Volume 15, Number 11
- Chinese language students learn about tech and culture with summer study abroadUWM Chinese program students Owen Czubin, Emmanuel Weber, and Hidayah Osman spent three weeks over the summer learning about emerging technologies and experiencing Chinese culture at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. For the …
- Facilities Update: UWM Greenhouse welcomes the city during Doors Open MilwaukeeIn September, the UWM Biological Sciences Greenhouse participated in the city-wide Doors Open Milwaukee event, a two-day public celebration of Milwaukee’s art, architecture, culture, and history. Visitors were invited to explore behind-the-scenes of 160-plus unique and interesting …
- UW-Milwaukee remembers the legacy of Robert GreenlerDr. Robert Greenler saw the world differently. Where most people marvel at the beauty of a rainbow or a snowflake, Greenler was marveling at the physics behind them. He made it his life’s mission to …
- UWM Physics welcomes a black hole expert, and a new name to reflect new discoveriesThis is not your same old Physics Department. Beginning this fall, UW-Milwaukee’s newly renamed Physics & Astronomy Department is enjoying a novel title that reflects the strengths of its fields of study. While our faculty …
- This anthropology alum’s work is (literally) child’s playAll work and no play? No thank you, says Cassie Coffey. For her, work is play. Coffey is the Director of Playful Experiences at DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville, Illinois. She oversees a team of …
- What can you do with a Women’s & Gender Studies major?Name: Torrince “Tori” Aster (formerly Tori Freund) Graduation Year: 2020 Major: Women’s & Gender Studies Job: Doula at Greater Love Birth and Community Care and midwife-in-training with Transitions Birth Services “Call the Midwife" is a surprisingly accurate show, said …
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Alumni Accomplishments
Brookes Moody (‘21, PhD English) was an invited speaker at the Friends of the Jamestown Library’s “Author’s Corner: A Mini-Hyde Park” event in October. The event invited several Rhode Island-based authors for a small-scale literary festival at the Jamestown Philomenian Library. Moody is the author of a collection of poetry titled, Astral Weeks, Etc., which was published in March 2025.
Lara Fritts (‘95, MS Urban Studies) was tapped as the next president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Chamber in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which supports local businesses and encourages economic development within the city. Fritts will take over in December and will be the second woman to lead the chamber. Fritts is currently the Director of the Frederick County Division of Economic Opportunity in Frederick, Maryland, and brings more than 30 years of experience to the role.
Benjamin Timm (‘00, BA Anthropology and History) was appointed the City of Milwaukee’s municipal port director by Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson in October. Timm has long served in the city’s Department of City Development hand has led several large projects for the city, including the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern cleanup. The role is a cabinet-level position in the city government. Timm’s appointment must be confirmed by the Milwaukee Common Council.
Rebecca Jackson (‘24, Certificate in Nonprofit Management) was appointed the CEO of Balance Inc., which provides support programs for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Jackson has more than 20 years of working in nonprofits, most recently at the Centers for Independence.
Megan Zemple (‘19, BA Journalism, Advertising, & Media Studies) joined KIMT Channel 3 News as a morning anchor in Rochester, Minnesota in September. Zemple has several years of broadcast news experience and won an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy in 2023.
Laurels & Accolades
PhD student Zo Andriantomanga’s (Economics) paper has been selected to receive an Abramson Scroll from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). The Abramson Scroll is awarded annually to one of the most outstanding articles published in Business Economics, NABE’s flagship journal, over the past year (October 2024–July 2025). The award was presented at the NABE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on Oct. 12–14.
Director Jean Creighton (Planetarium) was recently confirmed as President-Elect of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, a 200+ member organization dedicated to supporting astronomy and space science education at planetariums throughout the Midwest.
Associate Professor Derek Handley (English) is the winner of the 2025 Outstanding Book Award from the Coalition for Community Writing for Struggle for the City: Citizenship and Resistance in the Black Freedom Movement (Penn State University Press, 2024). The Outstanding Book Award is presented for the most outstanding book in community writing, which includes the areas of service learning, community-based research, community literacy, ethnography and memoir, community publishing, advocacy, and activist writing.
Professor Amanda Seligman (History and Urban Studies) and Jaclyn Kelly (‘11, MA History and Museum Studies), Executive Director of the Wisconsin Labor History Society), have won the American Historical Association’s William and Edwyna Gilbert award for articles on teaching. The article receiving recognition is titled, “Staging Historical Reenactments on Twitter: History, Methods, and Ethics,” and was published in the February 2024 edition of The History Teacher (Vol. 57, no. 2, pp: 179-209).
More than five dozen UWM scientists have been recognized as being among the top 2% of researchers in the world in 2024 by Stanford-Elsevier. Their list ranks researchers by how often their work is cited in other scientific publications, giving a gauge of their impact on their respective fields. The rankings are drawn from a massive database of the world’s top researchers. In addition to the 2024 ranking, Stanford-Elsevier also ranks scientists on their impact over the course of their careers. On that list, 84 UWM researchers ranked among the top 2%. View the full list, including the faculty and staff from the College of Letters & Science, on UWM Report.
In the Media and around the Community
Undark.org relied on findings by researcher and policy analyst Nene Osutei (Center for Economic Development) when the publication examined the impact and mitigation of lead pipes in Midwest cities.
The State Bar of Wisconsin explored how municipalities are reckoning with historic housing covenants that restricted who could live in certain areas based on race. These covenants have come to light based on research by Associate Professor Derek Handley (English) and Professor Anne Bonds (Geography) as part of their Mapping Racism and Resistance project.
With Halloween approaching, Director Jean Creighton (Planetarium) went on WUWM Radio’s Lake Effect show to talk about the “Creepy Cosmos” planetarium show. She also gave some advice on WTMJ Radio about what to look for in the night sky when stargazing in autumn.
Larval crustaceans are surprisingly fascinating – just ask alumna Sierra Wachala (‘22, MS Biological Sciences). She appeared as a guest on The Fisheries Podcast in October.
The trucking industry could be in some trouble. Newsweek quoted Professor James Peoples (Economics) as it examined labor shortages within the industry.
It has been 10 years since scientists around the world, including at UW-Milwaukee, announced they had confirmed the existence of gravitational waves once only theorized by Einstein. Assistant Professor Lia Medeiros (Physics) spoke on WUWM Radio about how the university continues to build on this discovery.
Halloween is a spider’s time to shine, so Professor Rafael Rodríguez (Biological Sciences) shared the latest on spider research on Wisconsin Public Radio.
It’s autumn and the colorful leaves look beautiful – but why do they shift from green to those gorgeous red, orange, yellow, and brown hues? Professor Erica Young (Biological Sciences) explained the science on WUWM Radio.
Associate Professor Ashley Lemke (Anthropology) has been invited to give a talk as part of the “Women in Science” speaker series at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She will talk about submerged hunter-gather villages in the Great Lakes.
Alumna Lindsey St. Arnold Bell (‘05, BA Community Education; ‘16, MS Urban Studies) was profiled in the Shepherd Express for her work as the executive director of Near West Side Partners, a nonprofit devoted to rebuilding this community from the inside out.
In 2016, Assistant Professor Victoria McCoy (Geosciences) published a paper in the journal Nature suggesting that a mysterious creature known as the Tully Monster, preserved in a fossil, might have been a vertebrate. Ten years later, scientists are still debating the creature’s classifications, as one article published on Leravi.org attests.
Assistant Professor Michael Mirer (Communication) warned of far-reaching consequences if a proposed bill to legalize online sports betting is signed into law. Fox 11 News reported the story.
A new study suggests that teens who use marijuana before age 15 are more likely to use marijuana later in life. NPR turned to Professor Krista Lisdahl (Psychology & Brain Science), who was not involved in the research, for perspective on the study’s results.
Professor Jeffrey Sommers (African & African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies Program) was the hour-long feature interview on WXRW Radio’s The Grass is Greener on Oct 28. The episode title was “Why the US Establishment Can’t Control Costs.”
People in Print
Distinguished Professor John S. Heywood (Economics), Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez and Maria Navarro Paniagua. 2025. The Hollywood gender gap: the role of action films. Journal of Cultural Economics, 49: 459-485.
Graduate students Ethan T. Kowalczyk, Kayode M. Medubi, Michelle J. Meyer, Mubaraq A. Toriola, Tyler J. Haasch, Makena R. Vesperman, Daniel A. Webb, Director emeritus Douglas C. Stafford, Gene T. Yocum, Charles W. Emala, and Professor and Director Leggy A. Arnold (all Chemistry & Biochemistry). 2025. “Development of novel pegylated imidazobenzodiazepines as inhaled asthma drug candidates. Respiratory Medicine, 249, 108449.
Professor Sarah E. Riforgiate, graduate student Candice Ruh, Christiana Ibiwoye (‘24, MA), Jannatul Ferdous Zinia, and graduate student Gertrude Misornu Nartey (all Communication). 2025. Mentoring in and Across Work Organizations. Encyclopedia, 5(4), 169.
Amanda S. Gallinat, Distinguished Professor Mark D. Schwartz, Professor Alison Donnelly (both Geography), Xiaolu Li, and Theresa M. Crimmins. 2025. Combined Volunteer and Ecological Network Observations Show Broad-scale Temperature-sensitivity Patterns for Deciduous Plant Flowering and Leaf-out Times across the Eastern USA. Journal of Ecology. Online first.
Graduate student Maya R. T. Fernando, graduate student Alexander B. Vincent, undergraduate Shaun G. Harrington, graduate student Mubaraq A. Toriola, graduate student Kayode M. Medubi, fellow Michelle J. Meyer, Daniel A. Webb (‘23, BS), and Professor Leggy A. Arnold (all Chemistry & Biochemistry). 2025. “Development of novel Alpha 2B adrenergic receptor ligands by using a palladium catalyzed Buchwald Hartwig amination with a brominated benzodiazepine” RSC Med. Chem. Online first.