USC Dornsife Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2011

FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES

S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 1

ALSO INSIDE: The Illusion of the Curveball • Pre-law & More • On the Cutting Edge • The Power of Change

Historic Gift. Inspirational Name.

Celebrate.ON MARCH 23, 2011, the heart of the University of Southern California and the

oldest, largest and most diverse academic unit within the university was named the

USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. David and his

wife Dana, longtime supporters of the university and international philanthropists,

have given $200 million, the largest single gift in USC’s history to name its college

of letters, arts and sciences. PHOTO BY PHIL CHANNING

READ THE FULL STORY ON PAGE 10. WATCH VIDEOS FROM THE CELEBRATION AT DORNSIFE.USC.EDU/DORNSIFE.

A Gift that GivesAND GIVES BACK TO YOUFor guaranteed fixed income, you may want to consider a USC Charitable Gift Annuity.

Tommy Trojan, age 75, plans to donate a maturing $100,000 certificate of depositto USC Dornsife. Because he would like to continue receiving income, he decides to fund a one-life USC Charitable Gift Annuity. The annuity will pay hima rate of 6.4%, or $6,400 per year. And there are further advantages!

For his $100,000 donation to establish the annuity, Tommy receives a charitableincome tax deduction of $42,521. Because Tommy itemizes his tax deductionson his income tax return, he can use this deduction to reduce his current year’sincome tax obligation. With Tommy’s 35 percent federal income tax rate, his taxsavings is $14,882. In addition, for 13.4 years, the first $4,825 of his annual paymentsof $6,400 will be tax-free.

The gift annuity will therefore have a taxable equivalent yield of 10.5%.Plus, his gift may be designated to support any USC Dornsife department orprogram of his choosing.

Please contact Susan Wilcox, Associate Dean for USC Dornsife Advancement, by phone or [email protected] to discuss gift options and to obtain a copy of the university’s Suggested Bequest/

Distribution Language. Deferred gift annuities for individuals under age 60 are also available for your consideration.

Trojans have supported USC Dornsife students for generationsthrough planned gifts and annual gifts.L to R: Morton Kay '49, Andrew Platt '09, Larry Platt '74 and '77

AGE ANNUITY RATE

60 5.2%

65 5.5.%

70 5.8%

75 6.4%

80 7.2%

85 8.1%

90+ 9.5%

USC Charitable Gift Annuity Rates are based on the Suggested Rates approved by the American Council on Gift Annuities and are subject to periodic review.

Learn How...To create income for yourself while giving to USC Dornsife.

Good for You, Good for USC Dornsife

(213) 740-4994 dornsife.usc.edu/giving

One of the great pleasuresof being Dean has beengetting to know Danaand David Dornsife.

During the past four years we haveenjoyed many special moments to-gether. We have shared our passions,talked about our travels (they havebetter stories!), and discussed theexciting world of letters, arts and sci-ences. Our friendship has meant agreat deal to me and my wife Ellen.

Dana and David are incredibly smart,friendly, funny, genuine and gracious. Whenyou �rst meet them, you are struck by theirsincerity. You won’t immediately realize thatyou are in the presence of two of the great-est humanitarians and philanthropists of ourtime. Only when you learn about theirworld-changing projects will you realizethey can also be extraordinarily determined,at least when it comes to the hard but essen-tial work of making the world a better place.

We are so very grateful for their historic gift— the largest single gift in USC’s history andthe largest naming gift in the history ofhigher education for a college of letters, artsand sciences. This rare gift of unrestricted en-dowment support for the heart of the univer-sity will expand core support for outstandingundergraduate education, distinguishedPh.D. programs, and world-class scholarly andcreative research throughout the humanities,social sciences and sciences.

But we are just as grateful for the gift oftheir names. Their names will serve as anenduring inspiration to all faculty, studentsand staff who are part of the USC Dana andDavid Dornsife College of Letters, Arts andSciences.

Their commitment represents an unprece-dented show of con�dence in the commu-nity of letters, arts and sciences. It re�ectsan abiding appreciation of the fact that research and teaching in our core disciplines

are central to the cultivation and enrichmentof the human mind and spirit and to the ad-vancement of our community and our world.

Our task now is to do justice to their faithin our world of inquiry and discovery.

We begin by creating a new DornsifeScholars Program to recognize outstandinggraduating seniors from USC Dornsifewhose academic achievements across allspheres of knowledge address basic ques-tions of human value and vital social chal-lenges facing our nation and the world.

We will remain vigilant to ensure that ourscholarship addresses important questionsand pushes the frontiers of knowledge in away that has a lasting impact on our disci-plines and our world. We will all work to-gether to ensure that undergraduateeducation prepares our students to thrive ina rapidly changing world and inspires themto make a difference. Through our Ph.D.programs we will train new generations ofscholars, who in turn will extend the endlesscycle of inquiry, discovery and education.

All of us have a role to play — faculty, stu-dents, parents, staff, alumni, friends, and sup-porters. We are grateful inheritors of a greatlegacy, but we are also uniquely privileged tobe part of this very special moment in USC’shistory and in the history of higher education.

Let’s all commit to working together to dojustice to this moment, so that we mightbuild on this opportunity to achieve endur-ing distinction.

The Latin phrase scientia gratia hoministranslates as “knowledge for the sake of hu-mankind.” I think it is a wonderful sentiment.I believe it captures the importance and valueof the world of letters, arts and sciences.

Now this world is graced with an inspira-tional name, which will be synonymouswith scholarly inquiry in service of humanenlightenment and progress: the USC Danaand David Dornsife College of Letters, Artsand Sciences.

HOWARD GILLMANDEAN OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFECOLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCESANNA H. BING DEAN’S CHAIR

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scientia gratia hominis knowledge for the sake of humankind

dornsife.usc.edu Explore USC Dornsife’s Web site and video gallery for exciting new content.

SPECIAL FOCUS:

Go Anywhere

The Language of MedicineHeather Rosen ’97 forged a nontraditional path into the

medical profession and came out a better doctor. BY LAURIE MOORE

The Man Behind the Purple & GoldJerry Buss, a 2010 inductee into the Basketball Hall of

Fame, pays it forward by supporting his alma mater in the name ofhis mentors. BY SUSAN ANDREWS

Keeper of the WildSteward of an island wilderness, Ann Muscat ’83 strives

to find a balance between people and nature. BY LAURIE MOORE

Champion for EducationThe daughter of self-educated immigrants, Celia C.

Ayala ’76 ensures that Los Angeles County’s children receive a qualitypreschool education. BY AMBROSIA VIRAMONTES-BRODY

America’s Money AdvocatePersonal finance expert and best-selling author David

Bach ’90 is on a mission to empower millions of Americans to live andfinish rich. BY EMILY CAVALCANTI

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COVER STORY What’s in a Name? Everything if the Name Is Dornsife. BY SUSAN ANDREWS10

Global AlliancesJoe Cerrell ’01 rallies government and industry leaders to increase funding for

international development. BY LAURIE MOORE

A Passion for FashionMandana Dayani ’03, on the runway track to success, projects glamour in front of

and behind the camera. BY SUSAN ANDREWS

Pillar of EmpowermentMark Ridley-Thomas ’89 is a foremost advocate of neighborhood participation in

government decision-making. Lucky for us his neighborhood includes USC. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

The Morale BoosterSonia Narang ’99 builds trust with employees. A furry critter gave her a lesson

on that. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

Silver Screen StorytellerMatthew Michael Carnahan ’95 scripts tales of politics, drama and international

intrigue. BY MICHELLE SALZMAN

Firm AmbitionLindsay Harrison ’00 was a rookie when she made her appellate debut at the

highest court. She also changed the rules and saved a man’s life. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

Beam of HopeWayne Wu ’92 invests in the mechanics of medicine. BY MICHELLE SALZMAN

An (Air) Force of NatureBorn on a U.S. Air Force base, 59 years later Michael Donley ’77, ’78 is the Air

Force’s top civilian leader. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

In Love, Will TravelAs a couple, Alex Peterson ’05 and Jennifer McCard ’06 are making careers out

of service to the U.S. and the environment, around the world. BY MICHELLE SALZMAN

Winds of FortuneThrough their two companies, Alisa Rogers ’79 and her husband Philip have

forever changed the wind energy industry. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

Departments1 | From the Dean

4 | From the Editors

5 | Campus News & Events

8 | In the News

In the Field9 | The Illusion of the CurveballIs the breaking curveball too good to be true?Zhong-Lin Lu and his fellow researchersinvestigate. BY CARL MARZIALI

In the Classroom14 | Pre-law and MoreA new major in philosophy, politics and lawprepares students for a range of future endeavors.BY EMILY CAVALCANTI

15 | Writing Class Takes onCyberbullyingLed by Mark Marino, students in one Writing340 course create @Wall Watch.BY SKYE MCILVAINE-JONES ’12

In the Lab16 | On the Cutting EdgeUSC Dornsife faculty garner high marks andgrants from the National Institutes of Health.BY SUSAN ANDREWS

17 | Speed HealsSamantha Butler and collaborators show that therate and direction of axon growth in the spinalcord can be controlled. BY LAURIE MOORE

18 | Sour Research, Sweet ResultsEmily Liman and her team reveal the physiologybehind all the puckering. BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

In the World19 | The Power of ChangeDivinity Matovu ’08 is recognized by Glamourmagazine for leading Amagezi Gemaanyi YouthAssociation. BY LAURIE MOORE

47 | Student Awards

48 | Faculty Notes & Bookplate

51 | Class Notes & In Memoriam

56 | In My Own WordsThe Road Much TraveledAs The Associated Press’ news editor for Georgia,Christina Almeida ’01 has seen it all.

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EDITOR

Susan Andrews

MANAGING EDITOR & DESIGNER

Emily Cavalcanti

SENIOR WRITER & ASSISTANT EDITOR

Pamela J. Johnson

WEB EDITOR & WRITER

Laurie Moore

NEW MEDIA PRODUCER

Mira Zimet

MEDIA/SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST & WRITER

Michelle Salzman

STAFF WRITER

Ambrosia Viramontes-Brody

COORDINATOR

Letitia Franklin

USC DORNSIFE ADMINISTRATION

Howard Gillman, Dean

Susan Andrews, Senior Associate Deanfor Communication

Dani Byrd, Vice Dean for Faculty

Stephan Haas, Vice Dean for Research

Steven Lamy, Vice Dean forAcademic Programs

Donal Manahan, Vice Dean for Students

George Sanchez, Vice Dean for College Diversity& Strategic Initiatives

Roger D. Stewart, Executive Associate Deanfor Administration & Finance

Richard Vargas, Senior Associate Deanfor Advancement

USC DORNSIFE BOARD OF COUNCILORS

Jana Waring Greer, Chair • Joan Abrahamson• William Barkett • Jay V. Berger • Leslie

Berger • Robert D. Beyer • MaryLou Boone •Gregory Brakovich • Robin Broidy • Susan Casden •

Richard Cook • James Corfman • Diane Dixon •Richard S. Flores • Shane Foley • Lisa Goldman • Yossie

Hollander • Janice Bryant Howroyd • Suzanne NoraJohnson • Stephen G. Johnson • Samuel King • David Y.Lee • Mitchell Lew • Andrew Littlefair • Robert Osher •Gerald Papazian • Lawrence Piro • Kelly Porter • Michael

Reilly • Harry Robinson • Alicia Smotherman • Glenn A.Sonnenberg • Kumarakulasingam “Suri” Suriyakumar •

Rosemary Tomich

USC Dornsife Magazine is published twice a year by USCDana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sci-

ences Office of Communication at the University of SouthernCalifornia. © 2011 USC Dana and David Dornsife College ofLetters, Arts and Sciences. The diverse opinions expressed inUSC Dornsife Magazine do not necessarily represent the views

of the editors, USC Dornsife administration or USC.

USC Dornsife Magazine welcomes commentsfrom its readers. Send letters to

[email protected] or USC DornsifeMagazine, c/o Letitia Franklin,

Citigroup Center 8206, 41st Floor,Los Angeles, CA 90089-8206.

The Stories of USC Dornsife Alumni

Each alumna or alumnus of USC Dana and David DornsifeCollege of Letters, Arts and Sciences leaves our communityfilled with special dreams and an inner hope for a

fulfilling and beautiful life.

Great faculty, extraordinary research and study abroad opportunities, and a TrojanFamily network are a formidable foundation paving a path for USC Dornsife stu-dents. As alumni, they pursue a variety of interesting and meaningful careers in whichthey make a difference in the world through intellect, compassion and initiative.

In this issue, you will read the stories of our alumni who, in various stages oftheir careers, have made a strong impact in their respective fields that includemedicine, military, research, reporting, NBA franchise ownership, activism,environmentalism, law and fashion.

Graduates of USC Dornsife are prepared to meet the challenges of both theworkplace and the biggest problems facing humankind today. Equipped with thetools of critical and original thinking, exceptional oral and written communicationskills, problem-solving abilities and a capacity for lifelong learning, our graduatestackle anything and everything.

Our alumni have brought pride and economy to Los Angeles, honorably servedour country, empowered others, enhanced quality of life and brought aestheticsand beauty to a world much in need.

No matter the wealth gained or personal recognition garnered for their high-impact careers, our alumni continue to pursue excellence and seek new andgreater milestones. Each would define success differently, but in each individualdefinition you would find a true desire to give back and leave the world a betterplace than he or she found it.

The world of USC Dornsife has made a world of difference to our alumni andthose fortunate to cross their paths.

SUSAN ANDREWS AND EMILY CAVALCANTI, OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION

On the CoverIn appreciation for their historic $200 milliongift, Dana and David Dornsife (center) receivedthe University Medallion, which has beenpresented only once before in USC’s history.USC Dornsife Dean Howard Gillman (left) andUSC President C. L. Max Nikias (right) celebratedthis momentous occasion with the Dornsifes.Read more on page 10.

COVER PHOTO BY PHIL CHANNING

FROM THE EDITORS

4 | USC Dornsife Magazine

STARS AND SUPPORTERS ofthe USC Shoah FoundationInstitute for Visual History andEducation came together Dec. 9in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre tohonor film producer, CEO ofDreamWorks Animation, philan-thropist and humanitarian JeffreyKatzenberg.

Steven Spielberg, founder of theUSC Shoah Foundation Institute

and honorary chair of the insti-tute, compared Katzenberg toJimmy Stewart’s characterGeorge Bailey in Frank Capra’sclassic film It’s a Wonderful Life.

“Without Jeffrey as a part of ourcollective lifetimes,” Spielbergsaid, “I shudder to think of whatHollywood would be like today.”

Spielberg called Katzenberg atrue visionary, who along with hisfamily, is a firm believer in theword “yes,” citing a long list of his

philanthropic leadership roles inthe United States and around theworld, where he has been a cham-pion of charitable movements.

Receiving the Ambassador forHumanity Award, Katzenbergspoke of Spielberg’s seminal filmSchindler’s List and its wonderfulafter-effects, including the estab-lishment of the Shoah Foundation.

Calling the 52,000 testimonials

in the institute’s archive a power-ful, profound and permanentshout of never again, Katzenbergsaid that along with the cry“never again,” in his mind it is“ever again.”

“Ever again in large and smallways, people rise to the chal-lenge and push back the dark-ness that happened in camps,battlegrounds, in attics and hid-ing places,” he said.

“Ever again good people do

what is right and the worldinches forward. Ever again wesee it around us today in soupkitchens, the Haiti relief effortand the fight against AIDS.”

Katzenberg said that he wasboth inspired by stories in the in-stitute’s archive and by the storyof the institute itself.

Stephen Smith, executive direc-tor of the institute, gave a movingpresentation interspersed withvideo segments featuring survivors.Singer and Oscar-winner JenniferHudson provided the evening’sentertainment and comedian CraigFerguson hosted the gala.

“Our broad and diverse com-munity of students and scholars isdedicated to honoring the hopesand aspirations of every singleperson who shared his or her tes-timony,” Dean Howard Gillmansaid. “We are all deeply grateful tothe countless individuals, includ-ing Steven Spielberg and JeffreyKatzenberg and organizations thathave come together to supportthis invaluable educationresource.” —SA

Ever Again People Do What Is RightTHE USC SHOAH FOUNDATION INSTITUTE HONORS THE 2010 AMBASSADOR FOR HUMANITY

JEFFREY KATZENBERG.

Political Polling: AScience and an ArtSTUDENTS CONDUCT PARALLEL

POLITICAL POLLS TO THE “RIGHTON THE MONEY” USC DORNSIFE /LOS ANGELES TIMES POLLS.

Undergraduates in USC Dornsife’spracticum course in Americanpolitics took to the phones, butnot to call or text their friends.

“We persevered even though wereceived many hang-ups, no an-swers and ‘take me off your list’responses,” said Alex Vanroekel, adouble major in political scienceand economics.

This fall, Vanroekel and 24 class-mates under the direction of Pro-fessor of Political Science JaneJunn talked to 1,500 Californiavoters in conjunction with USCDana and David Dornsife Collegeof Letters, Arts and Sciences / LosAngeles Times statewide publicopinion polls. The cooperativeventure between USC Dornsifeand the Times began in November2009 and concluded with a sixthpoll following the 2010 guberna-torial and senatorial election.

Junn said that the student-runpolls or “2010 UVote Poll” thatsupplemented the USC Dornsife /Los Angeles Times polls were astudy in political behavior andpublic opinion.

“Public opinion polling is an artand a science,” Junn said. “Thestudents gained experience ingathering and analyzing data,synthesizing the information in ameaningful way, and talking tothe media. They ran the gamut oftasks in the same way professionalsurvey researchers do.” —SA

Watch a video on thestudent-run polls atdornsife.usc.edu/uvote.

“Ever again in large and small ways, people riseto the challenge and push back the darkness thathappened in camps, battlegrounds, in attics andhiding places.”

Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg(right) receives the 2010Ambassador for HumanityAward from USC ShoahFoundation Institute founderSteven Spielberg.

CAMPUS NEWS & EVENTS

SFIEVENTPHOTOBYMICHAELCAULFIELD;STUDENTPOLLINGPHOTOBYJIEGU

Spring/Summer 2011 | 5


D.MANAHANANDS.HAASPHOTOSBYJIEGU;R.MARINELLIPHOTOCOURTESYOFROBERTAMARINELLI

DEAN HOWARD GILLMAN hasappointed Donal Manahan, pro-fessor of biological sciences, asthe first vice dean for students inUSC Dornsife and Stephan Haas,professor of physics and astron-omy, as vice dean for research.

In his new role, Manahan over-sees, expands and ensures thequality of student activities inUSC Dornsife, including studentadvisement, the new USC Dorn-sife-Keck School of Medicine Ac-ademic and Advising Program,USC Dornsife Freshman Semi-nars (First-Year Investigations),supplemental instruction, USCDornsife admission, and USCDornsife’s signature speaker

series The College Commons.Manahan is working closely

with Vice Dean for AcademicPrograms Steven Lamy to coordi-nate funding for USC Dornsife’shallmark student research pro-grams, SOAR (Student Opportu-nities for Academic Research)and SURF (Student Undergradu-ate Research Fund).

“I have taught in USC Dorn-sife for more than 25 years. I loveteaching and collaborating withour amazing students,” Manahansaid. “I look forward to expand-ing the wide array of opportuni-ties that we currently offer inUSC Dornsife to dramatically en-hance the educational and co-

curricular experiences of our stu-dents.”

In his new role, Haas is work-ing with Vice Dean for FacultyDani Byrd to develop and leadUSC Dornsife-wide research ini-tiatives, facilitate interdepart-mental and cross-school researchpartnerships, oversee USC Dorn-sife research administration, andadvise Gillman on allocation ofresearch space and resources.

“I am glad to be part of a newera of exciting opportunities toserve the research community inUSC Dornsife,” Haas said. —SA

New USC Dornsife AppointmentsPROFESSORS DONAL MANAHAN AND STEPHAN HAAS JOIN DEAN GILLMAN’S LEADERSHIP TEAM.

“Our conversations this year have revolved around ‘Rethinkingthe Human’ — the enduring aspects of our humanity and thosethat change as our culture and knowledge change.”

William Thalmann, professor of classics and comparative literature and director of The College Commons, on the series’2010–11 theme. “Rethinking the Human” brought the USC community together for events including a conversation withThe English Patient author Michael Ondaatje, a film screening with documentary filmmaker Jørgen Flindt Pedersen, anda discussion with USC Dornsife faculty and guests on robots and warfare.

For more information on The College Commons, visit dornsife.usc.edu/tcc.

New DirectorNamed for theWrigley InstituteROBERTA MARINELLI SELECTED TO

LEAD THE USC WRIGLEY INSTITUTE

FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES.

Dean Howard Gillman has ap-pointed Dr. Roberta Marinellithe new director of the USCWrigley Institute for Environ-mental Studies, beginning inJune 2011.

Marinelli will lead the institute’sresearch, education and out-reach missions on the main USCcampus in Los Angeles and itsSanta Catalina Island facility, thePhilip K. Wrigley Marine ScienceCenter. She also will play a lead-ership role in planning and im-plementing an expansion ofacademic and research programsin environmental studies at USC.

Marinelli, since 2005, has servedas the program director of theAntarctic Organisms and Ecosys-tems Program at the NationalScience Foundation, station rep-resentative at the Palmer andMcMurdo stations in Antarctica,and as associate professor at theUniversity of Maryland Centerfor Environmental Science. —SA

CAMPUS NEWS & EVENTS

Donal Manahan Stephan Haas

WHAT DOES THE RONALD

Tutor Campus Center have incommon with the Musée du Lou-vre? More than you might think.

Stephen Dart, G. Michael Dartand Jane Dart Tucker have do-nated the “Dart Aphrodite” — aGreco-Roman marble sculpture ofthe goddess’s head that dates be-tween 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. — tothe Archaeological Research Cen-ter at USC. The center in turn issharing the sculpture with thecampus community. Those walk-ing down a hallway on the secondfloor of the Tutor Campus Centercan view the “Dart Aphrodite,” aclose cousin of a sculpture in theworld’s most famous museum.

John Pollini, professor of art his-tory and history, inspired the do-nation by writing a paper on the“Dart Aphrodite” a decade ago.

When Jane O’Brien Dart, wifeof former USC trustee Justin W.Dart and the owner of the sculp-ture passed away in 2009, her son

Stephen remembered Pollini'sessay and said they would like togive it to USC.

“After doing preliminary researchon this previously unknown head ofAphrodite, I called Jane to tell herwhat I had discovered,” Pollini re-called. “Needless to say, she was de-lighted to learn about my findings.”

The “Dart Aphrodite” is consid-ered an Arles-type depiction of thegoddess because of its proportions,rounded features, chignon with hairband and graceful turn of the head.

The Louvre’s similar full-bodiedAphrodite statue was discovered inArles, France, in 1651. Aside fromthe statue in the Louvre, the “DartAphrodite” — although missing itsbody — is the only known Arles-type marble head in existence.

“The appearance of this previ-ously unknown head of the ArlesAphrodite type is an important ad-dition to scholarship and the studyof a sculptural type prized by bothancient Greek and Roman society,”Pollini said.

The Archaeological ResearchCenter housed in USC Dornsife

permanently loaned the rarepiece through the Ronald

Tutor Campus Center Artand Trojan Traditions

program, which sup-ports exhibitions and

commissions for thenew building. The“Dart Aphrodite” isdisplayed at the top

of the Trojan FamilyRoom staircase.

Read an essay byProfessor JohnPollini on the Dart

family and the sculpture atdornsife.usc.edu/dart.

A Decade of Law, History and CultureTHE CENTER FOR LAW, HISTORY AND CULTURE CELEBRATES

10 YEARS OF SCHOLARSHIP.

Since 2001, the Center for Law, History and Culture, based in USCGould School of Law and USC Dornsife, has worked to cultivate theinterdisciplinary field of law and the humanities. The center hasstood at the cusp of a relatively new academic discipline that stud-ies law as a historical and cultural institution.

Through seminars, conferencesand junior scholars programs,the center explores law’s posi-tion at the nexus of societyfrom a variety of theoreticalperspectives.

In honor of 10 years of scholar-ship, the center hosted a two-dayconference in February to exam-ine how law and memory inter-twine to record the past. Theevent included a series of paneldiscussions featuring experts inlegal theory, history, psychology,literature, communications and

cultural studies who looked at law and memory in the context ofwar, legal trials, slavery, property and trauma.

Bringing together this community of scholars was exhilarating, ac-cording to Hilary Schor, professor of English, comparative literature,gender studies, and law.

“The joy of interdisciplinary work is that it’s often the most bril-liant people who are most eager to take chances,” said Schor, whoco-directs the center with Nomi Stolzenberg, professor of law, andAriela Gross, professor of law and history. “They want to be pushedout of their comfort zone, to explore new worlds of thought, tohear from people who do something that challenges their work inan intelligent way.”—MS


DARTAPHRODITEPHOTOCOURTESYOFJOHNPOLLINI

The Dart AphroditeA RARE SCULPTURE IS DONATED TO THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

CENTER AND DISPLAYED IN THE RONALD TUTOR CAMPUS CENTER.

“Dart Aphrodite,” a Greco-Roman marble sculpture, datesbetween 100 B.C. and 100 A.D.

“The joy ofinterdisciplinarywork is that it’soften the most

brilliant peoplewho are mosteager to take

chances.”

For more information on the Center for Law, History and Culture,visitweblaw.usc.edu/centers/clhc.


F.CALDERONPHOTOBYALEXANDREMENEGHINII(AP);JAPANEARTHQUAKEMAPCOURTESYOFTHEUNITEDSTATESGEOLOGICALSURVEY

“In a workshop, fellow writerscan identify weaknesses in astory, often without reducingits writer to suicidal mush. Yet

such civility is not always beneficial. In myexperience, being reduced to mush provideda strong incentive not to repeat mistakes.”MG LORD of the Master of Professional Writing (MPW) Program on the in-gredients of a good writing workshop. Advice from Lord as well as her fellowMPW colleagues, Program Director Brighde Mullins and Madelyn Cain, wasfeatured in the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 21.

“The question was whether that section hadlocked — accumulating strain — or was itslipping slowly. We now know that this is aplate boundary that was locked.”THOMAS JORDAN, University Professor, W.M. Keck Foundation Chair inGeological Sciences, and director of the Southern California Earthquake Center,in a March 12 report in the Los Angeles Times on the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit offthe east coast of Japan on March 11. Jordan said seismologists had been debating the fault’s potentialto break, but they had little data to go on since the last earthquake of this magnitude along this plateboundary occurred more than 1,100 years ago.

“[He] wants to make sure they don’t cutthe funding for Merida, in their zeal tocut.”PAMELA STARR of international relations in a March 2 Washington Post

article on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to the United States. According to Starr, Calderon’smost important meeting may have been with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner as this offered Mexico’sbest opportunity to defend the next phase of the $1.4 billion U.S. Merida Initiative anti-drug aid plan.

“[N]o matter how modern and rational we liketo think we are, we still need a little bit ofmagic in our lives. We still want to believe thatthere’s more to the world than meets our eyes.”DEBORAH HARKNESS of history in a March 4 interview for National PublicRadio affiliate WBUR Boston’s “On Point” about her best-selling novelA Discovery of Witches. (See page 50 for more information.)

IN THE NEWS

faculty quotables

“At least in the near term, thedemonstrations may continue, butthe messages on the banners inJordan are likely to remain tame,criticizing the government and itspolicies, but never those whoactually rule.”LAURIE BRAND, Robert Grandford WrightProfessor and professor of internationalrelations, in her Jan. 18 Foreign Policyop-ed on protest movements in Tunisiaand Jordan.

“[President Obama and JohnBoehner] know there’s a middleground that results in a compro-mise on spending cuts and laysthe groundwork for an adult con-versation on reining in entitle-ment costs. Both also realize thatthe most likely fallout of an ex-tended stalemate is more politi-cal pain than either one of themwants to bear.”DAN SCHNUR, director of the Jesse M. UnruhInstitute of Politics, in his Feb. 22 New YorkTimes op-ed on ways for Democrats andRepublicans to reach a budget compromise.

“Charlie Sheen, after all, on Twoand a Half Men plays a charactermuch like his publicized off-screen self, and more shenani-gans could easily enhance theshow’s draw. But sometimeswhen you push the envelope,the envelope breaks.”LEO BRAUDY, University Professor, Leo S.Bing Chair in English and American Litera-ture, and professor of English, in his Feb. 26New York Times op-ed on Hollywood’s reac-tion to bad behavior by stars.

Visit dornsife.usc.edu/media-news for more media highlights.

OPINION LEADERS


IN THE FIELD

URVEBALLS CURVE AND fast-balls go really fast, but new re-search suggests that no pitchercan make a curveball “break”or a fastball “rise.” Led byZhong-Lin Lu of USC Dorn-

sife and Arthur Shapiro of American University,the researchers reveal the illusion of the curve-ball’s break in a study in the journal PLoS ONE.

The study comes a year after the same groupwon the prize for best illusion at the Vision Sci-ences annual meeting with a demonstration ofhow an object falling in a straight line can seemto change direction.

That demonstration led to debates amongbaseball fans over the existence of the break in

curveballs, breaking balls andsliders. There is no debate in theresearchers’ minds.

“The curveball does curve,but the curve has been meas-ured and shown to be gradual,”Shapiro said. “It’s always goingto follow a parabolic path. Butfrom a hitter’s point of view, anapproaching ball can appear tobreak, drop or do a whole rangeof unusual behaviors.”

A little terminology: to manybatters and pitchers, a break is adeviation from the fairly straightpath of a fastball. In that sense,all curveballs break.

The authors of the study usethe term to describe an apparentsudden drop or other change intrajectory as the ball nears homeplate. That, they say, is an illu-sion.

The PLoS ONE study explainsthe illusion and relates the per-ceived size of the break to the

shifting of the batter’s eye between central andperipheral vision.

“If the batter takes his eye off the ball by 10degrees, the size of the break is about one foot,”said Lu, William M. Keck Chair in CognitiveNeuroscience and professor of psychology andbiomedical engineering in USC Dornsife.

He explained that batters tend to switchfrom central to peripheral vision when the ballis about 20 feet away, or two-thirds of the wayto home plate.

The eye’s peripheral vision lacks the abilityto separate the motions of the spinning ball, Lusaid. In particular, it gets confused by the com-bination of the ball’s velocity and spin.

The result is a gap between the ball’s trajec-

tory and the path as perceived by the batter.The gap is small when the batter switches to

peripheral vision, but gets larger as the balltravels the last 20 feet to home plate.

As the ball arrives at the plate, the batterswitches back to central vision and sees it in adifferent spot than expected.

That perception of an abrupt change is the“break” in the curveball that frustrates batters.

“Depending on how much and when thebatter’s eyes shift while tracking the ball, youcan actually get a sizable break,” Lu said. “Thedifference between central and peripheral vi-sion is key to understanding the break of thecurveball.”

A similar illusion explains the “rising fast-ball,” Lu added.

The obvious remedy for a batter, repeated byparents and coaches everywhere, is to “keepyour eye on the ball.”

That is easier said than done, according tothe authors. As the ball nears home plate, itssize in the batter’s field of view spills out of theeye’s central vision.

Lu noted that the spin of the ball tends todraw the eye to the side, making it even harderfor the batter to keep the ball in central vision.

His advice to hitters: “Don’t trust your eyes.Know the limitations of your visual system. Thisis something that can be trained, probably.”

Responding to comments from baseball fans,Lu agreed that on television, pitches filmedfrom behind home plate appear to break. Hecalled it a “geometric illusion” based on thefact that for the first part of a pitch, the viewersees little or no vertical drop.

The ball is falling at the same rate through-out the pitch, Lu said, but because the pitchertosses the ball at a slight upward angle, the firstpart of the pitch appears more or less flat. As aresult, the drop of the ball near home plate sur-prises the eye.

For Shapiro and Lu, who have studied visualperception for many years, the PLoS ONE re-sults go beyond baseball.

“Humans constantly shift objects betweencentral and peripheral vision and may en-counter effects like the curveball’s break regu-larly,” the authors wrote. “Peripheral vision’sinability to separate different visual signalsmay have far-reaching implications in under-standing human visual perception and func-tional vision in daily life.” �

Watch a video on the mechanics ofpitching at dornsife.usc.edu/pitch.

THE ILLUSION OF THE

CURVEBALLIs the breaking curveball too good to be true?

Zhong-Lin Lu and his fellow researchers investigate.

BY CARL MARZIALI


PHOTOBYPIERSONCLAIR

Austin Wood, a pitcher forthe USC Trojans, is a juniormajoring in sociology.

Given the importance of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and giventhe diversity of its disciplines, I’m not exaggerating when I say that the naming ofthe College is like naming a university. Dana and David Dornsife have in essencenamed the core of our entire university.” —PRESIDENT C. L. MAX NIKIAS

“

COVER STORY

ON MARCH 23 , 201 1 , USC BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR EDWARD P.

ROSKI JR. , PRESIDENT C. L. MAX NIKIAS AND DEAN HOWARD GILLMAN

PRESIDED OVER A SPECTACULAR CEREMONY INCLUDING A STAGE SET

REPRESENTING THE ARCHETYPAL USC CLASSICAL BUILDING. WITH THE

MAJESTIC NOTES OF THE USC TROJAN MARCHING BAND RINGING LOUD

AND PROUD AS IT PLAYED THE “REIGN OF TROY, ” THE HEART OF THE

UNIVERSITY BECAME OFFICIALLY KNOWN AS THE USC DANA AND DAVID

DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES.

During the Bovard Auditorium ceremony, Nikias presented Dana and David Dornsife with theUniversity Medallion, the highest honor given to those who have made major contributions to theuniversity. The award has only been given once before, in 1994, to the late Walter Annenberg.

As the words — USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences — firedacross the stage in a dramatic lighting display, the full-capacity crowd ignited in excitement and pride.

All who spoke sang the praises of Dana and David, longtime supporters of the university and in-ternational philanthropists. They have given the largest single gift in USC’s history — $200 million— to name its college of letters, arts and sciences.

“I spent a good deal of time when I was a USC student in Mudd Hall’s Hoose Library because itis interesting, beautiful and inspiring,” David said. “Today the library is exactly the same as it waswhen I was a student. But never once did I think when I was walking its floors that it would oneday be part of USC Dornsife.” >>

DORNSIFESTORY BY SUSAN ANDREWS | PHOTOS BY PHIL CHANNING AND STEVE COHN

W H A T ’ S I N A N A M E ?

I F T H E N A M E I S

PHOTOBYPHILCHANNING

David is a USC Presidential Associate, a USC trustee, vice presidentof the Hedco Foundation, and chairman of the board of the USC Brainand Creativity Institute.

“The innovation and quest for excellence that I see in USC’s facultyand students has impressed me,” Dana said. “They are fine stewardsof the funds we have provided and bold visionaries who will bring for-ward ideas and innovation that others might not.”

Dana earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Drexel Univer-sity. She is a board member of the USC Brain and Creativity Instituteand the USC-Huntington Institutes, and is president and founder ofLazarex Cancer Foundation.

“This historic investment by Dana and David in USC’s humanities,social sciences and sciences — the largest naming gift in the history ofhigher education for a college of letters, arts and sciences — is bothtransformational and inspirational,” Nikias said.

The unprecedented gift will expand core support for world-classscholarly research, outstanding Ph.D. training, and distinguished un-dergraduate programs throughout USC Dornsife.

“The Dornsifes’ commitment to improving our world will be a per-manent source of inspiration for our faculty, students, staff andalumni,” said Gillman.

David, the president of the Herrick Corporation, the largest steelfabricator on the West Coast, provides the steel for many of the build-ings forming the Los Angeles, San Francisco and other city skylines.He said his ability to run his company and oversee multiple outreachprojects is due in large part to having a wonderful partner in Dana.

Dana said that she and David understand gratitude. “I think the twoof us together are one plus one equals 10,” she explained. “We have acommon desire to use our blessings in a way that makes the world a

better place.”The Dornsifes believe higher education is the best hope for solving

the biggest problems facing the world today. “Dana and I gave this giftbecause we firmly believe the College is the best place to creativelyaddress these significant challenges.”

Dana and David have carried on a legacy of giving to the universitybegun by his parents Ester and Harold. With only 18 cents in hispocket, Harold followed his compass westward in 1934.

Harold’s long over-the-road journey to USC in a Studebaker turnedinto a real-life tale of the quintessential Trojan Family. Gaining entryto USC by way of a basketball scholarship, he used his enterprisingnature to finance his trip from rural Indiana to Southern California bydropping off a factory-minted car to its new owner. Harold later earneda bachelor’s degree in 1938 and a master’s of science in 1942.

Harold, an engineering major, met his future wife Ester, a pre-medstudent in the College, on the steps of Bridge Hall.

David said that his parents actually met a few days earlier at a USC-Cal football game after-party dance. They both pretended to be fromCal, temporarily suspending their Trojan allegiance, as a result ofUSC’s defeat.

“They had enjoyed each other’s company and were pleased to findthe other at USC,” David continued.

Ester and Harold married and had a son, David, and a daughter,Dody Jernstedt. David, accepted at both the University of California,Berkeley and the University of Oregon, chose USC where he studiedbusiness and graduated in 1965. Originally intending to play football,David opted for the shot-put and was a member of USC’s two-timenational championship track and field team.

Ester and Harold were the lead donors for the Hedco Neurosciences

“Right now all of us are sharing atransforming moment in USC’shistory … when the Collegestands so strong, when theCollege is a mighty force forchange — changing individuallives, changing society,changing the world.”—EDWARD P. ROSKI JR., CHAIR,USC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

“WE ARETHEHEARTOFTHEUNIVERSITY.And for millennia ourworld of scholarly inquiry and scientific discovery has been the drivingforce for human progress and enlightenment.” —DEAN HOWARD GILLMAN


USC Dornsife Dean Howard Gillman, Dana andDavid Dornsife, and USC President C. L. Max Nikias

BOVARDPHOTOBYPHILCHANNING;GILLMAN,DORNSIFEANDNIKIASPHOTOBYSTEVECOHN


Building, the Hedco Auditorium, and the Hedco Petroleum andChemical Molecular Biology Laboratories.

Ester was keenly interested in following the neurosciences. After shebecame wheelchair-bound, she asked David to attend the annual confer-ences in the neuroscience buildings on behalf of the family. “While at-tending these events, I got to know several of the professors very well,finding their research fascinating and my association with them enjoy-able,” David said.

Along with David’s sister Dody, the next big step in their alliancewith USC was the naming of two professor-ships in the neurosciences in memory oftheir parents: the Ester P. Dornsife Chair inBiological Sciences, held by NormanArnheim, and the Harold W. Dornsife Chairin Neurosciences, held by Irving Biederman.

“In getting to know Norm and Irv, I soonrealized that their work would greatly bene-fit from the addition of an imaging center oncampus,” David said. In 2003, Dana andDavid provided the lead gift to establish thestate-of-the-art Dana and David DornsifeCognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center inUSC Dornsife that houses a powerful brain-imaging scanner.

The center also was pivotal to USC Dorn-sife’s successful recruitment of pioneeringneuroscientists Antonio Damasio and HannaDamasio. The Dornsifes provided fundingto endow chairs for the Damasios: Antonioholds the David Dornsife Chair in Neuro-science and Hanna the Dana Dornsife Chairin Neuroscience.

In 2008, Dana and David were the guestspeakers at a Visions and Voices signatureevent: “Safari of the Soul: The Quest for Waterin Africa.” “After the lecture we were inun-dated by students who wanted to help othersand asked us how to take the next steps. Danaand I are amazed and excited about what’s happening with this genera-tion,” David said.

The Dornsifes marvel at how today’s students want to make a differ-ence in the world at such an early age. David recalled that he was 38or 39 when he first traveled to Africa. “I have been to Africa about 30times since and we have helped to bring water to hundreds of thou-sands of people through World Vision,” he said. “This is part of what itmeans to be a citizen of the world.”

When visiting their home, it is abundantly clear that Dana andDavid appreciate and embrace world cultures.

As diverse and worldly as the Dornsife home is, so is the gamut oftheir philanthropic leadership, which extends beyond water-drilling inAfrica and includes research associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, theYosemite Conservancy, and support for those with end-stage cancerseeking medical breakthroughs through FDA clinical trials.

Recently the Dornsifes completed a world tour through the Smith-sonian that they liken to a bird’s-eye tour of USC Dornsife. “We were

guided or lectured on anthropology, art history, biological sciences,classics, earth sciences, East Asian studies and cultures, environmentalstudies, history, international relations, philosophy, political science,religion and while we were in Peru, we spoke Spanish — all disci-plines of USC Dornsife,” David said.

Traveling the world, the Dornsifes know firsthand the significance ofhaving access to the wide range of academic disciplines of USC Dornsife.

“History is critical,” David said. “Understanding the arts and howthe Earth formed is essential. Gaining knowledge of the political im-

plications of different societiesand how it informs political andeconomic systems is of greatconsequence. Learning aboutthe lost civilizations in Cambo-dia and observing Angkor Watand what happened there — allof this is vitally important to ourglobal community and helps ourstudents be better citizens andworld changers.”

USC will also create a newDornsife Scholars Program torecognize outstanding graduat-ing seniors from USC Dornsifewho pursue scholarly inquiry

and progress on pressing social challenges for the nation and theworld. The new Dornsife Scholar designation joins the university’scurrent undergraduate recognition programs, including: RenaissanceScholars, Discovery Scholars and Global Scholars.

“The more that we do, the more that we get involved, the more thatwe are enriched by others and new experiences,” Dana said.

The Dornsifes wholly subscribe to the philosophy of the more yougive the more you get back.

“We think this is a tremendous opportunity and we are excitedabout the energy that we see and feel,” David said. “We believe in ourhearts that what is going to happen here at USC in the years to comewill be nothing short of phenomenal.”

For the Dornsifes, the university is eternally and profoundlygrateful. �

“We think this is a tremendous opportunityphenomenal

—DAVID DORNSIFE

”

To learn more about Dana and David Dornsife and to watch videosof the historic celebration, visit dornsife.usc.edu/dornsife.

Dana and David Dornsife are honoredwith a plaque at the entrance to theBovard Administration Building.

PHOTOBYSTEVECOHN

and we are excited about the energy that we see and feel.We believe in our hearts that what is going to happen hereat USC in the years to come will be nothing short of

.

IN THE CLASSROOM


ILLUSTRATIONBYROBERTP.HERNANDEZ

S THE USC TROJANS prepared toplay the California Bears at the

Los Angeles Memorial Coli-seum last fall, there was an-

other face-off scheduled oncampus: Weston Rowland vs.

Ronald Dworkin. As part of his “Philosophy ofLaw” midterm, Rowland, a USC Dornsifejunior, was asked to go head-to-head withDworkin, a pre-eminent scholar in constitu-tional law. The arena was chapter six ofDworkin’s Law’s Empire.

For Rowland, identifying the successes andfailures of Dworkin’s argument regarding anassociative obligation to obey the law becauseof a shared set of responsibilities between

family or neighbors, was exhilarating.“And, besides generally being a lot of fun,”

Rowland said, “the skill of critical reading —the use of reasoning to find problems and solu-tions within a written work — is a pivotal skillin the American legal system and beyond.”

This, as professor Andrei Marmor pointedout, is exactly the foundation for USC Dorn-sife’s new interdisciplinary major in philoso-phy, politics and law (PPL).

“Philosophy teaches you to read a text care-fully and critically,” said Marmor, professor ofphilosophy in USC Dornsife and MauriceJones Jr. Professor of Law in the USC GouldSchool of Law. “It teaches you to extract theargument from a text and to closely examine

that argument’s premises and how these arerelated to the conclusion. When you learn touse the tools of philosophy, you can applythem to any subject.”

The PPL major, which is offered throughUSC Dornsife’s School of Philosophy, allowsstudents to select from a range of courses innine areas including logic; moral and politicalphilosophy; constitutional politics; history ofphilosophy; and politics, law and public policy.“Concepts in American Law,” a course tai-lored specifically to PPL students, was offeredfor the first time through the USC GouldSchool of Law this spring.

Marmor, who is also the program’s facultyadviser and director of the USC Center forLaw and Philosophy, noted that the initial in-spiration behind creating the program was thephilosophy, politics and economics major thatOxford University first offered in the 1920s.

Like Oxford’s design, USC Dornsife’s PPLprogram combines the skills and analyticalrigor of philosophy with a broader backgroundin politics and social issues. However, Marmorand his colleagues believe law rather than eco-nomics more closely matches the expertise re-quired in the study of philosophy and politics.

“USC has taken the lead in combining phi-losophy and politics with law and we believeit’s a better fit,” he said.

Last year, the School of Philosophy revised itsundergraduate program. Due to the overlapwith the new PPL major, the ethics, law andvalue theory emphasis is no longer being of-fered after the 2010–11 academic year. Studentsnow have the option of earning a bachelor ofarts in philosophy or philosophy, politics andlaw, and both may be taken with honors.

For Rowland, a transfer student from Tuc-son, Ariz., the PPL major was primarily whatattracted him to USC.

“There aren’t many programs that offer atri-focus on philosophy, politics and law,” hesaid. “It’s true the PPL program can teach youhow to be a politician or a lawyer. But moreso, through a comprehensive, interdisciplinaryeducation, the major teaches you how to be agood politician or a good lawyer.”

Rowland joins more than 100 USC Dornsifestudents who have selected the PPL majorsince it debuted in Fall 2009.

Among them is first-year student MarissaRoy from Pasadena, Calif., who said she wasdrawn to USC Dornsife’s vibrant academicenvironment that supports unique programs

PRE-LAW & MOREA new major in philosophy, politics and law offers students an interdisciplinary

education that prepares them for a range of future endeavors.

BY EMILY CAVALCANTI


PHOTOBYJIEGU

such as PPL.“The world demands a more well-rounded

education,” she said. “And having the abilityto take a bunch of different classes in severalareas that all relate and culminate in one col-lege experience is amazing.”

While both Rowland and Roy plan to pur-sue careers in law, Marmor cautions that theobjective of the PPL program was not exclu-sively to create a “mini law school.”

“It would be a mistake to regard PPL as justa pre-law type of undergraduate education,”he said. “I think it’s one of the best pre-lawundergraduate programs out there, but we de-signed PPL with enough flexibility and withenough breadth so as not to constrain gradu-ates in the major.”

In addition to law school, PPL graduates maygo on, for example, to careers in public serviceor politics; or they may opt to attend graduateschool in philosophy or political science.

“Law and politics involve so much morethan applying fact; it’s about analyzing situa-tions and trying to figure out how to deal withthem,” Roy said. “Some might say that astrong grounding in philosophy is archaic, butI believe it is the key to understanding andovercoming modern crises whatever yourchosen field might be.” �

“Philosophy teachesyou to read a text care-fully and critically. Itteaches you to extractthe argument from atext and to closely ex-amine that argument’spremises and how theseare related to the con-clusion. When you learnto use the tools of phi-losophy, you can applythem to any subject.”

WRITING CLASS TAKES ON

CYBERBULLYINGIn response to the devastating string of recent LGBT teen suicides, a group of

students and advisers in one Writing 340 course have created a service projectfor victims of cyberbullying. The class, taught by Mark Marino, assistant professorof writing, focuses on writing in 21st-century contexts, including blogs, enrichedby new media technology. Appropriately, their coinciding service project called“@Wall Watch” serves not only as a rewarding endeavor, but also as a practical ap-plication for their lessons.

Integrating contempo-rary media from all an-gles, @Wall Watchcrosses many platformssmoothly: from a Face-book page (hence the“wall” in @Wall Watch)and home domain, to aYouTube channel andTwitter account, @WallWatch has its bases cov-ered. The main @WallWatch homepage, wallwatch.sosclassroom.org,uses blogging softwareand provides helpfuland comforting re-sources in an organized and accessible way, aggregating tools, tweets, videos, links,posts, and more as reference tools and consolation for victims of cyberbullying.

The members of @Wall Watch also petitioned Facebook directly and requestedthat the site allow the flagging of comments and status messages that may be con-sidered offensive or insensitive. Marino and the students are in contact with aFacebook employee regarding the issue, but in the meantime, user-friendly pri-vacy tutorials and tagging instructions can be found on the group’s homepage,along with many other LGBT bullying and general cyberbullying resources.

What sets @Wall Watch apart from similar projects is that — beyond its immedi-ate conceptual goals — the project aims for user-friendliness and accessibility sovictims of cyberbullying quickly find a safe, tolerant haven where they feel sup-ported and cared for. Online discussions are encouraged and resources are abun-dant. On Facebook, victims and their friends are encouraged to tag the communitypage when they detect ill feeling and a tutorial on how to do so is available on theproject’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. @Wall Watch administrators canthen see the offense, and all offensive tags can be aggregated together to increaseawareness and spread the word.

In developing the project, the class consulted experts in emerging media formsas well as the study of bullying as a social phenomenon. Additionally, students pre-sented a lesson plan on bullying, both on and offline, to New Los Angeles CharterSchool. —SKYE MCILVAINE-JONES ’12

For more information on the @WallWatchproject, visit wallwatch.sosclassroom.org.

Mark Marino (center) and his Writing 340 class

FACULTY IN USC DORNSIFE’S Department of Biological Sciences earned exceptionally high pri-ority scores from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the past year, which will trans-late to generous funding for their diverse, cutting-edge research projects.

An unprecedented five professors in molecular and computational biology (MCB) will receivegrants from the NIH: Myron Goodman, Susan Forsburg, Norman Arnheim, Sergey Nuzhdin andFrank Alber. All will be funded by NIH including several who have received specific dollaramounts and project timeframes for their proposals.

According to the NIH’s Web site, each scored grant application is assigned a single, global pri-ority score that reflects the proposed project’s scientific and technical merit based on considera-tion of the five review criteria: significance, approach, innovation, investigator and environment.

The proposals were enthusiastically received by NIH with four of the five receiving percentilerankings ranging from 2 to 7 percent.

The proposal submitted by Myron Goodman, professor of biological sciences and chemistry,resulted in a more than $2 million award for a biochemical study on error correction in DNAsynthesis that focuses on the enzymes called polymerases.

Goodman explained that DNA polymerases replicate parental DNA so that when a cell divides,

IN THE LAB

ON THE

CUTTING EDGEUSC Dornsife faculty garner high marks and grants fromthe National Institutes of Health.

BY SUSAN ANDREWS

“It would seem prudent to regulate the access of such low fidelity

polymerases to DNA to avoid generating a mutational catastrophe.”—MYRON GOODMAN, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND CHEMISTRY


Myron Goodman Susan Forsburg Norman Arnheim

Sergey Nuzhdin

Frank Alber

F.ALBERPHOTOBYPAMELAJ.JOHNSON;S.NUZHDIN

PHOTOBYMAXS.GERBER;M.GOODMANPHOTOBYPHILCHANNING;S.FORSBURGPHOTOBYERICO’CONNELL;N.ARNHEIM

PHOTOBYBRIANMORRI

a duplicate and accurate copy of an organism’sgenome passes on to the daughter cell. How-ever, specialized DNA polymerases exist thatare deliberately inaccurate, enabling these“sloppier copiers” to replicate damaged DNAand generate mutations that can enhance acell’s fitness in times of stress.

“It would seem prudent to regulate the ac-cess of such low fidelity polymerases to DNAto avoid generating a mutational catastrophe,”Goodman said.

The discovery in Goodman’s laboratory ofan error-prone DNA polymerase in the bacte-ria Escherichia coli that can be activated, deac-tivated and reactivated offers a new way toregulate mutagenesis. This type of on-off-onswitch has never been seen for any high orlow fidelity DNA polymerase.

Susan Forsburg, professor of biological sci-ences, will investigate how cells in meiosis re-spond to DNA damage. Forsburg noted that asubstantial fraction of birth defects result fromchromosomal defects in meiosis, the processthat produces eggs and sperm. Her team of re-searchers will use genetics and cell biology insimple yeast to study how chromosomes inmeiosis are protected from DNA damage thatmay contribute to meiotic defects.

“Our goal is to identify conserved proteinsthat protect meiotic cells from defects that couldcontribute to birth defects,” Forsburg said.

Norman Arnheim, Distinguished Professor,Ester P. Dornsife Chair in Biological Sciences,and professor of biological sciences and bio-chemistry, and co-investigator Assistant Re-search Professor of Biological Sciences PeterCalabrese were awarded a more than $2 mil-lion grant to examine specific inherited humandisease mutations causing thyroid cancer thatarise with increasing frequency as men age.

“We found that cells of the testis that expe-rience such a mutation form clusters that in-crease in size with the man’s age and producesperm that carry an ever-increasing proportionof the disease mutation,” Arnheim said.

Arnheim’s current project aims to identifyadditional genetic diseases that have thisproperty. The research duo are also interestedin elucidating the molecular mechanisms thatexplain how normal testis cells acquire thisunusual property when they become mutated.

Frank Alber, assistant professor of biologicalsciences, and his team of researchers willdevelop methods for studying how protein

complexes distribute in the cell at differentpoints in time.

According to Alber, knowing the spatial andtemporal organization of the proteome at acellular level is essential to understandinghow these macromolecules perform their bio-logical functions.

“The proposed methods will significantlycontribute to knowledge in this area of re-search and will have strong relevance to pub-lic health,” Alber said. He noted that proteinsneed to appear in exact places at exact timesto accomplish their roles — any discrepanciesmay lead to diseases.

Sergey Nuzhdin, a population genomicistand professor of biological sciences, under-scores that MCB’s success correlates to a highlevel of collaboration among faculty, citing hiswork with developmental biologist and co-in-vestigator Michelle Arbeitman, Gabilan Assis-tant Professor of Biological Sciences.

“Without the technology she generated,there was zero success probability that I couldhave generated the questions for my proposedstudy,” Nuzhdin said.

Nuzhdin, who was funded for $1.6 million,will investigate how genetic differences causealterations in neural functions that ultimatelycause variability in social learning. “Althoughcommon across taxa, social learning requiresthe integration of associative learning, mem-ory and social behavior (LMS), and these varyconsiderably among individuals within aspecies,” Nuzhdin said.

To address this question, genes and neuralcircuits must be identified that play a role inLMS. Nuzhdin’s team will analyze the molec-ular-genetic basis that underlies individualdifferences in LMS in the fruit fly Drosophilamelanogaster. Flies, social animals that aggre-gate in large groups, are used extensively as amodel to study the genetic basis of develop-ment, behavior and learning.

“We believe our inferences will illuminatethrough individual genotype synthesis of ge-netic, molecular and behavioral information,the range of LMS variation maintained in nat-ural populations of flies,” Nuzhdin said. “Thisinsight will ultimately help decipher aspectsof the population genetics of social learning inhumans and other social organisms.” �

Watch videos on MCB faculty atdornsife.usc.edu/videos.


SPEED HEALSBoth the rate and direction of axon

growth in the spinal cord can be con-trolled, according to new research bySamantha Butler and her collaborators.

Butler, assistant professor of biologicalsciences, found that a series of connectionsat the cellular level produce a guidancecue that tells an axon how fast and inwhich direction to grow in an embryonicenvironment. Butler and her team also dis-covered that by modulating the activity ofenzyme LIM domain kinase 1 (Limk1),which moderates the activity of a proteincalled cofilin, the rate of axon growth canbe stalled or accelerated.

“That the growth of axons needs to becontrolled in time as well as space is some-thing that is an interesting piece of biol-ogy,” she said. “How it can be applied isvery exciting.”

Butler sees the application of this re-search as one part of the process for re-building damaged circuits in patients whohave sustained spinal cord injuries, or thosesuffering from Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’sdiseases, possibly using stem-cell-derivedtherapy. The average rate of axon growth isjust 1 mm per day, so any increase wouldimprove a patient’s treatment.

“If we knew how to modulate cofilin tomaximize the speed of axon growth,” But-ler said, “perhaps we could shave time offthat process of circuit regeneration.”

The study, “The Bone MorphogeneticProtein Roof Plate Chemorepellent Regu-lates the Rate of Commissural AxonalGrowth,” by Butler; lead researcher KeithPhan and graduate students VirginiaHazen and Michele Frendo of USC Dorn-sife; and Zhengping Jia of the Universityof Toronto, was published online in theNov. 17 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.—LAURIE MOORE

IMAGECOURTESYOFSAMANTHABUTLER

HIS SUMMER, when you sipon a tall glass of ice-coldlemonade and the tartness

smacks your tongue, consider thepower of sour.

Of the five taste sensations —sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami — sour is ar-guably the strongest yet the least understood.Sour is the sensation evoked by substances thatare acidic, such as lemons and pickles, and themore acidic the substance the more sour thetaste. But how acids, and the protons they re-lease, activate the taste system has been be-yond comprehension.

Emily Liman, associate professor of neurobiol-ogy, and her team have discovered one way thatcells responsive to sour tastes detect protons.

They expected to find sour protons bindingon the outside of the cell opening a pore in themembrane that allowed sodium to enter the cell,producing an electrical response. That electricalresponse would be transmitted to the brain.

Instead, they found that the protons releasedby sour substances were not binding to thecell’s exterior but were entering the cell. Theirresearch revealed that it is the entry of theprotons into the cell that causes the electricalchange. Liman’s research was published andhighlighted on Nov. 24 in the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

The paper was co-written by neurosciencePh.D. student Rui B. Chang and research spe-cialist Hang Waters, the latter now at the Na-tional Institutes of Health.

“In order to understand how sour works, weneed to understand how the sour-responsivecells detect the protons,” Liman said. “In thepast, it’s been difficult to address this questionbecause the taste buds on the tongue are het-erogeneous. Among the 50 or so cells in each

taste bud there are cells responding to each ofthe five tastes. But if we want to know howsour works, we need to measure activityspecifically in the sour sensitive taste cells anddetermine what is special about them that al-lows them to respond to protons.”

Liman and her team created geneticallymodified mice and marked their sour cellswith a yellow florescent protein. Then theyrecorded the electrical responses from justthose cells to protons.

The ability to sense protons with a mecha-nism that does not rely on sodium entry hasimportant implications for how differenttastes interact, Liman speculates.

“This mechanism is very appropriate for thetaste system because we can eat somethingthat has a lot of protons and not much sodiumor other ions, and the taste system will still beable to detect sour,” she said. “It makes sensethat nature would have built a taste cell likethis, so as not to confuse salty with sour.”

In the future, the research may have practicalapplications for cooks and the food industry.

“We’re at the early stages of identifying themolecules that contribute to sour taste,”Liman said. “Once we’ve understood the na-ture of the molecules that sense sour, we canstart thinking about how they might be modi-fied and how that might change the way thingstaste. We may also find that the number orfunction of these molecules changes duringthe course of development or during aging.” �

Watch a video on Emily Liman’sresearch at dornsife.usc.edu/sour.

SOUR RESEARCH,

SWEET RESULTSEmily Liman and her research team reveal the physiology behind all the puckering.

BY PAMELA J. JOHNSON

IN THE LAB

Emily Liman, associate professor of neurobiology, and neuroscience Ph.D. student Rui B. Chang’s researchon how people taste sour appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.


PHOTOBYDIETMARQUISTORF

Matovu studied abroad in Kenya because theprogram there emphasized postcolonial and po-litical history in East Africa, which aligned withher academic interests. When she arrived, Ma-tovu was confronted with the harsh world ofpoverty and a generation of young people withgreat potential but few opportunities.

“I had always been active on campus withvolunteering and other activities, but I didn’thave a global outlook until I went to Africa,”Matovu said.

After she graduated with a degree in politicalscience and African American studies in May2008, Matovu returned to volunteer with anonprofit in Uganda. Within a few weeks, how-ever, she realized she had her own vision: tocreate an organization for young people, man-aged by young people.

To make her dream a reality, Matovu, alongwith fellow volunteer and now-husband Abra-ham Matovu, co-founded AGYA in Kampala,Uganda. Together, they created a free commu-nity center where youth from the slums sur-rounding Kampala can gather in a nurturingand educational environment. There, Matovu,

her husband and a team of Ugandan youth vol-unteers offer a free lunch program, an after-school program, and a girls program.

For the youth in the community, hunger is avery real problem — one that drives them todrastic measures. “One of the main issues hereis drug abuse,” Matovu said. “Kids are sniffingglue and petrol to get high because it makesthem not feel as hungry.”

Any youth who is active in the center’s pro-grams is provided a free meal and clean drink-ing water, the latter of which has cut down onthe impact of water-borne illnesses that oftenplague the community.

The organization’s after-school program offersinnovative classes for youth, including textiledesign, art, computer skills, creative writing anddance. With support from the Clinton GlobalInitiative University, AGYA received fundingfor a recording studio where youth can learnhow to record and produce their own music.

AGYA’s full name means “knowledge ispower” in the Ugandan national language Lu-ganda, and Matovu’s goal is to help the youthbecome empowered by their newfound skills

and creativity.“We want to let kids know that they don’t

have to limit themselves,” Matovu said. “Theycan be entrepreneurs. They can come up withtheir own ideas and create their own market.”

The center partnered with the Century CityAlumnae Chapter of the sorority Delta SigmaTheta to create the girls program, which pro-vides academic scholarships to local highschool girls to keep them in school and reducethe rate of early marriages and teen pregnancy.

Overall, Matovu estimates that about 800children and young men and women partici-pate in AGYA’s programs. In the next year, hergoal is to expand her reach to more youth andopen another community center in Gulu innorthern Uganda.

“I would love if we had 15 community cen-ters in the next 20 years,” Matovu said. “Butthe most immediate need is in Gulu.”

She also hopes to open a children’s village inthe next few years, a place where Matovu andvolunteers can care for kids who have beenabandoned, or who have lost parents to illness.

“There are times when I feel like this is sodifficult, and maybe I’m not the right person todo this,” she said. “Some of these tasks are sodaunting, and all of these kids are looking at youas the person who’s going to help them escapethe cycle of poverty.”

Matovu was honored at Glamour magazine’s20th annual Women of the Year Award Cere-mony at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 8. After meetingher fellow 19 honorees and seeing other power-ful women including President of Liberia EllenJohnson Sirleaf, Oprah Winfrey, and QueenRania of Jordan, Matovu flew back to Ugandathe following day with renewed energy.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if not for the experi-ences I had at USC,” Matovu said. “I’m tryingto make USC proud with the work I do.” �

To learn more about AGYA, visitamagezigemaanyi.blogspot.com.

HEN DIVINITY Matovu chose Kenya as her study abroad destination duringher senior year in USC Dornsife, she had no idea that this decision would

dramatically alter countless lives in addition to her own. Just three years later,at age 24, Matovu has been recognized for co-founding Ugandan nonprofit Am-

agezi Gemaanyi Youth Association (AGYA) by Glamour magazine, which selectedher as one of “20 Amazing Young Women Who Are Already Changing the World.”

IN THE WORLD

THE POWER OF

CHANGEDivinity Matovu ’08 is recognized by Glamour magazine for leading AmageziGemaanyi Youth Association, a Ugandan nonprofit she co-founded in 2008.

BY LAURIE MOORE


PHOTOSCOURTESYOFDIVINITYMATOVU

Matovu(cente

r) with young

women fromAGYA

.

Divinity Matovu

works on a vide

o with Amagezi

GemaanyiYouth

Association

(AGYA) child

ren.

AGYA received a donation of XO laptops

from One Laptop Per Child.

A youth instructor teaches art at AGYA.

ANYWHERE

THE LATIN NOUN ALUMNUS DERIVES

FROM THE VERB ALERE “TO NOURISH.”

USC Dornsife nourishes critical thinking.Ours is a liberal arts community that nour-ishes ideals, nourishes a passion to live withintegrity and meaning.

And our alumni go on to nourish the world.

In the pages that follow you’ll find the manbehind the purple and gold — Jerry Buss ’57who went from chemistry teacher to owner ofthe Los Angeles Lakers.

Celia C. Ayala ’76 grew up in Mexico and isnow a CEO working on behalf of children. Aconstruction worker’s son, Mark Ridley-Thomas ’89 has been an elected official onthe local, state and county levels.

We think these 15 stories will nourish yoursense of wonder — of all that is possible inthe realm of letters, arts and sciences.

PROFILES BY SUSAN ANDREWS, EMILYCAVALCANTI, PAMELA J. JOHNSON, LAURIEMOORE, MICHELLE SALZMAN & AMBROSIAVIRAMONTES-BRODY

Unlike many of her peers, Heather Rosendidn’t always know she wanted to be adoctor.

Now a seventh-year general surgery resident, it’shard to imagine Rosen as anything else. In hercrisp white coat and blue scrubs, Rosen stridesbriskly down the hallways of the hospital, comfort-able in her environment yet alert and on-call.But when she came to USC Dornsife as an

undergraduate, she was undecided. Veryundecided.To find her niche, Rosen explored courses from

literature to ceramics and eventually declared aFrench major. Upon graduation, however, she real-ized a career in the field wasn’t the right fit for her.Coming from a family of physicians, Rosen

began to consider a career in medicine. She re-turned to USC Dornsife in 1997 and took an or-ganic chemistry class taught by Larry Singer,professor of chemistry.“Larry and I started a dialogue about how there

weren’t any programs to help people like me getinto medical school,” Rosen said.As a result, Singer and Rosen founded the USC

Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program to sup-port graduates without formal science back-grounds who want to pursue medical careers.Rosen graduated from the Keck School of Medi-

cine of USC in 2004 and earned a master’s degreefrom the Harvard School of Public Health in 2008.She currently oversees patient care, performs sur-geries and manages residents at the USC Univer-sity Hospital and the LAC+USC Hospital. In July,she will begin a fellowship in plastic and recon-structive surgery at Vanderbilt University MedicalCenter.Her background in writing and speaking exten-

sively in French and English helps Rosen commu-nicate with her patients more effectively. “Peoplealways ask me, ‘If you had to do it over again,would you be a science major?’ And I say, ‘No. I’mhappy with the road I took. It made me better.’”In late 2010, Rosen treated a young boy who

entered the trauma ward with injuries so extensivehe was unidentifiable. So, months later, when shewas stopped outside the hospital by a womanwho thanked Rosen for helping her son, it tookRosen a moment to recognize the same boy smil-ing up at her.“He shook my hand,” Rosen said. “This is why I

do my job. This boy is alive and well, and the fam-ily is a family again.”Every one of her patients has made a mark on

her life, Rosen said. “They’ve all been woven intothe fabric of who I am as a physician.” �

Watch a video on Heather Rosen atdornsife.usc.edu/hrosen.

medicineTHE language OF

HEATHER ROSEN[B.A., FRENCH, ’97]

G E N E R A L S U R G E RYR E S I D E N T, U S CU N I V E R S I T Y A NDL A C+US C H O S P I TA L S

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Heather Rosen forged a nontraditional path into the medicalprofession and came out a better doctor.

B Y L A U R I E M O O R E


PHOTOBYROGERSNIDER

PHOTOBYBENBAKER

THE MAN BEHIND THE

PURPLEGOLD

B Y S U S A N A N D R E W S

In his best-selling book Good to Great, business consultant

Jim Collins advises organizations to get the right people on

the bus and the wrong people off. When it comes to Los

Angeles, the Lakers and USC, Jerry Buss is either in the

driver’s seat or sitting up front.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1934, Gerald Hatten “Jerry” Buss worked hisway through the University of Wyoming in two and a half years before beginninghis lifelong journey at USC. By the age of 24, Buss, always on the fast track, hadearned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.

Studying chemistry in USC Dornsife prepared Buss for work as a governmentchemist and then as an aerospace chemist. An educator at heart, he soon beganteaching chemistry in USC Dornsife and, to support his life as a professor, began in-

vesting in L.A. property with longtime business partner Frank Mariani.In the ’60s, Buss made the first of a string of smart investments in West Los Angeles real estate

through the purchase of an apartment building with five friends for $6,000. He continued to buyand sell numerous properties including the Pickfair Mansion, the honeymoon home of actorDouglas Fairbanks and actress Mary Pickford. >>

“Having a doctoral

degree has given me

an audience I might

not have enjoyed,

which is also the case

when someone is in-

troduced as a graduate

of USC — you gain an

immediate credibility.”

GERALD “JERRY” BUSS[PH.D., CHEMISTRY, ’57]

OWN E R , L O S A NG E L E SL A K E R S

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

&

THE MAN BEHIND THE

Jerry Buss, a 2010 inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, pays itforward by supporting his alma mater in the name of his mentors.


PHOTOBYLUISSINCO,LOSANGELESTIMES

In 1979 Buss purchased the Lakers, the Los Angeles Kings of theNational Hockey League, the Forum, and a large ranch from JackKent Cooke for $67.5 million, which made the deal the largest trans-action in sports history at that time.

“I was interested in buying the Dodgers and before that I had triedto buy a football team several times,” he said, “but teams don’tchange hands often in a large community like Los Angeles.”

For basketball fans everywhere, it was fortuitous that Buss and theLakers came together.

Applying an innovative style of ownership and an intuitive sense ofmarketing and promotion, Buss has changed the face of the leagueand been the indomitable force behind the Lakers’ 10 NBA champi-onships.

As a testament to NBA changes through the decades, Buss said,“The first player contract I signed was for $240,000 and the last one Isigned was for $25 million. The finals used to be taped delayed andplayed later at night. Now they are one of the highest-rated shows ontelevision.”

Buss firmly believes that a structured university education and adegree in the liberal arts prepare students for the workplace and tocommunicate effectively with others. “You may not use a historymajor every day, but you know what’s going on in the world, you readpapers, you watch television, you understand.”

Great mentoring is another quintessential gift of education thatkeeps on giving, said Buss.

Though some people may find the storyline of the popular film PayIt Forward overly sentimental and optimistic, Buss says it is his reallife experience.

After becoming a success, Buss made a special effort to do some-thing for his first mentor Walt Garrett, a high school chemistryteacher and the primary impetus for Buss’ decision to attend college.“I asked Walt what I could do to repay him for the guidance and con-fidence he bestowed on me, and in essence he told me to ‘pay itforward.’ ”

While studying at USC, Buss encountered two more influentialmentors who recognized his talent and intelligence: USC Dornsifeprofessors of chemistry Sydney Benson and David Dows.

Buss said that mentors can play different roles in a life and can beinspiring in nuanced ways. “Sydney is a genius and I looked up to himlike he lived in the clouds — he inspires you, and you decide youhave to work harder to reach heights that he has attained himself.”

Buss waxed poetically on the topic of the importance of a good edu-cation. “Good teachers are where the good education begins, but theyare not necessarily famous teachers but are good fundamental teach-ers,” he said. “Some take the job to have the ability to do research,but those who really enjoy teaching view it as a goal unto itself.”

Buss also values education for the doors it has opened up in his life.“Having a doctoral degree has given me an audience I might nothave enjoyed, which is also the case when someone is introduced as agraduate of USC — you gain an immediate credibility.

“I love when someone asks me where he or she should go to schooland I say ’SC. I love USC.”

In April 2010, Buss was named a member of the 2010 inductionclass of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was formally enshrined as acontributor to the sport a few months later in a ceremony surroundedby family.

“Those who are professionals in that sport recognize your excel-lence, so it is exciting,” he said. “I am also still a kid and feel like ask-ing for an autograph when I meet famous athletes.”

Jeanie, Buss’ daughter and executive vice president of business op-erations for the Lakers said, “My dad stands as the most winningowner of any professional league, not just basketball.

“What he has accomplished in his 30 plus years of ownership is aphenomenon and hopefully will stand the test of time.”

Another important and much prized accolade received by Buss is astar on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “This meant a great deal to mebecause in addition to loving USC and the Lakers, I love Los Ange-les and am very proud to be a part of its history.”

Laker legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson said that “Dr. Buss is Holly-wood and has put his stamp on Los Angeles, no question about it.”

Claiming to be in semi-retirement now, Buss is busier than ever. Inalmost daily contact with all six of his children who play pivotal rolesin the Lakers organization, he said, “It is unusual for someone withsix kids to talk with their children as often as I do, but since they areintimately involved in the Lakers organization, we have this in com-mon and I feel very lucky.”

But when it comes to his success, luck is not the main driver. Ac-cording to NBA Commissioner David Stern, “He has owned theteam 31 years and they have been in the NBA Finals 16 times —luck doesn’t last that long.”

Similar to most ardent Lakers fans, Buss said, “winning is addictiveand once you get on that winning track you desire more than the lastone. It’s almost unfortunate but it drives me.

“It’s hard to visualize me being in any other city than Los Angeles,which has it all as far as I am concerned with beaches and mountains.It pretty much had to be Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles, the Lakers and USC: it’s a formidable triangledefense, by any measure. �

Watch a video on Jerry Buss atdornsife.usc.edu/jbuss.


“He has owned the team 31 years and they have been in the NBA Finals

16 times — luck doesn’t last that long.” —NBA COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN

ANN MUSCAT[PH.D., BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ’83]

P R E S I D E N T A ND C E O ,CATA L I N A I S L A NDC ON S E R VAN C Y

AVALON, CALIF.

A nn Muscat walks up the sun-dappled path ofCatalina Island’s Wrigley Memorial andBotanic Garden, the sand crunching beneath

the heels of her hiking boots. While quails call frombeneath the rare Catalina mahogany trees, she iden-tifies the succulent and endemic plant specimensand describes her efforts to preserve 42,000 acres ofwilderness just 20 miles off the coast of Los Angeles.As president and CEO of the Catalina Island

Conservancy, Muscat’s task is to bring togetherhumans and nature harmoniously. She and theconservancy are stewards of the island, protectingits plants, animals and habitats. But protection,Muscat said, doesn’t mean putting up fences.“Conservation is about, by and for people,” she

said. “We want to allow people to go out into theland so they can enjoy it, love it and then want tohelp us take care of it.”Founded in 1972, the conservancy balances

conservation, education and recreation under Mus-cat’s direction. Her responsibilities range from man-aging endangered species and volunteer programsto co-chairing the California Council of Land Trusts.One day could find her leading staff meetings, thenanother hiking in the mountains of Catalina — herother office — with a potential donor.After Muscat earned a Ph.D. in biological sci-

ences from USC Dornsife in 1983, she joined theUSC Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Is-land as the resident biologist. As a scientist givingpresentations and lectures to visitors unfamiliar withthe research, Muscat learned how to engage withpeople from all backgrounds and to spark their in-terest in nature, a skill that continues to be crucialwith the island’s close to a million annual visitors.Muscat is currently leading the conservancy

through a strategic planning process called Imag-ine Catalina, which sets the stage for 25 years ofimprovements to the infrastructure of the conser-vancy’s expansive nature preserve.“Our goal with this plan is to give everyone who

is coming here a richer and deeper experience ofthe island and the conservancy,” Muscat said.In consultation with a sustainable architectural de-

sign firm, Muscat plans, in part, to improve volun-teer and backpacker campgrounds; build abiological field station at Middle Ranch, one of theconservancy’s island properties; and create a state-of-the-art nature center at the botanic garden.Through the conservancy’s endeavors, Muscat

hopes people will make a personal and memo-rable connection to the island and be inspired toensure such experiences for future generations.“I’ve had some beautiful hikes here, standing on

peaks and watching the sun set,” Muscat said. “Itmakes me feel good to look out over this beautifullandscape and know that I’ve had a role in keep-ing it protected for people to enjoy.” �

keeperOF THE wild

Steward of an island wilderness, Ann Muscat strives tofind a balance between people and nature.



PHOTOBYJACKBALDELLI

“They weren’t getting any assistance and Ibelieved there had to be a better way to ad-vocate for people,” Ayala said. “I wanted togive back to the community.”

She initially set her sights on a career inlaw, advocating for those unable to affordlegal representation. At age 12, she had it allfigured out.

Ayala graduated from Roosevelt HighSchool in Los Angeles with a full scholarshipto USC and immersed herself in her studies inUSC Dornsife.

Then the unexpected happened. After

dabbling in law courses, the political sciencemajor realized law school might not be thebest fit for her. At a crossroad, she considereda profession in social work or education.

The answer arrived in the form of a second-grade student.

“His name was Juanito,” Ayala said, smilingas she recalled the student she taught at 32ndStreet School through USC Dornsife’s JointEducational Project (JEP) her sophomore year.

“He did not speak English, know his ABCsor how to read, but I worked with him for afull semester,” she said. “When he started to

read, I realized I wanted to help children.”Without hesitation, the now mother of two

scrapped her previous blueprint and created anew one. Rather than fight for the underprivi-leged in a courtroom, she would be a cham-pion for children in L.A. County.

Raised by parents who emphasized the sig-nificance of education, it is only fitting thattheir daughter thrives in the field. Growingup in Mexico, where preschool and kinder-garten are privatized, Ayala’s early childhoodeducation rested in the hands of her parents:Maria Carmen, a seamstress, and AurelioMorales, a blue-collar foundry worker.

Every afternoon Ayala sat on her father’slap and read newspaper articles line by line.At age 3, she was reading on her own and by5 was ready for first grade.

“I am who I am because my father instilledin me how important education is to anyone’sfuture,” said Ayala, in the gentle tone sheuses when discussing family.

Her career began in 1975 when she appliedfor an emergency teaching credential in re-sponse to L.A. Unified School District’s call


EDUCAT IONB Y A M B R O S I A V I R A M O N T E S - B R O D Y

champion for

“It’s invigorating to know that

everything I am doing is mak-

ing a difference in changing

the landscape of early

childhood education.”

CEL IA C . AYALA[B.A., SOCIOLOGY AND SPANISH, ’76]

C E O , L O S A NG E L E SU N I V E R S A L P R E S C H O O L

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Celia C. Ayala discovered her life’s passion at an early age. With a

quest to contribute to her community, she knew what she

wanted to do; it was the how that remained a mystery.

In her eighth floor office, Chief Executive Officer of Los An-

geles Universal Preschool (LAUP) Ayala sits back in her chair

and recalls immigrating with her family to City Terrace, Calif., from Zacatecas,

Mexico. She was 10. The youngest of eight, Ayala took on the role as translator

accompanying relatives to the unemployment and immigration offices.

The daughter of self-educated immigrants, Celia C. Ayala ensuresthat Los Angeles County’s children receive a quality preschooleducation even if their parents can’t afford tuition costs.


for educators. The first in her family to earn acollege degree, she completed her bachelor’sdegree in sociology and Spanish from USCDornsife in 1976. She later earned a master’sdegree in education from California StateUniversity, Los Angeles and a doctorate ineducation from the USC Rossier School ofEducation in 1992.

Ayala’s career has flourished serving asprincipal at James Madison Elementary andEl Ranchito Elementary schools and teach-ing at Stevenson Junior High. She served asdirector of curriculum, instruction and edu-cational technologies for the Pasadena Uni-fied School District, curriculum specialist atEl Rancho Unified School District, and as-sistant superintendent for the division ofchildren and family services at the RiversideCounty Office of Education.

Her success in expanding educational op-

portunities has been recognized on state andnational levels. Awards displayed in her officeunderscore her dedication. She was appointedto the California Early Learning Quality Im-provement System Advisory Committee byGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009, named“One of the Most Influential Hispanics in theU.S.” by Hispanic Business Magazine in 2008,and received Hispanic Outreach Taskforce’s2010 Educator of the Year award.

With 36 years in education, Ayala accepteda chief operating officer position with LAUPin 2007. Created in 2004, and funded prima-rily by First 5 L.A., LAUP is charged withmaking high-quality preschool available toevery 4-year-old in L.A. County.

Promoted to CEO in 2010, Ayala is respon-sible for maintaining a financially sound andsustainable preschool system with the goal ofserving more children. Much of her time is

spent out in the community meeting withstakeholders, potential donors and observingteachers in the classroom.

The organization has spent more than $111million to fund preschool services at 325 sites.More than 50,000 children have been posi-tively impacted by LAUP.

“It’s invigorating to know that everythingI am doing is making a difference in chang-ing the landscape of early childhood educa-tion,” said Ayala, who met her husband,Louis, at USC.

She explained how her initial interest inlaw still correlates to her work in education.

“The word in Spanish for lawyer is abogadoand translated to English it means ‘advo-cate,’ ” she said. “I am advocating by fightingfor what I believe is in the best interest forchildren: a sound education.” �

PHOTOBYPHILCHANNING

David Bach lets the HARPO Studio’s greenroom door

close behind him and waits backstage for his final

cue. The top button of his blue oxford shirt open and

classic black suit perfectly tailored, he’s ready. This is

his moment.

To most any author, taking a seat on Oprah Winfrey’s couch is akin to reaching thesummit of Mt. Everest. Bach remembers a book signing where one person showed up.Now he faces an audience of millions. Millions.

“The title of your book, The Automatic Millionaire,” Winfrey says to him on stage,“that’s a pretty big promise and hard to believe.”

Bach doesn’t flinch. He looks into the camera with an easy grin and in confident ca-dence begins sharing the key messages he has been teaching for years.

“Pay yourself first,” he advises, before the government, before rent. Take at the veryleast one hour of income that you earn each day, no less than 10 percent of your gross in-come, and put it into a pre-tax retirement account. The key is to “make it automatic” bysetting up a direct transfer to the account. Finally, buy a home and pay it off early.

Winfrey listens intently, resting her chin on her hand, and nodding in her signature style.Following Bach’s first appearance on The Oprah Show in January 2004, The Automatic

Millionaire became an instant New York Times No. 1 best-seller and his earlier books,such as Smart Women Finish Rich (1999) and Smart Couples Finish Rich (2001), shot backup on the list.

Bach may have been popular before; now he is a phenomenon. >>


“To me USC wasmore than just an edu-cational experience, itwas a life experience.I think the entireprocess of learninghow to compete —academically, socially,business-wise —prepared me for whatI do today.”

DAV ID BACH[B.A., SOCIAL SCIENCES &

COMMUNICATION, ’90]

F O U ND E R , F I N I S H R I C HM ED I A

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.

Personal finance expert and best-selling author David Bach is ona mission to empower millions of Americans to live and finish rich.

AMERICA’S MONEY

ADVOCATEB Y E M I L Y C A V A L C A N T I

PHOTOBYPHILCHANNING

In his genuine words and trusting brown eyes, readers and viewersfind someone who is real. Someone who is listening, telling themwhat they need to hear. Bach’s honest and simple approach resonates,compelling them to take action. Even with the current financial cri-sis, Bach’s principles have proved timeless rather than timely.

“One of the things that sets me apart from so many others who talkabout personal finance is I have actually managed money for realclients,” he said. “They may tell people how to plan for retirement,but they don’t know how people actually behave in the real world.”

To date Bach has authored 12 national and international best-sellers, including Start Late, Finish Rich (2006) and most recentlyDebt Free for Life (2010). More than 7 million copies of his books inthe FinishRich series published by Broadway Books are in print in19 different languages worldwide. He is also a regular contributor toNBC’s Today Show, appearing weekly on the “Money 911” segmentsand a host of other national media outlets.

And while he may be a trusted financial adviser to the masses, forBach it all comes down to the individual.

“I try to write each of my books as if I’m writing for one person,”he said. “The way I communicate, I would like to think, is so authen-tic that when people read my books, they know my only agenda is toprovide the best financial information they can use.”

As a social sciences and communication major in USC Dornsife,Bach knew he wanted to combine a liberal arts education with hisknowledge of the financial world. After all, since age 7 he had grownup in the business attending his father Martin’s investment classes inOakland, Calif.; by 12 he was teaching his friends’ parents how tobuy municipal bonds.

At USC, Bach not only developed the writing and communicationstyle he uses today, but he also dabbled in entrepreneurial pursuits.He sold advertising space for 28th St. Magazine and started a businessselling T-shirts to USC fraternities and sororities.

“To me USC was more than just an educational experience, it wasa life experience,” said Bach, who received a Tommy Award in 2010from the USC Alumni Club of New York for his professional and per-sonal achievements. “I think the entire process of learning how tocompete — academically, socially, business-wise — prepared me forwhat I do today.”

After graduating in 1990, Bach went into commercial real estate be-fore eventually becoming a senior vice president at Morgan Stanleyand a partner of The Bach Group, for which he managed more thanhalf a billion dollars.

But Bach found he wanted to do more.He realized that instead of working with a select private clientele,

he wanted to share his financial strategies with women and menacross the country.

So in 2001, with the same entrepreneurial spirit that flourishedwhile he was at USC, Bach struck out on his own and foundedFinishRich Media in New York City. The lifestyle media company’sgoal, whether through books, seminars, television or radio, is to em-power Americans to understand and take control of their finances.

“In my heart, what I always did for clients was be their teacher,” hesaid. “I believe if we can help families deal with their money, every-thing else in life gets easier.”

In his ninth New York Times best-seller, Debt Free for Life, released inDecember 2010, Bach has made it his mission to motivate a millionAmericans to pay off $1 billion worth of debt. He insists that toachieve financial freedom people must first recognize how muchdebt they have and then pledge to conquer it.

“Every time I do a T.V.-show makeover, the amount of debt peopleactually have versus what they told the producers is not even close,”he said. “I worked with one family that was supposed to have$45,000 in debt, but when I actually started talking to them it turnedout to be $91,000.”

Bach admitted he, too, stumbled with his personal finances whenhe racked up considerable credit card debt in his early 20s. At onedesperate point, he froze his credit cards in a bowl of water in thefreezer. Then one night, a spur-of-the-moment trip to Las Vegas hadhim defrosting the bowl in the microwave so he could retrieve thecards. Before he could realize his mistake, they melted. That was hiswake-up call.

He went to Grandma Rose Bach, one of his money mentors and achild of the Great Depression, for help. She didn’t sugarcoat the truth.

“Stop spending what you don’t have,” he recalled her saying. “Re-member: it’s not how much you make that will determine whether ornot you become wealthy. It’s how much you spend.”

The simple advice stuck. After two years he paid off all his creditcard debt and in earnest tried to spend less than he made. By 30, hebecame a millionaire.

In addition to stressing how critical it is to save, Bach also empha-sizes the importance of giving back. He serves on Habitat for Hu-manity – New York’s board of directors and supports Charity: Water, anonprofit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to peoplein developing nations.

Bach has frequently sat on Winfrey’s couch, but it is settling into hisown sofa in the New York City apartment he shares with his fiancéeAlatia Bradley and sons Jack, 7, and James, 1, that means the most.

The author has been impressed with Jack’s observations aboutmoney.

“Do you think Justin Bieber is going to be the next Michael Jack-son?” Jack asked his father after the pair finished playing a NintendoWii game featuring the late pop star.

“Well I don’t know if anybody will be the next Michael Jackson, butJustin Bieber made more than $100 million last year,” Bach replied.

“Wow!” Jack exclaimed, “He’s got a lot of taxes to pay.”Bach took the opportunity to explain that Bieber will likely have to

pay $45 million in taxes and what that entails.“I think today’s young people are more sophisticated about money

than ever before,” he said later. “Children are influenced by whatyou say, but most importantly by what you do. So if you want yourkids to be smart with money, you have to expose them at a young ageto what you are doing so they can learn.”

Hopefully, what you are doing is something worth following. �

To learn more about David Bach, the FinishRich book seriesand more, visit finishrich.com. Join Bach on Facebook atfacebook.com/DavidBach and follow him on Twitter attwitter.com/AuthorDavidBach.



In corporate boardrooms and presidential staterooms lined with flags, Joe Cerrell confers withthe world’s most powerful leaders.As director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Founda-

tion’s new Europe office, Cerrell is tasked withdeepening relationships with governments andorganizations in the region to increase funding forinternational development issues including globalhealth and agriculture.“I meet with government and industry leaders

who we hope will spend more wisely on issues wecare about,” Cerrell said from his London office.In January, Cerrell accompanied Bill Gates to

the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, wherehe discussed polio eradication with Prime Minis-ter of the United Kingdom David Cameron. Laterthat week, he and Gates sat down with FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss France’splans as host of the upcoming G8 and G20 sum-mits. Another major figure on his schedule was

Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company.Cerrell and Kent brainstormed ways to apply theindustry giant’s supply chain methods to the dis-tribution of vaccines in Africa.Representing the Gates Foundation, the world’s

largest private philanthropic organization with anendowment of $36.4 billion, requires resourceful-ness and excellent communication skills.“It takes some creativity to find an argument or

incentive to get countries and companies moti-vated on these big issues,” he added. “I try to helpthem understand that investing in developing coun-tries is not only the right thing to do, but also makessense from a strategic and security perspective.”As an English major and political science minor in

USC Dornsife, Cerrell took part in a Washington,D.C., internship program through the Jesse M.Unruh Institute of Politics. This experience, and theguidance he received from his late father, USCDornsife alumnus, professor and political consultant

Joseph Cerrell Sr. ’57, prepared him for a career inpolitics, communication and government relations.After leaving USC in 1991, the younger Cerrell

worked for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign,and later as Vice President Al Gore’s assistantpress secretary, before taking his first positionwith the newly created Gates Foundation in 1999.Since that time, the foundation has committed

to thousands of grants totaling more than $25billion to date for causes ranging from educationin the United States to infectious disease re-search to agricultural development.Cerrell said that the foundation’s efforts are a

drop in the bucket compared to the scope of theworld’s health and development issues.“If we want to make changes in our lifetime, we

have to tap into much bigger pools of resources,”he said.Cerrell hopes to accomplish this, one conver-

sation at a time. �

GLOBAL alliancesJoe Cerrell rallies government and industry leaders to increase funding for international development.


JOE CERRELL[B.A., ENGLISH, ’01]

D I R E C T O R , E U R O P E A NO F F I C E , B I L L & ME L I N DAG AT E S F O U NDAT I O N

LONDON, ENGLAND

PHOTOCOURTESYOFTHEBILL&MELINDAGATESFOUNDATION

Fashion is serious business to Dayani. “It’sa ubiquitous passion and art for me,” shesaid, noting that it is far more than being anobsessive shopper. “Industry leaders such asBalenciaga, Tom Ford and Lagerfield —these artists are my celebrities.”

While drafting legal documents in her LosAngeles office in 2008, Dayani took equalturns leafing through the pages of major fash-ion magazines. Fascinated by the law as a realestate attorney for Paul Hastings, she enjoyedrepresenting her clients in the hospitality, re-sorts, restaurants and recreation industries.

“But what I really wanted was to apply myknowledge and experience in branding andthe law to a career that would integrate myartistic side,” Dayani said. “I also wanted tobe able to dress creatively at work to express

my personality and articulate my apprecia-tion for fashion.”

With entrepreneurial spirit, Dayani con-tacted as many people as possible to find thebest outlet for her creative talent and businessacumen. Over coffee with a commercial talentagent, she learned of niche opportunities inthe fashion business that led her to a meetingand an extraordinary career opportunity withstylist, editor and fashion designer Rachel Zoe.

“I had always looked up to Rachel as oneof my idols and admired her brand and itsincredible potential, which made getting mydream job that much more special,” she said.

Now director of brand development forRachel Zoe Inc. in L.A., Dayani took part inthe successful January 2011 launch in NewYork of a new line of clothing, handbags and

shoes before a group of important editors andretailers.

“I worked closely with Rachel and Rodgerand our partners, Li & Fung, to assemble ourNew York team in the development of thebrand and its assets,” she explained. Today,the Rachel Zoe product line can be found inhigh-end department and specialty stores.

Dayani describes the Rachel Zoe brand asaspirational yet always accessible and glam-orous, taking customers from day to evening.

“Rachel’s brand is defined by her aestheticand passion for glamour, beauty andlifestyle,” she said.

Working closely with Zoe and Zoe’s hus-band and business partner, Rodger Berman,the creative trio develops three, five andten-year business strategy plans as they ex-pand into other licenses and build out thebrand into other lifestyle categories.

“Change in the fashion world is fast and fu-rious,” Dayani pointed out, “but a solid brandsuch as Rachel Zoe is not trend-focused andremains true to its distinctive DNA.

“The brand and all of its assets are definedby Rachel Zoe’s taste, lifestyle and knowl-edge of fashion.”

Interested in pre-law and initially drawn to


FASH IONB Y S U S A N A N D R E W S

a passion for

“[W]hat I really wanted

was to apply my

knowledge and experi-

ence in branding and

the law to a career that

would integrate my

artistic side.”

MANDANA DAYAN I[B.A., POLITICAL SCIENCE, ’03]

D I R E C T O R O F B R ANDD E V E L O PMEN T,R A C H E L Z O E I N C .

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Brainy and beautiful, the elegant and edgy Mandana Dayani

could pass for a high-fashion runway model. So many dream of

casting a wide net in the fashion industry with hopes of creating

the ever elusive perfect mystique — a glamorous and glitzy magic

— but few ever make it. Dayani is an exception. The devil is in

the exquisite details and all aspects of her career and fashion style are choreo-

graphed to perfection.

Mandana Dayani, on the runway track to success, projects glamour infront of and behind the camera.


international affairs when she arrived atUSC, Dayani majored in political science.“Two professors of political science, ElizSanasarian and Mark Kann, profoundly in-fluenced and transformed my life,” she said.

“Professor Sanasarian made me believethat I could achieve whatever I wanted,” shesaid. “She gave me the respect and confi-dence that helped me to become the personI am today.”

Sanasarian described Dayani as unique andsaw her unconventionality as her strength.“Mandana was bright, hardworking and un-usual, and one of the only two undergraduatesthat I have ever allowed to register in a gradu-ate seminar,” Sanasarian said. “She was a jun-ior at the time yet she worked on par with

others, and graduate students ended up fol-lowing her lead!”

Dayani went on to earn her law degreefrom USC Gould School of Law.

She is married to Peter Traugott, presidentof the television division of Brillstein Enter-tainment Partners, an L.A. production andartist management company.

The couple helped found the World ChildProject (WCP), a nonprofit partnership inservice of the most vulnerable among us: or-phaned and abandoned children.

“WCP volunteers include many of ourfriends and colleagues,” Dayani said. “Leadersin the arts, business, education, medicine andservice give in areas of their expertise and pas-sion.” This includes time and monetary in-

vestment in Mexico’s Casa de Paz Orphanagewhere greenhouses were built to produce arevenue stream in addition to meaningfulwork experience and training for young adultsliving at the orphanage.

Despite a busy schedule of work and vol-unteerism, Dayani still makes time for relax-ation and fun. When not dressed to thenines or spending time with her close-knitfamily, she may be found clad in sweats andUGG boots watching Twilight at Zoe’s houseand eating takeout.

Dayani is exactly where she wants to beboth personally and professionally.

In Hollywood, a town where image and per-ception are everything, it’s refreshing to seesubstance and compassion behind the beauty. �

PHOTOBYPHILCHANNING

“Like it was yesterday,” said Ridley-Thomas, 12 at the time. “When the newsbroke, people were moving. Activity exploded.There was no way not to know what was goingon. It was clear by virtue of the fact that theentire nation was enveloped by this historicevent, Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.”

Los Angeles was still reeling from theWatts uprising of 1965, a five-day tragedythat left 34 dead.

“Things hadn’t fully settled down in thistown,” Ridley-Thomas said in his soft spo-ken, no-nonsense demeanor. “This was the’60s and all of what that represented.”

Integration and desegregation in L.A.schools were raging. At Carver, the youngsterwas selected for a summer program that senthim to The Claremont Colleges’ campuses.

“I studied everything from astronomy to

zoology, literally,” he said.Ridley-Thomas spent following summers

on other college campuses, taking classeswith middle school students of various mi-nority groups.

“This was probably formative in terms ofmy consciousness,” he said, “in terms ofcoalition building and seeing the intrinsicvalue in all people. Later, it was not difficultto connect that with nonviolence and how ithad revolutionary implications for how wecould live and transform our society.”

The early opportunity put him on an ac-celerated educational track.

“I don’t recall being a straight-A student,but I did fine in school,” said Ridley-Thomas, the youngest of five children whosefather was a construction worker and mother,a seasonal clerk for the Internal Revenue

Service. “If nothing else, I was a strong lis-tener and had an aptitude for learning.”

At Manual Arts Senior High School, heparticipated in an integration program thatoffered courses in other L.A. schools. In-spired by King, he already knew he wantedto focus on the social sciences.

“It was his voice, now unmistakable, thatwe heard on radios across the nation, givinghis immortal speech, ‘I Have a Dream,’”Ridley-Thomas said inside his satellite Expo-sition Park Drive office, where a large bust ofKing near his desk seemed to be listening in.“I became a student of the philosophy of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. from that point on.”

He earned a bachelor’s degree in social rela-tions and a master’s in religious studies fromImmaculate Heart College in preparation forteaching. After receiving his Ph.D. in religionwith an emphasis in social ethics from USCDornsife in 1989, he became an adjunct pro-fessor at USC, Claremont Graduate Universityand other universities, teaching in urban stud-ies, public administration, ethics, the philoso-phy of King and other religious revolutionariessuch as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dorothy Day


empowermentB Y P A M E L A J . J O H N S O N

P I L LAR of

“It was his voice, now

unmistakable, that we

heard on radios across

the nation, giving his

immortal speech,

‘I Have a Dream.’

I became a student of

the philosophy of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

from that point on.”

MARK R IDLEY-THOMAS[PH.D., RELIGION, ’89]

L O S A N G E L E S C O U N T YS U P E R V I S O R , 2N D D I S T R I C T

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

In 1968, Mark Ridley-Thomas was a seventh grader at George Washing-

ton Carver Middle School in southeast Los Angeles. At Victory Baptist

Church near his school campus, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

often preached and organized.

When asked if he remembers April 4, 1968, the Los Angeles County su-

pervisor is visibly astonished, rightfully so, that such a question could be pondered.

Mark Ridley-Thomas is a foremost advocate of neighborhoodparticipation in government decision-making. Lucky for us hisneighborhood includes USC.


PHOTOBYCARLOSPUMA

and Thich Nhat Hanh.“The social content was there; I was al-

ready in that milieu,” he said. “It was thequestion of how to apply it.”

He taught high school before crossing overto advocacy as executive director of theSouthern Christian Leadership Conferenceof Greater Los Angeles, where for a decadehe worked on issues such as school desegre-gation, police misconduct, domestic violence,violence against women, dispute resolution,and educational programs for parents.

During his involvement in the Theologyin the Americas in the ’80s — an interna-tional progressive multiracial and religiousmovement — he met philosopher, authorand activist Cornel West. That meetingwould launch a 30-year friendship.

Ridley-Thomas never aspired to be an

elected official, but felt the calling and hasserved on the local, state and county levels.From 1991 to 2002, he was a Los AngelesCity Council member. From 2002 to 2006,he served on the California State Assemblyrepresenting the 48th district, then joinedthe California State Senate representing the26th district until 2008. That year he be-came the first African American man on theL.A. County Board of Supervisors. His 2nddistrict, with more than 2 million residents,includes the USC area.

In his satellite office near USC hangs aframed photo of Ridley-Thomas, West and talkshow host and author Tavis Smiley with an in-scription, “Three Pillars of Empowerment.”

As an elected official, one of his greatestachievements has been establishing the Em-powerment Congress, which promotes civic

engagement among neighborhood groups,residents, nonprofits, businesses, religiousgroups and community leaders. In its annualEmpowerment Congress Summit hosted byUSC in 2011, President C. L. Max Nikiasspoke to the more than 1,200 attendees. Thepartnership — which celebrates its 20th an-niversary in 2012 — was the precursor to theNeighborhood Council Movement and is amodel for local elected officials nationwide.

When asked whether he would considerserving in Washington, D.C., he pausedbefore answering:

“I have no prediction or projection as towhere my journey is going to take me, saidRidley-Thomas, who has two adult sonswith wife Avis. “I just always think it isappropriate to be prepared.” �

SON IA NARANG[B.A., PSYCHOLOGY, ’99]

D IRECTOR , LEADERSH IPAND DEVELOPMENT,SONY P ICTURESENTERTA INMENT

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Sonia Narang was living in New York Citywhen during her sister’s visit they found a ratin the apartment.

“Remember this was New York City, OK?”Narang said.The pair stayed up all night cleaning. Narang

overslept and missed her morning 1/9 subway tothe World Trade Center.“I was an hour late when my dad called and

warned me not to go to work,” Narang recalledof the Sept. 11, 2001, morning. Narang workedin Tower Three. To get there, she exited the sub-way at Tower One and walked to Tower Two,crossing a bridge to Tower Three. If not for therat, Narang would have been there when theTwin Towers collapsed.“Since then my sister has told me, ‘Respect

the rodent. A rodent may have saved your life.’ ”

Narang harkens back to that when she wantsto remember to trust. Trust herself, trust the uni-verse, just have a little faith.After graduating from USC Dornsife in 1999 with

a bachelor’s in psychology, then Columbia Univer-sity with a master’s in organizational psychology,Narang had been working in company effectivenessfor American Express. Five years after Sept. 11, shereturned to California. Moving back with her parentsin Northridge, she was offered a job at Disney.“It was the brand Disney that I was attracted

to, and it was the mouse,” she said. “I took it asa sign.”At Disney, she managed global programs aimed

at retaining executives and making the businessmore effective, and worked in the company’s Lon-don office for six months. She was happy, but thena co-worker moved to Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Narang learned about an opening at SonyPictures managing the Energy Project, a personaland professional development program for 6,000employees worldwide. The goal is to bring thebest out of employees, showing them how tobalance work and home life.“What company does this?” asked Narang,

who got the job. “I thought that was awesome.And it’s all about behavior change.”At Sony Pictures, she is also strengthening the

employee evaluation system. She became inter-ested in organizational psychology at USC Dorn-sife, where Professor Jo Ann Farver, still a mentorand friend, was her biggest influence.“I never thought sitting in Jo Ann’s class I’d be

where I am today,” Narang said. “I’ve learned totrust everything happens for a reason.”Consider it the rodent rebuttal. �

THE morale boosterSonia Narang builds trust with employees. A furry critter gave her a lesson on that.

B Y P A M E L A J . J O H N S O N


PHOTOBYCARLOSPUMA

Banging out scripts from his home office in Ar-lington, Va., Matthew Michael Carnahan findsthat real-world stories drive his creativity.

One night while searching for a USC Trojans foot-ball game on television, a blip of news planted theseed for a narrative that would become the basis ofLions for Lambs, the 2007 film he penned starringRobert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise.The story that scrolled along in the news ticker at

the bottom of the screen reported that two soldiersin Iraq drowned after their Humvee flipped off of theroad. Carnahan was fascinated by the dissociatednews bite coupled with his observation of how re-moved the general public is from the United States’operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.“I started to think about writing something how-

ever small or insignificant,” he said. “I realized itwas the thing I could do to weigh in.”Carnahan considers his experience as an inter-

national relations major in USC Dornsife instru-mental in fostering a deep-rooted interest in theworld around him.“It was this perfect storm,” he said. “The Rodney

King riots happened during my first year at USC. Isaw this wide world that was far beyond me forthe first time. I was blown away.”As a junior, Carnahan participated in a Washing-

ton, D.C., summer internship that allowed him tosee firsthand how Hillary Clinton’s health care re-form plan was playing out.After graduating in 1995, Carnahan worked as a

legal researcher in San Francisco before headingback to D.C. to serve as a public speaker for TheAdvisory Board. He travelled across the country in-terpreting research findings to hospitals.All the while, Carnahan wrote. “Every flight I was

on, I was writing. Be it in a journal, or a shortstory,” he said.Politics and international relations are a running

theme throughout Carnahan’s work. Other cine-matic features he has written include The Kingdom(2007), with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, andState of Play (2009), featuring Russell Crowe andHelen Mirren, which he adapted as part of a team.Stories with a hook in reality continue to pull

Carnahan in — even if they are rather fantastic.For his latest project, he is adapting the popularzombie-outbreak novel World War Z.“What really drew me to the project is how the

book uses zombies as a stand in for any number ofnatural or man-made disasters and extrapolateswhat governments would do were they faced withsomething as abominable as a zombie outbreak,”he said. “I just found it fascinating.”Now, on to capture that delicate balance be-

tween fantasy and reality for the big screen. �

storytellerSILVER SCREEN

MATTHEW MICHAELCARNAHAN[B.A., INTERNATIONALRELATIONS, ’95]

S C R E E NWR I T E R

ARLINGTON, VA.

Matthew Michael Carnahan scripts tales of politics,drama and international intrigue.

B Y M I C H E L L E S A L Z M A N


PHOTOBYJEFFREYMACMILLAN

The young attorney might have been standing solo before

the omnipotent Wizard of Oz. No small and meek here

before the great and powerful.

Hair blond and unbridled, the lawyer faces the scrutiny

of John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

and the other United States Supreme Court justices.

Lindsay Harrison is arguing her first case in front of an appellate court, which happensto be the highest court. The scene is depicted in a large pastel drawing hanging on a wallin her Washington, D.C., office.

Not that they were breathing fire, but did the justices really glare at her in the intimi-dating manner the portrait suggests?

“Some of them absolutely did,” Harrison said with a laugh. “It was fun; really fun. Bythe time you’re standing before the court, you’re so well prepared it’s become a conversa-tion between you and the nine justices. You know the case better than them at that point,so your job is to help educate them about your perspective on the issues.”

An attorney still cutting her teeth, Harrison won the case. She also set a legal precedentand likely saved a life.

Not bad for someone who earned her bachelor’s degree 11 years ago. Harrison receiveda degree in political science and gender studies from USC Dornsife, then was accepted toHarvard Law School. Her draw to D.C. was working for the No. 1 pro bono firm in thenation, Jenner & Block.

At the firm four years, she made her appellate debut at the U.S. Supreme Court in Jan-uary 2009. The case revolved around Jean Marc Nken, who in 2001 fled his nativeCameroon to the U.S. after twice being imprisoned — where he was repeatedly beaten— for his pro-democracy work. When his visa expired, an immigration judge ordered himdeported, then the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected his request for asylum. >>


“They interruptedwith rapid-fire ques-tions, but it actuallyfelt like the 10 of uswere figuring out theanswer to a puzzle. Ikept telling myselfthat if I could con-vince the justices Iwas right, I couldpotentially save aman’s life.”

L INDSAY HARR ISON[B.A., POLITICAL SCIENCE AND

GENDER STUDIES, ’00]

PA RT N E R , J E N N E R & B L O C K

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Lindsay Harrison was a rookie when she made her appellate debut atthe highest court. She also changed the rules and saved a man’s life.

FIRMAMBITIONB Y P A M E L A J . J O H N S O N


“He was put in federal prison and they were going to deport him toCameroon,” Harrison said. “That’s when we got the e-mail.”

After the World Organization for Human Rights sent the firm-widerequest, Harrison immediately volunteered. The immigration case alsoappealed to Harrison on a personal level. Her grandfather, SimonGelfand, an attorney in the Soviet Union, migrated to the U.S. in the1970s. Gelfand, his wife and young son who would become Harrison’sfather fled their native country during the Era of Stagnation, escapingrepression and an economic crisis. Settling in Dallas, Texas, the formerlawyer ran the kosher deli in a local market to put food on the table.

Harrison met Nken in federal prison in Maryland.“He’s an amazing person,” Harrison said of Nken, a pharmacist in

Cameroon, who used his time in prison to read U.S. history books.“He liked talking with me and my colleagues about the legal argu-ments in the case.”

Harrison filed an appeal in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, thefederal court covering Maryland where Nken lived with his Americanwife and their baby boy. She argued that the government had failedto consider the grave danger Nken faced if returned to Cameroon.Ignoring letters from Nken’s family asserting his life surely would bein peril, the government had rejected Nken’s asylum claim, conclud-ing he faced only general unrest in his homeland.

While attempting to assure Nken wasn’t deported during the ap-peal, Harrison sought a “stay” of deportation, which would place theexpulsion on hold while the appeal was considered. In preparing thestay motion, Harrison discovered a circuit split on stay grants in de-portation orders.

In the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Virginia, Mary-land, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, immigrantscould be deported while cases were pending even in the likelihoodthey would win their appeal and their life would be in danger athome. The same went for the 11th circuit, which includes Georgia,Florida and Alabama. But in all other nationwide jurisdictions, courtsconsidered the dangers an immigrant would face if deported andgenerally granted stays of deportation where such risks existed.

“So if you were an immigrant who happened to be in Maryland,well too bad, you might be sent back to where you came from,” Har-rison said. “If you were in Chicago you wouldn’t. I filed a stay to putany deportation on hold until the case was argued in court.”

As expected, the 4th circuit rejected Nken’s bid for a stay, meaninghe could be deported at any time.

“I stayed up all night drafting a petition to the Supreme Court,”Harrison recalled of the day the court denied her motion. “I askedthe Supreme Court to give my client a stay, and the alternative, to atleast decide which rule on stay grants was right.”

The petition was sent only to the chief justice who hears motionsin cases arising from the 4th Circuit. A week later, the court re-quested nine copies of the motion.

“That was a good sign,” Harrison said. Shortly afterward, her firmgot the call that the Supreme Court granted the stay, and agreed tohear the case over which rule was right — in six weeks.

Six weeks. Normally, she would get several months to prepare anargument.

“The day we got the six-week notice, I was the most nervous,”

Harrison said. “From that day on, I was working too hard to havetime to panic.”

Jenner & Block’s veteran appellate litigators prepped with Harrisonand held five moot courts — with participants from their firm and vari-ous law schools and groups — so she could practice her oral argument.

“A lot of arguing is turning questions into opportunities,” she said.“Every question can be a path to your affirmative points.”

Back to the portrait, where some of the justices look unnerving tosay the least, Harrison corrects with a smile: “They were not sneer-ing, they were great. They were tough. They asked hard questions.But I had thought extensively about all of their questions. Theyasked no question I hadn’t received in practice. That’s not about myskill, that’s about the people who helped me prepare.”

She recalled standing at the podium, listening to the flutter behindher as spectators filed in. Her heart beat faster and she tried not toturn around. The justices strode in, taking their seats five feet infront of her. She read one sentence from her notes then was off andrunning, never returning to her prepared statements.

“I found myself talking to them as if they were interested col-leagues,” Harrison said. “They interrupted with rapid-fire questions,but it actually felt like the 10 of us were figuring out the answer to apuzzle. I kept telling myself that if I could convince the justices Iwas right, I could potentially save a man’s life.”

After 30 minutes of verbal jousting, time had run out. Justice JohnPaul Stevens asked for one more question.

“Is it your understanding of the government’s interpretation of thestatute that our stay in this case violated the statute?” he asked.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Harrison replied.“And that was it,” she recalled. “If the rule is that the Supreme

Court can’t even stay a deportation under the statute to decide whatstandard should apply to stays, then it doesn’t make sense as a rule,or seem like a rule Congress would have intended. That to me wasthe turning point, when I could walk away thinking, ‘We have a reallygood shot of winning.’ ”

Months later, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Nken,changing the deportation stay standard in the 4th and 11th circuits.Justices Samuel Alito Jr. and Thomas dissented. Although Nkenwent home and the firm celebrated with champagne and cake, thecase is far from over. While juggling cases for six clients, includingmajor multinational corporations, Harrison is fighting to make Nkena citizen.

The five moot trials aside, some of the best training for herSupreme Court oral argument was — wait for it — her experience onthe USC Trojan Debate Squad. But she believes she might not be anattorney if not for Howard Gillman, her political science professorwho is now the dean of USC Dornsife.

“At the time I was waffling between law school and film school,”said Harrison, who minored in cinematic arts. “Professor Gillman re-ally inspired me to commit to going to law school. He has such enthu-siasm for the U.S. Constitution that was completely contagious.”

These days, Harrison’s office is sparse because the 31-year-old ispacking. She’s recently been promoted from associate to partner.Among the things she’ll be moving to her larger and plusher digs isthe portrait. �



A benign brain tumor was pressing against ayoung woman’s optic nerve. She faced amedical Catch-22: remove the tumor via a

complicated surgery with a high likelihood of de-stroying the nerve, or closely monitor the tumoras it grew."Either way, she would most likely become

blind," Wayne Wu said. Having learned of the ailingschool teacher’s dilemma, the venture capitalist’sinterest in CyberKnife’s technology was piqued.The CyberKnife, a non-invasive robotic radio-

surgery system, offered a compelling alternative.The machine hones in on the exact location of atumor and then zaps it with precise beams ofhigh-dose radiation, limiting dosage to the sur-rounding tissue. Painless and accurate, it’s anideal treatment for people with inoperable or sur-gically complex tumors."When I heard the CyberKnife story — when

everyone hears the story — it’s ‘Wow, we candeal with people’s tumors without cutting

them?’ ” Wu said. “Patients can come in for brainsurgery in the morning and leave by the after-noon. That’s so exciting.”Wu, who earned his master’s degree in mathe-

matics from USC Dornsife in 1992, played an in-tegral role in getting CyberKnife’s technology offthe ground and into medical treatment centersworldwide.In 1998 he invested in Accuray, the company

that developed the system. Wu then decided thathe wanted to be more active in the company’sdevelopment. That year he became a board di-rector at Accuray and then in 2004, took on thechairmanship.In that position, he helped guide Accuray

through a number of critical steps that took thecompany public and launched it as a globalleader in the radiosurgery field. He also helpedsell the first systems in China and in Taiwan. Todate, more than 100,000 people have beentreated with the CyberKnife.

Wu likened the process of building up a businessto that of raising a tree. Elements such as goodsoil, water and sunshine need to be in place for aseedling to grow and flourish.“It’s the same thing with a company,” Wu said.

“You need a good product, a good managementteam, a good environment, and very likely thecompany, just like a tree, will grow.”Wu continues to put his energy into developing

other medical device companies as presidentand CEO of Pacific Health Investment, Inc., anenterprise he runs with his long-time businesspartner Mimi Kwan, a graduate of USC’s ac-counting program. He resigned as chairman ofAccuray’s board last year.With Pacific Health Investment, Wu’s goal is to

support the cultivation of companies that will im-prove medical outcomes.“You can earn money in all different types of busi-

nesses,” Wu said. "If you can make somethingthat also benefits people, that’s more rewarding.”�

beam OF hopeWayne Wu invests in the mechanics of medicine.

B Y M I C H E L L E S A L Z M A N

WAYNE WU[M.S., MATHEMATICS, ’92]

PRES IDENT AND CEO,PAC I F I C HEALTHINVESTMENT, INC .

ORANGE COUNTY, CALIF.

PHOTOBYCARLOSPUMA

Secretary Michael Donley has an affableEveryman smile. He settles into a gold andultramarine-blue striped club chair in his of-fice. Nearby, detailed model Air Force air-craft appear to be taking off from a woodentable. It is where he regularly meets with hismilitary counterpart Gen. Norton Schwartz.

Troubleshooting doesn’t begin to describewhat the air service’s top civilian leader andthe four-star general must accomplish amidthese four walls.

“We’re not pretending mistakes were notmade,” Donley candidly said. “That’s defi-nitely a responsibility of leadership.”

Donley was referring to the incident in2007, when six nuclear warheads were mistak-enly loaded on an Air Force plane that flewover the U.S. News broke a year later that

nuclear missile components had been shippedto Taiwan in error.

The Pentagon’s director of administrationand management at the time, Donley was re-cruited to restore credibility to and revampthe Air Force system.

“Those were pretty serious missteps,”Donley said. “So the chief and I have fo-cused on strengthening our oversight andstewardship of the nuclear enterprise.”

The two have the task of rebuilding thenuclear component in the air and spacepower branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Assecretary, Donley is responsible for morethan 334,000 men and women on activeduty; 176,000 Air National Guard and AirForce Reserve members; and 170,000 civil-ians. He oversees the Air Force’s annual

budget of more than $110 billion.Hanging on walls inside his office are paint-

ings of Air Force aircraft throughout history— including a large one of an F-22 Raptorstealth fighter. In 2009, Donley and Schwartz,with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, de-cided to close out production of the F-22 —the Air Force’s most advanced fighter — oneof many politically charged budgetdecisions Donley must make routinely.

“We’re redirecting resources inside theAir Force and that has meant terminatingproduction of aircraft we think we have suf-ficient quantities of today,” Donley said.“We’re refocusing those dollars on new andemerging capabilities.”

In February, Donley and Air Force Chiefof Staff Schwartz spoke before the HouseArmed Services Committee, requesting$150 billion in the baseline budget and $16billion for overseas operations. Delaying theappropriations bill would negatively impactU.S. military operations in Iraq andAfghanistan, Donely and Schwartz warned.

Right now, nearly 40,000 airmen are de-ployed to 263 locations across the globe.Among the Air Force’s priorities is providingsupport to U.S. Central Command and coali-tion forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.


an (air) force of

NATUREB Y P A M E L A J . J O H N S O N

“I knew then that I

would come to D.C.

There were USC

alumni in D.C. who

got there a year or two

ahead of me. I had a

network to help me

get started.”

MICHAEL DONLEY[B.A., INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ’77][M.A., INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ’78]

S E C R E TA RY, U . S . A I R F O R C E

THE PENTAGON

The blindingly shiny floors and fluorescent lights overhead

seemed to go on forever in the long walk through the jagged

corridors of the Pentagon. Past the conference room of the joint

chiefs — The Tank — where golden curtains adorn tightly shut-

tered faux windows, past the endless oil paintings of colorfully

decorated military leaders, is the United States Air Force Office of the Secretary.

In the 17.5 miles of corridors, it is a seven-minute walk from the entrance.

Born on a U.S. Air Force base, 59 years later Michael Donley is the AirForce’s top civilian leader. Entrusted to restore credibility to that branchof the military’s nuclear enterprise, he’s also trying to win a few wars.


Living and breathing all things military,Donley was born in 1952 at Hamilton AirForce Base in Novato, Calif.

Destiny?“More of a coincidence than anything else,”

Donley countered, adding that his father, aninsurance broker, had served in the Air Forcefor a short time. Donley grew up during theYom Kippur War of 1973, the Turkish invasionof Cyprus in 1974, and the Vietnam War,followed by the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

At 19, after two years at El Camino Col-lege, his draft number, relatively low at No.66, was picked. The Army sent him to FortBragg, N.C., to work as an intelligence spe-cialist. After three years, he was accepted tothe USC School of International Relations.He earned his bachelor’s in 1977 and mas-ter’s a year later. At USC Dornsife, he stud-

ied national and international security.“I knew then that I would come to D.C.,”

he said. “There were USC alumni in D.C.who got there a year or two ahead of me. Ihad a network to help me get started.”

In 1978, he snagged his first job as editor ofthe National Security Record. Developing con-tacts on Capitol Hill, he became legislativeassistant in the U.S. Senate, then a staffer onthe Senate Armed Services Committee.

He was director of defense programs atthe National Security Council (NSC) whenhe approached Colin Powell, then-deputynational security adviser.

“Sir, I’ve been here at the NSC three-plusyears,” he recalled telling Powell in 1987.“Unless you have something new for me todo, my intent is to try to find work over atthe Pentagon.”

That day, Secretary of Defense CasparWeinberger announced his retirement andFrank Carlucci became the secretary of de-fense. Powell became national security ad-viser and promoted Donley to deputyexecutive secretary overseeing the WhiteHouse Situation Room. Donley coordinatedthe White House policy on the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorgani-zation Act and wrote the national securitystrategy for President Ronald Reagan.

In 1989, Donley was appointed assistantsecretary of the Air Force, and later actingsecretary. In 1993, Donley left governmentwork to do private consulting — until thePentagon came calling in 2005.

“Sometimes,” he said, “the jobs chooseyou.” �


The husband and wife have made theirhome in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, fornearly two years. A city of rolling hills andvalleys, Kigali, the site of a genocide in 1994,has rebounded into a buzzing urban hubmixing modern developments with tradi-tional features.

“The city itself has a lot of contrasts,” Mc-Card said. “There are really beautiful high-rise buildings, and there are also peopleliving relatively close by in mud houses.”

Originally from the small fishing town ofSoldotna, Alaska, the couple moved to Kigaliwhen Peterson accepted a position with theUnited States Foreign Service.

The two attended USC Dornsife as under-graduates — Peterson studied internationalrelations with a minor in business, and Mc-

Card majored in environmental studies with aminor in international relations. After gradu-ating, they returned to Soldotna, where theyhad been high-school sweethearts, and set-tled into careers that mirrored their interests.

Peterson worked in information technol-ogy for a local school district and McCardwas a water quality specialist protectingsalmon habitats for the Kenai WatershedForum, a nonprofit research and restorationorganization in the Kenai Peninsula. Thetwo enjoyed international travel and hadtoyed with the idea of living overseas.

“I knew about the foreign service, majoringin international relations,” Peterson recounted.“I sent Jenn the job opening and I said, ‘Ithink I’m qualified for this, do you think Ishould apply for it?’ She said, ‘Go for it.’ ”

In addition to preparing for the leap fromAlaska to Africa, other monumental lifechanges were taking place, and very quickly.Just before Peterson left to attend foreignservice training in Washington, D.C., the twobecame engaged.

“Alex was able to squeeze in a day overLabor Day weekend for us to get married,and by the end of the month we were inRwanda,” McCard said.

At the embassy in Kigali, Peterson’s pri-mary role is to support communications andinformation technology. As an informationmanagement specialist, he’s part of a teamresponsible for working with users of theembassy’s information technology services,maintaining telephone and radio systems,and managing mail operations.

Peterson also assists the economics officeron the embassy’s telecommunications port-folio researching current IT advances in thecountry and reporting them back to Wash-ington, which has inspired his career goal ofbecoming a foreign-service officer.

“I already have a foundation of knowledgein international relations and business. That’ssomething that’s value-added to the mission,”


Jennifer McCard and Alex Peterson’s white stucco house is built into a

red-earthen hillside. In the front yard, a swimming pool filled in with

soil functions as a garden where they grow carrots, peas and herbs.

Oftentimes smoke wafts over from the convent next door when the

nuns make their cooking fires. A dirt road on the side of their house

connects to a cobblestone street that leads to their favorite pizza parlor.

in love, will

TRAVELB Y M I C H E L L E S A L Z M A N

As a couple, Alex Peterson and Jennifer McCard are making careersout of service to the U.S. and the environment, around the world.

“USC’s faculty inspired us

to take our careers to a

global scale. The added

bonus is that we get to

indulge our shared love

for international travel.”

JENN IFER MCCARD[B.A., ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, ’06]

D E P U T Y O P E R AT I N G O F F I C E R ,MANNA E N E R G Y L IM I T E D

KIGALI, RWANDA

ALEX PETERSON[B.A., INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ’05]

I N F O RMAT I O N MANAG EM EN TS P E C I A L I S T, U . S . F O R E I G N S E R V I C E

KIGALI, RWANDA


Peterson said of his studies in USC Dornsife.McCard continues to pursue a career in

environmental work as deputy operating of-ficer of Manna Energy Limited.

Manna is an international business that de-velops sustainable technologies to improveenvironmental and public health conditionsfor impoverished communities around theworld. In Rwanda, its main ventures includea scalable drinking water treatment system,bio-gas latrines and high-efficiency cookstoves.

Working from home, McCard liaises be-tween Manna’s staff in Rwanda and the man-agerial staff in the U.S. As she checks in onthe daily progress of projects and finances,she can see the traffic chugging into down-town Kigali from her living room window.

“I chose my major and minor in USCDornsife with the hope of someday workingon international environmental issues,” Mc-Card said. With Manna, her work not onlyaddresses environmental concerns but alsoaddresses health and developmentchallenges.

This summer, Peterson’s position at theU.S. Embassy in Kigali will reach its two-year mark — the duration of a typical assign-ment for a foreign service worker in Africa.

The next stop for Peterson and McCard?“Brasilia, Brazil, in October,” Peterson

said. The couple is preparing for Peterson’snext assignment with online languagecourses in Portuguese.

Peterson admitted that there are many chal-lenges that arise from an international career,

like the distance from family — both McCardand Peterson are only children — and accli-mating to new cultures. Still, they believethey are well prepared for the change.

“Attending USC and living in Los Angelesafter growing up in a small town in Alaskawas a culture shock,” McCard said. “Know-ing I could conquer that gave me the confi-dence to choose to live in Rwanda.”

Peterson agrees. Exposure to the multicul-tural fabric of L.A. and the university helpedprepare him for a global career.

“We’ve been really happy in Kigali,” hesaid. “We hope that Brasilia continues us onthat path.”

Now, onward to the next adventure. �

PHOTOBYJILLPETERSON

AL ISA ROGERS[M.S., CHEMISTRY, ’79]

CO-FOUNDER , OPT ICALA IR DATA SYSTEMSAND CATCH THE WIND

MANASSAS, VA.

A lisa Rogers finished 10th grade and was al-ready headed to Syracuse University. Butbefore leaving her Baltimore high school,

she met her future husband and business partner.Philip Rogers was a brilliant young student who

went on to graduate from Cornell University withdegrees in engineering physics and aerospaceengineering. They married and decided to attendgraduate school on the West Coast, Alisa optingfor USC Dornsife and Philip, Caltech.In their 40 years together, they’ve produced

three children, all Ph.D.’s in physics or aerospaceengineering. They’ve also produced two multi-million dollar companies: their privately-ownedOptical Air Data Systems, LLC, and its spin-off,Catch the Wind, now a public company.“My husband’s strengths are my weaknesses

and my strengths are his weaknesses,” Alisa saidat their Manassas, Va., headquarters, wheresigns with messages such as “The best way topredict your future is to create it,” were dis-

played. “He’s the inventor and I have the skill setto help him with the implementation.”Optical Air has become a world leader in the

high power fiber optic laser business. They grewtheir company as a defense contractor, developinga laser wind sensor that allows helicopters to landsafely in brownouts and whiteouts caused by dust,particularly important in Afghanistan and Iraqdeserts. Today, the sensor is installed in their Viet-nam-era helicopter they use for testing. The under-lying technology is licensed to Rockwell Collins.In 2008, they started Catch the Wind, which li-

censes the wind sensing technology from OpticalAir for applications not used by Rockwell Collins.It also applies their wind sensing technology towind turbines.“The increased efficiency derived from our laser

wind sensor is unmatched in the industry,” Alisasaid, giving a tour of their lab and hanger.The BMW Oracle Racing team that won the

2010 America’s Cup used their recently devel-

oped, miniaturized handheld laser wind sensor. Infootball, the product can measure the speed anddirection of wind during field goals. The unit canbe used for airport wind measurement and asequipment for first responders in disasters.Everything they sell, they invent.Interesting path for Alisa, who earned her mas-

ter’s in chemistry but decided she didn’t want tobe a chemist. Her master’s, however, got her a jobat Lockheed Martin as a materials and processingengineer responsible for Lockheed’s L1011 fuse-lage’s adhesive bonding. Philip became director ofspecial projects at Lockheed Skunk Works.After having three children, the couple wanted

to spend as much time as possible raising them.They returned to the East Coast and started afiber optic laser business at home. Thirty-twoyears after graduate school, here they are.“It’s not enough to be creative,” Alisa said. “You

have to have a business sense to make thecreativity a reality.” �

winds OF fortuneThrough their two companies, Alisa Rogers and her husband Philip have forever changed the wind energy industry.

B Y P A M E L A J . J O H N S O N



STUDENT AWARDS............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

First USC Student ReceivesChurchill Scholarship

DANIEL J. STROUSE, one of 14 students fromU.S. universities chosen to receive the presti-gious Churchill Scholarship, is the first at USC.Churchill Scholars must demonstrate extraor-dinary talent, outstanding academic achieve-ment and exceptional personal qualities.

Since 1963, there have been 452 ChurchillScholars in the biological and physical sciences,engineering and mathematics. The group in-cludes scholars, researchers and teachers inmajor universities and laboratories, as well asleading figures in finance and industry.

Following his graduation from USC Dornsifewith a bachelor of science degree in mathe-matics and physics, Strouse intends to furtherhis education at the University of Cambridge,where he will conduct computational neuro-science research.

Described by professors as a student withintellectual energy, creativity and initiative,Strouse has engaged in undergraduate re-search projects on and off campus.

At USC, he was involved in neuroscience re-search with professors Michael Arbib and TedBerger. He also worked with professorBartlett Mel in the Laboratory for NeuralComputation. Off-campus, Strouse traveled toIndia as a USC Stevens Global Impact fellow toconduct a social entrepreneurship project,and he completed an internship in China as aUSC Global Impact fellow.

Strouse took part in quantum theory researchwith professor Paolo Zanardi at the Institute forScientific Interchange in Italy and at the Insti-tute for Quantum Computing in Canada. Hewas also selected to participate in the AmgenScholars Program at Stanford University.

Strouse, a USC Presidential Scholar, is amember of Phi Beta Kappa, Upsilon Pi Epsilonand Tau Beta Pi.


D.STROUSEPHOTOBYKATYCAPPER;A.GHOSHPHOTOBYJIEGU;A.BUSHPHOTOCOURTESYOFADAMBUSH

Arin Ghosh Receivesthe State of MarylandGovernor’s Citation

Arin Ghosh may be a junior majoringin political science in USC Dornsife, buthe is also a special adviser of trade affairsto His Excellency G.V. Anjaneyulu, amember of the State of AndhraPradesh’s legislative assembly in India.In this position, Ghosh is charged withhelping to connect top individuals from American and Indian companies to furtherstrengthen trade relations between the two countries.

“What I’m doing shows this can be done on a micro level,” said Ghosh, a USC TransferMerit Scholar. “That even a USC student can get involved. Promoting trade is not just formulti-national corporations, it’s even something for the small players.”

Ghosh’s appointment to the civilian post grew out of his dedication for building Indo-United States relations. It was while serving as youth chair on the Board of Directors ofthe United Nations Association’s Pacific-Los Angeles Chapter in 2008 that Ghosh metand liaisoned with the Maryland Interagency Strategic Council under the Martin O’Mal-ley administration. Their continued collaboration during the next two years led to thestrengthening of trade and cultural ties between India and the U.S. Together, he and thecouncil have begun collaborating with Maryland nonprofit leaders to plan trade and cul-tural exchanges that they hope may become standard practice in the future.

In January, Ghosh was presented with the State of Maryland Governor’s Citation for hisexcellence in these ongoing efforts.

.........................................................................................................................................................

Adam Bush Recognizedwith K. Patricia CrossFuture Leaders Award

Adam Bush, a doctoral candidate inAmerican studies and ethnicity, has beenrecognized by the Association of Ameri-can Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)with the K. Patricia Cross Future Lead-ers Award.

Bush is one of eight graduate students,selected from a pool of more than 225 nominations, to receive the honor. The prestigiousaccolade recognizes students who demonstrate commitment to developing academic andcivic responsibility in themselves as well as in others; show promise as future leaders ofhigher education; and whose work shows emphasis on teaching and learning.

“I really like having one foot in higher education and another foot in lots of differentprojects,” said Bush, who is working on his dissertation, “Passing Notes in Class: Listen-ing to Pedagogical Improvisations in Jazz History,” and serves as founding director of cur-riculum for College Unbound, a college degree program designed to connect students’interests with internships.

AIMEE BENDER, associate professor ofEnglish, won the 2010 SoCal Inde-pendent Booksellers AssociationAward in Fiction for her latest novel,The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake(Random House, 2010).

YEHUDA BEN-ZION, professor of earthsciences, has been awarded the Hum-boldt Research Award (Humboldt-Forschungspreis) from the Alexandervon Humboldt Foundation. Ben-Zionwas also ranked 5th in total citationsby Thomson Reuters’ Science Watchlist of the Top 20 Authors in Earth-quake Studies.

PETER BERTON, professor emeritus of in-ternational relations, was awarded theOrder of the Rising Sun, Gold Rayswith Neck Ribbon by the Governmentof Japan.

JOHN BOWLT, professor of Slavic lan-guages and literatures and director ofthe Institute of Modern Russian Cul-ture, was awarded the prestigious Russ-ian Federation Order of Friendship.

RICHARD BRUTCHEY, assistant professorof chemistry, has received a 2010 Cot-trell Scholars Award from the ResearchCorporation for Science Advancement.

ANTONIO DAMASIO, University Profes-sor, David Dornsife Professor of Neu-roscience, and director of the USCBrain and Creativity Institute, had hislatest book, Self Comes to Mind (Pan-theon, 2010), selected by the FinancialTimes as one its “Books of the Year” for2010.

PERCIVAL EVERETT, Distinguished Pro-fessor of English, won a 2010Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in fictionfor his novel, I Am Not Sidney Poitier(Graywolf Press, 2009). Everett has alsobeen inducted into the South CarolinaLiterary Hall of Fame.

SUSAN FORSBURG, professor of biologi-cal sciences, has received the 2011Roche Diagnostics Alice C. EvansAward from the American Society ofMicrobiology. She also serves as a sec-tion editor for G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, a new journal from the Genet-ics Society of America.

MARGARET GATZ, chair and professor ofpsychology, and professor of gerontology

and preventive medicine, has been ap-pointed an honorary doctor of medicineat Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.Gatz has been a foreign adjunct profes-sor at Karolinska Institutet since 2000.

RUTH WILSON GILMORE, associate pro-fessor of American studies and ethnic-ity, has been appointed to the editorialboards of Theoretical Criminology andWomen’s Studies Quarterly.

JIM HAW, Ray R. Irani Chairman of Oc-cidental Petroleum Chair in Chemistryand professor of chemistry and envi-ronmental studies and the director ofenvironmental studies, was tapped forhis environmental expertise, and isfeatured in videos, along with ABCCastle television actors Stana Katic andSeamus Dever, for the Sierra Club’sThe Alternative Travel Project.

FR. JAMES HEFT, Alton M. Brooks Pro-fessor of Religion as well as presidentand founding director of the Institutefor Advanced Catholic Studies, re-ceived the Theodore M. HesburghAward for Leadership Excellence fromthe Catholic Colleges and Universities.

MARY HELEN IMMORDINO-YANG, assis-tant professor of education and psy-chology, was named a “Rising Star” bythe Association for Psychological Sci-ence for her early career contributions.

JANE JUNN, professor of political sci-ence, gave the Pi Sigma AlphaKeynote Address at the 2011 Ameri-can Political Science AssociationTeaching and Learning Conference.

ROBIN D.G. KELLEY, professor of Ameri-can studies and ethnicity, and history,has received the following awards forhis book, Thelonious Monk: The Life andTimes of an American Original (FreePress, 2009): the American Musicologi-cal Society’s Music in American Cul-ture Award and a 2010 Hurston/WrightLegacy Award in nonfiction.

KAREN KEMP of the Spatial SciencesInstitute was appointed a fellow of theUniversity Consortium for GeographicInformation Science.

STEVEN LAMY, vice dean for academicprograms and professor of internationalrelations, has received the Donald Per-ryman Fund for the Social StudiesScholar Award, which honors a univer-sity scholar who has made a significantcontribution to the quality of K-12 so-cial studies in Southern California.

KAREN LANG, associate professor of arthistory, has been granted the Lever-hulme Trust Visiting Professorship atthe University of Warwick, England.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................

TOP HONORS

Caron, Edwards and NordborgElected to the AmericanAssociation for theAdvancement of ScienceThree USC Dornsife professors have beennamed fellows of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science in recognition of distinguished accomplishments in advancing science and serving society.DAVID CARON, professor of biological sciences, is honored for his work in marine microbial ecology, “particularly re-garding phagotrophic and autotrophic protists and harmful algae blooms.” KATRINA EDWARDS, professor of biolog-ical sciences and earth sciences, and director of the National Science Foundation-supported Center for Dark EnergyBiosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) headquartered in USC Dornsife, is recognized for “important discoveries on interac-tions between microbes and minerals, especially at the ocean floor, how these influence global biogeochemicalprocesses and for international leadership.”MAGNUS NORDBORG, associate professor of biological sciences, whoseresearch lab focuses on the genetic basis of adaptation, is honored for “distinguished contributions to the field ofpopulation genetics, particularly for pioneering genome-wide association studies in non-human organisms.”

B.MULLINSPHOTOBYCAMSANDERS;D.CARONANDK.EDWARDSPHOTOSBYPHILCHANNING

USC DORNS I FE FACULTY HONORS & ACH IEVEMENTS

FACULTY NOTES

TOP HONORS

Mullins Named 2010 U.S.Artists Fellow in LiteraturePlaywright and poet BRIGHDE MULLINS, who di-rects the Master of Professional Writing Program,was named a 2010 United States Artists Fellow inliterature at a December event held at LincolnCenter in New York City. The fellowship, which

comes with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, was presented by United StatesArtists, a national grant-making and advocacy organization with a missionto invest in America’s finest artists.

.....................................................................................................................


David Caron Katrina Edwards Magnus Nordborg

SONYA LEE, assistant professor of arthistory, and East Asian languages andcultures, has been awarded a seniorfellowship at the National Gallery ofArt’s Center for Advanced Study inthe Visual Arts in Washington, D.C.,membership at the Institute forAdvanced Study, Princeton, and anAmerican Council of Learned Soci-eties ACLS Fellowship.

PAUL LERNER, associate professor of his-tory, was recently awarded a HumboldtFellowship to perform research at theSimon Dubnow Institute for ModernJewish History at the University ofLeipzig. He has also been awarded anAmerican Council of Learned Soci-eties ACLS Fellowship.

DANIEL LIDAR, associate professor ofchemistry and electrical engineeringsystems, has been elected as an officerof the American Physical Society’s Top-ical Group on Quantum Information.

STEVEN LOPEZ, professor of psychology,has received the Society of ClinicalPsychology’s Stanley Sue Award forDistinguished Contributions to Diver-sity in Clinical Psychology.

NANCY LUTKEHAUS, chair and professorof anthropology, and professor of gen-der studies and political science, hasbeen awarded a 2011–12 HarryRansom Center Fellowship at theUniversity of Texas, Austin for herproject “A Transnational Friendship:Miguel Covarrubias and Rened’Harnoncourt (1930–1957).”

SUSAN MCCABE, professor of English,has been awarded a residency fellow-ship at the American Academy in Berlin.

SUSAN MONTGOMERY, professor ofmathematics, was invited to give the32nd Annual Association for Women in

Mathematics Emmy Noether Lectureat the joint mathematics meetings inNew Orleans.

VIET THANH NGUYEN, associate profes-sor of English, and American studiesand ethnicity, has received an Ameri-can Council of Learned Societies Fel-lowship for 2011–12.

MARGARET ROSENTHAL, professor ofItalian, comparative literature, andEnglish, had her book, The HonestCourtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen andWriter in 16th-Century Venice (Univer-sity of Chicago Press, 1993), adaptedinto the musical, Dangerous Beauty.The production opened at thePasadena Playhouse in February.

MARK SCHROEDER, associate professorof philosophy, won the American Philo-sophical Association’s 2010 Article Prizefor his article, “How Expressivists Canand Should Solve their Problem aboutNegation.”

MARK THOMPSON, professor of chem-istry, materials science and environ-mental studies, was ranked 12th inThomson Reuters’ Science Watch listof the Top 100 Chemists, 2000–2010,which celebrates the achievements ofchemists who achieved the highest ci-tation impact scores for chemistry pa-pers published since January 2000.

TRAVIS WILLIAMS, assistant professor ofchemistry, has received an Early CareerDevelopment (CAREER) Award fromthe National Science Foundation.

CECILIA WOLOCH of English has re-ceived a 2011 National Endowment forthe Arts Literature Fellowship.

The September 2010 issue of theAnnals of Mathematics included threepapers by Department of Mathematics

faculty: two by Professor of Mathemat-ics ROBERT MICHAEL GURALNICK andone by Professor of MathematicsTHOMAS GEISSER.

DAN BAYER, executive director of theUSC Dornsife Language Center, andTATIANA AKISHINA, professor (teach-ing) of Russian and director of theRussian language program, presenteda paper at the XII Congress of the In-ternational Association of Teachersof Russian Language and Literatureheld in Shanghai.

Institute, Center andProgram News

THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED

CATHOLIC STUDIES was invited by theVatican’s Pontifical Council for Justiceand Peace to debate Pope BenedictXVI’s latest encyclical,Caritas in veritate(Charity in Truth), and how it applies tothe United States. FR. JAMES HEFT,Alton M. Brooks Professor of Religionas well as president and founding direc-tor of the institute, chaired each of thesix sessions of the international sympo-sium held in October at the Vatican.

USC was selected for the 2010 Com-munity Engagement Classification bythe Carnegie Foundation for the Ad-vancement of Teaching for an institu-tional focus on community engagementthrough programs such as the JOINTEDUCATIONAL PROJECT (JEP), which ishoused in USC Dornsife.

USC Dornsife and the Farhang Foun-dation announced in November thelaunch of an IRANIAN STUDIES INITIATIVEat USC. For the first time ever, USCDornsife will offer students Persianlanguage classes beginning as early asFall 2011. The initiative’s secondphase, still in planning stages, willallow students to choose a minor with afocus on Iranian studies.

Faculty Appointments

Nobel Prize-winningeconomist DANIELMCFADDEN has been ap-pointed the Presiden-tial Professor of HealthEconomics. McFadden

is best known for his innovations ineconomics and mathematics related tomodels of learning and choice. He wasawarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Eco-nomic Sciences, together with JamesHeckman, for their development oftheories and methods for analyzingdiscrete choice. McFadden will holdjoint appointments at the USC Schoolof Policy, Planning, and Developmentand the Department of Economics inUSC Dornsife.

DANA GIOIA, an ac-claimed poet and essayistwho served two terms aschairman of the NationalEndowment for the Arts,has been appointed the

Judge Widney Professor of Poetry andPublic Culture. Gioia’s university-wideappointment includes affiliations withUSC Dornsife, USC Thornton School ofMusic, USC Marshall School of Busi-ness, and USC School of Policy, Plan-ning, and Development.

KEVIN MURRAY, a retiredsenator and legal expertin public policy and en-tertainment, has beenappointed USC Dorn-sife Politician-in-Resi-

dence. Murray represented the 47thdistrict when elected to the CaliforniaLegislature in 1994. After serving twoterms, he was elected to the state Sen-ate representing the 26th district beforeretiring due to term limits in 2006.Throughout his career, Murray hasbeen a champion in the areas of solarenergy, consumer privacy, urban parks,economic development, civil rights, theInternet, healthcare access, transporta-tion issues, artists’ rights and the enter-tainment industry.

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TOP HONORS

Sanchez Receives the AmericanHistorical Association’s FirstEquity AwardGEORGE SANCHEZ, vice dean for diversity and strate-gic initiatives, and professor of American studies andethnicity, and history, has received the first Equity

Award from the American Historical Association in recognition of excellencein recruiting and retaining under-represented racial and ethnic groups intothe historic profession.

TOP HONORS

Starr Inducted intoCalifornia Hall of FameKEVIN STARR, University Professorand professor of history, was inductedinto the California Hall of Fame dur-ing a December ceremony in Sacra-mento, Calif. Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger and first lady MariaShriver presented the Spirit of Califor-nia medals to 14 trailblazers, who alsoincluded screen and music icon BarbraStreisand; comedienne Betty White;filmmaker James Cameron; business-

man and philanthropist Levi Strauss; tennis champion Serena Williams;and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

.....................................................................................................................


K.STARRPHOTOBYHECTORAMEZCUAOFTHESACRAMENTOBEE;D.MCFADDENPHOTOBYTOMQUEALLY;G.SANCHEZPHOTOBYALEXANDRABISSONETTE;K.MURRAYPHOTOCOURTESYOFK.MURRAY;D.GIOIAPHOTOCOURTESYOFTHEASPENINSTITUTE

MM-PersonalFrom the PrivateArchive of MarilynMonroe

ABRAMS / LOIS BANNER,professor of historyand gender studies,peers behind the veilof the legend that isMarilyn Monroe to

clarify, qualify or reverse many commonconceptions about the star.

Piano Glass/Glass Piano

TEBOT BACH / In her sec-ond collection of po-etry, MARJORIE BECKER,associate professor ofhistory, scripts thestories of the voice-less.

When theKilling’s Done

VIKING / T.C. BOYLE, Dis-tinguished Professorof English, spins agrand environmentaland family drama re-volving around theChannel Islands offthe coast of SantaBarbara, Calif.

The HollywoodSignFantasy and Realityof an American Icon

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS / LEOBRAUDY, UniversityProfessor and Leo S.Bing Chair in Englishand American Litera-

ture, explains how a temporary struc-ture has become a permanent icon ofAmerican culture.

Self Comes toMindConstructing theConscious Brain

PANTHEON / ANTONIODAMASIO, UniversityProfessor, David Dorn-sife Professor of Neu-roscience, and director

of the USC Brain and Creativity Institute,presents new scientific evidence that con-sciousness — what we think of as a mindwith a self — is to begin with a biologicalprocess created by a living organism.

A Discovery ofWitches

VIKING / In her firstnovel, DEBORAHHARKNESS, professor ofhistory, explores thehidden world of mod-ern-day witches, vam-pires and daemons.

ConstitutionalPolitics in Canadaafter the CharterLiberalism,Communitarianismand Systemism

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH

COLUMBIA PRESS / PATRICKJAMES, professor of

international relations, synthesizes andassesses 25 years of constitutional poli-tics and countless debates about the fu-ture of Canada.

Engagementwith North KoreaA Viable Alternative

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW

YORK PRESS / DAVID KANG,professor of interna-tional relations anddirector of the KoreanStudies Institute, and

his co-editor examine how and why na-tions have persuaded North Korea to co-operate on topics such as nuclear policy.

The Paradox ofHopeJourneys through aClinical Borderland

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

PRESS / CHERYLMATTINGLY, professorof anthropology, andoccupational science

and therapy, explores the hope that in-spires us to try to create lives worth liv-ing, even when no cure is in sight.

Crossing StateLinesAn American Renga

FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX /

California Poet Lau-reate CAROL MUSKE-DUKES, professor ofEnglish and creativewriting, and her co-

editor present a poetic relay race acrossthe continent: 54 poets responding toideas of America — and to each other.


it’s not all about YOU

In her latest book, Celebrity Cultureand the American Dream: Stardomand Social Mobility (Routledge,

2011), sociologist KAREN STERNHEIMERlooks at celebrity fan magazines asunique time capsules. She considerseach magazine a fascinating sociologi-cal window into the changing meaningof success in America over the last 100years.

Exploring the stories and advertisements, Sternheimerreveals not only the links between celebrity culture, con-sumption and social mobility, but how and why theAmerican Dream has persisted despite the country’s shift-ing attitudes toward class, gender, marriage and race.

“It’s not really about the celebrities, it’s about us,” saidSternheimer, associate professor (teaching) of sociology.“It is important for us to consider how celebrity culture ispackaged and sold through the years; how it’s changed;and how these changes coincide with economic, politicaland social shifts, too.”

Sternheimer based her analysis on a collection of ap-proximately 600 fan magazines, many housed in the USCCinematic Arts Library, including Photoplay (1911–1980)and Modern Screen (1930–1985), as well as People (1974–present). She identified the major shifts in the magazines’construction of the American Dream from 1911 to thepresent and organized the chapters chronologicallyaround each of these themes.

One of the shifts that surprised Sternheimer most washow Depression-era stories emphasized celebrity wealthand privilege in the face of devastating loss.

“[I]f your only source of American history was a moviefan magazine, you might think the Great Depressionnever happened,” Sternheimer writes in the book.

Even though many parents struggled to provide theirchildren with the basic necessities, Sternheimer points outhow stories of celebrity extravagance appeared alongsideadvertisements that also reinforced elements of glamour.

Now that monthly fan magazines have been replacedwith today’s nonstop stream of celebrity gossip availablethrough a host of media, Sternheimer cautions againstgetting caught up in the details.

“We sometimes take ourselves out of the equation,”she said. “We need to ask: Why do we focus on certain is-sues at certain times? It’s not an accident that particulardebates are presented to us as part of celebrity culture.”—EMILY CAVALCANTI

FANMAGAZINEIMAGESCOURTESYOFTHEUSCCINEMATICARTSLIBRARY

1940sLOUIS ZAMPERINI (B.S.,physical education, ’40) isthe subject of a new best-selling book titled Unbroken(Random House, 2010) byLaura Hillenbrand. Thebook recounts the Olympicathlete and World War IIhero’s life and war-time ex-periences. As an Army AirCorps lieutenant, Zamperinisurvived a plane crash in1943, and after spending 47days on a life raft, was takenprisoner by the Japanese andheld in prisoner of warcamps for 25 months.

1950sJOHN DAVIES (B.A., interna-tional relations, ’56), an attor-ney and businessman,received the Spirit of SanDiego Award from the SanDiego Regional Chamber ofCommerce honoring thosewho have demonstratedleadership to improve thequality of life in San Diego.

1960sJIM WIATT (B.A., history, ’69),former chairman and chiefexecutive of the WilliamMorris Agency, has beennamed strategic adviser toAOL.

1970sSCOTT BERNARD (B.A., psy-chology, ’78), assistant pro-fessor of practice atSyracuse University Schoolof Information Studies(iSchool), has been namedthe federal chief architect inthe Executive Office of thePresident of the UnitedStates, serving with the Of-fice of Management and

Budget’s E-Governmentand Information Technol-ogy group.

RONALD L. BROWN (B.A.,history, ’76) was appointedpublic defender of Los An-geles County, a position thatoversees more than 700 de-fense attorneys who repre-sent indigent defendants incriminal court.

THOMAS S. CLARK (B.A., his-tory, ’69; J.D., ’73) was ap-pointed to a judgeship in theKern County Superior Court.He has been a senior partnerfor Arrache, Clark and Pottersince 1985.

KASHMIRI L. MITTAL (Ph.D.,chemistry, ’70) was honoredby scientists from more than20 countries with a SpecialSymposium on Recent Ad-vances in Adhesion Scienceand Technology, which wasorganized in his honor as apart of the American Chem-ical Society’s annual meet-ing held in Boston, Mass., inAugust 2010.

DENNIS MULHAUPT (B.A., in-ternational relations, ’77), amember of the BroadcastingBoard of Governors andfounder and managing direc-tor of Commonwealth Part-ners, Inc., was appointedchair of Radio Free Europe’scorporate board.

CHARLES E. SAUNDERS (B.S.,biological sciences, ’76), aphysician and accomplishedbusiness executive with ex-pertise in health care serv-ices, information technologyand business operations,was named head of strategicdiversification at Aetna.

NEIL G. SIEGEL (B.A., mathe-matics, ’74; M.S., mathemat-

ics, ’76), vice president andchief engineer for NorthropGrumman Corporation’s in-formation systems sector, re-ceived the 2011 SimonRamo Medal from the Insti-tute of Electrical and Elec-tronics Engineers (IEEE),and was named an IEEEFellow.

1980sHWASHIK D. BONG (B.A., po-litical science, ’88) wasnamed director of TV newsteam by JBC, a subsidiary ofThe Korea Daily. He cov-ered his 9th Super Bowl inDallas, Texas, in February2011, as the only Korean re-porter since the 2000 NFLseason. His second son,Dany Troi, was born on April4, 2009, and joins brotherDawi David, 5.

GEORGE CHAPJIAN (B.A.,psychology, ’81; M.S., socialwork and gerontology, ’84)was appointed the directorof parks, recreation and ma-rine in Long Beach, Calif.

ELENA DUARTE (B.A., hu-manities/Italian, ’89) wasappointed associate justicefor California’s Third Dis-trict Court of Appeal. Shehas served as a judge for theSacramento County Supe-rior Court since 2008.

GREGORY S. HAGEMAN (B.S.,biological sciences, ’76;Ph.D., biological sciences,’83), John A. Moran Presi-dential Professor of Ophthal-mology and Visual Sciencesat the University of Utah,was elected to a new clinicaladvisory board focusing onretinal diseases and condi-tions at Sequenom, Inc., alife sciences company

committed to improvinghealth care through geneticanalysis solutions.

PAUL W. JONES (B.A., psy-chology, ’81; MPA, publicadministration, ’84), a physi-cian/anesthesiologist, hasbeen appointed clinical as-sistant professor of surgeryand subspecialties medicineat both the NortheasternOhio Universities Collegesof Medicine and Pharmacyand at the Ohio UniversityCollege of OsteopathicMedicine. He is the chair-man of the Department ofAnesthesiology and directorof anesthesia services atRobinson Memorial Hospi-tal in Ravenna, Ohio.

CARYN LERMAN (M.A., psy-chology, ’83; Ph.D., psychol-ogy, ’84), Mary W. CalkinsProfessor in the Depart-ment of Psychiatry and theAnnenberg Public PolicyCenter at the University ofPennsylvania, was electedto the Institute of Medicine,one of the nation’s highesthonors in biomedicine.

PAUL LO (B.A., social sci-ences and communication,international relations, ’88)will lead the new globalbusiness incentives divisionof WTP Advisors, an award-winning tax and businessadvisory services firm.

JEFF MARSEE (B.A., econom-ics, ’71) was named the newsuperintendent/president ofSan Joaquin Delta Collegein Stockton, Calif., followinga nationwide search.

HOVA NAJARIAN (B.A., Eng-lish and public relations, ’85)and Belinda Miller (B.F.A.,drama, ’88) are the co-founders and co-hosts of

KNRK-FM’s Saturdaymorning “Greasy Kid Stuff”radio show, which celebratedits 15th anniversary in 2010.

1990sDAVID BLAKESLEY (Ph.D.,English, ’90) was named theCampbell Chair in TechnicalCommunication and profes-sor of English at ClemsonUniversity.

PAULA CUNEO (B.A., Spanish,’90) was named brand direc-tor at Digital DevelopmentManagement (DDM), abusiness and talent agencyfor video games and digitalentertainment. She joinedDDM from Massive Inc., awholly owned subsidiary ofMicrosoft Corp., where shewas director of business de-velopment.

VALERY FOKIN (Ph.D., chem-istry, ’98), associate professorof chemistry at The ScrippsResearch Institute, ranked9th in Thomson Reuters’Science Watch “Top 100Chemists, 2000–2010.”

MALIA OSHIMA PAUL (B.A.,international relations andEast Asian languages and cul-tures, ’95) was named deputychief of staff by Hawaii Lieu-tenant Governor BrianSchatz. A licensed attorney,she played a key role inSchatz’s campaign for lieu-tenant governor.

MARCELLE POLEDNIK (B.A.,art history, ’99), curator ofthe Monterey Museum ofArt in Monterey, Calif., hasbeen named the new direc-tor of the Museum of Con-temporary Art Jacksonville.

NEWS FROM THE ALUMNI OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES

CLASS NOTES


JO SCOTT-COE (B.A., Eng-lish, ’91) is the author ofTeacher at Point Blank, whichwas selected by Ms. Maga-zine as a “Great Read” forFall 2010.

JASON THOMAS (B.A./M.A.,economics, ’94; Ph.D., politi-cal economics and publicpolicy, ’00), chief investmentofficer of Aspiriant, wrote aneconomic opinion piecepublished by CNN on Dec.8, 2010.

2000sLUCY FLORES (B.A., politicalscience, ’07) was elected amember of the NevadaState Assembly, District 28.

LUCAS FOLETTA (B.A., politi-cal science, ’02) was ap-pointed by Nevada GovernorBrian Sandoval as his gen-eral counsel. Foletta is a for-mer assistant United StatesAttorney for the District ofNevada.

RYAN FOX (B.A., economics,’08), who hosts an afternoonradio show in Dallas, wasnamed to take over themorning slot on Californiacountry music stationKKGO-FM (105.1).

LESLIE GALERNE-SMITH

(B.A., political science, ’02)was named public relationsand communications man-ager for the Los AngelesCounty Fair Association.

KENNETH J. HAYWORTH

(Ph.D., neuroscience, ’09)was profiled in The New YorkTimes for his developmentalwork on brain-slicing ma-chines for use in neuro-science research.

MATTHEW ARI JENDIAN

(M.A., sociology, ’95; Ph.D.,sociology, ’01), author of Be-coming American, RemainingEthnic: The Case of Armenian-Americans in Central California(LFB Scholarly Publishing,2008), was appointed de-partment chair of sociologyat California State Univer-sity, Fresno, and was re-cently recognized at the10th Anniversary of Human-ics Graduates for his role inestablishing and developingthe Humanics Certificate inManagement & Leadershipfor Community BenefitOrganizations.

ELLIE S. KHABAZIAN (B.A./B.S., French and businessadministration, ’04) hasjoined full service litigationfirm Bassford Remele as anassociate. She practices incommercial litigation, gen-eral liability, personal injuryand medical malpractice.

CLAY MATTHEWS III (B.A.,international relations, ’08)played for the Green BayPackers in Super Bowl XLV,which the Packers won 31-25 over the PittsburghSteelers. He is also the re-cipient of the 2010 ButkusAward honoring the bestlinebacker in professionalfootball.

BELÉN MOZO (B.A., interna-tional relations, ’10), aLadies Professional Golf As-sociation player and four-time NCAA/GolfweekAll-American, signed an en-dorsement agreement withGreg Norman Collection,worldwide marketer of golf-inspired sportswear for menand women.

TONI MARGARITA PLUMMER

(MPW, ’03) won the MiguelMarmol Prize for a first workof fiction by a Latino author,and her short story collection,The Bolero of Andi Rowe, willbe published by CurbstoneBooks in June 2011. She wasalso promoted to editor atThomas Dunne Books/St.Martin’s Press.

GARY SHAFFER (MPW, ’03) isthe new chief executive offi-cer of the Tulsa City-CountyLibrary in Oklahoma.

Engagements &MarriagesJONATHAN CARPENTER

(B.A., political science, ’09)married Midori Matsuoka onAug. 7, 2010, in Kansas City,Mo. He works in MissouriDemocratic Party politics.

CHRISTOPHER HERR (B.A.,history, ’01) married KristenWiggin on July 10, 2010, inHanover, N.H. He earned ajuris doctorate from BostonCollege Law School and amaster’s of education in so-cial studies from PlymouthState University.

PETER BRIAN MOONEY

(MPW, ’99) is engaged toAbigail Lynn Lewis. He re-ceived a higher diploma ineducation from Trinity Col-lege in Dublin, Ireland, andhas pursued a career in free-lance writing and editing.

KRISTEN LAUREN NAHIN

(B.A., political science, ’06)and BRIAN PATRICK GOOD-

ING (B.S., business adminis-tration, ’05) were marriedon Aug. 30, 2010, in Maui,Hawaii. She works in thecommunications and publicrelations division of Quiksil-ver, Inc. in HuntingtonBeach, Calif.

BREANN LYNN PETERSON

(B.A., political science/communications, ’05) andZachary Mitchell Cohnwere married July 24, 2010,

in Temecula, Calif. Shereceived a master’s in publicadministration at New YorkUniversity and works as thedevelopment coordinator atthe White House Project, anonprofit organization inNew York.

KATHERINE PLEMMONS

(B.A., English, ’09) andJASON SCHUKRAFT (B.A.,philosophy, ’09) were mar-ried July 4, 2010. She re-ceived a master’s in Englishfrom Emory University in2010, and is an Englishteacher at Del Valle Highschool in Austin, Texas. Heis a philosophy Ph.D. stu-dent at the University ofTexas at Austin.

SCOTT THOMAS REDING

(B.A., creative writing, ’07)married Caitlin Emelia Dubeon Dec. 31, 2010, in TuxedoPark, N.Y. He received anM.F.A. in creative writingfrom New York Universityand is studying for a Ph.D. inliterature and creative writingfrom USC Dornsife.

CHARLES HONG-SUN VOGL

(B.A., social sciences andcommunication/sociology,’96; B.A., communicationarts and sciences, ’96) andSocheata Poeuv were mar-ried Aug. 18, 2010, in Hon-olulu, Hawaii. He is adocumentary filmmaker, afounder of Broken EnglishProductions in New York,and a consulting produceron documentaries.

SARAH WINGERT (B.A., envi-ronmental studies, ’07) mar-ried Joshua Levine on Sept.5, 2010 in Pasadena, Calif.She earned a master’s degreein environmental policymanagement from the Uni-versity of Denver, and is anEHS program managementspecialist for Boeing Aircraft.

CLASS NOTABLE

place, spaceand RACE

WENDY CHENG (Ph.D.,American studies and eth-nicity, ’09) won the Ameri-can Studies Association’s2010 Ralph Henry GabrielDissertation Prize.

Cheng’s dissertation, titled“Episodes in the Life of aPlace: Regional Racial For-mation in Los Angeles’ SanGabriel Valley,” marks thesecond time in four yearsthat a graduate of USCDornsife’s Department ofAmerican Studies and Eth-nicity has won the award.

“Ethnic studies has had alarge intellectual influenceon American studies and thecoming together of thesetwo fields, thinking criticallyabout race and what thatmeans for the nation as awhole is very much wherethe field is right now,” saidCheng, who is now assistantprofessor of Asian PacificAmerican studies, and jus-tice and social inquiry at Ari-zona State University.

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Send a Class Note to:USC Dornsife Magazine,c/o Letitia Franklin,Citigroup Center 8206,41st Floor, Los Angeles,CA 90089-8206

or an e-mail [email protected].

Information may be editedfor clarity and space.

Listings for the “Class Notes” and“In Memoriam” sections are compiledbased on submissions from alumni andUSC Dornsife departments as well as pub-lished notices from various media outlets.

Wendy Cheng

PHOTOBYJAKEPETERS

Institute forAdvanced StudyImages of America Series

ARCADIA / LINDA ARNTZENIUS(MPW, ’98) examines photocollections at the Institute forAdvanced Study and those ofPrinceton residents to disclosethe scholarly community thathas long been regarded as acloistered world apart.

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Making the San FernandoValleyRural Landscapes, UrbanDevelopment and WhitePrivilege

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS / LAURABARRACLOUGH (Ph.D., Ameri-can studies and ethnicity, ’06)combines historical sweepwith an on-the-ground inves-tigation of contemporary lifein this iconic western suburb.

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Daughter of Winter

CANDLEWICK PRESS / In this histori-cal novel about survival andstrength, PATRICIA LOWERYCOLLINS (B.A., English, ’53) tellsof a girl who finds her way toan unexpected future as theground of her past shifts.

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My Only Great PassionThe Life and Films ofCarl Th. Dreyer

SCARECROW PRESS / JEAN DRUM(B.A., English, ’54), adjunctprofessor at Golden West Col-lege, and her late husbandDale D. Drum (Ph.D., speechcommunication, ’58) providethe first full-length Englishlanguage biography of Danishfilm director Carl Th. Dreyer.

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Thermal Computationsfor ElectronicsConductive, Radiative andConvective Air Cooling

CRC PRESS / GORDON N. ELLISON(M.A., physics, ’66) discusses

the theoretical basics of heattransfer for air-cooled elec-tronic systems and examinesproblems from the systemlevel to components at-tached to circuit boards.

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Presidential PrerogativeImperial Power in an Age ofTerrorism

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS / MICHAELGENOVESE (Ph.D., political sci-ence, ’79), professor of politicalscience at Loyola MarymountUniversity, explores the devel-opment of executive preroga-tive in America and its app-lication in the age of terrorism.

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Mystery

RANDOM HOUSE / In his latest AlexDelaware novel, JONATHANKELLERMAN (Ph.D., psychology,’74) spins a twisting whodunitthat’s pure Los Angeles noir.

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The Shroud

NEOTERIC PRESS / STEVEN MELOAN(B.S., biology, ’78) andMICHAEL MELOAN (B.A., psychol-ogy, ’73) present a science-ad-venture novel that exploresmany of today’s scientific,spiritual and ethical questions.

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Pinks, Pansies and PunksThe Rhetoric of Masculinity

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS / JAMESPENNER (Ph.D., English, ’05), as-sistant professor of English atthe University of Puerto Rico,Rio Piedras, charts the con-struction of masculinity withinAmerican literary culture fromthe 1930s to 1970s.

.................................................

Khamsin

iUNIVERSE / MARKO PERKO (B.A.,political science, ’70) and hisco-author tell the story of Dr.Alexander Hakimian wholeads a black ops unit to hunt

down the terrorist organiza-tion’s members and leader.

.................................................

50 Jobs in 50 StatesOne Man’s Journey ofDiscovery Across America

BERRETT-KOEHLER / DANIEL SEDDIQUI(B.A., economics, ’05) recountshis 50-week quest to work 50jobs that reflect each U.S.state’s culture and economy.

.................................................

The True Memoirs ofLittle K

FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX / ADRIENNESHARP (MPW, ’87) tells the taleof Mathilde Kschessinska, aformer prima ballerina asso-luta, who chronicles her expe-riences before all she believesto be true is forgotten.

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ONE OF VROMAN’S BOOKSTORE’S“BEST BOOKS OF 2010”

Cliff Falls

CLIFF FALLS MEDIA / CLIFF “C.B.“SHIEPE (B.A., English, ’91) in-troduces Clay Grant, a for-mer child star who wrestleswith the question of what itmeans to be truly alive andmakes a surprising discoverythat changes his life.

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER

The Athena Project

ATRIA / BRAD THOR (B.A., English,’92) weaves the tale of a top-secret, all-female programcode named “The AthenaProject,” in which fourwomen in the Delta Force un-dertake one of the nation’sdeadliest assignments.

.Tell us about yournew book.Write to USC DornsifeMagazine, Citigroup Center8206, 41st Floor, Los Angeles,CA 90089-8206 [email protected].

CLASS NOTABLE

THE GLORY OFED FLORY ’49

Before leaving for World War II, freshman Ed Florywas summoned by USC President Rufus Bernhard

von KleinSmid. At a time when nearly all young malestudents went to war, the fifth president gave as many ashe could a USC identification card with his best wishes.

Speckled with gold, the card became a talisman forFlory, who kept it with him during his service in the Eu-ropean theater. The card was tucked in his pocket whenhe fought with the Army’s 4th Armored Division andduring the historic Battle of the Bulge.

“That card was my connection to USC,” Flory said.“While I was serving, I was never away from campus ina sense.”

Returning to USC nearly four years later, Flory wasnot the same 18-year-old innocent kid eager to liveelbow deep in the trenches. Now intensely interested inworld politics, he switched from pre-med and graduatedwith a bachelor’s in international relations from USCDornsife in 1949. He started on his master’s with hopesof working in the United States foreign services.

Chosen to take the entry test in Washington, D.C., hecouldn’t afford the trip. Moreover, the job wouldn’tbegin for three years.

“I had to survive so I was pointed in other directions,”said Flory, who found work at the State CompensationInsurance Fund in Los Angeles. In 1961, he returned tohis hometown, Porterville, Calif., where he worked forthe Tulare County Public Works Department until heretired as right-of-way acquisitions manager in 1984.

In Porterville, a city of nearly 55,000 residents, 51 milesnortheast of Bakersfield, Flory is a celebrity. He’s beeninducted into the Porterville High School Wall of Fame, isthe Rockford School District trustees’ president, andPorterville Memorial District’s board chair overseeing thelocal Veteran’s Day Parade, California’s largest, for 34 years.

A third-generation Portervillian, Flory has been a Trojanfootball season ticket holder for decades and is a HalfCentury Trojan. Manning a booth at a homecoming event,Flory recalled someone asking his son if he was a Trojan.

“Yes I am,” Joseph replied. “I didn’t go to school herebut I’m definitely a Trojan.” —PAMELA J. JOHNSON

alumni BOOKPLATE

53

E.FLORYPHOTOBYPAMELAJ.JOHNSON

Ed Flory with a portraitof USC’s fifth president,Rufus B. von KleinSmid.

CHARLES MICHAEL BENJAMIN(B.A., international relations,’72,M.A., ’75, Ph.D.,’81) Reno, NV(12/13/10) at age 60; had a careerin environmental law, with a lawpractice representing more than25 neighborhood associationsacross Kansas on land use andzoning issues; was a lobbyist andattorney for the Kansas Chapterof the Sierra Club; political sci-ence professor at Bethel College;served 16 years as a county com-missioner in Harvey County, KS;earned a J.D. from the School ofLaw at the University of Kansas;during his time as Western Re-source Advocates Director of theNevada office served as point per-son on energy matters at the Ne-vada state legislature.

DON BREITINGER (B.A., ’49)Bakersfield, CA (1/4/11) at age 89;took over The Daily Report news-paper in Bakersfield from his fa-ther in 1956, selling it to his sisterin 1977; the Bakersfield nativeserved in the Army Air Corps sta-tioned in Manila as a radar opera-tor; was a Phi Beta Kappahonoree at USC; was a socialworker for six years before takingownership of The Daily Report.

NANCY CARR (B.A., internationalrelations/journalism with an em-phasis in public relations, ’84)

Santa Monica, CA (2/18/11) atage 50; a senior vice president ofcorporate communications for theHallmark Channels; was vicepresident of communications atCBS from 1990 to 2004 andworked at Fox from 1992 to 1993.

PERRY CLYNE CHAPMAN (B.A.,’49, M.S., education, ’61) Bristol,TN (1/9/11) at age 90; masterteacher in Los Angeles and prin-cipal of several schools in theOcean View District, HuntingtonBeach, CA; served in the U.S.Army Air Corps during WWII asa B-25 bomber pilot with the57th Bomb Wing; flew 55 mis-sions over Africa, Corsica andItaly; received commendationsand medals including the Distin-guished Flying Cross and the AirMedal; was a manager at radiostation KUBC in Craig, CO, and acensor for CBS television; lifemember of Phi Delta Kappa.

PAULA ETTINGER (B.A., ’51)Pasadena, CA (12/17/10) at age81; taught elementary school be-fore retiring to raise her family;re-entered the field teachingEnglish as a second language toadults; regular volunteer at EatonCanyon Nature Center.

JACK FORBES (B.A., philosophy,’55, M.A., history, ’56, Ph.D.,

history, ’59) Davis, CA (2/23/11)at age 77; acclaimed author, ac-tivist and professor emeritus ofNative American studies whojoined the University of Califor-nia, Davis’ faculty in 1969; one ofthe founding leaders of the uni-versity’s Native American Stud-ies program; the Long Beachnative was of Powhatan-Renapéand Delaware-Lenápe heritage;following his retirement servedon committees of Native Ameri-can graduate studies at UCDavis, University of California,Berkeley and other universities.

FREDERIC A. GRIMES (B.A.,English/literature and creativewriting, ’53) Spokane, WA(1/10/11) at age 81; spent morethan 30 years in the aerospace in-dustry working on projects fromApollo to the B-2; attended theFlorida Military Academy; servedin the U.S. Army Air Forcethrough the Korean War; parlayedhis Armed Forces Radio serviceinto an artist and repertoire posi-tion at Capitol Records workingwith Frank Sinatra and others.

ANGELO DE GUTTADAURO(M.S., international relations, ’72)San Antonio, TX (11/6/10) at age73; a retired Colonel in the U.S.Army, retired from Fifth Army atFort Sam Houston after 33 years;

worked for United Services Auto-mobile Association in San Anto-nio for six years; awarded theLegion of Merit, the MeritoriousService Medal with Two OakLeaf Clusters and the ArmyCommendation Medal with OneOak Leaf Cluster; graduate ofSan Jose State College; attendedU.S. Army War College.

ROBERT LUKE HANNER (M.A.,economics, ’51) Lodi, CA(12/13/10) at age 92; was a re-gional labor relations executivefor the U.S. Postal Service beforeretiring in 1987; served in theU.S. Army Corps in the South Pa-cific during WWII and earned therank of staff sergeant; taught highschool classes and coached foot-ball in Exeter, CA; entered thefield of personnel and labor rela-tions with the A.O. Smith Corp.in Los Angeles and held relatedpositions at Aerojet-GeneralCorp. in Rancho Cordova andCalifornia Western State Life In-surance Co. in Sacramento; at-tended Drake University.

JOHN WESLEY HEIN (B.A., politi-cal science, ’51) Anaheim, CA(1/7/11) at age 85; joined theMetropolitan Water District ofSouthern California in 1961 andwas awarded senior member des-ignation in 1970; served as the

association’s secretary-treasurer,second vice president, first vicepresident and president elect;served in the U.S. Navy duringWWII; member of the Pi KappaAlpha fraternity and was nationalfield secretary.

BERT WRIGHT HULS (B.S., navalscience and tactics, ’45) Dallas,TX (12/5/10) at age 84; held man-agement positions in the explo-ration and marketingdepartments, retiring from Exxon-Mobil Corporation in 1983; pur-sued graduate business studies atUniversity of Washington andCornell University; served duringWWII as an officer on the USSTurner DD-834; was an executiveofficer on the USS Spangler DE-696 during the Korean War; mem-ber of the Methodist Church, ElPaso Lodge in Colorado Springs,Kappa Alpha Order fraternity andthe Dallas Consistory.

DORA LUZ BERNAL KASRA (B.A.,Spanish, ’92) Whittier, CA(1/19/11) at age 52; worked atCostco in marketing and member-ship for 23 years; an active volun-teer in Whittier Area CommunityChurch in the nursery ministryand the organization, Shoes ThatFit; was a member of the KiwanisClub.

in MEMORIAM

Joseph R. CerrellUSC Dornsife alumnus and po-

litical consultant Joseph R. Cer-rell who played a vital role in thepresidential campaigns of Demo-cratic candidates including JohnF. Kennedy has died. He was 75.

Cerrell died Dec. 3, 2010, in Camarillo, Calif.,following complications from pneumonia.

Earning his bachelor’s degree in political sciencein 1957, Cerrell later served as an adjunct profes-sor for 15 years with USC Dornsife’s Jesse M.Unruh Institute of Politics, which he co-founded.

As the founder of Los Angeles-based Cerrell As-sociates Inc., he built a public affairs firm wellknown for its political campaign managementand public relations services to corporate andnonprofit clients.

Cerrell was a past member of the Board of Gov-ernors of the USC Alumni Association and lec-tured across the nation.

Donald J. LewisProfessor Emeritus Donald J.

Lewis, experimental psycholo-gist with expertise in learningand memory, former dean ofsocial sciences and chair of theDepartment of Psychology, has

died. He was 88.Lewis died after complications from pneumonia

Dec. 29, 2010, in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.Lewis arrived at USC in 1968 as professor of psy-

chology and department chair. In 1971, he wasnamed dean of social sciences in USC Dornsife, a posthe kept for six years before returning to his positionas department chair. He retired in January 1987.

Lewis enlisted in the Army in September 1942and was a veteran of World War II. A sergeant, hewas honorably discharged after the war in 1946. Hegraduated from the University of California, LosAngeles in 1942 and was professor of psychologyand chair of the psychology department at RutgersUniversity before arriving at USC Dornsife in 1968.

Doyce B. NunisUSC Dornsife alumnus Doyce

Nunis Jr., professor emeritus ofhistory in USC Dornsife and his-torian of early California history,has died. He was 86.

Nunis died after complicationsafter abdominal surgery Jan. 22, 2011, at Los Ange-les County-USC Medical Center.

After serving in the Navy, Nunis graduated with abachelor's degree from the University of California,Los Angeles in 1947 and several years later earned amaster's degree in education and a doctorate inhistory from USC Dornsife in 1958.

He taught and was a research historian at UCLAbefore joining USC in the mid-’60s where he was alongtime and honored member of USC Dornsife’shistory department. Nunis chronicled local history aseditor of Southern California Quarterly, the journalof the Historical Society of Southern California. Hewas the recipient of many accolades including theUSC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching.


J.CERRELLPHOTOCOURTESYOFTHECERRELLFAMILY;D.LEWISPHOTOCOURTESYOFTHELEWISFAMILY;D.NUNISPHOTOCOURTESYOFTHEHISTORICALSOCIETYOFSOUTHERNCALIFORNIA

P. BASIL LAMBROS (B.A., inter-national relations, ’46), SantaMonica, CA (10/13/10) at age 86;began his career as a prominentLos Angeles defense attorney inthe late ’40s; attended South-western Law School after servingin the U.S. Army Air Forces dur-ing WWII.

GLORIA PETIT LONGO (B.A., ’44)Thousand Oaks, CA (12/8/10) atage 87; was a teacher in Los An-geles and a psychologist with theOxnard School District prior toretiring in the ’70s; earned a mas-ter’s degree in education fromCalifornia Lutheran University inher 50s.

ROGER LYON (B.A., ’71)(10/15/10) at age 61; was an attor-ney as outside counsel to theHearst Corp., volunteer for hu-manitarian groups and conserva-tionist; earned a law degree in1975 from University of Califor-nia’s Hastings School of Law;moved to Cayucos, CA, where heestablished a private practicespecializing in land use and mu-nicipal law.

ROBERT MCNULTY JR. (B.A., in-ternational relations, ’78) Encini-tas, CA (11/22/10) at age 54;served in the U.S. Navy on theUSS Midway and retired with therank of Lt. Commander; was a

member of the ROTC colorguard while attending USC.

MARTIN E. MENDEL (B.A., psy-chology, ’49, Ph.D., psychology,’59) Los Angeles, CA (1/22/11);at age 85; practiced clinical psy-chology and taught at USC; theGerman native immigrated tothe U.S. with his family afterbeing sent to Holland during theNazi regime under the kinder-transport; served in the U.S.Army during the Allied occupa-tion of Germany where he wasresponsible for translation andinterrogation.

JOHN JOSEPH MULLIN JR.(B.A., international relations, ’54)Springfield, VA. (11/28/10) at age83; served in the U.S. Air Forcefrom 1946 to 1949; was appointedto the Foreign Service by theU.S. Department of State and hisposts included Venezuela, Cuba,Australia, Brazil, Panama, andMexico; member of St. Mary’sChapter of the Knights ofColumbus.

DUANE V. OLINGER (B.A.,physics, ’62) Norman, OK(1/16/11) at age 77; professionallife spent as an aerospace engi-neer, a real estate broker and anenrolled agent; was a life-longstudent who achieved his en-rolled agent destination at age 72;

attended Western State Univer-sity College of Law; a mediatorfor the Norman court system anddirector at Transition House;served in the U.S. Army duringthe Korean conflict; was on theNorman Planning Commissionand was an adviser to a Venturescouting group; active memberof St. John’s Episcopal Churchand Norman Rotary Club.

MOTTELL DAVIS PEEK (B.A., ’51),Somers, NY (1/27/11) at age 82;worked in the financial servicesindustry for more than 50 yearsand was an investment adviser forWells Fargo Advisors until thetime of his death; volunteered forcauses including wildlife conser-vation, service organizations andthe Presbyterian Church.

HENRY J. SCHMIDT (Ph.D., reli-gion/social ethics, ’80) Reedley,CA (2/8/11) at age 70; president ofMennonite Brethren BiblicalSeminary for 10 years before retir-ing in 2003; earned a bachelor’sdegree in theology from Mennon-ite Brethren Bible College, and asecond bachelor’s degree in psy-chology from Fresno Pacific Bib-lical Seminary, and a master’s ofDivinity from the MennoniteBrethren Biblical Seminary;served the U.S. MennoniteBrethren Church as pastor, con-ference evangelist and moderator,

and leader of the Church MissionInstitute for cross-cultural mis-sionaries; was MennoniteBrethren Biblical Seminary fac-ulty from 1976 to 2003.

MARIAN SHARPLES (M.S., Eng-lish, ’52, Ph.D., ’57) Los Angeles,CA (11/24/10) at age 90; taughtEnglish at Immaculate HeartCollege for 31 years and was con-sidered a pillar of the Englishdepartment; member of the Im-maculate Heart Community for73 years.

BARRY SHMAVONIAN (B.A., ’51)Bala Cynwyd, PA (10/12/10) atage 83; professor of medical psy-chology at Temple Universityuntil his retirement in 1992;taught at Duke UniversitySchool of Medicine prior to join-ing Temple University in 1968;led seminars and conducted re-search on sensory deprivation forthe U.S. Air Force; published ex-tensively on his work in biofeed-back, sensory deprivation andthe psychophysiology of aging;earned master’s and doctoral de-grees in psychology from Univer-sity of Washington.

SUSAN L. SHUCKETT (M.A.,sociology, ’78, Ph.D., sociology,’83) San Diego, CA (11/10/10) atage 63; worked at San DiegoState University and San DiegoCity College for more than 25

years; earned a Marriage andFamily Therapy License fromUSC; professor and mentor.

JAMES HOWARD SMITH (B.A.,political science, ’60) San Diego,CA (2/6/11) at age 85; after 26years with the U.S. Navy retiredas a commander; joined the U.S.Navy in 1943, serving on the USSHawkbill and the USS Cabezonuntil 1946; returned to active dutyin 1948 serving in the Korean andVietnam wars; he attendedPomona College, the Naval PostGraduate School and earned ateaching credential from SanDiego State University; workedas a substitute teacher and volun-teered at the San Diego NaturalHistory Museum; member of PhiBeta Kappa Society.

HARRY G. WHITMORE JR. (B.S.,’47) Brawley, CA (12/28/10) atage 85; served in the U.S. Navyduring WWII; attended Midship-man’s School at Columbia Uni-versity; worked as an inspectorfor the USDA before moving tothe Coachella Valley where he in-spected dates; in 1959 his jobwith Chevron Chemical Com-pany moved him to the PaloVerde Valley and in 1966 his workwith agricultural chemicalsbrought the family to theImperial Valley.

Jean-RogerVergnaud

Jean-Roger Vergnaud, AndrewW. Mellon Professor of Humani-ties, professor of linguistics and amajor contributor to generative

grammar, has died. He was 65.Vergnaud died at USC University Hospital on Jan.

31, 2011, after being diagnosed with chronicmyelomonocytic leukemia in spring 2009.

Arriving from Paris as a recent graduate of theÉcole Polytechnique, Vergnaud earned his Ph.D. inlinguistics in 1974 at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, where the father of generative linguis-tics Noam Chomsky was his thesis adviser.

“His work was inspired by a penetrating vision ofwhat the study of language should strive to be-come,” Chomsky said.

He then took posts at the University of Massa-chusetts at Amherst and the University of Mary-land before arriving at USC in 1988, where hetaught until May 2010.

Harold von HofeHarold von Hofe, professor

emeritus of German and formerdirector of the Feuchtwanger In-stitute for Exile Studies at USC,has died. He was 98.

von Hofe died Feb. 3, 2011, athis home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

He joined the USC Dornsife faculty in 1939 afterearning a bachelor’s degree from New York Univer-sity and a doctorate from Northwestern University.

von Hofe became a professor and served as chairof USC Dornsife’s German department from 1945 to1956 (as well as from 1963 to 1968 and 1971 to1974). His scholarly work focused largely on thework of writers who fled Germany for SouthernCalifornia during the Holocaust.

From 1959 to 1963, von Hofe served as chair ofthe USC Division of Humanities.

He played a large role in acquiring one of USC’smost prized scholarly research collections — the li-brary of German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger.

W. Ross WinterowdW. Ross Winterowd,

renowned teacher and authorin the field of rhetoric, hasdied. He was 80.

Winterowd died after compli-cations with pneumonia on Jan.

21, 2011, in Huntington Beach, Calif.Winterowd, Bruce R. McElderry Professor Emeri-

tus of English, joined USC Dornsife’s Department ofEnglish in 1966 and remained a dedicated teacher,mentor and academic even after his retirement in1996. He founded USC Dornsife’s doctoral programin rhetoric, linguistics and literature, which he di-rected from 1972 to 1984 and from 1987 to 1995.

Winterowd received his bachelor’s degree fromUtah State University in 1952; served in the Armyfrom 1953 to 1955; and earned his Ph.D. from TheUniversity of Utah in 1965.

Throughout his long academic career, Win-terowd wrote more than 50 articles and authored,co-authored or edited more than a dozen books.


J.R.VERGNAUDPHOTOBYANTONIO

NAVA;H.VONHOFEPHOTOCOURTESYOFUSCUNIVERSITYARCHIVES;W.R.WINTEROWDPHOTOCOURTESYOFGEOFFREYR.WINTEROWD


C.ALMEIDAPHOTOCOURTESYOFCHRISTINAALMEIDA

When I graduated from USC in May2001, my professors wished me luckas I embarked on a career with TheAssociated Press. They had preparedme for the crush of deadlines and the

art of interacting with my editors. They had instilledin me a deep sense of public responsibility and com-mitment to the truth. The one thing I wasn’t pre-pared for? The 100,000 miles I would rack up on myChevy TrailBlazer as I crisscrossed the country chas-ing stories and opportunities.

Over the past nine years, I’ve moved six times — toSan Diego and back to Los Angeles, Las Vegas andagain to Los Angeles, then off to Montana and nowAtlanta. From covering wildfires and kidnappings toWinona Ryder and Robert Blake, the stories will staywith me forever. I learned how to be a better reporterduring my time in Los Angeles, a better writer in LasVegas and a better leader in Montana.

All those experiences have brought me to where Iam today, overseeing news operations for The Associ-ated Press in Georgia, home to one of the most popu-lous metro areas in the nation. I oversee a staff of 10reporters and two photographers. We handle every-thing from politics to crime and courts, race relationsand immigration to agriculture and the economy.

When I speak with college students about how tobreak into journalism or other fields, the best advice Igive them is to keep their options open and be will-

ing to go where they need to. In a market like this, re-gardless of which industry you pick, the competitionis fierce. I tell them that there is a danger in limitingyour options and sometimes you have to go where thejob is.

My willingness to pack my bags and hit the roadopened numerous doors for me and allowed me toprove my adaptability, my perseverance and my com-mitment to the AP. There were personal sacrifices, aswell, having to leave behind family and friends as Ipursued my dreams. Each new place meant startingover again, making new friends while staying in touchwith those back home.

There were many memorable moments along theway: accidentally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border fora story about farmers in Imperial County, getting theTrailBlazer stuck on a dirt road with a wildfire ap-proaching, interviewing Hugh Hefner poolside atThe Palms and trekking through the Montana forestbefore daybreak for a story about bow hunting.

I have been in Atlanta since January 2009, thelongest I’ve been in one place since graduation. And itfeels good. I’m settling in, putting down roots for thefirst time in a decade. The steady stream of daily newskeeps me constantly challenged, whether it’s dealingwith a salmonella outbreak at a peanut plant or a hear-ing on a proposed expansion of a nuclear plant.

I know that one day the call will come again, andmy next adventure will be just around the corner. �

CHRISTINA ALMEIDA, 31, isa graduate of USC Dana andDavid Dornsife College ofLetters, Arts and Sciences, andUSC Annenberg School ofJournalism. She earned herB.A. in political science andprint journalism in 2001. Sheis The Associated Press’ newseditor for Georgia and isbased in Atlanta.

IN MY OWN WORDS

ROAD MUCH TRAVELEDTHE

A Gift that GivesAND GIVES BACK TO YOUFor guaranteed fixed income, you may want to consider a USC Charitable Gift Annuity.

Tommy Trojan, age 75, plans to donate a maturing $100,000 certificate of depositto USC Dornsife. Because he would like to continue receiving income, he decides to fund a one-life USC Charitable Gift Annuity. The annuity will pay hima rate of 6.4%, or $6,400 per year. And there are further advantages!

For his $100,000 donation to establish the annuity, Tommy receives a charitableincome tax deduction of $42,521. Because Tommy itemizes his tax deductionson his income tax return, he can use this deduction to reduce his current year’sincome tax obligation. With Tommy’s 35 percent federal income tax rate, his taxsavings is $14,882. In addition, for 13.4 years, the first $4,825 of his annual paymentsof $6,400 will be tax-free.

The gift annuity will therefore have a taxable equivalent yield of 10.5%.Plus, his gift may be designated to support any USC Dornsife department orprogram of his choosing.

Please contact Susan Wilcox, Associate Dean for USC Dornsife Advancement, by phone or [email protected] to discuss gift options and to obtain a copy of the university’s Suggested Bequest/

Distribution Language. Deferred gift annuities for individuals under age 60 are also available for your consideration.

Trojans have supported USC Dornsife students for generationsthrough planned gifts and annual gifts.L to R: Morton Kay '49, Andrew Platt '09, Larry Platt '74 and '77

AGE ANNUITY RATE

60 5.2%

65 5.5.%

70 5.8%

75 6.4%

80 7.2%

85 8.1%

90+ 9.5%

USC Charitable Gift Annuity Rates are based on the Suggested Rates approved by the American Council on Gift Annuities and are subject to periodic review.

Learn How...To create income for yourself while giving to USC Dornsife.

Good for You, Good for USC Dornsife

(213) 740-4994 dornsife.usc.edu/giving

FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES

University of Southern CaliforniaCitigroup Center 8206, 41st FloorLos Angeles, CA 90089-8206

S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 1

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Historic Gift. Inspirational Name.

ANYWHEREMeet USC Dornsife Alumni

whose stories will spark your sense of wonder — of all that is possible in the realm

of letters, arts and sciences.

One of the great pleasuresof being Dean has beengetting to know Danaand David Dornsife.

During the past four years we haveenjoyed many special moments to-gether. We have shared our passions,talked about our travels (they havebetter stories!), and discussed theexciting world of letters, arts and sci-ences. Our friendship has meant agreat deal to me and my wife Ellen.

Dana and David are incredibly smart,friendly, funny, genuine and gracious. Whenyou �rst meet them, you are struck by theirsincerity. You won’t immediately realize thatyou are in the presence of two of the great-est humanitarians and philanthropists of ourtime. Only when you learn about theirworld-changing projects will you realizethey can also be extraordinarily determined,at least when it comes to the hard but essen-tial work of making the world a better place.

We are so very grateful for their historic gift— the largest single gift in USC’s history andthe largest naming gift in the history ofhigher education for a college of letters, artsand sciences. This rare gift of unrestricted en-dowment support for the heart of the univer-sity will expand core support for outstandingundergraduate education, distinguishedPh.D. programs, and world-class scholarly andcreative research throughout the humanities,social sciences and sciences.

But we are just as grateful for the gift oftheir names. Their names will serve as anenduring inspiration to all faculty, studentsand staff who are part of the USC Dana andDavid Dornsife College of Letters, Arts andSciences.

Their commitment represents an unprece-dented show of con�dence in the commu-nity of letters, arts and sciences. It re�ectsan abiding appreciation of the fact that research and teaching in our core disciplines

are central to the cultivation and enrichmentof the human mind and spirit and to the ad-vancement of our community and our world.

Our task now is to do justice to their faithin our world of inquiry and discovery.

We begin by creating a new DornsifeScholars Program to recognize outstandinggraduating seniors from USC Dornsifewhose academic achievements across allspheres of knowledge address basic ques-tions of human value and vital social chal-lenges facing our nation and the world.

We will remain vigilant to ensure that ourscholarship addresses important questionsand pushes the frontiers of knowledge in away that has a lasting impact on our disci-plines and our world. We will all work to-gether to ensure that undergraduateeducation prepares our students to thrive ina rapidly changing world and inspires themto make a difference. Through our Ph.D.programs we will train new generations ofscholars, who in turn will extend the endlesscycle of inquiry, discovery and education.

All of us have a role to play — faculty, stu-dents, parents, staff, alumni, friends, and sup-porters. We are grateful inheritors of a greatlegacy, but we are also uniquely privileged tobe part of this very special moment in USC’shistory and in the history of higher education.

Let’s all commit to working together to dojustice to this moment, so that we mightbuild on this opportunity to achieve endur-ing distinction.

The Latin phrase scientia gratia hoministranslates as “knowledge for the sake of hu-mankind.” I think it is a wonderful sentiment.I believe it captures the importance and valueof the world of letters, arts and sciences.

Now this world is graced with an inspira-tional name, which will be synonymouswith scholarly inquiry in service of humanenlightenment and progress: the USC Danaand David Dornsife College of Letters, Artsand Sciences.

HOWARD GILLMANDEAN OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFECOLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCESANNA H. BING DEAN’S CHAIR

FRO

M T

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DEA

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scientia gratia hominis knowledge for the sake of humankind

Documents

USC Dornsife Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2011