UW-Green Bay, Inside UW-Green Bay, May 2007

[Inside UW-Green Bay / February 2007 Issue]

Notes from 2420 Nicolet

Campus was activist magnet
• Gordon Hempton
• Eric Avildsen
• Mary Sherwin
• David Kriebel
• David L. Freedman
• Linda Raczek
• Bruce Ballenger
• Chris Stix

Environmental legacy still strong

Recent grad, local impact

Revered Elder
Still working at 96, alumna
helps save a rare language

Goo-goo for Google:
Grad finds dream job
in Europe

Eco U:
A snapshot in time

Scholarships
• Campaign pushes past
$15 million
• Throns' gift
• Concerned hearts
• Newest scholarships

Phoenix Hall of Fame
inductees

New: Bachelor of
Applied Studies

Phuture Phoenix

Faculty and staff news

...More campus news

Alumni news:

• Indy 500 draws Powers

• Blame it on the Bossa
Nova

• Distinguished alumni,
rising stars

• ES&P grad program and
graduates

. . .More alumni news

Alumni Notes

For complete issue, click: INSIDE – MAY 2007 (PDF)

Stories from the May 2007 Issue

Indy 500 draws Powers from Green Bay

On May 27th the checkered flag will wave as sleek racing machines — blurs of color — zip through the finish line at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. A driver will take a victory lap before being crowned the winner of the 2007 Indianapolis 500.

That dramatic moment is the yearly capstone to one of the world’s most storied sporting events. But there’s another story, one of 450,000 visitors to Indianapolis and a month-long festival leading up to the big race. And in the thick of it is UW-Green Bay alumnus Terry Powers ’84.

Powers is vice president of operations for the festival, now in its 50th season, and business is booming. The festival parade trails only Macy’s and the Tournament of Roses in size, with more than 300,000 spectators, 30,000 of whom purchase reserved seating. There’s also the nation’s largest half-marathon (35,000 entrants), which fills six months in advance.

An “exhausted” but “inspired” Powers is in charge of event management and marketing, communications and media relations. He also co-produces the parade and mini-marathon for television. He heads a full-time staff of nine employees and six interns. The festival is run with the help of 7,000 volunteers.

“It beats working for a living,” jokes Powers, a communication major who worked in publicity and promotion for UW-Green Bay athletics, and then the Horizon League, before moving on to the 500 Festival a few years ago.

“There’s really so much I love,” he says. “I love being part of the Indy 500, the largest single-day sporting event in the world. Being at the finish line of the mini-marathon and seeing people accomplish a life-long goal is very powerful. Last year, a 36-year-old woman ran the mini-marathon in dedication to her late husband who had died of a heart attack in November. He had proposed to her at the finish line four years earlier. To see her cross arm-in-arm with her three sisters was about as incredible as anything I have ever seen. You don’t get to be a part of stuff like that in a ‘real job.’”

Terry Powers and his wife, Julie ’84, feel at home at “one of the most storied sports events in the world.” Terry works for the Indy 500 Festival and Julie works in compliance as a membership services staffer at the NCAA offices in Indianapolis.

Although May is its main month, the Festival has grown to two dozen events and programs, including a year-round education program that reaches fourth-graders across the state. There is also competition for 33 Festival princesses, who help the Festival with outreach efforts, and a number of training events for the mini-marathon. This year the festival added a Super Bowl Parade to its list of accomplishments.

Explains Powers, “We did help the Colts with their Super Bowl Parade. We are part of the civic fabric of this city and state. Our mission has always been to create and produce events that celebrate Indianapolis and increase the quality of life for the citizens of Indiana and our guests.

“I’m proud to say I work here,” he says. “I guess it would be like living in Green Bay and telling people you work for the Packers. We really do make life more fun.”

For those who have never had the opportunity to attend, you’ll have to take Powers’ word for it. “There is nothing like Indy in May.”

Blame it on the bossa nova…

Or jazz, or disco, or pop or classical… but somewhere, very, very early in life, Teal Peters ’85 heard a melody she liked, and she hasn’t stopped dancing since.

Shown here working with a young student, Peters owns and operates 5-6-7-8 Dance on Green Bay’s West Side. This spring she celebrates 10 years owning her own dance studio, and in June she brings 85 of her students to a major competition in Wisconsin Dells.

She says dance in the Green Bay area has never been stronger.

“Restaurants, businesses, factories come and go, but all the local dance studios do well,” she says.

Peters should know. Her ties to the business – as student, student/instructor and instructor – started when her mother signed her up with Marcia’s School of Dance in Appleton. At the age of 4 years old, Teal learned to tap dance to the song “I’ve Got a Doggie with a Long Tail.”

Her first instructor, Marcia Fellows, still a teacher and friend more than 35 years later, showed up last month when Peters and company hosted an anniversary recital. And, yes, Peters’ young charges performed “I’ve Got a Doggie with a Long Tail,” in tribute.

Central to Peters’ dance-happy career was her lengthy experience at UW-Green Bay. She performed here about eight years, yet finished her degree requirements in only three-and-a-half.

She explains, “I was 13 years old when I started dancing at the University. They had a youth-apprentice program in dance, and I was selected to practice and perform with the college students.”

The Bay Port High School student polished her art under the direction of then-faculty member Princess Morris, who awarded her a UW-Green Bay dance scholarship. Just as Peters enrolled, however, a barrage of changes left the program shorthanded and the new college freshman in the position of being one of the veterans.

Peters took ownership. She mentored other dancers, assisted with choreography and accepted featured roles in student recitals and dance-troupe performances across campus.

“Somebody had to step up, and I was happy to do it,” she recalls. “It was a wonderful opportunity to exercise your talent and creativity.”

She earned her UW-Green Bay degree in 1985. Her major, communication processes, reflected her day-job interest in television — she was a part-time floor director, studio hand and occasional newswriter for WBAY-TV Channel 2. Her minor, dance, reflected her passion.

Within a year or two, living in California where she had relocated with her husband’s military career, she began teaching dance professionally, first in San Diego and then in San Francisco.

After a decade there, the couple moved back to Green Bay in 1997 and Teal opened 5-6-7-8 Dance in a West Mason Street facility now outfitted with 3 separate studios with ballet barres, mirrors and dance floors.

Her success in building that business, she readily admits, rests on a foundation laid by pioneering teachers who, technically at least, remain competitors today.

“You have some very good teachers who have done so much to spread the popularity of dance, locally,” she says. I think of Shirley Van – I studied with her for a year or two when I was about 11 years old – and Gert Delorit, who is probably into her 80s, now, and still working. There’s a strong history in this area.”

Today, Peters has 275 dance students enrolled at her West Mason Street studio, learning tap, ballet, jazz, gymnastics, hip hop, baton and ballroom. Tap dance, she says, is her forte.

Ages range from 18-month-olds in her “Tutu Tots” class to adults doing tap and jazz, and dads learning to ballroom dance with their daughters.

“My favorite ages to teach are probably 8, 9 and 10, because that’s when they are the ‘dance divas’ who really, really want to be in class,” Peters says. “When they’re toddlers, it’s mom who signs them up, and it’s mom who drives them here when they are 5 years old and maybe rather watching cartoons.”

Her over-10s can be excited about class, too, and a new performance team is popular, but it’s also natural for some to drop away by their late teens. Other interests, often their own high school dance teams or school musicals, compete for their time.

“I’m actually glad to see that,” she says. “They all ask me to come and see them in their high school productions. And all of the Green Bay-area high schools have wonderful dance teams.”

In addition to her in-studio time, she teaches dance for the village of Howard, coaches girls at Lombardi Middle School (getting them ready for high school pom dance) and brings instruction to the youngest generation at local childcare centers where exercise and the arts are emphasized.

Current trends? Ballroom is hot, thanks to “Dancing with the Stars.” Teens and pre-teens want to learn the fox-trot, Peters says, and for that reason, even though she has almost never seen an episode of the network TV hit (she’s holding evening classes) she’s a fan.

Ironic, perhaps, is that her husband isn’t a big dancer. And their two boys – college graduate Joshua Juranitch and Southwest High School senior Bubba -- have both “retired.”

“They both danced until they hit middle school and then it wasn’t ‘cool’ any more,” their mother says.

That’s OK. Teal more than makes up for it. With a busy teaching schedule, she also travels the country at the height of the competition season, serving as a judge. In March, for example, she spent time in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California.

“Basically, I do nothing but dance, dance, dance. And I love it.”

An elegant evening with distinguished, rising alumni stars

The grand foyer of the Weidner Center provided an elegant setting for the Alumni Association’s annual awards program on April 14. Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented by Chancellor Bruce Shepard to Joseph Carroll, Medical College of Wisconsin; Kathleen Christensen of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York; Wayne Micksch of Quality Insulation and Asbestos Removal Inc.; Ma Manee Moua, Wisconsin Department of Justice; and Mike Jackson of Supervalu Stores Inc.

Christensen, Micksch and Jackson received Distinguished Alumni awards. Carroll and Moua received Outstanding Recent Alumni awards.

Each of the recipients referred to the outstanding faculty who served as inspiration for them. Christensen, who hadn’t been back to the UW-Green Bay campus in 34 years, was impressed with the degree to which the University is a vital part of the community. She said she has carried concepts such as interdisciplinarity with her throughout her career.

For photos, quotes and bios of these impressive honorees, click www.uwgb.edu/univcomm/news/page/photoA.htm.

At a glance: Environmental Science and Policy Grad Program

Students looking for a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental studies find a fit at UW-Green Bay. The graduate program in Environmental Science and Policy — “ES&P” for short — has faculty in engineering, physics, chemistry, earth science, biology, ecology, human biology, mathematics, economics, geography, environmental policy and political science.

“Having faculty with such diverse backgrounds allows students to pursue solutions to problems from a variety of aspects,” says Prof. Patricia Terry, program chair for ES&P.

Currently, about 40 full- and part-time students are enrolled. Graduates find careers in a variety of settings in private business and government agencies.

ES&P master’s student Nick Reckinger (left) earned an undergraduate business degree at UW-Green Bay in 2005, but his concern for the environment — and an appreciation that being “green” is often just good business — lured him to return.

Reckinger works as a research assistant with the Lower Fox River monitoring program. He analyzes the effects of phosphorus on area watersheds, is helping with high school based monitoring projects as well, and helps with annual student symposiums and teacher workshops.

Says Reckinger, “I feel that I’ll be making a contribution to solving global issues that need to be addressed immediately.”

Biologist tracks wildlife, habitat in Rockies

There are times when Russell Japuntich ’00 and ’02, hiking the Rocky Mountains backcountry and surveying the view for miles, thinks “I can’t believe I get paid to do this!” Japuntich is a wildlife biologist with the federal Bureau of Land Management in Gunnison, Colo., assisting the management of more than 600,000 acres. A current project involves the impact of big game and drought on the Gunnison Basin shrub community. His assignments range from habitat management to field inventories, monitoring plans and biological assessments.

He fishes for answers on monster muskies

You know your school project is a good one when it gets full-page magazine treatment even before it’s complete.

That’s the response Lawrence Eslinger (right) is getting to his ongoing master’s thesis.

With the help of faculty mathematician David Dolan, Eslinger is assessing musky populations in four northern lakes: a DNR test lake with no closed season or bag limits; a similar private-property lake with extensive angler logbooks; and two “unexploited” lakes protected by a sportsmen’s club.

Eslinger is preparing a comprehensive analysis of lake biology and water quality. The hope is to find data that will help fisheries managers develop a predictive model for the popular gamefish. The results could influence future stocking strategies and sampling techniques.

Eslinger’s research was profiled in the September 2006 issue of Joe Bucher’s Musky Hunter magazine.

Thomas McDermott ’81 and ’86 is working as an industrial hygienist for the U.S. Department of Energy at Argonne National Laboratory in Darien, Ill. His job responsibilities include evaluating potential chemical and physical stressors in the workplace, and providing technical expertise in eliminating or minimizing any potential hazards to workers.

Mike Risse ’83 is the supervising environmentalist for the Environmental Protection Division at Hennepin County in Minneapolis. His job responsibilities include supervising hazardous waste inspections and enforcement activities.

Stephen Lehrke ’87 and ’90 is an environmental statistician at Foth Infrastructure & Environment, Green Bay. He is currently involved in projects related to the Fox River PCB sediment cleanup.

Clifford Fleener ’95 is working as an environmental manager of historical properties for Pilkington North America, Inc. in Toledo, Ohio. He is responsible for managing remediation, operation, and maintenance requirements for current and former operations that have historical environmental contamination.

Larry Johnson ’01 is working as an environmental health specialist with the Shiawassee County Health Department in Corunna, Mich.

Ramesh Sivanpillai ’95 is an assistant research scientist at the University of Wyoming and manages WyomingView, a program aimed at promoting remote sensing applications. Sivanpillai has also worked in Nicaragua, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, southern Siberia, and Texas, but says he has remained a Packers fan throughout his moves.

Vicky Harris ’74 and ’98 is with the UW Sea Grant program at UW-Green Bay.

More alumni news

Deep Gene Pool: Daughters follow Mom in DeGrand fashion

UW-Green Bay sophomore Danielle DeGrand is the reigning swimmer of the year in the Horizon League, a backstroke and medley champion who propelled the Phoenix women to their third consecutive league title this spring.

Danielle (center) is following in her mother’s speedy wake.

Terri (Thompson) DeGrand ’82 was a top swimmer herself during the program’s NAIA glory days. A second daughter, Deanna (right) is a Green Bay Preble senior who will swim for Coach Jim Merner and the Division I Phoenix next season. A highly regarded YWCA and high school coach, herself, Terri (left) coached both girls growing up.

“Sometimes it was nice and sometimes it was difficult,” Danielle recalls with a smile. “She definitely wasn’t afraid to be tough.”

Here's a question for '03 and '04 alums: Have you answered our other questions yet?
Provide a valuable service by taking a few minutes to complete the 2007 Alumni Survey, with a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the Phoenix Bookstore. The survey is sent only to those who received a bachelor’s degree from UW-Green Bay in August or December 2003, or in May 2004. All survey responses are confidential, for the institution’s internal use.
Visit www.uwgb.edu/assessment/assessment/alumni_survey.asp.

They call, you click!

Student callers are wrapping up another fabulously successful Phone-a-Thon. They’ve helped the University reconnect with alumni friends, update records and raise nearly $60,000 for scholarships and academic programs, providing the margin of excellence that makes UW-Green Bay special. It’s a great time to be a difference-maker for today’s students, and make a (tax-deductible!) gift… BUT NOW IT’S EVEN EASIER, with a new point-and-click option at our secure-giving Website. Give it a try!

FINALLY! An online giving option! Go to www.uwgb.edu/alumni

Alumni build (literally) a bigger scholarship fund

UW-Green Bay alumni are teaming up once again. The group is donating time, talent and treasure to the Phoenix Home Build Project II. Proceeds from the sale of the home, located just a few blocks from campus on Durham Road, will be donated to the Phoenix Fund for scholarships. The 2005 home build project raised $50,000. The new home will be ready for occupancy in June.

Alumni involved in the project (pictured above, from left) include Kyle Destree ’88, Zoll Stone (stone exterior and fireplace); Scott Schlender ’89, Bank Mutual (financing); Jeanne Stangel ’87, UW- Green Bay (project coordinator); Dave Peot ’75, Olejniczak Realty (marketing and sales); Sue (DeValk) Conard ’87, Paul Conard Construction (foundation and flatwork) and Cap (Tom) Wulf ’73, Wulf Brothers, (heating and cooling.) Missing is John Splawski ’95, First Supply Fixtures. Other sponsors include Van’s Lumber and Custom Home Builders and Classic View Properties and Fager Homes. Call Stangel at 920-465-2053 for more information.

Thanks for coming

Pictured here are Sara Funk ’98, Wipfli; Lori (Bose) Ohland ’89, Wisconsin Department of Revenue and Mike Powers ’00, Schreiber Foods, who returned to campus in spring to talk careers with Marilyn Sagrillo’s “Seminar for Accounting Professionals” class. Other alumni visiting this semester to “connect learning to life” included Linda Peterson, ’88, Larry Franke, Dean Basten ’89, Karen (Schlag) Young ’99, Dawn Eggert ’01 and Tara (Stangel) DuBois ’04 from the accounting field; Lynn Barrett ’04, William Selee ’80, Sara Straub ’03 and Anne Charneski ’90 from social change and development; Chris Jacisin ’89 from computer science; and Sean Murphy ’04 and Bob Nate ’83 from business administration. Also helping this spring in areas of business and marketing were Amanda Cowden ’99, Tani Grimm, Katie Sample ’06, Kelly Ruh ’01, Susan Garot ’81, Joel Hansen ’01, John Schwartz ’89, Karen Gregg ’85, Paul Anderson ’82, David Kappus ’92, Michael Strohschein ’92, Jessica Larsen ’06, Amy Anderson ’03, Nicole Linssen ’96, Tom Wagner ’80, Pat Kvitek ’89, Jay Kramer ’82 and Megan Fisher ’04. What’s more, more than 100 alumni returned for the campus jobs and internship fairs this year. (Update your alumni profile at www.uwgb.edu/alumni!)

You wrote them, we want them

Sheila (Darne) Thomas ’05 donated her book, Interpersonal Skills for IT Professionals (HRDPress), to Alumni Director Mark Brunette for UW-Green Bay’s Alumni Library. Brunette hopes to display and help promote alumni books, welcoming donations from all authors. (E-mail him at Alumni@uwgb.edu if you have a book to share.)

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