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2023 Alumni Fall/Winter 2023

Normalizing kindness one coffee cup at a time

If you walk out of a La La Land Kind Cafe satiated by the bet coffee of your life, the cafe’s founder and CEO will say, “That’s an utter failure.”

Certainly, Francois Reihani, the 27-year-old entrepreneurial visionary behind the café chain – with 11 stores spanning Texas and California – wants customers to enjoy their sip of choice. However, it’s kindness over coffee that he and his dedicated team aim to brew from the heart.

“We really truly believe [that] when you do the right thing with the right intention, magic happens,” Reihani says.

When Reihani arrived in Dallas in 2016 to study business at SMU after transferring from the University of Southern California, he says he was “focused on building something – I saw opportunity.”

Reihani co-founded a poké restaurant in West Village, and while the business found success, he realized something was missing.

“The human connection is so important,” he says. “And at the end of the day, all we were doing was serving raw fish.” Reihani’s guiding question became:“How do you normalize kindness?”

His answer: La La Land Kind Café, a café committed to, in addition to spreading kindness, hiring and mentoring foster youth. The first location opened in 2019 in a 100-yearold house on Bell Avenue in Dallas.

“From the moment we opened, the people proved the concept,” he says.

In four years, the café’s growth has exploded, now boasting 11 locations, including Houston and Los Angeles, with plans for more on the way.

Notably, the spike in stores occurred during a global pandemic and, perhaps even more impressive, all that growth has been achieved without the company ever paying for a single ad.

A worthwhile investment

In June 2023, La La Land Kind Café announced it had received a $20 million investment from two SMU graduates: John Phelan ’86, cofounder and chairman of Rugger Management LLC, and Andy Teller ’86, a private investor.

The path to such a significant investment – which is expected to yield expanded operations and new locations throughout the United States – all began, ironically, with a cup of coffee. In 2022, Teller began receiving frequent notifications on his phone showing that his daughter, Cameron Teller ’21, ’22, was a devoted La La Land customer; he was clued in by her credit card transactions linked to his phone. Curious to see what could be so special to warrant his daughter’s repeat business, Teller visited the location on West Lovers Lane in Dallas. As he was leaving, he received a call from his son, Preston Teller ’21 – who was friends with Reihani when both attended SMU.

When Teller casually mentioned where he was, Preston informed him Reihani was the man behind the café chain. This led to Andy Teller and Reihani being engrossed in a three-hour conversation.

“Andy was so passionate about our mission,” Reihani recalls.

Prioritizing what matters

Given La La Land’s surge of success, Reihani says he has fielded many investment offers, including amounts higher than the $20 million investment now in place.

“This business has never been focused on the numbers,” he says. “We didn’t want big venture capitalists to come in with their normal tactics. … We never wanted to be controlled, being told what to do away with this and do away with that. Those offers were rejected immediately.”

Teller introduced Reihani to Phelan, and the three engaged for several months, threaded by the “cool bond,” as Reihani calls it, stemming from the Mustang connection.

“La La Land Kind Cafe is raising the standard of what we should expect from companies,” Phelan said in a statement. “A business can give back, care about the community and serve high-quality products while being profitable.”

The café chain also weaves in another passion of Reihani’s: the nonprofit he founded in 2016, the We Are One Project, whose mission is to provide the right tools for businesses to come together and employ foster youth. With La La, which funds the nonprofit, he is able to fully realize his vision to empower youth and young adults who have aged out of the foster care system and provide them job training and employment, and especially, a kind community to feel secure.

“We’re building to make something special – not building to sell,” Reihani says. “It’s about how we, as a brand, can deepen human connection.”

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2023 Alumni Fall/Winter 2023

Achieving their goals

SMU ALUMS AND TWIN BROTHERS ESTEBAN AND MANUEL MARIEL HAVE INTRODUCED DALLAS TO A NEW SPORT.

Getting Americans to refer to soccer as “futbol” may never happen in this lifetime, much to the dismay of fans of the world’s most popular sport.

The lesser-known futsal (or small-sided soccer) may be just unique enough, however, to get called by its proper name.

Futbol and futsal share many similarities, but the main difference has to do with team size, and also the location and equipment. Futsal teams feature four players and a goalie, whereas futbol requires 10 players and a goalie. Athletes compete on a hard court versus grass or turf, and the smaller ball used in futsal has more density than futbol’s sphere.

“Futsal is like playing basketball with your feet,” says Manuel Mariel ’09.

Together with his twin brother, Esteban Mariel ’09, Manuel Mariel came up with the idea to open City Futsal after their father, Federico, said they could use the sport as a training tool for youth development. They had already been leading soccer sessions to train kids, but without dedicated futsal courts in the region, the brothers transitioned their program’s focus and turned to area gyms to host.

Demand forced the brothers to find a permanent location, which eventually turned into three. The first two were indoor, and the most recent at Dallas Farmers Market is entirely outdoors. That turned out to be a saving grace for the family business during the pandemic when they had to close their indoor facilities. The outdoor farmers market location thrived because people could play futsal in a safer way.

“As a small business, you are used to having to pivot. The pandemic was a restart for us; we saw it as an opportunity to reallocate resources and move toward a different direction,” says Mariel.

To find creative solutions to their problems, Mariel took inspiration from his time at SMU.

The rigorous schedule of being a student-athlete and working at the same time he was attending school turned out to really help in making this concept a success.

“It was tough,” he says. “It’s not your typical college experience, but it does prepare you to work within teams, understand that there is a process in everything, and find out where you are the most valuable.”

City Futsal started as a family idea, and it continues in that tradition. Mariel is also joined by his sister, Ximena, and younger brother, Felipe, in addition to his twin brother and dad.

The Mariel family now has their sights set on opening two new facilities: in The Colony, Texas, this fall and in Richardson, Texas, at Dallas International School in early 2024.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022 Main

Family Weekend: Fry the Frogs pep rally and more!

Come join the stampede at the Fry the Frogs pep rally including a special football announcement Friday, September 23, at 6:30 p.m. on Doak Walker Plaza. The exciting event will fire up our spirit before we cheer on the Mustangs against TCU Saturday, September 24, in Ford Stadium. Game time will be announced later, but plan to attend the tailgate at the SMU Alumni tent near Clements Hall before it starts. Pony Up!
After the Friday pep rally, attendees receive free admission to these great matches: SMU men’s soccer vs. Florida International University at 7 p.m. at Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium and SMU volleyball vs. University of South Florida at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.
Find a schedule of events and more Family Weekend information here.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022

Great things are happening on the Hilltop

We’re excited for what the new year holds, but it will only be possible with the support of dedicated Mustang donors. We hope you’ll be inspired to support our students, faculty and campus with your gift today.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022

Recognizing extraordinary alumni achievement

Homecoming festivities start Thursday, October 20, when we celebrate our Distinguished Alumni Award honorees A. Shonn Evans Brown ’95, ’98; John Cartwright Phelan ’86; and Thear Sy Suzuki ’96; and Emerging Leader Award recipient Emily K. Graham ’07.
DAA recipient C.J. “Don” Donnally ’67, ’68, who passed away in May, will be honored posthumously.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the SMU Alumni Board will host the event recognizing extraordinary achievement, outstanding character and good citizenship. The celebration at Armstrong Fieldhouse will open with a reception at 6 p.m. that will be followed by a dinner and awards presentation at 7 p.m.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022

Homecoming and Reunion Weekend: October 20–23

Come back to where it all began to reconnect with classmates and SMU. With loads of events, there’s something for everyone. Be sure to stop in at the SMU Alumni tent near Clements Hall. Check out the schedule and make your plans now.
Here are some of the highlights:
Thursday, October 20
Distinguished Alumni Awards
6 p.m. Reception
7 p.m. Dinner and presentation
Armstrong Fieldhouse
Registration and information
Friday, October 21

  • Enjoy tours of campus landmarks and new additions, and visit the George W. Bush Presidential Center and the Meadows Museum.
  • Undergraduate reunion parties at various locations. More information.

Saturday, October 22
The parade, fun on the Boulevard and the SMU vs. Cincinnati football game are just a few of the exciting activities.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022

Continuing the legacy of empowerment

Latino Alumni of SMU will host a celebration of the academic achievements of their 2022 scholarship recipients Thursday, September 15, at 6 p.m. at the Meadows Museum. Register by September 9.

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2022 Alumni News September 2022

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these quick links to great stories and photos featuring the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop.

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2022 Alumni August 2022 Main News

A great new year starts with you

With new students heading to classes soon, exciting faculty research underway, and progress made on new and improved structures all over the campus, this school year promises to be bigger and better than ever. That’s because of the generous support of Mustangs like you.
Visit the Hilltop this fall to see how your gifts ignite our University’s success today and for years to come.
Give now.

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2022 Alumni August 2022

Drumming up support for the Mustang Band

Meet Diamond M Club President Kellie Prinz Johnson ’96, whose connection to the Hilltop seems to grow stronger each year. In fact, she named her son after her best band friend and her favorite SMU professor, and she’s now a proud SMU parent.

What do you do for work?

I am the director of operations at Retro Studios, which is a video game developer and subsidiary of Nintendo. Some of the games we’ve made are the Metroid Prime series, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. I manage everything that is not involved with making the games or IT. I’ve been there for 19 years.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Basically, driving up and down I-35 coming to SMU events. *Laughs.* I’m also an avid baseball fan, so when SMU isn’t having sporting activities, I fill the void with Major League Baseball. I just got back from Chicago where I saw the Cubs, my favorite team, play five games in four days. But I love going to SMU games; I have season tickets to football and men’s and women’s basketball so I’m here as often as possible.

What is your favorite Diamond M Club memory?

My favorite memory is how I get to do cool things, meet people and represent the club. A few years ago, at Pigskin Revue, we gave Paul Layne ‘76, who is SMU’s superfan, a beanie and he was really honored by that, so it was special for me to be the one to give him something the Mustang Band doesn’t take lightly or give to many who were not in the band.

Read more.

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2022 Alumni August 2022 News

Working, growing and ‘just trying things’

In a July 3 interview with ESPN staff writer Harry Lyles, Jr., former SMU football safety Ra Kazadi ’22 talks about how the loosening of name, image and likeness (NIL) restrictions on college athletes and the financial freedom it generated gave him the wings to explore and grow as an artist.

EXCERPT:
SMU safety Ra’Sun Kazadi is a unique talent among college football players.
You might see that he’s appeared in 10 games over the past two seasons and registered two tackles and say that’s a stretch, but it’s not. Ra – as he’s often referred to by his teammates, friends and family – has talents that go beyond the football field.
He’s a gifted artist, and last July 1 – with the loosening of restrictions on college athletes making money through their name, image and likeness – Kazadi’s world as an artist opened up considerably.
“I’m able to do more of the work that I want to do because of NIL,” he said. “I can sell my pieces for more, and therefore, I don’t have to do, like, 100 pieces a month.
“It’s funny because it’s been less about money now. It’s been more about just working and growing, and just trying things.”
Kazadi sold his work before NIL restrictions were lifted, but couldn’t put his name on it, have shows or promote his art on his Instagram or website.
“It was just basically relying on people to know that I was an artist and then doing stuff for super cheap,” Kazadi said. Because of these limitations, he said he wasn’t able to sell pieces for much – $30 for a sketch, and maybe around $100 for a painting if he was lucky.
“It wasn’t at the scale, even close to what it was now,” he said.
Kazadi said he’s able to get higher prices for his work now because people know it is his and he’s able to promote it. The greater financial freedom has given him more time to experiment with his art and continue to improve at his craft.
Read the full story.

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2022 Alumni August 2022 News

Active duty and military veterans are allies for the Cox School

During the 2021–22 academic year, 69 Cox School of Business graduate students were currently active duty in, or veterans of, the U.S. Armed Forces. Cox Today magazine profiled a cross-section of the students about what they would like all of us to know about their time in military service. Here’s a sampling of their responses:

Corbin C. Anderson

Former Captain, Aviation Officer and UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter Pilot in the U.S. Army
Full-time two-year MBA in finance
Anticipated graduation in 2023
Originally from Westlake, Texas
“I had the honor of serving with amazing leaders, soldiers and aviators who came from all different walks of life. Those individuals I served with helped mold me to become a successful officer and junior leader in the Army. People are the Army’s most important asset. I was blessed to serve with leaders of character who were incredibly smart, tough and diverse, and who had the ability to solve incredibly complex and time-sensitive problems. I will forever be grateful for the individuals with whom I had the privilege to serve and who continue to serve our country.”

Destiny Perez

Former E-6 Aircraft Maintenance Technician and Instructor for the Air Education and Training Command in the U.S. Air Force
M.A./MBA in arts management and arts entrepreneurship
Anticipated graduation in 2023
Originally from San Marcos, Texas
“Military service afforded me time to figure out who I was and what I wanted in life. A mentor once asked, ‘If you could only do one thing the rest of your life and you never got paid for it, yet you’d still be happy, what would that be?’ Thanks to that question, I changed my undergraduate degree to focus on my passion for dance. Later in my service, as an instructor, I learned I love teaching as much as I love learning. If I could share one thing with you, it’s to ask yourself the same question. Find your passion.”

Drewnard “D” Woods

Current Combat Airlifter, E6 rank, in the U.S. Air Force Reserve
Professional MBA (PMBA) in real estate/finance
Anticipated graduation in 2023
Originally from Chicago, Illinois
“Coming from the South Side of Chicago, it’s a war zone in itself. I chose to join the Air Force because I knew it would challenge me mentally and would propel me forward in other ways, such as being able to pursue a career in business, to look sharp, give attention to detail and be willing to show up early even if that means waiting around a bit. I’ve gained other great attributes, too. Most importantly, I knew I was joining something that I would be proud of the rest of my life, and that maybe one day, I would be able to tell my story to encourage others to join the ranks of the world’s greatest Air Force.”
Read the full story.

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2022 Alumni August 2022 Spring 2022

Celebrating the Mustang mystique

Curtis has been a creative director for more than 25 years with Wieden+Kennedy, a global agency headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He’s a legend in the field with three Emmy wins for best commercial, and seven Emmy nominations to his credit. In Advertising Age’s 20th anniversary edition of Creativity Magazine, Curtis was named one of the 50 most influential creative leaders of the past 20 years.


His wide-ranging portfolio for Nike, ESPN and other high-profile brands includes an acclaimed commercial featuring Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons fighting over a Coke. In 2010, Adweek named It’s Mine the Super Bowl spot of the decade.


The SMU collaboration took flight during a conversation with SMU Vice President for Development and External Affairs Brad E. Cheves.


“Brad and I were talking about all the amazing individuals who have come through SMU over the years. It’s an impressive list,” Curtis says. “We both thought it would be something interesting to – in a broadcast spot – remind folks of.”


After getting the greenlight, Curtis and his production team faced the challenge of tracking down archival video and images. They worked with Laura Graham ’16, director of photography and video in SMU Marketing and Communications, to locate assets and secure licensing approvals. Curtis supplied his expertise to the project at no charge.


The commercial encapsulates the breadth and achievements of our Mustang family and the reputation for excellence that draws the best and brightest to the Hilltop. (Play the video above to see for yourself.)


It was a labor of love for Mustangs with star power like Academy Award-winner Kathy Bates ’69, whose distinctive voice provides the narration, and fan favorite Brian Baumgartner ’95, who submitted his own video when the cost of licensing footage of him as Kevin in The Office TV series was prohibitive.


Other notable alumni featured include NFL star and sports commentator “Dandy” Don Meredith ’60, real estate titan Trammel Crow ’39 and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11.


Also shown are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on campus in 1966 and former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and the late George H.W. Bush on campus in 2013 to celebrate the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center with former President Bush.


The ad ends with an intriguing question for the future Mustangs viewing it: What will you do?


The commercial premiered during the TCU game September 25, 2021, where SMU retained the Iron Skillet with a 42–34 win.


“Maybe the spot helped us beat the Horned Frogs, who knows,” Curtis says. “What I do know is it reminds us that we’re all a part of something pretty special around here. That’s inspiring, and worth celebrating.”
– From SMU Magazine, spring 2022

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2022 Alumni August 2022 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these quick links to great stories featuring the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop.

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2022 Alumni July 2022 News

Striking a chord with crowds honoring WWII heroes

The Mustang Band represented the U.S. as thousands turned out for D-Day commemoration ceremonies in Normandy, France, in June. The trip was more than two years in the making because of the pandemic and brought history alive for the young musicians.
Read more:

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2022 Alumni July 2022 Main News

Southern California kickoff supercharges SMU Ignited

On June 13, SMU Ignited: Boldly Shaping Tomorrow lit up SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, at the kickoff of our $1.5 billion campaign for impact in Southern California. More than 200 impassioned Mustangs from across the region gathered to celebrate the campaign empowering outstanding students, enriching teaching and research, and enhancing our campus and community.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni July 2022

Head out with your herd to discover Dallas

If you’re from Dallas, or never left after graduation, then you’re never at a loss for things to do or ways to reconnect with classmates and create impromptu mini reunions at any time of the year.
The warm summer weather presents the perfect time to meet up and head out with your fellow Mustangs and reminisce about how falling in love with SMU meant falling in love with all things Dallas too. Whether it’s hiking or biking, aquariums or botanical gardens, museums or art galleries there’s something for everyone on this list of things to do with your herd this summer!
Read more.

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2022 Alumni July 2022 News

Tapping into SMU’s innovation ecosystem

Our alumni leaders, founders, innovators and creators are ready to guide startup-minded students aiming to transform their bold ideas into businesses.
Some students arrive on the Hilltop with a plan in mind. Others find that spark in a class, through a research project or even in a casual conversation over coffee.
When they decide to bring their vision to life, students can find step-by-step support. Across the campus, a multitude of experiential, academic and research resources provide a framework for entrepreneurial endeavors, while funding from grants and competitions get them off the ground.
Our alumni have blazed new paths in tech, business and just about every other sector of the economy. As mentors, they provide guidance, share expertise, generate opportunities and cheer on students finding new ways to make an impact on the world.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni July 2022 News

SMU alumna crowned first Asian American Miss Texas

Congratulations to history-making SMU alumna Averie Bishop ’19, ’22, the first Asian American Miss Texas.


She currently serves on the Mayor’s Anti-Hate Advisory Council. It was established last year by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson to advise the city and police on ways to increase tolerance and understanding and engage the private sector and communities in discouraging hate and encouraging diversity.


Bishop received a B.A. in human rights in 2019 and graduated from Dedman School of Law in May. While she was an undergraduate, Bishop and her mother establish the Tulong Foundation in 2015. The nonprofit organization serves an area of the Philippines where Marevi Bishop grew up. The foundation supports children’s education and efforts to develop sustainable farming and clean drinking water. As an SMU Human Rights Fellow in 2018–19, she spent the summer in the Philippines building water wells in rural communities.


On the Hilltop, Bishop displayed her vocal talent as Cinderella in Into the Woods, the student musical presented during Family Weekend in 2017.


Bishop will now start preparing for the Miss America pageant, which will take place in Connecticut in December. She is active on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, offering a candid look at her life as a law student and beauty pageant contestant.


Read more:

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2022 Alumni July 2022 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these quick links to great stories featuring the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop.

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Alumni June 2022 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these quick links to photos, stories and videos about the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop.

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2022 Alumni May 2022 Main News

Future-focused change

SMU celebrated the future of the Cox School of Business and its role as a driver of Dallas innovation, breaking ground May 6 on a $140 million renovation and expansion project. As part of the SMU Ignited: Boldly Shaping Tomorrow campaign, more than 50 donors have already invested more than $100 million toward the facilities designed to train students for a collaborative and technologically integrated world.
SMU is blazing a trail into the next era of business education. We have undertaken a two-year, $140 million renovation and expansion project to provide the facilities needed to train students for an ever-more collaborative and technologically integrated world. Enter our virtual experience to experience the new classrooms and collaborative spaces in our future facilities.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni May 2022 News

Mustangs in the wild: Sameer Paroo ’01 rides again

“What SMU allows you to do is feel very empowered to create new experiences,” says Sameer Paroo ’01. The former Homecoming king candidate finds new ways to engage and connect with fellow Mustangs as chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Alumni of SMU.
Paroo is an “M” Award-winning, Toronto-born Mustang who grew up in Orlando and completed high school in Plano, Texas. The avid basketball fan has visited approximately 33 countries since finishing graduate school and has worked in both Nairobi, Kenya, and Vancouver, Canada. In fall 2000, as an SMU senior, he represented the Program Council as a Homecoming king candidate in the annual parade. Twenty-one years later, he had the opportunity to ride in the parade again, but this time as chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Alumni of SMU.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni May 2022 News

Applause for our newest alumni

Meet two outstanding Mustangs: At 19, Haley Taylor Schlitz is the youngest law school graduate in SMU history. At 85, Marillyn Burton Seeberger is making history of her own by receiving a bachelor’s degree and aiming for a new career as a screenwriter.

Read about recent graduates.

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Alumni April 2022 News

Celebrating 24 hours of record-breaking generosity

What can we do in one day? That question was answered by 3,497 Mustang households giving more than $8 million to over 175 causes on SMU Giving Day. Thank you for changing the lives of students, creating new opportunities and shaping a brighter future on the Hilltop and beyond.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni April 2022 News

Theatre alum’s persistence pays off

If Dylan Guerra ’16 had given up after failing to win playwriting fellowships in New York, he would not be where he is today: authoring a screenplay for a well-known production company and co-writing season three of The Other Two, the HBO satire that hilariously spoofs showbiz and celebrity.
“Perseverance is a massive part of it,” says Guerra by phone during a lunch break from The Other Two writers’ room in New York. “I applied to everything more than once.”
It took three tries to become a member of the prestigious Youngblood group of playwrights at Ensemble Studio Theatre and two each for residencies at Ars Nova and Page 73.
“In about a six-to-eight-month period, I got into three of the highest-profile playwriting fellowships in New York, and that put my name on a bunch of lists,” he says. “I also had a solo show, and there was this organic interest in my work.”
Read more.

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2022 Alumni April 2022 News

Changing the narrative on natural hair

Startup founder Mona El-Gharby ’21 won seed funding from SMU’s Big iDeas program three years in a row as a student. D Magazine writes about El-Gharby, founder of CURLē, “a customized haircare company that’s making curls luxurious,” and her entrepreneurial journey in the March 2022 issue.
EXCERPT:
“Take a single strand of your hair and roll it between your fingers with your eyes closed.”
Can you feel it? Is it thin or thick? Is it straight or curly? Odds are, if it’s straight, you’ve never had to think about this before.
But CURLē founder Mona El-Gharby has.
The Egyptian American Dallas native says her classmates used to bully her growing up over her natural hair texture. Her parents had raised her to be confident and elegant, but it was hard to feel that way about her curly hair. Like many other women, she felt her hair wasn’t “professional” or fit European beauty ideals.
And when her peers teased her, El-Gharby didn’t have any celebrities or television characters to point to and say, “these people have beautiful hair, they’re doing great things, they’re representing me.”
Read more.

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2022 Alumni April 2022 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to stories and more about the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2022 Alumni March 2022 News

Reaching a significant milestone

Thanks to the generosity of the Mustang community, SMU Ignited has garnered more than $800 million in donations, more than halfway toward our $1.5 billion goal. Learn how you can be part of this extraordinary drive to make a positive difference in the world around us.
Rest of story

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2022 Alumni March 2022 News

Compelling authors booked for Dallas Literary Festival

SMU’s Dallas Literary Festival is back March 12–22. This annual celebration of writers and literature will feature more than 100 acclaimed national and local authors as well as special events across the city. Authors representing relevant and diverse voices will converge at a series of in-person events on the SMU campus, at Fair Park’s African American Museum and at other locations throughout Dallas.
SMU football great and NFL Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson ’84 will deliver the keynote conversation at noon Saturday, March 19, in Dallas Hall. After a prolific and often contentious career, Dickerson is telling his side of the story in his new book, Watch My Smoke. Capping the day will be the Friends of the SMU Libraries Tables of Content fundraiser, featuring the presentation of the 2022 Literati Award to culinary historian Adrian Miller, author of Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Tickets are required, and proceeds from the event benefit the Friends annual grants program.
2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story and recipient of the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work–Nonfiction, will close the festival at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, at SMU.
The festival’s theme, resilience, was chosen when organizers expected to be looking back at how the country survived the turbulence of 2020 and 2021, says Sanderia Faye Smith, Dallas Literary Festival executive director, SMU creative writing faculty member and author of the award-winning novel, Mourner’s Bench.
“As the festival date approaches, we realize we’re going to need even more resilience to stay the course and not give up,” Smith says. “As Toni Morrison says, ‘During hard times, writers should not remain silent and readers should read, heal, gain knowledge and escape within the pages of a book.’”
While related events begin March 12, the first official festival event is Friday, March 18, featuring National Book Award finalist David Treuer and scholar, poet and author DeMaris Hill. Treuer’s The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is a new narrative that demonstrates how Native Americans have maintained their culture and civilization through dark years. Hill’s Breath Better Spent: Living Black Girlhood is a narrative in verse that takes a personal and historical look at the experience of Black girlhood. Treuer and Hill will speak at 7 p.m. at SMU’s McCord Auditorium in Dallas Hall.
Two full days of author panel discussions, readings and interviews follow, March 19 and 20, with national award winners, memoirists, scholars, romance writers, poets, historical fiction writers and authors of gems you might not have heard of yet, but soon will.
Unless otherwise noted, events are free and open to the public.
Among the highlights:
Saturday, March 19, Dallas Hall, SMU

  • Novelist Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water, Oprah’s June 2021 Book Club pick.
  • Joaquin Zihuatenejo, National Poetry Slam finalist and Grand Slam Spoken Word champion.
  • W. Bruce Cameron, author of the New York Times bestselling triology, A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Way Home and A Dog’s Courage.
  • Long-form narrative writer Catherine Prendergast, author of The Gilded Edge, named by Artnet as one of top 20 books about art in 2021.

Sunday, March 20, African American Museum, Fair Park

  • Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, which was a 2021 Good Morning America Buzz Pick and named one of the best books of 2021 by Barack Obama, The Washington Post and NPR.
  • Elisa Dusapin, author of Winter in Sokcho, 2021 National Book Award winner for translated literature.
  • Scholar and commentator Jelani Cobb, author of The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker.
  • Culinary historian Adrian Miller, author of Black Smoke.
  • Daniel Black, author of Don’t Cry for Me, February 2022 Book of the Month selection.

Additional related events include:

  • Saturday, March 12: South Dallas Cultural Center will present a women’s poetry workshop.
  • Tuesday, March 15–Tuesday, March 22: Dallas Public Library will host a series of in-person and online events supporting the Dallas Literary Festival, including craft and story-making projects, readings, a Shakespeare Adventure Walk and writing workshops.
  • Monday, March 21: SMU’s Tate Lecture Series will present biographer Walter Isaacson. Tickets required.

Find more information at Dallas Literary Festival.

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2022 Alumni March 2022 News

Breaking out on her own

From a very early age, Lacey A. Horn ’04, ’05 knew she wanted to use her talents on behalf of her tribe. The former treasurer of the Cherokee Nation now serves as a strategy and financial consultant to tribal leaders as CEO of Native Advisory and heads Horn CPA, a niche cryptocurrency consultancy.
Rest of story

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2022 Alumni February 2022 Main News

Expanding Gerald J. Ford Stadium

A $50 million commitment from the Garry Weber Foundation, established by former Mustang football letterman Garry A. Weber ’58, is the largest gift in the history of SMU Athletics and supports a $100 million drive for a new 192,500-square-foot Garry Weber End Zone Complex at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.
The Garry Weber Foundation’s gift continues an exciting new era for Mustang football and SMU as part of the University’s recently announced $1.5 billion campaign, SMU Ignited: Boldly Shaping Tomorrow. With the drive, SMU Athletics will reach a new milestone, having invested $250 million to develop and enhance championship-caliber athletic facilities across campus.
The new Garry Weber End Zone Complex will anchor Ford Stadium’s south bowl that will connect the stadium’s existing east and west gate entries. The three levels of the new complex will increase the functionality, efficiency and overall experience of Mustang football for student-athletes and fans, as well as inspire interest and investments in athletics across SMU’s campus.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni February 2022 News

Making a big splash for swimming and diving

This spring, SMU will break ground on the Holt Hickman Outdoor Pool, the newest addition to the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center made possible by lead gifts from the Robson, Hickman and Lindley families. Once completed, the project will establish the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center as the only U.S. university facility with both indoor and outdoor Olympic pools.
The Holt Hickman Outdoor Pool will include an eight-lane, 50-meter-by-25-yard outdoor pool, 1- and 3-meter diving boards and a 20-by-40-foot instructional pool for lessons and rehab/therapy. Other amenities feature a locker room facility – accessible from both the indoor and outdoor pools – including an indoor dryland training area, which will specifically benefit the SMU diving program. Exterior showers and a decorative overhang to provide shade will complete the project.
This outdoor pool addition will be a hub of community engagement and help SMU attract local and national swimming and water polo events to SMU and the city of Dallas.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni February 2022 News

Preserving the histories of our communities of color

So far, 124 Mustangs who lived it have been interviewed for Black History at SMU, part of the Voices of SMU oral history project. Voices of SMU is among hundreds of projects, causes and organizations you can support on SMU Giving Day March 22.
Voices of SMU is a collaboration between students, alumni and entities across campus to diversify the SMU Archives’ holdings. With Voices of SMU, undergraduate research assistants conduct oral history interviews with SMU alumni from underrepresented groups. The oral histories are made available online in the SMU Libraries Digital Collections.
The interviews document not only the history of the University, but Texas as well, including the desegregation of higher education, the experiences of African American and Latinx University students, and Black and Brown student activism in Texas. They speak to growing up in Dallas’ Little Mexico; post-World War II African American community-building in places such as Hamilton Park, Dallas; studying as an undocumented student; organizing as minority seminarians and student activists; and shaping Texas’s churches, social ministries, and business communities upon graduation.
Read more.

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Alumni February 2022 News

From dino drawings to STEM ambassador

Her dinosaur drawings earned Myria Perez ’18 a volunteer position at the Houston Museum of Natural Science when she was just 12. Flash-forward to high school, and her passion for dinosaurs again made a big impression – this time on renowned vertebrate paleontologist Louis Jacobs, now professor emeritus of Earth Sciences and president of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at SMU.
Jacobs became her mentor while she earned bachelor’s degrees in geology and anthropology from SMU. Along the way, she helped prepare fossils that Jacobs and his team had uncovered in Angola. They were exhibited in Sea Monsters Unearthed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where she now works in the Deep Time FossilLab as a fossil preparator.
Perez aims to inspire more young women to enter STEM fields as one of 125 AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadors.
Read more.

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2022 Alumni February 2022 News

Serial entrepreneur’s winning ways

Neha Husein ’19 launched the Just Drive app as an SMU student. Recently she captured the top prize in the WEDallas inaugural pitch competition for ZStash, an innovative platform promoting sustainability by helping wholesalers and boutique owners destash inventory.

Husein’s latest venture, ZStash, is a free website and mobile app designed for wholesalers and boutique owners to buy, sell and destash inventory on an all-in-one, secure platform. Prior to creating Zstash, Husein founded Just Drive, an app that rewards undistracted driving that she created after she was rear-ended by a driver who was texting.

For her triumph, Husein was awarded a $1,500 microgrant from Capital One.

WEDallas is a partnership between the DEC Network and Capital One.

Read more.

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2022 Alumni February 2022 News

Mustang support makes dreams come true

Sienna Dugan ’20 came to SMU wanting to make an impact in global health care. Through Engaged Learning and other projects supported each year by Mustangs on SMU Giving Day, she gained experience that helped her dream come true. Today she helps run a free medical and dental clinic in Honduras. Join with thousands of other Mustangs to support the projects, causes and organizations you care about on SMU Giving Day March 22.
More details about our 24-hour giving challenge will be coming soon.
In the meantime, learn more about SMU Engaged Learning.

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2022 Alumni February 2022 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to some of the great stories, photos and more featuring the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2022 Alumni January 2022 News

Kelvin Beachum, Jr. ’10, ’12 honored as Arizona Cardinal’s Walter Peyton Man of the Year

SMU alumnus Kelvin Beachum ’10, ’12 is a decade into his NFL career, including the last two seasons with the Cardinals. But in those 10 years, Beachum has never failed to put into motion his parents’ lessons of giving back. He was named the Cardinals’ Walter Payton Man of the Year and is now among 32 players vying to become the NFL’s Man of the Year. But such an honor is merely a detail in a life built on such service.
The oldest of four siblings in Mexia, Texas, Beachum grew up in a family hovering around the national poverty level.
His father, Kelvin Beachum, Sr., worked on cars for a living. His mother, Culetta, worked for Mexia State School in Limestone County.
The family didn’t have a lot of money, but Kelvin Jr. never knew their situation since his parents shielded him from that reality. More importantly, Beachum’s parents – even if they had to struggle financially – made sure their children understood the importance of helping others.
Read more at Arizona Cardinals.

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2022 Alumni January 2022 News

Entrepreneurial brothers go ‘all in’

After a decade of working for others in the world of aviation, SMU alumni and brothers Stuart Edenfield ’07 and Curtis Edenfield ’09 founded Thrive Aviation. Read the story of how they got their jet charter company off the ground and why family matters.
Read more at SMU Alumni.

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2022 Alumni January 2022 News

Today’s support sparks tomorrow’s innovations

Mustangs never back down from a challenge. That’s why we’re joining together to address the Hilltop’s immediate needs while continuing to ignite the future. Your annual support will make a world of difference.
Make your gift now.

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2021 Alumni December 2021 Main News

Graduate education for a better world

On Friday, December 3, 2021, SMU broke ground on the new Frances Anne Moody Hall, named for Frances Anne Moody-Dalberg ’92, SMU trustee and executive director of the Moody Foundation. Moody Hall will house SMU’s eighth degree-granting school, the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. Backed by a $100 million gift from the Moody Foundation – the largest gift in SMU’s history – the Moody School began operations in fall 2020. This gift is already transforming graduate education at SMU.
The expansion of research at SMU – a strategic priority that fuels the University’s steady ascent toward achieving Carnegie R1 status – gained momentum with the Moody gift. This bold investment supports SMU’s research mission by attracting outstanding graduate students – the workforce behind groundbreaking discoveries that bolster the University’s doctoral and research ecosystem. New positions that will help SMU graduate students win nationally recognized external fellowships, thrive in their programs and launch successful careers have been filled with extraordinary faculty and staff. The combination of SMU’s strengths in supercomputing and data science, the University’s growing externally funded research and the outstanding graduate education provided through the Moody School drives impactful ideas on the Hilltop and beyond.
Read more at SMU Ignited.

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2021 Alumni December 2021

Gift ideas filled with Mustang flair

Check out products with purpose, fun-loving foods, interesting books and other creative gifts from our talented alumni.

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2021 Alumni December 2021 News

Applications for alumni boards are due by January 31

Volunteers with drive, school spirit and fresh ideas are needed to champion our SMU alumni.
Apply yourself or nominate a fellow Mustang for the following boards:

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2021 Alumni December 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Here’s a look at some of the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop and beyond.

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Alumni News November 2021 Main

Celebrating brave and bold Mustangs

Since 2010, SMU has awarded more than $3 million in scholarships to current and former military service members. There are currently 36 undergraduates and 131 graduate military veterans utilizing the GI Bill at SMU. Support for these brave men and women has been growing over the last several years. These scholarships, in combination with the GI Bill education benefit and SMU’s participation in the tuition matching Yellow Ribbon program, help cover up to 100% of tuition expenses.
Read more at SMU Alumni.

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Alumni News November 2021

Connecting the next generation

Katy A. and Kyle D. Miller ’01 commit $5 million to Cox School of Business expansion and renovation. The Millers’ generous investment will establish the Katy and Kyle Miller Courtyard, part of the future Cox School renovation and expansion project.The new Katy and Kyle Miller Courtyard, an oasis along Bishop Boulevard, will be a place for students, faculty, staff, visitors and corporate partners to gather for lunch, study sessions, discussions and formal events. Enhanced landscaping and seating areas highlight the surrounding historic facades and provide shaded sanctuary. The space features four building entries and a stunning view into the new Commons to the east.
Read more at SMU Ignited.

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2021 Alumni News November 2021

Blazing a new path in Houston

Pony ears, campaign swag and Mustang spirit were out in full force October 30 when SMU Ignited and Mustang football traveled to Houston, home to more than 8,000 alumni and nearly 600 current students.
See photos from the Houston event.

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Alumni News November 2021

The magic begins this month

That’s right, a new season of Mustang basketball begins in Moody Coliseum next Tuesday. The men’s team opens against McNeese, and the women’s team – under new head coach Toyelle Wilson – hosts Missouri-Kansas City.
Get season ticket information here.

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Alumni News November 2021

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to some of the great stories, videos and more about the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni News October 2021

Fostering enterprising spirit

A gift from Kim and William (Bill) Shaddock ’74 will establish Shaddock Hall as part of the building renovation project of the Cox School of Business. The $6 million contribution will foster educational excellence through dedicated spaces for learning, research and collaboration.
“Through this gift, Bill Shaddock and his family are helping to nurture business education and an enterprising spirit in future generations of SMU and Cox School students,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Additions like Shaddock Hall will help the Cox School of Business grow in prominence and national rankings.”
A vital new addition to the Cox School’s building renovation project, Kim and William C. Shaddock Hall will promote strong partnerships and industry research to meet the needs of an ever-evolving business landscape. Providing students with unique learning and networking opportunities, Shaddock Hall will strengthen the Cox School’s position as a leading institution for business education and leadership in North Texas.
Read more at SMU Ignited.

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2021 Alumni News

First-generation student scholarship honors Buddy Gray

The family of a beloved SMU professor has established the Dr. Henry L. Gray Endowed Scholarship in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences to celebrate his SMU legacy and his love for students. The scholarship will be awarded on a need or merit basis to first-generation students interested in majoring in mathematics, statistics or the sciences.
Pictured above, from left, are Robert Gray ’87; Henry L. “Buddy” Gray and his wife, Rebecca “Becky” Gray; Scott Gray ’90; and Kelly Gray Doughty ’96. Gray’s children provided $75,000 as the foundation for the scholarship fund, which now totals more than $100,000. It has the potential to help even more students with additional support from former students and friends who wish to honor Gray’s memory.
Gray was a beloved SMU professor, who served as the Frensley Endowed Chair of Mathematical Sciences in Dedman College from 1973 until his retirement in 2006. During his time in Dedman College, he also served as associate dean, 1980–1988; dean ad interim, 1988–89; and dean of Dedman College and vice provost, 1989–1991.
The new scholarship is not the first time Gray’s family has honored his love of teaching and research at SMU. In 2016, Scott Gray and his partner, Duane Minix, on behalf of all Gray’s children, surprised their parents by establishing the Henry L. and Rebecca A. Gray Endowed Chair in Statistical Sciences with a $1.5 million planned gift.
Gray passed away July 24, 2020, and was preceded in death by his wife.
Read more and contribute to the scholarship endowment by searching for “Dr. Henry L. Gray Endowed Scholarship” or “Buddy Gray.”

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2021 Alumni News September 2021 Main

Homecoming 2021: Thursday, September 30–Sunday, October 3

“Perfect Pairs” is the perfect theme for this year’s celebration of Mustang spirit and pride. The festivities begin on Thursday with the Distinguished Alumni Awards. Friday evening is all about undergraduate reunions. On Saturday, enjoy your favorite Homecoming traditions and the SMU-South Florida football game in Ford Stadium (game time to be announced). Throughout the weekend, a nightly light show on campus will commemorate the launch of SMU’s new campaign. See you on the Hilltop!
See the schedule of events.

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2021 Alumni News September 2021

A new era of engagement

The gift of $3 million from Linda P. Custard ’60, ’99 and William A. Custard ’57 is the largest personal contribution in the history of the Meadows Museum. With matching funds of $3 million from The Meadows Foundation, it will establish the Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture at the Meadows Museum.
These generous gifts from longtime SMU supporters will launch an exciting new endeavor at the Meadows Museum through the establishment of the Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture. Dedicated to the study of the material culture and heritage of Spain, the institute builds on the museum’s excellence in the field of Spanish studies established over more than 50 years. The Custard Institute represents a major stride towards the Meadows’ core mission to be “the leading center in the United States for exhibition, research and education in the arts and culture of Spain.”
“This commitment marks an exciting new chapter at SMU,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “The Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture at the Meadows Museum illustrates the critical role that institutions like museums play in the study of art and culture and their lasting impact on the world. Through their gift, the Custards and The Meadows Foundation will foster profound partnerships and inspire meaningful scholarship that reaches far beyond SMU’s campus.”
Read more.

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2021 Alumni News September 2021

Sparking student success

A $1 million gift from the Hegi Family – Fred ’66 and Jan Hegi ’66 and their sons and daughters-in-law, Peter and Amy ’96 and Brian and Elisabeth (Libby) – will equip students to navigate today’s fast-changing work environment and find lifelong career success through the renovation and expansion of SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center. The Hegis’ generous commitment will modernize conference rooms and the lobby of the center, as well as fund the addition of two new career counselors to equip students with skills that position them for professional success.
“The Hegi name is synonymous with student achievement on campus,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Jan, Fred and their family’s support continues to positively impact countless students during the most crucial point in their lives – their first steps toward a rewarding career. With this new gift, the Hegi Center will be able to provide even more relevant experiential learning and professional development opportunities for Mustangs to gain skills that will situate them for a productive and rewarding future.”

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2021 Alumni September 2021

Things to do and places to go in Dallas

Whether you’re coming back to the Hilltop for Homecoming or you haven’t been out on the town in a while, you’ll enjoy this quick guide to some of Dallas’ best bets written by SMU alumna Meredith Carey ’15, the travel bookings editor at Conde Nast Traveler and host of the Women Who Travel podcast.
Check out the guide.

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2021 Alumni News September 2021

A Little Less Lonely , thanks to students and alums

SMU theatre students and alumni helped create the new Public Works Dallas film, A Little Less Lonely, now streaming for free at DallasTheaterCenter.org.
Developed through remote meetings and rehearsals and filmed outdoors, A Little Less Lonely was made through a collaboration of the Dallas Theater Center, SMU Meadows School of the Arts, SMU initiative Ignite/Arts Dallas, Bachman Lake Together, Jubilee Park & Community Center and the City of Dallas Park & Recreation Department.
Public Works Dallas affords SMU graduate and undergraduate students paid work in their chosen fields and a chance to develop professional networks, notes Clyde Valentín, director of Ignite/Arts Dallas.
“This is an opportunity to really experience best practices with respect to community-engaged work,” Valentín says. “They are experiencing a professional hiring process, which is part of what they need to learn.”
Read more.

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2021 Alumni News September 2021

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these links to great stories, photos and more about the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni August 2021 Main News

Mustangs’ ‘goodwill’ at work in the community

A shared commitment to making a positive impact has drawn the SMU community and Goodwill Industries of Dallas together for almost a century. The challenges created by the pandemic sparked new opportunities for that bond to grow stronger.
Under the leadership of SMU alumnus Tim Heis ’01, president and CEO, Goodwill Dallas is expanding its presence and finding innovative ways to augment its mission of “changing lives, one job at a time.”
Over five generations, SMU community leaders have helped advance that goal. Alumni David B. Miller ’72, ’73; Bill Vanderstraaten ’82; Donald Berg ’70, ’77; R. Brooks Cullum, Jr. ’70; Roland K. Robinson ’72; Jim Johnston ’70, ’71; Stephen Sands ’70; Matt Hildreth ’88; Frank Mihalopoulos ’77; Ronald J. Case ’54 and Charles M. Solomon ’61 each served as chair of the board of directors and left an indelible mark on the organization, Heis says.
Through the years, a host of alumni have served on the board, including Pat Bolin ’73, C. Fred Ball, Jr. ’66, Ray Hunt ’65, Harriet E. Miers ’67, ’70 and Jeanne L. Phillips ’76. An active Mustang contingent is currently involved on the board, including alumni Tucker Bridwell ’73, ’74; Wood Brookshire ’05; Pete Chilian ’97; Ward A. Kampf ’85; Craig Keeland ’76; Andrew Levy ’89; Peter Lodwick ’77, ’80; Kris Lowe ’04; John C. McGowan ’03; Douglas C. Nash ’04; Kyle Miller ’01; Kirk Rimer ’89; Mark Sloan ’90; and Brooke Holman West ’96; as well as Matthew B. Myers, dean of SMU’s Cox School of Business.

Building careers, one internship at a time

With companies shifting to remote operations and cutting back on expenses, many summer internships melted away in 2020. In response, Dean Myers and Jason Rife, senior assistant dean of the Cox Career Management Center and Graduate Admissions, reached out to alumni. Heis answered the call.
“We had just reopened our operations in early May after a six-week closure,” Heis says. He and the nonprofit’s board of directors used that time to reflect on the future. A key principle of their plan to move forward was identifying ways to “emerge stronger.”
“We saw an opportunity for SMU students to help, and we recruited and hired five interns to work on our most strategic projects,” Heis says.
A first step was growing Goodwill Dallas’ footprint “to dramatically increase the number of lives we could impact,” Heis says. Although the nonprofit serves eight North Texas counties, it had physical operations in only three.
Heis enlisted Jimmy Tran ’03 to lead the store footprint and real estate expansion strategy. Tran had recently left CBRE, where he headed corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions, to focus on his own enterprises, including Oaklawn Group, a real estate investment firm he founded in 2007. As BBA students, Tran and Heis were Hunt Leadership Scholars and studied abroad in Australia and Southeast Asia together. After SMU, they went their separate ways before meeting again while each pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School.
Over eight weeks in summer 2020, Tran and SMU intern Gabriela Barcelos ’21 analyzed which of Goodwill’s stores performed best and why, then identified 12 target submarkets where new stores and career centers could be successful.
Barcelos says Tran’s feedback, coaching and mentoring were invaluable. Opportunities to apply concepts learned in the classroom to a real-world project also stood out for her. “It is amazing to see our work come to fruition,” she says. Barcelos received a BBA in accounting in May and is now pursuing her MSA with a tax concentration at Cox School. In summer 2021, she was a tax intern at EY.
Based upon their recommendations, a new Goodwill store opened in Plano June 17. More than a dozen SMU alumni, including board members, friends and employees of the organization turned out to celebrate. Among them was Kate Cox ’21. As an intern she created real-time reports and analytics that Heis describes as “a game-changer.” She also completed a pricing benchmark study.
“I spent the summer working closely with the Goodwill Dallas leadership team to help the organization gain deep data insights into the organization. Along the way, I developed a love for the organization’s culture and began to see an opportunity to make an impact in the community,” Cox says.
She turned down another job offer to become the organization’s first vice president of information technology and business analytics after receiving her full-time MBA in May.
Other summer 2020 projects and SMU interns included: store operations, Alison Sheehan ’21, BBA in marketing, who is now an analyst with Goldman Sachs; telecom and internet sourcing and optimization, Richard Albert ’21, full-time MBA in management and strategy and entrepreneurship; and financial planning and agility, Samantha Stevenson ’22, SMU Dedman School of Law student who previously worked as a senior accountant for EY.
Goodwill Dallas continued its internship program in summer 2021. Full-time MBA student Daniela Garcia Maltos ’22 worked with Kate Cox to help the organization’s business intelligence dashboards and applications move to the next level.
Creating a path for people to reach their full potential is not only at the heart of SMU’s academic charge, but it’s also what Goodwill has been doing in Dallas since 1923 through its donated goods retail operation and workforce development programs. SMU alumni and student interns are helping Goodwill expand possibilities for thousands of people, Heis says.
“SMU has provided each of us with the tools and resources to make a difference in the world, and Goodwill is a benefactor of these combined talents in action,,” he says. “It has been fulfilling to work together to provide more opportunity for people with barriers to employment.”

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2021 Alumni August 2021 News

Alzheimer’s research gets personal

A team of SMU biological scientists has confirmed that P-glycoprotein (P-gp) has the ability to remove a toxin from the brain that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The finding could lead to new treatments for the disease that affects nearly 6 million Americans. It was that hope that motivated lead researchers James W. McCormick ’17 and Lauren Ammerman ’21 to pursue the research as SMU graduate students after they both lost a grandmother to the disease while at SMU.
In the Alzheimer’s brain, abnormal levels of amyloid-β proteins clump together to form plaques that collect between neurons and can disrupt cell function. This is believed to be one of the key factors that triggers memory loss, confusion and other common symptoms from Alzheimer’s disease.
“We were able to demonstrate both computationally and experimentally that P-gp, a critical toxin pump in the body, is able to transport this amyloid-β protein,” said John Wise, associate professor in the SMU Department of Biological Sciences and co-author of the study published in PLOS ONE.
Read more at SMU Research.

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2021 Alumni August 2021 News

Stoking fires of change

Photojournalist Stuart Palley ’11 has become famous for stunning wildfire photos like the one above. SMU’s Chris Roos looks at wildfires through a research lens. Ultimately, their perspectives are the same: Wildfires are getting worse, and there’s an urgent need to adopt coexistence strategies.

Read the story.

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2021 Alumni July 2021 Main News

Thinking big: A new model for college and career readiness prepares to launch

The Dallas ISD’s new West Dallas STEM School recently received expanded support from the Toyota USA Foundation and education champion Carter Creech ’60 through SMU. The new public school is scheduled to open in the fall.
The new Pre K-8 STEM school is set to open this August beginning with students in the 7th and 8th grades. The West Dallas STEM School, a Dallas Independent School District Transformation and Innovation School, is the result of more than three years of collaboration between the school district, the Toyota USA Foundation, SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development and the West Dallas community.
“We strongly believe that all children should have equal access to opportunities and a pathway to great careers,” said Sean Suggs, director, Toyota USA Foundation and group vice president, Toyota Social Innovation. “Together with the community, we have worked on everything from building design, teacher development, curriculum and before and after-school care. This extends also to addressing broader community needs, including access to transportation.”
To further support the school, business leader Carter Creech ’60, an SMU alumnus with a passion for education philanthropy, has pledged an additional $3.5 million, following his initial gift of $1.5 million to the project. Creech’s contribution will go toward a new middle school career and college readiness pilot program at the school, as well as efforts to replicate the West Dallas STEM school.
Read more at Simmons School.

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2021 Alumni July 2021

Coming soon: Mustang football and Boulevarding!

Fall will be here before you know it, so get your football season tickets now. With Boulevarding back in full swing, the alumni tent will return for home games. Plans for away-game tailgates are in the works, including SMU at TCU in Fort Worth September 25.
Read more at SMU Athletics.

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Alumni July 2021

Building a stronger network for all alumni

“Never stop learning and improving” is Kristin W. Henderson’s motto. In her new role as SMU Alumni Board chair, Henderson aims to improve communication, expand connections and fortify alumni relationships.
Whether continuing to set world records with her U.S. Masters Swimming relay team or honing her public speaking skills, Henderson always strives for growth.
She is passionate about SMU and the differences it can make in the lives of others. She sees the value for alumni, students and the community. Working in collaboration with Young Alumni Board Chair Stephen Reiff, Black Alumni of SMU Chair Malcolm McGuire ’14 and Hispanic Alumni of SMU Chair Rumaldo Robles ’17, Henderson is leading the charge to champion shared priorities. The board chairs will work closely together to increase alumni engagement opportunities and lift up each other’s unique board initiatives, such as scholarships and mentorships for underrepresented populations.
Read more at SMU Alumni.

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2021 Alumni July 2021 News

We can’t wait to meet our newest Mustangs

College life awaits the SMU Class of 2025, and it all begins at Summer Send-Off Parties. SMU is hosting hometown events across the country to welcome incoming first-year students into the Mustang family.
As students connect with classmates who hail from nearby, alumni and SMU staff will be on hand to answer questions about life as a Mustang and living on the Hilltop. This is a fun and casual community event that brings incoming students, returning students, new families and alumni together. All alumni are invited to join us in welcoming the newest members to our Mustang family.
Find in-person and virtual events.

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2021 Alumni July 2021

All the right moves for the future

Caeli Blake ’21 learned from a young age the importance of investing in herself. She credits her family, especially her mom, a professional singer and a former professor at Howard University, for instilling in her the drive and fortitude necessary for her to pursue a professional career in dance.
Blake was initially on the path to a double major in dance and advertising, but later decided to switch from advertising to education. “I made the switch, one, because of time, but then I took pedagogy at SMU and realized that I really enjoyed teaching dance. I liked what comes out of seeing what you can do as a teacher and having students.
“My goal with my education degree is to finish my dance career, moving audiences all over the world. Then I would love to teach at a performing high school and eventually become the Dance Division chair at SMU!”
Read more at Meadows School.

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2021 Alumni July 2021 News

Celebrating business leadership and service

The SMU Cox School of Business honored four alumni at its annual Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards Luncheon May 7. Distinguished Alumni Awards honorees included Brad Brookshire ’76 and R. Andrew Clyde ’85. The 2021 Outstanding Young Alumni honors went to Lizzy Bentley ’12 and Elizabeth Wattley’15.
Brookshire is chairman and CEO of Brookshire Grocery Co., which operates more than 180 stores under the Brookshire’s, Super 1 Foods, Fresh by Brookshire’s and Spring Market banners. He is a longtime member of the SMU Board of Trustees, a member of the Cox Executive Board and stays active with a number of SMU initiatives and committees.
Clyde, a member of the Cox Executive Board, has served as president and CEO of Murphy USA since its spinoff as a public company in 2013.
Bentley is founder of CITY Boots, the realization of her lifelong passion for cowboy boots.
Wattley is the executive director of Forest Forward, a nonprofit organization fighting the effects of systemic racism in Dallas through neighborhood revitalization.
Pictured above, left to right, are Brad Brookshire ’76, Elizabeth Wattley ’17, Lizzy Bentley ’12 and R. Andrew Clyde ’85.
Read more at Cox School.

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2021 Alumni July 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to great stories and videos about some of the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni June 2021 Main

Lauding Mustangs’ leadership, innovation and community spirit

We’re excited to announce the 2021 recipients of the highest honor SMU bestows on its alumni:
SMU Distinguished Alumni Award
Liz Martin Armstrong ’82 and Bill Armstrong ’82
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot ’92
Barbara M. Golden Lynn ’76
SMU Emerging Leader Award
Bryson DeChambeau ’16
The extraordinary achievements, outstanding character and community leadership of these alumni make us all proud to be Mustangs. We hope you will join us Thursday, September 30 for a ceremony and dinner in their honor to launch Homecoming festivities.
Learn more at SMU Alumni.

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2021 Alumni June 2021 News

Game. Set. Match.

A $4 million gift from Mark ’87 and Jennifer Styslinger ’86 and the Altec/Styslinger Foundation will shape and sustain future tennis champions in the newly named Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex. This gift is in addition to a long history of support for the SMU tennis programs and complex.Since its opening in 2015, the 45,000-square-foot complex has quickly become recognized as a premier facility for tennis competition and training; it earned the 2019 USTA Facility Award, which was awarded during the 2019 U.S. Open.
“Jennifer and I met at SMU, and we were thrilled to have the chance to support a place that has been so important in our lives,” said Mark Styslinger, senior vice president of sales and service for Altec Inc., a manufacturing company founded in 1929 by his grandfather, Lee J. Styslinger, Sr. “Tennis was fundamental in shaping who I am, and I know this complex has already begun providing opportunities for other young student-athletes to achieve their goals as well, and will continue doing so in the future.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2021 Alumni June 2021 News

Thank you, George Killebrew ’85!

For the last two years, George Killebrew ’85 has been a voice for all alumni. As SMU Alumni Board chair, he led the charge to bring the SMU Alumni Board to prominence and give all alumni voices a conduit to University leadership. His responsibilities included serving as the alumni trustee to the SMU Board of Trustees and on the standing committees for Academic Affairs, Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Development and External Affairs and Legal Affairs.
Perhaps his favorite part of being board chair was the opportunity to speak during Commencement to each graduating class. “This weekend, you’re about to join something extraordinary,” he said at the May 2018 ceremony. “The SMU alumni community is 130,000 strong and spans the entire globe. So no matter where you go, you’ll always have family.”

Tenure highlights

In early 2020, when fears surrounding the coronavirus kept people at home, George rallied the board. He kept them connected with hybrid in-person and virtual meetings. Members worked together to hold a safe and fun Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony during the traditional Homecoming Weekend.
Official @SMUAlumniNetwork Instagram and Facebook accounts were launched. Social media and monthly newsletters highlighted the creative ways alumni and the entire Mustang community came together. Unprecedented times saw an unprecedented response as gifts poured in to support urgent needs in the SMU community.
Alumni Cary Pierce ’91 and Jack O’Neil ’90 of the band Jackopierce kicked off a new series of virtual events for alumni, by alumni, aptly titled Stampede in Place. Other alumni leveraged their unique talents and resources as well in a wide range of ways, from converting existing businesses to accommodate the demand for much needed personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer, to distributing donated personal hygiene essentials and food. Alumni gave new meaning to the term Mustang Strong.
SMU Giving Day 2021 was record-breaking. More undergraduate alumni participated than ever before, by raising awareness about the 24-hour fundraising blitz, making donations and sponsoring matching gifts. And despite having fewer students attending class on campus at the time, more students than ever before donated to Giving Day causes. More than 8,000 gifts comprised more than $2.5 million raised for 216 SMU causes in one day.

George had his sights set on elevating the board from the beginning. And, despite unprecedented times, he successfully led the charge to champion a more connected, invested and informed Mustang alumni community. His term as chair kicked off a new era in SMU alumni engagement. We are so grateful.
– Astria Smith, senior executive director for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

A little more about George

The Honolulu native has been fiercely committed to the Mustang family since his graduation more than 35 years ago. He started as a young alumni volunteer advocate, and, since then, has volunteered on the Tate Board, Athletic Forum Board, reunion committees and in numerous other capacities. During his board tenure, George also dutifully served on SMU’s Pony Power leadership committee, where he helped advance giving for the University’s current-use needs.
George and his wife live in Dallas with their two sons. He is a collector of sports cards and sports memorabilia and enjoys running, golfing, horse racing and cooking. He is an avid Mustang sports fan and attends as many home athletic events as he can.
Currently: Commissioner, Major League Rugby
Previously: Executive vice president, Dallas Mavericks

The next chapter

Last month, George completed his two-year term as chair and will move into an ex officio capacity for one year. On May 14, during the last Alumni Board meeting of 2020–2021, George ceremoniously passed the gavel to Alumni Board Chair-elect Kristin W. Henderson ’82. Her official term started June 1 and will continue through May 31, 2023.
“You have represented alumni well,” says Brad E. Cheves, vice president for Development and External Affairs at SMU, expressing his gratitude to George. “Whether it was during outdoor Commencement ceremonies in 100-plus degree temperatures, at Baccalaureates, at student ring ceremonies – and everything in between.”
Visit SMU Alumni to learn more about our alumni community.

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2021 Alumni June 2021 News

‘Believe in yourself … to unlock your own power’

Watch Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11, founder and CEO of Bumble, delivering the address at May Commencement, and enjoy photos of golden moments as the classes of 1970 and 1971 gathered at graduation and for their 50-year reunion.

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2021 Alumni June 2021

Meet some of our newest young alums

Our newest graduates navigated uncharted waters during three school terms shaped by the pandemic, but they never let that sink their big dreams or cloud their optimism about the future.
Read more: Here we go, Mustangs!

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2021 Alumni June 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out more great stories and videos about the people, projects and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni May 2021 Main News

106th Commencement Weekend May 14–15

SMU’s 106th Commencement Weekend will celebrate our 2,706 graduates as well as our 50-year reunion classes, 1970 and 1971. Alumna Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11, founder and CEO of Bumble Inc., the youngest woman to take a company public in the U.S., will be the featured speaker at the All-University Commencement Convocation May 15 in Ford Stadium. Congratulations, Mustangs!
Watch live on May 15.

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2021 Alumni May 2021 News

Energizing business education

A $15 million gift from Sharoll and Bryan S. Sheffield ’01 to SMU’s Edwin L. Cox School of Business will empower future entrepreneurs by creating new technology-equipped collaborative spaces.
Their generous commitment will establish Bryan S. Sheffield Hall, part of the future Cox School renovation and expansion project, which will provide students with innovative learning environments, enabling Mustangs to develop critical skills that are vital to success in today’s evolving workplace.
Located on the southwest corner of the renovated business school quad, Sheffield Hall will feature Collegiate Georgian style construction with up-to-date classrooms designed for collaboration and data-focused problem-solving. Sheffield Hall will serve as the new hub for Cox School’s Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program, including BBA admissions, academic advising and student records. In addition, it will house classroom space on the lower level and faculty offices on the second floor.
Read more at SMU News.

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2021 Alumni May 2021 News

Picturing stories of strength and courage

A stunning portrait of alumna and SMU parent Thear Sy Suzuki ’96 (center) by former President George W. Bush is among six of his original oil paintings gracing the cover Out of Many, One – Portraits of America’s Immigrants.
Suzuki, a principal and global client service partner with Ernst and Young, survived the killing fields of Cambodia as a child before she and her family were sponsored for immigration by a U.S. relief organization. Suzuki became a U.S. citizen in 1992 and is among the 43 immigrants painted by the 43rd President of the United States for his newest bestseller. Her vibrant likeness appears along with such famous faces as Mavericks’ legend Dirk Nowitzki, baseball star Albert Pujols and golfer Annika Sörenstam; foreign policy experts Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger; and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. All are celebrated in the book – and accompanying exhibition at the Bush Presidential Center –  described as “a powerful new collection of stories and oil paintings highlight the inspiring journeys of America’s immigrants and the contributions they make to the life and prosperity of our nation.”
Read more at the Bush Presidential Center.

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2021 Alumni May 2021 News

Shattering records for participation and generosity

More than 5,200 of you gave a record $2.5 million – up 81% over 2019 – to champion 216 causes you care about on Giving Day. Once again you’ve proven that Mustangs together are a force for good every day.
Learn more about Giving Day.

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2021 Alumni May 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

You can never have too much of a good thing, right? Here are even more great videos and stories about the people, projects and events making us proud to be Mustangs.

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2021 Alumni April 2021 News

New gifts champion SMU Human Rights

Gifts totaling $650,000 from two couples with profound personal connections to the SMU Human Rights Program provide crucial resources for the renowned initiative, one of only seven of its kind in the United States. Through hands-on training and research, community internships and life-changing trips, the Program empowers students to become changemakers.
J.D. Dell, managing director and partner at Big Path Capital, a leading investment bank for impact companies and private equity funds, and Ann Marie Dell, who is currently enrolled in an SMU doctorate program, are pleased to announce a $500,000 commitment toward the endowment of the Human Rights Program in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
Ann is in her final semester of coursework for the Doctor of Liberal Studies degree in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Her concentration and research focus is in the area of Human Rights and Holocaust Studies under Human Rights Program Director Rick Halperin.
The Dells’ initial $250,000 gift will establish the Ann and J.D. Dell Endowment Fund for Human Rights. The Dells have set aside another $250,000 to be used as a matching gift to encourage other contributions. For every $2 that others donate to the program, the Dells’ endowment fund will match $1.
“My wife, Ann, was, and continues to be, the driving force in our family’s interest in the study of human rights and the important role SMU’s Human Rights program plays in educating and creating young, servant leaders who are willing to take on and solve some of our society’s and the world’s most important and pressing human issues,” Dell said. “Simply put, we believe in the Human Right’s Program’s mantra: ‘There is no such thing as a lesser person,’ and fully support the Program’s teaching, mentorship, travel and enrichment opportunities which advance its mission.”
The SMU Human Rights Program empowers its students to become change-making leaders who understand, promote and defend human rights. The program is one of only seven college and university human rights programs in the U.S., and the only one in the South. From its inception in 2006, the program has grown to well over 200 students, majoring and minoring in human rights.
“We are grateful for the generosity of Ann and J.D. Dell, who are longtime friends and supporters of SMU,” said SMU Vice President for Development and External Affairs Brad Cheves. “We are thrilled at the prospect of attracting more commitments thanks to the Dells’ matching gift offer.”
The Dells were moved, in part, to make their gift after participating in the Program’s annual Holocaust study tour of memorials and Nazi death camps in Poland.
Trey Velvin ’86, ’91, ’17 and Dee Velvin ’87, ’92 were similarly inspired. Trey graduated from SMU’s Master of Liberal Studies program with a focus on Human Rights in 2017, and participated in Human Rights Program learning experiences in Vietnam, Cambodia and the southern U.S.
The Velvins have committed $150,000 toward the endowment. The gift expands their long-standing advocacy for people and communities in need as well as their previous support for SMU Human Rights.
Both the Dells and the Velvins serve on the host committee for the Triumph of the Spirit Award Celebration, which will be held Thursday, November 18 in Dallas. The biennial event recognizes individuals and organizations for outstanding human rights activism and raises funds for the SMU Program. Find registration details and more information here.
Read more about SMU Human Rights.

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2021 Alumni April 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these stories and videos about some of the people, projects and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni March 2021 News

A virtual celebration of vital writing

SMU’s Dallas Literary Festival returns March 26–27 with Zoom sessions featuring the diverse voices of more than 100 powerhouse writers. See the schedule and register for events.

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2021 Alumni March 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these stories, videos and more about the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2021 Alumni February 2021

Luck of the draw

When they first met as SMU roommates, Jaime Noble Gassmann ’02 (on the left in the photo above) and Beth McKeon ’02 weren’t sure they would be close friends. Flash forward to 2020, and they’re revolutionizing the startup ecosystem together.
Beth is the co-founder and CEO of Fluent, a Denver-based data technology company that developed the Fluency Score, which works like a FICO score for startups. Jaime serves as the company’s COO.
Since graduation, their paths have diverged for long periods but intersected at crucial points. The connection that took root in their campus home has kept them close through the years. That’s something they didn’t always see coming.
Read more.

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2021 Alumni February 2021 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Check out these links to stories, photos and more about the latest people, projects and events making news on the Hilltop.

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Alumni Fall 2020 News

Speaking up for change

In the wake of nationwide protests, Black students and alumni called for meaningful action to address issues of inequity and bias.
By Catherine Womack ’08
People around the United States and the world reacted to multiple videos of aggressions against Black people at the hands of police officers. In Dallas, as in nearly every other major city in the U.S., citizens took to the streets to protest the deaths and injuries.
“I felt like I had to do something. It’s too important,” SMU junior Tyne Dickson ’22 told The Daily Campus reporter Michelle Aslam, explaining her choice to join a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas in late May. Dickson was just one of many SMU students, faculty and alumni who joined protests in Dallas. On June 3, SMU Head Football Coach Sonny Dykes, along with dozens of SMU players and staffers, attended a protest outside Dallas City Hall, listening and handing out water to those were voicing their outrage against police brutality.
“You have to do what your heart compels you to do and what it tells you is right,” Dykes told The Dallas Morning News.
SMU students and staff also focused atten-tion on issues of inequality, discrimination and racial prejudice on campus. Dickson started a GoFundMe page called “SMUBlackLivesMatter.” She plans to use the money raised through the site to produce Black Lives Matter apparel for students to wear on campus. It’s just one way, she says, students can publicly support the Black community on campus this fall.#BlackatSMUSMU students joined Black Lives Matter protests for racial justice in Dallas.Just like the larger Black Lives Matter movement, the hashtag #BlackatSMU saw a resurgence this summer. Since its inception in 2015, the hashtag has helped bring to light problems of racism on campus and amplify the voices and stories of Black SMU students and alumni.
When the #BlackatSMU hashtag initially went viral, the negative experiences shared sparked SMU President R. Gerald Turner to respond to students’ concerns and demands by initiating the creation of the Cultural Intelligence Initiative (CIQ@SMU). The program was launched to infuse the principles of cultural intelligence into every aspect of SMU’s campus life, provide sensitivity training for faculty and staff and do more to recruit minority students.
This year’s resurgence of #BlackatSMU reveals there is still much work to be done to intensify and finish the work started in 2015 and have a University community in which equality and inclusion are demonstrated in all aspects of campus life.
Black alumni stand shoulder to shoulder with students
On June 9, Anga Sanders ’70, D’Marquis Allen ’16 and the Black Alumni of SMU Board published an open letter to Black SMU students in The Daily Campus. “We hear you. We feel you. We are with you,” they wrote, standing in solidarity with students who posted their stories using the #BlackatSMU hashtag or protested against police violence.
Placing today’s protests in historical context, they reminded current Black students that they are continuing the work of generations of SMU minority students who have pushed the University to become a more inclusive, welcoming and equitable space. They urged SMU leadership to provide accountability, calling for a robust response to Black students’ experiences and demands.
Excerpt from alumni letter to Black SMU students:

“Being a Black college student at a Predom-inately White Institution, or PWI, presents a particular set of challenges, and this is no less true at SMU. When you are not in the majority, when your history and culture dominate neither experiences nor activities, the simple tasks of daily living require greater expenditures of physical and emotional energy. It’s exhausting. It sometimes seems overwhelming. But you are not alone.

“We can say this with confidence because of the rich history of mobilizing that precedes your current station. In 1969, and on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, 33 members of SMU’s Black League of Afro-American College Students (BLAACS) sat in on President Willis Tate’s office to protest the lack of academic diversity and (to call for) the improvement of working conditions for Black employees. In 2015, ABS (the Association of Black Students) helped launch the #BlackAtSMU movement to call attention to long-standing racial insensitivities across SMU’s campus while incidents of police brutality increased nationwide. And at multiple points in between, Black students have raised their voices to seek equality and fair treatment at SMU.

“Today, you all are calling the University to accountability by advancing the #BlackAtSMU movement during a global pandemic and in the midst of national protests in response to the unjust killings of Black people by law enforcement officials and civilians. Though the times have changed, we are uniquely united by similar sets of circum-stances that we most certainly will overcome.

“As present members of ABS, you are playing an active role in honoring the legacy of Black students who came before you. More importantly, though, you are extending a tradition of resistance that will live beyond your time on the Hilltop. While doing so, it is important to express your feelings freely. Share your stories in both cathartic and instructive ways. Listen to the experiences of others, learn how they dealt with them, and internalize the fact that just as they belonged, you too belong at SMU. Though this journey might not always be what you anticipated, you have the power to effectuate change proactively and strategically for yourselves and future generations. The skills and resilience that you are developing now will serve you well throughout your life.”

Read the complete letter.
Through a series of online discussions, President R. Gerald Turner listened to and learned from leaders of Black student organizations, the Black Alumni of SMU Board, staff and faculty. In June, he outlined his early takeaways from these sessions in a letter to the SMU community.
Excerpt from SMU President’s letter to the SMU community:

“Accompanied by Vice President of Student Affairs K.C. Mmeje, Senior Advisor to the President Maria Dixon Hall and our Provost-elect Elizabeth Loboa, I heard firsthand what it means to be Black at SMU. These were not easy stories to tell and they were difficult to hear. Those who participated virtually on calls and by using the #BlackatSMU forum demonstrated courage and love for our University by sharing not just their stories, but also suggestions that will enable our campus to become a true community. For allowing me to hear from you, I am grateful.

“This will be a journey during which we will continue to listen. And there will be action. Next week, we will meet with Black graduate student leaders to ensure that no voice or experience is left unheard. We recognize that there are other members of the Mustang family who want to be part of this process, so I know we will be holding more listening sessions. In the meantime, please continue to use the #BlackatSMU forum to make sure we hear from you and learn of your desire to participate. As we progress, we also plan additional meetings with each of these groups to ensure we stay on the right track to address this systemic issue.

“These important conversations and the themes that are emerging from them are just the beginning. But one thing is very clear: Our Black students, staff and faculty need more allies and advocates on campus to create an environment where they feel they belong. We must affirm that the lives and experiences of our Black students, faculty, staff and alumni matter. Black lives Matter, and Black Mustang Lives Matter.”

Read the complete letter.

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2020 Alumni Fall 2020 News

Appointment of SMU’s first chief diversity officer marks a milestone

SMU has taken a significant step forward in its commitment to open dialogue, diversity and inclusion with the appointment of Maria Dixon Hall as the University’s first chief diversity officer.
As Senior Advisor to the President for Cultural Intelligence and associate professor of corporate communications in the Meadows School of the Arts, Dixon Hall has been managing the Cultural Intelligence Initiative – CIQ@SMU – an innovative, grassroots strategy that she developed to infuse the principles of cultural intelligence into every aspect of SMU’s campus life. CIQ@SMU involves more than talking about diversity. It is designed to spark conversations on how people engage. By bridging the gap between traditional diversity training and real-world knowledge and skills, CIQ@SMU gives every Mustang the opportunity to learn, work and lead in diverse cultural contexts.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to be appointed by President Turner to serve our University in this critical role,” Dixon Hall says. “We are at an important crossroads for our country and campus, and the challenges to reweave the fabric of civility, diversity and inclusion that binds us are daunting. However, I believe that as Mustangs, we are more than able to meet this challenge together in authentic and collaborative ways that affirm the sacred worth of every student, staff and faculty member. Every day, I hope you will walk with me on the journey to create a campus where every Mustang knows they are valued.”
The appointment of Dixon Hall, an expert on power, identity and culture in corporate, nonprofit and religious organizations, reflects SMU’s commitment to purposeful engagement and progress in overcoming the challenges to equity.
“I look forward to working with an incredible team of diverse leaders who are dedicated to the idea that diversity, inclusion and cultural intelligence are not add-ons, but essential parts of what it means to be a member of the SMU community. These leaders, some of whom I entered the University with as a new faculty member, are going to be key in working with me to create an environment in which every Mustang is visible and valued. The African American community, and indeed all of our communities, expect nothing less from me in this new role,” Dixon Hall says.
Reporting directly to President Turner, Dixon Hall will collaborate with SMU faculty, students, administrators and staff to both initiate and report the outcome of diversity initiatives, policies and programs. She will continue to coordinate the delivery of SMU’s Cultural Intelligence and antibias training for members of the SMU community.

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Alumni Fall 2020 News

NeAndre Broussard ’11 uses style to change the cultural narrative about Black men

A photo of one of Broussard’s suited-up flash mobs went viral a year ago. For the SMU alum, his suits are about looking good, of course, but in the long run, they’re really about saving lives.
By Kathy Wise
D Magazine

Two years ago, after seeing yet another news story about police brutality against a Black man, NeAndre Broussard had had enough. He founded his Instagram page, Black Menswear, to counter negative media portrayals with images of Black men dressed in colorful, impeccably tailored suits. The proof of his concept was evident at our photo shoot in The Shag Room at the Virgin Hotels Dallas. Passersby kept stopping to comment on how good he looked, and it was clear that they figured he must be someone of import. That’s Broussard’s hope: to change reality by changing perception. In this case, with a double-breasted windowpane suit from his new BM & Company suit line.
Broussard first went viral a year ago in February, with a photo he had staged in Deep Ellum of a stylishly suited flash mob fronted by an unsmiling 6-year-old boy. The men are slightly blurred in the background. The boy is in sharp focus in the center of the frame, wearing a tiny turquoise suit with a pink carnation tucked in the lapel. He looks into the camera and holds up a single fist, exposing a starched French cuff.
Common, Diddy, Reggie Bush, Tracee Ellis Ross — even the online celebrity news site The Shade Room — all started sharing the photo. But it wasn’t planned, at least not the inclusion of the boy, Harper. A friend of a friend’s wife, who was visiting from Chicago, asked to bring him to the shoot at the last minute. Broussard had staged similar flash mobs before, but the emphasis had always been on the grown-ups.
Tired of police brutality against men who were presumed to be aggressive solely because of the color of their skin, the SMU graduate and insurance businessman created his Instagram account, Black Menswear, to change the narrative. He started gathering large groups of Black men in suits, sometimes organized around a color theme. For the first shoot in Dallas, 20 men showed up. Then 75. Then 100. When he would travel to Philadelphia or D.C. or Chicago for work, he would put up a post and hundreds would show up in those cities, too.
On the day of the Deep Ellum shoot, Dallas photographer Santos Paris spotted Harper and asked him to stand in front of the group. “I told him to raise his fist,” Broussard says. “But how he took it, that was all him. As we like to say, he ate that shot. It was lunch.”
The reason the image was so impactful, Broussard believes, is because Harper was the only child. “You have 99 men behind him, to where it’s like a support system,” he says. “It spoke to so much more than just a picture of a young boy wearing a suit. It was, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ It was, ‘We all got your back.’ It was, ‘You can do whatever you want because we stand behind you.’ That one, it took Black Menswear to the next level.”
Now, Broussard speaks to kids of all ages, talking to them about the importance of appearance. He advises them on what to wear to a job interview, how to tie a necktie, and how to press a shirt or suit themselves if they can’t afford to go to a dry cleaner.
He has flash mobs planned in 12 cities this year, and at each one he’ll host a networking roundtable beforehand that he calls Dapper Conversations. Through these events, his goal is to impact 1,500 additional lives and to create a nonprofit suit bank to which his flash mob participants can donate.
In March, he launched a suit line called BM & Company. The suits are made to measure, allowing for a custom fit at an affordable price. His spring line includes six options, three solid and three windowpane, all of which have functioning buttons and are made of 100 percent European wool.
“Suits are longevity,” Broussard says. “People are always going to be wearing suits. You go look at pictures from the 1920s, and you look at a picture from 2020. One thing that’s consistent? Suits.”
For Broussard, the clothing is really a means to an end. The suits are about looking good, but in the long run, they are about saving lives. “At the end of the day, for me, it’s not about the dollars,” he says. “It’s about the impact.”
Originally published in D Magazine in April 2020. Photos by Elizabeth Lavin and Kendal Lanier.

TOP 5 SUITING TIPS

  • Get it tailored. “If I’m not in a position to buy that expensive suit but I still have the urge to buy one, I go for off the rack and take it right to my tailor. Make it your suit.”
  • Follow the button rule. “Your bottom button is never, ever, ever buttoned. You stand up, you button the top button. You sit down, you unbutton your jacket.”
  • Have a go-to power suit. “It’s like your superhero costume. Some people have lucky underwear, or athletes have lucky socks. I’ve got lucky suits. I know I look good, so the mental battle is already done.”
  • Use your accessories. “For those who like color but are nervous about wearing a colored suit, let your accessories be that voice. Wear your conservative suit, but then use your tie, pocket square, watch, or belt to be your voice.”
  • Invest in the shoes. “I may get a suit for an affordable cost. But the shoes? That’s something that I’m going to invest in because I walk. You might wear the same shoes with four different suits, so you want a shoe that you don’t have to go and buy a new pair in six months because you wore it out.”
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2020 Alumni Fall 2020 News

Successful tech leader sees opportunities for real change

Author, serial entrepreneur and Silicon Valley CEO Promise Phelon ’93 talks about opportunity, bias and why institutions must change to thrive.
Phelon describes her younger self as somewhat “naive about bias.” Growing up outside Dallas, she was often one of the few nonwhite students in classrooms and clubs. At SMU, that naivete was an asset, Phelon says, giving her the courage to lead in settings where she was often in the minority. The successful CEO and author lives in the San Francisco Bay Area today, and has a new book, The Way of the Growth Warrior, written for underdogs of all sorts.
“We have to start talking about the fact that most people are underrepresented,” she says. “Most of us didn’t go to Stanford, we’re over 40, maybe we’re divorced. It’s beyond gender and race. All these things are biased. As an underdog, you often don’t know you are one.”
Phelon says that while she did face bias in college, she also encountered opportunity. She recalls sharing a sorority house with people from massively privileged families, and being stunned to learn how they handled finances and mortgages, borrowed money and invested in the stock market. “I feel privileged that, as someone who considers herself an underdog, early in life I got access to people who were crushing it economically,” she says.

“If you’re an institution of any kind – an organization, government, university, corporation – you can no longer give lip service to change. You have to actually do it.”

While writing her book, Phelon reflected on her time at SMU and how it shaped her. “I found that one of my superpowers is that I am a divergent thinker,” she says. It’s a quality she traces directly to specific classroom experiences and professors. Phelon, who studied world religion at SMU, says she benefited from a liberal arts degree that taught her to think comparatively and empathetically.
“What I learned in religion was culture, anthropology, language, critical thinking,” she says, tools that helped her thrive as a leader in Silicon Valley. As positively as she remembers her time at SMU, Phelon is honest about the prejudice, and how that needs to change.
“SMU was a hostile environment for people of color when I was there,” she says. “As I progressed in SMU’s culture, I saw there was a certain fraternity that was extremely racist. I realized how hard it was to get into a ‘top sorority’ if you were a person of color or if you weren’t pretty or if you weren’t wealthy.”
Phelon is inspired by the people taking to the streets to march for equality and protest injustice. “Youth culture and Black culture have merged,” she explains. “It’s moved from being ‘those people’ to ‘it’s us.’ Youth today feel a deep sense of kinship with people of color … our cultures are no longer bifurcated. We’re one.” Phelon says this movement, fueled by young people, is one the world can no longer ignore. “If you’re an institution of any kind – an organization, government, university, corporation – you can no longer give lip service to change. You have to actually do it.”
When she advises CEOs and other leaders, Phelon asks them to consider the “why” behind their actions to increase diversity and inclusion. She says it’s important for leaders to see, articulate and believe in the benefit of these actions.
“So I applaud President Turner for starting the conversation,” she says. “And I also implore him to effect real change.”
Visit Promise Phelan’s The Growth Warrior website.

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2020 Alumni December 2020 News

Remembering Edwin L. Cox, Sr. ’42

SMU mourns the loss of renowned Dallas business leader, entrepreneur, public servant, educational pioneer and longtime University supporter and trustee emeritus Edwin L. Cox Sr. ’42, who died Thursday, November 5, 2020. He had celebrated his 99th birthday on October 20, and remained active and engaged with family and friends until his passing.
“Edwin Cox’s contributions to and enthusiasm for this University and the Cox School of Business are invaluable. He was a tremendous presence and an inspiring influence for every person who crossed his path, and his work with and for his community has reached across generations and over great distances,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “He will remain an example of tireless drive, selfless spirit and boundless energy to the students of Cox and of SMU for generations to come. He is missed, not only because of his determination to make the Cox School a globally recognized institution, but also because of his character and his unwavering commitment to the students of SMU and to the people of Dallas.”
Read more.

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2020 Alumni December 2020 News

Building enterprising spirit

A $7.5 million gift from Jane R. and Pat S. Bolin ’73 to SMU’s Edwin L. Cox School of Business will foster collaboration inside and outside the classroom, and strengthen students’ advanced data analysis skills.
The Bolins’ gift will combine with a $7.5 million designation by Gina L. and Tucker S. Bridwell ’73, ’74 from their previously announced gift to create the new Bolin-Bridwell Hall, part of the future Cox School renovation and expansion project. Bolin-Bridwell Hall will offer a learning environment that mirrors the evolving workplace and uses the latest technology to build students’ data fluency.
Read more.

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2020 Alumni December 2020

A witness to history

NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake ’07 lives by the advice he learned from an SMU faculty mentor – stay packed, and don’t make any dinner plans that can’t be canceled.
Garrett knew he wanted to major in journalism when he selected SMU. The opportunity to work in the professional-level Pederson Broadcast Studio and the offer of a President’s Scholarship, SMU’s most generous, brought him to the Hilltop.
His first taste of life at a national network came the summer after his junior year when he interned in New York with NBC Nightly News. SMU alumna Lucy Scott ’77, an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster who served as executive-in-residence in the journalism division of Meadows School of the Arts, helped him make the NBC connection.
Read more.

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2020 Alumni Fall 2020 Features News

SMU history: Experiencing challenges and triumphs over more than a century

Today’s health crisis and human rights movement may differ from anything we’ve seen before, but Mustangs of every generation have faced challenges in their times. Sometimes we’ve stumbled. Sometimes we’ve triumphed. But for more than 100 years, we’ve been engaged.
World War I and the Roaring Twenties

1915

A financial crisis and the collapse in cotton prices hurt Texas and the nation. SMU scales back its plans for dormitories in the fall, build-ing three temporary halls for under $40,000. (In 1926, all three still-standing dorms were destroyed in a fire.)

1916–1918

World War I dampens enrollment at SMU from 1,114 (1916-1917) to 1,012 (1917-1918). More than 250 students join the Student Army Training Corps through SMU, and 473 current or former students enter the armed forces. Of those students, 11 die in service. The depressed economy leads SMU into debt that will last years. President Robert Stewart Hyer borrows money to pay professors, using his personal possessions as collateral. Trustees put up their own collateral for loans to keep SMU afloat.

1918

The influenza epidemic invades SMU at the opening of school in September. In October, University officials implement health precautions, including canceling all chapel and church services. Four members of the SMU community perish during the epidemic.

1920

National economic boom and the rise of the oil industry in Texas put SMU on secure financial footing. Following the war, enrollment grows to 1,341 (1920-1921).
The Great Depression

1932–1934

The depression forces SMU to reduce salaries by 20% in 1932–1933, and then by 50% in April, May and June of 1934. Due to these financial challenges, SMU offers its first need-based scholarships to 60 incoming freshmen in 1934. Through it all, SMU students establish several traditions, including two that endure: the live mascot Peruna in 1932 and Pigskin Revue in 1933.

1936

Student Council of Religious Activities and the Moorland branch of the YMCA for Negroes campaign to improve Dallas’ Black high school, Booker T. Washington. SMU students speak at several churches about “Our Responsibility for Negro Education in Dallas” and call for an end to prejudice.

1936–1938

The New Deal’s positive impact on college attendance causes SMU’s enrollment to explode – from 2,445 (1934-1935) to 3,831 (1937-1938).
World War II

1938–1939

Before President Umphrey Lee takes office, he tells the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, “There can be no future for our civilization except a future of tolerance.” During uncertain times, he urges SMU to “emphasize its college of liberal arts” and freedom of inquiry.

1940–1945

As the U.S. gets closer to entering WWII, SMU engineering school facilities are used to train military aviators and others. In 1942, male student enrollment drops from 2,308 to 1,886. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, SMU moves to a quarter system, enabling students to earn a degree in only three years. By November 1942, 27 faculty members have been called into military or government service. The Navy College Training Program (V-12) begins in July 1943 at SMU. By the end of the war, 450 men have participated and nearly 50 have earned SMU degrees. Female students form the College Organization for General Service to support the war effort and increasingly take leadership roles in student organizations. By the war’s end, 127 students and 137 alumni have lost their lives in the service of their country.

1944–1953

Trailerville at SMU during World War IIPresident Lee, anticipating the utilization of the GI Bill’s tuition benefits, establishes the General Co-ordinator of Veterans Education office. The School of Business Administration establishes rehabilitation certificate programs for returning veterans. In fall 1946, 6,780 students (nearly 4,000 of them veterans) enroll – 3,000 more than in any previous semester. Dozens of new faculty members are hired. From 1946 to 1953, many veterans with families live in “Trailerville,” a self-con-tained community including 108 trailer homes.
Post-war Years

1946–1948

Dallas and SMU remain strictly segregated. Beginning in 1946, a small number of Black graduate students begin studying in the Perkins School of Theology, though they do not earn any credits. The 1948 Cotton Bowl football game sees SMU face Penn State, which has its first Black players – establishing the first major southern sporting event with Black and white players competing. After the tied (13-13) game, both teams are honored with a joint dinner at the SMU student center. By 1949, a handful of Black students are attending regular theology classes, doing required coursework and taking exams – all unofficially, with grades being forwarded to the students’ chosen institutions. In November 1950, SMU trustees authorize enrolling Black students as regular degree-seeking students. In 1951, Merrimon Cuninggim, dean of the Perkins School, recruits at Black colleges and enrolls five students who become SMU’s first Black graduates in 1955: James Arthur Hawkins, John Wesley Elliott, Negail Rudolph Riley, Allen Cecil Williams and James Vernon Lyles. The students initially eat their meals only in the Perkins cafeteria and room only with one another. In spring 1953, the four unmarried Black students and four white students choose to become sets of roommates, sparking controversy.

1950

Fall sees the departure of 120 male stu-dents for the military at the beginning of the Korean conflict.

1957

The computing revolution enters its second decade, and the Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik. Remington Rand installs a UNIVAC 1103 computing system on SMU’s campus – the first of its kind on any college campus in the southern United States. SMU, the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and Texas Instruments form the Graduate Research Center, a nonprofit organization housed on the SMU campus and focused on research in the pure and applied sciences.
Civil Rights Era

1961–1969

Nationally, protestors challenge Jim Crow laws and the violence and discrimination against Black Americans. In January 1961, Perkins theology students and others commandeer a “white only” lunch counter at the nearby University Pharmacy until the Black protestor in their group is served. In September, after years of Dallas ISD resisting Brown v. Board of Education, 18 Black first-graders enter several Dallas public schools. In April 1962, SMU admits its first Black undergraduate student, Paula Elaine Jones, who graduates in 1966 with a B.A. in speech. By 1969, about 60 Black students – 40 undergraduate and 21 graduate – enroll at SMU, including Jerry LeVias, the first Black athlete in the Southwest Conference to win an athletic scholarship. LeVias later says, “I was a good teammate on the weekends. I got a good academic education, but I didn’t really have a social life.” During this time, SMU has only one Black faculty member: anthropology and sociology professor William S. Willis, Jr. Racist practices such as Old South Week continue throughout the era and beyond.
In March 1965, a contingent of SMU students and faculty participate in the “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery to champion voting rights for Black citizens. After police attack the demonstrators, eight SMU theology students travel to join the second Selma march, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the third march, 56 students and faculty members join 25,000 other protestors. On March 17, 1966, at the invitation of the Student Association, Dr. King becomes the first major civil rights leader to speak on campus.
In 1967, Black students at SMU create the Black League of Afro-American College Students (BLAACS). In April 1969, BLAACS delivers to President Willis M. Tate a 13-page list of demands; it includes the sentence, “We blacks demand an education which will be useful to us as black people, for black people.” One week later, 34 students negotiate with Tate and other administrators until several agreements are reached, including a goal to enroll 200 Black students and hire five Black faculty members by fall 1969. SMU soon hires its first Black administrator – Irving Baker, assistant to the president and head of the Afro-American studies program – and five additional Black faculty members. Hiring two Black students to help with student enrollment, SMU recruits 50 new Black students – a record number but still far short of its 200-student goal.

SMU student carrying protest sign1965–1975

Inspired by the civil rights moment, the U.S. women’s liberation movement grows. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 extends nondiscrimination protections to educational institutions. By 1965-1966, anachronistic dress codes for women are eliminated. As part of SMU’s 50th anniversary in 1966, the first Women’s Symposium is held, becoming an annual event. By 1970-1971, SMU relaxes or eliminates curfews at women’s residence halls. In 1970, the national Women’s Equity Action League files sex discrimination complaints against more than 300 institutions, including SMU. At this time, women account for only 16% of the faculty, with more than half only being instructors. In 1972, the 15-member Commission on the Status of Women is formed, and one year later, it delivers recommendations for reaching full compliance by 1976. President James

1967–1972

Across the nation, students protest the U.S. military presence in Vietnam. In April 1967, SMU students form a chapter of a national student antiwar group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In May 1972, more than 300 SMU students march to Willis Tate’s office in protest of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon’s extending the Vietnam War by mining the harbor of Haiphong, North Vietnam.
Late 20th Century
1972 Los Chicanos

1971–1974

In 1971, the approximately 50 Hispanic students on campus form the Chicano Association, which soon becomes Los Chicanos. Like BLAACS two years earlier, the group delivers a list of demands to President Paul Hardin III. In 1974, the University names a full-time advisor to Chicano students and establishes the Chicano Studies Council. In 1976, José Gonzalez, SMU’s first Chicano professor, helps establish the Chicano Studies program.

1975–1979

In 1975, four Black students are added to SMU’s cheerleading squad, joining nine white members and officially integrating the group, which is later named best varsity team at a major college campus in August. In 1976, students vote to eliminate quotas for the cheerleading team, which resulted in the team’s having only one Black cheerleader in 1977. SMU student sign: Senat, if you take our votes, you take our voices.In 1978-1979, 230 students are Black, and in an unprecedented write-in campaign, David Huntley is elected as the first Black student body president.

1975–1991

The gay liberation movement surfaces at SMU with the Perkins School admitting gay and lesbian students for theological studies. In 1975, the Student Senate rejects a student organization for gay students, who in 1980 form the Gay/Lesbian Student Support Organization. In 1983, the Student Senate again denies recognition. In response, 3,500 students sign a petition in opposition, and several alumni and faculty write letters of protest. Students on both sides appear on Phil Donahue’s national television program in December. Active debate continues until 1991, when the Student Senate charters the organization, officially renamed Spectrum in 2006.

1986–1994

The Office of Admission hires staff focused on recruiting and retaining students from ethnic minorities. In 1987, President A. Kenneth Pye joins SMU and emphasizes the importance of attracting Black, Hispanic and Jewish students. The Campus Jewish Network is created. New faculty are hired to direct the Mexican American Studies and African American Studies programs, which are combined into the Ethnic Studies program. From 1987–1991, minority enrollment increases 40%. By 1993–1994, minority students comprise 22% of first-year undergraduates and 16% of the entire student body.SOURCES:
Darwin Payne, One Hundred Years on the Hilltop (2016)
SMU Archives/SMU Libraries

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2020 Alumni November 2020

Honoring Mustangs who go above and beyond

Congratulations to our 2020 SMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipients Clark Hunt ’87, Connie Blass O’Neill ’77, Amber Venz Box ’08 (Emerging Leader Award) and Kathryn Kimbrough Waldrep ’72, ’73.

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2020 Alumni November 2020

Mustangs in the Wild: Meet Harvey Luna ’14

When this young alum is not crunching numbers for SMU’s Center on Research and Evaluation or helping family members with their floral business, he loves to play fetch – with his cat.
Read more at SMU Alumni.

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2020 Alumni November 2020

John Holiday ’07 stuns judges on ‘The Voice’

The blind-audition format meant the Meadows alum showed off his high-range talents for the audience before the judges got to see the opera singer behind the jaw-dropping rendition of “Misty.” After winning his battle round, a duet of Steve Wonder’s “Summer Soft,” he’s primed for the third round of the singing competition.

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2020 Alumni November 2020

A candid conversation with Spike Lee

Spike Lee has redefined how we look at Black culture in America through epic films like Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X and, most recently, Da’ Five Bloods. On Tuesday, October 20, during the week of SMU’s 100th Homecoming celebration – he talked with Ace Anderson ’13 about a wide range of subjects, including culture, giving back, empowering the next generation and being a filmmaker. The special virtual event was presented by the Black Alumni of SMU Board in partnership with the Tate Lecture Series and raised nearly $40,000 for the Black Alumni of SMU Scholarship Fund.
Almost every year since 1988, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker has released a new movie. Lee comes from a long line of educators has been a professor of film at NYU for more than 20 years.
Lee’s candid conversation with Anderson clocked in around 40 minutes. Here are some of our favorite moments.
Giving credit where credit is due
Regarding being a third-generation legacy at Morehouse (class of 1979) where Martin Luther King III was one of his classmates: “I’ve got to say this because a lot of time I get a lot of flak because I didn’t take my major at Morehouse. I took my major across the street at Clark College, which is now CAU (Clark Atlanta University). I’ve got keep reminding myself that I’ve got to give love to Clark AU too.”
Who gave him the gift of confidence
“Film found me. My freshman, sophomore year, I was just drifting.”
The “tumultuous summer of 1977” was a turning point for . Lee. There were no summer jobs to be had, so when a friend gifted him a Super 8 camera and a box of film, he started filming.
It was the “summer of the black out – so I saw my fellow Puerto Rican and African American brothers and sisters looting, I filmed that. It was the first summer of disco, so every weekend there were block parties and DJs were hooking up their turn tables and speakers to the street lamps… people were doing the hustle – and then there was a psychopath called David Berkowitz – Son of Sam. It was bananas, New York City.”
After returning the fall of his junior year and declaring a major in mass communications, his focus was set and his grades improved drastically. He went from being a C/D student to an A+ student. Lee credits this change to Professor Herbert Eichelberger, the man who encouraged him to turn his footage into a documentary that eventually became Last Hustle of Brooklyn, Lee’s first film.
“I’m not the only one who has had their life changed by a professor, a teacher, a mentor, someone for whatever reason took interest in you and for me it was Dr. Herb Eichelberger.”
“When someone looks at you and says you have a gift, when they tell you, like yo’ my sister/my brother you’ve got something special, they give you the confidence in something that you didn’t know that you had.”
On launching the careers of many now-famous actors and actresses
“I knew from the get go that there’s a ton of talent out there, but if people don’t get a chance to display their talent, how are you going to be seen? So sometimes when I’m writing I know who I want for the role or what I’m looking for, but other times, which gives me great pleasure, is when someone comes in and my casting director says, you should look at this person, somebody I don’t even know who they are – never met them, never heard of them – and they just kill the audition. I mean that’s a great, great, great feeling when I get surprised like that.”
Advice for the generation that stands before him now on handling the stories that will emerge from our current social justice movement
“It is my belief that in this crazy world that we live in of the two pandemics, I think artists will lead the way. I think great art, whatever the art form be, it is going to be told.”
“In no way shape or form am I negating historians. … We need historians – to tell the truth, but I think that artists will lead the way. I think there are going to be great movies, plays, novels, poetry, music sculpture photography, I could go on and on – that will be the definitive word on what we were going through now, which has never happened before ever.”
“Artists will lead the way. I will put money down on that.”
In response to the question: “As a white artist, how can I be most effective as an ally to help the Black community without misappropriating Black culture?”
“I think if you have truth in your heart, you won’t step into that fuzzy world of appropriation of culture. If you understand it, you know what appropriation is then you won’t do it. And white artists can be involved with the experience. But the tricky thing is that you have to humble yourself and put yourself in the mindset – I’m saying this, but I just can’t come in here Bogarting and telling everybody this is the way that it is. You have to have some humility”

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2020 Alumni News November 2020

Investing in a culture of collaboration

A gift of $11.5 million from Aurelia and Brad Heppner ’88 and family to SMU’s Edwin L. Cox School of Business will strengthen the school’s commitment to fostering the leadership skills of tomorrow’s executives and investing in groundbreaking research that impacts the business world.
The Heppners have committed $10 million to establish the Heppner Family Commons, creating a new hub for collaboration between members of the Cox and SMU community, and a centerpiece of the future Cox School renovation and expansion project. Additionally, $1.5 million to support Cox faculty research will be received from the Heppner Endowments for Research Organizations (HERO).
Read more at SMU News.

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2020 Alumni News November 2020

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to stories, videos and more about the people, programs and events making an impact on the Hilltop.

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2020 Alumni Features News Spring 2020

Carolyn and David B. Miller ’72, ’73 make $50 million commitment to SMU and the Cox School of Business

When former Mustang basketball standout David B. Miller ’72, ’73 and his wife, Carolyn, made the largest single alumni gift in SMU history, the Hilltop milestone made headlines in Dallas. Longtime business columnist Cheryl Hall ’73, who earned her journalism degree from the University, wrote about the publicity-shy couple for The Dallas Morning News. In this excerpt of the newspaper profile, their generous spirit and their love for family, community and SMU shine through.
BY CHERYL HALL ’73
How does a guy who went to Southern Methodist University on a basketball scholarship strike it so rich that he can give his alma mater more than $100 million?
Carolyn and David B. MillerHe parlays the finance education that he earned at its Edwin L. Cox School of Business into co-founding one of the world’s largest private equity firms.
And just how David B. Miller came to do that is one of those under-the-radar success tales that Dallas is so famous for.
Miller and his wife, Carolyn, pictured at right, made headlines in October 2019 when they gave SMU $50 million — the biggest individual donation in the University’s 108-year history.
The Millers’ moment in the spotlight was unusual for this Highland Park couple who have quietly given tens of millions of philanthropic dollars since 2006.
The Miller name is already on the event center of Moody Coliseum and the floor of its basketball court, the campus student center at SMU-in-Taos and the ballroom of the new indoor training center.
The couple’s latest donation is intended to keep the Cox School competitive by modernizing and building facilities, hiring additional endowed faculty and expanding undergraduate and graduate scholarships to increase student diversity.
But frankly, a lot of people outside the SMU community don’t know who Carolyn and David are.

“He treats people with dignity and respect regardless of what their lot is in life.
He’s a believer in collective thinking from smart minds.”

– Kyle Miller ’01 speaking about his father, David Miller ’72, ’73

David was a three-year varsity standout center from 1968-72 and earned his undergraduate degree and M.B.A. in finance at Cox in the early 1970s.
Today Miller is a co-founder and managing partner of global private equity firm EnCap Investments LP, which completed its 21st fund last year with 350 institutional partners. That brought the total amount of funds under its management to nearly $40 billion since its inception in 1988.
Carolyn, a former elementary school teacher in Garland and social worker, closely guards her privacy while rolling up her sleeves to work for social causes such as aiding seniors, protecting battered women and sheltering the homeless.
But $50 million is hard to keep under wraps, especially when one intent of the Millers’ huge gift was to lead others to SMU’s next major fundraising campaign.
The Millers sat down for the first time ever as a couple to share how they came to spread such enormous largesse.
MAGICAL  MOMENT
David Miller keeps a scrapbook close at hand in his home office. Its title: “A Dream Come True.”
“That dream was to play basketball at SMU,” he says, flipping through the worn pages of newsclips and mementos assembled by his mother.
As Miller was about to graduate from Richland High School, the team’s star center had nearly a dozen scholarship offers but not the one that really mattered to him – SMU.
“There was just nothing bigger in the southwestern part of the country than SMU basketball,” he recalls. “Doc Hayes was their legendary coach. My senior year, SMU beat Louisville, the No. 2 team in the country, in the NCAA regional tournament. I was a passionate fan.”
Two days after National Signing Day, the first day high school players can commit to a college, David told his mother at breakfast that he’d reconciled himself to becoming a Red Raider at Texas Tech University. But Fay Ann Miller, now a 92-year-old SMU alum, urged her son to hold out for one more day.

Celebrating the naming of Moody Coliseum’s David B. Miller Court in 2018.

“It was magical,” he recalls. “I show up at the high school the next day, and there is the legendary coach Doc Hayes and his replacement, Bob Prewitt, who was actually my coach, and they offer me a scholarship. And the rest is history. My dream came true.”
Miller earned his undergraduate degree on a basketball scholarship and his M.B.A. in finance on a teaching fellowship, so he never paid a dime in tuition. He says that as he crossed the stage to receive his M.B.A. diploma, he promised himself that he would give back if he ever could.
His first donation was a $25 gift to the Mustang Club and a $100 pledge to SMU’s general operational fund in 1979.
Little did he know just how much he’d be able to pay it forward.
He started his career in energy lending for Dallas’ Republic National Bank, which was one of the largest financial institutions in the Southwest.
In 1980, the 30-year-old and his buddy, Bob Zorich, left Republic to form an oil and gas company in Denver. Seven years later, when energy boom times went bust, the partners sold out and moved back to Texas.
That same year, Miller — backed by the late, legendary oilman L. Frank Pitts and his son-in-law, Bill Custard — formed PMC for Pitts, Miller and Custard, scraping together energy properties viewed as worthless by most investors.
“The major oil companies had all decided that domestic onshore opportunities wouldn’t move the needle,” Miller recalls. “So they had moved to the deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico and international exploration and were selling their domestic properties. There was a wealth of opportunity to buy. You just had to find the money.”
PATH  TO  BIG  RICH
PMC’s first fund raised $20 million with three institutional investors: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a huge medical foundation in Washington, D.C., and two major insurance companies.
PMC eventually became part of EnCap (short for Energy Capital) Investments — co-founded by Miller, Zorich and three other friends from Republic Bank. Frank Pitts considered Miller his adopted son, says Linda Pitts Custard, Pitts’ daughter and wife of Bill.
“Daddy was a wildcatter, as you know, and he appreciated David’s entrepreneurship and his ethical approach to business,” she says. “David is a very personable, warm, affable man. None of his success has gone to his head. He remains just as down-to-earth as he was when I met him 30 years ago.
“The business partnership separated, but the deep friendship remained.”
LIKE  FATHER,  LIKE  SON
David’s son, Kyle Miller, made headlines of his own three years ago.
In 2012, Kyle started Silver Hill Energy Partners LLC, an independent oil and gas company, with $12 million in seed money. He sold it four years later for $2.4 billion to Dallas-based RSP Permian Inc., a publicly held Permian producer. The Oil & Gas Journal called it the “2016 M&A Deal of the Year.”
Kyle says his father taught him and his sister, Meredith Miller Bebee, that their most valuable assets were their word and integrity.
“He treats people with dignity and respect regardless of what their lot in life is. He’s a believer in collective thinking from smart minds,” says the 40-year-old founder of Silver Hill Energy Holdings LLC, which he founded last year.
MUTUAL  ADMIRATION
David and Carolyn married 19 years ago — the second marriage for each.
“I have massive respect for her and what she thinks,” David says, looking over at Carolyn on the couch. “And while I may not agree with some of her political leanings, I respect them. Frankly, if you think about the discord that’s going on in the country, that’s probably the solution.
“She’s softened me.”
Carolyn grew up in Magnolia, Arkansas, a town of about 12,000, before earning her degree in elementary education at Hendrix College in 1974. She also holds master’s degrees in elementary education and in gerontology.

“She’s an extraordinary person who has a great humanitarian persona.”

– SMU Trustee Caren Prothro speaking about Carolyn Miller

The causes closest to her heart are The Senior Source and Shelter Ministries of Dallas, parent of the Austin Street Center and Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support.
“It’s so important for women to feel empowered to leave an abusive relationship,” Carolyn says. “Most abusers are controllers. So Genesis gives women a sense of control over their lives. And with the increase in homelessness in Dallas County, the need for the Austin Street Center is obvious.”
SMU trustee Caren Prothro says Carolyn is a story in her own right. “She’s an extraordinary person who has a great humanitarian persona. An example of that is her involvement with New Friends New Life, a program for trafficked girls,” Prothro says. “She and David are a wonderful duo. They both have their great strengths and passions. Carolyn holds her own and then some.”

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Alumni Features News Spring 2020

Pastor Richie Butler ’93 creates opportunities for crucial conversations about race

Pastor Richie Butler ’93 remembers a particularly heated discussion during a town hall shortly after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, on a street in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014. The conversation grew fiery among the many members of the community in attendance to speak with the leadership of the Dallas Police Department, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and the Dallas County Sheriff’’s Office.
“I noticed every negative emotion and energy – division, anger, mistrust, frustration, hate,” and many in attendance felt that justice would not be served, he says.
But out of that meeting, Butler says, came a calling from God: to serve as an activist in Dallas race relations, to unite factions on both sides of a fractious issue and to build bridges among people of all colors. That’s where Project Unity was born.
Through Project Unity, Butler has galvanized the community around the idea that conversations, not confrontations, will create and sustain relationships among diverse groups. And he has brought the topic to a place where many avoid discussing the issues of politics and religion altogether – the dining table – as well as to a place where differences are put aside during the heat of athletic competition – the basketball court.
“What unites us is greater than what divides us,” Butler says.
This year, Butler took on a new post that positions him to build on the social movement he started. He left his pulpit at St. Paul United Methodist Church, which was founded in 1865 by enslaved people in Dallas, to become pastor of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church, long considered a seat for social change in Texas. “This is a historical church, but we also want to make history here,” Butler says.
What unites us is greater than what divides us.
Project Unity has developed various events aimed at helping heal race relationships between law enforcement and Dallas citizens. One of the earliest, “Together We Ball,” is an annual day of family activities for the community culminating in a basketball game between pastors, police officers and community leaders held each August at the P.C. Cobb Stadium in Dallas. The event draws more than 1,500 participants.
“Together We Learn” is a partnership among the Dallas Police Department, the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, Dallas ISD, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and others to provide opportunities for teens to interact with law enforcement. Several hundred high school students have lunched with officers and received instructions on how to handle traffic or pedestrian stops.
However, Butler knew he needed broader engagement from the community after five police officers were ambushed and gunned down at a peaceful rally in downtown Dallas in July 2016. The gunman, killed in a standoff with police, was an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran who was angry over police shootings of black citizens and stated that he wanted to kill white people, particularly police officers.
After multiple conversations with faith and community leaders across the city, Butler called for a Year of Unity in 2017. In partnership with white Dallas attorney Rob Crain, then-incoming Dallas Bar Association president, the pair engaged leaders statewide and from organizations, businesses and faith institutions, with former President George W. Bush serving as honorary chair.
Richie Butler: It's hard to demonize 'other' when you have a relationship with them.
Year of Unity rolled out more events with “Together We Heal,” a day of activities at the American Airlines Center that honored the fallen officers. A Year of Unity Choir was created with more than 100 diverse voices, and the group performed at the 2017 State Fair of Texas and at a benefit for Hurricane Harvey victims.
The signature event from Year of Unity, one that is close to Butler’s heart, is “Together We Dine.” The project is a series of safe conversations about race over dinner. At tables of six to eight diners and a facilitator, they answer questions about race while others at the table listen. After everyone answers the question, the table opens for discussion.
Highland Park United Methodist Church hosted a “Together We Dine” in December 2019. The event has been held by design several times at the church, in majority white and affluent University Park, to send a message, Butler says, because it is an area where people of color perceive they are not welcome.
Dozens of members from the church have participated in “Together We Dine,” which has provided “enlightening experiences for our congregation,” says the Rev. Paul Rasmussen ’04, HPUMC senior pastor and a member of SMU’s Board of Trustees. “Sharing a meal and being in conversation with people from different parts of Dallas, who had different experiences growing up around race and discrimination, was powerful. It reminded me that the more we understand what someone else has lived through, the greater the possibility for connection and relationship, even if opinions differ.”
Some of the diners have continued to participate in small, diverse groups around the topic after dining together to learn more “about the realities of racism in our community in a setting that allows for openness and honesty,” Rasmussen says. Others have taken “Together We Dine” back to their places of employment, where there were racial tensions that aren’t discussed openly.
Butler hopes that individuals at “Together We Dine,” who come from across racial, economic and social spectrums, experience an epiphanic moment when hearing stories of encounters with racism, just as he did.
Richie Butler: Activism is in my blood.
Butler was raised by a single mother in a low-income area of East Austin. He attended a Baptist church and excelled in athletics, which led to a scholarship to play football at SMU in 1989, when the football program was being revived after a two-year ban because of sanctions (known as the “death penalty) imposed by the NCAA for recruiting violations. He was recruited out of high school to play defensive back by the late SMU alumnus and pro football great Forrest Gregg ’55, whom Butler still considers a mentor.
“He was good man who modeled hard work, discipline and focus, and didn’t allow us to settle for second-rate,” Butler recalls. “Even though the odds were stacked against us (the team went 2-9 in 1989), win, lose or draw, we were to fight, to give our best effort and not back down.”
Other mentors for the double major in psychology and religious studies included Clarence Glover, who taught the course “Black and White”; history Professor Kenneth Hamilton; law Professor C. Paul Rogers III, who has served as the SMU faculty athletics representative since 1987; and religious studies Associate Professor Richard Cogley. He also interned with then-Congressman Martin Frost (D-Texas) in Washington, D.C. “I found people who saw potential and took an interest in my development,” Butler says. “They encouraged me to push forward, to be all that God wants me to be.”
As an undergraduate, Butler knew he had a calling to preach.
Butler says his SMU experience helped shape who he is today. “I learned how to think critically and reflect on the information I was receiving, rather than just memorize and regurgitate facts. At SMU I was exposed to a world different from my working-class upbringing in East Austin.”
While a member of the football team, Butler reached out to other student-athletes around the Southwest Conference (of which SMU was a member at the time) to launch initiatives to help improve opportunities for them, and he lobbied the SMU Student Senate to create a seat for a student-athlete representative. “Activism is in my blood, and SMU helps foster that by directing students’ energies in a productive way toward improving the community,” he says.
Butler continues that activism today, and gives back to his alma mater by serving on the SMU Board of Trustees and Dedman College Executive Board, as well as on the Communities Foundation of Texas board of trustees, the Dallas Assembly and the Real Estate Executive Council. He has received numerous awards for his efforts on behalf of racial reconciliation, including SMU’s Emerging Leader Award in 2008; the 2018 Silver Anniversary Mustang Award; the Dallas Bar Association 2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Award; Dallas Business Journal’s 2018 Minority Business Leader honoree; and the 2019 Juanita Craft Humanitarian Awards Visionary recipient, among others.
Richie Butler and Dallas civic leaders and police.
While at SMU, Butler established lifelong relationships and networks among his classmates, including his wife, whom he met as a freshman. Neisha Strambler-Butler ’93, vice president of compensation and benefits at American Airlines, serves on the advisory board of directors for Project Unity. Butler credits her with keeping him balanced.
“God brings people into our lives for a reason. She recognizes my calling and cares deeply about social ills in society and how to make them right. She’s a brilliant woman, and I leverage her knowledge and experience with American Airlines for social good. We are partners in ministry together,” he says.
Former classmate Paige Dawson ’94, founder and president of MPD Ventures in Dallas, provides marketing and communications pro bono for Project Unity. She and Butler met while living across from each other in Shuttles Hall. When she read in the newspaper about Butler’s work with Project Unity, she reached out to reconnect.
“A great community builder and fundraiser, Richie has that rare ability to get people to say yes, so naturally my firm joined on to support the mission and raise awareness,” Dawson says. She also has served as a host for several “Together We Dine” tables. “At every one there has been some poignant statement or example from a minority attendee that has literally left me stunned at what people still experience.”
Butler knew he had a calling to preach as an undergraduate, even preaching on occasion while in school. He earned his Master of Theological Studies from Harvard in 1996. When he moved back to Dallas in 1998, he put together his first real estate development deal in South Dallas called Unity Estates, a planned community of 285 single-family homes sponsored by the 70-member African-American Pastors’ Coalition.
Solutions will have to come from the people.
Today, he chooses to go by “pastor” rather than the traditional “reverend” because the invocation of the shepherd brings him joy and affirmation, he says. “There’s a greater level of responsibility that goes along with being someone’s pastor.
He contends that solutions to issues of racism will have to come from the people, not the politicians. And he takes comfort in the knowledge that he is making a difference for his two children and their generation through his efforts to bring diverse groups together.
Charlene Edwards ’95, another classmate of Butler’s, holds out that hope for transformative relationships, as well. She became involved with Project Unity in 2017 when he was seeking program and event planning support to launch the Year of Unity, because she was compelled by Butler’s vision to bridge the divide between Dallas citizens and law enforcement.
Early on, she observed at “Together We Ball” events the “camaraderie among the different groups as they came together,” she says. “People’s lives, perceptions and actions are changed. They think before they say something that might be offen- sive, learn to become more compassion-ate about others.”
Adds Butler: “It’s hard to demonize the ‘other’ when you have a relationship with them, when you see them as a human being.”

Categories
2020 Alumni News Spring 2020

Ashlee Hunt Kleinert ’88 shines a light on the tough topic of sex trafficking

A young woman carrying a backpack walked into the Fairmont Dallas bar, sat next to Ashlee Hunt Kleinert ’88 and her husband, Chris ’88, and ordered a glass of water. In her cutoff overalls and tank top, she stood out in the crowd of suits and cocktail attire. The Kleinerts, who were at the downtown hotel for a social event, thought she looked too young to sit at the bar. They guessed she was about 17 or 18.
More conspicuous, though, was the young woman’s trembling discomfort.
“She was constantly looking over her shoulder, scanning the room and scraping her nails along the bar’s surface,” Kleinert remembers. “She seemed terrified.”

New Friends New Life, co-founded by Nancy Ann Hunter Hunt ’65, Pat Schenkel and Gail Turner in 1998, helps human trafficking survivors.

Kleinert, a longtime volunteer with New Friends New Life, a faith-based Dallas nonprofit offering a comprehensive program for human trafficking survivors, recognized the behavior of a young woman being exploited.
“Her pimp likely sat among the patrons, keeping watch while she waited to join a john in a hotel room,” Kleinert says.
When her husband suggested passing along a note about New Friends and the phone number, Kleinert hesitated. Through her volunteer work, she knew that if the pimp were watching, such contact could put the trafficking victim in peril. Torn by the possible ramifications of their intervention, the couple decided not to risk placing her life in jeopardy. Eventually she walked out of the bar alone, leaving the Kleinerts with a new perspective on a growing problem that has been termed a global epidemic.
That experience six years ago became their “paradigm shift,” Kleinert says. The real-time glimpse into the darkness amplified her understanding of the women she had met at New Friends, who were rebuilding their lives with the help of counseling, support groups, education and job training.
“It made us sick when we didn’t know what to do,” she says. “We’ve never forgotten her.”
Kleinert first got involved with New Friends through her mother. Nancy Ann Hunter Hunt ’65 co-founded New Friends New Life in 1998 with civic leaders Pat Schenkel and Gail Turner, wife of SMU President R. Gerald Turner. Over the past decade of volunteering with the nonprofit, she has spent time with survivors as she assisted with meals and childcare and listened to their stories. On her own, she has devoured grim statistics about the international criminal scourge that affects millions worldwide.
She has learned a lot about human trafficking, maybe more than she ever wanted to know. On a topic that can be awkward – or even dangerous – to broach in public, Kleinert has become a vocal advocate for victims.
Walk The Talk
Creating a community that is welcoming to people from all walks of life starts with frank discussions about thorny topics. Since her student days, Kleinert has appreciated the freedom that SMU provides to explore and discuss crucial issues – when she was a student, when her children were students and today.
“SMU students now have such high awareness and regard for human rights issues,” she says.
Ashlee and Chris Kleinert at SMU's The Big Event in 2019.
Ashlee ’88 and Chris Kleinert ’88 at SMU’s The Big Event in 2019.

She graduated with a B.A. in history from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. One of her favorite professors was the late Glenn Linden, a revered historian.
“It touched me, the way he portrayed history as the lives of real people whom we could learn from,” she says. “Throughout history, individuals have made a difference by speaking up – and they still do now.”
Ashlee and Chris Kleinert were involved with New Friends as their three children were growing up. However, like most kids, it took them a while to recognize their parents’ wisdom.
Their oldest son, Tyler Kleinert ’14, ’15 , earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management from SMU and serves as managing director of The Tritex Group, a startup venture firm focused on entrepre- neurial and civic initiatives. The group’s enterprises include Baldo’s Ice Cream & Coffee, a popular artisanal ice cream shop located across from campus on Hillcrest Avenue. An undergraduate economics class taught by Beth Wheaton opened his eyes to the magnitude of the trafficking problem. Wheaton is a senior lecturer of economics in the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences who studies the economics of human trafficking.
“He told me, ‘You’re right, Mom, it’s happening,’” Kleinert recalls about her son’s epiphany. She applauds that “interesting and genius approach” to helping young people grasp the issue through the lens of its everyday economic impact.
Daughter Connie Kleinert Babikian ’12, a senior finance analyst for Hunt Oil Company, holds bachelor’s degrees in finance and economics from SMU and volunteers with New Friends New Life. She served as chair of its 20th anniversary recognition luncheon in 2018.
Their younger son, Travis “T.J.” Kleinert ’16, was motivated by his interest in human rights to pursue a law degree at SMU Dedman School of Law. Now a third-year student, he has provided pro bono legal services for the Genesis Women’s Shelter and Support legal aid program, assisting women with restraining orders and custody rights. He also has volunteered as a children’s activity di- rector at Genesis as well as at St. Philip’s School and Community Center in Dallas.

Kleinert continues a family legacy of taking action where there is need. Her parents, Nancy Ann and Ray L. Hunt ’65, established the Judge B. Elmo Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2014 . The Center is named in honor of Kleinert’s maternal grandfather, a distinguished legal mind and public servant who served as a judge in Western Missouri for 38 years. New Friends New Life refers clients to the clinic, whose services include helping trafficking survivors clear their criminal records.
“Watching the previous generation do something about an issue fosters a feeling of responsibility to pass forward that hands-on, caring style,” Kleinert says.
Ashlee Kleinert quoteThe work of the Hunter Center and New Friends is more important than ever. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, describes sex trafficking as modern-day slavery. Traffickers prey on the vulnerable. They groom victims by creating dependency, often providing clothing, food, lodging and emotional support. Once they have established trust, they pressure or coerce victims into prostitution.
Traffickers are always on the prowl for new victims. They often approach runaway teens within their first 48 hours on the street, according to the Dallas Police Department.
The sex trade is big business in Texas. A recent study ranks the state as second in the nation, between California and Florida, for trafficking activity. In Dallas, sex trafficking is a $99 million a year illicit industry, according to a 2014 report funded by the National Institute of Justice.
Addiction, domestic violence, homelessness and other social ills foster the feeling of powerlessness and vulnerability that traffickers home in on, Kleinert says. Once the victim becomes dependent, “a pimp will say, ‘I’ve been taking care of you, and now I need you to help me,’” she says.
She points out that sex trafficking can be more lucrative and less risky than drug trafficking, which carries stiffer criminal penalties in Texas. A person can be sold 10 times per night compared to the one-time sale of cocaine or heroin, Kleinert explains. Also, today’s technology makes it easy for johns to remain anonymous. They can select their victims and pay in cash through websites and mobile apps.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline ranks Dallas as No. 2 in the state for trafficking activity – a stain on the city, as far as Kleinert is concerned. She worries about Dallas becoming defined by it.
“Trafficking is evil,” she says. “A perpetrator sells human beings like commodities and eventually discards them like trash.”
Ashlee Kleinert: Candid Conversations
While the topic of sex trafficking can be a conversation killer, it’s too important to avoid. Dodging it doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist, Kleinert says. “Sex trafficking thrives in the dark,” she says. “Awareness, education and dialogue light the path to stop it.”
She embraces opportunities to talk about New Friends New Life’s restorative programs and encourage the public to become involved. However, she’s careful to assess her audience first.
“I’ve learned to gauge interest in how much they want to know,” she says.
More often than not, people want to learn about the crime that hides in plain sight, she says. To engage as many people as possible in their efforts, New Friends created a men’s auxiliary in 2015, the Men’s Advocacy Group. Chris Kleinert served as the organization’s inaugural chair.
The group spells out its mission as mobilizing men “to take action against sex trafficking and exploitation by raising awareness through advocacy, education and volunteerism.” A key component of its educational focus is the manKINDness Project, an interactive learning curriculum aimed at teens and young men. It’s designed to challenge masculinity myths and nurture respect for females and one another. MAG volunteers lead young men to connect the ways demeaning language, including obscene comments and jokes, attitudes and behaviors contribute to an environment where sex trafficking is ignored or tolerated.
Call To Action
Last year, Kleinert partnered her popular Ruthie’s Rolling Café food trucks with Dallas’ Café Momentum, a nonprofit that works with at-risk youth, many of whom are homeless and vulnerable to traffickers. Graduates from that organization’s culinary training program can secure paid externships on the food trucks. “We talk about signs of human trafficking with our employees,” she said. “Unfortunately some of these kids have been on the inside of it.”
Sex trafficking happens everywhere and touches all parts of society, Kleinert says. “It’s hard not to see trafficking, once you know the signs.”
A case in point: Kleinert contacted authorities after observing a suspicious situation at a Dallas-area business park where the Ruthie’s business offices were located in 2011. She reported an uptick in parking lot traffic and a sudden surge of men frequenting a neighboring office space. After a period of surveillance, law enforcement shut down what was, indeed, a trafficking operation.
To raise awareness, New Friends New Life and the Men’s Advocacy Group sponsor a free monthly bus tour guided by representatives of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Participants observe telltale signs of human trafficking and exploitation while learning about real cases worked by Dallas law enforcement.
Kleinert advocates bringing as many people as possible, especially those who regularly deal with the public, into the conversation. Electricians, plumbers and other trades professionals can be trained to spot red flags, such as a private residence housing an unusual number of young women.
In recent years, flight attendants have made headlines by spotting teens being trafficked, which points to the importance of training those in the airline, transportation and hospitality industries to learn the signs and join the fight.
“Everyone can be part of the turnaround,” Kleinert says.
– By Cherri Gann ’15
In 2015, Robbie Hamilton turned to SMU’s Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women for help in cleaning up the criminal record she acquired over 25 years of working in Dallas strip clubs, battling drug addiction and experiencing repeated arrests for drug possession. On January 11, 2020, on Human Trafficking Awareness Day, she was issued a full pardon by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after a unanimous vote by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The pardon wiped away convictions for petty crimes that were the final trace of a dark era in her life.
“I’m humbled and thrilled with this. It seems like the beginning of something bigger,” says Hamilton, a youth mentor and survivor advocate at New Friends New Life, the Dallas-based nonprofit that offers a comprehensive program for formerly trafficked women and children.
The Hunter Legal Center, established in 2014 with a gift from alumni Ray L. ’65 and Nancy Ann Hunter Hunt ’65, is named in honor of Mrs. Hunt’s father, a distinguished judicial leader and public servant who served as a judge in Western Missouri for 38 years. The clinic’s services include helping trafficking survivors determine whether their criminal record convictions can be cleared either by order of nondisclosure or expungement. As public information, criminal records appear on housing, employment and other background checks and get in the way when victims try to rebuild their lives.
“Since its founding, the Hunter Center has worked to ensure that survivors of human trafficking do not carry the burden of criminal convictions resulting from their victimization,” says Natalie Nanasi, director of the Hunter Legal Center and assistant professor of law.
For about four years, Hamilton worked with Nanasi and student attorneys who filed legal petitions to seal or expunge five convictions from her record, including three of her four felonies. In 2017, student attorneys began using the web-based Texas Fresh Start Application, a legal app developed by Dedman School of Law students to streamline the process.
“We have successfully represented many clients like Robbie and celebrate this hard-earned victory,” Nanasi says. “We will continue representing survivors, removing hurdles that inhibit their ability to move past the trauma they endured.”
Student attorneys in the Hunter Legal Center also engage in advocacy efforts, educating Texas lawmakers about the need to expand eligibility for post-conviction relief. “We will keep speaking out about this important issue,” Nanasi says. “And joining with partners, advocates and lawmakers to ensure that criminal histories cease to be a barrier to survivors’ healing.”
For Hamilton, the pardon vindicates her own hard work and the persistence of her legal team and New Friends colleagues. “This feels like being part of a shift toward seeing that women are the victims in trafficking and exploitation, not the criminals,” she says.
Now free to live wherever she likes, Hamilton plans to find a new apartment. She also wants to join a Dallas-based ministry that assists the homeless – an opportunity previously barred by her criminal record.
“I’m holding my head up higher,” she says. “I can look the world in the eye and know I have every opportunity that others do.”
– By Cherri Gann ’15

Categories
2020 Alumni News October 2020 Main

Get ready for a Homecoming like no other

We’re celebrating Homecoming Weekend October 22–24 with reimagined experiences for everyone. Whether you plan to be on the Hilltop or cheer on your alma mater from home, we’ve got you covered.
If you can’t make it to the Hilltop for SMU Homecoming, you can count on us to help you get into the spirit of things. Start planning now for your StayHomecoming, and check our Homecoming website in the coming weeks for information about how you can get your very own swag kit. Hail to the red and the blue!
Read more at SMU Homecoming.

Categories
2020 Alumni News October 2020

Passion drives this community bridge-builder

Passionate.
No other word is used more frequently to describe Ana Rodriguez ’03, managing director of the SMU Cox Latino Leadership Initiative.
Spend a day in her office at SMU Cox School of Business, and you’ll see just how much passion fuels this Dallas native, community bridge-builder, and business executive leadership adviser to some of the nation’s largest companies.
“Ana is the right person at the right time with the drive and tenacity to make the difference we and our business partners need,” says Shane Goodwin, associate dean of executive education and graduate programs at the Cox School. “She is absolutely a force of nature.”
As the head of the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI) – the nation’s only executive education program dedicated to the professional advancement of Latinos – Rodriguez helps students and executive-level employees from minority backgrounds transform their lives and careers. The program also helps more than 40 companies –  like AT&T Communications, State Farm, and Walmart – retain and develop C-suite talent, so they don’t miss out on the market value and cultural perspective that Latino professionals bring to the workplace.
As of 2020, Latinos make up over 18% of the population, yet they represent less than 3% of executive-level positions in the United States. Rodriguez knows firsthand what it’s like to struggle to gain a foothold in the U.S.
Read the full story.

Categories
Alumni News October 2020

Fueling the future of business

A $15 million gift from Gina L. and Tucker S. Bridwell ’73, ’74 to SMU’s Cox School of Business will generate transformational economic research and cutting-edge business education for generations to come through the creation of the new Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom. The research institute will examine and promote free enterprise in markets around the globe. This generous gift builds on the Bridwells’ legacy of support for SMU and promises to elevate the Cox School’s already outstanding global reputation.

Categories
2020 Alumni October 2020

SMU Network helps alumni and students make career connections

In today’s world, the trend to work virtually or distanced is growing, making digital networking more important than ever. The new SMU Network is on top of this trend and gives SMU alumni and students a platform to connect, integrate their LinkedIn profiles, filter results by school, class year or city of residence, or  identify as “willing to help” or “needing help.” The platform’s user-friendly features mean a Meadows School of the Arts grad arriving in a new city could find fellow alumni nearby with whom they can connect.
Take Juan Francisco de la Guardia ’10, for example. After several years working in television production in the Dallas-Fort Worth area following graduation, de la Guardia and his wife made the move to Los Angeles. The transition certainly had complications professionally, since de la Guardia needed to establish new connections in L.A. He contacted professors and asked them to connect him with guest speakers from his classes. “My first work was through Meadows Professor Sean Griffin,” de la Guardia says, explaining that Griffin had brought in a reality show producer to speak to his class. “I remembered that guy when I was coming out here, and called Dr. Griffin to ask, ‘Hey, do you have that guy in your Rolodex?’”
Meadows recently conducted internal research showing that students want to interact with alumni and other potential connections but often don’t know how to initiate contact. Fortunately, de la Guardia was extroverted and unafraid to reach out. He ended up scoring his first gig through that connection from Professor Griffin’s class. “If the online SMU Network had existed when we moved to L.A., I would have been on it, looking for Los Angeles film people from SMU,” he says.
Read more at the Meadows School.

Categories
2020 Alumni News October 2020

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to stories, videos and more about the people, programs and events making an impact on the Hilltop.
Watch: Mexico City, Panama and Guatemala chapters kick off Hispanic Heritage Month
Perunapalooza: Scenes from our fave pony’s birthday extravaganza
Bryson DeChambeau ’16 cruises to U.S. Open title with amazing win
Now streaming: SMU Summer Film Productions
Maps for Time Travelers and the geospatial technology revolution
Perkins School to host Leading into Change, November 15–16
SMU community prepares students to research, register and vote
American Educational Research Association honors professor

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 June 2020 Main News

Connecting the SMU community

#StampedeinPlace hosted by the Black Alumni of SMU on June 24 was an evening of listening, learning and growing together by Mustangs for Mustangs.
If you feel inspired to learn more about the Black Lives Matter movement and the history of social and racial justice issues in the U.S., the collection of resources found here invite deeper conversation.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 News

A graduation celebration reaches new heights

Commencement has been postponed, but degrees were conferred on May 16. Our friends at Reunion Tower opened their doors for hundreds of graduates and their families to safely celebrate the day together. We’re so proud of our newest alumni!
See photos of some of our newest alumni.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020

Find out what’s next for our world changers

The COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop our 2020 grads. They shifted to remote classes and continued to learn, create and achieve. Now, these architects of our future are ready for new challenges in corporate careers, public service or graduate school.
Read Here We Go Mustangs.

Categories
2020 Alumni

A new funding lifeline for a free clinic fighting the pandemic

Physician Barbara Stark Baxter can joke now about her resemblance to Sesame Street’s Big Bird. But at the time, donning head-to-toe yellow personal protective equipment for the first time to help a possible COVID-19 patient was no laughing matter.
Baxter, founder and medical director of the Agape Clinic, and her staff weren’t prepared on March 12 when the patient from Hunt County, Texas, arrived at the East Dallas nonprofit. They wasted no time shutting down the clinic and disinfecting the facilities while making arrangements to test the patient the following day. Thanks to planning by Air Force veteran Gary Foster, director of clinical operations, they had the bright-yellow personal protective equipment on hand, and Baxter brought in her own supplies to collect a specimen for testing.
Fortunately, the patient was not infected with the novel coronavirus. However, the situation prompted Baxter and Foster to seek the advice of clinic volunteer Ellen Kitchell, an internal medicine physician specializing in infectious diseases and geographic medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School. Together, they worked out a comprehensive plan to help ensure the safety of Agape Clinic staff and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For almost 37 years, the Agape Clinic has provided low-cost or no-cost medical, dental and other health services, and depends on donations and volunteers to keep going.
One of those essential volunteers is SMU alumna Mary Ann Scott ’65. When Scott first heard about the nonprofit in 2018, she wanted to help. The Dallas consultant in project management, strategic planning and international communications called Baxter to find out how she could be involved.
It turned out that her involvement could run deep. Baxter, who is a Mustang by marriage to the late David Baxter ’72 and the mother of SMU alumna Sallie Baxter ’17, joined Scott in creating The Agape Always Foundation in 2019. Their goal is to expand services and fortify the financial future of this vital community resource.
The foundation was just getting off the ground when the spread of COVID-19 became a global crisis. Now the clinic is on the front lines. On weekdays, the clinic treats patients with acute and chronic medical conditions and refers anyone with severe COVID-19 symptoms to the appropriate area medical facilities. Mild and post-COVID-19 patients are treated through virtual visits.
“Our aim with The Agape Always Foundation is to ensure the clinic’s health and to continue the services that are critical to the well-being of the patients it serves as well as the entire community,” Scott says.
Scott witnessed the significance of serving those in need while growing up in Brownsville, Tennessee, a small town outside of Memphis. Her father was a country doctor whose patients often paid him in chickens, eggs and spring water. “Everyone in town respected my father for his selfless attitude and desire to treat those who were sick even though they were never able to pay,” she says.
She attended SMU on a full-tuition scholarship, earning bachelor’s and master’s of music degrees in piano performance and music education from Meadows School of the Arts.
“Music drives my thinking and approach to my business endeavors,” she says. “The skills that I acquired in music make it possible for me to be a creative thinker, a great listener, a careful strategist and strategic planner, to come up with problem-solving solutions, to communicate effectively with people of all backgrounds and languages, to bring harmony into the workplace and be a good team player.”
Scott says she is looking toward the future, when the nation emerges from the pandemic and “when we all must find a meaningful purpose – a way to contribute to society, to live a more meaningful life, to be of service.”  That is why The Agape Always Foundation means so much to her, she says. “It is a great place to take the expertise I have acquired in my lifetime and leverage for the good of those in need. It is my chance to spread the good word about lifesaving opportunities of service.”
In addition to financial support, Baxter says the clinic can always use donations of much-needed items such as hand sanitizer, surgical gowns, surgical masks, N95 masks, gloves, eye protection, cleaning supplies and medical-grade disinfectants. They also are collecting nonperishable food items for distribution to patients.
To learn more about The Agape Always Foundation, email Scott at mscott@agapealwaysfoundation.com.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 News

Hacking the health crisis

Hubert Zajicek, M.B.A. ’06, a physician and founder and CEO of the Health Wildcatters incubator in Dallas, helped create the Health Hacking Crisis Network to find quick solutions to problems like the face-mask shortage among healthcare workers.
The group was started as a way to share knowledge and resources on actionable ways to help during this time. The goal is to connect people who are willing to share talents, knowledge and ideas, and/or access to useful equipment in order to solve emergency healthcare issues quickly. Professionals, students and anyone who believes they can contribute is invited to join the converation.
Read more.

Categories
2020 Alumni May 2020

Ray W. Washburne ’84 named to industry group charting recovery

M Crowd Restaurant Group co-founder and co-owner Ray W. Washburne ’84 has been tapped by President Donald Trump to serve on a task force developing a recovery plan for the nation’s food and beverage industry.
The prominent restaurant and real estate investor will join a host of the nation’s business leaders apppointed to the president’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups.
Washburne received a bachelor’s degree in history from SMU and serves as CEO and president of Charter Holdings, a Dallas-based investment company involved in real estate, restaurants and diversified financial investments. His M Crowd Restaurant Group includes the Mi Cocina and Katy Trail Ice House chains. He is also president and managing director of Highland Park Village.
He was named to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in 2019. From August 2017 to February 2019, he served as the president and chief executive officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the United States government’s development finance institution. From 2000 to 2017, he served on the board of directors of Veritex Holdings, Inc. He also has served as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Cox School of Business. He is a member of the American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the advisory board for the United States Southern Command.
Read more.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 May 2020

Changing course to fight COVID-19

In just 48 hours, Lucy and Andy Rieger ’09 pivoted J. Rieger & Co. – their family distillery in Kansas City, Missouri – from producing whiskey to making hand sanitizer for hospitals, nursing homes and the community.
The distillery is making sanitizer in two-liter bottles by the pallet these days, working to keep up with the requests pouring in. “I’ve been getting about 500 a day.”
Rieger said it started on a much smaller scale with a request from a nursing facility and a small offering to the public, but the demand was huge.
“It felt for a while there like I was playing God,” Rieger said. “People calling, saying, ‘I have nowhere else to turn; can you help us?’”
Read more.

Categories
2020 Alumni May 2020

Alumna Ti Martin ’82 adds new chapter to Commander’s Palace legend

Since its doors opened in 1893, Commander’s Palace has been New Orleanians’ go-to for celebratory brunches and festive dinners. The novel coronavirus has now forced the beloved gathering place to temporarily close its doors, but co-proprietor Ti Martin ’82 and her team have found other ways to keep the restaurant’s hospitable spirit alive.
Read more at Southern Living.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 May 2020

Necessity is the mother of reinvention

For the Odee Company, co-owned by Steve and Sarah Lodwick Holland ’80, the ability to adapt to shifting demands has kept the business going since 1923. Now the printer is churning out hospital gowns for frontline health workers.
Hospital gowns may not seem like a natural transition for a print shop, but they actually got the idea when a local hospital reached out to them asking if they’re up to the task.
They are now pumping out hospital gowns by the thousands.
Read more.

Categories
2020 Alumni June 2020 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to stories, videos and more about the people, programs and events making an impact on the Hilltop.

Categories
2020 Alumni February 2020 News

SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute registration opens on February 10

Learn about Los Alamos, awaken your artistic skills and sharpen your culinary chops – you can do it all at SMU’s Taos campus, July 16–19.

Enjoy in-depth, hands-on explorations that broaden your outlook, and build memories and friendships that can last a lifetime. Field trips add a vivid dimension to augment your understanding and bring additional perspective to course content. Also woven into the itinerary are lively receptions, SMU’s Ima Leete Hutchison Concert featuring Meadows School students and free time to enjoy a bit of respite and discover Taos at your own pace.

Registration opens on February 10.

Categories
Alumni February 2020 News

Regina Taylor ’81 to be honored at Black Excellence Ball

Award-winning actress Regina Taylor ’81 will be honored as the Black Alumni of SMU History Maker during the celebration of scholarship, leadership and community on February 29.
Black Alumni of SMU and the Association for Black Students will host the ninth annual Black Excellence Ball. Alumni, students, staff, faculty, parents and friends are invited to join in the celebrations. The evening’s emcee will be radio and television personality Ed Gray ’89, ’13.
Among the highlights will be recognition of the Black Alumni of SMU Scholarship winners, Nana Yaw Seffah ’20 and Crystal Tigney ’23.
Registration and information.

Categories
Alumni February 2020 News

Occasional rivals, but Mustangs forever

When the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs met in Super Bowl LIV on February 2, SMU was represented by a Mustang football great and an SMU soccer alum and prominent business leader. Emmanuel Sanders lined up at wide receiver for the 49ers, while Clark Hunt is part owner, chairman and CEO of the Chiefs.
In 17 games this season, Sanders has 66 receptions for 869 yards and five touchdowns. In his first two games in San Francisco, Sanders registered touchdown receptions, becoming the first 49er to do so since Paul Salata in 1950.
For nearly two decades, Hunt has been with the Chiefs leadership, helping the club to the playoffs six of the past seven seasons.
Read more at SMU Athletics.

Categories
2020 Alumni February 2020 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to great stories and more about the people, programs and events making an impact on the Hilltop.
Photos: SMU Dream Week 2020
See international films through February 27
Hear Monica Lewinsky and Lindy West on March 4
Go-show: A big idea for small-screen storytelling
Excellent Educator: Finding the strengths of kids with dyslexia
Coming up: Tables of Content on March 28

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2019 Alumni December 2019 News

Owen Arts Center: Transformation for innovation

SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts paved the way toward the future of arts education with the kickoff of the Owen Arts Center renovation on November 8 during SMU Homecoming Weekend. The $34 million initiative will improve academic spaces in the north wing for visual arts, art history and creative computation, while creating grand, welcoming and accessible exterior entrances.
At the celebration, a $1.8 million challenge gift from Indianapolis philanthropist and former SMU Meadows parent G. Marlyne Sexton was announced, creating a new incentive for others to become part of this transformative project. Previously, Sexton had given $3.2 million toward the project, bringing her total commitment to $5 million.
With this new gift, Sexton encourages admirers of the arts to help the Meadows School reach the remaining $4 million needed for the revitalization of the arts hub, which will enrich the experiences of students and the commununity for years to come.
The renovation launched as the Meadows School of the Arts marks the 50th anniversary of its naming. Formally established at SMU in 1969 and named in honor of benefactor Algur H. Meadows, it is one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States.
The commitment to excellence, entrepreneurial vision and devotion to community that Mr. Meadows embodied are captured in the reimagined Owen Arts Center, where creation and innovation will converge in new and exciting new ways.
“The improvements will serve as a catalyst for Meadows to attract the next generation of talented and diverse visual artists, art historians and multidisciplinary creatives and draw scholars and visitors from across the region and around the world,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said. “We thank our donors for their generous support.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2019 Alumni December 2019 News

End the year by contributing to a lifetime of impact

When it comes to giving, gifts of any size make a huge difference to our world changers. Be inspired by your fellow Mustangs, and make your donation by December 31. Thanks to all who have already made an impact!
See A Lifetime of Impact.

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2019 Alumni December 2019 News

A merry and bright Celebration of Lights

SMU welcomed the community to campus on December 2 to launch the holiday season. Ice skating, the story of the first Christmas and “Silent Night” sung by candlelight created a magical and memorable evening on the Hilltop.
See photos @smufacebook.

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2019 Alumni December 2019 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these quick links to great stories and more about the people, programs and events making an impact on the Hilltop.
Moody Magic: Get tickets for SMU vs. Georgia State on December 23
Tim Cassedy’s Figures of Speech wins national ‘First Book’ prize
Op-ed: SMU, Toyota and Dallas ISD respond to a moral imperative
SMU seeks postdoctoral researchers for new training group
See Holiday in the National Parks at the Bush Center
DeGolyer Library presents Andy Hanson: Picture Dallas, 1960–2008
Perkins celebrates three milestones with 60th Advent service
Geophysicists use sophisticated technology to unmask leak

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2019 Alumni News November 2019

Lyle engineering: High speed, high tech, high impact

Dallas entrepreneur, industry leader and educator Bobby B. Lyle ’67 builds on the farsighted generosity that named the Lyle School of Engineering 11 years ago by designating $10 million to power a new strategic vision for the school. The bold future-focused model will combine innovation, agility and swift responses to shifts in technological capabilities with enduring institutional support.
“Bobby Lyle’s vision, then and now, speaks to the core needs of engineering education to prepare students to solve problems, drive the economy and change lives through problem-driven research and real-world experience,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Today we celebrate Bobby’s leadership and commitment to the future of the Lyle School and SMU.”
The ability to react quickly to promising new ideas is essential for technological trailblazers. To take advantage of opportunities with transformative potential, Dr. Lyle’s investment will support the school’s Future Fund by establishing endowments for Accelerating Emerging Research and Accelerating High Tech Business Innovations. The fund also will support two additional strategic portfolios: Transforming the Engineering Education Experience and Transformative Technology for Social Good.
In engineering, speed is of the essence when developing groundbreaking advancements, Dr. Lyle said.
“Researching and prototyping new ideas must happen quickly to be competitive, while traditional fundraising takes time,” he said. “This transformational plan allows engineering school researchers to be nimble in the fast-changing tech landscape.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2019 Alumni November 2019

Auction on November 20 to benefit SMU-in-Taos programs

An auction of fine and decorative arts on November 20 will benefit the programs supported by the Friends of SMU-in-Taos. View the catalog and bid online, or plan to attend the event at Dallas Auction Gallery.

Read about SMU-in-Taos.

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2019 Alumni October 2019 Main

Mickey’s wild ride

Between bobsledding and winning a seat in the Oklahoma Legislature, Mickey Dollens ’11 also experienced a boom (and bust) in the oil business and a teaching job that he loved (and lost). It has been a wild ride for someone only eight years out of SMU, but as you follow the twists and turns of his story, one thing is clear: Mickey never quits.
Read the full story

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2019 Alumni October 2019

Conducting orchestras across the U.S.

Rehearsing and performing in the Meadows Symphony Orchestra was a revelatory, life-changing experience for Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12.
In 2002, Merrill was a freshman saxophone performance student who had never performed in an orchestra. Growing up in the small East Texas town of Canton, her pre-college musical experiences were limited to private piano and saxophone lessons and playing in the high school band.
“But at SMU I got to play some of the big orchestral repertoire, like Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite,” she says. “I remember that first rehearsal with Dr. Phillips. I was completely in awe of sitting in the middle of this huge orchestra. I’d been in band and wind ensembles, but nothing as massive as an orchestra, and I just remember loving it and thinking it was one of the greatest things I’d ever been a part of.”
Read more at Meadows School of the Arts.

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2019 Alumni News September 2019 Main

‘We look forward to spending a lifetime with you.’

Opening Convocation formally welcomed new students to the Hilltop on August 25. Incoming first-year and transfer students hail from 49 states and 25 countries. They include 295 students with at least one Mustang in their families, and 87 students who are the first in their families to attend college. Find out how some of these new Mustangs are already changing our world.

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2019 Alumni News September 2019

Law alumna named to U.N. refugee protection post

Australian Gillian Triggs ’72 brings decades of experience as an academic, lawyer, advocate and public policy expert to her new role as assistant high commissioner for protection in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Triggs recently served a five-year term as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission. An expert in international law, she has an extensive history of dedicated service to human rights and the refugee cause in Australia, the Asia-Pacific Region and globally.
She holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in law from the University of Melbourne and a master’s degree in law from SMU.
Read more at Dedman Law.

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2019 Alumni September 2019

Stirling Barrett ’11 brings his creativity into plain sight

Stirling Barrett’s sunglasses have been spotted on Beyoncé, Kristen Bell and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. But before hestarted KREWE, a multimillion-dollar eyewear brand that was named the runner-up in the 2016 Vogue Fashion Fund, he learned his “radical attention to detail” at the Temerlin Advertising Institute.“My time at SMU Meadows was extremely positive,” Barrett said. “It helped me develop a dedicated work ethic. And it taught me that traditional art forms were not the only form of creativity.”
Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2019 Alumni August 2019 News

Honoring alumni vision, passion and service to community

Jennifer Burr Altabef ’78, ’81, Martin L. Flanagan ’82 and Scott J. McLean ’78 will be honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards, and Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11 will receive the Emerging Leader Award at the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony and dinner on November 7, which will be hosted in the new Indoor Performance Center at SMU.
Each year, SMU honors four outstanding leaders in philanthropy, business and civic life with the highest honor the University can bestow upon its graduates. The Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony recognizes extraordinary achievement, outstanding character and good citizenship in an event hosted by President R. Gerald Turner and the SMU Alumni Board.
Registration begins at 6 p.m. Alumni and guests will have an opportunity to socialize at the reception preceeding the ceremony and dinner, which start at 7 p.m.
Find more information and purchase tickets.

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2019 Alumni August 2019 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Click on the links below to find more information about the interesting people and events making news on the Hilltop and beyond.

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2019 Alumni July 2019 Main

Finding the intersection of art, code and neuroscience

Stejara Dinulescu ’19 came to SMU as a pre-med student, but fell in love with her art classes. She found her passion for coding and neuroscience research when she added psychology and creative computation to her fine arts major. Her unique interdisciplinary interests led to her acceptance to three Ph.D. programs.
Watch the video.

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2019 Alumni July 2019 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy these great videos and stories about the people and events making news on the Hilltop.
Photos from July 4: Patriotism and Peruna on parade
Watch: Angolans talk about the impact of SMU fossil research
Exploring of-the-moment fashion’s long-lasting impact
Shake Milton ’20 signs four-year deal with Philadelphia 76ers
Redefining art: Sofia Bastidas’ global vision
Swimming and diving programs named Scholar All-America teams
Visit Presidential Retreats: Away from the White House

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2019 Alumni June 2019 News

Cox honors industry veterans and rising stars

The SMU Cox School of Business honored four alumni at the school’s annual Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards Luncheon on May 10. Two Distinguished Alumni Awards and two Outstanding Young Alumni Awards were presented at the luncheon ceremony in the Collins Executive Center on the SMU campus. Award nominations are submitted to the SMU Cox Alumni Association for consideration by a selection committee.

In alphabetical order, this year’s SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni Award winners are Steven J. Lindley and Bruce Robson, both BBA ’74. The Cox School’s 2019 Outstanding Young Alumni honorees, also alphabetically, are Courtney Caldwell, BBA ’00, and Ryan Dalton, BBA ’01.
Read more at SMU Cox.

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2019 Alumni June 2019

Fusing art and engineering into a multidimensional education

Senior Meredith Burke ’19 is a third-generation Mustang who thrives on taking on challenges like juggling a hectic academic and extracurricular schedule. She is triple-majoring to earn bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering (ME), art and math and working toward her master’s degree in ME. “Fusing these majors cultivates my creativity and ingenuity from a fresh interdisciplinary perspective,” Burke explains. “The way I see it, engineering and art have a yin-yang relationship. There’s a crossover between a ceramics in technology class and an engineering materials class because they both involve hands-on learning with similar materials.”
Burke has frequently been recognized as an up and coming engineer during her time as an undergraduate. In 2018, she was named the ASME North Texas Section Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Student of the Year and received an honorable mention for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, based on her summer brain tumor research at UT Southwestern. In 2017, Burke was one of only 11 students to be selected for DiscoverE’s sixth annual New Faces of Engineering College Edition. Students selected for this honor exemplify the vision, innovation and leadership skills necessary for a successful engineering career.
Burke sharpens her soft skills through the Hart Center for Engineering Leadership by attending a variety of seminars, workshops, mock interviews and career fairs. “For me, the Hart Center solidifies SMU’s slogan, ‘World Changers Shaped Here.’ With the Hart Center’s support, students learn essential leadership skills, foster those skills, and then apply them outside of the university,” she shares.
An aspect Burke particularly values about the center is the Hart Leadership Assessment, which gauges a student’s strengths and identifies areas for improvement. “I found ways to apply this knowledge, not only in my engineering and other academic classes but also in a broader sense—it has changed the way I work and connect with people,” Burke says.
Burke is actively involved in many clubs and activities across campus. Her long list of accomplishments includes being a Hunt Scholar, an honors mentor in Armstrong Residential Commons, an ambassador for both Lyle and Meadows School of the Arts, the treasurer for SMU’s Ballroom Dance Team, and the incoming president of Mustang Rocketry Club. As a member of the “Hub of SMU Spirit,” Burke plays the piccolo and is a section leader in the Mustang Band.
“What sets SMU apart from other schools is the ability to pursue multiple majors and experience a strong academic program while exploring various interests. I’ve found SMU is the perfect sized school where undergraduate students feel supported and encouraged to have a multidimensional college education,“ she states.
Burke used her Engaged Learning Fellowship, in which select undergraduate students receive funding to engage in capstone-level scholarly research, to design and build a toaster that can launch a piece of toast greater than 20 feet. She is currently building a circuit to heat the bread. This summer, Burke interned at Raytheon and hopes to use her knowledge of materials and heat to work in the defense industry. Meanwhile, she expects to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest popping toaster and use that experience encouraging young women to consider an engineering career.
“If I am successful in breaking the world record, I would like to visit local schools and Girl Scout troops to show them the fun, inventive power of engineering.”
This story was originally published in the fall 2018 issue of LyleNow, a publication of the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at SMU.

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2019 Alumni June 2019 May 2019 News

Creating new opportunities for Marine vets

Military veterans aspiring to SMU’s innovative graduate education in engineering and business have a new scholarship opportunity with The Milledge A. Hart, III Scholarship Fund for Veterans of the United States Marine Corps. The endowed fund was established in January by prominent Dallas business leader Linda Wertheimer Hart ’65 to honor her husband, SMU Trustee Emeritus Milledge (Mitch) A. Hart, III, on his 85th birthday. The Harts are among SMU’s most generous donors.
“We thank the Harts for their generous and wide-ranging support of visionary initiatives at SMU,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Having Mitch Hart, a Marine Corps veteran who served our country with distinction, associated with this scholarship will hold special meaning and be a point of pride for the military veterans on our campus who will benefit from it as they pursue advanced degrees.”
Each year, in perpetuity, the scholarship will support one or two graduate students who are U.S. Marine Corps veterans and enrolled in the Lyle School of Engineering or the Cox School of Business – and may be applied to tuition, fees, housing, meals, books or supplies.
“Providing learning environments and new opportunities at SMU for students to pursue bold ideas has brought both Linda and me such joy,” said Mitch Hart, a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served five years as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. “A scholarship in my name that opens doors for military veterans heading toward boundless achievement is a wonderful tribute.”
Graduate programs in the Cox School and the Lyle School have the highest enrollments of military veterans, and both schools offer additional financial aid options as well as transitional and educational support.
“The Marine Corps values have guided Mitch’s life. Ethical leadership, service, determination and integrity are qualities that we should be fostering in leaders who will inspire others to take on the world’s challenges,” Linda Hart said. “Mitch has always led by example, and I can think of no better way to pay tribute to him than a scholarship that supports Marine Corps veterans as they prepare to change the world in innovative ways.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2019 Alumni May 2019 News

Accolades for energy industry game-changers

The Maguire Energy Institute at SMU Cox School of Business presented Tim Leach, chairman and chief Executive officer of Concho Resources Inc., with the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award at a luncheon on April 9 on the SMU campus. At the same event, two iconic oil industry entrepreneurs and longtime supporters of SMU, Bobby B. Lyle ’67 and Cary M. Maguire, were honored with the Maguire Energy Institute Pioneer Award.
The Maguire Institute’s Energy Leadership Award Committee considers long-term impact to the energy industry as a key factor when it selects oil and gas leaders for both awards. The Pitts Energy Leadership Award is presented annually to an individual who exemplifies a spirit of ethical industry leadership. The committee identifies industry trailblazers as Pioneer Award recipients.
The annual Pitts Energy Leadership Award event raises funds to support the Maguire Energy Institute, named in honor of oilman and co-founder Cary M. Maguire, as well as BBA and MBA scholarships for students with degree concentrations in energy. A portion of the proceeds raised by this year’s event will help support the educational goals of two SMU Cox students. The BBA Scholarship recipient is Southern California native Johnny Blumberg, a senior BBA finance major, concentrating in energy. A past president of the SMU Cox BBA Energy Club, Blumberg participates in the SMU Spindletop Student Managed Energy Investment Fund. Upon graduation, he’ll be going to work for Concho Resources in Midland, Texas. MBA recipient and SMU MBA Energy Club President Will Zach Hodge is a second year MBA concentrating in energy finance. He is also a Kyle D. Miller Energy Scholar recipient at the Cox School. Upon completion of his MBA, Hodge will work for Caiman Energy in Dallas.
Read more at SMU Cox.

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2019 Alumni May 2019 News

A Texas-size impact on regional art

Jerry Bywaters Cochran, daughter of renowned Texas artist Jerry Bywaters ’27, has donated more than two dozen works of art, including four paintings by her father, to SMU. The late artist served on the SMU faculty for 40 years and played a major role in the Texas Regionalism art movement in the 1930s and 1940s.
“The importance of the art of teaching runs deep in our family,” Cochran says. “We believe the arts are essential to our lives and culture.”
This is the second gift from Cochran and her late husband, Calloway. In 2011, she donated 65 works of art from the couple’s personal collection that included 49 pieces by Bywaters and 16 works by other members of the Dallas Nine, a group of influential local artists of which Bywaters was a leading figure.
Together with works previously given by Cochran, the donation represents one of the largest gifts of art presented to SMU and has become part of the University Art Collection, which is overseen by the Meadows Museum.
“Jerry Bywaters is one of Texas’ most important artists, and this gift makes the Meadows Museum the largest repository of his works,” says Mark A. Roglán, Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum and Centennial Chair in Meadows School of the Arts. “We are grateful for Mrs. Cochran’s thoughtful generosity and her trust in us to preserve the art of this region.”
Additional materials expand the Jerry Bywaters Collection on Art of the Southwest housed in SMU’s Hamon Arts Library. The collection was established in 1980 when Bywaters, who taught fine arts and art history at SMU from 1936 to 1976, began giving his papers, letters, prints and other ephemera to SMU.
Bywaters was a progressive influence on artistic subject matter, accessibility and regional art in the 1930s and 1940s, according to Ellen Buie Niewyk, curator of the Bywaters Special Collections.
“He demonstrated through his own art, and advocated through his role as a teacher, museum administrator and writer, that artists could focus on local scenes and subjects to portray universal themes,” Niewyk says. “Together, the works of art and archived materials create a comprehensive view of the artist’s life and legacy and the regionalist art movement in the American Southwest.”

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2019 Alumni April 2019

Parents appreciate a strong community and abundant opportunities

Meet Chris ’75 and Connie ’77 O’Neill, co-chairs of the SMU Parent Leadership Council. They met as B.B.A. students and have maintained close ties to their alma mater. Connie serves as an SMU Trustee and is a past chair of the SMU Alumni Board. Their son, Jack ’19, is a double major in engineering and mathematics. As they prepare for his graduation in May, the O’Neills reflect on the past four years and look forward to the future in this Q-and-A with SMU.
Why have you remained involved with SMU?
There is an energy on the campus you don’t want to miss. Interacting with current students is inspirational and makes you feel young. We have thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of opportunities to become involved through the impressive programming on campus for alumni and the community. As parents, it is exciting to be able to see our son have the same phenomenal college experience that we had.
What are some of the traditions you enjoyed as students that you are pleased to see continue today?
SMU is rich in traditions that bring the Mustang family together across generations. Every year we look forward to Homecoming festivities, including Pigskin Revue and the parade, and the Celebration of Lights, where SMU lights the trees and welcomes the community to enjoy the holiday season. It’s magical! We honestly believe SMU’s Commencement ceremonies are among the most special in the country. They are rich is tradition and represent the pride we all feel in our students’ accomplishment.
What are some of the aspects of today’s SMU that you have appreciated most as parents?
SMU strikes a healthy balance between maintaining important traditions while adapting to meet the needs of current students. We’re very excited about the Residential Commons. Having students living on campus their first two years builds a strong community that energizes the entire Hilltop. Attracting high-achieving students continues to be one of SMU’s top goals, and we’re incredibly impressed by today’s students. Their talents, their leadership skills, their intellect and their expectations for a unique and quality education push SMU to reach new heights.
What are some of the opportunities your son has enjoyed that you have most appreciated as parents?
Jack attended SMU-in-Taos for J-Term in 2018. He took an engineering course and was able to take a skiing course that satisfied an academic requirement. He enjoyed it so much that he went back in August 2018. Being there in the summer was an entirely different, but equally fulfilling, experience. He has given tours to prospective engineering students and likes sharing his experiences and insights about the things that make SMU so special. He also had an amazing internship last summer through an SMU connection. What makes SMU unique are the personal relationships Jack has been able to forge with his professors and the close friendships he has formed with students from all over the country.
Why did you choose to become active in the Parent Leadership Council?
We both feel so strongly that SMU is THE perfect place to attend college. It is one of a kind in so many ways, and it is an honor to be able to share and explain why to other parents. We also want to encourage parents to get involved on campus. There is really nothing better than connecting with your student’s university. It gives parents a rare glimpse inside the student experience. And we have loved meeting people and making friends from all over the country.
Why is current-use giving by parents so important?
This flexible support immediately impacts all of our students by funding programs and initiatives that are not covered by tuition. It also enables the University to support strategic priorities and new opportunities as they emerge. This not only contributes to great experiences for our students, but also improves the value of their degrees.
What are some of the things that are most exciting about SMU’s future?
Everything excites us about SMU’s future! We’re proud of the quality and diversity of our students, and there’s such vision among leadership to ensure the University stays ahead of the curve on meeting the needs of all students. Decisions are made thoughtfully, and the long-range planning for all aspects of the University, from faculty to facilities, means SMU will be educating bright students to be world changers for generations to come.
This article originally appeared in the February 2019 issue of the Shaping SMU newsletter.
 

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2019 Alumni March 2019 Main News

Celebrating a new home for digital explorers at SMU

SMU took a giant leap forward in the rapidly shifting digital frontier with the groundbreaking of the Gerald J. Ford Hall for Research and Innovation on February 22. SMU Trustee Gerald J. Ford ’66, ’69, his wife, Kelli O. Ford, and The Gerald J. Ford Family Foundation provided a $15 million lead gift to help fund construction of the new 50,000-square-foot interdisciplinary research hub, which will equip faculty, students and industry partners with tools and resources to collaborate, solve complex problems and power new enterprises.
“With this gift Gerald Ford is continuing his extraordinary legacy as a catalyst for excellence and growth for the University,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “His earlier vision and lead gift for the Ford Stadium has attracted tens of thousands of visitors to SMU each year and energized the campus and wider communities. Now, with the construction of the Gerald J. Ford Hall for Research and Innovation, SMU’s student and faculty research initiatives will be transformed, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation.”

SMU Trustee Gerald J. Ford ’66, ’69 and his wife, Kelli O. Ford, with their daughters, Kelli and Electra, at the groundbreaking of the Gerald J. Ford Hall for Research and Innovation at SMU.

Researchers at SMU already are working with industry and community partners on diverse projects such as cloud computing and internet security, adult literacy and cancer research. With recent investments in computing capacity, the recruitment of specialized faculty expertise and investments in facilities such as Ford Hall, SMU plans more collaborative research projects like these in the next decade and beyond.
“This is a critical step in SMU’s journey to strengthen its research capabilities,” Ford said. “The University is creating an exciting space for bold doers and collaborators. It’s the next step in SMU’s ascendancy as a premier research and teaching university, and my family and I are honored to play a role in this process.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2019 Alumni March 2019 News

One day. One SMU. What a difference we made.

Thanks to all who made SMU Giving Day a tremendous succes!
Within 24 hours on March 5, more than 3,200 world changers gave over $1.3 million, fueling research, athletics, learning and service opportunities across the University. The impact of this day will not only be felt at SMU, but around the globe.
Enjoy this video celebrating the Mustang community’s generosity, and if you haven’t already, find your cause at SMU Giving Day.

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2019 Alumni March 2019 News

Shaping the multicultural leadership pipeline

Ana Rodriguez ’03 is “managerially focused and empirically driven” as she helps top companies recruit, retain and develop diverse workforces. Rodriguez was interviewed by the Dallas Business Journal about her role as director of the Cox School of Business Latino Leadership Initiative and its focus on combining practical leadership principals with insights from rigorous research to address the opportunities of today’s diverse, global market.
Read more at SMU Cox.

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2019 Alumni March 2019 News

The Wolves: Game, gossip and ‘atomic girl power’

The Tony-winning Dallas Theater Center (DTC) and the SMU Meadows Division of Theatre are presenting the hit play The Wolves, March 6 through April 14, at Studio Theatre, an intimate black box space on the sixth floor of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, 2400 Flora St. in Dallas. The play continues the close collaboration between SMU’s theatre program  and DTC, with a cast composed chiefly of Meadows theatre students and alumni.
Written by Sarah DeLappe, the play focuses on a competitive high school girls’ soccer team known as The Wolves. The elite squad of nine teenage female warriors meets every Saturday to stretch before their games, and high school gossip rapidly evolves into mature meditations on the girls’ understanding of themselves and their place in the world. The play, which critics called “remarkable,” “exhilarating” and “incandescent,” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017. It will be directed by guest artist Wendy Dann, a playwright, director and associate professor of theatre at Ithaca College in New York.
The Wolves, along with last year’s co-production of Frankenstein, represents a new development in the Meadows School’s longstanding relationship with Dallas Theater Center.
Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2019 Alumni March 2019 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of stories that highlight some of the interesting people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2019 Alumni February 2019 Main News

Latest Hart gift amplifies SMU’s impact on regional economic growth

SMU’s ability to cultivate and launch entrepreneurs for North Texas and beyond received a major boost with a significant new gift from prominent Dallas business leaders and major SMU supporters Linda Wertheimer Hart ’65 and Milledge (Mitch) A. Hart, III. The Harts now are among SMU’s most generous donors.
The Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at SMU will combine the innovative forces of SMU’s Cox School of Business and Lyle School of Engineering. The two schools will integrate their expertise, resources and guidance to develop technology prototypes and create viable business plans.
“SMU will play a major role in the formation of new enterprises and cross-disciplinary ventures thanks to the Harts’ generosity and vision,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “The Hart Institute will stand as a pioneering and lasting example to future SMU donors, reinforcing our role as an engine of regional economic development and job creation.”
Linda Hart said SMU’s focus on creating new knowledge inspired the gift.
“I was inspired to support this institute because I have seen first-hand how technology and innovation have been crucial to my own business endeavors, and they are critical elements needed in solving the world’s challenges,” she said.
“With a new institute dedicated to guiding and promoting entrepreneurial work, the University will continue its march forward as an innovation leader,” Mitch Hart said.
“Providing exposure to forward-thinking mindsets and feeding the enterprising spirit in an academic setting means there is no limit to what can be done,” he said. “I look forward to the exciting work that will be produced here.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2019 Alumni February 2019

Alumna begins historic bar association presidency

Trial attorney Laura Benitez Geisler ’97 made history on January 12 when she was sworn in as the 110th Dallas Bar Association president, becoming the first Hispanic member to lead the organization.

Laura Benitez Geisler ’97

“The Dallas Bar Association is among the strongest and most active in the country, and I’m looking forward to the year ahead,” Geisler says. “I’ve been an active member of the Dallas Bar my entire career, having served on the board of directors since 2006. I am eager to get to work in this new and challenging role.”
Among her goals as president is to highlight the importance of protecting the independence of the judiciary through a series of programs on the history and challenges facing an independent judiciary, the development of a “Life Skills for Lawyers” series and a “Legal Incubator” program designed to help young attorneys become successful practitioners.
Geisler has served as president of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers. She was elected to chair the Dallas Bar board in 2015 and served as president of the Dallas Women Lawyers Association in 2003. As the co-chair of the 2014–15 Equal Access to Justice Campaign benefitting the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, she helped raise more than $1.1 million for pro bono legal services for low-income Dallas County residents.
She received her J.D. from SMU’s Dedman School of Law and has 21 years of experience representing clients in personal injury and wrongful death cases. She has achieved multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients.
Geisler has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and Texas Super Lawyers and has earned a National Diversity Council listing among the Top 50 Multicultural Lawyers in Dallas and Top 50 Women Lawyers. The Hispanic National Bar Association also honored her with its Top Lawyer Under 40 award in 2011. She recently merged her firm to form Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler.
The Dallas Bar Association is a 145-year-old professional, voluntary body of more than 11,000 Dallas-area lawyers.

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2019 Alumni February 2019 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting stories, podcasts and more that highlight some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2019 Alumni February 2019 News

Critics applaud year’s best performances

“Defiantly smart” acting, “stunning original music” and “profound choreography” were just a few of the accolades Meadows alumni, students and faculty recently received from multiple TheaterJones.com critics in their “Best of 2018” roundups highlighting outstanding work by Dallas-area performing artists.
EXCERPT:

Dance
Chief dance critic Cheryl Callon’s list of top works of 2018 included Aladdin by alum Joshua Peugh ’06, created for his Dark Circles Contemporary Dance company, with music by alum Brandon Carson ’16. Callon said, “With its elaborate, thoughtfully designed narrative and stunning original music by Brandon Carson, the evening-length show provided an intimate, almost immersive experience for Joshua Peugh’s take on the tale and concept of the well-known character.” …

Music
Critic Gregory Isaacs’ review of favorite classical music concerts of 2018 included Joel Estes Tate Chair Joaquín Achúcarro’s piano performance with the Fort Worth Symphony on an all-Spanish program; Isaacs wrote, “Achúcarro’s performance will always stick in my memory.” Isaacs also cited the “rare treat” of hearing the Diaz Trio, including cello professor Andres Diaz, in a concert presented by the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth.

Theatre
Critic Martha Heimberg named alum and Kitchen Dog Theater co-director Tina Parker ’91 one of nine outstanding local female directors she would like to host at a dinner party, saying, “I can’t even imagine a party of theater women in this town, or anywhere, without Tina.” …

Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2019 Alumni January Main 2019 News

Laura Bush ’68 honored as 2018 Texan of the Year

Former First Lady Laura Bush ’68 was honored as the 2018 Texan of the Year for her “uncommon leadership,” education advocacy and dedication to causes around the globe to improve the lives of women, children and families. The Dallas Morning News editorial board announced the selection on December 30, 2018, in an article detailing her extraordinary accomplishments through the years.
Laura Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in education from SMU and currently serves on the SMU Board of Trustees.
EXCERPT

Looking across the Lone Star State and surveying the world at large, there is one person who stands out for her quiet ability to unify people behind a common vision, to focus public attention on what’s critical for our society, and to produce change without concern for who gets credit. In a divided world, her graceful style has helped our country move forward on critical issues and enabled her to leave a lasting mark not only in the past year but over a lifetime of work. …

Laura Bush’s life and career have been about learning, and she has helped ingrain in our culture a deeper understanding of the need for public schooling and preserving our history — the need to both develop within our communities the skills necessary to thrive in life and the tools required to understand and expand free and democratic societies. …

Another important area to highlight in Mrs. Bush’s career is her record of leadership in creating new civil institutions. By our count, over the past two decades, she has founded or co-founded at least a half-dozen nonprofits and other initiatives that continue to improve our world. …

Read more at The Dallas Morning News.

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2019 Alumni January 2019

Three alums recognized as top young innovators by Forbes

The artist and KREWE founder using fashion as his medium. The National Football League social maven harnessing big data for big engagement. The New York Jets tackle with a passion for startups and STEM education. What do they have in common? They’re SMU alums named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, the magazine’s chronicle of “the brashest entrepreneurs across the United States and Canada.”

EXCERPT:

Stirling Barrett ’11

Starting when he was a teenager, New Orleans native Barrett found a market for his photographic collages. For five years after college, he supported himself by selling his artwork and flirted with opening a New Orleans gallery. Instead he took his savings and self-financed the launch of KREWE, an eyewear brand that includes sunglasses, prescription glasses and soon, sports eyewear. KREWE’s frames are plant-based Italian acetate with lightweight lenses. The company has two stores in New Orleans, a small Soho boutique that opened in 2018 and two traveling tiny house stores. It replaces any frame that breaks, in perpetuity. KREWE’s celebrity following includes Gigi Hadid, Serena Williams, Beyoncé, Kendall Jenner.

Barrett received a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Meadows School of the Arts.

Kelvin Beachum, Jr. ’10, ’12

When Beachum isn’t protecting quarterbacks, he’s padding his portfolio. With stakes in over 20 companies, he focuses on the manufacturing, agricultural and autonomous robotics industries. He also serves on the advisory board of OneTeam Collective, an accelerator connecting companies to athletes and their IP.

Beachum received the 2018  Emerging Leader Award from SMU and has been nominated for the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and a Master of Liberal Studies degree from the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

Sana Merchant ’11

Merchant advises the NFL’s 32 clubs’ executive teams on their social media strategy. She also oversees all social reporting that is distributed from the NFL to the clubs and helps teams analyze the data. She leads relationships with all major social platforms with which the NFL has deals, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. She launched the Social Managers Workshop, an annual meeting for teams’ social staff.

Merchant received a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications and public affairs from Meadows School of the Arts.

Read more at Forbes.

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2019 Alumni January 2019 News

A familiar name returns to the basketball court

“I’ve had an almost five-decade association with this University, and I tell people all the time it’s been a 50-year love affair,” David B. Miller ’72, ’73 said before the SMU men’s basketball game against TCU on December 5.
At halftime, SMU named the Moody Coliseum court in honor of Miller, a basketball alumnus and vice chair of the SMU Board of Trustees. The move cemented Miller’s legacy as a generous and important pillar of the SMU basketball family.
Growing up, it was always Miller’s dream to attend and play basketball at SMU, which was a dominant force in the Southwest Conference in the 1960s.
“The day Bob Prewitt and Doc Hayes came into my high school gym in 1968 and offered me a scholarship, other than the birth of my children and my grandchildren and my marriage, was the biggest day of my life,” Miller said. “That dream came true that day.”
Miller earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the Cox School of Business. As an undergraduate, he was a three-year starter and letterman on the varsity basketball team and a member of the 1971-72 Southwest Conference Co-Championship team.
Since 2011, Miller and his wife, Carolyn Lacy Miller, have given $20 million toward the expansion and renovation of Moody Coliseum as well as the construction of the Miller Event Center.
He has served on the SMU Board of Trustees since 2008 and also serves as chairman of the Cox Executive Board. He is a recipient of Distinguished Alumni Awards from both the University and the Cox School. In 2009, Miller was honored with the Silver Anniversary Mustang Award by the SMU Lettermen’s Association. He is also a recipient of the Methodist Health System Foundation’s 2017 Folsom Leadership Award.
Read more at SMU Athletics.

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2019 Alumni January 2019

Mexico match becomes mini Mustang golf reunion

There was an SMU reunion in Mexico on December 13, when former Mustang golfers Sam Fidone ’15, Harry Higgs ’14 and Austin Smotherman’16 competed in the Go Vacaciones Cozumel Cup.
The fourth annual event pits 10 players from the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada vs. 10 players from the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada in a Presidents Cup-Ryder Cup-style competition.
The Go Vacaciones Cozumel Cup featured Fidone captaining Team Mackenzie Tour, while Higgs served as captain of Team Latinoamerica and played alongside Smotherman.
In an interesting twist, Fidone is a veteran of both Tours, playing in Canada most recently. This season, he won the Bayview Place Open in Victoria, British Columbia, and finished sixth on the Order of Merit.
Two weeks ago in Miami, at the season-ending Latinoamerica Tour Championship – Shell Championship, Higgs secured the Order of Merit title by $64 over Colombia’s Nicolas Echavarria. In his last four starts, Higgs enjoyed a win (Diners Club Peru Open), finished third (Neuquen Argentina Classic), tied for second (113th Visa Argentina Open) and tied for fourth (Shell Championship).
Read more.

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2018 Alumni December 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting stories and videos highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni November 2018

Telling stories of ‘hope that change is coming’

When 17-year-old Petya Kertikova competed in the European Youth Olympic Festival in Lignano, Italy, back in 2005, she had never heard of SMU. Then the powerhouse runner for the Bulgarian national track team placed fourth in the 3,000-meter competition. That one race, filled with top athletes from all over Europe, changed the course of her life. In the stadium that day was then-SMU Track and Field Head Coach David Wollman. He sprinted over to meet her, and within days Kertikova was offered a full sports scholarship to SMU.
“It was a tough decision,” says Kertikova, who never before had thought about leaving Bulgaria. “America was an unknown country to me back then. It was another continent, something I used to hear about only in the movies.”
But an old Bulgarian saying nudged her to consider the offer. “‘The bird lands on your shoulder only once in a lifetime,’” she says. She accepted the offer.
Her first two years in America were difficult. Her biggest hurdle: understanding English.
“I did study it in my high school, but it wasn’t enough for me and my studies at SMU,” she says. “When I went to Dallas I took more English courses. There were people at SMU’s Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center [ALEC] who helped me a great deal.”
While she was meeting new friends and running track, money was another barrier. “It was really tough for me to cope with all the stress, being in a new country when I knew only a few words, starting from scratch at a brand new and really different place, having very little money,” she recalls. “My parents gave me less than $100. I struggled when ordering food, or when shopping at the store, simple things that were hard to do back then. I cried a lot. I remember looking at my suitcases under the bed in my dorm room thinking about leaving America and coming back to Bulgaria.”
Instead, she stayed. An overachiever at heart, she doubled down on her studies.
“I learned every day. My first two years at SMU were simply a test for my will. Looking back now, going to the U.S. was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, even though it was really hard for me the first few years.”
Fast forward to today: After graduating from SMU in 2011 with a degree in journalism, Kertikova worked as a news anchor for BiT TV, a Bulgarian-content station located in Chicago. She then returned to Bulgaria in late 2016 and worked for BiT in its Bulgarian studio for a year and a half. Recently, she accepted a position as a news anchor at Bulgaria On Air, a national television network located in Sofia, the country’s capital.
Of the many stories she covers every week, one topic in particular is close to her heart: stories of Bulgarians who left the country for better education or employment, but then returned. She is on fire with that topic, having walked that path herself.
Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2018 Alumni November 2018

Here’s the scoop on a new sweet spot across from campus

Denver transplants Will Ammons ’16 and Schuyler Grey ’16 agree that there was one thing missing from their student experience. So they’ve teamed up with Tyler Kleinert ’14 to open a neighborhood ice cream shop. The Daily Campus shared the news about the new alumni venture on October 18, 2018.
EXCERPT:

By Catherine Neilson
The Daily Campus

When Schuyler Grey and Will Ammons moved from Denver to Dallas to attend Southern Methodist University, they noticed the neighborhood around campus was missing a go-to neighborhood ice cream shop. The friends grew up grabbing scoops from the ice cream parlor down the block.

When they graduated in 2016, they teamed up with their friend Tyler Kleinert to do something about it. Their new Scoop Shop Café, Baldo’s, opens soon on Hillcrest Avenue. What started as a popular Dallas food cart with the help of local artist and chef, Aldo Sandoval, is now turning into a brick-and-mortar store in the old Goff’s space. It’s a convenient location for SMU students wanting a treat on a hot Dallas afternoon.

“After graduation, we started a company called the Tritex Group, with the goal of starting new businesses,” Grey said. “Baldo’s is our first shot at starting a business under the umbrella of the Tritex Group.”

The friends struggled with an idea first and wanted Baldo’s to be more than just ice cream.

“The idea was originally a cookie dough shop, modeled after some of the popular cookie dough shops in New York City and LA,” Kleinert said. “It has since evolved into what we call a ‘scoop shop café’—a hybrid ice cream shop and coffee shop.”

The three friends took their seedling of an idea and borrowed the best parts of other restaurant concepts, including quality coffee, European style pastry displays, homemade teas, and, of course, cookie dough to create Baldo’s. All of the ice cream is made from scratch in-store by Aldo. That homemade quality is just one of the things that makes their shop unique.

Read more at The Daily Campus.

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2018 Alumni News November 2018

Mini masterpieces and big fun at the Meadows Museum

The Meadows Museum hosted Dalí in the Dark after-hours events for alumni and students in conjunction with the Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936 exhibit, which continues through December 9. More than 150 alumni enjoyed the paintings and Dalí-themed activities on October 24, while over 600 students participated in the interactive art experience on September 15.

With Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936, the Meadows has organized the first in-depth exploration of the artist’s small-scale paintings — some measuring just over a foot, and others as small as 3-by-2 inches. A major part of the artist’s output during the early part of his Surrealist period (1929–1936), these small works reflect Dalí’s precise style of painting.
A second exhibit, Dalí’s Aliyah: A Moment in Jewish History, features a rare, complete set of the lithographs created by the artist to celebrate 1968 as the 20th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. That exhibit continues through January 13, 2019.
Read more at the Meadows Museum.
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2018 Alumni Fall 2018 Features

Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11: Empowering women to make the first move

Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11, founder and CEO of Bumble Inc., became the youngest woman in the U.S. to take a company public when she celebrated the initial offering of her dating app shares in February 2021. In May 2021, the 31-year-old entrepreneur returned to the Hilltop as the featured speaker at SMU’s May Commencement Convocation. In the following profile of Wolfe Herd, which was published in the fall 2018 issue of SMU Magazine, she traces her evolution as a tech powerhouse and talks about her time on the Hilltop as an SMU student. “I think SMU has a remarkable way for charting students on the right course.”
Take a look behind the scenes at Bumble in this profile of Wolfe Herd that first appeared in the fall 2018 issue of SMU Magazine.

By Meredith McBee ’19
Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11 is inside her second-floor office at the Bumble headquarters in Austin, Texas, pacing back and forth. One hand clutches her phone, while her free hand slices the air. She buzzes around the room, navigating her way through the plush pink chairs as if she is running an obstacle course.
Herd is the founder and CEO of Bumble, a social connection app that empowers women to make the first move. In just four years, her female-centric business has grown to more than 35 million users in 160 countries.
In tech speak, her company is a unicorn, a startup valued at a billion dollars or more. Wolfe Herd is something of a mythological creature herself as one of the creative disruptors behind the digital romance revolution. She is a co-founder of the Tinder dating app and the visionary force behind Bumble, America’s fastest-growing dating app.
Drawing on her own experience as the target of cyberbullying, Wolfe Herd reinvented the dating space with Bumble. She shaped an environment where users were required to mind their manners and women felt safe, respected and in control. The app’s basic interface is familiar. Users swipe right on the profiles of potential dates in whom they are interested, and left on those they’re not. Bumble upends the archaic tradition of men making the initial contact; instead, in heterosexual matches, women must start a chat within 24 hours or the match expires.
Two vertical expansions of the original platform connect other aspects of womanhood. There is Bumble BFF for those seeking a friendly connection and Bumble Bizz for those looking for a business connection.
The young entrepreneur’s achievements have earned major accolades. In December, she appeared on the cover of Forbes’ 30 under 30 issue, after making the list for the second consecutive year. She also was named to the TIME 100, Time magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people of 2018. In July, she was tapped for the board of Imagine Entertainment, the film and television production company founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.
Despite her success, Wolfe Herd remains humble.
“It’s not that I’m some rare breed of human,” she says. “Everybody has the ingredients to achieve what I’ve achieved.”
Her efforts are all linked to her desire to end abusive and misogynistic behavior.
“I get out of bed to reverse engineer that every day,” she says.

WATCH: ‘For any young woman, or girl, out there who has ambitions or dreams, just remember that anything is possible.’

Wolfe Herd moves fast, both in person and in her work, jumping from one conversation to another, one potential idea to another.
Back in her office, she is still pacing. The nerve center of the Bumble hive overlooks the sunny workspace below, decorated with hexagonal cushions and a fluorescent “Bee Kind” sign. The apiary theme is carried throughout the interior, from the honeycomb motif accents to the bright yellow walls. The warm, fun and feminine vibe may not be the norm for a tech company, but it intentionally reflects Bumble’s celebration of female kindness, creativity and collaboration.
Members of her core team, some of whom have been with her from the beginning, are usually nearby. They’re accustomed to reacting at lightning speed to keep up with their CEO.
“If an opportunity comes to further our mission, Whitney’s going to have it done by the time she’s off the phone,” says Samantha Fulgham, director of field marketing who has been with Bumble from the start.
Wolfe Herd reached back to her SMU roots when creating a team to launch her startup. She recruited Alex Williamson ’10, her Kappa Kappa Gamma Big Sister who now serves as Bumble’s chief brand officer, and Caroline Ellis Roche ’14, Wolfe Herd’s chief of staff.
“She was always entrepreneurial,” says Williamson. “She could figure out how to make things happen.”

SMU NETWORK Writer Meredith McBee ’19 (left), an SMU senior from Atlanta, Georgia, interviewed Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11 at Bumble headquarters.

As Wolfe Herd has demonstrated throughout her career, life’s lemons become a valuable commodity in her hands.
She arrived on the Hilltop in 2007 from Salt Lake City, Utah, intending to major in advertising, but she didn’t make the cut for admission to the Temerlin Advertising Institute for Education and Research in Meadows School of the Arts.
“Maybe the reason I failed that test is because that wasn’t the right place for me,” Wolfe Herd says.
Instead, she majored in international studies in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, which she says provided a solid marketing foundation that has been pivotal to her career.
“I think SMU has this remarkable way for charting students on the right course,” she says. “People will work with you to make sure you’re taking the right classes to achieve your ‘big picture’ dreams.”
While at SMU, Wolfe Herd founded two companies, each in response to a problem she saw in the world. Tender Heart was a clothing line that brought a message of fair trade. The Help Us Project was a line of grocery bags that benefited the Oceans Future Project, which was a direct response to the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
After graduating, she served as a volunteer at orphanages overseas. She returned to the U.S. determined to do something creative and philanthropic, but she wasn’t sure what that was. At the time, she had no employment possibilities lined up. She was living at home, an arrangement her parents told her had an expiration date.
So, she found a job at Cardify, a customer rewards app. During her brief tenure, she had no idea that her next career move would turn the dating world upside down and change her life forever.

BUMBLE HQ Bumble’s Austin, Texas, headquarters – affectionately known as “the hive” – exudes a warm, fun and feminine vibe that may not be the norm in the tech industry, but it intentionally reflects the company’s celebration of female creativity and collaboration.

In 2012, she co-founded the game-changing dating app Tinder. She marketed the platform at SMU and on other college campuses. That early success – with all its thrilling highs – also led to a life and career crisis. She left in 2014 and filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
She was bullied online by complete strangers during this period. While she had once viewed social networking as a conduit for connecting people and building community, she watched as online interactions became weaponized, and she became the target of misogynistic and hate-filled attacks collapsing on me,” she says.
At the time, she thought her career was over.
“It is unbelievable how that negativity can completely control your life,” she says. “There were moments when I let that fear engulf me to the core.”
The experience gave Wolfe Herd a new perspective on social media. She wondered what it looked like for younger people and what it would turn into for future generations. She soon had a new mission: to reinvent the Internet for women.
In her entrepreneurial fashion, she developed the framework for a female-only social network called Merci. On this platform, women could only give each other compliments.
This idea morphed into a dating app after her investor and business partner, Andrey Andrev, encouraged her to transfer her passion for a kind social network into the dating sphere.
“I said no, I’m never going back into the dating world, absolutely not,” Wolfe Herd says. “With a lot of convincing, we agreed to start this company together.”
Snippets of Merci remain in the Bumble DNA.
“When you think about it, women are making the first move, which is empowering,” Wolfe Herd says. “We tolerate zero abusive behavior, so that kindness piece is there, too.”
Wolfe Herd returned to her alma mater with her new idea. She bought dozens of cookies at JD’s Chippery in Snider Plaza, plastered each box with Bumble stickers and passed out the sweet rewards to students who downloaded the app.
To help spread the word, she created a network of Bumble Ambassadors, college women who live the brand’s core message of being kind and embody its stylish coolness and cheeky attitude.
A week before the woman-first app launched, Wolfe Herd called her team and told them to book a flight to Austin the next day. When they arrived, she announced they would be filming a promotional video of them skydiving. None of her colleagues questioned the idea.
“The whole point of it was that if we can jump out of an airplane, we can message a guy first,” Fulgham says.

MUSTANGS IN THE HIVE Proud SMU alumnae members of the Bumble team are (from left) Chelsea Cain Maclin ’12, Alex Williamson ’10, Caroline Ellis Roche ’14 and Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11.

Nearly four years and 500 million first moves later, Wolfe Herd is never short of new ideas.
“I think that’s part of her genius, not only coming up with ideas that resonate on a personal level and have empathy and kindness at their core, but also the ability to get everybody in the room excited and passionate about the same project” says SMU alumna Cain Maclin ’12, Bumble’s vice president of marketing.
Wolfe Herd’s genuine commitment to female empowerment has made her a role model for young women, as illustrated during a recent encounter on the streets of Austin during a company field day.
Dressed in Bumble gear, the team chalked sidewalks with “Download Bumble” and posted yellow fliers advertising the app around the downtown area. They happened upon a bachelorette party, and the honoree told Wolfe Herd that one of her dreams was to meet the Bumble founder. She had no idea that the woman standing next to her was, indeed, the “queen bee.”
When she found out, she burst into tears.
“I don’t think Whitney had ever seen a fan like that,” Fulgham says. “She has no idea how many women look up to her across the world.”
Last fall, her admirers everywhere swooned over photos of her storybook wedding in Positano, Italy, to businessman Michael Herd. They met through friends several years ago. Although she didn’t know it when they met, he is the son of one of her favorite SMU professors, Kelly Herd, a filmmaker and former lecturer in the Meadows School.
“That just goes to show the serendipitous nature of an SMU education,” Wolfe Herd says. “I looked up to her for her caring, articulate and creative abilities as a professor. She’s proof that you meet professors who will have a lifelong impact on you and stay with you long after your graduation date.
“I always say I would trade almost anything to just go back to SMU for a day,” she adds.
Wolfe Herd believes her SMU experience helped her become strong and confident enough to change the dating world.
“SMU gave me the foundation to become an adult and evolve into the woman I am today,” she says.
Today, Wolfe Herd is a very busy executive. She finally puts down her phone and collapses on a plush chair for a few seconds. Then, she gets up, arms moving as she talks to a colleague. Back to work she goes.

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2018 Alumni News October 2018

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting stories and videos highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni News October 2018

SMU parents’ gift supports University’s highest priorities

SMU parents Daniel M. Doyle, Jr. and Nicole Kudelko Doyle ’94 continue their long-standing commitment to expanding educational opportunities and supporting academic excellence with a $1 million gift to the University.
The Doyles are the parents of Danny Doyle, III, a business major at SMU and a member of the Class of 2021. Danny enjoyed his first year of classes, new friendships, attending football and basketball games, and looks forward to his sophomore year. Their daughter, Madeline, began her first year at SMU in the fall, and is excited to be a Mustang.
After more than a dozen years of active participation in the education of their three children, the couple has learned “that it takes donors stepping up to help a school achieve peak performance,” said Mr. Doyle, the president and CEO of Tampa, Florida-based DEX Imaging. “We realized that schools can’t survive just on tuition.”
After approaching SMU leadership to learn about the University’s needs, the Doyles decided an open-ended gift made sense. “We are grateful for the Doyles’ continued generous support of SMU, even beyond sending two of their three children here for their education,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “We are thankful to receive a gift that we can direct toward the University’s highest priorities.”
The couple’s SMU giving began in 2015 with the Dan and Nicole Doyle Endowed Scholarship Fund. Their support also includes the SMU Fund for Greatest Needs, the Mustang Athletic Fund and the SMU Student Foundation Fund.
Mrs. Doyle appreciated the family feeling that SMU provided when she was a student. Just like daughter Madeline, she also attended the University with her older brother. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority and graduated in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She recalls the sense of community and the delight she felt when professors invited students to dinner.
“I’m thrilled that my children will have the opportunity to enjoy many of the same great experiences,” she said. The Doyles’ gift to SMU will have an impact across campus. “Discretionary gifts let us quickly act on emerging opportunities that directly benefit our students and faculty,” said Brad E. Cheves, SMU vice president for Development and External Affairs.
The Doyles’ philanthropic involvement encompasses their core interest in helping children and families succeed. They support The Arc Tampa Bay, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County and the local chapter of Jack and Jill of America, among others.
Mr. Doyle serves on the board of the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. His other board service includes Big Brothers Big Sisters for Pinellas County, in Florida, and Lynn University, in Boca Raton. From 2014–17, he served on the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida. In 2013, he received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the technology category. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Lynn University in 1993.

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2018 Alumni October 2018

A 21st-century cybercrime fighter

Erin Nealy Cox ’95 is truly a crime fighter for the 21st century. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas is an expert in prosecuting cybercrimes.
Nominated by President Trump last September, the 48-year-old magna cum laude SMU Dedman School of Law graduate oversees federal prosecutions in 100 Texas counties with a combined population of about 8 million. Nine of the state’s 20 biggest cities are under her jurisdiction. She’s in charge of roughly 100 government attorneys and a like number of support staff in five divisions.
Few lawyers in America possess her combination of training and career experience in the law, technology, business, and administration. In addition to her SMU Dedman Law degree, Nealy Cox holds a degree in finance from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. After law school, she clerked for U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders of the Northern District of Texas and Chief Judge Henry Politz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She also served as a litigation associate at two prestigious law firms—Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City and Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal in Dallas.
Read more at Dedman Law.

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2018 Alumni News September 2018

SMU Distinguished Alumni Awards to be presented on November 1

The University community will honor Pierce M. Allman ’54, Tucker S. Bridwell ’73, ’74 and Jane Chu ’81 with Distinguished Alumni Awards and Kelvin Beachum, Jr. ’10, ’12 with the Emerging Leader Award on November 1.
The Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony recognizes extraordinary achievement, outstanding character and good citizenship in an event hosted by President R. Gerald Turner and the SMU Alumni Board.
Read more and purchase tickets.

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2018 Alumni September 2018

Writer-director Andrew Oh ’18 rolls with the punches

Creating a feature-length film is no small feat, particularly when the project is independently written and directed by a student. With no financial backing from a major production company, no outfit of hundreds of workers, and limited time and resources, recent Meadows graduate Andrew Oh has learned why entrepreneurial skills can make or break a film.
Oh has produced numerous class film assignments, most of which run from five to ten minutes and use a crew of one to ten people, but a 90-minute feature is an entirely different animal. “This is the biggest thing I’ve worked on,” says Oh. “It’s the culmination of my four years at SMU.”
With a cast and crew of about 50, Oh’s film The Book of Job is both written and directed by the 2018 B.A. alumnus and is the fifth film to be chosen for SMU Meadows’ Summer Film Production.
The Summer Film Production is a student-run, biennial program that offers film students the opportunity to learn what it takes to make a feature film or TV series pilot.
While working on The Book of Job, Oh gained greater clarity on what it takes to make a film and the importance of entrepreneurship in the filmmaking business. Doing extensive research and having a general knowledge of film is important, says Oh.
“And preproduction is key. The more work you do in preproduction the easier it is to make the film.”
Read more at Meadows.

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2018 Alumni

Randall Joyner ’14 is once again living his dream on the Hilltop

Randall Joyner ’14 was easy to pick out at SMU football’s first scrimmage of their August training camp. The former standout Mustang linebacker, now the assistant coach for defensive ends, was wearing his signature bright red backwards hat and bright red Nike sneakers. Bouncing up and down the sideline, Joyner was the first person to greet players coming off the field after a big defensive stop, which happened often.
“To be able to come back to the school that gave me a chance to live my dream, not once but twice, is a blessing,” Joyner said after the scrimmage, his voice slightly hoarse from yelling for two hours straight. “Now we have a great group of guys and a great staff – I’m really excited.”
Joyner grew up in nearby Carrollton, Texas where he was a two-star recruit out of Newman Smith High School as a running back and defensive back. A four-year letterwinner at linebacker at SMU, he totaled 240 tackles in 50 career games, including 10.5 tackles for loss. As a senior in 2013, he recorded a team-high 98 tackles and three forced fumbles, earning recognition as a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy.
“I have a great group of guys. They are really good kids. They do everything I ask,” Joyner said. “One thing I’ve been challenging them is to attack greatness. To grow beyond their talents. All I want them to do is play hard and play with passion and play for their brothers. I’ll coach everything else up. They’ve done an unbelievable job.”
 
Read more at SMU Athletics.

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2018 Alumni News September 2018

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.
Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936 opens on September 9
Video: Watch as the Class of 2022 takes shape
SMU Mustangs Official App, the latest mobile must-have
OP Live Dallas to feature epic collegiate Overwatch tournament
Brigham Mosely ’10 unpacks identity crisis in Critical Darling
Register now for Perkins’ Fall Convocation
Tate Lecture Series season opens on September 25
Highlights from a great year at the Simmons School

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2018 Alumni August Main 2018 News

A scientist’s exhilarating expedition to the land of fire and ice

Geothermal scientist Andrés Ruzo ’09 is described as “a restless spirit” whose passions for science and adventure drive the online photo essays he creates for National Geographic. In the first of the four-part series, he talks about what sparked his interest in the rugged land of fire and ice – Iceland. Ruzo earned undergraduate degrees from SMU in finance and geology and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
EXCERPT

I’ve always dreaded the question, “Where are you from?” For me there is no easy answer. My life has always varied among Peru, Nicaragua, and the United States. I am Peruvian on my dad’s side, Nicaraguan on my mom’s side, and I live in the U.S. My life continues to be shaped by all three countries.

My first real link to geothermal science started as a kid in Nicaragua. My big, agricultural family is from northern Nicaragua and, among other things, we grow coffee on the Casita Volcano. Some of my most vivid childhood memories happened there.

As a child, I would regularly spend my summers on the coffee farm, playing with my cousins in the jungles on the flank of the volcano. My favorite place was the Casita’s geothermal field, which is full of fumaroles (steaming openings in the ground emitting hot, volcanic gases) and hot springs. There, the intensity of earth’s heat made it impossible for trees to grow, and the area seemed barren compared to the lush jungle surrounding it. We would throw things in fumaroles and watch the steam blast them away. We’d throw hot geothermal mud at each another. Once, we even cooked eggs in a hot spring.

Read more at National Geographic

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2018 Alumni August 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni Fall 2018 July 2018 News

Congratulations to the XPRIZE team!

A puzzle-solving smartphone game designed by SMU and Literacy Instruction for Texas (LIFT) experts to teach struggling adults to read was today named one of five finalists in an international competition. Codex: The Lost Words of Atlantis is a finalist for the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
A recent pilot study at SMU found that low-literate, English-language learner adults who played the game for two or more hours a week significantly improved their literacy skills after eight weeks. Anecdotal evidence also shows their improved reading skills also have improved their lives, ranging from a grandmother who finally gained the confidence to speak with her granddaughter in English, to co-workers who praised a participant’s improved language skills.
“Clearly we are very proud to have advanced in this important competition,” says Stephanie Knight, dean of SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development, which provided faculty expertise in the literacy and instructional design  of the game. “We are committed to finding a successful, accessible teaching tool for low-literacy adults. And we know we are on the right track when we hear that one of our study participants gets to hear her children clap every time her reading skills improve enough for her to advance in the game.”
Finalists were selected based on field-testing performance. The SMU-LIFT team will be recognized Saturday, June 23 at the American Library Association annual meeting in New Orleans, along with the other finalists. Each finalist will be awarded a $100,000 prize.
In January 2019, X-Prize will present the team with the most effective app with $3 million, plus $1 million apiece to the apps with the best performance among native English speakers and non-native speakers.
Read more about People ForWords in SMU Magazine.

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2018 Alumni Fall 2018 July 2018

Plunging into green engineering

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2018 Alumni July 2018

From Big D to the Big Apple

Dancer Kelly Zitka ’15 intended to land a job in marketing, but the allure of the stage won out. SMU Meadows recently profiled the up-and-coming performer who has added acting and singing to her repertoire with an eye toward a career in musical theater on Broadway.
EXCERPT:

By Diamond Victoria

Launching from the classroom to the Big Apple, Meadows alumna Kelly Zitka knows that perseverance and a little spontaneity can help to find footing in the world of performance art.

The dance and business major now calls New York home, and is learning more about the world of dance theater through rigorous training and auditioning. Staying in New York for good, however, was never part of her original plan. But with growing insight into her art, Zitka is betting that risking uncertainty can pay off.

Zitka traveled to New York at the end of January for what she considered a temporary refresher in dance training and auditioning. “It was kind of a spontaneous decision and I thought I would only stay for a month. But now, I’m not sure if I plan on leaving,” she says.

Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2018 Alumni July 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni Fall 2018 June 2018

Jasmine Liu ’18 discovers her future in the stars

Jasmine Liu ’18 came to the Hilltop from Fuzhou No. 5 High School in Fuzhou, China, to major in accounting and physics and intended to pursue a career in the corporate world. However, after joining physicist Robert Kehoe’s research team, she was star struck. Fueled by SMU’s high-performance computing power, her work helped reveal a variable star in the Pegasus constellation. Now she sees graduate school in either astrophysics or astronomy in her future.

Story by Kathleen Tibbetts
Invisible to the naked eye, the variable star ROTSE1 J000831.43+223154.8 flickers in the northern sky. It hides within an ancient star map formed, it was said, when the king of the gods transformed his most heroic steed into a constellation.
For Jasmine Liu ’18 – an SMU physics student and Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholar – it represents a crowning achievement in her University career.
As a student living in Dallas, it was fitting that her work helped unveil a variable star in the Pegasus constellation. The city of Dallas long ago adopted the winged horse of Greek song and story as its own – not as a myth but as a symbol of striving, of inspiration, of looking ever upward.
It seems especially appropriate for Liu, who found her calling in the night sky after arriving in Dallas to study business.
Liu came to the Hilltop from Fuzhou No. 5 High School in Fuzhou, China to major in accounting and physics. With a degree from SMU’s Cox School of Business in hand, she planned to return home after graduation and pursue a career in the corporate world, as both her parents had.
But Liu, a math lover, soon discovered that she didn’t find the arithmetic of accounting quite challenging enough. And she was questioning the wisdom of trying to manage double majors in business and one of the natural sciences. “It just left me a little too busy,” she says.
By her second summer in Dallas, she’d made her next big discovery: the opportunity to work with SMU physicist Robert Kehoe in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences as a 2016 Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholar. A long discussion with Dr. Kehoe about cosmology and astrophysics convinced her to take on work as his undergraduate research assistant.
“I really wanted to give it a shot,” she says. “I could have spent the summer doing nothing, but it seemed really meaningful to do this instead.”
Read more at SMU News.
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2018 Alumni June 2018

Honoring the achievements of business alumni

The SMU Cox School of Business honored four alumni at the school’s annual Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards Luncheon hosted on May 11 at the Collins Executive Center on the SMU campus.
Pictured from left are Clark Hunt ’87, Kris Lowe ’04, ’14, James M. “Jim” Johnston ’70, ’71 and Jeff Owens ’01, ’02.
SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni 2018
Clark Hunt (BBA ’87) is the chairman and CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League and FC Dallas of Major League Soccer. He is a leading voice among NFL owners and a founding investor-operator in Major League Soccer. His love of soccer was evident in college, as he served as captain of what was then the Mustangs’ nationally-ranked soccer team. He was a four-year letterman, and graduated first in his class at SMU, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Hunt has served as a member of the SMU Board of Trustees since 2004, and he’s a longtime member of the Cox Executive Board. In 2004, the Cox School honored Hunt as an Outstanding Young Alumnus. With the 2018 award as Distinguished Alumnus, Hunt becomes only the third alumnus in SMU Cox history to receive both accolades.
James M. “Jim” Johnston (BBA ’70, MBA ’71) became president of Methodist Health System Foundation in November 2016. Before joining the Methodist Foundation, Johnston was a 40-year mainstay in the Dallas banking industry. He began his career at Republic Bank of Texas, where he held various corporate executive positions. Later, he was named regional chair of Frost Bank, and subsequently, he served as board vice chair for Bank of Texas. He came to SMU on a football scholarship, and became not only a star player, but a dedicated student. Johnston completed his BBA in Marketing in 1970, and went on to earn an MBA in Finance the following year. He has served as chair of the SMU Mustang Club, the Lettermen’s Association, the Planned Giving Council and the Athletics Hall of Fame. He currently serves on the Cox Executive Board.
SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumni 2018
Kris Lowe (BBA ’04, EMBA ’14) is a director in the Dallas office of HFF, a U.S. and European commercial real estate capital intermediary. In his four years at HFF, he’s participated in the execution of more than $5.5 billion in commercial real estate transactions. Before he went to work for HFF, Lowe served for seven years as the CFO of SMU Athletics. During that time, he got his Executive MBA degree, the second of two degrees he earned from SMU Cox. His first was his Bachelor of Business Administration in 2004. He was originally recruited to SMU to play basketball, and remained with the Mustangs through college. Today, Lowe is active with the Cox Folsom Institute for Real Estate, serving on its executive and associate boards.
Jeff Owens (BBA ’01, MSA ’02) is a partner at Armanino, the fastest growing public accounting firm and one of the top 25 largest accounting and business firms in the country. He leads the Dallas audit department and concentrates on serving the nonprofit and technology sectors. Owens started his career working with KPMG in Sydney, Australia. He earned his BBA in 2001 and the next year, graduated with his Master of Science in Accounting—both at the Cox School. He stays active with SMU and serves on the Cox School Accounting Department’s Alumni and Professional Advisory Board.

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2018 Alumni Fall 2018 June 2018

Art in high gear: Julia Jalowiec ‘18

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Alumni June 2018 News

Enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni May 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni April 2018

Congratulations to the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2018

Former student-athletes Janielle Dodds ’07, Denny Holman ’67, Wes Hopkins ’83, Hank Kuehne ’99, Cheril Santini ’95 and the late Clyde Carter ’35 have been named to the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame by the University and SMU Athletics, in conjunction with the SMU Lettermen’s Association. The outstanding former student-athletes will be recognized at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony on Friday, May 4 at Moody Coliseum.
An SMU women’s basketball standout, Dodds was a four-time All-Conference honoree and two time All-America Honorable Mention selection. She holds the SMU career record for points (1,861) and rebounds (974). As a senior, she led the Mustangs to the 2008 NCAA Tournament and a 24-9 record. That season, she was named the Conference USA Tournament MVP after leading SMU to a 73-57 win over No. 18 UTEP in the championship game.
Holman helped the SMU men’s basketball team to three straight Southwest Conference titles and NCAA Tournaments, including a regional final appearance as a senior in 1967. He was named SWC Player of the Year in 1967, also earning all-conference and all-district selections. The Mustangs went 54-25 during his seasons on the Hilltop with a 33-9 league record. Holman went on to play professionally for the Dallas Chaparrals.
Hopkins was an All-Southwest Conference safety on the 1981 and 1982 SMU football national championship teams. He had 14 career interceptions, including a league-leading six picks in 1982. He had an SMU-record four interceptions in a game against Houston in 1981. Hopkins was a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1983 NFL draft, and played 11 seasons for the franchise. He was a Pro Bowl selection in 1985 and was the 1988 Ed Block Courage Award recipient.
Golfer Kuehne was a three-time All-American from 1996 to 1999. He won the 1998 U.S. Amateur championship and was the 1996 Southwest Conference individual champion. Kuehne represented the United States as an amateur on the 1998 Eisenhower Trophy team and in the 1998 and 1999 Palmer Cups. He went on to play 11 years on the PGA tour with eight top-10 finishes, including runner-up marks at the 2003 Shell Houston Open and 2005 John Deere Classic. He also collected four career professional victories.
SMU women’s diving’s Santini was a 10-time All-American and two-time NCAA Champion in 1-meter diving, winning the national title in 1992 and 1995. She swept the Southwest Conference championship in the 1-meter during her four years at SMU, winning the 10-meter crown in 1992 and 3-meter title in 1993. Following the 1995 season, she was awarded the NCAA’s Top VII Award. Santini also was a three-time Academic All-American. In 1994, she was named one of Glamour magazine’s “Top Ten College Winners.”
Carter played football and basketball on the Hilltop, earning All-America honors on the gridiron in 1934. As a tackle, he led SMU to an 8-2-2 record as a senior in 1934. On the hardwood, Carter guided the Mustangs to a 14-3 record to capture the 1934-35 Southwest Conference Championship.
Purchase tickets for the event here.
For more information about tickets or event sponorship, please call 214-768-4314 or email Jeff Lockhart at lockhart@smu.edu.
ABOUT THE SMU ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
The SMU Athletics Hall of Fame celebrates the many extraordinary individuals in all sports who have played a role in developing the tradition and prestige of SMU Athletics, and seeks to provide future generations with a greater appreciation for the rich heritage of the Mustangs.
In 2005, the SMU Lettermen’s Association began taking steps to renew the SMU Hall of Fame, which was established in 1978 to honor both outstanding athletes and administrators who played an important part in founding the great tradition of Mustang football. Building on this strong history, the Lettermen’s Association broadened today’s SMU Athletics Hall of Fame to include all sports, past and present, sponsored by the University.

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2018 Alumni April 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

Please enjoy this roundup of interesting videos and stories highlighting some of the people and events making news on the Hilltop.

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2018 Alumni March 2018

Stirring winds of change in professional hockey

Tom Dundon ’93 helped turn Topgolf into a millennial magnet, and as the new majority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes professional hockey team, he’ll apply his brand of secret sauce to fire up fans.
EXCERPT

Karen Robinson-Jacobs
The Dallas Morning News

Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon, who may just be the busiest man in sports business, has “a way I like to see things done.”

That applied when he became the biggest investor in “a small family fun center” with a driving range called Topgolf. Dundon helped turn today’s Topgolf into a millennial magnet with an estimated 13 million guest visits across 40 venues in 2017.

And it applied with his first job after graduating with an economics degree from Southern Methodist University. With a buddy, he launched a Fort Worth burger joint, but he knew “almost instantly once it opened that that was a bad idea.”

Read the full story.

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2018 Alumni March 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these interesting videos and stories.

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2018 Alumni February 2018 News Spring 2018

Gift honors alumnus’ business acumen and love of sports

More than $5 million in contributions to his alma mater from a consortium of donors will honor SMU alumnus and energy industry leader Kyle D. Miller ’01. SMU Trustee Tucker S. Bridwell ’73, ’74 led the effort to assemble tribute gifts in recognition of Miller’s extraordinary success in the energy industry. Bridwell and his wife, Gina, personally contributed to the effort, along with other SMU alumni and industry colleagues.
In recognizing Miller’s expertise and accomplishment in the energy finance arena, the majority of the tribute will establish the Kyle D. Miller Energy Management Program and the Kyle D. Miller Energy Scholarship Fund in the Edwin L. Cox School of Business. Both initiatives will receive endowment and current-use funding. The gift also will include a naming opportunity honoring Miller and his love of athletics within SMU’s planned Indoor Performance Center.
“It’s a fitting tribute that Kyle’s colleagues have chosen to honor him by supporting both academic and athletic programs,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Kyle was named outstanding young alumnus for the Cox School of Business in May 2015, and these contributions will help position other students to find the kind of success he has achieved in energy finance.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2018 Alumni February 2018 News

Charismatic career women inspire female students

A low-budget field experiment to tackle the lack of women in the male-dominated field of economics has been surprisingly effective, says SMU economist Danila Serra, the study’s author.
Top female college students were inspired to pursue a major in economics when exposed very briefly to charismatic, successful women in the field, according to Serra. The results suggest that exposing young women to an inspiring female role model succeeds due to the mix of both information and pure inspiration, Serra said.
SMU economics graduates Julie Lutz ’08 and Courtney Thompson ’91 spoke to four Principles of Economics classes in spring 2016. Serra told the speakers nothing of the purpose of the research project, but encouraged each alumna to explain to the class why she had majored in economics and to be very engaging.
“The specific women who came and talked to the students were key to the success of the intervention,” she said. “It was a factor of how charismatic and enthusiastic they were about their careers and of how interesting their jobs looked to young women.”
Read more at SMU Research.

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2018 Alumni February 2018

Meadows, Dallas Theater Center bring Frankenstein to life

SMU alumni and their guests are invited to a pre-show reception on Tuesday, February 13, when the Meadows Division of Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center present Frankenstein at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas. 

Based on Mary Shelley’s 200-year-old tale of scientific advancement and human tragedy, the hit play imported from London will be presented February 2–March 4. The cast will include Meadows faculty and students, while several alumni are involved behind the scenes: Jeff Colangelo ’13 serves as fight coordinator, and Wendy Blackburn Eastland ’12 is stage manager.

On February 13, before the curtain goes up, enjoy refreshments and remarks by Meadows School Dean Sam Holland. The reception will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Registration is $20 per person and includes complimentary parking, drinks, appetizers and show tickets. For more information and to purchase tickets, contact meadowsalumni@smu.edu. Tickets are limited, so please reserve early

The Meadows School has a longstanding relationship with Dallas Theater Center. In spring 2017, Meadows collaborated with DTC to launch Public Works Dallas, a groundbreaking community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and community members, culminating in an annual production featuring more than 200 Dallas citizens performing a Shakespearean play. The inaugural production was The Tempest, which will be followed by A Winter’s Tale in September 2018.

Read more at SMU Meadows.

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2018 Alumni February 2018

Register now for the Black Excellence Ball on February 24

Join the Black Alumni of SMU and the Association of Black Students for the annual Black Excellence Ball on February 24, where 2018 History Makers and scholarship recipients will be honored.
The seventh annual event will be held in the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom on the SMU campus. Registration will open at 6 p.m, with the dinner and program to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Register now!

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2018 Alumni February 2018

Two Mustangs headed to Major League Soccer teams

SMU’s Michael Nelson ’18 and Mauro Cichero ’18 were selected in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft Friday. Nelson was selected 20th overall by the Houston Dynamo and Cichero was picked 29th overall by FC Dallas. This is the eighth time the Mustangs have had multiple picks in the MLS SuperDraft.Read more at SMU Athletics.

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2018 Alumni February 2018

Engineering an SMU-style experience in Egypt

Emulating his SMU mentors earned Amir Ali ’15, an assistant professor at German University in Cairo, Egypt, a sweet gift from his graduating seniors: a chocolate bar with a custom wrapper declaring, “To the Best Professor Ever! Thank You.”

 

After Ali earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Lyle School of Engineering, he returned to the German University in Cairo (GUC), where he received his MSc degree in mechatronics engineering  in 2010. GUC is a private Egyptian university established in cooperation with the State Universities of Ulm and Stuttgart, Germany.
In addition to teaching undergrads, he is the founder and director of the university’s ARAtronics Lab, a research group composed of more than 20 graduate and undergraduate students. This year the ARAtronics team was selected to join the Cairo Invents Program in cooperation with the Scientific Research Academy in Cairo.
“We follow the same model as my research at SMU,” says Ali.
His work in the field of micro-optical sensors aims to connect mind and machine. It may sound like science fiction to non-engineers, but advances in neural interfaces could have sweeping life-changing applications. For example, engineers are now working toward more lifelike prosthetic limbs that not only move more naturally but also “feel” sensations like heat and pressure.
The young academic was honored with the 2017 National Instruments Excellence Award in Academic Education and Scientific Research for the Middle East. And he recently published Principles of Sensing Based on Micro-optical Whispering Gallery Modes: Physics, Design, and Applications, a technical textbook.
In working with students from different faculties and diverse backgrounds, Ali draws inspiration from his Lyle experience.
He describes his SMU mentor and advisor Volkan Otugen, senior associate dean and the George R. Brown Chair in Mechanical Engineering, as his “role model.”
“I’ve emulated his way of thinking, interpreting problems and inspiring students,” he explains.
Edmond Richter, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has also been an important influence, he says.
Read more at Lyle Now.
 

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2018 Alumni February 2018

New Perkins partnership sends scholars to England

Perkins School of Theology announces a new partnership with Wesley House, Cambridge in England that’s providing a unique international study opportunity for two recent Perkins graduates.
Adam White (M.Div. ’15) and Shuo En Liang (M.T.S. ’17) are spending the academic year studying at the University of Cambridge through Wesley House. They are living in Wesley House, an international, intentional community of Methodist scholars and students at the heart of the University city of Cambridge. Since Wesley House is also a member of the Cambridge Theological Federation, students are also exposed to ecumenical teaching, and classrooms.
The partnership offers an exceptional experience for the two Perkins graduates, according to Craig Hill, Dean of Perkins School of Theology.
“At Cambridge, you daily rub shoulders with fellow students and faculty from around the world, and you are exposed to an extraordinary parade of intellectuals and other leaders who pass through the city in any given year,” he said. “To study there is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Read more at Perkins School of Theology.

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2018 Alumni February 2018 News

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these interesting stories and videos.

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2018 Alumni January 2018 News

Mourning the loss of an extraordinary alumna

Renowned civic and philanthropic leader Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler ’48 died on December 8, 2017, leaving a legacy of leadership, friendship and generosity focused on institutions dedicated to improving lives. A memorial service was held at Highland Park United Methodist Church on December 14.
As a leader she was known for her intelligence, decisiveness, legendary fundraising skills and sense of humor. As a result, Altshuler became the first woman to lead numerous Dallas boards and organizations, including the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, SMU. Education, health and services for some of the most downtrodden members of society were areas that attracted her support, but her generosity touched nearly every Dallas civic organization. Her influence, however, went far beyond Dallas. Altshuler was recognized nationally and internationally as a dedicated civic leader and philanthropist.
“The loss of Ruth leaves a major hole in the hearts of us all,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Ruth was my dear friend as well as a tireless fighter for SMU and all causes she believed in. She didn’t do anything halfway. Her work on behalf of Dallas and SMU was legendary years ago, and yet she continued to lead and inspire us year after year. Her impact on her city and her University will live on forever.”
A Dallas native and 1948 SMU graduate, Altshuler served on the SMU Board of Trustees for 50 years. She brought knowledge and understanding of every aspect of University life to her position, along with a great love of SMU.
Read more at SMU News.

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2018 Alumni January 2018 Main

This star athlete’s power play? Earning his degree

Recent graduate Courtland Sutton ’17 completed his SMU football career as one of the top Mustang wide receivers of all time and is expected to be a first-round call in the upcoming NFL draft. Sutton has never shied away from a difficult play, and in his final semester, he took on a different kind of challenge: tackling the piano. As his final, he learned to play the song “Lean on Me.” He said the experience was fun and “pushed me to my limits.” During his time on the Hilltop, the star athlete made it clear how highly he values his education. In just three and a half years, he earned a degree in sport management. “That degree is something no one can take away once my playing career is over,” he says.
Read more:

NFL.com – Idol Hands: Courtland Sutton

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2018 Alumni Spring 2018

A seat at Regina Taylor’s table

As an SMU undergraduate, Regina Taylor ’81 was a writer planning a career in journalism. She never imagined that an acting class she took as an elective would change everything. She “fell in love with acting,” and it wasn’t long before casting directors were impressed by her talent. While collecting a trove of acting accolades – a Golden Globe, a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations – she never stopped putting pen to paper.
As a playwright and director, Taylor “likes to play with form and style.” Her new play, Bread, was recently awarded an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Its world premiere run will be April 13–May 16 at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, Texas. Set in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood, the “compelling family drama of hopes, fears, thwarted dreams and dark secrets is set against a turbulent backdrop of racial tension and social upheaval.”

Regina Taylor ’81 peels pack the layers of her play Magnolia at a table reading with Meadows students and other actors. Her new award-winning play, Bread, will have its world premiere at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, April 13–May 16. Photos by Kim Leeson.

In some of her other plays, the daring dramatist transports Anton Chekhov out of pre-revolutionary Russia and into the black American experience. In Magnolia she reimagines The Cherry Orchard in 1963 Atlanta as the civil rights movement gains momentum. Last spring she spent two days with Meadows School of the Arts students and actors from the Dallas theater community in workshops and open rehearsals for a public reading of the play at Meadows.
“This was a wonderful opportunity to take them through my process,” she says, “and to work with some very promising students and experience and explore their reactions to the characters.”
She says it was exhilarating to be back where she developed “a great bag of tricks” and acquired “a solid foundation that prepared me to go out into the world.”
While an SMU student, she was cast in Crisis at Central High, a television movie about the 1957 integration of Little Rock, Arkansas, schools. She played one of the nine black students who broke the color barrier. Five years later, in 1986, she made history as the first black actress to play Shakespeare’s Juliet on Broadway. Her Romeo was former SMU scene partner René Moreno ’81.
At the moment, theater work takes center stage in her career. The Dallas native continues a longtime association with the Goodman Theater as a member of its prestigious Artistic Collective and is a playwright-in-residence at the Signature Theatre in New York City. This is an interesting time for artists, she says.
“The arts can be an igniter, an educator. They provide an opening for very necessary conversations about complicated issues like race and gender. They also help us draw connections between our experiences that build bridges between communities.”
More:

WFAA: BREAD by Regina Taylor on Good Morning Texas

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2018 Alumni January 2018 Spring 2018

Cyber grad’s road took a necessary detour

Michael Taylor will be the first to tell you that he was not ready for college when he graduated from Plano East High School in 2006. And he’ll also tell you that nobody was more surprised than he was when SMU admitted him in 2014, a little later than the average undergrad.
But Taylor’s disciplined approach to life, honed through five years in the Marine Corps, combined with the intelligence he learned to tap, has earned him a master’s degree from SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering that will be awarded Dec. 16.  And after proving his mettle as a student researcher in Lyle’s Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security, Taylor has been awarded the first Raytheon IIS Cyber Elite Graduate Fellowship, which will fund his Ph.D. in quantum computing at SMU and then put him to work as an employee at Raytheon.
Taylor learned to focus on the details in the Marine Corps. He had sampled community college very briefly after high school, but it didn’t stick. He knew he didn’t have skills to trade for a decent job, so joining the Marine Corps made sense to him.
“Honestly? In retrospect, I wasn’t ready for school,” Taylor acknowledged.
Read more at SMU News.

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2018 Alumni January 2018

Scholarship turns a long shot into a sure thing

Military veteran Evan Atkinson ’17 thought he would be shut out of law school until an SMU scholarship opened the door to a life-changing opportunity.
His journey started years before he ever considered college. The events of 9/11 and the aftermath shaped his profound love of country and call to duty. He enlisted in the military in 2005, straight out of high school. He was drawn to the Army by his natural affinity for its Seven Core Army Values, including loyalty, duty and selfless service.
Expecting to serve four years, Atkinson instead stayed for nine. He grew up in the Army, worked hard, married and had kids. He even took online courses to earn a bachelor’s degree from what he joked was a “fake college.” He knew and loved the Army, and it was comfortable. But it wasn’t enough.
While considering his options for the future, he took the LSAT (Law School Admission Test). Although he scored well, he looked at law school as a long shot. How would he, a soldier from “a little Podunk town outside of San Antonio,” manage law school when he hadn’t even been to a “real” college? But an even bigger question for him: How would he support his family?
One night, as he was driving home from work on base, Atkinson received a call from a “214” number. His heart rate jumped. While still driving, he answered the phone and couldn’t believe what he heard. SMU had accepted his application – and was offering him a scholarship!
He plunged into life as a Dedman School of Law student. He served as editor-in-chief of the SMU Science & Technology Law Review (2016–17), was vice president of the Veterans Law Association and the Association for Public Interest Law, volunteered with Dallas Kids public service project and excelled in legal competitions.
A 2017 cum laude graduate of Dedman School of Law, he now serves as a judicial clerk in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. After completing the clerkship, he hopes to continue his career in bankruptcy law.
Atkinson says he left SMU with a new perspective.
“While in law school, I was very impressed by the Dallas legal community, both in the importance the community puts on pro bono work and also by SMU alums who go out of their way to help current students and to give back to the school,” he says. “I entered law school believing in the importance of giving back to the community but left with a new understanding of what that means.”
Annual gifts to SMU for current use support scholarships for students such as Evan Atkinson and power every part of the University. Read about Pony Power: Strengthening the Stampede to learn how you can make an immediate impact on today’s students.

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2018 Alumni January 2018 Spring 2018

What’s in a name? Inspiration and motivation

Biko McMillan was supposed to be named “Stanley,” after his grandfather. But his father wanted a name that came with a legacy, so he named him after Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist and leader of its 1960s and ’70s black consciousness movement.
“When I think of my name, it’s a lot to carry,” says McMillan.
The SMU senior biological sciences and Spanish major from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, is graduating Dec. 16. But McMillan is well on his way to living up to his name, says Creston Lynch, SMU director of multicultural affairs and a mentor to McMillan.
“Biko is an amazing example of how SMU shapes leaders,” Lynch says.
After commencement McMillan plans to earn graduate degrees in science and public health. His dream? To become a researcher and leader at the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read more at SMU News.

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2018 Alumni January 2018 News

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2017 Alumni

SMU alumna wins award for public service and inspirational leadership

Elizabeth Mills Viney ’10 was named the winner of The Dallas Foundation’s eighth annual Good Works Under 40 Award. Offered in partnership withThe Dallas Morning News, Good Works Under 40 honors up-and-coming leaders who are improving the future of Dallas and inspiring their peers to make a difference.
Viney was nominated by Guy Delcambre, director of advancement at Advocates for Community Transformation (ACT). Since 2013, Viney has logged more than 400 volunteer hours with ACT, where she works with West Dallas residents, law enforcement and the civil justice system to reduce crime.
A former attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Viney uses her knowledge of the legal system to empower families to restore hope and dignity to the area. In addition to her own service, Viney recruited many other attorneys to volunteer with ACT, together donating nearly 1,200 hours of pro bono legal counsel.
In inner-city areas typically pervaded by intimidation and fear, “residents live like prisoners in their homes,” said Delcambre. “For residents to stand and accept the risk of retaliation against them takes an indescribable amount of courage.”
A former attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Viney uses her knowledge of the legal system to empower families to restore hope and dignity to the area. In addition to her own service, Viney recruited many other attorneys to volunteer with ACT, together donating nearly 1,200 hours of pro bono legal counsel.
“Elizabeth is a joyful, selfless and motivated leader who has given her time and talents to serve ACT in whichever way the organization has needed,” said J. Reid Porter, president of ACT. “Her service as a volunteer lawyer is unmatched.”
Viney was honored during an award ceremony hosted by The Dallas Foundation on November 8. As part of the recognition, Viney earned a $10,000 prize for ACT. In addition to the winner, four finalists received $3,500 checks for the nonprofit agencies that nominated them. The finalists were Stephanie Giddens, president and founder of Vickery Trading Company; SMU alumna Lana Harder ’00 with Dallas Court Appointed Special Advocates; SMU alumnus Dominic Lacy ’03, board president of Deaf Action Center; and Robert Taylor, founder and director of The Educator Collective. Applications were reviewed by a committee of emerging civic leaders led by Meg Boyd of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.
“Elizabeth is a shining example of the commitment, dedication and passion that Good Works Under 40 aims to spotlight,” said Boyd. “She and all our finalists prove that the future of philanthropy is bright in Dallas.”
New this year is the People’s Choice Award, a $1,000 grant to the nonprofit of the finalist who garnered the most online votes from the community. Dominic Lacy received the inaugural People’s Choice Award on behalf of the Deaf Action Center.

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2017 Alumni December 2017 News Spring 2018

Continuing a legacy of attracting top students

A $15 million gift from the Nancy Ann Hunt Foundation (a supporting organization of the Communities Foundation of Texas) will ensure the long-term support of the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program, which is one of SMU’s signature scholarship programs attracting academically talented student leaders from throughout the United States to SMU.In 1993, Nancy Ann and Ray L. Hunt and SMU announced a vision to create an annually funded leadership program to preserve the well-rounded and entrepreneurial nature of SMU’s student body while the University grew its academic standing. They believed that an SMU education fosters, and benefits from, students who exhibit demonstrated leadership skills, intellectual ability, a spirit of entrepreneurism and a strong work ethic, combined with a desire to grow these skills and apply them in service of the community.
“SMU has benefited enormously from Nancy Ann and Ray Hunt’s historic generosity,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Today SMU receives three times the number of applicants than it did in 1993 with many now having proven leadership, entrepreneurial and academic strengths. Therefore, although the Hunts feel that the original program’s objectives have been accomplished, we were delighted when they agreed to make this significant gift that will enable the University to create an endowment to insure the long-term continuation of the Leadership Scholars program and the legacy that the Hunts have created.”
With this gift, the Hunts will have contributed $65 million to the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program, a nationally recognized scholarship program for SMU, attracting the interest of academically gifted and exceptional service-driven student leaders from across the country.
Hunt Scholars span majors across all disciplines at SMU and are leaders in virtually all spheres of campus life. They have served as president, vice-president, and secretary of the Student Body, Program Council, and Student Foundation. They have been leaders across the spectrum of SMU’s hundreds of student organizations and editors for campus newspapers and publications. To date, the program has provided scholarships to 372 students who following their graduation from SMU have had a significant impact in many diverse fields ranging from medicine and law to theology, teaching and politics.
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni December 2017 Main

Community change agent Kovan Barzani ’17

As the son of refugees, Kovan Barzani ’17 wanted to make the most of his University experience. While a triple major at SMU, he managed a Texas House campaign, started a program to teach refugees job skills and turned a finance internship into a full-time job.
“My mother didn’t know how to read,” says Barzani. War kept her from completing elementary school, and eventually Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime forced Barzani’s parents to flee for a new life in the United States.
In middle school, Barzani helped his mother learn English and pass her U.S. citizenship test. By the time he graduated from high school, he had scholarship offers from three schools. He says, “When I realized there were more opportunities to double or triple major at SMU, that was a huge factor in my decision to come to the Hilltop.”
Read more about Kovan Barzani ’17 and other SMU World Changers.

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2017 Alumni December 2017

Meet the ‘$1-billion queen bee of dating apps’

That’s SMU alumna Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11 on the cover of the Forbes 30 Under 30 issue. Herd founded Bumble, “America’s fastest-growing dating-app company,” just three years after receiving a bachelor’s degree in international studies from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. This is her second consecutive appearance on the business magazine’s list of top “youthful visionaries” in 20 industries. In the profile that accompanies her December 12, 2017, cover, the 28-year-old entrepreneur talks about her mission to empower women via social networks devoted to dating, friendship, and business and networking. “We let our users guide our innovation. We let our users guide our brand.”
EXCERPT

By Clare O’Connor
Forbes

When Whitney Wolfe Herd started planning an October launch party for a new product at Bumble, America’s fastest-growing dating-app company, she was deliberate in her choice of venue: the Manhattan space that for 57 years hosted the Four Seasons restaurant, where regulars like Henry Kissinger, Vernon Jordan, Edgar Bronfman and Stephen Schwarzman created the ultimate power lunch.

The space now has a new name, new management and a new menu. And, as Herd insists, a new perspective on business. “The power lunch is no longer just for men,” Herd announces to the mostly young, mostly female crowd, before ceding the stage to the pop star Fergie. “We all deserve a seat at the table.”

That table surely now includes the 28-year-old Herd, who has changed the tenor of dating dynamics. By letting women make the first move, Bumble has amassed over 22 million registered users, to closest competitor Tinder’s 46 million, and at more than 70% year-over-year growth, to Tinder’s roughly 10%, it’s closing the gap quickly.

Read more at Forbes.

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2017 Alumni December 2017

SMU alumnus’ research key to a Nobel for circadian rhythm discoveries

As a young researcher, Paul E. Hardin ’82 clocked innumerable hours in a pitch-dark lab to shed light on one of the keys to good health. Hardin was the first author on one of the fundamental papers from a body of circadian rhythm research to win the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Nobel Prize went to Hardin’s former colleagues Michael Rosbash and Jeffrey Hall of Brandeis as well as Michael Young of Rockefeller University “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.”
“It’s a really beautiful example of basic research that has led to incredible discoveries,” Hardin commented in Quanta Magazine. “Almost every aspect of physiology and metabolism will be controlled by the circadian clock.”
Hardin earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from SMU in 1982 and a doctorate in genetics from Indiana University in 1987.
As a postdoctoral researcher in Rosbash’s lab from 1987 to 1991, Hardin demonstrated that the protein encoded by the gene that controls circadian rhythm in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) fluctuates over a 24-hour period, rising at night and falling during the day. His research over the past two decades has helped establish the fruit fly as a model organism for studying the circadian clock in humans and allowed scientists to unravel myriad ways in which that natural timekeeper affects our health. These discoveries may lead to new treatments for a wide range of afflictions – from jet lag and sleep disorders to obesity and heart disease.
Hardin, Distinguished Professor and John W. Lyons Jr. ’59 Endowed Chair in Biology at Texas A&M University, told Texas A&M Today: “A Nobel prize for ciradian clocks is great for the field. It is, indeed, exciting to have worked with two of the three winners and to see them and my field honored with such a momentous award. It is a proud moment for circadian clocks.”
His research has earned international recognition, including the 2003 Aschoff-Honma Prize from the Honma Life Science Foundation in Japan. He has served as president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Genetics Society of America and the Society of Neuroscience. He is the author of more than 100 publications.
A previous version of this story erroneously stated that Dr. Hardin was the son of SMU President Paul Hardin III, and we apologize for the error.
Read more:

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2017 Alumni December 2017 News

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2017 Alumni

SMU alumna wins multiple awards in London competition

Congratulations to soprano Michelle Alexander ’14, winner of multiple awards in the international Wagner Society Singing Competition in London on November 5.

Soprano Michelle Alexander won multiple awards in London competition.
Michelle Alexander as Magda in The Consul. Photo by Clive Barda.

Alexander, who received a Master of Music degree from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, won second place in the overall competition as well as three additional awards: the Audience Prize; the President’s Award, which entitles her to a master class with opera legend Dame Gwyneth Jones; and a Bursaries Award to attend the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, the home of the opera house that composer Richard Wagner had built specifically for the performance of his operas.
Alexander is pursuing post-graduate studies at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she recently performed the role of Magda Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul.

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2017 Alumni

SEAL Foundation honors SMU alumnus George Killebrew ’85

SMU alumnus George Killebrew ’85 will receive the SEAL Legacy Foundation Unsung Hero Award at the organization’s seventh annual benefit and gala on November 14. The Unsung Hero Award recognizes outstanding support for the United States Armed Forces.

George Killebrew ’85 will be honored by the SEAL Foundation.
George Killebrew ‘85

Killebrew serves as executive vice president of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. He earned a B.B.A. from SMU and is actively involved with his alma mater as a member of the SMU Alumni Board and volunteer.
Jerry Jones, owner, president and general manager of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and professional golfer Lexi Thompson will receive the SEAL Legacy Award, presented each year to distinguished Americans who have demonstrated a lifetime of unwavering commitment to the U.S. Armed Forces and, in particular, the U.S. Navy SEALs. Past recipients include SMU Trustees Ray Hunt ’65, David B. Miller ’72, ’73 and Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68, who was honored with his wife, Penny Loyd.
All proceeds from the event will benefit the SEAL Legacy Foundation, a non-profit organization established and operated by U.S. Navy SEALs that provides support to families of wounded and fallen SEALs, educational assistance for SEALs and their families, and other charitable causes benefiting the SEAL community.
The annual SEAL Legacy Foundation Benefit & Gala – featuring food, drinks, entertainment and special presentations by the U.S. Navy Seals – will begin at 6 p.m. on November 14 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Tickets may be purchased at www.SEALLegacy.org.
Read more:
George Killebrew ’85: Helping SMU students break into the big time

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2017 Alumni November 2017 Spring 2018

Congressman’s gifts reflect a life of service

As venerable statesman and decorated war hero Sam Johnson ’51 prepares to leave Congress at the end of 2018, he is making two gifts to SMU that will support the education of military veterans and preserve for future study papers and materials from his distinguished life and career.
Johnson’s gift of $100,000 to SMU will establish The Hon. Sam Johnson Endowed Military Scholarship Fund, with the Collin County Business Alliance (CCBA) providing seed funding to make the scholarship operational for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Johnson’s dedication to public service spans a 29-year military career and 26 years in the U.S. Congress.  SMU’s Board of Trustees and President R. Gerald Turner will celebrate the creation of the scholarship and the donation of his historic papers and other materials to the University’s special collections repository at an on-campus reception in his honor at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in Fondren Library.
“SMU helped shape me into the person I am today, and I can’t think of a better way to say thank you to my alma mater than with this scholarship and library gift,” Johnson said. “I’m grateful to join SMU in making a commitment to the military and its families by helping these deserving individuals achieve their higher education. And I’m hopeful that this library archive will help inspire future generations to build a legacy of service on behalf of others and our great nation.”
Johnson’s archive will be housed in DeGolyer Library, SMU’s special collections repository.
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni News November 2017 Spring 2018

Turning a ‘big idea’ into jobs for veterans

By Kenny Ryan
SMU News
Iraq war veteran Jason Waller, 40, knows how challenging it can be for veterans to find civilian work when they leave the military. He heard it firsthand from the men and women he served with during his own deployments overseas.
Now, he’s in position to help both veterans and Americans who lost their homes in a hurricane season unlike any in living memory.
A senior at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, Waller has launched his own company, Emergent Services LLC, to provide on-the-job training for vets to work as independent property insurance adjusters. Waller says the client base – Americans struggling to navigate insurance claims after devastating storms – is one that vets are eager to help.
“There are a lot of aspects of being an insurance adjuster that veterans can relate to,” says Waller, who will graduate with a management science degree in December. “There’s something in our nature that we want to serve Americans. When we can do it face-to-face instead of on the other side of the world, it’s therapeutic for us.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni November 2017

Perkins to honor 2017 Distinguished Alumnus

Michael McKee, resident bishop of the Dallas Area of The United Methodist Church, is the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He will be honored during the annual awards banquet on Monday, November 13, at 5 p.m. in the Great Hall of Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall on the SMU campus.
Bishop McKee was selected for the award by the Perkins Alumni/ae Council for his demonstrated effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support and involvement in the goals of Perkins School of Theology and SMU, distinguished service in the wider community and exemplary character.
A native of Fort Worth, Bishop McKee’s service to The United Methodist Church, to Southern Methodist University, and to Perkins School of Theology has spanned almost five decades and has influenced the denomination at the local, regional, national, and global levels.
Read more at Perkins.

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2017 Alumni November 2017

Nominate outstanding alumni for 2018 awards

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Awards – the most prestigious honor the University bestows upon alumni – and the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an outstanding Mustang who has graduated within the past 15 years. Return completed forms by December 31, 2017.

Find nomination forms and read more at SMU Alumni.

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2017 Alumni News November 2017

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2017 Alumni

SMU alumna on building bridges in the wake of Hurricane Harvey

Just a week before Hurricane Harvey hit, Punam Kaji ’12, an associate with Haynes and Boone, LLP, had relocated from Dallas to Houston. After the hurricane, her inbox was flooded with emails from other lawyers asking, “What should we be doing right now to help?” Kaji, a graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, serves as chair of the Asian Pacific Interest Section (APIS) of the State Bar of Texas. APIS recently organized and co-sponsored hurricane relief legal training with a coalition of Bar organizations and community groups at South Texas College of Law–Houston. Above the Law, a legal news and commentary website, highlighted the pro bono initiative on October 20, 2017.
EXCERPT

Renwei Chung
Above the Law

Punam Kaji ’12

Last week, the Asian Pacific Interest Section (APIS) of the State Bar of Texas organized and co-sponsored hurricane relief legal training with a coalition of diverse bar organizations and community groups at South Texas College of Law–Houston.

Their training focused on ways to help with Hurricane Harvey relief, specifically instructing attorneys and others in the community on how to manage the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) appeals process. But other issues, such as language access and cultural barriers, were topics of discussion as well for the 44 attendees.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to catch up with Punam Kaji, chair of APIS, associate at Haynes and Boone, LLP, and alumnus of SMU Dedman School of Law. As Harvey’s downpour was still draining, her inbox started flooding with emails from other lawyers. Even attorneys whose homes were damaged were asking, “What should we be doing right now to help?”

As the chair of APIS, Kaji felt compelled to help focus its attention on a project they could do with several other community organizations. Helping with Harvey relief was very personal for her as well. The week before Harvey hit Houston and the surrounding areas, Kaji had just relocated to Dallas from the ravaged region. This training allowed her to be there in spirit to help after the catastrophe.

Renwei Chung: Your pro-bono initiative focused on training people for the FEMA application appeals process. Why?

Punam Kaji: The local organizations and pro bono lawyers in Houston did an incredible job getting to the shelters and assisting with FEMA applications. Daniel Hu, an APIS Council Member and board member of Lone Star Legal Aid, informed us that the FEMA Appeals process would come next, and be a difficult stage for those who have been denied FEMA assistance.

We wanted to anticipate the next critical legal need for Harvey survivors trying to get their life back. We figured if we train lawyers they will be able to take on a pro bono case or even give better advice to friends, family and community members.

Read the full story.

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2017 Alumni

Choreographer Joshua L. Peugh ’06 reimagines the classics

Since graduating from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 2006, Joshua L. Peugh ’06 has achieved acclaim worldwide for his unique and innovative choreography. He founded Dark Circles Contemporary Dance (DCCD)  in 2010 in Seoul, with the company’s newest branch based in Dallas. DCCD was among the performing arts groups appearing in the groundbreaking public theater production of The Tempest in March. Two new works by Peugh will have their international premiere in Seoul, just days before the company returns to Dallas to open its fifth anniversary season.
Dark Circles Contemporary Dance’s Big Bad Wolf and Les Fairies will be performed at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, 6th Floor Studio Theatre, October 19–21, just days after their international premiere in Seoul, South Korea. The company celebrates the opening of its fifth anniversary season with these two new creations by founder and artistic director Joshua L. Peugh ’06.
Big Bad Wolf is inspired by cautionary tales people worldwide use to frighten naughty children. Influenced by characters described in stories by Heinrich Hoffmann, the Grimm Brothers, Charles Perrault and others, the work will be grandly theatrical and draw from vaudeville. A brand-new score for the work has been commissioned from composer and SMU Meadows School of the Arts alumnus Brandon Carson ’16.
The second work, Les Fairies, is a modern reimagining of the classic ballet Les Sylphides, with music by Frédéric Chopin performed live by Meadows School of the Arts staff musician Richard Abrahamson.
The production will feature a lighting design by Roma Flowers, whose credits include work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Donald Bird, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Urban Bush Women, Doug Varone, Dance Theatre of Harlem and many other distinguished dance companies and artists. Susan Austin will provide the costume design.
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 19; and at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, October 20–21. Tickets are $25. More information about our performances can be found online at darkcirclescontemporarydance.com along with additional details about the company’s fifth anniversary season.

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2017 Alumni News October 2017

Reaching the funding finish line

Former SMU swimmer Joseph M. “Jody” Grant ’60, and his wife, Sheila Peterson Grant, are providing SMU Athletics with a $1.5 million gift to help fund the University’s new Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center. With their gift, they have created the Sheila and Jody Grant Challenge, encouraging other donors to donate the remaining $1.5 million to complete the $22 million funding goal.
The 42,000-square-foot facility, soon to be home to the University’s internationally recognized men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, will be dedicated Friday, November 3, during SMU Homecoming.
“As community business and philanthropic leaders, Jody and Sheila Grant know the importance of reaching the finish line and completing worthy goals,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Their generosity is inspirational and helps get us closer to completing funding for the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and providing a place where our student athletes can continue the championship legacy of SMU swimming and diving.”
The Aquatics Center features an indoor Olympic-sized pool, which can be configured for eight 50-meter competition lanes or twenty-two 25-yard lanes. Its platform diving well boasts a 10-meter diving tower with five springboards and seating for 800 spectators is on the mezzanine level.
Jody Grant attended SMU on a swimming scholarship, earning four individual Southwest Conference swimming championships and was twice named to the All America team.
“SMU’s swimming program has been near and dear to my heart since Coach Red Barr recruited me many years ago to swim for the Mustangs,” said Dr. Grant. “I am honored to support this new facility, which will be home for the swimming program that was so meaningful to me.”

The Grants met as students at SMU and have been SMU supporters since 1979. They have provided support to the SMU Fund, the Tate Lecture Series, the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics award, the Distinguished Alumni Award, Meadows School of the Arts, Dedman College, and Cox School of Business.
“With the challenge grant, we hope to inspire the community to join us in reaching the goal for the fundraising of the Aquatics Center. We like to participate in opportunities that provide benefits for as many people as possible, profoundly enhancing their lives,” said Sheila Grant.
Read more at SMU News.
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2017 Alumni News October 2017

SMU Homecoming 2017: Friends, football and fun

Come back to the Hilltop for Homecoming, November 2–5, 2017! Reconnect with your friends, reminisce where you began an important part of your life and celebrate the achievements and momentum propelling SMU toward an ever-brighter future.
This year’s celebration begins with the Distinguished Alumni Awards, a prelude to a weekend packed with activities. Choose from among a range of concerts and performances, as well as special exhibitions at SMU’s museums and libraries. Celebrate 100 years of Mustang spirit and Mustang jazz with the Mustang Band at the Pigskin Revue. And enjoy the excitement and fun of the annual parade and the Boulevard, all leading up to the Mustang football team’s game against the UCF Knights.
A highlight of the weekend for many returning Mustangs are the reunion class parties on November 3, where alumni catch up on old times, share memories and reconnect with one another at some of Dallas’ best-loved venues as well as great spots on campus with food, drinks and entertainment.
Student Foundation has been hard at work to make this the most memorable Homecoming yet. Join your Mustang family in November and experience the best of SMU.
Read more at SMU Homecoming & Reunions.

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2017 Alumni News October 2017

Hubba! Saluting a century of Mustang spirit and jazz

The Mustang Band – the most visible performing ensemble at SMU – is celebrating its 100th year during SMU Homecoming 2017 with several special events, including:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2

Diamond M Club Mixer
9 p.m.

Old Chicago Pizza
5319 Mockingbird Station
Dallas, TX 75206

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Mustang Band Mini-Reunion
Noon

Mustang Band Hall
6005 Bush Avenue
Dallas, TX 75206

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Centennial Celebration
6:30–7:45 p.m.

The Martha Proctor Mack
Grand Ballroom
Register now

Read more at SMU Homecoming & Reunions.

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2017 Alumni October 2017

Special Homecoming events planned for Dedman Law alumni

“Choose Your Own Adventure” CLE experience, a reunion party for classes ending in 2s and 7s, and barbecue on The Boulevard are planned for Dedman School of Law alumni during SMU Homecoming Weekend.
Read more at Dedman Law.

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2017 Alumni October 2017 Spring 2018

Adding early assessment to the math education equation

A $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to researchers in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development targets the ongoing struggle of U.S. elementary and high school students with math. SMU K-12 math education experts Leanne Ketterlin Geller and Lindsey Perry ’16 will conduct research and develop an assessment system comprised of two universal screening tools to measure mathematical reasoning skills for grades K–2.
“This is an opportunity to develop an assessment system that can help teachers support students at the earliest and, arguably, one of the most critical phases of a child’s mathematical development,” said Ketterlin Geller, principal investigator for the grant.
The four-year project, Measuring Early Mathematical Reasoning Skills: Developing Tests of Numeric Relational Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning, started on September 15, 2017. The system will contain tests for both numeric relational reasoning and spatial reasoning.
“I’m passionate about this research because students who can reason spatially and relationally with numbers are better equipped for future mathematics courses, STEM degrees and STEM careers,” said Perry, whose doctoral dissertation for her Ph.D. from SMU specifically focused on those two mathematical constructs.
“While these are very foundational and predictive constructs, these reasoning skills have typically not been emphasized at these grade levels, and universal screening tools focused on these topics do not yet exist,” said Perry, who is co-principal investigator.
“Since intervention in the early elementary grades can significantly improve mathematics achievement, it is critical that K-2 teachers have access to high-quality screening tools to help them with their intervention efforts,” she said. “We feel that the Measures of Mathematical Reasoning Skills system can really make a difference for K-2 teachers as they prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.”
Read more at SMU Research.

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2017 Alumni News October 2017

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2017 Alumni Fall 2017 Features

How SMU Alumnae Built A School Culture To Change The Lives Of Girls

A bouncy tune booms in the background as little girls with hair adorned in bright bows, barrettes and beads swarm the elementary school gym. It’s time for Sisterhood Circle at Solar Preparatory School for Girls. For the next 15 minutes, a lively mash-up of movement, song, patriotism and affirmation kicks off the morning.
Students direct the all-school assembly, and on this April day, a kindergarten class runs the show. Each Wednesday is College Day, and the pint-size emcee polls her classmates about their aspirations: “I want to go to SMU and become a lawyer … doctor … archaeologist … teacher … coach.”
Beaming from the sidelines is Nancy Bernardino ’01, ’04, ’05. She’s the principal leading the new single-gender campus, a unique startup developed through the Dallas Independent School District’s Choice School program, a pitch contest of sorts for educators to sell the district on their plans for new public schools.
“Everything we do here is designed to prepare our students for life,” Bernardino says. “They’re learning to write code and problem-solve. They’re learning to express themselves and support one another. We’re seeing our students blossom and become confident young girls.”

HAIR BOWS, HUGS AND HAMMERS  It’s just another day in the life of Solar Preparatory School for Girls and Principal Nancy Bernardino as she makes her morning rounds, checking in on classrooms; pitching in as parents and students build lemonade stands, where students will learn about finance as they compete to sell the most beverages; and watching light bulbs flick on as students learn new concepts in the school’s makerspace. Pictured at the top of the page are the Simmons School alumnae leading Solar Prep: (from left) Olivia Santos ’05, ’16, instructional coach; Principal Bernardino; and Jennifer Turner ’16, assistant principal.

SHAPING A MODEL SCHOOL
From the girl power celebration that jumpstarts each day to the fusion of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math) curriculum with social and emotional learning (SEL), this model school equips girls with the academic abilities and daring they need to unlock their full potential.

GIRL CODE Students use Tinkercad to create basic 3D digital designs. Coding is part of the curriculum that builds tech literacy and nurtures STEAM interest.

Conversations about the “super school” started in 2014 when Bernardino, assistant principal Jennifer Turner ’16, teacher Cynthia Flores ’00, ’17 and instructional coach Ashley Toole ’16 worked together at John Quincy Adams Elementary School in Pleasant Grove, a modest neighborhood in southeast Dallas. Like any entrepreneurs seeking venture capital, the team had to formulate a viable idea, identify data to support their concept and devise a feasible plan that could withstand DISD’s rigorous vetting process.
“When we started looking at the greatest need at the elementary level, we found compelling research about girls losing their voice in the classroom by the time they reach fifth grade,” Bernardino explains. “I started thinking about my own experiences as a very shy student and how things changed for me.”
Bernardino was born in Mexico but has lived in Dallas since she was a year old. She grew up in East Dallas, not far from Solar Prep’s location on Henderson Avenue.
“Neither of my parents had a formal education,” she explains. “My mother wanted us to have career options that she never had.”
Even though they didn’t speak English, her parents regularly attended school functions – demonstrating to Bernardino the importance of parental engagement. Solar Prep sponsors both a parent-teacher association and a club for fathers and other important men in students’ lives.
Poised and self-assured with a quick wit and sunny smile, Bernardino admits she wasn’t always comfortable wearing a leadership mantle. Winning a scholarship to the The Hockaday School, the prestigious all-girls private school in Dallas, was “life-changing,” she says.
“I feel like I found my voice at Hockaday. It was an empowering environment. We learned to speak up for ourselves, and I became my own advocate.”
She used that voice as a “super involved” SMU student. She was active on the Program Council and with Mustang Corral, and she served as layout editor for The Daily Campus while studying public affairs and corporate communications at Meadows School of the Arts.
“It was a great program for me. I still rely on the research skills I developed and tools I learned to use,” she says. “Even graphic design skills, which I didn’t think I would use again, have come in really handy.”
In 2001 she became the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree, a milestone that thrilled her parents. While working in SMU Student Activities, she completed a graduate certificate in dispute resolution and a master of liberal arts degree, both offered by SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She went on to earn a master of education degree from Texas A&M–Commerce before joining DISD in 2005, where she served as a teacher, academic coordinator and assistant principal before becoming an award-winning school principal.
Currently a candidate for the Ed.D. in educational leadership at Simmons, Bernardino says, “We learn practices in class that we can then apply immediately to improve our schools.” For example, a discussion about character-building and core values sparked the idea for the backbone of Solar Prep’s social- emotional learning component: the “Solar Six.” Students explore and discuss curiosity, self-awareness, empathy, humility, leadership and grit.
Simmons School programs also profoundly influenced Solar Prep’s assistant principal Turner and instructional coach Olivia Santos ’05, ’16. Both received master’s degrees in educational leadership with a specialization in urban school leadership.

MAKERSPACE A Lego wall sparks the imagination and encourages collaborative discovery in a space dedicated to hands-on creativity and interdisciplinary learning.

“It was career changing,” Turner says. “It opened my eyes to the pivotal role school leaders can play in creating a learning environment that supports student achievement across the board.”
“Before I completed my master’s, I thought education was mainly about curriculum,” Santos says. “Now I see the importance of implementing systems and practices that create a culture where all students feel welcomed and valued and that support students of all backgrounds, helping those who need it the most get up to speed. Addressing our students’ needs as an entire school has tremendous impact.”
NOW IT’S TIME TO SHINE
Bernardino embraces the Simmons mission to find evidence-based solutions and to “roll out our successes to benefit other schools.”
Solar Prep made its debut in August 2016 with 199 students in kindergarten through second grade from neighborhoods across Dallas. The school will add one grade level per year until students can complete eighth grade at Solar Prep. They will have the option of continuing their public education in an all-girls setting at DISD’s nationally ranked Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
The new school exemplifies the district’s first attempt at a socioeconomically balanced campus, a decision informed by mounting evidence that achievement gaps can shrink when low-income children learn side-by-side with their affluent peers. By design, 50 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch and the other half do not.
The student body is also racially diverse, comprising 51 percent Hispanic, 22 percent black, 22 percent white, 2 percent Asian and 3 percent other races.
Perhaps its most unusual pioneering step is a partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA. Solar Prep is the only public school in the nation to enroll all students in the organization. Once a week, as part of the regular school day, teachers become scout leaders as students focus on activities to earn badges in such areas as financial literacy, computers, inventing and making friends. The program ties to an extended day schedule adopted so that all students can benefit from enrichment activities.
Bernardino already sees signs that Solar Prep is living up to its ambition as an incubator for postmillennial trailblazers.
When an academically gifted student who is not athletically inclined joined the track team, Bernardino cheered. “We want students to push themselves because they know that even if something doesn’t work out, all of us – teachers and students – will help them push through it and figure it out.”
By the way, that little girl exceeded expectations.
“She didn’t do well in the 100-meter race, but she placed second in the 200 meters,” Bernardino recounts. “Afterward, she said, ‘See, I knew I just needed more time, and I would get there.’”
– Story by Patricia Ward and photography by Kim Leeson

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2017 Alumni

SMU’s Luisa del Rosal ’08 wins Latino business award

Luisa del Rosal ’08, executive director of the Tower Center and founding executive director of Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at SMU, received the Latino Up-And-Comer Award as part of D CEO’s 2017 Latino Business Awards. The awards are designed to honor the top Latino “visionary thinkers and industry pioneers” in North Texas.
“I get to do what I love every day and it’s an honor to be selected among such a worthy group,” del Rosal said. “Each nominee and award winner is an outstanding Hispanic leader, proving that we are better together.”
EXCERPT:

D CEO
September 2017

In 2004, Luisa del Rosal left Chihuahua, Mexico, to attend school at Southern Methodist University.

She was a shy, doe-eyed girl who had trouble finding her way around campus. Arriving several minutes late to her first class, she entered through the wrong door and ended up at the front of the classroom. “I’m apologizing in Spanish, but I don’t notice because I’m so frazzled,” she says, only realizing the mistake when her professor responded with confusion. “I remember being just mortified.” But to del Rosal’s relief, the professor and the rest of the class laughed it off and welcomed her inside.

That first day of school has been much like the rest of her story: a series of peers, communities, and superiors who have welcomed her and her ideas.

Read more.

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2017 Alumni

DFW theater critics honor SMU Meadows alumni, faculty and students

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2017 Alumni News September 2017

When the Galápagos Islands become a science classroom

This summer, Teaching and Learning faculty members Diego Román, Ph.D., and Dara Rossi, Ph.D., invited Dallas Arboretum educators Dustin Miller and Marisol Rodriguez to help train 125 Ecuadoran teachers in the Galápagos Islands.
Román and Rossi participate in a four-year professional development program initiated by The Galápagos Conservancy and Ecuador’s Ministry of Education. They also advise The Dallas Arboretum Education Department, which focuses on life and earth science and trains 500 teachers annually. So having Miller and Rodriguez teach with them in the Galapagos was a plus. The team also included Greses Perez, a Simmons alumna, and current student Heny Agredo.
Read more at Simmons.

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Alumni News September 2017

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these cool stories and interesting videos!

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Alumni

SMU alumnus Kent Hofmeister ’73, ’76 receives Federal Bar Association award for ‘lifetime contribution’

Kent Hofmeister ’73, ’76 of Brown & Hofmeister in Dallas, Texas, has been selected by the Federal Bar Association as the 2017 recipient of the Earl W. Kintner Award for Distinguished Service presented as “a lifetime contribution award to an FBA member who has displayed long-term outstanding achievement, distinguished leadership and participation in the activities of the association’s chapters, sections and divisions throughout the nation over a career of service.”
The award will be presented at the FBA national convention in Atlanta on September 16.
He served as the national president of the FBA in 2002–03, was a member of the FBA National Executive Committee (later the board of directors) for 14 years, and created the FBA’s Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award, which honors that attorney “who promotes the advancement of civil and human rights amongst us, and who exemplifies Judge Hughes’ spirit and legacy of devoted service and leadership in the cause of equality.”
Hofmeister earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 1973 and his juris doctor from Dedman School of Law in 1976.

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2017 Alumni August 2017 News

What’s in an oviraptorid name?

Live Science Senior Writer Laura Geggel covered the discovery of a new Cretaceous Period dinosaur from China that is named for paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs, an SMU professor in SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.
Jacobs mentored three of the authors on the article. First author on the paper was Junchang Lü, an SMU Ph.D. alum, with co-authors Yuong–Nam Lee and Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, both SMU Ph.D. alums.
The Live Science article, “Newfound dino looks like creepy love child of a turkey and ostrich,” published July 27, 2017. The dinosaur’s name, Corythoraptor jacobsi, translates to Jacobs’ helmeted thief.
The scientific article “High diversity of the Ganzhou Oviraptorid Fauna increased by a new “cassowary-like” crested species” was published July 27, 2017 in Nature’s online open access mega-journal of primary research Scientific Reports.
Read more at SMU Research.

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2017 Alumni August 2017 News

Geeking out at engineering camp

Parker Holloway ’17 created the curriculum and spent the summer sparking engineering interest through hands-on challenges during weekly camps for middle and high school students held in the Deason Innovation Gym at SMU. Reporter Bill Zeeble’s story on the camp aired on KERA Radio on July 20, 2017.
Throughout the summer, high school and junior high students have been gathering at Southern Methodist University for week-long engineering camps. High schoolers tackled a tough challenge. Devise – then build – one of several electronic items like an alarm clock or home burglary system.  Only make it smaller, cheaper and faster than what’s out there. And finish it in just days.
Everyone’s deadline-busy in SMU’s maker-space – the Deason Innovation Gym. With the clock ticking, Conrad High School 17 year-old Chan Hnin and his three team mates are building their own, unusual, alarm clock.
“The battery life is way longer and it’s also louder than your phone,” Chan says. “Some people are sleepy headed, you know?”
Chan’s on one of four teams of high school boys here to learn real engineering through hands-on experience.  London Morris, from Lancaster High School, explains why their clock’s an improvement.
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni August 2017 News

In Case You Missed It: August 2017

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these cool stories and interesting videos!

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2017 Alumni News

Ana Rodriguez ’03 named director of Cox’s Latino Leadership Initiative

SMU Cox Executive Education welcomes a new director to take its four-year-old Latino Leadership Initiative to the next level. Ana Rodriguez, an alumna of SMU Cox, brings nearly twenty years of experience in higher education, not for profit and corporate work.
Launched in November 2013, the LLI is a national center of excellence at the Cox School of Business designed to help meet the nation’s growing need for corporate leaders as the economy grows and national demographics evolve. The LLI grew out of research that shows a gap in talent at the country’s executive leadership level.
Rodriguez will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for the LLI, which works with the university and the business community to access an important talent resource and marketplace. The LLI operates to deliver management education programs, organization development services, new research-based insights and community engagement activities.
“I am honored and overjoyed to return to my alma mater as the director of the Latino Leadership Initiative,” said Rodriguez. “While Latinos make up nearly 18 percent of the total U.S. population, only two percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are of Hispanic origin. I am humbled by the opportunity to build upon the LLI’s proven success and to work with companies to recruit, retain and develop top Latino talent.”
“The LLI is of utmost importance to SMU Cox Executive Education in our mission to serve the business community,” said Frank Lloyd, associate dean of Executive Education at SMU Cox. “Ana Rodriguez brings solid experience in establishing mutually beneficial relationships between universities and business organizations. She will strengthen the LLI’s efforts to expand the corporate leadership pipeline and accelerate top Latino talent to management and executive level positions. This will benefit our community, our country, and so SMU.”
Rodriguez will begin her new role August 1. She has held leadership positions in corporate partnerships, development, alumni relations, university advancement, and external affairs at UTD’s Naveen Jindal School of Management and UNT Dallas. In those roles, she coordinated corporate relations strategies, public relations, fund raising, and community engagement. Ana also served as the executive director for the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, a non-profit arts organization and resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and she worked for Bank of America in its Global Wealth and Investments division.
READ MORE:

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Alumni Fall 2017

SMU To Honor 2017 Distinguished Alumni, Emerging Leader

SMU will launch Homecoming Weekend 2017 by honoring four outstanding leaders in education, business and civic life at the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony and dinner on Thursday, November 2, on the historic Main Quad. Randy L. Allen ’73, Richard H. Collins ’69 and Albon O. Head, Jr. ’68, ’71 will receive 2017 Distinguished Alumni Awards, and Lacey A. Horn ’04, ’05 will receive the Emerging Leader Award.
Randy L. Allen ’73 has been the head football coach at Highland Park High School since 1999. A 1973 graduate with a bachelor of arts in social studies, Allen attended SMU on a football scholarship and lettered in football and baseball. Climbing the high school ranks an assistant coach, Mr. Allen earned his first head coaching job in 1981 at Ballinger High School. After stops at Brownwood and Abilene Cooper, he led the Scots to state championships in 2005 and 2016. Read more
Richard “Dick” H. Collins ’69, a businessman and entrepreneur, is committed to making quality education available to all children. Collins graduated from SMU in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. A chairman of two commercial banks, real estate developer, wildcatter and media investor, Collins co-founded Istation in 1998. Istation is a global leader in education technology. He has served as its chairman and CEO since 2007. Read more
Albon O. Head ’68, ’71, a partner at Jackson Walker LLP in Fort Worth, is a four-year Mustang football letter winner. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1968 and his juris doctor in 1971. He helped the Mustangs to the 1966 Southwest Conference Championship, and was co-captain of the 1968 Bluebonnet Bowl win over OU. He began his studies at the Dedman School of Law while serving as a graduate assistant coach in 1969 and 1970. Read more
Lacey A. Horn ’04, ’05, treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, is noted for her ability to find optimal solutions for ideal outcomes and making a difference in the governance of organizations and lives of people. Horn earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2004 and master of science in accounting in 2005. Beginning her career with Hunt Oil and KPMG Chicago as an auditor, she has been Cherokee Nation treasurer since 2011.
Read more

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2017 Alumni Fall 2017

Mustangs score with the NBA

Newly minted graduates Semi Ojeleye ’17 and Sterling Brown ’17 were selected in the NBA draft on June 22, writing a new chapter in Mustang basketball history.
Ojeleye was selected 37th overall by the Boston Celtics and Brown was picked 46th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers before being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. It was the first time multiple Mustangs were tapped in the first two rounds, and the fourth time the Mustangs have had multiple picks in the draft.
Another Mustang standout, Ben Moore ’17, has agreed to a partially-guaranteed contract with the Indiana Pacers as an undrafted free agent.
Ojeleye capped his SMU basketball career as the first player in American Athletic Conference history to garner Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. He graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
In a Boston Herald profile, writer Mark Murphy describes Ojeleye “as precisely the kind of swing forward the NBA now demands — a player agile enough to guard multiple positions, strong enough to rebound and defend power forwards and accomplished enough offensively to space the floor.”
Brown was named an NABC Division I College All-Star, All-American Athletic Conference Second Team and AAC All-Tournament in his final season with the Mustangs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management with a minor in sociology from SMU.
On Behind the Buck Pass, the Bucks’ news and fan site, Brown is praised as “a standout shooter who is long enough to defend well in the NBA. For the Bucks, he should provide another shooter off the bench, which is something the team definitely needs.”
Brown and Moore are the all-time leaders in wins for the Mustangs.
Moore was a four-year player at SMU, with 1,214 career points. He became the 39th player in the program’s history to reach 1,000 points, which came on a dunk in the match against Temple on January 4.
Moore, Ojeleye and another SMU alumnus, Markus Kennedy ’16, were among the exciting young players showcased in the NBA Summer League in July.
Kennedy was signed by the Detroit Pistons following a season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Houston Rockets G-League team). While at SMU from 2013–16, he was twice named the American Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year. He scored 1,003 points during his SMU career.

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2017 Alumni July 2017

‘Empathy, adaptability and persistence’

As a newly minted SMU graduate with three degrees, Kovan Barzani not only has exceeded his Kurdish-American parents’ expectations, but also reinforced their decision to flee Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime for “peace and peace of mind” in the U.S.
While weighing three college scholarships during his last year at Liberty High School in Frisco, Kovan recalls his mother’s singular request, delivered with a smile: “Be sure to get at least two degrees – one for you and one for me.”
As it happens, Kovan chose SMU precisely because it could offer not two but the three degrees he sought – in economics, public policy and management – while helping him cultivate the three virtues most valued by his family: “empathy, adaptability and persistence.” Also a plus: His Plano-based family would be nearby as he navigated the next four years.
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni July 2017

And the Tony Award goes to …

Two Meadows alumni won 2017 Tony Awards at the ceremony held June 11 in New York’s Radio City Music Hall, and two other alums are featured in winning and nominated musicals. In addition, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) won the Tony for Best Regional Theatre. Meadows has a long-standing partnership with the center, which includes alumni and faculty in its resident acting company.
Michael Aronov, who earned a B.F.A. in theatre at Meadows in 1998, won his first Tony Award as Best Actor in a Featured Role for Oslo. The play, about the secret negotiations in the early 1990s leading to the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was also named Best Play. Aronov won for his performance as Israeli cabinet member Uri Savir, director-general of the foreign ministry. Oslo is Aronov’s second Broadway show, following his appearance in 2012’s Golden Boy. For this year’s Tony, Aronov was competing against veteran performers including Danny DeVito (for The Price), Nathan Lane (for The Front Page), Richard Thomas (for The Little Foxes) and John Douglas Thompson (for Jitney).
“Talent, practice and persistence pay off,” said Associate Professor of Theatre Michael Connolly, who taught Aronov while he was a student. “No actor I know has worked with greater focus and zeal than Michael, and no actor I know deserves this recognition more.”
Read more at Meadows School of the Arts.

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2017 Alumni July 2017 News

Hoop dreams come true

SMU’s Semi Ojeleye ’17 and Sterling Brown ’17 were selected in the 2017 NBA Draft on Thursday night. Ojeleye was selected 37th overall by the Boston Celtics and Brown was picked 46th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. This is the fourth time the Mustangs have had multiple picks in the NBA Draft, but the first time with multiple selections in the first two rounds.
Ojeleye was named American Athletic Conference Player of the Year and Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention. He was also named AAC All-Tournament Most Outstanding Player, All-AAC First Team, USBWA All-District VII and NABC All-District 25 First Team.
Brown was named an NABC Division I College All-Star, All-American Athletic Conference Second Team and AAC All-Tournament this season. As a senior, he averaged 13.4 points (13th AAC), 6.5 rebounds (16th AAC), 3.0 assists (14th AAC) and 1.4 steals (7th AAC). He led The American in 3-point percentage for the second straight season (44.9) and was eighth in free throw percentage (79.1).
Read more at SMU Athletics.

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2017 Alumni July 2017

Mapping Mustang entrepreneurship

For Josh Thomas, an engineer by training, every new version of an idea brings a chance to discover something new. And the gift he’ll leave with SMU – an interactive map of the University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem – encapsulates both his work as an Engaged Learning Fellow and his hopes for future students.
“I wanted to let the undergraduate population know how many resources are available here on campus,” says Thomas, who will graduate May 20, from SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering. “At SMU, we pride ourselves on our startup spirit – but you don’t get a more entrepreneurial campus unless you create more entrepreneurs.”
Read more at SMU News.

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Alumni July 2017

Wanted: your time and expertise

No matter where you live, it’s possible to give back to SMU with the gift of your time.
Help shape the next generation of world changers by sharing your experiences and expertise through these upcoming interactive volunteer opportunities:

To be counted as an SMU Volunteer during the 2017–2018 academic year, please fill out the Volunteer Interest Form by July 31, and be sure to check out additional volunteer opportunities.
Any amount of time you give can have a lasting impact on the University’s legacy.

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Alumni

SMU alumnae named among world’s Top 10 Servant-Leader CEOs

SMU alumnae Melissa Reiff ’77, CEO of The Container Store, and Brittany Merrill Underwood ’06, founder and CEO of the Akola Project, made Inc.com’s list of the world’s Top 10 servant-leader CEOs.
Underwood, No. 5 on the list, was cited as a “clear example of a servant leader practicing conscious capitalism to transform the lives of impoverished women and families.”
Her commitment to that cause was sparked by a summer she spent in Uganda while an SMU undergraduate. In 2007 she established the Akola Project, and over the last decade, it has blossomed into a thriving social business.
The nonprofit offers jewelry-making jobs that provide a living wage to women living in poverty in Uganda and Dallas.
When the jewelry was introduced in Neiman Marcus last fall, the “full impact brand” became a bestseller. The luxury retailer has since doubled its Akola business.
Underwood, who received SMU’s Emerging Leader Award in 2013, plans to build on Akola’s success in the luxury market after winning the top prize of $75,000 at the United Way GroundFloor’s OneUp the Pitch contest in April.
Reiff, No. 8 on the list, was commended for “continuing the company’s commitment to ‘conscious capitalism’ and its servant leadership-driven culture.”
Reiff joined The Container Store in 1995 as vice president of sales and marketing. She was promoted to executive vice president of stores and marketing in 2003. She served as chief operating office and president before being elevated to CEO in 2016.
She is credited with improving The Container Store’s approach to launching new stores and has played a critical role in enhancing and strengthening the retailer’s “employee-first” culture, a philosophy that has led to 18 consecutive appearances on Fortune’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
Reiff received an SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013 and has served on the school’s executive board and been active on the Cox Associate Board.
Read the full story at Inc.com.

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2017 Alumni July 2017 News

In case you missed it: July 2017

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these quick links to cool stories and interesting videos!

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2017 Alumni Fall 2017

SMU Hispanic Alumni honor alumnus, award scholarships

Jorge Baldor ’93 was honored with the 2017 Distinguished Hispanic Alumni Award presented by SMU Hispanic Alumni at the chapter’s annual awards celebration on April 27. SMU Hispanic Alumni also presented undergraduate scholarships to Carlos “Alex” Negrete ’18 and Victor Sanchez ’19. Guest speakers included SMU President R. Gerald Turner and Thomas DiPiero, dean and professor of World Languages and Literatures and English, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
Baldor, pictured at the top of the page with Elizabeth Zamora ’12 (left), chair of SMU Hispanic Alumni, and Cynthia Villanueva ’00, past chair, graduated from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in history. He is co-founder of ResidentCheck, a national tenant background screening service.
An award-winning leader in business and civic affairs, Baldor was named Outstanding Latino Advocate in 2016 by D CEO magazine. He also has been recognized for his support of the Innocence Project and was named an “Amigo de Centroamerica” by Fundación Esquipulas, a nonprofit organization led by Vinicio Cerezo, the former president of Guatamala.
In 2015 Baldor co-founded the Latino Center for Leadership Development (Latino CLD), which strives to develop the next generation of leaders driven by thoughts, values and experiences that will improve the Latino community. Earlier this year, Latino CLD and SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies awarded nine research grants to support meaningful research geared to promoting a stronger understanding of the Latino community and creating a dialogue about key societal issues.
He serves on the executive board of SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and as a commissioner-at-large on the City of Dallas’ Cultural Affairs Commission. He also serves on the boards of the Cisneros Center for New Americans, the World Affairs Council and the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce.
SMU Hispanic Alumni also honored scholarship recipients Carlos “Alex” Negrete ’18 of Carrollton, Texas, a business administration major in the Cox School of Business, and Cox finance major Victor Sanchez ’19 of San Antonio, Texas.

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2017 Alumni June 2017

SMU alumnus Mark Lau ’06: Finding a perfect fit at Nike

By Karen Shoholm
SMU
“I met Michael Jordan during the first week of my internship,” says Mark Lau ’06. “Right then I knew that Nike was the place I wanted to work. Eleven years later, I haven’t looked back.”

Mark Lau ’06, global director of Nike’s EKIN Experience, sports some favorite kicks outside the Nike store in Portland, Oregon. “There’s no such thing as a typical day at Nike, and that’s why I love it,” he says.

Lau, who graduated with degrees in marketing from the Cox School of Business and in advertising design from Meadows School of the Arts, works at Nike’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. As global director of the company’s EKIN Experience – named in 1981 for the Nike reps who “had to know the product backwards and forwards,” according to Nike – Lau leads the team responsible for curating Nike’s stories and delivering inspiration and innovation to athletes around the world through a grassroots approach.
“My internship played a huge part in getting a full-time job at Nike,” he says.
Lau also credits his SMU Abroad experiences studying in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Suzhou, China. “I believe that some of the best learning experiences take place outside the classroom. The study abroad programs provided the opportunity to interact with students from around the world and experience global cultures.”
Adapting to different kinds of people and cultures was good training for what Lau does at Nike. “There is no such thing as a typical day at Nike, and that’s why I love it. We are a consumer-driven company, and the consumer moves fast. We learn, adapt and evolve quickly to keep up with today’s fast-paced environment,” he says.
“We call Nike’s World Headquarters a campus because it is designed like a university and fosters an environment of learning and sharing. Our maxim, ‘Be a sponge,’ inspires us to constantly soak up and share information.”
From the SMU campus, Lau is grateful for what he learned in his marketing classes, especially those taught by Judy Foxman, senior lecturer of marketing at the Cox School. Lau says she made learning fun. “She merged the classroom with the real world, providing valuable insights and experiences.”
Foxman calls Lau “a fabulous student whose marketing and communication skills were enhanced in my Honors Marketing Practicum class. When you are relating academics to a real-world project, a company knows that you will be able to hit the ground running. You earn more than a marketing degree; you acquire a level of confidence and professionalism.”
Lau serves as the co-president of SMU’s Portland alumni chapter and helps organize events for fellow Mustangs who live in the area.
He adds that SMU’s location in Dallas gave him an ideal launch pad for getting to Nike and Portland. “Dallas is strategically located so it is attractive to companies. Whether you want to work for a big company or a small company – or start your own – Dallas and SMU can provide those opportunities.”

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2017 Alumni June 2017 News

Taos Cultural Institute, July 20–23

Reflect. Refresh. Renew. We invite you to an enriching weekend at the SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute, July 20–23.
Whether you choose an engaging course for intellectual growth or a Taos adventure, you’ll enjoy your experience in this inspiring setting. Taos Cultural Institute courses give you two-and-a-half days of in-depth, hands-on exploration of topics that reflect the unique cultural richness of Northern New Mexico. Field trips enable you to experience your topic even more vividly, with time to discover and sightsee on your own.
Register now at SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute.

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2017 Alumni June 2017 News

In case you missed it: June 2017

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these quick links to cool stories and interesting videos!

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Alumni

SMU Trustee David B. Miller ’72, ’73 named 2017 Folsom Leadership Award recipient

Categories
Alumni

SMU alumni honored by Cox School of Business

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2017 Alumni May 2017

George Killebrew ’85: Helping SMU students break into the big time

By Bindu Varghese
SMU
Connor Kolodziej ’19 was so excited about his winter break externship that he was up by 5:30 a.m. so he would be early to the office of George Killebrew ’85, executive vice president with the Dallas Mavericks.
Kolodziej didn’t know what to expect going in. He just knew a chance to work in a sports organization was something he’d always dreamed about. Dallas’ five professional sports teams had attracted the Atlanta, Georgia, resident and lifelong sports lover to SMU, where he is majoring in applied physiology and sport management in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. So it made perfect sense to pursue a one-day opportunity to get an inside look at the business operations of a legendary team.

SMU sophomore Connor Kolodziej ’19 and SMU alumnus George Killebrew ’85 at American Airlines Center. Kolodziej job-shadowed Killebrew, executive vice president with the Dallas Mavericks, and his staff during a winter break externship that “exceeded my expectations.”

Little did he know then that it would land him a three-month summer internship with the team.
SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center connected Kolodziej with Killebrew, who’d received his BBA from the Cox School of Business. “When I found out George was with the Mavericks, I was very excited,” says Kolodziej. “The day exceeded my expectations. I understood the daily operations. Everyone was friendly and happy, and that really encouraged me about my future.”
“It’s actually a simple thing,” says Killebrew, who is also a member of the SMU Alumni Board. “Anytime someone comes in, whether it’s for a summerlong internship or a day’s externship, we want to make sure they get a full flavor of the organization and the different business roles within. A lot of people see the Mavericks and think about the basketball piece of it. But we’re over in a warehouse in Deep Ellum. We’re selling tickets and sponsorships and merchandise. Connor came in and spent pretty much the whole day with us. My whole staff took time with him. So everybody had 30 or 45 minutes with him. We’re always trying to help out – especially someone who wants to get into sports.”
Kolodziej values how the externship helped with his longer-term career aspirations. “I got to make new connections and meet new people who didn’t go to SMU. It also helped me see new aspects – so it broadened my horizon about where I’d like to go in the future.”
He parlayed his winter externship into a summer internship by “staying in contact with George and everyone else I talked to during my winter externship. You never know what is out there unless you ask.” In assisting the Mavs’ corporate sponsorship team this summer with promotions and programs, Kolodziej hopes to gain deeper insights into sports organizations and continue to “learn as much as possible.”
Killebrew, who grew up in Hawaii, credits his SMU education and SMU connections to getting him where he is now. “I was a bit sheltered growing up on an island. When I got to SMU, I met people from all different walks of life, all 50 states and a lot of foreign countries. That really helped prepare me for the real world.”
After graduation, Killebrew worked in the SMU Alumni association for two years, then “I got a job in the Athletics department at SMU. So I was working for the Mustang Club, which opened the door to get me here to the Mavericks – because the people at SMU were helping me take the next steps.”
Killebrew encourages others to take advantage of SMU alumni connections. “There are so many resources, in the city of Dallas and within the SMU alumni community, that you can pretty much accomplish anything you want, regardless of your field. Alumni are willing to help. They just need to be asked.”
Kolodziej appreciates how SMU is helping him pursue the career of his dreams and emphatically recommends the externship experience to other SMU students. “I loved the whole day. I learned so much. SMU has a great connection with alumni, and George pushed home the importance of networking and meeting new people, especially as a student in college. And the most important thing I learned is to find a good place not just to work, but also to enjoy what you do.”

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2017 Alumni Fall 2017 May 2017

Success started with a ‘no’

Dylan DeMuth ’17 started classes at the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio in July. He credits a “no” from an SMU professor with changing his life and putting him on track for a career in medicine.
When DeMuth wanted to enroll Eric Bing’s global health class, the professor told the premed student that he was not yet qualified and offered a challenge: “Improve your grades and call me in a month.”
A sophomore chemistry and economics major with a 3.0 grade point average at the time, DeMuth sought tutoring before his midterm exams, instead of waiting until he was struggling with challenging science and math courses. He met with Bing, professor of global health and director of SMU’s global health program in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, a month later to report improvement on his midterm tests – the beginning of a mentorship that inspired DeMuth to re-choreograph his life.
DeMuth, determined to fulfill his passion for study and working in global health, followed Bing’s advice to develop a mission and find his strengths. He began each day with what Bing calls “10-10-10,” a daily practice of 10 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of meditating and 10 minutes of journaling.
When the opportunity to enroll in Bing’s global health class rolled around again, DeMuth was the first person admitted to the class.
With Bing’s encouragement, DeMuth has conducted his own global health research.
“Dylan is a natural. He understands people in a way he doesn’t yet realize,” Bing says. “Mentoring him is lighting a torch that someone once lit in me.”
Read more at SMU News.

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2017 Alumni May 2017 News

In case you missed it: May 2017

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these quick links to cool stories and interesting videos!

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2017 Alumni April 2017 News

In case you missed it: April 2017

In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these quick links to cool stories and interesting videos!

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2017 Alumni April 2017

Law school to honor alumni

Six University graduates who have carved out successful careers across the legal spectrum will be honored by Dedman School of Law at its 30th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony this evening.
Read more at SMU News.

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Alumni Fall 2017

Black Alumni Of SMU Celebrate 2017 History Makers, Scholarship Recipients

By Leah Johnson ’15
SMU

It was a night of fun, food and fellowship as alumni, faculty, students and members of the community celebrated achievement at the sixth annual Black Excellence Ball on February 25. Black Alumni of SMU joined the Association of Black Students (ABS) to present “Mustang Masquerade.”
The program included remarks by SMU President R. Gerald Turner and keynote speaker Clint Smith, 2014 National Poetry Slam champion and doctoral candidate in education at Harvard University. The former high school English teacher is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship with research interests that include mass incarceration, the sociology of race and the history of U.S. inequality. His first book of poetry, Counting Descent, won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.
Performances by SMU’s Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir and dancers Kendall Lockhart ’19 and Takia Hopson ’19 ushered in the main event: recognition of the 2017 Black History Makers and Black Alumni Scholarship recipients as well as the ABS Legacy Award student and faculty honorees.

BLACK ALUMNI HISTORY MAKERS

Mercury R. Hall ’98, ’03 made University history as the first African American to receive a master’s degree in applied economics from SMU. As an undergraduate, he played on the Mustang football team while earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Today the financial expert and sports entrepreneur serves as an assistant vice president on the trade settlement team at Markit, a global financial information, analytics and services company. He is also the founder and CEO of Mercury Universe, an online community and recruiting tool that enables young athletes to promote themselves to agents, coaches and fans.
In the community, Hall is involved with numerous charitable organizations including Meals on Wheels, Special Olympics and the Markit Social and Charity Committee. He also has served on the Richardson Corporate Challenge Board.
 
Contessa Hoskins ’09, a senior business engineering and operations consultant for Raytheon, has made her mark across the business spectrum in a wide range of industries, including petrochemicals, industrial commercial manufacturing, telecommunications, defense and aerospace, distributed control systems and automation and integration.
She is a certified Project Management Professional and Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt, a designation recognizing her expertise in helping companies improve performance and eliminate waste.
Hoskins has earned multiple awards for mentoring excellence, service, corporate performance and leadership and been profiled in numerous publications, including US Black Engineer and Beta Gamma Sigma honor society magazines.
She earned an MBA from the Cox School of Business and serves on the school’s alumni board.
 

Moses L. Williams, Jr. ’78, ’81, the first African American to obtain a Ph.D. in anthropology from SMU, founded an innovative education program in 1990 while director of admissions for Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
The program, which was  hosted by SMU for several years, trained minority students for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, beginning in seventh grade and continuing through college. One hundred percent of program participants attended college, 99 percent graduated and 92 percent completed the pipeline project before it ended in 2016.
Through the program, Williams has helped produce hundreds of minority physicians, scientists and engineers.

BLACK ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

Autumn Langston ’17, a music therapy major and arts entrepreneurship minor, has served as director of the Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir for three consecutive years. She also serves as treasurer for the Student Association of Music Therapy and parliamentarian for the Southwestern Region of the American Music Therapy Association for Students.

Lezly Murphy ’19 (left) and Autumn Langston ’17

After completing five semesters of clinical practicum at SMU and serving as an AmeriCorps member, she has developed a passion for working with youth and the psychiatric music therapy setting. Following her graduation in May, she will begin a six-month music therapy internship at a psychiatric hospital that serves children, adolescents and adults. She believes music has the power to heal and connect us all.
“The scholarship means opportunity,” Langston says. “It’s nice to feel appreciated and recognized. I’m grateful.”
Lezly Murphy ’19, a sophomore from Houston, is majoring in electrical engineering with a pre-medicine focus. A Hilltop Scholar, she has served as an assistant for professors in the physics and chemistry departments.
She is active in numerous campus organizations, including ABS, Women in Science and Engineering and Sisters Supporting Sisters, a service and support network for minority students and all women on campus.
After graduation, Murphy plans to attend medical school with the goal of conducting research in drug design, serving with Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization, and designing and reforming medical devices and methodologies.
Murphy said that after a tough semester, it was nice to receive encouragement through the scholarship.
“I’m very grateful,” she said. “This was a miracle and a blessing. I’m supposed to be here at SMU. This is my home.”
 
Marc Young ’96, chair, Black Alumni of SMU (center) with ABS student award recipients (from left) Gel Greene ’18, Naomi Samuel ’19, Cecily Cox ’18 and Raven C. Harding ’19.

ASSOCIATION OF BLACK STUDENTS LEGACY AWARDS

Student honorees:

  • Naomi Samuel ’19, finance and English major, is a member of Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. and a resident assistant.
  • Raven C. Harding ’19, health and society and psychology double major with a minor in Spanish, serves on the executive board of Sisters Supporting Sisters and as president of the Belle Tones, a student-run, all-female a cappella group. She also has served as a resident assistant and a student ambassador. She was named Homecoming Princess for the inaugural Black Homecoming Court.
  • Gel Greene ’18, sports management major, is a member of the SMU Rowing team, SMU Cheer and Pom squads and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she plans to pursue a master of science in sports management at SMU.
  • Cecily Cox ’18, is a pre-law scholar who serves as chair of the Student Senate Diversity Committee, community service chair for Sisters Supporting Sisters and vice president of College Democrats. She is also an Engaged Learning fellow and has served as an intern for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson ’76.

Faculty honoree:

Professor Maria Dixon (left) was honored by SMU’s Association of Black Students.

Maria Dixon Hall, associate professor of organizational communication and director of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs at Meadows School of the Arts, serves as the SMU Provost’s senior advisor for Campus Cultural Intelligence Initiatives. Professor Dixon Hall is passionate about helping organizations and nonprofits communicate in a way that creates results, community and transformation. She serves as the director of Mustang Consulting, an in-house firm staffed by top communication students, whose global client list includes Southwest Airlines (Dallas), The Dance Theatre of Harlem (New York), the Ugandan American Partnership Organization (Kampala/Dallas), The Lydia Patterson Institute (El Paso) and Lifeworks (Austin).
Dixon Hall maintains an active speaking schedule and is a frequent contributor to national media outlets such as TIME magazine and CNN on issues of race and education.
Recognized throughout her SMU career for her teaching and research, Dixon Hall has been honored with the 2005-06 Willis M. Tate award for service to the student body; the 2009 Golden Mustang Award for outstanding teaching and research by junior faculty; the 2010 Rotunda Award for Outstanding Teaching; and the 2011 “M” Award, SMU’s highest award for service to the University. In 2016, she was named an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor by SMU’s Center for Teaching Excellence.

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2017 Alumni April 2017

SMU Alum John Harper ’68: ‘The Best Medicine Is Science And Compassion Intersecting At The Patient’

By Kenny Ryan
SMU

Cardiologist John Harper ’68 vividly remembers waking in the middle of the night to the sound of his father crying out in pain.

It was 1964 and Harper was 17 years old – just a year shy of starting college at SMU. But he was as frightened as a small child that night when he peaked through a cracked-open bedroom door into the hallway of his West Texas home. A physician named Bruce Hay was arriving at 3 a.m., impeccably dressed in a three-piece suit, his black doctor’s bag in hand, to offer aid.

Harper’s father was a bear of a man, a former basketball player named Frank who was his son’s hero. The doctor walked up to Harper’s father, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Frank, it’s OK. I’m here now, and I’ll stay until you’re better.”

And then he did. The doctor tended to Harper’s dad, answered his mother’s concerns, and even reassured the young man who was watching from a bedroom door.

That’s the kind of personal touch Harper says is often missing from medicine these days. The key to getting it back, he says, may be literature. That’s why he’s hosting the 7th annual Literature + Medicine Conference from 8 a.m. to noon April 1 at SMU’s Mack Ballroom in the Umphrey Lee Center.

“Science has become so complex and hard to keep up with that it’s a legitimate thing to say you don’t have time to be empathetic, but it’s important to try,” Harper says. “My argument is that you need good science to be a good doctor, but you also need a compassionate side. The best medicine is science and compassion intersecting at the patient.”

Harper’s path to medicine wasn’t a typical one. The budding bibliophile earned an English degree from SMU, initially with an eye toward studying international law, but then, while signing up for classes his sophomore year, he had a change of heart.

“I was sitting there, filling out my proposed schedule for the year, and I realized I was signing up for a lot of pre-law courses I didn’t really want to take,” he remembers. “Then I thought about Dr. Hay, the doctor who came to my house that night, and I thought of my uncle, who had been an orthopedic surgeon, and I picked up the phone and called my dad and asked him what he’d think if I changed my major to pre-med. There was pause, and then he said, ‘I’d be very delighted.’

“I loved the English and stuck with it for my degree,” Harper adds. “But for my other courses, I took biology and chemistry.”

The biology and chemistry provided the foundation that got him through med school, but the English and a lifetime love of reading is what Harper credits with making him a truly successful doctor. In his acceptance speech for a 2014 SMU Distinguished Alumni Award, Harper cited “remarkable faculty” in the humanities and sciences with shaping his future success. “SMU is where I learned to make decisions,” he said. “Even today, if I have a hard decision, whether it be medical, personal, financial, whatever it is, I come to this campus and walk here because this campus catalyzed my ability to go through a process and come to a conclusion.”

Building on his undergraduate education and medical school training, the cardiologist formulated his prescription for better medicine over time as a practicing physician, mentor and teacher. In addition to serving as the Ewton Chair of Cardiology at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Harper instructs residents at Presbyterian Hospital and medical students from UT Southwestern with an approach as unique as the path that led him to study medicine. He often assigns his students the homework of listening to an orchestra and training their ears to pick out a single instrument: The talent that allows them to isolate the piccolo is akin to the talent that will enable them to identify a subtle flaw in the rhythmic beating of a human heart, he explains. Harper also likes to read excerpts from books to his students during class so they can practice their attentive listening skills – another dying art, he says.

“I ask myself what kind of doctor do I choose to utilize, and most are well-rounded people,” Harper says. “There are times you just want someone to operate on you and you never talk to them or hear from them again, but other times you want someone who can understand how you’re feeling, commiserate with how you’re feeling, and help you through what might be an emotional process.”

READ MORE:
SMU Magazine – Cardiologist John Harper ’68 Prescribes Good Literature ‘To Make Us Better People’

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2017 Alumni March 2017 News

Mastering tech entrepreneurship

Coming this fall: SMU’s new master of science degree in engineering entrepreneurship. The program will focus on technology development through a business lens with the aim of providing managers and entrepreneurs with the skills they need to start and lead new technology ventures.

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Alumni

SMU’s Gabby Petrucelli ’16 Balances Grad School And Rowing


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[heading style=”subheader”]
hat’s the key to juggling the demands of graduate school and competitive rowing?
“I started drinking a lot of coffee, especially with early morning practices,” Gabrielle (Gabby) Petrucelli ’16 says. “Being able to balance both is a game in itself.”
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Petrucelli, a four-year starter for the SMU women’s soccer team as an undergraduate, is working toward a master of science in accounting (MSA) at SMU’s Cox School of Business while testing the waters as a first-year member of the SMU rowing team.

Gabby Petrucelli ’16 played soccer for four years at SMU and is now a first-year member of the SMU rowing team and a graduate student in the Cox School of Business.

She and her teammates are at the boathouse on White Rock Lake by 5:30 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. on Saturdays. They start with a warm-up run before heading inside to practice on rowing machines. Before 7 a.m., they hit the water in racing shells, those long, narrow boats used in competitive rowing. For the next two hours, they glide back and forth across the lake as head coach Doug Wright and assistant coaches Jessie Hooper ’03 and Paige Love take note of performance strengths and weaknesses, offer suggestions, track times and check in with rowers to make sure they’re feeling 100 percent. It takes tremendous strength and stamina to make the sport look so graceful and effortless.
SMU rowing wrapped up its fall schedule on November 5 with several top-three finishes at the Tulsa Fall Invitational. In its season opener on March 11, the Mustangs host Creighton at White Rock Lake.
The team also finished the fall semester as one of nine SMU sports programs to set new academic records.
While the rigors of graduate school would be enough of a workout for most students, Petrucelli, a lifelong athlete, couldn’t pass up the chance to learn a new sport. Besides soccer, she played tennis in high school but had never tried rowing. The transition has been smooth, but she has had to make a few adjustments.
“In rowing you’re competing for a seat in the boat against your teammates, of course, but soccer is more of a contact sport and the competition is more physical,” she says. “I was used to the group dynamic of soccer practice, and I’ve had to get into the mindset of the individual challenge of the rowing workouts.”
She’s used to challenges. As an undergraduate, she played the trickiest soccer position – coach’s daughter. Her father is SMU women’s soccer head coach Chris Petrucelli. During her four years of eligibility, she and her father adhered to a strict rule: When at practice or during a game, they were “coach” and “player,” not “father” and “daughter.”
“To both my dad and me, it was about being members of a team,” says the former soccer mid-fielder. “I felt like I was treated the same by him and my teammates, which I’m grateful for.”
She says the discipline and time-management skills she developed as an undergraduate student-athlete serve her well in graduate school.
“Being an athlete teaches you to work hard and persevere. You learn that you have to keep going, whether you lose a game or have to stay up late to figure out an assignment you thought you’d never understand,” she says. “I have developed the mindset of ‘you can do this,’ no matter what, and that has helped me academically.”
The spring will be a whirlwind, as she finishes her master’s program, competes with the rowing team and prepares to sit for the CPA exam, beginning in May. All this will lead up to the launch of her professional career, when she joins the tax department of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) in July.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to compete in two sports at the collegiate level while receiving a great education at SMU,” Petrucelli says. “I have learned a lot about competiveness, perseverance and teamwork that will be valuable in my career going forward.”
– Patricia Ward
SEE MORE PHOTOS OF SMU ROWING AT WHITE ROCK LAKE

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2017 Alumni March 2017

SMU Alumnus Michael Trusnovec’s Life Of Dance

Shortly after earning his bachelor’s degree in dance performance at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, Michael Trusnovec ’96 joined Paul Taylor’s renowned modern dance company. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News published on February 7, 2017, he talked about his lifelong obsession with dance and obsessively watching videotapes of Paul Taylor Dance Company performances in the library as an SMU student.
EXCERPT
By Manuel Mendoza
The Dallas Morning News
When he landed at Southern Methodist University in the early 1990s on a full scholarship, Michael Trusnovec was aiming for career in musical theater. Then the Long Island native discovered the choreography of Paul Taylor.

Michael Trusnovec and Eran Bugge in Esplanade. Photo by Paul B. Goode/Courtesy of Paul Taylor American Modern Dance

“I saw the theatricality of Broadway all of a sudden taken to a whole different level in his work, a much deeper level,” Trusnovec says. “It’s not just about a bunch of people on stage executing movement. There’s a purpose and a meaning behind these dances, even if it’s just a mood and not necessarily a story. There’s no way I can execute a Taylor dance without thinking about who I am in that dance, and that fed my appetite for theatricality.”
More than two decades later, he is such a key member of Taylor’s New York-based company that Trusnovec is considered a potential successor to the 86-year-old modern dance pioneer when he retires as artistic director. Trusnovec joined Taylor’s junior troupe shortly after graduating from SMU in 1996, and he never left.
Now he’s back in town this week as Paul Taylor American Modern Dance prepares to perform at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. Taylor and the Eisemann have a relationship that dates back to the center’s opening in 2002, when it presented the premiere of Taylor’s Dream Girls, commissioned by the city of Richardson.
Saturday’s show will be the company’s eighth appearance at the Eisemann and will include the third premiere of the partnership, former Taylor dancer Lila York’s Continuum. Rounding out the program is a pair of Taylor classics, Books of Beasts (1971) and Cascade (1999).
Performed to Max Richter’s re-composition of Vivald’s The Four Seasons, Continuum is the latest example of the company’s expansion of its repertory beyond Taylor’s choreography. Trusnovec describes it as highly formal and structured, with warlike fight scenes and movement that starts stiff and staccato and evolves to become lighter and more open.
READ THE FULL STORY

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Alumni

SMU Seattle Chapter Alumni Share Career Insights With MBA Students

One of the most valuable resources available to students exploring career options is the SMU alumni network as Daniel Molina, a first-year marketing and finance student in the full-time MBA program, experienced last fall. He was among a group of MBA students from the Cox School of Business offered insider access to some of the world’s top companies by SMU alumni during Cox’s “Marketing Trek to Seattle.”

A group of full-time MBA students from the Cox School of Business visited the headquarters of Starbucks and other iconic companies during a fall trip to Seattle. Alumni with the SMU Seattle Chapter helped the students get the most out of their exploratory expedition.

Shanna Upchurch, associate director of MBA marketing, analytics and operations career coach at Cox, worked with Cort Clark ’12, Alan Clements ’06 and Gavin Benedict ’14 of the SMU Seattle Chapter leadership team, as well as the SMU Office of Alumni Relations and Engagement staff, to spread the word among alumni about the exploratory tour and arrange a gathering with Cox alumni in the Seattle area for the visiting students.
In the following summary written by Molina, he describes the fact-finding expedition and networking opportunity as a highlight of his first semester in the Cox program:
Last October, my peers and I from the SMU Cox MBA represented our school in a series of visits to companies throughout the Seattle area. As a first-year MBA with a background in operations management at Starbucks, this trip was a great way to act as an ambassador for SMU to the Fortune 500 companies we visited. On this trip, I had a great time meeting with upper management and touring the facilities of prominent businesses, all while networking with SMU alumni and executives.
During the trip, we visited Nuance Communications and spoke with marketing managers about how they work with such companies as Apple and Amazon to create voice commands for their phones and technology apps. We toured Boeing, the world’s largest manufacturer of planes, and learned what it is like to market directly to businesses and governments. Starbucks, the global coffee and retail company, invited us behind the scenes at their headquarters, where we learned about the innovative way they design drinks and how they finance new marketing projects through long-term contracting and coordination with farms throughout the world. At Amazon, the leader in internet retailing, we learned how they aim to implement their plans for an efficient global marketplace with low costs and intricate shipping strategies.
At each business visited, we interacted with SMU alumni who worked there, learning how they navigated their way after the MBA program. We met Amazon’s Nikhil Nilakantan ’05, a Cox MBA alumnus, who told us how his time at SMU prepared him for a career at the world’s largest online retailer. His recommendations for success in the MBA program inspired us to work hard to achieve our personal goals and someday succeed at Fortune 500 companies, perhaps in the Seattle area. I am very grateful for all of those who helped us on our trip, including Michael Barry ’14 at Amazon, Shalini Nilahantan ’05 at Starbucks, Mark Silverman ’94 at Boeing and Cort Clark ’12 from Microsoft. Without these esteemed SMU alumni, my peers and I wouldn’t have been able to experience the great industry that Seattle offers.
The MBA program and SMU makes trips like the “Marketing Trek to Seattle” possible. As a student seeking an internship in marketing or operations in the summer, I feel fortunate to have been able learn more about the possibilities afforded to an SMU Cox graduate. The amazing faculty and staff guided our way around the wonderful northwestern city, and the experience remains as one of the highlights of my first semester in the MBA program.
In addition to being a coffee aficionado, Daniel Molina loves travel and case competitions, and he even geeks out with HTML coding from time to time. Contact him at dmolina@smu.edu.
For information about providing Cox MBA internships or employment, please contact Shanna Upchurch at shanna@smu.edu.
 
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Joowon Kim ’07: ‘Fighting Cancer As Child’s Play’

Joowon Kim ’07, an SMU Guildhall alumna living in Houston, is co-founder and chief technology officer of Oncomfort, an award-winning start-up that offers virtual reality stress-mangement tools for patients undergoing medical procedures and treatments. The company is now testing Kimo, a game that helps kids with cancer visualize the battle going on inside their bodies. “Kids can zap pretend rogue cells on their screens while chemotherapy takes on the real ones to save their lives,” writes Jenny Deam in a story about Kim and her company that was published in the Houston Chronicle on December 25, 2016. As Kim explains, “It is self-empowering. Instead of them just being passive and playing a game where they shoot things, it brings their focus back to what is happening to them. It makes it real.”
EXCERPT
Houston Chronicle
By Jenny Deam
The game screen is dark and creepy, just as a journey through the inner workings of a body would be with all those weird veins and organs floating around. Suddenly, a mocking, one-eyed creature pops into view, bent on destruction. It must be vanquished.

Kimo, a virtual-reality game created by Oncomfort, allows kids to thwart evil cancer cells. The game helps young patients undergoing chemotherapy visualize the battle going on inside their bodies.

One shot and it is gone. But then there is another. And another.
That’s how it is in cancer and video games. The bad stuff just keeps coming.
Which is why two women, one from Texas, one from Belgium, joined forces to come up with an inventive way to let children with cancer visualize the fight going on inside them. Marrying the technology of virtual-reality gaming with medicine, kids can zap pretend rogue cells on their screen while chemotherapy takes on the real ones to save their lives.
“It is self-empowering. Instead of them just being passive and playing a game where they shoot things, it brings their focus back to what is happening to them. It makes it real,” said Joowon Kim, a 36-year-old computer scientist and gaming industry veteran.
Korean-born and now living in Houston, Kim is co-founder of a unique start-up called Oncomfort that offers virtual reality applications to distract, relax, and educate patients during difficult medical procedures. The products are being developed and readied for market through JLABS @ TMC, a life-sciences business incubator launched earlier this year by Johnson & Johnson and the Texas Medical Center.
READ THE FULL STORY

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Lauren Graham ’92 Returns As Lorelai Gilmore

To the applause of fans everywhere, Lauren Graham ’92 has returned as Lorelai Gilmore in the Netflix miniseries, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” Photo: Netflix.
To the applause of fans everywhere, Lauren Graham ’92 has returned as Lorelai Gilmore in the Netflix miniseries, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” Photo: Netflix

Here’s a fact that will interest those who spent Thanksgiving break binging on “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life”: Lauren Graham, who plays fast-talking, caffeine-fueled, hip mom Lorelai Gilmore, is an SMU theatre graduate who earned her MFA from Meadows School of Arts in 1992. She attended SMU with the support of scholarships and met her first agent after performing at an SMU workshop.
Netflix released four new 90-minute “Gilmore Girls” episodes on November 29, sending millennials and their moms to their couches for a marathon of memorable moments in magical Stars Hollow. The revival picks up 10 years after the finale of the original series and follows the characters through four seasons of change. The miniseries seems to have filled the Gilmore void left in the hearts of millions when the series wrapped its seven-year run in 2007, earning praise from nostalgic fans and television critics alike.
Graham went on to star in the critically acclaimed series “Parenthood” as well as a host of movies, including “Birds of America,” “Flash of Genius” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”
One more thing to know about the multitalented Mustang: Graham is also an accomplished writer. Her new collection of personal essays, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between, was released on November 29. She also is the author of Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel, published in 2014.


SMU Magazine did some time traveling in its archives and found this great interview with Lauren Graham from 2008, when she spent two days working with theatre students at Meadows School of the Arts:

Lauren Graham: Acting Is Being The Real You

Actress Lauren Graham talks with students at Meadows School of the Arts. Photo by Kim Leeson/Courtesy of Meadows School of the Arts.
Actress Lauren Graham talks with students at Meadows School of the Arts. Photo by Kim Leeson/Courtesy of Meadows School of the Arts.

As Lorelai Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls” for seven years, actress Lauren Graham ’92 typically worked 14-hour days. “To do anything else feels like I’m on vacation,“ says the M.F.A. theatre graduate.
So she was unfazed during two days of training SMU theatre students in February. Hustling back and forth from one conference to the next workshop held at Meadows School of the Arts, she barely took time to sip from a bottle of water.
Theatre Chair Cecil O’Neal says that Graham has been generous with her time, energy and expertise during visits to SMU. “It is absolutely wonderful for our students to have an opportunity to learn from someone as knowledgeable, experienced and successful as Lauren.“
While on campus, Graham observed that the student experience has changed somewhat since she attended SMU. “They’re so much more exposed to the business of the business than we were,” she says. “My class wanted to be theatre professionals, mainly. We were kind of biased about what it meant to be an actor in film and television. I don’t think students have that bias so much now. They’re more interested in working in a world where they can make a living. They seem really enthusiastic and very smart.”
Although trained for the stage at SMU, Graham’s experience in film and television comes into play when passing along insights about the business to students. M.F.A. candidate Lydia Mackay found the workshop beneficial and supportive. “She reminded us that to be ourselves, and to be confident in who we are and the choices we make in our art, is vital not only to our success but to our integrity,” Mackay says. “Theatre students worry about being right or wrong, but Lauren really encouraged the belief that there is no right or wrong, there is only you. And people want to see the real you.”
Graham realized she wanted to be an actor at an early age. Growing up in Virginia near Washington, D.C., she participated in the renowned Arena Stage program for children and young adults. When she graduated from Barnard College, however, it was with an English degree. “I’m from a pretty academic family, and when I called home talking about my acting studies, I was hearing, ‘You’re rolling around on the floor? That’s a class?’ ”
Going to school in Manhattan exposed Graham to plenty of theatre and acting classes, and she was hoping for a career as a performer. “Then I got out of school and I was working retail during the day and cocktail waitressing at night, six days a week,” she says. “I was in the city, but I had no access to the business.”
After a long run of “Gilmore Girls” and Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for best actress, Graham is concentrating on movie roles; her next feature, “Flash of Genius,” is set to debut in June. But she hopes to play a different role in her next TV show. “I’d really like to be an executive producer,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about how a show succeeds and the kind of world I like to create and be part of.”
 


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Olympic Medalists Michael Carter ’83 And Daughter Michelle Carter Served As Parade Grand Marshals

Olympic medalists Michael Carter ’83 and his daughter, Michelle Carter, served as grand marshals of the 2016 Homecoming Parade on Saturday, November 5.
Olympic medalists Michael Carter ’83 and his daughter, Michelle Carter, served as grand marshals of the 2016 Homecoming Parade on Saturday, November 5.

Olympic medalists Michael Carter ’83 and his daughter, Michelle Carter, led the 2016 Homecoming Parade as grand marshals.
Michael won the silver medal in the shot put in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and 32 years later, Michelle made history by winning the gold medal in the shot put in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A Dallas native, Michael played football for the Mustangs in 1981 and 1982. He took first place in shot put and helped SMU win the NCAA Men’s Indoor National Championship in 1983, the Mustangs’ first national title in 29 years, a feat proudly touted in the 1983 Rotunda yearbook.
He went on to play in the National Football League, spending his entire career with the San Francisco 49ers, 1984-1992. He is the only athlete to have won a silver Olympic medal and a Super Bowl XIX ring within a 12-month period. He won a total of three Super Bowl rings with the 49ers and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.
Michelle is the first U.S. woman to win Olympic gold in the shot put. She also competed for Team USA in the Beijing and London Olympics.
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SMU Alumna Kamica King ’13 Offers Help And Hope To Homeless

By Nancy George
SMU

Music therapist Kamica King ’13
Music therapist Kamica King ’13
A circle of 12 men and women shake tambourines, beat drums and rattle shakers in a corner of the cafeteria at Dallas’ The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center. They are accompanying the Otis Redding classic, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.” Music therapist Kamica King ’13 slowly dials down the volume of the audio system until just the percussion instruments fill the cafeteria, becoming their own unique rhythm. The performance ends with a flourish of drumbeats.
“We made music,“ King says.
A graduate of SMU’s music therapy program, King uses music as a tool to help individuals work on nonmusical goals. Guests at this music therapy session say it helps them deal with stress, connect with one another and feel accepted for who they are.
She created the music therapy program at The Bridge, a center designed to connect homeless individuals with resources to help them recover from homelessness. Care managers help connect homeless individuals with on-site health, mental health, veteran, substance abuse and job hunting resources. Music therapy is offered once a week as an additional resource for Bridge guests. Guests take part in the afternoon Bridge Beats program as well as morning music studio, where King gives music lessons and offers independent music making opportunities.
“We see 600 to 800 individuals each day who may be at the absolute lowest point of their life,” says David Woody, chief services officer at The Bridge. “Art and music may be a constructive part of their history that can be the beginning of a conversation about their struggle. The music in the corner of the cafeteria could be the beginning of their connectedness.”
King chose “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” for its words as well as its beat. She leads Bridge guests in a discussion of Redding’s lyrics.

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watchin’ the tide roll away
I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time

“It’s all of our song, sitting around doing nothing,” says Susan, who attends the music therapy sessions regularly.
“Is he wasting time?” King asks.
“Maybe he’s cooling off, taking time for himself,” says Richard, another Bridge Beats regular.
King was selected in 2014 by Bridge advisors, including SMU music therapy faculty members and alumni, to create the Bridge program. Her internship practicing music therapy with the homeless and those in recovery at San Diego’s Rescue Mission, YMCA and Scripps Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program coupled with her program development background and entrepreneurial spirit prepared her well for the position. King interned with with MusicWorx, Inc. and Resounding Joy, Inc. in San Diego.
A singer-songwriter and arts entrepreneur, she is founder of King Creative Arts Expressions, a music therapy and arts consulting and direct service company. She provides music therapy for cancer patients at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, performs at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the George W. Bush Presidential Center and composes music for special events. She wrote and performed “Live, Love, Dream” featured in “Signs of Humanity,” a documentary about SMU advertising professor Willie Baronet and his work to raise awareness about homelessness. King graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 2009 with a degree in music and minors in psychology and communications and is a 2013 graduate of SMU’s music therapy program.
“My mission is to help others,” King says. “I’m drawn to the overlooked and the underserved. The music and experiences I share can be a spark that helps someone else make a positive impact on the world, too.”
King is not the only SMU graduate associated with The Bridge, a national model for homeless recovery. Jay Dunn, Bridge president and CEO, is a 2000 SMU Perkins School of Theology graduate along with Sam Merten, chief operating officer and a 2007 SMU Meadows School of Arts journalism graduate. SMU students regularly volunteer at The Bridge on SMU’s Community Service Day and to fulfill service requirements for human rights and other classes. Music therapy students at SMU also complete practicums in music therapy with King. In addition to her music therapy sessions, King has launched other programs for The Bridge including the bi-monthly karaoke night. Last spring she helped Mustang Heroes, an SMU student organization devoted to community service, donate their time, talent, refreshments and door prizes to help pilot the program. Karaoke night has drawn increasingly larger crowds over the summer, attracting as many as 70 guests a night.
As the music therapy session ends, guests gather the percussion instruments and return them to King’s rolling music therapy cart. She serves them a snack, then they gather things and leave for appointments with Bridge resource staff, return to The Bridge’s shaded courtyard or go outside. King sends them off with a smile.
“Music therapy is literally the bridge for some people that propels them to seek help,” King says. “I count it as a blessing to work with them.”
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SMU Golf Alumna Jenny Haglund ’16 Earns Ladies European Tour Card

jennyhaglundCongratulations to Mustang golf alumna Jenny Haglund ’16, who earned her Ladies European Tour card after a successful LET Access Series (LETAS) season. Overall, Haglund ranked second. In 10 events, she compiled 23,925.83 points, finishing behind Sarah Schober of Austria.
Haglund, a native of Karlstad, Sweden, won both the Norrporten Ladies Open and the Azores Ladies Open after coming from behind in the final round. She scored other top-three finishes at the Norwegian Ladies Open and the Boras Ladies Open.
After a successful career with the Mustangs, Haglund turned professional in June. At SMU she was a four-year all-conference selection and completed play for the University as the Mustangs’ all-time scoring average leader at 73.55. Haglund won the inaugural American Athletic Conference Championship in 2014 and earned runner-up honors in 2013.
– SMU Athletics

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Alumni

Change Your World. Become A Hilltop Volunteer!

Hilltop Volunteers serve as campus tour guides for visiting students during Pony Preview Days and are involved in a host of other service activities.
Hilltop Volunteers serve as campus tour guides for visiting students during Pony Preview Days and are involved in a host of other service activities.

SMU alumni Desiree Brown ’06, ’10 and Astrud Villareal ’10 introduced scores of prospective students and their parents to campus while serving as tour guides during their undergraduate years. Now they’re helping map out a path to SMU for visiting youth as Hilltop Volunteers.
The volunteer program gives Mustangs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area a platform to support their alma mater in personal and meaningful ways. Alumni may choose from a variety of hands-on opportunities covering a wide range of interests.
“Volunteering is free and fun,” says Desiree. “I feel like this is how I can continue to give back to SMU for making my college dream come true.”
Now a business architect IV with Fannie Mae – “I support all Real Estate and Credit Operations’ reporting, analyses, data strategies and infrastructure” ­– Desiree was in the University Honors Program as an undergraduate majoring in political science and math in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. She was able to attend SMU thanks to scholarships, financial aid and work-study jobs, including three years in the Office of Undergraduate Admission.
In addition to the bachelor’s degrees she earned in 2006, she also received a master’s degree in operations research from the Lyle School of Engineering in 2010 and a Certificate of Management from the Cox School of Business in 2013.
As a volunteer she has distributed SMU “swag” during the Mayor’s Summer Reading Program launch and represented the University as a Student Recruitment Volunteer (SeRVe). Her favorite activity, however, is being a Pony Preview Days tour guide. Pony Preview Days offer an inside view of SMU to local elementary and middle-school children, many of whom have never before visited the University or factored higher education into their futures.
Over the summer she assisted with one of three tours led by former Mustang football and NFL star Reggie Dupard ’99 for Garland Independent School District students.
“During lunch I sat at a table with about 10 girls and had the opportunity to really talk to them about their future plans – we have fashion designers, teachers and doctors coming soon!” Desiree says. “One girl, in particular, was so excited to learn that SMU was a possibility for her. The whole event only reinforced why I loved my years at SMU.”
Likewise, Astrud has many fond memories of her student days, which she looks forward to imparting as a Hilltop Volunteer. Chief among them was going to Rwanda for Professor Rick Halperin’s human rights class. “It was an incredibly humbling and enlightening experience,” she says.
“I also enjoyed attending Tate Lectures and got to shake Anderson Cooper’s hand during one of our Hunt Scholars dinners,” she adds. “That remains a highlight of my time at SMU.”
She majored in biology, with minors in chemistry, human rights and international studies, and is now a busy family medicine resident at UT Southwestern Medical School. She credits her experience at SMU-in-Copenhagen, where she was enrolled in the DIS Medical Practice and Policy Program, with igniting her passions for medicine and travel.
“I do feel like SMU provided me with four amazing ‘unbridled’ years in the sense that I felt very supported in whatever path I chose,” she says. “The incredible opportunities that SMU brings are truly outstanding, and there is no better way of giving back than to share this message with others.”
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Lone Star Dance Luminaries Share SMU Meadows Training

Meadows School of the Arts Division of Dance students performed “The Hi Betty Cha-Cha” choreographed by alumnus Joshua Peugh ’06, founder and artistic director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, at the spring 2015 concert.
SMU dance students performed “The Hi Betty Cha-Cha” by Joshua L. Peugh ’06, founder and artistic director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, at the SMU Meadows Dance Ensemble Spring 2015 Dance Concert. Photo courtesy of Meadows School of the Arts.

“With all Meadows B.F.A. majors under one roof, dancers at SMU are instilled with a culture of collaboration and artistic curiosity,” writes Nichelle Suzanne in the September 22, 2016, issue of Arts+Culture Texas magazine. In her profile of contemporary dance luminaries Jennifer Mabus ’93, Lydia Hance ’06, Alex Karigan Farrior ’07, Albert Drake ’15 and Joshua L. Peugh ’06, she credits their success to innate talent coupled with the rigorous training at Meadows where “opportunities to prepare for the artistic and economic challenges of dance and dance making are provided” throughout a student’s academic career at SMU. Suzanne notes, “As diverse as the dance artists who have emerged from SMU’s Division of Dance and infiltrated contemporary dance in Texas are, they are allied by the high standard of excellence demanded at Meadows.”
Arts+Culture Texas
Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas is home to one of the nation’s most highly regarded and rigorous dance programs. The Division of Dance releases graduates who leave with the training, talent, and drive to pursue a career in dance performance and who have gone on to dance with such legendary companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company and more.
A few fly back. And some stay to build their own nest.
The ones who choose to stomp ground primarily in Texas go big right here at home. These leaders and influencers in Texas dance are releasing shockwaves, some of which are felt far beyond state lines. Each has a unique voice, like the fiercely independent Jennifer Mabus, or the sharply focused Lydia Hance or the creatively charged Alex Karigan Farrior and Albert Drake, or the indefatigably nimble Joshua L. Peugh. They demonstrate one common trait: A powerful ability to carve their own niche. Perhaps there’s something in the water at Meadows.
“In the first year, students take a class called the Dancers Toolbox, which looks at developing skills that support a sustainable and long lasting career in dance,” says Associate Professor and Division of Dance Chair at Southern Methodist University (SMU) Patty Harrington Delaney.
In fact, throughout a dancer’s academic career at SMU, opportunities to prepare for the artistic and economic challenges of dance and dance making are provided. Standing out among these are well-established events like the Brown Bag series, a faculty-mentored showcase for student choreography, and senior-year trips to attend the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Conference, where students encounter a large number of dance companies from all over the world. This year, students will participate in a workshop at New York City’s Gibney Dance Center, where they will develop skills for building a support network, take part in a mock audition, and ask questions of established artists.
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SMU’s Mustang Corral: Best Road Trip Ever For Marielle ’10 & Alex McGregor ’10

Alex ’10 and Marielle McGregor ’10 at their five-year SMU reunion in 2015.
Alex ’10 and Marielle McGregor ’10 at their five-year SMU reunion in 2015.

A bus ride with a group of strangers isn’t the most promising start for a great romance, but it turned out to be the right place at the right time for Marielle Perrault McGregor ’10 and her husband, Alex McGregor ’10.
As first-year SMU students, they didn’t really know what to expect when they boarded the motor coach for Mustang Corral in August 2006. They certainly didn’t realize that the trip to the off-campus retreat would be their first date, sort of.
“We really got to chatting after one of the Corral leaders started a round of ‘speed dating,’ so to speak, to encourage everyone to get to know each other,” explains Marielle.
The icebreaker worked. A few weeks later, they were officially a couple.
Marielle hails from Columbus, Ohio, where she grew up playing volleyball and studying ballet. When she was applying to universities, SMU jumped to the top of her list because she found programs that could satisfy her academic passions.
“I was looking to double major in dance and advertising and wanted a school where both programs where strong,” she explains.
Alex and Marielle McGregor as first-year SMU students in 2006.
Alex and Marielle as first-year SMU students in 2006.

Alex grew up in The Woodlands, a Houston suburb, where he mastered the roles of science geek, theatre nerd and tennis ace. Adding “Mustang” to the list was a natural progression. He comes from a long line of SMU graduates, including his late grandfather, Alex Ramsay Elder ’53; his parents James McGregor ’79 and Julia Elder McGregor ’80, who met as geology majors; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
Four years after meeting, they were marching down the aisle – at graduation.
Marielle earned bachelor’s degrees in advertising and dance performance from Meadows School of the Arts, which she has put to good use in her dual careers. By day she is a senior digital editor for Dallas County Community Colleges’ online publications. In the evening she teaches dance and performs with the 6 o’Clock Dance Theatre. She also has danced with Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Contemporary Ballet Dallas.
“The Temerlin Advertising Institute program gave me a framework for my creativity,” she says. “Professors did an excellent job of providing both theory and hands-on projects where I not only learned how to create unforgettable ads, but also to adapt ideas for different audiences and media.
The couple at graduation in 2010.
The couple at graduation in 2010.

“As for the dance program, during my four years at SMU, I worked with some of the top choreographers in the nation and developed relationships with local dance leaders and classmates,” she adds. “The network I have been able to build has, by far, been the most valuable asset to my dance technique.”
As a corporate communications and public affairs major in Meadows, Alex flexed his oratorical skills as a member of the SMU Debate Team, which captured a number of awards after being revived in 2008. Ben Voth, director of debate and associate professor of corporate communications and public affairs, became “an exceptional mentor,” Alex says.
“Dr. Voth goes beyond helping students in the classroom. He truly cares about students as people,” he says. “He is actively involved in the academic and professional world and exposes students to both settings.”
Today Alex is lead iOS software engineer for Bottle Rocket Studios, where he has had a hand in developing apps for such big-name clients as Starwood Hotels and Resorts and The Coca Cola Company and worked on OoVoo, the world’s largest independent video chat and instant messaging app.
Marielle and Alex wed on December 15, 2012, at The Woodlands United Methodist Church. However, they have a milestone anniversary coming up this week as the Class of 2020 heads off to Camp Corral.
“We’ve been a couple now for 10 years,” notes Marielle, “and it’s amazing to think that it all began on a bus ride.”
– Patricia Ward

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Truett Adams ’12 On The Artistry Of Being A Ringling Bros. Clown

When SMU alumna Truett Adams ’12 was working toward her bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, one of her professors noticed her talent as a movement artist. As she tells it, he looked her in straight in the eye and told her she should run away and join the circus. She didn’t run away, but she did join the circus. The Dallas Observer profiled Truett, part of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s latest show, Circus Xtreme, on August 11, 2016. The show wrapped up in Dallas over the weekend but continues at the Fort Worth Convention Center through August 21.

Dallas Observer

In one of the bar rooms at American Airlines Center, a pack of painted characters welcomes visitors to clown alley, where a red carpet leads to a couple of trunks topped with circus gear; there are wigs, shoes and one of those horned Viking helmets.

 The jumpy gang of living, breathing cartoons couldn’t be happier. The multicolored troupe is part of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s latest show, Circus Xtreme. Each clown wears bright overall costumes and special makeup that exaggerates their features.

Among them is SMU grad Truett Adams, who sports bright blue overalls with matching shoes and hair. “With clowning, I make my own story,” she says of what led to her decision to take up the funny gig. “I play in my own universe.”
Adams is a full-time clown, but not the stereotypical kind you’d see at a birthday party or in a bad horror movie. There’s a real art to her craft. In comedy, the clown or “the fool” is an age-old profession and people have been enthralled by these characters for centuries. Even Shakespeare used clown-like characters in his plays. Queen Elizabeth always needed a good laugh.

Read the full story
MORE ABOUT TRUETT ADAMS
The Dallas Morning News: Behind the greasepaint: Meet the Ringling Bros. clowns
NBC Channel 5: Ringling Bros. clowns come home to North Texas

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Alumni

SMU’s Avery Acker ’15 Nominated For NCAA Woman Of The Year

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Alumni

SMU Needs Your Time, Talent And Energy. Volunteer Today!

AlumniVolGroup
Alumni, parents and friends of SMU have extraordinary opportunities to shape the life of the University as volunteers. Whether it’s sharing professional expertise, hosting a gathering for area Mustangs or encouraging prospective students to enroll, SMU volunteers not only energize connections across campus but also extend the University’s legacy of success. Here are some ways to become involved no matter where you live.

SeRVe (Student Recruitment Volunteers)

SeRVe volunteers assist with the University’s recruitment efforts in their local areas. These alumni volunteers represent SMU at local college fairs, correspond with prospective and admitted students, and attend events for prospective and admitted students. In 2015-16, 85 alumni covered 71 college fairs in 60 cities, 21 states and three countries. Nearly 200 of these Student Recruitment Volunteers also contacted 1,528 admitted students and encouraged them to enroll at SMU.
Dana Cassell ’03 of Raleigh, North Carolina and Ali Morgan ’92 of White Plains, New York enjoy sharing their perspectives on the Hilltop with prospective students in their regions.
Dana “fell in love with advertising” at SMU, earning a bachelor’s degree in the field from Meadows School of the Arts. She credits professors who taught her “how to solve business problems and challenges through creativity and strategic thinking” with helping her achieve success as the owner 37 South Consulting, a brand strategy and digital marketing firm. She represented her alma mater at the Raleigh National College Fair in Raleigh in March.

No matter where they live, alumni can support SMU as volunteers.
Whether they host a gathering for area Mustangs or share insights and information with prospective students, alumni volunteers serve as the SMU’s ambassadors around the globe.

“I spoke about the benefits of going to a private university, the diversity of degree programs offered, the study abroad opportunities and the value of being located in a city like Dallas,” she explains. “The families and I talked about how the depth of the collegiate experience at SMU strengthens character, expands horizons and delivers an incredible education.
“Most of the representatives from other universities were staff and not necessarily alumni,” she adds. “It was such an authentic platform for me to be able to talk from my own personal experience and share my SMU story.”
Ali also found his career passion at SMU, a fact he’s anxious to share with future Mustangs. He grew up in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, where he was an athlete, scholar and actor. A teacher encouraged him to consider SMU – Ali’s paternal grandparents and other family members lived in Dallas – so he made an audition tape and was accepted as a theatre major. He plunged into campus life and was active in Multicultural Student Affairs and a host of other student activities. He also continued to sharpen his skills on the intramural fields.
In the theatre department, the more classes he took, the more enamored he became of teaching.
“There wasn’t a formal theatre education program, but I was able to piece one together,” he says. “I ended up student teaching at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where I directed a piece. It was a really awesome experience.”
Today all the interests he honed as an undergraduate converge in his position at Rye Country Day School, an independent K-12 school in Rye, New York, about an hour away from New York City. He serves as as the director of diversity and inclusion, teaches drama and coaches middle-school tennis.
When he makes calls to prospective students from New York and Connecticut, Ali is quick to point out that he discovered “the best of both worlds – theatre and education” at SMU.

SMU Connection

SMU Connection volunteers have the opportunity to provide career mentorship or advice for alumni or students and to participate in a job-shadowing externship program over winter break and in May. In 2015-16, more than 100 students were matched with alumni for externships.
Tricia Linderman ’91, executive vice president of recruiting and corporate communications at Texas Capital Bank, shared her time and expertise with psychology major Lauren Gonzalez ’16 as a volunteer with the SMU Connection externship program over winter break. An externship can help students discover job options they may not have considered, Tricia says.
“Initially, Lauren thought about going to law school, but had recently decided to pursue a role in human resources. I told her that employment law is a fascinating area where she could combine both her passions.”
For consultant Matt Samler ’04, who hosted business major Taylor Press ’18, the volunteer experience allowed him “to give back to SMU in a more personal way and help a student in the process.” Matt serves as vice president of site selection and location economics for JLL, a commercial real estate services and investment management firm. He believes the externship program is “a great way for students to expand their professional network, which will help lead to employment opportunities when they graduate.”
Spending a day on the job can be revelatory as students consider career possibilities, says Sandy Speegle Nobles ’75, director of education at the Momentous Institute, which provides educational and therapeutic services for children and families. She was shadowed by psychology and sociology major Melissa Kraft ’19.
“Knowing how we are building and repairing social and emotional health in children growing up in poverty was a good fit for what she is passionate about studying at SMU,” Sandy says. “She was able to walk away with an understanding of what we do at the intersection of education and mental health.”

Chapter Leadership and Activities

With active SMU Chapters across the globe, there are plenty of ways to connect with Mustangs in your city. Chapter leaders commit to planning and hosting at least two events per year with the support of the SMU Office of Alumni Engagement.
Laurie-Leigh Nix White ’07, senior vice president with BVA Group, a nationally recognized litigation, valuation and financial advisory firm, has served as chair of the Houston chapter since 2011.
“SMU gave me the connections I needed to land a great job, and when I moved to help start the firm’s Houston office, getting involved with the alumni chapter helped me build out a network. I’ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to meet and get to know so many great people.”
Megan ’06 and Karl Dunkelman ’05 joined the Orlando, Florida chapter when they relocated from Dallas. Megan, a public relations consultant who has worked with professional golfer Annika Sörenstam and other high-profile clients, hails from the Orlando area. Karl is a senior digital producer and production manager for Lightmaker, a global digital agency that develops websites and apps. They’ve served as chapter co-chairs since 2012.
“We loved our time at school and felt a really strong connection to SMU,” Karl says. “When we moved to Orlando, we wanted to get involved in the community and meet more people who shared that passion.”
The Mustang bond is strong, regardless of class year, he says. “Some of our older alumni aren’t able to make it back to Dallas very often, so we enjoy letting them know what’s new, and it’s interesting to hear their stories. It’s mind-blowing how much has changed and how SMU just gets better and better.”

CONNECT with SMU

Update Your Information connect@smu.edu

Attend Events smu.edu/attend

Find A Chapter Near You smu.edu/chapters

Volunteer smu.edu/involved

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Celebrating NBA History With SMU Alum Trent Redden ’06, Cleveland Cavaliers Assistant GM

Trent Redden ’06, assistant general manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the locker room with the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the Cavs won the NBA championship.
Trent Redden ’06, assistant general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the locker room with the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the Cavs won the NBA championship June 19.

What’s it like to be at the center of 1.3 million ecstatic fans? SMU alumnus Trent Redden, assistant general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was with the team in a parade on June 22 celebrating the Cav’s National Basketball Association (NBA) championship.
“It’s such a cliché, but words are really hard to come by in trying to describe the experience,” Redden says. “The outpouring of love for the team has been amazing.”
The Cavaliers made NBA history on June 19 after charging back from a 3-1 finals deficit – no other team has ever rebounded from such a lopsided start – beating the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, in Game 7 of the finals. They also lifted the legendary “Cleveland sports curse,” a 52-year title drought for its professional teams.
“There may be other championships, but this moment can never be replicated,” Redden says. “Fifty-two years of suffering by one of the most passionate fan bases in the country is over. Some people might think sports don’t matter, but when you see how happy the city is, you know they matter. And I feel so lucky to be a small part of it.”
As assistant GM, he’s involved in trades and hiring, including coaches and players, and free agencies and helped build the winning team. For six of his 10 years in the NBA, he has worked with superstar LeBron James, who famously returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 from Miami with a future championship in mind.
“We’re all fortunate to be around him,” Redden says. “He’s a great person and a great player. He makes us all look good.”
Redden hasn’t had much time to savor the victory, though. After the team returned to Ohio on June 20, he hit the ground running to prepare for the NBA draft on June 23 and free agency period starting July 1. After that, his attention turns to the NBA Summer League, July 8-18. If he’s really lucky, Redden will be able to sandwich in his first free weekend since September.
The lion’s share of his job focuses on professional and college scouting. He’s on the road 20 days a month, checking out talent across the United States and scouring Europe for prospects.

I had other opportunities, but SMU bet on me on a level that no one else did by giving me a President’s Scholarship,” says Trent Redden ’06. Now he’s paying forward that vote of confidence through the Trent D. Redden Endowed President’s Scholarship. “It’s my way of thanking SMU for the scholarship and a great education.”

His path to the NBA started at SMU. Redden grew up in Portland, Oregon, where he excelled in the classroom. When it came time to select a university, the choice was a no-brainer.
“I had other opportunities, but SMU bet on me on a level that no one else did by giving me a President’s Scholarship,” he says. Each year SMU invites 20 to 25 of the most gifted first-year students to receive President’s Scholarships. The academic scholarships provide full tuition and fees.
He’s paying forward that vote of confidence through the Trent D. Redden Endowed President’s Scholarship.
“The University thought enough of me to make that commitment, and I will always be grateful and indebted,” he says. “It’s my way of thanking SMU for the scholarship and a great education.”
While earning bachelor’s degrees in accounting and public policy, he had internships with two powerhouses: Haynes and Boone, an international corporate law firm co-founded by SMU alumnus and board chair Michael M. Boone ’63, ’67, and KPMG, a global accounting services company.
“They were great experiences, and I learned a lot,” he says. “And they helped me focus on what I wanted to do after SMU.”
He landed on the NBA. Thanks to his academic training, he had developed the front office skills, and basketball was a game he loved and played. He was a walk-on at SMU, joining the Mustangs for two seasons, 2003-2005. After graduating magna cum laude, he applied for a paid basketball operations internship with the Cavaliers. He interviewed three times before he was hired in 2006.
“If I had known what I was up against, I might not have pursued it,” he jokes. “We never advertise the positions, and we get 300 to 400 résumés each year from very qualified people.”
That internship has evolved into a high-profile career. In 2007 Redden became a full-time basketball operations assistant. He has risen through the ranks and was promoted to his current role in 2013.
By his own admission, he’s living the dream. “I’m so fortunate. I get to do something that I enjoy every day.”
With the NBA regular season starting in late October, he doubts he’ll make it back to the Hilltop for his 10-year reunion during Homecoming Weekend, November 3–5. However, he plans to be cheering on the Mustangs at Ford Stadium during the epic SMU v. TCU Battle for the Iron Skillet on September 23 during Family Weekend.
Redden has seen the SMU men’s basketball team on the road and had been to Moody Coliseum several times since the renovation to watch practice and play pick-up, but he had not attended a home game and experienced the new “Moody Magic” until this year.
“The atmosphere was truly incredible,” he remembers. “I saw people I couldn’t get to come to games when we went to school together. What they have built there as a program is a testament to Larry and his staff. They truly have made it the cool thing to do in Dallas.”
– Patricia Ward

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Elizabeth Holzhall Richard ’81, ’84, New U.S. Ambassador To Lebanon

Elizabeth Holzhall Richard credits one of her Dedman School of Law professors with urging her to take the Foreign Service exam, the first step in her long and lauded career in the United States diplomatic corps. In her 30 years of service, she has held posts in some of the world’s hot spots, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. She grew up in Hammond, Indiana, and was interviewed by the Northwest Indiana Times for a story published on June 21. Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences before graduating from law school.
NORTHWEST INDIANA TIMES

Elizabeth Holzhall Richard, a former Hammond resident, is scheduled to be sworn in today as the new U.S. ambassador to Lebanon.
Richard served most recently as deputy assistant secretary and the coordinator for foreign assistance to the Near East in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. In that role, Richard oversaw a foreign assistance budget of more than $7 billion.
Richard, 56, said she was thrilled when she was told she would be named to the post in Lebanon. She called it both a huge honor and a huge responsibility.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years now, so I’m absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to serve with the folks that I’ll be working with and try to be able to make a little bit of a positive contribution,” Richard said.


When attending law school, Richard said she took some international law classes and one of her teachers suggested she take the foreign service officer test. Richard said she wasn’t really exposed to the fact that there was this line of work out there prior to that time and now urges young people to consider such a career. The government is seeking people from a wide variety of backgrounds and parts of the country to serve.

READ THE FULL STORY

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Craig Lucie ’04 Wins Best News Anchor Emmy Award

CraigLucieCraig Lucie won an Emmy Award as the best news anchor at the Southeast Emmy Awards gala in Atlanta on June 11. Craig anchors Channel 2 Action News at 4 p.m. on WSB-TV, an ABC-affiliated television station in Atlanta.
The Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences includes Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina.
Before moving to Atlanta in 2011, Craig worked at WESH-TV in Orlando, Florida, as a reporter and weekend anchor for four years. He covered everything from hurricanes and shuttle launches to the Casey Anthony case. He has contributed reports to NBC News, CNN, HLN, and Fox News Channel on numerous occasions. Prior to his work in Orlando, Craig was with KTBC in Austin, where he interviewed Gov. Rick Perry on multiple occasions and toured military bases with U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before KTBC, Craig was an anchor and reporter at KZTV in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he covered the most active hurricane season in recorded history.
He was part of a team that received the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for a newscast following a tragic police shooting. His previous honors also include “Best Reporter” and “Best Feature News Story” awards from The Associated Press.
Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from SMU, where he met his wife, Alexandra Dillard Lucie ’05, whose innovative leadership in retail management and merchandising was recognized with SMU’s 2014 Emerging Leader Award. Craig and Alexandra have assumed regional SMU alumni leadership roles, serving on the board of the Atlanta Alumni Chapter and the Second Century Campaign Steering Committee for Atlanta.
 

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Alumni

Chicago Honors SMU Alum Lance Thompson ’01 For Navy Service

SMU alumnus Lance Thompson ’01, served as commander of the USS Chicago nuclear submarine, based in Guam, for three years before being promoted recently to captain. He was honored for his service by the Chicago City Council, which declared “Commander Lance Thompson Day” on May 27. Thompson, a native of Kewanee, Illinois, was profiled by his hometown newspaper, the Star Courier, on June 7, 2016. Thompson earned a master’s degree in engineering management from SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering.
STAR COURIER
Desire and dedication led Lance Thompson from the halls of Kewanee High School to the helm of a nuclear submarine and, recently, to recognition of his service at Wrigley Field.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed a resolution passed by the Chicago City Council declaring Friday, May 27, Commander Lance Thompson Day, which included an introduction before a Cubs game and a handshake from Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
Thompson was promoted last month to captain after serving three years as the commander of the submarine USS Chicago, based at Guam. He was elevated to senior deputy commander of Submarine Squadron 15 which consists of four fast attack Los Angeles-class submarines, including the Chicago, all part of the Pacific Fleet.

READ THE FULL STORY

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Alumni

SMU Grad Thomas Miller ’71 Reflects On 40 Years Of Teaching And Inspiring

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Alumni

On The Campaign Trail With SMU Alum Hope Hicks ’10, Donald Trump’s Communications Director

Hope Hicks ’10 talks about her role as communications director for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the June 2016 issue of Marie Claire magazine. Hicks earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and played lacrosse while an SMU student.
MARIE CLAIRE

In Donald Trump’s inner circle on the campaign trail, there’s just one woman: Hope Hicks, 27, his communications director and the only woman who travels full-time with the Republican front-runner.

Hicks has played an integral role in Trump’s unprecedented rise in the 2016 election. As Trump tweets about the controversies du jour with abandon, delivers unscripted soliloquies at campaign stops, and is a near-constant presence on cable news, Hicks is behind the scenes, juggling the moving parts of the rapid news cycle.

In 2012, after a successful teen modeling career and graduating from Southern Methodist University, the Connecticut native got her first taste of the Trump life working on the hotel and golf divisions of his company for New York public relations firm Hiltzik Strategies. The Trump Organization brought her in-house as the director of communications in 2014, and the following year, she got the surprise of a lifetime when The Donald asked her to join his budding campaign. Here, in her first-ever interview in her current role, she shares what it’s like to work for the unconventional candidate.

READ THE FULL STORY

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2016 Alumni Spring 2016

Alumni Share Experiences, Expertise With Students Through SMU Connection Externship Program

Tricia Linderman ’91
Tricia Linderman ’91

Tricia Linderman ’91 remembers how important mentors and business contacts were to her as a newly minted SMU graduate.
“I was very fortunate to have a lot of executives who made time for me early in my career, and I believe in paying that forward,” she says.
Linderman, executive vice president of recruiting and corporate communications at Texas Capital Bank, shared her time and expertise with psychology major Lauren Gonzalez ’16 as a volunteer with the SMU Connection externship program over winter break. A collaboration between SMU’s Alumni Relations and Engagement team and the Hegi Family Career Development Center, the program matches alumni across the country with SMU undergraduates for a one-day job-shadowing opportunity.
Matt Samler ’04
Matt Samler ’04

The externships had been offered during winter break only, but the program was recently expanded to the spring. For the first time, approximately 50 students and alumni have been matched for externships in May.
For consultant Matt Samler ’04, who hosted business major Taylor Press ’18, the volunteer experience allowed him “to give back to SMU in a more personal way and help a student in the process.” Samler serves as vice president of site selection and location economics for JLL, a commercial real estate services and investment management firm. He believes the externship program is “a great way for students to expand their professional network, which will help lead to employment opportunities when they graduate.”
Spending a day on the job can be revelatory for students as they consider career possibilities, says Sandy Speegle Nobles ’75, director of education at the Momentous Institute, which provides educational and therapeutic services for children and families. She was shadowed by psychology and sociology major Melissa Kraft ’19.
Sandy Speegle Nobles ’75
Sandy Speegle Nobles ’75

“Knowing how we are building and repairing social and emotional health in children growing up in poverty was a good fit for what she is passionate about studying at SMU,” Nobles says. “She was able to walk away with an understanding of what we do at the intersection of education and mental health.”
An externship can help students discover job options they may not have considered, Linderman says. “Initially, Lauren thought about going to law school, but had recently decided to pursue a role in human resources. I told her that employment law is a fascinating area where she could combine both her passions.”
Gonzalez says Linderman “opened my eyes to employment law. It wasn’t ever something I considered, but I am looking into now.”
Find out more about serving as an externship host and other SMU Connection alumni volunteer opportunities online or email involved@smu.edu.

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2016 Alumni Spring 2016

Cox School Of Business Honors Five SMU Alumni

Al Niemi, Dean of the Cox School of Business; Bryan Sheffield, BBA ’01 and 2016 SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumnus; John Santa Maria Otazua, BBA ’79 , MBA ’81 and 2016 SMU Cox Distinguished Alumnus; Michael Merriman, BBA ’79 and 2016 SMU Cox Distinguished Alumnus; Jason Signor, MBA ’04 and 2016 SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumnus; Billie Ida Williamson, BBA ’74 and 2016 SMU Cox Distinguished Alumna; and R. Gerald Turner, SMU President.
SMU’s Cox School of Business honored five alumni May 13. Pictured at the awards luncheon are (from left) Dean Al Niemi, Bryan Sheffield ’01, John Anthony Santa Maria Otazua ’79 , ’81, Michael Merriman ’79, Jason Signor ’04, Billie Ida Williamson ’74 and SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

The SMU Cox School of Business honored five alumni at the school’s annual Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards Luncheon on May 13.
2016 Distinguished Alumni Honorees
Michael Merriman, BBA’79, is Chief Executive Officer of Financial Holding Corporation — FHC — a privately held financial services holding company in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to serving on other corporate and civic boards, he is a member of the SMU Cox Executive Board. Mr. Merriman’s wife, Ellen, and their four children — Jack, Margaux, Edward and Mattie — are all SMU alumni.
John Anthony Santa Maria Otazua, BBA ’79 and MBA ’81, is the CEO of Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest public bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world, encompassing franchise territories in 10 countries across Latin America and Asia, with over 100,000 associates operating 63 bottling plants and 327 distribution centers globally. He serves on other corporate boards and helps represent Mexico on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council. He and his family live in Mexico City.
Billie Ida Williamson, BBA ’74, served as a senior assurance partner and the Americas’ inclusiveness officer of Ernst & Young LLP until her retirement in 2011. She began her career at Ernst & Young in 1974 in the assurance practice. Ten years later, she became one of the firm’s first women partners. After 19 years with EY, she left to become chief financial officer of AMX Corp., led that company’s successful IPO, and became senior vice president of finance of Marriott International, Inc. In 1998, she rejoined Ernst & Young in its Center for Strategic Transactions and became a senior client-serving partner. Ms. Williamson serves on multiple corporate boards, is active on civic boards and is a member of the Cox Executive Board. Before earning a BBA in accounting in 1974, with highest honors, Ms. Williamson was SMU’s student body treasurer and Homecoming queen. She was honored by SMU with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015.
2016 Outstanding Young Alumni Honorees
Bryan Sheffield, BBA ’01, founded Parsley Energy in 2008 and serves as chairman, president and CEO. He led the company’s growth from a two-person contract operator to a publicly-traded company with more than 200 employees and more than 800 operated wells. In May 2014, he directed Parsley’s initial public offering — the second largest E&P IPO ever — after which the company has established a track record of drilling some of the basin’s most productive wells. Last fall, he presented SMU Cox with a gift to honor his father. The new Scott Sheffield Energy Investment lab bears the name of Bryan’s dad, the chairman and CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources.
Jason Signor, MBA ’04, is a partner and CEO of Caddis Healthcare Real Estate. He began his career designing hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee, then chose to pursue graduate school at SMU Cox, where he served as president of his MBA class. In graduate school, he co-founded the still thriving Real Estate Club at Cox with a fellow graduate student who would eventually become his business partner at Caddis. Modern Healthcare magazine named Caddis the ninth largest healthcare developer in the U.S. this year.
SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni must hold an undergraduate or graduate degree from SMU, a position of distinction in the business community; demonstrate outstanding career success, be active civic leaders and community partners, and be involved with SMU and the Cox School through activities and contributions. Those recognized as SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumni must meet the same criteria, but can be no more than 40 years of age at the time of the awards luncheon. Nominations for either honor may be sent to Kevin Knox, assistant dean of external relations and executive director of the SMU Cox Alumni Association, at kknox@cox.smu.edu.

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2016 Alumni Spring 2016

SMU Alumna Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12 Receives Solti Foundation Award

Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12, assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, is among 11 recipients of 2016 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards for young conductors with promising careers.

Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12, assistant conductor, Detroit Symphony
Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12, assistant conductor, Detroit Symphony

“The mission of the Solti Foundation U.S. is to identify, support and promote emerging young American conductors as they launch their classical careers,” says Penny Van Horn, U.S. board chair. “We nurture relationships with all our recipients, tracking their progress and offering support when it is merited. We also provide continuing support not only in the form of grants but in valuable access to mentors, door opening introductions and opera residencies.”
Merrill is in her second season as assistant conductor and Phillip and Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She was recently named one of Hour Detroit Magazine’s “3 Cultural Organization Leaders to Watch” and made her classical subscription debut with the Detroit Symphony in April 2016.
Recent and upcoming engagements include the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Symphoria (Syracuse), Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Boise Philharmonic, Orlando Philharmonic, New Music Detroit, St. Augustine Music Festival and Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, where she formerly served as assistant conductor.
In March 2014, Merrill stepped in on short notice with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra for its performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4, named a Top 10 Classical Performances of 2014 by The Dallas Morning News. In 2013, she was awarded the prestigious Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship by members of the Vienna Philharmonic and the American Austrian Foundation. A strong advocate of new music, she recently collaborated with composer Gabriela Lena Frank and soprano Jessica Rivera on Frank’s La Centinela y la Paloma (The Keeper and the Dove), as a part of numerous community programs related to the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
A Dallas native, Merrill studied conducting at SMU with Paul C. Phillips, professor of music, Martha Raley Peak Endowed Centennial Chair and director of orchestral activities in Meadows School of the Arts. She earned bachelor’s degrees in music education and saxophone performance in 2006 and master’s degrees in orchestral conducting and music education in 2012.
The Solti Foundation U.S. was established in honor of Sir Georg Solti, internationally renowned orchestral and operatic conductor, by his family following his death in 1997. Over the past 12 years, the foundation has granted 46 career assistance awards to “young, exceptionally talented American musicians at the start of their professional careers,” according to Valerie Solti, honorary board chair.

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Alumni

Alumni Honoring Favorite Professor Through Cecil Smith Scholarship Fund

In 1974, Professor Cecil Smith challenged his engineering students to build a concrete canoe and enter it in a national intercollegiate contest sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The late Professor Cecil Smith (third from left) with the “Engineering Lunch Bunch” in 2010. His former students are raising money to name an endowed scholarship in his honor in the Lyle School of Engineering.
The “Engineering Lunch Bunch” in 2010: (from left) Professor Emeritus Bijan Mohraz, Kelly Williams, the late Professor Cecil Smith, Margaret Pawel-Moore, Sam Basharkhah and Bill Hanks. Smith’s former students are raising money to name an endowed scholarship in his honor in the Lyle School of Engineering.

“We did it, but we didn’t do so well,” recalls Bill Hanks ’75, one of the students participating in the San Antonio race. “It was truly a huge pain to build, but Dr. Smith knew we could finish, and we wanted to prove him right. He was the leader of the project for years at SMU and students always followed him.”
When Smith died at age 90 last May, Hanks and other SMU engineering alumni joined forces to complete another goal: to raise $100,000 to establish the Professor Cecil H. Smith Endowed Scholarship Fund in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering.
This is an opportunity for alumni to have a lasting impact on today’s students in memory of their beloved professor.
“From my conversations with many Lyle alumni, I know we all feel Dr. Smith was ‘our’ professor,” says Hanks, who earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from SMU. “To so many of us, he was much more than a teacher and mentor. He became a true friend.”
For more than 30 years, Smith and Bijan Mohraz, professor emeritus, presided over the “Engineering Lunch Bunch,” a group of former students meeting for freewheeling conversations over lunch. “These lunches developed out of a connection that started in classroom, labs and working on SMU’s first concrete canoe,” says Hanks, a veteran of the group.
A few years ago, before Smith moved away to be closer to family, the group met for the last time. Smith, a tennis ace, had broken his hip on the court and required surgery, but the group was undeterred. The hospital staff was so impressed by the alumni’s determination that they booked a conference room and delivered Smith, bed and all, to the celebration.
As they come together now to raise funds in honor of their beloved professor, alumni recall a few of the reasons he was so special:

  • Smith enjoyed conjuring up nicknames for students, and they returned the favor. His snowy mane earned him “The Silver Fox” and “Snowman”, while “Coach” was a nod to his tennis prowess.
  • He was the go-to professor for help with any engineering problem, even if you weren’t in his class. It wasn’t unusual to see a line of students waiting outside his office.
  • Whether they needed advice about careers or relationships, alumni sought Smith’s counsel.

“Dr. Smith was a truly unique individual who made an IMPACT on many engineering students over such a long period of time,” Hanks says.
By creating the endowed scholarship, alumni and friends are recognizing Smith’s efforts and success in developing engineers and leaders during his time at SMU, Hanks says. “Please join us to complete our goal of raising enough funds to create the Endowed Scholarship Fund in Dr. Smith’s name, and his legacy will live on through future generations of students.”
Gifts of all sizes are welcomed and appreciated. Donations may be made online or by contacting Casey Andrews, Lyle School advancement associate, at andrewsc@smu.edu or 214-768-4136.

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Alumni

Report From Ecuador: SMU Alumna Lisa Walters ’14 Grateful For Post-earthquake Support

By Denise Gee

Lisa Walters ’14, shown with a young friend in Quito, Ecuador, whee she now lives and works. She was in Houston, on her way back to Ecuador, when a 7.8-magnitude quake devastated portions of the Central American country April 16.
Lisa Walters ’14 in Ecuador, where she now lives and works. She was in Houston, on her way back to the South American country, when an earthquake devastated coastal Ecuador April 16.

Everything Lisa Walters ’14 learned from earning SMU degrees in human rights and Spanish is being put to the ultimate test in Ecuador. She was about to board a plane back to her home in the South American country Saturday, April 16, when she learned Ecuador had been struck by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
Lisa, the daughter of SMU Assistant Chief of Police Jim Walters, moved to Ecuador a week after she graduated from SMU and now works as a team leader for the educational nonprofit group Global Citizen Year (GCY), a Oakland, California-based program that provides study abroad opportunities for young men and women in their “gap” or “bridge” year between high school and college. She was changing planes in Houston, on her way back to Quito after escorting a group of GCY students to California, when she learned the quake had killed hundreds, injured thousands, and left some 40,000 people searching for shelter, food and family members.
At the time, her usually unruffled police officer father was, “to be honest, frantic,” he says.
Since he and his daughter are close, they communicate almost daily by email or via the international–calling WhatsApp service. Chief Walters worried about her heading to Quito, which had closed its airport to allow in only flights carrying relief supplies.
After the duo connected during Lisa’s delay in Houston, she checked in as “safe” on Facebook – much to the relief of her 687 friends on the social media network and her Ecuadorean husband of less than three months. Meanwhile, countless people were contacting Chief Walters to inquire about his and Lisa’s wellbeing.
LisaWaltersFBPost“It was a pretty amazing feeling to hear from so many people, especially at SMU, who showed just how much they care about us,” he says. “It was heartwarming to say the least.”
As Lisa and her father connected with family members and friends during a multi-hour delay in Houston, her flight was finally cleared to return to Quito. But once there, she would spend nearly another full day trying to get a seat on a bus to take her to her home, three hours away in the Imbabura province that borders hard-hit Esmeraldes.
“While some young people might complain about such a trying situation, all Lisa could think about was finding out about the safety of others, especially her family and co-workers,” Chief Walters says. She learned her husband’s family home was damaged but still livable, and that her brother-in-law’s home was completely destroyed. Then came a swirl of unconfirmed reports about friends and colleagues that fostered a frenzy of emotions – from alarm to relief to concern. But as the daughter of a veteran police detective, Lisa has learned to approach chaos with a level head and an outstretched hand.
“The very first thing she did was to start thinking about what she could do to assist, which didn’t surprise me, knowing that’s just her nature,” Chief Walters says. “What did surprise me was the measured approach she and GCY took in handling the crisis.”
Lisa with her father, SMU Assistant Chief of Police Jim Walters.
Lisa with her father, SMU Assistant Chief of Police Jim Walters.

As Lisa tells it, “Many well-meaning volunteers assumed they needed to travel directly into the fray, but wound up only impeding relief efforts because of their lack of skill and organization,” she says. “Our team decided to use the sources we already had in the badly affected areas to communicate the most important needs.”
“We’re all in a state of limbo,” but not a static one, says Lisa, who’s helping whenever and wherever she can. She’s especially in demand as a translator for English-speaking tourists needing information about navigating the damaged terrain, assisting with relief operations or getting out of the country.
On a personal note, “I’m starting by donating urgently needed items in Quito,” Lisa says. “I’ve signed up to join a relief/building crew with TECHO Ecuador within a few days.”
Her father couldn’t be more proud.
“Thanks in large part to the human rights and Spanish-language training she received at SMU, Lisa is able to carry out her work in a tremendously meaningful way – making her own personal comfort and safety secondary as she helps others,” he says. “That would make any parent proud. It’s certainly the case for me.”
GCY offers gap-year students the chance to study in Ecuador, Brazil, India and Senegal “to build self-awareness, global skills and grit.” Those were traits Lisa herself vowed to pursue after her first SMU Abroad trip in 2010 to Ecuador, where she fell in love with “the beautiful people and country,” she says.
“Being from the U.S. is a huge privilege, and I don’t want to let the connections I have there go to waste during this extremely trying time,” Lisa adds. “Ecuador needs long-term commitment in the form of monetary and material goods to allow this country’s hardworking people to begin the process of recovery. I now call this amazing country home, so the very least I can do is try to make some small difference.”


How To Help Earthquake Victims In Ecuador

Lisa Walters recommends contributing to the Ecuador Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund powered by Generosity/IndieGoGo.
Begun by the youth group Global Shapers Community Quito in partnership with The Red Cross Society in Ecuador and the Ecuadorean government, the site has so far raised more than $87,000 to “sustain national and international efforts beyond peak emergency response,” Lisa says.
“Reconstruction in Ecuador will take months, if not years, and the sustainability of reconstruction requires us to act now, while doing our best to ensure international attention.”


More about Lisa Walters and Jim Walters:
A Lifetime of Service: Jim and Lisa Walters
Not All Super-Heroes Wear Capes

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Alumni

SMU Alum Christopher Godfrey’s Bloodbuy Wins First Health Acceleration Challenge At Harvard

Bloodbuy, the Dallas-based company whose technology connects hospitals and blood centers nationwide to ensure the efficient flow of lifesaving blood products to patients in need, has been named the winner of the first Harvard Business School-Harvard Medical School Health Acceleration Challenge.
ChristopherGodfreyMug“This award is obviously a huge honor, and our team is blown away,” commented Christopher Godfrey ’05, founder and CEO of Bloodbuy. “It serves as tremendous validation for the work we are doing to try to create a higher level of efficiency in what we consider one of the most critical health care verticals.”
Godfrey received his BBA from SMU’s Cox School of Business in 2005. He also holds master’s in healthcare leadership from Brown University, where he was the recipient of the Brown University Graduate School Master’s Award for Professional Excellence.
The Health Acceleration Challenge is a “scale up” competition that focuses on compelling, already-implemented health care solutions and helps them to grow and increase their impact through powerful networking and funding opportunities. In its first year, the Health Acceleration Challenge received 478 applicants and attracted 20,000 online visitors from 29 countries.
“Bloodbuy’s innovation addresses a significant problem in health care—the imbalance between the supply of and demand for blood,” said Robert S. Huckman, the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. “Its online platform and ability to scale its organization have already had a positive impact on patient care, and the company is poised to make even greater contributions in the future. We are proud to recognize Bloodbuy’s success with this award.”
Bloodbuy emerged as the winner after a year-long selection process that involved 18 semifinalists winnowed to four finalists who share a $150,000 prize endowed by Howard E. Cox, Jr., now an advisory partner in the venture capital firm Greylock Partners and a member of both the HBS Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board and the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. As the final winner, Bloodbuy will receive an additional $50,000.
As the founder and CEO of Bloodbuy, Godfrey is responsible for the overall strategic direction and growth of the company, its technology solutions and its people. Prior to founding Bloodbuy, he sourced and structured control investments within the healthcare sector on behalf of HealthCap Partners. Over the course of his career, he has played a principal role in the underwriting, structuring and closing of numerous healthcare sector control investments with an aggregate investment basis in excess of $700 million.
Previously, Mr. Godfrey served as senior vice president and director of finance for The Cirrus Group, where he chaired its investment committee. Prior to Cirrus, he held positions with Hillwood Capital, Macfarlan Capital Partners and J.P. Morgan.
He has been included on the Dallas Business Journal’s list of Who’s Who in Healthcare, recognized by the Harvard Forum on Healthcare Innovation, and served as the protagonist of a Harvard Business School Case Study.
READ MORE:
>Harvard Business School: Bloodbuy Wins First Harvard Business School-Harvard Medical School Health Acceleration Challenge
>KERA Radio: A Dallas Startup Banks On The Blood Business
>Bloodbuy.com

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Alumni

‘Game of Silence’ From SMU Alum David Hudgins ’91 Debuts April 12

Writer/producer David Hudgins ’91, known for such soulful, family-centered dramas as Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, switches gears for his new NBC series, Game of Silence, a dark drama revolving around a group of childhood friends and a secret from their past.

Writer/producer David Hudgins ’91
Writer/producer David Hudgins ’91

Viewers will be treated to a preview airing of the first episode April 12 at 9 p.m. (CST) before the 10-episode series settles into its regular time slot at 9 p.m. (CST) on Thursdays, beginning April 14.
Hudgins, an executive producer and writer for the series, adapted Game of Silence from the Turkish series Suskunlar.
The network describes it as “a gripping new drama about friendship, love, revenge and the moral dilemma of how far one will go in the pursuit of justice.”
More from the series’ website: “Five best friends have a dark secret they thought was buried, but they soon discover that you can’t hide your past forever.
Jackson Brooks (David Lyons, Revolution) is a successful attorney who seems to have it all. He’s engaged to his boss, Marina (Claire van der Boom, Hawaii Five-O), and he’s on the fast track to becoming partner at his firm, but his world is turned upside down when his long-lost childhood friends unexpectedly reappear after 25 years. Jackson, Gil Harris (Michael Raymond-James, True Blood), Shawn Polk (Larenz Tate, Rush) and Boots (Derek Phillips, Friday Night Lights) always stuck together, like brothers. They spent their boyhood summers in the small town of Dalton, Texas. But their idyllic world turned chaotic one fateful summer afternoon when a well-intentioned and heroic attempt to save their friend Jessie (Bre Blair, Las Vegas) ultimately cost the 13-year-old boys nine months at Quitman Youth Detention Facility, where their lives were changed forever.
Now 25 years later, the nightmare of the worst nine months of their lives has resurfaced, uprooting a mystery even deeper than their buried past. The cast also includes Conor O’Farrell (The Lincoln Lawyer), Deidrie Henry (Justified) and Demetrius Grosse (Saving Mr. Banks).”
A childhood spent in Texas is familiar territory for Hudgins. He grew up in Dallas and graduated from St. Mark’s School of Texas. After earning his undergraduate degree from Duke University, he served as a staff assistant to Sen. Al Gore before entering SMU’s Dedman School of Law. After receiving his J.D. in 1991, he spent eight years working as a trial lawyer for a Dallas firm.
The Game of Silence cast includes (from left) David Lyons, Michael Raymond-James and Larenz Tate. (Photo: Bob Mahoney/NBC)
The Game of Silence cast includes (from left) David Lyons, Michael Raymond-James and Larenz Tate. (Photo: Bob Mahoney/NBC)

Hudgins’ journey to success as an executive producer and award-winning writer reads like a screenplay he might have written. In 2001, following the death of his sister from breast cancer, he made a life-altering decision to quit his law practice and and move with his family to the hills of Tennessee, where he concentrated on writing. Two years later, he sold his first feature screenplay, prompting a move to Los Angeles
A staff writer position on the WB show Everwood was his first  job in television. Hudgins spent three seasons writing for the series and also served as a co-producer. He then moved to the NBC drama Friday Night Lights, where he served for three seasons as a writer and co-executive producer.
In 2009, Mr. Hudgins created and ran Past Life for Warner Brothers Television, a one-hour drama that aired on Fox. He then returned to Friday Night Lights, serving as showrunner and executive producer on the show’s fifth and final season, before moving on to Parenthood, where he spent four seasons as a writer and executive producer.
In March 2014, he moved his overall deal to Sony Pictures Television, where he also is adapting the best-selling novel Natchez Burning for cable.
For his work in television, he has received multiple Emmy and Writer’s Guild Award nominations, including Best Drama Series for Friday Night Lights. He is also a recipient of the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.
In 2012, Hudgins founded The Catherine H. Tuck Foundation in honor of his sister. He serves as president of the breast cancer charity. A frequent guest speaker and industry panelist, he also serves on the board of trustees for The Humanitas Foundation and the Austin Television Festival.
Hudgins lives in California with wife Meghan and their four sons: Jackson, Brooks, Reid and Owen.

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Alumni

Artist Lionel Maunz ’01 ‘Taps Into Dark Corners Of The Mind’

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Kathryn Jones Malone ’00 Named To Texas Institute Of Letters

Kathryn Jones Malone ’00, instructor of communications studies at Tarleton State University, will be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) as part of the organization’s annual awards event April 15-16 in Austin.

Kathryn Jones Malone ’00 will be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters at the annual awards event April 15-16.
Kathryn Jones Malone ’00 will be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters at the group’s annual awards event April 15-16.

“I’m honored to be chosen as a member of this prestigious group,” Jones says. “I grew up reading many of the writers who are part of TIL. This encourages me even more to keep writing and never to lose sight of my goal to write to the highest standards.”
Jones earned a master of liberal arts degree from SMU in 2000.
New TIL inductees will present a sample of their work on Saturday, April 16, at the AT&T Executive Conference Center at the University of Texas. Jones plans to read a selection from one of the chapters she wrote for Pickers and Poets: The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas, edited by Craig Clifford, professor of philosophy and director of the Honors Degree Program and the Presidential Honors Program at Tarleton.
TIL honors outstanding writers with a Texas connection. Members include such distinguished authors as Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy and Dagoberto Gilb.
TIL recognizes writers with membership; awards annual prizes for distinguished literature by Texans or about Texas; sponsors the Dobie Paisano Literary Fellowships in conjunction with the University of Texas; and fosters fellowship among TIL members while promoting books and literature in the state.
“Tarleton State should be very proud of Professor Jones,” says Charlie Howard, head of the Department of Communication Studies. “She has added a great dimension to our program. Students are learning and publishing because of her guidance.”
In addition to teaching news writing, feature writing, photojournalism and editing, Jones is faculty adviser for the student-produced Cross Timbers Trails magazine. She is a longtime journalist, having worked as a reporter for The New York TimesThe Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald, as well as a writer-at-large and contributing editor for Texas Monthly and a freelance writer for many other publications.
Tarleton, a member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven educational experience at campuses in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian as well as online.
 

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Alumni

SMU’s Jonathan Norton ’11 Wins Theatre Critics’ Osborn New Play Award

Jonathan Norton ’11 has won the 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright from the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). The award will be presented at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville on April 9.

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Award-winning playwright Jonathan Norton ’11

The Osborn Award recognizes Norton’s “Mississippi Goddamn,” which premiered in February 2015 at the South Dallas Cultural Center in a production directed by Vickie Washington.
Norton’s play is also a finalist for the 2016 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the winner of which will be announced at the festival.
An inaugural member of the Dallas Playwrights Workshop, Norton has had plays developed or produced by PlayPenn, The Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, TeCo Theatrical Productions, African-American Repertory Theater and more. Norton earned a master of liberal studies degree from the University in 2011 and is an SMU staff member.
In “Mississippi Goddamn,” Norton takes us to the house next door to that of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and offers a drama about a family making tough decisions in a tumultuous time.
Among the comments by the ACTCA New Play Committee panelists:
“Venal haters and courageous civil rights leaders have been the subjects of many a film and play, but this piece tackles the less dramatized and understood reality of those caught in the crossfire.”
“He may have used Nina Simone’s song as his title, but the play’s content isn’t borrowed at all.” The “fast-moving, dramatic and revelatory” play with a “truly explosive, molten core” contains “nothing PC or sentimental.” It has “a raw quality that actually benefits the tense ‘desperate hours’ scenario of neighbors and families divided by the insidious pressures of racism.”
“The conflicts explored here are usually left out when theater looks at such revered figures as Medgar Evers,” but Norton offers “a very gripping, very human drama on every page.”
“Norton’s research into that story paid off, and he emerged with a show that sparks conversation.”
ATCA’s Osborn Award is designed to recognize the work of an author who has not yet achieved national stature. The award was established in 1993 to honor the memory of Theatre Communications Group and American Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn. It carries a $1,000 prize, funded by the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association.
The American Theatre Critics Association was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities. The only national association of professional theater critics, it has several hundred members who work for newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and websites across the United States. ATCA is also a national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

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Alumni

NFL’s Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12 To Talk Sports And Human Rights At SMU On April 7

NFL offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12 will talk about the role sports play in furthering the conversation on American human rights issues during a panel discussion on Thursday, April 7 at 7:15 p.m. in Dallas Hall’s McCord Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12 will be among the speakers examining professional sports and human rights.
Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12 will be among the speakers examining the interplay of sports and human rights.

“A Conversation on Sports and Human Rights” will be moderated by WFAA sportscaster Dale Hansen and will include SMU Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director Monique Holland.
“Sports provides an easy doorway for social analysis, and a common ground for open dialogue,” says Embrey Human Rights Program Assistant Director Brad Klein, who helped organized the event.
“In sports media and the conversations of fans, it is common to hear discussions about paying college athletes, women’s and LGBT rights, race relations, team mascots, athletes with disabilities, drug use in competition and more,” Klein adds. “In this way, sports has a remarkable ability to get people of different backgrounds and perspectives talking together.”
The April panel will pull back the curtain on what those debates look like in the locker room, the newsroom and in the front office. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel during the course of the discussion.
“There are important differences between the way athletics works in the U.S. compared to, say, politics,” Klein says. “Sports has a special ability to put a personal face on big issues. How many more people can name the quarterback of the Cowboys rather than their Congressional representative? Sports touch many people at a young age before prejudices and biases about identity are fully formed.”
– Kenny Ryan

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Among Speakers At Black Excellence In Higher Education Conference On April 1

SMU alumni Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12, Candice Bledsoe ’07, Tonya Parker ’98 and Michael Waters ’02, ’06, ’12 are among the speakers addressing issues that face African-American college students at an SMU Simmons School conference on April 1. Topics at “Looking Beyond the Horizon: Black Excellence in Higher Education” include mentoring, poverty and youth, and transforming the higher education experience for African-American students.
The Black Excellence in Higher Education conference is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Harold Simmons Building on the SMU campus. The conference is free and open to the community, but registration is required. To register, e-mail Yolette Garcia at ygarcia@smu.edu.
College enrollment for African-American students is at its highest in history, but a recent report found that fewer than one in 10 African-American high school graduates are college ready. In addition, when black students attend college, their graduation rates lag behind other students. An average of 45 percent of African-American students who enroll in college graduate, compared to 65 percent of white students.
“The time is overdue for colleges and universities to have conversations about the black experience in higher education,” says David Chard, dean of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. “The goal is to understand what structures, dispositions and practices we need to have in order to improve student success. Also, we need to look at what conditions should change. We want to work with community members to help us with this, and are grateful for the assistance of our conference partner, the Youth Action Research Center in Dallas.”
Speakers and panel discussions include current SMU students as well as the following leaders in higher education, justice, religion and professional athletics:
Kelvin Beachum ’11, ’12, a tackle for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, serves as an ambassador for initiatives that spark interest in science, technology, engineering and math among underserved youth. Beachum, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers before signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars in March, started for 52 games as a member of SMU’s football team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 2011 from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and, 16 months later, a master of liberal studies degree from the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.
Candice Bledsoe ’07 is the founder and executive director of the Youth Action Research Centerco-sponsor of the “Black Excellence in Higher Education” conference. The center promotes college readiness and leadership skills. She is a 2015-2016 fellow for the New Leadership Academy at National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. A graduate of Baylor University, she earned a Master of Liberal Studies degree from SMU and recently received the Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California. Her community leadership awards include the Profile of Community Leadership Award from SMU’s Women’s Symposium.
David Chard became the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development’s first endowed dean in 2007. Under his leadership, the school now offers a total of 15 graduate degree programs and two undergraduate degree programs and has grown from 13 full-time faculty members and 42 staff members to 80 full-time faculty members and 86 full-time staff members. Research funding has increased to $36 million since 2007. Known nationally as an education reformer, Chard shaped the school to attract high quality research faculty and deliver evidence-based teaching. Chard was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education in 2012 and elected chair. The board oversees and directs the work of the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.
Nakia Douglas, founding principal of the Dallas Independent School District’s all-male magnet school, Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, has set the tone for the unique public school in southern Dallas. Students take college preparatory courses like Latin and calculus and develop their leadership skills. Now in its fifth year, Barack Obama is home to 470 students, grades six through twelve, and has a waiting list.  Every member of the first graduating class in 2015 now attends college. The recipient of numerous awards, Douglas accepted the Luminary Award from the Simmons School in January.
The Hon. Tonya Parker ’98, judge of the 116th Civil District Court in Dallas County since 2004, was elected by her judicial colleagues to serve as presiding judge of the Dallas County Civil District Courts and is the immediate past president of the Texas Association of District Judges. A 1998 graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law and the recipient of numerous awards, she was recently elected to the American Law Institute, an organization made up of the country’s most distinguished jurists. Devoted to community service, she is a regular volunteer with IGNITE, a nonpartisan organization aimed at encouraging more high school and college girls and women to become involved in politics.
Richard Reddick, assistant vice president of diversity and community engagement and associate professor of higher education at the University of Texas at Austin, is an expert on higher education and African-American students and faculty. His research analyzes mentoring relationships between faculty and black students, including factors influencing faculty mentorship and the advising and counseling approaches utilized by faculty in mentoring black students. A former elementary and middle school teacher, he is the co-author or co-editor of three books on the African-American family.
The Rev. Michael Waters ’02, ’06, ’12, founder and senior pastor of Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. Churchis a Dallas interfaith leader and author of Freestyle: Reflections on Faith, Family, Justice and Pop Culture. He is board chair of the City of Dallas’ Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, which offers social services, cultural and educational opportunities to more than 300,000 Dallas citizens. SMU, Ebony Magazine and the Dallas Business Journal have recognized him as an emerging leader. Waters earned undergraduate degrees in political science and religious studies from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, followed by two degrees from Perkins School of Theology: the M. Div. cum laude and Doctor of Ministry with honors.
– Nancy George

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus William C. Roberts, MD, Earns Lifetime Achievement Award From American College of Cardiology

William C. Roberts ’54, MD, executive director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute (BHVI), has been awarded the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) for his contributions to the cardiovascular profession.


The award, which is the highest recognition bestowed by the ACC, honors Roberts’ outstanding work in cardiac pathology. Roberts will receive the award at the American College of Cardiology’s 65th Annual Scientific Session and Expo on April 4 in Chicago. The ACC was founded in 1949 and has more than 49,000 members worldwide.

“I am humbled and honored to receive this award from my peers,” Roberts says. “I am proud and pleased that the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute has played a major role in my career and research done particularly after coming to Dallas made this award possible.”

The award also recognizes him as a role model through his service, research and teaching.


“Dr. William Roberts has made lasting contributions to the field of cardiovascular medicine through dedication to his patients, practice and colleagues,” says ACC President Kim Allan Williams, MD, FACC. “It is an honor to be able to recognize Dr. Roberts with the Lifetime Achievement Award and celebrate his contributions to and achievements in cardiology.”


Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree in English from SMU in 1954, which has served him well as editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Cardiology and Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. He has published more than 1,600 peer-reviewed articles and served on the editorial boards of nearly three dozen cardiology publications.


“Bill has, indeed, experienced a lifetime of achievement as the most important and accomplished cardiovascular pathologist of his era, as a teacher of incalculable numbers of cardiologists including at the annual Williamsburg Conference on Heart Disease for more than 40 years, and as the successful editor of The American Journal of Cardiology for 34 years,” says Barry Maron MD, director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Roberts also serves as dean of the A. Webb Roberts Center for Continuing Medical Education.


“It is a rarity to have the opportunity to work closely with such a stellar cardiac pathologist who is also an exemplary clinical research investigator and who is truly known to be the ‘father of cardiovascular pathology,’” says Kevin Wheelan, MD, chief of medical staff, Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, Dallas.

“To work with him on a daily basis is an honor. Dr. Roberts’ contributions to the cardiology world have been far-reaching.”

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Alumni

Black Alumni Of SMU Honor History Makers, Scholarship Recipients

Accomplished alumni and outstanding students were honored at the fifth annual Black Excellence Ball on February 27 as part of SMU’s observance of Black History Month. Black Alumni of SMU joined the Association of Black Students (ABS) to present the festive evening that included recognition of the 2016 Black History Makers and Black Alumni Scholarship recipients as well as the ABS Legacy Award honorees.

2016 History Makers

Jennifer M. “JJ” Jones ’93, ‘99

Jennifer M. Jones ’93, ’99 has been shaping world changers for more than 30 years. “Her name is synonymous with SMU,” said Deah Mitchell ’13 in her introduction of the campus leader.
Known to almost everyone at the University as “JJ”, she joined the staff in 1985 and has served in a wide range of roles. After 16 years with Residence Life and Student Housing, JJ continued to have a major impact on the student experience as the director of multicultural student affairs and later as the assistance dean of Student Life/director of Student Activities and Multicultural Student Affairs.
Now, as the executive director of Student Life, she supports and advises the Student Association and coordinates the social event registration process through her office. She also supervises the directors of the Women & LGBT Center, family and parent programs and the associate dean over the Caring Community Connections program.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1993 and a master of liberal arts degree in 1999 from SMU. A member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, she has served as National Pan-Hellenic Council president. She travels around the U.S. speaking to Greek councils and other student organizations about student leadership responsibilities and related issues.
At Inside SMU last year, she shared the story of her fight against breast cancer and credited the unbridled support shown by students with keeping her going through the rough patches. “It was affirmed to me that we have the best students in the world,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been here so long.”
Jamal Story ’99 could not make it to the awards ceremony to accept the 2016 Chairman’s Award. The globetrotting dancer/choreographer was on the West Coast for a performance.
After his recent workshop, Jamal Story ’99 gets a lift from SMU dance students.
After his recent workshop, Jamal Story ’99 gets a lift from SMU dance students.

Since earning bachelor’s degrees in dance and communications arts/TV and radio from Meadows School of the Arts, he has worked on stage and as a dance captain for two historic black Broadway shows, The Color Purple and Motown: The Musical, and toured with Madonna and Cher. But his impressive résumé doesn’t end there. He also has served as an ad interim professor of dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and worked with such acclaimed companies as Complexions, Lula Washington Dance Theatre and Donald Byrd/theGroup.
He sits on the board of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and co-chairs its national dancers committee.
The premiere of The Parts They Left Out, a new aerial piece he created for the Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s annual Cultural Awareness series in February, garnered rave reviews. While he was working in Dallas, he took time off to teach a workshop for SMU dance students.

2016 Black Alumni Scholarship Recipients

ScholarshipWinnersBA
Black Alumni Scholarship winners (from left) Stacy Tubonemi ’16, Naomi Samuel ’19 and Mariah Williams ’17.

Naomi Samuel ’19, a first-year finance major and English minor from Garland, Texas, is a BBA scholar in the Cox School of Business. Beyond the classroom, she is involved with Sisters Supporting Sisters, a student organization designed to uplift black women on campus, and serves on the Student Senate Diversity Committee.
Mariah Williams ’17, a junior biology and Spanish major from Chicago, Illinois, serves as the community service chair for the Association of Black Students and is an active contributor to ABC programming efforts throughout the academic year. She also serves as secretary for the Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir. After SMU, Mariah plans to pursue a career in medicine as a pediatric neurologist.
Stacy Tubonemi ’16, a senior finance major from Liberia, serves as the public relations chair for the African Student Association and has been invaluable in strengthening and sustaining the bond between that organization and the ABS. After graduation, Stacy aspires to return to Liberia and use her business degree to promote entrepreneurship.

Association of Black Students Legacy Awards

Alumni honorees:

  • David S. Huntley ’80, AT&T chief compliance officer, who become SMU’s first black student body president (1978-79) after a successful write-in campaign his sophomore year.
  • Jennifer M. “JJ” Jones ’93, ’99
  • Anga Sanders ’70, a member of the “SMU 33” whose activism drew attention to the need for diversity among faculty and in the curriculum and called for improved working conditions for black employees of the University.
  • Jerry LeVias ’68, football legend and the first black player in the Southwest Conference to receive an athletic scholarship, was unable to attend.

Student honorees:

  • Gabrielle Faulkner ’17, a finance major with a fashion media minor from Dallas, has been active in many campus organizations, including Student Senate and Alternative Breaks, and has served as a career development ambassador. Her career goal is to be the CEO of a major fashion brand.
  • Darien Flowers ’18, a management science major with a minor in sociology, works at El Centro Community College/Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development as a department assistant/adjunct faculty teaching GED, workplace preparation, career exploration and planning, and other continuing education courses. He is president of the Upsilon Mu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
  • Marcus McNeil ’19, an offensive lineman for the Mustangs from San Antonio, is a member of ABS and has been a member of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP for the past five y ears. In his free time he works with such community organizations as The Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio and Black Lives Matter of San Antonio.
  • Briana A. Rollins ’18, a biology major with a minor in sociology from Houston, serves as vice president of Sisters Supporting Sisters. She is the student coordinator of CONNECT Leadership Development Institute, which assists first-year and transfer student of color through peer mentoring and friendship. While at SMU, she has raised more than $40,000 to support campus life and student needs. She plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in neonatal medicine.
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Alumni

SMU Alumna Gabriella Draney Zielke ’03: Reinventing The Tech Accelerator

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Alumni

From Farming Hay To Making The Field: SMU Alum Robert Richardson, Jr. ’04 Makes Third Start At Daytona 500

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Alumni

SMU Alum Nick Boulle ’11 Finishes Second In Rolex 24 At Daytona

Nick Boulle placed second in the Prototype Challenge Class in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Photo by Taylor Johnson.
Nick Boulle placed second in the Prototype Challenge Class in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Photo by Taylor Johnson.

Nick Boulle ’11 knows how to make an impressive debut. Boulle finished in second place in the Prototype Challenge (PC) Class during his first time to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, January 29-31.
The Rolex 24 Hours is a grueling 24-hour marathon on the storied Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Boulle’s teammates included Tom Kimber-Smith, a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Robert Alon and Jose Gutierrez. The team traveled a total of 698 laps around the 3.56-mile circuit, with each driver completing about six hours behind the wheel during the endurance race. Their Le Mans PC car, an open cockpit design, clocked up to 190 mph during the event and was sponsored by de Boulle Motorsports and Meridian Realty Advisors.
The son of Denis and Karen Boulle, owners of de Boulle Diamond & Jewelry, purveyors of Rolex watches and other fine jewelry, Boulle grew up in University Park and started racing go-karts as a youngster. By the time he was an SMU student, he was competing nationally on the Volkswagen Junior Driver circuit.
After earning his BBA in finance from the Cox School of Business, he stepped away from motorsports for a while, taking up competitive cycling and growing his social media/marketing firm, WOW!Birds.
It appears, though, that his racing career is going full speed ahead.
“I have always loved motorsports,” he says, “and racing in the Rolex 24 has turned a dream into reality.”
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Discuss Careers In Human Rights On February 18

Six SMU alumni returned to the Hilltop on February 18 to share their stories and discuss the many career paths open to students studying human rights at a career forum sponsored by the Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
>Read coverage of the career forum in The Daily Campus
Speakers included:
Maillil Acosta ’11
Teach For America, Manager of Teacher Leadership Development (Dallas)
Dallas-native Maillil Acosta has dedicated her life to fighting for educational equity in the city she loves most. While pursuing a human rights minor at SMU, she participated in the Civil Rights pilgrimage. After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science, she joined Teach For America and taught fifth- grade math at Herbert Marcus Elementary, the Dallas elementary school she had attended as a youngster. While she initially believed she had joined TFA to change the lives of students, she quickly realized how working with students was changing her life. After completing her two-year commitment in the classroom, she became a full-time Teach for America staff member. She is now in her third year of supporting and managing teachers toward achieving ambitious learning and leadership goals that provide students with the education they deserve. She believes to her core that educational inequity is the most urgent civil rights issue of our time and is committed to pursuing justice through education for the rest of her life.
Rachel Ball-Phillips ’06
Adjunct Lecturer, History and Indian Studies, SMU Department of History
Rachel Ball-Phillips took a deep dive into human rights issues as the president and vice president of Amnesty International at SMU. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in history, she completed a Ph.D. in Indian History at Boston Colleg. She joined the faculty of SMU in 2014, and has since taught classes that address human rights in modern South Asia.
Laura Buck ’13
Compass Professional Health Services, Business Development Manager (Minneapolis)
As a human rights major at SMU, Laura Buck deepened her belief that adequate health care is a human right. She began her career as a patient advocate at Compass Professional Health Services, and two years later, shifted her focus to health care business development. She now resides in Minneapolis, where she volunteers though the Junior League.
Philip Haigh ’12
Dallas Regional Chamber, Director of Public Policy
Philip Haigh advocates for regional economic growth to improve the quality of life for all in Dallas. He has worked on living-wage legislation, prison justice reform, immigration and DACA/DAPA enrollment, and government accountability/transparency. He holds dual master’s degrees from SMU in global studies and human rights and social justice.
Amanda Koons ’12
Northwestern University School of Law Student (Chicago)
Amanda Koons graduated from SMU in 2012 and is now in her final semester at Northwestern University School of Law, where she will receive a joint JD/LLM in international human rights law in May. At Northwestern she has participated in criminal defense, death penalty and human rights advocacy clinics. She has worked on teams representing people facing homicide charges and the death penalty at every stage of the criminal process in Texas and Louisiana, as well as Malawi. She also has served as a law clerk on trial teams at the Cook County Public Defender’s office in Chicago and the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans. She is spending her last semester in a full-time externship with the Government Misconduct and Racial Justice division of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. Her exposure to the failings of the American criminal justice system have led her to pursue a career as a public defender, which she will begin in the fall in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Samantha Matthews ’12
K-3 Special Education Teacher (New York)
At SMU Samantha worked with newly arrived refugee children and families in Vickery Meadow. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in human rights, she joined Teach For America in New York City and continued her work with young children. For two years she taught some of Brooklyn’s youngest learners – 2- and 3-year-olds – before completing her master’s in early childhood special education in 2015. She is now a K-3 special education teacher in Harlem.
 

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Alumni

Knit One, Win One: SMU Alumna Kathryn Arata’s Good Works Bring Good Luck To The Mustangs

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Alumni

SMU Dedman School Of Law Recognizes Accomplishments And Service At Distinguished Alumni Gala

Shown at the 2016 SMU Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Awards gala are (from left) Dedman Law Dean Jennifer Collins, Jim Baldwin ’86, Cece Cox ’04, Judge Catharina Haynes, A. Shonn Brown ’98, Windle Turley ’65 and SMU President R. Gerald Turner.
Shown at the 2016 SMU Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Awards gala are (from left) Dedman Law Dean Jennifer Collins, Jim Baldwin ’86, Cece Cox ’04, Judge Catharina Haynes, A. Shonn Brown ’98, Windle Turley ’65 and SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

By Denise Gee
SMU Dedman School of Law honored five highly accomplished legal, business and public service professionals at its 29th Distinguished Alumni Awards event February 4.
Dedman School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award is the most prestigious award bestowed by the school. Recipients are selected for being highly respected in the legal field.
In addition to the alumni recognition, an honorary award is presented in acknowledgement of outstanding service to the law school.
This year’s award recipients are:
Jim Baldwin ’86: Award for Corporate Service
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc.

James “Jim” Baldwin is executive vice president and general counsel for Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) Group, Inc., where he oversees all legal issues for the global, Plano-based company.
Baldwin has played a key strategic role in the company’s major acquisitions and restructurings. He was involved in the DPS Group’s spin-off from London-based Cadbury Schweppes PLC as a publicly traded company in 2008. Previously, he played a central role in consolidating the operations of Snapple Beverage Corp., Mott’s Inc. and Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., into Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, as well as the subsequent acquisition of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Bottling Group and several other bottling and distribution businesses. He also helped lead the acquisition of several of DPS Group’s leading brands.
Baldwin joined the company in 1997 as assistant general counsel, where he supported company initiatives to strengthen the company’s bottling network and route to market. The following year, he was promoted to general counsel for Mott’s, Inc. in Stamford, Conn., where he oversaw all legal aspects of Mott’s business. In June 2002, he relocated to Dallas to head the legal department at Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., as senior vice president and general counsel. A year later he was promoted to his current role.
Prior to his work with the DPS Group and Cadbury Schweppes, Baldwin was a partner in the Dallas office of the Houston-based law firm Hutcheson & Grundy. He began his law career in the firm of Berman, Mitchell, Yeager and Gerber.
Baldwin graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English from Washington & Lee University and earned a Juris Doctor degree from SMU Dedman School of Law.
A. Shonn Evans Brown ’98: Emerging Leader Award
Partner, Gruber Hurst Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP
Shonn Brown is a respected trial lawyer and leader in both the legal and greater Dallas community. She has a sterling reputation among her professional colleagues, clients, members of the judiciary and community leaders.
Before earning a bachelor of science degree in sociology from SMU in 1995, she was an active student leader and accordingly honored with the coveted SMU “M” Award. She then attended SMU Dedman School of Law, continuing to lead by serving as secretary to the Student Bar Association and Board of Advocates. Upon graduation, Brown was one of 10 of the Class of 1998’s top advocates to be inducted into the Order of the Barristers.
Brown began her practice in Dallas at Locke Purnell Rain Harrell (now Locke Lord), where after seven years she was elected to serve as partner. She credits her 14 years at Locke Lord for having helped shape her foundation as a trial lawyer and foster her passion for community service.
In May 2012, Brown became a partner with Gruber Hurst Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP, where she has won a number of significant jury-trial verdicts representing both plaintiffs and defendants.
In support of SMU and the legal and greater Dallas communities, Brown has served on the SMU Alumni Board and is now a SMU Dedman Law Alumni Community Fellow for the Inns of Court Program and a mentor in the Mustang Exchange Flash Mentorship Program. Currently she also serves as a trustee of the Dallas Museum of Art and The Lamplighter School and as a director of the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the Dallas Bar Association, Big Thought and Dallas Black Dance Theatre.
Cece Cox ’04: Award for Public Service
Chief Executive Officer, Resource Center
Recognized for her longtime leadership and advocacy in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement, Cece Cox serves as CEO of Resource Center, one of the nation’s largest LGBT community centers. Resource Center, which provides health services and programs to individuals with HIV/AIDS, serves more than 60,000 people annually with a staff of more than 50 employees and 1,100 volunteers.
Having advocated on behalf of the LGBT and HIV communities for nearly 30 years, Cox was instrumental in the passage of the City of Dallas’ sexual orientation nondiscrimination policy, and the Dallas Independent School District’s first anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies. Since June 2010, more than 50,000 public sector employees and a quarter-million students in the Dallas area have new or expanded LGBT nondiscrimination protections thanks to the Center’s advocacy.
Cox joined the Center in 2007 as associate executive director and three years later became CEO. Previously, she practiced commercial law and provided pro bono legal services to individuals with HIV. She is a member of the executive committee for SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development and the Board of Visitors for UNT-Dallas College of Law. She also serves on the board of the Dallas Women’s Foundation and is co-chair of the national organization CenterLink.
Cox is a former president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance (DGLA), former co-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/Dallas and a former officer of the LGBT Section of the State Bar of Texas. She is an alumna of Leadership Dallas and Leadership Lambda & was recognized with the Kuchling Humanitarian Award from Black Tie Dinner in 1999.
As a former professional photographer, Cox co-authored a book chronicling the 1993 March on Washington for gay and lesbian rights. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor degree from SMU’s Dedman School of Law. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas.
Windle Turley ’65: Award for Private Practice
Founder, Turley Law Firm
Preeminent Dallas lawyer Windle Turley’s record-breaking jury verdicts, innovative legal techniques and compassionate efforts have influenced some of North Texas’ best trial lawyers—many of whom he trained.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma City University in 1962, he attended SMU Dedman School of Law and graduated in 1965. Five years later, the young attorney challenged a Texas law enabling unmarried fathers to avoid child support obligations. He ultimately argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States, which held the Texas law unconstitutional.
In 1973, Turley opened his own firm, where he developed innovative litigation techniques and established new legal theories. Soon he would be overseeing one of the country’s largest plaintiff-focused firms. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Turley frequently takes cases few others would, and as a result, a hallmark of his career is his success in a wide array of personal injury cases.
A foremost expert in tort litigation, Turley continually challenges companies to make safer products. He was the first to apply the crashworthiness doctrine in aviation litigation in Smith v. Cessna Aircraft, which helped spark industry changes. In 1979, he obtained an injunction that grounded DC-10 aircraft worldwide due to a safety defect that resulted in a Chicago crash. Additionally, his “Firearms Project” attracted national attention as he filed lawsuits pursuing strict product liability on firearm manufacturers and sellers. He also tried the first tractor-trailer post-crash fire case and first airbag case.
Turley has represented hundreds of child abuse victims and continues to do so. After receiving a historic $120 million judgment for 11 boys sexually abused by Father Rudy Kos of the Dallas Catholic Diocese, the highly publicized verdict brought to light crimes previously concealed in confidential settlements. The landmark case empowered other victims to come forward, forcing the National Council of Catholic Bishops to create new diocese standards to protect children from abusive priests.
Turley helped pioneer video and demonstrative evidence in the courtroom, and he was the first to use video settlement documentaries. And while he has written numerous legal books and papers on litigation involving aviation and firearms, in 2010 he published The Amazing Monarch, featuring Monarch butterfly photographs and scientific information.
Turley has been honored as a “Texas Trial Legend” by both the Dallas Bar Association and the Higginbotham Inn of Court. He also received the 2006 Distinguished Alumni in Arts and Science Award from Oklahoma City University.
Catharina Haynes: Honorary Alumna Award
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Judge Catharina Haynes was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in April 2008 by then-President George W. Bush. Before taking the federal bench, she served eight years as a Texas state district judge in Dallas. She also spent 13 years in private practice, first as an associate at Thompson & Knight LLP and then as an associate and partner at Baker Botts LLP. She is certified in consumer and commercial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Currently chair-elect of the Appellate Judges Conference of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, Haynes also chaired the 2014 Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit co-hosted by SMU Dedman School of Law. Additionally, she served 11 years as a member of the Council of the State Bar of Texas Insurance Section and as an at-large director of the Dallas Bar Association for one year.
Haynes recently received the 2014 Award of Distinction from Florida Tech—where she also received its alumni association’s Outstanding Achievement Award—and is a two-time recipient of the Dallas Bar Association’s Jo Anna Moreland Outstanding Committee Chair Award. She also has been honored with the Outstanding Board Member Award and Louise B. Raggio Award from the Dallas Women Lawyers Association, the Award of Excellence from the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation, and while at Baker Botts, the Thomas Gibbs Gee Award for pro bono efforts.
From 2003 to 2011, Haynes was a volunteer teacher of pre-GED English-as-a-second-language classes for adults at Vickery Meadow Learning Center (now known as VMLC), for which she has been a board member for six years.
Haynes earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Juris Doctor degree from Emory University School of Law.

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Connect With Alternative Breaks, March 6-12

SMU alumni gave a helping hadn to student volunteers participating in the University’s Alternative Breaks (AB) program, March 6-12. Over spring break, eight teams of nine students and a faculty/staff advisor fanned out across the globe to supply hands-on service to established nonprofits that are aiding those in need and improving their communities.

Students volunteers serve with nonprofits in the United States and abroad over spring break through SMU's Alternative Breaks program. Last year, this group of students helped a New York City organization prepare meals for delivery to seriously ill people. SMU alumni are invited to
Student volunteers serve with nonprofits in the United States and abroad over spring break through SMU’s Alternative Breaks program. Last year, this group of students helped a New York City organization prepare meals for delivery to seriously ill people. Mustang alumni are invited to connect with SMU teams visiting their cities over spring break, March 6-12.

Teams worked in several cities with active SMU Alumni chapters, including Atlanta, New Orleans, New York City, St. Louis and Taos, as well as the greater Philadelphia area.
Through the SMU Connection program, the Office of Alumni Engagement collaborates with Alternative Breaks and other partners across campus to provide opportunities for alumni to connect with current students.
Here are some ways Mustangs assisted the AB teams:

  • Supply meals or snacks/desserts. Students are on a tight budget, so evening meals and treats are greatly appreciated.
  • Serve as a “city consultant” by offering insider tips on fun freebies, things to do and places to go on the cheap, and other information about your area.
  • Share your expertise as a guest speaker, if you have professional or volunteer experience related to the AB service project in your city.

Alternative Breaks projects in the chapter cities included:
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Community Food Bank operates a product rescue center, grocery, mobile pantry and community garden.
Kimberton, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia area)
Camphill Village is a dynamic farming, gardening and handcrafting intentional community that includes adults with developmental disabilities.
New Orleans, Louisiana
St. Bernard Project engages youth in rebuilding distressed and foreclosed homes to stabilize neighborhoods still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
New York City, New York
God’s Love We Deliver delivers nourishing meals to those with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.
St. Louis, Missouri
Saint Louis Crisis Nursery provides help and a safe haven for abused and neglected children.
Taos, New Mexico
Roots and Wings Community School fosters academic excellence by connecting its diverse student population with the unique agricultural, linguistic and cultural heritage of Northern New Mexico.
If you know how you would like to get involved, or you need more information, email the Office of Alumni Engagement at alum@smu.edu.
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Meet The Dynamic SMU Alumni Duo Behind Fun-And-Food Hot Spots

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In The Oil Bust, SMU Alumnus Trevor Rees-Jones Sees A Land Of Opportunity

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Alumni

Cardiologist John Harper ’68 Prescribes Good Literature ‘To Make Us Better People’

Cardiologist John Harper’s passion for medicine and the written word intersect in the annual Literature + Medicine Conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas
Cardiologist John Harper’s passion for medicine and the written word intersect in the annual Literature + Medicine Conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

As a boy growing up in Pecos, Texas, John Harper ’68 was first drawn to medicine by the compassion demonstrated by his family doctor, then through great writers such as Anton Chekhov, a practicing physician for most of his literary career. Harper majored in English at SMU and earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1972. Now a cardiologist with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Harper received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014 and was named the 2012 Dedman College Distinguished Graduate Award recipient.
Harper leads the Literature + Medicine Conference, now in its sixth year. In a Dallas Morning News story about the event and his literary approach to medical education, he offered the following list of favorite titles that includes a bestseller by Carl Sewell ’66, fellow Mustang and SMU Trustee:

  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  • The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot
  • Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
  • The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
  • Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown
  • The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Read the full story:
“A doctor’s mission: Showing why literature matters to medicine,” The Dallas Morning News
 

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Alumni

Perkins Announces Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Rev. John McKellar ’90, pastor of White’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake, Texas, and Rev. Linda Roby ’75, ’00, associate minister of local and global missions at First United Methodist Church Dallas, have been selected as the 2016 Perkins School of Theology Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.

Rev. John McKellar
Rev. John McKellar

They will be honored at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, during the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards banquet during Ministers Week.
The recipients were chosen by members of the Perkins Alumni/ae Council for their demonstrated effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support and involvement in the goals of Perkins School of Theology and SMU, distinguished service in the wider community and exemplary character.
“Through their respective ministries, Linda Roby and John McKellar have impacted untold lives not only in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex but also throughout the world,” says Perkins School of Theology Dean William B. Lawrence. “Their faithfulness to the ministries to which they have been called and their effectiveness in communicating the transformational love of Jesus Christ has garnered the respect of peers and colleagues alike. We look forward to honoring them both as the 2016 Distinguished Alumni of Perkins School of Theology.”
McKellar received his master of divinity from Perkins in 1990. After serving churches in Grandview, Haslet and Fort Worth, he began his appointment at White’s Chapel in 1992. During his tenure, McKellar has helped increase church membership there from 490 members to more than 13,000.
In addition to regularly teaching Bible study groups, McKellar also serves on the Central Texas Conference Committee on Finance, the Committee on the Episcopacy and is one of the conference’s delegates to both the 2016 General Conference and South Central Jurisdictional Conference. He also received his Doctor of Ministry degree in Applied Ministries at The Graduate Theological Foundation in 2004.
“John is an incredible model for what it is to live the Christian life in the community,” say Todd Renner, co-pastor at White’s Chapel UMC. “In every way, he exemplifies the grace that forms the foundation of Wesleyan theology and defends it with humility and passion.”
Rev. Linda Roby
Rev. Linda Roby

Roby received her master of divinity from Perkins in 2000. Since her appointment to First UMC Dallas in 2009, Roby has directed the UrbanLife Ministry, congregational care and the church’s mission and outreach efforts. Previously, she served at Highland Park UMC, overseeing adult education, Sunday school, and local and global mission outreach opportunities. At both churches, Roby has been instrumental in cultivating relationships and identifying global partners – notably in Latin America – that led to significant growth in outreach participation.
An ordained deacon in the North Texas Conference, Roby graduated from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She also serves on the board of directors of Golden Cross Academic Clinic in Dallas and is a member of the Perkins School of Theology Executive Board.
“Linda fully exemplifies the mission of Perkins and its interpretation in the local church and community context,” said Rev. Andy Stoker, senior minister at First UMC Dallas. “She has sought to connect the church and the world in profound ways both locally and globally and embodies the very best of the Perkins spirit through vital piety and social witness.”
The awards banquet will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Great Hall of Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall, 5901 Bishop Blvd. More information and tickets are available here.

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Jennifer Burr Altabef ’78, ’81: ‘Scholarships changed my life’

By Kevin Richardson
Growing up in Kansas, Jennifer Burr Altabef dreamed of going away to college as her older siblings had. She had met several SMU graduates, and had set her heart on attending the University.

Jennifer Burr Altabef (left) with Meadows Scholar Gabrielle Bear ’17 at a luncheon honoring donors of student scholarships and support as part of SMU's centennial commemoration on November 17.
Jennifer Burr Altabef (left) with Meadows Scholar Gabrielle Bear ’17 at a luncheon on November 17 honoring donors of student scholarships and support as part of SMU’s centennial commemoration.

But when she was 15, Altabef’s father called her into his office to impart some difficult news that might have shattered that dream permanently. He told her he had lost his job and would be unable to pay for her education after she graduated from high school.
Determined to earn enough money to pay for college, Altabef worked minimum-wage jobs throughout most of her high school career. She ultimately applied and earned acceptance to SMU, but with a little more than $3,000 saved, the Hilltop seemed out of reach.
Then, she received a letter from SMU informing her that she would receive scholarship support that would make her education possible.
Altabef was overwhelmed.
“I almost couldn’t believe that people who didn’t even know me had made it possible for me to attend SMU,” she says about the donors who created her scholarships. “It was life-changing. I was determined to do well because I didn’t want to let them down.”
Fascinated by the Watergate scandal and the role played by reporters, Altabef studied journalism and earned her bachelor’s degree from Meadows School of the Arts in 1978. She eventually decided to pursue a legal career and credits her Meadows professors with teaching her to write, a skill she has relied on throughout her professional life.
“The ability to write well is one of the most important and useful skills a person can have,” she says. “I am so lucky for the rigorous training that I received from my journalism professors. It’s helped me in everything I have ever done.”
When Altabef applied to law schools, she badly wanted to stay in Dallas and knew the SMU Dedman School of Law would offer the best path into the Dallas legal community. The University of Kansas offered a full scholarship that might have taken her back to Kansas. But once again, SMU scholarship support — combined with loans — helped her achieve her dream.
After Altabef graduated from Dedman School of Law in 1981, she began what became a distinguished career in labor and employment law and litigation. She never forgot what had helped enable her achieve so much success.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aH-fnqAaAM[/youtube]

“Every morning that I went to the office, I was aware that someone whom I did not know had made it possible for me to stay in Dallas, made it possible for me to practice law, and made it possible for me to have the life I chose,” Altabef says.
Altabef became involved with SMU as a volunteer after a former dean of the Meadows School asked her to lunch. He told her about the exciting educational experiences students were having at Meadows and throughout SMU. Memories of her own experiences on the Hilltop and what she heard about today’s SMU inspired her to serve her alma mater.
Altabef has served as a member of the SMU Libraries Executive Board and the Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board, on which she is slated to serve as the next chair. “I feel grateful to SMU for essentially giving me my life,” she says. “So I jumped at the opportunity to be involved.”
In her work on behalf of the Meadows School, Altabef has developed a strong connection with the Meadows Scholars Program, which raises annual and endowed resources to bring top-caliber students in the arts and communications to SMU.
“The simple truth is that scholarships change lives,” Altabef says. “I know that because scholarships changed my life. For that reason, it is also true that people who receive scholarships are the people who most want to give them.”

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Alumni

News From Meadows: Joshua Peugh ’06 Wins National Choreography Festival Grand Prize

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Rosemary Hickman ’01 Named Outstanding Museum Art Educator By Texas Art Ed Association

Rosemary Hickman ’01, Semmes Foundation Museum Educator for teachers and public programs at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas​, has been named the 2016 Outstanding Museum Art Educator by the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA).

Rosemary Hickman ’01
Rosemary Hickman ’01

Each year the TAEA, the largest state professional art education association in the nation, recognizes members from across the state with awards in various divisions. The Outstanding Museum Art Educator award is presented to a museum educator who has significantly contributed to the association and to art education on the state, local and/or national levels.
Hickman received her award on November 13 at the TAEA 54th Annual Conference at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas.
She joined the McNay Art Museum in April 2013. In her role as museum educator, she organizes museum events for teachers including hands-on workshops, biannual “Evening for Educators” programs and a Summer Teacher Institute. She also develops online resources for educators and interactive applications for visitors; plans exhibition-related adult programs such as artist and curator talks, lectures and art classes; and supervises education department interns.
Prior to joining the McNay, Hickman served as the education director at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts in Spring, Texas, and as program coordinator of the MSC Forsyth Center Galleries at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
“Incredibly deserving of this award, Rosemary stands out for her dedication to San Antonio educators and to museum educators in this community,” said Kate Carey, the McNay’s director of education. “In a very short time, she has established and nourished connections with educators and students through a variety of workshops, school visits, and educator programs, and she builds consensus and camaraderie wherever she goes. She’s an asset to the museum and to the arts education community in San Antonio.”
Hickman earned bachelor’s degrees in French and art history from SMU.
 

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SMU Alum Arthur Muhammad: Creative Force Behind Carter High

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Tech Entrepreneur Matt Alexander ’10 Says Liberal Arts Education Prepared Him For ‘Virtually Any Situation’

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Jay Hunter Morris, SMU ’90: From Church Choir To Garage Band To Opera Tenor

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SMU Theatre Alumni Gather In California To Honor Beloved Professors

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DC Profile: Catching Up With SMU Alum Victoria Snee ’96, The Face Of NorthPark

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State Rep. Rafael Anchia, SMU ’90, To Share Experiences At Alumni Connection Event October 29

State Rep. Rafael Anchia ’90
State Rep. Rafael Anchia ’90

Dedman College and SMU Alumni Relations will present State Rep. Rafael Anchia ’90 discussing how the education he received at SMU laid the foundation for his future as a successful attorney, proud member of the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees and a state representative. The Alumni Connection Series program will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, in Room 133 of the Fondren Science Building on the SMU campus.
Anchia credits his undergraduate education at SMU with setting the stage for his thriving career in law and politics. He graduated from SMU in 1990 with a triple major in Spanish, anthropology and Latin American studies. He later graduated from Tulane University Law School. In 2004 he was elected to the first of his six terms in the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 103, covering northwest Dallas County.
“I was grateful to get a scholarship to SMU and considered that my big break,” says Anchia. “SMU offers a world-class liberal arts education for those who are willing and able to avail themselves of it. It is an honor to come back and share my experience.”
The event is free and open to the public; however, reservations are encouraged. RSVP online, by phone at 888-327-3755 or by email at smualum@smu.edu.
 
FUTURE ALUMNI CONNECTION SERIES LECTURE
April, 2016 — Pittsburg Steeler Kelvin Beachum, ’11

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Alumni

News From Meadows: SMU Alumnus Mark Falkin ’93, Contract City Author, Says ‘Write From The Heart’

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Robert Edsel Of Monuments Men Fame Delivers Tate Lecture October 20

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Alumni

Meet SMU Alum Ryan Fisher ’05, ’11, Anthropologist And Coffee Master

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SMU Alumna Kyle Stevens ’80, Women’s Golf Star And Former Head Coach, Inducted Into SWC Hall of Fame

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Fir Butler ’52 Gifts 6-acre ‘Rhododendron Paradise’ To Her Community

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DC Profile: SMU Alumna Brooke Reagan ’14 Turns Hobby Into Strategic Business

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17 SMU Alumni Join Teach For America

By Emily Hooper
SMU News

SMU has been named a top contributor to Teach For America for the third year, with 17 University graduates working in high-need classrooms across the country.

SMU alumna Cheyenne Rogers '09, '15 (right) taught in a Dallas middle school through Teach for America. In 2010, she brought her class to campus for a taste of SMU, complete with classes in poetry and political science and lunch at Umprhey Lee. Read the story here.
SMU alumna Cheyenne Rogers ’09, ’15 (right) taught in a Dallas middle school through Teach for America. In 2010, she brought her students to campus for a taste of SMU, complete with classes in poetry and political science and lunch at Umprhey Lee. Read the story here.

SMU alumni who joined the Teach For America corps this year are Sana Ibrahim ’07, Victoria McKay ’15, Caitlin Bailey ’14, Angela Martinez ’12, Kat Kappos ’15, Crystal Chen ’15, Christine Medrano ’14, Joseph Gaasbeck ’12, Stephanie Newland ’15, Katelyn Hall ’15, Pablo Lara ’15, Meaghan Barclay ’15, Lucy Yu ’15, Michael Lee ’15, Alaina Leggette ’15, Devon Wall ’15 and Gabriella Padgett ’15.
Teach For America’s 2015 list of colleges and universities contributing the greatest number of alumni to its teaching corps include graduating seniors from a range of backgrounds and experiences and a growing number of individuals with professional experience. Totals for each college and university include both 2015 graduates and alumni of previous classes who are transitioning to teaching from another field or joining the corps as experienced educators.
“I was very lucky to grow up in the Dallas region with great teachers, but I have noticed that not everyone has had that same privilege and I don’t think that’s fair,” says Pablo Lara ’15, who teaches at Edward Titche Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. “Through Teach For America, I have an amazing opportunity to give back to the community that has given me so much. By teaching in my hometown, I hope to inspire other great leaders to help our city reach its full potential [and] that starts with education.”
Pablo Lara ’15 teaches at Edward Titche Elementary School in Dallas.
Pablo Lara ’15 teaches at Edward Titche Elementary School in Dallas.

In order to attract the strongest students to teaching and provide them with rigorous training, Teach For America partnered with SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development in 2015 to launch the Teach For America DFW Summer Institute. In collaboration with faculty from SMU Simmons, the institute was designed to instill a commitment in the promising leaders to improve student academic achievement in high-need school in low-income communities. After completing the Teach For America DFW Summer Institute, TFA-DFW corps members are scheduled for two years of ongoing professional preparation and coaching from TFA staff in their classroom in addition to Simmons faculty who will support them in the field and through coursework.
“Working with SMU and Momentous Institute has allowed us to tailor our pre-service teacher training and ongoing support to the schools and students in the Metroplex,” says Alex Hales, executive director of Teach For America in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Our teachers benefit from the expertise of SMU faculty, the extensive resources of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, and Momentous Institute’s leadership in social emotional health and classroom culture building.”
This fall, 8,800 corps members are teaching in high-need classrooms across 52 regions. The 4,100 incoming corps members represent more than 830 colleges and universities and 36 states and the District of Columbia. Two-thirds of Teach For America’s 2015 corps members are graduating seniors from the class of 2015 and one-third are individuals with professional experience. In addition to the corps, Teach For America’s network of more than 42,000 alumni continue to work toward ensuring that all children have access to an excellent education.

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D CEO: Why You Need To Know SMU Alumna Emily Parker

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Homecoming Highlight: Distinguished Alumni, Emerging Leader Honored

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Sound Familiar? SMU Alumna Martha Harms ’08 Voices New TV Spot

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‘Rainstorm Led To Brainstorm’ For SMU Alum Tyler Nelson ’14

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News From Meadows: Vincent Gover ’14 Wins Composition Competition

By Victoria Winkelman
Meadows School of the Arts
Vincent Gover ’14, a master’s student in the music composition program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, won first place in the American Modern Ensemble (AME) Ninth Annual Composition Competition. Gover won in the Tier 1 (young artist, ages 22 and under) category for his seven-and-a-half-minute long composition Brook’s Release. Inspired by a summer trip to Colorado, the piece evokes the wide-ranging movement of a river from quiet flow to rapid whitewater, blending excitement, humor and energy.

Brooks Release by Vincent Gover ’14, a master’s student in the music composition program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, won first place in the American Modern Ensemble (AME) Composition Competition.
Brooks Release by Vincent Gover ’14, a master’s student in the music composition program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, won first place in the American Modern Ensemble (AME) Composition Competition.

In addition to receiving a cash prize, he will have his piece performed by the AME in a New York concert in April 2016 and will receive an archival recording.
“I’m truly honored that the American Modern Ensemble selected my piece as their Tier I winner,” says Gover. “I know they’ll give a wonderful performance of my work, and I can’t wait to be there!”
This year’s contest drew 181 entries from North, Central and South America. The judges were nationally acclaimed composers Margaret Brouwer, Steven Burke and Robert Paterson, AME’s artistic director.
Gover, who earned a bachelor of music in composition and horn performance at SMU Meadows in 2014, is no stranger to awards. In January 2011, when he was a first-year student, his composition Children’s Suite was performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., by the Saxony-Anhalt Brass Quintet, an ensemble of principal performers from German orchestras on a U.S. tour. Later that year, he was named the 2011-12 William H. Lively Student Composer in Residence with the Irving Symphony in Irving, Texas. Gover has studied with such award-winning composers as Robert Paterson, David Ludwig, Xi Wang, Paul Rudy and Robert J. Frank and has had works performed throughout the U.S., including in Dallas, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
About the American Modern Ensemble
Founded in New York in 2005, the American Modern Ensemble is a contemporary classical music ensemble that spotlights American music via lively thematic programming, performing a wide repertoire by living composers. The mission of AME is to create definitive performances of the highest caliber for the widest possible audience base. It supports its mission by presenting live concerts, making recordings and presenting premieres. AME also conducts an annual competition for composers of all ages. Winners receive a performance with a recording, videography and cash awards.

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SMU Alumni Among Young Actors Embracing ‘Do-It-Yourself Attitude’

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Alumni

Alumni Recruitment Volunteers Help Shape The Future Of SMU

As Student Recruitment Volunteers (SeRVe) for SMU, Don Morriss ’76 of Texarkana, Texas, and Leigh Todforde ’86 of Houston share their perspectives about life on the Hilltop in their communities.

Don Morriss ’76
Don Morriss ’76

Offered by the SMU Office of Alumni Engagement, the SeRVe program enables Mustangs to spread the word about the value of an SMU education with prospective students and their parents. Alumni participate in admission events and college fairs, as well as contact admitted students to encourage them to attend SMU.
Don, who earned a B.B.A. from SMU, represents his alma mater frequently at college fairs in East Texas. “I tell high school students that SMU has a smaller school feel with all the advantages of a big-city location,” he says. “From top corporations and law firms to tech start-ups, the Dallas business environment is ideal for students interested in internships and career opportunities after graduation.”
For the past 39 years, Don has followed in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, grandfather and father as an independent insurance agent with Offenhauser & Co. Insurance in Texarkana. He credits Frank Young, professor emeritus of insurance, and other Cox School of Business faculty members with providing a solid academic background for his career.
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Leigh also acknowledges the lasting influence of great professors. During a recent visit to New York City, she made a special trip to The Cloisters because “I just had to see the Unicorn Tapestries that Bonnie Wheeler [associate professor of English and director of Medieval Studies] had talked about so much,” she says. Leigh received a bachelor’s degree in English from SMU and later earned a master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
As a recruitment volunteer, she contacted accepted students in the Houston area to encourage them to make SMU their number-one choice. “They were all very lovely young people who said they appreciated the outreach,” she says. “It was a very manageable, easy-to-do project to support the University.”
Join Leigh, Don and almost 3,500 Mustangs around the world who volunteer for the University by checking out the wide variety of programs available and filling out an interest form today. For questions or more information, email involved@smu.edu.

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SMU Alumna Hope Hicks ’10 Flies Quietly In The Eye Of The Trump Storm

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Alumni

SMU Alum Junchang Lü ’04 Identifies Velociraptor Cousin, Maybe Weirder And Scarier Than Movies Imagine

Jungchan Lü (right) with Steve Brusatte with the fossil of Zhenyuanlong suni, a new species of dinosaur with bird-like wings. Photo by Martin Kundrat.
Junchang Lü (right) with Steve Brusatte and the fossil of Zhenyuanlong suni, a new species of dinosaur with bird-like wings. Photo by Martin Kundrat.

SMU alumnus Junchang Lü ’04, one of China’s leading dinosaur experts, has helped identify a new dinosaur species – Zhenyuanlong suni – a cousin to the Velociraptor of Jurassic World fame and the newest clue as to how birds descended from dinosaurs.
The well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur with bird-like wings was unearthed by a farmer in northeastern China and eventually found its way to Lü, a top dinosaur researcher with the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing. Lü called in Stephen Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh to aid in the identification process. The two scientists had teamed up previously in the discovery of Qianzhousaurus sinensisa cousin of Tyrannosaur rex whose whose long snout earned it the nickname “Pinocchio rex.”
The newly identified dinosaur is believed to have lived around 125 million years ago in China and likely met its end during a volcanic eruption. It measured over five feet in length, had short arms, a mouthful of sharp teeth and talons. It also sported a complex set of wings covered with colorful feathers, perhaps like those of the modern-day peacock or pheasant. The scientists doubt the dinosaur could fly, so the function of the wings remains unclear.
The nearly complete skeleton suggests that winged dinosaurs were larger and more varied than previously thought.
“The western part of Liaoning Province in China is one of the most famous places in the world for finding dinosaurs,” Lü told CBS News. “The first feathered dinosaurs were found here and now our discovery of Zhenyuanlong indicates that there is an even higher diversity of feathered dinosaurs than we thought. It’s amazing that new feathered dinosaurs are still being found.”
An artist’s impression of Zhenyuanlong suni. This Velociraptor cousin posessed large, complex wings and looked bird-like. Image by Chuang Zhao.
An artist’s impression of Zhenyuanlong suni. This Velociraptor cousin posessed large, complex wings and looked bird-like. Image by Chuang Zhao.

The scientists’ study was published in the journal Scientific Reports on July 16 and was covered around the globe by BBC, CBS, CNN, PBS and other media.
In an interview with BBC News, Brusatte said: “It will blow some people’s minds to realize that those dinosaurs in the movies would have been even weirder, and I think even scarier – like big fluffy birds from hell.”
Lü earned a Ph.D. in geology from SMU in 2004.

“He published a number a papers before, during and after his SMU stay, mostly as an expert on dinosaurs and pterosaurs,” says Dale Winkler, a research professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. “He is a very productive researcher, and we are, of course, very proud of him.”

EXTRAS
> BBC News: Dinosaur find: Velociraptor ancestor was ‘winged dragon’
> CBS News: Newfound dinosaur looked like a bloodthirsty peacock
> CNN: Newly discovered dinosaur had wings, feathers but couldn’t fly
> PBS Newshour: Velociraptor cousin looked like ‘big fluffy bird from hell’
> Edinburgh News: City scientists unearth feathered dinosaur
 

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Alumni

Meet SMU Alum Scott Moses ’07, Production Designer For “Ellen”

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SMU Swimming And Diving Alumni Compete In Pan American Games

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News From Meadows: Five SMU Alumni Reap Rewards Of Art History Education

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Remembering ‘Father Of Modern Cheerleading’ SMU Alumnus Lawrence Herkimer ’48

Lawrence Herkimer ’48, the irrepressible icon and model entrepreneur known as “the father of modern cheerleading,” is being remembered as the originator of the pompom, the spirit stick, the Herkie jump and the National Cheerleaders Association.

Lawrence Herkimer with cheerleaders in front of SMU's Dallas Hall.
Lawrence Herkimer with cheerleaders
in front of SMU’s Dallas Hall.

Herkimer, who began his spirit-squad revolution during his time as an SMU cheerleader, died in Miami, Florida, on July 1, 2015. He was 89 years old.
“Lawrence Herkimer’s legendary spirit energized everyone and everything in his orbit, including his beloved alma mater,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “In his vision, his enthusiasm and his entrepreneurial spirit, he was a true world changer. Generations of young people have learned from his example, and none more than his fellow Mustangs, who will carry his legacy forward.
Better known as “Herkie,” Herkimer honed his craft as a cheerleader at SMU, where his electric personality and inventive athleticism made him a standout. While attending the University, he formed a national organization for cheerleaders and created a cheerleading-oriented magazine called Megaphone.
He also perfected his signature jump — which he first performed as a North Dallas High School cheerleader in the early forties — during his stint as the Mustangs’ head cheerleader in the Doak Walker era. The Herkie is correctly performed with one arm extended straight up in the air and the other hand on the hip, with one leg extended straight out and the other bent back in a hurdler’s stance.
“Far more difficult acrobatic stunts exist, but none so perfectly capture the energy and exuberance identified with cheerleading,” wrote Joe Nick Patoski in Texas Monthly in 1989.
Yet the iconic move was, by its creator’s own admission, a failed attempt at a different stunt. “It was just a poor split jump,” Herkimer said to John Branch of The New York Times in 2009. “I don’t like to tell people that.”
Herkimer organized his first cheerleading camp in 1948 at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, Texas. The first session drew 52 girls and one boy. The following year, it drew 350 participants. The increasingly successful camps were the beginning of the Dallas-based National Cheerleaders Association (NCA), which Herkimer incorporated in 1961 and sold for $20 million in 1986. Now owned by Varsity Brands, the NCA still holds cheer camps each summer on college campuses throughout the nation, including at SMU. The organization also presents the annual College National Championships, broadcast live from Daytona Beach every April.
The cheer camps also gave rise to another of Herkimer’s inventions: the spirit stick. During an NCA camp in 1954, Herkimer noted that one squad was not the best at performing moves, but stood out from the others in their hard work and encouragement of other teams. He was so impressed by the squad’s positive attitude that he cut a small tree branch, decorated it with paint, and awarded it to the team in front of the entire camp. Since then, the tradition of the spirit stick has represented the teamwork, spirit and support that Herkimer believed to be the essence of cheerleading.
In 1951, Herkimer cofounded the Cheerleader Supply Company with his first wife, Dorothy Brown Herkimer ’46, who died in 1993. Originally operated out of the Herkimers’ Dallas garage, the firm grew quickly into a booming retail business for sweaters, skirts, spirit sticks, booster ribbons, specially made shoes and other cheerleading equipment.
The advent of color television led to another Herkimer innovation. Cheerleaders were garnering more and more camera time, and Herkimer recognized a need to provide colorful and visually appealing accessories for them. As a result, he put paper streamers on a stick to create the “pom pon.” For his subsequent design update — a flameproof Mylar version with a hidden handle — Herkimer was granted patent number 3,560,313 by the U.S. Patent Office in 1971. (He used the “pom pon” spelling on purpose, after hearing that the more common variation, “pompom,” had vulgar meanings in other languages.)
Herkimer’s SMU ties remained strong throughout his life. He served as president of the SMU Alumni Association in 1981-82, and as the Class of 1948 reunion giving chair from 1992 to 1994. In 1985, he received the University’s Distinguished Alumni Award and in 1994 received an honorary letter from the SMU Lettermen’s Association. In 2012, he was honored as one of the University’s Centennial History Makers.
“Lawrence Herkimer was a wonderful guy and an SMU legend,” said Brad Cheves, SMU vice president for Development and External Affairs. “He was very proud of his association with his alma mater, and very generous to the University throughout his lifetime in ways that directly impacted students. We will cherish his memory.”
EXTRAS
> Read the New York Times profile of Lawrence Herkimer
> Remembering Lawrence Herkimer, NPR
> Lawrence Herkimer obituary, Boston Globe
> Read the Texas Monthly profile of the cheerleading legend
 

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Alumni

The Liberty Project: SMU Alumni Reboot Storied Magazine

The Liberty Project, the modern revival of Liberty magazine, launched June 24 with three SMU graduates at the helm. Editorial director Christina Geyer ’10, editor Courtney Spalten ’14 and marketing manager Patrick Kobler ’10 have reimagined and reinvented the iconic lifestyle publication as a multimedia site tailored to the 21st-century reader. The Liberty Project’s inaugural issue offers more than 120 original works and personal accounts, including features by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and author and fashion journalist Lauren Scruggs Kennedy.

SMU alumni shaping The Liberty Project: (from left) Patrick Kobler ’10, marketing manager; Christina Geyer ’10, editorial director; and Courtney Spalten ’14, editor.
SMU alumni shaping The Liberty Project: (from left) Patrick Kobler ’10, marketing manager; Christina Geyer ’10, editorial director; and Courtney Spalten ’14, editor.

In its heyday, Liberty published the musings of everyone who was anyone, from Albert Einstein to Shirley Temple. The weekly magazine folded in 1950, but its legacy of rich storytelling and thoughtful commentary inspire its online reincarnation.
“The Liberty Project is reclaiming the power of the first-person by publishing an array of carefully curated and thought-provoking stories,” says Geyer. “We’re creating an environment that celebrates the voice of the individual and fosters the sharing of relatable personal narratives to create a unique editorial experience that is meaningful to our contributors and our audience.”
Melding backgrounds in media, technology and marketing, the founding editorial triad infuses the storied brand with a fresh vision.
Both Geyer and Spalten majored in journalism in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and forged careers as editors.
As an SMU student, Geyer co-founded smustyle.com, a campus fashion blog that continues to this day and is managed by a team of student editors. Her keen observations of tastemakers and trends landed her as an editor at PaperCity magazine before she moved to FD, The Dallas Morning News’ style magazine, where she served as managing editor and launched its wedding magazine, FD Love.
Spalten minored in psychology and fashion media at SMU and acted as digital editor of FD before joining the new online venture.
“I feel incredibly fortunate for the opportunity to use the journalism skills I learned at SMU and put them toward relaunching an iconic publication as an innovative digital, multimedia content platform,” Spalten says.
Kobler’s résumé befits a political science major. He served as president of the SMU student body in his senior year and joined Teach for America after graduation. Kobler went on to become an author and program coordinator for the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Institute; headed external affairs and public outreach for Chui, a tech start-up founded by SMU alumni Shaun Moore ’10 and Nezare Chafni ’10; and, most recently, served as the managing director of regional communications, public affairs and engagement for Teach For America.
The three came together some months ago to start serious work on the reboot with CEO Amy Katzenberg and the rest of the team.
While the new iteration would likely be unrecognizable to anyone who had picked up the first copy of Liberty in 1926, some of the core characteristics that made the magazine a household name for a quarter-century remain. Much like the original, The Liberty Project provides a platform for writers, photographers, artists, celebrities and thinkers to share multiple perspectives.
The stable of contributors includes Kiflu Hussain, writing about human rights. He served as a refugee research assistant with the SMU Department of Anthropology’s Forced Migration Innovation Project and is now with The Hunter and Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering.
“The Liberty Project can help make Dallas an important national media hub. In doing so, SMU’s students, professors and alumni can have an additional opportunity to share their voices as world-changers,” says Kobler.
Unlike most publications of the time, the original magazine bought the rights to many works it published. The Liberty Library boasts original writings by such literary giants as F. Scott Fitzgerald, P. G. Wodehouse, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Agatha Christie. Among the notable stories published: “My Sex Life” by Mahatma Gandhi, “What Democracy Means to Me” by Clark Gable and “How It Feels to Be a Has-Been” by Babe Ruth.
Roughly 120 of the magazine’s literary properties have been adapted for popular media, including the movies Sergeant York (1941) and Double Indemnity (1944) and the TV series Mr. Ed (1958-66).
Plans are for The Liberty Project to showcase original content from the magazine’s archive through a contemporary lens.
 
 
 
 

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Taking The Initiative For Human Rights: SMU Alumni Bill Holston ’81 And Melissa Weaver ’04

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Origin Story: SMU Alumnus Randy Dodgen ’73 On ‘Proclamation’

The following story was first published in the Diamond M Club Newsletter, June 2015.
DiamondMClubPhoto

Origin Of “Proclamation”

Among the many lasting Mustang Band traditions is a drum cadence that was written in the summer of 1972. “Proclamation” was composed by band member Randy Dodgen ’73 and, over 40 years later, it remains a part of pre-game today, helping get the band from the sidelines onto the field. Even if you don’t know it’s title, if you’ve ever seen the Mustang Band play at a football game over the last few decades, you’ve heard “Proclamation.”
“I had the privilege of leading Squad 7 for three years while I pursued a B.B.A. and M.B.A. at SMU,” Dodgen says. “Bill Lively, who was Coach’s assistant director then, wanted something new for the squad’s entrance to the field, something that would make more of a ‘proclamation’ and could continue from there to immediately lead the band onto the field.”
We talked to Randy to find out more about the cadence’s origins.
So are you the one who came up with the name?
I really don’t remember. Let’s credit him [Bill Lively] with the first use of the word “Proclamation” that I just added to the manuscript. It was a very ‘Lively-esque’ word.
What was the drum line like back then?
At that prehistoric time, Squad 7 was comprised of 5 snares, 1 tenor drum, 1 pair of cymbals and 1 bass drum. Those were the days before the large drum and bugle corps lines had begun their impact on marching bands down here, so we didn’t march a multiple tenor/multi-cymbal/multi-bass drumline which could have added even more color to the cadence.
How did you write “Proclamation”?
It started in my head and moved to a piece of manuscript paper. I didn’t really know whether we had something that would work until we began to rehearse it with all components before Hell Week. I wanted a fast flowing/cascading cadence that would allow each of the elements in the drumline an opportunity to be showcased and also was a change up of the way we had done the band’s entry cadence in the past.
After working on it alone all summer, when you presented it to the other drummers, was there any revising or was what you wrote the finished product?
It was pretty much a finished product.
What was the band’s response the first time they heard it?
I don’t remember their responses. I was just focused on playing it!
Prior to “Proclamation,” how did the band get onto the field?
We used to enter from the sidelines along with the band for probably 1969 and 1970. Later, we entered from under the goal post with a silent march, first sticks from left shoulder to right hip to get into our 1st position. Then [drum major] Randy West ’70, ’74, ’77 would whistle everyone to attention, and the band would enter to our cadence.
What about the hand flashes and “hey” vocals from the band?
The band did the hand flashes in our era as well. It always looked sharp.
Do you have anything else to add?
The import of “Proclamation” was not in my writing it; it was in its being written in hopes of furthering the Mustang Band and its on-field performances. I’m nobody special. Notes on a piece of manuscript paper are of no value unless they are infused by the spirit and interpretation of them by a group of men sharing the camaraderie of the love of the music and of the spirit of the Mustang Band. Make that the “Proclamation”: This about them, not about me.
I wish nothing but the best for the current drumline and band as they grow under and Don and Tommy’s leadership and bask in each other’s friendships as they have the privilege of playing the old and new standards of Mustang jazz. Hubba!
Good job, Randy!

Extras

>View video of the SMU Alumni Band, Squad 7, performing “Proclamation”
>Subscribe to the Diamond M Club Newsletter
>Visit the Diamond M Club website
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Alessio Bax ’96 And Lucille Chung ’03 Named Johnson-Prothro Artists-in-Residence

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SMU Alumnus Kelvin Beachum Jr. ’11, ’12, Steelers OT, Reaches Out To Fans This Father’s Day

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SMU Alumnus Trevor Weichmann ’06 Brings Pony Pride To Saudi Arabia

Trevor Weichmann ’06 works about 8,000 miles from the SMU campus, serving as the Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) Epic ASAP Application coordinator in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. However, his heart is never far from the Hilltop. One of the first things he did when he moved into his new work space was spruce it up with an SMU pennant and a miniature Mustang football helmet.

That’s Trevor Weichmann ’06 making Pony ears and showing Mustang pride in Saudi Arabia, where he is working on an electronic medical records project with Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare.
That’s Trevor Weichmann ’06 making Pony ears and showing Mustang pride in Saudi Arabia, where he is working on an electronic medical records project with Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare.

“We have a tradition of Mustangs in my family. I think I’m the 13th member to graduate from SMU,” he says. “I feel like SMU has helped shape my life since the day I was born.”
Weichmann started on the two-year project in Saudi Arabia in May. Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare is a first-of-its-kind health care joint venture between Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The partnership provides health care to about 350,000 beneficiaries associated with the world’s largest oil and gas company.
“I knew that the chance to work for the Johns Hopkins Health Network-Saudi Aramco collaboration was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t turn down,” he says.
As a consultant with Epic Systems, a Wisconsin-based company that is a leading provider of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software, his focus is on EMR for the emergency room as part of Epic’s ASAP Application team.
“My role is to help implement the project from start to finish,” he says. “We meet with physicians and stakeholders to explain possible functionality, validate workflows, build the system and test the software against required metrics, train end-users and assist in ongoing efforts to assure long-term excellence.”
At SMU Weichmann majored in management science in the Lyle School of Engineering. He credits SMU professors who “challenged me to see technical problems as games that needed solving” and “opened my eyes to different cultures and experiences” with paving the way for a career that can take him anywhere.
“SMU provided so much more than a education that can be given grades,” he says. “I received an education in life.”
Follow Weichmann’s adventures in Saudi Arabia on his blog, CT Scans the World.

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Meet Oyster Farm Entrepreneur Greg Martino ’08

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Black Alumni Of SMU Honor History Makers, Outstanding Students

Recipients of 2015 Black History Makers Awards presented by the Black Alumni of SMU are (from left) Michael Pegues ’84, Malcolm Gage ’99, Brandy Mickens ’02, Judge Eric Moyé ’76 and Warren Seay ’10, ’13 with Ashley Hamilton ’03, 2014-2015 chair of the Black Alumni Board. Photo by Kevin Gaddis.
Recipients of 2015 Black History Makers Awards presented by the Black Alumni of SMU are (from left) Michael Pegues ’84, Malcolm Gage ’99, Brandy Mickens ’02, Judge Eric Moyé ’76 and Warren Seay ’10, ’13 with Ashley Hamilton ’03, 2014-2015 chair of the Black Alumni Board. Photo by Kevin Gaddis.

Accomplished alumni and students were honored at the fourth annual Black Excellence Ball held this spring as part of SMU’s observance of Black History Month. Black Alumni of SMU joined the Association of Black Students (ABS) to present the celebratory evening that included recognition of the 2015 Black History Makers and Black Alumni Scholarship recipients. ABS Black Excellence Leadership Award recipients also were honored.
> See photos from the event
The Black History Maker Awards are presented to “alumni who have paved the way for black students at SMU,” said Kevelyn Rose ’16, ABS vice president and chair of the ball, who served as MC for the event.

2015 Black History Makers

Malcolm Gage, Jr. ’99
Malcolm R. Gage, Jr. is a leader in his profession and the community. A native of Beaumont, Texas, he earned a bachelor’s degree in public affairs and corporate communications from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. After graduating, Gage built a 17-year career in the automotive industry and currently serves as sales manager for Park Place Premier Collection, one of the largest luxury purveyors in the country.

2015-2016 Black Alumni Scholarship recipients (from left) Raina Scruggs, Mackenzie Jenkins.
2015-2016 Black Alumni Scholarship recipients (from left) Raina Scruggs ’17, Kiara Wade ’17 and MacKenzie Jenkins ’18. Photo by Kevin Gaddis.

Gage is also an entrepreneur. He is the co-owner and managing partner of Ophelia’s New Soul. The modern soul food restaurant was a season two winner in the Food Network’s “Food Court Wars.” He and his business partner have been recognized among the “Top 50 People Changing the South” by Southern Living Magazine.
In 2013, Gage was recognized by DIFFA Dallas as a Style Council Ambassador, a group comprised of the city’s top influencers and activists each year. His philanthropic activities include the Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce.
He also is active in the SMU Alumni Association.
Brandy Mickens  ’02
Brandy Mickens has distinguished herself as an award-winning financial services professional and a devoted community volunteer. Mickens earned a B.B.A. in finance from SMU’s Cox School of Business. As a student Mickens served as president of ABS, the community service chair for the Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts and as a member of the 2001 Homecoming Court for ABS and National Pan-Hellenic Council. She also was an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Soul Sista’s Championship Intramural Basketball Team.
2015 Leadership Award recipients are (from left) Tyrell
2015 Leadership Award recipients are (from left) Tyrell Russell ’16, D’Marquis Allen ’16, Nariana Sands ’16, Brianna Hogg ’17 and Raina Scruggs ’17.

Mickens serves as divisional vice president for AXA Advisors, where she has received numerous honors. Shortly after joining the firm, she received AXA’s Fast Start Award. She also was named Associate of the Year in 2002 and 2003 and received the Centurion Producer Award in 2014. She was selected to serve on AXA’s National Diversity Steering Committee. In 2014, she was promoted to her current position, becoming the first woman in the company’s Texas Retirement Benefits Group to be named to the position.
In the community, she has spearheaded her firm’s relationship with the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and has served as a mentor to DISD students. She also is actively involved with her church and sorority.
In addition she served as the development chair for the Black Alumni of SMU from 2012-2014.
Eric Moyé ’76
The Honorable Eric Vaughn Moyé serves the community with dedication and distinction. He graduated from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1976 and earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1979.
As an attorney, he was licensed by the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Claims, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Texas and the Northern District of California, all courts of the State of Texas and the State of New York.
Judge Moyé’s legal career has been highlighted by a series of firsts. He joined Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld in 1979 and was the first African-American lawyer to be hired by a major Dallas law firm. In 2008, he became the first African American to be elected a Civil District Court Judge in Dallas.
Another career high point occurred in 1993, when then-Governor Ann Richards appointed him judge of the 101st Civil District Court of Dallas County, the highest level trial court in Texas.
Judge Moyé has been active in numerous professional organizations including the State Bar of Texas, the State Bar of New York, the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Dallas Bar Association, the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association, the American Association for Justice, the American Judicature Society and the Texas Bar Foundation. He is a frequent lecturer to practitioners about effective trial advocacy through the Dallas and State of Texas Bar Associations.
He has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of History in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. For the past 18 years, he has been a member of the guest faculty of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.
Michael Pegues ’84
Michael Pegues demonstrates a commitment to excellence as an attorney and as a volunteer for his alma mater. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Pegues enrolled in SMU and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering in 1984.
He began his career with  LTV Aerospace and Defense Company’s Armadillo Works division. For five years he was assigned to the B-2 Stealth Bomber design team as a stress analyst.
In 1991, he earned  a Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School and served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Richard A. Schell ’72, ’75 of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The clerkship led to a position as an associate in the intellectual property section of Haynes and Boone, LLP.  He later became a partner at Haynes and Boone. He also was a partner with Bracewell & Guiliana, LLP, before taking his current role as partner and intellectual property litigator with Polsinelli in Dallas.
Pegues has served on the Lyle School of Engineering Executive Board for many years and also has provided his leadership to the school’s Campaign Steering Committee during SMU’s Second Century Campaign. He also supports the Lyle Scholars program, which enables the engineering school to recruit the best and the brightest students.
Warren Seay, Jr. ’10, ’13
Warren Seay, Jr. exemplifies the term “world changer.” The DeSoto High School graduate earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from SMU’s Dedman College, graduating summa cum laude from SMU in 2010.
As an SMU student, he was a Nancy Ann and Ray L. Hunt Leadership Scholar, Institute for Responsible Citizenship Scholar and one of 50 students to receive the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, an award presented by President Barack Obama for high academic achievement and commitment to public service. Seay also was recognized as a USA Today Academic All-American and served as a Basileus of the Nu Kappa chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. His work experience includes stints at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington D.C., at the National Association of School Boards and at TV-ONE as a production assistant when President Obama was nominated in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
While a student, Seay won a seat on the DeSoto Independent School District Board of Trustees in 2009, becoming the youngest elected official in the state of Texas at age 20. He is now serving his fourth term as board president and is among the youngest school board presidents in the nation.
Seay earned his Juris Doctor, graduating cum laude from Dedman School of Law in 2013. He is currently an associate with Winstead PC in the firm’s real estate finance group.
As a writer and speaker, he explores a wide range of social issues. A chapter he authored – “Human Rights in Egypt” – has been published in Human Rights and National Security Dilemmas. He also drafted a chapter on affirmative action in Contentious Social Issues and has served as a guest lecturer at the University of North Texas at Dallas and American University in Washington D.C., with the presentation “‘Joshua Generation Rises: The Intentional Transformation of Public Education in DeSoto, Texas.”
His community involvement includes serving as a member of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s Young Leaders Alliance. Johnson is a 1976 graduate of SMU. He also serves on the board of the Moore Foundation’s A Careful Mind mental health initiative and the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas.

2015-2016 Black Alumni Scholarship Recipients
ABS Black Excellence Leadership Award Recipients
  • D’Marquis Allen ’16, junior from Round Rock, Texas majoring in computer engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering, 2014-2015 ABS president.
  • Brianna Hogg ’17, sophomore from Dallas majoring in business marketing at the Cox School of Business.
  • Ailey Pope ’15, master’s student in Perkins School of Theology.
  • Tyrell Russell ’16, junior from Riviera Beach, Florida, majoring in biochemistry in Dedman College.
  • Nariana Sands ’16, junior from Dallas majoring in computer science in the Lyle School of Engineering.
  • Raina Scruggs ’17
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Advice For Indie Film Success From SMU Alum Thane Economou ’10

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Artist Dorothy Shain ’12 And The SMU Prof Who Turned Her World Upside Down

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Bridwell Library Exhibit Highlights First Five African Americans To Graduate From SMU

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SMU Alumnus Leandre Johns ’02 Talks Uber Career And Detours Along The Way

A passion for innovation drives Leandre Johns ’02, general manager of Uber Technologies for North and West Texas. Johns returned to the Hilltop to discuss his trajectory from SMU student to tech executive in a conversation with Thomas DiPiero, dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, April 28.

LeandreJohn
Leandre Johns ’02, general manager of Uber Technologies for North and West Texas

Johns, a native of Garland, Texas, was a Hunt Leadership Scholar and active in the campus community while earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from SMU. He encouraged students in the audience at Dallas Hall’s McCord Auditorium to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible while they are undergraduates.
“Test yourself. Make the most of it. Get involved,” he said. Learning to deal with so many different personalities in a variety of situations as a student “made me a more dynamic person.”
While at SMU, he thought he had his future mapped out. During an SMU Abroad semester in Copenhagen, he was involved in children’s cancer research, which shaped the next phase of his education. He graduated from SMU determined to help cure cancer and pursued a master’s degree in public health at the University of Chicago. As a graduate student, he interned for UnitedHealthcare, then spent three years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago as a healthcare and financial consultant.
“I got to meet a lot of strong-minded business people, but I learned that I wasn’t going to be as innovative in healthcare as I had hoped to be because it moves slowly,” he explained.
So he took a detour, switching his focus to finance and earning an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
“I was doing marketing, finance and business and that drove me to venture capitalism,” he said. Over the next few years, Johns worked in venture capital as vice president for a healthcare technology and media portfolio company in Chicago.
When Uber popped up on his radar, he was ready for a change. “It was an interesting risk to take,” he said, “and I ended up moving [back to Dallas].”
Launched in 2009, Uber is one of the world’s fastest-growing technology companies. The transportation service connects riders and drivers through its mobile applications. Uber is now available in more than 200 cities in over 55 countries.
In the early days of the company, Johns hit a few roadblocks. “It was rough. It was me and two guys sitting in a small closet trying to start a business,” he recalled. “We used to go to bars and tell people they should take Uber. And they were like, ‘What is You-ber?’ We had to do a lot of grassroots marketing.”
Watching the enterprise thrive has been “one of the happiest things about my job,” Johns said.
It’s an exciting time for Uber, he added. Restaurant partnerships, a carpooling service, expansion into aviation and the use of driverless cars are just a few of the new avenues the company is exploring.
“People see what we are do and that we’re open to new things,” he said. “That is going to push our transportation and tech model to an interesting place. We are moving very quickly.”
Johns has become a familiar face in Dallas. In 2014 D Magazine named him one of Dallas’ “10 Most Eligible Men,” noting, “Leandre’s responsible for some serious transformation in the Dallas social scene.”
Even though his career took a different turn, Johns remains committed to helping children. He is a former board member of Common Threads, a program that teaches children of low-income families how to cook healthy and affordable meals. He said he looks forward to one day having a seat on the board of a Dallas-based charity for kids.
“Getting into philanthropy was a natural thing for me. I am focused on charities around cancer and children,” he said.
As he surveys the route he has traveled, Johns said he wishes he “had known the path I would take while at SMU.” He urged students to take full advantage of all the University has to offer to jumpstart their careers.
“There isn’t a better situation to be in than where you are now,” he said. “The tech space and venture capital space are hard to break into as a minority, but I’m not the exception. You have to have the mindset to succeed, and you have to start now.”
– Leah Johnson ’15

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SMU Alumna Savannah Niles ’13 And The Importance Of ‘Scattered Curiosity’

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Alumni

‘No Fling The Bunny’ And Other Life Lessons From SMU Alum Eddie Coker

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News From Meadows: Film Festival Features Works By SMU Alumni, Students And Faculty

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SMU Ph.D. Student Courtney Follit ’12 Wins National Scholar Award

CourtneyFollit2Courtney A. Follit ’12 , a Ph.D. student in molecular and cellular biology at SMU, is one of 85 doctoral students nationwide to receive a $15,000 scholar award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood. She was nominated for the award by Chapter CQ of Dallas.
Courtney is the daughter of Jane and Robert Follit of Rockville, Maryland.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 2012 from SMU, where she was the recipient of Distinguished Scholar and Rotunda scholarships, among other honors.
The P.E.O. Scholar Awards (PSA) were established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing doctoral-level degrees at an accredited college or university.
The P.E.O. Sisterhood, founded Jan. 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a philanthropic educational organization interested in bringing increased opportunities for higher education to women.  There are approximately 6,000 local chapters in the United States and Canada with nearly a quarter of a million active members
 

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From SMU Athletics: Remembering Mustang Basketball Star Charles Beasley ’67

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Remembering Jess T. Hay ’53, ’55

Former SMU Board of Trustee member and alumnus Jess Thomas Hay died April 13. He was 84. He earned a B.B.A. in 1953 and J.D. in 1955 from SMU.

The late Jay Hess ’53, ’55 served on the SMU Board of Trustees, 1973-1990, and in numerous other leadership positions.
The late Jess T. Hay ’53, ’55 served on the SMU Board of Trustees, 1973-1990, and in numerous other leadership positions.

“Jess Hay served on SMU’s Board of Trustees during critical years of the University’s growth,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “His support of law scholarships ensured that future students would be prepared for careers in the professions and civic leadership. He was a role model for combining success in business, public service, and support of education and health resources. The recipient of a bachelor’s and a law degree from SMU, he personified the achievement and dedication recognized by our Distinguished Alumni Award, which he received in 1977.”
Hay served on SMU’s board from 1973-1990, on SMU’s board of governors from 1973-1985 and on the Dedman School of Law executive board from 1989-1990. Hay’s SMU support also included establishment of the Betty Jo Hay Endowed President’s Scholarships, named in honor of his late wife, who received her Bachelor of Arts degree from SMU in 1952. She died in 2005.
Hay also funded the Dennis Barger Memorial Scholarship in the Dedman School of Law. The scholarship was established in memory of a fallen soldier who planned to attend SMU’s law school after military service in Vietnam. Other Hay gifts have supported the SMU fund and the Tate Lecture Series.
Hay received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1977.
Hay was a director of Trinity Industries, Inc. and Hilltop Holdings, Inc., and previously served as a director of Exxon Mobil from 1982-2001, SBC Communications (now AT&T) from 1985-2004, and MoneyGram International, Inc. from 2004-2010. Hay retired as chairman and CEO of Lomas Financial Corporation in 1994.
“Jess Hay was one of the most outstanding individuals that I have ever known.  I have the utmost respect for him personally and professionally,” said friend and colleague Gerald J. Ford, a member of SMU’s Board of Trustees.  “Texas, the country and world will be lesser without him.”
A renowned dynamic Democratic Party political fundraiser, from 1977-78 Hay served as finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Hay raised millions for such Democrats as Walter Mondale, former President Jimmy Carter, former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and former President Bill Clinton. He organized a dinner that raised $1 million for Al Gore’s 1988 presidential campaign.
Hay was chairman of the Texas Foundation for Higher Education, a position he held since 1987. In 1990 he and his wife were honored by the organization with the Cecil and Ida Green Award. He served on the University of Texas board of regents from 1977-1989, including a term as board chair from 1985-1987. In 1991 he received the Santa Rita Award, the highest honor given by the University of Texas system.
Hay is a former member of the Democratic National Committee, Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Assembly, and Greater Dallas Planning Council. He has served on the boards of the Texas Research League, North Texas Food Bank, Child Care Partnership Dallas, and Dallas County Historical Foundation. Hay and his wife founded the Texas Mental Health Foundation and the Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair of Mental Health at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
He was appointed by Congress to the World War II Memorial Advisory Board.
At SMU, Hay was a member of Barristers, Blue Key and Cycen Fjodr.

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Raytheon Superstar Volunteer: SMU Alumnus Paul Krier ’11

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SMU Alumna Kit Sawers Named United Way’s Chief Development Officer

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas (UWMD) has named Kit Sawers, former CEO of Fay+Sawers Productions, as the organization’s new chief development officer. With a résumé highlighted by key roles at the 2014 NCAA Final Four, the grand opening of Klyde Warren Park and the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, Sawers brings unparalleled fundraising, volunteer engagement, programmatic support and event experience to the post. Her staff will join United Way as the new business development strategies team, effective April 1.

Kit Sawers '93
Kit Sawers ’93

Sawers earned a J.D. from SMU’s Dedman School of Law in 1993. She formerly served as the associate vice president and executive director of lecture programs at SMU. For 10 years she headed the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series and the SMU Athletic Forum.
“We have a bold and exciting vision for the future of UWMD and its positive impact on our community,” says Jennifer Sampson, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas CEO and president. “For over two years, we’ve had the great fortune to work with Kit and her team on our record-breaking 90th anniversary volunteer events and the Unite Forever Gala.
>DMN: The queen of big events joins United Way
“Kit is bold thinker and will be a valuable addition to our senior leadership team,” Sampson continues. “I have no doubt her experience, expertise and passion will drive relationship and revenue growth and her leadership will accelerate UWMD’s ability to meet the changing requirements and expectations of our current investors and volunteers.”
Sawers will replace interim chief development officer Mike Gelhausen, who has served in the role since June 2014.
“United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is in the midst of unprecedented community collaboration, making measurable progress in addressing education, health and well-being and the financial stability of North Texans,” says Sawers. “We have seen the way this organization works, the passion its leaders have for changing the future of Dallas, and we are excited and eager to join in United Way’s mission.”
>Biz Journal: United Way taps Kit Sawers
In addition to her work on United Way’s 90th anniversary celebrations, Fay+Sawers served as a key component of the local organizing committee for the 2014 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four. The company was responsible for the grand opening of Klyde Warren Park, raising over $850,000 and producing the multiday event for more than 40,000 attendees. Her team’s work also included the Emmitt Smith Celebrity Invitational and events surrounding the College Football Playoff National Championship.
From 2008-2011, Sawers served alongside SMU alumnus Bill Lively ’65 as the vice president of special events for the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. Prior to the Super Bowl Host Committee, Sawers spent four years as executive director of the Bickel & Brewer Foundation.
 

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SMU Alums Lauren Heffern ’06 And Naina Hotchkiss ’06 Launch 1975

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SMU Alumna Ashlee Kleinert Helps Stop Human Trafficking Operation

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SMU Alumnus Shares His Never-Published Photos Of The Selma-to-Montgomery March In 1965

SMU alumnus Loy Williams '66 captured this image of marchers in Montgomery while participating in the historic Selma-to-Montgomery March on March 25, 1965.
SMU alumnus Loy Williams ’63, ’66 photographed the sea of participants streaming through a Montgomery neighborhood while he joined in the historic Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march on March 25, 1965.

By Nancy George ’79
When SMU student Loy Williams  hurriedly packed his bag before climbing aboard a bus bound to join civil rights protesters in Montgomery, Alabama, he grabbed his Argus C3 camera. Long hours later, he loaded the sturdy camera with Kodachrome film and began snapping photos as he joined 25,000 others marching to the Alabama capitol.
The 22 images have never been published, says Williams, who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from SMU in 1963 and a master’s degree in theology from the Perkins School of Theology in 1966. He is now a retired pastor living near Chicago in Geneva, Illinois. And he still has the Argus C3, a hand-me-down from his father.
>See more of Loy Williams’ images from Montgomery, March 25, 1965
Williams captured images of marchers in overcoats gathering on the overcast day and African-American children dressed in their Sunday best, waving as marchers passed their house on an unpaved road. As Williams approached the Montgomery business district, he photographed the angry faces of bystanders in front of the Trustees Loan & Guarantee Company and the Exchange Lounge.
A student at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology in 1965, Williams helped organize SMU protestors after receiving a telegram from Martin Luther King, Jr., urging him to join the third (and ultimately successful) Selma-to-Montgomery march. Students raised nearly $1,700 overnight to charter a bus and pay for traveling expenses to Selma for students traveling by bus and car. Fifty SMU students and faculty members traveled overnight to join the marchers in Montgomery March 25, 1965.
Williams had not told his parents he was treasurer of SMU’s Selma travel fund and did not tell them he was making the dangerous journey to Alabama to participate in the protest. However, he asked his sister, Ruth, an SMU undergraduate, to stay home.
“I didn’t want to take the chance my parents would lose both of us,” he says.
The SMU protestors joined a staging area in Montgomery, where they were serenaded by folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary as they waited to join the marchers.
“We didn’t know what would happen when we reached the capitol,” Williams says. “We were singing the civil rights song, I Am Not Afraid, but, yes, I was afraid.”
Williams snapped photographs when he reached the Alabama statehouse, capturing Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking to the crowd from a flatbed sound truck. When the speeches ended peacefully, the SMU marchers re-boarded the bus to return to Dallas, opening box lunches ordered in advance from the bus company. But their lunches delivered an ugly message: The cardboard boxes were filled with garbage.
As students listened to pocket-sized transistor radios on the bus, they learned of the Klu Klux Klan murder of civil rights activist, Viola Liuzzo, as she drove marchers back to Selma.
“We were on high alert until we crossed the Alabama state line,” Williams says.
This photo taken as the marchers pass the Guarantee Savings Life building captured the palpable tension in the streets. White bystanders can be seen turning away from Williams' camera, while others laugh.
This photo, taken as the marchers pass the Guaranty Savings Life Building, captured the palpable tension in the streets. White bystanders can be seen turning away from Williams’ camera, while others laugh.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. can be seen in front of the microphones, speaking from a sound truck in front of Alabama capitol building in Montgomery.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stands in front of the microphones, speaking from a sound truck in front of the Alabama capitol building in Montgomery.

>See more of Loy Williams’ images from Montgomery, March 25, 1965

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SMU Alum Joshua Peugh ’06 Creates New Work For Meadows Spring Dance Concert

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SMU Dedman School Of Law Presents 28th Annual Distinguished Alumni Awards

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‘Come And See’: SMU’s Perkins School of Theology Alumni Share Their Stories

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The (Re)volution Of Artist Kevin Todora ’09

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SMU Alumnus Mike Martinez ’92: His Collections Have Star Power

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SMU alumni remember 1965 Civil Rights March as 2015 trip heads to Selma

By Nancy George ’79

When 50 SMU students climb aboard a chartered bus and van on Friday, March 6, bound for Selma, Alabama, they will follow the legacy of 50 other SMU undergraduate and Perkins School of Theology students who rode through the night to meet Martin Luther King, Jr. and hundreds of civil rights marchers in Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965.

One group of current students is enrolled in a unique political science class, which this year will complete SMU’s 11th eight-day Civil Rights Pilgrimage to civil rights landmarks across the South. Students will take part in a series of activities and events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” attacks on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march and the subsequent passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“This experience transforms students regarding their faith, career plans and awareness of the plight of others,” says Betty McHone, SMU assistant chaplain and one of the founders of the pilgrimage.
The other students are traveling with SMU’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs on a Student Senate-supported trip to the five-day Selma commemoration.

Retired SMU English professor Ken Shields, who traveled with the University’s students to Selma in 1965, will see the students off when they depart from the Dallas campus Friday. When the SMU group arrives in Selma, the Rev. Jack Singleton ’66 – an SMU Perkins School of Theology student who also traveled to Alabama for the 1965 march  – will be waiting for them.

SMU-to-Selma: 1965

There were three voting rights marches scheduled from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.  The first ended in horrific violence March 7 when state troopers and a county posse attacked approximately 600 marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the way out of Selma, headed toward the state capital of Montgomery. That incident became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Singleton and nine other Perkins School of Theology students answered Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call on clergy nationwide to join him in completing the rescheduled march on March 9. But King turned that group around just after crossing the bridge, waiting on federal court-ordered protection for the successful march that thousands would make March 21-25. That interrupted march is known as “Turnaround Tuesday,” but Singleton had no way of knowing he would not met with the violence that stopped the first marchers.

“I was terrified,” Singleton says, as he remembers the march. “Two blocks out of the ghetto we moved up into ranks of four abreast and held hands tightly. The runners along the sides of the column worked to move women and children to the inside and the shouts from the bystanders grew and grew. As we were walking across the bridge, we could see that the head of the march had been blocked…nearly three-quarters of a mile away. The prayer service and freedom rally ended our planned march and we turned and walked away with a dignity which had not been allowed two days before.”

 

The Perkins students called in reports to fellow students in Dallas, who taped them then shared the tapes with local radio stations. When Singleton returned to Dallas, he was fired from his job as youth pastor at a suburban church because of his activism.

 

On the SMU campus, students collected money to support the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, attended a Perkins Chapel memorial service for the Rev. James Reeb, a Boston pastor murdered in Selma after the interrupted March 9 march, and participated in campus and Dallas protest marches. Letters to the editor in The Daily Campus both supported and condemned student participation in the Civil Rights movement.

SMU students joined the third (and ultimately successful) Selma-to-Montgomery march after Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to Perkins students Loy Williams ’66 and Joe Lovelady ’63 urging them to bring everyone they could. Overnight nearly $1,700 was raised to charter a bus and pay for traveling expenses to Selma for students traveling by bus and car. Fifty SMU students and faculty members traveled overnight to join the marchers in Montgomery March 25.

Perkins Theology student Williams had not told his parents he was treasurer of SMU’s Selma travel fund and did not tell them he was making the dangerous journey to Alabama to participate in the protest. However, he asked his sister, Ruth, an SMU undergraduate, to stay home.

“I didn’t want to take the chance my parents would lose both of us,” he says.

The SMU protestors joined a staging area in Montgomery, where they were serenaded by folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary as they waited to join the marchers.

“We didn’t know what would happen when we reached the Capitol,” Williams says. “We were singing the Civil Rights song, ‘I Am Not Afraid,’ but, yes, I was afraid.”

 

Williams snapped photographs when he reached the Alabama state capitol, capturing Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking to the crowd from a flatbed sound truck. When the speeches ended peacefully, the SMU marchers re-boarded the bus to return to Dallas, opening box lunches ordered in advance from the bus company. But their lunches delivered an ugly message: The cardboard boxes were filled with garbage.

 

As students listened to pocket-sized transistor radios on the bus, they learned of the Klu Klux Klan murder of civil rights activist, Viola Liuzzo, as she drove marchers back to Selma.

“We were on high alert until we crossed the Alabama state line,” Williams says. Retired English Professor Shields, a civil rights activist before he joined the SMU faculty in 1961, knew joining the Selma protest was “not a light-hearted adventure.” “We were doing something right, but we underestimated the danger.”

As the marchers entered the Montgomery business district, workers leaned from office windows and shouted at the protesters. A businessman stepped from a doorway and swung a fist at Shields, but missed.

“I had never experienced that rage,” he says.
A 13-year-old African-American girl, still bandaged from the March 7 march, linked arms with Shields as they continued marching toward the Capitol. “How can you sing?” he asked. She looked at him and smiled, “Because Dr. King told me to.”

SMU to Selma: 2015

Travelers with SMU’s 2015 Civil Rights Pilgrimage will journey back in time on a spring break, eight-day bus journey to meet those who participated in and witnessed the struggle for civil rights. They will walk across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge with 40,000 others to mark the 50th commemoration of Bloody Sunday and will visit Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, joining for dinner those who knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They will visit the Jackson, Miss. home of murdered NAACP activist Medgar Evers, whose bloodstains can still be seen on the driveway where he was murdered. Turning toward Oxford, Miss., pilgrims will remember murdered civil rights workers Andy Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner and the experiences of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Finally, in Memphis, they will visit the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

“Leading this pilgrimage has been the highlight of my professional life,” said trip leader Ray Jordan ’08, a pastor and professor who first completed the trip as a student. “It’s been incredible to see the faces of students, often with tears in their eyes, as they come to fully appreciate the great sacrifices of those who were a part of the Movement. This trip has lead many of them to commit their lives to social justice.”
Along the way pilgrims will meet with journalists, attorneys, former marchers and those who shared their homes with freedom riders and other civil rights workers.

“The experience joins the intellect and emotions,” says Dennis Simon, professor of political science and trip leader. “The pilgrims see Brown Chapel, touch the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and listen to the foot soldiers of the movement  – the ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things.”

The travelers from SMU’s Multicultural Student Affairs Office will frame their experiences in Selma and Birmingham from March 6-9, joining the other students in Selma.

The first Civil Rights Pilgrimage was organized in 2004 by SMU’s Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life, part of SMU’s Office of Student Affairs, as a spring break trip. In 2008, the pilgrimage became part of the political science class created by Dennis Simon, professor of political science. Now a joint collaboration, the class is a requirement for undergraduate human rights majors and also offered to graduate students in the Master of Liberal Studies program. Former SMU civil rights pilgrims have created scholarships to enable others to follow in their footsteps.

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News From Meadows: SMU Alum Molly Beach Murphy ’09 Helms ‘The Sparrow’

NOTE: This story was originally posted on the Meadows School of the Arts website February 18, 2015. Due to inclement weather, the new production’s debut was rescheduled for February 26.
By Ally Van Deuren (B.F.A. Theatre, B.A. Journalism, ’15)
Meadows School of the Arts
Just a few weeks ago, Molly Beach Murphy ’09 flew from New York City back to her alma mater to begin rehearsals for her production of The Sparrow, an SMU Division of Theatre mainstage production that takes flight in the Greer Garson Theatre February 26-March 1, 2015.

Molly Beach Murphy '02 (third row center in glasses) during rehearsals for The Sparrow. Photo by J. J. Darling.
Molly Beach Murphy ’09 (third row center, in glasses) during rehearsals for The Sparrow. Photo by J. J. Darling.

“In this production our hope is to take what is on the page, the intention of the story, and find our own way of bringing it to life on stage,” Murphy said. “It’s a big story about community and belonging. It’s got a huge heart, and is told with simple small theatrical conventions. I think that tells you something really beautiful about life. There’s big life in small places, tight communities and in small things.”
The Sparrow, written by SMU theatre alumni Nathan Allen ’00, Chris Mathews ’02 and Jake Minton ’02, is a play first produced at the House Theatre of Chicago, a nonprofit ensemble theatre company with the mission of exploring the ideas of storytelling in order to create a unique and interactive theatrical experience.
Upon their graduation from SMU’s Division of Theatre, Allen, with help from Mathews, Minton and seven other SMU theatre alums, started The House Theatre in Chicago. Eleven SMU graduates are in the company today.
“At SMU, the faculty gave me tools for my toolbox,” Mathews said. “They weren’t giving me the one way to do things. They allowed me to explore. The harmony was in the arguments.”
After having heard so much about the alums who had started The House Theatre, Murphy was able to meet with Nathan Allen to chat about The House Theatre of Chicago and The Sparrow.
Director Molly Beach Murphy '09. Photo by J. J. Darling.
Director Molly Beach Murphy ’09. Photo by J. J. Darling.

“The House Theatre has always been a great inspiration to me and many SMU students as examples of alums who started their own thing, made their own world and created their own pieces,” Murphy said. “What I love about what The House does is that they create whole worlds and involve the audience in it entirely”
In preparation for the opening of The Sparrow at SMU, graduate designers Darren Diggle (M.F.A. Design ’16), Janet Berka (M.F.A. Design ’16) and Hunter Dowell (M.F.A. Design ’16) continue to work on this production. In addition, Jeff Colangelo ’13 and Katy Tye (B.F.A. Theatre ’15) have been serving as the cast’s fight captains and Associate Professor Sara Romersberger has been helping with movement work.
“We are fully staffed,” Murphy said with a giggle. “It’s going to be a very physical show. On the page, they’ve written all kinds of ‘impossible stage directions’ (as The House calls them) and our job is to carve out what our conventions are. How we are going to make a whole town fly.”
Chair of SMU’s Division of Theatre Stan Wojewodski, Jr. looks forward to the production, on which so many current students and alumni have been collaborating over the past several months.
“It’s a marvelous and original script that looks at American life but most importantly it does it in very specific terms having to do with how a community understands itself and its individual members and how we either can look directly at things and heal or turn away from them and pretend that there’s nothing wrong,” Wojewodski said.
While at SMU, Murphy directed a lot of her own work and produced and directed several other projects and productions and was heavily involved in SMUST, SMU Student Theatre.
MurphyQuote1“I can’t say enough about SMUST,” Murphy said. “I think it’s really important for people to make their own work and to find out what your own work is especially when you have free space in the basement, because that costs in the real world!”
Murphy said that it is SMUST that made her realize that making her own work was something she wanted to do for the rest of her career.
“It’s that entrepreneurial spirit that SMUST cultivates,” Murphy said.When you go out, you have to hang your own lights, find your own space and make your own schedule and find your own money and convince people to do it.”
Since her graduation, Murphy has worked in venues such as Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theater, The Juilliard School, McCarter Theatre, The Atlantic Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Nickelodeon Theatricals, The Apollo Theater, Arena Stage, Harlem Stage, The Dallas Theater Center, Zach Scott Theatre and NYU/Tisch.
Her most recent project was working with director Jo Bonney on the N.Y. Public Theater/American Repertory Theater production of Father Comes Home From The Wars, Pts. 1, 2 & 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks. Murphy is a recipient of SMU’s Garland Wright Award for Excellence in Directing.
“She’s a wonderful director,” Wojewodski said. “As she is working with some of the most interesting and exciting playwrights and directors right now, she is a wonderful resource and example for current students.”
How does she balance everything?
“A very intense Google calendar,” said Murphy with a giggle.
Wojewodski said he is often asked, “What sort of training are you training your students to do?” His reply: “We are training them to do the theatre they will make.”
Both Wojewodski and Murphy agree that the tools cultivated from a B.F.A. in theatre from SMU and from experience gained from SMUST can be applied to work in the real world.
“The most exciting thing about coming here is to work with the students,” Murphy said. “SMU trains you in theatrical craft, but more importantly, it cultivates individual artistry. Everyone here is their own artist. To have the opportunity to work and collaborate in such a bursting exciting environment is a true thrill and honor.”

Scenes From Rehearsals

Photos of rehearsals for The Sparrow by Meadows photographer Kim Leeson

The Sparrow tells the story of a teen with unusual hidden powers that could either save or destroy her hometown. The Chicago Tribune called the play “a thrilling, riveting celebration of the power of the imagination that adults and teens can enjoy, and understand, together.”
>Performance times and ticket information
Sparrow1aSparrow2Sparrow3Sparrow4aSparrow5Sparrow6

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SMU Civil Rights Trip Inspires New Play By Jonathan Norton ’11

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Invited To Join Alternative Breaks, March 9-15

SMU alumni will join student, faculty and staff volunteers participating in the University’s Alternative Breaks (AB) program over spring break, March 9-15. The service-learning experience pairs AB teams with established nonprofits to supply hands-on help to those in need. The projects range from cultivating a community garden to nurturing neglected children.
>Read student blogs from past Alternative Breaks
Of the 11 AB trips, six of them will take place in metropolitan areas with active SMU Alumni chapters. Those cities and projects include:

Denver13
Through the Alternative Breaks program, students work with organizations around the world as they explore issues such as poverty, education and public health.

Atlanta, Georgia
A group will pitch in at the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which operates a product rescue center, grocery, mobile pantry and community garden. Another group will assist three organizations – Wellspring Living, YouthSpark and BeLoved Atlanta – that address issues related to domestic violence and human trafficking.
El Paso, Texas
Annunciation House, which helps the needy of the border region with housing, food and social services.
New Orleans, Louisiana
St. Bernard Project, which engages youth in rebuilding distressed and foreclosed homes to stabilize neighborhoods still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
New York City, New York
God’s Love We Deliver, which delivers nourishing meals to those with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.
St. Louis, Missouri
Saint Louis Crisis Nursery, which provides a safe haven for abused and neglected children.
Washington, D.C.
The D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, which offers education, outreach and advocacy services.
Here are some of the ways Mustangs will lend a hand:

  • Supplying meals or snacks/desserts
  • Housing students
  • Offering advice about your city, including tips for a “fun day” outing
  • Volunteering alongside students during the project
  • Providing monetary support

For more information, email Jackie Walker, assistant director of alumni engagement at SMU.

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Alumni

Fashion Entrepreneur Matt Alexander ’10 Launches Foremost

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Monique Achu ’02, An Inspiring School And The Fundraiser That Won The Internet

Monique Achu ’02 spends a lot of time on the phone these days, fielding calls from across the globe. Achu serves as director of programs for Mott Hall Bridges Academy (MHBA) in Brooklyn, New York, the small school inspiring big-hearted support.

Principal Nadia Lopez (left) and Monique Achu '03, director of programs at Mott Hall Bridges Academy, the focus of a campaign that's raised $1.2 million and counting for the school's students.
Principal Nadia Lopez (left) and Monique Achu ’02, director of programs, at an event at their school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy. An online fundraiser has netted more than $1.2 million (and counting) for the middle school’s students.

An online fundraiser to pay for enrichment programs at the middle school has gone viral, raising over $1.2 million from more than 41,000 donors.
[UPDATE: Since this story was posted, the fundraiser ended, with a total of $1,419,284 contributed by 51,472 donors.]
“We could never have imagined this type of response,” says Achu, who has been with the school since it opened in 2010. MHBA is considered a safe zone – a haven for learning and personal growth – in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, an impoverished area with one of the highest crime rates in New York City.
The catalyst for the fundraiser was a posting on Brandon Stanton’s popular blog Humans of New York, featuring Vidal Chastanet. The 13-year-old identified his school principal, MHBA’s Nadia Lopez, as the person who has had the biggest influence on his life. Stanton was impressed and reached out to Lopez.
On January 22, Stanton launched a campaign on the crowd-funding site, Indiegogo Life, to cover the costs of a school trip to Harvard to show students that no university was beyond their reach. “Let’s Send Kids to Harvard: The Vidal Scholarship Fund” quickly caught fire on social media, receiving more than $1 million in donations in four days. It grabbed the attention of celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, and earned an invitation for Vidal, Principal Lopez and Stanton to meet President Barack Obama.
“We’ve heard from media across the industry, from NPR to Elle magazine. This story has really engaged everyone,” Achu says.
The exposure has resulted in an exhausting deluge of calls and emails, “but it’s a good problem to have,” she says.
The fundraiser ends February 10. In addition to the Harvard trips, donations will seed a scholarship fund for MHBA alumni, and Vidal will be the first recipient.
Praised for its “holistic” approach to education, the Academy aims to close the achievement gap by opening doors to possibilities for its 191 scholars – the school’s term for students – in grades six through eight. While the academic curriculum revolves around a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) core, the Academy’s formula includes the enrichment programs and community events that Achu directs.
>NYT: A Brooklyn School’s Curriculum Includes Ambition
“Our non-instructional programming emphasizes emotional and social development,” keys to creating college-ready scholars, she explains. Among the offerings are “Be Cool Be Kind,” an anti-bullying initiative; “She Is Me,” a mentoring and female empowerment group; and “I Matter,” an initiative to help young men understand their value to the community. There are also programs focused on a host of interests, from entrepreneurship to robotics to sports.
When they are ready for post-secondary education, Achu hopes her students will have the type of experience she had at SMU, where she majored in communications arts in Meadows School of the Arts.
“You get such a diverse education at SMU,” she says, “And there are so many hands-on opportunities to develop skills you’ll use every day. Even classes you’re not sure apply to your future career can be really useful. I wasn’t sure how I would use it, but now I’m really glad I took a PR class.”
While at SMU, she was active in a variety of organizations, including the Association of Black Students and Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
“I think the student leadership roles I had, where I learned to plan and coordinate events, as well as manage people and projects, have been essential to my career development,” she says.
Although she originally planned to pursue a path in media that combined communications and civic engagement, her “passion for helping people” led her to education. After earning a master’s degree at Boston University, she coordinated nonprofit programs in Boston before relocating to New York City.
Achu has been part of Mott Hall Bridges Academy from the beginning, and she is anxious to see what the future holds.
“I’ll be coordinating the trips to Harvard,” she says. “I think the experience will be truly life-changing, and that’s what education should do: change lives.”
– Patricia Ward
Although the fundraiser ends February 10, Mott Hall Bridges Academy scholars can always use support. For more information, email Monique Achu.
 
 
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumni’s Journalism Journeys Lead To National Emmy Awards

Broadcast journalists Eva Parks ’03 and Joshua Parr ’11 are used to working behind the scenes, but at the 35th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards Ceremony in September, they stepped into the spotlight as members of award-winning news teams.
Parks served as the investigative producer for Driven to Distraction, a seven-month probe by the NBC 5 Investigates team that revealed serious crashes caused by police officers distracted by technology in their vehicles, such as computers, GPS, smart phones and cameras. The report won in the Outstanding Regional News Story – Investigative Reporting category.
Parr worked as a broadcast associate on Caught, a special report on CBS’ 48 Hours about the manhunt and capture of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. The segment earned the Emmy for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine.
The Emmy winners spoke recently to SMU Magazine writer Leah Johnson ’15 about how hands-on opportunities and encouraging professors at SMU prepared them for success in a highly competitive field.
Eva Parks says she never imagined a career as an investigative producer. At SMU she interned for an entertainment reporter, but her future kept taking serious turns as she accepted hard news assignments for NBC and Fox News.

Eva Parks '03 holds the national news Emmy won by the NBC 5 Investigates team.
Eva Parks ’03 (second from right) holds the national news Emmy won by the NBC 5 Investigates team.

She later worked in SMU’s Office of Public Affairs before joining KXAS-TV, the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate, in 2012. She currently serves as the investigative producer for the NBC 5 Investigates team.
How did SMU pave the way for your career?
I loved that my journalism classes were taught by professionals who had a wealth of information because of their experience in the business or had an amazing Rolodex of contacts they were willing to share. By my second semester, I was interning at a local TV station and getting hands-on experience. My class was also the first class to be a part of SMU-TV. In fact, I was the first executive producer. I learned a lot while producing that show and made a lot of mistakes, but it resulted in some of the best experiences and memories I have of my time at SMU. Also, a lot of TV networks would call the journalism department looking for runners or production assistants to help out on shoots. So I was able to start building my résumé and make contacts while I was in school, which was an advantage with landing my first job.
Talk about some favorite professors and SMU memories.
Some of my favorite professors still teach at SMU – Michele Houston, Camille Krapelin and Jane Suhler, to name a few. Their doors were always open, and they were always eager to help. Some of my best memories were made in Umphrey Lee while shooting a show for SMU-TV or shooting projects across campus with fellow alum and still best friend, Carissa Hughes ’03. Another highlight was when Don Hewitt came to campus and a few of us got to have lunch with him and pick his brain. Looking back, SMU opened so many doors for me, and I am forever grateful to the experience and access the University provided.
What did it take to get where you are today?
I’d say simply putting myself out there and not being afraid. During Hurricane Katrina, I was working for NBC in the Dallas bureau. We were on a conference call with all the shows, and you could sense the urgent need for resources to help crews in New Orleans and along the coast. Someone had asked if anyone knew how to get RVs and supplies. I sent a message to the guy leading the conference call, and within a matter of minutes, we were ordering RVs to go to New Orleans. I chose to speak up, and that single moment really took my career to the next level.
What did it feel like to win the national Emmy?
When they called our name, we couldn’t believe it. We were up against some amazing investigative teams. When we were on stage, I kept pinching myself because I couldn’t believe it. I looked out into the audience and saw Dan Rather, Brian Williams and Lester Holt. It was a proud moment, for sure!
What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is that I get to help people. Period. I’m fortunate that my news director and station have made an investment in investigative reporting, so I get the time to go deeper and ask more questions.
What do you do in your spare time?
When I’m not investigating, you’ll probably find me walking my little dog, Mico, or whipping up something special in the kitchen. I love to cook and try new recipes.
Joshua Parr '11 served on the 48 Hours team that won a national news Emmy in the news magazine category.
Joshua Parr ’11 served on the 48 Hours team that won a national news Emmy for breaking news coverage.

Joshua Parr works as a broadcast associate for 48 Hours, the CBS true-crime series now in its 27th season. Like Parks, Parr was sold on SMU and its journalism program from the beginning. He says gaining hands-on opportunities and real-world experience in print and broadcast journalism while a student was a definite advantage in the competitive world of network news.
How did SMU prepare you for your career?
The journalism program provided many opportunities to immerse myself in the world of news. From The Daily Update to The Daily Campus, journalism students are allowed to use what we learn in the classroom in real-life situations. I covered the groundbreaking of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which was one of my first experiences with breaking news. I spent countless late hours in Umphrey Lee editing packages that were due the next morning, which definitely prepared me for script writing and working on deadline.
Tell us your favorite SMU memories.
I truly cherish my time at SMU. Some of my favorite memories are of projects and activities with my BYX (Beta Upsilon Chi Christian fraternity) brothers, from building our Homecoming float, to playing ultimate Frisbee on the quad, to Boulevarding. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed getting up at 6 a.m. and doing The Daily Update in the journalism wing. It may have been early, but I feel it provided a camaraderie with my fellow journalism students and gave us a challenge of putting on a newscast, which many of us have to do today.
What challenges have you faced?
Working for a major network in New York City right out of SMU took some adjustment. I learned quickly how to do the mechanics of the job, but the most important thing I learned was to have a good attitude, a calm head and a willingness to help in any situation. I feel these three traits are paramount and help me along the way.
How did you get to where you are today?
It was through the mentorship of my SMU professor Lucy Scott that I am where I am today. She was a field producer at 48 Hours and leaned on me for help with a local story. From there I was able to get an interview in New York City in my last semester at SMU. I found out I got the job of production secretary at 48 Hours the day before graduation. I was very excited about the opportunity, but also very nervous; after all, I had little money and nowhere to live in NYC. A week before I was supposed to move, I was blessed again with a place to stay for three months, for free! It was clear that this was where I was supposed to be. I spent my first few months at 48 Hours learning the ropes. There were a lot. I started in the month before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My first field shoot was at Ground Zero.
What did it feel like to win an Emmy?
It was a great honor. The whole 48 Hours team pitched in during the tragic events at the Boston Marathon bombing to put together an amazing and informative broadcast. It was great to be a part of such a big operation at CBS News, collaborating with other broadcasts and sharing information.
What does this mean to you in terms of success?
It’s an honor to get the Emmy award, but in the long run, it’s not the goal. The goal is to put on an informative broadcast for the good of the public.
What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is that it allows me to cover very interesting stories. I have time for a personal life and get to travel every so often to cover trials and do interviews with people involved in the cases we cover. It’s also a great accomplishment when we have an impact on the justice system, for instance, helping to get someone who was wrongfully convicted out of prison.
You are also an artist. What inspires you?
Art is something I’ve always had a passion for, but I’ve never given it the attention it deserves. I wish I would have double majored instead of getting only an art minor. I feel most joyful when I’m creating something, be it a painting, an illustration or a wood work. Lots of things inspire me. I really enjoy making functional art that can be used but also viewed for its beauty. Right now I’m exploring woodworking and building furniture for our apartment.
What about your personal life?
My wife, Emily, and I have been married for over a year. We live in Harlem. We both enjoy seeing movies, running and bike rides in Central Park. We are small group leaders at our church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

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Alumni

SMU’s Jonathan Norton ’11 And Will Power Collaborate On MLK Play

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Alumni

Will A. Courtney ’58 Honored For A Lifetime Of Service

Like many young people in the 1960s, Will A. Courtney ’58 was moved by the challenge issued by President John F. Kennedy at his inauguration in 1961.

Will A. Courtney's long list of interests includes history, and during a visit to campus last year, he enjoyed touring the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
Will A. Courtney’s long list of interests includes history, and during a visit to campus last year, he enjoyed touring the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

“When he said, ‘… ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,’ it really made me think about our responsibilities as citizens and what we can do for our country, in addition to military service,” he says.
Inspired by the president’s words, Courtney rolled up his sleeves and began more than a half-century of hands-on charitable work and service to the community. The USO World Board of Governors, the Van Cliburn Foundation and a host of local organizations have benefited from his time and talent. However, it is his involvement with Goodwill Industries that stands out. For more than 50 years, he has volunteered on the local, national and international levels.
“I have deep respect for the work they do,” says Courtney of the organization that provides education, skills training, jobs and services for people with disabilities and other specialized needs.
For his commitment to advancing its mission, Goodwill Industries International named Courtney the 2014 Elsine Katz Volunteer Leader of the Year. He received the award at the annual Goodwill Delegate Assembly in Austin June 29.
Courtney recently garnered another accolade when he was inducted into Goodwill’s Hall of Fame.
He first joined the board of directors of Fort Worth Goodwill in 1964. He went on to serve as a member of Goodwill’s national board for 16 years. He also served on the boards of Goodwill Global and the Goodwill Industries International Foundation. He is famous for his fundraising skills, spearheading an $8.5 million capital campaign for the construction of several local Goodwill facilities.
From custom-made cowboy boots that sport the Goodwill logo to the Goodwill lapel pin he rarely leaves home without, Courtney often dresses the part of “Mr. Goodwill,” an affectionate nickname he has earned in the business community. He was instrumental in the development of a business advisory council that meets quarterly to recommend new directions and opportunities for the agency. He also attends every Goodwill graduation ceremony, an event that honors program participants for achieving their training goals.
“Will serves as a wonderful role model to his peers in the business community,” says Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International.
Courtney, who studied real estate at what is now SMU’s Cox School of Business, owns and manages Courtney & Courtney Properties, a 54-year-old company in his native city of Fort Worth. He has managed shopping centers and business properties in Fort Worth and Dallas – including the block that houses the 7-Eleven store across from the SMU campus – as well as Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also has managed ranches in Fort Worth and Dumas, Texas.
His community engagement extends to service on the boards of the Fort Worth Air Power Council, Outdoor Sportsmen’s Club, Fort Worth Public Library Foundation, Fort Worth Air and Space Museum, National Jewish Respiratory Hospital and Downtown Fort Worth Rotary Club, among many others.
In 2013 Courtney was honored during the Association of Fundraising Professionals National Philanthropy Day celebration in Fort Worth. He was nominated by the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth Foundation for the Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award in recognition of his campaign leadership that enabled the facility to expand its accommodations for families.
Courtney also is known for his role with the Van Cliburn Foundation, where his passions for classical music and philanthropy intersect. Won over by the piano virtuosity of the late Van Cliburn, he was among the first civic leaders to recognize the potential of the international music competition. As a director of the Foundation, he has worn many hats as “The Cliburn” has grown to include a contest for amateur musicians, a free community concert series and music education initiatives.
Despite the accolades he has earned, Courtney remains modest about his contributions.
“I support organizations I believe in, that are good for the community as a whole,” he explains. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Patricia Ward

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SMU Alumnus Paul B. Loyd, Jr. Honored With SAM Award

From SMU Athletics
SMU alumnus Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68 was honored with the 2014 SAM Award at the SMU men’s basketball game against East Carolina January 17. The award was presented at halftime on behalf of the SMU Lettermen’s Association by SMU President R. Gerald Turner and Director of Athletics Rick Hart.

Paul B. Loyd, Jr. '68 was honored with the 2014 SAM Award by the Lettermen's Association January 17. The long-standing support of Loyd and wife Penny have contributed to the SMU community in countless ways, including the new Loyd Commons and the Paul B. Loyd, Jr. All-Sports Center.
Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68 was honored with the 2014 SAM Award by the SMU Lettermen’s Association January 17. Loyd and his wife Penny have contributed to improvements across campus, including the new Loyd Residential Commons, as well as  the Paul B. Loyd, Jr. All-Sports Center.

Loyd was a member of SMU’s 1966 Southwest Conference Championship football team that played in the 1967 Cotton Bowl Classic and was elected team captain of the 1967 team. In 1968, Loyd graduated from what is now SMU’s Cox School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He went on to complete his MBA at Harvard University before building a successful career in the energy services industry.
He currently serves on the SMU Board of Trustees and as chair of the Athletic Committee. He also serves on the  executive boards of the Cox School of Business and the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. In addition, he is co-chair of the Second Century Campaign Steering Committee for Athletics and serves as honorary chair and member of the Second Century Campaign Steering Committee for Houston.
Loyd was honored with SMU’s Mustang Award in 1999 and the  Cox School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001. In 2012, he was recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award, which is the highest and most prestigious award the University bestows upon its alumni.
In 2004, Loyd was honored as the Man of the Year at Fort Benning by troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for his contribution in setting up satellite computers for the troops to communicate with loved ones at home, as well as funding of much needed equipment not readily available at that time to troops in the field.
In 2009 Paul, along with his wife Penny, created The Loyd Charitable Foundation to support charities in the Houston and Dallas areas as well as international charitable organizations. From goodwill mission trips in American Samoa to generous donations to the Baylor College of Medicine, Paul’s generosity knows no bounds. Loyd serves on the board of directors of Houston Children’s Charity, Goodwill Industries of Dallas, the Boys and Girls Clubs of American Samoa and the Marshall Plan Charities for Afghanistan Recovery as well as advisory boards of the June Jones Foundation, the College Football Assistance Fund, the Eddie G. Robinson Foundation, the Dikembe Mutumbo Hospital Foundation, Opportunity International, the Linda Lorelle Scholarship Fund, the United Way and Boys and Girls Country. He is also the Chairman of the Navy SEAL Legacy Foundation national advisory committee and chaired the Inaugural Navy SEAL Golf Tournament held in Houston in 2012. Paul has worked with numerous Houston charities and organizations including Theatre Under the Stars, in which Paul and his wife Penny are the host of the TUTS Annual Scotch Tasting party and is an underwriting chair. He has also hosted The Bayou Preservation Association’s 2011 Gala and the Houston Zoo Asante Society’s 2011 cocktail reception in his home.
Paul and his wife have five children and two grandchildren. They attend Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston and Trinity Church in Dallas.
The annual award, which was initiated in 1991, is the most prestigious award given by the Lettermen’s Association. To be selected as the SAM Award winner, an individual must have graduated from SMU at least 25 years ago and made a significant, positive and lasting impact on his/her community.

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SMU Alumna Kelsey Charles ’13 Talks Cowboys And Great Professors

As a high school student in Kansas, Kelsey Charles ’13 was voted the student most likely to host a talk show. Her classmates knew her really well. The SMU journalism graduate is the host – and producer – of two programs for the Dallas Cowboys, “Cowboys Break” and “Writer’s Roundtable.”

Kelsey Charles '13
Kelsey Charles ’13

“I was always destined to do something that allows me to communicate and speak my mind,” Charles says.
Program host is one aspect of her multidimensional role with the Cowboys organization. As the mobile marketing and new business development manager for the Cowboys, her mission is to keep fans engaged, even when the team is not playing. One of her newest efforts is 5 Points Blue, a website designed for female sports fan that mixes typical football fare, like stats and player interviews, with topics of wider interest.
“It targets people like me, women who can talk in-depth football with the guys, but who also have an interest in the social aspects of sports, like fitness and fashion,” she explains.
There’s never a dull moment when she’s on the clock – she has even climbed on the roof of AT&T Stadium – and that’s what the communications dynamo loves about her job.
“I’ve seen it all,” she says. “The question is: what haven’t I been able to do?”
Charles began her career with “America’s Team” as an intern while attending SMU.
Although she began her undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, she always had an interest in SMU and soon transferred. But her academic career path was uncertain. When searching for a class to complete her schedule, she landed on Ethics in Journalism, a course taught by Tony Pederson, professor and The Belo Foundation Distinguished Chair in Journalism. And from that point on, she was hooked on everything about journalism at SMU and well on her way to fulfilling that high school career prophecy.
“My professors didn’t bring anything less than the best,” she says. “I mean it wholeheartedly that I wouldn’t be here today without them. They pushed me to be a person I did not know I could be.”
As a sports fan, SMU game days also were important to her as a student, and they still are.
“Having come from a public university in Kansas, I wasn’t prepared for SMU’s brand of tailgating,” she remembers. “I was literally in awe when I went Boulevarding for the first time.”
Charles’ equation for professional success has added together the writing, reporting, editing and digital communications knowledge she gained at SMU with her own drive to succeed.
“My professors opened the door for me, but hard work, persistence and being innovative helped get me where I am,” she says. “I really had to put myself out there.”
In terms of a five-year plan, Charles doesn’t have one. But, in view of her recent accomplishments, her future will likely unfold in interesting and exciting ways.
“Being open is a good thing in this world. I am exploring every single day,” she says. “I will be happy as long as I am learning new things and trying new things.
“It has been a wild ride so far, and there is so much more to come,” she says. “Stay tuned!”
– Leah Johnson ’15

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Kelly Stoetzel ’91 And Her Mission To Share ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’

TEDxSMU returned for its sixth year November 1, and as expected, provided a lineup of intriguing speakers. This year’s theme, “Strangely Familiar,” featured topics ranging from the psychology of magic to the intersection of cultures through dance.

Kelly Stoetzel '91, content director for TED, speaking at TEDxSMU November 1.
Kelly Stoetzel ’91, content director for TED, speaking at TEDxSMU November 1.

Among the speakers was SMU alumna Kelly Stoetzel ’91, who talked about TEDYouth, a daylong event designed to enlighten and inspire middle- and high-school students. She curates the event, which was held November 15 in Brooklyn and experienced by young people around the globe via webcast.
But, that’s not all she does.
Not even close.
As content director for TED, the internationally renowned conferences that present “ideas worth spreading,” Stoezel recruits, auditions and prepares speakers for events. Sometimes that means travelling the world. Two years ago, Stoetzel participated in a TED talent search, visiting 14 countries to find untapped speakers.

Lots of philanthropic work happens at SMU, and that taught me the importance of contributing to the world.”

Stoetzel also co-hosts and produces TEDActive in Whistler, British Colombia, Canada, a live event that combines the hallmark TED Talks with workshops, exhibits, demonstrations and other opportunities for active participation.
In fact, she does a lot of hosting for TED and TEDx. Before this year’s TEDxSMU, she co-hosted parts of October’s TEDGlobal in Brazil, including “Inside the Active Studio,” a more in-depth conversation with speakers.
“Six years ago, when SMU first did TEDxKids@SMU, I had never hosted an event for young people. I was scared because I didn’t know how to host for kids,” she says. “It was the most spectacular day I ever had in my working career. I saw kids change the way they wanted to learn. So doing events for youth has been my favorite thing since.”
During TEDxSMU, she seemed born for the role. The interplay between Stoetzel, the audience and the speakers is what makes a TEDx conference so different and what makes her so special. She did not just go on stage and read from a script; she incorporated the audience into the experience, encouraging them to talk to each other and the speakers. Her easy-going manner, coupled with the great rapport between her and co-host John G. Rives, made everyone feel like they were part of an intimate conversation.

I chose SMU because of the fantastic professors, and I wanted to combine my interests in advertising and art. Also, the liberal arts education – learning about so many different topics – was important to me. And that knowledge has carried over with my work for TED today.”

SMU alumna Kelly Stoetzel '91 (front row, third from left) with speakers at TEDxSMU November 1.
SMU alumna Kelly Stoetzel ’91 (front row, third from left) with speakers at TEDxSMU November 1.

She may make it look easy, but her career path was not always so clear. As a student in Meadows School of the Arts, she majored in advertising with an art minor.
“I chose SMU because of the fantastic professors, and I wanted to combine my interests in advertising and art,” she says. “Also, the liberal arts education – learning about so many different topics – was important to me. And that knowledge has carried over with my work for TED today.
“And, lots of philanthropic work happens at SMU, and that taught me the importance of contributing to the world,” she adds.
SMU is also where she met her husband, Lee Stoetzel ’90, ’93, and “made so many good friends.”
She says she found her calling in a reverse order, with each step of the way contributing to where she is now.
“I didn’t graduate from college knowing for sure what I wanted to do. I went down a couple of paths before I landed at the right place,” she says. “But, that’s OK. By continuing to figure out what I did and did not enjoy, and what I naturally was good at, I think I just figured out that my job was to help other people communicate. I also feel committed to giving people a platform to make an impact.”

I didn’t graduate from college knowing for sure what I wanted to do. I went down a couple of paths before I landed at the right place. But, that’s OK.”

Stoetzel’s introduction to TED was through her father. He attended the first TED conference in 1984, a lone event focused on technology, engineering and design – the “t-e-d” in TED – and was hooked. She says her family used to poke fun at her dad for his TED fervor. But, after attending some TED conferences herself, she became hooked, too. She came to know the director of TED, Chris Anderson, and when he relocated the headquarters from California to New York, she jumped at the opportunity to become permanently involved.
“I’ve gotten to work with so many amazing people,” she says, “and it is not necessarily the big names. To me some of the most interesting people are not household names. They are people who are innovating because they need to or love to. TED is about getting other people’s work out into the world.”
Even after 10 years, no TED is the same, she says.
“We are constantly working at doing a better job at programming and details for the next year. It’s not about a lecture, it’s about a conversation. Even down to the theater design, it’s about connecting with the audience. And TEDxSMU is one of the best TEDx events in the country because they put a lot of energy and care into the program.”
– Leah Johnson ’15
 

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Alumni

David Miller ’72, ’73 Honored With Prestigious L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award

The Maguire Energy Institute at SMU Cox School of Business honored David Miller, co-founder and managing partner of EnCap Investments, L.P., with the 2014 L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award at a sold-out luncheon ceremony on Friday, December 12, at the Cox School’s Collins Center.

David Miller ’72, ’73

The event raised $375,000 to support the Institute, as well as scholarships for students seeking to pursue careers in the energy industry. The Energy Leadership Award committee selected Miller, who holds a BBA and an MBA from SMU Cox, as someone who, like the late oilman for whom the energy award was named, embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship, ethical leadership and energy industry innovation.
“The Institute is proud to honor David Miller with this prestigious award,” said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute. “Throughout his 40-year career, David has an unsurpassed record of achievement as an innovative leader in oil and gas and energy finance. His contributions extend far beyond the industry to SMU, the Cox School of Business, our students and the Dallas community. As a former partner of Frank Pitts, he exemplifies the qualities and values that are the basis for this award.”
A Dallas native, Miller earned his BBA from SMU in 1972. He was a three-year starter on the Mustang basketball team, which became the Southwest Conference Co-Champion in his senior year. His ability as a leader was recognized early on with the Bobby James Award for leadership, scholarship and basketball achievement. After completing his MBA from SMU in 1973, Miller began his professional career as an energy lender with Republic Bank Dallas, where he ultimately served as vice president and manager of the bank’s wholly owned subsidiary, Republic Energy Finance Corp.
In 1987, he partnered with legendary oilman Frank Pitts in the formation of the PMC Reserve Acquisition Company. In 1988, Miller and three former Republic Bank colleagues co-founded EnCap Investments, L.P., a private equity firm focused on investments in early-stage oil and gas companies. Since its inception, EnCap has raised 18 funds and managed more than $21 billion of capital for some 275 U.S. and foreign institutional investors. According to Private Equity International, EnCap today represents one of the 10 largest private equity firms in the world.
For the past 10 years, Miller has been a member of the National Petroleum Council, an advisory body to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. He serves as a member of the Maguire Energy Institute Advisory Board, and he was recently inducted into the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Hall of Fame. Miller is a member of the SMU Board of Trustees and currently chairs the Executive Board of the SMU Cox School of Business. Both the University and the Cox School have honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus. He will be inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in the spring of 2015. Miller is the current chairman of the Board of Goodwill Industries of Dallas. Numerous other charities benefit from his individual involvement and the support of the Miller Family Foundation.
Miller is the fifth recipient of the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award. The first award was presented in 2010 to Ray L. Hunt, chairman and CEO of Hunt Oil Company and chairman, CEO and president of Hunt Consolidated, Inc. The 2011 recipient was J. Larry Nichols, now retired co-founder and executive chairman of Devon Energy Corporation. Mark Papa, now retired chairman and CEO of EOG Resources, Inc., received the award in 2012. Last year, Scott Sheffield, chairman and CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources Company, was the honoree.
The Maguire Energy Institute, named in honor of oilman and co-founder Cary M. Maguire, just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding. The L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award was created in 2010 to honor the legacy of another Texas oilman, independent oil and natural gas producer L. Frank Pitts, who participated in the drilling of more than 3,000 wells over almost seven decades, and was a business partner and mentor to David Miller. The late oilman, like Miller, served as a member of the Maguire Energy Institute Advisory Board. Pitts’ daughter, Linda Pitts Custard, is a former member of the SMU Board of Trustees and an alumna of SMU Cox, and she serves on the Award Event Committee for the Pitts Energy Leadership Award Luncheon.
The annual event serves as a fundraiser to support the Maguire Energy Institute, as well as its MBA and BBA scholarships for students with degree concentrations in energy. This year’s event yielded more support than any previous year. A portion of the $375,000 raised by the 2014 event will help support the educational goals of Stuart Duenner, who will complete his BBA in May 2016, and William LaFuze, Jr., who will complete his MBA in May 2015.

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Alumni

Bobby B. Lyle ’67 Honored With Folsom Leadership Award

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Alumni

Distinguished Alumni, Emerging Leader And History Makers Honored

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Brian Baumgartner ’95 Shares Laughs And Serious Moments At Meadows

Actor Brian Baumgartner '95 with one of his former professors, Bill Lengfelder, during a conference hour  Q-and-A at Meadows November 14. Baumgartner was back on campus to lead the Homecoming Parade as grand marshal November 15. Prior to the Meadows session, he talked at a student event in Hughes-Trigg.
Actor Brian Baumgartner ’95 with one of his former professors, Bill Lengfelder, during a conference hour Q-and-A at Meadows November 14. Prior to the Meadows session, he talked at a student event in Hughes-Trigg. Baumgartner was back on campus to lead the Homecoming parade November 15. Photo by Kevin Gaddis.

SMU alumnus Brian Baumgartner ’95 – a.k.a. Kevin Malone from the hit series “The Office” – brightened up the cool and cloudy afternoon during his stop at Meadows School of the Arts for a conference hour with students November 14.
> Brian’s Back: Mustang Minute! Video
As expected, Baumgartner brought laughs to Margot Jones Theatre, where he spoke about his journey from SMU to Hollywood. His comedic genius permeated the question-and-answer session with students. They laughed uncontrollably, and even he couldn’t contain himself, cracking up at some of his own lines.
There also were touching moments. Upon seeing one of his former professors, Baumgartner leapt out of his seat with joy and gave Bill Lengfelder a heartfelt hug.
“You are a comedic genius,” Lengfelder said to the actor. “You came in brilliant, and you left brilliant.”
During the hour-long session, Baumgartner revealed that one of his favorite memories involves another famous Meadows alum.
When the Greer Garson Theatre first opened, Meadows invited accomplished alumni back to SMU to join in the celebration. Among those attending  was award-winning actress Kathy Bates ’69. Baumgartner is a huge fan of Bates – “who doesn’t love Bates,” he interjected. His mother secretly contacted the actress, and for Christmas that year, he received an autographed book from Bates. Fifteen years later, when she made special appearances on “The Office,” Baumgartner was able to pull out that autographed book.
“I am getting a little emotional,” he said. “It was a special moment. And she’s Kathy Bates. She’s awesome.”
After graduating from SMU, Baumgartner went on to help found the Hidden Theatre in Minneapolis with fellow SMU graduates. He served as artistic director.
“I couldn’t visualize the path to move to New York, so that’s why I founded the company. Even though it’s horribly cold, Minneapolis was more livable,” he said.
While in business for about five years, the company experimented with putting on original plays and recreating works by comedians such as Steve Martin.
“It’s a lot of work getting a business going,” he said, “and we were relatively successful at what we were doing.”
Baumgartner later performed with several prestigious regional theatres in Minneapolis, including the Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company and Theatre de la Jeune Lune.
After taking a year off to try film and TV, he moved permanently to Los Angeles. Four months later, he landed a role on “The Office.”
“We knew we had something special from the second episode called ‘Diversity Day,’” he said.
But, in the beginning, the audience didn’t share the cast’s enthusiasm. At first, the ratings were terrible, he said. He recalls a moment in Steve Carell’s trailer. He was sitting opposite John Krasinski, and they were bummed about their ratings. “Well, we got to do 12 episodes. That’s pretty cool,” Carell said.
Shortly afterward, the show found its audience and became a hit, running from 2005 until May 2013. Over nine seasons, the show received 42 Emmy nominations and won five awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series.
“The reason for the success of that show was college students watching. There is no doubt in my mind. Young people embraced something new,” he said.
Baumgartner has spent 2014 trying to recreate his identity as an actor. He dabbled in a few TV and film drama roles, and “spent the last year saying ‘no’ to anything that resembles Kevin. You have to constantly reinvent yourself.”
Baumgartner wrapped up the Q-and-A with these words: “Everything is valuable. No path is better or worst. They say take advantage of SMU, and that is 100-percent right. Go out and experience other parts of the University. SMU teaches you there is more. What you are learning here is so important.”
– Leah Johnson ‘15

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Anna Kaydor Labala ’05 Works On the Front Lines Of The Ebola Epidemic

NOTE: This story was published originally by The United Methodist News Service October 17, 2014. Anna Kaydor Labal is an alumna of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology (C.M.M. ’05) and serves as associate pastor of Miller McAllister United Methodist Church in Ganta, Liberia.
By Kathy L. Gilbert
United Methodist News Service

The Rev. Anna Kaydor Labala '05
The Rev. Anna Kaydor Labala ’05

One Sunday morning, a young man called the local radio station in Ganta, Liberia, and threatened to take his Ebola-infected family into the streets because no one would help them.
Ten members of his family had already died and their bodies were still in the home. The rest of the family was under quarantine. Some family members were sick. They had no food or medication.
The people of Miller McAllister United Methodist Church, started by U.S. missionaries in 1926, answered his plea.
“Their situation was so grave that they needed immediate response. This led us to challenge the church to lift a special offering to respond to the needs of several homes that were victimized by the Ebola virus,” said the Rev. Anna Kaydor Labala, associate pastor at Miller McAllister.
In August, the church started sending out a team of three pastors and two lay members to visit homes of people affected by the deadly virus that has killed nearly 4,500 in West Africa.
“We delivered food and non-food supplies to the affected families, interacted and prayed with them. We trusted God for our safety and we ventured out into areas where nobody wanted to go. It was indeed a risk-taking mission as only health workers were allowed to go that close to Ebola victims,” Labala said.
Labala explained that the team wears long-sleeve shirts with jackets and long trousers. They put the food and supplies on the ground and the people pick them up.
“We do not touch anybody. We stand several feet away from the sick people and their family members. We wash our hands each time we interact with a family,” she said.
“I had some fears, but we all believed that God wanted us to feed the people who were isolated and hungry, and to give them hope by our presence. Our presence with them helped to remove the stigma and they saw a sign of hope.”
Since the first visit, the church has helped 15 families, Labala said.
Bishop John G. Innis, episcopal leader of the denomination in Liberia, said the country’s whole economic system has collapsed and he gets hundreds of calls every day asking for help.
“Bishop, we are hungry,” the callers say.
An outreach team from Miller McAllister United Methodist Church, Ganta, Liberia, gather rice, bags of charcoal, buckets with chlorine and soap, drinking water and other supplies for families infected with Ebola. (Photo by Photo by the Rev. Anna Kaydor Labala, UMNS)
An outreach team from Miller McAllister United Methodist Church, Ganta, Liberia, gather rice, bags of charcoal, buckets with chlorine and soap, drinking water and other supplies for families infected with Ebola. (Photo by Photo by the Rev. Anna Kaydor Labala, UMNS)

While Innis is grateful that the U.S. is sending soldiers to help build health-care facilities, he worries that there is going to be “another epidemic” if the problem of hunger is not addressed.
“We want to go well-fed to God,” he said.
Other United Methodist groups, including United Methodist Women and Love Beyond Borders, are now distributing food along with Ebola information and prevention tool like soap and buckets.
Ganta has the second largest population in Liberia and was hit hard by the Ebola viral disease in July. In the months of July and August, more than 100 people died of the virus, Labala said.
People panicked when Ebola was first diagnosed because they were told there was no cure. However, as people started going into treatment centers in Monrovia and recovering, hope has returned.
The economy is still suffering, she said. Schools and markets are closed and no one knows when they will reopen.
Most people in the area are business people who depend on the markets. Many of them went to the Republic of Guinea, a neighboring country, to sell their products and bring goods into Liberia. The first case in the recent Ebola outbreak was in Guinea. After the border was closed, many people went out of business, Labala said.
Traveling around the country has been discouraged so that people will not spread the virus. That also has curtailed business opportunities and increased economic hardship in Ganta.
“The church has been working in the community to give hope to the people. The church meets for prayers every evening. Our members who are health workers provide regular education on how people can prevent themselves from contacting Ebola,” Labala said.
Labala remembers on one of their first visits a man told them, “You have brought us food and water and we appreciate it. Please come again. We will drink this water and it will get finished. And we will have no more water. Nobody wants to sell anything to us so please come back.”
His words inspired the church to do weekly outreach.
“During our second outreach, a lady said that she would come to our church if she survived the crisis. I believe that the prayers and love we showed the victims brought them hope and recovery.”
Labala said a pastor from another faith group recently returned to the church to tell his story.
He had been in a treatment center for three weeks and recovered from Ebola. Church members had visited him and prayed with him before he went for treatment.
“On the day he went home he thanked us for being the first church that had reached out to him to pray for him,” she said.
Since then, two more families have come to the church to offer thanks and report some members of their family have survived and are doing well.
“We will continue to go out every week as we are able,” she said.

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Wrenn Schmidt ’05 Talks Meadows Training And Blessings In Disguise

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Alumni

‘Freestyle’ By SMU Alumnus Michael Waters ’02, ’06, ’12 Wins Two Best Book Awards

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Craig R. McKinley ’74 Named President/CEO Of National Defense Industrial Association

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Alumni

Insight: Textile Designer Megan Adams Brooks ’05

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Alumni

Actor Brian Baumgartner ’95 To Lead Homecoming Parade Saturday

Actor Brian Baumgartner '95 will serve as grand marshal of the 2014 Homecoming parade November 15.
Actor Brian Baumgartner ’95 will serve as grand marshal of the 2014 Homecoming parade November 15.

Well-known for his character “Kevin” on the Emmy-winning television series The Office, actor Brian Baumgartner ’95 is making the trip back to SMU for Homecoming weekend.
> Read The Daily Campus interview
Baumgartner will lead SMU’s Homecoming parade as grand marshal Saturday, Nov. 15, with its theme of “Dynamic Duos” helping to celebrate SMU’s Year of the Faculty. Community members and families are invited to enjoy a parade featuring marching bands, student-designed floats and costumed characters. The new parade route will begin near campus at the intersection of SMU Boulevard and Bush Avenue, travel south on Airline Road, then west on Binkley Avenue and then north onto Bishop Boulevard into campus. The parade time will be announced based on the still-pending game time, which will be determined on Nov. 3.
Baumgartner earned a special cadre of SMU fans during televised SMU men’s basketball games last season: As SMU basketball fans held up giant cutouts of alumnus Baumgartner at games, the funny man began responding on Twitter with quips such as “I’ll be watching until I get there,” and “I want to be in Moody with you.” That dream is coming true for Baumgartner and his fans as the actor plans to be in Moody Stadium for the sold out SMU vs. Lamar men’s basketball game at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14.
Baumgartner continues to make regular appearances on fan-favorite shows, including Hot in Cleveland, Mike & Molly, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU and a recent arc on FX’s critically acclaimed drama, The Bridge. Along with acting, Baumgartner works as the executive producer, creator and host of his production company, 3 Bees Entertainment. The production company has been responsible for three consecutive years of NBC Sports Specials leading up to The American Century Championship.
> See the full schedule of Homecoming events

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Alumni

SMU Connection: Alumni volunteers ‘talk shop’ with students

Joseph E. Ackels ’82 and Kristin Larimore ’89, ’91 will offer inside perspectives on their careers to students participating in the SMU Connection Winter Externship program.

Through SMU Connection, alumni have opportunities to share their career insights with current students.
Through SMU Connection, alumni have opportunities to share their career insights with current students.

They join 290 alumni across the country in providing one-day job-shadowing opportunities to current SMU undergraduates over winter break. The SMU Office of Alumni Engagement collaborates with the University’s Hegi Family Career Development Center and various departments across campus to recruit students and match them with alumni hosts.
Both Ackels and Larimore have volunteered for the “day in the work life” experience before.
Ackels, an attorney with Ackels & Ackels, L.L.P., in Dallas, considers the chance to share his insight a natural extension of what he does on a daily basis – “help people in their search for solutions to life’s challenges.
“Students seeking guidance about their career paths will have many questions, but not much experience. A glimpse at a day in the life of a lawyer will open eyes as to an attorney’s ability to impact lives every day,” explains Ackels, who holds a J.D. from Dedman School of Law.
In sharing his daily routine – “warts and all” – he discovered an unexpected benefit: “Surprisingly, the externship gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own work. I found myself explaining why I chose to give certain advice, or not to do so. It’s just a great opportunity to teach ethics outside of the classroom.”
For Larimore, the role of externship host links to her work as a volunteer campus recruiter, identifying talent for her company’s summer internships.
“The program allows us to introduce GE to first-years and sophomores and start developing relationships with SMU students we might recruit for internships, when they are juniors and seniors,” she explains.
“For the students, it’s a great opportunity to explore their career options and start making professional connections,” she adds, “and for me, it’s another way to give back to my alma matter and keep connected with students.”
Larimore earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from SMU and has been an unwavering supporter of the University through the years. She co-chairs the Class of 1989’s 25-year reunion committee, is a 25-year Mustang football season ticket holder and has served on the Mustang Club board.
She also gives an annual gift to Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences in honor of the late Michael Best, a former dean, psychology chair and professor.
“Dr. Best is the reason for the trajectory of my career, and I’m grateful to him and SMU for literally helping to shape my future,” she says.
That great SMU experience inspires her “to give back to the University any way I can.”
The Winter Externship program is one of myriad platforms for alumni to give their time and expertise in support of the University. As of this month, 464 alumni around the globe – in 25 cities and 24 states, as well as Canada, China, Greece, Japan and Vietnam – have signed up to help recruit and mentor students, participate in career events, and many other activities.
Find out more online about opportunities to serve and lead as Mustang volunteers, or send questions to involved@smu.edu.

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Alumni

News From Meadows: Michelle Merrill ’06, ’12 Named Assistant Conductor Of Detroit Symphony

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Tim Seibles To Receive Prestigious Poetry Award November 11

TimSeibles2
Poet Tim Seibles ’77

Lauded for his bold, thought-provoking writing, SMU alumnus Tim Seibles will receive the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize November 11 at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. Previous winners of the prestigious award include past U.S. Poets Laureate Robert Penn Warren (1971) and Robert Pinksy (2008).
The award recognizes his most recent collection of poetry, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press, 2012). The book earned a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2013 and was a National Book Award for Poetry finalist in 2012.

Tim Seibles’ work is proof: the new American poet can’t just speak one language. In his new book, he fuses our street corners’ quickest wit, our violent vernaculars, and our numerous tongues of longing and love. He records danger. He records the sensual world. And he records a troubled enlightenment, which is a ‘fast animal’ pivoting toward two histories at once.” – National Book Foundation citation

Publisher’s Weekly calls Fast Animal  “crisply comic, disarmingly frank and aurally bold.”
A native of Philadelphia, Seibles earned a bachelor’s degree in English from SMU in 1977 and an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Norwich University. He serves on the faculty of Old Dominion University as an associate professor of English and creative writing and resides in Virginia. He also is a teaching board member of the Muse Writers Workshop and a part-time faculty member of the University of Maine’s Stonecoast M.F.A. in writing program.
In May, he was invited to participate in the Library of Congress’ celebration of poet Countee Cullen’s birthday. One of the most celebrated poets of the Harlem Renaissance era, Cullen died in 1946. Seibles, who has taught Cullen’s work in his classes, read selected poems and discussed the writer’s work at the program.

Seibles, one of America’s foremost African-American poets, has given the world a collection of tight, elegant and honest poems about growing up; themes of innocence, memory, (un)knowing run throughout.” – Undertow Magazine

Other books by Seibles include Body Moves (1988), Hurdy-Gurdy (1992), Hammerlock (1999) and Buffalo Head Solos (2004). His work also has been featured in the anthologies In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry (1994), Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), and Best American Poetry (2010).

Seibles approaches themes of racial tension, class conflict and intimacy from several directions at once in poems with plainspoken yet fast-turning language.” – The Poetry Foundation

The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, named for the late poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for “The Waking,” has been awarded since 1968 to notable poets for a particular collection of poems published in a specific three-year period. The award ceremony is part of the six-day Theodore Roethke Poetry and Arts Festival November 7-12 in Midland, Michigan.
> Read an excerpt from Fast Animal
> Tim Seibles reads “Wound” from Fast Animal

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Alumni

Remembering Civic Leader James H. ‘Blackie’ Holmes III ’57, ’59

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Alumni

Night Vision: SMU Alumnus Stuart Palley Captures The Beauty Of Wildfires

The El Portal Fire burns on a hillside  in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park on the evening of Sunday,  July 27, 2014. The community of El Portal was under a mandatory evacuation. By Tuesday, the blaze had burned nearly 3,000 acres.
The El Portal Fire burns on a hillside in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park on the evening of Sunday, July 27, 2014. The community of El Portal was under a mandatory evacuation. By Tuesday, the blaze had burned nearly 3,000 acres. Photo by Stuart Palley.

On location, there is absolute calm and stillness in the burn area of a wildfire. In May I stood atop a mountain overlooking San Marcos and Escondido in San Diego County, alone and under the moonlight, with the distant roar of flame and fire engine siren lights in the valley below. Smoke hung low over the valley, enveloping the cities in an ashy cocoon as the Cocos Fire smoldered. I set up my tripod and made images as the fire danced vertically into the air, inexorably marching forward, towards more homes.
Stuart Palley
LightBox, TIME magazine, August 8, 2014

Photographer Stuart Palley '11
Photographer Stuart Palley ’11

By day, Stuart Palley ’11 runs his own photography business in Los Angeles, shooting videos and writing. As night falls, with camera in hand, he follows the flames, capturing the fierce beauty of California wildfires. He calls his photo project Terra Flamma, which he roughly translates from Latin as “earth fire.” The young alumnus is becoming famous for his fiery landscapes, which have been published by TIME,  the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets.
Palley became interested in capturing these smoldering images in 2012 and took to Kickstarter in June to launch an online fundraiser that has allowed him to expand the scope of Terra Flamma.
“Covering wildfires is more than just a photo project. It’s about educating the population at large of the growth of wildfire danger and sharing the efforts of wildland firefighters who put their lives on the line. It’s also to show that these fires can be beautiful in a way that only nature could create. Despite their destructive nature, there is a surreal beauty to the fires photographed at night under long exposure,” Palley stated on his Kickstarter website.
He raised more than 260 percent of his original goal, and the project was fully funded in two weeks. “I knew there was interest, but I was totally floored by the support,” he says.
Money came in from a diverse pool of contributors, including a businessman in Canada who donated $1,000 and a retired firefighter from Iowa who gave $8,000. “Funny enough, a Kickstarter employee donated a dollar,” he says.
With the extra funding he is able to travel farther, but the physical preparation for each journey begins at his home base. He works out five or six times a week to be in shape to carry all his gear and build the endurance needed to hike over rough terrain at high altitude. He has trained with the U.S. Forest Service to earn basic wildland fire certification and has studied fire behavior extensively.
Palley realizes his work is dangerous and always puts safety first. “My number-one goal while photographing wildfires is to stay safe and stay out of the way of firefighters and once that is assured, I make photographs,” he says.
To date, he has photographed more than 25 wildfires. Most recently, his pictures were featured on The Washington Post’s In Sight blog September 19.
The Meadow Fire Burns overnight near Half Dome in Yosemite National Park early Monday, September 8, 2014. Photo by Stuart Palley.
The Meadow Fire Burns overnight near Half Dome in Yosemite National Park early Monday, September 8, 2014. Photo by Stuart Palley.

Maybe no one is more surprised about the trajectory of his career than Palley, who admits that he didn’t always envision a career in photography.
He grew up in Southern California, and like so many other students, was drawn to SMU by the beautiful campus and the Dallas scene. In fact, he is the first of three Palley siblings to become Mustangs. His younger brother, Rennick, earned degrees in mechanical engineering and math from SMU in 2013, and sister Lauren ’15 is a senior in the Cox School of Business. His parents, Roger B. and Marion Palley, serve as co-chairs of the Campaign Steering Committee for Los Angeles and support The Roger B. and Marion Palley Family Internship Endowment Fund. Through SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center, the Palley Family Fund provides grants to SMU students participating in domestic or international internships.
While photography was not his primary focus at SMU – he majored in history and finance – it was his minor, along with human rights. As a student he was associate editor of The Daily Campus and did some shooting for the Texas Tribune.
Palley uncovered his passion by first discovering what he wasn’t passionate about. After completing a finance internship, he realized photography was his future. That decision was reinforced when he took a course from Debora Hunter at SMU-in-Taos. Hunter, an associate professor of photography in Meadows School of the Arts, has been capturing images of the cultural landscape in and around Taos for more than a decade.
At SMU-in-Taos, Palley found environmental photography and calls Hunter a “great mentor.”
The French Fire burns in the Sierra National Forest  in August 2014.
The French Fire burns in the Sierra National Forest in August 2014. Photo by Stuart Palley.

Still, he has no regrets about his academic path. “Even though I switched to photography, my finance and history background have been instrumental in helping me get to where I am. If I went back and did it again, I wouldn’t change much,” Palley says. “I might have taken a few more accounting classes.”
After graduating from SMU, he earned a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri before returning to Southern California.
His complete Terra Flamma photo essay documenting the 2014 California wildfires will be displayed online, and he plans to publish a limited-edition book to give to some of his Kickstarter supporters, based on sponsorship levels.
Beyond his current project, Palley sees his future as a combination of commercial work and the environmental photography he loves. “I just want to continue on this path and expand what I am doing.”
– Leah Johnson ’15
Stuart Palley, ready for another night of shooting California wildfires.
Stuart Palley, ready for another night of shooting California wildfires.

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Alumni

Tune In: SMU Alumni Among Fall TV’s Up-and-Coming New Stars

EXCERPT: Virginia Kull ’04 and Candice Patton ’07, who earned bachelor’s degrees  in theatre at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, are featured in two new television shows this fall. Kull can be seen in Fox’s Gracepoint, beginning October 2, while Patton appears in The CW’s The Flash, beginning October 7. Their stories appeared in The Dallas Morning News September 19, 2014:

Dallas-area stars shine in fall TV offerings

Virginia Kull '07 in Gracepoint. Photo by Mathieu Young/Fox
Virginia Kull ’04 in Gracepoint. Photo by Mathieu Young/Fox

By David Martindale
The Dallas Morning News
Special Contributor
Dallas-area actors are making their presence felt this fall in new TV series. There must be something in the water. Meet a half-dozen of the new season’s up-and-coming stars.
Virginia Kull
Virginia Kull, a Southern Methodist University graduate and Dallas Shakespeare Festival veteran, has spent most of the past decade working on the New York stage. The Austin native is eager for friends and family all over Texas to see her performance in Fox’s Gracepoint, a dark 10-episode crime drama premiering at 8 p.m. Oct. 2. “I’m really proud of it,” says Kull, who plays the grief-stricken mother of a murdered boy. “For those who can’t come to New York to see me in a play, now they can just turn on the TV to confirm that I’m really a working actor!” Kull felt an instant connection to the role of Beth Solano. “When I read the pilot script, I could not put it down,” she says. “The words felt like they fit in my mouth. I understood who this woman was, and I thought, ‘Whoever gets to do this will be so incredibly lucky.’ Then it turned out to be me.”

Candice Patton '07 in The Flash. Photo by Jack Rowand/The CW
Candice Patton ’07 in The Flash. Photo by Jack Rowand/The CW

Candice Patton
Candice Patton, who grew up in Plano and graduated from SMU, has one minor beef with her role as Iris West in The Flash, which premieres at 7 p.m. Oct. 7, on The CW. She envies leading man Grant Gustin, who’s having a blast playing the lightning-fast superhero. “I tell my producers all the time,” Patton says. “If they ever want to strap me in leather and give me a superpower, I’m all for it. But I don’t know if we have any plans for that.” Otherwise, she’s having the time of her life as the girl Barry Allen (The Flash) is pining for. “Iris is such a beloved comic book ingénue,” she says. “Beyond that, she’s incredibly brave and strong and smart.” Patton says you don’t have to be a comic-book fan to enjoy the show. “It’s exciting, there’s a lot of action and a lot of heart,” she says.

> Read the full story
> Virginia Kull describes Beth Solano, her Gracepoint character
> Candice Patton talks about Iris, the love interest on The Flash

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Alumni

Alumni educators invited to reconnect at Simmons School open house Oct. 10

Established less than a decade ago, the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development opens a new chapter in its history with the groundbreaking for the Harold Clark Simmons Hall September 12. As its campus footprint expands, the Simmons School invites SMU alumni who may not have graduated through the school but have an affinity for its programs to a “Welcome Back” reception and open house from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, October 10, at Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall.

SMU alumni educators are invited to a Welcome Back open house at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development October 10 to learn about the school's wide-ranging programs and research.
SMU alumni educators are invited to a “Welcome Back” reception and open house at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development October 10 to learn about the school’s wide-ranging programs and research.

“This is an opportunity for SMU alumni who are active professionally, have moved on to new careers, or perhaps have retired, to learn what we’re doing in Simmons and reconnect with classmates,” explains David J. Chard, Leon Simmons Endowed Dean of the Simmons School.
Expect a spirited, fair-like atmosphere, with information stations, tours, demonstrations and interactive presentations by faculty and students showcasing Simmons’ wide-ranging and interrelated programs in teaching and learning, education policy and leadership, applied physiology and wellness, sport management, dispute resolution and counseling and liberal studies.
Much has changed since many alumni were in the classroom, especially in regard to research. “Today we study learning and teaching as much as we prepare teachers. We’re now better informed about which children need what kind of supports and when,” Chard says. “We’re also trying to impact communities differently. Alumni who did work in West Dallas decades ago will be interested in our research to understand the roles of a wide range of variables, such as nutrition and mentoring, on child development.”
Alumni also will hear about professional development, personal enrichment and volunteer opportunities.
The education of educators has been part of the University’s mission since its early years, a commitment reaffirmed by the teacher training and related concentrations lacked a nexus until the school’s creation in 2005. The Simmons outreach event is aimed at alumni such as Gigi Poglitsch ’69, ’72, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications disorders (speech pathology) from SMU. When the University discontinued the program, Poglitsch admits to feeling a bit adrift until she found a new home at Simmons.
“Having worked with autistic children for many years, I’ve been involved with public school districts and university faculty around the country,” she says. “The Simmons School’s research and programs are not only having a positive local impact but also are leading the way to improvements on a national and even an international scale. It’s an exciting time to be part of this vibrant community.”
Poglitsch serves on the event steering committee with Carol Seay ’66, ’71, Gerry Hudnall ’71 and Bobbie Sue Williams.
Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall, the hub of the Simmons School of Education, opened in September 2010. Alumni will have a chance to tour the building at the open house October 10.
Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall, the hub of the Simmons School of Education, opened in September 2010.

Seay earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in history from SMU. A former teacher and administrator in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), she applauds Simmons’ “hands-on training to equip teachers to help students succeed.”
“When I was teaching, we basically had to figure it out for ourselves,” she recalls. “SMU uses research to pinpoint key skills and tools teachers and administrators need to be effective so that students are prepared when they graduate. I’ve really enjoyed being part of the future of education through Simmons.”
With a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in political science, Hudnall taught history and government at DISD’s Hillcrest High School before her children were born. Afterward, she was a substitute teacher for 12 years. Like others on the steering committee, Hudnall believes “education is critical in the future of our country, and I am very impressed by the Simmons School’s creative approach in training future teachers.”
Williams, a Mustang by marriage to neurosurgeon Phil Williams ’59 and a former elementary school teacher, jumped at the chance to connect with the Simmons School, where her interests in education and science merge. “It’s amazing to see how far the school has come in such a short time, not just the strides they have made in education programs, but also in the areas of human development,” she says. “You have to talk to the faculty and students, visit the classrooms and really experience it all for yourself before you really understand the impact Simmons has.”
For more information about the Simmons School’s “Welcome Back” reception and open house for SMU alumni, contact Patti Addington, director of development, paddington@smu.edu or 214-768-4844.

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SMU Alumnus Kevin Lavelle ’08 Named Men’s Fitness Game Changer

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SMU Alumnus Ross Williams ’96 Directs ‘New York’s Hottest Young Theatre Company’

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Six Meadows Theatre Alumni Win DFW Theater Critics Forum Awards

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SMU Alumni Entrepreneurs Unwrap Their CauseCakes Movement Sept. 5

As an SMU junior, Daniel Poku enlisted friends Paul Curry, Marc Feldman, Tyler Hayes, Stephen Nelson, Tyler Scott and Kyle Spencer to start CauseCakes, a cupcake business with a philanthropic twist. They raised funds through a social media blitz, earned their University degrees in 2014 and are “unwrapping the movement” September 5.

An important aspect of the movement is the sharing photos and other expressions of the CauseCakes experience via social media.
An important aspect of the movement is the sharing of photos and other expressions of the CauseCakes experience via social media.

Inspired by fortune cookies, Poku came up with the idea to print suggestions of random acts of kindness – for example, “Pay the bill of the person behind you the next time you’re in Starbucks” – on cupcake wrappers. CauseCakes are now sold at The Original Cupcakery in Dallas’s Uptown neighborhood.
CauseCakes is active on Facebook,  Twitter and on Instagram (@CauseCakesTeam), and customers are encouraged to share their CauseCakes experiences on social media. More information also is available online at www.UnwrapTheMovement.com.
SMU Magazine writer Leah Johnson ’15, who is majoring in journalism at Meadows School of the Arts, has covered the CauseCakes story from its beginning as a reporter for The Daily Campus, SMU’s student newspaper, and other media. Here, she catches up with the young alumni as they take their idea to the public:
Are all the members of the CauseCakes team still participating?
POKU: Except for Stephen Nelson, all members are participating in the same roles. There is one addition, Lauren Packer, who handles advertising.
What is new? New websites? New strategies? New flavors ? New wrappers?
EVERYTHING IS NEW! We have been working hard to develop a better looking and functioning website; that has been our biggest challenge. We also have rebranded and developed our wrappers to embrace Dallas, so you will see the city skyline now decorating our wrappers.
How does your collaboration with The Original Cupcakery work?
We negotiated a partnership with the bakery that gives us a portion of cupcake sales. We plan to reinvest in CauseCakes initially.We hope to quickly get to a point where we can begin to partner with charities and/or perhaps use the profit to fund acts of kindness that the CauseCakes team wants to pursue.
What did you learn from the process of starting CauseCakes?
When you have a crazy or innovative idea that you think might have promise, run with it and see it through to the end. Every roadblock or challenge, though  frustrating, could not stop us because we had this very powerful resolve: We have nothing to lose, only something to offer.
I think there were times when we had to evaluate whether or not CauseCakes was worth our time as it pushed up against other demands. It was beautiful to see us come to the conclusion that the opportunity to create something that can spur someone to do something incredible for another person is priceless.
We also learned a great deal about social media and leading and following one another.
Switching gears, let’s talk about your time at SMU. What organizations were you involved in?
At SMU, most of us found each other through Mustang Heroes, the community service organization. A few of us were involved in Greek life.
How did you balance academics and extracurricular activities with trying to start CauseCakes?
It was incredibly difficult to balance all of life and school’s demands to launch something like CauseCakes. It was time-consuming to do the research regarding the cupcake wrappers and the feasibility of putting messages inside the wrappers. Raising funds was an incredibly strategic and time-consuming activity. Much of our time was devoted to hundreds of meetings that we tried to fit into our busy schedules; sometimes these meetings were physical meetings, but they were often virtual, especially during breaks at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
How has SMU helped all of you get to where you are in life? And with CauseCakes?
SMU allowed each of us to be introduced to someone with a different life background and academic background. We were able to partner and use our synergies in business, advertising/marketing, design, vision sharing and grassroots organizing to create something like this. Without being able to learn from one another and shape each others’ ideas, a concept like CauseCakes might never have come about in the form it is now. 
What are some of your favorite memories at SMU?
CURRY: To be completely honest, one of my favorite memories of SMU was CauseCakes. We all put so much time and dedication into something over the years, something that we believed in. It was rewarding. The culture of SMU had a big part to play in it, seeing professors and other students accomplish so much really made us realize that we could, too.
As for classes, anything that I had with Dev Gupta. He teaches all of the creative portfolio classes in advertising and does it in a way that really focuses on making cool stuff and learning along the way. Needless to say, that was the way we approached CauseCakes and how I try to approach everything.

SCOTT: Attending the George W. Bush Center dedication with all five living presidents in attendance will always be one of the most special memories of my entire life. Susan Holland of the SMU Sport Management Program (APSM) was by far my favorite professor.
HAYES: I would have to say my favorite class at SMU was Project Management with Karin Quiñones. Joan Arbery taught first-year Rhetoric II and that class helped develop and change my way of thinking.
POKU: My favorite class was Organizations and Their Environment with Professor Matthew Keller. This class armed me with valuable frameworks I use to critically analyze organizations and groups I work each day, including my team.
FELDMAN: I really enjoyed Mustang Corral both as an incoming freshman and later as a leader. I also enjoyed watching the men’s basketball team climb their way into the Associated Press Top 25. That 3-point shot Nic Moore hit in the last seconds to beat the California Bears in the National Invitation Tournament was one of the happiest moments in my life! 
SPENCER: My favorite memory at SMU had to be my sophomore year when I went to Altus, Arkansas, with Alternative Breaks. My experience in Arkansas was life-changing as I realized that I wanted to devote my life to helping others. Also, this trip was the beginning of my friendship with Daniel Poku as we spent time discussing how we can better help the people of Dallas. Soon afterward, the idea of CauseCakes came about, and the rest is history.
There are classes that I enjoyed and learned more from than others due to the incredible gift for teaching that the professor had. Among them were Ellen Allen, Thomas Osang, Patricia Kriska, Pamela Van Dyke, Karin D. Quiñones, William Nanry and the late Robert Van Kemper, just to name a few.
What advice would you give to other SMU students/ young professionals wanting to start their own business?
POKU: Figure out what it is you want to offer to someone, whether that is a service or a product. Starting a business is something that always has a level of risk, but the entrepreneurs who push and put the effort to start it are the ones who truly believe they have something important to offer.
 Last words?
Come buy cupcakes! We promise they’re good.
 

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SMU Alumni Amber Venz Box ’08 And Baxter Box ’11 And The Rewards Of Style

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Fekri Hassan ’71, ’73 Lecture Launches Anthropology’s Golden Jubilee Sept. 6

Geoarchaeologist Fekri Hassan ’71, ’73, whose research brings an archaeological perspective to the contemporary challenges of global climate change and food security, has been named the 2014 Wendorf Distinguished Scholar by the Department of Anthropology in SMU’s Dedman College.

Lectures by SMU alumnus Fekri Hassan '71, '73 will launch the Department of Anthropology's Golden Jubilee celebration this weekend.
SMU alumnus Fekri Hassan ’71, ’73 is a renowned expert on the origins of Egyptian civilization and brings an archaeological perspective to contemporary issues related to climate change, water access and food security.

Professor Ron Wetherington says that Hassan was the unanimous choice as this year’s speaker in the prestigious series named for Fred Wendorf, Professor Emeritus and Henderson-Morrison Chair in Anthropology. Wendorf and Wetherington co-founded SMU’s Department of Anthropology in 1964, and the lecture will launch the department’s Golden Jubilee. The series or programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of the introduction of anthropology to the University’s curriculum will continue through summer 2015.
“This is a special year, and we wanted a graduate of the program who has international name recognition and is still active in the field,” Wetherington explains. “Fekri was one of Professor Wendorf’s first graduate students and participated in his Nile Valley project. His credentials since then have been very impressive.”
Hassan, an expert on cultural heritage management and the origins of Egyptian civilization, will travel from Egypt for the honor. He will speak on different aspects of his scholarship at three programs this week:

  • Thursday, September 4 at noon
    On “Think,” KERA Radio’s in-depth interview show, Hassan will talk about how the need for water has shaped civilizations throughout history.
  • Friday, September 5 at 5 p.m., Dedman Life Sciences Building Room 131
    This lecture targeted at students, faculty and other members of the SMU community will include a brief question-and-answer session.
  • Saturday, September 6, at 5:30 p.m., the Martha Proctor Mack Ballroom in Umphrey Lee
    “Living on Edge: Origins and Spread of Food Production in the Near East and North Africa” will be the topic of the Wendorf Lecture. The Golden Jubilee event is free and open to the public. Business attire is recommended.

In an email to Wetherington, Hassan called the honor “a wonderful surprise” and reflected on the “profound” impact of his time at SMU:

I cherish those formative years when you all contributed to opening up the magic box of anthropology with all its dazzling colors, hues, and temptations in front of my eyes. It was a life-changing experience, not just on a professional level, but on a profound human level, and I am indebted to you and those who showed a special caring for me during these early days.”

>See the Golden Jubilee schedule of events
Hassan earned an M.A. (1971) and Ph.D. (1973) in anthropology from SMU. He also received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.
Now the director of the Cultural Heritage Management Program, French University, Cairo, Hassan is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London. In addition, he is president of Heritage Egypt, honorary president of the Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organization and a former adviser to Egypt’s Ministry of Culture.
A widely published author, he is a contributing editor for The Review of Archeology, a former editor of The African Archaeological Review and serves on a host of journal editorial boards.
Hassan’s research brings the future into focus by examining the past. In one of  his most well-known works,  Droughts, Food and Culture (Springer Science+Business Media, 2002; reprinted, 2013), for which he was editor and a contributor, more than 10,000 years of African history provide a framework for “interpreting cultural change and assessing long-term response to current climatic fluctuations.
“Recent droughts in Africa and elsewhere in the world, from China to Peru, have serious implications for food security and grave consequences for local and international politics. The issues do not just concern the plight of African peoples, but also our global ecological future,” he writes. “This work aims to bring archaeology within the domain of contemporary human affairs and to forge a new methodology for coping with environmental problems from an archaeological perspective.”
More information about the Wendorf Lecture Series and the Golden Jubilee is available on the Department of Anthropology’s website.

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Friday Night Stampede Sept. 19: Block Party, Pep Rally, Band Concert

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NOLA Alumni Celebrate SMU With Send-off Party For Students

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SMU Alumna Kathy Bates ’69 Wins Second Emmy

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SMU Alumni Taking Theatre Company To The Next Level At The Wyly

The Elevator Project, a collaboration initiated by the AT&T Performing Arts Center (ATTPAC) to bring local productions to the smaller performance spaces of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, has been called a game changer for Dallas-area arts groups. Upstart Productions, a company with several SMU alumni ties, will launch the six-play series with its staging of “Year of the Rooster” August 22-September 6.

David Denson '07, artistic director of Upstart Productions
David Denson ’07, artistic director of Upstart Productions

For David Denson ’07, Upstart’s artistic director, using the Wyly’s black box theater has a déjà vu feel. During his three years as a student in the M.F.A. program at SMU, Denson directed student productions at Meadows School of the Arts, including in the Margo Jones Theatre, a black box in which the stage and seating can be arranged in multiple configurations.
“The black box allows us to manipulate the space in more creative ways, and the actors to have a more direct and intimate relationship with the audiences,” says Denson, who also is a programmer at ATTPAC.
Under the leadership of Denson and fellow SMU alumni David Miller ’00, president of the board, and Aaron Page  ’10, head of the marketing committee, Upstart Productions has spent the last year becoming reacquainted with audiences following a dormant period. It will be the first company to produce “Year of the Rooster,” a play about cockfighting by Eric Dufault, since its New York premiere in fall 2013. Writing in The New York Times, critic Neil Genzlinger called the play “astonishingly entertaining.”
Denson describes it as “a classic hero story about a man who overcomes significant obstacles to find success.” The playwright is looking at “aspects of society that are ugly, uncomfortable or unsavory but in a way that we also experience empathy toward people we’re inclined not to be sympathetic toward,” he adds. One of the most intriguing facets of the drama is that no live animals are used; all roosters are played by actors.
Other SMU alumni involved in the production are Korey Kent ’03, producer; Christopher Ham ’05, scenic and lighting design; and Christina Cook ’05, costume design.
Joey Folsom (left) portrays prize rooster Odysseus Rex in Upstart Productions' "Year of the Rooster."
Joey Folsom (left) portrays prize rooster Odysseus Rex in Upstart Productions’ “Year of the Rooster.”

ATTPAC’s Elevator Project provides a high-profile, state-of-the-art venue for small companies in a city with a dearth of affordable performance spaces. Such scarcity was something unfamiliar to Denson, who moved to New York City after he earned his B.F.A. in performance from East Carolina University. Although he tried acting for a while, he found that directing suited his interests better. And there never was a lack of theaters off- and off-off Broadway.
“People go there from college, and if they don’t get hired right away, they gather their friends and put on a show themselves,” he says. “Many actors are part of founding small companies that last a production or two before they fall apart.”
While in New York, Denson served as artistic director of Yazoo City Productions and The Anomalous Collective, directing productions of Kate Chell’s “The Resurrectionist,” Jeff Hirsch’s “Destination and A Private Conversation,” Foster Soloman’s “The Penny Executive: The Maggie L. Walker Story” and Harold Levitt’s “The Song of the Speechless Whore.”
But after 10 years he felt he had hit a glass ceiling with directing and wanted to expand his repertoire through graduate school. At SMU he studied under Greg Leaming and Stan Wojewodski, Jr., Distinguished Professor and chair of the Division of Theatre. “I lucked out and got two great mentors in the process. I had a lot of one-on-one time with Stan, which meant we were able to break down every aspect of directing the plays and analyze them in a way few people have the opportunity to do.”
At SMU Denson directed several productions, including “The Underpants,” “The Good Person of Szechwan” and “Hamlet.”
After SMU he served as artistic associate and resident dramaturg at the Dallas Theater Center’s 2007-08 season, briefly returned to New York, and then moved back to Dallas. He spent two years promoting the arts in Dallas with the Office of Cultural Affairs where he led the campaign to bring the 2013 Theater Communications Group National Conference to Dallas.
Following Upstart Production’s “Year of the Rooster,” The Elevator Project series will continue through summer 2015 with five plays presented by other local companies. Individual tickets are $20 or subscribe to all six plays for $100. Ticket information is available here.
– Susan White ’05

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Save The Date: Young Alumni Fry The Frogs Kickoff September 10

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Peruna’s Pals Launches New Season September 6

PalsLogoPeruna’s Pals, the official kids club of SMU Athletics, will kick off its 2014-2015 season with a family-focused event Saturday, September 6, at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum. SMU alumni, as well as all Mustang fans, are invited to bring their youngsters for a fun-filled night at the SMU vs. Oklahoma volleyball match.
Peruna’s Pals is open to children ages 12 and younger. The 2014-2015 membership, which is valid through July 31, 2015, costs $20 per child and $15 for each additional child in the same family.
Current members and those who join at the launch event will receive a free Peruna’s Pals t-shirt, backpack and membership card.
Other members-only benefits include:

    • Free admission to volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer and women’s basketball regular season games*
    • Discounted tickets to select football games*
    • Monthly email newsletter
    • Birthday card from Peruna

* Tickets subject to availability.

Tome Jiede '94, '00 and Valerie Chauvin Jiede '96 with their Peruna's Pals, Elizabeth and Henry.
Tom Jiede ’94, ’00 and Valerie Chauvin Jiede ’96 with their Peruna’s Pals, Elizabeth and Henry,

SMU alumni Tom Jiede ’94, ’00 and wife Valerie Chauvin Jiede ’96 say their entire family has gained from the Peruna Pal’s experience. The Jiedes are members of the Mustang Club and hold season tickets to football and men’s basketball games and try to make it to some soccer matches. Showing Pony pride with them at every event are their children, Elizabeth Rose, 8, and Henry Joseph, 6, members of Peruna’s Pals.
Elizabeth performs with the Mini Mustangs, the cheer squad of 5- to 10-year-olds coached by the SMU Pom Squad, and was thrilled when she was named the Peruna’s Pal of the Game at a basketball game last season. So far, Henry’s favorite membership perk has been the birthday card from Peruna.
“We thought it would be fun to engage the kids more in SMU activities and support the programs on campus that involve families,” Valerie says. “It has turned out to be a great opportunity to meet other families and young fans while showing our support for SMU student-athletes.”
Find out more about Peruna’s Pals and register online

Peruna’s Pals: Young Fans Are All Smiles With SMU’s Favorite Pony

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Will Wallace ’89 Follows His Heart To Hollywood

Almost two decades ago, SMU alumnus Will Wallace’s career took a sharp turn from practicing law to making movies. After landing a one-line role in a major motion picture, the attorney was hooked on acting. Today Wallace, a 1989 graduate of SMU, is a Hollywood veteran, with more than 50 films and television programs to his credit.

Will Wallace '89 (left) with actors Glen Powell (center) and Bill Paxton on the set of Red Wing.
Will Wallace ’89 (left) with actors Glen Powell (center) and Bill Paxton on the set of Red Wing.

His most recent release is the movie Red Wing. He produced and directed the love story adapted from the French novella François le Champi by Georges Sand. Transported to present-day, small-town Texas, Red Wing follows the journey of a troubled boy into manhood. It stars a host of well-known actors, including Luke Perry, Bill Paxton and Frances Fisher. Wallace also has an on-screen role.
Red Wing is a new take on a love story with a twist to boot,” he says.
While filming near Dallas, he welcomed several Mustang visitors: “My old friend Dave Blewett ’89, stopped by, and Joel Pechauer, an ’88 grad, came to the set. His young daughter, Porter, makes an appearance in the film.”
Red Wing has been released by Warner Bros. Digital and is currently available “On Demand” in more than 100 million homes through most major cable and satellite providers, including Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, AT&T Uverse and Verizon. It also can be streamed or downloaded through multiple sources, including Amazon, Google Play, Hulu and iTunes.
Wallace is now working on a new movie with a timely theme, human trafficking. It is also set in Texas.
In addition to his work on films, he is an acting teacher. He and wife Sara, a casting director, operate the Will Wallace Acting Company in Los Angeles. They provide training for actors at all levels in areas such as improvisation and on-camera technique.
“Almost all Red Wing cast members are acting students of mine,” he says. “It is fun to be part of their journey.”
Fellow Mustang Dave Blewett '89 (right) visited Will Wallace '89 on the Red Wing set.
Fellow Mustang Dave Blewett ’89 (right) visited Will Wallace ’89 on the Red Wing set.

Surprisingly, Wallace was not interested in acting while a University student. “I really enjoyed math, and here I am an artist,” Wallace jokes.
At SMU, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, his favorite classes were all math-based, including accounting and statistics. He served as president of Alpha Kappa Psi and received a B.B.A. in the Cox School of Business.
He went on to earn a J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law and an LL.M. from the University of the Pacific.
In the late 1990s, while practicing law in Spain, the urge to make a change hit.
“I was in Barcelona, sitting at my office desk, wondering why I was doing something I didn’t enjoy,” he recalls. “I decided to take a job with a firm in Dallas and just take a stab at acting. I was able to convince an agency to represent me, and they were able to get me an audition for a small part in the sequel to Terms of Endearment called The Evening Star. It was only one line, acting opposite Shirley MacLaine, but I got the part and was hooked.”
Fast-forward to the present day, and the father of four young sons boasts an impressive film résumé that includes 25 producing and nine directing credits.
Wallace says his SMU education was “immensely helpful” while carving out a successful career in a competitive industry.
“Having a business background helps with owning an acting school in Hollywood,” he says. “SMU also prepared me for law school and graduate law which, in turn, now proves incredibly helpful for contract work as a film producer and director.”
He offers this advice to SMU students: “It might sound cliché, but follow your heart. I was late in my career when I chose to truly follow my heart.”
– By Leah Johnson ’15

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Brooks McCorcle ’82: Catching Up With A Fast-moving Innovator

AT&T executive Brooks McCorcle ’82 specializes in “breaking glass,” and in the spring, she invited a group from SMU to join her.
“‘Breaking glass’ is looking at new and different ways to do things,” says McCorcle, president of Emerging Business Markets, a startup within AT&T that is responsible for identifying and rapidly launching innovative solutions to drive value and growth in AT&T Business Solutions.

BrooksMcCorcle
Brooks McCorcle ’82

Approximately 30 students and several members of the SMU leadership team and alumni joined McCorcle for a “Hack-a-Pitch” and “Barnstorm”– sobriquets that capture the lightning pace and freewheeling spirit of the brainstorming event.
Emerging Business Markets, co-located at the AT&T Foundry® innovation center, in Plano served as the setting for the collaborative exercise centered on finding new opportunities for the company to work with SMU to improve and enhance the campus experience. The group first broke into small teams to exchange ideas and formulate proposals. They later regrouped for a pitch session.
“We set up a little bit of framework, then let them go after it,” McCorcle explains. “I was really impressed by the students’ creativity and their poise and confidence when they presented their ideas to the group.”
>See video of SMU students participating in the Hack-a-Pitch learning experience
As a result, AT&T prepared a proposal of 30 ideas generated from the session that were shared with SMU leadership. They touch on many aspects of student life including the application process, on-campus living and job recruitment.
McCorcle recently followed up with University leaders to discuss possible next steps, including potential app development.
The unbounded intellectual workout that McCorcle facilitated is the type of activity she would have relished as an SMU student. She earned a B.B.A. in the Cox School of Business and explored other interests through minors in economics and women’s studies in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
While she enjoyed “great relationships with many of my professors,” McCorcle says Ann Early stands out in her memory. Early taught for many years and was instrumental in introducing the study of women to the SMU curriculum in the 1960s. She directed SMU’s Women’s Studies Program when McCorcle was a student. Today, the Ann Early Award is given each year to a Women’s and Gender Studies minor in recognition of academic achievement in the minor and service to the program.
“She was not only brilliant, thoughtful and courageous as she forged new ground in academia, but she was an incredibly authentic person,” McCorcle says. “She pushed you to your limits and truly wanted to know and understand your point of view. From her I learned how to articulate your viewpoint as a headline supported by proof points. I still do that today.
“She made a huge impact on me, showing me what the possibilities for women were. I have modeled many of my leadership characteristics on her,” she adds. “I try to be as authentic and inspiring as she was, to welcome a diversity of views, to be an advocate. And, I invite my team to my home. I learned that from her. She invited her students to her home, and it was such a meaningful way to show that she cared about us as people. It really forged a relationship of trust.”
McCorcle honed leadership skills through various roles with student organizations. A member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, she served as Panhellenic rush chair. As a member of the Program Council, she welcomed such luminaries as actor Vincent Price to the Hilltop. She also participated on the student judiciary committee.
For her contributions to the SMU community, she received the “M” Award, the University’s highest commendation for students, faculty, staff and administrators.
McCorcle went on to earn an M.B.A. from the Olin Business School at Washington University.
Over her 24-year tenure with AT&T and its predecessor companies, she has held positions in Mergers & Acquisitions and Finance, and executive positions in Consumer Marketing, Customer Care and Sales.
She has earned numerous professional awards. In 2012, she was listed among the “Top 30 Women in Finance” by Treasury & Risk magazine and was named the “#1 Investor Relations Professional in the Telecom Industry” by Institutional Investor magazine for 2011. The Dallas Business Journal recently honored her in the 2014 “Women in Business” awards program that recognizes outstanding local women business leaders who not only are making a difference in their industries, but also in their communities.
For her work in the community with Friends of the Dallas Public Library and other organizations, she received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
While discussing her accomplishments, McCorcle circles back to SMU.
“SMU does a great job of preparing you to succeed out of the gate,” she says. “You leave with the academic foundation and confidence you need to be successful in your first job. And the valuable lessons you take with you and apply immediately are those you will use and refine over the course of your career.”
– Patricia Ward
 
 

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Wendi Leggitt ’07 On Creativity, Hard Work And ‘Aha!’ Moments

By Mary Guthrie and Victoria Winkelman
SMU Meadows School of the Arts

SMU alumna Wendi Leggitt ’07 serves as the director of DKC Connect, the digital division of DKC, one of the nation’s top 10 independent public relations firms with seven offices coast to coast. As leader of the digital practice, Leggit oversees the development of online strategies and social media campaigns for some of the nation’s most recognizable brands including New Balance, Bazooka Candy Brands and Paradisus Resorts, a subsidiary of Meliá Hotels International. Under her leadership, digital revenue increased by over 128 percent and the division’s client roster has grown to include work with brands such as QVC, Match.com, The Plaza Hotel and filmmaker Ken Burns. DKC’s digital campaigns have been featured in prominent media outlets and trade publications such as Fast Company, PR News, The Holmes Report, ABC News, USA Today and The New York Times.
Wendi-Leggitt-photo
Earlier this year Leggitt, who earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising at the Temerlin Advertising Institute in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business 1000, which features an “influential, diverse group” of business leaders behind “ideas that are moving business in new directions today.” In addition, Leggitt was one of 15 people across the country selected as a founding member of the Clinton Foundation’s Millennium Network Leadership Council, established to develop and mentor the next generation of leaders.
Leggitt recently took time out of her busy schedule to talk about her career and the impact of her SMU education.
What made you decide to major in advertising?
Growing up, I loved art and everything related to it – creating it, observing it, discovering it – and I pursued painting and other artistic hobbies inside and outside of the classroom. Prior to college, I became more interested in advertising as a visual medium, and as I saw it, advertising was art. The idea of bridging the visual aspects of advertising with creative storytelling through copy, humor, and nuances really appealed to me, so in my search for colleges I paid particular attention to those with attractive advertising programs. That brought me to SMU and Temerlin Advertising Institute – one of the most respected and innovative institutional advertising programs across the country. I remember in one of my first advertising classes, taught by former Professor Bill Ford, we analyzed award-winning television commercials from around the world, and I was entranced. I knew I was in the right place.

A defining moment from my time at SMU was creating taglines for one of my advertising classes. I was approaching a project deadline and felt that I didn’t have the idea that was my “light bulb moment,” so I spent all night writing tags, searching for words on thesaurus.com (which I still find helpful for inspiration), and staring at my computer screen. As an ad student I spent many all-nighters trying to come up with ideas, copy and clever advertising executions, and wouldn’t stop until I felt I had done my best. Although it was grueling, I think it established a good benchmark for my work and the time investment I was willing to make to do my best. Entering the workforce in New York following graduation required a lot of grit, so the “real world” late nights at the office didn’t seem as bad as they may have otherwise.

Were there any professors who made a lasting impact on you? If so, can you describe that for us?
Professors Bill Ford and Bill Galyean had a tremendous impact on me while I was studying at Temerlin. First and foremost, they were encouraging and supportive, and they invested a great deal of time and care into each of their students. I remember feeling special and empowered while taking their classes, but looking back, I’m sure most students felt that way. They also loved the field of advertising and that came through in their classes and teachings, which was inspiring to young dreamers like me. Their wisdom and support extended well beyond class, however, and I think it was through them that I recognized creativity doesn’t have to be limited to one career path or one area of work, but rather it’s the magic and energy behind the creative thinking process where one finds fulfillment, which can apply to anything in life.
What were the most important skills you learned at Temerlin that have helped you in your career?
Temerlin helped me develop the ability to think strategically, which shapes approaches to business endeavors and even situations outside of my work-life. The creative thinking exercises practiced in advertising classes provided valuable skills that altered my thought process, allowing me to tap into new ideas and explore the possibilities of paths less traveled for clients. For example, the word association exercises and use of images that represent a target audience or company to define messaging and branding are tools that have been beneficial as part of the creative thinking process. The symbolism in the endless possibilities behind creative thinking is very compelling.
Tenacity was another skill I acquired as a Temerlin student. When you work in a creative field, there are many possibilities for an outcome and you often have less real estate to communicate a message (i.e. a tagline, tweet, online ad, or 30-second video), so it can be challenging coming up with the right approach that sticks. This means you have to try and try again. It also has helped with going out and grabbing opportunities proactively. As a wise fortune cookie once told me, “Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.
DKC Connect manages the social media presences of brands with a wide range of audiences (e.g., Bazooka Candy Brands, The Plaza Hotel). In order to reach these different audiences, how do you learn about them? What methods do you use to find out what they are thinking?
The client is a great starting point. As the brand expert, the client has the best foundational knowledge of the product and the consumer. From there, it’s important to go to the online platforms where the consumer community resides to listen to what they are saying and absorb the nuances that may help refine or improve brand messages and awareness. Often there are unexpected opportunities that come to the surface, like influencers on Twitter who are sharing positive content and messages about a brand with their followers and in turn have become organic social media ambassadors. Online listening tools and social media analytics are also key to assessing what consumers are saying and developing a deeper understanding of their thought process, interests, online interactions and other important factors such as demographics. Social media is a very data-driven medium, and a scientific approach through the use of data, combined with compelling creative to communicate messages, is what translates to success.
Regarding marketing message “vehicles” (print, TV, social media, live events, etc.), how important is social media?  How big is the social media piece of pie in the marketing mix?
Social media is a very important part of the marketing mix, particularly now that it has become much more integrated with other marketing vehicles such as TV, live events and print advertising, making it all the more impactful in brand communications. The ability to engage directly with a target audience is very powerful, and through social media you are empowering target audiences to be the message vehicles themselves. When you give consumers the “keys,” you are naturally carving out a bigger piece of the marketing plan for social media as a by-product of their engagement. This engagement may vary from brand to brand, but social media is unique in that it can be a stand-alone vehicle, or support other aspects of a marketing plan, making it very important to the bigger picture.
What advice can you offer current students about using social media to further campaigns, causes or corporate messages?
Social media is a powerful force in communications that offers an opportunity to deliver a message with more impact. In describing the relevance of social media to traditional media, a Facebook post, tweet or Instagram picture can now bear the same weight of a press release. However, in distributing messages through social media, millions of people can be reached and driven to action instantaneously with one compelling photo, video or short piece of text.

For students thinking about a career in digital communications or social media, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of the online platforms, but it’s also important to have a well-rounded approach. This includes knowing the business of your client, your agency, PR, advertising, media, branding, etc. You’ll need to understand what makes people tick online and offline, how to craft an effective message, and how to optimize a strategy. A broader skill set and know-how will help develop and inform a specialization in one area or another, especially in the realm of digital media.

 
What top three pieces of advice would you give to current students about preparing for a career in communications, marketing, advertising or public relations?
Be open-minded, be prepared to work (and work hard), and listen to what’s going on around you – at work, in the media, online – because a lot of creative ideas come from observation, and the best creative ideas are those that capture the essence of an intersection of things, which requires thought, patience and persistence.
What are some of the campaigns you’ve worked on that you are most proud of, and why?
Some of the best campaign moments have centered on revealing a message, insight or experience behind a brand that may have otherwise been lost or forgotten. It can be difficult to change a perception of a brand in the minds of consumers who have already established a relationship with and opinion of a product or company. For example, we have worked with historical properties that were looking for a “refresh” of their perception to re-energize their identity and attract new audiences, while maintaining the historical roots and authenticity that make them unique. Changing perceptions requires a lot of thought, planning and navigating the existing brand landscape to see what opportunities exist that haven’t yet been explored. It also requires developing a deep understanding of consumers as well as their mindset to figure out what most interests them. The prep work that goes into this research, analysis and conceptualization can be tedious and time-consuming and is often unseen by the client, but when the prep leads to a campaign that transforms a brand perception and promotes new ideas that stick, that is a proud moment.
Read the full interview.

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Alumni

Michael M. Boone ’63, ’67 Elected Chair Of SMU Board Of Trustees

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Alumni

Erin Eidenshink: A Mustang In Mongolia

Erin Eidenshink ’09 got her first taste of living abroad while conducting research as an SMU undergraduate. Now she calls Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, home.

Erin Eidenshink '09
Erin Eidenshink ’09

As an SMU sophomore, Eidenshink received a Richter International Fellowship to spend eight weeks in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third-largest city, researching gender roles and how they affect economic development programs in that country. Jill DeTemple, assistant professor of religious studies in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, served as her research adviser for the project in 2007.
“Dr. DeTemple taught some of the best, most challenging courses I took while at SMU,” she says.
The project “gave me a deep interest in international development,” she adds. “I knew after completing the Richter Fellowship that I wanted to find a job after graduation that would allow me to live overseas.”
As an SMU senior, Eidenshink applied for the Global Mission Fellows program of the United Methodist Church. Just a few weeks after earning bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German, she learned that she had been assigned to Mongolia’s capital city. During her 16-month assignment there, she taught English and worked with the young adult and children’s ministries.
After completing the assignment, Eidenshink returned to the United States, where she finished the second half of her three-year internship at a nonprofit in Omaha, Nebraska. Shortly afterward, she was back overseas.
“Mongolia is a country of incredible beauty, history and culture,” she says. “When I first moved here, an acquaintance told me that it is a place that gets under your skin and changes you forever.”
That friend was right. Mongolia did change her forever. For it was there that she met Tsogoo Davaadorg, the man she would marry in 2012.
“Before I met my husband, I knew that I wanted to eventually return to Mongolia, but meeting him was a good added incentive,” she says.
The couple just welcomed their first child, a daughter named Enerel Amaya, in March 2014.
Today, Eidenshink teaches first-grade English at a bilingual private school in Mongolia.
Thanks to the internet, SMU is never far away. She stays in touch with some professors through Facebook, and many friends keep up with her through her blog, Once Upon a Time in Real Life.
“I would encourage new SMU grads to stay connected with their department alumni groups and their professors who are a large wealth of information and knowledge,” she says.
She has even traveled back to the Hilltop a few times, once to show the campus to her husband. But when visits are not an option, she still finds ways to stay in the loop.
“My dad frequently travels to Dallas for his work, and he sends me pictures of the new buildings, fountains and other developments that have sprung up since I’ve graduated,” she says. “I may be on the other side of the world, but I still feel very connected to SMU and proud of my alma mater.”
Sarah Bennett ’11

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Alumni

SMU Journalism Graduate Earns Rising Star Award

Nima Kapadia ’08, ’10, ’13 put all three of her degrees from SMU to work as a journalism teacher at South Garland High School, earning a 2014 Rising Star Award from the Journalism Education Association.

Nima Kapadia '08, '10, '13
Nima Kapadia ’08, ’10, ’13

The award recognizes teachers with one to five years of journalism teaching and/or advising experience and who demonstrate a commitment to journalism education and show promise as up-and-coming advisers. The award was presented in April at the association’s spring meeting in San Diego.
Kapadia received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s degrees in education and educational leadership from SMU. She started teaching at South Garland High in 2009.
One of her former students, Patricia Villacin ’14, nominated her for the award. Villacin graduated summa cum laude from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in May. She was recognized for outstanding achievement in broadcast journalism by the Department of Journalism in Meadows School of the Arts.
“During my first year of teaching high school, Patricia was assigned her first news article on the initiatives the district was taking to make school lunches healthier after state mandates were passed,” Kapadia recalls. “She understood the lengthy editing process I put her through because she has been able to compare the quality of her first draft to the final product.”
As she coaches students in crafting the written word, Kapadia remembers when she was a reporting rookie at SMU. Her first assignment as a journalism major was on “the freshman 15.” She entered the University with a solid background in the field – she had served as editor of the student newspaper at North Garland High School, then at Richland College, where she earned an associate’s degree – but says her SMU professors pushed her talents even further.
“My article was full of red marks when it was returned to me,” she says.
She credits foundational journalism classes with nurturing skills that she now passes on to her students. She pinpoints two courses as particularly relevant: Reporting I with Carolyn Barta and Reporting II with Jayne Suhler.
“My students go beyond just student and teacher voices, but rather, into the community for sources,” she says. “I attribute that to Professor Suhler’s class.”
With other professors, it took a few years for the lessons learned to sink in, she says, recalling the media ethics class taught by Tony Pederson, professor and The Belo Foundation Endowed Distinguished Chair in Journalism in Meadows.
“He probably remembers me as the quiet student who sat in the back of the classroom, but to this day, I still call him with questions about how to approach certain stories for my campus newspaper,” she says.
Rounding out her SMU experience was an internship with the Dallas Business Journal
Now she is fulfilling passions for journalism and teaching that have been alive since her own high school days.
“I would tell my [high school] adviser Scott Russell that one day I was going to attend SMU and return to become a journalism adviser, which is exactly what I did,” she says.
“The University was already a household name to me, because my older sister had graduated from SMU in 1998,” she adds. “You could almost say that I bleed red and blue, because SMU was the only university I applied to after I completed my associate’s degree.”
At South Garland High, Kapadia teaches journalism and acts as the school’s newspaper and yearbook sponsor. She also serves as the University Interscholastic League (UIL) journalism sponsor.
The Rising Star Award reinforces to Kapadia that she is definitely in the right line of work — and she remembers the teachers along the way who helped her realize her goals.
“I still consider my journalism and education professors to be mentors,” she says. “With their help, I feel like have come full circle and am exactly where I want to be.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11

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Alumni

Alumni To Participate In Boomtown Boulder Demo Day June 27

SMU alumni Shaun Moore ’10 and Nezare Chafni ’10 were chosen as part of the first six-team class of Boomtown Boulder, a startup accelerator based in Boulder, Colorado. Moore and Chafni will present Chui, their “socially intelligent” doorbell, to potential backers and media from across the country during the Boomtown Demo Day June 27.

Boomtown’s intensive, 12-week program allowed the entrepreneurs to work with mentors such as Alex Bogusky, founder of the Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertising agency, who was named Creative Director of the Decade by Adweek.
Moore and Chafni met as students at SMU’s Cox School of Business and are set to begin shipping their smart doorbells in the fall. Chui combines facial recognition technology with machine learning to enable individuals and companies to control access to their homes and businesses. Part security camera and part monitoring device, Chui is wifi-enabled and can be used both outdoors and indoors.
Since they launched the company, the alumni have added two fellow Mustangs to their team: Shaun’s brother, Trenton Moore ’12, and Patrick Kobler ’10, who serves as chief outreach officer for Chui.
Read more about Shaun Moore and Nezare Chafni here.

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Alumni

Young Alum Aims High, Thanks To Professor’s Push

Derek Hubbard ’12 did not have to venture far from the Hilltop to launch his dream career. Hubbard serves as the communications and public relations manager for Dallas HD Films, a local production company, and co-executive producer of “Inside Entertainment,” a weekly TV show about pop culture in the Lone Star State.

Derek Hubbard '12
Derek Hubbard ’12

He credits internships, on-campus opportunities and an astute observation from a favorite professor for giving him the skills and motivation he needed to carve out a successful career in a competitive industry.
“I’m grateful that SMU allowed me the platform to explore a lot of different options,” he says.
Hubbard majored in corporate communications and public affairs with a minor in Spanish. That academic route paved the way for a variety of internships with companies such as The Marketing Arm, Southwest Airlines and Tulchan Communications in London.
“With each of the internships, I had a lot of cool experiences and I learned a lot,” he says.
Along the way, he became more focused on a different future. “I always had this dream of transitioning into some form of entertainment; I always knew I wanted to be in that industry,” he remembers.
Hubbard grabbed as many on-campus opportunities as he could to further develop his portfolio, including acting as moderator for the Tate Lecture Series. Among the celebrities he met were Katie Couric and Michael J. Fox.
“It really gave me a platform to learn and to connect with people who were in the industry,” he says.
During his senior year, Hubbard intended to apply to graduate school at Columbia University with an eye toward eventually establishing an entertainment career. He sought the counsel of teacher and mentor Rita Kirk. Kirk is professor of communications studies in Meadows School of the Arts and director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility at SMU. After listening to his plan, she made a statement that would change his life.
“With a straight face, she looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘You know what, Derek, you’re aiming too low.’ I was speechless,” he says. “Her words were playing in my head on a loop. A couple months later, it really hit me what she meant.”
Stop talking about your dreams and make them happen.
Hubbard put his graduate school application on hold and concentrated his efforts on networking, sending out queries and pursuing leads in New York and Dallas. Months after submitting his résumé to Dallas HD Films, he finally got a meeting with Hussain Manjee, president of the company.
“It wasn’t even an interview; it was supposed to be an informational meeting,” Hubbard remembers. “At the end of the conversation, he offered me a job.”
Helping to create “Inside Entertainment” has been an exhilarating challenge, he says.
“We realized that there was a void in the Texas market,” he says. “We have all of this talent, we have all of this entertainment locally that we weren’t showcasing, so why couldn’t we do an ‘E! News’ here in Texas?”
“We essentially had 45 days to go from nothing to a fully produced TV show,” he adds.
“Inside Entertainment,” which debuted March 7, airs three times a week on KTXD, a Dallas-based independent TV station. The half-hour program, hosted by Bri Crum and Paul Salfen, offers an inside look at local food, fashion, celebrities and more.
As he talks about the show, Hubbard circles back to the professor who inspired the leap forward in his career.
“I consider her [Rita Kirk] a friend of mine at this point. I know I can go to her with anything,” he says. “I’m not going to stop aiming high, because that’s what my girl Rita would want!”
— Sarah Bennett ‘11

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Alumni

Young Alumni Find Success In Texas Oil Fields

EXCERPT
SMU alumni Mark Hiduke ’09, Wood Brookshire ’05, ’11 and Kimberly Lacher ’05 were featured in the following article about a new generation of entrepreneurs finding success in the Texas oil fields, published by Bloomberg May 20, 2014.

Millennials Spurning Silicon Valley for Dallas Oil Patch

By Isaac Arnsdorf
Bloomberg

Mark Hiduke '09
Mark Hiduke ’09

Mark Hiduke just raised $100 million to build his three-week-old company. This 27-year-old isnt a Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur. He’s a Texas oilman. As oil and gas producers change their focus from grabbing land to drilling, young entrepreneurs are forming companies to trade everything from minerals to leases and wells to equities. They’re competing against, and sometimes collaborating with, industry veterans twice their age.
The oil and gas industry is suddenly brimming with upstart millennials like Hiduke after decades of failing to attract and retain new entrants. Now that a breakthrough in drilling technology has U.S. oil and gas production surging, an aging workforce is welcoming a new generation of wildcatters, landmen, engineers, investors, entrepreneurs and aspiring oil barons.

“These guys are going to be the poster children of self-made oil and gas tycoons,” Nathen McEown, a 33-year-old accountant at Whitley Penn LLP in Dallas who organizes networking dinners, said in an e-mail April 1. “Or they could be the poster children of how too much money is chasing deals.”
Wood Brookshire '05, '11
Wood Brookshire ’05, ’11

Kimberly Lacher '05
Kimberly Lacher ’05

Since the generational shift coincides with a technological breakthrough, the younger crop only knows the shale boom and knowledge of conventional drilling might retire with the baby boomers, Kimberly Lacher said by phone May 8. The 38-year-old studied to be a chemical engineer and was reassigned by her employer to petroleum just when the shale boom was starting.
Now she and her 31-year-old business partner, Wood Brookshire, head Vendera Resources, which has invested a total of more than $50 million in about 1,200 wells. The Dallas-based duo turned their first fund of a few hundred thousand dollars between the two of them into $4 million today, Brookshire said.

Read the full story here.

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Alumni News

Join The Stampede! Make A Difference By May 31

Approximately 11,000 Mustang alumni have made their marks on the future of SMU with gifts to The Second Century Campaign. That support’s extraordinary impact is apparent across the campus in dedicated faculty, accomplished students and world-class facilities.

Taylor Martin '99
Taylor Martin ’99

These achievements are points of pride for the alumni community, says Taylor Martin ’99.
“SMU has come so far in the 15 years since I’ve graduated. We’ve really found our direction,” says Martin, who chairs the Class of 1999 Centennial Reunion Committee. “When I run into classmates who haven’t been back in a while, I tell them to visit the campus because they’ll be inspired and impressed by what they see.”
This year SMU is working toward a goal of 25 percent participation – that’s 13,000 alumni – by the end of the fiscal year, May 31, 2014.
As a member of the Fort Worth Chapter leadership, Martin has been “spreading some red behind the purple curtain” – and spreading the word about the importance of alumni giving. He notes that the annual alumni giving percentage affects SMU’s national rankings by U.S. News & World Report and others. The ranking agencies use the number as an indicator of alumni satisfaction with the education they received.
“Rankings influence the caliber of students and faculty SMU attracts,” Martin adds. “And, as SMU rises in the rankings, so does the value of our degrees.”
Martin’s ties to his alma mater are rooted in family, friendship and stewardship. During football season, he and wife Lauren Martin, a 2004 SMU graduate, enjoy Boulevarding with his sister and brother-in-law, Liz Armstrong ’82 and Bill Armstrong ’82, who serve on the executive board of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and co-chair the Denver Campaign Steering Committee. Bill also serves on the SMU Board of Trustees. The Armstrongs’ alumni daughters, Lindsey Armstrong ’10 and Leigh Armstrong Young ’11, also join in.
“It’s easy to get involved in the fun things, like Boulevarding,” says Martin, a member of the Fort Worth Campaign Steering Committee. “But something alumni don’t always consider – and we should – is what our annual giving participation means to SMU today and tomorrow.”
All gifts of any amount made by alumni before May 31 go toward the annual participation goal including:

  • Reunion gifts
  • Mustang Club gifts
  • Gifts to schools, libraries, scholarships and other areas of the University
  • Special gifts for etched pavers on the Crain Family Promenade

“My yearly gift is a statement that I believe in SMU’s mission and it’s future,” says Martin, a member of the SMU Hilltop Society, which honors consistent giving.
“We’re so close to meeting the 25 percent goal – one of the final big goals of the campaign. Making a gift today is an easy way for every Mustang to make a huge difference.”
To make a gift, visit smu.edu/horsepower or mail to SMU Office of Development, P.O. Box 750402, Dallas, Texas 75275-0402.
 

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Alumni

Bobby B. Lyle ’67 To Receive 2014 Folsom Leadership Award Recipient

Methodist Health System Foundation has named Bobby B. Lyle ’67 the 2014 Robert S. Folsom Leadership Award recipient. Established in 2005, the award recognizes individuals whose demonstrated excellence in community leadership emulate the achievements of former Dallas Mayor Robert S. Folsom for whom the award is named.

Bobby B. Lyle '67
Bobby B. Lyle ’67

In the award announcement, Lyle was praised as “an innovative engineer, educator, corporate executive, entrepreneur, civil leader and philanthropist.”
“Bobby’s leadership and entrepreneurial approach have had a far-reaching and real impact on the Dallas community,” says April Box Chamberlain, Methodist Health System Foundation President and CEO. “He embodies the Folsom Leadership Award, and we are honored to celebrate his achievements.
Past Folsom Leadership Award recipients include SMU alumni Nancy Ann Hunt ’65 (2006), Laura Welch Bush ’68 (2008), Trevor Rees-Jones ’78 (2011) and Michael M. Boone  ’64, ’67 (2012), who also serves on the SMU Board of Trustees. The Rev. W. Mark Craig , also an SMU trustee, received the award in 2013.
The award will be presented at a dinner on September 25 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Hilton Anatole Hotel’s Grand Ballroom.
Lyle’s multifaceted career has spanned more than four decades. He has served on the boards of more than 20 private and public companies — many that he helped create — in industries as diverse as oil and gas, banking, ranching, computer software service, real estate, manufacturing, restaurant and green energy.
He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana Tech University and a master’s degree in engineering administration from SMU. He served as dean ad interim of SMU at age 30 and subsequently as executive dean of the SMU Cox School of Business before completing his doctorate in education at the  University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After graduation, he returned to Dallas to enter the oil and gas industry. He served in leadership roles in the development of notable oil and gas fields, such as the Bakken Shale; real estate projects, such as the Dallas Galleria; and business startups, including InterFirst Bank-Galleria.
Throughout his career, Lyle’s passion for his alma mater has remained constant. As a member of the SMU Board of Trustees for more than 26 years, he has served as chair or vice chair of numerous University standing committees and boards, including the Audit Committee, the Cox Associate Board, the Maguire Energy Institute and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. He is past president of the SMU Alumni Association and has been vice chair of the executive boards of both the Cox School of Business and the Lyle School of Engineering, which was named in his honor in 2008. He has received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award, been recognized as Alumni Volunteer of the Year, and twice has been named Outstanding Trustee of the Year by the SMU Student Association. He was inducted into the School of Engineering Hall of Leaders in 2006 and given the coveted Mustang Award in 2012.
Lyle’s commitment to education is matched by his unwavering dedication to community service. He is vice chair of the Salvation Army National Advisory Board and a member of its DFW Metroplex Command Advisory Board. He is past president of Circle Ten Council-Boy Scouts of America and currently a trustee of the Council’s Foundation and chair of its $90 million Centennial Campaign. He is vice chair of The Trinity Trust Foundation, trustee of Communities Foundation of Texas, trustee of the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Foundation and past director of the Volunteer Center of North Texas.
Lyle has served as president of the Dallas Assembly, president of the Center for Nonprofit Management and trustee for the Retina Foundation. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, Volunteer Center of North Texas. and Dallas Historical Society. He has been inducted into the Dallas Business Hall of Fame.
He is the father of two children: Sharon lives in Dallas with her husband, Mark Mutschink, and Christopher resides in California with his wife, Lyndsay, and their two daughters, Emerson and Hannah.
Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Methodist Charlton Medical Center, Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, Methodist Richardson Medical Center and Methodist Family Health Centers are part of the nonprofit Methodist Health System, which is affiliated by covenant with the North Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church.
 

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Alumni

‘Cosmetic Chemist’ Gavanne Davis Thinks Big

SMU alumna Gavanne Davis has big hair, a big attitude and a big dream. The 5-foot-1 force of nature has created a successful career that combines her chemistry expertise and love of the beauty industry.

Gavanne Davis '12
Gavanne Davis ’12

“SMU gave me confidence to follow my dreams,” says Davis, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2012. “At SMU I learned to network, take advantage of opportunities, research and be independent.”
The New Orleans native now makes her home in Placentia, California, a city she identifies as “the capital of cosmetology.” A promotion, a passion for the cosmetics scene and, “of course, the weather” led her to Orange County-based Coast Southwest. The chemical distribution company supplies manufacturers in the personal care and household products industries. She describes Coast Southwest as “a huge grocery store” that sells ingredients to make items ranging from facial creams to automotive lubricants.
Davis calls herself a “cosmetic chemist” but her official title is technical sales representative. When she started with the company, she was strictly in the lab. Now she has transitioned to building relationships with clients.
“I deal with increasing and maintaining sales, document control and product development,” she explains.
But, Davis is not stopping there. She is laying the foundation for her own beauty line, Vann Cosmetics. While working on product development, she also is building a following through a website – vanncosmetics.com – and a social media network that includes Twitter and Instagram. In addition to offering tips and product reviews, she uses her chemistry background to explain the science behind some ingredients commonly found in cosmetics.
According to the entrepreneur, her mission with Vann Cosmetics is to change the way people view female beauty, particularly in regard to minority women, along lines similar to Dove’s successful “Real Beauty” campaign.
“I want my brand to represent individualism,” she says.
Her focus on hair care started as she gained interest in her own natural hair. In a posting on her website, she encourages women to be proud of natural assets such as curly hair. “Being different is a beautiful thing!” she writes. “When we place ourselves in this box of how we should look, or act, or dress, we are critically diluting the uniqueness we possess that causes us to shine so brightly,” she writes.
Davis knew early on that she wanted to make a big impact with her career and has found a way through cosmetic science. The most rewarding part of her venture so far has been in helping women build confidence, she says. When she faces challenges, Davis remembers she “is doing this for so many other women.”
And that big attitude for that big dream pushes her to keep going.
– Leah Johnson ’15

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Alumni

Peter A. Lodwick Selected Alumni Board Chair-Elect

Peter A. Lodwick '77, '80
Peter A. Lodwick ’77, ’80

Peter A. Lodwick ’77, ’80 has been selected chair-elect of the SMU Alumni Board for 2014. He will assume the role of chair in 2015-2017 when current chair Leslie Melson ’77 completes her term of office.
Lodwick received a J.D., cum laude, from SMU’s Dedman School of Law and a B.B.A., magna cum laude, in finance from the Cox School of Business.
While a student, Lodwick played basketball for SMU with teammate Michael “Jake” Jaccar ’76. An anonymous donor recently established a $100,000 endowment in honor of the Mustang alumni. The Jaccar/Lodwick Teammates for Life Endowed Basketball Scholarship Fund provides support to promising young basketball players.
Lodwick is a partner in the corporate and securities practice group in the Dallas office of Thompson & Knight. His practice includes counseling clients in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, SEC compliance, corporate governance, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and investigations.
Recognized for his legal expertise, Lodwick has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (2009-2014), Texas Super Lawyers (2012-2013) and D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas (2011-2012).
He is a member of the Dallas and American Bar Associations and the Corporation, Banking, and Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. In the community, he serves on the Dallas Country Club Board of Governors.

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Alumni

Alumnus Makes History With Concurrent Exhibitions

David Bates '75, /78 received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.
David Bates ’75, /78 received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.

Artist David Bates ’75, ’78 made history this spring with the first-ever collaborative exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Spanning Bates’ 40-year career, more than 90 artworks were included in the three-month exhibitions. The Modern displayed his paintings, and the Nasher displayed sculptures and works on paper.
Called “without question Dallas’ most venerated artist” by Dallas Morning News art critic Rick Brettell, Bates got his start at SMU. After earning a B.F.A. degree, he participated in the prestigious Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. However, the New York art scene’s focus at that time didn’t fit with his interests, so Bates returned to Dallas to earn an M.F.A. from SMU. He went on to attain national stature through a career grounded in his Texas roots.
Magnolia in a Chair, 2004. Oil on canvas.
Magnolia in a Chair, 2004. Oil on canvas.

Marla Price, director of the Modern, said that Bates “translates his own experiences into works of art that transcend regional boundaries.” Nasher Director Jeremy Strick noted that Bates is “following in the footsteps of the great painter-sculptors Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.”
Bates’ paintings, many of them large-scale, are distinguished by bold black outlines and heavy application of paint. His subjects range from atmospheric representations of the cypress swamps of Grassy Lake in Arkansas to powerful figures of fishermen working along the Gulf Coast. Bates’ compelling series on Hurricane Katrina depicts the pathos of storm survivors. Both paint and sculpture renditions of magnolias track the evolution of the artist’s style through the years. More abstract than his paintings, Bates’ sculptures begin with such materials as wood, cardboard, clay and scrap metal. After they are cast in bronze, he adds patina and paint to their surfaces. His diverse sculpture subjects include starkly dramatic owls and skulls and graceful female figures.
Works in the exhibitions were on loan from major museums, including New York’s Metropolitan and Whitney, the Hirshhorn Museum and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Dallas Museum of Art, and museums in San Francisco, Houston and Honolulu, as well as numerous private collections.

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Alumni

Civic Leader Gail Thomas Receives Ethics Award

Gail Griffin Thomas ’58, president and CEO of the Trinity Trust Foundation and a champion of urban transformation, received the 2014 J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award from SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility March 19.

Gail Griffin Thomas '58
Gail Griffin Thomas ’58

“Gail has blazed trails for our city, questioned complacency and also taken risks with boundless imagination and inspired perspective,” says Nancy Cain Marcus ’74, a Maguire Ethics Center advisory board member.
After Dallas residents approved the Trinity River Corridor Project in 1998, then-Mayor Ron Kirk tapped Thomas to raise private funds for the plan. The project consists of 20 miles and 10,000 acres of land in and along the Trinity River Corridor and the Great Trinity Forest. It seeks to protect downtown Dallas against future flooding while supporting environmental restoration, improving transportation, spurring economic development and providing outdoor recreational opportunities.
“We give this award to someone with courage, someone who responds to challenges with a sense of grace and ethical direction,” says Maguire Center Director Rita Kirk. “Gail Thomas certainly represents all of those things.”
In addition to her Trinity Trust Foundation role, Thomas is director of the Dallas Institute’s Center for the City program, where she teaches and conducts seminars and conferences — something she has done for several decades in several U.S. and international cities.
Thomas has written the books Healing Pandora: The Restoration of Hope and Abundance, Imagining Dallas and Pegasus, the Spirit of Cities. She co-authored Stirrings of Culture with Robert Sardello and Images of the Untouched with Joanne Stroud. Her next book, Recapturing the Soul of the City, is forthcoming, as is a play she is writing.
She has received numerous civic awards and is a distinguished alumna of both SMU and The University of Dallas. She has been an awards panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been honored by the Texas Society of Architects and the American Institute of Architects.
“The fact that this award is named for the man who achieved the highest in excellence in public service means a great deal to me,” Thomas says, noting that her first foray into civic work was serving on Jonsson’s “Goals for Dallas” design task force. “When I think about what J. Erik Jonsson did for Dallas — how, in the year following the Kennedy assassination he took office and went on to turn the ‘City of Hate’ into the ‘City of Hope’ — I’m very honored.”
Thomas and her husband, Robert Hyer Thomas ’53, have three children and 10 grandchildren.

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Alumni

Tom Sheahan: Volunteering And Reconnecting With ‘Home’

Tom Sheahan ’87 has lived overseas and now calls San Francisco home. Regardless of where he lands, this globe-trekking Mustang will always call the Hilltop “home.”

Tom Sheahan '87
Tom Sheahan ’87

“I truly cherish the friendships I made at SMU,” he says. “They have been a source of strength and humor through the trials and tribulations of life. SMU is more than just an outstanding academic institution – it is home for a lot of people.”
Sheahan is co-founder and CEO of Red Oxygen, which offers an array of communications solutions for mobile workforces. Despite frequent business travel, he stays involved with the San Francisco alumni chapter and serves on the leadership team. Most recently, he attended a party for accepted students in San Mateo, California.
He also makes time for volunteer opportunities. Sheahan’s company, which has headquarters in the city’s Mission District, participated in the one-day externship program offered through SMU Connection over winter break.
“I know how difficult it must be to understand the Silicon Valley mindset from Dallas,” he says. “I love helping young, motivated people out.”
Sheahan is now focused on a new arm of Red Oxygen – Octopi Network. Currently in beta stage operation, Octopi Network deploys multilayered security protocols to ensure privacy when sending and receiving messages across any platform. “We provide a secure digital environment that erases compatibility issues and allows users to reach anyone, on any device, anywhere in the world,” he says.
GetInvolvedWhile attending SMU, Sheahan was active in the Student Senate and as a campus tour guide. He majored in communications studies with a focus on public relations and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
This is the Year of the Faculty at SMU, and as part of the celebration, alumni are encouraged to share memories of their favorite professors. Sheahan says English Professor Emeritus Marsh Terry ’53, ’54 stands out in his memory for “exposing me to some great authors.”
After graduating from SMU, he entered the telecommunications field, working in various sales and marketing positions in the United States and abroad before co-founding Red Oxygen in 2001.
Even in the unlikeliest places, membership in the SMU alumni community creates an advantage, he says, offering this anecdote:
“It was 1997, and I had just moved to Bondi Beach, outside of Sydney, Australia. I headed to this amazing outdoor pool for a swim, when I hear, ‘It will be two bucks, mate.’ I had no money with me, so I went back to my apartment and discovered that I was locked out. I returned to the pool, borrowed the phone and started calling locksmiths. ‘Where are you from,’ asked the guy working at the front desk in his thick Aussie accent. ‘Texas,’ I answered. ‘My brother went to school in Texas,’ he said. I asked which one, and he replied, ‘SMU.’ His brother was Gus Cameron. While Gus and I weren’t good friends, we had mutual friends. The guy at the desk, Hamish Cameron, and his family ended up being my surrogate family in Australia. I would not have had such a wonderful 10-year experience there without them, and it wouldn’t have happened without that SMU connection.”

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Alumni

Perkins Honors Karen Greenwaldt As Distinguished Alumna

Perkins Distinguished Alumna Karen Greenwaldt '77
Distinguished Alumna Karen Greenwaldt ’77 speaking at Perkins School of Theology during Ministers Week.

The Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship from 2001–2013, received the 2014 Perkins School of Theology Distinguished Alumna Award February 3.
The award was presented as part of Perkins’ annual Ministers Week, which draws scholars from across the country for lectures and workshop on the Bible and ministry. It recognizes effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support and involvement in the goals of Perkins and SMU, distinguished service in the wider community and exemplary character.
A clergy member of the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference, Greenwaldt earned a Master of Theology degree from Perkins in 1977. The first woman ordained as an elder in the Central Texas Conference, she served as general secretary – or chief executive officer – of the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) from 2001 until her retirement in 2013.
Bishop D. Max Whitfield, Bishop in Residence at Perkins, praised Greenwaldt’s selfless leadership. “She was the individual from whom the other general secretaries and many of the Council of Bishops members sought direction when major issues and the future direction of the denomination were needed.”
She also has served as an associate pastor and a hospital chaplain.
Greenwaldt is the author of Singles Care One for Another, For Everything There is a Season and Organizing in the Small Membership Church, as well as numerous articles on the vision and mission of the church.

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Alumni

Golden Mustangs Reunion, Inside SMU, Family Activities And More Draw Alumni To Campus For Founders’ Day Weekend

SMU’s Golden Mustangs Reunion and Inside SMU Powered by TEDxSMU, a new performance program hosted by the SMU Alumni Board, are among special activities planned for Founders’ Day Weekend April 10-13.

The annual Golden Mustangs Reunion for alumni in the classes of 1963 and earlier will be held Thursday, April 10.
The annual Golden Mustangs Reunion for alumni in the classes of 1963 and earlier will be held Thursday, April 10.

Alumni from the classes of 1963 and earlier will launch the celebratory weekend on Thursday, April 10, with the annual Golden Mustangs Reunion. The event will be hosted by the Office of Reunion Programs and the Golden Mustangs Reunion Committee in the Martha Proctor Mack Grand Ballroom at Umphrey Lee Center, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The program includes a luncheon, a guided campus bus tour and an opportunity to see the “Sorolla and America” exhibit at the Meadows Museum.
On Friday, April 11, Inside SMU will feature compelling stories and demonstrations from 16 SMU faculty, staff, alumni and student speakers on a wide range of topics. Alumni speakers are Blake Norvell ’04, who will discuss “NSA Wiretapping: A 4th Amendment Violation?”, and Dennis E. Muphree ’69, who will speak on “The Importance of Persistence.” Inside SMU is scheduled for 1-5 p.m. in the Greer Garson Theatre in the Owen Arts Center and is open to everyone. Tickets are $5 for SMU students, faculty, staff and alumni and $15 for the general public. Breaks are built into the program, allowing the audience to meet speakers and start the conversations that are the hallmark of the TEDxSMU experience.
The President’s Briefing and a Centennial Salute to the Faculty also are planned for Friday.
Special family-friendly events will open the SMU campus to the community from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 12. At SMU’s Meadows Museum, activities will complement the “Sorolla and America” exhibit, allowing children to paint outdoors, learn traditional Spanish dances and take part in a multi-sensory game of Texas Landscape Bingo. Student guitarists will play music that evokes the spirit of Spain, and artist Jon Bramblitt, who is blind, will demonstrate how he paints using only his sense of touch.
A short walk or shuttle ride from the museum, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum’s Native Texas Park will be blooming. Families can participate in a wildflower scavenger hunt, plant wildflower seeds and enjoy more SMU student musical performances near the Hall of State. SMU’s Peruna mascot will be on hand for photos, and there will be more family activities available inside the Bush Library.
From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, SMU’s student Environmental Society is sponsoring Barefoot on the Boulevard, a free mini-festival that celebrates sustainable living with an afternoon of music, performances, and tabletop exhibits at the north end of Bishop Boulevard.
Among the activities wrapping up the Founders’ Day celebration will be a reception Sunday, April 13, in conjunction with the exhibit “Romantic Visions of the American Southwest: Works on Paper and Paintings by Edward G. Eisenlohr” in the Hamon Arts Library’s Mildred Hawn Gallery. The event begins at 3 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
As part of the University’s centennial celebration of the Year of the Faculty, alumni returning to campus for Founders’ Day events will be encouraged to record their memories of favorite professors through a variety of methods:

Those memories are being collected and shared, along with stories about extraordinary faculty achievements and contributions on SMU’s Year of the Faculty site.
Watch Facebook and Twitter for #InsideSMU photos, topics and previews surrounding Founders’ Day 2014.

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Alumni

NIT Championship Watch Parties Tonight From Coast To Coast

WatchParty0401Join SMU Mustang fans in watching the NIT Championship at two locations in the Dallas area – Moody Coliseum and Dave & Busters on Walnut Hill Lane at U.S. 75.
SMU is hosting the College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships tonight at Moody Coliseum, and the NIT Championship game will be shown on the videoboard. Fans must have a ticket to the event that begins at 8 p.m. to attend the watch party. As of 4 p.m., tickets were still available for purchase online.
Moody will open at 5:30 p.m. and concessions stands will be open.
Should the NIT Championship game still be in progress after 8:12 p.m., the College Slam Dunk event will begin on the court. The game and the Slam Dunk will be shown on a split-screen on the videoboard, as well as on the concourse monitors.
Other watch parties around the country:

  • Austin: Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, 509-A Rio Grande St., at 6 p.m. Central time. RSVP to austin@smualumni.smu.edu
  • Chicago: Benchmark, 1510 N. Wells St., at 6 p.m. Central time. RSVP to chicago@smualumni.smu.edu
  • Orlando area: The Ale House, 1251 Lee Road, in Winter Park, at 7 p.m. Eastern time. RSVP to orlando@smualumni.smu.edu
  • San Francisco: Taps Social House and Kitchen, 1516 Broadway, at 4 p.m. Pacific time. RSVP to sanfrancisco@smualumni.smu.edu
  • Tampa: Beef O’Brady’s, 2819 S. Macdill Ave., at 7 p.m. Eastern time. RSVP to tampa@smualumni.smu.edu
  • Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute for Science, 1530 P Street NW, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. This event will be held in conjunction with “SMU Brings the Hilltop to D.C.,” with a reception and remarks featuring Alan C. Lowe, director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Registration is $15 per person and includes food and beverages. RSVP online.

Use the hashtags #PonyUp #FinishTheRightWay #NIT to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Go Mustangs!

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Alumni

‘Am I Blue’ At 40: 1974 Production Still Fresh In The Minds Of Alumni

EXCERPT
The 40th anniversary production of Am I Blue, a one-act play by SMU alumna Beth Henley ’74, will be staged March 28, 29 and 30 at Owens Art Center in Meadows School of the Arts. It is free and open to the public. SMU student Ally Van Deuren ’15 plays Ashbe, the female lead. Van Deuren got in touch with Henley, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for Crimes of the Heart, and other alumni involved in the play for their perspectives on that pivotal production. Here’s an excerpt from her story:

AM I BLUE: 40 Years Later, a One-Act Play by Beth Henley Returns to SMU

Meadows alums share their memories from the original production in 1974; director of first production to attend Friday performance

By Ally Van Deuren (B.F.A. Theatre, B.A. Journalism, ’15)
When Becca Rothstein (B.F.A. Theatre, ’16) approached me about acting in Am I Blue, a one-act play by SMU alumna Beth Henley (B.F.A. Theatre, ’74), I was overjoyed.

Nicholas Costello (B.F.A. Theatre, '17) as John Polk Richards and Ally Van Deuren (B.F.A. Theatre, '15) as Ashbe in the 40th anniversary of AM I BLUE by Beth Henley, opening on Friday, March 28 in room B150. Photograph by Liz Crowell
Nicholas Costello (B.F.A. Theatre, ’17) as John Polk Richards and Ally Van Deuren (B.F.A. Theatre, ’15) as Ashbe in the 40th anniversary of AM I BLUE by Beth Henley, opening on Friday, March 28 in room B150.
Photograph by Liz Crowell

The play is set in 1968 and centers around two troubled teens from two very different walks of life who come together by a chance meeting and share their stories. Written by Henley in her sophomore year (1972), the play is making its return to Meadows 40 years later.
I always have a wonderful experience doing SMU Student Theatre (SMUST) shows, as I often get to work with my immensely talented colleagues on new and challenging material. But I could never have prepared myself for the excitement that this process has given me.
The rest of the cast and I reached out to Charley Helfert, who worked in the Division of Theatre at SMU from 1970 to 2013, hoping he could give us some insight on the original production. He got us in contact with several alumni who shared their personal memories of the very first production back in 1974.
These alums are enthusiastic, helpful, encouraging and wonderfully excited that we are performing Henley’s Am I Blue again.
“I can’t believe the responses I have gotten from [the alumni],” Helfert said. “You can’t imagine how much it means to them. This is their life you are celebrating.”
Jill Christine Peters (B.F.A. Theatre, ’74) directed the original production of the play and will attend Friday’s performance and speak to audiences beforehand.
I went out on a limb and sent an email to Ms. Henley, not expecting a response. When she emailed me back within 12 hours, I was starstruck.
John Tillotson as John Polk Richards (left) and Marcie Glazer Newland as Ashbe in a publicity shot for the original production of Am I Blue by Beth Henley (1974). Courtesy John Tillotson.
John Tillotson as John Polk Richards (left) and Marcie Glazer Newland as Ashbe in a publicity shot for the original production of Am I Blue by Beth Henley (1974). Courtesy John Tillotson.

“I was so happy to read in your e-mail that SMU is performing Am I Blue this year,” Henley wrote. “Really forty years ago? Yikes.”
Henley, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her play Crimes of the Heart, was active in the undergraduate theatre program while at SMU.
“It was nerve-racking for me at the time,” Henley wrote. “My first produced play. I used the pen name Amy Peach.”
Peters, the original director, gave us insight on Ms. Henley.
“Beth was a funny sweet soul. She was very humble about her writing – self-deprecating, even, and could not believe anyone was recommending her work,” said Peters. “She shyly handed me her script with the caveat that she would be glad to change it up so it would not be so ‘corny.’
“Other playwriting students were self-promoting, shopping their plays around the directing program hoping to get produced, but not Beth. She was kind of quietly writing under the radar,” said Peters.
Not only did Peters give us insight on Henley during their time in the Theatre Division at SMU, she also gave us a glimpse into the play’s history and context.

 Read the full story here.
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Alumni

Alumna Yasmeen Tadia ’04 Puts Her Spin On The Candy Business

UPDATE: SMU alumna Yasmeen Tadia ’04 recently expanded her gourmet treat business with the addition of HotPoppin Gourmet Popcorn.
Yasmeen Tadia ’04 credits her four-year-old son’s sweet tooth with sparking her entrepreneurial spirit.
“Zain loves candy, like any other child,” Tadia says. “So I looked for reasonably healthy options, but most of them didn’t taste good.”

Yasmeen Tadia '04 founded Fluffpop gourmet .cotton candy
Yasmeen Tadia ’04 founded Fluffpop, a gourmet cotton candy company.

When she failed to find what she wanted in the marketplace, she created it. In 2012 the Cox School of Business alumna founded Fluffpop, producing gluten-free, vegan cotton candy. The airy confection is available in three categories: exotic, which includes fruit flavors such as guava and sparkling strawberry; sugar-free; and certified organic, which is also a kosher option.
She imports chemical-free, flavor-packed hard candy from countries around the world as the foundation for the sweet concoctions and uses a customized spinning device she designed to whip up treat-sized Fluffpops. The small, flavor-infused portions are about 90 percent air and 10 percent sugar, she says.
While consumers can place orders on her company’s website at fluffpop.com, most of her business is event related. Tadia and her team, who are known as DJs because they “spin candy,” have become fixtures at business and social functions around the country. Fluffpop has been served at events at Neiman Marcus, the New York City Library, Klyde Warren Park and SMU, among many others venues.
Tadia draws on her experience as a corporate human resources manager in the hospitality industry to personalize each event.
“Every client of mine becomes a friend,” she says. “I work with them to create a special experience, to bring a little unexpected joy into their guests’ day.”
The young alumna says she first recognized the importance of relationship building while involved in an array of SMU student organizations. She was active in Program Council, Asian Council, the Association of Black Students, the Leadership Consulting Council and the Muslim Student Association.
She acknowledges the influence of favorite professors, including Chip Besio, on her people-focused approach to business.
“He always went above and beyond to foster the relationship,” she says of Besio, who serves as director of the Center for Marketing Management Studies and a senior lecturer at Cox. “He helped me understand the value of relationships in building a business.”
Now that Fluffpop has taken off, Tadia plans to add her magic touch to popcorn with her Hot Poppin’ line.
“I’ve innovated the way people think about cotton candy and that’s what I plan to do with popcorn,” she says.
Sarah Bennett ’11
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SMU Earns High Rating From Critic Matt Zoller Seitz ’92

Last year Matt Zoller Seitz ’92 took the reins as editor-in-chief of rogerebert.com, the acclaimed movie-focused website of Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert, who lost a long battle with cancer in April 2013. In making the announcement, Ebert’s wife, Chaz, who heads the media company that publishes the site, wrote: “What Roger and I found refreshing about Matt is his ability to spot and encourage talent in other journalists, critics and video essayists. He mentored them with a benevolent style that helped to bring out the best in what they did.”

MattZSeitz
Critic, filmmaker and author Matt Zoller Seitz ’92

Seitz, a renowned film critic in his own right, says a University experience distinguished by gifted professors and practical training helped bring out the best in him.
“SMU was a great place to be academically during the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Seitz says. The administration focused on hiring “great faculty, and I became the beneficiary of many of their talents.”
He studied creative writing with C.W. Smith, now SMU professor emeritus of English, poetry with the late Jack Myers, and film with one of his favorite professors, Marty Rubin, now the associate director of programming at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.
While working as an archivist at the Southwest Film/Video Archives with the late G. William Jones, Seitz gained an appreciation for film history. Jones, an SMU alumnus and professor, was a devoted film collector and preservationist, most notably of rare African-American movies from the 1930s-1950s. The archives, now known as the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, are housed at SMU’s Hamon Arts Library.
Seitz’s stint as a student reporter also played a pivotal role in his future. “I learned a lot of what I know about journalism working for The Daily Campus,” he says. “I still treasure those very late nights that I spent there.”
Shortly after graduating from SMU, he joined the staff of the Dallas Observer, where his writing got rave reviews. Citing his “lucid and insightful film criticism,” the Pulitzer Prize committee named Seitz a finalist for the 1994 award for criticism.
Around the same time, he met director Wes Anderson, the auteur behind movies such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Over the years he periodically interviewed the writer-director. Seitz combined those interviews with essays on Anderson’s work and lush movie visuals in the book  The Wes Anderson Collection (Harry N. Abrams, 2013). New Yorker writer Richard Brody praised the lavish volume “as an indispensible resource, as well as a delight,” crediting Seitz as “the first critic to discern Anderson’s prodigious artistry.”
A companion piece to the book, a video essay series on Anderson that Seitz did in 2009, can be viewed on rogerebert.com.
In addition to his role with that website, Seitz is a respected television critic for New York  magazine and its entertainment site, vulture.com. He also founded “The House Next Door” blog, now part of Slant Magazine, and is founder and publisher emeritus of the “Press Play” blog on indiewire.com. And, he has had a hand in more than 100 hours of video essays on cinema history.
Although he headed to the East Coast years ago and now lives in Brooklyn with his two children, Hannah and James, the Dallas native reveals that the Hilltop will always have a special place in his heart. He met his late wife, Jennifer Dawson, at SMU. She died suddenly of a heart attack in 2006.
“We met working together at the SMU Bookstore at the student center,” he says.
Among his fondest memories: hanging out with her at Mary Hay Hall and sharing Snuffer’s famous cheddar fries.
In a touching tribute to his wife, published on salon.com in 2010 on what would have been her 40th birthday, he wrote about their student days and later years, saying she was “as important an influence in my development as a critic as any teacher or editor I ever had.”
Clearly, Seitz had met his match at SMU.
Sarah Bennett ’11
 
 

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Alumni

‘Smart Doorbell’ Concept Rings True For Young Alumni Entrepreneurs

Shaun Moore ’10 and Nezare Chafni ’10 met as SMU sophomores at the Cox School of Business. Moore was preparing for a job in the financial sector and Chafni had his eye on politics. Fast-forward to January 2014, when they introduced CHUI, their “smart doorbell” with facial recognition capabilities, to the world at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Nezare Chafni '10 (left), holding the CHUI device, and Shaun Moore '10
Nezare Chafni ’10 (left), holding the CHUI device, and Shaun Moore ’10

So how did the young alumni end up as partners in an emerging technology business? Despite going their separate ways after graduation from SMU, they stayed in touch.
As an undergraduate, Moore played on the Mustang football team and was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He readily admits that beyond “playing with gadgets,” he had no particular interest in technology as a student. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in finance, he returned to his native Chicago and worked for Merrill Lynch.
After earning a B.B.A. in financial consulting from SMU, Chafni moved back to his parents’ home in Morocco and launched a campaign for Parliament.
But the friends who had collaborated on student projects never let the distance stop their conversation. When talk about opportunities in the tech sector turned serious, they joined forces to create a software company.
Moore says his Cox education provided the knowledge and confidence to take on the challenge of starting a new venture. “Classes that focused less on theory and more on doing really helped me,” he says.
chuideviceOut of the gate, the business partners knew they were on the right track. “We took a few apps to market,” Chafni says, before facial recognition technology struck the right chord. “When we started work on this, we gradually refocused our attention.”
CHUI quickly took shape, and they applied for a provisional patent in July 2012. They say the unusual name is derived from the Swahili word for “leopard” – an animal known for its agility and adaptability. They feel those traits have served them well as they move forward.
The sleek CHUI device, which is mounted outside a home’s front door, captures the facial images of visitors and instantly sends them to the homeowner’s cell phone. “For example, if Mom’s picture pops up, you open the door. If it’s an unwanted visitor, you don’t have to get up from the couch,” Chafni says.
Homeowners also can program the device to recognize frequent visitors and deliver prerecorded messages. “If you’re leaving a key for a friend under the doormat, for example, when CHUI recognizes your friend’s face, your message about the key will play,” Chafni explains. “The technology is 99.6 percent accurate, and we’re working on secondary layers of security.”
While initially geared toward residential customers, CHUI can be deployed in settings as varied as office complexes, University buildings and classrooms, say its creators. Residential customers can now preorder the device without being charged until it ships in the fall.
Although they could have set up shop anywhere, they returned to Mustang country because, as Moore says, “with our friends and ties to SMU, Dallas is definitely home.”
Sarah Bennett ’11


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Alumna Paints Perfect Career With Clothing Line

As an art major at SMU, Annie Griffin ’06 spent hours in the studio, perfecting her painting techniques. At the time she never dreamed she would be taking her creations from the drawing pad to the runway as an up-and-coming fashion star.

Annie Griffin (right) and her sister, Robin Gerber.  Photo courtesy of Southern Lady Magazine/Hoffman Media
Annie Griffin (right) and her sister, Robin Gerber. Photo courtesy of Southern Lady Magazine/Hoffman Media

The artist is the founder and creative force behind the Annie Griffin Collection women’s wear. Her line mingles Southern femininity and modern sensibility in separates and dresses distinguished by soft silhouettes with retro flair. While some neutral colors are offered, vivid hues and fresh prints are her calling card.
“Every print we use is made in-house, which is really exciting for our company,” she says.
“The traditional art training I received at SMU has been really, really helpful,” adds Griffin, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and now lives in Atlanta. “I was so interested in learning everything — use of color, composition and scale — and that translated well into fashion design.”
Small class sizes and supportive professors helped her become comfortable with critiques of her work, a skill she says is essential to the owner of a creative business.
Griffin did not intend to start her own company after graduating from SMU. Instead, she landed a job with an interior design firm in Atlanta but soon found that she preferred selecting fabric for clothing rather than furniture. She enrolled in the Savannah College of Art and Design to learn the mechanics of clothing construction, including sewing and pattern making.
The Annie Griffin Collection was launched in August 2009. About a year later her sister, Robin Gerber, joined her to handle sales and marketing. The line has been featured in publications such as Southern Living and is sold in roughly 150 stores nationwide, including St. Bernard Sports and Mine Boutique in Dallas.
Griffin is now adding a philanthropic dimension to her company. She is working with Brittany Merrill Underwood ’06, a friend from SMU, on a new venture for the Akola Project. Underwood, recipient of SMU’s 2013 Emerging Leader Award, founded the Akola Project in 2007 to offer sustainable skills that generate reliable incomes for Ugandan women living in poverty. Their handmade jewelry is sold in more than 220 boutiques in the United States.
Plans are to expand the Akola Project’s product line with a sewing facility, and Griffin plans to donate clothing patterns to the cause.
“They’ve done amazing things,” she says. “We really excited about being involved in such a worthwhile project.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11 


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Laurie-Leigh White ’07, ’08: ‘Giving Back To What Has Given Me So Much’

How does a student know when a professor is an extraordinary teacher? For SMU alumna Laurie-Leigh Nix White ’07, ’08, the proof came at test time, when she would surprise herself by the amount of knowledge she had absorbed on a topic.

Houston Alumni Chapter President Laurie-Lee Nix White '07, '08
Houston Alumni Chapter President Laurie-Leigh Nix White ’07, ’08

“I was exposed to so much information and learned so much, but didn’t always realize it in the moment,” White says. “I particularly remember an accounting class with Professor Wayne Shaw. I would wonder, ‘What is he talking about?’ Then, when taking the exam, I would think, ‘Oh, of course!’”
White earned undergraduate degrees in accounting from the Cox School of Business and political science from Dedman College. In 2008, she received a master’s degree in accounting from Cox. While at SMU, she was a teaching assistant for Shaw, the Helmut Sohmen Endowed Professor in Corporate Governance in SMU’s Cox School of Business. She also tutored students through the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center.
The beautiful campus and a scholarship made the decision to choose SMU an easy one, she says. She not only treasures the education she received, but also the unforgettable experiences she had as a member of the University student community.
“I remember we lost every football game my freshman year, but when we won a game the next season, it was sheer bedlam,” she says.
Now a senior vice president with BVA Group in Houston, a financial advisory firm, White maintains close ties to her alma mater. She serves as president of the Houston  Alumni Chapter and is a dedicated donor to the Mustang Club and Cox. She has given faithfully every year since her student days, beginning in 2006.
“The first monetary donation I gave was $20,” she remembers. “You don’t have to start out big. Gifts of all sizes have an impact. It’s about maintaining brand power and supporting SMU’s mission today and in the future.”
White says giving to SMU – particularly to Cox – is her way of showing heartfelt gratitude for life-changing opportunities. “That’s where I grew up, so I want to give back to what has given me so much.”
Sarah Bennett ’11


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Obama Nominates SMU Alumna Jane Chu ’81 To Chair NEA

Jane Chu, who earned a master’s in music from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 1981, will be nominated by President Obama to serve as executive chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Jane’s lifelong passion for the arts and her background in philanthropy have made her a powerful advocate for artists and arts education in Kansas City,” Obama said in the White House press release. “She knows firsthand how art can open minds, transform lives and revitalize communities, and believes deeply in the importance of the arts to our national culture.”
> Read about Jane Chus nomination in the Los Angeles Times
Chu currently serves as the president and chief executive officer of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. She has been with the Kauffman Center since 2006. As the performance home of the Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Kauffman Center hosts community presentations from classical to contemporary dance, Broadway, children’s theater with local, national and international artists. Since its grand opening in September 2011, more than 1 million people from all 50 states in the United States, as well as international countries have already attended an event at the Center.
> Read more about Jane Chu’s life in From the archives: Kansas City Star
Chus appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
>Read the official White House press release
 
 

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Alumni

Lyle School Rallies Support For Alumna Fighting Cancer

In “Fighting for Fugate,” which originally appeared in The Daily Campus January 26, 2014, reporter Jehadu Abshiro tells the story of Jennifer Fugate ’13, who was diagnosed with cancer late last year. Since then, the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering student graduated from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and started chemotherapy. The Lyle School, students and alumni have rallied around the alumna, organizing “Fighting for Fugate” fundraisers to help cover mounting medical expenses.

EXCERPT

Fighting for Fugate

By Jehadu Abshiro
Starting a new career, renting an apartment, buying a new car and even finding love is what many college students expect their futures hold for them when they graduate. Oct. 31 is also a night that most college students see as a night of partying.
It’s what SMU alumna Jennifer Fugate expected when she started her last semester at SMU in fall 2013.
For Fugate, Oct. 31, 2013, was the day when her entire life was flipped upside down. She was admitted into Baylor Hospital at Plano after suffering from severe pain in her right hip for about three months.
“It was literally the worst timing ever,” Fugate said. “A month before college ended.”
An electrical engineering major, she had four job offers, including two from John Deere and General Motors, which she was deciding on. She had to turn all four down.
Fugate’s right hip was four times bigger than her left hip and after a high contrast MRI, doctors found a tumor. The tumor was so large that it broke her hip in half. Her team of 10 doctors at Baylor couldn’t pinpoint the specific type of cancer and sent her lab results to Harvard.
“At one point, no one could figure it out,” Fugate said. “My insurance company wanted to kick me out of the hospital because the doctors couldn’t do anything.”
She was on pain medication every two hours.
“This period was such haze,” Fugate said. “I couldn’t walk at all. I had to have help to the bathroom, it was embarrassing. I used to be so independent.”
Fugate’s mom had to speak to several doctors before the third doctor gave Fugate tests that allowed her to stay in the hospital.
“You can’t just lay in the hospital,” Fugate said. “It was crazy, I can’t go home when I can’t function.”
After Harvard tried three times to narrow her diagnosis, she was diagnosed with an Ewing like Sarcoma. Her specific type of cancer is only found in .6 percent of the population.

Read the full story and see Jennifer’s photo at smudailycampus.com.

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Alumni

Accomplished Alumni Trace Career Awakenings To SMU

By Patricia Ward
An Academy Award-winning film by alumnus William Joyce ’81 wrapped adult emotions in a magical tale that speaks to audiences of all ages. Another alumnus, Travis Tygart ’99, led an investigation that revealed consistent doping by cyclist Lance Armstrong. And alumna NoViolet Bulawayo ’07 won international praise and a Man  Booker Prize nomination for her provocative first novel.
Although the alumni have earned fame in diverse fields, they share an appreciation for the SMU faculty members who recognized and nurtured their talents.
“If you’re lucky, you get a couple of teachers that sort of get you and say ‘you might really succeed,’ and that happened at SMU,” Joyce said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News October 25. “There was a really nice group of teachers that put up with all my shenanigans and encouraged this crazy bunch of enthusiasms that I was hell-bent on merging.”
As a measure of the University’s impact, the trio’s accomplishments set a gold standard that also is being met by thousands of other successful graduates around the globe. Following are stories of their internationally recognized achievements and how their SMU student experiences helped set the trajectory of their futures.
Painting A Global Picture
In her remarkable first novel, We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo speaks in a 21st-century voice as she weaves a global generation’s immigration story. Lauded by literary critics worldwide, she became the first black African woman – and the first writer from Zimbabwe – to be shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize this year. She also was the only debut novelist on the list.
NBGraphic2Among those praising Bulawayo’s work was Michiko Kakutani, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times. In a review published May 15, she called the novel “deeply felt and fiercely written” and described Bulawayo’s powerful “pictorial language” as possessing “the indelible color and intensity of a folk art painting.”
Speaking to Publisher’s Weekly, Bulawayo said her book “is not fiction fiction … it’s very much born out of politics.” The author entwines the grim headlines of Zimbabwe’s recent history with the story of 10-year-old Darling and her group of young friends. After a government-sponsored relocation program obliterates her community and unravels her family, Darling is sent to live with an aunt in the United States. As years pass and the girl becomes an Americanized teenager, Bulawayo captures the push and pull of the immigrant experience. No matter how comfortable Darling becomes in her adopted country, she feels the tug of her birthplace, a longing for home.

Author NoViolet Bulawayo was the first writer from Zimbabwe to be shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
Author NoViolet Bulawayo was the first writer from Zimbabwe to be shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

Soon after the Booker nomination, Bulawayo was selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz for the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” program, which honors young fiction writers tapped by past National Book Award honorees. As the fiction editor for the Boston Review, Díaz had published her short story, “Hitting Budapest,” which won the Caine Prize for African Literature in 2011. That story became the first chapter of We Need New Names.
Shortly after receiving the Caine Prize, Bulawayo talked with Shelley Strock ’07, a former SMU classmate, in an interview posted on the English Department blog. In the interview Bulawayo said she did not start taking her writing seriously until she enrolled at SMU. She credited English professors David Haynes, head of SMU’s creative writing program, and Beth Newman, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program, with “getting her in line” as a student and giving her “the courage to go for it.”
Haynes did not have to wait for her book to know Bulawayo would become a literary sensation. While she was working toward her master’s degree in English, she participated in his undergraduate creative writing workshop. She had not yet adopted her pen name and was known as Elizabeth Tshele. From the first assignment she submitted to him, Haynes “knew this work was something special.
“The writing was extraordinary, not just for the quality but because of the depiction of the troubled lives of the characters in the story,” Haynes says.
Bulawayo, now a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, continued working with him for another year, producing a creative thesis for her master’s degree. In that “impressive body of fiction, she began her exploration of some of the characters and situations that eventually became We Need New Names,” Haynes says.
The novel is “stunning, deserving of all its accolades,” he says. “By reinventing the story of the relationship between immigrants/emigrants and their homes, NoViolet has made a significant contribution to the world of fiction.”
THE ‘MISCHIEVIAN’
William Joyce – author, illustrator, filmmaker and self-proclaimed “rascal” – played a special role in the 2013 Homecoming celebration. He served as grand marshal of SMU’s book-themed Homecoming parade, a salute to the University’s Year of the Library. The recipient of a 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award, he also was honored along with other Centennial History Makers at the annual DAA dinner and ceremony. During the week, he also visited two elementary schools where he read from his books and delighted the youngsters with rollicking tales from his childhood.
WJGraphic2
And, at a free community event on campus, he showed his Oscar-winning animated short, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” A world like no other came to life before 350 children and adults as the dialogue-free movie combined humor, allusions to the “The Wizard of Oz” and Hurricane Katrina, and pathos. When the lights in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center theater went up, children and adults smiled and wiped away tears.
Less than 15 minutes long, the movie encapsulates Joyce’s mammoth creative powers. “Bill’s special gift is his ability to hold onto a sense of childhood wonder,” says Sean Griffin, chair of Film and Media Arts in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. Griffin led a question-and-answer session with Joyce after the screening. “He taps into that yearning in adults to come back to that mindset, to celebrate imagination and faith in magic.”
Joyce told the audience he had always “wanted to do something with flying books.” On a trip to New York to visit his ailing mentor, the late publisher Bill Morris, he wrote Morris Lessmore with his friend in mind.
Although it was originally planned as a book, it first became a movie, the debut film of Moonbot Studios, a multimedia startup he helped found in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Mischievians, William Joyce’s new book, is a field guide to the secret world  of the Remote Toter, the Sock Stalker and other mischievous characters.
The Mischievians, William Joyce’s new book, is a field guide to the secret world of the Remote Toter, the Sock Stalker and other mischievous characters.

In a 2011 profile, The Atlantic called Moonbot Studios the “Pixar for the iPad age.” One of Moonbot’s latest projects, “The Scarecrow,” made headlines when it captured more than 7 million views on YouTube in September. Moonbot collaborated with Chipotle Mexican Grill on the short film and companion mobile game app that supports the restaurant chain’s “Food with Integrity” focus on responsible agriculture.
Joyce’s two latest books are The Mischievians, a pictorial guide to the sock thieves lurking in dryers and other mischief-makers, and The Sandman and the War of Dreams, the fourth chapter book in his The Guardians of Childhood series. They demonstrate the artistic versatility that he traces, in part, to his time as an
SMU student.
“I started taking journalism classes and worked for The Daily Campus. I learned how to tell a story quickly and succinctly,” he said. “In Meadows, all of the arts are in the same building. So you see it and feel it and soak it up. That fed my curiosity and imagination. It showed me that art does not have to have boundaries.”
PLAYING FAIR AND SQUARE
As the chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) since 2007, Travis Tygart has taken on professional cycling’s Goliath – seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his powerful entourage. Tygart’s thorough investigation of the athlete’s use of banned performance-enhancing substances over a period of years ended in Armstrong’s disgrace. The cyclist eventually admitted to doping, was stripped of his titles and banished from the sport.
T'ygartGraphic2Tygart, who earned a Juris Doctor with Order of the Coif honors from SMU’s Dedman School of Law in 1999, was on campus August 26 for lectures on “Playing Fair and Winning: An Inside View on Ethics, Values and Integrity from the Lance Armstrong Case.” He talked to students and faculty at the law school and later spoke as the Delta Gamma Lecturer in Values and Ethics at an event co-sponsored by SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.
In introducing her former student, Julie Patterson Forrester, the law school’s interim dean, quoted TIME magazine, which named Tygart one of 2013’s 100 most influential people in the world: “No one would argue with the philosophy of doping-free sport, but few are willing to undertake the demanding work of identifying cheaters and imposing sanctions on them,” wrote Dick Pound, former chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency. “Score one for the good guys.”
Tygart descibes USADA’s role as protecting “clean athletes who are frustrated by being tainted” by cheaters. His commitment to that mission kept the attorney going despite death threats – two men were indicted in July following an FBI investigation – and an organized campaign to discredit him and derail his inquiry.
Travis Tygart talked about the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation of cyclist Lance Armstrong at a lecture on values and ethics at SMU.
Travis Tygart talked about the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation of cyclist Lance Armstrong at a lecture on values and ethics at SMU.

An athlete with youngsters involved in team sports, Tygart said a “win at all costs” culture has hijacked athletics on every level – from parents giving their eight-year-old energy drinks for swim meets to Armstrong’s sophisticated doping operation. “Whether you’re an athlete or running a business or practicing law, if you build on a foundation of fraud, it is all going to come down at
some point.”
Tygart joined USADA “because I wanted something bigger than myself to commit to every day.” He previously practiced sports law with a firm in Colorado. He credits his SMU education with providing “a great foundation” for his current role.
“My professors taught me to want to be a good person,” he said. “I also got a sound legal education and great experience at the legal clinics. I wrote an anti-trust paper and Title IX paper, both of which got published. All of that was good preparation when an opportunity opened up for me in sports law.”

 
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Alumni

Globe-Trotting Tenor Returns To His Meadows Roots

UPDATE: Tenor Juan José de Léon (Meadows, M.M. ’10) has been offered two roles next season with the world-renowned La Scala: Remendado in Carmen and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition, he has been offered roles in two Opéra de Paris productions: La Cenerentola in 2017 and Capriccio (date to be determined).
Dressed in a T-shirt and distressed gray jeans, Juan José de Léon ’10 stood at the front of the classroom, looking like a high-tech entrepreneur about to launch a new gadget. Instead, the tenor filled the air with a glorious thunder, the “big voice” that has earned him opera roles across the globe.

Opera tenor Juan José de Léon '10 sat in on a Meadows voice class during a visit to campus earlier this fall.
Opera tenor Juan José de Léon ’10 sat in on a voice class taught by Virginia Dupuy during a visit to Meadows earlier this fall. Photo by Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson.

De Léon returned to SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts earlier this semester to catch up with former teacher Professor of Voice Virginia Dupuy and sit in on one of her classes. He and Dupuy met after he completed a bachelor’s degree in music at the University of North Texas in 2008 and was making the rounds to find the right program for the next stage of his training.
“I had one lesson with Virginia, and she had me singing in ways I hadn’t before,” he recalled. “We hit it off. We were a good fit.”
As the students sang their assigned pieces, de Léon listened intently. He offered words of praise – “such a good job of singing in character” – and some pointers – “really focus on your diction.” The students seemed a bit intimidated by his presence, but grateful for the rare opportunity to gain constructive feedback from a rising star on the international opera scene.
His recent visit to campus occurred during a break between engagements. His next stop was the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In October he made his debut with the Met in the American premiere of Two Boys, a new opera by Nico Muhly.
Having completed a two-year residency with the Pittsburgh Opera, de Léon calls Dallas home again. He is “pretty much booked up for the next two years,” with performances in Chicago, Atlanta, Stuttgart, Sydney and other cities in the United States and abroad.
SMU Professor of Voice Virginia Dupuy at Two Boys  with (from left) producer Will Trice (The Glass Menagerie, Porgy and Bess); SMU alumnus Stephen Hartley '01, covering the role of the father in the opera; Juan de Léon, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of the Congressional Page in Two Boys; and entrepreneur Trey Pratt.
SMU Professor of Voice Virginia Dupuy at Two Boys with (from left) producer Will Trice (The Glass Menagerie, Porgy and Bess); SMU alumnus Stephen Hartley ’01, covering the role of the father in the opera; Juan de Léon, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of the Congressional Page in Two Boys; and entrepreneur Trey Pratt.

“I don’t have to live in New York; I just need to be close to a major airport,” he joked.
Earlier this year, he was a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and performed in the American debut of “I Sing Beijing” at Lincoln Center. He spent the summer performing with the renowned Wolf Trap Opera Company in Virginia.
Among other accolades, de Léon was a winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition in 2010 and made his Dallas Opera debut in 2011 in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.
As a Meadows graduate student, he participated in the Dallas Opera/SMU Emerging Artists Program, presenting the “Opera in a Box: Follow Your Dreams” touring arts program to schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Such programs, which introduce opera to new generations, are crucial to the future of opera, he said.
“Opera is very much alive,” he said. “Companies are finding new ways to bring in younger patrons. At Pittsburgh, we had an outreach program for younger children and performed for 3,000 kids. They went crazy; it was like a rock concert.
“It’s gratifying when audiences are so engaged,” he added. “Their enthusiasm is contagious; you give back even more when you perform.”

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Alumni

Alumni Create New Possibilities For Special Needs Adults

Michael Thomas '06
Michael Thomas ’06

With academic backgrounds in art, business, philosophy and psychology, the four SMU alumni seemed unlikely to have intersecting career paths. However, Michael Thomas ’06, Megan McCann ’99, Casey Parrott ’08 and Elizabeth Romo ’86 have found a common denominator in My Possibilities.
My Possibilities is a nonprofit educational day program for adults with special needs who have “aged out” and are no longer eligible for special education programs provided by school districts, explains Thomas, executive director of the five-year-old program.
The 11,200-square-foot facility in Plano is the first of its kind in Collin County, he says. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and provides year-round programs for about 140 students each day. Vocational training, independent living skills development and socialization opportunities prepare students for full lives in the community.
Megan McCann '99
Megan McCann ’99

For Thomas, McCann and Parrott, the path to My Possibilities started at SMU.
Thomas, who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from SMU’s Dedman College, worked with Special Olympics through his fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon. The volunteer experience helped steer him toward a career in the nonprofit sector. After graduation, he worked for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and other nonprofits in Texas and Nevada before joining My Possibilities.
McCann, a speech therapist, worked with Best Buddies International while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology at SMU. The volunteer organization promotes friendship with and employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Casey Parrott '08
Casey Parrott ’08

With a degree in studio art from Meadows School of the Arts, Parrott uses his artistic talents to help the students on several levels.
“We’re trying to teach them artistic skills to allow them to express who they are,” he says. “At the same time, it teaches interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and helps develop their motor skills.”
Romo has an even more personal connection to her work. “My husband and I have a 19-year-old child with a cognitive disorder, so that’s what really drew me to this organization,” she says.
She earned a B.B.A. from the Cox School of Business and worked in commercial real estate finance before leaving to raise three children. At the nonprofit, she specializes in resource development, using skills she honed over 17 years of volunteer service with various organizations.
Elizabeth Romo '86
Elizabeth Romo ’86
With the holidays approaching, the team is gearing up for its third North Texas Great Santa Run December 14 in Plano. In the spirit of the season, participants don Santa suits instead of event T-shirts for the 5K run or 1-mile walk. In addition to the run, there will be family-friendly entertainment, including a magic show by SMU alumnus Trigg Watson ’12.
“It’s more about the fun than the run,” Romo says.
About 4,000 people are expected at the event. All proceeds will benefit My Possibilities.
For Thomas, there’s an extra bit of pride involved when he thinks about sharing the experience with his fellow Mustangs.
“It has been gratifying to welcome more alumni to My Possibilities,” he says. “When a résumé comes across the table, it’s nice to think about extending our SMU family.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11 

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Alumni

Entrepreneurial Alumna Shaping Local Food Truck History

Ashlee Hunt Kleinert ’88, the culinary entrepreneur behind Ruthie’s Rolling Café food trucks, connects her career trajectory to her University education.

Ashlee Hunt Kleinert '88
Ashlee Hunt Kleinert ’88

“I love knowing why something happened and all the things we can learn from the past: what we can repeat and what shouldn’t be repeated,” says Kleinert, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from SMU and was a Dedman College Scholar.
She says lessons imparted by the late Glenn Linden, a favorite professor, still resonate with her today. “He taught me that history applies to everything and that we can use information gleaned from studying the past to shape the future.”
The analytical skills she developed as a student served her well in her latest venture. Kleinert started down the food truck route in 2010 when she contemplated their use at the charity galas and other large functions she designed through In Any Event, her special events planning company. After hearing more about food trucks at a national events conference, she was sold.
In an interview published in September in D CEO magazine, Kleinert admitted that her father, Ray L. Hunt ’65, was skeptical when she introduced her idea. Hunt, a well-known Dallas business and civic leader who serves on the SMU Board of Trustees, is now a huge fan.
The first Ruthie’s Rolling Café hit the streets of Dallas in 2011, just as the food-struck scene was gearing up. Kleinert’s grandmother inspired the name and the concept.
Ruthie's Rolling Café on campus
Ruthie’s Rolling Café on campus

“My grandmother’s name was Ruth. We’d go to her house and stay up late and talk and make grilled cheese,” she says. “So, we started with grilled cheese because we were trying to think of something that appeals to everyone; we wanted to be nostalgic and comforting. And we’re not gourmet cooks, so it felt authentic and real.”
Ruthie’s made-to-order sandwiches cover the grilled-cheese spectrum from The Classic – American cheese on sourdough bread – to The Truffle Shuffle – roast beef, white truffle oil, arugula and mozzarella on sourdough bread.
Since the business took off, Kleinert has phased out In Any Event to focus her full attention on the expanding fleet. The busy mother of three also manages a nonprofit, Executives in Action, which she formed with husband Chris in 2009. The group connects transitioning business executives with nonprofits in need of their expertise.
In addition to the original pink-and-blue truck, there is Ruthie’s Rolling Café Too, which also serves grilled-cheese specialties, and Ruthie’s Rolling Crêperie, billed as “French cuisine, Texas style: big and hearty,” featuring sweet and savory crêpes.
The Ruthie’s trucks are regulars on the SMU campus as part of the Tuesday and Thursday food truck rotation, as well as Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas, the Truck Yard on Lower Greenville Avenue and other local hot spots.
“Every time we go out, it’s like a little mini event,” Kleinert says. “The creativity and variety – every day is different – really appeals to me.”
— Sarah Bennett  ’11
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Played Key Role In ‘Two-Buck Chuck’ Creation

Specialty grocer Trader Joe’s gained fame with its “Two-Buck Chuck” wine deal, which SMU alumnus Scott Toalson ’85 helped create.

After Scott Toalson '85 helped create Trader Joe's "Two-Buck Chuck," he retired to his hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
After Scott Toalson ’85 helped create Trader Joe’s “Two-Buck Chuck,” he retired to his hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Toalson played a key role in launching the popular vino while working for Bronco Wine Company in California. Trader Joe’s approached the vintner for a well-priced wine to sell in its stores, which were mainly located on the West Coast at the time. Bronco pegged its Charles Shaw label as filling the bill.
As the quality assurance lead, Toalson helped refine many details of the project, including the colors of the labels.
“I got lucky. I was at the right place at the right time,” he says. “When you do something you enjoy every day, it’s not really going to work.”
In 2002 Charles Shaw wines debuted in Trader Joe’s. Priced at $1.99 per bottle, the red and white varietals were hits and quickly gained the moniker “Two-Buck Chuck.” Although the price now hovers above its original “two bucks,” the wine remains among the supermarket chain’s best sellers. Since its introduction, more than 600 million bottles have been sold.
With its blockbuster introduction at Trader Joe’s, the value of the Charles Shaw label quadrupled, Toalson says. “I was offered two options: take a lump sum and stay on with the company or take an annuity with lifetime benefits,” he explains. He chose the annuity and headed back to his native Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to care for family members.
Toalson studied business management at the Cox School of Business and credits his SMU background with opening doors that led to the trajectory of his career. Bronco’s manager of development had a brother who graduated from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, so she appreciated the value of an SMU education, he says. “I got hired because I went to SMU.”
A loyal Mustang, Toalson remembers first seeing the campus as a child while visiting an aunt in Highland Park and deciding SMU was the University for him.
“I’m very proud,” he says. “Everybody in town knows who I am because I drive down the avenue with my big ol’ SMU sticker.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11
 

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Alumni

Karen Hughes Honored As Dedman College Distinguished Graduate

Political and corporate strategist Karen Hughes ’77 was honored with SMU’s 2013 Dedman College Distinguished Graduate Award October 10.

Karen Hughes (left) with the Hon. Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, Texas House of Representatives, and SMU Trustee Jeanne Tower Cox '78, who serves on the board of the Tower Center for Political Studies.
Karen Hughes (left) with the Hon. Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, Texas House of Representatives, and SMU Trustee Jeanne Tower Cox ’78, who serves on the board of the Tower Center for Political Studies.

Named by The Associated Press as “perhaps the most influential woman ever to serve an American president,” Hughes earned bachelor’s degrees in English and journalism from SMU. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
Hughes’ ability to manage public policy, communications and politics helped brand George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservative” image, lending to the success of his gubernatorial campaigns beginning in 1994 and his subsequent campaigns for president.
From 2001-2002 Hughes served as strategic adviser to President Bush on policy and communications, managing all communications, speech writing and media affairs for the White House. She served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2005-2007.
In accepting the award from Dedman College, Hughes called a liberal arts education “foundational” and credited SMU with preparing her for “working at the White House and in the State Department, representing our country around the world.
“What I learned here was the best possible preparation for those roles,” she said.
Two SMU professors, in particular, made a lasting impression. She spoke about the influences of the late Laurence Perrine and his English poetry class, where she “learned much more than word usage and rhyme,” and Joseph Tyson and his philosophy of religion course, where she “learned what motivates people to think and act as they do, invaluable training for the State Department.
“I don’t believe one specific thing that we talked about in those classes ever came up in a White House meeting, yet everything I learned in those classes prepared me for every White House meeting,” she said. “I learned how to think, evaluate arguments, test logic, analyze complex situations and use words in new and different ways to convey my thoughts and ideas effectively.”
Tyson, now SMU professor emeritus of religious studies, was among the guests at the awards luncheon.
Hughes said she was encouraged to “think, explore and discover” at SMU. “I am so grateful because that has made my entire life so much richer.”
Now based in Austin, Hughes is worldwide vice chair of the public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller, advising global business leaders on communications and branding strategies. She also serves on the board of SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies in Dedman College.
Hughes is the author of Ten Minutes From Normal (Viking, 2004), which highlights her time in the inner circle of President George W. Bush, with whom she co-wrote A Charge to Keep (William Morrow, 1999).
In her personal life, Hughes is an elder in the Presbyterian church and has been a longtime Sunday school teacher. She is married to attorney Jerry Hughes and they have two children, Leigh and Robert.

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Alumni

London-Based Alumna Launches Organization To Fight Poverty

As an SMU senior, Adina Salehi Belloli ’02 channeled her passion for helping children into action by forming Care For Kids. The nonprofit organization, which she started with best friend Mica Odom ’03, held events to raise money for local children’s charities.

SMU alumna Adina Belloli '02 with husband Giorgio, son Nico and daughter Luna.
SMU alumna Adina Belloli ’02 with husband Giorgio, son Nico and daughter Luna.

More than a decade later, Belloli’s work still focuses on improving the lives of children. Now living in London with her husband, daughter and son, Belloli is preparing to launch Invisible, a non-governmental organization (NGO).
“We named the organization Invisible because children in poverty are made to feel invisible by society,” she explains. “But we see them; we stand with them.”
Invisible’s purpose is to provide “hope and resources for those without life’s essentials,” she adds.
Since earning a degree in psychology from SMU and a master’s degree in international health care, public policy and economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Belloli has served in various capacities with other NGOs, including the Cure2Children Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO). Those experiences provided the push she needed to take the next step.
“It was while doing research for the WHO that I realized I wanted to get back to doing more grassroots development and decided to utilize my knowledge and network to launch my own international NGO,” she says.
Invisible aims to help struggling communities create sustainable programs to address such needs as clean water delivery, health care improvements, alternative income development and access to education. “We work to build strong relationships with and obtain commitments from local governments, ministries of education, and community leadership,” she explains.
“We only work in communities to which we have been invited and rely heavily on the guidance of community members to select and prioritize the most appropriate projects,” she adds. “The program is designed to empower communities to break the cycle of poverty and support themselves over the long term.”
The first program will start this month in Quezon City, Philippines. The nation’s most populous city, which adjoins the capital city of Manila, was spared the worst of the recent Typhoon Haiyan, but the needs of thousands living in poverty are great. The NGO will take its cues from locals in shaping the scope of the project, she says.
Belloli says she called on her SMU network – she stays in touch with 10 close friends and several professors – for advice before launching Invisible. “SMU definitely helped me to get where I am today.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11 

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Alumni

SMU-in-Spain Experience Reunites Alumni During Homecoming

For SMU alumnus Kent Hofmeister ’73, ’76, studying abroad as a student through SMU-in-Spain was a life-changing experience. Forty years later, he gathered former classmates for a trip down memory lane at an SMU-in-Spain Mini Reunion during Homecoming Weekend.

Kent Hofmeister '73, '76 (seated on the grass in the foreground) organized the SMU-in-Spain Mini Reunion held during Homecoming Weekned.
Kent Hofmeister ’73, ’76 (seated on the grass in the foreground) organized the SMU-in-Spain Mini Reunion held during Homecoming Weekend.

Hofmeister, an attorney and founding partner of Brown & Hofmeister in Dallas, was already serving as co-chair for the Class of 1973’s Centennial Reunion when he decided to organize the Mustang Mini Reunion. The “minis” are alumni-driven gatherings that bring together classmates who shared a distinctive connection while at SMU.
“People were absolutely thrilled with the idea,” says Hofmeister, who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Meadows School of the Arts and a Juris Doctor from Dedman School of Law. “They’d say things like, ‘I can’t believe you’re calling me! That’s wonderful!’”
With alumni showing such keen interest, he quickly assembled an unofficial committee. Tobie Hayes Sasser ’73, ’74 jumped on board to host while Sally DeWitt Spurgin ’74 took charge of nametags.
Barry Hobbs ’73 and wife Gwen Dawson Hobbs ’74 volunteered to do a slideshow of old photos, and Hofmeister contributed video footage of street life in Madrid and surrounding villages. The multimedia presentation was a hit with the SMU-in-Spain alumni, he says. “People were amazed to see photos of themselves at that time.”
Approximately 40 students who studied in Spain in spring 1972 attended the get-together October 25.
Even those who couldn’t make it to the party had an opportunity to participate. Hofmeister had sent a short questionnaire to everyone before the event and compiled the answers in a scrapbook format. “That was really fun,” he says, as it conjured up memories from his time abroad as well as from his days on the SMU campus.
Hofmeister and his fellow celebrants are among the more than 2,000 alumni of the SMU-in-Spain program. Established in 1969, it is the University’s longest-running education abroad program.
While reconnecting and reminiscing was the main focus of the mini reunion, the event also served a philanthropic purpose with a Spanish flavor: Hofmeister led the “Goya Gives” drive, which raised about $5,500 for the Meadows Museum from the alumni group.
When he thinks back to his semester abroad, Hofmeister recalls being out of the country for the first time without cell phones or email to keep in touch. His memories of riding trains from Madrid to Barcelona, hitchhiking with buddies to castles, monasteries and caves, and taking a ferry into Morocco remain vivid. But what makes those recollections so special are the SMU alumni who share them.
“This was a special experience and a special group of people, and, collectively, everybody felt that way,” he says, “I don’t want to sound corny, but bringing the group back together was a labor of love.”
— Sarah Bennett ’11

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Alumni

Meet Clint Carmichael ’10: Chicago Alumni Chapter President

Clint Carmichael '10, president of the SMU Alumni Chapter in Chicago
Clint Carmichael ’10, president of the SMU Alumni Chapter in Chicago

Clint Carmichael ’10 recalls his years at SMU as “an incredible and meaningful experience.” Those great memories have motivated him to stay connected to his alma mater as an active member of SMU Alumni in Chicago, where he now serves as chapter president.
Carmichael, who grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL, earned a degree in finance from the Cox School of Business before launching his career. He’s currently an associate at Glencoe/Stockwell Capital and is pursuing Chartered Financial Analyst certification.
“Glencoe Capital is a private equity firm that acquires lower-middle market companies. Stockwell Capital is owned by Glencoe and does private equity co-investment,” he explains. “I conduct financial analyses on potential buyout opportunities for Glencoe and monitor the financial performance of the companies in which Stockwell has invested.”
Despite his hectic schedule, he makes sure to carve out time for chapter events. Coming up in Chicago are a Campaign Celebration for alumni, parents and friends October 9, and the Stampede of Service October 19, when alumni will volunteer at the Chicago Park District’s Northerly Island Adventure Day.
Carmichael recently shared some of his favorite Mustang moments and thoughts about his student experience with SMU Magazine:
A favorite SMU memory?
Freshman year tailgate for the SMU/UAB game on Halloween. My roommate and I made some funny costumes and were matched by many other great outfits on the Boulevard before the game. SMU also won, which is a plus.
A favorite SMU class and/or professor and why?
I have to name two professors. First, Mark Frost, my micro- and macroeconomics teacher. I am sure every college has a few professors who boast about the difficulty of their class on the first day and recommend dropping it to those looking for an easy B. Frost wasn’t boasting; he was giving away valuable advice. For the first test, I studied for 12 hours and got a 32 (out of 115). I was disheartened, but I decided to stay in the class. Frost had an unorthodox way of looking at the world; he stretched the class to see different perspectives and somehow related economics in an effective way. I looked forward to every lecture and encouraged a few of my friends to sit in on some of them. My test grades improved, and I passed both micro- and macroeconomics with an A, a new way of thinking, and a solid grasp of the subjects. I continue to be fascinated with economics, and I give Mark Frost much of the credit.
The second is Ashley O’Neill, my Rhetoric 1 and 2 teacher. I was a terrible writer when I entered college. Terrible. She was a skilled teacher and broke down writing into fundamentals that even I could understand. She also put in many extra office hours with me and brought my writing skills up to a manageable standard. Thanks to SMU for making rhetoric a mandatory class. I can now craft Shakespearean two-line emails.
How did your SMU education prepared you for your career?
Very well. The Cox School of Business gave me a well-rounded basis for different aspects of business; my psychology minor expanded my knowledge in a subject in which I was very interested; and the liberal arts requirements forced me to take interesting classes I would not have otherwise chosen. SMU also does a good job of connecting students with alumni for job opportunities.
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Helps Improve Economic Opportunities In Costa Rica

SMU alumnus Jonathan “Jonás” Lane ’09 calls his three years in the Peace Corps “an internship in life itself.”

Jonathan Lane (left) with children showing off their artwork created in conjunction with a river clean-up project.
Jonathan Lane (left) with children showing off their artwork created in conjunction with a river clean-up project.

Lane, who graduated from the Cox School of Business with a degree in finance, serves as a volunteer leader for community economic development in San José, Costa Rica. He says the Peace Corps may not be for everyone, but in his experience, it definitely lives up to its reputation as “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”
“If you are prepared for a challenge that is as personal as it is professional, and as globally meaningful as it is personally enriching, then brace yourself,” he says. “This is as real as it gets, in the best possible way, and I am assuredly all the better for it.”
His role in the Peace Corp’s central office in the capital city encompasses training, technical support, project strategy development and a multitude of other services for volunteers in the field.
In the previous two years, while fulfilling his regular term of service, Lane put his business and finance background to work as an economic development facilitator in a community of 4,800 people located almost two hours south of San José.
“I worked primarily on three tiers of economic development: first, preparing a qualified labor force and teaching skills to improve employability; second, stimulating entrepreneurship and better business practices; and finally, fomenting the development of and offering organizational consulting to economic associations and institutions, as well as national enterprise networking opportunities.”
A Peace Corps posting in Costa Rica has provided Jonathan Lane with an opportunity to travel in Central and South America. Here he is on a visit to Lake Nicaragua's Ometepe Island.
A Peace Corps posting in Costa Rica has provided Jonathan Lane with an opportunity to travel in Central and South America. Here he is on a visit to Lake Nicaragua’s Ometepe Island.

Under his guidance, the community formed a Chamber of Commerce and Tourism; created a community-owned and -operated Community Credit Union and a rural tourism cooperative; and organized a National Rural Tourism Symposium that included some 11 communities from across Costa Rica. He also served as an organizational and commercial development consultant for a women’s artisan group.
When his initial Peace Corps stint ended in December 2012, Lane signed up for an extra year, which has been extended to June 2014. “To be honest, I couldn’t be happier,” he says.
Lane’s path to service in Central America started at SMU.
While an undergraduate, he was a man for all seasons: a President’s Scholar, manager of the men’s swimming and diving teamStudent Senate Chief of Staff, a member of Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity and a Hilltop Ambassador and campus tour guide, to name just a few of his affiliations and activities.
He spent the summer of 2007 at SMU-in-Oxford followed by a semester of study with SMU-in-Spain and a semester with SMU-in-Australia, opportunities that had a game-changing impact on his future. He credits a host of SMU staff and faculty supporters with helping him find the ideal intersection of his desire to use his academic foundation in a consequential way with living abroad and two mentors, in particular, for steering him toward the Peace Corps.
“When I was considering post-graduation options, Dr. Tom Tunks [professor of music], who was an assistant provost and director of the President’s Scholars at the time, told me a great deal about his experience serving in the Peace Corps with his wife in Colombia in the 1960s,” he recalls. “And, Susan Kress [director of Engaged Learning], then the director of SMU Abroad, talked to me about her service as a volunteer in Malaysia.
“While they both helped me distill my vision for my future ­– professionally, personally, spiritually – ­it was their strength of character, their emotional maturity and their global perspective that truly convinced me that the path to international service in the Peace Corps was exactly what I needed to fill the hole left by my profound experiences of living and studying abroad.”
– Patricia Ward
 
 

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Alumni

Carl Pankratz: Rising Star In Business And Public Service

Carl Pankratz ’03, ’06, city councilman for the City of Rowlett, Texas, and vice president/legal counsel for Capital Title, was recently named to the Dallas Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list of the area’s top young business executives and entrepreneurs. The rising stars are recognized for their work both professionally and in the community.

CarlPankratzheadshot
Carl Pankratz ’03, ’06

Pankratz specializes in closing industrial, multi-family, office and retail properties, as a commercial escrow officer; oversees the real estate firm’s legal department; and manages more than 200 employees.
His service to the community of Rowlett, the growing city in northeast Dallas County that he calls home, is equally multidimensional.
Active in civic affairs, he was elected to the Rowlett City Council in June 2011, having previously been a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment. He has drafted several key ordinances, including an ordinance to reserve oil and gas rights for the city and a program that requires outside vendors to carry a “pink badge” when soliciting homes. Currently, he is drafting an oil and gas drilling ordinance.
He also is co-founder of the Rowlett Association of Non-Profits, a network of more than 100 arts, service and support organizations.
A passionate champion of and participant in the arts, Pankratz has starred in more than eight productions with the Amateur Community Theatre of Rowlett and has been selected for the Texas Ballet Theater’s Leadership Ballet for his commitment to the performing arts.
In addition, he has been selected as one of the “Top Five Dallasites” by the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Pankratz graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Meadows School of the Arts. He earned a Juris Doctor from Dedman School of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Team and National Mock Trial Team, and founded the SMU Dedman School of Law Sports and Entertainment Law Association.
The busy alumnus was able to “take five” recently to share some Hilltop memories with SMU Magazine.
Did you do any acting at SMU?
I only took one acting class, The Art of Acting, and I was never in a production. But I remember being blown away by the first production I saw at Meadows as a freshman, The Threepenny Opera.
What was your favorite course/professor?
Don Umphrey [professor emeritus of advertising] and his Advertising Research class. On a smaller group project before our big final project, he gave us a lower grade than I thought we deserved. He and I had a passionate discussion about it before I took the group and decamped to the library. For the next two weeks, we worked almost around the clock on that final project. When we turned it in, he said it was the best he’d seen in 20 years of teaching the class. He was the first professor to challenge me in that way, and it was really motivating.
What is your favorite SMU memory?
I’ll never forget the feeling of being part of the first Mustang football team to play in Ford Stadium. [Pankratz was a field goal kicker for two years.] Running through the tunnel, the energy, the excitement. It was amazing.
How did your undergraduate experience prepare you for the road ahead?
The advertising degree program gives you a great foundation, regardless of where you go with it. You have to present frequently, and the more you do it, the more polished and confident you become. Public speaking is a valuable asset for your toolbox in any field.
What do you value most as an SMU alumnus?
As a commercial real estate attorney, I attend a lot of networking functions, and at almost every event, the vast majority of the successful professionals there are SMU alumni. The distinction of being part of this large network of people who excel in their fields is a priceless opportunity. Success breeds success.

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Alumni

SMU Alumna’s Dazzling Designs Win Spot In Belk Showcase

Jewelry designer Ali Howell '86 was among 13 winners of the Belk Southern Designers Showcase.
Jewelry designer Ali Howell ’86 is among 13 winners of the Belk Southern Designer Showcase.

Jewelry maker Ali Howell ’86 is among 13 winners of the second annual Belk Southern Designer Showcase. Howell, the founder and designer of ali & bird jewelry, was selected from nearly 300 entrants. Her pieces will be sold in Belk department stores throughout the country and online in spring 2014.
Howell, an Atlanta resident, started ali & bird in 2009. She describes her original pieces as “affordable statement jewelry that reflect current fashion and color trends, bringing modern flair to classic looks.” The jewelry is handcrafted with semi-precious stones in the United States and is sold by more than 75 retailers.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Howell dived into the design realm as an SMU student when she landed a summer job in the Dallas Market Center showroom of a friend’s mother. “That led to an internship and a job offer after graduation,” she says.
After earning degrees in advertising and psychology from SMU, she moved to New York City where she launched a career in visual merchandising. Howell’s talent for mixing bold colors and classic designs served her well as the creative force behind the marketing, showroom displays and advertising campaigns for Herend USA, a fine china company, for 10 years.
At first, jewelry making was strictly a hobby. “I’ve always been a creative person, and when a friend started making jewelry, I watched her and asked her to show me a few things. I got hooked,” says Howell. “I made a several pieces, and every time I would wear one, people would ask where I got it.”
Shark Tank panelist Barbara Corcoran wears an ali & bird necklace.
Shark Tank panelist Barbara Corcoran wearing ali & bird jewelry.

Bucking conventional wisdom, Howell took a chance on her own business just as a recession gripped the global economy. As it turns out, her timing was perfect. She found that while women weren’t investing in new clothes, they were buying distinctive, well-priced jewelry to freshen last year’s looks.
Celebrity fans of her line include Barbara Corcoran, real estate expert and Shark Tank panelist, and Maria Cardona, political strategist and CNN contributor.
Howell’s company is truly a family business. She designs and creates the pieces in her home studio with the help of several assistants and off-site “stringers.” Her 12-year-old daughter, Lindsey, also known as “Bird,” not only lends her nickname to the enterprise but also a hand in making the jewelry. In addition to his job in the corporate world, husband Ward handles marketing for ali & bird. The Howells also have a nine-year-old son.
As a winner of the Belk designer competition, Howell looks forward to introducing her jewelry to new Dallas customers when the retailer debuts its 170,000-square-foot flagship store in the Galleria mall. When she’s here for the opening next spring, a trip to the Hilltop will be on her to-do list.
“Whenever I’m in Dallas, I try to make it back to campus,” Howell says. “SMU was a great place for me. I feel I got a good education and started on a path that has led me to where I am today.”
– Patricia Ward
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumna Drives The Local Food-Truck Scene

EXCERPT

The following story about entrepreneur and SMU alumna Ashlee Hunt Kleinert ’88 appears in D CEO, September 2013. Kleinert’s food truck, Ruthie’s Rolling Café, is a regular on campus at Food Truck Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as special events.

Ruthie’s Rolling Café’s Entrepreneurial Appetite

By Carol Shih

Ruthie's Rolling Café at SMU for Food Truck Thursday, September 12.
Ruthie’s Rolling Café at SMU September 12.

When Ashlee Hunt Kleinert told her father four years ago that she wanted to start a food-truck business, Ray L. Hunt couldn’t believe what he was hearing. At first he thought she was talking about those vehicles that visit construction sites and sell frozen and prepackaged foods. Hunt, heir of oil tycoon H. L. Hunt and CEO of Hunt Consolidated, knows the energy business inside and out. But a restaurant on wheels? What was that? And why would anyone stand in line instead of going to a brick-and-mortar restaurant for a nice meal?
Kleinert’s father wasn’t the only one who wondered why the mother of three wanted to get into the food-truck business. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, Kleinert had never taken a business class. Still, the energetic blonde had founded an events company (In Any Event) and co-founded a nonprofit (Executives in Action). She was inspired to get into the business after hearing at an events convention that food trucks were projected to become a hot new trend.
As it turns out, Kleinert had excellent timing. Ruthie’s Rolling Café hit the road in August 2011, right when the food-truck scene was just about to explode. The blue and pink truck bears the name of her grandmother, Ruth. …
Read the full story and see photos 
See the campus food truck schedule here

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Alumni

SMU Alumni’s Stylish Start-up Connects Content To Commerce

EXCERPT

The following story about SMU alumna Amber Venz ’08 and Baxter Box ’11, who holds an M.B.A. from SMU’s Cox School of Business, is from the September 2, 2013, edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Dallas start-up puts together fashion bloggers, shoppers and retailers

By Hanah Cho

Personal stylist Amy Wells Havins dishes on her latest fashion picks and catalogs her outfits on her blog Dallas Wardrobe.
With a few clicks, her readers can purchase those Gap shorts or that Marc Jacobs bag featured on the blog. With every online sale, Havins gets a commission.
“Maybe someone doesn’t hire me to take them shopping. [But] they shop with me online,” said Havins, 27.
Driving the sales engine behind thousands of fashion and lifestyle bloggers like Havins is Dallas-based rewardStyle.
The 2-year-old start-up provides the back-end platform that not only helps bloggers make money from their content but also drives sales to retailers.

RewardStyle expects to drive nearly $150 million in sales to its retail partners by the end of the year, said Amber Venz, co-founder and president. The projection is two to three times the revenue its style publishers generated for retailers a year ago, Venz said.
“As the numbers show, these content creators are driving a lot of commerce,” said Venz, 26. “Retailers understand that. That’s why they’re willing to pay for it.”
The startup has attracted 2,500 U.S. and international retailers. They include well-known brands such as Neiman Marcus, Fossil and Shopbop. …
> Read the full story and see a related photo.
> Read an interview with Amber Venz from Meadows School of the Arts.

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Alumni

SMU Alumna And Earth Sciences Research Faculty Member Named Researcher Of The Year

Mihan House McKenna ’05, a research geophysicist with the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL) at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Miss., is the recipient of the 2013 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Researcher of the Year Award.

Mihan House McKenna '05
Mihan House McKenna ’05

McKenna received her doctorate in geophysics from SMU’s Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and now holds the position of research faculty member. She maintains an interest in applied research and academics at SMU through her joint supervision of graduate students and service on dissertation committees, according to Brian Stump, Claude C. Albritton Professor of Earth Sciences, who supervised McKenna’s thesis research.

McKenna’s achievement comes as no surprise to Stump. “She reaches out to understand a variety of technologies, and then finds innovative ways to apply them,” he says.

After earning her doctorate, McKenna joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pursue infrasound research. Infrasound refers to sound that is below the frequency band audible to the human ear and can travel great distances. Scientists measure low-frequency acoustic waves as they move through the atmosphere to monitor many different types of natural and man-made events. Such events can range from shallow earthquakes to volcanic eruptions to nuclear explosions to meteorites passing through the atmosphere. Infrasound study also plays a role in many other research spheres, from cardiology to animal communication.

McKenna’s current investigations apply infrasound experimental techniques, mapping and numerical analysis using high-performance computing to create complex 3D models of structures. The models are used to evaluate the health of buildings, bridges and other structures without having to physically examine them.

Mihan House McKenna ’05 accepts the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Researcher of the Year Award from David Pittman, director of the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, U.S Army Engineer Research and Development Center.
Mihan House McKenna ’05 accepts the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Researcher of the Year Award from David Pittman, director of the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, U.S Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

“All structures ‘sing’, but we cannot hear the vibrations because the frequencies are below what humans can perceive,” says McKenna, who is also a federally certified bridge inspector as well as a registered professional geologist. “Using the naturally emitted, low-frequency structural acoustics (infrasound), engineers are now able to assess condition, capacity and holistic behavior of large, critical structures from distances of 10 or more kilometers by listening to the music these structures create.”

This type of remote monitoring has many potential applications, from tactical route reconnaissance for the military to evaluating the safety of civilian structures.

McKenna’s area of expertise supports tactical decision making for deployed military expeditionary forces. She directs the Remote Assessment of Critical Infrastructure working group at ERDC, which has research projects with the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Defense Intelligence Agency, Los Alamos National Laboratory and academic institutions. She supports several ongoing Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) programs related to national security.

As an SMU graduate student from 1999 to 2005, she merged her undergraduate interests in physics, acoustics and music with geophysics in the form of infrasound research, comments Robert T. Gregory, chair of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College. “Mihan came to SMU with a strong background in physics from Georgetown University where she was also an accomplished musician, which helped spark her interest in acoustics.”

As a graduate student, McKenna served as a research assistant supported by funding from the U.S. Air Force. She also excelled in the classroom/laboratory as a teaching assistant in earth science courses. Among the undergraduate courses she assisted with were Stump’s “Earthquakes and Volcanoes” and Gregory’s “Solar System” classes.

At SMU she conducted research in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and currently serves as an advisory member of the U.S. and International Infrasound Working Groups for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, Austria.
– Patricia Ward
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Travis Tygart To Discuss ‘Playing Fair & Winning’

 

Travis Tygert
Travis Tygart

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, an SMU Dedman School of Law alumnus who led the investigation into the doping case against cyclist Lance Armstrong, will speak at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium at 7 p.m. Aug. 27.
Tygart will discuss “Playing Fair & Winning: An Inside View on Ethics, Value and Integrity” at a public event sponsored by the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility as part of this year’s Delta Gamma Lecture in Value and Ethics hosted by SMU’s Alpha Upsilon chapter. The event is free and open to the public, but guests must RSVP online or by calling 214-768-4255.
Read the complete story here.
Hear his Aug. 19 interview on “Think” audio.

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Brings Dance Company To Dallas

EXCERPT

The following story about SMU alumnus Joshua Peugh ’06 is from the August 15, 2013, edition of Pegasus News.

South Korean Transplant Expands ‘Seoul-searching’ Dance Group To Dallas

By Tiney Ricciardi
FORT WORTH — Dance can be both an objective and subjective art form. Depending on the style and execution, some productions allow being taken at face value. Others are meant to address deep, and often times uncomfortable, societal issues.
Ask lifelong dancer and choreographer Joshua Peugh. As co-founder and artistic director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance Company, Peugh has made a career out of defining the difference between entertainment and art. This new to North Texas troupe, a secondary branch of the company that Peugh established in Seoul, South Korea, will be making its stateside debut at Hardy and Betty Sanders Theatre in September.

A native of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Peugh, 29, began taking tap and ballet classes at age three. He continued his classical training through high school and, upon graduating, pursued degrees in both dance and English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
College was Peugh’s first experience in the world of modern dance. He was required to take up to three classes every week to satisfy his curriculum. All the while, Peugh said he maintained his status as a classical ballet dancer, though the contemporary style continually grew on him.
Read the full story and see related photos.
 
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Named To ‘40 Under 40’ Business Leaders List

Six SMU alumni have been named to the Dallas Business Journal’s annual “40 Under 40” list of professionals under age 40 who are making their marks on the business world:
Gabriella Draney ’03/Tech Wildcatters

Gabriella Draney '03
Gabriella Draney ’03

Gabriella Draney is co-founder and managing partner of Tech Wildcatters, a mentor-driven incubator for tech start-ups. She received an M.B.A. in strategy and entrepreneurship from SMU’s Cox School of Business and worked for HP Growth Partners and Morgan Stanley before following her entrepreneurial passion. Tech Wildcatters has been named one of the “10 Hottest Start-up Incubators” by Forbes.
In June, the Dallas Observer profiled Draney among its 30 “most interesting” people of 2013 issue. In July, she was invited to participate in the first national Accelerator Demo Day sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Global Accelerator Network in Washington, D.C. According to the SBA, “accelerators provide a mentoring and networking component to help start-ups avoid pitfalls and give them the skills necessary to raise capital.”
Lacy Durham ’08/Deloitte Tax
Lacy Durham '08
Lacy Durham ’08

Lacy Durham, a tax manager with Deloitte Tax, LLP, earned an L.L.M. in taxation from SMU’s Dedman School of Law. She also holds a Juris Doctor degree from Southern University Law Center.
An active member of legal communities in Texas and Louisiana, she serves as minority director for the Texas Young Lawyers Association. She also is a member of the National Bar Association, the Dallas Bar Association, the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, the Baton Rouge Bar Association and the J.L. Turner Legal Association.
In addition, Durham serves on the advisory board for the Southwest region of the National Diversity Council and volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas and Junior Achievement.
Dan Healy ’06/Civitas Capital Group
Dan Healy '06
Dan Healy ’06

Dan Healy, a co-founder and chief executive officer of Civitas Capital Group, holds an M.B.A. from SMU’s Cox School of Business. As CEO, he is responsible for the general management of the Civitas family of specialty management and financial services companies. Healy has been responsible for the origination, financing and management of dozens of real estate investments across all property types. He also has significant experience in securities compliance.
Prior to forming Civitas, Healy served in senior executive roles with Royalton Real Estate Capital, LLC and Highland Capital Management, LP, a $30 billion alternative asset manager.
 
Matt Houston ’06/Group Excellence
Matt Houston '06
Matt Houston ’08

Matt Houston, executive director of Group Excellence, a mentor-tutoring company founded by SMU alumnus Carl Dorvil ’05, ’08, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dedman College and serves on the Young Alumni board. He has worked with Group Excellence since August 2008 where his responsibilities include the recruitment, training and management of 250 tutors, supervisors and directors providing educational programs throughout the North Texas area.
He is active in a number of civic organizations, including the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League of Greater Dallas Young Professionals. He also has served on the W.W. Samuel Early College High School Advisory Board and the Southern Dallas Leadership Task Force. He is a member of the Leadership Dallas Class of 2012.
Kevin Lavelle ’08/Mizzen + Main
Kevin Lavelle '08, speaking at TEDxSMU last fall
Kevin Lavelle ’08, speaking at TEDxSMU last fall

Kevin Lavelle, 27, founder and CEO of the clothing company Mizzen + Main, is the youngest honoree. He was a President’s Scholar at SMU and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Lyle School of Engineering. He traveled the world as a technology consultant before starting his company, Mizzen + Main, which makes high-quality dress shirts in moisture-wicking, wrinkle-free fabrics.
At TEDxSMU last fall, Lavelle talked about his goal of building a “socially responsible company” from the ground up, noting that his products are manufactured in the United States and that a portion of every sale supports charities and job programs for veterans. He was recently a panelist at the Bloomberg Conference on Alternative Investments held at the George W. Bush Presidential Center, discussing angel investing and entrepreneurship.
Carl Pankratz ’03, ’06/Capital Title
Carl Pankratz '03, '06
Carl Pankratz ’03, ’06

Carl Pankratz serves as vice president/legal counsel for Capital Title, a residential and commercial property title company, and is a member of the Rowlett City Council. He earned a bachelor’s degree from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and a Juris Doctor degree from Dedman School of Law.
At Capital Title he closes commercial real estate transactions, oversees the legal department and manages more than 200 employees. In recognition of his real estate law expertise, Pankratz was selected by the State Bar of Texas to serve on its Real Estate Forms Committee and was among 20 lawyers selected to participate in Leadership State Bar of Texas.
Active in civic affairs, Pankratz served on the City of Rowlett Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment before being elected to the city council in 2011. He also is co-founder of the Rowlett Association of Non-profits and has performed in numerous productions with the Amateur Community Theatre of Rowlett.
The SMU alumni were selected from more than 300 nominees. All “40 Under 40” honorees were featured in the Dallas Business Journal and honored at a reception August 28 in Dallas.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Alumni

Alumna Awarded South Carolina’s Highest Civilian Honor

Megan Riegel ’84 recently received South Carolina’s highest civilian honor — The Order of the Palmetto — for her work as president and CEO of the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. The award was presented by South Carolina Governor Nikki R. Haley on Tuesday, June 25, at the Peace Center in Greenville, S.C.

Megan Riegel '84
Megan Riegel ’84

The Order of the Palmetto recognizes lifetime achievements and contributions to the State of South Carolina. Riegel has headed the Peace Center since 1997.
Gov. Haley lauded Riegel’s arts leadership: “Your work with the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville demonstrates your dedication to the enrichment of South Carolina, and your advocacy for the arts will have a lasting impact on our state for years to come. In the world of making a positive difference, you have been an incredibly effective leader to those around you.”
Under Riegel’s tenure, the Peace Center has served as a catalyst for unprecedented economic development in upstate South Carolina through its diverse cultural performances and educational opportunities. The Center generates $1.1 million in annual tax revenues and has an economic impact of $25 million annually.
A 20th Anniversary Campaign that Riegel and the Peace Center board of trustees initiated in 2010 shattered its $21.5 million goal in just two years, with a total of $23 million raised to date. The campaign has funded the expansion and renovation of the Peace Center “to ensure that the stellar performing arts center continues to live up to its mission of offering the most extraordinary cultural experiences possible for patrons and visitors,” says Riegel, who holds both an M.F.A. from Meadows School of the Arts at SMU, as well as an M.B.A. from SMU’s Cox School of Business.
With the majority of the renovations complete, the Peace Center is a focal point of Greenville’s award-winning downtown and has become a popular public gathering spot.
“The Peace Center simply wouldn’t be the incredible performing arts institution it is today without Megan,” says Betty Peace Stall, a longtime Peace Center benefactor. “Her leadership and demand for excellence in programming and facilities has helped expand the vision for the Peace Center far beyond its original concept.”
Riegel oversees an annual budget of $12 million for a six-acre campus in the heart of downtown Greenville that includes eight buildings totaling 200,000 square feet. Theaters include a 2,100-seat multi-purpose concert hall, a 437-seat proscenium theater, a 140-seat cabaret, and a 1,200-seat outdoor amphitheater. Under her leadership, the Peace Center’s annual fundraising program has grown from $400,000 to $1.9 million and its annual endowment has grown from $6 million to $26 million.
The SMU alumna has spent her entire career in the performing arts industry. Prior to joining the Peace Center in 1994 as general manager and director of development, she headed up development and marketing for the Actor’s Fund of America in New York City. In addition, she has managed daily activities at the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet’s development department, the Philadelphia Drama Guild and the Curtis Institute of Music.
She started her post-SMU career at the Cleveland Play House in Cleveland, Ohio, America’s first professional regional theatre. She initially managed operations for the four-theatre complex before assuming the helm of its fundraising and development efforts.
Her professional affiliations include membership in the Performing Arts Center Consortium, the Broadway League and the Independent Presenters Network. In Greenville she has served on the boards of Child Development Services, the Greenville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Commerce Club, the Metropolitan Arts Council, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors, Greenville Forward Board of Advisors and the Warehouse Theatre.

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Alumni

Alumnus-Faculty Collaboration Yields Game-changing West Nile Research

Epidemiology and economics merged in a groundbreaking analysis of West Nile Virus data by SMU alumnus Robert Ware Haley ’67, M.D., and Tom Fomby, SMU Professor of Economics.

Medical researcher Robert Haley '67, M.D., (left) and SMU economist Tom Fomby joined forces with Dallas County health officials on a groundbreaking study of data collected during the nation's largest outbreak of West Nile Virus, which occurred in Dallas County in 2012.
Medical researcher Robert Haley ’67, M.D., (left) and SMU economist Tom Fomby joined forces with Dallas County health officials on a groundbreaking study of data collected during the nation’s largest outbreak of West Nile Virus, which occurred in Dallas County in 2012.

The interdisciplinary University-community research collaboration reveals several key findings about West Nile outbreaks and points to the use of a mosquito vector index rating system to trigger early intervention. Those results are published in the July 17 issue of JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), the prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
Haley, Chief of Epidemiology and Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Fomby, Director of the Richard B. Johnson Center for Economic Studies in Dedman College, joined forces with Wendy Chung, Chief Epidemiologist for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, and her colleagues, Christen Buseman, Sibeso Joyner and Sonya Hughes, in the study. James Luby, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and a longtime research collaborator with Haley, is also an author.
>Read more about their West Nile research
A senior author of the journal article, Haley calls the research a “stone soup” project, referring to the folk tale that demonstrates how cooperative efforts benefit the entire community. “Everyone contributed their data and expertise to produce significant advances in our understanding of West Nile.”
The perfect storm of conditions that created the 2012 public health emergency in Dallas County presented an unprecedented opportunity to study the anatomy of the nation’s largest West Nile outbreak, says Haley, who has been involved in research on mosquito-borne illnesses since he was a medical student at UT Southwestern in the 1960s. He spent 10 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, serving as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, before returning to the medical center in 1983 to found the Division of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.
Last year, an estimated 400 people in Dallas County suffered mild to severe West Nile infections. The county’s 20th death related to that outbreak was recorded in April 2013.
The econometric approaches Fomby brought to the statistical analysis of the unusual data were crucial, Haley says. This latest research cross-pollination follows previous work – along with Wayne Woodward, Professor and Chair of SMU’s Department of Statistical Science – on two noteworthy appendicitis-related studies published in 2010 and 2011.
“With the publication of these two papers we saw how techniques developed in one field can be usefully applied in other fields when researchers embrace collaborators outside of their own areas of expertise,” says Fomby.
Fomby’s specialized knowledge of count time series models exposed the value of the mosquito vector index as a leading indicator of subsequent West Nile Virus outcomes. And, his use of event study analysis – which he says is “fairly unique to applications in economics and finance” – showed aerial insecticide spraying was not associated with increases in hospital emergency room visits for respiratory symptoms or skin rashes.
Another key discovery materialized when Haley combined data collected by the county health department – including patient statistics and mosquito-trap test sample results – with weather information.
“Major outbreaks of West Nile occurred in 2006 and 2012. Both of those years had the fewest hard-freeze days in the winter and, overall, warmer than average temperatures,” he says.
Merging health department data with census tracks located another marker: areas of higher property values, higher housing density and higher percentages of unoccupied homes are at higher risk. In Dallas County, the data showed West Nile clustering in the Park Cities and North Dallas, areas with environments ripe for house mosquitoes, which are more likely to transmit the disease.
Along with the findings, the researchers provide an instruction manual for health officials in other counties to calculate their vector index by plugging in their own data.
“Virtually every community in the country has the potential for a West Nile outbreak, and provided with this prediction model, they can conduct their own analysis and determine when to act,” says Haley.
Both Haley and Fomby say they look forward to continuing a partnership that stems from a Town and Gown Club at SMU meeting in 2006.
“I gave a talk on how data mining (also called big data) was affecting many areas of our lives on a daily basis,” Fomby recalls. “Robert commented on how he saw quantitative reasoning and data analytics significantly affecting his fields in the future.”
Haley, honored as a Dedman College Distinguished Graduate in 2008, traces his SMU roots to its early days. His maternal grandfather, Samuel D. Ware, was a strong proponent of building a Methodist University in Dallas. His parents, Arvel E. Haley and Charlotte Ware Haley, met in a music class at SMU. In fact, more then 20 members of his extended family are SMU alumni.
After finishing pre-med requirements, he also completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and social sciences at SMU and taught a philosophy survey course for a year after graduation. That liberal arts background continues to inform his work.
“The hardest part of research is asking the right question,” he says, “and there’s nothing like studying philosophy, in some depth, to understand the right way to ask a question to get the answer you need.”
In addition to research projects with Fomby, Haley has worked with Woodward and Richard Gunst, Professor of Statistical Science, and William Schucany, Professor Emeritus, on pioneering brain imaging data studies of veterans with Gulf War illness. Haley holds the U.S. Armed Forces Veterans Distinguished Chair for Medical Research Honoring America’s Gulf War Veterans at UT Southwestern.
“When I had a really difficult problem in blazing new ground in statistics, I was lucky enough to have one of the top departments here in my backyard,” says Haley. “What they did was absolutely original, creative and brilliant.”
– Patricia Ward
 

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Alumni

SMU Alumna’s New Book Focuses On First Pets And Their Famous D.C. Address

Outfitted with a webcam on his collar, “First Dog” Barney captured a canine’s view of White House Christmas preparations in 2002 during the first term of President George W. Bush. The video went viral and an online star was born.
Pets.WhiteHouse.comp“Barney was used in such an important way, offering a look inside the White House at a time when it was closed to the public after 9/11,” says author Jennifer Boswell Pickens, whose new book, Pets at the White House, focuses on the famous canines, felines and other pets that have occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Pickens portrays the special role of first pets in more than 200 carefully selected photographs, many of which have never been published before, as well as a multitude of anecdotes. Each administration, from Kennedy to Obama, is covered in its own chapter. Pickens, a 2000 graduate of SMU with a degree in American history, also includes an overview of pets owned by earlier first families.
“Like all families, I think the first families were very comforted by their pets and it shows in the photographs,” says Pickens, who lives in Dallas with husband Bryan ’99, their four young daughters and two dogs.
This is her second volume to offer a distinctive look inside the most prestigious address in Washington, D.C. Pickens, a noted White House social expert, published her first best-selling book, Christmas at the White House, in 2009.
“It’s very special to me that every living first lady wrote the introduction to her section of the book,” says the author. SMU alumna Laura Bush ’68 also contributed the forward.

Author Jennifer Pickens is currently working on a third White House-related book.
Author Jennifer Pickens is currently working on a third White House-related book.

While poring over images for that book, Pickens was drawn to photos that featured the first pets. “So, before I was even finished with the first book, my second book was well under way,” she says.
She intentionally selected topics that not only interest her, but also hold universal appeal.
“What I love about my books is that they are on subjects that can bring all Americans together,” she says. “No matter which side of the political aisle you are on, everyone can appreciate the White House at Christmastime and what it represents, as well as the history of our famous ‘first pets.’”
Both coffee-table books are published by Fife and Drum Press, which she and her husband founded in 2009.
Her first book took four years of research and interviews, and along the way, Pickens learned that “each presidential library has its own personality. They’re all very different,” she says. She gives the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum staff high marks for being “very helpful and responsive. They’re great to work with.”
Pickens also gained a new appreciation for her academic training at SMU. “James Breeden, Glenn Linden and other professors really pushed students to do solid research for papers and presentations,” she says. “I learned to ask the right questions, and when you’re cold-calling librarians and archivists, you need to know what to ask to get the information you need.”

Jennifer Pickens’ books may be purchased in the gift shop of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, as well as at other presidential libraries throughout the country and from national booksellers.
Categories
Alumni

Calling All Mustangs! Tele-Pony Students Want To Talk With You

Tele-Pony student callers look forward to talking with alumni when they gear  up again in the fall.
Tele-Pony student callers look forward to talking with alumni when they gear up again in the fall.

Student Ade Guobadia ’16 believes working with Tele-Pony offers a priceless fringe benefit: As a caller with SMU’s telemarketing outreach program, she has the opportunity to meet and talk to alumni across the country.
“I’ve had some really good conversations,” says Guobadia, a first-year student from Dallas majoring in business with a minor in creative computation. “I recently spoke to an alumnus who majored in physics and electrical engineering and is now involved in physics research. He offered me some great advice about graduate school.”
On any given night, Guobadia and other student “voices” of Tele-Pony gather in a call center on campus for an experience that allows alumni to share personal stories and offer advice to today’s students, while helping their alma mater thrive in its second century.
Tele-Pony employs about 35 student fundraisers each semester. Working in groups of up to 15, students clock nine to 12 hours each week. The call center operates 6-9 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, and 1-7 p.m. on Sundays from August through May.
From August 2012 to May 2013, students talked with nearly 23,000 alumni and parents in all 50 states and spent a total of 6,056 hours on the phones.
Each call is intended as a genuine two-way conversation, says Emily Kavy ’11, who worked for Tele-Pony as an undergraduate and has managed the call center for the last two years.
“Most of our students are outgoing, involved in University life and passionate about SMU,” she says. “They truly enjoy swapping stories with our alumni. And, as students, they are directly affected by the generosity of our constituents.”
TelePony2From contributing to scholarships and financial aid to funding research projects and campus technology upgrades, annual gifts from alumni ensure that SMU will continue to attract high-caliber students.
“I have a scholarship, and whenever possible, I let our alumni know that their gifts really do make a difference in students’ lives,” Guobadia says.
Alumni annual giving also influences national university rankings. Publications such as U.S. News & World Report, which publishes its Best Colleges guide each September, factor in the percentage of yearly donations by alumni in determining ratings.
“A gift to the University is so much more than a dollar amount. It is a statement of pride in SMU and a vote of confidence in our future,” says Marc Bullard ’15, a sophomore majoring in communications studies with minors in business and psychology.
Over the past year and a half, Bullard estimates he has spoken to “hundreds, if not thousands, of alumni. I’ve talked to graduates ranging from the class of 1932 to the class of 2012.”
Bullard’s favorite conversations are with those who recount stories from their student days. “One alumnus in particular, who graduated in 1961, told me the story of how he met his wife here at SMU – they are still married today. We probably spent 20 minutes talking about how SMU has changed and what things were like for him over 50 years ago.”
When Tele-Pony gears up again in August, student callers will be ready to listen. All alumni have to do is answer the phone.

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Alumni

SMU Alumnus Plays Endearing Deputy On Longmire

Adam Bartley '01 on the set of Longmire. Photo courtesy of A&E
Adam Bartley ’01 on the set of Longmire. Photo courtesy of A&E

Adam Bartley, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 2001, plays the endearing Deputy Ferguson, known as “The Ferg,” on the A&E series Longmire. Bartley’s character, described as “loyal, sweet, well-meaning and eager to please,” provides some of the more lighthearted moments on the drama that puts a Wyoming outback spin on the police procedural genre.
Bartley talked about the series, now in its second season, with The Dallas Morning News July 1, 2013. In the interview, he said he feels “lucky” to have attended SMU:
“Southern Methodist is one of the top undergraduate theater companies in the country. It’s an incredible program. For me to be accepted as one of the 25 students was a huge deal. Michael Connolly, the head of acting there while I was there, was instrumental in my training. I was lucky to go there.”
Read more about Bartley here.

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2013 Alumni News Spring 2013

Alumni Play Leading Role In Capturing A National Treasure

What does it take to impress the president of the United States?

That question was foremost in the minds of SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the Board of Trustees for several years. They began to ponder it when they decided that SMU should compete to house the George W. Bush Presidential Center, including the library and museum run by the National Archives and Records Administration and the independent Bush Institute reporting to the Bush Foundation.

The quest began in December 2000, when the Board of Trustees appointed a steering committee including Turner, trustees Ray L. Hunt ’65 and Jeanne L. Phillips ’76, and the late Fred Meyer, former chair of the Texas Republican Party. Trustee and attorney Mike Boone ’63, ’67 later joined the steering committee to help guide legal negotiations once SMU was selected.

Among alumni guiding the bid for the Bush Presidential Center were (from left) Michael Boone '63, '67, chair-elect of the SMU Board of Trustees; Jeanne L. Phillips '76, trustee; and Ray L. Hunt '65, trustee.
Among alumni guiding the bid for the Bush Presidential Center were (from left) Michael Boone ’63, ’67, chair-elect of the SMU Board of Trustees; Jeanne L. Phillips ’76, trustee; and Ray L. Hunt ’65, trustee.

Hunt, Phillips and Boone represent numerous alumni who supported the process. Even though SMU leaders occupied the top of the planning pyramid, many others helped to build a foundation of support that transcended political leanings.

“It does not matter if you agree or disagree with President Bush on his programs and actions as head of state,” Hunt says. “His papers and artifacts will tell the story of a unique eight-year period in U.S. history. The Bush Presidential Center is bringing invaluable resources for research, dialogue and programming to SMU and Dallas, making us a global destination for scholars, dignitaries and visitors of all ages.”

To become that destination, SMU competed against six other institutions (see timeline), all of which received a request for proposal in July 2005 from the Bush Library Selection Committee.

As part of its proposal, SMU developed print and electronic materials to distinguish SMU from its competitors. Most had more land, but were not centrally located in a major metroplex, where the Bush Center would be an integral part of both campus and community. To show that advantage, SMU commissioned a detailed scale model of the entire campus. The 6-foot by 6-foot model was part of SMU’s proposal package traveling by truck to Washington, D.C., for presentation to the Library Selection Committee by Turner, Hunt and Phillips.

Jeanne Phillips remembers the meticulous work involved. To check on construction of the miniature campus, she visited the model makers in their Pennsylvania workshop.

Several SMY Board of Trustees chair provided leadership during the 12-year process of winning the Bush Center for SMU. They are (from Left) Carl Sewell, '66; Gerald J. Ford, '66, '69; and Caren Prothro; and Ruth Altshuler '48 (below). They worked with President R. Gerald Turner (far right) to capture the national treasure for the University.
SMU Board of Trustees chairs providing leadership during the 12-year process of winning the Bush Center for SMU are (from left) Carl Sewell, ’66; Gerald J. Ford, ’66, ’69; Caren Prothro; and Ruth Altshuler ’48 (below). They worked with President R. Gerald Turner (far right) to capture the national treasure for the University.

“There were six guys in a small warehouse gluing leaves on trees and enjoying every minute of their day. Their mastery of detail was amazing, and I enjoyed watching the campus come to life under their skilled hands. This trip fell into the category of ‘the Devil is in the details!’”

Phillips speaks from experience. In April she chaired dedication events of the Bush Center and serves with Hunt and Turner on the national finance executive committee for the Center. Previously she raised funds for the state and national campaigns of George W. Bush and oversaw three of his four inaugurations. From 2001-2003 she served as his appointee as U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. She is now senior vice president at Hunt Consolidated, which Ray Hunt leads as CEO.

Ruth Altshuler '48
Ruth Altshuler ’48

Attention to detail of a different sort became SMU’s focus after December 21, 2006, when the Bush Library Selection Committee announced it was focusing solely on SMU as the possible site. That began negotiations involving, not surprisingly, more details.

Mike Boone, founding partner of Haynes and Boone, LLP, served on the Board of Trustees committee overseeing contract negotiations between SMU and the Bush Foundation. “Two law firms did the legal work while I was focused on the business terms from a trustee perspective,” he says. Working with Leon Bennett, then SMU vice president for legal affairs, Boone served over the entire 13 months that it took to negotiate the agreements, signed February 22, 2008. The result is a portfolio of contracts on issues ranging from terms of the ground lease to height limitations on surrounding campus structures, totaling 144 single-spaced pages.

The biggest challenge was developing contracts “cut out of whole cloth,” Boone says. “We had to be very thoughtful since there were no forms to be followed.”

Thoughtful and meticulous also describe Ray Hunt’s involvement with the Bush Center project. From the beginning, he and Turner immersed themselves in every detail to show that “SMU is the best place for the Bush Presidential Center to be successful,” Hunt says.

“We emphasized that our strong academic programs would contribute to the vitality of the Bush Center as a national historic treasure,” Turner says. “And we offered a resource that our competitors could not – a partnership with a dynamic city and location offering easy access to the public. We also pointed out that we have experience hosting high-profile events. We felt the entire package of SMU’s assets made us a strong competitor, but nothing could be taken for granted. We worked hard to prove our worthiness.”

As members of the Bush Foundation’s finance executive committee, Hunt and Turner had the dual challenge of helping to raise funds for the Bush Center and SMU’s Second Century Campaign, which Hunt co-chairs. He and Turner were convinced that both campaigns could succeed on parallel tracks, and they have. The Bush Foundation has surpassed its goal to raise $300 million to construct the center and over $200 million for operations, programs and endowment. “We have more than 310,000 donors to the Bush Center from all over the world,” Hunt says, “and most have had no SMU connection
until now.” And as of May 2013, SMU had raised $732.5 million toward its $750 million campaign goal.

“This means that over $1.2 billion has been raised in the past four years for programs benefiting SMU,” a figure that will grow as SMU’s campaign concludes in 2015, Hunt adds.

Boone, chair-elect of the SMU Board of Trustees, looks forward to the Bush Center’s economic impact on Dallas. “The city and our region were key to SMU securing the Presidential Center. The SMU-Dallas partnership of 100 years has worked again to the benefit of each partner.”

Phillips also credits the SMU community, “which is made up of very generous individuals,” she says. “They captured the vision of what a great Presidential Center will mean to SMU and our nation.”

Pointing to “the incredible leadership of Dr. Turner,” the impact of trustees and alumni, the strengths of the Dallas and SMU communities, and the careful consideration of the Bush Library Selection Committee, Hunt concludes: “The stars were aligned in bringing all this together.”

– Patricia Ann LaSalle M.L.A. ’05

BushSelectionHed

2000

December: SMU forms trustee and staff committees to develop a proposal.

2001

Other competitors emerge: Texas A&M, University of Dallas, University of Texas at Austin (system), University of Texas at Arlington (with the City of Arlington), Baylor University, a West Texas coalition consisting of Texas Tech University in Lubbock and Midland College.

2005

November 15: SMU makes its presentation to the Selection Committee in Washington, D.C., along with other competitors.

2006

December 21: The Library Selection Committee announces it is focusing on SMU as the possible site; contract negotiations begin.

2008

February 22: The SMU Board of Trustees and George W. Bush Foundation Board approve agreement establishing SMU as the site of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Public announcement is made.

2010

November 16: Groundbreaking is held for the Bush Center.

2013

April 25: George W. Bush Presidential Center is dedicated.
May 1: George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum open to the public.

Categories
Alumni

New Library Resources Available For SMU Alumni

A new portal for SMU Libraries Alumni Services and additional offerings for alumni are now available at http://www.smu.edu/libraries/alumni. The link features several new online resources for alumni including JSTOR, Project Muse, and Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism:
JSTOR provides image and full-text online access to back issues of almost 2,000 scholarly journals.
Project MUSE provides access to 300+ high-quality, scholarly journals that are 100 percent full-text from a wide range of disciplines.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism is a full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists covering various countries and historical periods.
Reposted from Central University Libraries News, Events and Exhibits
Categories
Alumni

SMU Alumna Roza Essaw Awarded Mortar Board Fellowship

Roza Essaw '13 graduated from SMU in May
Roza Essaw ’13 graduated from SMU in May

SMU alumna Roza Essaw ’13 is the recipient of a 2013 Mortar Board Fellowship. The $5,000 award from the national honor society recognizes outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service.
Essaw majored in political science, communication studies and human rights at SMU. In the fall, she will pursue a master’s degree in human rights at the London School of Economics in England.
As an undergraduate, Essaw traveled to three continents and 17 countries. While participating in SMU-in-Copenhagen, she focused her studies on European countries with a history of human rights violations. Essaw also journeyed to Ethiopia to conduct independent research on women’s health and rights and spent time in Rwanda interviewing survivors of the 1994 genocide. Her exploration of human rights issues also took her to El Salvador to better understand the challenges of violence, crime and poverty following civil war.
All of these experiences shaped Essaw’s interest in a career in international human rights. “I continue to remind myself of the unforgettable stories…in hopes of bettering the dignity and humanity of men, women and children with similar unfortunate stories around the world,” she says.
Essaw was initiated into the Decima chapter of Mortar Board in 2011 and held many leadership positions at SMU. She served in the SMU Student Senate and as a student representative to the President’s Commission on Alcohol and Substance Abuse. She also participated in student life as an Academic Advising Registration and Orientation (AARO) leader for first-year students and was a member of the debate team and three-year resident of the SMU Service House.
Among other achievements, Essaw received the John L. Freehafer Memorial Award and the Outstanding Senior Woman Award from the SMU Mothers’ Club. At SMU she also was a Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar, a Ray and Nancy Hunt Leadership Scholar and a Mustang Scholar.
Essaw was born in Ethiopia and moved with her family to the United States when she was eight years old. Despite her self-described “culture shock and an inability to speak English,” Essaw thrived in her adopted country, graduating in 2009 from Wylie High School as a recipient of the principal’s leadership award. She is the daughter of Essaw Jagiso and Senedu Asfaw of Wylie, Texas.
This year, the Mortar Board National Foundation awarded eight fellowships totaling more than $30,000 to exceptional university seniors who are Mortar Board members.

Categories
Alumni

SMU Alumna Makes ‘Merry War’ In Joss Whedon Film

Meadows alumna Amy Acker plays Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, now showing in theaters. Photo by Elsa Guillet-Chapuis/Much Ado About Nothing.
Meadows alumna Amy Acker plays Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, now showing in theaters. Photo by Elsa Guillet-Chapuis/Much Ado About Nothing

SMU alumna Amy Acker ’99 plays the tart-tongued Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, a recent film directed by Joss Whedon that opened in theaters in June and will be released on DVD in October.
The new adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy is the latest collaboration between the actress, who earned a B.F.A. in theatre from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, and cult hero Whedon, whose credits include The Avengers (2012), a blockbuster he wrote and directed. Acker appeared in his Angel (1999-2004) and Dollhouse (2009-10) television shows, as well as the horror movie The Cabin in the Woods (2012), which he co-wrote and produced.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Acker joins a host of other Whedon alumni in bringing a contemporary perspective to the “merry war” of Shakespeare’s battling lovers, Beatrice and Benedick (played by Alexis Denisof). Filmed in black and white over 12 days at Whedon’s California home, the movie had its U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin in March and opened in theaters nationwide on June 21.
Movie critic Chis Vognar interviewed Acker for The Dallas Morning News at the festival, where she offered this comment about her experience in the SMU theatre program:
“It prepared me for so much, just getting that education and getting to play all those roles. They were training us to apply for Yale graduate school, so just the work ethic and the teachers there were so incredible. But I do think they need a class on how to act with monsters or vampires. That’s the only thing I’ve had to do a lot of that they didn’t teach there.”
>Read the interview
Among critics praising Much Ado About Nothing is Sheila O’Malley. In a four-star review published on rogerebert.com, she writes: “Watching Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof battle it out, in words and in a near wrestling match near the end of the film, is a supreme pleasure. … Much Ado About Nothing is one of the best films of the year.” [Meadows School of the Arts alumnus Matt Zoller Seitz now serves as editor-in-chief of the movie website founded by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert.]
>Read O’Malley’s review
Writing in The New York Times, critic A. O. Scott calls the film “perhaps the liveliest and most purely delightful movie I have seen so far this year.”
>Read Scott’s review
Acker is currently roiling the plot as a series regular on CBS’s Person of Interest. Her character, Root, a computer hacker extraordinaire with deadly talents, is locked in a battle of wills with Samantha Shaw, played by fellow SMU alumna Sarah Shahi.
>Read more about “Root”
Acker’s other recent acting credits include recurring roles on the TV series Warehouse 13 and CSI. She also has appeared in recent episodes of Once Upon A Time and Grimm. She was recently profiled by USA Today.
 

Categories
Alumni

Alumni Talk ‘Epic’ Collaboration And The Magic Of Imagination

[UPDATE: William Joyce ’81 will play a special role in 2013 SMU Homecoming festivities. At a Year of the Library event Oct. 25, he will talk about his work and sign copies of his two latest books. On Oct. 26, he will add grand marshal of the SMU Homecoming Parade to his already impressive résumé.]


From left, director Chris Wedge, William Joyce '81 and Jim Hart '69 at a preview of their new animated 3D movie, Epic.
From left, director Chris Wedge, William Joyce ’81 and Jim Hart ’69 at a preview of their new animated 3D movie, Epic.
SMU alumni James V. Hart ’69 and William Joyce ’81 started a conversation in 1999 that wound up as Epic, their animated fantasy-adventure film that opened in theaters in the spring and is now available on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD.
Hart and Joyce, who wrote and produced the 3D movie, hosted a preview screening May 14 in Dallas for SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts film and media arts students, faculty and alumni and friends.
> See the Epic trailer
“This all started with grown men admitting they believed in fairies and chasing fireflies and sharing a love for Vikings and Robin Hood and great adventures,” says Hart.
Inspired by Joyce’s children’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, the action-packed story centers on a battle between forces that work to keep the natural word alive – leaf men, fairies and wisecracking slugs – and those who try to destroy it – the Boggans, a sinister collection of rat-coated creatures. The struggle plays out in a hidden forest realm. Adding a human element is the evolving relationship of Professor Bomba, a bumbling researcher tracking down tangible proof that the miniature world exists, and his estranged teenage daughter, M.K.
Hart (left) and Joyce with Associate Professor Sean Griffin, chair of film and media arts in Meadows School of the Arts, field questions after the screening.
Hart (left) and Joyce with Associate Professor Sean Griffin, chair of film and media arts in Meadows School of the Arts, field questions after the screening.

Characters are voiced by such stars as Beyoncé Knowles, Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Waltz, Colin Farrell and Jason Sudeikis, among others.
Epic’s stunning animation is the latest work of director Chris Wedge and Blue Sky Studios, a leader in the industry of high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. Among the studio’s best-known features are the Ice Age series, Rio and Robots. Wedge, one of the studio’s founders, co-created Robots with Joyce, who also served as a producer and production designer. Joyce was also the production designer for Epic.
Joyce, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Meadows and received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004, is perhaps best known for his illustrated children’s books, including Rolie Polie Olie, which was adapted as an animated television series for which he won three Emmy awards.
In 2009, Joyce and partners established Moonbot Studios in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. Their 14-minute film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, based on a story by Joyce, won a 2012 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The company has grown from four employees to 54 and now includes a division that develops apps, e-books, games and other interactive media. He will publish two new books in October: The Mischievians and The Sandman and the War of Dreams, the fourth volume in his Guardians of Childhood adventure series.
Stunning animation comes to life in the 3D adventure movie. Photos by Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson
Stunning animation comes to life in the 3D adventure movie. Photos by Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson

Although their paths never crossed at SMU, Joyce says Hart’s screenplays for the movies Hook and Bram Stroker’s Dracula caught his attention. “I decided I really want to work with this guy; he’s amazing. But, it took us five years to finally get together,” he says, despite the fact they had the same agent. “We hit it off immediately.”
Hart earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from SMU’s Dedman College but spent his senior year immersed in arts studies at Meadows. He started out in the movie business as a producer but switched to writing, a talent he discovered as an undergraduate at SMU.
“The first time anyone told me I was a writer was in an English class at SMU,” says Hart, who received SMU’s first Literati Award in 2010.
He has written more than 15 screenplays, and in 2005, he wrote the novel Capt. Hook, the Adventures of a Notorious Youth, which depicts Peter Pan’s nemesis long before they meet.
During a question-and-answer period that followed the movie screening, the alumni discussed their “epic” experience:
On casting: “It’s one of the scariest parts of the process because you have an idea of who you want … for the most part, we got the actors we wanted.”
On inspirations: “For the character of Ronan, we had classic Hollywood heroes in mind, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne …” “the illustrations of N.C. Wyeth …” “Kidnapped and Treasure Island …” “When we started talking about it in 1999, we wanted to make a Robin Hood movie …” “We are both fathers of daughters (and sons), so we were very comfortable and familiar with the father-daughter dynamic.”
On skeptics: “When we were pitching the idea, [potential backers] were most resistant to the idea of having a teenage girl as the protagonist. They didn’t believe you could make a big animated movie with a teenage girl as the lead.”
On the filmmaking process: “Notes were often very helpful. Our first draft was four hours long, and I think we ended up with a better movie than we started out with. It’s really a collaborative art … Animators are writers who use pictures instead of words.”
On Epic: “It represents a big chunk of our lives and a big chunk of the things we love.”
– Patricia Ward
 

Categories
Alumni

Paul Stookey concert on campus May 19 to benefit Hugworks

Hugworks, a nonprofit organization offering music therapy for children of all ages, will present “An Afternoon with Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary” at 3 p.m. May 19 at SMU’s Greer Garson Theatre.

Musician Noel Paul Stookey
Musician Noel Paul Stookey

Proceeds from the benefit concert will help support Hugworks, which was founded in 1981 by SMU alumni Paul Hill ’72, who holds a bachelor’s degree in music – theory and composition from Meadows School of the Arts, and Jim Newton ’75, who earned a master’s degree in theology from Perkins School of Theology. The organization offers therapeutic entertainment and music therapy, comfort and encouragement to children in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, early childhood centers and music therapy clinics.
As a member of the legendary folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, Stookey became a household name in the 1960s. The group performed to a full house at SMU in 1964. Stookey’s interest in the therapeutic values of music led him to Hugworks in the 1980s.
Tickets for the benefit concert may be purchased on the Hugworks website. General admission tickets are $40 each. VIP tickets, which include admission to a post-benefit reception for Stookey and an autographed copy of his CD, “One & Many,” are $100 for one or $150 for two. The Greer Garson Theatre is located in the Owens Arts Center at 6101 Bishop on the SMU campus.
The music therapy department at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts has partnered with Hugworks for the past five years. Meadows’ music therapy students have worked under the mentorship of Hugworks music therapists to provide services in a variety of settings, including SMU’s music therapy clinic, the Hugworks Music Therapy Clinic in Hurst, Texas, and at area hospitals, rehabilitation and other facilities.
Noel Paul Stookey (left) with Mary Travers and Peter Yarrow from SMU's 1964 Rotunda yearbook.
Noel Paul Stookey (left) with Mary Travers and Peter Yarrow from SMU’s 1964 Rotunda yearbook.

“SMU students must complete 1,200 hours of supervised fieldwork before graduation and board exams, so the opportunity for them to work with the therapists at Hugworks has been critical to their successful completion of our program,” says Robert Krout, professor and director of music therapy at SMU.
More than 18,000 children, family members and health care professionals are assisted by Hugworks each year.
With Stookey, Hugworks has produced three award-winning CD collections of music for children with special medical and emotional needs: “We Can Do,” “Best I Can Be” and “World Around Song.” Work on a fourth CD will begin shortly after the concert.
“I love the music we make at Hugworks. Jim, Paulie and I recognize that we are building trust at the same time we’re sharing this music, and for that reason, we don’t speak down to the listener. We respect the intelligence of children and the grownups, both musically and thematically,” says Stookey. “The upcoming Hugworks IV release will be possibly the most important musical project we’ve ever done.”
For more information about the event, call Hugworks at 817-268-0020 or visit the Hugworks website.
 
 

Categories
Alumni

Catching up with five friends from the Class of 2012

On the morning after graduation last May, Curry Heard (third from left) and four friends posed for this snapshot on their first day as newly minted SMU alumni. Heard, who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, majored in advertising and Spanish and now enjoys a fast-paced career as an account executive for Brynn Bagot Public Relations. She recently shared this photo with SMU Magazine and provided an update about the other four members of the Class of 2012, all of whom live in the Dallas area. Pictured from left: Julie Amundson (originally from Las Vegas, Nevada) will join Deloitte after earning her master’s degree in audit accounting from SMU’s Cox School of Business in May; Katherine Bruce (Kansas City, Kansas) majored in broadcast journalism and serves as regional sales representative for Estech Systems; Curry Heard; Sarah Grayden (Orange County, California) is also working toward an MSA at SMU and will join KPMG after graduation in May; and Georgia Grey (Denver, Colorado), an English language and literature major, teaches kindergarten at Laureate Preparatory School.

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Alumni

Wild about Harry: Alumni’s sons cast in Meadows opera

Colin Beaton and Hunter Parkhill are incredible “brats,” and their parents could not be prouder.

Hunter Parkhill (left) and Colin Beaton on the set of Albert Herring. Meadows Opera Theatre will present the comic opera February 7-10 in the Bob Hope Theatre at SMU.

Colin, 13, the son of Julia ’84 and Ross Beaton, and Hunter, 13, the son of Karen ’87 and Jeff Parkhill, will take turns playing the role of the mischievous Harry, described as the “village brat,” in the opera Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten. SMU’s Meadows Opera Theatre will present the comedic masterpiece February 7-10 as an official participant in the “Britten 100” international celebration of the centenary of the renowned composer.
> BUY TICKETS TO ALBERT HERRING
“Albert Herring is an absolute joy and definitely a crowd-pleaser, a perfect opera for a first-timer because it’s full of crazy characters from a small town with which we can all easily identify,” says SMU Director of Opera Hank Hammett. “It’s full of laughs and it’s in English!”
The opera holds special significance for Hammett: As a young singer, I had the privilege to work with, and subsequently become dear friends with, Eric Crozier, the librettist for Albert Herring, and his wife Nancy Evans, who created the role of Nancy. They fell in love during the writing of the opera, and you can hear that in the music Britten wrote for her character.
Although they are now passed, for years I got to hear stories and stories about the creation of Albert and how important it is to find just the right kind of young man to play Harry, as he can make or break the show,” adds Hammett. I know they would adore Colin and Hunter. They are both fantastic in the role.”
Hannah Rigg, a graduate student in voice who plays the village school teacher in the Meadows production, also sings the teens’ praises. “It’s so encouraging to see their enjoyment and enthusiasm for opera at such a young age. They’re the future of opera.”
The young vocalists were acquainted before joining the cast through participation in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Christmas Concert for the past two years.
Albert Herring is the second opera in which Colin has performed. Last year, he appeared in Boris Gudonov with the Dallas Opera. “That was an amazing experience and has kept Colin interested in musical theatre and opera,” Julia Beaton says.
Julia, who majored in psychology and communications at SMU and covered sports for The Daily Campus, shares Colin’s love of theatre but prefers working behind the scenes. “That’s probably where I shine. Over the years, I’ve created costumes for musical productions ranging from Aida to Beauty and the Beast,” she says. “I also love painting and helped create sets for the shows.”
Her son started acting at five. “I like performing because you can be anyone you want to be, and it’s really fun to play different characters, such as Harry,” Colin says.
Hunter is also an experienced vocalist whose credits include guest soloist with the Las Colinas Symphony and singer in the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas. Before the Parkhills moved to Dallas in 2011, he sang with the Chicago Children’s Choir.
Karen Lynch Parkhill introduced her son to “the great works and accomplishments of Meadows graduates” several years ago at a Chicago alumni program featuring Dean José Bowen. The vice chairman and CFO of Comerica Incorporated, Karen is among the 2012 Distinguished Alumni honored by the Cox School of Business.
According to Jeff Parkhill, his son became interested in vocal performance around age seven. Hunter says he enjoys playing the boisterous Harry “because he’s so different from my personality, so it’s a challenge, but a fun challenge.”
Although college is still years away for both young men, they are already considering a future at SMU.
“Colin has expressed quite a bit of interest in becoming a Mustang, since he was about eight years old,” says Julia. “And, as we see his interests develop, we’re keeping a close eye on opportunities, like the SMU swim team, the Mustang Band and the performing arts at Meadows.”
Attending SMU as a student “would complete the circle,” says Hunter. “I’m already involved in SMU culture through tailgating with my family during football season – we have season tickets – and now the opera. This experience proves to me that Meadows offers the kind of challenge I want.”

Meadows Opera Theatre presents Albert Herring Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 7-9, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. in the Bob Hope Theatre in Owen Arts Center on the SMU campus. Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for seniors, $7 for students, faculty and staff. For more information call 214.768.ARTS (2787).

 

Categories
Alumni

Alumni make beautiful music together in West Point Band

SMU alumni Nicole and Nick Caluori in a photo from the Life in the West Point Band blog.

SMU alumni Nick (M.M. Horn Performance ’06) and Nicole (B.M. Horn Performance ’07, M.M. studies ’07-’08) Caluori completed graduate studies at Meadows School of the Arts, married in 2008 and now perform together in the prestigious West Point Band.
Read more about their experiences in this posting from Life in the West Point Band  blog and in this story from the Meadows School of the Arts news site.
 

Categories
Alumni

Meadows alumnus advances in Metropolitan Opera competition

Juan José de Leon ’10

Tenor Juan José de Leon ’10 bested nine singers in the Great Lakes Region finals January 12 in Buffalo, New York, to advance in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He will sing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera during the national semi-finals in March.
De Leon, who earned a Master of Music in Performance-Voice from Meadows School of the Arts, is a second-year resident artist with the Pittsburgh Opera.
Among the judges of the regional finals was Jonathan Pell, artistic director of The Dallas Opera. Writing about the competition for his blog, Pell applauded the rising star: “Juan has continued to develop and grow as an artist, and we all can be very proud of the vocal progress he has made. I think he has an excellent chance to go on to be one of the winners in New York, and I know that all of his friends in Dallas wish him the best in the next round of this prestigious competition.”
This is not the first time de Leon’s talent has captured the attention of judges in the national opera talent search. While a student of SMU Professor of Voice Virginia Dupuy, de Leon won the Gulf Coast Region district competition in 2009. According to The Metropolitan Opera, the annual competition is designed “to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers.”
In addition, De Leon was a winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition in 2010 and made his Dallas Opera debut in 2011 in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.
As a Meadows graduate student, de Leon participated in the Dallas Opera/SMU Emerging Artists Program, presenting the “Opera in a Box: Follow Your Dreams” touring arts program to schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Categories
Alumni

Alumnus nominated for sound work on Lincoln

Ron Judkins ’75, who studied filmmaking at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Sound Mixing category for his work on the movie Lincoln, which leads the Oscar field with 12 nominations.

Ron Judkins ’75

Judkins previously won Academy Awards for Best Sound for Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan, movies also directed by Steven Spielberg, who has been nominated this year for his direction of Lincoln. Judkins also was nominated for his sound-design skills on Schindler’s List and War of the Worlds, also directed by Spielberg.
> View Lincoln movie trailer
Judkins is currently working on his own film, Neighbors, which he wrote and directed. He and his producers used Kickstarter, an online fundraising platform for creative projects, to raise money to complete post-production on the movie. They surpassed their $18,000 goal in November.
>View Ron Judkins’ Kickstarter video
“In May 2011, we started principle photography on my film Neighbors. We cut the film until September 2011, at which point I went to work on Lincoln, and then I went back to working on Neighbors in January 2012,” he says. “We are very close to finishing the film.”
Judkins calls Neighbors, “a comedy-drama about a graphic novelist facing down a midlife crisis.” The film stars Michael O’Keefe, Catherine Dent, Blake Bashoff, Julie Mond and Sean Patrick Thomas, and it includes many of Judkins’ own neighborhood friends.
After graduating from SMU, Judkins worked as a sound recordist in Dallas before moving to Los Angeles in 1979. In addition to working as a sound engineer on major motion pictures, Judkins is also an independent filmmaker. His first film, The Hi-Line, debuted at Sundance in 1999. He also has produced several independent films.

Categories
Alumni

SMU Connection: Alumni Expertise Goes To Work For Students

When Mathew Busby ’09 was a student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, the Lyle School’s alumni mentor program paired him with Joe Novoa ’71.

As SMU Connection volunteers, alumni help prepare students for the future through participation in speed networking sessions (above) and a variety of other career-building events.

“On field trips to building and construction sites, we talked about what was going on and why things were constructed the way they are, which proved to be invaluable insight as I was going through classes and then later when working as a civil engineer,” Busby says. “I think ‘talking shop’ gives a glimpse of what someone has learned in the field – knowledge you usually don’t have as a student. I learned that engineering isn’t just about producing a set of plans, but about focusing on how people will utilize something and how it will make their lives better.”
Now Busby is paying that favor forward through SMU Connection, a new partnership between the Office of Alumni Relations and Engagement and SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center. The program links alumni mentors with University undergraduates.
As of early November, 312 Mustangs across the country have signed up as Connection volunteers.
“Through SMU Connection, alumni have an opportunity to reinforce the strength of the University by mentoring current students and passing on the passion we have for our alma mater,” says Busby.

> GET CONNECTED NOW!

During winter break, alumni from coast to coast will host student externs for a day of on-the-job experience. Students applied through the Hegi Center and have been matched in their preferred fields. They will spend the day “shadowing” alumni, who have the flexibility to decide how to make their time together beneficial.
The 40 students participating attended a mandatory orientation session conducted by Allison Dupuis, career coach with the Hegi Center. There are 10 first-years, nine sophomores, 12 juniors and nine seniors in the group, representing SMU’s five undergraduate degree-granting schools.
“Most of the students have never done anything like this before, so it is important that they understand how to maximize the experience,” Dupuis says. She encourages them to prepare by looking at alumni’s LinkedIn profiles, reading about their companies and developing questions based on that research.
Externships assist students in making well-informed career decisions, according to Dupuis. “I tell students that in just one day they can absorb so much that it can be truly life-changing,” she says. “They’ll have a chance to network, make important career connections and learn that they can take the initiative to create these kinds of opportunities for themselves.”
> OTHER WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Through SMU Connection, alumni also can serve as career resources, offering advice and information throughout the school year to students interested in their professions. More than 170 alumni have committed to participate.
Dallas alumni can be part of these career-preparation activities sponsored by the Hegi Center:

  • Résumania: Volunteers meet one-on-one with students to provide feedback about their résumés.
  • Speed networking: During this job-focused spin on “speed dating,” students practice their interviewing skills with volunteers from various industries in a fast-paced, informal setting.
  • Work abroad panel: At events designed for students interested in the global job market, alumni offer valuable information about their international experiences.
  • Industry specific panel: At events centered on specific fields, such as law and education, alumni offer their perspectives on their professions.

Alumni interested in participating in SMU Connection should fill out the online form. More information is available by contacting Lindsay Scanio, SMU Connection alumni coordinator, at lscanio@smu.edu or 214-768-ALUM (2586).

Categories
Alumni

‘SMU Stampede Of Service’ Assists Communities

A total of 313 alumni in 15 cities from coast to coast signed up to assist food banks, animal shelters, meals on wheels programs and other nonprofit organizations during the “SMU Stampede of Service,” the second annual SMU alumni national service day, in November. Chapters in Atlanta; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Fort Worth; Houston; Los Angeles; New Orleans; Orange County; California; Salt Lake City; St. Louis and Washington, D.C., participated. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New York City chapter postponed its service day. Locally, members of the Black Alumni of SMU, SMU Hispanic Alumni and the SMU Military Alumni chapters joined other Dallas alumni in filling two shifts at the North Texas Food Bank distribution center. Volunteers sorted and packed 29,057 pounds of food, enough for 24,215 meals.

ATLANTA

AUSTIN

CHICAGO

DALLAS

DENVER

FORT WORTH

HOUSTON

LOS ANGELES

ST. LOUIS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Categories
Alumni

Alumni Relations Gets New Leadership

Marianne Piepenburg

Marianne Piepenburg  ’81, a key member of SMU’s Development and External Affairs (DEA) leadership team, was appointed assistant vice president for Alumni and Constituent Giving and executive director for Alumni Relations in September by Brad E. Cheves, vice president for DEA.
In this new, expanded role, Piepenburg will direct the Office of Alumni Relations and Engagement and the University’s annual and alumni giving effort, as well as continue in her role managing Gift Planning and Endowment & Scholarship Giving.
Piepenburg previously served as interim director of Development and interim executive director of National Major Giving.
“Through all of her assignments, she has continued to lead SMU’s Planned and Endowment Giving programs, where we benefit greatly from her expertise,” Cheves says.
A 1981 graduate of Dedman School of Law, Piepenburg practiced law for several years before moving into the field of planned giving. She was with Baylor Health Care System for seven years before returning to the Hilltop as SMU prepared for its “Time to Lead Campaign” in 1996.
“It is a privilege for me to work with SMU alumni across the country and around the world,” says Piepenburg. “As an alumna, staff member and a very proud mother of two SMU students, SMU is important to my family, and I hope to share this enthusiasm with other alumni, parents and friends.”
Piepenburg’s daughter, Claire ’13, is majoring in history and anthropology with a minor in political science, and her son, Andrew ’15, is a studio art major.

Categories
Alumni

Precious Ponies: A Look At Some Future Mustangs

AUBREY ANNE ANGERSTEIN
Michael Connors ’69 and Jeannie Connors of Spring, Texas, welcomed their first granddaughter, Aubrey Anne Angerstein, January 24, 2008.

ISABELLA XEUNEOURA CHAMBERS
Birthdate: January 12, 2009
Parents: Khouanchith Xeuneoura ’98 and Ruben Chambers of Plano, TX

CAROLINE CRESPO
Candy Crespo ’07 and Rene Crespo of Dallas welcomed their first child, Caroline, October 14, 2011. Caroline weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 19.5 inches.

DELANEY DARWIN, 6, AND AMELIA DARWIN, 4
Daughters of Chris Darwin ’91

TAVIN IMRE MCCAUL
Lisa Renee Wilson ’02 and David Benjamin McCaul ’02 of Seattle welcomed their first child, Tavin Imre McCaul, February 24, 2012. Tavin weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 21 inches.

RAY SAALFIELD, 8, AND
HUNT SAALFIELD, 2

Sons of Missy Tibbitts Saalfield ’97 and John Saalfield ’95

HELENA, WIL AND OTTO HEPPE
Rosaria (Chachy Segovia) Heppe ’99 and Hansjoerg Heppe ’97 of Dallas welcomed Vicente Felix Joachim “Wil” Heppe June 4, 2012. Wil has an older sister, Helena, and brother, Otto.

Send us your Precious Ponies

Submit your Precious Ponies pictures to smumag@smu.edu. Please send a quality photograph – save files at the largest size – with the names and class years of alumni parents (and grandparents) and your child’s name and birthday. Photographs will be published in the printed edition of SMU Magazine as space allows.

Categories
Alumni

Honoring Distinguished Alumni And History Makers

Distinguished Alumni Award recipients (from ) Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68, Jeanne Tower Cox ’78 and James H. “Blackie” Holmes III ’57, ’59, and Emerging Leader Award recipient Alonso N. Gutiérrez ’03

Three notable members of the alumni community have been honored for their accomplishments, leadership and service with the highest honor the University bestows upon its former students. Philanthropic leader Jeanne Tower Cox ’78, former University Park Mayor James H. “Blackie” Holmes III ’57, ’59, and entrepreneur Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68 received 2012 Distinguished Alumni Awards October 25.
> View video of the event
In addition, medical physicist Alonso N. Gutiérrez ’03 received the University’s Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes alumni who have graduated in the past 15 years for their outstanding achievements.
The awards ceremony and dinner launched a weekend of Homecoming festivities.

2012 Distinguished Alumni

2012 Centennial History Makers

The SMU Distinguished Alumni Awards celebration provides an opportunity to honor past DAA recipients with Centennial History Maker Awards in recognition of the high standard of service and accomplishment they exemplified in the University’s first century. See the list of 2012 History Makers here.

Jeanne Tower Cox ’78 exemplifies the dedicated volunteer leadership that is vital to the University and the community. She earned a B.B.A. degree from the Cox School of Business and has been actively involved in various facets of the University. She played a major role in the creation of The John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies, established in Dedman College in 1992 in honor of her father, the late United States senator. Cox served on the SMU Board of Trustees from 1996-2008 and was elected to a new term in 2012. She also serves on the Advisory Board of SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility and on the Second Century Campaign Steering Committee for Dedman College.
Cox’s civic involvement includes service on the Board of Trustees of Communities Foundation of Texas and the National Advisory Board of the Laura Bush Institute for Women’s Health.
James H. “Blackie” Holmes, III ’57, ’59  has served his profession and community with dedication and distinction. He earned two SMU degrees – a B.B.A. in 1957 and the L.L.B. in 1959. As an undergraduate, he was a letterman on the varsity swimming team, member of Blue Key national honor society and a distinguished military graduate. He was honored by Dedman School of Law with its Distinguished Alumni Award and has served on the SMU Alumni Board.

Seeking 2013 Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2013 SMU Distinguished Alumni and Emerging Leader Awards. Any individual may nominate an SMU alumna and/or alumnus by completing the nomination form, which can be downloaded here and mailed to the SMU Office of Alumni Relations, P.O. Box 750173, Dallas, Texas 75275-0173. The deadline is December 31, 2012. For more information, contact Alumni Relations, 214-768-2586, 1-888-327-2586 or smualum@smu.edu.

Now a senior partner with Burford and Ryburn LLP, Holmes is known as a consummate trial attorney, practicing primarily in civil/defense tort litigation. He has received numerous professional honors, including ABOTA Texas Trial Lawyer of the Year award.
In addition to his distinguished 50-year legal career, Holmes has devoted 30 years of service to University Park in various leadership positions. As mayor from 2004-10, he helped facilitate the successful efforts of SMU to acquire the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
Paul B. Loyd, Jr. ’68  has used his extraordinary professional success to benefit his alma mater and other causes. Principal of the Houston-based private investment firm he founded in 2001, he previously served as chair and CEO of R&B Falcon Corporation and has more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry.
Loyd earned a B.B.A. in economics from SMU in 1968 and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He was a member of SMU’s 1966 Southwest Conference championship football team that played in the 1967 Cotton Bowl Classic and was captain of the 1967 football team.
A member of SMU’s Board of Trustees since 2000, Loyd also serves on the executive boards of Cox School of Business and Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. He received the Mustang Award and Cox’s Distinguished Alumni Award. His generous support includes funding for the Loyd All-Sports Center, SMU Athletics programs and Loyd Residential Commons, now under construction .
Loyd’s service extends from local to global causes. He was named Man of the Year by Fort Benning (Georgia) troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for his aid in setting up satellite computers for troops to communicate with home.

2012 Emerging Leader

Alonso N. Gutiérrez ’03 has achieved a distinguished career in medical research, clinical service and teaching. He holds dual positions at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as assistant professor and as educational director of the Medical Dosimetry Program in the Department of Radiation Oncology.
Gutiérrez earned B.S. degrees summa cum laude in both mechanical engineering and physics from SMU in 2003. While at SMU, he was a President’s Scholar, Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and Frank C. McDonald Physics Scholar. He was honored with the Harold A. Blum Award in Mechanical Engineering and the Robert S. Hyer Award in Physics. After graduating from SMU, he earned Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gutiérrez joined the faculty of UT Health Science Center at San Antonio in 2007.

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Alumni

Trustee Michael M. Boone Receives Folsom Leadership Award

 

SMU Trustee Michael M. Boone

Michael M. Boone ’63, ’67 received the Robert S. Folsom Leadership Award from the Methodist Health System Foundation October 30 for his accomplishments in making a lasting, positive change in the Dallas community and inspiring others to follow. The award is named for former Dallas Mayor Robert S. Folsom, a 1949 SMU graduate.
“Mike Boone is a brilliant and innovative businessman as well as a community leader. He is passionate about education and serves his community in so many ways. He embodies the Folsom Leadership Award, and we are honored to celebrate his achievements,” said April Box Chamber, president and CEO of the MHS Foundation.
A 1967 graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, Boone has more than 40 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and securities transactions. As co-founder of Haynes and Boone LLP, he has been a catalyst for programs that promote diversity in the workplace and encourage participation in public service projects.
Boone, who received his B.B.A. from SMU in 1963, has served on the SMU Board of Trustees since 1996. He was named chair-elect in September and will become chair in June 2014. He is a vice chair for the Second Century Celebration Organizing Committee and serves on the Executive Board of the Dedman School of Law.
Boone led the development of “Dallas & SMU: The Power of Partnership,” a community and economic impact report that outlines the unique contributions SMU is making to North Texas. He also was instrumental in final negotiations to secure the George W. Bush Presidential Center for SMU.
He received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996 and the 2007-08 J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award from SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.
In the Dallas community, Boone has served as president of the Dallas Citizens Council, as a leader at Preston Road Church of Christ and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Highland Park Independent School District.
Boone and his wife, Marla Hays Boone ’68, reside in Highland Park. They have two children, Maryjane Boone Bonfield, a 2004 graduate of Dedman School of Law, and Michael Hays Boone, and four grandchildren.

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Alumni

Mustang Memories: James V. Lyles, Breaking The Color Barrier

The Rev. James V. Lyles and four fellow students in Perkins School of Theology made history in 1955 as the first African Americans to graduate from SMU.

The Rev. James V. Lyles in May 2005 at the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking graduation from Perkins School of Theology.

The events leading up to the milestone were detailed in “Breaking the Color Bar,” published in the spring issue of Legacies, A Historical Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, a joint publication of the Dallas Historical Society, Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park, the Old Red Foundation and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. In writing the article, William R. Simon conducted research at Perkins’ Bridwell Library, where he found a journal article written in 1956 by Merrimon Cuninggim, dean of Perkins (1951-60) and an architect of the desegregation strategy.
“The journal article related in some specificity about how Perkins broke the color bar at SMU,” Simon explains. “It was written from the perspective of an administrator, and I thought it would be interesting to explore the event from the perspectives of SMU alumni, including Rev. James Lyles, who actually lived the experience most directly.”
Lyles, now retired from the ministry and working on his memoir, was an undergraduate at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, when the Perkins dean came to speak in spring 1952. At the time, Cuninggim was conducting a national search for African-American candidates, and Philander Smith’s president recommended Lyles.
The first African Americans to graduate from SMU: (from left) James Arthur Hawkins, John Wesley Elliott, Negail Rudolph Riley, Allen Cecil Williams and James Vernon Lyles.

The son of a minister who made his living as a sharecropper, Lyles grew up in rural Arkansas. “My father always encouraged me to study and pursue an education,” he says. “Early on, I decided to be a minister.”
Lyles recalls “a positive attitude, particularly in the seminary, when we arrived” in fall 1952. Having grown up in rigidly segregated communities, Lyles says that coming to SMU “opened up the world to me.”
“The faculty and students went out of their way to find out who we were, where we had come from, and what they could do to make the transition from segregated communities and schools easier for us as we entered into a community that was different and strange and something that we were not accustomed to,” he says.
Perkins equipped him for a changing world, Lyles says. “I received an excellent education that prepared me for difficult leadership positions with national and international agencies of The United Methodist Church and the U.S. military.”
Lyles, who now resides in Rowland Heights, California, was a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force and held various positions with The United Methodist Church before retiring in 1998. He served on the staffs of the former General Board of Evangelism, Education and Cultivation and the World Division of the General Board of Global Ministries and was Area Secretary for Africa. He also held several local pastorates. From 1998 to 2004, he was a hospital chaplain in California.
He keeps in touch with fellow pioneering classmate Cecil Williams, minister and leader of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. The church has earned accolades for developing numerous programs to help San Francisco’s underprivileged to break the cycle of poverty. Williams was honored in 2009 with SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award. The other African-American students – James Arthur Hawkins, John Wesley Elliott and Negail Rudolph Riley – are deceased.
Lyles last returned to SMU in May 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking graduation. “Everything was possible because of SMU’s efforts,” he says. “Dean Cuninggim and President Umphrey Lee, followed by President Willis Tate, intended that the experiment succeed, and they did everything they could to make it a success because they thought it was the right thing to do. I’ll always be grateful that they made sure we got a first-rate theological education.”


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Alumni

Cruising Through The Centennial In Style

Fleetwood Hicks ’85 offers a new spin on celebrating the University’s second century with his custom-made cruiser bicycles. Hicks, founder and owner of Villy Custom LLC, created the limited-edition SMU Centennial Cruiser to mark the milestone. The bikes made their debut during SMU Family Weekend September 28-30 and were featured during Homecoming festivities October 25-28.

Alumnus Fleetwood Hicks, founder and owner of Villy Custom, and SMU student Adelaida Diaz-Roa, chief brand officer for the company, with the limited edition SMU Centennial Cruiser.

“The SMU Centennial is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it’s an honor to commemorate this milestone by offering my fellow Mustangs a unique way to show their pride in SMU,” says Hicks, who has competed on the ABC reality series “Shark Tank.”
The red, blue and white bikes sport special features such as an SMU “bling badge” on the front, the “SMU Unbridled 100” logo on the rear fender and a Mustang logo on the seat cover. Prices start at $549.
Hicks founded his company in 2009 and has made more than 1,500 cruisers, a recreational two-wheeler noted for comfort and durability. The bikes are fully customizable, from frames to chains. All bikes are built, packed and shipped at the Villy Custom assembly facility in Dallas.
A self-proclaimed “lifelong entrepreneur,” Hicks has big plans for Villy, which is also the nickname of his bullmastiff, DeVille. In May, Hicks appeared on “Shark Tank,” competing against 20,000 businesses for one of 60 spots on the prime-time program. After making his pitch to five celebrity panelists, he persuaded billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Barbara Corcoran, real estate magnate and business consultant, to invest $500,000 for a 42-percent stake in his venture. They now serve on his board of directors.
Hicks earned a marketing degree from the University and counts two fellow Mustangs among his management team. Taylor Rodriguez is the accountant and logistics manager. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics with financial applications from SMU in 2012.
Adelaida Diaz-Roa, a junior at SMU, is an investor in the company and serves on the board. She began working for Hicks in 2010 as an intern and now holds the title of chief brand officer, managing website design and social media marketing.
A marketing major in Cox School of Business, Diaz-Roa says the hands-on learning experience “is an amazing opportunity to take what I learn in the classroom and put it into practice in a real business.”
Hicks and his team are gearing up for growth. In October, “The Price Is Right” game show selected Villy Custom cruisers as a product offering in segments that will begin airing in spring 2013. “The show has been an American staple for over 40 years, and their prize selection staff told me that they have rarely, if ever, offered a bicycle on air,” says Hicks.

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Alumni

Alumni Reveal Their Formulas For Effecting Change

Chris Bhatti, Carl Dorvil, Kevin Lavelle and Tammy Nguyen Lee share the bond of an SMU experience that encouraged them to see possibilities instead of barriers and provided them with the knowledge and skills they needed to make their marks on the world. The four entrepreneurial alumni talked about how their University education helped shape their futures during TEDxSMU Hilltop September 21.
They were among more than 20 presenters at the half-day conference hosted by
the Lyle School of Engineering and Meadows School of the Arts at the Bob Hope Theatre on campus. The SMU-only event brought together students, alumni, faculty and staff for thought-provoking conversations and performances.
Following, the alumni offer their perspectives on the theme of the afternoon: “re:THINK.”

‘Comfortable with the Uncomfortable’

Chris Bhatti

While Chris Bhatti ’04, ’08 joked about often standing out in a crowd as an Indian American, his underlying message applied across the cultural spectrum: In learning to embrace his difference, he realized “the critical importance of being comfortable with the uncomfortable.”
Bhatti, who serves as the director of External Affairs and Alumni Relations for the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is currently working toward a Master’s degree in the school’s Dispute Resolution program. He also is involved in several entrepreneurial ventures, including Group Excellence, an education company created by Carl Dorvil, a fellow TEDxSMU Hilltop speaker.
He praised his father with instilling a respect for education and the drive to achieve. The elder Bhatti emigrated from a small village in India to the United States with $8 in his pocket and an eighth-grade education.
“He always said ‘I want the best for you, so I want you to go to SMU,’” Bhatti said. He, as well as his two older brothers, graduated from the University. He earned Bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and psychology and an M.B.A.
Bhatti views the world as his classroom – he has visited 28 countries and taught school in four of them. By remaining open to new experiences, “the walls come down and people come together,” he said.
“I deliberately put myself in situations of discomfort to learn,” Bhatti added. “In learning I become a better student, a better teacher, a better professional.”

‘The Four P’s of Success’

Carl Dorvil

Carl Dorvil ’05, ’08 credits his parents, Haitian immigrants who placed a high value on education, with steering him to SMU. As a student in Dedman College, he majored in public policy, economics and psychology. He earned a Professional M.B.A. through the Cox School of Business in 2008.
As an undergraduate, Dorvil launched Group Excellence, a tutoring and mentoring company, from his residence hall room in Cockrell-McIntosh. Today the company provides K-12 educational services in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. In 2011, Group Excellence was listed among Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing private companies in the country.
Dorvil analyzed the winning strategies of such legends as sprinter Michael Johnson and Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith while building his business. He joked about his sports-centric viewpoint during a high-energy explanation of his alliterative formula for success: push, pace, position and pray.
“You have to push yourself from the beginning; if you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your time making up for that mistake,” he said. “The friends you keep set your pace … friends will tell you the truth – and have your back.”
The ability to weather setbacks and keep moving forward places “you in a position to succeed,” he said. “And you have to pray; you have to have faith and believe in what you’re doing.”

‘No = Go’

Kevin Lavelle

Kevin Lavelle ’08 is the founder and CEO of Mizzen+Main, which offers a new spin on men’s dress shirts: They’re fashioned in moisture-wicking, wrinkle-free fabric.
Lavelle’s idea for high-performance work wear was sparked by his experience as an intern in Washington, D.C. On a particularly humid day, he watched a political staffer’s soggy dress shirt become a wrinkled mess minutes before an important meeting. Lavelle began pondering a possible solution, but at the time, he seemed like an unlikely candidate for the apparel business. The President’s Scholar was majoring in management science in the Lyle School of Engineering and was preparing for a very different future.
“I remember thinking: I’m a student; what do I know about that business? I have no knowledge about textiles,” he said. “So, I shelved the idea.”
After graduation he traveled the world as a technology consultant but kept circling back to the shirt. This year he “pulled the idea off the shelf” and launched the manufacturing and retail business with two goals: producing the garments in the United States and donating a portion of every sale to support charities and job programs for veterans.
“Veterans return with skills that do not easily translate to a traditional résumé,” Lavelle explained. His company’s “A Shirt For A Start” program aims to help them develop marketable skills through paid internships.
Lavelle’s advice to budding entrepreneurs was simple: “Never take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I had let ‘no’ stop me in the past, but I hope it won’t be the case for you,” he said. “In college is the perfect time to start. Next time you hear ‘no,’ think ‘go.’ No is just a cue to reorganize and press on.”

‘Starting My Movement’

Tammy Nguyen Lee

Tammy Nguyen Lee ’00 was just three months old when her family fled war-torn Vietnam. They eventually settled in the Dallas suburb of Garland. Inspired by her parents, “hardworking folks who always gave back to their community, even when they had little themselves,” Lee’s determi-nation to find a way to make a difference led her to Meadows School of the Arts to study filmmaking.
“Life changed for me at SMU,” she said. “I was idealistic and decided to change the world with films.”
Her documentary debut, “Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam,” has been screened at more than a dozen festivals and has won two audience choice awards. The movie takes a contemporary look at the controversial humanitarian effort that brought more than 2,500 Vietnamese children to the United States for adoption in 1975.
The film served as a catalyst for Against The Grain Productions. Lee founded and serves as president of the nonprofit that supports arts initiatives and outreach in the Asian-American community. The organ-ization also raises money for orphanages in Vietnam and Thailand.
“My passion project turned into my movement,” said Lee, who received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Emerging Leader Award in 2010. “Dare to dream big … use your unique creativity to change the world.”


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Alumni

Alumnus Represents India On The Global Stage

S.M. Krishna ’59, India’s Minister of External Affairs, spent the first week of October addressing the United Nations and conferring with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before visiting his alma mater for what he called “a happy homecoming.”

S. M. Krishna ’59. Photo by Brittany Oswald.

Krishna, who earned a Master of Comparative Law degree from SMU’s Dedman School of Law, made his first official visit to Texas October 3. He spoke on the topic of “India Now” as part of the Carrington Endowed Lecture Series sponsored by the law school. Broad interest in the event required a venue change to McFarlin Auditorium to accommodate the growing audience.
Before diving into an insightful overview of India’s past, present and future in the world community, Krishna talked about his return to the University following “a 40-year gap.”
“As I entered the campus of SMU today, I cannot but reminisce on the wonderful, eventful time spent here during the formative years of my student life,” he commented. “I owe a great deal of my success to the knowledge that I acquired at this great institution of learning.”
After completing his studies in the United States, Krishna taught international law at Renukacharya Law College in Bangalore. In 1962 he launched a distinguished career in public service in India that has included positions at the state and national levels. Krishna became external affairs minister in 2009 and oversees the agency responsible for relationships with other countries. His position is similar to that of the U.S. secretary of state.
In discussing his country’s role as a global economic driver, Krishna credited former President George W. Bush with strengthening ties between the United States and India. “President Bush made a strong political investment in building a relationship with India,” he said. As a result, the countries have forged a “natural partnership for enhancing mutual prosperity and stimulating global economic growth,” particularly in the areas of energy, science, technology, health care and agriculture, Krishna said.
Praising Dallas as “a thriving city” and Texas for developing “one of the healthiest economies in the United States,” Krishna expressed interest in expanding the trade relationship between his country and the Lone Star State.
The globetrotting statesman received the Dedman School of Law Distinguished Global Alumnus Award in 2009, but was unable to attend the annual awards ceremony at that time. Dean John B. Attanasio presented the commemorative medallion to him at the lecture, lauding Krishna and his “brilliant career” as a “reflection of the caliber” of SMU’s law school alumni.

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Alumni

Stephen Tobolowsky Pens ‘Dangerous’ Stories

A few years after graduating from SMU’s theatre program in 1973, actor Stephen Tobolowsky gave the “performance” of a lifetime as the cool-headed target of a gunman in a real-life hostage situation.
Calling the incident “the most creative day of my life,” Tobolowsky sketched out the story in dramatic and humorous detail during a program sponsored by Friends of the SMU Libraries October 3. While he is known for scene-stealing parts in movies such as Groundhog Day, Tobolowsky is also an author. He was on campus to promote his new book The Dangerous Animals Club
In a perfectly paced monologue that demonstrated his talents as a storyteller and performer, Tobolowsky recounted being held hostage by an armed robber in a Snider Plaza grocery store. Relying on his natural loquaciousness – bolstered by pop psychology gleaned from “Medical Center,” a hit drama series of the time – he diffused the potentially lethal situation by engaging the gunman with his “million miles an hour” conversation. He provided the distraction needed by tactical officers, who entered the store and apprehended the would-be robber without firing.
That story and others in the 26 chapters of The Dangerous Animals Club celebrate the twists and turns of a creative life. The author described the book as “true stories from my life” that do not appear in chronological order but are woven together to “make sense at the end.”
In a seamless hour that covered many topics, he also recalled a first foray into creative writing – when he could not find information about Moses Austin for a fourth-grade history report, he substituted details from his Pennsylvania-born mother’s life.
With family and friends in the audience, the event became something of a homecoming for “Tobo,” as they call him. He introduced “the most important man in the room,” his father, physician David Tobolowsky, who served as director of medical services at SMU in the 1970s.
Stephen Tobolowsky last visited SMU in 2010, where he talked to theatre students in Meadows School of the Arts about his prolific career. He has acted in more than 100 movies and 200 television shows and most recently appeared on The Mindy Project, a comedy on the Fox network.
Among his other credits: co-writer of the movie True Stories with musician David Byrne and then-girlfriend Beth Henley ’74, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and SMU classmate; Tony award-nominee as a featured actor for the 2002 revival of Morning’s at Seven; and creator of “The Tobolowsky Files,” a series of popular podcasts that include stories from The Dangerous Animals Club.
During a question-and-answer segment, Tobolowsky talked about performing
with fellow SMU graduate Powers Boothe ’72 – and a spooked horse that wandered into their scene – in the HBO series Deadwood. And asked when he knew a story was completed, he replied: “As a writer your story is never finished.”

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Alumni

An Investor’s Perspective Of Wall Street

John Phelan ’86, co-founder and co-managing partner of MSD Capital, L.P., offered his insights about Wall Street and the financial crisis at the first Gartner Honors Lecture of the academic year September 10. His topic, “The Financial Crisis of The Big Short: An Investor’s Perspective,” continued the campuswide discussion of SMU’s 2012 Common Reading selection, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis. Phelan challenged the accuracy of the book and encouraged students to seek multiple perspectives on the issues of the day. He also advised students to follow their passions, not the latest trends, to be successful. Phelan graduated cum laude with distinction from SMU with Bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science. He earned his M.B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1990 and holds a General Course degree with an emphasis in economics and international relations from the London School of Economics. Phelan serves on the Investment Committee of the SMU Endowment.

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Alumni

Mustangs Meet In The City Of Angels

SMU alumni, parents and friends gathered in Los Angeles October 11 to hear the latest campus news and a pre-election survey of the political landscape by Matt Wilson, associate professor of political science in Dedman College, and John S. Thomas ’07, a political consultant. Among those attending were (from left) Kelly Allen Welsh ’78, Karin Clark Ott ’82, Thomas and Wilson. Thomas was profiled by the Los Angeles Times October 8 as a rising star in Southern California politics. The 27-year-old strategist has worked on several winning campaigns in L.A. County and is currently advising L.A. mayoral candidate Kevin James, an attorney and former talk-show host. Thomas earned a degree in advertising from SMU and is a past president of the L.A. alumni chapter.


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Alumni

Alumna Edits Peace Corps Collection

Jane Albritton ’67, ’71, a Peace Corps volunteer in India (1967-69), spent several years collecting essays from fellow returned volunteers about their service overseas to mark the 50th anniversary of the organization’s accomplishments. The result is 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, a four-volume collection of volunteers’ experiences. She served as series editor and volume editor of Even the Smallest Crab Has Teeth: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, which focuses on stories from Asia and the Pacific. The four books are available from Amazon.com. Albritton is a former lecturer in English at SMU. She is the daughter of Claude Albritton, legendary SMU geology professor, administrator and mentor.

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Alumni

Military field training brings Mustang physicians together

Three SMU alumni unexpectedly crossed paths as they were participating in a field training exercise at Camp Pendleton, California, in August. Cmdr. Stephen Burgher ’85 (left), Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Delk ’93 (center) and Lt. Jason Park, who attended SMU in 1994-96, trained with the Marines of the 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group.
The training involved the deployment of a Shock Trauma Platoon (STP) and Forward Resuscitative Surgical System (FRSS), “our medical platform for the 4th Medical Batallion,” explains Dr. Burgher. “The STP and FRSS provide a mobile trauma emergency room and operating room, offering damage control intervention as close to the point of injury as possible to our forward deployed Marines.”
The “reunion” allowed the three Mustangs to compare notes about SMU and their paths of service to our country.
Dr. Bugher practices emergency medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, a Level I trauma center. He earned a Bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from SMU in 1985 and was inducted in Phi Beta Kappa honor society.  He attended the University of Texas Medical School at Houston on a Navy Health Professions scholarship, receiving his commission in 1987.
Upon graduation from medical school in 1990, he was commissioned in the Navy. He attended Naval Flight Surgery School, 1991-92, and served as a flight surgeon with Training Air Wing FOUR in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1992-95.
In addition to his medical duties, he took an active interest in aviation, becoming NATOPS qualified in the T34C primary trainer and the T44 advanced multi-engine trainer and earned single and multi-engine, instrument and commercial ratings.
Dr. Burgher attended post-graduate residency training in emergency medicine at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia, 1995-98, and was selected chief resident. He became board certified in emergency medicine in 1999.
His military personal awards include the Navy And Marine Corps Commendation Medal (2), and Navy Achievement Medal.
Dr. Burgher left active duty in September 2000, after more than 10 years of service. He entered private practice in Houston before relocating with his wife and three children to Dallas.
He entered the Navy Reserves in December 2010, receiving a commission as a commander in the U.S. Navy and assignment with the Marines as a battalion surgeon.
Dr. Delk is a general partner with Emergency Services Partner, LLC and practices emergency medicine at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center in Austin. He is also the co-founder of Texas Jurisprudence Prep, LLC and Designated Doctor Outsourcing, LLC.
He earned a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in chemistry from SMU and was a member of Kappa Alpha Order. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in 1998 and completed his emergency medicine residency at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2001.
He completed overseas tours in Germany and Kosovo, as well as a 15-month deployment in Iraq, 2003-2004, where he served as the battalion surgeon with the 1-36 INF, 1st Armored Division. Dr. Delk attained the rank of major in the U.S. Army and was awarded the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Medical Badge for his combat service. His unit, the Spartans, earned the Presidential Unit Citation.
Upon returning to the U.S., Dr. Delk completed his M.B.A. at Texas Tech with a focus on health care management.
Now a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves, Dr. Delk is assigned as an emergency physician for the shock trauma platoon in the 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Division.
Dr. Park attended SMU from 1994-96 as a President’s Scholar. He transferred to the University of California Berkeley to accept a Navy ROTC Scholarship. He attended Albany Medical College in New York and completed his internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center/SUNY Upstate in Syracuse. He then completed his anesthesia residency, along with a fellowship in regional anesthesia/acute pain medicine, at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. He is currently working there as an attending physician. He serves with the  4th Medical Battalion Surgical Company A in Gulfport, Mississippi.

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Alumni

Award-winning alumnus seeks Kickstarter support

Never heard of Ron Judkins ’75? Moviegoers may not know his name, but they know his sound. Judkins, who studied filmmaking at Meadows School of the Arts, has won Academy Awards for Best Sound for Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan. He also was nominated for his sound-design skills on Schindler’s List and War of the Worlds. His latest collaboration with director Steven Spielberg is the movie Lincoln.
The project that has Judkins really excited, however, is his own film, Neighbors, which he wrote and directed. He and his producers are using Kickstarter, an online fundraising platform for creative projects, to raise money to complete post-production on the movie.
>View Ron Judkins’ Kickstarter video

Ron Judkins with producers Judy Korin and Jennifer Young

“In May 2011, we started principle photography on my film Neighbors. We cut the film until September 2011, at which point I went to work on Lincoln, and then I went back to working on Neighbors in January 2012,” he says. “We are very close to finishing the film.”
Judkins calls Neighbors, “a comedy-drama about a graphic novelist facing down a midlife crisis.” The film stars Michael O’Keefe, Catherine Dent, Blake Bashoff, Julie Mond and Sean Patrick Thomas, and it includes many of Judkins’ own neighborhood friends.
After graduating from SMU, Judkins worked as a sound recordist in Dallas before moving to Los Angeles in 1979. In addition to working as a sound engineer on major motion pictures, Judkins is also an independent filmmaker. His first film, The Hi-Line, debuted at Sundance in 1999. He also has produced several independent films.

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Alumni

Viewing Landscapes Through A Unique Lens

British & Irish Landscape Portraits, a collaboration between Dallas photographer Sarah Carson ’60 and Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, professor of history at SMU, captures unique views of both urban and rural settings and provides thoughtful context for the images.
“Working with Dr. Adams to complete our Landscape Portraits has yielded a book that I think both of us are extremely proud of,” says Carson, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from SMU and began practicing serious fine art photography in 1982.
Carson’s 132 color and black-and-white photographs in the coffee table book cover a range of themes, while Adams’ commentary explores the meaning of the term “landscape” and discusses the historic and human influences on the world as seen  through Carson’s lens.
The book includes historic landscapes, such as Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall. In a chapter titled “The Landscape Makers: Human Landscapes,” Carson documents the impact people have had on their environments. The photos range from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge to pigs in a Cornish barnyard. The book closes with “London Town: The Cityscapes,” a selection of city views. Some are familiar, such as the Parliament building and Big Ben clock tower, and some, such as a bridegroom outside a municipal building, picture a decisive moment in time.
Carson’s work has been featured in major photography exhibitions in Dallas, New York City, Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Budapest, Hungary, and other cities. She has held photography workshops in Tuscany, Italy.
Her two previous books are Montestigliano, A Tuscan Farm and 50 Black/White Photo Images. Carson is now working on a project of images taken in Easter Europe, from glasnost to 2006.
British & Irish Landscape Portraits is available from Amazon.

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Alumni

Alumna Angela Braly Makes Forbes’ ‘Most Powerful Women’ List

Angela Braly, a 1985 graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, was ranked No. 24 among “The World’s Most Powerful Women” by Forbes magazine August 22, 2012. Read more.

Angela Braly

The following profile of Braly first appeared in SMU Magazine in 2007:
On the first day of her orientation at Dedman School of Law, Angela Braly ’85 recalls being told that although half of her classmates were women, it would be 40 more years before they would achieve equal numbers as practitioners in the legal field.
“That prediction inspired me, and I committed myself to making a difference in the profession,” she says. “Today, about 25 percent of lawyers are women, and I’m glad to see women making substantial progress in law and across all professional fields.”
Braly herself has raised the bar on that progress. Drawing on her legal and business skills, in June she became president and CEO of the nation’s largest health insurer, WellPoint, where she is responsible for setting strategy and managing all aspects of the business. Based in Indianapolis, WellPoint, which serves 35 million customers, operates Blue Cross and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, has 42,000 employees and attained nearly $60 billion in revenue last year. The company is ranked 35th on the Fortune 500 list and, with Braly’s promotion, became the largest in the United States with a woman chief executive – and the only one in the top 50.
“It’s natural that a woman would lead one of the nation’s largest health care companies because most health care decisions in this country are made by women,” says Braly, a 46-year-old mother of three. WellPoint takes diversity seriously, she adds: More than 77 percent of its employees are women, as are nearly 60 percent of managers.
Braly, who grew up in Dallas and earned her undergraduate degree at Texas Tech University, had served as executive vice president at WellPoint since 2005, overseeing the country’s largest Medicare claims processing business, public policy development and legal affairs, among other areas. Previously she was with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, where she also rose to president and CEO, and with the St. Louis law firm of Lewis, Rice, & Fingersh, where she was named partner.
Her time at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, in particular, influenced her as a leader, Braly says. A competitive market and significant litigation challenged that company’s structure, and she worked with regulators and the courts to resolve issues regarding a reorganization that had transferred business from not-for-profit Blue Cross to a for-profit subsidiary. “The creation of the Missouri Foundation for Health funded with $1 billion will address the health care needs of uninsured Missourians in perpetuity.”
Braly says she is focusing on her company’s efforts to improve the affordability and quality of health care and on working with government leaders on reforms. Earlier this year, WellPoint proposed covering the 44 million uninsured Americans through a blend of public and private initiatives, such as the states’ expansion of health care programs for children and less costly private options for young workers and small businesses.
“I believe universal access to health care for all Americans is an important national goal,” she says, “and I am a passionate defender of a competitive, private system.”

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Alumni

London Calling: SMU Alumni Compete In Olympics

SMU alumni will be among the athletes competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London July 27-August 12. Watch these Mustangs go for the gold:

  • Laura Reback Bennett ’97 has qualified for the USA Triathlon team. This is Bennett’s second Olympics; she placed fourth in the 2008 Beijing Games. Bennett was a four-year NCAA All-American at SMU.
  • Former SMU tennis All-American Johan Brunstrom will represent Sweden in doubles competition. In 2001 and 2002, Brunstrom was an All-American in doubles at SMU and in singles in 2003.
  • This is the third Olympic Games for Anja Carman ’08 of Slovenia, who will compete in the 200-meter backstroke.
  • Swedish swimmer Lars Frolander will compete in his sixth Olympics in the 100-meter butterfly.
  • Sara Nordenstam ’06 will represent Norway in the 200-meter breaststroke. She won the bronze medal in the same event in Beijing.
  • Denisa Smolenova ’12 will race for Slovakia in the 100-meter butterfly.
 Therese Svendsen ’12 of Sweden will swim in the 200-meter backstroke and as a member of the 4X100 medley relay team.

> Read more about SMU’s Olympic connections here.

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Alumni

Chapters Rally To Reach Participation Goals

Alumni in seven chapters, along with membership of the National Mustang Club, set the pace for giving by hitting their campaign participation goals during fiscal year 2011-12.
Finishing the year with flying colors were Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., chapters.

More Alumni News

First Black Alumni of SMU Scholarship
With support from more than 100 donors, Black Alumni of SMU awarded its first scholarship of over $7,000 to sophomore Leah Johnson of Little Elm, Texas. The alumni group launched the scholarship fund and honored 13 history makers at a special event in February. Read more …
SMU Hispanic Alumni Student-focused Initiatives
Two major SMU Hispanic Alumni initiatives – a new mentorship program and the three-year-old scholarship fund – support student achievement while strengthening the Mustang bond. Read more …

These chapter efforts were tied to an international outreach that keeps Mustangs informed about the University’s progress and connected to their alma mater. More than 7,500 guests attended over 200 events in 52 cities across the globe in 2011-12.
To keep alumni on track to attain a 25 percent annual giving participation rate by the end of the campaign, chapter leaders motivate members to pony up by adopting strategies tailored to their Mustangs’ interests.
For example, in Chicago the Centennial paver program was a winner, according to Caroline Sullivan ’08, who spearheaded the initiative. Alumni were encouraged to make their marks on the SMU centennial with a special gift of $100. In recognition of each donor, a commemorative etched paver will be placed in the Centennial Promenade to be constructed on Ownby Drive.
>The Second Century Celebration
“I donated because I loved every minute at SMU and couldn’t be more proud of our legacy,” explains Sullivan. “I think the personal element really got people excited about the paver program, which allows you to both literally and figuratively ‘make your mark’ on SMU.”

Check the back cover of the current print edition of SMU Magazine to see how you can make your mark on the SMU centennial.

Among the Chicago alumni participating were Lisa Lebeck ’07, who purchased a paver with her father, an SMU alumnus, and Micah Nerio ’08, who bought a paver to honor his father, Mark A. Nerio ’78, a former University trustee (1993-2008).
“Since I was a little kid, I remember Dad taking my brothers and me to visit the campus, where we attended special events and met distinguished alumni,” says Nerio. “SMU has always been a part of our family, and I’m proud to have followed in his footsteps.”
In New York City, alumni raised money for student travel in conjunction with the Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College. SMU is the first university in the South, and only the fifth in the country, to offer an academic major in human rights, which was officially launched in the spring.
“For a city that faced an absolute human rights violation in the 2001 attacks, this is something unique and worthwhile we pulled together and care about,” says Jackie Effenson ’05, chapter president.
The National Mustang Club extends the scope of SMU’s official athletic fundraising organization across the country with a network of 31 volunteers – including alumni, parents and friends of the University – operating in 22 national regions. Since its inception 18 months ago, the National Mustang Club has generated more than $451,000 in new gift dollars to support SMU student-athletes.
To date SMU Unbridled: The Second Century Campaign has raised more than $631 million to support student quality, faculty and academic excellence, and the campus experience.

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Alumni

Black Alumni Of SMU Award First Scholarship

Sophomore Leah Johnson was awarded the Black Alumni of SMU's first scholarship.

With support from more than 100 donors, Black Alumni of SMU awarded its first scholarship of over $7,000 to sophomore Leah Johnson of Little Elm, Texas. The alumni group launched the scholarship fund and honored 13 history makers at a special event in February.
>Black Alumni of SMU launch scholarship
Johnson is majoring in journalism with minors in Spanish and advertising. As an active member of the Association of Black Students, PULSE ministry outreach and the Mustang Academic Bridge Program, she has participated in mentoring and community service projects.
“Although it was a very tough decision, the selection committee felt Leah was a well-rounded student who demonstrated strong qualities as a mentor and leader,” says Fredricka Johnson ’08, immediate past chair of Black Alumni of SMU. “We hope that she will continue to excel in her studies and give back to those students she mentors.”
Among the highlights of the past academic year for Johnson was an SMU Alternative Spring Break trip to volunteer with the AIDS Project of Los Angeles. “My favorite part about the staff was how passionate they were to work with and educate youth on the dangers of AIDS.”
>Read Leah’s blog post about the trip
This summer Johnson is working on campus as a desk attendant at Dedman Fitness Center and as a summer conference leader for SMU’s Office of Conference Services, which handles logistics for events ranging from cheerleading camps to business workshops.
Johnson says the Black Alumni of SMU Scholarship will take some of the financial pressure off her mother, a single parent who also assists Johnson’s older brother, a graduate student at the University of Houston.
After earning her Bachelor’s degree, Johnson plans to attend graduate school. The scholarship moves her closer to that goal, she says. “I am grateful to have recieved this scholarship and hope this is just one of many more to come.”

Click here to donate to the scholarship fund.

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Alumni

SMU Hispanic Alumni Support Student-focused Initiatives

Two major SMU Hispanic Alumni initiatives support student achievement while strengthening the Mustang bond.
The group’s latest effort – a mentorship program – will partner Hispanic alumni with current SMU students for networking, socializing and career-related workshops. The Black Alumni of SMU’s successful Developing Dynamic Leaders student-mentor partnerships served as a template, according to Jake Torres ’11, chair of SMU Hispanic Alumni.

Angela Martinez, shown with sidekick Baby Martinez, graduated in May with degrees in Spanish and psychology. She will be a graduate student in education at SMU in the fall.

Because preparing tomorrow’s graduates for their careers is a key focus, participants will utilize SMU’s Hegi Family Career Development Center resources. Workshops on such topics as résumé building and job interviewing techniques are planned.
While helping undergraduates set a trajectory for future success, the program also is designed to build a sense of community among the University’s Hispanic students and alumni, explains Torres.
For more information about this SMU Hispanic Alumni volunteer opportunity, contact Natalia Vargas, program chair, at nvargasgc@gmail.com.
The alumni group also assists students through its three-year-old scholarship fund. During the 2011-12 academic year, more than 200 donors provided over $22,000 in scholarships split evenly between recipients Angela Martinez ’12 and Pamela Varela.
Martinez graduated in May with a double major in psychology and Spanish. In the fall she will pursue a Master of Education in Educational Leadership – Higher Education at SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.
Senior Pamela Verala is a student representative on the SMU Sustainability Committee and has organized campus efforts for the annual Recyclemania college recycling competition.

“I’m especially appreciative for the SMU Hispanic Alumni scholarship because the scholarship options for graduate students are limited,” Martinez says.
Her long-term plans include law school, with a specialization in immigration law.
“My career choices are motivated by my passion for education, human rights and making our world a better place,” she says.
Varela, a senior majoring in environmental engineering, serves as a resident assistant at Boaz Hall and student representative on the SMU Sustainability Committee. As a lab assistant in the SMU Environmental Engineering Lab, she has worked on a variety of experiments related to the safety of drinking water. Varela says that experience provided a solid foundation for her current internship with Halff Associates engineering and technology firm.
In addition to offering welcome financial relief, the scholarship “is proof that hard work really does pay off,” Varela says.

Click here to donate now to the scholarship fund.

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Alumni

The Play’s The Thing: Meadows Alumni Launch Theatre Company

“How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Portia, Merchant of Venice

 

Co-founders (from left) Allison Darby Gorjian, Jennifer Bronstein and Betsy Roth at the Little Candle Productions launch party in April.

The Bard may not be such stuff as typical happy hour conversations are made, but when friends Jennifer Bronstein, Allison Darby Gorjian and Betsy Roth met before a Meadows School of the Arts alumni mixer in Santa Monica, California, the topic turned to their roots in classical theatre.
“We reminisced about the good old days at SMU and all the wonderful productions we were in,” recalls Bronstein. While students in Meadows’ acclaimed theatre program, she and Roth had concentrated on acting, with a focus on the works of Shakespeare and Chekov, while Gorjian studied writing and directing. All graduated in 2004 and pursued artistic opportunities that eventually led them to the Los Angeles area.
Before the end of that momentous March evening, the trio’s talk had turned from wishful thinking about performing together again to a decision to make it happen. On April 23 – Shakespeare’s birthday – the arts entrepreneurs formally launched Little Candle Productions to bring large-scale theatrical events to the stage for a single, affordable performance.
>See Little Candle’s Kickstarter video
Among the SMU alumni cast in The Winter’s Tale are (from left) Billy Gill ’03 as Autolycus, Emily Habeck ’11 as Perdita and Sky King ’08 as Florizel.

Their midsummer night’s dream came to life with the company’s inaugural presentation of The Winter’s Tale June 29 at the Alex Theatre, a historic 1,400-seat venue in Glendale, California.
The one-night-only concept is practical in financial terms and supports the fledgling company’s artistic goals. “By producing a show that closes on its opening night, we can truly highlight the ephemeral nature of live theatre, an experience captured only by those lucky enough to be in the room for that one performance,” explains Roth.
To cast the play ­– a genre-bending blend of psychological drama, romance and comedy – they plugged into the University’s strong West Coast alumni network. “We posted a notice on the Meadows Facebook page and sent out e-mails to as many SMU alumni as we could to help spread the word about our auditions,” explains Bronstein.
As a result, many of the actors are SMU alumni. In addition to Bronstein and Roth, the cast includes Meredith Alloway ’11, Billy Gill ’03, Adam Daniel Elliott ’05, Emily Habeck ’11, Sky King ’08, Ethan Rains ’04 and Blake Walker ’03. Gorjian directs the play, which runs approximately two hours and 20 minutes. Working behind the scenes are Catherine Hayden Dyer ’05, stage manager, and McLean Krieger ’11, special effects manager.
>Meet the cast
Little Candle’s successful inaugural performance has unfolded into an entire season of plays wrapped around the theme “Tales of Redemption.” The three coming attractions are: Our Country’s Good, an exploration of the humanizing force of theatre, October 2012; Abelard and Heloise, a powerful romance based on the true story of star-crossed lovers in 12th-century France, February 2013; and the world premiere of The Innocence of Father Brown, based on a collection of short stories by G.K. Chesteron and adapted for the stage by Patrick Rieger, in April 2013.
In a few short months, Bronstein, Gorjian and Roth have achieved what many theatre professionals spend a lifetime daydreaming about. In reflecting on their new roles as arts entrepreneurs, the SMU alumni trace their drive and willingness to take a gamble to their Meadows training.
“The SMU bond really is a wonderful thing,” says Bronstein. “It gave us the trust we needed – in our own abilities and in each other – to be brave enough to take this big risk.”
Gorjian says she “learned a lot about creatively starting a project from the ground up” through participation in New Visions, New Voices, Meadows’ annual playwriting festival, and similar opportunities. “Those projects – in addition to my own directing projects – taught me how to work collaboratively and without fear.”
Roth recalls being told as a first-year student that “you’ll never know your true potential unless you push the limits of what you can do. It’s impossible to have great success unless you’re willing to risk great failure, and we are taking a huge risk by starting this theatre company … but one that I think we’re ready for!”
 

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Alumni

The Ring Cycle: What Was Lost Is Returned

Mike Hall ’76 (left) lost his SMU ring in the 1980s and was certain it was gone forever. However, someone found it – no one is quite sure who, when or where – and passed it along to the Alumni Relations office, which brought Bob Sharp (right) into the loop. Sharp, director of major gifts and Circle of Champions, SMU Athletics Development, graduated from SMU in 1976, the year etched on the ring. Sharp recognized the initials inside the ring, “MWH,” as possibly belonging to Hall. Both men were Mustang cheerleaders – Hall in 1975 and Sharp in 1976-77 – and had been roommates during the 1975-76 school year. Although out of touch for some years, they reconnected at their Centennial Reunion in November. After exchanging e-mails to verify ownership, Sharp was able to reunite Hall with his ring. “What an unbelievable surprise! I never expected to see it again,” says Hall. “Some people think it’s corny for a grown man to wear his college ring, but I wear mine proudly. For me, my ring symbolizes the tremendous gratitude I feel toward my parents for enabling me to attend the finest University in the nation.”

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Alumni

Send Us Pictures Of Your Precious Ponies

Harrison Taylor Benjamin Snow
Have a new addition to your family? Share your happy news with the SMU community in SMU Magazine. Send a quality photograph – photos should be at least 1500 pixels wide – along with the names and graduation dates of alumni parents (and grandparents) and your baby’s vital statistics: birthdate, weight, length and place of birth. Only photographs of children ages 2 and younger will be published as space allows.
Here is a sample of the information that will be printed for each photo: Jennifer Gadd Snow ’07 and Andrew Snow of Dallas welcomed their first child, Harrison Taylor Benjamin, Sept. 10, 2010. Harrison was 6 lbs., 1 oz., and 20 in.
Send image files and information to smumag@smu.edu. Deadline for the fall 2012 issue is September 4. Be sure to include a phone number. Remember: Precious Ponies dressed in spirit gear will melt Mustang hearts.

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Alumni

Growing Chapters Program Spreads Mustang Message

Alumni support is crucial to the achievement of University goals, and chapters around the world serve as the primary conduit for engagement by former students with their alma mater, says Bill Vanderstraaten ’82, chair of the SMU Alumni Board.

Bill Vanderstraaten

“We want to increase participation by alumni in all parts of SMU life, including recruiting prospective students, volunteering and annual giving,” he says. “The chapters program provides the platform for our out-of-town alumni to become ambassadors for the University in their communities in every way.”
SMU alumni chapters number 38 from coast to coast in the United States. In addition, 14 international groups in Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia bridge the miles to the Hilltop.
Outside of Dallas, the chapters boasting the greatest number of SMU alumni are Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
San Diego is home to the newest chapter, which is expected to be up and running by the end of this academic year. The Cleveland, Ohio, chapter just relaunched after a year of inactivity.
The Fort Worth chapter also is going strong, reports Watt Stephens ’07, chapter leader. Stephens, who serves on the Fort Worth Steering Committee for The Second Century Campaign, “just couldn’t stand all the purple over here” and decided the time was right to paint the town red and blue.
In late February he organized the chapter’s first event in several years. Approximately 60 alumni, spanning class years from 1949 to 2009, gathered at a landmark venue in Sundance Square to get acquainted and learn about the many avenues for engagement with SMU.
“I got a lot of positive feedback from alumni who are interested in becoming more involved with the University as volunteers,” says Stephens, a commercial lending manager with Frost Bank. “Several alumni expressed an interest in partnering with the Hegi Family Career Development Center in some way.”
A focused approach to revitalizing the alumni chapters program began in 2008. As chair of the Outreach Committee at that time, Vanderstraaten led the team effort.
“We were a national university without a national chapter structure, which was a vital missing link to accomplishing University goals,” says Vanderstraaten, president of Chief Partners, a private real estate investment firm in Dallas.
Jennifer Leslie Boettcher '92 (left) and Kim Head Amos '94, chapter leader, at an alumni event in Atlanta.

Under the leadership of the SMU Alumni Board and the Young Alumni Board, the chapters program has flourished. Game day watch parties, community service, net-working breakfasts, happy hours and “SMU on the Road” events are just a few of the activities offered by alumni chapters. These Mustang gatherings not only strengthen ties between former students and the University, but they also provide a collegial forum for networking and meeting new friends.
“For me, the primary benefit of staying connected is the friendships – the continuation of bonds with people I knew in college and forging new friendships with SMU alumni I’ve met since graduating,” says Kim Head Amos ’94.
After earning Bachelor’s degrees in political science and French, Amos landed in New York where she headed the New York City alumni chapter from 1996-2000. When she moved to Atlanta, she stepped into that chapter’s leadership role, a post she has held for 10 years.
“When you live away from Dallas, you need the SMU group in your town much more,” Amos says. “Chapters are a great resource for alumni, especially those who have recently relocated and may need housing information, networking contacts or just a friendly face.”
John Gaines, Chicago chapter leader

In Chicago the Careers and Cocktails series brings together recent graduates with more seasoned alumni, says chapter leader John Gaines ’04, a commercial real estate broker.
“We usually bring in a guest speaker to address a specific topic, followed by a question-and-answer period,” he explains. Recent speakers have included experts in the fields of finance and human resources. “Afterward, alumni often stay and network. We’ve gotten great feedback, particularly from our older alumni who really like that it’s not just a happy hour, that it’s an informational program as well.”
In Orange County, California, weekday get-togethers at a central location provide Mustangs living in the sprawling region with a chance to reconnect, says chapter leader Alexandra Aswad ’06, a California native who works in pharmaceutical sales.
“We recently had two alumni, who had been good friends at SMU but lost touch after graduation, come to an event and find each other after all these years,” she says. “We’ve also had alumni who didn’t know each other at the University meet and become good friends.”
A shared interest in Mustang sports and the latest news about Centennial happenings inspire alumni of all ages to come together for watch parties and “SMU on the Road” campus updates.
“It has been an advantage to build a network while our sports teams have been improving. It’s always easy to rally alumni around sports,” says Vanderstraaten. “Our move to the Big East Conference will provide a whole new experience for SMU alumni.”
Through chapter participation alumni also show their appreciation to the University.
“I grew up in Richardson, so I technically didn’t go away to school, but the geographic diversity of the student population made it seem like I did,” says Vanderstraaten, who earned a B.B.A. from SMU.
“Attending SMU was life-changing, and I want future students to have that same positive experience, which is why I give back to the University – both through financial support and my time.” 

Get Involved, Connect Today

Whether they recruit new students to the Hilltopor rally support for SMU’s Second Century Campaign, alumni are vital to the University’s mission to strengthen its student quality, faculty excellence, academic distinction and the campus experience.
Alumni talent and enthusiasm are always needed to:

  • Recruit students
  • Mentor students
  • Inspire peers to make a gift
  • Represent Hispanic alumni
  • Plan class reunions
  • Represent African-American alumni
  • Get involved in local chapters
  • Represent young alumni

The “Get Involved” website streamlines the volunteer process. On the site alumni can view a description of each opportunity and outlines of expectations and time requirements.
The online application procedure is quick and easy: Select the “Connect Today” button; fill out the form, checking all programs of interest; and hit the submit button. A representative from Alumni Relations will follow up with all volunteers.
For questions about SMU’s alumni involvement opportunities, e-mail involved@smu.edu or call 214-768-2586 (ALUM) or 1-888-327-3755. 

Categories
Alumni

Alumni Find New Ways To Make A Difference

A thread of philanthropy weaves through the fiber of SMU. Each year more than 2,500 SMU students volunteer with over 70 nonprofit organizations, and as alumni they continue to make a positive difference in their communities and around the globe. Following are the stories of two SMU graduates who are changing lives through their good works.
Carter Higley ’01: LEAD (Letting Everyone Achieve Dreams)
Carter Higley ’01 of Houston, founder of LEAD (Letting Everyone Achieve Dreams), a youth mentoring and leadership program, calls SMU a “game-changer.”

Carter Higley ’01 (center, in white shirt) and some participants in the youth mentoring and leadership program he founded in Houston.

“I had a wonderful experience from an academic perspective, but what was even more fulfilling was the opportunity to give back through community involvement,” he says. “I think I may have started out a bit singularly focused, and my volunteer experiences definitely broadened my perspective.”
As an SMU student, Higley served as a volunteer tutor for struggling Dallas students. Working with the youngsters inspired him to join Teach for America after graduation. Assigned to Compton, a city in southern Los Angeles County, he witnessed the need for strong role models and enrichment opportunities outside the classroom.
“Summers were particularly challenging for students,” he says. “They had a lot of free time on their hands and not much to do that was productive.”
After completing his teaching commitment, Higley forged a successful career in business – he is now a financial adviser with UBS – but his students left a lasting impression.
In spring 2005, he and his wife, Jamil, founded LEAD. The year-round program for inner-city youth instills confidence and strengthens self-esteem through team building and leadership training activities, as well as community service projects and a summer wilderness experience.
What sets LEAD apart from similar programs is a six-year commitment required of both students and mentors. Students must apply and be accepted as sixth-graders – participants are called “LEADers.” They work with the same three mentors until they graduate from high school. Throughout the school year, LEADers must meet academic, service and other standards to remain eligible.
Higley reports that “all 16 students in our first LEAD class have completed high school and are attending college, including a student who was the first from his high school to go to MIT.”
Jennifer Kenning ’01 and Josh Helland ’00: A Good Night Sleep
A scene in the movie “The Blind Side” caught Jennifer Kenning off guard. When the Michael Oher character is shown his new room, he confesses that he’s never before had a bed. That powerful moment moved her.
Josh Helland ’00 and Jennifer Kenning ’01 are shown with mattresses donated to provide beds to those in need.

“I couldn’t imagine not having a bed to sleep in at night,” says Kenning, a wealth management director for Aspiriant in Los Angeles. “It made me realize how much I take for granted.”
While her initial intention was to write a check to a charity that provides beds to the needy, she discovered “there was not a single organization with that sole purpose,” she says.
In fall 2010, Kenning filled that gap by founding A Good Night Sleep (AGNS). The nonprofit organization partners with charitable groups to provide beds and bedding
to the homeless and others in need as they transition into permanent housing. She serves as chair of AGNS, and fellow Mustang Josh Helland ’00 is executive director.
During Homecoming weekend last year, Kenning and Helland organized the first Dallas “bed drop.” Among the local partners was the mattress retailer Sleep Experts, owned by Chris ’91 and Christine Cook ’91. Beds and basic household items were provided for 120 people moving from The Bridge homeless shelter to apartments.
“We plan to do another bed drop in Dallas and are very interested in working with SMU student groups,” says Kenning.
To date, A Good Night Sleep has provided 504 beds and bedding in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Managua, Nicaragua, with a commitment to distribute another 123 beds in 2012.


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Alumni

SMU Celebrates The Peace Corps At 50

Allison Hannel ’04 served in San Juancito, Honduras (2005-07).

Allison Hannel’s “proudest accomplishmentwhile serving as a business development volunteer with the Peace Corps in San Juancito, Honduras, was establishing the first restaurant in the agrarian village of 3,000 people. The humble venture consisted of only four picnic tables and a menu of eight variations on a rice-beans-tortillas theme, yet it thrived.
“My measure of success for the project was that just three months after we opened, two or three other restaurants opened, serving the same type of meals,” says Hannel, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in marketing from SMU in 2004.
Hannel and other members of the University community shared their memories and accomplishments during SMU’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps January 31. Approximately 40 returned volunteers now living in North Texas attended the event.
Michael McKay ’87 is manager of the Peace Corps’ Southwest region.

Michael McKay ’87, who holds a Master’s degree in public administration from SMU, manages the Peace Corps’ 10-state Southwest region. Of the more than 200,000 people who have served in 139 host countries, 111 are SMU alumni, he says.
Hannel’s service in the Peace Corps quenched a thirst for “living abroad and the experience of being immersed in another culture.” As a student and varsity volleyball player, her rigorous schedule left no time for study overseas, so she applied for the Peace Corps and was accepted a year after graduating.
In addition to opening the restaurant in San Juancito, Hannel assisted village artisans in marketing and distributing their handmade products, taught English and basic accounting, and helped start a high school computer center.
“Now all these kids I taught to use a mouse are my friends on Facebook,” she says.
After returning to Texas in 2007, Hannel found that “the combination of SMU and the Peace Corps set me apart from the pack” when she was exploring career options. She was hired into the AT&T leadership program and now serves as a senior brand manager for the company.
David Metcalf ’99 served in Partido, Dominican Republic (1993-95).

Likewise, David Metcalf ’99 feels his term in the Dominican Republic (1993-95), coupled with an international finance degree, opened doors upon his return to the States. “My Peace Corps experience complemented the solid academic foundation I already had,” he says.
Assigned to Partido, a town of approximately 10,000 in the northwest corner of the country near the Haitian border, Metcalf used his finance background as a banking and small business consultant. He also learned to speak Spanish and gained insights into another culture that only come from becoming a part of it.
“The more you give, the more you get. It’s a chance to make a difference unlike any other,” says Metcalf, a manager with the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas.
Several faculty and staff members found their experiences in bridging cultural chasms with a common language of peace and hope to be truly life-changing.
History Professor Dennis Cordell and Jane Albritton ’67, ’71.

Thomas Tunks, professor of music education in Meadows School of the Arts, served in Colombia, South America (1968-69). “Every day, what I do is affected by those short years and what I learned,” he says. “You get so much more out of it than you give.”
Susan Kress, director of SMU Engaged Learning, served in Malaysia in Southeast Asia (1975-76). At the event, she thanked the Peace Corps for providing the opportunity “to become a citizen of the world.”
Dennis Cordell, professor of history in Dedman College, entered the Peace Corps in 1968 and volunteered in the central African nation of Chad until 1970. “If you’re thinking about what to do next, I urge you to consider the possibilities of the Peace Corps,” he said. “You very well may end up with the hardest job you ever loved.”
Jane Albritton ’67, ’71, a writer, editor and former lecturer in English at SMU, served in India (1967-69) and was instrumental in creating a lasting legacy to the first half-century of the Peace Corps. Albritton signed copies of the anthology she edited, Even the Smallest Crab Has Teeth: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, at the SMU Barnes and Noble bookstore February 4.
Donald Ross ’70 (left) served in Thailand (1963-65) and his son, Owen Ross, served in Ecuador (1996-98).

Among the 9,000 volunteers now serving in 75 countries are eight SMU alumni, according to McKay. Among them are Robin and Woody Al-Haddad. Robin ’04, a cultural anthropology major, and Woody ’96, an engineer, live in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa, and teach English and math in three schools. They chronicle the progress of various projects – from raising funds for high school textbooks to showing youngsters how to use toothbrushes – in a blog, “Rhino & Springbok’s Excellent Adventure in South Africa.”
In a recent posting, Robin recounted her high school students’ experiences as pen pals with seventh-grade students in Farmers Branch, Texas. Although designed to help the South African students improve their writing skills in English, the exercise also “opened their eyes to some of the similarities and differences between themselves and American kids,” she wrote. “It’s pretty universal that most teenagers love to talk about music, sports and animals. But when it comes to food – well, that’s a different story. I found myself trying to explain more than once what fajitas and sushi are.” 

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Alumni

Black Alumni Of SMU Honor History Makers, Launch Scholarship

Black Alumni of SMU history makers: (from left) Gene (GE) Pouncy Sr. ’74, Joe Pouncy ’74, Michael Rideau ’76, Michael Waters ’02, ’06, Charles Howard ’72, Charles Mitchell ’71, Rufus Cormier ’70, Detra Taylor ’72 and Anga Sanders ’70. The event honoring the alumni and announcing the Black Alumni Scholarship was part of SMU

 
An estimated 118 alumni and guests gathered to honor the past and celebrate the future when Black Alumni of SMU recognized 13 of its history makers and introduced the inaugural Black Alumni Scholarship February 17.
The honorees included award-winning athletes, outstanding student leaders and members of the “SMU 33,” a group of students who, in 1969, staged a sit-in to call attention for the need for more diverse faculty and curriculum.

13 History Makers Recognized

LEADERSHIP
  • Bernard Jones ’01 – The first write-in candidate elected to the SMU Student Senate and, in 2002, the first person to be elected student body president without a runoff in a multi-candidate race.
  • Michael Waters ’02 – The former student body vice president who, while serving as a chaplain’s assistant in 2004, founded the SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage to the “shrines of freedom” throughout the South. As a senior political science major at SMU, he helped create a set of remembrance journals where students recorded their reflections on the events of September 11, 2001.
ATHLETICS
  • Jerry LeVias ’69 – The first African-American player in the Southwest Conference to receive an athletic scholarship.
  • Mike Rideau ’76 and twins Joe Pouncy ’74 and Gene Pouncy ’74 – Members of the 400-meter relay team that won the Southwest Conference championship for three consecutive years.
CIVIL RIGHTS
  • The “SMU 33” – A group of students, including Rufus Cormier ’70, Charles Howard ’72, Charles Mitchell ’71, Michael Morris ’72, Anga Sanders ’70 and Detra Taylor ’72, whose activism in 1969 drew attention to the need for more diverse faculty and curriculum and called for the University to improve working conditions for its African-American employees.
  • Rev. Zan Holmes Jr. ’59, ’68 – A Perkins School of Theology graduate who, as pastor of Hamilton Park United Methodist Church and a Texas legislator in 1969, helped successfully resolve the standoff between the “SMU 33” and the University administration.

The evening not only highlighted past accomplishments, but it also set the stage for future achievements through the Black Alumni Scholarship. The first scholarship will be awarded this spring to a rising sophomore or graduate student. To apply, a student must be a member of the Association for Black Students, maintain a 3.0 GPA and qualify for financial aid.
Anga Sanders ’70, a member of the “SMU 33” honored that evening, called the scholarship “a long-awaited dream.”

Contribute to the Black Alumni Scholarship

A video that included photographs, newspaper clippings and other materials from the SMU Archives showed the University as it was when many attendees were students. The contrast between the SMU of yesterday and today was palpable for Detra Taylor ’72, another member of the “SMU 33.”
“It really is like being in a different place today,” Taylor said. “There is a sense of community and belonging now.”
The history of the black student experience at SMU was an inspiration – and revelation – for some current SMU students at the event.
“Hearing their stories made me proud, and it really motivates me to want to be more courageous as a student,” said Bri Evans, a first-year English major in Dedman College. “I want to affect positive change like they did.”
For Fred Leach, a senior majoring in history and film, the evening was personal: his father, Fredrick S. Leach ’83, an SMU Trustee, and his uncle, Bobby Leach ’86, are SMU alumni.
“This is their history, and learning more about it makes me even prouder of their accomplishments,” he said.

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Alumni

Mustang Memories: The Roots Continue To Grow

Hortense Weir Smith’s “Tracing a Family’s Deep Hilltop Roots” (Mustang Memories, SMU Magazine, Fall 2011) prompted John B. Danna Jr. ’53 to continue the story in this letter.

John B. Danna Jr. with his granddaughter, Mackenzie Martin, a first-year business student at SMU

As I read SMU Magazine, I certainly have fond memories from my days at SMU. I remember receiving my diploma for a business degree in 1953, and thinking of my uncle, Ralph Beaver, about whom Ms. Smith’s article was written. Uncle Ralph was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity and graduated in 1923. His wife, Hazel Matthews, also attended SMU at that time, and they were married upon Ralph’s graduation.
Also, my thoughts were with my father, John B. Danna, a prominent Dallas architect who attended SMU in 1920 and 1921. He pledged Kappa Alpha (KA) fraternity and was one
of its first members at SMU.
In 1949 I registered at SMU and pledged ATO like my Uncle Ralph. I graduated in 1953 and spent two years active duty with the U.S. Air Force. After my tour of duty I studied architecture in Austin, Texas. I returned to Dallas to work with my father in his architectural practice in 1958.
Another family member associated with SMU is my cousin, Claire McDougle Roberts ’57. After graduating from SMU and raising her children, she worked at SMU with alumni and is now retired.
Last year was another milestone in our family as my granddaughter, Mackenzie Martin, excitedly enrolled as a first-year student in fall 2011. I’m looking forward to seeing her graduate with the Class of 2015!
With so many changes over the years, it is great to see how SMU has grown and prospered as one of the prominent universities in the country.  The 100-year celebration, I am sure, will be an affair to remember. 
John B. Danna Jr. ’53, AIA
Dallas, Texas

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Alumni

Walter J. Humann Receives 2012 J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award

Corporate and civic leader Walter J. Humann ’67, lauded for his efforts in education, urban planning and other areas of public service, received the 2012 J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award from SMU April 2.

Walter J. Humann

Presented by SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, the annual award recognizes individuals who epitomize the spirit of moral leadership and public virtue. In Humann’s case, that involves his work in improving race relations,
government organization, infrastructure and other facets of life in North Texas. The award also recognizes his successful business career: Humann leads his own firm, WJH Corporation, and has held top management positions in other major corporations, including Hunt Consolidated, Memorex-Telex and the LTV Corporation.
“Having worked closely with both Walt and Erik Jonsson on many projects, I can say that Walt’s spirit of public service and responsibility to his community is cut from the same cloth as Mayor Jonsson,” says SMU Trustee Ray Hunt ’65, chair of this year’s ethics award event. “Everything Walt has done for Dallas and its citizens, not to mention in his private business, has been conceived and executed with the highest level of ethical conduct and moral responsibility. I believe that there is no one in Dallas more deserving of this honor than Walt.”
Humann was selected for the honor because of his lifelong commitment to improving the quality of life for the Dallas community, says Maguire Center Director Rita Kirk.
“With quiet tenacity and perceptive vision, he played a pivotal role in the desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District by founding the Dallas Alliance Education Task Force, which created the Magnet Schools of DISD, thereby enriching the education and lives of thousands of children.
“With everything he’s done,” Kirk adds, “Walt upholds the tradition of excellence that the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award was created to recognize.”
Nationally, Humann was selected in 1970 as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men of America,” primarily for chairing the committee to create the U.S. Postal Service while serving as a White House Fellow (the first from Texas).
Regionally, the “father of DART” led the successful redevelopment of the North Central Corridor, with Central Expressway and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) rail line helping to solve the nation’s “oldest living highway controversy.” He founded the Jubilee Project in the late 1990s and served for more than 10 years as its chairman, helping revitalize a 62-block inner-city Dallas neighborhood.
Humann holds a physics degree from MIT, an M.B.A. from Harvard and a Juris Doctor degree from the Evening Division of SMU’s Dedman School of Law. He has received numerous business and public service awards, including The Legacy of Leadership Award from the White House Fellows Foundation in Washington, D.C. He also has received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 and the Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004. 

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Alumni

Writing The Prescription For Compassionate Care

Cardiologist John Harper’s passions for science and the written word merge in “Intersections: Literature and Medicine,” an annual conference he established in 2010. “The science of medicine could learn from literature by gaining a better understanding of the human condition, a view inside the human soul and more ways to deeply connect with patients through compassionate, healing words,” he stated in an announcement about the inaugural event. The conference is among the accomplishments for which he was recognized as the 2012 Dedman College Distinguished Graduate. He was honored along with Psychology Chair Ernest N. Jouriles, 2012 Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, and Kevin Eaton, Robert and Nancy Dedman Outstanding Senior Student, at the school’s annual awards luncheon March 20. Harper, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from SMU in 1968 and an M.D. from UT Southwestern Medical School in 1972, has been a clinical cardiologist for 33 years at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He is the first Jennie Metcalf Ewton Chair for Cardiology at the hospital.

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Alumni

Paying Tribute To Former Provost Ruth Morgan

Ruth Morgan, provost and professor emerita, was the guest of honor at a luncheon hosted by some of her former students in November. Morgan taught political science in Dedman College, 1966-95. She also served as assistant provost, 1978-81, and associate provost, 1981-86, before becoming provost and vice president for academic affairs, 1986-93. Those attending the luncheon included (from left) Warren Russell ’69, “M” Award, 1969, Student Senate, and wife Sheryl; David Waldrep, ’70, ’73, ’93; Lon Williams ’70, president of the SMU Student Senate, 1969-70, “M” Award, 1970; JoAnn Harris Means ’70, ’74, student body president, 1972-73, “M” Award, 1973; Ruth Morgan’s son, Glenn E. Morgan; Provost Emerita Morgan; H.W. Perry Jr. ’74, student body president, 1973-74, “M” Award, 1974; Carolyn Jeter, assistant to the provost, 1987-present; Terry Means ’71, ’74, student body president, 1970-71, “M” Award, 1970; and Randy West ’70, ’74, ’77, Mustang Band drum major, 1967-72, assistant band director, 1969-72, and student senator, 1975-76. Not pictured is Craig Enoch ’72, ’75, recipient of a 2006 SMU Distinguished Alumni Award and a 1999 Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Award.

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Alumni

Alumni Reconnect With Favorite Professors

Flooding rains didn’t dampen the spirit of those who turned out for a “Happy Hour with the Professors” January 25. Sixty members of Dallas Young Alumni and 21 faculty members gathered to reminisce and share news about SMU. The event provided Kristina Kiik ’06, ’10 (left), Political Science Professor James Hollifield, who serves as director of SMU’s Tower Center For Political Studies, and Gennéa Squire de Torres ’06, ’11 with an opportunity to catch up. “I’m always amazed at the accomplishments of SMU’s faculty, and I am so fortunate to have a plethora of former professors who continue to inspire me today,” says de Torres, event chair.

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Alumni

Perkins School of Theology Names Distinguished Alumnus

Mouzon Biggs Jr. ’65 (right) received the 2012 Perkins School of Theology Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Alumni/ae Council of Perkins School of Theology at a dinner in his honor during Ministers Week in February. Biggs accepted the award from Suzanne Cox Reedstrom ’04, chair of the council and lead associate minister at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, Houston, and Perkins Dean William B. Lawrence. The award recognizes distinguished public service, exemplary character and continuing support and involvement with the school. Biggs has been senior minister at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, since 1980. A popular public speaker, he has addressed audiences in 30 states and traveled in 41 countries. His interfaith and interracial work have garnered numerous accolades, including the National Conference of Community and Justice Award and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keeping the Dream Alive Award.

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Alumni

Young Alumni Volunteer With Heart and Soles

Becca Ellinor ’11 (left) and Korey Adams ’11 sort shoes during a community service project sponsored by the Dallas Young Alumni February 25. Twenty-five volunteers helped with Buckner International’s Shoes for Orphan Souls, which provides new shoes and socks to children in need in the United States and around the globe. Volunteers also wrote notes of encouragement to be placed in each pair of shoes. “This was a great opportunity for young alumni to stay connected and give back to the community at the same time,” says George B. Hunter ’05, event chair.

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Alumni

Anticipating Another Great Year of Gridiron Action

Former Mustang football players Mike Richardson ’69 (center) and Chris Rentzel ’72 (right) joined Coach June Jones for the National Signing Day celebration hosted by the SMU Mustang Club February 1. Among the 20 student-athletes recruited to the Hilltop is PARADE All-American Prescott Line, brother of running back Zach Line, a Doak Walker Award semifinalist. “Every year gets better,” Jones said, praising the recruits’ academic records and character as well as their athletic abilities. The 2012 season opens with a road trip to Waco to face Baylor September 1. The first home game will be against Stephen F. Austin September 8. Ticket information is available at smumustangs.com or by calling 214-768-4263 (SMU GAME).

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Alumni

Dedman School of Law Honors Distinguished Alumni

Dedman School of Law honored seven highly accomplished legal and business professionals at its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner February 27. This year’s recipients and their awards are (from left) W. Richard Davis ’58, mayor of University Park and a retired partner of Strasburger & Price LLP, Private Practice Award; Dean M. Gandy ’50, retired judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas, Judicial Service Award; trustee Carl Sewell Jr., chairman of Sewell Automotive Companies, who earned a B.B.A. in banking, finance and economics from SMU in 1966, named an honorary alumnus of the law school; Edward B. Rust Jr. ’75, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of State Farm Mutual, the Robert G. Storey Award for Distinguished Achievement (the highest honor); Sarah R. Saldaña ’84, U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Texas, Government Service Award; and D. Wayne Watts ’80, senior executive vice president and general counsel of AT&T, Corporate Service Award. H. Harjono ’81, founding justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, recipient of the Distinguished Global Alumni Award, was unable to attend and will receive his award at a later date.

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Alumni

Dressing The Part: Exhibition Celebrates Alumnus’ Artistry

Barry Sellers '81

For three decades, Barry Sellers ’81 has brought costume designers’ sketches to life. As the Hartford Stage’s draper, he has created more than 1,000 costumes for almost 200 productions.
Now the Connecticut theater shines the spotlight on Sellers’ theatrical artistry with an exhibition that will continue through April 29. Costumes, photographs and commentary tell the story of “one of the premiere theatrical drapers in the country.”
“The not-so-secret ingredient for making astonishing and memorable theatre at Hartford Stage was – and still is – Barry Sellers,” says Michael Wilson, former artistic director.
Adds Darko Tresnjak, Hartford Stage’s current artistic director: “Barry is something of a legend.”
This exquisitely detailed dress is among the costumes featured in an exhibition celebrating the artistry of SMU alumnus Barry Sellers.

Hartford audiences are familiar with Sellers’ work, but they may not know exactly what he does. A draper takes a designer’s sketch and develops a pattern for the garment. Patternmaking involves draping and manipulating muslin on a dress form until the desired shape is achieved – hence the term “draper.” The draper’s work is particularly important for period costumes.
“I have designed nine shows at the Hartford Stage and am always eager to return because the artisans there are of the highest caliber and carry a great commitment to the art of theatre,” says designer Susan Hilferty, who won a Tony Award for costumes for Wicked. “Barry Sellers is a master!”
Sellers earned a Master of Fine Arts in design from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, where he studied with Rosemary Ingham, an award-winning costume designer and author of two well-known texts on the subject, and theatre designers Bill and Jean Eckart, three-time Tony nominees.
While living in Dallas, Sellers worked with costume designer Irene Corey; Alberto Cerconni, former head tailor of Neiman Marcus; and such performing arts organizations as Dallas Theater Center.
Sellers recalls being hired by Hartford Stage 30 years ago while in New York City at an SMU-sponsored conference of the League of Professional Training Schools.

Photos by The Defining Moment/Courtesy of Hartford Stage
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Alumni

The Man Behind The camBLOCK

Stewart Mayer '97 utilizes camBLOCK technology for a location shoot.

As the inventor of the camBLOCK modular motion control system, Stewart Mayer ’97 helped fellow SMU alumnus William Joyce ’81 and Joyce’s co-director, Brandon Oldenburg, achieve the hybrid animation of their Academy Award-nominated short film, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.”
“Having the film nominated for an Oscar is amazing; it is a real validation that hard work and passion really can make a difference,” says Mayer, who earned a B.A. in cinema-television from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. “Everyone went above and beyond for the film. That combination of dedication, along with Bill and Brandon’s vision, created a beautiful film.”
For the “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” Mayer and camBLOCK operator Jason Hess, who received a Bachelor’s in communications from SMU in 1999, spent a week filming the charming miniature environments constructed at Joyce’s Moonbot Studios in Louisiana. The sophisticated camBLOCK system “allows cameras to move in ways that can’t be done manually,” providing fluidity and accuracy, says Mayer. Animated characters were later composited into the shots.
Some of the models shot with a camBLOCK system for the Oscar-nominated movie, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Mayer devised his first basic motion control (or “moco”) system in 1999 for a documentary about the art deco architecture of Dallas’ Fair Park. “Following that initial film, I received a lot of requests from other filmmakers who wanted to purchase my cobbled together motion control system. In 2008 I decided to turn my invention into a serious product, redesigned it, and named the new company camBLOCK.
“What makes camBLOCK unique is its compact size, which allows filmmakers to create motion control effects on location, instead of in a dedicated studio.”
The cinematographer/inventor has traveled the world, filming everything “from polar bears in the Arctic to jellyfish in Micronesia.” Other filmmakers have used the camBLOCK “to capture real-time and time-lapse images for National Geographic Channel, BBC, Discovery Channel and TNT, as well as numerous commercials and 3D Imax documentaries,” Mayer says.
Last year Mark Kerins, Meadows associate professor of film and media arts, and David Croson, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the Cox School of Business, used moco technology designed by Mayer in making their film, “How NOT To Quit Your Day Job.” The 40-minute comedy, based on Croson’s research, was nominated for the 2011 McGraw-Hill Award for Innovation in Entrepreneurial Pedagogy and has been picked up for educational distribution. It is now being shown in college business classrooms nationwide, Kerins says.
As an SMU student, Mayer started out as an engineering major but switched to cinema-television as a natural fit for his creativity and technical acumen.
“The best part of SMU, for me, was being surrounded by other students motivated to make films no matter what. Back then, video looked horrible and film was prohibitively expensive, but we banded together to make films despite the obstacles,” he remembers. “We were forced to be resourceful, and those skills – along with the encouraging guidance of professors such as Rick Worland – shaped a work ethic that has made me successful today.”
While a 3D documentary about polar bears that he filmed is soon to be released, Mayer says his most exciting project recently has been “the birth of my now 13-week-old son, Wyatt Henry Mayer. He is, by far, the best invention I’ve ever been part of creating.”

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Alumni

Mustang Memories: Alumnus Recalls Grandfather’s Leap of Faith

Charlie Wilkinson had only a sixth-grade education, but the East Texas farmer shared the vision for a great new center of higher learning with academics Robert Stewart Hyer and Hiram Boaz. Wilkinson, who observed his 29th birthday April 15, 1911, was among those who provided financial support to help The United Methodist Church build SMU.
“My grandfather was a farmer whose only source of income was the sale of cotton,” recalls grandson Fred Head ’61, ’63.  “In a good year, he would make six bales, which would sell for a top price of $25 per bale.”
Wilkinson and his wife, Alva Lena Burton Wilkinson, were active members of Henry’s Chapel Methodist Church, a small congregation in Cherokee County, Texas. Like Methodists across the state, the Wilkinsons were encouraged to contribute what they could afford toward the proposed university.
Even though he had four children to support – Lou Ella, Emery, Pauline and Annelle – Wilkinson pledged $25 to be paid over several years. It was a princely sum for a family that earned $150 in a good year.

The receipt for Charlie Wilkinson's final payment on his $25 pledge, dated November 2, 1917.

Head cherishes the documentation of his grandfather’s contribution:
•  An acknowledgement of Wilkinson’s $25 subscription to the “Million Dollar Fund” signed on April 27, 1913, by SMU President Robert Stewart Hyer, Vice President Hiram A. Boaz and Bursar Frances Reedy.
A subscription note signed by his grandfather June 1, 1915.
A receipt for the final payment of $8.34 dated November 2, 1917, and a letter acknowledging their pledge fulfillment dated November 17, 1917.
A Dallas Hall medallion, sent in recognition of full payment.
“My grandfather believed it was one of the best investments he had ever made,” Head says.
Although he did not realize it at the time, Wilkinson had planted family roots with SMU that would grow over generations. Fifty years after the filing of SMU’s charter in 1911, grandson Fred earned a B.B.A. from the University. Two years later, he graduated from Dedman School of Law. Head established a successful practice in Athens, Texas, and represented Rusk and Smith counties in the Texas Legislature from 1967-81. One of Head’s five children, Catherine Marsha Head Lenz, received a Bachelor’s in communications from SMU in 1991.
“My grandfather, who died in 1970, never could have imagined that SMU would begin its Centennial celebration with Founders’ Day on his birthday,” Head says. “He was so proud that the fruits of his investment returned to his family and so many other families over the years.”

If you would like to share your SMU memories, please e-mail your story to smumag@smu.edu or write to SMU Magazine, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750174, Dallas, Texas 75275-0174. Please print legibly and include a daytime phone number. Deadline for submission is January 31, 2012. Due to space limitations, not all Mustang Memories will be printed.


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Alumni

GALLOP, Military Group Organize

Two new affinity groups for SMU alumni with close connections beyond their alma mater became active this fall:
SMU GALLOP (Gay and Lesbian League of Persons)
GALLOP exists to encourage and foster an academic environment that supports the role of Mustangs – past, present and future – who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), according to Brian Davis ’00, chapter leader.
For more information, e-mail, call 214-768-4792 and visit the SMU GALLOP Facebook page.
SMU Military Alumni
The SMU Military Alumni provides support for the deployed, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities for SMU students and alumni in the military.
Major Rob “Big Shot” Fowler serves as chapter leader. He organized a military flyby during Homecoming and prepared a slideshow featuring photographs of SMU military alumni that was shown during halftime at the SMU-Navy game November 12.
For more information, e-mail and join the SMU Military Alumni Facebook group.

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Alumni

A Memoir From A Master Storyteller

Marshall Terry ’53, ’54 shares a lighthearted moment with Charlotte Whaley ’70, ’76, editor emeritus of the Southwest Review, at a reception and book signing for his memoir, Loving U. Terry’s book is described as “an affectionate and clear-eyed narrative” of his more than 50-year relationship with the University. The professor emeritus of English and architect of SMU’s creative writing program, Terry offers his unique perspectives on famous moments in Hilltop history – including poet T.S. Eliot’s visit in 1958 – and beloved figures such as President Willis Tate (1954-72). Terry will receive the third annual Literati Award from the Friends of the SMU Libraries March 31, 2012. Loving U. may be purchased from DeGolyer Library – call 214-768-0829 for more information – and the SMU Barnes & Noble Bookstore.

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Alumni

Savoring Centennial Hall Exhibits

Darrell Lindsey and Anita Ray ’54 toured the Centennial Hall exhibits during a reception and dinner for the Dallas Hall Society September 20. Located in the first floor of Hughes-Trigg Student Center, Centennial Hall includes a historical timeline, interactive features, videos, digitized copies of Rotunda yearbooks, tributes to communities associated with SMU, such as Dallas and the Park Cities, and an electronic guestbook, where visitors may add their reflections and hopes for SMU’s future. The Dallas Hall Society recognizes alumni, parents and friends who have included SMU in their estate plans or made  other planned gifts to the University. Chartered in 1996, the Society has 445 active households (as of May 31, 2011).

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Alumni

Service With A Smile

Judith Banes ’69, ’78 retired as director of Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports in September, but she may be best known as Peruna’s unofficial godmother. Thanks to the creative blankets she has fashioned for him over the years, Peruna is, perhaps, one of the best-dressed mascots in the nation. Judith and her husband, Fred, met as first-year SMU students. She joined SMU in 1986 and served as Dedman Center director for 21 years. Fred, who also retired, returned to the Hilltop in 1997 and was a trades manager with the Office of Planning, Design and Construction. Their son, Corey, is a 1990 graduate.

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Alumni

Red (And Blue) Letter Weekend

More than 400 former athletes, their families and other supporters of Mustang sports attended the SMU Lettermen’s Annual Reunion September 9-10. Pictured are: (front, left to right) Marshella Atkins, Tennel Atkins ’78, Suzanne Johnston ’70, and (back) Chris Rentzel ’72, Bill Wright ’71 and Jim Johnston ’70, ’71. All tennis teams and the 1976-79 football teams were honored this year. William L. Hutchison Sr. ’54, ’55 received the 2011 Honorary Letter Award from the Lettermen’s Association board. Hutchison, a trustee emeritus, is also a 1990 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.

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Alumni

Warming Up For The Iron Skillet

SMU trustee Bradley W. Brookshire ’76 (left) and Ann Warmack Brookshire ‘77, who serves on the SMU Libraries Executive Board, join Mark L. Meyer ’76, a member of the SMU Athletic Forum board, and Judiann Reeves Meyer ’76 for pre-game festivities in the SMU Alumni tent before the TCU game. The SMU-TCU rivalry dates to 1915, when the University’s football team first traveled to Fort Worth for the season opener, according to Darwin Payne, professor emeritus of communications and author of a history of athletics at SMU, In Honor of the Mustangs. The Battle for the Iron Skillet was launched in 1946, according to newspaper reports of the day. This year, the Mustang football team won the 76th Iron Skillet in a 40-33 overtime victory against the 20th-ranked TCU Horned Frogs.

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Alumni

Dedman Research In The Spotlight

Dean William Tsutsui (left) offered a revealing look at Dedman College in his talk “Research: The Sexy Side of Dedman” at the Young Alumni Professional Breakfast September 13. Geothermal energy, childhood obesity and the origins of the universe are just a few of the complex topics studied by Dedman researchers. Upcoming speakers in the breakfast series include Hunter and Stephanie Hunt, founders of the Hunter and Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity at SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, February 16; and Kerry Briggs, director of education reform at the George W. Bush Institute, April 4. The dean is shown with senior Adriana Martinez, a President’s Scholar and student member of the SMU Board of Trustees, and Jonathan Childers ’02.

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Alumni

We Fried The Frogs!

Matthew Adamic ’01 and Katie Wright ’07 flank human Peruna at the Young Alumni Fry The Frogs happy hour September 13. The Mustangs not only captured the Iron Skillet in the annual gridiron battle October 1, but SMU alumni “fried the frogs” by besting their TCU peers in an annual giving challenge. A total of 1,067 alumni donors made a gift in September to win the competition, while the Horned Frogs garnered 934 donors. Mustangs can still contribute to the SMU Scholarship Fund online.

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Alumni

Mustang Memories: Tracing A Family’s Deep Hilltop Roots

I’m a graduate of SMU (1940) but the exciting part of the Centennial celebration is that my mother, Ilma Beaver, and her brother, Ralph, were both students the first year this wonderful university opened. Ilma was in what was, I suppose, the School of Music, and Ralph was a real Joe College. He pledged Alpha Tau Omega, was a cheerleader, and sang in glee club. In fact, the family joke says he had such a great first semester that Dr. [Robert S.] Hyer called my grandparents and asked them to come get Ralph, and when he was “big enough to wear long pants” he could return to SMU. (He must have been quite stylish wearing knickers.) He did return and met his future wife there and graduated. My mother only went a year or two but spoke often about how much she learned from her studies … They lived in the small town of Garland at that time, so both lived on campus during the school year.
I have many relatives and a sister and brother-in-law – Dr. and Mrs. Harold (Virginia Weir) Brown – who are graduates, as well as cousins. And my mother’s cousin – Hatton W. Sumners – was a benefactor, so the memories of SMU are many. My sister and I both lived in Snider Hall, and I think my mother’s dorm in 1915-16 was what became Curtis dorm.
Congratulations for the great progress the University has made. I wish I lived nearby to enjoy the many pleasures the University brings to the community. I do visit a daughter who lives in the area, so will look forward to seeing and hearing about the continuing celebration of the 100th anniversary.
– Hortense Weir Smith ’40, Leawood, Kansas
If you would like to share your SMU memories, please e-mail your story to smumag@smu.edu or write to SMU Magazine, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750174, Dallas, Texas 75275-0174. Please print legibly and include a daytime phone number. Deadline for submission is January 31, 2012. Due to space limitations, not all Mustang Memories will be printed.


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Alumni

National Community Service Day: Mustangs Make A Difference

SMU alumni in 11 chapters from coast to coast put pony power to work for good causes during the first annual National Community Service Day October 29. A total of 245 participants helped nonprofits and other organizations in the following cities:
Atlanta: Assisted the United Methodist Children’s Home, a safe haven for abused and neglected children and youth.
Chicago: Helped spruce up Onward Neighborhood House, which offers educational, recreational and social services programs. Afterward, alumni gathered for an SMU-Tulsa watch party.
Dallas: Black Alumni of SMU launched the project with a bread drive and were joined by other Mustangs at eXcuses eXtreme Café in Deep Ellum to make sandwiches. The food was distributed to the homeless through Random Acts of Kindness’ SoupMobile.
Houston: Distributed books donated by Half Price Books and discussed the importance of reading with youngsters involved in the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) at Sharpstown College Prep School.
Los Angeles: Worked with Heal the Bay’s Nothing But Sand program to clean up Venice Beach.
Nashville: Sorted, stored and boxed food at Second Harvest Food Bank.
New York City: Following a walking route, volunteers delivered meals to the homebound elderly.
Orlando: Prepared meals for families served by Ronald McDonald House Charities and helped them design thank-you cards.
St. Louis: Pitched in at City Academy, which offers recreational and educational programs in an urban setting.
Salt Lake City: Sorted and distributed food to the needy at the Utah Food Bank.
Washington, D.C.: Aided So Others May Eat (SOME), which provides food, clothing and health services to the poor and homeless.

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Alumni

Celebrating Where It All Began

The six-decade romance of James H. and Mickey Cates Abbott began like a Hollywood movie.

Mickey Cates Abbott and James H. Abbott

“I spotted her from across the rotunda in Dallas Hall,” James says. “She had an art class on the east side, and I was walking from class on the west side. After that, I made sure to walk down the stairs on her side.”
A few years later they would walk down the aisle together at Perkins Chapel, one of the first couples to be married in the church after it opened in 1951. Sixty years later to the day – June 16, 2011 – the Abbotts returned to the chapel for the first time since their wedding and spent the afternoon reminiscing.
It was a warm June day when family and friends gathered as James and Mickey repeated their vows. SMU President Umphrey Lee officiated.
Lee, a respected Methodist scholar, had a fan in the Abbott household. “My mother idolized Umphrey Lee,” James says. “He was the most charming man, and we became friends, so I asked him if he would perform the ceremony.”
Leading up to their marriage was a courtship that advanced from Dallas Hall to dates at Turtle Creek and drives through Oak Cliff in a Hudson with an inline-eight engine, which car buff James vividly recalls.
Having earned a Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado, James was pursuing a Master’s in mathe-matics at SMU, which he received in 1949. Mickey’s creative talents led her to art and theatre with a focus on costume design. She earned a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in 1949.
The couple remembers the influx of military veterans to campus after World War II – James served a stint in the Navy. Their paths crossed with fellow students Doak Walker, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1948, and Aaron Spelling, with whom Mickey worked on Arden Club productions.
After graduation, Mickey applied her fashion background as a buyer with the Titche-Goettinger department store chain. James taught at Texas A&M before earning his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois. He went on to teach there and at Purdue, the University of New Mexico and the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest at the University of Texas at Dallas.
In 1965 they moved to New Orleans, where James served as chair of the mathematics department at the University of New Orleans and is professor emeritus of mathematics.
Now retired, the Abbotts divide their time between New Orleans and the Dallas area.

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Lead A Sports Marketing Stampede

Six Mustangs lead sports marketing efforts in Dallas for hawkeye, a multichannel customer development marketing agency with offices in the United States and abroad. The SMU alumni work with such clients as Gatorade, Gore, Michelob ULTRA, the NCAA and The North Face. They also connect companies in unrelated fields, including financial and technology enterprises, with sports-related marketing opportunities.

SMU alumni working for hawkeye in Dallas are (from left) Kate VanHee ’10, Becca Ellinor ’11, Amanda Dempsey ’02, Brandi Connolly ’03,Whitney Eckert ’07 and Carly Mathews ’06.

“The agency has people from every great university, but our common SMU background on the sports marketing team has added some extra cohesion,” says Amanda Dempsey ’02, managing director of sports and experiential marketing, “and any coach will tell you, that’s the key to reaching your goals.”
Sports marketing is among the fastest-growing, event-related marketing avenues, with an estimated $12.4 billion spent this year, notes Brandi Connolly ’03, director of sports and experiential marketing. “Sports marketing creates unique connections between consumers and brands by leveraging that strong passion most of us have for sports and sporting events,” she says. “By engaging our emotions and lifestyles, sports and experiential marketing creates unique and strong bonds with consumers.”
SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development now offers a major in sports management – one career path for which is sports marketing – to meet the demand for knowledgeable professionals in the rapidly expanding field.
“We think Dallas could be a major market for sports marketing endeavors, just as New York is the center of fashion marketing and L.A. is the epicenter of the entertainment industry,” says Steve Dapper, founder and chairman of hawkeye.
Revving up the pony power for hawkeye’s sports and experiential marketing team are these SMU alumni:
• Amanda Dempsey ’02, managing director, sports and entertainment. She develops strategic integrated platforms that utilize media, sponsorship, athlete/celebrity marketing, promotions and event marketing. Dempsey played soccer for SMU and continues to play and coach, and she avidly supports Dallas’ bid to host the World Cup in 2022.
• Brandi Connolly ’03, director of sports and experiential. Connolly serves on the team that directs business for The North Face and Gatorade and works on new business development. An Oklahoma native, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from SMU and an MBA in sports business from Arizona State University.
• Whitney Eckert ’07, senior account executive. She serves as a senior account executive and manages all facets of The North Face Endurance Challenge series. She also assists with programs for a number of other hawkeye clients. Her passion is golf, and she went to SMU on a Division I golf scholarship. As a Mustang she earned Academic All-Conference honors.
• Carly Mathews ’06, account executive. Matthews plays a crucial role in the planning and execution of experiential programs across such diverse industries as apparel, food and beverage, tourism, business and consumer services and athlete management. In addition to her creative talents and affinity for technology, she is known around the office for her wicked jump shot.
• Kate VanHee ’10, account executive. VanHee joined the company after graduation and has worked on The North Face Endurance Challenge race series. She also worked on a new Expo activation strategy for Gatorade and helped launch their new Endurance athlete specific product, G Series Pro. Whenever possible, she returns to her home state of Colorado to ski.
• Becca Ellinor ’11 , account coordinator. At SMU, Ellinor was a marketing major with minors in Spanish and art history. She played volleyball her first two years at SMU and was the team manager during her junior year. After completing an internship with hawkeye as a senior, she was hired full-time upon graduation.

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Alumni

Mustangs In The Military: Tommy Phillips ’09

Although Tommy Phillips ’09 had just entered high school when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, they had a profound impact on his future.

Tommy Phillips '09 and sister Molly Phillips '07 at SMU for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl last December.

“For the first time in my life, it was apparent that it was my generation’s time to serve and defend our nation,” Phillips says.
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in political science from SMU, he decided to pay his “debt of gratitude” to his country through military service. Phillips entered the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island. He was commissioned as an Ensign in November 2010.
Last December Ensign Phillips proudly sported “dress blues” during a visit to the Hilltop with his family – including sister Molly ’07, who majored in journalism at SMU and now resides in New York City. They attended the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl played in SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium.
Since January he has been deployed with the U.S. 5th Fleet in the Middle East where his ship was part of the Carl Vinson Strike Group; the Carl Vinson was the ship Osama Bin Laden’s body was carried to after his assassination. Ensign Phillips also served in Iraq while on deployment.
The 5th Fleet’s “area of responsibility encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean. This expanse, comprised of 20 countries, includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen,” according to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command website.
Ensign Phillips returned from his deployment in September and was excited to return to his homeport of San Diego. “I’m really looking forward to seeing my family, my two great Labs, my bed – and having stable Internet service and cable TV,” he said. “I also intend to start taking surfing lessons.”
Service in the U.S. Navy has been gratifying on many levels, Phillips says. “I’ve had the opportunity to see and explore some extraordinary parts of the world. We’ve done some great work, so it has also been a very exciting and rewarding time for me.
“I think President Kennedy pretty much summed up my view when he stated: ‘I can imagine a no more rewarding career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: I served in the United States Navy.’”

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Alumni

New Mexico Becomes Photographer’s Land Of Inspiration

Two exhibitions in New Mexico with ties to SMU alumni showcase photographs by Debora Hunter, associate professor of photography in Meadows School of the Arts.
Hunter’s solo exhibit, “Land Marks: Photographs from Taos, New Mexico,” will continue through November 12 at James Kelly Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For the past 13 years, she has taught photography courses at SMU-in-Taos. “This project has grown from that experience,” says the artist, who joined the Meadows faculty in 1976.

Untitled, 2004, Debora Hunter

Hunter’s series of rich color images depicting both the natural and “built” environment “document a world in flux, where irony and grace, discord and harmony, grandeur and the mundane variously combine in this legendary Taos Valley,” according to the gallery notes.
James Kelly, a Meadows alumnus with a Bachelor’s degree in art history (’79) and Master’s degrees in business and arts administration (’84), opened his highly regarded gallery in 1997 in a renovated warehouse. The gallery, located in the Railyard District, which has become a center for contemporary art in New Mexico’s capital city, represents a host of notable photographers, painters, sculptors and video artists, including Hunter.
A second exhibition featuring Hunter’s work, “Contemplative Landscapes,” opens October 23 at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. Through images captured by 24 photographers, the show explores the people, practices and sacred places of the state’s diverse religious communities. “Contemplative Landscapes” will continue through December 31, 2012.
The museum’s director, Frances Levine, earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. in anthropology from SMU. While a graduate student, Levine directed the archaeological survey and excavation program at Los Esteros Lake in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
Hunter’s photographs have appeared in exhibitions around the country, and her work is part of the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum and the Yale University Art Museum, among others.
Locally she is well-known for creating eight permanent art panels for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail station at Skillman and LBJ Freeway. She completed the public art project in 2002.

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Alumni

Sharing Memories Of 9/11

On September 11, 2001, SMU invited students, faculty and staff to share their thoughts in a journal started by Michael Waters ’02, ’06, then an intern in the SMU Chaplain’s Office and now senior pastor of Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. Church in Dallas.
The pages are filled with inspiring statements — such as “Pray, cry, remember, but never hate” — written by members of the SMU family in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies.
digital copy of the journal has been posted on SMU’s 911Remembered.org site, where SMU alumni and other members of the University community are invited to share 9/11 memories and thoughts in a new online journal.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility invite the community to participate in a series of events reflecting on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and what it means today. The events begin on Wednesday, September 7, and conclude on Sunday, September 11, with a Service of Remembering at Dallas Hall.

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Alumni

Mapping The Genetics Of Autism

When Ed Cook’s brother, Wade, died in 1989 of natural causes, there was no diagnosis for the developmental and emotional problems that had always plagued him. Cook ’77, the Earl M. Bane Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, believes that by today’s standards, his brother would be considered to have autism.

Ed Cook Jr. ’77 is the director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, where he conducts autism research.

Cook remembers that Wade, who was six years his junior, would become extremely upset when his or the family’s routine was disrupted – an attribute now identified as common to autism spectrum disorder.A desire to help people like Wade and their families has inspired Cook during his 25-year medical career as one of the nation’s leading researchers focusing on the neurochemistry of autism. He is trying to pinpoint possible genetic links to the neural development disorder, as well as explore the use of medications to alleviate symptoms.
In 1997 he and his research team published findings on chromosome 15q duplication syndrome, a clinically identifiable group of symptoms found in individuals with an extra piece of chromosome 15 that has duplicated end-to-end. This extra genetic material is one of the most frequently identified chromosome problems in people with autism.
For years Cook has been a scientific and professional adviser for IDEAS, a parent support group for children and adults affected by the syndrome.
“People with this condition remind me of my brother from childhood to adulthood,” Cook says. “I’m not surprised that I’ve ended up working with these families, who, like my parents, inspire me with their commitment to provide a loving home and dedication to their children’s needs.”
Cook now is involved in trials for the first autism medications developed on the basis of genetic findings. “Our ultimate goal is to find more drug treatment options,” he says.
A student of the late Harold Jeskey, SMU’s R.S. Lazenby Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Cook says that undergraduate work with molecules and “being tested under pressure was good training for a future physician/researcher.” He holds a Bachelor’s degree in biology from the University.
His fondest memory of SMU: meeting his wife, Melissa Perrett ’76, during his first night on campus in 1973. The couple married in 1981, after his graduation from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. They have two children: daughter Lindsay and son Andrew.
Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Changing Attitudes, One Conversation At A Time

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño ’79 accepted the Distinguished Alumna Award from Perkins School of Theology February 7 with a confession. She was one of the pranksters responsible for placing a jack-o’-lantern in the Perkins Chapel steeple on Halloween Day, 1975. The dean at that time “was not so pleased,” she recalled with a smile.

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño '79

While the audience in Dallas enjoyed the humorous anecdote in her videotaped address, the bishop was 8,000 miles away in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Carcaño was working with Methodist leaders from around the world on organizational issues regarding the church outside the United States, known as the Central Conferences.
Carcaño, who became the first Hispanic woman elected to the episcopacy in 2004, also acts as the official spokesperson for the Council of Bishops on immigration. The council supports “a pathway to citizenship,” fair treatment of immigrant workers and the preservation of family unity.
Immigration policy is an especially volatile topic in Arizona, where she serves the Phoenix Episcopal Area, Desert Southwest Conference, which encompasses most of the state. Some blame heated political rhetoric for the shootings in Tucson January 8 that stunned the nation. Six people were fatally wounded and 14 others were injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The tragedy spurred “much more conversation about what it means to have civil discourse,” she says. “I’m seeing a change in attitude, a realization that the negative tenor of conversation had been unhelpful and unhealthy.”
The calm, soft-spoken bishop, who grew up in the South Texas city of Edinburg, has never retreated from controversy. She led her first congregations in the 1980s – when female ministers were rare and some church members were vocal in their distaste for a woman in the pulpit.
“Early on, I was struggling with a particular parish relations committee. One member told me that her husband had been robbed of a spiritual leader because I was a woman, and he would never seek my counsel,” she remembers. “A few months later, her husband came to me to ask for spiritual guidance. That was a turning point.”
Carcaño credits God with giving her strength and Perkins with providing “the gift of faith expression.”
“I had a calling to serve the Mexican-American community, and Perkins was the only United Methodist seminary at the time that prepared students for ministry in the Hispanic context through its Mexican-American Program,” she says. She served as director of the program from 1996-2001.
“If ever I have provided any light for a world often consumed in darkness, Perkins has been there with me.”
 

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Alumni

Lettermen Present Mustang Award To Albon Head

SMU Director of Athletics Steve Orsini (left) presents the 2010 Silver Anniversary Mustang Award to former defensive back Albon Head ’69, ’71. Head received the most prestigious honor bestowed by the SMU Lettermen’s Association January 22. A partner in Jackson Walker’s Fort Worth law office, Head lettered in football at SMU from 1966-68, played defensive back on the 1966 SWC championship team and was a co-captain on the 1968 Bluebonnet Bowl championship team, which defeated Oklahoma 28-27. Head has served as chair of the SMU Alumni Association, the PwC SMU Athletic Forum and the Doak Walker Award. He is a member of the executive boards of SMU Dedman School of Law and SMU-in-Taos. In 2003 he received an SMU Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Award.

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Alumni

Dedman School of Law Recognizes Contributions By Distinguished Alumni

A justice of the Supreme Court of Thailand and a philanthropic entrepreneur were among those honored at the SMU Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony February 19. Alumni present at the event and their awards were: seated, from left, Donald J. Malouf ’62, private practice; Barbara J. Houser ’78, judicial service; Philip J. Wise ’81, public service; Jack D. Knox ’63, Robert G. Storey Award for Distinguished Achievement (highest honor bestowed); and Marshall P. Cloyd, honorary alumnus, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from SMU in 1964. SMU President R. Gerald Turner, awards committee members Dawn Enoch Moore ’78, ’81 and Albon Head ’69, ’71 and Dean John B. Attanasio were among those honoring the alumni. Award winners Sobchok Sukharomna ’81, global, and Richard Wright-Hogeland ’57, ’58 , corporate service, were unable to attend.

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Alumni

Lighting The Way In Public Education

When Israel Cordero ’97 became principal of W.W. Samuell High School in 2008, the southeast Dallas school was at risk of being closed after four years of unacceptable ratings. In one year under Cordero’s leadership, the school earned an “acceptable” rating from the state. Cordero was the North Texas recipient of the Luminary Award presented by the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development January 27. The Luminary Awards honor “extraordinary commitment to improving lives through education.” Other recipients were Teach for America (national award) and Neuhaus Education Center (regional award).

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Alumni

Altshuler Honored With Ethics Award

Philanthropic trailblazer Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler ’48 was honored as the 2011 recipient of the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award presented by SMU’s Cary Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility March 10. Altshuler has given generously of her time, talents and resources to the community and SMU, which has honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Award. One of SMU’s longest-serving trustees, she is former chair and a current member of the Board of Trustees. She is co-chair of The Second Century Campaign Leadership Council and The Second Century Celebration Organizing Committee.

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Alumni

Mustangs Meet Up In Manhattan

The renowned New York Public Library was the setting for an alumni gathering April 5. New York City chapter leaders pictured are: (front, from left) Andrew Afifian ’00, Sara McCooey ’06 and Jackie Effenson ’05, chapter president; (back) Francesca de la Rama ’10, Kevin Schubert ’04, Jordan Carter ’08 and Jennifer Kesterson ’06. Rick Halperin, director of SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College, and Brad E. Cheves, vice president for Development and External Affairs, spoke at the event.

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Alumni

Centennial Reunions: Creating Second-Century Traditions

Claire Cunningham ’49 (left) and Nicki Nicol Huber ’61 were among 178 alumni and guests who attended the Golden Mustangs luncheon on Founders’ Day April 15.
Time-honored Homecoming traditions, like the parade and football game, combined with engaging new events will create unforgettable alumni moments during SMU’s Second Century Celebration.
An important aspect of the 100-year-anniversary festivities will be Centennial Reunions, a series of enhanced class reunions held during Homecoming weekend beginning this fall and continuing through 2015. Undergraduate alumni from the classes of 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 will be the first to gather for their once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Reunions November 3-6. However, all alumni are encouraged to be part of this historic SMU experience.Reunion weekend special events and activities will include:

  • The Earl Stewart Lady Mustangs and Reunion Invitational golf tournament the morning of Friday, November 4, to benefit Lady Mustangs golf.
  • Guided walks and self-guided tours of the campus that highlight historic buildings and new structures. In addition there will be site tours of planned facilities, such as the Residential Commons.
  • Children’s activities, Boulevarding and Saturday night parties.
  • New this year: mini-reunions for groups of alumni with common interests or shared SMU experiences across class years.
  • SMU Day at the Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park in Dallas Sunday, November 6, with discounted admission and other perks for SMU alumni and their families.

Dozens of Dallas-area businesses will show their Mustang spirit as “Homecoming Hot Spots.” These restaurants, shops and other venues will offer special discounts to SMU alumni during Homecoming weekend.
As Reunion weekend approaches, more details will be posted online.

Jean Foxhall Carter Koons '61 and Dave Harrison '61 attended the Class of 1961's 50th Reunion during Commencement weekend May 13-14.
Alumni celebrating their 50th year since graduation are invited for their own special reunion during Commencement weekend, beginning with the Class of 1961 May 13-14.
Alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago are invited to a Golden Mustangs reunion each spring. This year 178 Golden Mustangs and guests attended a luncheon on Founders’ Day April 15.
Reunions also provide a platform for supporting two Second Century Campaign goals: that 25 percent of alumni give each year and 50 percent of alumni give during the course of the campaign.
“By growing the physical plant with beautiful new buildings and increasing the endowment to support academic and faculty excellence, the University is making huge strides in its goals to enhance the SMU experience for our talented students,” says Ann Frances Jury, co-chair of the Class of 1981 Centennial Reunion. “As alumni we all have the privilege of sharing in the reflected glow of this truly outstanding University.”

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Alumni

Alumni Volunteers Recruit Best And Brightest Future Mustangs

Stacy Simpkins ’88 grew up in Los Angeles and had never heard of SMU until her high school counselor brought the University to her attention. As a Student Recruitment Volunteer (SeRVe), Simpkins now shares her Hilltop experiences with prospective Mustangs in Southern California.
“Most of the students I contacted were from high schools I was familiar with, so I could relate to their backgrounds and anticipate some of their questions,&rdquo says Simpkins. “I know that traveling so far for college can be daunting, so they’re relieved when I can tell them from my own experience that SMU goes to great lengths to make you feel at home.”
The Office of Alumni Relations, in partnership with the Division of Enrollment Services, coordinates the SeRVe program. “Alumni are critical in the admission process,” says Stephanie Dupaul ’04, interim dean of Undergraduate Admission who will become SMU’s associate vice president for Enrollment Management June 1. “They are the voice of SMU in their communities. Every interaction alumni have with a student, or with a parent of a prospective student, helps make SMU more ‘real’ to that family.”
The SeRVe program harnesses alumni power to forge links with promising high school students around the country. The personal touch is particularly effective in regions where SMU is beginning to build momentum. “The program has given me the opportunity to help recruit the best and brightest students in Kentucky and southern Indiana, where SMU is not well known,” says Doyle Glass ’84. “Not only have I reconnected with my alma mater in a meaningful way, but I also hope that I am helping to make it an even better institution of higher learning.”
SeRVes reach out to prospective students as they prepare to make their college choices and continue to stay in touch with accepted students to encourage them to enroll at SMU. The interaction is satisfying on many levels, according to Judge Charles Montemayor ’88. “My own experience at SMU was so formative and enriching that I feel a real calling to share my enthusiasm with prospective students and their families,” Montemayor says. “The opportunity to support SMU, which offers so much beyond outstanding academics, and to help a young person with an important decision is truly rewarding.”
Alumni also contribute by attending college fairs and recruitment events. Spring receptions were held in 13 cities around the country – including Atlanta, Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Diego – for college-bound students and their parents.
For more information about SeRVe and other alumni volunteer opportunities, visit smu.edu/alumni/involved, e-mail involved@smu.edu or call 214-768-ALUM (2586) or 1-888-327-3755.

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Alumni

Dallas Opera’s Rigoletto Features Meadows Alums

LauraClaycomb.jpgLaura Claycomb 

Three alumni of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts bring the tale of a court jester’s bitter battle to protect his daughter’s virtue to life in The Dallas Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Laura Claycomb ’90, an internationally acclaimed coloratura soprano, makes her long-awaited Dallas Opera debut in the leading role of Gilda. Also making his company debut is baritone Stephen Hartley ’01 in the role of Murillo. Conductor Pietro Rizzo ’96, ’97 , who made his American opera debut in 2009 with the company’s La bohème, returns for Rigoletto.
Gilda is a familiar role for Claycomb, who has won acclaim in Houston, Paris (Bastille), Santiago, Chile, and with other companies around the world for her interpretation of the tragic heroine. Earlier in the season she sang the role with the BBC Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Litton, music director emeritus of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO).
Claycomb, who earned Bachelor’s degrees in music and foreign languages from SMU, studied voice with Professor Barbara Hill Moore. After graduating, she was an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera from 1991-94. Claycomb made her European debut in Geneva in 1994 and sang at Milan’s world-renowned opera house, La Scala, in 1998.

StephenHartley.jpgStephen Hartley 

Known for her adventurous repertoire, she has sung with major opera companies around the world. This season she also will perform in Cleveland, Houston and Moscow, in addition to a European tour with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Claycomb and her husband reside in Italy.
A national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2007, Hartley made his Carnegie Hall debut last year with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. He has participated in young artist programs with the Santa Fe Opera, the Chautauqua Opera in New York and the Sarasota Opera in Florida.
While earning a Master’s in music from SMU, he studied voice with Professor Virginia Dupuy.
A native of Rome, Italy, Rizzo studied violin at Meadows with Adjunct Professor Emanuel Borok, who retired last year as concertmaster of the DSO after 25 years. Rizzo received a Master’s in violin performance and an Artist Certificate from SMU.

Rizzo4.jpgPietro Rizzo 

He attended the famous conducting program at Sibelius Academy in Finland and earned a Master’s in orchestra conducting in 2000.
As a guest conductor, Rizzo has worked with major opera companies around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He enjoys working with young artists and has been a guest professor at Flanders Opera Studio in Gent, Belgium, since 2002 and has worked regularly with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Galicia, Spain, since 2003.
He lives in Europe with his wife, pianist Michela Fogolin ’97, and their children.
Rigoletto will be performed March 25, 27 and 30, and April 2, 7 and 10. Tickets may be purchased online.

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Collect Engineering Honors

Ho_Award.jpgJohn Ho

Four SMU graduates were honored for their contributions to the engineering profession during the annual National Engineers Week luncheon Feb. 24. Geoffrey Orsak, dean of SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, delivered the keynote address at the event hosted by the Dallas and Preston Trails chapters of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE).
Participating organizations included the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME).
The award-winning alumni are:
John Ho, P.E.
TSPE-Dallas Engineer of the Year

Ho earned a B.S. in civil engineering from SMU in 1981 and is a senior project manager with Huitt-Zollars in Dallas. Among his recent projects are the design of portions of the Trinity Parkway, a proposed nine-mile, Dallas-area toll road; the Fort Bliss brigade staging area complex; and the Dallas Love Field modernization program. Ho was instrumental in setting up the TSPE student chapter at SMU and currently serves as membership and audit chairs. As an active alumnus, he has participated in career fairs and spoken at several student events.

Hendrix_Award.jpgMark Hendrix

Mark Hendrix, P.E.
ASME North Texas Section Engineer of the Year

Hendrix, who received an M.S. in mechanical engineering from SMU in 1985, is engineering manager at CommScope, where he is responsible for new product development. His areas of product focus are wireless communications systems and modular datacenters, while his technical focus includes advanced thermal design, power systems, UPS backup systems and efficiency advances in power and cooling. Hendrix holds six U.S. patents.
 

Fortier_Award.jpgAleksandra Fortier

Aleksandra Fortier
ASME North Texas Section Young Engineer of the Year
Fortier, who holds a B.S ’05, M.S ’06 and Ph.D. ’09 in mechanical engineering and an M.S. ’09 in engineering management, was active in the student chapter of ASME while attending SMU. Now an assistant professor of mechanical and energy engineering at the University of North Texas, her primary research focus is in the area of nano-based materials and components for environmentally friendly electronics systems. Fortier serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Electronic Materials and is an active member of several professional societies.

Kuhn_Award.jpgGreg Kuhn

Greg Kuhn, P.E.
SAME Dallas Post Member of the Year

Kuhn, who earned an M.B.A. from SMU’s Cox School of Business in 1989 and a B.S. in civil engineering from Rice, is vice president of Halff Associates, where he is responsible for the overall strategic planning and marketing/business development activities of the firm. He is a member of the SAME Academy of Fellows, which recognizes outstanding and dedicated service to the society and the field of engineering.

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Alumni

Meadows Alumna Supports Grammy Cause

DUNBAR.jpg

Artist Amanda Dunbar ’04 will be among those gathering to honor Barbra Streisand as the MusiCares Person of the Year during Grammy Awards weekend in Los Angeles.
Dunbar, whose Precious Rebels art guitars are prized by musicians and other collectors, has been a significant donor, sponsor and contributor to MusiCares for the past 10 years. The MusiCares Foundation was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to aid musicians in financial, personal and medical crisis.
While Dunbar is best known for her wide range of abstract, figurative and conceptual paintings that hang in private, public and corporate collections around the world, her career has always crossed over into the music industry. Her Precious Rebels guitars, which she began creating in 2007, “bridge the gap between art and the world,” says Dunbar, who earned a B.F.A. in art history, cum laude with departmental distinction, from Meadows School of the Arts. “People connect to popular culture, and I want to have that kind connection with people.”
One of Dunbar’s commissioned art guitars is now part of the Recording Academy’s collection commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards. For now, the guitar takes pride of place in the office of Neil Portnow, president of the academy.

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Alumni

Poetry, Political Science And Possibilities: Alumni Teachers Introduce Seventh-Graders To The SMU Experience

By Patricia Ward

Teachers Cheyenne Rogers ’09 and Allie Showalter ’09 brought their seventh-grade classes to SMU for a taste of the SMU student experience.
Teachers Cheyenne Rogers ’09 and Allie Showalter ’09 brought their seventh-grade classes to SMU for a taste of the SMU student experience.

As SMU Associate Professor of English Timothy Rosendale concluded a special poetry lecture for seventh-grade students from Dallas’ W.E. Greiner Middle School, one of the youngsters approached him.
Just minutes before, Micah Roberson was inspired to write a poem, which Rosendale asked him to read to the group. Roberson spoke from the heart of love found then lost.
“Being in the class, I started to think of relationships as poetry,” he says.
That’s the sort of eureka moment language arts teachers Cheyenne Rogers ’09 and Allie Showalter ’09 were aiming for when they brought 50 of their students to the University Dec. 7.
Nina Schwartz, chair of the Department of English in Dedman College, who sat in on the lecture, sweetened the experience for Micah and the teachers: She plans to publish his poem in a future issue of erudition, the departmental newsletter.
Clearly this was no ordinary field trip; rather, the visit was designed to give the youths from Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood a true taste of life on the Hilltop. Rosendale introduced them to the nuances of poetry; in another lecture the students learned about the nation’s highest court from Joe Kobylka, associate professor of political science and a Supreme Court scholar.
Professor Timothy Rosendale reads the poem seventh-grader Micah Roberson wrote during class.
Professor Timothy Rosendale reads the poem seventh-grader Micah Roberson wrote during class.

The seventh-graders wrapped up the half-day trip with the definitive campus dining experience: lunch in the Umphrey Lee cafeteria.
“I think the biggest thing for the students was being able to picture themselves in college,” Rogers says. “When you’re 13, you can’t really see past January. But we were there on campus, in class with professors, asking questions, thinking and imagining – that was the most valuable part of the trip.”
“Thinking and imagining” began weeks earlier when students had to apply to participate – the teachers required their students to fill out the same application essay that SMU requires. Once accepted, the students had to attend several preparation meetings that provided background for the two lectures.
Many of the youngsters could be the first members of their families to pursue a college degree, so planting the seed of higher education now is crucial, according to Showalter.
“I will be their teacher for only one year, so my biggest focus is changing the mindset of my students by showing them what success looks like and how to obtain it,” she says.
 

Teach For America In Dallas

Rogers, Showalter and reading teacher Caitlin Myers ’09, who served as a chaperone, are part of the Teach for America (TFA) corps in Dallas. Teach for America is a nonprofit organization that recruits and trains outstanding college graduates to teach in low-income urban and rural public schools, with a goal of ending educational inequality.

Teacher Cheyenne Rogers ’09, right, and Greiner students Ruby Aguilar, left, and Elida Martinez.
Teacher Cheyenne Rogers ’09, right, and Greiner students Ruby Aguilar, left, and Elida Martinez.

The trio is in the first Teach for America cohort in the Dallas Independent School District. A recent DISD report deems the program a success. The report says a higher percentage of students with Teach for America teachers met TAKS standards in the critical needs areas of math and science when compared to students with other teachers in the 51 Dallas schools where TFA operates. The district wants to add 120 TFA teachers in the 2011-12 school year.
The alumni also are in the first group of 18 SMU graduating seniors to be accepted into the highly competitive program. Last spring, another 17 Mustangs were accepted by TFA from more than 46,000 applicants for 4,500 positions.
Teach for America’s ties to the University have been strengthened by a partnership with the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Education that provides graduate-level courses to the organization’s teachers in Dallas. Twenty-one corps members are enrolled in the Simmons programs.
For Rogers, who graduated with honors in English literature and political science and served in the SMU Student Senate, teaching is the ultimate public service.

“Sleep is scarce and patience is a hot commodity, but you keep plugging along, working hard for someone other than yourself,” she explains. “It’s a wonderful thing to put so much of yourself into such an important mission.”
To Showalter, who graduated with honors in political science and Spanish and was a John G. Tower Undergraduate Research Fellow and Joseph Godbey Scholar at SMU, “the most rewarding part of teaching is impacting students’ attitudes toward learning. Once students know learning can be fun and can change their life opportunities, anything is possible.”
Myers, who graduated with honors in journalism and served as managing editor of SMU Daily Mustang, discovered how much she had meant to her pupils when “on the last day of school last year, students left my room crying. Now they stop by my room to show me their eighth-grade report cards, invite me to their quinceañeras and ask if I’ll write them recommendations to magnet high schools.”

Another Life-Changing Decision For The Alums

Allie Showalter '09 (in pink sweater) and her students listen to a lecture by Professor Joe Kobylka.
Allie Showalter ’09 (in pink sweater) and her students listen to a lecture by Professor Joe Kobylka.

This is a pivotal point in their careers. Their two-year commitment to Teach for America ends with the school year. “I feel as if I’m back in my senior year at SMU,” Myers says. “I truly do not know what I am going to do next year. I have fallen in love with teaching; however, I also have a longing to get back to one of my first passions, journalism.“It’s going to be hard to find another job that makes me feel as valued as a person as this one does,” she adds.
Likewise, Showalter is struggling with her options. “I always thought I would go to law school directly after my two years,” she says. “Now I am torn between staying in the classroom or pursuing a job that still impacts education and the achievement gap.”
Rogers, however, has decided to teach again next year. “I laugh every day. I’m up moving around, discovering, talking and writing with my kids, and we are forging on together,” she says. “I’m a little worried that it’s ruined me for any other job I may have in the future, though,” she jokes. “I just don’t think I can plunk myself behind a desk after this.”

Middle School Students Talk About Their SMU Experience

“On the SMU field trip we learned a lot about college life. After that experience, I though college might be for me, something I would enjoy. SMU is a very big place filled with learning and fun. So when I go to college, I want to attend SMU.”
– Destiny Fry
“Now even though I’m in the seventh grade, looking at the many things I saw really had an effect on what I think about going to college.”
– Joshua McComas
“I hope next time I visit the campus that I am going for orientation.”
–Kyla Taylor
“I felt like SMU was made for me. SMU made me feel more confident about going to college.”
– Saphire Cervantes
“I thought this was going to be a regular field trip, yet it was an exciting and inspiring experience to see and realize how great college life is.”
– Elia Perez
“Professor Kobylka was my favorite because he made the Supreme Court more important to me and he made it more interesting. To me, I think he should teach at Greiner as my Texas History teacher.”
– Martin Cruz
“I liked Professor Rosendale because he would never tell you you were wrong. He always explained exactly what he was doing.”
– Elena Vasquez
“I liked learning more about poetry; it has a mystery to it. I especially enjoyed the sonnet [William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18]. It’s a great poem, so important that we’re still reading it today.”
– Adrian Rangel

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Alumni

Engineering Relationships: Professors, Mentors, Friends

Bijan Mohraz, a professor in the Lyle School’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Cecil Smith, professor emeritus, meet with engineering graduates for lunch.
These are conversations that the self-described “Engineering Lunch Bunch” has carried on without skipping a beat for more than three decades.
“We get together a few times a year at different restaurants near campus,” Mohraz says. “There’s no set agenda; we talk about everything.”
Both Mohraz and Smith call Margaret Pawel-Moore ’77, ’86 “the glue that keeps the group together.” Pawel-Moore, who also earned an M.B.A. from Cox School of Business, is now an asset management specialist. She says that “in the Engineering School, class sizes were small, so you went to most of your classes with the same people. By sharing the experience, many of us became friends for life.”
Before the meal begins, Sam Basharkhah ’77, chief executive officer of BEI, his own construction and consulting engineering firm, and Kelly Williams ’77, who was an estimator for Austin Commercial on the construction of Caruth Hall, pull out visuals on recent projects to show the group. However, the talk soon shifts from the 9-to-5 arena to life off the clock.
Laughter erupts as Smith shares an anecdote – it’s apparent to everyone in the café that the engineering klatch is having a ball. Pawel-Moore laments that one loyal member of the Lunch Bunch, Jerry Capstick ’75, missed the get-together because of travel.
Great teachers who also are good friends “make a difference,” says Bill Hanks ’75, chief executive officer of Rosebriar Corp., a real estate investment firm. “Dr. Mohraz was always willing to give students the extra help they needed. Dr. Smith taught everything from hydraulics to soil mechanics (dirt) to environmental science (bugs). He also played a pretty good game of tennis, and he taught lessons in that subject if you were willing to try him.”
The opportunity “to truly get to know your professors is a big part of what SMU has to offer and separates it from many other engineering schools,” he adds.
After an hour, the group disbands without good-byes; their conversation isn’t over yet.

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Alumni

SMU Alumni Hit The Right Notes For Super Bowl XLV

SMU alumni and supporters were major players in planning for Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium February 6. And SMU alumnus Ted Thompson ’75 is executive vice president and general manager of the champion Green Bay Packers. The Packers captured their fourth Super Bowl title with a 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

LivelyCowboyStadium.jpgBill Lively ’65 leads the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee.

Alumnus Bill Lively ’65 served as president and CEO of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. Joining him was law alumna Kit Sawers ’93, the committee’s vice president of special events, who previously coordinated SMU’s Athletic Forum/Doak Walker Award and Tate Distinguished Lecture Series.
Gene and Jerry Jones are SMU donors and parents. Gene serves on the SMU Board of Trustees and Jerry owns Cowboys Stadium. Gene also serves on SMU’s Second Century Campaign committees and several school and libraries’ executive boards. Daughter Charlotte Jones Anderson is on the Tate Board and son (John) Stephen Jones is on the SMU Athletic Forum Board. Son Jerral Wayne “Jerry” Jones, Jr. ’95 received his J.D. from SMU.

HUNT_JONESES.jpgThe late Lamar Hunt ’56, left, with Gene and Jerry Jones.

SMU’s Super Bowl connections date to its beginning in 1967 – SMU alumnus and former trustee Lamar Hunt Sr. ’56 coined the term when he was chair of the Kansas City Chiefs. Son Clark ’87, an SMU trustee, now chairs the board of the Chiefs. He also serves on SMU’s Second Century Campaign Executive Committee, Athletics Campaign Committee and Cox School of Business Executive Board.
Emmanuel Sanders ’09, who helped the Mustangs win the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in 2009, was part of Super Bowl XLV history as a player for American Football Conference (AFC) champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. As conference champions, the Steelers received the Lamar Hunt Trophy. Hunt founded the AFC in 1970.
For Bill Lively, starting his career as a band director was good training for coordinating one of the world’s biggest sporting events. It will require perfect timing, knowing the score – and practice, practice, practice. Except that now, “there are a lot more players in this band,” he jokes, including the host committee’s dozens of staffers and thousands of volunteers for the game and surrounding events.
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in music from Meadows School of the Arts in 1965, Lively returned to SMU in 1973 as assistant Mustang Band director. He served 25 years in a variety of roles, most recently as vice president for development and external affairs. After leaving SMU in 2000, he spent eight years as founding president and CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. SMU honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
“At SMU I learned how important it is to recruit and work with remarkable volunteers,” he says. “If you get great people and let them lead where they have the capacity, you can do anything in this city.”
When his host committee duties end, Lively will transition to another high-profile post: president and CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Lively hopes that the North Texas region’s first Super Bowl creates a sense of harmony, leaving the region “more united than at the beginning of this exercise.“
Spoken like a true bandleader.
– Whit Sheppard ’88

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Alumni

Singing The Praises Of Meadows Voice Alums

Juan José de Léon (M.M. ’10-Voice), a graduate of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, hit the right notes with judges to win the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council’s Southwest Regional Auditions January 23 in San Antonio.
Coloratura soprano Dee Donasco (M.M. ’10-Voice), who is pursuing a Performer’s Diploma at Meadows, was a district winner in the competition.

deleon_1011.jpgJuan José de Léon
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The multiphase competition will continue March 6, when de Léon will perform at Lincoln Center in New York City. Voice Professor Virginia Dupuy, with whom he studied at SMU, will attend the event, which is closed to the general public.
“About half of the competitors will go on to the final phase, a public performance at the Met, which will be broadcast live on Sirius radio,” Dupuy explains. “I expect Juan will be one of the finalists.”
Winners will receive cash prizes to finance further studies.
Dupuy notes that another Meadows alumnus, Stephen Hartley ’01, advanced to the second stage of the Met competition in 2007. Hartley will make his Dallas Opera debut in Rigoletto in March, along with noted soprano and fellow Meadows graduate, Laura Claycomb ’90.
De Léon’s talent has grabbed the attention of important players on the opera scene. He was selected recently by renowned tenor Marcello Giordani to attend his master class. In January he accepted a yearlong young artist residency with the prestigious Pittsburgh Opera. He will sing and cover a variety of roles, as well as receive coaching and acting training and the chance to work with a number of directors and conductors.

DDonasco.jpgDee Donasco

This month he will make his debut with the Dallas Opera in Romeo and Juliet. While a student, he was one of three featured performers in the Dallas Opera/SMU Emerging Artist Program, which presents short operas in schools throughout the Dallas area. The program was good practice for the young tenor, says Dupuy.
“The experience he gained through so many performances in schools helped nurture the professionalism he exhibits today,” she says. “He expresses the text in song so beautifully. He really sings from the heart and makes the audience so comfortable.”
Dee Donasco is a two-season member of the Dallas Opera/SMU Emerging Artist Program. Her most recent role at SMU was Euridice, the female lead in the Meadows Opera Theatre’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld.
She credits voice teacher Dale Dietert and Director of Opera Hank Hammett for her growth as an artist at SMU. “With their guidance and support, I certainly feel like I’m ready to take on whatever comes my way in the future,” she says.
Last year Donasco received the first Ben K. Howard Award of Excellence in Opera from SMU, placed third in the national Lois Alba Aria Competition and was a finalist in the national Jensen Foundation Voice Competition.
“Competitions are important because they provide an opportunity for singers to be heard and get feedback from respected leaders in opera today,” she says.

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Alumni Fall 2010

Transforming Communities, One Woman At A Time

When Brittany Merrill ’06 joined a mission trip to teach in Africa, she never dreamed a 10-minute meeting would change her life.
While in Uganda the summer after her sophomore year at SMU, Merrill briefly met Sarah Kamara, a poor Ugandan mother caring for 24 orphans in her meager home. She was moved by the woman’s selflessness and strength of faith.

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Brittany Merrill ’06 and Ugandan women in the Akola Project make handbags.

As Merrill began her junior year, she couldn’t forget Kamara. With support from her family and friends, she founded the Ugandan American Partnership Organization (UAPO). Over the past five years, she has raised more than $2 million, built two orphanages, drilled more than 20 water wells, helped 160 village women earn a living and placed nearly 1,600 Ugandan children on the path toward better lives with steady nutrition, shelter, education and health care.
The University community has played a key role in UAPO’s success – from faculty in journalism and corporate communications and public affairs, who have provided their expertise, to her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, which sponsors a biannual golf tournament and jewelry trunk shows to benefit the charity, Merrill says.
“As a student you don’t think about what being an alumna will be like, but I can’t imagine another school being as encouraging and helpful as SMU has been.”
Since graduating Merrill has lived on two continents, dividing her time between UAPO’s offices in Jinja, Uganda, and her home base in Atlanta. She says her work has challenged her in ways she never imagined possible and has shaped the way she sees the world.
“Human barriers that we put up can be overcome,” she says. “That’s a lesson I can apply to all of life’s circumstances.”
In 2007 UAPO started the Akola Project for widows in rural villages. To date, 160 women in eastern and northern Uganda have learned to make and sell beaded necklaces. The project has generated more than $200,000 in revenue for the craftswomen.
In January Merrill stepped down as executive director and is now pursuing graduate studies at Fuller Theological School in Pasadena, California. She still serves on the UAPO board of directors as founder and president and continues her development role on a part-time basis.
– Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Young Alumni Cook Up Fry The Frogs Video

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SMU Young Alumni took a red-hot rivalry – the Iron Skillet – and rustled up Fry the Frogs. The one-minute video, which was posted on SMU’s YouTube channel several weeks before the SMU-TCU game, blends old-school Mustang spirit with up-to-the-minute digital technology.
As the Mustang Band plays the fight song in the background, SMU “stars” explain that national rankings, like the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges, use alumni gifts as a quantifiable measurement of school pride. President R. Gerald Turner and Head Football Coach June Jones are among those who appear in the humorous, fast-paced film.
“The Young Alumni Board wanted to reach members in a way they communicate,” says YA President Jonathan Childers ’02 ’05, a business litigator with Gruber Hurst, Johansen & Hail, LLP, in Dallas. “We thought this would be an exciting and relevant conduit for engaging our audience.”
The YA Development Committee’s Katy Blakey ’06 sparked the idea during the board’s spring meeting.
“What gets people more motivated than the SMU-TCU game? We started bouncing around ways to use that excitement and came up with the video idea,” she says.

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Jonathan Childers

The video is a testament “to the power of the group,” Childers says. Shelby Stanley ’10 shot the core video, and committee chair Thomas Kincaid ’05 and Ryan Trimble ’05 solicited homemade video snippets from alumni across the country. Luke Alvey, president of SMU Student Filmmakers Association in Meadows School of the Arts, edited the footage. From start to finish, it took about a month to produce.
As a first-of-its-kind effort, the video gets rave reviews. Almost 2,500 viewings have been registered on YouTube.
“We’re really excited and impressed by the results,” says Holly Myers ’01, assistant director of Young Alumni and Student Programs in the SMU Office of Alumni Relations. “As of September 23, we had 650 Young Alumni donors, which is 400 more than at the same time last year.”

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Alumni

Honoring Alumni Of Distinction

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During Homecoming week SMU presents the Distinguished Alumni Awards, the highest honor bestowed upon graduates, and the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an outstanding alumnus or alumna who has graduated within the last 15 years. The 2010 award winners are, from left, attorney George W. Bramblett Jr. ’63, ’66; media executive Stephen Mulholland ’60; filmmaker and community activist Tammy Nguyen Lee ’00 (Emerging Leader); and businessman Gary T. Crum ’69.

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Alumni

So Darlin’, Save The Last Dance For Me

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That’s a familiar chorus from The Drifters’ classic that was a hit in 1960 when Nancy Peoples Buford graduated from SMU. She and her husband, Bob ’58, took a turn on the dance floor at the Class of 1960’s 50th reunion during Commencement weekend May 14-15. Reunion festivities included campus tours, a luncheon and parties.

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Alumni

Bringing ‘Big Dreams’ To Homecoming

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Jack Ingram ’93 fired up the Homecoming crowd with a pre-game concert in front of Dallas Hall October 23. The award-winning country music star, who studied psychology in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, served as parade marshal before taking the stage. Despite soggy weather, 1,600 alumni and friends attended festivities during Reunion Weekend October 21-23.

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Alumni

HAA Recognizes Outstanding Alumna

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SMU’s Hispanic Alumni Associates (HAA), chaired by Carlos Maldonado ’97, presented its 2010 Adelante Award to Rachel Moon ’93. The annual HAA award recognizes an SMU alumna or alumnus who has made significant contributions to the University and Dallas Latino communities.

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Alumni

Coast-to-Coast Mustang Spirit

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Showing off their pony pride are Windy City Mustangs, from left, Katy Elliott ’03, Lisa Lebeck ’07, Siiri Marquardt ’06 and Jaclyn Durr ’07. SMU alumni chapters held “Iron Skillet” watch parties in 14 cities around the country September 24.

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Alumni

Alumni Bring Appealing Disorder To The Court

KBatesKathy Bates stars in Harry’s Law.

SMU alumni Kathy Bates ’69 and Sarah Shahi shake up the legal system in two new television shows.
Bates stars as Harriet – Harry – Korn in the quirky dramedy “Harry’s Law,” an NBC series from David E. Kelley (“Ally McBeal,” “Boston Legal” and others). The show airs on Monday at 9 p.m. (CST). The New York Times says the down-but-not-out Harry is “played by Kathy Bates with a likable cynicism.”
A graduate of SMU’s Meadows School of Arts, Bates received an honorary doctor of arts degree and spoke at SMU’s 87th commencement in 2002.
Last year Bates did a guest turn on NBC’s “The Office,” joining fellow Mustang Brian Baumgartner ’95. Baumgartner is now in his seventh season as Kevin Malone on the hit sitcom. Lauren Graham ’92, another Meadows alum, stars on NBC’s “Parenthood.
Bates has won numerous accolades for her work on stage, screen and television. In 1990 she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe for Misery. In 1998 she won a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, for Primary Colors. Her TV work has earned eight Emmy nominations.

Shahi_kate.jpgSarah Shahi lights up Fairly Legal.

Like Bates, Shahi has taken on the role of legal firebrand in a new USA Network series. Dubbed the “anti-law law show” by creator Michael Sardo, Fairly Legal revolves around Shahi’s character, Kate Reed, an attorney-turned-mediator in her late father’s San Francisco legal firm. Shahi describes the character as “a beautiful mess.”
The Boston Globe says Shahi “brings her virtues – wry humor, determination, skepticism – into a leading role.” The series airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. (CST).
Shahi previously starred as Detective Dani Reese on NBC’s “Life” and as DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales on Showtime’s “The L Word.”
The actress was born Aahoo Jahansouz Shahi, but changed her first name to Sarah while in elementary school. She grew up in Euless, Texas, and was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams at Trinity High School.
As an SMU undergraduate, Shahi tried out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and made the 1999-2000 squad. When the cheerleaders made a brief appearance in the movie Dr. T and the Women, Shahi became acquainted with director Robert Altman. In interviews Shahi has credited him for inspiring her to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Shahi and husband Steve Howey live in Los Angeles. They have a son, Wolf, born in 2009. She met Howey, a San Antonio native, while guest starring on the sitcom “Reba.” For six seasons, he played Van Montgomery, Reba McEntire’s son-in-law.
Photo credits: Kathy Bates, NBC Universal; Sarah Shahi, David Moir/USA Network

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Alumni

Going Mad For Love In Cape Town

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Bronwen Forbay performed one of opera’s greatest tragic roles when she made her Cape Town Opera debut Oct. 16 in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Forbay, a coloratura soprano, earned an Artist Certificate in vocal performance from Meadows School of the Arts in 2004. At SMU, she was a student of Barbara Hill Moore. Forbay is one of 15 students who have come to SMU from South Africa as Schollmaier Scholars through grants provided by the Bruce R. Foote Memorial Scholarship Foundation. The Foote Foundation’s mission is to encourage and support students with a background that has been historically underrepresented in the advanced pursuit of classical vocal study.
The Cape Times’ enthusiastic review of the performance states: “She is a wholly convincing Lucia, portraying a girlish naivety that becomes increasingly suggestive of a more fundamental mental instability until the celebrated mad scene of the final act reveals her as having lost touch with reality. The portrayal was chillingly accurate in its detailing …”
Lucia’s mad scene, often cited as a career maker for the late Dame Joan Sutherland and famously recorded by Maria Callas, “is such a challenge,” Forbay said in an earlier interview with The Cape Times. “Apart from requiring a solid technique and a great deal of emotion, there’s a lot to be learned from the pacing changes.”
A native of Durban, South Africa, she was awarded the 2007 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music. As a Fulbright Scholar she studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York before attending SMU. Forbay returned to South Africa last year to take a two-year position at University of KwaZulu-Natal in fulfillment of her Fulbright obligations.
Forbay not only performs and teaches, but she also is studying for a doctorate in voice performance at the University of Cincinnati. Her dissertation topic is Afrikaans art songs.
Even though she’s working in South Africa, she still has close ties to Texas: Her husband of three years, tenor Randall Umstead, is an assistant professor of voice at Baylor University. In March the couple performed together in several concerts in South Africa.

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Alumni

Alumnus’ Best Seller Captures The Heart Of Heartland Football

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Joe Drape ’84, an award-winning sportswriter for The New York Times, has published his third book, Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen. A New York Times best seller, the book is now available in paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin.
In the book, Drape, a Kansas City native, explores the relationship between the Redmen, a winning high school football team in Smith Center, Kansas (population 1,931); the team’s longtime coach, Roger Barta; and the supportive community where the players are referred to as “our boys.”
When the story begins in fall 2008, the team held the national record for the longest high school winning streak. However, the Redmen faced serious hurdles in trying to maintain its title: the greatest senior players in school history had graduated, and Barta was contemplating retirement.
The book is described by Joe Paterno, Penn State’s longtime head football coach, as “an inspiring story about how a coach and a community are building young men with the simple values of love, patience and hard work.”
Drape, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from SMU’s Dedman College, also wrote The Race for the Triple Crown (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001) and the award-winning Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend (William Morrow, 2006), a biography of the African-American jockey Jimmy Winkfield. In addition, he edited To the Swift: Classic Triple Crown Horses and Their Race for Glory (St. Martin’s Press, 2008), a compilation of the best turf coverage in The Times over the last 130 years.
Before joining The New York Times, where he has won awards for his writing on horse racing, Drape worked for The Dallas Morning News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
READ more about the book
FIND video, audio, chapter excerpt, book club guide

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Alumni

Alumni Provide A Personal Touch To Recruitment Efforts

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Ken Malcolmson ’74

When alumni speak, prospective students and their parents listen. That’s why alumni participation is key to SMU’s efforts to recruit the best and brightest future Mustangs.
“A student recruitment program for alumni has been in existence for some time,” says Ken Malcolmson ’74, SMU Alumni Board chair. “With the change in the competitive landscape in higher education, the board decided this would be an ideal time to re-energize the program and re-engage alumni in student recruitment efforts.”
In partnership with the Division of Enrollment Services, Alumni Relations provides SMU graduates with many opportunities to share insight and information with prospective students through the Student Recruitment Volunteers (SeRVe) program.
“Alumni play a key role in the University’s recruitment efforts,” says Ron Moss, dean of undergraduate admission and executive director of enrollment services. “Prospective students and their parents appreciate the viewpoints of alumni, who can speak from firsthand knowledge about the campus experience and the value of an SMU education.”
Alumni anywhere in the country can become involved in the year-round effort to draw promising new students to the Hilltop, Malcolmson notes. Volunteer opportunities include:

  • Representing SMU at college fairs for high school students. “Alumni can speak from their own personal experiences, sharing perspectives that create a rich, well-rounded picture of student life at SMU,” Malcolmson says.
  • Corresponding with prospective students in the fall, encouraging them to apply.
  • Corresponding with admitted students in the spring, congratulating them on their acceptance to SMU.
  • Going to summer send-off parties for students who will attend SMU in the fall. Last year send-off events were held in cities around the country, including Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
  • Attending and/or hosting recruitment receptions. The events are typically held from mid-August through September and kick off the recruitment season. They are designed for high school juniors, seniors and their families to learn about what SMU has to offer. Enrollment Services sends invitations to high school students who have expressed interest in receiving SMU materials. Alumni participation during the question-and-answer portion of the program is particularly beneficial.
    In addition to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, past events have been held in Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco and other cities around the country.
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    Marca Price ’84 with her son, David, a sophomore theatre major in Meadows School of the Arts.

  • Sharing SMU experiences at on-campus events.

When Marca Price ’84 served on a Mustang Days panel in March, she discovered how important the alumni point of view is, particularly to parents.
“We all shared our thoughts on what we like best about SMU. This gave me a chance to point out the excellent ‘family’ feel of the campus,” she says.
She brought an added dimension to the discussion: Price is also an SMU parent. Her son, David, is a sophomore theatre major in Meadows School of the Arts.
“I was approached by more than one parent with additional questions and concerns. One mother even asked, ‘If it were your child … ’ – that made me feel like I had really connected with the audience.”
Price’s experience demonstrates the power of the personal touch in connecting with tomorrow’s Mustangs, Malcolmson says. “We hope to build an army of engaged alumni who will enhance Admission’s efforts to attract some of the country’s most outstanding students to SMU.”
For more information, visit smu.edu/involved, call 214-768-ALUM (2586) or 1-888-327-3755, or e-mail involved@smu.edu.

Alumni Board

Bill Vanderstraaten ’82 has been selected as the chair-elect for the SMU Alumni Board. Bill is president of Chief Partners, LP, a commercial real estate investment company, and resides in Dallas. His term as chair will begin in May 2011. Nominations for the 2011 SMU Alumni Board will be accepted through Dec. 31. Alumni may nominate fellow alumni or themselves. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or e-mail smualum@smu.edu.
CHAIR Ken Malcolmson ’74
MEMBERS Brad Adams ’93, Craig Adams ’88, Chris Ainsworth ’94, Emily Blue ’00, Shonn Brown ’95, ’98, Robert Cabes ’91, Jonathan Childers ’02, ’05, Marli Craig ’92, Marcus Duron ’85, Kim Hanrahan ’92, Harriet Holleman ’63, Rob Johnson ’97, Steve Lindley ’74, Doug Linneman ’99, Carlos Maldonaldo ’97, Robert Massad ’68, Susie McCormack ’77, Bobby Mills ’57, Michaux Nash Jr. ’56, Kelli Nesseth ’88, Debbie Oates ’78, Scott Rozzell ’71, Lisa Sabin ’78, Anga Sanders ’70, ’77, David Schmidt ’79, Deborah Sirchio ’70, Steve Swanson ’74, Jeffrey Ziegler ’84

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Alumni

Get Involved, Connect Today

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SMU alumni participate in the University’s recruitment efforts with summer send-off parties in Chicago and other cities.

In addition to revving up the horsepower for SMU student recruitment, alumni provide invaluable support in many other areas that truly makes a difference.
Alumni talent and energy are needed to:

  • Help recruit students
  • Be class giving ambassadors
  • Participate in class reunions
  • Get involved in local chapters
  • Represent Hispanic alumni
  • Represent African-American alumni
  • Represent young alumni
  • Mentor students

The new “I Am Involved” website streamlines the volunteer process. On the site alumni can view a description of each opportunity, a list of expectations and time requirements.
The online application procedure is simple: Select the “connect today” button; fill out the form, including first, second and third program or committee choices; and hit the submit button. A representative from Alumni Relations will follow up with each applicant.
“We are thrilled to have one central place where alumni can learn about how to get plugged in and volunteer with our alma mater,” says Marli Craig ’92, an Alumni Board member.
For questions about SMU’s alumni involvement opportunities, call 214-768-ALUM (2586) or 1-888-327-3755, or e-mail involved@smu.edu.

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Alumni

An Alumni Participation Primer: Why Every Gift, Every Year Matters

Participation in SMU fund-raising initiatives matters more than some alumni might realize. Gifts to the University not only advance the goals of The Second Century Campaign, but they also make a positive public statement about the Mustang experience.
“SMU values donations from its alumni because a financial commitment is a measurable way to show your pride and your vote of confidence in the future of the University,” says Stacey Paddock, executive director of alumni giving and relations.
Consider these important facts and figures about alumni participation:

  • U.S. News & World Report and other ratings agencies factor in alumni giving when they calculate their rankings.
  • SMU uses direct mail, student callers and e-mail to solicit 85,000 alumni each year. A graduate has to make only one gift during the fiscal year to be counted in the annual participation numbers.
  • SMU rewards donors with membership in two recognition societies. Donors who give in consecutive years become members of the Hilltop Society. In fiscal year 2009, the Hilltop Society had 17,576 individual members, with 1,150 giving for more than 20 consecutive years. Donors who give $1,000 or more each year become President’s Associates. There were 3,385 President’s Associates in fiscal year 2009. For more information about these recognition societies, please e-mail donorrealations@smu.edu or call 214-768-4071.
  • SMU alumni participation jumped from 14 percent in fiscal year 2006 to 19 percent in fiscal year 2009. Paddock attributes the increase “to greater education about the importance of alumni financial support to their alma mater.”
  • Although that increase is significant, SMU still lags behind some of its peers: TCU, 21 percent; Vanderbilt, 24 percent; Emory, 37 percent; and USC, 39 percent.
  • Alumni participation is one of The Second Century Campaign goals – 25 percent annual participation by the end of the campaign.

For more information about alumni participation, contact Alumni Relations at smualum@smu.edu, call 214-768-ALUM (2586) or 888-327-3755.

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Alumni

‘Ambushing’ The Super Bowl

We’re running ‘Ambush.’”
Thomas Morstead will never forget those words. New Orleans trailed Indianapolis 10-6 when Saints head coach Sean Payton instructed the rookie punter/kicker to deliver the kick of a lifetime.

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Thomas Morstead

Morstead, a three-year letterman (2006-08) at SMU, hadn’t even tried an onside kick until practice a dozen days earlier.
“My adrenaline started going and my heart was pumping out of my chest,” says Morstead, who is just six credits shy of his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He plans to finish his degree at SMU as soon as his schedule allows.
Despite the nerves, Morstead had an inkling that the first onside kick attempt before the fourth quarter in Super Bowl history stood a solid chance of succeeding.
“We knew that the ball was tough to handle and we had five guys on two over on that side of the field.”
Once the ball traveled the requisite 10 yards and bounced off the hands of the Colts’ Hank Baskett, a mad scramble ensued for possession. After what seemed like the longest 65 seconds in Saints’ history, New Orleans’ Chris Reis came up with the prize at the bottom of the scrum. The Saints were on their way to springing an upset against Peyton Manning and the Colts. (The Indianapolis Colts also claim an SMU connection: The team is owned by alumnus Jim Irsay ’82.)
The Saints rode the momentum of Reis&rsquo recovery to capture their first NFL championship, 31-17, and set off a celebration to remember.
A self-described “third-string punter and fourth-string kicker” early in his SMU career, Morstead blossomed under the watchful eye of the late Frank Gansz. The onetime head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs was Morstead’s special teams coach for his last year at SMU in 2008, when the Mustangs struggled to a 1-11 finish.
“He was like my dad away from home,” says Morstead, who was drafted by New Orleans in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, a day before Gansz succumbed to complications from knee-replacement surgery. “He mentally prepared me for life in the NFL, and as a rookie I caught myself thinking often about things he told me I’d experience.”
Morstead now finds himself permanently etched into Super Bowl lore, which crossed his mind after Coach Payton’s halftime command.
“I had a lot of time to sit and think. I realized I had a chance to be involved in the play that could potentially change history.”
Now he and the Saints will chase a repeat. With the NFL’s 2011 championship game slated to be played in Arlington, Texas, Morstead, who makes his off-season home in Dallas, says, “It would be pretty special to play in a Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium.”
– Whit Sheppard ’88

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Alumni

Rocking The Art World

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Amanda Dunbar paints a Precious Rebels guitar.

Amanda Dunbar’s pretty paintings caught the eye of collectors when she was still in her teens. Now musicians like Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger bring down the house with her dazzling, crystal-encrusted guitars.
Hand-painted and emblazoned with thousands of Swarovski crystals, each instrument is a fully functional work of art. They’ve been touted in the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book and exhibited at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Dunbar is best known for her wide range of abstract, figurative and conceptual paintings that hang in private, public and corporate collections around the world. Her Precious Rebels guitars, which she began creating in 2007, “bridge the gap between art and the world,” says Dunbar, who earned a B.F.A. in art history, cum laude with departmental distinction, from Meadows School of the Arts in 2004. “People connect to popular culture, and I want to have that kind connection with people.”
When she entered SMU, the striking redhead was already an arts scene sensation; she was also a serious student. “I knew I didn’t know everything,” she says. “I felt it was important to be exposed to different opinions and ways to work.”
Among her favorite professors were Janice Bergman-Carton, chair of Art History – “she is amazing; I am humbled by her brilliance” – and Larry Scholder, whose printmaking inspired her – “he’s a great teacher and very supportive.”
Since graduating, Dunbar has studied in Brazil, Fiji, France and Italy. She also has continued to support numerous philanthropic causes, most of which focus on children. “I realized pretty quickly that I could use my art to help others, whether it was by donating to worthy causes or serving as a role model, inspiring young people to realize their full potential,” she says.
She acts as an ambassador to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and serves on the art advisory board of Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and Plano. She has worked with other organizations such as the World Craniofacial Foundation and the Crystal Charity Ball. Dunbar became the youngest woman and the first painter to be inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
In recognition of her artistic achievements and distinguished service, she received SMU’s 2009 Emerging Leader Award in November. The award is the highest honor the University bestows on its alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years.
“If there’s anything I have learned, it’s that you can have a loose plan, but you really can’t predict the future,” she says. “You have to be flexible and always have a sense of humor, especially about yourself.”
– Patricia Ward

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Alumni

Rock, Paper, Chisels: Unearthing Fossils’ Clues

Armed with field books, rock hammers and chisels, Aaron Pan ’07 searched among the large boulders and outcrops in northwest Ethiopia for fossilized plants, ancient clues that may yield new information for climate scientists about the composition of ancient forests and the paleoclimate.

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Aaron Pan in Ethiopia.

Pan’s dig earlier this year is part of a new research project in the Mush Deposits of northwestern Ethiopia. Other members of the research team are two associate professors in SMU’s Huffington Department of Earth Sciences – paleobotanist Bonnie Jacobs and sedimentologist Neil Tabor – as well as geologist Ellen Currano from Miami University.
Their data will provide an understanding of the evolutionary history of modern African forests and provide information that can help in the development of more accurate climate models.
Now the curator of science at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Pan first traveled to Ethiopia in 2003 as an SMU doctoral student in paleobotany. His discovery of fossilized palm species suggests that African prehistoric forests contained many more species of palms than now can be found.
“Today Africa has about 70 species of palms,” Pan says. “This is compared to 550 species in South and Central America, and around 1,000 species in Southeast Asia. In Africa, most of the palms don’t occur in forests, and in other parts of the world, they do. We’re trying to find out why there’s such a difference.”
In middle school, Pan knew that science would be his future. By the time he had earned a B.A. in biology at the University of California – Santa Barbara, his focus had turned to paleontology and paleobotany.
“Plants tell a lot about the prehistoric community and the climate,” he says.
For graduate school, Pan chose SMU for its strong Earth Sciences department and Bonnie Jacobs’ work in Africa.
“Aaron arrived with a wonderful earth sciences background and a desire to work in the tropics,” says Jacobs, who was Pan’s doctoral adviser. “Early on he could pursue research on his own and understand its significance, an ability that doesn’t always come easily.”
Pan continues his research while heading up the Fort Worth Museum’s science department. He is charged with the care and maintenance of its approximately 115,000 specimens that represent a full range of scientific disciplines, from botany to zoology. He is involved in planning lectures and programming for the museum, which opened a new $80 million facility in November 2009, and assists museum visitors who want to discuss their own fossil finds.
One day Pan hopes to launch a new exploration of fossilized vegetation in Southeast Asia. “Biodiversity has always amazed me,” he says. “And paleontology shows how these diverse groups have radiated over time.”
– Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Stepping Into A New Role

Jamal Story ’99 moved through the lines of dance students, correcting a step here, extending an arm there. “Dance is all in the details,” he declared.

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Jamal Story works with SMU students in a contemporary dance class.

When Story spoke to the students, they listened intently – he has the career they’re still imagining. He has danced in the company of influential choreographer Donald Byrd and in a Broadway hit, and he toured the world with Madonna. Now he shares a Vegas stage with Cher. Impressive accomplishments for someone who says that, as a first-year student at SMU, “I wasn’t convinced I could be a professional dancer.”
In January the dancer-choreographer spent several days at Meadows School of the Arts, teaching contemporary dance and ballet classes, as well as offering advice during résumé-building and Q-and-A sessions with students.
Another Meadows graduate, Dana Ingraham ’02, joined him one day to help teach and answer questions. Their schedules overlapped when she was touring in The Color Purple, which played in Dallas and Fort Worth during its national run. Story, an ensemble dancer and assistant dance captain during the musical’s two-and-one-half-year run on Broadway, had just finished teaching a workshop at The Hockaday School. The two contacted Myra Woodruff, chair of SMU’s Division of Dance, who encouraged them to teach and spend time with students.
“In our mission statement for the Division of Dance, our goal is to ‘develop the disciplined, versatile dance artist through a balanced study of ballet, modern dance and jazz techniques, complemented and reinforced by a broad range of theoretical studies and performance opportunities,’” Woodruff says. “Jamal’s accomplishments in the field of dance reflect the essence of our intent. He is a disciplined, versatile dance artist.”
Story, who grew up in Los Angeles and lives in New York City, was an accomplished gymnast who started dancing as part of his training. He didn’t begin serious dance instruction until he was in his mid-teens. After high school, he wasn’t sure what his day job would be, so he looked for “a university with a strong communications program and strong dance program,” he recalled. “That’s why I chose SMU.”

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Dana Ingraham puts SMU students through their paces.

Having earned Bachelor’s degrees in dance and communications from SMU, he stretches his creative muscles in both disciplines. Story is also a writer. He plans to self-publish a collection of short stories and is working on a novel about the dance world.
Teaching, however, is a relatively new direction. “I’ve been bashful about teaching; furnishing students with good, useful information is a great responsibility,” he said.
He concedes that it felt a little strange “to be on the faculty side of the equation, where I was once a student,” but ultimately relished the chance to work with students. “They were very receptive and seemed to take my advice to heart.”
Bo Pressly, a sophomore dance major and a student in the contemporary class led by Story, valued the opportunity to work with a master. “I really appreciate the exposure to his style and technique. He has the successful dance career we all dream about.”
– Patricia Ward
From Meadows School of the Arts: Chrysta Brown (B.F.A. Dance ’10) provides a first-person perspective on Jamal Story’s residency with the Meadows Dance Department … Read more.

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Alumni

A Behind-The-Scenes View Of History

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Registrar Jennifer Schulle (right) shows some of the presidential gifts in the George W. Bush Library and Museum archives to Ann Warmack Brookshire ’77 (left), SMU Central University LibrariesCampaign Steering Committee co-chair, and Paulette Mulry ’83, CUL director of development. The gifts are among 42,500 artifacts in the archives. Alan Lowe (next to Schulle), director of the Bush Library and Museum, conducted a tour of the archives’ temporary facility in Lewisville for a CUL group in January. The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will include the library and museum, will open in 2013 at SMU.

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Alumni

Hey, Batter, Batter!

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A group of Mustangs became Chicago Cubs for a week when they attended a fantasy baseball camp in Mesa, Arizona, home of the team’s spring training facility. Preparing for their turns at bat are (from left) Ken Malcolmson ’74, Jeff Thrall ’71, Steve Sasser ’71, ’73, Larry Malcolmson ’71 and Chuck Hixson ’70. At the camp, “we were nicknamed the ‘SMU hit men,’“ Ken says. Thrall and the Malcolmsons hail from Chicago and are longtime Cubs fans.

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Alumni

Perkins Honors Distinguished Alumnus Hamilton

HAMILTON.jpgThe Rev.

Adam Hamilton ’88 (right), pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, received the 2010 Perkins Distinguished Alumnus Award in February. He talked to Jolynn Lowry, wife of Bishop Mike Lowry ’76 (center), Central Texas Annual Conference, at the reception that followed the presentation by the Alumni/ae Council of Perkins School of Theology. Hamilton serves as pastor of one of the largest congregations in Methodism, with a membership of more than 12,000. He writes and lectures on church leadership, evangelism and preaching.

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Alumni

Celebrating Success On Signing Day

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Mustang Club members Ken Williams ’04 (center) and Scott McMillan ’91, ’95 (right) join Steve Jolley, director of corporate development for SMU Athletics, in celebrating the signing of 25 student-athletes to national letters of intent February 3. Two signees are junior college transfers and 23 are high school student-athletes. This year’s class – considered one of SMU’s finest in a quarter century – has eight three- or four-star Rivals.com recruits, equaling the number of such recruits in the 2007 and 2008 classes combined.

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Alumni

Dancing With The Class Of 1979

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Carolyn Braznell ’79 and Dennis Cheever Quinn take a spin on the dance floor during the Class of 1979 reunion party in November. In 2009 more than 1,500 alumni attended their reunion parties, traveling from 41 states, as well as from France, British Columbia, New Zealand, Peru and Canada. In addition to a Saturday night party for each class, reunion weekend activities included golf tournaments, a reunion giving celebration, campus tours, lunch on the Boulevard and priority seating at the football game against the Rice Owls. The Mustangs won, 31-28. At the 2010 Homecoming, reunion parties for class years ending in 0 and 5 will be held October 23.

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Alumni

Sharing Social Media Savvy

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Lewis Henderson ’89, chief executive officer of Davie Brown Entertainment, offers insight into digital marketing in the entertainment industry to students attending Digital Threads in November. The networking symposium at Meadows School of the Arts focused on social media and career growth. Speakers included several other SMU alumni: Drew Buckley ’94, chief operating officer of Electus; Cyndi McClellan ’94, executive vice president for research and programming strategy for Comcast Entertainment Group; and Alex Richter ’99, vice president of interactive for Camelot Communications. SMU Trustee Royce E. (Ed) Wilson played a leading role in launching the annual event three years ago. “This symposium connects our talented students with alumni, parents and leading companies across the country,” Wilson says. Digital Threads 2010 will be October 21-22.

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Alumni

Reconnecting With Friends And Faculty

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Anish Taylor ’08 (left) and Asad Rahman ’03 visited with Caroline Brettell, University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology in Dedman College, at the Dallas Young Alumni-faculty happy hour at the Stoneleigh Hotel in January. Despite heavy rain, the event drew 60 alumni and 13 faculty members. A DYA wine tasting will be held June 3 at the Meadows Museum.

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Alumni

Remembering The Good Times

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Reunions provide a priceless opportunity to reconnect with SMU friends. Shown as they remember good times at the Class of 1984 reunion party are (from left) Bridget Brandon, Melanie Swanson Duncan, Heather Evans Gilker and Chewy Chuinard Borden. Reunions also present a chance for alumni to show their support for their alma mater. In 2009 three classes – 1964, 1999 and 2004 – broke their alumni giving participation goals, with six classes exceeding the 25 percent participation rate. Reunion-year giving totaled more than $3.5 million.

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Alumni

NYC Board Room Breakfast

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Despite a blizzard that dumped a foot of snow in Manhattan Feb. 10, the New York City Alumni Chapter hosted its first Board Room Breakfast featuring Norman Pearlstine, chief content officer with Bloomberg, a financial news, information and media company; and Tony Pederson, professor and Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. After the breakfast Pearlstine took the group on a tour of the Bloomberg Building. Pictured at the event are (from left) John Phelan ’86, Erik Nikravan ’06, Pearlstine, Pederson, Mark Robertson ’85, John Trahan ’83 ’93 and Lisa Bozalis ’00.

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Alumni

Running The Family Business From The Owner’s Box

UPDATE: The Indianapolis Colts, owned by SMU alumnus Jim Irsay ’82, played the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl LXIV. Irsay’s team won the Super Bowl in 2007.

Clark Hunt ’87 and Jim Irsay ’82 are members of one of the country’s most exclusive clubs, a privilege that comes with the best seats in the house. Each alumnus owns one of 32 highly coveted National Football League franchises.
“Clark’s a very good friend,” says Irsay. “It’s great to see another Mustang there at the NFL owners’ meetings.”

IRSAY.jpgJim Irsay ’82 (right) talks strategy with quarterback Peyton Manning (center) and Colts president Bill Polian.

Hunt shares that SMU spirit. “It’s with a certain sense of pride that I see Jim across the table at the owners’ meetings.”
The two men followed in the footsteps of legendary fathers.
Hunt was named the Kansas City Chiefs’ chair of the board in 2005 preceding the death of his father, Lamar ’56, in late 2006. He represents the interests of the Lamar Hunt family in the franchise. The late Lamar Hunt was a member of the SMU Board of Trustees and served on numerous University committees. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1973.
Irsay, owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts, inherited control of the team in January 1997 after the death of his father, Robert. The late Mr. Irsay is probably best known for moving the Colts to Indianapolis from their longtime Baltimore home in 1984.
The Colts played the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl LXIV Feb. 7, marking the team’s fourth appearance in franchise history in the Super Bowl.
Irsay is quick to praise the legacy of the Chiefs’ founder, whom he credits as a key mentor. “There will never be another Lamar Hunt. He was brilliant and unique in his creative thinking,” Irsay says. “Lamar was like an uncle to me. He inspired me and was informative through the years.”

Hunt.jpgClark Hunt ’87 pays a post-game visit to the Kansas City Chiefs’ locker room.

In recent years, stadium projects have topped the agendas of both team owners.
Irsay spearheaded the drive for the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The 63,000-seat, multipurpose facility opened to rave reviews in August 2008. The Colts will host Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012, with an anticipated local economic impact of approximately $400 million, according to Irsay.
The Chiefs’ new Arrowhead Stadium is undergoing a $375 million renovation that’s scheduled for completion in time for the 2010 season. Clark Hunt and his family have contributed $125 million of their own funds toward the remodeling and expansion, as well as the club’s new state-of-the-art practice facility that will keep the team in Kansas City through 2031.
Hunt recently hired Scott Pioli, architect of the New England Patriots’ three Super Bowl-winning teams, to run the Chiefs’ football operations.
“It’s been a tremendous pleasure working with Scott these past six months. I have been impressed by how thoughtful he is in making decisions and how he values the input of those around him,” Hunt says.
The Colts also experienced management changes, with the retirement of former coach Tony Dungy and the ascension of assistant head coach Jim Caldwell to replace him. Having Peyton Manning as quarterback likely eased the transition
for Caldwell in his first season at the helm.
Hunt is striving to attain a prize that Irsay wrapped his arms around a few years ago: the Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl (a name coined by Lamar Hunt in the mid-1960s). Irsay’s Colts beat Chicago 29-17 to win Super Bowl XLI in February 2007. Hunt’s Chiefs are still seeking their first Super Bowl appearance since upsetting Minnesota 23-7 in Super Bowl IV in January 1970.
Despite their hectic schedules, Hunt and Irsay stay connected to their alma mater.
Hunt serves on the SMU Board of Trustees and the Executive Board of the Cox School of Business.
First in his undergraduate class at Cox, Hunt was a four-year soccer letterman
and a tri-captain his senior year. He cites both experiences as being useful in
his current role with the Chiefs.
“My experience at the business school laid the framework for what I’ve done professionally, [but] playing soccer at SMU gave me an insight into team sports and helped from a leadership standpoint,” he says.
Irsay and his wife, Meg, have funded an annual scholarship for an Indiana high school graduate to matriculate at SMU. He remembers the Hilltop as an incubator for his off-the-field interests in music and film.
As an undergraduate broadcast journalism major, he made a short documentary film after John Lennon’s death in 1980. He showed it during late-night screenings at several Dallas-area venues.
“I had an unremarkable career playing football at SMU – only played in ’78 before I got injured,” he recalls. “It was kind of like a George Plimpton (author of the football classic Paper Lion) experience for me. I hadn’t played since my freshman year of high school. But I found my rhythm by pursuing the things I loved at SMU.”
– Whit Sheppard ’88

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Alumni

Operation Babylift: Filmmaker Wins Hearts, Minds And Awards

As an infant in her mother’s arms, Tammy Nguyen Lee ’00 was carried out of war-torn Vietnam in 1978. Three years earlier, before the fall of Saigon, thousands of children escaped South Vietnam through Operation Babylift. Nguyen Lee, a filmmaker, didn’t draw parallels between the two events until she heard the story of American nurse Mary Nguyen.

Shortly after graduating from SMU, the cinema major met the nurse who recounted taking part in Operation Babylift, a U.S. military evacuation of more than 2,500 Vietnamese orphans. The story struck a personal chord with Nguyen Lee, who had occasionally wrestled with her own experiences as a refugee growing up in the Dallas suburb of Garland, Texas.

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Tammy Nguyen Lee at filmAsiafest in September.

“I related to this story as an Asian American who felt torn between two cultures, looking a certain way, being treated differently and trying to fit in,” she says. “However, the need for acceptance and belonging is
something we all feel.”

While earning an M.F.A. from UCLA in 2004, she received a grant from the UCLA Mickey Dude Fellowship to create a film of her choice. She quickly started work
as producer, director and writer of Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam, which became a nearly five-year labor of love. The 72-minute documentary looks at the humanitarian effort and its aftermath through the eyes of participants: airlift volunteers, adoptive parents and the Vietnamese adoptees.

The film premiered at the Vietnamese International Film Festival in April and won the coveted Audience Choice Award. In September, the Crow Collection of Art’s inaugural filmAsiafest hosted the first North Texas screening
of the documentary at the Dallas Museum of Art to a packed auditorium of more than 300 guests.

In 2006 Nguyen Lee founded Against The Grain Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to promote Asian-American cultural awareness and to raise funds for Vietnamese orphanages.

Nguyen Lee juggles her nonprofit venture with a demanding, full-time position as director of development and distribution at Dallas-based AMS Pictures.

She feels fortunate that her SMU professors – including Rick Worland, Tom Bywaters and Kevin Heffernan – were so generous with their time and encouragement while she was a student. “I’ve always been an ‘out there’ kind of thinker; they just let me be free to be a filmmaker. It was amazing to have that support,” Nguyen Lee says.

– Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Reunions: Old Friends, New Memories, Good Times

For young alumni and more seasoned Mustangs alike, reunions offer a forum for rekindling friendships and reconnecting with SMU.

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Jennifer Clark Tobin

“The opportunity to catch up with classmates is priceless,” says Jennifer Clark Tobin ’98 of Dallas, who served on her 10-year reunion committee and is also an ’01 graduate of Dedman School of Law. “We spent an important part of our lives together, and you never know how revisiting those relationships may affect your life.”

Bob and Gail Massad of Dallas, who co-chaired the 40-year reunion for the class of 1968, agree that SMU friendships withstand the test of time.

“Most of us met our best friends at SMU; and even though we’re miles apart, when we get together for our reunion, it’s like those friendships were never interrupted,” says Bob, a retired insurance executive who is planning a second career in the nonprofit sector.

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Gail and Bob Massad

Reunion weekend coincides with Homecoming each fall. Nine undergraduate classes are welcomed back to SMU to celebrate anniversaries in five-year increments, starting with five and continuing to 45. Graduates whose class years end in 0 and 5 will gather next November. The 50-year reunion occurs each May during Commencement weekend. The class of 1960 will be honored May 14-15, 2010. Golden Mustangs Day, a celebration for alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago, is held every other year in March.

In addition to traditional Homecoming activities – like the Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony, parade and football game – there’s a reunion lunch tent on the Boulevard. Approximately 900 alumni and their families enjoy the pre-game meal each year.

Reunion alumni can support the women’s golf program by participating in the Earl Stewart Lady Mustang and Reunion Golf Tournament.

Another high point is the reunion giving celebration. Twenty-four percent of reunion-year alumni gave back to SMU last year.

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Jamie McComiskey Moore

“Reunions are an opportune time to revisit SMU and experience the advances made by the University in recent years,” says Jamie McComiskey Moore ’85, who chairs the Alumni Board’s Development Committee.

“Alumni financial support is a critical element in SMU’s growing reputation,” she adds. “Alumni giving allows for the establishment and preservation of scholarships that attract the most sought-after students. Donations also support programming in faculty achievement and student life as well. We can all take pride in ownership of these achievements, whether as a first-time or annual donor.”

The reunion showstoppers are the parties – evenings filled with good food, music and fun. More than 1,300 attended their class reunion parties in 2008.

“Our class party at the Park Cities Club was the highlight of the reunion, with over 100 alumni and guests attending,” Gail Massad says.

Co-chairs for each class search for the newest and most interesting venues in Dallas. Past class party locations have included upscale hotels, including W Dallas-Victory; venues unique to the city, such as Dallas World Aquarium and the Dallas Museum of Art; and favorite old haunts, like the Green Elephant and Trader Vic’s.

“Class reunion party attendance continues to grow,” says Astria Terry, director of reunion programs. “Social network sites help spread the word that reunion weekend is truly a ‘do not miss’ experience.”

For more information, contact Reunion Programs at 214-768-YEAR (9327) or reunionyear@smu.edu. More information also is available at smu.edu/reunion.

Alumni Board

Nominations for the 2010 SMU Alumni Board will be accepted through Dec. 31. Alumni may nominate fellow alumni or themselves. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or email smualum@smu.edu.
CHAIR Ken Malcolmson ’74
PAST CHAIR Connie Blass O’Neill ’77
MEMBERS Brad Adams ’93, Chris Ainsworth ’94, Vincent Battles ’06, John R. Bauer ’66, Shonn Evans Brown ’95, ’98, Robert Cabes Jr. ’91, Stephen A. Corley ’90, Kim Twining Hanrahan ’92, Harriet Hopkins Holleman ’63, Ruth Irwin Kupchynsky ’80, Doug Linneman ’99, Tamara Marinkovic ’91, ’94, Robert Massad ’68, Susie McLamore McCormack ’77, Robert Mills ’57, Jamie McComiskey Moore ’85, Dennis E. Murphree ’69, Laura Staub Pusateri ’01, Mark A. Robertson ’85, Scott Rozzell ’71, Lisa Holm Sabin ’78, Jesusita Santillan ’06, David Schmidt ’79, Deborah Hurst Sirchio ’70, J. Jeffrey Thrall ’71, Jeffrey Ziegler ’84

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Alumni

Honoring Distinguished Alumni

Since 1951 the Distinguished Alumni Award has been the highest honor SMU bestows upon its graduates in recognition of outstanding achievement, character and citizenship. The Emerging Leader Award, now in its 10th year, acknowledges an outstanding alumnus or alumna who has graduated within the last 15 years. The following graduates received 2009 DAA honors and the Emerging Leader Award Nov. 5:

Distinguished Alumni Awards

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Frederick B. Hegi Jr.

Frederick B. Hegi Jr. ’66 is known as a hands-on community leader. The founding partner of Wingate Partners, a private investment firm, Hegi also serves on several corporate boards. A member of SMU’s Board of Trustees since 2004, he is co-chair of the Dedman College Campaign Steering Committee for SMU’s Second Century Campaign. Thousands of students and alumni have benefited from his generosity through services of the Hegi Family Career Development Center at SMU.

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Joe White

Joe White ’70, a former defensive tackle for the Mustangs, transforms lives as president and chairman of the board of Kanakuk Ministries, which operates Kanakuk Kamps in Missouri. The Christian camps host 20,000 campers and 2,500 staff members each summer. He is founder of three organizations: Kids Across America, which sends inner-city youth to summer camp; Cross International, a relief organization in 30 countries; and Men at the Cross, a national men’s ministry.

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Cecil Williams

Cecil Williams’ ’55 innovative ministry at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco spans more than 40 years. Glide is known worldwide for its outreach to society’s poor and marginalized. Williams was one of SMU’s first five African American students, entering Perkins School of Theology in 1952 and graduating in 1955. The school’s Williams Preaching Lab in Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall was named recently in his honor. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from SMU in 1997.

Emerging Leader Award

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Amanda Dunbar

Amanda R. Dunbar ’04 picked up a paintbrush at age 13 and released a talent that has been displayed in galleries and museums worldwide. She had her first solo exhibition in Dallas at age 16. Dunbar is the youngest woman to be inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. With proceeds from her painting sales, she formed a charitable organization to fund arts programs for children and supports other groups that serve youngsters.

Nominations Now Open For 2010 Awards

The 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards and Emerging Leader recognition are open to SMU alumni who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary service and achievement in a particular discipline, organization or cause.

The deadline to submit nominations is Dec. 31, 2009.

Any individual may nominate an alumna and/or alumnus by completing the nomination form available here.

Once nominated, the candidate remains in nomination for three consecutive years. After that time, the individual may be nominated again.

The completed form may be mailed to Southern Methodist University, Office of Alumni Relations, P.O. Box 750173, Dallas, TX 75275-0173; Attention: Nominations.

Questions about the nomination process should be directed to the Office of Alumni Relations: 214-768-2586, 1-888-327-3755 or smualum@smu.edu.

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Alumni

Celebrating A Half-Century Of Pony Pride

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Fifty years ago: Alaska became the 49th state, the Kingston Trio topped the music charts and the Class of 1959 graduated from SMU. More than 100 class members attended their Commencement weekend reunion, including Marie Murphy Starling (left) and Laura Hamilton Roach. Starling was accompanied by her husband, Bill, who enjoyed looking at class photos. Mustangs from 17 states, the District of Columbia and two countries attended. Norma Fischer, who lives in Switzerland, traveled the greatest distance. During their reunion year, 180 class members gave a total of $403,249 to SMU.

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Alumni

Spicing Things Up In Taos

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The special of the day was fine food and fun as Sharon Fjordbak ’86 (left) and Judi Baker tried their hand at fried squash blossoms. At the SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute, the duo attended a Southwestern cuisine class, one of several new offerings in summer 2009. The 2010 Cultural Institute weekend will be July 22-25. Courses ranging from the history and culture of the Southwest to outdoor adventure will be announced in January.

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Alumni

Hispanic Alumni Support New Scholarship

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In May 2010 the Hispanic Alumni Associates (HAA) will award its first scholarship to a student leader with a strong GPA and financial need. The group hopes to raise $25,000 for the scholarship fund. Shown at a reception to honor 2009 Hispanic graduates are HAA members (from left) Jesusita Santillan ’06, Elizabeth Ortiz Garcia ’03, Dan Valdez ’88, Angie Parra ’95 and Carlos Maldonado ’97.

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Alumni

Goodbye, Houston. Hello, Hilltop.

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Katherine Jones ’09 (left) joins her parents, Rocky and Bonnie Jones, in wishing sister Claire (second from right) a great first year at SMU. The Joneses and other SMU families gathered at the home of Scott and Karen Rozzell in Houston to dispatch new students in Mustang style. Send-off parties were held in cities around the country in July and August.

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Alumni

A Five-Generation Tradition Continues

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SMU welcomed more than 1,300 first-year students this fall. Among them is Jaime Toussaint, the fifth-generation woman in her family to attend SMU. Her mother, Adelle Purse Toussaint ’82, helped her move into Perkins Hall Aug. 20 and recalled that Jaime’s maternal great-great-grandmother, Ola Chastain Robertson, started the family’s SMU tradition. “She loved opera and sang in the church choir,” Adelle says. “When she was in her 60s, she enrolled in SMU and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in music and voice.” Jaime plans to follow in the footsteps of her physician father, Richard, as she focuses on the pre-med track in Dedman College.

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Alumni

Ready, Set, Impress!

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Kemi Ogun ’07 (left), a human resources manager with Texas Instruments, interviews an SMU student at an on-campus speed-networking session during the Career and Internship Fair prep day Sept. 3. More than 70 employers, many of whom were SMU alumni, helped students hone networking skills at the event, sponsored by the Hegi Family Career Development Center. “I was extremely impressed with the students’ level of professionalism,” says Ogun, who adds that she took advantage of the Center’s résumé and career services while she was a student.

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Alumni

Mustang Spirit Wins Every Time

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It was an evening of pony pride when SMU Young Alumni gathered for “Pre-Victory at Victory Park” Oct. 1. The celebration preceeded the SMU-TCU game Oct. 3. Colleen Hite ’06 (left); Victoria Stroughter Sheard ’07 (center), a Young Alumni board member; and guest Kendall Kaufman were among almost 400 Mustangs who gathered to cheer on the football team.

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Alumni

Spreading The News At Regional Events

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Chicago-area alumni joined parents and friends at The Art Institute of Chicago Sept. 15 for an update on what’s new at SMU. Among those attending were (from left) John Gaines ’04, chapter leader; Buffy Bains ’05 and Emily Childers ’03, chapter co-presidents; and Jaclyn Durr ’07, chapter leader. Similar regional events were held in the fall in Los Angeles and Houston.

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Alumni

Katie Featherston’s Paranormal Fame

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Katie Featherston

A

ctress Katie Featherston’s life in the past few months is a story tailor-made for the movies.

Featherston, a 2005 Meadows School of the Arts graduate, plays a haunted college student in the thriller Paranormal Activity. Shot three years ago in a week for about $15,000, the box office phenomenon has grossed more than $100 million in the U.S. after just a few weeks in nationwide release. The little horror movie that could is now considered the most profitable film ever made and has been nominated for a People’s Choice Award in the “Favorite Independent Movie” category.

With co-star Micah Sloat, Featherston appeared recently on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and they have been guests on The Jay Leno Show, Today, The Soup and other television programs.

“The whole fame aspect isn’t why I focused on acting, but it is exciting,” she says. “I love meeting nice people who like my work.”

She keeps in touch with fans through Facebook and Twitter, where she posted an email address for their questions.

“When the film was shown at festivals three years ago, we had fans who saw it and have stuck with us through the years,” she says. “They didn’t forget about us, so I won’t forget about them. They’ve changed my life.”

Shortly after earning a Bachelor’s degree in acting from SMU, she headed West. Until recently, Featherston followed the path of countless other young Hollywood hopefuls: She waited tables at an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, attended acting classes and went on auditions.

“I initially went [to Los Angeles] to get a commercial agent,” she explains. “When you go on those auditions, they give you about 30 seconds to look over the script. That’s when I realized how important my SMU training was. Whether I was studying Shakespeare or more modern works, those experiences provided me with a solid background that has been invaluable.”

At SMU her favorite role was Lainie in a student production of Two Rooms. “I loved the student productions. They happened because the students were so passionate and made them happen.”

In fact, Featherston says there’s not much she didn’t enjoy about SMU. “I can’t pick a favorite class or professor; I loved them all,” she says.

“I encourage every student to soak up as much a you can,” she adds. “Take advantage of the free theater space and play parts that may not seem a fit for you – like a 50-year-old woman or a kid. Those kinds of opportunities usually evaporate once you leave the educational environment.”

Featherston jokes about spending four years “trapped in the Meadows basement” as preparation for Paranormal Activity. “[During filming] we worked pretty much around the clock for seven days,” she says. “We left the house [the San Diego home of director Oren Peli] a couple of times for a bagel run, but that was about it.”

The film intentionally resembles a homemade video, which is a huge factor in its creepiness. While director Peli provided an outline, the actors improvised the dialog. And when the story called for Featherston to be dragged out of bed and down the hallway, she did her own stunt work – and had the bruises to prove it.

“We all became part of creating the film, and it was an amazing experience that doesn’t come around very often,” she says. “I feel so lucky.”

Doors are opening for Featherston, who relishes being a full-time actress with a choice of roles. “I haven’t made any decisions yet. I want to do good work with good people.”

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Alumni

Perkins Honors A. Cecil Williams

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A. Cecil Williams

Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University has named the Williams Preaching Lab in Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall in honor of the Rev. Dr. A. Cecil Williams ’55, Minister of Liberation at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco.

The announcement was made by Dean William B. Lawrence at a reception held in honor of Williams and his wife, Janice Mirikitani, on November 4 in the Great Hall of Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall at Perkins. The preaching lab is a state-of-the-art facility within the newly constructed Prothro Hall. The room is designed to support instruction and training in homiletics for present and future clergy.

Williams was one of three recipients of the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Awards, presented November 5. He received the Perkins Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996 and an honorary doctorate from the University in 1997.

As minister, author and social activist, Williams has long been recognized as a national leader in the struggle for civil and human rights. He was one of five African American students admitted to Perkins in fall 1952 in what was the first voluntary desegregation of a major educational institution in the South. The story of the historic series of events surrounding their matriculation is chronicled by former Perkins dean Merrimon Cuninggim in Perkins Led the Way: The Story of Desegregation at Southern Methodist University. In May 2005, SMU recognized the contributions of Williams and his four pioneering African American colleagues at their 50th anniversary commencement.

In 1963 he was appointed to Glide Memorial Methodist, a church of fewer than 50 members in a declining section of San Francisco. His vision and leadership for more than 45 years is credited with leading Glide to national prominence. The church has a diverse membership of more than 11,000.

Glide’s support of the surrounding community and its innovative outreach have served as a model for congregations across the country. The church’s extensive network of services includes the only food program in San Francisco offering three meals a day, 365 days a year, as well as an outpatient substance abuse treatment and recovery program.

In recognition of his spiritual and social leadership, Williams was appointed in 1998 to the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets, which was charged with conducting original research into the fate of assets taken from victims of the Holocaust that came into the possession of the U.S. federal government. He also has served on the selection committee of the National Caring Award, presented by the Caring Institute in Washington, D.C.

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Alumni

The SMU Connection At Lon Morris College

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Seven SMU graduates serve on the faculty and staff of Lon Morris College, a United Methodist two-year college in Jacksonville, Texas. They are: (standing, left to right) Jack Albright ’58, ’82, adjunct professor of religion; Jimmie A. Reese ’58, ’78, professor emeritus of sociology and former chaplain; Faulk Landrum ’61, adjunct professor of religion and philosophy and former college president from 1976-92; Don Young ’62, associate professor of computer science; Betty Addington ’55, director of the Servant Learning Program and instructor; (seated, left to right) Michelle Zenor ’89, ’90, professor of English; and Afton Barber ’03, director of camps and outreach. The seven SMU alumni represent more than 90 years of service to Lon Morris College.

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Alumni

D.C. Alumni Share A Capital Day

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Alumni in the Washington, D.C., area gathered Sept. 20 for a chapter picnic at Hains Point in East Potomac Park. Among those enjoying the Mustang outing were: (left to right) Kathryn Minor ’00, Sarah Wallerstein ’00, Maya Mahoney ’05, Kathryn Maxwell ’97, Tom Maxwell ’98, guest Thomas Comeau and Robin Morgan ’04.

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Alumni

‘Mars Or Bust’

Former TAG Student Returns To Teach Space Course

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Rock, paper, scissors, Mars. April Kramer Andreas ’02, ’03 shows students a rock sample during a discussion about the geological similarities between Earth and Mars.

When April Kramer Andreas ’02, ’03 saw The Right Stuff, she didn’t just see a movie about the storied Mercury Seven astronauts. She saw her future.

“I’ve always been interested in space, and that did it for me,”Andreas says. “When I saw it, I knew I wanted to be an astrophysicist. I eventually discovered that I liked the math more than the physics.”

In junior high, she explored opportunities that would launch her studies in the right direction and landed at SMU as a participant in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) summer program.

The student became the master when Andreas returned to SMU in July to teach the TAG class, “Mars or Bust: Building a Permanent Martian Settlement.”

“April is the first person to attend a TAG camp and come back to teach in the program,” says Marilyn Swanson, director of programming for the Gifted Students Institute and pre-college programs, Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

TAG is a three-week residential program for academically gifted students who have completed grades 7, 8 or 9. They participate in credit and non-credit college courses.

Andreas’ class of four girls and eight boys tackled topics that ranged from planning an expedition to the Red Planet to governing its first colony.

The TAG class was a Kramer-Andreas family team effort. Her father, geologist Vernon Kramer, who teaches at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, participated via the Internet in a session about the geological similarities and differences between Earth and Mars.

Andreas’ husband, Derek ’02, an engineer with SpaceX in Waco, Texas, gave students a guided tour of the propulsion and structural test facilities of the private company, which aims to establish routine commercial space transportation.

The experience “really kept me on my toes,” says Andreas. “The kids are so smart, so enthusiastic. They were constantly firing questions at me. My oral exams for my Ph.D. were nothing compared to this.”

Andreas vividly remembers her first day on the SMU campus as a TAG student. “It was July 4, 1993, and I went to watch the fireworks at the stadium and I felt a real sense of belonging here,” she recalls. “I did the TAG program for three years, then the College Experience.”

The academically intensive five-week College Experience program allows students in 10th or 11th grade to earn six hours of college credit by completing regular SMU courses.

After graduating from high school in South Texas, she entered the SMU University Honors Program as a first-year student in fall 1998 with 18 credit hours from SMU already on her transcript, Swanson says.

A President’s Scholar and honors graduate, Andreas majored in mathematics with minors in computer science, art history and physics. She also received her Master of Science degree in computational and applied mathematics from SMU. She earned a Ph.D. in systems and industrial engineering from the University of Arizona in 2006 and later joined the faculty of McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, where she teaches mathematics and engineering.

While Andreas concedes that the topic of colonizing Mars “may seem like crazy talk to some people,” she believes students will find many practical applications for the larger lessons.

“One thing that made this class so exciting is that these kids will be the generation to have the first real shot at colonizing Mars,” she says. “My hope is that my class will encourage their pioneer spirit and give them a sense that they can do anything they want to do.”

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Alumni

Meadows Grads Rule In The King and I

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Meadows School of the Arts Dean José Bowen (second from left) visits back stage with Joe Nemmers ’90, Augustine “Tino” Jalomo ’93, Addison Reed, Robert Patrick Paterno, Chamblee Ferguson ’88, Margaret “Maggie” Soch Hayden and (seated) Luann Aronson ’88.

“Getting to know you” wasn’t a problem for some members of the cast and crew of Lyric Stage’s The King and I. Their paths had crossed before as Meadows School of the Arts students. Stage veteran Joe Nemmers ’90, in his first musical role, played the titular role of the King of Siam. Luann Aronson ’88, who appeared on Broadway as Christine in Phantom of the Opera, co-starred as his foil, the strong-willed English governess, Mrs. Anna Leonowens. Other players with an SMU connection were Chamblee Ferguson ’88 as Sir Ramsey, Augustine “Tino” Jalomo ’93 as a member of the Royal Ballet and former students Addison Reed and Robert Patrick Paterno, also cast in the Royal Ballet. Margaret Soch Hayden ’89 was stage manager for the production. The world premiere of the newly restored Rodgers and Hammerstein classic was presented June 19-28 in Irving, Texas. In the audience for one of the performances was Meadows Dean José Bowen, who visited back stage and gave Meadows T-shirts to the alumni. The lavish production, a collaboration between Lyric Stage and the R&H Organization, which owns the rights to the musical, gained national attention as the first presentation of the restored 1951 score, performed by a 35-piece orchestra as originally written.

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Alumni

New Alumni Board Chair Focuses On Outreach, Campaign

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Ken Malcolmson

For Ken Malcolmson ’74, the friendships forged at SMU were an important part of his education. “There are all these units of connection between students – like Greek life and campus activities – that create a lasting bond,” he says.

That bonding doesn’t stop with graduation, Malcolmson says. It continues through events that promote alumni interaction and involvement with their alma mater.
Malcolmson, who majored in political science, has carved out a successful career in the health-benefits industry. He is CEO of Humana’s West Central Region, which encompasses Texas, Colorado and Utah. With an office in Dallas, he takes advantage of opportunities to stay in touch with his fellow Mustangs. “The best part of being an alumnus is the opportunity to network with a cross section of alumni of all ages,” he says.

As the incoming Alumni Board chair, Malcolmson says “participation and the many forms that takes, from attending get-togethers to supporting The Second Century Campaign” is the Alumni Board’s focus. “We’re the visible champions of the University to the alumni community.”

The board has established three committees charged with fortifying the links between alumni and SMU:

  • Regional Outreach. The committee has worked with leadership teams to establish chapters in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Chapters host at least four events a year, and “we’re looking at ways alumni can be more involved in student recruitment, which is something we had gotten away from in the past few years,” Malcolmson says.
  • Campus Outreach. Finding “ways to engage our huge contingent of local alumni” is the committee’s mission. In addition to promoting such signature events as the Distinguished Alumni Awards banquet and reunions, the group is establishing new traditions, such as the Red-Blue Game picnic in April, “which we hope will grow in the coming years to replicate the Boulevard experience in the spring.”
  • 25/50 and Revenue Generation Committee. The committee identifies and implements the most effective tools for boosting alumni giving. “We do an excellent job of alumni-to-alumni solicitation during reunion years, and we’re trying to find ways to inspire alumni to participate in their non-reunion years,” Malcolmson says.
    The Second Century Campaign has identified alumni giving as integral to its success. The Alumni Board has been presented with the challenge to increase the annual alumni giving participation rate to 25 percent, with a goal of having 50 percent of alumni contribute over the life of the campaign. “Higher alumni participation rates translate into higher rankings of institutions of higher learning,” he says. “There’s been a positive trend in giving, and we want to build on that momentum. Gifts of all sizes are important to the University.”

Malcolmson views his next two years as chair as “an honor. With our outstanding students and faculty, the transformation of our physical plant and footprint, and the potential for a great athletics program, there has never been a more exciting time to be part of SMU.”

For more information, contact Alumni Relations at 214-768-ALUM (2586) or smualum@smu.edu, or visit smu.edu/alumni.

Alumni Board
Nominations for the 2010 SMU Alumni Board will be accepted through Dec. 31. Alumni may nominate fellow alumni or themselves. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or e-mail smualum@smu.edu.

Alumni Board

CHAIR Ken Malcolmson ’74
PAST CHAIR Connie Blass O’Neill ’77
MEMBERS Brad Adams ’93, Chris Ainsworth ’94, Vincent Battles ’06, John R. Bauer ’66,
Shonn Evans Brown ’95, Robert Cabes Jr. ’91, Stephen A. Corley ’90, Kim Twining Hanrahan
’92, Harriet Hopkins Holleman ’63, Ruth Irwin Kupchynsky ’80, Doug Linneman ’99,
Tamara Marinkovic ’91, Robert Massad ’67, Susie Jay McCormack ’77, Robert Mills ’57,
Jamie McComisky Moore ’85, Dennis E. Murphree ’69, Mark A. Robertson ’85, Scott Rozzell ’71, Lisa Holm Sabin ’78, Jesusita Santillan ’06, David Schmidt ’79, Deborah Hurst Sirchio ’70, Laura Staub Pusateri ’01, J. Jeffrey Thrall ’71, Jeffrey Ziegler ’84

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Alumni

Reaping Rewards: Alumni Benefits

From career counseling to summer classes at SMU-in-Taos, SMU alumni receive a range of benefits, says Allison Curran, associate director, Alumni Outreach.

Given the current economic environment, employment-related offerings are particularly important, Curran says. “We’ve gotten many calls from alumni who are considering career changes or are looking for new opportunities.”

The Hegi Family Career Development Center is a good starting point, she says.
In addition to providing job-search tools and services, the Hegi Center also sponsors career fairs, which are open to alumni.

For those who don’t live in Dallas, chapter events held periodically around the country create an avenue for face-to-face networking in a friendly atmosphere. ”The chapters are a huge benefit, and we now have a full-time staff person, Lyndsey Hummert Hill ’05, who focuses on fostering communication, interaction and involvement between SMU and our community of alumni worldwide,” Curran says.

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The renovated SMU Faculty Club offers discounted rentals to alumni.

    Other alumni perks include:

  • The Alumni Directory online, which provides a secure, instant connection to SMU’s worldwide alumni network. Users can type in keywords and a location to find alumni contacts that match their search parameters.
  • Free lifetime subscriptions to SMU
    Magazine
    , both in print and online, and SMU
    Connections e-mail newsletter.

  • Invitations to regional social/networking events, student recruitment engagements, football/basketball tailgates, family weekends, young alumni events, Homecoming and class reunions. For a list, check the Alumni Events Calendar.
  • A 20 percent discount on most SMU Continuing and Professional Education courses.
  • A discount on membership to Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports.
  • Free access to on-campus libraries and other resources.
  • Opportunities to see the world through alumni travel.
  • Participation in SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute programs.
  • Access to the renovated SMU Faculty Club, which provides discounted rentals for business meetings, receptions, parties and other daytime or evening events.

Click here for more information or call 214-768-ALUM (214-768-2586) or 888-327-3755, or email smualum@smu.edu.

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Alumni

Picking Up The Pieces In Louisiana

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, referred to as “The Twisted Sisters” by Janet Pace ’80, provided the perfect opportunity for the alumna and her volunteer agency “to put up or shut up.”

In early August 2005, Pace was president and CEO of Volunteer! Baton Rouge (VBR), which the Points of Light Foundation had just named the National Volunteer Center of the Year. Nineteen days later Katrina hit, and “I felt like the world was saying, ‘Okay, you got the award for being the best; let’s see what you can do.’ So we did what we knew volunteer centers do best: connect people with opportunities to serve.”

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Janet Pace (second from left) and volunteers work on a recent rebuilding project in the New Orleans area.

The intervention by Pace and her team filled a crucial gap in New Orleans, which had been without its Volunteer Center since July, when it closed for lack of funding. Volunteer! Baton Rouge came to the rescue again in late September, when Hurricane Rita pummeled southwest Louisiana. “We processed 15,000 offers of help from August to December 2005,” Pace recalls.

During these back-to-back natural disasters, Pace says she encountered a glaring flaw: the lack of a relationship between the state government and Louisiana’s non-profit and faith-based organizations, including the state’s seven Volunteer Centers and independent nonprofits that collaborate under the Louisiana Association of Volunteer Center Directors. “Being bossy, I took it upon myself to pound on the state’s door and demand a relationship.”

Her proposal resulted “in one of the most positive outcomes of Katrina and Rita,” she says. Working with other nonprofits and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Pace helped rewrite the state disaster plan to include response by nonprofits, the seven Volunteer Centers and the State Service Commission, called Louisiana Serve.

Today, Pace serves as interim executive director and director of volunteer outreach for the LA Serve Commission in the office of Louisiana’s lieutenant governor, supervising an annual budget of $24 million.

Pace, who graduated with cum laude honors in journalism and political science in 1980, credits her participation in student activities at SMU with preparing her for a life of community involvement. She was a reporter and news editor on The Daily Campus and public relations chair for the Women’s Symposium, a series that promotes the leadership development of women. She pledged Alpha Delta Pi because of the sorority’s emphasis on philanthropy &dash raising funds for the Ronald McDonald House.

“My passion is volunteerism and the impact that volunteers can make in our communities,” she says. “The success I had in leadership positions at SMU gave me the confidence to accept or seek responsibility in the ‘real’ world.”

Click here for more information.

Susan White

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Alumni

Leading With A Helping Hand

Mary Hutchings Cooper ’91 applies her talents in the corporate corridors of Manhattan, but also on the playgrounds of New York City neighborhoods. As a product manager with Thomson Reuters, she makes sure software is tailored to meet clients’ specifications. During personal time, the Cox School of Business alumna accomplishes volunteer projects as diverse as renovating a playground and mentoring teenage mothers.

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Mary Hutchings Cooper (left) and other volunteers package toys for a holiday gift drive.

Cooper is a volunteer with more than 20 years of experience with the Junior League, a charitable organization of women that promotes voluntarism and community improvement, and was recognized by the New York Junior League with an Outstanding Volunteer award. Now a member of the New York Junior League’s Board of Managers, Cooper oversees recruiting and training of more than 350 new volunteers each year. The League partners with approximately 30 hospitals, women’s prisons, homeless shelters, schools and other entities.

Cooper’s mother has been a League member in Galveston, Texas, for nearly 50 years. “Her work inspired me, and I joined just out of college in 1985,” Cooper says. “One of my first projects after completing training was with Harlem teenagers who tutored younger children.”

While earning her M.B.A., Cooper transferred her Junior League membership to Dallas and began volunteering at Bryan’s House, which provides medically managed care and services for children affected by HIV/AIDS and their families. Eventually she was invited to serve on its board as the League representative.
“Each week we prepared a hot meal and played with the kids,” Cooper says. “Their smiles were so heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking. But they loved it when the Junior League ladies visited, and the experience was extremely moving and gratifying.”

Business school taught her much about teamwork. “We had to work together for a project to succeed,” she says. “I saw how one person’s weakness would be another’s strength. Everybody can bring something to the table.”

She calls on her volunteer instincts at work by leading an annual community events week committee, which selects volunteer projects for the company to sponsor. During the week, employees are encouraged to take a day off for volunteering.

One of Cooper’s most meaningful volunteer experiences was a weeklong trip to Sri Lanka in 2005 to assist Habitat for Humanity. On the trip, which was sponsored by her employer, teams helped to build five homes to replace those lost in the 2004 tsunami. Her team worked alongside local masons mixing cement for bricks and building foundations.

She has come to define leadership – both as a volunteer and in the workplace – as understanding that being in charge doesn’t mean you must know or do everything. “It’s okay to rely on others,” Cooper says. “It guides and develops them and keeps you open to new ideas.”

Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Financial Storms And A Capital Opportunity

Jeb Mason ’99 thought his federal government duties might slow down as the George W. Bush presidential administration drew to a close last fall. But as the nation’s financial crisis grew graver, it became clear there would be no downturn for his responsibilities.

Mason served as a policy adviser and deputy assistant secretary for business affairs and public liaison for former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. He says the late-year market crisis definitely made it “a sprint to the finish.” His appointment expired at noon, January 20, 2009, when President Barack Obama took office.

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Jeb Mason

Mason’s final days with the Bush administration focused on the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and the federal government’s effort to stabilize the financial system. Mason managed the Treasury Department’s outreach to business, advocacy and financial communities, requesting information and opinions from many interests and then advising the Secretary and senior officials of these perspectives, and crafting strategies to communicate Administration policies to these groups.

He was central to organizing support for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. He spent 18 months helping to conceive and organize the coalition of mortgage servicers, nonprofit credit counseling agencies and investors called the HOPE Now Alliance, the mission of which is to help at-risk homeowners keep their houses.

After earning a B.A. in public policy and a B.S. in economics from SMU, Mason went to Washington, D.C., to volunteer for the Bush-Cheney transition and never left. He also has worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, which included assignments at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security and a five-month stint in Iraq. He also worked on the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A second White House post was in the Office of Strategic Initiatives – affectionately known internally as “strategery,” he says.

While a student, Mason led the SMU chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas and was an officer of the Political Science Symposium. He also was an officer for his fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, and served in the Student Senate.

He says he used to joke that a “double major was due more to indecision than ambition,” as well as an indulgence of his inquisitive nature. His multipurpose skills, however, have served him well. “Economics provided an analytical framework for considering problems, public policy study provided insight about organizational dynamics and power, and courses in finance obviously came in handy in the recent turmoil,” he says

Washington, D.C., is full of prospects for young go-getters, he says. “There’s always more work than can possibly be done and opportunity to be entrepreneurial for those with adaptable skills. There’s plenty of room to learn, grow and have an impact.”

After a busy eight years in the nation’s capital, Mason’s life is calmer today as he ponders his next career move. He plans to do some independent consulting and catch up with family and friends but hopes to make his way back to Texas soon.

Cherri Gann

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Alumni

Slip Slidin’ Away

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Scott Rochelli ’07 takes a dive while (from top left) Caleb Peveto ’07, Toby Atkins ’06 and Jonathan Childers ’02 fend off incoming fire during an icy game of dodgeball at American Airlines Center. The game was part of the fun at a happy hour attended by 250 young alumni and guests at the Dallas Stars vs. St. Louis Blues hockey matchup Feb. 26.

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Alumni

Honoring A Dynamic Career

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Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering, presented electrical engineer Robert H. Dennard ’54, ’56 with the Academy’s 2009 Charles Stark Draper Prize “for his invention and contributions to the development of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), used universally in computers and other data processing and communication systems.” Dennard, who lives in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, has won numerous awards for his contributions to the field of microelectronics, and he received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993.

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Alumni

Music To Their Ears

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Pietro Rizzo (right), who made his American debut conducting the Dallas Opera’s La bohème, was on campus for a question-and-answer session with Meadows School of the Arts students in February. Afterward, he chatted with students Sebastien Hurtard (left), Artist Certificate in cello, winner of the recent 7th Adam International Cello Festival and Competition in New Zealand; Pamela Hurtado, Artist Certificate in piano; and Leon Eldridge, a junior studying voice. The maestro, who earned a Master of Music in violin performance in 1996 and an Artist Certificate in piano in ’97, lives in Europe with his wife, pianist Michela Fogolin ’97, and their children. After his Dallas engagement, Rizzo conducted the Metropolitan Opera’s Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.

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Alumni

Perkins Recognizes Distinguished Alumnus

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David Maldonado Jr. ’68 spoke to guests after receiving the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus/a Award from the Perkins School of Theology during the school’s annual Ministers Week in February. Maldonado is director of Perkins’ Center for Latino/a Christianity and Religions. Click here for more information.

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Alumni

Mother-Daughter Degrees

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Lindsay (left) and Teresa Venable

Teresa and Lindsay Venable, wore matching outfits on May 16: SMU’s new blue and red robes. Mother and daughter each received bachelor’s degrees from SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at spring commencement. Teresa entered SMU in 1998. “I took one course at a time,” Teresa says. “I delayed my graduation so that Lindsay and I could cross the stage together this spring.” Teresa graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences with a concentration in psychology. She is employed by Oncor. Lindsay graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in women’s studies.

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Alumni

Golden Gate Gathering

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David Cush ’82, ’83 donated a surprise door prize – two tickets on Virgin American airlines, for which he is president and CEO – that were won by Anne Averill ’67 at a San Francisco alumni gathering at the Grand Hyatt hotel. SMU officials and professors traveled across the country this spring to attend other alumni events in Washington, D.C., April 18; St. Louis, May 18; and Denver, May 19. Click here for more information.

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Alumni

Reconfiguring The Network

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Bob Beaudine ’77 (left), CEO of a top sports and entertainment executive search firm and author of The Power of Who, chats with Pete Fleps, a sophomore B.B.A. student and a Mustang linebacker, before presenting the inaugural program for the SMU Christian Men’s Leadership and Speaker Series in February, a joint effort of the Cox School of Business and SMU Athletics. Beaudine shared his philosophy that “you already know everyone you need to know” to achieve your dreams. For more information: www.smucoxalumni.com.

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Alumni

Has It Really Been 20 Years?

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The year was 1988. U2 won its first Grammy Award, the Washington Redskins won a second Super Bowl and (from left) Kent and Karen Bromley, Sally and David Mouton, and Doug and Laura Archer graduated from SMU. They returned to the Hilltop in November for Homecoming and their class party at Trader Vic’s, attended by 187 alumni. More than 1,300 Mustangs, from as far away as Canada, the United Kingdom and Belize, attended reunions. Click here for more information.

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Alumni

Five Years And Counting

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The class of 2003’s Boulevard bash attracted 150 participants, including (from left) Cameron Atkinson, class reunion co-chair Rogers Healy and Hadleigh Henderson. The class recorded the highest giving participation of any previous five-year class. The gift to SMU from all 2008 Reunion classes totaled more than $3.5 million. Click here for more information.

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Alumni

Hilltop On The Hill

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Geoff Werner ’07 and other alumni in Washington, D.C., shared their insights about living and working in the nation’s capital at a mixer for 21 communications and journalism students from Meadows School of the Arts. Among them were seniors (left) Kaci Koviak, a journalism major, and Jamie Corley, a double major in history and corporate communications and public affairs. The students were in Washington to participate in the inauguration of Barack Obama as part of a course on presidential rhetoric. Click here for more information.

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Alumni

Making A Global Impact Through Peace, Harmony And Science

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Hector Guzman

SMU alumni leave their mark on society in myriad ways, from the arts to education to public service. Some leave footprints around the world through the paths they choose to follow.

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Jane Albritton

For Hector Guzman (’83), a native of Mexico, music is the universal language he uses to connect with audiences as he leads and conducts symphonies in Texas and worldwide. For Jane Albritton (’67, ’71), the Peace Corps gave her an outlet to experience the then-exotic nation of India, creating memories to share in the celebration of the organization’s upcoming 50th anniversary.

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Heather DeShon

And geophysicist Heather DeShon (’99) never stopped her intellectual pursuits after graduating from SMU. The assistant research professor has traveled far and wide to study Earth’s movements and potential hot spots for earthquakes. She’s featured in the Ones To Watch profile.

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Alumni

Alumni Distinguish Themselves Through Service And Success

Leaders in the banking industry, a global activist and an inventor received the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Awards, the highest award SMU can bestow upon its former students. Recipients honored at the November DAA celebration are Darrell Lafitte (’54), Malcolm S. Morris (’68), Gary E. Pittman (’53) and Richard Ware (’68). The Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes outstanding alumni who have graduated within the past 15 years, was presented to community activist and minister Richie L. Butler (’93).

Darrell Lafitte

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Darrell Lafitte

Darrell Lafitte pursued a business career with the same focus he displayed as a guard on the Mustang football team. He was named to the Academic All American and All Southwest Conference teams before receiving his B.B.A. degree in 1954.

After graduating, Lafitte began a distinguished career in banking. He was chair of Compass Bank Dallas from 1993-98 and remains on the bank’s board. Previously he was CEO of Cornerstone Bank, which he helped to found. Now semi-retired, he is an investments manager.

Lafitte remains involved with University activities. He is a former Alumni Association president and member of the Board of Trustees. He has been honored with the SMU Letterman’s Silver Mustang Award and the Cox School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award.

Malcolm S. Morris

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Malcolm Morris

Malcolm S. Morris advocates on behalf of clean water initiatives in the developing world. He serves as a board member and former chair of Living Water International, now operating in 27 countries. He founded and chairs the Millennium Water Alliance, consisting of American nonprofit organizations dedicated to bringing potable water and sanitation to 500 million people by 2015. He hosted the Millennium Water Challenge to communicate the importance of water issues in U.S. foreign policy.

Morris is chair and co-CEO of Stewart Information Services Corporation and chair and CEO of Stewart Title Guaranty Company. He received his B.B.A. from SMU in 1968. After completing his first year of law study at SMU, he earned J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gary E. Pittman

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Gary Pittman

Gary E. Pittman co-invented the light-emitting diode (LED) while working at Texas Instruments in the 1960s. The revolutionary technology, used in products ranging from traffic lights to digital clocks, transformed the optical communications business.

After leaving TI, he served as an executive with several major companies. He currently is engaged in research on residential energy reduction and the improved use of medical statistics.

The Galton Institute in London published Pittman’s book on Sir Francis Galton, the developer of modern statistical methods. SMU’s DeGolyer Library now houses his collection of Galton materials.

Pittman, who graduated with honors in 1953 with a B.S. degree in chemistry, received the Lazenby Outstanding Alumnus Award from the SMU Chemistry Department in 2008.

Richard Ware

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Richard Ware

Richard Ware combines his profession with service to his community and alma mater. He follows a family tradition as president of Amarillo National Bank, one of the largest family-owned banks in the country.

Ware received a B.B.A. degree with honors from SMU in 1968 and later earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He served on SMU’s Board of Trustees from 1980-92 and 1994-2008. He was vice chair of the Board and chair of the standing committees on Trusteeship, Student Affairs and Buildings and Grounds. SMU students named him Outstanding Trustee of the Year in 1987, 1995 and 1998.

He also has served on the National Board of Big Brothers of America and the Texas Business Hall of Fame.

Recognizing An Emerging Leader

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Richie Butler

Richie L. Butler is an activist for improved housing and economic development in South Dallas. He helped create Unity Estates, a planned community of 285 single-family homes sponsored by the 70-member African American Pastors’ Coalition in Dallas.

Butler earned B.A. degrees in psychology and religious studies in 1993 from SMU, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow, and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University in 1996. He is a principal, governance committee member and senior vice president for CityView, which finances urban residential developments nationwide.

In addition, he founded Union Cathedral, for which he is senior pastor. The church includes more than a dozen ministries and a nonprofit community development corporation.

Honoring A Few Good Alumni

Nominations for the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award and Emerging Leader Award are being accepted and must be made by Dec. 31, 2008. Recognition is open to SMU alumni who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary service and achievement in a particular discipline, organization or cause.

Any individual may nominate an alumna and/or alumnus for this award. To nominate SMU alumni for DAA or Emerging Leader Award consideration, please complete the nomination form that can be found at smu.edu/daa.

Once nominated, the individual’s name remains in nomination for a total of three consecutive years, including the initial year in which they were nominated. After that time, the individual may be nominated again.

Nominations may be made online or by mailing the completed form to: Southern Methodist University, Attention: Nominations, P.O. Box 750173, Dallas Texas 75275-0173.

For more information, call the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or 1-888-327-3755, e-mail smualum@smu.edu or visit smu.edu/daa.

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Alumni

Making Music With Maestro Guzman

On performance night, Maestro Hector Guzman (’83) arrives early at the symphony hall to take advantage of the solitude before the program begins. As the musicians arrive and begin to warm up, their instrumental cacophony sounds comforting to Guzman’s trained ear, as does the growing hum emanating from arriving audience members.

Soon the stage calls begin and the concertmaster tunes the orchestra. Once he takes the podium and raises his baton for the first downbeat, he knows that, even after nearly 30 years of conducting, only those first notes of the music will chase the butterflies from his stomach. “I’m the first one to experience sounds from the orchestra,” says Guzman, who earned his Master of Music degree in instrumental conducting at SMU.

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Guzman is music director of the Irving, Plano and San Angelo Symphony Orchestras in Texas, as well as the Jalisco Philharmonic in his native Mexico, where he recently won the Mozart Medal, the country’s highest honor for excellence in music.

He also has served as guest conductor of symphonies throughout the world, including the Czech Republic, Italy, Japan and Spain. “Each orchestra has unique characteristics according to the musicians’ abilities, repertoire and even the local culture,” he says. “A first rehearsal reveals what adjustments must be made to accomplish the program.”

Guzman began his musical career on the piano at age 5; as a teen he switched to the organ, preferring the instrument’s fuller sound. But it was after conducting a performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” at Mexico City’s Conservatory of Music at age 17 that he discovered his passion. Conducting provides an opportunity to express his love for the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Mozart, he says. “Music is noble and universal; it touches the heart in a way nothing else can.”

After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of North Texas, Guzman followed former UNT conducting teacher and adviser Anshel Brusilow to SMU, where many of the music faculty also are musicians with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. “All of this helped me develop as a musician,” he says.

Alessio Bax (’96), a pianist on the Meadows School of the Arts faculty who has performed with Guzman, notes his “wonderful ability to consider a soloist’s vision of a piece and to merge it, without compromise, into a musically coherent performance.”

To inculcate younger audiences into the art of listening to classical music, Guzman stages youth concerts and public school performances with age-appropriate programs. For example, a musical program with a magic theme might include “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by the French composer Dukas, made famous in Walt Disney’s animated film “Fantasia,” and current selections from the soundtracks of Harry Potter movies.

One day Guzman says he would like to direct only one orchestra while continuing to serve as guest conductor for major ones. “I’m shooting for the stars.”

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Alumni

Celebrating Golden Peace Corps Memories

During Jane Albritton’s (’67, ’71) first months as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural India, she and another female volunteer repeatedly were asked the same question: “Why don’t your fathers love you”

To the tradition-bound villagers, only uncaring fathers would allow their twenty-something daughters to remain unmarried and travel so far from home. “We came up with an acceptable explanation: Our fathers loved us very much, but they wanted us to do service. We had to fulfill that family obligation before we went home, where our fathers would have suitable husbands waiting for us,” recalls Albritton, whose father was the legendary SMU geology professor, administrator and mentor, Claude C. Albritton.

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When Albritton took a test for the then five-year-old Peace Corps, it was a junior-year lark. But it evolved into the adventure of a lifetime. After graduating with majors in English and history, she left for a two-year posting in Karera, Shivpuri District, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the capital of which is Bhopal. “Our house was right in the middle of the bazaar, so we might wake up with a camel or elephant at our front door,” she remembers. “We did have electricity, but no running water.”

She was supposed to assist villagers with poultry production, but in rural India, that was not considered a suitable task for young women. Instead, Albritton was assigned to an applied nutrition program, which involved activities from – trying to get people to raise kitchen gardens – to distributing milk to kindergarteners.

After two years in India, she returned to SMU to complete a Master’s in English and eventually established Tiger Enterprises, a company that offers writing, editing and related services. In 1995 she moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where she teaches business and magazine writing online through Colorado State University. She is writing a history of presidential pardons titled Pardon Me, Mister President.

Nearly 40 years later, the Peace Corps remains a vital touchstone in her life. “There are almost 200,000 returned Peace Corps volunteers, and everyone has a story to tell,” Albritton says. Peace Corps at 50, a project to collect and publish stories, will mark the golden anniversary of the international service program in 2011. The project is spearheaded by Albritton and a trio of former volunteers, including Dennis Cordell, professor of history and associate dean for general education in Dedman College, who served in the Republic of Chad from 1968-70. A publisher has yet to be named, but 200 stories have been accepted for publication and will be posted online.

Because Peace Corps volunteers have been places “where diplomats will never go,” Albritton says, “we’ve gained a love and appreciation for cultures that sometimes seem unlovable. That’s why the story project is an invaluable resource.”

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Alumni

Studying The Earth’s Movers and Shakers

Without knowing much about the field, Heather DeShon (’99) took what she calls “a leap of faith” to enter SMU as a geophysics major. “Mom always thought I would be a student forever,” she jokes, “but I don”t think I knew that I would stay in academia.”

Now an assistant research professor at The University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), DeShon “works on data that will help us understand how earthquakes actually generate and what’s controlling how large they will be.” CERI stands at the epicenter of collaborative research on the active New Madrid seismic zone. The fault system slices through parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

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“My research generally focuses on subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is pulled underneath another, and I’m starting to concentrate more on New Madrid,” she says.

A President’s Scholar, DeShon found her niche when she took Introduction to Seismology from Eugene Herrin (’51), Shuler-Foscue Professor of Seismology in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College. “I knew I didn’t want to look at rocks, but seismology offered the possibility of field work,” she says.

After graduating from SMU with a double major in geophysics and mathematics, DeShon earned a doctorate in geophysics at the University of California-Santa Cruz in 2004. Field work took her to Central America, where she deployed seismometers in the ocean off the Costa Rican coast and on-shore instrumentation to locate small-magnitude earthquakes as precisely as possible.

“The idea was that small earthquakes occur on the same portion of a fault that would rupture during a major earthquake, which would enable us to locate the boundaries of bigger quakes,” she says. “What we found, however, is that the small earthquakes probably don’t tell us about the entire rupture area, so we use the data collected to figure out what proxies, other than small earthquakes, will provide the information.”

The faults that DeShon studies today have the potential to generate deadly tsunamis like the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster, which killed more than 225,000 people in 11 countries. ”We can’t predict earthquakes in the sense that we can say tomorrow there will be an earthquake here, but we can hope to better understand probabilities,” she says.

DeShon, who joined the CERI faculty in 2007, also relishes international travel and collaboration. “I’ve been to South America and Europe for meetings and short courses, and I recently returned from a month-long project in Germany, where I worked with professors at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel.”

In addition to refining her research, DeShon teaches graduate-level courses and
this fall introduced a Data Analysis in Geophysics class. “I like the research aspect – the problem-solving and the hunting down solutions to important questions.”

Click here to read more about DeShon’s research.

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Alumni

Revitalized Chapter Program Reconnects Alumni

Responding to a need for programs that interest alumni of all ages and help them stay connected to their alma mater, the SMU Alumni Board has revamped the chapter program.

“We’ve always had a chapter system, but based on alumni feedback, we decided to refocus to reach the large SMU community that doesn’t live in Dallas,” says Mindy Rowland, associate director of alumni
programming.

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Bill Vanderstraaten

“Several chapters were fairly successful, mostly due to initiatives by individuals. But we wanted to be more strategic about professional staffing and volunteers for each chapter,” explains Outreach Committee Chairman Bill Vanderstraaten (’82). “Rather than take an ad hoc approach, we felt it was very important to provide more structure so that all chapters are on the same page.”

The Outreach Committee targets areas with large alumni populations and sizeable numbers of students to draw parents as well. “We sent out a survey in January to key chapter cities, asking alumni which events they are interested in, what days are best for activities, if they were interested in volunteering and other general information, and we got a good response,” Rowland says.

A cornerstone of the re-emerging chapter program is an online chapter handbook, which was expanded and improved based on alumni input. “It gives them the framework for developing effective programs to engage alums in different stages of their lives,” Vanderstraaten says.

The “life stages” programming concept means that some activities will be geared for specific groups of alumni. “For example, our surveys indicate that people just out of school are interested in social events revolving around sporting events and networking opportunities, while those married with children appreciate family activities, as well as networking opportunities. And empty-nesters tend to have more cultural interests, like a lecture series,” Vanderstraaten explains. “And everyone shares a common interest in sports. Of course, all chapter events are open to all alumni and parents, regardless of life stage.”

So far, three out-of-town chapters have been organized and leaders are in place: Atlanta, headed by Kimberly Head Amos (’94); Houston, Benjamin Lavine (’98); and the San Francisco Bay Area, Michael McWhorter (’96). The Outreach Committee hopes to have chapters in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City organized by the end of the year.

“The chapter leaders are vital to pulling together chapter teams to plan and execute events that keep alums engaged with and informed about SMU,” Vanderstraaten says.

Alumni support is vital for the achievement of University goals, he says. “We want to increase participation from alumni in all parts of SMU life: volunteering, recruiting prospective students, annual giving and serving as ambassadors for the University in the community in every way.”

Working with the chapters is Lyndsey Hummert Hill (’05), the new assistant director of chapter programs. For more information, e-mail her at Lyndsey@smu.edu or call 214-768-ALUM (214-768-2586).

Alumni Board

Nominations for the 2009 SMU Alumni Board will be accepted through Dec. 31. Alumni may nominate fellow alumni or themselves. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or e-mail smualum@smu.edu.
CHAIR Connie Blass O’Neill (’77)


PAST CHAIR Marcus Malonson (’93)


MEMBERS John Bauer (’66), Robert Cabes Jr. (’91), Stephen Corley (’90), Jennifer Hazelwood Cronin (’94), Regina Davis (’04), Stephanie Mills Dowdall (’81), Andrea Zafer Evans (’88, ’06), Mary Lou Gibbons (’77), Kim Twining Hanrahan (’92), Stewart Henderson (’81), The Hon. Blackie Holmes (’57, ’59), Ruth Irwin Kupchynsky (’80), Doug Linneman (’99), David Lively (’94), Ken Malcolmson (’74), Tamara Marinkovic (’91), Charleen Brown McCulloch (’70), Ryan McMonagle (’00), Jamie McComiskey Moore (’85), Dennis Murphree (’69), Elizabeth Ortiz (’03), Mark Robertson (’85), David Rouse (’95), Scott Rozzell (’71), Lisa Holm Sabin (’78), Maria Sanchez (’06), Jeffrey Thrall (’71), Bill Vanderstraaten (’82), Tracy Ware (’95), Jeff Ziegler (’84)

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Alumni

Giving For The Long Term

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Roy M. Huffington

Roy M. Huffington (’38), who invested his faith and funds in SMU for the long term, died July 11 at the age of 90. Over many years of support for the University, Huffington had given SMU a total of more than $31 million, including a recent gift of more than $10 million to endow the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences. At a memorial service for the SMU community in September, his daughter, Terry Huffington Dittman, revealed the motivation behind her father’s generosity.

“Upon my father’s death, our family received calls and letters from people expressing their condolences and talking about how my father made a difference in their lives. They talked about a lot of his characteristics – that he was kind, gracious, honorable, energetic, charismatic, inspirational, visionary, knowledgeable and brilliant, and that he was a respected geologist and true icon in his industry. And yet most frequently what came out was that he was an incredibly generous man. He gave not for public recognition but because he wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. He gave the three Ws – wealth, wisdom and work. His involvement with SMU is a great example of this core value. He loved this University, and thanks to it, he not only discovered a field of study that became his passion, but his eyes were opened to opportunities that he never would have considered before coming here. His gifts to SMU were the largest he ever gave to a single institution. He had such belief in this institution’s future – what it offers students today and can offer them in the future – that he wanted to give something that said, ’I believe SMU will be around a long time and I want to invest in it for its long term, even when I’m not here.’ ”

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Alumni

Remembering A Popular Mustang

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Paul D. Miller Sr. (’58), who died March 9, 2008, was a popular Mustang Band drum major in 1957 and 1958. The 1958 Rotunda featured the photo at right and wrote, “A personal salute to a great Mustang.”

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Alumni

Photographing The Land Of Enchantment

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The distinctive shapes and colors of New Mexico are captured in this photograph taken by Robert G. “Bob” Mebus (’62, ’65). He was one of 15 students in the popular digital photography class taught by SMU photographer Hillsman Jackson during the 2008 SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute July 17-20. Other courses, focusing on the state’s unique contributions in the arts and sciences, were taught by SMU faculty. Registration for the 2009 weekend, July 23-26, will begin in January.

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Alumni

Class Of 1958 Celebrates 50 Years And Sets Record

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In honor of its 50-year reunion, the class of 1958 set the bar high for gifts from future reunion classes by achieving a record participation rate of 40 percent. At their reunion in May, (from left) co-chairs Gerry York, Gail Griffin Thomas and Linda Harris Gibbons proudly display a poster that shows the class heading toward the record. By May 31, the class had given a total of $454,703. The 50-year celebration included campus tours, a luncheon and special recognition of the class of ’58 at Commencement.

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Alumni

Atlanta Displays Mustang Pride

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Don (left) and Nancy Taylor, parents of senior psychology major Donald Taylor, and Nick Nichols (’75) attended the spring gathering of SMU parents, alumni and friends in Atlanta. Cox School of Business Dean Albert W. Niemi Jr. spoke to the crowd about regional and national economic issues.

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Alumni

Distinguishing Dedman College

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At its annual recognition ceremony in May, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences presented awards to students, faculty and alumni. The 2008 honorees include (from left) English and history major and President’s Scholar Jessica Erwin (’08), named the Robert and Nancy Dedman Outstanding Senior Student; D.D. Frensley Professor of English Dennis Foster, named the Dedman Family Distinguished Professor; Anthropology Professor Caroline Brettell, recognized for her service as Dedman College interim dean, 2006-08; and Distinguished Graduate Dr. Robert Ware Haley (’67), whose research has helped improve hospital care and define the symptoms of Gulf War syndrome. The Haley family includes 21 SMU alumni.

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Alumni

Supporting Education Abroad

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Showing that SMU alumni have global perspectives, (from left) Anne Lambright (’89), Lisa Sapolis (’90) and Milla Riggio (’62) are working in international education at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Lambright, associate professor of language and culture studies, earned a B.A. in Spanish, history and Latin American studies and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Ecuador after graduation. Sapolis, who earned a B.A. in Russian area studies, is director of international programs and works with Lambright on Trinity College’s study abroad program in Santiago, Chile. Riggio, the James J. Goodwin Professor of English,
helped to develop Trinity’s study abroad program in Trinidad.

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Alumni

Dance Graduate Tapped For Rockettes’ Christmas Show

alumCrichton2.jpg<Meadows’s graduate Megan Crichton is touring the country in the Rockettes’ Christmas show.

From an early age, visions of being a Rockette danced in the head of Megan Crichton (’07). “I’ve been dancing since I was 2, and saw their Christmas show when I was very young,” she says. “I decided then that my goal was to be a Rockette.” Now she’s living the dream as she travels the country with the 76th “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”

Crichton, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and now lives in New York City, was cast for the legendary high-kicking, precision dance troupe in July. “The audition process is crazy,” she says. “There are three auditions per year – in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. About 500 dancers audition in each city. It’s a two-day process, and by the end, they keep 12 from each city.” Crichton made the final cut, but not all of the finalists are offered a place in the line; she had to wait almost two months before she officially became a Rockette.

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Crichton and fiancé Garrett Haake, who now works for “NBC Nightly News.”

The dancers started working on their routines for the world-famous holiday extravaganza on September 9. “We’ve been rehearsing eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week since then,” she says. “All that energy you get from the audience during a live performance makes those long, hard days of rehearsal worthwhile.” The touring company hit the road in November for an 18-city tour in 30 trucks and 16 buses. The season will wind down with performances in Austin December 30-31 and close in Houston January 2-4. “My entire family lives in Austin and Houston, so everyone will get to see me.”

Back in New York, she’ll continue to take classes, perform with a small modern dance company and audition. Crichton and fiancé Garrett Haake (’07), an SMU journalism graduate who’s living his dream, too, as an associate producer for “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” will wed May 9 in Perkins Chapel. They’ll return from the honeymoon in time for her to try out for the 2009 Christmas show. “Even if you’ve been cast before, you have to audition again every year.”

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Alumni

Engineering Hall Of Leaders Adds Three

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Electrical engineering alumni (from left) Aart de Geus (’85), Karen Shuford (’70) and Richard Ru-Gin Chang (’85) were inducted into the Engineering Hall of Leaders at a ceremony in March. Shuford is a Dallas philanthropist and consultant who has provided leadership and support to numerous civic organizations and agencies. De Geus is chairman and CEO of Synopsis, a world leader in electronic design automation software for semiconductor design. Chang is president, CEO and executive director of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., the largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry in China.

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Alumni

Hitting A High Note In Santa Fe

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Soprano Laura Claycomb (’90) garnered accolades for her role as Polissena in Handel’s “Radamisto,” staged this summer by the Santa Fe Opera. A regular with the Houston Grand Opera, Claycomb has been based in Europe for the past decade, performing in Paris and Geneva, and at festivals in Salzburg, Spoleto and Stockholm. She will make her debut with the Dallas Opera during the 2010-11 season in one of her favorite roles, Gilda in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.’

Photo by Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera

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Alumni

A Smile That Says It All

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Lee Batson (’05) recently traveled to Makamba, Burundi, as part of a 16-member team from Watermark Community Church in Dallas. The group partnered with African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries to teach a children’s Bible school and build a medical clinic in the mountain village, which is near Lake Tanganyika.

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Alumni

Continuing A Family Tradition

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Lloyd Sartor (’86, ’88) (left), who entered SMU in the first class of President’s Scholars 24 years ago, and his wife, Krissy, attended a pre-graduation reception in May in honor of students who have received SMU’s top merit scholarships. They visited with daughter Courtney (’08), a Dean’s Scholar, and her mentor, Associate Professor of Political Science Joe Kobylka.

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Alumni

The Buck Starts With U.S. Treasurer

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At the invitation of SMU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral (center), whose signature appears on all paper currency printed since 2005, shared her experiences as the first person in her family to graduate from college and now as the highest-ranking Latina in the Bush Administration. At the May event, she visited with (from left) Claudia Arias (’08); Raúl Magdaleno (’06), assistant director of diversity and outreach for Meadows School of the Arts; Edna Ruana (’97); and Esmeralda Castro, a junior with a double major in finance and Spanish.

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Alumni

All In The SMU Family

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Edwin L. Cox (’42) (second from left), SMU benefactor and trustee emeritus, welcomed a third generation to the alumni fold at Commencement May 17. With him are (from left) grandsons John, an SMU sophomore, and new graduate Justin (’08); their father, Berry (’77); and mother, Jeanne Tower Cox (’78), a recent trustee. SMU awarded nearly 2,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in May. December graduation will be held Saturday, December 13, at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.

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Alumni

Branding Good Advertising

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Advertising legend Hal Curtis (’84) critiqued the work of Temerlin Advertising Institute students during a spring campus visit. As part of the ExxonMobil Lecture Series, the Emmy-winning creative director addressed the topic “Brand Heroism: Advertising as a Force for Good.” Curtis, who has directed major campaigns for Nike, Coca-Cola and others, told students that a strong sense of ethics and meaningful advertisements can have a positive cultural impact.

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Alumni

Setting A Humorous Ring Tone

anHart.jpgScreenwriter and producer Jim V. (J.V.) Hart (’69) and student body vice president Bethany Peters (’08) share a lighthearted moment at the annual Ring Ceremony in April. Hart, the second honoree to receive an SMU ring at the annual event, has spent more than three decades in the film industry. He penned “Hook,” “Contact” and other screenplays, and is working on his first animated movie with children’s book illustrator William Joyce (’81).

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Alumni

Honoring The Past, Shaping The Future

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Lauren Graham

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Robert
Edsel

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Barbara Elias-Perciful

Forging hopeful ideas into tangible results takes optimistic determination and selfless generosity, as demonstrated by the alumni highlighted in SMU Magazine.

For Barbara Elias-Perciful (’84), being appointed as a pro bono attorney opened her eyes to the vulnerability of children in the legal system and led to the formation of a statewide advocacy group that is now a national model. For Robert Edsel (’79), an idea while crossing a medieval bridge in Florence, Italy, led to a book and documentary honoring the men and women of World War II for their rescue efforts of Europe’s fine art treasures. For two intensive days, TV and film star Lauren Graham (’92) shared her expertise and insights with SMU theatre students.

And the young alumni featured in “Ones To Watch” – the Rev. Michael Williams Waters (’02, ’06) and his wife, Dedman Law student Yulise Reaves Waters (’02) – convert a passion for social justice into guiding SMU students on civil rights pilgrimages and working tirelessly through their church to empower an impoverished Dallas community.

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Alumni

Bringing Children Into The Light Of Justice

Dallas attorney and child advocate Barbara Elias-Perciful was honored in August by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division as the Distinguished Lawyer recipient of the 2009 Child Advocacy Award for her service on behalf of abused and neglected children. The prestigious award is based on an individual’s personal achievements and impact in helping abused and neglected children.

After nearly a decade as a successful attorney, Barbara Elias-Perciful (’84) discovered “an entire legal universe that I didn’t even know existed.”

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Barbara Elias-Perciful founded Texas Loves Children to assist lawyers, judges and others working with child protection cases.

In 1993 she was appointed by the court to serve as a pro bono attorney in a child protection case. That experience revealed to her a system that is overburdened with cases and starved for resources. In representing Sarah – a 12-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by her father for years – Elias-Perciful found that the county’s budget provided few tools, such as expert medical and psychological consultants for case preparation, to assist attorneys and judges in making a “life-and-death decision” for the child.

A case usually lasts a year, at the end of which the attorney recommends returning a child to his or her home or removing the child permanently.

Sarah’s father’s rights were terminated, and she eventually was reunited with her mother. During the case, however, Elias-Perciful decided that as an attorney she could not remain in her comfortable position working on business litigation with Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. In 1994 she started a solo practice focusing on child protection issues.

A year later, Elias-Perciful founded a nonprofit organization, Texas Loves Children Inc. (TLC). With co-sponsors such as the Dallas County Family and Juvenile Courts, TLC offers seminars by recognized experts on critical legal, medical and mental health issues for judges, attorneys and others working with cases involving child abuse and neglect.

Even with training, attorneys and judges, especially in smaller Texas counties, often are stymied by a lack of research tools, she says. In May 2004 TLC’s scope expanded with the launch of Texas Lawyers for Children, a statewide collaborative effort offering free online access to crucial materials for attorneys and judges, as well as e-mail networks and a pro bono network that lists attorneys willing to provide free assistance.

“TLC’s resources have helped legal professionals across the state, impacting the lives of thousands of children,” says Elias-Perciful.

Texas Loves Children is wholly supported by private donations and grants. Volunteers also play a role in TLC’s work.
SMU law students, for example, have helped by conducting initial research for review by TLC’s experienced attorneys, she says. Elias-Perciful teamed up with Fred Moss, associate professor in Dedman School of Law and her mock trial
coach in law school, to establish an externship program, which enables students to earn law school credits for their work with TLC.

TLC has created an online center for the state of California, and 31 other states have expressed interest in learning more about using TLC as a model.

In addition, TLC has launched Improving Outcomes campaign to promote the sharing of best-practice information with the goal of improving the quality of case outcomes for abused and neglected children. Improving Outcomes provides judges, attorneys and other child welfare professionals with expertise in legal, medical and mental health aspects of child abuse cases through a three-tiered child abuse court resource network.

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Rescuing da Vinci For Future Generations

While soldiers fighting Nazi aggression in World War II sought to protect the values of their homelands, others worked secretly to preserve the valued symbols of their countries. They located and saved tens of thousands of art treasures from Nazi looting.

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Robert Edsel

“Everyone loves a great story, and what these brave men and women did constitutes one of the greatest collections of stories ever assembled,” says Robert M. Edsel (’79). He tells those stories in Rescuing da Vinci. The 2006 book recounts the activities of the U.S. War Department’s section on Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives – about 350 men and women, curators, historians and other experts from 12 nations who saved Europe’s artistic past. They were called, in the vernacular of the day, “Monuments Men.”

“This was the first time an army attempted to fight a war even as it tried to mitigate damage to cultural monuments and other treasures – the first time a nation said, ‘To the victors do not belong the spoils,’” Edsel says.

Edsel also co-produced “The Rape of Europa,” a documentary based on Lynn Nicholas’ 1994 book about Hitler’s systematic pillaging of European art. The film was praised by Variety as “a mesmerizing morality play” and in 2008 was nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.

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In addition, Edsel established the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art to honor “the legacy of [their] unprecedented and heroic work” and raise public awareness “of the importance of protecting civilization’s most important artistic and cultural treasures from armed conflict.” In 2007, the Foundation received a National Humanities Medal, presented in a White House ceremony by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush (’68) to Edsel and four of the 12 living Monuments Men.

At SMU Edsel was a general business major and nationally ranked tennis player. As a pioneer of horizontal-drilling techniques, he achieved success in the Dallas oil and gas industry that allowed him to sell his business and move to Italy in 1996. (He has since returned to Dallas.) While in Florence he read The Rape of Europa and realized, “I was embarrassed to think of the number of times I had visited the great museums, toured the great cathedrals, and never once wondered how all this survived the most destructive conflict in history,” he says.

The more that people understand about the Monuments Men, Edsel says, “the better our chance to preserve our civilization for future generations. Learn from history – the Monuments Men got it right, and we as a nation got it right.”

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Alumni

Lauren Graham: Acting Is Being The Real You

Actress Lauren Graham talks with students at Meadows School of the Arts. Photo by Kim Leeson/Courtesy of Meadows School of the Arts.
Actress Lauren Graham talks with students at Meadows School of the Arts. Photo by Kim Leeson/Courtesy of Meadows School of the Arts.

As Lorelai Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls” for seven years, actress Lauren Graham ’92 typically worked 14-hour days. “To do anything else feels like I’m on vacation,“ says the M.F.A. theatre graduate.
So she was unfazed during two days of training SMU theatre students in February. Hustling back and forth from one conference to the next workshop held at Meadows School of the Arts, she barely took time to sip from a bottle of water.
Theatre Chair Cecil O’Neal says that Graham has been generous with her time, energy and expertise during visits to SMU. “It is absolutely wonderful for our students to have an opportunity to learn from someone as knowledgeable, experienced and successful as Lauren.“
While on campus, Graham observed that the student experience has changed somewhat since she attended SMU. “They’re so much more exposed to the business of the business than we were,” she says. “My class wanted to be theatre professionals, mainly. We were kind of biased about what it meant to be an actor in film and television. I don’t think students have that bias so much now. They’re more interested in working in a world where they can make a living. They seem really enthusiastic and very smart.”
Although trained for the stage at SMU, Graham’s experience in film and television comes into play when passing along insights about the business to students. M.F.A. candidate Lydia Mackay found the workshop beneficial and supportive. “She reminded us that to be ourselves, and to be confident in who we are and the choices we make in our art, is vital not only to our success but to our integrity,” Mackay says. “Theatre students worry about being right or wrong, but Lauren really encouraged the belief that there is no right or wrong, there is only you. And people want to see the real you.”
Graham realized she wanted to be an actor at an early age. Growing up in Virginia near Washington, D.C., she participated in the renowned Arena Stage program for children and young adults. When she graduated from Barnard College, however, it was with an English degree. “I’m from a pretty academic family, and when I called home talking about my acting studies, I was hearing, ‘You’re rolling around on the floor? That’s a class?’ ”
Going to school in Manhattan exposed Graham to plenty of theatre and acting classes, and she was hoping for a career as a performer. “Then I got out of school and I was working retail during the day and cocktail waitressing at night, six days a week,” she says. “I was in the city, but I had no access to the business.”
After a long run of “Gilmore Girls” and Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for best actress, Graham is concentrating on movie roles; her next feature, “Flash of Genius,” is set to debut in June. But she hopes to play a different role in her next TV show. “I’d really like to be an executive producer,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about how a show succeeds and the kind of world I like to create and be part of.”

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Ones To Watch: Bridging The Past And Future Of Civil Rights

In March 1965 in Selma, Alabama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders preached at Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and launched marches across the nearby Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery. Such actions caught the world’s attention and helped to inspire passage of the Voting Rights Act later that summer.

Forty-one years later from the same pulpit, the Rev. Michael Williams Waters (’02, ’06) delivered a sermon, “One More Bridge to Cross,” to SMU students, faculty and staff during the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, a spring break trip to historic sites in the South.

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Michael and Yulise Waters with their son, Michael Jeremiah, 1, at Greater Garth Chapel A.M.E. Church in Dallas.

During that moment in 2006, Waters said, “Although we have made many strides out of bondage – like the children of Israel who crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt – we still haven’t reached the Promised Land. Poverty, homelessness, limited access to health care, school zones like war zones – these are all signs we have one more bridge to cross to achieve change.”

Since delivering the sermon, Waters and his wife, Dedman School of Law student Yulise Reaves Waters (’02), have worked together to help others cross this bridge to social change, including at Greater Garth Chapel A.M.E. Church in Dallas, where they have served as senior pastor and first lady since November 2006. Michael Waters previously was senior pastor at Tyree Chapel A.M.E. Church in Blooming Grove, Texas, and at Greater Allen Temple A.M.E. Church in Grand Prairie, Texas.

“Greater Garth is in the heart of an impoverished area that suffers from crime, addictions, HIV/AIDS and failing schools,” says Michael, a fifth-generation ordained minister and native Texan. “Our prayer is that we can restore hope and empower this community to bring about needed change.”

Waters and his wife, who met as first-year students in SMU’s Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir, have led the congregation in developing new programs such as tutoring for youths, young adult and senior groups, and a partnership with Child Protective Services to help young parents resolve issues, along with the church’s ministry to feed and clothe the homeless. They have seen membership grow from fewer than 140 to nearly 200 in the past year and say their congregants are increasingly drawn to service, in addition to worship and Bible study.

“We’re creating new opportunities for ministry and fellowship,” Waters says. “We want to serve as a lighthouse to the community beyond these walls and show a better way.”

The pastor holds a dual appointment in the African Methodist Episcopal Church
as dean of chapel at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, where he also teaches as adjunct professor in the Department of Religion.

“I have the unique opportunity to address the entire campus in weekly chapel services, and in my teaching I hope to uplift students to address the challenges facing our world,” says Waters, who earned his Master of Divinity with certificates in African American Church Studies and Urban Ministry at Perkins. A recipient of the Prothro Promise for Ministry Scholarship, Waters was the first student elected to two consecutive terms as Perkins student body president.

“Although we have made many strides out of bondage – like the children of Israel who crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt – we still haven’t reached the Promised Land. Poverty, homelessness, limited access to health care, school zones like war zones – these are all signs we have one more bridge to cross to achieve change.”
– The Rev. Michael Williams Waters (’02, ’06)

As an undergraduate, Waters, whose parents also attended SMU, earned degrees in political science and religious studies with a minor in history. He served as student body vice president and Student Senate chair, and among his honors was SMU’s highest, the “M” Award, for service to the University.

In addition to her work at Greater Garth, where she coordinates the Sisterhood
Ministry and sings in several choirs, Yulise Reaves Waters is in her third term as president of the North Texas Annual Conference Clergy Spouses. Along with her husband, she has served on the SMU Alumni Board and held leadership roles in the African American Alumni Associates. A Dallas native, she earned her Juris Doctor from SMU in May and plans to pursue a career in family law. She has worked as a clerk for Dallas attorney Gay G. Cox (’78) and is a member of the family law organization Annette Stewart Inn of Court.

“Family is the core of society, and I feel called to help create a framework there so problems can be solved,” says Yulise, who earned degrees in business administration, Spanish and English. She received an upper-class President’s Scholarship and SMU’s Outstanding Senior Woman Award.

Yulise also acted as chaperone during the three Civil Rights Pilgrimages that her husband directed from 2005 to 2007. Michael Waters created the program while a student at Perkins School of Theology and working as chaplain’s assistant in SMU’s Office of the Chaplain during 2004, the 40th anniversary of Freedom Summer. “This history was fading for my generation, which takes for granted the right to eat at any restaurant, sit in an integrated classroom and walk into a voting booth,” he says.

Associate History Professor Glenn Linden teamed up with Waters to develop a
curriculum to accompany the pilgrimage, now offered as a joint history-political science course, “Civil Rights: Our Unfinished Revolution.” The trip makes classroom lessons real for students, Waters says, by introducing them to people and places that played an important role during the civil rights movement. “We reconnect with the past so it can inform our future.”

Waters adds that the experience became even more meaningful for him with the birth of his son, Michael Jeremiah, in 2006. “Each generation has its own bridge to cross, on the shoulders of those who came before.”

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Focus On The Alumni Board: Out Of Town, But Never Out of Touch

Although she lives 1,700 miles away from Dallas in San Francisco, Andrea Zafer Evans (’88, ’06) stays connected to SMU through friends, serving on the Alumni Board and chairing its Travel and Education Committee.

Evans, who holds a B.B.A. from Cox School of Business, is the founder of Philanthropy Consulting Group, a firm serving nonprofit, grant-making and intermediary organizations. Like many long-distance alumni, she finds that an active alumni chapter and regular communications from SMU help bridge the miles
to campus.

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Andrea Zafer Evans

“Katie Horgan (’06) heads up the Bay Area alumni group and does a great job of gathering local Ponies,” she says. “I also read my SMU Magazine, SMU Research and Cox Today cover to cover.”

From 2004-06, Evans returned to SMU during the summers to complete her Master of Liberal Arts degree. Alumni Board meetings also draw her back to Dallas.

“I obtained a great education and made lifelong friends at SMU,” Evans says. “Twenty years later, it’s my pleasure to serve alumni by finding ways for them to reconnect with SMU.”

The Travel and Education Committee creates opportunities for alumni to continue learning from SMU’s vast resources, both on campus and off. Education events on campus have included a private tour of the Meadows Museum and a panel discussion
on primary election politics with associate professors of political science Dennis Simon and J. Matthew Wilson.

“Off campus, the SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute provides alumni with educational opportunities on diverse subjects,” she says. “In the future, we hope to bring SMU to alumni in cities throughout the country by offering one-day courses with our professors who are nationally recognized authorities in their fields.”

Also serving on the Travel and Education Committee are David Lively (’93), Charleen McCulloch (’70), Dennis Murphree (’69), Maria Sanchez (’06) and Tom Yenne (’74).

Other new Alumni Board committee chairs are Ken Malcomson (’74), Campus Outreach; Bill Vanderstraaten (’82), Regional Outreach; and Stewart Henderson (’81), Networking.

“Through our four committees, we are excited to be able to plan and present programs that will give alumni the opportunity to stay connected or re-engage with SMU in various ways,” says 2007-09 Alumni Board Chair Connie Blass O’Neill (’77).

For more information on the SMU Alumni Board and how to become a member, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or smualum@smu.edu.

Alumni Board

Nominations for the 2009 SMU Alumni Board will be accepted through Dec. 31. Alumni may nominate fellow alumni or themselves. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or e-mail smualum@smu.edu.
CHAIR Connie Blass O’Neill (’77)


PAST CHAIR Marcus Malonson (’93)


MEMBERS John Bauer (’66), Robert Cabes Jr. (’91), Stephen Corley (’90), Jennifer Hazelwood Cronin (’94), Regina Davis (’04), Stephanie Mills Dowdall (’81), Andrea Zafer Evans (’88, ’06), Mary Lou Gibbons (’77), Kim Twining Hanrahan (’92), Stewart Henderson (’81), The Hon. Blackie Holmes (’57, ’59), Ruth Irwin Kupchynsky (’80), Doug Linneman (’99), David Lively (’94), Ken Malcolmson (’74), Tamara Marinkovic (’91), Charleen Brown McCulloch (’70), Ryan McMonagle (’00), Jamie McComiskey Moore (’85), Dennis Murphree (’69), Elizabeth Ortiz (’03), Mark Robertson (’85), David Rouse (’95), Scott Rozzell (’71), Lisa Holm Sabin (’78), Maria Sanchez (’06), Jeffrey Thrall (’71), Bill Vanderstraaten (’82), Tracy Ware (’95), Jeff Ziegler (’84)

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Honoring Distinguished Alumni

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SMU recognized five alumni for their outstanding achievements at the Distinguished Alumni Award ceremony November 8. Recipients are (from left) Richard Herrscher (’58), the Hon. Antonio “Tony” Garza (’83), James Gardner (’55) and Linda Pitts Custard (’60, ’99). Emerging Leader Award recipient is Nathan Allen (’00). The DAA is the highest honor SMU can bestow upon its alumni. The Emerging Leader Award recognizes outstanding alumni who have graduated within the past 15 years. The 2008 DAA ceremony will be held Nov. 6. Nominations for 2009 DAA recipients are open through Dec. 31, 2008. For more information, call 214-768-2586 or e-mail smualum@smu.edu.

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Alumni

Keeping The SMU Spirit Alive In Houston

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Jerry Levias (’69), center, visited with Nathaniel and Sylvia Broussard, parents of Ne’Andre’ F. Broussard, a first-year student at SMU, at a gathering of Houston-area alumni, parents and friends before the kickoff of the SMU vs. University of Houston game in November. President R. Gerald Turner and Director of Athletics Steve Orsini spoke to alumni at the event.

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Capturing Katrina

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Nationally renowned artist David Bates (’75, ’78) has produced a new series of paintings titled “David Bates: The Storm,” recently exhibited at Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas. “The Storm” recaptures the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans through oil paintings, watercolors and charcoal works on paper.

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Alumni

Retrospective Exhibit In Houston Honors Artist

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Internationally renowned artist John Alexander (’70) calls the first major retrospective of his work “a triumph that was 30 years in the making.” Alexander, in his New York studio, finishes “Ship of Fools” (2007), one of 61 oil paintings in the exhibit. On view through June 22 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the exhibit opened at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The installation, which also includes 36 works on paper, documents Alexander’s career from the late 1970s through 2007.

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Alumni

Augmenting The SMU Archives

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SMU archivist Joan Gosnell (left) accepted Mustang memorabilia for the SMU Archives from Elise Johnson Chapline (’83) and Robert Chapline (’82). The couple presented items from the 1982 SMU vs. Arkansas football game – photos of the pre-game bonfire and a sign from the game. The game ended in a 17-17 tie, and SMU become the only undefeated Division I football team that year.

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Alumni

Good To See You!

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The class of 1992 gathered for a 15-year reunion at a favorite SMU haunt from the past, the newly refurbished Trader Vic’s. Among those catching up during Homecoming & Reunion Weekend in November were (from left) Reed Smith (’92), Maura Maxfield-Smith (’93), Mary Terry-Benton (’93) and Chip Benton (’92). Alumni from the classes of ’62, ’67, ’72, ’77, ’82, ’87, ’97 and ’02 also returned to the Hilltop for reunions, drawing a total of 1,466 alumni, spouses and guests. The class with the highest attendance was 1987, with 231 alumni enjoying a party at the W Dallas-Victory hotel. After Texas, the three states achieving top attendance were California, 45; Colorado, 37; and Illinois, 33. Makes plans now to attend Homecoming & Reunion Weekend November 7-8, 2008.

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Alumni Link To A Good Cause

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Friends and fraternity brothers from across the country gathered during Homecoming weekend in November for the first Kutter Memorial Golf Tournament at Canyon Creek Country Club in Richardson. Among the 53 golfers were (from left) Jason Greer (’91), Neal Faulkner (’91), Greg Clift (’91) and Scott Jesmer (’91). Honoring Chris Kutter (’94), who died last year of metastatic melanoma, the event raised more than $15,000 for a college fund for his two young daughters, as well as $5,000 for a Melanoma Research Foundation grant. A 2008 tournament has been scheduled tentatively for Homecoming weekend.

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Alumni

Mustangs Assemble In The Big Apple

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New York City alumni, parents and friends gathered at the Yale Club March 6 for an SMU update from Associate Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs Mark Petersen and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori S. White. Catching up on the latest news are (from left) Garrett Haake (’07), Elisha Hoffman (’06), Mary Spies, Vijay Mehra (’05), Molly Phillips (’07) and Jennifer Kesterson (’06).

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Alumni

Stanley Marcus: Reflection Of A Man

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Legendary retailer and gifted amateur photographer Stanley Marcus was remembered by his granddaughter, professional photographer Allison V. Smith (’93) (center) and her mother, Jerrie Marcus Smith (right), both of Dallas, in an interview with CBS reporter Rita Braver. “The Sunday Morning” segment was taped in SMU’s DeGolyer Library, which houses the Stanley Marcus Collection, an extensive archive of memorabilia and printed materials by and about the international tastemaker, who died in 2002. Ms. Smith and her mother, Marcus’ oldest child, recently published Reflection of a Man: The Photographs of Stanley Marcus, a book featuring 192 images of his images taken from 1936 to 1971.

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Alumni

New Media Revolution

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Drawing from its connections in the media and entertainment industries, Meadows School of the Arts hosted a conference, “Revolutions per Minute: Emerging and Converging Media Technologies,” in November. Cyndi McClellan (’94), senior vice president of research and program strategy at E! Entertainment, moderated a panel discussion featuring (from left) Tom Kalahar, president and CEO of Camelot Communications; Drew Buckley (’93), general manager/vice president of Y! Originals for Yahoo! Entertainment; and Brian Jones, senior vice president and regional manager, Nexstar Broadcasting Group.

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Alumni

Climbing The Charts

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Singer-songwriter Jack Ingram (’93) is on a winning streak. His 2006 platinum-ranked album, “Live: Wherever You Are,” launched two Billboard Top 40 country singles. One of them, “Wherever You Are,” peaked at No. 1. The 2007 release “This Is It,” his first studio album in six years, reached No. 4 on the country charts. Recently he has appeared with Toby Keith, Sheryl Crow and Martina McBride. Ingram got his start writing songs and performing in local bars while studying psychology in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. “Music and psychology come from the same place,” he says. “It’s about studying why people tick.”

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Alumni

Following Their Passions, Three Now Serve As Industry Leaders

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Angela Braly

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Stacia Deshishku

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Melissa Reiff

Success stories often include a pivotal moment that leads to a life’s calling. That is certainly true for three women who followed their passions after graduating from SMU to become leaders in retail, broadcast journalism and the health care industry. For Melissa Meyer Reiff (’77), president of The Container Store, the turning point was a business offer that deviated from her plans to attend law school. For Stacia Philips Deshishku (’90), director of coverage for CNN North America, it was an aptitude test at SMU. And for Angela Braly (’85, J.D.), president and CEO of WellPoint Inc., that moment was the first day of Law School orientation, when she learned a surprising statistic that made her determined to challenge the odds. Young alumni featured in "Ones to Watch" also achieved success by committing to their passions: opera singer Valerie Vinzant (’06) and tutors Benjamin (’03) and Christopher (’04) Bhatti and Carl Dorvil (’05).

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Alumni

An Organized Mind Never Goes To Waste

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Melissa Meyer Reiff

Politics of the 1970s – Watergate, Richard Nixon’s pardon, Jimmy Carter’s election – fascinated Melissa Meyer Reiff (’77), spurring an interest in law school. After graduating with a B.A. in political science from SMU, however, she took a different career course through a job that eventually led to her position as president of The Container Store.

Reiff spent her first two years after graduation soaking up business advice from some of the biggest names at the time in sales, motivation and positive mental attitude – W. Clement Stone, Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar – while traveling nationwide to set up seminars sponsored by Stone and his magazine, Success Unlimited.

While in daily contact with these mentors, Reiff says she gleaned valuable lessons about business, accounting, sales and organization, as well as nuggets of wisdom such as "execute with excellence" and "a goal without a plan is a wish."

She draws on those early lessons in leading The Container Store, managing sales performance and day-to-day operations of the retail chain that produced revenues of $550 million in 2006. The privately held Coppell, Texas, company has created a niche with 40 stores across the nation that sell storage and organizational products. Sales have increased on average 20 percent every year since 1978.

Reiff, who joined The Container Store in 1995, credits the company’s unique culture for its success. "Our style of managing is the opposite of laissez-faire – a very hands-on approach. We try every day to practice consistent, reliable, effective, thoughtful, compassionate and courteous communication" to make employees feel valued and part of the team, she says.

At the Container Store, full-time sales staff members make twice as much as other retail workers and spend more than 241 hours in training during their first year, she says. "I’m most proud of our low employee turnover rate – less than 10 percent – compared to the retail industry turnover average of more than 100 percent." For the past eight years, Fortune magazine has listed The Container Store among its "100 Best Companies to Work For."

After her years with W. Clement Stone, Reiff joined LaPapillion Inc., a national manufacturer representative firm, eventually becoming principal and national sales manager and helping to achieve $14 million in sales. In 1989 she joined Crabtree & Evelyn, a skin and beauty products retailer, as national sales manager before being named vice president of marketing and sales for The Container Store. She became president in 2006 and continues in that role after the company’s recent sale to Leonard Green Partners.

Reiff relies on her years at SMU when marketing The Container Store products to space-starved college students. "You have to be reasonably well organized in your dorm room. Think of every inch of wasted space – behind doors and under beds," she says. "College is the best training ground to learn organizational skills."

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Alumni

Covering North America With CNN

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Stacia Deshishku

Stacia Philips Deshishku (’90) achieved her high profile career in broadcast journalism thanks to a minor meltdown her first year at SMU. The political science major, at first aiming to become the first female president, called her mother after the first semester and said, "I’m not really meant for college." With her mother’s encouragement, she signed up at SMU’s Counseling and Testing Center to take a series of aptitude tests, which pointed her toward journalism.

Deshishku, who earned degrees in broadcast journalism and religious studies, credits a writing class with then-senior lecturer Kathy LaTour (’74, ’83) for "sparking in me a passion for journalism. She taught us truth and ethics and to be a communi-
cations purist, to say what you mean and mean what you say."

Today her passion continues as director of coverage for CNN North America, headquartered in Atlanta. Deshishku is the hands-on editorial leader for CNN’s domestic network, overseeing the national assignment desk. She works with show producers to help them determine the best direction and content for their programs. In addition, she manages 40 national assignment editors, as well as the relationship between CNN and its 800-plus affiliates.

For Deshishku, her challenge is to create a venue to "tell the stories of those less fortunate, to uncover the wrong and lift up those doing good," she says.

That dedication won CNN and Deshishku a Peabody Award for their reporting on Hurricane Katrina. She helped direct coverage as the site coordinator, managing all the network’s coverage August to December 2005 from New Orleans.

Deshishku first made contacts for her career by serving an internship with CBS’ "60 Minutes" while participating in SMU’s semester in Washington, D.C., at American University. After graduation she parlayed that into a job as a production secretary for "60 Minutes," then joined CNN in 1992 as assignment editor and pool coordinator for the Washington Bureau, and later as assignment manager for the Dallas Bureau. She since has produced coverage of numerous major stories – including the 1992 Presidential Inauguration, Million Man March, visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States, the Oklahoma City bombing trials and the 1996 Republican and Democratic Conventions.

During a chance visit to Macedonia in 1999, Deshishku met her future husband, Xeni, a refugee from Kosovo working for CNN as an interpreter. She had moved to Prishtina, Kosovo, where the United Nations Mission asked her to join the Office of the Spokesperson as a public information officer. She later became chief of television there, producing local programs as well as documentaries for CNN’s World Report.

When Deshishku returned to the United States, CNN offered her a position in Dallas. "I wouldn’t want to be a television journalist at any other organization because CNN is unparalleled in its international coverage and commitment to telling the stories of those who cannot do it themselves."

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Alumni

Reaching Beyond The High Notes

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Valerie Vinzant in Chabrier’s “L’Etoile”

Opera fans know they are in for a treat if a program contains arias from Massenet’s "Manon," Handel’s "Giulio Cesare" and Donizetti’s "Linda di Chamounix." And that is what soprano Valerie Vinzant (’06) delivered last spring when she sang these selections before renowned judges and a packed house at the Dallas Opera Guild Competition.

Vinzant, who won first place, also claimed first at the district level and third at the regional level at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions earlier this year.

Since earning her Bachelor’s of music in voice at SMU, Vinzant is honing her craft and working toward a Master’s from Indiana University in Bloomington. Studying under noted soprano Carol Vaness, Vinzant takes music lessons, language study, history classes and vocal pedagogy. She is part of a 17th-century music group that rehearses three times a week. And when she is cast in an opera production, add evening rehearsals to the slate.

A native of Spring, Texas, Vinzant describes her high coloratura voice as best suited for younger characters, usually comedic roles. At Indiana last year she played a fairy godmother in the comedy "Too Many Sopranos."

Originally a musical theater student at New York University, Vinzant returned closer to home to focus on voice study, inspired by meeting celebrated soprano and SMU alumna Laura Claycomb (’90). Vinzant received a scholarship from Meadows School of the Arts, where she found a rich opera program and worked with graduate students and voice coach Hank Hammett.

"Coaching helps refine acting and language and your total performance," Vinzant says. "Not every school has this, and I feel it set me apart."

While at SMU, she was cast as a lead soprano in "Three Penny Opera." Voice professor Virginia Dupuy says that in Vinzant’s junior year, "she began to show a special professionalism, vocal beauty and mastery of vocal technique. She wasn’t distracted by criticism, competition, jealousy or peer pressure. We encouraged her to take auditions."

Her instructors’ high expectations helped foster discipline for less glamorous but crucial career preparations, Vinzant says. "I picked up from the SMU opera director that I needed to set goals for myself," such as a solid foundation in at least four languages.

In the realm of opera singers, Vinzant describes herself as a "tiny child" and says her voice will not be ready for more mature, dramatic pieces until she’s at least 30. "I have my eye on the heroine roles in "La Traviata" or "Lucia di Lammermoor," which I’ll be ready for in about 10 years. Meanwhile, I’m open to whatever is dealt to me."

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Alumni

Applying Group Effort To Group Excellence

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Benjamin and Christopher Bhatti and Carl Dorvil

Growing up as first-generation Americans in Garland, Texas, the Bhatti and Dorvil siblings helped each other navigate school – studying and playing together and watching out for one another after class.

They continued the mentoring while at SMU, where the Bhattis – Vincent (’99), Benjamin (’03) and Christopher (’04) – and Carl Dorvil (’05) earned multiple degrees, and where Rachelle Dorvil is a senior.

"Each of us helped the next be his or her best at school and work," says Carl, a triple major in psychology, economics and public policy. "And then each had a responsibility to ‘pay it forward’ – to teach someone else how to study and schedule classes to balance campus activities and jobs."

Carl, now a student in the Professional M.B.A. program in Cox School of Business, and Benjamin, a Dedman Law student, also have applied that model to their work in North Texas. In 2004 they founded Group Excellence, which hires tutors – mainly SMU students – to teach math at economically disadvantaged public schools.

Funded through Texas Instruments Foun­dation, United Way and Advanced Place­ment Strategies, Group Excellence has expanded to eight middle and high schools, serving more than 1,500 Dallas-area students. During the 2006-07 school year, nearly 200 SMU students, recruited through the Hegi Family Career Development Center, worked as tutors.

"We’re bridging the gap between worlds with resources and worlds without," Benjamin says. He first became aware of that gap while serving with Teach for America in urban Atlanta after earning his Bachelor’s in psychology, with minors in philosophy and cultural anthropology.

Group Excellence trains tutors to be mentors, or "life coaches," teaching its "Smart Sports" math curriculum several hours each week after school. Students being tutored are divided into small teams according to needs and work on individualized "playbooks" to earn points and prizes.

The coaches aim to make learning fun, Benjamin says, but they also enforce rules, such as listening and behaving, cleaning up and helping each other learn. In the process, they have helped students raise their scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, not only in math, but also in reading and science. Tutored students at one middle school last year went from a 13 percent to a 65.2 percent pass rate, while passing rates of other students in their area declined by nearly 1 percentage point. "It works be­cause of the mentoring," Benjamin says. "Kids look up to the college students."

While Benjamin and Carl focus on expanding Group Excellence, Christopher Bhatti, also a Cox PMBA student and science teacher at The Hockaday School, has been adapting their model for high school students to serve as tutors in lower grades. He helped launch Science in the Community last year, sending 36 Hockaday juniors and seniors to tutor science at a Dallas elementary school.

"The high school girls get the chance to take a leadership role in science, and the middle schoolers are so eager to learn from them," says Christopher, who earned degrees in psychology and chemistry. This past summer he was awarded a Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility internship to build the program.

The three graduates say they learned the value of education from their parents, who made enormous sacrifices as immigrants – the Bhattis from a small village in India, the Dorvils from war-torn Haiti. And they recognized the influence of mentors while working as tutors at SMU’s Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center and as teacher assistants in the Psychology Department.

"SMU has given us the education and skills to go out in the community," says Christopher. "Now we’re helping to change kids’ and tutors’ lives – and the culture of the city."

Learn more at www.groupexcellence.org.

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Alumni

SMU Honors Distinguished Alumni

Four alumni have received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest award SMU can bestow upon its alumni. Recipients are Linda Pitts Custard (’60, ’99), James B. Gardner (’55), The Honorable Antonio O. "Tony" Garza Jr. (’83) and Rick Herrscher (’58). The Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes outstanding alumni who have graduated within the past 15 years, was presented to Nathan Allen (’00). They were honored at the DAA celebration in November.

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Linda Custard

Linda Pitts Custard, an active volunteer in Dallas, sustained her demanding civic activities while earning an M.B.A. degree in 1999 from Cox School of Business. She previously attended SMU with the class of 1960 before graduating from Mills College.

Among her activities, Custard chaired the opening events for the Meadows Museum and the Greer Garson Theatre. She is a director of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and chairs its President’s Advisory Board. Her support of SMU includes an endowment for President’s Scholarships.

Custard is a trustee of SMU and the Hoblitzelle Foundation and secretary of Communities Foundation of Texas, among others. Recent honors include the Cox School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award, Maura Award for Women Helping Women and TACA/Neiman Marcus Silver Cup Award.

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James Gardner

James B. Gardner, an investment adviser to financial institutions, co-founded and serves as chair of Commerce Street Holdings, LLC. He previously served as senior managing director of Samco Capital Markets Inc., after a 40-year career in banking. He is an organizer and member of the Independent Bankers Capital Fund, LP, investment committee and past president of the Dallas Bankers Association.

Gardner earned his B.B.A. in finance from Cox School of Business in 1955. He has served SMU as a member of the Executive Board of Perkins School of Theology and convener of the Dean’s Roundtable at Perkins.

Gardner’s community service includes chair of the Japan-Texas Conference and the International Committee of the North Texas Commission, board member of the Dallas Opera and director of United Way of Greater Dallas. The Salvation Army awarded him the Order of Distinguished Service.

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Tony Garza

The Hon. Antonio O. "Tony" Garza Jr. has served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico since 2002. His previous service as chair of the Texas Railroad Commission made him the first Hispanic Republican elected (1998) to statewide office in Texas.

Garza earned a B.B.A. from UT-Austin in 1980 and a J.D. degree from SMU School of Law in 1983. Elected Cameron County Judge in 1988, he was the first Republican elected to countywide office in traditionally Democratic South Texas. Garza was appointed in 1994 by then-governor-elect George W. Bush as Texas’ secretary of state and a senior adviser. He also was a partner in the law firm of Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P.

Garza, who delivered SMU’s commencement address in 2004, has been honored with the Outstanding Young Texas Exes Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Dedman School of Law, which he serves as a member of its Executive Board. Hispanic Business magazine has twice named him one of its Top 100 Influential Hispanics and one of the 25 Most Powerful Hispanics in the United States.

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Rick Herrscher

Rick Herrscher, who earned a B.A. degree in 1958 through the pre-medical studies program, was a member of the varsity baseball and basketball teams. He played in the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in 1956 and was Southwest Conference Player of the Year in 1958.

After SMU, he played professional baseball for five years, concluding his career with the New York Mets. He later earned a D.D.S. degree from Baylor College of Dentistry. After two years in the Navy, he returned to Baylor for an advanced degree in orthodontics. He spent 20 years in private practice before serving on UT-Southwestern’s cranial-facial faculty. He returned to private practice in 1994.

Herrscher has served on boards of the Mustang Club, Alumni Association and Lettermen’s Association. He was founder and organizing director of the Hilltop Sports Camp. Other board service includes Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Dental Health Programs and Salesmanship Club of Dallas.

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Nathan Allen

Nathan H. Allen has taken the Chicago theatre scene by storm since receiving his B.F.A. in theatre from Meadows School of the Arts in 2000. Accompanied by other Meadows alumni, Allen moved to Chicago and founded The House Theatre of Chicago, of which he is artistic director.

Allen came to SMU as a Hunt Leadership Scholar. He spent his junior year studying at the British American Drama Academy in London, which inspired him to establish a theatre company combining American pop culture with European spectacle. The result is The House, now in its fifth season. In 2007 the League of Chicago Theatres named The House as the inaugural recipient of the Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theater Award.

Nominations for 2008 DAA and Emerging Leader recipients must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2007. To nominate alumni, call 214-768-2586, e-mail smualum@smu.edu or visit www.smu.edu/alumni/daa.

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Alumni

New Goals To Serve Range Of Alumni Interests

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Connie O’Neill

Recent feedback from focus groups has enabled alumni leaders to establish new goals that focus on alumni priorities and interests.

"We want to offer quality programs our alumni want to be involved in, and we want to cultivate that sense of family. Our constituency is broad-based in age and interests," says 2007-09 Alumni Board chair Connie Blass O’Neill (’77). "We want to engage all alumni – from the nonprofit and business worlds to stay-at-home parents and retirees."

To address those interests, the Alumni Board created and appointed four new committees and chairs: Campus Outreach, Jennifer Cronin (’94); Travel and Education, Andrea Zafer (’89); Regional Outreach, Bill Vanderstraaten (’82); and Networking, Stewart Henderson (’81).

"The Alumni Board is energized and forward-thinking," O’Neill says. "Members are from different regions of the country as well as the Dallas area, and range from the classes of 1957 to 2006."

The board’s major objectives include making alumni and their families feel welcome on campus and at regional events. For example, popular Dallas restaurants provided free food at the alumni tent at festivities on the Boulevard before home football games. Last May, a reception honored seniors and their alumni parents at graduation. In addition, parties are being held for young alumni after SMU events across the country.

Another objective has been the creation of an online community – The Online Alumni Directory at smu.edu/alumni. The site also links to SMU news, regional events, calendars, photos and class reunion information.

For more information, contact O’Neill at boardchair@smualumni.smu.edu or the Office of Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586 or smualum@smu.edu.

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Alumni

Manhattan Connections

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Manhattan Connections

Dancer Jamal Story (’99), back row, third from left, ensemble member and assistant dance captain for the Broadway musical "The Color Purple," met with members of Mustang Consultants in July in New York City. Eleven dance and communications students, along with Assistant Communications Professor Maria Dixon, worked on a consulting project to help revitalize the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s touring company. Pictured in the background is Arthur Mitchell, founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who taught master classes at SMU in the spring. For more information, including a video of the sessions: www.smu.edu/newsinfo/videos/master-dance-nov2006.

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Alumni

Enchanted Learners

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Associate Professor of Art History Adam Herring (center) uses the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Ranchos de Taos to illustrate his lecture on church architecture of New Mexico. The course was one of several for adult learners presented through the SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute last summer. Taught by SMU faculty, class topics focus on the unique geology; archaeology; literary, artistic and cultural traditions; and scientific importance of Northern New Mexico, as well as recreational activities. The 2008 Cultural Institute is scheduled for July 17-20. For more information: www.smu.edu/culturalinstitute.

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Alumni

Food, Fun, Fellowship

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Alumni and their families munched on burgers from Burger House at the Boulevard before the Mustangs’ season opener September 3 against Texas Tech University. At every home game the Office of Alumni Relations sponsors a tent that offers free food provided by popular area restaurants.

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Alumni

Power Of Inclusion

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Energy industry leader and entrepreneur Bobby Lyle (’67) spoke with students about the importance of inclusiveness at the 2007 Presi­dent’s Leadership Summit in April. "Leadership is sharing," said Lyle, whose long service to SMU has included a stint as interim dean of the Cox School of Business and current membership on the Board of Trustees. "Don’t put yourself in a ‘we and they’ position. Put yourself in an ‘us’ position, and don’t be afraid to share."

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Alumni

Ones to Watch: Breaking An Ankle Is Good Luck For Actress

Wrenn Schmidt rehearses Virgina Woolf

Wrenn Schmidt (right) rehearses “Virginia Woolf.”

In theatre, even breaking an ankle can be good luck. Ask Wrenn Schmidt (’05), whose own such accident indirectly led to a spot with the national touring company of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The production, featuring Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner from their Broadway roles as George and Martha, began a five-city tour in January at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The show also travels to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tucson through May.
Schmidt, a President’s Scholar who graduated summa cum laude in theatre studies and history from SMU, migrated to New York City to intern with an off-Broadway theatre company. “I stuffed a lot of envelopes while I was there,” she says. “There weren’t many performance opportunities.” After breaking her ankle early in 2006, “I started doing less interning and more auditioning.”
SMU’s New York alumni network came through when Mary Kate Burke (’00) introduced Schmidt to a friend from the Lincoln Center Theater directors’ lab, who passed on a casting notice for an off-Broadway show. Schmidt followed up, earning the role of Jenny in “Crazy for the Dog” with the Jean Cocteau Repertory.
That led to an invitation to read for “Virginia Woolf.” Three meetings later, Schmidt was chosen to understudy Kathleen Early as Honey, the timid, brandy-addled wife of a junior professor invited to George and Martha’s house for cruel verbal “fun and games.” The opportunity to perform is rare for an understudy; however, Schmidt remains on call to stand in for Early at any time.
“The amazing thing to me was auditioning against people who came from great graduate programs and realizing I was much better prepared than I thought I was,” she says. “If you have an SMU education, you’re already several paces ahead.”
Schmidt’s stage-combat training has come in handy. She serves as “Virginia Woolf’s” fight captain, blocking the many rough scenes between George and Martha. “The characters are so physical with each other, it can get dangerous,” she says.
Her casting in the play also led to guest roles on NBC’s “Law & Order” and CBS’ “3 Lbs.”
As a student playwright, Schmidt earned a showcase in the Meadows Theatre Division’s “New Visions, New Voices” festival, as well as a place at the prestigious World Interplay young playwrights’ conference in Australia.
“Now that I have so much free time as an understudy on the road, I will have time to write,” Schmidt says.

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Alumni

Taking Aim At Stomach Cancer With New Technology

Alonso Gutierrez woks with a patient

Alonso Gutierrez works with a patient.

At 26, Alonso Gutierrez (’03) is fulfilling his dream of applying the principles of science to patients’ needs. A medical physics Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is developing new technology to make radiation therapy more effective in treating cancers of the stomach.
Unlike cancers of the bone or brain, cancers of the pancreas, bladder, stomach and colon are difficult to isolate and treat because their anatomy changes daily, even hourly, Gutierrez says.
Radiation kills both cancerous and healthy cells, says Gutierrez, who majored in mechanical engineering and physics at SMU. Radiation to the stomach often causes nausea and fatigue and may result in permanent damage to healthy organs.
Gutierrez conducts research under the direction of Thomas Rockwall Mackie, professor of radiology at Wisconsin and creator of tomotherapy, which aims radiation beams at the tumor from numerous angles while keeping the dosage uniform. Tomotherapy combines radiation therapy with CT scanning, enabling precise treatment and minimizing damage to healthy organs.
Gutierrez takes tomotherapy a step further by isolating the cancer with an implanted tissue expander. “The organs in the abdominal cavity are all squashed together,” he says. The expander, which looks like a breast implant, is surgically implanted in the patient before radiation, then inflated before a treatment, pushing the cancerous organ away from healthy ones.
“The expander localizes the tumor and covers it with radiation,” says Gutierrez, who is in the early stages of developing the technique. Tissue expanders have been used for other medical procedures, but he is the first to use them for cancer treatment.
The tissue expander is not his first medical innovation. In a senior engineering design class at SMU, the President’s Scholar and Goldwater Scholar participated on a team that modified an all-terrain vehicle for paraplegic drivers. “In that class we learned to be creative,” Gutierrez says. “We didn’t reject any idea as too outrageous; sometimes those are the ideas that end up working.”
Gutierrez plans to combine medicine, physics and engineering to become a radiation oncology physicist. “Radiation therapy is a team effort,” he says. “The physician knows how much radiation the patient needs. The physicist knows the tools and designs the treatment plan to ensure that the radiation is delivered effectively. You’re really a problem-solver.”

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Alumni

While They Last: Summer Class Acts In Taos

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Anthropology Professor Ron Wetherington (holding ball of string) works with students in the field for the course on archaeology.

Because of its popularity, the SMU-in-Taos Cultural Institute has added a second weekend of short informal courses for adults July 19-22. The new classes will be led by SMU professors and other experts on topics such as the geology of Northern New Mexico, the literature of D.H. Lawrence, Latino politics of the Southwest, petroglyphs as historic images, as well as fine art photography and wines of New Mexico.
A few classes remain available for the weekend of July 12-15, including a pottery course taught by Felipe Ortega, recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a living master, in which students will build their own pots at his studio.
Classes will be held at various places around Taos and at Fort Burgwin, site of an Anasazi pueblo dig and pre-Civil War fort and home of the SMU-in-Taos academic program. For descriptions of course offerings, visit smu.edu/culturalinstitute. For more information and to receive Institute color brochures, e-mail Jana Rentzel at taosci@smu.edu or phone 214-768-8267.

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Alumni

Passport To Learning: 2007 Alumni Travel Programs

There is still time to travel and learn with SMU. The following trips remain in the 2007 Alumni Travel Education Program (dates subject to change). For more information, contact Alumni Relations at 214-768-2586, toll-free 1-888-327-3755, smualum@smu.edu, or visit smu.edu/alumni/travel.
Fall/Winter Travel Education Programs
  (Dates subject to change)

  • Cruise The Passage Of Peter The Great (Alumni Holidays) September 12-24
  • Village Life Along The Seine River (Gohagan & Co.) October 5-13
  • Yuletide Magic In Vienna And Salzburg, Austria (Gohagan & Co.) December 8-15
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Alumni

SMU Honors Alumni

SMU Distinguished AlumniSMU honored five outstanding graduates at the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award ceremonies. Recipients were (from left) investment banker and volunteer Paul Bass (’57), artist and former SMU trustee John Nieto (’59), Houston businessman Jerry LeVias (’69), and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig T. Enoch (’72, ’75). Houston attorney and volunteer Denise Scofield (’89) received the Emerging Leader Award. For more information, visit smu.edu/daa.

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Alumni

Masterminding His Path To Success

SMU Alum Erin PattonSince earning his Executive M.B.A. from the Cox School of Business in 2006, Erin Patton has found new ways to understand markets and cultures.
During the past year, Patton has launched an innovative market research study, developed a $14.98 sneaker, written a book, and taught a course at Cox – while growing TMG, the market intelligence consulting firm he founded in 2001.
TMG stands for The Mastermind Group. “I surround myself with very smart, talented and committed advisers and employees,” Patton says.
Patton’s team, based in New York with offices in Dallas and Los Angeles, has counseled Fortune 500 companies such as Converse, Absolut, and Mercedes-Benz on connecting with customers and building their brands. Last year the group successfully launched Starbury, an affordable line of footwear and apparel for the New York Knicks’ Stephon Marbury and Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear.
Basketball Shoe Developed by SMU AlumThis year, TMG is introducing “7 Ciphers,” the first quantitative study of urban consumers that goes beyond traditional approaches based on gender, race and age. Patton has identified seven market segments, ages 14 to 39, with their own styles, attitudes and experiences, such as influential “Contemporary Urban” Gen-Xers and aspiring “Sub-Urban” young adults. “Today the notion of ‘urban’ transcends racial and geographic boundaries,” he says, “and this study will help businesses and organizations understand and quantify these consumers.”
Patton, who lives in Dallas, laid the groundwork for “7 Ciphers” during the market research course taught by William Dillon, the Herman W. Lay Professor of Marketing and Statistics at Cox. The pilot study, sponsored by Pepsi, MTV and the Brookings Institution, uncovered behaviors and attitudes about music, fashion, technology, cars and more.
What influences consumers and how consumers, in turn, influence culture always fascinated Patton. “I was the kid who had to have the Air Jordans,” he says. “I’m a product of Gen X, which redefined the American dream by breaking down old barriers. I’m translating that phenomenon for corporate America.”
In his book, now in discussions with publishers, Patton also has chronicled his personal journey from a tough inner-city Pittsburgh neighborhood to Northwestern University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. It focuses on his work at Nike in the 1990s, when Michael Jordan handpicked him to launch his signature brand, and on strategies for reaching the urban consumer.
Patton is sharing his experiences with SMU students. Last summer he taught a sports marketing class, tapping into his connections with Nike, the NBA, the Rangers and others. “As they say in business, it’s not who you know, but who knows you,” he says, “and being part of the SMU network boosts that theory exponentially.”
Learn more at themastermindgroup.com.

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Alumni

Mustangs in Houston

SMU students prepare to cheer on the MustangsAbout 2,000 Mustang fans turned out in force for the SMU-Rice football game November 25 in Houston. More than 400 SMU sup­porters attended a brunch at the Omni Riverway Hotel, as well as a tailgate party at Rice Stadium. The Owls beat the Mustangs 31-27.

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Alumni

Turning Vacations Into “Voluntours”

SMU Alum Kimberly Haley-ColemanThey help Buddhist monks teach poor children in Thailand, make wheelchairs for victims of Vietnam-era landmines in Laos and build stoves to save families from respiratory illness in Peru.
And during their trips abroad, Globe Aware volunteers also find time to be tourists.
In 2000 Kimberly Haley-Coleman (M.A., art history, ’97) founded Globe Aware, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization. The group sponsors weeklong volunteer-work vacations in Costa Rica, Cuba, Nepal, Brazil, Vietnam and Cambodia.
As its executive director, she runs the “nonpolitical, nonreligious” organization with two principles in mind.
“We promote cultural awareness, which means we work to appreciate both the real beauty and challenges of a culture,” she says. “And we promote sustainability, which means we train people using local resources; we don’t create dependence.”
Globe Aware grew out of Haley-Coleman’s experiences as an international businesswoman and volunteer. The Dallas native, who also earned an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and a B.A. from Emory University, has worked for companies including Infotriever in Canada, CNBC.com and the Capstone Japan Fund, where she often focused on strategic partnerships and development. During business trips and between job changes she squeezed in volunteering internationally with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Volunteers for Peace, which usually require commitments of at least several weeks.
“I always came back thinking there had to be a better way for busy Americans, who have almost the least vacation time among developed nations but are the world’s most generous volunteers and donors,” Haley-Coleman says. Through her travels, she built a network of like-minded volunteers – many of whom now serve on Globe Aware’s board – and together they launched their first weeklong program in Thailand in 2000.
Today Haley-Coleman, who has devoted herself to the organization full time since 2003, communicates with coordinators in the field and develops and evaluates programs, such as this year’s new trips to Romania, China and Africa. She seeks out communities that are safe and culturally interesting, and with needs that they want groups of volunteers to address.
Community service has been a significant part of her life, says Haley-Coleman, as has SMU. Her parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents are all alumni of the University. She recalls hours spent analyzing art with University Distinguished Professor Emerita Alessandra Comini and Associate Professor Randall Griffin. “They helped reinforce my passion for truly examining and appreciating cultures.”
Learn more at globeaware.org.

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Alumni

Una Noche en el Teatro

SMU Alumni, Faculty and Staff gather awaiting the Meadows Theater performanceAlumna Diana Aguirre (’96), second from left, joined (from left) Meadows School of the Arts staff member Kris Muñoz Vetter and Dean José Antonio Bowen and Fernando Salazar of SMU’s Multicultural Student Affairs office at a reception before the Spanish-language staging of Lope de Vega’s “La Discreta Enamorada” in December. The Meadows Theatre version updated the 1606 comedy to take place in Paris of the 1950s, featuring period music and dance and costumes based on the works of Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga. Performances were presented in both English and Spanish with two casts.

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Alumni

Taking Care Of Business In An Emerging Democracy

Lance Bozman (’85) has grown comfortable with being uncomfortable. The managing director of AIG/Lincoln Hungary, a commercial real estate company in Budapest, he says the business and cultural environment is “so completely different from Dallas that every day is a learning experience.”

In planning and developing projects such as the high-tech InfoPark and the M1 Business Park, “I’ve had a front-row seat to history,” Bozman says. Since 1998, when he moved to Budapest to put together the InfoPark deal, “it’s been an unbelievable journey watching these countries move from a centrally controlled government to a free market.” Bozman also is managing director for S.E Europe, a company that has started an AIG/Lincoln office development in Romania and plans to begin projects in Croatia and Slovenia, as well as other formerly Communist countries and regions.

Before joining the Lincoln/AIG joint venture in 1997, Bozman represented EDS Corporation in the real estate markets of Latin America and Canada. When the chairman of Lincoln Properties asked him to join a new project in Central Europe, he accepted.

The InfoPark project was a crash course in post-Communist bureaucracy. Assembling land for a project can take two to four years; much of it is deeded to farmers who belonged to co-ops, and as many as 800 individuals may own a site as small as 20 acres.

He has spent just as much time finding local consultants and staff who can help him navigate Hungarian business customs and practices, Bozman says. “Americans tend to think they can overlay their own systems onto other cultures and they will work. You have to adapt to different ways of doing business,” he adds.

Bozman, one of a family of Mustangs (his father, sister and brother all have SMU degrees), says he “didn’t have a lot of interest in international markets” while earning a B.B.A. degree in general business. “I went to SMU because I thought I wanted to be a Dallas businessman. But SMU brings together so many different kinds of people; listening to their histories exposed me to different languages and ideas and cultures.”

The entrepreneurial emphasis in the Cox School’s academic programs provided an excellent foundation for working abroad, he says. “It’s such an instrumental part of international business to have that mindset, to be able to adapt to situations and to find and develop opportunities. For an entrepreneur in an emerging market, the opportunities are everywhere.”

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Alumni

Hilltop on the Hill

SMU students networking in Washington D.C.Juniors Katie Gage (far left) and Steven Chlapecka (far right) networked with Trisha Gregory (’04) and Julie Terrell (’05) (center) at a Washington, D.C., alumni reception in October as part of “Hilltop on the Hill,” a weeklong program sponsored by SMU’s Division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. CCPA students meet D.C.-area alumni, public officials and communications professionals to learn behind the scenes from staff ranging from the White House to Capitol Hill. Student blogs can be read at smu.edu/adventures.

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Alumni

Renovated Facility Serves Faculty and Alumni

 

SMU’s campus has been the site of numerous memorable occasions – and with the reopening of its historic and newly renovated Faculty Club, University alumni now can make Hilltop memories with their own special events.

Founded in 1921 as a social club for male faculty members to enjoy games of pool and bridge, the SMU Faculty Club merged with the Women’s Faculty Club in 1963. Remodeled and redecorated in 2006, the club provides an inviting setting for University programs and activities as well as private social and business events.

“The partnership between the Faculty Club and Alumni Relations is a good fit,” says Marc Valerin, president of the Factuly Club board and director of graduate admissions for SMU’s School of Engineering. “Through our distinguished luncheon series and our special themed dinners, we are able to give alumni the opportunity to stay connected with the University by participating in events that highlight academe and foster closer relationships between our faculty and our former students.”

Currently, alumni can join the Faculty Club, also home to the Office of Alumni Relations, for a $10 annual fee. The club is on Sorority Row at the northeast corner of Daniel Avenue and Durham Street, next door to the Gamma Phi Beta house. Alumni memberships include discounted rentals for business meetings, receptions, parties and other daytime or evening events.

alumnews-renovated.jpg

The renovated Faculty Club includes new offices for the staff of Alumni Relations: (from left) Claudia Hendrix, Mindy Rowland, Jana Rentzel, Judy King, and Sherrill Jones.

Alumni rates for private rentals range from $100 for use of the library to $550 for use of the entire first floor. Other options include the president’s boardroom, the living room and a conference room. The dining room is equipped with an LCD projector and an audio system.
To learn more about rental, catering, floor plans, technical support, parking and Univer­sity policies, visit smu.edu/facultyclub. To make a reservation, contact Sherrill Jones at 214-768-1143 or e-mail facultyclub@smu.edu.

SMU offers other campus facilities for rent. To learn more about rates, parking and availability, contact:

James M. Collins Center for the Cox School of Business
Zakaria Benyacoub, director of facilities
collinsrooms@cox.smu.edu or 214-768-4462

Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports
smu.edu/recsports/dedman/reserve.html
Judith Banes, director of recreational sports
jbanes@smu.edu or 214-768-3368

Gerald J. Ford Stadium, Club and Outdoor Facilities
smumustangs.cstv.com/facilities/smu-facility-rental.html
Ron Stevens, SMU Athletics
rstevens@smu.edu or 214-768-1617

Hughes-Trigg Student Center
smu.edu/htrigg/reservations.asp
Theresa Remek, meetings and events coordinator
tgarza@smu.edu or 214-768-4440

The Meadows Museum
meadowsmuseumdallas.org/events
Catherine Baetz, events manager
cbaetz@smu.edu or 214-768-4771

Moody Coliseum
smumustangs.cstv.com/facilities/smu-facility-rental.html
Jim Osborne, SMU Athletics
josborne@smu.edu or 214-768-2106

Categories
Alumni

He’s True Red And Blue

alumnews-hestrue.jpgJim Caswell (’63, ’66, ’70), vice president for student affairs, visited with DJ Pierce (’03) at the reception for former student leaders during Homecoming weekend. He is retiring after serving SMU for 48 years in numerous capacities. Caswell, whose degrees include a Master of Sacred Theology and Bachelor of Divinity from Perkins School of Theology, will serve as executive pastor at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas. He recently received the Vision Award from Tri Delta sorority for his influence on the Greek community at SMU. The Jim Caswell Endowment for Leadership Development and Training has been established to support leadership programs in the Student Affairs Division. To share memories of Caswell’s years on the Hilltop and to learn more about the endowment, contact Bonner Allen at 214-768-2986 or Arlene Manthey at 214-768-4711 or visit smu.edu/caswellfund.