Operation Teapot, 1955. Photo courtesy the National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Test Site Office
DOWNWINDERS OF UTAH
The 1950s marked the beginning of the U. S. government’s nuclear weapons testing in a remote desert area known as the Nevada Test Site. The explosions created mushroom clouds that could be seen for almost 100 miles. The fallout and radiation traveled far beyond that, with devastating effects to those living downwind. Now, a new Downwinders of Utah Archive, housed at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library, depicts the stories of Utah communities adversely affected by the nuclear tests. The interactive collection—which includes audio and video recordings, oral history interviews, maps, and other documents—is available at downwindersofutah.org.
The spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama spoke to a sold-out crowd at the Huntsman Center at the end of June. President David W. Pershing had the privilege of introducing His Holiness and honored him with a presidential medal and a visor with a U logo, which the Dalai Lama wore through most of his speech.
Addressing more than 8,000 people, the Buddhist leader spoke with enthusiasm, seriousness, and even humor as he shared his message of peace, compassion, and universal responsibility. The 80-year-old Nobel Prize winner explained that man creates violence and destroys peace and that prayer is not the answer, but action is. “Not God, but you have the responsibility to solve problems,” he said. He urged the audience to create a happier, more compassionate world. A peaceful world starts with one person, then families, then whole communities. “That’s the way to change society,” he said. “I feel it in my heart.”
The Dalai Lama explained that his friends who are scientists promise him that the basic human nature is compassion. “This gives me real hope,” he said. “If our basic nature is anger, then no hope.” When asked about climate change, he laughed and said to ask an expert, but offered this comment: “This blue planet is our only home. If it is damaged beyond repair, then we have no other choice but to be responsible for it.”
His main message, the answer to the meaning of life, was simple. “Serving others. Helping others.” Putting his teachings into action, the morning before his speech, the Dalia Lama visited with and blessed patients at the U’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.
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Renowed Ecologist Wins Rosenblatt Prize
James Ehleringer has received the most prestigious faculty award on campus—the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence. A Distinguished Professor of biology, he was chosen for the $40,000 gift based on his outstanding teaching, research, and administrative efforts.
One of the most influential scientists in the world in plant ecology, Ehleringer was instrumental in developing the use of stable isotopes for ecological, geographical, geological, and anthropological studies. He created the Stable Isotope Ratio Facility for Environmental Research at the U and has been its director since 1984. During nearly 40 years at the U, he has produced more than 470 publications.
Ehleringer has a doctorate in biology from Stanford University and started teaching at the U in 1977. He served as biology department chair from 1993-96, and was made a Distinguished Professor in 2000. From 2009-15, he served as the founding director for the U’s Global Change and Sustainability Center, and he is currently a member of the Office of Sustainability leadership team.
Photo courtesy Kory Mortensen/U Athletics
Leader of the Pac
To many college baseball pundits, the Utes did the unthinkable. They won the 2016 Pac-12 championship—in a conference that has produced 28 national champions (including two in the past four years). But what makes this feat truly impressive is the fact that just one year ago, the Utes finished dead last in the conference. It’s the first time a U men’s athletics team has won a Pac-12 championship since joining the conference in 2011 (Utah Gymnastics has won it twice). The title also clinched a berth in the NCAA postseason tournament, only Utah’s second appearance since 1960.
Last year, Utah Baseball won seven conference games. This year, they won eight series versus Pac-12 foes. Utah entered conference play with a 3-11 record. But as the weather warmed up, so did the Utes, starting the season on a 7-2 run and finishing with a program-best 18-11 Pac-12 record. For such a turnaround, Bill Kinneberg was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, four players were named to the All-Pac-12 Conference team, and three others were honorable mention picks.
The team played in the first round of the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament, where they upset the host school and number one seed Ole Miss, then lost in double elimination to Boston College and Tulane.
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Watch the best plays from the Pac-12 champion baseball team:
Moran Team Treats Patients in Micronesia
In Micronesia, an island nation in the western Pacific, the population is more than 110,000 and the number of people with curable blindness is staggering. In addition to expensive or nonexistent health insurance and a cultural tendency to avoid wearing UV protective sunglasses, Micronesia had no ophthalmologists—until now. Dr. Padwick Gallen, who works at Pohnpei State Hospital, is the country’s only practicing ophthalmologist, thanks, in part, to his training with doctors from the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center.
In late June, a team from Moran’s Global Outreach Division, led by glaucoma specialist Dr. Craig Chaya, volunteered their time in Pohnpei. Former Moran International Fellow and oculoplastics specialist Dr. Anya Gushchin trained Gallen in dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) surgery to relieve a chronic condition that causes blocked tear ducts and is prevalent in Micronesia.
Working with Gallen, Moran’s team treated patients with nasolacrimal duct obstruction, cataracts, and pterygium (a growth on the surface of the eye strongly associated with chronic UV light exposure). By the end of their 12-day mission, they had completed 182 eye surgeries, and the smiling patients were wearing—with pride—UV protective sunglasses given to them by the outreach team.
Chemistry Professor Turns Ninja Warrior
In May, in front of national television cameras, 44-year-old U chemistry professor Janis Louie, with two degrees and three children behind her, stared down the toughest obstacle course she’d faced yet: American Ninja Warrior. Louie’s journey to the Ninja Warrior stage was a unique combination of athletic discipline, academic dedication, and maternal devotion.
A former gymnast, Louie has always loved to push herself physically and academically. At UCLA, she was a chemistry major and a cheerleader. In grad school at Yale, she delved deeper into chemistry, taught aerobics classes, and picked up bodybuilding.
Fast forward to five years ago, when she started her family while teaching chemistry at the U. “I had triplets, which does a number on your body,” she says. But she was determined to get back in shape, good enough shape that Ninja Warrior actually looked “fun” to her.
You can imagine what the producers thought when they saw on her application that she is a chemistry professor, mother of triplets, and fierce competitor. She was selected, and the intense training began.
“How many times as adults do we get the opportunity to put ourselves in a really uncomfortable situation where you can grow from it?” she says. At the competition, she cleared the first obstacle, but the second one took her out of the running. Her own takeaway from the experience, which she says she’d happily do again: “You’re never too old to try.”
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Watch Janis Louie’s American Ninja Warrior audition tape:
Stadium Gets New Sound System and Scoreboard
Football season just got even more exciting. Ute fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium this fall get to experience a new and greatly improved sound system and video scoreboard. The upgrades take the live game-watching experience up a notch while also reducing the noise disturbance to the surrounding community.
The stadium now has inward-facing speakers along its perimeter, directing sound toward the center of the bowl rather than sending it across the stadium. Previously, all speakers were mounted on the old scoreboard structure. Now there are 130 throughout the stadium, even in the bathrooms.
The freestanding LED scoreboard is 122 feet wide and 64 feet tall, and has 2.6 million pixels, making it one of the bigger boards in the country. It replaced a board that was more than 10 years old and was difficult and expensive to maintain. The screen is placed about 50 feet behind the south end zone to accommodate the possibility of any future changes to that area of the stadium. The $13.5 million for the upgrades was funded by Utah Athletics and Auxiliary Services, not from tuition or state funds.
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Watch a time-lapse of the construction of the new scoreboard:
https://youtu.be/x7EHLhijNFg
Recent Appointments
Andrew Weyrich has been named the U’s new vice president for research. Weyrich has been a major contributor to medical research at the U since becoming a faculty member in 1995. Most recently, he was associate dean for research at the School of Medicine, where he helped develop and implement a strategic research plan and oversaw core facilities, recruitment and retention efforts, and graduate programs. He holds an H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair, a recognition honoring the university’s top medical researchers.
Sherrie Hayashi BS’88 JD’91 is the new director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (OEO/AA). In this role, Hayashi also serves as the university’s Title IX and ADA/Section 504 coordinator. Hayashi is deeply committed to the principles of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination. Hayashi came to the U from the State of Utah, where she had served as the Utah labor commissioner since 2006.
H. David Burton BS’67 was unanimously voted in July to lead the University of Utah board of trustees. Burton is an emeritus general authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and also served as the church’s presiding bishop for 16 years. He has been on the U’s board of trustees since 2013. He has a degree in economics from the U and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan.
Doctoral Student Competes in Paralympics
Christopher Hammer, graduate teaching assistant and doctoral candidate in Exercise and Sport Science at the U, headed to his second Paralympics in September, in Rio. There, he joined the first triathlon event in Paralympic history—as a newbie to the sport.
Born with one hand, Hammer started as a runner. A four-time NCAA academic and track All-American (2006-09), he competed in the 2012 Paralympic Games (1,500 meter and marathon). Since then, he added biking and swimming to his athletic endeavors and dialed back on the running.
Hammer’s motto is: “Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.” It was on a poster above his bed as a kid, he says, and he has internalized its message as an adult.
Also a husband and father, Hammer says he’s gotten good at balancing things in thirds—three events in his sport and three ways his personal life is being pulled. The U has offered him the unique opportunity to perfect that balance. “I’m fortunate to be a student and working toward a degree that will result in a career long after my athletic days are done,” he says. “I’ve also been able to combine my academic and athletic interests in my research, and that has been a rewarding experience.”
Hammer noted that he was looking forward to his second Paralympics and representing Team USA in Brazil. “No matter where we race, it is always a huge honor to wear the red, white, and blue,” he says.
After teaching hip-hop dance at the U for a few years, Sara Pickett MFA’09 realized her students were curious about the backstory and impact of the music and moves. So she started History of Hip-Hop, a unique class that explores hip-hop’s cultural origins and evolution, its sociopolitical underpinnings, and its ties to other art forms. In the two semesters Pickett has taught the class, which is open to all majors, discussions have covered topics from the nature of race to misogyny to white privilege. The course is also infused with movement days featuring guest instructors who teach breaking, West Coast locking and popping, and other hip-hop dance styles.
We all know that here in the West, we rely on mountain snow for our water supply. We see the white on the peaks diminish in the spring while the streams flood and our reservoirs fill. But many want to know how climate change could interrupt this process.
In a new study published in Environmental Research Letters, a team of hydrologists that includes University of Utah professor Paul Brooks answered that question by simulating isolated climate change effects on Rocky Mountain stream systems on both sides of the continental divide, varying the type of precipitation (rain vs. snow) and the amount of energy (temperature) in the system. The answer, they found, depends less on how water enters the stream watershed, and more on how it leaves.
Climate change can affect mountain streams in two major ways: By raising the overall temperature—increasing evapotranspiration (water lost from both soil and plants)—and by shifting the precipitation from snow to rain. Both impacts could significantly alter the amount of water in a stream watershed and the amount that reaches cities downstream.
So why try to separate the influence of the two factors? “As the climate becomes increasingly more variable, we need to provide water resource managers with specific guidance on how individual warm or wet years, which may not coincide, will influence water supply,” says Brooks. Hydrologists often construct water budgets to account for all the ways water enters and leaves a system. In the case of a mountain stream, water enters as precipitation, but only a portion of this water leaves as streamflow.
In the simulations, when precipitation was changed from snow to rain, the water that would have been stored as snow ran off into the stream faster, decreasing overall streamflow. But warming the systems by 4 degrees Celsius resulted in more evapotranspiration, enough that groundwater had to support streamflow an entire season earlier—beginning in summer rather than in fall—suggesting that warmer temperatures may have more impact on streams.
The effects of these two climate change effects may vary with location, and the results need to be confirmed in real-life environments, but the research helps scientists gain a clearer picture of the future of water, especially in the mountainous west.
The full study can be found here. See the researchers further explain the study here.
Should Pregnant Women get Flu Shots?
Flu season is approaching, and many pregnant women may be wondering if they should get a flu shot. A new U study shows that getting the flu vaccination while pregnant can significantly reduce the risk of infants getting influenza during their first six months of life. The authors of the study declare that the need for getting more pregnant women immunized is a public health priority.
“Babies cannot be immunized during their first six months, so they must rely on others for protection from the flu during that time,” says the study’s lead author, Julie H. Shakib, University of Utah School of Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics. Influenza results in thousands of deaths each year in the U.S, and pregnant women and young infants are among those at highest risk for dying from flu.
In the study published in Pediatrics online last May, Shakib and colleagues reported that infants age 6 months and younger whose mothers were vaccinated when pregnant had a 70 percent reduction in laboratory-confirmed flu cases and an 80 percent reduction in flu-related hospitalizations compared with babies whose moms weren’t immunized. Health records showed that 97 percent of laboratory-confirmed flu cases occurred in infants whose moms were not immunized against the disease while pregnant.
Chris Pantelides (Photo by Dan Hixson/U College of Engineering)
In just 30 seconds, a devastating earthquake can render a city helpless. With roadways split and bridges severely damaged, residents and emergency personnel can be prevented from moving around to rebuild.
Normally, it takes weeks to repair the cracking or spalling of columns on just one bridge damaged in an earthquake. But a team of researchers led by University of Utah civil and environmental engineering professor Chris Pantelides has developed a new process of fixing columns that takes as little as a few days.
“With this design and process, it is much easier and faster for engineers and crews to rebuild a city ravaged by an earthquake so that critical roadways remain open for emergency vehicles,” Pantelides says. The process is outlined in a recent paper published in the ACI Structural Journal.
Some 252 million years ago, a series of Siberian volcanoes erupted and sent the Earth into the greatest mass extinction of all time. As a result of this, billions of tons of carbon entered the atmosphere, radically altering the Earth’s climate. Yet some animals thrived in the aftermath, and scientists now know how.
In a new study published in Scientific Reports, a team of international paleontologists, including postdoctoral scholar Adam Huttenlocker of the U’s Natural History Museum of Utah, demonstrate that ancient mammal relatives known as therapsids adjusted to the drastic climate change by becoming smaller, breeding at younger ages, and having shorter lifespans than their predecessors.
In this study, special attention was paid to the genus Lystrosaurus because of its success in surviving the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction; it dominated ecosystems across the globe for millions of years during the post-extinction recovery period. “Therapsid fossils like Lystrosaurus are important because they teach us about the resilience of our own extinct relatives in the face of extinction, and provide clues to which traits conferred success on lineages during this turbulent time,” says Huttenlocker.
This change in breeding behavior and species size is not isolated to ancient animals. For example, in the past century, the Atlantic cod has undergone a similar change as industrial fishing has removed most large individuals from the population, shifting the average size of cod significantly downward. Likewise, the remaining individuals are forced to breed as early in their lives as possible.
U scientists have found a way to make HIV turn on itself, promising the potential, in about a decade, for new kinds of AIDS drugs with fewer side effects.
When new HIV particles bud from an infected cell, an enzyme named protease activates to help the viruses mature and infect more cells. That’s why modern AIDS drugs control the disease by inhibiting protease. But: “We could use the power of the protease itself to destroy the virus,” says virologist Saveez Saffarian, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the U and an investigator with the USTAR economic development initiative, and senior author of the study published in PLOS Pathogens.
So-called cocktails or mixtures of protease inhibitors emerged in the 1990s and turned acquired immune deficiency syndrome into a chronic, manageable disease for people who can afford the medicines. But side effects include diarrhea, nausea, rash, stomach pain, liver toxicity, and diabetes. “And the virus becomes resistant to the inhibitors,” says Mourad Bendjennat, a U research assistant professor of physics and astronomy and the study’s first author. “That’s why they use cocktails.”
Life was not easy for American women coming of age in the 1930s. Just as the impacts of World War I were fading, the Great Depression began to take hold. “During those years, there were very few opportunities for women,” says U alumna Leslee Anderson Bond BA’39, known as Elma Anderson when she was a U student. “It was a bleak world with no promising future ahead.”
Leslee’s parents were educated and thoughtful—her mother was a teacher, and her father attended college—but, like so many other Americans, they had hit hard times. The family moved often—from Elsinore, Utah, where Leslee was born in 1915, to the Uinta Basin; Soda Springs, Idaho; and Salt Lake City, where she attended West High. “There wasn’t government help for people who were swept under the rug,” she says. “There were no jobs, unless you were rich and had connections, so my folks moved back to Elsinore.”
Leslee “Elma” Anderson Bond in the U’s 1939 Utonian yearbook.
As a child, Leslee was imaginative and loved telling stories. “My family and friends predicted I was going to be a writer. That became my inner wish, my mantra,” she says. “But how was I going to go to a university when my family couldn’t help pay for it?” Fortunately, she was able to earn about $46 cleaning motel rooms in Elsinore during the summer before she started at the U. “My mother made me a skirt from a pair of my dad’s old trousers, a cousin gave me a blouse she was discarding, and a friend gave me a free ride back to Salt Lake,” she recalls. “That and a small scholarship from West High and my family’s prayers gave me the courage to try for a college education and a job as a teacher.”
Once in Salt Lake, she procured a place to work for room and board and got a job on campus, earning enough to cover her tuition, books, and other expenses. “Thank God for our wonderful President Roosevelt,” she says. Leslee credits his programs, supervised at the U by Myrtle Austin, dean of women, with making it possible for thousands of students to work on campus and pay for school.
As a freshman in 1934, Leslee took a geology class from Frederick J. Pack, a well-known geologist. He became her favorite professor. She vividly remembers her first exam in his class. “I was an avid reader of the textbook, and by my standards, I prepared myself very well for that first big test,” she says. “When he gave the exam, I knew all the answers, and wrote and wrote. I was sure it was an A paper.” It came back as a D paper. “Most of us in the class did poorly,” she recalls. “He explained how we didn’t properly evaluate how to read the questions and so we didn’t know how to properly answer them.” Pack’s explanation helped Leslee in all her classes throughout college. “He taught me how to read and take a test,” she says, “I loved his class.”
The following year, Leslee found part-time work at the U’s newly completed library in the George Thomas Building on Presidents Circle (then called the Horseshoe). At the time, Thomas was president of the U. “The first year, I dusted and shelved the books. The second year, I worked in the circulation department. The third year, my duties expanded to include working in the reserves,” she says. “I felt like I was running the library.”
During the time Leslee was a student at the U, from 1934 to 1939, in addition to the George Thomas library building, 61 acres were added to campus from Fort Douglas Reservation (1934); the Graduate School of Social Work was organized (1937); and Carlson Hall (1938) and the Mines Building (1939) were erected. Of the buildings, just the George Thomas remains (and it is currently undergoing a major renovation to house the new Crocker Science Center) .
Leslee graduated in 1939 with a bachelor’s degree in English and got a job organizing a high school library in Salina, Utah. When World War II broke out, she moved to Santa Monica, California, to work for the war effort. Later, she returned to being a librarian and worked at public libraries in Santa Monica, including at a technical library for RCA. She married twice, and has four daughters, four granddaughters, and eight great-grandchildren. Today, Leslee lives in an assisted living community for seniors north of San Francisco.
“Those years I spent at the U were my growing years. The friendships with professors and instructors gave me new depth and understanding,” says Leslee. “It’s where I learned about the possibilities of life and formed a positive philosophy that still carries me forward, even at age 101.”
Alumni Board Welcomes Four New Directors
The Alumni Association has added four new members to its board of directors, as well as electing new presidents for three of the board’s five affiliates. The new directors are Pam Clawson BS’91 MPA’96, Dave Gessel BS’83, Alise Orlandi BS’89, and Ross Romero BS’93.
Pam Clawson
Clawson received both her bachelor’s degree and master’s of public administration from the U. She works as an executive recruiter for Recruiting Connection and serves on the board of the University Hospital Foundation.
Dave Gessel
Gessel graduated from the U with a degree in political science and went on to get his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1991. A former member of the Beehive Honor Society board, he is an attorney with the Utah Hospital Association.
Alise Orlandi
Orlandi received a bachelor’s degree in finance from the U. A former member of the association’s L.A. Chapter board, she is currently a homemaker and volunteer with PTA boards and the Junior League of Salt Lake City.
Ross Romero
Romero received a bachelor’s degree from the U in political science and a law degree from the University of Michigan. A former member of the association’s Young Alumni and Beehive boards, he is a banker at Zions Bank.
The new presidents of the affiliated boards are Shauna Young BS’64, Emeritus Alumni Board; Brian Rosander BS’01 JD’05, Young Alumni Board; and Daniel Folsom, Student Alumni Board. While the Beehive Honor Society is now a committee rather than an affiliated board, its new chair Sammy Fan BS’02 MAcc’05 will also serve on the association’s board of directors.
Friendly Faces to Greet Visiting Football Fans
A group of Ute fans were so impressed with Notre Dame’s warm welcome to their football stadium in 2010, they initiated efforts to create a U Alumni Ambassador football program to do the same for visiting fans at Rice- Eccles Stadium. The program is taking off this fall, thanks to Alumni Emeritus Board members Mary Thornton BS’71 and Jim Cannon BA’68 (board president) and the director of guest services for Rice-Eccles, Dave Wakefield BA’05. Identifiable by their bright green vests, 80 Alumni Ambassadors are expected to greet and assist visitors at this season’s home games. To find out more, visit alumni.utah.edu/ambassadors.
Parker Ence HBS’11 was only 9 years old, but he still remembers his first experience at the University of Utah’s Alumni House. “My cousins and I were playing hide-and-seek when we should have been listening to speeches and toasts at my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration.” Parker didn’t realize the significance of his grandfather choosing to have the party at the Alumni House until he was much older. “I learned that after serving in World War II, my grandfather didn’t have the financial resources to finish his undergraduate degree at the U,” Parker explains. “He returned to school later, and ended up earning his degree at age 40. In fact, he and his oldest daughter, my Aunt Karen, walked at Commencement together.”
Since that night, Parker has added many more memories of his own associated with the Alumni House. “As president of the Student Alumni Board, I schemed ways to beat BYU in our annual food drive competition, helped grow the prestige of The MUSS, and planned Homecoming and many other events,” he recalls. Since 1980, the Alumni House—located at 155 S. Central Campus Drive—has been the on-campus home for alumni such as Parker and his family as well as students and the community. It is also the headquarters for the U’s Alumni Association, which connects the U with more than 265,000 alumni worldwide through a variety of services:
• Engages 17 national alumni chapters and 12 international alumni clubs.
• Raises more than $550,000 each year in student scholarships.
• Runs The MUSS, the U’s famed 6,000-member student athletics fan club.
• Organizes one of the largest annual food drives in the state for the Utah Food Bank.
• Produces and distributes some 270,000 issues annually of Continuum magazine as well as a monthly e-newsletter and various email updates.
• Provides career coaching and professional development opportunities.
Spencer F. Eccles (far left) led the successful campaign to raise funds for the original Alumni House, which opened with this ribbon-cutting ceremony in 1980. Also pictured, from left to right: Afton B. Bradshaw, R.J. Snow, Howard A. Jorgensen, U President David P. Gardner, Anne Decker, and D. Brent Scott.
The Alumni House has also served as a meeting and gathering place, hosting more than 500 alumni, campus, and community events every year. It is the venue for awards ceremonies, conferences, campus orientations, service projects, MUSS ticket distribution, and wedding receptions.
With a nearly 40 percent increase in the student population since 1980, entry into the Pac-12, and the U’s growing national and international reputation, the Alumni House can no longer keep up with internal and external demands. A major expansion and renovation is currently under way, thanks to a $4 million lead gift from the Spencer F. and Cleone Peterson Eccles family, and the generosity of other supporters including the O.C. Tanner Charitable Trust, Kem (BA’67 JD’70) and Carolyn Gardner, the Zeke and Kay Dumke family, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, and Jeff (BS’80) and Helen Cardon.
The new facility will be named in honor of Cleone Peterson Eccles BS’57, an active U alumna and benefactor, former vice president of the Alumni Association, and a 10-year member of the U’s Board of Trustees. In the 1970s, her husband Spencer F. Eccles BS’56 led the successful campaign to raise funds for the original Alumni House. “This gift brings the ongoing, generous involvement of the Spence and Cleone Eccles family ‘full circle’ with our Alumni Association,” says Alumni Association Executive Director M. John Ashton BS’66 JD’69.
The new Cleone Peterson Eccles Alumni House belongs to all graduates and friends of the U. It will serve as a new home for generations of Utah alumni. “My closest and most lasting college relationships were forged because of connections I made at the Alumni House,” Parker continues, “including meeting my wife, Laci, and getting my first real job. Although my career has taken our family to Dallas, Texas, the bonds created through the Alumni Association remain strong.”
All alumni and friends are invited to participate in this exciting building transformation as we seek to reach our $10 million fundraising goal. This is a unique moment in the history of the U and the Alumni Association, and a unique opportunity to make your mark or pay tribute to a loved one or mentor. For more information or to make your gift, visit alumni.utah.edu/transformation or call 801-585-9021.
John S. Edwards BS’63 has been inducted into the National Army ROTC Hall of Fame. He is a distinguished alumnus of the U’s Army ROTC program and a longtime journalist. After taking command of an Armored Cavalry Reconnaissance Platoon in the 1960s, Edwards led surveillance and security missions along the east-west German border in the strategic Fulda Gap. After being honorably released from active duty, he commanded a tank company of the 81st Tank Battalion at Fort Douglas, Utah. His 30-year career in broadcast journalism began in Salt Lake City at KUTV. He spent 15 years as news director at KTVX and six years with the U’s Health Sciences Development Office as a director of major gifts and communications. Edwards received a bachelor’s degree in communication and journalism from the U. He is serving his 14th year as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for Utah and his 13th year as a member of the U’s Veterans Day Committee.
1970s
Mike Gloor MS’76, Nebraska state senator, has received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D. Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health. The award recognizes outstanding innovation, collaboration, and impact on health promotion, disease prevention, and public health. Gloor is a champion of public health practices and policies that help decrease and prevent smoking. Prior to joining the legislature, Gloor was president and chief executive officer of St. Francis Medical Center and chairman of the Nebraska Hospital Association. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1972 from Hastings College, a master’s degree in human resource management from the U, and a second master’s degree in 1987 from the University of Minnesota.
1980s
Julia Bailey-Serres BS’81, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the academy is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Bailey- Serres was recognized for her excellence in original scientific research, and specifically for her role in the discovery and characterization of a gene that allows rice to survive under water. That gene has subsequently been introduced through breeding by the International Rice Research Institute and others, creating flood-tolerant rice varieties that are grown by more than five million farmers in flood-prone areas of Asia. Bailey- Serres received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of Science at the University of Utah, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. She has been a member of the faculty at UC Riverside since 1990.
Jill E. CarterHBA’80 MPA’82 received the Ted Herbert Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Administration from the Utah Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. The award recognizes Carter’s significant contributions to public administration that have helped make Utah a better state. As one of the principal creators of the Certified Public Manager Program in Utah, Carter was on the team that developed the original curriculum and taught it for many years. She has been a stand-out leader for strengthening the human resource management functions in city, county, and state government, and has taught numerous courses in human resource management for the U. Carter currently is director of human resources for Questar Corporation and continues to teach human resource courses in the U’s master’s in public administration program and Continuing Education department.
1990s
Jennifer Robinson BS’98 MPA’01 PhD’10 was honored with the David Eccles Award for Leadership. Robinson serves as associate director in the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the U. She also holds community leadership roles with groups including the Utah Commission on Women and the Economy (a gubernatorial appointment), the U’s Veterans Day Committee, and the Salt Lake Chamber Capitol Club. She is a frequent advisor to legislators, local elected officials, and senior public employees. In her role at the Gardner Institute, she has worked for the past three years to build critical relationships with stakeholders across campus, locally, and statewide. Robinson received a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in public administration, and a doctorate in political science, all from the U’s College of Social and Behavioral Science.
2010s
Cody Broderick MS’15, co-founder and CEO of the translation services company “inwhatlanguage,” has been named Emerging Executive of the Year by the Utah Technology Council, a professional association for high-tech industries. Using their proprietary cloud-based translation management system Unify, Broderick and his team provide businesses with opportunities to reach their target audience in more than 160 languages, across virtually any platform and any file format. As an industry leader for the past 10 years, Broderick has shown a strong understanding of quality translations and software development. He received his master’s degree in information technology from the U.
From left to right (foreground), Dr. Jewel Samadder; Vice President Joe Biden; Jon Huntsman, Jr.; Senator Orrin Hatch; and Dr. Mary Beckerle. Photo courtesy AJF Photography.
Vice President Joe Biden Seeks Input
at Huntsman Cancer Institute
The Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) hosted Vice President Joe Biden in February, taking him on a facilities tour and giving him a chance to discuss eradicating cancer with other local leaders.
During his visit, the vice president got an inside look at the Utah Population Database and participated in a roundtable discussion with Huntsman Cancer Foundation board chairman Jon Huntsman, Jr.; CEO and director of HCI Dr. Mary Beckerle; Senator Orrin Hatch; and local cancer survivors and physicians.
HCI manages the largest genetics database in the world, with more than 22 million records linked to genealogies, health records, and vital statistics. Biden expressed a desire to figure out how this and other models of excellence created here could be reproduced. “If this could be a model that would be replicated throughout the country and the world, I honest to God believe that we would make exponential progress,” he said.
The vice president’s visit was part of a national “listening tour” of the nation’s top cancer institutes. Biden heads up the White House‘s “Moonshot” initiative to double the rate of progress toward curing cancer. In April, Beckerle was invited to participate in the Moonshot initiative as a member of a new Blue Ribbon Panel tasked with advising the National Cancer Advisory Board.
The fight against cancer is both a public and personal quest for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer last year.
NBA-Bound Jakob Poeltl Named Pac-12 Player of the Year
Jakob Poeltl in action against Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 11. Photo courtesy Utah Athletics Communications.
The decision last year to put off the NBA draft to play another season paid off for both Jakob Poeltl and the Runnin’ Utes basketball team. In March, Poeltl was named Pac-12 Player of the Year. Teammate Brandon Taylor also received recognition as Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of Year. Both players helped lead Utah to a 24–7 overall record and 13–5 league mark that earned the Utes second place in the Pac-12 standings for the second straight season.
Poeltl, a sophomore from Austria, averaged 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds, and shot 66 percent from the field during the regular season. Standing seven feet tall, Poeltl is the ninth Ute to win a conference player of the year award in men’s basketball, and the first in the Pac-12 era. He ended the regular season as the league’s No. 2 scorer, No. 3 rebounder, and No. 5 shot-blocker.
Poeltl is also the recipient of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for being the best center in men’s college basketball. He was selected as the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year, and named as an All-American by the AP, CBS Sports, ESPN, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, and USA Today.
In April, Poeltl announced that he’s entering the NBA draft. “Staying a second year made me a better player,” he says. “But I know now that declaring for the draft is the best thing for my career at this point.” In a gesture to say both goodbye and thank you, the U framed his jersey (No. 42) as a keepsake and presented it to Poeltl at the press conference where he made the announcement.
U Forms First Regional School of Dance
In July, the departments of Ballet and Modern Dance will unite to form the first School of Dance in the Intermountain region and one of only a handful across the nation. Housed under this new administrative structure, the individual disciplines of ballet and modern dance will continue their esteemed legacies, with expanded opportunities for collaboration.
“Our two dance disciplines have a long tradition of excellence and prominence here in the state and across the world,” says College of Fine Arts Dean Raymond Tymas-Jones. “The world of dance has evolved dramatically since the departments’ founding 60 years ago… this structural shift is necessary for the next iteration of our legacy of success.”
The most significant change will be seen on the administrative side. The new structure preserves the individuality of each discipline and facilitates greater interdisciplinary education and research opportunities across multiple dance genres. The School of Dance will continue to award degrees, certificates, and minors in the specialized disciplines of ballet and modern dance.
This change comes after several years of thoughtful discussion and with support of the faculties of the two disciplines. It will be the second school in the College of Fine Arts, joining the School of Music alongside the departments of Art & Art History, Film & Media Arts, and Theatre.
New Dean Takes the Reins at School of Dentistry
The University of Utah welcomes Wyatt Rory Hume as the new dean of the School of Dentistry. Hume has led dental schools and served in top posts at universities in Australia, the Middle East, and the University of California school system for more than 30 years.
“Dr. Hume brings a depth and breadth of international experience as a leader that is both rare and impressive,” says Vivian S. Lee, Utah’s senior vice president for health sciences and CEO of University Health Care. “I look forward to seeing him lead us to become a top-10 program in the next decade.”
Hume received his dental and doctoral degrees from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and then went to the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology. “This is a unique and very appealing opportunity to continue the process of building a great school of dentistry within the vibrant and successful academic and health care environment that exists at the University of Utah,” says Hume.
The School of Dentistry welcomed its first class in August 2013 and moved into its new facility, the Ray and Tye Noorda Oral Health Sciences Building, in April 2015. The school’s first class graduates in 2017.
Guggenheim Fellowships Awarded to Two Humanities Professors
Nadja Durbach
Melanie Rae Thon
Two University of Utah professors received 2016 fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nadja Durbach, professor of history, received an award for European and Latin American history, and Melanie Rae Thon, professor of English, was recognized in the field of fiction writing.
Created in 1925, the Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to those who have made impressive accomplishments in their respective fields and exhibit exceptional promise for the future. For 2016, the foundation received nearly 3,000 applications. “The Guggenheim Fellowship is among the most prestigious forms of recognition available to scholars,” says Dianne Harris, dean of the College of Humanities.
Durbach is a historian of modern Britain who specializes in the history of the body. Educated at the University of British Columbia and Johns Hopkins University, she joined the U in 2000. During her Guggenheim Fellowship, Durbach will be working on a monograph titled “Many Mouths: State-Feeding in Britain from the Workhouse to the Welfare State.”
As a teacher and writer, Thon is devoted to the celebration of diversity from a multitude of perspectives by interrogating the repercussions of exile, slavery, habitat loss, genocide, and extirpation. Her most recent books are Silence & Song and The 7th Man. She is also the author of the novels The Voice of the River, Sweet Hearts, Meteors in August, and Iona Moon.
Law Dean Runs 100-Mile Race for New Initiative
Kudos to Dean Bob Adler for completing a 100-mile race in April to raise scholarship funds and awareness for the College of Law’s 100/100 initiative. The initiative sets an ambitious goal of attaining 100 percent bar passage for first-time takers and 100 percent full-time professional employment for new graduates. Adler blogged about his training for months, challenging the community to get involved in the initiative. Several students accompanied Adler during the last eight miles of the race, which took place just outside of Zion National Park.
Photo courtesy Sanford Meek.
U Sponsors Raging Robotics War
In March, the Maverik Center in West Valley City was turned into a giant robotics battlefield with blockades, catapults, and cardboard castles. The U’s College of Engineering sponsored the 2016 Utah Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, which attracted more than 40 high school teams from 12 states and Canada. The teams had two months to design and create robots to specific standards and then two days to battle it out. The event, which saw more than 5,000 people in attendance this year, is designed to get kids interested in engineering, programming, and science.
Cervical cancer is almost eradicated in the developed world, where detection is made quickly and treatments are readily available. But in the developing world, where doctors and equipment are scarce, many more women die of the disease—as many as 90 percent of the 250,000 women who die of it annually worldwide. A cross-disciplinary team of University of Utah students hopes to solve this problem with a new handheld treatment device, Cinluma. The team just became the World Health Organization lead for cervical cancer and received a new $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.
“Cervical cancer stays precancerous for 10–20 years, but once it becomes cancer, it becomes very aggressive and few survive,” says Tim Pickett MS’15 (bioengineering), one of the students on the team. “Because of the ‘grace period,’ it’s basically curable in the developed world.”
Cinluma, which looks much like an ordinary battery-powered drill with a heating element on the end, applies heat to the cervix and, in just 45 seconds, eliminates lesions before they can become cancer. Unlike other treatments on the market, the device is inexpensive, reusable, and battery-powered, so doctors don’t need a stable source of electricity.
“The University of Utah is a global leader in medical innovation, and we are proud to carry on this tradition,” says team mentor John Langell MBA’13, a surgeon, assistant professor in the U School of Medicine, and director of the Center for Medical Innovation. “What is most impressive is the foundation for technology acceleration we have created at the U. Through resources like the Crocker Innovation and Design Lab, where Cinluma was conceived and created, we took this technology from concept to full FDA filing in just seven months, something unheard of even at the largest international medical technology companies.”
Others on the Cinluma team include Kristopher Loken MBA’15 MS’15 (bioengineering); surgical residents Jennwood Chen and Sarah Lombardo; multidisciplinary design student Brian Charlesworth; and medical students Ashley Trane BS’10 and Ashley Langell BS’11, daughter of mentor John. “I learned about bioinnovation through my father before ever starting medical school and used to attend the B2B competitions to see what new projects students were coming up with,” Ashley notes. “Once I got into med school, I became involved myself, and it just seemed natural to have my dad as one of my team mentors.” Other team mentors included Dean Wallace MD’87 PhD’82, a doctor and entrepreneur who first identified the need to find a better treatment for cervical cancer in developing countries.
Cinluma is now managed by Wallace’s company, Cure Medical, and clinical studies on the device will soon begin at the U. The company has made a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell the device and has filed for a U.S. patent on the device’s portability. It is also working on the same protection in the European Union.
Student Finds New Snake in Ethiopia
U biology doctoral student Evan Buechley and colleagues have helped discover a new species of snake inside Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park. The new viper species is called Bitis harenna after the Harenna Forest in Bale Mountains where Buechley first photographed the black-colored snake with pale-yellowish markings. The journal Zootaxa recently published a study on the team’s findings.
Invention Designed to Revolutionize Water Usage
After three years and four prototypes, student start-up SenseTech and its creator Jacob Harris won $5,000 and first place in the 2016 University of Utah Opportunity Quest (OQ) business-plan competition in February.
SenseTech records soil, air, temperature, and moisture data through six solarpowered sensors, then sends the information to a user’s smartphone or computer to help guide optimal watering. By providing information on exactly when, where, and how much to water, the start-up has the potential to vastly improve water usage at golf courses, city parks, farms, and even by agencies such as the U.S. Geological Service.
“The broad plan with this money is to grow SenseTech and make a bigger difference in the world,” says Harris, who grew up in a farming community in rural northern Utah. “I will use this money to further develop our backend analytics database, as well as expand our beta-testing program.” Harris is currently pursuing both an MBA and a master’s in mechanical engineering at the U.
As the grand prize winner at OQ, Harris garnered a $5,000 grant from Zions Bank, $2,000 of in-kind prizes, and connections and pitch consulting opportunities with industry professionals who judged the competition. SenseTech competed against other student companies such as Aura Optics, the second-place start-up (which creates customizable high-performance snow goggles with interchangeable lenses and straps), and Peke-Buo, the third-place company that created a unique, clutch-style kit to streamline changing diapers.
New Material Could Make Electronics 100X Faster
Ashutosh Tiwari
University of Utah engineers have discovered a new kind of 2D semiconducting material for electronics that opens the door for much speedier computers and smartphones that also consume a lot less power.
The semiconductor, made of the elements tin and oxygen, is a layer of 2D material only one atom thick, allowing electrical charges to move through it much faster than conventional 3D materials such as silicon. Transistors made with this material could lead to computers, processors, and smartphones that are more than 100 times faster than regular devices.
The material was discovered by a team led by Ashutosh Tiwari, a U materials science and engineering associate professor. A paper describing the research was the cover story in February in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials. The paper was co-authored by U materials science and engineering doctoral students K. J. Saji and Kun Tian, and Michael Snure BS’04 PhD’09, a former doctoral student of Tiwari now with the Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Lab near Dayton, Ohio. Tiwari’s team has recently started a collaborative research program with the lab.
While researchers in this field have recently discovered other new types of 2D material, these materials allow only the movement of N-type, or negative, electrons. To create an electronic device, the material must allow the movement of both negative electrons and positive charges known as “holes.” The tin monoxide material discovered by Tiwari and his team is the first stable P-type 2D semiconductor material ever in existence.
U students now field not one but two teams for quidditch, the part rugby, part basketball, all magical sport inspired by the Harry Potter books. Though they are “muggles” (nonmagical folk, in the Pottersphere), the full-contact sport’s co-ed teams play while straddling makeshift “brooms” (typically, decorated PVC pipes) just as its fictional flying players do. And despite the sport’s origins, the players often take the real-world game quite seriously. The U’s Crimson Elite and Crimson Fliers usually practice at Reservoir Park, just west of campus, and any U student is welcome to come try the game before committing to joining the team. Visit “Utah Quidditch” on Facebook to learn more.
Spring Awards Honor Playoff Pac Founder and Global Health Advocate
The Alumni Association presented more than $500,000 in student scholarships and recognized both an outstanding young alumnus and an exceptional student adviser at its Spring Awards on April 6. The Young Alumni Board presented its Par Excellence Award to Matthew Sanderson BA’05 in recognition of his outstanding professional achievements and service to the community and the University of Utah. The Perlman Award was presented to Stephen Alder PhD’02 for exemplifying excellence in student counseling.
Sanderson is perhaps best known among college football fans as the lawyer who co-founded the Playoff PAC, a political action committee formed to lobby on behalf of a college football playoff. Playoff PAC was nominated in 2011 for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award for its work to bring down college football’s unpopular former postseason system, the Bowl Championship Series. Sanderson, along with the rest of The Colbert Report team, also received the Peabody Award in 2012 for efforts related to television personality Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC.
After graduating from the U, Sanderson obtained his law degree from Vanderbilt University in 2008. He works as a member in the Political Law Practice Group of Washington, D.C., law firm Caplin & Drysdale. He advises major corporations, political committees, and advocacy groups on campaign finance, ethics, and lobbying rules. He has served as general or legal counsel on campaigns for Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and John McCain. Sanderson is also a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law and a trustee of the American Council of Young Political Leaders.
Alder is a professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and chief of the Division of Public Health at the U. Since joining the university in 1995 as a founding member of the Health Research Center, he has been active in various forms of clinical and population- based research. As the faculty advisor for Global Health Scholars in the Honors College since 2009, Alder has mentored, taught, and counseled thousands of students in majors impacting global health issues.
He has also been instrumental in initiating the University’s Global Public Learning Abroad programs wherein students from a variety of disciplines participate in community-engaged scholarship around the world. Alder is also working to develop a Junior Global Health Scholars program for high school students.
Alder has had a vast and positive influence on countless students and communities. He is president of the Association of Accredited Public Health Programs, chief science officer for the developing Institute for Health Care Transformation, and a member of the Framing the Future: The Second 100 Years of Education for Public Health Task Force.
Alumni Association News
New editor at the helm of Continuum: The Alumni Association welcomes a new alumni relations director and editor of Continuum magazine, J. Melody Murdock. A Utah native, Murdock brings with her 16 years of editorial, marketing, and public relations experience, including more than a decade working and teaching in higher education. “I began my career in alumni relations, and I’m thrilled to have come full circle,” she says. A self-proclaimed “wordie,” Murdock says this job combines the two elements she is most passionate about professionally—higher education, and clear and compelling writing. “Effective communication usually boils down to good storytelling,” she says. “And the U has a bounty of great stories to tell.” What you can’t learn about Murdock from her LinkedIn profile is that she also loves a good Red Butte Garden concert, breakfast at Eva’s Bakery in Salt Lake City, or a weekend reprieve in Utah’s San Rafael Swell. She welcomes feedback, ideas, and engagement from alumni, and thanks the U community for the warm welcome.
MUSS founder receives outstanding adviser award: John Fackler BS’89 BS’94 MprA’95, director of the Student Alumni Board (SAB) and founder and adviser of The MUSS student athletics fan club, has won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) award for Outstanding Adviser in District VII. “I nominated John because he is the epitome of great leadership, great dedication, and great passion when it comes to the SAB and the MUSS Board,” says Mary Neville, former SAB president. “He is always there if a student is in need. He is a mentor, a leader, a role model, and a friend.”
Fackler won the district award in 2012—and likely would have won several more times if not for CASE instituting the “Fackler rule,” which limits winners from winning in consecutive years. He won the national award in 2004 and 2007.
Nominated by the students he works with, the award shows his achievement in not only running the organizations (there are now more than 6,000 students in The MUSS) but also creating lasting relationships with the students. “I’ve bamboozled the students into nominating me,” Fackler says.
In April, he was also honored with the 2015-16 Olpin University Union Outstanding Service Award, for supporting the Union and offering his services to help make it the hub of campus.
Save the Date for Homecoming 2016
Oct. 1-9:For a list of events for Homecoming 2016, visit the Alumni Association’s website at alumni.utah.edu/homecoming.
As you sit by the pool or under a shade tree this summer, why not pick up a book written by one of our own? These University of Utah grads and profs have written about everything from their personal experience with dating to the history of tequila.
DREAM HOUSE ON GOLAN DRIVE by David G. Pace MA’94
At age 11, Riley Hartley finds himself reexamining his relationship to his family, his Mormon faith, and his community. His quirky new friend Lucy claims she is divinely inspired and acts as a guide on his journey of self-discovery. The story flips the Mormon cultural expectations upside down with both heartache and humor (rated 5 stars on Amazon).
THE LATE MATTHEW BROWN by Paul Ketzle PhD’04, associate professor in the Honors College
In this satire of race, bureaucracy, and the struggle to build meaningful relationships, Matthew Brown is a rising star in the “New South” political machine, the newly discovered father to a smart-aleck 12-year-old daughter, and (in his own opinion) a complete fraud (rated 4.5 stars on Amazon).
HOW TO RAISE A WILD CHILD: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF FALLING IN LOVE WITH NATURE by Scott D. Sampson, former U professor and curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah
Sampson, host of PBS Kids’ Dinosaur Train, details studies about how nature can relieve stress, depression, and attention deficits, while helping emotional development (rated 4.5 stars on Amazon).
¡TEQUILA! DISTILLING THE SPIRIT OF MEXICO by Marie Sarita Gaytán, U assistant professor of sociology and gender studies
Tequila is Mexico’s signature drink—the one that represents its culture. In this historical and anthropological analysis of its use in Mexican society, Gaytán features colorful historical characters like Pancho Villa and Jose Cuervo to illustrate the importance of tequila (rated 4.5 stars on Amazon).
SPEAKERS OF THE DEAD: A WALT WHITMAN MYSTERY by J. Aaron Sanders BA’98 MFA’01
This mystery novel stars a reimagined Walt Whitman during his reporter days, determined to get justice for a woman who was wrongly hanged for the murder of her husband. The book also features 1840s medical scientists, and the dangerous underworld of body snatchers who provide them with their cadavers (rated 4.5 stars on Amazon).
MY UNSENTIMENTAL EDUCATION by Debra Monroe PhD’90
A memoir about a woman who wants to be a housewife but finds that circumstances and a string of bad dating choices send her down a different path. At times ridiculous, but always self-aware, Monroe’s story is funny and brutally honest (rated 5 stars on Amazon)
Thanks to a generous gift from the Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles family, the University of Utah Alumni Association is well on its way to realizing a much-anticipated transformation of its 36-year-old Alumni House into a more spacious, multi-functional facility. The renovation will nearly double the size of the building and triple its current capacity to serve the University community and its alumni.
The redesigned facility will be named to honor the life and memory of Cleone Peterson Eccles BS’57, who was an active U alumna, benefactor, and volunteer leader. Cleone, who lost her battle with cancer in 2013, was a former vice president of the Alumni Association and a 10-year member of the University’s Board of Trustees. She also served her alma mater for many years through her service on the boards of KUED, the College of Nursing, and Red Butte Garden.
Cleone Peterson Eccles
“Beginning with our U student days, when Cleone and I first met, our family’s affection for our alma mater and our interest in its progress and success has never wavered,” says Spencer F. Eccles BS’56. “The Alumni Association has been at the heart of our involvement in many ways.” Today, the Eccles family tradition of active service at the U is carried on by their four children, all alumni, including C. Hope Eccles JD’86 (B.A., Stanford University), Lisa Eccles BA’86, Katie Eccles Burnett ex’86 (B.A. and J.D., Stanford), and Spencer Peterson Eccles BA’96 (MBA, Brigham Young University).
With an additional 17,000 square feet, the transformed alumni headquarters—already a popular gathering place in the heart of campus—will showcase enhanced programs and activities for alumni, students, faculty, The MUSS, other campus organizations, and the wider community.
“Our family is enthusiastic about the opportunities this offers the association’s staff and volunteers to engage today’s students and alumni worldwide in innovative new ways,” says Katie Eccles Burnett, former Young Alumni Board president. “The lifelong love and loyalty to the University among our alumni, continually strengthened by the Alumni Association, keeps the heartbeat of our alma mater strong and vibrant for the future.”
To date, the Alumni Association has raised more than $8.1 million toward the fundraising goal of $10 million, which includes the lead gift of $4 million from the Eccles family. Now in the midst of the public phase of the campaign, the association extends its sincere thanks to the Eccles family and additional generous donors who have committed early gifts to the project, including the O.C. Tanner Charitable Trust, Kem and Carolyn Gardner, the Zeke and Kay Dumke family, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, and Jeff and Helen Cardon, among others.
“We are deeply grateful to the Eccles family for this generous commitment to the University, its students, and alumni,” says Michele Mattsson, chair of the U’s Board of Trustees and the Alumni House Transformation Committee. “We are so pleased to pay tribute to Cleone’s legacy of service and generosity in this way. Spence and Cleone’s leadership helped make the original Alumni House a reality. Now, three decades later, their family is once again leading the way.”
Construction begins this summer, and the building will reopen in time for fall 2017 Homecoming activities. For more information about the Alumni House Transformation or to make a contribution, visit alumni.utah.edu/transformation.
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At age 11, Riley Hartley finds himself reexamining his relationship to his family, his Mormon faith, and his community. His quirky new friend Lucy claims she is divinely inspired and acts as a guide on his journey of self-discovery. The story flips the Mormon cultural expectations upside down with both heartache and humor (rated 5 stars on 
