Neuroscience Major Builds on Strengths of DepartmentsSince the 1990s was declared the Decade of the Brain, there has been a huge expansion in the field of neuroscience, notes Susan Croll

Queens Gets High Marks in Recent College Guides

AS SUSAN CROLL (PSYCHOLOGY)EXPLAINS IT, the essential elements ofQueens College’s new neuroscience majorwere already here. It was just a matter ofmaking the program happen.

“Neuroscience is an area in which wehave real strengths,” says Croll, the newinterdisciplinary program’s director. “Wehave a lot of neuroscientists at Queens,”she explains, citing their representationin several departments, including psy-chology, biology, chemistry, linguistics,anthropology, and family, nutrition, andexercise sciences. “We looked throughall the courses already offered and dis-covered that many had neurosciencecomponents or were just flat-out neuro-science courses, and we combined theminto this major.”

IN TWO RECENTLY RELEASEDnational rankings of American col-leges, Queens College again receivedratings worth boasting about.

The recently published 2006 edi-

tion of the U.S. News America’s BestColleges places Queens College #9 in the category “Top Public Universities–Master’s–North.” This category refers toinstitutions providing a full range of under-graduate and master’s programs but few if any doctoral programs. U.S. News alsoplaced QC in the first tier of “BestUniversities–Master’s–North,” a far largercategory that encompasses both public andprivate institutions in the region.

Areas in which the college distinguisheditself include:■ 86% of freshmen pursue their studiesbeyond the first year—a higher rate than

Susan Croll, the new interdisciplinary program’s director

And there certainly was enoughinterest. “For two years I’ve been receiv-ing emails from students who had heardthrough the grapevine that this majorwas a possibility,” she says.

In fact, the wheel was already inmotion. Under the leadership ofRichard Bodnar (Psychology), a neuro-science research center was recentlyestablished at Queens. The next logicalstep, says Croll, was to establish themajor. This is being done at the under-graduate level all over the country,including at local colleges such asColumbia and NYU, but not at CUNY.

“This is a good choice for studentsfor a few reasons,” Croll says. “Neuro-science is a growing field with growingContinued on page 6

QQQUEENS COLLEGE

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several of the top 25 colleges in the “Best Universities–Master’s–North”category.■ 74% of the faculty is full time.Many top 25 colleges had percentagesof as low as 60%.■ The average alumni-giving rate atQueens College is 18%—higher thanthe rate at any CUNY college andhigher than many public and privatecolleges in its category, includingRochester Institute of Technology(ranked #6) and Emerson College inMassachusetts (ranked #14).Continued on page 4

WINTER 2005–06VOL. 3, NO. 1

2

QC Students OfferShelter from the Storm

4

An Ambitious Experiment at New Queens School

5

A Garden Dedicated to a Poet

Q WEBZINE 2

Offering Shelter from the Storm

Dana WeinbergfacultyPROFILE

“PEOPLE DON’T OFTEN KNOWTHIS, but you can go through differentroutes to become a registered nurse,” saysDana Weinberg (Sociology), citing levelsof training ranging from an associate’s to

a master’sdegree andbeyond.

“There’s ahuge divide interms of theeducationnurses have.Yet all of themcome on tothe hospitalfloor and, as apatient, you

don’t know whether your nurse has had twoor four years of education.”

This and other not particularly well-known aspects of nursing care camesharply into focus when Weinberg beganresearching her thesis in 1999 on howchanges brought about by managed careand other forces were affecting thenursing profession.

A CLASH OF CULTURESWeinberg focused on the merger of twovenerable Boston hospitals with twovery different notions of the roles nursesplay in patient care. While one, BethIsrael Medical Center, was renowned for the important contributions made by its staff of highly trained, professionalnurses, the other, New England DeaconessMedical Center, had a reputation forregarding its often less well-trained nurseslargely as handmaidens to doctors.Needless to say, there was a clash of cultures.

Observes Weinberg, “Recent studies showmore educated nurses have betterpatient outcomes.”

The merger typified many changesthen taking place in the healthcareindustry, changes often driven more byconcern for profits than patient care.Weinberg’s methodical documentation of what transpired for nurses who werecaught up in the creation of the newBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Centernot only earned her a PhD in sociologyfrom Harvard, but it produced a criticallypraised book, Code Green: Money-DrivenHospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing(Cornell University Press). The book hasbecome a must-read for anyone with aninterest in the nursing profession.

Code Green has also earned her pariah status among some hospital admin-istrators. Asked last year by the Joint

Commission on Accreditation ofHealthcare Organizations to lead anonline audio-conference of healthcareexecutives concerning the shortage ofqualified nurses, Weinberg was excludedfrom the conference at the 11th hourafter several participants complainedabout Weinberg’s perceived bias. Theywere apparently disturbed that copy liftedfrom her book’s dust jacket—describing“a stinging indictment of healthcare prac-tices”—was being used to advertise herparticipation.

CONTROVERSY SPURS THE MEDIA“The book did that,” says Weinberg. “Iwas planning to talk about what hospitalscould do to retain nurses.”

Angered by the turn of events, theMassachusetts Nurses Association con-tacted the Boston Globe, which resulted inContinued on page 5

ACCOMPANIED BY a pick-uporchestra of QC students, baritoneRomel Brumley-Kerr (center) liftshis voice in song as the featured per-former at a special student-organizedbenefit concert held Sept. 14 atLeFrak Concert Hall to aid victimsof Hurricane Katrina. A hurricaneevacuee himself, Brumley-Kerr, a

student at the severely damaged Uni-versity of New Orleans, has enrolled inthe Aaron Copland School of Music ona full scholarship from the President’sScholarship Fund. A number of studentgroups on campus also collected moneyand clothing for the victims of Katrina(left).

Connie Capobianco (far right) of

the college’s Health Service Centerreceives assistance from Linda Libby ofthe Christian Life Center inGaithersburg, MD, unloading bags ofblankets, clothes, towels, and other nec-essary items for victims of HurricaneKatrina. All of the articles had beencollected by various departments andstudent organizations at Queens

College. Capobianco delivered themafter learning about the center in anewspaper article describing how Rev.Ronald Libby and his wife, Linda, hadtaken in several families and alsoassisted a rural community by raisingfunds for victims of the disaster.

JEFFERY ALLEN (English) read from hisnovel Night Train and ZOE BELOFF (MediaStudies) screened her film Shadow Land, abouta 19th-century French medium, at a recentmeeting of the National Arts Club . . . ANDYBEVERIDGE (Sociology) was invited byRobert Bennett, chancellor of the New YorkState Board of Regents, to be the lead-offspeaker at the board’s July 21 retreat inAlbany. His talk was entitled “Demographic

Overview of New YorkState: Implications forEducation” . . . An article inthe “Styles” section of theJuly 31 New York Timesconcerning the spread ofprofanity quoted ROYAL

BROWN (Eur Langs). He used no profanity . . . The advent of Hurricane Katrina foundNICK COCH’s (Earth & Env Sci) expertisemuch in demand by the media. He appeared inan hour-long special Sept. 4 on the DiscoveryChannel. On Sept. 8 he appeared on theChannel 11 News and WOR-AM Radio andwas quoted in the New York Post. A Sept. 12New York magazine story on the history ofNew York hurricanes also quoted him. As aSigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, he also gavetalks on hurricanes at the University ofNebraska and St. John’s University inNewfoundland . . . The Nurture New York’sNature/CUNY Program for Ecological/Environmental Research (PEER) recently pre-sented PEER Awards to TIMOTHY EATON(Earth & Env Sci) and JOHN WALDMAN(Biology). Eaton is studying hydrologic trans-formation of the Flushing Estuary ecosystem.Waldman will study the resurgence of the cor-morant population, once severely in decline

due to DDT contamination . . . MARIANFISH (Psych) offered advice to the WallStreet Journal for a Sept. 29 story about whatparents should do when their child has a badteacher . . . LEO HERSHKOWITZ (History)was featured in an August 3 article in the NewYork Times about an exhibit at the Museum ofthe City of New York for which he served asan advisor, Tolerance & Identity: Jews in EarlyNew York, 1654–1825 . . . MADHULIKAKHANDELWAL (Asian/Amer Ctr & UrbanSt) offered her insights to the New York Timesfor a June 5 story about why children ofIndian immigrants have dominated the nationalspelling bee in recent years, and an Aug. 1story about the Queens General Assembly. She

was also quoted in a July 13article in Newsday about thenumber of Bangladeshiswho now own perfumeshops in the city . . .STUART LIEBMAN (MediaStudies) has been named a

2005 Academy Film Scholar for his earlyHolocaust cinema project. Sponsored by theAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences,the $25,000 award is presented annually totwo film scholars selected by the AcademyFoundation’s Grants Committee . . . STEVEMARKOWITZ (Ctr Biology of NaturalSystems) spoke to the Village Voice for itsSept. 6 story about the lingering healtheffects of dust from 9/11 . . . VINCENZOMILIONE (Calandra Institute) made a presentation at the Ibero-AmericanExcellence in Education Conference heldJune 27–29 in Uruguay on “Diaspora ofthe Ibero-American Youth: The BrainContinued on page 6

Q WEBZINE 3

QCpeople

Liebman

Brown

Rosenthal Library Inaugurates Lincoln Collection

AT A CEREMONY on September22, the Rosenthal Library inaugurated itsnew Lincoln Collection, donated to thecollege by Hal Gross. A successful,retired businessman, Gross had spentmany hours working with library facul-ty—first as a member of the college’sCUE program for senior citizens, andthen as a student pursuing a master’sdegree in political science. With morethan 80 people in attendance—includingGross’s family, friends, and fellow mem-

bers of the Lincoln Group of New YorkCity—the library acknowledged receiptof the collection, which includes morethan 600 books, journals, and documentsrelated to the Great Emancipator. Nowknown as the Gross Collection, it is opento scholars and students. Gross has alsoestablished the Hal and Ida GrossEndowment for Lincolniana and 19th-Century American Literature, which willallow the library to purchase volumes onmid-19th-century American history, par-ticularly the Civil War.

STUDENTS IN PRESIDENT MUYSKENS HONORS COLLEGE CLASS“Introduction to Ethics” recently received a lesson in the ethics of survival whenHolocaust survivor William Ungar paid them a visit. A co-founder of the U.S.Holocaust Memorial Museum, Ungar received an honorary Doctor of HumaneLetters degree at Commencement last spring. He read to the students from hismemoir Destined to Live and presented each of them with a personal copy.

Presenting a Life Lesson in Ethics

Q WEBZINE 4

An Ambitious Experiment Begins at New Queens School of Inquiry

QSI principal Elizabeth Ophals with two ofthe school’s 77 students and Queens Collegestudent Shelly Jadoo (second from left).

High Marks from page 1Students give the college high marks,too, according to the Princeton Review’s2006 edition of The Best 361 Colleges.Student responses to a 70-question sur-vey provided the basis for rankings in 60of 62 categories used to profile eachschool. Among their observations:■ “Although professors don’t spoon-feed you, they really care about you asan individual and make you feel likeyou matter.”■ “The administration is kind andcooperative.”■ “The diversity is a great benefit to

anyone who comes here. It opens upyour eyes and mind to new culturesand customs.”

“The main factor in our selection ofschools for this book was our high regardfor their academic programs,” saysRobert Franek, vice president of pub-lishing for the Princeton Review. “Weevaluated them based on institutionaldata we collect about the schools, feed-back from students at them and visits toschools over the years. We also consid-ered the opinions of independent col-lege counselors, students and parents wetalk to and survey.”

During a recent assembly at a nearby mid-dle school that houses the innovativeQueens School of Inquiry (QSI), Dean ofEducation Penny Hammrich told thegathered students, “I have the delightfulpleasure of welcoming Queens College’sfirst sixth-grade class.”

Surprising as it may seem, as a partnerwith QSI, the college will in a few years be

offering courses to students decidedlyyounger than the norm. “This is a uniqueand very ambitious enterprise,” saysHammrich of the experimental programthat will place sixth-grade students on apath to taking college-level courses whenthey reach ninth grade, with the potentialto earn up to 60 credits—the equivalent ofan associate’s degree—by the time theygraduate high school.

QSI is part of the Early College Initiative(ECI), a partnership between the CityUniversity of New York and the New YorkCity Department of Education. ECI hopesto increase college success rates for low-income, minority, and first-generation col-lege-bound students. As it is partly fundedby the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,the school has garnered considerable mediaattention. Ten such schools are envisionedfor the city in the next three to five years.QSI is the first such school in Queens.

Hammrich notes that her recent visitto the building QSI shares with ParsonsJunior High School and a program forautistic children was more than ceremo-

nial in nature: “The idea from the incep-tion is for these students to see them-selves as part of the Queens College com-munity—to give them the hope and theidea that they can go to college.

“QSI focuses on the inquisitive mind,discovery,” she says, explaining theschool’s emphasis is not so much on whatis learned, but the process by which thelearning is achieved. “How do you think,how do you inquire? We want to fosterthat natural curiosity, to create a safeenvironment where students feel they canask anything. And these students are notafraid to ask questions; they’re verybright, very inquisitive.”

SELLING A NEW PEDAGOGYAfter answering a lot of questions overseveral months, Elizabeth Ophals isdelighted to finally be doing the day-to-day business of running QSI. “The cur-rent principal of the school—me—spentevery weekend putting flyers in everylaundromat, every food store, every placeI could hang flyers,” she says with someamusement, recalling her weeks of sellingthe QSI concept to surrounding neigh-borhoods.

“I spoke at regionwide meetings forguidance counselors and principals, intro-ducing the idea of our school. We had aWeb site. There was a lot of word ofmouth. I met with every PTA of everyfeeder school. I met with anybody whowould talk to me. In April we had an openhouse at Queens College which was prettywell attended, considering the suspicionson the part of the community,” she says,referring to the misperception in somequarters that QSI would be a school forproblem children.

“A lot of our practice,” Ophals says,describing her unusual school, “is based onthe University Park Campus School fromWorcester, Massachusetts, which is alliedwith Clark University. It is a model ofsmall classes, individual attention, highexpectations, and absolute emphasis onacademics and a strong teaching staff.”

QSI’s five teachers spent 20 days overthe summer preparing the curriculum andattending a seminar at Clark University.It’s not unusual, Ophals says, for teachersto sit in on each other’s classes. The groupis energetic and inclined to “new ways ofthinking. There’s a great deal of learninggoing on among the teachers all the time.”

QSI’s small size helps facilitate theexceptional level of faculty collaboration.Because all the students take lunch at thesame time, the faculty share a commonplanning period. And, there’s another ben-efit: “Parents come to our school and they all say the same thing: I’ve never seen aschool before where the students have somuch access to the teachers.”

This leads Ophals to mention theimportant contribution of Queens Collegein providing two of QSI’s five teachers.“One was described as the most outstand-ing student teacher this professor had hadin ten years. The other was a top graduateof the TIME 2000 math education pro-gram.” Another, who doubles as both amusic and a wellness teacher, is currentlygetting another master’s degree in the sec-ondary literacy program at QC.

“The college was a very cooperativepartner,” she continues. “They translatedeverything into any language we wantedand printed all the flyers and posters.Some professors even offered lessons at ourOpen House.”

Weinberg from page 2

a newspaper story. This fall Weinberg is celebrating her

first anniversary as an assistant professorat the college. (She’ll never forget herfirst day at Queens as she left the verynext day to have a baby, returning toteach classes in the winter.)

Previously, Weinberg had been a lec-turer and senior research associate atBrandeis and had worked as a survey sci-entist for the Picker Institute and con-sultant for the New England MedicalCenter. In addition to her PhD,Weinberg holds an MA in sociology fromHarvard and a BA in sociology andwomen’s studies from Brandeis.

Assessing her career since coming toQueens, she says, “I’m very happy to beat Queens and back in the disciplinarythinking while still pursuing a very activeresearch agenda.” Her research interestsfind her again visiting the hospital envi-ronment. Smiling broadly she says, “I’mlooking at doctor-nurse collaboration.”

TALK ABOUT THE ONE THATGOT AWAY. Andrew Silver (Earth &Environmental Sciences) was the sourceof a fish tale that merited headlines.

“I saw what looked like a silhou-ette,” he recently told Newsday and theTimes Ledger about a trip to the Lake atFlushing Meadows Corona Park. “Itwas like nothing I’d ever seen before,and I’ve been fishing since I was a kid.”

Silver made several attempts butfailed to capture the specimen. Spottingseveral more in June, he decided to pho-tograph them instead and they weresubsequently identified as highly preda-

tory Northern Snakeheads. Dubbed“Frankenfish” by the news media fortheir frightening appearance, the unusualair-breathing, fearsome-toothed, flesh-eat-ing fish are an invasive Asian species thatcan grow to three feet in length and havebeen reported to live for days out ofwater. They were outlawed in the UnitedStates last year because of their potentialto prey on native species.

Sightings by Silver and fellow fisher-men John Waldman and Pokay Ma, col-leagues from the Biology Department,touched off a major local effort to captureall of the snakeheads in the lake beforethey could multiply. Waldman told the

Q WEBZINE 5

“Frankenfish” Spotted in Flushing Lake

John Waldman (top) and Pokay Ma (right) try to net asnakefish

Phot

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ilver

According to Stephen Stepanchev,Queens’ first poet laureate and QC pro-fessor emeritus of English, WaltWhitman’s writings often reflected “thegreat diversity of American life.” So itwas only fitting that a garden acknowl-edging the 150th anniversary of the pub-lication of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass wasdedicated July 14 on the grounds of oneof the nation’s most diverse campuses.

The idea to create a garden inWhitman’s honor was spurred on by the

research of Jeff Gottlieb ’64, president ofthe Central Queens Historical Society.Gottlieb determined that Whitman, whooften supplemented his meager wages as ajournalist by working as an itinerantschool teacher, had taught during the falland winter of 1839 in a one-room school-house situated on the approximate loca-tion of the college’s Student Union.

“As surprised as I was with the WaltWhitman connection, it’s very fitting,”said President James Muyskens in remarksto the ceremony gathering. “Whitmanhas figured in the history of QueensCollege from the very beginning. TheEnglish department was housed in WaltWhitman Hall from 1939 to 1968 (laterrazed for the construction of Kiely Hall)and Emory Holloway, the first chairmanof the department, won a Pulitzer Prize in1947 for his biography of the poet.”

A Garden Dedicated to a Poet

Queens Chronicle, “If this had beenfound in a creek leading to the Hudson,in a few years it could have been allover New York State.”

Stephen Stepanchev read from his poetry at a ceremony dedicating the new WhitmanGarden (above).

Q WEBZINE 6

People from page 3

Drain of Economic Development” . . . TheJanuary 2006 issue of Booklist magazine namesthe three-volume Encyclopedia of Racism inthe United States, edited by PYONG GAPMIN (Sociology), as one of the 23 best books of 2005. The work includes a numberof essays by QC professors . . . FREDPURNELL (Phil) appeared for seven minuteson a History Channel International special onthe Renaissance that aired in July. He wasinterviewed about Galileo . . . ROBINROGERS-DILLON (Sociology) recently gave

a reading for her book TheWelfare Experiments: Politicsand Policy Evaluation atRiverby Books in Washington,DC. It was sponsored by theWomen’s Research &Education Institute, where

she had previously been a fellow . . . MARKROSENBLUM (Harrington Center) wasselected by the Clinton Global Initiative as oneof two winners of an award for work in thefield of Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation.His project, “Insight on Incitement: A PublicEducation Program on Israeli-Palestinian PeaceMaking,” will bring together Israeli,Palestinian, and American scholars, policymak-ers, diplomats, and activists in an effort to ana-lyze what went wrong with the Oslo Accords’trilateral anti-incitement regime. They will alsotry to outline a potential anti-incitement initia-tive that learns from the lessons of earlier fail-ures . . . PHIL SCHNEIDER’s (Linguistics)documentary Transcending Stuttering: TheInside Story made its television debut Sept.25 on WNET-TV, Channel 13 . . . A Sept.7 Newsday feature about offbeat collegecourses mentioned BARBARA SIMERKA’s

(Hispanic Langs) seminar “Gender andScience Fiction” . . . JULIA SNEERINGER(History) has been named an Andrew W.Mellon Foundation Fellow in the Humanitiesat the Center for the Humanities at theCUNY Graduate Center. She will be coordi-nating public events, as well as a CUNY-widefaculty seminar on the theme of Aesthetics andPolitics. She is also using the fellowship toresearch the social history of the Reeperbahnin Hamburg (West Germany) during the1950s and 1960s, particularly issues oftourism and the rock and roll scene . . . JOHN WALDMAN (Biology) was amember of the scientificorganizing committee of the5th International SturgeonSymposium held near theshore of the Caspian Sea inRamsar, Iran, May 9–13. Healso gave a presentationabout “The Expanding World of SturgeonConservation Genetics.” An essay about hisexperience at the symposium appeared July 3in the Sports section of the New York Times

under the headline: “Friend-ship Born in Iran by Pursuitof Sturgeon” . . . ZAHRAZAKERI’s (Biology) inter-est in women in science andher work on cell death andgender differences at the cel-

lular and molecular level were the basis forher invitation to a May 7 conference in Romeon Women in the Sciences. The Cell DeathSociety, of which Zakeri is president, held asymposium on Molecular Technology inTehran, July 31–August 1 with support fromthe informal group Scientists Without Borders.

Zakeri

Rogers-Dillon

Waldman

Several students received the opportunityto put their number-crunching skills tothe test in the workplace as paid “creditanalyst” interns, thanks to “CampBusiness,” a hands-on, career develop-ment training program sponsored byCommerce Bank at the college last June.All told, 25 BALA, economics, andfinance students participated in theweek-long crash course in commerciallending, accounting, credit policy andprocedures, and sales taught by the bank’ssenior executives.

Camp Business was obviously a suc-cessful showcase for the students.Afterwards, Vincent Matulewich, one ofthe campers, was offered an internship asa credit analyst at one of the bank’sregional lending centers in Queens.

According to Elizabeth Hendrey, thenew dean of social sciences and long-time member of the college’s EconomicsDepartment, although Commerce Bankhas run business camps with several highschools throughout the country, this was

the first time the program was conductedat the college level.

“We see this as part of a broader busi-ness mentoring initiative that we areestablishing to help students map outtheir future careers,” said Hendrey.

The program arrived here largelythrough the efforts of David Slackman, a QC grad and member of the Businessand Liberal Arts (BALA) board, who isalso president of Commerce Bank, NewYork City, explains BALA directorBarbara Sandler.

As for Commerce Bank, officials planto run Camp Business every year atQueens College with the hope that somestudents might be inspired to considerworking as commercial lenders for the firmwhen they graduate.

“The kids were awesome,” said JamesHopkins, Commerce Bank’s VicePresident in Training and Developmentand one of the Camp Business instruc-tors. “We learned as much as the stu-dents did.”

Students Learn to Earn at “Camp Business”

Neuroscience from page 1

job opportunities. It’s also an uncon-ventional, attention-grabbing major forstudents who might be interested inpre-professional studies, such as pre-med.”

Students can’t simply declare neuro-science as a major, says Croll; they haveto apply for it. “This is an honors,research-based major that studentswould do in their last two or three yearshere. We will be accepting applicationsthis semester.”

The major has another very appeal-ing feature: it’s virtually cost-free to the

college because it is a department-lessmajor with no infrastructure and there-fore no expense. The major will beadministered by a steering committee offaculty neuroscientists from psychologyand biology.

While costing nothing, the programoffers the prospect of bringing addition-al federal research dollars to Queens.“The 1990s was declared the Decade ofthe Brain,” observes Croll, “and the fed-eral government has poured a lot ofmoney into brain research; there hasbeen a huge expansion of neurosciencebecause of that.”

“I ORIGINALLYTOOK GERMANbecause Russianstarted too early inthe morning,” laughsApril Lynn James’88, recalling her earlystudies at QueensCollege as a communications major.

Today, nearly two decades later, thevisiting scholar at the Aaron CoplandSchool of Music is championing little-known operas composed by an 18th-century German noblewoman. James’sMaria Antonia Project, named for theonetime Electress of Saxony, seeks to restore to the repertory the worksof female composers like MariaAntonia, whose compositions wereoften overlooked because their cre-ators weren’t men.

Obscure operas would seem a longway from media studies. But accordingto James, she was just being an obedi-ent daughter when she heeded herteacher parents’ admonition to put herpassion for music aside in favor ofstudying “something else that will getyou a job.”

A MIS-START IN MEDIAAfter dutifully receiving a BA in com-munications and an MA in mediastudies at QC, James pursued a succes-sion of disappointing jobs in television andpublishing. “I was really disenchantedwith the whole industry,” she remarks,“particularly with television, because ofthe sexism and the racism I found in the

industry behind the scenes.”She was laid off from her last televi-

sion job the day before Thanksgiving in1992 (“But at least I got the holidayoff!” she laughs) and returned toQueens College to pursue her passion,earning a second BA, this time inmusic.

“I’ve sung since I was a kid,” saysJames, whose parents were also singers. “I was in choir and glee club, I playedguitar, a little piano, so I had experiencewith music all my life.”

She speaks highly of the musicaltraining she received at Queens. “I’mfinding out as I perform that a lot ofsingers don’t have the sight-singing ortheory background I have.”

James boasts an impressive resume ofrecitals with several companies and isalso a performer of Baroque and Renais-sance dance. She continues vocal studiesworking with the legendary singer andteacher Marni Nixon.

ENCOUNTERING THE ELECTRESSFollowing her second stint at Queens,James spent six years pursuing herPhD in historical musicology atHarvard. That’s where the mezzo-soprano from Hollis encountered theElectress of Saxony. An opera byMaria Antonia was one of severalworks offered for study by one of herinstructors. “I discovered that hermusic is really neat and that she wasa much more interesting person thanthe standard few paragraphs in The New Grove Dictionary of Music andContinued on page 8

Q WEBZINE 7

April Lynn JamesalumniPROFILE

QalumniNOTES

1951: Richard Richter (above right withthe Dalai Lama) recently retired asfounding president of Radio Free Asia(RFA) after more than a half-century inprint, broadcast, and electronic media. Alongtime executive producer with ABC,CBS, and PBS television, he helped tolaunch RFA in 1996 shortly afterCongress authorized its creation as a “surrogate” broadcaster, providing newsand information to East Asian countriesthat lacked free media. RFA broadcasts to the closed countries of East Asia in a number of languages, includingBurmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean,Lao, Mandarin, Wu (Shanghaiese),Tibetan, Uyghur, and Vietnamese. Beforefounding RFA, Dick worked for 25 yearsat ABC News and CBS News as a pro-ducer, senior producer, and executive pro-ducer for news and documentaries. At“ABC Evening News” he was executiveproducer and a founding senior producerof “Good Morning America.” As senior

producer of the ABC News Close-upseries, he worked on 64 documentariesthat won virtually every major nationaland international award. Dick began hiscareer as a reporter for Newsday and wenton to work as a writer and editor for theNew York World-Telegram and the Sun . . .1955: Kenneth Kustin is retired from hisposition as professor of chemistry atBrandeis University but continues to beactive in chemistry while living in SanDiego, CA. Ken was part of the interna-tional organizing committee for the FourthInternational Symposium on Chemistryand Biological Chemistry of Vanadium inSeptember 2004 in Szeged, Hungary . . .Marc Pilisuk writes: “My wife Phyllis(Kamen) Pilisuk and I met in our sopho-more year and were married in 1956.Phyllis went to graduate school inanthropology at Harvard, sociology at theUniversity of Michigan, and social wel-fare at the University of California. Shedid all this, and raised our two children,while challenged by multiple sclerosis.She is now a poet and has completedthree books of poetry. I got my PhD fromthe University of Michigan, taught inmany interdisciplinary programs, andretired from the University of California.I now teach at the Saybrook GraduateSchool and am working on my seventhbook, this one on understanding globalviolence. I am on the steering committeeof Psychologists for Social Responsibilityand a past president of the Society for theStudy of Peace, Conflict, and Violence,which recently gave me an award for life-time accomplishments. We are grandpar-ents of four-year-old twins and lifelongactivists in causes for peace and socialjustice” . . . 1965: Diane DeMellJacobsen was recently namedDistinguished Alumna of the Year byWashington University in St. Louis.

which recognizes her efforts on behalf ofthe National Marrow Donor Program.She lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL . . .Howard R. Moskowitz received the 2005Charles Coolidge Parlin MarketingResearch Award for his contributions anddedication to the ongoing advancementof marketing research practice. TheParlin Award is the oldest and most dis-tinguished award in the field, recognizingacademics and practitioners who havedemonstrated outstanding leadershipwhile advancing the profession of market-ing research over an extended period oftime . . . 1967: Jerry Pane notes that he“graduated in ’67 after four great yearsmajoring in economics and spending lotsof time on the QC Cross Country andTrack Teams. Got an MBA from NYU andjoined the Federal Reserve Bank of NewYork. From there, I went to JP Morgan,where I’ve worked in New York, London,and Singapore. I’m still in London—greatplace—but get back to the NY area fairlyoften” . . . Ferida Wolff (MS 1970) is anauthor whose latest books are the children’spicture books Is a Worry Worrying You?(Tanglewood Press) and It Is the Wind(HarperCollins), and a collection ofessays on midlife, The Adventures ofSwamp Woman: Menopause Essays on theEdge (AuthorHouse). For more informa-tion you can check out her Web site atwww.feridawolff.com . . . 1968: SamMenahem is a spiritual psychologist prac-ticing in Fort Lee, NJ, as well as anadjunct assistant professor of psychologyat Teachers College, Columbia University.He has written two books: When TherapyIsn’t Enough and All Your Prayers AreAnswered (www.drmenahem.com). Thepresident of the Association forSpirituality and Psychotherapy (ASP) inNew York City, Sam lives in Teaneck, NJ. . . 1970: The Queens College Art

Center recently presented Wiggle &Wave, an exhibition of paintings byRoberta Crown and sculpture by BarbaraLubliner. In Wiggle & Wave, Roberta’shighly coloristic, powerful paintings arejuxtaposed with Lubliner’s playful sculp-tures made of found metal. Roberta,whose earlier work was exhibited at theQueens College Art Center in 1989,focuses on color and form in a series ofworks inspired by the sea. A visit to NewMexico—an area that once was an inlandsalt lake connected to the ocean andinhabited by whales—led her to aquari-ums all over the country. A research tripto the Whaling Village and the PacificWhale Foundation on the HawaiianIsland of Maui helped Roberta developideas and sketches for the paintings inthis exhibition. Her study materials, shesays, “became the motion, color andshapes of a powerful, enormous, mysteri-ous world of my own invention hiddenfrom most of us on land.” Roberta studiedwith such noted faculty members aswatercolorist Barse Miller and paintersJohn Ferren and Rosemarie Beck. Herwork has been exhibited throughout theUnited States and abroad and shown insolo exhibitions in New York City andWashington, DC. Roberta’s art also hasbeen acquired for several corporate col-lections. The recipient of the Mary

Karasick and the Leila Sawyer MemorialAwards, Roberta is executive coordinatorof the Women in the Arts Foundation,Inc. . . . 1972: Alvin Goldfarb, presidentof Western Illinois University, is currentlyworking on the sixth edition of Theater:The Lively Art and the fifth edition ofLiving Theatre (both co-authored withEdwin Wilson) . . . 1975: Howard P.Vogel is CFO of the law firm of Mendesand Mount in New York City. Prior tothis appointment, he served for 11 yearsas CFO for the law firm of WilentzGoldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge, NJ.Howard holds an MBA in publicaccounting from St. John’s University . . .1980: Sy Gruza has joined Weber LawGroup LLP as the firm’s new head ofenvironmental litigation. He has exten-sive regulatory and litigation experienceinvolving wide-ranging federal and stateregulatory programs. Prior to joiningWeber, Sy was with Beveridge &

Diamond, PC in NewYork City for 16 years.He has overseen com-plex litigation such ascost recovery actionsfor the remediation ofsoil and groundwatercontamination andenforcement actions

relating to air and water discharge per-mits. Sy earned his JD from New YorkUniversity School of Law, where heserved as a member of the NYU LawReview. A resident of New Rochelle, NY,he is married with two children . . . 1981:Evan Ginzburg (MSEd) is a DJ on 99.5WBAI-FM’s “Light Show,” heardWednesdays from 2–3 pm. He is also themanager of World Wrestling FederationHall of Famer Johnny Valiant and cur-rently tours with his critically acclaimedshow “An Evening with Johnny Valiant.”

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James from page 7

Musicians would let people know.”The resulting dissertation, “Her High-ness’ Voice: Maria Antonia, Musicand Culture at the Dresden Court,”led to the Maria Antonia Project.

James credits Anne Stone (Music)with bringing her back to QueensCollege. “I told her about the MariaAntonia Project. She thought it wasimportant work and talked the musicschool into giving me a title and aplace to work.”

James is currently trying to raisemoney for a performance of MariaAntonia’s Il Trionfo della fedeltá.Her first priority, though, is to bringto the college elements of an exhibitshe created at Harvard in 2003 calledIn Her Own Hand: Operas Com-posed by Women, 1625–1913.

After earning her mathematics degree atQC, Diane joined IBM, working in a suc-cession of senior executive managementpositions. Twenty-two years later shemoved to Jacksonville, FL, and became ahealth care executive and then presidentand CEO of an insurance company.When her husband, the late Thomas H.Jacobsen, joined Mercantile Bank in St.Louis in 1989, Diane enrolled inWashington University and earned twomaster’s degrees and a doctorate in inter-national affairs. She became convincedthat students “cannot possibly succeed onmajor platforms today without a solidunderstanding of global issues,” and sobecame the driving force in creating theundergraduate International LeadershipProgram in Arts & Sciences. Diane is amember of the Advisory Group of theCouncil on Foreign Relations, a trustee ofthe St. Louis Art Museum, and the 2003recipient of the Allison Atlas Award,

We Will Devour Our Young by RobertaCrown

Evan is also the manager of New Zealandsinger Tama Waipara and booker forNYC Swing, a big band that has per-formed at four White House inaugurals.His autobiography, Apartment 4B, Like inBrooklyn has just been released . . . 1987:This past summer Miami-based artistPablo Cano (MFA) performed with hismarionettes on the plaza of LincolnCenter. Play Day: Drum and Play, waspart of the Lincoln Center Out of Doorsfree summer festival. Pablo’s marionettes,created out of found materials, have beenfeatured in eight productions commis-sioned by the Museum of ContemporaryArt (MOCA) in North Miami. “I createdmarionettes for the first time when I wasat Queens College,’’ said Pablo. “A lot ofthe materials I found in New York wereput into the marionettes. That was in1985.” In October at MOCA Pablo per-formed The Beginning, a production with100 marionettes . . . 1989: James J.Gormley is the editor-in-chief of remedies,a new monthly magazine that offerscolumns on herbal healing, homeopathicmedicine, health and beauty, and sportsnutrition. It also focuses on the scienceand promise of dietary supplements. Theco-author of the User’s Guide to Detoxifi-cation, Health Benefits of Phosphat-idylserine, User’s Guide to Brain-BoostingSupplements, and author of DHA: A GoodFat, Jim is the senior policy advisor toCitizens for Health (www.citizens.org)and a board member of the NaturalHealth Research Institute. In addition,Jim recently served on the Council forResponsible Nutrition Delegation toCodex Alimentarius, and currently actsas the Scientific & Regulatory Liaison forNutrition 21, a nutritional biosciencecompany . . . 1996: Christopher D.McDonald is an attorney with the lawoffice of Mitchell Mund in Forest Hills,

NY. Chris represents small business own-ers in all phases of their business opera-tions and real estate transactions . . .1998: Ellen Cho France successfullydefended her PhD thesis at YaleUniversity and received her doctorate inbiology last May. She hopes to see herfindings in print soon in Journal of CellScience. She and her husband, Ralph, cel-ebrated their ninth wedding anniversarythis summer. For five of those years, theyhave lived apart, with Ellen working atYale and Ralph teaching physics inGeorgia. With the couple now reunitedin Georgia, Ellen writes, “I realized all ofa sudden it was so nice to have all ourkitchen tools in one place and to be ableto cook without having to wonder whohas a certain tool” . . . 2000: Eli Ron, whois about to complete his PhD in chemistryat Stony Brook University, has accepted apostdoctoral position in the lab of 1990Chemistry Nobel Prizewinner E.J. Corey atHarvard University . . . Heidi Zapata isenrolled in a joint MD/PhD program atSUNY Upstate Medical Center inSyracuse, NY. Having completed thebasic science portion of her MD, she isnow doing lab research and starting towrite her first manuscript. She presentedher findings at an International HerpesWorkshop in Turku, Finland, and spent aweek touring Germany and Austria . . .2004: Thomas W. Galante (MLS) isdirector of the Queens Library, the largestcirculating public library in the UnitedStates and the fifth-busiest public libraryin the world. A resident of Wilton, CT,Thomas had held executive positions inthe Queens Library since 1987, mostrecently as interim library director. Tomhas led every facet of the organizationduring his 18 years with the library. Hisaccomplishments include opening the firstU.S. public library with complete self-

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service stations for customers utilizingRFID (Radio Frequency Identification)technology coupled with automated pay-

ment technology. Tom holds a BBA fromSt. Bonaventure University and an MBAfrom Hofstra University.

alumniNEWSNEXT TRIP: THE ITALIAN LAKESNineteen alumni, family, and friends touredthe Normandy region of France from July

19–26 thissummer. Thegroup stayedin Lisieux atthe Grand

Hotel de l’Esperance and visited Rouen,Honfleur, Bayeux, Monet’s home inGiverny, Mt. St. Michel, and the D-Daybeaches and American Cemetery. We alsohad lectures on the history of Normandy,the cuisine of the region, and the D-Dayinvasion. Everyone had a great time seeingthe sites, eating Norman-French food, anddiscussing world events. We left with greatpictures and great memories.

Next year the alumni tour will be to theItalian Lakes District. The trip will include a private cruise of Lake Como and LakeMaggiore, a day trip to Milan, walkingtours of Baveno, Intra, and Pallanza. Seethe gorgeous scenery, the historic sites, thelakes, villas, and churches. We will be stay-ing at the Lido Palace Hotel, which wasbuilt as a villa in 1865. All meals and toursare included. The cost is $1995, plusair. Call Alumni Holiday (AHI) at(800) 680-4244 for further information.

David Guskin

ATTENTION PEER ADVISOR ALUMNIRuth Frisz, coordinator of the PeerAdvisement Program, informs us that thePeer Advisement Alumni AdvisoryCommittee has been active for over threeyears and has held three fundraisingevents. If you are interested in becoming

a member of the committee, contributingto the QC Foundation–Peer AdvisementFund, or just being kept informed ofupcoming events, you can contact Ruth at ruth.frisz@qc.cuny.edu, 718-997-5426,or at the Counseling and AdvisementCenter, Frese Hall, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11367.

SEND US YOUR NEWS!We want to hear more from graduates—especially our recent graduates. Tell uswhere you are and what you are doing,and enclose a photo. Be sure to let usknow when you move.

Email: alumni@qc.edu

Mail: Alumni News, Office of AlumniAffairs, Queens College, 65-30 KissenaBoulevard, Flushing, NY 11367Phone: 718-997-3930

Fax: 718-997-3602

Look for us on the Web. We arealways adding information about newsat the college and upcoming events.And be sure to click on EntertainmentAlumni Updates. You will be pleasant-ly surprised. Alumni Affairs Web site:www.qc.cuny.edu/alumni_affairs

MISSING ALUMNIWe have lost touch withmany of our over 110,000alumni. In most cases theydid not let us know when

they moved. Addresses can beupdated online by going towww.qc.cuny.edu/QC_Foundation.

If you know alumni who do not hearfrom the college, please let us know.