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Alumni Update
December 2022
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 | Students walking by the University Sundial in late October
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From Dean Chris Makaroff
Dear Alumni and Friends:
We have reached the end of yet another calendar year, giving us an opportunity to take a breath and look back at all we have accomplished here in CAS in 2022. A great many of our achievements are thanks to the active support and engagement of our active global community of well over 40,000 alumni — so first of all, let me thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to help support, enrich, and nurture our students.
With in-person classes and events back in session this year, Miami has largely swung back to normal, and we are newly energized to carry this momentum into 2023. Here are just a few recent examples of CAS programs from the past year that have benefited from alumni sponsorship and engagement:
- Inside Washington brought Miami students to Washington, DC in both the spring and summer 2022 for field trips, research and small-group interaction, and internships with members of Congress (including Sen. Marco Rubio), the media, law, public administration, and more.
- Miami's Model Arab League, which last spring won seven regional awards, including Outstanding Delegation for representing Jordan, has been called "the best experiential learning experience I have had at Miami."
- The Janus Forum, held each year in the spring and fall, in 2022 featured national media experts and political figures in a discussion of both the legalization of marijuana and the overturning of Roe v Wade.
- Health Careers Week 2022, sponsored by the Mallory-Wilson Center for Healthcare Education, provided students interested in careers in healthcare and medicine a chance to practice critical skills and discuss current relevant topics.
We have also been excited to highlight some of the many CAS undergraduate students who are working on innovative research projects, venturing into active leadership roles, and embarking on adventures near and far. Some of those highlighted thus far represent majors in English, Microbiology, Quantitative Economics, Psychology, Public Administration, and more -- with still others to be featured in the spring.
Let me remind you that this is the time of the year when many people are thinking about their seasonal and end-of-the-year IRA and RMD gifts. Please consider giving to CAS by Dec 31. Every gift and donation is greatly appreciated and will be used directly to support our students in terms of scholarships, class and lab resources, travel to conferences and seminars, and more. Once again, thank you for your ongoing support, and I look forward to reaching out to you again after the new year. Happy Holidays, and I wish you all the best this winter season.
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| CAS Student News and Spotlights
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Spotlights on Undergraduate Student Research
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| CAS Alumni News and Spotlights
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Four CAS alums (Bill Hemmer '87, Jeff Pegues '92, Chad Pergram '92, and Yvette Simpson '00) were featured in live Nov 8 Election Night coverage on three networks (FOX, CBS, and ABC).
"As someone who used to help cover elections for radio, I can tell you they can be unpredictable, famously uneven in their pacing, and a challenge to explain. Journalists who front the coverage for major media organizations get their jobs because they excel at following the twists in the stories, faithfully relating them, and maintaining an air of excitement and expectation even when the vote counting goes into overtime. It was difficult to make it through the most recent election night without seeing at least one of our alums doing just that. However many people cast their votes, Miami had the best turnout reporting on them."
— Bruce Drushel, professor and chair, Department of Media, Journalism, and Film
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- Meghan Holdorf, Ph.D. '08 (Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) was promoted to Senior Director, Biology at Gilead Sciences.
- Rithvik Venna '15 (Zoology), co-founder and COO of OROS, joined Will Grant, CFP, CPWA ('17, Finance), associate wealth planner at Kovitz, on "The Road to the Top" Podcast to discuss his journey from a pre-med undergraduate student to co-founder of one of the fastest-growing materials technology companies in the US.
- Antonio White '08 (Black World Studies; Sociology), senior vice president of public policy at Bank of America, was selected by Fortune Magazine as one of its 40 under 40 winners (registration required).
- Vernon Williams '16 (English) had a world premiere of his independent film, The Mayor Jones, at the Esquire in Cincinnati. It's an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play, The Emperor Jones, a play that broke the color line on Broadway by casting for the first time an African American actor in a main role.
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| CAS Faculty and Staff News and Spotlights
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|  | Mark Curnutte and students from his Social Justice class
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- Mark Curnutte, visiting instructor in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology, brought his Social Justice Studies students to Oxford's historic EJI marker along with students from nearby Earlham College to discuss civil rights and social justice.
- Mack Hagood, the Robert H. and Nancy J. Blayney associate professor of Media and Communication, authored an article for the Washington Post about the use of noise as self-care and why we crave noise when what we may need is quiet.
- Wil Haygood, Boadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, provided insights at the Dayton Literary Peace Prize talk.
- Imran Mirza, the JC & CE Garland Assistant Professor of Physics, won two-year funding for "Entanglement, Transport and Collective Effects in Few-Photon Many-Emitter Chiral Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics," through the National Science Funding (NSF) Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS) program.
- Rosemary Pennington, associate professor of Media, Journalism, and Film, and John Bailer, Distinguished Professor emeritus of Statistics, discussed their new book, Statistics Behind the Headlines, which reached No. 1 and No. 3 in the Journalism and Statistics categories in Amazon.
- Kevin Reuning, assistant professor of Political Science, provided expert commentary for Fox 19 Cincinnati's TV news broadcast on how to spot misinformation on social media. He also commented about workers organizing in Wisconsin.
- Haifei Shi, professor of Biology, received a pass-through grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a project entitled "Age-related neuronal regulation of thermogenesis and lipid metabolism."
- Anne Whitesell, assistant professor of Political Science and associate director of the Menard Family Center for Democracy, provided expert commentary in a WVXU news broadcast on what to expect in the near future of politics.
- Liz Wilson, professor of Comparative Religion, received $170,734 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project "Muslims in America's Midwest: An Educator's Guide to Past and Present." The award was shared with Kathleen Knight Abowitz, professor of Educational Leadership.
- Kevin Yehl, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is advisor of an award-winning student International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team, which recently won a silver medal at the national iGEM Grand Jamboree (search for Miami U).
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513-529-1234 • cas@MiamiOH.edu
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