uicnews.uic.edu

May 3

2017Volume 36 / Number 31

uicnews.uic.edu

For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago

Facebook / uicnews Twitter / uicnews YouTube / uicmedia Flickr / uicnews Instagram / thisisuic & uicamiridis

Photo: Elizabeth Monge

CONGRATS, GRADUATES!

2 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Dear graduates,

First and foremost, congratulations!I look forward to this time of year, as the spring

brings vibrant colors to campus and a sense of renew-al and optimism. But I write this note with mixed emo-tions. As chancellor, some of my most memorable times at UIC have been those spent interacting with students. You are the reason I take such pride in my job, and saying goodbye to those graduating is bitter-sweet for me.

This is an exciting time in your life and you have worked hard — sometimes through very difficult obsta-cles — to achieve your goals. You deserve to celebrate! But please remember that you will always be part of the UIC family and I hope that you will reflect on your time at UIC with joy and accomplishment.

UIC faculty and staff work tirelessly to provide you with the finest education so you can flourish in what-ever career path you take. And others are taking notice. This year, UIC rose into the top 200 Universities in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, based on our success in teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook. This is an outstanding achievement and we should all cele-brate.

Even though we are in challenging financial times, we continue to enroll and educate more students such as you, and conduct cutting-edge research that gains international recognition. We continue to provide ex-cellent health care services and to support the sur- Michael Amiridis

Chancellor

“You are the reason I take such pride in my job,” says UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis.

LETTER FROM THE CHANCELLOR Bittersweet goodbye as grads embark on new adventures

rounding communities, the city, and the state in numerous ways. And we continue to set the national standard for comprehensive diversity and inclusion.

The success of our students has always been and will continue to be our first priority. We are working to continuously improve the student experience, to mod-ernize the physical infrastructure of our campus, and to create life-long learning opportunities to solve real world problems.

I want to personally thank each and every one of you for choosing UIC. We invite you to return to cam-pus as often as possible, to visit your favorite faculty and staff members, to interact with the future genera-tions of students, to see an outstanding musical or theatrical production at the UIC Theatre, or take in a sporting event or educational symposium. This was not only your home while you were a student here, but we want you to call it home for the rest of your life. You will be missed.

Good luck with all your future endeavors. I am confi-dent that you will achieve wonderful things and contin-ue making us proud.

Go Flames!

Sincerely,

3UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

COLLEGE CEREMONIES

RUDY VALDEZRudy Valdez, 787 EIS sys-

tems engineering lead at Ham-ilton Sundstrand, is commence- ment speaker.

Valdez is an aftermarket sys-tems engineering lead for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. He previously was director of oper-ations for the space division of Hamilton Sundstrand.

Valdez received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UIC in 1987.

HONORS COLLEGE Wed. May 3, 7 p.m. / UIC Forum

AFAF IBRAHIM MELEIS

Commencement speaker is Afaf Ibrahim Meleis, professor of nursing and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Meleis is an internationally renowned nurse scientist and medical sociologist. Her five decades of scholarly contributions have informed gen-erations of nurses around the world and influenced their education, practice and research programs.

She previously was the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing and director of the school’s WHO Collabo-rating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership from 2002 through 2014. Before her work in Pennsyl-vania, she spent 34 years as a professor at the Univer-sity of California San Francisco and Los Angeles.

NURSINGThurs. May 4, 1 p.m. / UIC Pavilion

TIM GROVERTim Grover, owner of Attack

Athletics and Michael Jordan’s personal trainer, will give the commencement speech.

Grover has also trained Hall-of-Famers and champions such as Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and hundreds of other star athletes.

He is the author of Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable and Jump Attack.

APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCESThurs. May 4, 2 p.m. / UIC Forum

GLORIA LADSON- BILLINGS

Gloria Ladson-Billings, schol-ar and distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, is commencement speaker.

Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor in Urban Education in curriculum and instruction and faculty affiliate in educational policy studies, educa-tional leadership and policy analysis and Afro Ameri-can studies.

Her research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African Ameri-can students.

EDUCATION Thurs. May 4, 6:30 p.m. / UIC Pavilion

RUSSELL SECTERRussell Secter, president of

Regennera Therapeutics, will give the commencement ad-dress.

Secter has about 30 years of sales and marketing experi-ence in the pharmaceutical in-dustry, spanning traditional medical markets, generic phar-maceutical markets, dental pharmaceutical markets and biopharmaceutical company startups. Previously, he was CEO of PDx Biotech and president of OraPhar-ma, a company acquired by Johnson & Johnson.

He received his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from UIC in 1978.

PHARMACYThurs. May 4, 7:30 p.m. / UIC Forum

JAMES GLEESONJames Gleeson, associate

professor of social work, is commencement speaker.

Gleeson will retire from UIC in May. During the ceremony, he will be awarded the Jane Add-ams College of Social Work Pioneer Award, which was es-tablished to recognize alumni who have made significant, innovative or pioneering contributions to a community, state, or nation consis-tent with the mission of the college.

SOCIAL WORKFri. May 5, 9 a.m. / UIC Pavilion

JESÚS “CHUY” GARCIACook County Commissioner

Jesús “Chuy” García is commence-ment speaker.

Garcia is the commissioner for the 7th District on the Cook County Board.

In 1992, he ran for Illinois State Senate and became the first Mexican-American elect-ed. He ran for mayor in 2015 and forced the first run-off election for that position.

He received his bachelor’s in political science and master’s in urban planning at UIC.

URBAN PLANNING & PUBLIC AFFAIRSFri. May 5, 10 a.m. / UIC Forum

PEDRO GREER & MIGUEL ÁNGEL MANCERA ESPINOSA

Pedro “Joe” Greer Jr., professor of medicine at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim Col-lege of Medicine, will make the commencement address.

Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, the mayor of Mexico City, will re-ceive an honorary degree during the ceremony.

Greer is an advocate for health equity by engaging communities to create effective health and social policies and accessible health care systems.

He previously ran a private prac-tice and was chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Mercy Hospital in Miami.

Mancera, who has served in his role since 2012, is widely regarded as one of Mexico’s most effective po-litical leaders. His administration has distinguished itself by its significant advances in health care and ad-ministrative reform, as well as its opposition to human trafficking.

MEDICINEFri. May 5, 2 p.m. / UIC Pavilion

JULIE MORITAJulie Morita, commissioner of the

Chicago Department of Public Health, will speak at commencement.

Since Morita assumed her role in 2015, the city’s public health depart-ment has developed and launched Healthy Chicago 2.0, a four-year plan to assure healthy equity by addressing the social determinants of health. The health department has also recently led efforts to pass several tobacco prevention initiatives, including raising the age for purchasing tobacco products to 21.

She previously was the health department’s chief medical officer, leading the city’s response to the pan-demic influenza outbreak.

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTHFri. May 5, 3:30 p.m. / UIC Forum

UIC celebrates the Class of 2017 during its commencement ceremonies May 3–7. Sheryl Underwood, comedian, UIC graduate and host of CBS daytime show “The Talk,” and Carlos Tortolero, founder and president of the National Museum of Mexican Art, will receive honorary degrees from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, the mayor of Mexico City, will receive an honorary degree from the College of Medicine. Kevin Lynch, vice president of technology at Apple, will receive an honorary degree from the College of Engineering.

4 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

DONALD HERMANEKCommencement speaker is

Donald Hermanek, chief client officer for Insurance Auto Auc-tions, Inc.

Hermanek received his bache-lor’s in marketing from UIC in 1970.

Hermanek has more than 35 years’ experience in the automotive claims and salvage industry.

He previously was vice president of business devel-opment for Consolidated Services Corp., vice presi-dent of National Sales for Safelite Glass Corporation, and vice president of sales for ADP.

COLLEGE CEREMONIES

HENRY BIENEN, SHERYL UNDERWOOD & CARLOS TORTOLERO

Henry Bienen, president of The Poetry Foundation, will give the commencement address.

Sheryl Underwood, comedian, UIC graduate and host of CBS day-time show “The Talk,” and Carlos Tor-tolero, founder and president of the National Museum of Mexican Art, will receive honorary degrees.

Bienen served as Northwestern University’s president from 1995 to 2009 and continues to serve as president emeritus. The Poetry Foundation, which he currently leads, aims to discover, celebrate and share the best poetry. The orga-nization publishes Poetry magazine, which was founded in Chicago in 1912 and is the oldest monthly magazine devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

Underwood, a 1987 graduate in communication and theatre, is owner and CEO of Pack Rat Productions. She is the founder of Pack Rat Foundation for Education, working to support historically black colleges and universities and students in higher education.

Tortolero founded the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 1982. He received his bachelor’s in secondary education and history at UIC.

He previously was a teacher, counselor and admin-istrator in the Chicago Public Schools system. He was a member of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2011.

BUSINESSSat. May 6, 9 a.m. / UIC Pavilion

CLARK STANFORDClark Stanford, dean of the

College of Dentistry, is com-mencement speaker. Former associate dean for research and professor of prosthodontics at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, he is a researcher whose work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, private foundations and industry.

He is the author of 20 book chapters, 117 pub-lished papers and more than 140 research abstracts.

DENTISTRYSat. May 6, 10 a.m. / UIC Forum

TRINA ROY & KEVIN LYNCHTrina Roy, a senior software devel-

oper at Pixar Animation Studios, is commencement speaker.

Kevin Lynch, vice president of technology at Apple, will receive an honorary degree during the ceremo-ny.

Roy, who received her master’s in computer science from UIC in 1995, was a research assistant in the Elec-tronic Visualization Laboratory.

She started her software career at Silicon Graphics, Inc., before starting at PDI/DreamWorks, where she wrote physics-based simulation code for Shrek.

At Apple, Lynch has focused on the software of the Apple Watch and the company’s health software. Be-fore he joined Apple in 2013, he was chief technology officer at Adobe.

ENGINEERINGSat. May 6, 2 p.m. / UIC Pavilion

KEVIN COVALCommencement speaker is

poet, author and educator Kevin Coval.

Coval is the founder of the Louder Than A Bomb poetry festi-val, editor of The BreakBeat Poets, artistic director of Young Chicago Authors, and frequent guest on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam.” His acclaimed new book, A People’s History of Chicago, features 77 poems and a foreword by former student Chance the Rapper.

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & THE ARTSSat. May 6, 7 p.m. / UIC Pavilion

LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCESSun. May 7, 10 a.m. / UIC Pavilion

5UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

Since 1966, the Silver Circle Award has been presented to some of UIC’s best teachers. Winners, who are honored at their college commencements, receive $500 and their names join a long list of distinguished colleagues. But what makes the award especially meaningful is its selection committee: the graduating seniors.

Joseph Zanoni has been teaching for more than 30 years.

He started out as an early childhood special education teacher but found his way to public health through becoming involved in grassroots efforts around the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

Now, Zanoni leads training and re-search projects at the Illinois Occupa-tional and Environmental Health and Safety Education and Research Center, where he works with personal and home care aides, their unions and em-ployers to ensure the health and safety of these workers on the job.

Zanoni co-teaches “Using the Public Health Toolbox,” a course aimed at se-niors enrolled in the undergraduate public health degree course in the School of Public Health. The course cul-

minates in a practice-based project. “It’s not research,” said Zanoni, director of continuing education and outreach for the Illinois Occupational and Environ-mental Health and Safety Education and Research Center. “They learn while doing.”

Small groups of students in the class partner with local community organiza-tions to tackle a particular issue. One group created a video of interviews with temporary workers from the Chicago Workers Collaborative talking about problems with precarious work to be shown to elected officials involved in drafting legislation that impacts these workers.

“These participatory projects inte-grate everything the students have learned throughout their studies,” Zanoni

said. “Health literacy, epidemiology, popula-

tion health, community outreach, all in one project.”

Zanoni wants to instill in his students the ability to think critically, and to under-stand what is feasible and practical when it comes to public health. “These field experiences expose the students to the real world and support the develop-ment of the skills they will need as either public health workers, or for continuing their education as graduate students,” he said.

“I am so thrilled when our students succeed in their careers after they leave our class and I can see that they have taken all the elements, or tools, and have applied them to solve problems.”

— By Sharon Parmet, sparmet@uic.edu

Whether it’s with patients or students, Jean Mills enjoys educating others.

Mills serves as a clinical instructor in UIC’s Urbana regional nursing program, teaching pathophysiology and pharma-cology, clinical concepts and processes of adult health, and client/patient educa-tion and health literacy. A former patient educator at Urbana’s Carle Foundation Hospital, Mills’ transition to a college campus from a medical center has been seamless.

“When I am in clinical rotations with the students, I have patient contact and I love interacting with them,” Mills said. “But I love teaching students. I have the best of both worlds.”

Mills was the first in her family to enter the health care field. As a young girl, she would tag along to her mother’s medical appointments, becoming en-thralled with the hospital environment. Seeing all of the nurses busily working around her, she inquisitively asked what

they were doing. When she learned more about nursing, she wanted to make it her lifelong profession.

Mills began her career as a staff nurse in the intensive care unit of a Kankakee-area hospital. After four years, she transitioned to coordinator of nurs-ing education, meeting the orientation and continuing education needs of staff nurses. She eventually moved to Carle Foundation Hospital, and while there, she began teaching part-time in Urba-na’s regional program in 1999. She be-came a full-time UIC instructor in 2005.

The work as a college nursing educa-tor is challenging, but incredibly enjoy-able, she said.

“The students are what make it re-warding,” Mills said. “It’s all of us together that make a difference, in producing a good nurse, a good product. I’ve loved being a nurse.”

Krista Jones, director of Urbana’s re-gional campus, has more in common

with Mills than being nurse educa-tors. In 2011 and 2014, Jones her-self was the recipient of the Silver Circle Award. Jones, who also serves as clinical assistant professor, said Mills is a “remarkable educator.”

“Jean has an engaging, interac-tive and participative teaching phi-losophy that fosters students’ appreciation and learning while nurturing students’ creativity and confidence,” she said. “I am thrilled to see her hard work and dedication rewarded with this prestigious honor.”

While she was excited to learn of her Silver Circle Award, Mills said she was not expecting it.

“I hold the people who have won this award in high esteem,” Mills said. “It is a great honor to join them as a recipient of the Silver Circle.”

— By Sam Hostettler samhos@uic.edu

Jean Mills

Joseph Zanoni Research Assistant ProfessorEnvironmental & Occupational Health SciencesSchool of Public Health

Clinical InstructorBiobehavioral Health ScienceRegional Nursing Program, Urbana

6 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

After graduating from UIC’s Health Information Management (HIM) program, Felecia Williams spent nearly 15 years working in management and as a con-sultant to hospital systems and insur-ance providers before returning to the university as a full-time faculty member in the College of Applied Health Sciences.

A clinical assistant professor, Williams teaches online and classroom-based courses in the HIM program. She de-scribes her teaching style as dynamic and based in real-world scenarios.

“I use the classroom as a space to answer questions and discuss real-life situations,” Williams said. “I want my stu-dents to understand that data manage-ment in health care is not just about formulas, equations and spreadsheets

— it’s about understanding the informa-tion and using it to telling a story.”

Williams teaches three undergradu-ate courses on campus: HIM 317: “Prin-ciples of Health Information Manage- ment,” HIM 319: “Alternative Health Re-cords,” and HIM 367: “Systems Analysis.” In these courses, she meets students at the beginning of the program.

“I love it when students come back after their first internship, or once they have started a job, and tell me how they used what they learned in class,” Williams said. “Seeing that lightbulb go on in my students is the best part of teaching.”

Williams also teaches HIM 451: “Health Information Management Theo-ry and Practice,” for online students who already have an undergraduate degree

and are pursuing new careers, profes-sional education and degree opportuni-ties. Her online course mimics the campus-based courses, but in both envi-ronments, Williams considers it her re-sponsibility to present information in a way that reaches her students.

“My teaching methods and approach-es change based on my students — they are here to learn and I am always looking for new ways to help them as best I can,” Williams said.

“I want to provide students with the building blocks of a successful career in HIM and give back to the profession.”

Williams also has a master’s in public administration from Roosevelt University and is a registered health information administrator.

— By Jackie Carey, jmcarey@uic.edu

Felecia Williams Clinical Assistant ProfessorBiomedical & Health Information SciencesCollege of Applied Health Sciences

Whether it’s teaching Chicago high school students how to effect local health policy changes through his work with Mikva Challenge, or teaching public health literacy to undergraduates at UIC, Joshua Prudowsky has one overarching goal: to educate, engage and mobilize his students.

He has taught the 400-level under-graduate course, part of UIC’s relatively young undergraduate public health de-gree program, for the last three years.

A significant portion of his class focus-es on media literacy — the use of media, including social media, to promote public health messages.

“How do you get 100,000 people to change a negative health behavior?,” Pru-

dowsky said. “Media plays such a key role in public health that it’s important to understand it and learn how to leverage it to influence people towards more healthful behaviors.”

In the class, students look at how dif-ferent media outlets cover the same health story, analyze Super Bowl ads and develop their own public health-related media campaigns. Students do market research to be sure they are reaching their target audience through the media platforms that audience uses.

Prudowsky said that for young peo-ple, Snapchat, followed by Instagram, are the most popular media channels. The learning goes both ways.

“My students are always teaching me

new things, especially about social media because they are such heavy users,” he said.

Prudowsky, who grew up in Chicago, credits his parents with instilling a sense of civic awareness and social justice — two components that sit at the heart and soul of public health.

“I was probably at more protests by the time I was 8 than most people have been to in their lives,” Prudowsky said.

Prudowsky wants to pay it forward. “I want to help produce a group of

public health activists who, if they be-lieve in something, they’ll fight for it, and so I hope to instill in them a strong pas-sion for public health,” he said.

— By Sharon Parmet, sparmet@uic.edu

Joshua Prudowsky LecturerCommunity Health SciencesSchool of Public Health

“When I come to the classroom, I’m quite psyched about the material I’m going talk about,” said Julia Vaingurt, as-sociate professor of Slavic and Baltic languages and literatures.

She’s equally enthusiastic about hear-ing the students’ opinions on the subject matter, be that Russian literary classics or European and Russian modernism.

“That also shows them that this in an environment where we are all going to learn something exciting,” Vaingurt said.

Students sometimes get aggravated by the absence of clear-cut solutions offered by literary texts. She believes an orientation toward exploring the ques-tions provoked by their material, rather than focusing on the search for answers, is a valuable exercise.

“If we have an involved, engaging ar-gument that means something vital has occurred there,” she said.

Her teaching and research also focus-es on the Russian avant-garde, an artis-tic movement that sought to “shock people out of complacency” by experi-menting with various forms and creating works that could have been perceived as strange.

“The avant-garde artists aimed at cre-ating a revolution in thinking through art,” she said. “Their belief was that an en-counter with strangeness would jolt their audiences out of the rut of conventional thinking.”

Vaingurt wants her courses to have a similar effect on students.

“It is essential to me that in my cours-

es students acquire vital professional skills,” she said. “But, in my view, good liberal arts and sciences education should give students more than just vo-cational training. It should expand your worldview, engage you in critical and ethical reasoning. It allows you to discov-er and acquire new intellectual interests and pursuits, and ultimately enhance your well-being.”

At UIC since 2005, Vaingurt appreci-ates the interest that students have in other cultures.

“This is a wonderful symbiosis for me because students are open to learning,” she said. “They are capable of approach-ing another culture with empathy, sensi-tivity and curiosity.”

— By Brian Flood, bflood@uic.edu

Julia Vaingurt Associate ProfessorSlavic & Baltic Languages & LiteraturesCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

7UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

Students in Mitchell Roitman’s class spend a day inside their heads to un-derstand how the brain and body work together to generate behavior.

They write “a day in the life of my brain” paper to explain mundane as-pects of life — what happens when the alarm clock goes off or they skip break-fast and feel hungry — in neuroscience terminology.

“I want students to see neuroscience all around them,” said Roitman, associ-ate professor and director of graduate studies in psychology.

Roitman keeps his students en-gaged by showing clips from his favor-ite comedies and using visual illus- trations to make neuroscience come alive.

“I really don’t want anyone’s eyes

glazing over looking at text,” he said. “I want their eye to visualize neurons, or to deconstruct and put back together neu-ral pathways of the brain.”

Roitman teaches behavioral neurosci-ence to undergraduates in two settings: a lecture class with as many as 150 stu-dents and a lab that’s limited to 20 stu-dents. The lecture course is a gateway for declaring the neuroscience major, he said.

“One of the things I love so much about the lecture course is that I often get students very early on in their under-graduate career and I have a chance to turn them on to the biological basis of behavior,” he said. “You see a lightbulb go on with some of the students who didn’t know this field existed.”

Roitman, who joined UIC in 2006, fo-

cuses his research on understanding the neural basis of motivated behavior and how particular circuits in the brain are involved in normal adaptive behavior and maladaptive behavior.

“We seek out and consume things that we need to stay alive, but we also pursue things that are not healthy for us and may be detrimental to us, like drugs or food that’s not nutritious,” said Roit-man, associate chair of the Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience.

Roitman’s advice for the graduating students who nominated him for the award?

“Find something you’re passionate about,” he said. “I know I found some-thing that I’m passionate about and I think that success is fueled by passion.”

— By Christy Levy, christyb@uic.edu

Mitchell Roitman Associate ProfessorPsychologyCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Marla Weeg, a conservatory-trained actress, transitioned to studying literature and fiction writing in the late 1990s after nearly two decades of improv and drama in Chicago.

“Coming from the improv and acting world, it felt like I had a degree in weld-ing,” she said of the shift to academia.

Weeg earned a master’s in education at DePaul and a master’s and Ph.D. in En-glish at UIC, where she’s been a lecturer since 2006. She admits returning to school and learning a whole new skill set was intimidating at times, so she aims to remember how she first felt at UIC and be very approachable for her students.

“I want to be clear we’re working on this together, but let’s try to work at the

top of our intelligence,” she said. “That’s basically the method of Paul Sills, who started Second City.”

The latter is an example of how Weeg, whose courses cover composition and American and English literature, has a classroom style that is heavily influenced by her theater background.

“When I get frightened of using im-provisation, I lose and the student loses,” she said. “Anytime I use some sort of the-ater game, even a warmup exercise like throwing an imaginary ball or who start-ed the motion, in just two to three min-utes it equalizes everybody and the students are more ready to learn.”

Fiction, poetry and drama are primary elements in her introductory literature

courses. “I have them write their own fiction

and I pick the ones that I thought would work best in performance,” she said. “Those students then direct the others in sketches in class and they all have to do an analysis of the characters.”

Most importantly, the first-time Silver Circle award-winner appreciates learn-ing from and about her students through their writing in her “Politics of Parenting” composition course.

“The student research papers on being an immigrant, being first genera-tion, have opened a whole new world to me,” she said. “That really puts me in awe.”

— By Brian Flood, bflood@uic.edu

Marla Weeg LecturerEnglishCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

In 2003, Abel Galvan came to a con-clusion. He was getting very little, if any, gratification from his current job.

After a more than 20-year career in telecommunications, he found himself thinking about what he really wanted to do with the rest of his working life.

“My thoughts kept bringing me to teaching,” said Galvan, a lecturer in ac-counting. He then set his sights becom-ing a teacher.

He did some research and found out that he could teach at the university or junior college level with a master’s de-gree.

Galvan enrolled in UIC’s MBA program and finished in the fall of 1997. He taught for the first time in his life at UIC during the summer of 1998 and was an

adjunct until hired full-time beginning in fall 2003.

“In retrospect, I believe that this is one of the best decisions I have made — doing what I like for the rest of my work-ing life,” Galvan said.

Today, he teaches “Financial Account-ing for Accounting Majors” and two sec-tions of “Auditing.” In the past, he’s taught “Accounting for Government and Non-Profit Entities,” “Advanced Financial Accounting,” “Income Tax for Individuals” and “Financial Accounting” at the gradu-ate level.

Galvan said accountants today are highly responsible for complying with changing standards as the economies globalize. They’re responsible for analyz-ing day-to-day transactions in regards to

both financial and managerial purposes. “Without their talent in recording, ana-

lyzing, reconciling and reviewing this in-formation, our job as employees, business owners or decision makers would not be possible,” he said.

Galvan comes from a large Mexican family and was the first to attend and finish college. He draws on his own ex-periences to pass along life lessons to students as that they decide the direc-tion of their lives.

When someone says you can’t or shouldn’t do something, they’re “chal-lenging your motivation” and are actually “daring you to continue on,” Galvan says.

His advice: “Always aim high and learn from your failures.”

— By Jeff Boynés, jboynes@uic.edu

Abel Galvan LecturerAccountingCollege of Business Administration

8 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

David Featherstone was an accom-plished researcher “but that never de-terred his dedication to the quality of education for students,” said Hormoz BassiriRad, professor of biological sci-ences.

Featherstone, who died Jan. 28 at the age of 50, was professor and former di-rector of undergraduate studies in bio-logical sciences.

Realizing that lectures weren’t always an effective way of teaching, Feather-stone engaged students by letting them ask him questions instead. He was known on campus for his open-door policy, too, where students could, at any time, walk into his office and ask ques-tions. He was applauded for his out-standing contributions to education and mentorship with a Silver Circle in 2008,

a Humboldt Research Award in 2009, and a Teaching Recognition Program Award, given by the Council for Excel-lence in Teaching and Learning, in 2011.

Featherstone, a leading educator and researcher, was a neurobiologist interest-ed in gene function. He focused on brain genes, specifically synapses — information-transferring and processing points that brain cells use to communi-cate with each other — and glutamate receptors, which receive messages from other cells. Research has shown that glutamatergic synapse strength is deter-mined by the number of postsynaptic glutamate receptors — the more gluta-mate receptors, the stronger the synapse — and Featherstone’s labs studied genes and molecular mechanisms that control glutamate receptor abundance.

“He was a very creative fellow and very successful,” said John Leonard, pro-fessor of biological sciences. “He was quite a guy.”

Among his most notable discoveries was a gene mutation in fruit flies that allowed Featherstone and his team to learn how they could use genetic manip-ulation or drugs to turn homosexual be-havior in flies on and off within hours. His labs also worked to confirm findings in mice.

He also spearheaded an effort to im-prove the biological sciences curriculum at UIC, changes that he hoped would better prepare students for life after graduation.

“He’ll leave an enormous hole in the department,” Leonard said. — By Francisca Corona, fcoron3@uic.edu

David Featherstone ProfessorBiological SciencesCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Matt Motyl believes genuine enthusi-asm for content is a remarkable peda-gogical tool.

“Students, who may have had minimal interest in the course topic coming in, are befuddled when they see their instructor so engaged in something that they had thought incapable of capturing anyone’s interest,” the assistant professor of psy-chology wrote in a statement describing his teaching philosophy.

From courses involving cultural and social psychology to laboratory research, his overall goal is to help them under-stand complicated ideas and think in ways to advance scientific understanding.

Part of this process involves encourag-ing students to pursue interesting ques-tions, critique what they have learned about and develop new ideas to poten-

tially move understanding forward.Motyl, a first-time Silver Circle winner,

noted in his statement that one-on-one debates or weekly blog entries help stu-dents “dig deeper” to engage the materi-al directly, and to cultivate their ability to discuss or write about high-level con-cepts.

“This critical thinking and intellectual exploration will help them think outside of the box and be innovators and leaders in whatever field they choose to pursue,” he wrote.

Motyl assigns students weekly essays to raise a critical question from their readings.

“These essays tend to point to theo-retical gaps or contradictions in the past work,” his statement explained. “As the semester progresses and the students’

skillsets grow, they start to propose test-able hypotheses that could reconcile conflicting ideas.”

Conflict is at the center of Motyl’s often-published research that lately ex-amines how people’s moral, political and religious ideologies steer them into seg-regated ideological enclaves.

He is co-founder of CivilPolitics.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to edu-cating the public on evidence-based methods for improving intergroup civility.

He and other scholars help policymak-ers, community groups and individuals to develop methods and ideas to bridge moral divisions and cultivate a more re-spectful political environment while also creating measurement tools to assess the effectiveness of those interventions.

— By Brian Flood, bflood@uic.edu

Jamison Szwalek Clinical Assistant ProfessorMechanical & Industrial EngineeringCollege of Engineering

Matt Motyl Assistant ProfessorPsychologyCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Jamison Szwalek and her two chil-dren make a lot of pancakes. So many, in fact, that she was inspired to turn it into a meaningful learning experience — for her students.

“We’re finishing up making machines that flip pancakes,” Szwalek, clinical as-sistant professor of mechanical engi-neering, said about her “Introduction to Engineering Design” classes.

In the class, freshmen practice work-ing with teams to complete other proj-ects and problems while learning how to put their engineering knowledge to use.

“Along the way, they figure out what works and doesn’t work,” Szwalek ex-plained, adding that students sketch,

design, use tools, build machines and actively problem-solve.

“They’re learning quite a bit,” she said. Szwalek carries that teaching style,

learning by doing, into other courses, too. This semester, she’s also instructing “Theory of Computer-Aided Design,” where students are redesigning wrench-es. Her past classes cover dynamics, vi-brations and machine design.

“The problems we solve in class allow [students] to use the new material we learn. So I introduce new concepts and use lots of examples, solve a lot of prob-lems, bring in the real-world application through projects and give them lots of opportunities to practice with home-work,” she said. “It’s more exciting.”

Undergrads couldn’t agree more. They’ve selected Szwalek, who joined the university in 2014, to receive a Silver Circle Award this year, her first teaching recognition.

“Every semester, I do something dif-ferent, challenge myself to come up with projects and problem ideas. I spend a lot of time making new things, trying to make things better, so I was really happy all of that effort paid off,” she said.

She’ll continue doing her best for stu-dents.

“I still want to do more, make it better,” she said. “That’s part of engineering. No matter what you have done, you always think it can be better.” — By Francisca Corona, fcoron3@uic.edu

9UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

The work of Silver Circle Award winner Alexander Eisenschmidt, an architectural theorist and designer, is rooted in obser-vations of the existing urban environment as he strives to investigate what he calls, “the productive tension between the mod-ern city and architectural form.”

Eisenschmidt, assistant professor at the School of Architecture, teaches design studios — traditionally devoted to drawing and diagramming — and courses in histo-ry and theory, which are dedicated to writ-ing, and tries to impart a connection between these aspects of architecture.

“My teaching challenges this traditional divide by emphasizing an intentional flu-idity between the two strands,” Eisen-schmidt said. “My design studios are equally grounded in a theoretical and his-torical context while my history/theory courses always involve visual and graphic analysis in addition to writing.”

He has lectured, chaired conferences and published extensively on the connec-

tion between the modern city and archi-tecture, and his aim is to cultivate a way of thinking among his students that frees them to embrace the unknown.

Rather than relying on prescribed methodology, outdated canons and pro-cedures, he designs his classes as plat-forms for focused learning, collaborative experimentation, and impactful research. Related to the topics that he teaches, Ei-senschmidt strives to provide his students with an intellectual openness to an increasingly urban world, a curiosity in engaging it through the means of archi-tecture, and an inquisitiveness that finds possibilities in the most unlikely of places.

“My goal is to create an informed archi-tect who is neither solely a service provid-er nor an artist, but instead a public intellectual able to productively intervene in the world we live and to project beyond it,” he said.

His focus is on the intersection be-

tween architecture and the urban envi-ronment from the emergence of the western industrial metropolis in the 19th century to the 21st century city. He is especially gratified that after completion of his courses his students continue working on projects that they began during the semester.

Eisenschmidt, who received his doc-torate in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s degree in architecture from Pratt Institute, said of the awards he has received during his career, the Silver Circle stands out for him.

“It’s one that is very precious to me, simply because it is given by the gradu-ating students,” he said. “I am honored to know that my teaching contributed in meaningful ways to their education and I want the students to know that their in-quisitiveness and curiosity has, in turn, greatly impacted my work.”

— By Carlos Sadovi, csadovi@uic.edu

Alexander Eisenschmidt Associate ProfessorArchitectureCollege of Architecture, Design & the Arts

Andrew Shulman LecturerMathematics, Statistics & Computer ScienceCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Most of the students Andrew Shul-man teaches in his calculus courses are freshmen and sophomores, so he was particularly humbled to win his first Sil-ver Circle from graduating seniors.

“It means a lot that they have remem-bered me,” said Shulman, lecturer in math, statistics and computer science. “It means that I must have made some sort of impact and that’s my goal — that they enjoy the class and the material.”

The calculus courses he teaches in-clude as many as 140 students in a large lecture hall. He implements active learning principles to help students suc-ceed and keeps students engaged by highlighting the applications of the math they are learning.

“I try every single day to show stu-dents when they will need this in the fu-ture,” he said. “Having them understand that the material will be used at some point in the future is very important in keeping them motivated.”

He also aims to have students under-stand why they need to learn certain mathematical concepts.

“We learn why the formulas that the students have been using forever are actually true,” he said. “They’ve memo-rized them, but now they can see where this formula came from.”

Shulman teaches an “Introduction to Proofs” course for sophomores and ju-niors, with about 20 students in the course. He encourages students to learn

from their peers in that course, he said. “It’s not so much me lecturing; it’s

more of me helping them to understand the material in their own way,” he said.

A number theorist, he works with re-ductions of elliptic curves and Drinfeld modules. He joined UIC as a Ph.D. stu-dent in 2006 and was offered a lecturer position when he finished his program in 2011.

Shulman figured out in high school that he wanted to dedicate his career to teaching math.

“I’ve always liked teaching and math,” he said. “I hope that my students can find something they enjoy doing and follow that.”

— By Christy Levy, christyb@uic.edu

Photos, except Jean Mills, by Jenny Fontaine

Photos, excepting Jean Mills, by Jenny Fontaine

10 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

UIC News StaffPublished on Wednesdays during the academic year (monthly during summer) by:

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uicnews.uic.edu

Rafid Rahman had a sim-ple objective when he began classes at UIC four years ago. He just wanted to help others.

“One thing my parents have always told me is, ‘Wherever you go, at any stage of your life, you can always give back,’” said Rah-man, a senior in anthropolo-gy and biology. “Even if it is really small, there’s some-thing you can do to help your community. So I really wanted that to be the focus of any club I joined.”

The Springfield native was honored for his strong commitment to service with the Lincoln Laureate, an award given to a senior at each undergraduate institution in Illinois.

“I’m super honored,” he said. “I can’t say that enough. So many people that I know here have done great things and made UIC such a great campus, and I don’t think this campus would be the same without any of them. To be recog-nized out of those people and be the sole winner of this award, I’m truly hon-ored.”

In total, 56 students across the state were named Lincoln Laureates, which takes into account public service and

By Tim Goldrick — tgoldr2@uic.eduLincoln Laureate aspires to help others

academics. Gov. Bruce Rauner pre-sented the students with a certificate of merit, a medal of Lin-coln and a $1,000 check from the Lin-coln Academy.

“I was able to meet Governor Raun-er,” Rahman said. “You hear about these pol-iticians and when you actually get to see them in real life… you can finally see why people respect

politicians so much and how much power that they have. It’s pretty cool.”

Rahman stuck out among applicants because of his unique volunteerism.

The senior founded the College of Cycling, a UIC bike club that focuses on philanthropy by taking unused food from campus dining halls and pedaling it over to homeless shelters. During Rahman’s time as president, the club donated more than 500 pounds of food. He estimates it’s now more than 1,000 pounds.

“I’m glad that I’ve been able to have an impact on the community that I really appreciate because they’ve given me so many opportunities,” Rahman said.

(Photo: Vibhu S. Rangavasan)

“I’m glad I was able to maximize on those things, and really follow in the footsteps of Lincoln himself.”

He has also made an impression on UIC faculty members.

“Part of the great secret of his suc-cess,” said Nancy Cirillo, professor emerita of English, who taught Rahman in a core humanities class, “other than his native talent, which is considerable, is that his interest and his focus was directed outside himself.

“He is a model for what we so hope our students to be.”

Rahman will start medical school at the University of Toledo in the fall.

11UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

When Ricardo Ramirez started his undergraduate career at UIC, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.

“I knew I was really good in math in high school, so I picked industrial engi-neering,” Ramirez said. “Then I figured out it wasn’t my passion.”

He switched gears and decided to study mathematical computer science and psychology, and later decided to focus on psychology and pr0e- occupational therapy.

Ramirez has thrived since finding his passion — he graduates next month with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

He’s this year’s winner of the Donald and Leah Riddle Prize for Outstanding Graduating Senior. The prize, named for a former chancellor and his wife, is among UIC’s top undergraduate hon-ors.

“I was always thinking in the back of my head that maybe I’m not good enough for this award or that opportu-nity,” said Ramirez, a senior in the Hon-ors College. “But I thought, ‘Maybe if I push myself a little harder or stay up a little longer, I can push myself further along toward my goal of being an occu-pational therapist.”

Ramirez decided on occupational therapy to combine his interest in physi-

By Christy Levy — christyb@uic.edu

Riddle Prize winner aims to help underservedcal and mental health with his passion for service. He focused his Honors Col-lege capstone project on evaluating the usability of three accessible smart-phones among users with cerebral palsy.

“The primary mode of input for smart-phones is touch, and that may not be accessible for someone who has a phys-ical disability affecting their upper-extremity,” he said.

Ramirez will return to UIC in the fall to begin graduate studies in occupational therapy. He hopes to finish his graduate degree, practice for a few years, then get a Ph.D. in rehabilitation sciences.

“I want to look into how to minimize health disparities within underserved groups in the disability community,” he said.

Last summer, he interned at the Heri-tage Healthcare Center in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City through the Summer Public Health Scholars Pro-gram at Columbia University. There, he helped implement outreach efforts to promote colorectal cancer screenings.

“I learned through that experience that I wanted to serve underserved com-munities,” he said.

A first-generation college student from Melrose Park, Ramirez pursued mentoring and leadership opportunities

on campus. He is an undergraduate peer mentor, Honors College student ambas-sador, president of the UIC Pre- Occupational Therapy Club and was an editor of the Honors College newsletter The Ampersand, among other volunteer activities.

“I had, and to this day still have, a vari-ety of mentors, such as family, friends, professors and faculty that have given

me invaluable advice with how to navi-gate UIC and make the most of my four years as an undergraduate,” he said. “I wanted to do the same for other stu-dents so that they could be successful in their endeavors, so that they, too, could help another student in the future.”

His advice to other UIC students?“Believe in yourself, no matter what,”

he said.

(Photo: Jenny Fontaine)

12 UIC News | Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Photo: Troy Heinzeroth