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Alumni Update
February 2024
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From Dean Chris Makaroff
Dear Alumni and Friends:
The spring semester is well underway and our campus has quickly ramped up with many exciting activities and plans for the final months of the 2023-2024 academic year.
We are about one-third of the way through our annual Make It Miami visits for prospective students, who along with their parents and other family members arrive by the hundreds, perhaps thousands, for each interactive session to explore our majors, meet with faculty, and tour our research facilities and academic buildings all over campus. This energy is only going to grow steadily as we make our way towards our spring recognition ceremony. To that end, Kris Bahner '92, Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs for Kellogg Company, has agreed to be our guest alumni speaker at our recognition ceremony on May 18. Kris has been a close and active friend of CAS for many years as a member of the CAS Alumni Advisory Board, and we are very excited and honored to welcome her back to Oxford. Stay tuned for more about Kris in our next newsletter. Finally, I'd like to recognize and congratulate Helane Adams Androne (Professor of Global and Intercultural Studies), Rodney Coates (Professor of Global and Intercultural Studies), Carolyn Craig (Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging), and Amber Franklin (Associate Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology) for being chosen among the Cincinnati Business Courier's " People on the Move" in honor of Black History Month. Please keep in touch, and I look forward to seeing many of you soon.
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| CAS Student Stories and News
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 | Sofia Rebull with her research poster
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| Last November, LSAMP Scholars Sofia Rebull, August Ogunnowo, Jaela Allen, Stella Lukusa, and Godfred Prempeh (above) joined 5,000 undergraduates, graduates, and professional scientists to present their research at the 2023 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rebull (Biology; Pre-Medical Studies), student president of Miami's SACNAS chapter, was recognized for her research in professor of Biology Katia Del Rio-Tsonis' Eye Regeneration Lab. "I would especially recommend ABRCMS to minority scientists because they are broadening the space for diversity in STEM," she said.
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| CAS Student Stories and Spotlights
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- Hanah Bloom, Ally Britton-Heitz, Alexandra Cardwell, Adam Debevec, Blair Hassett ’22, Kristina Miljkovic ’22, Natasha Netzorg, Kelsey Norris, Victory Oguntuyi, and Teryn Scott were all named 2024-2025 semifinalists in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program competition.
- Ava Kalina (Diplomacy and Global Politics; Data Analytics) has won the Aii 2023 Student OpEd Competition with her essay entitled, "The clean energy revolution could be powered by your trash."
- Tatem Lindner (Economics) won a $10,000 grant for her company Silux, a luxury silicone ring brand, in the Main Street Ventures summer residency program.
- Evelyn Morrison (Political Science; Sustainability co-major) has been selected as a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. She is the third Miami student in the last four years, and the fifth in the past nine years, to receive this prestigious award.
- Fall 2023 graduates of Project Dragonfly's Advanced Inquiry Program, Global Field Program, and Earth Expeditions get set to work with some of the world’s most renowned zoos, botanical gardens, and conservation organizations.
- Associate vice president of research and innovation and professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Rick Page and students from his lab Shreesti Shrestha (graduate in Chemistry), Kei Brown (Biochemistry and French), and Angela Cupo (Biochemistry) were featured in a 30-second TV commercial about Miami’s research during the Dec. 16 Cure Bowl. Watch the video.
- Bailee Brekke and Patrick Mese, graduate students in the Master of Gerontological Studies program, were selected as Scholars in Aging by the Ohio Department of Aging.
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- Owen Berg '22 (Journalism) published his article, "How to meet readers where they are (when where they are is offline)" for niemanlab.org.
- Wende Cross ‘88 (Political Science and Government) was unanimously elected to serve as judge in the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court for 2024.
- Morad Elmi '06 (Political Science; Premedical Studies), co-founder and chief strategy officer of Scene Health, helped to develop technology that empowers medical patients to take every dose of medication and observe their treatment.
- Matthew S. Fitzwater '98 (Political Science; History), General Counsel at Barclays, hosted a breakfast with students from professor of History Kimberly Hamlin's study abroad trip, Introduction to Humanities Research in London, during winter term 2024.
- Shohini Ghose (Physics) has published the book "Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe."
- Lara Krug '07 (Mass Communication), CMO and EVP of Marketing of the Kansas City Chiefs, celebrated the Chiefs' recent Super Bowl win.
- Michael Markesbery '15 (Zoology), co-founder and CEO of Oros, joined with three other Miami alums to support the next generation of entrepreneurs through the establishment of the St. Xavier-Miami University Entrepreneurship scholarship.
- Greg Roche '95 (Sociology), a medical device industry leader, joined robotics firm Distalmotion as CEO.
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| CAS Faculty and Staff News
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 | CAS recipients of the Creativity & Innovation Award, announced on Feb 1:
TOP: Perry Corbett (Physics), Mark Curnutte (Sociology & Gerontology), Nathan French (Comparative Religion)
MIDDLE: Mila Ganeva (GRAMELAC), Yvette Harris (Psychology), Elisabeth Hodges (French, Italian, & Classical Studies)
BOTTOM: Tereza Jezkova (Biology), Christopher Myers (Biology), Michele Navakas (English)
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- Rodney Coates (Global and Intercultural Studies) published a new article for The Conversation about the "long, strange, dehumanizing history of segregation."
- Jennifer Cohen (Global and Intercultural Studies) is leading a large workforce study in the intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) community in collaboration with the New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) with additional support from Miami's Cornerstone Research Grant.
- Michael Crowder (Chemistry and Biochemistry) appeared as a guest on the Stats+Stories podcast to discuss the chemistry of bourbon and what made the drink an almost $9 billion industry in 2023.
- Mark Curnutte (Sociology and Gerontology) led a fifth annual group of student interns in January serving in community-based organizations throughout Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.
- Brian Danoff (Political Science) was recently featured in a podcast about education, civic life and the hope of participatory democracy.
- Quanyu Huang (GRAMELAC), a retired professor of Chinese, was recognized by China Education News Web for his book, The Foundation of Education, as one of 100 books that had the greatest impact on teachers in China in 2023.
- Neringa Klumbyte's (Anthropology) recent book, Authoritarian Laughter, received the 2022 Women's Forum Book Prize from the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies.
- Nicholas Money (Biology; Western Program) appeared in a National Geographic article about the potential health benefits of mushrooms.
- TaraShea Nesbit (English) will be the 2024 Writer-in-Residence at the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Public Libraries.
- Stephen Norris (History; Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies) is co-lead scholar and co-director for the Blavatnik Archive, which received a NEH digital humanities grant.
- Keith Preble (Political Science) published an article in The Conversation about the current state of Myanmar following the February 2021 military coup.
- David Prytherch (Geography), an Oxford City Council member, describes the upcoming plans for Chestnut Street Station, a multimodal transportation center and Amtrak station that will link Oxford to New York and Chicago.
- Naaborle Sackeyfio (Global and Intercultural Studies) has published an article for The Conversation about the origins of Ghana's electricity crisis.
- Lindsay Schakenback Regele (History) published her article, "Joel Roberts Poinsett: Namesake of the poinsettia, enslaver, secret agent and perpetrator of the ‘Trail of Tears’" in The Conversation.
- Anne Whitesell (Political Science) published an article on how state legislatures and governors are increasingly undermining voters and how this may affect the upcoming 2024 election for The Conversation. Anne was also featured on Cincinnati's Fox 19 to discuss the New Hampshire primary results.
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100 Bishop Circle • Oxford, OH 45056-1879
513-529-1234 • cas@MiamiOH.edu
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