| NOVEMBER 2002 |
Alumni Profiles
Alumni Featured in this Issue:Jane Lubchenco ’69
Sara S. Villarreal Bishop ’00
Ryan Paul Haygood ’97
Jacob “A.J.” Marks ’97
Elizabeth DiGregorio ’72
Lubchenco Among 50 "Most Important"
November’s Discover magazine names Jane Lubchenco
’69 one of the “50 Most Important Women in Science” for
her research on ocean ecosystems and intertidal communities
as well as her work in bridging gaps between scientists, the
public, and policymakers.It’s been a big year for Lubchenco, who received the Heinz Award for the Environment this summer. It’s the largest individual achievement prize in the world, $250,000 for unrestricted use.
Currently a professor of marine biology at Oregon State University, Lubchenco is best known for co-founding the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program in 1998. It encourages and enables scientists to communicate their findings directly to the public and to policymakers, rather than limiting them to technical journals and “journalese,” with the goal of strengthening the link between research and political action.
“At CC, I was exposed to the excitement and fun of science, but also the social responsibility of scientists,” says Lubchenco, recalling that most of her close friends were philosophy majors. “This was in the early days of Hochman’s Freedom and Authority series, which promoted the free exchange of ideas across campus in such an exciting intellectual atmosphere.”
Lubchenco, widely considered an expert in biodiversity and oceanic research, continues her activism in the area of global sustainability, underscoring the fragility of ocean resources and the importance of marine reserves. She advises governments on the role of humans in inadvertently causing serious changes to life in all of Earth’s ecosystems, and promotes the combination of research and public policy to reverse human-caused damage to the environment.
— Anne Christensen
Margaret Liu ’77 and Marcia McNutt ’74 were also listed among the “50 Most Important Women in Science.” A story about all three alumnae will be featured in the next issue of the Bulletin.
Click here to read more about the Discover honors.
Behind the Scenes at the National Zoo
If you have watched the Animal Planet’s “Total Zoo” series on
television over the past year, chances are you have seen Sara
S. Villarreal Bishop ’00 working with the “great cats” of
the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The series provides a look behind the scenes at what it takes to care for animals and to run a zoo. “I was miked and filmed as I went about some usual (cleaning and feeding) and unusual (relocating the bats to their new bat cave) duties and procedures,” says Bishop.
How did the opportunity come about? During her time at Colorado College, Bishop enjoyed a research internship at the National Zoo. Afterward, the zoo ended up hiring her as a keeper of the zoo’s great cats. “I chose to work with predators because people have such discreet, specific reactions to [them],” says Bishop.
The zoo anthropology major used the television show to talk about the importance of understanding human-animal interaction and conservation, a recurring theme for everyone at the zoo. “It is important to understand that if the top predators are properly protected, by default, so are hundreds of other species and vast amounts of habitat,” says Bishop. “The vast amount of habitat is one of the reasons predators are so hard to protect.”
The show premiered in October 2001 and continues to thrill people of all ages who watch the reruns.
Sara and husband Brad Bishop ’97 moved to Ukraine last year when Brad was assigned to the American Embassy in Kiev as a foreign service officer. The two are the proud parents of a baby boy, Zeb, born in January. Sara says she loves “working with that small mammal who doesn’t speak human yet.”
— Lisa Ellis '82
A Commitment to Legal and Social Justice
Ryan Paul Haygood ’97 became a lawyer because he is motivated
by, and has benefited from, the many legal and social changes
that civil rights attorneys have brought about in the United
States. Today, Haygood is a Fried Frank NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Fellow. Only one in approximately 200 applicants is selected each year for this competitive four-year fellowship.
The political science and American history major credits his CC educational experience with helping him flourish as a lawyer. “The small class size at CC encouraged independent thought and critical reasoning.”
He has just finished his first year at Fried Frank. “I have the opportunity to learn and sharpen my legal skills through the training and support available at a leading law firm, while maintaining my commitment to legal and social justice,” says Haygood.
Haygood, who received his JD from the University of Colorado School of Law in 2001, puts in 250 work hours per month in Fried Frank’s litigation department in the New York office. “That’s the life of an associate,” he says.
At the LDF, where he will spend the last two years of his fellowship, Haygood says he will work for a “well-respected civil rights organization that I have long admired for its use of the rule of law to protect and advance the civil rights of blacks and other underrepresented groups.”
When he’s not sitting at his desk buried beneath briefs on a Friday night, Haygood, and his wife, Charity Shouse ‘96, are playing basketball or leading a bible study with a group of teenagers from his neighborhood church in Newark, N.J. His wife, who was his high school and college sweetheart, and who now teaches at a New Jersey middle school, joins him in his work to encourage and support young people.
— Lisa Ellis '82
Marks and the "Conversation"
History major Jacob “A.J.” Marks ’97, sees many parallels
between history and furniture design. Marks, founder of The
Conversation, a furniture design and manufacturing company,
says he is drawn to furniture making for the same reasons he
is to history: both involve the reconciliation of different
elements. “To write history successfully, there has to be a
careful blending of creativity and the factual conveyance of
information; there can’t just be a listing of facts,” said Marks.
There has to be interpretation, done in an interesting way,
to keep the reader moving through the information.”This dialogue (or conversation–hence the name of the company) between disparate elements also exists in furniture design. The precision and craftsmanship of a piece must be merged with creativity and artistic components, Marks says. “There is an ongoing conversation between a lot of things – design, textures, colors, and materials used.”
Marks launched his company in Chapel Hill, N.C., in April 2001 after a series of jobs in cabinetry shops in San Francisco. His first piece, created in the fall of 1999, was a small table, which he thought “was good at the time.” Marks still has it, and uses it as a bedside table in his home. The majority of his pieces, many of which are on display in galleries across the country, are contemporary and rectilinear. Some pieces resemble sculptures; they can be visually circumnavigated. Some resemble objects carved from space. Marks strives to blend artistic components with good design, creating a piece that will last for 100 to 200 years. He uses a variety of woods. His commitment to using sustainably harvested woods has resulted in the increasing use of domestic hardwoods.
“History is a fascinating thing. It’s not clearly in a certain department – it’s both creative and scientific,” Marks says. “It’s the same with furniture making.”
— Leslie Weddell
The American Spirit
Elizabeth DiGregorio ’72, was chief of staff at FEMA
(Federal Emergency Management Agency) in Washington, D.C. on
Sept. 11, 2001. The day of the terrorist attacks dawned china
blue. “It was a rare, crystal-clear day. Frighteningly clear,”
says DiGregorio. FEMA director Joe M. Allbaugh was still in
Bozeman, Mont., where he had delivered a speech the day before
in which he said, prophetically, that the United States hadn’t
yet faced a major terrorist attack, but one was bound to occur.
“That speech still sends shivers down my spine,” DiGregorio
says.As terrible as the 9/11 terrorist attacks were, some good has resulted. The outpouring of the American giving spirit was tremendous. “We were inundated with offers; everyone wanted to do something,” DiGregorio says. In the months that followed, the administration developed a program designed to capture and sustain that spirit of service and volunteerism. The new policy office for service, USA Freedom Corps, was announced by President Bush in his State of the Union speech in January 2002.
A month later, DiGregorio was appointed the FEMA liaison to the White House for Citizen Corps, a local, community-based initiative under the USA Freedom Corps umbrella. Citizen Corps brings together people in a community who want to support the first responders, that is, those in law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical positions. It also promotes community preparedness by organizing community-based councils. Currently there are more than 200 councils nationwide, DiGregorio says. “People all over the over the country are forming Citizen Corps councils and learning about how to become better prepared for threats of any kind,” she said. “People are thinking about our security and becoming better prepared for the future. It is a way of organizing so that neighborhoods will be safer and more secure, one neighborhood at a time.”
— Leslie Weddell
To find out more about Citizen Corps, visit their Web site at www.citizencorps.gov. The USA Freedom Corps Web site, www.usafreedomcorps.gov, lists volunteer opportunities by interests, state, and zip code, as well as information on other volunteer programs such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Senior Corps. Colorado College also lists volunteer opportunities online -- click here.
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