Recognizing Outstanding Alumni

 

UMBC celebrated its success in forging leaders in a wide array of fields at the February 8 Alumni Awards ceremony in Annapolis.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Engineering and Information Technology

Donna Stevenson, 1987 Information Systems

As head of Early Morning Software, Stevenson is one of only a few minority women CEOs of an IT company in the country. She remains an active volunteer at UMBC, most notably as a member of the Center for Women and Information Technology Advisory Board and a mentor-in-residence for the ACTiVATE program, which promotes entrepreneurship among women.

2006 Outstanding Alumnus in Humanities

Steven Eidelman, 1973 American Studies

After serving for three decades as an advocate for people with disabilities – most recently as national executive director of The Arc of the United States – Eidelman last fall was named the University of Delaware’s first Robert Edelsohn Chair in Disabilities Studies, as well as a Senior Fellow at the university’s Center for Disabilities Studies. In his new position, Eidelman also develops leadership training programs for government and not-for-profit managers who support people with disabilities.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Diane Auer Jones, 1988 M.S. Applied Molecular Biology

In addition to a successful career as an entrepreneur, government policy maker and administrator at Princeton University, in November Jones was appointed Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She also has served as an active member of the UMBC Research Park Corporation’s Board of Directors for the past eleven years.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Lisa L. Dickerson, 1978 Political Science

Prior to her appointment as the first African-American female Administrator for the Maryland Transit Administration in 2005, Dickerson served as assistant secretary for equity and economic empowerment at the Maryland Department of Transportation, and before that garnered successes working as a Congressional fellow in Washington and serving as vice president of a national telecommunications firm. During his time in office, President George H.W. Bush also appointed Dickerson to the prestigious Committee for Small Business and the Republican Council of 100.

2006 Outstanding Alumnus in Visual and Performing Arts

Billy Kemp, 1995 Visual and Performing Arts – Music

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kemp received three nominations from the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) in 2004 including best producer. In 2003 Kemp produced Grammy-nominated and Wammy award-winning singer Debi Smith. He has acted as composer for the regional Emmy award-winning Maryland Public Television series, “Outdoors Maryland” since 1997 and served as adjunct faculty at UMBC since 1996.

2006 Distinguished Service Award

Michael L. Oster, 1974 Economics

As chairman of the UMBC Economics Advisory Board since its inception in 2001, Oster has helped shape the council’s objectives, facilitate scholarships and internships for students and created many valuable connections for the University. An accomplished banking executive, Oster joined BB&T in 1999 as a regional president and became Maryland group president in 2001. His time and talents also benefit the boards of a number of worthy organizations, many of them in his home, Carroll County. He currently also serves as chairman of the Maryland Bankers Association.

Visionary Leadership Award

The Alumni Association Executive Board will present this special award to the Reginald F. Lewis Event Committee (Kisha Matthews ’03, Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, James Wiggins ’75, Gary Brooks ’79, Michael Sterling ’85, Juan Holcomb ’81, Devin Walker ’89 and Crystal Watkins ’95) in recognition of their achievement in advancing the mission of the Alumni Association.

For more information about the UMBC Alumni Association awards, as well as alumni news and events, visit Retriever Net online at http://retrievernet.umbc.edu.

(2/9/06)

 

 

 

 

A Destination for Art and Culture

 

With its strong emphasis on exhibitions, outreach, public programming and scholarly research publications focused on contemporary art and cultural issues, UMBC’s Center for Art and Visual Culture (CAVC) fills a unique niche within the mid-Atlantic region.

CAVC’s exhibitions were recently recognized by both national and regional media. Washington Post reviewer Jessica Dawson called “Blur of the Otherworldly,” CAVC’s fall 2005 exhibition, “an ambitious group show….,” while locally, Baltimore magazine named CAVC the metropolitan area’s Best Contemporary Art Gallery. Said Baltimore: “UMBC’s Center for Art and Visual Culture mounts cutting edge exhibitions infused with aesthetic bravado, intellectual heft and cultural significance. (Recent shows) have turned the center into a budding contemporary art powerhouse.” (“Blur of the Otherworldly” is also part of a feature on art and the paranormal in the February issue of Art in America.)

In addition, the American Association of Museums awarded CAVC a First Prize in its Publication Design Competition, Exhibitions category, for “White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art.” The traveling exhibition, organized by CAVC, has been profiled by news organizations such as ABC “World News Tonight,” Newsweek and National Public Radio.

Since 1992, CAVC has actively pursued the organization of exhibitions that contain the aesthetic, theoretical and educational potential to reach both a national and international audience. CAVC Director Symmes Gardner said, “David Yager, our executive director and founder, and I have worked together to build CAVC through the years. It’s been a fantastic experience because we’ve had a lot of time to maneuver and try out new things.” CAVC staff includes Curator Maurice Berger, a fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics of the New School for Social Research in New York.

CAVC has traveled its exhibition projects to a broad spectrum of museums, professional non-profit galleries and universities in the U.S. and abroad. It also coordinates an internship program for UMBC undergraduate and graduate students, and collaborates with schools, museums and non-profit organizations to produce educational programs for children and adults in the city and suburbs.

On Thursday, February 2 from 5 to 7 p.m., CAVC will host an opening reception for “What Sound Does a Color Make?,” a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by Independent Curators International that explores the fusion of vision and sound in electronic media. At 6 p.m., Kathleen Forde, curator of “What Sound Does a Color Make?” will discuss the exhibition.

The Center for Art and Visual Culture is just one of the reasons UMBC is a destination for art and culture. For a calendar of upcoming arts and humanities events at UMBC, visit www.umbc.edu/arts.

(1/30/06)

 

 

 

 

Learning from New Zealand Public Policy

 

On January 18, leaders in public policy from across the U.S. will convene at UMBC for a one-day forum, “What Did We Learn Over There? Public Policy in New Zealand Through American Eyes.” Hosted by the University’s Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM), the event will bring together for the first time individuals who studied in New Zealand as Ian Axford Fellows in Public Policy. The Axford Fellows program was established by the New Zealand Government in partnership with the private sector to give outstanding American professionals opportunities to study, travel and gain practical knowledge of economic, social and political reforms and management of the government sector.

Eight former Ian Axford Fellows will give presentations, and the program will be placed in context with remarks by Robert Reischauer, President of the Urban Institute and former chair of the Ian Axford Fellowships selection committee; Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for Europe and Central Asia Region; and Peter Watson, CEO of the Dwight Group and current chair of the Axford selection committee. UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and CHPDM Executive Director Chuck Milligan will speak, and faculty and students will also attend.

John O’Brien, CHPDM’s director of acute care policy and an Ian Axford Fellow in 2005, was inspired to bring former Fellows together to foster an ongoing dialogue about policy issues. “My six months in New Zealand allowed me to think broadly about how health care delivery systems work, and to question my own assumptions of how systems can and should work,” he said.

Though dwarfed by the United States in size and population, New Zealand faces many of the same issues that confront this country. Health care, the environment, taxes, ethnic diversity and education are but a few of the topics that past Axford Fellows have investigated. “One of the benefits of studying New Zealand is that the relationships across seemingly disparate topics are more apparent than in a large country like the United States,” said O’Brien. “Discussion among forum participants is likely to generate fresh insights and novel approaches that otherwise might not be considered.”

CHPDM is dedicated to improving the health and social outcomes of vulnerable populations through research, analysis and evaluations on behalf of government agencies and foundations. Formed in 1994 in a unique collaboration with the Maryland Medicaid program, the Center is actively engaged in the academic and research programs at UMBC, and partners with other University centers and departments on research initiatives, forums and symposia related to federal and state health policy. As a member of the University community, the Center offers research and employment opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and currently employs eight UMBC alumni.

For more information on CHPDM, visit www.chpdm.org.

(1/10/06)

 

 

 

 

Each year, the UMBC Alumni Association presents awards to honor alumni for their professional and personal achievements and service to the University.  Learn more about our past award winners.

Outstanding Alumna
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Diane Auer Jones ’88, M.S. Applied Molecular Biology
In addition to a successful career as an entrepreneur, government policy maker and administrator at Princeton University, in November Jones was appointed Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She also has served as an active member of the UMBC Research Park Corporation’s board of directors for the past eleven years.
Outstanding Alumnus
Humanities
Steven Eidelman ’73, American Studies
After serving for three decades as an advocate for people with disabilities – most recently as national executive director of The Arc of the United States – Eidelman last fall was named the University of Delaware’s first Robert Edelsohn Chair in Disabilities Studies, as well as a Senior Fellow at the university’s Center for Disabilities Studies. In his new position, Eidelman also develops leadership training programs for government and not-for-profit managers who support people with disabilities.
Outstanding Alumnus
Visual & Performing Arts
Billy Kemp ’95, Visual and Performing Arts – Music
An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kemp received three nominations from the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) in 2004 including best producer. In 2003 Kemp produced Grammy-nominated and Wammy award-winning singer Debi Smith. He has been the composer for the regional Emmy award-winning Maryland Public Television series, “Outdoors Maryland,” since 1997. He has been adjunct faculty at UMBC since 1996.
Outstanding Alumna
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Lisa L. Dickerson ’78, Political Science
Prior to her appointment as the first African-American female Administrator for the Maryland Transit Administration in 2005, Dickerson served as Assistant Secretary for Equity and Economic Empowerment at the Maryland Department of Transportation, and before that garnered successes working as a congressional fellow in Washington and serving as vice president of a national telecommunications firm. During his time in office, President George H.W. Bush also appointed Dickerson to the prestigious Committee for Small Business and the Republican Council of 100.
Outstanding Alumna
Engineering and Information Technology
Donna Stevenson ’87, Information Systems
As head of Early Morning Software, Stevenson is one of only a few minority women CEOs of an IT company in Maryland and the rest of the United States. She remains an active volunteer at UMBC, most notably as a member of the Center for Women and Information Technology advisory board and a mentor-in-residence for the ACTiVATE program, which promotes entrepreneurship among women.
Distinguished Service Award
Michael L. Oster ’74, Economics
As chairman of the UMBC Economics Advisory Board since its inception in 2001, Oster has helped shape the council’s objectives, facilitate scholarships and internships for students and created many valuable connections for the University. An accomplished banking executive, Oster joined BB&T in 1999 as a regional president and became Maryland Group President in 2001. His time and talents also benefit the boards of a number of worthy organizations, many of them in his home, Carroll County.
Visionary Leadership Award
The Alumni Association Executive Board will present this special award to the Reginald F. Lewis Event Committee in recognition of their achievement in advancing the mission of the Alumni Association. The committee members are:
Kisha Matthews ’03
Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88
Devin Walker ’89
James Wiggins ’75
Gary Brooks ’79
Michael Sterling ’85
Juan Holcomb ’81
Crystal Watkins ’95

Learning from New Zealand Public Policy

 

On January 18, leaders in public policy from across the U.S. will convene at UMBC for a one-day forum, “What Did We Learn Over There? Public Policy in New Zealand Through American Eyes.” Hosted by the University’s Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM), the event will bring together for the first time individuals who studied in New Zealand as Ian Axford Fellows in Public Policy. The Axford Fellows program was established by the New Zealand Government in partnership with the private sector to give outstanding American professionals opportunities to study, travel and gain practical knowledge of economic, social and political reforms and management of the government sector.

Eight former Ian Axford Fellows will give presentations, and the program will be placed in context with remarks by Robert Reischauer, President of the Urban Institute and former chair of the Ian Axford Fellowships selection committee; Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for Europe and Central Asia Region; and Peter Watson, CEO of the Dwight Group and current chair of the Axford selection committee. UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and CHPDM Executive Director Chuck Milligan will speak, and faculty and students will also attend.

John O’Brien, CHPDM’s director of acute care policy and an Ian Axford Fellow in 2005, was inspired to bring former Fellows together to foster an ongoing dialogue about policy issues. “My six months in New Zealand allowed me to think broadly about how health care delivery systems work, and to question my own assumptions of how systems can and should work,” he said.

Though dwarfed by the United States in size and population, New Zealand faces many of the same issues that confront this country. Health care, the environment, taxes, ethnic diversity and education are but a few of the topics that past Axford Fellows have investigated. “One of the benefits of studying New Zealand is that the relationships across seemingly disparate topics are more apparent than in a large country like the United States,” said O’Brien. “Discussion among forum participants is likely to generate fresh insights and novel approaches that otherwise might not be considered.”

CHPDM is dedicated to improving the health and social outcomes of vulnerable populations through research, analysis and evaluations on behalf of government agencies and foundations. Formed in 1994 in a unique collaboration with the Maryland Medicaid program, the Center is actively engaged in the academic and research programs at UMBC, and partners with other University centers and departments on research initiatives, forums and symposia related to federal and state health policy. As a member of the University community, the Center offers research and employment opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and currently employs eight UMBC alumni.

For more information on CHPDM, visit www.chpdm.org.

(1/10/06)

 

 

 

 

Studying South Asia

 

In the past decade, UMBC Associate Professor of Political Science Devin T. Hagerty’s region of expertise, South Asia, has gone from being an understudied corner of the globe to one of the most closely watched.

In 1998, India and Pakistan added nuclear weapon capability to what was already one of the tensest borders in the world. 9-11 made the world focus on Afghanistan, the Taliban, stopping the spread of Al Qaeda and the continuing search for Osama Bin Laden. Then Oct. 7’s devastating earthquake in the disputed Kashmir region added humanitarian disaster to the already volatile sociopolitical mix in this global flashpoint.

“It’s a horrible, horrible situation,” Hagerty said. “Comparisons of disasters are kind of ghoulish, but in terms of lives lost, the suffering of survivors, and the magnitude of the cleanup ahead, the earthquake will dwarf Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”

According to Hagerty, the earthquake’s aftermath will challenge the resiliency of both Pakistan’s citizens and its leader, President Pervez Musharraf. “ Pakistan is still a very poor country. The literacy rate is low, especially for women, and opportunities for women are scarce. Health care is generally poor. There’s also a big drug addiction problem plus many ethnic divisions and internal rifts.”

“It’s hard to think of a leader in a more precarious position than Musharraf,” said Hagerty. “The West perceives him as not doing enough to fight terror or find Bin Laden. But it’s important to realize that he sent Pakistan Army forces to the lawless border region to fight Al Qaeda and other violent fundamentalists. That’s something unprecedented in Pakistani history. I have more sympathy for him than most Western observers.”

According to Hagerty, while some criticisms of the U.S./Pakistan relationship are valid, national security concerns win out. “We need the Pakistanis’ information and access — something only they can give us right now in the Muslim world. If there were a rupture in our relationship with Pakistan, we would lose our ability to be effective on the ground in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban is reconstituting itself, for example.”

Hagerty’s writing and research continues to underscore the importance of South Asia. He recently completed two books: co-authoring with Sumit Ganguly Fearful Symmetry: Indo-Pakistani Crises in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons (Oxford University Press and the University of Washington Press) and editing South Asia in World Politics (Rowman and Littlefield). He is also the editor of Asian Security, a pioneering academic journal that takes a global, interdisciplinary look at security issues in the region.

“From the end of the Cold War to 9-11, we pulled back from the South Asian region and forgot about it, obviously in hindsight a terrible foreign policy mistake,” Hagerty said. “In my opinion, the Bush administration feels it has no choice right now but to ally with Pakistan. It’s a tough situation, but I always tell my students that if you like your answers nice and neat and consistent, then maybe international relations isn’t the field for you.”

Read more about Hagerty at www.umbc.edu/research.

(12/20/05)

 

 

 

Strong Market Demand for UMBC Research Park Buildings

International property development and investment firm Grosvenor announced today the sale of two buildings at bwtech@UMBC, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s on-campus research and technology park, to Baltimore-based Merritt Properties, LLC.

Merritt acquired the 63,000 square foot three-story building at 5521 Research Park Drive, delivered in 2001 and fully occupied by RWD Technologies, and the 60,000 SF 5523 Research Park Drive building delivered in mid-2004. 5523 Research Park Drive is leased to multiple tenants including BDMetrics, Inc., Edwards and Kelcey, Invoke Systems, Convergent Technologies, Physicians Practice, Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, and other organizations including several UMBC program offices.

The sale includes transfer of a long-term ground lease for the two building lots, totaling approximately eight acres. However, the sale terminated Grosvenor’s prior development agreement and plan for the remainder of the 41-acre site.

“Our successful sale of bwtech@UMBC is part of Grosvenor’s overall U.S. strategy to concentrate our holdings in four major markets -- Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- while focusing on urban office and boutique retail product,” said Andrew Galbraith, Senior Vice President, Grosvenor. “In divesting this suburban office park, we found a perfect match with Merritt Properties, which is locally based and has developed more than 13 million square feet of office, flex, and industrial property in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.”

"We were pleased to see such high market demand for our buildings," said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC Research Park Corporation. "Our team was also delighted to have a top-notch manager like Merritt Properties on board who will maintain the high standards and reputation in the real estate industry that Grosvenor had established so well with bwtech@UMBC."

"We look forward to working with UMBC and are excited about the acquisition of these two Class A office buildings which help further strengthen our position in the marketplace,” said Robb Merritt, Vice President of Merritt Properties.

Merritt manages several other top properties in the greater Baltimore region, including Columbia Corporate Park, Columbia Corporate Park 100, Beltway Business Park, Schilling Square, Timonium Business Park
and Merritt Owings Mills.

About bwtech@UMBC:
bwtech@UMBC allows tenants to benefit from access to UMBC’s expertise, students, technology, programs, and facilities. Businesses moving to the Research Park, which is part of Maryland’s Southwest Enterprise Zone, may receive tax incentives in exchange for creating new jobs and making capital investments.

UMBC began planning for a new research and technology park in the early 1990s, based on the success of similar endeavors in other parts of the U.S. In 1998, UMBC forged ahead with its approved plan for a research and technology park that would house more mature companies, potentially including “graduates” of the techcenter@UMBC incubator program. UMBC searched for a development partner and ultimately selected Grosvenor, based in part on the firm’s experience in developing other research parks including one at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

About Merritt Properties, LLC:
Merritt Properties, LLC defines its mission simply: Creating Homes for Businesses. Since 1967, this privately held commercial real estate firm has developed more than 13 million square feet of industrial and office properties in the Baltimore/Washington area. Merritt designs, builds, leases and manages their properties for the long-term and is committed to providing the highest quality service to all of its customers. For more information about the company, please visit www.merrittproperties.com.

About Grosvenor:
Grosvenor is a privately owned real estate development and investment company that has been active in North America for more than 50 years. The Company’s North American portfolio consists of more than six million square feet of space, including office, retail, industrial properties, and residential units. Internationally, Grosvenor has interests in properties with a total value of $20 billion, with operating companies in the Americas, UK and Ireland, Continental Europe and the Australia/Asia Pacific region. For more information about the Company, please visit the Grosvenor Web site at: www.grosvenor.com.

Hatching a Fruitful Research Career

 

At a recent research conference on parasitoid wasps, Presidential Fellow Kate Laskowski not only turned heads as the only undergraduate student attending, the poster that she presented on her research won first prize, beating out all other presenters—including graduate students and post-docs.

Laskowski’s field work on the wasps, a fascinating insect that could someday help us better understand human aging, sparked a passion for research that changed her life. “When I started at UMBC, I was pre-vet with an interest in wildlife pathology,” Laskwoski, a biological sciences major with a chemistry minor said. “But Professor Jeff Leips was my academic advisor and at the end of my freshman year he offered me the chance to some fieldwork.” She’s been studying the wasps ever since.

Leips, assistant professor of biological sciences, says that the wasps’ creepy means of reproduction was the inspiration for the Alien series of science fiction thriller films. The wasps literally rob the cradle of other insect species, injecting their eggs into living fruit fly larvae. The tiny time bomb lies dormant for four to five days until the larva pupates, or spins a cocoon around itself. Only then does the baby wasp hatch, killing its host and simultaneously providing itself with a food supply and a comfy, secure home in which to grow.

More importantly to Laskowski is the wasps’ interaction with fruit flies or Drosophila, the standard studied life system for geneticists. A particular fruit fly gene, known as Ddc, seems to be an enzymatic tradeoff between how long the fly lives and how well they can avoid a parasitoid attack. Long-living flies are more likely to get hit, while those better resistant to wasp attacks seem to be shorter-lived. Laskowski and other researchers are interested in what else Ddc can teach about the human aging process.

In addition to her accomplishments in research, Laskowski is also a founding sister of Alpha Sigma Kappa, a sorority for women interested in technical studies that includes majors in computer science and other physical sciences. Laskowski’s career goal now is to become a professor, and she plans to work for a year after commencement and then begin graduate school.

Leips is not surprised at Laskowski’s progress. “Kate is a dedicated, talented student who is going to have a great research career someday,” he said.

More information about UMBC research is available on UMBC’s Research Site.

(12/13/05)