For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago … · very important.” Coumbe-Lilley...

uicnews.uic.edu

March 1

2017Volume 36 / Number 23

uicnews.uic.edu

For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago

Enhancing student-athlete experience

Teachers may be cause of ‘obesity penalty’ on grades

Gymnast qualifies for Maccabiah Games

2 - student voice4 - campus news8 - calendar12 - sports2 5 12

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

Photo: Vibhu S. Rangavasan

SCIENCE LEADERS Initiative prepares urban teachers / pg. 6

2 UIC News | Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Farooq’s coffee adventures: Sip Coffee House

To cut to the chase: Sip is my favorite coffee shop in Chicago.

I’ve never set foot in a cozier, more comfortable and inviting coffee shop. It’s quite literally a coffee house: complete with a ton of couches and sofas tucked away in a corner (if you and your squad want to reenact the couch picture from “Friends”), tables and desks, an upstairs seating area and even a back patio to use when the weather is nice. The outlets are abundant so your laptops and phones can be as charged up as you are while you sip away.

Another one of my favorite parts about Sip, 1223 W. Grand Ave., is the abundant sunlight that radiates through the large windows toward the back of the shop, illuminating the entire space.

A cool quirk about Sip is the

artwork. They rotate the artwork displayed around the shop reg-ularly, and all of the featured artwork comes from Chicago artists. The artwork is an excel-lent complement to the brick walks, popping out to make for a livelier, energetic vibe.

In terms of the coffee, Sip serves Intelligentsia, one of the most well-known coffee brands in Chicago, so you know what you’re in store for in terms of coffee quality. They offer an array of snacks and food — cookies, pastries and more good eats — so if you end up accidentally spending an entire day there, no need to venture far to find something good to eat.

I can probably write five more paragraphs on how wonderful this place is, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice. Maybe it’s because the first time I visit-

Sip Coffee House features a rotating selection of work from Chicago artists. (Photo: Farooq Chaudhry)

By Farooq Chaudhry — [email protected]

Want to contribute a story? E-mail Christy Levy at [email protected]

ed I was with two beloved friends, or maybe it’s just be-cause of the inviting, warm at-mosphere they’ve got going on, but when I think of Sip, I realize there’s no coffee shop I’d rather be. Put Sip on the top of your list next time you’re deciding where to grab your next cup.

Follow along with the coffee adventures on Instagram at @farooqscoffeeadventures and tag your journeys with #farooqscoffeeadventures.

3UIC News | Wednesday, March 1, 2017uicnews.uic.edu

John Coumbe-LilleyEnhancing UIC experience for student-athletesBy Christy Levy — [email protected]

John Coumbe-Lilley knows what it’s like to be a student-athlete.

He’s been involved in organized sports since he was 9 years old and has competed at the pro level — including playing for the Scotland Rugby League Team and semipro soccer in the U.K. He’s coached national rugby teams in the U.S. and U.K., was a mental skills coach for the Women’s Rugby World Cup and a mental skills consultant to the U.S. curling team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, among other coaching positions. “I will bring those experiences to bear working with UIC student-athletes,” he said. “I’ve been through what they’ve been through.”

As UIC’s faculty athletic representa-tive, Coumbe-Lilley provides oversight to ensure the academic integrity of inter-collegiate athletics, increases visibility of Flames athletics programs and enhanc-es the student-athlete experience. He will serve as a member of the Chancel-lor’s Athletic Advisory Committee and liaison to the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. He’s also a clinical associate professor in kinesiology and nutrition in the College of Applied Health Sciences.

First on his list is to learn as much as possible about UIC’s broad athletics portfolio. UIC has 330 student-athletes and 20 sports teams, with two or three coaches leading most teams.

“I want to build relationships all over campus,” he said.

“The level of self-management for student-athletes is extraordinarily high,” says John Coumbe-Lilley, UIC’s faculty athletic representative. (Photo: Vibhu S. Rangavasan)

He also wants to ensure that stu-dent-athletes have access to the re-sources they need to be successful. He plans to work closely with academic support services available to student- athletes in the Port Academic Center — the primary study center for our stu-dent- athletes — in the Physical Education Building.

“I want to maximize the opportunities for the student-athletes to accomplish what they’re going to do in the class-room and in their sport,” he said. “I want to leave no stone unturned in identify-ing the necessary steps to ensure grad-uation and that every student is leaving with the skills necessary for the work-force and for graduate school.”

For student-athletes, the academic rigors of college are even more chal-lenging because of their busy sched-ules, which usually involve starting their days at 5:30 a.m. to train, then going to class and staying out late for games or other practices.

“The level of self-management for student-athletes is extraordinarily high,” Coumbe-Lilley said. “They have to stay focused throughout their long day, they have to have good nutrition and get enough sleep. Their weekends are given to their sport and their studying. The physical and lifestyle demands are extreme, but balancing these demands

and actually enjoying their life at UIC is very important.”

Coumbe-Lilley received his master’s in sports psychology from UIC in 2002 and his Ph.D. in education philosophy in 2007. He received a bachelor of arts with honors in business, sports and rec-reation management from Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K.

He teaches courses at UIC focused on

sports health, injury and recovery.“I regard myself as an accidental

academic,” he said. While serving in his new role, he will

continue to teach a full course load in kinesiology and nutrition, while also engaging in research projects and writ-ing a book.

“I’m very student-oriented,” he said. “I love the classroom interaction.”

By Sharon Parmet — [email protected]

Only one in six Cook County gunshot patients with injuries serious enough for treatment in a designated trauma center are taken to these specialized hospitals, according to a report in JAMA Surgery.

The study also found these “undertri-aged” patients are more likely to live on the south and west sides of the county.

Researchers at the School of Public Health looked at firearm-related injuries in Illinois’ most populous county from 2009 through 2013. Inpatient and out-patient cases were analyzed.

Undertriaged patients were those who met the national criteria for transfer to a specialized trauma center but in-stead were taken to a hospital without one. The criteria are based on severity of the injury and its location, especially be-tween the knees and top of head and from the elbows inward.

During the five years studied, there were nearly 10,000 firearm-related inju-ries in the county, of which 29 percent were initially treated at non-designated trauma centers, or community hospitals. Of the nearly 5,000 injuries serious

Gunshot victims in Cook County ‘undertriaged’ to community hospitals

enough for treatment at a trauma center, 18 percent were first treated at a non- trauma center, and only 10 percent were transferred to any of the county’s 19 designated trauma centers.

The researchers found that patients treated in non-trauma centers were less likely to die than the patients treated in

hospitals with trauma centers.“This is likely because patients treated

in these community-based hospitals have less serious injuries,” said Lee Friedman, associate professor of envi-ronmental and occupational health sci-ences, and corresponding author on the paper.

Friedman said that one of the reasons patients whose injuries meet criteria for treatment at trauma centers aren’t treat-ed at these facilities is because many are transported to the nearest hospital by friends or family.

“Friends and family don’t follow guidelines for who should get trans-ferred to a Level 1 or Level 2 trauma center, only emergency responders are expected to follow these criteria for where to bring an injured patient,” Fried-man said. “Additionally, EMS personnel sometimes bypass Level 1 or Level 2 trauma centers because those hospitals have signaled that their emergency de-partments are currently full. It happens all the time,” Friedman said.

Friedman and his colleagues also

found that a higher proportion of pa-tients on the south and west sides of Cook County who met criteria for treat-ment in a designated trauma center were brought to community hospitals.

South of 99th Street, Friedman said, “there are no trauma centers, and many of the cities have very limited EMS re-sources. So the fact that many of these residents aren’t treated at a trauma cen-ter is not surprising.”

“On the west side of the county, which includes the west side of Chicago, the relatively high number of gunshot pa-tients brought to non-trauma centers can be attributed to the sheer volume of gunshot injuries experienced in that area,” he said.

Friedman said the data suggest that better communication between hospi-tals with and without specialized trauma teams is needed, so that patients can be swiftly transferred to a higher level of care if necessary.

Allison Lale and Allison Krajewski of the UIC School of Public Health are co-authors on the paper.

Lee Friedman (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin)


CAMPUS NEWS

Send campus news information to Christy Levy at [email protected]

HOW MOODY’S WORKSGovernment bonds are debt securi-

ties that help finance long-term invest-ments, including infrastructure projects.

On March 16, a team from Moody’s Investors Service will share insight into government bonds in a Spring 2017 Seminar Series presentation hosted by the Urban Transportation Center. Ana-lysts David Levett and Coley Anderson will discuss why local governments issue bonds, explain different types of bonds, present criteria used by Moody’s to as-sess credit and more.

The presentation will begin at noon in the Great Cities Institute conference room at CUPPA Hall.

RETIRING/LEAVING THE UNIVERSITY?UIC employees may defer vacation

and/or compensable sick leave payouts to their University 403(b) and/or State 457 retirement accounts when separat-ing or retiring from the university.

To defer your payout, contact Universi-ty Payroll and Benefits at least 60 days

prior to your last day of employment. Contact UPB at [email protected] or 312-996-6471, or visit the office at 809 S. Marshfield Ave., first floor.

For more information, visit NESSIE, nessie.uihr.uillinois.edu

WORD BOOK CLUBThe spring meeting of the WoRD

Book Club, sponsored by the Chancel-lor’s Committee on the Status of Women, is set for April 4.

The featured novel is We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The event takes place from noon– 1 p.m. in 1-470 Daley Library.

RESEARCH WEBINARSThe Survey Research Laboratory is

offering free webinars on survey re-search methodology this month.

Topics include ethics and survey sample weighing. All webinars begin at noon.

For more information, visit srl.uic.edu

FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEENominations are due March 17 for

seven seats on the campus Faculty Advi-sory Committee, which considers faculty grievances and serves as a communica-tion channel between academic staff and administration. The committee is elected by tenured and tenure-track fac-ulty through ballot election.

The committee also conducts hear-ings and makes recommendations on faculty cases involving severe sanctions short of dismissal.

For information, visit bit.ly/2leVpdn or call 312-996-2926.

PROVOST OFFICE HOURSSusan Poser, provost and vice chan-

cellor for academic affairs, is holding monthly office hours this semester.

Students, faculty and staff are wel-come to visit and discuss whatever is on their mind during the 90-minute ses-sions.

The next session will take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon March 29.

To view other dates, visit provost.uic.edu/provost-office-hours

UIC IMPACT DAYStudents can showcase their scholarly

pursuits by presenting their experiences April 3.

UIC Impact Day is dedicated to giving students the floor to exhibit posters or conduct creative presentations about their internships, leadership, career de-velopment or involvement.

The event, cosponsored with the Stu-dent Research Forum, will take place at the UIC Forum from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For information, visit uicimpact.uic.edu

VIDEOS HIGHLIGHT ETHICSThe University Ethics and Compliance

Office has begun releasing five-minute videos discussing important topics relat-ed to university business, such as travel, gift acceptance, and other training and compliance-related matters.

View the most recent video on gift ac-ceptance at bit.ly/2lmyInq

By Brian Flood — [email protected]

Events to examine the future of African American studies

The department of African American studies will present two events March 6 as part of the Grace Holt Memorial Cele-bration, an annual speaker series com-memorating the professor who founded UIC’s black studies program — which later became the department of African American studies.

Events include a Legacy Luncheon with Greg Gaither, founder of the Illinois African American Juvenile Justice Center, and Nakisha Hobbs, principal and co-founder of Village Leadership Acade-my. The 2017 Grace Holt student awards will be presented at this event, which starts at noon in the UIC African Ameri-can Cultural Center, second floor, Add-ams Hall.

“The Future of African American Stud-

ies,” a roundtable discussion of African American scholars, begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Residents’ Dining Hall, Jane Add-ams Hull-House Museum. Speakers in-clude Christopher Cameron, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and president and founder of the African American In-

tellectual Historical Society, and Aisha Finch, associate professor of gender studies and African American studies at UCLA. Roderick Ferguson, UIC professor of African American and gender and women’s studies, will serve as modera-tor. Audience discussion and reception will follow.

Admission is free and open to the public.

For information, call (312) 996-2950.

Panelists at a roundtable discussion March 6 include Christopher Cameron (from left) and Aisha Finch. Roderick Ferguson (right) moderates the discussion.


The School of Public Health and the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts on Thursday will screen “Raising Bertie,” directed by film arts alumna Margaret Byrne (BFA ’01). Byrne will answer questions after the screening.

The screening begins at 6 p.m. in the School of Public Health.

“Raising Bertie” is set in Bertie County, a poor, rural African- American-led community in eastern North Carolina. The film follows Reg-inald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell as they face a precarious coming

Documentary follows black students coming of age in rural America

of age. The three youths attend high

school at The Hive, an alternative school for at-risk boys. But when bud-get shortfalls lead the local school board to close The Hive — Junior, Bud, and Dada must return to Bertie High School and a system that once failed them.

This raw and starkly poetic docu-mentary weaves the young men’s sto-ries together as they navigate school, unemployment, violence, first love, fatherhood and estrangement from family members and mentors — all while trying to define their identities.

Reginald “Junior” Askew in Raising Bertie (Photo: Kartemquin Films/Beti Films)


By Brian Flood — [email protected]

While obesity is often thought of as a health problem, a new study by a UIC sociologist suggests that discrimination by body weight may be the more im-portant factor for obese white female students’ lower success in school.

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Sociology of Educa-tion, indicates that the relationship be-tween obesity and academic performance may result largely from educators interacting differently with girls of various sizes, rather than from obesity’s effects on girls’ physical health.

Even when they scored the same on ability tests, obese white girls received worse high school grades than their normal-weight peers. Teachers rated them as less academically able as early as elementary school, according to the report’s author, Amelia Branigan, visiting assistant professor of sociology.

Branigan analyzed elementary school students around age 9 in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and high school students approx-

Teachers may be cause of ‘obesity penalty’ on girls’ grades, study finds

imately 18 years old in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 co-hort. The elementary school students were evaluated by teacher-assessed academic performance, while GPA was the measured outcome used to assess the high school students.

The study found obesity to be associ-ated with a penalty on teacher evalua-tions of academic performance among white girls in English, but not in math. There was no penalty observed for white girls who were overweight but not obese.

“Obese white girls are only penalized in ‘female’ course subjects like English,” Branigan said. “This suggests that obe-sity may be most harshly judged in set-tings where girls are expected to be more stereotypically feminine.”

Consistent with prior work on obesity and wages and other academic out-comes, no similar association was found in either math or English for white boys, or for black students of ei-ther sex. This may reflect findings that obesity is more stigmatized among

white women than among white men or individuals of other races, according to Branigan, who said social interventions for teachers may lessen the performance gap.

“As we continue to com-bat childhood obesity, ef-forts to also counter negative social perceptions of obese individuals would have advantages in terms of both educational outcomes and social equity more gen-erally,” she said.

The study, “(How) Does Obesity Harm Academic Performance? Stratification at the Intersection of Race, Sex, and Body Size in Ele-mentary and High School,” was supported by the Eu-nice Kennedy Shriver Na-tional Institute of Child Health and Human Develop-ment.

Amelia Branigan, visiting assistant professor of sociology.

By Carlos Sadovi — [email protected]

UIC received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Human-ities to sponsor two students of color as they earn master’s degrees in museum and exhibition studies.

The award is part of NEH’s inaugural Humanities Access grants, which provide cultural programming to underserved groups and were awarded to 34 organi-zations, including UIC’s museum and exhibition studies program (MUSE). The grant calls for UIC to match $50,000 of NEH funds for stipends and tuition waiv-ers worth a total of $100,000.

Therese Quinn, director of MUSE, cited recent statistics that show non- Hispanic whites make up the over-whelming number of curators, conserva-tors and administrators helping museums pursue their intellectual and educational missions.

“The content-shaping positions are predominantly filled by white folks,” she said. And museums are also seeing fewer minorities among visitors.

“No matter what angle you look at it from, there is a real paucity of people of color.”

Currently, 30 students are in the MUSE program, which accepts about 15 students a year. Students are required to

Grant to increase minority representation in museum studies

have internships, and the program partners with campus museums, gal-leries and cultural centers to provide opportunities to research and write reviews and offer tours.

“We work very hard every year to find sources of funding for our stu-dents and applicants of the program who won’t be able to attend graduate school if they don’t find support,” Quinn said. “This [grant] makes it easier for us to get the students who we really hope will be in the program.”

Therese Quinn



As the students walked into the classroom of Tiffany Chil-dress Price and Deysi Emeterio at North Lawndale College Prep High School, they were quickly told to get into groups and begin making a list of metals found in the room.

Students in the chemistry class began jotting down items — everything from paper clips to Bunsen burners and iPhones to jewelry — and it quickly be-came clear to them that metals of various forms were present in every facet of their lives.

The assignment was intend-ed to show how precious met-als are present in students’ lives and how they become sought after for their unique properties and beauty. To reinforce their lesson, students viewed a doc-umentary detailing how “bling,” or precious metals, helped spur civil wars in Africa.

“I didn’t know in Africa there are wars over bling and they trade bling for weapons and a lot of stuff,” said 16-year-old Joshua Sanders. “We talk about how it is in the world and what’s going on with a lot of youths dying.”

Childress Price and Emete-rio said they strive to make sci-ence relevant to their students as part of their role in the UIC program, Science Education for Excellence and Equity in Chica-go (SEEEC). The initiative aims to integrate standards-based

Initiative prepares urban science teachers

and social-justice oriented teaching and learning, and in-crease the number of science teachers and teacher leaders of color. In its second year, the program is funded by a six-year, $3 million grant through the National Science Foundation’s Noyce Scholars program.

The program pairs experi-enced teachers like Childress Price, who as a Master Teach-ing Fellow aims to complete her doctorate in mathematics and science education at UIC, with student teachers like Eme-

terio, who is working on her master’s of education in sci-ence education at UIC. Emete-rio is a native of Mexico who arrived in this country at 3 years old and grew up in Little Village.

The funding provides sti-pends and tuition waivers for 30 Teaching Fellows like Eme-terio to help them earn licen-sure to become high school science teachers and support them in their first four years of teaching. Chicago Public Schools is also involved in the project. Chandra James, direc-tor of science for CPS, is a

co-principal investigator, provid-ing leadership opportunities to master teaching fellows.

According to Maria Varelas, professor of science education and principal investigator of the project, the aim is to develop science teachers and teacher leaders who provide strong role models for the many students of color in urban schools. The program is designed to give students of color a strong back-ground in science that they can use in their communities, even if they choose not to go into

science fields.“Whatever

they choose to be in their lives, we think sci-ence and un-derstanding science from a

very community-based ap-proach will be extremely helpful for them,” Varelas said.

The project also calls for partnerships with not-for-profit community-based organiza-tions, such as the Little Village Environmental Justice Organi-zation, the Chicago Freedom School, Friends of the Chicago River, Instituto del Progreso Latino, Project SYNCERE, Proj-ect NIA and the Chicago Botan-ic Garden.

Childress Price, who is African-American and in her tenth year teaching, said she only had one instructor in her

science classes who was African-American, but he was a male. Childress Price, who attended Ohio State University as an undergrad and received her master’s at Wheaton Col-lege, said there is a need for women of color to be science teachers.

“I never had a woman who looked like me in the sciences,” Childress Price said. “I always felt like the other, and there were times I felt I didn’t belong.”

Samone Lofton, 17, said she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up and looks to Childress Price as a role model. Often students will question Childress Price about her upbringing and want to know more about her life.

“It shows me that I can still have a dream, even being in the type of neighborhood that I’m in,” Lofton said. “It shows me that I can still make it be-cause I can tell that she didn’t give up.”

In addition to North Lawn-dale High School, the master’s program places the teachers in about 30 schools in predomi-nantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods on the South and West sides, said Danny Morales-Doyle, assistant professor of science education and SEEEC project director.

At Back of the Yards College Prep High School, Diana Bonilla was teaching her honors biolo-gy class as students speaking

English and Spanish filled the room. A teaching fellow, Bonilla received her master’s degree in science education from UIC in May. She is beginning her four-year commitment to Chicago Public Schools.

Bonilla’s class had recently finished a bio-chemistry unit where they focused on food access and nutrition around the world. Bonilla tried to make it relevant to the students by fo-cusing on food deserts in Chi-cago.

“A lot of them were able to see that in lower income neigh-borhoods, there’s a lot of fast food restaurants as opposed to there being a Whole Foods,” Bo-nilla said.

As a first-generation Mexican-American, Bonilla hopes to serve as a role model to her students. Bonilla grew up in Northlake and earned her undergraduate degree at Illinois Wesleyan University, where she did not have science teachers of color.

She gives Omar Espinosa hope that he can be the first person to attend college in his family. He hopes to study com-puter science.

“At first I thought, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be good enough’ but when I talked to Ms. Bonilla she told me how she always wanted to be a biology teacher,” said Espinosa, 16. “I kept looking at her and I was like, if she can do it I can probably do it, too.”

The College of Education program places teachers in 30 schools in predominately African-American and Latino neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Chicago. (Photo: Vibhu S. Rangavasan)

“I never had a woman who looked like me in the sciences,” Tiffany Childress Price, teacher at North Lawndale College Prep, says of her own past teachers. (Photo: Vibhu S. Rangavasan)

“WE THINK SCIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE FROM A VERY COMMUNITY- BASED APPROACH WILL BE EXTREMELY HELPFUL”


“ENDING THE POLICING CRISIS”Cedric Johnson, associate professor of African Ameri-can studies and political science.

Part of the Spring Political Science Speaker Series.

Noon–1 p.m. 1115 Behavioral Sciences Building

TLC TEACHING CONVERSATION Sponsored by the UIC Center for the Advancement of Teaching-Learning Communities.

Noon–1 p.m. 1-470 Daley Library

CALENDAR MORE CAMPUS EVENTS AT events.uic.edu

Send information about campus events to Christy Levy at [email protected]

“RAISING BERTIE”Screening of documentary directed by College of Architecture, Design and the Arts alumna Margaret Byrne (BFA ’01).

Set in Bertie County, a poor, rural Africa- American-led community in North Carolina, the film follows three youths who return to high school after their alternative school closes due to budget cuts. Byrne will an-swer questions after the screening.

6 p.m. / School of Public Health

MARCH 2SPECIAL EVENT

Photo: Kartemquin Films/Beti Films

MARCH 3WORKSHOP

MARCH 1LECTURE


ART IN URGENT TIMESConversation with Rick Lowe, a Houston-based artist and organizer whose unconven-tional approach to community revitalization transformed a neighborhood in Houston into a public art project. So-cial Justice Initiative presents the last public event in the Geographies of Justice Semi-nar series.

6 p.m. 302 Student Center East

MARCH 6WORKSHOP

BRINGING THE COMMUNI-TY INTO THE CLASSROOM AND THE CLASSROOM INTO THE COMMUNITY: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND HOSPITALITYSponsored by the UIC Center for the Advancement of Teaching- Learning Communities.

3–4:30 p.m. / 1-470 Daley Library

EMBODIMENT ABSTRACTED: THE INFLUENCE OF YVONNE RAINERGallery 400 exhibit gathers together recent works by artists who take up Yvonne Rainer’s experimental ap-proach to the body as a material in the 1960s and explore its political impli-cations with fresh eyes.

Tues.–Fri.: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat.: Noon–6 p.m. and by appointment

Gallery 400 Art and Design Hall

THROUGH MARCH 4EXHIBIT

MARCH 13LECTURE

THE ARC OF JUSTICE: REPARATIONS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANSWilliam Darity Jr., professor of public policy, Duke University. Annual Phillip J. Bowman Lecture, presented by the Institute for Re-search on Race and Public Policy.

3–5 p.m. / Student Center East

RSVP, [email protected]

MARCH 16LECTURE

HOW A MOODY’S ANALYST RATES MUNICIPAL BONDSAnalysts David Levett and Coley Anderson will discuss why local govern-ments issue bonds, explain different types of bonds, present criteria used by Moody’s to assess credit and more. Spring 2017 Seminar Series pre-sentation hosted by the Urban Transportation Center.

Noon, Great Cities Institute Fourth floor, CUPPA Hall

MARCH 16WORKSHOP

GRANT WRITING FOR BEGINNERSInteractive on-campus work-shop, UIC instructors will guide participants through a com-prehensive overview of the grant-writing process. Conti-nental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Space is limited.

8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. 605 Student Center East bit.ly/2kPZpml

PROVOST’S OFFICE HOURS Share your thoughts with Susan Poser, provost and vice chancellor for aca-demic affairs.

10:30 a.m.–Noon 2832 University Hall

provost.uic.edu



Women do better on verbal memory tests commonly used to diagnose Alz-heimer’s disease compared to men with the same amount of neurotoxic protein in their brains, a new study has found.

It is well known that females have an advantage on verbal memory tests, in which subjects are challenged to recite back a list of heard words. Because women are better at the tests, which are often used to help detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, the severity of their disease may be missed, says Pauline Maki, professor of psychiatry and psy-

chology and an author on the study, pub-lished in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

“Women have better verbal memory than men, in general,” said Maki, who is also senior director of research at UIC’s Center for Research on Women and Gender.

“One key factor is their higher levels of estrogen,” she said. “We see this in women whose ovaries are removed – their verbal memory worsens – and when they take estrogen, their memory bounc-es back. So the advantage women have over men on this test is real, and the issue

is that these tests might not detect the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease in women. This is a big problem for women, because the earlier that mild cognitive impairment is diagnosed, the earlier treatment can begin to slow its progres-sion.”

Maki and her colleagues wanted to see if the female advantage on the tests persists at different levels of Alzheimer’s pathology, as measured by amyloid-beta deposition in the brain. Buildup of the toxic protein is thought to be the main driver of the cognitive impairment in Alz-heimer’s.

The researchers looked at data from participants in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, whose brain cortex levels of amyloid beta were mea-sured using positron emission tomogra-phy.

They then looked at the verbal memo-ry test scores of these participants, for both immediate recall and delayed recall. They found that among men and women with low to moderate levels of amyloid beta, women had significantly better de-layed recall scores. But the difference between the sexes narrowed for those whose amyloid-beta level was high.

“Scientists and clinicians have just re-cently begun paying attention to the ways that Alzheimer’s disease is differ-ent in women than it is in men,” Maki

said. “About two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s disease are women, but men are more likely to present with mild cog-nitive impairment, the precursor to Alz-heimer’s disease. So there is this paradox.”

Women’s ability to perform well on the tests despite considerable evidence of disease “can also be a sign of resilience in the face of the disease,” Maki said.

“Their brains could be compensating or adapting,” she said, which may also explain the paradox.

“Once amyloid-beta levels get high enough, we see that women’s memory symptoms seem to worsen more rapidly than men’s. The initial diagnosis for many

women may be full-on dementia, where-as the initial diagnosis for men may be the earlier, milder forms of cognitive im-pairment,” she said.

Maki thinks there may be a solution to that problem.

“The answer may be to lower the scor-ing threshold for these tests for women, so that they can pick up more women with early memory issues,” she said.

Co-authors on the study are Erin Sun-derman and Dr. Richard Lipton of the University of California, San Diego; Anat Biegon of the State University of New York; Susan Landau of the Albert Ein-stein College of Medicine; and Leah Rubin of UIC.

“WOMEN HAVE BETTER VERBAL MEMORY THAN MEN, IN GENERAL”


Estrogen plays a role in verbal memory, says Pauline Maki, professor of psychiatry and psychology. (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin)


Nearly 60 students from the School of Architecture took part in a competition to help revitalize the South Chicago neigh-borhood by planning recreational and open spaces on land under the Chicago Skyway.

The South Chicago Underline Project is a competition designed to tap into ideas generated by 56 graduate and un-dergraduate architecture students.

The winning team included graduate students Kaitlyn Woodward and Nick Mattia and undergraduate student An-drew Lang. Their winning proposal, DOT, creates a unique, recognizable public space that attracts and benefits multiple generations through the use of art, a gar-den-market, and multifunctional as well as play spaces. The pedestrian-friendly area aims to beautify and improve the current location.

The UIC School of Architecture, in conjunction with the UIC Great Cities Institute and the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, were partners in the project.

The effort is part of a larger revitaliza-tion initiative that began when the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce ap-proached the Great Cities Institute for

assistance in improving the area, said Meghan Funk, competition coordinator.

The Underline Project is designed to envision how a neighborhood can revital-ize itself by reclaiming industrial and urban infrastructure. Students came up with proposals to transform the unused site along Commercial Avenue under the Skyway into a visible and active public space. The space is the southern anchor

of the South Chicago Commercial Dis-trict, which is the focus of the revitaliza-tion plan.

As part of the competition, the stu-dents, who were divided into 13 teams, paid a visit to the site and the neighbor-hood. There, representatives of the Great Cities Institute and the chamber guided them around the neighborhood and gave them feedback.

The competition had three main objec-tives, said Funk, who is also an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Archi-tecture: “to provide the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce with visions and designs with which to begin implement-ing aspects of their Commercial Avenue Revitalization Plan; to provide School of Architecture students with the experi-ence of projecting architectural agendas onto real projects with tangible clients; and to promote collaboration and greater community between the years of archi-tecture students.”

She said the project offered students an interesting perspective in which to test creative approaches to utilize public space, but also tries to hone a “real- world” perspective to plans.

“My hope is that students learn to em-brace the culture-building potential of architecture, and to begin to see that ar-chitectural design at the urban scale needs to be balanced between an opti-mistic vision of potential futures and a practical approach to current factors,” Funk said.

The projects are display through March 15 at the U.S. Bank, South Chicago branch, 9200 S. Commercial Ave.

Architecture competition aims to revitalize South Chicago

Students tour South Chicago as part of a competition to envision how a neighborhood can revitalize itself. (Photo: Andrew Mateja)

Women perform better than men on memory tests for Alzheimer’s


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By Jackie Carey — [email protected]

Patients are being recruited for a clini-cal trial of a new immunotherapy combi-nation for treating metastatic non-small cell lung cancer at UIC.

Lung cancer affects approximately 415,000 Americans and is the leading cancer killer in both men and women, ac-counting for about 27 percent of all can-cer deaths.

“Lung cancer is a major killer, largely affecting minorities and underserved populations, and the pressing need for clinical research and screening programs in our communities is a top priority for our center,” said Robert Winn, associate vice chancellor of community-based practice and director of the Cancer Center.

Lawrence Feldman, associate profes-sor of clinical medicine in the College of Medicine, said that while immunotherapy treatment, which stimulates the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, is a promising area of research and treatment for lung cancer, it has limitations.

“Over the last several years, immuno-

oncology has been very successful in the treatment of both lung and head and neck cancer,” said Feldman, who is the study’s principal investigator. “While it’s an amazing advance in the treatment of these cancers, immunotherapy does not yet benefit all patients. We need to find additional compounds or ways to improve the benefit of these drugs for more pa-tients.”

Feldman said as many as two-thirds of lung cancer patients do not benefit sub-stantially from current immunotherapy treatments.

The trial will test the dosing and effica-cy of a phase II drug called Imprime PGG used in combination with a commonly administered immunotherapy drug, pem-brolizumab. Pembrolizumab helps stop cancers from disabling the immune sys-tem’s production of cancer-killing T-cells. Imprime PGG helps T-cells recognize and kill tumor cells.

As many as 36 patients will be enrolled in the trial, which will have two parts. The

first will determine the maximum safe dose of Imprime PGG when used in com-bination with pembrolizumab. The sec-ond will estimate progression-free survival — the length of time the drugs

control the cancer before it worsens.“This new trial brings together a prom-

ising combination approach that we be-lieve may increase patient responses to pembrolizumab and ultimately improve the lives of patients with non-small cell lung cancer,” Feldman said.

Patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose cancer worsened during or after treatment with platinum- based chemotherapy, may be eligible to participate in the study. More informa-tion about this clinical trial, including full eligibility criteria, is online at bit.ly/2mlDNNs

UIC is the first of five sites in the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium to en-roll patients. Additional members of the consortium expect to open this trial to patients in the coming months.

This trial is funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., developer of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), and by Biothera Phar-maceuticals, Inc., developer of Imprime PGG.

Clinical trial for lung cancer therapy to begin

Lawrence Feldman

Campus Housing recognized more than 300 undergraduate residents who received “highest honors” for fall se-mester (3.9 GPA or above) at a ceremo-ny Feb. 7.

In attendance were staff from the African American Academic Network, Faculty in Residence in Campus Hous-ing, and J. Rex Tolliver, interim vice chancellor for student affairs.

“We’re proud of the number of stu-dents in housing who achieve amazing things,” said Nick Ardinger, assistant director for residential education. “This is a simple way to recognize the hard work our students do every day, and thank them for their efforts. “We want to give them a chance to socialize, net-work, and see themselves as part of a community of exceptional scholars.”

Housing celebrates residents for good grades

“WE’RE PROUD OF THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN HOUSING WHO ACHIEVE AMAZING THINGS”

Campus Housing hosts other events to promote academic integration, in-cluding study groups and free tutoring in the residence halls.

On March 28, residents can recog-nize faculty members who have made a difference in their lives at the “Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence (HOPE)” event.

“Events like this are just part of the way we promote the educational advan-tage of living on campus,” Ardinger said.

Nominate a faculty member by March 8 at go.uic.edu/HopeNominations

J. Rex Tolliver, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, addresses honors students in Campus Housing Feb. 7. (Photo: Student Affairs Marketing)


Eleni KatsarouUIC education professor awarded Fulbright to study in Greece


A UIC education professor has received a Fulbright award to study new teaching prepara-tion programs in Greece, where she will also study how teach-ers in that country are helping refugee students fleeing war-torn areas in the Middle East.

Eleni Katsarou is clinical professor emerita of curriculum and instruction in the UIC Col-lege of Education, from which she also earned her doctorate.

Katsarou, who was given the award from the J. William Ful-bright Foreign Scholarship Board, was born in Greece and has personal and professional connections there. Fulbright scholarships aim to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those in other countries. It is the flagship international ed-ucational exchange program

sponsored by the U.S. govern-ment.

In her application, Katsarou said she hoped to extend her expertise educating elementary school teacher candidates in urban public schools in the U.S. to Greece, where those teach-ers face similar struggles.

“I am specifically aiming to focus in the teacher prepara-tion program, and bring to the fore particular issues of teacher quality and new professional-ism, 21st century skills, abilities and dispositions, and new ways of thinking about biligual/ multilingual and multicultural education, primarily as begin-ning teachers enter the public school domain,” Katsarou said.

Katsarou is also interested in studying how education policy is formed in Greece and how innovation is supported in that

country. She hopes to use what she learns there to inform her work preparing new teachers in the U.S.

Katsarou said a second aim of her work in Greece is to study the critical role that sociopoliti-cal contexts play in public schools.

“The great movement of po-litical and economic refugees of the last decade, and the last two years especially, have illus-trated amply that there is a great need in understanding all matters surrounding the aca-demic, ethical, and emotional education of children and youth as they enter schooling,” she said.

Katsarou’s research inter-ests include teacher education in urban contexts, critical per-spectives in teacher education, and social justice issues in

schools and local communities. Her work centers on collabora-tions with teachers and leaders of schools as they jointly at-

tempt to understand what constitutes caring and ethical teaching.

Katsarou, who retired from UIC in June, will spend six months on the project begin-ning in January 2018. She aims to work with colleagues at the University of Patras’ depart-ment of educational sciences and early childhood education.

UIC College of Education Dean Alfred Tatum said Katsa-rou is an “integral member” of the college.

“Dr. Eleni Katsarou was a stalwart of the urban elemen-tary education teacher prepa-ration program for many years, laying a foundation that re-mains central to the College of Education,” Tatum said. “I am excited that she was awarded this prestigious Fulbright, but I am more excited for those who will benefit from her expertise and unwavering advocacy.”

Eleni Katsarou, clinical profes-sor emerita in the College of Education.

PEOPLE


SPORTS

MORE SPORTS AT uicflames.com

Gymnast qualifies for Maccabiah GamesBy Tim Goldrick — [email protected]

For the first time, a UIC gymnast will repre-sent Team USA in international competition.

Keith Kohn, a senior in communication and management, is one of six American gym-nasts who qualified for the 2017 Maccabiah Games in Israel. The Games, which cycle every four years, draw about 10,000 Jewish athletes from more than 80 countries. The 20th edition of the games runs from July 4–18.

The Mundelein native is one of two Illinois gymnasts who will be representing Team USA.

“It’s a great honor because you’re in the presence of several other people that have gone through a similar struggle to you, so there’s an instant connection there,” said Kohn, who will compete in all-around and team com-petition in Israel.

“It’s hugely exciting,” UIC gymnastics head coach Charley Nelson added. “This is a step above and beyond not just for Keith, not just for UIC gymnastics, but for UIC athletics.”

Kohn still has one more hurdle to clear be-fore heading out on his unique journey, though. Each qualifying athlete needs to raise a minimum of $7,000 to pay for food, travel and support for the games. So far, Kohn has raised more than $3,300.

“The only feeling I have is gratitude,” Kohn said, “and really I want to go to Israel and win this competition for America, but also for ev-eryone that’s helped get me there because to me at this point, it’s about repaying that and showing them that their investment was worth it.”

The investment that UIC made in Kohn has certainly paid off, according to coaches and

teammates. The four-year gymnast has im-pressed many in the program by taking on a leadership role, which has been vital to a team comprised of nine freshmen this season.

“(As team captain), he has taken and run with that role,” Nelson said. “It’s leading by example in the gym. It’s pulling a guy aside to give him a little tough love or pull him under his wing when it’s necessary. Keith reads that really well and communicates with the guys really well. That’s making a huge difference.”

“Keith is always conscientious of the mentali-ty of the team,” added teammate C.J. Patton. “[He’s] never been afraid to talk to you one-on-one to make sure you’re in the right place and you aren’t being too hard on yourself when things aren’t going your way.”

The feeling is reciprocated. Kohn is thankful for what his UIC teammates and coaches have given him during his college experience.

“If it weren’t for all these very fortunate turns for me, running into all these wonderful people that make me want to be alive and do gymnas-tics like this, then there’s no chance I would have made it this far,” he said. “Let alone qualify for this.”

Nelson, who has coached international com-petitions before, said Kohn shouldn’t get too caught up in the moment at the Maccabiah Games.

“At the end of the day, you’re doing the same thing that you’ve been doing day in and day out,” Nelson said. “And you just have to keep that mentality of the way I train is the way I compete.”

Visit Kohn’s fundraising page at bit.ly/2k1RVgU

By Dan Yopchick — [email protected]

Mat Blair, who was head coach at Val-paraiso for five seasons, will serve as the interim head women’s golf coach for the Flames.

“I’m thrilled that we were able to get Mat to step in as our interim coach, and it’s especially gratifying to welcome a coach of his caliber on such short no-tice,” said Jim Schmidt, UIC athletic direc-tor. “The combination of his knowledge of Horizon League and NCAA golf, along with the respect he earned over the years from his players and other golfers in the league, makes me very confident that he will give the Flames a great chance to be very competitive this spring.”

In addition to his responsibilities at Valpo, Blair has been the teaching pro-fessional at Briar Leaf Golf Club in LaPorte, Indiana, for the past five years.

Women’s golf welcomes new head coachHe has instruct-ed and men-tored many All-State and All-Conference student- athletes, includ-ing the 2001 and 2006 Indi-ana High School Athletic Association

state champions.“I appreciate the opportunity UIC is

giving me,” Blair said. Blair replaces Carol Rhoades, the first

head coach in UIC program history, who recently left UIC to focus more time on her efforts with the First Tee program and youth golf.

“I’d like to thank Carol Rhoades for

doing such a good job in getting this program off the ground. I really look for-ward to working with the Flames,” Blair said.

Blair attended Rogers High School in Michigan City, Indiana, where he was an All-State Second Team selection in 1990. One year later, he was named a junior college All-American at Anderson College in South Carolina. He matricu-lated to Ball State, where he played for the next three years. Blair played profes-sionally for three years on the Hooters Tour. He also qualified for the Virginia Beach Open on the Nationwide Tour in 2005.

Mat and his wife, Tia, have three chil-dren, MaKenna, Kara and Tessa.

The Flames open the spring season March 14 at the Seminole State Spring Break Invitational in Lake Mary, Florida.

Keith Kohn will compete with Team USA. (Photo: John Konstantaras)

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