USC TimeSA publication for faculty, staff and friends of the university

Aiken BeAUforT ColUmBiA lAnCASTer SAlkehATChie SUmTer Union UpSTATe

University of South Carolina September 20, 2012

Rendering created by LS3P Architects

uscTIMEsStories, snippets & scenes from the University of South Carolina.

Aiken / BeAufort / ColumBiA / lAnCAster / sAlkehAtChie / sumter / union / upstAte 10/21/2013

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lebrating our SuCCeSSful alu

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A plAce to cAll homeGroundbreaking for the new usc Alumni center is set for Nov. 1 as part of Homecoming weekend. The 65,000-square-foot center will be located at the corner of senate and Lincoln streets in the Vista. construction is expected to begin early in 2014 with occupancy scheduled for spring 2015. The privately funded $26.6 million center will include meeting space for business or personal gatherings as well as social space for weddings, parties and other occasions. New programming is being planned for the center, which will give the university’s 260,000-plus alumni and friends a central gathering place in columbia.

PreSCriPtion for a great Career

In September 2011, Donna Walker

produced the first batch of Pulido-

Walker extra virgin olive oil. The results

were just what those who know her

have come to expect: magnificent.

But Walker didn’t start out in the

olive oil business. Since graduating

from USC’s College of Pharmacy in 1979, her

career has taken her up the corporate ladder

and beyond.

As a first-year student at USC, Walker

attended an American Pharmacy Association

meeting, which sparked a sustained interest.

She became a regional officer and after

graduation moved to Washington, D.C., to

take a job with the national organization.

Throughout her career, she served in a number

of leadership roles in the field, taking after her

father, Tony Walker, a 1957 graduate of the

College of Pharmacy.

“Dad gave me advice,” she said. “He said

to choose a degree that has a profession

associated with it because when you graduate,

there is a community of like-minded people to

meet. He got a great deal of satisfaction as a leader in the profession.”

Following stints in pharmaceutical sales, marketing and management with 3M, Walker’s career

led into telecommunications sales and marketing, followed by the launch of a foundation to

support youth entrepreneurship. That adaptability also helped her open a winery with pharmacist

husband Mark Pulido. This year, the Pulido-Walker cellars are producing their first batch of

cabernet sauvignon.

The couple continues to be involved with the Pulido Walker Foundation, of which

Donna Walker is president. Founded in 1997, the foundation funds organizations that teach

entrepreneurship to high-risk, low-income kids.

“Our parents were encouraging and supportive,” she said. “We’ve worked hard for everything

we’ve accomplished, but we didn’t have some of the fundamental obstacles many of these kids

have. We want to support organizations that get them to the starting line and even the field.”

Walker has now established a leadership scholars program for students on the USC campus

of the S.C. College of Pharmacy. Announced this semester, the program will support student

leadership projects, travel to leadership events and partial tuition for leadership courses.

As a young child, stephen Brown sang advertising jingles and could recognize a company’s logo. A pop culture fanatic, he would memorize the HBO guide and recite movie reviews for kindergarten show-and-tell.

Now managing director of the Atlanta office of cohn & Wolf, a global communications agency, Brown provides tactical public relations, media relations, strategic planning, crisis communications and media training for retail, technology and health care companies. He also serves on the boards of major theaters in Atlanta.

It’s a full plate, but the 1995 graduate of the south carolina Honors college and the school of Journalism and Mass communications learned plenty at usc about juggling. He wrote movie reviews for several publications, was involved in student organizations and completed multiple internships.

“The biggest thing I learned in school was being able to balance a lot at once,” Brown said. “It’s just the way I’m built.”

He remains involved with carolina, helping plan the Atlanta stops on the annual public relations Maymester trip, which has led to jobs for several graduates.

“I like being able to show students how usc life translates to being in the real world,” he said.

— Megan sexton

PR alum oPens the dooR

USC TimeS 10/21/2013 3UniverSiTy of SoUTh Carolina 2

more thAn skin deepThe phrase “plastic surgery” means more

than face-lifts and nose jobs.

Dr. Ben McIntyre’s patients will tell you it means much more. McIntyre is a 2003 graduate of usc’s school of Medicine who returned to launch a professional practice

in the school’s Division of Plastic and Reconstructive

surgery following residencies in Virginia and New Zealand. using

sophisticated surgical techniques, McIntyre is often able to undo the ravages of disease or physical trauma.

“I don’t know how Dr. McIntyre could figure out how to fix my face without knowing what I used to look like. But that’s what he did,” said Earl Baker, a retired veterinarian who had suffered a severed facial nerve in an earlier cancer surgery.

There isn’t any part of the body that McIntyre doesn’t operate on; facial fractures, hand surgeries, joint replacements and rebuilding of jaws and palates are all in his repertoire.

“It used to be that people with these medical problems had to go to Musc, Duke or Emory for help. Now they don’t,” McIntyre said.

Q&A

S yStemwide usC aikenusc Aiken has named Daniel Robb associate vice chancellor for enrollment management.

usC BeaufoRtusc Beaufort has named Mack Palmour associate vice chancellor for enrollment management.

usC lanCasteRusc Lancaster wrapped up the smithsonian Institute’s traveling exhibit “Indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas” at the Native American studies center.

usC salkehatChieusc salkehatchie hosted 500 current student athletes, athletic alumni, and family and friends at its first alumni reunion.

usC sumteRusc sumter art galleries are alive with two new displays on view through the end of the year.

usC unionusc union named Issaia Butler to coordinate its Palmetto college student services.

usC uPstateusc upstate is joining more than 450 universities for a social media program that allows students to earn badges for their academic and extracurricular successes, and share them with friends and family.

Palmetto CollegeThe new Palmetto college online degree completion program yielded an initial enrollment of 500-plus students.

telling the gameCoCk Story

Any Gamecock fan looking for highlight reels on the Internet is sure

to have seen an inspiring video cut together by Justin King.

The popular Gamecock videos started as a hobby after King

graduated in 2010 with a degree in media arts but soon landed

him a job cutting highlights for ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“Every time I sit down and begin a new video, my goal is

to go further and push harder than before,” he said. “I want

each one to have a better flow, tell a stronger story and capture

more emotion.”

King’s videos, some with more than 100,000 views, continue

to push his career forward. He left ESPN to work as a marketing

strategist with Rackspace, a San Antonio cloud-computing company,

and on the side created his own video production and social marketing

company — Justin King Media.

“The more I made the videos with Justin King Media and the more they continued

to grow, the more I learned different ways to promote them using social media,”

he said. “I was just doing that on the side of my full-time job, but it landed me here

in a field that I enjoy and get to be creative in.”

Last year the athletics department asked King to produce a video honoring

Ray Tanner.

“They wanted something emotional, and that’s what I do,” King said.

His videos, no doubt, will give any die-hard fan chills — and that’s by design.

“It’s about capturing memories,” he said. “It’s about the moment when 80,000

people throw their hands up in celebration and, even if it’s only for a brief moment,

everyone is united, everyone is family.”

By Liz Mccarthy

chAnging the world one life At A timeMost people don’t associate social work with the corporate world, but Thomas Carratto

offers proof that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Carratto, a native New Yorker who earned a master’s degree in social work from

USC in 1978, is president of Health Net Federal Services, whose parent company is

one of the largest managed

health care delivery providers

in the country. Carratto’s role

is to oversee contracts with

the Veterans Administration

and the U.S. Department of

Defense.

“It’s pretty easy to get your

head around a mission like this

when it’s helping veterans and

men and women in uniform,” he says.

In addition to providing basic

health services, Health Net operates

programs for the military, including a

behavioral health counseling program for service members and their families.

“It started as a small demonstration, but now we have an army of 3,000 behavioral

health counselors that we can deploy,” he says. “There’s a huge demand for these

services, and not just with the troops themselves. Some of these kids whose parents

are serving have grown up not knowing anything but war.”

Before his current post, Carratto held several positions inside government, including

deputy assistant secretary of defense for health plan administration and assistant

surgeon general and regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services. But it was his time at USC, he says, that set his course for success.

“I got into social work for the same reason as a lot of my peers at that time,” he says.

“I wanted to change the world.”

On a chilly winter morning when he was 11 years old, Steve Daniels wandered into an Arkansas forest and came out a filmmaker.

OK, the transformation wasn’t quite so quick — in fact, Daniels wouldn’t truly discover his inner Hitchcock until his folks gave him a camcorder two years later — but something strange did occur out there in the woods, something that would literally and forever alter how he looked at the world.

“I had this strange, almost out-of-body experience where I became aware of my subjective viewpoint,” says Daniels, ’95. “We were out looking for a Christmas tree, snow on the ground, and I just kind of zoned out. I was walking around, looking at my feet, not knowing where I was going. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was framing up and shooting a movie in my head.”

A lover of monster movies and ghost stories, Daniels began shooting video and Super 8 films in high school, then majored in media arts at USC, where professor Harry Miller’s class on postmodernism in media broadened his vision.

“I learned so much from that class,” he says. “Film analysis and theory, how to decipher media, how to be playful with your message — it was a huge influence.”

Now an editor for Columbia-based media production company Mad Monkey, Daniels pursues his cinematic dreams at night and on weekends. His 2005 short “The Gibbering Horror of Howard Ghormley” was included on a DVD released by Fangoria magazine, then, in 2009, another film, “Dirt Dauber,” won Best Short at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. In 2011 his macabre fantasy “Dirty Silverware” — which just happens to feature a creepy walk through an even creepier wood — tied for Best Short Film at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival.

Next up? A postmodern nod to George Miller’s “Road Warrior” — in which the bikers all ride Big Wheels.

“There’s something about adults doing kids stuff that I always come back to,” says Daniels. “I love horror, love to scare people, but I’m really drawn to humor and the absurd.”

Zoning oUt, Zooming in

By craig Brandhorst

By Jeff stensLandHow did usc sumter impact your career choice?My time at USC Sumter taught me that I could

accomplish much more if I worked with others on

campus to get tasks done. As a health care provider

you are never alone, so it is imperative that you learn

to rely on your team members and have an openness

to reciprocate that support within the team.

What’s your leadership philosophy?In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Success,” one line

reads: “To know one life has breathed easier, because

you have lived, this is success.” In every employment

decision I make, every policy I write, every patient or

family I touch, I try my very best to make sure that

my actions create a ripple effect.

How do you see the role of alumni?Instead of being called alumni, I think we should

be referred to as ambassadors. We need to advocate

for additional funding, be willing to mentor students,

and participate and support programs and activities

on campus.

Michelle Logan-Owens, usc sumter alumna and vice president at Tuomey Healthcare systems

the fRightful vision of filmmakeR steve daniels

“It’s pretty easy to get your

head around a mission

like this when it’s helping

veterans and men and

women in uniform.”

UniverSiTy of SoUTh Carolina4

uscTIMEsVol. 24, No.16 oct. 21, 2013USc times is published 20 times a year for the faculty and

staff of the University of South carolina by the Division of

communications.

Managing editor: liz Mccarthy

Designer: Philip caoile

Contributors: Peggy Binette, craig Brandhorst, Frenché

Brewer, Glenn Hare, thom Harman, chris Horn, Page

Ivey, Steven Powell, Megan Sexton and Jeff Stensland

Photographer: Kim truett

To reach us: 803-777-2848

or lizmccarthy@sc.edu

Campus correspondents: Patti McGrath, Aiken

candace Brasseur, Beaufort

Shana Dry, lancaster

Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie

Misty Hatfield, Sumter

tammy Whaley, Upstate

Jay Darby, Palmetto college

the University of South carolina does not discriminate in

educational or employment opportunities or decisions for

qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,

national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation

or veteran status.

Submissions: Did you know you can submit photos, stories

or ideas for future issues of USc times? Share your story

by emailing or calling liz Mccarthy at lizmccarthy@sc.edu,

803-777-2848

left-brAin writing?If it’s interesting science, Stephanie Pappas gets to write about it. A 2006 Honors

College graduate, she writes for LiveScience, a news website with international reach.

“It’s all over the map, what we cover — the environment, health, ecology,

psychology,” she said. “I love that.”

Emerging in fall 2008 from the science communication program at the University

of California, Santa Cruz, Pappas immediately found freelance work with LiveScience.

That turned into a full-time position within the year.

“The classes I took in the Honors College and the lab work I was able to do in the

psychology department really bolstered my credentials,” she said. “It worked out well.”

— Steven Powell

“ The university of south carolina instilled a values-based, entrepreneurial leadership approach that has influenced each aspect of the Maker’s Mark business and culture, including how we interact with our customers and employee-family community.” — Rob samuels, president and cEO of Maker’s Mark, on how his

usc degree guides his approach to leadership (’96, sociology)

Carolina has inspired many musicians through the years, and USC’s alumni pull from their time on campus to create harmonies, write songs and pass on their passion.

my cArolinA Alumni AssociAtion’s 2013 Alumni AwArd recipients:Algernon sydney sullivan Award Dr. Todd Crump, ’92 master’s

in education, ’98 medicine

Distinguished Alumni Award William P. Kennedy, ’66, and

Lou W. Kennedy, ’84

Outstanding Black Alumni Award Toby S. Jenkins, ’97

Outstanding Young Alumni Award Dr. Williams R. Jennings, ’03

medicine

The Honorary Life Member Award John Bachmann

The award recipients will be honored throughout My carolina Homecoming, presented by Lowe’s Nov. 1-2.

the musiC mAnMarty Fort, ’08 master’s in guitar performance, may be a top-notch musician and teacher,

but he’s also one heck of a businessman.

“I was an adjunct music instructor at USC Upstate for several years, and I always thought I was

going to be a music professor like (USC guitar professor) Christopher Berg,” said Fort. “Then my

music lesson business started to take off, and I needed to devote full attention to it.”

Fort’s Columbia Arts Academy is now the state’s biggest music lesson business, with two

Midlands locations, more than 600 students and 35 instructors, most of whom are USC School

of Music graduates.

“We give our students broccoli — learning to read music and the daily practice that’s part

of playing an instrument,” said Fort. “But they have to have fun, too.”

plAy it loud, plAy it proudAdd up the School of Music graduates serving in elite U.S. military bands, and you’ll quickly

have a platoon.

Robert Aughtry, ’90, plays flute in the U.S. Army Band; Cynthia K. Wolverton, ’92, plays

bass clarinet in the U.S. Navy Band; Joel Baroody, ’08, plays trumpet in the U.S. Coast Guard

Band — and the beat goes on.

And then, of course, there are musicians-turned-teachers like Ken Ebo, ’00

master’s, who is now a trombone instructor in the Navy School of Music.

“The quality of the education I received at USC was great,” said Ebo.

“I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.”

the mAn in gArnet And BlACk Patrick Davis left Carolina with a history degree in

2000. These days he’s crafting songs for famous

artists and making music.

Davis, a singer-songwriter in Nashville, Tenn.,

has written songs for Lady Antebellum, Jewel and

Darius Rucker (USC’s own Dr. Hootie), just to name

a few.

He also brought his love for his alma mater

to fans across the country with songs about

Gamecock sports and recently finished a

project with USC’s athletics department for

football season. With a growing fan base, tours across the Southeast and an

album in the works, Davis is an alumnus worth knowing.

“When I write songs, I definitely draw from past experience and a lot of

what happened in college will forever be with me,” Davis said. “Anytime I

write a song there’s always a piece of South Carolina in there somewhere.”

S CieNCe CORNeR