.S.W.

Rezwan Manji

Heather E. Smith ‘08 B.S.

Jenna C. Burns

Gary E. Gawelko ‘07 B.S.

Douglas E. Martin Jr. ‘09 B.S., ‘09 B.A.

Michael R. Snyder

Richard E. Burton ‘70 B.S.

Daniel R. Genduso ‘04 B.A., ‘04 B.A.

Jessica M. Maurer ‘10 B.S.

Barbara A. Snyder ‘84 B.A.

Nicholas J. Busick ‘94 B.A.

Paul F. Gentile ‘02 B.A.

Lisa A. McClelland ‘09 M.B.A.

Tara J. Spackeen

Gretchen J. Busick ‘94 B.A.

Emily M. Ghan ‘10 B.S.

Kelsi J. McDonald ‘10 B.S.

Franessa Stalter ‘91 M.S.

Sergio R. Camacho ‘83 B.A.E.

Filippo Di Giovanni ‘04 B.I.S.

Shaun T. McGonigle

Kimberly S. Stearns ‘08 B.S.

Rose F. Cameron ‘60 B.A.E.

Kevin R. Goetsch ‘09 M.B.A.

Gary K. McKay ‘85 B.A.

Jay A. Strehlow ‘10 B.A.

John J. Campbell II

Paul J. Goin ‘87 B.S.

Patrick S. McPherson ‘01 M.S., ‘01 M.B.A.

Mark J. Tamsen ‘74 B.S., ‘75 B.S.

Cathrine L. Cartwright ‘69 B.S.

Lisa A. Gonsiorek ‘10 B.S.

Darren B. Meehan ‘10 B.L.S.

Don R. Tracy ‘72 B.S.

Elizabeth C. Chavous ‘10 B.I.S.

Clarissa M. Green ‘98 B.A.

Marina K. Mercer ‘08 B.S.

Gregory B. Twaites ‘91 M.S., ‘07 Ph.D.

Maria E. Chomina ‘00 B.A., ‘00 B.A.

◆Scott B. Greenberg ‘86 B.S. ‘88 M.B.A.

◆Michael J. Mickelson ‘75 B.S.

Muthukumar Vaithianathan

Ryan D. Christensen ‘09 M.ENG.

Sharon S. Greenen ‘08 B.A.E.

◆Patricia C. Mickelson ‘73 B.A.

Marco Coronado

Stephanie L. Guimera ‘08 B.S.

David R. Middendorf ‘08 B.S.

Jeffrey R. van Raaphorst ‘87 B.S.,
‘97 M.B.A.

Carol L. Court ‘66 B.A.E., ‘71 M.A.E.

Oren W. Hankins ‘10 B.A.

John M. Mitman ‘10 B.S.E.

Christine D. van Raaphorst ‘94 M.Ed.

Thomas J. Coury ‘85 M.Q.S.

Briette S. Hannappel ‘10 B.S.

Valerie N. Montoya ‘08 B.S.D.

Rubi V. Vasquez ‘06 B.A.E.

Nicholas P. Coury ‘10 B.S.

Jay M. Harlan

Orlando Moreno

Silvia A. Vega ‘10 Ph.D.

Elliott S. Cox ‘10 B.A.S.

Todd C. Harry ‘08 M.B.A.

Raul Javier Moreno Jr. ‘90 M.ARCH.

Clifton L. Vere ‘10 B.S.

Richard J. Crews ‘09 B.S.E.

Kent M. Hatfield ‘86 B.S.

Katherine D. Munsch ‘08 B.A.

Kristina L. Waters ‘99 B.A.

Steven T. Curtis ‘09 M.B.A.

Daniel E. Hawkins ‘10 B.I.S.

Nathaniel B. Neal ‘10 B.S.

Ross E. Weisman

Andrea N. Dater

Sarah E. Hawkins ‘10 B.S.

Molly A. Nickel ‘10 B.S.

Leslie A. Whitehead ‘09 B.S.W.

Hidalgo Garcia De La Cruz ‘10 B.S.

Allison L. Helblig

Vytautas V. Norusis

Elizabeth A. Wilcox ‘10 B.A.

Douglas E. De Voe ‘90 M.C.

April T. Hill ‘10 D.N.P.

John W. Nucci ‘88 B.S., ‘89 M.Ed.

Andrew L. Will ‘00 B.S.

Raymond M. Deeny 72 B.A., ‘77 J.D.

Jacquelyn E. Hill ‘08 B.I.S.

Danielle P. Olson ‘09 B.A.

Emily Williams ‘10 B.S.

Jaime H. Diaz ‘09 B.S.E.

Dominic L. Hilsbos ‘10 B.S.

Tristan C. Orozco ‘05 B.A.

William G. Wood ‘91 M.S.

Gordon E. Dill ‘56 B.S.

Barbara M. Hoffnagle ‘83 M.S.E.

Christoff Orr

Pauline Dill

Thomas M. Hoffnagle Jr. ‘79 M.B.A.

William S. Otwell ‘73 B.ARCH.

John J. Doran ‘02 B.S.E.

Laura M. Holmstrom ‘90 B.A.

Stephen W. Paap ‘96 B.S.

Zachary T. Dorn ‘10 B.S.

Daryl A. Horton ‘08 B.S.E.

Allison V. Paap ‘00 B.S.

Andrew E. Drennon ‘01 M.B.A.

Philbert Huskon ‘08 B.S.E.

Craig M. Paprocki ‘03 M.B.A., ‘03 M.TAX.

Matthew L. Drew ‘10 B.A.

Janet T. Johnson ‘73 B.A.E., ‘94 M.A.,
‘96 Ph.D.

Danielle N. Paprocki ‘93 M.TAX.

Kayle M. Drucker ‘08 B.S.D.

◆ = indicates a member who has joined
at the Gold Devil Life level. A Gold Devil
Life membership, costs $650/individual,
$800/couple, or $150 to upgrade from
an existing life membership.

Krystal R. Paquette ‘10 B.S.

Show your Sun Devil pride for life. Become a life member or upgrade to the Gold Devil life level at alumni.asu.edu
or by calling 1-800-ALUMNUS.

14

NEWS
Ready To Rumble
Long Drive
Intelligent Choices
Home Run Season
Net Gain

Ready to rumble
Off-season changes empower Sun Devils football
As head coach Dennis Erickson enters his fourth season at Arizona State University,
a variety of changes have occurred during this off-season, creating a high level of
excitement for the upcoming football season.
Members of the powerhouse
2010 Sun Devil football team:
(left to right) Thomas Weber,
Gerald Munns, Brandon
Magee, Vontaze Burfict and
Shelly Lyons.

Led by linebacker and All-America candidate
Vontaze Burfict, cornerback Omar Bolden and
defensive tackle Lawrence Guy, ASU boasts one
of the nation’s premier defenses this season after
fielding the PAC-10’s top unit last year. Budding
stars and solid veterans such as defensive end
James Brooks, defensive tackle Saia Falahola,
safeties Clint Floyd and Keelan Johnson and
linebackers Shelly Lyons and Brandon Magee
also help make the Sun Devil defense one of the
most dominant groups for 2010. With incredible
athleticism, talent and depth and virtually every
defensive position, the Sun Devils should place
tremendous pressure on the offense of every
ASU opponent this year.
A key offensive modification this year is the
hiring of offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, a
veteran assistant known for developing quarterbacks. Under Mazzone, the Sun Devils are
expected to utilize a quick-paced passing game
with a rotation of multiple receivers.
The competition for the position of ASU
starting quarterback that began this spring likely
will carry over into the fall, with Brock Osweiler,
Samson Szakacsy and Steven Threet vying for
the right to start. Strong and speedy sophomore

Cameron Marshall leads the running backs
group, while a stacked lineup of wide receivers
includes returning lettermen Gerell Robinson,
T.J. Simpson and Kerry Taylor as well as
newcomer Aaron Pflugrad, who redshirted last
season after transferring from Oregon.
Christopher Coyle brings versatile athleticism as
a tight end while Trevor Kohl packs a punch in
his blocking duties at that same position. As a
result of all this, the Sun Devils are expected to
showcase the deepest offensive line the program
has had in several seasons.
In the kicking game, ASU can rely on kicker
Thomas Weber, a former All-American and Lou
Groza Award winner as the nation’s top kicker,
who has returned to full health after missing
time due to injury in 2009. They also can feel
confident about the performance of punter
Trevor Hankins, who emerged as one of the
country’s top players at the position last year.
Thanks to a sensational defense, a steady
kicking game and upgraded offense, ASU heads
into the regular season ready to take on conference leaders – and win.
By Joe Healey ’06 B.I.S., a freelance writer for Intercollegiate
Athletics.

LONG DRIVE
Despite illness woes, women’s golf
perseveres at NCAA championships

Jaclyn Sweeney (lower left) and Carlota Ciganda (lower right) represent
hope for a great 2010-11 season; Juliana Murcia (top) received kudos for
her academic performance.

Arizona State’s women’s golf program appears to be on
solid footing after a fourth-place finish at the NCAA
Tournament in May and a second-place individual finish
by freshman Jennifer Johnson.
The Sun Devils, who won the title in 2009, finished
behind Purdue, USC and Alabama.
“Any time you can walk away from the tournament
with a trophy, you’ve done a good job,” said ASU coach
Melissa Luellen.
The Sun Devils were ranked No. 1 in the country
for most of the season, but encountered an unforeseen
obstacle in the PAC-10 tournament when Johnson and
Giulia Molinaro came down with a virus and the team
had to drop out. Despite this disappointment,
Carlota Ciganda managed to win her second straight
individual PAC-10 title, the first time that feat has
been accomplished.
“That was bitterly disappointing. It was more like the
PAC-9 championship,” Luellen said.“It was a tough one
to recover from, but we did pretty well.’’
Luellen was encouraged by the finish of Johnson at
the NCAA Tournament before she became ill. She will
return next season, along with Ciganda, Molinaro and
Jaclyn Sweeney.
“She (Johnson) played great. She really grew as a
player,” Luellen said.“She was a lot more aggressive as
the season went along and that allowed her to play with
more confidence.”
Senior Juliana Murcia departed the team after
receiving the Edith Cummings Munson Award, which
goes to the All-American golfer with the highest gradepoint average over the past two seasons. She also won
ASU’s Kajikawa Award, which goes to the school’s top
female student-athlete.
By Don Ketchum, a freelance sports writer in Phoenix.

INTELLIGENT CHOICES
ASU boosts Academic Progress Rate for student-athletes to No. 2 in The PAC-10
The NCAA announced its annual Academic Progress
Rates (APR) over the summer and Arizona State University’s
average APR score of 974 helped it achieve a No. 2 ranking in
the PAC-10 Conference, behind Stanford.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic
success each semester by tracking the academic progress of
each student-athlete. The rating system awards points to
student-athletes who meet academic eligibility standards
(such as satisfactory progress, GPA and percentage of
degree) and who remain with the institution (retention).
Ten of ASU’s 21 varsity sports finished in the top three in
the PAC-10 Conference, while 14 of the 21 finished in the top
five in the league. All 12 women’s sports at ASU finished
with scores above 970.
The men’s basketball team posted a score of 972, which is
No. 2 in the conference, behind Washington. The Sun Devil

baseball team ranks No. 3 in the PAC-10 with a score of 966.
“ASU’s APR scores represent the finest overall numbers
we have had since the APR rating was instituted by the
NCAA in 2003-04,” says Vice President for University
Athletics Lisa Love.“This is a result of excellent work by our
Office of Student-Athlete Development, led by Jean Boyd,
and support from our faculty and coaching staffs.”
”The release of the Academic Progress Rate data and the
elevation of performance ASU has experienced over the past
four years are remarkable illustrations of the power of
collaboration,” said Boyd, an associate athletic director.
”Coaches, academic coaches, university staff and studentathletes have worked together to raise APR scores to the
upper tier of the Pacific-10 Conference.”

ASU MAGAZINE
SPORTS

16
17

ASU Baseball’s successful first year under Coach Tim Esmay was
given a boost by (clockwise from top) Jake Borup, Seth Blair and
Zach MacPhee.

HOME RUN SEASON
Baseball’s “transition” year turns out to be a winner
If there were difficulties in the transition from Pat
Murphy to Tim Esmay as Arizona State’s head baseball
coach, it certainly didn’t show on the field in 2010.
The Arizona State Sun Devils wrapped up the 2010
regular season by clinching the PAC-10 Championship
with an 8-6 victory over Stanford. The win gave ASU the
series win in Palo Alto for the first time since 1997. The
team ended the regular season 47-8, 20-7 in PAC-10 play,
and ASU went on to be named as a host site for the
NCAA Regionals.
ASU won their Regional, their Super Regional, and were
the number-one seeded team nationally going in to the
College World Series tournament. But baseball fortunes can
change overnight, and the team was eliminated just two
games into the tournament by losing to South Carolina.
Still, it was an amazing run for a team that changed
coaches during its off season.
“You couldn’t ask for a better group of guys,” said Esmay,
who took over the program on Nov. 20.“They just took
things game by game.”

A former assistant coach for the ASU squad, Esmay said
he had “a good sense for who this group was. We expected
to have a good club.”
The Sun Devils racked up 25 straight victories before
losing a game. They received balanced, timely hitting and
key pitching efforts from their three main starters, righthanders Seth Blair, Jake Borup and Merrill Kelly.
“We lost Mike Leake (to the major leagues) and Josh
Spence (to an elbow injury that kept him out all season),
but these three guys really stepped it up,” Esmay said.
On offense, perhaps the most pleasant surprise was the
development of sophomore second baseman Zach
MacPhee as a switch-hitter. MacPhee, who usually hit
second in the batting order, was among the PAC-10 batting
leaders most of the season and hit near .400.
“He had one of those special years. What he did was
borderline miraculous,” Esmay said.
By Don Ketchum

The play of Micaela Hein (left) and Michelle Brycki (right) led to an improved year for the women’s tennis team.

NET GAIN
Women’s tennis sees improvement, aspires to excellence
The women’s tennis team compiled a 14-6 record for
Arizona State coach Sheila McInerney in 2010, an improvement of two wins over the previous season. But the team still
has plenty of work to do.
“Overall, we felt good about the season,” McInerney said.
“But you usually measure your program by whether you get
to the Sweet 16 in the (NCAA) tournament. We need to go
out there and get better, get stronger. The PAC-10 is one of
the strongest conferences for tennis, and so everybody is
trying to do the same thing.”
The 23rd-ranked Sun Devils fell to PAC-10 foe UCLA in the
second round of the national tournament.
Junior Micaela Hein, ASU’s No. 1 player, received an atlarge bid to the NCAA singles championships.
Hein began the season as the No. 3 individual, but rose to
the top with hard work and consistent play, according to

McInerney. Hein was a second-team All-PAC-10 selection
and junior Kelcy McKenna was listed as honorable mention.
“Micaela did a great job for us,’’ said McInerney, who has
a career record of 387-244.
ASU will lose two seniors, Nadia Abdala and Amanda
Martin, but Hein, McKenna and sophomore Michelle Brycki
will be back next season. Brycki lost only one match during
the regular season.
In one especially bright side note, the tennis team was
recognized, along with ASU’s volleyball squad, by the NCAA
for scoring Academic Progress rate numbers that are in the
top 10 percent nationally. The tennis team had a perfect score
of 1,000 in each year of the measurement.
By Don Ketchum

Illustration by Gary Krejca

everywhere

ASU faculty propel robotics research
into new dimensions
By Christopher Vaughan

O

ur society has grown accustomed to robots in its midst: for decades now, they have
been used to assemble cars, check the welds on underground pipes,
investigate and defuse bombs, and perform many other tasks that are difficult
or dangerous for humans to do. Still, robots are not anything like the super-intelligent
humanoids that science fiction writers of the 1950s thought we would have by now.
For the most part, today’s robots are capable of performing only very limited jobs, working
under the close supervision of a human being.
ASU researchers in fields ranging from engineering and physics to medicine and biology are
developing next-generation robotic devices with far more intelligence and autonomy. If they
succeed in their quest, robotics seems poised to become an essential part of nearly
every human endeavor.
Srikanth Saripalli, assistant professor in the School of Earth
and Space Exploration, points out that despite the impressive
capabilities of unmanned vehicles like predator aircraft or
the underwater robots that have been used in the
attempt to halt the flow of oil from the Deepwater
Horizon rig off the Gulf Coast, these craft are still
controlled by humans.
“Unmanned vehicles are not really
autonomous,” Saripalli says. “There is a pilot
somewhere, making them operate.”
Saripalli’s research focuses on figuring
out how to cut the electronic umbilical
cords that connect humans to these
sorts of robots. To do so, he and

Srikanth Saripalli
Stephen Pratt

fellow researchers need to solve two daunting problems:
autonomous vehicles need to be able to know where they are, and
they need to be able to quickly figure out what they need to do
based on that information.
Resolving the first problem, known as simultaneous localization
and mapping, or SLAM, is more challenging than it might seem.
SLAM can be thought of a chicken-and-egg problem: to know the
position of the robot, it needs to know what’s around it, and to
know what’s around it, a robot needs to know its own position.
“The biggest problem is that vision is a really rich sense, and
while humans do a lot of the processing automatically, computers
really don’t know how to incorporate all that data into something
meaningful,” Saripalli says.
In many cases, GPS signals are available to help, but these are
not available everywhere. Saripalli and colleagues are working to
understand how to combine data from disparate sources, such as
video cameras and inertial guidance systems, to create positional
awareness. Ultimately, a solution to these problems could lead to
helicopters that land themselves on the decks of rolling ships,
underwater vehicles that are let loose to map the sea floor, and
robotic probes that autonomously explore planets and their moons.
Many robotics applications are more terrestrial and personal.
ASU scientists Thomas Sugar and Veronica Santos are

Christopher Vaughan is a freelance science writer
based in Menlo Park, Calif.

Thomas Sugar Veronica Santos Stephen Helms Tillery

independently working on robotic solutions for prosthetic devices that replace missing body parts.
Sugar, an associate professor in the College of Technology and Innovation, has created a mechanical
ankle that uses artificial intelligence to store and release energy in the joint, making walking more
comfortable and efficient for those who wear the prosthetic device.
“We interpret the motion (of the ankle) using a computer algorithm to determine how to pull on the
spring, which acts as our artificial Achilles tendon,” Sugar says. The algorithm on board the artificial
ankle makes that decision 1,000 times a second to allow the most efficient walking motion.
Santos, an assistant professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, has been at work creating
an artificial hand possessing a sense of touch. Putting intelligent sensors in the robotic hand can make
it much more able to grasp delicate objects without breaking them or move with objects without
dropping them. It also more closely parallels what actually goes on in the human nervous system.
“When people think of intelligence they tend to think of the brain, but there are a lot of levels of
intelligence,” Santos says. “If you are at a party and holding a bottle, and someone hits the bottle, there
is an immediate reaction from your fingertips that you don’t even think about. Neuroscience studies
suggest that these early responses are spinally mediated.”
Santos is also working with Stephen Helms Tillery, an assistant professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools
of Engineering, on ways to integrate signals from sensors on an artificial hand with a person’s central
nervous system. “If you could stimulate the nervous system to produce a conscious sensation of tactile
feedback … you could have an artificial hand and feel what you are touching,” she says.
Stephen Pratt is another researcher who is looking to the natural world to make robots more
intelligent and autonomous. An assistant professor of biology in the School of Life Sciences, Pratt is
working with the U.S. Department of Defense and associates at the University of Pennsylvania and
Georgia Tech to design robots and control them using factors similar to those at play in animal social
networks. Pratt’s team looks at how social animals like ants, bees or wolves solve problems and
attempts to develop computer algorithms that let robots do the same.
“One thing robots don’t do well is respond to unpredictable or changing conditions,” Pratt says.
“Ants are good at recruiting groups of two to 20 and working cooperatively to move large
objects over rough terrain.” Through the motions of the object they are moving,
individual ants are able to tell if they have to stop pulling and start pushing or
simply let go, he explains. If the ants come across a barrier, they are able as a
group to work out a way to go over or around it. “Part of what engineers
would like to do is find out why this system is so robust.”
Pratt’s work could lead to the creation of teams of small robots that
work together in harsh environments such as in space, undersea or on the
battlefield. The attraction of teams of robots is that they are much more
resilient than single machines. With many smaller, cheaper robots, it
doesn’t matter if some fail, because the others are programmed to take up
the slack – much like the team of ants that adapt when one ant loses hold.
Another advantage, Pratt points out, is that it is easy to scale up. When
ants want to move a larger object, they
recruit more team members. If the
size of a job grows, there is not
need to build a new and
bigger robot, just add more
little robots.
Like Pratt’s ants, researchers
at ASU are acting independently but working together to
move robotics forward.

ASU transforming both
tea che r preparation
and st ude nt r eadines s
B y

B e t s y

L o e f f

For all the disagreement about how to implement
educational reform in America, there is little argument
about the central assumption of that debate: our country’s
approach to delivering learning needs an overhaul. Those
who enter the work world without a college degree can
expect to earn 33 percent less than those holding a
bachelor’s degree. Educational deficiencies affect
everyone in a given community, because low levels of
educational achievement are correlated with many
problems, from higher rates of unemployment to
increased health care costs over a lifetime.

Only about 70 percent of American students graduate from high school, a figure that has
remained largely unchanged since the 1970s and holds as true in Arizona as anywhere else.
Students who do graduate often lack vital skills, and that affects their employability. With
all this on the line, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU is remaking itself in order to
fulfill what Dean Mari Koerner calls the college’s central mission: transforming education from
pre-kindergarten through graduate school. Koerner, her faculty colleagues and her staff are
harnessing new technologies, forging alliances with other ASU schools and colleges, and crafting
partnerships with local school districts, policymakers and think tanks to improve educational
outcomes and dramatically shift how learning happens in a classroom setting.
The dean’s goal is “creating the college of education for the 21st century,” and she’s tapping
resources from across the university, not to mention the community, to get the job done.

Funding excellence
Arizona’s budget crisis has gouged state funding for education at all levels. But Koerner and
her team are moving forward with their transformative work, thanks to boosts from several key
grants her college has received.
One major funding source is an $18.9 million investment made by entrepreneur and
philanthropist T. Denny Sanford to fund the Sanford Educational Project. This project will allow
the teachers college to collaborate with Teach For America (TFA), a non-profit organization that
has recruited and trained more than 24,000 top-performing college graduates to become highly
effective teachers in underserved areas.
A crucial part of the TFA program is its Summer Institute, an intense, five-week training
program that combines instruction on teaching theory with hand-on classroom experience
to get TFA corps members, most of whom are not education majors, ready to lead their own
classrooms. ASU’s teachers college is partners with the TFA program and looking at providing
a similar offering. “We’ll take the best from their program and incorporate it into our own,”
Koerner says.
TFA also measures student performance to track the effectiveness of the teachers it trains. As
a presidential initiative and with a grant award to design a system which tracks the performance
of her college’s graduates, Koerner’s team will be able to follow their teacher graduates through
their teacher preparation programs and into their careers to see how long they stay in teaching
and measure their impact. Called the Teacher Research and Evaluation Project , it will provide
valuable information over time about the effectiveness of the college’s programs as it relates to
the effectiveness of their teachers. Asserting that performance should be measured by other
factors beyond test scores, Koerner says, “A prepared teacher has a measurable impact on
students.”

Off the treadmill, onto the path
More than 6,000 ASU students attend the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, which was
created from a consolidation of the university’s existing education programs in May, and about
4,000 of them are engaged in teacher preparation courses. Any education major destined for
classroom teaching eventually will come face-to-face with one of the profession’s biggest
challenges: student readiness.
According to David Garcia, an associate professor of education who tracks student-preparation
rates, part of the decline in student readiness in recent years is due to what is known as the

“recession effect,” which is caused by increased enrollments in college programs during
economic downturns because jobs are scarce. Many underprepared college students might have
been able to find adequate employment in rosier times and ignored higher education as an option.
For those who enter college without the background to handle the coursework, Garcia says
many will wind up on an educational treadmill.
“We know that students who are not ready for college are less likely to finish,” Garcia
explains. “They take developmental classes and often repeat them.” As a case in point, he
references 2009 figures from Maricopa Community Colleges showing that only 53 percent of
students in developmental math courses made passing grades. The rest had to retake the classes.
Two significant factors play a role in the creation of this situation, Garcia continues. One is the
disconnect between what schools expect students to do related to college preparation and what
students actually do. Another issue stems from disagreement about whether student readiness
is properly classified as an input measure for universities to evaluate, or an output measure
for high schools to determine. Many educators think it should be considered a bit of both.
That’s why the Center for the Future of Arizona, an independent public-policy research
organization located in Phoenix, has developed an initiative to link high school requirements
more strongly with higher education expectations. Known as Pathways to Postsecondary
Education, the program involves collaborations among ASU experts, local school
administrators, as well as community college officials, and it aims to make sure high school
graduates have both skills and the will to continue with school.
The need for the road between high school and college to be free of obstacles has never been
more urgent, according to Sybil Francis, executive director of the center and leader of the
Pathways project.
“Less than 2 percent of new high-growth jobs don’t require education beyond high school,”
Francis said. “For many years, a high school diploma was a respectable degree that could take
a person down many paths. But, that’s not the case anymore. High schools need to be the
starting point to education, not the endpoint.”
Francis added that there must be more interaction between secondary and postsecondary
educators to ensure that students who want to progress are ready to do so.
“You’d be amazed at how little communication there is between sectors,” she said. She pointed
out that, until a couple years ago, most Arizona high schools only required two years of math for
graduation, while universities required four years of math for admittance: “Right from the start,
we were getting students off track.”

Teaching the teachers
Students aren’t the only ones headed down a path of different and more rigorous study.
According to Koerner, her newly reconfigured college will dramatically change the way it equips

teachers to teach. She said effective teacher preparation programs integrate pedagogy – the art of
teaching – with the content that the teacher will eventually teach, such as math, science or English.
“We’re reducing the amount of pedagogy courses in the undergraduate programs by 25 percent
and replacing (those courses) with content-based ones,” she explains. The remaining hours of
pedagogy will be “more intense,” she adds. Meanwhile, the amount of time student-teachers will
spend delivering instruction in school environments will double.
For some of the college’s students, time spent immersed in classroom settings already is well
above average. Associate Dean Scott Ridley runs the district-based Professional Development
School (PDS), a program that partners with school districts around the state to offer teachingschool students an intensive curriculum from ASU mixed with classroom experience. Currently,
some 250 ASU students participate in the PDS, but Ridley expects the number to grow to as
many as 500. Last year, PDS received a $33.8 million federal grant to expand across its reach
to include 15 member school districts across metropolitan Phoenix and the state of Arizona,
spanning rural American Indian communities and the Tucson area.
“A lot of curriculum assumes that if you know the concepts of teaching, you’ll be an effective
teacher,” he says. “(But) it’s not just what you know in your head that counts. Teaching requires that
you deliver what you know and create relationships with your students in a motivational context.”
Learning to do that takes hand-on experience. But, according to Ridley, traditional education
programs often have people other than college professors managing the in-classroom practicums,
so there is no way to know if theory gets put into practice. By contrast, Ridley’s PDS program
monitors student teachers closely. In fact, he arms his student teachers with video cameras, and
part of their curriculum requires them to tape themselves in front of their own students so that
their teaching can be critiqued by ASU peers.
PDS also has a “grow your own” component that allows people in rural parts of the state to
acquire teaching credentials without ever attending classes in the Valley of the Sun. As Ridley
explains, people in outlying areas who might want to teach may have family obligations or other
conditions that prevent them from leaving home to attend the university. “So the program goes
to them,” he says. Each community has an ASU coordinator who works with student-teachers to
offer face-to-face instruction; effective remote learning venues, such as teleconferenced classes, are
also built into the program. The program turns out teachers who feel at home in front of a class,
and who also understand the most effective ways to help youngsters master challenging content.
“You get so much more in-classroom experience than you would in a traditional program,”
says PDS graduate Rebecca Maestas, who did her student teaching at Copper Trails Elementary
in Avondale before accepting a position at Desert Spirit Elementary in Glendale after graduation.
She credits the program’s immediate feedback – plus highly effective mentor teachers – with
giving her what she needed from a condensed course of study.

New lesson plans
In the PDS program, student-teachers partner with ASU peers, teaching mentors, site coordinators and school administrators to acquire the skills and knowledge they need. James Gee, Mary
Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, sees this model, which emphasizes
teamwork, as a crucial step to promoting a truly 21st century learning environment.
“Modern kids learn differently than Baby Boomers, and they certainly learn in ways that are
different from what professors choose,” he says. “Professors learn through texts, through reading
alone. Modern kids learn through activity, problem solving and collaboration.”
The Internet is a large part of the shift, he notes.

“University classrooms are built on the model that information is rare, and faculty members spend decades acquiring it so
that they can pass it on to students,” Gee adds. “But, today,
information is not rare. You can find information on the
Internet in a second. What is rare is being able to use information, apply it to problem solving and use good
judgment about its accuracy.”
One new learning model Gee envisions mirrors the
online knowledge communities that have cropped up
around subject matter. At these sites, newcomers
learn from experts, and the digital forum propagates
excellence. This mentoring approach could benefit
those who enter school with less readiness for it,
he explains.
“Digital media, collaboration and problem solving
are good ways to remedy the problems of people
who come into classrooms with less experience,”
Gee continues. “They get more time on task,
motivation and help” to bring them up to a
mastery level.
ASU already is constructing teacher-training
coursework that takes advantage of these new
ways of learning. For instance, Nobel laureate
Lee Hartwell, ASU’s Virginia G. Piper Chair of
Personalized Medicine, will be teaching classes
on the scientific method in the education college
so that soon-to-be teachers can cascade this
learning down to the students they’ll touch
in their communities.
Such tools for educating teachers-to-be and
the students are all part of a goal summed
up by Ridley: “If we can impact success
in school districts, if we can produce
excellent teachers who boost
student achievement, then
we’re in the right place as
a college of education.”

Betsy Loeff is a freelance writer
based in Denver.

Math-Science Honors program offers a bridge
for willing-and-ready students
What happens high schoolers are more than ready for college, but have little help to make their
college dreams come true? ASU’s Math-Science Honors Program, which is supported and funded by
the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University, offers a bridge to
higher education for bright but underprivileged students.
“We are a summer residential program for kids who are first-generation college
bound,” explains MSHP co-coordinator Cynthia Romero, who runs the program
along with Rebeca Ronstadt-Contreras. Up to 500 students apply for the 100
spots available. Those selected get an all-expenses summer of
actual ASU math classes. Along with math skills, the
program gives the students instruction on
applying for financial aid, finding scholarships,
resume writing and more.
The approach changes lives, Romero said.
She recalls one student who had already
taken pre-calculus, the most advanced math
class his rural high school offered, by the
end of his sophomore year. He utilized the
honors program to be ready to enter college
with the same math background as his
engineering-school peers. Another student
changed his post-high school plans from
enlisting in the Marines to attending ASU’s
engineering program after participating
in the honors program.
Romero estimates that 98 percent
of the students served by the
program go to college, and 60 percent
study engineering. That’s no small
matter considering that, according to
National Science Foundation data, 63
percent of doctorate degrees in
engineering and 36 percent of science
degrees awarded in the United States
in 2006 went to foreign-born students.

By Betsy Loeff
Math-Science Honors Program co-coordinators
Cynthia Romero (left) and Rebeca Ronstadt-Contreras.

Sustainability’s
Timonie
Hood ‘92 J.D.
When Timonie Hood ‘92 J.D. began her career as
an environmental activist in the mid-1980s, curbside
recycling was still a new concept and the term
“green building” referred to a building that was,
literally, green. Hood says our society has come a
long way since then.
Hood is one of a growing number of Americans — and
ASU alumni — working in the so-called “new green economy,”
a fast-growing sector that carries with it great hope for
economic growth. While traditional jobs grew by only 3.7
percent nationwide between 1998 and 2007, clean energy and
conservation jobs grew at a national rate of 9.1 percent,
according to a 2009 Pew Charitable Trusts report. Growing
financial support for green initiatives has come from both the
private and public sectors — one huge boost came from nearly
$85 billion slated for energy- and transportation-related

intersection with the
economy opens doors
for new environmentally
minded professionals
By Amy Roach Partridge

Amy Lively,
internship
coordinator for
the School of
Sustainability
Sander van
der Leeuw,
dean of ASU’s
School of
Sustainability

programs as part of last year’s federal stimulus bill.
All these factors would seem to indicate that the
green economy is poised to expand significantly.
“The green movement is not a fad. There has been
a major shift in the way we think about industry and
the way we think about our society,” says Sander van
der Leeuw, dean of ASU’s School of Sustainability,
the nation’s first school of sustainability.
What makes a job or a company “green” is still the
source of much debate, and gauging the scope, size,
and impact of the green economy is challenging. For
its federally funded programs, the U.S. Department
of Labor defines green jobs as those “involved in
economic activities that help protect or restore the
environment or conserve natural resources.” But that
still leaves plenty of gray areas. Is a company that
uses eco-friendly packaging counted as green?
Can a firm that donates a percentage of profits to
environmental or social organizations say it is
fostering sustainability?
Because of growing public interest in environmentally conscious business practices, companies have

The

green movement is not a fad.
Sander van der Leeuw

There has been a major
shift in the way we think
about industry and the way
we think about our society.

rushed to declare themselves green, and a
“greenwashing” effect has begun to emerge. Amy
Lively, internship coordinator for the School of
Sustainability, said that some of her school’s students
don’t even like to use “green” as shorthand to
describe an environmentally conscious business.
“Many of our students cringe at the overuse of the
word ‘green’—they see it as a marketing term that
the public is getting tired of hearing about,” explains
Lively. “They are embracing ‘sustainability’ instead,
as a broad concept that is about implementing
solutions to environmental and economic problems.”
Dan O’Neill ‘79 B.S., director for entrepreneurship
and research initiatives at ASU SkySong as part of
the university’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise
Development, said that the term “green” also just
doesn’t go far enough in describing the shift in
mindset that has occurred.
“Sustainability is not just about being green, it is
about taking a systemic view to find balance between
the economy, the environment, and society,” said
O’Neill, who is also a Ph.D. student in the School of

Sustainability. “A green economy means that you
have found a way to address environmental issues
by incorporating them into the economic system.”

Growing Interest,
Gaining Traction
Regardless of how you define or measure it, the
idea of a green economy is attracting growing interest
from students and companies alike. ASU’s School of
Sustainability now offers bachelor’s, master’s and
doctoral degrees, while business, engineering,
and law students can earn their degrees with a
concentration in sustainability. Though only in its
third academic year, the school has graduated more
than 80 students and had approximately 600 students
enrolled during the 2009-10 academic year.
The School’s transdisciplinary approach is helping
to make it a leader in sustainability education.
“Our idea is to harness as much of the university
as we can — scientists and social scientists,
humanities and arts people, business scholars —

Dan O’Neill ‘79
B.S., director for
entrepreneurship
and research
initiatives at
ASU SkySong

Scott Perkofski,
program
manager for
the Edson
Student
Entrepreneur
Initiative

to think about, explore, and promote sustainability,”
says van der Leeuw, who also directs ASU’s School
of Human Evolution and Social Change.
By encouraging students to think about how
sustainability is interwoven with the economy and
everyday life, the program prepares them to find
real-world solutions to environmental, economic,
and social challenges, he adds. And companies are
chomping at the bit for employees with knowledge
of sustainability issues.
“There is a real demand in the business world
for people who have done substantive work on
sustainability. A number of major companies now
employ high-level managers to oversee sustainability
efforts,” he said.
“Students often ask, ‘What can I do with this
degree?’” Lively adds. “I respond by asking them,
‘What do you want to do with this degree?’ Do you
want to work for a hospital? Own your own
business? Work for the government, or in finance,
or retail?’ Our program helps them figure out how to
take a sustainable approach to any of those options.”

Because this

green movement
is so hot
right now, we are seeing
a lot of green ventures.
Scott Perkofski
There is a lot of exciting
free-thinking about
the industry.

Students in the internship program Lively oversees
have netted a rich range of experiences, which
include calculating the carbon footprint of a hospital,
designing an eco-friendly golf bag, and conducting
an energy audit. And the school’s impressive, albeit
short, list of alumni includes an assistant director of
sustainability at a university, a recycling programs
manager, and a solar photovoltaic analyst.

Jobs With a “Green Collar”
As the number of sustainability graduates grows,
so too will the long and varied list of sustainabilitydriven careers, says Hood, who reports growing
interest in an area known as “climaterials,” or
the connection between climate change and the
production of goods and materials.
“New research shows that more than one-third
of greenhouse gas emissions are associated with
the production of ‘stuff,’” she explains.
“Corporations are now looking to measure and assess
manufacturing processes across their products’ entire
lifecycles so they can gauge — and hopefully reduce

— the carbon footprints associated with
those products.”
Green building will be another big engine for
domestic job creation, Hood asserts, adding that
while new construction has been the primary focus
of green builders to date, a shift is occurring now to
make existing commercial and residential buildings
more efficient and eco-friendly.
“The industry needs people who can look at
groups of buildings in a system—the vast cookiecutter suburbs, for example—and determine the best
retrofits for those types of structures,” she explains.

Green Academics
and Entrepreneurs
Academia will be another source of jobs for grads
with sustainability knowledge, as universities across
the country seek to develop and expand sustainability education, van der Leeuw notes. One School
of Sustainability student who confirms that notion is
Vairavan Subramanian ‘07 M.S.E., who is seeking
a Ph.D. focused on product sustainability.

Vairavan
Subramanian
‘07 M.S.E.
Gary Dirks,
LightWorks
director

“There is a lot of research to be done on
sustainability and I feel very certain that academic
institutions will be looking for people with my
background and education. Also, people in the
business world need the expertise this kind of
research can provide,” says Subramanian, whose own
skill at combining research and business earned him
a 2007 grant from ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur
Initiative. His proposed venture, Eco Imitation,
looked at ways to create a biodegradable drinking
straw made from food waste products.
Subramanian is far from alone at ASU in his desire
to parlay sustainable ideas into viable businesses.
The Edson Initiative, which provides funding, training,
and office space for student entrepreneurs, acts as a
launching pad for students like Subramanian, whose
green ideas are sprouting up all over the desert.
“Because this green movement is so hot right now,
we are seeing a lot of green ventures,” says Scott
Perkofski, program manager for Edson. “And
because sustainability ventures are so new, there is
a lot of exciting free-thinking about the industry.”

LightWorks is

creating third-generation
solar
panels using
nanotechnology
Gary Dirks
employing cyanobacteria
to create the basis of
renewable liquid
transportation fuels …
and producing biodiesel
and jet fuel from algae.
In addition to the Edson entrepreneurs, a growing
number of the companies associated with the ASU
Scottsdale Innovation Center, known as ASU
SkySong, have a green focus. “We have quite a few
sustainable ventures including solar, biofuel, and
construction product companies,” says O’Neill.

Here Comes the Sun
Not surprisingly, a burgeoning community of solar
entrepreneurs is also taking root in the Valley of the
Sun, which enjoys more than 300 sunny days a year.
American Solar, the largest installer of photovoltaic
systems in Arizona, is a SkySong resident company,
and China’s largest solar manufacturer, Suntech
Power Holdings, recently announced that it will base
its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Arizona, O’Neill
notes. Some 50 other companies in the solar and
renewable energy industry have made a home in the
Phoenix metro area.
ASU is helping to boost this solar and renewable
energy boom through LightWorks, an initiative that

pulls together the university’s varied light-inspired
research under one strategic framework.
“LightWorks embraces promising research that is
creating third-generation solar panels using
nanotechnology, employing cyanobacteria to create
the basis of renewable liquid transportation fuels …
and producing biodiesel and jet fuel from algae,”
explains Gary Dirks, LightWorks director.
As the university focuses on seeding education,
innovation, and business opportunities in an industry
still in its infancy, forward-thinking students, alumni
and faculty are playing a vital role in shaping an
emerging sector of the national economy. And it’s
possible they just may enjoy themselves doing it.
“Future job seekers thinking about what to spend
their lives working on have the opportunity to find a
career that can really make a difference,” says Hood.
“Implementing changes that impact communities is
the fun part about having a green job.”
Amy Roach Partridge is a freelance business writer based
in Thornwood, N.Y.

42

&CULTURE
Write on
Shelf improvement

ASU Magazine hosts first-ever
alumni writing contest
By Liz Massey
Sharpen your pens, fire up your laptops, tap excitedly on your iPads – do whatever you
need to do to prepare yourself for ASU Magazine’s inaugural alumni writing contest.
The contest, which closes Nov. 1, will provide two lucky winners (one each in the fiction
and nonfiction categories) with the chance to see their work published in the March 2011
issue of the magazine. For those who limit their writing to tweets and Facebook status
updates, there is a “Briefly Speaking” category, which will seek the best writing that can
be done in less than 140 characters. Ten of the best Briefly Speaking entries also will
be published in the March 2011 issue.
The contest is open to all graduates of ASU. Contestants are encouraged
to submit entries as Word documents (.doc or .rtf files) by e-mailing them to
ASUMagazineWritingContest@asu.edu. The winners will be selected by our judges, who
are all ASU faculty members and/or Sun Devil alumni. In addition to being published in
ASU Magazine, winners of the fiction and nonfiction categories will also receive a prize
package filled with ASU goodies.
Detailed contest rules can be found online at the Alumni Association Web site,
alumni.asu.edu.

Meet the judges
CONTEST RULES AT
A GLANCE

Fiction
Peter Turchi
Peter Turchi is director of the Piper Center for Creative
Writing at Arizona State University. He is the author of a
novel,“The Girls Next Door”; a collection of stories,
“Magician”; and “The Pirate Prince,” as well as several nonfiction books. He has received numerous awards for his
writing, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

CONTEST CATEGORIES
Fiction

Submit an original, unpublished
work of 1,000 words or less. All
genres considered. One submission
per contestant, please.
Nonfiction

Jewell Parker Rhodes
Jewell Parker Rhodes, Artistic Director for Piper Global
Engagement at ASU, is the author of six novels and a
memoir. Her literary awards include: Yaddo Creative Writing
Fellowship, the American Book Award, the National
Endowment of the Arts Award in Fiction, and two Arizona
Book Awards. She has been a featured speaker at the Runnymeade International
Literary Festival (University of London-Royal Holloway), Santa Barbara Writers
Conference, Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference, and Warwick University,
among others.

Nonfiction

Submit an original, unpublished
work of 1,000 words or less. All
genres considered. One submission
per contestant, please.
Briefly Speaking

A written work of 140 characters or
less, in the manner of a Twitter
tweet or a social media status
update. Limit of five entries per
contestant, please.
ELIGIBILITY

Bill Konigsberg ’05 M.F.A.
Bill Konigsberg is an award-winning journalist who has
written for television, newspapers, wire services, and the
Internet. As a sports writer and editor for The Associated
Press from 2005-08. He has also worked for ESPN.com as
an editor and won a GLAAD Media Award in 2001. In
addition to his career as a journalist, Konigsberg is an accomplished novelist.
His first novel,“Out of the Pocket,” a young-adult title, was published in 2008.
Paul Morris ’75 B.A.
Paul Morris, the director of the Master of Liberal Studies
program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, holds
an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher
College. Morris has taught creative writing at ASU for more
than 18 years. He is a published travel writer with a focus
on culinary topics. He has also served as the literature director with the Arizona
Commission on the Arts and worked for many years as a creative director,
copywriter, speechwriter, Web writer, public relations writer, editor of corporate
communications, and technical writer.

Briefly Speaking
Dan Gillmor
Dan Gillmor is an internationally recognized leader in new
media who is the founding director of the Knight Center at
ASU for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at ASU, as well as
the Kauffman Professor of Digital Media Entrepreneurship
at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass
Communication. A longtime Silicon Valley-based journalist, Gillmor wrote a
popular business technology column for the San Jose Mercury News for many
years. In 2004, he published “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People,
for the People,” the leading book on citizen journalism.

The contest is open to all
graduates of Arizona State
University and its predecessor
institutions, with the exception of
Alumni Association staff and
relatives of contest judges.
CONTEST DEADLINES

The writing contest will begin
accepting entries on Sept. 1, 2010
and will close at 11:59 p.m. (Arizona
time) Nov. 1, 2010.
HOW TO ENTER

E-mail your entry as a Word
document (.doc or .rtf file) to
ASUMagazineWritingContest@asu.
edu. For a complete list of official
contest rules, please visit
alumni.asu.edu.

SHELF IMPROVEMENT
BOOKS AND MEDIA PRODUCED BY ALUMNI, STAFF AND FACULTY

Breeding Bio Insecurity:
How U.S. Biodefense Is
Exporting Fear, Globalizing
Risk, and Making Us All
Less Secure
By Lynn C. Klotz and Edward J. Sylvester,
the University of Chicago Press.

Coming on the heels of the 9/11 terror
attacks, the deadly anthrax letters sent to
American media and political outlets
fueled the United States’ ramp-up of its
biodefense efforts. Billions of dollars have
been spent this decade on biodefense
research, which has been conducted
under highly secretive conditions and
with little oversight. Klotz, a senior
science fellow with the Center for Arms
Control and Non-Proliferation, and
Sylvester, a respected science journalist
and a professor in the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication at ASU, make the case
that this current state of affairs is making
America more vulnerable to bioterrorism
incidents and accidents, not less. The
book uses easy-to-grasp explanations to
help readers understand alternatives to
the current approach, as well as the
benefits of pursuing a biosecurity
strategy grounded in conclusions drawn
from public health research.

Talent Management:
Strategies for Success from
Six Leading Companies
Edited by Larry Israelite ’79 M.A.E., ’83 Ph.D.,
ASTD Press.

Talent management is no longer just
the domain of human resources, nor is it
reserved for grooming those who will
step into the managerial and executive
ranks, argues Israelite, who is vice
president and manager of human
resource development at Liberty Mutual
Group. It is the total of everything a
company does to help its employees
achieve individual and organizational
goals and objectives. Israelite has
brought together nine authors to discuss
the talent management strategies of
high-profile businesses such as
McDonald’s, Avon, and Cisco. That would
be accomplishment enough, but the book
also provides perspectives on research in
the field and software systems that make
the talent management function easier.

New Deal Art in Arizona
By Betsy Fahlman,
University of Arizona Press.
Part of the government response to the
Great Depression was to form a plethora
of support agencies as part of a “New
Deal,” and artists, writers and
photographers were among the
beneficiaries of this tremendous
undertaking. Fahlman, a professor of art
history at ASU, has done a masterful job
of documenting the many New Deal
agencies that operated in Arizona
between 1933 and 1945, and discussing
the meaning and impact of the art that
was created as a result. Work by
photographers such as Dorothea Lange
and Russell Lee is catalogued, as are
murals on the ASU campus created by
painters Joseph Morgan Henninger and
John Porter Leeper. In addition to being a
thorough introduction to art created
within Arizona’s borders during the
period, the illustrations document the
diversity of fortune experienced in that
era by the state’s residents.

Live On Stage!

By Jeffrey P. Shepherd ’02 Ph.D.,
University of Arizona Press.

Most American citizens are by now aware of
the cultural war waged on Native Americans
during the expansion of the United States. The
Hualapai tribe, whose lands border the Grand
Canyon and other sites in northwestern
Arizona, has experienced its share of violence,
forced assimilation and land reduction.
However, this book, written by a non-Native
scholar, recasts the story of the tribe in an
empowering light, documenting the many
ways the tribe resisted Anglo domination and
maintained its cultural vitality in the face of
great odds. The book was researched and
written with the cooperation and approval of
the Hualapai Tribal Council, further ensuring
the volume provides a fresh take on a
historical period that has often been seen only
through the eyes of white Americans.

NETworks presents

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We Are an Indian Nation:
A History of the Hualapai People

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46

NEWS
Ready for acton

Ready for action
Sun Devils fight the summer doldrums
with Alumni Association events
Time can seem to slow down during the summertime, but the Alumni
Association was in fast-forward mode this year, as it hosted events from
coast to coast that nurtured the 300,000-plus strong Sun Devil nation.
Here are highlights from selected events that took place between April
and August 2010.
U DEVILS

The Alumni Association continued its tradition
during April of celebrating the contributions of
university faculty and staff who are also members
of the association. The appreciation month
schedule included favorite events such as an
outdoor picnic with carnival-style games and high
tea at the University Club, as well as a new online
“Amazing Race” trivia game conducted via
Facebook. More than 230 members of U Devils
shared in the fun.
SENIOR YEAR EXPERIENCE: GRAD BLAST

ASU’s outgoing senior class said goodbye to
undergraduate life and hello to the ASU Alumni
Association on April 22 at the annual Grad Blast
event. Nearly 300 seniors enjoyed free food, prizes,
fun and music on the Old Main Lawn and learned
about programs and services offered by the
Alumni Association and its business partners.
MAROON & GOLD
PROFESSIONALS/WOMEN
IN BUSINESS

The Alumni Association’s popular business
mixers continued to connect Sun Devils and
stimulate the local economy. The monthly Maroon
& Golf Professionals mixers continued their
momentum over the summer, hosting more than
250 professionals from a wide array of industries.
On May 25, nearly 60 of ASU’s successful female
alums gathered at La Bocca on Mill Avenue at a
mixer hosted by the Women in Business group to
enjoy great food and wine and learn from each
other’s business savvy.

The ASU Alumni Association hosted
dozens of events this spring and summer,
including (clockwise from opposite page,
top) the U Devils Fun-A-Fair carnival; the
Women in Business “Live to Give” panel
discussion breakfast; the Arizona State
Young Alumni’s Dinner with a Dozen Devils
event at Four Peaks Brewing Company;
mixers such as the quarterly Women in
Business gatherings; and the Senior Year
Experience’s “Grad Blast.”

WOMEN IN BUSINESS:
LIVE TO GIVE

Women in Business partnered with
az magazine to host nearly 300 women
at June 22’s Live to Give event. The
meeting, which was held at the Sheraton
in downtown Phoenix, featured a panel
discussion of the value of community involvement that highlighted the contributions of
three successful and philanthropically minded women active in the Valley who are Sun
Devil alumnae or ardent ASU supporters: Barbara Barrett ’72 B.S., ’75 M.P.A.; Linda Hunt;
and Luz Sarmina ’76 M.S.W. The event was led off by a nonprofit showcase featuring
Phoenix area charities.
ARIZONA STATE YOUNG ALUMNI

The Alumni Association’s newest program group has come a long way in its
first year of existence!
In April, more than 60 ASYA volunteers participated in the Pat’s Run in Tempe. It was an
amazing showing and everyone had a great time!
ASYA celebrated the accomplishments of the class of 2010 by hosting its inaugural Sun
Devil Dash, an innovative pub-crawl event that utilized the Valley’s light rail system to move
participants from place to place. Revelers answered trivia questions and enjoyed the pokerthemed event, which offered prizes at the final stop for the winners.
The young alums also enjoyed culinary gatherings courtesy of the“Dinner with A Dozen
Devils”series at Brio on April 22, The Vig – Uptown on June 17 and at House of Tricks in
Tempe on Aug. 12.
The ASYA group battled the fearsome summer heat on June 5 by hosting its second
annual pool party at the Clarendon Hotel in central Phoenix. Alumni made a splash in the
upscale pool and neutralized the triple-digit temperatures.
On July 24, the young alums visited Chase Field for a day at the ballpark. ASYA members
cheered the Arizona Diamondbacks as they took on the San Francisco Giants and satisfied
their ballpark hunger by sitting in the stadium’s All-You-Can-Eat Seats.

ASU alumni chapters hosted nearly 30 Sun
Devil Send-Offs this summer, in locations
that included (from top) Las Vegas, Northern
California, and Austin. (Lower right) Sparky
and the Sun Devil Generations crew were out
in force at the grand re-opening of the
Tempe History Museum.

SUMMER SEND-OFFS

Incoming Sun Devils were welcomed to the
ASU family in style at 30 Send-Offs, which
were held at locations ranging from New
England to Los Angeles. More than 300 soonto-be freshmen were treated to a taste of Sun
Devil spirit and the opportunity to start
making new friends! More than 150 alumni
participated in the welcoming events, sharing
their college experiences with students and
answering the questions of new ASU parents.
SUN DEVIL GENERATIONS

Sparky had a very busy and exciting
summer, thanks to the Sun Devil Generations’ Sparky’s
Summer Break promotion. Children of alums submitted
photos of their Sparky doll tagging along on all their summer
activities. Sparky got to go to the beach, ride on a roller
coaster and even go to summer camp! Sparky rewarded
a young Devil with a prize for his favorite summer break
based on the photos submitted.
Families involved in the Generations program had several
opportunities to get together for Sun Devil fun during the
hot summer, including a movie day at Old Main and the
chance to attend a week at the Deer Valley Rock Art Center
Camp together.
Many Sun Devil Generations families are currently
counting down the days until Sept. 25, the date of the annual
Generations Carnival Celebration at the Memorial Union on
the ASU Tempe campus.

2
Recruit new members,
enjoy luxurious perks!
July 1–October 31, 2010
The Arizona Grand Resort

Hotel Indigo Scottsdale

Help us recruit your family and friends to join the ASU Alumni
Association and you could earn exciting rewards for yourself,
including a getaway to your choice of luxurious hotels:
The Arizona Grand, Tempe Mission Palms, Xona Resort Scottsdale
and Hotel Indigo Scottsdale.
Tell your family and friends about membership in the ASU Alumni
Association, then give them a membership form to join or direct
them online to alumni.asu.edu/join.
For every new membership that names you as the referrer, you earn
one point. Two points qualifies you for a prize!

POINTS

Tempe Mission Palms

Xona Resort Scottsdale

PRIZE

2

Choice of Sparky puppet OR Sparky squeak doll

3

Gift certificate to Yogurtini*

4

Choice of ASU license plate frame OR executive padfolio

6

A haircut and style at Mood Swings Salon*

8

Restaurant dining certificate from Monti’s, Rula Bula OR Four Peaks*

12

1-night hotel stay at The Arizona Grand Resort*

15

2-night hotel stay at Hotel Indigo Scottsdale, Xona Resort
Scottsdale OR the Tempe Mission Palms*

* limited supply, offered on first-come, first-serve basis. For non-Arizona members, a gift card may be substituted.

Get more details and download forms at alumni.asu.edu/devil2devil.

alumni.asu.edu

50

NETWORK
Strenghting the Tribe
Strenghting the Tribe
Strenghting the Tribe
Strenghting the Tribe
Strenghting the Tribe

Reports
from
around the
Sun Devil
nation
AUSTIN

BLACK ALUMNI

Our chapter had its annual
spring golf tournament in April.
Six teams competed at the event,
which was held at Grey Rock Golf
Club. Golfers enjoyed a barbecue
dinner after the competition and
the night concluded with a raffle
drawing that raised $225 for our
scholarship fund! We also hosted
a“shadow run”in conjunction with
Pat’s Run in Tempe on April 17.
Nearly two dozen runners and
walkers competed. Everyone had
a great time, and the race even
included a photo finish!
At press time, our chapter was
looking forward to its new signature event for summer, the Sun
Devil Dinner Cruise. We enjoyed
dinner and an evening boat ride
on Lady Bird Lake and caught a
view of the downtown skyline.
For more information about
our activities, e-mail us at
austin.sundevils@gmail.com.
You can find us on Facebook
(by searching for “Austin Sun
Devils”) or follow us on Twitter
(@AustinSunDevils).

Our chapter had two major
successes this spring. The first
one came on April 13, when
chapter members read to
homeless children as part of
the UMOM project. UMOM
focuses on helping families
to get on their feet.
Then, on April 30, we
partnered with the ASU
Undergraduate Black Business
Student Association (BBSA) and
raised $500 at the organization’s
first speed dating social!
This funding will serve as a
scholarship for BBSA and allow
our chapter to start an emergency
fund for college students in need.
Thanks to our supporters for
making both projects so
successful! Please visit us on
Facebook to check out pictures
from our events; you can
search for us using the name
“Black Sundevils.”
CHICAGO

Sun Devils in Chicagoland
have had a great summer. Our
chapter was part of a PAC-10
Happy Hour in June, and we

The Black Alumni chapter members
participated in a “speed dating”
social to benefit black business
students (top) and in a service
project to assist the UMOM
organization (bottom).

enjoyed golf outings throughout
the season, including one June 26
at the Indian Lakes course in
Bloomingdale. We also had a
great time at the White SoxDetroit Tigers baseball game
on August 14.
We’re kicking off ASU football
season this month with gamewatching parties at the Cubby

Fourteen chapters participated in “shadow
runs” held in conjunction with Pat’s Run on
April 17, including (clockwise starting on
opposite page) Los Angeles, Colorado,
Chicago, Austin and Greater Philadelphia.

Bear. Don’t forget to buy tickets for
our bus trip to the ASU-Wisconsin
game on Sept. 18!
Check out our chapter’s Web site for
information on all upcoming events:
www.asuchicago.org.
COLORADO

Our chapter’s had a great year so far.
Local participation in our ASU CARES
and Pat’s Run “shadow run” events was
excellent, and we plan to repeat them
in 2011.
This fall, we’ll be watching Sun Devil
football at the Blake Street Tavern in
Denver. Join your Sun Devil family as
we cheer on ASU!
We’d like to hear from alums
living in Colorado about activities
you’d like to see scheduled, as well
as sponsorship recommendations
for our chapter scholarship. Please
e-mail cambodave@asualumni.org.
INDIANAPOLIS

Our group had a Sun Devil night out
Aug. 13 when we took in an Indianapolis
Indians game. This is a new signature
event for us, and we were pleased to see
how many alums came out to enjoy
a night out under the stars.

We are gearing up for the ASU
football season by planning several
game-watching parties around town.
We also want to organize a group to
travel to Wisconsin for the big Sept. 18
game in Madison. For information about
our upcoming events, please find us on
Facebook by searching for “Arizona State
U Alumni ~ Indianapolis” or contact
Chrissy Vasquez at asusugah@gmail.com
or 602-369-6631.
LOS ANGELES

Thank you to all the alumni and
friends who supported our Pat’s Run
“shadow run” at the Rose Bowl in April
and all the maroon-and-gold-wearing
fans at the ASU vs. UCLA baseball
series. We’ve more recently enjoyed
some summer happy hours around
LA, and we continue to ramp up our
Entertainment Devils (Alumni in
Entertainment) group for alumni
networking. This group also will provide
mentoring and internship opportunities
for ASU students studying film and
theater. On Aug. 21 we took our annual
trip to Dodger Stadium, which included
a meet-and-greet with former Sun Devil
baseball athletes playing with the
Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.

With fall right around the corner,
we’re gearing up for football season –
and that means game-watching parties
in Hollywood, the Valley and the South
Bay. We will continue our Pennies for
Points scholarship fundraising program,
which awards funds to local LA area
students attending ASU. We raised
$2,000 in 2009 and want to grow that
amount substantially this season.
For more information on our chapter,
please visit www.lasundevils.com or email Eddie DeVall at devall@aol.com.
GREATER NEW YORK

New York area alums recently enjoyed
spending some time together at our
Ocho de Mayo dinner and wishing the
next generation of Sun Devils well at
our annual Sun Devil Sendoff gathering.
This fall, we look forward to football
game watching parties and PAC-10 flag
football in Central Park along with other
activities. If you don’t receive our
chapter’s weekly chapter e-newsletter,
e-mail ny_sundevils@thesundevils.com
to be added to the distribution list.

ASU hockey game
watching in Chicago.
NorCal chapter members at their
Wine and Dine event.

Old Pueblo (Tucson)
Alumni game watching event.

Western Pennsylvania chapter.

ASU vs. UCLA baseball game watching in
Los Angeles.

ORANGE COUNTY

We’re holding twin kick-off events
for ASU’s season opener on Sept. 4. We’ll
have game-watching events at 7 p.m. that
day at Sharkeez in Newport Beach and at
The Catch in Brea/Corona. Another
football-related gathering is,
of course, our annual tailgate at the
ASU-USC game, which will be on Nov. 6
this year. For more information on either
event, contact Chris Bissonnette at chrisbissonnette@aol.com or 949-225-9398.
GREATER PHILADELPHIA

The Greater Philadelphia chapter
hosted its second annual Pat’s Run
“shadow run” in April. Local members
of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America joined Sun Devils and their
families for the 4.2-mile run in
Manayunk. Runners were treated to
lunch at Machismo Burrito, which is
owned by ASU alum Will Caton and a
co-sponsor of the run, along with Bryn
Mawr Running Company. Many thanks
to everyone who participated!
Our chapter also participated in fun
summer events such as the second
annual Southwest Picnic, new student
orientation sessions for Philadelphia-area
freshmen and Sun Devil Send-Off
celebrations.
For more information about upcoming
events, contact Fernando Torres at
267-229-3139 or
fernando.j.torres@gmail.com.

W. P. CAREY SCHOOL
OF BUSINESS

Our chapter’s had a great year so far,
filled with events like Pat’s Run,
networking mixers, and family-themed
events at the zoo and Chase Field.
In May, we welcomed the class of 2010
to the alumni family by hosting an
inaugural new grad/alumni
networking reception.
This fall we’ll be hosting two
networking events on Sept. 9 – one in
Phoenix and one in Washington, D.C.
We will be back on Oct. 19 for another
networking reception in Washington,
D.C. We’re excited about hosting our
Homecoming Alumni Hall of Fame
Celebration at the Arizona Biltmore on
Oct. 29. Our 2010 class of inductees are:
Michael Ahearn ’79 B.S.,’82 J.D.,
Executive Chairman, First Solar; Edward
Blechschmidt ’74 B.S., consultant; and
Martin M. Quintana ’87 B.S., ’04 M.B.A.,
Chief Operating Officer, Chicanos Por
La Causa, Inc.
A full calendar of business
school-related events can be found at
wpcarey.asu.edu/events. Looking to get
involved? E-mail us
at wpcareyalumni@asu.edu.
WESTERN
PENNSYLVANIA/NORTHERN
APPALACHIA

In May, our club celebrated Cinco
de Mayo Sun Devil style in Pittsburgh.
Everyone present had a great time! Our
membership continues to grow, and we

Chicago alumni enjoyed seeing the
NBA Bulls team in action.

invite ASU alumni and friends to our
fall events.
We’ll kick things off on Sept. 24 with
an ASU Night at the Pittsburgh
Symphony and follow it up with our
signature Oktoberfest event on Oct. 2.
The Oktoberfest event features tours of
three microbreweries in the Pittsburgh
area; we conclude our day with a gamewatching event, or by listening to our
ASU Sun Devils on the radio while eating
homemade international desserts!
To get involved with our group, contact
Charles Tichy at charles.tichy@sru.edu
HELP YOUR LOCAL
CHAPTER AND ASU SCHOLARS
WIN WITH PENNIES FOR POINTS

This fall, ASU alumni chapters around
the country will be participating in the
Pennies for Points program, a friendly
competition in which Sun Devil alumni
and fans pledge their pocket change
to support the student scholarship
programs of their local chapters.
The concept is simple: you can pledge
an amount that you choose for each point
that the ASU football team scores against
its opponents this season, or for ASU’s
score in any individual game. Scholars
win when Sun Devils score!
You can learn more about the program
and submit your pledge today at
alumni.asu.edu/programs.

travel sun devil style
Take advantage of one of the most popular benefits of membership
in the ASU Alumni Association and travel with other alums! As a
member, you can see the world while enjoying special rates and
unique experiences.
Get the latest travel information from Sun Devil Destinations by
signing up for our bi-monthly travel E-newsletter.

alumni.asu.edu/programs/sun-devil-destinations

The Venue at Old Main
is the perfect setting
for your wedding day.
alumni.asu.edu/wedding 480-965-8346

54

NOTES
Employing equality
Looking beyond the frame
Richard Strange 1929-2009
Sun Devil Births
Sun Devil Marriages
Sun Devil Snapshot

Employing
equality
P. David Lopez,
‘85 B.S.
Standing up for the rights of others is in Patrick David Lopez’s genes. Growing up in
Tucson, he learned about justice from his parents, who were involved in the United Farm
Workers. Instead of Sea World, they took him to attend demonstrations in California. He met
Cesar Chavez as a child.
It didn’t mean much to him then, he says, but their values and sense of fairness seeped into
his bones and shaped his life. When Lopez was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as general
counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in April, it was as if he
had been preparing for the position his whole life.
“Those experiences echo through the years,” says Lopez, who has moved to Washington, D.C.,
with his family to be the commission’s top in-house lawyer.“It stayed with me, the importance of
service to others, and those values became part of me.”
Lopez spent his teen years immersed in guitar, books and music, enrolling at ASU as an
English major. But it wasn’t long before his genes kicked in, and he became a leader in
MEChA, a political action group for Chicano students. He switched his major to political
science and wrote his honors thesis on civil rights. His path was set.
After getting his law degree from Harvard in 1988, Lopez worked at a firm for a few years,
then joined the employment section of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. He
started working for the EEOC in 1994 and began compiling a successful record of trying a
wide variety of discrimination cases before moving to the Phoenix district office as supervisory
trial attorney in 1998.
During his time in the courtroom, he won a large jury award against an employer who
wrongfully terminated an employee on the basis of religious belief, and another one for a
Muslim woman who was forbidden by her company to wear a head scarf during the holiday of
Ramadan. He also was able to settle a disability case before trial, in which a corporation paid
$140,000 to a blind employee who had asked for basic accommodations but was told not to
return to work.
Lopez says his years as an avid reader and English major help him tell the stories to juries
they need to hear to understand a case.
“I’m a big believer in the jury system, in the ability of jurors to recognize unfairness when
they see it and to act as the conscience of the community,” says Lopez.“It makes me proud as
an American to see these basic American values protected.”
By Sarah Auffret, assistant director of media relations at ASU.

Shayna H. Balch

Glenn Morgan

Elizabeth (Beth) M. Wilkinson

Sean Waltz

Rachel Bennett

2000s
Kirt F. McKay ’09 B.S. recently received his
commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy after
completing officer candidate school.
◆ Sean Coleman ’09 B.S.E. was awarded the
Young Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Arizona
Small Business Association at its 17th annual
Enterprise Business Award Luncheon.
Elizabeth (Beth) M. Wilkinson ‘08 B.A. has
been promoted to account executive at HMA
Public Relations.
◆ Ashlea Taylor ’08 B.A. was recently accepted
into the masters-level Marriage and Family Therapy
graduate program in the School of Social and Family
Dynamics at ASU.
Shamar Thomas ’08 B.S.E. has been named as a
Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellow, which is
considered the “Rhodes Scholarship” of teaching
fellowships. The fellowship is designed to recruit
outstanding candidates to teaching and to transform
teacher preparation.
Eric Ferguson ’08 B.S. recently launched State
Bicycle, a web-based business that specializes in
fixed and single-gear bikes.
◆ Philip Beere ’07 M.R.E.D. was honored as
Green Building Remodeler Advocate of the Year and
one of his company’s residential remodel projects
was honored as the Remodel Project of the Year by
the National Association of Home Builders at its
12th annual National Green Building Conference
in Raleigh, N.C.

Steve Price ’06 M.F.A. is participating in a unique
project called “26 Blocks,” joining several other
artists, photographers and writers creating pieces
of art inspired by 26 different city blocks in
downtown Phoenix.
Rachel Bennett ’05 M.Ed., founder of the Phoenix
Collegiate Academy Charter School, was awarded
the 2010 Spirit of South Mountain Educator Award,
which honors both individuals and organizations that
are making a difference in the South Mountain,
Laveen and historic Phoenix communities.

Thomas Curry ’03 M.T. was recognized as a
“Silent Hero” in April by United Blood Service for
donating platelets 22 times during 2009.
Sean Waltz ’03 M.B.A., currently senior vice
president of investment at Merrill Lynch, was
named to the “America’s Top 1,000 Advisors”
state-by-state list issued by Barrons.
Glenn Morgan ’03 B.I.S. has been named
the executive director for the modern aerial
dance company Braided Light Dance Project
in Jacksonville, Fla.

Jennifer Pineda-Bodnar ’04 M.B.A. was
named as vice president of strategy and business
development at Harte-Hanks.

Jennifer Spiegel ’03 M.F.A. conducted a
fiction-writing workshop recently at Changing
Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

Victor Olivieri ’04 B.A., ’04 B.A. is currently
pursuing a doctorate in political science/international
relations at the University of Florida after serving for
three years as a military intelligence officer in the
U.S. Army and completing a M.A. in political science
at the University of Louisville.

Rachel L. Robertson ’03 B.A. recently received the
“For the Love of Justice” Award for Consumer Rights
from the Volunteer Lawyers Program of Maricopa
County. Robertson is employed with the labor and
employment group of the law firm of Quarles &
Brady LLP.

Glenn E. Heimburger ’04 B.S. recently graduated
from Creighton University School of Medicine in
Omaha, Neb., and was accepted to an emergency
medicine residency at East Carolina University.

Jeffrey P. Shepherd ’02 Ph.D. is an assistant
professor of American Indian and Western History at
the University of Texas, El Paso. He recently published
a new book, "We Are An Indian Nation: A History of
the Hualapai People."

Shayna H. Balch ’03 B.A., ’06 J.D. joined Fisher
and Phillips LLP as an associate, representing
employers in all aspects of employment law,
including discrimination, sexual harassment and
restrictive covenants.

◆= Active, dues-paying member of the ASU Alumni Association

Joshua I. Welle ’02 B.S. recently became a partner
at Olson and Welle, PC, a full service, multi-state
construction law firm.
◆ Meghan A. Dorn ’02 B.I.S. has opened an
event planning, public relations, and marketing
company, MAD Marketing & Events, LLC.

Bryan P. McNamara

Beth A. Collins-Burgard

Ravi Jethra
Rachel L. Robertson

Christine Lee ‘99 M.A., ‘07 Ph.D. was named a
2010 National Geographic Emerging Explorer for her
work in forensic research into skeletal remains in
China, which is revealing new information on
population and human migration. As a recipient of
the award, Lee will receive $10,000 to assist with
research and aid further exploration.

high level of recognition and professional
achievement. Chen practices intellectual property
and commercial litigation law for the Phoenix office
of Bryan Cave LLP.

Alan Bayless Feldman

Beth A. Collins-Burgard ’99 M.Ed. joined the law
firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as part of
the natural resources, land use and litigation group.

◆ Clifton Burt ‘01 B.A., ’01 B.S. recently received
his medical degree from the Drexel University College
of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Ravi Jethra ’99 M.B.A. has recently been
promoted to industry manager of power and energy
at Endress+Hauser, and is responsible for developing
power generation business.

Darren V. Roman ’93 B.S. has joined the law firm
of Quarles & Brady LLP. He is working in the firm’s
real estate group, representing financial institutions
in commercial lending and finance transactions.

◆ Bryan P. McNamara ’01 B.A. recently
graduated with an executive M.B.A. from the
University of Memphis, Fogelman.
Abdullah Al-Bargi ’01 M.T., ’06 Ph.D. is currently
the vice dean for development at the English
Language Institute at King Abdul Aziz University in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is also advisor to the
editor-in-chief of The Saudi Gazette, the first daily
English newspaper in Saudi Arabia.
Andrea Avery ’00 B.A., ’03 M.F.A. is participating
in a unique project called “26 Blocks,” joining
several other artists, photographers and writers
creating pieces of art inspired by 26 different city
blocks in downtown Phoenix.

1990s
Ravi Prasher ’99 Ph.D. has been elected a fellow
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in
recognition of his innovative research in advanced
electronics thermal management technologies and
nanoscale thermal energy transport.

Alan Bayless Feldman ’98 J.D. has been elected
to the board of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of
Arizona. He works as an attorney for the firm of
Steptoe & Johnson LLP, focusing his practice on labor
and employment law.
Mark Allen Pressnall ’98 M.Ed. was recently
granted tenure at Grossmont College.

◆ W. James Burns ’94 M.A. recently has been
selected as the executive director of the Desert
Caballeros Western Museum.

Adrienne (Whitaker) Luce ’92 B.A. recently was
named executive director of the California State
Summer School Arts Foundation.
Dyana Hesson ’91 B.A. recently had a painting,
“Not the End, but the Beginning,” displayed at the
Phoenix Sky Harbor museum.

1980s

◆ Kolby Granville ’97 B.A.E., ’00 M.Ed., ’07 J.D.
has donated more than $25,000 to fund micro-loans
in developing countries via the website Kiva.org.

Barby Grant ’88 M.M.C., owner of Barby Grant
Communications, is the recipient of the 2010 Gold
Quill Award for excellence in business
communication, presented by the International
Association of Business Communicators.

Dawn Valdivia ’97 B.A., ’97 B.A. is a partner at
Quarles and Brady LLP and has been named pro
bono coordinator for Phoenix.

James Christ ’88 B.A. recently finished his third
embedded tactical trainer book on the Afghanistan
war, “Kamdesh.”

Paul Corens '97 B.S. was recently accepted into
the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, a global
real estate investment and construction association.

◆ Margie Traylor ’87 B.S. and
◆ Bret Giles ’87 B.S., co-founders of Sitewire
Marketplace Solutions, were named 2010 Arizona
State Small Business Person(s) of the Year by the U.S.
Small Business Administration.

George C. Chen ’96 M.S.E., ’99 J.D. recently was
named to the 2010 edition of “Southwest Super
Lawyers,” which lists the top five percent of
attorneys in a state or region who have attained a

◆= Active, dues-paying member of the ASU Alumni Association

asuy o unga l umni .co m

Arizona State Young Alumni
connects Sun Devils 35
and younger. Build business
connections, become involved in
networking and social events,
and give back Sun Devil style.
For ASU alum Adam Klawonn,
that’s why he’s a part of ASYA.
He’s a Sun Devil leading the
way in his field, pursuing
his passion and making a
difference in the lives of others.

defining
sun devil pride
Get ahead.
Become involved.
Have fun.

ASU MAGAZINE
CLASS NOTES

58
59

Barby Grant

Diane E. D’Angelo

Kevin Salcido

Dawn Valdivia
Paul J. Faith
Adrienne (Whitaker) Luce
Darren V. Roman

Victoria Linssen ’87 B.S. recently participated in
a 100-mile bike ride for the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society.

Scholarship” of teaching fellowships. The fellowship
is designed to recruit outstanding candidates to
teaching and to transform teacher preparation.

Jonathan Sands '86 B.S. recently accepted a
position as executive vice president of the Patient
Advocate Foundation, located in Newport
News, Va.

Vicki A.R. Lopez ’81 B.A., ’85 J.D. recently has
joined the law firm of Marc J. Victor, P.C., practicing
criminal defense, personal injury, civil rights and civil
litigation law.

Diane E. D'Angelo ’86 B.A., vice chair of the city
of Phoenix Human Relations Commission, traveled to
Turkey in June as a guest of the Foundation for InterCultural Dialogue, a non-profit organization
established in 2004 with a goal of promoting
dialogue, mutual respect and cooperation among
different cultures and faiths.

Linda Price Snider ’81 B.MUS., ’86 M.M. was
elected president of the California Business
Education Association for 2010.

◆ Kevin Salcido ’84 B.S., ’93 M.B.A. has been
appointed associate vice president and chief human
resources officer for ASU.
◆ Julie A. Pace ’83 B.S., ’92 J.D. has been made a
shareholder at the Cavanagh Law Firm.
Moira McSpadden ’84 B.S., ’84 B.S.E. was
recently named as a Woodrow Wilson Indiana
Teaching Fellow, which is considered the “Rhodes

◆ Jack Furst ’81 B.S. recently received the Silver
Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. The
award is the organization’s highest honor and
recognizes individuals for extraordinary community
service. Furst, who is a philanthropist based in Argyle,
Texas, has been a driving force in the development of
the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, a
new high-adventure base for the Boy Scouts of
America that will open in 2013
◆ Paul Asmuth 80 B.S. was inducted into the
International Swimming Hall of Fame in May 2010.
In 2008, he served as a USA Swimming coach for the

◆= Active, dues-paying member of the ASU Alumni Association

first year marathon swimming was made an event at
the Olympic Games.

1970s
George McCaskey ’78 B.S., ’81 J.D. was named
chairman of the board for the Chicago Bears. He
had been the organization’s director of ticket
operations since 1991.
Susan J. Kramer ’76 B.S.N. was honored by being
the namesake for and the first recipient of the Susan
Kramer Award for Excellence in School Nursing by
the Laurel School and the Diabetes Association of
Greater Cleveland.
Paul J. Faith ’75 B.S. was recently named to the
2010 List of “Southwest Super Lawyers.”
Karuna N. Bhuyan ‘75 M.S. retired recently
after more than 34 years of service to the Arizona
Department of Agriculture.
Dave Mann ’74 B.S. is currently the president
of Have Ideas, Will Travel, a marketing and
promotions firm.

Carl Nelson ’88 M.Arch., Dede Radford ’78 B.F.A. and
Vincent H. Rieselman ’92 B.S.D. stand in front of the “A” on
Hayden Tempe Butte, also known as A Mountain. The three
alumni collaborated recently with the ASU Alumni Association
to ensure that the Student Alumni Association (SAA), which is
charged with keeping the A painted gold at all times, has the
resources it needs to fulfill that mission.
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

Radford is a design services professional for Dunn-Edwards
Paints, now the official paint sponsor for SAA. Nelson and
Rieselman, who work for the architectural firm Orcutt |
Winslow, were instrumental in connecting the Alumni
Association with Dunn-Edwards for the sponsorship.

1960s
Karen Grosso ’67 B.A.E., ’70 M.A.E. has helped
build a 30-acre community school in Uganda while
also implementing sustainable ways to improve
local environmental health.

1950s
Herbert Dreiseszun ’59 B.S. was recognized as
a “Silent Hero” in April by United Blood Service for
donating platelets 24 times during 2009.

1940s
Frances (Plake) Cox ’41 B.A.E. was recognized
by The American Biographical Institute's Woman of
the Year for Outstanding Pursuits and Biographical
Achievements in 2009.

A bequest to the
ASU Foundation enables
you to create a meaningful
legacy while maintaining
control of your assets during
your lifetime.
For more information about
how you can help ASU, and
create a family legacy that
embraces your values, please
contact Tim Gartland in
the Office of Estate and Gift
Planning at 480-965-5338
or 800-979-5225.
asufoundation.org/
GiftPlanning

ASU MAGAZINE
CLASS NOTES

60
61

Looking beyond the frame
Timothy Rodgers ‘83 B.A.
Timothy Rodgers, the new director of the Scottsdale Museum
of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), has great plans for the
museum, housed in a sleek, minimalist building located across
from the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. Many of his
plans may stretch visitors’ minds about the notion of just what
“contemporary art” should include.
“We’re devoted to contemporary design and architecture
impacting the community, as well as contemporary (visual) art,”
stresses Rodgers.
An exhibition that exemplifies Rodgers’ view of SMoCA’s
mission is the eagerly anticipated show “Bridges: Spanning the
Ideas of Paolo Soleri,” a collaboration between the museum,
Scottsdale Public Art and the Cosanti Foundation. Celebrating
the work of Soleri, an innovative Arizona arts pioneer, the
exhibition, opens Oct. 9. The exhibit will come on the heels of
Soleri’s 90th birthday and the opening of the Scottsdale
Waterfront Bridge that bears his name.
Before being hired to lead SMoCA in November, Rodgers
was chief curator for the New Mexico Museum of Art, where he
oversaw exhibitions focused on modernist and contemporary
art and appeared frequently in podcasts and videos that made

those works of art more accessible to the public. He’s also
influenced the art world as a writer, lecturer and academic,
first at Brown University, where he earned his Ph.D., and then
as a tenured professor at Lawrence University.
Rodgers says he was inspired by ASU professors Anthony
Gulley and Claudia Brown, as well as museum director
Rudy Turk, when studying for his undergraduate degree. He
experienced a vocational epiphany of sorts here, he says.
“There wasn’t any question about devoting my life to art,”
he said.
And just as the academic resources of the university
propelled him into the art world, the nexus of talent and
support for the arts in the Phoenix metropolitan area have
drawn him back here for the SMoCA position.
“The creative wealth offered by ASU and the rewarding
partnerships that can be formed (here) greatly contributed
to my enthusiastic return to the Valley,” says Rodgers, whose
father and brothers also reside here.
That choice will undoubtedly delight art lovers in the years
to come.
By Oriana Parker, a Scottsdale-based freelance arts writer.

old

a special setting for any occasion

Make Old Main on Arizona State University’s
Tempe campus your choice for a unique
event and experience the timeless elegance
of this charming venue that has hosted
guests for well over a century. Old Main
features a variety of rooms that may be
combined in many ways for your event,
whether it be a wedding, banquet, meeting,
conference or special event.
Contact Mike Tomah at 480.965.5063 (toll free at
1-800-ALUMNUS) for information on reserving
Old Main for your event.

Old Main at Arizona State University

If you’ve been reading these pages, you
know all about the exciting things happening
at ASU right now. ASU is the New American
University, breaking the mold of higher
education and making advancements in
cutting-edge research, academic excellence
and community involvement.
We invite you to get in on the action.
Become a member of the ASU Alumni
Association today and be plugged-in to the
dynamic ASU community making an impact
across the world. Additionally, your dues
help support the vision by enabling many
programs and activities within the ASU
Alumni Association to serve both students
and alumni.
You can find out more about membership
benefits and join online at alumni.asu.edu
or by calling 1-800-ALUMNUS.
Annual Membership costs $45 a year
($60 for couples)
Life Membership is $500
($650 for couples).

400 East Tyler Mall
Tempe, Arizona 85281
480.965.5063
alumni.asu.edu/old-main

alumni.asu.edu

ASU MAGAZINE
CLASS NOTES

62
63

Annis (Jones) Dotts ’57 B.A.E.,
1935-2010
Annis (Jones) Dotts, an active Sun Devil alumna and wife of
former ASU Alumni Association executive director Don Dotts,
passed away on July 13.
Dotts was born in San Angelo, Texas, in 1935 and moved
with her family to Phoenix at the age of three. She was a
graduate of North Phoenix High School and graduated from
Arizona State University in 1957 with a degree in music education. At ASU, she was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority
and President of the Panhellenic Council.
Dotts was an elementary school music teacher in the Mesa
and Tempe school districts. Besides music, she also taught
sewing, a long-time hobby of hers. She was active in ASU
Faculty Wives and enjoyed working with Arizona State alumni
through the ASU Alumni Association and its many affiliate
groups. She was diagnosed 15 years ago with Parkinson’s
Disease; after her diagnosis, she enjoyed being a part of The
Tremble Clefs, a singing group for Parkinson’s patients and
their caregivers.
Dotts is survived by her husband; her daughter, Debbie
Farson; her son, David Dotts; and grandchildren David, Katie
and Carrie Farson and Abby and Luke Dotts.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Annis Dotts Legacy
Scholarship, c/o the ASU Foundation, P. O. Box 2260, Tempe,
AZ 85280-2260.

Richard Strange 1929-2009
One of the longestserving band directors
in Arizona State
University history,
Richard Strange, who
passed away late last
year, left a lasting legacy
amongst the musicians
he conducted and the
music-lovers of the
Phoenix metro area.
He was 81.
Strange joined ASU
in 1974 and served until
1999. While he was at
the helm, the Sun Devil
Marching Band and
ASU Symphonic Band
both accrued national
reputations for
excellence. Under his leadership, ASU hosted two national
conventions of the American Bandmasters Association, as
well as an international joint convention of the ABA and the
Japanese Band Directors Association, which brought more
than 700 elementary, high school, college, and military

musicians to the Tempe campus for a week of concerts. The
Symphonic Band made appearances at national conventions of
the College Band Directors National Association and the Music
Educators National Conference, and the American
Bandmasters Association, as well as joint appearances with
numerous Valley of the Sun high school concert bands.
In addition to his service to ASU, Strange was active in the
community orchestra field. He conducted Pittsburgh’s
Carnegie Civic Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1974 and the
Butler County (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1974. He
served as the director and conductor of the Tempe Symphony
Orchestra for 35 years.
When Strange wasn’t wielding the conductor’s baton, he
played saxophone, clarinet and flute professionally for many
years with big bands headlined by well-known performers,
such as Buddy Morrow, Les Elgart, Ted Herbert and Isaac
Hayes (of “Shaft” fame). He also played with the Pittsburgh
Civic Light Opera, plus backup and “pit” bands accompanying
many famous Broadway singers and television stars, such as
Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Eddie Fisher, Andy Williams,
Englebert Humperdinck and Bill Cosby.
In addition to his wife, Marian, Strange is survived
by two sons, Phil of Japan and Steve of Los Angeles, and
one grandchild.

Celebrate this Holiday with School Spirit
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This holiday, greet friends and
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at checkout.

SUN DEVIL MARRIAGES

Michaela Lynn McLendon

Darin Shebesta and Alesha Nicole Corey

Russ and Mika Perry

Michaela Lynn McLendon was born to Stacie
McLendon ’01 M.Ed. and Michael McLendon on
March 14, 2010.

Darin R. Shebesta ’06 B.S. and Alesha Nicole
Corey ’08 B.A. were married on April 22, 2009
in Antigua.

Christopher Bissonnette ’93 B.S. and wife
Maureen Bissonnette celebrated their 10th
anniversary on June 10, 2010.

Lucas Taylor Root was born to Leigh (Richards)
Root ’08 B.S. and Robert Root ’10 B.S. on
September 30, 2009. He joins big brother Robert
Joel Root, who was born October 8, 2008.

Russ Perry ’05 B.I.S. and Mika (Gabriel) Perry
’05 B.A. were married February 28, 2009 in
Maui, Hawaii.

◆= Active, dues-paying member of the ASU Alumni Association

ASU MAGAZINE

64

Photo courtesy University Archives, Arizona State University Libraries.

SUN DEVIL SNAPSHOT
Thinking dry thoughts
It may have been raining during at the first Homecoming, held in 1926, but nothing could dampen
the spirits of the graduates of Tempe State Teachers College, ASU’s predecessor institution. The alumni
of the class of 1923 were but one group celebrating school spirit and hoping for a football victory on
the gridiron.

this is our world
together we can shape it

ASU is where innovation and reinvention are happening — in classrooms, in workshops and in
laboratories. From finding ways to promote economic opportunity to building strong, vibrant communities, we’re
tackling today’s toughest challenges. Whether you are interested in sustainability, healthier living or education,
we have the expertise and imagination to find local solutions that have global impact. Your partnership and
investment help us prepare students and advance university discoveries capable of transforming our world.

Be a force for change. Join us.

Invest in ASU today.
Learn more at asuchallenges.com or asufoundation.org.

PO Box 873702, Tempe, AZ 85287-3702

Sun Devil Pride.
Sun Devil Benefits.
Now Alumni who join America’s Largest and Most
Reliable 3G network qualify for:
• 10% off Nationwide Calling Plan monthly access
fees of $34.99 or higher.
Available online only.

• Waived activation fee
with new 2-year agreement.
• 25% off select accessories

Official Wireless Provider of the ASU Alumni Association

Visit www.asu.edu/alumni/verizon for more information.

DROID by Motorola®
©2010 Verizon

Activation fee/line: Up to $35 IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Subject to Cust. Agmt, Calling Plan & credit approval. Up to $175 early termination fee ($350 for advanced devices) &
other charges. Discounts not available on unlimited calling plans. Offers & coverage, varying by service, not available everywhere. Network details and coverage maps at vzw.com. Proof
of alumni status required for discount. DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.