In Focus Magazine: June, 2024

Volume 14, Number 6

Featured Stories

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Alumni Accomplishments 

Katy Laurin (‘00, PhD Psychology) is the newest licensed clinical psychologist at the Des Moines University Clinic – Behavioral Health. The clinic promises patients trauma-informed care and treats a range of mental health conditions. Laurin provides individual therapy and psychological testing. Her particular area of interest focuses on cognitive changes due to age or injury. 

Michael Telzrow (‘96, MA History) was named the new executive director of the Sturgeon Bay Historical Society in Door County, Wisconsin. Telzrow, now responsible for helping to preserve the city’s historical architectural structures and bringing programming and exhibits to showcase the city’s history, was most recently the executive director of the Heritage Hill State Historical Park in Green Bay.  

Martin Christiansen (‘03 BA; ‘05 MA History) was named the new superintendent of George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana. The 24-acre park houses a monument to American Revolution general George Rogers Clark and sits upon what is believed to be the site of the former Fort Sackville. Christiansen is currently a supervisory training specialist and program manager for the National Park Service’s Fundamentals Program in the Office of Learning and Development located at the Horace Albright Training Center in Grand Canyon National Park. 

Gale Klappa (‘72, BA Mass Communications) has retired from day-to-day leadership of the WEC Energy Group after a noteworthy 40-year career in the industry. The Milwaukee Business Journal published an “exit interview” with Klappa, who reflected on his years as a leader in Milwaukee’s business community. 

Laurels & Accolades 

Sarah Riforgiate (Communication) was honored with the 2024 Warren Mentorship Award. The award, given by the Central States Communication Association at their convention in early April, recognizes a mid-career scholar who excels in all aspects of their career (teaching, research/creativity, service, and engagement), but most importantly, is an excellent mentor to students. 

Uk Heo (Political Science) and Sooho Song (Ancient and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) received a $213,316 research grant, along with colleagues from two other institutions, for their project, “South Korea’s Rise at the Intersection of Globalization and Deglobalization.” With this grant, they will write books and host conferences for the years 2024-2026. 

Kate Beutner’s (English) recent novel, Killingly (Soho, 2023) was awarded the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Prize from the Wisconsin Writers Awards. Established in 1964 and currently run by the Arts + Literature Lab in Madison, the series is Wisconsin’s longest-running literary award for published work. Winners receive a cash prize and a five-day residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point. 

Associate Professor Brenda Cárdenas’s (English) poetry collection Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023) won the Society of Midland Authors 2023 Poetry Book Award honoring the Society’s choices for the best books by Midwest authors published in 2023. Trace is also a finalist for Foreword Review‘s Indie Poetry Prize for books that present work that uses language for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or instead of, its apparent communication value. 

Maria Novotny’s (English) anthology, “Infertilities, A Curation,” has been named a finalist for the Midwest Book Awards in the category of Health. Published by Wayne State UP, the anthology highlights the varied perspectives of individuals who have lived with infertility.   

WUWM Radio, Milwaukee’s local National Public Radio affiliate station that operates under the umbrella of the College of Letters & Science, won 16 awards this season at two separate, prestigious local and state press and broadcaster association galas. On May 3, WUWM won six awards at the Milwaukee Press Club Annual Gridiron Dinner, including two Golds, one Silver, and three Bronze awards. Then, on May 4 at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Annual Gala, the station won 10 awards, including six First place awards, three Second place awards, and one Third place award. In addition to the five awards won at the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association Awards earlier this year, this brings WUWM’s total award count up to 21 awards for their coverage of the community in 2023. For a full listing of WUWM award winners and links to their winning stories, please visit the WUWM website. 

PhD student Rakiba Sultana (Geosciences) was awarded the Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students (INTERN) Opportunity from the National Science Foundation. Sultana’s internship activities include those in direct support of her dissertation aimed at elucidating the mechanism(s) of uranium mobility in groundwater from field experimental data. Her specific activities include: 1) exploratory groundwater flow modeling, 2) exploratory solute transport modeling, 3) inverse flow modeling, and 4) inverse transport modeling. The former two activities resulting in the delivery of a general and open-source flow and transport model to be used as an educational tool in academia and as a resource for researchers and practitioners in a professional work environment. The latter two activities will result in the delivery of a uranium-specific and calibrated flow and transport model to elucidate the mechanism(s) that control the fate and transport of uranium during flooding events. 

These activities will be conducted at the United States Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Water Science Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Fienen. 

Mark Schwartz (Geography) was declared among the top .05% of scholars worldwide by ScholarGPS on the basis of his prolific publication record, the outsized impact of his work and research, and the outstanding quality of his scholarly contributions. ScholarGPS uses analytics to derive quantitative rankings for research institutions, universities, and academic programs across all areas of scholarly endeavor. 

Undergraduates Jamie Kollman and Reece Charles (both Conservation & Environmental Science) were among 10 students from across the state chosen to participate in the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin’s Diversity in Conservation Internship Program. The program is meant to introduce students to career pathways in conservation by having them partner with environmental organizations within Wisconsin. 

In the Media and Around the Community 

John Heywood (Economics) told Wisconsin Public Radio that non-compete clauses can be used to depress worker wages in a piece that explored the effects of the FTC’s new ban on non-competes. 

Trees may get all the attention, but shrubs are an important factor in mitigating climate change, Alison Donnelly (Geography) said on WUWM Radio. 

Undergraduate student JoAnne Potter (Philosophy) was profiled on WUWM Radio ahead of her graduation. Potter is 72 years old and one of the oldest individuals to graduate from UWM via the Honors College. 

A recent excavation of the remains of an Iron Age building in the Iberian Peninsula reveals valuable information about the daily lives of the people who used to live there, Bettina Arnold (Anthropology) told CNN. 

Professor Jeffrey Sommers along with emeritus professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith (both African & African Diaspora Studies) co-authored an article published on Jacobin.com regarding the political situation in Haiti. The article was also reprinted in CounterPunch and Jamaican newspaper, The Gleaner. 

Kathleen Dolan (Political Science) worried about the effect on democracy that some political campaigns’ incendiary rhetoric might have in a Spectrum 1 News article. 

UWM alumna Emerald Mills-Williams (‘04, BA Communication) was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio for her role in promoting Black-owned restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin through her business incubator, called Turning Tables. 

Though he already had a wealth of historical knowledge, alumnus Clayborn Benson (‘24, MA History) was lauded in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for earning his Master’s degree at UWM. Benson is the founder and director of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum. 

Wisconsin Public Radio discussed the “Climates of Inequality” exhibit on display in Milwaukee in April, a traveling exhibit that features local voices and research gathered by students from UWM’s History department and other disciplines. 

Recent graduate Christina Mundschau (‘24, BA Psychology) described her past struggle with opioid addiction on Fox 6 News, and how she overcame that addiction to attend college and to work as an addiction recovery support specialist. 

People in Print 

Florian Theuss, Avi Shragai, Gael Grissonnanche, Ian M. Hayes, Shanta R. Saha, Yun Suk Eo, Alonso Suarez, Tatsuya Shishidou (Physics), Nicholas P. Butch, Johnpierre Paglione, and B.J. Ramshaw. 2024. Single-component superconductivity in UTe2 at ambient pressure. Nature Physics, online.