Class Notes

Glenn Bugh, associate professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has received the university's 2013 Alumni Award for Excellence in International Education. Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Alumni Award for Excellence in International Education is presented annually to a Virginia Tech faculty or staff member who has had a significant impact on international education at the university. Selection is based upon contributions to the internationalization of Virginia Tech, the impact on students, the impact on the campus and community, the significance of the initiative, and the sustainability of the initiative. Awardees receive $2,000. Bugh joined the university in 1979 and was part of a small cohort of faculty members and administrators who helped establish the university’s Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. The center is home to a number of semester-long and summer study-abroad programs for undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to providing input into the original structure of the program, Bugh has spent significant time teaching courses there. Bugh has also been involved in the prestigious American School of Classical Studies in Athens, a consortium of American colleges that provides yearlong and summer graduate programs in Greece. Bugh secured the university’s membership in the group in 1987 and has served repeatedly on a variety of committees that support the institution’s programming. In addition, Bugh has been closely involved in creating the American Research Center in Sofia, the first such institution to be established in former communist Bulgaria. Bugh participated in the inaugural summer program there in 2006, and in 2011-12, he helped remake its summer travel program into an archaeology field school. Bugh has led more than a dozen study-abroad tours for the Smithsonian Institution, work that he has subsequently incorporated into his classes and has led him to create several new undergraduate courses and honors colloquia. “Glenn’s scholarship, teaching, and outreach are all deeply interwoven in a burning desire to share his profound knowledge of the ancient world,” said Mark Barrow, professor and chair of the Department of History. “He has untiring support for education abroad here at Virginia Tech.” Bugh received a bachelor’s degree in 1970 and master’s degree in 1972 from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Michael Stimson joined the Austin office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. as Senior Counsel and is working in the Intellectual Property and Technology department. Prior to joining Fulbright, he was an in-house counsel at Kinetic Concepts. Michael’s practice focuses on patent prosecution, patent counseling and patent litigation. He is experienced in technology transfer, including in-licensing, out-licensing and acquisition of technology for both small and large scale transactions. Michael received his J.D. from George Washington University and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1992. Here is a link to Michael Stimson's Fulbright bio page: http://www.fulbright.com/mstimson

Oscar is the senior author of the 2013 book Powerful Learning Communities. Although he has authored, co-authored or edited 29 books and monographs, this is the first one with a hard-cover version. The book is co-authored by Dr. Kevin Saunders, who is an ISU alum and former ISU faculty member. Oscar writes: "You may be interested to know that the book has some very good things to say about the learning communities at ISU, and that it is a follow-up to a 1999 book titled The Powerful Potential of Learning Communities that was co-authored with ISU professor Larry Ebbers. That 1999 book was stimulated into being by my involvement along with others in working with departments throughout the university in an attempt to institutionalize learning communities across the Campus at ISU when I served as a visiting professor there during the mid-nineties."

VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES KRISTI GANNON AS NEW BOARD MEMBER The New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association (NJVMA) has announced that Kristi Gannon, DVM, DACVECC, will serve a three-year term on the association’s Executive Board. Dr. Gannon joins the Board from Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus where she serves as the Director of the Emergency and Critical Care Services. She is a 1996 graduate of Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. “I am an advocate of organized veterinary medicine because it provides a more effective method for the profession to recognize and address issues as a collective unit,” said Dr. Gannon. “As a profession, we must continue to provide affordable care while delivering the best possible care to our patients.” As a member of the NJVMA Executive Board, Dr. Gannon will be charged with serving as the governing body of the association, establishing the strategic plan of the association, and providing direction to the various committees and task forces that support the implementation of the association objectives as directed by the Executive Board. The NJVMA Executive Board also includes Dr. Neal Beeber of Little Falls Animal Hospital in Little Falls, Dr. Anthony DeCarlo of Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls, Dr. Ian Driben of Burl-Moor-Driben Animal Hospital in Moorestown, Dr. Mary Moon of Hamilton Veterinary Hospital in Trenton, and Dr. Daniel Stobie of NorthStar VETS in Robbinsville.

Hal Henderson Appointed to HGA Board of Directors HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA) has appointed Hal Henderson, AIA, to its Board of Directors for 2013. Henderson is vice president and director of the firm’s Rochester office. He will serve alongside seven other board members and executive leaders representing HGA’s offices in Rochester and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, California; and Washington D.C. “As a Board member, my role is to help align HGA’s integrated, firm-wide resources to identify opportunities for our clients at the local and national level,” Henderson said. “Here in Rochester, we continue to support economic growth through partnership with local businesses to meet their growing facility needs. Because we are a small office, we are able to provide personalized one-on-one service to our clients while providing support to our other offices nationally.” Among HGA’s notable Rochester projects are 318 Commons, University of Minnesota Rochester downtown campus, BioBusiness Center, Rochester Art Center, and the Multidisciplinary Simulation Center at Mayo Clinic. Henderson has served on the Board of Directors and Committee leadership roles for numerous civic organizations, including Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Downtown Alliance, Grow Minnesota!, Olmsted Medical Center Regional Foundation, West Bank Community Board, and Rochester Golf and Country Club, among others. Hal Henderson graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Iowa State University.

Laura A. Beal,is receiving an Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Alumni Association in honor of distinguished teaching in the classroom. The award will be presented Thursday, April 11, during UNO’s Faculty Honors Convocation & Breakfast. UNO Alumni Association President Lee Denker will present the awards, established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom. Peer committees in each college choose recipients, each of whom receives a $1,000 award. Denker will present recipients with commemorative plaques during the convocation breakfast in the Milo Bail Student Center. Laura Beal is a finance lecturer who joined the College of Business Administration faculty in 1991 at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Her primary teaching focus includes Principles of Financial Management and Financial Reporting & Analysis for undergraduates. She also teaches accounting in the Executive MBA program. Beal, a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder, recently became director of the UNO CFA Review, a course that prepares candidates for the annual CFA exams. The CFA designation is considered the most valued credential for investment management professionals. Beal is leading efforts to have UNO recognized as a premier institution by the CFA Institute, a global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence. Laura earned a BSBA in finance from Iowa State University (1987) and an MBA from UNO (1991).

Jennifer Soma (’00 communication studies), a business lead at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, was named to the 2013 Des Moines Business Record’s prestigious “40 Under 40” in March 2013. Jennifer was recognized in 2012 with the U.S. Presidential Volunteer Service Award (gold level) for volunteering more than 1,000 hours. She serves as a board member and volunteer for AHeinz57 Pet Rescue and Transport and also volunteers and lobbies for Iowa Voters for Companion Animals/Iowa Friends of Companion Animals. In her work for Principal, Jennifer oversees product development and new initiatives in the individual disability insurance business, serving as a liaison between the information technology, quality assurance, and operations areas.

Jennifer Cognard-Black earned her M.A. from Iowa State University and is currently a professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland. We'd like to bring to your attention the following news about her award from the Maryland State Arts Council. Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, has been chosen for a Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) Individual Artist Award in Fiction. The award comes with a $3,000 grant to support Cognard-Black’s writing. The MSAC makes awards to Maryland artists annually through a competitive application process, aimed to promote and support artistic excellence across the state. This year, MSAC awarded individual works in the following categories: fiction; theater: solo performance; visual arts: media/digital/electronic arts; visual arts: painting; and visual arts: works on paper. The awards program is administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. The formal announcement of the MSAC Individual Artist Awards was made on Thursday, March 21. Professor Cognard-Black joined the English Department faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2000. Her teaching and research interests are in Anglo-American literature of the Victorian period, fiction writing, women writers, and the literatures of food. A selection of her publications includes “Narrative in the Professional Age” (Routledge, 2004); “Advancing Rhetoric” (Kendall/Hunt, 2004); and “Kindred Hands: Letters on Writing” (Iowa Press, 2006). A 2012 Fulbright Scholar to Slovenia, she is also a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine. Under the pseudonym J. Annie MacLeod, she publishes short fiction. Her stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and have been featured in publications from Another Chicago Magazine to Versal to Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Her anthology of food literature, “Books that Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal,” co-edited with Melissa Goldthwaite, is forthcoming from New York University Press in the spring of 2014. Cognard-Black holds a B.A. from Nebraska Wesleyan University, an M.A. from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

James Schmeling, B.A., Political Science '97, is a contributing author to a policy report that details what the authors describe as a “historic opportunity” related to the potential for public and private sector collaboration in support of veterans and their families. The report, “A National Veterans Strategy: The Economic, Social and Security Imperative,” brings together academic research with contributions from a broad cross-section of public and private sector stakeholders, to develop a logical and researched case for the social, economic and security-based interests served by a whole-of-the-nation National Veterans Strategy. The call to action suggested by the report comes at a pivotal moment in the U.S. The approaching end of a decade of war and the associated military force reduction of more than one million individuals-when considered in the context of a challenged economy, uncertain fiscal environment and dynamic global security situation-serve to focus politicians and policymakers alike on opportunities and challenges associated with advancing the post-service life course of veterans and their families. This publication is a collaborative effort of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF) and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Law. Schmeling, managing director and co-founder of IVMF, was extensively quoted by the Washington Post in their coverage of the National Veterans Strategy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/veterans-programs-should-be-overseen-by-o… Principal authors of the report are Nicholas J. Armstrong, M.P.A., Ph.D. Candidate (INSCT) and Dr. J. Michael Haynie, Ph.D. (IVMF). Contributing authors include Daniel Savage, M.P.P. (IVMF); James Schmeling, J.D. (IVMF); William Banks, J.D., M.A. (INSCT); and VADM (Ret.) Robert Murrett, M.A. (INSCT).

William J Claybaugh, 1973 Animal Science, was inducted into the Nebraska Poultry Hall of Fame on Febuary 21, 2013 at the Nebraska Poultry Industries Annual Meeting Banquet.

Finished my Masters of Divinity degree in 2012 and received a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Coopersburg, PA in July, 2012.

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM A Story of Survival, Dreams, Betrayals, and Accomplishments by Henry A. Fribourg, Iowa State University, PhD 1954 An e-book available on Kindle Escape to Freedom is the autobiographical memoir of a 12-year old French Jewish boy who with his parents, sister and baby brother, escaped from occupied Europe in January 1942, one month after Pearl Harbor. His mother had had premonitions of the coming Holocaust (Shoah) and needed to convince her husband to leave the Old World to give their children another chance at life, even when her parents opposed her departure. He relates surviving three machine-gun strafings by a German fighter pilot, the walk of his soldier father most of the way across France, and the flight of his pregnant mother and sister with him to escape the German Panzers during the invasion of France in 1940. He describes the life in Vichy France and North Africa, and his expulsion from school; how it felt when the neutral ship on which he was sailing on the way to refuge in Cuba was stopped by a U-boat mid-way across the Atlantic; his learning Spanish and English the hard way; the murder of his grandparents – and the life his family created in the US after WW II. He served in the US Army during the Korean War. Working his way through college, he had a 48-year career as a professor of crop ecology and as a successful pasture and beef cattle researcher. He married and had two children with his wife Claudia, who also had escaped Europe with her family as a very young child. He describes travelling widely to attend professional meetings and to help developing countries, while also visiting tourist venues, in Europe, the Americas and the Far East. Claudia accompanied him after the children were grown. When they were home, they spent several years building, on weekends, a log cabin vacation home on a lakeside hill with an unimpeded view of East Tennessee mountains. Genealogical research allowed him to identify numerous members of his extended family who did not survive the Holocaust. His grandmother had taken refuge in 1942 in a small town in the mountains of central France, where she was arrested by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in spring 1943 and shipped in train Convoy 72 to Auschwitz. Sixty years later, the inhabitants of the town honored her memory, and that of other victims, in a moving ceremony of remembrance, with several survivors and descendants present. This tale is a fascinating story of fortuitous luck and dogged determination to survive and create a fulfilling new life in America. Thoughout his book, he reminds his readers to not forget, but remember the events in Europe from 1933 through 1945. Available on Kindle (Amazon), 2013. $3.98 How Mother Gave Us Life TWICE Some of you may have some interest in what I have been doing after retirement 11 years ago. Regards, Henry A. Fribourg, Ph. D. Iowa State ‘54 Professor Emeritus of Crop Ecology, University of Tennessee 7421 Somerset Road, Knoxville, TN, 37909-2356, USA Voice: 865-560-1247 e-mail: fribourg@tennessee.edu

2013—Deb Czarnecki, Lead Microbiologist, FMC BioPolymer, Newark, DE, is now a Registrant of the National Registry of Certified Microbiologists (NRCM). On December 18, 2012, she became certified as a Registered Microbiologist in Food Safety and Quality Microbiology. Ms. Czarnecki received her B.S. degree from Iowa State University, Ames. To earn the NRCM credential, Ms. Czarnecki first met rigorous educational and experiential eligibility requirements and then passed a comprehensive written examination. She has demonstrated the knowledge and skills necessary in a food microbiology testing laboratory. The NRCM is a voluntary certifying body which was founded in 1958 and has certified microbiologists in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and on six continents. The goals of the NRCM are to minimize risk to the public by identifying qualified microbiologists; encourage mastery of microbiological knowledge and skills that contribute to improving the human condition; and foster professional pride and a sense of accomplishment in qualified microbiologists. Employers use NRCM certification to distinguish their company and attest to their employees’ competency. The American College of Microbiology, a component of ASM's Professional Practice Committee, is responsible for certification of microbiologists and immunologists, accreditation of postdoctoral training programs, and other programs consistent with its mission of providing leadership in promoting the high quality and ethical practice of the microbiology and immunology professions for the benefits of human, animal, and environmental well-being.

Richard Seely, AIA has recently been promoted to Principal at OPN Architects. An Associate since 2005, Seely has built an extensive portfolio of high-profile and award-winning work. He joins Terry Gebard, AIA as principal in the Des Moines office. Seely’s practice has been built on the planning and design of large, complex projects for wide range of clients – including work at the state universities and for Fortune 500 companies. Notable projects include the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, a LEED Gold building that was recognized by the American Institute of Architects – Iowa Chapter with an award for design excellence, and Bright Grandview Clubhouse, a civic project which also won an AIA award for design in 2012. Seely’s expertise extends to historic restoration projects, as well. His work includes the restoration of Salisbury House, a historic mansion which now serves as a museum and cultural center, and the restoration of Hoyt Sherman Place a grand, historic theater located in Des Moines. Seely is widely recognized as a leader in the professional community. In 2011, Seely served as the President of the Board of Directors for the Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In his role he championed the responsibility of architects and firms to embrace innovative, sustainable design practices. NOTE: Rick graduated from Iowa State University: Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, 1985; Bachelor of Architecture, 1986

Nick Wilson , BS Chemical Engineering 1967 recently received the Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering ( PACE), College of Engineering in 2011. He is a lifetime member of ISU Alumni association. Morrison Container Handling Solutions is pleased to announce that Nick Wilson, president of Morrison Container Handling Solutions was inducted into the Packaging Hall of Fame on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. Induction into the Packaging Hall of Fame is the packaging industry's highest honor, recognizing a lifetime of innovation and achievement. Wilson was selected for this prestigious award due to his dedicated leadership in the industry and his commitment to education. He has personally advanced the field of packaging. As a PMMI Board of Directors member since 2006, and Chairman of the Board since 2011, Wilson has been instrumental in establishing PMMI’s future growth and direction. During his leadership tenure, PMMI has introduced the customer-centric approach to PACK EXPO, expanded general membership to qualified firms based in Mexico, introduced EXPO PACK Guadalajara, and began implementing its new strategic vision. And as valuable as his contributions have been, what is most impressive may be how Nick Wilson has impacted education — and mechatronics education in specific. Packaging machinery has undergone the transition from primarily mechanical operation to complex combinations of mechanical and servo/PLC controls. Wilson saw this change and identified the need for engineering education that integrated electrical and mechanical knowledge and consequently fostered the growth of mechatronics education. This is especially evident at Purdue Calumet. Wilson convinced faculty at Purdue Calumet of just how critical it was to establish a mechatronics education program. Then, he encouraged and drove a partnership among Purdue Calumet, packaging industry leaders and PMMI. The mutually beneficial connection provides students up-to-date equipment, technical advice and assistance and internships, and gives the industry partner companies the reassurance of knowing there will be a growing qualified pool of candidates moving forward. Wilson and his wife, Nancy, went on to participate in the development of the school’s Baccalaureate of Science degree program in mechatronics, provide scholarships and internships for students, and donate equipment for hands-on training at the school’s new Nick & Nancy Wilson Mechatronics Laboratory. His commitment to education reaches far beyond a single educational institution. He has also played an active role in PMMI’s Mechatronics Certificate program. The program augments mechatronics skills standards developed by PMMI and embraced by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Competency Model Clearinghouse. It is also a component of The Manufacturing Institute's Manufacturing Skills Certification Systems (SCS) offerings. Wilson has virtually guaranteed manufacturers will have the opportunity to hire engineers whose skills encompass all they need to know. Wilson also serves on the Dean’s Executive Council at the Purdue Calumet School of Technology. Is an elected member of the advisory council of the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana. In 2011, Wilson was honored with the Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering (PACE) from Iowa State University’s College of Engineering, where he earned his BS in chemical engineering in 1967. He earned an MBA in Accounting from Loyola University in 1976.

Marjorie (Foddy) Hogan recently featured in Absolute Return - December 2012 issue Marjorie (Foddy) Hogan was recently featured in Absolute Return’s December 2012 issue (www.hedgefundintelligence.com/absolutereturn). Marjorie graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in 1978 from the college of liberal arts and science with a dual degree in Physics and Mathematics. She then went on to receive her Ph.D. degree in 1983 from Stanford University in Mathematics. At Stanford, Marjorie Hogan studied stochastic process, the mathematical field that attempts to understand random variables and probability. Elements of that doctoral work are visible today, driving successful investments of hard-to-predict, complex securities like collateralized loan obligations and mortgage backed securities at her four year old Manhattan credit firm, Altum Capital Management. “Everything in my world is random–interest rates, default probabilities, default outcomes,” says Hogan, who was raised on a corn farm in Woodward, Iowa. “That’s what stochastic process is – it’s trying to analyze the uncertainties we all face.” Hogan developed her expertise in asset backed securities by modeling uncertainties and then trading them. Following a year of avionics work at Boeing, she moved to First Boston where she spent six years modeling options, managing risk and trading corporate warrants. Options pricing, Hogan says, was the obvious career coming out of her PhD program because of the intersection of intellectual stimulation and real world applicability. Hogan found a similar intersection at Bear Stearns, where she spent the bulk of her career. From 1991 to 1999, she founded and managed the mortgage derivatives business. Next, she established and ran the collateralized debt obligations trading desk from 2000 to 2004, the first of its kind. Finally, she managed proprietary capital in mortgages and CDOs from 2005 to 2008. She took risk off before the mortgage meltdown and financial crisis, she says, but only shorted indices and not specific MBS. “I did underestimate how large this wipeout was going to be,” she says of not doing the short subprime trade that made stars of John Paulson and a few others. “That’s a disappointment.” Still, Hogan estimates that if her portfolio had been a hedge fund-using modest, two times leverage-it would have generated returns in the “upper 30s” in both 2005 and 2006; “mid 20s” in 2007 and about 15% from November 30 to March 14, 2008, the day Bear was temporarily bailed out. Hogan decided not to stay at J.P. Morgan following its purchase of Bear. In January 2009, she joined Capstone Investment Advisors, a volatility focused money manager that wanted to expand into credit. After building a successful track record, Hogan spun out her Capstone Altum Credit Fund in February, and keeping her seven person team intact. She kept the name Altum, a Latin word referring to deep perspective from above suggested by Hogan’s then 17-year-old daughter. Investors, including one of the oldest, Vanderbilt University’s endowment, had the choice to redeem. All 41 followed. Altum invests in American and European structured credit products – CLOs, RMBS, CMBS, and other ABS–but not all at once. Hogan and her quant-heavy team’s modus operandi is to watch for opportunities across ABS, study a handful of promising markets for months, building related models and expertise, and then focus on the best opportunity. Investors rave about Hogan’s process. “Their approach is the right way to do it: lay the groundwork, build the infrastructure, build the models, and then when the time is right you’re set up and ready to go,” says Manish Valecha of fund of funds Gapstow Capital Partners. “She does a lot of work before she moves in,” adds David Mumert of Mt. Vernon, the Dallas, Tex. family office of Excel Communications founder Kenny Troutt. “She’s kind of risk averse-something we like. She’s very methodical and very open.” “We want to continually grow our understanding of new areas,” says Hogan of Altum’s “sector rotation.” “It’s the willingness and ability to study new areas and continually move where opportunities should be and not be limited by what our most recent trading experience was.” Today, Altum is mostly invested in U.S. and, increasingly, European CLOs. The fund is in about 100 different securities, with the top position representing 3.43% of assets. The leveraged loan securities are an area of growing interest for many credit hedge funds and have performed well this year. Hogan has stayed out of the lucrative MBS trade this year, believing it’s too crowded and spreads are too tight to take advantage of without using leverage (Altum employs none). But Hogan has been busy setting up a potential U.K. subprime MBS investment, opening a London office led by former Aberdeen Asset Management portfolio manager Cathy Price and having her quant team build valuation models. “This market has received less investor focus than other structured-product areas, particularly US subprime, and while smaller, still offers sufficient liquidity and underlying portfolio information,” Hogan wrote in a recent investor letter. “While we remain cautious on the entry point (as with most areas in structured credit, this market has run up over recent months), we believe this is a relatively less crowded market where we have the opportunity to find attractive bonds based on in-depth fundamental analysis.” Price and Hogan – who also spends one week a month in Europe – are also beginning to look at European ABS CDOs and distressed European RMBS and CMBS, particularly the Spanish mortgage market. Others on the investment team include senior trader Lynn Paquette, the decade-long head of the mortgage derivatives trading desk at Bear Stearns who has a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Three former banking quants run modeling for Altum: Yale physics PhD Mark Rakowski; Princeton electrical engineering MA Yin Chan; and Rochester engineering PhD Zhao Cheng. Investors say they trust Hogan to avoid liquidity problems and hedge effectively. “She’s one of the oldest hands in the industry,” says Michael Afanasiev of fund of funds Cube Capital. “She knows it like the back of her hand and hence she’s able to pick pieces that A, don’t lose money eventually and B,maneuver in the space very efficiently.”

Monte DeArmoun, 1990 BA Political Science, was named the 2012 Iowa Preserve America History Teacher of the Year. DeArmoun teaches at Northwood-Kensett Jr./Sr. High School in Northwood, IA.

Freese-Decker Named Young Healthcare Executive of the Year Christina M. Freese-Decker, president, Spectrum Health United Hospital and Spectrum Health Kelsey Hospital, has won the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year. The honor is given for outstanding achievement in the field of health care management. Freese-Decker is a Des Moines native and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1996. The award is given to an exceptional health care executive who is less than 40 years old, is an ACHE Fellow and holds a chief executive officer or chief operations officer position in a health care organization. Freese-Decker will receive her award on Tuesday, March 12, at the Malcolm T. MacEachern Memorial Lecture and Luncheon during ACHE’s 56th Congress on Healthcare Leadership in Chicago. Freese-Decker, 35, has been president of the two Spectrum Health hospitals since 2011. She began her career in 2002 as an administrative fellow with Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. She was named director of strategic planning and development and was soon promoted as the department’s vice president. In this role, she led system strategic planning, market intelligence gathering, call center operations and regional hospital network coordination. Freese-Decker earned master’s degrees in health administration and industrial engineering from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University. She is currently serving on the board of directors of the David D. Hunting YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, serving as vice chair from 2009 to 2012. Freese-Decker was president of the Great Lakes Chapter of ACHE from 2008 to 2009 and she is currently president of the Health Management and Policy Alumni Board of Directors, College of Public Health, at the University of Iowa.

In February, Dr. Paul Hanstedt, professor of English at Roanoke College, will receive Virginia’s highest honor – the State Council of Higher Education’s Outstanding Faculty Award. Hanstedt joins 11 other award recipients, who are all faculty members from colleges and universities across the state. The winners will be recognized at a ceremony and luncheon in Richmond on Feb. 12. Prior to the event, they will be introduced on the floor of the Virginia General Assembly. What drives Hanstedt’s teaching is his desire to help students develop the skills in writing, reading, or cultural analysis that allow them to participate in the conversations that matter. “There's so much emphasis these days on education as certification--it doesn't matter what you learn, just as long as you get that degree,” Hanstedt said. “I disagree with this--I want students to push themselves, to learn about the subject, but also to learn about who they are, about what they value, about what drives them. Every day I'm in the class room I'm reminded that working with them as they make that discovery is an honor.” “I was a rather quiet and shy student … uncomfortable expressing my views or taking risks in my writing,” Dr. Heidi Hanrahan ’99 wrote in support of his nomination. “Somehow, Dr. Hanstedt saw promise in me and went out of his way to encourage me. In a conference in his office, he told me, ‘When you say something, the other students in class actually listen. They want to hear what you have to say.’ It’s hard to explain what a jolt of confidence this was for me as a young scholar.” Hanrahan is now assistant professor of English at Shepherd University. “The College is very pleased and honored with Dr. Hanstedt’s selection for a SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award,” Dr. Richard Smith, vice president and dean of the college, said. “He is a superb teacher and accomplished scholar who is a noted expert and strong voice for innovative general education curricula and pedagogy. His selection not only validates his fine work and many accomplishments but also affirms the Roanoke College’s faculty emphasis on excellent teaching and scholarship.” Hanstedt was one of the campus leaders in Roanoke’s revision of its general education program, serving as director of general education for five years. He now consults with colleges and universities in the United States and abroad about curricular matters. In 2009, Hanstedt spent a year in Hong Kong as a Fulbright Scholar, helping more than a dozen universities in Asia transform from a three-year British model to a four-year American model. He received the 2006 Roanoke College Innovation Award for collaboration in general education reform. Hanstedt has published numerous articles, writing for “The Chronicle of Higher Education,” the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ “Liberal Education,” the modern Language Association’s “Profession” and a variety of scholarly journals. Hanstedt is the author of two books, “The Faculty Guide to General Education” (Jossey-Bass/Wiley) and “HongKonged, or: the Neurotic Parents’ Guide to a Year in Asia” (Adams Media). His work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Nonfiction in 2011 for “Grief and the Village,” published as “What Do You Say?” in Brain, Child in March 2011. Hanstedt also writes a blog and contributes radio essays to WVTF Public Radio. His subject matter ranges from food, travel, and his three children to his efforts to learn to play the accordion. Hanstedt is the fourth Roanoke professor to receive the Outstanding Faculty Award in the past 10 years. Other Roanoke recipients include Dr. Gregory Weiss, professor of sociology, emeritus, who was recognized in 2004, Dr. Roland Minton, professor of mathematics, in 2005 and Dr. Melanie Almeder, associate professor of English, in 2011. Almeder also was recognized as a “rising star” for three years prior to 2011. Hanstedt, who has taught at Roanoke since 1996, has received several awards at Roanoke, including the Dean’s Council Exemplary Teaching Award in 2000 and the SGA Faculty Leadership Award in 1999. He served as the director of general education for Roanoke for five years. He earned his B.A. from Luther College, his master’s degree from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

On Tuesday, July 31, Arlen Wonderlich was voted the National Grand President of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. Wonderlich was one of the five voted positions selected at the fraternity’s 62nd National Convention in Burlington, Vt. Approximately 400 AGR alumni and collegiate members and their families attended the convention. Alpha Gamma Rho is the national professional/social agricultural fraternity with more than 59,000 members nationwide and chapters on 71 campuses in the United States. Wonderlich was raised on a grain and livestock Century Farm in southeastern Iowa. He was initiated into Eta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho in 1967.He graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in animal science in 1970 and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1973. He joined a mixed animal practice in Waukon, Iowa, where dairy and swine medicine and consultation were his primary interests. In 1991, he joined Land O’Lakes Feed as a swine consultant. A desire to become more involved in preventative medicine led him to Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) in 1996 where he was a member of the professional veterinary services team. He has worked with veterinary and farm accounts across the United States, Japan and South Korea utilizing his diagnostic, vaccination and preventative medicine skills. In 2002, he developed the Pharmacovigilance Regulatory Affairs Department at BIVI in St. Joseph, Mo. His past service to Eta Chapter includes serving as secretary, vice president and president of the Alumni Board. During that time, he became involved in Iowa State’s Greek Alumni Alliance and served as vice president and president of that all-Greek community organization. Wonderlich joined AGR’s National Board of Directors in 2009 and served as vice grand president for two years. He has been a church and community leader with involvement on church boards and service clubs and has served his profession on numerous committees and boards for the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association. He and his wife, Karlene, split their time between their home in Phoenix, Ariz. and their cabin near Lansing, Iowa. They have three children and six grandchildren. For additional information, contact Stephanie Casey at SCasey@AlphaGammaRho.org or 816-891-9200 ext. 11. Alpha Gamma Rho is the fraternity sharing a common bond within a dynamic, global agriculture committed to fostering the highest values and providing each and every brother with superior lifelong personal development and professional success. For more information on Alpha Gamma Rho, call 816-891-9200 or direct your browser to www.alphagammarho.org.

Karmyn Babcock, IT Director of The Weitz Company, Des Moines, Iowa, has been selected by Engineering News-Record magazine as an ENRMidwest Top 20 Under 40 professional. The annual program recognizes young design and construction individuals from the region who have made significant contributions to their professions and communities. Honorees were notified by ENR of their selection on December 20, 2012. Babcock is one of four women on the list to achieve this honor for 2013. Babcock was nominated by The Weitz Company because she has successfully merged the disciplines of engineering and technology by developing and implementing electronic advancements tailor-made for the construction industry. Babcock served as an intern with Weitz in 1997and was hired as a full-time employee in 1998. Over the course of her 15 years with Weitz Babcock has been involved in every facet of the corporate IT strategy for this top 50 national contractor. Major innovations include Babcock’s development of a real-time integration between the Prolog and JD Edwards systems regarding project financial information making Weitz the only contractor industry-wide with this technology. Recognizing opportunities for improvements and taking prudent action has been key to Babcock’s success in technological innovations for the construction industry. She has prototyped many technologies for Weitz, developing a faster evaluation cycle to push change faster. “We have to keep up with the pace of technology as an organization instead of a wait and see attitude. If we wait and see, we are literally years behind,” Babcock states. Babcock is a graduate of Iowa State University with a Master of Science in Civil and Construction Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and a member of the Prolog Customer Advisory Board; iPad in Construction; ISU ConE Alumni; Construction Executive Leaders; and McGraw-Hill Construction Future Tech CIO. ENRMidwest received 130 entries for the Top 20 under 40 competition during a Sept. 14 to Nov. 9, 2012 submission period. A panel of six industry professionals selected those candidates they believed best demonstrated excellence and leadership in their professions and communities. ENRMidwest covers news about construction and design in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Thomas William Davis graduated from Iowa State in December 2009 with a double major - bachelor degrees in Psychology and Journalism/Broadcasting. He has been living and working in San Diego, Calif., for the past three years. Thomas was recently invited/accepted into the Peace Corps. He will be an Educator in Jamaica beginning March 2013 thru May 17, 2015.

Continuing to build expertise and their regional leadership position in online and digital marketing, Blue Compass Interactive officials today announced social media strategist Hillary Brown is joining the firm as online marketing associate. Hillary Brown graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor of arts degree in Advertising in 2001. According to company officials, Brown will lead the agency’s social marketing services with core responsibilities for developing and managing client social media campaigns, online collaboration and brand growth. “Hillary is extremely talented and a recognized industry leader in online marketing, especially within the social media arena,” said Drew Harden, Blue Compass Interactive president and co-founder. “She brings a lot of skill and additional depth to our service offerings in social media, search engine optimization and digital marketing solutions.” Before joining the Blue Compass team, Brown was a senior social media strategist and community manager at the Integer Group. She also has worked at Lava Row as a digital strategist and for Los Angeles-based Passenger Inc., a provider of online branded communities for Fortune 500 companies. Her extensive client experience includes a variety of national and regional powerhouse brands, such as: Apple, Nike, Nestle, Target, Twentieth Century Fox, ABC, Dreamworks, X-Games, Jacuzzi, BFGoodrich, Michelin, Pennzoil, Electrolux, Frigidaire, Pella Windows & Doors, Templeton Rye, Knoxville Raceway and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In addition to her passion for emerging media channels, Brown loves all things music. She is co-owner of On-Pitch, a music marketing and entertainment company, and heavily involved in the Central Iowa music community. In addition to working with the annual 80/35 blockbuster concert and volunteering for the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition, Brown also has served as a panel moderator for the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. About Blue Compass Interactive Blue Compass Interactive (www.bluecompass.com) offers an experienced team of web and mobile experts who help businesses succeed online and in the marketplace with effective web design, web development and online marketing solutions. Based in West Des Moines, Iowa, Blue Compass serves clients throughout the nation representing a broad range of industries – from leading Fortune 500 companies to small- and mid-sized entrepreneurial businesses. Committed to building, promoting and protecting client brands, Blue Compass develops custom tailored, easy-to-use, web-based resources that effectively drive search engine optimization and put social media to work for your business. Their award-winning designs have been honored by renowned industry leaders such as Adobe, and each project is supported with objective-based analytics to illustrate real and relevant ROI.

Iowa State University alumnus Michael J. Lannoo (B.S. in Biology, 1979 and M.S. in Animal Ecology, 1982), would like to share details of his recent publication, The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory: A Century of Discovering the Nature of Nature. Imagine a place dedicated to the long-term study of nature in nature, a permanent biological field station, a teaching and research laboratory that promotes complete immersion in the natural world. Lakeside Laboratory, founded on the shore of Lake Okoboji in northwestern Iowa in 1909, is just such a place. In this remarkable and insightful book, Michael Lannoo sets the story of Lakeside Lab within the larger story of the primacy of fieldwork, the emergence of conservation biology, and the ability of field stations to address such growing problems as pollution, disease, habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change. At the intersection of major ecosystems with distinct plant and animal communities and surrounded by what, ironically, may be the most intensely cultivated landscape on earth, Lakeside has a long history of rubber-boot biologists saturated in the spirit that grounds the new discipline of conservation biology, and Lannoo brings this history to life with his descriptions of the people and ideas that shaped it. Lakeside’s continuing commitment to bringing the laboratory to the field rather than bringing the field to the lab has supported a focus on mammalogy, ornithology,herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate biology, parasitology, limnology, and algology, subjects rarely taught now on university campuses but crucial to the planet’s health. Lakeside Lab and biological research stations like it have never been more relevant to science and to society at large than they are today. Michael Lannoo convinces us that while Lakeside’s past is commendable, its future, grounded in ecological principles, will help shape a more sustainable society.

Ryan Nisle has been named one of The Best Lawyers in America for 2013. Nisle graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in history from Iowa State University in 1998. He continued his studies and attended law school at the University of Oregon, where he earned his juris doctorate in 2001. Nisle is currently a partner at Miller Nash LLP.