Magazine of American University
January 2012
Who
Defines
Survival?
The Hard Way
Four from AU beat the
odds to redefine success
page 24
Bluegrass
Country
Toe-tapping
tunes thrive
on WAMU
page 12
The Role of
Their Lives
Doctors practice
with an American
pedigree
page 16
Amazing
Pace
Eric Freeburg ’00
shared an Emmy for
his work behind the
camera on ‘Survivor’
page 22
Shipwreck
Chaser
Mark Gordon, ’82, ’83,
and crew discover
the largest sunken
treasure of precious
metals in history
page 29
On a crisp D.C. evening, skaters at the
Tenleytown,
Julyrink
2011
Sculpture
Garden ice
enjoy a medley
of oldies
and
a
view
of
the
Archives
as ritual at the District of Columbia Fire
Washing the truck is a daily
summer
they Department
make a peaceful
loop
in
the
National
station on Wisconsin Avenue, which serves AU. Food also plays
Gallery
Art’s
a bigofrole
in winter
the life wonderland.
beat of the recently renovated firehouse. Every day the
firefighters cook up hearty breakfasts and dinners for the guys. (See page 3.)
Photo by Jeff Watts
Photo by Jeff Watts
American
Magazine of American University
12
16
22
24
29
Volume 62 No. 3
bluegrass country
For most of its 50 years on FM, WAMU has been
Washington’s premier home for bluegrass music.
the role of their lives
Healing the sick is a calling. For these AU
healers, the path to answering that call was
filled with surprises.
amazing pace
During eleven fast-tracked seasons, Eric Freeburg,
SOC ’00, fueled a restless spirit, traveling the world
to film Survivor and Amazing Race.
the hard way
Four from AU beat the odds to define their
own success.
the shipwreck chaser
Mark Gordon, Kogod ’82, ’83, leads a successful
quest to discover the largest sunken treasure of
precious metals in history.
• • •
departments
3
On the Quad
33
Alumni News
34
All American Weekend and Reunion
48
World of Wonks
www.american.edu/magazine
American
American, the official magazine of American
University, is written and designed by the University Publications office within University
Communications and Marketing. Personal
views on subjects of public interest expressed
in the magazine do not necessarily reflect
official policies of the university.
Executive Director, Communications
and Marketing
Teresa Flannery
Assistant Vice President,
University Publications
Kevin Grasty
Executive Editor
Linda McHugh
Managing Editor
Catherine Bahl
On the Quad Editor
Adrienne Frank
Staff Writers
Adrienne Frank, Charles Spencer,
Sarah Stankorb, Mike Unger
Art Director/Designer
Wendy Beckerman
Contributing Designers
Rena Hoffman, Maria Jackson,
Evangeline Montoya-A. Reed, Natalie Taylor
From the editor
Stick-to-itiveness at AU
Who doesn’t love a survivor story? There’s excitement, an unexpected angle, danger,
a big reward. Our issue is packed with survivors—real and imagined, heartrending
and heart racing.
It was fun and inspiring to track down these stories, but my big take away is how
deeply embedded in AU’s values is the notion of survivor. We’ve not all been threatened
by something frightening, but we all have obstacles to overcome. We’re not all wild-ride
adventure seekers like Mark Gordon and Eric Freeburg, but the very act of going to
college in Washington, D.C., is an adventure you all have undertaken.
When I scratched the surface a bit—I realized surviving means being resourceful,
determined, having grit—or in my friend Jenna’s dad’s words—“You must have
stick-to-itiveness,” he’d admonish when her childhood energies flagged.
AU’s people do stick to their values. They stick to the voice that calls them to speak
out. They stick to the talents they find in themselves. AU students, alumni, faculty, and
staff reach out to their community and the world to find what they can add.
In ways large and small all the survivors profiled in our issue personify that very
AU quality—stick-to-itiveness.
Survivors all.
Photographer
Jeff Watts
Class Notes
Traci Crockett, editor; Emma Waldman ’13,
editorial assistant
UP12-002
American is published three times a year by American
University. With a circulation of about 106,000,
American is sent to alumni and other constituents of
the university community. Copyright © 2011.
American University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action university and employer. American University
does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance,
sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, family
responsibilities, political affiliation, disability, source of
income, place of residence or business, or certain veteran status in its programs and activities. For information, contact
the Dean of Students (DOS@american.edu), Director of
Policy & Regulatory Affairs (employeerelations@american.
edu) or Dean of Academic Affairs, (academicaffairs@american.
edu), or at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016, 202-885-1000.
www.american.edu/magazine
Send address changes to:
Alumni Programs
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
20016-8002
or
e-mail: alumupdate@american.edu
Linda McHugh
Executive Editor
Smith traveled the globe capturing sounds—everyday and exotic—for his collection.
baby panda’s
high-pitched bark
in the mountains
of China
deafening screech of stock cars
circling a speedway in North Carolina
exotic bellow of
buffalo at Badlands
National Park
clap of
thunder from
a New Mexico
mountaintop
humpback whales’ mating
call 50 feet into the Pacific
Ocean near Maui
earth-shattering
boom of a Civil War
reenactor’s cannon
in Manassas, Va.
To the editor
Blazer’s Story
I am an alumni of the class of ’72. I did not see an email for ‘letters to the editor’, but could
you please forward this to the editor if ‘Class Notes’ is not an appropriate forum.
I read Blazer’s Story [August 2011, p.8] with disgust. I find it very wrong to murder a
beautiful animal with an ax while being cheered on by friends solely because the animal
is yummy. Following the gruesome act with self-applause for a moral choice which is
supposedly superior because the author swung the ax herself makes the story even creepier.
No one needs to eat a chicken—there are plenty of other choices.
One [of ] the greatest privileges of being human is that we don't have [to] kill to live.
The article was not Blazer's story, it was the story of a girl who would kill for a bowl of
soup she didn't even need, and I find that nightmarish.
Barbara Parker, CAS/BA ’72
Kudos
I loved the August issue of American magazine and read it cover to cover.
Kudos and thanks.
Maria Ferrara, CAS/BA ’72
 american
On the Quad HEAR THIS
We want to hear from you. Send your comments, letters to: lmchugh@american.edu.
Snap, Crackle, Pop
“It clicks and it grumbles and growls and pings. This is meant to be a living
collection I’ll keep contributing to,” says Greg Smith of the 1,450 sound
effects he donated to AU’s Bender Library.
Throughout his 25-year career in film, Smith, SOC/MA, MFA ’10,
recorded the simple cha-ching of an antique cash register and the spectacular
boom of a Space Shuttle launch—800 hours of sound effects. Now he’s
digitized and categorized each one for the Greg Smith Sound Effects
Collection, which is free for all filmmakers to use.
“I was able to transport myself back to when I recorded these,” says Smith,
who owns Pros From Dover production company.
The sound engineer has provided recording or post-production sound on
films including Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith; Jurassic Park; Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade; and IMAX productions like Blue Planet.
“I came from a large family, you had to make a lot of noise to get
attention,” he says. “But I discovered that you can learn more if you listen,
because sound is all around us.”
january 2012 
On the Quad QUOTABLE AU
On the Quad POP CULTURE
Immigration
“This year I expect
removals will again
be at historic levels.”
Civil rights
“You know two names:
Rosa Parks and
Martin Luther King.”
—Longtime civil rights activist and distinguished adjunct professor in the School of
Public Affairs, Julian Bond, discussing
a new report from the Southern Poverty
Law Center, which revealed that most high
school students are taught little about civil
rights history. The report gave a C to both
Maryland and Virginia; the District of
Columbia received a D.
Cristel Russell is among 33 new tenureline faculty at AU—a cohort of top
—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano speaking on Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, which, in 2010,
deported 195,000 convicted criminals—
more than ever before. The Kennedy Political
Union hosted Napolitano October 5.
scholars as diverse as their research.
The new faculty hail from Harvard,
Columbia, University of Pennsylvania,
Cornell, and the University of Michigan,
where they made a name for themselves
in a variety of fields: astrophysics,
ethnomusicology, Internet governance,
Wildlife
Chinese
“She allowed her infant, Flint, to reach
out and touch me. That was the
terrorism, and epistemology.
“There was a time in
aviation when, if a group
of women gathered like
this, they’d wonder what
we were plotting.”
—Margaret Gilligan, associate administrator,
Federal Aviation Administration, reflecting
on her 30-year career in an industry
once dominated by men. Along with
John Montgomery of the Naval Research
Laboratory, Gilligan received the School of
Public Affairs’ Roger W. Jones Award for
executive leadership, October 24.
—Renowned primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall
recalling Flo, the first chimpanzee that approached her after a year
of observing the primates in Gombe National Park. A United
Nations Messenger of Peace, Goodall has spent nearly half a
century studying chimps in Tanzania.
Revolution
“These people built the pyramids
7,000 years ago. I just had a feeling
things would be okay.”
—Senior Nicholas Anders, who was studying abroad at the
American University in Cairo when Egyptian president Hosni
Mubarak was ousted in January. Along with 10 other AU
undergrads, the foreign policy major was evacuated but returned
to Cairo three days after Mubarak resigned to resume his studies.
Music
every overnight
sensation is seven years in the making.”
“In the entertainment industry,
—Pandora executive vice president of business and corporate development Jessica Steel discussing the
company’s rise from just another Silicon Valley start-up to an Internet radio darling with more than 100
million users and $138 million in revenue for fiscal year 2011. Steel spoke at Kogod, November 15.
 american
public
history,
Learn more about the new faculty at
most amazing moment.”
Aviation
literature,
www.american.edu/newfaculty.
Power of Reruns
We know how the story ends: Carrie chooses Mr. Big, Bella picks Edward, Harry
weds Sally, and Rhett doesn’t give a damn.
We know the puffy shirt punch line, so why do we tune in to reruns of Seinfeld?
Why do we turn the tattered pages of Pride and Prejudice again and again? Why is
It’s a Wonderful Life as much a part of our holiday traditions as family squabbles?
Here’s a plot twist: the answer isn’t nostalgia.
According to Kogod marketing professor Cristel Russell, most people don’t turn
to their favorite movies and books to remember where they’ve been, but rather to
reflect on how far they’ve come.
“The object you’re consuming is the looking glass—it allows you to appreciate
how you’ve changed or evolved,” says Russell, who’s among the first to study reconsumption, the conscious repetition of an experience. “If you reread The Da
Vinci Code after a trip to Paris, your perspective will change, you’ll appreciate the
story in a whole new way.”
Russell and research partner Sidney Levy of the University of Arizona
conducted interviews in the United States and New Zealand about a variety of reconsumption experiences: rereading a book, rewatching TV shows and movies, and
revisiting geographic locations. Their study will be published in the August 2012
issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
“I was fascinated that all the people we interviewed thought they were alone.
They would say, ‘I’m sure I’m the only one who does this . . .’” she says.
“Modern society is all about new things and evolving technology. People feel
weird when they don’t try something new and, instead, stick to what they know
and love. They’re afraid of other people’s perceptions.”
That said, all the interviews had a happy ending.
“After telling me about their favorite novels, they’d say, ‘gee, I really need to
read that again.’”
On the Quad HEALING
On the Quad ATHLETICS
Dogs and Combat Stress Injury
Live from Bender
Troops in Afghanistan find comfort in bomb-sniffing dogs. Their enemies fear the
hulking shepherds that escort soldiers on patrol and, more importantly, the dogs
find bombs.
Cpl. Daniel Feeman, SPA/BA ’11, who completed his Marine Corps service as
kennel master for Marine One, found that working with dogs, even while under
enemy attack, could reduce the impact of combat stress injuries or Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), the symptoms of which include sleeplessness, flashbacks,
and suicidal tendencies.
Feeman put his hypothesis to the test in a research methods class.
When he broached the subject of PTSD with vets, many of them shut down.
“Nobody wants to be labeled the guy who couldn’t handle it,” Feeman says.
However, those who revealed combat stress injuries spoke about lasting, positive
memories of the dogs they worked with. Something about the dogs added a layer
of emotional security, and there, Feeman believes could be a window for treatment.
Still, Feeman’s results were anecdotal, inconclusive.
Speaking with Bruce Shabazz, a member of the Department of Defense’s PTSD
Taskforce, Feeman learned that other researchers’ results corresponded with his
own: the psychological benefit of working alongside dogs was unclear. In practice,
the military use of the model had some benefit as compared with other treatment
methods for PTSD, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. Feeman and Shabazz agreed that
further understanding would require narrowing the sample to those who worked
100 percent of the time with dogs.
However, all of Feeman’s subjects said they felt better with the dogs present.
“Not was better or thought I was better,” but that they felt better.
For some, that vague sense might be a first step away from the blackness
of PTSD.
“We know so very little about the brain and how it works and whether or not
it’s broken, and how to fix it when it is. Feeling is a huge step as far as mental
health goes.”
With the NBA still in a lockout-induced slumber on December’s first night, Washingtonians looking
to feed their TV hoops fix tuned in to AU basketball on Comcast SportsNet.
“The White House is a very popular piece of property tonight, but so too is the area around Mass
and Nebraska Avenues, that’s where American University is starting to make some noise. Hi folks.
From Bender Arena on the campus of AU, Steve Buckhantz with Phil Chenier, and it’s great
to have you with us tonight.”
A return to campus was energizing for the local broadcasting duo, voices of the Washington
Wizards. This season they announced four Eagles games for Comcast, and Buckhantz will team with
sports journalist John Feinstein to do the January 21 game versus Army and February 15 contest
against Navy.
“I watched [AU coach] Jeff Jones play in college, and I’ve called his games,” Buckhantz says.
“I’m happy for the success he’s had. He’s really built something here.”
For the December 1 game against UMBC, Comcast producers and technical experts set up shop in
a visitor’s locker room in Bender. Just outside sat Mark Natale ’14, one of several interns in the athletics
department’s communications office who help air every AU home game in every sport on AUEagles.TV.
Natale’s job was to ensure a smooth transition from the game to commercials on AU’s streaming
coverage.
“It’s cool for me to be able to listen to [the pros] and pick up pointers,” says Natale, a School of
Communication student. “I came to this job without experience in anything, and now I’m producing.”
Michael Gardner is AU’s play-by-play man for several sports. Though he wasn’t calling the Eagles
match-up with the Retrievers, he was in the arena keeping his eyes and ears open.
“It’s firsthand information from the professionals,” the sophomore says of observing Buckhantz and
Chenier. “They’re sitting two chairs down. It’s an honor.”
AU ended up beating UMBC and gaining untold numbers of fans taking in the action from their
sofas at home, and at least one new one watching—and working—courtside.
“It’s certainly a unique feeling to come to a college campus with the cheerleaders and the band and
the school spirit,” Chenier says. “You see what Jeff is trying to do, and you see some of the players
starting to grow. I’ll probably tune in myself to see how the guys are doing.”
 american
AU is among the top 20 percent
of Military Friendly Schools
in the country, according to
G.I. Jobs magazine. Earning
the distinction for the second
straight year, AU was lauded
for its participation in the
Yellow Ribbon Program, which
helps fund tuition expenses
that exceed the G.I. Bill benefit
for post-9/11 veterans up to
$17,500 per year. The new AU
Veterans Liaison Network also
offers a one-stop-shop for
vets seeking campus services.
january 2012 
On the Quad RELATIONSHIP Rx
On the Quad GREEN TEACHING
Friendship Fix
BFF turned into bridezilla? Frenemy got your blood boiling?
Andrea Bonior, CAS/MA ’02, CAS/PhD ’04, tackles those platonic predicaments and more
in her new book, The Friendship Fix: The Complete Guide to Choosing, Losing, and Keeping Up
with Your Friends. The licensed psychologist, who pens the Washington Post Express’s popular
mental health column, “Baggage Check,” shares how to make the most of friendships, whether
old or new, online or in person.
2
Apple for the Teacher
AU biologist Chris Tudge practices energy-saving, conservation, and recycling measures in his daily
life, “so it’s hypocritical not to practice them when I teach.”
Tudge is among 113 faculty enrolled in the Center for Teaching, Research and Learning’s
(CTRL) Green Teaching Certificate program. Now in its fourth year, the program has certified 265
faculty who commit to environmentally friendly practices. The majority reach the “four apple” level
with 75 points, while a few green go-getters reach the “gold star” level with 90 points or more.
“Little things can have a big impact if enough people commit to doing them,” says CTRL’s
Anna Olsson.
Case in point: 107 faculty saved 43,000 sheets of paper last year by posting syllabi online.
Here’s a peek at the green tweaks faculty must make to garner 75 points.
Typically people have one or two toxic friendships. True friends are ones
who see our flaws and embrace us anyway. If you’re more pessimistic or
passive-aggressive around someone; if you don’t look forward to spending
time with the person; or if you honestly don’t wish the best for them, those
are signs that you’re in a toxic friendship.
5 points
Some people love friends that accentuate their characteristics. If someone’s
really dramatic, she might surround
UNFRIEND
herself with people who let her have
the stage. Others are attracted to
people who share the same status,
the same world view, while some
people just mix it up. They like being
challenged and bringing something
different to the table. There’s room for
all types of friendships.
3 points
If it’s a toxic relationship or you’re just
looking to cull the herd, sensitively
unfriending someone on Facebook is
OK. There are some people who know
exactly how many friends they have
and you run the risk of driving them
crazy when you unfriend them. The
right thing to do is to drop a line saying:
“I’m not going to be as active on Facebook and I need to cull my herd.”
• accept only electronic versions of papers, tests, and assignments
times, people don’t bother with
makes a huge difference. Send
When "breaking up" with a friend, start with the
slow fade: the gradual but respectful increasing of
distance. Don’t return phone calls as quickly, don’t
ask as many questions. There’s a fine line between
the slow fade and just abandoning someone. It’s not
fair to the other person to just disappear off the face
of the planet, especially in the era of Facebook.
If the slow fade doesn’t work, the next step is to be direct
but firm. Send an e-mail that says: “I value our friendship,
but we’re moving in different directions.”
 american
2 points
We’re all busy and a lot of
the small stuff—even though it
a goofy card; leave a friend’s
favorite candy on her desk;
frame a flattering photo of
the two of you; go to the gym
together; make a phone call,
even if you only have nine
minutes to chat. You can
always do something small to
brighten a friend’s day.
• require students to print double-sided and allow single
spacing and reduced margins
• distribute syllabus electronically rather than printing
• print double-sided
• turn off lights when you leave a classroom
• recommend students buy used copies of required texts
• use e-reserves for articles, chapters, and
supplemental readings
• turn off electronic equipment not in use in the classroom
• avoid ordering desk copies of assigned books
• publicize the Green Teaching Certificate on syllabus
1 point
• teach aspects of the environment within your subject area
• connect students with campus environmental programs
• help students find green internships and jobs
• recycle transparencies and materials
• take stairs to class
• use scrap paper for classroom activities
• use a chalkboard or whiteboard not a flip chart
• drink coffee from a reusable mug
• allow students to take notes on laptops
• assign e-books
• schedule office hours before and after class
• bike, walk, or use public transportation to travel to class twice a week
• use speakerphone or videoconferencing for guest speakers
• on snow days, hold virtual classes via Blackboard
• keep attendance on an electronic spreadsheet
• help students sell books to next term’s students
• require students to submit assignments on Blackboard
• administer tests in the computer lab
january 2012 
On the Quad CAMPUS PLAN
AU Listens
“We have a 118-year commitment to our
Northwest Washington neighborhood, and our
current campus buildings, design, landscaping, and future facilities are testament to that,”
AU president Neil Kerwin told the university
community.
The proposed campus plan would add up
to 845,000 square feet to existing facilities
while preserving historic sites and addressing
critically important strategic priorities, pending
approval by the D.C. Zoning Commission.
Countless hours of work involving urban
planners, architects, traffic engineers, land-use
experts, finance and investment strategists,
and community relations staff went into AU’s
2011 Campus Plan, filed in March 2011
with the D.C. Zoning Commission. Regular
meetings with community members and the
Advisory Neighborhood Commissions yielded
significant changes to the plan that reflect
neighbors’ concerns.
Key objectives of the proposed plan:
• Improve student housing to offer modern
accommodations and encourage more
students to live on campus—an addition
to Nebraska Hall, new residence halls
behind the president’s office and on a new
East Campus at the site of the parking lot
on Nebraska Avenue.
How does a university growing
in international stature balance
the need to expand its facilities
to reach the goals of its strategic
plan while addressing the
concerns of its neighbors?
 american
• Build a new home for the Washington
College of Law on the Tenley campus,
near the Tenleytown Metro station. WCL,
one of the nation’s top law schools, has
been at 4801 Massachusetts Avenue since
1996, and it has outgrown the current
195,000 square feet at that address and an
additional 16,000 square feet.
• The university wants to provide more oncampus recreational, dining, and activity
space, and to build offices that will attract
and keep top-notch faculty. Also planned
are more athletic facilities, an admissions
welcome center, and an alumni center.
january 2012 
By Mike Unger
It
From Arlington to Bethesda to Capitol
Hill, kitchens, living rooms, and front
porches were filled with toe-tapping
tunes, nary an instrument in sight. Since
the moment Dick Spottswood spun his
first record on WAMU 88.5’s Bluegrass
Unlimited, the music has played a vital
role in the enduring success of the
station. In turn, bluegrass owes a debt
of gratitude to WAMU, which through
the years has boosted its vibrancy in the
nation’s capital.
Call it perfect harmony.
“WAMU’s place as a broadcast outlet
has been highly important in exposing
the music to people,” says Dan Hays,
executive director of the International
Bluegrass Music Association. “Washington being a melting pot
certainly helped take it back home to
all points of the United States and even
beyond. Anyone who’s familiar with
bluegrass would say it’s one of the top five
most influential stations around.”
Like the classic “Foggy Mountain
Breakdown,” the tale of bluegrass on
WAMU takes many twists and turns.
is with startling
exactness, like a
mandolin player striking
strings during a speed-oflight solo, that historians
pinpoint bluegrass music’s
symbolic
big bang.
On December 8, 1945, Earl Scruggs
joined Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass
Boys on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in
Nashville, Tennessee, and proceeded to
pick his banjo using a three-finger roll
technique that stunned the patrons inside
the 3,574-seat Ryman Auditorium.
The people in the theatre that frigid
fall night were just a fraction of those
who heard history—the birth of a genre.
Untold more tuned in to the show on
Nashville’s WSN, a 50,000-watt radio
station whose signal stretched from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.
Before Twitter and television, radio
was king, and the Grand Ole Opry was
appointment listening.
Twenty-two years after that fateful
night at the church of country music,
660 miles to the northeast a radio
program highlighting this newfangled
hillbilly music premiered on a
Washington station, then in its
FM infancy.
Unlike the song, the story doesn’t end.
As it celebrates its 50th year on FM,
broadcasting bluegrass on the Internet,
high definition radio, and once again
through a frequency modulation
signal remains an integral part of
WAMU’s mission.
Musical Migration
If the 1945 concert captured lightning
in a bottle, the ensuing series of songs
Monroe and his band, featuring the
brash young banjo player, recorded
for Columbia Records preserved the
electricity forever.
“They laid down what many people
consider the original recordings of
bluegrass music as we know it today,”
Hays says. “Bill Monroe is certainly
both from an academic and general
popular belief viewed as the father of the
music, but I don’t think anyone would
try to tell you that he invented it. Music
isn’t like a piece of machinery that you
sit down and invent.”
In truth, incarnations of “old time”
country music had existed in the small
towns of Appalachia for decades. Like
most forms of roots or folk music, it’s
impossible to trace its lineage with
certainty.
It’s even dicier to define.
“People will always want to sit down
and debate, what do you consider
bluegrass?” says Gary Henderson,
Bill Monroe 1952
who’s been involved with WAMU’s
bluegrass programming since the start.
“It’s all acoustic; it’s got a fiddle, banjo,
Dobro, mandolin. It’s centered around
vocal harmonies. You have purists that
say it’s got to sound like Bill Monroe. Aw
please, grow up. Music has to evolve.”
What is definitively known is that the
addition of Scruggs to Monroe’s band,
which included Lester Flatt on guitar,
bassist Howard Watts, and Chubby Wise
playing the fiddle, catapulted it toward
the mainstream.
“The music takes the name bluegrass
from a reference to Bill Monroe’s home
state of Kentucky,” Hays says. “That
group from the ’40s, as well as people
emulating that style, became more
prevalent. By the mid to late ’50s you had
people referring to that style as bluegrass
music out of respect for Bill.”
As bluegrass was spreading, America’s
demographics were changing. From
1940 to 1950 Washington’s population
jumped 21 percent to 802,178 (the city’s
population was 601,723 in 2010).
“You had a cultural migration out
of the Appalachian Mountains to the
metropolitan centers,” Hays says. “On
the eastern side you had a lot of folks
from Virginia and the Carolinas that
migrated to Baltimore and Washington to
find jobs.”
“WAMU’s
flickr, bunky's pickle
Del McCoury Trio 2009
flickr, volken neumann
place as a
Earl Scruggs 2005
 american
broadcast
outlet
has been highly
important
in exposing
the music
to people.”
Festival Program 1980
january 2012 
They brought their taste in music with
them. Henderson was a teenager living
in Silver Spring, Maryland, when his ears
first awakened to bluegrass.
“The banjo, the driving fiddle, the
three- and four-part harmonies, there was
something different about the music that
appealed to me,” he says.
He wasn’t alone.
“A lot of people for some reason who
were born in this area grew up really
liking that music,” Spottswood says. “By
the early ’50s I was aware of hundreds of
people in my school who actively enjoyed
it. Why that happened here and not New
York or other cities, who knows? Maybe
it was something in the water.”
Spottswood, from the “wilderness”
of Chevy Chase, must have been gulping
it. He cofounded Bluegrass Unlimited
magazine in 1966, and a year later
brought WAMU’s first bluegrass
show to the airwaves, with Henderson
as producer.
“I heard some jazz programming on,
so I called over there and said, ‘bluegrass
music is pretty nice too,’” he says. “Gary
and I both had day jobs, so we would
record three or four shows at a time
on Sundays. It bounced around the
schedule. Whenever they needed it, they
had finished 30-minute tapes on seveninch reels.”
Turns out they’d need a lot more
than that.
Washingtucky
A decade after bluegrass debuted on
WAMU, the station was carrying more
than 20 hours of the music per week.
“WAMU was important because
it reflected the bluegrass scene in
Washington, D.C., and helped propel
it,” says Derek Halsey, who writes for
Bluegrass Unlimited. “It’s where bluegrass
music really went urban.”
From big-time venues like the
Birchmere in Alexandria to smaller bars,
a fan could find live bluegrass virtually
any night of the week. The Washington
area was home to some of country’s
biggest acts, including the Seldom
Scene, Johnson Mountain Boys, and the
Country Gentlemen.
“All these things fed off each other,”
says Katy Daley, SOC/BA ’79, who’s
on her second stint with the station.
“These bands were huge not only in the
Washington area, but huge in general.
WAMU was part of the perfect storm.”
Randy Waller, now leader of the
Country Gentlemen, spent some of his
childhood in northern Virginia. When he
“Even
the first
President Bush
didn’t realize how much
he missed
WAMU’s
bluegrass
until he was gone.”
wasn’t listening to his father, Charlie, play
guitar as an original member of the band,
his ears often were glued to WAMU.
“It was major,” Waller says of the
station’s influence. “Their bluegrass
calendar was how you’d know who was
playing where.”
The Johnson Mountain Boys featured a
young fiddle player named Eddie Stubbs.
“I discovered WAMU right about the
time of the nation’s bicentennial,” says
Stubbs, who played with the band for
nearly two decades. “I was 14 years old
and I heard Gary Henderson on there
on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He
helped to form my taste in what the
foundation of good music was.”
Stubbs eventually met his would-be
mentor and became a fill-in deejay. In
1990, he landed his own show, which ran
for 17 years.
“Washington was the bluegrass capital
of the world,” he says. “There was no
other station in the nation that was doing
what WAMU was. It was on seven days a
week, and that just didn’t exist elsewhere.
It was real easy to get spoiled.”
Even the first President Bush didn’t
realize how much he missed WAMU’s
bluegrass until he was gone. When
Barbara Bush stopped by the station’s
Brandywine Street studios for an
interview with Diane Rehm, Stubbs
asked to have his photo taken with the
former first lady.
Ray Davis 2008
“She said, ‘I know who you are. George
really misses you,’” Stubbs recalls. “That
was pretty strong to hear. The White
House was listening to WAMU.”
When he moved to Nashville to play
fiddle for Kitty Wells in 1995, Stubbs
continued taping his show. Now an
announcer at the Grand Ole Opry and
host of a nightly program on WSM,
Stubbs was named to the County Radio
Hall of Fame in October.
“The WAMU show was
my calling card in Nashville,”
he says. “A lot of people
recognized the importance of
the station, the power of it. It
helped open some doors for
me in this town.”
programming. Combined with the
emergence of new technology, bluegrass
slowly began to be phased off 88.5 FM.
“It was a good decision,” says none
other than Dick Spottswood. “When
WAMU started playing bluegrass we were
the only game in town. Today the pie is
split much thinner. There are 55 streams
of bluegrass music on the Internet. You
have your iPods, satellite radio. This is
not small market radio. In
a big market, you want the
listener to not be confused. Is
it a news station or a bluegrass
station?”
In 2001, WAMU rolled out
BluegrassCountry.org, a 24hour online radio station. For
the first three years the music
was automated, the programs
A New Country
prerecorded. To some longtime
The bond between station
listeners, the move felt like a
and listener was tighter than
slap in the face.
a Ricky Skaggs riff. Longtime
“The community was
WAMU’s quarterly
hosts Jerry Gray, Red Shipley,
quite
up in arms about it, and
program guide 1990
and Ray Davis felt like
they resented it,” Demsey
members of the family, their
says. “It’s been a difficult
voices providing as much comfort as
climb getting the listeners back, but I
the tunes they played. Fans showed their
think we’re making great progress.”
appreciation with their wallets.
The station expanded Bluegrass
“We were so successful raising funds
Country to a full-time, live-hosted music
in the ’70s, the station kept expanding
service on 88.5-2, its new HD station,
the number of hours that bluegrass was
in September 2007. A year later, the
on the air,” says Lee Michael Demsey,
story came full circle when it began
SOC/BA ’75, who’s been with WAMU
broadcasting Bluegrass Country on old
for 35 years.
fashioned FM radio, at 105.5.
But as the station continued to
Bluegrass listeners remain a small but
grow through the ’90s, it became more
loyal part of WAMU’s total audience.
During its weeklong fund-raising drive in
and more focused on news and talk
October, Bluegrass Country raised nearly
$60,000 from more than 500 individual
contributors, a record.
“It was necessary for us to flex our news
and information muscles, but I felt bad
it was bluegrass that was getting elbowed
in the jaw,” says Caryn Mathes, WAMU’s
general manager. “Bluegrass is in the fabric
of this region. We’re moving that tradition
forward, paying homage to its legacy but
also keeping up with where it’s headed.”
What began on a Tennessee stage 66
years ago now is considered 19 million
Americans’ favorite music, according
to the IBMA. Thanks to movies like O
Brother Where Art Thou, crossover stars
such as Alison Krauss, newgrass groups
like Yonder Mountain String Band,
and the timeless tunes of Bill Monroe,
bluegrass music today is more popular
than it’s ever been.
Ray Davis has been on the air for more
than 60 years. He came to WAMU in
1985, and still hosts the Ray Davis Show
weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m., broadcasting
from his home studio in Falling Waters,
West Virginia. Asked what he treasures
most about the music, his answer also
could describe the radio station on which
it thrives.
“It tells a story. It’s about life and home
and mother and father. It’s different than
fads that come and go. It’s here, it’s been
here, and I think it will always be here.” n
Dick Spottswood
“when
wamu
started playing
bluegrass
The late Senator Robert Byrd,
WCL/JD ’63, was himself a
fine fiddle player and also a
devoted fan of bluegrass on
WAMU. He once even praised
the station during a speech
on the floor of the Senate.
we were the
only game
in town.”
Pickin’ at the Glen 1992
 american
Lee Michael Demsey 1990s
Red Shipley
january 2012 
S
For a university without a medical school, American churns out
hundreds of medical professionals who got their science start
and shaped their career ideals at AU. Meet four of them.
 american
am is about the same age
Mr. Bear was when he passed
away. He’s sprawled out on
an examination table at
the Capital Cat Clinic in
Arlington, Virginia, where Dr. Elizabeth
Arguelles is carefully removing a growth
from inside his furry ear.
A domestic shorthair, Mr. Bear
was Arguelles’s “special one,” the cat
that gets the credit for her decision to
become a veterinarian.
“He was born in my bathroom
and lived to be 19,” says Arguelles, 32.
“I learned a lot about geriatric cat
management from him. I think that
there are one or two—at least I am
hoping there are two—very special
animals in our lives. There is a hole in
my heart now that he is gone that I’m
not sure will ever heal. But from birth
to death, I learned from him.”
Wearing a headlamp, Arguelles uses
a scalpel to remove one portion of the
growth, which Sam has been clawing at.
There’s so much blood in his ear that she
and her team of assistants and vet techs
remove it using a dropper throughout
the procedure.
Sam, an Abyssinian mix whose
light brown and white coat is shining
after a deep combing, is sedated, so he
rests peacefully.
This life was the farthest thing from
Arguelles’s mind when she went off to
Wellesley College to study economics
and political science. She grew up in
rural Virginia with dogs and cats
constantly barking and meowing around
the house, but she never considered
veterinary medicine a calling.
After six unfulfilling months
pushing papers in a K Street lobbying
firm, she reconsidered.
“I hated being behind a desk, and I
was daydreaming about a more active
career,” she says. “I thought about
walking people’s dogs for a living, but I
thought, ‘I went to a pretty good school,
I should probably aim higher.’”
So Arguelles quit and went to work
as a receptionist at VCA MacArthur
Animal Hospital in Washington. For
the next two and a half years she
took science classes through AU’s
postbaccalaureate premed program
(earning her certificate in 2004) and
amassed the 500 clinical hours required
to get into vet school. There are only
23 in the country, and they admit an
average of just 100 new students each per
year. Admission is hypercompetitive.
The grueling hours—classes at
Virginia Tech met five days a week, from
8 to 5, for three years, followed by a
calendar year of clinical work—and
time away from her husband, who stayed
in Washington while she studied in
Blacksburg, are all worth it now. Last
quarter she saw 500 patients. That’s 500
kitties, as she often calls them, and 500
owners whose lives she’s touched.
Capital Cat Clinic is a cozy, converted
residential home with a sign above the
main staircase that reads “If you want
the best seat in the house, you’ll have to
move the cat.” More than three-quarters
of her procedures are dental surgeries.
Cats’ teeth develop cavities from the
inside out, in the opposite fashion of
humans. It causes them great discomfort,
which they’re adept at disguising.
“I’ve seen cats walk on broken legs,”
Arguelles says. “They have a very high
pain threshold.”
Hopefully, Sam won’t now have to
endure as much pain. Arguelles removes
more of the growth, farther down his ear
canal, then cauterizes the incisions by
burning them closed. At home tonight
the only attention paid to his ear will be
loving rubs from his owner. —mu
january 2012 
AU premed and post-bacc qualified
students accepted to medical school
www.american.edu/cas/premed/index.cfm
 american
Hamid Kargbo has been at the
hospital for hours. For him, a “day” lasts
up to 28 hours. A week is 80. It feels like
he lives at the hospital.
Rounds begin. Kargbo and his team at
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
check in with a frail elderly woman, tiny
in her bed.
Kargbo leans forward and quietly asks,
“So, how are you feeling this morning?”
She’s unblinking. “I just want to go
home.” It’s a typical story.
With his team, Kargbo loops a
well-trod path through the halls where
he spends nearly all his waking hours.
There’s a young mother, indignant to be
admitted again. There’s the man who is
gregarious and confused—last time he
was in, he asked another resident to
marry him.
One man hasn’t had a drink in
two days and just wants released. “No
offense, but this place is boring as hell.”
The chronic patients tend to loop
through a rotation of illness, recovery,
and relapse. Kargbo has seen many of
this morning’s patients before. Not only
is he mastering the practical skills of a
doctor, he is also learning how a patient’s
life can interfere with wellness.
Kargbo makes house calls. Rotating
with John’s Hopkins Aliki Initiative,
for a few weeks a year, Kargbo is part
of a team that follows-up with chronic
patients at home after discharge.
Often, doctors burdened with heavy
caseloads “treat them, then street them,”
and see the same patients reappear, sick
again, within months. On house calls,
Kargbo’s team has found sources other
than stubbornness for noncompliance
that leads to repeat hospital visits.
There was one patient who never
seemed to take her medicine properly.
Upon seeing her kitchen counter stacked
with pill bottles, many expired, it became
clear there was reason for confusion. Not
only were there too many bottles, she
couldn’t read the ones she had.
“Sometimes we prescribe what they
can’t afford.” Kargbo remembers one
woman who hadn’t filled an important
prescription. She explained, “This
medication costs $300. I just lost my job.”
Residency is about learning patient
care. It’s also a matter of learning when
to stand your ground.
There are hallway meetings outside
patient rooms, debating management and
divvying up work. There’s a “curbside”
negotiation with a neurosurgeon about
the risk of certain tests. Plans are made
to explain a serious treatment dilemma
to a patient and his family during
visiting hours.
Kargbo seems to revel in the pressure—
juggling science, medicine, teaching, and
patient comfort.
It’s a life he dreamed of since
boyhood, when he watched doctors at
home in Sierra Leone care for cousins
suffering from malaria and sickle cell.
Many died young. For those who were
spared, it was thanks to the physicians
Kargbo admired. “They were so caring,
so smart.”
The toll on his time and the emotions
of caring for gravely ill patients are
the challenges of every young doctor.
Kargbo acknowledges the stress, but
considering the labyrinthine path he’s
taken to medicine, he describes himself
simply, as happy.
It has taken some doing to get here.
Between his post-bacc at AU and
medical training that will end in a
cardiology fellowship, Kargbo will have
spent over a dozen years learning the
trade. In all the hours in between,
filled with sick patients and reams of
physician’s notes, Kargbo has climbed
to some of the top programs in the
country, become a U.S. citizen, and
fallen for another Hopkins resident.
Life has squeezed in to fill the empty
spaces in his day.
Kargbo stops for a quick lunch
during a noon conference lecture and
then he is off. If he’s lucky, after an
afternoon of patient care, he’ll get his
interns out the door before their 16-hour
work limits and only spend a few more
hours on sign-out and notes. If it’s a
short night, he’ll leave by 9:30, maybe
10:00, and head to his other home—the
one he sees for an hour or two on either
end of brief sleep. —ss
january 2012 
A few key scenes
often define our lives.
ANNUAL
Take actor-turnedphysician Randy Fink,
SPA-CAS/BA ’89.
The mother-
with young children are the toughest cases.
As a psycho-oncologist—a psychiatrist
who provides therapy to cancer patients
and their families—Dr. Seema Thekdi
of the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston treats many
people with poor prognoses. Which is a
nice way of saying they’re dying.
Yet where many other therapists
are burned out by the experience,
she’s invigorated.
“MD Anderson tends to accept
particularly challenging and unusual
cases from around the world,” Thekdi,
Kogod/BS ’94, says. ”So we’ll get very
young people who die of their cancers,
and that can be very draining because
we do become very connected with our
patients. As their therapists we see them
regularly for an hour at a time.
“But I actually find the experience
more inspiring than draining. It seems
 american
like when people are faced with their
mortality something comes over them.
They lose their pettiness. They have
a perspective that’s so wise, it’s so spiritual—
I’m not sure of the right word—but their
perspective is very inspiring because every
single day I’m reminded of the big picture,
of what’s important, and I see how they
move forward under these very adverse
circumstances with so much courage.”
Still, the cases of mothers with
terminal cancer can be tough. The
moms with young children know they
probably won’t be around in a few years
for their kids. So a big part of their
therapy is preparing them to talk to
their children about their prognosis.
Using breathing and meditation exercises
that help them overcome their anxiety,
they can begin to plan for their children’s
future and finally have faith that their
kids will be taken care of after their
mother is gone.
Even in such emotionally trying cases
the human connection with patients is
what attracted Thekdi to psychiatry.
“In other fields you rush around
and you see many patients per hour,
or if you’re a surgeon you may not even
talk to your patient other than for a
couple of minutes, and then they’re
under anesthesia. But in psychiatry you
really get to know people.”
So is she still glad she made the
switch from business and finance to
medical school—taking an extra year at
AU to complete premed requirements?
“Oh, it’s much better than expected,”
she says. “It’s an identity more than a job.
If I won the lottery, I would still be here
tomorrow morning because it really is
quite exciting.”
Then she adds, “I’m sure I would be
driving a better car, though.” —cs
photo courtesy of the university
of texas md anderson cancer center
photo courtesy of randy fink
AT THE CENTER
Kingston, Jamaica. As a sophomore
at AU, majoring in political science as
well as theatre, he takes part in a study
abroad program. While volunteering at a
clinic, he tries to help a pregnant young
woman with a serious health problem.
Her placenta has become implanted over
her cervix.
“She bled to death while I was holding
her hand simply because the system was
not equipped to save her life,” Fink recalls.
Many years later, long after that
semester in Jamaica led to a sense that
someday he wanted to be a doctor, Fink
chooses obstetrics and gynecology as
his specialty, partly because of a helpless
young woman he couldn’t save.
LA. The acting thing’s working out. He’s
got an apartment in New York and a
place in Los Angeles.
He’s had parts in Exorcist III and
Look Who’s Talking Too. He does an
episode of the Robert Stack TV series
Unsolved Mysteries, a predecessor to
America’s Most Wanted. He works in
theatre, appearing at the Kennedy
Center and the National Theatre and
off-Broadway. He’s even played a doctor:
in Philadelphia, he’s the physician in the
emergency room “running code” on the
Tom Hanks character after he collapses
in the courtroom.
And that’s not all. He does commercials for Twix, for Little Caesar’s, for
Tide and Kodak.
Fink’s success is no surprise to AU
theatre professor Gail Humphries Mardirosian, who remembers his determination. “Even as an undergraduate, Randy
had the drive, discipline, and focus that
allowed him to continually refine his skills
as an actor,” she says. In fact, while still at
AU he landed roles in As the World Turns
and a small part in the Woody Allen film
Crimes and Misdemeanors.
But Fink’s success makes it hard to
quit. He knows he needs to move on. If
he’s going to med school, he’ll first have
to complete a postbaccalaureate program.
“What’s funny is I didn’t do a damned bit
of science,” he says of his undergraduate
years. “I probably did biology. That was it.”
So he finally pulls the plug. He sells the
place in LA, sells the apartment in NYC.
Miami. After completing studies at the
Medical College of Virginia (he started
a few years shy of 30) and postdoctoral
training, he’s now the managing partner
of the Miami Center of Excellence for
Obstetrics and Gynecology, a practice
with 20 people on staff. One of those
people is his wife, Stephanie, a nurse
practitioner who’s also training to
become one of the office’s midwives.
Fink is proud of the practice’s
innovative approach to noninvasive
surgery, and its approach to making
patients comfortable by offering services
such as massage for pregnant women.
He and his wife have two children,
and he can grill in his yard in shorts and
a tee shirt nearly any day of the year.
“There are moments that I’ll walk out
and smell the air in the morning or hear
a bird chirp that reminds me of what it
was like in Jamaica and I say, ‘You know,
I think I’m in the right place,’” he muses. And yet, not a day goes by that he
doesn’t think about what might have been
if he had stayed in acting. “I’m very happy
with where I am and with my beautiful
family, and we have a well-respected
practice and work very hard to make a
difference. But it took a lot to get here.
It’s a truly abusive process that just really
sucks the life out of you in many ways. “As my hair gets grayer and my ulcer
gets bigger, all the while I’m thinking to
myself, ‘Wonder what my house in the
Hollywood Hills would have been like?’
But in reality you go where you’re called,
and I really am a believer that when you
have a calling there’s not a lot you can do
about it. You just sort of have to answer.”
Just after he’s decided to quit acting to
pursue his dream of becoming a doctor, his agent calls. He’s got the perfect
part—the role of a medical student in a
TV series pilot.
Fink says, “Look, I’ve made this
decision. I’m moving on. I’m not coming
back to audition for a pilot because who
knows what happens to pilots? For every
one that makes the air there’s another 20
that never get shown anyplace.”
The agent persists, but no dice.
Fink’s done.
The name of the series? ER. —cs n
january 2012 
C
amera on shoulder, Eric Freeburg
waded deeper and deeper into the
murky water. On a dock clear across the
pond congregated a group of people,
“survivors” millions call them without
a hint of irony, whose every breath he
needed to record.
Freeburg crept closer, minnows,
mosquitoes, and mysterious creatures
nipping at his flesh. Now knee deep,
he glanced down and noticed bubbles
encircling his left leg.
It was a bright, blazing hot July day in
Gabon on the west coast of Africa when
Freeburg felt sharp pinching where the
sun don’t shine.
“I knew right away a leech had
attached itself to my butt,” Freeburg,
SOC/BA ’00, says. “I slowly got out of
the water and pulled my pants down.
There’s no way you can pull it off—it’s
too slimy—so my camera assistant, who
carried my tapes and batteries, also salt in
a ziplock bag, had to toss the salt on my
hindquarters, from the farthest distance
he could.”
“I wanted to travel the world
and I knew being outside
was something I could
handle. I couldn’t believe
there was a job like that.”
 american
22
Freeburg was living his dream.
Six years earlier he had packed
his worldly possessions—a cooler
with mustard, bread, and cheese for
sandwiches; a sleeping bag and tent;
a bag of clothes—into his cup holderless dark green 1989 Acura Legend and
driven cross-country to Los Angeles,
where he planned to become an
adventure cameraman.
That was it; that was the entirety
of the plan. He had no money, job
prospects, or even a professional camera.
Seven Survivor seasons, four Amazing
Races, and two Emmys later . . .
“I feel incredibly lucky,” says
Freeburg, 34, who visited 30 countries
while working on the reality television
shows. “I saw the world.”
Freeburg was a Boy Scout during
his childhood in upstate New York.
He loved the outdoors, and from the
moment he first paddled a kayak on the
Saranac River, nothing else mattered.
“It quickly took over my life,” he says.
“It was all I thought about.”
He went to American University
to study visual media at the School
of Communication and train on the
Potomac, where the rapids near Little
Falls Dam are world-class. When he
finished 13th at the 2000 whitewater
slalom U.S. Olympic trials, he retired
from competitive kayaking without
regret and turned his focus to filming.
“I saw Survivor on TV and said,
‘that is the ultimate dream,’” he says.
“I wanted to travel the world and I knew
being outside was something I could
handle. I couldn’t believe there was
a job like that.”
But how to make it a reality? When
he arrived in California, Freeburg slept
in a tent beneath the stars on the beach
at Leo Carillo State Park in Malibu.
“I’d get away with not paying by
driving in at 10, and I’d leave in the
morning before anyone got there,” he
says. “I was totally broke.”
But not flat busted. Freeburg had one
contact, a working cameraman he knew
through kayaking. Seems this fellow
had a contact at Survivor. That’s the way
these things work in Hollywood.
“He wouldn’t give me a phone
number, but he gave me the address,”
Freeburg says.
So each day Freeburg drove his carhome to the Survivor lot and begged for
a meeting with someone. Anyone. Worn
down by his persistence and charm,
security guards and secretaries eventually
relented. He was granted a face-to-face
with a producer, who was impressed
enough with his kayaking experience and
overall moxie to hire him as a camera
assistant for Eco-Challenge, a Survivorlike show set to film in Fiji.
In the South Pacific Freeburg paddled
camera operators around in a kayak, but
soon was pressed into duty when one
broke his foot.
“I got to shoot a team quitting, but I
ran out of tape at the dramatic moment,”
he says. “So I rewound and taped over the
boring stuff. It definitely worked out.”
His efforts were appreciated enough
to land him a spot as a cameraman on
Survivor.
“In the environment we had,
everyone had to be very physically fit
and gung ho,” said Doug McCallie, a
one-time executive producer on Survivor.
“You had to run and jump and shoot
through difficult terrain and in rough
conditions. These guys are a rare breed;
they’re not studio cameramen. They’re
physically fit and tough, and willing to
be in a jungle or desert and somehow
manage to deal with all the stress and
problems of not getting enough food
or water, of being hot or cold, and still
managing to shoot artfully. Eric’s pretty
stoic in a way, and yet when the heat is
on he goes and kicks ass.”
Freeburg crewed on the show for
seven seasons, sharing an Emmy for best
cinematography in 2010 (he also won
one for his work on Out of the Wild, an
adventure reality show set in Alaska).
The work was alternately thrilling,
tedious, and taxing.
“It’s always raining, and it’s always
hot,” he says of the conditions, regardless
of locale. “You’re trying to keep the lens
from fogging and the equipment dry.
You know when two people walk off
they’re about to talk about something
important, but you can’t alert the rest
of the tribe that they’re going to talk.
You have to kind of sneak away. You’re
trying to tread lightly. There’s a lot of
sitting around and watching people
sleeping and eating rice.”
When he wasn’t working, he was
partying. The art directors constructed
fake bars for the crew, but the booze
was liver-blackening real. In Samoa he
learned to crack coconuts; their juice
alleviates hangovers. Longtime crew
members became expert fishermen, often
catching one in the morning and serving
it as sashimi for dinner.
The adventure was just what Freeburg
craved—this was no desk job. He went
on to shoot four seasons of the Amazing
Race, following teams in a sprint around
the globe.
“I felt like I was going to die in the
front seat of a cab many times,” he says.
“It’s fast paced, more exciting than
Survivor. At Stonehenge my contestants
couldn’t drive stick and they were trying
to pull out into a double-lane highway.
One day in India we were watching
cremations in the Ganges River. We
walked 10 feet from 10 bodies being
burned. You caught a whiff of it and you
knew not to inhale anymore.”
It’s been a dizzying decade since
Freeburg left AU, and he’s ready to
stop racing around the world. Now a
camera operator on Keeping Up with the
Kardashians, he’s looking to settle down,
sleep in his own bed every night, and
develop his own reality series.
“My goal is to find regular people and
follow them around in their crazy lives,”
he says.
Sounds like he’s looking for someone
like Eric Freeburg. n
Photos courtesy of Eric Freeburg
summer
january2009
2011 
23
THE
HARD
WAY
HOW THREE AU STUDENTS
BEAT THE ODDS AGAINST POVERTY,
WAR, POLITICAL INSECURITY,
AND CORRUPTION
By Sarah Stankorb
 american
january 2012 
25
ANDREW BUCHANAN
GAINA DUBUISSON
Military and Civil Servant
Future Diplomat
SPA/BA ’12, Political Science
“I was sitting around
doing nothing,then
September 11 happened,”
remembers Andrew
Buchanan.
The recent high school grad had been
roofing houses in his rural Wisconsin
hometown, just coasting.
By November 2001, Buchanan had
reported for boot camp. “I felt
like it was just something that I
needed to do.”
Deployed in the infantry to
Afghanistan, he served on foot
patrols, hiking valleys and ridges,
crossing through Asadabad,
Ghazni, Nangalam, and
Kandahar. His job was as daring
as it was straightforward: “You’re
supposed to go to the front lines
and engage the enemy. Directly.”
He came home in May 2004
and was redeployed to Iraq in
August 2005. This time, instead
of trekking on foot, he would
be part of Humvee mounted
patrols. Often, the American
and Iraqi armies worked on
joint missions. Another major
difference between Afghanistan
and Iraq were the IED’s
(improvised explosive devices).
“You could never tell when
it was going to happen. We would find
some and get rid of them, but it was
the ones you didn’t see that would hit
a Humvee.” He adds, “That’s what
happened to me.”
Buchanan’s memory of the attack
is hazy. He had been in a Humvee in
Amarah, driving down “one of the roads
we’d gone down a hundred times.”  american
arms and legs, he checked to see what
was still there.
Shrapnel had blown off his heel. He
recalls, “One doctor told me it was like
taking an ice cream scoop to the back of
your foot and scooping it off.”
Buchanan was at Walter Reed for
two and a half years recovering from his
back and foot injuries. There, between
surgeries, occupational and physical
therapy, he witnessed how life’s
challenges separate us. “There
are two roads at Walter Reed:
you’re going to get past it, or
let what happened define who
you are.
“People have all these
dreams about what they want
to do with their lives. A lot of
times, people get stuck. They
don’t even have to go through
a traumatic event. Sometimes
they just get stuck in a rut.”
To support five boys,
“People have all
Buchanan’s father was a factory
these dreams
worker, his mother, a waitress.
about what they
It was work that provided for
want to do with
children who have each found
their own measure of success,
their lives. A lot
but Buchanan says, if he works
of times, people
hard, his life will be better than
get stuck.”
theirs. His future children, he
hopes, will have an easier life
than his own.
up in a hospital in Baghdad, with his
He considers his own goals—
sergeant major and company commander
counterterrorism and federal law
bedside. The message was brief. “Here’s
enforcement with the FBI or State
your purple heart. You’re going home.”
Department. Now that his time in the
Buchanan was confused. He knew he
military is over, he sees this as his chance
was hurt—he was in the hospital after
to continue service to the nation.
all—but he couldn’t remember what
“I’m going to do whatever it takes.
happened. His pain convinced him that it
My injury made me realize that.”
wasn’t a dream. Patting his hands over his
One moment he was talking to his first
sergeant. The next, he woke up with a
horrible pain in his upper back and asked
the medic riding behind him to remove
the piece of metal that was lodged there.
The medic was unconscious. Eventually, someone came to Buchanan’s
door, and it wasn’t until he tried to get
out that he noticed the blood.
The next thing he remembers is waking
SIS/BA ’12, U.S. Foreign Policy
“Before the world tells
you who you are, we’re
going to make sure you
know who you are.”
she came to AU, she had the experience
of many first generation college
students—better resourced classmates
whose academic foundation surpassed
her own.
There were Friday nights spent
playing catch-up while friends went out,
teasing her to lighten up, have fun. And
there was the dorm room refrigerator
that was better stocked than the one at
That message came to Gaina
Dubuisson by way of her parents,
followed quickly by these ideas: You’re
good. You’re beautiful. You’re intelligent.
Their words stuck. Dubuisson is a
confident young woman with a
clear sense of self.
That wisdom is in no small
“It’s not like
part defined by the Dubuisson
they’re not
family history. In Haiti,
Dubisson’s parents skimped
aware of their
on basics to fund her private
situation, but
school. “We used to eat corntheir
attitude is,
meal every day,” she laughs at
in our home,
the memory.
we choose joy.”
Even after immigrating
to eastern Pennsylvania, her
parents held down two factory
jobs apiece, which has left
visible signs. “My mother has
the most elegant, long, and
beautiful hands, and after
working in a factory for so long,
her hands have started to get so
hard.” Dubuisson sighs.
By many measures, though,
the Dubuissons now have the
American Dream within their
grasp. By the time Gaina was
home. Its significance was a poignant
15, the family had bought a home in
sign of success: her parents’ work had
Levittown, Pennsylvania. They have
paid off. Her life was already easier
unofficially adopted two other young
than theirs.
women and supported them through
But Dubuisson says that you would
college. Their second biological daughter,
never know how much her family
now seven, aspires to be a ballerina,
struggles. “It’s not like they’re not aware
lawyer, and diplomat.
of their situation, but their attitude is, in
Dubisson juggled two jobs and pushed
our home, we choose joy.”
herself to excel in high school. Still, when
Dubuisson is fostering joy in others.
During her time at AU she founded
the Minority Women’s Initiative at
her former high school to encourage
leadership among teenage girls. “Most
of these girls don't grow up seeing older
siblings and friends achieve their goals,
because of financial difficulties, family
problems, or just lack of opportunity."
She has also cofounded Haiti
In Transition (HIT), an
international nonprofit that
seeks to build new leadership
from among the nation’s youth.
Her next steps are clear.
Thanks to a Pickering
Fellowship awarded this year,
she has a full scholarship for
her senior year at AU, fully
funded graduate education,
an internship at the State
Department, another at any
U.S. embassy in the world, and
a secured job as an entry-level
diplomat.
Years of family sacrifice and
hard work have led to a personal
mission. “I know there are other
little girls waiting for someone
to tell them that they can do
it . . . There are little boys like
my father, whose education
was stolen from them. Others
waiting for people to decide enough is
enough.” Dubuisson grows quiet, and in
a tone of conviction with a generation’s
force behind it, she adds, “I want to be a
person of action.”
january 2012 
The
Shipwreck
Chaser
BILAL WAHAB
SIS/MA ’07, International Politics, Fulbright Scholar
Voice for Democracy
Bilal Wahab was a
member of the wrong
ethnic group. His
vocal father had the
wrong politics.
Born the year that Saddam Hussein
came to power, the Iraqi-born Kurd
would bear the brunt of authoritarianism
and corruption.
When Wahab was in second
grade and during a time of
Kurdish resistance, his father, an
imam, refused a blanket order
for all religious leaders to pray
for Hussein at Friday prayers.
There was a house-to-house
search for the family, which
first escaped to Halabja in the
Kurdish region. Soon, that area
was declared a war zone.
The family fled again the
year before Halabja was gassed
in a chemical attack and spent
almost four years in refugee
camps within the Iranian border.
His youth spared him the
deepest reality of his situation.
“But of course, in hindsight, it’s
a little different when you think
about it.”
In his emerging adulthood,
cronyism would threaten his
larger dream.
In 1991, the family returned to Iraq,
but the Kurdish civil war had split the
region in two and his family didn’t
align with either party. As Wahab rose
through upper grades and excelled at
university, the family’s unwillingness
to bootlick meant that his options for
advancement would be limited. Despite
graduating with a cumulative average
11 points higher than the second-place
 american
student, Wahab was denied a graduate
school slot. An exasperated professor
explained, “I gave all the extra credit
that I can to your competitor, but you
still have the full mark, so I have to
downgrade you.”
So, Wahab tried his luck elsewhere,
applying for the only jobs that required
a résumé (rather than favors or letters
from politicians)—international NGOs.
He landed a job with the U.N.’s Oil for
compensation for all their years of
suffering. A comfortable lifestyle, a new
car every few years, these promises are
understandably attractive, and can
buy votes. It’s a position that is easy
to exploit.
“But the harms are, if not equal,
more.” It’s a bitter lesson for a young
man, because now, the young democracy
is establishing the institutions that will
define the nation’s course.
For Wahab, scholarship has
been an opportunity to turn
bitter reality into action. He
studied corruption under a
Fulbright Scholarship at AU
and now in a PhD program
at George Mason University.
Google his name and you will
find links to the New York
Times, National Review, and Al
Jazeera English. He raises his
voice because he understands
the stakes are high.
“Saddam Hussein
The stamp of freedom,
didn’t come out
when it is still riddled with
injustice, offers no guarantees.
of a vacuum.
“The challenge is, Saddam
He wasn’t a
Hussein did it under the name
dictator because
of, call it fascism, call it Bathism
his mother
or whatever. You can do the
same thing under the name of
taught him to be
democracy and give democracy
a dictator . . .”
a bad name.”
“Saddam Hussein didn’t
Food program in the procurement office
come out of a vacuum. He wasn’t a
and saw corruption first-hand.
dictator because his mother taught him to
be a dictator,” says Wahab. “There were
He’d always held hope for the future
structures in place that allowed him to be
after Saddam. But, Wahab adds, “Then
like that. And I don’t see any guarantees
we got freedom and democracy.”
of that not happening.”
That freedom gave malfeasance a
As a professor, he plans to teach the
new guise.
rising generation that freedom cannot be
There were still bribes, patronage,
bought. “We’re supposed to be the model
and all the old grievances. He found his
for the Middle East.” n
peers increasingly interested in material
Mark Gordon, Kogod ’82, ’83, leads
the successful quest to find a sunken
treasure deep in the North Atlantic
By Tom Nugent
photos courtesy of odyssey marine exploration inc
january 2012 
photos courtesy of ody ssey marine exploration, inc.
A
s the underwater ROV nosed in
closer to the sunken hull, Mark
Gordon waited tensely to see
what its chattering video signals
would reveal.
This was it.
The moment of truth.
Would the high-tech cameras aboard
the Odyssey Explorer’s remotely operated
vehicle pick up the signature red-andblack hull colors of the British Indian
Steam Navigation Company? Was the
submarine-like ROV about to flash back
the proof that Gordon and his colleagues
had just discovered a shipwreck said to
contain $200 million in sunken treasure?
Perched on the edge of his seat, the
former American University business
administration major watched the
ROV hone in on the remains of the
Gairsoppa—a 412-foot, steel-hulled cargo
ship that had sunk in the North Atlantic
after being torpedoed by a German
submarine in February of 1941.
Named for a waterfall in India,
the Gairsoppa had been carrying her
precious cargo from Calcutta to England,
when the Nazi U-boat fired the torpedo
that would bring her down in over
15,000 feet of icy water.
According to her manifest, the ship
had been loaded with an estimated 240
tons of silver, along with huge quantities
of pig iron and tea.
Watching the video screen intently,
the president and chief operating officer
 american
of Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.
leaned in closer. For a moment, all he
could see was a swirl of silvery bubbles.
Then the picture jumped into focus.
Suddenly, the 51-year-old Gordon
was looking at a gaping hole where the
German torpedo had blasted the hull.
After 40 days of
searching the Atlantic
and risking about $1.5
million, Gordon’s team
had snagged a $160
million payday.
And although they were faded in
places, the colors on that battered hull
told a thrilling story in red and black.
They’d done it!
Mark Gordon and his Odyssey team
of about 40 shipwreck-recovery experts
had pinpointed a shipwreck believed to
contain the largest and deepest sunken
cargo of precious metals in history.
It happened on a rainy afternoon last
September, when Gordon’s team found
the Gairsoppa’s long-lost skeleton about
300 miles off the southwest coast of
Ireland. After years of combing through
shipping records and other sources, the
Odyssey crew had used their powerfully
effective “deep-tow low frequency sonar
system” to pinpoint a wreck that lies
deeper than the Titanic.
“That was a real Eureka! moment,”
says Gordon today, while remembering
the euphoria that flashed through
the Explorer’s “Offline Room” when
the ROV delivered its exhilarating
video feed.
“As a young man,” adds Gordon,
“I’d dived on many shipwrecks, after
being introduced to scuba diving at
American U. But this was different.
All at once, we had located a vessel no
one had seen since its sinking.
“Of course, we also knew we’d
located what may turn out to be 240
tons of silver—so there were plenty of
congratulations that afternoon.”
The bottom line: After 40 days of
searching the Atlantic and investing
around $1 million, Gordon’s team had
apparently snagged a $160 million
payday. (That figure represents 80
percent of the value of the silver; the
remaining 20 percent will go to the
British government.)
Ask Gordon how he feels about the
outcome of last September’s successful
discovery, and he laughs quite happily:
“Not a bad day at the office!”
Taking Scuba Diving 101 at AU
When Gordon arrived on the AU
campus from West Orange, New Jersey,
in the late 1970s, he wanted to be a
lawyer. But a funny thing happened
on the way to law school—and
it happened, of all places, in a firstsemester phys ed class.
“I signed up for a course in scuba
diving,” he recalls, “simply because I
was interested in that kind of stuff.
As a kid, I’d watched Jacques Cousteau,
and I went around looking for fossils
and such. I vividly remember our first
scuba classes in the campus swimming
pool, which was located across the street
from the Cassell Center.”
After a few pool sessions, Gordon’s
class headed off to a “flooded quarry”
in Haymarket, Virginia. “Boy, that
first dive was cold and it was dark,”
he remembers. “It was a little
intimidating at first, but I loved it.
And that course led me to a job at
the National Diving Center in D.C.,
which helped me pay bills while I was
working on my undergraduate degree and
my MBA in finance.”
Although the scuba class was a key
step in Gordon’s evolution from eager
undergrad to president of the publicly
traded Odyssey, he also credits Professor
Emeritus Donald Brenner with teaching
him “how to think about business
opportunities holistically and draw up a
business plan, which are crucial skills for
any entrepreneur.”
Gordon honed his business and
computer skills during a two-year stint at
accounting giant Arthur Andersen after
earning his AU MBA in 1983, but then
decided to roll the dice as an entrepreneur
who knew how to build finance-related
IT systems for industries and government.
Between 1985 and 2000, he launched
four different IT-related start-ups . . . then
sold the last one, the hugely successful
Synergy Networks, to the Rockefeller
Group in 2003.
As part of the deal, Gordon signed a
five-year contract to serve as a consultant
to Rockefeller. But then he got a phone
call that would dramatically alter his
vocation and bring him back to the
underwater exploration that had been his
first love. The caller was Greg Stemm,
a longtime pal and fellow-entrepreneur
who’d recently assembled a highly
ambitious underwater salvage enterprise
named Odyssey Marine Exploration.
Would Gordon be interested in “wiring
up their recently acquired ship” with new
communications technology before it set
sail on its first deep-sea treasure hunt?
Gordon was more than interested.
“I ran straight over to Baltimore Harbor,
where the ship was docked,” he recalls,
“and soon I was crawling all around in
blue jeans, helping to wire all of the data
cabling. And I loved it. I felt like I’d
gone back to what I loved most.”
Suddenly, Gordon’s unpredictable
life had turned 180 degrees. While a
consultant to Odyssey (and then after
signing on permanently as a management
exec in 2005), he would be a key figure in
helping the shipwreck-salvage company
score one success after another. In recent
years, Odyssey has made headlines by
discovering and hauling up millions of
dollars’ worth of treasures from such
famous shipwrecks as the Civil War-era
SS Republic and the British flagship
Victory (sunk in 1744). Along the way,
Gordon’s hardy crew has been featured in
National Geographic and in a Discovery
Channel TV series Treasure Quest, which
premiered in 2009.
The Quest for the Gairsoppa
When Gordon’s bold crew of treasureexplorers set out to find the Gairsoppa
last summer, they were reasonably
confident of success. But there were no
guarantees . . . and the search would
cost Odyssey tens of thousands of
dollars a day.
Armed with the world’s most
advanced “side-scan” sonar equipment,
the Odyssey ship left Ireland in late
July and steamed to an area about 300
miles off the coast, where both shipping
and German military records indicated
that the doomed cargo-hauler had gone
down. For more than two weeks, they
combed the Atlantic waters and came up
with nothing.
They’d spent hundreds of thousands of
dollars, and they had zilch to show for it.
What to do?
After a series of tense meetings, the
search team decided on a bold strategy.
Instead of endlessly scrutinizing the area
january 2012 
34
All-American Weekend
36
News from Development and Alumni Relations
38
Class Notables
40
Class Notes
www.american.edu/magazine
where the German U-boat commander
had reported the sinking, they’d move
their operation about a dozen miles
south. Their reasoning was simple:
During three years of “collecting every
scrap of data we could” about the wreck,
the Odyssey team had come up with a
vast array of “historical information about
tides and currents in 1941.”
Based on that data, it seemed possible
that the Gairsoppa could have drifted
10–15 miles south before hitting bottom.
It was worth a try. After quickly
assembling their “secondary search grid,”
they resumed operations. A few days
later, they got a surprise: their sonar
echoes were being interrupted, just
above the ocean floor—an anomaly
that meant they’d “run across a large
object on the bottom.”
Bingo!
Having located what they believed
was the Gairsoppa, the search crew
spent a week taking pictures of it with a
deepwater “camera sled.” Although they
were hazy and imprecise, those images
provided additional evidence.
It was time to bring in the high-tech
ROV for the final proof.
And it was here that Gordon joined
the high-seas expedition, last Labor Day
weekend, aboard the Odyssey Explorer
craft that directs the ROV. Plowing
through 10–30 foot seas, he hung on
through some atrocious weather that
had been inspired by passing Hurricane
 american
Irene. “It was pretty rough and tumble,”
Gordon recalls. “If you get seasick, you
wouldn’t have wanted to be on this ride.
“The nights were the toughest
part. It was difficult to sleep, because
you’re literally jammed into your bunk
every night.”
It took them another week to prepare
the ROV.
By now, with more than $1 million in
expenses to pay, Gordon was feeling just
a tad stressed. “Yeah, I was feeling some
pressure,” he remembers. “As president,
I feel personal responsibility for the jobs
of our employees. And I’m charged with
appropriately managing the shareholders’
interests. So at this point, I was feeling a
whole lot of responsibility.”
But then the ROV nosed up against
the red-and-black hull, and Gordon
and his crew understood that they’d
just landed what they hope will be a
$160 million payday, after the physical
retrieval of the Gairsoppa’s cargo takes
place next spring.
So how hard is it to find a sunken ship
in the open Atlantic, at three miles deep?
To get a mental picture of the
difficulty, Gordon suggests an
experiment: “The next time you’re on an
airplane, wait until you get to 15,000 feet
and then look out the window and see
what a house looks like!”
For the congenitally upbeat Gordon,
who lives in Tampa with wife Sue and
their two daughters, the journey from
scuba-diving novice to president of the
world’s most successful shipwreck
exploration company has been “a thrilling
journey in which I was fortunate to wind
up doing for a living what I truly love.”
His advice? Live your passion.
“If I have any wisdom to pass on,” says
the high-spirited ocean rover, “it’s simply
that you should figure out what you
truly love, and then start thinking about
how you might be able to live that
passion each day.
“Really, I’m the luckiest guy I know.
At Odyssey, our team runs the [search]
operation around the clock, 24/7—and
I love every minute of it!” n
Alumni news
The all-alumni party during All-American Weekend drew flocks of alums to Ireland’s Four Fields for a final outing to the favored hangout after
its owners announced it would close in December or early 2012.
to learn more about odyssey and
mark gordon: www.shipwreck.net
january 2012 
ALL-AMERICAN
WEEKEND 2011
OCTOBER 21–23
More than 800 alumni joined hundreds of current
students and families for All-American Weekend
2011. The Eagles pictured enjoyed the all-alumni
party, All-American picnic, the annual awards
ceremony, and the Golden Eagles luncheon.
Leadership donors were also recognized at the
annual President’s Circle dinner.
View more photos
and upload your own
on our Facebook
and Flickr pages.
facebook.com/AmericanUAlum
flickr.com/AmericanUAlum
 american
january 2012 
news from development and alumni relations
Update
by Thomas J. Minar, Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations
W
hile the university continues with Strategic Plan implementation in
2012, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations is charged
with securing the necessary support to underwrite the programs,
people, and places that will position AU as a leader in our changing world. Our work
of late has included assessments of what we are doing well in this regard and where
we can improve to reach our ambitious goals.
We took a close look at one of our beloved traditions, the President’s Circle,
which revealed a concerning trend: declining gift impact given the rising expenses
of solicitation and stewardship. After a study of peer institutions, analyses of current
support, and consultation with university leadership, we made the decision to increase
membership levels for the first time since 1986. Chief among the changes is a fiscal
year gift of $2,500 for entry, beginning May 1, 2012.
We are deeply grateful for the level of support provided by our President’s Circle
members and believe that this transition will have a significant impact on the life of
AU while maintaining the distinction of the President’s Circle. We acknowledge that
this change comes amidst challenging economic times, and we will be working closely
with current and prospective donors during the transition. This will include new
alumni provide vision and support for soc as groundbreaking approaches
Under the leadership of Dean Larry Kirkman, the
movement for the School of Communication’s
new home was inspired by the Forman Challenge
Fund, named for Trustee Emeritus Michael
Forman, whose seed funding was matched dollar
for dollar by SOC Dean’s Council members. The
Forman Challenge underwrote architectural plans
to reimagine AU’s iconic McKinley Building. Now,
through historic preservation and new construction,
McKinley will be transformed into a high-energy,
high-tech, and high-touch hub for communication education, professional innovation, and scholarship. The restoration will provide the
digital classrooms, learning labs, private offices, and signature public spaces that SOC needs
for students and faculty to excel. The new building will also engage the alumni and industry
partners who keep our academic programs among the nation’s best, and distinguish SOC as a
leading forum on the future of communication as a profession and a social responsibility. With
groundbreaking set for early 2012, the Campaign for SOC is harnessing the momentum of
AU alumni, faculty, and friends whose significant contributions will realize this shared
vision. Thanks to their generosity, along with that of many future donors, the new, sustainable
SOC building will bring great pride to the entire university community when it opens in the
2013–2014 academic year.
to learn more about
how you can participate
in the campaign for soc,
please contact peter
caborn at 202-885-2651 or
caborn@american.edu.
recognition opportunities for our donors who continue to give, with our gratitude,
below the new President’s Circle level.
We would not be where we are today without philanthropic support from gifts
small to large. In this issue, we are delighted to recognize several alumni, faculty, and
friends who have stepped up with leadership commitments for the new School of
Communication building. The vision for a restored McKinley as SOC’s new home is
We are grateful to the donors below who have made leadership campaign commitments by naming
spaces in the new School of Communication as of November 1, 2011:
Gary M. Abramson, SPA/BA ’68 P ’97, and
Pennie M. Abramson, P ’97
one of great promise for both the school and the entire university; we look forward to
Laird B. Anderson, SOC/MA ’73, and Florence H. Ashby
a new year of building on that promise, and celebrating our successes, with you.
James M. Brady, SOC/BA ’89, and Joan Brady
Rhonda Joy Brown, SOC/BA ’76
For more information or to make a gift, please visit www.giving.american.edu or call the
Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 202-885-5900.
Patrick H. Butler, SOC/MA ’96, and Donna N. Butler
Alisyn Camerota, SOC/BA ’88, and Tim Lewis
Jack C. Cassell, SOC/BA ’77, P ’14, and Denise Cassell, P ’14
Jennifer D. Collins, SOC/BA ’94
David R. Drobis, SOC/MA ’65, and Bobbi Drobis
Carey Marie Earle, SOC/BA ’88
Noël F. Greene, SOC/BA ’95
Joy Thomas Moore, SOC/BA ’72, SOC/MA ’73
Anthony D. Perkins, SOC/BA ’81
Rodger Streitmatter, CAS/PhD ’88
Susan W. Zirinsky, SOC/BA ’74, and Joseph F. Peyronnin III
An honor roll of all donors to the Forman Challenge Fund and the Campaign for SOC will be unveiled
in early 2012 at american.edu/soc/campaigndonors
 american
january 2012 
Class notables
SO YOU CAN CATCH UP WITH PEOPLE YOU KNEW AT AU
Q. How do you make “international” accessible to the
Denver community?
A. I coordinate the Denver World Affairs Council, a global
affairs speaker series that’s hosted ambassadors from China, India,
Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, and other countries. Madeleine Albright,
Robin Wright, Dennis Ross, and Reza Aslan have also spoken
here, reaching many in the area with their messages. I facilitate
the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional
exchange that has brought together domestic and international
leaders, such as Sharia court judges from Afghanistan, a food
safety expert from Japan, the chief inspector of Scotland Yard,
Hamid Karzai’s press secretary, a Buddhist monk from Cambodia,
and the mayor of Jerusalem.
“I’ve always had a great respect for coaches. AU’s Mark Davin
is great, and he has very, very good assistant coaches,” says Lydecker, who attended AU on a swimming scholarship. “They have an
eye for detail and the ability to communicate correct techniques.”
He recalls early morning practices as a student-athlete and says
that’s one thing that hasn’t changed for AU’s team or in his own
regimen. A prominent businessman, Lydecker doesn’t have a lot
of time to spend in the water. He works out every morning from
Q. Does your work help send Denver residents abroad?
A. We administer the Fulbright scholar programs for Colorado
and 15 surrounding states and work with private companies to
create IIE scholarships. Those scholarships send domestic and
international students abroad to act as ‘ambassadors.’ [They
can then] use their experiences to benefit the community. For
example, thanks to her Fulbright English teaching experiences in
Jordan, Emily Hagemeister now works at the Council of American Overseas Research Centers’ Critical Language Scholarship
Program. There she helps create opportunities for young Americans to learn Arabic and other critical languages. And Jeremiah
Hulsebos-Spofford has taught in Chicago’s only public art high
school as a result of his Fulbright experience in Italy.
Karen Strawser de Bartolomé,
SIS/BA ’73
ew problems can be solved in isolation, says Karen
Strawser de Bartolomé, who as executive director of
the Rocky Mountain Center of the Institute of
International Education (IIE), does her share to help “make
the world a smaller place.” IIE was founded after World War I
by three Nobel Peace Prize winners who wanted to strengthen
ties between education in the United States and abroad and
address local and global challenges.
A key opportunity to enlarge her own sense of the world
arose when de Bartolomé was chosen mid-career to be a White
House Fellow. As a fellow, she traveled to Geneva, Switzerland,
with U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter to participate
in the first conversations about China joining the World Trade
Organization. She also engaged in numerous discussions with the
Japanese trade ministry. Working one-on-one with high ranking
government officials helped her better understand the United
States and its place in the global community.
Today, de Bartolomé is eager to help send young people to
study abroad because, she says, “forming a sense of yourself without a sense of the rest of the world is handicapping yourself.”
American asked de Bartolomé how she brings a sense of the
global community to a local community.
F
Q. How do you promote cultural exchange in Denver, a cosmopolitan city, but not a traditional international hub?
A. The things that make us human are the things that help us
connect. Global understanding can happen in the most intimate
of settings, even over a shared meal. This is where the magic
38 american
—claire taylor
Charlie Lydecker, SPA/BA ’85
harlie Lydecker says the turning point came at AU.
Though he graduated from the School of Public Affairs
more than 25 years ago, the latest impact AU made on
Lydecker’s life was this fall with members of the Eagles swim team.
Lydecker, who was on campus for a Board of Trustees meeting, also was training as a member of three-time Olympic gold
medalist Rowdy Gaines’s swim team for the Rowdy Gaines
Masters Classic in Orlando, Florida. He had been working out
six days a week for a year after being invited by Gaines to join
his team. Just weeks before they would set three age-group world
records, Lydecker got in the pool to practice with the AU team.
“I was pounding away and pounding away and pounding
away. Then I came to AU and started practicing relay starts,”
said Lydecker, “A lot has changed, including training regimens,
since I was swimming at AU.” Of his time swapping tips with the
current AU swim team and coaches, he said, “All of a sudden, I
was getting under 1:50 for the first time. That was the first time I
realized I had a shot at a world record.
C
Karen de Bartolemé ’73
happens. During conversations like, ‘Do Americans really believe
that?’ or ‘Do you really do that in Pakistan?’ It’s personal, direct;
you can have an impact. What I’m talking about [can] not be
done in volume; it’s one conversation, one cup of coffee at a time.
Charlie Lydecker ’85 with supporters in Team Lydecker T-shirts
5:15 to 7 a.m. and gets to bed by 10. “The hardest part is getting
up in the morning,” he laughs.
Part of what keeps him motivated is a substantial cheering
squad, including his wife Chris, who also is an AU swimming
alum, their three children, and many supportive friends. About
100 friends and colleagues rented a 40-foot RV and tailgated the
night before his races, while his family invited their friends to
travel in style. They rented a stretch limo for the event and the
celebration dinner that followed.
Though he took home three world records in a weekend,
Lydecker says, “I’m just a regular Joe. I’m working; I have a
family. [People] think it’s cool and that maybe they could do
something like that too—and they probably could.”
—traci crockett
In the 4x200 relay, Lydecker swam his leg in a time of 1:47. His
team combined to record a time of 8:03.40, breaking the previous old
short-course world record of 8:16.30. In the 4x100 relay, Lydecker’s
squad recorded a 3:57.16 to overtake the previous mark of 4:05.67.
january 2012 
Class notes
Class notes
Thanks for sending your news. E-mail your
latest accomplishments to classnotes@american.edu.
—Traci Crockett, Class Notes Editor
1956
Milton Cerny, CAS/BS, WCL/
JD ’59, represents a broad range
of nonprofit organizations, including hospitals,
private foundations, universities, public charities,
and trade associations.
1961
Robert Gongloff, CAS/BA, is president of the International Association
for the Study of Dreams and author of Dream
Exploration: A New Approach.
www.heartofthedream.com
1966
Henry Donner, SPA/BA ’66, was
selected for inclusion in the Best
Lawyers in America 2012.
Walter Hewick, CAS/MED, CAS/PhD ’69,
recently published the book Write On.
David Nolte, SPA/BA, was elected to
the board of directors of the American Security Council Foundation, one of D.C.’s oldest
think tanks, which promotes the Peace through
Strength strategy.
1967
Edward Faberman, SPA/BA, was
named one of the nation’s “Leading
Lawyers” by Chambers USA.
Joan Plaisted, SIS/BA, SIS/MA ’69, is
serving as senior advisor for Asia on behalf of
the United States at the 66th General Assembly
session of the United Nations in New York. 1961
Ken Ayers, SIS/BA,
had a sculpture, Coconut
Chakra, selected for the national art
show A Sense of Place 2011 at the
Gertrude Herbert Art Institute in
Augusta, Ga.
Constance Freeman, SIS/BA, is
a visiting scholar at the Development
Institute at Tsinghua.
Brian Goldman, Kogod/BS,
was elected president of Jewish Community Services in Baltimore, Md.,
at the agency’s Annual Meeting on
June 14, 2011. He has served on the
Board of Jewish Community Services and
Jewish Family Services for over 30 years, holding many officer positions, including assistant
secretary, assistant treasurer, treasurer, and first
vice president.
Randall Tenor, SPA/BA, retired from the
State Library of Pennsylvania after more than 36
years of service.
1971
Theodore Simon, Kogod/BS, was
elected the second vice president of
the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, the nation’s top criminal defense
organization. Simon is an attorney in private
practice in Philadelphia, where he has based a
local, national, and international practice for the
last 37 years. He has obtained reversals in the
U.S. Supreme Court and in the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court.
1973
Andy Harp, SPA/BA, is director of
operations for this year’s Operation
Thriller tour, which he attended last year. The
tour includes five of today’s most popular thriller
authors who do a week-long USO tour to the
Middle East.
John Hornung, SPA/MPA, has selfpublished four e-books, is a member of the
Chesapeake Bay Writers Chapter of the Virginia
Writers Club, and lives in Williamsburg, Va.,
with his wife.
Bob Ransom, SIS/MA, is a Franklin Fellow for one year at the U.S. State Department’s
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
He is a retired specialist on disability
with the International Labor Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and most recently directed the
Ethiopian Center for Disability and
Development in Addis Ababa. He
plans to return to Ethiopia with his
wife Kitui, sons, Myles and Andrew,
and their six children upon completion of his assignment in Washington. ransom.bob@gmail.com
 american
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1974
Brian Goldman ’61
Kathleen Collins,
CAS/BA, SPA/BS,
SPA/MS ’81, retired from the
key to the schools
College of Arts and Sciences: CAS
Kogod School of Business: Kogod, KSB
Treasury Department after 37 years of service.
On June 30, 2011, she was presented with the
distinguished Director’s Citation by John E.
Bowman, acting director of the Office of Thrift
Supervision, for her outstanding career accomplishments, as well as her community outreach
through the Compassionate Friends, which assists families grieving the loss of a child. She lives
in Fairfax, Va., and has been married for 37 years
to Charles (Chuck) Collins, SPA/BS ’74,
School of Communication: SOC
School of International Service: SIS
School of Public Affairs: SPA
Washington College of Law: WCL
Visit www.american.edu/
alumni/connected for links.
SPA/MS ’81. They are the proud parents of
Tiffanie, David, and Christopher Collins.
Louis Gould, CAS/BA, published a new
book, The Virgin Chronicles and Song Book, with a
foreword by Izzy Young and illustrations by Rene
Martin.
Frank Haddock, CAS/MS, and wife
Rosemary were married 50 years on June 3,
2011. Originally from Avoca, Pa., they live in
Arlington, Va.
1975
Loren Buckner, SPA/BS, has authored her first book, ParentWise: The
Emotional Challenges of Family Life and How to Deal
with Them. www.lorenbuckner.com
1976
1985
1986
Dave Reiss, SOC/BA, was
promoted to associate professor
in Towson University’s electronic media and
film department, where he teaches narrative,
documentary, and community video production.
1978
Elliot Olen,
WCL/JD, has
been appointed a member of
Paul Domorski ’76
the Board of Directors of the
Bucks County, Pa., Rescue Squad, a nonprofit
organization providing emergency paraprofessional health services and transportation for
the region.
1979
Dov Apfel, WCL/JD, was awarded
the Dan Cullan Memorial Award,
a national lifetime achievement award conferred
by the Executive Board of the Birth Trauma
Litigation Group of the American Association
for Justice.
Jeff Baxt, SOC/BA, has been named a consultant to the 2011 Wawa Welcome America!, an
11-day summer festival in Philadelphia.
1980
1981
1983
Clifford Alderman, SPA/BS,
authored the book Unionville as part
of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.
He was interviewed by Wes Cowan of the PBS
TV series History Detectives regarding the story of
the pikes used by John Brown in his 1859 raid
on Harper’s Ferry, W.Va.
Mary Gabriel, SOC/MA, published
a new book called Love and Capital,
Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
(Little, Brown).
Paul Domorski,
SPA/BA,
SPA/MPA ’78, was named
president and chief executive
officer of Par Technology
Corporation. He also joined
the company’s Board of
Directors as chairman.
Joe Foley, SIS/
MA, owner of
Foley Government and Public Affairs, is celebrating
his company’s 25th year.
www.foleycoinc.com
Sharon Hughes, SOC/
BA, Kogod/MS ’85, has
joined Teach for America’s
2011 teaching corps.
s52hughes@comcast.net
Larry Rafey, CAS/BS, published Martin
Truemartin, a fantasy novel for young adults
and adults.
Leonard Rosen, CAS/PhD, had his debut
novel, All Cry Chaos, published on September 1.
www.lenrosenonline.com
1987
Noel Moenssens, Kogod/BSBA, is
general partner with Belflo Properties Limited Partnership. noelmoen@msn.com
1988
Joe Flood, SIS/BA ’88, had his
short story “The City of the Dead”
published in Digital Americana, the world’s first
literary magazine for the iPad. joeflood.com
Noureddine Rabah, CAS/PhD, is writing
articles about the evolution and formation of
the state in Algeria and is looking for publishers.
deanrabah@ynotpromo.com
David Sears, SIS/BA, SIS/MA ’90, is an
Air Force pilot stationed at the Pentagon. He’s
married, lives in Alexandria, Va., and has published two books under the pen name Michael
Bleriot: Memories of an Emerald World and The
Jungle Express. nepal511@yahoo.com
Rodger Streitmatter, CAS/PhD, was
married to Tom Grooms at St. John’s Episcopal
Church in Georgetown on May 14, 2011.
1989
Joe Foley ’80
Pam Iorio, SPA/BS, former mayor
of Tampa, Fla., is now a leadership
speaker. Her first book, Straightforward: Ways to
Live and Lead, was published in November.
Jim Brady, SOC/BA, was named
Journal Register Company’s
editor-in-chief.
Brian Keane, SPA/BA, and his wife, Kate,
welcomed their fourth child, Julia Kelly Keane,
on July 28. Keane is president of SmartPower
and the immediate past president of the American University Alumni Association.
Ben Newman, SPA/BS, has been appointed
by the board of directors of the Kids’ House of
Seminole as the chairman of the newly formed
government relations committee.
Michael Newman,
WCL/JD, has been
appointed magistrate
judge on the Federal
Court bench in Ohio.
1990
Coleman Nee,
SOC/BA, has
been appointed Secretary
of Veterans’ Services for
the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, one of the
leading veterans services
departments in the United
States.
Michael Newman ’89
1991
Julie Horowitz
Coleman Nee ’90
Jackson, CAS/
BA, received the National Retailer Excellence Award for Marketing Achievement for the 10th anniversary celebration of her
boutique, Virtu.
1992
Charlotte Masiello-Riome,
SIS/BA, was appointed communication strategy advisor to His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales for his Accounting for Sustainability project, which works with businesses,
investors, the public sector, accounting bodies,
NGOs, and academics to develop practical
guidance and tools for embedding sustainability
into decision-making and reporting processes.
cmriome@gmail.com
Bob Minnick, SPA/MS, is running for
public office in Goochland County, Va.
Lisa Norris, CAS/
MFA, is the author of
Women Who Sleep with
Animals, which won
the Stephen F. Austin
State University Fiction Prize in 2010.
lisanorris.us
Samantha Rider,
CAS/MA, joined
Gannett Digital in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,
as manager of social
Samantha Rider ’92
commerce.
1993
Kathryn Boockvar, WCL/JD,
was the Democratic nominee for
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge. The
Commonwealth Court is one of Pennsylvania’s
three statewide appellate courts and decides cases
relating to employment, the environment and
land use, elections, and other issues.
Patrick Groomes, SIS/BA, WCL/JD ’01,
has joined the Washington, D.C., office of
Fulbright and Jaworski as partner.
See Class Notes page 43
january 2012 
Class notes
Join the Circle: New Opportunities
for Leadership Giving
Class Notes, from page 41
au acknowledges leadership in philanthropy
through its President’s Circle. Members of this leadership
circle receive special recognition and communications as
well as invitations to high profile events including the fall
President’s Circle dinner.
The university has not raised its leadership giving levels since
1986, however, in order to direct more philanthropic dollars
to students and faculty, academic programs, and facilities,
all levels will be updated as of May 1, 2012. The entry level
President’s Circle membership gift will move from $1,000
to $2,500.
President’s
Circle
new leadership giving levels:
•John F. Kennedy Associates: $2,500–$4,999
•Herbert C. Hoover Associates: $5,000–$9,999
•Theodore Roosevelt Associates: $10,000–$24,999
•William McKinley Associates: $25,000–$49,999
•Benjamin Harrison Associates: $50,000 and above
(All leadership gifts are recorded to reflect AU’s fiscal year May 1 through
April 30.)
We are grateful to have such a supportive group of donors
to ensure that AU continues its ascent.
how it will work: During the transition year, donors
who give $1,000 or more between May 1, 2011, and April 30,
2012, will receive invitations to the October 2012 President’s
Circle dinner and acknowledgement as President’s Circle
donors in fall 2012 recognition materials.
give a gift every year,
make a difference
every day.
 american
After May 1, 2012, annual contributions and matching
gifts that total $2,500 or more will earn President’s Circle
membership for the fiscal year in which gifts are made.
Loyal supporters who continue to give annually at the
$1,000 level will be recognized with events that will begin
in spring 2012.
Jen Nadol, CAS/BA, had her second novel,
The Vision, published by Bloomsbury Children’s
Books in September 2011. Jen lives in Westchester
County, N.Y., with her husband and three sons. jennadolbooks.com
1994
Richard Forno, SIS/BA, is cochairing the Maryland Cyber Challenge and Conference, which gives teams the opportunity to learn more about cyber security and
develop practical skills for defending computers
while competing for scholarships.
John McMickle, WCL/JD, is the president
of newly created JDM Public Strategies.
Jess Sadick, SPA/BA, launched the Web site
Down4Lunch.com, which connects professionals
who have never met for face-to-face networking
over lunch.
Lend a Hand at
2012 Reunion
Interested in coordinating
your class reunion in 2012?
AU will celebrate the classes of
1990–99, 2002, and 2007. To
volunteer, contact Carlita Pitts
at reunion@american.edu or
202-885-5902 with your contact
information and class year.
1995
Michelle Sparck, SIS/BA, owns
ArXotica, which was featured
in SELF.com’s beauty blog. She is a recipient of
the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Top 40 Under 40 award.
1996
Ryan Haas, CAS/
BA, was promoted
from associate to principal attorney at Chuhak and Tecson. His
practice focuses on employment
and health care issues.
1997
Sheri Bancroft,
CAS/MFA, was
Ryan Haas ’96
featured in Memphis’s Commercial Appeal newspaper after being
promoted to artistic director of DeltaARTS.
Dave Rubel, SIS/BA, was selected as the
2011 State Star of
Vermont Small
Business Development Center. He
is the area business advisor for
Washington and
Lamoille Counties
and the international trade specialist for the team. He
was recognized for
this honor at the
Dave Rubel ’97
national ASBDC
conference in San
Diego. America’s Small Business Development
Center Network is a partnership uniting private
enterprise, government, higher education,
and local nonprofit economic development
organizations.
1998
Penny Fields, CAS/MS, was sworn
in as Peace Corps county director
in Cambodia.
Link to us at american.edu/alumni/stayconnected
1999
Jonathan Glazier, SPA/BA, works
as a senior director of corporate
compliance and privacy officer for Fresenius
Medical Care North America, a leading provider
of kidney dialysis services and renal care products.
He and wife Alyssa welcomed daughter Hannah
Grace on August 11, 2010. The Glaziers live in
Charlestown, Mass.
2000
Katie Bacon, Kogod/BA, has
been elected to a three-year term
on the Board of Trustees for the Annapolis Opera.
Jill Engle, WCL/JD, is assistant professor of clinical law at the Penn State University
Dickinson School of Law. She teaches family
law and manages the law
school’s Family Law Clinic
in State College, Pa., where
she lives with her husband,
Dave, and sons, David, age
16, and Michael, age 13.
Sam Garrett, SPA/BA,
SPA/MPA ’03, SPA/PhD
’05, was promoted to specialist in American National
Government at the ConJill Engle ’00
gressional Research Service,
Library of Congress. In June
2011, Justice Kagan cited his
research on public financing of campaigns in
the U.S. Supreme Court’s dissenting opinion in
Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC et
al. v. Bennett.
Dan Goncher, SPA/BA, was promoted to
principal analyst at Harvey M. Rose Associates in
San Francisco.
2001
Megan Beste, SOC/BA, is director
of marketing and special projects
at Fitzpatrick Lentz and Bubba in Lehigh Valley,
Pa. She also is a member of the capital campaign
cabinet of Community Services for Children.
Karen Garrett, CAS/BA, was promoted to
director of marketing and publications services
at the Direct Selling Association. She also was
elected clerk of session at the Church of the
Pilgrims in Dupont Circle; she is the youngest person holding the position in the National
Capital Presbytery.
Donna Ginn, SPA/MSOD, received the
Community Spirit Award given by the MiamiDade County Commission for Women.
Joseph Logan, SPA/MS ’01, published 7
Simple Steps to Landing Your First Job, which gives
readers advice on how to manage a job search,
get support, and close the deal.
Sarah Moss, SOC/BA, was featured in the
Denver Business Journal. www.SarahMossInc.com
Lily Qi, Kogod/MBA, was appointed by
Montgomery County executive Ike Leggett as
special projects manager overseeing biohealth
industry growth strategy and international
partnerships with Asian and Middle Eastern
countries. She also joined the Board of Trustees
of Suburban Hospital.
january 2012 
Class notes
Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch, SIS/BA, married Nathan Gunsch in August 2010. She is
finishing her PhD in art history at the Institute
of Fine Arts, New York University. AU alumni
Madeleine Short Fabic, SIS/BA ’00; Sarah Heaton, SIS/BA ’01; Carmen Iezzi, SIS/BA ’00,
SIS/MA ’01; Darcy Sawatzki SOC/BA ’00;
Andy Sawatzki, SPA/BA ’01; Christian Woods,
CAS/BA ’01; and Michelle Woolley, SPA/BA
’02, WCL/JD ’07; attended the celebration.
Christopher Malagisi, SPA/BA, is CPAC
director for the American Conservative Union,
the nation’s oldest conservative movement
organization. The ACU hosts the largest gathering
of conservatives each year at the Conservative
Political Action Conference.
See Class Notes page 46
Weddings and Births
1. Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch, SIS/
CAS ’01, with husband Nathan
Gunsch and fellow AU alumni
Madeleine Short Fabic,
SIS/BA ’00; Sarah Heaton,
SIS/BA ’01; Carmen Iezzi,
SIS/BA ’00, SIS/MA ’01;
Darcy Sawatzki, SOC/BA ’00;
Andy Sawatzki, SPA/BA ’01;
Christian Woods, CAS/BA ’01;
and Michelle Woolley,
SPA/BA ’02
4
2002
Ken Biberaj, SPA/BA, helped
ring the closing bell at the New
York Stock Exchange on July 11 as a member of
the NYC and Company Restaurant Committee
to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Restaurant
Week in New York.
Sharon Foster, SOC/MA, was elected to the
Pentagon Memorial Fund Educators’ Leadership
Group.
Jamie Levine Daniel, SIS/BA, married Elan
Daniel on May 29, 2011. The wedding party
included Rachel Tabakman, SPA/BA ’03, and
Abbye Weingram Cornfield ’04.
2003
Saqer Al-Khalifa, SIS/MA, is a
media attaché in the Embassy of
the Kingdom of Bahrain.
2. Jamie Levine Daniel, SIS/BA ’02,
with bridesmaid Abbye Weingram
Cornfield and maid of honor
Rachel Tabakman, SPA/BA ’03
3. Rodger Streitmatter, CAS/PhD
’88, with husband Tom Grooms
1
4. Alisa Wohlfarth, Kogod/BS ’04,
with fellow AU alumni Juan
Jaysingh, Kogod/BSBA ’04; Ivan
Mitchell, SIS/BA ’04; Dapheny
Wono, CAS/BS ’04; and Esther
Gavilan, SOC/BA ’04, who were
guests at her wedding
Ken Biberaj ’02, at the New York Stock Exchange
5. Wike Kaiser, CAS/BA ’04,
with wife Ashley and AU
alumni who joined them at
their August wedding
5
donor-funded endowments
like the stephen and lynn greenfield
family scholarship, established in 2005
to help students studying education,
jewish studies, or the arts, can change
lives. rebecca levy, soc ’11, of bellevue,
washington, shares how.
6. Stacy Dennison, SPA/BA ’06,
with husband Paul Rein
7. Brian Keane, SPA/BA ’89, with
wife Kate and daughter Julia
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Greenfield,
As this is the third time I have written to you, I feel I need
to express three times the gratitude.
Being a part of the Jewish Studies Department at AU has
provided me with a family that I couldn’t have found elsewhere,
and you are part of that family. Not only have you profoundly
eased my college expenses, you have reassured me of my
choices. You have given me confidence and allowed me to see
even more value in studying my heritage. I hope you know
what a difference your support has made in my life.
2
7
Shana tova,
6
Rebecca Levy
3
 american
january 2012 
Class notes
Class notes
Class Notes, from page 44
Manuel Quinones, SOC/BA, works
at E&E Publishing covering Congress and
mining issues for Greenwire and other publications. manuel_news@yahoo.com
2004
Whether it’s a promotion or an addition
to the family, let us share your good news
with your classmates. You can send us a
candid photo too!
Information for Class Notes:
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
By the time you receive this issue of American magazine,
the deadline for Class Notes for the next issue may
have already passed. But please keep sending us your
news and photos and look for your class note in upcoming issues. Photos must be at least 2x3 inches at
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Fax: --. E-mail: classnotes@american.edu
Mail:  
American University
 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC -
Deborah Horwitz, SPA/BA,
graduated from Baylor College
of Medicine with a master of science from the
Physician Assistant Program. She will seek employment as a dermatology PA in Houston, Tex.
Laurie Anne Hughes, SPA/BA, is working in Washington, D.C., for the Faith and
Politics Institute.
Monika Junker, SIS/BA, is program
manager for a national-level security clearance
program through which the Department of
Homeland Security sponsors clearances for
private sector owners, operators, and subject
matter experts responsible for infrastructure
protection. monika.junker@gmail.com
Wike Kaiser, CAS/BA, married Ashley
Kaiser last August. Alumni present at the
wedding included Bryan Bernys, SPA/BA
’04; Dan Cavise, SOC/BA ’04; John Doyle,
SPA/BA ’05; Anne Kaiser, CAS/MA ’84;
Brian Morgan, SIS/BA ’04; Javier Naranjo,
SOC/BA ’04; WCL/JD ’08, SIS/MA ’09;
Marshall Bailly II, SPA/BA ’04, SPA/MPA
’06; Matt Baill, Kogod/BSBA ’06; Neil
Friedman, CAS/BS ’74; and Jim Schmiedel,
Kogod/BSBA ’07.
Alisa Wohlfarth, Kogod/BS, married
Lucas Otten on July 9, 2011, in Beaver Creek,
Colo. Alumni Dapheny Wono, CAS/BS ’04;
Juan Jaysingh, Kogod/BSBA ’04; Zelijka
Jaysingh, SIS/BA ’05; Esther Gavilan, SOC/
BA ’04; Rachel Unterricht, SOC/BA ’04;
and Ivan Mitchell, SIS/BA ’04; were on hand
to help celebrate the occasion. Name______________________________________________
(Please include name used while a student at AU.)
Year______________ School________________________
Degree _______________________________________
Phone _(w)_________________________________________
_____ (h)_______________________________________
Address__________________________________________
______________________________________________
E-mail___________________________________________
May we print your e-mail address with your
class note?
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 american
2005
Brynn Barineau, SIS/BA, SIS/
MA ’07, has lived in Brazil since
the end of 2006 and teaches economics and
American literature to Brazilian teenagers.
brynnbarineau@yahoo.com
Danielle Hirschfeld, CAS/BA, married
Steven Michael Lerner on May 29, 2011, in St.
Louis. Alumna Nora Shimmel, SOC/BA ’05,
was a bridesmaid.
Lindsey Kerr, SOC/BA, received a 2011
Fund for Theological Education Ministry
Fellowship.
John Passante, WCL/JD, is an adjunct
faculty member in the department of criminal
justice at New Jersey City University.
Sarah Pruskowski, Kogod/BSBA, was
married in 2010. sarah.pruskowski@gmail.com
Jennifer Vishnevsky, SOC/BA, is the
winner of the 2011 silver award for a “how-to”
article by the American Society of Business
Publication Editors.
2006
Stacy Dennison, SPA/BA,
married Paul Rein on October
15, 2010, in Dunedin, Fla. They bought their
first home in January 2011 and are enjoying
married life with their dogs.
Krystle Kaul, SIS/BA, is pursuing her
PhD in political science at Brown University,
focusing on water conflict in South Asia and
the Middle East.
Jessica Sprovtsoff, WCL/JD, joined
Miller Canfield as an associate in the Ann
Arbor, Mich., office. Her practice covers all
areas of business and commercial litigation,
focusing on complex commercial cases and
class action litigation.
Amanda Thickpenny, CAS/BA, began
her master’s degree in text and performance
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and
Birkbeck, University of London, in London,
England.
Corrine Thompson-Melissari, SPA/BA,
married fellow AU graduate Jeremy Melissari,
SPA/MA ’07, on September 24, 2011.
Stephen Tucker, CAS/BA, who received
Utah State University’s Vice Presidential
Research Fellowship, is studying elementary
mathematics education and leadership in the
teacher education and leadership department.
2007
Christopher Burns, SIS/BA,
who works for the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, was part of a team which won
two awards at the Cannes Lions International
Festival of Creativity, the world’s largest and
most prestigious international annual awards
for creative advertising and communications. Stephanie Hertz, SIS/MA, is back
from France where she worked for a year as
an English teaching assistant.
Rob Ianelli, SIS/BA, started two
Web sites, www.brewsees.com and
www.whatsupnetworks.com.
2008
Stephen Meli, SPA/BA, is
attending George Mason University School of Law.
Emily Siegel, SIS/MA, was among seven
members of the extended AU community who
took part in a unique delegation to Israel and
Palestine. The group met with approximately
30 Israeli and Palestinian groups representing
a wide swath of both societies in Israel and the
occupied Palestinian territories, including East
Jerusalem. A special focus was on the work of
nonviolent activists and other peace builders
working to create a better future for Israelis
and Palestinians.
Brendan Stern,
SPA/MA, is the women’s basketball coach at
Gallaudet University.
2009
Angel
Livas,
SOC/MA, was promoted to executive producer of radio at AARP.
angel2383@gmail.com
Linda Mancillas,
Brendan Stern ’08
SPA/MA ’09, SPA/
PhD ’10, was awarded
the American Political Science Association’s 2011
Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Mentoring Award.
2010
Anthony Brenneman, SOC/MFA,
directed the film Frienemies, which
screened at the D.C. Shorts film festival as well
as at the Maryland International Film Festival.
Jerri Castillo, CAS/MFA, had a solo
exhibition of her paintings at the Arts Club of
Washington.
Ryan Eickmeier, SPA/ MA, joined the
REALpac team in March 2010. He monitors the
daily progress in relevant government legislation,
produces monthly and as needed government
relations updates, government submissions, in
depth policy research papers and commentaries,
and maintains close relationships with important
government and stakeholder contacts.
Sonia Tabriz, SPA/BA, CAS/BA, and Liz
Calka SOC/BA ’11, have been named Hassine
Scholars for the 2011–12 academic year, an
award that includes a $500 stipend for each
recipient provided by the Hassine family.
in
AU alumni have a
new home online
Visit our new online community
to find exciting features, including:
• improved event registration
• more opportunities to network with AU alums
• personal profiles
• robust alumni directory
• easy ways to give
Create your profile at
www.american.edu/alumni.
E-mail questions to alumni@american.edu.
2011
Shannon Cummings, SIS/BA, is a
Teach for America corps member in
eastern North Carolina.
Richard Cytowic, CAS/MFA, won the 2011
Montaigne Medal from the Eric Hoffer Book
Awards for Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the
Brain of Synesthesia (MIT Press).
Keith Skillin, CAS/MA, is a professor of
history at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The Hon. James Thompson, SPA/BS ’60,
WCL/JD ’61, February 14, 2011, Reno, Nev.
Elizabeth Bennett Campaigne, CAS/BA ’62,
September 1, 2011, Lusby, Md.
Gerald Perras, WCL/JD ’70, May 8, 2011,
Vienna, Va.
Linda Stranieri, CAS/BA ’71, July 6, 2011,
Boston
Alice Strong Roberts, CAS/BS ’72, July 22,
2011, Washington, D.C.
Walter Speakman, SPA/BA ’73, July 13, 2011,
Dover, Del.
Vera Kahn, CAS/MFA ’78, August 19, 2011,
Columbia, Md.
Morton Ford, SPA/BS ’79, June 16, 2011,
Alexandria, Va.
Carole Jean Fitzgerald Kehoe, CAS/PhD ’82,
July 18, 2011, Olympia, Wash.
William O’Connell, SPA/MSHR ’85, June 18,
2011, Hampton, N.H.
Saul Solorzano, SPA/MPA ’05, August 16,
2011, Washington, D.C.
memoriam
Jane Brough Benson, CAS/BA ’38, March 3,
2011, San Francisco
Robert Nugent, SOC/BA ’48, May 18, 2011,
Hampstead, N.C.
Henry Ficks, Kogod/AA ’51, Kogod/BS ’59,
March, Oakton, Va.
Bonnie Edwards Sigholtz, CAS/BA ’52, August
1, 2011, Columbia, Mo.
Charles Peters, CAS/BA ’52, February 23,
2011, Kailua, Hawaii.
Bernard Berenson, CAS/BA ’53, June 6, 2011,
Hampden, Mass.
Bonnie Aikman, CAS/BA ’55, June 20, 2011,
Chevy Chase, Md.
Manfred Max Fleischer, Kogod/BSBA ’58,
August 17, 2011, Tucson, Ariz.
Former Trustee
Elmer Staats, July 23, 2011, Washington, D.C.
Faculty
Jan Wiener, November 24, 2010, Prague, Czech
Republic
classnotes@american.edu
january 2012 
Nate Beeler's World of
wonks
Donors Make a
Second Cousin Once Removed
By Patrick Bradley
Artemas Ward was a military man, a
court justice, and a politician. The School
of Public Affairs building bears his name,
and AU celebrates Artie Ward Week each
fall in his honor. However, most alumni
wonder who Ward was and what connection he has with the university.
University Archivist Susan McElrath
has a clear answer.
“Artemas Ward is the statue in Ward
Circle. He’s a Revolutionary War general
from New England,” she explains. “He
has no connection to AU whatsoever.”
For some members of the AU family,
this news may come as a shock—like
suddenly realizing a beloved second
cousin was really just a friendly neighbor
who stopped in for meatloaf every now
and then.
The man certainly had a storied life
and career, but his story simply never
included AU. Born to a successful
48 american
farmer–sea captain–lawyer in 1727
Massachusetts, Ward graduated
from Harvard and had eight children.
He served as a state court justice,
member of the U.S. House of
Representatives, and first commanderin-chief of the American armies,
preceding George Washington.
As McElrath states, “If you’re interested in political and military service, he
fits the bill.”
Ward died at his home in 1800. Like
any great general, he needed a statue.
That’s where his great-grandson set a path
toward AU. After donating the Ward
House and over $4 million to Harvard,
the great-grandson stipulated that the
university had to erect a statue to commemorate the general.
Harvard commissioned the statue
but—in the end—didn’t keep it. They
donated it to the United States.
In 1938, the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission placed
the statue in the then open circle at
Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenues,
where the Massachusetts native would
be most comfortable. So, says McElrath,
“AU actually predates the statue.”
It wasn’t without some resistance,
however, that Ward’s likeness arrived.
Neighbors bristled at the idea of another
military tribute in D.C. Still, Ward joined
the neighborhood and—in doing so—
became part of AU’s identity.
Student government vice president
Liz Richards sees the connection as more
than just proximity to a statue. It comes
down to mission. Ward’s was to be a
civil servant, serving his country; AU’s is
to graduate civil servants, who go on to
serve their communities no matter what
their career paths.
That’s enough to make him family. n
Difference
For Mehdi Heravi, SIS/PhD ’67, supporting
American University’s School of International Service is about more than giving back,
it is about encouraging students to perform at their highest level. In his eyes, the new
light-filled School of International Service building is an inspiration for anyone who
wants to promote global peace, social justice, and economic well being—key tenets
of the school. In appreciation for the new SIS building and the principles its design
embodies, Heravi provided leadership building support and funds to endow the school’s
first internship award. The SIS building’s Nebraska Avenue entrance and undergraduate
academic affairs suite have been named in Heravi’s honor.
A native of Iran, Heravi was
schooled in England, but was
inspired by American culture. He
successfully petitioned his father
to allow him to pursue higher
education in the United States, where
he received a BA from Utah State
University and a PhD from American
University’s School of International
Service. SIS, he says, helped expand
his world view, “I don’t see politics,
Mehdi Heravi, SIS/PhD ’67
people, or social economics in
terms of extremes; there are a variety of perspectives to all of them.” This appreciation
for the views of others guided Heravi through his work at the National University of
Iran and Razi University where, prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, he held senior
administrative posts including vice president and provost.
Today, Heravi’s philanthropy helps support several causes including an orphanage in
Iran and the School of International Service, each motivated by a deep desire to create
opportunity and promote education. Financially savvy, Heravi has chosen to combine
outright charitable contributions with the establishment of charitable gift annuities,
intended to provide him with lifelong income, and the university with significant
residuals to support the programs he cares for so deeply.
SIS dean James Goldgeier praises Heravi’s foresight, “Mehdi is committed to
encouraging young academic talent. His support of SIS serves to ensure the vibrancy of
our student environment and programs. His philanthropic creativity to combine major
current and significant future estate support speaks to his long-term vision.”
American University is deeply grateful to be the beneficiary of Mehdi Herari’s
benevolence and salutes the example he has set for the AU community.
For information on the benefits you, loved ones, and American University can receive
through charitable estate planning, contact Seth Speyer, director of Planned Giving, at
202-885-5914, speyer@american.edu, or visit www.american.edu/planned giving.
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage PAID
Permit No. 109
Hanover, NH
Washington, DC 20016-8002
Address Service Requested