trojan family magazine spring 2012

F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A

Adventures in Chinese Cinema It Is Rocket Science Tales From the Tribunals

F A M I L YuscTrojanSpring 2012

INTERSECTIONS:THE LEGACY OF SOL PRICE

USCA legacy of the USC Mexican American Alumni Association since 1973

Latino AlumniA S S O C I AT I O N Get involved. Call us at (213) 740-4735.

[email protected] || www.usc.edu/latinoalumni

DREAM.Be part of their dream.

Contribute to the legacy.

Every contribution transforms a

student’s tomorrow.

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[ DEPARTMENTS ]

04 Mailbag

07 Trojan BeatUSC’s new strategic vision, 10 national championships and more

12 Support ReportA boost for cancer care and a sweet gift

32 Keck Medical Center of USCUSC organ transplant physicians participate in the ultimate act of selflessness.

37 Family TiesConnecting Trojans worldwide

42 Class Notes

USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE tfm.usc.edu 1

[ FEATURES ]

The Sol Price LegacyBy Allison Engel

Named for a retail revolutionary keen on social justice, USC Price is as interdisciplinary as its namesake.

The Wild, Wild EastBy Evelyn Jacobson

USC alums use their East-West background and entrepreneurial prow-ess to trailblaze China’s cinematic frontier.

Rocketeers of TroyBy Robert Perkins

Undergraduates set their sights on making USC the first school to send a student-made rocket into space.

Tales From the TribunalsBy Gilien Silsby

USC law graduates tackle the world’s most harrowing cases – genocide and war crimes committed in Cambodia, Rwanda and the Balkans.

[ COLUMNS ]

02 Editor’s Note Extraordinary examples of USC’s reach toward greatness

03 President’s PageThe Trojan Family does so much to make the world a better place.

52 Last WordIdentify the seminal moments, machines and makers in the history of rocketry.

inside

14 18 24 28

On the cover: Illustration by Brett Affrunti

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2 USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE spring 2012

EDITOR

Lauren Clark

SENIOR EDITOR

Diane Krieger

MANAGING EDITOR

Mary Modina

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Shirley S. Shin

ART DIRECTOR

Sheharazad P. Fleming

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

Russell Ono Stacey Torii

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Allison Engel, Evelyn JacobsonTimothy O. Knight

Matthew Kredell, Ross M. LevineJanice Rhoshalle LittlejohnRobert Perkins, Sara Reeve

Gilien Silsby, Lauren WalserSuzanne Wu

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Mary Modina | [email protected]

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Vickie Kebler

USC Trojan Family Magazine3434 South Grand Avenue

CAL 140, First FloorLos Angeles, CA 90089-2818

[email protected] | (213) 740-2684

USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published four times a year, in

March, June, September and December, by USC University Communications.

MOVING? Submit your updated mailing address at tfm.usc.edu/subscribe

editor's note

� e quarterly magazine of theUniversity of Southern California

Determination and Reach

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS, VISIT festivalofbooks.usc.edu››

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, in the Feb. 24, 1912, edition of the Los Angeles Times, sportswriter Owen R. Bird � rst dubbed USC’s athletes “Trojans.” He later explained that, since USC at the time staunchly faced bigger and better-equipped teams, “it seemed to me that the name ‘Trojan’ � tted their case.” A century later, the nickname has evolved beyond the athletic � eld to characterize the deter-mined spirit of one of the world’s top learning institutions.

Emboldened by that spirit, the Trojans are aim-ing even higher. In this issue, Elizabeth Garrett, provost and senior vice president for academic a� airs, discusses USC’s new strategic vision out-lining an ambition to be, in her words, “the greatest research university of this century.” � e document calls out one of USC’s unique strengths – connecting the individual to the world – as a key pathway toward the goal of greatness.

Evidence of that strength appears throughout the pages of this issue: in stories on the Trojan Family’s in� uence on public policy, its involvement in China’s booming � lm industry, its par-ticipation in international human-rights tribunals and its attempt to actually travel beyond this world – into space. � ese are extraordinary, but not atypical, examples of USC’s reach.

Fittingly, USC’s reach starts at home in Los Angeles. For the second year, the university will host the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, a celebration of the written word that is projected to attract 150,000 book lovers of all ages to the University Park campus on April 21-22. Literary panels, readings and signings will feature hundreds of authors, while myriad performances take place on outdoor stages. Many Trojans will be among the highlighted names. � is year also will feature a Keck Medical Center of USC Health Pavilion providing health screenings, as well as an assortment of food trucks and cooking demonstrations on Cromwell Field and a book drive that will bene� t students in the USC Family of Schools in South Los Angeles.

L A U R E N C L A R K

D I R E C T O R O F P U B L I C A T I O N SU S C U N I V E R S I T Y C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

In the area of globalization, USC’s eff orts are vast, ongoing and diverse. Over the past 10 years alone, we have hosted global conferences in a number of key cities, from Tokyo to Taipei, and last fall’s conference in Hong Kong was our most successful ever. Time and again we heard, “No one does it like USC.”

USC is so e� ective in this area because our com-munity has deep international roots. Among American universities, we have the largest num-ber of international students – due in no small measure to the outstanding strength of our graduate programs. We’re proud of this distinc-tion and the attention it draws every year, but this headline doesn’t highlight the exceptional work our community does every single day, all over the globe. I can assure you: In profoundly transfor-mative ways – and often with quiet determina-tion – our faculty, sta� , students and alumni do

so much to make the world a better place.

Last December, for exam-ple, a cadre of engineering undergraduates traveled to a remote village in Hondu-ras as part of USC’s Engi-neers Without Borders program. � ey installed a water pump, advancing a larger sustainable project, to bring water to hun-dreds of people without damaging the environ-ment. � eir impact willbe permanent, relieving

young girls from the laborious task of carrying water from a distant source.

Meanwhile, USC’s Institute for Global Health continues to partner with Operation Smile, an international nongovernmental organization that provides reconstructive surgery to children born with facial deformities, particularly cleft lip and cleft palate. � ere is a tremendous need for these procedures in low-resource settings around the world, and Master of Public Health students at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have trav-eled to study these conditions and investigate ways to alleviate their e� ects. � ey’ve pursued plans to build a permanent clinic in Ethiopia, examined the burden of the cleft palate in Guwa-hati, India, and helped gather DNA samples and other research information in the Congo.

We can � nd similar examples at the USC Mar-shall School of Business. With support from the Society and Business Lab, founded by professor Adlai Wertman, one student spent last summer in India. She developed software for HIV/AIDS organizations that work with women and chil-dren, enabling them to receive important emails and text messages about their medical treat-ment. � e experience has opened this student’s eyes: She is now interested in working abroad and will study Punjabi, thanks to a Critical Lan-guage Scholarship through the U.S. Depart-ment of State.

� e USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, meanwhile, has established special international labs for our students. � ese provide that crucial, clinical link between academic learning and pro-fessional practice – all in a foreign setting. Stu-dents work in multidisciplinary teams to tackle a common problem, tailoring their skills to meet the unique needs of the location, from China to Brazil to the United Kingdom.

In this issue, you’ll read about other examples, as well. You’ll learn about USC alumni who are partnering with � lmmakers in China as they work to build relationships that will bene� t the � lm industries of both countries. You will also read about the International Human Rights Clinic, the USC Gould School of Law’s newest clinical program, that brought alumni to Cam-bodia, Tanzania and the Netherlands to work on human rights advocacy with judges at interna-tional tribunals.

Taken together, this impressive suite of exam-ples re� ects the remarkable work the Trojan Fam-ily does all over the world. � ese contributions don’t always grab headlines, and much of this work slips by without applause. But as president, I’m privileged to see the university’s larger tapes-try of contributions, to appreciate the breadth of our community’s goodwill and to see the scope of its impact. I am truly in awe, and I know we all warmly cheer our fellow Trojans, both for their commitment to bettering our world and for the honor they bring back to us. ●

President Nikias enjoys spending time with students. USC currently enrolls students from 125 diff erent nations.

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BY C. L. MAX NIKIAS

“We Are Addicts” is an excellent and well-written article. I learned a lot. Is it possible to be addicted to good articles like this?

David Schlosberg MA ’07 S A N T A M O N I C A , C A

Has addiction been studied as an allergy or sensitivity? If we are allergic or sensitive to some environmental things, such as grasses, weeds, etc., can addictive substances contain similar compounds that could be tested for sensitivity? Just as we test for allergens, can we test for addiction to certain substances, such as alcohol?

Janine Sanders M A R T I N E Z , C A

[Has] any research been done on the e� ects of music therapy on addiction? Since the in-sula seems to function as an emotional con-trol/perceptual center with regard to music, as well as with regard to addiction issues/substances, I am wondering if the use of music therapy in addiction might be helpful. � ank you for this wonderful article.

Erika L. Roth DPT ’00 S A N T A A N A , C A

USC professor Antoine Bechara replies: It is gen-erally agreed that nonconventional methods [of controlling addiction] have a way of boosting the neural systems involved in self-control. In the case of music therapy, the reward from music could help substitute for the reward from drugs by engaging the same neural systems, including the insula. Some people have done it with suc-cess, but this method has not really been addressed seriously from a scienti� c perspective.

� ere is a factual error in the sidebar of the addiction article. [I]vermectin is commonly used in veterinary medicine as the main in-gredient in oral heartworm preventatives, such as Heartgard. Medications commonly applied topically to the backs of cats and dogs, such as Frontline and Advantage, con-tain pesticides, such as � pronil and imida-cloprid. � ey do not contain ivermectin.

David Sogg MM ’82 P I T T S B U R G H , P A

My mom was an active sober member of AA for about 50 years until her death. She al-ways said that “alcoholism is a disease,” and “you are never cured” but always “in recov-ery.” I went to many AA meetings with her and met people from all walks of life – none

� e article (“We Are Addicts,” Winter 2011, p. 20) gave me a real out-of-body perspective on all the addictions I have and share with others in my life. I felt it easy to continually make poor choices, live as a victim of circumstance and give my power away. I have already been on this journey, but something in your article made everything just click. It might have been my favorite line, “Bad choices compromise our very ability to make choices.”

Jorge Zepeda A N A H E I M , C A

My 26-year-old nephew is an alcoholic. He brie� y tried treatment that was court ordered but is still drinking and in a complete downward spiral. I am hoping he decides on his own he needs treatment. � is is a heartbreaking disease.

Maribeth Bersani MS ’78 A L E X A N D R I A , V A

WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK. SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR AT tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

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Understanding Addiction

mailbag


wanted to be addicted. I hope and pray that researchers in this expanding � eld can help those in need avoid the terrible social out-comes for addicts, their families and society.

Bob Whitney MA ’66 W I L L I T S , C A

Troy Camp LoveYour story on Otis Healy (“For the Love of Troy Camp,” Winter 2011, p. 16) inspired me to donate to USC for the � rst time, not just monetarily but with my time as well. He truly embodies the � ve attributes of an ideal Trojan.

Arin Nazarian ’05 S A N F R A N C I S C O , C A

Lost in TranslationI was disturbed by Liz Segal’s mention of international student Dilyara Kenzhegali-yeva’s “pretty, moon-shaped face” (“Gained in Translation,” Winter 2011, p. 26). Ms. Kenzhegaliyeva deserved to be discussed

in the context of her learning experience at USC, not identi� ed as “a walking advertise-ment for her native Kazakhstan” through her beauty and tendency to dress fashion-ably. Although Segal contrasts this against Kenzhegaliyeva’s ironic donning of “a greasy hard hat” while in the � eld, the author still contextualizes her subject against her ap-pearance, which would be bizarre and unac-ceptable if she were male.

Liz Willis-Tropea MA ’03, PhD ’07 S A N T A M O N I C A , C A

Politics Left and RightWhile Edward G. Robinson (“Little Caesar and the McCarthyist Mob,” Autumn 2011, p. 16) did everything he could to get the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to “clear” him – claiming that he had been “duped and used” by the Commu-nists – it is clear from his autobiography that he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. To state that the government drove Robinson

out of the business is a misrepresentation. It was private individuals and groups who were responsible for the attacks on Robinson. It was HUAC that cleared him. Of course, he had to admit that he had been wrong.

Jimmie Hicks MA ’63 L O S A N G E L E S , C A

Pats & Pans� ank you for referencing John Waters’ “Odorama” idea (Trojan Beat, “Divine Trash,” Winter 2011, p. 8). � e scratch-and-sni� cards for Polyester were a de� nite im-provement over earlier attempts to provide audiences with a whi� of the “real thing” on the screen. USC visiting professor Arthur Mayer regaled his cinema students with sto-ries about his 1933 attempts to deliver odors at his New York (Paramount’s) Rialto � e-atre. � e problem was that said smells lin-gered for days afterward.

Bill Younglove MS ’73 L A K E W O O D , C A

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Those of us who work on this campus depend on the support that we receive from the Trojan Family. In some cases that’s finan-cial support, and that’s what the Campaign for the University of Southern California is all about. But it’s also the psychic support that we receive when we get feedback from alumni, or when a patient’s life is transformed because of the work that our doctors and scientists do on the Health Sciences campus, or when a community is changed because of the work that our students do as interns, or that our professors do when they’re studying ways to solve some of the greatest problems facing our society.

How will alumni and other Trojan Family members be involved in implementing the new plan? The Trojan Family serves as an important messenger of USC’s ambitions. They communicate it to other people in their neighborhoods who are considering where to send their kids to college and to people in their business communities or to foundations considering where to invest their money. This university has been successful both because its alumni are so dedicated and because we get tremendous support from people who didn’t go to school here. If you live west of the Mississippi and you want to be involved in a private institution that is permanent, influen-tial, consequential and international, you have two choices: Stanford and USC. USC is going to appeal to people who appreciate the breadth of our offerings – we have a myriad of profes-sional schools, plus a great liberal arts college, strong athletics and tremendous creative work and arts. So there’s this critical mass to make a difference in the world.

Where do you see USC in the next 10 years? We will have a greater number of trans-formative faculty. We have many, but we do not have enough to match our ambition. We will have a number of top Ph.D. programs, which will train the next generation of the professori-ate. USC will be the place that people emulate, not just with respect to education, but also with respect to the kinds of results we produce – whether in the lab, in our scholarship, in our creative work or in our teaching. You will hear our name throughout the world. ●

USC HAS LAUNCHED a new strategic vision that outlines the leading role the university will play in what it calls “the Age of the Paci� c – an environment that is far more global, urban and integrated than ever before.”

“USC Strategic Vision: Matching Deeds to Ambitions,” the latest of four core documents that have guided USC’s growth since 1994, re� ects the broadest participation to date. It is the result of 18 months of faculty-led discus-sion and input from the entire Trojan Family. Many alumni participated through forums, an interactive website and direct communica-tion with the O� ce of the Provost.

USC provost and senior vice president for academic a� airs Elizabeth Garrett spoke with USC Trojan Family Magazine’s Lauren Clark about the development and goals of the strategic vision.

How does the new strategic vision com-pare to the three previous strategic plans? The current vision’s ambitious goals would not be possible without the strong foundation that the prior plans built. You can see many themes that cut across the university’s strategic plans throughout the years: rigorous undergraduate education, global connections, our commit-ment to the local community and our associa-tion with Los Angeles – the great city that looks forward to the emerging economies of the Pacific Rim, Latin America and Asia.

But you will see some differences in the new strategic vision. It makes more explicit the importance of interdisciplinary work because of the consequences it has in society. That

may be seen, for example, in some of the research we do in the health sciences and through the translational research made pos-sible by great clinical care. The strategic vision also differs a bit from its predecessors in that it puts more emphasis on great Ph.D. pro-grams. And there’s more explicit emphasis on great faculty – retaining the transformative faculty we already have, adding more and creating new transformative faculty within our ranks as we nurture and mentor our junior professors. Faculty keep a great university moving forward to ever higher achievements of academic excellence.

What does the strategic vision mean for the Trojan Family at large? The strategic vision really is a product of a conversation with the entire Trojan Family. We had a series of forums, and a number of our alumni par-ticipated in those forums. Membership in the Trojan Family is a lifelong connection to USC, and that’s identified in the document as some-thing that makes us unique.

Our communication with alumni was an opportunity not just for them to tell us their vision for their beloved university, but also for us – those who teach and do research on this campus – to tell them how far the university has come over the past 20 years and how audacious our ambition is now. USC’s ambition is to be the greatest research university of this century. The only way we reach that goal is with the support of the Trojan Family, as well as with the hard work of our faculty and students. No one group is sufficient. All are necessary.P

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Provost and senior vice president for academic aff airs Elizabeth Garrett discusses the university’s new strategic vision.

THE AUDACITY OF USC

trojan beat

READ USC’S STRATEGIC VISION AT www.provost.usc.edu/sv››


A USC del-egation hit

the ROAD TO BRAZIL AND CHILE

in December to build ties with top universities, corporations and policy-

makers in South America.

Human Genome: Now in 3-D! Seems like everything is coming out in 3-D nowadays. � at goes for the human genome, too. Using a new technique, a group of USC scientists led by Lin Chen and Frank Alber of the USC Dornsife Col-lege of Letters, Arts and Sciences plotted out the location of each of the hundreds of millions of contacts DNA forms with itself and used computer algorithms to model the results in 3-D. � e tiny and monstrously long DNA strand plays a central role in the func-tions of almost all human cells, and � aws in its structure are thought to cause various disorders. One of the most likely applications of this research will be to identify potentially cancerous cells based on structural defects in the cell’s genome, Chen says.

8,615international

students enrolled at USC during 2010-11,

the highest count of any American

institution of higher education for the 10th year

in a row

40full-tuition

scholarships enabled over the next four years,

thanks to the Stamps Family

Charitable Foundation’s $3.8 million gift to USC

Distinguished Professor MIDORI of the USC Thornton School of Music received the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for her20-year commitment to community engage-ment worldwide. Previous winners include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and dancer Mallika Sarabhai.

NEVER FORGET� e 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide took more than 800,000 lives in less than 100 days. In a signi� cant expansion of its Visual History Archive, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education has launched a new e� ort to preserve and share video testimonies from Rwandan survivors and witnesses. It will add at least 50 testimonies this year.

HYBRID HIGH Come September, there’ll be a new school near the University Park campus. In Decem-ber, USC Hybrid High School, a� liated with the USC Rossier School of Education, received a � ve-year charter from the Los Angeles Uni� ed School District. Open year-round and geared for stu-dents at risk of dropping out, Hybrid High aims to graduate 100 percent of its high-need students.

LIZ, THE LIBERATORWhat comes to mind when you think of Elizabeth Taylor? Violet eyes? Eight marriages? For USC cultural critic M. G. Lord, it’s women’s rights. Draw-ing on unpublished letters and scripts, � lms and interviews, Lord spells out Dame Liz’s liberating in� uence in her new book, � e Ac-cidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Notice (Bloomsbury Publish-ing, 2012).

An unprecedented celebration of the cello built to a crescendo in Los Angeles as major music institutions came together on March 9-18 to present the inaugural Piatigorsky Inter-national Cello Festival, named in honor of the late USC faculty member Gregor Piatigorsky. USC � ornton School of Music, the Los Angeles Phil-harmonic, � e Colburn School and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra hosted hun-dreds of established and emerging cel-lists from around the world in a 10-day blitz of orchestral and chamber music concerts, master classes and interactive workshops.

4consecutive NCAA titles

nabbed by the USC men’s water

polo team

250 home games USC Trojan Marching

Band director Arthur C. Bartner has attended at the helm of The

Spirit of Troy

65 days USC

scientist Katrina Edwards spent at sea in search

of life hidden beneath the

seafl oor

JANE HARMAN, former Cal-ifornia congresswoman and current director, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was elected to the USC Board of Trustees in December.

Horror fans of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween can now view CAPTAIN VOYEUR, the director’s student project available at the Hugh M. Hefner Motion Picture Archives.

THE EBB AND FLOW OF GLUCOSE A team led by USC neuroscientist Alan Watts identi� ed for the � rst time a biochemical signal that helps regu-late the amount of glu-cose in the blood. � e discovery of enzymes known as mitogen-ac-tivated protein kinases could lay the foundation for better treatments for type 1 diabetes.

THE LUPUS GENE � ere is no cure for lupus, and the un-derlying cause is not fully understood. But thanks to a study by an international team of researchers led by the Keck School of Medi-cine of USC’s Chaim O. Jacob, we now know the gene mutation that’s involved. � e results were detailed in the Dec. 26 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

TRIAL BY COMBAT-STRESS Combat-related post-traumatic stess disorder is notoriously di� cult to treat, but virtual-reality therapy developed at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) o� ers new hope. With an $11 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Depart-ment of Defense, ICT researchers have partnered with doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Emory University School of Medicine to test the e� cacy of virtual-reality exposure therapy and prolonged ima-ginal exposure therapy. May the best therapy win.

String Madness

A collaboration between USC and local

agencies led to the unfurling of 14 works of

BANNER ART on 200 light poles around

USC and Exposition Park depicting life in South

Los Angeles.

In his 17 years as head coach for the Tro-jans, Vavic has been honored nine times as Coach of the Year by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. He’s had 11 USC players compete in the Olympics.

“He’s really intense to play for,” says senior Peter Kurzeka, the leading scorer of the 2011 men’s team. “He’s always on edge and doesn’t sleep in the latter parts of the season. I think each year we have the hardest-working team because we’re always backing him.”

Vavic has turned USC water polo into a family a� air. His son Nikola is one of the stars on the men’s team as a sophomore, while daughter Monica just started on the women’s team. He and his wife, Lisa, have two other children, 12-year-old Marko and 11-year-old Stefan, who both play water polo, too.

His teams also have excelled academically. In its unprecedented run of four consecutive national titles, the men’s team has main-tained a perfect graduation rate each year.

Vavic, who graduated with honors from UCLA, says wryly, “I tell them if a dumb foreigner with a lack of knowledge in Eng-lish can go out there and get a 3.5 GPA, there’s no reason they can’t do so.”

M A T T H E W K R E D E L L

JOVAN VAVIC SEEMS AN UNLIKELY candi-date to become the most successful athletic coach in USC history. He grew up in the for-mer Yugoslavia, didn’t come to the United States until he was 23 years old and gradu-ated from UCLA.

After leading the men’s water polo team to its fourth consecutive NCAA title in December, Vavic has won a total of 10 national championships (seven with the men’s team, three with the women’s team), trailing only Dean Cromwell (12 in track and � eld) and Rod Dedeaux (11 in baseball) on USC’s all-time list. Both of those Tro-jan legends have athletic � elds named after them at the university.

Already the winningest active coach, Vavic could join Cromwell atop the USC record books by the end of the year with the highly ranked women’s water polo team. Coaching both the men’s and women’s teams gives him two shots a year at a championship, and his teams always are in contention. On three oc-casions, most recently in 2010, he led both teams to titles in the same year.

“Jovan’s passion for success in everything he does with his teams, in and out of the pool, is staggering,” says USC athletic direc-tor Pat Haden. “It’s hard to imagine how dif-� cult it is to win an NCAA championship, and to win four in a row is just phenomenal.”

Vavic brings an intensity to the pool from his days playing in Yugoslavia, where water polo was one of the most popular sports. He began playing at age 8, won four junior na-tional championships on his club team and then played for six years in the top division, or what he calls the “NBA of water polo” in Europe.

“To me, it’s very interesting and chal-lenging to � gure out how to out-coach the other team and develop players,” Vavic says. “Coaches here are more respected than in Europe. Guys like John Wooden and Vince Lombardi and John McKay here at USC are greatly respected in the community.”

It always was a dream of Vavic’s to come to the United States and experience the Ameri-can way of life, like he had seen in Holly-wood movies. He arrived in 1984 and for

three years worked at restaurants and enjoyed Los Angeles. But he missed water polo.

His return to the sport was as a coach at Palos Verdes High School. Within a few years, he began classes to pursue a bachelor’s degree in history while serving as an assis-tant coach at UCLA. When the head coach retired shortly thereafter, Vavic was one of three � nalists interviewed to take over the Bruins. He didn’t get the job, so he � nished up his degree at UCLA and sent out résumés to every other university with water polo in Southern California.

HE GOT A CALL FROM longtime USC coach John Williams, who o� ered him an assistant coaching position. In 1995, Vavic launched the USC women’s water polo program from scratch and was promoted to co-head coach of the men’s team. He took full control of the men’s team when Williams retired in 1999.

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A New Legend in USC SportsJovan Vavic aims for the record books with 10 national championships … and counting.


Jovan Vavic, third from left, takes a victory leap with the four-time-champion men’s water polo team.

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USC WILL FURTHER ENHANCE its cancer care facilities, thanks to a $15 million do-nation from the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation.

� e gift will support construction on the USC Health Sciences campus of a new out-patient clinic building that will be named the Norris Healthcare Consultation Center. � e facility will feature leading-edge technology and house multidisciplinary clinics focused on cancer care, including areas for radiation therapy, imaging and infusion therapy.

� e Norris Foundation’s longstanding support for the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and USC Norris Cancer Hos-pital has helped to create one of the premier cancer centers in the nation. � e hospital is one of only a few facilities in Southern Cali-fornia built exclusively for cancer research and patient care. With this latest gift, the foundation rea� rms its continuing commit-ment to making cancer a disease of the past.

“We’ve seen how cancer patients are treated much more on an outpatient basis than they used to be,” says Harlyne Nor-ris, trustee and past chairman of the Norris Foundation. “� is new facility will trans-form the way people with cancer are treated today and in the future. We’re very privi-leged to be able to help keep USC on the cutting edge of cancer treatment.”

vices for patients.“� e Norris gift will provide a world-class

outpatient facility that matches the world-class talent of our physicians, nurses and sta� , and the care they provide to our pa-tients,” says Stephen Gruber, director of the Norris cancer center.

Outpatient care for cancer patients cur-rently is provided in the Norris Cancer Hos-pital in a building designed in the late 1970s. Moving ambulatory cancer care, along with other special services, to the new Norris Healthcare Consultation Center will facili-tate the delivery of the highest level of pa-tient service in a dedicated, state-of-the-art clinical building.

“Over 30 years ago, Kenneth Norris Jr. provided the visionary gift and inspiration to assist USC in securing the National Cancer Institute grant to establish one of the nation’s original NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers and hospitals – in his words, ‘to make cancer a disease of the past,’ ” says William Corey, trustee and medical consul-tant for the Norris Foundation. “� e trustees continue to honor that commitment.”

� e Norris Foundation is a not-for-pro� t foundation established in 1963 and based in Long Beach, Calif. It has an extensive his-tory of giving to USC, beginning with the philanthropic work of Eileen and Kenneth True Norris, who funded the Norris Medi-cal Library, the Eileen L. Norris Cinema � eatre and the Norris Dental Science Cen-ter at USC. � is latest gift of $15 million brings the foundation’s total giving to USC to nearly $200 million.

“State-of-the-art cancer research and treatment is incredibly important to the Keck School of Medicine’s mission of medi-cal education, research discovery and patient care,” says Carmen A. Pulia� to, dean of the Keck School. “We are con� dent this new fa-cility will fortify USC’s position as a trusted leader in health care and medical research.”

� e Keck Medical Center of USC in-cludes Keck Hospital of USC and the can-cer hospital, as well as USC’s 500-physician faculty practice. ●

[ SUPPORT REPORT ]

A Boost for Cancer Care$15 million Norris gift funds new clinic on Health Sciences campus.

� e $15 million donation from the Norris Foundation is the lead gift toward the new building. � e gift will be augmented by ad-ditional philanthropic support that will be raised as part of the $6 billion Campaign for the University of Southern California.

“We are very grateful to the Norris family and foundation for their unwavering support of our � ght against cancer and for their long-standing commitment to USC,” says USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “Harlyne Nor-ris has been an exemplary trustee and key adviser to me. � is generous gift will bolster our ability to set new standards in cancer care, not only in Los Angeles but also in our region and beyond.”

� e overall strategy for the expansion and development of clinical, research and educa-tional space on the Health Sciences campus was set out in a master plan approved by the USC Board of Trustees last January. � is long-range strategy looks forward to 2035, and, over that time span, space devoted to patient care is planned to nearly double – from just over one million square feet to more than two million. � is dramatic ex-pansion represents a measure of the univer-sity’s investment in the future health of the people of greater Los Angeles.

USC o� cials note that this latest gift from the Norris Foundation is evidence of the growth and impact of the newly named Keck Medical Center of USC and its com-mitment to improving and expanding ser-

From left, Peter Jones, Stephen Gruber, Harlyne Norris and William Corey

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anship this year, USC will be able to provide a widely diverse cohort of students with a signature USC educational experience, no matter where they live in the world.

“� e USC Libraries are of central impor-tance to the university’s academic mission,” says USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “� is historic endowment gift from Valerie and Ronald Sugar ensures that USC Libraries will continue to lead the nation – especially in the building of innovative digital collec-tions and resources.”

Quinlan became dean of the USC Librar-ies in 2007. An internationally recognized authority on information access and digiti-

zation, she has published extensively on library administration, change management and strategic planning, and the information-seeking behav-ior of students in physical and virtual library spaces.

Before joining USC, she helmed the library system at the University of British Columbia, where she launched

a $74 million prototype for academic infor-mation management and dissemination. Quinlan holds an MBA from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a master’s in li-brary studies from Dalhousie University and a bachelor’s in music from Queen’s University.

“World-class library faculty, sta� and re-search collections are vital contributors to USC’s continuing rise on the global stage,” Quinlan says. “� e Sugars’ generosity will help ensure that our libraries are able to sup-port our talented students and transforma-tive faculty at USC. � e impact of this gift will be signi� cant, enduring and broadly felt at USC and beyond.” ●

HOW CAN YOU HAVE A LIBRARY without a chair? Impossible as it seems, this was the case at USC Libraries until January, when USC trustee Ronald Sugar and his wife, Valerie Sugar MS ’72, donated $5 million to endow a dean’s chair. � e Sugars’ gift is the � rst to support a named chair in the libraries and the largest to endow a dean’s chair in the history of USC.

“� is is an extraordinary moment for our libraries and for me personally,” says Cath-erine Quinlan, dean of the USC Libraries, who was formally installed as the � rst holder of the Valerie and Ronald Sugar Dean’s Chair on Jan. 25. “With this gift, the Sugars are helping the libraries support research ex-cellence and innovative scholarship through-out the entire university.”

Among the activities the endowment will support are collections acquisitions and the development of inventive digital collections. It also will support the Dean’s Challenge Grant, a competitive program that encour-ages innovation and provides seed money for pilot projects with the greatest potential to transform library services, improve col-lections and create an excellent research experience at USC.

“Great libraries fuel the work that takes place at great research uni-versities,” says Valerie Sugar, who graduated from USC’s library school, which ceased operation in the 1980s. “� rough our gift, we hope the USC Libraries continue to support a vibrant com-munity of critical thinkers, seekers of knowl-edge and engaged world citizens for many generations to come.”

“We live in an era of rapid technological change,” Ronald Sugar adds. “By endowing the dean’s chair, we wish to ensure that USC will be able to recruit and retain insightful leaders, such as Dean Quinlan, in perpetu-ity and provide the resources to support their vision and capitalize on opportunities that arise in the future.”

� e Sugars both have close ties to the university. After graduating from USC with a master’s in library science, Valerie Sugar

held librarian and software user interface development positions at the Aerospace and RAND corporations. She joined the Friends of the USC Libraries Board of Directors in 2005 and has served on a Friends committee charged with increasing awareness of library services and collections – particularly the unique, rare books and other special collec-tions that distinguish USC among its peers.

Ronald Sugar is chairman emeritus of Northrop Grumman Corp. He joined the company in 2001 and served as chairman and CEO from 2003 until his retirement in 2009. He holds directorships on the boards of Apple Inc., Chevron Corp., Amgen Inc.

and Air Lease Corp. A member of the Na-tional Academy of Engineering, Sugar cur-rently holds the Judge Widney Professorship in Management and Technology at USC. He joined the USC Board of Trustees in 2003 and currently chairs its Academic Af-fairs Committee. He earned a Ph.D. in en-gineering from UCLA in 1971.

USC Libraries comprise 23 libraries and information centers, as well as the USC Dig-ital Repository. Among the oldest private academic research collections in California, they constitute one of the most innovative libraries in the nation. With the creation of an online master’s degree program in librari-

“Great libraries fuel the workthat takes place at greatresearch universities.”

– VALERIE SUGAR

Sweet!Valerie and Ronald Sugar create a $5 million endow-ment to fund the dean’s chair at USC Libraries.

USC Libraries dean Catherine Quinlan, left, with Valerie and Ronald Sugar

IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more inspirational person to have a school of public policy named after him than the late Sol Price. A brilliant innova-tor who revolutionized the retail business with his “low margin” ware-house stores FedMart, Price Club (which later merged with Costco) and PriceSmart, Price was charismatic and magnetic, with a firm moral compass and a lifelong commitment to social justice.

Last Nov. 29, when the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Devel-opment (SPPD) became the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, Dean Jack H. Knott observed, “It’s rare to find a benefactor whose life mission is so closely aligned with our school.”

“We do research that makes a difference in society,” says Knott, who himself studies economic regulation and deregulation. “We research health care and transportation, train people to become real estate developers and urban planners and to run for political office. Our faculty members regularly give important testimony, such as before congres-


INTERSECTIONS: THE LEGACY OF SOL PRICE

Named for a retail revolutionary committed to social justice, the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy is as

interdisciplinary as its namesake.

By Allison Engel | Illustrations by Brett Aff runti

sional committees or to a World Bank committee on housing issues.” The school is one of the best in the nation, ranked seventh among

269 schools of public affairs. Its many notable alumni include the current U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis MPA ’81; California Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard ’71, JD ’74, MPA ’74; Chris Van Gorder MPA ’86, CEO of Scripps Health in San Diego; and Bob Champion MRED ’96, founder and president of Champion Real Estate Co., one of the first companies to create innovative mixed-use project development.

When he became dean in 2005, Knott led a push to improve under-graduate education, and enrollment numbers have risen accordingly over the past six years. The curriculum has been revised, and all faculty members – no matter how senior – are required to teach in the program.

The school offers master’s degrees in public policy, health policy and management, public administration, urban planning and real estate development. Remarkably, Sol Price, from his base in San Diego, was involved in all these areas during his careers as a lawyer, entrepreneur, public policy adviser, real estate pioneer, philanthropist and political activist. Says his son, Robert, chairman of the Price Family Charitable Fund, “The only time he was unhappy was when he didn’t have enough projects on his plate.”

USC president C. L. Max Nikias calls the $50 million naming gift a game-changer. “With the Price family’s extremely generous gift, we will take the school to an even higher level of excellence, ensuring that it becomes the undisputed, international leader in the field of public policy,” he says.

SINCE DECEMBER 2009, when Sol Price died, his son Robert had been thinking about a way to honor him. The Price family has multiple ties to USC. Sol, his wife, Helen, and their grandson David all graduated from the university. Sol earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1936 and a bachelor of law degree in 1938. Helen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and history in 1937.

While attending his son David’s graduation from SPPD in May 2011, Robert was struck by the diversity of the students. He was par-ticularly touched by the recognition of SPPD staff member Carmen Gomez, who was receiving a diploma after 22 years of effort, along with her son, Allen, who was receiving his degree from the school at the same time. “There is a stereotype that USC is a place of privileged people,” Robert says. “I think USC has changed a lot, and the people I saw are serious young people who are really motivated to do something and are coming from all walks of life.”

Robert and his wife, Allison, also were impressed with their son’s years as a Trojan. “I was very happy with his overall experience – the people he met, his classmates and the relationships he developed,” Robert says.

Nikias and Knott discussed with Robert how the Price family could honor Sol’s legacy by “sustaining research that would have a national impact on urban development and social policy,” says Knott. Knott went to San Diego and toured City Heights, a long-struggling neighbor-hood in which the Price family – through its nonprofit, Price Charities – has made a sustained investment in comprehensive redevelopment.


career, “where he lived his life as a fiduciary for his customers and his employees, and for those in life who didn’t have the best,” Robert adds.

Sol learned these lessons from his parents, Jewish Russian immigrants with limited educa-tions who, as labor socialists, helped organize female garment workers in New York’s Lower East Side. “My grandmother was a socialist until her dying days,” Robert notes. “She was very proud of her son’s business success, but her roots told her she wasn’t sure about big business.”

Robert, who is writing a book about his father titled Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary, explains that Sol, early in his law practice, enjoyed helping clients with business prob-lems. A visit with a client to a Los Angeles

membership department store, Fedco, in 1953, proved pivotal. Rebuffed when they asked Fedco to expand to San Diego, Sol, his client and other investors started their own member-ship store, FedMart, in an empty warehouse owned by Sol’s mother-in-law.

FedMart was primarily self-serve and offered significant discounts. This was not business as usual, since the prices of many goods then were protected by fair trade laws. FedMart simply refused to stock those items. The store was an immediate success, and Sol began spending so much time there that he gave up his law practice and became head of the corporation. He turned out to be an

The philanthropy’s City Heights involvement includes housing and commercial develop-ment, community- and school-based health centers, a recreation facility, a senior com-munity center and schools with programs for students to travel outside their neighborhood. The enterprise perfectly embodies the USC policy school’s mission to attack societal prob-lems from multiple angles.

The family at first shied away from the idea of naming the school after Sol Price. “My grandfather didn’t like being in the limelight,” David Price says. “He was a kind of under-the-radar guy.” But upon reflection, David and other family members decided that this public legacy would reflect Sol’s many positive works and inspire others. As Robert Price put it, “When I discussed the gift with my brother, Laurence, we agreed that, beyond the naming, it’s a rela-tionship with USC in a field we care about.”

David, who has been teaching environmen-tal education classes and heading kayaking expeditions for a leadership organization since graduation, hopes that USC can expand on what is happening in City Heights and bring some of its community-building successes to Los Angeles and elsewhere.

To that end, USC is launching the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation, a collabora-tion between the school and Price Charities that will promote sustainable and replicable models of community development in low-income urban areas. The center will provide internships and other firsthand opportunities for students to work in urban neighborhoods.

“We hope our practical experience on the ground at City Heights will mesh with univer-sity research,” Robert says. “We’d like to take conceptual work and put it into application, much the way [the Keck Medical Center of USC] combines university research with a teaching hospital.”

This practical testing is critical, as the world is becoming more and more urban, thanks in no small part to immigration trends, Robert notes. “We think this gift will not only enhance the overall reputation of the school, but see it play a bigger role in the national dialogue related to urban issues.”

SOL PRICE SPENT HIS LIFE WORKING ON URBAN ISSUES, combining his firm belief in social justice with a principled approach to business. Early on, he admired lawyer Clar-ence Darrow, who argued the Scopes trial and fought for the rights of others. That led Sol to law school, and, as a lawyer, he took his fiduciary responsibility to clients very seriously, says Robert. This carried over to his retailing

exceptional leader and mentor. As Jim Sinegal, one of his early hires who went on to become CEO of Costco, said at Sol’s memorial service: “I did not learn a lot – I learned everything, everything I know. That was the impact he had on me.”

Sol opened retail stores in underserved com-munities and respected the rights of all. When a FedMart store opened in San Antonio in 1957, segregation laws there required separate snack bars for blacks and whites. A friend of Sol’s pointed out that the law applied only to snack-bar seating, so Sol installed a single snack bar without seats where all customers could be served together.

He went on to sell FedMart (which then fired him), start Price Club, see it through its merger with Costco in 1993, form public real estate company Price Enterprises, create one of the first real estate investment trusts and launch PriceSmart, which operates Costco-type stores in Latin America.

And that doesn’t include the pro bono work Sol did for Jewish nonprofits and his work in helping establish the Weingart Foundation for longtime confidant (and major FedMart share-holder) Ben Weingart. As a lifelong Democrat who supported the American Civil Liberties Union and whose office was a must-stop for any Democrat running for national office, Sol also counted among his friends many Republi-cans. “He could have wonderful, warm relation-ships with people who were politically polar [opposite] to him,” Robert says.

In later years, in addition to his work with the City Heights Initiative, Sol had a hand in national policies as a board member of the Urban Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income Americans. During his tenure at the center, the earned income tax credit was inaugurated, helping many out of poverty.

As his son sums up in his soon-to-be-fin-ished book: “Sol Price was the epitome of intel-ligent planning, innovation and a willingness to take risks. While he cared about giving a good return to shareholders, Sol cared deeply about the people he was serving – he genuinely hoped that he could make their lives better.”

What could be a more fitting legacy to inspire future Trojans as they shape our urban landscape and influence public discourse? ●

Allison Engel, former director of communications at USC, is the associate director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC.

If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag



The USC Sol Price School of Public Policy has had several organizational structures and names over the years, but a strong public service component has been present from the start. In fact, the school got its start by public demand. In the mid-1920s, groups of reform-minded women and city offi cials, concerned over government corruption and the lack of civic participation in Los Angeles, called on USC president Rufus B. von KleinSmid, suggesting that the university begin a school to address these problems. The result, in 1929, was the USC School of Citizenship and Public Administration, which included classes in urban planning. The university later formed a separate school devoted to urban planning. In the late 1980s, the two schools went by the names the USC School of Public Administration and the USC School of Urban Planning, spawning programs in public policy and health administration, and real estate development, respectively. They merged in 1998, creating the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. That name remained until last November, when the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy was born.

In addition to its academic programs, the school houses 11 interdisciplin-ary research centers focused on the study of governance issues, urban development and sustainability, and social policy.

GOVERNANCE ISSUESBedrosian Center on Governance and the Public EnterpriseCenter on Philanthropy and Public PolicyNational Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE)

URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITYCenter for Economic DevelopmentCenter for Sustainable CitiesLusk Center for Real EstateNational Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research (METRANS)

SOCIAL POLICYPopulation Dynamics Research GroupSchaeff er Center for Health Policy and EconomicsSol Price Center for Social InnovationTomás Rivera Policy Institute

1. FedMart, Kearny Mesa, San Diego, 19602. Sol Price with Miss Navajo and the Navajo tribal

chief at FedMart, Window Rock, Ariz., 1969

NAMING RITES

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3. Sol Price with son Robert Price at Price Club, The New York Times Magazine, 1985

4. Sol Price, late 1940s

5. �Opening day of FedMart, Sports Arena Plaza, San Diego, June 29, 1971

6. FedMart Gasoline Station, 1973

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FEW AMERICAN MOVIEGOERS may have heard of Let the Bullets Fly, but Hollywood insiders certainly are aware of this action-comedy starring director-actor Jiang Wen and Crouch-ing Tiger, Hidden Dragon heartthrob Chow Yun-Fat. Early in 2011, it became China’s largest grossing domestic film ever, taking in roughly 700 million yuan, or $134 million, at the box office and unseating Aftershock, director Xiaogang Feng’s earthquake action picture that brought in a record $105 million the year before. It’s only a little more likely that American audiences have heard of The Flowers of War, an epic drama featuring Christian Bale and a lot of English dialogue. It became a 2012 Golden Globes nominee for best foreign language film and China’s top grossing domestic film for 2011, earning $83 million in 17 days. And Hollywood movers and shakers are sitting up and paying attention.

That’s because figures like these, while not at the level of chart-topping U.S. blockbusters,

are revolutionary in China. Over the past two and a half years, the Chinese film industry has experienced an unprecedented boom. Currently, China ranks as the third largest movie market in the world, behind North America and Japan. By 2015, it is expected to skip ahead to second place, behind the United States. China also is the world’s third largest film producer, after the United States and India, respectively.

Dig deeper into industry statistics and the numbers continue to impress: In 2010, China’s box office grosses soared 64 percent to reach $1.5 billion in tickets sold. This past year, they grew another 30 percent, reaching about $2 billion. That’s still less than one-fifth of Hol-lywood’s $10.2 billion gross for the same year, but the trend is clear. Domestic audiences are no longer the main revenue source for American films; nearly 70 percent of box office revenue for North America comes from overseas. And considering its rapidly advancing middle class of 190 million potential moviegoers, China

promises to be the biggest new market for Hollywood films.

Meanwhile the phrase “coming to a theatre near you” takes on new meaning when you factor in the current construction boom in Chinese movie houses. In 2011, China added 2,800 screens – that’s a rate of about eight per day – bringing the total to more than 9,000, compared to 2010’s 6,200 movie screens in about 2,000 cinema complexes. That number is projected to hit 60,000 before 2020. By comparison, the United States had slightly fewer than 40,000 screens at the end of 2009, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Taken together, these facts present a new world of opportunity for American filmmakers blessed with the pioneering spirit, the cross-cultural fluency and the business acumen to trailblaze the Chinese cinematic frontier.

David U. Lee ’97, MBA ’04 is a good example. A producer and entertainment


[ ADVENTURES IN THE WILD, WILD EAST ]

By Evelyn Jacobson

PIONEERINGTHE NEW

CHINESECINEMA

usc alums are using their east-west backgrounds and entrepreneurial prowess to build a bridge between hollywood and the booming chinese film industry.

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year in a row, USC in 2011 led the nation in the number of foreign students it attracts (8,615), by far the largest group of them being Chinese (1,951).

Crouching tigersFor Lee, who currently heads his own produc-tion company, Leeding Media, with offices in Beijing and Santa Monica, Calif., there’s a strong sense of being in the right place at the right time. “The great thing about being an early mover is you’re setting the rules and setting the standards – doing really fun, exciting stuff,” he says. “But it’s really difficult, too,” notes the man who advised China Film Group Corp. on the structure of the co-production deal for The Karate Kid remake starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. “There’s a lot of hand-hold-ing and trying to get the two sides [Chinese and American] to understand each other better.”

But the good far outweighs the bad. Looking at the horizon, Lee sees a stampede

entrepreneur who has straddled the Chinese and U.S. film business for seven years, Lee has spearheaded several high-profile English-language, Chinese-themed productions. He produced the 2011 comedy-thriller Insepa-rable, starring Kevin Spacey; served as execu-tive producer of the 2010 Jackie Chan flick The Spy Next Door, orchestrating its same-day release in China and the United States; was co-executive producer of Forbidden Kingdom (2007), a martial-arts movie starring Chan and Jet Li, and Shanghai (2010), a mystery thriller set in the 1940s; and ran a $285 million Asian film fund for The Weinstein Company, a major American studio.

It helps immensely that Lee has a foot in both worlds. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he grew up in Hacienda Heights, Calif., with parents who encouraged him to speak Chinese. But he points to a trip to Shanghai during his MBA program at the USC Marshall School of Business as a career-shaping experience: The school’s Pacific Rim International Man-agement Education trip first exposed Lee to the possibilities of working in China. “I was fascinated by Shanghai – the energy and how vibrant it was. I said to myself, ‘I have to go to China,’ ” he recalls.

USC is well positioned to give gradu-ates like Lee a leg up in China’s booming cinema industry. In addition to its location at the gateway to the Pacific Rim, USC boasts a strong commitment to China through academic research, cultural conveners (such as the USC U.S.-China Institute and the East Asian Studies Center at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences) and numerous exchange programs with Chinese institutions (such as the Communication Uni-versity of China and Fudan University). It’s hard to quantify how many Trojans are now or will soon be making a splash in Chinese cinema.

In China, as in America, the entertainment industry draws new talent not only from film schools, but also from a range of academic dis-ciplines, including engineering, finance, law, journalism and music, to name a few. USC maintains top-rated programs in all of these fields. And it also is notable that, for the 10th

SEE RELATED CONTENT AT tfm.usc.edu/spring-2012/chinese-cinema

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David U. Lee, center, with actor Kevin Spacey, left, on the set of Inseparable in China

“It’s clearly the tipping point. Box office will continue to grow, and, increasingly, foreign companies will realize they have to have a piece of that.”

– D A V I D U . L E E ’ 9 7 , M B A ’ 0 4

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approaching. “It’s clearly the tipping point. Box office will continue to grow, and, increasingly, foreign companies will realize they have to have a piece of that,” he says. “Over the next five to 10 years, I think all mini-majors and major companies should have a China opera-tion. You can’t miss out on the opportunities over there.”

Of course, the Chinese government is well aware of Hollywood’s interest and sets rules to protect its market, such as strict import quotas that limit revenue-sharing foreign films to 20 releases plus 14 large-format or 3-D films each year, with only 25 percent of profits going back to the overseas studio.

For China’s political leadership, the budding film sector is seen not just as an engine for economic growth, but also as a tool for wielding influence on the international stage. The government’s stake in the industry – it’s a major investor in film production, distribution and multiplexes – is part of the latest Five-Year Plan, the Communist Party’s blueprint for economic development.

“Film is a great way to promote Chinese culture globally and establish the soft power of China,” observes Chinese culture scholar Shaoyi Sun MA ’97, PhD ’99. “The govern-ment realizes that it needs culture products to establish its image globally. This is why there are so many initiatives,” says the Shanghai native, who teaches in USC Dornsife’s East Asian Studies Center (EASC).

members of China’s elite “Fifth Generation” of filmmakers, a term that refers to the 1982 class of the Beijing Film Academy. On the school’s faculty since 2008, Chen teaches a course on the U.S. film industry in the school’s manage-ment department, preparing future Chinese agents, producers, distributors and exhibitors to work globally.

Her knowledge comes from years of trial and error. Through her company, China Media Consulting, Chen has helped clients large and small, including Walt Disney Imagineering and Paramount Parks, navigate the Chinese market. Chen’s most notable accomplishment was persuading the Chinese government to lift its ban on MGM in 2000 after the studio had offended with its release of Red Corner, a 1997 film starring Richard Gere as an American businessman framed for murder by top Chinese officials.

After living in the United States for 19 years, Chen recently started spending the bulk of her time in Beijing, where business is booming and the demand for her skills is high. “There’s money and energy, but in terms of people able to handle Western business, China is still on a learning curve,” she says.

Courses like Chen’s increasingly are repack-aged as weekend seminars for industry profes-sionals. These workshops attract high-ranking executives from investment and media compa-nies keen to understand how the global film market functions and how the English-lan-

But America has something the Chinese government desperately needs: expertise. According to USC Dornsife political scientist and China expert Stanley Rosen, the govern-ment has the money to finance major films, but it lacks the infrastructure and know-how to consistently make high-concept blockbusters, such as the Harry Potter film series or Avatar. So it is trying to learn everything it can from the U.S. film industry.

“The problem now is that China is trying to do a lot of things at the same time,” says Rosen, who directs EASC. “They’re trying to domestically and internationally build up their soft power by exporting films. They’re also trying to build their brands to compete with the U.S. – and film is one aspect of that. [But] the most important thing for film [in China] is politics and political socialization, and that will trump anything else.”

As the Chinese film industry takes off, the demand for seasoned professionals goes hand in hand with the demand for experienced film educators to train the next generation of home-grown filmmakers.

An example of this is Lora Yan Chen MBA ’95, now a visiting professor at Beijing Film Academy, China’s most prestigious film school and Chen’s undergraduate alma mater, where she studied cinematography before coming to USC for her graduate degree in business. She counts among her film school classmates Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Li Shaohong –


Movie stills from Color Me Love, left, and The Law of Attraction, center, right

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guage industry compares to the local industry, according to Jason Squire, a USC film pro-fessor who has lectured at workshops at the Beijing Film Academy and the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Guangzhou, China. “There is a sense of exploration and discovery in terms of media and an appetite for knowledge about the way Hollywood does business,” says Squire, whose popular text, The Movie Business Book, has been translated into Spanish, Japanese and, most recently, Chinese.

Chen says she would like to teach a similar course at USC on the Chinese industry, bringing the information loop full circle.

Ticket to the topAs with many creative industries, numerous possible routes can lead to success in Chinese cinema. No single credential is required. USC is preparing China-focused film professionals not only through its cinematic arts and business administration programs, but also through various other academic programs, including ones offered through the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“We are training a lot of young Chinese students in our communications management track and strategic public relations track,” says Tom Hollihan, a communications professor at USC Annenberg. “They are going back and assuming positions in Chinese entertainment companies.”

The business is attracting American expats

as well. One example is journalism graduate Zachary Franklin ’07, currently a publicity spe-cialist at Beijing-based YOU On Demand, the first national pay-per-view and video-on-demand platform in China. This service, in partnership with Warner Bros. for film content, has the potential to reach 200 million cable households and may be part of a solution to the country’s rampant piracy problems. Franklin has spent the last four years in China, along the way earning a master’s degree in economics at Fudan University in Shanghai. “It’s about being in the right place at the right time,” he says. “It seemed to me that getting a degree in economics and then working in a country undergoing the amount of change that’s going on in China was the best opportunity.”

Another successful expat is cinematic arts graduate Christopher Bremble MFA ’96, a writer-director who had already “made it” in Hollywood when he started Base FX, a visual effects and post-production company in Beijing. Capitalizing on a demand in the Chinese market for Western-style visual effects, the business has grown from 12 em-ployees in 2006 to a current staff of 225. While Base FX has done award-winning work on U.S. projects – Bremble won an Emmy in 2010 for effects on the epic war saga The Pacific, and his company received its second Emmy in 2011 for work on HBO’s critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire – its bread and butter is the domestic Chinese industry. Seventy percent

of the company’s projects are homegrown, including effects for such renowned directors as Zhang Yimou, Lu Chuan, Chen Kaige, Jia ZhangKe and Gordon Chan.

Other USC programs have been spring-boards for China-based film professionals as well. USC Viterbi School of Engineer-ing graduate Rong Chen ’91, for example, combined his unique skill set as an electrical engineer with an MBA and years of opera-tions experience, along with deep knowledge of the American and Chinese markets, to run the business side of Perfect World Pictures. A spin-off of Chinese game developer Perfect World, the production and distribution company created one of the country’s biggest critical successes in 2010, the whimsical The Piano in a Factory. Its most recent release, a romantic comedy called Love Is Not Blind, opened at No. 1 at the box office in China in November. It is the country’s most successful romantic comedy to date, grossing $55 million in its first five weeks – an impressive return on investment for a film that cost $2 million to make and market.

And proving that the Trojan Family is alive and well in China, Chen recently signed fellow USC grad David U. Lee, the aforementioned producer, to develop and produce movies for Perfect World Pictures, primarily for the domestic market.

The expats have an edge: “For Chinese com-panies, Hollywood is more sophisticated in


lywood to attain their mutual goals while skirting the country’s stringent import rules. Encouraged by their government, Chinese companies team with overseas firms to capi-talize on Hollywood’s knowledge and create projects that can appeal to both domestic and global audiences. And because a co-production is considered a domestic film in China, it can garner 47 percent of box office receipts for the overseas partner.

Last October EASC and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center co-sponsored a two-day UCLA-USC conference on globalization of the Chinese entertainment industry. Marty Kaplan, Lear Center founding director and Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society, moderated a lively discus-sion about co-productions, with the experts on his panel predicting more co-productions and more Chinese investors looking for enter-tainment projects to invest in. “What makes co-productions so attractive is that they’re a way to end-run the Chinese quota of import-ing 20 foreign films a year,” Kaplan says.

“International co-production is the norm rather than the exception, and it’s the future in terms of filming and subject matter,” says Mark Jonathan Harris, a three-time Oscar-winning documentarian and Distinguished Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA). With that logic in mind, he and USC Univer-

sity Professor Marsha Kinder, a noted culture theorist and global cinema scholar, launched a Chinese-American documentary exchange program. Now in its fifth year, the program pairs film students from USC and the Com-munication University of China, challenging them to create and produce a short docu-mentary on the topic of their choice in just six weeks.

“The pitfall of co-production – and what people want to avoid – is something that becomes mediocre and weird because it’s trying to appeal to two cultures,” says screenwriter Simon Sun MFA ’02. “The problem is the script loses its meaning, and the film bombs in both places.”

A Beijing native who works in both the United States and China, Sun wrote The Door(2007), one of the first thrillers released the-atrically in China. “There’s a real demand for commercial films with a good cast and a good story, but the problem with Chinese stories is that they are shallow. There’s no back story, no psychology. If they want the film to travel, it must go deeper,” Sun says.

But government intrusion in the form of censorship is a real stumbling block. State censors must approve all film scripts in China before a permit is issued to start production. With no rating system comparable to the one in the United States, films are expected to screen for audiences of all ages. Sex, excessive violence and themes that cast the Communist Party or Chinese government in a negative light are banned. Also off-limits is anything set during the Cultural Revolution, which often leads filmmakers to produce historical epics or action movies. A film also can be banned after it’s already made.

“Someone could spend a great deal of money on a film and find out at the last minute that it’s going to be banned,” SCA dean Elizabeth M. Daley told the Financial Times while in Hong Kong for USC’s Global Conference last fall. “I hope, for the sake of China, that as a culture we will begin to see this loosen up.”

With his understanding of both Chinese and American cultures, Sun feels that he’s in a good position to break through – creating a story that works both for China and the international market. Currently, Sun is working with veteran producer Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to adapt the Wachowski Brothers 1996 hit film Bound for the domestic Chinese audience. In his version,

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every way in this industry, and there’s a certain prestige in working with Hollywood – it’s branding and perception,” Chen says.

Yin and yangMeanwhile, Chinese film companies are trying to boost the quality of homegrown films to extend their reach. “It’s a way to balance the influence of Hollywood and a way to compete and catch up,” says USC-based culture scholar Shaoyi Sun. “They realize Hollywood as a global industry is relying on the international market, and Chinese cinema would like to have more power on the global scene.”

At a USC film industry summit in 2010 focusing on co-productions and collabora-tions between Hollywood and China, “[the Americans] were falling over themselves to thrust their business cards into the hands of the Chinese reps,” recalls Clayton Dube, associate director of the university’s U.S.-China Institute, which hosted the summit. “But they were all very disappointed because the central message [from the Chinese] was, ‘We will not fund anything that will not make [back] our full investment in China. We do not want to speculate on global gross. We want a firm idea of what the films will do in China.’ ”

Co-production is the buzzword on both sides of the Pacific. It represents one of the best ways for filmmakers in China and Hol- M

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the story takes place in 600 A.D. Independent producer Ben Erwei Ji MBA

’03 sees co-production as a good strategy for entry into the China market, but he knows firsthand how difficult it is to produce films that will succeed internationally. Ji has produced several films over the past three years in Beijing: Gasp (2009), featuring American actor John Savage, Color Me Love (2010) with Joan Chen and The Law of Attraction (2011). All did pretty well in the Chinese market, but none has received theatrical release in the United States.

“It’s very hard to be accepted in the interna-tional market,” Ji says. “I believe that if you have a strong concept and style, [a film] should do very well in China and internationally. But it’s a tough job. Looking through all the movies that could work on both sides, only Crouch-ing Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Kung Fu Hustle did well. Many companies are trying to find the right project, including the big pro-ducers and Hollywood stars. It’s very difficult to figure out.”

Theatrical box office is tremendously important in China because the ancillary revenue streams, such as DVD releases, are deeply diminished by piracy – a factor of the Chinese marketplace that hampers the industry.

Savvy producers like Ji have responded by

developing other sources of revenue, such as product placements.

With a growing consumer economy and increasing brand consciousness, Chinese com-panies are looking for international placement for their products in both Chinese and Hol-lywood films – a service Ji’s company, Angel Wings Entertainment, provides. In Iron Man 2, Ji placed China’s Semir Brand clothing, with Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. both donning the casual wear in the film.

“Product placement is just beginning, and it’s becoming a hot topic for advertisers and agencies in China,” Ji says. “The companies care more about the business the movie will [generate] in China, because the domestic market is big enough. It can give the Chinese brand a big enough push to win a lot of Chinese consumers.”

Give this growing film sector some time, and the productions these inventive Trojans help create may no longer be like Let the Bullets Fly or The Flowers of War – obscure to all outside China but Hollywood cognoscenti. They may instead be as familiar and as irresist-ible to Middle America – and to the rest of the world – as the Harry Potter films or Avatar. ●


Emmy award-winning writer-director Christopher Bremble MFA ’96, left, started Base FX, a visual eff ects and post-production company in Beijing. Ben Erwei Ji MBA ’03, right, has helmed several China-U.S. co-productions and placed a Chinese clothing brand in Iron Man 2.P

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“There’s money and energy, but in terms of people able to handle Western business, China is still on a learning curve.”

– L O R A Y A N C H E N M B A ’ 9 5

[ USC’S SPACE PROGRAM ]

Black Rock Desert, Nev., 2010. USC’s student-run Rocket Propulsion Laboratory launched the Silver Spur 3, its highest- and fastest-fl ying rocket to date. The students have built a new rocket that they hope to launch into space this spring.


THIS SPRING, A SMALL GROUP of starry-eyed undergraduates hopes to make USC the first school to send a student-built rocket into space.

The handful of students who comprise the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory – a wholly student-run organization operating out of a workshop in the Rapp Engineering Building on the University Park campus – will take a hand-built, custom-designed rocket, ap-propriately named Traveler, out to the Nevada desert and propel it 100 kilometers into the sky – into space, that is.

If they get the Federal Aviation Admin-istration clearance needed for the launch, if the rocket launches successfully, if it goes as high as they have calculated it should and if the onboard GPS units that are supposed to track its altitude do not malfunction, then the Rocket Lab students will have made history.

That’s a whole lot of “ifs.” But when you’re dealing with rockets, nothing is ever certain.

The very existence of the Rocket Lab is the somewhat improbable result of students with a dream meeting faculty with the faith – and resources – to help make that dream come true.

“I kind of see divine providence in the cre-

ation of the Rocket Lab,” says Ian Whittinghill ’07, MS ’08, one of its founding members.

While most undergraduates spend their freshman year just trying to get their bear-ings, Whittinghill arrived in fall 2003 with a ridiculously ambitious plan already mapped out: He intended to put a student-built rocket into space by the time he graduated.

He had something of a head start. His father, George Whittinghill, has spent his entire career in rocket propulsion. And the founder of Whittinghill Aerospace LLC, in Camarillo, Calif., had inspired his son to pursue a similar path.

Ian Whittinghill also received encourage-ment and guidance from Dan Erwin, chair of the Department of Astronautical Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Erwin agreed to act as faculty adviser for the nascent rocket club, which would nonetheless remain entirely student-run.

“Whether or not he believed our dream was actually possible, he encouraged us to try for it,” Whittinghill says.

Erwin – along with colleagues Mike Grunt-man and Joseph Kunc – submitted a proposal for funding to then-dean of engineering C. L.

Max Nikias. Nikias, now university president, responded by providing the Rocket Lab team with its own workspace and $160,000 to cover equipment costs.

“For the dean to entrust a sophomore un-dergrad with those kinds of resources, I am still floored with his trust and generosity,” Whittinghill says. “That’s one of the reasons I love USC.”

In fall 2005, with the funding secured, Whittinghill met a freshman with similar background, experience and drive.

Like Whittinghill, David Reese ’09 had an interest in rockets nurtured from an early age by key individuals – namely his father, a mechanical engineer, and Robert Ause, his high school chemistry teacher at St. Marga-ret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., who taught him how to mix propellant.

“He let me test-fire motors on the football field,” Reese recalls.

By the time he got to USC, Reese had been mixing his own propellant for three years and was capable of building a functioning rocket motor.

“I was very, very fortunate that Ian had done a lot of the legwork in terms of funding,” says

ROCKETEERSOF

TROY

ROCKETEERSOF

TROYUndergraduates set their sights

on the thermosphere as they prepare to launch the world’s first

student-made rocket into space.

BY ROBERT PERKINS


much work was involved.Almost every semester sees one or two

launches or static tests of a new rocket engine. Students toil long hours in the lab, especially in the weeks preceding a launch or test.

Sarah Hester, a senior from Yorba Linda, Calif., who is team leader for propulsion and also for logistics, spends about 40 to 50 hours a week in the lab when the team is preparing for an imminent launch – that’s on top of classes.

Of the 50 or 60 current members, a core group of 10 to 20 does the bulk of the work, says Alec Leverette, a senior from Houston who is the lab’s co-team leader for operations and global design.

Often, these core members head straight to the lab after classes and stay until the small hours of the morning – if they leave at all. The lab comes equipped with a cot for all-nighters.

“My friends have become Rocket Lab, and the Rocket Lab guys have all become my friends,” says Bill Murray, a senior from Lenexa, Kan., who is the other co-team leader in operations and global design.

BEYOND UNITING like-minded students and allowing them to pursue their passion, the lab also looks great on a résumé.

“The Rocket Lab is run by students just bound for glory,” says Erwin, the astronautical engineering chair.

ATK, a Fortune 500 aerospace and defense company headquartered in Arlington, Va.,

hired one former lab member without even interviewing him – solely on the strength of his résumé and ATK’s favorable impression of the lab. When Erwin first told company rep-resentatives about the Rocket Lab, they “were terribly wide-eyed,” he says.

Other former team members have ended up at such big names in the aerospace industry as SpaceX, Boeing and Raytheon.

“It’s been fantastic. Rocket Lab has gotten me almost every job I’ve ever had,” says Hester, who has interned at Edwards Air Force Re-search Laboratory, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Blue Origin LLC. “People really like to see the hands-on experience. They also like to see that I’m pursuing my passion. They eat it up a lot.”

At USC Viterbi, the program has spawned several spin-offs.

Around the time that Whittinghill was setting up the Rocket Lab, three key research-ers from the Astronautics and Space Technol-ogy Division at USC Viterbi – Erwin, Kunc and Gruntman – were looking to create a center where students could get much-needed, real-world experience to prepare them for the space industry.

Recruiters “had been unhappy because they were getting graduates who were not tech savvy,” says Kunc, professor of astronautics. “The idea was to create a program in which students are building hardware hands-on.”

The trio recognized Whittinghill’s Rocket

Reese, who now is pursuing a Ph.D. in aero-nautics and astronautics at Purdue University. “I got there, and it was like, ‘We have money, let’s build rockets!’ ”

Nikias’ faith was justified. Within the Rocket Lab’s first academic year, its initial cohort of students – led by Whittinghill and Reese – had purchased or built the necessary equipment: a mandrel for making carbon-fiber cylinders, an oven to cure those cylinders and a big propellant mixer.

To show the university just how serious they were, the students built their first rocket at a frantic pace – in about two weeks, according to Reese – and launched it in May 2006.

That rocket, dubbed Del Carbon, remains one of the lab’s triumphs. It has flown three times, reaching a maximum altitude of 21,500 feet at speeds of up to Mach 1.4. It now hangs proudly from the ceiling of the lab.

Del Carbon, like the team’s later rockets, burns a fuel known as 7210. The rubbery mixture is 72 percent ammonium perchlorate and 10 percent aluminum (hence the name, 7210). It is similar to the fuel that powered the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. To mix the propellant, the team used a standard dough mixer you might find in a pastry shop.

About a dozen people showed up to help during the Rocket Lab’s debut. As word got out about the group, each semester brought more new faces – though only about half would stick around once they realized how P

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Opposite, from left, seniors Alec Leverette,

Sarah Hester and Bill Murray in the Rocket Lab

workshop in the Rapp Engineering Building

Above, from left, Miles Huang ’11 and freshman

Jake Hunter examine fi ns on the Traveler rocket.

Lab plan as a good start for creating just such a program.

So, while the bulk of the $160,000 that had been awarded by USC Viterbi went to buy equipment for the lab, a portion was used in 2006 to begin supporting other space-related initiatives – including plans to develop stu-dent-built microsatellites and a student-built lunar lander. These projects now are humming along at the school’s Space Engineering Re-search Center.

BUT FOR ALL ITS SUCCESS over the past six-and-a-half years, the Rocket Lab has yet to complete its original mission of reaching space.

“It’s a goal I always thought we could ac-complish while I was a student,” says Whit-tinghill. “Every project was inching us closer.”

Whittinghill completed his undergraduate degree in 2007 and earned his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from USC the fol-lowing winter.

His dreams for the Rocket Lab still unreal-ized, he moved on to join his father’s company. He now works as chief designer alongside the man who started it all for him. “We get to do what we love – together,” the younger Whit-tinghill says.

Meanwhile back at USC, the highest alti-tude that the lab has achieved is 60,000 feet, with a rocket named Silver Spur launched in October 2011. That’s just over 18 kilometers, nearly 82 kilometers shy of the goal. (The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale es-tablished the Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km, as the beginning of space. At this altitude, Earth’s atmosphere becomes too thin for an airplane’s wings to generate lift, with an abrupt increase in atmospheric temperature and in-teraction with solar radiation.)

Even so, the students remain confident they can send a rocket to the edge of space. The pa-perwork, Hester says, will be the trickiest part of the operation. “The technology has been around for a while,” she says. “It’s making sure that people know you know what you’re doing – that you’re not going to blow people up.”

They have competition. Other student teams – notably those at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the U.S. Air Force Academy and California State University, Long Beach – have comparable programs with the same goal in sight.

Whittinghill and Reese have remained in close contact with the latest generation of the

Rocket Lab team, confident that USC will win the student space race.

“I know that moment is just going to make me so incredibly proud,” Whittinghill says. “I can’t put words on it. I’m going to be even prouder, if that’s possible, to be a Trojan.”

The last group of students to have worked alongside Whittinghill and Reese now are seniors, bound inexorably for graduation. It is a sign of how committed the students are to the lab that they devote significant energy to passing on their knowledge to the younger members, so that no ground is lost.

Every Monday, the elder Rocket Lab members host a lecture series to discuss what they’ve learned over the past few years – com-posites, flight dynamics, whatever oral tradi-tion needs to be passed on to the new team.

“Space has been the main objective to this point, and we’ve solved a lot of problems to get here,” says Leverette, who plans to study aerospace propulsion in graduate school.

Once the Rocket Lab fulfills its original purpose of sending a student rocket into space, the group will find a new goal.

“We have a couple of things in mind,” Murray says. He mentions the possibility of turning the Traveler rocket into a small, sub-orbital payload vehicle.

Currently, Traveler has enough thrust to carry 150 pounds to a height of greater than 100,000 feet, Murray says. Though that’s nowhere near enough power to put a satellite in orbit, it’s more than enough thrust to put an instrument pack into a ballistic suborbital trajectory, pushing it into space for a five- to 10-minute window to gather data.

Ultimately, the decision will almost certainly rest with Rocket Lab’s younger members, the freshmen and sophomores who listen intently at the Monday night lectures and have their own dreams and plans for space missions.

Whether or not the team’s rocket actu-ally reaches space, USC is assured of setting a record – as the first school to launch both student-built rockets and student-built satel-lites this year, conducting boundary-pushing research historically reserved for government and private corporations.

As Murray puts it, with no hint of self-doubt or humility, “We want to make a USC space program.” �


The Department of Astronautical

Engineering is a fairly new

development at USC Viterbi – and a

fairly unusual one. Created in 2004,

it remains one of the few programs

to off er astronautical engineering

degrees. Most comparable

programs off er aerospace

engineering or aeronautical and

astronautical engineering, which

are not strictly space-focused but

concentrate on aircraft as well.

The department’s clear dedication

to spacecraft, coupled with its

potential for myriad hands-on

experiences, is a huge draw for

potential students, according to

faculty member Joseph Kunc.

AERONAUTS OR ASTRONAUTS?

›› SEE RELATED CONTENT AT tfm.usc.edu/spring-2012/rocketeers-of-troy

LAWYERS without

BORDERS

Three USC Gould graduates grapple

with the world’s most harrowing cases – genocide and war

crimes committed in Cambodia, Rwanda

and the Balkans.

SHORTLY AFTER GRADUATING from the USC Gould School of Law and taking the bar exam last year, three fledgling lawyers departed for far-flung regions of the world and found them-selves immersed in cruelty, torture and murder.

Brian Rifkin in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Shannon Raj in Arusha, Tanzania, and Trevar Kolodny in The Hague, Netherlands, were among six 2011 USC Gould graduates who worked on trials involving some of history’s worst crimes against humanity: respectively, the Cambodian Killing Fields of the 1970s, the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and atrocities com-mitted during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Their classmates Seepan Parseghian, Aysha Pamukcu and Jamie Hoffman also worked on these trials.

After spending their final semester at USC Gould’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), the graduates were invited to work with the United Nations as judicial interns at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (in Arusha) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. They received the coveted invitations after spending their last year at USC remotely working for judges at these human rights tribunals – a first for law students at an American university. “The judges were impressed with the students’ work and were eager to have them on-site,”

says USC Gould professor and IHRC director Hannah Garry.

USC Gould dean Robert K. Rasmussen recruited Garry in 2010 to launch the clinic. “I considered it a priority to establish a clinic at the law school that would prepare students for working in a globalized world,” he says, adding that USC Gould alumni contributed to grants that helped cover each student’s travel and expenses.

Once at the tribunals, the law graduates spent their days sifting through documents implicating the “most wanted” for genocide, including notorious leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Rwandan Hutu officials and architects of the Yugoslav wars.

The interns worked side by side with judges at the tribunals, where prosecutors brought charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. In roles similar to that of judicial clerks in the United States, they drafted opinions, attended court hearings, wrote legal memoranda and examined witness testimonies.

Garry, who has worked on international human rights and international criminal law issues for nearly two decades, traveled to Cambodia last October, reconnecting with some of the interns and cementing ties with the ECCC. She and Rifkin witnessed such dramatic events as a German judge resigning from the bench. The judge said his work on

By Gilien Silsby

[ TALES FROM THE TRIBUNALS ]

From left, Hannah Garry, director of USC’s International Human Rights Clinic, Aysha Pamukcu JD ’11 and (facing camera) Brian Ri� in JD ’11 in a cell at the infamous S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where thousands were tortured and killed under the Khmer Rouge regime

accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. When Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in April 1994, these men became part of the interim government that presided over the horrific killing, often by machete, of 800,000 Rwandans.

The tension in the international courtroom was palpable, Raj says, as the former ministers listened to the verdicts after more than a decade of work on the case.

Their fate was a divided one. Just seconds after finding [minister of trade and industry] Justin Mugenzi and [minister of the civil service] Prosper Mugiraneza guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, judge Khalida Rachid Khan declared that not one of the allegations against [minister of health] Casimir Bizimungu and [minister of foreign affairs and cooperation] Jérôme Bicamump-aka had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The latter two men would walk free. Before I left the courtroom that day, I saw Mugenzi turn and shake Bizimungu’s hand.

Realizing that one would likely spend the rest of his life in prison while the other would be released, I couldn’t help but remember a statement by Louise Arbour, former president of the Rwanda tribunal: “I believe it is of critical importance that we define appropriately the role of international criminal justice, that we fully empower the courts to do what they are designed to do and that we resist the temptation to use them as inadequate substitutes for the many other ways in which civil societies must be reconstructed after war and sustained in their search for peace.”

Regardless of what any of us felt about the outcome, I felt I’d had a more powerful illustra-tion of this basic pillar of criminal law than any casebook could ever provide me.

Thousands of miles away in The Hague, Trevar Kolodny witnessed a different grim chapter of humanity. A native of Southern California, who earned a bachelor’s in history at the University of Cambridge in Great Britain, Kolodny was in the appeals chamber at the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia when ar-guments were presented in a case known as Lukić and Lukić.

One of the defendants, Milan Lukić, was accused and convicted of burning dozens of Muslims alive on two occasions during the Bosnian War by locking them in houses doused in kerosene, lighting the houses afire and ordering his subordinates to shoot any victims who tried to flee through the windows. The other defendant – his cousin, Sredoje Lukić – was convicted of helping with one of the house fires and beating inmates at an internment camp.

I imagine you can tell a lot about a man by the way he addresses the judges here: is he passionate,

new cases pending before the tribunal was hopelessly compromised by interference from the Cambodian government.

“I saw the tremendous challenges faced by judges at the tribunal in conducting investiga-tions and trials in Cambodia,” says Garry, who has worked with organizations ranging from the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Human Rights Law Group.

“Not only are tribunals under-resourced in terms of legal and support staff, but there are all sorts of political pressures, making it difficult to work efficiently and independently,” Garry says. “USC’s International Human Rights Clinic has been able to provide an important resource and relieve some of the stress these judges are facing.”

Meanwhile, the clinic’s graduates have wit-nessed history. In journals kept during their time abroad, Rifkin, Raj and Kolodny describe experiences that changed not only the way they view the law, but also how they look at the world.

Grim reckoningsGrowing up Jewish in Brooklyn, N.Y., Brian Rifkin developed an interest in human rights during family and classroom discussions about the Holocaust and Jewish history. He vividly recalls the first time he attended a public hearing for Nuon Chea, second in command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Their regime killed more than 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.

Needless to say, I had never before been in the presence of a person facing charges akin to those brought against Nuon Chea. When he entered the courtroom, there was an unmistakable atmo-spheric change in the visitors’ gallery. More than a hundred orange-robed monks in attendance, along with dozens of other Cambodian citizens, seemed to lean toward the courtroom at once, their eyes not leaving Nuon Chea. Though it was hard to discern the public’s level of interest during the prolonged examination, the facial expressions and gesticulations – particularly of the older visitors – when Nuon Chea arrived said a lot about the enduring intensity of survivors’ feelings about the defendant.

Shannon Raj, who hails from the San Fran-cisco Bay area, says her Indian-Irish family “was always cognizant of current events, and they encouraged me to take opportunities like this one.” In Tanzania, she had the rare chance to participate in the rendering of the verdict in September 2011 against four former gov-ernment ministers from Rwanda who were


BOTTOM: Trevar Kolodny JD ’11 working at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands

TOP: Ri� in views photos of S-21 prisoners, many of whom were tortured or killed.

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is he resigned, is he remorseful, is he dignified? The main defendant was clearly desperate, going well over his time limit, beseeching the judge’s mercy, waving documents and newspapers, and begging: “Look into my eyes. Look at my face! Is this the face of a murderer?” His cousin, in contrast, maintained a sad and quiet dignity, and only spoke two sen-tences, placing his faith in the fact that the correct decision would be reached. If I forget everything else from the tribunal, I will remember that moment.

Too many people lostDuring breaks from their two- to three-month internships at the tribunals, the USC law gradu-ates spent time searching for answers to the tragedies they were examining by visiting me-morials and historic sites.

One weekend, Raj flew nearly 500 miles from Arusha to Kigali, Rwanda, to see the country that was so ravaged by the killings.

I am writing from the candlelit tables at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali – the hotel whose story was conveyed in the movie Hotel Rwanda and which was the site of inconceivable tragedy and heroism during the Rwandan genocide. It feels eerie and unnatural to sit by the pool peacefully, when I know what happened here entirely too well. If I believed in ghosts, I might believe in them here.

Raj also visited a genocide memorial that was modeled after the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The big difference is that the black wall here is nearly entirely blank. A few hundred measly names are clustered on one side; the rest is an empty expanse of blank space. I was angry when I saw the long blank wall: Where were the other names? Why put up just a few? And after all these years, why was it so incomplete? The answer, I discovered, is that there were too many people lost. If you, your family and all your friends were killed, no one would be left to tell your name.

When this sank in, I felt my stomach drop in a way that no list of names could have ever done. I know that this is what we’re working for in Arusha: bearing witness to the tragedy that occurred and trying to create some justice in the mess of heartache that Rwanda experienced.

Midway through his internship in The Hague, Kolodny traveled to Amsterdam and visited the Anne Frank House, which told stories eerily similar to the modern-day war crimes before the Yugoslav tribunal.

Working in an appeals chamber, 20 years removed from the crimes of Yugoslavia, it is easy to view these things abstractly. The Anne Frank House once again reminds you, in the most visceral


way possible, that, as horrible as the aggregate impact of these crimes might sound, you can only truly appreciate the horror when you stop and consider the harm inflicted on each individual victim. But when you’re dealing with 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, the tens of thousands killed in the former Yugoslavia or 800,000 civilians killed in Rwanda, you realize that’s impossible.

Looking backFollowing their internships, the young lawyers returned to the United States and began their professional careers. Rifkin and Raj are litiga-tion associates at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, in New York, and Bingham McCutchen LLP, in Los Angeles, respectively. Kolodny is applying to graduate school to study interna-tional law in Great Britain.

As they reflect on their experiences at the war crimes tribunals, they share the conclusion that these international courts help reconstruct societies after intense conflict, even though their outcomes can be flawed.

“I believe the tribunals achieve a measure of justice for victims and [advance] important moral and legal principles,” Rifkin says. “My time [in Cambodia], however, taught me of the limits of such tribunals – their frustrat-ing pace, the risk of political interference and timidity, and the challenge of engaging those most affected in a meaningful way.”

The internships also gave the graduates valuable knowledge about the practice of law on an international scale. Rifkin says of his exposure to lawyers and judges from around the world, “I learned a great deal from them about their own systems, their education, their political and legal outlooks.”

Even as these Trojans begin lives far removed from the frontlines of genocide, they know that they have been forever changed by what they saw and heard at the tribunals. ●


VIEW MORE FROM THIS FEATURE AT tfm.usc.edu/spring-2012/lawyers-borders

››

Shannon Raj JD ’11, right, and Seepan Parseghian with judge Khalida Rachid Khan, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania

Life Donat d


“My future looks good,” says Armijo, 56, of Long Beach, Calif., who received a liver transplant at the Keck Medical Center of USC in November 2010. “I’ve been at my job 23 years, and when co-workers ask me how much longer I’ll be around, I tell them, ‘I’ve got seven more years until I retire.’ I can [make] it now.”

� e USC Transplant Institute was formed in 2010 to unite the di� erent organ transplant programs housed at the Keck Medical Center. USC has a long history of organ transplantation at both Keck Hospital of USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. � e medical center o� ers heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation services.

Organ transplantation often is a waiting game. Time on a waiting list may drag on for years, but when an organ is located, the team assembles at lightning speed to put that organ safely into a patient.

“When you think about organ donation, the act is nothing short of miraculous,” says Cynthia Herrington, director of the USC Transplant Institute and associate professor of clinical cardiothoracic surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Live donors show amazing courage and deep love to allow themselves to undergo an operation to remove a healthy organ for no personal bene� t. In the depth of a family’s despair they see clear to save the lives of people they don’t even know. We as transplant physicians are so fortunate to be able to par-ticipate in the ultimate act of sel� essness, the gift of life.”

On waiting

One patient currently playing the waiting game is Los Angeles resident Loretta Heckard, 56. Every breath she takes is a struggle.

Having lived with chronic asthma since childhood, Heckard was accustomed to struggling for air. In 2007, her physician recommended she get an X-ray of her lungs to see why she was experiencing such a dramatic loss of breath. It was then that she was diagnosed with pulmonary � brosis – a buildup of excess connective tissue inside the lungs that displaces normal lung tissue, resulting in decreased lung function.

Organ transplantation is a life-changing process,

and the team at the USC Transplant Institute

shepherds each patient along his or her journey.

by sara reeve | photographs by philip channing

e


How would you feel if one day you woke up with body parts that originally weren’t your own? If you were the recipient of a donated organ, like Hilbert Armijo, you would feel like you’d been given a new lease on life.

[ KECK MEDICAL CENTER OF USC ]

LIVING HIS DREAM After a successful liver transplant, Hilbert Armijo (center) enjoys home and family. On his porch, Armijo is joined by his wife, Linda, and their children and grandchildren.

bies include jujitsu, sur� ng and skiing. � e last thing he might be expected to do is to volun-tarily remove a healthy part of his body and spend weeks recovering. But last September, that’s exactly what he did at the Keck Medi-cal Center – he donated a kidney to his friend and colleague, David Coiner.

Dempsey and Coiner, who works as a Catalina harbor patrolman and dive techni-cian, had known each other for 15 years. � e two served as volunteers on the local search-and-rescue team.

It pained Dempsey to learn that his friend was su� ering from a genetic kidney disease and forced to go on dialysis every night. But Dempsey thought nothing else could be done. When another colleague mentioned getting tested to see whether she could be a kidney donor for Coiner, who has O-negative blood, a lightbulb went o� in Dempsey’s head.

“I got to thinking, ‘Wow, I’m O-positive. I wonder if O can give to O,’ ” Dempsey says. “After doing a little research on the Internet, I saw that, yes, it looked like I could donate. I talked to my wife … and explained that I wanted to donate. And she said her heart just sang because she really wanted me to do this.”

After a full barrage of tests, physicians determined that Dempsey was a close-enough match to donate his kidney to Coiner. Dempsey then underwent a series of in-depth interviews with doctors, sociologists, nutri-tionists and social workers.

“Our � rst priority is to take care of the organ donor,” says Sophoclis Alexopoulos,

“� ey discovered that both of my lungs were very damaged,” Heckard says. “It was to the point where if I tried to walk from the car parked at the curb to my house, it was very hard – a very di� cult journey for me.”

She turned to the physicians of the Keck Medical Center to help her breathe more easily. With medication and careful man-agement, Heckard was able to get some control over the � brosis and its resulting pul-monary hypertension. For almost a year, her disease seemed to go into remission when the � brosis stopped its progression. But the shortness of breath returned, and X-rays con� rmed that the disease had resumed its advancement through her lungs.

In early 2010, Heckard was placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant. She contin-ues to wait for the call that will take her to a new phase in her life, in which she will be able to walk without supplemental oxygen.

“I think you never stop being anxious for an organ to come, but what’s beautiful is that I have the greatest doctors who explain to me in detail what our goal is and what they are trying to do for me while I’m waiting,” Heckard says. “So, yes, I’m anxious to get it, but, in the meantime, I’m comfortable and my health is being maintained.”

While waiting for a transplant, Heckard returns to the medical center every few weeks for evaluations, X-rays and treatment. She � nds that the support of doctors, nurses and sta� keeps her going even on her darkest days.

“Everyone knows me by name now, and they greet me with open arms,” Heckard says. “And that’s wonderful because when you’re sick you can be down on yourself, but that

goes away once you come here. It’s the one time I don’t feel like I’m a mis� t at all.”

Despite the time spent waiting for an organ, Heckard is optimistic about her future and still dreams of one day running around a track.

“I feel that my future is very bright,” she says. “One reason I’m still waiting for a trans-plant is that I would like to do things without having [supplemental] oxygen. I thank God for what I have, but I would love to run track. I was a person who worked out diligently, and I’m looking forward to being able to run.”

According to John Donovan, liver trans-plant physician and associate professor of medicine at the Keck School, the USC Transplant Institute physicians and surgeons develop close relationships with their patients.

“Transplant physicians share their patients’ highs and lows – their disappointments and triumphs,” Donovan says. “� ere are many of each, for both the patients and their doctors, in the transplant experience. When patients get sick, we worry with them. If they get a liver o� er, but it’s not a good o� er, we share in their frustration and disappointment. After trans-plantation, when they come back healthy, we share the joy of success and regained health with them. � ere is a lot of emotion to share with patients and their families.”

A friend in needLance Dempsey, 43, of Murrieta, Calif., feels his transplant experience is nothing but positive.

As a paramedic and lifeguard on Catalina Island, Dempsey leads a physically active life. In addition to his energetic vocation, his hob-

WAITING HOPEFULLY While waiting for a lung transplant, Loretta Heckard maintains hope for her future.

PARTNERS IN CARE Liver transplant physician John Donovan confers with transplant coordinator Jacqueline Johnson to discuss treatment options for a new patient.

assistant professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medi-cine and surgical director of kidney transplantation at the Keck Medical Center. “We select the healthiest people, and when you look at those people who have donated compared to the general pop-ulation, they live just as long and do not have higher rates of dialysis. Overall, it’s a very safe surgery.”

When the time for surgery � nally arrived, the operation went smoothly without any complications. After a hos-pital stay of only two nights, Dempsey returned home to recuperate. Two weeks after surgery, he was back swim-ming in the pool and, after seven weeks of recovery, he returned to work.

“People recover from organ donation com-pletely and can go back and do everything they had done before the surgery – there are no restrictions,” says Alexopoulos, who per-formed Dempsey’s surgery. “Lance wanted to go back to doing jujitsu three weeks after sur-gery, and I said, ‘Are you crazy? At least wait for your incision to [heal].’ ”

Eventually, Dempsey resumed his hobbies.“Donating is such a positive experience,”

he says. “I’m going back to my normal, active lifestyle. I do everything and it’s not going to impact my ability to live. You’re going to get so much out of the process, you’re going to feel so good about it – that’s the best part of it all.”

Believing in miraclesFor Hilbert Armijo, receiving a liver trans-plant not only a� ected his ability to live, but also his will to live.

In early 2010, Armijo was ready to die. “I wanted to give up,” he says. “I really thought I would die. I’d made my peace.”

He was su� ering from severe cirrhosis and had been told his condition was too far gone for treatment.

Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver causing poor liver function. It is the � nal phase of chronic liver disease. Once cirrhosis develops, it is impossible to heal the liver or return its function to normal.

Armijo had struggled with drug and alco-hol addiction for many years, and although clean and sober for almost two decades, he still was dealing with the physical damage the

addictions had wrought on his body.After being transferred from his local com-

munity hospital to the Keck Medical Center for treatment of a mass in his liver, he learned from physicians about the opportunity to receive a liver transplant.

Armijo received a transplant from an unknown donor in February 2010. After a successful surgery, he stayed at Keck Hospital of USC for three weeks and then recuperated at home for another 10 weeks.

Excited to � nally return to work, Armijo was dismayed when he became exhausted while walking the stairs at his employer’s parking structure. Colleagues noticed that his face was green and his eyes yellow.

His new liver was failing.“� ere is a lot of judgment that goes into

providing a transplant and trying to maximize what is best for the patient,” Alexopoulos says. “And making them a partner in that – it’s important that they are your partner, that you are not making unilateral decisions.”

In August 2010, Armijo was relisted for a liver transplant.

“My doctors at USC told me they wanted to put me on the list again, and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to. God will help me.’ But the doctors told me, ‘We believe in miracles, too, but we think we need to put you on this list. We need to be ready for it.’ And they were right.”

Just before � anksgiving that year, a fam-ily member of one of Armijo’s co-workers died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage, and the family decided to donate the liver to Armijo.

On � anksgiving Day, the surgeons at Keck Hospital transplanted the new liver into Armijo.

A year later, Armijo feels his life is back to normal. He returned to work and is again enjoying being a family man.

“� e goal of all transplants is to make you healthier and live longer and re-engage in life,” Donovan says. “After his transplant, Hilbert went back to work. He’s doing all the things a transplant is meant to allow him to do.”

Armijo is reminded every day of the gift of life that was given to him.

“I work with the cousin – I see him every day, and he calls me brother,” Armijo says of the co-worker whose family made his miracle happen. “He knows how happy I am and how thankful. Early on, I’d ask him to tell his cousin how well I was doing, and how her husband’s liver lives on in me.”

Armijo makes sure he stops by to visit the transplant team every time he comes to the Keck Medical Center for a checkup.

“I really enjoy everybody there,” he says. “Every time I go to see the doctors, I always go up to the sixth � oor to visit the nurses who took care of me. I just want to say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ again. � ey treated me so good. I can’t get enough of saying thank you to the doctors and nurses.” ●

For more information about organ transplan-tation at the Keck Medical Center of USC, call (323) 442-5908 or visit keckhospital.org/transplant

GIFT OF LIFE When paramedic and lifeguard Lance Dempsey learned his friend needed a kidney transplant, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer. “Donating is such a positive experience. You’re going to feel so good about it – that’s the best part of it all.”


Ultimate Trojan Family Get-TogetherAlumni return for Reunion Weekend.

ACCORDING TO numerologists, 11-11-11 was an auspicious day – the ideal time to marry, give birth, play the lottery and, if you’re a Trojan, bring together � ve generations for the 2011 Reunion Weekend celebration.

Expanding its program from three to � ve class reunions, the USC Alumni Associa-tion brought the classes of 1961, 1971, 1981, 1986 and 2001 back to campus for a two-day celebration of all things Trojan, capped by USC’s 40-17 Homecoming victory over the University of Washington.

More than a thousand alumni, some from as far away as Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia, returned to campus to reconnect and reminisce while attending class reunion cel-ebrations, academic lectures, campus tours and USC president C. L. Max Nikias’ re-union reception at the Ronald Tutor Cam-pus Center Ballroom. Many also came back the next day for class reunion tailgate parties prior to Homecoming kicko� .

“I saw friends I have not seen since col-lege, and yet the conversation � owed as if we had just seen each other yesterday,” Ramona

Cappello ’81 says. “It brought back so many great memories and reminded me how special those four years at USC really were! I cher-ish that time and the lifelong friendships that were created at this very special university.”

T I M O T H Y O . K N I G H T

Class of 1971 40th Reunion Committee co-chairs

Gayle (Lensing) Rimerman ’71 and Bill Poland ’71

A member of the USC Trojan Marching Band playfully serenades Class of 1981 Trojans at their 30th reunion. Class of 2001 alumni arrive at the California Science

Center for their 10th reunion celebration.

His and hers: Jack Allen ’60, MS ’64, MBA ’91 and

Carolyn Sessions Allen ’61, MPW ’98 sport matching

USC watches at the Class of 1961 50th reunion. USC trustee Marc R. Benioff ’86 gives the keynote at

the 25th reunion celebration of the Class of 1986.

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alumni resource, providing tuition assistance on a consistent and sustainable level to USC’s black undergraduate and graduate students. To date, more than 2,000 USC students have received BAA scholarships, which include mentoring, pre-career development advising and a Toastmasters program.

In celebration of its 36th anniversary, BAA will host “An Evening of Art & Legacy: Ber-nard and Shirley Kinsey Present � eir Dis-tinguished Collection of African American

Art and Historical Artifacts,” a special scholarship fundraiser on March 22 at Bovard Auditorium. A national tour-ing exhibition, the Kinsey Collection has been displayed in seven museums since 2007, including a seven-month stay at the Smithsonian National Mu-seum of American History in Wash-ington, D.C., where it drew 2.5 million visitors. Several pieces from the collec-

tion – including works by noted painter Ro-mare Bearden, the 1857 Dred Scott decision discussion papers and the original 18th-cen-tury publications of poems by Phillis Wheat-ley – will be brought to USC that evening and displayed during a post-event reception.

Bernard and Shirley Kinsey have a long association with USC. Bernard, a former Xerox vice president and former co-chair of Rebuild L.A., established a relationship with USC President Emeritus Steven B. Sample that led to the founding of USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative and the conferring of an honorary USC doctorate on civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.

“ ‘An Evening of Art & Legacy’ will be an exciting opportunity for BAA support-ers to share their collective experiences while giving back, so that an increasing number of current and future black stu-dents can pursue their dreams at USC,” BAA executive director Michéle Turner ’81 says. “Dr. Kilgore would be proud to know that his legacy at USC continues to thrive and � ourish in the hearts of alumni and BAA supporters.” �

Our Alumni – Dedicated and Diverse

SEVERAL GENERATIONS of Trojans gath-ered on Oct. 28 at the Half Century Trojans Luncheon themed “Honoring the Past, Cele-brating the Present and Building the Future.”

Half Century Trojans president Terry Pearson ’53, MS ’63 and USC Alumni As-sociation CEO Scott M. Mory shared the dais at Town & Gown, where USC’s senior alumni group welcomed its newest members: the Class of 1961, which celebrated its 50th reunion during Homecoming.

Al Checcio, senior vice president for Uni-versity Advancement, called the Half Cen-tury Trojans “the custodians of the USC his-tory and legacy of which we are all so proud.” Fred Keenan ’37 was the senior-most mem-ber of the Half Century Trojans attending the event.

Speaking of building the future – literally – keynote speaker Kristina Raspe MCM ’08, MRED ’09, USC vice president for real estate development and asset management, discussed the ongoing development and

IN A 1972 SPEECH AT USC’s baccalaureate ceremony, the late Rev. � omas Kilgore Jr. – a renowned civil rights activist and col-league of Martin Luther King Jr. – chided the university for its indi� erence to minori-ties. USC president John R. Hubbard was in the audience and subsequently hired Kilgore as a senior adviser. Four years later, Kilgore founded the USC Ebonics Support Group, forerunner of today’s USC Black Alumni As-sociation (BAA). Today, BAA is a primary

This 1863 poster from the Kinsey Collection, published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, depicts U.S. troops at Camp William Penn, a training camp for black Union soldiers in La Mott, Pa.P

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enhancement of both the Uni-versity Park and Health Sciences campuses. Her presentation on the ambitious redevelopment plans for University Village was a luncheon highlight.

Following Raspe’s keynote, the Half Century Trojans paid trib-ute to three USC alumni whose devotion to their alma mater is matched by their history-making accomplishments. Distinguished Service Award honoree Mil-lie Farnsworth ’46 was the � rst woman captain of the USC Tro-jan Debate Squad. Half Century Trojans Hall of Fame honoree Verna B. Dauterive ME ’49, EdD ’66 pledged the largest gift ever by an African American to a U.S. in-stitution of higher learning – $30 million to USC in 2008. And fellow Hall of Fame hon-oree Sammy Lee MD ’47 was the � rst Asian

American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States. He won the men’s 10-me-ter platform diving competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. �

From left, honorees Millie Farnsworth ’46, Sammy Lee MD ’47 and Verna B. Dauterive ME ’49, EdD ’66 of the Half Century Trojans

Half Century Trojans Still Fighting On

USC Black Alumni Association Celebrates 36 Years

B Y T I M O T H Y O . K N I G H T

alumni SCene

1. High (Achieving) Society Society 53, named after the 53 students who formed USC’s � rst student body in 1880, is the student outreach program of the USC Alumni Association (USCAA). Pictured here on the steps of Widney Alumni House – where, aptly enough, those � rst 53 students attended class – are the 2011-12 members, including president Anthony Barkett (fourth row, far right). Eighteen new members came on board last year. Each year, the group plans and implements the Senior SCend O� , a spring “welcome” barbecue for un-dergraduate seniors transitioning to alumni status, and the Trojan SCuppers, informal dinners hosted by alumni for USC students.

2. Have Fun, Will Travel� ousands of Trojans enjoyed USC Week-ender events hosted by the USCAA and its regional alumni clubs at away football games in Arizona, the Bay Area, Chicago/South

Bend and, for the � rst time, Colorado. � e USC Trojan Marching Band and the USC Song Girls stole the show, with special events that included architectural and Goose Island brewery tours in Chicago and pep rallies at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Chicago’s Navy Pier (pictured here) and Westin Den-ver Downtown.

3. Savvy About the Na’vi Paul Debevec, USC computer science profes-sor and associate director for graphic research at the USC Institute for Creative Technolo-gies, presented on digital animation at the TimesCenter in Manhattan on Nov. 22. De-bevec is an Academy Award-winning visual e� ects director whose work has been featured in � e Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Avatar (2009). � e USCAA event was part of the “USC in Your Neighborhood” series designed to bring USC faculty to cit-ies outside Southern California. Debevec was

joined by USC Viterbi School of Engineer-ing dean Yannis C. Yortsos and USC provost and senior vice president for academic a� airs Elizabeth Garrett at encore presentations in the Bay Area, New York and Southern Cali-fornia.

4. Global GroupthinkPrior to the 2011 USC Global Conference, the USCAA held its � rst International Alumni Leaders Symposium at the Hong Kong Marriott Hotel on Oct. 13. Attendees included Al Checcio, senior vice president for University Advancement; Scott M. Mory, USCAA CEO (third from left); and Lisa Barkett ’81, USCAA Board of Governors president (seated, third from left). Alumni leaders shared best practices for engaging alumni, with presentations on topics such as maximizing club communications through social media and mentoring recent USC graduates. �

Student leaders, team spirit, special e� ects and a symposium

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Robert Thompson DDS ’45 was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Dentists at the American Dental Association’s 2011 meet-ing in Las Vegas. He has been an American College of Dentists fellow for 50 years.

Francis Cartier ’47, MA ’48, PhD ’51 of Paci� c Grove, Calif., received an award in recognition of outstanding service to Mensa, an international high-IQ society where he served as trustee of its philanthropic arm, the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, and served two terms as the foundation’s president. He writes a column in its quarterly Mensa Research Journal.

Daniel Madick ’47, MS ’52, MBA ’58 is founder of Palm Desert’s Learning in Retirement program, which o� ers noncredit courses to students age 50 and older on economics, current events, history and the arts. He lives in Palm Desert, Calif.

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Stuart O. “Stu” Parsons MA ’50, PhD ’58 of Saratoga, Calif., was awarded the 2011 Arnold M. Small President’s Distinguished Service Award by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Previously, he worked as an engineering manager for Lockheed Martin Corp., and taught part time at the USC Institute for Safety and Systems Management for more than 20 years.

Gerald “Jerry” McMahon ’56 received the University of San Diego School of Law’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He heads Seltzer Caplan McMahon and Vitek’s liti-gation department and serves as chairman of its board.

Louis C. Vaccaro ’57, MS ’61 of Las Vegas and Old Forge, N.Y., completed his eighth book, a memoir titled Around the Corner: From Shoeshine Boy to College President. His academic career spans more than 40 years, including serving as president of six colleges and universities, and leading hundreds of international students to higher education in the United States. He recently com-

class notes


‘Rebel’ Mother of the ’60s ANITA M. CASPARY MS ’43, founder of Immaculate Heart Community, who appeared on the cover of Time in its Feb. 23, 1970, issue, died Oct. 5 in Los Angeles. She was 95.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in English from Immaculate Heart College in 1936, she en-tered the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent. She later earned her master’s and doctorate in English from USC and Stanford University, respectively.

Caspary returned to Immaculate Heart College to chair the English department, and later served as president until 1963, when she was elected as Mother General of the Immaculate Heart Sisters, which she led for the next decade.

In the late 1960s, Caspary and the order were cast as “rebel nuns” for supporting progressive reforms that included abandoning the nun’s habit and suspending a � xed time for prayer.

In 1970, Caspary and more than 300 nuns asked to be released from their vows, marking the largest exodus of nuns from the Roman Catholic Church in American history.

Caspary subsequently founded Immaculate Heart Community, an independent ecumenical organization that continues to provide services in the poorest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. ●

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CLASS NOTES ALSO APPEARS ONLINE. READ NEWS ABOUT EACH GRADUATE AT tfm.usc.edu/classnotes

SEND US YOUR NEWS AT [email protected]››

Eric Brown ’78 and Renee Cottrell-Brown ’78 laugh a lot. Remarkable, some might say, for a couple who live and work together as CEO and executive vice president of sales and marketing, respectively, at the Dallas-based Johnson Products Company Inc. But talking to the Browns, who have run two global ethnic hair-care companies for 25 of their 31 years of marriage while raising two daughters, it’s easy to see the friendship they share. It all began with a chance encounter at USC.

“Renee was the very fi rst person I met coming to Los Angeles,” says Eric, a Portland, Ore., native, recalling his fi rst week of student orientation at USC. He hopped on a USC-sponsored tram that, back then, shuttled students to and from the south side to Westwood. “Coming back, I was the last one on. The only seat available was next to this lovely lady. I’ve always said it was fate. I just looked at her and said, ‘I’m done!’ ”

The ride revealed shared interests in photography and jazz and, although it was clearly not love at fi rst sight in her mind, Renee knew she had found a friend. “We truly had a friendship because, quite frankly, I was dating other people at the time I met him,” she says.

The admission prompts the now familiar laughter and knowing glances between them. Renee, daughter of Los Angeles African-American business pioneer Comer J. Cottrell Jr., who founded the hair-care company Pro-Line Corp., was expected to date budding doctors and lawyers at ’SC – supposedly more suitable mates than Eric, who was from modest means and tooled around town on the RTD bus. She lived in a cushy campus dormitory; he in an aban-doned fraternity house on 32nd and Vermont in a dilapidated room he furnished with crates, a hot plate and a toaster oven.

Even then, Eric and Renee seldom were away from each other, as both were part of the same clique of African-American students. But before leaving USC, Renee began seeing something special in the “shy kid” from Oregon.

“I always told my dad, ‘Eric has great potential,’ ” Renee says. The couple married and went to work at Pro-Line, and Eric became vice president of fi nance in 1986. Eventually, Renee’s father named Eric to succeed him as president in the late 1990s.

In 2009, with investors from California, the couple led a winning buyout of Johnson Products Company, one of the fi rst African-American-owned businesses publicly traded in the United States, from Procter & Gamble Co. Now private, the company reportedly earns more than $25 million in revenues annually. And it is growing its philanthropic initiatives to promote ecological responsibility, empower local schools and raise awareness of domestic violence through its “No Excuse! STOP the ABUSE!” campaign, which also supports women’s shelters and foundations through multiyear grants.

“Most people say, ‘There’s no way I could work with my spouse.’ I think that is driven from the inability to allow the other to have their freedom to win on their own terms. The passion for the business – that’s what drives it 24/7. It’s not necessarily the work itself,” says Eric, who together with Renee indulges in travel, food and, yes, photography, in his spare time.

J A N I C E R H O S H A L L E L I T T L E J O H N


Partners Twice Over

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pleted his second Fulbright assignment in Indonesia.

Chuck Wackerman ’57, MS ’62 was hon-ored at the 96th Founder’s Day Celebration in Seal Beach, Calif., for his decades-long commitment to teaching instrumental music to students in the Seal Beach and Los Alamitos school districts. He also was inducted into the California Jazz Alliance Hall of Fame. He serves as director of the McAuli� e Middle School Jazz Band in Los Alamitos.

Dann Angeloff ’58, MBA ’63, president of � nancial advisory � rm Angelo� Company in Los Angeles, was appointed to the board of directors of Special Olympics Southern California. He is a founding member of the National Association of Corporate Direc-tors and serves as chairman emeritus of its Southern California chapter. He is presi-dent-elect of the Half Century Trojans.

1 9 6 0 s

Kurt Hahn ’61 of Healdsburg, Calif., was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the California State Rural Healthcare Association. He is a board member of the North Sonoma County Healthcare District and a member of the USC 50th Class Reunion Committee.

Edward P. Roski, Jr. ’62, co-founder of the Land of the Free Foundation, an organiza-tion that supports programs for U.S. armed service personnel and their families, helped to organize the foundation’s 2011 Veterans Day Golf Classic at the Paci� c Palms Hotel. He is chairman and CEO of Majestic Re-alty Co., and chairman of the USC Board of Trustees.

Nelson F. Tchakirides ’62 of Seymour, Conn., wrote two short stories, “Survivor,” about the experiences of an elderly seaplane pilot, and “Stalworth Syndrome,” a tale of the sea that intertwines myth, legend and reality.

David M. Todd ’67 received Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity’s 2010-11 Coulter Cup, a fraternity-wide national award that recognizes outstanding service to an un-

alumni profi le ’78

Piece of cake.

When doing what you love seems too diffi cult, it might be heart valve disease. We can get you back on your feet.

To learn more about minimally invasive heart valve repair, call (323) 442-5849 or visit KeckMedicalCenterofUSC.org/heart.

Fight On.


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dergraduate chapter. He lives in Newport Beach, Calif.

Sonnee Weedn ’68, MS ’73 is a practic-ing psychologist in Northern California who released Many Blessings: A Tapestry of Accomplished African-American Women, which highlights the lives of 31 contempo-rary African-American women, including former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders and Arkansas state assemblywoman Joyce Elliot.

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Marko Perko ’70 of Beverly Hills, Calif., co-wrote Khamsin, a thriller about a black ops team led by a world-renowned doctor that sets out on a secret mission to rid the world of a terrorist organization. He also is the author of Did You Know That … ? and a member of � e Authors Guild.

Lee Kanon Alpert ’71, his wife, Arlene, and their family received the Community Hope Award from Haven Hills, a domestic vio-lence shelter in California’s San Fernando Valley that provides support for abused women and their children. � e Alperts have been avid supporters of Haven Hills for more than 26 years.

William “Ed” Cameron MPA ’74 of Pasa-dena, Calif., received a Certi� cate of Recog-nition from the State of California’s Board of Professional Engineers for his 56 years of ser-vice to the profession. He retired as director of Water & Power for the city of Gardena, Calif., and is a life member and fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Kent Taylor ’75, PhD ’81 was promoted to professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UCLA. He is co-investigator on more than 100 research publications and is director of the Genotyping Laboratory for the Medical Genetics Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

R. Barrie Walkley MA ’75 is U.S. consul general in Juba, South Sudan. Previously, he served as ambassador to the Republic of Guinea in 2001-04 and to the Gabonese Republic from 2004 to 2007. He also served as deputy chief of mission in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He and his

Boris Dramov ’66 has designed numerous buildings, parkways and plazas, including Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and the Amer-ica’s Cup Village in Auckland, New Zealand. But now he has designed something few architects in the United States can match: a monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Towering 30 feet high and stretching across four acres, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial is one of the creations of which Dramov is most proud. Out of nearly 1,000 submissions to an international design competition, San Francisco-based ROMA Design Group – where Dramov and Bonnie Fisher, his wife and longtime professional partner, are principals – was chosen for the prestigious commission. Last October, thousands of revelers lined the Tidal Basin to witness the dedication of the fi rst memorial on the Mall honoring an African-American.

“We tried to refl ect what he stood for and who he was,” says Dramov, who pored over King’s speeches and listened to recordings of his sermons for inspiration. “It’s not easy to translate a person’s spirit [into a physical structure], especially someone like Dr. King.”

The granite monument features fountains, inscriptions and two cleaved boulders – the Mountain of Despair and the Stone of Hope, metaphors that the civil rights leader used in his “I Have a Dream” speech. A colossal statue of King partially emerges from one of the boulders. His fi gure is unfi nished, like the civil rights movement itself, Dramov explains.

“We took a layered approach,” he adds, “so the fi nal product wasn’t just one single element but a full environment that would inspire those who came to the site.”

The natural elements incorporated in the memorial’s design are a tribute to King’s use of landscape imagery in his speeches. They’re also signature features of Dramov’s work; he strives to create enjoyable urban environments – a value he learned as an undergraduate at the USC School of Architecture.

“Our professors gave us the broader sense that we shouldn’t just be designing objects in space but designing buildings in ways that create better spaces,” he says. By way of example, Dramov points to his favorite place at USC – the shaded courtyards around Watt and Harris halls.

Incidentally, Dramov and Fisher (pictured fl anking Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute) fi rst met at the adjacent USC Fisher Museum of Art, named for her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Holmes Fisher, who donatedher art collection to found that institution.

After graduating from USC, Dramov earned his master’s degree in architecture from Co-lumbia University in 1970. He landed at Harvard 10 years later as a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies. Dramov worked with a number of architecture heavyweights – including Lawrence Halprin, who designed the National Mall’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and Ian McHarg, a pioneering landscape architect – before taking the helm at ROMA in the 1980s.

Under his and Fisher’s leadership, ROMA has transformed the San Francisco waterfront, created transportation hubs like the Downtown Transit Mall in San Jose, Calif., and designed sports complexes in San Diego, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. Their work also can be found in places as far-fl ung as China, Russia and the Philippines.

L A U R E N W A L S E R

A ‘Monumental’ Achievement


manager, where she is responsible for the agency’s Hispanic accounts. She has more than 12 years of industry experience, having managed accounts in the automotive, bever-age, real estate and travel sectors.

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Debbi Dachinger ’80 of Los Angeles is the author of Dare to Dream: This Life Counts. She also is the host of Dare to Dream, a syndicated, multi-award-winning radio program.

Maureen Sullivan ’80, ’81 is founding partner and principal of Pica+Sullivan Architects Ltd., a Los Angeles-based � rm that spearheaded the design of the Downtown Women’s Center Project Home. � e center was recognized with the 2011 National Preservation Award

from the National Trust for Historic Pres-ervation and as a 2011 Historic Preserva-tion Award recipient from the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Martin Greene MS ’81 of San Diego was elected vice president at Booz Allen Ham-ilton, where he has spent the past 13 years working in the defense sector, primarily with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the � elds of intelligence and cyber opera-tions. Previously, he served as an o� cer in the U.S. Navy.

Paul W. Jones ’81, MPA ’84 received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Osteopathic College of Anesthesiologists for outstanding leader-ship and service to the college. He serves as chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and director of anesthesia services at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, Ohio.

An Evening of Art &

Legacy Thursday March 22, 2012 7pm

THE USC BLACK ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ALONG WITH USC SPECTRUM HOSTS:

wife, Annabelle, were Peace Corps volun-teers in Somalia.

Joseph Cheah ’77 wrote Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation, which addresses the under-theorization of race in the study of American Buddhism. He is an associate professor of religious studies at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.

Geraldine Knatz MS ’77, PhD ’79, execu-tive director of the Port of Los Angeles, was elected the 29th president of the Interna-tional Association of Ports and Harbors.

Claudia Welch ’78 released Sorority Sisters, a story about the bond between four women who meet as pledges of a sorority. She lives in Raleigh, N.C.

Maria de la Parra ’79 joined Walton Isaacson’s Los Angeles o� ce as an account



Martha (Carnahan) O’Malley ’81 of Fel-ton, Calif., retired from IBM after 25 years of service. She directed management of international customer complaints and pro-vided systems engineering to the company’s Fortune 500 customers.

John Kennedy ’83 was appointed senior vice president of government and external a� airs at Los Angeles Urban League, where he oversees the league’s fundraising e� orts and serves as its liaison on government and public policy issues. Previously, he served as senior project manager for community involvement at Southern California Edison.

Daniel S. Levitan MBA ’85 has been a partner at the PNL Companies, a real estate and distressed debt investment � rm in Dallas for the past 12 years.

Michael Conroy ’86 of Santa Barbara, Calif., was elected trustee of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1649. He also is a volunteer coach for his son’s U10 boys soc-cer team, which made it to the � nals of a 32-team league.

Andy Kaplan MBA ’86 was recognized by � e Zimmer Children’s Museum in Los Angeles with its Discovery Award, which honors individuals who are leaders in their � elds and communities. He serves as presi-dent of networks for Sony Pictures Television and chairman of the USC Board of Gover-nors for the Center for the Digital Future.

Lisa Lapin ’86 of Palo Alto, Calif., was elected trustee-at-large to the Council for Advancement and Support of Educa-tion’s board of trustees, as well as chair of its Commission on Communications and Marketing. She is assistant vice president for university communications at Stanford University.

Todd C. Ganos MS ’87 of Carmel, Calif., is a columnist for Forbes magazine online. His column, “In the Money,” can be found at blogs.forbes.com/toddganos

Lance V. McCollough ’87 of Temecula, Ca-lif., is founder and CEO of ProSites Inc., a leader in medical and dental website design and Internet services that made the Inc. 500|5000 list of “America’s Fastest-Growing Companies” for the second consecutive year.

James “Jimmy” Reese ’46 is a busy man. He’ll do some stock market trading, arbitrate a dog bite case and set up meetings for a new education intervention program at USC – all in a day.

At 92, Reese doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.

“You have two choices when you wake up in the morning: Live life or stay in bed,” he says with a chuckle. “I choose to stay busy and enjoy every day. You never know if it’ll be your last.”

Reese, an active member of the State Bar of California for 66 years, currently is helping USC to launch an intervention program for 7- to 10-year-old, low-income boys attending public schools in Los Angeles. He has pledged $100,000 to the eff ort.

“Many of them are in fourth grade and can’t read,” Reese says. “If you can’t read, you can’t write and you can’t communicate. I think we have given up on these boys, and eventually they wind up incarcerated. I think a case may be made that their constitutional rights to a good education are being violated. I want to create a program that will teach these boys once and for all how to read.”

Reese grew up in racially segregated New Orleans. A pivotal moment came when he was about 10 years old, and his father made an ugly, drunken scene at his elementary school.

“My teacher took me in her arms and said, ‘Jimmy, you’re not your father. You can really be someone one day.’ I always remembered that. It carried me through,” Reese says, tearing up.

“I came out to California while I was on active duty in the military during World War II, and I met Crispus Attucks Wright [class of 1936 and 1938], who was one of about a dozen black attorneys in Los Angeles. I talked to him and saw what he did and wanted to do the same thing.

“I said I wanted to go to law school,” Reese says, recalling a visit to USC Gould School of Law dean William G. Hale’s offi ce in 1943, the Friday before classes were scheduled to start. “The dean’s secretary looked at me and gave me a test and told me to show up for classes on Monday. That was that.”

After graduating from USC Gould, Reese opened his own fi rm. In 1952, legendary singer Ray Charles asked him to work on retainer and later persuaded him to join Ray Charles Enterprises as in-house counsel.

Reese worked for Charles through the 1960s, although from 1965 to 1967 he received a spe-cial assignment from former Gov. Edmund G. Brown to head California’s Offi ce of Economic Op-portunity. In this position, Reese increased free legal aid from two programs to more than 100.

“This is one of the proudest accomplishments of my career,” he says. In 1970, Reese became the fi rst African-American Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner.

Five years later, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him as judge to the Municipal Court and, eventu-ally, Superior Court.

At 70, he retired from the bench to work for Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services Inc., where he has heard more than 1,000 cases and developed a reputation as a skilled mediator.

G I L I E N S I L S B Y

Fostering Literacy


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Bar Association. In 2011, he was instru-mental in securing the passage of a bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples in Delaware.

Kevin Scott ’95 of Hancock Park, Calif., was recognized on the “Top 100 Wirehouse Advisers of America 2011” list in the Sep-tember issue of Registered Rep. He is a senior � nancial adviser at Merrill Lynch.

Brian David Goldberg MA ’96, PhD ’03 was re-elected to the Beverly Hills, Calif., board of education in November. He was elected president of the board in December.

J. Scott Goldstein PhD ’97 was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and completed two years of service on the Joint Chiefs of Sta� at the Pentagon. He is senior vice president at QinetiQ North America and general manager of the Na-tional Systems Business Unit. He lives in Great Falls, Va.

Erin Richey ’99 of Long Beach, Calif., earned her National Board Certi� cation for teaching in November. She teaches children with physical and orthopaedic impairments for the Long Beach Uni� ed School District.

2 0 0 0 s

Greig Smith ’00, MPA ’02 was appointed president of the Solar Power Division at Opti� ex Properties and Development LLC, in Montebello, Calif. Previously, he served as a councilman for the city of Los Angeles for 32 years.

Maryellen Kiefer ’01 of Long Beach, Calif., celebrated 10 years as a consultant with ComputerWorks NFP Solutions, a consulting � rm specializing in � nancial software solutions for nonpro� t organiza-tions, governmental agencies and Native American tribal governments.

Robert M. “Bob” Schilling MLA ’87 released Pole Position: Rex Mays, a biography based on his master’s degree thesis about the two-time auto-racing national champion and 12-time Indianapolis 500 driver. He lives in North Hollywood, Calif.

Julie Gidlow ’89, MA ’91 joined � e Capital Group in Los Angeles as a research publications associate. Previously, she spent 17 years as editor at the now-defunct trade publication Radio & Records. She lives in Beverly Hills, Calif.

1 9 9 0 s

Chris Kabel ’91 of Portland, Ore., was elected president of the Oregon Public Health Association. He serves as senior pro-gram o� cer at Northwest Health Founda-tion, which awards $6 million in grants per year in the Paci� c Northwest.

Scott Arkenberg MM ’92 celebrated 10 years of performing the Holiday Pops Chi-cago annual Christmas concert. He oversees the Music Education program at Alphonsus Academy & Center for the Arts and serves as music director at Saint James Church in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Matt Kovacs ’93 of Los Angeles was ap-pointed executive vice president and general manager of public relations � rm BLAZE. Previously, he served as vice president at Formula Public Relations and as marketing director at Lids.

Michael Trust MPA ’93 is an employee ser-vices manager for the South Bay and Long Beach, Calif., regions of HealthCare Partners. Previously, he served as a human resources manager in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

Eldon Asp ’95 is co-author of the ’70s Mexican prison memoir Locked Up in La Mesa, which is in development as a cable television series. He lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Mark V. Purpura ’95, director at Richards, Layton & Finger in Wilmington, Del., was named one of the country’s “Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40” by the LGBT

Karen Linhart ’05 was promoted from me-dia relations manager to public relations and social media director of USA Swimming in Colorado Springs, Colo. She serves as the primary media and public relations contact for the organization and oversees publicity for USA Swimming events and its corporate partners.

Nathan Lewis Collett MFA ’06, a � lm-maker based in Nairobi, Kenya, was honored as Alumni of the Month by the U.S. Department of State for his work as founder of the nonpro� t Hot Sun Foundation in Kibera, East Africa’s largest slum.

Kendra Kozen MA ’06 of Los Angeles is the public relations chair for the USC Trojan Junior Auxiliary, one of the oldest alumnae organizations that awards merit-based scholarships to junior and senior women attending USC.

Gina Gribow ’08, a student at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, was elected president of Law Students for Reproductive Justice. Previously, she worked for congresswoman Jackie Speier in Wash-ington, D.C., for two years.

Jonathan Lin MBA ’09 of Brea, Calif., with business partner Jason Tao ’04, oper-ates Kohburg Inc., a green early childhood furniture company. He worked with the USC Child Care Program on the Univer-sity Park campus to set up the center’s � rst transitional kindergarten classroom.

M A R R I A G E S

Paul D. Adams ’77 and Lori Clark Groby

Douglas Sutton ’79 and Marlowe Kepner

Yvette Sanchez ’83 and Dan Burney

Joshua Divelbiss ’04 and Elizabeth Burdick ’05, MA ’09

Jennifer (Passanisi) Rosko ’05 and Alex Rosko

Florencio M. Carlos ’06 and Ana Marisa Ybarra ’06.

Audrey “Ags” Surmacz-Johnson MPW ’01 of Beverly Hills, Calif., released � e Sausage Maker’s Daughters, a story about a 24-year-old woman who is in jail for the mysterious death of her ex-lover who hap-pened to be her brother-in-law.

Eric Bean ’02 was designated a certi� ed consultant by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, the international profes-sional organization of sport and exercise psychology. He is a performance enhance-ment specialist with the U.S. Army in University Place, Wash.

Eric Kahnert ’02 was promoted to weekend evening news anchor at KUSA-TV, the NBC a� liate in Denver.

Sean A. Mulvihill ’02 of Hollywood, Calif., launched Hollywood Happiness Films, a production company that creates � lm projects encouraging happiness, health and peace. He stars in and directs the adventure comedy Holiday Spectacular.

Alex Grager JD ’04 was named a “2011 Rising Star” in Los Angeles Magazine’s list of the top 2.5 percent of attorneys under 40 years old in each state. He is an attorney at Los Angeles-based Feinberg Mindel Brandt & Klein LLP.

Elise Graham ’04 of Dallas is a freelance unit production manager for independent � lms. She sits on the board of Women in Film Dallas and has worked on more than 13 � lms and several TV series for Fox.

Jeremy Blake Ross ’04 of Hermosa Beach, Calif., created the Obama Clock, an iPhone app that counts down to the next presiden-tial inauguration while displaying statistics, such as the presidential approval rating, average gas price, unemployment rate and the national debt. Previously, he worked at Boeing Satellite Systems

Aaron Burgin ’05 was named senior inves-tigative reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune. He lives in Vista, Calif.


B I R T H S

Daniel S. Levitan MBA ’85 and Bronwyn Levitan, twin daughters, Samantha Grace and Alexandra Rose

Kirsten (Kandler) Dunlap ’91 and Michael Dunlap ’91, a son, Maximus Michael. He joins sister, Devin, and brother, Zack. He is the nephew of Kevin Dunlap ’90

Todd Sharp ’91 and Stacey (Gilbert) Sharp ’92, a son, Spencer Aaron. He joins brothers Jarrett, Ethan, Adam and Ryan

Gwen (Huling) Lopez Ozieblo ’96 and Robert Lopez Ozieblo, a son, Dustin Marcus

Brooke (Beare) Stjerne ’00 and Kyle Stjerne, a son, Gavin.

R E M E M B R A N C E

Russell Benio� , father of USC trustee Marc R. Benioff ’86, died on Jan. 16. In memory of his father, Marc shares a short poem by Russell that Marc and his mother, Joelle Benio� , found after Russell passed away.

A � ing Called LifeLife is something we could create withPassion, or destroy with the pull of aTrigger;It means so much to we, who are living,But to those who are dead, nothing;� ey have lived out of their existence,A thing called life;A thing that humans crave to be forever,But with all their cravings and connivings,Only God wills what is to be;Life is our master and we live for it alone,We know not why or reason, but we knowIt is there;� e breath of air that we breathe,� e blood that � ows in our veins,Or the will to create new life,All these we say are a thing called life.

A L U M N I

Steve MiletichMS ’49, Los Angeles; Oct. 21, at the age of 92

Gordon A. “Bud” Naslund ’49, Sun City, Calif.; Aug. 28,at the age of 86

John F. Nursall’49, MD ’52, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.; Oct. 20,at the age of 90

Kenneth Amestoy Tipton’49, San Diego; Nov. 19,at the age of 86

Norman F. SalisburyDDS ’52, MS ’62, Bakers� eld, Calif.; Jan. 26, 2011,at the age of 93

Robert Vigen ’61, Seal Beach, Calif.; June 18,at the age of 71

Julie O. GardnerMS ’69, PhD ’72, San Diego; July 17,at the age of 75

Thomas Parke MyersMPA ’75, Bella Vista, Ark.; July 19,at the age of 77

Brent S. Baharie ’83, MD ’87, Seattle; Sept. 5,at the age of 52

Dave Yoder’87, Mission Viejo, Calif.; Nov. 11, at the age of 46

Carol Ragan’89, ME ’92, Boise, Idaho; Nov. 9, 1996, at the age of 29

Ani GastiMFA ’96, Orlando, Fla.; July 9,at the age of 46

Sue Lee ’96, Torrance, Calif.; Nov. 10, 2010,at the age of 38

in memoriam

Patrick McDonald Martin ’00, San Gabriel, Calif.; Jan. 3,at the age of 35.

FACULT Y, STAFF & FRIENDS

Don AndersenTustin, Calif.; Nov. 18,at the age of 71

John W. Beierle PhD ’68, Upland, Calif.; Oct. 18, at the age of 74

Sidney W. BensonBrentwood, Calif.; Dec. 30,at the age of 93

Emma Dell FoleyLos Angeles; March 9, 2010, at the age of 86

Harry PachonClaremont, Calif.; Nov. 4,at the age of 66

André PinedaPasadena, Calif.; Sept. 27,at the age of 46

Charles Ray RitchesonWashington, D.C.; Dec. 8, at the age of 86

James RosenauLouisville, Colo.; Sept. 9,at the age of 86

Xavier SuazoMPA ’78, South Pasadena, Calif.; Dec. 20, at the age of 72

Richard “Dick” Thor MSW ’58, Redondo Beach, Calif.; Dec. 18, at the age of 80. ●

READ THE OBITUARIES OF THESE MEMBERS OF THE TROJAN FAMILY AT tfm.usc.edu/memoriam

››


8. This New Zealand-born rocket scientist, a NASA luminary and pioneer in space exploration, is one of the few nonpoliticians to have appeared on the cover of Time twice.

9. � is American scientist built and � ew the world’s � rst liquid propellant rocket in 1926. � ough it only climbed to 12.5 meters, it was the forerunner of the Saturn V moon rocket.

10. Considered by many to be the father of practical astronautics, he was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the space race.

11. The world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, this Soviet-made rocket was responsible for putting into orbit Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. ●

1. According to an old Mandarin civil service exam question, this 13th-century battle was the first recorded use of a rocket in combat.

2. The English word “rocket” derives from this humble Italian word for “spool,” perhaps because of its shape. The first rockets used in European warfare were fired in 1369, in Italy.

3. Named after its British inventor, this rocket could travel up to 9,000 feet. Deployed against the United States in the War of 1812, it was the subject of Francis Scott Key’s immortal lines: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air ... .”

4. The first guided rocket authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead, this surface-to-surface missile traveled up to 75 nautical miles.

5. This German rocket scientist designed the world’s first long-range ballistic missile – used to deadly effect in London and Antwerp, Belgium, during World War II. Powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen, it could travel 200 miles. Later, working for NASA, he built the superbooster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the moon.

6. This 15th-century Italian inventor is credited with designing a surface-running, rocket-powered torpedo that set fire to enemy ships.

7. In a popular 1865 novel, this science fiction author described a moon launch using a giant cannon. Some of the details uncannily anticipated the Apollo missions of a century later: a three-man crew, a launch site in Florida and an accurate description of the feeling of weightlessness.

CONTEST RULES Name the rocket scientists, models and other explosive trivia described in the 11 clues and you, too, could have something to get all fired up about. The five best entries will earn $30 gift certificates from Amazon. If more than five perfect entries are received, winners will be drawn by lot.

SUBMIT ANSWERS OR VIEW PREVIOUS CONTESTS AT tfm.usc.edu/lastword

››


last word

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Greek astronomer Archytas built the first device that used rocket propulsion – an artificial bird propelled by compressed air.

Today’s space rockets are the result of more than 2,000 years of invention, experimentation and discovery. See if you can identify these

seminal moments, machines and makers in the history of rocketry.

Submit your answers by April 1 online, by mail to Last Word c/o USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818, or by email at [email protected].

SCIENCEIT ISROCKET

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