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All posts by: Magazine Editor
Wilson '03, Ph.D., Touted as “Health Policy Powerhouse”
Kathleen Wilson ’03, Ph.D., policy sciences, is the new deputy director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Division of Nursing Homes. In a special profile following the appointment, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News described Wilson as a “health policy powerhouse.”
Read the full story here.
Wilson’s dissertation advisor at UMBC was Cheryl M. Miller, associate dean in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and associate professor of public policy. Miller told McKnight’s she was particularly impressed with Wilson’s ability to juggle her job, family and doctoral degree, saying, “She’s a great example of someone going back to school to become all that they can be.”
– Originally published on UMBC Insights
Wilson '03, Ph.D., Touted as “Health Policy Powerhouse”
Kathleen Wilson ’03, Ph.D., policy sciences, is the new deputy director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Division of Nursing Homes. In a special profile following the appointment, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News described Wilson as a “health policy powerhouse.”
Wilson’s dissertation advisor at UMBC was Cheryl M. Miller, associate dean in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and associate professor of public policy. Miller told McKnight’s she was particularly impressed with Wilson’s ability to juggle her job, family and doctoral degree, saying, “She’s a great example of someone going back to school to become all that they can be.”
Berlin '70, Books His Dream Job
After spending most of his career working in tech management in busy New York, Eduard Berlin ’70, history, is returning to Baltimore to pursue a different path entirely — a life of books.
“We’ve always been a book family,” said Berlin, who along with his wife Ann took ownership of Baltimore’s Ivy Bookshop — an independent shop focusing on literary works and author events — at the start of the year.
“We’re really, really grateful that (bookstore founder) Darielle (Linehan) has the confidence in us to take this on,” said Berlin, noting that his wife has worked in publishing for 30 years. “We’re very, very excited.”
Read the Baltimore Sun’s report on the Berlins and the Ivy Bookshop here.
A member of UMBC’s first graduating class, Berlin is a member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors and plans to get more involved with UMBC upon his return to Baltimore, he said.
Happy Holidays from UMBC!
From the entire UMBC community to you, our alumni, have a wonderful holiday season!
We hope you enjoy this short video featuring the UMBC Mama’s Boys singing “Let it Snow.”
Med Student Aranmolate '05 Publishes Novel
Author and medical student Sheg Aranmolate ’05 has released his second book, a novel set in the African savannah entitled Bountiful Famine.
The story follows a young man through the memories of his childhood on a subsistence farm after awaking in the dark bound, injured and afflicted with amnesia.
Aranmolate “hopes to transport readers into a unique world and reveal not only some of the suffering of Africans, but also some of the rich culture and the joyful moments that are shared with family and friends,” he said.
A medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN, Aranmolate earned his bachelors in biochemistry and molecular biology (with a minor in psychology) from UMBC in 2005. In 2008 he was featured on the ABC television show, Oprah’s Big Give and appeared twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
– Read more about Aranmolate here.
– View a Memphis television interview with Aranmolate here.
Shewbridge '80 and Class Collaborate to Tell Seniors' Stories
A recent collaboration between UMBC’s New Media Studio, headed by Bill Shewbridge ’80, history, and the Erickson School resulted in a digital storytelling project pairing university students with seniors at the Charlestown Retirement Community. Shewbridge, Director of the New Media Studio, noted that the participation of freshman in the course inspired the theme of life transitions, the Catonsville Times reported.
“You can’t tell your life story in three minutes,” Shewbridge said, but the results are compelling. “They’re all different. Some are funny. Some are poignant. But they all have their own value and their own message.”
The digital stories are now also online for public viewing.
Cangialosi '96, English, Aims To Help Start Up Start-Ups
Baltimore entrepreneur Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, has set his sights on helping new tech companies take off and fly.
The founder of Blue Sky Factory, a tech marketing firm Cangialosi founded in 2001 and sold this year, will team up with Sean Lane, chief executive of BTS Corp., a software company in Baltimore, the Baltimore Sun reports:
Their goal: Make small investments in several startups, germinate their own ideas, and help nurture the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“We want to bring in bright people who are running companies, to help give them a shot in the arm,” Cangialosi said.
A former member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors, Cangialosi has stayed involved with UMBC, most recently acting as a judge in the university’s entrepreneurially-inspired “IDEA competition.”
UMBC Student-Athletes Give Back to the Community
By Ashley Miller ’12, UMBC Athletic Communications Intern
UMBC student-athletes are devoted to giving back to both the campus and neighboring community. These young men and women make significant contributions to society as often as they can. Teams as well as individual student-athletes are involved in numerous charity and community organizations.
“UMBC Athletics is proud of the work our student-athletes do in the community,” said Kelly Fahey ’07, coordinator of student-athlete affairs at UMBC. “We are excited to further develop our relationships with the surrounding community and our partnerships with local organizations.”
This fall has been a busy semester for the Retrievers, as they raised money for various fundraisers, collected shoes for the less fortunate, and even met with younger children to discuss the importance of education and physical fitness.
Campus Innovations Draw Invitations from President Obama and Governor O’Malley
December 5, 2011 – UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski joined President Barack Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and a select group of higher education leaders at the White House today for a discussion on college affordability and productivity. And later this week, Dr. Hrabowski will be a featured panelist at Governor Martin O’Malley’s 2012 Symposium on Job Creation.
Both events demonstrate that the university’s innovative practices in teaching, research and entrepreneurship are widely respected models for promoting student success and creating a thriving economy.
President Obama has set a goal for the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates of any country in the world by 2020. The engagement of college leaders in a frank policy discussion today takes that college-completion push to a new level. Dr. Hrabowski participated with a group of leaders that also included University System of Maryland Chancellor William “Brit” Kirwan, the heads of the New York and Texas university systems, and the presidents of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
UMBC’s graduates are less likely to leave college with debt than their counterparts nationwide, and they are more likely to pursue advanced degrees. More African-American bachelor’s degree recipients go on from UMBC to earn Ph.D.’s in the STEM fields than from any other predominantly white university in the country. And redesigned courses at the university, in chemistry and psychology for example, have increased pass rates, increased average grades and dramatically reduced the number of students needing to repeat courses.
On Friday, President Hrabowski will join the Governor, business leaders and policy makers to discuss higher education partnerships that support innovation, company start-ups and job creation.
To read more about innovation at UMBC, please visit www.umbc.edu/innovate.
Alumni Help Judge UMBC Idea Competition
The Commons SportsZone was packed last month as finalists in UMBC’s 3rd annual Idea Competition — a bi-annual contest of entrepreneurial prowess — made their presentations to a panel of alumni judges and a standing room-only crowd of over 100 members of the UMBC community.
Forty ideas were originally submitted by students, with the top 10 selected for the final round. Winners were chosen by a combination of scores from the voting audience and the judging panel, consisting of three entrepreneurial alums: Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, CEO of Nucleus Ventures, LLC; Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, President of Fearless Solutions, LLC; and Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, CEO and President of Secured Sciences Group.
UMBC alumnus and judge Greg Cangialosi was inspired by the innovative ideas from the students. He says, “It is truly inspiring to come back to UMBC as an entrepreneur and to see the amount of energy and the quality of the ideas coming out of the students on campus. The advancements in promoting entrepreneurship at UMBC have been incredible.”
Read more about the competition winners here.
All the winners won cash prizes: 1st place $750, 2nd place $500, 3rd place $250 and Most Creative $250. The Idea Competition was sponsored by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a week where universities around the world celebrate entrepreneurship with activities and events for their students, faculty and alumni.
Mayhew '10, MFA, Receives Fulbright to Iceland
Jaimes Mayhew ’10, MFA in imaging and digital arts, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Iceland, where he will spend the next nine months working on a social practice art project, Autonomous Energy Research Lab.
Mayhew states, “Autonomous Energy Research Lab is an art research project that will investigate the idea of autonomy through conversations, art events, visits from other Baltimore-based artists and any other methods of research that may come about. All of these events will take place involving my research lab, which is a modified bike cart that includes a table, chairs, protection from the rain and is capable of producing and storing energy in a mobile battery. I will be using this lab to research ideas of autonomy, with special interest in Iceland’s use of geothermal power, of preservation of the Icelandic language and culture and, of course, in talking to people about Iceland’s economic collapse and strategies to recovery.”
See more about Mayhew’s work at his website: www.enginesofthefuture.com
– Originally published on the UMBC Graduate School blog