Friendships that help healing

On April 24, 2003, Austin Duncan ’02, was traveling around Egypt with his friend Ningchuan Zhu ’02 while on a break from his Fulbright-funded research in Kuwait. The two had spent the day wandering around Cairo before taking a train to Luxor. Duncan remembers crossing the Corniche, a promenade along the east bank of the Nile, and walking toward the Luxor Temple. He turned and shouted back to Zhu, “Stop being scared and just cross the road.”

That’s the moment everything went blank.

A mirror on the side of a bus hit Duncan’s head, sending him flying several feet into the air. Zhu came running to find him unconscious and bleeding in the middle of the Corniche. A British nurse eating lunch across the street rushed over, instructing Zhu to take his shirt off and wrap it around Duncan’s head. The police arrived. Duncan was taken to a hospital in Luxor, then transported to one in Cairo and, later, two in the U.S.

Duncan had suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and didn’t regain consciousness for more than a month. His first memory after the accident is of his 23rd birthday, on June 7, 2003. He remembers sitting on the grass outside a hospital in Seattle, Wash., his IVs still connected, surrounded by his parents and former Williams classmates from Woodbridge House: Kari Sutherland ’02, Ronit Stahl ’02, Rachel Seys ’02 and Abigail Rosenthal ’02. Some had been visiting Duncan since his transfer to the U.S., while he was still unconscious.

Profile written for Williams College.

The making of a more perfect union

In the year leading up to the passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, a coalition formed among Black civil rights advocates, white abolitionists, and the women’s rights movement. It was a supergroup of activists — Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone — all aligned and working together toward freedom and abolition.

After the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865, however, the coalition began to crack.

Douglass had long believed that there would never be equality in the South, that Black Americans would never be treated as equal citizens or receive equal protection, until they had the right to vote. Then, they could establish political power centers to negotiate economic rights, edu- cation, and more.

At the same time, women’s suffrage advocates were also calling for the right to vote, but they began to see momentum shift toward giving Black males the right first. The arguments between the two factions intensified. Suffragists Anthony and Stanton drew criticism for accepting funding from George Francis Train, a wealthy philanthropist who saw women’s suffrage as a way to contain the political power of Blacks. Meanwhile, Douglass, who sup- ported universal rights for women, argued that the right to vote was more crucial for Black men.

The disagreement came to a head at the annual meet- ing of the American Equal Rights Association on May 12, 1869. After Stanton and Anthony made their case that educated white women deserved the right to vote before Black men did, Douglass stood up to address the crowd.

Richmond Law professor Kurt Lash has crafted the authoritative collection of documents related to the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. This feature, which details his process for producing the two-volume, 1,300-page collection, appeared in the winter 2022 issue of Richmond Law Magazine.

They were first

This fall, 16 percent of students at Macalester are among the first in their family to attend college.

They come from all kinds of backgrounds: rural and urban, BIPOC and white, immigrant and U.S.-born, low income and solidly middle class. They’re just as academically and intellectually prepared as students with a family history of college attendance. But they often need a little extra help with the information that students whose parents earned a degree absorbed by osmosis: the vocabulary of higher education and the shortcuts and secret handshakes that make it easier to navigate a complex institution. Getting into college isn’t the same as feeling like you belong there.

“There’s been a national endeavor to provide access to first-generation college students,” says Sedric McClure, assistant dean of multicultural life. “First, institutions began to recognize that high achieving students were admissible to highly selective institutions but didn’t have the resources to enter into the space. So, that became a focus. Then, we began to see the emergence, in significant numbers, of first-generation college students in these spaces. But what does that mean for creating a sense of belonging?”

Feature originally appeared in the Macalester College alumni magazine, Mac Today.

Leading the Conversation

Shortly after moving to Philadelphia in 1997 and securing a position at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, Debbie Epstein Henry ’94 started to question the direction of her career. She wondered: Was it possible to play an integral role in her children’s lives and be on a partnership track?

Henry decided to start a brown bag lunch group for other lawyers interested in work-life issues. She emailed three local lawyers she had recently met, as well as three litigators at her firm, and asked them to forward her message to anyone who might be interested.

“I was a fifth-year associate and a fairly recent New York transplant. I barely knew anybody,” she said. “Within a couple of days, 150 people emailed me back. I knew I had struck a nerve.”

This profile of Debbie Epstein Henry originally appeared in the fall 2021 issue of Brooklyn Law Notes.

From (oyster) farm to table

There’s a day every year, as the long New England winter comes to a close, when Chris Sherman ’07 can sense a change in the air. The water warms, and algae production resumes, creating a briny aroma. An easterly breeze carries the scent across the bay and into downtown Duxbury, Mass., where Sherman serves as president of Island Creek Oysters. 

“You don’t get that with any other natural phenomena,” says Sherman. “We live in such close harmony and communion with the ocean.” 

This visceral connection to the ocean has been an undercurrent throughout Sherman’s life, inspiring an interest in sailing and a decision to pursue a concentration in maritime studies at Williams College. He participated in the Williams-Mystic program—a collaboration between the college and the Mystic Seaport Museum—where he studied coastal environments through a variety of lenses, such as art, literature, history, science and public policy. 

The call of the ocean also drew him to take a job as an oyster farmer for Island Creek Oysters two years after graduating from Williams.

Profile written for Williams College.

Yes, I've done that. Really.

Hitting a home run in the World Series? Making a Broadway debut? Arguing a case at the Supreme Court? Some experiences are hard to comprehend unless you’ve lived them. Sometimes, parallels offer a glimpse of what they’re like. Anyone who has drained a winning shot in their driveway imagines it like an NCAA championship buzzer beater.

Dreaming is one option. Another option: Go directly to the source. Ask someone who knows firsthand the thrill of young love at an older age or the panic of running for a bomb shelter.

Spiders are everywhere, and they have incredible experiences. Here are some who tell the tales of things many of us have imagined but few will ever do ourselves.

This feature appeared in the autumn 2021 issue of University of Richmond Magazine.

The stories within us

In a photo accompanying a Feb. 4, 1998, article in New England’s Valley News, Edwin M. Knights Jr. holds a palm-sized white plastic container. He prepares to insert a vial containing a sample of freeze-dried blood.

A retired pathologist, Knights had recently founded Life Science Inc. and its GeneSaver division with a business partner. For less than $100, consumers could order a blood sample kit, collect a few drops in a vial, and return it to Knights. He would then freeze-dry the sample in his basement lab and return the vial in an engraved keepsake box.

Knights believed everyone should preserve a sample for future genetic analysis. He argued that the sample could be used to determine the source of diseases, help genealogists conduct research, or — in the case of adoption or egg or sperm donation — allow a child to track down their biological parents and genetic history.

In the article, Knights acknowledged that he and his business partner were perhaps ahead of the curve. Direct-to-consumer DNA testing kits wouldn’t hit the marketplace for another two years. They faced an uphill battle convincing people of the value and safety of collecting and preserving their genetic code.

Among the people he did convince was his son, Edwin B. Knights, who provided a few drops of blood for his father’s burgeoning business. As the years passed and at-home DNA testing grew in popularity, more and more people’s genetic material eventually made its way into the growing databases where users could discover their traits and ethnicities and connect with long-lost family members.

That’s where Chris Smith, ’98, discovered the biological family he never knew he had — and an unexpected new connection to the University of Richmond.

This feature appeared in the summer 2021 issue of University of Richmond Magazine.

The making of a beautiful life

The video begins with a young couple making their way into a physical rehabilitation center. Cole Sydnor’s hands, clenched into fists, push the wheels of his wheelchair forward, while his girlfriend, Charisma Jamison, walks alongside him.  

Inside, she helps him onto a table. A team of trainers moves Cole, who is a quadriplegic, through a series of exercises and stretches before strapping him into a wearable robotic exoskeleton that wraps around his legs and torso.  

“I actually can’t feel my legs,” he jokes to his mother behind the camera.  

After a few minutes, Cole is on his feet while Charisma looks on, smiling.  

“You’re so tall,” she says before coming in for their first-ever standing hug.

Cole then places his arms into braces attached to a walker. Two trainers support him as he takes one step, and then another, and then another. Cole walks across the room, out the door, down the hall and outside. Charisma is there every step of the way.

I first wrote about Cole for the University of Richmond alumni magazine, and his story has always been one of my favorites. I was thrilled to revisit it, and talk to Cole and Charisma about their successful YouTube channel that captures their life as an interracial, interabled couple.

Wise words for turbulent times

The past year brought a global pandemic, an economic crisis, and a contentious election, and magnified the perpetual national issues of income inequality and systemic racism. We bear each toll in different ways, and we carry anxiety, sorrow, and fear at levels that few might have predicted as 2020 began. It’s no surprise that many of us are struggling to get through the next five minutes, much less grapple with what lies ahead.

Yet as a nation we’ve experienced difficult periods before—and just as we’ll learn from this era and apply it to the future, there are plenty of lessons to be had from hard times of the past. That’s why we asked several graduates from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s—alumni who’ve lived through wars, the civil rights movement, economic booms and busts, and so much more—to offer readers lessons from their own past experiences.

The alumni we spoke with have some advice: don’t be afraid, show up where you’re needed, get involved in your community, persevere. They all agree—you have to take action.

“As my mother used to say,” says Kris Amundson ’71, “‘you can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.’”

Feature originally appeared in the Macalester College alumni magazine, Mac Today.

VCUarts Studio magazine

The 2020 issue of Studio, the annual magazine for VCUarts, featured stories and news about students, faculty and alumni from both the Richmond and Qatar campuses.

Stories highlighted how the school navigated a year of change, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a pivot to remote instruction; conversations about systemic racism; and how alumni and faculty members are tackling pressing social issues. Additional stories ranged from students who studied abroad to updates from alumni to one faculty member’s efforts to bring students’ creative thinking to the NASA patent office.

My role: I planned the issue’s content, drafted the majority of the copy, managed other writing staff, and coordinated with the design team on visual execution.

Barrier breakers

The ascension paths Rear Admiral Yvette M. Davids ’89, USN, and Rear Admiral Sara A. Joyner ’89, USN, followed to their wartime leadership positions were blocked when they graduated from the Naval Academy.

Women weren’t allowed in combat when Joyner and Davids were commissioned. Davids’ journey would see her needing special permission to be in a combat zone aboard BUNKER HILL in 1990 to commanding the vessel 20 years later. Joyner was the first female commanding officer of a fighter squadron.

It was groundbreakers like Joyner and Davids who paved the way for future generations to serve their country in combat. They followed in the trailblazing footsteps of alumni Lieutenant Commander Wesley A. Brown ’49, USN (Ret.), the Academy’s first Black graduate and the first class of female plebes who entered the Academy in 1976. Throughout its 175-year history, the Academy has commissioned leaders who forge new paths, break ground and smash through glass ceilings.

Feature originally appeared in the U.S. Naval Academy alumni magazine, Shipmate.

How to rise like a phoenix

There’s an old saying that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. When things are going well, everyone wants to claim their place in the victory lane. But when life takes a turn, few are willing to own responsibility; instead, most people try to place the blame somewhere else and put the situation behind them as quickly as possible.

While no one wants to stand in front of a crowd and cop to a mistake or slog through a project they know isn’t going to end well, such challenges often provide the greatest lessons, if we take the time to truly process and reflect. But this often means leaning into the full roller coaster of emotions — from fear, loss, and shame to soul-searching and renewed passion.

Here, a few W. P. Carey School of Business alumni — success stories every one — lay bare their lowest moments and the insights they now see in the rearview mirror.

Feature originally appeared in the W. P. Carey School of Business alumni magazine.

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

How to do groundbreaking research in eight (not so) easy steps, with Margaret Metz, assistant professor of biology at Lewis & Clark College.

Conducting field research in the Amazon rainforest sounds enticing on its surface. Perhaps you imagine spending your days immersed in the constant hum of insects as you trek through lush vegetation. Or maybe you visualize standing at the foot of a towering waterfall as exotic birds soar overhead.

The reality, however, looks a little different.