“thank you chatham community. you are the heart, the soul ... · “thank you chatham community....

SPRING2016

“Thank you Chatham community. You are the heart, the soul, and the

reason why we do these things.”

ESTHER L. BARAZZONE, PH.D.

April 28, 2016

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bill Campbell

MANAGING EDITOR Cara Gillotti

DESIGN Brown Advertising and Design, Inc.

DESIGN CONSULTANT Krista A. Terpack, MBA ’09

CONTRIBUTORS Cara Gillotti

PHOTOGRAPHY John AltdorferHarry GiglioJeanine LeechAnnie O'NeillPhilip PavelyJackie SmithClay Williams

FRONT COVEREsther L. Barazzone, Ph.D.

The Chatham Recorder is published biannually by the Office of Marketing and Communications, Dilworth Hall, Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Letters or inquiries may be directed to the managing editor by mail at this address, by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 412-365-1335.

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News &Events

6Cougars

Roar!

mailto:[email protected]

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IN THIS ISSUE

22Sniffing Around

Brooklyn

26The Creative

Path of Allison Marsh

32AlumniProfile

8Chatham TIme:

President Barazzone in

Pictures

28Disaster

Relief in Nepal

33In Memoriam

16Introducing

President Finegold

The Esther Barazzone Center at Eden Hall Campus, dedicated on April 28, 2016.To read about the dedication event, visit www.chatham.edu/views

CHATHAM UNIVERSITY • RECORDER • SPRING 20162 CHATHAM UNIVERSITY • RECORDER • SPRING 20162

News EDEN HALL CAMPUS WINS ENGINEERING AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION

Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus has won the American Society of Civil Engineers, Pittsburgh Section’s 2016 Sustainability Award for Stormwater Management and Sanitary Systems. The Sustainability Award is presented annually to an engineering project in recognition of creativity in the form of innovative sustainability. Projects must demonstrate adherence to the principles of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

CHATHAM UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES RECEIVE SERVICE AWARD

Chatham’s Board of Trustees has been awarded the John W. Nason Award for Board Service by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). Chatham was one of six recipients of this award, which recognizes governing boards that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and initiative; unusual courage in the face of difficult circumstances; and significant achievement that benefits the institution, system, or foundation.

“Chatham University’s board has shown that dedication to mission need not be incompatible with necessary transformation and structural reorganization. The board’s thoughtful but forward-thinking action is a model for other institutions facing difficult times.”

RICHARD D. LEGON, AGB PRESIDENT

UNIVERSITY NEWS

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INAUGURAL SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE COMES TO WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

The Women’s Institute welcomed its first Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Kelly Dittmar, assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University–Camden. During her week of residence, Dr. Dittmar worked with courses across the curriculum and met with students, faculty, and staff in the classroom, at Chatham Student Government meetings, at informal sessions, and at two public presentations.

CHATHAM ADDS NEW VARSITY SPORTS

Chatham has announced the addition of women’s and men’s lacrosse and men’s hockey for the 2017-2018 academic year. These additions will increase the number of Chatham’s varsity sports to 16. At the time of this announcement, Chatham will be the first DIII men’s ice hockey team in Pittsburgh and only the fourth program across the entire state when it takes to the ice in 2017.

More information aboutthese stories is available at chatham.edu/news/

"Dr. Dittmar worked with students in several courses, workshops, informal gatherings, and two different public events. Students and faculty enjoyed tapping her extensive knowledge of gender and presidential political campaigns to learn more about the primaries.”

JESSIE RAMEY, PH.D., DIRECTOR, WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

CHATHAM UNIVERSITY • RECORDER • SPRING 20164

UNIVERSITY EVENTS

1. AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST EBOO PATEL VISITS CHATHAM

On December 2, 2015, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel came to Chatham to discuss working to make interfaith cooperation a social norm with students and administrators. He also gave a lecture titled “Sacred Ground: Interfaith Leadership in the 21st Century.” Patel’s book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation is required reading for a new First-Year Communication Seminar called Dialogues: Identity and Values. The course aims to challenge students’ beliefs and facilitate discourse around issues such as gender, faith, race, and how these things contribute to identity.

Read more at chatham.edu/views

2. ELSIE HILLMAN CHAIR IN WOMEN AND POLITICS LECTURE

Featured speakers for the 2016 Elsie Hillman Chair in Women and Politics, Donna Brazile and Mary Matalin, delivered a public lecture on April 11. Democratic political strategist Brazile is an adjunct professor, an author, a syndicated columnist, a television political commentator, and a vice chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee. Matalin, an author and a television and radio host, is a widely sought-after political contributor, pundit and public speaker. The purpose of the chair is to bring nationally renowned political leaders, scholars, and activists to Chatham to enrich the experiences of students and educate citizens about the role of women in the political process. Generous support for this lecture was provided by The Hillman Foundation and Chatham Trustee and alumna, Bonnie VanKirk ’81, and her husband, Tom.

Events

3. RAIZMAN LECTURE FEATURES AUTHOR JENNY NORDBERG

The Women’s Institute at Chatham University welcomed Jenny Nordberg, the acclaimed author of The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, to campus on February 23 for the Raizman Lecture. Nordberg’s book, which describes Afghan girls who live disguised as boys through childhood and puberty only to be expected by adult age to transform into subordinate wives and mothers, is based on her extensive research and reporting inside a war zone in Afghanistan. The Raizman Lecture is made possible by the generous support of former Chatham Trustee and alumna, Dorothy Raizman ’68.

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e’re delighted to invite all our Chatham families—alumni, siblings, faculty, and staff—and their high school junior sons and daughters to a daylong event that’s all about demystifying the college admissions process and (re)connecting with Chatham. You’ll learn how to begin the college search and what to look for on

campus tours. A mock admissions committee exercise will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the admissions process. And your students will have the chance to chat with current students, while you socialize with the Chatham team, including representatives from admissions, alumni affairs, athletics, financial aid, and student activities.

Registration will begin in August, and space will be at a premium. For more information, please contact Cathy Lunn, executive director of alumni affairs, at [email protected] or 412-365-1255.

The Chatham Family Admission Program Saturday, November 19, 2016

Reunite, Reconnect, Reminisce…Reunion!

Save the DateREUNION WEEKEND

October 14-15, 2016chatham.edu/alumni • [email protected]

Celebrating the classes of 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011

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The women’s and men’s Cougar teams had incredible seasons—both as individuals and as teams.

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Sydney Isbell ’18 was named ECAC and D3hockey.com National Goaltender of the Week and DIII Women’s Ice Hockey HERO of the Week.

Cougars Roar!WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Cougars won 11 games—the most in Chatham’s history—including the first-round game in the PAC playoffs against Geneva College.

Rachel McClain ’16 scored 1,081 career points, placing her second in the Chatham record books.

Katie Sieg ’19 was named ECAC Rookie of the Week two weeks in a row.

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+SWIMMING & DIVING

Alexis Rectenwald ’16 was named PAC Champion for one- & three-meter diving, 2016 PAC Championships Diver of the Year, and the Women’s Diving Most Valuable Performer. She was also named to the All-PAC First Team.

Aurelia Sheehan ’19 was named to the All-PAC First Team and was the PAC champion in 100-yard freestyle. She was also named PAC Swimmer of the Week.

Diver Emily Hinson ’17 was named to the All-PAC First Team.

Charlie Hauser was named PAC Diving Coach of the Year.

The team won the PAC Team Sportsmanship Award.

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CHATHAM SPORTS

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SOCCER

The soccer team came away with eight wins—the most in Chatham history. They also won the NSCAA Team Academic Award.

ACADEMICS

And finally, 18 out of 41 fall student athletes finished the term with a GPA of 3.6 or higher. Go Cougars!

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Men’s basketball came out strong in their first season, winning the first round in PAC playoffs against Geneva College.

Alex Schoppen ’19 was #3 in Made 3-Pointers in PAC.

Anthony Bomar ’19 was #2 in assists-to-turnover ratio, #3 in assists, and #16 for rebounding in PAC.

The team won the PAC Team Sportsmanship Award.

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+TRACK & FIELD

Long jumper Ariel Gray ’19 finished first at the PAC Indoor Championships, setting the conference record, and second at the PAC Outdoor Championships. She also took fifth place in the ECAC Indoor Championships, and ranked #30 in the country in long jump.

Jesse Hinkle ’17 was the PAC outdoor champion in javelin.

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PRESIDENT BARAZZONE PICTORIAL

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No paragraph can capture all that Esther L. Barazzone, the 18th president of Chatham University, has meant to the school. Under her leadership, we’ve launched Eden Hall Campus, added graduate programs, reinvigorated our undergraduate program, renewed and expanded our physical infrastructure, and assumed a new leadership role in local and national communities. What follows are snapshots capturing moments throughout her tenure here. We wish Esther all the best as she prepares to leave Chatham on June 30, 2016.

Chatham Time:President Barazzone in Pictures

President Barazzone at her All-Campus Retirement Party, April 12, 2016.

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1. 1869 Society Dinner with Esther Bush, president of Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, 2000

2. Korea visit, 2000

3. Opus Earth with Dottie Beckwith ’81, 1995

4. Commencement with Elsie Hillman, 1993

5. 1869 Society Dinner with S. Murray Rust III, 1999

6. Esther’s 20th Anniversary dinner with Joan Gulley, S. Murray Rust III, Jane Burger ’66, and Sigo Falk, 2012

7. Chatham Green with President and CEO of PNC Bank Sy Holzer and unknown, 1997

8. Kyoto visit, 1999

9. Closing Convocation, 2009

10. With Hollander Award recipient the Honorable Monica McWilliams, 2001

11. Commencement with honorary degree recipient Fred Rogers and his wife Joann Rogers, 2002

12. Dedication of the Metamorphosis statue with artist and professor Jerry Caplan and Tom Hollander, 1994

13. 1869 Society Event with Bud Markell, Jean White Markell ’46, and Cordelia Suran Jacobs ’60, 2000

14. Being recognized as an honorary alumna by the Class of 1967, Reunion 2002

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1. Premiere of the documentary No Boundaries about Peter Matthiessen, with Jeff Sewald and Matthiessen, 2009

2. With Don Buttrey and Eboo Patel, author, founder, and president of Interfaith Youth Core, 2015

3. With ambassador from Brazil, 2008

4. Hollander Awards with Tom Hollander and award winner Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 2003

5. With German ambassador & Dave Murdoch, 2007

6. Chatham Green with VP of Academic Affairs Laura Armesto, Marty Carson ’62, Penelope Hobhouse, VP of Institutional Advancement Mary Kay Poppenberg, and Director of Alumni Affairs Jennifer Garners, 2002

7. Installation of Matsubara print in Mellon Board Room with Dr. Freddie Fu and Naoko Matsubara, 2009

8. With Dominican-American author Julia Alvarez, 1997

9. With Sigo Falk, Taiwanese ambassador, S. Murray Rust III, ambassador’s wife, and Dan Simpson, 2007

10. Kate Cheney Chappell art exhibit, 201276

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1. Signing paperwork for gift of Eden Hall Farm to Chatham with George Greer of the Eden Hall Foundation, 2008

2. Dedication of Athletic and Fitness Center with Anne Putnam Mallinson ’61, 2004

3. Dedication of Howe-Child’s Gate House, 2003

4. Admiring the Alumnae Tiffany Window at the dedication of the Science Complex with donor Marion Swannie Rand ’45, 2000

5. Dedication of Jessica’s Labyrinth with Jessica’s mother, Diana Risien Jannetta, 2008

6. Groundbreaking for Athletic and Fitness Center with Joan Gulley, Councilman Dan Frankel, Mayor Tom Murphy, and Councilman Bob O’Connor, 2002

7. Announcement of university status with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, 2007

8. Mellon Board Room dedication, 2007

9. Dedication of the Esther Barazzone Center at Eden Hall Campus, April 20167

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NEW PRESIDENT

Dr. David L. FinegoldBecomes the19th President ofChatham University“One of the things that most attracted me to Chatham is its history of innovation – the willingness to take risks and continuously reinvent itself, particularly over the last two decades.” INCOMING PRESIDENT DR. DAVID L. FINEGOLD


NEW PRESIDENT

in many qualified candidates. And then she announces “unanimous in our decision, Dr. David Finegold, the 19th president of Chatham University.” Dr. Finegold takes the stage to a standing ovation.

In a voice both quietly confident and brimming with energy, Dr. Finegold expresses the honor he feels; speaks of Chatham’s history of increasing access to education; makes note of how, while women now outnumber men in higher education enrollment and graduation, this is reflected neither in the boardroom nor in the political arena; and expresses his dedication to this next phase of achieving equality for women. “Like the spirit of Chatham’s founding, my whole career has been spent trying to find ways to expand educational opportunity,” he says.

“Together, we can refine the vision for Chatham’s future,” he says, encouraging us to look for town hall meetings, focus groups, surveys, invitations to do yoga with his wife, Sue, and tea at the Gregg House. “Thanks again for this great opportunity,” Dr. Finegold concludes. “Sue and I can’t wait to get started.”

It’s 11:30 a.m. Dr. Esther L. Barazzone, 18th president of Chatham University, stands behind the podium, on the left-hand side of the stage of Campbell Memorial Chapel. Bracketed by crouching offstage photographers, Esther looks delighted. After some brief remarks during which she thanks the presidential search committee (“a special debt of gratitude; they labored conscientiously and long”) and commends Dr. Finegold’s personality and values (“outstanding”) and credentials (“stellar, excellent”), she introduces to the stage Jennifer Potter, chair of the Board of Trustees.

“Well, this is a big day,” says Jennifer. “Thank you Esther, for your almost 25 years as an amazing, inspirational leader. Please join me in a heartfelt,” and her next words are drowned out, as the room, rising to its feet, applauds. Esther smiles and blows a kiss.

Jennifer extols the search committee, particularly co-chairs Jane Burger ’66 and Jane Murphy ’68, of whom she says, “One was the scribe and the other was the concierge, and they divided the work up in such a seamless performance.” She praises the search firm, Spencer Stuart, who brought

“I’ve had a chance throughout my career to focus on promoting inclusion and access and true equality for students of all types.” DR. DAVID L. FINEGOLD

All-Campus UpdateTHURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016

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CG: Dr. Finegold, thank you for your time today. Can you tell me what

your first impressions of Chatham were?

DF: They’ve been wonderful, really. First, I’m so impressed by the

different campuses, the beauty of the historical Shadyside Campus, the arboretum, the tremendous architecture, and then the exciting new Eastside location, right next to Google in this growing high-tech part of the city. Then to get out to Eden Hall and see the huge promise there and the excitement of being the first campus of its kind in the country, maybe the world, as a home for the Falk School of Sustainability is just great. The second thing is the people. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly, from the trustees to the faculty to the students I’ve met. It feels like it will be an extremely welcoming community for myself and for Sue to come to. The third thing is the level and rate of innovation. I’ve already learned about “Chatham Time” and been impressed by the number of things that the University’s been able to accomplish and how quickly they’ve been done. Having been at big universities like Rutgers and USC, the idea of transforming the whole structure of the university, going coed, changing gen ed requirements, all at the same time, are things we still would have been planning at those universities, much less having done them all at once. I’m very impressed by that level of taking things on.

CG: What was it about Chatham that attracted you to this position?

DF: Certainly all the things I just mentioned were big attractors. That willingness to take on new challenges and to continually innovate is a real fit with the things I’ve done in my career. The other thing I liked about Chatham is that I’ve always thought that if I had the opportunity to lead a college or university, I’d like to do it at a place the size of Chatham, where it’s possible to get to know all of the faculty and staff and to get to really interact with the students. At a large university these days that’s very hard for a president to do.

CG: Looking back at your career, what experiences would you say have best prepared you to be president at Chatham?

DF: I’ve had a chance throughout my career to focus on promoting inclusion, access, and true equality for students of all types.

Interview with David Finegold

By Cara Gillotti

“I’ve always thought that if I had the opportunity to lead a college or university I’d like to do it at a place the size of Chatham, where it was possible to get to know all of the faculty and staff and to get to really interact with the students.”

For example, when I led the School for Management and Labor Relations, we were one of the national leaders on issues around diversity. We had a Center for Women and Work, and we were the host of the Gender Parity Council, which was an innovative organization that New Jersey set up to try to ensure things like equal pay for equal work. At Rutgers, Douglass College went coed, and we had a lot of the same concerns that I know many students and alumnae have had here at Chatham. I’ve been able to hear those very legitimate concerns but also to see the huge benefits for young women that came about thanks to that transition and the fact that we could still be known as a place that’s a champion for gender equality and for looking at issues around women in all aspects of work. I think we can do the very same things here.

CG: What do you see as the top priorities for your first year?


NEW PRESIDENT

DF: I see my role in these first few years as less about charting major changes in direction than about seeing through some of those key things that have been initiated so that we can capitalize on those. I would say there are three or four that are top on my list. One would be realizing the sustainability vision, and particularly finding the best ways to get the Eden Hall Campus to critical mass. So finding the best ways to do that, working

with everyone to figure out the academic vision and how we get the resources for it —that will be one of the key things. The second one is seeing through the reorganization of the Schools and undergrad education, completing the implementation of the new gen ed curriculum and the Chatham Plan; helping each of the Schools to realize its potential; and working with the faculty to put all that in place. A third area where I think

I can immediately add value is expanding the numbers of international students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Chatham has had a long history of being an international institution with the Global Focus program and creating opportunities for students and faculty to go abroad, but I think in terms of diversity of the student body there’s still a great deal of opportunity to add to that. And the final thing is around

“I’d like to get out to meet, visit and talk with our alumni. How can we serve this community better?”

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engagement with our undergraduate alumnae and graduate alumni. I’d like to get out to meet, visit, and talk with them. How can we serve our alumni better? How we can help someone be a mentor, offer an internship, hire a graduate, or connect people to an issue they’re passionate about – say sustainability, or health and wellness, where Chatham has so many exciting things going on?

CG: What do you consider to be the role of higher education today?

DF: That’s a big question. I believe that anybody, regardless of financial circumstance, ought to have the ability to go to their best-fit college or university, and as they benefit throughout their career, they can pay that back. Having a degree in today’s knowledge economy is increasingly the minimum you need for a successful career, and we’re seeing that it’s not enough to get that first degree; you’re probably going to have to go back over the course of your life

ABOUT DR. FINEGOLD

On Thursday, March 3, 2016, Chatham’s Board of Trustees unanimously confirmed the Presidential Search Committee’s recommendation of hiring David L. Finegold, Ph.D., as the next president of Chatham University. Dr. Finegold will begin his presidency on July 1, 2016.

Dr. Finegold has nearly 30 years of experience in higher education as a researcher, an author, a professor, an academic dean, a senior vice president, and ca hief academic officer. A renowned scholar and educational innovator, Dr. Finegold has dedicated his career to education reform, the design of high-performance organizations, and extensive research on education and skill-creation systems around the world.

He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1985 and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he received his Ph.D. in politics in 1992.

He has been a faculty member at the University of Southern California and at the Keck Graduate Institute, which is part of the prestigious liberal arts-focused Claremont Colleges in California, as well as dean at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, where he also served as senior vice president for lifelong learning and strategic growth.

Since 2013, he has served as chief academic officer of American Honors, an entrepreneurial organization that works to bolster quality and affordability of undergraduate education through honors programs with community colleges across the nation.

Originally from New York, NY, Dr. Finegold and his wife, Susan, a native of England, are the parents of a son, Sam, a graduate of Harvard, and a daughter, Charlotte, currently a junior at Yale.

To view video of the campus announcement event, his fullbiography, perspectives from thesearch committee, and more, visitwww.chatham.edu/president-elect

“I see my role in these first few years as less about charting major new changes in direction than about seeing through some of those key things that have been initiated so that we can really capitalize on those. ”

“One of the things I hope we’ll be doing at Chatham is focusing on lifelong learning, opportunities for people to engage with us and find that they can continually refresh themselves.”

to get another degree or perhaps shorter continuing education. One of the things I hope we’ll be doing at Chatham is focusing on lifelong learning, opportunities for people to engage with us and find that they can continually refresh themselves.

CG: What are you looking forward to most about living in Pittsburgh?

DF: In addition to the cultural opportunities the city offers, I’m a big sports fan and I’m looking forward to getting into all of that – rooting both for Chatham teams and for the professional teams. Sue and I are also excited about being part of broader movements within Pittsburgh to reinvent the city. One of the things I’ve always tried to do in my different roles is not just to focus internally on what the university needs but on how it can partner with institutions across the city and more broadly. That’s something that I think will be really exciting here, because it’s clear already what a strong sense of community and relationships exist here.


MOFAD

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SniffingAround

Brooklyn

s with so many New York stories—at least in the movies—it began with a gun.

A 3,200-pound custom-built breakfast cereal-puffing gun, in fact, that traveled the city demonstrating how grains get puffed into cereal. It was a mobile exhibition called BOOM! The Puffing Gun and the Rise of Cereal, the year was 2013, and the gunslinger was the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD). In 2014, MOFAD moved into a space in Brooklyn, began thinking about onsite exhibitions, and hired Catherine Piccoli, a 2012 graduate of Chatham’s Master of Arts in Food Studies program, as program associate.

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By Cara Gillotti

For Catherine, a social and cultural historian who focuses on food, it’s an ideal match. She would be the first to tell you she’s felt that click before. After completing a bachelor’s in social and cultural history at Carnegie Mellon, her next steps weren’t clear. “I had been thinking and reading deeply about food,” she says, “but neither culinary school nor working in a restaurant appealed to me. I didn’t know what the other options were. One day I saw a newspaper ad for the food studies program, and it was like a light bulb—this is me, this is what I want to do. I can study food and continue to focus on history and social and cultural phenomena.”


MOFAD

In the food studies program, Catherine focused on writing and communication and explored the interplay of food and history through culture. She completed internships at the Heinz History Center, at an environmental radio show, and at a community food pantry.

“During the program I was constantly challenged,” she says. “Things that I had thought were constantly being blown open. Not just about food, but about cultures, poverty, and social justice. I know it’s cliché to say, but it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. History, culture, science and technology, production, commerce–because of the Food Studies program, I feel like I can speak knowledgably

about all of these things, and I’m confident bringing them into my job.”

In the summer of 2012, Catherine moved to Brooklyn. She began contributing her research skills as a volunteer at MOFAD, and the rest is history—the history of food and culture that Catherine researched, documented, and helped craft into MOFAD’s first on-site exhibition, Flavor: Making It and Faking It.

Flavor: Making It and Faking It is a collection of interactive stories and experiences that build toward a holistic understanding of the modern flavor industry. It’s a huge topic that has been thoughtfully calibrated to the space available—a cavernous, one-room, 3000-square foot former car park.

BEYOND “TASTE”

We know the basic tastes—sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. We know how aroma contributes to taste. And we also know that when it comes to experiencing taste, there’s (at least) one more thing going on.

It’s called chemesthesis, and it’s what happens when chemicals in a food activate receptors that aren’t associated with taste. Chemesthesis explains the fieriness of hot peppers, the warmth of cinnamon, the coolness of peppermint, and the fizziness of carbonation. Though primarily experienced in the mouth, chemesthesis can occur anywhere on the body where nerve fibers can be activated by chemicals, as you know if you’ve ever touched your eye after chopping hot peppers. Some argue that these sensations should be considered basic tastes.

The exhibition starts with a short video about how the nose and mouth work together to produce flavor. Taste refers to what we perceive through the tongue; flavor refers to the interplay of taste and smell. In fact, most flavor comes from the aroma of food when it’s in your mouth. As you chew, aroma molecules drift toward the back of your throat, up an airway that connects to your nose, and are processed and received by receptors in the brain, just as though they had been inhaled through your nose.

EXHIBIT: LEARNING TO FAKE IT: VANILLA AND THE BIRTH OF THE FLAVOR INDUSTRY

The exhibition starts with vanilla. “Initially, you could only get it from the bean of the vanilla orchid, grown primarily in Mexico, which flowers for only one day,” says Catherine. She gestures at a vanilla orchid under a glass bel and introduces Vanessa the Vanilla Orchid. “Taking care of her is one of my duties,” she says. “I spent a lot of time on the phone with Larry at Larry’s Orchards in Michigan.”

In the 1870s, two German chemists realized that vanillin—the chemical that gave vanilla its aroma—could also be made from pine

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tree bark. And from wood pulp, from clove oil, from paper pulp, and, from coal. That meant that vanilla had gone from being a rare and carefully cultivated substance to something that could be mass-produced. The exact same chemical compound is found in the vanilla bean and produced in the lab. Today it’s the most popular flavor in the world.

The exhibition also features a large tablet-making machine, of the sort that MOFAD used to make small tablets of different flavors that are available in tablet-dispensing machines throughout the exhibition. Visitors can sample and compare a vanilla bean-based tablet with a synthetic vanillin-based tablet. “Lots of people prefer the synthetic one, because it’s what they’re used to,” says Catherine.

EXHIBIT: UMAMI: SEAWEED AND THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW TASTE

Umami is the most recently identified primary taste whose Japanese name translates to something akin to deliciousness. A Japanese chemist discovered MSG (monosodium glutamate) as he was trying to replicate the flavor of an edible seaweed. “Glutamate intensifies the savory taste of food,” says Catherine, and beginning in the 1920s, MSG was marketed to food manufacturers and cafeterias as a way of adding flavor back to foods post-processing. The Japanese army was also interested in using it to make bland, nutritious food taste good. “This is the moment in our story when the flavor industry and the food industry start becoming inseparable,” says Catherine. Tablets allow visitors to compare umami tastes of tomato, mushroom, and seaweed with manmade MSG.

A SIXTH SENSE?

Asked if it’s possible, given how recently umami was identified as a taste, that there could be others that have yet to be discovered, Catherine replies “Sure. In fact, there have been lots of stories recently pointing to the possibility that fat is the sixth taste. This would come down to proving a fat receptor on the tongue. I’m open to that.”

EXHIBIT: THE TASTE MAKERS: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF FLAVOR CREATION

Along the back wall of the exhibition is one of its biggest draws, the Smell Synth—a kind of control panel where visitors can create and experience combinations of smells. It’s a simplified version of the kind of machine that allows olfaction scientists to mix and sample new smells. MOFAD asked David Michael, a Philadelphia flavor company, to choose no more than 20 compounds that visitors could use to create as many smells as possible. Because the compounds have names like “ethyl acetate” and “gamma hexalactone,” Catherine helped come up with user-friendly descriptors of how the compounds smelled, including green, leaf; cheesy vomit; earthy, hazelnut; and boozy.

The Smell Synth houses 19 glass containers, each of which contains a scent chemical compound. When you press a button, the machine opens a valve and blows scented air through a pipe to your nose. Pressing several buttons at once allows you to combine aromas to mimic a common smell. Above the

control panel are “recipes” for aroma chords (Maple, brown + butter, sweet cream = pancakes). Catherine helped to “write” these recipes, too.

Through the lens of flavor, the exhibition invites us to consider broader concepts. In this historical and cultural moment, it’s easy to decry the artificial as inferior to the organic, but the synthesis of vanillin brought the sweet, beloved taste of vanilla to people all over the world. We’re also invited to consider the divide between what is “natural”and what is “artificial,” and how those concepts might relate to what we call “real.”

“I think there’s a lot of confusion around food,” Catherine says. “Chemicals is not a scary word. Chemicals make up the sky, my mom, soup! The same chemical is the same chemical, whether it’s found in a food or in a test tube.”

For more information, visit mofad.org


The CreativePath ofAllison Marsh

ALLISON MARSH

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The CreativePath ofAllison Marsh

hatham alumna Allison Marsh ’96 has made a career out of being forward-thinking. For the past decade, she’s worked in new product development

at American Greetings, most recently as a research and development manager. “The sole reason my job exists is to help you tell someone how you feel,” she says. “That’s actually pretty powerful. But what does that look like to a millennial or to the next generation? Does it have to look like a traditional greeting card? Probably not!”

Marsh’s team handles the cards that “do the unexpected,” she says. “If it sings, dances, lights up, records your voice, shoots confetti, has a QR code—if there’s something above and beyond what you think of as a regular greeting card, it comes from this department.”

Born and bred in Pittsburgh, Marsh loved the city, and when it came time for college, she wanted to stay. “I knew I didn’t want to sit in Psych 101 with a hundred kids and be lucky if the professor knew my name. So I looked at Carlow, Duquesne, and Chatham. But once I visited Chatham, I was done. It’s like being in a treehouse above the city. You can’t see that it’s there from the road; it’s hidden, but like two minutes from everything you

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can experience in city life. I knew I was going to get a great education in a very safe environment. And to me, that’s what I was paying for.”

Marsh came to Chatham hoping to get a degree in art education, but then she discovered art history. “I totally changed my course,” she says. “I thought ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing. It’s creative, but it’s also research and discovery, asking questions, generating hypotheses, and trying to prove a point.’”

She found that Chatham was instrumental in helping her take that on. “I was pushed, challenged; my professors knew who I

was and what I needed to succeed,” Marsh remembers. “With class sizes that small, there’s no way you’re skipping class. And you don’t want to, because you’ve developed this little community of people, not just with the professors but also with the others in the class. It allowed me to form really nice bonds with other students, working as a team, understanding how I learn best.”

This is something Marsh says that has paid off extraordinarily well in her career. “I work closely with creative teams, technical teams, and manufacturing teams. I think of myself as a mediator, doing my best to keep all those people as happy as possible while bringing forth the vision of the product we’re trying to introduce. So communication is hugely important, and so is attention to detail, and getting people motivated to work as a team.”

After graduation, Marsh was accepted into a doctoral program in art history at Arizona State University. After six months, she figured out that “the practical day-to-day life of a professor wasn’t in line with her passion. I was like ‘wow, I am not cut out for this,’ ” she says. Back in Pittsburgh, she applied for a job as a studio assistant for the artist Burton Morris. “He was a really well-known illustrator and graphic artist but wasn’t doing a lot in the realm of fine art, and he wanted

to make that distinction,” Marsh says. “He recruited three or four of us assistants to transfer his illustration to large canvases. So I was making ten dollars an hour—this is back in 1998—to paint.” Marsh stayed with Morris for a couple of years, learning the business side of art galleries. When it was time for her to move on, Morris introduced her to a business friend of his. “He said ‘How would you like to learn product development?’” Marsh recalls. “And I was like ‘Sure! What is it?’ Back then, they didn’t have courses in product development—you could study industrial design or things like that, but there wasn’t this business component.”

From manufacturing to Miley Cyrus.

The company sent Marsh to China, where she learned about working with manufacturers there. “I ended up falling in love with the culture and the people,” she says. “And I’ve been going back and forth to Asia for work now for 16 years. If someone had said to me when I was at Chatham ‘you’re destined to work with the Chinese,’ I would have just laughed. But it happened.”

“It just goes to show that you never know what you have an aptitude for until you let

yourself try it,” she continues. “There’s a lot of trial and error. You’re going to try stuff that you’re not good at, but then you’ll try something else and it’ll be a total surprise. That’s what this has been for me. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be working for the company that invented Strawberry Shortcake.”

Or, one would imagine, create a furry bag with googly eyes that Miley Cyrus has been spotted carrying, but that happened, too. “We intended it as a gift bag,” Marsh laughs. “But Miley turned it into a fashion statement. We’re not complaining.”

By Cara Gillotti


DISASTER RELIEF IN NEPAL

t can be hard to access healthcare in Nepal, says Chatham nursing student, Devin Corboy, BSN ’18. “Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. It’s mostly rural, so access is limited by

time and terrain. And if it’s not free or almost free, clients just don’t have the resources to pay.” Devin also points to a shortage of providers (“Doctors aren’t well paid—it’s not as prestigious there as it is here. They work around the clock, and it’s often necessary for them to hold several positions”) and—literally—energy (“With rolling blackouts, they spend long periods of time without electricity—often 12-14 hours per day.”)

That’s in the best of times.

But on April 25, 2015, Devin woke to news of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal. Approximately 9,000 people were killed and more than 21,000 injured. Devin and his wife

had spent time there the previous fall, made friends, and fallen in love with the region. Devin—a student in Chatham’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC—knew that he had to help. Just over two weeks later, a second earthquake killed at least 153 people and injured more than 3,200. That was the day Devin arrived in Nepal.

His Nepali friends had told him that the best way to bring in supplies was to carry them himself, so he showed up with over 100 pounds of medical supplies. “The airstrip was lined with cargo containers with food and other resources from countries who wanted to help,” he recalls. “But the government couldn’t release the supplies because of their regulation requirements. They had to register it. So much food sent over there never made it to anyone because it went bad.”

Disaster Relief in Nepal:A Nurse’s Journey

“When I arrived, my friend drove me to a community health clinic, where I saw people lined up out the door. Suturing and setting broken bones and dislocated limbs aren’t typical nursing practices in the U.S., but in third-world trauma environments, your scope of practice is directly proportional to your knowledge and level of comfort,” Devin says. “We worked with the highest degree of sterility possible using the supplies I carried from the U.S. We worked in the street, day and night, through heat and rain, under temporary tarps and in tents because damage to the hospital made it unsafe. Patients arrived on overcrowded buses. You’d see three people per seat, and men, women, and children hanging off the roofs. It wasn’t uncommon for patients to arrive in need of critical treatment due to accidents caused by this method of travel that was both unsafe and unavoidable.”

After a couple of weeks, Devin and a guide loaded up five yaks with lifesaving provisions and set forth to Thame, a village that had been all but wiped out. They made what was normally a five-day trek to the village in two days, hiking 12-hour days carrying 50-60 pounds of supplies. When they arrived, they saw that one building was left standing, the medical clinic was gone, and people were living openly on the streets. “It was the monsoon season, cold and rainy,” says Devin. “No one had tents. We spent much of our time passing out temporary shelters and tarps.”

IBy Cara Gillotti

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Disaster Relief in Nepal:A Nurse’s Journey


DISASTER RELIEF IN NEPAL

NEPAL, TAKE 2

Devin returned home after just over three weeks, but in November, he and his wife returned to contribute through the All Hands disaster response effort. They were there for almost two months. “I had to delay my entry into the BSN program,” said Devin, “but Chatham said no problem, we’ll contact all your instructors, and we’ll figure it out.”

Much of the work in Devin’s second trip focused on demolition and rebuilding efforts,

“In the U.S., we have all these supplies that don’t even exist in Nepal, and we toss them into the garbage when they fall on the floor or the package doesn’t look right.”DEVIN CORBOY, BSN ’18

but it wasn’t long before his medical skills were called into action. The project director created the position of first aid and medical curriculum coordinator for him, and among his initiatives was to bring in antivenom medicine. In the eight months since the earthquake, snakes—most of which were poisonous—had made their homes in all the debris. “There was a high probability that someone would get bitten and die,” Devin said. He coordinated with project partners in the UK to get the anti-venom. “It took about two and a half weeks for it to get here,” he says. “Meanwhile, we were seeing about six baby snakes each day, and thinking ‘oh boy, where’s Mama?’”

Eventually, Devin wants to open a community health clinic in West Africa. He envisions a solar-powered clinic focused on sustainable community health and education that can also provide emergency medical capabilities. He views his experiences in Nepal as good training and a valuable expansion of perspective.

“I saw how spoiled we are,” he says. “I was able to bring over presterilized gauze pads, and Nepali healthcare providers couldn’t believe how easy they were to use. The way they’d do it is to cut a piece of gauze, heat it to a temperature that kills bacteria, maybe rest it on dirty pants to fold it, tape it to the wound, if they even had tape. In the U.S., we have all these supplies that don’t even exist in Nepal, and we toss them into the garbage when they fall on the floor or the package doesn’t look right. We treated at least 300 people with supplies equivalent to two days’ worth of what we throw away here. And the mentality of receiving healthcare here is so different. They were so appreciative of every single thing we were able to do. In their eyes, it’s not our duty, and it’s not their right.”


ALUMNI PROFILE

SPOTLIGHT: VIVIAN LOWERY DERRYCK ’67

During the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, Chatham alumna and former Trustee Vivian Lowery Derryck ’67 was one of the honorees awarded the Africa Union and Diaspora Africa Foundation’s African Women of Excellence Award. Vivian is president and CEO of The Bridges Institute, an Africa-focused international affairs non-profit organization linking the international private sector, civil society, and government.

She writes:

“My journey to a career in sustainable development with a focus on Africa began at Chatham. I won the Vira Heinz Study Abroad Award and had to decide between a summer in Europe and a summer in Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa. My tutor, J. Dale Chastain, advised me to go to Africa, ‘because those cathedrals will always be there.’ I took his advice, spent a summer in northern Cote d’Ivoire, viewed first-hand the challenges to African sustainable development, and found a passion for service to the continent that has informed my professional and personal life for fifty years.

I’ve been blessed with unique opportunities to lead organizations and to witness remarkable events in African and world history—all thanks to Chatham and its fierce

Submit your class note for our next issue!We will publish another round of Class Notes in our next issue. To submit a Class Note or photo, visit chatham.edu/classnotes. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at [email protected] or 412-365-1517. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity.

dedication to academic excellence and its values of first-rate research and integrity. A heartfelt thank you to Chatham University and its continued commitment to excellence in education with a strong commitment to graduating outstanding women.”

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IN MEMORIAM

Joy Dougherty Chilcott ’50

Alice Craig Coyne ’45

Joanne Shelley Davis ’52

Judith DiPerna ’89

Mary Beth Mong Freda, MSN ’12

Carol A. Fris ’91

Mary Alice Spellmire Girts ’42

Janet Couch Himmelrich ’49

June Collins Hopkins ’45

Alice May Kells ’47

Dolores Ella Knoll ’46

Sharon Lewis, MBA ’12, FormerDirector of Student Accounts

Elizabeth Lowe Marshall ’47

In memoriam

Information about deceased alumni may be submitted to the Office of Alumni Relations at

[email protected] or by mail to Chatham University, Office of Alumni Relations, Woodland

Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

Barbara McVicker Martin ’55

Lillian Kubrick Miller ’59

Dorothy Ballantyne Milliken ’33

Betty Lou Hulings Millikin ’59

Emily Seaberg Barends Morse ’51

Lois Ingham Peeler ’58

Eleanor Bailey Reese ’53

Grace Longabaugh Rhodes ’47

Paul Street, MAcc ’15

Joan Bowdle Turnbull ’44

Joanne Kimmins Winslow ’52

Robert J. Murray, Former Director of Chatham College Opera

Beatty HouseWoodland RoadPittsburgh, PA [email protected]

EVIE FREEMAN ’70, ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD PRESIDENT

“The Alumni Board hopes to work with Dr. Finegold and the Advancement staff to develop a strategic direction for the Alumni Association Board. We also want to assist him in meeting alumni throughout the country and help him further his understanding of the alumni population, the heritage of the women’s college, and the traditions we hold dear.”

AVERY WALKER, STUDENT, DOCTORATE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

“Dr. Finegold spoke about the need and creative ways to provide for more financial support for graduate students. This is a critical issue, and help in this area will allow us to sustain our studies and work to our fullest potential.”

SARAH JUGOVIC ’16, CHATHAM STUDENT GOVERMENTEXECUTIVE PRESIDENT

“Dr. Finegold was there when the Douglass Residential College at Rutgers went from a stand-alone women’s college to a more integrated offering within Rutgers. He is respectful of where we’re going, where we’ve been, and how important it is to keep traditions in the future.”

DAVID FRASER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, BIOLOGY

“It was interesting to notice that when Dr. Finegold spoke, everybody listened. He put his ideas out there confidently and really sucked you into the conversation. There was a leadership quality; he was ready to take this room of people he had never met before and guide them through an idea.”

MARY BETH MANNARINO, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR,COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

“Much of the gratification I felt from participating came from realizing that…while we would look at a candidate from slightly different perspectives, in the end we were consistent in what we were looking for.”

Excerpts from the PresidentSearch Committee Interviews

To read more from the Search Committee, visit chatham.edu/president-elect

“thank you chatham community. you are the heart, the soul ... · “thank you chatham community....

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